Poe's The Raven

Published today in 1845, The Raven is an immortal classic so beautifully lyric, full of darkness and mystery, profound loneliness, sadness, grief, longing and color. The effect of the poem on the reader depends on the reader's state of mind at the time of the reading, life experiences and what you happen to be paying attention to at the time. If you're enjoying each word, letting each word roll around in your brain before going on to the next, the enjoyment lasts that much longer. 

Sometimes certain words or images seem to attract your attention more than others. A few years later when you read the poem again, your mind in a different state, as your life has moved along to a different place than the place you were at the time of the previous reading, you might get something more or different out of it. Perhaps the words that affected you so keenly during the previous reading don't have any affect at all, but others become more relevant to your present state.

As I read the poem today on its anniversary of publication, I found myself noting the colors. Purple curtains, raven ebony, velvet-violet. The colors combined with the darkness outside the chamber door, the darkness of the night, the shadow of the raven on the floor, the burning of the soul, the burning of the lamp, seem like a luxurious contrast of Victorian opulence with darkness and heat, yet the speaker's state of mind is that of fear, grief, loneliness and sadness. 

Did you have to read this as a kid in school? I remember it being assigned somewhere around seventh grade. What is a seventh grader going to have in common with this poem? I'm sure the school was trying to acquaint the students with classic literature. All I remember is how weird it was that a bird flew in the guy's window and perched in his room and only said one word!

Richard Chase: The Vampire of Sacramento

According to History.com, today is the anniversary of the 1978 murders of Evelyn Miroth, Miroth's 6-year-old son and Daniel Meredith by the serial killer nicknamed "The Vampire of Sacramento." The Wikipedia article on Richard Chase also claims Chase murdered Miroth's 22-month-old nephew during the killing spree. After learning about this guy, the medical society as well as the justice  people should have been using him as an example to keep the psychiatric hospitals open instead of closing them down. 

This guy was a prime example of total psychos not being able to follow doctor's orders regarding daily medication schedules. Not even a close relative should be given the responsibility of making sure the nut takes his meds. He was totally out of touch with any hint of reality making everyone within his immediate vicinity a potential victim and putting them in extreme danger. He never should have been let out of the psych hospital. Apparently, a doctor felt he was tamed enough to re-enter society. Maybe he just didn't have health insurance.

Chase was like the modern day Elizabeth Bathory covering himself in his victims' blood (mostly women's blood) and mutilating the women's corpses. Chase mutilated his victims after killing them, where legend has it Bathory mutilated her victims before killing them. At least when they were finally brought to justice, they were locked up permanently. 

This guy is one of the most creepiest of creepers. It gave me the creeps reading about him and it's surprising that I don't remember hearing about him before, even though he's been portrayed or at least mentioned on TV and in movies. Or maybe he was so freaky I mentally blocked him out of my memory!

Penny Dreadful: Season One

I like the mysterious darkness of this show, especially set in the Victorian era. I'm still three episodes shy of seeing all of Season One of Penny Dreadful. However, after seeing most of Season One, I can tell that eventually every main character on the show must have sex with every other main character on the show. The only downside of this show is all the time wasted on sex scenes that have little or nothing to do with the story. Sometimes it seems like whenever two characters are alone in a room, they are bound to have sex. 

Vanessa's poor mother dropped dead on the spot when she walked into Vanessa's room while she was having sex with an invisible (to her anyway) demon. Now, that sex scene actually contributed to the story. Obviously, Dorian has sex with most everyone he meets, but why is Ethan having sex with Dorian? Why is that even in the story? Must be because they were the only ones who happened to be in the room. 

Frankenstein, his monster and Sembene are the only ones who haven't had sex on screen yet. That must occur during the final three episodes of the season.

Penny Dreadful: The Seance

Taking advantage of the free Showtime weekend on Hulu, I watched the first two episodes of Penny Dreadful. In the second episode, Vanessa (Eva Green) does some channeling during a parlor seance at a party. The medium who was hired to conduct the seance is even shocked at the anger and malevolence that flows forth from the beautiful, reserved Vanessa and when Vanessa climbs up onto the table and the evil spirit contorts her body into unnatural positions, the party fun is over.

Eva Green is such a great performer, it was a thrill to behold the frightening scene. I've blogged about her in the past, but here's a nice excuse to talk about her some more! I'm going to have to buy the DVD's because I'm not adding Showtime to my Hulu account even though it is only $8.99 a month. It is a good deal considering all of the good movies and original series that Showtime has to offer. But there are already too many tempting movies and TV shows on Hulu that would take me three lifetimes to watch! Why add more?

