Month: September 2017

The Sorcerers (1967)

THE SORCERERS (1967)
Article 2212 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 4-6-2007
Posting Date: 9-2-2007
Directed by Michael Reeves
Featuring Boris Karloff, Catherine Lacey, Ian Ogilvy

A hypnotist and his wife develop a method whereby they can control a young man’s actions from a distance. As a side effect, they discover that they can also feel his every sensation as if it were their own. The wife then becomes seduced by the idea that she can make the man commit criminal activities that she can vicariously enjoy.

With this movie I now complete the oeuvre of director Michael Reeves. Though it is the final one I’ve covered for this series, it is actually the first one I ever saw when it popped up many years ago on my local Creature Feature, and even though I believe WITCHFINDER GENERAL is the better movie, this is perhaps my favorite of his. At least part of the reason is the presence of Boris Karloff, who does a fine job here as the hypnotist who finds himself in a battle of wills with his wife. But the rest of the cast also does a fine job, especially Catherine Lacey as the wife, whose newfound power brings out her previously hidden sadistic side. I also found the premise unusual and interesting. The movie makes impressive use of editing and sound; some of the scenes in which we switch back and forth between Ian Ogilvy’s possessed young man and the controlling couple are marvelously done, and the way Michael Reeves uses silence to underscore much of the action (it is one of the quietest horror films I’ve ever seen) is noteworthy. As a side note, I can’t help but notice that in each of his four movies as a director (counting CASTLE OF THE LIVING DEAD, where he was uncredited) he managed to work with a separate horror star in each; Christopher Lee, Barbara Steele, Boris Karloff, and Vincent Price.

 

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7 Faces of Dr. Lao (1964)

7 FACES OF DR. LAO (1964)
Article 2211 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 4-5-2007
Posting Date: 9-1-2007
Directed by George Pal
Featuring Tony Randall, Barbara Eden, Arthur O’Connell

The residents of a small western town are about to sell out to an unscrupulous land speculator when they are visited by a mysterious Oriental character known as Dr. Lao, who invites them to enjoy his circus.

This is one of the most charming fantasies I’ve ever seen, and it is one of my favorite George Pal films. For some odd reason, I don’t think the movie should work; with its shifting moods, I sense it should come across as unfocused, but this is not the case. For what seems on the surface to be a light-hearted movie, it occasionally shows a power and a darkness that is devastating; the scene where the vain middle-aged woman visits the fortune teller only to be told the naked truth about herself is so sad it’s hard to take, and the scene where the librarian encounters Pan is so overwhelmingly (but not explicitly) sexual that it’s hard to believe that it’s in a movie that is fit for children. Part of the reason it works so well is the excellent performance from Tony Randall, who plays most of the circus characters and whose accent changes with the situation; he’s breathtakingly energetic and a joy to watch. The movie is filled with other memorable performances from such familiar names as John Ericson, Noah Beery Jr., Minerval Urecal, John Qualen, and Royal Dano. The movie has a real magic to it, and sometimes the way events transpire is amazing; I love the scene where the audience is terrified by the parable of the story of a town that is destroyed by its own greed and then suddenly find themselves sitting at a town meeting in the library where they themselves must vote on the fate of their own town. Great special effects also help, some of which are the work of Jim Danforth. I do wonder about one thing in the story; each of the members of Dr. Lao’s circus has a strong effect on at least one of the townspeople, with the sole exception of the Abominable Snowman, who only appears in snatches. This makes me want to read the Charles Finney novel on which the movie is based to find out if something involving the Snowman was cut from the movie version of the story. At any rate, I consider this one of George Pal’s finest moments.

 

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The She-Beast (1966)

THE SHE-BEAST (1966)
aka La Sorella di Satana
Article 2210 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 4-4-2007
Posting Date: 8-31-2007
Directed by Michael Reeves
Featuring Barbara Steele, John Karlsen, Ian Ogilvy

A young married couple honeymoons in Transylvania. When they crash their car into a lake that served as the execution spot for a witch, the woman becomes possessed by the witch’s spirit, and sets out to kill the descendants of those that executed her.

