What movie is this?Statue smiles-woman screams (1 Viewer)

[Hal D]

Hi. I saw a b & w movie at a Drive-in theatre between 1961 - 1964. The only scene I remember is a woman looking at the back of a small(about a foot tall or so)statue? It slowly turns and slowly smiles hideously at her(the mouth looked animated). She screams loudly. That's all I can remember. This has been a mystery to me for many years as I've been trying to find out what movie this is from. Hopefully my 5 or so year old eyes did see what I think I saw. One other mystery film-another b & w one-a small statue of Jesus comes off the crucifix on a wall to help someone. I remember the closeups of the nails unscrewing from the hands. It might of been Italian made. What film was that? Please help-Thanks

 

[Rex Bachmann]

Hal D wrote (post #1):

Since nobody else has answered this, I'll resist the temptation no longer to ask a simple question, which may or may not be helpful to you: Are you sure you saw this in a movie theater? It sounds vaguely familiar (but that's as likely as not to be because something in me wants to remember seeing such a story).

Given the time frame, given the black-and-white status of the photographic technology, and---frankly---given the scene, this strikes me as something that might have been seen on the television of the time, a plot from Thriller---for which there are various episode summaries, on- and off-line---, or some such similar program. It may seem as if you saw it in a theater, but perhaps you have confused it with something else. Time will play tricks on the memory.

In any event, it's a tough call.

 

[Karl_Luph]

The statue scene may have been in the 1963 b&w movie called "The Haunting" directed by Robert Wise. It was about a house that was haunted and might have had some statues around inside or out in the garden possibly.

 

[Rex Bachmann]

Karl_Luph wrote (post #3):

There are indeed several scenes in the hall with white (marble?) statues (indirectly) representing Hugh Crane and his family including the family dog, I think, (actually they're supposed to represent some saint who went about "curing" the lepers). However, if, as the poster said, one of the statues actually turns and gives an animated smile, then he's thinking of something besides The Haunting, where there's no such scene, to the best of my recollection.

 

[Scott Weinberg]

When I saw the thread topic, I thought of a scene from Clash of the Titans but clearly that's not it.

 

[Hal D]

Yes-I did see this statue movie at Sunset Drive-in in Chicago Illinois sometime between 1961-1964. I've even gone through old microfilm to see if I could find the movie title. No luck so far placing this film. This question has frustrated me for years. My main worry is maybe I saw a scene as a small child and reinterpreted it as something else. "Plague Of The Zombies" is an example of how you remember something you saw as a child totally different. I swear I remember the head chopping scene as being in extreme close-up. When the guy woke up after fainting, he was looking straight at the head(all in closeup). This is NOT how the film plays as you know. These shots are shown from a DISTANCE. But I remembered them as close-up.

 

[Karl_Luph]

Wow Scott, great observation, I had forgotten about The Clash of the Titans, but I guess that wasn't the movie Hal was thinking of. Rex, are you referring to "The Haunting" from 1963 with Julie Harris and Claire Bloom?

 

[TonyD]

there is no scene like that in the haunting, as someone else already said.

i watched it recently on laser. not in this movie.

 

[Jack Briggs]

I further affirm that there is absolutely no such scene in The Haunting, a film that eschews special effects (barring that "breathing" door).

 

[Karl_Luph]

Now I'm beginning to wonder if this scene wasn't possibly from a tv show too since no one remembers it from a movie. I'm gonna go out on a limb and say it might have been in an episode of the series "One Step Beyond" or possiblt "Thriller" . They both were in b&w and from that era and dealt with some creepy stuff.

 

[Cees Alons]

Hal,

Welcome to the forum.
Don't give up too easily, we may be able to find it in the end .
Now, tell us, can you remember who took you to that movie or in who's company you were? It seems unlikely that an adult took a 5-yr old boy to a movie like The Haunting or another terrible thriller. Not in 1963/1965.

