Reel Conversations: Silver Screen Classics & Nostalgia talks to Speakeasy

 

In this month’s Reel Conversation, Seleus from Silver Screen Classics & Nostalgia talks with Kristina from Speakeasy, about their shared love for classic horror, how they got into it, what it means to them, and which star's filmography they'd take to a desert island. An excerpt can be found in the October issue of the CMBA Monthly Star newsletter for members, and much more will be posted at Seleus's and Kristina's blogs, so please visit them to enjoy the whole interview. Here's a bit of their chat: 

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Seleus: If you could go back and see one classic horror movie when it first opened, what would it be? 

Kristina: I’d most like to be at the premiere of Nosferatu (1922). It was “Das Fest des Nosferatu,” a festival, at the opulent Marble Hall of the Berlin Zoo, which if you’ve seen pictures, must’ve been super swanky. Guests were asked to dress in 19th-century Biedermeier-style costumes, there was a ball, live orchestra, ballet dancing, it was promoted with airships and streetcar ads; the promo cost more than the movie. So I’d want to be part of all that hoopla, but then I’d also go to a regular screening a week later to see an audience lose their minds and get freaked out, it just seems like something monumental to experience in person.  

S: Yes! That sounds like an absolute dream of an evening! I had no idea!  All that glamour, costumes, and music followed by Nosferatu creeping across the screen—they really knew how to do a premiere back then. You’d probably think I’d pick The Tingler for Castle’s crazy Percepto gimmick, but I think I’d actually choose Psycho (1960). Imagine seeing that shower scene in 1960 with no idea what was coming! People screamed, bolted for the exits, and even fainted. I’d want to experience that audience reaction almost as much as the movie itself!

S: Is there a horror performance you think doesn’t get enough love?

K: Laird Cregar in anything really, but especially Hangover Square (1945). I just love his work in it, playing the Jekyll-Hyde talented genius who loses control of himself and is both the villain and his own victim. He goes back and forth between being unstable and cold-blooded, then gentle and wracked with guilt. He was a large man so he has this imposing, menacing physical presence but he’s also elegant and sweet. He made that character scary and sympathetic in such a believable way, and then gets one of the all-time most memorable and heartbreaking screen deaths ever. I wrote about his first and last movies at my blog. 

S: Oh, I’ve been meaning to get more into Laird Cregar’s filmography! I don’t know his work that well yet, but I’ve liked what I’ve seen and, of course, know about his terribly sad end. Hangover Square has been on my list, so now I’ll have to move it up. It sounds right up my alley. I love a good villain, but I think it takes even more skill to make you go back and forth between fearing someone and feeling sympathy for them. 

K: Is there an area of film, or a specific movie, that people would be surprised to hear you really enjoy? 

S: People might be surprised by how much I love those gritty, sometimes wonderfully cheesy revenge and exploitation movies from the ’70s and ’80s. Give me Death Wish or Coffy, and I’m completely entertained. I also have a real soft spot for those wild U.S.–Filipino co-productions and grindhouse exploitation films from the era—the cheaper, stranger, and more over-the-top they get, the more fun I tend to have. And since I was a teenager in the ’80s, I also love my ’80s movie cheese. Xanadu (1980), Girls Just Want to Have Fun (1985), and Heavenly Bodies, (1984) are total comfort movies for me. For Heavenly Bodies, I even wrote and recorded my own TCM-style intro as Alicia Malone just for fun.

How about you?

K: You should post that video. I really love 70s crime pics too. I bet you also enjoy Euro-crime movies. I think people who know my taste for extreme, weird, and terrifying cinema, and dark techno/EDM music might be surprised at how much I also love classic musicals (and just generally how into opera, classical, big band, and standards I am). My mom raised me on Doris Day (her fave), Judy Garland, Alice Faye, Deanna Durbin, Kathryn Grayson, Irene Dunne, Mario Lanza, Jeanette MacDonald, I’ve seen pretty much all their movies! 

Read much more at Silver Screen Classics and Nostalgia, and at Speakeasy