Monogram Week 2006 (1 Viewer)

[LaurenceGarvey]

Recently, Leo B. Gorcey, Jr. published a limited-edition reprint of his father’s autobiography. Right smack dab in the middle of it was a picture of Leo "Slip Mahoney" Gorcey in front of a banner trumpeting MONOGRAM WEEK, 1951: “A Monogram Subject on EVERY SCREEN in the nation!”

So I'm thinking, here we are, five and a half decades later, roughly, and somebody should carry on this fine tradition. Consequently, I invite all movie fans to join us for the 55th Annual Monogram Week, Feb. 11-18, 2006.

We're going to be watching (certainly) and enjoying (hopefully) several Monogram films on DVDs from various companies, and at my home site (www.inthebalcony.com) I'll be reviewing them. We've also talked to our suppliers to provide special deals on Monogram DVDs, and offers are starting to pour in (and by "pour", I mean "trickle").

I'm inviting everybody to join in by spreading the word about Monogram Week, watching Monogram films, and discussing them on the websites of your choice.

Monogram Week comes but once a year -- let's all join in the festivities and make this the best darned Monogram Week ever! Remember, it's Feb. 11-18.

For more information, including a Monogram FAQ, I invite you to visit us In The Balcony. And if you haven't seen Monogram's snowbound thriller KLONDIKE (1932) with Thelma Todd, Lyle Talbot, Jason Robards, and Gabby Hayes, you'll find an opportunity to scarf a cheap copy of a good print of it.

 

[Steve...O]

Monogram rocks.

They may have been "poverty row", but it's amazing the fan following that has stayed with their pictures through the years.

Warners is giving us all 48 Bowery Boys pictures starting this year. They've already given us "Dillinger". I've read scuttlebutt that they're considering releasing their Monogram Chan holdings.

It would be nice if we could get "authorized" versions of the East Side Kids flicks. Certainly there's got to be better and more complete prints of these films that what the PD labels have been able to offer up.

Can Bomba the Jungle Boy be far behind

 

[LaurenceGarvey]

And then there are Allied Artists horrors like FROM HELL IT CAME and ATTACK OF THE CRAB MONSTERS. Maybe we should ask Warners about them this month...

 

[dana martin]

Personally what i would love to see from WB concerning Monogram titles are the eight pictures done by Lugosi, after the fiasco with the Universal set, i would like to have a quality release of these

 

[LaurenceGarvey]

Monogram Week (Feb. 11-18) festivities are now underway across the nation!

We took time out from our traditional Monogram Week parade -- you've got to see the float from Lawless Cowboys (1951) to believe it -- to view Klondike (1932) and post a review along with the parade news atwww.inthebalcony.com. This year's Honorary Grand Marshals are Bela Lugosi and George Zucco, who played a game of chess for the honor of who gets to sit in the front seat of the Monogram DeSoto, I'm told.

 

[LaurenceGarvey]

Last night, as part of the festivities at our Grand Monogram Banquet, one lucky, plucky starlet was chosen Ms. Monogram 2006 as best representing those special qualities that make up today's modern Monogram woman. I invite all Monogram fans to visit us at www.inthebalcony.com for full story and pictures!

 

[Eric Huffstutler]

Laurence,

Any news on Allied Artist releases other than those horrible ripoff ones from the company who is using their now non-copyright protected logo? I have a couple that was cleaned up by Roan but overall, Allied transfers out there are very washed out and badly used compared to Monogram - why? We need to see some of Allied's Sci-Fi movies on legitimate DVDs!

Eric

 

[LaurenceGarvey]

No... shall we ask Warners next week?

 

[Eric Huffstutler]

Yes, please do ask Warner next week!

Also, you didn't answer why AA films seem to be in such rough shape compared to Monogram films when Monogram is older?

I've started a collection of Poverty Row films and have a new appreciation for Monogram and others.

Eric

 

[Steve...O]

Eric,

Warners has stated in the past that there are element issues with their Monogram holdings which has minimized their releases to date. As for why some look better than others, that's a question for Warners. It probably has to do with the way these titles were passed around over the years and how the prints were stored.

As Laurence said, you'll have a chance to ask them on the 21st at the chat.

Steve

 

[Eric Huffstutler]

Laurence,

I see that there are nearly 800 Monogram titles but wonder, did they ever dabble in Sci-Fi? Can you give me some titles? Thanks!

 

[LaurenceGarvey]

Well, of those 800 films maybe 600 of 'em dealt with mad scientists after the Bowery Boys, kooky inventors who have been bumped off and their plans for a new atomic-powered washing machine stolen until Charlie Chan steps in, etc. etc. etc. You'll also find jungles full of "lost cities" in such Bomba films as THE LOST VOLCANO (1950).

I suspect what you're looking for, though, is FLIGHT TO MARS (1951), a genuine interstellar Monogram film, with a cast of genre faves, including Arthur Franz and Morris Ankrum!

 

[Eric Huffstutler]

You mean out of all of those titles, there was only one true Sci-Fi movie in the bunch

OK, who has the best transfer of FLIGHT TO MARS? Hear the Wade Williams Collection on Image is not very good?

 

[Jim Bur]

Monogram/Allied made quite a number of B and small budget A westerns. It is my understanding that Warners controls the rights to these films. However, I never see any of these westerns played on TCM (except for a number of years ago when they played a couple of Trail Blazer series westerns from the early 1940's in the wee hours of the morning). Nor do I see these films being played on the Encore Western Channel (except that about 6 or 7 years ago they played a couple of William Elliott's Allied Artists westerns). Warners has never released any of the westerns on either VCR or DVD. Some of these films have been available for years from video dealers in very poor prints, which do no justice to the films. I know that many of these westerns are routine, however there are also a surprisingly large number of little gems. For instance, there are the two westerns co-written by Blake Edwards starring Rod Cameron, namely Panhandle and Stampede. Edwards also co-stars in Panhandle, which is one of greatest (if not the greatest) small budget A westerns ever made. Among others, there are also such gems as Short Grass, and the aforementioned series of nine small budget A Westerns that William Elliott made for Monogram/Allied which have long been admired by western film buffs (in addition the novel crane shots used in some of these films were widely influential on later films). Does anyone know if Warners has plans to do anything with these films? I'm sure a double or triple feature DVD release of some of these films would be hailed by all western film buffs. If they don't want to release them on DVD they should at least make them available for cable, as I'm confident that Encore Western channel would gobble them up in a heartbeat. It seems that, so far, these assets are being allowed to go to waste I am not aware of any other group of significant western films that have been so seemingly neglected as these films. Any information on this issue would be welcome. c Jim Bur

 

[LaurenceGarvey]

That's the only FLIGHT TO MARS release of which I'm aware.