Here's another fun Super 8 find, a rare version of a silly 1950's British sci-fi horror comedy starring Bela Lugosi. Originally titled, Mother Riley Meets the Vampire, it all concerns Bela's madcap attempt at taking over the world with killer robots, or something (ehh, you can read more about HERE.) Anyway, the 60's Super 8 version I now possess becomes, "My Son the Vampire", which is just one of many mind boggling US re-titles (see also: Vampire Over London, and Dracula's Desire!) The box art though contains a truly fantastic United Arista illustration that is seriously a million times better, and definitely way more atmospheric than the actual mundane movie. Bela also makes it into the design on the back of the Super 8 box, and just for fun I added a few of the film title cards featuring a cool, 60's greeting card style illustration. If you're still interested in any of this, you can watch the condensed Super 8 version of My Son the Vampire HERE, or just watch the entire film HERE! You have been exhaustedly warned though!
I had seen that movie on Youtube, it is one more example of the poster being far better and far scarier than the movie. While Bela always did his best in any film he was in, even he couldn't save this Titanic turkey of a flick.
ReplyDeleteIt is a shame that Lugosi, Chaney Jr. and Karloff ended up in low budget B- films at the end of their careers. Luckily Lee and Cushing escaped that fate.
I love how the back of the box advertises "horror films" AND "monsters." I mean, who'd be brave enough to see a horror film WITH monsters?
ReplyDeleteThe illustration is great; I love the dripping effect around the big head (which looks less like Lugosi then the illustration on the back) and the woman who looks like she sneaking away from the house after tp-ing it.
But the best picture is the movie's title card. That's got a great style.
Yeah, the title card is fabulous. And, well, makes the movie look like the comedy it is. I love the cover here, but it's a bit of unconscionable advertising, too. It makes the movie look like a sixties gothic romance paperback. And wouldn't that have been nice?
ReplyDeleteI wonder what happened to those great gothic romance paperback cover blogs I designed banners for nearly two decades ago? They all seem to have vanished into the shadowy mists of time...
ReplyDeleteThey all seem to have vanished...
ReplyDeleteWell that's a shame. The heyday of the gift economy was a golden age; people creating and sharing art and articles just for the love of it. That era between the fall of listserves and Yahoo! Groups and before the rise of social networks. Such a heady time. We'll never have an internet that smart, that ad-free, and that ungoverned ever again.
I thought Lugosi's last Vampire appearance was in Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein 1948. Glad to see I was wrong.
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