The Hunchback of Notre Dame

The Hunchback of Notre Dame (original French title, Notre-Dame de Paris) is an 1831 French novel written by Victor Hugo. It is set in 1482 in Paris, in and around the cathedral of Notre Dame de Paris. The book tells the story of a poor Gypsy girl (La Esmeralda) and a misshapen bell-ringer (Quasimodo) who are both victimized by a corrupt priest (Claude Frollo). The book is largely a work of social criticism

Humphrey Bogart

The man who would tell Ingrid Bergman, "Here's Looking at You, Kid," at the conclusion of Casablanca (1942) was born Humphrey DeForest Bogart in 1899. He would become one of the twentieth century's greatest icons of tough masculinity, a complex blend of "good guy" and "bad guy" at a time when World War II had many Americans re-examining their personal codes of loyalty, honor, and character. Underneath his coarse exterior, Bogart, or simply "Bogie," betrayed an underdog vulnerability and a genuine desire to find the "right" answer in a world that was increasingly chaotic and off-kilter. The star was also well known for his celebrated marriage to co-star Lauren Bacall, whose sultry wit reflected his cynicism but who always drew out his romantic, heroic side.

Although Bogart became known for playing brutish characters from the wrong side of town, he was raised in the world of upper-middle -class New York City. He was eventually expelled from the Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts, and joined the Navy for service during World War I. It was in the war that he suffered an injury which left his lip slightly paralyzed, resulting in the stiff and affected facial gestures which became one of the actor's trademarks.
Bogart began his career on stage in the 1920s and entered Hollywood by playing minor roles a decade later. But when Leslie Howard lobbied for him to co-star in The Petrified Forest (1935), he proved that he was well-suited for gangster or villain characters. He generally played this type until High Sierra (1941) in which he (with the film's screenwriter John Huston) developed a trope of masculinity which was complicated by ambivalence, pragmatism, and complex moral fortitude. Here, Bogart starred as Mad Dog Earle, an ex-convict on the run and destined for his own demise, who lays bare a particular emotional sensitivity through his sympathy for a simpler, gentler Joan Leslie. He continued to develop his star persona through this kind of role in The Maltese Falcon (1941) and Casablanca (1941), both of which are considered his watershed films. Though he maintained a turbulent relationship with Warner Brothers, the studio which helped forge his image, Bogart made a comfortable fit with its house style which relied on the gangster genre and films which drew on the topical social problems of the day.

A bit of Frankenstein

Marilyn Manson

The Mummy

Archeologists in recent years have tried to resolve lingering questions over how he died and his precise royal lineage. Several books and documentaries dedicated to the young pharaoh, who is believed to have been the 12th ruler of ancient Egypt's 18th dynasty and ascended to the throne around the age of 8, are popular around the world.
In an effort to try to solve the mysteries, scientists removed Tut's mummy from his tomb and placed it into a portable CT scanner for 15 minutes in 2005 to obtain a three-dimensional image. The scans were the first done on an Egyptian mummy.
The results did rule out that Tut was violently murdered — but stopped short of definitively concluding how he died around 1323 B.C. Experts for the time though suggested that days before dying, Tut badly broke his left thigh, apparently in an accident, that may have caused a fatal infection.
The CT scan also provided the most revealing insight yet into the life of ancient Egypt's most famous king. He was well-fed, healthy, yet slightly built, standing at 5 feet, 6 inches tall at the time of his death. The scan also showed he had the typical overbite characteristic of other kings from his family, large incisor teeth and his lower teeth were slightly misaligned.
The unveiling of Tut's mummy comes amid a frenzy of international publicity for the boy king. A highly publicized museum exhibit traveling the globe drew more than 4 million people during the initial four-city American-leg of the tour. The exhibit will open later this month in London and after it will make a three-city encore tour in the U.S. beginning with the Dallas Museum of Art.

Jack Kerouac

Jack Kerouac was born on March 12, 1922 in Lowell, Massachusetts. As the author of the infamous novel, On the Road, Kerouac became a leader and a spokesperson for the Beat Movement.

He was educated at Columbia University and the novel, On the Road - a semi-autobiographical tome of prose - exemplified the carefree, Beat lifestyle. The main character in this story hitchhikes across the country with his friend Dean Moriarty (inspired by fellow Beat adventurer, Neal Cassady) and enjoys casual friendships, love affairs and experiences. The non-materialistic lifestyles of the protagonists were embraced by many readers and helped propel Kerouac's status into an almost mythical realm.

