Barry and 'B' movies

[Fi]

I had the idea of starting a sister website for 'B' movies.

Barry loved 'B' movies and as it happens, so do I.
So, they are reasonably cheap to buy and I already have "Zombies of Mora Tau" and "The Beast of Yucca Flats" with Tor Johnson.

As Barry wrote an article on Tor. I thought it might be of interest to see a clip of his work as well, so why not use the technology to get a brief clip from the films I have. This is a relatively new idea for me and I have still to think of a design, background, scary graphics etc. etc.

[linda]

Oh awesome. My sister and I were raised on the B-movies my parents loved and grew up with. Dad loved horror and sci fi and I always thought my household was alone in the snoring, square, small, uptight towns I lived in. Apparently a beautiful boy in San Jose and my lovely best friend were raised the same. They're so much fun and I have some dvds you might like for the website.

[linda]

"Zombies of Mora Tau"?

Alison Hayes ruuuules!!!!!!!

[linda]

Attack of the Giant Leeches is truly one of my mum's fav B-movies. I think her favorite is "The Thing" I love 'Leeches' too. My but they drank an army load of coffee in it, lol. What a funny and fun film. I didn't think the leeches looked THAT bad, no really. They were actually scary to me. Loved Bruno VeSota! Big Roger Corman player I think. Yvette Vickers was in Allison Hayes' "Attack of the 50 Foot Woman"

[linda]

"Attack of the Giant Ants"

-from a BIG Blondie fan

[roberta]

Hmmmmmmm: some of the real horror movies aren't categorized as such, but they're horrifying, nevertheless, given the story line; sometimes reality is more terrifying than phantasy. (I'm thinking of "Three Days of the Condor" and the "The F.B.I. Murders.")

However, there are two B-movies that come to mind: one of them eerie and unsettling, the other - downright grisly.

The first is a 1962 movie called "Carnival of Souls", and it is unnerving. it is about a young woman who survives an auto accident (the car she is in plunges into a river) and is drawn to a deserted carnival, which features episodes of couples (who are actually corpses) twirling around the dance floor of a pavilion in a haunting Totentanz. (The film's end is formulaic - almost predictable, but nevertheless, something of a shock.)

The second movie is an 1973 Australian production that should probably be viewed in the daytime, in a well-lighted room: "Don't Go Near The Basement." It is about a young nurse who is newly employed at a private psychiatric institution by the new head psychiatrist, a woman doctor named Dr. Geraldine Masters, who took over after the founder of the institution, a Dr. Stephens, was found murdered.

And the murders continue - the more, the grislier; the surprise ending, though, is the real corker.
Definitely NOT for the weak of heart - or stomach.

Then, there are old standards: "The Tingler" (implausible) and "The Creature from the Black Lagoon." (Kids love it.) But some of the more "upscale" (for want of a better word) horror films might be: "Berserk" (with Joan Crawford, who has an "axe" to grind - literally - with an errant mate and his girlfriend); "Psycho" (Tony Perkins, the incomparable Norman Bates); "Hush, Hush, Sweet Charlotte" (About an aging Southern belle, equal parts magnolias and homicidal mania); "What Ever Happened to Baby Jane" (definitive Grand Guignol), and last, but not least: "The Birds" (which explains why I hate pigeons.)

However, three other movies come to mind as being of the horror genre, and all of them
German: "Nosferatu" (1922), a silent classic based upon the Dracula legend; "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari" (1920), another silent about a spooky little doctor and a murderous somnambulist,
Cesare, that he keeps in a box; and finally, "M" (1931), (with the ever unnerving Peter Lorre),
who plays a deranged serial child-killer (and based upon the true story of Peter Kuerten, the
"Vampire of Duesseldorf", who was beheaded in 1932 after being convicted of nine murders.

Given the fact that Barry Brown loved movie esoterica, I wonder if he ever saw the three last-named pictures, and what his impression would have been?

[Fi]

Roberta,
Thank you for joining this and you certainly know your movies.

Given Barry was a huge film buff who also loved to read (I believe he had an huge library in his home) I still wonder if he'd lived, how large his personal film collection would have been. If you've managed to read "our questions to Barry" the one page Wayne gave (in the articles section) about 1971 I think - Barry did sort of 'predict' home entertainment, when at that time few people even had colour tvs (speaking for Brits, don't know about the rest of the world).

