Horror Master Wes Craven on This Day in History

This day in history: American film director, screenwriter and producer Wes Craven was born on this day in 1939. Craven has commonly been recognized as one of the greatest masters of the horror genre, particularly slasher films, where he mixed horror cliches with humor and satire.

Craven created the A Nightmare on Elm Street franchise (1984–2010), specifically writing and directing the first film, co-writing and producing the third, A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors (1987), and writing and directing the seventh, Wes Craven's New Nightmare (1994). He additionally directed the first four films in the Scream franchise (1996–2011). He also directed cult classics The Last House on the Left (1972) and The Hills Have Eyes (1977), Deadly Friend (1986), The People Under the Stairs (1991), and psychological thriller Red Eye (2005). His other notable films include Swamp Thing (1982), The Serpent and the Rainbow (1988), Shocker (1989), Vampire in Brooklyn (1995) and My Soul to Take (2010).

Throughout his career, Craven was nominated for and won numerous awards, including multiple Saturn Awards and several film festival honors.

In 1977, Craven won the critics award at the Sitges Film Festival for his horror film The Hills Have Eyes. In 1997, the Gérardmer Film Festival granted him the Grand Prize for the slasher film Scream. In 2012, the New York City Horror Film Festival awarded Craven the Lifetime Achievement Award.

Craven died of a brain tumor at his home in Los Angeles on August 30, 2015, aged 76. Many actors and fellow directors paid tribute to him, including David Arquette, Adrienne Barbeau, Angela Bassett, Bruce Campbell, Heather Langenkamp, Neve Campbell, John Carpenter, Courteney Cox, Joe Dante, Johnny Depp, Robert Englund, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Lloyd Kaufman, Jamie Kennedy, Rose McGowan, Kristy Swanson, Edgar Wright, and Amanda Wyss. The tenth episode of the horror television series Scream and the fifth film in the franchise (2022) were dedicated in his memory.

"Some people ask why people would go into a dark room to be scared. I say they are already scared, and they need to have that fear manipulated and massaged. I think of horror movies as the disturbed dreams of a society." Wes Craven

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Horror Actor Vincent Price on This Day in History

 

Vincent Price reading the Raven 

This Day In History: Horror actor Vincent Price died on this day in 1993, fittingly in the Halloween season. His biggest movie was perhaps "House of Wax" in 1953, but I was first introduced to him in the Canadian children's television program The Hilarious House of Frightenstein (1971). He was also on Alice Cooper's "Welcome to my Nightmare" though most now know him for Thriller. He made less that $1000 for his work on Michael Jackson's Thriller, and when the album became huge he expressed frustration over his meager paycheck.

The ten most iconic horror films starring Vincent Price are:

The Last Man on Earth (1964)

The Fly (1958)

The Abominable Dr. Phibes (1971)

House of Wax (1953)

House On Haunted Hill (1959)

The Tingler (1959)

House of Usher (1960)

Theater of Blood (1973)

Witchfinder General (1968)

and Twice-Told Tales (1963)

On a lighter side, "There are a number of cooking books published by Price, who was said to be an excellent gourmet chef. The majority of these books were written with his wife, and their success lead to Price’s own cooking show, Cooking Price-Wise with Vincent Price. It ran for six weeks." Source

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The Worst Filmmaker of All Time on This Day in History

 
Plan 9  (Colorized)

This Day in History: Filmmaker Ed Wood was born on this day in 1924. When the Golden Turkey Awards was published in 1980, it declared Ed Wood's movie "Plan 9 from Outer Space" (1956) the worst film of all time. This rating then gave Ed Wood's film new life and a new following as a result. There was also an Ed Wood movie in 1994 starring Johnny Depp as a result. Wood's 1953 movie "Glen or Glenda" was also considered one the worst movies of the 1950's. 

At the time of his death in 1978, Ed Wood's name and career had become so obscure that most local Los Angeles newspapers, including the entertainment magazine Variety, didn't run an obituary about him.

Since then many other bad movies have been made, and some that are considered the worst are Gigli (2003), The Room (2003), Epic Movie (2007), I Know Who Killed Me (2007), The Last Airbender (2010), Jack and Jill (2011), That's My Boy (2012) Dirty Grandpa (2016), Cats (2019) etc.  

Some of the worst modern filmmakers are Renny Harlin (Cutthroat Island, The Adventures of Ford Fairlane), Uwe Boll (BloodRayne, Postal) and Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer (Meet the Spartans, Vampires Suck).

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Film Legend Buster Keaton on This Day in History

 

This day in history: American actor, comedian and filmmaker Buster Keaton was born on this day in 1895. He is best known for his silent film work, in which his trademark was physical comedy accompanied by a stoic, deadpan expression that earned him the nickname "The Great Stone Face". Critic Roger Ebert wrote of Keaton's "extraordinary period from 1920 to 1929" when he "worked without interruption" as having made him "the greatest actor-director in the history of the movies". In 1996, Entertainment Weekly recognized Keaton as the seventh-greatest film director, and in 1999 the American Film Institute ranked him as the 21st-greatest male star of classic Hollywood cinema.

