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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Snarky Oracle!" data-source="post: 54502" data-attributes="member: 57984">I love the term "grande dame guignol" for this genre (some call it "psycho biddy" but that's way too queen-y somehow for my tastes). When done well, it's one of my favorite cinema trends -- even though George Cukor found it lamentable, not surprisingly.A lot of the appeal comes from that end-of-the-world/Psycho/TwilightZone-y vibe that existed in the early-to-mid-'60s. And if you mix that up with quality B&W camerawork, a decent director, and the just exactly right maniacal diva, then how, frankly, could you possibly lose?My favorite is HUSH... HUSH, SWEET CHARLOTTE, and as Bette is being whisked away in a squad car at the end, the old world twentieth century seems to go with her. It's the last vestiges of something.<img src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_LeTJb4ecOOc/TUpTsmE3WeI/AAAAAAAABPE/b8TqcUbQIaY/s1600/HH89.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" />STRAIT-JACKET for me is the most frustrating, because you can see how it could have worked --- I mean, Joan Crawford with an axe? What's not to love?? But Bill Castle, who reportedly hoped to make his "classic" with this movie, instead did some of his sloppiest work even for Castle. It was a C-level film from a B-movie maestro.LADY IN A CAGE always makes me think of WHO KILLED TEDDY BEAR with Sal Mineo in that it was a rare glimpse, albeit thru a B-movie horror prism, of the mid-'60s meltdown of the inner cities that Hollywood never showed. CAGE gets a bit long winded, though.DEAD RINGER is a good B-movie, and much better than STRAIT-JACKET.THE NIGHT WALKER with Stanwyck has a marvelous prologue montage obviously put together by someone other than director Bill Castle, and the movie offers a fabulously creepy Vic Mizzy score. And you get Constance and Cecil Colby together! But it falls apart quickly.THE NANNY is an excellent A- movie from Hammer and one of Bette's best, early or late, in her big screen career.FANATIC (also know as "DIE DIE MY DARLING") gives us a terrific performance from Tallulah Bankhead, a laughably to-period elocution lesson from Stefphanie Powers, and a fun production design. But once Powers gets locked up in the attic, it begins to get draggy as well.PICTURE MOMMY DEAD is in color, so it doesn't work for me. But it's definitely of that child-eye-view, nursery rhyme school of period chillers.BERSERK was much better when they called it CIRCUS OF HORRORS several years earlier. In my head, the two movies get mashed up with Crawford as Anton Diffring's ex. lolTHE ANNIVERSARY and WHAT EVER HAPPENED TO AUNT ALICE are acceptable.Doesn't THE MAD ROOM also have Michael Burns in it? That's all I care about, the cute little nerd-monster.NIGHT WATCH with Taylor is also a downright good movie, with its shrouded, overcast (okay, so it is London) early-'70s vibe. Much underrated and underseen.<img src="http://iv1.lisimg.com/image/7789164/740full-hush...hush%2C-sweet-charlotte-photo.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" />I haven't seen the others, I don't think.</blockquote>

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