It's unfortunate Barry's tv work is rarely shown, never here in the UK and on the strength of his film work it's likely most fans will find him through either BAD COMPANY or DAISY MILLER, both extremely underrated films (even Jeff Bridges' fans don't know about BC and given his career record, not surprising, it's just one of Jeff's early works, which he probably doesn't recall offhand, who knows).

I'm still convinced Barry could become well-known through his writing, which is why I plan to start on the other website tribute to his memory. I thought long and hard about it, came up with a few ideas, one of which was British horror films and the true stories behind them, starting off with Boris Karloff/Bela Lugosi "The Body Snatcher" loosely based on Edinburgh's Burke and Hare or Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, again Robert Louis Stevenson based the story on William Deacon Brodie, a respected citizen from the city of Edinburgh, but I scrapped the idea because the UK doesn't have a huge film industry and I'd have ended up with the Hammer Productions.

So, given the UK doesn't really know enough about 'b' movies, to my mind they were shown when I was growing up, but only the well-known ones "Attack of the 50-foot Woman" was always a late-night favourite. I shall concentrate my efforts on those, from the British side. I have a few surprises in store I can't let on about at the moment and I'm very much going into this with cold feet, but I hope it works. When I started Barry's career tribute on the website I never thought that would work and it did.

I won't ever give up on Barry.

Thanks for joining me Roberta,
from a quite normal mother/wife/working woman who is also a film buff.

Fi

[RSC]

Dear Fiona:

Thank you for giving Barry's fans this wonderful forum.

Now you've really got me hooked; Barry had a large library?
How many books - does anyone know? (Frankly, my parents
had about 10,000 crammed into a relatively small house (I had about 5,000 of my own, but mostly paperbacks.)

I now live in a pocket-sized abode, but I still manage to have about 500 at my disposal, crammed into a small closet with shelves. (The other are in storage, awaiting the day that I can purchase a larger home and "liberate" them.)

That makes me wish all the more I had met Barry in life, so that I could have discussed books with him. And I'm willing to bet that, had he lived, he would have become a computer buff; the world would have been at his disposal.

Query: in the time after "Daisy Miller" scuttled his career, did
Barry support himself by writing articles? I'll bet if he had gotten
a grant then and continued on at college, receiving a degree
in writing, he could have gone far. Even if he weren't acting, he still could have expressed himself eloquently by means of the printed page. (I can't help but feel that his writings would have been very dark and Lovecraftian; perhaps had he sublimated
his frustrations through writing, he could have overcome some of the problems hounding him.)

I really look forwatd expectantly to another website devoted to Barry's writings; I'm certain that they will help add more dimensionality to the talented individual who committed them
to history so many years ago.

Once again, thanks for this wonderful forum to share our impressions of, and appreciation for, Barry Brown.

[linda]

To discuss books with Barry would have also been a mega-dream come true for me. No one I'd want to talk books with more!! It's on par for me as ever seeing all four Beatles in private concert, never to be of course, but the ultimate in dreams.

I always loved Jim's description, and felt bad too, for dear Barry, having to trudge about a zillion books back and forth into boxes, from move to move. Truly, until I read this, I thought I was the only one I knew to have an army load of boxes of books and from move to move... and also hadn't encountered anyone that moved around as much as I do/ did. Yet, another appreciated kindredship with him xx.

Great list of some of those horror films, some I haven't seen before. How about the creepy, "The Spiral Staircase" with Dorothy Maguire and Ethel Barrymore. Oh, yes, "Three Days of the Condor". Great choice. A classic along those lines, and another Hitch film, "The 39 Steps" with Robert Donat who in my opinon, is one of the finest British actors ever! One of the finest actors period. Reminds me of BB of course.

[roberta]

I hope this doesn't me look as though I were "trolling for trivia", but since Barry Brown did seem to dote upon the sci-fi-type "B" movies, does anyone know if Barry took an interest in Ufology?

The study of UFOs is NOT just the province of "tinfoil hat" types; it is a serious enquiry into the proposition of whether or not there are other life forms in the universe, and if so, how are those other life forms disposed toward us.

Since Barry was so very cerebral, I often wonder if he, too, looked up at a starry sky one night, and wondered...