Month: June 2015

The Atomic Man (1956)

THE ATOMIC MAN (1956)
(a.k.a. TIMESLIP)
Article #705 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing date: 2-18-2003
Posting date: 7-18-2003
Directed by Ken Hughes
Featuring Gene Nelson, Faith Domergue, Peter Arne

An unidentified man in the hospital who has been saved from drowning bears an uncanny resemblance to a nuclear scientist.

I have omitted in the above plot description the intriguing science fiction concept that is included in every other description of the movie; the man in the hospital is living exactly seven and a half seconds in the future. This is definitely an offbeat idea, and I’ve been wondering for some time just how a movie would handle that concept. This movie, however, does precious little with it; it’s merely a gimmick, and could have easily been replaced with the more conventional “he’s in a delirious state” cliche, for all the effect it really has on the story. This is basically an industrial espionage story, very ordinary at best, though there’s some nice acting to liven up the proceedings, but the science fiction aspects are poorly used, and the scientific explanation for his condition is one of the least convincing explanations I’ve heard since the single-cell heart theory in THE AMAZING COLOSSAL MAN.

2 CommentsLeave a comment

Le faux magistrat (1914)

LE FAUX MAGISTRAT (1914)
Article #704 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing date: 2-17-2003
Posting date: 7-17-2003
Directed by Louis Feuillade
Featuring Rene Navarre, Edmond Breon, Georges Melchior

I’m omitting the plot summary because I have to admit that in the fifth and final episode of the serial, my ability to work out the storyline based on visuals and a slight smattering of French has failed me. The problem is that there is lots of text to read, and there are obviously some subtleties in the plot that have escaped me. It definitely involves Fantomas disguising himself as a judge (I think that’s what he is), and he seems to be using his position to recover stolen jewels and procure 250,000 francs, but the details elude me; I may simply have to become more familiar with the French language and give it another shot sometime. There are some striking moments, though, particularly a sequence involving a church bell, and the robbery in the opening sequence.

Nonetheless, to sum up, despite the frustrations of watching something not in my native language, the serial as a whole was a great deal of fun and well worth catching.

0 CommentsLeave a comment

Fantomas contre Fantomas (1914)

FANTOMAS CONTRE FANTOMAS (1914)
(a.k.a. FANTOMAS VS. FANTOMAS)
Article #703 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing date: 2-16-2003
Posting date: 7-16-2003
Directed by Louis Feuillade
Featuring Rene Navarre, Edmond Breon, Georges Melchior

Juve is framed under the suspicion that he is Fantomas, and an American detective is brought in on the case.

The title of the fourth episode of the serial not only reminds me of the title of the second episode (JUVE VS. FANTOMAS), but of an old Monty Python sketch in which Graham Chapman wrestles himself. Actually, the title is apt; with part of the plot revolving around Juve being mistaken for Fantomas, and a costume party sequence in which three people arrive disguised as Fantomas, the sense of identity is a bit of knotty problem. It is this very confusion that makes the storyline somewhat more difficult to sort out this time round, but I think I more or less got the gist of what’s happening before it was all over. This one has some memorable moments, particularly during a sequence where a worker punches a hole in a wall and blood comes out. Only one more episode, and I’ll have finished with the series.

0 CommentsLeave a comment

Le mort qui tue (1913)

LE MORT QUI TUE (1913)
(a.k.a. THE DEAD MAN WHO KILLED)
Article #702 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing date: 2-15-2001
Posting date: 7-15-2001
Directed by Louis Feuillade
Featuring Rene Navarre, Edmond Breon, Georges Melchior

A man is framed for murder, arrested, and then killed in prison, and his body vanishes. Then when a pearl necklace is stolen, fingerprints identify the dead man as the culprit.

I think it’s kind of odd that the only episode of the Fantomas serial that is available in the United States is JUVE VS. FANTOMAS, the second of the series. Not only is it the most episodic of the first three episodes, it ends with a cliffhanger, whereas episodes one and three do not. This one is the third episode of the serial, and it runs an hour and a half, which qualifies it as a movie in its own right. It also has title cards in French, and though I don’t speak French, I am grateful for the little time I’ve spent comparing French movie titles with their English translations; it gives me at least some grounding in certain words. Take the word “Mort”, for instance; if you compare the French title of this movie with the English title, you should figure out that “Mort” stands for “Dead Man”; since the word “Mort” pops up very often in the titles of this movie, it is a useful word to know.

