The Innocents (1961).

Thanks to Charlie Horse 47 and Killdumpster for their sponsorship of this post, via the magic of Patreon. 

***

"It's coming! It's in the trees!"

Oh. No. Wait. That's the wrong film.

But, famously, that movie had a director who wanted to leave audiences pondering whether anything supernatural was going on or if it was all in the characters' heads - until the producers decided to scupper that conceit by inserting a great big, magnificent demon into all scenes of high drama.

However, there were other films that were allowed to pull off the ambiguity trick.

And, surely, the greatest of them all is The Innocents, Jack Clayton's adaptation of Henry James' 1898 novella The Turn of the Screw.

In that film, a woman called Miss Giddens is hired as governess to two orphaned children in a big house in the middle of nowhere.

At first, everything seems idyllic, with the house located in beautiful environs and the girl Flora a delight.

But, after her brother Miles is expelled from his boarding school, for reasons opaque, and arrives back at the house, Miss Giddens starts to to become convinced that evil lurks in, around and behind every corner she encounters and that the spirits of dead servants Peter Quint and Mary Jessel are haunting the place and taking possession of the children.

For these were no ordinary servants. If the housekeeper Mrs Grose is to be believed, there was a serious air of the Heathcliff and Cathy about them, with acts of violence, cruelty, drunkenness and sexual depravity being carried out at every possible opportunity.

Can our heroine do anything to drive out those evil spirits?

She thinks so and sets out to do so.

But are there any ghosts?

Is she really a well-meaning woman trying to save two children from supernatural terror? Is she, instead, a sexually repressed woman carried away by fantasies stifled by Victorian ideas of propriety? Or is she simply a pervert concocting justifications for her unhealthy attraction to a young boy?

We never find out.

As well as its lighting, visual symbolism, and its impeccable cinematography by Freddie Francis, the film is distinguished by its cast which, apart from its first scene, effectively consists of just four actors. Deborah Kerr giving what she felt was her greatest ever performance, as the increasingly monomaniacal governess. Megs Jenkins as exposition engine Mrs Grose who believes the best way to deal with uncomfortable things is to ignore them. And Martin Stephens and Pamela Franklin as the children - with Stephens, in particular, giving a potent performance as an unnervingly adult boy, a feat he'd also pulled off in Village of the Damned.

With its labyrinthine corridors that must only ever be lit by clusters of candles, tension stretches tight across the house. Wanting to create an air of claustrophobia, director Clayton was horrified when ordered to shoot the movie in wide-screen CinemaScope but deftly turned that to an advantage, filling the edges of the frame with dark nooks, crannies and occasional hints of movement, to create the feeling that something could leap out at us at any moment.

Sound is also expertly manipulated, with repeated use of the song O Willow Waly - which we somehow recognise as a song we all grew up with, even though it was written specially for the film - while electronic sound effects by Daphne Oram and incidental music by Georges Auric and W. Lambert Williamson add to the mood.

The production also features a role for future Jason King star Peter Wyngarde as the late Peter Quint who never speaks but manages to loom out of the darkness whenever required.

Likewise, Clytie Jessop gets nothing at all to do but sit at a desk and stand ominously by a lake, as the possible ghost of Mary Jessel.

Overall, with William Archibald and Truman Capote's taut screenplay, its stylish lighting, lush cinematography, outstanding cast and enough ambiguity to keep you in arguments forever, The Innocents raises the genre of horror to the level of high art and is easily as imperishable as its servants.

March 27th, 1976 - Marvel UK, 50 years ago this week.

Thanks to Charlie Horse 47 and Killdumpster for their sponsorship of this post, via the magic of Patreon. 

***

A member of the public would have noted that revolt was in the air, this week, fifty years ago. Not only did Argentina's military depose president Isabel Perón, a general strike broke out in the People's Republic of the Congo.

Rather more calmly, in the UK, Anita Roddick's Body Shop opened its first branch, in Brighton.

But also, it was a month in which Britain's General Bernard Montgomery died, aged 88, at his home in Hampshire.

And what of the music charts?

The Brotherhood of Man demonstrated the wisdom of mimicking Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Old Oak Tree, when their noticeably similar Save Your Kisses For Me elevated itself to the top spot on the UK singles chart.

But the status quo was not disturbed on the accompanying album rankings, as the week saw Blur For You by the undisturbed Status Quo retain the Number One position it had seized the week before. 

Arkon may be back but, far more importantly, this is the week in which we get to find out if we're Mastermind finalists!

