The Hour of 13 (1952)

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios always had a flair for making period films, especially those with a Victorian setting.....and they made quite a number of them, too. Being quite a savvy production company, they also discovered that a good script is worth repeating. Hence, many of the Victorian-era thrillers that the studio made in the 1930s and 1940s were later remade. One such film was The Mystery of Mr. X (1935) which they remade in 1952 under the title The Hour of 13. 

Robert Montgomery starred in the original film as dapper gentleman thief Nicholas Revel. A killer known as "Mr. X" is on the loose in London targeting police constables. By a strange coincidence, his latest killing occurred the same night and in the same location as one of Revel's latest robberies. In order to clear his name, Revel decides to play an amateur detective and track down the fiend himself, all the while dodging the suspicious eye of Police Commissioner Sir Herbert Frensham (Henry Stephenson). 

The Mystery of Mr. X was based on the novel "X vs Rex", written by Philip MacDonald (The List of Adrian Messenger). Howard Emmett Rogers worked it into a quick and thrilling script and MGM had another winning Robert Montgomery picture in the theaters. 

What works once can work again, hence, seventeen years later, producer Hayes Goetz blew the dust off the script and hired screenwriter Leon Gordon to rework it into a vehicle for MGM's young star, Peter Lawford. What resulted was a charming gaslit London mystery that holds up quite well for its age. 

This time, Nicholas Revel is tracking down the killer known as The Terror. The police - primarily Inspector Connor (Roland Culver), believe that if they find the thief who stole Lady Elmbridge's emerald, they find the Terror. Since Revel stole the emerald, he wants the real Terror caught before they fence him in for a series of murders he did not commit. 

The Hour of 13 was made at the MGM-British Studios in Borehamwood, England and, while there are not many location scenes, the film sets are excellent and perfectly evoke that Jack-the-Ripper setting of old London. 

Peter Lawford is not my idea of a gentleman thief (Stewart Granger would have been excellent in this part) but he is surprisingly good. In fact, it would have been nice to see him in a series of Nicholas Revel mysteries. Playing his leading lady is English actress Dawn Addams who had a long career with MGM and an even longer career working in television. Also in the cast is Michael Hordern as Sir Henry Frensham, Derek Bond, Leslie Dwyer, and Colin Gordon. 

The Hour of 13 is available on DVD via Warner Archives.

Hammer Horror - The Golden Era (1956-1967)

Each year along with the approach of Halloween comes the bombardment of Hammer Horror films on television. Blood, gore, and buxom babes are splattered onscreen in brilliant Eastmancolor, while sanguinary counts and grimly ghoulish characters lurk stealthily in dark corners of seedy districts intent on carrying out nefarious deeds on their unsuspecting prey.

And we…sweet, kind, gentle, innocent viewers…sit by with pizza in hand, eyes-a-goggled and heart-a-pounding as we stare transfixed at our screens while these deliciously diabolical scenes are being carried out.

Prior to the British Hammer film, there really was no such thing as a “gory” film. There were lords of tiny European hamlets suffering from lycanthropy, mad scientists making pastiches out of gently worn body parts, secluded islands inhabited by horrific animal creatures, misguided poor souls continually making themselves disappear, and of course the all-too-common haunted house filled with frustrated spirits (and the occasional runaway gorilla)……but alas, no gore. Hammer Studios had found a niche and filled it capitally.

Just what would Halloween be without Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing entertaining us?  

Hammer Productions was formed in 1934 by William Hinds, a comedian and businessman who once went by the name of Will Hammer on stage. His films were low-budget and simply made but, even with his own distribution company, he wasn’t able to find a market for them and filed for bankruptcy in 1937.

A year later, his son, along with producer James Carreras, resurrected the production company and began work on a series of BBC radio adaptions such as Dick Barton Special Agent, and The Adventures of PC 49. Many films were made during the 1940s and early 50s but nothing of noteworthy attention, until, that is…1955. This was the year Hammer Studios released The Quatermass Xperiment, a wonderfully chilling adaption of the popular BBC television series of the same name. 

