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James Douglass West, who worked as a child actor alongside Roddy McDowall and Natalie Wood and spent a decade as a writer on Lassie, has died. He was 93.

West died Sunday of natural causes at his home in Studio City, his son, Daniel West, told The Hollywood Reporter.

For the big screen, West penned the original screenplay for the musical Hey Boy! Hey Girl! (1959), starring married couple Keely Smith and Louis Prima, and wrote California (1963), a Western starring Jock Mahoney.

West served for about a year as a story editor for writer-producer Charles Marquis Warren on NBC’s The Virginian, then joined the writing staff of CBS’ Lassie in 1963.

He was on the job during the 1964-65 season when the collie’s family (played by June Lockhart, Hugh Reilly and Jon Provost) move to Australia and Lassie gets paired with a Forest Service Ranger portrayed by Robert Bray.

Campbell Soup,...

Sally Field is so happy to be reunited with Dashiell Hammett.

The two-time Oscar-winning actor had been missing her cuddly Cavapoo — who’s nicknamed Dash — all morning while she was away rehearsing for “80 for Brady,” a road-trip movie she stars in with Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin and Rita Moreno about four best friends who travel to the 2017 Super Bowl to see New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady in action.

When Field arrives at our Variety studio, she is joined by her furry companion (brought to her by her assistant), who winds up sharing some screen time with the actor for our cover shoot and video interview. The two had bonded during the pandemic.

“When I got him, I think it really saved my life because my focus was on this little dog,” Field recalls.

Field says that Covid presented a unique set of challenges, but the actor is no stranger to struggle.

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By Mark Cerulli

Mike Henry, the rugged former football player-turned-actor, passed away on January 8, 2021 after a long battle with Parkinson’s disease and Chronic traumatic encephalopathy, likely from his heavy physical contact during his years in the NFL playing for the Pittsburgh Steelers and LA Rams. Although not a household name, Henry carved out an impressive career playing heroic roles, most notably Tarzan in three films from 1966 – 68. I remember stumbling across Tarzan And the Valley of Gold on network TV as a kid and being enthralled by this hulking, well-spoken Tarzan who wore a suit in one scene and the traditional loincloth in the next. Henry took over the role of Tarzan from Jock Mahoney Blessed with a chiseled physique that Weintraub crowed looked like it was “sculpted by Michelangelo”, Henry could easily handle the athletic demands of the coveted part.

What Henry...

This dubious mix of war combat and faith-based inspiration is as well directed as any of Douglas Sirk’s films, even if literally every scene seems to be saying the wrong thing. Combat pilot Col. Dean Hess helped found and publicize a major orphanage in South Korea, but as personified by a pious Rock Hudson his story comes off as a public relations gambit. A fine cast empowers the grandstanding bid for sainthood, where ‘Killer Hess’ channels his guilt into good works. The aerial footage is outstanding — Sirk really loved his airplanes.

Battle Hymn

Blu-ray

Kl Studio Classics

1957 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 108 min. / Street Date April 27, 2021 / available through Kino Lorber / 24.95

Starring: Rock Hudson, Dan Duryea, Anna Kashfi, James Edwards, Martha Hyer, Philip Ahn, James Hong, Don DeFore, Jock Mahoney, Carl Benton Reid, Alan Hale Jr., Bartlett Robinson, Carleton Young, William Hudson.

Cinematography: Russell Metty

Film Editor: Russel F. Schoengarth

Art Directors: Alexander Golitzen,...

Our Halloween episode! The legendary actor and star of Shudder’s The Mortuary Collection talks about his favorite horror movies from his childhood.

Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode

The Mortuary Collection (2020), now streaming on Shudder!

Nightmare Cinema (2019)

We Come In Pieces: The Rebirth of the Horror Anthology Film (2014)

Bad Boys (1983)

Gentle Giant (1967)

Gone In 60 Seconds (1974)

The Green Slime (1969)

Battle Royale (2000)

The Shawshank Redemption (1994)

Tarzan’s Three Challenges (1963)

The Professionals (1966)

Dracula, Prince of Darkness (1966)

Ultraman (1967)

Batman (1966)

The Curse of Frankenstein (1957)

Horror of Dracula (1958)

The Brides of Dracula (1960)

Psycho (1960)

Jack The Ripper (1959)

Dracula A.D. 1972 (1972)

The Satanic Rites of Dracula (1973)

Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1974)

Count Dracula (1977)

Son of Dracula (1943)

Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992)

The Haunting (1963)

The Haunting (1999)

The Others (2001)

The Babysitter Murders (2015)

Halloween (1978)

Frankenstein (1931)

King Kong (1933)

Scanners (1981)

Wisconsin Death Trip (1999)

Bride of Frankenstein (1935)

The Bride (1985)

Young Frankenstein (1974)

The Love Bug (1968)

Son of Frankenstein (1939)

Son of Kong (1933)

The Road Back (1937)

Crimson Peak...

