FORGOTTEN ONES: DAISY AND VIOLET HILTON

One of my favorite movies to watch at Halloween is the classic Freaks (1932). The movie was not really a horror movie persay, but it is an examination of the cruelty of human kind to people who are different. Still the movie is dark and fits perfectly in with Halloween. Two of the cast mates in the film were Daisy and Voilet Hilton.

The girls were born in Brighton, England, on 5 February 1908. Their mother was Kate Skinner, an unmarried barmaid. The sisters were born joined by their hips and buttocks; they shared blood circulation and were fused at the pelvis but shared no major organs. Skinner's boss Mary Hilton, who helped in childbirth, apparently saw commercial prospects in them, and thus effectively bought them from their mother and took them under her care. According to the sisters' autobiography, Mary Hilton with her husband and daughter kept the twins in strict control with physical abuse; they had to call her "Auntie Lou" and her current husband "Sir". They trained the girls in singing and dancing.

A medical account of the birth and a description of the twins was provided for the British Medical Journal by   the physician in charge at the time of their birth. He reported that subsequently the Sussex Medico-Chiurgical Society considered separation, but unanimously decided against it as it was believed that the operation would certainly lead to the death of at least one of the twins. He notes that these twins were the first to be born in the United Kingdom conjoined and to survive for more than a few weeks.

The Hilton sisters toured first in England at the age of three as "The United Twins". Mary Hilton took them on to a tour through Germany, Australia, and to the USA. In true sideshow manner, their performance was accompanied by an imaginative "history". Their controllers kept all the money the sisters earned. In 1926 Bob Hope formed an act called the Dancemedians with the Hilton Sisters, who had a tap dancing routine. When Mary died in Birmingham, Alabama, her daughter and her husband took over. They kept the twins from public view for a while and trained them in jazz music.

In 1931, the sisters gathered enough courage to sue their managers, gaining freedom from their contract and US$100,000 in damages. They left the sideshows and went into vaudeville as "The Hilton Sisters' Revue". Daisy dyed her hair blonde and they began to wear different outfits so they could be told apart. They had numerous affairs, failed attempts to get a marriage license and a couple of short marriages. In 1932, the twins appeared as themselves in the cult classic Freaks. In 1951 they starred in Chained For Life, an exploitation film based on their lives.

The Hiltons' last public appearance was in 1961 at a drive in movie theater in Charlotte, North Carolina. Sadly,their tour manager abandoned them there, and with no means of transportation or income, they were forced to take a job in a nearby grocery store. On January 4, 1969, after they failed to report to work, their boss called the police. The twins were found dead in their home, victims of the flu. According to a forensic investigation, Daisy died first; Violet died between two and four days later...

MY FIVE FAVORITE FILMS OF THE 1960S

The decade of the 1960s was a decade of change for America. It also was a decade of change for the movies. The movies finally were allowed to show more sex and violence that they had been able to show since the official Hays code was enacted in 1934. The popular movies at the time was a reflection of those changes. It was really hard to do this top five favorite movies, because there was so many quality films in the 1960s. Here are my five favorites though:
 

5. COOL HAND LUKE (1967)
Paul Newman became a star in the 1950s, but his super stardom was cemented by the 1960s, and great movies like Cool Hand Luke definitely helped. Newman stars in the title role as Luke, a prisoner in a Florida prison camp[ who refuses to submit to the system. In 2005, the United States Library of Congress deemed Cool Hand Luke to be "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" and selected it for preservation in the National Film Registry. Upon its initial release, Bosley Crowther wrote an NYT Critic's Pick review, saying "what elevates this brutal picture above the ruck of prison films and into the range of intelligent contemplation of the ironies of life is a sharp script by Donn Pearce and Frank R. Pierson, and splendid acting by Paul Newman and George Kennedy. I would agree.


4. IN COLD BLOOD (1967)
The true crime novel In Cold Blood written by Truman Capote is one of my favorite novels of all time, and this 1967 adaption is true to the novel and in ways is superior to the book. It stars Robert Blake as Perry Smith, Scott Wilson as Richard "Dick" Hickock and John Forsythe as Alvin Dewey. The film follows the trail of Smith and Hickock: they break into the home of the Clutter family in Holcomb, Kansas, kill all four members of the family, go on the run, are found and caught by the police, tried for the murders and eventually executed. Although the film is in parts faithful to the book, Brooks created a fictional character, "The Reporter" (played by Paul Stewart). This was also the first commercially released film in the US to use the word 'bullshit'. The film was nominated for four Academy Awards, but no acting awards. I personally do not like Robert Blake, but he deserved at least a nomination for his gritty role.

