Month: April 2016

The House in the Woods (1959)

THE HOUSE IN THE WOODS (1959)
Article #1196 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 6-23-2004
Posting Date: 11-20-2004
Directed by Maxwell Munden
Featuring Ronald Howard, Patricia Roc, Michael Gough

A couple wishing to get away from the noise of the city move into a remote cottage which they share with an artist who has recently lost his wife. They begin to suspect that the wife may have been murdered.

Michael Gough, Patricia Roc and Ronald Howard all give fine performances in this movie, and the story itself is quite interesting. However, I found the direction listless and dull, and the pacing less than exciting; it seemingly takes forever before we reach the point where the suspense kicks in, and then the movie finishes up so quickly that I felt rather cheated. Of course, I do feel it necessary to point out that I didn’t watch the movie under the best of conditions; I was suffering from a bad cold, and was a bit tired and sleepy going into it, and there’s a strong chance this may have colored my impressions. It may play much better if viewed in an alert and patient mood. As far as its fantastic content, there’s some slight horror touches to the proceedings, but not enough to make it more than marginally interesting from a genre perspective.

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King Kong Vs. Godzilla (1962)

KING KONG VS. GODZILLA (1962)
(a.k.a. KINGUKONGU TAI GOJIRA)
Article #1195 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 6-22-2004
Posting Date: 11-19-2004
Directed by Ishiro Honda
Featuring Tadao Takashima, Kenji Sahara, Yu Fujiki

A pharmaceutical company captures King Kong on Faro island at the same time that Godzilla breaks loose from an iceberg and returns to Japan.

Ten thoughts on KING KONG VS. GODZILLA

1) Like the original GODZILLA, this movie was heavily reedited for the American market and new footage was added. Unfortunately, the same care was not taken with this one as was taken with the original; most of the new footage consists of unconvincing newscasters sitting around and delivering stories, and the editing ot the Japanese footage is sloppy (they even use a scene of a newspaper photo of submarine fading into a shot of the real submarine in motion twice within a two minute period) and eccentric (repeated anomalous shots of a space satellite). They also replaced most of Akira Ifukube’s score with stock music, including an annoying encore of the shrill CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON music. I have yet to see the Japanese version, but I hope to do so someday.

2) ****SPOILER**** For many years, the legend existed that the Japanese version of the movie ended with Godzilla victorious whereas the American version ended with King Kong victorious. This story is merely a legend. In fact, the ending is somewhat ambiguous; though Kong is the only one we see walking away (or swimming away, as the case may be) from the fight, there is no clear winner designated; Godzilla is merely nowhere to be found.

3) This is probably the most light-hearted of the early Godzilla movies. In fact, the American version is a downright comedy most of the time. The Japanese version was more satirical, but some of the satire still shows through in the American version, particularly in the sequences having to do with the pharmaceutical company trying to get a monster to improve their ratings.

4) I’m amazed at the breadth of special effects in this movie; outside of the standard suitmation, they use puppets, real animals substituting for monsters, and even a bit of stop motion. Not all of it is done well, but I do admire the ambition behind it.

5) The story borrows heavily from the original KING KONG, with Kong once again discovered on an island of natives who worship him. He also gets loose in a big city, kidnaps a girl and scales a building with her. However, the sight of King Kong scaling a building that is no taller than himself is just a little bit ridiculous.

6) For me, the most disappointing thing in the movie is the Kong costume; sure, he’s not going to look as good as the stop-motion animated Kong of the original movie, but here he looks mangy and flea-bitten. I really think the costume could have been a lot better.

7) During the sequence where the submarine is suffering untold damage from the iceberg, we hear the admiral mutter the word “Great!” after hearing a particularly distressing bit of bad news. Feel free to mentally substitute any other one-syllable word that ends in a ‘t’ that you think might be appropriate for a man of the sea to mutter under those circumstances.

8) At the opening of the movie, we hear a news report about an earthquake in Chile. What this has to do with the rest of the movie is beyond me.

