Maximum Security: Thor vs. Ego (2000)

I typically don’t write about books this new, but being that this is a reprint of incredible material, I figured it was OK. When you can showcase something as special as a Silver Age Thor story, you gotta do it. Marvel cosmic is a thing of beauty or it was at one time. Readers of the Silver Age know, that The Fantastic Four and Thor are the two books that started it all, and vaulted it into the farthest reaches of the universe and beyond! Originals, reprints, whatever, get some copies of early issues of these two titles, and dive in. This particular over-sized book has three issues  of Thor (#133, 160-161), that show his first and next encounters with the Living Planet called Ego!

Of course, the only mind that could bring us this visual feast is that of Jack ‘King’ Kirby. As if Ego wasn’t enough, Kirby then brings the mighty Galactus into the fray, and you’d better fasten your seat-belts for that collision! Scripted by Stan Lee, pencils by Jack Kirby, inks by Vince Colletta, letters by Artie Simek and Sam Rosen! A better story from the Silver Age of Marvel cannot be found!

 

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Cinema Sunday: The Stranglers of Bombay (1959)

StranglersBombay   Title: The Stranglers of Bombay Distributor: Columbia/Hammer Studios Writer: David Z. Goodman Director: Terence Fisher Producer: Anthony Hinds Starring: Guy Rolfe, Allan Cuthbertson, Andrew Cruickshank, George Pastell, Marie Devereaux, Jan Holden Released: December, 1959 MPAA: PG-13     In attempting to let the masses know that Hammer Studios has a much more wide range of movies other than horror, I’m bringing this classic flick into the light. Not trying to take anything away from the awesome Gothic horror films from Hammer, which I consider to be the best of all, but they definitely offer some great films in different genres as well. For instance, this little movie from 1959. It’s somewhat of an oddity that it doesn’t offer any of the usual recurring Hammer players, but don’t let that scare you away, this film is a good one! Based off of a true story, about a cult and the British East India Trading Company, and of course, murder! It wouldn’t be a Hammer film if there wasn’t a shock value to the film, now would it? Filmed the same year as The Mummy, this one is only in black and white, but it does carry a bit of charm because of that fact, in my humble opinion. Well, rather than continuing with more of my feelings, let’s just get down to the story!   stranglers#1 The film begins with a shot of a statue of Kali, and the cult that worships her. There is one man who leads them, the High Priest of Kali (George Pastell – image above), standing tall, and reciting the mission statement for the cult. He basically says that Kali (image of statue below) has told them to wipe out defilers, by strangulation using a silk cloth. The crowd starts getting ruckus, and then pledges to convert the young among them. The High Priest then carves a symbol into a boy’s arm, and then they seal it with a hot iron. This “marking” is how you know who belongs to the cult (cue opening credits).   stranglers#5 Back in the city, we see a meeting between the British occupancy/soldiers, and the local government officials. As the meeting continues, the locals complain about the disappearances of their people and goods. The man in charge, Colonel Henderson (Andrew Cruickshank), tries to assuage the people but they aren’t haven’t it. They say they will stop paying their taxes if this craziness doesn’t stop. Another man walks into the meeting, Captain Harry Lewis (Guy Rolfe – image below), and makes his opinion known that he agrees with the people, and that something needs to be done. The  Colonel tells the Captain that he is in charge of this investigation, and he’s elated. His wife, however, seems to wish he didn’t take the job, but then after talking, sees it his way.   Stranglers#2 The next day, Captain Lewis and a detachment of men are heading out to protect a caravan heading on a long trip. As they approach the caravan, bandits are ransacking it, and attempting to murder the people. Captain Lewis and his men stop and capture them before they can get away. Both of the men have a silk scarf and a certain branding on their arm. Captain Lewis is wondering what this means, but needs more clues. On his way back into town, Captain Lewis runs into another soldier, Captain Christopher Connaught-Smith (Allan Cuthbertson – image below), who is a bit of a jerk. Once they’re both inside headquarters, Colonel Henderson tells Captain Smith that he will now be lead investigator of this operation, and not Captain Lewis. Lewis is devastated, and then Henderson tells Lewis that he went to school with Smith’s father, and now he understands why he was passed over.   stranglers#6 Back at the temple of Kali, the two men that attacked the caravan are now in the custody of Patel Shari (Marne Maitland), a local government official, who has ties to the cult. He tells them that they’ve violated the laws of Kali, and tried to kill for their own greed, so they must be punished. The men then have their eyes gouged out and their tongues cut out as well. Harry is back at home, and talking to his wife about getting passed over at work. One of his servants comes running in, and tells him that he saw a caravan and that he believes his brother (who was abducted years ago) was inside. Change the scene back to the temple, and we see that the High Priest is “training” one of the younger members on how to gain the trust of a stranger, just before killing them! In the brush nearby, a woman (Marie Devereaux) watches, as a man then rushes in, and tells the High Priest that Captain Lewis is asking a lot of questions, and then decrees that he must be punished.   stranglers#3 The next day, Lewis hands over his documents about his investigation of the missing persons. Captain Smith isn’t impressed and gives him the cold shoulder. Lewis is less than impressed with him, so he leaves. Lewis is almost immediately attacked  and the robbers take the piece of silk he had obtained from the men that attacked the caravan earlier in the week. Lewis spends a day tiger hunting with a friend, but he can’t concentrate on anything except the missing persons. He also gets a severed hand delivered to his dinner table, and this is another warning, one that Lewis doesn’t take lightly. He speaks to the Colonel the next day, but gets little satisfaction. The conversation gets ugly, and Lewis threatens to offer his resignation.   After resigning, Lewis begins his own investigation into the matter, and begins asking around the seedy parts of town about the missing people. One man seems to know something but is hesitant to speak. While out tiger hunting, Lewis and his party make a startling discovery. They find a mass grave of bodies, and they are all of native people, that have had their necks snapped. He reports his findings, but gets the run-around from Captain Smith. Lewis visits Patel, and tries to convince him to help with the investigation. He tells him he can do nothing, and Lewis shows signs of giving up. Back at headquarters, a man was caught trying to rob a house, and is going to be questioned. It’s here, that we see that Lieutenant Silver (Paul Stassino), is part of the cult, and obviously aiding them when he can.   stranglers#4 Will Lewis be able to single-handedly be able to thwart this fanatical cult? Or will he succumb to the stranglers silk?!? OK, here are my thoughts: Make no mistake about it, Guy Rolfe and George Pastell, made this film what it is. These two actors really give grade “A” performances that make you believe that the characters are real. The supporting cast isn’t too bad either, as Cruickshank and Cuthbertson also play solid roles. Cuthbertson is especially nasty, and really makes you dislike him from the first scene. His snotty attitude towards Rolfe is undeniably something that will make want to crawl into the movie and slap the taste out of his mouth! Pastell seems to be born for roles like this, and really shines here, as well as in the two Hammer “Mummy” movies he appeared in. The biggest and most awesome thing about this film aside from the two lad roles, has to be the sets. I’ve never personally been to India, but I feel like I have been after watching this movie. From the jungle scenes to the tiger, or even the temple where the cult practices its insane worshiping, the sets are completely believable. This film is something that probably wasn’t really socially significant when this was released, but in this day and age, it seems fearfully symmetrical in certain situations. Lost in all of this is the beautiful Marie Devereux (image below). Her hotness is undeniable, but she really doesn’t get much screen time, and that is a shame! Look for this one at the usual spots (Amazon, etc.), and give it a watch, because it’s definitely worth your time!   stranglers#7   Click here for the trailer!

