TUNNELING THE CHANNEL (1907)
(a.k.a. TUNNEL SOUS LA MANCHE OU LE CAUCHEMAR FRANCO-ANGLAIS)
Article #1424 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 2-6-2005
Posting Date: 7-6-2005
Directed by Georges Melies

French and English kings have a dream that they build an underwater tunnel between the two countries across the English channel.

It’s been a long time since I’ve covered one of Melies’ silent shorts, so it’s nice to do another one. This one is quite amusing, though you do have to wonder about the intelligence of the tunnel architects who only build one set of train tracks, failing to realize that you’ll have traffic going both ways at the same time. My favorite moment is the opening of the dream, in which England and France are represented as two giants with a body of water between them, and in order to shake hands, they must stretch their arms to the proper length; this sequence looks like a political cartoon come to life.

TOPPER RETURNS (1941)
Article #1423 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 2-5-2005
Posting Date: 7-5-2005
Directed by Roy Del Ruth
Featuring Joan Blondell, Roland Young, Carole Landis

Topper is bothered by another ghost. In this case, it’s the American friend to the heir of a fortune who was murdered by mistake. She wants Topper to help solve her murder.

This was the only one of the three Topper films that wasn’t based directly on one of Thorne Smith’s stories, but rather on the characters he created. You can see the difference. Whereas the other two Topper movies were somewhat unpredictable, wild but somehow never going over the top or descending into predictable slapstick. Such is not the case here. The story is your basic old dark house murder mystery, complete with suspicious characters and a scared black chauffeur; Eddie “Rochester” Anderson does his best with the latter, but I don’t blame him for for wanting to be back with Mr. Benny, as he mentions at one point. The humor here is over-the-top and predictable; Eddie Anderson being scared of the ghost, recycled humor from the first two movies in the series, slapstick antics, a stupid cop and a sarcastic cab driver. It’s somewhat hit and miss, but it does have a great cast; in fact, horror fans may prefer this one over the first two of the series; after all, we have George Zucco on hand to glower for us. Somehow, though, I suspect that Topper and Thorne Smith fans may be somewhat disappointed.

THE TIME TRAVELERS (1964)
Article #1422 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 2-4-2005
Posting Date: 7-4-2005
Directed by Ib Melchior
Featuring Preston Foster, Philip Carey, Merry Anders

When scientists working on a time window accidentally creeate a portal to the future, four people find themselves transported one hundred years to the future in a post-apocalyptic age.

This isn’t a great movie; most of the story during the post-apocalyptic sequence is overly familiar, the music is a little silly, and the acting is variable. However, it does have a truly great and unforgettable ending. It also doesn’t belabor the plot, which is a good thing in this case. It has a nice sense of wonder to it, it doesn’t take itself too seriously, and the special effects feel less like studio trickery and more like magic tricks. All these factors combine to make me feel a great deal of warmth towards this movie, and I find myself wishing that it was better known. Sadly, I suspect it will remain somewhat obscure, largely because I don’t think anyone will bother reviving it when the inferior remake (JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF TIME) that was made just three years later (directed by David L. Hewitt, who wrote the original script) is in public domain and is easily available. I myself will always have fond memories of the original.

TARZAN THE FEARLESS (1933)
Article #1421 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 2-3-2005
Posting Date: 7-3-2005
Directed by Robert F. Hill
Featuring Buster Crabbe, Julie Bishop, E. Alyn Warren

Tarzan swings around a jungle and meets some people.

I saw this movie once years ago, and the only thing I could remember about it was that a chimpanzee did a lot of backflips. Having seen it again, I can see why; the plot is such an incoherent mess that it’s unlikely you’re going to remember any of it. Granted, there’s a reason this movie is that way; it’s actually a feature version of a serial and feels like it. The original serial is lost, but seeing this doesn’t really make me want to spend a lot of time looking for it. It does leave me wondering what I’m going to remember about it years from now. Maybe I’ll remember that an inordinate amount of the running time is spent dealing with a phonograph. Maybe I’ll remember that Buster Crabbe’s Tarzan’s main way of expressing himself to people is giggling like an idiot. Or maybe I’ll remember that, despite the fact that Crabbe is wearing one of the skimpiest loincloths I’ve ever seen, he still has room in it for a knife and a picture of his girlfriend. At any rate, I hope that I don’t remember the scene where Crabbe and Julie Bishop try to emulate the back-and-forth banter that Johnny Weissmuller and Maureen O’Sullivan had in TARZAN, THE APE MAN. Somehow, though, I think fate will be kind, and years from now, when I think of this movie, I’ll think of a monkey doing backflips. Sad, isn’t it?

TARZAN’S SECRET TREASURE (1941)
Article #1420 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 2-2-2005
Posting Date: 7-2-2005
Directed by Richard Thorpe
Featuring Johnny Weissmuller, Maureen O’Sullivan, Johnny Sheffield

When Boy decides to leave home to visit civilization, he encounters scientific explorers who take more than a passing interest in a gold nugget that he is carrying.

At the time of this writing, this movie has the exact same IMDB rating as TARZAN AND THE LEOPARD WOMAN; nonetheless, I have a clear preference between the two, and it’s for this one. Though Brenda Joyce was cute, I just don’t think she had the same chemistry with Johnny Weissmuller as Maureen O’Sullivan had, but their scenes together here are pretty good. Cheetah is on hand in both movies, but here they don’t make the mistake of over-relying on his presence for cute antics. Which is not to say that there aren’t a few, but the ones that exist are more creative, and Cheetah is given a little competition in the scene-stealing department by not only the baby elephant, but by Barry Fitzgerald as well. The story is also somewhat less silly here, but unfortunately it’s also a little too familiar; I think several movies in the Tarzan series have the same basic plot as this one, and the sense of over-familiarity was very noticeable. Still, the final scenes are quite spectacular, and there’s something really likable about this entry in the series. And I don’t know what it was about this movie that made me appreciate him, but I decided that I really like Johnny Sheffield as Boy, despite the fact that his addition to the series was one of the factors in its domesticisation. The fact of the matter is that Sheffield was an excellent actor who worked well with Weissmuller as well. The fantastic elements are minimal as usual for the Tarzan movies, consisting of little more than the slight air of fantasy that hangs over all of them.

TARZAN AND THE LEOPARD WOMAN (1946)
Article #1418 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 1-31-2005
Posting Date: 6-30-2005
Directed by Kurt Neumann
Featuring Johnny Weissmuller, Brenda Joyce, Johnny Sheffield

Tarzan believes that some leopard attacks are the result of something other than leopards, and they are; a tribe of bloodthirsty leopard men is on the loose.

The farther into this series you go, the less savage Tarzan becomes. Therefore, it shouldn’t be surprising that by this entry in the series, we spend a lot of time dealing with both Tarzan’s domestic concerns and Cheetah’s antics. Still, it builds up to a decent climax, despite some high silliness. The leopard men earn their stripes -er- spots, by feeding hearts to their leopard god and doing this silly dance. They’re ruled by Acquanetta, who must have decided that playing a leopard woman was a step up from being an ape woman. The movie also features Edgar Barrier as a traitor to civilization, and Dennis Hoey, taking a break from the Sherlock Holmes movies to deal with a different cultural icon. Acquanetta actually does a slightly better job here than she usually does.