795 thoughts on “Site Index”

1. Hey Cogerson

   Did you get a chance to look at the Italian box office blog http://www.boxofficebenful.blogspot.com ?

   There are two others from France.
   1) http://www.jp-boxoffice.com/index.php Click France >films millionaires that will give you box office admission numbers for each films that has at least 1,000,000 admissions from 1938,1945-present.
   Nothing between 1938-1944 since it was in the middle of WWII. Also inf on box office admission number in Germany listed as Allemagne.

   2) http://www.boxofficestory.com This in clude box off ice info as well but other things as well . This one seems to have the same goal as your blog, i.e stars box office info and certain themes or genres

   Reply

   1. Hey Kevin….thanks for the links. Your comment went to my spam folder….because the links…any comment of over 2 links has to be approved. The second link did not work. I have use The Box Office Story many times. Laurent who posts here pretty often is friends with the guy that runs that website. I agree we seem to have the same goal…..I will gladly give him France….if I can keep the USA.

      As for the Italian blog….interesting…I had not seen that one before…so thanks for sharing….I will have to give it a deeper look in the future. So many sites out there…which makes me even more happy that so many people are finding my site. Hopefully by the end of the year….this site will be dynamic….and that should get rid of the errors with regards to different pages with different box office numbers.

      I feel I have a great memory….but with the site getting so big….I can no longer keep up with all the changes…so many updates to do…and so little time. Thanks for sharing this information. 🙂

      Reply

2. STEVE

   1 I am interested in some more of your directors’ videos but do not want to start sending you posts again until I am sure you have time to deal with them.

   2 I hope the move is going well.

   BOB

   Reply

   1. Hi Bob, the move has been a real pain in the butt (and back). I hope I haven’t missed any of your reviews, I can’t check out the second page of comments. If you have commented let me know if you remember which page it was. Cheers.

      I should be back to normal posting videos on youtube by monday, maybe even tonight.

      Reply

      1. HI STEVE:

         1 I have moved house within the past year and believe you me it doesn’t get any easier as one gets older. I knew a guy once who hired his own van, moved himself overnight and to ease the pain of the move went through a bottle of vodka as he was doing it.

         2 El Commandant has been very prolific over the past week or so and the pace of trying to keep up with him has been so hectic that I have found it hard to keep track of my own posts but the ones that I can remember sending are Liam Neeson, Clifton Webb. Angelina Jolie, Ma and Pa Kettle, Dana Andrews and today Margaret Sullivan. Dana Andrews, Clifton Webb and the Kettles were real pleasure trips down Nostalgia Lane for me.

         3 Anyway it will be good when you’re fully back in the swim again. We amateurs need an expert like you to keep El Commandant from lording over us too much !!!

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         1. Hey Bob….I have slowed down (we just got done with our 19th annual SuperBowl party…and our house looked amazing…before all the people arrived)…..but got some projects coming quick…Mario Lanza and his 8 movies should be done in about 24 hours, Jeremy Renner, Donna Reed and an update to the 1941 page are on the docket.

            It is good that Steve is back…..back and better than ever….even with a sore back.

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      2. Hey Steve…..thinking unless Bob remembers where he put those reviews they might be hard to find…as I think they are now over 200 comments ago….and even I with my comment editor find it hard to track comments that many ago…unless I know the subject. Granted I think this is a problem to have.

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3. STEVE
   1 There were many interpretations of Sherlock Holmes that I admired but the two actors who most matched my image of Holmes from reading the Conan Doyle stories were Jeremy Brett on TV and Rathbone in the movies You really must love Rathbone’s Sherlock Holmes movies because you have included all 15 of the series except Rathbone’s cameo as Holmes in Olsen and Johnson’s Crazy House. You will of course have noticed that in the first Sherlock Holmes movie The Hound of the Baskervilles and in that one alone Rathbone was billed 2nd, to Richard Greene. I didn’t notice among your selections two of Basil’s best-known horror films Tower of London in 1939 and The Black Sleep in 1956 and that surprised me given you taste for the horror genre.and the fact that both got good reviews from IMDB.

   2 My favourite posters were two from the Sherlock Holmes series The Voice of Terror and Dressed to Kill 1946 [aka Sherlock Holmes and the Secret Code**] and the horror one from Son of Frankenstein The stills that most pleased me were the black and white ones of Bing and Basil, Kaye and Basil and Flynn Basil from Capt Blood and the beautiful coloured one from Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. Indeed the fine run of Holmes posters and stills in particular make the video 9.5/10. In fact I have watched it 4 times since last night.

   ** Possibly changed later to avoid confusion with with Sir Maurice M’s drag outing in Dressed to Kill 1980. If that was the case I feel that as Holmes got there first the Sir M film should have been made to change its title instead of Sherlock’s one.

   Reply

   1. “Quick Watson, the needle!” Hello Bob, thanks for the review, rating and trivia, much appreciated. I’m a big fan of Rathbone’s Holmes, he is my favorite in that role, with Peter Cushing coming in 2nd.

      And I have to confess Nigel Bruce is my favorite Watson, despite being an utter buffoon. I guess I grew up with those two in those roles and the rest of them however good just never matched them.

      Hound of the Baskervilles (1939 + 1959 versions), The Scarlet Claw, The Pearl of Death and The Spider Woman are probably my favorite of the old classic Sherlocks. Later favorites include – A Study in Terror, Murder by Decree, Young Sherlock Holmes (the only one of these watched in the cinema and thoroughly enjoyed it too, bought the soundtrack album from Bruce Broughton) sorry where was I? oh yes.. Robert Downey Jrs two Holmes movies and the Benedict Cumberbatch updated TV series which was enjoyable and fun until the most recent three episodes which were terrible and filled with unlikeable new characters IMO.

      Tower of London just missed entry, John was going on about it too. Sorry guys I should have made it a top 35. And The Black Sleep did well at IMDB but Leonard Maltin gave it one and a half points and the Radio Times reviewer gave it even less, ouch! 🙂

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      1. Hey Steve…your comment was good reading. And all this time I thought the best Sherlock Holmes was Michael Caine’s in Without a Clue. Lots of stuff that I did not know. I need to watch more Basil Sherlock movies. Greatly appreciate you sharing all of these movie thoughts 🙂

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   2. Hey Bob great comment. I think Flora will like your thoughts on Jeremy Brett….as she is a big fan of his. My Sherlock knowledge is very limited as I have only seen one Basil, Sherlock page….. heck I have seen twice as many RDJr. Sherlock movies.

      Another fine review on Steve’s video.

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4. 1 STEVE Like Hope and Crosby Karloff and Lugosi formed a part time team and in tandem with their solo vehicles made a number of horror films together and I noted that you have included 6 of them in your selections. For once Wikipedia has beaten me to the punch by telling John and Bruce if they care to read its Lugosi page that Karloff always insisted on top billing and Lugosi may have resented that. Apparently Bela was reportedly also annoyed by the fact that Englishman Karloff could speak more fluent English than he the Hungarian born Lugosi !

   2 Really your posters and stills are amazing historical documents and my pick (1) of the posters were the 1941 Black Cat, Night Monster, and Murders in the Rue Morgue (2) of the stills were those from Mark of the Vampire, White Zombie, Abbott & Costello Meet Frankenstein and Karloff & Lugosi from the 1934 Black Cat. I must make a special mention though of the really creepy solo one from Island of Lost Souls and I am assuming it WAS Lugosi beneath all that hair makeup? Absolutely stunning! Overall 9.5/10

   3 Apparently Bela’s nickname at least with his own publicists, was The King of Horror. In 1979 The Supreme Court of California ruled that the right to use anything connected with Lugosi’s image and personality terminated with his death and did not pass on to his heirs or anyone else the way a normal copyright would. Similarly the estate of Mr Mumbles was told by the courts that their right to have any association with eg DVD earnings etc from The Godfather (1972) would expire within 10 years of Mr M’s death in 2004. That begs the question that if Sir Maurice Micklewhite secured rulings of this kind would further video impersonations of Sir Maurice by El Commandant be one of the activities that were precluded under the edicts?

   Reply

   1. Thanks Bob, appreciate the review, comment, trivia, info and generous rating. Glad you liked the posters and stills. Bela left his mark as the first actor to play and speak as Count Dracula on the big screen. F.W. Murnau’s silent classic Nosferatu (1922) was a rogue adaptation of the novel with the names changed.

      The general consensus was that Lugosi hated Karloff and this was played up in Tim Burton’s movie Ed Wood. Not sure how much of that is true, they did seem to get along on set, larking about for the cameras.

      Boris had a soft spot for Bela, but than Boris was never nasty about anyone, from what I’ve read he was a true gentleman and always polite. Bela must have resented the fact that Boris quickly usurped his position as king of horror at Universal and his Hungarian accent did limit the roles he was offered.

      Btw Bela had a supporting role in Ninotchka (1939) only one scene near the end of the movie. so I didn’t include it.

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NIBHbQdJLe8

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      1. Steve

         “the general consensus was that Lugosi hated Karloff”

         In an interview I recently listened to Bela Jr. said he never heard his father say anything negative at all about Karloff.

         Why Bela should be upset about being billed under Karloff is not clear when he was billed in 1932 under Sydney Fox! It was not unusual for Lugosi not to get top billing.

         Just on billing, over on you tube watchmojo (spelling?) which does top ten every things about movies has a video about the ten actors who best define the 1930’s. Karloff is #3 and Lugosi #4 ahead of Tracy, Cagney, Astaire, etc. Only Grant (who should have been in a later decade) and Gable were ahead of these two. Both Bela and Boris would have been lucky to get better than featured billing outside of their horror films. (personally, I would put Karloff & Lugosi in the top ten of such a list, but at the bottom–9 & 10. In fairness, they were genre not mainstream stars)

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         1. That’s good to know John. Thanks for the interesting billing info. Maybe there was some jealousy at Karloff’s top billing and bigger celebrity but I don’t think it was outright hatred. I think they liked each other.

            http://i.imgur.com/41rPjbX.jpg

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            1. Good link Mr. Boris Lensman. Thanks for sharing that information.

            2. HI STEVE

               1 Karloff is on record in an interview insinuating that Lugosi was a poor actor and Boris used the precise words that Bela “never learned his trade.”

               2 I think that to be puzzled about Bela being billed second on a number of occasions yet resenting being billed second to Karloff all the time is to have possibly a simplified perception of the psychology of actors and also to misunderstand the billing agreement processes. There is nothing new at even the highest levels of stardom in a performer being billed second many times and yet on a certain other occasion fighting tooth and nail for the top spot.

               3 For example Tony Curtis accepted second billing in succession to Sinatra, Lancaster, Douglas, and Monroe but would not yield the top spot to Jerry Lewis in Boeing Boeing. Golden Holden happily accepted 2nd billing to the Duke in The Horse Soldiers but insisted on top billing over Guinness and Hawkins in Bridge on the River Kwai, which he got, and asked for top billing over McQueen/Newman in the Towering Inferno which was refused.

               4 It seems to me logical that any star’s demands in the matter will depend on his own sense of expectation and entitlement and that will vary from co-st to co-star. .

            3. 🙂 to Bob’s comment at 8:18. Agree with “depend on his own sense of expectation and entitlement and that will vary from co-star to co-star.”….100%…thanks for the comment…even though it was directed to Mr. Lensman.

         2. Hey John….thanks for the information. I agree with you that Karloff and Lugosi should be in the Top 10….but lower like you said. Good stuff.

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   2. Hey Bob….good information on Karloff and Lugosi…maybe I should do a page on them. Interesting stuff about Brando and The Godfather. Hopefully Sir Micklewhite will cut me some slack…and not go after me for my “spot on” impression…lol.

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   3. Bob

      It is true that the California Supreme Court ruled in 1978 (I believe) that the celebrity rights did not survive the person’s death,

      but this decision was superseded by the state legislature passing the Celebrity Rights Act in 1985, which is the current law.

      The Celebrity Rights Act “enabled a celebrity’s personality rights to survive his or her death.”

