#Dwight V. Babcock

[mariocki]

Dead Man's Eyes (1944)

"I wouldn't be surprised if this man were insane. He wouldn't be the first one who'd gone mad studying the processes of the mind."

"Precisely, Captain. I compliment you on your sagacity."

"You know, it's people like you that have caused me to steer clear of all this book psychology."

[hooked-on-elvis]

"The Trouble With Girls (And How To Get Into It)" (1969) Directed by Peter Tewksbury; Screenplay by Arnold Peyser and Lois Peyser; Produced by Lester WelchStarring; Cinematography by Jacques R. Marquette; Music by Billy Strange. Produced and distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer — Based on Chautauqua by Day Keene and Dwight V. Babcock. CAST Starring Elvis Presley... as Walter Hale. Co-starring Marlyn Mason... as Charlene; Sheree North... as Nita Bix, or Miss Bix; Edward Andrews... as Johnny; John Carradine as Mr. Drewcolt; Anissa Jones... as Carol Bix; and Nicole Jaffe... as Betty Smith. Guest star Vincent Price... as Mr. Morality. Production ran from late October to mid-December 1968.

[pulpman2]

Kids!

“I’m going as fast as I can, ma’am, please don’t shoot!” babbled rookie detective Damian Salisbury, unwisely left to guard the red headed criminal mastermind Gloria Dane by Sergeant Harry O’Rourke while he searched for further evidence and clues in the warehouse where they had got the drop on Gloria after secretly following her to the pier. Harry had cuffed the surly looking woman to a drain pipe with an admonition to his junior officer “Don’t talk to this dame whatever you do!” However the complacent young man had not followed the sage advice of his boss, and had soon been taken in by the flushed cheeks, twinkling eyes and purring voice of his admittedly beautiful prisoner. As he leaned in to hear a whispered secret from the seductive siren, Damian suddenly realised his gun was no longer in his shoulder holster but was now pressed into ribs.

Moments later, Damian was busily sawing through the chains of Gloria’s cuffs while she kept his own gun trained on him, moving menacingly from the cop’s abdomen to his groin. “Once I’m free, give me your cuffs,drop the saw and turn around with your hands behind your back.” Gloria told him matter of factly. “I’m going to leave you cuffed and gagged for Harry to find. Maybe with a note pinned to your lapel saying No Job For Kids!” Damian ignored her mockery and concentrated on the task of sawing through the handcuffs chain.

“Whatever you say, ma’am,” was all the distracted young man could find to say.

My interpretation of the cover to Murder Preview by Dwight V Babcock, in Ten Detective Aces (February 1939).

[burningexeter]

I realized very early on that I've always been attracted to in media and fiction, unconventional protagonists that while are heroic, they're NOT at all the typical type of "heroes" you'd expect. I've always found that way more interesting and compelling than most other regular or conventional type of stories. Here's a list of the ones that I think are some (or in this case, a LOT) of my biggest influences when it comes to the characters that I write, the protagonists that I write where it's unconventional main characters fighting the odds or facing the highest stakes possible or BOTH in incredible situations or scenarios BUT are again NOT the generic "heroes" you'd think or expect them to be:

• Andy Dufrense & Ellis Boyd "Red" Redding — The Shawshank Redemption (1994)

• Paul Edgecomb & John Coffey — The Green Mile (1999)

• John McClane — Die Hard (1988)

• Arthur Morgan — Red Dead Redemption 2

• Mrs. Brisby — The Secret Of NIMH (1982)

• Norman Babcock — ParaNorman

• Frank — Thief (1981)

• Alice Johnson — A Nightmare On Elm Street 4: The Dream Master & A Nightmare On Elm Street 5: The Dream Child

• Miguel Rivera — Coco (2017)

