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The placement of Erich von Stroheim’s name above Rupert Julian’s on the cover of Flicker Alley’s release of Merry-Go-Round is mostly a marketing strategy capitalizing on von Stroheim’s auteurist bona fides. The film was to be von Stroheim’s next project after Foolish Wives, but what little goodwill remained between him and studio heads after that production ran wildly over time and budget soon evaporated during the making of Merry-Go-Round. After six contentious weeks of delay-filled filming, Universal execs fired the director and replaced him with Julian, who remained mindful of the core themes of von Stroheim’s scenario but didn’t set out to channel the maestro’s trademark visual opulence.

Merry-Go-Round plays like a Cliff’s Notes version of a von Stroheim film. Set in pre-World War I Vienna, the story concerns Count Franz Maxmilian von Hohenegg (Norman Kerry), a member of Emperor Franz Joseph...

Quick Links A Joker You Can Actually Root For The Creators of Batman Agree

Whether it be through Joaquin Phoenix's mentally troubled rendition in 2019s Joker, Heath Ledgers mass-murdering portrayal in The Dark Knight trilogy, or the awkward version Jared Leto created for the Suicide Squad movie back in 2016, Batmans number one villain has always been known for his wicked smile. A cheek-to-cheek grin overlapped with bright red lipstick is certainly a memorable but eerie trademark. The Joker even shows this off when he pops up in Batmans debut comic back in 1940, drawn with his back to the reader, turning around ever so slightly to show off his evil and mischievous smirk.

That is a long time ago 84 years! But all we have to do is travel back an additional 20 years (weve gone back all this way; a little more is nothing), and The Jokers signature appearance can be...

Universal Monsters are regarded as one of the mainstays of frightening films. The legendary creatures have stalked nightmares for decades, preying on every anxiety possible. Their outstanding silver screen pedigree began with Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and expanded exponentially. While many of these early films have been left by the wayside, one still dominates modern pop culture.

The Phantom of the Opera jumpstarted an enduring franchise of frights. Lon Chaneys outstanding performance has withstood the test of time, and the century-old film is as powerful today as it was then. Its timeless story, pulled straight from the pages of Gaston Lerouxs novel, has since been adapted countless times. Universal even took another swing at its own property, releasing a looser interpretation of the film with Claude Rains in 1943.

Lon Chaneys Phantom of the Opera

Portions of the massive replica of the Palais Garniers subterranean cistern, dubbed Soundstage 28, remained in...

Countless horror films rely on the inherent terror of a masked figure, and the trope is nothing new. Gaston Leroux horrified audiences with Le Fantme de lOpra, and the subsequent 1925 silent film edition was enough to make audiences faint. In 1933, the silver screen adaptation of H. G. Wells The Invisible Man glued audiences to their seats. The unsettling qualities of a mask, the thin veil between the archetypal villain and their prey, give it global appeal.

While its easy to argue that Lon Chaneys riveting performance in The Phantom of the Opera may be the catalyst for modern horrors obsession with masks, theres another French inspiration for this classic trope. Thirty-five years after Mary Philbin lifted Chaneys cloth veil, director Georges Franju released Les Yeux Sans Visage or, in English, Eyes Without a Face to an unsuspecting world. Upon release, Franjus ninety-minute horror classic was, in most respects, universally panned.

Based on Victor Hugo’s 19th century novel, Paul Leni’s The Man Who Laughs is one of the most influential achievements in film history, if for no other reason than as the inspiration for The Joker. A soulful Conrad Veidt stars as Gwynplaine, a circus clown whose permanent grimace is a mocking reminder of his miserable fate. Mary Philbin plays his beloved Dea, a blind girl with the ability to “see” the real Gwynplaine. Olga Baclanova, villainess of 1932’s Freaks, co-stars, and Jack Pierce, the make-up genius behind Frankenstein’s monster and The Mummy, created Veidt’s nightmare smile.

A high quality print of Leni’s film can be seen here: The Man Who Laughs.

The post The Man Who Laughs appeared first on Trailers From Hell.

Riddle me this: what do the Joker and "Casablanca" have in common? If you answered, "Conrad Veidt," then you've survived the first deathtrap, much like the Dynamic Duo coming out of a cliffhanger ending into the next episode of the 1966 "Batman" TV series.

