Month: February 2019

Goliath and the Sins of Babylon (1963)

GOLIATH AND THE SINS OF BABYLON (1963)
aka Maciste, l’eroe piu grande del monde
Article 3283 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 6-17-2010
Posting Date: 8-10-2010
Directed by Michele Lupo
Featuring Mark Forest, Jose Greci, Giuliano Gemma
Country: Italy
What it is: Sword and sandal

Goliath arrives at a kingdom whose throne has been usurped by a man who is a puppet of the king of Babylon, who is demanding a yearly tribute of 30 virgins. He helps a group of rebels defeat the usurper and the Babylonians.

This is a slightly above average sword-and-sandal movie. It emphasizes action and spectacle, and despite the fact that the tone is slightly more serious than some others of the same genre, it is laced with plenty of humor, especially during the fight scenes. It features a comic-relief midget, who also proves useful on several occasions during the story. It’s pretty light in terms of its fantastic content; other than Goliath’s super-strength, there’s nothing else. And, of course, Goliath is in actuality Maciste. Perhaps the most striking thing about this one is its relative lack of pulchritude; despite the 30 virgins plot element and the existence of a princess who must be defeated in a chariot race before she will marry, there is very little in the way of feminine flesh here, which will certainly disappoint some viewers. There isn’t even a liturgical dance scene. On the other hand, this is one of those movies that really explores the use of a gong during a fight scene.

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Legend of the Werewolf (1975)

LEGEND OF THE WEREWOLF (1975)
Article 3282 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 6-16-2010
Posting Date: 8-9-2010
Directed by Freddie Francis
Featuring Peter Cushing, Ron Moody, Hugh Griffith
Country: UK
What it is: Faux Hammer werewolf tale

A child raised by wolves is captured by a travelling showman for display in his circus. When the boy grows up, he takes on a job at a zoo in Paris, but his wolf upbringing has come with him… especially on the nights of the full moon.

There is such a wealth of Hammer stalwarts in this Tyburn production that it’s no surprise it feels like a Hammer movie, albeit one that feels somewhat anomalous in the mid-seventies. Yes, it feels like a rehash of CURSE OF THE WEREWOLF, but that should be no surprise, given that both scripts were written by Anthony Hinds. Still, despite the fact that it’s a rehash of sorts, I really like this movie, at least partially due to the excellent cast. Yes, David Rintoul is no Oliver Reed, but the surrounding characters are all quite interesting, and I think the story has a better flow. It has some interesting touches; my favorite is that the werewolf doesn’t appear to be quite as devoid of reason as werewolves usually are; he can speak, and he does seem to be able to tell his friends from his enemies. The end is particularly touching, as we sense that this is one monster that could have been redeemed. The best thing about the movie, though, is Peter Cushing. For a while, I was wondering if he was only going to serve as narrator as he does during the opening section of the movie, but once he appears, he steals the movie; his police surgeon/coroner character would have made a fine protagonist in a TV or film series; it’s a shame something like that never developed.

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The Glass Sphinx (1967)

THE GLASS SPHINX (1967)
aka La sfinge d’oro
Article 3281 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 6-15-2010
Posting Date: 8-8-2010
Directed by Luigi Scattini
Featuring Robert Taylor, Anita Ekberg, Gianna Serra
Country: Italy / Egypt / Spain
What it is: Tepid adventure story

A millionaire’s search for the tomb of a pharaoh who was rumored to have a secret elixir of life inspires violence and betrayal.

It’s plotted to maximize confusion, takes every opportunity to work in an action sequence (mostly fistfights shot with some of the shakiest camerawork I’ve seen), and scores it all with a repetitive soundtrack that makes every scene feel the same. It almost feels like one of those James Bond ripoffs from Italy that were so common at the time, only minus the charm. As far as the fantastic content, it never manifests itself to the extent that the movie ever leaves the realm of marginalia. Yes, there are two beautiful women in the cast, but, truth to tell, I’ve never been partial to women who have velcro implants in their eyelashes. All in all, an uninspired exercise in adventure.