The B&W film about Jesus seemingly coming from the crucifix, could that have been a Don Camillo movie (Don Camillo being played by Fernandel). That was an Italian/French co-production (the writer of the Don Camillo books was an Italian, it was situated in an Italian village).

Cees

 

[Jack Briggs]

As Cees encouraged, hang in there and we'll figure this one out. I have to say, though, I don't remember this fromThriller (probably the most effective horror anthology series ever to air on commercial television — it must come to DVD).

 

[Hal D]

Hi everyone. First off I'd like to thank all of you for putting your efforts into this. It may be hard to believe but my parents did take me to see some pretty horrifying films at the Drive-In when I was a kid. Of course, I wasn't the only kid there. Can you imagine my horror at the eyeless man scene from "The Birds" at the age of six? I turned out to be a normal person who loves movies and absolutely loved the Drive-In experience. What a time! Those wonderful old car speakers hung on the car windows! Watching the sunset before the movies started! The concession stand with it's cardboard holders to unfold to put your ice cold Cokes in and the hot tamales. Man-I'm getting hungry. The "statue" film has been a thorn in my side for years. I finally decided I needed help in locating it. What worries me are childhood memories not being accurate. For example, "House Of The Damned" was an incredibly terrifying film to me as a child. I finally saw it again a few years ago and couldn't believe how different my memories were of it. The scene with the old circus woman whose head disappears was so frightening I still remember the chills I felt back then. Now I feel nothing. So-what if the statue scene is not as I remember it? It will be even harder to find. Cees-please tell me more about the Don Camillo movie. What is the title of the film? It sounds familiar being in a small village. Thanks to all.

 

[Paul Mason]

Could it have been a ventriloquist's doll rather than a statue?

If so you may be talking about Devil Doll (1964)

IMDB entry

 

[Rex Bachmann]

Cees Alons wrote (post #11):

You'd be totally surprised about what used to be considered acceptable in American society for young children to see. In actuality, a whole lot worse than anything described here so far was allowed on tv at the time---and even into the '70s, I might add---where, in theory, at least, anybody could view them; things that definitely would not be aired today. Georges Franjou's Yeux sans Visage (dubbed as The Horror Chamber of Doctor Faustus, or some such) and a lot of other of those late '50s/early '60s sicky "Euro-horror" films about mad scientists disfiguring women (Gritos en la noche (a.k.a., The Awful Dr. Orloff), Circus of Horrors, The Dungeons of Horror), not to mention one of the utterly most sicko productions ever on the subject: an American film entitled The Hypnotic Eye (1960). I saw all of these on (free) tv growing up as a kid in the '60s and '70s.

So, no, I readily believe that ordinary people would carry their kids to see scary supernatural movies in the '50s and '60s. The rule usually goes, "As long the nipple doesn't make its appearance . . . . ."

 

[Jack Briggs]

Still perplexed by what this film might be. I wonder what combination of words one could type into a search engine to get yield some meaningful results?

 

[Gary->dee]

You could try searching through the list of movies at IMDB that came out between 1961 and 1964. Of course it would be helpful if Hal knew at least the first word or even the letter of the title. Possibly even try looking at the titles that resemble horror or thriller movies.

 

[Rex Bachmann]

Jack Briggs wrote (post #16):

But, apparently, it's in color, not in black-and-white. Furthermore, it's foreign, non-English (dubbed???), so would it have been shown at a drive-in?

 

[Karl_Luph]

Could it have possibly been on an episode of the old tv series Alfred Hitchcock Presents? That series had some pretty creepy stuff on it too.

 

[Phil Florian]

Didn't The Haunting of Hell House have such a scene? But that was in color, if I remember...the one with Roddy McDowell in it? I do remember the statues "coming to life" and doing some carnal things, was this involved? This sounds like a scene in the cult classic novel "The Illuminatus Trilogy" where Sasparilla Godzilla (a woman) looks up at a statue of the Mother Mary and it smiles and, if I recall, she screams. But talk about an unfilmable book!


Phil