Silver Surfer (vol. 2) #1, 1982

In this awesome issue, we see the Silver Surfer, as he’s trying to break the curse put on him by his former master, Galactus, and leave Earth. He hungers for another chance to scour the space-ways, and see his beloved Shalla Bal again. With the help of the Fantastic Four, he accomplishes this feat, but as we all know, there is always a price to be paid for actions such as these. In this one-shot, we see victory, defeat, agony, and irony. The Surfer, and his enemy forever, Mephisto!

In this one issue, John Byrne gives us an absolute masterpiece. His plot is fantastic, and with a script by Stan Lee, letters by Rick Parker, and inks by the ever-present Tom Palmer, you get one heckuva creative team on this one! Byrne really flexes his artistic muscles here, and shows a wide range. From the awesome shots of the Marvel cosmic universe, to the demonic depths of Mephisto’s realm, you will be in awe of the details in his work. Check it out!

 

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Marvel’s Greatest Comics #58, 1975 (originally Fantastic Four #76, 1968)

Continuing from a post from earlier this year, I wanted to push forward with part two of this awesome story. Of course, the first Galactus story is best, but this one is no pushover. You get the world devourer, Galactus, the Silver Surfer, and by issues end, a glimpse of the Psycho Man, as well! Throw in some crazy inner-space travel, and you get an adventure for the ages! If I’m not mistaken, this is the first time we see the “microverse” in the Marvel Universe. It’s a place where you must shrink down to microscopic size to enter, but once there, you can revert back to normal size. Only the mind of someone like Jack Kirby could think something up like this, and then illustrate it so well, it blows your mind.

As usual, you get the brilliant artwork from Jack ‘King’ Kirby, also the crazy captions of Stan Lee, and the awesome inks of Joe Sinnott, and don’t forget the letters by Artie Simek! Yes, the gang’s all here for the second installment of another cosmic foray for Marvel’s first family, the Fantastic Four! Not lost in this story, is the sky-rider of the space-ways himself, the Silver Surfer, and a deranged being called the “Murder Machine,” as well!

 

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Man-Thing #4, 1980 “Death-Knell”

My love for Manny is documented, and of course, as most people agree, the first volume was better than the second. Mostly because of Steve Gerber and Mike Ploog, and obviously those two gentlemen had an incredible grasp on the character that was difficult to follow. I will admit though, that Chris Claremont and Don Perlin also seemed to be able to relay the silent emotions of the character quite well. In this story, Doc Strange travels to the swamps of Florida, and runs into Manny. For some unknown reason, his magicks are not working on the muck monster, and this spells trouble for Steven!

I know there is a lot of love out there for Swamp Thing, especially the Alan Moore stuff, and rightly so, but definitely give Manny a chance. The Gerber stuff is outstanding, and this second volume is very underrated, and deserves a shot! Written by Mister X-Men himself, Chris Claremont, pencils by Dandy Don Perlin, inks by Bob Wiacek, colors by Ben Sean, letters by John Costanza, and edited by Denny O’Neil (cover by Bob Wiacek)!

 

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Cinema Sunday: The Pirates of Blood River (1962)

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Title: The Pirates of Blood River

Distributor: Columbia Pictures/Hammer Studios

Writer: Jimmy Sangster

Director: John Gilling

Producer: Michael Carreras

Starring: Christopher Lee, Kerwin Mathews, Glenn Corbett, Oliver Reed, Michael Ripper, Andrew Keir, Marla Landi

Released: August 1962

MPAA: PG

 

Everyone knows about the horror films that Hammer Studios produced over the decades, but if you look even deeper into their catalog, you’ll find some other gems, such as this one. The range of the Hammer Studio was quite wide, but of course, they’re known for their Gothic horror films. But personally, I think they’re action/adventure films are a very close second.

This film in particular, gives you a (very small) bit of horror, but mostly just some great action with pirates fighting against a Huguenot colony. Action, intrigue, love, and war. Don’t take your eyes off of the screen for a minute, because you will miss something. An all-star cast, featuring some Hammer stalwarts, but also actors like Kerwin Mathews (7th Voyage of Sinbad)! Let’s get down to the plot!

 

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The film begins with a pirate ship sailing towards an island. On this island, there is a settlement of Huguenots. They live their lives, governed by the laws of the Bible, and are quite strict. Next, we see a young man, Jonathan Standing (Kerwin Mathews), and his lover, Maggie Mason (Marie Devereux), as they playfully run through the forest, to find a spot for some “courting.” They do, but before they can get busy, a whip strikes the back of Jonathan, and they both realize they’re in trouble. You see, Maggie is married to one of the town elders, and as stated earlier, they follow the teachings of God very strictly. Maggie runs away, but gets cornered near the river. She dives in, but as everyone else closes in on her, they back off, because the river is full of man-eating piranha. Maggie is toast.

 

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Back in the settlement, Jonathan is tried and convicted in record time. He’s convicted by his own father, Jason (Andrew Keir), and the rest of the council to spend fifteen years at the penal colony on the other side of the island. The chances of getting out of there alive are slim, because of the brutality of the guards, so when Jonathan gets his chance, he and another man work in tandem, and make a break for it. He ends up evading the guards long enough to be discovered by a pirate, Mack (Michael Ripper), that tells him his captain can help him get back to his settlement.