Linda Cristal, the Golden Globe-winning actress who portrayed Victoria Cannon, the wife of Leif Erickson's character, on the 1967-71 NBC Western The High Chaparral, has died. She was 89.

Cristal died Saturday at her home in Beverly Hills, her son Jordan Wexler told The New York Times.

On the big screen, Cristal appeared with Jock Mahoney in The Last of the Fast Guns (1958), with John Wayne in The Alamo (1960), with James Stewart in John Ford's Two Rode Together (1961) and with Charles Bronson in Mr. Majestyk (1974).

In 1959, she won her first Golden Globe — as most promising ...

Linda Cristal, the Golden Globe-winning actress who portrayed Victoria Cannon, the wife of Leif Erickson's character, on the 1967-71 NBC Western The High Chaparral, has died. She was 89.

Cristal died Saturday at her home in Beverly Hills, her son Jordan Wexler told The New York Times.

On the big screen, Cristal appeared with Jock Mahoney in The Last of the Fast Guns (1958), with John Wayne in The Alamo (1960), with James Stewart in John Ford's Two Rode Together (1961) and with Charles Bronson in Mr. Majestyk (1974).

In 1959, she won her first Golden Globe — as most promising ...

By John M. Whalen

Quentin Tarantino’s “Once Upon a Time . . . in Hollywood” is a mad, wild romp through a film geek’s mind—a hallucinatory homage to America’s dream factory. It’s also a funny/sad farewell to a time when people believed in the dreams the factory once delivered on a regular basis. Rick Dalton (Leonardo DiCaprio) is an actor who once had a popular TV western series called “Bounty Law.” The series got canceled and he’s making a living playing villains in guest star roles in other TV series. His agent Marvin Schwarzs (Al Pacino) advises him to go to Italy to make spaghetti westerns lest he finally fade into bad guy oblivion. Dalton’s friend, stunt double, and confidence booster, Cliff Booth (Brad Pitt), thinks it would be a great idea, especially since Dalton’s drinking is beginning to impact his career.

Tarantino plays...

“Behind A Barrier Of Antarctic Ice…A Paradise Of Hidden Terrors!” Universal-International laid out a pretty penny to film this elaborate spin on The Lost World, modernized to take in discoveries at the South Pole. It’s a showcase for fancy B&W opticals and traveling mattes … but the featured monster stars are a big letdown — a pathetic rubber costume for a T-Rex and a clunky mechanical water dragon. And the leading lady screams as she pretends to be entangled in a man woman-eating plant!

The Land Unknown

Blu-ray

Kl Studio Classics

1957 / B&W / 2:35 widescreen / 78 min. / Street Date , 2019 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95

Starring: Jock Mahoney, Shawn Smith, William Reynolds, Henry Brandon, Douglas Kennedy, Phil Harvey, Shirley Patterson.

Cinematography: Ellis W. Carter

Film Editor: Fred MacDowell

Visual Effects: Orien Ernest, Jack Kevan, Fred Knoth, Roswell A. Hoffman, Clifford Stine

Original Music: Henry Mancini, Heinz Roemheld, Hans J. Salter, Herman Stein

Written by László Görög,...

By John M. Whalen

Back in 1978, Burt Reynolds was still at the beginning of a cycle of six action comedies that he made with director Hal Needham—a cycle that started with “Smokey and the Bandit “(1977) and ended with “Cannonball Run II” (1984). One of the best of these films was “Hooper”—a tribute to Hollywood’s unsung hero, the Hollywood stunt man. “Hooper” was a very personal film for both Reynolds and Needham who both started their movie careers as stunt doubles. Needham started doing stunt work in the early years of live TV in New York and is best remembered for his stunt driving in Steve McQueen’s “Bullitt” (1968). Reynolds also began in TV and parlayed his athletic ability along with his good looks to become one of tinseltown’s biggest stars. In a very real way, “Hooper” is even more personal film for Reynolds, because one of the...

