LADIES AND GENTLEMEN THIS IS THE NIGHT GALLERY : ROD SERLING'S' NIGHT GALLERY OVERVIEW

After 'The Twilight Zone had ended on CBS, Rod Serling tried to sell it to another network but was unable to due to CBS retaining the rites to the series. So he went to another network and pitched an idea for a show called 'Rod Serling Wax Works' however that idea was rejected , Serling then tweaked the concept and set it in an art gallery instead and 'Night Gallery' was born.

What might have been? Rod Serling on set while shooting The Twlight Zone episode 'The New Exhibit'

While 'The Twlight Zone' was primarily a science fiction show with horror overtones, Night Gallery focused mainly on horror and the supernatural. Each episode of the series opened with Serling in a darkened art gallery, he then introduced each story by revaling the paintings that depicted them. For the first two season the epsidoes where 50 minutes in length and containted multiple self contained stories varying in length, while in season three the episodes where cut down to 25 minutes and mostly containted just a single story. While Serling wrote the majortiy of the scripts some where adapted from authors such as HP Lovecraft.

Rod Serling's opening monologe from the pilot of Night Gallery

The pilot for Night Gallery aired 8th November 1969 of NBC and consisted of 3 stories all written by Serling, the first one 'The Cemetery' starring Roddy McDowall and Ossie Davis in which Jeremy Evans (McDowall) murders his rich uncle in order to get his hands on the inheritance, much to the disgust of his uncle's butler Portifoy (Davis) but find finds he might not get away with it so easy after all.

The second story 'Eyes' (which marked the directing debut of Steven Spielberg)  stars hollywood legend Joan Crawford (in one of her last acting roles), as Claudia Menlo, a rich selfish woman who has been blind since birth, who blackmails  her surgen friend into performing an operation that will allow her to see for a short time, however it backfires on her in a bizarre twist of fate….

The final story 'The Escape Route' stars Richard Kelly and Sam Jaffe. A war criminal (Kelly) has fled and his hiding from the authorities under an alternate name, one day his past comes back to haunt him as a old man (Jaffe) recognises him and starts to ask questions, so he finds solace in a tranquil painting in a local art galley and longs to enter that world, however he should be careful what he wishes for……..

Night Galley ran for three seasons after the pilot and a lot of famous actors guest starred such as Burgess Meredith, Leslie Nelson, Vicnent Price, Angnes Moorehead, Leonard Nimoy, Ray Milland, Sally Field and many more, and while it never achived the same level of susscess as The Twlight Zone (perhaps in part due to the fact Serling did not have as much creatvite control over the series as he did with The Twlight Zone) it still remains one of the best TV horror antholgy series of the 70's and well worth checking out.

Just some of the famous actors that guest starred on 'Night Gallery' Vincent Price, Anges Moorehead, Sally Field and Burgess Meredith

WATCH : TRAILER FOR 60TH YEAR ANNIVERSARY FOR PETER CUSHING APPRECIATION SOCIETY

This year the PETER CUSHING APPRECIATION SOCIETY enters it's 60th year. Founded by Gladys Fletcher in 1956 for Peter Cushing fans in the UK, it's presence on the internet and now at several social media sites, now makes it a truly international platform for fans and admirers, of the life and career of the late Peter Cushing. Updated daily with rare photographs, features, prize competitions, news and galleries. Regularly working with leading publications in providing visual materials, validating memorabilia and collectables at auction houses and assisting distributors like Warner Brothers and Hammer films, to give you the best prizes and the fastest news on any dvd and blu ray releases that feature the work of Peter Cushing.

Please watch our trailer, it's also available at our youtube site. If you can, share it and help make 2016, our best year ever! - See more at: http://petercushingblog.blogspot.co.uk/2016/02/trailer-appreciation-society-enters-its.html#sthash.ifD4W9Vk.dpuf

Please watch our Anniversary Promotion Trailer. You can find it at our PCAS YOUTUBE ACCOUNT too!

Limited Edition Lobby Cards for the promotion of the release of Hammer films, Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell Blu Ray....also incorporating our PCAS

Competition and exclusive interview with Shane Briant!

The Horror Channel has also supported our Peter Cushing promotions in conjunction with the planned releases of a Peter Cushing dvds or blu releases.

We are very proud of our relationship with dvd and blu ray distributors, major and limited releases. Warner Brothers chose the Peter Cushing Appreciation Society as one of only three outlets to sponsor with exclusive copies of their very successful recent release of HORROR CLASSIC, as prizes in our PCAS competition!

