Month: August 2017

The Intruder (1977)

THE INTRUDER (1977)
aka LES PASSAGERS
Article 2112 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 12-27-2006
Posting Date: 5-25-2007
Directed by Serge Leroy
Featuring Jean-Louis Trintignant, Mireille Darc, Bernard Fresson

A man driving to Paris with his stepson finds himself being tailed by a psychopathic killer in a black van.

Before my commentary on this movie, let me begin by quoting verbatim the quotes on the back of the VHS copy of this movie that I obtained.

“…a very good suspense thriller…creditable acting, and tight direction all help to make this film a cut above most…” – Geoffrey Marks, Austin Citizen

“…a film of considerable – if not really maximum – suspense.” – Ellen Pfeifer, Boston Herald American

Now, these comments are by no means uncomplimentary. The problem is that the quotes on the back of the box for a copy of a movie are usually the ones that offer the highest praise and promise the most fun and excitement for the viewer. Both of these are rather blase – “creditable” acting isn’t “great” acting, and why would you choose a movie that offers “considerable” suspense over one that offers “maximum” suspense? These quotes almost encourage you to check out some of the other product for something better, and that’s not really the best way to sell a movie. Even cutting out the “if not really maximum” part of the quote would improve things.

As for the movie itself, I think it lives up to those quotes. It’s a decent enough movie, but it could have been a lot better. I think its main problem is that it fumbles its mystery elements. I get the impression that we’re supposed to be as puzzled by the motivations of the stranger in the van as the man and his stepson are, but I found the identity of the van driver and his reasons for pursuing the car were obvious. It would have been far better to keep the van driver out of the story until the very end, so we would puzzle over how he managed to keep on his prey’s trail the whole time. This is one of the reasons the movie never attains “maximum” suspense. Outside of that, I like the appearance of Adolfo Celi as a police inspector, and I don’t care much for the kid (who is one of those precocious sorts that get rather annoying on occasion). Still, it does strike me as a not-as-effective clone of DUEL.

 

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High Tor (1956)

HIGH TOR (1956)
TV Movie
Article 2111 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 12-26-2006
Posting Date: 5-24-2007
Directed by James Neilson and Franklin J. Schaffner
Featuring Bing Crosby, Julie Andrews, Nancy Olson

The owner of a mountain called High Tor wiles away his time hunting and fishing, much to the chagrin of the woman who loves him. He finds himself fending off the advances of two men who want to buy the mountain while dealing with the ghosts of sailors waiting for the arrival of Henry Hudson’s boat.

There are some definite charms to this musical version of the Maxwell Anderson play. Bing Crosby and a young Julie Andrews singing are two of them, and a likable cast (including Hans Conried and Everett Sloane) is another. The story itself is rather unique; it’s an odd little fantasy that is very unlike any other ghost story out there, with the ghosts not scary or malevolent but simply as part of the action of the story. However, time hasn’t really been too kind to this episode of “Ford Star Jubilee” (which is considered in some quarters to be the first TV movie); the modest production values and the self-conscious poetry of the dialogue really start to wear on me after a while; it’s one of those movies where the actors talk endlessly about how they feel rather than showing us how they feel by their actions. Still, take the limitations in stride and there are some pleasures to be had here.

 

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How to Make a Doll (1968)

HOW TO MAKE A DOLL (1968)
Article 2110 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 12-25-2006
Posting Date: 5-23-2007
Directed by Herschell Gordon Lewis
Featuring Robert Woods, Jim Vance, Bobbi West

A professor works with a scientist that can create beautiful women with a machine.

This movie is extremely cheap, the sound is extremely bad, the acting is atrocious, and it’s dumb as all-get-out. These aspects of the movie don’t surprise me – it is, after all, a Herschell Gordon Lewis sex comedy. What does surprise me is how tame it is; the movie would net no more than a PG rating if it were rated. It’s not like Lewis didn’t know about the commercial possibilities of sex and nudity; he was shooting nudies before he ever became the king of gore. It’s rather odd for me (a non-fan of exploitation movie-making) to say this about a movie from one of the most famous exploitation film-makers, but it really needs some nudity in it. Either that, or it needs a decent plot (at this point there is none to speak of) and/or some decent jokes, but given my experience with Lewis’s output to date, I’m not sure he’s capable of pulling either of those things off. And given the plot and jokes as they stand now, filling it with nudity is about the only way this one could have flown.

 

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The Ghost Train (1941)

THE GHOST TRAIN (1941)
Article 2109 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 12-24-2006
Posting Date: 5-22-2007
Directed by Walter Forde
Featuring Arthur Askey, Richard Murdoch, Kathleen Harrison

A group of travelers find themselves stranded in a remote train station overnight. The station master tells them that the station is haunted by a ghost train that comes by in the middle of the night.

