Month: August 2015

Island of the Dinosaurs (1966)

ISLAND OF THE DINOSAURS (1966)
(a.k.a. LA ISLA DE LOS DINOSAURIOS)
Article #780 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 5-4-2003
Posting Date: 10-1-2003
Directed by Rafael Portillo
Featuring Armando Silvestro, Elsa Cardenas, Crox Alvarado

An exploration team crashes on a primitive island with dinosaurs and caveman.

Since the only experience I’ve had with Mexicans working on giant monster effects was their work on THE GIANT CLAW, I was kind of curious as to how they would handle the special effects for a full-blown dinosaur movie. It was accomplished in much the same way that low-budget American dinosaur films were pulled off; lots of stock footage from ONE MILLION B.C. Not only did they borrow the footage, but a good deal of the plot was also borrowed, thus making it much easier for them to make copious use of the footage. The end result is just what you would expect; a Mexican movie with lots of stock dinosaur footage; if it seemed somewhat more competently acted, it was because my copy was not dubbed. It also was not subtitled, but since it’s your basic lost world movie, there aren’t a whole lot of subtleties to worry about. In short, you enjoy this one by sitting back and watching the slurpasaurs. And yes, Rumsford and Ignatz are on hand, and they are, or course, wrestling. Does this make this a Mexican wrestling film?

0 CommentsLeave a comment

Maciste in Hell (1926)

MACISTE IN HELL (1926)
Article #779 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 5-3-2003
Posting Date: 9-30-2003
Directed by Guido Brignone
Featuring Bartolomeo Pagano, Franz Sala, Elena Sangro

Maciste is tempted by the devil, and ends up trapped in hell when he elects to fight him.

Bartolomeo Pagano played Maciste in the 1914 movie CABIRIA; he must have liked the character; he ended up playing him repeatedly in a variety of movies over the next twenty years. I do wonder about the character’s position in time; CABIRIA took place in ancient Rome, but even if I’m not sure when this movie takes place, it’s certainly a much later period of time; Maciste wears a suit and tie through most of this, and at one point he is tempted with some shots of very modern cities indeed. Nonetheless, the fantasy element is very strong; the scenes in hell are great, with a huge cast of demons and fiends, including a couple of giant demons, a flying dragon, and some great special effects. It’s based at least partially on Dante’s “Inferno”, and it includes both Lucifer, Pluto and Proserpine as characters. I would love to have seen some of the other early Maciste movies just to see what the character’s story was, but this one and CABIRIA are the only ones I know exist for sure. It’s definitely worth a look for people interested in creative visions of hell; the movie apparently served as an inspiration both for Mario Bava and Federico Fellini.

0 CommentsLeave a comment

Dear Dead Delilah (1972)

DEAR DEAD DELILAH (1972)
Article #778 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 5-2-2003
Posting Date: 9-29-2003
Directed by John Farris
Featuring Agnes Moorehead, Will Geer, Michael Ansara

People searching for lost money on a southern plantation are being stalked by an axe murderer. Could it be the matriarch’s new housekeeper, who was just released from prison for killing her mother with an axe thirty years ago?

This movie has one of those alliterative titles that makes it tempting to come up with a catchy alliterative three-word phrase to describe the movie, such as “dull dreary disappointment”, but that seems like a downright dreadful dismissal. Unfortunately, this lame axe murder movie lives up all too well to that description; it’s cheap, uninspired, flaccidly directed, and what very few interesting ideas it has are poorly handled. It was another of those movies that came in the wake of WHATEVER HAPPENED TO BABY JANE in which an older actress graces a horror movie with her presence; in this case, Agnes Moorehead, who seems to be on autopilot here (it would be her last movie). The best performance here is by Will Geer (Grandpa Walton; didn’t I just talk about Grandma the other day?), but I wouldn’t get too attached to his character, if you know what I mean. It was produced by Jack Clement, who also served as a musical producer for several country singers, and there is a faint country air to the movie (it was shot in Nashville), but not enough to really make a difference. Gore fans may get the most satisfaction here, as some of the deaths are on the bloody side, but even they will probably spend quite a bit of time at the fast forward button. This one is for axe murder completists only.

0 CommentsLeave a comment

Deafula (1974)

DEAFULA (1974)
Article #777 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 5-1-2003
Posting Date: 9-28-2003
Directed by Peter Wechsburg
Featuring Peter Wechsburg, James Randall, Dudley Helstreet

A theology student who is the son of a preacher has fits where he turns into a vampire and attacks people.

