Castle of Frankenstein #22, Nov. 1974: Slaymate of the Month: Ingrid Pitt

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As a way of making up for my lack of actual babbling in text form, I've decided to debut the first ever substantive appearance of nudity on Basement of Decadence! And who better than Hammer icon Ingrid Pitt (apparently only twenty six-years-old) in vintage yellowed newspaper. This is from the classic horror magazine, Castle of Frankenstein, volume six, number two (or just #22). A large scan of the cover can be seen here over at The Blood Sprayer about the Exorcist's Blu-ray release. That's my bagged copy, but this morning I found another much more beat up copy for only a buck.

Exorcist fans should duly note, this issue goes welcomingly overboard with "fresh" coverage of the just released film. Besides the gaudy and awesome cover, there's multiple articles from various writers with facts and observations about the 1973 classic including a young Joe Dante of...well, a bunch of great horror features. An article on the production's follies or "curse". A long article detailing William Friedkin's take on his film as he presided over a University of Georgia film class. Also a short one-on-one interview with Friedkin that evidently only Castle of Frankenstein could get the reclusive director to agree to.

That may not sound like much, but the magazine's typeset is so small and packed that I can't imagine this magazine being geared toward kids during its heyday. Unless kids are just vastly stupider nowadays and the comparatively slim pages of Fangoria have reflected that. One could literally reformat the text on the Exorcist from these pages, throw in some stills, and have a nice little film guide. Not to mention all the great stuff you don't see anymore in horror mags--like Pitt's glorious frontage.

It might also interest someone like it did myself to know that Maryland-native and frequent Don Dohler personality George Stover also contributed to this magazine as a scribe.