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Geoff. @cinterrobang.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Big day for the Forster fan in 1970 Toronto with the debuts of both PIECES OF DREAMS and COVER ME, BABE. I've never seen the former. Honestly, I'd never _heard_ of the former. The former Forster. I like love stories. I enjoy being shocked. Well, at the pictures, at least. Intriguing!

First of two black and white newspaper ads from the Toronto Star, Friday, September 25, 1970.

An ad for the movie PIECES OF DREAMS, starring Robert Forster and Lauren Hutton, who are featured prominently in its photographic artwork. Forster, a dark-haired man on the left who appears to be wearing a clerical collar, stands behind looking forward at Hutton, facing away from him in a chambray shirt deeply unbuttoned.

These images are backgrounded by a much larger greyscale picture, vaguely pointilist or halftone, depicting the two actors in head-and-shoulder closeup, their eyes closed, full lips about to touch.

The tagline tells us it is "A love story that will shock you."

Will Geer's name is featured prominently in the credit block.

You can hear Ferrante & Teicher's "Pieces of Dreams," on United Artists Records. Or as interpreted by Johnny Mathis, on Columbia Records.

It's Adult Entertainment. Playing at the York.

This second black and white ad is for the movie COVER ME, BABE.

A variant of the film's photographic one-sheet artwork, featuring castmember Suzanne Benton, a longhaired blonde, naked from waist to philtrum. Her breasts are overlaid with the images of camera lenses.

(It's difficult to decipher the printed specs on their outer rings, but based on the visual cues provided by contrasting sizes of their respective front-facing elements, it would appear the lens on the left might be telephoto, where the one on the right... my best guess is it's a 1:1.8 50mm prime? I can't presently remember whether this information is relevant to the plot.)

The film's tagline, presented in the upper right corner, reads:

Life. Love.
Illusion.
At 24 frames
per second.

It's a 20th Century Fox presentation and, in this engagement, is doubled with BEYOND THE VALLEY OF THE DOLLS, a small version of whose bold text block letter title treatment also appears in this ad.

It's Restricted.

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Geoff. @cinterrobang.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

Pretty significant day for the 1986 Toronto cinephile, with the debuts of BLUE VELVET, DOWN BY LAW, and STEWARDESS SCHOOL.

First of three newspaper ads from the September 19, 1986 Toronto Star.

This first one is a full page ad for David Lynch's BLUE VELVET, featuring a top half heavy with critical raves, which read:

"The warnings are all correct. David Lynch's new movie is warped and weird and wicked. It is also utterly fascinating."
-Bruce Kirkland, TORONTO SUN

"BLUE VELVET is a mystery...a masterpiece... a visionary story of sexual awakening, of good and evil, a trip to the underworld."
-David Thompson, CALIFORNIA MAGAZINE

"A nightmarish, intensely disturbing exploration of the hidden side of the soul. It is sure to cause a sensation."
-Ken Turan, GQ

"Brilliant and unsettling...this is the work of an all-American visionary-and a master film stylist."
-Stephen Schiff, VANITY FAIR

"...an eerie and erotic treat..."
-Richard Freedman, NEWHOUSE NEWSPAPERS

Below these, a centred film-sourced image of a bare-skinned dark-haired man (the actor Kyle Maclachlan) holding a reclining dark-haired woman (Isabella Rossellini).

Below this, the film's title in its stylised script.

It's playing at the Sheraton Centre.

This second ad, also full-page, advertisies Jim Jarmusch's DOWN BY LAW. A banner at the top reminds you it's recently played the Festival of Festivals, under which appear the following review quotes:

"...AN INSTANT HIT... THE HUMOUR IS DARK, SMOKY AND HYSTERICALLY SOMETIMES FUNNY... A DYNAMIC MOVIE."

-BRUCE KIRKLAND, TORONTO SUN

"THREE OF THE DAMNEDEST PERFORMANCES IN AN ECCENTRIC ENSEMBLE SINCE THE MARX BROTHERS."

-ANDREW SARRIS, VILLAGE VOICE

In the centre, a film-sourced image of three men (the actors Tom Waits, John Lurie, and Roberto Benigni) sitting on the metal-frame bunk beds inside a small barren jail cell.

The film's title appears at the bottom in faded block letter capitals, right justified and split over three lines.

This third ad, promoting STEWARDESS SCHOOL is considerably smaller. A reproduction of the film's one-sheet poster, reduced in both size and scope, it features a picture of the actress Judy Landers (here in the role of Sugar Dubois, a curly-haired blonde in sheer white négligée), reclining astride a motorcycle (maybe... an '84 Harley Shovelhead?).

A headline of quoted text above seems to suggest her saying "Gee, I've never done it on an airplane before."

We're told that STEWARDESS SCHOOL is "one flight we'll never forget," and shown that the cast includes Brett Cullen, Mary Cadorette, Donald Most, Sandahl Bergman, and Sherman Hemsley, each of whom are identified in a small horizontal line of individual photographs of their characters as they appear in the film.

There's a special late show at the Eaton Centre at 11.35 on Friday and Saturday nights.

Maybe I'll see you there.

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Geoff. @cinterrobang.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Fifty years ago tonight, the Tardis first landed on TVO in Toronto with the Canadian debut of DOCTOR WHO (pictured, with Sonic Screwdriver).

Black and white clipping from the Starweek supplemental television guide from the Toronto Star, Saturday, September 11, 1976. A narrow column excerpted from the first of two annual Fall TV Preview issues promotes the Canadian premiere of DOCTOR WHO thusly:

"DR. WHO (TV Ontario, 7:30): A BBC-produced science fiction series which has been running in Britain since 1963, this half-hour weekly series stars Jon Pertwee (the third actor to take the role) as the title character, a Time Lord, one of an advanced race of beings from the planet Gallifry with extraordinary intellectual and psychic powers. Dr. Who has travelled through time and space via a machine called the Tardis to the planet Earth in the 20th century where, as a special adviser to UNIT (a United Nations intelligence group), he uses his powers to outwit an endless array of monsters and villainous forces."

Directly below this text, a black and white illustration of the performer Andy Williams, shown head-and-shoulders in a white suitjacket with extremely wide lapels and likely rendered in pen and ink in a halftone or stippled caricature style inclined toward realism. He holds a microphone. Smiling. Singing? Maybe? Probably!

Williams was about to debut his own (unrelated) variety program this same autumn.