 

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As Jonathan is introduced to Captain LaRoche (Christopher Lee), he gets the feeling he’s hiding something, but also knows he needs his help in evading the guards, and getting back to his settlement, so he agrees to lead him to the other side of the island. The journey itself introduces other characters that are under LaRoche’s command. We meet Hench (Peter Arne), a man who clearly has his own intentions. We also see another, Brocaire (Oliver Reed), who despises Hench.

 

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Once the trip is nearing its end, a couple of Jonathan’s friends, and his sister, have moved outside of the settlement, in protest of Jonathan’s sentence. It is here, when LaRoche makes his true intentions clear, and states that the pirates will plunder the village of any and all supplies. He does state that as long as Jonathan helps him, no one will have to die. A small boy sees the pirates and that they have taken hostages, so he runs off to the settlement to warn them. As the pirates approach, a huge fight scene occurs, and it looks as if it will be a stalemate. Some of the pirates manage to get inside the settlement walls, and grab the women, and use them to make the men surrender.

 

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LaRoche then gathers everyone inside the great hall, and makes a proclamation. He states that if they don’t lead him to a treasure that supposedly resides here, that he will begin to execute a hostage regularly until his demands are met. Meanwhile, Jonathan, his sister, Bess (Maria Landi), and her husband, Henry (Glenn Corbett), concoct a plan to stop LaRoche. Inside the hall, Hench and Brocaire have had enough of each other, so they settle their difference by having a blindfolded sword duel. Hench ends up winning, and of course, in true pirate fashion, the other man dies. As people begin to be executed, Jonathan begs his father to tell LaRoche where the hidden treasure is, but he refuses. He seems to have a convoluted idea that he cannot give up some gold for the lives of his fellow-man.

I wont spoil the end, but rest assured, you will see another huge battle scene where many lives will be lost, the gold will be found, a mutiny will happen, and the piranha will get to feast once more!

 

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OK, here are my thoughts:

Hammer does an outstanding job with this movie in a way that some of their others films just can’t measure. You get an epic pirate movie, with so many characters, you can barely keep up. It does straddle that line slightly, but most movie aficionados will be fine. When you sit back at think that Christopher Lee, Oliver Reed, Michael Ripper, Andrew Keir, and Kerwin Mathews are all in this film, it makes your head spin! All of those actors can really bring it in their perspective roles,  and believe me when I say, that they truly do in this film.

The music score (Gary Hughes) offers some timely interludes, and the sets (Bernard Robinson) were magnificent. Not to be outdone, is Hammer makeup man, Roy Ashton. These actors and actresses looked like pirates and Huguenots. His work in this film should be applauded. The two “horror” scenes in the film seem slightly out of place, but don’t hinder the overall experience of the film. Heck, I would’ve loved more piranha action personally. And as always, you get some very lovely ladies (especially Marie Devereux! – image above) that give the film that Hammer feel! Check out the movie either at the usual spots (Amazon, etc.) or search for it online. You won’t be disappointed with this one!

 

Click here for the trailer!

Sgt. Fury and His Howling Commandos #121, 1974

As we can still see Veterans Day (Remembrance Day also) in our rear-view mirror, I thought it would be cool to throw out a military comic, in honor of all those who have served. What better way to celebrate, than to spotlight Nick Fury and his band of brothers! If you like military comics, this is the one for you. Fury, by himself is a great character, but when you throw in the other commandos, you get a wild bunch that is very entertaining. Whether it’s Dum Dum Dugan, Pinky Pinkerton, or Gabe Jones, you get a fantastic mix of personalities in this book for sure!

In this reprint of Sgt. Fury #19 (1965), we get a solid story from Stan Lee, wonderful pencils by Dick Ayers (RIP), inks by Frank Ray (Giacoia), and letters by Sam Rosen! The original cover was by Jack ‘King’ Kirby, but this one looks to have been touched up by someone else. Dugan looks like Frank Robbins work to me personally, but take that with a grain of salt, because I’m not very good at recognizing art styles. Well, anyways, take a look at some of the finest war comics the back issue bins has to offer!

 

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Comic Book’s Unsung Heroes: An Interview with – Ed Hannigan!

For anyone out there that’s unaware of the great work by Ed Hannigan, there are several areas to turn your attention to. But first, just look at the fact that he wrote, penciled, inked, colored, and was a solid cover artist, too! If you check out his work, not only will you find out that he and Mike Grell created the first Green Arrow ongoing series (after the Longbow Hunters mini-series), he did some iconic covers for Batman, wrote, and also penciled The Defenders, and even wrote and penciled a cover for an issue of Superman! Yes, when you look at the body of work he put out over the years, you have to give the man credit where it’s due!

I had the chance to talk with Ed about a myriad of things he had a hand in over his years in the industry, and believe when I say that he is one of the most candid, and forthcoming people you could ever want to talk to! My personal favorite work of Ed’s, is his run on The Defenders, but I asked about many other topics in comics, so get ready for this one, it’s a doozy! I want to thank Ed for taking the time to indulge my curiosity, and let me in on some of the behind the scenes matter that he experienced!

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Billy: Can you talk a little bit about your early days in comics (i.e. who gave you your start in the big leagues, books you worked on, etc.)?

Ed: Let me just say at the outset that the nature of freelance work, in the early days especially is that it is more compromise than art, and it’s done primarily to pay the bills. I had no illusions that I was creating masterpieces for the ages. I always tried to do the best I could at the time, but everything was done within the constraints of what the higher-ups wanted to see, and meeting the deadline.

Naturally, like everybody else I thought it was just a matter of time before I became the next Kirby or Ditko or Carmine Infantino, but reality quickly took hold and disabused me of such fantasies. But it was a job, the people were great and I felt like I was on my way.

The first person to give me work was Sol Brodsky, Stan’s right-hand man and a great guy. Over the years Sol was a great source of work in various forms, merchandising, etc. In the early 70s when I started hanging around the Marvel office, being a pest, Sol was producing a line of reprints for the British market.

These were even cheaper and cheesier than the usual American comics. They were reprints of the early Marvel books, black and white with a single spot color on some pages. There was Mighty World of Marvel with FF, Spider-Man, Hulk and Daredevil (I think) stories, and later, Spider-Man Weekly with Spidey, Thor and the Avengers. My memory is foggy, so I may have the lineups wrong.

So I needed a letterer to do corrections on the horrible photostats and I volunteered. The stats were truly atrocious, blurry and the smaller published size.

