Month: February 2017

The Man Who Lived Twice (1936)

THE MAN WHO LIVED TWICE (1936)
Article #1739 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 12-18-2005
Posting Date: 5-17-2006
Directed by Harry Lachman
Featuring Ralph Bellamy, Marian Marsh, Thurston Hall

A criminal on the run from the police allows a surgeon who has experimented with surgical methods in controlling sociopathic behavior to perform a brain operation on him to remove his criminal tendencies. The operation is successful, but the criminal now has amnesia and can’t remember his former life. He then becomes a respected doctor, only to find that his past is catching up to him.

The middle section of this movie drags a bit, but outside of that, I found this an enjoyable if somewhat far-fetched little B-movie. It’s the performances that really make this work. Ralph Bellamy is very good in the opening scenes as the criminal; it’s such a break from his usual type of character that it’s a little disappointing when he emerges from the operation in a far more conventional role for him, though he does a fine job throughout. However, my favorite performance goes to Ward Bond, who plays an old crony of the criminal who discovers the truth of the matter, but who is so won over by the change that he takes on the job of Bellamy’s chauffeur and vows to go straight; his final scene with Isabel Jewell is great. All in all, an enjoyable combination of the crime and science fiction genres.

0 CommentsLeave a comment

One Night Stand (1984)

ONE NIGHT STAND (1984)
Article #1738 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 12-17-2005
Posting Date: 5-16-2006
Directed by John Duigan
Featuring Tyler Coppin, Cassandra Delaney, Jay Hackett

Several teens hide out in the Sydney Opera House while waiting for the onset of World War III.

Before I get started, I need to go on a little bit about the title. Not that the title is bad, mind you; it’s just that within the last thirty years, nine different movies were made that share that title, and when you’re doing movie-hunting, it makes things difficult to find the right one. Several months ago, I purchased the wrong one, and ended up watching the whole movie before I realized it wasn’t the one I was looking for, so I spent some extra time making sure the next time I bought the movie, it would be the right one.

As for the movie itself, the best way I can describe it is as a cross between ON THE BEACH and a Brat Pack movie. This may or may not be a recommendation, depending on how you feel about the Brat Pack. Granted, the teens in this movie are unknowns, but they’re pretty much working in the same mode. Fortunately, it’s like one of the better Brat Pack movies like THE BREAKFAST CLUB; despite the fact that some of the characters are cocky and annoying and that some of the scenes are of the type designed to appeal to teens, the emotional resonance is there and quite real at times. It also helps that I actually am familiar with the two songs that serve as set pieces for a couple of scenes; “Short Memory” is performed by my favorite Australian band, Midnight Oil, and the music video / dance sequence is performed to an infectious garage rocker from the sixties, “Friday on My Mind” by the Easybeats. The latter is played while we see footage from METROPOLIS, which also pops up again in during the rush to the shelters near the end of the movie. The anti-war message is obvious, but for the most part, the movie focuses on the human aspects of the story, and is quite successful in that regard.

0 CommentsLeave a comment

Scrambled Brains (1951)

SCRAMBLED BRAINS (1951)
Article #1737 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 12-16-2005
Posting Date: 5-15-2006
Directed by Jules White
Featuring Moe Howard, Larry Fine, Shemp Howard

Moe and Larry care for Shemp, who is suffering from hallucinations.

The fantastic content in this Three Stooges short is probably the bizarre hallucinations Shemp has. In particular, a sequence where Shemp is playing the piano only to discover he’s sprouting extra hands belongs to the realm of fantasy. Not only does it have some nifty special effects, but It’s also one of the two funniest scenes in the short. The other is a sequence where the Stooges get stuck in a phone booth along with Vernon Dent and his bag of groceries. The short also features Stooge regular Emil Sitka as a doctor who suspects that Shemp may be pregnant. Quite frankly, this is one of the most amusing shorts I’ve seen by the Three Stooges.

0 CommentsLeave a comment

Ben and Me (1953)

BEN AND ME (1953)
Article #1736 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 12-15-2005
Posting Date: 5-14-2006
Directed by Hamilton Luske
Featuring the voices of Sterling Holloway, Charles Ruggles, Hans Conried

A mouse helps Ben Franklin with his inventions.

Sometimes I wonder exactly what criteria goes into the selection of entries in some of the source books I use for compiling my hunt lists for this project. This Disney short is included in John Stanley’s Creature Features Strikes Again Movie Guide, which, for the most part, omits shorts. One would think that he would only make an exception for a short in which the fantastic aspects are particularly prominent, and though I don’t in any way question that the short is indeed a fantasy (talking mouse = fantastical creature), I don’t think it’s particularly more a fantasy than any number of other animated shorts (most of which also including talking nonhuman critters) that he does not include. Maybe he just really likes this one.

