Naschycast #75 - Don Cunningham Visits!

Independent filmmaker Don Cunningham joins Troy and I to talk about Paul Naschy and how he has influenced Don’s work. We discuss favorite Naschy movies with our guest naming some surprising choices. I love getting different perspectives on the icon’s career and this conversation has a few curves I was not expecting.

Of course, we could barely wait to ask about Don’s wonderful short film THE CASTLE OF BARON FINCH (2024). For this movie Mr. Cunningham writes, directs, produces and stars making him very much a man following in Paul Naschy’s footsteps. We dig into the production process, the genesis of the film’s story and the influences other than Naschy. The film is a (mostly) black & white silent movie featuring a vampire or two and a poor lovestruck soul with a moonlight and hair problem, so naming Jacinto Molina’s work as a major touchstone is perhaps a bit obvious. But this atmospheric little cinematic love letter stands on its own just fine. Don also gives us some details on the film’s release and places to see it. Oh! And I’ve scattered a bit of the fantastic score by Andreu Jacob into the latter half of the show as well.

If you have any comments or questions naschycast@gmail.com is the place to send them. If you want to reach out to Don you can message him on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/CastleBaronFinch or through email at drcushing@yahoo.com – thanks for listening!

NaschyCast - 2024 Mail Bag!

The Naschycast opens the podcast mailbag, dusts off the cobwebs and answers a few questions. Like, why have we waited so long to respond to emails! We could plead a combination of busyness and laziness but that is not an excuse worthy of our fine listeners so we simply apologize and get on with the show.

We work our way through nearly a year of messages with only a few brief trips down barely connected side roads. We discuss the golden age of bootleggers and the discoveries made during that glorious time. Troy announces an upcoming release from his Celtic band The Secret Commonwealth and Rod goes through a listing of the commentary tracks the two of us have contributed to various Blu-Ray releases. And all of this culminates in a feline squabble in the background that signals that things have gone on long enough. We wrap up the show with a tune from another of Troy’s bands, The Exotic Ones. Enjoy!

Remember, naschycast@gmail.com is the place to send us your thoughts and I swear we will eventually read them out – unless you don’t want us to! Thanks for listening.

 

Naschycast #74 - WEREWOLF VS THE VAMPIRE WOMAN (1971) with Robert Kelly

Troy and I are joined by fellow podcaster Robert Kelly, host of Record All Monsters and author of Record All Monsters: the Book of the Essays from the Podcast. Don’t worry – he eventually explains the book’s title and his fascination with kaiju films.  

Robert came to his love of Naschy in a very different manner than either of your Naschycast hosts, getting an unexpected full-strength version of WEREWOLF VS THE VAMPIRE WOMAN (1971) as a gift at far too young an age. The ways in which this may have warped his movie loving mind come under discussion as well as his more adult thoughts about the werewolf as a monster. We use the recent Vinegar Syndrome Blu-Ray as a reference to compare some of the differences in the Spanish and English dubs with crazy Pierre getting attention once again. The conversation ranges from odd spots in the narrative to random details that stick in our minds so don’t expect a coherent march through a synopsis. We were much more interested in picking each other’s brains about Naschy’s werewolf films and other favorites from his career. If you have half as much fun as we did you’ll completely enjoy yourself! 

If you have any comments or questions naschycast@gmail.com is the place to write. We do plan to record an email episode in the near future so now is the time. Thank you very much for listening and we’ll be back soon.  

Naschycast #73 - Blu-Ray Round Up!

The Naschycast returns for a brief overview of the Paul Naschy Blu-Rays that are currently available in Region A. Troy and I decided to record this show to give our North American listeners an indication of the wealth of high-definition offerings still on retail shelves – as long as you search the right retailers! Consider this also a warning that these wonderful discs don’t stay available forever and, in many cases, when they’re gone they are gone for good.

We tried and failed to do a chronological rundown of the Blu-Rays that have come out over the last eight years or so with nods toward some blank spots in Naschy’s career we’d like to see filled with HD glory. The individual companies that have been releasing these Spanish horror classics have been doing us all a good service and let’s hope the releases continue past next year’s long awaited DR. JEKYLL AND THE WOLF MAN!

If you have any comments naschycast@gmail.com is the place to send them. We hope that you have had a good 2023 and that 2024 will be even better! Thank you for listening.

