Jul 28, 2026 · 51 min · 10 segments
Stephen Griffin chooses four films to discuss: The Old Dark House, The Tomb of Ligeia, The Brides of Dracula, and Carry on Screaming ~ with plenty of diversions into other fascinating aspects…
Stephen GriffinGuest
Essie FoxHost
And really regarding the films we're going to discuss today, I thought before we go into particular detail, we could be really useful, quite useful to give our listeners an idea of what each one is about, sort of give a sort of escalator pitch really in chronological order of when they were made.
So this is a film I'd never seen before, and thank you Stephen for the introduction.
And I'll begin by saying it's quite a short film, or it seemed that way to me, so perhaps I was just enjoying it so much.
And as I mentioned earlier, it was made in the 1930s and it's got an ensemble cast of famous actors from the time, including Boris Karloff, known for playing the monster in later Frankenstein films.
And Charles Lawton, who I remember really well from another very gothic film, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, wonderful black and white film with these wonderful looming gargoyles.
in notre dame um anyway the basic plot of the old dark house is setting the welsh countryside during a nighttime storm when some travelers are forced to leave their cars to seek shelter in an old dark houses featured in the film's title and in that house they meet the owners and the staff who prove to be very strange eccentric isn't even in it really so in short it's a horror comedy It's also a social commentary with a dash of romance.
The Brides of Dracula was Hammer's sequel to their 1958 Dracula, the one that starred Christopher Lee, who wasn't that well known at the time.
The film before that was The Curse of Frankenstein, which was Hammer's first gothic horror.
And there were rumours, or actually there was a story that that film made so much money, it...
And really regarding the films we're going to discuss today, I thought before we go into particular detail, we could be really useful, quite useful to give our listeners an idea of what each one is about, sort of give a sort of escalator pitch really in chronological order of when they were made.
So this is a film I'd never seen before, and thank you Stephen for the introduction.
And I'll begin by saying it's quite a short film, or it seemed that way to me, so perhaps I was just enjoying it so much.
And as I mentioned earlier, it was made in the 1930s and it's got an ensemble cast of famous actors from the time, including Boris Karloff, known for playing the monster in later Frankenstein films.
And Charles Lawton, who I remember really well from another very gothic film, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, wonderful black and white film with these wonderful looming gargoyles.
in notre dame um anyway the basic plot of the old dark house is setting the welsh countryside during a nighttime storm when some travelers are forced to leave their cars to seek shelter in an old dark houses featured in the film's title and in that house they meet the owners and the staff who prove to be very strange eccentric isn't even in it really so in short it's a horror comedy It's also a social commentary with a dash of romance.
The Brides of Dracula was Hammer's sequel to their 1958 Dracula, the one that starred Christopher Lee, who wasn't that well known at the time.
The film before that was The Curse of Frankenstein, which was Hammer's first gothic horror.
And there were rumours, or actually there was a story that that film made so much money, it...
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