Western RoundUp: The War Wagon (1967)

Posted on September 27, 2026 by Laura Grieve

The War Wagon (1967)

John Wayne has always been one of my favorite actors, as reflected in past columns such as John Wayne Favorites.

The War Wagon Poster

Still, there are a number of Wayne films I’ve never seen, particularly from among his later films.

One of those titles was The War Wagon (1967), which I’ve now caught up with thanks to a new release from Kino Lorber Studio Classics.

The War Wagon Bluray

I watched the film via Kino Lorber’s sparkling new Blu-ray.  (The movie is also now available from Kino Lorber in a 4K edition).  I found The War Wagon to be a very nice surprise.

An exciting opening sequence shows the title “War Wagon” racing across the landscape accompanied by three dozen or so outriders.  There’s a great title song performed by Ed Ames, written by Dimitri Tiomkin and Ned Washington.

The armored wagon was commissioned by wealthy land owner Frank Pierce (Bruce Cabot) to transport gold dust mined on his land.

John Wayne, Kirk Douglas, The War Wagon Lobby Card

Turns out that the land isn’t really Pierce’s; three years ago Pierce framed Taw Jackson (Wayne) and sent him to jail, along with confiscating his land.  Now Taw has been paroled and is back in town with a score to settle.

Taw’s plan is to steal half a million in gold dust scheduled to be transported on Pierce’s wagon; in Taw’s eyes it’s not actually stealing, since it comes from his own stolen land!

The War Wagon Lobby Card

Despite the wagon being heavily guarded, Taw believes he can accomplish the heist with just a handful of people: Wes Fletcher (Keenan Wynn), a cranky old man who works for Pierce and serves as informant; Billy Hyatt (Robert Walker Jr., billed simply as Robert Walker), a young explosives expert who drinks too much; and Levi Walking Bear (Howard Keel), who serves as a translator and helps negotiate a deal for a Kiowa tribe to play a role in Taw’s plans.

The final man Taw signs on for the job, known only as Lomax (Kirk Douglas), is skilled as both a gunfighter and a safecracker.  The wrinkle in Taw working with Lomax is Lomax has previously tried to kill Taw – and Pierce offers Lomax a considerable sum for doing away with Taw once and for all.  However, if Taw’s plan works, he will pay Lomax far more.

The War Wagon Cast

While The War Wagon was written by Clair Huffaker, based on his novel Badman, it’s infused with the humor typical of films from director Burt Kennedy.  Whether Kennedy wrote, directed, or both, even his more serious films are often threaded with tinges of amusing humor, and some, such as the later Support Your Local Sheriff! (1969), are downright hilarious.

Speaking of humor, it’s a bit ironic that part of the reason I’d avoided this film over the years is the presence of Kirk Douglas, who, as I shared in my review of Gunfight at the O.K. Corral (1957), I’ve never particularly appreciated.  He was really delightful and quite funny in this film; no one was more pleasantly surprised by that than I was!

Kirk Douglas, John Wayne
Kirk Douglas and John Wayne

Douglas and Wayne had previously costarred in In Harm’s Way (1965), with Wayne also having a cameo in Douglas’s Cast a Giant Shadow (1966), and they have terrific rapport here.  This is especially notable in the scene where Wayne and Douglas simultaneously gun down two of Pierce’s henchmen (one is Bruce Dern!); Douglas says “Mine hit the ground first” to which Wayne replies, “Mine was taller.”

Kirk Douglas, John Wayne 2

Douglas, who was 50 at the time of production in 1966, also impresses with his fancy jumps onto horses, which are clearly him and not a stuntman. I even rewound the first time he did it to make sure there were no trick edits!  Making Douglas’s athleticism in these scenes even better is the way it’s leveraged in the movie’s final scene for a humorous payoff.

The interesting supporting cast is topped by Wayne’s decades-long friend Bruce Cabot, referred to by Wayne in the movie’s trailer as “good ol’ Bruce Cabot.” 

Bruce Cabot
Bruce Cabot

Wayne and Cabot appeared together in 11 films beginning with Angel and the Badman (1947) and continuing through one of Cabot’s last couple movies, Big Jake (1971).  The absolute malevolence Cabot’s Frank Pierce displays toward Wayne’s Taw is all the more interesting knowing that when the cameras stopped rolling they were very close.

Don Collier, who plays one of Pierce’s henchmen (and comes to regret his job!), had an interesting background, having started out as a ranch hand on actor Francis Lederer’s ranch.

Collier also acted with Wayne in El Dorado (1967) and The Undefeated (1969).  The same year The War Wagon was released was when the excellent TV Western High Chaparral (1967-71) hit the air, where Collier played Sam Butler, the ranch foreman.

Robert Walker Jr, John Wayne The War Wagon Lobby Card
Robert Walker Jr, and John Wayne

Robert Walker Jr. was the son of Robert Walker and Jennifer Jones, and I’m not the first to note that he almost eerily resembles his father, who had passed away in 1951.  Walker Jr., who built a steady acting career, was 26 when this film was made.

The younger Walker was born in the 1940, a year after his mother, then billed as Phyllis Isley, costarred with Wayne in the “B” Western Frontier Horizon (1939), alternately known as New Frontier.  I wrote about that film in a column here last year.  One wonders if Wayne reminisced with the young actor about working with his mother.

John Wayne, Howard Keel, Robert Walker Jr
John Wayne, Howard Keel, Robert Walker Jr

MGM musical fans may feel a bit of déjà vu watching Howard Keel and Keenan Wynn reunited here; they had appeared together in Annie Get Your Gun (1950), Texas Carnival (1951), and Kiss Me Kate (1953) along with the drama Desperate Search (1952).

Keel is particularly interesting casting as an Indian, but I felt he came off well in the role, blending both humor and dignity into the part.

Wayne’s longtime stunt double Chuck Roberson is a bit of a curiosity in this film.  Along with Bruce Dern, he’s one of the henchmen gunned down by Douglas and Wayne in the scene referred to earlier in this review. Yet Roberson reappears onscreen near the end of the movie, in the sequence where the bridge is blown up, “hidden” behind a mustache he wasn’t wearing in earlier scenes.

The supporting cast also includes Valora Noland, Joanna Barnes, Terry Wilson, Gene Evans, Frank McGrath, Sheb Wooley, Chuck Hayward, Cliff Lyons, and Hal Needham; several of these bit players also worked as stuntmen.

John Wayne, Joanna Barnes, Kirk Douglas
John Wayne, Joanna Barnes, Kirk Douglas

This movie was filmed by William Clothier, shot largely on location in Mexico.  Clothier was a frequent Wayne collaborator who also worked again with director Kennedy on Wayne’s The Train Robbers (1973).

Stay tuned to the very end of the film’s 101-minute running time for a delightful final card which encourages viewers to visit Universal Studios when in Southern California!

Kino Lorber’s great-looking Blu-ray print is from a 4K scan of the original 35mm camera negative.  Sound quality is excellent.

