November 18, 2024

Extending Halloween at the November Monster Bash Convention

Back in 2019, I attended my first Monster Bash convention in the Pittsburgh area. Bash organizer (and Creepy Classics proprietor) Ron Adams is an original monster kid, and he and his dedicated crew have been Bashing in Pennsylvania for nearly 30 years. Ron and company put on great events, and the Bash is unique in its emphasis on classic monsters.

Photo - Life size figures from classic Universal and Hammer horror films
Some familiar characters stand guard at the November Monster Bash.

The attraction in 2019 was the announcement that four Hammer horror alums would be guests of honor: Martine Beswick (Dr. Jekyll and Sister Hyde, One Million Years B.C.), Veronica Carlson (Dracula Has Risen from the Grave, The Horror of Frankenstein), Caroline Munro (Dracula A.D. 1972, Captain Kronos: Vampire Hunter) and Christopher Neame (Dracula A.D. 1972). Unfortunately, Caroline Munro had to bow out due to health issues.

Beswick, Carlson and Neame joined independent filmmaker Joshua Kennedy at the 2019 bash for the world premiere screening of House of the Gorgon, Kennedy’s homage to Hammer horror (and which featured all four Hammer alums; see my review of the convention and the film here). Sadly, Veronica Carlson passed away in 2022. (See also my review of The Horror of Frankenstein, which includes a tribute to the multi-talented Carlson.)

This year Monster Bash gave fans a big post-Halloween present by bringing in four (count ‘em!) Hammer alums: Beswick, Munro, Pauline Peart (Satanic Rites of Dracula) and Victoria Vetri (When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth). (James Bond fans take note: Beswick was in two films, From Russia with Love and Thunderball, and Munro unsuccessfully tried to kill Roger Moore’s Bond in The Spy Who Loved Me.)

Photo - Caroline Munro, Zach Zito and Martine Beswick perform at the Monster Bash Convention, November 2024
Caroline and Martine provide backup for Zach Zito as he performs Edgar Allan Poe tales.

Martine Beswick

Poster - Devil Dog: Hound of Hell (TV movie, 1978)
Featured Film: Devil Dog: The Hound of Hell (1978)

The Bash’s choice of the TV movie Devil Dog: The Hound of Hell might not have been most people's first choice to showcase Martine’s talents (Dr. Jekyll and Sister Hyde anyone?), but having only known the film by reputation up until the screening, I was both bemused and entertained.

The film, directed by B horror maestro Curtis Harrington, is basically a send-up of the mega-hit from two years before, The Omen, substituting a German Shepherd puppy named Lucky for little Damien the Antichrist. Beswick, who is only in the first 15 minutes or so of the movie, seems to be having great fun vamping it up as the high priestess of a Devil worshiping cult (or make that Devil-dog worshiping cult) who secures a champion breeding dog to mate with Satan’s favorite Hellhound. The demonic breeding ritual is a cheesy sight to behold, and I’m guessing it didn’t get any seals of approval from the SPCA (I’m also guessing that no animals were harmed in the filming, but that’s not to say dog lovers’ heads weren’t aching after seeing the movie.)

Cult members then go about distributing the litter of unholy puppies to unsuspecting suburbanites, including the wholesome, all-American family headed by Mike and Betty Barry (Richard Crenna and Yvette Mimieux). As cute little Lucky grows into a big, strapping German Shepherd, strange things start happening around the house: housekeepers and neighbors start dying in freakish ways, and even Betty and her innocent teenage daughter and son begin shedding inhibitions and morals under the baleful gaze of the cursed canine.

Only Mike is immune from Lucky’s malign influence, and he slowwwly puts two and two together. Credit Richard Crenna and the rest of the cast for playing it absolutely straight (although Beswick’s performance as the high priestess is deliciously ripe, as well it should be). A German Shepherd hovering in the background as things go very south for the Barry family doesn’t generate a lot of suspense, but Mimieux takes advantage of a great opportunity to turn from a warm, loving wife and mother into a hard-bitten, amoral femme fatale under Lucky’s spell.

The Devil Dog reveals his true appearance at the climax, which again is played very straight, and will elicit either appreciative smiles or derisive guffaws, depending.

Beswick Q&A

Martine’s subsequent Q&A ranged from reminiscences about her Bond girl days, to starring in Oliver Stone’s first feature film, to being cast as Sister Hyde to Ralph Bates’ Dr. Jekyll, to working with Klaus Kinski on the set of the spaghetti Western A Bullet for the General (1967).

In her first Bond film (and second feature film), From Russia with Love, Beswick plays a gypsy girl who fights a rival for the affections of a handsome young man. Over the years, the legend has grown that there was no love lost between the two actresses, and that much of the fight captured on film was for real. Martine downplayed the legend, saying that rather than being spontaneous, the fight was rehearsed like a complicated dance routine for 3 weeks (although she did admit that some of the film crew, who were not especially enamored of the other actress, egged Martine on to give it to her for real).

Asked about her experiences on the set of then novice filmmaker Oliver Stone’s first feature film, Seizure (1974), Martine recalled it as being like part of a “mad family.” (In this uneven horror film, Martine plays one of three nightmarish characters who materialize out of the fertile imagination of a best-selling horror author played by Jonathan Frid, and trap and torture Frid, his family, and guests at a remote summer house.)

Beswick said that the whole cast and crew stayed at the house during the shooting. Much of the film equipment was stored in Frid’s room, which made him grumpy. To add insult to injury, the house’s plumbing was old and noisy, so no one could go to the bathroom or run water during filming, which was very inconvenient. Of her character, the Queen of Night, she smilingly confessed that she “loved to kill everyone” -- on film of course.

As for working with Klaus Kinski on A Bullet for the General, Beswick paid Kinski -- a legendarily intense and difficult actor who had epic fights with directors and fellow actors -- a compliment by saying that he went out of his way to stand up for the cast of extras, whom the director and crew mistreated.

Photo - The author with Martine Beswick at the Monster Bash Convention, November 2024
The author with Martine Beswick.

Caroline Munro

Video box art - Captain Kronos: Vampire Hunter (1974)
Featured Film: Captain Kronos: Vampire Hunter (1974)

Captain Kronos is very late Hammer horror, and represents something of a hedging of the studio’s bets, falling back on period costumes and settings after trying to update Christopher Lee’s Dracula to late 20th century London in Dracula: AD 1972 and The Satanic Rites of Dracula (1973).

Kronos (Horst Janson) is a dashing former soldier and master swordsman who has taken up hunting vampires. Accompanied by his assistant, the hunchbacked professor Hieronymous Grost (John Cater), and an alluring peasant girl, Carla (Munro, whom the pair rescued from humiliation in the stockades), Kronos arrives at a village where, according to resident Doctor Marcus (John Carson), local girls are mysteriously being drained of their youth.

Dr. Marcus is friends with the local wealthy family, the Durwards (Lady Durward is played by Wanda Ventham, son Paul and daughter Sara by Shane Briant and Lois Daine). Marcus had treated the family patriarch for an illness which eventually killed him. Lady Durward herself is not in such great shape, being frail and bedridden. After a visit to the Durward estate, Marcus is accosted in the woods by a mysterious hooded figure, which, he soon finds out, has turned him into a vampire.

Kronos and Grost must deal with Marcus, and they find out that this species of vampire can only be killed with iron or steel. After fashioning a sword out of an iron cross recovered from a cemetery, they’re ready to take on the vampiric plague. Beautiful Carla is enlisted to provide a diversion as Kronos investigates the Durwards. SPOILER ALERT: Lady Durward proves not to be so bedridden after all, and the Lord of the manor not so dead. Kronos has to think quickly in order to defeat the aristocratic vampires.

The ending leaves room for further Kronos adventures, which were not to be. Despite being yet another Hammer vampire horror film, there is no Christopher Lee or Peter Cushing, the tone is more on the adventure side with a dash of tongue-in-cheek, and the film plays around with vampire mythology (in Kronos’ universe, there are different species of vampires, some feed on youth instead of blood, and some can only be killed with iron).

While Christopher Lee’s Dracula didn’t quite cut it in 1970s London, the retro adventurer Kronos also failed to win over many critics or fans at the time (although the film’s reputation has steadily improved over the decades). It was either too far ahead of its time, or too old fashioned (in her Q&A, Munro goes with the former).