• Eddie Valiant & Roger Rabbit — Who Framed Roger Rabbit

• Marty McFly & Emmett "Doc" Brown — The Back To The Future Trilogy

• Samantha "Charly" Caine — The Long Kiss Goodnight

• Walter "Heisenberg" White — Breaking Bad

• Ezekiel "EZ" Reyes — Mayans MC

• Peter "Spider-Man" Parker — Spider-Man 2 (2004)

• Michael De Santa, Franklin Clinton & Trevor Philips — Grand Theft Auto V

• Niko Bellic — Grand Theft Auto IV

• Jaguar Paw — Apocalypto (2006)

• Jack Sparrow, Will Turner & Elizabeth Swann — The Pirates Of The Caribbean Trilogy

• Poindexter "Fool" Williams, Alice Robeson & Roach — The People Under The Stairs

• Shane Vendrell — The Shield (FX)

• Matt Parkman — Heroes (Season 1)

• Bob & Helen Parr — The Incredibles (2004)

• The Man With No Name & Tuco Benedicto Pacífico Juan María Ramírez — The Dollars Trilogy

• Matt Murdock, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, Frank Castle & David "Micro" Lieberman — Marvel Netflix

• Robyn Goodfellowe & Mebh Og MacTire — Wolfwalkers (2020)

• Kevin Garvey — The Leftovers (HBO)

• El Mariachi — The Mexico Trilogy

• John Hartigan, Marv & Dwight McCarthy — Sin City (2005)

• Andrea Grimes — The Walking Dead (Comic Series)

• Kenny McCormick — South Park

• Thaddeus "Rusty" Venture, Malcom "The Monarch" Fitzcarraldo & Gary "Henchmen 21" Fischer — The Venture Bros.

• Gwen Tennyson — Ben 10: Alien Force & Ben 10: Ultimate Alien

• Literally all of the protagonists — Generator Rex

• Virgil Ovid Hawkins/Static Shock & Richard "Richie" Osgood Foley/Gear — Static Shock

• Al "Spawn" Simmons — Todd McFarlane's Spawn (HBO)

• Billy "Shazam!" Batson & Frederick "Freddy" Freeman — SHAZAM! (2019)

• Frank Bannister — The Frighteners

• Ann Darrow — King Kong (2005)

• Sarah Bowman, John "Flyboy" & Bill McDermott — Day Of The Dead (1985)

• Rick O'Connell, Evelyn "Evie" & Jonathan Carnahan — The Mummy (1999)

• U.S. Army Captain Benjamin L. Willard — Apocalypse Now

• Staff Sergeant Mikhail "Mike" Vronsky — The Deer Hunter

• Mikasa Ackerman — Attack On Titan

• Max Rockatansky — Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior

• Sheriff Hassan — Midnight Mass

• Historia Reiss — Attack On Titan (Manga)

• Grey Trace — Upgrade (2018)

• Seth Gecko — From Dusk Till Dawn (1996)

• Cecilia "Cee" Kress — The Invisible Man (2020)

• Private Cooper — Dog Soldiers

• Quintus Dias — Centurion (2010)

• Lucius Vorenus & Titus Pullo — Rome (HBO)

• Seth Bullock & Al Swearengen — Deadwood (HBO)

• Alita — Alita: Battle Angel (2019)

• O.J. Haywood — Nope (2022)

• Puss In Boots & Perrito — Puss In Boots: The Last Wish

• Po — Kung Fu Panda 2

• Bob Belcher — Bob's Burgers

• Atticus Finch — To Kill A Mockingbird

• John Rambo — First Blood

• Bruce Wayne/Batman — Batman (1989)

• Logan/Wolverine — Logan (2017)

• Charlie Shakespeare — Deathwatch (2002)

• Edward Boyce & Lewis Ford — Overlord (2018)

• Solomon Kane — Solomon Kane (2009)

• Alan Wake — Alan Wake (2010)

• Private/Sergeant J.T. "Joker" Davis — Full Metal Jacket

• Lee Everett — Telltale's The Walking Dead (Season 1)

• Bigby Wolf — Telltale's The Wolf Among Us

• Heather Mason — Silent Hill 3

And that's just merely the tip of the iceberg.

[docrotten]

HOUSE OF DRACULA (1945) – Episode 158 – Decades Of Horror: The Classic Era

“I find it difficult to believe that a human being can change himself into a bat, or that by feeding upon the blood of the living he can obtain eternal life. But what has this discussion to do with us, Baron Latos?” Watch and learn, grasshopper. Join this episode’s Grue-Crew – Chad Hunt, Daphne Monary-Ernsdorff, Doc Rotten, and Jeff Mohr – as they travel to a house that’s a bit crowded … with monsters! Yes, they’re in Universal’s House of Dracula (1945)!

Decades of Horror: The Classic Era Episode 158 – House of Dracula (1945)

Join the Crew on the Gruesome Magazine YouTube channel! Subscribe today! And click the alert to get notified of new content! https://youtube.com/gruesomemagazine

ANNOUNCEMENT Decades of Horror The Classic Era is partnering with THE CLASSIC SCI-FI MOVIE CHANNEL, THE CLASSIC HORROR MOVIE CHANNEL, and WICKED HORROR TV CHANNEL Which all now include video episodes of The Classic Era! Available on Roku, AppleTV, Amazon FireTV, AndroidTV, Online Website. Across All OTT platforms, as well as mobile, tablet, and desktop. https://classicscifichannel.com/; https://classichorrorchannel.com/; https://wickedhorrortv.com/

The Wolf Man and Count Dracula beg Dr. Edelman to cure them of their killing instincts but Dracula schemes to seduce the doctor’s nurse. And don’t forget Frankenstein’s monster stuck in a cave below.

  Director: Erle C. Kenton

Writers: Edward T. Lowe Jr. (original screenplay) (as Edward T. Lowe); Dwight V. Babcock (story) (uncredited), George Bricker (story) (uncredited)

Makeup Department: Jack P. Pierce (makeup artist), Carmen Dirigo (hair stylist)

Selected Cast:

Lon Chaney Jr. as Lawrence Talbot / The Wolf Man (as Lon Chaney)

John Carradine as Dracula / Baron Latos

Martha O’Driscoll as Miliza Morelle

Lionel Atwill as Police Inspector Holtz

Onslow Stevens as Dr. Franz Edlemann

Jane Adams as Nina

Ludwig Stössel as Siegfried (as Ludwig Stossel)

Glenn Strange as The Frankenstein Monster

Skelton Knaggs as Steinmuhl

Ah, the Universal Monsters! Who doesn’t want to sit down with the classic Frankenstein’s Monster, Dracula, and the Wolf Man on any given Saturday afternoon? Many Monster Kids consider this episode’s film, House of Dracula (1945), the canonical end of the famous monsters’ original cinematic run; however, others will continue to include Abbott and Costello meet Frankenstein (1948) into the mix, happily! Either way, director Erle C. Kenton’s third film featuring the Monster of Frankenstein is a fun, enjoyable romp regardless of how silly and overly convenient the plot remains. Lon Chaney Jr., John Carradine, and Glenn Strange all return as the Wolf Man, Count Dracula, and Frankenstein’s Monster respectively, each providing the best performances possible given the circumstances. Onslow Stevens, along with co-stars Martha O’Driscoll and Jane Adams, wonderfully provide the strands that hold the storylines together. Throw in Lionel Atwill for good measure and it’s a tried-and-true Universal Monster “house” feature. Grab your popcorn and large soda and join the Grue-Crew as they catch up with the shenanigans. 

At the time of this writing, House of Dracula is available to stream from the Classic Sci-Fi Movie Channel, the Classic Horror Movie Channel, and the Wicked Horror TV Channel, as well as a variety of PPV sites. In terms of physical media, the film is available in Blu-ray format as part of Dracula: Complete Legacy Collection, Frankenstein: Complete Legacy Collection, The Wolf Man: Complete Legacy Collection, and Universal Classic Monsters: Complete 30-Film Collection.

For more Universal Horror, check out these Decades of Horror: The Classic Era episodes:

DRACULA (1931) – Episode 20 – Decades of Horror: The Classic Era

FRANKENSTEIN (1931) – Episode 100 – Decades of Horror: The Classic Era

THE INVISIBLE MAN (1933) – Episode 50 – Decades of Horror: The Classic Era

BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN (1935) – Episode 14 – Decades of Horror: The Classic Era

SON OF FRANKENSTEIN (1939) – Episode 121 – Decades of Horror: The Classic Era

THE WOLF MAN (1941) – Episode 39 – Decades of Horror: The Classic Era

SON OF DRACULA (1943) – Episode 132 – Decades of Horror: The Classic Era

ABBOTT AND COSTELLO MEET FRANKENSTEIN (1948) – Episode 44 – Decades of Horror: The Classic Era

Gruesome Magazine’s Decades of Horror: The Classic Era records a new episode every two weeks. Up next in their very flexible schedule, as chosen by Jeff, is The Manster (1959), an American production, filmed in Japan, that answers the age-old question: are two heads better than one?

Please let them know how they’re doing! They want to hear from you – the coolest, grooviest fans: leave them a message or leave a comment on the Gruesome Magazine YouTube channel, the site, or email the Decades of Horror: The Classic Era podcast hosts at feedback@gruesomemagazine.com

To each of you from each of them, “Thank you so much for watching and listening!”

Check out this episode!

[booksndmovies]

She-Wolf of London - Jean Yarbrough

[seattlemysterybooks]

flickr

1941 Knopf hardcover

1945 Avon paperback

cover art by Paul Stahr

cover art reused for 1956 Avon reissue

Seattle Mystery Bookshop

[mudwerks]

The Gorgeous Ghoul Murder Case, by Dwight V. Babcock (Avon, 1951); cover artist unidentified. 

[pulpsandcomics2]

“Black Mask”  February 1936        cover by John Drew

No Hard Feelings by Frederick Nebel

Body Snatcher by Theodore Tinsley

Portrait of Murder by George Harmon Coxe

Rat Bait by Dwight V. Babcock

Shylock Is Murdered by Nels Jorgensen

[adamwatchesmovies]

The Mummy’s Curse (1944)

There is a mummy's curse, and it's been making this franchise get worse and worse with each film. 1932's The Mummy set up the groundwork for a new kind of monster. The sequel wasn’t great, but it also brought new numbers to the equation. By the time this fifth picture came around, there’s nothing new, or interesting happening.

Set 25 years after the events of The Mummy’s Ghost, the mummified remains of Princess Ananka (now played by Virginia Christine) have awoken. She leaves the swamp she was buried in (which the script has inexplicably relocated to Louisiana) and transforms into a normal woman. Meanwhile, two representatives from the Scripps Museum, Dr. James Halsey (Dennis Moore) and Dr. Ilzor Zandaab (Peter Coe) arrive on the scene. Halsey has no idea that Zandaab is looking for the mummy Kharis (Lon Chaney, Jr.) in order to bring the Princess back to Egypt.

The film only lasts 62 minutes, everyone one of which is tedious. It makes extensive use of stock footage from The Mummy and The Mummy’s Hand which, combined with the Louisiana location makes it all look awfully cheap. The quality of writing matches. Two scenes in a row have Ananka getting rescued by friendly passers-by, only to be brought into a secure home to rest and then awoken by a rampaging Kharis who promptly murders someone while she runs away. if at least Kharis was cool, but this is a lame villain. He’s slow, only uses one arm to attack people and gives his presence away thanks to his foot dragging. He only manages to crush people’s windpipes because his victims become instantly struck with a case of crippling stupidity and paralysis.

There are two things I enjoyed. The first are some of the side characters. This is one of the few Universal Monster films that features a black man in a speaking role (I hope Napoleon Simpson moved on to bigger, better things). I also enjoyed Ann Codee as Tante Berthe. Normally I wouldn't have singled these out but getting a break from the bland heroes is such a relief. The other aspect that kept me mildly invested is the timeline. The Mummy’s Curse is set 25 years after the previous movie. If you add up the math of The Mummy’s Tomb, set 30 years after The Mummy’s Hand… you have a film made in the 1940's, that looks like it's from the 40's… set in the 1980's. Magnificent.

I don’t even want to think about the bland heroes, one-dimensional villains, been-there-done-that motivations and the lame kidnapping thing. What’s the point where your spotlight monster is so weak and useless it could be taken down by Brendan Fraser? I don’t mean Brendan Fraser’s character from The Mummy 1999, I mean the real-life actor. There’s nothing about The Mummy’s Curse that interesting or memorable. (On DVD, June 26, 2017)

[thecraggus]

House Of Dracula (1945) Dractober Review

Welcome to the house of fang, he survived again, welcome to the Wolf Man's den, Frank too is on his way... House Of Dracula (1945) #Dractober #Review

Last seen getting all skeletal over his coffin on a roadside knoll, Drac’s back and in rude health, although that doesn’t mean he doesn’t want to consult his physician…

Count Dracula (Carradine), posing as Baron Latos (a step up, at least, from Count Alucard) arrives in Visaria to visit the castle home of Dr Franz Edlemann (Onslow Stevens), seeking a cure for his vampirism. Dr Edlemann, whose…

[mariocki]

House of Horrors (1946)

"Listen closely, Clarence my lad, I have penned a deathly masterpiece of barbed invective."

"Ah, don't kid me, Mr. Ormiston, you don't use a pen. I saw you do it on the typewriter - and not very fast, either."

[moviesandmania]

House of Horrors (1945)

House of Horrors (1945)

‘Beautiful artists models and a beastly killer!’

House of Horrors is a 1945 US horror movie directed by Jean Yarborough (She-Wolf of London; The Creeper; Hillbillys in a Haunted House) from a screenplay by George Bricker (Pillow of Death; She-Wolf of London) and story by Dwight V. Babcock (Dead Man’s Eyes; The Jungle Captive) for Universal Pictures.

It was filmed in September 1945 as Murder…

[audiobookers]

New Audiobook has been published on http://www.audiobook.pw/audiobook/black-mask-6-the-bloody-bokhara-and-other-crime-fiction-from-the-legendary-magazine/

Black Mask 6: The Bloody Bokhara: And Other Crime Fiction from the Legendary Magazine

From its launch in 1920 until its demise in 1951, the magazine Black Mask published pulp crime fiction. The first hard-boiled detective stories appeared on its pages. Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler, Erle Stanley Gardner and John D. MacDonald got their start in Black Mask. The urban crime stories that appeared in Black Mask helped to shape American culture. Modern computer games, films, and television are rooted in the fiction popularized by the seminal and venerated mystery pulp magazine (Booklist). Otto Penzler selected and wrote introductions to the best of the best, the darkest of these dark, vintage stories for the collection The Black Lizard Big Book of Black Mask Stories. Now that collection is available for the first time on audio. Includes: -Body Snatcher by Theodore A. Tinsley, read by Richard Ferrone -Murder on the Gayway by Dwight V. Babcock, read by David LeDoux -The Key by Cleve F. Adams, read by Jeff Gurner -The Bloody Bokhara by William Campbell Gault, read by Peter Ganim

[morebadbookcovers]

For me?  You shouldn't have.

[mariocki]

Pillow of Death (1945)

"Are you bringing him into this house?"

"I certainly am. Mr. Fletcher is spending the night here at my request - and please don't be unpleasant about it."

"Don't worry, I'll be in my room with the door locked. And if anyone thinks of murdering me, I'm warning them: I sleep with a gun under my pillow."

"Pleasant, isn't she?"