By John M. Whalen

After making six Tarzan films, the last two,“Tarzan’s Greatest Adventure” (1959) and “Tarzan the Magnificent” (1960), considered among the best ever made, actor Gordon Scott hung up the loin cloth to star in movies in Italy. Producer Sy Weintraub, who had taken Tarzan out of the back lots of Hollywood and filmed on location in Africa, wanted to continue the series and put the ape man in even more exotic locations. He had India in mind for the next Tarzan adventure, but now suddenly he had to find a new Lord of the Jungle. He didn’t have to look very far. “Tarzan the Magnificent” had featured stunt man turned actor, Jock Mahoney as villain Coy Banton, in a performance that was every bit as physically demanding as it was for Scott.

Even at age 41, when “Magnificent” was made, Mahoney was in incredible shape. At six foot four,...

Tarzan Goes to India/Tarzan’s Three Challenges

Blu ray

Warner Archives

1962, 1963 / 2:35:1 / 88 Min., 92 Min. / Street Date – January 29, 2019

Starring Jock Mahoney, Simi Garewal, Woody Strode

Cinematography by Paul Beeson, Edward Scaife

Directed by John Guillermin, Robert Day

Jane Goodall fell for Tarzan at an early age – ‘he married the wrong Jane’ she said, half joking. A confirmed tree-hugger, the King of the Apes would seem to be a perfect match for the nature loving primatologist – even though the greater part of Tarzan’s big screen career played out in backlot jungles rather than the real thing.

Producer Sy Weintraub rectified that situation with Tarzan Goes to India and Tarzan’s Three Challenges – both sleekly made widescreen entertainments that put the jungle lord in his proper element. Made on location in India and Thailand, the films are a non-stop parade of cliffhanging serial thrills that revel in the raw beauty...

Jock Mahoney in Tarzan Goes To India and Tarzan’S Three Challenges are now available On Blu-ray from Warner Archives! Ordering information can be found Here

Tarzan Goes To India (1962)

No need to land the plane when Tarzan flies to India. Just fly over an inland lake and the loin-clothed hero will leap into its blue depths! Jock Mahoney, who two years earlier portrayed Tarzan’s foe in Tarzan the Magnificent, makes his splashy debut as Tarzan in this tale about the Ape-Man’s rescue of elephants who will be doomed when a newly built dam unleashes its waters. John Guillermin directs, combining colorful subcontinent locales with battles large and thunderous (massive bull elephants), small and fierce (cobra versus mongoose), cunning and treacherous (Tarzan against human foes). No matter where the jungle, there is but one jungle lord!

John Guillermin (Tarzan’s Greatest Adventure) directs this tale of action and intrigue in the subcontinent.

Tarzan got a new lease on life when a film company finally went to Africa to pit the excellent ‘Lord of the Jungle’ Gordon Scott against a formidable phalanx of villains. Anthony Quayle, Sean Connery and Niall MacGinnis are perfect Dastards of the Darkest Continent. Also top-flight are the women in this jungle combat, wicked Scilla Gabel and naughty Sara Shane. Fun for adult kids of all ages!

Tarzan’s Greatest Adventure

Blu-ray

Warner Archive Collection

1959 / Color / 1:78 widescreen / 87 min. / Street Date November 13, 2018 / available through the WBshop / 21.99

Starring: Gordon Scott, Anthony Quayle, Sara Shane, Niall MacGinnis, Sean Connery, Al Mulock, Scilla Gabel.

Cinematography: Edward Scaife

Film Editor: Bert Rule

Original Music: Douglas Gamley

Written by Les Crutchfield, Berne Giler, John Guillermin from the character created by Edgar Rice Burroughs

Produced by Harvey Hayutin, Sy Weintraub

Directed by John Guillermin

Of all the big-screen Tarzans — Johnny Weissmuller, Lex Barker, Jock Mahoney,...

