Month: December 2017

1 April, 2000 (1952)

1 APRIL, 2000 (1952)
aka April 1, 2000
Article 2360 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 9-11-2007
Posting Date: 1-28-2008
Directed by Wolfgang Liebeneiner
Directed by Hilde Krahl, Josef Meinrad, Waltraut Haas

In the year 2000, Austria declares its independence from the powers occupying it. A ‘World Protection Commission’ visits Austria to decide if Austria’s independence is a threat to world peace. Austria’s president argues his case by presenting the history of Austria.

I got the plot description by reading some of my books on movies and from comments on IMDB; since the movie was in unsubtitled German, I couldn’t figure out much of it from watching the movie itself. The movie reflected the situation in Austria at that time in history; it had been occupied by four other countries since World War II, and the movie was meant as its plea for independence. Still, I have a funny feeling that the movie was mostly about Austria praising itself, and that sort of thing can be quite tedious; however, not knowing what they’re saying keeps me from getting tired of the message, and I’m left to dwell on the visual aspects of this movie, which are often surreal and quite stunning. There are several memorable moments here, including a powerful sequence where a woman sees the grim reaper in her cup, followed by a full view of the reaper and a procession of what I suppose are the dead. There’s also a strange sequence where several of the characters momentarily turn into animals, and some of the costumes (especially those of certain people who I take to be reporters) are truly original (if rather silly). The high point of the movie comes early on though, and it is indelible; it is the arrival of the commission, which descends in what looks like a planet-shaped spaceship surrounded by orbiting moons, and lands amidst a flurry of what can only be described as parachuting Michelen men; this sequence is a classic. The movie is very good-natured, and it’s hard not to get caught up in the high spirits of the enterprise. Nonetheless, it’s a little too long, and I get quite bored towards the end of the movie. The movie features a performance from actor Curt Jurgens before he achieved international fame as an actor.

 

1 CommentLeave a comment

The Thirteenth Chair (1937)

THE THIRTEENTH CHAIR (1937)
Article 2359 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 9-10-2007
Posting Date: 1-27-2008
Directed by George B. Seitz
Featuring Dame May Whitty, Madge Evans, Lewis Stone

A medium and a detective compete to see who can solve the murder of a blackmailer.

This is the third version of the Bayard Veiller play. The first version was a silent movie from 1919 that is most probably lost. The second one is rather interesting, as it was directed by Tod Browning and featured Bela Lugosi; it was also an early talkie with a static presentation that almost renders it unwatchable. This one has solid performances, good direction, and is certainly the more watchable, with Dame May Whitty taking the top honors as the medium. The movie also features an early movie performance by Henry Daniell; this must have been before he was typecast as a heavy, as he is removed from the list of suspects early on (rather decisively so, I might add). The horror elements are the seance sequences and a scene involving a dead man. It’s probably one of the classier movies of its ilk (the murder/seance movie, a form that ran hand in hand with the old dark house mysteries of the time); its main problem is that the story is pretty old hat, even for its time. One small piece of trivia; Holmes Herbert appeared in both this and the 1929 versions of the story in the same role.

 

0 CommentsLeave a comment

The Monkey’s Paw (1948)

THE MONKEY’S PAW (1948)
Article 2358 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 9-9-2007
Posting Date: 1-26-2008
Directed by Norman Lee
Featuring Milton Rosmer, Megs Jenkins, Michael Martin Harvey

A cursed monkey’s paw comes into the possession of a shop owner. Despite warnings about the curse, he wishes upon it for the money to pay off a bookie. He gets the money, but at a price…

W. W. Jacobs’s “The Monkey’s Paw” is a classic horror short story, but it’s also fairly short, so in order to expand it to a full-length movie, you have to find some way to fill up the time. Apparently, Jacobs expanded the story himself; IMDB claims that this movie was based on a play version of the story written by Jacobs. I don’t know how much of this movie comes from the play version, but in expanding it, it does the usual things; it comes up with more backstory and fleshes out the characters. All in all, it does a good job of it as well; after a while, you get attached to the various characters in the story and you care about what happens to them. The climax of the story is suitably tense and eerie as well. Still, if you’re familiar with the story, you’ll find this one fairly slow out of the gate.

 

0 CommentsLeave a comment

Cisaruv pekar a pekaruv cisar (1951)

CISARUV PEKAR A PEKARUV CISAR (1951)
aka The Emperor and the Golem, The Emperor’s Baker and The Baker’s Emperor
Article 2357 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 9-8-2007
Posting Date: 1-24-2008
Directed by Martin Fric
Featuring Jan Werich, Marie Vasova, Natasa Gollova

An emperor surrounded by corrupt courtiers ignores his starving people and invests his money in artworks, alchemy and a search for a golem. When his baker passes out bread meant for the king to the starving populace, he is thrown into a dungeon. Through a series of complications, the baker’s resemblance to the king causes him to take his place.