I am looking forward to catching up with the rest of Penny Dreadful. It's a hauntingly creepy show with beautiful costumes, great scenery and Eva Green.

Highlander III: The Final Dimension (1994)

Thankfully, Highlander III (also titled The Sorcerer as well as The Final Dimension) is a much better sequel to the original Highlander movie than Highlander II: The Quickening. In fact, I'm pretty sure in the 90s I mentally deleted Highlander II from the series once Highlander III was released. However, my memory didn't retain the details of the third movie any better than it did the second, no matter how much better the third movie was. It was more than twenty years ago, so I consider that's an acceptable memory lapse. 

On the other hand, Highlander III was almost too much like Highlander with the wild chase scene where in the original movie The Kurgan (Clancy Brown) terrorizes his kidnapped victim with his game of traffic chicken. In the third movie Kane (Mario Van Peebles) also terrorizes his kidnapped victim with the same exact tactics. Both victims are MacLeod's most cherished loved ones, which logically makes them the number one victims of choice for the villains. 

Also, both movies end with Connor MacLeod (Christoper Lambert) returning to his native Scotland with his newly acquired lover who happily sacrifices her life and career to live out the rest of her days with MacLeod who has won The Prize and can now age and die naturally. The only difference in the third movie is he has an adopted son who makes the family a threesome. 

While the second movie was nothing like the first and was a mixed up mess of a movie, the third, although much better in regard to plot and logical composition, was almost too representative of the original movie. However, I'm thankful that the third movie was created to raise my Highlander appreciation back up to the level it was after seeing the original movie.

Highlander II: The Quickening (1991)

Other than the fact that Christopher Lambert (Connor MacLeod) and Sean Connery (Ramirez) returned in their roles as immortals and the story continued the prophecy that "there can be only one," Highlander II really had nothing to do with the original Highlander movie. 

Instead of a sword and sorcery legend of a reluctant hero like the original movie, Highlander II was more science fiction with way more fiction than science. In fact, the story seemed like it was devised by someone who never paid attention in science class and written by someone who never learned the fundamentals of composition. I know I watched this movie once in the early 90s when it was released on VHS, but I barely remember any of it except the first two immortals sent to Earth to do away with MacLeod and General Katana (Michael Ironside) as the villain.

The story didn't make much sense and the plot kept going off in weird directions that kept making me wonder if I'd dozed off and missed something important that tied one scene to another. 

One good thing about this movie is that it was still, in my opinion, an 80s movie with 80s costumes, hair and make-up and clicking computer keyboards. It had the atmosphere and qualities of an 80s B movie where the aliens fell to Earth speaking in English pop cultural quips and everyone was Christian, even the aliens. Katana tells MacLeod that he'd fight him, but they are in a place of worship and a rule of the immortals is no fighting on sacred ground.  Virginia Madsen (Louise Marcus) was the head of a scientific corporation but every scene she was in portrayed her as a sex object who used her good looks, not her intellect, to get her way. 

I don't think I'd bother watching this movie again since there are much better Highlander movies to see instead.

Highlander (1986)

The concept of the immortals in the movie Highlander is a unique one. The ideas of The Gathering, that there can be only one and the Prize are pretty cool. Having an immortal subculture mysteriously among us for hundreds, if not thousands, of years is a cool fantasy as well. Of course, the swordsmanship and the flashbacks to medieval Scotland add to the romance and mystical fantasy that sets a tone of wonder accompanying the competitive male physical power and fearlessness that inevitably leads to the grand finale when there truly remains only one. 

In addition to being a great swordsman and an honest and moral man, Connor Macleod (Christoper Lambert) suffers inwardly as he sacrifices his desire for love, family and companionship while he keeps his secret of being immortal and patiently waits for The Gathering where he'll be forced to fight the other immortals. 

There's some pretty cool animation, not to mention costumes, during the fight scene between Connor's 2,000 year old mentor, Ramirez (Sean Connery) and his arch enemy The Kurgan (Clancy Brown) . Sections of rock wall fall away with blows from Kurgan's sword until the two are left atop a high steep stairway of stone. There are also some drawn graphic images flashing in succession as Connor endures The Quickening and all ancient knowledge of mankind is funneled into his head. 

Apparently, wisdom, love, honor and being able to die a natural death surrounded by family is the ultimate prize. My question is whether the remake is ever going to be made?

Behind Green Lights (1946)

Silence, the dark of night and a corpse delivered to the police station in a mysteriously gliding car. The only sound on the street is the tires rolling on the wet pavement until the curb brings the car to a stop; then silence. The car is as dead as its occupant. That's where the mystery begins for the police led by Lieutenant Carson (William Gargan) in Behind Green Lights.

