Month: September 2015

I Married a Witch (1942)

I MARRIED A WITCH (1942)
Article #885 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 8-17-2003
Posting Date: 1-14-2004
Directed by Rene Clair
Featuring Fredric March, Veronica Lake, Susan Hayward

A witch and her warlock father emerge from an oak tree where their souls were imprisoned after they were burned, and seek revenge on the descendant of the man who condemned them.

It’s interesting to combine the wild comedy of Thorne Smith (author of ‘Topper’), who started but did not finish the story on which this was based (it was completed by Norman Matson) and the light-as-air comic touch of Rene Clair. The result is somewhere in between; not quite as light as some of Clair’s other work and not quite as wild as some other Smith tales, but a bright cast and some interesting characters make for an enjoyable viewing experience. The always-enjoyable Robert Benchley is on hand to add his touch to the proceedings, but the movie is stolen by Cecil Kellaway as the witch’s father, who reveals he has an agenda of his own in a memorable scene involving a gun. However, the biggest laughs I found were during a funny election sequence, and an opening scene where the witch-burning undergoes a short intermission. The special effects and fantasy elements are quite effective, as they usually are in Rene Clair films.

0 CommentsLeave a comment

The Ghost of St. Michael’s (1941)

THE GHOST OF ST. MICHAEL’S (1941)
Article #884 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 8-16-2003
Posting Date: 1-13-2004
Directed by Marcel Varnel
Featuring Will Hay, Claude Hulbert, Charles Hawtrey

An incompetent teacher takes a position at a school in Scotland, where the courses are being held in an old supposedly haunted castle.

Will Hay is apparently better known in England than he is here in the states, and I will admit that he is amusing enough here. The only cast member that I recognized immediately, though, was Charles Hawtrey, who would go on to make several CARRY ON… movies. The fantastic content is largely tied to the aforementioned ghost, and since it never appears physically, you may be excused for suspecting that the truth is somewhat less supernatural; certainly, nobody in the movie (except a superstitious caretaker) really believes a ghost is at work, and since mention is made of Nazi spies at one point…., well, I’ll leave it to you to decide how you think it’s going to end up. For my part, I will only say that the fantastic content consigns this one to the realms of marginalia.

0 CommentsLeave a comment

Before Midnight (1933)

BEFORE MIDNIGHT (1933)
Article #883 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 8-15-2003
Posting Date: 1-12-2004
Directed by Lambert Hillyer
Featuring Ralph Bellamy, June Collyer, Claude Gillingwater

A man fears that an ancestral curse is taking place that will result in his death, and when he dies, a detective investigates.

Walt Lee considered this movie for inclusion in his ‘Fantastic Movies’ reference book, but he rejected it and it ended up on his ‘Out’ list. This surprised me a little, as it seemed to me that the horror element is fairly prominent here in the first twenty minutes of the movie, with a strange curse (blood appears under the portrait of an ancestor and a clock stops shortly before the murder occurs), a storm, and a spooky house. After the death, however, the movie clearly becomes more of a mystery, which is the genre to which it primarily belongs. It’s the second movie I’ve seen in a row that features Ralph Bellamy in the leading role, an actor I’ve always liked ever since seeing him outtalked by both Rosalind Russell and Cary Grant in HIS GIRL FRIDAY, and his presence helps to hold my interest throughout the confusing twists and turns of the story; there’s quite a bit of plot crammed into the running time of this one. It’s not a classic, but enjoyable enough for anyone who might be lucky enough to dig up a copy.

0 CommentsLeave a comment

Air Hawks (1935)

AIR HAWKS (1935)
Article #882 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 8-14-2003
Posting Date: 1-11-2004
Directed by Albert Rogell
Featuring Ralph Bellamy, Tala Birell, Douglas Dumbrille

An airline company is suffering from attacks from a rival company intent on putting them out of business.

The opening fifteen minutes are mostly concerned with the business and romance ends of the story and are pretty dull, but once you get to the laboratory scenes and the introduction of a ray gun that can take a plane out of the sky, this little programmer picks up tremendously. Plotwise it’s pretty standard stuff, with the ray gun being the usual science-fiction gadgetry popular at the time, but the solid and efficient pacing, acting and direction all lift the movie somewhat higher off the ground than the first fifteen minutes would leave you to believe. In fact, this may well be one of my favorite ray-guns-taking-down-airplanes movies, an idea that was used ad nauseum during the thirties and forties.

0 CommentsLeave a comment

The Spider (1931)

THE SPIDER (1931)
Article #881 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 8-13-2003
Posting Date: 1-10-2004
Directed by William Cameron Menzies and Kenneth MacKenna
Featuring Edmund Lowe, Lois Moran, Howard Phillips

A murder is committed during the performance of a magic act in a theatre. The magician as well as his assistant become the prime suspects, and must prove their innocence.

A lot of this short movie is dedicated to the magic act, but since the act is well paced and fun, and Edmund Lowe’s performance is strong in the role of the magician, this doesn’t slow down the story at all. In fact, the whole affair is pretty energetic and fast moving, with the fantastic elements fairly strong—hypnotism, mind-reading, and a very eerie and effective seance sequence. The title refers to a minor plot point involving a ring. JUST IMAGINE’s El Brendel is on hand as an audience member who thinks the murder is part of the show.

0 CommentsLeave a comment

The Loves of Edgar Allan Poe (1942)

THE LOVES OF EDGAR ALLAN POE (1942)
Article #880 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 8-12-2003
Posting Date: 1-9-2004
Directed by Harry Lachman
Featuring Shepperd Strudwick, Linda Darnell, Virginia Gilmore

This movie tells the story of the life of Edgar Allan Poe and the women in his life.

