Conjure Wife!

Conjure Wife is Fritz Leiber's first novel. It tells the story of a relatively young college professor and his wife, who just so happens to be witch. She uses her spells and such to protect her chosen man and help him along in his career. When he discovers her little notions, he stupidly destroys them thinking them whims. Things immediately start to go bad in his life. It seems there are other witches in town, and they don't cotton to the new couple at all. 

The short novel was first published in Unknown Worlds in 1943. We meet Norman Saylor who is a professor of Ethnology at Hempnell College, a small school rife with the politics of the kind which are all too common in such places. He's considered a candidate for the head of the Sociology Department. His wife is the lovely Tansy Saylor who is five years younger, she'd been a student of his when they fell in love. It seems that in this universe all women practice witchcraft more or less to different degrees. Men are oblivious to these practices, and sadly as man I can attest that makes too much sense. When Norman finds the various totems and trinkets Transy uses to protect them, he foolishly destroys them and almost immediately his life is turned upside down. There is a threat to his life, a charge is made against him which is untrue, and his chances for the chairmanship dwindle when he makes some strong statements about sexual politics in his class. 

When Norman finds the various totems and trinkets Tansy uses to protect them, he foolishly destroys them and almost immediately his life is turned upside down. There is a threat to his life, a charge is made against him which is untrue, and his chances for the chairmanship dwindle when he makes some strong statements about sexual politics in his class. 

Tansy and Norman fail to communicate, and his lack of belief causes him to constantly seek logical answers to the strange events which increasingly surround him. There are more and more intrusions into their lives as he begins to believe, but then realizes he's rendered himself an easy victim to whatever is moving against hm. When Tansy at last begins to take direct action, it becomes a potential tragedy. 

This is a remarkable story, told by a master who keeps us inside Norman's experience and makes us feel his indecision and ultimate dread. At a critical moment he is called up on to act and the consequences of this actually made me gasp. That's what stories like this want to do, affect the reader, to draw us into the world the author fashions and makes us feel the same love, fear, or this instance terror that informs the characters. A zombie tale with a twist. Remarkable story. 

The novel was adapted to film three times. Weird Woman from Universal is an entertaining if not particularly faithful adaptation in 1944 of the Fritz Leiber story and features Lon Chaney Jr, Anne Gwynne and Evelyn Ankers. The story is hurt by the glossy studio presentation of the rituals, which needed a rougher treatment in places. The girl that played the witch-wife was too white-bread to sell the exotic nature of the tale; the poster makes her seem way scarier than anything in the movie itself. There is some really fine acting in this one, especially by Elizabeth Russell in a part that could have been far less in other hands. Evelyn Ankers is a real stand out and gleefully evil as the scorned woman, and her ultimate scene is pretty offbeat and strange. One big drag on the movie is Lon Chaney Jr. who is woefully miscast, but he was the face that sold the tickets. The most idiotic guy you've even seen on screen is constantly called brilliant by other characters as he did one dumb or insensitive thing after another. 

The story of Conjure Wife was adapted to the screen again in 1962 under the title of Burn Witch Burn, and is also known as Night of the Eagle. This minor classic features a screenplay Richard Matheson and Charles Beaumont and stars Peter Wyngarde and Janet Blair. It's got a damn fine poster, that's for sure. The movie itself is crisp and like most all the British flicks I see, filled with excellent actors. Peter Wyngarde is great as the self-righteous husband who demands that his wife see the world as he does, with relentless logic. Janet Blair is outstanding as Tansy, a thoroughly modern woman who just so happens practices a little witchcraft when her busy and ambitious husband is away. This moody effort is easily the best of the adaptations, making changes necessary to keep a sharp ending. The use of an eagle as an avatar of evil didn't rally track with me and scenes featuring the creature are the weakest in the production. The use of a recording tape is used as a fetish, not unlike those elusive slips of paper in Night of the Demon. 

There was an early television adaptation of the story on the defunct DuPont Network in 1960 under the title Conjure Wife. I've not seen it and I've found almost nothing online about it.  I'd love to know more, and I welcome any corrections. 

The story was adapted a fourth if unofficial time as Witches Brew or Which Witch is Which in 1980. This outing stars Terri Garr and Richard Benjamin and is Lana Turner's final film. I've read this is supposed to be a comedy, but it's a strange one. The movie has the feel of an Indy film at times, with some clunky sound design. It's edited rather oddly too, keeping a too slow pace. We end up looking at some scenes way too long. At other times we are told the story in brisk effective short cuts. There were two directors on this one and I bet that accounts for the uneven atmosphere. Benjamin and Garr are the college couple in this one and he knows she's a witch but just gets tired of it. She gets rid of her stuff and all hell breaks loose. An angry student even becomes a sniper to take him out, but this side-plot is poorly developed. Lana Turner is great as an older witch looking to improve her lot in life and scoping out Terri Garr to help with it. The most surprising moment is an actual stop-motion flying demon. That's not in the novel. Fritz Leiber's name is never referenced, though some aspects of this movie are the closest of any of the movies. 