Naschycast #72 - Jon Kitley Visits!

This episode we are joined by Jon Kitley to talk about his love of and history with Paul Naschy! Readers of Horror Hound magazine are aware of his regular column ‘They Came from the Krypt’ but he has also published the book ‘Discover The Horror’ which is part genre exploration and part autobiography. Both Troy and I recommend it. As you might expect from such a conversation, the three of us range all over the place touching on more topics than we could comfortably list.

Suffice to say that we discuss horror conventions (where we all met), non-fiction horror genre books (which we all collect) and our shared fascination with movies and monstrous stories. Of course, we do finally get around to talking about Naschy with Jon falling squarely on my side of the critical Mummy divide! It is about time I had someone to stand with me on that hill! HORROR RISES FROM THE TOMB was our guest’s introduction to the great man’s work and it becomes a big part of our chat. As a bonus, the legendary Spanish character actor Victor Israel gets more than a few minutes of glowing examination too. We had a great time talking Naschy and we hope you’ll enjoy listening. 

If you have any comments or question naschycast@gmail.com is the place to send your emails. Thank you for checking out the show and we’ll be back soon.

NaschyCast #71 - INQUISITION with Marc McCloud

Marc McCloud drops by the show to discuss Naschy’s tale of the Inquisition in France. Marc is the owner of Orbit DVD and a longtime friend of Troy and I, but this is the first time we’ve ever talked about our mutual love of the films of Paul Naschy. Our guest chose Naschy’s directorial debut as the topic and we were happy to oblige.

Religious hypocrisy is a big part of our conversation and this gets us into the thorny area of what to call the subset of exploitation films of which this is a part. We note the influence of the Catholic Church on the nature of the fears that undergird the horrors of the film and wonder about the connections to the Nunsploitation genre. The villains of the story come under scrutiny with an eye toward how they use their relative places of power to extract their desires from those around them. And we speak a little about the ways that women had to work to accomplish things in the society ruled by male religious leaders. Join us for what I will refuse to call a ‘romp’ through INQUISITION.

We end the show with a short email from Kurt and if you’d like to send us your thoughts naschycast@gmail.com is the address. Thank you for listening! 

 

Beyond Naschy #36 - ORLOFF AND THE INVISIBLE MAN (1970)

We return to the Beyond Naschy series with guest Bob Sargent making the choice of film this time out.ORLOFF AND THE INVISIBLE MAN (1970) is not a movie that is often called out as a favorite of even the most hardened Euro-Cult horror fanatics. In the past it has been mistaken as a Jess Franco effort with the director’s name, Pierre Chevalier, suspected of being another of the prolific filmmaker’s many pseudonyms. This appears to not be factual but anyone stumbling across this movie unaware couldn’t be blamed for making that assumption. It shares many of the standard tropes and oddities of one of Franco’s color gothics from the period which makes it a good companion piece of Franco’s EROTIC RITES OF FRANKENSTEIN (1973) and DRACULA, PRISONER OF FRANKENSTEIN (1972). It even sports Franco’s original Orloff actor Howard Vernon as ‘Professor’ Orloff who has somehow created an invisible man for the usual mad scientist reasons. The film’s story is a mish-mash of prematurely buried daughters, accidental murders and greedy servants who are not above a bit of graverobbing. Add to that one of the strangest rape sequences in cinema history and some obviously missing story pieces and you have an entertaining if often confusing 76 minutes. We talk about the cast and crew, including their various Naschy connections. We discuss the missing scenes that can be glimpsed in the French trailer for the film and in the extras included on the old Image DVD. We find some moments of real beauty in the cinematography and some unintentionally funny scenes that just don’t work. The English dialog causes quite a few laughs as we quote some standout circular conversations. Part of our discussion centers on the term ‘guilty pleasure’ and how each of the three of us feel about applying that overused phrase to our love of Euro-Cult cinema. As you might expect, there are more than a few verbal trips down barely connected cinema paths with the final forty-five minute mailbag section becoming a memory lane remembrance of our late friend Craig Ledbetter. If you’d like to add you voice to the show naschycast@gmail.com is the place to send your thoughts and questions. Troy and I are very happy that Bob has joined us again and with a little luck we will have around for the rest of this year’s shows! Thanks for listening.