Out of the Inkwell

Otto Kruger and Gloria Holden in a movie I've yet to see, "Dracula's Daughter."

Day 4

So many movies, so little time. The problem a film fans now face is how to divide your time. When I was a kid in high school your options were to watch whatever was on television or go to the movies. Today, we can go to theaters, watch movies on cable, watch movies on pay per view, watch movies on DVD and watch movies on the computer.

When I was in college I knew a guy who kept a list (on him no less) of every horror, science fiction and fantasy movie he had seen. he was a clerk at a bookstore in Chicopee and he'd quiz me about what films I had managed to see in the pre-cable, pre-home video days of the early 1970s.

Needless to say, I frequently failed.

With all of that increased access today, you can still miss a lot of movies. I know I do. I didn't see "Slither" until recently because I didn't want to go the theater by myself. Movie-going isn't a solitary activity for me and I don't feel like exposing my wife to films she wouldn't enjoy.

The still above is from my collection and it's a movie I've yet to see. I've not seen the film Vincent Price really enjoyed doing – "Dragonwyck" – either (although that one I do have in a collection of 20th Century Fox horror films). My to-be-viewed- shelf has way too many DVDs waiting for my eyeballs and a number of them are horror.

Unfortunately, "Dracula's Daughter" is not among them.

© 2009 by Gordon Michael Dobbs