John Carradine Movies
Though best known to modern filmgoers as a horror star, cadaverous John Carradine was, in his prime, one of the most versatile character actors on the silver screen. The son of a journalist father and physician mother, Carradine was given an expensive education in Philadelphia and New York. Upon graduating from the Graphic Arts School, he intended to make his living as a painter and sculptor, but in 1923 he was sidetracked into acting. Working for a series of low-paying stock companies throughout the 1920s, he made ends meet as a quick-sketch portrait painter and scenic designer. He came to Hollywood in 1930, where his extensive talents and eccentric behavior almost immediately brought him to the attention of casting directors. He played a dizzying variety of distinctive bit parts -- a huntsman in Bride of Frankenstein (1935), a crowd agitator in Les Miserables (1935) -- before he was signed to a 20th Century Fox contract in 1936. His first major role was the sadistic prison guard in John Ford's Prisoner of Shark Island (1936), which launched a long and fruitful association with Ford, culminating in such memorable screen characterizations as the gentleman gambler in Stagecoach (1939) and Preacher Casy ("I lost the callin'!") in The Grapes of Wrath (1940). Usually typecast as a villain, Carradine occasionally surprised his followers with non-villainous roles like the philosophical cab driver in Alexander's Ragtime Band (1938) and Abraham Lincoln in Of Human Hearts (1938). Throughout his Hollywood years, Carradine's first love remained the theater; to fund his various stage projects (which included his own Shakespearean troupe), he had no qualms about accepting film work in the lowest of low-budget productions. Ironically, it was in one of these Poverty Row cheapies, PRC's Bluebeard (1944), that the actor delivered what many consider his finest performance. Though he occasionally appeared in an A-picture in the 1950s and 1960s (The Ten Commandments, Cheyenne Autumn), Carradine was pretty much consigned to cheapies during those decades, including such horror epics as The Black Sleep (1956), The Unearthly (1957), and the notorious Billy the Kid Meets Dracula (1966). He also appeared in innumerable television programs, among them Twilight Zone, The Munsters, Thriller, and The Red Skelton Show, and from 1962 to 1964 enjoyed a long Broadway run as courtesan-procurer Lycus in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum. Though painfully crippled by arthritis in his last years, Carradine never stopped working, showing up in films ranging from Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex But Were Afraid to Ask (1972) to Peggy Sue Got Married (1984). Married four times, John Carradine was the father of actors David, Keith, Robert, and Bruce Carradine. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide- 1967
Writer/producer/director Oliver Drake made so many poverty-row pictures over a 40 year period that one suspects he wasn't a single individual at all, but a "house name" adopted by whomever happened to be handy. Drake's Mummy and Curse of the Jackal is up to the director's usual standard, which isn't saying a whole lot. This time the bandaged title character is at large in Las Vegas. The script is a bit confusing: we're not sure if Anthony Eisley is a hero and John Carradine a villain, or vice versa. Uncompleted and unreleased for many years, Mummy and Curse of the Jackal finally saw the light of day on videotape. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Horror, comedy, and country corn combine when country singers Woody Weathrby and Boots Malone get caught in a big storm en route to the Nashville Jamboree and end up taking shelter in a creepy looking old mansion that is said to be haunted. Though plenty of spooky things go on there, the hapless hayseeds quickly figure out that the haunting has more to do with a ring of international agents led by the enigmatic and sly Madame Wong than it does the supernatural. The spies have made the abandoned building their headquarters as they endeavor to steal a valuable atomic secret. This was the final film of Basil Rathbone. It is also a sequel to Las Vegas Hillbillies (1966). ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
