The Chilling Art Of Pat Boyette!

Steve Ditko was at Charlton for two reasons, they paid promptly and they left him alone to draw his comics the way he liked. That combination drew many talents to Charlton, not the least of which was Pat Boyette. Boyette was a "Renaissance Man" of sorts, a maker of early radio as a performer and later television and even movies as a producer and director. His most famous movie The Dungeon of Harrow is a drive-in horror flick not without its charms.  (More on that below.) And those charms are also evident in his artwork, which was incredibly distinctive and ideal for rendering tales of gothic horror. I daresay no single comic artist of any era was better at drawing ancient castles and musty denizens of same.  A heaping helping of Boyette's most distinctive work is included in the 2003Vanguard Press volume titled The Nightstand Chillers. 

Most of the stories had appeared earlier in an issue of Vanguard's Tales from the Edge. That material plus more to plump it up a bit makes The Nightstand Chillers a nifty read. The stories included are from a wide array of publishers Boyette worked for through the 1970's. The list includes Skywald, Atlas-Seaboard, Globe Publications, Ace and of course Charlton.

Here are the covers of the magazines and comics the stories appeared in. They range from early in his career in 1971 to the early 90's. Two of them are from the period when Charlton was doing painted covers and Boyette was perfect for that kind of presentation.

Pat Boyette was one of the most distinctive and individual talents ever in the world of comics. He is most famous today for Peacemaker, the hero he created with Joe Gill. 

The story above for Charlton Premiere is considered his masterpiece. Written by Denny O'Neil, this is a bizarre tale of the future. "The Children of Doom" was cranked out very quickly, but between them O'Neil and Boyette captured something truly haunting.


Boyette began in radio and later in television working as an announcer, blessed as he was with a sonorously deep voice. He wrote, directed, and produced several movies including the bizarre Dungeon of Harrow. He was always an artist though and dabbled in comics eventually linking up with Charlton Comics. He became a workhorse for them, and his unusual gothic tones grace scores of comics, primarily in the horror and war categories. Below is a gallery of some more of his vivid covers with some additional notes.

Ironically though I'm a big fan of Charlton, the first Pat Boyette cover I ever chanced upon was this effort for Warren's Eerie magazine. The weird stylings of Boyette left a heavy impression from the first moment I saw them.

Here are some of his weirdly gothic ghost book covers.

He drew the first covers for three of Charlton's ghost hosts in their own magazines, specifically Dr. Graves, Winnie the Witch, and Mr. Bones.

Pat Boyette was a massive talent, with a vision unlike any other single artist. His work is instantly recognizable and because he labored in the ghetto of Derby much overlooked by many fans today. Like so many of his peers, he excelled at material other than superheroes, and alas that puts him on a second tier for many. Not for me for sure. He's one of my idols, a guy who did it his way and did it very well indeed.

The Spookman by Pat Boyette was apparently originally to be called "Sandman", but alas that name was taken. His presence brings a little heft to a comic which had real diversity. I'd have loved to see some more Spookman stories, but I can't imagine anyone but Boyette drawing them. (Some relatively recent efforts to revive the hero have proved to me that Boyette is a hard act to follow.)

Now that's a hoot! And a face only a mother could love. We wrap all this up tomorrow with The Shape. 

But as mentioned, he did more than comics. Boyette also wanted to make movies, and he did make one called The Dungeon of Harrow.

This is really a pretty terrible movie by any absolute standard. The sound and picture quality are suspect, but that is the poor quality of the print really. The color drops out periodically and sometime that helps. This might've been better in B&W actually. The sets are meager, making Ed Wood's stuff seem polished in places. It all does have a claustrophobic feeling, but that' because the rooms are just tiny. I'm afraid the ubiquitous torches are going to incinerate the place any minute.