I had to open up the closed As and Ds with white paint (Snowpake) and change the American spellings of some words to their British spellings. I was terrible at it and Sol soon fired me. But he hired me back the same day to apply zip-a-tone screens to the stats. The other zip artist was Klaus Janson and we had a friendly rivalry going.

As time went on I started doing various art chores on the British Books, including designing center spreads and back covers. Tony Isabella was the writer/editor on these. We had some pretty good cover artists, Jim Starlin among them, though many covers were just composites of photostats of the American comics.

I remember the British books fondly, in spite of their cheesiness.

They also started a British Planet of the Apes reprint series and I believe I did my first cover drawings on those with Mike Esposito and Frank Giacoia inking. At the same time Ron Wilson was hired to do the same kind of work.

Somehow I managed to parlay this into cover work on some of the horror type reprint books, and eventually into drawing a Planet of the Apes (black and white) story, written by Doug Moench and inked by Jim Mooney.

Billy: Being both a writer and an artist, can you give some insight on how difficult that is to balance? There are so few who do it well (W. Simonson and Starlin come to mind).

Ed: I was primarily an artist. That’s what I had wanted to do since I was a child. I just fell into writing because my attitude at the time was that I could handle any job that was needed. It was all driven by my need for money and desire to have a career, so I would volunteer for any and every job that happened my way, drawing, writing, designing, coloring, production paste-ups, writing, whatever. At one point or another I did just about every job in the place.

Sol was very helpful there too. He often had little jobs that needed to be done on a very tight deadline. For instance I ended up writing a Dingo boots Spider-Man comic some other writer has turned in but that was rejected by the client. Not very prestigious, but good practice, and it paid a higher than usual rate. I did tons of art and writing jobs like that.

My friend, Dave Kraft was doing similar kinds of writing jobs for Sol and Roy Thomas, who was Editor at the time. So we had a nice little cottage industry going inside Marvel, doing puzzles, posters, coloring books, mini-comics to go in boxes of cereal, products of all kinds.

I don’t think at the time we thought of it as “writing” or “art” in the usual manner — just knocking stuff out to satisfy a client and pay the rent.

Probably my first “writing” was on the British books. We used to do fake letters for the letters pages, because we didn’t get too many real ones. More “professional” work came later as I made friends and connections. Kind of a form of networking, though I didn’t think of it that way at the time. Somehow I managed to snag a Tigra story and some other writing assignments, but I didn’t really think of myself as a writer until much later. I’m not sure anyone else did either.

Billy: In Marvel Premiere, you did probably the most memorable cover to that series (#28- Legion of Monsters- layouts). What was your inspiration for that one?

Ed: Truthfully, I barely remember doing that one at all, so it can’t be that memorable. If I had it to do it today I would make that shadow in the foreground more prominent and ominous, make the monsters more dynamic and aggressive and lose that puzzling car crash in the background. It’s funny what people think of as memorable. I usually see only the flaws and mistakes when I look at my older work.

 

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Billy: Keeping with Marvel Premiere, you are credited as a writer on an “Alice Cooper” issue. What was that like?

Ed: Lots of fun. Jim Salicrup, Dave and I were big Alice fans and were hot to get Marvel to do more stuff with rock music and so on. Dave and Jim were behind the Beatles comic and Marvel had done a KISS comic. Paul McCartney had put out feelers to Marvel, and so had David Bowie. The usual Bullpen crowd was not really in tune with the rock scene until later. Alice seemed like a natural with the costumes and outrageous visuals. Not sure how, but we hatched that goofy story based on the hospital album and got Tom Sutton to draw it. It doesn’t make a ton of sense, but it was just fun craziness.

That was also the time Steve Gerber was doing Howard the Duck and we also wanted to do off-the-wall comics like that in addition to straight super-heroes. We also did the Blue Öyster Cult stuff in Defenders. Same mindset.

Billy: And then you had to transition to a great Black Panther story. Was that an editorial decision to go from the two polar opposites?

Ed: No, that was another of those “emergencies” where Jack had quit or left or whatever he did, leaving a lot of unwritten pages in the middle of a story. So I volunteered to script them and continued the story with Jerry Bingham as artist. I believe that was Jerry’s first professional comics work. So it became “my” book and I decided, along with whatever editor was in charge of it to also tie up the loose ends left by Don McGregor when he left the Panther as best I could. That was the Klan stories, etc.

Billy: You wrote a few different titles that were multicultural (Power Man/Power Man & Iron Fist, Black Panther, etc.), were those stories more of Marvel trying to grab onto a zeitgeist of sorts or just a snapshot of the times?

Ed: I don’t think it was anything like that. They wanted successful minority characters of course, but I don’t think doing Black characters was any kind of statement or mission. Maybe at their very inception, before I was involved. But I don’t think they were trying to make any statement. Someone probably thought there was an audience for that kind of stuff. Marvel super heroes are colorful and exotic by definition, so race was the least-most consideration. Cage was a fun character. I wish I could have done him more. But those particular stories were not very challenging and before I hit my stride I was yanked from that book.

After doing the Panther and a couple other things I thought I could pull off the writing thing pretty well and it seemed to me like easier money than drawing. So I ran with it as well as I could. Really, nothing but a big fake out. I was a good speller and knew my grammar. I had read a lot and was always fantasizing stories (still do) so it came naturally. I never took it very seriously. I didn’t have a lot of writer’s angst or anything like that. I knew it was not great literature for the ages, it was entertainment for pre-adolescents fer gawrsh sakes!

Billy: You did a couple of Man-Thing stories and the character seemed to fit your style. Was that a character you wanted to do more of or was it not really your thing?

Ed: I liked to Man-Thing originally because I loved Mike Ploog’s art, and then later because of the interesting things Steve Gerber was doing with the character. And he’s pretty easy to draw, always a consideration. I tried to blend the Ploog/Eisner/Walt Kelly style in with the standard Marvel style. But I didn’t lust after the assignment or anything like that.

Billy: There was a good run where you and Doug Moench collaborated on Kull. What was that like working on a character that had been around since the pulp era, and also working with Doug?

Ed: Well, I always liked Doug. He wrote my first “real” Marvel story, a B&W Planet of the Apes tale called Evolution’s Nightmare, but Kull was kind of a pain. I never felt good about it and I don’t think I did that great of a job. I don’t think I ever got into the character. I enjoyed doing the big double-page spread in the first issue, but after that it became drudgery. Barbarians are just not my thing.

