Month: May 2017

Jane Eyre (1944)

JANE EYRE (1944)
Article 1867 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 4-25-2006
Posting Date: 9-22-2006
Directed by Robert Stevenson
Featuring Orson Welles, Joan Fontaine, Margaret O’Brien

Jane Eyre, an orphan, after years of suffering and abuse, becomes the governess at Thornfield Hall, a gloomy estate presided over by the imposing Edward Rochester. Jane falls in love with Rochester, but there is a secret hidden behind the locked walls of the estate…

No, JANE EYRE is not a horror movie, but it is not totally out of the question to include it with this series, especially as the story belongs to that genre of moody Gothic romance that was in some ways a precursor to horror. The theme of madness does pop up at one point, and there are plenty of ominous shadows and some swirling ground fog to add further to the atmosphere. Furthermore, it’s pretty hard not to get a strong sense of horror during the scene where Jane swabs the blood from the chest of an injured visitor while an unseen and malevolent presence rattles a nearby door. The movie itself is excellent, with fine performances from all. It’s almost hard to pick favorites among the actors, but you won’t soon forget Orson Welles, Joan Fontaine, Henry Daniell, or Agnes Moorehead in their respective roles. The opening of the movie is pretty Dickensian, with Jane being shunted off by an aunt to to the cruel harshness of a charity school. Which brings up one of those “lesser of two evils” types of question: If you were a child, who would you rather have watch over you, Agnes Moorehead or Henry Daniell? Now, if that isn’t a scary choice…

0 CommentsLeave a comment

Animal Farm (1954)

ANIMAL FARM (1954)
Article 1866 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 4-24-2006
Posting Date: 9-21-2006
Directed by Joy Batchelor and John Halas
Featuring the voices of Gordon Heath and Maurice Denham

After suffering abuse and neglect from their owner, the animals of a farm stage a revolution and take over the place. They try to organize a better and more fair society, but one ambitious pig named Napolean has other ideas…

I can’t tell you how glad I am that Disney didn’t get the rights to do this one and make a lovable musical version of it. This one retains a good deal of the dark and tragic mood of the allegorical fable, and even though there are touches of whimsy and humor (it’s hard to have a group of animals undertake normally human tasks without getting a little whimsy and humor into it), these touches never overwhelm the story. It’s been years since I’ve read the book, but I do remember the gradual erosion of the laws written on the side of the barn, and that is here in full force. I also remember the final line of the book, which is here given a visual twist near the end of the movie. However, unless my memory of the book is faulty, the movie does try to come up with a more hopeful ending, but given the “Look at the new boss, same as the old boss” nature of the story, it’s really not that hopeful; the main question is who will be the new pigs. Because of its grimness, this one isn’t really appropriate for children, and the fate of Boxer the horse is definitely a traumatic and memorable sequence. All in all, despite any flaws, I think the movie does justice to the book, which I just may reread in the near future.

0 CommentsLeave a comment

Alice in Wonderland (1949)

ALICE IN WONDERLAND (1949)
Article 1865 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 4-23-2006
Posting Date: 9-20-2006
Directed by Dallas Bower
Featuring Carol Marsh, Stephen Murray, Pamela Brown

Lewis Carroll tells Alice and her sisters the tale of Alice’s descent into the rabbit hole and into Wonderland.

This British/French production of the Lewis Carroll tale has been eclipsed by the more popular and famous Disney animated version that came out in 1951. This one is almost forgotten, and it’s a bit of a shame; it may well be the most faithful adaptation of the story to date. One problem with adapting this story to the screen is that there really isn’t a plot to speak of; it’s rather a series of comical set pieces, full of absurdist logic and satire. Adapters usually take the main characters, throw in a few from “Alice Through the Looking Glass”, and try to build a story around it. This one takes a different tack; though most of the movie is a combination of live-action and puppet-style animation, the opening sequence introduces Lewis Carroll, Alice Liddell, and several of the people who figure in their lives, and the movie puts forth the fact that the characters in the story were actually modeled off of these real life people. Thus, Pamela Brown plays Queen Victoria as well as supplying the voice for the Queen of Hearts, Felix Aylmer plays Dr. Liddell as well as playing the voice of the Cheshire Cat, etc. The stop-motion puppet work is a little ragged, but fun and engaging, and the story itself remains very faithful to the story as written; none of the characters from “Looking Glass” appear. I quite like the end result, and though I do appreciate that most of the songs feature the actual words as they appeared in the story, I think the movie makes a mistake setting them to opera-style music. My print is fairly jumpy and poorly edited, but it seems that nearly sixteen minutes of the movie is missing, as it only runs about eighty minutes. Still, of the versions I’ve seen, this is the one I would choose to watch (though, in all fairness, I must say that I haven’t seen all the versions out there).

0 CommentsLeave a comment

Il Mostro dell’opera (1964)

IL MOSTRO DELL’OPERA (1964)
aka Monster of the Opera, Vampire of the Opera
Article 1864 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 4-22-2006
Posting Date: 9-19-2006
Directed by Renato Polselli
Featuring Marco Mariani, Giuseppe Addobbati, Barbara Howard

A vampire is loose in an opera house and the opera performers have to deal with him.

