Month: June 2015

Hawk of the Wilderness (1938)

HAWK OF THE WILDERNESS (1938)
(Serial)
Article #695 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 2-8-2003
Posting Date: 7-8-2003
Directed by William Witney and John English
Featuring Herman Brix, Mala, Monte Blue

Explorers land on a strange island in the Arctic circle kept warm by an active volcano. There they encounter a tribe of Indians and the son of a previous explorer, who undertakes to save them from the machinations of unscrupulous bandits out for treasure.

I can’t tell you what a relief it was to encounter this serial after suffering the tiresome repetitiveness of CAPTAIN MIDNIGHT or THE BATMAN; unlike either of these Columbia serials, this one from Republic throws a fairly elaborate story and a certain degree of production value into the work. There are problems; the villains are a colorless lot, the black comic relief isn’t funny, and at least one good character suddenly turns bad for no other reason than so you won’t feel bad when he’s killed ten minutes later, but on the good side, there’s a good variety of action here, and even has a slight sense of humor on occasion. The science fiction content is probably nothing more than the existence of the island itself, and the horror content is very slight, probably consisting of nothing more than a certain subplot about an evil masked guardian of a cave, so this is fairly marginal. However, I did quite enjoy this one.

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Je t’aime, je t’aime (1968)

JE T’AIME, JE T’AIME (1968)
Article #694 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 2-7-2003
Posting Date: 7-7-2003
Directed by Alain Resnais
Featuring Claude Rich, Olga Georges-Picot, Anouk Ferjac

A man who survives a suicide attempt volunteers to be the guineau pig in a time-travel experiment. When he is sent back, he loses himself in the timestream, and begins hopping back and forth between moments in his life from the last few years.

The movie definitely has a fascinating concept underneath it, and in that way is similar to Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five. The story is fairly linear until the experiment gets underway, but as you might expect, once he starts popping back and forth in time, it loses that linearity. It’s fascinating to watch, though you do have to let the events in his life wash over you in the random peeks you are given. Nonetheless, it works pretty well, and though the ending is a little confusing, there was something very satisfying and very sad about it. This one is recommended for anyone not put off by French artiness.

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A Nous la Liberte (1931)

A NOUS LA LIBERTE (1931)
(a.k.a. LIBERTY FOR US)
Article #693 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing date: 2-6-2003
Posting date: 7-6-2003
Directed by Rene Clair
Featuring Raymond Cordy, Henri Marchand, Paul Ollivier

When two convicts try to make a prison esscape, only one succeeds while the other sacrifices his chances to let the other one get away. Years later they meet again, the one who made his escape having become a phonograph tycooon, and the other still a vagrant.

The above description certainly doesn’t sound like it has anything to do with fantastic cinema, but since some of the plot revolves around the tycoon’s new fully-automated factory, it does fall within the bounds of science fiction. It’s a pretty amazing movie; despite having certain satirical points to make, it never becomes dark or heavy-handed. Thanks must go to Rene Clair, whose ability to add a light and delicate comic touch to all that he does is in prominence here; two scenes in particular where the action seamlessly flows from the devastatingly sad to the joyous (one involving an attempted suicide, the other when the tycoon first meets his old friend and believes he’s there to blackmail him) illustrate a master at work. The two friends are excellent (Henri Marchand and Raymond Cordy) as well as the rest of the cast. It apparently has strong similarities to Chaplin’s later MODERN TIMES, so much so that there were some legal actions taken. I’d heard about this movie for years; I’m overjoyed to finally have had a chance to see it.

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Terror Island (1920)

TERROR ISLAND (1920)
Article #692 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing date: 2-5-2003
Posting date: 7-5-2003
Directed by James Cruze
Featuring Harry Houdini, Jack Brammall, Lila Lee

An inventor helps a woman to save the life of her father who is stranded among savages.

This is probably the most entertaining of the movies I’ve seen that feature Harry Houdini; it’s not complete, though. My print is missing two of the reels, so there is a gap of action in the middle of the film. Nonetheless, what remains is pretty entertaining, with Houdini doing his own stunts, including a good escape from a trap made by cannibals and some underwater swimming that involved him holding his breath for quite a while. The cannibals are probably the only horror elements in the movie; the science fiction element is a little more striking, as Houdini has a specially designed submarine to help him in his endeavors. The movie also features a very young (and very thin) Eugene Pallette.

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Daughter of Horror (1955)

DAUGHTER OF HORROR (1955)
(a.k.a. DEMENTIA)
Article #691 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing date: 2-4-2003
Posting date: 7-4-2003
Directed by John Parker
Featuring Adrienne Barett, Bruno Ve Sota, Ben Roseman

An insane woman murders a man and finds herself running from the police.

Fans of THE BLOB will certainly remember that freaky movie the teenagers were watching in the movie theater; here it is in all its glory. In some ways, it’s not really a horror movie, but the underlying theme of madness and the darkly disturbing surrealness of the proceedings make it more horrifying than any number of more conventional horror movies. Except for some narration provided by Ed McMahon, there is no dialogue to the movie, though to call it a silent movie is to ignore the use of sound and music throughout, and though we hear no one talk, we do hear them laugh. The movie is about madness; madness pervades every frame of this movie, every arty shot, every close-up, and it is really unlike any other movie I’ve seen in this regard. Some people love this movie; some people hate it. Me, it depends on my mood, but I do think it is one of those movies to which a closer look should be given. It also features Angelo Rossitto in a cameo role.

