Terrifying Tuesdays: This Week's Favorite Mid-Century Scary Movies to Watch (Week 4)

From Amazon

Happy Halloween!  For this last week of favorite mid-century scary movies, I have links to six of the seven movies I have listed.  First up is "The Monster That Challenged the World" (1957) which can be viewed on DailyMotion here.  An earthquake in California releases prehistoric giant molluscs with a taste for humans and the ability to reproduce quickly in California's waterways.  Can the US navy stop them in time?  Find out by watching the film!

From Amazon

Next up we have "Mysterious Island" (1961) which can be watched here on DailyMotion.  Four prisoners being held in a Confederate army prison escape in a balloon along with a Confederate soldier who tries to stop them.  A violent storm blows them off course and causes them to crash on an unknown island.  Here they struggle to survive while attempting to figure out a way to leave the island, which is full of unusual oversized creatures and a menacing volcano.  Will they survive long enough to escape the Mysterious Island?  Watch the movie if you want to find out!

The third film, which you can watch on YouTube (above), is "The Quatermass Xperiment" (1955), AKA "The Creeping Unknown" in the United States.  A manned rocket designed by Professor Bernard Quatermass crash lands to Earth, and only one of the three astronauts on board survives.  As he recovers in a hospital, the astronaut begins to undergo horrendous changes and escapes.  Quatermass must track the man down and find a way to stop him before he spreads an alien organism that will destroy the world.  Will Quatermass succeed?  See the film to find out!

From Amazon

A giant bug movie is next for your viewing pleasure (I could not find a free video showing for Them! (1954), the second giant bug movie on my list for this week).  The link for Tarantula (1955) on Vimeo is available here.  Leo G. Carroll stars as a research scientist whose experiments go horribly awry, creating an enormous tarantula that threatens a small Arizona town.  Can the local doctor and the scientist's newest research assistant (played by John Agar and Mara Corday, respectively) find a way to stop the horrendous beast?  Once again, you can only find out if you watch the film!

Image from Amazon (DVD link here)

Last but not least for this week is "The Uninvited" (1944), which is my favorite classic ghost movie.  The only video link I could find is in two parts on DailyMotion - see Part 1 here and Part 2 here.  Brother and sister Roderick (Ray Milland) and Pamela (Ruth Hussey) Fitzgerald accidentally stumble upon and fall in love with an unoccupied seaside abode called Windward House, and are able to purchase it from the owner, Commander Beech (Donald Crisp) for an unusually low price.  They soon find out that there is a reason the house was such a bargain, and delve into the mystery of the house which involves the Commander's deceased daughter Mary, his granddaughter Stella (Gail Russell), and his daughter's best friend, the superbly sinister Miss Holloway (Cornelia Otis Skinner).  With the help of the local doctor (Alan Napier) they eventually find out why the house is haunted, but not without several perilous moments for young Stella.  Throw in a cute little dog, a motherly housekeeper with a fluffy cat, and a few comedic moments from Milland's character, and you have the most perfect cozy creepy ghost story to watch on All Hallow's Eve!

So there you have it - six links to free online videos perfect for scary Halloween viewing!  Have fun watching one or more or even all of them today if you so desire, or do whatever it is that makes you happy on this spooky holiday (just pace yourself with the Halloween candy 😜).  👻🎃💀🐍👽

On the Homefront: Traveling by Train from Lamy, NM, to Pittsburgh, PA, and Back - Is It Worth It? Part 3

At the end of my last post, I had settled in for the night in my roomette and slept surprisingly well.  In the morning, I woke up to the view shown above, a view that would pretty much dominate the landscape once we left Colorado and until the train reached its final destination at Chicago's Union Station - miles and miles of endless cornfields!  I got myself ready for the day and headed to the dining car for an early breakfast.

The breakfast menu had a decent number of choices, freshly prepared of course.  I opted for the simple scrambled eggs with cheese and fried potatoes, and enjoyed my tasty and well-cooked breakfast.  My only objection was that, as a tea drinker, I only had the option of Lipton tea, which I do not like.  Fortunately I always bring my own teabags when I travel, so I asked for hot water and milk and brewed my own cup of Twinings English Breakfast tea.  After breakfast I headed back to my room, which the car attendant had set up for the day by folding up the bed, removing the sheets, and setting up the seating areas again.  I was still feeling a bit queasy, but I was able to do a few stretches in my roomette by bracing my feet against the opposing seats to keep from falling over on the moving train!  Then I sat down to read and watch the cornfields go by, getting out at the few stops where we had time to disembark to walk around and get some fresh air.