I can understand liking this one, though; it’s a charming and enjoyable short, featuring some very familiar voices and some fine animation. My wife suggested that there may be further fantastic content in the fact that it presents an alternate history of sorts, but even within the bounds of the story, the alternate history really registers no historical impact. I was wondering how much impact Amos the mouse had on Franklin’s legendary weakness for the feminine sex, but the short even touches upon this aspect (subtly, of course), and pretty much gives Franklin lone credit for that part of his story.

0 CommentsLeave a comment

Valley of Eagles (1951)

VALLEY OF EAGLES (1951)
Article #1735 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 12-14-2005
Posting Date: 5-13-2006
Directed by Terence Young
Featuring Jack McCallum, Jack Warner, Anthony Dawson

A Norwegian inventor develops a method of creating electricity through sound, but his invention is stolen by his assistant and his wife. He then joins forces with a police inspector to try and catch them.

You know, nothing makes my heart sink like a movie that opens with the demonstration of some amazing invention, and then instead of exploring the impact the invention has on the world, it consigns the invention to the role of first prize in a more conventional cinematic struggle. It then becomes merely a case of whether the good guys can keep the invention from falling in the hands of the bad guys; most serials with slight science fiction elements fall into this category. That’s pretty much the direction this movie goes at the ten minute mark, and had the movie stayed at that level, I wouldn’t have liked it as well as I did. Fortunately, the movie is much better than that; not only is it made with a great deal of subtlety, suspense and wit, it also refuses to keep still. At the thirty minute mark, it shifts once more, this time from an espionage thriller to an adventure movie when the heroes join a group of reindeer herders in an attempt to keep on the trail of the thieves, and it is here that the movie starts to develop a surprising degree of emotional resonance as the scientist’s experiences with the “savages” makes him doubt the legitimacy of his own obsession with science. As a result, the movie ends up a much richer and more satisfying experience than I thought it would be. Still, I do have some reservations; there are a number of scenes of animal deaths and attacks here, and though some of them seem to clearly be stock footage, I’m still not sure about others; in particularly, scenes of eagles attacking wolves bother me. Still, I am amazed at the sequence where we encounter a tribe of men with trained eagles which they use instead of guns for fear of avalanches. Keep a sharp lookout for Christopher Lee in the small role of a police detective.

0 CommentsLeave a comment

Svengali (1954)

SVENGALI (1954)
Article #1734 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 12-13-2005
Posting Date: 5-12-2006
Directed by Noel Langley
Featuring Hildegard Knef, Donald Wolfit, Terence Morgan

A model finds herself falling in love with an artist, not knowing that she is arousing the jealous wrath of a hypnotic musician who has his own plans for her.

I was all ready to dismiss this version of the classic Du Maurier novel for the simple reason that I was largely familiar with the work of Donald Wolfit through his performance in BLOOD OF THE VAMPIRE, which did not impress me. Nonetheless, I was glad to see that he gave a much better performance than I expected; he is quite good in the role, despite the fact that physically he is all wrong for playing a character who is described as a “scarecrow”. Still, Wolfit is not John Barrymore, and he never quite glues you to the screen in the same way Barrymore did in the role in the 1931 version of the movie. For most of the movie, this doesn’t matter all that much; the acting from all concerned is very solid, and I especially liked Paul Rogers as one of the trio of artists who Trilby encounters. The solid acting compensates somewhat for some uneven editing and some abrupt and poorly paced scenes. It’s not until the last third of the movie that it really loses steam, primarily because we don’t have a Svengali that really commands the stage. In this context, I suppose it makes sense that the ending is changed from tragic to happy, but overall the movie has much less impact than the 1931 version. It’s not a disaster, but I do know that when I want to rewatch a version of this tale, it won’t be this one.

0 CommentsLeave a comment

Strange Holiday (1945)

STRANGE HOLIDAY (1945)
(a.k.a. THE DAY AFTER TOMORROW)
Article #1733 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 12-12-2005
Posting Date: 5-11-2006
Directed by Arch Oboler
Featuring Claude Rains, Martin Kosleck, Milton Kibbee

A businessman returns home from a long vacation to find that no one will talk to him. and the few people he can find are living in abject fear. He then finds his family missing and himself arrested.

This piece of wartime propaganda is so paranoid, so overwrought, so preachy, and so emotionally manipulative, I found myself wondering just what brought on this serious lapse of taste. If anything, it’s even more simplistic and unbelievable than its nearest cinematic equivalent, INVASION U.S.A. (1952), and it’s only the impressive thespic talents of Claude Rains that keeps the movie from sliding into total camp. However, a quick perusal of the entry in the Maltin movie guide gave me the crucial clue in understanding why this movie was the way it was; the movie was not originally intended for the viewing public, but was sponsored by GE for the purpose of being shown to its employees only. This places the movie’s origins in the realm of what my wife refers to as Film Ephemera; that other film industry that geared its products to industry and educational purposes. For those who remember the Bell Science Lab films that we all watched in high school, you’ll know the type of thing I mean. This goes a long way towards explaining why the movie is so unsubtle; it primarily existed for its message, which was to keep its employees from taking long vacations while the war was going on. What else can you say?