I’ll insert a quick reminder here, repeated from the top of this column, that Kino Lorber has also released a 4K edition.

The War Wagon 4K

The disc extras consist of two different commentary tracks, one by Westerns expert Toby Roan and the other by Julie Kirgo and Peter Hankoff.  The trailer and a gallery of trailers for half a dozen additional films available from Kino Lorber are also included.  Optional English-language captions come standard on Kino Lorber Blu-rays, including this one.

The War Wagon is recommended for a good time.

Thanks to Kino Lorber for providing a review copy of this Blu-ray.

…

– Laura Grieve for Classic Movie Hub

Laura can be found at her blog, Laura’s Miscellaneous Musings, where she’s been writing about movies since 2005, and on Twitter at @LaurasMiscMovie. A lifelong film fan, Laura loves the classics including Disney, Film Noir, Musicals, and Westerns.  She regularly covers Southern California classic film festivals.  Laura will scribe on all things western at the ‘Western RoundUp’ for CMH.

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5 Fun Facts About Arsenic and Old Lace (1944)

Posted on September 23, 2026 by Annmarie Gatti

5 Fun Facts About Arsenic and Old Lace

Frank Capra’s Arsenic and Old Lace is a wonderfully madcap tale of murder, mayhem — and one very eccentric family. Starring Cary Grant as drama critic Mortimer Brewster, the film follows his increasingly frantic attempts to deal with the discovery that his sweet, seemingly harmless aunts have a rather deadly hobby.

From its Broadway beginnings to a movie that sat unreleased for years, here are five fun facts about this classic screwball comedy. 🙂

1. The movie was shelved for nearly three years

Arsenic and Old Lace poster
Arsenic and Old Lace

Arsenic and Old Lace was filmed in late 1941, but Warner Bros. had agreed not to release the movie until the original Broadway production ended. The problem? The play was a huge hit, running for 1,444 performances and more than three years! The finished movie therefore sat on the shelf until its release in 1944.

2. The “He looks like Boris Karloff” joke had a Broadway beginning

Horror legend Boris Karloff originated the role of Jonathan Brewster on Broadway, where a running joke was that his character looked exactly like… Boris Karloff! When the movie adaptation was filmed, Karloff couldn’t leave the hit stage production, so Raymond Massey took over the role. The filmmakers kept the joke anyway, turning a clever stage meta-joke into a hilarious cinematic wink: Massey was repeatedly told he looked like the very actor he replaced!

ary Grant, Raymond Massey, Peter Lorre, Arsenic and Old Lace 1944
Cary Grant, Raymond Massey, and Peter Lorre. Photo Credit: cineclassico / Alamy Stock Photo

3. Cary Grant’s real name is hidden in the cemetery

Cary Grant was born Archie Leach — and someone slipped his real name into the movie! Look closely at the cemetery beside the Brewster house and you’ll spot a tombstone bearing the name “Archie Leach.”

4. Cary Grant Gave $100,000 of his salary to wartime relief

Cary Grant was paid $160,000 for Arsenic and Old Lace — and directed $100,000 of his salary to wartime relief organizations, giving $50,000 to British War Relief and $25,000 each to the American Red Cross and the USO.

5. Three Broadway cast members made it into the movie

John Alexander, Josephine Hull, and Jean Adair
John Alexander, Josephine Hull, and Jean Adair

Josephine Hull, Jean Adair, and John Alexander all originated their roles in the hit Broadway production. All three were granted an eight-week leave from the stage show to recreate their roles as Abby, Martha and Teddy Brewster for the movie — then returned straight to Broadway once filming wrapped!

There’s certainly no shortage of fun stories surrounding Arsenic and Old Lace. And with Cary Grant at his frantic best, it’s still considered one of classic Hollywood’s most delightfully dark comedies.

Which fact surprised you most?

–Annmarie Gatti for Classic Movie Hub

Sources & Further Reading

American Film Institute (AFI)
Turner Classic Movies (TCM)
Encyclopaedia Britannica
Internet Broadway Database (IBDB)

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Silents are Golden: An Ideal Mentor: Buster Keaton’s Apprenticeship With Roscoe Arbuckle

Posted on September 22, 2026 by Lea Stans

An Ideal Mentor: Buster Keaton’s Apprenticeship With Roscoe Arbuckle

Arbuckle and Keaton
Fatty Arbuckle and Buster Keaton

If you’re a fan of classic comedy, you’ve likely heard of Buster Keaton’s earliest film appearances in Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle’s slapstick comedies, many of which are considered classics today. With its freewheeling atmosphere and talented fellow comedians, Arbuckle’s “Comique” studio was arguably the perfect training ground for Keaton, and Arbuckle himself was the ideal mentor.

But not everyone knows just why Arbuckle was uniquely talented, aside from hearing vague references to his being a skilled director, or why his Comique studio suited Keaton so well. When we explore Keaton’s early career, it’s not hard to conclude that he came to Comique at precisely the right time.

The Comique team
The Comique team: Buster, Roscoe, Alice Lake, Al St. John, and Luke the dog.

As fans know, in 1917 Keaton was twenty-one and looking to strike out on his own after a lifetime of performing in his family’s popular vaudeville act. His father Joe’s growing dependence on alcohol coupled with other professional struggles had brought the act to a painful end. Keaton went to New York City and happened to get a chance to tour Arbuckle’s new Comique studio. Keaton instantly fell hard for motion pictures, and left the stage behind with no regrets.

It was a fresh start for young Keaton, and it just happened to be one for Arbuckle as well. He had also spent much of his life on the stage and was also striking out on his own. After losing his mother when he was twelve and experiencing frequent neglect by his relatives, Arbuckle began supporting himself by performing. He was touring with stock companies starting in his teens, and by 1909 he was supplementing his income by appearing in Selig films.

Arbuckle
Arbuckle

In 1913 Arbuckle was hired by Mack Sennett to appear in his Keystone comedies. He quickly became a star, having both a charismatic, irreverent personality and an ingenious ability to come up with gags. He was at home with the rough slapstick and stuntwork the studio was known for, and despite his broad frame he could easily do the kinds of pratfalls associated with more wiry performers. Soon he was directing his own starring films, impressing Sennett to the point that whenever he went away on business he reportedly made Arbuckle his second in command.

Being second in command at Keystone was no small matter. When Arbuckle first joined in 1913, it was still a fairly small, ramshackle studio, which director Eddie Sutherland called “the barest, most barren, most desolate looking place you’ve ever seen…” Thanks in part to its popular comedians like Ford Sterling, Mabel Normand, and yes, Arbuckle, Keystone’s popularity soared. By 1915 Keystone had joined the Triangle Film Corporation and Sennett was able to renovate, adding among other things a 5-story building and a large stage which could accommodate up to 15 film crews. In time he was boasting around 300 employees on his payroll, with Arbuckle continuing to be one of his top talents.