      This right “may only be given by persons to whom the personality had transferred such power by contract or trust prior to his death or by trust or will after his death, or where no such provision was made, his spouse, children and/or grandchildren.”

      Currently these rights survive for 70 years after the celebrity’s death.

      This is a state law and there apparently are similar laws in 12 states. So 38 do not have this law. But the issue in those states would depend on rulings by their court systems, not the California court.

      Now I would be very interested in the issue of whether the image of a character which appeared within a movie, such as the Frankenstein monster, belongs to Universal or to Sara Karloff. I would assume it belongs to Universal. The same with Lugosi and Dracula, or Brando and Don Corleone. Am I correct? Does anyone know?

      *By the way, Bela Lugosi, Jr. is a lawyer and was instrumental in bringing up this issue and later in getting the Celebrity Rights Act passed.

      Reply

      1. Hey John….great information….appreciate you sharing it. It is a pretty fascinating subject for sure. Lugosi Jr.’s gotta be up there in age….unless Bela had him very late in life. To answer your question…I have no idea….heck your comment is now my reference point. 🙂

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         1. Cogerson

            Both Bela Jr. and Sara were born in 1938 when their fathers were filming Son of Frankenstein. Bela joked to the press about how great it would be if they later fell in love and married. Despite all the stuff about jealousy and the like, there also appears to be quite a bit of evidence, especially from the children, that the two men liked and respected each other, even if they had rather different interests and were not best friends.

            This is the quote from Boris on Bela years after Bela passed away.

            “It was a strange thing. He was really a shy, sensitive, talented man who had a fine career on the classical stage in Europe, but he made a fatal mistake. He never took the trouble to learn our language. He had real problems with his speech and difficulty interpreting lines.”

            *I don’t see this myself as really negative, but Karloff perhaps underestimates how difficult it was for Lugosi to become fluent in middle-age in perhaps his third language.

            Reply

            1. Hey John. So they were born in 1938….good stuff to know. Just a tick younger than my dad. I like to think they were at least cordial friends….with any friendship there are bound to be some ups and downs. Good point about English being Lugosi’s third language…as Bruce Willis says in The Fifth Element…I am only speak two languages….English and Bad English. 🙂

      2. Cogerson

         I found the answer to my own question on a classic horror board. The post is by Gary P11111 who seems to know what he is talking about. Quite a few of the posters on this board are Hollywood insiders.

         “David, last I heard Sara Karloff has a dual license agreement with Universal. If someone wants to use the Karloff Frankie or Mummy they get a license from Universal and Universal splits the fee with Karloff Enterprises based on whatever agreement they have. Don’t know if it is still in effect, but that was the arrangement.”

         “Universal, unless things have changed, sort of acts as an agent on behalf of Karloff Enterprises.”

         I am surprised that Sara & Bela Jr. get a cut from their fathers monster images, but it appears they do.

         Hope others are as interested in this bit of inside baseball as I am.

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         1. Hey John…good stuff…makes sense to me. Every year they have a list of the most profitable dead celebrities ….usually Michael Jackson and Elvis top that list…..I imagine David Bowie will be near the top of the 2016 list. Anyway….I am sure having contracts dealing with their likeness after they pass is part of all of their contracts now. I am glad their families benefit from these things.

            So are you a fan if current baseball or just classic baseball?

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      3. JOHN
         1 Thanks for the extra info. True enough about the 1985 Act but I think there was a 50 year limit applied that was later extended to 70 years?

         2 The Brando case was about an entirely different matter and as I understand the ruling it was saying that the the affinity of Brando’s personally with The Godfather franchise in the public mind had a realistic life expectancy of about 10 years after which its impact would all but cease and his estate could no longer benefit financially any further from certain arrangements that it enjoyed at the time of the actor’s death in 2004.

         3 As you no doubt know there could still be big money in a famous personality after his death. In 2005 for example Brando’s estate earned $9 million generally from past movie and for example clothes design associations [eg Wild One jackets and T shirts] and according to Wikipedia those earnings placed him among the highest earning dead celebs at that time In a 2014 auction 4 Brando Andy Warhol portraits sold for $69.5 million alongside 3 Elvis ones for $81.9 million, and in 2008 2 Brando portraits sold for $32.5 million. At one point McQueen memorabilia outsold even that of Elvis.