3. THE GREAT ESCAPE (1963)
Another prison drama, this movie takes place during World War II. The Great Escape is a 1963 American film about an escape by Allied prisoners of war from a German POW camp during World War II, starring Steve McQueen, James Garner, and Richard Attenborough. The film is based on the book of the same name by Paul Brickhill, a non-fiction account of the mass escape from Stalag Luft III in Sagan (now Żagań, Poland), in the province of Lower Silesia, Nazi Germany. The characters are composites of real men. The film was made by the Mirisch Company, released by United Artists, and produced and directed by John Sturges. The story was adapted by James Clavell, W. R. Burnett, and Walter Newman from Paul Brickhill's book The Great Escape. Brickhill had been a prisoner at Stalag Luft III during World War II. The film was to some extent a work of fiction, based on the real events but with compromises made for purposes of commercial appeal, serving as a vehicle for its box-office stars. While many of its characters were fictitious, most were amalgams of several real characters and many were based on real people Hilts' dash for the border by motorcycle was added by request of McQueen, who did the stunt riding himself except for the final jump (done by Bud Ekins). If you want to find a movie to have a guy’s movie night with, you can not go wrong with this film.


2. WHATEVER HAPPENED TO BABY JANE (1962)
Is this movie a horror movie or just a campy film that spotlights two aging stars. I can never tell, but I love to watch this movie at Halloween. It is not real scary other than the part with the dead rat (I have a phobia of rodents), but the movie is fun to watch. What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? is a 1962 American psychological thriller (not really a horror film) produced and directed by Robert Aldrich, starring Bette Davis and Joan Crawford. The screenplay by Lukas Heller is based on the novel of the same name by Henry Farrell. In 2003, the character of Baby Jane Hudson was ranked #44 on the American Film Institute's list of the 50 Best Villains of American Cinema. The film was nominated for five Academy Awards, winning one for Best Costume Design, Black and White. Before, during and after the film's production and release, there was heavy fighting between Davis and Crawford, which included Davis actually kicking Crawford in the head (she went for small stitches) and Crawford putting weights in her clothes for the scene of Jane's dragging Blanche (Davis got muscular backache as a result). Not even director Aldrich could stop the fighting, which escalated in the coming months. I think that real life drama makes the movie fun to watch.

1. PLANET OF THE APES (1968)
One of my favorite television shows was The Twilight Zone, which was created by Rod Serling. He also was the brainchild behind this original Planet Of The Apes in 1968, and he was responsible for the terrific ending which has become one of the greatest movie endings in all of cinema history. The film tells the story of an astronaut crew who crash-land on a strange planet in the distant future. Although the planet appears desolate at first, the surviving crew members stumble upon a society in which apes have evolved into creatures with human-like intelligence and speech. The apes have assumed the role of the dominant species and humans are mute creatures wearing animal skins.The script was originally written by Rod Serling but had many rewrites before eventually being made. Directors J. Lee Thompson and Blake Edwards were approached, but the film's producer Arthur P. Jacobs, upon the advice of Charlton Heston, chose Franklin J. Schaffner to direct the film. Schaffner's changes included creating a more primitive ape society, instead of the more expensive idea of having futuristic buildings and advanced technology. The film was groundbreaking for its prosthetic makeup techniques by artist John Chambers, and was well received by critics and audiences, launching a film franchise, including four sequels, as well as a short-lived television show, animated series, comic books, various merchandising, and eventually a remake in 2001 and a reboot in 2011. I enjoyed both of the remakes, but nothing can compare to the original film. The movie was much more deeper than anyone realized in 1968, and almost 45 years later, the film is my favorite of the decade…


Of course there are movies I left out but I wish I didn't have to. Honorable mention goes to: The Music Man (1961), The Hustler (1961), To Kill A Mockinbird (1962), The Odd Couple (1968), and Midnight Cowboy (1969).

THE LAST WORDS OF CLASSIC STARS

True movie fans, especially fans of classic movies put Hollywood stars up on a pedestal. The classic stars of Hollywood seemed larger than life and so far removed from the movie fan. However, there is one thing that the stars had in common with average people...they both will eventually face death. It is sort of ghoulish but I thought it would be interesting to look at some of the last words of some of our favorite icons of classic Hollywood...