This laughably-bad mess stars ubiquitous "Z"-movie journeyman John Carradine as Dr. DeMarco, a loony scientist whose original concept to build a humanoid robot for space missions is fouled somewhat by his choice of a psycho-killer's brain for his first subject. Instead of doing the sensible thing and retiring from the mad-doc profession, DeMarco chooses instead to build another robot to hunt down the last one. His efforts are only slightly hindered by a moronic CIA investigation (led by a hung-over Wendell Corey, in his final screen role) and the meddling of a cabal of communist spies under the direction of slinky dragon-lady Tura Satana (of Russ Meyer's Faster Pussycat! Kill! Kill!), apparently for the purpose of exploiting the solar-powered astro-man for military reasons. When the doc's lovely former lab assistant (she's since been replaced by a leering hunchback) is attacked by the first robot, he loses his solar cell and narrowly escapes destruction (by holding a flashlight to his head!), but in his hurried exit he leads the CIA right back to DeMarco's lab, where most of the surviving cast members bump each other off. Taking into account the obvious goofy editing (characters are seen standing around waiting for the shot to end) and abominable performances all around, director Ted V. Mikels (of the "Point-N-Shoot" school of filmmaking) would later achieve such cinematic heights as The Corpse Grinders and Blood Orgy of the She-Devils. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Wendell Corey, John Carradine, (more)
- 1967
In the final episode of Lost in Space's second season, Penny (Angela Cartwright) saves the life of an alien named Arcon (John Carradine), who entrusts her with a valuable amulet. Not long afterward, a trio of sinster space thugs show up, demanding that Penny give up the amulet, or else the rest of her family will die a horrible death. Making Penny's choice all the more difficult is the fact that the amulet holds the power to destroy the universe. (Trivia note: the costumes worn by the villainous "Saticons" were previously seen in the episode "Wreck of the Robot"). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1967
The Spanish/Mexican Autopsy of a Ghost might have escaped our notice altogether had not a company called Sinister Cinema made it available to the home-video market. In this uneasy mixture of comedy and horror, a mad scientist uses dead bodies to create a race of zombies. Basil Rathbone, making his very last screen appearance, goes through the motions as the scientist. Also on hand are international-production habitues Cameron Mitchell and John Carradine, pretending to be genuinely interested in the grim goings-on. Currently available prints of Autopsy of a Ghost are available in Spanish only, with no English subtitles. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1967
Dracula carries on his blood-drinking tradition in modern-day California, joined by his bride in a castle into which an unsuspecting couple have just moved. (Talk about incompatible roomies!) The Count and Countess (Alex D'Arcy & Paula Raymond) abduct a smorgasbord of cuties in miniskirts and go-go boots and chain them up in the castle dungeon for later consumption. John Carradine loiters about this Al Adamson non-masterpiece on his way to an easy paycheck, though he does not actually assay the role of Dracula, playing instead a small part as the Count's butler. Unbelievably, the cinematography on this ultra-cheapie is credited to acclaimed DP Laszlo Kovacs. Well-photographed by Laszlo Kovacs, the film is still notoriously dreadful and includes far too much stock footage of Sea World along with the usual deadly Adamson pacing. Some versions feature additional violent footage involving a rampaging werewolf. Trivia buffs will note that Paula Raymond's role as the Countess was originally intended for Jayne Mansfield. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide
Dr. Terror's Gallery of Horrors; Return from the Past; The Blood Suckers; Gallery of Horrors. No, that's not a quadruple feature at the Highway 194 Twin Drive-In. All four titles have been applied to the same film, which also travels under the name Alien Massacre. This multipart scarefest contains five short stories about magic, the occult, the "walking dead" and vampirism. John Carradine serves as narrator of "The Witch's Clock"; Lon Chaney Jr. plays a mad doctor in "The Spark of Life"; Vampire Mitch Evans figures into "Count Alucard"; "Monster Raid" features onetime movie ingenue Rochelle Hudson; and "King Vampire" spotlights a cast of no-names. The above-named veteran performers look suitably embarrassed in this low-budget farrago, which may not be the worst of its kind ever made, but certainly comes close. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
