Month: July 2017

The Claw Monsters (1966)

THE CLAW MONSTERS (1966)
Feature Version of the serial PANTHER GIRL OF THE KONGO
Article 1986 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 8-22-2006
Posting Date: 1-19-2007
Directed by Franklin Adreon
Featuring Myron Healey, Phyllis Coates, Arthur Space

A scientist uses his knowledge of chemistry to create giant crawfish monsters to terrorize the natives away from a diamond mine. However, a woman photographer known as the Panther Girl is intent on getting footage of the crawfish monsters so that she can start an official investigation into them.

I’ve not seen the serial on which this feature version is based, but I’ve heard about it, and what I’ve heard is not good; it was one of the last Republic serials, and it showed little of the energy of the studio at its best. Still, I can’t help but feel a little warmth towards a serial that actually features monsters, which is extremely rare. Even serials you’d think would feature monsters usually don’t; in THE PURPLE MONSTER STRIKES, do we get a monster? No, it’s a humanoid alien in the form of Roy Barcroft. In THE MONSTER AND THE APE, do we get a monster? No, it’s actually a robot! So I must admit its nice to have a serial that actually has a monster.

But, if this feature version is any indication, the monsters don’t appear all that often, and to fill out the running time, we get lots of stock footage from the Nyoka serials and an almost unending succession of fistfights and gunfights. Given what I’ve seen here, I’m guessing that the serial wears thin awfully quickly; I know this feature version does. Still, it feels better edited than some of the other serials I’ve seen, but by this time serial episodes were so short, that there wasn’t very much footage to trim away to begin with. Still, if you just have to watch a feature version of a serial with crawfish monsters, this one’s for you.

 

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Bell Book and Candle (1958)

BELL BOOK AND CANDLE (1958)
Article 1985 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 8-21-2006
Posting Date: 1-18-2007
Directed by Richard Quine
Featuring James Stewart, Kim Novak, Jack Lemmon

A witch uses a spell to win the affection of a man about to be married to an old rival, but risks losing her powers when she starts to fall in love with him.

Had this been the first time I’d seen this movie, the main attraction for me wouldn’t have been Stewart, Novak, Lemmon, or Lanchester; it would have been to see Ernie Kovacs, one of the greatest innovators of television comedy. However, since I had seen the movie before, I knew that I would be a little disappointed with Kovacs here, not because he gives a weak performance here (he doesn’t; he’s still one of my favorite things in the movie), but because performing in this capacity did not give him the opportunity to really indulge in his strengths as one of the great television surrealists. Granted, I really shouldn’t have expected it, but I’m disappointed nonetheless.

The movie does have its strengths; the cinematography is beautiful, the special effects (the few that exist anyway) are very good, the use of color is stunning, and it has an excellent cast. It’s the story that leaves me cold. It was originally conceived as a drama, but only became a comedy when laughter during auditions indicated that it would work better that way. Still, I find very few laughs here, and despite the excellent cast, I simply didn’t find the characters interesting enough to bring this overlong but rather ordinary love story to life. And, despite the magic and witchcraft, I think the story is very ordinary – it’s one where a woman gives up everything for love, and that’s fairly common. No doubt the movie is loved in some quarters, and those who do are welcome to it; I find it overlong and dull. Still, it does say something that the comic-relief talking bird isn’t totally annoying.

 

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Angels in the Outfield (1951)

ANGELS IN THE OUTFIELD (1951)
Article 1984 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 8-20-2006
Posting Date: 1-17-2007
Directed by Clarence Brown
Featuring Paul Douglas, Janet Leigh, Keenan Wynn

A foul-mouthed coach of a losing baseball team is visited by an angel, who offers him a chance to win the pennant if he cleans up his act.