Arbuckle director

In that exciting atmosphere, Arbuckle was showing increasing subtlety and skill as a director and even as an editor. His three-reel Fatty and Mabel Adrift (1916), co-starring Mabel Normand, included lovely seaside photography and charming special effects. The following He Did and He Didn’t (1916) mingled comedy with straight drama, showing surprising versatility. It was also the first Sennett comedy Arbuckle directed on the East Coast, a clear move towards having more creative freedom. Thus it comes as no surprise that when producer Joseph Schenck offered him a deal to have his own studio in New York, he gladly accepted. 

Thus, the Comique Comedy Corp. was also a fresh start for Arbuckle, who now had full creative control to make whatever he pleased. And newcomer Keaton, who Arbuckle recognized from the stage, fit right in at his bombastic new slapstick studio and was eager to learn about film from the inside out. Arbuckle was happy to show him the inner workings of a motion picture camera, which Keaton quickly learned how to take apart and put back together again.

The Garage (1920)
The Garage (1920).

At Arbuckle’s studio Keaton not only experienced the freedom and possibilities of film, which could be shot at any location a director pleased, but the way it could capture complex gags. Unlike the stage, where a gag had to be executed perfectly each time, a performer could take as many takes as necessary to choreograph whatever gag he pleased. Arbuckle was known for his intricate pancake-flipping gags where he tossed them in the air, caught them behind his back, bounced them off his shoes, and other such feats. He would often devote hours to a single difficult shot, doing take after take until he accomplished the perfect flip he needed. Similarly, Arbuckle spared no expense in getting as much footage as necessary for his comedies in general. In the editing room he would whittle it down to create a coherent story and make sure he had a precise balance of laughs–an art in and of itself. He would tell interviewers that he would shoot around 15,000 feet of footage for each two-reel short, leaving only 2,000 feet of deftly-edited comedy.

On the set of the lost film A Country Hero (1917)
On the set of the lost film A Country Hero (1917).

At Comique, Keaton also learned when a film director could be sparing. He later recalled that some stunts were almost guaranteed to cause bumps and bruises, so the goal was to shoot them in one take if possible. Other large-scale gags might involve moving machinery like trains or wrecking part of a set, meaning precise planning and timing had to be involved. Fewer takes could also result in fresher performances, giving much of the comedy a spontaneous feel. Both strategies of using as much film as necessary and knowing when to conserve would later be used by Keaton at his own studio.

On the set of Moonshine (1918)
On the set of Moonshine (1918).

From their first film The Butcher Boy (1917) to their last, The Garage (1920), Keaton and Arbuckle were two of the most well-matched and creative coworkers in Hollywood. To the end of his life Keaton would credit the friendly, generous Roscoe with teaching him everything about film that he knew, later reminiscing: “I could not have found a better-natured man to teach me the movie business, or a more knowledgeable one.”

…

–Lea Stans for Classic Movie Hub

You can read all of Lea’s Silents are Golden articles here.

Lea Stans is a born-and-raised Minnesotan with a degree in English and an obsessive interest in the silent film era (which she largely blames on Buster Keaton). In addition to blogging about her passion at her site Silent-ology, she is a columnist for the Silent Film Quarterly and has also written for The Keaton Chronicle.

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5 Fascinating Facts About Sophia Loren

Posted on September 20, 2026 by Annmarie Gatti

5 Fascinating Facts About Sophia Loren

From a childhood marked by poverty and war to becoming one of the world’s most glamorous and celebrated movie stars, Sophia Loren’s life has been quite a journey.

Born in Rome on September 20, 1934, and raised in Pozzuoli near Naples, Loren went on to become an international star and an Academy Award-winning actress. But behind the legendary screen image are some wonderful — and sometimes surprising — stories.

Here are five fascinating facts about Sophia Loren…

1. Before Sophia Loren was a glamorous movie star, she was “Toothpick”

Sophia Loren in a 1959 publicity portrait
Sophia Loren, 1959

Did You Know? It’s hard to believe, but Sophia Loren was a very skinny, shy child! Her classmates and friends nicknamed her “Toothpick” and “The Stick” — long before she became one of the world’s most glamorous movie stars.

Growing up in wartime Italy, Loren and her family endured severe poverty and food shortages. By her early teens, however, the painfully shy, skinny girl had begun to blossom — and her mother soon started entering her in beauty contests.

2. Her grandmother made her beauty-pageant dress from curtains

Did You Know? When 15-year-old Sophia Loren entered her first beauty contest, the “Queen of the Sea” pageant in Naples in 1949, her family couldn’t afford an evening gown — so her grandmother made one from the family’s taffeta curtains!

Loren was chosen as one of the contest’s 12 “princesses,” and among her prizes was a train ticket to Rome — a small prize that would help set her on the road toward a movie career.

The following year, Loren competed in the 1950 Miss Italia contest, where she was one of the finalists and was awarded the title “Miss Elegance.”

Sophia Loren in a swimsuit at the 1950 Miss Italia contest
Sophia Loren at the Miss Italia contest, 1950

3. She beat Richard Burton at Scrabble

Did You Know? Sophia Loren was quite a Scrabble player — good enough to beat Richard Burton!

The two stars worked together on The Voyage (1974), and Loren later recalled beating the famously well-read Burton at the game. Burton himself also remembered her Scrabble prowess, noting that she had beaten him twice — in English, no less!

Not exactly the outcome you might expect when your opponent is Richard Burton. 🙂

4. She destroyed her personal diaries every year

Did You Know? Sophia Loren kept a personal diary — but at the end of every year, she destroyed it!

Loren explained that her diaries contained personal thoughts and feelings that she wanted to keep entirely to herself. So despite eventually writing about her life in memoirs, those private yearly diaries were never meant for anyone else’s eyes.

Just imagine the Hollywood stories that disappeared with them!

Sophia Loren in a 1967 portrait
Sophia Loren, 1967

5. She was wounded by shrapnel during World War II

Did You Know? As a child during World War II, Sophia Loren was struck in the chin by shrapnel while running for shelter during a bombing raid in Pozzuoli.

Her hometown, with its nearby harbor and munitions facilities, was repeatedly targeted during the war. Loren and her family sometimes sheltered from the bombing in a railway tunnel, and the shrapnel wound left her with a small scar on her chin.

It’s a sobering reminder of just how far Loren’s remarkable journey took her — from a childhood shaped by war and poverty to international movie stardom.

From homemade pageant dresses and childhood nicknames to Scrabble victories and a remarkable journey through wartime Italy, Sophia Loren’s life offscreen has been every bit as fascinating as her career on it.

Which fact surprised you most?

–Annmarie Gatti for Classic Movie Hub

Sources & Further Reading

Turner Classic Movies — Sophia Loren profiles and biographical features
Sophia Loren, Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow: My Life
Vanity Fair — profiles and interviews with Sophia Loren
TIME — “Movies Abroad: Much Woman”
ABC News/Good Morning America — Sophia Loren memoir feature

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Monsters and Matinees: The ‘big grasshopper movie’ Makes Me Feel Like a Kid Again

Posted on September 19, 2026 by Toni Ruberto

The ‘big grasshopper movie’ makes me feel like a kid again

In today’s on-demand world of streaming services, we feel like we can watch any movie with a click of a button. But that’s not true. There are always films that elude us despite our best efforts to find them.

