Month: July 2018

The Queen of Spades (1910)

THE QUEEN OF SPADES (1910)
aka Pikovaya dama
Article 2731 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 10-28-2008
Posting Date: 2-3-2009
Directed by Pyotr Chardynin
Featuring Paval Biryukov, Aleksandra Goncharova, Antonina Pozharskaya
Country: Russia

A soldier romances the daughter of a countess. However, he has an ulterior motive; he is hoping to wrest from the countess a winning three-card combination that he hopes will make his fortune. When he threatens her with a gun, she dies unexpectedly. However, her ghost appears and…

This is the third version I’ve seen of the Pushkin story, and, for a bare-bones 15 minute treatment of the story, it’s not bad. It manages to distill the story to its essence, though if you’re not familiar with the story, you may be a little confused by what actually happens in the last few minutes. However, having enjoyed the classic 1948 British treatment of the story, I didn’t have a problem. Apparently, quite a few silent treatments were made of the Pushkin story, though very few of them are extant.

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The Witches and the Grinnygog (1983)

THE WITCHES AND THE GRINNYGOG (1983)
TV-Movie
Article 2730 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 10-27-2008
Posting Date: 2-2-2009
Directed by Diarmuid Lawrence
Featuring Paul Curtis, Hilda Fenemore, Eva Griffiths
Country: UK

In a small English town, a gargoyle-like statue falls off of a truck hauling debris from an old church, and ends up in an old man’s garden as an ornament. It turns out the appearance of the statue (known as a Grinnygog) causes the appearance of several mysterious characters who were involved with a witch-burning that occurred as part of the town’s history.

This is a six-episode British TV series adapted from a novel by Dorothy Edwards. At one point, one of the children who is helping to organize a museum for the town asks the mysterious Mr. Alabaster whether there’s going to be any danger, and is told that it depends on what he means by danger. In some ways, this story is driven by this ambiguity; you’re not sure for a good length of the time whether what appears to be a gentle fantasy will turn into something more sinister. As a matter of fact, I hesitate to speak in terms of story, as I think it’s not really story-driven; it mostly recounts the various magical experiences of the various people most directly involved with the strange goings-on in the town. The series is full of little touches; without giving away too much, there’s a bell that doesn’t ring, a trip back in time, an animated ceiling, the magical creation of a hat, and the scene where we hear the Grinnygog talk to two separate people. There’s a definite charm here, but it never quite becomes compelling; despite its charms, it gets a little dull on occasion. Still, it’s a unique fantasy and worth catching.

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Pennies from Heaven (1936)

PENNIES FROM HEAVEN (1936)
Article 2729 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 10-26-2008
Posting Date: 2-1-2009
Directed by Norman Z. McLeod
Featuring Bing Crosby, Madge Evans, Edith Fellows
Country: USA

A lute-playing convict is asked by a condemned murderer to deliver a letter to the family of the man he killed. When he does, he becomes involved in the fate of a young girl who is in danger of being sent to an orphanage.

This is a predictable musical drama; you know fairly early on just what’s going to happen at the end of the movie. This is not to say it isn’t enjoyable; though Bing Crosby’s likable and warm screen persona may not have been his real self, he projected it so well that it still works its magic, even to this day. Besides that, he was a great singer with a wonderful voice, and he’s not the only singing talent of note in the movie; Louis Armstrong is also on hand, and xylophonist Lionel Hampton is also part of his band. Donald Meek is also enjoyable as the grandfather, and you may want to keep your eyes open for a cameo from Syd Saylor. The fantastic content? At one point, the convict, the daughter and the grandfather move in to a reputedly haunted house. Of course it isn’t really haunted, but they decide to turn it into a nightclub that retains the ‘haunted’ theme. This gives us the highlight of the movie – Louis Armstrong and his band doing a wonderful performance of the song “Skeleton in the Closet”, with a suitably spooky atmosphere and a dancing skeleton to boot. The horror content may be slight, but it’s satisfying and fun. As for the rest, it’s standard Hollywood hokum.

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Black Sabbath (1963)

BLACK SABBATH (1963)
aka I Tre volti della paura
Article 2728 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 10-25-2008
Posting Date: 1-31-2009
Directed by Mario Bava and Salvatore Billitteri
Featuring Michele Mercier, Lida Alfonsi, Boris Karloff
Country: Italy/France/USA

Three tales of terror are represented. In the first, a woman steals a ring from a corpse, and finds herself haunted afterwards. In the second, a woman is terrorized by a voice over the phone. In the third, a family finds itself threatened by Wurdalaks, vampires who drink the blood of those they love.

