Month: November 2014

Cape Canaveral Monsters (1960)

CAPE CANAVERAL MONSTERS (1960)
Article #160 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing date: 8-23-2001
Posting date: 1-6-2002

Aliens take over the bodies of two earth people and use a giant bazooka to sabotage the space program. Two teens come to Earth’s rescue.

Phil “ROBOT MONSTER” Tucker was responsible for this low-budget science fiction thriller, and even though it is quite awful, I can’t help but wonder about it a little bit. It’s a lot nastier in many ways than other SF fare of the time, what with the dead people that were taken over having been victims of a car crash (and they don’t look good), plus a running joke (if it is a joke) about the man’s arm (it keeps falling off). In fact, I wonder whether the movie might not actually be a comedy; an extremely dark comedy, but a comedy nonetheless. Some of the dialogue gives me that impression, particularly a scene where the alien tells his prisoner exactly what he needs to know to escape. Also, it has one of those dark twist endings that became pretty common during the seventies, but was pretty rare at this point of time. I wonder if Phil Tucker may actually have been a little bit ahead of his time.

On a side note, two actors that appear in this movie are Katherine Victor (a regular of Jerry Warren’s) and Al Adamson himself (as Lyle Felisse). So we have a movie here that connects the dots between Phil Tucker, Jerry Warren and Al Adamson.

I think it’s time to lie down for a while.

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Caltiki, the Immortal Monster (1959)

CALTIKI, THE IMMORTAL MONSTER (1959)
Article #159 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing date: 8-22-2001
Posting date: 1-5-2002

Archaelogists investigating a Mayan temple discover an ancient bloblike monster known as Caltiki.

The second half of this movie gets somewhat tiresome when it begins concentrating on the bitter psychotic man injured by Caltiki, a grating, unpleasant character that was made even worse bu the harsh voice given to him by the substandard dubbing. However, there is always the great first half of the movie, with some incredibly atmospheric scenes in the Mayan temple, especially the incredible underwater sequence that takes place in the lake in the temple; this scene more than makes up for any of the movie’s flaws. Direction is credited to Robert Hampton, but it seems to be the work of up to three directors according to one source, two of which are Riccardo Freda and Mario Bava (who also handled the cinematography). In many ways, this qualifies as another Blob movie of the fifties, along with X THE UNKNOWN, THE BLOB, and THE QUATERMASS XPERIMENT; the amazing thing is how such an unpromising idea as a killer blob has resulted in so many great movies.

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Bride of the Gorilla (1951)

BRIDE OF THE GORILLA (1951)
Article #158 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing date: 8-21-2001
Posting date: 1-4-2002

A foreman gains control of a plantation by allowing its owner to get killed and then marrying the widow. He also gets on the wrong side of a native woman who places a curse on him that turns him into a gorilla, at least in his own mind.

This horror movie was made during a bad time for horror films, caught as it was in that space of time after which Universal had stopped making classic horror films and before Hammer had resurrected them. The movie feels like a cross between THE CAT PEOPLE (with the central character believing he is changing into an animal) and I WALKED WITH A ZOMBIE (with its voodoo touches and its tropical setting), and the presence of Tom Conway (who was also in both of those films) only adds to the feeling that the movie has a certain similarity to the works of Val Lewton. However, it lacks the depth and well-developed characters of the Lewton counterparts, and it’s hard to dredge up any sympathy for Raymond Burr’s foreman. Lon Chaney, Jr. is wasted in the poorly-written and horribly uninteresting role of Commissioner Taro, and I don’t buy for a second that he’s a native of the region; however, this is exactly the type of character that would have come to life and been pivotal if this had been a Lewton project.

There was a little talk on the board about this movie before I posted this review, particularly about Barbara Payton, and I remember a comment being made about the members of the cast not liking each other at all. I think this shows in the movie; there seems to be a singular lack of chemistry between everyone involved.

Keep your eyes open, though, for a short but interesting scene with Woody Strode. Herman Cohen was one of the associate producers, and it was written and directed by Curt Siodmak.

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The Black Sleep (1956)

THE BLACK SLEEP (1956)
Article #157 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing date: 8-20-2001
Posting date: 1-3-2002

Dr. Joel Cadman frames Dr. Gordon Ramsay for murder, so that he can give him a drug that will cause him to survive his execution. He then uses the doctor as an ally in his brain surgery experiments, by which he hopes to learn a way to cure his wife’s tumor.