For me, that’s Beginning of the End (1957). I was a kid when I first saw the awesomely titled sci-fi horror film that I call “the big grasshopper movie.” (The insects are called locusts and grasshoppers in it.) My obsession with big-bug flicks kept it among my favorites despite not seeing it for decades. I could picture the giant locusts scaling a skyscraper and soldiers trying to defeat them.

A lobby card for Beginning of the End has the memorable image of locusts on a skyscraper.

Those are the “good parts,” of course, the scenes we remember in creating our own personal highlight reel of film magic. Mine would also include a giant tarantula standing over a house (Tarantula), an octopus wrapping itself around the Golden Gate Bridge (It Came from Beneath the Sea) and human-sized crustaceans crunching victims within their claws (Attack of the Crab Monsters).

Those three well-known horror films are easy to find on television, streaming services and home video so I’ve seen them countless times. That’s not true for Beginning of the End. It’s been tops on my watch list for years, yet it’s remained elusive. Until now.

Two giant locusts walk along a Chicago street.

When it popped up recently on Tubi (a great place to find classic horror and sci-fi), I couldn’t believe my eyes! Finally, I could marvel at the giant locusts of my memories. But instead of hitting “play,” I hesitated.

Why? Have you ever revisited a childhood favorite, only to see how poorly it aged? We all have. Time can be cruel, especially to B-movies like those made by Bert I. Gordon, the director of Beginning of the End.

But when I saw it a few weeks later, I realized my memories didn’t let me down. I’m not saying it was great. It was exactly as expected: The effects weren’t good, stock footage was obvious and the story was predictable. Yet I can’t wait to watch it again because it’s everything fans of low budget creature features want.

Newspaper headlines playing up the drama are necessary for giant creature movies.

Beginning of the End is a quintessential example, filled with the B-movie tropes that make us fans. We get mysterious disappearances, newspaper headlines promising impending doom, an educational film to explain things and creatures running amok among civilians. There’s a well-meaning scientist (played by Peter Graves) whose experiments have created unexpected and dire consequences. And for the requisite familiar face, we get a bonus of three: Morris Ankrum, Thomas Browne Henry and James Seay who all once again play versions of military leaders as they do in other sci-fi films.

Best of all is a fantastic female lead character with brains, beauty and determination, rare in horror movies.

Here’s a bit about the story.

* * * * *

Peggy Castle is a highlight of the film playing a journalist seeking answers to deadly events. She uses her every advantage including a car phone in the 1957 movie.

Peggy Castle plays Audrey Aimes, a respected journalist with a reputation for being on the frontlines of news as it happens. She stumbles upon a roadblock outside the town of Ludlow, Ill., where there’s an unusual military presence. Her instincts tell her something is wrong even before her camera is confiscated.

That’s because the small town of Ludlow has been destroyed. Everything is crushed and mangled and all 150 inhabitants (plus animals) are missing without a trace. The curious Audrey won’t listen when she’s told to “go away,” instead she uses her investigative skills on a hunch that radiation could be involved.

Audrey (Peggy Castle) gets a close-up look at giant tomatoes and strawberries created by scientists Ed Wainwright (Peter Graves) and Frank Johnson (Than Wyenn).

At the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Illinois Experimental Station, she meets entomologist Ed Wainwright (Peter Graves) and botanist Frank Johnson (Than Wyenn), who lost his hearing after an accident. They are working to help farmers and to end world hunger, an altruistic endeavor we’ve seen with scientists in films like Tarantula and The Fly. The fruits of their labor – created with small doses of radiation – are evident in overgrown tomatoes and strawberries that are impressive in size but aren’t edible. (They’re working on it.) There’s also issues with pesky insects getting into everything. We know where this is going long before the scientists.

The trio visits a grain silo to investigate an earlier incident where a million barrels of wheat are missing and the silo looks like it was “hit by a battering ram from the inside.” As they ponder what could have done this, a chirping sound swells into an ear-splitting screech that poor deaf Frank can’t hear. He doesn’t stand a chance against the approaching danger.

Unable to save Frank, Ed and Audrey rush to warn others and return with 10 soldiers who make grasshopper jokes until they come face to “fron” with the overgrown insects. Retreat is the only option.

* * * * *

Peter Graves and Peggy Castle learn more disturbing details as the try to stop an onslaught of giant locusts in Beginning of the End.

“We may be witnessing the beginning of an era that will mean the complete annihilation of man – the beginning of the end,” Ed says in one of those dire statements that lend gravitas to these movies.

And with that proclamation, Ed and Audrey are off to Washington, D.C. to convince military leaders of the danger. They won’t believe it without proof which comes as the locusts descend on Chicago. Though the military is finally on high alert, it has never fought an enemy like this. Guns don’t work. Nor do tanks. Fire is ineffective. Industrial-strength pesticides specially made to combat the insects are useless. The desperate solution: drop an atom bomb on Chicago. Umm, let’s rethink that last idea for a minute.

B-movie fans can forgive a lot with these films, including low-budget special effects. There are indeed moments when they’re bad in Beginning of the End. Rear projection was used at times for the giant insects, sometimes making them translucent and blurry, especially in close-ups. Then there are scenes when real grasshoppers were filmed walking on photos to create the illusion they are on buildings. (That’s what you call creative thinking – and it doesn’t always look as bad as it sounds.)

In a scene reminiscent of a similar one in Tarantula, a peeping insect eyes up a young woman for dinner in Beginning of the End.

But there are other times when the insects are terrifying and you can believe – if just for a few seconds – that they really are 8 feet tall and coming at you. In those moments, the childhood magic remains through the spectacle of imagination.

A 1957 review in the Chicago Tribune called out the film’s shoestring budget. The “magnified insects” wouldn’t fool anyone, the reviewer wrote, “but youngsters will probably think it’s great stuff.”

That last sentence is true. I was a youngster when I first saw Beginning of the End years after its initial release and I thought it was “great stuff.” Thankfully that kid still lives inside of me.

Notes on Bert I. Gordon

When director, producer, writer and special effects maven Bert I. Gordon died in 2023, the headline on his New York Times obit fittingly referred to him as the “auteur of mutant monster movies.” From the 1950s through ‘70s, he was the creative force behind such low-budget sci-fi/horror films as King Dinosaur (1955), The Amazing Colossal Man (1957), The Spider (1957), Attack of the Puppet People (1958), Village of the Giants (1965), Food of the Gods (1976) and Empire of the Ants (1977). There’s a reason why the filmmaker was called Mr. B.I.G.

– Toni Ruberto for Classic Movie Hub

You can read all of Toni’s Monsters and Matinees articles here.