Quatermass, also known as The Creeping Unknown, was about a missile sent into space with three astronauts on board. Only one of the men return to Earth and with him, brings an alien infestation which turns him into an ‘orrible blood-sucking monster. Professor Bernard Quatermass (played by American actor Brian Donlevy) becomes the first of many, many scholarly extraterrestrial/mythical/vampyr hunters to be featured in Hammer film….Van Helsing being the most famous of these.

The film became the first to ever receive an X rating certificate from the British Film Board and was so successful that similarly themed pictures were quickly put into production and released.

X- The Unknown (1956) 

Radiation tests done by the British Army in a remote Scottish village unearth an unknown radioactive “blob” that leaves only the bodies of its burnt victims behind. Dr. Royston sets out to stop the beast before it grows bigger and bigger and feeds off of them all! Dean Jagger, Leo McKern, Edward Chapman, Anthony Newley.

Quatermass II: Enemy from Space (1957) 

Professor Quatermass explores a deadly gas that is originating from a hidden factory in rural England. Unusual creatures just may be planning something deadly for planet Earth and, once again, Quatermass is the man to stop them. Brian Donlevy, John Longden, Sidney James, Brian Forbes.

But it was when The Curse of Frankenstein came out in 1957 that the studio earned its infamous title as a House of Horror. This was, officially, the start of Hammer Horror.

The Curse of Frankenstein (1957) Using the hands of a pianist and the brains of a renowned scholar, Doctor Frankenstein sticks together a "human" from leftover bodies and finds that it didn’t quite turn out to be the success he had planned. Peter Cushing, Christopher Lee, Hazel Court.

Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee, heretofore relatively unknown company players, quickly earned worldwide recognition for their roles as Dr. Frankenstein and his Monster and for the next ten years basked in the sunshine – or rather moonlight – of success.

The Abominable Snowman (1958) High in the snow-covered Himalayan mountains, an English botanist and a burly American scientist lead an expedition to discover the legendary Yeti creature. Peter Cushing, Forrest Tucker, Maureen Connell.

Universal Studios was the American distributor of the Hammer horror series and since they earned such great returns off of them, they let them have access to their stock house of scripts. Numerous retellings of their horror classics were plotted out, and the studio focused all its efforts and funds on the making of these colorful adaptions.

The Horror of Dracula (1958) After a man attacks Dracula in his castle (yes, bold man he be!), Dracula travels to a nearby village to seek revenge on his family and his fiancée. They turn to Professor Van Helsing, a fellow student of vampires, for help in destroying him. Peter Cushing, Christopher Lee, Michael Gough, Melissa Stribling.

The Hound of the Baskervilles (1959) Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s famous Sherlock Holmes novel gets a colorful retelling here, as the ace detective and his doctor friend come to the aid of a nobleman who is being threatened by supernatural hounds on the moors of his estate. Peter Cushing, Andre Morell, Christopher Lee, Marla Landi

The Hound of the Baskervilles was one of the less successful films in the series though Peter Cushing made an admirable Holmes, as did Andre Morell as Dr. Watson. During 1951 – 1967, Hammer Studios' home was in Bray, near Windsor, Buckinghamshire. A house (Down Place), a large backlot, and several smaller studios were on this property. The house was included in many of the films (it added a lot to that “Hammer atmosphere”) and the backlot was turned into a European village which was used again and again in different films. First in The Brides of Dracula, then as a Spanish village in The Curse of the Werewolf, as London in The Phantom of the Opera, and then as a Russian palace in Rasputin, the Mad Monk.

From 1960 on, Hammer consigned themselves to raising their monsters from their graves in sequels or rehashings of their previous successes…with the exception of The Phantom of the Opera, Curse of the Werewolf (another misfire), and The Gorgon…which were new characters to the series.

