1920s Archives - MOVIES & MANIA

THE CAT AND THE CANARY Eureka 4K Blu-ray of silent classic

The Cat and The Canary, Paul Leni’s ground-breaking masterpiece of early cinematic horror, will be released by Eureka Entertainment on April 23, 2024. The film is presented for the first …

DEATH CURSE OF TARTU (1966) Reviews and details of Arrow Video Blu-ray box set

‘This is horror!’ Death Curse of Tartu is a 1966 American supernatural horror film written and directed William Grefé (Mako: The Jaws of Death; Impulse; Stanley; Sting of Death). The …

THE BANANA SPLITS MOVIE (2019) Reviews and overview

The Banana Splits Movie is a 2019 American horror film directed by Danishka Esterhazy (Level 16) from a screenplay written by Jed Elinoff and Scott Thomas (My Super Psycho Sweet …

The Hearse Song aka The Worms Crawl In – song

“The Hearse Song” is a song about burial and human decomposition, of unknown origin. It was initially popular as a World War I song, and was widely sung in the …

Dwarfs in Horror Cinema – article

For some, all the world’s a stage, for others, a battlefield. Circumstances sometimes mean that these two options are thrust upon a person, both socially and as a career. It’s …

HÄXAN aka WITCHCRAFT THROUGH THE AGES (1922) Reviews and overview

Häxan aka The Witches or Witchcraft Through the Ages is a 1922 Swedish-Danish silent horror film written and directed by Benjamin Christensen. Based partly on Christensen’s study of the Malleus Maleficarum, a 15th-century German …

MY NAME IS BRUCE (2007) Reviews and overview

‘Fearless! Unstoppable! Ready for his close-up!’ My Name Is Bruce is a 2007 American comedy supernatural horror film, directed, co-produced by and starring cult actor Bruce Campbell. The film was …

Hunting Humans: The Influence of The Most Dangerous Game – article

“A terrible thought crept like a snake into my mind – hunting was beginning to bore me.” Like calamitous oceanic buses, two shipwrecks have left Bob Rainsford (Joel McCrae) and …

Angus Scrimm – actor

Angus Scrimm (born Lawrence Rory Guy; August 19, 1926 – January 9, 2016) was an American actor and author, best known for playing the Tall Man in the 1979 horror …

H.P. Lovecraft – author

Howard Phillips Lovecraft aka H.P. Lovecraft (August 20, 1890 – March 15, 1937) was an American author who achieved posthumous fame through his influential works of horror fiction. Virtually unknown and only …

THE LODGER: A STORY OF THE LONDON FOG (1926)

The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog is a 1926 British silent thriller film directed by Alfred Hitchcock. It stars Marie Ault, Arthur Chesney, June Tripp, Malcolm Keen, and Ivor …

The Ouija Board: A history and its influence – article

There are essentially three things required to contact the dead; a dead person; a living person to whom they are acquainted (or would like to be); a very open mind. …

THE GOLEM: HOW HE CAME INTO THE WORLD (1920) Reviews and overview

The Golem: How He Came into the World – original title: Der Golem, wie er in die Welt kam – is a 1920 German silent horror film co-directed by Paul Wegener with Carl Boese from a …

Théâtre du Grand-Guignol, Paris – location

Le Théâtre du Grand-Guignol [“The Theatre of the Big Puppet”] – known as the Grand Guignol – was a theatre in the Pigalle area of Paris (at 20 bis, rue Chaptal). From …

H.P. Lovecraft’s Cthulhu Mythos – article

Cthulhu is a fictional deity created by writer H.P. Lovecraft and first introduced in the short story “The Call of Cthulhu”, published in the pulp magazine Weird Tales in 1928. …

The Synth of Fear: Horror and Sci-Fi Films with Synthesizer Scores – Article

Electronically produced sound has been available to adventurous film composers since the silent era. Among the earliest electronic instruments were the Ondes-Martenot (invented in 1928), which produced a characteristic quivering …

Dwight Frye – actor

Dwight Iliff Frye (February 22, 1899 – November 7, 1943) was an American stage and screen actor, noted for his appearances in the classic horror films Dracula (1931), Frankenstein (1931), The Invisible Man (1933), and Bride of …

Noble Johnson – actor

Noble Johnson (April 18, 1881 – January 9, 1978) was an African-American actor and film producer. He was one of the first black actors in Hollywood to achieve any meaningful level of fame and successfully …

DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE (1920) Overview

Doctor Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is a 1920 horror silent film, produced by Famous Players-Lasky and released through Paramount/Artcraft. The film is based upon Robert Louis Stevenson’s novella The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde and starring …