Now here’s something really scary – being trapped for eight hours in a train station with Arthur Askey! Not that he’s awful, mind you – it’s just that his in-your-face shtick gets on my nerves rather quickly. Consigned to a supporting comic-relief role, he’d be all right, but here he dominates almost ninety percent of the movie. In fact, it’s a good thirty minutes in the movie before you even get to the legend of the ghost train, and a good twenty minutes after that before any of the plot elements surrounding its appearance really start to manifest themselves. It’s a bit of a shame, really; the horror elements, when they do manifest themselves, are quite striking. Nonetheless, they represent a mere fraction of the running time, and with this much lollygagging and comic mayhem going on, what are the chances of the fantastic elements of the tale not turning out to be faked? Yes, we’re in real Scooby-Doo territory here. All we need is talking dog.

 

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Atlas in the Land of the Cyclops (1961)

ATLAS IN THE LAND OF THE CYCLOPS (1961)
aka MACISTE NELLA TERRA DEI CICLOPI
Article 2108 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 12-23-2006
Posting Date: 5-21-2007
Directed by Antonio Leonviola
Featuring Gordon Mitchell, Chelo Alonso, Vira Silenti

Maciste seeks to protect the baby son of Agisander from the wiles of an evil queen who plans to sacrifice him to a cyclops.

The basic premise of this one is pretty good – the descendants of Circe and Polyphemus have sworn revenge on the line of Ulysses for the indignities they suffered from him in “The Odyssey”. When it comes right down to it, though, it translates into the usual sword-and-sandal setup – an evil queen, scheming courtiers, village massacres, lion wrestling, bar-bending, rock rolling and the usual feats of super-strength. Atlas is called Maciste, or course, but that’s also par for the course. He’s played by Gordon Mitchell here, who’s at his best when playing dumb or grimacing. At least Maciste appears in a time period here where his loincloth isn’t out of place, and he does get to battle a real monster at the end of the film. All in all, this is an acceptable and amusing sword-and-sandal movie. The most annoying thing here is the baby, who appears to be a ventriloquist; every time he cries, it sounds like it’s coming from a different room than the one he’s in.

 

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Himmelskibet (1918)

HIMMELSKIBET (1918)
aka A TRIP TO MARS, THE AIRSHIP
Article 2107 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 12-22-2006
Posting Date: 5-20-2007
Directed by Holger-Madsen
Featuring Nils Asther, Lilly Jacobson, Nicolai Neiiendam

A pilot dreams of flying to Mars, and with the help of a professor, manages to build an airship capable of taking them to that planet. He gathers together a crew, and reaches Mars, which is populated by a utopian society.

When I started this project, the first movie to go onto my hunt list was ABBOTT AND COSTELLO MEET FRANKENSTEIN, which I was able to watch immediately; it became the first entry in the series. The second movie to enter my list was this one (under the alternate title THE AIRSHIP), and here it is, six years later, and I’ve finally had a chance to watch it. Simply for this reason alone, I’m bound to feel a bit of warmth for the movie, simply due to the fact that the hunt is over.

So, how is the movie? I would say that it’s good, but not great. It’s certainly ambitious enough; there’s a huge cast of extras in both the Earth and Mars scenes. The story itself is a little too familiar; it’s your basic “adventure-into-Utopia” story. But there’s a basic problem with Utopia stories; once you get to the Utopia, you end up almost entirely with scenes of people being really nice to each other, and that really doesn’t make for an exciting story. It’s no surprise under these circumstances that the most interesting character is the villain (who stays on Earth), the aptly named Professor Dubious, whose mocking of the whole project starts out as funny, but takes some nasty turns towards the end.

Still, it’s nice to have at least one more science fiction outing from the decade of the 1910s; the only other full length non-horror science fiction movie that I’ve seen from the era is 20,000 LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA, and I think this one is more interesting. It’s probably the most important science fiction movie between A TRIP TO THE MOON and AELITA; it’s certainly the best extant one. So I take my hat off to this one for its historical importance alone. I’m so glad to have finally had a chance to see it.

 

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The Asphyx (1973)

THE ASPHYX (1973)
Article 2106 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 12-21-2006
Posting Date: 5-19-2007
Directed by Peter Newbrook
Featuring Robert Stephens, Robert Powell, Jane Lapotaire

A nobleman engages in photography of the dead and, due to a special solution he uses to light his subjects, he is able to photograph a force known as the Asphyx that arrives at the time of death. He soon discovers that the light produced by his solution can be used to trap the Asphyx, and by doing so, he can insure eternal life for the person whose Asphyx he captures.

This one is a mixed bag; it is quite original and engaging at times, and at others it is rife with cliches. There are times where the characters are extraordinarily thoughtful (I love the conversation in which two of the characters consider how best to deal with their guilt at having killed someone they both love), and other times when they are thunderously stupid (the plan to capture the daughter’s Asphyx is truly dunderheaded). It works best when it’s not trying to fit into a formula or put into affect Twilight-Zone style twists. Still, for my money, the strengths of this movie outweigh the weaknesses, and in many ways it is quite fascinating. Recommended with reservations.

