Month: January 2015

The Twonky (1953)

THE TWONKY (1953)
Article #330 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing date: 2-8-2002
Posting date: 6-25-2002

A man discovers his new television has unusual powers and its own agenda.

This unusual comedy is based on a short story by Henry Kuttner; I’ve not read the short story involved, but I doubt that the movie hones too closely to it. Hans Conreid is always fun to watch, and there are some amusing moments, but I don’t feel it really explores some of the interesting ideas it promises; after a while too many of the gags seem arbitrary and forced, and the ending has little to do with satire and everything to do with slapstick. Still, there is something quite entertaining about watching this television hobble around the house. This one was directed by Arch Oboler, who also wrote the script.

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Bluebeard (1944)

BLUEBEARD (1944)
Article #329 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing date: 2-7-2002
Posting date: 6-24-2002

Police investigate a series of murders by a fiend they call Bluebeard.

This is an amazingly classy movie considering it came from the cheapest of the studios, PRC. This movie takes itself quite seriously, going more for drama than horror, with fine direction by Edgar Ulmer and one of the best performances ever by John Carradine; the closest he comes to hamming is the way his eyes open when he kills someone, and that is appropriate. You can see the real effort he put into his roles when he wanted to, and this is one of the high points in his horror career (he had many others outside of the horror genre). I think this is much better than any of the horror product Monogram put out during the era.

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The Warrior Empress (1960)

THE WARRIOR EMPRESS (1960)
Article #328 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing date: 2-6-2002
Posting date: 6-23-2002

A rebel leader falls in love with Sappho, a poetess who is also a priestess and niece to the evil king of the kingdom.

For the first several minutes, the sword and sandal cliches come thick and fast, but then it eventually turns into an action-oriented soap opera of sorts. The odd thing about this one is that there is no Hercules character; the character Kerwin Matthews plays is the equivalent of one of those rebel leaders Hercules would be helping out in other movies. In fact, there are several interesting aspects of this movie; the bad guys are more complex and human than they usually are, especially the king, who seems more ineffectual than evil, and surrenders near the end of the movie with a surprising degree of grace. Tina Louise plays Sappho of Lesbos; I was amused that the place where she was staying as a priestess was a fortress next to the ocean surrounded by a moat. It was described as being an island within an island, and if anybody should know about spending a lot of time on an island, it should be her. And yes, there is a lesbian subplot, plus costumes that are daring even for this genre of movies. And anyone who can figure out which of the characters is the “Warrior Empress” of the title is more alert than me.

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The Vampire Bat (1933)

THE VAMPIRE BAT (1933)
Article #327 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing date: 2-5-2002
Posting date: 6-22-2002

Vampire-like murders are being committed in a small village, and the prime suspect is a mad boy with a love for bats.

This movie features Lionel Atwill, Fay Wray, and Dwight Frye as Herman, the bat-loving boy. It seems like a vampire movie, but without giving too much away, I’ll only say that the plot veers away from the supernatural into science fiction before all is through. I found this one quite enjoyable, with a great role for Frye and another solid performance by Atwill; one thing I like about Atwill is that he played his characters with a good deal of ambiguity; you were never really sure whether he was going to turn out to be the villain or not, and this movie does keep you wondering for quite a bit of the time. There’s lots of fun character work in this movie as well.

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A Thousand and One Nights (1945)

A THOUSAND AND ONE NIGHTS (1945)
Article #326 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing date: 2-4-2002
Posting date: 6-21-2002

Aladdin falls in love with the daughter of a sultan and attempts to win her heart with the help of a genie named Babs.

Not a whole lot here; just a silly musical comic retelling of the Aladdin story from the Arabian Nights, with Cornel Wilde, Adele Jergens and Evelyn Keyes. Phil Silvers plays Aladdin’s thieving buddy Abdullah, who uses modern slang and generally creates mischief. Rex Ingram does something of a reprisal of his djinni role in THIEF OF BAGDAD, playing a giant in this one. I found myself mildly entertained, with Phil Silvers being quite amusing in a role that could have been really annoying. The ending, which involves Silvers doing an imitation of Frank Sinatra, is a truly bizarre moment.

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The Mystery of the Marie Celeste (1935)

THE MYSTERY OF THE MARIE CELESTE (1935)
(a.k.a. THE PHANTOM SHIP)
Article #325 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing date: 2-3-2002
Posting date: 6-20-2002

This movie provides a fictional solution to the mystery of the Marie Celeste, a ship that was found floating in the ocean with no one on board.

