Month: April 2015

Nightwing (1979)

NIGHTWING (1979)
Article #480 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing date: 7-8-2002
Posting date: 12-1-2002

An Indian reservation finds itself the site of an infestation of vampire bats.

This movie reaches its make-or-break moment (it’s first full-blown bat attack) at about the halfway point; since my first reaction on seeing the bats was to say to myself, “Look at the puppets,” I would have make a call of “break” on this one. Not that it was batting a thousand before we reach that moment; the movie was suffering from catatonic acting (I was grateful to David Warner for being able to instill some energy in the proceedings) and an abundance of overly-familiar subplots (an evil corporate bigwig who tries to suppress the knowledge of the bats’ existence, for example). Still, for all that, the movie never quite becomes an unwatchable snoozefest; but it never really gets exciting, scary, or convincing, either. It does serve as a nice background movie for working a crossword puzzle, as you can proceed with the full confidence that nothing is going to become so involving (in either the puzzle or the movie) that it will totally distract you from the other task at hand.

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F.P.1 Doesn’t Answer (1933)

F.P.1 DOESN’T ANSWER (1933)
Article #479 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing date: 7-7-2002
Posting date: 11-30-2002

A construction company builds a floating platform in the ocean, only to find it sabotaged by rival competitors.

This German science fiction epic was made in three different languages; an English, a German, and a French version. This is the English version, and I’m glad I had a chance to see it first; I once tackled one of the other versions, but had trouble following the plot, especially as the movie opens with what looks for all the world like a robbery as committed by someone who turns out to be one of the good guys; it’s all explained in the English version. Conrad Veidt is on hand in this one, and it’s a fairly entertaining movie with some quite interesting characters.

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The Case of the Frightened Lady (1940)

THE CASE OF THE FRIGHTENED LADY (1940)
Article #478 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing date: 7-6-2002
Posting date: 11-29-2002

Scotland Yard investigates murder on the grounds of an English manor in which victims are found strangled with Indian scarves.

This movie was based on a stage play by Edgar Wallace; the fact that it is a stage play will indicate that the movie will be a little stage bound, but the fact that it’s by Edgar Wallace makes it more interesting. Overall, it’s not a bad little movie; I found the first half kind of confusing as it was a little difficult to sort through the characters, but things work themselves out in the second half well enough. It’s only very marginally in the bounds of horror, and this is largely due to the fact that one of the characters is really mad, though to say any more beyond this would give away too much. It was directed by George King, who, if my memory serves me correctly, was the director responsible for a great many of the Tod Slaughter movies. I do wonder why the above title was used; one of the alternate titles is THE SCARF MURDER MYSTERY, which is a lot more interesting and descriptive.

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The Spiders Part 2: The Diamond Ship (1920)

THE SPIDERS PART 2: THE DIAMOND SHIP (1920)
(a.k.a. DIE SPINNEN, 2. TEIL: DAS BRILLANTENSCHIFF)
Article #477 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing date: 7-5-2002
Posting date: 11-28-2002

An adventurer tries to prevent a criminal organization from acquiring a fabled diamond.

This was the second of what was projected to be four movies that followed the exploits of an adventurer and his encounters with a criminal organization known as The Spiders. Only the first two were made. Both this and the first one can work well enough as stories that stand alone outside of the serial structure. The plot is a bit complicated, moreso than the first episode, and involves a hidden underground city in San Francisco, India, the Falkland Islands, and a ship known as the Storm Bird. Fritz Lang wasn’t quite as skilled at this point as he would later become, but this is a fairly entertaining yarn nonetheless.

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Alraune (1928)

ALRAUNE (1928)
Article #476 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing date: 7-4-2002
Posting date: 11-27-2002

A scientist creates an artificial person based on the legend of the mandrake. He ends up falling in love with his own creation, but she has no soul.

This is so far the only version I’ve seen of this story, and it does give an idea how edgy some early cinema can be. Though technically Alraune is not the scientist’s daughter, their relationship does indeed give one pause, especially with Brigitte Helm’s sensuous performance. Paul Wegener is also very good as the scientist, and I found myself very surprised by the ending; though Alraune has sworn revenge for the way she was created, I certainly didn’t expect her revenge to take the form it did. Amazingly, everyone is left alive at the end of this one. Another interesting variation on the Frankenstein story.

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The Secret of the Loch (1934)

THE SECRET OF THE LOCH (1934)
Article #475 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing date: 7-3-2002
Posting date: 11-26-2002

A reporter sets out to interview a professor who claims that a monster lives in a Scottish lake.