80 years ago, Veidt received fifth billing in "Casablanca" after Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, Paul Henreid, and Claude Rains. His movie career, however, dates back even further than that to the silent era. In "The Man Who Laughs," the 1928 silent film helmed by German Expressionist director Paul Leni, Veidt shared top billing with Mary Philbin, and the indelible image of his grinning face left a mark on both movie history and comic book history.

The creation of Batman's greatest nemesis, the Joker, is attributed to writer Bill Finger and artists Bob Kane and Jerry Robinson. Over the years, conflicting accounts arose over who really originated the first idea for the character.

“His eyes are ghastly beads in which there is no light – like holes in a grinning skull! His face is like leprous parchment, yellow skin strung tight over protruding bones! His nose – there is no nose!”

The Phantom Of The Opera (1925) starring Lon Chaney screens Thursday January 10th at 7:00pm at Schlafly Bottleworks. A Facebook invite for the event can be found Here

The Phantom Of The Opera is not only a classic of the silent screen, it is one of the all-time greatest movies ever made. The great Lon Chaney, at the peak of his career, plays the title character, in perhaps the role for which he is best remembered. Mary Philbin plays the heroine, Christine, an opera singer for whom the Phantom has taken a personal interest, and Norman Kerry as Raoul, Christine’s love interest and hero of the piece.

The now famous story centers around...

“His eyes are ghastly beads in which there is no light – like holes in a grinning skull! His face is like leprous parchment, yellow skin strung tight over protruding bones! His nose – there is no nose!”

The Phantom Of The Opera (1925) will screen at Webster University’s Moore Auditorium Thursday October 25th at 7:30pm. Austin, Texas’ most adventurous band, The Invincible Czars, will provide live music.The band encourages fans and attendees to dress for the Halloween season at these shows.

The Phantom Of The Opera is not only a classic of the silent screen, it is one of the all-time greatest movies ever made. The great Lon Chaney, at the peak of his career, plays the title character, in perhaps the role for which he is best remembered. Mary Philbin plays the heroine, Christine, an opera singer for whom the Phantom has taken a personal interest, and Norman Kerry as Raoul,...

Suspiria

Blu ray

Synapse

1977 / 2:35 / Street Date March 13, 2018

Starring Jessica Harper, Alida Valli, Joan Bennett

Cinematography by Luciano Tovoli

Production Design by Giuseppe Bassan

Directed by Dario Argento

The story of a ballet school staffed by devil-worshipping harridans, Dario Argento’s Suspiria opened at New York City’s Criterion in the dog days of ’77. A friend was at one of those early matinees when, 26 minutes into the film, his companion leaned over and whispered, “This movie is evil.”

Jessica Harper plays Suzy Bannion, a transplanted New Yorker taking up residence at a German dance academy – just landed in the alpine splendor of Baden-Württemberg, the doll-faced ballerina makes her entrance emerging from an airport lounge lit like a broadway production of Dante’s Inferno.

A windswept taxi ride bombarded by a neon-colored thunderstorm is no less melodramatic but it can’t prepare Suzy for the stark sight waiting at journey’s...

“His eyes are ghastly beads in which there is no light – like holes in a grinning skull! His face is like leprous parchment, yellow skin strung tight over protruding bones! His nose – there is no nose!”

The Phantom Of The Opera (1925) starring Lon Chaney screens Thursday October 6th at 7:00pm at Schlafly Bottleworks (7260 Southwest Avenue Maplewood, Mo 63143).

The Phantom Of The Opera is not only a classic of the silent screen, it is one of the all-time greatest movies ever made. The great Lon Chaney, at the peak of his career, plays the title character, in perhaps the role for which he is best remembered. Mary Philbin plays the heroine, Christine, an opera singer for whom the Phantom has taken a personal interest, and Norman Kerry as Raoul, Christine’s love interest and hero of the piece.

The now famous story centers around the Phantom’s interest in Christine,...

Hell's Kitchen: Soul stew image likely from the 1922 Benjamin Christensen horror classic 'Häxan / Witchcraft Through the Ages.' Day of the Dead post: Cinema's Top Five Scariest Living Dead We should all be eternally grateful to the pagans, who had the foresight to come up with many (most?) of the overworked Western world's religious holidays. Thanks to them, besides Easter, Christmas, New Year's, and possibly Mardi Gras (a holiday in some countries), we also have Halloween, All Saints' Day, and the Day of Dead. The latter two are public holidays in a number of countries with large Catholic populations. Since today marks the end of the annual Halloween / All Saints' Day / Day of the Dead celebrations, I'm posting my revised and expanded list of the movies' Top Five Scariest Living Dead. Of course, by that I don't mean the actors listed below were dead when the movies were made.

