Progress Report Two for the 11th Festival of
Fantastic Films
Sept 8th to 10th 2000.
Publishing Date: June 2000
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Guests for 2000
Antonio Margheriti
Antonio is a prolific Italian movie Director, who has also been, throughout his long
career, a Producer and Screenwriter.
Beginning his career in 1950 as an assistant editor, he graduated to directing
documentaries and travelogues, before becoming involved in directing special effects in
the mid-50's.
He directed his first feature film 'Assignment : Outer Space' (AKA 'Spaceman') in 1960,
which he also co-wrote.
He made a number of movies under the anglicised name of Anthony M.
Dawson. Not to be confused with the late British character actor Anthony Dawson famous for
trying to kill Grace Kelly in Hitchcock's 'Dial M for Murder'.
Antonio's films include a mixture of Science Fiction, Horror and Action movies, including
directing Festival favourite and previous guest the late lamented David Warbeck in 'The
Last Hunter' (1980), as well as 'Castle of Blood' (1964), 'Seven Dead in the Cat's Eye'
(1973), 'War of the Planets' (1965), 'Hercules', 'Prisoner of Evil Terror' (1964), 'The
Unnaturals' (1969) and probably his most well known, the famous 'Cannibal Apocalypse'
(1980).
Martine Beswick
Jamaican born Martine was one of the original Bond girls having appeared in two of the
Sean Connery movies, namely 'From Russia With Love' (1962) and 'Thunderball' (1965).
Her Hammer career began with the 1966 Ray Harryhausen version of 'One Million Years BC' as
well as the 1968 film 'Slave Girls' (AKA 'Prehistoric Women'), although to genre fans her
most successful role was as the distaff side in 'Dr. Jekyll and Sister Hyde' (1971), with
the late great Ralph Bates as 'her other half'. Later genre appearances subsequent to her
move to the US include 'The Offspring' (1987), 'Seizure' (1974), 'Evil Spirits' and
'Trancers II' both 1991.
Brian Clemens
With Martine appearing at this years Festival it seemed appropriate to reinvite Brian
Clemens, who wrote and co-produced the aforementioned 'Dr. Jekyll and Sister Hyde' in
which she appeared.
So returning for a second visit is this prolific British writer, producer and director
whose many television credits, usually with his producer partner Albert Fennell, include
such notable series as 'The Avengers' (Original and New), and 'The Professionals', plus
his recent collaboration with Festival stalwart Steven Gallagher on the series 'Bugs'.
Brian has had a distinguished movie career including writing - co-producing and directing
the much underrated 'Captain Kronos Vampire Hunter' in 1972, as well as co-writing the
1960 version of 'Tell-Tale Heart' and 'The Golden Voyage of Sinbad' (1973) for Ray
Harryhausen.
Brian also wrote 'See No Evil' (1971) and co-wrote/co-produced 'And Soon the Darkness'
(1970).
His appearance at our 1991 Festival was much regarded and it will be great to have him
return to see us.
Film Programme for 2000
The Film Programme First Draft
As the deadline for locating prints closes in, we'll be tightening our net to a final
line-up of titles in this year's retrospective film programme. The movies you see below
are in with a good chance of going through to the final line-up, but as always at this
stage we do point out that some of the prints have still to be sourced and confirmed.
1920's
THE GOLEM & HOW HE CAME INTO THE WORLD (1920)
Paul Wegener's second filming (he co-directed with Henrik Galeen a version in 1914) of the
Jewish folk legend about a Rabbi who creates a souless monster out of clay only to have it
fall in love with his own daughter.
1930's
DEATH TAKES A HOLIDAY (1934)
Directed by Mitchell Leisen and starring Fredric March as Prince Sirki (Death) who arrives
on Earth at a Riviera party and falling in love with Evelyn Venable decides to linger
among the mortals. While he is here, nobody dies.
SHE (1935)
Merian C. Cooper's epic production directed by Irving Pichel and Lansing C. Holden has
some incredible sets and wonderful art deco designs. Randolph Scott is the lucky explorer
who She- who- must- be - obeyed has an eye for! Terrific musical score by Max (King Kong)
Steiner.
1940's
BLACK DRAGONS (1942)
Here's a real oddity from Monogram with Bela Lugosi as a bearded Nazi plastic surgeon
turning Japanese spies into passable Americans. Directed by William Nigh.
THE LADY AND THE MONSTER (1944)
This is the first screen version of Kurt Siodmak's science fiction story DONOVAN'S BRAIN.
Directed and produced by George Sherman at the Republic Studios, it features some
impressively atmospheric sets, great modelwork from Howard Lydecker and a wonderful
performance from Erich Von Stroheim as the doctor who keeps the brain of a dead gangster
alive.
MASK OF DIJON (1946)
Director Lew Landers worked in and out of our genres through his long career. Here he has
the amazing Erich Von Stroheim as a magician who hynotises enemies to make them kill and
then commit suicide. From poverty-row production company PRC.
