Hello!

This one’s simple enough. Did you think today’s movie advertising can be lame?  Advisor Michael Mcquarrie came up with this link to an original 45 rpm copy of a radio spot for Horror of Dracula, duly issued by Universal-International, the film’s original distributor in the U.S.

It must have taken all of ten minutes in the recording booth. All they do is read tag lines from the pressbook, as if they were selling laundry soap. All that, and one or two sad sound effects. I remember :30 second spots, but never :60s.  I do remember one very effective campaign that received a lot of play one week on AM KMEN 129: a genuinely terrifying series of :15 and :20 second blurbs for  The Flesh Eaters.

I guess it tells the audience that they’re getting an exploitation film. We almost expect to hear that the drive-in has a good concession stand, the parking is private, and they don’t care if the audience watches from the back seat.

•  Oh … the Warner Archive 4K of Dracula / Horror of Dracula arrived on Saturday. We’re working on a review now.

•  And … Ignite has informed me that their UK Day of the Triffids Blu-ray coming on December 14 is Region-Free. I do not yet know what the source of the remaster is.

Thanks for reading! — Glenn Erickson