What a line-up for a horror film: Bela Lugosi, Lon Chaney, Jr., John Carradine, and Tor Johnson, with Basil Rathbone and Akim Tamiroff (not really horror actors) thrown in for good measure! And what a waste of horror stars; the two good roles go to Rathbone and Tamiroff. Lugosi is consigned to the mute butler role; it most likely was his very last role if you don’t count the home movie footage used as part of PLAN 9. Lon Chaney, Jr. is a hulking brute (a role he ended up playing way too often in his later years), and Carradine plays a one-dimensional bearded madman. Only Tor is playing at his usual level (as a big, bald, hulking brute with blank eyes), but that hardly counts; despite his screen presence, he was never in the same league with the others. I wonder how Lugosi and Chaney, who had last worked together in ABBOTT AND COSTELLO MEET FRANKENSTEIN where they relived their glory roles, felt about their careers at this point. The movie itself is somewhat reminiscent of THE UNEARTHLY (which had both Carradine and Johnson, both in much better roles; they even gave Tor some lines in that one), but, like that movie, the mutants steal the show at the end. Rathbone does a fine job, but I found Tamiroff’s performance a little over the top for my taste.

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Battle Beyond the Sun (1962)

BATTLE BEYOND THE SUN (1962)
(a.k.a. NEBO SOVYOT)
Article #156 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing date: 8-19-2001
Posting date: 1-2-2002

A rescue mission is performed in outer space.

I can’t say what the original Russian movie was like, but in its Americanized version, this one is a tedious, talky bore, made worse by the substandard dubbing, and some of the meddling with the film, especially the addition of the two godawful monsters who pop up near the end of the movie. Talkiness is in itself not automatically dull, but it requires much better dialogue and acting than we get here, though I suspect subtitles might have been just as difficult and the movie could really only be fully enjoyed in its original language, but I’m afraid I don’t speak Russian. There is some plot tampering to be found; I got quite annoyed with that electronic blot covering up a section of one of the spaceships (I’m assuming it was to cover up something that would have made it clear that the ship was Russian). As for the monster footage, it’s not only bad, it’s insulting; this movie was trying to be a legitimate science fiction drama, and the monsters are so inappropriate that it left me feeling that an unnatural act was being performed on the movie (which might explain why the monsters look so phallic). I don’t know how good the original version would be, but it’s got to be better than this one.

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The Werewolf of London (1935)

THE WEREWOLF OF LONDON (1935)
Article #155 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing date: 8-18-2001
Posting date: 1-1-2002

Two werewolves battle over possession of a rare Tibetan flower that is the only antidote (albeit a temporary one) to lycanthropy.

When dealing with supernatural creature lore, it is always a good thing to remember that, since such creatures do not exist, any lore involving their habits and/or the disposal of such creatures is artificially conceived. What is generally accepted as the standard werewolf lore is more a result of the popularity of THE WOLF MAN than of any established rules that existed previous to that movie. This being the case, I suspect that our conception of werewolves would be somewhat different if this movie had been Universal’s big hit rather than the later Lon Chaney, Jr. one (which probably wouldn’t have been made had this one hit paydirt). As it is, I find THE WEREWOLF OF LONDON enjoyable enough, with the idea of a flower offering a temporary antidote to the curse to be an intriguing idea, as the conflict between the two werewolves (Henry Hull and Warner Oland, both giving fine performances) adds a lot to this movie. The discovery of the flower in Tibet is for me, the most memorable scene in the movie, as well as some of the stalking sequences in the foggy streets of London. Henry Hull’s makeup was originally supposed to resemble the makeup used by Lon Chaney Jr. in THE WOLF MAN, but Hull blanched at the amount of time it would have taken to apply that makeup; the less elaborate version used in the movie was certainly effective enough, as it apparently scared Valerie Hobson out of her wits, but it just wasn’t as memorable as the makeup in the later movie.

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Son of Dracula (1943)

SON OF DRACULA (1943)
Article #154 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing date: 8-17-2001
Posting date: 12-31-2001

A woman becomes involved with Count Dracula (or his son) in order to gain eternal life, which she intends to share with the man she loves.

Though I do like Lon Chaney, Jr. as an actor, I think he’s wrong for the Dracula role (and I would feel the same about Karloff, for that matter). It isn’t his acting ability that I question; I just think he lacks the right physical and vocal presence for that sort of character, though IMO he gives his very best shot. Still, I have to admit that despite this problem, the movie doesn’t really suffer; in fact, I suspect it may be Universal’s best take on the Dracula series. Credit definitely must go to Robert Siodmak, who makes the movie eerie and visually compelling. The shot of the coffin rising out of the swamp is for me the epitome of atmospheric horror. An interesting story and a good cast (featuring Louise Allbritton and Evelyn Ankers) also help. I hadn’t seen this movie in years until I saw it again recently; I definitely look forward to watching it a few more times.

