Scary Movies (Part I)

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When I was in second grade — or maybe it was third grade — I remember spending a Friday night at the home of one of my friends, Gene.

Gene’s mother had died, as I recall, and he lived with his paternal grandmother. His father was never around, and I don’t remember knowing too much about him, except I know he played a role in the household, sending money to help with expenses. I guess I always assumed he was a traveling salesman because he showed up at the house periodically for visits.

Anyway, in those days, the only late-night talk show on TV was Johnny Carson’s show. The other stations seemed to do as they pleased in the hours after the 10 o’clock news until whatever time they signed off.

Late on Friday nights (in this case, "late" means after the 10 o’clock news, which was late by my 8- or 9-year-old standards), one of the Little Rock stations would show old horror movies in a regularly scheduled weekly program with a Count Dracula-like host named Mr. Crypt, who would appear on the screen before and after each commercial break in a catacombs-like set complete with an open casket.

My parents never permitted me to stay up and watch Mr. Crypt on Friday nights. Maybe they thought that whatever I would see would frighten me and give me nightmares. But, like most children who discover there is something they want to do but have been forbidden to do, I persisted — until finally my parents agreed to let me stay up one Friday night and see Mr. Crypt.

The plan was for me to go to Gene’s house that Friday to spend the night. He and I would be allowed to watch Mr. Crypt together — with his grandmother monitoring.

To this day, there are many things about that night that I don’t know, that I never knew.

I don’t know, for example, if my parents and Gene’s grandmother conspired together and watched the TV listings for a movie that was going to be shown on Mr. Crypt that they thought wouldn’t traumatize our young minds. Then, when such a movie listing was found, they decided to allow us to stay up with Mr. Crypt.

Maybe they hoped the movie would be so boring that we would have no more interest in Mr. Crypt.

That’s possible.

But Gene and I were two very excited youngsters that night — and we burned out early, long before the movie came on, and fell asleep. Gene’s grandmother tried to rouse us when the movie came on, but there was never a time when both of us were fully conscious.

My only memories, after being awakened, were of fleeting black-and-white images, some organ music and the obligatory scream — and the occasional commercial break with Mr. Crypt. It seems to me that both Gene and I fell asleep for good after a few minutes and never saw very much of the movie — whatever it was.

I don't think this occurred during the Halloween season. When Gene and I tried to stay up to watch Mr. Crypt, I was still at the age where I dressed up for Halloween and went on trick-or-treat rounds. But I don't associate the Mr. Crypt experience with Halloween at all.

Except for the mutual link to scary movies.

On Thursday, Oct. 30, and Friday, Oct. 31, Turner Classic Movies will be showing the kinds of movies that used to be shown on Mr. Crypt's Friday night program when I was a little boy.

Few, if any, will be listed among the classic films of all time, but they're worth watching if you want to experience the feelings that movies about the wolfman or the mummy or Frankenstein or Dracula used to evoke in the days before Stephen King novels and "Halloween" and "Friday the 13th" movies monopolized the genre.

On Thursday, Oct. 30, you can see:

• "The Thing From Another World" at 3:45 a.m. (Central).


• "Mad Love" with Peter Lorre at 5:15 a.m. (Central).


• "The Beast With Five Fingers" with Peter Lorre at 6:30 a.m. (Central).


• "I Walked With a Zombie" at 8 a.m. (Central).


• "Curse of the Demon" at 9:15 a.m. (Central).


• "The Gorgon" at 11 a.m. (Central).


• "Mr. Sardonicus" at 12:30 a.m. (Central).


• "The Tomb of Ligeia" with Vincent Price at 2:15 p.m. (Central).


• "The Tingler" with Vincent Price at 4 p.m. (Central).


• "House of Usher" with Vincent Price at 5:30 p.m. (Central).


• "Dead of Night" at 7 p.m. (Central).


• "Torture Garden" with Jack Palance and Burgess Meredith at 9 p.m. (Central).


• "Twice-Told Tales" with Vincent Price and Sebastian Cabot at 10:45 p.m. (Central).


• "Kwaidan" at 1 a.m. (Central).

You might be surprised to know that, in spite of some of the titles, these films get pretty good reviews from online reviewers. I haven't seen most of them, but it looks like they have the potential to deliver those Halloween chills.

If those movies don't come through, then, on Halloween, Friday, Oct. 31, you can see:

• "Spirits of the Dead" with Jane Fonda at 3:45 a.m. (Central).


• "Cat People" from 1942 at 6:30 a.m. (Central).


• "Freaks" at 8 a.m. (Central).


• "The Devil Doll" at 9:15 a.m. (Central).


• "Mark of the Vampire" with Bela Lugosi at 10:45 a.m. (Central).


• "The Devil Bat" with Bela Lugosi at noon (Central).


• "White Zombie" with Bela Lugosi at 1:15 p.m. (Central).


• "The Body Snatcher" with Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff at 2:30 p.m. (Central).


• "Bedlam" with Boris Karloff at 4 p.m. (Central).


• "The Ghoul" with Boris Karloff at 5:30 p.m. (Central).


• "The Haunted Palace" with Vincent Price at 7 p.m. (Central).


• "Die, Monster, Die!" with Boris Karloff at 8:30 p.m. (Central).


• "The Shuttered Room" at 10 p.m. (Central).


• "The Dunwich Horror" at 11:45 p.m. (Central).


• "Blood Feast" at 1:30 a.m. (Central).


• "Two Thousand Maniacs!" at 2:45 a.m. (Central).

Halloween just isn't Halloween if you don't watch a scary movie. I'll be writing more about the scary movies that are being televised in the next few weeks.