The Devil's Rain (1975)

It's the most wonderful time of the year! I missed out on October but hope to come up smiling in November. I've decided to kick off this year's horror season with a newly acquired film that seemed appropriate for a rainy day, The Devil's Rain. This film got my attention when I saw that it featured Ernest Borgnine, Eddie Albert, Ida Lupino, William Shatner, Keenan Wynn, Tom Skerritt, and Joan Prather, along with John Travolta in his first movie role. I have a special fondness for occult films of the 1970s, and I look forward to checking this one out. Don't read all the way to the end if you intend on watching this film and want to be surprised. There are a slew of interesting extras on the Severin Films DVD I purchased that I haven't dug into yet. Be sure to click on images to enjoy them in their full glory.

I beseech thee, daughter, and all our daughters to follow, to protect this book and keep it from the devil's disciple. So long as you do, Jonathan Corbis is powerless to deliver his souls to Satan, where I would rather my beloved husband, Martin Fyffe, suffer the torments of the Devil's Rain. For whilst imprisoned there, I pray that Martin, through God's grace, will find a way to scratch his name from its pages. 

Signed Aaronessa Fyffe, Wellington, 1680.

Season of Horror: La Strega (1962)

It's Thriller time! We're getting close to Halloween and it's time to show some love and respect to the witches. Jeannette Nolan plays one brilliantly in La Strega. I have not seen this episode since watching it with the Thriller-a-Day boys back in October 2010. This episode was directed by that talented lady, Ida Lupino.

A pretty little Italian girl is washing her laundry in the river when she's accosted by three brutish males calling her Strega. The doltish ringleader with the one word vocabulary slaps her around and then picks her up and tosses her in the river, where she thrashes about in the water.

Karloff arrives on scene to make the introductions, and defines Strega as witch, "a dreadful word for a horrible creature." He goes on to describe how witchcraft in Italy was called the old religion over a hundred years ago, and that pious peasants used extreme measures to fight witches, but that witches can fight back and wreak a fearful vengeance on those who stand in the way.

"She's outcast, unwanted, feared, and the image of her that has come down to us through the ages is a frightening one indeed."

Moontide (1942) Part I: An introduction

After writing about Ida Lupino's role in "The Sixteen Millimeter Shrine," I realized I knew very little about her and wanted to learn more about this intriguing lady and see more of her films. I was surprised to discover that I had already seen her in two films, Search For Beauty and The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, but had not recognized her as the actress I knew from the Twilight Zone episode I had seen many years prior.
  

Ida Lupino and Buster Crabbe in Search for Beauty.

Adventures with Nigel Bruce and Basil Rathbone.

I would be remiss if I failed to mention also seeing her fantastic TV appearance as evil-doing swinger, Dr. Cassandra, in the penultimate episode of the Batman TV series from the 1960s. I have also seen television episodes she directed from Thriller, Alfred Hitchcock Presents and The Twilight Zone, but have yet to see a film she has directed, which I'll be seeking out next. You can learn more about Ida in this documentary.

Super cool Ida with then groovy hubby, Howard Duff.

After searching for movies with Ida Lupino,

The Twilight Zone: The Sixteen Millimeter Shrine (1959)

Season 1 Episode 4

Director: Mitchell Leisen

Writer: Rod Serling

Stars: Rod Serling, Ida Lupino, Martin Balsam

Music by: Franz Waxman

Barbara Jean Trenton (Ida Lupino) is an aging actress who spends all her time in her darkened home theater, watching her old movies and longing to return to the glorious 1930s. Her agent, Danny Weiss (Martin Balsam), thinks she needs to get out in the Beverly Hills sunshine and live in the real 1950s world of actors in undershirts, jukeboxes and rock 'n' roll. She is thrilled when Danny tries to hook her up with an acting job, but is dismayed to be offered a small part as a mother in her forties, which she rejects. After receiving a tongue lashing from the head of the studio, she returns to the comfort of her projection room and finds that by wishing hard enough, she is able to go back in time and rejoin her acting friends on screen.

I have always been extremely fond of The Twilight Zone and its cosmic genius, Rod Serling. Here is how he opens this episode: