A CHRISTMAS CAROL (1951)
aka Scrooge
Article 1832 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 3-21-2006
Posting Date: 8-18-2006
Directed by Brian Desmond Hurst
Featuring Alastair Sim, Kathleen Harrison, Mervyn Johns

A bitter old man with an intense hatred of Christmas is visited by the ghost of an old associate who has a plan for saving his soul.

The classic Dickens Christmas story is so familiar that it’s nearly impossible to look at it afresh. To someone planning an adaptation of the story, it must be very tempting to just trot out all the familiar elements and have done with it. This version of the story is often considered the best one, and I can see why; it manages to make me see aspects of the story that I had never considered before, and I was able to get some fresh perspectives on it. The performance of Alastair Sim is a major plus; from the moment he opens his mouth, I begin to get a very different idea of Scrooge than I usually have. His Scrooge is a full character rather than an icon. For one thing, his Scrooge’s dislike of Christmas has a bit more depth to it; it stems out of the fear of feeling the type of compassion that would undermine his whole business ethic. Yet he must have some innate love of the holiday; otherwise, bringing it up wouldn’t make him as angry as it does.

Furthermore, this version helped me to realize more fully the importance of the character of Tiny Tim in the story. He is Scrooge’s opposite – he is bright and cheerful while living in poverty with severe physical handicaps, whereas Scrooge is miserable despite having plenty of money. His death (during the “what-might-be” visit from the Spirit of Christmas Yet to Come) is deeply mourned, whereas Scrooge’s serves as merely the opportunity for the scavengers to gather.

Maybe some of these observations are obvious, but it took this version of the story to make me aware of them. For this reason alone, I would have to rank this as the best adaptation of the story I’ve seen to date; it made me think more fully about the story than any other version I’ve seen. Well done on all counts!

THE CHESS PLAYER (1938)
aka Le Joeuer d’echecs
Article 1831 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 3-20-2006
Posting Date: 8-17-2006
Directed by Jean Dreville
Featuring Francoise Rosay, Conrad Veidt, Paul Cambo

A toymaker who specializes in large mechanical men builds an automatic chess player to hide a refugee.

Well, here’s another movie I can’t say too much about, due to the fact that my print is in French and is only sporadically subtitled. Furthermore, when the subtitles do show up, they are often illegible and/or poorly positioned. Granted, it helps that I have seen the 1927 version of the original movie, but that was more than three years ago, and it’s not fresh in my memory. Let’s just say that the many automatons make for the science fiction element of the story, and that the main appeal of this version seems to be the presence of Conrad Veidt in the role of the inventor / puppeteer. There is the occasional visual highlight, usually involving the automatons. However, this is pretty puny in comparison with the silent version, which is longer, more epic, and easier to find. Despite the presence of Veidt here, I’m afraid the choice is fairly obvious.

CHARLIE CHAN AT TREASURE ISLAND (1939)
Article 1830 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 3-19-2006
Posting Date: 8-16-2006
Directed by Norman Foster
Featuring Sidney Toler, Victor Sen Yung, Cesar Romero

When a friend commits suicide on an airplane flight, Charlie Chan becomes suspicious about a mystic who he thinks may have been blackmailing him.

I’ve been fairly critical of Sidney Toler’s performances in the Charlie Chan role for some time now, but I must admit that up to this point, I haven’t seen him perform with the same advantages that Warner Oland had when he played the role; specifically, working with the series while it was at Fox rather than at Monogram and while the series still was commanding good scripts. This is an excellent script indeed, and though I still prefer Oland in the role, Toler does just fine this time round. It makes me wonder if the weakness of the other Toler performances may have had something to do with his awareness of how the scripts had gone downhill, though I must say that this is just speculation. At any rate, he adds just the right touch of humor here to make the role sparkle.

This entry in the series also has perhaps the sharpest fantastic elements in comparison to the ones I’ve seen before. The plot involves spiritualism and hypnotism, and there does exist a character who has (within the context of the movie) a very real talent for telepathy. The seance scene is very moody indeed, with Dr. Zodiac proving a memorable presence. The final revelation is quite good, and Victor Sen Yung handles the comic relief duties admirably. However, anybody who expects the plot elements to have something to do with pirates (as per the title) will walk away disappointed; Treasure Island was a site at the World’s Fair in San Francisco.

CASTLE OF BLOOD (1964)
aka Danza macabra, The Castle of Terror
Article 1829 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 3-18-2006
Posting Date: 8-15-2006
Directed by Antonio Margheriti
Featuring Barbara Steele, Georges Riviere, Margarete Robsahm

While conducting an interview with Edgar Allan Poe, a writer accepts a bet to spend a night in a haunted castle.

I’ve taken a number of potshots at Antonio Margheriti’s science fiction movies, but I’ve always tried to keep in mind that my dislike doesn’t extend to his forays into horror. This is because I’ve always been aware that this movie, one of my favorite Italian horror movies, was directed by him. In some ways, the idea is very conventional, but some of the philosophical ideas are rather interesting (the concept about the senses living on after violent death is one of the central ideas in the story), and the moody ambiance is perfect. It also has two unforgettable scenes; the first involves a snake who continues to live after being beheaded (the scene is only marred by the fact that it looks like they actually killed a real snake onscreen, which may not please animal lovers), and the ending scene involving a gate. If the movie has any real problem, it’s that it spends a little too much time having our hero wander around castle looking around, but this is somewhat alleviated by the fact that the mood is so right. My copy has some footage added back that was cut for the American release, and the movie lapses into subtitled French in these instances, which is somewhat disconcerting at first, (especially as you hear the different voices of the original actors and the ones doing the dubbing), but you get used to it. Margheriti would remake the movie several years later as WEB OF THE SPIDER, but, if my memory serves me right, that one lacks the power and ambiance of this one.