The Brides of Dracula (1960) A schoolteacher unknowingly sets free a young man ( of the undead variety ) in Transylvania, and worse yet, finds that he’s after her students at her school for girls. Peter Cushing, Martita Hunt, Yvonne Monlaur, David Peel

The Curse of the Werewolf (1961) A young Spanish boy on a hunting trip gets bitten by a wolf, and years later moonlights as a first-class howler in this retelling of the classic Universal The Wolf Man. Clifford Evans, Oliver Reed, Yvonne Romain

The Phantom of the Opera (1962) In Victorian London, a poor musical professor finds that his life work has been stolen by a corrupt lord and, with his fire-burnt disfigured face, he hides out in an Opera house as a “phantom” waiting for his moment of revenge. Herbert Lom, Edward de Souza, Michael Gough, Heather Sears

Kiss of the Vampire (1963) A young honeymooning couple gets stranded in a southern European village and are “helped” by an aristocratic family…who have a taste for newlywed blood. Clifford Evans, Edward de Souza.

Evil of Frankenstein (1964) – Penniless Baron Frankenstein, returns to his family castle to renew his work on his beloved Monster, only to find that an evil aid, Zoltan has been using his monster for his dirty work. Peter Cushing, Peter Woodthorpe, Duncan LaMont

The Curse of the Mummy’s Tomb (1964) An Egyptian mummy is delivered to London, where it begins a rampage while under the control of a man with murderous intentions. Terence Morgan, Ronald Howard, Fred Clark

The Gorgon (1964)  In pre-WWII Germany, a small village is being plagued by a snake-haired gorgon who turns those who bear their eyes upon her to stone…only during full moons though. Professor Meister and Dr.Namaroff come to the aid of the townsfolk. Peter Cushing, Christopher Lee, Richard Pasco, Michael Goodliffe, Barbara Shelley

All of these Hammer Horror pictures really weren’t that scary (especially compared to today’s standards) but, in 1965, gore, as in bottles of oozy gooey goopy red ketchup, entered the picture. EEeeek!!

This was the year that the content of the Hammer films became more….ahem, mature…with the eyes of our blood-sucking fiendish friends glaring more fiercely, the bodices of their voluptuous prey creeping lower and lower, and pools of blood squirting to and fro, making Van Helsing’s appearance – along with his cross of Christ – all the more anticipated so we can see our anemic villains writhe in terror at their impending doom.

Dracula, Prince of Darkness (1966) Four unwary tourists take refuge in Count Dracula’s castle for the night (!). Within a few hours one of them is drained of his blood and his wife ( Shelley ) gets transformed into a vampire so the gruesome twosome can pursue the remaining two “guests”. Some hospitality. Christopher Lee, Barbara Shelley, Charles Tingwell

Island of Terror (1966) A group of doctors head to a remote island off the coast of Ireland to investigate a series of medical mysteries and discover a deadly lifeform unleashed. Peter Cushing, Edward Judd, Carole Gray, Keith Bell. 

Rasputin, The Mad Monk (1966) The story of the mad Russian “monk” Rasputin (aid to the Czars) is exploited in all its gory glory. Christopher Lee, Richard Pasco, Barbara Shelley, Suzan Farmer

Quatermass and the Pit (1967) While digging a subway in London, a construction crew discovers a skeleton and what seems to be a German missile….but in truth it is an alien spaceship. James Donald, Andrew Keir, Barbara Shelley

The Reptile (1966) While investigating his brother's death, a man and his wife move into his former cottage in a small village in England and become embroiled in a reptilian curse. Ray Barrett, Noel William, John Laurie, Jennifer Daniel. 

The Mummy's Shroud (1967) An archeological team discovers the remains of a mummy while on a dig in Egypt in 1920. Returning home to England with their find, the members are killed one by one. Andre Morrell, David Buck, Elizabeth Sellars, Maggie Kimberley.

There were also a number of "Scream Queens" that became associated with Hammer Horror (Hazel Court, Barbara Steele, and, later, Ingrid Pitt) but of them all, no one can top Barbara Shelley, that lovely English lady who somehow got caught in the vortex known as “the horror genre”. In total, she made seven pictures with the studio, sometimes as the victim, but not infrequently as a vampire herself.