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Geoff. @cinterrobang.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Here's a timely 50 year-old ad, with Michael Dowse's MAD CANADIAN premiering at TIFF: come on down for the originally scheduled date of Ken Carter's notorious DEVIL AT YOUR HEELS jump across the St. Lawrence. ABC's WIDE WORLD OF SPORTS is gonna be there! Music. Entertainment. Only fifteen bucks!

Black and white plain text newspaper ad from the Toronto Star, Saturday, September 18, 1976, advertising Daredevil Ken Carter's upcoming rocket car jump across the St. Lawrence river. It reads:

"KEN CARTER THINKS EVEL KNIEVEL IS THE 2ND BEST DAREDEVIL IN THE WORLD.

SEE KEN CARTER PUT HIS POINT ACROSS IN THE KEN CARTER ROCKET CAR RIDE TO NEW YORK, SEPT. 25th

From Morrisburg Ontario to Ogden Island New York across the St. Lawrence Seaway.

A THRILL PACKED DAY FOR THE WHOLE FAMILY. North American Tractor Pull Championship featuring Art Arfons' Green Monster. Bennie "Boom Boom" Koske. Mystery Guest

TICKETS:
Advance Sale (orders postmarked before Sept. 15): Adults $12.75, Children (under 12) $3.75, 3 and under free. After Sept. 15 and at Site Box Office: Adults $15, Children (under 12) $5,3 and under free. Tickets available at Eatons, Eatons ATO and Sam the Record Man. For ficket outlet nearest you call: 416-597-1688 or write Ken Carter, Tickets, Morrisburg, Ontario KOC 1X0

MUSIC AND ENTERTAINMENT

GATES OPEN AT 11:30 A.M.

SEE A MAN JUMP A COUNTRY MILE."

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Geoff. @cinterrobang.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

This past weekend marked the 50th (exclamation punctuation) of the Toronto debut of eventual video rental favourite SQUIRM. Been a looong haul since I'd rewatched it; happy to report it paid dividends capable of surprising even a longtime fan. (It's me -- I'm the wormface, now.)

First of two black and white newspaper ads from The Toronto Star from the weekend of September 10, 1976, advertising the release of the killer-worms-on-a-rampage motion picture SQUIRM.

A banner across the top tells us "THIS WAS THE NIGHT OF THE CRAWLING TERROR!" and we're further informed in a block of text that "...by the billions they came, swarming over the land, sucking the life from anything in their path."

It features the film's hand-painted promotional artwok, consisting of a thick-trunked gnarled deciduous tree, beneath which are a collection of gruesome impressionistic sketches of writhing reaching human bodies engulfed by slithering hungry worms. One dude is mostly skeleton, the flesh of his body wormed right off his bones! Prominent at the bottm of all this and peeking out is a bare, gape-jawed human skull.

The movie's title appears nearer the bottom, stylised to appear as though its letters are composed... of WORMS!!!

It's an American International Picture.

This second ad, with a slightly different layout, adds the helpful information that "This is a TERROR WORM. One can be dangerous. Two can be deadly. ... and a Billion can become a tidal wave of horror -- engulfing a whole town in a living, writhing, seething orgy of ravenous destruction."

You might reasonably assume -- given this is a low-budget, rurally-made production from the early 1970s -- that this ballyhoo is obvious hyperbole.

Reader? You would be mistaken.

And if you see it at the Northeast or Northwest Drive-Ins, you could see for yourself and stick around to catch FOOD OF THE GODS.

Or it's playing in Oshawa with SPECIAL DELIVERY.

(Not a difficult choice, imho.)

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Geoff. @cinterrobang.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

95 years ago To-morrow -- the Toronto debut of MURDER BY THE CLOCK, booting Jackie Coogan from the Uptown. Real interested to find out if a man can be murdered twice. Can't deny the allure of a Female Dracula, either. And in a movie co-starring Dracula's Daughter's familiar-to-be? Hmm.

Black and white newspaper ad from the Toronto Star, Friday, September 11, 1931. A clipping advertising the premiere of the 1931 motion picture MURDER BY THE CLOCK, whose title appears in shivery black block letters.

The ad's embellished with a shadowy sketch of a reaching, clawlike hand that stretches toward a photograph of a slightly spooked blonde woman (the actress Lilyan Tashman) with waved chignon hair and a virtually nonexistent nightgown featuring remarkable decolletage.

A block of text bound within the graphic shape of a downward-pointing arrow asks "CAN a Man be murdered twice? Impossible? -- Not in this strange house of horror, where every tick of the clock brought a threat of Death!"

More text describes "A Female DRACULA! A Beautiful Woman -- whose MASTER MIND -- shcemes, plots -- making men do her bidding -- working with fiendish, clockwork precision -- a beautiful siren who deals death to her lovers!"

Admission is 25c until 6pm. Saturday it's 35c; then 50c to close.

"YOU'LL BE GLAD WHEN THE LIGHTS ARE TURNED ON!"

Well maybe we'll see about that.

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Geoff. @cinterrobang.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

Happy 60th to Ron Ely's TARZAN, which "sneak peek"ed this night in 1966, alongside Richard Mulligan's comedic western THE HERO. Also, the premiere of F TROOP's second season. In colour!

Sepia-toned newsprint clipping from the TV Guide issue dated September 3, 1966. A half page close-up highlighting the Debut of the TARZAN television series. The episode is called "Eyes of the Lion," and next to a small black and white picture of Ron Ely as Tarzan, with his tiny chimp Cheetah, the description reads:

"Tonight, a native named Oringa is stalking "The Red One," a lion who killed Oringa's father. But the native is not aware that another lion is in the area a peaceful beast said to be the companion of a jungle princess.
For TV, Tarzan is played by Ron Ely, who is the 15th Tarzan. Cheetah the chimpanzee will be at his side, but there will be no Jane.

Series regulars include Manuel Padilla Jr. as Jai, an orphaned village boy; Alan Caillou as Jason Flood, Jai's tutor; Rockne Tarkington as Rao, a vet- erinarian; and Stewart Rafill as Tall Boy, the vet's assistant.

Filmed in Brazil. Script by George F. Slavin. Director: Robert Day. (60 min.)

Guest Cast
Nara...Laurie Sibbald

Oringa...Ned Romero"

Another clipping from the same TV Guide issue, this one promoting an "Advance Premiere" of F TROOP. At 8:00. In Color. A small black and white picture shows the program's three leads, Civil war-era military men (from L-R, Parmenter, O'Rourke, and Agarn, respectively played by Ken Berry, Forrest Tucker, and Larry Storch) standing around a desk (Parmenter's, inside his office at Ft. Courage's HQ).