We were due to arrive in Chicago in the early afternoon and luckily our train was on time.  After spending about 24 hours on the train, I was ready for a break on solid ground!  I received a message from Amtrak before arriving at the station which let me know that, because I was a passenger in a sleeping car, I had the privilege of waiting for my connecting train to Pittsburgh in the Metropolitan Lounge.  Having never been to this station before I was not quite sure where to find the lounge, but I asked a couple of security guards for directions and found it pretty easily.  I showed my ticket to the attendant at the counter in the entrance to the lounge, where I was given a ticket for use of the lounge and waved through to the seating area.

The lounge is not fancy, but it is clean and has plenty of comfortable seating as well as outlets for recharging any devices such as phones.  There are also snacks and beverages available (I think they are free but I did not get any so I am not sure), as well as several televisions set on a couple of not very exciting stations (game shows or old TV shows).  I only had a few hours to wait for my train, and I was fortunate enough to sit near a couple of women who were friendly and chatty, so I passed the time pleasantly until my train to Pittsburgh arrived right on time.  One of the women unfortunately had to wait hours for her long-delayed train to San Francisco, and another train passenger mentioned that the station had pretty much shut down the night before because of an unexpected loss of power, so I was very lucky to have arrived when I did!  When my train arrived a porter escorted all passengers from the lounge to the boarding platform so that we would not have to wander around trying to find it ourselves, which was very convenient.

The train trip to Pittsburgh was about 12 hours and pretty much mostly overnight.  We boarded in time to have dinner, so after I dropped my belongings in my roomette I went to the dining car.  I shared a table with another woman passenger and we both ordered the salmon from the menu.  There was no chef on this train, so unfortunately the meals were pretty much the same as prepackaged airplane food, edible but not especially good.  My poor fellow passenger was on her way to South Carolina, and the approaching Hurricane Idalia meant that her train from Washington DC to her final destination had been cancelled.  She would be stuck in DC until Amtrak could reschedule her train, and because the cancellation was weather-related she was responsible for finding a place to stay until then.  She planned to spend her time waiting in the train station lounge instead of trying to find a hotel, which sounded ghastly to me.  Apparently if a cancellation is due to some sort of man-made snafu, such as the power outage in Chicago, Amtrak is responsible for accommodating passengers, but if cancellations are weather-related then Amtrak is off the hook.  So my tip number five when traveling by train is to try to avoid destinations and/or times of year when inclement weather may lead to train cancellations!

My train was scheduled to arrive at Pittsburgh's Union Station at 5 o'clock in the morning, and my brother who still lives in the area was coming to pick me up.  For some reason, even though we were traveling at night, the train ended up being an hour late.  I texted this information to my brother so that he would not have to wait at the station for an hour.  The train station in Pittsburgh is undergoing renovations so it is not looking at its best right now, but thankfully my brother was there to meet me so I did not have to wait in the station.  It was actually a good thing that the train arrived so early in the morning, as the station is right in the middle of the downtown area and later in the day traffic would be horrendous.

I finally arrived at my destination for my family's little Labor Day reunion, still a bit queasy, in need of a shower because I was not willing to take my chances on falling in the train shower on a moving train, hungry because I disembarked so early in the morning that breakfast was not available, and desperate for a chance to take a good walk for some exercise after spending so much time sitting or lying down on the train.  But at least I made it!

In the next post and hopefully final post in this series, I will give a quick summary of my visit and then describe my return trip by train.  And you will finally find out if I considered this mode of travel worth it!  See you in the next post for my trip back home.

Terrifying Tuesdays: This Week's Favorite Mid-Century Scary Movies to Watch (Week 3)

This week I have quite a few links to some favorite mid-century scary movies to share, so let's get started!  First up is "House on Haunted Hill" (1959), starring Vincent Price as a millionaire throwing a very spooky birthday party for his scheming wife in a haunted house full of jump scares and plot twists that will make you glad you were not invited to the party.  The video from YouTube is shown above.

Next up is a YouTube link shown above to the movie "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" (1956).  Kevin McCarthy, Dana Wynter, Carolyn Jones, and King Donovan star as four friends and residents of a small California town trying to escape from a terrifying alien invasion.  This classic has been remade a couple of times but the original is still my favorite.