This is grand stuff for the Halloween season. I highly recommend the book and even the movies are well worth seeking out. You can read the novel here. 

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I Am Legend - The Movies!

I am quite picky when it comes to adaptations of I Am Legend by Richard Matheson. In my opinion none of them have captured the essence of the novel, even the one which Matheson wrote the screenplay for. That adaptation is 1964's Last Man on Earth from Robert Lippert and distributed in America by American International Pictures. It was a co-production with an Italian film outfit where it was shot. According to Matheson the screenplay was developed for Hammer Films but they had to back out of the project when the censors got frosty after the bloody Curse of Frankenstein and Horror of Dracula. He had his credit changed to "Logan Swanson" when he felt the project was drifiting away from his preferences. What we get is a pretty close version of the plot of a man stranded alone in his house battling zombie-like vampires which congregate at this door every night. We follow his struggle to remain and sane and we see him try to make contact with other living things which do appear in time. It has the proper dour ending which the novel intended. The problem is Vincent Price, an outstanding actor but terribly miscast in the role of Neville (changed to "Morgan" in the movie). Price is just too sophisticated for the role which demands an earthier type. Further the protagonist of I Am Legend is not a scientist but must become one during the story. This adaptation like all the rest make him a researcher to begin with which dillutes much of his ignorant struggles with the changed world that makes up much of the novel. 

In 1971 we get that earthier hero in Charlton Heston in The Omega Man. The problem this time is the writers apparently thought that vampires were passe and decided to make Neville's opponents (he keeps his name at least) would be more interesting as albino luddites in sparkly black robes who become deranged as the disease takes them over. This one though is filled with all sorts of hope and promise at the end as we get a flotilla of small kids who we are pretty certain are not going to be killed by the enemy. Not in a major movie in 1971. Instead of Matheson's theme though, we get a Jesus Christ allegory which is interesting as far as it goes but again is not I Am Legend. The notion that Neville can redeem the world was the furthest thing from Matheson's mind when he wrote the novel. 

They remade The Omega Man in 2007 and stuck wannabe action hero Will Smith in the role of Neville. Despite the first use of the original title I Am Legend this movie strays from the novel because its source was not the novel really. The vampires are part of the fast-moving zombie hordes which have littered horror films in the last many years. I found fast zombies terrifying in Danny Boyle's 28 Days Later and fascinating in World War Z, but they are a big fail in this movie. For one thing the SFX used to bring them to "life" seems lacking somehow, making the creatures feel more animated than real. Once again Neville is a researcher who is able to offer hope to the world by the end of the narrative and I know that Hollywood craves that, but that's not the point of Matheson's novel. 

Weirdly the atmosphere and thematic heft of I Am Legend is found of all places in a movie which is not an official adaptation. 1968's Night of the Living Dead was inspired in part by Matheson's story according to director George Romero. This is not a story of Neville in any way, but the feeling of helplessness and of pitiful ignorance which informs Neville for much of I Am Legend is here in spades. The zombies or ghouls are very similar, they have the listless aimless but unrelenting quality that Matheson gave to his vampires in the novel. Our "heroes" are regular people who must come to grips with themselves before they can effectively fend off the outside threat. Since they never do the former, the grim outcome is inevitable. The forces which appear at the end do not bring salvation but destruction. 

So I wait still for a proper adaptation of I Am Legned. With Matheson gone I doubt I will ever see such a thing. But it would be neat if it happened. 

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I Am Legend - The Comic Book!

I confess that I really wanted to like the comic book adaptation of I Am Legend better than I did. I have such enormous affection (weirdly) for the novel that I figured that would translate to this adaptation originally from Eclipse Comics in 1991. 

While his name is not on the cover Steve Niles was responsible for adapting the novel. Much of the original material by Richard Matheson is still present (hence his name on the original editions of the comics) but breaking down the story for an artist was Niles job. 

The artist is Elman Brown, not a talent I have any experience with. It is Brown's art which holds me back on this project. He's a talented artist, but his exceedingly scratchy style is not to my liking. His version of Neville seems too broad, too much of the comic world for me too. This project calls out for a different aesthetic. I don't want to be harsh, but I would have like to see art with more depth and more atmosphere.  

