CONQUISTADOR DE LA LUNA (1960)
aka Conquest of the Moon
Article 2825 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 1-31-2009
Posting Date: 5-8-2009
Directed by Rogelio A. Gonzalez
Featuring Antonio Espino, Ana Luisa Peluffo, Adres Soler
Country: Mexico

An eccentric inventor and his girlfriend accidentally take off in a rocket and land on the moon. There they meet Martians intent on attacking the earth.

Since my copy of this movie is in unsubtitled Spanish, I’m guessing a little on the above plot; I do know that I hear some references to “Martians” when we meet the creatures on the moon, so I’m assuming that’s where they’re from. For what is essentially a comedy, it’s pretty ambitious on a special effects level; it has two rockets, a device that drills up from beneath the moon’s crust, moon interiors and exteriors, four-armed extraterrestrials, a giant disembodied brain with a floating eye and a sprinkler system installed on top (yes, you heard me right), and other science-fictional touches. Granted, it relies on footage lifted from other movies; I recognize footage from ROCKETSHIP X-M, DEVIL GIRL FROM MARS and WARNING FROM SPACE; given that these movies are American, British and Japanese respectively, it appears that they weren’t too fussy about where they stole the footage from. Still, much of the footage is original, and they actually make some attempt to have all four arms of the Martians to be usable. My favorite moment is the opening, in which an elaborate Rube-Goldberg style device wakes the inventor from his slumber, but I’m a sucker for things like that. Perhaps the most amazing thing to me is that it manages to include a rocket trip to the moon without any meteor showers.

CHARLIE CHAN AT THE WAX MUSEUM (1940)
Article 2824 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 1-30-2009
Posting Date: 5-7-2009
Directed by Lynn Shores
Featuring Sidney Toler, Victor Sen Yung, C. Henry Gordon
Country: USA

Charlie Chan is invited to appear on a radio show broadcast from a wax museum to solve an old murder case; however, the show is a trap designed to give an escaped criminal the chance to get revenge on Chan, on whose evidence he was convicted. However, there’s more than one criminal at this gathering…

No, it’s not a horror movie; it’s a mystery. Still, horror movie fans might well like this one; the wax museum setting adds a lot of atmosphere, and the presence of a criminal plastic surgeon and a killer whose face is swathed in bandages certainly add more horror touches to the proceedings. If you’re a Charlie Chan fan, this one is quite enjoyable, and it has a lot of fun with the use of wax dummies (include one that is a duplicate of Chan himself). There’s also a chess-playing machine (a la THE CHESS PLAYER) to add to the mix of interesting elements.

CALLING PAUL TEMPLE (1948)
Article 2823 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 1-29-2009
Posting Date: 5-6-2009
Directed by Maclean Rogers
Featuring John Bentley, Dinah Sheridan, Margaretta Scott
Country: UK

A writer is called in by detectives to help figure out the identity of a serial killer who leaves the name of “Rex” at the site of his killings.

This was part of a series of British whodunits featuring the character of Paul Temple. The fantastic content is slight; there’s the serial killer angle and the use of hypnotism, though neither element is used in ways that suggest horror. The story is pretty confusing, but it’s offset by the fact that the characters of Paul Temple and his wife Steve have a bit of a “Nick and Nora” quality to them, and there’s a nice sense of surprise to some of the scenes; my favorite has a character dropping dead during a musical number that I would ordinarily have considered filler. All in all, it’s passably entertaining, but it’s definitely more of a mystery than it is a horror movie.