She's supportive but cautious. Country music legend Dolly Parton is often heralded as a feminist icon, so it would make sense that Dolly would be very supportive of the #MeToo movement — a social media campaign that started shortly after the sexual harassment and sexual assault allegations against Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein last year, in order to show how many women have experienced sexual assault and harassment in their lifetime. But Dolly also expressed her concerns about the movement in an interview with The Mail on Sunday’s Event magazine. "I am very supportive of those women who are speaking out — no woman should be abused — but we can’t turn it into saying all men are bad. I don’t like that," the 72-year-old told The Mail on Sunday's Event. View this post on Instagram Sometimes quiet time with my guitar is all I need for a happy heart. What...

Things haven't always been easy for Sally Field. And in her new memoir, In Pieces, the iconic actress reflects on her tumultuous childhood. Sally — who grew up with her older brother, Rick, and younger half-sister, Princess — once described herself as "a little stress case with a brand-new family and a constant stomachache that no one could explain.” The Mrs. Doubtfire's alcoholic mother divorced Sally's father, Dick Field, when Sally was four years old. Just one year later, she remarried to Jock Mahoney. However, her stepdad began sexually abusing her when she was a teenager, which she chronicles in her new book. (Photo Credit: Getty Images) "We didn’t have a real easy childhood," Rick, 74, acknowledges to Closer in the magazine's newest issue, on newsstands now. "[Jocko] was not a very nice man." He added, "I would try to protect her. We basically had to define our own path." That time was...

Sally Field’s new memoir is revealing a whole new side of the actress — including her relationship with one of the most famous men in Hollywood.

Field, 71, opens up about various heartbreaking and intensely personal moments of her life in her new book In Pieces. In it, she touches on her childhood sexual abuse, her eating disorder to her tenuous relationship with Burt Reynolds.

Here are six surprising revelations from Fields’ memoir, which is now available for purchase.

She was sexually and emotionally abused by her stepfather, actor and stuntman Jock Mahoney.

Field’s mother, Margaret, filed for divorce from her father,...

Hollywood icon Sally Field's higly-anticipated memoir, In Pieces, doesn't offcially hit bookshelves until next week but the "incredibly raw, intimate, and personal" topics the 71-year-old actress touches on in her book are already making headlines. During a new interview with The New York Times to discuss her autobiography, Sally candidly opened up about her childhood and revealed she was sexually abused by her famous stepfather, Jock Mahoney, as a teenager. (Photo Credit: Getty Images) Sally recalled that she would often be called alone into Jock's bedroom when she was just 14 years old. "I knew. I felt both a child, helpless, and not a child. Powerful. This was power. And I owned it. But I wanted to be a child — and yet," the Oscar winner wrote in her book, according to the Nyt. In her autobiography, Sally also opened up about her famed Hollywood romance with Burt Reynolds, who sadly passed away on Sept.

Sally Field is relieved Burt Reynolds won’t get the chance to read her memoir.

The actress, 71, opened up about her feelings regarding the icon’s death and her book, In Pieces, in an interview with The New York Times, published Tuesday.

“This would hurt him,” Field, who was in a relationship with Reynolds from 1977 to 1982, told the newspaper. “I felt glad that he wasn’t going to read it, he wasn’t going to be asked about it, and he wasn’t going to have to defend himself or lash out, which he probably would have.”

“I did not...

Sally Field’s upcoming memoir, “In Pieces,” won’t be read by her former lover and co-star Burt Reynolds and, for that, the actress is grateful, she told The New York Times.

“This would hurt him,” Field said in an interview published Tuesday, following Reynolds’ death last week at the age of 82. “I felt glad that he wasn’t going to read it, he wasn’t going to be asked about it, and he wasn’t going to have to defend himself or lash out, which he probably would have. I did not want to hurt him any further.”

Field starred with Reynolds in movies like “Smokey and the Bandit” and “Hooper,” and off screen the pair had a romantic relationship that, she told the Times, was “confusing and complicated, and not without loving and caring, but really complicated and hurtful to me.”

Also Read: When Burt Reynolds Complained About...

Sally Field described her memoir, In Pieces, as “incredibly raw, intimate and personal” — and she meant it.

The two-time Oscar-winning actress, 71, spoke with the New York Times recently about the revelations of the book, including a shocking allegation about her stepfather, actor and stuntman Jock Mahoney. Field says that when she was 14 years old, he would frequently call her into his bedroom alone.

“I knew,” she wrote in her memoir, according to the Nyt. “I felt both a child, helpless, and not a child. Powerful. This was power. And I owned it. But I wanted to be a child — and yet.

