Category Archives: Monstrous Monday

George Zucco on Monstrous Monday

Posted on May 8, 2018 by mohawkvalleygirl

I had vague hopes (not high hopes, as you see) of making a real post, perhaps writing it while on break at work. I also had what I thought were firm plans to exercise after work. I should have known better. Now here I am, in a monstrous mood, typing off the top of my head and hoping for a Monstrous Monday post. I do like monsters.

“Y’see, dock, it hurts right about here…”

Here is George Zucco and… a friend (I bet you thought I was going to say his mummy) (you know who you are). I had seen a picture of George Zucco and a gorilla in one of my movie groups earlier and thought I might download it. I went back to Facebook and searched “Geroge Zucco.” There it was! At the last minute I thought, what if it belongs to somebody and I was supposed to get permission? So I changed my search to “George Zucco public photos.” I kind of like the mummy better anyways. It is more monstrous.

I was introduced to George Zucco (it just feels right to use his entire name every time) in our 50 Horror Classics DVD collection. He is described as “marvelously theatrical.” I’m sure I’ve written blog posts about some of his movies. I really must start doing movie write-ups again. They are such fun. For me, at least.

Spoiler alert: they do more than just walk in this flick.

I think this is one of the movies I wrote about. If I was better about tagging, I could probably find it and link back to it. And here we come to the ugly truth about me.

I still don’t know why the monster was so mad.

I actually do not remember if I saw this one or not, but I thought it would be nice to include another picture with George Zucco. My new ambition for the week: to watch a movie featuring George Zucco and write about it. It is good to make a big plan on a Monday.

Various Movies on Monstrous Monday

Posted on May 1, 2018 by mohawkvalleygirl

I’m sure nobody expected me to get my act together overnight. If you did, well, you realize you were setting yourself up for disappointment, do you not? No matter. We all have foolish expectations from time to time.

All this by way of introduction to another Monstrous Monday. My only decision now is whether to use repeat monsters or search for new pictures to share. I think I’ll look for old and try to think of new things to say about them.

Here’s a double bill I never thought of.

I do not remember why I downloaded this shot or when I used it. Trog, for the uninitiated, is Joan Crawford’s last movie. It is not my favorite cheesy horror movie featuring Crawford. And before anybody hazards a guess, neither is Whatever Happened to Baby Jane. I don’t think I have ever seen Taste the Blood of Dracula, although I have seen a few Hammer Dracula movies starring Christopher Lee. I understand he kept saying each one was his last, but the studio would talk him into the next, often by pointing out how many people would get work thereby. If that is true, it gives me quite a good opinion of Lee, even outside of his acting prowess.

“Did you think I would not pop in?”

What’s a Monstrous Monday without my favorite guy, Nosferatu?

He only looks harmless.

I end with a monster of the human variety, Robert Walker as Bruno in Strangers on a Train, on the right. The other guy, looking a little apprehensive (and no idea yet how right he is to be so!) is Farley Granger as Guy Haines. Good movie. I’ll have to give it another watch soon. But not on a double bill with Trog.

Monday Movie Meditation?

Posted on April 17, 2018 by mohawkvalleygirl

So there I was, sitting on the couch with my laptop and telling myself I could NOT again post the picture of Frankenstein’s monster saying, “No like Monday!” I looked through my monster groups on Facebook for a new picture. Do you suppose I could find anything? Then I saw this movie poster, which has nothing to do with Mondays and is actually a kind of a disappointing monster, but I downloaded it anyways, and here it is.

He is rather intimidating on the poster, I suppose.

I’ve seen Curse of the Demon a couple of times, DVR’d from TCM. According to pre-movie commentary by Ben Mankiewicz, producer Val Lewton did not want to show the monster right away but was overruled by the studio. I agree that it would have been much scarier to see the first victim looking utterly horrified by… what? But these were pre-Jaws days.

For the uninitiated, in the first Jaws movie, we don’t see the shark until well into the movie. This was actually making a virtue of necessity, because they had a lot of trouble with that mechanical shark, but it turned out to be SO effective. Who knew? Val Lewton, apparently, but nobody believed him. Come to think of it, some post-Jaws movies could be a little more circumspect, too, but that’s a whole other blog post.