9) This may be one of the first of the Japanese monster movies to touch upon the love that children have for giant monsters. At one point, a little boy asks his mother if he can go see Godzilla. Gamera would milk this idea for all it was worth a few years later.

10) This was perhaps the first Godzilla movie I ever saw. To this day, it remains my favorite, even if I don’t consider it to be anywhere near the best of the series. Even now I thoroughly enjoy watching this one. So I’m going to throw in another list of ten items to end this one. Here are my ten favorite moments from the movie.

1) The explorers winning over the natives with a portable radio playing a peppy Japanese tune, followed by plying them with cigarettes. The chief than decides he will let them stay, but absolves himself of all responsibility if King Kong should eat them. Key line: “It’s okay! They’re all smoking!”

2) The UN reporter calls in a noted scientist to discuss Godzilla. The scientist uses a child’s book of dinosaurs as his main visual prop. The scientist also does a comparison of the relative brain power of King Kong and Godzilla. He uses a gorilla’s skull and a marble as his props. This guy is a hoot.

3) I love that the head of the pharmaceutical company throws a fit when Godzilla gets loose not because he fears for his life and property, but because he’s jealous of all the publicity Godzilla is getting.

4) The fight between King Kong and the octopus, though hardly convincing, is definitely a highlight of the picture.

5) I like the scene where we see the construction of a huge pit with which the military hopes to capture Godzilla. Quite frankly, I’ve always thought that was the neatest collection of construction toys I’ve ever seen in one place.

6) A man, upon hearing that King Kong is advancing on Tokyo, replies with conviction “We’d better leave….tonight!” Hey, why rush these things?

7) The native chant is one of the few pieces of music from the original soundtrack to remain on the American version; it’s also the best piece of music on the American version.

8) During the final fight, King Kong hits his head on a rock. You can practically see the birds flying around his head at this point.

9) Also during the fight, King Kong tries to shove a tree down Godzilla’s throat. Talk about making the best use of the landscape…

10)…and finally, the airlift sequence. There’s something about seeing King Kong strung up like a puppet (in a very uncomfortable-looking position, I might add) and carted around by balloons and helicopters that is almost sublimely ridiculous. It’s certainly one of the most memorable images in all of kaiju.

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It! The Terror from Beyond Space (1958)

IT! THE TERROR FROM BEYOND SPACE (1958)
Article #1194 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 6-21-2004
Posting Date: 11-18-2004
Directed by Edward L. Cahn
Featuring Marshall Thompson, Shirly Patterson, Kim Spalding

A rescue mission to the planet Mars picks up the sole survivor of the first expedition, and (unbeknownst to them) a very hungry resident of the planet.

This movie is often cited as the source of Ridley Scott’s ALIEN, though I tend to consider that coincidence; the idea of a monster loose aboard a spaceship isn’t so uniquely unusual that I find it quite plausible that two different writers could come up with the idea independently. ALIEN is obviously the better movie; the acting and character development are a vast improvement, the dialogue is crisper and less labored, and the monster is something far more complex than a man in a rubber suit. Nonetheless, this movie can lay claim to one thing that ALIEN can’t; it remains the sole movie that I have ever seen that actually scared me so badly I couldn’t sleep that night, and that’s no mean feat. Watching it again many years later, I still find it fairly effective; the scene where the first body is discovered stuffed up a duct is memorable, as is the condition of the bodies after It has had its way with them. It has its flaws, I’ll admit; for one thing, I don’t think it’s particularly smart to have storage areas where nothing is tied down, nor would I recommend that crew members shoot off firearms inside the rocket. However, I will never forget the moments when the movie gave me the heebie-jeebies; seeing the monster dragging around one of the dead bodies, watching the man with the broken leg desperately trying to fend the creature off with an acetylene torch, and (for me, this was the clincher) watching the creature pound his way through the hatches that separated the various levels of the ship. Knowing that the monster was capable of doing this was what convinced me that there was literally no place to run. At any rate, if we were all allowed one movie from our childhood to remain free from the more mature criticism of our adult minds, this would be the one I would pick.

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