As I've never entered Mastermind, I'm assuming I'm not.

But I do know what my specialist subject would be.

It'd be this issue of The Avengers, even though I've never read it.

And that's why I can tell you that Conan finds himself caught up in an adventure the world can only know as The Warrior and the Were-Woman.

Elsewhere, when the Black Knight's captured by the forces of Arkon, while trying to dispose of his cursed sword, the Avengers know they must visit Arkon's dimension and punch the perpetrator in the gob.

But can even they prevail against the man-manipulating prowess of the Enchantress?

Across the Atlantic from all that, Iron Fist lands at Heathrow Airport - only for it to be destroyed by a man who calls himself the Ravager.

Not only that, this is the week in which we discover Misty Knight has a bionic arm!

She certainly kept that one up her sleeve.

But there's more than even that because, as a bonus feature, the Phantom Eagle's in sensational World War One action, thanks to Gary Friedrich and Herb Trimpe.

Jason and Alexander are back and having a trip up a river, in the company of an ape called Gunpowder Julius.

Following his recent adventures abroad, Ka-Zar's back in the Savage Land.

But he's already attracted the attention of the red Wizard and his servant Maa-Gor the man-ape.

And, looking to foil Killmonger's latest plans, the Black Panther must fight a T-Rex!

As that cover reveals, Brother Voodoo turns up in Dracula's strip.

But I do believe the lord of vampires is elsewhere engaged, after agreeing to kill a bunch of men, on behalf of a fashion designer who says she can help him find Dr Sun.

Elsewhere, a legend is born when a man called Moon Knight turns up at Jack Russell's home, looking to abduct him on behalf of someone called the Committee.

The Man-Thing finds himself in a narrative that seems strangely familiar when a space vessel lands in the swamp, containing a youth called Wundarr who's been sent to Earth because his scientist parents realised their world was about to be destroyed by a huge natural disaster.

The Cobalt Man is back!

And now he's dressed like an American footballer!

And it all starts when Bruce Banner stows away on a ship - only to discover it's on a deliberate collision course with a nuclear bomb test!

And it's all drama at Karen Page's family home too. No sooner has she got there than a brand-new villain called Death's Head shows up - threatens her and announces he's kidnapped her father!

Meanwhile, Crystal's still looking to become a member of the Fantastic Four, and gets her chance to prove herself when the Wizard attacks their HQ.

And, this time, it's serious! This time, he's got an improved pair of Wonder Gloves!

It's a terrible confession but I long ago discovered that, whenever I try to type, "Super-Spider-Man with the Super-Heroes," I always manage to manage to mistype it as, "Super Spider-Man with the Super-Herpes."

It's a terrible mistake but I remain convinced it's not as terrible as the one Spider-Man's making by swinging straight towards someone who's got a machine gun.

Regardless, what this cover tells us is that Hammerhead's made his UK debut - and has done so by getting himself into a war with Doc Ock!

Elsewhere, Dr Strange confronts Death and takes refuge inside the form of Eternity!

While, on a rather less grand plane of existence, the Mandarin hatches a plot to expose Tony Stark as Iron Man!

And things get tense for Thor when he finds himself on the Stranger's home planet and having to face the menace of the Abomination!

But, somewhere else entirely, the Thing, Captain America and Sharon Carter have travelled to the year 3018 and are now set upon helping the Guardians of the Galaxy free the Earth from the clutches of the Badoon.

When the Banshee's captured by factor Three's Spider-Bot, the X-Men wrongly think Spider-Man's to blame and, inevitably, a fight breaks out.

There's no rest for Captain America either. No sooner has he been attacked by the Adaptoid in the Avengers' Mansion than a villain called the Tumbler shows up and a three-way tussle breaks out.

Needless to say, Cap's more than a match for both his opponents.

Just as Subby's sure to be more than a match for whatever undersea menace he's offing this week.

I do believe Nick Fury and SHIELD enter a swamp, in a bid to find the HQ of Them.

And Captain Marvel and Rick Jones must survive an encounter with Dr Mynde and Madame Synn who have ambitions to take over the world.

Speak Your Brain! Part 120. Of bargains and anti-bargains.

Thanks to Charlie Horse 47 and Killdumpster for their sponsorship of this post, via the magic of Patreon. 

***

Image by Tumisu
from Pixabay

In the past few days, it's started to feel like spring has well and truly sprung in the environs I call my home.

But there's another kind of spring.