The story is pretty slim. Without spoiling anything, I'll just say the hero gets stranded on an island with some pretty insane characters and there's some torture, killing, and ghostly visitation before it's all said and done. But aside from the visuals, which from time to time do deliver a compelling sense of drama, the thing that makes this movie flow like molasses is the horrible acting. Boyette's voiceover is the best acting in the thing, making me wish he'd dubbed the main hero. This guy is wretched. He never seems to know what to do with his eyes, seems unclear of where to put his hands, and his delivery of dialogue is sometimes painful. His acting makes me yearn for the subtle nuances of Sven-Ole Thorson! The "Captain" who is stranded with him is better but not by much. The others are better than these two leads, but it's likely because they have somewhat less to do. Now though, I think of the henchman "Mantis" and I take that back; he sucks too. I'll let other reviews give out more painful details, but suffice it to say, this is perhaps the worst acting I've seen in a professional movie. It's dreadful.

 

That said, there is an offbeat charm to this movie, a quaint dreamlike aspect that makes it better than the sum of its parts. But sadly, when it comes to Pat Boyette, I'll take his comics work anytime over this example of his cinema work.

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Soul Cinema - Blacula Double Feature!

Blacula is everything you're looking for in an exploitation film. First it's a major part of the sub-genre "Blaxploitation" which in the late 60's and early 70's especially created low-budget entertainment for black audiences and others who wanted to see different faces in familiar stories. Blacula is directed by Willaim Crain and based on what I've seen by him, I have little to complain about. He tells his stories clearly and with limited confusion, something low-budget films often fail on.

The central strength of this film is William Marshall in the lead role of Prince Mamuwalde who along with his princess Luva visit Dracula who is an unknown quantity. Mamuwalde wants to convince Dracula to help him end slavery but of course the sadistic Dracula has other plans. He turns the Prince into a vampire and then locks him away in the bowels of his castle for hundreds of years. Needless to say when he emerges thanks to two hapless antiques dealers. Unleashed on the modern world "Blacula" goes about getting his fill of blood and creating vampires in the wake.

He is opposed by the cops led by Thalmus Rasulala an actor with the chops to stand up to Marshall's character with some level of credibility. These two are joined by a strong cast with the likes of Denise Nichols and Vonetta McGree. Smaller parts are a pleasure to watch with Ketty Lester as the most memorable taxi driver you'll ever see and Ji-Tu Cumbuku was is a delight to see but adds nothing to the plot that I can remember. The legendary Elisha Cook is around as a morgue attendant and Gordon Pinsent of Red Green fame is a cop.

This is a top-of-the-line thriller, not really scary all that much but with lots of bombastic scary-like bits that entertain immensely. But Blacula was not done. 

William Marshall is so convincing as "Blacula" and brings such heft to the part that you know that even a movie titled Scream Blacula Scream can't be all bad. Actually for a "blaxpoitation" bit it's not bad and once again casting saves the day. Tagging in to help Marshall this time is the vivacious Pam Grier and Don Mitchell (of Ironside fame). They are all mingled in and around voodoo and it's by use of this practice that the deadly Blacula once again treads the night.

This one also has the charm of a movie which doesn't take itself too very seriously. The animating villain is a loathsome cat played by the novice Richard Lawson, a douche who is jealous that he hasn't been named head of the local voodoo cult. He lost out to Pam Grier and from where I sit, it was a wise move indeed. He uses his powers to revive (wrong word I know) Blacula who immediately makes him his vampire slave. One of the funniest scenes is where this utterly vain character realizes for the first time that as a vampire he cannot see himself in a mirror.

Other victims come and go and go and come and the cops get involved. We get a finale with zombie-like vampires battling cops in the passages of a large mansion and it's above average stuff for movies of this ilk. Michael Conrad is a hoot as the obligatory decent white guy and he and Mitchell have actual chemistry. The director of this movie is Bob Kelljan who also directed both the Count Yorga movies and some of the same gimmicks show up here.

This one is a ton of vampire fun if you give it a chance.

