Classic Films – Classic Films Blog

Oct92021 by Classic FilmsNo Comments

Halloween Movies: 10 Great Black and White Horror Movies

Horror

There have been horror films for nearly as long as there have been movies. The genre was there from the beginning, pulling in audiences who wanted to watch things they'd never imagined they'd want to see. Vampiric monsters, ghostly apparitions, and human oddities were all the stuff of nightmares a century ago, and they're still the stuff of nightmares today. Many of the titles on this list of great black and white horror movies are well-known classics while others are minor cult favorites. They are all worth revisiting! The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920) Robert Wiene's The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari is a stylized nightmare of sharp angles, abstract places, diagonal stairs, and horrific landscapes. It is often considered the oldest example of horror film and the archetypal piece of German ...

Jun272021 by Classic FilmsNo Comments

The Screaming Skull

Horror, Thriller

The Screaming Skull is a 1958 independently made American black-and-white horror film, produced by John Kneubuhl and directed by Alex Nicol, starring John Hudson, Peggy Webber, Russ Conway, Tony Johnson, and Nicol. The Screaming Skull marked Nicol's directorial debut; he decided to try it because he felt that he was not acting in the roles which he wanted. The film was distributed by American International Pictures as a double feature in different markets with either Earth vs. the Spider or Terror from the Year 5000. The film's storyline concerns a neurotic newlywed woman who believes she is being haunted by the ghost of her new husband's previous wife. Over a scene of an opening coffin, a narrator explains that the film's climax is so terrifying that it may kill the viewer, whil...

Jun272021 by Classic FilmsNo Comments

Plan 9 from Outer Space

Sci-Fi

Plan 9 from Outer Space is a 1957 independently made American black-and-white science fiction-horror film, produced, written, directed, and edited by Ed Wood. The film was shot in November of 1956, and had a theatrical preview screening on March 15, 1957 at the Carlton Theatre in Los Angeles (the onscreen title at this time read Grave Robbers from Outer Space). It later went into general release on July 22, 1959 re-titled Plan 9 from Outer Space. It stars Gregory Walcott, Mona McKinnon, Tor Johnson, and "Vampira" (Maila Nurmi) and is narrated by Criswell. It also posthumously bills Bela Lugosi (silent footage of the actor had been shot by Wood for another, unfinished film prior to Lugosi's death in August 1956, and was inserted into Plan Nine later). Other guest-stars are Hollywood vet...

Jun272021 by Classic FilmsNo Comments

White Zombie

Horror

White Zombie is a 1932 American horror film independently produced by Edward Halperin and directed by Victor Halperin. The screenplay by Garnett Weston, based on The Magic Island by William Seabrook, is about a young woman's transformation into a zombie at the hands of an evil voodoo master. Bela Lugosi stars as the zombie master "Murder" Legendre, with Madge Bellamy appearing as his victim. Other cast members include Joseph Cawthorn, Robert W. Frazer, John Harron, Brandon Hurst, and George Burr MacAnnan. On arrival in Haiti, Madeleine Short reunites with her fiancé Neil Parker, with imminent plans to be married. On the way to their lodging, the couple's coach passes Murder Legendre, an evil voodoo master, who observes them with interest. Neil and Madeleine arrive at the home of the...

Jun212021 by Classic FilmsNo Comments

Atom Age Vampire

Sci-Fi

When a stripper (Susanne Loret) is horribly disfigured in a car accident, a scientist (Dr. Levin, played by Alberto Lupo) develops a treatment which can restore her beauty by injecting her with a special serum. While performing the procedure, however, he falls in love with her. As the treatment begins to fail, he determines to save her appearance, regardless of how many women he must kill for her sake. Atom Age Vampire (Italian: Seddok, l'erede di Satana) is a 1960 Italian Sci-Fi Horror film directed by Anton Giulio Majano. Shot in black-and-white, the film was produced by Elio Ippolito Mellino and stars Alberto Lupo, Susanne Loret, and Sergio Fantoni. Despite the implication of its American title, the film does not feature an actual vampire. The titular Seddok is actually the br...