"In the 1920s CGI didn’t exist, so actors either had to hire stuntpeople or do their own stunts; Keaton chose the latter. One of his most remarkable stunts was done in the 1928 feature film Steamboat Bill, Jr., where a 4000-pound facade of a house fell on the actor. 'Keaton’s position on the ground had to line up exactly with an open window in the top of the house; thankfully for him, it did,' The Guardian wrote. However, Keaton did injure himself a few times.

On the set of The Electric House (1922), he broke his ankle. On Sherlock Jr. (1924), Keaton broke his neck—and somehow he didn't even realize it. A water spout knocked him unconscious on train tracks, and despite suffering from headaches, he didn’t know the extent of the damage until years later when an X-ray revealed the breakage." Source 

In 1965, Keaton starred in the short film The Railrodder for the National Film Board of Canada. He traveled from one end of Canada to the other on a motorized handcar, wearing his traditional pork pie hat and performing gags similar to those in films that he made 50 years before. The film is also notable for being his last silent screen performance.

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Scream Queen Janet Leigh on This Day in History

 

This day in history: Actress Janet Leigh died on this day in 2004. She is best known for her role in Psycho making her one of the earliest Scream Queens. Her daughter, Jamie Lee Curtis became the Scream Queen for a later generation, and they both appeared in 2 horror movies together: The Fog and Halloween H20.

According to ETOnline the top 10 Scream Queens are:

Jamie Lee Curtis (several Halloween movies, The Fog, Prom Night, Terror Train)

Neve Campbell (the Scream series)

Sarah Michelle Gellar (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, I Know What You Did Last Summer, the Grudge)

Vera Farmiga (The Conjuring, Bates Motel)

Danielle Harris (Halloween 4 and 5, Hatchet, etc)

Sarah Paulson (American Horror Story, Bird Box, Glass)

Chloe Grace Moretz (The Amityville Horror, Wicked Little Things, Let Me In, Carrie)

Taissa Farmiga (American Horror Story, The Nun)

Anya Taylor-Joy (The Witch, Split, Glass)

Heather Langkenkamp (A Nightmare on Elm Street series)

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Rin Tin Tin on This Day in History

 

This day in history: Film Star and German Shepherd, Rin Tin Tin, died on this day in 1932. He was rescued from a World War I battlefield by an American soldier, Lee Duncan, who nicknamed him "Rinty". Duncan trained Rin Tin Tin and obtained silent film work for the dog. Rin Tin Tin was an immediate box-office success and went on to appear in 27 Hollywood films, gaining worldwide fame. Along with the earlier canine film star Strongheart, Rin Tin Tin was responsible for greatly increasing the popularity of German Shepherd dogs as family pets. The immense profitability of his films contributed to the success of Warner Bros. studios and helped advance the career of Darryl F. Zanuck from screenwriter to producer and studio executive.

On August 10, 1932, Rin Tin Tin died at Duncan's home on Club View Drive in Los Angeles. Duncan wrote about the death in his unpublished memoir: He heard Rin Tin Tin bark in a peculiar fashion so he went to see what was wrong. He found the dog lying on the ground, moments away from death. Newspapers across the nation carried obituaries. Magazine articles were written about his life, and a special Movietone News feature was shown to movie audiences. In the press, aspects of the death were fabricated in various ways, such as Rin Tin Tin dying on the set of the film Pride of the Legion (where Rin Tin Tin Jr. was working), dying at night, or dying at home on the front lawn in the arms of actress Jean Harlow, who lived on the same street. In a private ceremony, Duncan buried Rin Tin Tin in a bronze casket in his own backyard with a plain wooden cross to mark the location. Duncan was suffering the financial effects of the Great Depression and could not afford a finer burial, nor even his own expensive house. He sold his house and quietly arranged to have the dog's body returned to his country of birth for reburial in the Cimetière des Chiens et Autres Animaux Domestiques, the pet cemetery in the Parisian suburb of Asnières-sur-Seine.

In the United States, his death set off a national response. Regular programming was interrupted by a news bulletin. An hour-long program about Rin Tin Tin played the next day. In a ceremony on February 8, 1960, Rin Tin Tin was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1627 Vine Street.

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Friday the 13th's Jason Voorhees on This Day in History

 

This Day In History: Jason Voorhees from the Friday the 13th movies was apparently born on this day in 1946, although he never actually existed. 

"Born to Elias and Pamela Voorhees on June 13, 1946, Jason was an unfortunate child from the get-go. He suffered with ailments that caused major facial and physical deformities, including hydrocephalus and mental disabilities. Raised in Crystal Lake, Jason spent his time as a boy at Camp Crystal Lake, where his mother worked as a cook. Jason's mother kept him tucked away from the world, isolated and homeschooled because she feared how he'd be treated; she always was marked with a very protective nature. The one time she let him out of her sight, he was placed in the care of camp counselors, who left him unattended and vulnerable when they were off fraternizing and not paying attention to the campers. Bullies at the camp ended up throwing Jason from the docks, resulting in his death by drowning." Source

Jason is not unique in having a birthday though being fictional. Sherlock Holmes, another fictional character. was born January 6 1854; Superman was born April 18, 1938; Michael Myers (Halloween) was born on October 19, 1957 and Harry Potter was born July 31, 1980.

