70 Years of Cinema-1939: The Son of Frankenstein

 THE SON OF FRANKENSTEIN (no rating–today it would probably be a PG) Directed by: Rowland V. Lee. Written by: Wyllis Cooper. Starring: Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi, Basil Rathbone, Lionel Atwill, Josephine Hutchinson. Cinematography: George Robinson Original music by: Frank Skinner

I honestly can’t believe that I had never seen this until now. I imagine I would have gone on not seeing it too, if it weren’t for this little experiment. The weirdest part is, I’m a huge Frankenstein fan. I adore Shelly’s book, absolutely love  James Whales’ first two films (did a double feature of both back at Halloween) and have watched pretty much every other incarnation of the character. As a child I was enchanted by Karloff’s version of the monster; it was then, and still is, the only one that mattered. In the mid  80s there was a Philly(I think) station that used to run a Saturday evening double horror feature hosted by a guy called Dr. Morgus. Living in the boonies of Maryland, with a cheap attenna, somehow we managed to pick it up.  Any of you out there remember him? If so, check this out.

Celebrating the Senator and 70 Years of Cinema!

July 8th, 2009–

Well, I’ve finally got around to starting this one. From the very beginning of the blog, a few months ago, I had gotten an idea for a new column inspired by the fact that the nearby classic theater, The Senator, which  stopped showing films in March, had been previously operational since 1939. 70 years! What a phenomenal span of time, and imagine how much the films and the industry have changed since then. I just turned 30 in April, and I haven’t even been around half that long, so it got me to thinking about all of the films, particularly those some 50 years old now, that I have never seen. And thus, this project was born.

Unfortunately, things are rather up in the air for the future of the old historic theater, and if you check the website you can learn more, including the date for the upcoming auction. Meanwhile, I’ll keep updates on the current situation linked right here in the column. Go to The Senator Theatre site HERE.

As for this column, the plan is this: Starting with 1939, and progressing through 70 years of films, I will cover one year a week(Wednesday to Wednesday). For each year, I’ll find 3 films that I haven’t seen, watch them, and write them up.  That’s pretty much the whole gist of it. When I checked out 1939 for choices though, I discovered some egregious holes in my film knowledge; stuff I was sure I had seen, but upon further inspection I realized, no, I hadn’t. So, the 1939 segment of this column will feature 3 films that I probably should have checked out long ago, but for whatever reason, didn’t.