"The Black Cat" At Grauman's Chinese Theater

Above, Sara Karloff at Monsterpalooza.  Photo by Armand Vaquer.

Hollywood was my destination last night for "Kirk Hammett and Mad Monster Party Present The Black Cat" at Grauman's Chinese Theater.  It featured Hammett, Sara Karloff and Bela Lugosi Jr.

It was an enjoyable event as this marked the first time I set foot into the main auditorium of the theater since I attended the world premiere of Godzilla Final Wars in 2004.

The program began with a screening of a film of Metallica's Kirk Hammett's monster collection hobby.  When I saw the huge painting of a young and dapper Bela Lugosi (the portrait was once owned by Lugosi) in Hammett's collection, I wondered what might have been going though Bela Lugosi Jr.'s mind.  The portrait ended up with Hope Lugosi after Bela Sr. died and Bela Jr. wanted it.  After he had allegedly hounded her to help pay for litigation over his father's image over a span of several years, she was determined that he never got the portrait.  At least, that's how the story goes.

Following Hammett's film, a talk on The Black Cat and the careers of Karloff and Lugosi began, featuring their children and Hammett.  Unfortunately, we couldn't hear too much of Lugosi Jr. and Ms. Karloff as they either spoke too softly or the sound system was off-kilter.  This was finished off with a video of Sara Karloff's home movies which featured the only known color footage of Boris Karloff as the Monster in Son of Frankenstein.

After this, The Black Cat was shown.  It was interesting seeing this movie on the big screen.  I never noticed tears on Bela Lugosi's face as he gazed at the embalmed body of his wife before.

Mad Monster Party magazine and Kirk Hammett did a great job in putting the event together.  My grade: A.