FLESH AND FANTASY (1943) is a film that should be much better known both in Horror fan circles and among fans of classic cinema in general. Directed by one of the giants of French cinema transplanted to America Julien Duvivier, this film shows the care and craftsmanship of a fine storyteller working with the full resources of a major studio. Following the template he had used in his earlier film TALES OF MANHATTAN (1942), this is an anthology with three vignettes linked by a framing device with humorist Robert Benchley. But that wasn’t exactly the original vision of this movie, as we will discuss.
Troy and I return to the Universal horror films with a true outlier this time. FLESH AND FANTASY is easily the most expensive production on our list of these 1940’s films with its large budget and cast of major movie stars being just the most obvious differences from the monster sequels surrounding it. The movie uses all its resources wonderfully to present a dazzling series of visuals and at least one of the best (possibly) supernatural stories the studio would ever make. The cast is fantastic and filmmaking a delight! It is a shock how underseen and underappreciated this excellent movie has been but with a Blu-Ray release just around the corner we hope that is about to change. Join us a for an interesting conversation about the production, structure and underlying themes of this hidden gem.
The show’s email address is thebloodypit@gmail.com and we’d love to hear your thoughts on FLESH AND FANTASY or any of the movies we’ve covered. Thank you for listening and we’ll be back with an email episode very soon.
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The Bloody Pit #32 - WESTWORLD (1973)
The Bloody Pit #31 - DIARY OF A MADMAN (1963) and other Horla adaptations
The Bloody Pit #30 - Halloween Mix 2015
The Bloody Pit #29 - GODZILLA FINAL WARS (2004)
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The Bloody Pit #26 - CASTLE OF BLOOD and WEB OF THE SPIDER
The Bloody Pit #25 - GODZILLA MOTHRA KING GHIDORAH: GIANT MONSTERS ALL OUT ATTACK (2001)
The Bloody Pit #24 - FRANKENSTEIN CONQUERS THE WORLD (1965)
The Bloody Pit #23 - WAR BETWEEN THE PLANETS (1966)
The Bloody Pit #22 - GODZILLA VS THE SMOG MONSTER (1972)
The Bloody Pit #21 - Movie Music Show!
The Bloody Pit #20 - ASSAULT ON PRECINCT 13 (1976)
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The Bloody Pit #18 - Halloween Mix 2014
The Bloody Pit #17 - Doc Savage!
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The Bloody Pit #15 - The Johnny Weissmuller Tarzan films!
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