Toni Ruberto, born and raised in Buffalo, N.Y., is an editor and writer at The Buffalo News. She shares her love for classic movies in her blog, Watching Forever and is a member and former board chair of the Classic Movie Blog Association. Toni was the president of the former Buffalo chapter of TCM Backlot and led the offshoot group, Buffalo Classic Movie Buffs. She is proud to have put Buffalo and its glorious old movie palaces in the spotlight as the inaugural winner of the TCM in Your Hometown contest. You can find Toni on Facebook, Twitter (@toniruberto) and Bluesky (@watchingforever.bsky.social).

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Noir Nook: Anthony Mann at the Helm

Posted on September 17, 2026 by Karen Burroughs Hannsberry

Anthony Mann at the Helm

Several years ago, when I was a guest on a podcast, the hostess asked me to name my favorite film noir directors. I don’t know why, but I felt like a deer caught in the headlights, and my mind went completely blank – the only director I could even think of was Alfred Hitchcock! And no shade to Sir Alfred, who is definitely a favorite, I don’t exactly consider him to be a “film noir” director – although I certainly love his films like Strangers on a Train and Shadow of a Doubt.

If my brain hadn’t taken a coffee break in the middle of the interview, I’d have been able to come up with several names, including Fritz Lang (Scarlet Street, The Big Heat, Human Desire), Robert Siodmak (Criss Cross, Phantom Lady, Cry of the City), Billy Wilder (Double Indemnity, Sunset Blvd., Ace in the Hole), and Otto Preminger (Laura, Fallen Angel, Where the Sidewalk Ends).

But any list of the noir directors I love best would not be complete without the name of Anthony Mann, who specialized in the kind of low-budget features that were a hallmark of the classic film noir era. This month’s Noir Nook takes a look at three of my favorite Mann noirs.

The Great Flamarion (1945)

The Great Flamarion, Erich von Stroheim and Mary Beth Hughes
Erich von Stroheim and Mary Beth Hughes, The Great Flamarion

Actor-turned-director-turned-actor Erich von Stroheim stars in the title role as an expert marksman who headlines a popular act on an upscale vaudeville circuit. Flamarion is a hard-nosed loner who doesn’t suffer fools gladly, but he finds his world turned inside out when his married assistant (Mary Beth Hughes) gets tired of her hubby (Dan Duryea) and sets her sights on her boss.

The film was based on a short story fittingly titled “Big Shot,” by Vicki Baum, who wrote the 1929 novel, Menschen im Hotel, that became the hit MGM film Grand Hotel (1932). Although The Great Flamarion is seldom mentioned when discussing the era of shadows, it serves up a unique and engaging story and a veritable masterclass in film noir how-tos, including flashbacks, voiceover narration, a classic femme fatale, and enough interplay of shadows and light to satisfy any noir aficionado.

Interestingly, the film’s star reportedly was not a fan of the flashback framing and tried to convince the filmmakers to tell the story in a conventional linear fashion. Of further note is the fact that The Great Flamarion was produced by W. Lee Wilder, better known as William (Wilhelm) Wilder, and even better known as the older brother of director Billy Wilder (whose Christian name was Samuel, not William). Reportedly, Billy Wilder later accused his sibling of ripping off the Great Flamarion’s flashback device from Double Indemnity, directed by Billy the year before. Ah, family drama. You gotta love it.

Favorite quote: “The only excuse she could have had was death. Otherwise, she had double-crossed me.” – Flamarion

Desperate (1947)

Desperate, Raymond Burr
Raymond Burr, Desperate

This underrated gem has at its core a husband and wife desperately (if you will) trying to flee from a seemingly inescapable fate. Steve Brodie (in one of his few, and certainly his best, starring roles) plays Steve Randall, a hard-working truck driver with a magazine-perfect wife, Anne (Audrey Long), and a baby on the way. Life is just a bowl of cherries for Steve until he runs into an old pal from his childhood – Walt Radak (Raymond Burr). Radak offers Steve a sweet deal making a simple truck delivery, but the delivery turns out to be a robbery, the childhood reunion turns into a shootout with police, and when Walt’s kid brother winds up on death row, Steve and Anne discover the meaning of “getting the hell out of Dodge.”

Desperate was born from a 66-page treatment called “Flight,” penned by Mann and Dorothy Atlas (who apparently had no other writing credits, before or after this outing). The treatment was adapted by Harry Essex (an ex-newspaper reporter who would later write the screenplay for Kansas City Confidential [1952]), and additional dialogue was contributed by Martin Rackin (whose later credits included Loan Shark [1952], starring George Raft).

The film’s distinctive look was courtesy of cinematographer George E. Diskant, whose noir pedigree included Between Midnight and Dawn (1950), On Dangerous Ground (1951), and The Narrow Margin (1952). On Desperate, he created a number of standout visuals, including a scene where Walt Radak is viewed in a low-level shot through the slats of a wooden chair, and the film’s climax, which features an unforgettable spiral staircase shootout in a rundown apartment building.

Favorite quote: “I’m sorry I can’t give you a choice of food, Steve, but it won’t make much difference. You’re not going to live long enough to get any nourishment out of it.” – Walt Radak

Raw Deal (1948)

Raw Deal, Claire Trevor, Marsha Hunt, Dennis O'Keefe
Claire Trevor, Marsha Hunt, and Dennis O’Keefe, Raw Deal

Dennis O’Keefe – known as much for his roles in light comedies and action/adventure films as for crime dramas – stars here as Joe Sullivan, an escaped convict determined to collect his $50,000 share of a robbery from Rick Coyle (Raymond Burr, again), the underworld boss for whom Joe took the rap. But Joe soon discovers that he’s not only being pursued by the cops, but by the goons Coyle has sent to finish him off. Complicating matters is the fact that Joe is accompanied by Pat (Claire Trevor), the devoted, streetwise, girlfriend who aided him in his prison escape, and Ann (Marsha Hunt), the refined social worker who is igniting Joe’s growing feelings.

Raw Deal’s origin was a 62-page treatment called “Corkscrew Alley,” which was purchased by Poverty Row studio Eagle-Lion as a vehicle for Richard Basehart. Little of the original treatment remained after the property was taken over by producer Edward Small, who produced Anthony Mann’s gritty 1947 noir, T-Men. Credit for the finished product went to John C. Higgins – who would pen the screenplay for Mann’s Border Incident the following year – and Leopold Atlas, who’d earned an Oscar nomination for the 1945 war-time drama The Story of G.I. Joe – he lost to Billy Wilder and Charles Brackett for The Lost Weekend. (Sadly, Atlas would die of a heart attack in 1954 at the age of 46, a little more than a year after he testified as a cooperative witness before the House Un-American Activities Committee.)

The film’s cinematographer was famed cameraman John Alton, teamed here for his second of four films with Anthony Mann. He is credited for being one of the pioneers of the use of shadows and light in film noir and wrote the lighting guide Painting With Light in 1949. Alton’s distinctive touches can be seen throughout the film; my favorite comes near the end, when Pat is torn between sailing off into the sunset with Joe or risking her relationship by taking an action that will save Ann’s life – her conflict and the concomitant race against time are illustrated by Pat’s pensive profile juxtaposed against the face of a ticking clock. For my money, it’s one of the most memorable shots in all of noir.

