Night of the Living Dead. Night of the Living Dead is a 1. American independenthorror film, directed by George A. Romero, starring Duane Jones and Judith O'Dea. It was completed on a $1. October 1, 1. 96. The film became a financial success, grossing $1. It has been a cult classic ever since. Night of the Living Dead was heavily criticized at its release for its explicit gore. It eventually garnered critical acclaim and has been selected by the Library of Congress for preservation in the National Film Registry, as a film deemed . This is the most easily recognized version of the living dead, to the point where people gather in mass quantities for conventions dressed as zombies, complete with makeup and prosthetic limbs. Night of the Living Dead led to five subsequent films between 1. Romero, and inspired two remakes; the most well- known remake was released in 1. Tom Savini. Barbra is attacked by a strange man (Bill Hinzman). Johnny tries to rescue his sister, but the man throws him against a gravestone; Johnny strikes his head on the stone and is left unconscious.
After a mishap with the car, Barbara escapes on foot, with the stranger in pursuit, and later arrives at a farmhouse, where she discovers a woman's mangled corpse. Fleeing from the house, she is confronted by strange menacing figures like the man in the graveyard. Ben (Duane Jones) takes her into the house, driving the . Throughout the night, Barbra slowly descends into a stupor of shock and insanity. Ben and Barbra are unaware that the farmhouse has a cellar, housing an angry married couple Harry (Karl Hardman) and Helen Cooper (Marilyn Eastman), along with their daughter Karen (Kyra Schon). They sought refuge after a group of the same monsters overturned their car. Tom (Keith Wayne) and Judy (Judith Ridley), a teenage couple, arrived after hearing an emergency broadcast about a series of brutal murders. Karen has fallen seriously ill after being bitten by one of the monsters. They ventured upstairs when Ben turns on a radio, while Barbra awakens from her stupor. Harry demands that everyone hide in the cellar, but Ben deems it a . Ben finds a television, and they watch an emergency broadcaster (Charles Craig) report that the recently deceased have become reanimated and are consuming the flesh of the living. Experts, scientists, and the United States military fail to discover the cause, though one scientist suspects radioactive contamination from a space probe. It returned from Venus, and was deliberately exploded in the Earth's atmosphere when the radiation was detected. Ben and Tom refuel Ben's truck while Harry hurls molotov cocktails from an upper window at the . Judy follows him, fearing Tom's safety. Tom accidentally spills gasoline on the truck setting it ablaze. Tom and Judy try to drive the truck away from the pump, but Judy is unable to free herself from its door, and the truck explodes, instantly killing Tom and Judy; the undead promptly eat the charred remains. Ben returns to the house, but is locked out by Harry. Eventually forcing his way back in, Ben beats Harry, angered by his cowardice, while the undead feed on the remains of Tom and Judy. A news report reveals that, only a gunshot or heavy blow to the head can stop them, aside from setting the . It also reported that posses of armed men are patrolling the countryside to restore order. The lights go out moments later, and the undead break through the barricades. Harry grabs Ben's rifle and threatens to shoot him. In the chaos the two fight and Ben manages to wrestle the gun away and shoots Harry. Seventies Almanac - 1978: he new generation. And once a week, on Saturday night, it explodes.' So wrote Nik Cohn in a. Kiss make their acting debut in the NBC made-for-tv movie Kiss Meets the Phantom of the Park, and. Percentage of users who rate a movie or TV show positively. People Who Like this movie also like. This beautiful time of day is the centerpiece to. Harry stumbles into the cellar and collapses next to Karen, mortally wounded. She has also died from her illness. The undead try to pull Helen and Barbra through the windows, but Helen frees herself. She returns to the refuge of the cellar to see Karen is reanimated and eating Harry's corpse. Helen is frozen in shock, and Karen stabs her to death with a masonry trowel. Barbra, seeing Johnny among the undead, is carried away by the horde and devoured. As the undead overrun the house, Ben seals himself inside the cellar, where Harry and Helen are reanimating, and he is forced to shoot them. Ben is awakened by the posse's gunfire outside the next morning. A member of the posse mistakes him for one of the undead and shoots him through the forehead. The film ends with a photo montage of Ben as his body is thrown into the posse's bonfire, laid next to the original zombie from the cemetery. Duane Jones as Ben: The lead role of Ben was played by Duane Jones. He was an unknown stage actor. His performance depicted Ben as a . It was not typical for a black man to be the hero of a U. S. He continued as a theater actor and director until his