Top Ten Scream Queens: Barbara Steele, who both emitted screams and made others do same, is in a category of her own. Top Ten Scream Queens Halloween is over until next year, but the equally bewitching Day of the Dead is just around the corner. So, dead or alive, here's my revised and expanded list of cinema's Top Ten Scream Queens. This highly personal compilation is based on how memorable – as opposed to how loud or how frequent – were the screams. That's the key reason you won't find listed below actresses featured in gory slasher films. After all, the screams – and just about everything else in such movies – are as meaningless as their plots. You also won't find any screaming guys (i.e., Scream Kings) on the list below even though I've got absolutely nothing against guys who scream in horror, whether in movies or in life. There are...

Every October, horror hounds and cinephiles alike delve into the vast history of this art we call cinema, looking for the greatest in spine chilling horror pictures. Be it the latest in gruesome yet cliche-ridden found footage features or the gothic roots of classic Universal monster pictures, horror cinema comes to life in a distinct and visceral way each October.

And thanks to Kino Lorber, this is going to be a special holiday season, as one of horror’s earliest cinematic entries, and one of its greatest and most unforgettable, is now available on Blu-ray in a shockingly dense new release.

Starring one of horror’s most iconic stars, Lon Chaney, The Phantom Of The Opera has entered the ranks of Kino Lorber’s home video canon, in one of the year’s most enticing classic cinema releases. Released 90 years ago, the story from which it is based is a touch older.

The Phantom of the Opera

Written by Elliot J. Clawson, Raymond L. Schrock and Bernard McConville

Directed by Rupert Julian (uncredited: Edward Sedgwick)

U.S.A., 1925

The following review is based on the silent version from 1925, not the 1930 version that included some dialogue. The version viewed for the purposes the present review also featured colour-tinted scenes and the infamous opening scene in which a man with a lamp walks through a dark tunnel, which is reportedly footage shot later for the 1930 sound version, but has somehow made it into all existing cuts of the original 1925 film.

The 1920s represent a defining decade for film, both in the United States and worldwide. Many of the earliest great pictures we produced during this time, with several film auteurs getting their start, such as Alfred Hitchcock, Jean Renoir and F. W. Murnau but to name a few. For Hollywood, which was growing in...

The latest release of Lon Chaney's most famous silent classic is a Blu-ray, which allows us to marvel at at the actor's artistry in a beautifully tinted HD image. Erik the Phantom is one of the two or three greatest fantasy makeup performances of all time. The release has three separate encodings, of different versions running at different film speeds. A 1929 recut has the best image, while the original 1925 version is uncut. The Phantom of the Opera Blu-ray Kino Classics / Blackhawk 1925/29 / B&W with tints and Technicolor sequences / 1:37 flat Silent Aperture / 78, 92 and 114 min. / Street Date October 13, 2015 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95 Starring Lon Chaney, Mary Philbin, Norman Kerry, Arthur Edmund Carewe, Gibson Gowland, John St. Polis, Snitz Edwards. Cinematography Milton Bridenbecker, Virgil Miller, Charles Van Enger Consulting Artist Ben Carré Film Editors Maurice Pivar, Gilmore Walker Original Music Makeup Lon Chaney Written by Elliott J. Clawson from the novel...

Kino Lorber continues to make Halloween dreams come true, announcing that they will release The Phantom of the Opera (1925/1929) on Blu-ray and DVD October 13th.

From Kino Lorber: "The Phantom Of The Opera (1925/1929) - Starring Lon Chaney and Mary Philbin - Directed by Rupert Julian.

Disc 1

24 frames-per-second version (78 Min.) 1920 x 1080 (1.33:1 pillarbox)

• Music composed and performed by Alloy Orchestra (2.0 Stereo)

• Theatre organ score arranged and performed by Gaylord Carter (2.0 Mono)

20 frames-per-second version (92 Min.) 1920 x 1080 (1.33:1 pillarbox)

• Musical setting composed by Gabriel Thibaudeau (2.0 Stereo)

Performed by I Musici de Montréal; Conducted by Yuri Turovsky; Claudine Côté, Soprano

• Audio commentary by film historian Jon Mirsalis (2.0 Mono)

Disc 2

1925 Version (114 Min.) Standard Definition (4x3)

• Musical Setting Arranged and Performed by Frederick Hodges (2.0 Mono)

Extras:

Original Screenplay (91 Min. video scroll)

Montage of Stills (13 Min.)

