S2E7 - TCM Underground Withdrawals feat. Millie De Chirico w/ Kenneth Anger shorts & Night Tide (61)

Former TCM Underground chief programmer Millie De Chirico joins us to talk about her book, "TCM Underground: 50 Must-See Films from the World of Classic Cult and Late-Night Cinema." She also helps us get through our TCM Underground withdrawals that we've all been going through since Turner Classic Movies cancelled the Friday night cult movie cavalcade in February. First, Millie and the OMFYS crew discuss a trio of way underground short films from Curtis Harrington and Kenneth Anger (RIP): THE WORMWOOD STAR (1956), INAUGURATION OF THE PLEASURE DOME (1956), and INVOCATION OF MY DEMON BROTHER (1969). Millie and Cory shed a lot of light on the occult art scene of 1950s Los Angeles, and one of its central figures, the bewitching (maybe literally!) Marjorie Cameron, and Philena's "TikTok Report" shows us that people are still very afraid of these movies, which is a good thing. Curtis Harrington, who directed WORMWOOD STAR and stars in PLEASURE DOME, sticks around for our feature, his haunting zero-budget horror film, NIGHT TIDE (1961). Dennis Hopper plays a sailor drawn to a sideshow mermaid (Lindy Lawson) who might just be the real thing. Marjorie Cameron also appears as The Water Witch plus bongos by Chaino. There is a big SPOILER WARNING! on this one because we DESTROY THE ENDING. We usually edit this stuff out but the spoilery bits may help people understand NIGHT TIDE and the conversation is just too fun to end up on the virtual editing room floor. At least Bob thinks so, and he's usually the spoiler police. If you haven't seen NIGHT SIDE stop listening at the 1:13 mark of this episode and skip ahead to the weed recs four minutes later (1:17). Both of our featured filmmakers, Kenneth Anger and Curtis Harrington, are LGBTQ+, so please consider this our ACCIDENTAL PRIDE EPISODE. Love is love. Ask for Millie De Chico's TCM UNDERGROUND book at your local bookstore or succumb to the corporate octopus and order it online from you know where, or maybe this somewhat more benign corporate bookseller. https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/tcm-underground-millie-de-chirico/1141004302 Also, check out Millie's excellent film podcast, I SAW WHAT YOU DID. If you like this podcast, you should definitely subscribe to hers. It's streaming on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music and all the major pod apps. https://wondery.com/shows/i-saw-what-you-did/ Join us in about two weeks for our BARBIE EPISODE with MUSCLE BEACH PARTY (1964) and BACK TO THE BEACH (1987), one of Cory's favorites. Co-hosts: Philena Franklin, Cory Sklar, Greg Franklin and Bob Calhoun Theme song: Chaki the Funk Wizard Trailer audio: Archive.org Mermaid by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Source: http://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/index.html?isrc=USUAN1100671 Artist: http://incompetech.com/ Twitter: OM4YStoners Instagram/Facebook (Meta): oldmoviesforyoungstoners Contact: oldmoviesforyoungstoners AT gmail DOT com