Jun212021 by Classic FilmsNo Comments

The Man with the Golden Arm

Drama, Film-Noir

The Man with the Golden Arm is a 1955 American drama film with elements of film noir, based on the novel of the same name by Nelson Algren, which tells the story of a drug addict who gets clean while in prison, but struggles to stay that way in the outside world. When illegal card dealer and recovering heroin addict Frankie Machine (Frank Sinatra) gets out of prison, he decides to straighten up. Armed with nothing but an old drum set, Frankie tries to get honest work as a drummer. But when his former employer, small-time con man Schwiefka (Robert Strauss), and Frankie's old drug dealer, Louis (Darren McGavin), re-enter his life, Frankie finds it hard to stay clean and eventually finds himself succumbing to his old habits. Runtime: 119 min Release Date: 15th December 1955 Genres: Crim...

Jun212021 by Classic FilmsNo Comments

Last Man on Earth

Horror, Sci-Fi

When a plague devastated life on Earth, the population died or became a sort of zombie living in the dark. Dr. Robert Morgan is the unique healthy survivor on the planet, having a routine life for his own survival: he kills the night creatures along the day and maintains the safety of his house, to be protected along the night. He misses his beloved wife and daughter, consumed by the outbreak, and he fights against his loneliness to maintain mentally sane. When Dr. Morgan finds the contaminated Ruth Collins, he uses his blood to heal her and he becomes the last hope on Earth to help the other contaminated survivors. But the order of this new society is scary. Runtime: 86 min Release Date: 8th March 1964 Genres: Sci-Fi - Horror Director: Ubaldo Ragona Actors: Vincent Price - Franca...

Jun212021 by Classic FilmsNo Comments

The Little Shop of Horrors

Comedy, Horror

When the clumsy Seymour Krelboyne spoils two flowers of a client, the owner of a small florist shop Gravis Mushnick is ready to fire him. However Seymour tells that he has mixed two plants of different breeds at home and created a hybrid named Audrey Jr. and Mushnick decides to give another chance to his employee. On the next day, Seymour brings Audrey Jr. that becomes the pride and joy of Mushnick, his other employee Audrey Fulquard and clients. Out of the blue, the flower seems to be dying and Seymour accidentally learns that she likes blood. One day, Seymour is upset since he does not know how to feed the flower and he walks along a railroad. When he throws a stone near a railroad track, he accidentally hits the head of a man that falls on the track and is a train runs over him. Seymo...

Jun212021 by Classic FilmsNo Comments

Attack of the Giant Leeches

Horror, Sci-Fi

The story is set in the Florida everglades where the local storekeeper, Dave Walker, is married to a young sex-bomb named Liz, who just keeps on walking all over him. But poor old Dave is just a sucker for a pretty face and he just keeps on letting Liz do it. There are lots of suckers in this film though and most of them are attached to the giant leeches that have set up home in the swamp. Attack of the Giant Leeches originally titled as The Giant Leeches is an independently made 1959 black-and-white science fiction-horror film, produced by Gene Corman and directed by Bernard L. Kowalski. It stars Ken Clark, Yvette Vickers and Jan Shepard. The screenplay was written by Leo Gordon. The film was released by American International Pictures on a double bill with A Bucket of Blood. Later, ...

Jun212021 by Classic FilmsNo Comments

The Terror

Horror, Thriller

The Terror is a 1963 American independent horror film produced and directed by Roger Corman. The film stars Boris Karloff and Jack Nicholson, the latter of whom portrays a French officer who is seduced by a woman who is also a shapeshifting devil. The film is sometimes linked to Corman's Poe cycle, a series of movies based on the works of Edgar Allan Poe; however, The Terror is not based on any text written by Poe. The movie has become famous because of the circumstances of its production, including the fact all of Boris Karloff's scenes were shot in two days, the long time it took to complete, the number of people who worked on it that became famous, and the part the film played in the financing and production of Targets (1968), directed by Peter Bogdanovich, starring Karloff. Corman ...