A full-page advertisement from the same TV Guide issue, promoting the "Sneak a Peek at NBC Week!" with details and artwork from three television programs debuting on this Thursday night, September 8, 1966. Clockwise from the top, the shows are TARZAN, whose painted artwork depicts a rampaging elephant smashing through the giant block letters of a title treatment as other jungle animals (gorillas, giraffes, etc.) scatter; THE HERO, where a painted portrait of the actor Richard Mulligan in western garb leans slightly with his legs crossed, an arrow through his cowboy hat; and also STAR TREK.

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Geoff. @cinterrobang.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

Here's Luana Patten in JOE DAKOTA.

Collection of four screengrabs from the 1957 Universal Pictures Eastmancolor western JOE DAKOTA.

Each one shows the actress Luana Patten -- here an attractive, pale young woman with long sandy brown or reddish hair and bright red lips -- alone in the frame.

In this first one, she's leaning against the corner of an adobe building on the plains, arms folded in a green and yellow gingham dress. Short, dry grass fills the space behind her. She looks up and out of frame, considering.

Here, in a lilac-coloured flower print dress with a lace collar, she's leaning through parted lace curtains out the window of an adobe building, looking offscreen. It may be night.

On a street beneath the covered porch outside a barbershop, holding on to a square wooden column, wearing the same yellow dress from the first image. Behind her in the distance rises the bank of a scrub-covered foothill. It's morning or afternoon.

Finally, she's leaning on a cast iron lift-pump, head tilted, smiling dreamily. Behind her across scrubby grass, a small wooden pen in disrepair and a tall narrow wooden derrick. In the distance, rolling low-forested hills against a hazy tan afternoon sky.

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Geoff. @cinterrobang.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

67 years ago today, Toronto's Odeon Theatres offered exhausted CNE patrons a surefire spa moment with a double bill of NERVE SHATTERING SHOCK!

Black and white newspaper ad from the Toronto Star, Friday August 28, 1959 promoting a double bill of RETURN OF THE FLY and THE ALLIGATOR PEOPLE, featuring elements of both films' painted promotional artwork (oversized clawhanded flies stepping on the faces of scientists, ample-bosomed women shrieking, scaly-faced alligator dudes, things of this nature).

They're billed as "2 SUPER-MONSTROUS DOUBLE-CHILL SENSATIONS!"

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Geoff. @cinterrobang.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

Important work you're doing, here. Best I've got for now is Bissell's stunt double going ass over elbows while trying to shut Jaime Sommers up in a steamer trunk.

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Geoff. @cinterrobang.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

tfw you realise NUTS & BOLTS is likely lost to the sands of time.

That boxy, grey robot stands in a kitchen, holding a crystal seving tray upon which sit three oranges.

He looks sad enough that's it's possible he just found out that NUTS & BOLTS didn't get a pickup. Way she goes, buddy.

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Geoff. @cinterrobang.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

45 years ago tonight, you could have watched the pilot for ABC's potentially hot new sitcom NUTS & BOLTS, starring Rich Little, Eve Arden, and WISHMASTER's Tammy Lauren.

Black and white clipping from the teevee listings, Monday, August 24, 1981. Channel 7 (shoutout WKBW!) is airing "Nuts & Bolts," described as: "A computer engineer uses some of his inventions to help raise his children."

Its iMDB summary says it's about "A widowed computer engineer who created two robots which help him raise his children contemplates selling one of his creations to send his daughter to an expensive music school."

First of three NUTS & BOLTS promotional images, in colour, taken from and watermarked by Getty Images.

In this first one, Eve Arden, here with frizzy red hair and wearing a rose-coloured checkerboard print outfit, sits on the end of a bed, apparently arguing with a approximately human-shaped grey and boxy homemade metal robot with a pained and painted human face on its cubed head. The robot, standing, its clawlike hands folded appears to be grimacing. Or... contrite?

This second picture shows Rich Little -- here with salt and pepper gray hair and wearing a v-necked pullover and brown slacks -- in what appears to be the garage of a suburban home. It's likely a lab or workshop, populated by banks of rudimentary electronic knob and switch machinery. He's smiling to the camera while jamming a screwdriver into the previously observed boxy metal robot's chestplate.

A second robot is also here, this one constructed to look like some kind of humanoid butler in a metallic white tuxedo. This robot's hand is placed to its temple in a gesture of apparently mild consternation.

This third picture shows Eve Arden, Rich Little, and a young girl of about twelve (the actress Tammy Lauren), and a young boy about ten (the actor Justin Dana). They stand together in a familial embrace at the bottom of a sitcom staircase, flanked by the two previously mentioned robots. They're by the front door, near a bookcase and underneath a barometer.

They sure look happy!

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Geoff. @cinterrobang.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

Hey, look at that. The Mummy made it! (Rewatched this, imagining it 30ft high, robust multitechnicolor beaming into a hat-wearing world with few similar options. Struck by Lee's _amazing_ presence; a loping goopy goon longing for love. Hit right in the heart bone. Some dents and dings. Worthwhile!)

Black and white newspaper ad for the opening of THE MUMMY, from The Toronto Star, Monday, August 17, 1959.

A wide horizontal rectangle featuring elements of the film's painted promotional artwork. The title, stylised to resemble its having been scrawled or painted in dripping... blood? The Mummy himself looms large slightly right of centre, a shotgun having blown a hole through his bandage-wrapped chest leaking bright white light. In the lower left a woman screams.

It's "In Terrifying Technicolor," and we're reliably informed that "only the spectacular dimension of giant screen and Technicolor could capture the monstrous magnificence of the world's mightiest masterpiece of horror!"

It's also double-billed with a "2nd chilling hit!" of "heart-stopping horror!" -- CURSE OF THE UNDEAD.

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Geoff. @cinterrobang.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

67 years ago today, it was only three days until Hammer's THE MUMMY would shamble into Toronto. Seems like a pretty good deal, too?

Black and white newspaper clipping from The Toronto Star, Friday, August 14th, 1959.

An advertisement in advance of the Toronto premiere of Hammer's THE MUMMY: Simple line drawing illustration of a corpulent, hairy-armed gravedigger, balding, wearing a white t-shirt, his top half poking out of a perfectly squared rectangular grave plot he is in the process of digging, depositing mounds of earth to his left atop a small pile of soil.

He looks a little like Tor Johnson?

Beneath him, a large dark coffin with swing bar and huckles is tied with a bowed ribbon securing a dainty arrangement of funereal flowers.

