Kitley's Krypt MYSTERY PHOTO #59

Another week, another MYSTERY PHOTO!

Jon Kitley, pillar of the Chicago Horror Community and head honcho over at KITLEY'S KRYPT, wants to challenge your horror knowledge. Week in, week out, he posts a Mystery Photo - sometimes from an obscure horror title, sometimes just an unusual shot from a well-known classic. We figured our faithful Claw readers would enjoy the challenge!

Our last photo was from one of Hammer's non-Gothic "thrillers," DIE! DIE! MY DARLING! (aka Fanatic) (1965), and as you can see, it's a vibrant diversion from their stark black and white efforts in hue, but just as compelling in execution. The story focuses on a young woman being terrorized by her fiance's demented mother...who blames her for her son's death. Not only does it feature screen legend Tallulah Bankhead in her final theatrical role (although she did lend her voice to 1966's Rankin/Bass animated The Daydreamer, as well as a turn on TV's Batman as "Black Widow"), it co-stars the comely Stefanie Powers and an up-and-coming Donald Sutherland as a dullard handyman. The Bava-esque color scheme comes courtesy of Canadian-born director Silvio Narizzano (Georgy Girl).



Let's see how you fare with this week's selection:


If you provide the correct answer, your name will be announced next week on the Kitley's Krypt website (http://www.kitleyskrypt.com), along with a new photo. Even if you don't know the answer, we welcome any sorta-kinda educated guess! So, send in your emails today and good luck!

Fool's Views: SUTHERLAND IN THE '70s

Dr. AC takes us back to a time when the clothes were a little looser, the hair a little curlier, the paranoia more rampant... It's time for:

DONALD SUTHERLAND IN THE '70s DOUBLE FEATURE

Don’t Look Now (1973)

Superb direction by Nicolas Roeg and terrific performances help this strange little adaptation of Daphne du Maurier’s story succeed on several levels, deepening with subsequent viewings.


Sutherland and Julie Christie play a married couple reeling from the recent death of their daughter, dramatically played out in the first few minutes. When Sutherland’s work as a restoration expert takes them to Venice to work on a cathedral, they encounter a pair of bizarre middle-aged English sisters, one of whom tells Christie that she has “seen” their daughter. This leads to an unsettling séance where Sutherland is warned to leave Italy, with stranger events unfolding from there.

Roeg keeps his audience off-balance through extensive use of cross-cutting between scenes and flashbacks, and the terrific use of Venice’s blind alleys and waterways only accentuates the disorientation. Not a fast-paced thriller, with a dream-like atmosphere of dread and unpredictability pervading throughout. The “are they really doing it?” sex scene between the leads was trimmed for American distribution, but remains sexy and emotionally visceral. The final scenes will certainly surprise first time viewers; whether they satisfy or not is a matter of taste.


Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978)


Director Philip Kaufman’s worthy updating of the 1956 sci-fi masterpiece is quirkier and more graphic, with oogey scenes of PG-rated violence and stellar acting all around. This revamped version of Jack Finney’s novel, by W. D. Richter, relocates the setting from that of a small town to that of the equally isolatory existence within a bustling metropolis (San Francisco, in this case), where individuals’ relationships with one another are often so tenuous and surface that we might not initially notice if our neighbors had been “replaced.”


Sutherland stars as a SF health inspector who, along with Brooke Adams, Jeff Goldblum and Veronica Cartwright, begins to suspect that their fellow citizens are being taken over by pod people from space. Kaufman cultivates a marvelous sense of dread and suspense, with numerous striking scenes and elements (the iconic “shriek”, the man/dog combo) – as well as one of the more truly haunting and unsettling endings to be found anywhere. As if to give their stamps of approval, Kevin McCarthy and Don Siegel (star and director of the original film, respectively) appear in memorable cameos.