This is a weird one, and part of the reason is that it is the only movie made entirely in sign language for the hearing impaired; there is voice-over dialogue for those not able to read sign language, and the overall effect is that of bad dubbing. Still, it would have been a weird one even if it hadn’t been done in sign language. The movie itself is all over the board; it jumps from gritty to campy to moving to comic to pretentious so often that I don’t really know what to make of it. The main character is actually in a very interesting situation; he is essentially a split personality trying to reconcile the good side and the evil side, and his dilemma has a certain poignance. However, when he turns into the vampire, he looks ludicrous, with a changed hairstyle, a cape, and a fake nose that makes him look like Cyrano de Bergerac. The Van Helsing role is played for laughs; his main way of arguing is to point out that he is from London, and therefore knows how to spot a vampire. There are touches in this movie that are like nothing I’ve ever seen, including a subplot involving a character who eats peanuts without shelling them and one character who is missing his hands (an effect that is achieved by having him wear tin cans on his hands; I kid you not), which, if you think about it in terms of a movie in sign language, makes him a mute. This is definitely one of the odder movies out there.

1 CommentLeave a comment

The Bowery Boys Meet the Monsters (1954)

THE BOWERY BOYS MEET THE MONSTERS (1954)
Article #776 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 4-30-2003
Posting Date: 9-27-2003
Directed by Edward Bernds
Featuring the Bowery Boys, the Monsters

The Bowery Boys visit an old mansion to try to get permission to use a vacant lot as a baseball field; there they meet the monsters.

Just how good can a movie be that is called THE BOWERY BOYS MEET THE MONSTERS? On any normal scale this is a ludicrous question; however, on a Bowery Boys scale, it fares much better. In fact, I would have to rate it as the best of the Bowery Boys movies I’ve seen for this series so far, which places it above BOWERY TO BAGDAD, HOLD THAT HYPNOTIST and SPOOKS RUN WILD. The latter is the only one that gave it a run for its money, but despite the presence of Bela Lugosi in that one, it always comes across to me as somewhat embarrassed. This one has John Dehner, Ellen Corby (yes, Grandma Walton) and Paul Wexler, who had a face even longer than John Carradine’s. Leo Gorcey’s malaprops steal the show, and they’re practically nonstop; he and Huntz Hall encounter a mad scientist intent on putting Hall’s brain inside a gorilla, another scientist intent on using Gorcey’s head to replace the one on his robot, a vampiress with a taste for Hall’s blood, and an old lady intent on finding some food for her man-eating plant, and a potion that turns various people into Hyde-like monsters. It’s all pretty dumb, but done with a certain energy that keeps things from slowing down. Pretty good for a Bowery Boys movie.

0 CommentsLeave a comment

Ace Drummond (1936)

ACE DRUMMOND (1936)
(Serial)
Article #775 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 4-29-2003
Posting Date: 9-26-2003
Directed by Ford Beebe and Cliff Smith
Featuring John King, Jean Rogers, Noah Beery Jr.

A mysterious criminal known as the Dragon is sabotaging an airline company trying to open an airport in Mongolia, and Ace Drummond is called in to investigate.

There’s a radio station in our area that they play at work; it claims to repeat no songs from nine to five on weekdays, so you can listen the whole day and not hear the same song twice. That’s all well and good; however, what they don’t tell you is that each day of the week they play all the same songs they did the previous day, usually in the same order. As far as I’m concerned, this makes them predictable and dull.

What does this have to do with serials? Well, some serials are like that; each episode is just like the last one, and if you were to take all but the first and last episodes of some serials, toss them in a box and pull them out at random, you might find that it wouldn’t make any difference which order you watched them. If anything, I’ve grown to appreciate those that don’t suffer from this problem. Fortunately, this is one of those where the order of the episodes makes a difference, and there is a decent variety between the episodes; it doesn’t just repeat the same thing over and over again.

I also like some other aspects of this one; the characters are differentiated from each other well enough so that you can keep track of them (though Lon Chaney Jr. has been consigned to a truly forgettable henchman role), and the opening of each episode (in which the plot so far is updated via a series of pictures drawn in comic-strip fashion, which is fitting for a serial based on a comic strip). The identity of the villain remains a closely guarded secret, though if you watch carefully during the last episode, you just might figure out who it is several minutes before it is actually revealed. Also, the villain has a somewhat clever way of transmitting his messages (via prayer wheels, water wheels, electric fans; basically any object that does circular revolutions). Their are several light science-fiction touches throughout, the music is quite nice (though I do wish our hero would learn more than one song), and some quite fun moments. It’s not quite up there with GANG BUSTERS, but it’s world’s better than QUEEN OF THE JUNGLE, so I certainly can’t complain.

0 CommentsLeave a comment

Soul of a Monster (1944)

SOUL OF A MONSTER (1944)
Article #774 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 4-28-2003
Posting Date: 9-25-2003
Directed by Will Jason
Featuring George MacReady, Rose Hobart, Jim Bannon

A man is saved from death by a strange woman, but his character is changed to that of a cruel, sinister man.