Many believe that the golden age of Hammer Horror ended with Dracula: Prince of Darkness and that does indeed have some credibility to it, for the films made after this tend to be repetitious and rather malodorous.

All in all though, Hammer Studios had a long line of successes and it is during this bewitching month that we fans appreciate them the most. We get to sit back, have some popcorn, and enjoy Peter Cushing and those legendary ghouls give us goosebumps….what more fun could you have than that? 

The Birds - 60th Anniversary in Theaters Tonight!

Alfred Hitchcock's suspense classic The Birds is back in theaters for one day (this evening, October 23rd) to honor its 60th anniversary. Check out Fanthom event's website to see if it is showing in a theater near you. 

The Impossibly Difficult Name that Movie Game - Booonanza Edition

That bewitching holiday is approaching, so we are getting in on the spooky spirit of the season! This month's Impossibly Difficult Name that Movie Game is a deluxe Boo-nanza Edition with not one, not two, but three eerie screenshots from mystery/horror films of the golden age. We'll give you one little hint: all of these scenes are from American productions made between 1932-1962. 

Bring out your broom and start to sweep those cobwebs from your brain! Here are the screenshots:

#1 - A delightful house in the country. A little tender-loving-care and some Bon-Ami and this residence will look as good as new. Don't mind the spooks in the closet. 

#2 - This old lady is not taking the Evil Queen's magic potion but this substance does have transforming properties. 

#3 - It may be pretty obvious what these men are up to, but don't go off on a wild goose chase here...it's a very brief scene in a classic film!

Two down and one to go! Congratulations to Damsbo for identifying screenshot #1 from Hold That Ghost (1941) starring Abbott and Costello. In this scene, Bud and Lou just arrived with the other passengers (and Charlie) at Moose Matson's residence - The Forrester's Inn during a heavy thunderstorm. Also, congratulations to Betty for guessing screenshot #3 from I Married a Witch (1942), a classic Halloween film from director Rene Clair. This scene occurs right at the beginning of the film when Jennifer and her father are branded witches and burned near the old oak tree. 

Bedknobs and Broomsticks (1971)

Treguna Mekoides and Trecorum Satis Dee....

"I don’t want locomotionary substitution or remote in transitory convolution, only one precise solution is the key…. substitutionary locomotion it must me!"

Yes, Eglantine Price was searching, not for locomotionary substitution, nor for remote in transitory convolution, but for that secret magical spell – Subsitutiary Locomotion – that would be the key to single-handedly quenching the onslaught of the Nazis and putting a stop to the war!

In her secluded country estate in the cover of night, mild-mannered apprentice witch Miss Price, along with her scraggly looking cat Cosmic Creepers, practiced her latest lessons from Professor Emelius Browne’s Correspondence College of Witchcraft. However, when three evacuee children from London take lodging in her home, her top-top secret identity is discovered and, as an exchange for their silence, she gives them a special Travelling Spell.

“The game’s up Miss Price, we know what you are”

A bedknob (and its matching bed) become the initiators of this fantastic spell, and it is put to good use quickly when Miss Price and the children set out for London to enlist the aid of Professor Browne in searching for the all-important magic words of Substitutiary Locomotion. Their quest takes them to Portobello Road - the street where the riches of ages are stowed - where they meet the wily Bookman (Sam Jaffe), another Substitutiary Locomotion spell-hunter and his knife-wielding henchman Swinburne; to the Beautiful Briny Sea where they have a chance to get a better peep at the plants and creatures of the deep; and to the not-so-mythical animated Isle of Namboombo, a land of talking animals and where the legendary magician Astoroth (the spell’s creator) was believed to have spent his final days. Aha!….but do they find the magic words to Subtitutiary Locomotion AND put it to use before the approaching Nazis invade Pepperinge Eye and the coast of England?

Well, this being a Walt Disney movie, I’m sure we all know the answer to that question.