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The Gore Gore Girls (1972)

THE GORE GORE GIRLS (1972)
Article 3280 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 6-13-2010
Posting Date: 8-7-2010
Directed by Herschell Gordon Lewis
Featuring Frank Kress, Amy Farrell, Hedda Lubin
Country: USA
What it is: More Gore from Herschell

Someone is brutally killing and mutilating strippers. A newspaper hires a private detective to solve the murders.

This movie marked the end of Herschell Gordon Lewis’s directorial career for a good thirty years. By this time, he had achieved a certain level of competence in his filmmaking, and the acting shows some improvement over his earlier movies. He even managed to land a name star – Henny Youngman. As a result, this movie just looks and sounds better than some of his earlier movies. The gore is pretty extreme, but I wouldn’t really call it convincing. Considering the misogynistic nature of Lewis’s gore movies, I’m a little surprised that I don’t find his work near as offensive as that of certain other directors, maybe because I don’t really sense any nihilistic hatred underneath; I don’t sense that Lewis really takes any of this seriously, and I find after a while that I can’t either. If there’s any one thing I really noticed, it’s that Lewis was one pretty strange filmmaker; he clearly has a sense of humor (though it is wildly uneven), and there are numerous head-scratching touches (why are all the police investigations accompanied by a bad arrangement of the “Anvil Chorus?”). Yet, somehow, it managed to hold the attention even during the non-gory sequences.

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Dick Barton: Special Agent (1948)

DICK BARTON: SPECIAL AGENT (1948)
Article 3279 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 6-12-2010
Posting Date: 8-6-2010
Directed by Alfred J. Goulding
Featuring Don Stannard, George Ford, Gillian Maude
Country: UK
What it is: Uneven spy melodrama

Dick Barton investigates a smuggling operation that actually seems to have a more sinister intent up its sleeve.

This movie was based on a popular British radio series. All I can say is that this series must have been really popular if this movie managed to spout two sequels. It’s half ineffectual comedy and half campy heroics. The script is a mess, and the combination of static direction and frantic but substandard editing makes for a confusing and unpleasant viewing experience; it feels somewhat like you’re listening to a song where one of the musicians is consistently off a half-beat throughout. The low budget really shows in the use of sound; several of the scenes feel like a redubbed silent movie with the words not matching the mouths, and when the foley artists decide to add fight sounds to the fight scenes (which they don’t always see fit to do), they don’t make any attempt to match the sounds up to the action. And as for the visual aspect of the fight scenes, I haven’t seen this many missed hits since the last time I saw a “Starman” movie. The fantastic content involves vials of super-germs, which never actually get used, so the movie remains pretty marginal overall. Reportedly, the movie is a lot more fun if you’re a kid. Also, I hear tell that the sequels are vast improvements over this one. Since I’ll eventually be watching them, I’ll find out for myself.

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Anju to Zushio-Maru (1961)

ANJU TO ZUSHIO-MARU (1961)
aka The Littlest Warrior, The Orphan Brother
Article 3278 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 6-10-2010
Posting Date: 8-5-2010
Directed by Taiji Yabushita
Featuring the voices of Yoshiko Sakuma and Kinya Kitaoji
Country: Japan
What it is: Animated folk tale with fantasy elements

In feudal times, a father is exiled. When the rest of his family attempts to rejoin with him, they encounter kidnappers who separate them and sell them into slavery. Will they ever reunite?

I was only able to find this movie in unsubtitled Japanese, and maybe I was the better off for it. I’ve seen two other animated movies by this director (PANDA AND THE MAGIC SERPENT and ALAKAZAM THE GREAT), both of which had been dubbed into English and both of which came across as having been heavily compromised by the English dubbing. The language barrier proved to be only a minor inconvenience; though I couldn’t find a good plot description of this movie, I did discover that it was basically a version of the same story of SANSHO THE BAILIFF, and a few plot descriptions of that one gave me the framework I needed to follow this one. Since I don’t see the latter movie listed in any of my guides to fantastic movies, I assume that much of the fantastic content here is unique to this telling. We have talking animals, for one thing, and since this is a children’s version of the story, I’m not surprised at the addition. There’s also a battle with a giant spider. Still, the final fantastic aspect is truly striking; when certain characters die, they undergo a transformation to another form which seems to give them power over that form’s particular element. One transforms into a mermaid, and the other into a flying swan, and both the forces of air and water play into the story to bring justice on the villains. The story has no doubt been cleaned up a little; I believe in the other movie, one character was forced into prostitution, but that detail understandably doesn’t appear here as far as I can tell. Still, it doesn’t soft-pedal the tragedy; though it more or less has a happy ending, there are some great losses, and quite a few tears are jerked in the final parts of the movie. Somehow, I suspect the English version of this would have weakened the movie considerably, so I’m glad I saw it as I did.