The third link from YouTube (above) is the film "Island of Terror" (1966), starring Peter Cushing (my all-time favorite scary movie star) as one of a team of scientists who travel to a remote Irish island to investigate an unusual death, only to find that this death is not a solitary incident and the cause is something so horrifying that the entire island is soon endangered.

From Amazon

I have two more movie links but I will not load them in this post because they are available on DailyMotion and I have found that if I share their videos here they run continuously.  "It Came from Outer Space" (1953) stars Richard Carlson as an amateur astronomer who witnesses what he assumes is a meteor crash in the Arizona desert.  He soon discovers that the object is more than just a meteor, and strange occurrences in his town are directly linked to his discovery.  You can watch this movie here.

From Amazon

Finally, "The Monolith Monsters" (1957) really does involve a meteor crash landing on Earth, bringing with it a mysterious alien life form that threatens to destroy yet another small town, this time in California.  Luckily a local geologist is there to save the day!  Watch this film here.

These movie links ought to be enough to keep you entertained all week.  I hope you enjoy some or all of them - Halloween is almost here!

Foodie Fridays: Eggplant and Tomato Pasta

We have had a very mild October, with only one night close to freezing, and my vegetable garden is still producing.  I finally harvested the last of the eggplant before cutting down the plants, and decided that a recipe I found for Eggplant and Tomato Pasta was the perfect way to prepare it.  Ziti is the pasta that is usually used in this recipe, but I had small shells so I used those instead and I think I prefer them.  I also still have fresh basil so I added a generous amount to the pasta.  It will not be long before a hard freeze brings an end to my vegetable garden, but this pasta was a great way for me to use up some of the last of my harvest, and is simple and tasty enough to be worth making again with grocery store produce at any time of the year.

Eggplant and Tomato Pasta

1 large eggplant, cut into pasta-sized pieces
4-6 T. olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 can (14 oz.) diced tomatoes (I used unsalted)
1 can (8 oz.) tomato sauce (I used unsalted)
1 tsp. dried Italian seasoning
8 oz. short pasta (I used small shells)
salt to taste
2-4 T. roughly torn fresh basil leaves
1 package (8 oz.) fresh mozzarella pearls

In a wok or large skillet, heat the oil over medium high heat.  Add the eggplant and stir-fry or sauté until golden brown and very soft, about 20 minutes, adding about 1/4 tsp. salt halfway through cooking.  (Add more oil as needed to prevent the eggplant from drying out.)
 

Push the eggplant to the sides and add the garlic.  Cook until slightly soft, about one minute.  Add the tomatoes, tomato sauce, Italian seasoning, and 1/2 tsp. salt and bring to a gentle simmer.  Remove from the heat and set aside to cool slightly.


Cook the pasta in a large pot of boiling salted water until al dente.  Reserve 1/2 C. of the pasta water and drain.


Add the pasta and basil to the sauce and toss until the pasta is coated and glossy.  Taste and adjust the seasoning.  Stir in the pasta water if needed (I did not need to add any).  Spoon individual servings into bowls, divide the mozzarella pearls among the bowls, and stir them in.  Serves 4.

Note: If you have leftovers, reheat in the microwave before adding the mozzarella so that the cheese does not get too melted and stringy when serving.

This 'n That Thursdays: A Few Good Reads for Halloween

 

For me, the colder and shorter days of fall and winter are the best days to start reading spooky tales.  I have four recommendations that would be perfect for Halloween, starting with The Bone Key: The Necromantic Mysteries of Kyle Murchison Booth by Sarah Monette.  Sarah Monette is an excellent writer, Kyle Murchison Booth is an unlikely but endearing protagonist, and it is refreshing to read supernatural tales written in the traditional style but from a contemporary woman's point of view.  This is the best supernatural short story collection I have read in a long time, and I highly recommend it.

Next up is A Theory of Haunting also by Sarah Monette, a short novel which marks the return of Kyle Murchison Booth, the protagonist of the impressive previously mentioned collection of short stories.  Monette continues Booth's saga in this book, and it does not disappoint.  It is short enough to read in one day, but I would suggest reading the short story collection first to become familiar with Booth's back story.  That said, you can still enjoy the book even if you read it first.

Another short story anthology recommendation is Horror Stories for Halloween by Tony Walker.  Tony Walker is the narrator of the Classic Ghost Stories Podcast as well as the author of a number of supernatual-themed books.  This collection covers a variety of supernatural themes.  If you are looking for a read that will get you into the mood for spooky season, give this book a try.