1 CommentLeave a comment

Manhunt in the African Jungles (1943)

MANHUNT IN THE AFRICAN JUNGLES (1943)
(Serial)
(a.k.a. SECRET SERVICE IN DARKEST AFRICA)
Article #1732 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 12-11-2005
Posting Date: 5-10-2006
Directed by Spencer Gordon Bennet
Featuring Rod Cameron, Joan Marsh, Duncan Renaldo

A secret service agent tracks down Nazi spies in Casablanca.

All right, let’s get my issue with the titles out of the way. I don’t care which one you pick; both of them seem to indicate that the action will take place in the jungle areas of Africa. At least that’s what I’ve always thought of as “darkest Africa”; to me, this movie looks like it takes place in a particularly well-lit and de-jungled part of Africa. In fact, it looks like it takes place in California, but I suppose there’s a reason for that.

But once you get past the title, this is Republic in their prime. The fantastic aspects are minor (a death ray pops up at one point) and I find neither the hero nor the villain particularly fun, but the furniture-busting warehouse-destroying fights are top-notch, and the cliffhangers are pretty darn good for the most part. I’m surprised it took the hero as long as it did to suspect that the tall blond Aryan-looking servant to the shiek who badmouths the United Nations and the hero at every opportunity is a Nazi spy, but otherwise, they wouldn’t have had fifteen episodes. Still, this is one of the better serials out there.

0 CommentsLeave a comment

The Legend of Lylah Clare (1968)

THE LEGEND OF LYLAH CLARE (1968)
Article #1731 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 12-10-2005
Posting Date; 5-9-2006
Directed by Robert Aldrich
Featuring Kim Novak, Peter Finch, Ernest Borgnine

A director hoping to shoot a biopic about a famous actress who died under strange circumstances discovers a woman who looks identical to her, and decides to prepare her for the role. However, the woman’s mousy character starts to give way to the personality of the actress she’s portraying.

Robert Aldrich made some classic movies, but this isn’t one of them. Even its supporters seem to like it mainly for its campy bad-movie elements. Though I will admit to liking many bad movies for precisely the same reason, this type of bad movie isn’t my cup of tea. The fantastic element is a bit of a question mark; has the woman hired to play the role of Lylah Clare actually been possessed by her spirit? The trouble is (from the position of verifying its fantastic content) that the movie never really addresses this issue; it’s too busy presenting us with its succession of Hollywood stereotypes and movie-making cliches. It’s one of those movies where too many women speak with (supposedly sexy but bad) foreign accents, too many arrogant, egotistical and/or bitchy characters show up, and the human elements and the satirical jabs get lost in the mix. Overall, it feels like a bloated soap opera. For those interested in seeing a good Robert Aldrich movie, you can scan the theater marquee in the movie for the name of one. For me, the best moment in the movie was a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it appearance of Dick Miller as a reporter, and the fun I had speculating about certain similarities between this movie and another Kim Novak movie made for a rather famous director.

0 CommentsLeave a comment

Thief of Damascus (1952)

THIEF OF DAMASCUS (1952)
Article #1730 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 12-9-2005
Posting Date: 5-8-2006
Directed by Will Jason
Featuring Paul Henreid, John Sutton, Jeff Donnell

A general tries to rid Damascus of the tyrannical rule of the evil Khalid. He enlists the help of Sinbad, Ali Baba, Aladdin and Sheherazade to do so.

One source from which I took this entry claims there is no fantastic content in the movie, and certainly there’s none from Aladdin, who merely talks about his lamp and pals around with Sinbad (who does no sailing). Still, there is the magic cave of Ali Baba which opens with the phrase “Open Sesame” that makes the film qualify, and I don’t see how it could have been missed; everyone makes such a fuss about how magic it is that it becomes annoying after a while. But then, that kind of fuss permeates the movie, which is mostly played for lame comedy; certainly, the plot (which is muddled) and the action scenes (which, when not lifted from JOAN OF ARC, are quite bad) but then, what do you expect of an Arabian Nights movie produced by Sam Katzman? For me, the high point of this movie is watching Lon Chaney Jr. having a grand time as Sinbad, even if the script gives him little to do than trade quips with Robert Clary as Aladdin. Other than that, there is little to recommend here. Remember this – when making your choice of thieves, you’re better off taking any of three good ones from Bagdad rather than settling for the one from Damascus.

1 CommentLeave a comment