THE HANDS OF ORLAC (1924) Reviews and overview

The Hands of Orlac is a 1924 Austrian silent horror film directed by Robert Wiene and starring Conrad Veidt, Alexandra Sorina and Fritz Kortner. The film’s plot is based on the story Les Mains d’Orlac by Maurice Renard. Wiene had made his name as …

THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF USHER (1928) Overview

The Fall of the House of Usher (1928) is a short silent American horror film adaptation of the short story, “The Fall of the House of Usher” by Edgar Allan Poe. It tells the story of a …

Riz Ortolani – film composer

Riziero “Riz” Ortolani was an Italian film composer. Born on 25 March 1926, he died in Rome, on 23 January 2014. In the early 1950s, Ortolani began his musical career as a founder …

The Hounds of the Baskervilles: Holmesian Horror in Film and TV – article

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes stories – and the ongoing industry spun off from them – have a curious connection to the horror genre. The image of the master …

“From Hell…” Jack the Ripper on Screen – article

Jack the Ripper. The very name conjures up clichéd images of fog-shrouded streets, grisly murder and chirpy, voluptuous Cockney street girls spilling out of East End dens of inequity to …

THE PHANTOM CARRIAGE (1921) Reviews and overview

The Phantom Carriage – original title: Körkarlen – is a 1921 Swedish film directed by and starring Victor Sjöström, alongside Hilda Borgström, Tore Svennberg and Astrid Holm. It is based on the novel Thy Soul Shall Bear Witness! (Körkarlen; 1912), by Nobel …

DRAKULA HALÁLA (1921) Overview

Drakula halála is a 1921 Hungarian horror film written and directed by Károly Lajthay. Currently believed to be lost, the film is notable because it marks the first screen appearance …

HAUNTED SPOOKS (1920) Overview

Haunted Spooks is an American two-reeler short film from the Hal Roach studio, starring Harold Lloyd, which began shooting in 1919 and was completed the following year. It also stars his …

José Ramón Larraz – filmmaker

José Ramón Larraz (born 1929 in Barcelona) was a Spanish director of exploitation and horror films such as the cult classic Vampyres (1974). He died in Malaga on 3rd September 2013 whilst working on a remake of …

Richard Matheson – author and screenwriter

Richard Matheson (February 20, 1926 – June 23, 2013) was an American author and screenwriter, primarily in the fantasy, horror, and science fiction genres. He may be known best as the author of I Am Legend, …

WOLFBLOOD: A TALE OF THE FOREST (1925) Overview and free to watch online

Wolfblood: A Tale of the Forest is a silent 1925 American werewolf movie co-directed by and starring George Chesebro. Also known as Wolf Blood Plot: Dick Bannister is the new …

Rondo Hatton – actor

Rondo Hatton was born with a genetic condition, that of acromegaly which affects the pituitary gland (not the last actor to be afflicted – Richard Kiel – most famous as …

Stuart Freeborn – make-up artist

Stuart Freeborn (5 September 1914 – 5 February 2013) was a veteran British motion picture make-up artist who died recently. He has been referred to as the “grandfather of modern make-up design” and is perhaps best …

LONDON AFTER MIDNIGHT (1927) Reviews and overview

London After Midnight aka The Hypnotist is a 1927 silent mystery film with horror overtones produced and distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. The film stars Lon Chaney (The Unknown), Marceline Day, Conrad Nagel, Henry B. Walthall, and Polly Moran and was directed by Tod Browning. It is …

THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA (1925) Reviews and free to watch in online in HD

The Phantom of the Opera is a 1925 American silent horror feature film adaptation of the Gaston Leroux novel of the same title directed by Rupert Julian. The film features …

Jack P. Pierce – makeup artist

Jack P. Pierce (born Janus Piccoula; May 5, 1889 – July 19, 1968) was a Hollywood makeup artist most famous for creating the iconic makeup worn by Boris Karloff in Universal Studios’ 1931 adaptation of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, along with various …

THE UNKNOWN (1927) Overview

The Unknown is a 1927 American silent horror film directed by Tod Browning and featuring Lon Chaney (London After Midnight) as carnival knife thrower Alonzo the Armless and Joan Crawford as the scantily clad carnival girl he hopes to marry. Alonzo, …

THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME (1923) Overview

The Hunchback of Notre Dame is a 1923 American film directed by Wallace Worsley and produced by Carl Laemmle and Irving Thalberg. It stars Lon Chaney, Sr., Patsy Ruth Miller, Norman Kerry, Nigel de Brulier, Brandon Hurst. The film is probably the second most famous …