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Play Misty for Me (1971)

PLAY MISTY FOR ME (1971)
Article 3277 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 6-9-2010
Posting Date: 8-4-2010
Directed by Clint Eastwood
Featuring Clint Eastwood, Jessica Walter, Donna Mills
Country: USA
What it is: Psycho thriller

A DJ has a brief fling with an obsessed female fan, but the woman begins intruding on his life. He soon discovers that the woman is insanely jealous, mad… and homicidal.

Clint Eastwood’s fame probably wouldn’t have suffered one bit had he never decided to take up directing; however, he did, and in doing so, developed a career perhaps more distinguished than his acting one. This was his first directorial effort, and though it has a few problems, for a first effort, it is excellent. A strong script and an excellent performance by Jessica Walter are what really make this one work. Jessica’s psycho is the stuff of nightmares; she uses every trick in the book to worm her way into the DJ’s life, and you can feel his frustration when his attempts to break off with here result in only more shrill, spiraling madness. I love the moments in the movie where it doesn’t feel the need to explain or show certain things; you can figure out how the woman knew which bar to go to to meet the DJ without being told, and you don’t need to see her eavesdropping on the phone when the DJ takes a call from his girlfriend. It’s also fun to see director Don Siegel as the bartender. The main problem with the movie is the pacing is occasionally off, and the movie comes to a screeching halt about three-fourths of the way through the picture before picking up with the finale. Eastwood himself does a decent job as the DJ, though I don’t think he would have been my first choice for the role. Still, this was an auspicious directorial debut for Eastwood.

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Robot Wrecks (1941)

ROBOT WRECKS (1941)
Short
Article 3276 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 6-8-2010
Posting Date: 8-3-2010
Directed by Edward L. Cahn
Featuring Billy ‘Froggy’ Laughlin, George ‘Spanky’ McFarland, Billie ‘Buckwheat’ Thomas
Country: USA
What it is: Our Gang short

The kids in Our Gang, inspired by a robot at a department store, decide to build one themselves to do their chores from them. This opens them up to being bilked out of the club dues by another kid who sells them ‘invisible rays’ to make the robot work.

The trouble with cute kids series is that kids grow older and become less cute. It’s been five years since I’ve seen Spanky and Buckwheat in SPOOKY HOOKY, and here they are again, only not quite as cute. The humor seems more dependent on special effects tricks (such as fast motion) than in the previous ones I’ve seen, and though it’s short enough not to wear out its welcome, it’s the weakest of the Little Rascals/Our Gang comedies I’ve seen. The robots are fun, though.

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Der Herr im Haus (1940)

DER HERR IM HAUS (1940)
aka The Gentleman in the House
Article 3275 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 6-7-2010
Posting Date: 8-2-2010
Directed by Heinz Helbig
Featuring Hans Moser, Maria Andergast, Elise Aulinger
Country: Germany
What it is: Comedy

I’m forgoing the usual plot description here for the simple reason that I can’t really piece anything together. I’m watching this one in unsubtitled German, and usually in cases like this, I’m able to pick up some thread to follow, but not in this case. I know it’s a comedy, and it follows the adventures of a man who seems to be either a landlord or a butler. His daughter is involved in a romance with a handsome young man. There’s a big stage production involved. And part of the plot revolves around spiritualism, with one scene in which a medium (who may be a con man; there’s some business about switching necklaces) is trying to summon the spirit of Napoleon Bonaparte. Oddly enough, the main character’s name seems to be Napoleon Bonaparte, but I’m pretty sure we’re not dealing with the historical figure. Almost all of the humor is verbal and tied to various character relationships, which leaves me very little to go on. So I’m marking this one as watched, but until I become really fluent in German, I’m at a loss here.

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