He learned English as a second language: his parents were French-Canadian. He also spent some time in the Navy where he was then discharged due to possessing a schizoid personality. Soon after, he became a merchant seaman and then decided on the life of a vagabond, from which he obtained inspiration for his later novels.

His first book was published in 1950 and titled The Town and the City. It is said that Kerouac struggled with conformity and rejected the then contemporary fictional standards. On the Road was written in less than three weeks and demonstrated a fresh style. This new writing was spontaneous and seemed to be at times unedited. It possessed a strange energy that shocked more established writers but only brought Kerouac well-deserved recognition.

Alfred Hitchcock

James Cagney

I've long admired his cocky attitude and herky-jerky movements, the epitome of rough and tumble manhood. Cagney's energetic acting style with staccato delivery and raspy voice became synonymous with the Hollywood "tough guy" role. Will Rogers once said of him, "Every time I see him work, it looks to me like a bunch of firecrackers going off all at once." He was a Warner Brothers mainstay for many years as the studio was setting the standard for crime drama (gangster flicks). He made 38 films for Warners between 1930 and 1941. However, Mr. Cagney was not content to play just one kind of part and proved his versatility by portraying George M. Cohan in the musical Yankee Doodle Dandy, for which he won a well deserved Oscar for his singing and dancing, as well as his acting. He also was a great light comedian in such films as The Strawberry Blonde and The Bride Came C.O.D..


James Francis Cagney, Jr., born on July 17, 1899, was the child of an Irish father and Norwegian mother and was raised on New York's Lower Eastside. He did many odd jobs to support his family. He worked as a waiter, poolroom racker, and even as a female impersonator. He joined the chorus of the Broadway show Pitter-Patter and did a vaudeville tour with Frances, his wife. In the mid 1920's Cagney had begun to play leads on Broadway. He was quite successful in the musical Penny Arcade and was cast in the renamed film version Sinner's Holiday. He was signed to a contract by Warner Brothers and his role as Tom Powers in The Public Enemy made him a star. He went on to star in such classics as Angels With Dirty Faces, The Roaring Twenties, White Heat, Love Me or Leave Me and Man of a Thousand Faces. He directed 1957's Short Cut to Hell. Cagney retired in 1961 after making the farce One, Two, Three. He received the AFI's Life Achievement Award in 1974, was honored by the Kennedy Center in 1980, and in 1984 received the United States government's highest civilian honor, the Medal of Freedom. His autobiography Cagney on Cagney was published in 1975. He made a big screen comeback in 1981's Ragtime and starred in the small screen movie "Terrible Joe Moran" in 1984. He died of a heart attack on his farm in upstate New York on March 30, 1986. President Ronald Reagan delivered the eulogy at his funeral and said, "America lost one of her finest artists".

Peter Lorre as Mr. Moto

Mr. Moto was a mild-mannered, Japanese detective that was the basis for a series of eight films (1937-39) by Twentieth Century-Fox from the stories of novelist John P. Marquand. Peter Lorre portrays Kentaro Moto (I.A. Moto in Marquand's novels), who was very much unlike Charlie Chan in that he was the master of disguises and physically more active, often using ju-jistsu.

It is seldom clear for whom Moto really works. Perhaps it is the International Police. In the first two films, he refers to himself an importer. When asked if he is a detective in the film Think Fast, Mr. Moto, he replies that it done only as a hobby. On other occasions, Moto claims to be a confidential investigator for the International Association of Importers, a member of the International Police, a college lecturer in criminology, and a managing director of the Dai Nippon Trading Company, which probably serves as a front for his activities with the International Police. However, in The Return of Mr. Moto, it is clear that Moto works for Interpol. In the novels, he is a Japanese agent in the service of the Emperor.

Many of the actors and crew members who were associated with the Charlie Chan series at Twentieth Century-Fox were also involved with the Mr. Moto films. Most notable of the actors and actresses were Thomas Beck, Harold Huber, Erik Rhodes, Virginia Field, Murray Kinnell, and Lionel Atwill. Even Keye Luke, who had already appeared as Number One son Lee Chan in eight films with Warner Oland, reprised his role as Lee Chan in Mr. Moto's Gamble (1938), much of which was salvaged from Charlie Chan at the Ringside, a 1938 movie project that never was completed.


















