History Discussion Group

For Halloween, here's the great Vincent Price in three Edgar Allen Poe stories: "Morella," "The Black Cat" (with elements of "The Casque of Amontillado") and "The Case of M. Valdemar."

This 1962 release, like other Price-Poe movies, was directed by American International Pictures' star director Roger Corman, from a Richard Matheson adaptation. The cast includes veterans Basil Rathbone and Peter Lorre.

Baltimore, 1962: a plus-size girl (Nikki Blonsky) joins a TV dance show.

Adam Shankman directed this 2007 release from a Leslie Dixon adaptation of the 2002 Marc Shaiman-Scott Wittman Broadway musical, based in turn on John Waters' 1988 comedy. The cast includes John Travolta (in drag as Nikki's mother), Michelle Pfeiffer, Christopher Walken and Queen Latifah.

Finland is a European nation that's never fit into a neat category. (Even the Finnish language isn't Indo-European!) For centuries it was Swedish territory, becoming a Grand Duchy in 1580. But it was overrun by the Russian Empire in 1809, and became Russian territory for the next century. Finnish nationalism became a strong movement, and in 1906 Finland was allowed to establish a Parliament elected by universal suffrage.

In 1917, with Russia engulfed by revolution, Finland took the opportunity to declare independence. But a divisive civil war followed, with general Gustav Mannerheim defeating the communist faction. (Mannerheim would play an important role in Finnish politics over the next decades.) The government considered declaring the Prince of Hesse-Kassel their king, but ultimately chose a republican, democratic system.

In 1939 Finland refused to acquiesce in the Soviet occupation of the strategic Karelian Isthmus in the nation's southeast, resulting in invasion and the Winter War. Mannerheim's guerrilla warfare inflicted heavy casualties on the Red Army, but Finland had to come to terms the following spring, ceding the isthmus and evacuating a tenth of the population. The Finns tried to retake the isthmus during the German invasion of the Soviet Union, but had to turn coat in 1944 and suffered a second invasion by Germany.

The Finns were luckier than most of eastern Europe, retaining their democratic government through the Cold War. Urho Kekkonen, Prime Minister and then President for over thirty years, played a delicate balancing act, maintaining good relations with both Moscow and the West and keeping the nation independent. Finland, once one of Europe's poorest regions, is now among the most prosperous, boasting corporations like the high-tech company Nokia. The nation joined the European Union in 1992 and the pro-American defence group NATO in 2023.

For background reading, you can try David Kirby's A Concise History of Finland.

An artist (William Atherton) comes to Hollywood and falls for an aspiring actress (Karen Black).

John Schlesinger directed this 1975 release from a Waldo Salt script based on Nathanael West's intentionally grotesque 1939 novel. The supporting cast includes Donald Sutherland, Burgess Meredith, Billy Barty and Geraldine Page. Cinematography by Conrad Hall.