What a messy eater!

And here is the Jaws shark. I feel he is a monster worth waiting for. I’m afraid this was not a blog post worth waiting for, but what do you want from me on a Monday?

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Posted in humor, Middle-aged Musings Monday, Monday Mental Meanderings, Monstrous Monday, personal and tagged ben mankiewicz, blog post, blogging, cheesy horror movies, Curse of the Demon, entertainment, JAWS, monsters, movies, Val Lewton. Bookmark the permalink.

I Feel Like a Monster

Posted on April 11, 2018 by mohawkvalleygirl

It was going to be another Monstrous Monday. I found some monster pictures in my Media Library, I wrote some foolish comments about them. I was just finishing up and ready to think up a title and hit publish when I remembered: It isn’t Monday! It’s Tuesday! This is what happens when you don’t go to work on Monday. It messes up your head. It doesn’t help that I’m not feeling well (my ostensible reason for taking a Monstrous Monday). In fact, my stomach is starting to roil as I type. I’m just going to slap a headline on this, hit publish and stretch out. Here is what I typed in when I thought it was Monday:

I’m afraid it is going to be another Monstrous Monday. Both Steven and I seem to be down with some 24-hour (I hope) bugaboo. But I shall not go on about our health woes. For one reason, it would be a HIPAA violation. For another reason, it is boring and a little disgusting. Never mind, let’s find a picture of a monster to share.

Raise your hand if you think these Monster Monday posts are silly!

I couldn’t find a new picture so I went to my Media Library and found one of Frankenstein’s monster I haven’t used recently (I hope).

He’s been hanging around for a while now.

Here is a friendlier monster. My husband Steven got me this nice vampire for Christmas some years ago. He’s been hanging in our living room ever since. As regular readers know, I like to make Halloween last all year.

This plant required a red thumb, not green one.

Oh, here’s a picture I haven’t used more than once, I don’t think. It is from Roger Corman’s Little Shop of Horrors (1960). I confess to not being a fan of the musical, but I LOVE the cheesy black-and-white horror flick.

So say I.

I end with how I feel: tired and ready to say good night! Full disclosure: I probably won’t go to bed for a while yet, because I don’t want to wake up at 2 a.m. unable to get back to sleep. You know how it is. I’m afraid this has been a foolish post. We’ll call it a blogger’s sick day and drive on.

Well! It’s Another Monstrous Monday!

Posted on March 27, 2018 by mohawkvalleygirl

I think Monstrous Monday is going to be a regular thing here, and I think many people can identify with the sentiment.

A common sentiment, am I right?

I know, I KNOW, I must plan ahead and write blog posts in advance. Well, some readers enjoy my silly posts about not being able to write a post, so there. Still, you can get too much of a good thing. Isn’t there some saying about going to the well too many times? I try to avoid such cliches, but I do say “well” a lot.

Be that as it may, on with the blog post. I wrote a very little on the next murder mystery, Spring into Murder, but am not making much progress in finding a complete cast. I thought everybody wanted to act! Oh well, I guess not everybody (see, there I go with “well” again).

I act, with gestures!

Speaking of everybody wanting to act, here is a picture of me acting up a storm in last summer’s The Tempest with LiFT Theatre Company. That was one of my big, dramatic scenes. OK, I am big and dramatic in all of my scenes, in real life as well as on stage. I always say, go with your strengths (I suppose that is a cliche. Oh well!).

A graphic depiction of how I feel about my continued inability to write a decent blog post.

I swerve into non-sequitur territory with a picture of fake poo. These were props from one of last year’s murder mysteries, He Laughed Himself to Death. I have long been an aficionado of fake poo.

And now I am over 250 words, which as regular readers (if any remain) know, I consider respectable. I return to my Monstrous Monday and, as always, hope for a better blog post tomorrow.

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Posted in humor, Monstrous Monday, personal and tagged acting, blog post, blogging, cliches, fake poo, go with your strengths, I Can't Write a Post, lame post, murder mysteries, non sequitur, not writing, theatre, writing. Bookmark the permalink.

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