 

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Night on Bald Mountain (1933)

NIGHT ON BALD MOUNTAIN (1933)
aka UNE NUIT SUR LE MONT CHAUVE
Article 2105 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 12-20-2006
Posting Date: 5-18-2007
Directed by Alexander Alexeieff and Claire Parker
No cast

Weird and eerie visions permeate a playing of Moussorgsky’s masterpiece.

I didn’t feel that yesterday’s THE HEADLESS HORSEMAN really deserved to be compared with Disney’s take on the Washington Irving story, but I freely invite anyone who wishes to to compare this visual representation of the Moussorgsky composition with Disney’s; this one is strong enough hold its own. It uses a rare type of animation known as pinscreen, in which pins are pressed into a screen lit from the side to produce some stunning shadow effects. The downside of this process is that sometimes it is hard to make out what you’re seeing, but the texture is unique, and some of the transitions (especially one in which the scene turns into its own negative) are breathtaking. There’s no plot to speak of, but plenty of moody horrific visions, including a scarecrow, ghostly faces and a dead horse. This is a rare and fascinating animated short that is worth catching.

 

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The Headless Horseman (1934)

THE HEADLESS HORSEMAN (1934)
Article 2104 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 12-19-2006
Posting Date: 5-17-2007
Directed by Ub Iwerks
Animated Short – No Cast

Ichabod Crane and Brom Bones compete for the affections of Katrina. On the way home, Ichabod encounters the headless horseman.

Ub Iwerks was one of the early rivals to Disney in the animation business, but he is largely forgotten nowadays. As tempting as it is to compare this with Disney’s take on the Washington Irving tale, it really wouldn’t be fair – this version was designed to be little more than a standard issue cartoon, without any of the ambitions of the Disney version, and it should be judged as such. As a cartoon, it is played largely for laughs, and the laughs are pretty tepid; my favorite joke was discovering Katrina’s nickname for Ichabod (she uses it in a letter, as there is no dialogue in the movie). The music by Carl Stalling is quite nice, though it predates the innovations he developed at Warner Brothers in using music to underline the action at all moments. It’s a pretty ordinary thirties cartoon and pretty forgettable.

 

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The Hollywood Strangler Meets the Skid Row Slasher (1979)

THE HOLLYWOOD STRANGLER MEETS THE SKID ROW SLASHER (1979)
Article 2103 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 12-18-2006
Posting Date: 5-16-2007
Directed by Ray Dennis Steckler
Featuring Pierre Agostino, Carolyn Brandt, Chuck Alford

A Hollywood Strangler meets a Skid Row Slasher.

In this movie, the Hollywood Strangler photographs a model who starts coming on to him. He strangles her.

Then, the Skid Row Slasher (who works at a used book store) encounters a wino who offers her a drink. The wino wanders off and finds a place to sleep. The Skid Row Slasher follows him. She slashes him.

Then, the Hollywood Strangler photographs another model who starts coming on to him. He strangles her.

Then, the Skid Row Slasher encounters another wino who offers her a drink. The wino wanders off and finds a place to sleep. The Skid Row Slasher follows him. She slashes him.

Then the Hollywood Strangler notices the Skid Row Slasher. He is convinced she is different and will understand him. He pets some pigeons and plays with some dogs.

Then, the Hollywood Strangler photographs another model who starts coming on to him. He strangles her.

Then, the Skid Row Slasher encounters another wino who offers her a drink. The wino wanders off and finds a place to sleep. The Skid Row Slasher follows him. She slashes him….

This is a plot? No, but it is a Ray Dennis Steckler film, and I’ve come to expect them to be a little lax in the story department. I’ve noticed that he likes movies with more than one psycho in them, and I always thought it a bit strange that Mad Dog Click and the gang of psychos in THE THRILL KILLERS never met; here there is no such problem. The main character here is called Johnathan Click; I wonder if he liked the name.

Yes, the movie is bloody awful, but Steckler still manages to show just enough competence on occasion that the movie doesn’t become unwatchable. That’s some feat when you consider that it was practically shot as a silent movie, with all of the dubbing done afterwards (most of which is the Hollywood Strangler’s inner monologues).

As the movie progressed, I became aware that the movie would end in one of two ways. Either it just wouldn’t end – the Strangler would keep strangling and the Slasher would keep slashing – or it would end by…well, how would expect a movie called THE HOLLYWOOD STRANGLER MEETS THE SKID ROW SLASHER to end?

That being said, if you think of it as a romantic comedy, it’s a lot funnier than THE LEMON GROVE KIDS. And though I’m tempted to say that the topless roller disco sequence is gratuitous, that would imply that the rest of the movie isn’t.

 

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