The text informs us that

"The HEIGHT of HORROR is coming

IF IT FRIGHTENS YOU TO DEATH WE'LL BURY YOU IN YOUR OWN BACK YARD...FREE OF CHARGE!"

The title -- "THE MUMMY" -- appears in its advertising iteration; stylised to look as though it were scratched into wood or stone, or dripping with blood or goop.

It's IN TERRIFYING TECHNICOLOR!

You are advised to "See it with someone who can carry you home... feet first!"

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Geoff. @cinterrobang.bsky.social · 07/08/2026

(This isn't a bit, btw. I just don't rate movies, and this one -- which is genuine! -- was apparently an accidental slip of my enormous thumbs.)

Screenshot of a Letterboxd ratings graph that indicates a distribution of star ratings, showing a single five star review.

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Geoff. @cinterrobang.bsky.social · 31/07/2026

This same weekend was the area debut of that Crown International DEATH MACHINES/DEATH RIDERS double. Advertised here as a "Triple Drive-In Premiere." I don't wanna start any trouble, but I'd suggest DEATH MACHINES is not the most terrifying picture of the year.

Black and white newspaper ad from The Toronto Star, July 31, 1976, a tall vertical rectangle advertising a double bill of the Crown International Pictures releases DEATH MACHINES and DEATH RIDERS.

At the top, under the bold claim that it's "The Most TERRIFYING picture of the year*", a portion of DEATH MACHINES' key artwork --
a painted illustration of a pyramidal obelisk, its upper faces adorned with sculpted human visages, scowling.

The obelisk is segmented at its centre, where it has apparently sprouted rows of fanged teeth, within which maw various people are... both being devoured and escaping from(?), tumbling into darkness. Inscribed on an attached plaque at the obelisk's lower half, the assertion that "The killers of the future are ready now."

In the ad's lower DEATH RIDERS half, a photograph taken in the grandstand-ringed arena of a rural fairground depicts a midcentury sedan ploughing into another car with an explosion of smoke and flame. Beneath this, a succession of smaller photographs indicating additional stunt mayhem and tumult. More exploding cars, sweet dirtbike jumps, things of this nature. Sandwiched between these, a tiny painted illustration of a mustachioed man, clad in denim, his arms about the shoulders of two large breasted women in tight t-shirts and short shorts.

We're invited to "Meet the Death Riders... as they attempt the most dangerous and terrifying stunts ever seen on film!"

The pairing is advertised as a "Triple Drive-In Premiere." The three drive-ins in question being the Northwest in the city's northwest, the Scarboro, out in Scarborough, and Oshawa's Oshawa.

It's Restricted.

*(false)

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Geoff. @cinterrobang.bsky.social · 31/07/2026

It's that time again. Here's a snapshot of some Toronto area lots on this August long 50 years ago:

Black and white newspaper ad from The Toronto Star, July 31, 1976, advertising the dusk-to-dawn programs at seven Toronto area drive-ins for the August long weekend.

A wide rectangle composed of narrower vertical divisions for the bill at each theatre, punctuated by tiny snippets of selected films' advertising art. Playing across seven different screens are sixteen movies:

DEATH MACHINES ("The Killers of the future are ready now")
DEATH RIDERS ("See the most dangerous and terrifying stunts ever filmed")
MARK OF THE DEVIL ("Positively the most horrifying films ever made")
DR. FRANKENSTEIN ON CAMPUS
THE GUMBALL RALLY ("It's a hilarious outrageous road race."
BLAZING SADDLES ("Keeps the audience howling!")
THE BLOB ("Original version with Steve McQueen")
BEWARE THE BLOB
EQUINOX ("Unbearable bloody horror")
ASTRO ZOMBIES
THE SHOOTIST
PLAY IT AGAIN, SAM
TO THE DEVIL...A DAUGHTER
PRIME CUT
DAUGHTERS OF DARKNESS ("Every combination of sex is explored! Beautiful!")
THE VIRGIN WITCH

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Geoff. @cinterrobang.bsky.social · 31/07/2026

45 years since the Toronto release of Lech Kowalski's D.O.A. (Not its Toronto *premiere*, which I just now learned was also its *World* premiere at the previous year's Festival of Festivals).)

Black and white newspaper ad from The Toronto Star, July 31, 1981.

Advertising the movie D.O.A. A RIGHT OF PASSAGE, it features a detail of the film's one-sheet artwork -- a painted image of a spiky-haired woman lying supine on a cobblestone street. She wears a slim black leather bikini top, banded in a choker about her neck accentuated with a thin metal dogcollar chain.

Behind her, the chrome bumper of what appears to be a midcentury sedan, an oversized safety pin puncturing one of its white-walled tires.

The film's title appears in large stylised capitals that may represent their having been created with a can of spray paint.

In between the "O" and the "A" of "D.O.A."... a tiny human skull. Could it be one of the woman's... earrings? The high contrast of this ad has blown out any real significant detail and so it's difficult to say for certain.

It "Starts Today!"

(Directed by Lech Kowalski. Starring The Sex Pistols, Terry and the Idiots and the Decline and Fall of the Western World. With Iggy Pop, The Clash, The Dead Boys, Stiv Bators, Rich Kids, X-Ray Specs, Generation X, Sham 69, Augustus Pablo and much more than meets the eye.)

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Geoff. @cinterrobang.bsky.social · 29/07/2026

Odd to me, because I don't remember Mann ever giving a bad performance. Certainly never an uninteresting one. He likely lacks name recognition now, but you've seen Larry Mann in action more times than you'd guess. You've *definitely* HEARD him.

Black and white picture of the actor Larry D. Mann. A horseshoe-bald middle-aged man with a full face who appears to be leaning into his clutched hands with what can best be described as a Mona Lisa Smile.

This photograph -- which I'm guessing dates from the early 1970s and may very well have been one of Mann's headshots - has been captioned by someone to read "Larry Mann, happy with new fame."

Mann, an RCAF WWII veteran who participated in the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau and Bergen-Belsen, would go on to a long, prolific on-camera career in scores of productions from the 50s through to the 90s. Notably in several GUNSMOKEs, a handful of GREEN ACRES, as the train conductor in THE STING, and, of course, THE OCTAGON.

Colour image of the character Yukon Cornelius from RUDOLPH THE RED-NOSED REINDEER. A stop-motion animation puppet shown in a head-and-shoulders medium closeup wearing a light blue winter jacket in front of a stylised mountainous arctic backdrop. With a rotund body, his equally spherical hefty face is mostly covered by a wooly red ginger beard and outrageous wavy mustache. He wears a bright red knit toque with a big pompon.