Favorite quote: “What do you know about anything? You probably had your bread buttered on both sides since the day you were born. Safe. Safe on first, second, third, and home.” – Joe Sullivan

The next time you come across one of these Mann-directed noirs, treat yourself and check it out. You’ll be glad you did.

…

– Karen Burroughs Hannsberry for Classic Movie Hub

You can read all of Karen’s Noir Nook articles here.

Karen Burroughs Hannsberry is the author of the Shadows and Satin blog, which focuses on movies and performers from the film noir and pre-Code eras, and the editor-in-chief of The Dark Pages, a bimonthly newsletter devoted to all things film noir. Karen is also the author of two books on film noir – Femme Noir: The Bad Girls of Film and Bad Boys: The Actors of Film Noir. You can follow Karen on Twitter at @TheDarkPages.
If you’re interested in learning more about Karen’s books, you can read more about them on amazon here:

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Silver Screen Standards: Angel Face (1953)

Posted on September 10, 2026 by Jennifer Garlen

Angel Face (1953)

Classic film has no shortage of mean girls, but Angel Face (1953) offers a particularly dangerous teenage femme fatale in its title character, played with unhinged intensity by English actress Jean Simmons. The plot of this riveting story of obsession and murder has a lot in common with Leave Her to Heaven (1945), including the irony of invoking angels and Heaven in a tale about lies, violence, and insanity. It’s a bleak, shocking narrative, especially in its ending, which is about as noir as the genre can get, but watching the temptation and fall of Robert Mitchum as the anti-hero proves as morbidly fascinating as driving past the smoking chaos of a car wreck on the highway. Director Otto Preminger, who had previously made Laura (1944), Fallen Angel (1945), Whirlpool (1950), and Where the Sidewalk Ends (1950), is on home turf with this material, and the supporting cast includes familiar favorites like Herbert Marshall, Leon Ames, and Jim Backus, but Mitchum and Simmons are definitely the main draws thanks to the deeply dysfunctional chemistry of their bad romance.

Angel Face, Mona Freeman, Robert Mitchum
Mary (Mona Freeman) and her boyfriend, Frank (Robert Mitchum), are both working at a hospital when the story begins.

Mitchum stars as ambulance driver Frank Jessup, whose life becomes increasingly complicated when a late-night call brings him to the opulent home of the beautiful and very young Diane Tremayne (Jean Simmons). Diane immediately makes a play for Frank, and he goes out with her despite having a steady girlfriend, Mary (Mona Freeman), who also works at the hospital. When Frank becomes the chauffeur for Diane’s wealthy stepmother, Catherine (Barbara O’Neil), and her novelist father, Charles (Herbert Marshall), he begins to realize that Diane harbors both a powerful attachment to her father and an equal hatred for the stepmother she sees as an interloper. Every time he tries to break things off with Diane, however, fate prevents him from getting away.

Angel Face, Jean Simmons, Robert Mitchum dinner
Diane (Jean Simmons) seems fragile, but Frank’s size can’t protect him when he agrees to take her out.

The dangerous woman is, of course, a staple of noir, but I find the reversed power imbalance in Angel Face intriguing, especially as embodied by Simmons and Mitchum. Most of our iconic femme fatale characters are adult women who radiate power and confidence, but Diane Tremayne is just a kid, still nursing her childhood hurts and resentments and remembering things that happened when she was ten. Diane is a tiny, delicate creature, not yet twenty but made to seem more cultured and mature by her posh English accent, even as she sometimes almost skips in excitement when she’s running off to pursue Frank. Her ruthlessness and capacity for violence are aspects of childishness, not sophistication, as she imagines a Cinderella narrative for herself with Catherine as the wicked stepmother. She’s more lucky than clever in many of her efforts, but her luck runs out with Mary, who immediately sees through her act of viciousness couched as friendly concern and wisely disentangles herself from whatever is going on with Frank and Diane. Mary understands that Frank, a fully grown man with plenty of life experience and a serious girlfriend to boot, ought to have the power to resist a spoiled, selfish teenager, and only a deep-rooted weakness of character can explain his casual infidelity. In their scenes together, Frank towers over Diane, and she uses her apparent helplessness to get close to him, but her grip proves a lot tighter than he imagines. Frank thinks he can hang onto Mary and indulge his attraction to Diane, and later he thinks he can drop Diane and have Mary take him back, but he badly misjudges both women and ultimately has to pay for it.

Angel Face, Mona Freeman, Jean Simmons
Unlike Frank, Mary is smart enough to see through Diane’s schemes and refuse to get entangled.

Diane is absolutely dangerous to herself and everyone around her, but the film refuses to make her a straightforward villain, and that complexity also makes this noir stand out. Despite her lies and manipulation of others, she’s not really a psychopath. Her devotion to her father is genuine, and she proves capable of feeling tremendous remorse once she realizes the consequences of her actions. We see real character development and regret in Diane, which we actually don’t see in Frank, and perhaps it’s his lack of emotional intelligence that makes him blind to Diane’s despair. Frank doesn’t seem to love either Mary or Diane, and he certainly doesn’t understand their feelings. He wants both of them without committing to either and doesn’t realize they might have very different reactions to his fecklessness. Despite his stupidity and insensitivity, Frank isn’t really a villain, either, just a dope who can’t comprehend his own shortcomings. The film presents its real villains as the lawyers, especially Leon Ames as Diane’s defense attorney, Fred Barrett. The trial sequence is utterly cynical, proving that the legal system is about spectacle, power, and wealth, certainly not truth, and Barrett doesn’t care if his clients are guilty as long as he wins the case. Jim Backus has some good moments as the district attorney trying to prove that Frank and Diane are guilty, but we, the audience, know that his argument is only half right, and no matter how the trial ends justice cannot be served. Diane’s conscience might be wreaking havoc, but Barrett has no conscience and therefore can’t imagine that someone might not want to get away with murder. In Angel Face, the real psychopaths are the attorneys, and their decisions seal the protagonists’ fates more than anything else because they know better, are repeatedly told the truth, and still choose lies that serve their own interests instead. The bleakest scenes are those where Diane tries to do the right thing and thereby perhaps save both Frank and herself but is rebuffed by the condescending Barrett, who, we can assume, will never feel a shred of guilt for the consequences of his actions. That’s noir at its darkest, perhaps because we recognize its realism.

Angel Face, Jean Simmons, Robert Mitchum
Diane holds onto Frank even as he repeatedly tries to walk out.

For more of Robert Mitchum’s noir films, see Undercurrent (1946), Crossfire (1947), and Out of the Past (1947). Preminger and Mitchum worked together again on River of No Return (1954). Jean Simmons has memorable roles in Great Expectations (1946), Black Narcissus (1947), and Laurence Olivier’s 1948 adaptation of Hamlet, where her portrayal of Ophelia earned an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress. While Leon Ames is best remembered for playing fathers in films like Meet Me in St. Louis (1944) and Little Women (1949), he also plays an attorney in The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946). For the meanest of noir’s mean girls, it’s hard to beat Ann Blythe as Veda in Mildred Pierce (1945), but Janis Wilson makes quite an impression with her brief time as young Martha in The Strange Love of Martha Ivers (1946), and few young women could be more dangerously unhinged than Martha Vickers’ version of Carmen Sternwood in The Big Sleep (1946).