The venerable John Carradine gets his first chance to play the fanged count in 20 years (the last time was House of Dracula), albeit in one of the weirdest scenarios ever committed to film. Arriving in the Wild West via stagecoach, Drac installs himself in the home of a pretty rancher (Melinda Plowman) by convincing her (through hypnosis) that he is her long-lost uncle. Unfortunately for the Count, one of her hired hands is none other than legendary outlaw Billy the Kid (Chuck Courtney), who has been trying to put his wicked ways behind him. Billy takes a shine to his boss but starts to have his suspicions about her creepy "uncle." Eventually, the reformed desperado straps on his six-guns again to do battle with the Count, ably assisted by the local sawbones who must be an acquaintance of Dr. Van Helsing, since he obviously knows such helpful arcane knowledge such as (gasp) "The Vampire Test!" A camp anti-classic from William "One-Shot" Beaudine, who shot it back-to-back with yet another Wild-West-Horror mutation, Jesse James Meets Frankenstein's Daughter. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Chuck Courtney, John Carradine, (more)
- 1966
John Carradine guest stars as Marvo the Magnificent, a seedy, unemployed magician. Hoping to relieve Jed of a few of the Clampett millions, Marvo offers to reveal his prestidigitory secrets to the gullible Jethro. Also in the cast are Lennie Bremen and future Hawaii 5-0 semiregular Al Eben as the truck drivers and Britt Nilsson and Carolyn Williams as Jethro's leggy assistants. "The Great Jethro" was originally broadcast on March 2, 1966. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1966
Culture-conscious Herman (Fred Gwynne) demands that son Eddie (Butch Patrick) learn to play the trumpet, but the boy has no ear for music. Driven to near-madness by Eddie's nocturnal off-key trumpet blasts, Grandpa decides to conjure up another spell. As a result, Eddie becomes a "hot" jazz musician with a steady stream of hipster dialogue--and he's unable to return to his normal self. John Carradine makes another appearance as Herman's cadaverous employer Mr. Gateman. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1966
Herman Munster and his ghoulish clan leave the confines of their 1960s television series The Munsters to try their luck on the big screen in this feature length comedy that chronicles their adventures in merry England where Herman has inherited a large estate. Unfortunately, the Munsters do not realize that their new home is already inhabited by a ring of counterfeiters determined to frighten the family back to the United States. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Fred Gwynne, Yvonne De Carlo, (more)
- 1966
In the first episode of a two-part story, Jason McCord (Chuck Connors) is again summoned to Washington by President Grant (William Bryant). This time, Jason is asked to infiltrate a group of insurrectionists who may or may not be plotting to assassinate the President and overthrow the government. John Carradine repeats his role as Jason's grandfather, General Josh McCord, in this story co-written by series star Chuck Connors--whose wife Kamala Devi also makes a guest appearance. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1966
In the second episode of a two-part story, Jason McCord (Chuck Connors) has infiltrated a group of insurrectionists who plan to assassinate President Grant. When Jason's cover is blown, the assassins boldly make a public attempt on both his life and Grant's--leaving an incriminating dagger behind. Now fully aware of who is behind the plot, Jason formulates a counterplot of his own, which reaches full fruition at a Washington DC costume party. Future Mission: Impossible leading man Peter Graves plays a pivotal role in this story, which was co-written by Branded star Chuck Connors--whose wife Kamala Devi also makes a guest appearance. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1966
Child actress Suzanne Cupito, who went on to a long and rewarding adult career under the name Morgan Brittany, essays the title role in this, the final episode of Branded. The daughter of a bank robber, 11-year-old Kellie has sworn to kill the man responsible for her father's death: namely, Jason McCord (Chuck Connors). Making return appearances in this series finale are Lola Albright as feisty newspaperwoman Ann Williams and John Carradine as Jason's grandfather, General Joshua McCord. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1965