I don’t know who Will Jason is, but according to IMDB he was a composer as well as a director; this might go some ways to explaining why music plays a key role in one sequence of this movie. One other thing I can say was that he must have seen and been influenced by the movies of Val Lewton; there are definite touches here that recall the movies of that producer (though he does overdo it a bit in a couple of scenes). I have to admit that the opening sequence (in which a woman walking down the street is hit by a car, and then walks calmly away, causing sparks to shoot up out of streetlights as she passes) caught my attention in a big way, and I found myself really wondering what was going on for a good part of the movie; my first clue as to the nature of what I was watching came when one character mentioned the name of a writer who is primarily famous for a specific play. Overall, I’m still not sure; the movie is fascinating at times, but it’s incredibly talky, courts pretension, and the ending is less than satisfying. Still, it is unique; in feel it mostly reminded me of DAUGHTER OF HORROR, a movie that is really far stranger than this one is. It’s worth a look for the curious, but I know some people hate this movie, so be warned.

0 CommentsLeave a comment

Night Creatures (1962)

NIGHT CREATURES (1962)
(a.k.a. CAPTAIN CLEGG)
Article #773 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 4-27-2003
Posting Date: 9-24-2003
Directed by Peter Graham Scott
Featuring Peter Cushing, Patrick Allen, Michael Ripper

A captain is sent by the crown to investigate reports of smuggling in a small town, and encounters stories of ghostly riders in the swamps and a pastor with something to hide.

Despite the American title of this movie (NIGHT CREATURES) and a subplot concerning ghosts on horseback, this isn’t really a horror movie, nor does it act like one; it’s more of a period crime melodrama (the original title, CAPTAIN CLEGG, is much more accurate). This may be one of the reasons that this remains one of the more obscure Hammer thrillers, but those who choose to seek it out may well enjoy it. The story is solid and entertaining, and the performances are strong throughout, particularly from Peter Cushing, Oliver Reed, and Michael Ripper (who nearly steals the whole movie as the local undertaker). I also recognized Milton Reid (in the role of the mulatto) as having been in DR. PHIBES RISES AGAIN, where he was the manservant playing pool; it looks like he specialized in Tor Johnson-type roles (big, bald and non-speaking), but he definitely has the screen presence for it. It may be a minor Hammer thriller, but I found it quite entertaining nonetheless.

0 CommentsLeave a comment

Maid of Salem (1937)

MAID OF SALEM (1937)
Article #772 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 4-26-2003
Posting Date: 9-23-2003
Directed by Frank Lloyd
Featuring Claudette Colbert, Fred MacMurray, Harvey Stephens

A woman in Salem falls in love with a refugee from the law, and then gets caught up in the Salem witch trials.

Though technically this doesn’t fall into the realm of fantastic film, any movie about the Salem witch trials must by its very nature align itself marginally with the genres. The first half of the movie is necessarily a bit slow, as it’s setting up a lot of the events that come into play in the second half of the movie; it’s at the halfway point that the witch hunt begins, and the next quarter of the movie does a strong job in capturing the almost claustraphobic terror of the situation. Unfortunately, in order for a movie to handle this situation honestly, it really needs to take a hard look at human nature at its ugliest, and a movie made in Hollywood under the restrictions of the Hays Office simply can’t work up the candor to really take a good, hard look at these things; the last quarter of the movie seems convenient, doctored, and fairly unconvincing. Nonetheless, it’s still worth a look for those interested in the subject, and a sequence where a storm arises during the first announcements about witchcraft is very effective, even if the metaphor is a little too obvious.

0 CommentsLeave a comment

Killer Ape (1953)

KILLER APE (1953)
Article #771 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 4-25-2003
Posting Date: 9-22-2003
Directed by Spencer Gordon Bennet
Featuring Johnny Weissmuller, Carol Thurston, Ray ‘Crash’ Corrigan

Jungle Jim has to cope with mad scientists performing experiments on jungle animals, and a giant ape-man.

Here we have more monkeyshines with Jungle Jim and Tamba the chimp. It’s pretty ordinary stuff, though for fans of fantastic cinema, I will point out that the science fiction and horror content is somewhat higher than it was in FURY OF THE CONGO; the scientists are working on a drug that will sap the will from humans, and the Man-Ape is a major part of the story. Quite frankly, the movie is stolen by Max Palmer, who was eight feet tall and weighed 450 pounds; as the Man-Ape, he literally towers over the rest of the cast, and he’s bulky enough to be a real threat to all. The animal stock footage gets a little brutal at times, so animal lovers beware.

Public service: this movie is not to be confused with any of these other classics.

THE KILLER APP – A boring documentary about software and web page designers.

THE KILLER GRAPE – A deadly fruit monster kills people who w(h)ine too much.

THE KILLER GRAPE APE – Ill-fated attempt by the Hanna-Barbera people to resurrect an old cartoon character and breathe new life into him.

KILTED APE – A Scottish chimpanzee wreaks havoc on a golf course.

KILLER ABE – Our 16th president as you’ve never seen him before.

CRULLER APE – Various customers of the Doughnut Shop of the Congo mysteriously disappear.

Okay, I’ll stop.

0 CommentsLeave a comment