MovieChat Forums > Thriller (1960) Discussion > Scary Credits and Music

Scary Credits and Music

posted 2 years ago by ecarle (14979)
11 replies | jump to latest

Hitchcock's TV theme was rather humorous and jaunty...not terribly scary at all.

The opening bars of "The Twlight Zone" became famous for all time -- eerie, modern, nerve-wracking (and scary if you were say, under 10 and the show came on in another room.)

The Outer Limits (circa 1964) used an electronic, buzzing, static-ridden soundtrack and heavy music to provide a "SciFi" aura with a "factual basis" to its monsters.

But good ol' Boris Karloff got a fine opening to his "Thriller" series that ran but two seasons from 1960 to 1962.

In the earliest episodes, he had a catch phrase after he set the stage for tonights story and introduced the cast: "As sure as my name is Boris Karloff...tonight's story is a real THRILLER."

In that great Boris Karloff dripping-with-oddness voice.

And then he and the picture around him would fill with slowly building "web strings" that at once suggested a spider's web and a cracked psychopathic world.

I think as the series went on (only two seasons, but a LOT of episodes) they dropped the "sure as my name is Boris Karloff" motif(I mean, everybody KNEW who he was) but continued with the segue to VERY scary music and that "cracked spider web" motif.

Its really quite memorable in its own way -- as memorable as The Twilight Zone and The Outer Limits and certainly the goofy Hitchcock theme song.

[–] greenbudgie (2355) 2 years ago

The music I'm thinking of, by Peter Ruogolo, sounds jazzy and could have belonged to any early 1960s TV series. It certainly doesn't prepare the viewer for some dark stuff that follows in a lot of episodes.

Boris Karloff certainly used menacing humour in his introductions. The same type that Vincent Price was to use in his more comic horrors later on I reckon.

[–] ecarle (14979) 2 years ago

The music I'm thinking of, by Peter Ruogolo, sounds jazzy and could have belonged to any early 1960s TV series. It certainly doesn't prepare the viewer for some dark stuff that follows in a lot of episodes.

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I'm thinking of the main theme that sort of "rises up" in accord with the spider web patterns on the screen -- I suppose it is somehwat jazzy in that Peter Gunn sort of way...but scary in there SOMEWHERE.

Its all in the ear of the beholder, I suppose.

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Boris Karloff certainly used menacing humour in his introductions. The same type that Vincent Price was to use in his more comic horrors later on I reckon.

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Its not one of the greatest movies ever made, and its from Roger Corman out of American-International, but The Raven (1963) allows us to hear the distinctive voices of three great genre actors: Boris Karloff, Vincent Price, and Peter Lorre. Prince and Karloff are sorcerers; Prince is the "hero" and Karloff the "villain." I can't remember Lorre's status. Anyway, you want to hear all three distinctive voices in one place...that's the place to be. Young Jack Nicholson is in it, too, but his voice isn't that distinctive yet.

[–] telegonus (727) 2 years ago

I agree on the three stars of The Raven and their voices, EC, and I'd like to add the actor whose voice was used for Price's dead father (in the coffin) and who, as I remember (maybe wrongly) grabbed price by the neck and warned him to BEWARE in a fittingly sepulchral tone, and who sounds somewhat like the weird looking character actor, John Dierkes, whom you may remember from The Thing From Another World and the tall lean Ryker brother in Shane. He was at least as tall as Price, appeared to be afflicted by acromegaly, though he wasn't so scary plug-ugly looking as horror actor (and cult figure) Rondo Hatton.

[–] greenbudgie (2355) 2 years ago

The actor who played Vincent Price's father was Dick Johnstone who was a bit part player uncredited for most of his film roles. I don't know if they used Dick Johnstone's own voice for that "Beware" utterance. He is heavily made-up for the part. But in his IMDb photo he looks similar to Vincent Price, convincingly enough to play a relative to VP. The dead man pulls Vincent Price down by his collar in that scene.

