Trailers from Hell

In 1961 Roger Corman took a flyer from his exploitation roots and made one from the heart, from Charles Beaumont's angry novel inspired by the rabble-rousing exploits of Southern racist John Kasper. When exhibitors refused to book it, Corman returned to Edgar Allan Poe and the movie disappeared into grindhouse hell under titles like Shame and I Hate Your Guts. William Shatner stars, but Corman's first choice was...Tony Randall!

Jack Clayton's masterpiece, one of the greatest cinematic ghost stories, is ill-served by this lowbrow trailer that sells it like a cheap Eurotrash import. Film debut of the lovely and talented Pamela Frankin.

Giant monster specialist Bert I. Gordon's only somewhat improved followup to "King Dinosaur" was shot in 1955 but didn't make it to theaters til 1957, on a double bill with Ulmer's "Daughter of Dr. Jekyll", satisfying only the fans of pert starlet Gloria Talbott, who starred in both.

Credited to Stanley Kubrick, taking over from Anthony Mann (whose casting choices appear in abundance), this troubled epic from revered Lefties Dalton Trumbo and Howard Fast has become a touchstone of 60s cinema and for good reason -- it's less pious and more honestly moving than the comparatively overblown Ben-Hur.

Howard Hawks' riposte to the likes of "High Noon" and "3:10 to Yuma" is one of the great Movie Star Westerns, cannily targeted at every demographic available.

Edgar has his own thoughts on the very different American trailer that accompanied the US release of Argento's classic.

"Psycho" spawned a cottage industry of twist-ending killer-thrillers, and this modest Hammer entry is one of the best. Psycho's unconventional ad campaign also led to gambits like this one, pretending the movie was just too scary to show any actual footage in the trailer!

Another elaborate personalized Hitchcock trailer. His "sex mystery" followup to The Birds has its adherents, but Larry Cohen isn't one of them. Nice Bernard Herrmann score though, and the star of Family Plot has a supporting role.

Terence Fisher returns to direct the first (and best?) of six sequels to the groundbreaking Curse of Frankenstein, bringing new complexity and plenty of gallows humor to the character of Baron Frankenstein, the alternately malevolent and admirable protagonist whose grand experiments just never seem to work out.

Renowned for the flying brains and sputtering gore of its final reel, this British sci-fi set in Canada has maintained semi-classic status over the decades despite the fact that it's actually pretty uneventful.