…

— Jennifer Garlen for Classic Movie Hub

Jennifer Garlen pens our monthly Silver Screen Standards column. You can read all of Jennifer’s Silver Screen Standards articles here.

Jennifer is a former college professor with a PhD in English Literature and a lifelong obsession with film. She writes about classic movies at her blog, Virtual Virago, and presents classic film programs for lifetime learning groups and retirement communities. She’s the author of Beyond Casablanca: 100 Classic Movies Worth Watching and its sequel, Beyond Casablanca II: 101 Classic Movies Worth Watching, and she is also the co-editor of two books about the works of Jim Henson.

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3 Fun Facts about The Big Sleep (1946)

Posted on August 31, 2026 by Annmarie Gatti

3 Fun Facts about The Big Sleep

Released on August 31, 1946, The Big Sleep stars Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall in one of classic Hollywood’s most famous film noirs.

Murder, mystery — and one famously complicated plot! Here are three fun facts about The Big Sleep…

The Big Sleep

1. Even Raymond Chandler Couldn’t Solve the Mystery!

Did You Know? According to director Howard Hawks, he and Humphrey Bogart couldn’t figure out who killed chauffeur Owen Taylor — so they asked author Raymond Chandler. Chandler reportedly admitted that he didn’t know either!

2. The Film Was Finished — Then Changed a Year Later

Did You Know? The Big Sleep was originally completed in early 1945, but additional scenes and retakes were filmed nearly a year later. The changes gave Bogart and Bacall more screen time together, and the revised version became the film released in 1946.

3. That Famous Horse-Racing Scene Wasn’t in the Original Version!

Did You Know? Bogart and Bacall’s famously suggestive horse-racing conversation wasn’t in the original 1945 version of The Big Sleep. The scene was added during the 1946 changes to give the pair more of the flirtatious chemistry audiences had loved in To Have and Have Not.

Which fact surprised you most?

–Annmarie Gatti for Classic Movie Hub

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Western RoundUp: Lone Pine Film Festival 2026 Preview

Posted on August 30, 2026 by Laura Grieve

Lone Pine Film Festival 2026 Preview

It’s hard to believe it, but it’s time for a preview of the 36th Lone Pine Film Festival!

Lone Pine Film Festival 2026 Poster

This year’s festival takes place in Lone Pine, California, from October 8th through 11th, 2026.

Countless movies were filmed in the Alabama Hills outside Lone Pine, and Lone Pine is also the home of the Museum of Western Film History.

Museum of Western Film History

The 2026 festival theme is “Mixing the Herd – A Corral of Movie Genres.”  There’s a little bit of everything on the schedule at this year’s festival! 

As always, the festival celebrates Westerns in general and movies filmed in Lone Pine in particular; as hinted by the festival theme, this year also features a particularly diverse lineup, including sci-fi and crime films, silents, and comedies along with traditional Westerns.

Movie Road Sign

Classic Westerns filmed in Lone Pine’s Alabama Hills which will be shown at this year’s festival include:

*A restoration of Frontier Days (1934) starring Bill Cody

*The Hopalong Cassidy film Renegade Trail (1939), which includes a glimpse of the “Hoppy Cabin” outside Lone Pine

Renegade Trail Poster

*Rawhide (1951) starring Tyrone Power and Susan Hayward

*7 Men From Now (1956) starring Randolph Scott, Gail Russell, and Lee Marvin

Additional classic-era Westerns to be screened include:

*The silent Hoot Gibson film The Texas Streak (1926), with live musical accompaniment by J.C. Munns

Texas Streak Poster

*Spoilers of the Forest (1957), starring Rod Cameron; his son Tony will be on hand to introduce a restoration of the film.

*The Proud Rebel (1956) with costar David Ladd on hand to discuss the film and his father, the movie’s star, Alan Ladd

Proud Rebel Poster 1

Another very interesting restoration to be shown this year is Army Girl (1938), which filmed in several Lone Pine locations.  The movie, which stars Preston Foster and Madge Evans, was Republic Pictures’ most expensive film to that point in company history.  It received three Oscar nominations, including for Best Cinematography.

Army Girl Poster

One of the most notable scenes in Army Girl involves a tank going over a stone wall. That wall, seen in this photo, still exists in the Alabama Hills and can be seen on one of this year’s movie location tours. 

Army Girl Wall
Army Girl Wall

“Newer” movies to be shown this year include Sunset (1988), which will be introduced by costar Mariel Hemingway.  Sunset features Bruce Willis and James Garner as cowboy star Tom Mix and real-life law enforcement legend Wyatt Earp.

Sunset Poster

Also on the schedule will be Road House (1989), introduced by costar Kelly Lynch.  Lynch will also be presenting The Oyler House (2014), a documentary about her Lone Pine home, which was designed by famed architect Richard Neutra.  It’s a wonderful chance to learn about a unique piece of Lone Pine history.

Oyler House

Films with unusual Western settings screening at this year’s festival include:

*7 Faces of Dr. Lao (1964) with Tony Randall

*Valley of the Gwangi (1969) with James Franciscus

*Shanghai Noon (2000) starring Jackie Chan.

These fun films help illustrate the expansive nature of the Western genre.

As always, there will be location tours for some of the films listed above, including Rawhide. Below is a shot of Tyrone Power and Susan Hayward filming Rawhide in the Alabama Hills.

Rawhide Filming Lone Pine
Tyrone Power and Susan Hayward filming Rawhide in the Alabama Hills.

Additional 2026 location tour themes will include a sunrise photography tour, a tour of the Bar 20 ranch, Gene Autry and Lone Ranger locations, the serial Jungle Raiders (1945), and unique Lone Pine locations such as the Mobius Ravine and Owens River.

There are also tours focused on photographer Ansel Adams’ legendary work in Lone Pine and at Manzanar.  The Manzanar National Historic Site is approximately 10 miles north of Lone Pine on Highway 395.

Lone Pine Manzanar 2026

There are also three horseback movie location tours guided by my husband Doug.  Below is a photo from one of his past tours.

Lone Pine Horseback Tour

Additional festival activities include the annual opening night barbecue and closing campfire, the Sunday afternoon celebrity parade on Main Street, and a nondenominational “Cowboy Church” service at Spainhower Anchor Ranch.

Lone Pine Anchor

Scheduled 2026 festival guests not already mentioned above include Diamond Farnsworth, Wyatt McCrea, Rudy Ramos, Darby Hinton, Alan K. Rode, Marc Wanamaker, C. Courtney Joyner, and Jay Dee Witney.