So please take a look at our short trailer and join us at our FACEBOOK FAN PAGE, our WEBSITE or follow us on OUR PETER CUSHING APPRECIATION SOCIETY TUMBLR ACCOUNT  or on TWITTER

WIN TWILIGHT TIME SCREAM AND SCREAM AGAIN LIMITED EDITION BLU RAY FOR HALLOWEEN!

 

Here's ANOTHER chance to win yourself a copy of TWILIGHT TIMES LIMITED EDITION BLU RAY of SCREAM AND SCREAM AGAIN!

It's another of our QUICKY COMPETITIONS where you can WIN AND WIN AGAIN, But you have JUST FIVE HOURS, starting from NOW  gmt to send it your answer!

GOOD LUCK!!

You can purchase YOUR copy of this REGION FREE BLU RAY from HERE  OR HERE!

 

DETAILS: Kind of a horror movie, kind of an espionage film, and in some sense a piece of science fiction, Scream and Scream Again (1970) features turns by three icons of the horror genre: Vincent Price, Christopher Lee, and Peter Cushing.  All are involved in a wild “plot” connecting Great Britain to some unnamed totalitarian state where torture, murder, and out-of-control “experiments” are the order of the day. Directed by Gordon Hessler from a screenplay by Christopher Wicking, with cinematography by the worthy John Coquillon.

Starring: Vincent Price, Christopher Lee, Peter Cushing, Judy Huxtable, Alfred Marks, Michael Gothard. Directed By: Gordon Hessler. Written By: Christopher Wicking. Score By: David Whitaker. Language: English.Video: 1080p High Definition / 1.85:1 / Color. Audio: English 1.0 DTS-HD MA.  Subtitles: English SDH. Theatrical Release: 1970. Runtime: 94 Minutes. Rating: R (Some Violence and Brief Nudity) Region Code: Region Free (A/B/C)

Special Features: Isolated Score Track / Audio Commentary with Film Historians David Del Valle and Tim Sullivan / Gentleman Gothic: Gordon Hessler at AIP / An Interview with Uta Levka / Still Gallery / Radio Spot / Original Theatrical Trailer

Join Us At Our Facebook Fan Page : HERE  

Here's ANOTHER chance to win yourself a copy of TWILIGHT TIMES LIMITED EDITION BLU RAY of SCREAM AND SCREAM AGAIN! - See more at: http://petercushingblog.blogspot.co.uk/2015/10/win-and-win-again-quicky-competition.html#sthash.teUMlRza.dpuf

COUNTDOWN TO HALLOWEEN AND WIN HAMMER HORROR BOX SETS BLU RAYS DVDS AND GOODIES!

BLU RAY BOX SETS, BLU RAYS, DVD's BOOKS and GOODIES..

ALL UP FOR GRABS!!

For those of you who still remember our HALLOWEEN 2014 COMPETITIONS PRIZES, you'll know we like to treat our friends and followers to only the best...and THIS YEAR will be no exception. Not only are we going to be launching our traditional HALLOWEEN COMPETITIONS, but we are also kicking off a whole raft of GIVEAWAY PRIZES and ONE HOUR COMPETITIONS on the weekends and weekdays, right across all our websites and pages, the Peter Cushing Appreciation Society Facebook Fan Page, the website petercushingapprecaitionsociety.com  AND here at  theblackboxclub.com

It's going to be a GREAT OCTOBER and another FEARSOME HALLOWEEN with loads of fabulous PRIZES TO DIE FOR!! It's going to be a SCREAM! Look Out all this week for details!

Please VISIT and JOIN our Official PCAS Facebook Fan Page: HERE  

WILLIAM CASTLE: GODFATHER OF SCHLOCK : KATE VOSS REVISITS

William Castle is not regarded as a technically superb filmmaker by any measure. The gentlest thing you might hear from his most ardent critics is that he was a “poor man’s Alfred Hitchcock.” The pinnacle of his creativity, and the thing that has always made his work endearing to fans, is the special emphasis Castle placed on gimmicks to promote his films.

Well before he moved from his native New York City to Hollywood, Castle already had deep roots in the entertainment industry. Castle wrote in his memoir, Step Right Up!, that he was entranced by a production of the touring Dracula stage show that he saw in New York as a child. After the show, he went backstage to meet the star of the production: Bela Lugosi. The young Castle apparently made an impression on the actor, and he subsequently dropped out of high school at the age of 15 when, at the invitation of Lugosi himself, he was asked to join the touring production of the show as a stage hand.