I’m not a baseball fan and I’m not particularly keen on angels, either. As a result, the thought of seeing a movie where angels help a baseball team to win the pennant strikes me not as enthralling, but as corny, and despite the fact that this movie has a decent reputation, I didn’t expect to care for it much. Fortunately, the first twenty-five minutes of this movie are great; the performances of Paul Douglas and Keenan Wynn as the coach and his arch-rival, a news reporter, are hilarious, and when the angel appears (unseen, but voiced by James Whitmore), he proves to be a bit of a tough talker himself. Unfortunately, the coach reforms much too soon, and with his reformation he loses his comic edge. Throw in a cute little orphan girl who can see angels into the proceedings, and the movie not only becomes as cutesy as I was afraid it was going to be, but the plotline becomes very familiar; it turns into a variation on MIRACLE ON 34TH STREET with angels instead of Santa. Still, the movie ends up improving immensely towards the end when the plot ends up turning on the fate of an over-the-hill pitcher, and it brings a hitherto secondary character to the forefront of the story. Bruce Bennett’s nearly wordless performance in this role is fantastic, and he becomes such a real character to us that the movie transcends its cliches. All in all, I enjoyed this one much more than I expected.

Oh, and horror fans may want to keep their eyes open during the wrestling broadcast for a very familiar face.

 

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The Amazing World of Psychic Phenomena (1976)

THE AMAZING WORLD OF PSYCHIC PHENOMENA (1976)
Article 1983 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 8-19-2006
Posting Date: 1-16-2007
Directed by Robert Guenette
Featuring Raymond Burr, Jeane Dixon, Jules Eisenbud

Raymond Burr takes us on a tour of the various forms of psychic phenomena, including telepathy, telekinesis, ghosts, life after death, reincarnation, and the ability to gain knowledge of events and people through the examination of physical objects they handled.

On matters such as these, I tend to be highly skeptical, but not entirely turned off to the concept that there may exist powers and forces such as those discussed here. I am, however, fully aware of how adept movies can be in fooling you, and any documentaries on subjects like this will be taken with huge grains of salt. Granted, I don’t think this movie was meant to convince the unbeliever; I suspect those that have far less skepticism will get a lot more out of this movie. Most of the reenactments are pretty cheesy and unconvincing, but it is worthwhile seeing footage of the actual psychics themselves. For me, the most interesting things about the movie were learning about some of these various psychic individuals, and if I ever wanted to pursue investigations into the subject matter, I’d find some people to start with here; in particular, I found Edgar Cayce (who is portrayed by an actor, but whose story sounds quite fascinating) and Peter Hurkos (who appears here as himself) seem interesting. The movie itself is pretty uneven; entertaining enough at times, rather dullish at others, and most of the subjects covered were things I’d run into before from other sources. To some extent, reviews of movies like this are useless; I think most people would know from the outset whether this movie would appeal to them just by looking at the title.

 

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The Two Crazy Secret Agents (1965)

THE TWO CRAZY SECRET AGENTS (1965)
aka DUE MAFIOSI CONTRO GOLDGINGER, THE AMAZING DOCTOR G
Article 1982 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 8-18-2006
Posting Date: 1-15-2007
Directed by Giorgio Simonelli
Featuring Franco Franchi, Ciccio Ingrassia, Gloria Paul

Two idiots get embroiled in a plan by a supervillain to turn world leaders into mindless robots.

I was surprised to find that the movie DR. GOLDFOOT AND THE GIRL BOMBS had its defenders, most of whom felt that the presence of Vincent Price was enough to keep the movie from sinking to any utter depths of badness. I wonder how some of these people would contend with Franco and Ciccio movie without the benefit of Vincent Price. Well, here’s your opportunity. To begin with, I do have to admit that this movie is not entirely without merit; as a James Bond parody, it does have its moments. The movie does a fairly decent job when it’s zeroing in on some of the elements of GOLDFINGER and DR. NO for its targets, and at least one joke was brilliant (which I won’t give away other than to say that one presumably major character departs the story early in the proceedings). I actually laughed a couple of times. This last fact I consider amazing, because I’m surprised any joke could survive the incessant mugging and the painful histrionics of its starring comedy team. Actually, to be fair, I can’t really say how they would come across in their native language, and Ciccio (the tall one and the more subtle of the two) is tolerable. But whoever dubbed Franco here has a voice that could cut glass, and he really starts to grate early on. Still, even they had their supporters; they were actually big comic stars in Italy, and with a rating of 5.7 on IMDB (significantly higher than GOLDFOOT’s rating of 3.4 but lower than a whole slew of other movies of theirs), it’s obvious that they still retain a bit of popularity. This may be, but I have to say that any comedians that make me appreciate the relative subtlety of Jerry Lewis, the restraint of Larry Storch, and the commitment to dignity of the Three Stooges, is a little (OK, let’s face it: a LOT) too much for me.

 

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