Codeine . . . bourbon.
~~ Tallulah Bankhead, actress, d. December 12, 1968

How were the receipts today at Madison Square Garden?
~~ P. T. Barnum, entrepreneur, d. 1891

Is everybody happy? I want everybody to be happy. I know I'm happy.
~~ Ethel Barrymore, actress, d. June 18, 1959

Die? I should say not, dear fellow. No Barrymore would allow such a conventional thing to happen to him.
~~ John Barrymore, actor, d. May 29, 1942

I should never have switched from Scotch to Martinis.
~~ Humphrey Bogart, actor, d. January 14, 1957

That was the best ice-cream soda I ever tasted.
~~ Lou Costello, comedian, d. March 3, 1959

Goodnight my darlings, I'll see you tomorrow.
~~ Noel Coward, writer, d. 1973

That was a great game of golf, fellas.
~~ Harry Lillis "Bing" Crosby, singer / actor, d. October 14, 1977

I've never felt better.
~~ Douglas Fairbanks, Sr., actor, d. December 12, 1939

Yes, it's tough, but not as tough as doing comedy.
(When asked if he thought dying was tough.)
~~ Edmund Gwenn, actor, d. September 6, 1959

Nothing matters. Nothing matters.
~~ Louis B. Mayer, film producer, d. October 29, 1957

Don't worry chief, it will be alright.
~~ Rudolph Valentino, actor, d. August 23, 1926

This is it. I'm going. I'm going.
~~ Al Jolson, singer, d. October 23, 1950

This isn't Hamlet, you know, it's not meant to go into the bloody ear. (To his nurse, who spilt water over him while trying to moisten his lips.)
~~Laurence Olivier, actor, d. July 11, 1989

"Don't you dare ask God to help me!" (Said to her housekeeper who had begun to pray aloud.
~~Joan Crawford, actress, d. May 10, 1977

"I think I'm losing it."
~~Frank Sinatra, singer, d. May 14, 1998

"Just don't leave me alone"
~~John Belushi, comedian, d. March 5, 1982

"I'm going to go be with Gloria now"
~~Jimmy Stewart, actor, d. July 2, 1997

"Curtain! Fast music! Light! Ready for the last finale! Great! The show looks good, the show looks good!" (he was yelling this in delirium on his death bed)
~~Florenz Ziegfeld, Broadway producer, d. July 22, 1932

You know how I love a party!
~~Rudy Vallee, singer, d. July 3, 1986

STORY BEHIND THE PHOTO: BORIS KARLOFF

Here are some amazing vintage photographs of the great Boris Karloff becoming one of cinemas most famous movie monsters, Frankenstein. Karloff was 45 when this photo was taken as the actor was waiting to begin the long process of becoming Frankenstein for 1935′s, “Bride of Frankenstein“. Karloff would spend up to four hours sitting while the make up was applied. I have never seen this pictures before and they are amazing...

THE DEATH OF BELA LUGOSI

The great Bela Lugosi was one of the greatest actors horror movies have ever seen. Lugosi took on the Dracula role and made it his own. Unfortunately, he was only remembered for that 1931 Dracula movie, and he was so much more of an actor. Here is a great article I found detailing the tragic horror stars final days...

He would play the Dracula character for a final time in Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein. in 1948. By this time, Lugosi's drug use was so notorious that the producers were not even aware that Lugosi was still alive, and had penciled in actor Ian Keith for the role. The film would be Bela Lugosi's last "A" movie. For the remainder of his life he appeared — less and less frequently — in obscure, low-budget features.Bela Lugosi died on August 16, 1956 of a coronary occlusion at the age of 73.  He was discovered in bed by his fifth wife, Hope, upon her return from work. Although he was all but forgotten in his later years, his death was deemed newsworthy enough for a photographer to rush to his apartment to snap a photograph of his body being wheeled away by the undertakers.

Hope told the press, “He was terrified of death. Towards the end he was very weary, but he was still afraid of death. Three nights before he died he was sitting on the edge of the bed. I asked him if he were still afraid to die. He told me that he was. I did my best to comfort him, but you might as well save your breath with people like that. They’re still going to be afraid of death.”

Bela’s death generated few in-depth obituaries. Most notices were embarrassingly brief, with the majority focusing on his much publicized  addiction to drugs, which came to light when he publicly committed himself to the Metropolitan State Hospital in Norwalk, California the previous April. 