Note: This post originally appeared at Rip Jagger's Other Dojo. 

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Soul Cinema - Blackenstein!

Blackenstein (don't you just love the title) is a flick I've been eager to see for many, many moons. I caught part of it one night on a late-night fright show once years ago, but by and large the movie has escaped me. Every once in a while, I get on a Frankenstein kick and want to check out all the versions I can and this one was always a gap in my knowledge. But no more!

Now despite starring a Lone Ranger, the ironically named "Ivory Stone" and the perfectly named "Roosevelt Jackson", I cannot say this is in any way a "good" movie by any measure normally applied to cinema. But it's a pretty nifty diversion and offers up a "Frankenstein" who is almost noble and a "Frankenstein's Monster" who is especially sympathetic. A woman (Ivory Stone) wants her boyfriend, a veteran horribly wounded in Vietnam to get special medical treatment and her former mentor (John Hart as "Dr. Stein") has just the right techniques to possibly help if he will. He does, and does so with the appropriate and balanced motivations, to help a patient in pain and then to further his understanding of the science he is seeking. Others such as his not-so-nice butler Malcom (Roosevelt Jackson no less) manage to corrupt that process and of course as in every such movie mayhem erupts.

"Blackenstein" is played by Joe De Sue, a hapless non-actor who just sort of looks out of his face most of movie, even when he's nibbling on a victim (yes, this Creature is a cannibal). That and the mostly catch-as-catch-can sets really limit what can be seen, that and the meager lighting in any scene not on an interior set (or room). The tried-and-true Frankenstein electrical equipment fashioned by Kenneth Strickfadden so many years before for the Universal classics and I guess will be used a year later in Young Frankenstein by Mel Brooks. Blackenstein is not a good movie, but it's still fun to watch.

On another note, the DVD I watched had a lot of information about the producer of the movie, a guy named Frank Saletri, who was a known Hollywood lawyer and who might just have had ties to the mob that got him murdered in the early 80's. One great detail about the movie is that much of it was shot in Saletri's house which had been originally owned by Bela Lugosi and is a wild bit of architecture. The house has since been razed to make room for roads. The bodacious Liz Renay also makes an appearance in all her bosomy glory. This is a movie that's worth seeing for a lot of reasons. 

Note: This post originally appeared at Rip Jagger's Other Dojo. 

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Soul Cinema - Dr.Black - Mr. Hyde!

Dr. Black / Mr. Hyde from 1976 is a better-than-I-expected blaxploitation movie. The reason is Bernie Casey who gives a sensitive portrayal of Dr. Henry Pride, a madman, a man driven by the pain of the death of his mother and his compulsion to save the world. He's a good man (or appears to be) who goes over the line, who forgets the dignity of other human beings and imagines the necessary momentary evil act is worth it for the greater good. It's a deluded attitude, but not one the viewer cannot immediately dismiss. For a movie directed to a black audience this surely has more resonance.

Though the co-star of the movie is Rosalind Cash who plays another doctor who cares for Dr. Pride, the real power in the movie comes in the relationship between Casey and Marie O'Henry who plays the classic hooker with a heart of gold. She becomes the object of obsession of the Doctor who wants her to help him test a new drug to cure liver damage, but she quite logically and reasonably says no. And when he insists things get ugly.

The slow descent of Doctor Pride steadily presented, his self-destruction is on the screen for us to watch until he realizes he is lost and gives into the drug which turns him "white" and gives him great power, at least power to do harm. In a potent but somewhat uncomfortable finale at the Watts Towers, our hero-villain climbs the towers in a King Kong fashion as the authorities seek a final solution to the rampage of Dr. Black / Mr. Hyde.

I've seen a lot of deep analysis of the messages this film (also called The Watts Monster) delivers to diverse audiences, and I don't reject them, but best of all it's a compelling story pretty well told.

Note: This post originally appeared at Rip Jagger's Other Dojo. 

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