By James Whittington, 20th June 2023
This month's celebrated Vintage Vault selections on LEGEND are all examples of early franchise horror from the great days of the movies, spanning the thirties and forties.
It was in 1931 that the horror film really came together as a film genre at Universal Pictures, when Tod Browning directed Bela Lugosi as a suavely purring vampire Count in Dracula and James Whale put Boris Karloff in flat head and big boots as the Monster in Frankenstein. After that great one-two, not only was the horror film a viable commercial and artistic property, but the studios began to see the genre as what a later film industry would call a franchise - indeed, an interlocking series of franchises which would eventually prove the template for so much 2020s blockbuster cinema. The first assembly line horror picture might have been The Mummy (1932), a rewrite of Dracula tailored for the star of Frankenstein, adding Egyptian curses and bandaged baddies to the canon of classic monster themes.
Here's the rundown of LEGEND's July premieres...
The Ghoul (1933) - Channel Premiere, Sunday July 2, 9pm. 'What was the idea of bandaging his hand like that?' I canna say. He had many a queer fancy.' Dying Egyptologist Professor Morlant (Boris Karloff) insists he be buried with a valuable jewel taped to his hand, so he can revive in the tomb and perform a ritual he believes will give him eternal life. Various parties scheme to get hold of the jewel. Having become a horror star in Hollywood, Boris Karloff returned in triumph to Britain for the first time in decades to take the leading role - reminiscent of his just-completed turn in The Mummy - in this homegrown stab at taking back some of the gothic action from the upstart Americans. A hollow-eyed Karloff expires in bed surrounded by grasping Dickensian grotesques like the club-footed butler (Ernest Thesiger) and an untrustworthy lawyer (Cedric Hardwicke), who then compete to get hold of his fortune. In the climax, Karloff revives in the tomb and lumbers zombie-like as he tries to offer up the sacred scarab to a statue of Anubis. The plot is a combination of proven properties like The Cat and the Canary (heirs and schemers gather in an isolated house to get hold of treasure) and The Moonstone (knife-wielding foreigners out to reclaim the jewel stolen from their ancient culture) and has as much silly comedy, like the spinster who is overly-impressed by an Egyptian on the strength of having seen Rudolf Valentino in The Sheik too many times, as it does proper creepy stuff. A young Ralph Richardson enjoys his screen debut as an unctuous curate who turns out to be another crook who has set enough gunpowder under Karloff's tomb to allow for an explosive finale.
Son of Frankenstein (1939) - Channel Premiere, Sunday July 9, 9pm 'What's going on at Castle Frankenstein? The whole village is alarmed with anxiety!' 'My men report nothing but quiet.' 'Quiet? There's nothing so ominous as quiet.' Universal discontinued horror production in 1936, reacting to a ban on such films from our old friends at the British Board of Film Censors. However a successful 1938 double-bill reissue of Dracula and Frankenstein convinced the studio there was still commercial life in their monsters. Son of Frankenstein - originally planned to be shot in colour, until make-up tests revealed a less-than-impressive greenish monster - was the super production mounted to demonstrate the continued viability of the genre. Directed not by eccentric visionary James Whale but by solid professional Rowland V. Lee, Son began the second wave of monster films - and is in its own way as deliciously strange and experimental as Whale's Frankenstein films. With a big horror name cast and Jack Otterson's stylised production design, it is an A feature, the last of the series to be aimed primarily at an adult audience. Invoking Whale's black wit, Lee gets fine, hysterical work from top-billed Basil Rathbone as Baron Wolf von Frankenstein, who plays perfectly off Bela Lugosi's whiskery, sly, broken-necked Ygor and Lionel Atwill's clipped, one-armed, monocle-polishing Inspector Krogh. Karloff's Monster is upstaged, reduced to a mute thug, while the plot involves a string of revenge killings which makes the film feel like a precursor to the body count slasher films of the 1980s.
The Invisible Man Returns (1940) - Channel Premiere, Sunday July 16, 9pm 'Between you and me sir I'll have to see him before I believe he's invisible.' Having made sequels to Frankenstein, Dracula and The Mummy, Universal sought to add another fiend to their franchise roster by going back to James Whale's The Invisible Man (1933) - based on H.G. Wells' novel - and came up with a new spin on the story to showcase the remarkable effects work of John P. Fulton. With Karloff and Lugosi getting on a bit and the original Invisible Man Claude Rains moved on to A pictures, the studio introduced a possible new horror star in velvet-voiced Vincent Price, who purrs maniacally from behind bandages or as a disembodied voice. Here, Frank Griffin (John Sutton), the brother of Rains' character, helps out a pal, Geoffrey Radcliffe (Price), who has been accused of a murder he didn't commit. Unseen sleuth Radcliffe sets out to determine which above-suspicion character actor is the real killer. It's the only invisible man movie in which the see-though megalomaniac is involved in a boardroom battle to get control of his family's Yorkshire coal mine.
