CHARLES BEAUMONT ON DVD

Now available from Oldies.com is a full-length feature on DVD about one of the most versatile and imaginative writers from the classic TWILIGHT ZONE period. They also offer a few of the movies that he wrote screenplays for.

As I have mentioned OLDIES.COM is an excellent source for finding all sorts of monster movies, books, and periodicals -- all in one place. They also send out HUGE catalogs. Oldies is Monster Friendly -- give 'em a try!

 

CHARLES BEAUMONT: THE SHORT LIFE OF THE TWILIGHT ZONE'S MAGIC MAN

DVD Details

• Run Time: 2 hours, 13 minutes
• Encoding: Region 1 (USA & Canada)
• Originally Released: 2010
• Label: JaSunni Productions LLC

Performers, Cast and Crew:

Directed by Jason V. Brock

Subject: Charles Beaumont

Description:

Writer. Adventurer. Provocateur. All of these words apply to one man: Charles Beaumont. 

As one of the principal writers for the original Twilight Zone series, Beaumont became a mainstay of 1960s television. Later, working with filmmaker Roger Corman, he embarked on a promising career in movies (7 Faces of Dr. Lao, The Intruder). By this time, Beaumont was also a primary contributor to Playboy, Esquire, and several other major magazines of the day.

Beaumont overcame humble roots, bouncing between Chicago and Washington state. As the only child of an obsessed mother with an explosive temper, he endured many hardships, such as seeing his pets tortured and being dressed as a girl. Plagued with health problems and very fragile, Beaumont was a prodigious young talent whose artistic and writing abilities surpassed his peers. 

Following his dreams to Los Angeles, the driven, intellectual Beaumont became the charismatic nucleus of a group of Southern California writers, whose ranks include Richard Matheson, William F. Nolan, George Clayton Johnson, Harlan Ellison, and Ray Bradbury among others. Charles Beaumont's intensity and unabashed heed to confront controversy influenced early television and science fiction; he understood the human condition, and lived at the edge in everything he did and created.

At the height of his career, Beaumont began exhibiting strange and frightening symptoms: slurring words, balance problems, memory lapses. Was it alcohol abuse? Was it leftover from his childhood bout of meningitis? Perhaps it was stress...
He began to age - looking more like a man of 70 than a young man in his thirties. Charles Beaumont seemed to be trapped in one of his own Twilight Zone stories. Whatever the cause, he would not live to see his 39th birthday.

Documentary includes interviews with Ray Bradbury, William Shatner, William F. Nolan, Richard Matheson, George Clayton Johnson, John & Wilma Tomerlin and others.

7 FACES OF DR. LAO

DVD Features:

• Rated: Not Rated

• Run Time: 1 hours, 40 minutes

• Video: Color

• Released: September 27, 2011

• Originally Released: 1963

• Label: Warner Archives Collection

• Encoding: Region 0 (Worldwide)

Performers, Cast and Crew:

Starring

Tony Randall & Barbara Eden

Performer:

John Ericson, Arthur O'Connell, Royal Dano, Lee Patrick, Noah Beery Jr., Minerva Urecal & Frank Kreig

Directed by

George Pal

Edited by

George Tomasini & George Tomasini

Screenwriting by

Charles Beaumont & Ben Hecht

Screenplay by

Charles Beaumont

Composition by

Leigh Harline

Art Direction by

George W. Davis

Produced by

George Pal

Director of Photography:

Robert Bronner

Major Awards:

Academy Awards 1963 - Honorary Awards

Description:

An elderly Chinese man routs evil in a Western frontier town by setting up his circus for the townspeople. The various performers affect each of the circus' visitors in a different way, and in the end the unscrupulous citizen who dominates the town repents.

Tony Randall plays eight different characters in the movie, with the help of Academy Award-winning special visual effects and make-up that earned make-up artist William Tuttle a special Honorary Academy Award for his outstanding achievement.

