Month: May 2015

Pillow of Death (1945)

PILLOW OF DEATH (1945)
Article #540 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing date: 9-6-2002
Posting date: 1-30-2003

When a murder is committed, a detective finds himself reckoning with several suspects, including the woman’s husband, the crabby matriarch of an old house, and a medium.

This is the fourth of the Inner Sanctum mysteries that I’ve seen so far. At their best they are mildly entertaining; unfortunately, this is the worst of the batch so far. Though it dispenses with the usual premise of the series (most of the others concern a single suspect accused of a murder that he himself thinks he may have committed) as well as the opening introduction with the floating head in the crystal ball, it doesn’t put much in its place. It simply throws together an uninteresting murder mystery with an only slightly less uninteresting “old dark house” story. It doesn’t even try to make the two work together; the haunted house aspect of the story never dovetails with the murder, and this smacks of laziness. Another sign of laziness is the complete lack of atmosphere in the seance sequences; it was almost as if no one could be bothered to spice up this movie at all. About all this movie really has going for it is a nice set and some decent performances, and one moment that is actually quite funny involving an old man’s musing on another “character’s” resemblance to a deceased Uncle Ben. And couldn’t they have also come up with a better title?

0 CommentsLeave a comment

1984 (1956)

1984 (1956)
Article #539 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing date: 9-5-2002
Posting date: 1-29-2003

A man of the future defies his oppressive government by taking a lover.

I’ve read the famous George Orwell novel on which this novel is based, and after having done so, I must admit that I have very little impetus to see any of the movie adaptations of it; not that I didn’t like the novel or that I thought it was unfilmable, but more because any movie adaptation would either have to capture the feel of the book, or it would fail; if the latter, it seems a bit of a waste to see the movie, and if the former, I’m not sure that I would WANT to go through the experience again. This version of the movie is more or less faithful to the novel, but the scenes in the Ministry of Love lack the harrowing brutality of the novel, though in all honesty, I didn’t expect the scenes would do so. However, it is worth catching for some fine performances by all, and it is nice to catch an early performance by Donald Pleasence. Of the remaining versions of 1984 out there, I will admit to being curious about the Peter Cushing version, and undoubtedly I’ll have to catch that one of these days.

0 CommentsLeave a comment

The Exorcist (1973)

THE EXORCIST (1973)
Article #538 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing date: 9-4-2002
Posting date: 1-28-2003

When the daughter of an actress is possessed by a demon, a psychiatrist priest is called in to investigate.

Because this movie was William Friedkin’s follow-up to his oscar-winning THE FRENCH CONNECTION, it was given greater attention and prestige than was usually accorded to horror movies, even garnering an Oscar nomination for Best Picture. Though I hadn’t seen the movie, I kind of resented that this movie got so much attention when many other great horror movies over the years were largely ignored. It wasn’t until I finally caught it years later that I was impressed, and I still am; despite the endless talk about the pea-soup spitting, the foul language and the head-spinning, it’s the other aspects of this movie that really make it work; the interesting array of characters, the subtle ways in which the plot flows, the excellent use of sound effects to create an atmosphere of unease and the excellent performances throughout all give the movie a depth and a texture that is highly effective. I also like the feel it gives of being a snapshot of a much deeper story; every character seems to have a real history to them, and one really gets a sense that this conflict between good and evil is something that has been going on for ages, and that we are just seeing one point on the chronology of the story.

0 CommentsLeave a comment

Escape to Witch Mountain (1975)

ESCAPE TO WITCH MOUNTAIN (1975)
Article #537 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing date: 9-3-2002
Posting date: 1-27-2003

Two children with strange psychic powers find themselves on the run from a greedy tycoon who wants to use them to make a fortune.

The fact that the movie is from Disney should clue you in to the fact that there will be quite a bit of cuteness at play here, and there is, particularly during a scene involving dancing puppets. Despite this, the movie largely takes itself seriously enough, with some interesting scenes and several welcome faces, particularly Donald Pleasence and Ray Milland. It works all right, but I found myself wishing they had gone all the way and made a thriller; it’s not quite as exciting as it might have been. For that matter, the humor could have been funnier and the magic a little more magical, but as far as I can tell it’s still one of the better Disney live-action movies from the period.

0 CommentsLeave a comment

Earth Vs. the Spider (1958)

EARTH VS. THE SPIDER (1958)
Article #536 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing date: 9-3-2002
Posting date: 1-26-2003

A giant spider is discovered in a cave, and an attempt is made to kill him.

I have yet to see a giant spider movie that I would really call great, but if I had to choose one of the ones I’ve seen (I’ve not seen them all) as a favorite, this would be my current choice. This is really only saying that I prefer it slightly over TARANTULA; though that movie has a better story and more interesting characters, it’s a bit more tedious; this one is fairly efficient, gets to the action early, and doesn’t waste any time. It has its problems; the acting is merely adaquate throughout, but I think this is primarily because the script really doesn’t have much in the way of interesting characters; the most noteworthy of them is Gene Roth’s skeptical sheriff, but this part is also quite cliched. The spider seems to vary in size from scene to scene, particularly in its walk through the city, where it seems far larger than it did elsewhere. This in itself isn’t a crime; KING KONG has been accused of the same problem. The difference is that KING KONG keeps the action at such a taut level that you actually have to make an effort to notice his variation in size (for me, anyway), whereas this movie gives me plenty of opportunities to notice the variation, and to muse how he got out of the somewhat small entrance of the cave, or how they fit him in the high school gymnasium. Nonetheless, Bert I. Gordon’s special effects look better than usual this time round, and I actually like the rock ‘n’ roll song in the gymnasium scene; it actually sounds like rock ‘n’ roll. And I do admit that the opening scene is a doozy.

