50 Date Night Screams

"The Crooked Circle" from 1932 is an 'old dark house' mystery/comedy that pits an amateur detective group against a crime syndicate. The Crooked Circle gang has marked a member of The Sphinx Club for death. But they first have to find him at his country house on Long Island, which is supposedly haunted by the violin playing ghost of a jilted lover. Mike and Amber take on this Zasu Pitts vehicle that delivers on some fronts but falls short of others. Plus, Mike debuts a truly unique character for use in tabletop role playing games, which you will absolutely not find anywhere else!

Title: The Crooked Circle

Director: H. Bruce Humberstone

IMDB Rating: 5.3/10

Rating: NR

Content warnings: Racism and racial slurs, trivializing mental illness, drugging someone against their will, stalking

Notable actors: Zasu Pitts (Strangers of the Evening), James Gleason (he fought in the Spanish American War and World War 1, Arsenic and Old Lace, lots of TV)

Hilarious tagline: “Evil is on the way, and it’s tied with a string."

5th Edition Character: The Crooked One, a violin-playing skeleton

Learn more at World of Welstar:

Twitter: @WorldofWelstar

Instagram: @world_of_welstar

Facebook: @worldofwelstar

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/talien

Watch this movie on Tubi: https://tubitv.com/movies/100002600/the-crooked-circle

Buy the 50 movie set: https://amzn.to/3Nj5PGn

These show notes contain affiliate links. If you choose to purchase after clicking a link, Mal and Tal Enterprises, LLC may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

"The Midnight Warning” is a mystery based on an urban legend. The plot follows the legend which might be called "The Vanishing Hotel Room" or "The Vanishing Lady.” A woman insists her brother was staying in a hotel room, but the hotel staff says they have no record that he was ever there. Mike and Amber go through this plot, which has some interesting twists, but falls flat at the ending, which was typical of a pre-Hayes code flick.

• Title: The Midnight Warning
• Director: Spencer Gordon Bennet
• IMDB Rating: 4.9 out of 10
• Rating: Not rated
• Content warnings: Kidnapping/abduction, mental torture, trivialization of mental illness, trauma, corpse mutilation (offscreen), death (offscreen)
• Hilarious tagline: “Capitalism is a the real villain."

5th Edition Character: Huntley Gordon, a necromancer who runs a profitable inn (Clarendon Arms) but performs plague experiments in the basement

Learn more at World of Welstar:

• Twitter: @WorldofWelstar
• Instagram: @world_of_welstar
• Facebook: @worldofwelstar
• Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/talien

Watch this movie on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wBFTVQPVNT4

Colorized version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QbGuQKikD7E

Urban legend “the vanishing hotel room”: https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/the-vanishing-hotel-room/

Buy the 50 movie set: https://amzn.to/3Nj5PGn

These show notes contain affiliate links. If you choose to purchase after clicking a link, Mal and Tal Enterprises, LLC may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

"The Vampires' Night Orgy" is a Spanish horror film from 1973 and directed by León Klimovsky. A group of stranded travelers seek refuge in a seemingly deserted village. However, they are attacked one by one by the villagers, who are undead creatures. Amber and Mike go over the high and low points of this quirky and inscrutable horror flick. Mike also discusses the non-player character he created for tabletop role playing games that is available for download.

Title: The Vampires Night Orgy

Director: León Klimovsky

IMDB Rating: 4.8 out of 10

Rating: R

Content warnings: blood, gore, death of a child, voyeurism, nudity, gross images, murder, violence

Hilarious tagline: "When the moon is up the fun begins."

5th Edition Character: The Countess, a vampire

Learn more at World of Welstar:

Twitter: @WorldofWelstar

Instagram: @world_of_welstar

Facebook: @worldofwelstar

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/talien

Watch this movie on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NnnJF4G7Fws

Buy the 50 movie set: https://amzn.to/3Nj5PGn

These show notes contain affiliate links. If you choose to purchase after clicking a link, Mal and Tal Enterprises, LLC may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

"The Ghost and the Guest" from 1943 is a poverty row comedy that also includes elements of the mystery and old, dark house genres. The one-liner humor holds up in some cases, and it did have Mike and Amber laughing. However, this movie also contains a disturbing thread of execution by hanging. It's played for laughs in the movie, but it exposes how pervasive and dangerous racism was used as a comedic trope. This makes a commentary on this movie nuanced but important in being aware of how racism was coded in early movies.

Title: The Ghost and the Guest

Director: William Nigh

IMDB Rating: 4.5 out of 10

Rating: Not rated

Content warnings: Racism, misogyny, murder, execution, and a discussion of lynching, which doesn't occur in the movie, but which we address in the commentary

Hilarious tagline: “A newlywed couple winds up spending their honeymoon night in an old, dark, spooky mansion."

5th Edition Character: Honeyboy, an undead in search of his jewels, and his gang of jewel thieves

Learn more at World of Welstar:

Twitter: @WorldofWelstar

Instagram: @world_of_welstar

Facebook: @worldofwelstar

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/talien

Watch this movie on YouTube: https://youtu.be/650pQTwqrhM

Buy the 50 movie set: https://amzn.to/3Nj5PGn

Reference Material:

History of Lynching in America: https://naacp.org/find-resources/history-explained/history-lynching-america

As American as the Blues: Lynching in Film and TV: https://www.pbs.org/independentlens/blog/as-american-as-the-blues-lynching-in-film-and-tv/

These show notes contain affiliate links. If you choose to purchase after clicking a link, Mal and Tal Enterprises, LLC may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

"The Savage Girl," starting with its title and continuing on to its conclusion, is a loathsome male power fantasy passing as a jungle adventure. A rich man with an alcohol dependency talks a big game trapper into traveling with him to Africa. While there, they cross paths with a White woman living alone in the jungle, and the men of the expedition fight over who can possess her. Amber and Mike go through this stinker but in the end, find nothing redeeming in it. However, Mike creates a brilliant and glorious non-player character from the ashes, which is free for use in tabletop role playing games.

About The Movie

Title: The Savage Girl

Year: 1932

B/W or Color: B/W

Director: Harry Frasher

IMDB Rating: 4.4 out of 10

Hilarious tagline: A wild goddess rules the jungle!

Length: 1 hour and 6 minutes

Content warnings: Racism, misogyny, attempted rape, violence

5th Edition Character: The Goddess, an elven druid

Learn more at World of Welstar:

Twitter: @WorldofWelstar

Instagram: @world_of_welstar

Facebook: @worldofwelstar

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/talien

Watch this movie on YouTube: https://youtu.be/xa-WZsRC1YU

Buy the 50 movie set: https://amzn.to/3Nj5PGn

These show notes contain affiliate links. If you choose to purchase after clicking a link, Mal and Tal Enterprises, LLC may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.