As prolific as he was on camera, Mann had at least as many credits as a voiceover artist. In addition to repeatedly working with Rankin-Bass (he was also The Tin Man in THE WONDERFUL LAND OF OZ (which also featured his Maude Frickett-adjacent take on The Wicked Witch of the West)), he was behind the microphone for countless Filmation (Batso the Bat!) and DePatie-Freleng (Crazylegs Crane!) shows, as well.

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Geoff. @cinterrobang.bsky.social · 29/07/2026

Adapted by Vincent McConnor from Joel Townsley Rogers' "Night of Horror," appearing in a 1958 issue of The Saturday Evening Post, its synopsis makes it sound like a bog-standard bug-eyed-monsters-because-RADIATION tale, culminating in the conflagration detailed in The Star's pictured highlights.

Colour image of a page from The Saturday Evening Post, from June 7, 1958.

It's the first page of a short story entitled "Night of Horror," whose title appears stylised in unaligned block capital letters trapped within a spider's web.

An exhordium wonders:

"What hideous thing was crawling in my child's window?"

In a visible portion of the story's painted illustration, a pale-shinned shorthaired man in a tan trenchcoat stands, mouth agape and incredulous, clutching a shotgun.

Detail from the weekly publication The CBC Radio Times, dated July 26, 1959.

Picture of a text description of the episode under consideration, which reads:

"The Unforeseen. This week - "Spider in the Night." By Joel Townsley Rogers, adapted for TV by Vincent McConnor. A family finds it hard to believe radio reports that a South American town has been swallowed up by what appears to be a huge spider web until a terrifying object falls upon their own home."

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Geoff. @cinterrobang.bsky.social · 29/07/2026

SPIDER IN THE NIGHT! Happy 67th to the 1st season finale of CBC's suspense anthology series THE UNFORESEEN. (Brought to my attention in the previous week's Star, which mentions the Corps of Royal Canadian Engineers assistance in filming what one assumes was the episode's climax (uh... spoilers(?))

Black and white image of a portion of The Toronto Star, dated Friday, July 24th, 1959.

Beneath the headline "CBC Monster Dies... Courtesy Canadian Army" are two small captioned photos of an improbably giant spookshow spider.

(It bears a striking resemblance to the memorably ratty Lunar Spider from MISSILE TO THE MOON. Although that's likely because it's... you know... a giant spider. See, also, CAT WOMEN OF THE MOON, obviously.)

In the picture on the left, it appears to be crawling out of the ground-floor window of a building, two of its spindly, hairy forelegs stretching toward the ground, its large sabretoothed mandibles arcing toward the ground beneath the twin orbs of lifeless white eyes. Eek!

"LITTLE MISS MUFFETT," the caption says, "isn't the only one who'd run from this giant spider. He'll be scaring viewers on a CBC-TV drama, "Spider in the Night.""

In the slightly larger, more widely-framed picture on the right, the spider is, indeed, crawling out of a building -- a sort of tiny clapboard shack next to a white picket fence. The entire structure is in the process of being ENGULFED by FLAME and SMOKE, billowing into the sky from its low-sloped roof. The spider itself is burning.

A small wooden peach basket at the building's left corner appears untouched.

As the caption describes:

"THE MONSTER (not as real as it looks) meets doom courtesy of the Canadian army, which co-operated with CBC and burned spider in a Toronto construction shack for cameramen. Molotov cocktails were used to set the shack ablaze."

The photos are credited to The Star's Hank Rifle.

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Geoff. @cinterrobang.bsky.social · 21/07/2026

RITUALS would continue to do exceptional business at the Algoma for the next three weeks, where it was seen by an estimated 10,000 people. The Algoma had 715 seats. Incredible. Its next attraction was Fox's FIRE SALE. Which did not perform quite as well...

First of three black an white newspaper ads from The Sault Star, spanning three weeks from July to August, 1977.

This first, from July 21, 1977, features the film's familiar one-sheet artwork, a photorealistic depiction of several men in the wilderness crossing a river, beneath whose surface several sharptoothed bear traps lie in waiting.

Overlaid atop this, the film's tagline: "If you go down to the woods today, you're in for a big surprise."

It also wonders "What horror could cause five Doctors to ignore their oath to humanity?"

It's billed as a "Gala World Premier -- Meet the Stars -- Hal Holbrook -- Lawrence Dane -- Scriptwriter Ian Sutherland"

If you're planning on attending, it is also suggested you "Dress Beautifully."

This second ad -- Dated August 5th, is smaller, featuring less of the previously described artwork. The aforementioned "ignore their oath to humanity" tag is more clumsily pasted overtop.

It's "Held Over 3rd Big Week," and is now text-tagged with the suggestion that "Not since 'Deliverance' Has The Wilderness Held Such Terror"

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Geoff. @cinterrobang.bsky.social · 20/07/2026

From The Toronto Star, 40 years ago. Something is coming. What on earth could it be? Bugs? *Talking* bugs? Could be talking bugs!

Full page black and white newspaper advertisment from The Toronto Star, Saturday July 19th, 1986.

Giant black sans serif block letters monopolise about 75% of the otherwise flat white real estate, informing us *something* is "COMING AUGUST 8TH."

Relegated to the page's extreme lower left corner, a tiny unassuming housefly (Musca domestica), which the ad seems to suggest is itself saying "help me. please help me."

Weird.

(It's probably a teaser for a movie, given that this page appears in the Entertainment section, and the fact that, just outside the ad's bottom left border, Theatres Branch Ontario tells us it -- whatever "it" is -- is "SUBJECT TO CLASSIFICATION.")

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Geoff. @cinterrobang.bsky.social · 20/07/2026

Fantastic, Marc. Here's a related curiosity -- interesting double feature lingering around Toronto's borders on that weekend of CLOCKWORK's world premiere. Two Shock Hits!:

black and white newspaper clipping featuring a double bill of Ken Russel's THE DEVILS and Luchino Visconti's THE DAMNED ("Two Shock Hits!") playing at three theatres on Toronto's farther borders.

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Geoff. @cinterrobang.bsky.social · 20/07/2026

News to me: Marc mentions Toronto as one of CLOCKWORK's "World Premiere" locations. Huh! The following Tuesday's Star featured a writeup on the premiere from the paper's longtime lead critic. 45 walkouts! And a brief phoner with Kubrick where he teases his next -- NAPOLEON. Fascinating stuff.