My last recommendation is Ghosts from the Library: Lost Tales of Terror and the Supernatural (A Bodies from the Library special) edited by Tony Medawar.  I have just started reading this one so cannot yet give an opinion, but this is a collection of lesser-known works by familiar mystery authors, so I have a feeling I am really going to enjoy this one.  This anthology of supernatural tales is a slight departure for the Bodies from the Library series, which usually focuses on mystery stories by authors from the Golden Age of detective fiction.

Happy Halloween reading to all who enjoy these types of tales! 👻🎃💀🐍👽

Terrifying Tuesdays: This Week's Favorite Mid-Century Scary Movies to Watch (Week 2)

From Amazon

 This week I have links to two of my favorite mid-century scary movies, but both come with caveats that have nothing to do with the supernatural.  First up is a YouTube link to "Fiend Without a Face" (1958), about a US Air Force base in Canada experimenting with atomic energy, which leads the soldiers at the base and the inhabitants of the nearby town to confront one of the most unusual horror fiends ever seen in old 1950s B movies.  Unfortunately, however, please be aware that a dog dies in this movie.  I almost never watch movies in which dogs perish, but this old film is one of my very few exceptions (if I could I would just remove that scene from this movie as it is not even necessary to the story):

From Amazon

Up next is "The Ghost Breakers" (1940), starring Paulette Goddard as a young woman who inherits a spooky castle in the Caribbean and Bob Hope as a radio personality who ends up helping her explore the mystery surrounding the old castle.  This is mostly a comedy (I especially love the hilarious scene where Hope and Goddard are trying to read through a tourist brochure once they reach Cuba, the island closest to Black Island where the castle is located), but there is an actual ghost and some of the scenes are truly scary.  The caveat for this movie is that, like a lot of old movies from this era, there is a rather racist undertone, so keep that in mind if you decide to watch.  Happy pre-Halloween viewing, everyone!

Terrifying Tuesdays: This Week's Favorite Mid-Century Scary Movie to Watch (Week 1)

From Youtube

This week I have a link to one of my all-time favorite scary movies from the 1950s.  "The Crawling Eye" (1958), AKA "The Trollenberg Terror", stars Forrest Tucker as an American scientist who travels to Europe to investigate strange events which are occurring on the Trollenberg, a mountain in Switzerland.  The blurb on the image above is a bit melodramatic, but the movie does provide a lot of suspense and a few very creepy scenes.  Below is a YouTube link to the movie (enjoy!):

On the Homefront: Traveling by Train from Lamy, NM, to Pittsburgh, PA, and Back - Is It Worth It? Part 2

As I mentioned in my first post, boarding the train at the Lamy Train Depot was a hurried affair as we only had a couple of minutes before the train pulled out again.  Once we were all on the train and it began to move, our car attendant began showing us to our rooms.  I was on the second level, so I was directed to the very narrow and steep staircase that went up to this level.  I had two small but heavy suitcases plus a large tote bag-type purse.  Two of these I could carry on my shoulders, but the small spinner bag had to be hoisted up the stairs step by step, which took a while but, with the help of fellow travelers, I eventually made it to the top.  I found my room and placed all my bags inside, and the car attendant showed up to explain how everything worked.  A roomette has two beds, one that folds down from the ceiling and another that is created by folding out the two seats that face each other so that they meet in the middle.  The attendant comes around in the evening to set the bed(s) up for each passenger.  The space is quite adequate for one person, but for two people the larger rooms would be a more comfortable option.  There are controls for the lights, and a call button for the attendant should the need arise.  The fixed windows facing the outside have curtains, as do the doors and windows facing the inside aisle.  The door to the roomette can be locked from the inside, but not from the outside, so my tip number two for train travel is not to bring any valuables that you cannot carry with you if you leave your room (tip number one was in my first post).

One thing I should have anticipated but did not was the fact that motion sickness was going to be a problem.  For some reason I thought train travel would be similar to flying or going on a car trip, which means I cannot read but otherwise I feel fine.  Being on a train, however, is more like being on a boat - there is a lot of side-to-side movement, which really brings on the nausea for me.  Tip number three for train travel is remember to bring Dramamine if you are prone to motion sickness!  Unfortunately, I did not have any, but luckily I did have one thing that really saved my stomach, which was a bag of almond butter pretzel bites that I brought as a snack for the trip.  Apparently salty carbohydrates and nuts can reduce nausea, and these little snacks did the trick for me.

