biography
Born Harold Harvey in Windsor, Colorado, on June 3, 1924, director Herk Harvey is best known for his 1962 horror flick Carnival of
Souls. Harvey spent his formative years in Fort Collins, Colorado, and upon graduating from high school, he served in the Navy
during World War II. After the war, Harvey decided to major in theatre arts at the University of Kansas. With a master's degree in
hand, he began teaching theatre at the University of Kansas in 1950. During the same year, he married first wife, Bea, who was a high
school drama teacher. In 1952, he took at position at Centron Productions, where he produced and directed industrial
and educational films until his retirement in 1985. Harvey had started at Centron in some of its late 1940s short films as an actor. After years of making films for others, Harvey longed to try his hand at a feature film. Harvey's horror shocker Carnival of Souls was shot largely in Lawrence, Kansas, on a budget of reportedly $30,000 (however, some sources claim the budget was actually $17,000) and during a three-week span. While Harvey would eventually direct and/or produce more than 400 educational and industrial films for Centron Productions, he never completed another film for theatrical release. Carnival of Souls was originally released in April 1962 by Herts-Lion International. Harvey shot this film on 16 mm stock, which was then blown up to 35 mm for theatrical exhibition. Harvey's film went underground after its release, and did not reemerge again until the 1980s. Carnival of Souls was released to DVD in March 2000, and the Criterion Collection edition is the copy to own. The Criterion Collection version also features a number of the educational films Harvey directed, including an early 1950s promotional film on Kansas in which Herk Harvey acts. |
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the films of herk harveyCarnival of Souls (1962)   
LEFT and CENTER A: Harvey as the main ghoul in Carnival of Souls CENTER B and RIGHT: Rare lobby cardsPlaying mostly to the drive-in circuit, Carnival of Souls didn't generate a great deal of interest in its initial release. Nevertheless, the film has since proven to be groundbreaking and influential. Note the similarities in the zombies in George Romero's 1968 classic Night of the Living Dead when compared with the ghouls from Carnival of Souls.   
LEFT and CENTER: As Mary Henry, star Candace Hilligoss emerges from the accident site at the beginning of the film. RIGHT: Early 1960s UK half-sheet posterFew of the cast members from Carnival of Souls were professional actors, but the real stars here are Harvey's direction and the film's mood and atmosphere. Screenwriter John Clifford's premise of Carnival of Souls, about a woman caught between life and death, was pretty heady stuff for a low-budget early 1960s movie. The beautiful star of the film, Candace Hilligoss, made just one other picture, the cult classic The Curse of the Living Corpse (1964; with Margot Hartman and Roy Scheider), for horror director Del Tenney.    
LEFT: As Mary Henry, Hilligoss sees a ghoul as she's driving to Utah. CENTER A: Hilligoss with Herk Harvey near the end of the film. CENTER B: Promotional photo of Candace Hilligoss. RIGHT: Hilligoss in a shot from Del Tenney'sThe Curse of the Living Corpselater yearsHerk Harvey was involved with couple of uncompleted film projects, Flanagan's Smoke and The Reluctant Witch. Details are sketchy since the projects were aborted; however, Flanagan's Smoke concerned an escaped gas from a chemist's lab and the effect of the gas on townsfolk. Portions of The Reluctant Witch were shot in the early 1970s with Herk Harvey appearing in the film, but very little footage survives. Upon the rediscovery of Carnival of Souls, it was re-released theatrically in 1989. Harvey appears in the film as one of the lost souls; he's the very first ghoul that Candace Hilligoss sees as she's driving at night. Harvey lived long enough to see his film become rediscovered by a new generation of horror fans. Harvey passed away at age 71 on April 3, 1996, after a bout with pancreatic cancer. He was survived by his second wife, Pauline Pappas Harvey, who passed away on June 5, 2010, at the age of 86. |
filmographyFILM
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