But Doug was very easy to work for. He ,mostly knew what he was going to put in the dialog, left lots of room. etc..Technical stuff. He was always very clear in describing what he wanted.I enjoyed his stories for the most part.

Over the years Doug and I did a number of things, like Catwoman.

 

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Billy: The cover you did for Marvel Two-In-One Annual #6, was very different for its time. What was the impetus for that one?

Ed: Just stretching artistic muscles. You get a little tired of the hero charging out at the reader kind of “beauty shot” that’s been done ad nauseum. I wanted to come up with something fresh for Ron Wilson’s American Eagle character, something different from the usual pinup shot. The montage just kind of flowed, I think from noodling around with a cover sketch, and Simonson’s inks made it look like stained glass. One of my favorites.

 

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Billy: Can you talk a little bit about your run on Spectacular Spider-Man with writer Bill Mantlo (also about working with him specifically- I’ve heard he is a great guy)?

Ed: I had been drawing Peter Parker for awhile with Roger Stern writing. When they put Mantlo on it he told me he wanted me to continue drawing it, which was fine by me. I had always liked him. He had a bunch of ideas that he told me about, including creating Cloak & Dagger, whom he thought could be developed for a book of their own. I was interested and Bill encouraged me to contribute to their look and attitudes in general.

Bill was quite a character. We were very similar, middle class hippy types. We liked a lot of the same books, music, etc, but politically we were opposites. Bill was very leftwing. He had even gone to Cuba at one time to do farm work and one assumes, receive indoctrination. Even back then, I was a libertarian. So we used to argue politics all the time, but it never became acrimonious. I tolerated his views and he tolerated mine for the most part.

We were never close pals, but we got along pretty well. The only time our differences caused a problem was when Bill wanted to do a gun control story in Spectacular Spider-Man. I was dead set against it. I thought it was bound to turn into a propaganda piece for a certain viewpoint I opposed. I flatly refused to be involved. He said it would be fair and even-handed, but I didn’t think it was appropriate for the audience and I didn’t think Bill could handle it “fairly.” He bought into all the liberal cliches about guns. So I just didn’t draw the book for those couple of issues. Sucked because it broke a string and affected royalty payments, but not a huge deal. I needed a breather to catch up anyway, I was always fighting the deadlines because I worked too slowly.

Bill and I worked on other things, cover designs and such. We also did Sword in the Star, a space opera thing that eventually debuted Rocket Raccoon, I believe, though I didn’t have anything to do with that character.

When Cloak & Dagger finally did get the okay as a title I laid out the entire first issue, based on Bill’s plot. I even penciled a few pages, but something about it didn’t seem right and I asked to be taken off the assignment. I’m not even sure why, exactly, just burnt out I guess. Jim Salicrup eventually published my layouts in Marvel Fanfare. Rick Leonardi picked it up and did an excellent job, I thought.

We sort of lost touch with each other after a while and I didn’t find out about his car accident until months after it happened. We’re still connected in a way. Disney recently bought out all rights to Cloak & Dagger and I worked with Bill’s brother, Michael on the negotiations for the sale.

Billy: Switching to DC for a moment- What was it like going over to the other side of the street (how did it happen)?

Ed: I had been getting impatient and bored with Marvel, Shooter and everything for a while and was not very happy. I had gone through writing Power Man/Iron Fist and Defenders, but i felt like I was spinning my wheels. Dick Giordano was interested in luring me over to DC to do some fresher covers, which they needed, and to do other art and maybe some writing. He kept taking me out to lunch and pretty much wooing me to go over there. I was not exclusively contracted to Marvel so I agreed to do some covers.

This didn’t go over too well with Marvel and I found myself more and more comfortable with DC, and less so with Marvel. Finally I cut the cord and was hired to be DC’s first Cover Editor, in addition to designing and drawing a number of covers and stories.

I also continued to do Merchandising/Special Projects type work, this time for DC. I did Style Guide sketches and cover designs for Mayfair’s line of DC games. Just as at Marvel would just troll the various offices and see if anybody needed an artist. I remember one Christmas Party at the Automat where Dick asked me to design the new Brainiac, which I thought turned out quite good. Unfortunately, I sold that design to them lock, stock and barrel for what seemed a good sum at the time, but really was not much dough. If Brainiac ever gets a big movie role I’ll be kicking myself and calling my lawyer.

DC was very different from Marvel. They seemed more serious and corporate, with had regular Editorial Meetings and such. I found myself handling scheduling and overseeing all the covers, which was a lot of work and became quite stressful. Eventually I had to get out of the offices and work at home.But, it was fun and I stuck with DC for years until the “meltdown.”

I wanted a regular gig and Mike Grell asked me to draw the new Green Arrow book, following his Longbow Hunters, which had been very successful. And with Dick Giordano and Frank Mc Laughlin and of course, Grell writing. It sold quite well at first, becoming one of DC’s top sellers. I managed to squeeze in a couple of other stories and a lot of covers, both drawing and designing for other artists.

My wife, Heidi and I were living on the Upper West Side, way up by Columbia University. We were quite comfortable, but things were changing. The building we lived in was converted to co-ops by a new owner and we were enticed into “buying” our apartment, which was rather large by NYC standards. But the city was getting dirtier, more dangerous and too expensive. We had started talking about moving out and having kids. The old biological clock thing.

For a couple of summers had rented a small house in the Berkshires with some friends that we would use on the weekends in the summer. It was close to Stockbridge, MA and the Tanglewood Festival. We loved buying a picnic dinner, some wine and listening to the Boston Symphony on the lawn under the stars. It was lots nicer than the hot, stinky city and we started thinking of moving there.

I had grown up in Massachusetts and my wife had gone to college in Vermont, so New England was attractive to us. Unfortunately we couldn’t find anything near affordable in Connecticut or Massachusetts. So we looked further north.

At about the same time I had been approached to do the new Batman Series, Legends of the Dark Knight, and we decided to make a move for real. We “sold” the co-op in the bizarre New York real estate fashion, for a nice profit and started looking in earnest for a place in the country. My wife was pregnant, so it became a matter of urgency. We rented a miserable apartment in Brattleboro, VT, temporarily as our base of operations. I was waiting and waiting for Denny O’Neil to produce the Batman script. I ended up Drawing a Green Arrow/Question Annual in the meantime. The thing is, I had a contract guaranteeing me a certain amount of work, so I always had a source of income, but I wanted to get on with the Batman stuff.

