1st in the guest book

[Charles Black]

Hi Dem,

I see you've worked out how to do sub-boards!

CB

[demonik]

Hi Charles.

Nope. It's still too tricky for my feeble mind to suss on suddenlaunch, but with proboards there's a built-in option, cuts all the work out.

Anyway, don't mind me: I just put this one together to feed my obsession.

[Calenture]

Is that avatar a pic of Louise Brooks? Ever see her in that silent Jack the Ripper flick (Pandora's Box, G W Pabst, I think)?

Charles, I owe you an email. I owe almost everyone emails! Sub-boards? I have to figure out how to get an avatar...

Before I wrote this, I couldn't resist scribbling over your contents list and making a mess of it. The word 'intoxicating' is used advisedly here.

Glad to be here, folks, and let's hope some more swell the ranks soon.

[demonik]

Hi Calenture.

Yeah, that's Louise Brooks alright: I wanted an av appropriate to the 'twenties and 'thirties and she came tops. I've never seen Pandora's Box - I don't think I've seen any of her films ! d**n - I feel such a fraud ...

[Calenture]

I saw this film on BBC 2, back in the '70s. It was shown around the same time that the Beeb screened the original Outer Limits. This is a spoiler... but let's face it, they haven't shown Pandora's Box again in about 30 years!

Brooks played a flapper as usual, but in G W Pabst's 1929 film, she was a sort of catalyst, destroying the men who fell for her. Near the end of the film, she's down on her luck, taken to prostitution.

In an atmospheric scene, a brass band plays Christmas carols in the snowy streets as she takes pity on a strangely angelic looking young man, and invites him to her room. They sit at a table lit by a candle and share a meal. He's hungry. She reaches for the bread knife - but the knife is flashing in his hand!

There's a piercing shriek, and the light goes out!

And that's The End.

Here's a link if anyone wants to follow it. www.pandorasbox.com/films/pandorasbox.html
Brooks was widely believed to be the most beautiful woman in the world among cinema audiences of the time. The photos just hint at a haunting cinematic quality; at least, as I remember it from this long-ago viewing. I taped the film, but the tape came off the spool. Now I'm going to try to repair it and put it on DVD. I've done this before, so fingers crossed!

[demonik]

She was certainly very beautiful.

I've read so much about the film and seen a number of stills it's almost as if I have seen it, but ... no such luck. Still if BBC2 can dig out something as obscure as the Tod Slaughter horror short Murder At The Grange (as they did a few months back), there's got to be hope for Pandora's Box.

Good luck with fixing your tape!

[DSFDSF]

Terrific. Thank you. etc.

KISS THIS

More Spam squashed by demonik! I had enough of this garbage on Vault Of Evil.

[nightreader]

Hi folks, eventually found my way here via the Vault. Now I've just got to get my hands on some of the great stuff mentioned here ... although I have just won a Charles Birkin edited antho from ebay so its a start.

Hope you all had a great Christmas.

All the best
Andy

[demonik]

nightreader said:

I have just won a Charles Birkin edited antho from ebay so its a start.

Andy

Hi Andy, great to see you here. What antho did you win?

Hope you've enjoyed your Christmas.

[Calenture]

admin said:

She was certainly very beautiful.

I've read so much about the film and seen a number of stills it's almost as if I have seen it, but ... no such luck. Still if BBC2 can dig out something as obscure as the Tod Slaughter horror short Murder At The Grange (as they did a few months back), there's got to be hope for Pandora's Box.

Good luck with fixing your tape!

Hello all,

Nice to see Andy and Charles here, too.

I was a bit puzzled about your Tod Slaughter mention, Dem'. As it happens, I recorded that Murder at the Grange and have just watched it, searching for his name in the credits. I couldn't see it - but then I looked on the net, and I he's listed on the 'credited cast' as playing the butler... which I did think would have been an ideal role for him.

After watching that, I'm now running the DVD made from my Pandora's Box tape. Yes, it repaired OK. I did it months back, but you know how many little projects have been going on. Only the titles seemed to jump a bit, as is usual with many tapes - now I'm just hoping that the DVD runs smoothly. The picture's pretty good, just hope it doesn't stick or I'll have to do it again, all 2 hours 11 minutes of it! But it's pretty compelling, and the last half-hour's great. Maybe I should send you a copy. ;D

[nightreader]

I've just 'won' the first 'Tandem Book Of Horror Stories' edited by Charles Birkin, but I'm also bidding on 'Where Terror Stalked & Other Stories' by Birkin. There's also a copy of 'More Not At Night' that I'd like to get my hands on...

As you can see the shopping frenzy continues

[demonik]

Good luck with that! All three of them are well worth having IMO although Birkin's Tandem Horror is quite a curious selection, some from the Creeps series supplimented by better known authors like Sir John Betjeman and George "The Fly" Langelaan.

[nightreader]

Just wanted to mention that I got the 'More - Not At Night' book (the Arrow 1961 copy natch). Looks great so I'm well chuffed

And there's a Charles Birkin on the way too - "Where Terror Stalked & Other Stories" ;D

[demonik]

Hi Andy. I sure hope you enjoy them after going to so much trouble/

Another excellent source for Not At Night and Creeps stories are the first six editions of the Pan Horror Stories. Pan #3 is especially handy, as it's virtually a reprint of Horrors, the fourth book in the Creeps series.

Details: Here