Though he did some uncredited direction on CASTLE OF THE LIVING DEAD, this is the first feature fully directed by Michael Reeves, who is best known for WITCHFINDER GENERAL and for his untimely death at the age of 25. I’m not sure what I was expecting going into this one, but I will say this; I wasn’t expecting a comedy. For, despite a grisly execution sequence near the beginning of the movie, that is what this movie becomes, including odd characters such as John Karlsen’s eccentric nobleman named von Helsing and Mel Welles’ stupid voyeur (it’s the closest I’ve ever seen him to reprising his Gravis Mushnik character from LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS ), and full of clearly comic situations (including a corpse kidnapping sequence / car chase). As a comedy, it’s only mildly funny at best, but there are times where it is visually interesting; some moments definitely recalled Roger Corman’s low budget comedies of the early sixties, while others even reminded me of German silent movies. The script is a mess and it’s rather hard to follow, but it’s certainly Michael Reeves’ most lighthearted effort. If anything, this movie makes me regret his early demise; even in this ragged film he showed some real talent, and had he lived, I suspect we would have seen some very interesting work from him. Though this is far from a great movie, I certainly found it interesting enough.

 

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The Possession of Joel Delaney (1972)

THE POSSESSION OF JOEL DELANEY (1972)
Article 2209 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 4-3-2007
Posting Date: 8-30-2007
Directed by Waris Hussein
Featuring Shirley MacLaine, Perry King, Lisa Kohane

A dominating society woman tries to look after her resentful brother who has recently begun to act very strange. She dislikes his friendship with a homicidal Puerto Rican friend she has never met. When a close friend of hers is horribly murdered, she discovers that the friend is dead, and that his spirit may have taken over the body of her brother.

At the time of this writing, this movie has a 5.3 rating on IMDB, which tells me that this movie is not well-liked. Well, there are things to dislike here. In my case, I’ve never been a big fan of Shirley MacLaine, not so much for her acting abilities (which are considerable) but more for the fact that I’ve found so many of her characters cold and unlikable, and the first time I saw this movie, I was initially turned off by those very qualities. Also, the final scenes of her and her family being terrorized by the possessed brother are truly upsetting, since the terrorizing involves a great deal of psychological and physical humiliation. However, these factors ultimately don’t bother me, because there is something psychologically correct about it all; much of what happens in the movie is driven by the psychological motivations of everyone concerned. Ultimately, it was the relationship of the brother with both his mother and his sister that drove him into the friendship with the killer, and in this context, the unlikable aspects of MacLaine’s character plays a significant role. There is also one absolutely stunning scene here, in which the MacLaine’s character takes part in a Puerto Rican ritual in an attempt to exorcise the spirit from his brother; I’ve seen similar scenes in many horror movies, but this one is absolutely riveting and convincing. All in all, the movie utterly fascinates me, though those expecting a more conventional horror movie may be disappointed. And taking the movie overall, the only thing I do not like is the final twist in the last few seconds, which feels more horror-movie-convenient than psychologically compelling.

 

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The Plague of the Zombies (1966)

THE PLAGUE OF THE ZOMBIES (1966)
Article 2208 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 4-2-2007
Posting Date: 8-29-2007
Directed by John Gilling
Featuring Andre Morell, Diane Clare, Brook Williams

A doctor visits a former student who practices medicine in a small village in Cornwall. The village has been plagued my mysterious deaths, and bodies have begun to disappear from their graves. The doctor begins to suspect that someone is practicing voodoo.

I was disappointed by this movie when I first saw it years ago because I felt that the zombies were underused; back then, things like that meant a lot to me. Watching it now, I still think that’s somewhat true, and I’m also a little put out by the fact that the scariest scene featuring them turns out to be someone’s dream (though, in all truth, I saw it coming). Nevertheless, I liked it much better this time, largely because I really have grown to appreciate the excellence of Andre Morell’s performance as the doctor searching for the truth; his presence adds a great deal of character and humor to the proceedings, and this makes the movie thoroughly enjoyable throughout. There’s also a nice sense of mystery to the proceedings, and all the other performances are quite good, especially from Diane Clare and Jacqueline Pearce. Originally, I didn’t think it was modeled off of any of the older horror movies, but I couldn’t help but notice that there’s a strong similarity in story to WHITE ZOMBIE . The ending is particularly good here; I especially like the events that ultimately lead to the destruction of the zombies. Though there are some questionable plot elements, I do recognize why this one is a favorite of many Hammer aficionados.