In one of the finest performances of his career, Tony Randall plays the part of a mysterious Chinese doctor named Lao who rides into a small western town with his circus and changes the lives of all who come to see it. Lao assumes many disguises, some so extraordinary that Mr. Randall is completely unrecognizable.

Plot Synopsis:

A mysterious traveling circus, led by the odd Dr. Lao, arrives in a small dusty town. Dr. Lao is endowed with magical powers, and his troupe is populated with such mythical characters as Merlin, Pan, Medusa and even the Abominable Snowman. Together, Lao and his performers use their unique abilities to help the townspeople gain clearer outlooks on who they are -- and in the process change their lives forever.

Production Notes:

• Color by Metrocolor.
• Additional cast: Kevin Tate (Mike Benedict); Eddie Little Sky (George E. George); Frank Kreig (Mr. Peter Ramsey); Dale McKennon (Lean Cowboy).
• Additional credits: Al Shenberg (assistant director).
  

QUEEN OF OUTER SPACE

DVD Features:

• Run Time: 1 hours, 20 minutes
• Video: Color
• Released: September 20, 2011
• Originally Released: 1958
• Label: Warner Archives Collection
• Encoding: Region 0 (Worldwide)
• Aspect Ratio: Widescreen
• Audio:
• PCM Mono - English

Performers, Cast and Crew:

Starring		Zsa Zsa Gabor, Laurie Mitchell & Eric Fleming
Performer:		Mary Ford, Lisa Davis, Paul Birch, Dave Willock & Barbara Darrow
Directed by		Edward Bernds
Edited by		William Austin
Screenwriting by		Charles Beaumont
Screenplay by		Charles Beaumont
Composition by		Marlin Skiles
Cinematography by		William Whitley
Story by		Ben Hecht
Produced by		Ben Schwalb

Description:

Breaking news from space! The bad: an intrepid captain and his men have landed on a planet where males are outlawed. The good: some women there are eager to break the law! 

Queen of Outer Space is a milestone of movie camp. Eric Fleming plays the granite-jawed leader who shares with his crew the crime of maleness. That?s just the start of their troubles. The man-hating Venusian Queen (Laurie Mitchell) aims to destroy Earth once a Beta Disintegrator is operational. But a gossamer-gowned scientist (Zsa Zsa Gabor) and her curvy cohorts eye the men, and they like what they see. This Bijou bauble has sets, costumes and effects from Flight to Mars, Forbidden Planet and World Without End. Have fun spotting them! Botchino!

SMOKIN' MONSTERS

One thing I will never be accused of is being an art snob. While I can (and do) appreciate the technical and artful elements that go into the making of a film, I don’t normally watch them with such a critical eye that it takes precedence over their primary purpose – that of entertainment. There is value to dissecting a film into its parts and analyzing as if the thing is being scrutinized like bacteria in a petri dish, but – call me Quasimodo – I pretty much just like to sit back, turn off reality for an hour or two and escape.

I haven’t attended one hour of film school, but I pride myself in the knowledge that I’m quite sure I recognize good dialogue when I hear it, good cinematography and direction when I see it, and a moving and effective soundtrack when I hear it. However, I prefer to suspend what limited autodidactic film criticism I possess and instead choose to immerse myself in the story and visuals while watching a movie.

I think I first came across the term, “suspension of disbelief”, in Carlos Clarens’ AN ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF THE HORROR FILM. I think it’s a good term and is essential for watching monster movies (especially bad ones). In fact, contextual verisimilitude is problematic without it.

Thus, when watching a favorite monster movie, I am usually much more forgiving of the propriety of “good” filmmaking than with non-genre films. That’s not to say that a lot of these films not only have a wince-inducing premise, but they can be pretty corny to watch to boot. But that’s part of their charm, isn’t it? After all, aren’t these films --collectively called “fantastic” -- really just explained with one, short phrase: “a fantasy”?

I tell you what I do enjoy the heck out of when I’m watching monster movies – especially those found in the “classic” and “vintage” categories – and that’s set design and decoration (the mood’s the thing!) and what the actors and actresses are wearing – except, of course, the monsters, in which case I’m checking out the makeup.

