Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Jamie @vanjpes.bsky.social · 1h

Even when it's so-so, turns out I'm still a sucker for old dark house shenanigans (again, also see House of the Long Shadows)

1

Jamie @vanjpes.bsky.social · 1h

Its 65 minutes are filled with characters and pretty much no one can be trusted. The sheer volume of cross and double cross probably plays better on stage, but Ford tries to include some interesting imagery and energy. Most striking: how intense Cohan's blue eyes are every time he's in close up...

Cohan in close-up, looking up - the character of Magee is meant to be thinking, pondering the mystery unfolding before him. But Cohan's strikingly blue eyes on film make him look very intense, like he's concentrating on summoning a demon.

1

Jamie @vanjpes.bsky.social · 1h

Seven Keys to Baldpate (1917, dir. Hugh Ford) has George M. Cohan adapt his own stage play version of Earl Derr Biggers' 1913 novel (later the inspiration for 1983's House of the Long Shadows). A convoluted, old dark house-ish tale of crime, cross and double cross. Overcooked but enjoyable enough.

Poster for Seven Keys to Baldpate shows George M. Cohan and Anna Q. Nilsson in the film, he dressed in a suit, she in a dress, fur shawl and hat. She has her hand on the handle of Baldpate Inn's safe, he is pointing at her accusingly. The title is at the bottom, and seven Keys are overlaid on the illustration.

George M. Cohan as the writer Magee, sat at a desk with a typewriter in from of him and a lamp to his side.

Magee again, looking intensely at a closed door, a shadow from a window covering the door in the shape of a cross.

The outside of the inn, wrapped in two balconies (one ground level, one first floor). To the left of the image, a woman is walking along the path. To the right, from the upper balcony, a man is dangling, ready to drop down.

1 1

Reposted by Jamie

Movies Silently @moviessilently.bsky.social · 5h

"Cave man stuff" referred to the craze in the 1910s and 1920s for macho guys taking charge and getting handsy.

This 1918 Gale Henry short, despite its prehistoric ad, was set in the then-present day.

2 38

Reposted by Jamie

P.G. Wodelouse 💀 @pgwodelouse.bsky.social · 12h

Beyond the bombastic score, occasional caricature, iffy narration and odd moment of Hammer unsubtlety, Dr Jeykll and Sister Hyde is a surprisingly probing exploration of duality, gender identity and sexuality, full of lovely symmetry, dramatic irony and Norman Warwick’s gorgeous cinematography

Dr Jeykll - or is it Sister Hyde - losing control of who and what they are in the reflection of a mirror shattered by a dagger

3 10

Jamie @vanjpes.bsky.social · 15h

Found a sad ghost on this battered old coaster

A battered coaster with a blue and white pattern on it, part of which has been peeled back, making a white shape, like a distored Caspat. Two bits of the blue show on it like eyes, giving it the impression of looking down with a sad expression.

5

Jamie @vanjpes.bsky.social · 1d

Very much well worth your time reading this (also, includes an announcement of Ray's next short story collection 👀)

Ray Newman @raynewman.bsky.social · 1d

BLOG POST: Reading, thinking, doing October 2025.

precastreinforced.co.uk/2025/10/09/r...

Reading, thinking, doing October 2025

I’ve been reading about the end of the world, walking from Kings Cross to Wapping, and making zines. This blog is what I do instead of starting yet another Substack newsletter. You can subscribe to…

precastreinforced.co.uk

2

Reposted by Jamie

Silent London @silentlondon.bsky.social · 1d

A night in Le Giornate del Cinema Muto that I won't forget silentlondon.co.uk/2025/10/08/l...

Le Giornate del Cinema Muto 2025: Pordenone Post No 5

It may seem that the Giornate is in its own bubble, a hundred years or more removed from the real world, wrapped up in the fashions and the fads of the past. But we’re still looking out at th…

silentlondon.co.uk

4 6

Jamie @vanjpes.bsky.social · 1d

'You, uh, you... don't *believe* in that sort of stuff, do you?'

1 1

Jamie @vanjpes.bsky.social · 1d

Ha ha yeah, when are you going to do some *real* writing, Rory?

1

Jamie @vanjpes.bsky.social · 1d

How I respond when people ask me why I write horror and not 'proper' literature

Intertitle reads "Anybody can write the stuff this critic means. Mine is the work of genius---real blood curdling situations---plot and counterplot---hair raisers!"

1 3 7

Reposted by Jamie

Rose Ruane @regretteruane.bsky.social · 1d

Imagine a 1970s Alan Partridge on a mind bending trip through long lost London, so breakneck & fragmentary, full of incredible characters & handbrake turns that it feels like a dream where the cast & context keeps mutating & it still won’t be as wild as the actuality of this
youtu.be/hTIkSgNC4ww?...