And yes, I know, some people have made the point that Chaney is NOT playing Dracula, but rather his son. Nonetheless, as far as I can tell from the script, there’s not a whole lot of difference between Drac and his offspring, so as far as I’m concerned, my belief that Chaney is wrong for the role still stands.

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Batman (1966)

BATMAN (1966)
Article #153 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing date: 8-16-2001
Posting date: 12-30-2001

Four supervillains combine forces to attempt to take over the world by taking hostage the security council of the United Nations. Batman is called onto the job to defeat them.

I have friends who despise the 1966 TV series for its failure to be true to the dark, somber persona of Batman as they know him from the comic books. Though they would most likely defecate adobe at my next comment, I feel it necessary to admit at this point that, despite my life-long love of cinematic fantasy/horror/science fiction, I’ve never been a fan of super heroes and/or comic books; if anything, I prefer parodies of that whole genre to serious entries in it. That being the case, I quite enjoyed the “Batman” TV series of the sixties; watching it recently, I remember cracking up at a point where Batman parks the Batmobile, and is about to run into the building with Robin, but stops and says “Wait a minute, Robin. We forgot to put a nickel in the meter!”, followed by a conversation about how superheroes must first be responsible citizens. Call me a heretic, if you wish, but I found that bit priceless.

I’m not quite as fond of the movie, however, as it runs on way too long for its own good; what is effective in thirty minute chunks can be quite tiresome in an hour and forty-five minute movie. Nonetheless, I do enjoy the array of familiar names and faces of the supervillains, and the high point of the movie for me has Batman trying to dispose of a bomb (you can tell it’s a bomb because it’s perfectly round, black, and has a lit fuse on the top; this is the only time I know of outside of cartoons where a bomb actually looks like that), but he can’t find a place to throw it because he keeps running into people who would be hurt, like a pair of nuns, a woman with a baby carriage, a salvation army band, and a flock of ducks.

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Attack of the 50 Foot Woman (1958)

ATTACK OF THE 50 FOOT WOMAN (1958)
Article #152 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing date: 8-15-2001
Posting date: 12-29-2001

A woman encounters a giant space alien that is after the valuable diamond she wears. When he finally retrieves it, the woman becomes fifty feet tall.

This is certainly one of the most supremely silly science fiction movies of all time. It’s not the worst, by any means; there’s some good performances, and the direction by Nathan Juran is energetic; he keeps things moving even though the attack of the title doesn’t occur until the last ten minutes of the movie. The special effects are quite awful; you find yourself wishing that Bert I. Gordon had been in charge of them, as he would have done a better job. I don’t buy for a second the claim that this movie is a feminist statement of sorts; though it is possible to look at the movie in that way, it requires far too much squinting for me to believe that it was intended as such.

On the plus side, it has Alison Hayes and Yvette Vickers, two very appealing actresses of the period. Yvette Vickers seems to have developed a cult following based on this picture and THE GIANT LEECHES, a lot of it centered on her somewhat slutty sexuality, but I actually think she was a hell of an actress on top of that.

One of these days, I would like to look into how the various communication media are used to drive plots in movies like this. If I do, you can be sure I’ll mention the newscaster in this movie, who gears his reports so intently on the events of the movie, that we actually have a scene of him taunting Alison Hayes from the television set. If my suspension of disbelief hadn’t already been dissipated by the time I reached this scene, this one would have done it.

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The Ape Man (1943)

THE APE MAN (1943)
Article #151 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing date: 8-14-2001
Posting date: 12-28-2001

A scientist’s weird experiments have caused him to turn into a hairy bent-over half-man, half-ape creature. In order to return to normal, he needs some of that panacea for all ills of medical dementia, human spinal fluid.

And now, for the third time this week, a half-man, half-other-species movie, this time from Monogram and with Bela Lugosi as the afflicted scientist. Though it isn’t a remake of Karloff’s THE APE, there’s no doubt that parts of that movie were borrowed for this one, especially the spinal fluid angle. It’s interesting to compare the two, actually; I can’t help but notice how the Karloff movie is more or less serious, while this one seems a lot sillier and more melodramatic. There are some nice moments in this one, though; the scene where Lugosi first takes the fluid and is able to straighten out of his bent position is actually a good moment of physical acting on his part. I also have to admit a certain fondness for that bizarre comic relief character who seems to be everywhere and know everything; my favorite moment is his warning a woman not to go down a certain street where Lugosi and his pet gorilla (Emil Van Horn, though I would have guessed George Barrows) are waiting to pounce. Also on hand this time around are Minerva Urecal as Lugosi’s long-suffering sister, and Wallace Ford as (once again) a wise-cracking reporter. William Beaudine strikes again.

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