Halloween tradition is not complete without an annual viewing of the 1966 Melendez/Schultz classic It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown. Linus Van Pelt’s yearly vigil to his sincere pumpkin patch in hopes of a visit from the Great Pumpkin has been a part of my Halloween consciousness as far back as I can remember. In those days yearly specials like this had to be planned for in advance because they were shown one time on television and one time only…if you missed it you were out of luck until next year! My parents were very generous in that they always allowed us to watch these annual shows despite the fact that they most likely wanted to be watching something else. There are many Peanuts animated specials but this one and the Christmas one are by far the best. Every year I enjoy watching Charlie Brown get rock after rock as he trick or treats with the gang. It is said that when the special first aired kids felt so sorry for Charlie Brown that they actually sent in candy for him. Snoopy battles the Red Baron, Linus waxes eloquent about his pumpkin theology, and poor Sally learns a hard lesson about sacrifice for the sake of love. It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown can be viewed the old-fashioned way, on television, tomorrow night at 7 p.m. central time on your local ABC station.
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Roald Dahl, author of such great children’s classics as Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, James and the Giant Peach, and Matida is also a well-known writer of adult short stories of mystery and suspense. This collection of tales are actually stories from other authors that were hand-picked by Dahl. In 1958 Dahl teamed up with a Hollywood producer to work on an idea of doing a weekly television series based on classic short ghost stories. To that end Dahl read 749 stories from the British Museum Library. Dahl had very high standards in regards to the literary quality of these tales and out of those stories he only found 24 that he believes are good ghost stories. The series did not work out (there is an interesting story in the introduction explaining what happened) and years later Roald Dahl gathered together 14 of these stories in book form. This book is one of the best examples of old-timey ghost stories that I have ever read. These are stories written to thrill and chill at a time when it would have been unheard of to write tales filled with blood and gore. These tales are all about atmosphere and suspense and the dread of things that go bump in the night written by classic authors such as Rosemary Timperley, E.F. Benson, A.M. Burrage, J. Sheridan le Fanu, Edith Wharton and others. These stories are all easy, quick reads that would appeal to anyone. Great for cold, dark nights.
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It had been years since I had seen Tim Burton’s interpretation of Washington Irving’s classic tale The Legend of Sleepy Hollow so, courtesy of Netflix, I sat down and watched it this weekend. I had forgotten how thoroughly enjoyable this film is. Burton sat out to make a movie that was part Grimm’s fairy tale and part classic horror reminiscent of films he had seen as a child. As I sat watching this I realized that this is the movie that Brothers Grimm could have been had either Burton directed it or had Gilliam had the freedom that Burton enjoys to make the film he wanted to make. Sleepy Hollow is a much more well rounded film than Brothers Grimm. In it Burton balances the elements of horror, fairy tale, adventure, romance, and humor in such a way that it is truly a complete film…one element does not outweigh the other. In watching the film and the ‘making of’ featurette I was struck by how many tongue-in-cheek elements there are in the film that are indeed comical but do not make the film feel cheesy or campy.

The film has all the trappings of a typical Burton film, dark and whimsical. The flashback scenes showing Ichabod Crane’s mother (played by Burton’s love interest at the time Lisa Marie) were beautifully rendered and added moments of lush color in an otherwise dark and eerie film. The ensemble cast in this film is excellent and I especially enjoy Johnny Depp and Christina Ricci. Burton seems to be able to pull the most unusual and amazing performances from Depp. This film is a great homage to those classic Vincent Price/Christopher Lee horror films without making fun of them. The ‘making of’ featurette mentioned earlier was terrific. I was amazed to learn that they made the entire forest on a sound stage. It is the best example of a creepy, forbidden wood that I’ve seen in any film. I particularly like Burton’s design for the Tree of the Dead which plays a pivotal role in the film.

While I was watching the film I found myself thinking that the Headless Horseman’s fighting moves looked awfully familiar. In watching the behind the scenes features it turns out that they chose to use a stunt man with a blue screen mask on so that they could maintain the body proportions while filming. The stunt man they chose was Ray Parks, who went on years later to become famous for his portrayal of Darth Maul in Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace. Much of his Darth Maul fighting style can be seen in his interpretation of the Headless Horseman. Sleepy Hollow is more Burton goodness that makes for great autumn viewing.

Have a wonderful Monday everyone…one more week to All Hallow’s Eve!!!