I do not like science fiction horror movies. I avoid movies like “Alien.” “A Quiet Place.”
My aversion to sci-fi horror films dates back to when I was nine years old. Maybe even younger when I saw “The Wizard of Oz” on television for the first time. When nine, I accompanied my brother and his friends to a double feature showing of “Torpedo Run” starring Glenn Ford and “The Decks Ran Red” starring James Mason.
Back then, in 1958, movie theaters ran coming attractions between the two featured films. One of the promoted movies was “The Blob,” Steve McQueen’s first leading role. That red jelly blob scared the bejesus out of me.
I vowed then and there never to see “The Blob,” a vow I have maintained to this day, even as the movie has achieved cult status, especially among residents of Phoenixville, PA, where, as The New York Times noted, much of “The Blob” was shot. Since 2000, Phoenixville has held a three-day festival celebrating the film. This year Blobfest was July 12-14 (https://www.nytimes.com/2024/07/16/movies/blobfest-2024-sci-fi-horror-movie.html?smid=em-share).
Gilda does not share my aversion to scary movies, though she does disdain “The Wizard of Oz.” She liked “A Quiet Place.” One of her favorites is “The Thing from Another World,” with James Arness as The Thing.
The same year, 1958, that I got turned off by “The Blob,” Gilda enjoyed “The Fly” starring Vincent Price. So when a new version came out in 1986 starring Jeff Goldblum and Geena Davis, she pounced on the chance to take our kids, Dan, 8, and Ellie, 5, to see it. She had no idea there would be a graphic sex scene between the two stars. She quickly tried to cover their eyes. To my knowledge, they were not traumatized. To my knowledge …
More Water for Elephants: Several friends recently saw the new musical “Water for Elephants,” based on the novel and movie of the same name. I haven’t seen the play so I cannot comment on the production, but I believe it appropriate to revisit a blog I posted on January 4, 2011, under the title, “Before Water for Elephants.”
“If you’ve been to the movies recently you might have seen a coming attraction for Water for Elephants, the film adaptation of the book of the same name by Sara Gruen.
“It’s a beautiful, evocative book. I won’t give away any important plot details for those who might not have read the book, but I do need to bring to your attention some basic parts of the story:
“The protagonist, Jacob Jankowski, runs away to join a traveling circus in the 1930s. He falls in love with a bareback equestrian rider. The circus, Benzini Brothers Most Spectacular Show on Earth, is far from an elite organization. It hovers on the brink of financial ruin. Benzini Brothers is always battling competitors. Rosie the elephant saves it from financial distress after the star animal attraction, a horse, dies. Rosie never before performed in a circus.
“I’m always fascinated by the creative process. In interviews, Gruen claims to have been inspired to write her 2006 novel by pictures of old time circuses she saw in a newspaper.
“Sounds plausible, but several months ago I saw Chad Hanna, a 1940 movie starring Henry Fonda. The protagonist, Chad Hanna, runs away to join a traveling circus in the mid-1800s. He falls in love with a bareback equestrian rider. The circus, Huguenine’s Great and Only International Circus, is far from an elite organization. It hovers on the brink of financial ruin. Huguenine’s is always battling competitors. Van Buren the elephant saves it from financial distress after the star animal attraction, a lion, dies. Van Buren never before performed in a circus.
“There are, of course, differences in the full plot line, in the love story, in the depiction of life within the circus coterie of characters. The circus owners in both stories couldn’t be more diametrically opposite.
“My friend and former art director Milton says there are no new story lines, just different treatments of the same themes. I wouldn’t argue with that.
“(PS—Chad Hanna is based on a series of articles in The Saturday Evening Post entitled Red Wheels Rolling by Walter D. Edmonds. Edmonds also wrote Drums Along the Mohawk, another book made into a movie starring Henry Fonda.)”