The following are the eight Mr. Moto films with Peter Lorre:

* Think Fast, Mr. Moto (1937)
* Thank You, Mr. Moto (1937)
* Mr. Moto's Gamble (1937)
* Mr. Moto Takes a Chance (1938)
* Mysterious Mr. Moto (1938)
* Mr. Moto's Last Warning (1939)
* Danger Island (1939)
* Mr. Moto Takes a Vacation (1939)

Fee Fi Fo... Fiorilla!

Well ever since I first met Steve he has illustrated for books and magazines (Heavy Metal, Video Games and Computer Entertainment, High Times), T-shirts, small press journals (Eegah!, Magick Theatre, Moody Street Irregulars), catalog covers (Gregg Press), fanzines (Horror from the Crypt of Fear) and mini-comics (City Scenes). One of his 1985 sculptures was featured 12 years later on a cover for the magazine Bloodsongs (1997).

He created numerous drawings and product designs for Ed "Big Daddy" Roth, including a belt buckle, T-shirts, caps, ads and catalog illustrations. Fiorilla sometimes works in tandem with illustrator Jim McDermott, such as their collaboration for Stephen J. Spignesi's The Complete Stephen King Encyclopedia (1991)


Here is one or the last color illustrations I completed with Steve
Fiorilla in 1998. Steve did all the creature pencil designs for the
art, and I finished with the remaining pencils and ink/color. Click
to see some of Steve's fantastic Pencil details on this.

-- Jim McDermott
.
Fiorilla has illustrated for books and magazines (Heavy Metal, Video Games and Computer Entertainment, High Times), T-shirts, small press journals (Eegah!, Magick Theatre, Moody Street Irregulars), catalog covers (Gregg Press), fanzines (Horror from the Crypt of Fear) and mini-comics (City Scenes). One of his 1985 sculptures was featured 12 years later on a cover for the magazine Bloodsongs (1997).











Fiorilla's work for films includes sculptural designs for Boston's Olive Jar Animation. The short film Things Never Seen (1989), with creatures designed by Fiorilla, received multiple showings on MTV during the 1980s and 1990s. In addition to special effects makeup for videos (Tennie Komar and the Silencers) and films (Winterbeast, 1991), he has designed masks for Death Studios and horror films, including Saturday the 14th (1981) and Till Death Do We Scare (1982).

The MTV animated logo "Guillotine" featured a sculpted horror by Fiorilla, and he also created the customized skeleton guitar writhing in a popular 1987 Dokken video seen on MTV.

EC Comics publisher Bill Gaines owned one of Fiorilla's latex masks depicting EC's Old Witch (The Haunt of Fear). In the second season of HBO's Tales from the Crypt anthology television series, a photo of this Old Witch mask was a prop in the June 26, 1990 "Korman's Kalamity" episode, adapted from the EC story "Kamen's Kalamity." Illustrated by Jack Kamen, the original self-satirical story is set in EC's offices where the EC editors have a meeting with Kamen about his artwork.







Throughout his career, Fiorilla has emphasized the grotesque and surreal in illustrations, sculpture and fine art. As a sculptor, he has produced a variety of bizarre, malformed creatures.

Peter Cushing (1913-1994)

Trained at London's Guildhall School of Music and Drama, Peter Cushing began his career in prewar Hollywood in The Man in the Iron Mask (US, d. James Whale, 1939) and made several films there before starting in Britain with Hamlet (1948), as a vividly exquisite Osric.

In the early 50s, he worked mainly in the theatre (he was in Laurence Olivier's 1951 St James Theatre season), had a TV triumph in Nineteen Eighty-Four (d. Rudolph Cartier, 1954), and was very moving as Deborah Kerr's cuckolded husband in The End of the Affair (d. Edward Dmytryk, 1954).

His film career took off when he played the eponymous over-reacher in Hammer's The Curse of Frankenstein (d. Terence Fisher, 1957), establishing him at once as a cult hero of the horror film aficionados, with Christopher Lee as the monster. These two names, along with director Terence Fisher, now evoke the output of this most successful British studio. As well as playing the Baron half a dozen times, he also memorably incarnated Dr Van Helsing in several reprises of the Dracula myth, including the wonderfully stylish The Brides of Dracula (d. Fisher, 1960).

