As long as we’re going down the American Movie Classics rabbit hole this week, why not pay a visit to another groovy AMC set (dig the moviola with reels threaded up in the background) with its coolest announcer ever. I speak of Nick Clooney (yes, yes, George’s father). Nick’s manner is suave, cool and confident. His delivery is soothing yet there’s a hint of sexual self-confidence and even danger to the way he draws you in. If, as I posited yesterday, Bob Dorian was the friendly High School counselor than Nick Clooney is the dapper bachelor at the local country club who purrs his way into the hearts of the available wealthy widows. This is his introduction to ‘Curse Of Frankenstein’, a movie I’ve never seen or cared about (don’t like the genre) but after Nick’s intro I’m more than game to see. Nick Clooney is alive and well, aged 89, and this Wikipedia bio makes very interesting reading. AMC hosting was the least of his impressive accomplishments–he was a longtime newsman/anchor/journalist and even ran for a Congressional seat in his post AMC years. So there!
May 14, 2024
One Response
And then those wealthy widows disappear without a trace. I had no idea at the time, of the Clooney connection as I think George was a hard working but little known actor at the time. AMC, before TCM, used to run great Horror Marathons on Halloween, on year Tim Burton hosted the whole event and another year Roger Corman did–sorry but I think they did it better than Nick and left no missing widows either. He’s right about the key turning point that Curse of Frankenstein represents in the genre as well as in the careers of it’s dynamic stars Lee and Cushing who brought back horror after Bud and Lou had put it to bed in a series of spoofy spoofs.