[–] ecarle (14979) 2 years ago

I agree on the three stars of The Raven and their voices, EC,

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Always great to hear from you, telegonus!

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and I'd like to add the actor whose voice was used for Price's dead father (in the coffin) and who, as I remember (maybe wrongly) grabbed price by the neck and warned him to BEWARE in a fittingly sepulchral tone,

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I have not seen The Raven in years, but I sure do remember that scene, for I saw The Raven on release(in 1963) and that scene and a couple of others were perhaps too scary for my young self at the time.

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and who sounds somewhat like the weird looking character actor, John Dierkes, whom you may remember from The Thing From Another World and the tall lean Ryker brother in Shane.

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I looked John Dierkes up, and saw that face, and I DO recognize him from The Thing and Shane.

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He was at least as tall as Price, appeared to be afflicted by acromegaly, though he wasn't so scary plug-ugly looking as horror actor (and cult figure) Rondo Hatton.

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With Rondo Hatton, one could never tell if his ugly looks were being exploited or put to good use(movie paychecks.) I'd like to say the latter.

Hatton and Dierkes are extreme examples of something that has fascinated me about a large number of character actors over time, who were/are downright ugly, or very overweight. With many of us out here, we would not WANT to expose ourselves to being photographed and "put on display" on the big screen(or the small screen.) And yet here are literally hundreds of "bit actors" over the years who elected to parlay their unattractiveness into character work and get paid for being ugly or obese.

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[–] ecarle (14979) 2 years ago

I suppose these actors saw their "bad looks as their selling point" and offered themselves to movie studios accordingly. I'll bet the money's pretty good!

Maybe they don't watch themselves on screen, maybe they don't care(and we all know we SHOULD be comfortable with our looks, whatever they are.) Still, I wouldn't put MYSELF up on the screen -- its hard to picture them being so willing.

Speaking of Rondo Hatton: given that his heyday was in movies of the 1940s (wasn't he the killer-villain in a Sherlock Holmes movie?) a "fun" homage was offered to him in the 1991 superhero movie "The Rocketeer." The movie was SET in the 40's(with domestic Nazis as the villains), and they hired a guy to basically wear a Rondo Hatton MASK(as the character's real face) and play a henchman accordingly. It was funny nostalgia.

[–] ecarle (14979) 2 years ago

The actor who played Vincent Price's father was Dick Johnstone who was a bit part player uncredited for most of his film roles.

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Good call.

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I don't know if they used Dick Johnstone's own voice for that "Beware" utterance.

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Rather a "trick of the trade" in Hollywood, no? We can have people cast for their face but not their voice, which is dubbed by someone more "voice appropriate."

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He is heavily made-up for the part. But in his IMDb photo he looks similar to Vincent Price, convincingly enough to play a relative to VP. The dead man pulls Vincent Price down by his collar in that scene.

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I'm getting retroactive chills just thinking about it.

Like I said, I saw this movie as a kid first run in 1963. I think this was one of the few times my "movie studio snob" father (he chose the usual product from MGM, Fox, Paramount, etc) elected to take the family to see...a Roger Corman movie! But the Karloff-Price-Lorre team was just too much of a selling point, as I recall. I was too young to even know what a Roger Corman movie was, or how "cheapjack" American International was. Years later as a "movie educated adult," I saw The Raven on TV and realized not only that it was an American-International production, but that the final "wizard battle" effects were pretty cheap.

And yet...both The Raven and ALL OF THE OTHER Roger Corman Poe films of the 60's now seem to be praised and taken quite seriously by a new generation of film critics and writers on film.

[–] telegonus (727) 2 years ago

Yup, EC, old Hollywood went for the homeliest faces and often strangest bodies ( I'm channeling Tod Browning's Freaks here). From the early talkies, and probably earlier still, there was the heavy set English actor Lionel Belmore, he of the cotton wool hair, richly on display in the first few Frankenstein films. Also odd looking, in the first (1931, I mean) Frankenstein film, Frederick Kerr, memorable by his fez and the rather large pipe he was smoking in his first scene).