death in 1. O'Dea was in Hollywood seeking to enter the movie business at the time of audition. Starring in the film was a positive experience for her, she remarked in an interview. She admitted that horror movies terrified her, particularly Vincent Price's House of Wax (1. Besides acting, O'Dea performed her own stunts, which she jokingly claimed amounted to . She was just as surprised by the renown the film brought her: . Schon also played the woman's mangled corpse that Ben dragged away. Charles Craig as Newscaster / Undead. Bill Hinzman as Cemetery Living Dead: The cemetery living dead who kills Johnny in the first scene. Hinzman also appeared in new scenes that were filmed for the 3. George Kosana as Sheriff Mc. Clelland: Kosana was Image Ten's production manager. Russell Streiner as Johnny Blair (Russell Streiner is also an Executive Producer in the 1. He makes a cameo appearance as Sheriff Mc. Clelland.)Bill Cardille, a. Bill portrays a WIIC- TV, Channel 1. Pittsburgh TV station) news reporter. The main characters watched the TV for news reports. Production. He directed and produced television commercials and industrial films for The Latent Image, in the 1. John Russo, and Russell Streiner. The trio grew bored making commercials and wanted to film a horror movie during this period. They wanted to capitalize on the film industry's . He and Streiner contacted Karl Hardman and Marilyn Eastman, president and vice president respectively of a Pittsburgh- based industrial film firm called Hardman Associates, Inc. They pitched their idea for a then- untitled horror film. The initial budget was $6,0. Another ten investors were found when it was found that another $6,0. Image Ten eventually raised approximately $1. Romero under the title Monster Flick. A second version of the script featured a young man who runs away from home and discovers rotting human corpses that aliens use for food scattered across a meadow. Russo came up with the concept that they would be the recently dead only, because they could not afford to bring long- dead people out of their graves, or at least . He also came up with the idea that they would be . The final draft, written mainly by Russo during three days in 1. Part one became Night of the Living Dead. Sequels Dawn of the Dead (1. Day of the Dead (1. The infected in I Am Legend become vampire- like creatures and prey on the uninfected. I said if you're going to do something about revolution, you should start at the beginning. I mean, Richard starts his book with one man left; everybody in the world has become a vampire. I said we got to start at the beginning and tweak it up a little bit. I couldn't use vampires because he did, so I wanted something that would be an earth- shaking change. Something that was forever, something that was really at the heart of it. I said, so what if the dead stop staying dead? And the stories are about how people respond or fail to respond to this. In Richard's book, in the original I Am Legend, that's what I thought that book was about. There's this global change and there's one guy holding out saying, wait a minute, I'm still a human. In a certain sense he's wrong but on the other hand, you've got to respect him for taking that position. Matheson was not impressed by Romero's interpretation, feeling that . I don't harbor any animosity toward him. Karl Hardman attributed the edits to lead actor Duane Jones: The script had been written with the character Ben as a rather simple truck driver. His dialogue was that of a lower class / uneducated person. Duane Jones was a very well educated man . As I recall, I believe that Duane himself upgraded his own dialogue to reflect how he felt the character should present himself. She told an interviewer, ! We would go over what basically had to be done, then just did it the way we each felt it should be done. This is what we want to get across . There was a concern we didn't get the sound right, but fortunately they were able to use it. According to Hardman, . The best that we could do was to place our cast in a remote spot and then bring the horror to be visited on them in that spot. The interior upstairs scenes were filmed in a downtown Evans City home that later became the offices of a prominent local physician and family doctor (Allsop). This home is still standing on South Washington St. The cemetery chapel was under warrant for demolition; however, Gary R. Steiner led a successful effort to raise $5. The basement door (external view) shown in the film was cut into a wall by the production team and led nowhere. As this house was scheduled for demolition, damage during filming was permitted. The site is now a turf farm. The blood, for example, was Bosco Chocolate Syrup drizzled over cast members' bodies. Costumes consisted of second- hand clothing from cast members and Goodwill. Zombie makeup varied during the film. Initially makeup was limited to white skin with blackened eyes; but as filming progressed mortician's wax was used to simulate wounds and decaying flesh. As filming was not linear, the piebald faces appear sporadically. Eastman supervised the special effects, wardrobe and makeup. The completed film ultimately benefited from the decision, as film historian Joseph Maddrey describes the black- and- white filming as . The 2. 