1932--The Year in Review

Another landmark year for the horror genre with Vampyr, The Mummy, Island of Lost Souls, The Most Dangerous Game, and James Whale's brilliant The Old Dark House making deep impressions. Still, Tod Browning's truly one-of-a-kind film has to emerge victorious, even over the best of Lubischt, Dreyer, Renoir, Hawks, and von Sternberg. Also a great year for short films with Laurel and Hardy delivering their very finest, narrowly beating out a controversial W.C. Fields short, Shirley Temple's film debut, and an impressive show of early Technicolor in Over The Counter. Over in animation, meanwhile, Disney battles it out with the Fleischers and though Flowers and Trees delivers eye-popping color, it's no match for the powerhouse team of Cab Calloway and Betty Boop. NOTE: These are MY choices for each category, and are in no way reflective of the choices made by the Oscars. 

PICTURE: FREAKS (US, Tod Browning)
(2nd: Vampyr (Denmark, Carl Th. Dreyer), followed by:
Trouble in Paradise (US, Ernst Lubischt)
Scarface, or: The Shame of a Nation (US, Howard Hawks)
Boudu Saved From Drowning (France, Jean Renoir)
The Old Dark House (US, James Whale)
Shanghai Express (US, Josef von Sternberg)
I Am a Fugitive From a Chain Gang (US, Mervyn Le Roy)
Grand Hotel (US, Edmond Goulding)
The Most Dangerous Game (US, Irving Michel and Ernest B. Schoedsack)
Horse Feathers (US, Norman Z. McLeod))



ACTOR: Paul Muni, I AM A FUGITIVE FROM A CHAIN GANG (2nd: Herbert Marshall, Trouble in Paradise, followed by: John Barrymore, Grand Hotel; Michel Simon, Boudu Saved From Drowning; Charles Laughton, Island of Lost Souls; Paul Muni, Scarface, or: The Shame of a Nation) 



ACTRESS: Miriam Hopkins, TROUBLE IN PARADISE (2nd: Marlene Dietrich, Shanghai Express, followed by: Helen Hayes, A Farewell to Arms; Constance Bennett, What Price Hollywood?; Irene Dunne, Back Street)

SUPPORTING ACTOR: Lionel Barrymore, GRAND HOTEL (2nd: Edward Everett Horton, Trouble in Paradise, followed by: George Raft, Scarface, or: The Shame of a Nation; Charles Ruggles, Trouble in Paradise; Ernest Thesiger, The Old Dark House)

SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Eva Moore, THE OLD DARK HOUSE (2nd: Kay Francis, Trouble in Paradise, followed by: Joan Blondell, Three on a Match; Ann Dvorak, Scarface, or: The Shame of a Nation; Mary Astor, Red Dust)

DIRECTOR: Tod Browning, FREAKS (2nd: Carl Th. Dreyer, Vampyr, followed by Ernst Lubischt, Trouble in Paradise; Howard Hawks, Scarface, or: The Shame of a Nation; Jean Renoir, Boudu Saved from Drowning; James Whale, The Old Dark House)

SCREENPLAY: Samson Raphaelson and Grover Jones, TROUBLE IN PARADISE (2nd: Rene Fauchois, Boudu Saved From Drowning, followed by: Ben Hecht, Seaton I. Miller, John Lee Mahin, W.R. Burnett, Scarface, or: The Shame of a Nation; Vicki Baum, Grand Hotel; Clarence Aaron "Tod" Robbins, Freaks; Harry Hervey and Jules Furthman, Shanghai Express)

LIVE ACTION SHORT FILM: THE MUSIC BOX (James Parrott) (2nd: The Dentist (Leslie Pierce), County Hospital (James Parrott); Over the Counter (Jack Cummings); War Babies (Charles Lamont))



ANIMATED SHORT FILM: MINNIE THE MOOCHER (Dave Fleischer) (2nd: Flowers and Trees (Walt Disney and Burt Gillet); Oh How I Hate to Get Up in the Morning (Dave Fleischer); Mickey's Nightmare (Walt Disney and Burt Gillet); Boop Oop a Doop (Dave Fleischer))

CINEMATOGRAPHY: Rudolf Mate and Louis Nee, VAMPYR (2nd: Lee Garmes and James Wong Howe, Shanghai Express, followed by: William H. Daniels, Grand Hotel; Arthur Edeson, The Old Dark House; Karl Struss, The Sign of the Cross)

ART DIRECTION: SHANGHAI EXPRESS, The Sign of the Cross, Grand Hotel, Trouble in Paradise

COSTUME DESIGN: SHANGHAI EXPRESS, The Sign of the Cross, Trouble in Paradise, Grand Hotel

MAKEUP: THE MUMMY, Island of Lost Souls, Freaks, The Old Dark House

10 Scary Possibilities for Halloween

For Halloween, 2010, I offer clips (and, thus, suggestions) of the most mortifying cinematic offerings out there. Gird your loins, and here we go (and spoilers abound so BE WARNED):


JIGOKU (Nobuo Nakagawa, 60).
It's scarier without the subtitles, this unbelievable preview for a bloody tour through Hell. Watch it only if you're brave.


QUATERMASS AND THE PIT/FIVE MILLION YEARS TO EARTH (Roy Ward Baker, 67).
This trailer chronicles the path to an ultimate destination for the Brits' famed Professor Quatermass, finally faced with more than he can handle in this masterpiece of sci-fi/horror from the recently deceased Hammer veteran Roy Ward Baker. This is a must for any horror fan.


THEATER OF BLOOD (Douglas Hickox, 73).
A truly magnificent fan-made trailer for Vincent Price's greatest performance on screen. Michael J. Lewis' brilliant theme music takes center stage here. See this one for smarts, laffs, and scares.


HOUR OF THE WOLF (Ingmar Bergman, 68).
A brilliantly constructed trailer for Bergman's one true horror film. As you might expect, there's nothing like it out there.


RINGU (Hideo Nakata, 98).
The incredible cursed videotape, in its entirety.


THE OLD DARK HOUSE (James Whale, 32).
Houseguest Gloria Stuart is put through the ringer by nasty Eva Moore in this radical scare scene from horror master James Whale.


TARGETS (Peter Bogdanovich, 68).
Boris Karloff, as near-retirement horror star Byron Orlock, tells a frightening tale. In its last moments, director/writer Bogdanovich told Karloff to concentrate on the idea of his own death. Karloff did the scene in one take, to crew applause. His final seconds here, pondering his own upcoming time in the grave, cemented Karloff's standing as the continuing King of Horror.


AT MIDNIGHT, I'LL TAKE YOUR SOUL (Jose Mojica Marins, 64).
An opening credits sequence that'll curdle the blood before the story even begins. That Coffin Joe! What a character!


PHANTASM (Don Coscarelli, 79).
While prowling the Morningside Funeral Home, Michael Baldwin tries to escape from the mysterious, evil Silver Sphere. It may look funny here, but it's horrifying in the context of this relentlessly unsettling film.


IMAGES (Robert Altman, 72).
Susannah York won Best Actress at Cannes in '72 for playing this extremely unbalanced author on holiday with her husband...or...whoever it is. You'll know immediately this is a horror film: simply listen to John Williams' singular, Oscar-nominated score. This movie, and York's screams, will prevent you from sleep.