Festival of Thrillers

Festival of Thrillers was a horror film television program that ran late at night on weekends on WNBC-TV (Channel 4) in New York City from 1965 to 1968. Throughout its run, it aired directly after weekend reruns of The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. The program's base list consisted of the classic 1930s and 1940s Universal Horror films, which after its second year were augmented by later 1950s horror titles from Hammer Film Productions and other studios.

Background and history

WNBC-TV was the third station in the New York area to run the Universal Horror movies. WABC-TV was the first, in 1957, under the Shock Theatre banner, and WOR-TV had its first stint running the films in the early 1960s on its Supernatural Theatre. This was WNBC-TV's effort to compete with not only WOR-TV's Supernatural Theatre, but also WPIX's Chiller Theatre.

Festival of Thrillers was launched on May 1, 1965, with a showing of Frankenstein (1931). Its debut was heralded by a full-page ad in TV Guide, with the image of the Frankenstein monster against a white background. Also, Johnny Carson frequently did promos for the series throughout its run.

The core group of films (which also included some titles from Columbia Pictures and other studios) as shown on Festival of Thrillers consisted of the following:

• Frankenstein (1931)
  
• ''Bride of Frankenstein
  
• ''Son of Frankenstein
  
• ''The Ghost of Frankenstein
  
• House of Frankenstein
  
• Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man
  
• Dracula (1931)
  
• Dracula's Daughter
  
• Son of Dracula
  
• House of Dracula
  
• Werewolf of London
  
• The Wolf Man
  
• The Mummy (1932)
  
• The Mummy's Curse
  
• The Mummy's Ghost
  
• The Mummy's Hand
  
• The Mummy's Tomb
  
• The Invisible Man (1933)
  
• The Invisible Man Returns
  
• The Invisible Man's Revenge
  
• Behind the Mask (1932)
  
• The Face Behind the Mask
  
• The Black Cat (1934)
  
• Black Friday
  
• The Black Room
  
• The Man They Could Not Hang
  
• ''Before I Hang (1940)
  
• The Man with Nine Lives (1936)
  
• The Invisible Ray
  
• Nightmare
  
• Night Monster
  
• The Strange Case of Doctor Rx (1942)
  
• The Man Who Lived Twice (1936)
  
• Mad Love
• Calling Dr. Death
  
• Dead Man's Eyes
  

Some of these titles were also shown on Movie 4 over the three years Festival of Thrillers was on the air.

Starting in 1966, WNBC-TV acquired a package of 1950s horror movies, mostly from Hammer Films but some from other studios such as MGM. Many of these titles were being shown on New York television for the first time. Among these later movies shown alongside the Universal Horror pictures over the remaining two years of Festival of Thrillers were:

• Fire Maidens of Outer Space
  
• Fiend Without a Face
  
• The Haunted Strangler
  
• First Man into Space
  
• Shadow of the Cat
  
• The Brides of Dracula
  
• The Curse of the Werewolf
  
• The Day of the Triffids
  
• Svengali (1955)
  

Opening title and bumpers

The opening of Festival of Thrillers was shot on 16 mm film, and consisted of a photo montage of stills from the classic Universal Horror films, with the final shot being a scene from The Invisible Man Returns. The bumper consisted of a shot of The Mummy from The Mummy's Hand carrying an unconscious lady, only with The Mummy's head replaced with that of Boris Karloff's Frankenstein. There was no host.

Schedule and final years

In its first sixteen months on the air, Festival of Thrillers followed Carson repeats on Saturday nights at 1:00 A.M. Starting on September 11, 1966, Carson and Festival of Thrillers were moved to Sunday nights at the same respective starting times, and a new movie series, Saturday Film Festival, premiered on September 17, 1966. After eleven months on Sundays, Festival of Thrillers was moved back to Saturdays starting on August 26, 1967.

According to contemporary TV listings in The New York Times, the last EDition of Festival of Thrillers, a repeat of Before I Hang, was shown on July 6, 1968. Starting on July 13, 1968, the Saturday night Carson rerun was followed by another edition of WNBC's late-night movie umbrella, The Great Great Show; however, for its first two months Universal Horror titles continued to be shown in that time slot, until the station's rights to the films expired in or around late August of 1968.

Aftermath

The Universal Horror movies did not FADE from New York TV after the end of Festival of Thrillers. By 1969, they turned up on WNEW-TV, where they formed the basis for the early years of Creature Features. Then in 1971, the rights to these classics reverted back to WOR-TV, where they were initially shown on the daytime Thriller Theater and the early weekend Chiller Thriller before being run frequently in the early years of Fright Night. After WOR-TV's second run with these films ended, they bounced back and forth between WNEW-TV and public television station WNET by the 1980s.

As for the Hammer films, many remained a part of WNBC's film library through the early 1970s.