The small smattering of French does indeed help in this one, which is more complicated than the first episode. The story concentrates on the investigation by Juve’s assistant Fandor (Juve’s absence from the proceedings is explained in an early headline), and the story does get a bit involved, so it pays to pay attention. It does end with a couple of whopping plot twists, which really go a long way to making this episode a lot of fun.

0 CommentsLeave a comment

Fantomas – A L’ombre de la guillotine (1913)

FANTOMAS – A L’OMBRE DE LA GUILLOTINE (1913)
Article #701 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing date: 2-14-2001
Posting date: 7-14-2001
Directed by Louis Feuillade
Featuring Rene Navarre, Edmond Breon, Georges Melchior

An archvillain named Fantomas is on the loose, and an inspector sets out to catch him.

Some time ago I covered a movie called JUVE CONTRE FANTOMAS; this was actually the second episode in a five-part serial; however, since each episode is roughly the length of a short movie, and IMDB lists them as separate entities, that is how I will review them. Since I’ve already covered the second episode, I’ll be covering the other four over the next few days.

The whole serial seems to only marginally belong to the world of fantastic cinema, it is here the roots of the whole “Supercriminal” subgenre can be found, and since a lot of that genre is borderline science fiction, it qualifies somewhat. I’ve managed to net the whole serial on an import DVD from France, which presents a little problem; the subtitles are also in French. However, the story is clear enough in the first episode that I didn’t really feel the need for them; the visual presentation is striking, clear, and easy to follow. It’s very clever, and there’s a light touch to the proceedings. The basic story in this episode involves the successful capture of Fantomas, and then covers the details of how he effects his escape. It’s quite entertaining, and one thing that comes across is that both Juve and Fantomas are good matches for each other; Juve’s capture of Fantomas is just as clever as Fantomas’s escape. One really is left wondering who will ultimately prevail.

0 CommentsLeave a comment

Dr. No (1962)

DR. NO (1962)
Article #700 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 2-13-2003
Posting Date: 7-13-2003
Directed by Terence Young
Featuring Sean Connery, Ursula Andress, Joseph Wiseman

James Bond investigates the murder of an associate in Jamaica who was investigating the causes of missile sabotage at Cape Canaveral.

Somehow, I find it serendipitous and quite fitting that Musing article #700 should be an 007 movie, though it is a coincidence. However, never really having been a James Bond devotee, I can’t really get excited about it. It’s not that I think the James Bond movies are poorly made or are not good examples of their type of entertainment; it’s just that I’ve always found them and their ilk to be just a little too ingratiatingly escapist for my taste, with their emphasis on violence, stunts and sex over plot seeming like an overly obvious and easy formula. Therefore, I think it’s vital that my opinions on these movies be taken with a grain of salt, perhaps discarded in their entirety; I can never quite turn my mind off to the extent that I would need to do to enjoy them fully.

Of course, this was the first of the series, and it takes itself a little more seriously. It does have a plot, but it’s easy to miss because it doesn’t dwell on plot points for any length of time (they’re in a hurry to get to the sex and violence). There are touches I like and touches I don’t like; as an example of the former, I do like how Dr. No’s physical handicap plays a subtle but marked impact on his ultimate fate near the end of the movie, and as an example of the latter, I’m always annoyed when supposedly intelligent characters mistake machines for living creatures (the “dragon” is so obviously a motor vehicle that I don’t see how anyone could possibly mistake it for a “real” dragon). All in all, it’s an entertaining time-killer, but for me, I’m afraid it will never be anything more than that.

0 CommentsLeave a comment

Dirty Work (1933)

DIRTY WORK (1933)
Viewing Date: 2-12-2003
Posting Date: 7-12-2003
Directed by Lloyd French
Featuring Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, Sam Adams

Stan and Ollis are working as chimney sweepers in the home of a mad scientist.

One of the nice things about doing a comprehensive survey of fantastic cinema is that I end up watching a fairly wide variety of movies. As it happens, practically every great comedian has ventured into the realms of the fantastic at one point or another, so I get to touch on a lot of them. Unfortunately, it is often not their best work; I certainly hope no one judges the talents of Charlie Chaplin on the strength of HIS PREHISTORIC PAST (though, in all honesty, some of his other works will be represented before all is said and done). This one gives me another chance to touch on Laurel and Hardy, though I don’t quite rate this one with their best shorts. It follows a standard pattern for them; it gives them a specific profession and allows them to wreak havoc with it. The chimney-sweeping scenes are the best parts of this short, though the snidely sarcastic butler gets in a few zingers. The mad scientist plot (he has created a rejuvenation formula) is what causes this short to qualify as fantastic cinema; it is also there primarily to set up the final gag. All in all, this is pretty standard Laurel and Hardy, and that is not a bad thing by any rate.

