Month: August 2019

She Shall Have Music (1937)

SHE SHALL HAVE MUSIC (1937)
Article 3692 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 9-8-2011
Posting Date: 9-23-2011
Directed by Leslie S. Hiscott
Featuring Jack Hylton, June Clyde, Claude Dampier
Country: UK
What it is: Revue musical

A broadcasting magnate hires Jack Hylton and his orchestra to give a worldwide broadcast from a cruise ship. Business rivals plan to sabotage the broadcast and put the magnate out of business. Meanwhile, a female American singer for the orchestra falls in love with the magnate’s son, a highbrow who only loves classical music and not the jazz that she performs. Much warbling, swinging and stomping occur.

The last British musical I saw was A NIGHT OF MAGIC, but never fear – this one is far better. Which is not to say that it’s great; it’s pleasant, harmless and inconsequential. The plot doesn’t matter; that’s just something to fill in between the musical numbers, which are good enough to pass muster for this movie. Oh, and the fantastic content? It appears that the manager for the orchestra is testing a wristwatch television that gets used toward the end of the movie to resolve one of the plot threads, thereby giving the movie some science fiction content. That’s about all you need to know about this harmless little movie.

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A Howling in the Woods (1971)

A HOWLING IN THE WOODS (1971)
TV-Movie
Article 3691 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 9-7-2011
Posting Date: 9-22-2001
Directed by Daniel Petrie
Featuring Barbara Eden, Larry Hagman, John Rubinstein
Country: USA
What it is: Small-town-with-a-secret thriller

A woman planning on getting a divorce returns to her home town to find the residents hostile and surly. She stays at the hotel owned by her parents, but she begins to wonder about several mysteries – why isn’t her father home? Why does no one talk about the little girl who drowned a few weeks ago? And why is a dog howling in the woods?

I’ve seen the basic premise that drives the first half of the movie (a town with a secret where everyone treats the newcomer/intruder with hostility and surliness) so many times now that I’ve gotten annoyed by it. This is probably because I get tired of the predictability of how this plays out – have the woman discover a clue and then have someone lie to her about it, and repeat this pattern until finally, late in the movie, someone tells her the truth. Fortunately, for this movie, the secret is good enough to make the second half much better; the movie stops being annoying and becomes suspenseful. It makes me really wish they had taken a different approach to telling the story, one that wasn’t quite so hackneyed. However, there are a few points that need to be made. One is that this is really pretty marginal as far as horror content goes. A dog howling in the woods is not necessarily scary, and though the movie flirts with the theme of madness, it remains a flirtation; in the final analysis, this is a mystery/thriller. Second, it is interesting to see Barbara Eden and Larry Hagman unite again after their “I Dream of Jeannie” days, though in truth, Hagman (who plays the Eden’s husband) really doesn’t have much to do in the story.

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Goodbye Charlie (1964)

GOODBYE CHARLIE (1964)
Article 3690 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 9-6-2011
Posting Date: 9-21-2011
Directed by Vincente Minnelli
Featuring Tony Curtis, Debbie Reynolds, Pat Boone
Country: USA
What it is: Comedy, adapted stage play style

A philandering screenwriter is shot by a jealous movie producer, but returns to life as a beautiful woman, much to the frustration of the writer’s best friend.

This is one of those movies that is an adaptation of a stage play, and feels like it for most of the length of the movie, and considering that the movie runs just under two hours, that’s a lot of time to watch two people talking endlessly in mostly the same location. I think the biggest missed opportunity here is Debbie Reynold’s performance; she never once gives me the feeling that she actually is a man in a woman’s body because she plays the character as just too much of a woman, and without that sense of the maleness of the character, the movie never comes across as convincing. Tony Curtis does what he can, but the story is a little too muddled to give him a real and consistent personality. In the end, the only performance that consistently amused me during the movie was Walter Matthau’s as the movie producer; he’s the only one who seems to have the energy and timing to really make his scenes speed along. Unfortunately, he’s a secondary character and is not present for long stretches of the running time, so I’m afraid that I found the movie a real bore.

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Earth Bound (1981)

EARTH BOUND (1981)
aka Earthbound
Article 3689 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 9-5-2011
Posting Date: 9-20-2011
Directed by James L. Conway
Featuring Burl Ives, Christopher Connelly, Meredith MacRae
Country: USA
What it is: TV series pilot that somehow made it to the big screen

A family of aliens and their pet green monkey end up stranded on Earth where they befriend a hotel manager and his orphaned grandson. Can they find the crucial element to fix their spacecraft, avoid capture by government officials, and solve all of their friends’ personal problems in the two and a half days they have left?