Castle (born William Schloss, Jr.) became familiar with various aspects of production —set-building, writing, and eventually acting and directing— all skills which would enrich his practice as a filmmaker later on. Where Castle excelled the most, however, was in marketing. He had a knack for finding highly sensational gimmicks to promote productions, and this is what ultimately attracted the attention of Hollywood producers.

Castle cut his teeth in the big studios working under the tyranny of the infamous former president of Columbia Pictures, Harry Cohn. Castle got to work with some of the industry’s biggest stars, including Cary Grant, Rita Hayworth, and Orson Welles.

He was used primarily to produce and direct B-list films. He built a reputation as someone who was able to finish projects on time and on budget, which was of the utmost importance in the B-lots of Hollywood. Eventually, he ventured out on his own, and started to self-finance projects.

He had a major breakthrough with his film Macabre (1958), which was inspired largely by the French film Diabolique (1955). To promote the film, Castle conceived a gimmick wherein theater goers would be issued a life insurance contract, which stipulated that if anyone were to die of fright, their beneficiaries would be remunerated. What’s more remarkable than the fact that he would employ such a gimmick was the fact that he actually got the Lloyds of London to back the project! Castle wrote in his memoir that after puzzling executives with his peculiar idea, the Lloyds of London executives set a contract wherein William Castle was insured for $5,000, enough to cover five individuals. If anyone in the audience were to indeed die of fright, Castle would receive the money from the Lloyds of London, and Castle himself would then be liable for paying the beneficiary of the deceased party.

Not surprisingly, no one ever died of fright at a screening, and thus, no one ever attempted to collect insurance money.

Castle would gain even greater notoriety with his films that starred Vincent Price. The first was The Tingler (1959), about an insect which burrows in the human spine and thrives on fear. The only way to keep the creature at bay is to scream. The gimmick was called “Percepto” and it was one of Castle’s most elaborate and expensive marketing maneuvers ever. Seats in the theaters would be equipped with low voltage shocking devices that would zap audience members during a scene from the film where the entire theater would go dark, and a voice-over would caution audiences that the Tingler was loose in the theater.

Price also starred in Castle’s The House on Haunted Hill (1959), which employed the “Emergo,” a gimmick which used a pulley system to suspend a plastic skeleton over the viewing audience —in other words, it appeared to emerge from the screen.

Castle’s greatest film was potentially 13 Ghosts (1960), which made use of his “Illusion-O” trick, which used red and blue cellophane lensed “ghost viewers.” In segments of the film where ghosts appear, the screen takes on a blue tint. The film was shot using two separate color filters, one blue and one red. If the viewer were to look through the blue lens, the ghosts would disappear. If the viewer were to look through the red lens, the ghosts would become more vivid. Would anyone in their right mind go to a movie called 13 Ghosts to not look at ghosts? Presumably not, but the marketing genius is in the fact that the viewer had an option.

Even though he achieved success in his own right, Castle always dreamed of crossing over and directing an A-list feature film with A-list stars. A major turning point in Castle’s career came when he was given the manuscript of a yet-to-be published book by Ira Levin entitled Rosemary’s Baby. Castle claimed in his autobiography Step Right Up! that he was the second director to be shown the book, the first having reportedly been Alfred Hitchcock.

Ultimately, Paramount studios insisted that a director with a stronger reputation was merited by the job, and thus, Castle signed on to produce, and Roman Polanski was recruited to direct. The meticulous Polanski crafted one of the finest horror films of the sixties, and it’s one which all horror enthusiasts must see —and thankfully, sites like sites netflix and direct-ticket.net allow you to stream it in its entirety.

Upon its release in 1968, the film was met with tremendous resistance from religious communities, but also with tremendous excitement and intrigue by the general public. Castle became gravely ill after the film’s release due to kidney failure, and his career never entirely bounced back. He found himself producing B-pictures once again, such as Bug (1975). Castle exploited the film by insuring Bug’s star, a gigantic cockroach named Hercules, for $1,000.

Although he lamented not establishing himself as a first-rate director of major commercial films which were taken seriously by critics, he continues to serve as a source of inspiration for many filmmakers who came later, perhaps most notably John Waters, who had scratch and sniff cards issued at screenings of his film Polyester (1981) as part of his “Odorama” marketing gimmick.

Castle may not be remembered as the most deft filmmaker of his generation, but he will most certainly be remembered.

Feature: Kate Voss

Gallery: Marcus Brooks

THE MONSTER CLUB: COMIC STRIP PART TWO