The Classic Horror Film Board

Rick wrote: Am I right that this is one of those artist-kills-his-models movies?  Seems to me I've seen two or three or thirty of those, but this title doesn't ring any of my ancient bells.

Blood Bath aka Track Of The Vampire was another "artist kills his models" type movie from the 60's.

I recall Neil Sedaka being on American Bandstand around early 1965 and stating he was about to make a movie called THE MONTAGE with Lon Chaney, Jr.
There is an item in Record World (I think that's the title of the trade publication) which also mentions the movie with Chaney, to be filmed in Miami, and in which Sedaka plays a murder suspect. 

Neil Sedaka does have a song "Do The Jellyfish" on Bill Grefe's Sting Of Death (1966).
Sting Of Death was filmed in South Florida but no Lon Chaney Jr . appearance in this film.

Lon Jr. was in "Fireball Jungle" from 1968 which was filmed in South Florida and Tampa but Neil Sedaka was not in this movie.

Geonny wrote: I recall Neil Sedaka being on American Bandstand around early 1965 and stating he was about to make a movie called THE MONTAGE with Lon Chaney, Jr.
There is an item in Record World (I think that's the title of the trade publication) which also mentions the movie with Chaney, to be filmed in Miami, and in which Sedaka plays a murder suspect. 

Check out the newspaper clipping in this post of this thread.  It refers to the film as "MONTAGE."

There's also a different clipping that is a few posts above the one I linked here (see post #41).  That also uses the name MONTAGE.  It was apparently a working or earlier title, which was later changed.

Mike Mariano wrote:

Geonny wrote: I recall Neil Sedaka being on American Bandstand around early 1965 and stating he was about to make a movie called THE MONTAGE with Lon Chaney, Jr.
There is an item in Record World (I think that's the title of the trade publication) which also mentions the movie with Chaney, to be filmed in Miami, and in which Sedaka plays a murder suspect. 

Check out the newspaper clipping in this post of this thread.  It refers to the film as "MONTAGE."

There's also a different clipping that is a few posts above the one I linked here (see post #41).  That also uses the name MONTAGE.  It was apparently a working or earlier title, which was later changed.

I knew about the other posts.  Was Chaney, Jr. originally going to star in what became Playgirl Killer?

Inspired by this flurry of new posts, I e-mailed Filmfax yet again and asked for a reply, yea or nay, about the interview I did with Barry Sendel last year. I still have hopes that they'll publish it!

Valbert2099 wrote: Saw this film on a local Miami TV station back in the 80's. Bill Kerwin was actually on set with the local late nite host BIg Wilson chatting about Decoy For Terror. I just wish I had videotaped it.....

Do you recall anything that Kerwin said on the show?  Even a tiny memory of any of his comments?  

According to the producer of PLAYGIRL KILLER, Kerwin was a wild man on the set.

There's a link to a youtube interview with Kerwin in this post of this thread.  It's from The Incredibly Strange Film Show series.  He doesn't mention PLAYGIRL KILLER, unfortunately.

If Sendel is willing to answer one more question, I'll ask him. Can't hurt to find out.

Mike Mariano wrote:

Valbert2099 wrote: Saw this film on a local Miami TV station back in the 80's. Bill Kerwin was actually on set with the local late nite host BIg Wilson chatting about Decoy For Terror. I just wish I had videotaped it.....

Do you recall anything that Kerwin said on the show?  Even a tiny memory of any of his comments?  

According to the producer of PLAYGIRL KILLER, Kerwin was a wild man on the set.

There's a link to a youtube interview with Kerwin in this post of this thread.  It's from The Incredibly Strange Film Show series.  He doesn't mention PLAYGIRL KILLER, unfortunately.

All I remember was that Bill Kerwin had a goatee and he seemed to be friends with the host Big Wilson. Don't remember if he had any positive recollections about making Decoy For Terror (I'm pretty sure they talked about Neil Sedaka) but at the time (1982) I really didn't know Kerwin was.  The movie was cool though and it reminded me a bit of
Track Of The Vampire (Blood Bath).

On YouTube under "American Bandstand 1964 - Interview- Neil Sedaka" or some such, you can hear Sedaka speak of doing the movie, THE MONTAGE, with Lon Chaney, jr., and in fact he says it as if he has already completed it. It's a brief clip running 38 seconds or so. The print item in Record World is somewhere online as well as I found it by Googling certain words in combination, but I don't recall which ones now.        


 khwf

Geonny wrote: On YouTube under "American Bandstand 1964 - Interview- Neil Sedaka" or some such, you can hear Sedaka speak of doing the movie, THE MONTAGE, with Lon Chaney, jr., and in fact he says it as if he has already completed it. It's a brief clip running 38 seconds or so. The print item in Record World is somewhere online as well as I found it by Googling certain words in combination, but I don't recall which ones now.        


 khwf

Awesome, Geonny.  It's possible the youtube uploader labelled the wrong year on the clip, because the June 1965 article in page 3 of this thread indicates that Sedaka "arrives at Montreal International Airport Sunday afternoon for several days work on MONTAGE."  So I bet the clip is actually from 1965, not '64.

Also, note that Sedaka says "I just did a movie down in Miami..."  Well, his memory seems to be faulty there.  The movie was filmed in Canada; the credits on the film (and the producers's comments) confirm that.  And the film certainly doesn't have Lon Chaney in it.  

Anyway, it's still great to see the clip.  Here it is...

I think the Record World item was from early 1965.  It mentioned Chaney Jr. as co-star or cast member and stated Sedaka was playing a murder suspect in the movie, The Montage.  I think it was written as if it was yet to be done, and I think it said Miami was the filming site planned.  I can't seem to find it now, but it's online somewhere.

Geonny wrote: I think the Record World item was from early 1965.  It mentioned Chaney Jr. as co-star or cast member and stated Sedaka was playing a murder suspect in the movie, The Montage.  I think it was written as if it was yet to be done, and I think it said Miami was the filming site planned.  I can't seem to find it now, but it's online somewhere.

The director was from Miami, as were William Kerwin and his brother, who wrote the script.  Maybe at the script stage the production was looking at Miami for the location, and maybe Chaney was being considered.  It eventually ended up being produced and filmed in Canada, with of course Kerwin taking on the role as the killer.

Sedaka filmed his part in Canada.  I'm sure he travelled all over the place constantly while touring and performing.  When you do so much of that and are as busy as he was/is, it can be easy to mix up people and places.  That would be my guess on the reason for his confusing comment(s) about the location.

Maybe he meant Florida for STING OF DEATH...?

I was thinking that too, amanaplan.  

Issues of Record World are available to view at americanradiohistory.com, but I don't recall which issue had the perhaps superfluous item about The Montage, Sedaka and Chaney.  If I go through some of them later at the site, perhaps I can pinpoint it.

Otherwise, I guess if Miami and Canada can be mistaken, so can Lon Chaney, Jr. and William Kerwin.

Mianada and Lon Chanwin... Jr.

That interview certainly muddies the already-roiled waters. I wrote to Barry Sendel, and sent him the video link. Perhaps he can clear this up and give me one more little nugget to add to the interview!