For the record, I watched the American version of this movie; the Italian version had a different order, and the story about the telephone was slightly reworked to remove certain lesbian overtones. Quite frankly, the original order would have served the movie better; positioned as they are here, the beginning of ‘The Telephone’ is way too similar to the end of ‘A Drop of Water’ (a woman alone in her apartment being terrorized), which works to the detriment of ‘The Telephone’, which already has strikes against it, as it’s probably the weakest story anyway, and it’s already compromised by the editing. Still, the other two are top notch, full of atmosphere, color, effective use of sound, and strong performances. The intros of the stories by Boris Karloff are a little too silly for what is a serious horror movie, but his performance in ‘The Wurdalak’ is wonderful. The US version also has some additional music by Les Baxter, and I suspect that he was responsible for the music over the closing credits, which is also a little too humorous for the movie. The main advantage to seeing the US version is to hear Karloff in his own voice, which would be dubbed in the Italian version; still, I suspect it would be worth my time to check out the Italian version to see how the differences affect the movie.

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Spooks (1930)

SPOOKS (1930)
Animated short
Article 2727 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 10-24-2008
Posting Date: 1-30-2009
Directed by Walter Lantz
Featuring the voice of Pinto Colvig
Country: US

A phantom terrorizes entertainers in a music hall.

I remember Walter Lantz hosting “The Woody Woodpecker Show” from my childhood, and though I have a fond memory of him because of it, the truth is that I barely remember the cartoons themselves. This is from his pre-Woody Woodpecker days. It’s something of a parody of THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA. On the plus side, the animation is quite good. On the minus side, the writing is very weak. Now, I don’t really expect anything more from the writing than an assortment of funny gags, but this one only manages a couple of decent ones; one involves a skeleton living in a tombstone, and another involves a songstress performing to the music of a phonograph strapped to her back. The rest of the gags are either lame, impenetrable, or missing in action. Still, since Lantz’s shorts from this era were made for Universal, I wouldn’t be surprised if some of these were actually shown at the original screenings for the early horror classics, and it might be appropriate to watch this one before one of them. Incidentally, I also had to take a quick peak at KING KLUNK (another cartoon in the collection in which I found this one), another Lantz short that took on KING KONG; I liked that one much better.

 

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The Beast in the Cellar (1970)

THE BEAST IN THE CELLAR (1970)
Article 2726 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 10-23-2008
Posting Date: 1-29-2009
Directed by James Kelley
Featuring Beryl Reid, Flora Robson, John Hamill
Country: UK

Soldiers are being gruesomely murdered in the English countryside. Two old ladies in the area know who is responsible… only, how is he able to escape from the cellar?

The British print of this movie runs 101 minutes, so I’m assuming I’ve just seen the U.S. version, which had 13 minutes removed. I wonder what was removed. If it was long, talky sequences, than the British version of the movie must have been truly interminable; as it is, this shortened version felt way too long already. The premise isn’t the problem; what drags down this movie is that once the action starts to concentrate on the two old women, we get endless talking, much of it about things we already know or that they’ve already talked about in earlier scenes. The movie is also hampered by attack scenes that are more annoying than scary, a total inability to work up any sort of suspense, an overly elaborate backstory (that is more told than shown), and a monster whose appearance marks one of the bigger letdowns in horror history. The flaccid direction is definitely one of the drawbacks as well; this was the first of two movies directed by James Kelley, and the other one (NIGHT HAIR CHILD) is reputed to be a little better. I’m afraid this is one of those British horror thrillers that falls on the dull side of the fence.

 

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Alone in the Dark (1982)

ALONE IN THE DARK (1982)
Article 2725 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 10-22-2008
Posting Date: 1-28-2009
Directed by Jack Sholder
Featuring Jack Palance, Donald Pleasence, Martin Landau
Country: USA

A psychiatrist with a very unusual therapeutic approach runs an asylum in which electrically-run safeguards keep the more violent prisoners from escaping. When a power blackout results in the escape of several homicidal maniacs, they band together to terrorize the home of the new assistant doctor, who they believe is responsible for the death of the man he replaced.

This is a rather oddball entry in the slasher cycle of the era. For one thing, it has a surprising amount of star power for this kind of movie. It also gives us several psychos in place of the traditional single killer usually seen in the genre, and they aren’t superhuman; when they die, they die. It also has a message, though it isn’t really an original one; it has something to do with those on the outside of the asylum being no less crazy and violent than those on the inside. The movie is a little too dark (visually) some of the time (I don’t know if it’s the print or the movie itself), but there are some tense and scary moments, especially the scene where the babysitter discovers that there is something under the bed. I also like the way the movie gets around the “unkillable maniac” cliche of the genre by giving us multiple psychos instead of one. Unfortunately, characters act with unusual stupidity at times, and the movie often doesn’t make much sense. Still, it has a quirky charm; I especially like the ending, where the last remaining psycho discovers an environment where his psychotic tendencies seem not only natural, but cool, and much of the reason it works is due to a strong performance from Jack Palance. This is definitely one of the odder entries in the slasher genre.