Interview with composer Gabriel Thibaudeau (9 Min.)

Two travelogues by Burton Holmes, depicting Paris in 1925:

Paris From A Motor (3 1/2 Min.

Top 100 horror movies of all time: Chicago Film Critics' choices (photo: Sigourney Weaver and Alien creature show us that life is less horrific if you don't hold grudges) See previous post: A look at the Chicago Film Critics Association's Scariest Movies Ever Made. Below is the list of the Chicago Film Critics's Top 100 Horror Movies of All Time, including their directors and key cast members. Note: this list was first published in October 2006. (See also: Fay Wray, Lee Patrick, and Mary Philbin among the "Top Ten Scream Queens.") 1. Psycho (1960) Alfred Hitchcock; with Anthony Perkins, Janet Leigh, Vera Miles, John Gavin, Martin Balsam. 2. The Exorcist (1973) William Friedkin; with Ellen Burstyn, Linda Blair, Jason Miller, Max von Sydow (and the voice of Mercedes McCambridge). 3. Halloween (1978) John Carpenter; with Jamie Lee Curtis, Donald Pleasence, Tony Moran. 4. Alien (1979) Ridley Scott; with Sigourney Weaver, Tom Skerritt, John Hurt. 5. Night of the Living Dead (1968) George A. Romero; with Marilyn Eastman,...

‘Dracula’ 1931 actress Carla Laemmle dead at 104 (photo: Carla Laemmle ca. 1930) Carla Laemmle, a bit player in a handful of silent movies and at the dawn of the sound era — e.g., the horror classics The Phantom of the Opera (1925) and Dracula (1931) — and a niece of Universal Studios co-founder Carl Laemmle, died on June 12, 2014, at her Los Angeles home. Laemmle, who had reportedly been in good health, was 104 years old. Born Rebekah Isabelle Laemmle on October 20, 1909, in Chicago, Carla Laemmle was less known for her movie work than for having survived most of her contemporaries and for her family connection to the Universal mogul — her father, Joseph Laemmle, was Carl’s brother. ‘Dracula’ actress was a member of Carl Laemmle’s ‘very large faemmle’ "Uncle Carl Laemmle, Has a very large faemmle," once half-joked poet Ogden Nash, in reference to Laemmle’s penchant for hiring family members. As Laemmle’s niece,...

Even casual horror fans are familiar with the silent Universal classics The Phantom of the Opera and The Hunchback of Notre Dame, which starred the legendary “Man of a Thousand Faces” Lon Chaney, Sr. in his two most iconic screen roles. The box-office success of those two films led the studio in 1928 to adapt The Man Who Laughs, a story by Hunchback author Victor Hugo, into one of their first sound productions, with music and sound effects (but no recorded dialog). While Chaney did not return for this one (he was under contract to MGM by that time), the lead role was taken on by another screen legend, Conrad Veidt – best remembered by horror fans as the creepy sleepwalker Cesare in The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. Just as in Hunchback, the title character here is not technically a “monster,” but a sympathetic figure who happens to be horribly disfigured... but like the grotesque Quasimodo,...

As we gear up for Halloween. the Academy is hosting an October-long celebration of classic horror films in honor of “Universal.s Legacy of Horror“- part of the studio.s year-long 100th anniversary celebration. This week’s films highlight The Man Who Laughs, The Wolfman and An American Werewolf In London. Just last week writer, director Guillermo del Toro, a big fan of Jaws, hosted the kick-off screening celebrating the studio that defined .horror films..

Del Toro also answered questions from fans on the Academy’s Facebook page.

For those not in the Southern California area, you can watch all these cinematic masterpieces of the horror genre on Blu-ray in the Universal Classic Monsters: The Essential Collection which debuted on October 2 from Universal Studios Home Entertainment.

If you’re in the Beverly Hills area, check out the lineup for the rest of the month:

“The Man Who Laughs” (1928) Monday,...

Pictured: Bela Lugosi, Dracula, 1931. Courtesy of AMPAS

Looking for a good scare next month? Before you head out trick-or-treating on the 31st, and you’re in the Southern California area, you need to head over to the Academy in Beverly Hills. Our friends at AMPAS are hosting an October-long celebration of classic horror films in honor of “Universal.s Legacy of Horror”- part of the studio.s year-long 100th anniversary celebration. Writer & director Guillermo del Toro, a true aficionado of the horror-genre, will host the kick-off screening celebrating the studio that defined “horror films. ” The Academy will screen newly restored prints from Universal.

