|
Witchcraft (1964 Film)
''Witchcraft'' (also known as ''Witches and Warlocks'') is a 1964 British horror film directed by Don Sharp and starring Lon Chaney Jr., Jack Hedley and Jill Dixon. The script was written by Harry Spalding. Plot In the 17th century, in order to take over the Whitlock family's properties, the rival Lanier family accused Vanessa Whitlock of witchcraft and had her buried alive. As a consequence, the Whitlocks still maintain a bitter hatred of the Laniers to the present day. However, two young descendants, Amy Whitlock and Todd Lanier, fall in love with each other regardless of the objections of Amy's stern uncle, Morgan Whitlock. Todd is a business associate of his older brother Bill Lanier. They are building developers who plan to transform and renovate the old Whitlock estate. Without their knowledge, their business partner Myles Forrester instructs his workers to bulldoze over headstones and graves in the old Whitlock Cemetery, enraging Morgan Whitlock. From an exhumed grave em ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Don Sharp
Donald Herman Sharp (19 April 192114 December 2011) was an Australian film director. His best known films were made for Hammer Film Productions, Hammer in the 1960s, and included ''Kiss of the Vampire (film), Kiss of the Vampire'' (1963) and ''Rasputin, the Mad Monk'' (1966). In 1965 he directed ''The Face of Fu Manchu'', based on the character created by Sax Rohmer, and starring Christopher Lee. Sharp also directed the sequel ''The Brides of Fu Manchu'' (1966). In the 1980s he was also responsible for several hugely popular miniseries adapted from the novels of Barbara Taylor Bradford. Early career Early life Sharp was born in Hobart, Tasmania, in 1921, according to official military records and his own account (some sources still give 1922 as his year of birth). He was the second of four children. He attended St Virgil's College and began appearing regularly in theatre productions at the Playhouse Theatre in Hobart, where he trained under a young Stanley Burbury. He later sa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Yvette Rees
Yvette Rees, (22 May 1924 Swansea, Wales – 1993 in Ealing, London) born Eiros Yvette Rees, was a Welsh actress who appeared in many TV series and several noteworthy films in the 1960s. She trained at RADA, and graduated in 1949. In the mid-1970s she moved to Australia where she continued to work on TV and film until 1979 when she appears to have retired. She is perhaps best remembered for her memorable role in 1964's ''Witchcraft'' as the witch Vanessa Whitlock who returns from the grave to avenge being buried alive several hundred years previously. Yvette is also the grandmother of stuntman Ben Smith-Petersen. Through her son Simon, who also worked in TV and cinema. She was married to Morten Smith-Petersen. Films and TV *1960: '' The Days of Vengeance'' (TV Series) – Mrs. Collins *1960: '' Here Lies Miss Sabry'' (TV Series) – Janet *1962: '' Out of This World'' (TV Series) – Mrs. Chalmers *1960-1962: ''Dixon of Dock Green'' (TV Series) – Carol Small / Lil *1963: ''Susp ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
British Film Institute
The British Film Institute (BFI) is a film and television charitable organisation which promotes and preserves filmmaking and television in the United Kingdom. The BFI uses funds provided by the National Lottery to encourage film production, distribution, and education. It is sponsored by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, and partially funded under the British Film Institute Act 1949. Activities Purpose The BFI was established in 1933 to encourage the development of the arts of film, television and the moving image throughout the United Kingdom, to promote their use as a record of contemporary life and manners, to promote education about film, television and the moving image generally, and their impact on society, to promote access to and appreciation of the widest possible range of British and world cinema and to establish, care for and develop collections reflecting the moving image history, heritage and culture of the United Kingdom. Archive The BFI maintain ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Midnite Movies
''Midnite Movies'' is a line of B movies released first on VHS and later on DVD by MGM Home Entertainment. The line was launched by MGM in March 2001 following its acquisition of Orion Pictures, which bought out Filmways, the owner of American International Pictures. AIP had a library of B movies from the 1950s and 1960s that were primarily science fiction, horror, and exploitation films. The ''Midnite Movies'' collection was primarily derived from the AIP library (including most of Roger Corman and Vincent Price's horror films), but also included films from other MGM-owned libraries, namely United Artists, Cannon Films, and Empire International Pictures; films from Hammer Film Productions and Amicus Productions were also licensed and released under the banner. The DVDs were first released as single films, but most later releases would be double features on single double-sided discs. The "Midnite Movies" line continued as MGM Home Entertainment switched distributors twic ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Devils Of Darkness
''Devils of Darkness'' is a 1965 British horror film directed by Lance Comfort and starring William Sylvester, Hubert Noël and Carole Gray. It was written by Lyn Fairhurst. It was the last feature film directed by Comfort. Plot Count Sinistre was put to death in the sixteenth century for his evil deeds, but rose from the dead. He later killed gypsy girl Tania, whom he then raised from the tomb and married. In 1964 he attacks again, at a small village where Paul Baxter and friends are on holiday. He murders three of Baxter's friends. Baxter, initially sceptical of the supernatural nature of the killings, becomes suspicious and stays in town with a talisman belonging to Sinistre taken from the scene of one of the murders. Sinistre pursues Baxter in an attempt to recover the talisman and murders Baxter's acquaintances along the way. Cast * William Sylvester as Paul Baxter * Hubert Noël as Count Sinistre * Carole Gray as Tania * Tracy Reed as Karen Steele * Diana Decker a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
DVD Region Code