The Mummy's Tomb (1942) - Channel Premiere, Sunday July 23, 9pm 'Whether you can believe it or not, the facts are here and we've got to face them. A creature that's been alive for over 3,000 years is in this town.' The Mummy's Hand (1940) isn't a sequel to The Mummy (1932), but a reboot - using images, footage, plot elements and make-up design from the original haunted romance for an action-adventure film which replaced actor Karloff with stuntman Tom Tyler under the bandages. Universal then decided Lon Chaney Jr, a horror star on the strength of The Wolf Man, would play all their monster roles in succession - he returned as the Wolf Man and had stabs at the Frankenstein Monster and Dracula, but also did three curse quickies as Kharis, the limping mummy. In this brisk follow-up to The Mummy's Hand, Kharis is transported to America by a turban-wearing Turhan Bey, the latest High Priest of Oogedy-Boogedy, and gets vengeance on the survivors of the previous film (Dick Foran, Wallace Ford) - an early instance of the Scream habit of offing legacy characters - before shambling away to menace a new generation of tomb-defilers and lech after the latest nifty number in a smart 1940s nightgown (Elyse Knox).
Related show tags: THE GHOUL, SON OF FRANKENSTEIN, THE INVISIBLE MAN RETURNS, THE MUMMY'S TOMB MORE FEATURES James Cameron’s stunning sci-fi thriller THE ABYSS leads LEGEND’s channel premiere line-up for May 2025 Posted on 29th April 2025
James Cameron's stunning underwater sci-fi thriller THE ABYSS gets a rare UK TV showing leading LEGEND's channel premiere line-up for May 2025. And for those who like their sci-fi adventures subterranean, LEGEND also presents three classic 'matinee' premieres – JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF THE EARTH (1959), VOYAGE TO THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA (1961) and THE POSEIDON ADVENTURE (1972), starring Gene Hackman. Hackman also stars in action thriller BEHIND ENEMY LINES.
Other sci-fi / fantasy picks this month include IMPOSTER (2001), from the author of Total Recall and Blade Runner, and HIGHLANDER III: THE SORCERER, where, once again, Connor MacLeod (Christoper Lambert) is forced to face a new,...
Carpenter, Verhoeven, Winner and Neil Marshall lead LEGEND charge of Channel premieres in April Posted on 29th March 2025
Some of the our most iconic films will receive their Channel premieres on LEGEND this April, including John Carpenter's ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK, starring Kurt Russell, Micheal Winner's DEATH WISH, starring Charles Bronson, Paul Verhoeven's BASIC INSTINCT, starring Michael Douglas and Sharon Stone, and Neil Marshal's CENTURION, starring Michael Fassbender and Dominic West.
Other premieres include Brit revenge crime thriller VENDETTA, starring Danny Dyer, and John Badham's DROP ZONE, in which Wesley Snipes freefalls into new heights of crime-fighting.
Plus, LEGEND presents six classic afternoon 'matinee' premieres, including the celebrated 1976 version of KING KONG,...
LEGEND will take you on an exhilarating ride in March with ten channel premieres Posted on 27th February 2025
It's starry thrills all the way on LEGEND this March with ten channel premieres - from Terence Young's THE JIGSAW MAN, starring Michael Caine and Lawrence Olivier, Nick Love's THE SWEENEY, starring Ray Winstone and Damian Lewis, to Taylor Hackford's PARKER, starring Jennifer Lopez and Jason Statham.
Statham also pops up as a cage-fighting ex-cop in Boaz Yakim's high-octane SAFE, whilst Jean-Claude Van Damme kickboxes his way out of trouble in LIONHEART and Denzil Washington and Mark Wahlberg are all guns blazing in buddy cop action comedy 2 GUNS.
Other adrenaline-fuelled premieres include action Western THE KID, starring Eithan Hawke, undersea drama STEEL SHARK...
LEGEND reveals action-packed line-up of Channel premieres for February 2025 Posted on 28th January 2025
From Stephen Soderbergh's revenge-tinged actioner HAYWIRE, starring a kick-ass Gina Carano, to Michael Apted's London-set spy-thriller UNLOCKED, starring a gun-toting Noomi Rapace, and Tony Maylam's futuristic sci-fi horror gem SPLIT SECOND, starring serial killer hunter Rutger Hauer, LEGEND has scheduled ten nail-biting Channel premieres for a full-on February schedule.