We finally got disgusted looking for a house in Vermont and started looking in New Hampshire. Not too much room left in New England. We finally did find a house we really liked and made an offer, lined up finances, yadda yadda, but the owner insisted on too much money and the deal finally fell through (He ended up selling the I have to do something. for substantially less than our offer.) Very discouraging. I was still waiting for Batman and Heidi was more pregnant than ever.

Just when it looked like we would never find a place. My wife found this house and brought me out to see it. At first, viewed from the street I hated it. It looked tiny, but she said, it goes back a lot and the upstairs has three bedrooms. Upstairs? It looked from the front to be a one story Cape, but it had a shed dormer in the back making it much larger than it had looked. And it had five acres, mostly woods. Excellent. So we bought it.

Finally the LOTDK script materialized. So I worked on that in my new studio, my daughter, Jeannie was born and the rest is history! The first winter we had zero furniture. The house had electric heat that we never used except in he baby’s room, and there was a big ugly wood stove in the living room that you had to watch like a hawk because the chimney pipe would get so hot it would glow.

But I labored away and by the following summer the first royalty check arrived. I was stunned– it was much more than I had anticipated. We were able to buy furniture and have the electric heat ripped out and a new oil heat system put in.

After the success of LOTDK I figured I was a star and it would be smooth sailing from now on. After a long vacation spent watching my baby daughter grow, I pitched my own project, SKULL. & BONES to DC. the premise was a Batman/Zorro type hero operating in the Soviet Union, fighting the government. I wrote, penciled and inked it all myself and almost had a nervous breakdown as a result. Suffice to say, it bombed.

I was still under contract to DC, so I was still owed work, though times were getting tough both for us and the comics biz. I pitched another idea, League of Justice, an Elseworld series that I was hoping to get 12 issues out of. They only let me do three deluxe sized issued, so I had to shoehorn it into the two books and it’s barely coherent. After that I did an Aquaman Annual, but things were looking grim. When my contract was up, blam!

When things went south I wasn’t worried until I made some calls to see about renewing the contract. To my amazement they were not going to renew. My contract had guaranteed me a certain amount of work but now that was kaput!

So I was unemployed. DC wouldn’t even take my calls and Marvel was on the skids. A lot of comics pros were out of work. We had had our second child, Ryan by then. It was rough. I was eating into my IRA. I got a tiny amount of work from Jim Salicrup at Topps doing covers for Mars Attacks. My wife took a couple of horrible jobs, one a night job doing phone sales. Eventually she landed a job at PC Connection in Keene selling computers and peripherals/ Finally at a Parents’ Day thing at the school my daughter’s teacher introduced me to the father of one of the other students. It was a Brit named Ray Guest who worked as an artist at a company just over the border in Massachusetts, Channing L. Bete. They publish informational booklets and things covering a huge variety of topics, medical, safety, educational, etc. I actually had already sent them an application, but Ray convinced me to come in and apply in person. I did, showed samples, took a drawing test, had a couple of interviews and was hired! My first assignment:”About Genital Warts!”

It was a great second career. They trained me on the Macintosh in Quark, Macromedia Freehand and Photoshop and tons of professional procedures, press checks and the like. In a lot of ways it was like comics all over. Talented people. Everyone was a fan. My boss even turned out to be a guy from Marvel Comics, Marcus McLaurin! That lasted a good nine years, during which time I was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis. Bete was very successful for a while, then not so much. They had a RIF (reduction in force) which I survived, then a couple years later another RIF and along with 20% of the company I was laid off. The MS was getting bad so I applied for Disability (early Social Security) and here I am today.

 

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Billy: I’d love for you to expound on your work there on Batman and Green Arrow (the people you worked with, writers, editors, and also the characters themselves as far as what you wanted to do with them)?

I already touched on Batman and Green Arrow a little. I really enjoyed working on GA. Grell’s scripts were very straightforward and uncluttered. He pretty much let me do what I wanted. He had a lot of action in his stories and unlike many writers, he didn’t pack in tons of nonsensical prose and melodrama.

Legends of he Dark Knight was a followup to Miller and Mazzuchelli’s Batman Year One, and I tried to be consistent artistically with Mazzuchelli’s work. That was probably a mistake. I would have been better off doing my own thing, maybe a bit like the old Peter Parkers. In retrospect I think I did a competent job, but it doesn’t dazzle. It looks rather ordinary to me, which is odd considering that it sold far more than anything else I’ve ever done!

The story itself was also a bit too much on the ordinary side, in my opinion. No big dramatic moment, no paradigm shift or huge revelation. It’s easy to criticize, as I know well from writing myself, but I think it could have used more pizzazz. I am not a big fan of Native American mysticism, either, which strikes me as hokey. But what can you do? Somebody probably considers it the best story ever.

Billy: You’ve done a ton of covers in your career. That being said, do you have some favorites or more specifically issues that you still have till this day?

Ed: I still love the first Cloak & Dagger Spectacular Spider-Man cover (#64) and their second appearance (#69) and the next one (#70) as well. I like most of the covers in that run. The Hawkeye/Ant Man Avengers cover is a fave, Captain America #235 with Daredevil flying the biplane is a good one too.

Batman #362, 370, 373 are pretty good. I like Micronauts #46, in fact I like all the Micronauts covers I drew. I also like Supergirl #13, which is an homage to the Superman TV show, some of the World’s Finest covers, Wonder Woman #300.

And there were those Handbook of the Marvel Universe cover, Mark Guenwald’s brainchild.

The thing is some of my favorites are covers by other artists that I did the sketch for, like Action #538 (Curt Swan), Wonder Woman #329 (Garcia Lopez). and many covers drawn by Gene Colan I don’t know, I could go on and on…

Billy: OK, now on to the Defenders…The book seemed tailor-made for most of its creators (Englehart, Gerber, Buscema, Wein, You, Perlin, Dematteis, etc.), as either a superhero book or a wacky ‘team out of place’, kind of book. What was the angle you wanted to hit on with that specific title?

Ed: I never liked superhero team comics, so I guess the idea of a non-team appealed to me. I had my own agenda for the Defenders that was not the standard kind of book. For instance, when Nighthawk got in trouble with the IRS and ended up in prison people were asking me how he was going to get out.

Thing is, I had no intention of ever getting him out. Fair or not, he was toast!

My secret plan was to get rid of all the male characters by one means or another and gradually turn the Defenders into an all female group. I wasn’t going to announce it or tell anyone, one day people would just say, “Hey, this has been an all girl group for the last ten issues!” And I succeeded for an issue and a half.