 

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The Phantom of the Opera (1962)

THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA (1962)
Article 2207 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 4-1-2007
Posting Date: 8-28-2007
Directed by Terence Fisher
Featuring Herbert Lom, Heather Sears, Thorley Walters

Mysterious setbacks have plagued the presentation of an opera about Joan of Arc. The cause of these setbacks has to do with a mysterious phantom who terrorizes those involved in the production.

Though I had little hope that this version of the Gaston Leroux novel would eclipse the wonderful Lon Chaney version of the story, I did have hopes that I would like it better than the 1943 Claude Rains remake , which has always disappointed me somewhat. I did enjoy parts of this one well enough; Terence Fisher’s direction is solid, the movie is efficient, and the movie is anchored by an excellent performance from Herbert Lom as the most sympathetic phantom I’ve seen yet; he’s even allowed to be heroic on occasion. This compensates somewhat for a weak and clumsy script. At times it’s emotionally unsatisfying; the comeuppance of the Michael Gough’s evil Lord d’Arcy is singularly unsatisfying, and the movie leaves an insane dwarf on the loose at the ending. The mystery aspect of the movie (who is the phantom and why is he doing this) is also fairly weak, especially if you’ve seen the Claude Rains version, and it’s a dramatic mistake to recreate certain scenes after the movie has already sufficiently explained them. And there’s a huge logic error in the chandelier sequence; given that the rope frays because of the extra weight caused by the dwarf hanging on it, shouldn’t it fray above the dwarf rather than below? Incidentally, the cast also features Michael Ripper as a cabbie, and a memorable cameo from Patrick Troughton as a ratcatcher.

 

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Octaman (1971)

OCTAMAN (1971)
Article 2206 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 3-31-2007
Posting Date: 8-27-2007
Directed by Harry Esssex
Featuring Pier Angeli, Kerwin Mathews, Jeff Morrow

Pollution results in the creation of an octopus/man mutation that terrorizes some researchers.

One of the disadvantages of trying to cover a movie a day is that sometimes you don’t have the time to research and track down the very best copies of movies, and you have to settle for whatever copy you get. My copy of this movie is almost impenetrably dark during the night scenes, and I don’t know if the problem is the movie itself or just my copy. Please bear this in mind during this review.

You know, the night scenes being so dark wouldn’t be so bad if it didn’t seem as if seventy-five percent of the movie took place at night. The first twenty minutes are well lit enough, but after that, every other scene seems too dark. It’s hard for a monster attack scene to be scary when you can’t see the monster or the victim or much of anything else. And what happens when it becomes light again? Why, they take the first opportunity they can to move the action into Bronson Caverns (where it’s dark) so you can struggle some more. Still, I wonder if it would be worth it to seek out this third-rate copy of THE CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON ; from what I could tell, it was a dull and repetitive take on the subject with uninteresting characters and no pace. And as for the silly-looking octaman costume – well, let’s just say that Rick Baker had to start somewhere, and this one should be chalked up as a learning experience for him. It has an interesting cast, though, with Pier Angeli (who died of a drug overdose during filming), Kerwin Mathews, Jeff Morrow, and Buck Kartalian. Still, the Mexican characters are stereotypes, and I really got tired of the one that incessantly whistled the Mexican Hat Dance. All in all, this one is pretty bad, as well as preachy and not much fun.