Other adrenaline-fuelled premieres include action thrillers THE COLD LIGHT OF DAY, starring Bruce Willis and Sigourney Weaver, BLACK EAGLE, starring Jean-Claude Van Damme, BORN TO RAISE HELL, starring Steven Seagal and ROGUE, starring Megan Fox. British crime thrillers this month include the Channel premieres for WELCOME TO ...
LEGEND kicks off the New Year with thrilling round of premieres! Posted on 17th December 2024
From cult classics like Roy Ward Baker's LEGEND OF THE SEVEN GOLDEN VAMPIRES to legendary director Walter Hill's BULLET TO THE HEAD and Sacha Bennett's WE STILL STEAL THE OLD WAY, LEGEND has scheduled eleven channel premieres in January to kick off the New Year in thrilling fashion.
Other premieres include the classic mercenary thriller THE WILD GEESE, starring screen legends Richard Burton, Roger Moore and Richard Harris, sci-fi actioner LOOPER, starring Bruce Willis and Emily Blunt, sniper thriller DEADLY TARGET, crime drama EMPIRE STATE, starring Liam Hemsworth and Dwayne, biographical disaster movie DEEPWATER HORIZON, high-octane action thriller WANTED: DEAD OR ALIVE, British ...
LEGEND unwraps sixteen premieres for December Posted on 26th November 2024
LEGEND unwraps sixteen channel premieres for December, filling the festive season with top-class thrillers, chillers and action-hitters, including Fred Zinnemann's 1973 classic THE DAY OF THE JACKAL, Robert Rodrigues' star-packed Machete sequel MACHETE KILLS (Lady Gaga, Mel Gibson), Michael Noer's gripping remake of PAPILLON (2017), the deadly diamond heist MOMENTUM, starring Oleg Kurylenko and the superb techno-thriller LIMITLESS, starring Bradley Cooper and Robert De Niro. De Niro also stars in RIGHTEOUS KILL, alongside Al Pacino.
During the month, Hollywood's most-celebrated muscle men are in crime-thrilling action, including Steven Seagal in DRIVEN TO KILL and BEYOND THE LAW, Dolph Lundgren a...
LEGEND reveals a bumper sixteen premieres for November Posted on 27th October 2024
Sixteen action-packed Channel premieres light up LEGEND this November, including a double-dose of weird, stylish and depraved action with CRANK, starring Jason Statham and Any Smart, who both team up again for the sequel CRANK: HIGH VOLTAGE. There are also two of legendary director Sidney Lumet's films - the intense crime saga FAMILY BUSINESS, starring Sean Connery, Dustin Hoffman and Matthew Broderick and his critically acclaimed crime-legal drama Q & A, starring Nick Nolte and Timothy Hutton.
Plus, there are first showings for John Irvin's underrated Vietnam war drama HAMBURGER HILL, Peter Berg's PATRIOTS DAY, based on the 2013 Boston Marathon bombings, Brad Furman's slick Hollywood thriller RUNNER RUNNER,...
LEGEND reveals ten action-packed premieres for October Posted on 24th September 2024
Ten action-packed Channel premieres blast onto LEGEND this October, including Michael Mann's virtuoso cat-and-mouse thriller HEAT, starring Al Pacino and Robert De Niro, Steven Soderbergh's cult crime comedy OUT OF SIGHT, starring George Clooney and Jennifer Lopez, Adrian Lyne's erotic thriller UNFAITHFUL, starring Richard Gere and Diane Lane, David Fincher's dangerous mystery thriller THE GAME, starring Michael Douglas and Sean Penn and John Badham's cop action comedy THE HARD WAY, starring Michael J. Fox and James Woods.
Other primetime channel premieres are action thrillers DAYLIGHT, starring Sylvester Stallone, THE ENFORCER, starring Antonio Banderas and Kate Bosworth, Western THE VIRGINIAN, starring Ron Perlman, da...
LEGEND reveals ten epic premieres for September Posted on 29th August 2024
Ten epic adventures have their Channel Premieres this September, including the star-studded neo-noir thriller L.A. CONFIDENTIAL, Jim Mickle's twisty crime thriller COLD IN JULY, John G. Avidsen's powerful South African drama THE POWER OF ONE, John Amiel's masterful psychological mystery ENTRAPMENT, starring Sean Connery and Catherine Zeta-Jones, and Robert Aldrich's classic violent Western ULZANA'S RAID starring Burt Lancaster.
Other primetime channel premieres are action thrillers CROSS THE LINE, starring Michelle Barton and Luke Goss, ASSAULT ON STATION 33, starring Weston Cage Coppola (Nicolas Cage's son), THE HUNTED, starring Christopher Lambert, THE NEGIOT...
PICK OF THE WEEK