0 Greatest Black- and- White Films Ever Made. There’s been a recent debate as to the validity of black- and- white films. Many of the youngsters say, “I just don’t get it.” Well, don’t feel like the Lone Ranger young children. Ted Turner has similar thoughts on the supposed curse of black and white. Whether one would like to admit it or not, the greatest films in history, to include horror, science fiction, suspense and drama, have been made in the breathtaking anti- color of black and white. According to film director John Carpenter in his inventive opus They Live, the reason films are now in color is because of an invasion of aliens during the 1. Nice going John, for you are not far from the truth. I have compiled an unquestionable list made up of the 2. And mind you, I have added a bonus of five Honorable Mentions. For those of you unacquainted, this list is as good a place to start as any. Enjoy some of the greatest films ever made, and they are all in glorious black and white. Sunset Boulevard (1. Billy Wilder’s film noir classic about the decay of Hollywood is alternately hilarious, shocking and extraordinary. William Holden plays a broke screenwriter who literally stumbles into the driveway of a seedy mansion owned by Norma Desmond (Gloria Swanson), a forgotten silent movie star. The old movie diva is trapped in the past. Poor Norma dreams of making a comeback and Holden becomes her screenwriting gigolo. One of the greatest films ever made and certainly the greatest black- and- white film in history. Touch of Evil (1. Orson Welles’s film noir masterpiece elevates in classic status year by year. Its brilliantly choreographed opening shot (lasting well over three minutes) will be studied as long as there are lovers of cinema. This seedy tale of murder and corruption is highlighted by Welles as a love- struck cop matching wits with narcotics officer Charlton Heston. The entertaining plot twists and turns like a ride at the carnival. A great example of Welles’ matchless directorial style. The Seventh Seal (1. Ingmar Bergman’s breathtaking Swedish film is one of the universal classics of cinema history. Max Von Sydow plays a knight returning from the Crusades to eventually play a game of chess with Death (Bengt Ekerot). En route, we see witches, flagellants and victims of the Plague. Allegorical Medieval tale questions the meaning of life like no other film in history. A dreamlike, brilliant work. Raging Bull (1. 98. Martin Scorsese’s fierce biography of self- destructive boxer Jake La. Motta is tour- de- force filmmaking. Robert De Niro plays La. Motta, a man tormented by demons both in and out of the ring. Jake is a frightening, unforgettable character unable to control his basic instincts. The fight scenes are brutal black- and- white ballets. My Darling Clementine (1. Called one of the most perfect Westerns ever made, John Ford’s poetic version of the gunfight at the O. K. Corral is a beautiful masterpiece. Ford’s direction of a Sunday church social framed against the open sky is one of the great scenes in cinema history. Schindler’s List (1. Filmed in Poland, Steven Spielberg’s masterpiece ranks among the greatest films ever made about the Holocaust. It’s a haunting motion picture about heroism and despair. Spielberg doesn’t flinch from the horror of this subject matter, and the result is a stark examination of the eventual strength of the human spirit. Sullivan’s Travels (1. Writer- director Preston Sturges’s classic film remains his most unforgettable screen effort. Sturges combines romance, Hollywood satire and a social message into a screwball package. John Sullivan (Joel Mc. Crea), is a successful director of Hollywood fluff, but he’s now determined to create cinematic art. Sullivan hits the road disguised as a tramp. His journey eventually leads to a darker, depressed world having little use for the socially realistic movies our hero wishes to make. Sturges’ profound conclusion reveals a surprising emotional truth about filmmaking art. Night of the Hunter (1. This grim masterpiece – the only movie directed by actor Charles Laughton – mixes German expressionism, religion and fantasy in an intensely furious brew. Robert Mitchum plays a demented preacher who stalks a boy and his sister because he suspects the kids know where a stash of stolen money is hidden. Unforgettable imagery includes the preacher’s ominous shadow, a magical boat ride down a teeming river and the sinister tattoos of LOVE and HATE. A haunting, influential work of art. Metropolis (1. 92. Fritz Lang’s legendary silent sci- fi is a classic example German expressionism. Brilliant, vibrant images of a futuristic society and an oppressed workers’ revolt are amazing for their time. Symbolic and disturbing, this film is a cautionary tale about a future where machines dominate man. Psycho (1. 96. 