I can't find fault with the story told. It's complete and touches on most of the main themes of the novel which is not all that long actually. Somehow this adaptation leaves me cold, but I suppose that's not the worst thing to say about a story filled with vampires. 

I read the story in its collected edition from IDW which was released in anticipation of the movie I Am Legend starring Will Smith. I'll have more on that film and other film versions of the novel tomorrow. 

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I Am Legend!

I first stumbled across Richard Matheson's classic 1954 novel I Am Legend when I got it through the Scholastic paperback program at my school. I think my first version of the book was the Omega Man tie-in with Charlton Heston on the cover. The book blew me away. Neville's characters is so specifically developed and the secrets of the vampires are uncovered with meticulous detail. It's a book that rewards careful reading and re-reading. 

As I read it again this time, I was struck how different Neville is from any of the film versions which have popped up over the decades. (I'll have more to say about specific movies in a later post.) For all of the adaptations, one even using the original title, none of them effectively transmit Neville's complex character. He's not crazy because he is taking sensible precautions to protect himself from mobs of vampires who descend upon him every night. 

The story begins five months after the fall of society generally in 1975. (Ironically, about the same time I was reading the book for the first time.) Neville is still adapting to his isolation and depending much too much on liquor to medicate his stress. He is a modern-day Robinson Crusoe who lives alone in the middle of a once well populated region, but who now must spend his days working to keep himself alive and simultaneously seeking to kill the vampires which plague him. 

We follow Neville across three years (with some jumps) as he deals with the threats to his safety, his sanity and his memories of those he loved. We see him open his heart when he finds another living creature, we see him fight hard to keep his heart closed when he might have found another living person. Neville is not an easy man, but rather a hard man who comes to late to value the things which life gives us today in abundance. But in a world overrun by vampires and the undead, these things become ever more valuable. 

Tomorrow, I take a look at the comic book adaptation. 

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The Night Stalkers!

The Night Stalker starring Darrn McGavin is probably my favorite TV movie for sure and just might be my favorite movie all time. I never tire of watching it. The idea of putting a gothic horror like a vampire among the brightly lit streets of 70's Las Vegas is too fetching to resist. While that Las Vegas has mostly gone, like nearly all the folks who made this 1971 film happen, the flick still resonates, giving the viewer a peek into the nighttime world that makes Vegas so alluring and dangerous. As the story points out, Las Vegas is a city of strangers, and a predator of humans could well thrive within its borders. The prey is abundant and too naive to hide. This is the first movie to give us a look at Pete Rice's creation of Carl Kolchak, a brave reporter who hearkens to an earlier age when the truth mattered. That such a time likely never existed makes Kolchak all the more potent as an agent for the viewer to penetrate the unknown. Kolchak goes where angels fear to tread and no politician can even imagine. Kolchak penetrates are darkest heart and with his cheap flash camera brings those deadly secrets to life. 

 As good as The Night Stalker is, he sequel The Night Strangler written by Richard Matheson is much like but fails to be original enough to distinguish it from its predecessor. Kolchak is back and he finds infatuation if not live this time beneath the streets of Seattle. Again, there is work to bring the reality of the city onto the small screen but alas the city for all its charm lacks the vivacity of Las Vegas. Instead of a vampire Kolchak must battle against an alchemist from the mists of history. Highlights in this production are JoAnne Pflug and Wally Cox. Let me hasten to add that the debut film as well was superbly cast with the likes of Claude Akins and Kent Smith adding zest to a taut tale. 

Following the success of the two television movies a series seemed logical. Compared to the excellent movies, I've always rather found the episodes wanting, but on this viewing their virtues became evident. The wit which informed the movies is still very much in evidence. Kolchak's relentless pursuit of the truth is undiminished if his motivations seem garbled at times. Often, he pursues as story which will never be published because he seems to have set himself up as a protector of society. The range of threats is pretty wide. We of course get another vampire (connected to the first which was nice), a werewolf, a ghost or two, a zombie, a swamp monster, and such. But also, there are aliens and robots and energy creatures which made for some fascinating tales. Another very entertaining aspect was the wide variety of police officials Kolchak had to contend with, ranging from the naive to the cantankerous to downright conniving. Some were honest some were not, but they all seemed to be a great foil for Kolchak's hijinks. But truth told it was easy to see that after a mere twenty episodes the premise was weakening, and we are probably better off now that Darren McGavin's Carl Kolchak left the small screen with us wanting more. 