For her memoir, Sally Field was an open book. The iconic Oscar winner has spent most of her life in the spotlight, but despite all those years of public life, there are some things the 71-year-old star has managed to keep private—until now. According to The New York Times, Field divulges a number of personal revelations in her upcoming new memoir, In Pieces, including the abuse she suffered at the hand of her stepfather and the secret abortion she had in Mexico at 17. In 1952, her mother Margaret Field got remarried to actor Jock Mahoney. "It would have been so much easier if I'd only felt one thing, if Jocko had been nothing but cruel and frightening. But he...

By John M. Whalen

“Death Valley Days” was a half-hour western anthology series that ran for 20 years on radio starting in 1930, continued on TV for 18 seasons (1952-1970), and is still being shown on cable TV today. The series, noted for its authentic detail and historical accuracy, was created by British writer Ruth Woodman at the request of Pacific Coast Borax, the company that made 20 Mule Team Borax. The company wanted a series that tied in with their detergent product, and since Borax is principally mined in Death Valley, Woodman suggested the series be focused on stories based on the history and geography of that area. She made frequent trips to the borax mines and the surrounding vicinity digging up historical tidbits that could be used as the basis for stories. She eventually became one of the foremost experts on that period and place in history.

For the first 11 years of its run,...

By Lee Pfeiffer

Probably no genre illustrates the rapid advance of cinematic screen freedoms than the biker movie. The genre debuted in 1953 with Marlon Brando in "The Wild One". The film, which chronicled the virtual takeover of a small California town by a wild motorcycle gang, was considered extremely controversial at the time. The biker film remained largely dormant until the release of Roger Corman's "The Wild Angels" in 1966, which became a surprising boxoffice and media sensation. Only a year or two before, teenage audiences were being fed a steady diet of white bread rock 'n roll films that bore little resemblance to real life. Suddenly, the biker film blatantly presented raging hormones, gang wars, drug use and group sex without apology. Young people patronized these films in droves. With social constraints falling by the minute, the biker films- cheaply made as they were- spoke to the emerging generation...

He wrecked hundreds of cars, fell from tall buildings, got blown up and was dragged by horses. As a stuntman, he broke 56 bones, including his back twice! Memphis-born Hal Needham revolutionized the art of the stuntman in films such as How The West Was Won, Stagecoach (1966), Hellfighters, Little Big Man, and hundreds of TV shows. He was a regular stunt double for Burt Reynolds and began his movie directing career with Burt as his lead in Smokey And The Bandit, the second highest-grossing film of 1977 next to Star Wars. He would direct Reynolds in four more films including Stroker Ace, Cannonball Run, and Hooper, which was not a tribute to just stuntmen in general, but to Needham’s hero Jock Mahoney , considered the greatest stuntman in Hollywood (and the stepfather of Hooper co-star Sally Field). Needham’s Megaforce (1982) is an ‘80s time capsule kitsch masterpiece and the delirious The Villain...

Eddie Romero dies: Filipino filmmaker best known for his exploitation horror and action movies Eddie Romero, one of most best-known Filipino filmmakers, died of prostate cancer on Tuesday, May 28. Romero was 88. Named a National Artist of the Philippines in 2003, Romero (born on July 7, 1924, in Dumaguete City) began his film career in the late ’40s, when The Philippines were still recovering from the devastation of World War II. His international reputation rests chiefly on his low-budget horror and action movies; usually Filipino / American co-productions made in collaboration with actor-producer John Ashley. Among those are the the horror sci-fier Brides of Blood (1968), featuring veteran Kent Taylor, Beverly Powers, tropical-island natives, and radioactively mutated human-eating plants; Beast of Blood (1971), featuring John Ashley and a headless monster; The Twilight People (1972), which has no connection to either Stephenie Meyer or the Cullen Clan — in the film, reminiscent of Erle C. Kenton’s Island of Lost Souls...

In the late 1960s and early 70s, few actors stood as tall in their heroic roles as Ron Ely.

From television’s Tarzan to the big screen’s Doc Savage: The Man of Bronze, Ely’s 6-foot-4-inch muscular frame made the scenery cower when he stepped before a camera.

The 74-year-old actor stands just as tall today, commanding audiences with his tales of those golden days of pulp fiction on film. Warner Archive Collection has brought Ely’s best-loved roles back into the

spotlight, making the classic titles available on DVD and through its new live-streaming service, Warner Archive Instant.