I actually caught this pathetic little science fiction comedy when it played in the theaters, albeit not from my own choosing; it was what is known as a “family” night at the movies. It’s like one of the Disney shopping cart movies except it never once approaches the energy level or the lunacy of those films, despite the fact that they have given the alien family an array of convenient super-powers. Its acting is competent and uninspired, the writing is cliche-ridden, and it never works up an iota of momentum or suspense. It’s the type of movie that is mildly comic at its best, blandly dull at its worst. The ads highlighted the green monkey, but the animal is practically a non-entity; other than the fact that he seems to eat light bulbs (talked about but never seen), he adds little to the proceedings. And, after reading the user reviews on IMDB, it’s primarily championed by people who like it because it doesn’t have violence or foul language and is a true family movie. All I can say about that is if this was the type of movie they had to champion, it says something about the decrepit state of family movies at the time. And had it become a TV series, I’d have given it six weeks at best before cancellation.

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Commando Cody: Sky Marshal of the Universe (1953)

COMMANDO CODY: SKY MARSHAL OF THE UNIVERSE (1953)
TV Series / Serial
Article 3688 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 9-4-2011
Posting Date: 9-19-2011
Directed by Harry Keller, Franklin Adreon, and Fred C. Brannon
Featuring Judd Holdren, Aline Towne and Gregory Gaye
Country: USA
What it is: Science fiction series

A nefarious tyrant from outer space called The Ruler has his sights on attacking and defeating the Earth. Only Commando Cody and his crew can save the world.

I actually could have covered this one some time ago, but at the time, it appeared to be a TV series that was for some reason listed in my reference books as a serial. It was only later than I realized that the history of this one was somewhat more complicated; though obviously filmed as a TV show, it apparently had to be shown in theaters before it could be shown on TV due to certain contractual obligations. Apparently, this is the source of a certain amount of controversy; since it doesn’t engage in cliffhangers, some purists won’t classify it as a “serial”. I have no problem doing so; there is an overriding story arc, and there are some early silent serials that also eschewed the cliffhanger format, such as THE PERILS OF PAULINE. As a serial, I find it more entertaining than either ZOMBIES OF THE STRATOSPHERE or RADAR MEN FROM THE MOON; the necessity of coming up with a new episode-length threat every time out made things a little more creative than usual. As a TV series, it’s certainly faster-moving and more energetic than some of the other series of the time, such “Rocky Jones, Space Ranger” or “Space Patrol”, and the wealth of stock footage (from earlier serials and other sources) is well used. In this one, Commando Cody wears a mask under the helmet to keep his real identity a secret. One of the oddest touches for me was the presence of Richard Crane as Cody’s assistant in nine of the 12 episodes (the first three featured William Schallert in the position); given that he played the heroic title character in “Rocky Jones, Space Ranger”, he’s essentially in that series’ Winky role here. All in all, I was rather entertained by this one.

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Hand of Power (1968)

HAND OF POWER (1968)
aka Im Banne des Unheimlichen

Article 3687 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 9-3-2011
Posting Date: 9-18-2011
Directed by Alfred Vohrer
Featuring Joachim Fuchsberger, Siw Mattson, Wolfgang Kieling
Country: West Germany
What it is: Krimi

A killer dressed in a skeleton outfit is murdering heirs to the estate of an English lord. Rumors claim that the killer may be the dead Lord himself… returned as a zombie!

I rapidly found myself losing track of the plot of this Edgar Wallace mystery, due to a plethora of characters that make a checklist practically necessary to follow the thing. Still, that doesn’t mean I didn’t enjoy it. This is one of the krimis that emphasizes humor, not so much through the intrusion of a specific comic relief character but through the general tone of the script, and there’s actually a lot of fun and amusing lines in the movie. It also helps that the killer’s skeleton costume is genuinely creepy, especially when he opens his mouth, and his method of murder (he injects venom into his victims with a scorpion-tail ring) is also effective. The movie has a very striking beginning in which pallbearers drop a coffin after a hideous laugh issues from it. I definitely found this one a lot of fun.

