Friday, October 24, 2025
Arch Oboler's THE SKEPTIC'S CLUB (1937)
Friday, October 17, 2025
Dying of Fright from The Creeping Unknown (1956)
The Quatermass Experiment was originally a six-part TV serial telecast live over the BBC in 1953. Regrettably, preservation was not applied over the years and only the first two chapters of the television serial exist in recorded form. Written by Nigel Kneale, the television serial was an enormous success with critics and audiences alike, later described by film historian Robert Simpson as “event television, emptying the streets and pubs.” Among its viewers was Hammer Films producer Anthony Hinds, who was immediately keen to buy the rights for a film version. Incorporated in 1934, Hammer had developed a niche for itself making second features, many of which were adaptations of successful BBC Radio productions. Hammer contacted the BBC on August 24, 1953, two days after the transmission of the final episode, to inquire about the film rights and a motion-picture was produced with American actor Brian Donlevy playing Professor Quatermass.
Timed to coincide with the broadcast of the television sequel, Quatermass II, the motion-picture went on general release in movie theaters in the United Kingdom on November 20, 1955. In the United States, Robert L. Lippert attempted to interest Columbia Pictures in distributing the film but they felt it would be competition for their own production, It Came from Beneath the Sea, which was on release at the time. Because The Quatermass Experiment was unknown in the United States, Lippert renamed the motion-picture Shock!
Unable to secure a sale, Lippert retitled it again, this time to The Creeping Unknown. United Artists eventually acquired the distribution rights in March of 1956 for a fee of $125,000, and the movie was packaged in a double bill with another horror movie called The Black Sleep, starring Basil Rathbone, Bela Lugosi and Lon Chaney, Jr. Four minutes, mainly of expository material, were cut from the runtime of the film, which means there are two versions of the movie, each with a different title and four minutes difference in length. Whichever version you watch today, however, does not affect the impact of the film’s emotional pull.
The Creeping Unknown opened in theatres in the United States in June of 1956 and was so successful that United Artists offered to part-fund a sequel based on the second television series. Ultimately the Quartermass series became a franchise with additional sequels (including a big screen movie starring Barbara Shelley titled Quatermass and the Pit).
This film easily ranks as one of my top ten favorite horror/science fiction classics and is a must-see. The film also includes a bit of trivia: The Guinness Book of World Records subsequently recorded this movie as the only known case of an audience member dying of fright while watching a horror film.
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| Variety magazine, November 7, 1956 |
Thursday, October 9, 2025
John W. Campbell's Frozen Hell
The tale originated from one of early sci-fi’s most influential figures, a writer-turned-editor who, after 1938, shifted from authorship to shaping the future of the genre through his magazine Astounding Stories—later retitled Astounding Science Fiction and finally Analog. Under his guidance, rising talents such as Robert Heinlein, Isaac Asimov, L. Sprague de Camp, Lester del Rey, and Theodore Sturgeon found their voices. They say a magazine is only as good as the editor and Campbell was among the best of the editors for science-fiction magazines.
For decades, readers assumed they knew the complete story—until a longer, forgotten version surfaced in the archives of Harvard University. This expanded manuscript, running nearly forty-five pages beyond the published novella, was finally released in 2019 under its original name, Frozen Hell, by Wildside Press. The edition features a preface by Alec Nevala-Lee, an introduction by Robert Silverberg, illustrations by Bob Eggleton, and editing by John Gregory Betancourt. Nevala-Lee and Silverberg recount the discovery of the manuscript, its relation to an earlier tale titled “The Brain-Stealers of Mars,” and the editorial decisions that streamlined the shorter version for faster pacing.
In Frozen Hell, the isolation and tension unfold more gradually. A team of scientists working in the Antarctic unearths a buried spacecraft composed of an unknown alloy. Within the wreckage lies a grotesque life form locked in ice—an ancient being unlike anything on Earth. When the researchers bring the specimen back to camp, intending to thaw and examine it, the situation spirals into horror. The creature revives—and worse, it possesses the terrifying ability to imitate any living organism it touches.
At its core, Frozen Hell is a cautionary meditation on curiosity and consequence: a stark reminder that some discoveries are better left entombed beneath the ice. If you are a fan of the story, this extended version is worth reading.
Thursday, October 2, 2025
THE WITCH'S TALE (1933 - 1938) Clipping File
The majority of the scripts were original stories, but there were literary adaptations as well, such as adaptations of Dracula and Frankenstein. But the best of them are some of Cole’s originals such as “The Devil’s Mask,” which featured a flaming skeleton running around screaming maniacally, and “The Entomologist,” about a mad scientist who planned to rule the world with giant vampire spiders. What I enjoy even more are the productions -- even the music is similar to the type you hear on Universal Studios monster movies.
In November 1936, Alonzo Deen Cole edited The Witch’s Tales (plural, not singular), a pulp magazine with short stories which were adaptations of his radio scripts. There were a total of two issues published. Those two issues go for huge prices when available for sale.
In the ongoing process of scanning newspaper clippings and magazine articles, enclosed is a clipping file in PDF for The Witch’s Tale, with a surprise included.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/i3z1964q112qd6d/Witch%27s%20Tale%20%28clipping%20file%29%20%231.pdf?dl=0





