Hello!

Last week when Gary Teetzel reported that a newly remastered disc of the classic Gorgo was on the way from Vinegar Syndrome in 4K Ultra HD, we traded jokes about pampered home video fans (me) whose wishes seem so frequently to come true. Well, on the heels of that news comes an equally killer announcement — the quality UK disc boutique Radiance has spread the word that on the Halloweed-amenable date of October 23, they will be releasing a limited edition Blu-ray set of that most coveted Italian classic The Horrible Dr. Hichcock.

Radiance describes the special edition as a new restoration, with three versions on two Blu-rays: the English-language export version The Terror of Dr. Hichcock (presumably what screened in the U.K.), the re-edited U.S. cut The Horrible Dr. Hichcock, and the English dub of the complete Italian Raptus: The Secret of Dr. Hichcock.

It ought to be a stunning disc; I only hope they find a way to include the original Italian track, which I discovered is the best version. The Radiance website has the full run-down on extras.

 

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And finally, here’s a CineSavant Book Review for the new ‘Scripts from the Crypt’ book from Tom Weaver & associates, dedicated to the 1940 Universal picture The Mummy’s Hand.

We’ve covered a number of these fan-intense books in the past, and several have earned good places on the shelf, like the 2019 book on The Brute Man with its heavy-duty research on Rondo Hatton, and its mug-shot round-up of beloved ugly-mug actors through Hollywood history.

With this tome the SFTC series digs further into 1940s Universal lore, of which Weaver & cohorts might be the reigning authorities. The centerpiece of the book is the full shooting script, in this case actress Peggy Moran’s copy via collector Ron Borst. It takes up 155 pages or so in the book’s center. The first thing that got my attention was Weaver’s lengthy production history section, a couple of them, actually. Armed with studio records, trade paper research and a number of personal interviews, Weaver relates the day-to-day business of cranking out program pictures as if Universal were a small-town factory.. Weaver overwhelms us with facts, figures, photos and dozens of fascinating side stories.

Actors’ recollections can be unreliable, but Tom has a good (and kind) radar for gleaning the likely truth from stories warped by publicity exaggerations. Leading lady Peggy Moran and the film’s mummy, cowboy favorite Tom Tyler, were workaday contractees pulling in a living wage, and lucky to be recognized on the street.

Weaver’s co-authors provide good sidebar essay chapters on the actors, with deep bio dives for Dick Foran & Wallace Ford (Laura Wagner), Peggy Moran (Bob Koster), etc.. Well-known film historian Gregory William Mank contributes an engrossing piece on George Zucco, demolishing the lies about the actor circulated by the Hollywood Babylon II book.

More solid fact-finding academia comes with comprehensive chapters on mummy movies silent (Gary D. Rhodes) and sound (Frank Dello Stritto), which include info on more than a few titles I’d never heard of, plus some surprising images.

With all of this solid content The Mummy’s Hand SFTC isn’t as scrapbook-y as some previous installments, yet we do admire its big-net eclecticism. The text is frequently interrupted with little photo explanations, old advertisements, personal keepsakes from the actors, and odd grabs from the file. Famous Monsters’ two-page eulogy for Wallace Ford ends with typical Forry Ackerman awkwardness — ‘sorry Wally, that we didn’t mention you when you were alive.’ (para.)

Nobody could ghost-write Weaver’s material, as we’d recognize his style of puns and side-jokes anywhere. We were most attracted by the attention given to editorial detail. Weaver devotes several pages to observations of individual scene oddities. Many are the kind of random things we might spot on viewing — possible continuity gaffes, or the fact that one of the actors says a character’s name six times, but never with the same pronunciation. Tom Tyler’s ‘paralyzed’ mummy arm becomes un-paralyzed once or twice!

Armchair editors will lap up a photo essay on the re-use of footage from the ’32 Freund The Mummy, the Im-Ho-Tep flashback repurposed as a Kharis Flashback. Tom Tyler is substituted for Boris Karloff, but Karloff is seen in a few angles anyway. Even more interesting is the fact that the older footage is actually outtakes from 1932, all with slightly different action. Wow . . . does that mean that, even in 1932, Universal was vaulting outtakes like that for future use?  That must have been a heck of an editorial resource.

Weaver tells me that Scripts from the Crypt books are on their way for other sequels in Universal’s 1940s Mummy series . . . now he’s making me want to see them again.

 

Thanks for reading! — Glenn Erickson