At least I assume that’s what’s happening here; once again, I am watching a foreign language movie without the benefit of subtitles or dubbing. Granted, I highly suspect that there’s really not a whole lot of difference between this one and Polselli’s earlier movie THE VAMPIRE AND THE BALLERINA . Once again, a vampire terrorizes a group of women who rehearse an opera which (like the ballet being rehearsed in THE VAMPIRE AND THE BALLERINA) looks more like the fever dream of an oversexed choreographer than anything else; the only real difference is that there are some men as well. The movie brims with style; it’s full of bizarre camera angles and weird touches (the vampire threatens people with a big pitchfork), but the overall effect is one of consummate silliness, and I suspect that knowing what the characters were saying would make it all that much dumber. Still, I suspect those who just love to see a vampire chase women who are running around in short nightgowns will find a use for this one.

0 CommentsLeave a comment

Dr. Satan’s Robot (1966)

DR. SATAN’S ROBOT (1966)
Feature version of the Serial THE MYSTERIOUS DR. SATAN
Article 1863 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 4-21-2006
Posting Date: 9-18-2006
Directed by John English and William Witney
Featuring Eduardo Ciannelli, Robert Wilcox, Ella Neal

A madman named Dr. Satan plans to take over the world, but he must reckon with a hero called the Copperhead.

Yep, it’s another feature version of a serial, and little better than most others of its ilk. The serial itself was one of the better ones out there, and if I have anything positive to say about this feature version, it is that it reminded me how enjoyable the serial was. Beyond that, though, there’s little reason to partake of this. The title is a bit of gyp; the robot doesn’t appear until late into the movie. I also couldn’t help but notice this time how variable the quality of the footage was from scene to scene; obviously, the serial episodes from which they culled this feature version were not all of equal quality.

Maybe if I’m lucky, I’ll spend tomorrow watching a REAL movie.

0 CommentsLeave a comment

D-Day on Mars (1966)

D-DAY ON MARS (1966)
Feature version of Serial THE PURPLE MONSTER STRIKES
Article 1862 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 4-20-2006
Posting Date: 9-17-2006
Directed by Spencer Gordon Bennet and Fred C. Brannon
Featuring Roy Barcroft, James Craven, Dennis Moore

The Purple Monster comes from Mars to take over the Earth.

THE PURPLE MONSTER STRIKES is one of the better serials out there, and because the opening footage in this feature version is from the interesting first episode, it gets off to a good start. However, if all too quickly falls into the same serial-to-feature-version pattern of jumping from plot point to fight scene to plot point to fight scene, etc. etc. This one seems particularly mechanical in the way it does it, and it just brings out how much serial plots are designed to lead to from one cliffhanger after another; it’s the cinematic equivalent of marking time. What works on an episode by episode basis doesn’t necessarily work strung together as a whole, and this feature version is a bore. This is one of several feature versions of serials that were put together in 1966 for TV distribution. There’s little to recommend here; you’re better off with the original serial watched an episode at a time.

0 CommentsLeave a comment

El Monstruo Resucitado (1953)

EL MONSTRUO RESUCITADO (1953)
aka The Resurrected Monster
Article 1861 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 4-19-2006
Posting Date: 9-16-2006
Directed by Chano Urueta
Featuring Miroslava Stern, Carlos Navarro, Jose Maria Linares-Rivas

A female reporter follows up an advertisement that leads her to meet a deformed and mad scientist who falls in love with her. Fearing her rejection, he resurrects a dead man and places the soul of a beast within it, and orders him to kidnap the reporter.

Much of this plot description came from the summary at IMDB; since this Mexican movie is in unsubtitled Spanish, I had a terrible time following the storyline myself. This is a shame, really; from the opening moments of this movie I found myself caught up in it despite being hopelessly lost story-wise; the acting and direction both felt surprisingly strong, and there’s something about the mood of it all that makes the movie genuinely unnerving. Any movie that can make an accordion player in the background seem ominous and threatening is doing something very right indeed, and I have a sneaking suspicion that this may be one of the very best of the Mexican horror movies. Even the less-than-convincing mask worn by the scientist doesn’t destroy the mood.

I think it’s getting about time that someone should gather up these Mexican horror movies and slap good English subtitles on them. If that ever begins happening, I hope they start with this one. Though I may be disappointed when I find out what the characters are actually saying, I have a strong hunch that this one might prove to be an undiscovered classic.

***NOTE*** This review was written several months ago. Since then, there have been some releases of these Mexican horror movies with subtitles. Let’s hope the trend continues.

