By James Whittington, 20th June 2023
This month's celebrated Vintage Vault selections on LEGEND are all examples of early franchise horror from the great days of the movies, spanning the thirties and forties.
It was in 1931 that the horror film really came together as a film genre at Universal Pictures, when Tod Browning directed Bela Lugosi as a suavely purring vampire Count in Dracula and James Whale put Boris Karloff in flat head and big boots as the Monster in Frankenstein. After that great one-two, not only was the horror film a viable commercial and artistic property, but the studios began to see the genre as what a later film industry would call a franchise - indeed, an interlocking series of franchises which would eventually prove the template for so much 2020s blockbuster cinema. The first assembly line horror picture might have been The Mummy (1932), a rewrite of Dracula tailored for the star of Frankenstein, adding Egyptian curses and bandaged baddies to the canon of classic monster themes.
Here's the rundown of LEGEND's July premieres...
The Ghoul (1933) - Channel Premiere, Sunday July 2, 9pm. 'What was the idea of bandaging his hand like that?' I canna say. He had many a queer fancy.' Dying Egyptologist Professor Morlant (Boris Karloff) insists he be buried with a valuable jewel taped to his hand, so he can revive in the tomb and perform a ritual he believes will give him eternal life. Various parties scheme to get hold of the jewel. Having become a horror star in Hollywood, Boris Karloff returned in triumph to Britain for the first time in decades to take the leading role - reminiscent of his just-completed turn in The Mummy - in this homegrown stab at taking back some of the gothic action from the upstart Americans. A hollow-eyed Karloff expires in bed surrounded by grasping Dickensian grotesques like the club-footed butler (Ernest Thesiger) and an untrustworthy lawyer (Cedric Hardwicke), who then compete to get hold of his fortune. In the climax, Karloff revives in the tomb and lumbers zombie-like as he tries to offer up the sacred scarab to a statue of Anubis. The plot is a combination of proven properties like The Cat and the Canary (heirs and schemers gather in an isolated house to get hold of treasure) and The Moonstone (knife-wielding foreigners out to reclaim the jewel stolen from their ancient culture) and has as much silly comedy, like the spinster who is overly-impressed by an Egyptian on the strength of having seen Rudolf Valentino in The Sheik too many times, as it does proper creepy stuff. A young Ralph Richardson enjoys his screen debut as an unctuous curate who turns out to be another crook who has set enough gunpowder under Karloff's tomb to allow for an explosive finale.
Son of Frankenstein (1939) - Channel Premiere, Sunday July 9, 9pm 'What's going on at Castle Frankenstein? The whole village is alarmed with anxiety!' 'My men report nothing but quiet.' 'Quiet? There's nothing so ominous as quiet.' Universal discontinued horror production in 1936, reacting to a ban on such films from our old friends at the British Board of Film Censors. However a successful 1938 double-bill reissue of Dracula and Frankenstein convinced the studio there was still commercial life in their monsters. Son of Frankenstein - originally planned to be shot in colour, until make-up tests revealed a less-than-impressive greenish monster - was the super production mounted to demonstrate the continued viability of the genre. Directed not by eccentric visionary James Whale but by solid professional Rowland V. Lee, Son began the second wave of monster films - and is in its own way as deliciously strange and experimental as Whale's Frankenstein films. With a big horror name cast and Jack Otterson's stylised production design, it is an A feature, the last of the series to be aimed primarily at an adult audience. Invoking Whale's black wit, Lee gets fine, hysterical work from top-billed Basil Rathbone as Baron Wolf von Frankenstein, who plays perfectly off Bela Lugosi's whiskery, sly, broken-necked Ygor and Lionel Atwill's clipped, one-armed, monocle-polishing Inspector Krogh. Karloff's Monster is upstaged, reduced to a mute thug, while the plot involves a string of revenge killings which makes the film feel like a precursor to the body count slasher films of the 1980s.
The Invisible Man Returns (1940) - Channel Premiere, Sunday July 16, 9pm 'Between you and me sir I'll have to see him before I believe he's invisible.' Having made sequels to Frankenstein, Dracula and The Mummy, Universal sought to add another fiend to their franchise roster by going back to James Whale's The Invisible Man (1933) - based on H.G. Wells' novel - and came up with a new spin on the story to showcase the remarkable effects work of John P. Fulton. With Karloff and Lugosi getting on a bit and the original Invisible Man Claude Rains moved on to A pictures, the studio introduced a possible new horror star in velvet-voiced Vincent Price, who purrs maniacally from behind bandages or as a disembodied voice. Here, Frank Griffin (John Sutton), the brother of Rains' character, helps out a pal, Geoffrey Radcliffe (Price), who has been accused of a murder he didn't commit. Unseen sleuth Radcliffe sets out to determine which above-suspicion character actor is the real killer. It's the only invisible man movie in which the see-though megalomaniac is involved in a boardroom battle to get control of his family's Yorkshire coal mine.