Bedknobs and Broomsticks was based on two books written by children's author Mary Norton in the mid-1940s. "The Magic Bedknob, or How to be a Witch in Ten Easy Lessons" and its sequel "Bonfires and Broomsticks" were originally purchased by Walt Disney in 1963 as a backup plan in case P.L Travers did not like the retelling of her story "Mary Poppins", a movie which was already in its pre-production stages at the time.

Since "Mary Poppins" got the go-ahead, Bedknobs and Broomsticks was put on the back burner and it was not until 1969 that Bill Walsh blew the dust off the kettle and got it boiling again.

Initially, Julie Andrews was offered the part of Eglantine Price (Leslie Caron and Lynn Redgrave being other choices) but had turned down the role. She later changed her mind, feeling she owed her start to Disney and wanted to work at the Studios again, but by this time Angela Lansbury had already been offered the part and gladly accepted.… signing the contract on Halloween Day of 1969.

And what a great choice she was! Miss Lansbury played Eglantine, the apprentice witch, with conviction and heart. And the wonderful David Tomlinson ( Mr.Banks of Mary Poppins ) played penny-any magician Professor Emilius Browne, a role he took to with a flair.

Mr. Browne: Bookman! Before your very eyes, I shall cause this bed, and all the occupants upon it, to disappear!

Bookman: Disappear? I should like to see a cheap-jack tenth-rate entertainer do a trick like that.

Mr. Browne: Cheap-jack entertainer. Now that was naughty.

The three children (Ian Weighall, Roy Snart, Cindy O’Callaghan) were all making their screen debuts and, save for Cindy O’Callaghan, have not done any other film work since then. A pity, because they were very good child actors.

Roddy McDowall played Mr.Jenks, a priest with an eye for Miss Price (or rather, her valuable bit of property); Reginald Owen was…well, Reginald Owen….mouth wide-agape and commandeering the soldiers of the Old Home Guard; Tessie O’Shea played shopkeeper, town gossip and postmistress Mrs. Hobday, and rounding out the cast was John Erikson as the Nazi captain who has a bad fall-in with some headless fighting armor.

Bedknobs and Broomsticks is a heartwarming and bewitchingly enchanting movie and like most Walt Disney films, the supercalifragilistic Sherman brothers song-writing team had a big part in contributing to this. Bedknobs is chock full of wonderful whistlable tunes like “The Beautiful Briny Sea”, “Portobello Road” and “Eglantine, Eglantine!” and best of them all is the lovely “The Age of Not Believing” (nominated for an Academy Award). Its words brilliantly capture that period in life that we all go through at times when we doubt our own abilities and lose faith in our dreams.

Miss Price wasn’t a very capable witch, even for an amateur. She couldn’t fly a broom straight, nor turn a person into a frog (although she did have a knack for morphing them into fluffy white rabbits) but she had a heart of gold and tried the best she could to save her beloved England. Technically, a witch is a lady unless circumstances dictate otherwise, and, at the closing, we see this clearly demonstrated in Eglantine as she dons her battle helmet and pulls out all the stops to fight the Nazis had on.

"Filigree, apogee, pedigree, perigee!"

Bedknobs and Broomsticks premiered in 1971 at Radio City Music Hall as part of their Christmas show but, unfortunately, over thirty minutes of this wonderful movie had to be cut to fit into its two-hour time slot. For some reason, this sliced footage was left out of all the subsequent national showings as well. It was not until 1997, for the 25th anniversary video edition, that most of this deleted footage was reinstated. It is still missing a few key scenes, but we’ll not complain…after all, it’s a step in the right direction.

"Oh, bother! I do hate shoddy work!"

Riverboat (1959-1961)

On September 13, 1959, an entertaining new television series called "Riverboat" set sail on the small screen, taking viewers on a journey into the American frontier of the mid to late 1840s. This one-hour show, produced by Revue/Universal, aired on NBC on Sunday nights.

Week after week, little kiddies and their western-loving parents followed the characters and crew aboard The Enterprise as they traveled up and down the Mississippi and Ohio rivers ferrying passengers to their destinations. 