1975: BERNARD FALK's Tour of HIDDEN LONDON | Nationwide | Weird and Wonderful | BBC Archive

YouTube video by BBC Archive

youtu.be

2 7 48

Jamie @vanjpes.bsky.social · 1d

Was also telling how uncomfortable some people got when (in previous roles) people using services used - their own choice - archaic or out of favour terms to describe themselves. But, that's easier than wrestling with the dissonance of trying to do good in ever-shifting, unsupported infrastructures.

1

Jamie @vanjpes.bsky.social · 1d

Perhaps tangential, but the field I work in often wraps itself up in knots over 'acceptable language' to the extent it feels like another self-made trap we've walked into, like endless meetings, where an illusion of progress masks no *actual*, tangible benefit for those systems are meant to support

1 1

Reposted by Jamie

Silent London @silentlondon.bsky.social · 2d

Day four of Le Giornate del Cinema Muto brought a return to East Lynne and a visit to the women of Chaplinland. silentlondon.co.uk/2025/10/08/l...

Le Giornate del Cinema Muto 2025: Pordenone Post No 4

Last night I dreamt I went to East Lynne again… Ellen Wood is directing my subconscious now. I love this mini melodrama strand and I really enjoyed today’s instalment, which was the lavish 1925 Fox…

silentlondon.co.uk

4 5

Reposted by Jamie

Rose Ruane @regretteruane.bsky.social · 2d

New Puffin Post acquisition. What can I say, I am powerless before the incredible art of Jill McDonald.
I have a personal Puffin pusher and everything now, one who knows my proclivities, my weaknesses, my unappeasable appetite for 20th century illustration

Cover of a 1968 puffin post magazines with two carton puffins in wizard robes and hats patterned with stars, on the left red, on the right bright blue, standing over a cauldron filled with bubbling yellow and orange liquid over a fierce burning fire emitting grey curls of smoke from which are emerging sparkly clouds filled with cartoonish characters - the three little pigs, a witch, a lion, a dog, a puffin and some musical instruments with faces.
To the top right, puffin post is written in curly black letters inside a zig zag shape in pink

9 20 110

Jamie @vanjpes.bsky.social · 3d

A great police show that challenged and shocked.

archivetvmusings @archivetvmusings.bsky.social · 3d

R.I.P John Woodvine. Seen here in New Scotland Yard - Point of Impact (22nd April 1972).

5

Jamie @vanjpes.bsky.social · 3d

Also, don't fuck with Hop-Toad, it's the *last* decision you'll ever make

6

Jamie @vanjpes.bsky.social · 3d

And this tale of rich scumbags and their boot-licking acolytes ignoring the world while it burns to feed their own greed and worst urges... I dunno, something feels very current about it all. I wonder why.

1 13

Jamie @vanjpes.bsky.social · 3d

Corman and cinematographer Nicolas Roeg bathe startling images in beautiful colour. The script, by Charles Beaumont and R. Wright Campbell, is ambitious and uncompromising. Pacing occasionally flags, but this study of the banality, cowardice and hubris of evil is nevertheless one of Corman's best.

1 11

Jamie @vanjpes.bsky.social · 3d

The Masque of the Red Death (1964, dir. Roger Corman) gives us, among many other delights, one of Vincent Price's great performances. As the red death kills off entire villages, the wicked Prospero and his dreadful guests party. A genuine sense of malevolent evil pervades. Gorgeous, still shocking.

Title card for The Masque of the Red Death

Juliana, a woman in a dark wine coloured dress, stands speaking in a deserted banquet hall. In front of her, a double sided axe swings like a pendulum

Prince Prospero, dressed in a dark, hooded cloak with a gold headband, stands in front of Francesca, a red haired young woman in a dress, wearing a necklace and with a veil across her face. They are both looking ahead intently at something offscreen.

Against a black backdrop illuminated only by a bright spot of red, stands a figure in a bright red hooded cloak and mask

17 13 190

Reposted by Jamie

Ray Newman @raynewman.bsky.social · 4d

I've just learned about ‘Sandown Sam’ via the latest Fortean Times – a ghost, alien, cryptid, time traveller clown who appeared to two children on the Isle of Wight in 1973. This blog post has a good summary of the story and theories:

www.curiousarchive.com/sam-the-sand...

Sam the Sandown Clown: Alien, Man in Black, or Folie à Deux?

Bufora Journal cover from January/February 1978. This is a weird story, I fully admit that. But I have so many drafts about haunted locations on the Isle of Wight that I was curious if anything oth…

www.curiousarchive.com

4 9 39

Reposted by Jamie

Will McKinley @willmckinley.bsky.social · 4d

Nancy Barrett #BOTD in HOUSE OF DARK SHADOWS (1970).

She played 10 different characters in the #DarkShadows universe — but her role in Dan Curtis' MGM feature film version of the TV series remains the most unforgettably nightmare-inducing. #FilmSky

Nancy Barrett as the vampire Carolyn in HOUSE OF DARK SHADOWS (1970).

8 29

Jamie @vanjpes.bsky.social · 4d

🙏🏻🖤

1 1

Jamie @vanjpes.bsky.social · 4d

It was a pleasure, Al :)

1