For those not wanting bad dreams the Academy will also present “Universal.s Legacy of Horror: A Centennial Exhibition,” which includes rare posters, stills and other artifacts celebrating Universal.s distinctive contributions to the classic horror genre and the studio.s founding 100 years ago. The exhibition...

Courtesy of AMPAS

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will host a month-long series of screenings of classic horror films with “Universal’s Legacy of Horror” in October. The series is part of the studio’s year-long 100th anniversary celebration engaging Universal’s fans and all movie lovers in the art of moviemaking. Through its cinematic introduction of iconic characters such as Dracula and Frankenstein, Universal Pictures was instrumental in establishing and fostering the horror genre. The frightening festivities will kick off with the first of five “Terrifying Tuesdays” on October 2, with “The Bride of Frankenstein” (1935) and “Dracula” (1931), to be complemented by other scream-worthy screenings throughout the month.

The Academy’s Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills will host “Terrifying Tuesdays” at 7:30 p.m. on the following dates:

October 2 “The Bride of Frankenstein” (1935, newly restored by Universal)

“Dracula” (1931, newly restored by Universal) October 9 “The Wolf Man” (1941)

“An American Werewolf in London...

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has undertaken a unique expansion in film preservation. As the rise of digital technology drastically reduces the availability of film stock, the project accelerates the work of the Academy Film Archive to acquire and create new archival film masters and prints from at-risk elements. Under the banner “Film-to-Film,” the $2 million initiative, approved by the Academy.s Board of Governors, focuses largely on Academy Award®-winning and nominated films from across motion picture history, including works made as recently as the 1990s.

“This is a moment of great transition for our industry, and we are responding to the urgency of that moment,” said Dawn Hudson, Academy CEO. “By increasing our preservation efforts now, we are building a vital pipeline of films and film elements that we will not only safeguard, but also make available for audiences well into the future.”

Until recently, the...

I’ll admit it’s not as rich a lode as we had on Valentine’s Day, but I can’t resist posting these pictorial tributes to the father of our country. (For some reason, I haven’t found any shots of starlets cozying up to portraits of Abraham Lincoln. Maybe next year...) Studio publicity departments knew that sending out stills such as these virtually guaranteed publication in newspapers and magazines; it was all part of the promotional machine that worked so well in the 1920s, 30s, and 40s. Mary Philbin is best remembered today as Lon Chaney’s leading lady in the 1925 version of The Phantom of the Opera. She was also a Universal Pictures contract player,...

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In 1925, Universal released what would become one of the most influential and important movies ever made. Even today it stands as a singular achievement in film that still impresses some eighty years on.

From Lon Chaney’s outstanding makeup to the beautiful sets and costumes, it is a breathtakingly lavish film that entertains as much as it educates. The film cannot be overstated in its historical importance, as it was the first of the Universal Monsters to be born.

Without Chaney and his amazing creation, we would arguably never have seen Lugosi’s Dracula or Karloff’s Monster and so on. One could point to this film and say it was the birth of the horror film, as we know it today. Sure, Nosferatu had come before, as had The Golem, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari and of course Edison’s Frankenstein. However, The Phantom of the Opera was the...

Claire Bloom, Julie Harris, The Haunting The Movies’ Top Ten Scream Queens 10 – Mary Philbin, The Phantom of the Opera (1925). Okay, so this is a silent film; in other words, Universal star Mary Philbin's screaming was all in my head. But it worked. Lon Chaney at his most grotesque had the title role; Norman Kerry was Philbin's dashing leading man. Rupert Julian directed. 9 – Patricia Owens, The Fly (1958). Wouldn't you also scream if you saw a fly named Andre — who happens to be your husband, no less — coming straight at you? David Hedison plays the unlucky Andre, a scientist who exchanges his head with that of a buzzing fly. Kurt Neumann directed the 1958 The Fly, which, though less pretentious, I find more disturbing than the 1986 David Cronenberg remake starring Jeff Goldblum and Geena Davis. 8 – Denise Cheshire, Jaws (1975). Few people know the name of the soon-to-be shark-breakfast swimming woman in Steven Spielberg's Jaws,...