Darren McGavin starred as Captain Grey Holden, a kindly but rugged seaman who owned the 100-foot-long sternwheeler known as The Enterprise. Unlike Star Trek's Enterprise, this vessel wasn't boldly going where no man had gone before...but many of its passengers were seeking out a new life in new lands. In fact, the focus of the series was on the passengers who changed from week to week (as passengers on a ship are apt to do). This clever premise allowed for great flexibility in storylines and for the inclusion of guest stars, which the series had plenty of. Jeanne Crain, Eddie Albert, Russell Johnson, Mona Freeman, Vincent Price, Cliff Robertson, Vera Miles, Anne Baxter, Debra Paget, Richard Carlson, and George Kennedy all booked passage on the boat during its two-season run. 

In addition to its great cast, Riverboat had a marvelous theme song penned by Elmer Bernstein. Bernstein must have loved this theme quite a bit because he reworked most of its closing segment into The Magnificent Seven, made the following year. 

The Enterprise was often churning the muddy waters of the Mississippi, but in later episodes, it tended to steer westward on the Missouri which gave the writers an opportunity to include more tried-and-true western scenarios involving Indian attacks and settlers. 

Some critics called the series "Wagon Train on water" since the steamboat, though a central element, served as little more than a backdrop to the different characters and storylines that were introduced each week. While all of these were entertaining, they left little room for developing the series regulars, which included a young Burt Reynolds as pilot Ben Frazer, Dick Wessel as engineer Carney, and William D. Gordon as crewman Joe Travis. In the episode "The Face of Courage", Joe gets killed in an Indian attack and is written off the series (quite unusual for the time) and, in that same episode, Jack Lambert and little Michael McGreevey join the cast. 

Darren McGavin was always good at interacting with children, so the addition of Michael McGreevey as cabin boy Chip lent Captain Holden a more fatherly image...plus it gave the younger viewers a character they could relate with. Later in the series Burt Reynolds left and Noah Berry Jr. came aboard as Captain Bill Blake, a new co-owner.  

Riverboat was a well-written series overall and had some engrossing episodes, many of which involved the lady loves of the Captain, who cut quite a dashing figure. He had won The Enterprise in a poker game but he was very proud of the vessel and of his position as captain. Most of the episodes had him defending his passengers from river ruffians and dangerous criminals. 

Riverboat chugged along throughout its first season run with good ratings even though it had some formidable competition against Maverick on ABC and Lassie and The Ed Sullivan Show on CBS. Eventually, the series ran aground when it was moved to Monday night and Riverboat's producer Boris Kaplan decided to make Captain Holden more hard-nosed in the second season. 

FAVORITE EPISODES 

The Unwilling (Season 1, Episode 5)

Eddie Albert guest-stars in this episode as Dan Simpson, a merchant eager to open up a general store in the West, but a gang of river pirates are set on stealing his merchandise. Debra Paget also stars. 

The Boy from Pittsburgh (Season 1, Episode 11)

A stowaway overhears a plot to sabotage the engine room of the Enterprise but no one believes him since he lied before one too many times. Mona Freeman and Tommy Nolan star. 

Strange Request (Season 1, Episode 13)

An actress - Jan Sterling - charters the Enterprise to head to an abandoned trading post where she retrieves a boy being held by river pirates. 

Three Graves (Season 1, Episode 26)

The captain and his crew encounter a bubonic plague epidemic at one of the towns that they dock in. Beverly Garland stars as a woman doctor trying to help the residents. 

To read more about Riverboat and the making of the show, check out the book Riverboat: The Evolution of a Television Series by S. L. Kotar and J. E. Gessler. 

From the Archives: House on Haunted Hill (1959)

 

Watch out!! Don't touch that cobweb! Props like that don't grow on trees. The spiders at William Castle Productions were working overtime to produce all of the webs seen throughout the Pritchard house in House on Haunted Hill and Carolyn Craig stepped through quite a few of them during her stay there...just like she is about to mess this one up, too. 