A spring into action!

And it's time for just that kind of spring because tonight sees the sensational return of a feature that can only be referred to as, "this feature."

Astonishing.

It's the one in which the first person to comment below gets to decide just what's to be the topic of the day.

And just what will they decide?

That is something that even a man as awesomely powerful and wise as I cannot know.

Therefore, feel free to get that particular ball rolling and we shall see just what magic unfolds, unfurls and unravels before our literal eyes.

Omega the Unknown #1.

Thanks to Charlie Horse 47 and Killdumpster for their sponsorship of this post, via the magic of Patreon. 

***

To my recollection, in my younger days, I only ever owned one issue of Omega the Unknown.

That was the one in which the world's least talkative hero had to fight a man who was armed with a spanner.

But there were other issues published.

Nine of them.

And no more.

But, as we all know, longevity's no guarantee of quality. If it were, On the Buses would be better than Fawlty Towers.

So, that in mind, just fifty years after reading that other issue, I shall promptly take a look at the instalment that started it all.

And it starts it all with our hero on another planet, fighting robots.

Who are these robots?

I don't know but they seem to have taken over his world and killed the rest of its inhabitants.

And, now, we're on Earth with a boy called James-Michael Starling who's clearly some sort of child prodigy in the process of being taken to New York for a taste of that state's schooling system - only for his parents to be inconveniently killed in a car crash that reveals them to be androids.

Next thing we know he's in a clinic, having just woken from a month-long coma. One in which he's had dreams about Omega and his battles.

His doctor wants to find out out just what's going on with him and, thus, his nurse Ruth Hart agrees to look after the boy, at her flat which he'll also be sharing with her roommate Amber, a feisty redhead who likes to call him, "Punk," and sets his adolescent juices flowing in a way Ruth can't.

Then, as James-Michael lies in bed, contemplating the day's events, a robot smashes in through the wall, only to be attacked by the pursuing Omega who's now fled his own world and arrived here!

The fight isn't going well for the blue-and-red-garbed muscleman but that's when James-Michael destroys the robot by firing blasts from his hands.

Blasts that leave marks on his palms.

Marks that resemble the Greek letter Omega.

What can it all mean?

I don't know.

And I suppose that's the point. Mystery and intrigue are patently designed to be the strip's main selling point, possibly compensating for the fact it's a little dry and none of the characters act or speak like any human beings anyone's ever met.

Clearly, when it comes to characters, the breakout star's going to be Amber who resembles Mary Jane Watson directly after receiving a refund from the charm school.

With its hero arriving on Earth from a destroyed world, and an orphaned child living among us, with exceptional abilities, it's impossible not to spot the hints of the Superman mythos at play.

Just as, with its youthful protagonist having an inseparable link to a super-hero, there are clear echoes of the original Captain Marvel. Not to mention Marvel Comics' not-so-original Captain Marvel.

And is it a coincidence that it's drawn by Jim Mooney who pencilled all those classic Supergirl adventures we all know and cherish?

But perhaps Steve Gerber can tell me what's going on.

He does, we must note, provide us, here, with a one-page article about the origins of the strip - and his and co-writer Mary Skrenes's role in it. 

On the one hand, this is a bad thing, as it means I'll have to read words instead of just looking at pictures and I'm not a man who buys comics because he wants to read words and not look at pictures. If I was, I'd be the sort of man who reads instructions on food packaging instead of just guessing how I'm meant to cook it.

But, on the other hand, this is a good thing, as answers may be forthcoming.

And, so, regardless, I shall plough ahead and read it.

And I've now read it.

Only to discover it doesn't give me any answers either.

That means I'm going to have to read more issues to find out what's going on.

Oh it's a cunning plan alright.

And it's possibly going to work.

March 20th, 1976 - Marvel UK, 50 years ago this week.

Thanks to Charlie Horse 47 and Killdumpster for their sponsorship of this post, via the magic of Patreon. 

***

Drama hit the United Kingdom, this week in 1976 because, as our regular correspondent Colin Jones recently pointed out, it was the week in which Prime Minister Harold Wilson resigned!

Elsewhere, Patty Hearst was convicted of having robbed a San Francisco bank, two years earlier.

Clearly in a more peaceable mood than Patty, was Tina Charles, as her only message to the world, that week, was, as so often, "I Love to Love." And it was a message that palpably hit home because, thanks to it, she remained Number One on the UK singles chart.