Silence and the dark are so creepy! Almost as creepy as the darkness that can be found in some sleazy people who are low-life snakes, victimizing others for their own gain. The mysteries in the darkness, the immoral or even criminal people creating the mysteries and the decent people looking for justice and truth can be found in the film noir movies of the 1940s and 1950s. 

Behind Green Lights is a free movie from the Internet Archive and is definitely worth seeing. The story was good with plot twists and an unpredictable ending, and also just for the darkness and creepiness as scenes take place in the dank depths of the city morgue, a corpse is stuffed into a closet and. of course, the driver-less car rolling down the street with a corpse on the front seat.

Dark Shadows: Interrupted Voyage, Continued

That Barnabas Collins is so clever! I was afraid he was doomed to burn at the stake, mistaken for a demon from hell by the blood thirsty residents of Salem, but he not only saved himself, but the soul of an innocent man trapped under an evil witch's spell.

 As I mentioned in a previous post,  I received Interrupted Voyage for Christmas which is a 2012 reprint of the original Dark Shadows Digest book published by Hermes Press, written by D. J. Arneson and illustrated by Joe Certa. The original was published in 1970 by Gold Key Comics.

Calandra, a witch who is extremely expert in the practice of black magic has taken the fiance of Annabella, a distant cousin of Barnabas' as her slave in Salem, Massachusetts, while poor Annabella's ghost haunts Collinwood waiting for her fiance to die and join her. Her sad story lures Barnabas into volunteering to help her find her fiance, Michael, and free his soul from the evil witch.

The display of powers Calandra uses during the story are pretty cool, yet evil. She casts spells that enslaves Michael, that show her Barnabas' past as a vampire and even brings Angelique back to Salem as a weapon to kill Barnabas. Of course, Barnabas outwits Calandra and barely escapes Angelique to bring the story to a happy ending.

Dark Shadows: Interrupted Voyage

http://www.amazon.com/Dark-Shadows-Original-Series-Digest/dp/1613450192

For Christmas I received this book which is a 2012 reprint of the original Dark Shadows Digest book published by Hermes Press, written by D. J. Arneson and illustrated by Joe Certa. The original was published in 1970 by Gold Key Comics. I've just finished Chapter Eighteen of the twenty four chapter book and it's a really good story starring Barnabus Collins. He's not a vampire at the time of the story, but he's in constant fear of Angelique popping back into his life and reimposing the dreaded curse.

I'm hoping she eventually turns up in the story which takes place in Salem, Massachusetts. Being Salem, there is an evil witch in the story who already has plans to destroy Barnabus in self-defense as he tries to help his distant ghost of a cousin, Annabella free her fiance's soul from the witch's possession so they can be together in the afterlife.

Although it's not looking very promising for Barnabus as the suspicious and superstitious townspeople don't like his looks and are planning to burn him at the stake as an unwelcome stranger who they assume must be Satan! Talk about jumping to conclusions. Apparently, the people of Salem weren't as welcoming to tourists and strangers as they are now!

A Life At Stake (1954)

A Life At Stake is the first movie on a list of free Film Noir movies on Open Culture's list of free Film Noir Movies  starring a young beautiful Angela Lansbury as the femme fatale, Doris Hillman, Keith Andes as Edward Shaw the hunky down-on-his-luck builder and Douglass Dumbrille as Doris' much older but very wealthy husband, Gus Hillman. Doris Hillman, with the aid of her husband's money, partners herself with Shaw in a real estate development plan, but only if Shaw takes out a hefty life insurance policy.  There's some pretty intense face sucking and body clutching as the affair between Doris and Edward begins almost at first sight. Of course, that's how she suckers him into the shady business deal that he's suspicious of from the start.

When the Hillmans' cold greedy plot to knock off Shaw for his life insurance policy becomes known to Doris' "kid sister" Madge (Claudie Barrett) who is crushing big time on Edward Shaw, Madge becomes his savior when she foils her sister and brother-in-law's plot and brings in the law, but not until Shaw saves himself with his life-learned sense of paranoia. It's not the first time he's been screwed by a business associate!

One of the things I love about film noir besides the dark seedy grittiness of it all is how love affairs are portrayed. Obviously, sex scenes were not allowed in mainstream movies until more recent decades, so a lot was left to the viewers' imagination. There's a lot of desperately passionate kissing, clutching and innuendo that is severely lacking in modern day movies where pretty much everything but actual penetration is shown up front and personal where sex isn't just casual, it's just part of an average day. Ho-hum. Physical mechanics are no substitute for the artful portrayals of deep longing, passionate glances and the sad downward looks of unrequited lust amidst a cloud of cigarette smoke that occur in film noir movies.