Premiering on NBC in 1966, Edgar Rice Burroughs’ immortal creation, Tarzan, took to the nation’s TV screens for the first time. Still in the capable hands of producer Sy Weintraub, the TV Tarzan (the

aforementioned Mr. Ely) continued the more recent (and more authentic) interpretation of Lord Greystoke as a sophisticated,...

September 8, 1966 was a pretty big night of television for fans of the fantastic. NBC ran a sneak peek of several new shows a week prior to the formal premiere of the prime time season. At 7:30, Ron Ely first swung on a vine across trees as Tarzan while an hour later, Captain James T. Kirk confronted the Salt Vampire on the first airing of Star Trek. While the latter has gone on to great international fame, the former series has always been somewhat eclipsed.

Warner Archive, bless their souls, has rectified that by releasing the complete first season of the two season series. You can find the first fifteen episodes on four discs comprising Tarzan Season One, Volume One while the remaining sixteen episodes are available in the second volume. Warner has done a nice job cleaning the prints and the show looks pretty darn good.

It was also a...

John Carter, based on the John Carter of Mars series written by Edgar Rice Burroughs, was released last weekend with underwhelming box-office results in North America. Expect a more enthusiastic reception for the Warner Archive's release of the late '60s television series Tarzan (season one, in two parts) in celebration of the Lord of the Apes' 100th anniversary. Ron Ely stars, while guests include former Tarzan Jock Mahoney, Academy Award nominee Julie Harris (The Member of the Wedding), Star Trek's Nichelle Nichols, Woody Strode, Russ Tamblyn, Maurice Evans, Jack Elam, and Chips Rafferty. Also coming out via the Warner Archive Collection are several lesser-known titles that should definitely be worth a look, especially considering the talent involved. Released in a newly remastered print, the 1941 drama Rage in Heaven was directed by W.S. Van Dyke (aka "One-Take Woody"), and stars Ingrid Bergman, Robert Montgomery, and George Sanders. Christopher Isherwood contributed to the screenplay.

Margaret Field, best remembered for the 1951 sci-fier The Man From Planet X, died at her Malibu home on Sunday, Nov. 6, the day her daughter Sally Field turned 65. Margaret Field, who had been diagnosed with cancer six years ago, was 89. Directed by cult B-movie director Edgar G. Ulmer, The Man From Planet X turned out to be the highlight of Field's film career. The story revolves around a mysterious journalist (Robert Clarke) who may or may not be an alien with ties to a spaceship that has landed near an observatory on a remote Scottish island. Most of Field's previous movie appearances had been uncredited bit parts, chiefly in Paramount productions such as The Perils of Pauline, Night Has a Thousand Eyes, and Samson and Delilah. Her parts got bigger following The Man from Planet X, but they remained subpar roles in mostly B movies. Among those were Philip Ford's...

We've had the pleasure of sitting down with many members of the film and special effects world over the past few years and to be honest it's possibly one of the most rewarding parts of the job. Today we meet up with the one and only Dick Warlock, a man that has seen it all from cult fame as Michael Myers in Halloween 2 to working with director James Cameron and in between. Sit back as we go one on one with The Dick Warlock...

First and foremost, how did you get into acting and stunt work?

It all started when I was 10 or 11 years old. You might say I was the local daredevil. I would, while playing Cowboys and Indians, fall out of trees and off of different things like porches etc. I once fell out of a tree catching pigeons and broke my wrist. I was playing baseball...

The good news for Shemp-o-holics is that Sony has released, as part of their ongoing Three Stooges project, their first all-Shemp set. Last March's release, Volume Five, was Shemp-heavy, but kicked off with the final ten, quite depressing shorts with a badly debilitated Curly as the Third Stooge. Now we've got Shemp from start to finish, and the set includes (and why we note it here) a number of comical fantasy and horror yarns.

Right off the bat, in fact, we're in horror territory with "The Ghost Talks;" that's the good news. The bad news is that it's one of the weaker shorts in this collection--a precursor of the coming Joe Besser/Curly-Joe DeRita "Dark Ages" with a whimsical, kid-friendly "menace" and the Stooges acting like whiny, weepy kids. The storm-swept setting is Smorgasbord Castle where furniture movers Shemp, Larry and Moe encounter a talking suit of armor--the ghost of Peeping Tom,...