I was also interested in the relationship between Valkyrie and Hellcat. One thing Dave and I agreed on was that Hellcat was the star of the book in some ways. She put on a ditzy persona but more often than not she figured out how to defeat the villain or whatever. I think she was the most interesting character in the book.

The other thing I wanted to do was odd standalone stories that didn’t depend on the rest of the Marvel Universe or its messy continuity. Hence stories like the Quiet Riot, which was based on an old movie I don’t remember the name of or the Tunnelworld saga.

Billy: You wrote and penciled the book at the same time for a while, using crazy characters like Lunatik, and Mandrill. Why did you use them instead of other villains (not that they didn’t fit the book’s atmosphere, just wondering if it was a personal choice or editorially driven).

Ed: Lunatik was inherited from Dave Kraft and Keith Giffen and was really their baby. I never did understand him, so I was just flailing. Mandrill played into the all female aspect I was going for. He is a hideously ugly guy with power over women. A fanboy dream. I would use him again in a heartbeat! To answer your question, no one ever said, “Use Mandrill” it was more like, “These villains are taken, don’t use them!” So you look around and see who’s available.

 

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Billy: Along the lines of crazy issues, can you talk about the issue where the Hulk is riding the whale (Hulk Prince of Whales)?

Ed: I love that issue. I have always liked stories about whales. Moby Dick is one of my favorites. Whales were in the news and I thought, they’re strong, they’re hunted and harassed just like the Hulk — bingo! It just seemed like a natural, and as I said before, we always had to find something for the Hulk to do because of the TV show. Came out pretty good I think.

Billy: Speaking on editors, as that’s still a hot button topic these days…Most of your Marvel work was either Al Milgrom or Jim Shooter. Can you talk about the relationship with those two guys. I’ve heard people either loved or hated Shooter.

Ed: Well, I always liked Al and still do. He had a quality I value greatly in editors — he let me do what I wanted without giving me a lot of grief. Here’s the thing about Defenders, no one cared that much about it, so it didn’t matter what the writers or artists were doing as long as they didn’t scare the horses and as the Hulk was on every cover!

Shooter was odd. Mostly I liked him. He could be your pal or a major pain in the butt. I used to hang out and go bar hopping with him. He did a lot of good for a lot of people. But he had a lot of opinions I thought were dumb and sometimes the controlling fascist showed his face. More than that I won’t say.

I did do work for other editors — Jim Salicrup, Archie Goodwin, Mark Gruenwald, Tom DeFalco and others, and I worked with all of them from time to time designing covers.

Billy: Going back to the Defenders- Can you talk about the very emotional issues you wrote concerning the death of Patsy Walker’s mother?

Ed: Honestly, my memory of that is practically non-existent. I remember Dorothy as an uber stage mom who controlled every aspect of Patsy’s life as a character but had very little to do with her as a real person. I’m sure I was going for something profound, but I’m damned if I can remember what. I’d have to read them again.

I will say that, like any writer I was cannibalizing real people I knew and basing my stories on their personalities and situations, real or imagined. Who Dorothy “was” I have no idea. I’m sure she was based on someone I knew in real life. Not you, Mom.

Billy: Switching gears- What were some of your favorite books to read back then?

Ed: Roy Thomas/John Buscema/Barry Smith Conan, Marv Wolfman/Gene Colan Dracula. Gerber’s stuff, especially Howard the Duck, Miller’s Daredevil and Batman stuff, the usual suspects, Alan Moore, Watchmen, whoever. Animal Man, Herbie, I would go through phases of following a certain artist or writer.

Billy: And finally- Do you still keep in touch with any of your collaborators from those days?

Ed: The ones that aren’t dead. I don’t go to conventions or things like that so I don’t run into anyone.

I keep in touch with some people in comics mostly on Facebook– Irene Vartanoff, Craig Russell, Dave Kraft when he’s not out of his mind, Jim Salicrup, Jerry Bingham, Don Perlin. Graham Nolan whom I didn’t know well back then. Allen Milgrom all the time because we’re still doing work together. I’m FB friends with a number of old comics folks. And there are some I avoid and some who avoid me, but the less said about that the better.

Farewell and Thanks

Amazing Adventures #27, 1974 “The Death Breeders”

What better way to get back on track, then with a book based off of the works of H. G. Wells! In the 1970’s, Marvel adapted some stories from “War of the Worlds” in their Amazing Adventures title. They were nothing short of spectacular, and with the creators that were behind this wonderful run, it’s no wonder why they were so awesome. In this epic sci-fi story, we get Killraven, as his ship is attacked by a monstrosity from under the surface. He and his warrior friends must survive that, then free a captive woman who holds some answers they need!

Everything awesome about this issue starts with the cover. Let’s be honest, when you can get Jim Starlin to do a cover for a sci-fi story, you’re already guaranteed some buyers, even if the story and art on the inside are sub-par. But wait, they aren’t! Writer, Don McGregor, brings us this fantastic tale, and not to be outdone, is artist extraordinaire, P. Craig Russell! Jack Able on inks, Petra Goldberg on colors, and John Costanza lettering rounds out the creative team! Throw in Roy Thomas as editor, and you get a book that brings you everything you ever loved about the 1970’s!

 

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Cinema Sunday: The Mad Magician (1954)

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Title: The Mad Magician

Distributor: Columbia Pictures

Writer: Crane Wilbur

Director: John Brahm

Producer: Bryan Foy

Starring: Vincent Price, Mary Murphy, Eva Gabor, John Emery

Released: May 1954

MPAA: UR

 

This past Halloween has me completely focused on one actor – Vincent Price! I can’t get enough of his films, and that will continue today with a look at another one of his classics. This film has quickly ascended to near the top on my favorite films of Price, and won’t likely be pushed backwards any time soon. The film’s director has a pedigree in the entertainment industry, and we’ll touch on that a bit later.

For Price, this film was one that followed his huge hit, House of Wax, so you know that his name was slowly becoming a household name, and could begin to draw in moviegoers by the droves. Price almost went explicitly horror after this film, with a few minor exceptions. That genre would cement him as one of the biggest  horror icons of all time. Now, let’s get to the plot!

