- published: 07 Jan 2014
- views: 3897
Shanks is a 1974 American horror film about a puppeteer able to manipulate dead bodies like puppets. Mime Marcel Marceau, in his first major film role, plays the titular Malcolm Shanks. It was the last film directed by producer-director William Castle.
Malcolm Shanks (Marceau) is a deaf, mute puppeteer who lives with his cruel sister (Chelton) and her husband (Clay). His skill with puppets is noticed by a doctor who takes him on as a lab assistant. The doctor's experiments involve reanimating the dead and controlling them like puppets. When the doctor dies unexpectedly, Shanks continues the experiments to exact revenge.
Marceau, who had for decades before performed in his signature white face makeup and without speaking, both spoke and appeared without makeup for this film. He played two roles: Malcolm Shanks, who could not speak, and Old Walker, who could. He had appeared in 20 shorts and films in small and cameo roles, often as his mime character Bip. Director William Castle took an interest in him after watching him perform the pantomime "Youth, Maturity, Old Age and Death" and approached him with the script for Shanks, saying it dealt with similar themes. Said Marceau of the script, "it was exactly what I had been looking for."
Malcolm Shanks is a sad and lonely man, deaf, mute and living with his cruel sister and her husband, who delight in making him miserable. His only pleasure, it seems, is in making and controlling puppets. Thanks to his skill, he is offered a job as a lab assistant to Dr. Walker, who is working on ways to re-animate dead bodies by instering electrodes at key nerve points and manipulating the bodies as if they were on strings. When the professor suddenly dies one night, Shanks gets the idea to apply their experimental results to a human body, and then to start exacting some revenge.
Keywords: cemetery, chicken, corpse, drowning, drunkard, falling-down-stairs, falling-from-height, falling-into-a-well, frog, good-versus-evil
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Genres: Comedy,Actors: Robert Render (actor), Matt Faris (actor), Mark Byatt (actor), David McCrea (writer), David McCrea (director), Bertrand Lassallette-Desnault (producer),
Genres: Comedy, Short,Actors: Mohan Agashe (actor), Suhasini Mulay (actress), Makrand Deshpande (actor), Jackie Shroff (actor), Pallavi Joshi (actress), Renuka Shahane (writer), Renuka Shahane (writer), Renuka Shahane (director), Renuka Shahane (actress), Sai Tamhankar (actress), Tushar Dalvi (actor), Jabeen Merchant (editor), Pushkar Shrotri (actor), Abhijit Chawathe (miscellaneous crew), Taufiq Qureshi (composer),
Genres: Drama,Actors: Famke Janssen (actress), Jonathan Sanger (actor), Jonathan Sanger (producer), John Frizzell (composer), Anthony Redman (editor), Michael Paré (actor), Richard Szabó (miscellaneous crew), Bobby Cannavale (actor), Michael Paré (actor), John Fallon (actor), Stephen L'Heureux (producer), Eric Red (director), Eric Red (writer), Ed Westwick (actor), Jennifer Bushnell (miscellaneous crew),
Plot: A young woman, Marnie Watson, is granted early release from her prison sentence for manslaughter (killing her husband - a violent NYC cop - in self defense) on condition she wear an electronic ankle bracelet and remain within her home, effectively under house arrest, for the remainder of her sentence. Her late husband's partner keeps tabs on her from a patrol car parked across the street, hoping she'll violate probation and he can send her back to prison. But the 100-foot radius her ankle bracelet allows isn't the worst of her problems. Her dead husband --now a malevolent ghost--is still in the house, where he died -- intent on savage revenge.
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Keywords: accidental-death, arizona, based-on-play, billiards, birthday, buzzard, cattle, chess, cousin-cousin-relationship, danceVerse 1:
Finding your way in the dark,
Ain't so hard when you're close to my heart
You are there when I'm feeling alone
All I need is for you to come home
Chorus:
You're sweet like chocolate boy
You're sweet like chocolate
You bring me so much joy
You're sweet like chocolate boy
Verse 2:
Trust is the lock is the key
There's no doubt that your love's all for me
You are sweet on the tip of my tongue
You are warm like the rays of the sun
Chorus:
You're sweet like chocolate boy
You're sweet like chocolate
You bring me so much joy
You're sweet like chocolate boy
Verse 3:
Knowing you're there every day
Makes me high in my own special way
I am calm in the face of your love
Holding you is the gift from above
Chorus:
You're sweet like chocolate boy
You're sweet like chocolate
You bring me so much joy
You're sweet like chocolate boy