This is one of the earliest cinematic takes on the Loch Ness monster, and it’s a rather curious movie. There’s a nice visual sense about it (especially in the opening scenes) even if the special effects are none too convincing, and there is an interesting array of colorful Scottish characters to keep us entertained. Unfortunately, we’re a good three-quarters of the way through the movie before anyone actually gets around to investigating the presence of the monster, so it does come across as somewhat padded. And do they find a monster?

SPOILER

Well, I won’t say for certain, but I will mention that my pet slurpasaur Rumsford is quite fond of this movie.

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Robot Monster (1953)

ROBOT MONSTER (1953)
Article #474 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing date: 7-2-2002
Posting date: 11-25-2002

Ro-man of the planet Ro-man devastates the Earth with his calcitronic death ray.

This is one of the most ludicrously awful movies ever made; it’s also one of the most interesting bad movies I’ve ever seen. It’s not a movie that is merely boring; it’s a combination of INVADERS FROM MARS-style boy’s nightmare (though why this boy’s dream spends so much time on his sister’s honeymoon may leave you scratching your head a little), extreme cheapness (tons of stock footage, Bronson canyon exteriors, and of course, the gorilla-in-diving-helmet robot), and truly eccentric dialogue (Ro-man’s dialogue does indeed sound like an English translation of some obscure difficult language with a bent towards technological idioms) gives this movie the feel of a surreal carnival ride, though one that is less likely to inspire chills and thrills than a rather giddy nausea. Yet there are definite ideas here, especially in Ro-man’s dialogue; as laughable as his “I must, but I cannot!” speech is, one can see the grains of an attempt at real emotion and conflict. One can only wonder what this movie would have been like had it achieved coherence. And, of course, I find it impossible to entirely dislike any movie that gives the spotlight to my old slurpasaur friends Rumsford and Ignatz, who this time are given two scenes to recreate their famous battle amid stock footage from LOST CONTINENT. I’d rather watch this than either SATELLITE IN THE SKY or THE INCREDIBLE PETRIFIED WORLD.

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Nightmare (1964)

NIGHTMARE (1964)
Article #473 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing date: 7-1-2002
Posting date: 11-24-2002

A teenage girl who witnessed the murder of her father by her mother is haunted by nightmares.

This Hammer horror-thriller has a solid and satisfying ending; in fact, it would have made an excellent episode of either “Alfred Hitchcock Presents” or “Thriller”. I think it would have also been the right length if it had been an episode of one of these two shows; as it is, I feel that both halfs of the movie drag a little too much from trying to fill out the running time. In fact, it’s a good thing the movie does fall into two distinct halves; there was a certain point during the first half of the movie where I feared that I was going to have to endure an endless succession of scenes of the teenage girl following people in hallways and then opening a door to something scary, and then screaming and waking from her dream. Not bad overall, but it does leave you many opportunities to raid the fridge.

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Psychomania (1964)

PSYCHOMANIA (1964)
Article #472 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing date: 6-30-2002
Posting date: 11-23-2002

An artist finds himself under suspicion of murder when a woman who was posing for him turns up dead.

This is essentially another one of the several variations on PSYCHO that came out in the wake of that movie; this one has definite low budget roots (it was produced by Del “Horror of Party Beach” Tenney). It’s not without interest; it actually pulls off the trick of having two men both being under suspicion for the murders while we in the audience know that both of them are innocent, though the juvenile delinquent character is unpleasant enough that you hope that he comes to a bad end. My copy has definite cuts during some of the violent sequences; I wonder if I have an incomplete print or whether the cuts had to be made to the original print. It gives us an obvious suspect, and the movie does leave you wondering whether the character is the real culprit or whether he is a smokescreen designed to hide the real culprit. Standard, but not badly done, and it held my interest for the most part.

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The Night Walker (1964)

THE NIGHT WALKER (1964)
Article #471 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing date: 6-29-2002
Posting date: 11-22-2002

A woman has nightmares involving a handsome young man as well as her ugly, blind husband who died in a bizarre explosion.

Actually, combining the manipulative scare tactics of William Castle and a script by Robert Bloch is a pretty good idea. Close exploration of the story will most likely result in a multitude of plot holes, but it says something about the movie that I enjoyed it enough not to bother to hunt them out. The opening animated montage is particularly fun in this one, but my favorite scene in the movie is the creepy wedding ceremony involving a deserted chapel populated only by mannequins and a whirling chandelier; this is one of my favorite sequences in the William Castle canon. There are no gimmicks this time round that I know of, but the plot twists come thick and fast at the end and are liable to keep your head swimming. This one joins my list of favorite William Castle movies.

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