I'm getting far afield from the TV series Thriller here, though they used some great faces (and/or makeups) on the show, notably Harry Townes, dreadfully aged, and looking like a rotting corpse; the ancient Ottola Nesmith, actually more formidable looking than Townes despite the age and gender differences; the slight, diffident Milton Parsons; and the splendid, robustiously hammy Jeanette Nolan, whether playing a witch or just looking like one.

Oscar Homolka was magnificently, charismatically homely in Waxworks, providing an interesting contrast with handsome, Tarazan-to-be Ron Ely and lovely Antoinette Bower. Diminutive Martin Kosleck gave this episode a kick in the pants. Reggie Nalder did same for Terror In Teakwood, with Guy Rolfe as the magisterially tall and dignified concert pianist. I didn't care much for this episode the first time around. Repeat viewings came to impress me, as the episode is visually striking.

[–] telegonus (727) 2 years ago

Thanks, Greenbudgie. I suppose it doesn't matter THAT much whose voice they used for the elder Craven in The Raven (hey, a rhyme!). It sounded like Dierkes to me, or a channeling of his kind of voice. That was a spooky few moments in the film, and maybe the only ones that gave me a "startle" in the entire movie. Its "lightness" was obvious from the first scene. In this, director Corman played fair with his younger viewers, while in the previous year's Tales Of Terror, its mostly serious tone was dictated by the (to my ten year old's eyes) opening shot of the house on the cliff, which actually frightened me before any actors showed up. TV's Thriller had a few (mostly opening shots) like that.

[–] ecarle (14979) 2 years ago

Yup, EC, old Hollywood went for the homeliest faces and often strangest bodies ( I'm channeling Tod Browning's Freaks here).

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Well, those folks were REAL "specialty casting," and evidently quite willing to use their bodies for fearful purposes(the armless, legless man slithering like a snake through the mud with a knife in his teeth...)

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From the early talkies, and probably earlier still, there was the heavy set English actor Lionel Belmore, he of the cotton wool hair, richly on display in the first few Frankenstein films. Also odd looking, in the first (1931, I mean) Frankenstein film, Frederick Kerr, memorable by his fez and the rather large pipe he was smoking in his first scene).

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I yield in some comfortable awe to your knowledge of those particular actors from that particular age, telegonus.

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I'm getting far afield from the TV series Thriller here,

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..no worries...

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though they used some great faces (and/or makeups) on the show, notably Harry Townes, dreadfully aged, and looking like a rotting corpse; the ancient Ottola Nesmith, actually more formidable looking than Townes despite the age and gender differences; the slight, diffident Milton Parsons;

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Harry Townes..I remember both him and his make up well.

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and the splendid, robustiously hammy Jeanette Nolan, whether playing a witch or just looking like one.

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Nolan could play homespun grandmotherly types...and tough broads (check out her "non-grieving widow" in The Big Heat.) Paired (wonderfully) with her husband John McIntire in the 80's thriller "Cloak and Dagger" as an "old married couple" who were actually murderous spies.

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CONT

[–] ecarle (14979) 2 years ago

Oscar Homolka was magnificently, charismatically homely in Waxworks, providing an interesting contrast with handsome, Tarazan-to-be Ron Ely and lovely Antoinette Bower. Diminutive Martin Kosleck gave this episode a kick in the pants. Reggie Nalder did same for Terror In Teakwood, with Guy Rolfe as the magisterially tall and dignified concert pianist. I didn't care much for this episode the first time around. Repeat viewings came to impress me, as the episode is visually striking.

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I'll take a look. Oscar Homolka had quite the sinister face in some ways -- and yet there he is as Kim Novak's friendly professor in the 1962 colorful sex comedy (as much sex as could be had in 1962 -- not much), Boy's Night Out.