In August, the folks at Turner Classic Movies, my favorite cable station, asked if I’d fill in a week as host for Robert Osborne, who’s out until December 1. It took about .000000001 seconds to hit “reply†and say, “Yes!†I was going to be a V.J. for movie geeks! I didn’t get to pick my own films, but they offered me three possible weeks and I opted for the one that opened with four horror movies that shaped my life: Horror of Dracula (still high on my all-time favorites list), The House on Haunted Hill, The Tingler, and Curse of the Demon. They all air tonight!
I wrote my own 29 intros for the films, which was harder than I expected, but satisfying. I hope it comes off okay, but even if it doesn’t, I think about that 9-year-old in front of the TV at 2 a.m. Could he ever have envisioned himself staring back, saying, “Here, from 1958, Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee in the Hammer Classic, Horror of Dracula