Bela’s funeral service was held at 2:30p.m. on Saturday August 18th at the Utter-McKinley Mortuary Chapel on Hollywood Boulevard in Los Angeles. Prior to the service, his body lay in state in full Dracula garb. Although Hope told the press that “it was his wish” to be buried in his famous costume, it was actually the decision of Bela’s ex-wife Lillian and their son Bela Jnr.

The funeral service was a relatively small affair, conspicuous by the absence of Hollywood “big” names. In addition to Hope, Lillian and Bela Lugosi Jnr., those who attended included Zoltan Korda, filmmaker Edward D. Wood and his wife Kathy, Glen or Glenda producer George Weiss, Forest J Ackerman, actors Carroll Borland, Tor Johnson, Paul Marco, Conrad Brooks, Dudley Manlove and Loretta King, and Don Marlowe, one of Bela’s former agents. Moments before Bela’s casket was taken from the Utter McKinley Mortuary, Marlowe pushed aside pallbearer Richard Sheffield, one of Bela’s teenage friends, to ensure he was photographed by the waiting press.

Contrary to popular myth, Lillian Lugosi, not Frank Sinatra, paid for the funeral and the plot in Holy Cross Cemetery. Hope paid for the coffin. Bela was buried at the Holy Cross Cemetery in Culver City, Los Angeles. 

SOURCE

MOVIE REVIEW: GHOST STORY

It is surprising that you can include Fred Astaire and horror in a sentence about a movie. Astaire was one of the great musical icons of the 1930s and 1940s. However, late in his life he made a little horror movie that is worth reviewing. Any horror movie is worth revisiting during the month of October. What is Halloween without a scary movie. Although the movie Ghost Story is not a moive that will keep you up after you watch it, it is pretty good and has some twists and turns. Ghost Story is a 1981 American horror film directed by John Irvin and based on the book of the same name by Peter Straub. It stars Fred Astaire, Melvyn Douglas, Douglas Fairbanks Jr., John Houseman and Craig Wasson (in a dual role). It was the last film to feature Astaire, Fairbanks, and Douglas, and the first film to feature Michael O'Neill. The film was shot in Woodstock, VT, Saratoga Springs, NY and at Stetson University in Deland, FL. In a small New England town, four elderly friends form what they call the Chowder Society, an informal club where they regale each other with scary stories. Membership in the club, in fact, requires that one present such a story. The four friends are Ricky Hawthorne, a business owner, Sears James, a Lawyer, along with Dr. John Jaffrey and Edward Charles Wanderley, the Mayor. When Edward's son, David, living in New York, falls from a window after the girl he's sleeping with turns suddenly into a demon, Edward grieves. His other son, Don, a college professor who's fallen on hard times, shows up in town, not getting a great reception from Edward, who always preferred the other, more ambitious son. But now the four elderly gentlemen are unsettled and have nightmares. Clearly, something is bothering them. Edward becomes so distraught that he wanders across a bridge in the snow. When he sees the same female apparition that caused his son to fall to his death, Edward, too, falls to his death from the bridge. Although his death is ruled a suicide, his son Don and Edward's three remaining elderly friends doubt it. Don approaches the remaining three friends, requests membership in their group and offers up a bizarre "ghost" story of his own.

Don's flashback: A few years earlier, Don, then a promising junior professor, meets Alma, a beautiful if mysterious secretary who had come to work for the university. They immediately become involved in a torrid sexual affair that causes him to miss work and earn the scorn of the Dean who previously championed him. But Don finds a strange coldness about Alma, and he drops her. Later, he hears from his brother David that he has met the same girl in New York and intends to marry her. Don warns his brother that she's trouble, but to no avail. And indeed, Don suspects she caused his fatal fall from the building as seen earlier. In the present, the elderly friends react to Don's story. Sears discounts it, but Ricky believes him. Elderly Dr. John Jaffrey, after having a nightmare about the same woman, Alma, dies of a heart attack. This leaves only Sears and Ricky. Thus, they finally tell Don their own strange history with a woman who looked exactly like Alma.