0 CommentsLeave a comment

Don’t Look in the Basement (1973)

DON’T LOOK IN THE BASEMENT (1973)
Article #535 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing date: 9-2-2002
Posting date: 1-25-2003

A nurse begins work at a sanitarium where the doctor has just been killed by one of the patients. She begins to discover that things are not as they seem at this place.

This low-budget horror film from the seventies borrowed the ad campaign from THE LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT with its “It’s only a movie” tagline, and it belongs to some extent to that trend of horror movies at that time to put the unpleasantness factor to such a degree that they become hard to watch. These movies aren’t necessarily worthless, but they aren’t exactly what I would call “fun.” This one has a hard-to-swallow premise (that the psychiatric method in use allows the near-homicidal patients to have free reign of the asylum and access to all areas), especially when one of the inmates specializes in terrorizing the other patients by tormenting them at their weak points. The extreme nastiness of the ending also feels somewhat unnecessary, and the whole premise lends itself to a lot of people shrieking lines at the top of their lungs, which, though it can be effective in getting under your skin, always feels to me to be taking the easy way out. Nonetheless, the characters are quite interesting, and the acting from the cast of unknowns is excellent for such a low-budget movie, and there are enough moments sprinkled throughout the movie that show a sense of real sadness and a sense of humanity that give a greater texture to the proceedings. Ultimately, the strong points make the movie work, and I can appreciate it well enough, even if it does remain in that realm of movies that are simply not much fun for me.

1 CommentLeave a comment

The Chess Player (1927)

THE CHESS PLAYER (1927)
Article #534 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing date: 9-1-2002
Posting date: 1-24-2003

When an eighteenth-century rebellion of Poles against their Russian captors fails, the leader of the rebellion finds himself under the protection of an inventor who tries to smuggle him out of the country concealed in a chess-playing automaton.

This combination of historical epic and period science fiction is epic in length; in runs just over two hours. Fortunately, it is a lot of fun, with plenty of spectacle, an interesting assortment of characters in interesting relationships, and some wonderful plot twists. There are some far-fetched coincidences in the story (particularly, the true parentage of the hero’s foster sister), but this is a minor quibble indeed and doesn’t really interfere with the fun. For science fiction fans, the best moment comes near the end, where the inventor’s many automatons play a crucial role in the proceedings.

0 CommentsLeave a comment

Revenge of the Zombies (1943)

REVENGE OF THE ZOMBIES (1943)
Article #533 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing date: 8-31-2002
Posting date: 1-23-2003

A scientist plans to supply his country with an army of zombie soldiers.

Near as I can tell, this movie was intended as a follow-up to KING OF THE ZOMBIES, and they start out on the right foot by taking the crucial step of getting Mantan Moreland back. The presence of John Carradine is also encouraging, and the wonderful opening scene in which the zombies are summoned forth on a windy night is an effective, moody, and promising beginning, marred only by the minor problem that the zombies walk a little too much like tin soldiers. Unfortunately, the movie goes down the tubes after this; they may have gotten Mantan back, but they forgot to give him any good comic lines or situations; there’s nothing here to match his moments in KOTZ. Carradine himself seems to spend much of the movie in a torpor; I don’t know if he was trying to underplay, but he looks bored half of the time, and it could have really used some energy on his part. Between these problems and the confusing plot, this is probably the least satisfying of the Monogram horrors I’ve seen.

0 CommentsLeave a comment

Plucked! (1967)

PLUCKED! (1967)
(a.k.a. DEATH LAID AN EGG)
Article #532 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing date: 8-30-2002
Posting date: 1-22-2003

A man who is married to a rich poultry rancher plans to run away from her with his girlfriend; he also murders prostitutes for pleasure.

Between the two titles and the description above, you might think you’ve stumbled upon a weird one here. And you’d be right; what with the jarring soundtrack, jagged editing, bizarre situations and continual obsession with chickens, you would be excused from thinking that you had actually run across some pointless, self-indulgent art film rather than a horror-thriller. That’s what I was beginning to think, anyway, but amazingly enough, it all starts to fall together within the last twenty minutes, and the less I say about it the better, as some of the plot twists and revelations are delicious indeed. I ended up admiring the sheer audacity of the work; it actually had managed the trick of holding my attention through a fairly long stretch of film where very little seemed to be happening, and though your mileage may vary, it worked very well for me. Still, I will say this is one of the weirdest ones to come down the pike since THE RAPE OF THE VAMPIRE, though this movie (unlike that one) actually has a payoff.

0 CommentsLeave a comment

Mummy’s Boys (1936)

MUMMY’S BOYS (1936)
Article #531 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing date: 8-29-2002
Posting date: 1-21-2003

Two ne’er-do-wells are employed on an expedition to Egypt to return treasure to a tomb in order to fend off an ancient curse.

You know, it’s movies like this that give me the most trouble in this series; it’s so thoroughly and uneventfully commonplace that I find it hard to say anything about it. It’s the first movie I’ve seen featuring Wheeler and Woolsey, and though I don’t find them bad, I don’t find them all that memorable, either. Willie Best is on hand, but he isn’t really given much to do either. One of the running jokes in the movie involves one of the characters forgetting things almost as soon as he’s told them, and then having to take a nap in order to remember what he’s forgotten. Considering the speed with which this movie is already dissipating from my consciousness, I find it somewhat apt that the concepts of forgetfulness and sleep play such a prominent role in the proceedings.

This movie made me miss ABBOTT AND COSTELLO MEET THE MUMMY; at least that one worked itself up to giving us a real mummy in the bargain.

0 CommentsLeave a comment