"a ghost story, dealing partly with Victorian times and partly with the present day" (HMHT 1934: 490)
"When darkness envelops the land and all sensible folk are safe in their beds, it is then, 'tis said, that the disembodied creatures disport themselves in and around the lonely cemeteries. A grave subject for a filmer, but Earl H. Sparks has created from it as zany a witches' comedy as the Walpurgis Night of unholy legend — or the madcap merriment of the Marx Brothers. Resourceful and adept technical handling, plus a lively if perverse imagination, imbue this phantom farce with high good humor and, shall we say, a haunting charm?" Movie Makers, Dec. 1949, 468.
"Four of the boys gathered for their monthly poker game. To get even with the winner, a different kind of bet was offered and accepted by the winner. He was fitted with ghost-like attire, presented with a sword and sent to do battle with old McDonald, deceased. Chilling and spooky to the end" PSA Journal, Nov. 1959, 49.
"a soggetto breve"/short fiction based on the eponymous novel by Edgar Allan Poe
"This amateur horror film, made by longtime Austin resident Ramon Galindo, follows a group of kids as they go fishing. When one girl falls and injures herself, she is taken by a Frankenstein-esque villian to an abandoned, rural house where he prepares a potion to give her as she lays on skeleton bones. When the girl makes a run for it, her friends and a sheriff’s officer join in to help rescue the girl and capture the villain. This film was made in 1964 with children from Austin’s Travis Heights neighborhood. Austin local Chris Crow plays the villain and commissioned the music for the film locally. It was shot in Hays County between Kyle and San Marcos, Texas" Texas Archive of the Moving Image.
"Drama based on H. G. Wells' story 'The Red Room' recounting how a guest mentions he has heard one of the house's rooms is haunted and that the last person to sleep in there was found dead with no explanation. The guest asks to spends a night in the haunted room seeing it as a challenge. He is provided with a large number of candles but will they be enough. When he is visited by a ghostly apparition determined to blow his candles out he tries to escape." (EAFA Database)
"produced in a garage in Prestwick… the story of a man who spends the night in a waxwork show for a bet, but does not live to tell the tale" (HMHT 1933: 450).
"A horror drama film. A missing broker makes headline news, while a work colleague searches his coat left at work and finds a scrap of paper with an address written on it (the no.49 of the title) and decides to investigate for himself. Arriving at No. 49 the second broker breaks in through a sliding sash window and finds himself in an altar room at the Cult of Raven. Hiding behind a curtain he waits while the rooms fills with cult members preparing for a sacrifice which turns out to be of the original missing broker. The second broker watches as the executioner prepares by smoking a cigarette and polishing his sword, but one of the group of dancing maidens in the cult spots the second broker and screams drawing attention to him, thus marking him for sacrifice instead. However the maiden intervenes and suggests that he shouldn't be killed here, the priestess agrees and passes the execution duties to the maiden and gives her one hour to present the head of the second broker at the altar. The maiden later interrupts the executioner and asks for his help, he points at a metal presentation dish and suggests a ruse. Next the maiden sneaks into the room where the two brokers are now locked. With pen and paper she allows them to write a notice asking for help. She then smuggles this to the outside world and gets a stranger to take the note to the brokers’ employers. With time running out the maiden presents the head of the stock broker on a plate at the altar. The plate has a hole cut in it and under the altar table is the very much alive rest of the broker. The incense burning as part of the ritual however creates a fly in the ointment as it blows across the supposedly disembodied head, after a little bit of false jeopardy where the broker nearly sneezes. The broker is not so lucky the next time and is unable to stifle his sneeze therefore causing the ruse to be rumbled. Fortunately at this exact moment the police arrive to save the day, having been contacted by the broker's office upon receipt of the note asking for help the maiden smuggled out of the cult headquarters. Finally the broker and the maiden kiss (after removing the metal dish with a hole in it from his head) and then the executioner releases the original captured broker. After the credits there is a final scene where a policeman comically tries to remove the altar from the cult whilst trying to keep his wooden top police hat on." (EAFA Database)
"A bridge party invite a mysterious stranger to make up a fourth at their table, only to be unpleasantly surprised by his card tricks. When their fourth player arrives late, the strange interloper disappears, leaving an oddly familiar Joker in his place" National Library of Scotland Moving Image Archive.
Total Pages: 2
Amateur Cinema