The late-night/early morning spot for Cubs fans asks
It’s another week here at BCB After Dark: the coolest club for night owls, early risers, new parents and Cubs fans abroad. We’re so glad you stopped by. New friends and old are welcome. Please let us know if you need anything. We still have a few tables available. Bring your own beverage.
BCB After Dark is the place for you to talk baseball, music, movies, or anything else you need to get off your chest, as long as it is within the rules of the site. The late-nighters are encouraged to get the party started, but everyone else is invited to join in as you wake up the next morning and into the afternoon.
The Mets evened up the National League Championship Series with a 7-3 win in LA. The Yankees took game one of the American League Championship Series over the Guardians, 5-2.
Last week I asked you to grade Cubs outfielder/DH Seiya Suzuki’s 2024 season. An overwhelming 72 percent of you gave Suzuki a solid “B.” In second place, 18 percent of you gave Suzuki and “A.”
Here’s the part where we talk about music and movies. Those of you who skip that can do so now. You won’t hurt my feelings.
Tonight we are featuring the Keith Jarrett Trio in Tokyo in 1993. Jarrett is on piano, Gary Peacock on double-bass and Jack DeJohnette is on the drums.
In my quest to find “fun” horror movies for October, I watched The Walking Dead (1936), Warner Brothers’ attempt to put out a version of Frankenstein, complete with Boris Karloff in the lead. But despite having legendary director Michael Curtiz as the helm, The Walking Dead is a pale imitation of the great Universal horror films of the early thirties.
(And yes, there is no connection between this film and the popular comic book/TV series of the same name.)
Karloff stars as John Ellman, a pianist who just got out of the slammer after ten years on a manslaughter charge that he says he was innocent of. Meanwhile, a despicable crime boss named Nolan (Ricardo Cortez) is looking to take revenge upon an honest judge that sentenced one of his mobsters to ten years with no parole. It just so happens that the same judge sentenced Ellman, so Nolan comes up with a plan to murder the judge and frame Ellman for it.
The plan works, if only because a pair of young and engaged scientists (Warren Hull and Marguerite Churchill) who witnessed the crime are intimidated into silence. They’re assistants to Dr. Beaumont (Edmund Gwenn), who just happens to be a brilliant scientist who is working to reanimate dead tissue. (As one does, of course.)
Ellman is found guilty—thanks in large part his corrupt defense lawyer paid for by Nolan— and is sentenced to the electric chair. Eventually, the young couple overcomes their fear and tells the police what they saw, but of course the phone call to the death chamber comes too late.
Beaumont gets Ellman’s body and, in a scene that mimics the one in Frankenstein except in a modern hospital rather than a European castle, brings Ellman back to life. Ellman doesn’t remember everything that happened before he died, but he does know that Nolan and his gang are his enemies. And he’s slowly regaining his memories.
Nolan, of course, can’t have someone alive (or undead, I guess) that can finger him for the murder of the judge, so they need to rub him out again.
Here’s where The Walking Dead truly suffers from being made after the Production Code went into effect. One by one, Nolan’s gangsters are locked in a confrontation with Ellman, and one by one each of them gets killed. Not by Ellman—nope. He doesn’t hurt a fly. Instead, they all run away from him in terror and while fleeing, accidentally kill themselves in one way or another. It’s possible to make a great monster movie after the Code went into effect. The Bride of Frankenstein is arguably better than the original and was made after the Code went into effect. But this film ain’t one. We have no idea why everyone is so terrified of Ellman except that he came back from the dead. (Also, he’s Karloff with some dark and ominous makeup on.) The most violent thing he does is bang on the keys in anger while putting on a piano concert. He’s the most musically-talented zombie of all time.
The Walking Dead also lacks the delicious humor that Curtiz put in the two pre-Code horror films from the period, Doctor X and Mysteries of the Wax Museum. (It’s also in black-and-white, unlike those two films that are in two-color Technicolor.) The Walking Dead takes itself way too seriously for a story this silly. And yet, it doesn’t up the horror enough either. After all, how scary is undead Ellman if the mobsters keep offing themselves? At least Frankenstein’s monster threw a little girl into a river, even if he didn’t really know what he was doing.
Is there anything in The Walking Dead that makes it worth watching? Well, Karloff is excellent. Yes, he’s playing a variation of Frankenstein’s monster, but Ellman is clearly more of a sad sack that doesn’t deserve what has come his way. There’s a bit more subtlety to Karloff’s performance than the childlike monster from his earlier films. Karloff’s charisma shines over the weak script.