But there was change at the top of the accompanying LP rankings. For, their summit was grabbed by none other than Status Quo with Blue For You. I've never heard that album but, somehow, I feel like I know what it's going to sound like.

But what of television?

There wasn't much on the BBC, on March 20th, that leaps out at me but two things which do catch my eye were on BBC One, that very morning.

Those two things were Marine Boy and Champion the Wonder Horse. Who can forget Marine Boy clobbering people, with his electric boomerang and using his chewing gum that allowed him to breathe underwater?

Granted, I'm not sure why someone would give a child an electric boomerang if they knew he spent all his time underwater. Clearly, someone hadn't thought this through.

That person cannot have been Champion the Wonder Horse because we all know that Champion thought of everything.

As far as I'm aware, it's bad news, this issue, for Conan - as he's forced to work in a gold mine!

I suspect it won't be long before he's helping himself to a great big cartload of its contents.

But, first, he's going to have to fight off a giant slug!

Elsewhen, with the male Avengers making a Horlicks of tackling the Masters of Evil, it's up to the Lady Liberators to step in and save the day.

But is the day really saved?

And how does the Enchantress fit into all this?

When it comes to Iron Fist, I do believe the neon-knuckled, ninja-nobbling sensation's having to fight off vegetation during an adventure called In the Forest of Fear.

It's one of my favourite UK Planet of the Apes covers, as simians prove they can't tell the difference between toads and slugs.

Still, they do, at least, know to always shoot them in the nostrils, and that's what matters.

From that cover, I can only assume Jason and Alexander are back for their newest adventure. One that it seems they're unlikely to survive.

But that's not the issue's main story.

That honour falls to the last part of Marvel's adaptation of Conquest, in which the apes have their triumph and Caesar gets to deliver a speech.

Following that, Ka-Zar polishes off the menace of Victorius, despite having refused to take the super-soldier serum that would have boosted his prowess. Then, job done, Kev returns to his jungle home.

In Wakanda, while the Black Panther's fighting someone called Sombre, Killmonger and his men are rounding-up dinosaurs, for when they might come in handy.

But hold on.

Where are Jason and Alexander, as advertised on the cover?

They're nowhere to be seen is where they are. Yet again, a printing error has descended upon a Marvel UK mag and a cover has appeared before its time.

I am intrigued by just who it is Drac thinks he's ordering the Werewolf and Man-Thing to strike.

As - apart from him - they're the only people in the room, the only people they can strike are each other.

I'm no military expert but getting your allies to fight each other seems a bit self-defeating.

Then again, it is the 1970s. Maybe he's actually ordering them to go on strike.

I suppose we shouldn't be surprised. I hear monsters are low-paid and have to work nights.

Having said that, I suspect that nothing resembling the activities on this cover will occur within the comic itself.

Instead, I'm going to guess that Dracula's still being sought, for their enquiries, by the men of Scotland Yard. But can even the lord of all vampires survive an encounter with a feminist fashion designer?

Next, Jack Russell's hairy alter-ego is out in  the snow and on the hunt for the young daughter of Buck's current girlfriend!

Following that, Man-Thing becomes more eco-warrior than even Dave Angel, when F.A. Schist and his men decide it'd be a good idea to drain the swamp and replace it with an airport!

If I remember rightly, this is the epic in which Spider-Man loses his mask and has to wear a polythene one bought from a fancy-dress shop. A mask through which he can't breathe properly.

I think he also gets an ulcer, while he's at it.

And Aunt May's gone missing.

Because she's got a job, working for Doc Ock!

That's more new developments than you can shake a stick at but, on Asgard, it's the same old story.

Literally.

The realm Eternal is again under threat from an unstoppable foe - in this case Surtur - and no one can stop him except for Odin but Odin's having one of his epic power naps!

Fortunately, at the last possible moment, Balder finally manages to wake him and he swiftly dispatches the villain, causing everyone in Asgard to sing his praises and declare eternal loyalty to him

Everyone except Loki, of course.

Then, there's an oddity, as we get a one-page article dedicated to Dan Dare creator Frank Hampson.

We then get the answers to the Marvel Mastermind quiz. And I've no idea what those answers are, nor what the questions were.

Next up, Iron Man's fighting the Hulk.

But he isn't the Hulk! He's a robot being used by the Mandarin!

I'm assuming Dr Strange is still up against the deadly menace of Silver Dagger.

And we wrap up this action-packed issue with the Thing, Captain America and Sharon Carter on a far-flung future Earth that's ruled by the Badoon!