The Phantom Of The Opera was the first horror film I ever saw. It was at my grandparents’ house. I was about 3 or 4 and it was either on television or my grandfather had a VHS tape of it or something like that. I clearly remember the now famous shot of Mary Philbin pulling off the mask of Lon Chaney’s horrific Phantom as he played the organ. The look of sheer shock and fury etched on Chaney’s horribly disfigured face scared and delighted my admittedly warped young mind, as it must have very well done so for countless fans of the classic film.

I’m happy to say that that iconic scene, and many more, have never looked better than on Image Entertainment’s newly remastered high definition transfer of The Phantom Of The Opera, out November 1st on Blu-Ray. For classic horror fans who have had to make due with scratchy video recordings,...

Rank the week of November 1st’s Blu-ray and DVD new releases against the best films of all-time: New Releases Cars 2

(Blu-ray & DVD | G | 2011)

Flickchart Ranking: #2213

Win Percentage: 48%

Times Ranked: 3502

Top-20 Rankings: 35

Directed By: John Lasseter

Starring: Larry the Cable Guy • Owen Wilson • Michael Caine • Emily Mortimer • Eddie Izzard

Genres: Action Comedy • Adventure • Adventure Comedy • Animation • Comedy • Family • Family-Oriented Adventure • Family-Oriented Comedy

Rank This Movie

Water For Elephants

(Blu-ray & DVD | PG13 | 2011)

Flickchart Ranking: #3022

Win Percentage: 51%

Times Ranked: 2226

Top-20 Rankings: 17

Directed By: Francis Lawrence

Starring: Reese Witherspoon • Robert Pattinson • Christoph Waltz • Paul Schneider • Hal Holbrook

Genres: Animal Picture • Drama • Romance • Romantic Drama

Rank This Movie

Crazy Stupid Love

(Blu-ray & DVD | PG13 | 2011)

Flickchart Ranking: #816

Win Percentage: 57%

Times Ranked: 3830

Top-20 Rankings: 19

Directed By: Glenn Ficarra, John Requa

Starring: Steve Carell • Ryan Gosling • Julianne Moore • Emma Stone • Marisa Tomei

Genres: Comedy Drama • Comedy of Manners • Drama • Romance • Romantic Comedy

Rank This Movie

Snow Flower And The Secret Fan...

Title: The Phantom of the Opera Directed by: Rupert Julian Starring: Lon Chaney, Mary Philbin and Norman Kerry Running time: 78-114 minutes, Unrated Image Entertainment has released the original 1925 version and two 1929 re-release versions of Lon Chaney’s most memorable performance in The Phantom of the Opera on Blu-ray. The story of Erik, the disfigured “Phantom” that lives underneath the Paris Opera house and whom has a fixation on the beautiful and talented new opera singer Christine. The 1925 version is the original 6 millimeter with a piano score by Frederick Hodges. This version is longer than the 1929 reissues, and contains a lackluster happy ending. There were two...

Conrad Veidt is Turner Classic Movies' "Summer Under the Stars" performer of the day. An international star since the 1920s, Veidt worked in Germany, the United Kingdom, and Hollywood — twice. [Conrad Veidt Movie Schedule.] In the late '20s, Veidt was the star of unusual Hollywood fare such as Paul Leni's The Man Who Laughs (1928), in the title role as a man with a grin-like scar where his mouth should be, and Paul Fejos' The Last Performance (1929), as a magician in love with pretty Mary Philbin — a Universal star who also happened to be Veidt's leading lady in The Man Who Laughs. With the arrival of talking pictures, Veidt returned to Germany, but with the ascent of the Nazis he fled first to England and later to the United States. In the Hollywood of the early '40s, Veidt became everybody's favorite Nazi in movies such as Nazi Agent, Escape, and Casablanca.

Lon Chaney on TCM: He Who Gets Slapped, The Unknown, Mr. Wu Get ready for more extreme perversity in West of Zanzibar (1928), as Chaney abuses both Warner Baxter and Mary Nolan, while the great-looking Mr. Wu (1927) offers Chaney as a Chinese creep about to destroy the life of lovely Renée Adorée — one of the best and prettiest actresses of the 1920s. Adorée — who was just as effective in her few early talkies — died of tuberculosis in 1933. Also worth mentioning, the great John Arnold was Mr. Wu's cinematographer. I'm no fan of Laugh, Clown, Laugh (1928), The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1923), or The Phantom of the Opera (1925), but Chaney's work in them — especially in Hunchback — is quite remarkable. I mean, his performances aren't necessarily great, but they're certainly unforgettable. Chaney's leading ladies — all of whom are in love with younger, better-looking men — are Loretta Young (Laugh, Clown, Laugh), Patsy Ruth Miller...