In the first episode of a three-part story, Jason McCord (Chuck Connors) is invited to Washington DC by his ex-fiancee Laurette (played by Connors' then wife Kamala Devi) and her father, Senator Hastings (Macdonald Carey). It turns out that Lansing is one of several people who hope to benefit by discrediting the late General Reed, who had been McCord's superior officer at the Battle of Bitter Creek. Although he could clear himself of desertion charges by ruining Reed's reputation, McCord refuses to do so--but this is only the beginning of the story. Unlike the rest of Branded's first-season episodes, "The Mission" was filmed in color (though whether or not it was originally broadcast in color is still a matter of dispute). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1965
Vera Miles, who starred in the very first half-hour episode of Alfred Hitchcock's TV suspense anthology, returns a decade later to headline this hour-long installment. Miles plays Nicky Revere, the daughter of once-famous Hollywood director Gavin Revere (John Carradine). Not long after Nicky takes her dad's limo to garage mechanic and would-be actor Leo Manfred (James Farentino), Leo proposes to her in order to gain access to her father. The elder Revere is dead set against the wedding, believing (accurately) that Leo is nothing but a fortune-seeking opportunist -- and to prove that he isn't, Leo is forced to take out a life-insurance policy naming Nicky as beneficiary. Five points to anyone who guess how this one turns out. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- James Farentino, Vera Miles, (more)
In this sci-fi thriller, a man finds himself beleagured by jewel thieves after they hide their loot in his pick-up truck. Unfortunately, when they finally go to get it, the jewels are gone. To get their revenge they send a homicidal Vietnam veteran to get the truck owner. Apparently the vet is being controlled by a scientist who has implanted an electronic device in his brain. When the vet kidnaps the man's wife and child, the man takes off after them. Later it is discovered that the child had hidden the jewels, which she had found, in the head of her dolly. Other than the story, this film is interesting in that it continued to grow and change over a six-year period. The year after its release, additional footage with the mad scientist was added and the film was released as The Fiend with the Electronic Brain (1966); five years after that, they added even more footage and a couple more characters and called it Blood of Ghastly Horror (1971). ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1965
A weird little low-budget item featuring Lon Chaney, Jr. and John Carradine as the DeSarde brothers, a pair of sorcerers with opposing powers. The evil brother (Chaney) sports devil's horns and torments the captive guests at the DeSarde mansion, while the invalid benevolent brother (Carradine) languishes in his sickbed. This lackluster production is hampered by a weak story overstuffed with metaphysical mumbo-jumbo and spiced up with belly-dancers and cut-price werewolves, and it keeps its dueling warlocks (who look decidedly bored with the entire ordeal) from sharing any scenes together. Apparently three separate directors contributed footage to this project; the resulting lack of cohesion is obvious. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide
- 1965
Cadaverous John Carradine makes his first series appearance as mortuary owner Mr. Gateman, the employer of Herman Munster (Fred Gwynne). At the prodding of wife Lily (Yvonne DeCarlo), Herman asks Gateman for a raise--and gets fired for his troubles. To keep his unemployement a secret from his family, Herman picks up work wherever he can find it, at one point laboring away at a Chinese laundry run by the excitable Tom Fong (played with a blissful lack of political correctness by dialect comedian Benny Rubin! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Toward the end of Jerry Lewis's Paramount studio period, Lewis slapped together this bitter comedy about Hollywood phoniness and fame that has to be the most rancid portrait of the Hollywood star system in the Rat Pack era this side of Clifford Odets. When a famous entertainer suddenly is killed in an airplane crash, his team of flunkies -- producer Caryl Fergusson (Everett Sloane), writer Chic Wymore (Phil Harris), press agent Harry Silver (Keenan Wynn), director Morgan Heywood (Peter Lorre in his final film role), valet Bruce Alden (John Carradine), and secretary Ellen Betz (Ina Balin) -- decide to continue their life style by finding a complete unknown and manufacturing him into a Hollywood star. That unknown turns out to be the nervous and inept bellboy Stanley Belt (Jerry Lewis). They train Stanley to become an over-night singing sensation, and despite a disastrous recording session and a failed nightclub performance, the public relations blitz makes Stanley's