I never did get used to the rolling motion of the train, and had a hard time staying on my feet in the moving train, but luckily the aisles are narrow and I could brace myself on the walls when necessary.  I even found that I could read if I stayed in a semi-prone position, which was easy to do in a roomette (yet another reason I was grateful I did not travel in coach!).  I decided to skip lunch and stay in my roomette until dinnertime, hoping that my stomach would be settled enough to handle an evening meal.  I managed to take a short nap but woke up when it started to rain.  We had had pretty much no rain all summer in New Mexico so it was good to see the precipitation, but it began to rain so hard I could not even see out of the window.  And then the train got hit by lightning!  The power blinked off for a few seconds and an alarm went off briefly, but fortunately there was no damage and we continued on our way.

Needless to say I was wide awake now, but the conductor told us that this stretch of the trip was a good opportunity to see wildlife, and I did get to see a pronghorn antelope before my dinner reservation time was called.  The train stopped in the little town of Raton in the mountains of northern New Mexico, and we were permitted to get off of the train for a few minutes before dinner in Raton.  I jumped at the chance to walk without being thrown from side to side in the train!  I have always liked Raton, as it is such a cute little town and is situated in an area of stunning scenery, but for some reason the economy has always been depressed and that does not seem to have changed in the decades since I was there last. 

After I got back on the train I made my way to the dining car which was the one just in front of my sleeper car (my stomach seemed to have settled sufficiently to handle eating a meal).  As it was a weekday there were not many people on the train and most opted for the later dinner service, so only a few of the tables were occupied.  I sat by myself and ordered quite a good meal from the impressive three course dinner menu - mixed green salad, oven roasted salmon, and a chocolate toffee mousse.  Best of all, as I was waiting for my dinner, I saw a huge herd of elk at the base of the mountains off to one side of the tracks, including a huge bull elk with an impressive rack!

My meal was served and it was excellent!  I highly recommend the trip from New Mexico to Chicago just for the dining experience, as this trip has a chef on board and the food is as good as any you would get in a restaurant.  The salmon shown above was freshly prepared, and if you are a chocolate lover you will swoon over the chocolate mousse pie (the portion is huge - I wished I had someone to share it with as I could not finish the whole serving).

As we sat in the dining car the outside world suddenly went dark - we were passing through the Raton Tunnel, the highest point on the Old Santa Fe Trail.  I managed to get a picture of this sign on my return trip:

After dinner I returned to my roomette and waited for the attendant to prepare the bed for the night.  After he was done I brushed my teeth in the tiny little bathroom and got ready for bed.  The disadvantage of a roomette is that you must share a bathroom with fellow roomette passengers on your sleeper car, and there is only one bathroom on the second level.  There are three bathrooms and one shower on the first level and you can use those as well, but as my balance was so bad on the moving train I decided it was not safe for me to attempt to use the shower.  The bathrooms, unfortunately, are just like airplane bathrooms, utilitarian but not especially pleasant.  This would be another reason to opt for a room if you want to spend the extra money and especially if you are traveling with another person, because at least you would not have to share the tiny bathroom with strangers!  Oh, and tip number four for train travel is try not to wear long pants into the bathrooms - it is almost impossible to keep water from splashing from the tiny sink to the floor in a moving train, so wear pants that will not drag on the floor (if your pants are long, roll up the hems).

Luckily I found that the same rocking motion that made me nauseous was actually soothing when I was trying to sleep, like being rocked in a cradle, so I had no trouble sleeping on the train.  The bed was actually pretty comfortable, and the only problem I had was that the heating and air conditioning system in our car did not seem to be working properly - it alternated between being too warm and too cold.  Since the weather was still very warm (and stayed that way for the duration of my trip, except for a brief cool spell in Chicago on my return) it took a while before the temperature in my roomette was comfortable, but I still managed to get a good night's sleep.

Okay, let's end this travel saga here and pick up again in the morning in the next post!

Terrifying Tuesdays: My Favorite Mid-Century Scary Movies for Halloween

From Love This Pic

In case you did not notice, to the left of my blog page I have added a list of my favorite mid-century movies for Halloween.  In my opinion these old movies are some of the best creepy films to watch, although I have added a few that have some frightening or supernatural elements but are more comedic than horrific, just to give you a break from scares now and then.  I will add a new selection every day - we are up to three today.  Every week I will add a link to any of these movies that are available free online.  This week I have a link to the movie "Attack of the Crab Monsters" (1957) that you can watch on YouTube:

  

 I hope you have as much fun watching these old classics as I do! 👻🎃💀🐍👽