THE FLYING SERPENT (1946)
Another production from PRC is a re-mix of Lugosi's DEVIL BAT. But this film is quite
difficult to track down on celluloid and the print we have seen is suffering from water
damage. Chances are some undamaged footage can be used to replace sections of the print -
would you folks like to view the result... or is there a pristine video copy out there?
1950's
Science Fiction and Fantasy from the 1950's are the backbone of our original concept for
the Festival and we'll always look to this period with a special fondness.
The Brothers Spence - Roy and Noel - reside in a permanent time warp when it comes to the
50's. So we have asked them to put togther their own ideal celebration of that decade and
provide a short introduction to the films in their programme which will be spread across
the weekend. Here's the selection they came up with:-
THE ABOMINABLE SNOWMAN (1957)
Forrest Tucker, Peter Cushing feature in this excellent Hammer film directed by Val Guest.
ATTACK OF THE CRAB MONSTERS (1957)
Roger Corman's marvellous low-budget science fiction piece - in which every scene is
designed to build the tension and succeeds. Richard Garland and Pamela Duncan head the
cast.
THE DEADLY MANTIS (1957)
Nathan Juran helms this Universal monster flick that has Craig Stevens and William Hopper
(great name in a Preying Mantis movie) trying to keep New York in one piece.
FRANKENSTEIN'S DAUGHTER(1959)
Sandra Knight, John Ashley and Donald Murphy appear in this lowest of low-budget horror
films. Directed by Richard Cunha.
HOW TO MAKE A MONSTER (1958)
Herbert J. Strock puts together a meeting of the two classic American International teen
monsters. Robert Harris is the make-up man about to lose his job... and the colour ending
has a nice display of Paul Blaisdell creature masks.
IT CONQUERED THE WORLD (1956)
Roger Corman again - and the wonderful cucumber monster chasing after Beverly Garland.
THE MAN WHO TURNED TO STONE (1957)
Directed by Leslie Kardos with Victor Jory, Ann Doran and Charlotte Austin.
SHE DEMONS (1958)
Richard Cunha cut his teeth as director on this wonderful epic with the help of the
sensational Irish McCalla. It features a mad lab and Nazis on a desert island.
THE THING THAT COULDN'T DIE (1958)
Directed by Will Cowan, this is possibly Roy Spence's favourite film of all time. Ask him
why in the bar!
WAR OF THE COLOSSAL BEAST (1958)
Just when you thought The Amazing Colossal Man was long gone, Bert I. Gordon brings him
back for even more terrible deeds.
And in addition, our own plans for the 50's so far, include the following:
THE MAD MAGICIAN 3-D (1954)
Vincent Price made this for Columbia who were obviously trying to attract the audiences
that made THE HOUSE OF WAX the most successful 3D film of the 1950's. Vincent is a
magician who designs illusions and works for a manufacturer. But when his best illusion,
which he designed in his own time, is sold by his boss, he gets a little fed up and takes
to a bout of beheading.
Our screenings of 3D movies over the previous years have always been popular but of course
the number of titles we can obtain prints of is limited. Last year's 3D was IT CAME FROM
OUTER SPACE and prior to that we have run the two Gill Man films on more than one
occassion. We have screened this one before, but a number of folks have asked if we can
run it again this year. We'll also have a science fiction movie in 3D - so look out for
details of that further down.
THE ROBOT v THE AZTEC MUMMY (1959)
The Mexican movies are a lot of fun and this is no exception. It's a bizzare sequel to THE
AZTEC MUMMY telling of the lure of a treasure buried in the mummy's tomb. The star of the
movie is the tin robot sent in to battle the Aztec Mummy. It has a human head looking
through a face window and light bulbs for ears. Now this is science fiction!
1960's
FANTASTIC INVASION OF PLANET EARTH 3-D (1966)
Produced, Directed and Written by Arch Obler, who in the Golden Days of American Radio
produced some classic science fiction stories on the air. He made the first 3D feature
BWANA DEVIL in the 1950's which was responsible for the burst of stereoscopic productions
at almost all the major studios of Hollywood. This odd science ficton piece was shot using
a revolutionary process in the 1960's that only required a single projector to show the
film. Obler called it SpaceVision.
SHAROD OF ATLANTIS (1961)
Actually, 1961 was the year of distribution of this feature, but it was originally made in
1936 as a 12 Chapter serial, THE UNDERSEA KINGDOM. It's a great Flash Gordon style
action-filled adventure about a war in the lost city of Atlantis with Monte Blue, William
Farnum, Ray 'Crash' Corrigan (as himself!) and Lon Chaney Jr. Filled to the brim with
spiked tanks, warriors on horseback, submarines, flying bombs, a disintegration machine,
ray guns, and the popular Republic robots. The oddest 1960's release ever.