This isn’t the first biopic I’ve seen for this series; in fact, it isn’t even the first Poe biopic (that honor goes to THE RAVEN (1914)). Unfortunately, that earlier biopic, though it was weird and hard to follow, did capture more of the feel of Poe, especially during its dramatization of ‘The Raven’; here, we only see bits of it read in front of an audience. In fact, the only fantastic aspect of this movie is that it’s about a writer of horror stories. I don’t know the exact details of Poe’s life, but I do know they sound somewhat interesting; however, I’m really not interested in Poe’s romantic entanglements near as much as the makers of this movie were. As it is, I find it rather dull and obvious, with the high points being appearances by Henry Morgan (who I wouldn’t have recognized except that his voice hadn’t changed all that much between this movie and his stint on ‘M*A*S*H’) and an early appearance by perennial army general Morris Ankrum as a publisher. It also features historical personages Thomas Jefferson and Charles Dickens among its characters.

0 CommentsLeave a comment

The Girl From Scotland Yard (1937)

THE GIRL FROM SCOTLAND YARD (1937)
Article #879 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 8-11-2003
Posting Date: 1-8-2004
Directed by Robert Vignola
Featuring Karen Morley, Robert Baldwin, Eduardo Cianelli

A woman who works with Scotland Yard investigates the source of strange explosions and encounters a reporter who is hunting for the lost husband of a friend.

Another of those mystery/thrillers of the thirties with a marginal and cliched science fiction aspect; in this case, the ubiquitous ‘death ray’ machine. There are nice touches here and there (the final sequence involves a fairly exciting dogfight) and occasional bursts of momentary bad acting (since the actors are pretty competent outside of these moments, I suspect these lapses may be the result of bad direction), but all in all, it’s merely rather ordinary. Not bad for a slow day and keep your expectations in check.

0 CommentsLeave a comment

Succubus (1967)

SUCCUBUS (1967)
(a.k.a. NECRONOMICON)
Article #878 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 8-10-2003
Posting Date: 1-7-2004
Directed by Jess Franco
Featuring Janine Raynaud, Jack Taylor, Howard Vernon

A woman who performs in a sadistic stage show starts to blur the line between fantasy and reality.

Title check: No buses are sucked, and as for the alternate title, this has precious little to do with Lovecraft’s fictional tome.

Here we are, 878 listings into the MOTDs, and I finally hit Jess Franco. I’ve heard him described as one of the worst directors of all time; I’ve also heard him described as a genius, though even his supporters seem to think that he’s made a fair number of stinkers. I’ve seen a few of his others, and I suspect this is one of those in which he put some sort of effort into his work. He’s not talentless, and he has the occasional flare for interesting visuals, but he’s not much of a storyteller (I haven’t seen a movie of his that didn’t leave me somewhat confused), and sometimes his surreal visuals become merely silly and stupid. Quite frankly, I don’t have much use for this movie; if I’m in the mood for arty, erotic horror, I can always turn to Jean Rollin; unfortunately, I’m rarely in that mood. And I’m afraid that, despite all the name dropping of famous people and cultural icons (including the Marquis de Sade, the name people like to trot out to demonstrate that their delvings into sadism are actually high art of some sort), I suspect that there’s really a whole lot less here than meets the eye.

0 CommentsLeave a comment

A Bird in the Head (1946)

A BIRD IN THE HEAD (1946)
Article #877 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 8-9-2003
Posting Date: 1-6-2004
Directed by Edward Bernds
Featurung Moe Howard, Larry Fine, Curly Howard

A mad scientist wishes to use Curly’s brain to transplant into the skull of a gorilla.

Not much to say about this one; this is pretty standard Three Stooges mayhem. In it you will be treated such sights as an X-ray of the inside of Curly’s skull, a gorilla with a machine gun, and the usual well-timed slapstick gags, including a plank that won’t remain standing against a wall. Unfortunately, we never do learn Curly’s hat size.

0 CommentsLeave a comment

Fantastic Voyage (1966)

FANTASTIC VOYAGE (1966)
Article #876 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 8-8-2003
Posting Date: 1-5-2004
Directed by Richard Fleischer
Featuring Stephen Boyd, Raquel Welch, Donald Pleasence

A scientist suffers a blood clot in the brain after an attempted assassination, and several men and a woman are miniaturized and injected into the scientist’s bloodstream to remove the clot from the inside.

I first became familiar with this story through the novelization of the movie by Isaac Asimov. The movie itself never quite reaches the pitch of suspense to which it aspires, but this is a minor quibble; what it has going for it is a real sense of wonder. The scenes that take place inside the body are breathtaking and memorable, and very much of their time, as they fit in quite well with the psychedelic looks of the era; in particular, I like seeing the blue blood cells turn red inside the capillaries. It also seems to take place in fairly close to real time; once the crew is reduced in size, they have sixty minutes to complete their mission, which comes fairly close to matching the amount of running time left in the movie. The villain is almost a little too obvious, what with the casting, the constant harking by a certain character to abort the mission, and the fact that one character is obviously an atheist. Raquel Welch fans may be disappointed that she remains fully clothed the entire movie, though her skin-tight outfit aboard the sub may leave them somewhat satisfied. Amazingly enough, this is one movie that always seems to me to be shorter than its running time, which is indeed a good thing. Though not a perfect movie, it is extraordinarily efficient (they don’t belabor the plot points) and quite satisfying.

0 CommentsLeave a comment