Captain America makes the cover but the issue kicks off with the X-Men deciding to attack the underground realm of Tyrannus, after the underground menace's latest escapades.

And, for that, they get their hands on a boring machine.

That is, a machine that can bore holes.

Not a machine that they all find boring.

After that, the Sub-Mariner fights the latest underwater menace to threaten Atlantis - and discovers It Walks Like a Man!

At the Avengers Mansion, Captain America's being tormented by bad dreams of his World War Two adventures.

But are they as innocent as they seem?

And do they have anything to do with the fact that the brand new AIM robot of death, the Adaptoid, is posing as Jarvis the butler?

Captain Marvel, meanwhile, is still battling the maddening menace of the man called Megaton.

And, while Nick Fury has a punch-up with the Druid, Jasper Sitwell sets out out find the location of that villain's HQ!

Can it be?

Can the Hulk have teamed up with that dastardly brute the Juggernaut, in order to bust out of Hulkbuster Base?

Yes, it can.

But not for long, as, given the volatile nature of the duo, it's not long before they're at loggerheads.

And ones that can only be resolved by the mental powers of Professor X and Marvel Girl!

When it comes to Daredevil's strip, it's Karen Page who takes centre stage when, in need of time off, following the "death" of Matt Murdock, she pays a visit to her dad's house.

Only for it turn out there are spooky shenanigans going on there!

Now that Sue Richards has just given birth to the spawn of she and Reed, it looks like she's not going to be getting into any life-or-death scraps in the near-future.

And that can only mean one thing.

That it's time for Crystal to join the Fantastic Four, in her place!

Reed Richards isn't convinced she's up to he task but an attack by the Wizard, on their Baxter Building HQ, will soon give her the chance to demonstrate her worth.

And, most intriguing of all, this week's issue contains the inclusion of a Neil Tennant article about Marvel's operations in the various countries of Europe.

Speak Your Brain! Part 119. 1981. What was going on there, then?

Thanks to Charlie Horse 47 and Killdumpster for their sponsorship of this post, via the magic of Patreon. 

***

Image by Tumisu
from Pixabay

As we all know, the greatest film ever made was Fiend Without a Face, that stirring tale of what happens when an air force base in Canada is attacked by evil brains summoned up from the depths of one man's id.

How we gasped as they laid siege to a house.

How we shuddered as they came down the chimney.

Those, of course, are brains no man would ever wish to encounter. But here's a brain-related activity any man would give his right cerebral cortex to take part in.

And that's the feature in which the first person to comment gets to decide just what is to be discussed.

It could be almost any topic under the sun. Therefore, feel free to get the ball rolling and we shall see just what drama unfolds before us.

2000 AD - February 1988.

Thanks to Charlie Horse 47 and Killdumpster for their sponsorship of this post, via the magic of Patreon. 

***

It was time to get your skates on if you were around in February 1988.

Not to mention your skis.

And that's because it was the month in which the 1988 Winter Olympics were held in Calgary!

Elsewhere - and not as cheerfully - it seems a Nazi document implicated Austrian President and former secretary-general of the United Nations Kurt Waldheim in World War II crimes.

When it came to movies, the month saw the release of such unalloyed gems as The Serpent and the Rainbow, She's Having a Baby, The Unbearable Lightness of Being, Action Jackson, Alien from L.A., Frantic and Hairspray.

And guess what?

I've never seen any of them.

However, I suspect The Serpent and the Rainbow is the one I'd enjoy most, as it's a horror film and made by Wes Craven.

When it came to music, the month kicked off with Tiffany's I Think We're Alone Now atop the UK singles chart. But it wasn't long before that was deposed by Kylie Minogue's Hi-NRG Stock, Aitken and Waterman created dance smash I Should Be So Lucky.

No signs of change were visible upon the corresponding album chart, though, thanks to Introducing the Hardline According to... by Terence Trent D'Arby hogging the apex for the entire period.

And what of the galaxy's greatest comic?

As we've grown to expect, it was still giving us such old standbys as A.B.C. Warriors, Strontium Dog, Judge Dredd, Nemesis and the inevitable Tharg's Future-Shocks.

 
But there was, at least, one new thing, because Prog 561 featured Hap Hazzard in the form of a four-page adventure written and drawn by Steve Dillon. I've never encountered it but 2000AD.org tells me - and everyone else - that it's set on the trading world of Fred's Planet and features the youthful Hap and Tricky engaging in life, love and get-rich-quick schemes.