recording of "I Lost My Heart in a Drive-In Movie" a smash single. So much so that Stanley is given a shot at appearing on "The Ed Sullivan Show." Expecting the worst, Stanley's management team abandons him right before his performance. But Stanley musters up enough confidence to go on the live program alone and manages to surprise his pessimistic ex-staff. A collection of Hollywood celebrities circa 1964 --George Raft, Ed Wynn, Ed Sullivan, Mel Torme, Rhonda Fleming and Hedda Hopper -- make cameo appearances. High spots include an apocalyptic music lesson with voice teacher Dr. Mule-rrr (Hans Conried), Ed Sullivan performing a bizarre impersonation of himself, and an ending that would make even Jean-Luc Godard blush. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jerry Lewis, Ina Balin, (more)
- 1964
Cut-and-paste schlock producer Jerry Warren patched together yet another of his patented Mexican imports with segments of a much older Chilean horror film to make this goofy supernatural thriller, padding it out with newly-shot footage featuring a slumming John Carradine. Essentially another crawling-hand creeper, the Mexican footage involves a cursed hand statue which possesses the souls of assorted innocent bystanders, while the Chilean portions have to do with a secret suicide society and are loosely based on R.L. Stephenson's The Suicide Club. The Chilean portions seem a bit more interesting and surreal, but the added footage (with Carradine) is just plain ridiculous; the end product is impossible to follow, wrapped up with an even less-comprehensible twist ending. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide
- 1964
In this western, after being branded as a coward by the army, an ex-soldier succumbs to his former finacee's pressure and breaks a treaty with the Apaches. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1964
While strolling around an art store, Lucy (Lucille Ball) bumps into handsome John Brooks III (played by Robert Alda, the father of M*A*S*H star Alan Alda). Hoping to impress her new acquaintance, Lucy signs up for an art class that Brooks is taking. Unfortunately, Viv (Vivian Vance) has also set her sights on Mr. Brooks, so she schemes to embarrass Lucy in front of the entire class. The inimitable John Carradine does a hilarious comic turn as bombastic art teacher Guzman. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Alda, John Carradine, (more)
John Ford's last western film, Cheyenne Autumn was allegedly produced to compensate for the hundreds of Native Americans who had bitten the dust in Ford's earlier films (that was the director's story, anyway). Set in 1887, the film recounts the defiant migration of 300 Cheyennes from their reservation in Oklahoma territory to their original home in Wyoming. They have done this at the behest of chiefs Little Wolf (Ricardo Montalban) and Dull Knife (Gilbert Roland), peaceful souls who have been driven to desperate measures because the US government has ignored their pleas for food and shelter. Since the Cheyennes' trek is in defiance of their treaty, Captain Thomas Archer (Richard Widmark), who agrees with the Indians in principle, reluctantly leads his troops in pursuit of the tribe. While there was never any intention to shed blood, the white press finds it politically expedient to distort the Cheyennes' action into a declaration of war. Thanks to the cruelties of such chauvinistic whites as Captain Oscar Wessels (Karl Malden), the Cheyennes are forced to defend themselves--and whenever Indians take arms against whites in the 1880s, it's usually misrepresented as a massacre. Only the intervention of US secretary of the interior Carl Schurz (Edward G. Robinson) prevents the hostilities from erupting into wholesale bloodshed. Based on a novel by Mari Sandoz, Cheyenne Autumn is a cinematic elegy--not only for the beleaguered Cheyennes, but for John Ford's fifty years in pictures. It is weakest when arbitrarily throwing in a wearisome romance between Richard Widmark and pacifistic schoolmarm Carroll Baker, who out of sympathy for the Indians has joined them in their 1500-mile westward journey. When the Warner Bros. people decided that the film ran too long, they chopped out the wholly unnecessary but very funny episode involving a poker-obsessed Wyatt Earp (James Stewart). Contrary to popular belief, this episode was included in the earliest non-roadshow prints of Cheyenne Autumn; the scene was excised only when the film went into its second and third runs in 1966 (it has since been restored). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Richard Widmark, Carroll Baker, (more)