The above plot description is an approximation cobbled together from other plot summaries of the movie and what I was able to figure out from my viewing; my copy of the movie is in unsubtitled Czech. Nonetheless, it remains enjoyable throughout; the movie is largely a comedy, and much of the comic is visual, so even if you don’t know what the characters are talking about, you can still figure out the comic bits and piece out goodly portions of the plot. It’s an enjoyable (if lengthy) lark, with some definite fantastic content (various magicians appear, and there’s the golem, of course). The golem here is truly impressive; he’s massive, and when he comes to life, his head glows red and fire and yellow smoke issue forth from his eyes; he is such a powerful presence that it compensates somewhat for the fact that his movement is unconvincing. There are a number of great comic bits that don’t rely on the dialogue at all; my favorites include the classic mirror gag where one person apes the other’s actions, and an attempted poisoning involving a ring with a secret compartment, several glasses of wine and an astronomer. I’d love to see a subtitled version of this some time to enjoy the true experience, but it’s still very enjoyable, even in this form. Recommended.

 

0 CommentsLeave a comment

One Wish Too Many (1956)

ONE WISH TOO MANY (1956)
Article 2536 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 9-7-2007
Posting Date: 1-24-2008
Directed by John Durst
Featuring Anthony Richmond, Rosalind Gourgey, John Pike

A boy finds a marble that grants whatever he wishes. He soon discovers that this is not an unmixed blessing…

Sometimes a movie gets by on its own modesty. A magic marble that can grant any wish is the type of concept that nowadays would inspire a massive special effects budget with all the wizardry that could be mustered through CGI, and the result would probably be charmless. Neither this movie nor the characters in it have any such ambitions themselves. It’s an unassuming little movie, and the boy who finds the marble initially just wishes for such small things as that his homework will be done and that he will get a toy steamroller and a doll for his friend. He harbors no great desire to change his life; he just wants to use it to ease his way through life, get a few nice items for his own and help his friends, and even early on he sees how even these small wishes can backfire. His biggest wish comes near the end of the movie, and the movie drives home its basic message (be careful what you wish for) without ever getting preachy or overbearing; it just lets the story tell itself. The budget is quite low and the acting is merely passable, but the modest charm and the short length carry the movie along. Sometimes simplicity is a real virtue.

 

1 CommentLeave a comment

Noita palaa elamaan (1952)

NOITA PALAA ELAMAAN (1952)
aka The Witch
Article 2355 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 9-6-2007
Posting Date: 1-23-2008
Directed by Roland af Hallstrom
Featuring Mirja Mane, Toivo Makela, Hillevi Lagerstam

An archaeologist pulls a stake out of a grave that is believed to harbor a witch. Later, a naked woman mysteriously appears in the grave. The villagers believe she is a witch, but the archaeologist believes this is just superstition. Then strange things start happening…

Is she a witch or isn’t she? Only a Finnish translator knows for sure, and there weren’t any around for my viewing of this undubbed, unsubtitled Finnish horror movie. Most of the plot above I got from other sources after watching the movie, because it was a little difficult to piece together while watching it. However, I did enjoy it as much as I could despite the language barrier; this is the first Finnish horror movie I’ve seen, and it’s certainly different. At moments it recalls silent cinema and early talkies; certain music cues in particular gave me the feeling of the latter type of film. However, none of the early talkies would have a naked woman romping around as much as we have here; I don’t know how much nudity there was in the cinema of other countries at the time, but I was quite surprised to see this much skin in a movie from the early fifties. A lot of the details are quite vague, but I do know that the witch sows discord into the archaeologist’s marriage, she causes violent rivalry to break out among men for her charms, and the villagers like to chase her around with any handy farm implements. There are moments in the second half of the movie where I even began to wonder whether this might have been a comedy; it certainly doesn’t appear to be played for scares. At any rate, I’m glad this one finally showed up; it’s been on my hunt list for years.

 

0 CommentsLeave a comment

Dr. Mabuse vs Scotland Yard (1963)

DR. MABUSE VS SCOTLAND YARD (1963)
aka Scotland Yard jagt Dr. Mabuse
Article 2534 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 9-5-2007
Posting Date: 1-22-2008
Directed by Paul May
Featuring Peter van Eyck, Sabine Bethmann, Dieter Borsche

Someone has stolen an invention that gives him the ability to control men’s minds. Could this be the work of that master criminal, Dr. Mabuse? But Dr. Mabuse is dead! Or is he…?

