SUPERHEROES ARE DAMN-NEAR EVERYWHERE #121

Peripheral SUSAN BLAKELY acted in MY MOM'S A WEREWOLF with--

Primary JOHN SAXON (left), one of the three main heroes of ENTER THE DRAGON.

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Peripheral RONEE BLAKELY acted in A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET with--

Primary JOHNNY DEPP, who also appeared in the 2012 DARK SHADOWS.

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ERICA BLANC *may* be a primary, based on the description for the spy-fi flick TARGET GOLDSEVEN: if so, it's her only such credit.

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Primary MEL BLANC provided voices in BUCK ROGERS IN THE 25TH CENTURY, WHO FRAMED ROGER RABBIT?, and ASTERIX VS. CLEOPATRA.

SUPERHEROES ARE DAMN-NEAR EVERYWHERE #120

 Peripheral PAUL BLAISDELL acted the part of THE SHE CREATURE alongside--

Primary TOM CONWAY (right), who played two separate roles in Tarzan films, the first being TARZAN'S SECRET TREASURE.

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Peripheral AMANDA BLAKE (left, alongside Elsa Lanchester) acted in THE GLASS SLIPPER with--

Primary ESTELLE WINWOOD, a.k.a. "Aunt Hilda" in the 1966 BATMAN teleseries.

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Primary GEOFFREY BLAKE acted in THE LAST STARFIGHTER and episodes of CHARMED, STAR TREK: DEEP SPACE NINE, GRIMM, BRISCO COUNTY, ALIEN NATION, and BRIMSTONE.

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Primary MADGE BLAKE earned immortality as "Aunt Harriet" on BATMAN and played a couple of separate roles on THE MAN FROM UNCLE.

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Peripheral ROBERT BLAKE earned one of his very few metaphenomenal credits as "Simon the Zealot" in THE GREATEST STORY EVER TOLD. alongside--

Primary DAVID MCCALLUM of MAN FROM UNCLE fame.

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Primary WHITNEY BLAKE acted in episodes of BATMAN and THE MAN FROM UNCLE.

SUPERHEROES ARE DAMN-NEAR EVERYWHERE #119

Primary ISLA BLAIR, best known for TASTE THE BLOOD OF DRACULA, also acted in an episode of THE AVENGERS and in JOHNNY ENGLISH REBORN.

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Peripheral JANET BLAIR acted in BURN, WITCH, BURN with--

Primary PETER WYNGARDE of FLASH GORDON fame.

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Primary LINDA BLAIR  acted in the movie PREY OF THE JAGUAR and in an episode of SUPERNATURAL, as well as voicing roles in EXTREME GHOSTBUSTERS and the 1999 GODZILLA cartoon.

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Peripheral PATRICIA BLAIR (right) acted in THE BLACK SLEEP with--

Primary LON CHANEY JR. from DRACULA VS. FRANKENSTEIN. 

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Primary SELMA BLAIR acted in HELLBOY and various sequels, as well as an episode of XENA WARRIOR PRINCESS.

SUPERHEROES ARE DAMN-NEAR EVERYWHERE #118

Primary SIDNEY BLACKMER has just one relevant credit, an episode of THE GIRL FROM UNCLE.

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Primary PAUL BLACKTHORNE  has become best known as the character "Quentin Lance" on ARROW and its WB crossovers, but also played the title character of THE DRESDEN FILES, acted in WAREHOUSE 13, and voiced "Metallo" in JUSTICE LEAGUE DOOM.

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Peripheral TAUREN BLACQUE acted in DEEPSTAR SIX with--

Primary GREG EVIGAN (right), who did the TEKWAR TV-movies and the subsequent TV series.

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Primary RUBEN BLADES acted in PREDATOR 2.

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Peripheral ESTELLA BLAIN, a.k.a. "Miss Muerte" from THE DIABOLICAL DOCTOR Z acted with--

Primary HOWARD VERNON of THE THOUSAND EYES OF DOCTOR MABUSE.

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Peripheral VIVIAN BLAINE acted in PARASITE with--

Primary DEMI MOORE, whose participation in one episode of the TV-show THE MASTER earned her starring-status on a videotape cover.

 

THE OVAL PORTRAIT (1842)

This is another of Poe's peculiar bifurcated tales. It starts out with an unnamed narrator, who, for undisclosed reasons, is traveling with one servant in the Appenines Mountains. The man has had an unexplained "affray with the banditti," which has left him with a painful but apparently not dangerous wound. The duo take refuge in an uninhabited chateau, whose owners never show up, and while the narrator is taking opium for his pain, he becomes interested in the "oval portrait" of a beautiful young woman.