The Mummy's Tomb (1942) - Channel Premiere, Sunday July 23, 9pm 'Whether you can believe it or not, the facts are here and we've got to face them. A creature that's been alive for over 3,000 years is in this town.' The Mummy's Hand (1940) isn't a sequel to The Mummy (1932), but a reboot - using images, footage, plot elements and make-up design from the original haunted romance for an action-adventure film which replaced actor Karloff with stuntman Tom Tyler under the bandages. Universal then decided Lon Chaney Jr, a horror star on the strength of The Wolf Man, would play all their monster roles in succession - he returned as the Wolf Man and had stabs at the Frankenstein Monster and Dracula, but also did three curse quickies as Kharis, the limping mummy. In this brisk follow-up to The Mummy's Hand, Kharis is transported to America by a turban-wearing Turhan Bey, the latest High Priest of Oogedy-Boogedy, and gets vengeance on the survivors of the previous film (Dick Foran, Wallace Ford) - an early instance of the Scream habit of offing legacy characters - before shambling away to menace a new generation of tomb-defilers and lech after the latest nifty number in a smart 1940s nightgown (Elyse Knox).
Related show tags: SON OF FRANKENSTEIN, THE GHOUL, THE INVISIBLE MAN RETURNS, THE MUMMY'S TOMB MORE FEATURES Crime and sci-fi adventures headline May 2024 premieres on LEGEND
Crime dramas, action thrillers and sci-fi adventures headline the May line-up on LEGEND, with UK TV premieres for prison drama A VIOLENT MAN, starring an outstanding Craig Fairbrass and UNCHAINED, a riveting crime thriller starring Adrien Brody, Antonio Banderas and John Malkovich.
Channel premieres include two Dominic Cooper thrillers, STRATTON and THE ESCAPIST, which also stars Brian Cox and Joseph Fiennes. Then there's hard-hitting Brit gangster drama WE STILL KILL THE OLD WAY, and superior sci-fi drama THE BUTTERFLY EFFECT, starring Ashton Kutcher.
Plus, there are first time showings for the star-studded LUCKY NUMBER SLEVIN, with Josh Harnett, Bruce Willis...
Posted on 25th April 2024 LEGEND steals the limelight with Crime Wave Season
From Monday 22nd to Saturday 27th of April, at 9pm, LEGEND presents a CRIME WAVE SEASON, where cops and criminals collide in a collection of robberies, heists and getaways movies, highlighted by the Channel premieres of Steven Seagal's crime-busting HALF PAST DEAD, and heist action thriller ARMORED, starring Matt Dillon and Laurence Fishburne.
Then we have a double dastardly dose of Bruce Willis in two crooked thrillers - as a wronged crime boss in PRECIOUS CARGO, and a corrupt bank owner in MARAUDERS. Plus, there's Walter Hill's classic getaway thriller THE DRIVER, starring Ryan O'Neil and Brit old-school burglary caper THE HATTON GARDEN JOB, with Joely Richardson and...
Posted on 12th April 2024 Thrills, kills and The Blob as LEGEND serves up April premieres
LEGEND springs into action this April with eleven Channel premieres, including the UK TV premieres of two action thrillers starring the legendary Bruce Willis - AMERICAN SIEGE and HARD KILL.
There are also Channel premieres for sci-fi cult classic DEATH RACE 2000, Italian spaghetti Western A REASON TO LIVE, A, REASON TO DIE, starring Telly Savalas and James Coburn, Alan J. Pakula's THE DEVIL'S OWN, starring Harrison Ford and Brad Pitt, Brit crime drama VILLIAN, and highly-rated mystery thriller BUTTERFLY ON A WHEEL, starring Piece Brosnan and Gerard Butler.
This month's THE VINTAGE VAULT, which journeys into the history of genre cinema eve...
Posted on 29th March 2024 LEGEND celebrates 'The Duke' with a John Wayne weekend
Saturday 30th and Sunday 31st of March sees LEGEND celebrate the cinematic career of one of Hollywood's screen legends with JOHN WAYNE WEEKEND, a collection of films starring 'The Duke'. This is highlighted by the Channel premiere of classic comedy western MCLINTOCK!. Also featured are Henry Hathaway's deeply affecting drama THE SHEPHERD OF THE HILLS, Cecil B. DeMille's historical spectacle REAP THE WILD WIND, the gun-slinging ANGEL AND THE BADMAN, THE CONQUEROR, in which Wayne stars as Genghis Khan, and cold-war thriller JET PILOT.
