Thursday Movie Picks-Sci-Fi Horror

This is the week where I will get scared to death by seeing all the Alien and Predator movies. I still can't watch any Alien film because it just scares the bejeebies out of me. I went old school again....really old school because I love silent films. Head on over to the brainchild of this series, Wandering Through The Shelves to see what the other film lovers have chosen.

1. DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE-1920

I said I would go old school and this film is 96 years old so...very old school and yes, silent. I actually just watched this film on Monday since I was crippled up and home from work. I think we all know the story about a nice, handsome, good man who is a doctor engaged to a loving young woman. He becomes intrigued and then obsessed with the duality of human nature...good and bad that is inherent in all of us. He concocts a potion that can bring out the evil part of his nature resulting in Mr. Hyde. This is the film that freaked audiences out way back when and made this story famous. John Barrymore of (hiccup) theatre and film fame( and alcoholism) stars as the famous doctor and he plays it to his hammiest best. I did laugh a little when he was changing into Hyde but that was his style. His makeup as Hyde is truly stellar and you can see the human in the evil Hyde. It co-stars the pretty and tragic Martha Mansfield( she died while making a movie, in 1923, when her costume caught fire) and the temptress Nita Naldi. Oh...yes, Drew Barrymore is related to John...it's her grandfather. There are tons of versions of this classic.

2.  THE DEVIL DOLL-1936

When I was a teen, I was home alone for the weekend and my home was large and creaky. It was close to Halloween and my imagination was getting the better of me. I did not feel like watching The Omen or the many scary movies that were on. I watched the Love Boat but now I was stuck about what to do. I turned to Saturday Night At The Movies hosted by the great Elwy Yost and found this film. Lionel Barrymore, brother of John,  stars as a wrongly convicted man who escapes prison with a mad scientist(of course). The Mad scientist dies but not before showing Lionel's character his invention of making humans smaller. The reason....to try to stop the food sources from disappearing. The "innocent" convict decides to use this on the people who actually did the bad deed. I love this movie as it made me forget that Sasquatch could be looking through the living room window and enjoy Lionel Barrymore's performance especially since he plays an old lady in much of this film which is a hoot to see. This is a fun movie and love the effects considering this was made in the 1930's.

3. THE FLY-1958

This is the original  that made many people go...ewwwwwww. It stars David Hedison as a loving scientist, with a wife and young son, who is developing a way to transport his body from one place to another. He is successful with inanimate objects and proceeds to try this on their poor cat and then finally himself. Unfortunately, he doesn't realize a fly is in the box with him and they change matter so he ends up with the head and arm of the fly. He informs his wife not to look under the towel over his head and search for the fly so he can reverse the process (She doesn't listen and takes the towel off of course). His mind slowly becomes that of the fly and he asks his wife to end his suffering. It co-stars Vincent Price and I was fine with this movie until the very end when they find the fly...in a spider web. I can never hear "Help Me" quite the same way again. This film was remade with Jeff Goldbloom and was parodied by the Simpsons.

I went all mad scientist this week. What films would you choose?