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Flying Saucer Daffy (1958)

FLYING SAUCER DAFFY (1958)
Short

Article 3686 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 9-2-2011
Posting Date: 9-17-2011
Directed by Jules White
Featuring Joe Besser, Larry Fine, Moe Howard
Country: USA
What it is: Three Stooges short

When Joe snaps a photograph of a paper plate flying through the air, Moe and Larry mistake it for a flying saucer, and submit the photograph to a magazine and win a bundle of money. However, the picture is soon proven to be a fake…

This was apparently the last Three Stooges short filmed, and it may be one of the weakest of them. It seems like a bit of a departure for them; it’s almost as if it’s a Joe Besser short with Moe and Larry for support; they don’t seem to be working quite like a team. At first, I even wondered how much fantastic content there really was in the short, since the plot hinges on a paper plate mistaken for a flying saucer; however, later plot developments do push it into science fiction territory. I remember hearing at one time that Joe Besser had it in his contract that he couldn’t be subjected to Moe’s violence, but seeing how he’s on the receiving end of a lot of violence from Moe here, than I’d have to say that story is probably false. At any rate, I really get the feel here that he wasn’t the right person for the third Stooge, and I just found myself wondering what it would have been like for Shemp or Curly to be in there instead.

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Fantomas Strikes Back (1965)

FANTOMAS STRIKES BACK (1965)
aka Fantomas se dechaine

Article 3685 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 9-1-2011
Posting Date: 9-16-2011
Directed by Andre Hunebelle
Featuring Jean Marais, Louis de Funes, Mylene Demongeot
Country: France / Italy
What it is: Supervillain parody

Fantomas hatches a scheme to kidnap scientists who are on the verge of creating a method of long-distance hypnosis which could be used for world conquest. Can policeman Juve and reporter Fandor prevent him from accomplishing his evil scheme?

I was blindsided by the first movie in this series in that I didn’t expect a comedy; it was the first Fantomas movie I’d been able to see with English subtitles, and all of the others were played more or less straight. I felt a bit of resentment then (especially at the reduction of Juve to a buffoon), but I’ve gotten over it enough to enjoy this sequel for what it is, which is really more of the same. There are some fun moments here; my favorite has Fantomas and Fandor disguising themselves as the same scientist, and the confusion that results when all three of them end up in the same place. Of course, the humor is enhanced by the fact that Fantomas, Fandor and the scientist are all played by Jean Marais, who seems to be enjoying himself here. I still think Louis de Funes plays Juve a little too broadly, but at least the movie makes good use of his excitable over-the-top character in scenes where he is mistaken for a lunatic and one in which he exhorts other policemen to keep relaxed. There’s a fair amount of gadgetry in this one, including a car that converts to an airplane, a cigar gun, and a coat with a fake arm whereby the wearer can get the drop on an opponent by having a third hand. All in all, this was pretty amusing.

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El hacha diabolica (1965)

EL HACHA DIABOLICA (1965)
aka Santo vs the Diabolical Hatchet

Article 3684 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 8-31-2011
Posting Date: 9-15-2011
Directed by Jose Diaz Morales
Featuring Santo, Lorena Velazquez, Fernando Oses
Country: Mexico
What it is: Mexican wrestler movie

Santo must face a supernatural creature – an axe-wielding phantom who can appear out of thin air.

The copy I found of this movie was in unsubtitled Spanish, and I really wish it wasn’t; not only does the movie dabble in explaining Santo’s origins, but it’s one of the more genuinely eerie movies of his. It opens with an odd scene where it appears a bunch of monks are burying Santo, but it becomes apparent after a bit that we’re in the past, and it apparently establishes that Santo is not just one hero but one in a long line of them. The scenes involving the axe-wielding nemesis are memorable; sometimes his shadow merely appears on the wall for atmosphere, and his appearances are always startling and sudden. There’s a sequence where Santo travels into the past, and I believe I’ve seen a similar sequence in one of his other movies. At any rate, this is one of the higher ones on my list of movies that I really hope to find a subtitled copy of at some time.

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Duel of the Titans (1961)

DUEL OF THE TITANS (1961)
aka Romolo e Remo

Article 3683 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 8-30-2011
Posting Date: 9-14-2011
Directed by Sergio Corbucci
Featuring Steve Reeves, Gordon Scott, Virna Lisi
Country: Italy / France
What it is: Historical epic

Two brothers, destined to found the city of Rome, are separated from their mother and grow up as thieves. They discover their destiny, but will it be possible for them to share the rule of their new city…?

It’s easy to forget sometimes, but quite a few of the Italian Sword and Sandal movies are not fantasies but historical epics. That’s largely the case with this one; this telling of the story of Romulus and Remus keeps the fantastic content in the background. There’s some light prophecy and talk about the brothers being the sons of a god, but these touches are so slight that they hardly count. It’s one of the better and more ambitious movies of its ilk, but that’s usually the case when Steve Reeves is on hand; furthermore, the dubbing is much more careful than usual. Still, it’s a bit on the dull side, especially during the first part before the movie finds a clear direction to go. It’s mildly entertaining, and occasionally very good, but the lack of fantastic content will probably make it one I probably won’t revisit.

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