By James Morgart

“There is no pleasure. There is no pain. There is only skin.” - Pinhead, Hellraiser III

“Women tend to be more tolerant about visceral things because they have more direct personal experience with them. They cope with periods once a month, they go through childbirth and they are usually the ones who look after the bleeding and battered limbs when the kids take a tumble. They can put blood and gore in context and generally cope better than men.” - Bela Lugosi

Most scholarship on the horror film has assumed that males are the primary spectators of horror; however, there have been developments, both in scholarship as well as in mainstream media, to contradict this point. In 2009, journalist Michelle Orange pointed out, in an article written for the New York Times, “Recent box office receipts show that women have an even bigger appetite for these [horror] films than men.

Paul Leni's The Man Who Laughs, starring Conrad Veidt, Mary Philbin (top); Andrew Simpson at the Wurlitzer (bottom) Cary Grant, Irene Dunne, Alida Valli, Pierre Brasseur, Angela Lansbury, Conrad Veidt, Sean Connery, John Wayne, Gene Wilder, silent-film stars Mary Philbin and Buster Keaton, and lots of zombies (it's Halloween, after all) are some of the performers featured in the Library of Congress Packard Campus for Audio Visual Conservation’s free film series in Culpeper, Va., in October. [Packard Campus Oct. 2010 Schedule.] Among the screening movies are Leo McCarey's comedy My Favorite Wife (1940), Mel Brooks' spoof Young Frankenstein (1974), Raoul Walsh's early epic Western The Big Trail (1930), and George A. Romero's zombie-packed Night of the Living Dead (1968). My two chief recommendations are: Georges Franju's eerie Les yeux sans visage / Eyes Without a Face (1960), which long predates The Silence of the Lambs in its tale about young women's skins [...]...

Last Tuesday, October 20th, FM hosted a very special event to honor a very special person. The occasion: Carla Laemmle’s 100th birthday.

Carla, the niece of Universal Pictures founder Carl Laemmle, was a phenomenal dancer even as a young girl. In 1925, at age fifteen, she snagged a role in the silent film version of The Phantom of the Opera, starring Lon Chaney and Mary Philbin (84 years later, she is the last surviving member of the film’s cast). Six years later, Carla had the first spoken line ever heard in a horror film, with a part in Dracula, starring Bela Lugosi. Her history is intertwined with the early history of Universal, and with the studio’s legacy of golden-age horror films, which makes her something of a hero to us here at FM.

As the sun set over Hollywood on Tuesday, a crowd gathered at the Egyptian Theater to celebrate Ms.

By Matt Singer

We're getting into the Halloween spirit at IFC.com this week by taking a look back at some famous movie makeup jobs (that are, at minimum, 25 years old) that have maintained their power to scare the bejeezus out of viewers. These kids today with their computer generated imagery and their Blu-rays and their "Saw V"s! Back in our day, we didn't have computers to do our imagination's dirty work for us. Visionary artists had only prosthetics, wire, plaster, rubber and a whole lot of Karo syrup to bring their creations to life! Back in our day, these were the movies you rented on Halloween! At the video store! As far as we're concerned, they still should be. And don't you dare teepee our Web site or we're calling the cops. [Part one of our list can be found here.]

5. Videodrome (1983)

Directed by David Cronenberg

Special Makeup Effects by Rick Baker

To the best of my knowledge,...

Along with the lineage that can be traced from Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight (2008) back to Paul Leni’s The Man Who Laughs (1928) is the latter’s indelible imprint upon Brian DePalma’s 2006 neo-noir The Black Dahlia, based on James Ellroy’s novel, where mutilation reclaims its destructive thrust as an expressive mask of life’s inequitable if not inevitable horrors.

To synopsize briefly, in The Man Who Laughs—the filmic adaptation of Victor Hugo’s 1869 novel—Gwynplaine (Conrad Veidt), the son of a noble father who has displeased King James II, is turned over to a surgeon, Dr. Hardquannone (George Siegman), associated with a band of ostracized and feared gypsies, the Comprachicos (literally “child-buyers"), for proper punishment: a facial mutilation which leaves him with a permanent and ghastly rictus grin. As a title card states, the King condemns him “to laugh forever at his fool of a father.