Munro Q&A

During her Q&A, Caroline Munro related a number of stories about various hazards that can come out of nowhere during filming. On location shooting for The Spy Who Loved Me, the scene called for her to spend a portion of the time standing on a boat as it was running, then sit down as the boat neared its destination. While she was standing, she heard a strange buzzing sound that she attributed to the engine. However, when she sat down, she immediately felt a burning sensation in her “bum.” When the scene wrapped, Caroline discovered that she’d been stung by a bee, whereupon Roger Moore jokingly offered to “kiss it to make it better.” Munro said that sharp-eyed viewers can spot exactly where in the scene she was stung from her facial expression.

Hazards also lurked on the set of the sci-fi adventure film At the Earth’s Core (1976). In one scene featuring man-sized mutant telepathic birds (rulers of the lost world that the protagonists discover), stunt men wearing costumes were made to fly with an elaborate set-up of pulleys and wires. At one point the system was off by a hair, and one of the stuntmen clipped Munro as he swooped down. She said that co-star Doug McClure scarcely broke character as he came to her aid. Later, during a shoot involving pyrotechnics, the heat from the blast was so intense it singed the hair on her arms.

Photo - The author with Caroline Munro at Monster Bash, November 2024
The author with Caroline Munro.

Photo - Pauline Peart Q&A at Monster Bash, November 2024
Pauline Peart discusses her experiences as a vampire girl in The Satanic Rites of Dracula.

10 comments:

  1. This sounds like a totally awesome event! I've heard of the devil dog but I have not seen it! It's one of those I'm not sure I should watch. And thank you for reminding me of seizure! I stumbled upon it when looking for Dark Shadows stuff for my sister but I have not ordered the movie yet!

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    1. I watched a mediocre copy of Seizure on Youtube before the convention. It's not the most auspicious feature film debut ever -- the editing is choppy and there are continuity problems -- but the cast and the story are unique. It sounds like a movie about the making of Seizure would be as interesting -- or more so!

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  2. Wow, what an amazing opportunity it must have been to meet some Hammer legends! This sounds like my kind of convention. I've always been a big fan of Captain Kronos. It's unfortunate that the film never spawned a sequel or TV series.

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    1. There are so many old movies and TV shows that have been revived or rebooted, I don't see why Captain Kronos should be left out in the cold. Ok new Hammer, it's time to step up!

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  3. How cool that you got to meet Martine Beswick! I loved Dr Jekyll & Sister Hyde and loved her in it! Despite its campy aspects, DJ&SH is a stylish and beautifully designed look at gender and horror, and Beswick is terrific as a feminine alter ego to Ralph Bates. I'd say that's also a film ahead of its time!

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    1. Yes, way ahead of its time! At the first Monster Bash I attended, I bought a non-region 1 copy of Sister Hyde (and watched it on my computer) because it was basically lost to the North American market. Now, the rights seem to have gotten worked out, and it's available on multiple streaming platforms. Progress!

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  4. The same night my TV dies, I find out you've been hanging out with Hammer glamour and Bond girls while I have to settle for leftover Halloween candy. Life just ain't fair!

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    1. Uh oh, maybe your TV just needs a short rest after all the Halloween viewing? Halloween was a complete bust at our house -- only a handful of trick-or-treaters -- so the Bash was a needed morale booster.

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  5. Brian, I'm so glad to hear you attended the Bash! I don't know if you're acquainted with Dan Day, Jr., who introduced the movie House of the Gorgon. Dan is a good friend of Joshua Kennedy and has a small part in the film, as well as having worked on some other Kennedy projects. Dan knows Martine and Caroline quite well and was a good friend to Veronica Carlson. I hope we can meet up at a future Bash. I was scheduled to go this summer, but wasn't up to the long drive and cancelled. Maybe next summer I'll get the spirit and get motivated!

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    1. I had a great time at both Bashes that I've attended. I hope that we can eventually meet up there - I've got family in Philly, which is a long drive from Pittsburgh, but doable. So, two reasons to fly out east.
      I do know Dan, whom I've interacted with on social media from time to time. Wish I'd known him back in 2019 and had the opportunity to converse.

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