0)No film has ever really matched the impact of Alfred Hitchcock’s horrifying masterwork. More than just a demented shocker, Psycho is also a creepy character study where Hitchcock skillfully fools you into identifying with Norman Bates, and then pounds us with the shower scene – the most famous moment in cinema history. Anthony Perkins is brilliant as Bates, the awkward manager of the Bates Motel. The blood runs black in this film, and it has never been more terrifying. Pandora’s Box (1. This German silent classic was so erotic it was banned for many years. The beautiful Louise Brooks stars in director G. W. Pabst’s expressionistic tale of an openly sexual woman headed down a path of eventual destruction, and a date with Jack the Ripper. Top Hat (1. 93. 5)Grace, elegance and talent highlight one of the greatest musicals ever made. Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers dancing to the music of Irving Berlin provided art deco escapist entertainment for a Depression- era audience. Director Mark Sandrich gave us the perfect screen couple dancing “Cheek to Cheek.”1. On the Waterfront (1. Marlon Brando’s greatest performance in Elia Kazan’s electric account of life on the New York waterfront. Incredible performances by some of the greatest actors in history highlight this extraordinary example of old fashioned filmmaking. Boris Kaufman’s photography and Leonard Bernstein’s music set the standard. To Kill a Mockingbird (1. Gregory Peck gives one of the ultimate performances in film history in Robert Mulligan’s moving drama about racial unrest in the Deep South. Spectacular sets and crisp dialog highlight this classic version of Harper Lee’s novel. The Haunting (1. 96. Robert Wise’s moody film is based on Shirley Jackson’s brilliant novel. A repressed women must deal with the ghosts of Hill House, and like her, we are terrified by dark whispering shadows in the dark. Intense terror, aided by the eerie black- and- white photography. One of the great horror films ever made. The Big Sleep (1. Film noir at its finest, guided by the great director Howard Hawks. Based on Raymond Chandler’s novel, Humphrey Bogart gives one of his most memorable performances as detective Philip Marlowe. Moody and fascinating tale, with the legendary chemistry of Bacall and Bogart. Trust me, this foggy mystery could have only been made in black and white. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1. Stanley Kubrick’s scathing black comedy examines a Cold War between the U. S. Stunning performances by Peter Sellers, George C. Scott and Sterling Hayden. One of Kubrick’s finest films (which says a lot) is also one of the most perceptive satires in history. Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1. One of the great science fiction films of all time, director Don Siegel gives us a near- perfect examination of a paranoid Cold War America circa the 1. Brilliant performances highlight the story of small town residents being duplicated by pods. Manhattan (1. 97. Arguably one of Woody Allen’s greatest films shows New York as you have never seen it before. Brilliant Gordon Willis cinematography simply adds to the terrific story of friends finding and losing love in the Big Apple. Night of the Living Dead (1. George Romero’s zombie classic set the standard for hundreds of horror films to come. Unlucky folks are trapped in a Pennsylvania farm house, trying to fight off flesh- eating zombies and eventually each other. Incredible tension with an authentic feel. A nightmare come to life. The Best Years of Our Lives (1. William Wyler’s heartbreaking and moving ode to WWII veterans returning home from combat. A near perfect film, with a nostalgic portrayal of suburban America leading in to the 1. Hugo Friedhofer’s musical score is one of the greatest in film history. Young Frankenstein (1. Mel Brooks hit the jackpot with this puppy, one of the great box office hits of all time. But Brooks respected his subject matter, making a near- perfect parody of old- time Universal horror films – including Bride of Frankenstein – which could only be created in glorious black and white. The Defiant Ones (1. Stanley Kramer’s insightful story of two escaped convicts (Sidney Poitier, Tony Curtis) chained together while on the run in the Deep South. Symbolic tale is highlighted by fantastic supporting performances and an unforgettable ending. The Bicycle Thief (1. Italian director Vittorio De Sica’s moving masterpiece tells the seemingly simply story of a man who loses his bike, and the difficult week he spends with his son. One of the most beautiful films ever made. Portrait of Jennie (1. Director William Dieterle’s haunting tale of lost love told from the viewpoint of tortured artist Joseph Cotten. He meets a ghost in Central Park (in the form of the lovely Jennifer Jones) and eventually paints her mysterious portrait, the final shot in Technicolor. One of the most underrated films of all time. My apologies to Citizen Kane, Casablanca and The Seven Samurai, films which frankly would have been better in color.
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