This is the first chance I’ve had to see one of the Dr. Mabuse movies made during the character’s revival in the sixties. I really didn’t know what to expect; I like the Dr. Mabuse character, but given the usual quality of the German krimi films, I expected it would largely be just another one of those; some good scenes buried in a muddled and confusing plot, possibly worth exploring further but more of a chore than a joy to watch the first time out. I was quite delighted to find that this wasn’t the case. the plot was surprisingly coherent, and the story is clever and interesting. Even the comic relief works quite well, the detective’s mother proves to be more capable of second-guessing the criminals than the detective himself. The mystery about how Dr. Mabuse can pull off these crimes when he’s dead is fairly easy to figure out, especially if you’ve seen the original THE TESTAMENT OF DR. MABUSE , and it adds a touch of horror to the mainly science-fiction oriented fantastic content of the movie. No, it doesn’t hold a candle to the Lang films of the twenties and thirties, but it works well enough in its own right, and it’s also nice to see a detective (Peter van Eyck’s character) who is a good intellectual match for Mabuse himself. Klaus Kinski has a fairly prominent role this time as an inspector who comes under the control of Mabuse. All in all, I found this one quite enjoyable, and I look forward to the other movies in this series.

 

0 CommentsLeave a comment

The Monster of London City (1964)

THE MONSTER OF LONDON CITY (1964)
aka Das Ungeheuer von London City
Article 2353 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 9-4-2007
Posting Date: 1-21-2008
Directed by Edwin Zbonek
Featuring Hansjorg Felmy, Marianne Koch, Dietmar Schonherr

A new Jack the Ripper is loose in London, and the prime suspect for the police is an actor who is playing the role of Jack the Ripper in a stage production.

You know, I try to cut these krimi some slack; though they are often confusing and frustrating, they also usually have some good moments in them to compensate. This one is really no different; there are some good moments here, especially towards the end of the movie. However, the confusion and repetitiveness of this one really started to wear on me; I really got tired of the tiresome police investigation (where they always take the time to tell you that this new murder is just like all the others) and the unfunny comic relief couple who set out to catch the Ripper on their own. My problem a lot of the time is the editing; scenes seem to occur in random order, and you have to keep adjusting to figure out which facet of the plot they’re currently on, only to find there’s usually not much happening in this part of the story anyway. Bad dubbing and a dull music score also don’t help. In short, the movie doesn’t generate much in the way of suspense, which is a shame; there’s enough of a story here to make for an entertaining movie if only the presentation were up to par.

 

0 CommentsLeave a comment

The Hunchback of the Morgue (1973)

THE HUNCHBACK OF THE MORGUE (1973)
aka El Jorobado de la Morgue
Article 2352 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 9-3-2007
Posting Date: 1-20-2008
Directed by Javier Aguirre
Featuring Paul Naschy, Rosanna Yanni, Victor Barrera

A hunchback who supplies cadavers for doctors finds himself grief-stricken at the death of a woman who was his only friend when he was young. He puts her body in hiding and approaches a doctor whom he thinks will bring her back to life. The doctor agrees, but he has plans of his own…

I’m really beginning to see the appeal of some of these Paul Naschy movies. He obviously has a real affection for the characters he plays, and he builds the scripts around making the character both the monster and the hero. As a result, the plots go through some fascinating mutations to bring about this theme. The plots are often unpredictable; once you reach a point where you think you have an idea of how the rest of the movie is going to go, he throws in new characters and new plot developments to push the movie in a different direction, and the only thing you know for sure is, at the end of the movie, the monster Naschy has been playing will turn out to be the hero, though one who, of course, must die. It does make the movies interesting, though it can often dissolve into mere silliness. I quite like this one myself; it manages to stop short of the silliness, and it gets Naschy away from the overfamiliar combination of vampires and werewolves. Which is not to say it doesn’t have problems; the dubbing is quite bad, and there are some real logic flaws. One of the latter is that so many characters make comments about the hunchback’s ugly face that it’s surprising that Naschy uses very little face makeup, and though he’s not the most handsome man in the world, he isn’t ugly. I suspect that he doesn’t use ugly makeup because that would put the kibbosh on his love scene with Rosanna Yanni; it’s a case of Naschy trying to have it both ways. Another problem is that it’s really hard to believe at any point in the proceedings that the hunchback “wouldn’t hurt a fly”, as one character claims, but there seem to be quite a few characters here who consider him harmless. Nevertheless, these are minor quibbles, and this is one of Naschy’s most entertaining movies.

 

0 CommentsLeave a comment