 

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The film opens with a typical street scene of that era (turn of the century). People muddling around, without a care in the world. A poster for a show running adorns the side of a building, and announces that Gallico the Great will perform many illusions, and the most dangerous of them all is the “Lady and the Buzz-saw” trick! Inside, the crew is bustling around, attempting to ready for the show. On stage, a man, Don Gallico (Vincent Price), is giving instructions to the musicians on how he expects them to follow his lead. Meanwhile, at the front door, a man, Detective Alan Bruce (Patrick O’ Neal)  is seeking entrance but the doorman tells him that no one is allowed in during rehearsal. He mentions that he’s there to see a friend, Karen Lee (Mary Murphy), and the doorman lets him in to see her.

Back on stage, Gallico talks to Karen and Alan about this being his first performance, so he’s very nervous. Karen explains to Alan that Gallico has been in the industry for a long time, but behind the scenes, building the marvelous contraptions that other magicians use to mystify the crowds. He felt it was high-time he stepped out from behind the curtain, and was the star  of the show!

 

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That night, the show opens, and back in the dressing room, Gallico prepares for his big night. He’s wearing a disguise, one that mimics one of his competitors. The magician he impersonates is the Great Rinaldi. He does a few simple illusions, one involving his assistant, Karen. He leaves the stage to prepare for his next big illusion (the buzz-saw trick), and everyone readies themselves. As he removes his makeup, he returns tot he stage, and demonstrates his saw. It tears right through a wooden post, that slightly resembles the shape of a human body/head. Just as the trick is about to begin, a curtain falls, and Gallico is furious. The building manager tells him that two men have arrived with an injunction, stopping him from doing this trick. Ross Ormond (Donald Randolph), owns the company that Gallico works for, and he tells him that the machine belongs to him. He demands that Gallico takes it to his warehouse in New York City, or he’ll never work in the industry again (he insinuates that Gallico will be blacklisted). Gallico snaps, and tries to grab Ormond, but Karen’s boyfriend Alan, stops him. You can literally see the hate in Gallico’s eyes, and we know this will not end well.

 

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The next day, Gallico and Alan are looking over the contract, and see that there is no way out. Alan feels bad for Gallico, and tells him that he’ll help any way he can. Ormond and the Great Rinaldi (John Emery) show up, and tell Gallico that they will be using the buzz-saw trick at his next show at the same theater Gallico had booked for his big show. Rinaldi leaves, and Ormond then informs Gallico that he knew about the machine well before the night before, but wanted to teach him a lesson in humility, so he waited until he was on stage, then humiliated him at the worst moment. To make matters worse, Gallico had a beautiful wife, but Ormond stole her away from him (with his money). As the two men recount the past, the face of Gallico reveals his incendiary feelings towards Ormond. In a fit of rage, Gallico chokes Ormond, then places him on the buzz-saw machine, holds him down, and activates the saw…

A while later, Gallico is cleaning up the studio, and Karen knocks at the door, he finishes cleaning up, and lets her in, but is obviously rattled. He thanks her for her help with the show, and writes a check to her for her work. She leaves to go and meet Alan for dinner, but grabs Gallico’s bag by mistake (they look very similar), and heads out. After a minute or so, Gallico realizes that she took his bag instead of her own, which shouldn’t be a big deal, accept that Ormond’s head is in his bag! He rushes to the restaurant and finds Karen and Alan. He asks her for the bag, but she left it in a cab. Frantically, Gallico tracks down the cab that took her to the restaurant, but he tells her that he saw it was left in the cab, so he gave it to a cop. He tracks him down, and retrieves the bag before anything goes awry.

 

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Next, we see that Gallico saved the head for a specific reason. He uses it to make a model and then a mask, replicating Ormond exactly! He then tosses the body on a bonfire (the town is celebrating a football game victory) to get rid of the evidence. We then see him with his “Ormond” mask on, and he then assumes that identity. He rents a room at a nearby building, and begins to build something. out of the blue one day, his ex-wife shows up, and immediately begins to hit on him. She questions him about the whereabouts of Ormond. Gallico tells her that he doesn’t know where he is, and when she goads him, he slaps her, then warns her to get out. She then goes to the police, asking for their help in finding her missing husband.

 

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Soon after, Mrs. Ormond gets call from the landlords where Gallico (disguised as Ormond, but using an assumed name) is now living. The landlords out him, and then allow her to wait in his room, and surprise him. She surprises him alright, but then the surprise is on her when she realizes that it’s Gallico. He listens to her talk about how she only wanted Ormond for his money, and now she’ll hook back up with him, because she’s also deduced that Ormond is dead. Gallico snaps, and throttles her to death. The landlords bust in, but Gallico jumps out the window, and escapes. The next day, the police have Gallico, the landlords, The Great Rinaldi, and Kate, in a room for questioning. The group basically feels as if Ormond killed his wife, and the police say that they have fingerprints that corroborate this theory.

 

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Gallico then finishes his latest trick, and shows it off to a few people. It’s a device called “the Crematorium,” and it looks spectacular. Lurking behind a curtain is the Great Rinaldi, and you just know he plans on stealing this new trick. As the trick is finished, Rinaldi pops out, and declares that he’ll be using the new device at his show. This is the last straw for Rinaldi, and Gallico has had enough of his pompous blustering. We don’t see the heinous act, but soon after, we see the Great Rinaldi, performing on stage, is actually Gallico in disguise.

As the police start closing in on the real killer, Gallico seems to be coming more and more unhinged. Will they catch him before he commits another murder? Watch the movie and find out!

 

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OK, here are my thoughts:

This has to be considered one of Price’s best films. If you watch this one, it gives you chills when Price goes off the deep end. Why you ask? Because put yourself in that situation, and think about it for a moment. Everything you ever loved, worked for, or cherished gets taken away from you in a very humiliating manner. Yeah, exactly. Price has always played a good crazy person, and this one doesn’t disappoint. The ancillary characters don’t really give stellar performances, but Price gives such a grand one, that it doesn’t even matter. That’s not to say that they bring it down, but most of them are just bland.

The direction, production, and overall crew did a fantastic job at selling this film. The budget wasn’t very high, so you had to have a great show put on by Price, and of course, being the consummate pro, he did just that for audiences around the country. This film is one I’d love to see on the big screen and in 3-D (as it was originally released). I believe the film is in public domain, give the link below a click, and have at it! You will be more than satisfied after the seventy-two minutes are up! As I spoke of briefly earlier, the director, John Brahm, has a family history in the entertainment industry, including the work of his father, Ludwig Brahm, an actor himself, and also his uncle, Otto Brahm, who was a theater man, director, and critic as well!

 

Click here for full movie!