0 CommentsLeave a comment

The Cockeyed Miracle (1946)

THE COCKEYED MIRACLE (1946)
Article #698 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 2-11-2003
Posting Date: 7-11-2003
Directed by S. Sylvan Simon
Featuring Frank Morgan, Keenan Wynn, Cecil Kellaway

A man dies and meets his father, who is ready to escort him to heaven. However, he doesn’t want to leave until he helps his family solve some of their problems.

About fifteen minutes into this movie, I became suspicious that I was watching a movie adaptation of a stage play, and sure enough, that’s just what it is. Actually, in some ways, though, that really isn’t a problem here; the cast is talented and do all they can to bring the play to life. The big problem here is the play itself; the script is contrived, repetitive and predictable, and the comedy is strained and tiresome. Ultimately, one of the main problems in the story is that the dead men can only influence the outside world by causing storms, so naturally the plot bends over backwards to set up situations where that is exactly what must be done to solve a problem. Unfortunately, we get an endless series of scenes where the dead characters yell at the living characters in order to get them to do something to no avail, and this gets positively annoying, especially during the last twenty minutes of the movie. The actors do their best; in particular, Gladys Cooper manages to imbue her character with a sense of real strength and depth (fortunately, she doesn’t have to try to contend with the lame dialogue) and Keenan Wynn actually manages to wring some good laughs out of his lines, but ultimately they lose out to a poor storyline. I cannot recommend this movie, but if you do watch it, keep an eye out for Morris Ankrum as a doctor.

0 CommentsLeave a comment

The Uninvited (1944)

THE UNINVITED (1944)
Article #697 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 2-10-2003
Posting Date: 7-10-2003
Directed by Lewis Allen
Featuring Ray Milland, Ruth Hussey, Gail Russell

A songwriter and his sister buy and inhabit a deserted house by the sea, only to discover it is haunted.

I had watched this horror movie many years ago and was sorely disappointed at the time, though that had a lot more to do with my expectations than any flaw in the movie itself. For one thing, I’m pretty sure I was put off a little by the brightness of most of the scenes, and a light comic touch that pops up occasionally. I liked it much better this time around; the brightness is only used in scenes when it is appropriate, and the comic touches are a bit of a relief from some of the heavy-handed comic touches that pervade a lot of horror movies. Probably the most important difference to me this time was that I actually followed the plot line, which is essential to appreciating the events in this movie; when I first saw it, I was a little too lazy to pay attention to the details, and my appreciation was somewhat less. The scary scenes are quite effective, and there’s something about the final confrontation between Ray Milland and the ghost on the stairs at the end of the movie which really was satisfying this time; last time, I felt it was a letdown. In many ways, this is an archetypal haunted house movie, and I’m glad I gave it a second chance.

0 CommentsLeave a comment

The Testament of Dr. Cordelier (1959)

THE TESTAMENT OF DR. CORDELIER (1959)
Article #696 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 2-9-2003
Posting Date: 7-9-2003
Directed by Jean Renoir
Featuring Jean-Louis Barrault, Teddy Bilis, Jean Topart

A lawyer investigates a strange will in which a psychiatrist leaves his fortune to a savage man known as Mr. Opale.

****NOTE**** This is a slightly amended version of the original review.  One of my readers noted a spoiler in the original version of the review, so I’ve removed a few details to make it less of one.

If it doesn’t occur to you fairly early on in the proceedings, you will finally figure out that this is nothing more than a retelling of the well-known story with changed character names, updated to modern times and moved to Paris. Those who know the story from the original novel will probably figure it out right off the bat, as this version seems to follow the progression of the novel more closely than any of the other cinematic versions I’ve seen. Granted, once you’ve figured this out, you’ll know some of the plot twists. Nonetheless, I really liked this version of the story; in particular, I like the character of Mr. Opale. He’s almost a comic character here, from his bizarre jerky walk to the silly music that plays when he appears; however, his savage and impulsive brutality is indeed no laughing matter, and it’s almost scary to watch this guy terrorizing people, as he almost always takes on people obviously weaker than himself (he attacks a little girl and kicks the crutches out from under a cripple); he is definitely an unpleasant character. He also seems well thought out, and it is sometimes fascinating to try to figure out what is going through his mind. Actually, this may be one of my favorite takes on the source story.

5 CommentsLeave a comment