0 CommentsLeave a comment

Double Door (1934)

DOUBLE DOOR (1934)
Article 1860 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 4-18-2006
Posting Date: 9-15-2006
Directed by Charles Vidor
Featuring Evelyn Venable, Mary Morris, Anne Revere

A wealthy old woman, angered at the marriage of her estate’s heir to a woman whom she considers common, does all she can to make the couple miserable and break up the marriage. When one scheme fails and the heir turns against her, she contives another more extreme plan…

Though it’s not quite a horror movie, this movie has a few elements of the “old dark house” movies of the time; in particular, a secret soundproof room, hidden by a double door with two combination locks, plays a strong part in the proceedings. A comment is made at one point about the house being haunted, but the only real terror here is the distinctly human monster played by Mary Morris, who does a wonderful job in the role of a scheming, manipulative and cruel matriarch. Kent Taylor plays the beleaguered heir to the estate; he would go on to appear in other genre movies such as THE PHANTOM FROM 10,000 LEAGUES , THE CRAWLING HAND , THE DAY MARS INVADED EARTH , and BLOOD OF GHASTLY HORROR. The acting is strong throughout, and the cast is excellent; it includes Anne Revere, Guy Standing and Halliwell Hobbes. The main problem I had with the movie is that the ending isn’t quite clear; I wasn’t sure whether the final event was an accident or intentional. All in all, this one is marginal, but quite enjoyable.

0 CommentsLeave a comment

Whatever Happened to Aunt Alice? (1969)

WHATEVER HAPPENED TO AUNT ALICE? (1969)
Article 1859 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 4-17-2006
Posting Date: 9-14-2006
Directed by Lee H. Katzin
Featuring Geraldine Page, Ruth Gordon, Rosemary Forsyth

After discovering that her deceased husband had lost his entire fortune before his death (and leaving her nothing but his stamp collection), a disgruntled heiress decides to make ends meet by employing personal companions and then murdering them for their life savings. However, her new hire suspects that something is up…

The cycle of horror films about “horror hags” (the popular term for horror movies featuring well-known elderly actresses) was one of the more interesting trends of the genre, but I often can’t quite bring myself to look at them as full-blown horror movies. Yes, they have some elements of the genre (this one has a serial killer, of course), but there’s generally a feel about a number of them that makes me want to shunt them off to the “marginalia” category. Still, I’m not sure whether there’s an easy genre classification for these eccentric exercises in gothic black-comedy that fits them any better. At any rate, they’re popularly considered as horror movies, so I’m covering them.

This was the third of Aldrich’s assays into the genre, though this time he’s only a producer rather than a director as well. It’s quite good, but I’m afraid I’m a little disappointed by it, largely because it reminds me so much of two other movies. It certainly has a similarity to WHATEVER HAPPENED TO BABY JANE , and though both Geraldine Page and Ruth Gordon do well enough, I just don’t feel the same fireworks as I do watching Bette Davis and Joan Crawford going at it. The other movie it reminds me of is SCREAM OF FEAR , and I’m afraid that this movie just doesn’t have the delicious twists of that one. In fact, this movie’s biggest twist (which I won’t give away here, but anyone who recognizes the movie from the plot description will probably remember it) is brought forward at an awkward, somewhat inappropriate moment that reduces its effect a little bit. Still, it’s a fairly clever movie, and if the occasional moment falls flat, there are some that work very well indeed. Still, I wonder what it would have been like had Aldrich actually directed it. Granted, that’s not a guarantee of quality, as THE LEGEND OF LYLAH CLARE comes to mind. Still, it would have been interesting…

0 CommentsLeave a comment

It Grows on Trees (1952)

IT GROWS ON TREES (1952)
Article 1858 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 4-16-2006
Posting Date: 9-13-2006
Directed by Arthur Lubin
Featuring Irene Dunne, Dean Jagger, Joan Evans

When a dotty housewife buys a pair of unclassified trees to put in her backyard, she discovers they produce five and ten dollar bills. Her letter to the treasury department is treated as a gag by the Secretary of the Treasury, and she receives a letter telling her that the money is good. It is then discovered that the money falls apart after a short while, and complications ensue….

It seems that I’ve been having something of an Arthur Lubin film festival here lately; this, FRANCIS GOES TO WEST POINT and ALI BABA AND THE FORTY THIEVES are all directed by him. Of the three, I like this one the best, but that may be mostly because it doesn’t just feel like a rehash of a bunch of other movies I’ve seen, like the other two mentioned movies felt to me. It also helps that the movie has a little bit of satirical edge to it, largely due to the fact that several government officials get caught up in an unpleasant situation when their responses to what they believed were jokes backfire on them. Though she would make some TV appearances after this, this was Irene Dunne’s last motion picture; other genre movies that I’ve covered that feature her are A GUY NAMED JOE and THIRTEEN WOMEN . It’s basically a fantastically themed family sitcom-style movie, and it remains quite amusing throughout, if very silly. There are some interesting names in the cast; Dean Jagger would appear in both REVOLT OF THE ZOMBIES and X THE UNKNOWN ; this movie is about halfway between the quality of those two. A young Richard Crenna also appears, as does the always dependable Les Tremayne and child actor Sandy Descher, who would also pop up in THEM! and THE SPACE CHILDREN . One curious thing I noticed is that this movie actually refers to (at least tangentially) to the other two movies I mentioned above; at one point, mention is made of the children in the movie having gone to see one of those Francis the Talking Mule movies, and the final gag in the movie involves the delivery of a package which contains a famed item from the Arabian Nights.

0 CommentsLeave a comment