John Wayne Weekend films in transmission order:
We start at 2pm on the Saturday with THE SHEPHERD OF THE HILLS. Based on Harold Bell Wr...
Posted on 21st March 2024 LEGEND swings into action with ten premieres for March
LEGEND swings into action with ten Channel premieres, including U-TURN, Oliver Stone's superior neo-noir thriller, starring Sean Penn and Jennifer Lopez, JAGGED EDGE, Richard Marquand's tense hit drama, starring Glenn Close and Jeff Bridges and DRIVE HARD, a fast-paced Aussie buddy movie starring John Cusack and Thomas Jane. Thomas Jane also turns up in riveting crime thriller BULLETPROOF and there's hard-boiled detective action in EYE FOR AN EYE, starring John Travolta and Morgan Freeman.
The other channel premieres this month are NOWHERE TO RUN, an action adventure starring Jean-Claude Van Damme and Rosanna Arquette, survivalist thriller WHILE SHE WAS OUT, starring Kim Basinger and ...
Posted on 28th February 2024 LEGEND prepares for battle with War Stories Season
From Monday February 19th - Saturday February 24th, at 9pm, LEGEND goes into battle with WAR STORIES, a season of warfare action and drama, spearheaded by the Channel premieres of Enzo G. Castellari's terrific WW2 exploitation actioner THE INGLORIOUS BASTARDS (which inspired Tarantino's 2009 movie) and the Battle of the Bulge thriller COMPANY OF HEROES, starring Tom Sizemore and Vinnie Jones.
Other titles deployed are hard-hitting WW2 thrillers WAR PIGS, starring Dolph Lundgren and Mickey Rourke and WHEELS OF TERROR, starring Bruce Davison, Oliver Reed and David Carradine. Then there's desert sniper thriller THE WALL, starring John Cena and Sidney J. Furie's aerial action sequel IRON E...
Posted on 29th January 2024 LEGEND announces ten channel premieres for January
The new year on LEGEND kicks off in action-packed style with ten Channel premieres including Hal Ashby's electrifying murder thriller 8 MILLION WAYS TO DIE, starring Jeff Bridges and Rosanna Arquette, the mystery serial-killer thriller STRIKING DISTANCE, starring Bruce Willis, hard-hitting historical epic ROBERT THE BRUCE, brutal crime drama KILLERMAN, and Rutger Hauer stars as a blind, sword-swinging Vietnam vet in Philip Noyce's BLIND FURY, a US adaptation of Japan's popular Zato-ichi films.
Other channel premieres include Aussie sci-fi mend-bender PREDESTINATION, starring Ethan Hawke, slick, gun-toting neo-noir thriller. HITMAN REDEMPTION, starring Ron Perlman, ASSASSINATION GAMES, in w...
Posted on 19th December 2023 LEGEND unwraps a seasonal tsunami of action and suspense this December
Strap yourself in for a seasonal tsunami of action and suspense this December as LEGEND unwraps a six-pack of Channel premieres including ESCAPE PLAN 2, the second instalment of the electrifying franchise, with Sylvester Stallone and Dave Bautista once again starring. There's also a first showing for MAN DOWN, with Shia LaBeouf and Gary Oldman headlining this gripping, post-apocalyptic thriller.
Other channel premieres include gruelling crime thriller SOUTHERN FURY, starring Nicolas Cage, siege drama ROGUE HOSTAGE with Tyrese Gibson and John Malkovich, cult Western THE SPOILERS, starring screen legends John Wayne and Marlene Dietrich and BONE TOMAHAWK, in which Kurt Russell stars as a vengeful gunslinger in a g...
Posted on 23rd November 2023 LEGEND reveals twelve turbo-charged premieres for November, including an All-Out Action Season
Get ready to kick, punch and shoot your way through a star-studded season of explosive action premieres on LEGEND this November, including the UK TV premieres of James Cullen Bressack's tense, against-the-clock thriller HOT SEAT, starring Kevin Dillon and Mel Gibson, and his dazzling action cyber-thriller FORTRESS, starring Bruce Willis.
From Monday 13th - Saturday 20th November there's an All-Out Action Season, which includes the channel premieres of Walter Hill's ultra-violent TREPASS, starring Bill Paxton, and John Woo's deadly HARD TARGET, starring Jean-Claude Van Damme. Other titles in the season include hard-boiled thriller BOILING POINT (1993), starring Dennis Hop...
Posted on 24th October 2023 PICK OF THE WEEK