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The Kolchak Papers

One of the most significant vampire stories in the history of the genre was never published. At least it wasn't until after it was also filmed for television and then released in conjunction with that production. Of course, I mean The Kolchak Papers by Jeff Rice, a novel better known as The Night Stalker. The Night Stalker shook up the horror fan universe when it hit the small screen bringing with it big thrills and one of the most memorable vampire hunters of all time. Van Helsing had nothing Carl Kolchak, a throwback relentless reporter who sought the truth even more doggedly than the story, though he'd likely deny that himself. 

In the era of Watergate and the Vietnam War when trust in the power structures ws at all epic low, an indefatigable enemy of deceit and cant was a welcome white knight, even if he did wear a low-rent seersucker suit and a bedraggled straw hat. What Kolchak represented in Rice's novel and in the TV show as well was a call for truth and accountability on the part of those who purported to lead us. The bogus concerns over public panic merely a dodge to help powerful men keep powerful positions seemed the essence of what foul leadership had become in America in the 70's. (Sadly it's only gotten worse I have to say.) 

The vampire in the story is an enemy to be confronted, but only on the terms it demanded, by confronting the truth that the world was deeper and darker than popular myths espoused. Carl Kolchak was also a man who sought his own success, but he was not one who cared so little for his fellow man that he'd get that success regardless. Kolchak at once an everyman, relatable, but then also a hero who is courageous even when he's scared spitless. He's what we want to be, but all too often aren't. 

This story set in the riotous world of vintage Las Vegas slams the dark gothic myths of yore right up against the neon lights of today. It says that monsters are not safely tucked away in Grimm's fairy tales and horror novels, but right out among us. We are not safe, and we must first recognize that fact before we can become even a jot safer. And it's up to us to do it. I really enjoy this book, which offers a somewhat more contrite and complicated Kolchak than Darren McGavin delightfully treated us to.

Also included in the Moonstone edition of The Kolchak Papers is the novelization of The Night Strangler. Ironically Richard Matheson adapted The Night Stalker from Rice's novel and then it was left for Rice to turn Matheson's script for the sequel into novel form. Aside from a more elaborate romance the Kolchak sequel adheres very closely to the television movie.  

But some Jeff Rice might have stolen his story for The Night Stalker. More on that tomorrow. 

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Legions Of Monsters

Apparently, the late great Neal Adams hated the image above. This painting featuring Dracula, Frankenstein's Monster and the Manphibian was the cover for Legion of Monsters #1, a last gasp attempt by Mighty Marvel to mine the black and white magazine horror market. Adams says the perspective doesn't make sense, but despite his expert reservations I love it. Not only does it have the typical power of an Adams image but it's brimming with atmosphere. It is emblematic of that time in the early 70's when comics had slipped off some of the restrictions of the Comics Code (though that code never held sway over magazines) and let loose with a cavalcade of creatures to chill the comic reading soul. I want to take a gambol through some of those mighty monsters with special attention to vampires. 

The centerpiece of my reading this month is the Tomb of Dracula series which has been reprinted a few times over the decades. I'm using the four Essential volumes which gather both the color comic as well as the Drac features from sundry black and white mags. There is no doubt that Dracula is "Lord of the Vampires" at Marvel. 

First up will be a look at the unfinished Bronze Age adaptation of the original Bram Stoker novel Dracula by Roy Thomas and Dick Giordano. They were only to get about half the novel done back in the 70's but a few decades later they were at long last able to wrap up this intense look at the peculiar story that launched a thousand bats. 

One of Dracula's most implacable foes is Blade the Vampire Slayer. Blade has gone on to have a pretty successful film career with Wesley Snipes in the role, but before that he was fighting bloodsuckers in Vampire Tales and elsewhere. He's certainly worth a glimpse. 

It's almost impossible to deal with Dracula without giving a shoutout to that other vintage classic monster, the one assembled by the notorious Doctor Frankenstein. Frankenstein's Monster had a hectic and rather bizarre career in the 70's and I want to give a looksee as well. 

Deathlok is often categorized as a science fiction superhero series, but I think reading it with an eye towards horror will be instructive. Like the original Frankenstein, a novel which is considered by many the genesis of science fiction, Deathlok is a rather rugged modern reinvention of returning the dead to a form of life. 

Dracula wasn't Marvel's first vampire. That dishonor goes to Morbius, a science-based bloodsucker first forged in the pages of The Amazing Spider-Man. He went on to have his own series in Adventures in Fear, in fact like Dracula he was active in both the color comics as well as the black and white in the pages of Vampire Tales and elsewhere. They made a movie about Morbius recently and that too will get some attention. 

Morbius had a furry companion, the bizarre Man-Wolf. The son of Spidey nemesis J. Jonah Jameson, the Man-Wolf too debuted in ASM and wen to have a most unpredictable career in the pages of Creatures on the Loose. A young George Perez cut his teeth on this title. 