 

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Mothra (1961)

MOTHRA (1961)
aka Mosura
Article 2205 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 3-30-2007
Posting Date: 8-26-2007
Directed by Ishiro Honda
Featuring Frankie Sakai, Hiroshi Koizumi, Kyoko Kagawa

When survivors of a shipwreck are discovered on an island used in nuclear testing, authorities are amazed to find out that they were not affected by radiation because they drank a fluid prepared by the inhabitants. When the island is investigated, two twin fairies are discovered, and they are kidnapped by a greedy and brutal businessman intent on making money off of them. However, this puts the world in peril, as the twin fairies are in telepathic contact with the god of the island, a giant insect known as Mothra.

Toho took a different tack on this kaiju; the monster Mothra is sympathetic from the outset, the twin fairies (played by Emi and Yumi Ito, a singing group known as the Peanuts) are an inspired creation (and they would pop up in most of the movies that featured Mothra), and there is a colorful fairy-tale touch to the proceedings. Though Mothra’s destructive abilities are similar to Rodan’s (the monster’s wings cause hurricane-like winds), it’s a pretty unique creation, especially in that it has two forms – the caterpillar form and the full-grown moth form. The social ill that serves as the enemy this time is entrepreneurial greed; the greedy businessman (Jerry Ito, who shares the same last name as the women playing the twins, which makes me wonder if they’re related) massacres a group of natives and manhandles a small boy during the length of the proceedings. Frankie Sakai is fun as a chubby and likeable reporter who turns out to be quite effective during a fight, and the movie features other memorable faces from kaiju movies such as Takashi Shimura and Akihiko Hirata. Mothra would next take on Godzilla himself in GODZILLA VS THE THING .

 

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Thunderbirds Are Go (1966)

THUNDERBIRDS ARE GO (1966)
Article 2204 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 3-29-2007
Posting Date: 8-25-2007
Directed by David Lane
Featuring the voices of Sylvia Anderson, Ray Barrett, Alexander Davion

International Rescue is called in to keep a new spaceship called Zero-X from being a victim of sabotage by enemy agents.

I vaguely recall having seen at least one of these Gerry Anderson series as a kid (I think it was “Stingray”). I remember liking it all right, but it never really became a favorite, and its been years since I’ve seen any of them; this is my first reexposure to them in three and a half decades. I do like some aspects of it very much; the puppets move and emote with an understated subtlety, the movie takes itself rather seriously, and some of the puppet movement is quite effective. I also like the use of color and the set design; it’s full of lots of appealing little details. Furthermore, there is a real charm to the proceedings. These pluses are a good thing, as it compensates for the occasional turgid pace and the rather static presentation at times. At least one of the reasons for the latter problem is that the puppets are rarely seen walking; most of the scenes involving them have them remaining in one place, and after a while you really get to notice it. Still, I can understand why they were reluctant to have you see them walking around; the one scene where you really get a good look at their leg movement (during a dream sequence which features an appearance of puppet versions of Cliff Richard and his band, the Shadows) shows that they were rather awkward in this regard. Still, it works well enough in this scene, which comes across like a puppet music video and remains my favorite part of the movie; It’s silly, but appropriately so. Still, I suspect that I might have enjoyed this one better had I been a fan of the series.

 

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The Spaniard’s Curse (1958)

THE SPANIARD’S CURSE (1958)
Article 2203 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 3-28-2007
Posting Date; 8-24-2007
Directed by Ralph Kemplen
Featuring Tony Wright, Lee Patterson, Michael Hordern

A man framed for murder proclaims a curse on those responsible for his situation. Then the jury foreman who found him guilty dies in a freak accident. Some of the people involved begin an investigation into whether the sentenced man is innocent or not.

The basic vengeance motif of a condemned man seeking justice through a curse is pretty standard stuff, but the way the story unfolds is quite interesting, and for a while the movie looks like its going to be a better-than-average take on the story. Unfortunately, once the investigation gets underway, the movie becomes a disappointingly dull mystery, hampered by static direction and turgid pacing. Things do start to pick up again towards the end, but I didn’t think it really saved the movie. It’s a bit of a shame; there’s some interesting touches to the story, such as a subplot about a pickpocket and a good sequence involving a church cemetery. I just wish the movie had added some energy to the proceedings; it could have been a really decent thriller.

 

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