DVD region codes are a digital rights management technique introduced in 1997. It is designed to allow rights holders to control the international distribution of a DVD release, including its content, release date, and price, all according to the appropriate region. This is achieved by way of region-locked DVD players, which will play back only DVDs encoded to their region (plus those without any region code). The American DVD Copy Control Association also requires that DVD player manufacturers incorporate the Regional Playback Control (RPC) system. However, region-free DVD players, which ignore region coding, are also commercially available, and many DVD players can be modified to be region-free, allowing playback of all discs. DVDs may use one code, multiple codes (multi-region), or all codes (region free). Region codes and countries Any combination of regions can be applied to a single disc. For example, a DVD designated Region 2/4 is suitable for playback in Europe, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Leslie Halliwell
Robert James Leslie Halliwell (23 February 1929 – 21 January 1989) was a British film critic, encyclopaedist and television rights buyer for ITV, the British commercial network, and Channel 4. He is best known for his reference guides, '' Filmgoer's Companion'' (1965), a single volume film-related encyclopaedia featuring biographies (with credits) and technical terms, and ''Halliwell's Film Guide'' (1977), which is dedicated to individual films. Anthony Quinton wrote in the '' Times Literary Supplement'': "Immersed in the enjoyment of these fine books, one should look up for a moment to admire the quite astonishing combination of industry and authority in one man which has brought them into existence." Halliwell's promotion of the cinema through his books and seasons of "golden oldies'"on Channel 4 won him awards from the London Film Critics' Circle, the British Film Institute and a posthumous BAFTA.''Broadcast'' magazine, 28 June 1985. Early life Born in Bolton, Lancashir ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Variety (magazine)
''Variety'' is an American trade magazine owned by Penske Media Corporation. It was founded by Sime Silverman in New York City in 1905 as a weekly newspaper reporting on theater and vaudeville. In 1933, ''Daily Variety'' was launched, based in Los Angeles, to cover the film industry, motion-picture industry. ''Variety'' website features entertainment news, reviews, box office results, plus a credits database, production charts and film calendar. History Founding ''Variety'' has been published since December 16, 1905, when it was launched by Sime Silverman as a weekly periodical covering theater and vaudeville, with its headquarters in New York City. Silverman had been fired by ''The Morning Telegraph'' in 1905 for panning an act which had taken out an advert for $50. He subsequently decided to start his own publication that, he said, would "not be influenced by advertising." With a loan of $1,500 from his father-in-law, he launched ''Variety'' as publisher and editor. In additi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Val Lewton
Val Lewton (May 7, 1904 – March 14, 1951) was a Russian-American novelist, film producer, and screenwriter best known for a string of low-budget horror films he produced for RKO Pictures in the 1940s. His son, also named Val Lewton, was a painter and exhibition designer. Lewton was born in Yalta, Imperial Russia, and immigrated to the United States with his family in 1909. He began his career as a writer, producing novels, including the best-selling pulp novel ''No Bed of Her Own''. Lewton worked as a writer and publicist for MGM before being named head of RKO's horror unit in 1942. His first production, '' Cat People'', became a top moneymaker for RKO that year. Lewton produced several successful films, often writing the final draft of the screenplays himself. He gave first directing opportunities to Robert Wise and Mark Robson and worked with Boris Karloff, who credited Lewton with saving his career. After leaving RKO, Lewton worked for Paramount and MGM, producing various ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Monthly Film Bulletin
The ''Monthly Film Bulletin'' was a periodical of the British Film Institute published monthly from February 1934 until April 1991, when it merged with '' Sight & Sound''. It reviewed all films on release in the United Kingdom, including those with a narrow arthouse release. History The ''Monthly Film Bulletin'' was edited in the mid-1950s by David Robinson, in the late 1950s and early 1960s by Peter John Dyer, and then by Tom Milne. By the end of the 1960s, when the character and tone of its reviews changed considerably with the arrival of a new generation of critics influenced by the student culture and intellectual tumult of the time (not least the overthrow of old ideas of "taste" and quality), David Wilson was the editor. It was then edited by Jan Dawson (1938 – 1980), for two years from 1971, and from 1973 until its demise by the New Zealand-born critic Richard Combs. In 1991, the ''Monthly Film Bulletin'' was merged with '' Sight & Sound'', which had until then be ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Milton Subotsky
Milton Subotsky (September 27, 1921 – June 27, 1991) was an American film and television writer and producer. In 1964, he founded Amicus Productions with Max J. Rosenberg. Amicus means "friend" in Latin. The partnership produced low-budget science fiction and horror films in the United Kingdom. Early life and career Subotsky was born in New York City, to a family of Jewish immigrants. During World War II, he served in the Signal Corps, in which he wrote and edited technical training films. After the war, he began a career as a writer and producer during the 1950s "Golden Age" of television, including the television series '' The Clock'' and '' Lights Out''. In 1954, he wrote and produced the TV series ''Junior Science''. He graduated to film producing '' Rock, Rock, Rock'' (1956), for which he also composed nine songs. Subotsky moved to England; he produced his first horror film, '' The City of the Dead'' (aka, ''Horror Hotel'', 1960), at Shepperton Studios. He was a regu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Kiss Of The Vampire
''Kiss of the Vampire'' (also known as ''Kiss of Evil'' on American television) is a 1963 British vampire film directed by Don Sharp and starring Edward de Souza and Jennifer Daniel. It was written by producer Anthony Hinds (as John Elder) and made by Hammer Film Productions. It was Sharp's first movie for Hammer. He went on to make several more films for the company. Plot Gerald and Marianne Harcourt are a couple honeymooning in early 20th-century Bavaria when their car runs out of petrol. They stop in a small village and opt to stay at the local inn until a cart arrives with more petrol. They accept a dinner invitation from Dr. Ravna, who introduces them to his children Carl and Sabena. At a costume ball at Ravna's chateau, Gerald and Marianne are separated from each other. Donning a mask identical to Gerald's in order to impersonate him, Carl silently leads Marianne to an upstairs bedroom, where Dr. Ravna, a vampire, bites her. Gerald becomes concerned about Ma ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