Curtiz, along with cinematographer Hal Mohr, do manage to create some compelling shots. That’s not surprising, as both Curtiz and Mohr would go on to win multiple Academy Awards. Karloff’s face is well-framed on the screen and maybe it gives us a little taste of what the mobsters were so scared of. There are also some well-done shots of Karloff in the cemetery that we all expect.
The other thing that Curtiz does well is bring the film in a just 66 minutes. There’s barely enough plot for that, so thank goodness it doesn’t go any longer.
Karloff and Curtiz keep The Walking Dead from being terrible, but overall it’s a weak effort compared to the great Universal monster movies that it clearly wishes to copy. It’s best to stick to the originals. Still, if you’re a completist, it’s worth watching once.
The trailer for The Walking Dead is pretty terrible, showing very little of the film and just promising us Karloff. You can watch it at the link if you want. But here’s a scene where undead Ellman puts on piano recital and the mobsters realize that Ellman has it in for them. It’s well-shot, as you would expect from a Curtiz film. He did later direct Casablanca, if you didn’t know that already.
Welcome back everyone who skips the music and movies.
It’s not a secret that the Cubs were lacking in power in 2024 and that a major offseason goal is to try to add some more power to the lineup. It’s difficult because it’s not like the Cubs have a lot of open positions, but something’s got to give.
I have no idea whether or not Cody Bellinger opts out of his contract at the end of the year. It seems to be a 50/50 prospect at this point. But even if he doesn’t, he can be traded. Removing Bellinger from the lineup would open a spot for one power bat to add to the lineup.
One available free agent is Dodgers outfielder Teoscar Hernández. Hernández was a free agent last winter and didn’t get a multi-year offer that he liked, so he signed a one-year deal with the Dodgers, intending to go back on the market again this winter. And while he’s said he’s happy in Los Angeles and wants to stay, there’s no indication at the moment that the Dodgers are willing to make a multi-year commitment to Hernández.
So if Hernández does hit the open market, would he be a good fit on the North Side? Hernández is a two-time All-Star and hit 33 home runs in 2024, alongside 32 doubles and a .501 slugging percentage. He even hit .272 with a .339 on-base percentage, which is only slightly better than his career averages of .263 and .320. That’s certainly the kind of offensive production the Cubs could use.
Hernández is also a right fielder, so he slides into the spot vacated by Bellinger quite nicely.
I suppose I should mention that Hernández had a great National League Division Series against the Padres, if you think that some players just perform better in the playoffs. He did well in the AL Wild Card series in 2022 for the Blue Jays as well.
There are some downsides to Hernández, however. The first is that, depending on when and where you read this, today (October 15) is his 32nd birthday. Hernández wants a multi-year deal, and while a three-year deal might not be too bad, it’s always risky giving big contracts to guys into their mid-thirties these days.
Another downside is that the Dodgers are very likely to stick a qualifying offer on Hernández. So the Cubs would lose a draft pick if they signed him.
A third downside is that no one has ever thought of giving Teoscar Hernández a Gold Glove. While I wouldn’t say he’s terrible out in right field, the defensive metrics certainly indicate that he’s a below-average defensive outfielder. That’s not likely to improve as he ages.
A final downside is that signing Hernández would block potential right field prospects such as Kevin Alcántara and Owen Caissie. Maybe that’s not a bad thing—after all, the odds are against that either one turns out to actually be better than Hernández. But it certainly possible that one or both of them could end up being as good as Hernández at a much lower cost. Although there could be some real growing pains for both prospects in the majors, much like Pete Crow-Armstrong went through this season.
I suppose another possible downside is that Hernández is right-handed and the Cubs would probably prefer left-handed power at this point. But that’s pretty minor.
At 32, Hernández probably wouldn’t command more than a three-year deal. He made $23.5 million with the Dodgers this year and he’d probably be looking for a small bump over that. But for Hernández, the years are probably more important than the ultimate dollar figure. He wants to get paid, but he’s also looking for somewhere to settle down and finish up his career.
Yes, I know that you all want Juan Soto instead. Let’s assume he’s not coming to Chicago. I know I assume that.
So what do you think about the Cubs signing free agent outfielder Teoscar Hernández?
That’s it for this evening. Thank you to everyone who stopped by. We hope you enjoyed yourself. Please get home safely. Recycle any cans and bottles. Tip your waitstaff. And join us again tomorrow for more BCB After Dark.