Lone Pine Sunrise 2026

It’s going to be another wonderful year at the Lone Pine Film Festival, and I hope some of my readers will join us!

Lone Pine Film Festival 2026 Banner

I invite anyone interested in visiting the film festival – or learning more about Lone Pine’s significant movie history — to check out my past Western RoundUp columns on this subject which are linked below.

Lone Pine movie locations: 2018, 2019, 2021, 2022, 2023, and 2024.

Lone Pine Film Festival: 2019, 2020, 2021, 2023, 2024, and 2025.

For more information, please visit the Museum of Western Film History and Lone Pine Film Festival websites.

The Lone Pine photographs accompanying this article are from the author’s personal collection.

…

– Laura Grieve for Classic Movie Hub

Laura can be found at her blog, Laura’s Miscellaneous Musings, where she’s been writing about movies since 2005, and on Twitter at @LaurasMiscMovie. A lifelong film fan, Laura loves the classics including Disney, Film Noir, Musicals, and Westerns.  She regularly covers Southern California classic film festivals.  Laura will scribe on all things western at the ‘Western RoundUp’ for CMH.

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Monsters and Matinees: Double the Barbara Steele adds layers to the horror of ‘The Long Hair of Death’

Posted on August 30, 2026 by Toni Ruberto

Double the Barbara Steele adds layers to the horror of ‘The Long Hair of Death’

The Long Hair of Death is a movie title that sparks the imagination.

How will it fulfill the glorious promise of its title? Perhaps as a variation of Medusa with exceedingly long snakes for hair? Or a darker version of Rapunzel where lethal tresses wrap so tightly around a person, they squeeze them to death? Think of those visuals!

No, nothing like that. While the 1964 Italian horror film has an abundance of long hair, it isn’t used in the way my overactive imagination envisioned it. Instead, it speaks to the women of the Karnstein family – mother Adele and her daughters Helen and Lisabeth – whose beauty is magnified by their gorgeous long, black hair.

By playing two roles, Barbara Steele doubles the appeal of The Long Hair of Death.

That’s not to say there isn’t any “hair horror,” however. A particularly effective scene finds a character who is confused over what’s real or a dream, is jolted – along with the viewer – to see he is clutching a fistful of hair. It is a chilling moment of the highest level.

Much of the terror is found in its barbaric 15th century setting and the assortment of horror elements that come with it: witchcraft, curses, murder, a giant castle with scary hidden passageways, and wicked men who forcibly take whatever – or whomever – they desire.

Halina Zalewska also plays two roles in The Long Hair of Death. At left, she is Adele, a mother being unfairly burned to death. She appears later as her now-adult daughter, Lisabeth, who has been forced to marry the Count’s ruthless son, Kurt.

The best reason to watch is Barbara Steele who plays two roles, doubling the reasons to watch: Helen and a visitor named Mary. (Her hair is magnificent, BTW.) Also performing double duty is Polish actress Halina Zalewska as Adele and later the adult version of her daughter Lisabeth. Their performances are necessary in making the film ultimately work especially because it doesn’t always.

It’s an uneven movie that is too long at times, then frazzled at others. The version I watched is dubbed, which makes it look cheaper than its low budget. The fast-paced opening throws the viewer right into the action, which is good, but then it languishes after making its point about the evilness of certain characters when it should move on and, dare I say, get to the good stuff.

Helen (Barbara Steele) pleads with Count Humboldt (Giuliano Raffaelli) to save her mother, unaware he is behind what’s happening.

The Long Hair of Death (I Lunghi Capelli Della Morte) opens with Helen frantically searching for Count Humboldt to save her mother, Adele, who is accused of being a witch. Helen doesn’t know he ordered her mother’s death for refusing his advances. He has no intention of saving Adele, only of forcing himself on Helen. Outside the castle, little Lisabeth watches her mother being burned alive much to the sick pleasure of the count’s son Kurt (played by Italian actor George Ardisson).

Creepy Kurt (George Ardisson) stands near the child Lisabeth, who he will force to marry him in just a few years. As Lisabeth cries over her mother’s death, she strokes her long black hair in a gesture she repeats throughout the movieh.

As she is dying, Adele vows to haunt the elder count and his family and promises a plague across the land. It’s a wonderful set up for the rest of the film, isn’t it? As a plague ravishes the area, the count unravels and murders again to hide his sins.

Years pass and Lisabeth grows up in the castle mourning the deaths of her mother and sister. She has allies in the maid Grimaldi and a priest who have been by her side for years. She needs their help as creepy Kurt lusts for her. It’s unsettling to watch this guy, whose angelic beauty is belied by his evil soul, threaten Lisabeth. He not only craves her, but also his father’s power, wealth and kingdom. He’ll do anything to have it all.

And like his father, Kurt will never be satisfied. He spent years waiting for Lisabeth to become a woman but falls in lust at first sight when a mysterious dark-haired beauty arrives (also played by Steele). He is deaf and blind to the warning bells that this woman looks eerily like someone he used to know. But we see the resemblance.

Her name is Mary and though she initially fights off Kurt’s advances – “adultery is punishable by death,” she reminds him – the two quickly “rendezvous” on a regular basis with Lisabeth all but forgotten.

Despite the support of Mary (one of two roles played by Barbara Steele), Kurt (George Ardisson) starts to fall apart under the strain of his evil deeds.

Thus, the film springs to life with the possibility of where the story is going. The tension increases to the point where I was sitting on the edge of my couch. (That’s my measurement of a good horror film.)  Kurt is consumed by his lust for Mary and his need to get Lisabeth out of the way while also descending into the same type of paranoid madness that destroyed his father. Underscoring the intensity is the ominous music of composer Carlo Rustichelli. As the film progresses, the already eerie score often scales down to an unnerving, two-note motif.

At first, Mary’s familiar face makes it feel obvious where the story will go. But her actions sow doubt since she’s all-in with hunky Kurt no matter what he does. So, what’s really going on here? Who is an innocent? And who deserves punishment? Will the Karnstein women have their revenge? This uncertainty and the mounting dread kept me engrossed until the satisfying finale.

This may not be one of Barbara Steele’s best-known films, but she is luminescent in it. It was the second of two movies she made for director Antonio Margheriti (Castle of Blood was the first), who suffered unfair comparisons to Mario Bava. Taken on its own, The Long Hair of Death is a moody and satisfying Italian Gothic horror film.

– Toni Ruberto for Classic Movie Hub

You can read all of Toni’s Monsters and Matinees articles here.

Toni Ruberto, born and raised in Buffalo, N.Y., is an editor and writer at The Buffalo News. She shares her love for classic movies in her blog, Watching Forever and is a member and board chair of the Classic Movie Blog Association. Toni was the president of the former Buffalo chapter of TCM Backlot and led the offshoot group, Buffalo Classic Movie Buffs. She is proud to have put Buffalo and its glorious old movie palaces in the spotlight as the inaugural winner of the TCM in Your Hometown contest. You can find Toni on Twitter at @toniruberto or on Bluesky at @watchingforever.bsky.social

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