tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6192773387267481562.post7551229118113334135..comments2023-10-22T05:25:58.606-07:00Comments on Shock!: THE MAD DOCTOR OF MARKET STREET (1942)Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6192773387267481562.post-68683096922216105042011-03-11T23:19:25.447-08:002011-03-11T23:19:25.447-08:00THE MAD DOCTOR OF MARKET STREET aired only 3 times...THE MAD DOCTOR OF MARKET STREET aired only 3 times on Pittsburgh's CHILLER THEATER, Dec 18 1965 (with THE HIDEOUS SUN DEMON), Dec 28 1974 (with 1970's NIGHT OF THE WITCHES) and Sept 3 1977 (preceding the only screening of SECRET OF THE CHATEAU). CHILLER THEATER was reduced to a single feature in Jan 1979, and cancelled by Jan 1984, but the SHOCK! titles continued uninterrupted in double and triple bills for another five years on the same station, WPXI-TV channel 11. That was lucky for me, as I was able to record all the ones I really wanted, and am kicking myself for not taping every single title available at the time. Saturday nights just haven't been the same since, but those old videos still look great, and all these years later I own all 72 titles in the entire SHOCK! package, although Columbia's THE SOUL OF A MONSTER (1944) was included in the book UNIVERSAL HORRORS! for a total of 73 (I've got that too). I enjoyed watching Lionel Atwill chew the scenery as only he could, but was puzzled as to why he had to take second billing to Una Merkel, since he was top billed over Lon Chaney in MAN MADE MONSTER. He would take second billing after Patrick Knowles later in 1941 in THE STRANGE CASE OF DOCTOR RX, but that was for a wasted cameo role. Despite his many classic performances, he was clearly on his way down in the studio's eyes, but they did keep him busy right up until his untimely death in 1946. Forrest J. Ackerman described Atwill as "the maddest doctor of them," as lascivious as censors would allow, but this turned out to be his last. John Eldredge was certainly a ubiquitous presence in 1941-42, and Claire Dodd's beauty was enjoying a brief comeback before retiring from the screen less than 2 years later.kochillthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06843717929648076583noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6192773387267481562.post-38848647629848629242011-01-23T11:55:42.071-08:002011-01-23T11:55:42.071-08:00Nightmare was launched specifically as a vehicle f...Nightmare was launched specifically as a vehicle for the SHOCK package back in 1957, and pretty much stuck to it through it's run - though non-Universal films began to seep in along the way. <br /><br />I'm not sure exactly how it related, but there was a definite surge in horror hosts - and unhosted shows - in the early 70s, pretty much the time the super-spy genre (which had superseded the Monster Boom in the mid-60s) had lost its cultural punch. <br /><br />In this area at least, the SHOCK package returned in the early 70s and was passed around to at least four (maybe five) significant stations throughout the next fifteen years (at least twice and maybe three times the period the original SHOCK shows aired from '57 to the early/mid 60s) in the Bay Area alone. If we include the Sacramento and valley areas, that number jumps considerably.<br /><br />With that much play - and some of these shows were double bills - the Universal 'B's likely wound up airing at least as many times as the classic 'A' titles. <br /><br />In the pre-Ted-Turner-owns-everything days, I wonder if the black and white Universal packages were cheaper to license than the newer color titles? Universal still had significant cache besides.DokGhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08056695558091017289noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6192773387267481562.post-89345924960093932752011-01-23T08:08:14.801-08:002011-01-23T08:08:14.801-08:00Thanks for the information, michael. My searches f...Thanks for the information, <b>michael</b>. My searches for the films are not all-inclusive for the US and I mostly limit myself to between 1957 and 1970. I appreciate your sharing the info with us.<br /><br />I sometimes look at the '70s and '80s listings out of curiosity and find that some SHOCK! titles like THE MAD DOCTOR OF MARKET STREET (I think SECRET OF THE CHATEAU was another?) actually turn up more in the '70s than in the previous decade; this surprises me since presumably the stations have access to so many more films (including sci-fi movies), so I would think that the horror-movie "outliers" would disappear instead of turning up more frequently.<br /><br />Your post made me wonder about how often I had been exposed to it on the East Coast in the 1970s. I found only two showings of MAD DR in the 1970s in all of the NYC and Boston monster movie shows (the remarkable WOR-TV's "Fright Night" show aired it once in 1975 at 1AM). Out of curiosity, I looked at the listings for all of Dr Paul Bearer's shows in Florida and NC in the '70s (which rolled a lot of SHOCK! and Son of SHOCK titles), and only saw two screenings (one in 1974 and the other in 1976) for MAD DR. <br /><br />KRON's "Nightmare" seemed to show it the most regularly... I wonder if the San Francisco connection made it more of a programming favorite??The Creeping Bridehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06164625940022489443noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6192773387267481562.post-53542105635864091682011-01-23T00:20:18.143-08:002011-01-23T00:20:18.143-08:00I remember the night MAD DR OF MARKET STREET showe...I remember the night MAD DR OF MARKET STREET showed up on Creature Features on KTVU 2in 1974. I grew up just down the way from San Francisco, and naturally assumed the city would be the backdrop for the film. Talk about disappointed. The film played at least three times on Creature Features between 1974 and 1976. <br /><br />The Universal package moved to KBHK 44 in the early 80s and MAD DR appeared a few times on the Monstrous Movie program between 1981 and '84. <br /><br />But the first airings were on Nightmare, where it aired 3 times between 1958 and 1961. <br /><br />I'm sure - with the Universal package in rotation at various Bay Are stations - that it played a few more times beyond those mentioned.<br /><br />Not too bad a run...DokGhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08056695558091017289noreply@blogger.com