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         1. Hey Bob. Good to know that Brando is still working hard for his family. Those are some serious prices for some Brando art….and they should only continue to rise. Those lists of most revenue earning dead people is hard list to argue about when debating how great and meaningful they were. Good information….thanks for sharing it.

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5. 1 STEVE To get myself in the right mood for your Karloff video I listened to the 1962 recording of The Monster Mash by Bobby Boris Pickett. It was a novelty number that Bobby got to No I in the musical charts by ‘adopting’ Karloff’s Christian name and, instead of singing, talking in a creepy voice that sounded like Karloff’s with a Bela Lugosi impersonation thrown in for good measure.

   2 Technically your entire range of posters is superb so at random I’ll simply mention the ones that appeal to me most – Die Monster Die, The Ghoul, Corridors of Blood and 2 really stunning ones from Black Sabbath. The most pleasing stills for me were the ones of Boris with Abbott & Costello, with Lorre and Price from the 1963 The Raven, with Lugosi alone from the 1935 Raven, and from the Mask of Fu Manchu with the young Myrna Loy

   1 Your Top 5 are solid with every one of them regarded as a real Karloff classic especially Bride of Frankenstein. I was pleased that your No 6 was the excellent thriller Targets which I feel was Boris’ own best non horror movie and though he was actually the hero in it he did not stray too far from his comfort zone as he played the part of an elderly star of horror movies! Overall a 9.5/10 rating for this video is in my opinion warranted by the fine artwork

   Reply

   1. Thanks Bob, appreciate the kind words, generous rating and review. When I was a kid I thought that really was Boris on the Monster Mash song, I was disappointed years later when I found out it was Bobby Pickett doing a pretty good impersonation.

      I enjoyed putting this video together because unlike some of my other videos I was familiar with most of these films, I wasn’t sure which film would come out on top Frankenstein or Bride. I would have been happy with either.

      I left out Scarface (1932) in which he had a small role as a gangster, and The Criminal Code, which was the film that got him noticed by James Whale. Preferring to concentrate mostly on his starring or co-starring roles.

      And I found room for young Myrna on my Karloff video too, not bad eh? 🙂

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dd9GG4OZYbE

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      1. HI STEVE

         1 Glad somebody else on the Cogerson site remembers the late Bobby Boris Pickett and The Monster Mash though the song is according to Wikipedia a perennial favourite that is trotted out over the airwaves every Halloween. Bobby’s backing group at the time it was made were called The Crypt Kickers and around Christmas 1962 Bobby and the Kickers released Monster’s Holiday followed over the next decade by further monster themed recordings such as Werewolf Watusi, Monster Swim,Blood Bank Blues and Me and my Mummy. As late as 1985 Bobby was able to cash in on the rap craze by releasing Monster Rap in which the mad scientist frustrated at being unable to teach the monster from Monster Mash to talk teaches it to rap.

         2 I will catch up with you again when I’ve viewed your further horror companion piece profile of “Bala” as the name was pronounced in the Johnny Depp 1994 Movie Ed Wood, Bala being played by the wonderful Martin Landau who when he was in his prime looked to me like Vincent Price in a very general way.. That bit of dot-joining should excite Dan!

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         1. Hey Bob….I remember the Monster Mash as well….it is played all the time here in the States during Halloween. I used to think Samuel L. Jackson got ripped off when he lost the Best Supporting Oscar to Martin Landau….and then I watched Ed Wood….and had to admit Landau is even better playing Bela Lugosi. Good movie thoughts.

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      2. Hey Steve….I was so glad that you were able to include Boris’ work with the greatest box office actress of all-time…Ms. Myrna Loy…..that made your whole video even better. Thanks for the link…it is greatly appreciated.

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   2. Good review on Steve’s video….which is indeed a very entertaining and educating video….makes me think I need a Boris UMR page. I can see you listening to The Monster Mash while looking at all of those great Karloff posters.

      Reply

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