From the Archives is our latest series of posts where we share photos from the Silverbanks Pictures collection. Some of these may have been sold in the past, and others may still be available for purchase at our eBay store: http://stores.ebay.com/Silverbanks-Pictures

A Godzilla Stumper

 

All those Godzilla films look alike to me so I would like some help to a puzzle that has been stumping me. A year or two ago, my dad and I caught the beginning of an episode of Svengoolie (the MeTV horror TV program) and there was a Godzilla film on. Or, at least I think it was a Godzilla film. It looked like an entertaining monster movie whatever it was and I remember telling my dad at the time that I would want to watch the full film later that week....something we never got around to. Within a month, we both forgot the title and haven't been able to remember it nor has Svengoolie shown it again since then!

Here's what we both remember: There were two young Japanese men in a helicopter, one was handsome the other a little pudgy. They lose radio contact with a base and crash on a mountainous island, where they discover a creature. Back at the base, there was a woman who was worried about one of the men, and I think a rescue party was going to be sent out to search for them. I remember the man being her boyfriend/fiance but my dad thinks it was her brother. He also thinks it was a snow-covered mountain. So we aren't agreed on some points, but we both do remember that the helicopter was one of those two-seat whirlybirds, the plastic bubble kind. 

I found a great site that lists all of the Svengoolie episodes (and the films that he showed) since 1995 and went through about 8-9 trailers, but none look familiar, even though plenty of the Japanese films had helicopter crashes!

Ugh. There's certainly not much to go on here but I'm sure one of our readers knows Japanese monster movies and remembers this opening. At least I hope. Anyone? 

Tubi Picks for October

Every few months, the film and television show selections that streaming services offer change. The shows you have been watching on Tubi may suddenly disappear and are now available on Pluto or Peacock, or they have been replaced with five other shows and 15 new titles that you cannot possibly watch in two months' time. 

It can be overwhelming browsing through all of the major apps to see what's new in "free streaming", so every month we will round up a selection to share... that way you can see what's new and recommended in one convenient list. 

To launch this series, we are sharing some of Tubi's offerings for the month of October. If you do not have a Roku or other streaming device, simply click on the links to watch them online on Tubi's website.

Television Shows

Along with the classic favorites (The Dick Van Dyke Show, Bewitched, Ozzie and Harriet, I Dream of Jeannie, etc), Tubi also has some rare shows added to their roster. These include....

Tales of Tomorrow (1951)

Decoy (1957)

Man with a Camera (1958)

Yancy Derringer (1958)

Jericho (1966)

Scarecrow and Mrs. King (1983)

Classic Films

Jack Lemmon, Judy Holliday, and Terence Hill are some of the featured players this month and there is a nice selection of their films available, some of which I have included below.

It Happened One Night (1934)

Northwest Passage (1940)

War of the Wildcats (1943)

The Thing from Another World (1951)

It Should Happen to You (1954)

Track of the Cat (1954)

Gun the Man Down (1956)

The Solid Gold Cadillac (1956)

Operation Madball (1957)

20000 Miles to Earth (1957)

Cowboy (1958)

The 7th Voyage of Sinbad (1958)

Jack the Giant Killer (1961)

The Notorious Landlady (1962)

The Reluctant Saint (1962)

The Crack in the World (1965)

The Trouble with Angels (1966)

Walk, Don't Run (1966)

Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (1971)

Horror/Mystery/Thrillers 

Since many of us watch mysteries and horror films in the month of October, here are a few title picks from what Tubi has to offer:

The Hound of the Baskervilles (1939)

Cry of the Werewolf (1944)

The Night of the Hunter (1955)

Alfred Hitchcock Presents (also be sure to check out The Alfred Hitchcock Hour on The Roku Channel)

Bell, Book, and Candle (1958)

Blood of the Vampire (1958)

The Hound of the Baskervilles (1959)

House on Haunted Hill (1959) - Colorized

One Step Beyond (1959 series)

Peeping Tom (1961)

The Gorgon (1965)

Scooby-Doo:Where Are You? (1969 series)

The New Scooby-Doo Movies (1972 series)

Thriller (1976 series)

Tucker's Witch (1982 series)