Creature Double Feature

The older I get the more nostalgia rears its ugly mien. I battle those feelings. It is a natural human inclination to look back fondly. However time's rose-colored lens skew reminisces. As Finley Peter Dunne (late 19th/early 20th century humorist from Chicago) said, "The past always looks better than it was. It's only pleasant because it isn't here."

I spurn sentimentality's attempt to make a stooge of me. That being said, last night's airing of the 1963 American International film, The Raven, initiated waves of wistfulness. During a break in the movie, TCM ran an ad that provided impetus for today's blog.

Next Wednesday, October 24, select movie theaters in conjunction with Turner Classic Movies 
will show a double feature of the horror classics, Frankenstein and Bride of Frankenstein. The link below shows participating playhouses. 
http://www.fathomevents.com/upcoming/alllocations.aspx?eventid=1105

The opportunity to see these films in a cinema evokes memories of many rainy South Jersey afternoons of my youth. Parents would select one of their group to round up neighborhood children into the ubiquitous station wagon for a trip to the Westmont Theater. Hordes of hellions filled the movie house for a cartoon, selected short and feature film. On special days, a double feature played, so the cartoon and short were omitted.

Normally when the lights dimmed, the theater would erupt into a cacophony of cat-calls and bronx cheers as a barrage of spitballs and candy projectiles filled the air. The exception would be movies like the aforementioned double feature. By then these two classics were over three decades old, yet their power and cinematic splendor would awe the adolescent assembly into rapt silence.

Despite my curmudgeonly cynicism, memories of those afternoons awaken fond thoughts - as ever BB
"...Well, if I could discover just one of these things, what eternity is, for example, I wouldn't care if they did think I was crazy." - Dr. Frankenstein from 1931 film

Trivia Tidbit - Anyone planning to portray Frankenstein's monster on All Hallows' Eve take heed. In doing so, one must decide which monster to depict. (and yes the monster has no name; he is often called Frankenstein, but that is the creator's name, not his.) The picture above is the monster from the original film - notice the fashionable bangs.
The picture to the left is the monster from Bride, and following reputable sequels. (several of ill repute were made) Said bangs were singed off at the end of the original film in the castle's fire which caused the monster to fall through the fiery floor encasing him in the glacier under the castle until found by Igor.