Getting the newspaper TV Week inserts were always a blast back during the late 70s when most of the local stations showed old horror films on the late show. I would usually go straight for the Friday and Saturday night listings, with some perusal of the Saturday afternoon cinematic offerings. I was starting to learn about monster movies through magazines and books I started reading in 1977. I remember gazing at all the stills in Alan G. Frank's Horror Movies book and making a mental list of all the movies I needed to look out for. Then reading the text made me want to seek out films featuring great actors and actresses who established the genre and examine the works of such well regarded directors as Terence Fisher and Roger Corman. I also gained an appreciation for the artistry of makeup pioneers like Jack Pierce and Roy Ashton. I wanted to see some of those monstrosities in action in my living room. So when I ran up on a listing for any one of the movies I read about or studied intensely, I couldn't help but yell the news to my brother, who was starting to share my interest in the fantasy film genre.
But sometimes I'd wait a whole week to look at the upcoming Shock Theater movie and feel my heart sink. Instead of the Gill Man in the Amazon, Florida, or caged up in an electric fence....instead of the Mummy in Egypt, Massuchessetts, or the bayou....instead of Tor Johnson and Bela Lugosi in their swamp shack...I would occasionally get the talking head in the crystal ball introducing what would turn out to be a grade-B murder mystery featuring a put-upon Lon Chaney as suspect #1. These are the movies that either made me forego the late night movie experience for one night or give the movie a try and not making it to the first K-Tel or Ginsu commercial. Here's the list:
Pillow of Death - something about a judge being murdered and the subsequent investigation, this one popped up on WTVC's normally monster-centric Shock Theater in Chattanooga. I remember reading the plot description in the TV Guide - I think it was categorized as a mystery or melodrama. I saw Lon Chaney's name in the acting roster and I imagined a creeping phantom who walks around carrying a soft pillow, sneaking up on unsuspecting sleepers and giving them the works with his plush weapon. But I knew it had to be another dismal whodunit when I saw that talking head in the crystal ball. I had already been duped into sitting up late to see Calling Dr. Death, another Inner Sanctum mystery introduced by the floating head. I didn't make it through the first 10 minutes of Dr. Death, so I didn't want to attempt something that sounded as dreary as....da da dum...Pillow of Death!!!
The Vulture - WTVC had its archrival WDEF that played horror movies hosted by a portly caped man with grease paint around his eyes and a skull-tipped cane in his hand. That character was Dr. Shock and he hosted low budget movies from no-name studios. When I saw The Vulture coming up on Saturday night some time in 1978, I didn't know what to expect. Vultures don't really seem that scary. Disgusting, but not scary. And the thought of a half-man, half-buzzard seemed too preposterous, even to my 8 year old mind. So I passed on this one and never saw it show up on TV again. I don't think it's on DVD or VHS either. Maybe it was a good thing I went to bed that night.
The Cat Creeps - I was already in 7th grade when this one came on TV. It was on a channel in Huntsville, AL that showed the Universal canon of horror classics. They saved this one for last after the full run of Mummy, Frankenstein, and Dracula films. Cats never seemed particularly frightening and I figured this would be in the same league as the annoying 1941 The Black Cat, with Broderick Crawford and a man who liked tearing up antique furniture in a house with a hundred cats tended to by Bela Lugosi. I hated that movie, but somehow managed to stay awake through it by working on an electronics project. Hobbies really do come in handy sometimes! I attempted to sit through The Cat Creeps, but I can't even recall what happened. I really do love the old classics, but this one didn't make a big impression on me.
Night Creatures - I grew up watching TV out of Atlanta, so I had access to a whole range of horror and sci-fi features and TV shows. WTCG-17 had dusk-to-dawn monster movies on Friday nights back during the late 70s (before it became WTBS). WXIA-11 showed AIP and Amicus chillers after Saturday Night Live back in the early 80s. WATL-36 showed movies kids weren't supposed to stay up late for. But I could count all the horror/sci-fi movies WSB-2 showed on one hand, with a couple of fingers to spare. But I perked up when I saw Night Creatures show up in the TV Guide next to Channel 2 on a Saturday night circa 1977. I wondered what kind of monstrosities these "Night Creatures" might be. But as I read further into the plot description, I read about pirates and smugglers. Ugh. It did have Peter Cushing listed in the cast, but I still passed for something on another station or maybe a full night's sleep.
Abbott and Costello Meet the Killer - WDEF-12 in Chattanooga used to show the A&C monster films on Saturday night at 10:00. But I always seemed to miss the good ones like A&C Meet Frankenstein. But one night I set out to watch one of these comedy/horror hybrids. I looked in the paper and saw the feature for the night was Abbott and Costello Meet the Killer. I guess the thought of A&C being pitted against an unhinged human criminal instead of a mummy or invisible man left me cold. I did watch a couple of segments just to see Boris Karloff do some hocus pocus and hypnotize poor, gullible Lou. But it did gently lull me to sleep.
The Strange Door - After the Horror Classics program on WAAY-31 in Huntsville played all the Frankenstein, Dracula, Wolf Man, and Gill Man movies from Universal, they dug down deep to unearth this musty costume drama. When I saw this movie listed, my heart sank. What could be so exciting about an odd-looking door, I thought. Being a Karloff fan, I had to tune in. But the histrionics and lethargic pace had me tuning out in a matter of minutes.
I'd better stop here. Of course, I've gone back and checked out some of these titles on DVD and I've actually enjoyed them. Also, I loved most of the horror and science fiction films I grew up watching on the late show and Saturday afternoon matinee. I very rarely didn't give a monster movie a chance and I've been pleasantly surprised by a few I was hesitant to watch. And I do miss those days of looking through the TV Guide and seeing what ferocious fiend or hostile alien would directly proceed the mugging meterologist's 5-day forecast at the close of the 10:00 news.
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