Another observation I’ve made over the years from FRANKENSTEIN to THE WOLF MAN and everything in between is, have you ever noticed how natural all the guys look while wearing suits in the old movies? And, how about the women, many who are gallivanting across the screen in evening gowns? These days, about the only suits you see are on Wall Street drones and MIB’s. In fact, I'll go so far as to hold Bill Gates and his Silicone Valley cronies' allowance of the all-week “Casual Friday” personally accountable for this decline of the American business suit (insert smiley face emoticon here).

I won’t go so far as to call it a “trope”, but yet another prevalent “prop” that I notice quite often in old monster movies is the pervasive use of cigarettes, cigars, and yes, that beautifully-conceived implement from a bygone age, the pipe, all found being fondled, fingered, and puffed away by the players. Smoking on-screen back then looked every bit as natural as the coats and ties. It’s also amusing to see how often the floor is used as an ashtray when the actor or actress throws down a butt to emphasize their point!

That brings me to the point of all this – a new, occasional feature starts right here today at MONSTER MAGAZINE WORLD, “Smokin’ Monsters”! Many of our favorite mon-stars could be seen, smoking away in the days when the worst things that smokers feared were a sore throat and a “cigarette hangover”.

I’ll kick this series off with a publicity shot of Lon Chaney, Sr., seen here in his floppy newsboy hat and stylishly pinching between his fingers a burning Camel, Lucky Strike, Wings, or maybe it was even a hand-rolled Bull Durham. Oh, and it looks like he’s also wearing a suit and tie.

THE SOUND OF HORROR: PROPHECY

This review originally appeared in The Phantom of the Movies’ VideoScope magazine. 

PROPHECY Music composed and conducted by Leonard Rosenman. 20 tracks, 42 mins. Film Score Monthly Vol. 13 No. 1. $19.95

The ‘70s was a very productive decade for Leonard Rosenman (1924-2008). The composer tackled over three dozen motion picture and television scoring assignments whilst bagging two Oscars for music adaptation. In the midst of his ambitious output were three unreleased horror film scores that have since become a wish list trinity of sorts: Race With The Devil (1975), The Car (1977) and Prophecy (1979). Film Score Monthly’s momentous CD presentation of John Frankenheimer’s critically jeered Prophecy shortens that list. Scripter David Seltzer’s uneven mixture of eco-transgressions and Mother Nature’s payback mechanism via Tom Burman’s mutant super beast was splendidly rewarded with Rosenman’s unique symphonic handling. It’s an all-you-eat buffet of his trademark musical signatures nestled within a barrage of wicked and unrestrained compositions. Track 1 immediately lets loose with The Search Party, a 1-min. 32-sec. beating that features dueling brass above a floor of punching percussion, all lashing away as nocturnal would-be rescuers and their hounds track an unseen menace. Quickly following are two cues, Flight to Maine and Road Block, where the composer provides relief with majestically soothing and sweeping treatments that falsely anchor the vast forest environment as a pristine and secure setting. The respite will be short-lived because all that ensues presents a hair-raising pallet on which he’ll wreak musical havoc. For the spine-cracking monster cues he’s aided by Craig Huxley’s once popular blaster beam electronic instrument (a device heard in such films as Star Trek: The Motion Picture). It furnishes an unnerving guttural gnashing whenever the creature appears. Judiciously laced throughout are instantly recognizable structures such as Rosenman’s well-known use of tone pyramids, calling brass and woodwinds and thumping percussion. FSM accessed first-generation 1-in. 8-track masters (combining two and three cues where appropriate) that result in an exhilarating listening event. Of particular note is that Prophecy’s score was previously available as a poor-sounding CD-R bootleg. While identical in musical content it also retained an inconsequential non-Rosenman source cue that even hardcore collectors can do without. The meticulous text for the 16-pg. full color booklet is supplied by Scott Bettencourt and Alexander Kaplan. It details the making of the film as well as a track by track guide. Prophecy … one down, two to go.