Black and white newspaper clipping from the December 17th, 1971 edition of The Toronto Star. An ad mat for the world premiere of Stanley Kubrick's A CLOCKWORK ORANGE. It features the film's famous key artwork, an airbrushed Philip Castle painting contained within the borders of a stylised Capital "A": a young man in a bowler hat, a large human eyeball on his sleeve where he holds a long stiletto knife. Below him, legs spread and mirroring the letter "A"s lower apex, a pale and expressionless female mannequin.

Hovering over this, the film's tagline:

"Being the adventures of a young man whose principal interests are ultra-violence and Beethoven."

The world premiere is Sunday, Dec. 19th at the Towne Cinema, at the Bloor & Yonge subway.

Similar to the previous image, this clipping from the next day's Star.

But now its "WORLD PREMIERE" is "TOMORROW!"

Additionally, the ad now features a text warning next to the previously described artwork:

"CAUTION," it says. "Certain material in this film may offend some moviegoers. B. Goodwin... Manager."

Black and white reproduction of a portion of the Toronto Star's Entertainment section dated Tuesday, December 21, 1971. Beneath a large promotional image of Malcolm McDowell as the "SADISTIC HERO of Stanley Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange," critic Clyde Gilmour favourably reviews the World Premiere screening, noting it had 45 walkouts. He also features highlights from a brief telephone interview with Kubrick himself

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Geoff. @cinterrobang.bsky.social · 28/06/2026

Been brainwracked over this, but there's really only one title that makes sense. Sorry(?).

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Geoff. @cinterrobang.bsky.social · 23/05/2026

Of interest: that ad appears to be a pressbook cutup, replicating the one sheet layout, but replacing its bare-backed blonde with a photo cutout, who doesn't seem to be the film's female lead (Cristina Galbó). Immaterial, considering the image itself doesn't even appear in the film. As I recall.

A colour photograph of a page from DON'T OPEN THE WINDOW's black and white corner-stapled pressbook, which features the artwork from the aforeposted ad mat.

A key difference: the "avoid fainting" come-on appears at this image's left border, rather than atop the windowpane, suggesting it was cut and pasted into an alternate position.

A colour reproduction of DON'T OPEN THE WINDOW's one sheet poster. Similar to but with its own key difference from both previous images: The the woman *at* the window in this variant is a retouched image of the backside of a light-haired blonde rather than a photographic cutout of a similar image featured in the two previous iterations. Here, it seems more likely it this woman whose face is 'reflected' in the lower left windowpane.

Again; pretty sure it's not the film's star Cristina Galbó.

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Geoff. @cinterrobang.bsky.social · 23/05/2026

50 years ago, the Toronto debut of Jorge Grau's LET SLEEPING CORPSES LIE ("No profanar el sueño de los muertos"), Released in Canada by Ambassador under the North American variant of one of its dozen or so alternate titles, mirroring Hallmark's tried and true "Don't! It's only a movie!" campaign.

Black and white ad mat from the Toronto Star, May 21, 1976. An advertisment for the movie LET SLEEPING CORPSES LIE (here called DON'T OPEN THE WINDOW). It features the image of a six-paned window within whose partitions are several scenes from the movie. In one, an older woman is screaming. In the square lowest left, an attractive young straight haired woman is seem head and shoulders, making eye contact. With YOU.

In the ad's bottom left corner, the silhouette of a woman seen from behind, waist to headtop, appearing to disrobe.

The tagline across the ad's top tells us that "They tampered with nature -- now they must pay the price..." Just below that, A giant gnarled clutching hand stretches in from the image's left to hover over all that remains below.

In a familiar and often used advertising admonition, we're advised that "TO AVOID FAINTING..." we should "Keep Repeating: It's Only a movie. Only a movie. Only a movie. Only a movie. Only a movie. Only a movie."

It's "Starting today". And in case you're wondering *why* you shouldn't open the window? It's because "What ever's out there will wait!"

Playing at the Imperial Six.

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Geoff. @cinterrobang.bsky.social · 17/05/2026

Not that specific, but I just rewatched SWITCHBLADE SISTERS, where he mentions Grier:

The director of "Switchblade Sisters,” Jack Hill, directed 16 of them, including two of my favorites, the Pam Grier films "Coffy" and "Foxy Brown." His other titles included "Swinging Cheerleaders.” “The Big Bird Cage,” “Snake People,” “Blood Bath,” and “Spider Baby.” Often they were released more than once, under various titles; "Spider Baby" became "The Liver Eaters," and "Switchblade Sisters" was also known as "The Jezebels" and "The Playgirl Gang." What made the Pam Grier pictures stand out was Grier's own charisma; she was an authentic movie star, and even Hill's sleazy production values and slapdash photography and editing couldn't conceal her talent. The problem with “Switchblade Sisters” is that no one on screen is any better than the talent behind the camera.

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Geoff. @cinterrobang.bsky.social · 16/05/2026

Thought about doing this myself. Spoiled for choice with supporting features, though. Coincidentally, it's a long weekend here, so maybe a dusk-to-dawn pick 'em's in order. Difficult decision!

First of three assorted b&w newspaper ads for various iterations of GONE IN 60 SECONDS playing at Toronto area drive-ins in the mid 1970's. Each features variations of the film's illustrated advertising artwork -- fast cars trailing fireballs through sick jumps; mustachioed lotharios; long-legged scantily clad come-hither ladies; soaring choppers. A tiger.

"HIS BUSINESS IS STEALING CARS... when he goes to work the excitement starts -- and GOES -- and GOES -- and GOES!"

(GOES)

This first ad promotes the bills for three separate theatres, whose second feature is consistently THE HUNTED (1972 and aka TOUCH ME NOT, starring Lee Remick).

The Northwest fills the program out with THE VAMPIRE BEAST CRAZED BLOOD (a Bojack "ordering a banner over the telephone" misread of THE VAMPIRE BEAST CRAVES BLOOD (a variant title of 1968's THE BLOOD BEAST TERROR)) and WEREWOLF SHADOW (1970's LA NOCHE DE WALPURGIS / WEREWOLF VS. THE VAMPIRE WOMAN).

At the Northeast, it's LOVE BRIDES OF THE BLOOD MUMMY (1971's EL SCRETO DE LA MOMIA EGIPCIA) and Romero's THE CRAZIES.

The Oshawa has SCHLOCK and THE BLOB.

This second ad depicts 60 SECONDS paired with THE BLOOD WATERS OF DR. Z (1971's ZAAT, here playing at the Yonge. Not a drive-in, but definitely a curious twofer.)