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Crash of Moons (1954)

CRASH OF MOONS (1954)
Article #690 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing date: 2-3-2003
Posting date: 7-3-2003
Directed by Hollingsworth Morse
Featuring Richard Crane, Sally Mansfield, Scotty Beckett

Rocky Jones tries to save the inhabitants of a planet that is doomed to a collision with one of the moons of a two-moon system, but runs into resistance from the planet’s suspicious empress.

This is the second of the Rocky Jones movies I’ve seen, the first being BEYOND THE MOON. Not much has really changed; the dialogue is pretty lame, the acting so-so, and the special effects fairly primitive. Nonetheless, it gets by well enough, largely because it comports itself with a certain amount of quiet dignity, and actually seeks to tell a fairly elaborate story within its limitations; the sincerity of it all wins me over. And even if the effects are primitive, they are also creative, evocative and fun to look at, and in some ways that may be even more important. This one also features an early performance from John Banner.

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Counterblast (1948)

COUNTERBLAST (1948)
Article #689 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing date: 2-2-2003
Posting date: 7-2-2003
Directed by Paul L. Stein
Featuring Mervyn Johns, Nova Pilbeam, Karel Stepanek

A Nazi scientist escapes imprisonment, and impersonates an English bacterioligist so he can develop an antidote to a plague virus that he is hoping to use for world conquest.

The science fiction elements present in this story seem slight (the plague virus), but they do drive the story, so this British spy thriller is definitely in the fantastic movie category. It’s a bit on the longish side (it runs 100 minutes), and after the first ten minutes, it settles down into a kind of talky drama that is actually a lot more interesting than it could have been, due to the decent story, the interesting characters, and the solid acting (particularly from Mervyn Johns). Unfortunately, the movie loses its way just when you’re expecting it to take off; the last ten minutes are unfocused and anticlimactic, and the ending is convenient, contrived and unsatisfying. This is a real shame; it could have been a much better movie if only it had ended with a bang. As it is, the lack of a good ending is probably one of the reasons the movie remains somewhat obscure today.

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Charlie Chan at the Opera (1937)

CHARLIE CHAN AT THE OPERA (1937)
Article #688 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing date: 2-1-2003
Posting date: 7-1-2003
Directed by H. Bruce Humberstone
Featuring Warner Oland, Boris Karloff, Keye Luke

Charlie Chan investigates a death threat against an opera singer.

Generally, when a horror star appears in a mystery movie, he turns out to be an obvious red herring. I’m not going to say whether Karloff is one or not, but I will say that the movie does take the care not to make him an obvious one. In fact, the movie seems to take quite a bit of care all around; it looks like a lot of work went into the opera sequences, and the characters are a little more fleshed out than they usually are. Karloff’s definitely is, and his presence is definitely a highlight of the movie, as are Warner Oland’s (in the title role, of course) and William Demarest’s, who makes several appearances as a police detective. The presence of Karloff definitely inspired a bit of the horror touches at the beginning of the movie, and there is of course the seemingly obligatory reference to FRANKENSTEIN that seems to pop up in any non-horror movie Karloff made at the time. There is an amusing sequence where Demarest tries to pick out Keye Luke from among a number of knights in shining armor.

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Bulldog Drummond Escapes (1937)

BULLDOG DRUMMOND ESCAPES (1937)
Article #687 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing date: 1-31-2003
Posting date: 6-30-2003
Directed by James Hogan
Featuring Ray Milland, Sir Guy Standing, Heather Angel

Hugh Drummond returns to England to get caught up in a case where an heiress is held prisoner by her relatives.

I actually ended up enjoying this little programmer immensely, largely because it was done with a light touch emphasizing humor. This is the second Bulldog Drummond movie I’ve seen; in the first, I was amused by the antics of his cohort Algy Longworth. He’s here in this one, too, though played by a different actor, but in this case, it’s E. E. Clive as Drummond’s fast-thinking proactive butler Tenny that steals the show. Drummond himself is played by Ray Milland, and I found some of the conversations between the two very amusing. However, despite my enjoyment of the movie, I didn’t really feel it qualifies as horror in any but the most marginal of ways; mainly, a little fog here and there and a house that might be a little spooky if you squint really hard. Nevertheless, since at least one of my sources lists it as such, I’m including it anyway.

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The Brighton Strangler (1945)

THE BRIGHTON STRANGLER (1945)
Article #686 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 1-29-2003
Posting Date: 6-28-2003
Directed by Max Nosseck
Featuring John Loder, June Duprez, Rose Hobart

An actor suffers a concussion during an air raid, and takes on in real life the role he was playing at the time, that of a murderer known as The Brighton Strangler.

This is a fairly ordinary but moderately entertaining take on a common story, with a good performance by John Loder in the title role. The story itself is pretty predictable, but there are some nice setpieces here. I particularly like a scene in a movie theatre in which a murder is interrupted by a newsreel; there’s also a nice murder sequence during a snowstorm. It’s no classic, but it’s a pleasant enough time-killer that doesn’t wear out its welcome; it runs 67 minutes.

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