Labor Day could mean lazing around, eating hot dogs, and reading the funny papers — all pleasures of the working man and woman’s holiday. But for the past sixty years, cinephiles have gathered on this end-of-summer weekend for a five-day “deep dive” — and that means morning-till-night — to imbibe a banquet of rarely seen classic films. The range of programming stretches between iconic silent films to rare and unseen Hollywood gems and archival kinescopes from the dawn of television. That would be Cinecon 60 Classic Film Festival, this year at the Director’s Guild of America in Beverly Hills.
One of Cinecon’s rich offerings that caught artsmeme‘s eye is a special presentation on twin titans of terror. Naturally, in this election season I assumed the talk would concern the two terrorists named Donald and J.D. But author Julian David Stone sees it differently. In Stone’s presentation, “Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff: The Twin Titans of Terror,” he’ll be sharing his extensive research from his novel, It’s Alive!, about the making of the Frankenstein (1931) — and more.
Stone tells the story of two giants of horror, Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff, from their early days as aspiring actors to their overnight success from their breakout roles in Dracula and Frankenstein, to their incredible decade long careers making one classic horror film after the next, with a special emphasis on the eight films they made together.
There’s so much more on offer! Peruse the Cinecon Schedule here. Full Festival Passes are now on sale at for $299. The price goes up to $349 on August 16th. There are $85 Day Passes for Thursday, Friday, Saturday, or Sunday, and $75 for Monday.
BELA LUGOSI & BORIS KARLOFF: THE TWIN TITANS OF TERROR! | SAT AUG 31 – 11:30AM | CINECON 60