This final ad, tiny as can be, sees it showing at both the Shoppers and the Dixie 5 alongside DEATH RACE 2000.

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Geoff. @cinterrobang.bsky.social · 16/05/2026

As May long rolls around again, so, too, the resumption of Dusk-to-Dawn season at your local ozoner. Here's what 1981 looked like at 3 of the K-W region's hot spots:

A single b&w page from the Kitchener-Waterloo Record, Saturday, May 16, 1981. Three ads for three of the region's drive-in theatres, advertising their Victoria Day Dusk-to-Dawn lineups. Stacked vertically, each is a page-spanning horizontal band featuring tiny windows of contrast-challenged fragments with original promotional artwork mixed in with occasional taglines and come-ons. Each is billed as a "Giant...All Night Action Show!"

In order from top to bottom:

The Mustang has an "all color show" with "8 hours of exciting hits!" from Orion Pictures

EXCALIBUR
10
CADDYSHACK
THE FIENDISH PLOT OF DR. FU MANCHU

At the Sunset, "9 1/2 Hours of exciting hits!" courtesy of Columbia Pictures

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME
THE ELECTRIC HORSEMAN
WHEN A STRANGER CALLS
THE VILLAIN
NIGHTWING

The K-W rounds things out with "10 Hours of Hits!" from the folks at Warner's.

THE HAND
BACKROADS
SPHINX
A CLOCKWORK ORANGE
DRACULA HAS RISEN FROM THE GRAVE

Showtimes vary.

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Geoff. @cinterrobang.bsky.social · 15/05/2026

Happy 56th to the Toronto debut of something called THE FORBIN PROJECT. Looks interesting. Some Gudegast, there; dug him in RAT PATROL. Susan Clark from COOGAN'S BLUFF. A comedy? About... computers? Computer dating? Joe Sargent did a whack of U.N.C.L.E.s, so ... a sexy spy comedy? I bet that's it.

From the Friday, May 15th, 1970 edition of The Toronto Star, a black and white newspaper ad for the motion picture COLOSSUS: THE FORBIN PROJECT, here in its inaugural release known simply as THE FORBIN PROJECT.

Featuring edited promotional stills, it depicts the actor Eric Braeden, a strapping man with short black hair, seductively (?) opening a white button-up shirt to reveal his hairy chest while, below him, the actress Susan Clark appears to be reclining, covered by a bedsheet, jaw clenched with her eyes lowered.

The tagline tells us that "TONIGHT THEY CAN BE TOGETHER... the computer has agreed!", and a further come-on assures us that "It answers the question -- Is love possible with a computer date?"

The film's title appears overlaid on a graphic suggestion of a computer punchcard belonging to something called the "COLOSSUS LOVE PROGRAM".

If you see it at the drive-in, it's paired with Hitchcock's TOPAZ. If you're hardtoppin' it, you get TORN CURTAIN. Good luck!

After poor business following this initial run -- whose clearly befuddled and misleading ad campaign couldn't have helped -- it was retitled and reissued later in the year. If somebody asks me in the next few hours "What did you learn today?", that's my answer.

First time Braeden was billed as Braeden, too. Though *that* I knew before. I *do* really enjoy him on RAT PATROL, btw. That show rules.

A real staple of the late show and afternoon movie circuit for about ten or fifteen years, COLOSSUS (not a spy comedy, but rather a downbeat, prescient nugget of speculative science fiction) remains pretty good, too.

Stylistically, it rarely rises above talking heads in rooms with tables and flashing lights, but it's naturalistic and intriguing and really creepy and unfortunately still as timely as ever.

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Geoff. @cinterrobang.bsky.social · 02/05/2026

If you see this, post a character that starts with the letter T. Ty-D-Bol Man

The Ty-D-Bol Man, A tiny little seafaring doofus in a minuscule blue blazer and white slacks, standing in a small power boat floating around the placid blue waters of a toilet tank.

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Geoff. @cinterrobang.bsky.social · 01/05/2026

50 years ago, this timely triple opened in Toronto.

Black and white newspaper ad mat for a triple feature of horror movies: CURSE OF THE DEVIL (Carlos Aured's "El retorno de Walpurgis", the sixth (seventh?) of Paul Naschy's Waldemar Daninsky films); RETURN OF EVIL DEAD (the second of de Ossorio's Blind Dead series, "Return of the Blind Dead (El ataque de los muertos sin ojos)"; Pete Walker's FLESH AND BLOOD SHOW.

It features lurid artistic interpretations of each film's key advertising art: Front, centre, and looming, a wide-eyed fang-faced werewolf menaces with an outstretched clawed paw; to its left, two shambling, dead eyed zombies lurch through a stone-monument graveyard backlit by an enormous rising full moon; a giant hollow-eyed rotting head partially covered by a hooded Templar's cloak; a longhaired young woman (suggesting... Candace Glendenning (though it could be Judy Matheson)...?) in a hip-hugging slip reclines slightly, looking back over a bare shoulder.

We're told in no uncertain terms that these motion pictures are

3 FRIGHT-MARES from the HOUSE of HORROR!

TERRIFYING APPARITIONS FROM BEYOND

BLOODY BEYOND BELIEF

It's a Restricted program. It starts 'Today!' at the Yonge and the 400 Drive-In.

(Not sure what the 'House of Horror' is in this context. Cinepix, I guess. Duuuuunnniiiiinnnnng aaaand Liiiiinnnnnnk! Mwahahahahahahahahah (Thunder and lightning. The chittering of bats. etc.))

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Geoff. @cinterrobang.bsky.social · 24/04/2026

Ice *land*? Why, that'd have to be the Ice *man*.

The Iceman -- an unfrozen hairy li'l caveguy in animal pelts -- squats on the floor in a Science Office, holding a stick. Maybe it's a spear? He's next to the photocopier.

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Geoff. @cinterrobang.bsky.social · 24/04/2026

50 years ago this weekend, Roger Corman's shadow loomed over the weekend's most enticing double-bills in Toronto cinemas.

The first of three Black and White newspaper ads, from the Friday, April 23 edition of The Toronto Star.

This one trumpets a "Sizzling Action & Fun!" double feature that pairs SWITCHBLADE SISTERS ("The Wildest teen age girl gang that ever blasted the streets!) and ALICE GOODBODY ("A funny, funny, sexy movie!"). It's illustrated with pulls from each film's advertising art.