Captain Jean-Luc Picard and the man who played him, Patrick Stewart, were both born on July 13. Stewart in 1940 and Picard in 2305.

Other notable birthdays:

Bugs Bunny: July 27, 1940

Daffy Duck: April 17, 1937

Porky Pig: March 2, 1935

Scooby-Doo: September 13, 1969

Mickey Mouse: Nov 18, 1928

Minnie Mouse: Nov 18, 1928

Daisy Duck: January 9, 1937

Donald Duck: June 9, 1934

Goofy: May 25, 1932

Homer Simpson: May 10, 1955

Sponge Bob Square Pants: May 1, 1999

Winnie the Pooh: October 14, 1926

Pebbles Flintstone: February 22, 1963

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The 1963 Film-Flop CLEOPATRA on This Day in History

 

This day in history: The film Cleopatra, starring Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, was released in US theaters on this day in 1963. Cleopatra is a 1963 American epic historical drama film directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz, with a screenplay adapted by Mankiewicz, Ranald MacDougall and Sidney Buchman from the 1957 book The Life and Times of Cleopatra by Carlo Maria Franzero, and from histories by Plutarch, Suetonius, and Appian. The film stars Elizabeth Taylor in the eponymous role. Richard Burton, Rex Harrison, Roddy McDowall, and Martin Landau are featured in supporting roles. It chronicles the struggles of Cleopatra, the young queen of Egypt, to resist the imperial ambitions of Rome.

Elizabeth Taylor signed on to portray the title role for a record-setting salary of $1 million. It was the most expensive film made at the time. "Cleopatra was the biggest box office success of 1963. It earned nearly $58 million—or, adjusted for inflation, about $484 million. It also lost money, at least until Fox sold the TV rights years later." Source

"...it was a financial disaster for 20th Century Fox. It also more or less killed off the big-budget period epic for ever, just as The Greatest Story Ever Told killed off the biblical epic in 1965, and Heaven's Gate would finally kill off the long-moribund classic studio western in 1980. Flops on this scale are like suicides, they take everyone else down with them." Source

So what was the biggest loser at the box office? It’s a toss-up between Disney’s 2012 sci-fi opus John Carter and 1995's Cutthroat Island by Renny Harlin. "John Carter cost $263.7 million (plus at least $100 million for marketing) and earned only $284 million worldwide — just half what it would have needed to break even...Cutthroat Island reportedly cost $98 million" and "earned $15.7 million worldwide, according to Comscore. It pushed Carolco Pictures into bankruptcy and lost $118 million (adjusted for inflation) according to the Guinness Book of World Records." Source

"Blazing Saddles" on This Day in History

 
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This day in history: Mel Brooks' classic movie "Blazing Saddles" opened in movie theaters on this day in 1974. Blazing Saddles is one of the movies from the past that could not be made today, thanks to its "very particular kind of vulgarity and offensiveness. It is incredibly, hedonistically, politically incorrect vulgarity and offensiveness. Plenty of modern films have included some amount of political incorrectness, but Blazing Saddles leaves them all in the dust in it’s glorious disregard for PC culture." Source

Mel Brooks opined about today's woke culture: "we have become stupidly politically correct, which is the death of comedy. It's okay not to hurt feelings of various tribes and groups. However, it's not good for comedy. Comedy has to walk a thin line, take risks. Comedy is the lecherous little elf whispering into the king's ear, always telling the truth about human behavior."

Ironically, despite efforts to cancel Blazing Saddles, it is also one the most anti-white movies ever made.

Other movies that could not be made today are: 

"Not Without My Daughter" (would be considered Islamophobic)...the same thing True Lies.

Animal House (See https://www.billoreilly.com/b/Animal-House-Couldnt-be-Made-Today/-53125741398281390.html)

Gone With The Wind and Song of the South and The Birth of a Nation (Gone With The Wind was inexplicably banned in the Soviet Union)

Tropic Thunder (or any movie with white characters in Black Face...like Soul Man and Trading Places)

Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (Indians would be too offended)

The Godfather ("The Italian-American Civil Rights League (which was supposedly run by the Mafia) mounted protests throughout New York City claiming the film was an insult against the Italian-American community.") Source

Pretty Woman and Sixteen Candles (Source)

Big (starring Tom Hanks). Source

The Jerk (1979) “I was born a poor black child” 

Woody Allen's Manhattan (or any other movie featuring under-age sex, such as Lolita)

Also, add Airplane! (1980), Caddyshack (1980), Porky’s (1981), Stripes (1981), 48 Hrs. (1982), Partners (1982), Tootsie (1982), The Toy (1982), Mr. Mom (1983), Gremlins (1984), Revenge of the Nerds (1984), Sixteen Candles (1984), Teen Wolf (1985) etc. Source