His chiselled features, refined, even ascetic speech and bearing, his intense belief in the scientific mumbo-jumbo he was given to say, are now so firmly embedded in the public mind that it is an effort of will to remember that he played many other roles, including Sherlock Holmes. It is arguable, though, that his most incisive performance is as the thin-lipped bank manager under fearful strain in the excellent B thriller, Cash on Demand (d. Quentin Lawrence, 1961).

Peter Lorre

As a youth Peter Lorre ran away from home, worked as a bank clerk, and after stage training in Vienna made his acting debut in Zurich. He remained unknown, traveling for seven years acting in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, until Fritz Lang cast as the psychopathic child killer in M (1931). After several more films in Germany, Lorre left as the Nazis came to power, going to Paris, London and, in 1935, Hollywood. He played Raskolnikov in Crime and Punishment (1935/I) and a series of Mr. Moto movies during the late 1930s. He began his pairing with Sydney Greenstreet as Joel Cairo in The Maltese Falcon (1941), continued in Casablanca (1942) and seven other films during the early 1940s. In Germany he wrote, directed and starred in Verlorene, Der (1951). After that, somewhat heavier, he played in a string of not-so-stellar efforts, one exception being his role as a clown in The Big Circus (1959). He died the year he made his last movie, playing a stooge in Jerry Lewis' The Patsy (1964).

John Carradine

John Carradine was born Richmond Reed Carradine in New York City, the son of Genevieve Winifred (Richmond), a surgeon, and William Reed Carradine, a correspondent for the Associated Press.[1] He originally planned a career as a painter and sculptor. He began his career in show business as a Shakespearean dramatic actor and made his cinematic debut in 1930 under the name Peter Richmond. He adopted the stage name "John Carradine" in 1935, and legally took the name as his own two years later.
Carradine's four sons all became actors: David Carradine, Robert Carradine, Keith Carradine and Bruce Carradine. David's show, Kung Fu, featured his father John and half-brother Robert in the episode Dark Angel. John would appear as the same character, the Reverend Serenity Johnson, in two more episodes: The Nature of Evil and Ambush.

Lon Chaney Sr. In West of Zanzibar

West of Zanzibar is a 1928 film directed by Tod Browning about the vengefulness of a cuckolded magician (Lon Chaney) paralyzed in a brawl with his rival (Lionel Barrymore). The supporting cast includes Mary Nolan and Warner Baxter.

Barrymore was the elder brother of Ethel and John Barrymore "Dr Jekyll and Mr. Hyde", and the uncle of John Drew Barrymore, and the grand-uncle of Drew Barrymore. His parents were Maurice Barrymore (né Blythe) and Georgiana Drew. He was married to actresses Doris Rankin and Irene Fenwick.

A Touch of Comedy

The Art of Alfred Hitchcock

Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock KBE (August 13, 1899 – April 29, 1980) was an iconic and highly influential British-born film director and producer who pioneered many techniques in the suspense and thriller genres. He directed more than fifty feature films in a career spanning six decades, from the silent film era, through the invention of talkies, to the colour era. Hitchcock was among the most consistently successful and publicly recognizable world directors during his lifetime, and remains one of the best known and most popular of all time.

Famous for his expert and largely unrivalled control of pace and suspense, Hitchcock's films draw heavily on both fear and fantasy, and are known for their droll humour and witticisms. They often portray innocent people caught up in circumstances beyond their control or understanding.

Hitchcock was born and raised in Leytonstone, London, England. He began his directing career in the United Kingdom in 1922, but from 1939 he worked primarily in the United States and applied for U.S. citizenship in 1956. Hitchcock and his family lived in a mountaintop estate known as Cornwall Ranch or "Heart o' the Mountain" at the end of Canham Road, high above Scotts Valley, California, from 1940 to 1972. He died of renal failure in 1980.[1]

Rebecca was the only one of his films to win the Academy Award for Best Picture, although four others were nominated. However, Hitchcock never won an Academy Award for Best Director. He was awarded the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award for lifetime achievement in 1967, but never personally received an Academy Award of Merit.