On the ad's left side, a tousel-headed blonde in incredibly short shorts (Maggie!) -- the titular stiletto in a clutched fist -- is about to filet some dipshit cowering underneath her. The other 'Switchblade Sisters' (properly: The Jezebels (née The Dagger Debs) appear smaller, sidelined and in different mostly unidentifiable contexts on either side of her.

On the right, a cartoon-styled cartoonish blonde in a sheer négligée knotted at her impractical bosom. This is the eponymous Alice Goodbody, which she herself confirms in an overhead speech bubble that finds her telling us "Gosh it's me! ALICE GOODBODY. I've been made... a Movie Starlet!"

Plays daily at the Coronet, continuous from noon. Except Sunday, when it starts at 1.30. Because church. Last complete showing starts at 9.

It's Restricted.

This second black and white ad promotes a HOLLYWOOD BOULEVARD ("The street where starlets are made!") / MEAN JOHNNY BARROWS ("Brutal!... Blasting!... Blazing!") double feature, and is illustrated with the painted key art for both films.

In the upper Hollywood Boulevard half, a blonde starlet (who does not now, and has, frankly, never, resembled the movie's star -- the luminous, singular, Candice Rialson), bare-shouldered and with a pluuuuuuunging neckline, appears backed by an oversized five-pointed walk of fame star topped with stylised "Hollywood Boulevard" street signs. Below her, various illustrated rollicking fornications, a racecar on fire, and a statuesque Mary Woronov in short shorts and leather boots, lazily dangling a handgun.

In the lower half, Mean Johnny Barrows himself (who *maybe* looks more like Fred Williamson? The contrast is off on this scan, it's tough to tell) stands towering in an ice cream suit, an exploding double-barrelled shotgun in each of his hands. He's surrounded by vague, difficult to discern scenes of mayhem, and the floating heads of Stuart Whitman, Roddy McDowall, and Elliot Gould (among others).

The third ad, here, is an entirely text-based come-on for the "2 Bergman Greats!" double of CRIES AND WHISPERS, and SMILES OF A SUMMER NIGHT.

Rex Reed of the New York Daily News calls CRIES AND WHISPERS "A HAUNTING, CHILLING MASTERPIECE!"

Hollis Alpert of World says it's "ONE OF THE GREAT ONES! A shattering experience. Another masterwork by this extraordinary film artist."

We're told SMILES OF A SUMMER NIGHT is a CANNES FILM FESTIVAL WINNER. And further, that:

"This rollicking comedy is a classical exercise in the spicy sport of partner switching. At the beginning the men have their proud illusions, but before the mysterious mid- summer's night is over, the women have their men. Bergman's brilliant style and structure here lie halfway between Shakespeare and the Marx Brothers."

"Spicy in a Tasteful.and Elegant Way." - NEW YORK TIMES

"A Gift of Laughter." - WORLD-TELEGRAM

"One of The Year's Ten Best!" - NEW YORK POST, TIMES

The program, playing The Towne at Yonge and Bloor, is Restricted (?!) and features English Subtitles.

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Geoff. @cinterrobang.bsky.social · 20/04/2026

Inspired choices. All naturally accompanied, occasionally, by Brigadier General Maxwell McKittrick (pictured).

Colour photo of the actor Dabney Coleman, mustachioed and grinning in a grey leather overcoat and backward-facing beret.

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Geoff. @cinterrobang.bsky.social · 18/04/2026

In a curious bit of serendipity, 45 years ago this same week would be the first time I'd see "Dracula". The WKBW Friday Late Movie. Since you were probably wondering. Pretty big deal for a ten year old Crestwood House goober also obsessed with this:

Image of the cover of the Ballantine Books oversized trade paperback edition of "The Annotated Dracula", whose cover features -- under a large title treatment stylised in bold letters dripping blood -- a photographic image of what I always thought was a soft-sculpture mustachioed Dracula figure dressed in white tie tux, tails, and high-collared cape, reclining atop a heavy stone sarcophagus filled with dirty earth. From Transylvaaaaaaaaaniaaaaaaaa (a guess).

I think it's from... 1976? 77? Somewhere around there? I leafed through it so many hundreds of times you think I'd have a better idea.

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Geoff. @cinterrobang.bsky.social · 17/04/2026

Oh, also happy 56th to the Toronto debut of BLOODY MAMA. Would be tempted to do the Drive-In double feature, but then my lady wouldn't get her gratis pack of Old Ports. She's the boss!

Black and white newspaper advertisement for the movie "Bloody Mama," starring Shelley Winters. Photographic artwork features a grinning middle aged woman brandishing a tommygun and chomping on a cigar. Over her right shoulder, five no-account bums stand in a line with their arms around each other. Over her right shoulder, seemingly soaring through the air, an illustration of an old-timey convertible (probably a '26 Model T or a '21 Climber 6-50) packed with what appear to be gun-totin' hooligans.

Tagline tells us that "The family that _slays_ together stays together," and informs us that it's "The incredible saga of Kate Barker, who raised four sons and more hell than most of the mobs in Chicago."

Oh, and if you're a woman and you go see it at the Yonge Cinema on either Friday or Saturday night? You get free Old Port cigarillos.

They still makin' Old Ports? Rum tipped, wine dipped. We used to rip through those things in high school. Foolish mortals!

It's also playing at the Northwest and Scarboro Drive-Ins paired with "The Savage Seven".

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Geoff. @cinterrobang.bsky.social · 17/04/2026

In case it slipped by you, today's the 95th anniversary of the Toronto release of DRACULA.

Black and white newspaper ad for the 1931 movie "Dracula", featuring the familiar illustrated key art of the titular slickhaired vampire ("...He lived on the kisses of youth!") with his hand around a woman's neck. In the ad's lower left corner, at the bottom of a pillar of text, a tiny illustrated man squats slightly, hands raised in aversion at the centre of a glowing pool of against a greyish background wash .

The pillar of text -- a rich tapestry of assorted fonts -- reads:

TO-DAY!
The Caress No Woman Can Resist!
BETWEEN the hours of sunset and sunrise, this deathless vampire comes to life! He stalks the earth, seeking his young and beautiful victims! How can they escape?

The Story of the Strangest Passion Ever Known!

DRACULA

Universal's Thrilling Vampire Drama From the Famous Book by Bram Stoker which has held two generations in fascination.

with Bela Lugosi-Helen Chandler-David Manners-Francis Dade

25c to 1 p.m.
35c to 6 p.m.
No Children's Prices
"DRACULA" is a picture for the adult mind only

It's playing at the Tivoli at Richmond and Victoria. The house of the hits!

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