 

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The Night Visitor (1971)

THE NIGHT VISITOR (1971)
Article 2724 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 10-21-2008
Posting Date: 1-27-2009
Directed by Laslo Benedek
Featuring Max von Sydow, Trevor Howard, Liv Ullmann
Country: USA/Sweden

A lunatic devises a way to escape out of and return to an asylum with the intention of taking revenge on those that put him there.

Though the elements are there, this is really more of a crime thriller than a horror movie; the lunatic may not really be a lunatic, and the movie doesn’t so much milk the tension of what he’s going to do as it make us wonder how he’s doing it; we know he’s able to get out of the asylum, but the question is how he does it. Actually, people may expect too much from this movie, given its impressive cast, many of which were Ingmar Bergman regulars. The script is a little too convenient at times (everyone seems to be just where they need to be for the frame-up that is being planned to work), but its quite entertaining, and the scenes involving the escape from the asylum are great fun. Max von Sydow is wonderful as Salem, the lunatic bent on revenge, and the other principals (Liv Ullmann, Trevor Howard and Per Oscarsson) are also very good. We also have Andrew Keir on hand as the head of the asylum, and Arthur Hewlett is memorable as a chess-playing prison guard. The movie also has a great ending as well. Recommended.

 

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The Hanging Woman (1973)

THE HANGING WOMAN (1973)
aka La Orgia de los muertos, Beyond the Living Dead
Article 2723 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 10-20-2008
Posting Date: 1-26-2009
Directed by Jose Luis Merino
Featuring Stelvio Rosi, Maria Pia Conte, Dyanik Zurakowska
Country: Spain/Italy

The heir to an estate arrives at the town of his recently deceased uncle to find strange events occurring; a woman is found hanging in the graveyard, a gravedigger is engaged in inhuman acts, a countess is engaged in black magic, and a scientist dabbles in ways to animate the dead.

Most of the reviews of this one prominently mention the presence of Spanish horror star Paul Naschy, but don’t put to much stock in that; he’s here all right, but he’s consigned to a secondary role that leaves him mostly on the outskirts of the main story. Still, he serves as an interesting distraction, as his necrophiliac character is certainly the sickest aspect of this rather strange story. Actually, I quite liked this one; it’s one of those movies that really leaves you wondering which direction it’s going to go before it’s all over, but somehow it never loses sight of its story through all the twists and turns. It’s part “old dark house” film, part “mad scientist” flick, part “zombie” flick, and part just plain depravity. You won’t even know who the good guys are until you’re well into it; Stelvio Rosi’s character has moments where he comes across as rather vile, and he turns out to be the hero. This one has a whole slew of alternate titles, but I prefer THE HANGING WOMAN, if for no other reason than it gives away the least; you know just what the title means when it comes up. All in all, this is an odd but rather fun Spanish horror movie.

 

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Radar Secret Service (1950)

RADAR SECRET SERVICE (1950)
Article 2722 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 10-19-2008
Posting Date: 1-25-2009
Directed by Sam Newfield
Featuring John Howard, Adele Jergens, Tom Neal
Country: USA

Uranium is stolen by hoodlums. Fortunately, G-Men have radar on their side to catch them.

This movie finally inspired me to put a label on a phenomenon I’ve noticed in a number of movies through the years. I call it the Free-Floating-Inviso-Cam (with optional instant editing), FFIC for short. This invisible item floats around at will, taking film-quality footage that can be used by someone’s viewfinder. It’s used in serials quite a bit; think of how many times you’ve seen a villain turn on a display that allows him to spy on what the hero is doing, apparently getting footage from some place where no camera could possibly be. And, if it switches back and forth between close-ups and long shots, or jumps to other locations, well, that’s where the optional instant editing comes into play.

At any rate, that’s one of the powers of radar in this rather silly low-budget crime movie; with radar, they can locate the villains (using FFIC), and they can even get the license numbers without having a vehicle nowhere near. It can also locate guns buried in the sand. The only drawback is that the good guys have to drive around in cars with silver balls on top of them.

If you were to check the rating on IMDB (1.7), you might think this one is a stinker of the first order. Well, it’s not quite that; the reason the rating is so low is that the movie’s only claim to fame in recent years was as an episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000, a circumstance which almost guarantees that fans of the show will flock to IMDB and give the movie the lowest rating imaginable. Though the movie is far from good, it’s not quite that bad; it is, however, so obscure that it has precious few defenders. I find there’s a little enjoyment in seeing some familiar b-movie faces and names, such as Adele Jergens, John Howard (one-time Bulldog Drummond), Tom Neal (of DETOUR fame), Sid Melton (who might has well have the words “comic relief” tattooed across his forehead), Ralph Byrd (one-time Dick Tracy who even manages to make a reference to that character in this movie), Tristram Coffin and Kenne Duncan. The fantastic content is the obviously inflated powers they give to radar.

 

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