Another hirsute hero from Marvel in the 70's The Beast. Hank McCoy late of the then defunct X-Men gets a job as a scientist and goes all Dr. Jekyll on himself causing his mutation to sprout a robust pelt of gray fur (later they changed it to blue/black). This is another of Marvel's series from Amazing Adventures that seemed to straddle the superhero and horror genres. 

Another was Tigra which had the delectable Greer Nelson who had a small superhero career as The Cat get caught up in the intrigues of a cat-worshipping cult and before you know it, she's furry and ferocious. She's gone on to be a very recognizable part of Marvel's universe. And that brings up another gorgeous but very scary dame. 

Vampirella was the absolute queen of 70's horror comics. She was the creation of Forry Ackerman and Tom Sutton as a marginally comedic hostess like Uncle Creepy and Cousin Eerie, but before long Archie Goodwin and Sutton and later definitive artist Jose Gonzalez made her into a ravishing vamp in all sense of that word. Along with Dracula, Vampi will be showing up on the weekends as I work through some of her early misadventures from Warren Magazines. 

The 70's produced some intriguing fictional works or adaptations of same. My absolute favorite is The Kolchak Papers which spawned The Night Stalker movies and series. There's a debate that an earlier novel Progeny of the Adder was a big influence on the Kolchak material. I've at long last gotten a copy of Progeny of the Adder and I will render my opinion. I am Legend has been adapted to the big screen many times (once in the 70's) but none are better than the original 50's novel. There's a comic book adaptation too and that will get a glance. And finally, I will finally climb the mighty Stephen King vampire epic from 1975 titled Salem's Lot. I've made earlier attempts to read this novel, the only King novel I've much interest in and now I will make that trip for certain. 

If there's room, I'd like to fit in some witchery as well. First with Archie's resident witch the fetching Sabrina, a character who has had a number of versions over the many decades since her creation. Some of those quite scary. 

And finally, in the "Showcase Corner" I'm taking on The Witching Hour, one of DC's early 70's horror anthologies. This one features some delicious art by Alex Toth who designed the trio of witches - Mildred, Modred and the curvaceous Cynthia. Classic stuff with an offbeat sexy twist. 

That's a lot to do and maybe I'll not make it, but I sure want to give a go. We're Counting Down to Halloween here at the Dojo and I'm eager to see how it all turns out. 

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Dojo Classics - The Incredible Shrinking Man!

This Universal classic is one of those movies I've seen so many times that I forget to really watch it. This time however, it had been long enough since I'd seen it last to make the experience somewhat fresh. I was most impressed.

The first thing most folks will point to in this movie is the special effects, and they are impressive. The out-sized props are wonderful to see as Scott Carey continues to diminish and world becomes more and more alien and dangerous to him. But what really struck me this time was the psychology of the man himself.

Scott Carey as played by Grant Williams is a happily married man who while on holiday comes into contact with a mysterious mist which turns out to radioactive. Many months later contact with a pesticide triggers a transformation in him and he begins to grow smaller and smaller. Doctors are able to stabilize him for a short time, but eventually his shrinking results in him becoming a six inch man living in doll house on his living room floor. A moment's carelessness and he is assaulted by the family cat and sent flying into the basement. Thought dead, he is left alone in the basement universe to fend for himself and how he copes with those challenges are what showcase the film's greatest moments.


Carey's mental state wears down as his body gives way on him. And the comparison to less exotic diseases is easy to make. When Carey becomes approximately the size of a small human, that is when the movie makes its few mistakes. The use of a normal-sized human being to pretend to be the midget Clarice (April Kent) and potential (momentary) love interest for Carey has always fallen on its face for me. The movie is reasonably tough in many of its presentations, but fails here to deal head on with the very theme it purports to explore.

On a brighter note, I was really impressed this time with Louise Carey played by Randy Stuart. Her dedication to her husband, despite his self-admitted tyranny over her is remarkable. I've heard the cliche that two people "grow apart" too much to take it seriously, or as little other than an excuse. But in this film, it is literally the case, and it's tragic to watch.

Carey's slow and steady coming to terms with his destiny is what elevates this movie. It becomes in its final sequences a truly transcendent heroic saga, and he becomes a creature unlike us, yet so similar that we feel what he feels as he melts into the very landscape around. His ego is literally obliterated as he becomes part of the larger world.

Good stuff, and Richard Matheson's script based on his own novel is well up to the challenge. And Jack Arnold's direction is efficient and effective. This is a subtle movie about serious stuff, but sadly it gets tossed in with other less serious efforts all the time. It's as good as they get.

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