Their flashback: Back when the four friends were young, the beautiful Eva Galli came to town, and, indeed, it's obvious that she's the same person as Alma in the present. The four friends are smitten with Eva, who encourages their sexual interest. It was Young Edward (Don's father) who first took her to bed, but he was impotent with her. Outside her house, the other three friends serenaded Eva in hopes of catching a glimpse of her when a shirtless Edward came to the window instead, giving the impression that he did sleep with her. Edward left with his friends, and the four became very drunk, discussing Eva's prowess in the bedroom. They returned to her house, where all but Sears danced with her. When it was proposed that they leave, Sears suggestively insisted on getting his dance, to which she pointedly responded that she intended to dance with all of them. She confronted Edward about what he had told his friends, then was about to tell them the truth when Young Edward leaped to silence her, knocking her down, accidentally smashing her head into the stone fireplace. Horrified, the young men believed that the unresponsive Eva was dead. They considered calling the police, but realized it would only mean wrecking their lives. Instead, they loaded her body into her car, then pushed it into the nearby lake. As the car descends, Eva stirred inside, looking out at them from the back window, screaming and hammering at the glass as the car sank beneath the surface, taking her with it.

Back in the present, Ricky and Sears admit that the death has haunted them all these years. Whereas Sears is dubious, both Ricky and Don believe that Alma and Eva are one and the same and that her ghost has returned to seek revenge. Don suggests they go to Eva's old house, now in ruins, to confront the past and her ghost once and for all. They go there, but Don falls on the rotting stairs and breaks his leg. Sears leaves in his car to seek help, leaving Don and Ricky behind. While driving through the snowstorm, Sears comes upon Eva's apparition. He slams on the brakes, and swerves to the side of the road. He survives, but is attacked by one of Eva's accomplices, Fenny Bate, and is presumably killed. Ricky nearly dies at the hands of Eva's other accomplice, Gregory Bate, but Ricky stabs him and escapes to get to the authorities, telling them to pull Eva's car up from the lake to reveal her body inside. This is intercut with Don, who confronts the rotting specter of Alma/Eva. Ricky and the authorities drag out the ancient car, wrenching open the rusted, corroded door, the un-dead rotting corpse of Eva lunges into view. It falls to the ground and begins to disintegrate before their eyes. Don is spared from her vengeance and the town is restored to peace. It is great to see movie icons like Fred Astaire, Melvin Douglas, and Douglas Fairbanks Jr at least one more time on the screen. The movie for me sort of drags in the end and loses steam, but the ending is gratifying enough. Throughout the year I like to watch Astaire movies like Follow The Fleet, The Bandwagon, and Silk Stockings, but I reserve the month of October to watch him in Ghost Story. It's a movie that won't really disappoint...

MY RATING: 8 out of 10

WHERE ARE THEY NOW: HARVEY SPENCER STEPHENS

One of the movies that I simply love watching at Halloween is the original The Omen from 1976. However, with have a young son now and a wife who hates scary movies, I do not get the chance to watch it as much as I'd like. Gregory Peck and Lee Remick were the big name actors in the movie, but I wanted to see whatever happened to the true star of the movie - the child actor who played Damien. Harvey Spencer Stephens played the role perfectly, but never really did a lot in Hollywood.

Stephens was born on November 12, 1970 in Putney, London, England. He was four years old when picked for the part, which required him to have his blond hair dyed dark brown. According to Omen director Richard Donner, during an interview with AMC, Stephens got the part after he beat up Donner and punched him in the testicles, at Donner's urging. Because Harvey was so young, Richard Donner found that the best way to direct him was to provoke genuine reactions before the camera. For example, when Damien is angry at being taken to church, Donner got his peeved facial expression by shouting to Stephens off camera "What are you looking at you little bugger? I'll clobber you."

It was the only major film role in Stephens' career, apart from a small role in the 1980 TV film Gauguin the Savage. He also appears in the DVD special features section of the 2006 version of The Omen, and has a small role as a tabloid journalist in the film.

Interview footage of Stephens from 1996 was used in the 2005 documentary The Curse of the Omen, a programme detailing the supposed eerie coincidences surrounding the making of the film. Thirty years after originating his role in The Omen, he appeared in the 2006 remake as a news reporter. Stephens appeared on The Howard Stern Show on Sirius Radio on 23 April 2008 to promote a film he was working on. As of today, it does not look like the movie ever was made. He said he also has started appearing at autograph signings / horror conventions "with my tricycle." Harvey is back to living in England now, where he has been employed as a futures trader on the London stock market and as late as 2010 was a property developer in Kent, England. He is married with a son, but I have no clue if his son is named Damien...