I have to admit I was quite curious about this movie, based as it was on a true-life maritime mystery. The solution isn’t really mysterious, and could offer a possible explanation as to what happened. It’s somewhat dull in parts, but what really catches my attention is a unique and very interesting role that was given to Bela Lugosi; I really wouldn’t have expected him in this role, and am quite impressed at the dimension and genuine feeling he gives his role. There was a longer version of the movie than the one I’ve seen, which concerns the details of a maritime trial that frames the movie, though this footage appears to be lost. By the way, this is an early Hammer film.

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The Mad Monster (1942)

THE MAD MONSTER (1942)
Article #324 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing date: 2-2-2002
Posting date: 6-19-2002

A scientist experimenting with intra-species blood transfusions creates a werewolf-type monster that he uses to take revenge on those who mocked him.

Some of PRC’s poverty row horrors are quite creative if you take into account the lack of money or polish that went into them; this one, however, is just dull. Glenn Strange plays the monster, but he really doesn’t act much different when he’s the monster than he is when he’s not. This leaves George Zucco to carry the movie, and he gives it his best shot, but he doesn’t quite achieve that balance of “being mad while not seeming mad” that is necessary to make a movie like this work. I do like the inventive ways he finds to get his victims alone with the monster, though. I’d almost suggest that the movie needs some music to fill up the dead spaces (of which there are quite a few), but what music it does have is pretty weak, so I don’t think it would help much. Definitely one of the lesser of the poverty row horrors.

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Woman in the Moon (1929)

WOMAN IN THE MOON (1929)
(a.k.a. FRAU IM MOND)
Article #323 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing date: 2-1-2002
Posting date: 6-18-2002

A trip to the moon is financed by people who believe gold is to be found there that will help them corner the gold market.

This is lesser Fritz Lang, but nonetheless I consider it an important film in the history of science fiction; the plot is fairly disposable, but the detail that went into the science fiction aspects of the story is quite impressive. I suspect this movie may have had an influence on some of the early space flight movies of the fifties; at one point or another I saw traces of DESTINATION MOON, ROCKETSHIP X-M and CONQUEST OF SPACE. This wasn’t the first trip to the moon (Melies’ did that), but it was the first one I know of that actually tried to be somewhat scientifically accurate, and despite some obvious flaws (atmosphere on the moon), it’s quite impressive. It certainly is the first movie to use the countdown in a rocket launch, and that seems to be what it is most remembered for anymore, but there’s really a lot of other interesting things about it.

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Weird Tales (1919)

WEIRD TALES (1919)
(a.k.a. UNHEIMLICHE GESCHICHTEN/TALES OF THE UNCANNY)
Article #322 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing date: 1-31-2002
Posting date: 6-17-2002

Several tales of horror are told.

This silent anthology features Conrad Veidt and was directed by Richard Oswald. It’s fairly entertaining, with my favorite of the stories being the first because I didn’t expect the ending at all. The third should be instantly recognizable to Poe fans; I don’t immediately recognize the others, but I suspect they are all from well-known horror stories. Some of the imagery in the linking story (in an antiquarian bookshop) is quite interesting, too. A pleasant, if not earth-shaking silent movie.

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The Beast With Five Fingers (1946)

THE BEAST WITH FIVE FINGERS (1946)
Article #321 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing date: 1-30-2002
Posting date: 6-16-2002

A pianist with only one good hand suffers a fatal accident shortly after writing a last will and testament. When the will is contested, the lawyer in charge dies, and the culprit is believed to be the crawling hand of the dead man.

The story is somewhat uneven, and J. Carrol Naish is stuck in a role that is a little embarassing at times, but this is one of my favorite horror movies of the forties. This is one movie where it really doesn’t matter whether the fantastic elements are faked or not, as before it’s all over, we are treated to one of my all time favorite sequences in horror movies; Peter Lorre’s struggle with the crawling hand. We are treated to such bizarre, surreal sequences as watching the hand play the piano, and seeing it nailed to a stand; these sequences are powerful and stunning, and have always made up for me for the weaknesses that pop up now and then. Rumors have been passed around that Luis Bunuel was involved in some of these sequences, but I haven’t heard a confirmation one way or the other. At any rate, this one is a favorite.

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