Podcast appearances and mentions of Hal E Chester

NOT The 1980 James C. Wasson film in which an anthropologist and his students attempt to track down a Bigfoot responsible for a rash of violent murders… OR the 1988 Kevin Tenney film, Night of the Demons' where Ten teenagers party at an abandoned funeral parlor on Halloween, awakening demonic spirits… Rather, we all, hopefully, watched the 1957 British horror film, produced by Hal E. Chester and Frank Bevis directed by Jacques (Cat People, I Walked with a Zombie) Tourneur (or ‘Jack Turner' as the French Director was referred to in the UK). starring Dana Andrews, Peggy Cummins and Niall (Zeus from Jason and the Argonauts) MacGinnis. Adapted from the M (‘Montague') R. James story "Casting the Runes" first published in 1911 as the fourth story in More Ghost Stories, which was James' second collection of ghost stories.Screenwriter Charles Bennett owned the rights to the story and wrote a screenplay loosely based on it, using the title ‘The Haunted'. Bennett later regretted selling the script to Chester, as he was later approached by RKO, to direct the film himself.Chester decided the Bennett screenplay was “too tame” and "too British" so hired Cy Endfield who had been blacklisted by the House of Un-American Activities Committee as a Communist and forced to move to the UK. Despite his contribution, which was said to be "significant", he was ultimately uncredited. Cy Enfield incidentally was the writer and director of Zulu.Director Tourneur and Producer Chester had serious disagreements during filming. One argument was about the wind scene; Tourneur tried to convince Chester to replace two electric fans with two aeroplane engines. When Chester hesitated, star Dana Andrews threatened to leave the picture if Chester did not let "the director direct the picture" Chester also decided to show the demon at the beginning and end of the film, despite Tourneurs protests, he added the scenes in post production: Cue James' French accent… "The scenes where you see the demon were shot without me...the audience should never have been completely certain of having seen the demon". Original screenwriter, Bennett, was also so angry at the script changes, he said "If [Chester] walked up my driveway right now, I'd shoot him dead".Ray Harryhausen was asked to create the demon for the production, but he was already committed to The 7th Voyages of Sinbad.To accelerate the pace and make the film more commercial, the 96-minute original feature was trimmed down to 82 minutes prior to its release in the United States. This shortened version was retitled Curse of the Demon, playing in June 1958 as the second half of a double feature with either ‘The True Story of Lynn Stuart' or ‘The Revenge of Frankenstein'Kate Bush has said this is one of her favorite films, and it has influenced her on at least two occasions: the song Hounds of Love begins with a quote from a line spoken in the film by Maurice Denham, and somewhat more obliquely, the film ‘The Line The Cross And The Curve' borrows the idea that the possession of a small slip of paper with mystic symbols can confer great power, as well as borrowing several images and set pieces…Night of the Demon was also mentioned in the opening song from The Rocky Horror Picture Show ("Science Fiction Double Feature"): "Dana Andrews said prunes gave him the runes, but passing them used lots of skills". Get bonus content on PatreonSupport this show http://supporter.acast.com/general-witchfinders. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Episode 7 of Season 2! Host, Gratton Conwill and special guest, Matt Fields discuss Night of the Demon (1957). Day 7 Night of the Demon 1h 36m Night of the Demon is a British black and white horror film released in December of 1957. It was directed by Jaques Tourner and written Charles Bennett and Hal E. Chester. The script was based on the 1911 short story “Casting the Runes.” The story of this movie's production is an interesting one. Upon acquiring the rights to the short story, Charles Bennett loosely adapted it into a screenplay titled The Haunted. He sold the screenplay to an independent producer, Hal E. Chester. Unfortunately for Bennett, not long after the script was sold, he was approached by RKO with an offer to buy the script and let him direct. Since the script was already sold, Bennett could not accept the offer although he would have preferred to direct the movie himself. After producer Hal E. Chester brought in French director Jaques Tourner of Cat People fame, the two had numerous disputes continuing into post production. Tourner claimed that he never wanted the demon to be shown in the final film, however Chester disagreed and without the director's blessing, added shots of the demon in post production. At an earlier point in production, Tourner was so upset with script changes made by Chester that he threatened to shoot him. In its original theatrical run, Night of the Demon was shown as a double feature with 20 Million Miles to Earth. As was the trend however, this movie was edited down and renamed for a delayed American release. The film was renamed from Night of the Demon to Curse of the Demon. The rationale being that the distributors did not want audiences confusing Night of the Demon with The Night of the Iguana. Although this explanation comes from producer Charles Bennett himself, the Tennessee Williams play The Night of the Iguana would not debut until three years later in 1961, and the John Huston film adaptation would not be made until 1964. I could not find any details of the financial or critical success of Night of the Demon when it was released. But, as it stands today, Night of the Demon is considered a British Horror classic and managed to land 9th place in Martin Scorsese's list of 11 scariest horror movies of all time. Night of the Demon has: 3.8 on Letterboxd 7.5/10 on IMDb 100% on rotten tomatoes 91% on google 8.58 average CTS score Escape from Amityville is a limited series podcast event happening exclusively during October of 2021! Starting October 1st, we will review one movie every other day. Each movie will be a lesser known or appreciated, but culturally significant, horror movie made within the past 100 years. None of these movies have anything to do with the original tale of America's most haunted house, but in the spirit of the Amityville story, we promise to review chilling and horrifying movies featuring demons, monsters, and various ghouls! 15 episodes in total! The series finale takes place on Halloween night with a special mystery review. Fans of Giant Monster BS and/or Horror films will be right at home with this podcast. Vulgar, brutally honest, scary as hell, oh yeah... it's Escape from Amityville time Baby!

This week we continue our Summer 2021 Satanic Panic series with the 1957 film Night of the demon, AKA Curse of the Demon. Night of the Demon (a.k.a. Curse of the Demon) is a 1957 British horror film, produced by Hal E. Chester and Frank Bevis,[1] directed by Jacques Tourneur and starring Dana Andrews, Peggy Cummins and Niall MacGinnis. It is adapted from the M. R. James story "Casting the Runes" (1911).The film's storyline concerns an American psychologist who travels to England to investigate a satanic cult suspected in more than one death.This is Castle of Horror Episode 341.

We’ve got a real juicy one for you this week from our friends across the pond. Who doesn’t love some runes, a curse, and an ACTUAL DEMON? Right from the get-go, “Night of the Demon” threw us into a mysterious, windy, wet, witchy, world with just the right amount of whodunnit. Even with a pretty unpalatable protagonist, the surrounding talent (both on-screen and behind the camera) carried this film all the way to it’s grand finale. Garnering a double “rent” from the fellas, there was plenty to commend. Where we watched: Blu-ray Night of the Demon (1957) Directed by Jacques Tourneur Written by Charles Bennett and Hal E. Chester RecommenDEADtions: The Mamas & the Papas (band) / Calibre Next week’s film: At Midnight I'll Take Your Soul

It's big...it's hairy...it's...possibly the most surprisingly good movie we've covered! Facts and Figures: NIGHT OF THE DEMON Directed by Jacques Tourneur Written by Charles Bennett Hal E. Chester Story by M.R. Jame Starring Dana Andrews Peggy Cummins Niall MacGinnis Maurice Denham --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app