He becomes so taken with the portrait that he digs through a convenient family history to find out who she was. In a touch reminiscent of Hawthorne, it's revealed that when the woman had her portrait painted by her beloved, he made it so lifelike that the life departed from the body of the model.

Nothing overtly fantastic takes place, but the narrative qualifies as uncanny because the pay-off is communicated through the venue of the internal story, which may or may not be a true representation of events.  The story doesn't even bother coming back to the narrator's concerns once the history of the doomed woman is told. The story was adapted into a godawful ghost-story flick, reviewed here.

A SUCCESSION OF SUNDAYS (1841)

A young man, raised by his uncle after his parents pass, conceives a passion for his uncle's daughter (yes, another first cousin). The uncle, a born jokester, tells the fellow that he can get married when three consecutive Sundays transpire. The ending is clever if not actually funny, in which the young man solves his problem with the help of the International Date Line.

ELEONORA-- A FABLE (1841)

This story uses a similar approach to ISLAND OF THE FAY-- published in the same year-- in which the glories of bounteous nature give way to doleful death, ELEONORA is far more successful, in part because Poe includes one of his favorite themes: that of a beloved wife-- the narrator's cousin, once again-- who passes away early. Her passing coincides so nearly with the decline of the natural forest where she and the narrator lived that nature seems in sympathy with her spirit. Hence this one rates as "uncanny."

An odd development is that prior to the cousin's death, the narrator swears never to look at another woman. Time passes, and he re-marries, but nothing happens except that he dreams that the spirit of Eleonora forgives him his transgression. An interesting combination of motifs from both MORELLA and LIGEIA.

NEVER BET THE DEVIL YOUR HEAD (1841)

Compared to Poe's early stories about demonic deals, "Never Bet the Devil Your Head" is the best of its kind thus far. A foolish young man develops the habit of making ridiculous bets in which he wagers his head to the devil if he loses. Predictably, a strange fellow shows up and tricks the better into performing a stunt that leaves the fellow missing one cranium.

It's never been an overly popular tale, but gained some moxie when it was adapted as one of the stories in 1968's SPIRITS OF THE DEAD.

THE COLLOQUY OF MONOS AND UNA (1841)

This is, like THE COLLOQUY OF EIROS AND CHARMIAN, a static dialogue between two spirits who discuss the destruction of the world for a while. However, Monos, the male, seems far more interested in describing his experiences of dying, which are not a little reminiscent of the weird alive-but-not-alive symptoms seen in LOSS OF BREATH.

SUPERHEROES ARE DAMN-NEAR EVERYWHERE #118

Primary GRETA BLACKBURN, best known for the horror-film PARTY LINE, has a half-dozen credits in TV shows like AUTOMAN, LOIS AND CLARK, and V.

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Primary HONOR BLACKMAN acted in GOLDFINGER and JASON AND THE ARGONAUTS,  as well as playing "Cathy Gale" on THE AVENGERS.

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Peripheral JOAN BLACKMAN acted in VISIT TO A SMALL PLANET with--

Primary EARL HOLLIMAN of FORBIDDEN PLANET.

MONSTER MASHUPS #24

THE MUNSTERS made it to TV in 1964. The same year also debuted THE ADDAMS FAMILY, though of late I've been reconsidering whether or not they count as "monsters."

One year later, Hal Seeger Productions brought forth a cartoon, MILTON THE MONSTER, which contained four features. Only the titular feature was a monster mashup. Two mad scientists create a good-natured Frankenstein's Monster, name of Milton. For some reason never clear to me, the scientists live in a house with Milton, a skeleton-guy named Heebie and a furry one-eyed Abominable Snowman named Jeebie. I saw the cartoon in my youth but found it generally unfnnny.

SUPERHEROES ARE DAMN-NEAR EVERYWHERE #117

Primary BILL BIXBY is inevitably best known for THE INCREDIBLE HULK teleseries and its telefilm spin offs, though he also scored a credit as the crimefighting MAGICIAN.

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Primary CLAUDIA BLACK acted in the movie PITCH BLACK, regular serials FARSCAPE and STARGATE SG-1, and individual episodes of HERCULES, XENA, and BEASTMASTER.

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Primary ISOBEL BLACK acted in KISS OF THE VAMPIRE and episodes of THE AVENGERS and THE INVISIBLE MAN.

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Primary JACK BLACK acted in the 2005 KING KONG  and voiced the titular character of the KUNG FU PANDA series.

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Primary KAREN BLACK (not shown) acted in TWISTED JUSTICE and three movies with "ROLLER BLADE SEVEN" in the title.