1970's
LEGACY OF BLOOD (1973)
Great cast comprising of Faith Domergue, Jeff Morrow and John Carradine. The children of a
millionaire must spend a week in his house in order to collect their inheritance... and
one by one..... you guessed it.
SOMETHING CREEPING IN THE DARK (1970)
Here's a somewhat rare find for our Italian horror movie fanatics - It's described as very
atmospheric and directed by Mario Colucci. Lead players are Stelvio Rosi, Mia Genberg and
the American veteran Farley Granger.
THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW (1975)
Jim Sharman directed the cult Richard O'Brien musical and it's quite a number of years
since we featured it at our event.... thought it was about time to bring it back and hope
the audience are in the right frame of mind to join in the fun.
DEATH RACE 2000 (1975)
Roger Corman produced (and added extra gore) this cult movie and the late Paul Bartel did
the directing. A young Sylvester Stallone competes with David Carradine in a
no-holds-barred race across the States.
Movies from the 1980's and 1990's will be highlighted in our next PR when we will hope to
be able to detail our Premiere line-up for this year. We'll also update you on the entries
for our International Independent Film Festival, which get better each year!
SPECIAL EVENTS
Our programme of live events is building nicely as we move towards the summer and so far
will include the following.
THE ANATOMY OF A HAMMER FILM
Wayne Kinsey will chair a panel of technicians who all worked on Hammer films and together
they'll discuss how their individual skills fit together to produce a feature film. There
will naturally be some wonderful anecdotes from behind the scenes at Bray and other
classic locations.
THE BLAIR WITCH EFFECT
Richard Gordon flies in from New York to be with us again and he'll be on our panel of
celebrities to discuss what the success of The Blair Witch means to other Independent
horror film makers.
TO BE CONTINUED....
Last year Adrian James fascinated our audience with his knowledge of the movie serial and
this year we have asked him to concentrate on a single studio. He's chosen Republic
Pictures, the studio who made the best genre serials. They had the directors, the stunt
men, the brilliant model makers... Republic were The Serials.
NOVEL TO SCREEN
Ramsey Campbell's novel THE NAMELESS has been filmed by Spanish director Jaume Balaguero
and we are anticipating that we'll have an English language version of the film which
Ramsey will introduce. After the 35mm screening, they'll be an open discussion with the
director and producer.
INDEPENDENT AND AMATEUR FILM COMPETITIONS
Following last years great success, with some amazing films from new and exciting
directors, this years event promises to be even better. We will have a full programme of
new independent and amateur movies for your viewing.
Anyone interested in entering a film in the competition should get an entry form from our
Website www.fantastic-films.com or by mail from Tony Edwards. Closing dates are July 8th
for Amateur movies and July 31st for Independent films.
DEALERS FAIR
Once again we will have a Film and Memorabilia Fair on the Sunday of the Festival. Anyone
interested in obtaining a table at the fair should contact Phil Nevitski on 0161 228 2947
THE AUCTION
The infamous Ramsey Campbell auction will take place on the Saturday of the Festival, and
as always is in need of material. So please please look around and see what items in your
genre movie collection can go into this years catalogue.
You can help in two ways, either donate something outright, in which case ALL the money
raised goes directly into the Festival fund, or enter an item for auction from which the
Festival will take 50% and you will receive the balance of anything sold, but you must let
us know whether your items are donations of 50/50 shares.
If you advise Gil Lane-Young prior to the end of August, your item or items will be listed
in the Auction catalogue and will be among the first items to go on sale.
All items brought along to the Festival without advising us will only be auctioned after
the catalogue pieces have been under Ramsey's hammer.
Ring Gil on 0161 929 1243 or drop him a line at 33, Barrington Road, Altrincham, Cheshire.
WA14 1HZ, telling him what you will be bringing, and whether you are donating it or want a
50/50 split.
More events to tell you about next issue - but you still have time to suggest something
that will make for an interesting panel discussion or a specialised event you might like
to present yourself for the Festival. Let's hear from you, Call Harry Nadler 0161 792 0991
or write to 5, South Mesnefield Road, Salford, Manchester. M7 3QP
THE 1999 FESTIVAL VIDEO
We still have a few copies of the 1999 Festival video, containing interviews with last
years guests and scenes from the events which occured. Copies are available from Tony
Edwards, 95, Meadowgate Road, Salford, Manchester. M6 8 EN, at £9.99p plus £1 Post &
Packing.
The Venue
The Renaissance, Manchester, is a 4 star hotel set in the heart of the city. With superb
convention facilities. All of the function rooms are set on one floor, with adequate space
between to block out extraneous noise. There is a large lounge area, with its own bar, for
our members to get together and socialise.
The accomodation is of a very high standard as are the service and staff. In all this is
the best venue and layout we have ever had. It should be conducive to a great Festival, so
book early.
Send Festival e-mail to Harry Nadler: mailto [email protected],uk