Thursday, October 31, 2019
I felt a little guilty about not passing out candy and felt I was missing out a bit. I mean, Halloween only comes once a year, right? There have been other years I wasn't feeling up to it but this time I felt bad about it. Maybe as I'm getting older I'm realizing these traditions are a connection to my past. Anyway, Dale and I made the best of it by eating pizza and watching a couple of old horror movies on Turner Classic Movies. The first was House of Wax starring Vincent Price.
The story takes place in New York City in the early 1900's. Vincent Price plays the proprietor of a wax museum where some of the more recent additions to its collection look uncannily like people who've recently been reported missing.
It's been a while since I've seen it but whenever the last time was I didn't realize it was Charles Bronson who plays Igor. He's pictured center in the above picture.
People of my generation will remember Carolyn Jones who is probably best known for playing Morticia Addams in the 1960's sitcom The Addams Family. Dale recognized her right away. I googled the movie to check the cast and, sure enough, he was right.
Phyllis Kirk plays the female lead. Her character, Sue Allen, finds herself in some perilous positions in the film, especially so at the very end due to her sleuthing.
I remember seeing House of Wax as a kid in the 1970's on Mel's Matinee, a local television afternoon dialing-for-dollars type deal. Those were the days before most people had cable TV and there were a very limited number of channels. Some channels had afternoon matinees of old movies which is where I caught House of Wax. One year my 6th grade class went on a field trip to the old WTCN television station. There was a TV in every room and House of Wax happened to be the afternoon matinee the day we were there. A few of us, familiar with the film, kept to the back of the group so we could keep an eye on the movie. It was in its second half so we were seeing the most suspenseful parts. We had to be reminded to keep up with the group a couple times. Anyway, it's an old and nostalgic favorite of mine.
The second movie was The Bride of Frankenstein.
