Month: September 2019

The House on Skull Mountain (1974)

THE HOUSE ON SKULL MOUNTAIN (1974)
Article 3783 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 12-11-2011
Posting Date: 12-23-2011
Directed by Ron Honthaner
Featuring Victor French, Janee Michelle, Jean Durand
Country: USA
What it is: Blaxploitation ‘old dark house’ movie with voodoo

Right before her death, a family matriarch sends for four great-grandchildren who don’t realize they are part of the family. They arrive in time for the woman’s funeral and await the reading of the will. Then they begin to die…

We’ve had blaxploitation vampires, Frankenstein monsters, and Mr. Hydes; why not an “old dark house” movie as well? Then throw some voodoo into the mix. Sadly, the script seems as if it was doing the bare minimum to bring the premise to life, and there are times when this movie seems to be an exercise in stretching out the undernourished script to feature length; there’s an endless driving sequence, one of those “romantic montages”, and a long voodoo ceremony to fill up running time. The first half is the weakest, because we also have to deal with an annoying and insensitive jive-talker who is fortunately the first to go; afterwards, the movie improves a little, though it doesn’t rise above the ordinary. There is, however, at least one striking visual that makes for the best moment in the movie; there’s a scene with a woman looking into a mirror that becomes juxtaposed with a skull that shows some momentary cinematic cleverness, and it almost makes the movie worth catching.

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Haunts (1977)

HAUNTS (1977)
Article 3782 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 12-10-2011
Posting Date: 12-22-2011
Directed by Herb Freed
Featuring May Britt, Cameron Mitchell, Aldo Ray
Country: USA
What it is: Starts out as a psycho on the loose movie, then…

A young woman who works on a farm becomes embroiled in a series of psychotic scissor murders.

If sheer unpredictability is an unmixed blessing, than this movie gets by; even knowing that there were plot twists coming down the pike, I was unable to see just which way the twists were going to go, and the final revelations were indeed unforeseen by me. Yet, in the end, I’m not sure I’m quite satisfied by the movie; there are moments when the movie feels more than a little silly, and there are moments where I feel the plot is careening out of control. But these are just moments, and meanwhile I can appreciate the acting from the three leads and the fact that the movie does seem intriguing at times. I think the dissatisfaction I have comes from the fact that there’s either something missing, or that something has been mishandled, but what it is escapes me. Still, I will say this much; a quick glance at some of the IMDB reviews gives me a movie to compare it to (which I won’t repeat here because, frankly, it gives away one of the major twists), and I don’t feel anywhere near the sharp vibe I do from that movie as I do with this one. At this point, I can only classify this one as a misfire with a question mark.

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Professor Zazul (1962)

PROFESSOR ZAZUL (1962)
aka The Mystery of Professor Zazul
Short
Article 3781 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 12-9-2011
Posting Date: 12-21-2011
Directed by Marek Nowicki and Jerzy Stawicki
Featuring Piotr Kurowski and Stanislaw Milski
Country: Poland
What it is: Intriguing enigma

A man wrecks his car and seeks help in the home of a mysterious professor who has a secret.

Here’s another movie I wish had English subtitles; it’s a fascinating little short that does some very interesting things with the flow of time and plays with dreams within dreams. I can’t quite figure it out, but the source where I found the movie says that robots play a part in the storyline, and that certainly seems likely at the point of a major revelation near the end of the movie. It’s based on a short story by Stanislaw Lem, and, like anything else I’ve seen that is based on his work, it makes me more and more interested in spending some time investigating his work. As it is, even though I couldn’t quite follow this short, I found it very interesting to look at throughout.

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World of Horror (1968)

WORLD OF HORROR (1968)
aka Swiat Grozy
Article 3780 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 11-8-2011
Posting Date: 12-20-2011
Directed by Witold Leseiwicz, Czeslaw Petelski, Ewa Petelska
Country: Poland
What it is: Anthology

Three tales from the world of horror are told. They are “Lord Arthur Savile’s Crime”, “A Terribly Strange Bed”, and “The Canterville Ghost”.

Adventures in Moviehunting: When this movie first entered my list via the John Stanley book, there was no accompanying entry on IMDB, usually a sign that the likelihood of me ever seeing it is slight. However, I periodically go through my hunt lists and double check movies like this to see if any new information has been added. When I encountered this title during one of those checks, I decided to check the title against CITWF, which often has entries for films not listed on IMDB. Sure enough, I found it listed, with the alternate Polish title of SWIAT GROZY. Though I still couldn’t find this title on IMDB, I made a check of one of the directors’ names, and I noticed that there was TV short entitled DUCH Z CANTERVILLE from the same year. Knowing I was on too something, I did manage to locate all three shorts on IMDB. A check on one of my sources quickly revealed that all three were available, and so here I am with my review.

Technically, I’m bending the rules a little not watching the version that was edited together, but it’s not the first time I’ve done it, and research reveals that probably no more was done than to change the credits sequences. Furthermore, I was fortunate that two of the shorts did come with English subtitles; only LORD ARTHUR SAVILE’S CRIME left me high and dry, as I don’t remember having read the original story (or the original stories for the other two either). Still, even with that problem, all three were very entertaining; I’ve long held that even if you don’t understand the language, you can sometimes recognize good acting and superior production, and this one has both. I suspect the first story has to do with the murder of an old lady and its potential for discovery by a palm reader. I’m not going to say much about A TERRIBLY STRANGE BED other than that if it’s true to the original story, William Castle was probably familiar with it. As for the final story, it was in many ways very different from the Charles Laughton movie version, and I suspect this one is probably closer to the original source; it just feels more like the work of Oscar Wilde. This one is very amusing, as it deals with an ancient ghost’s frustrations at trying to scare off some stubborn Americans who not only don’t believe in him, but aren’t scared of him when they encounter him. All in all, this one was quite enjoyable.

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Hoffmanns Erzahlungen (1916)

HOFFMANNS ERZAHLUNGEN (1916)
aka Tales of Hoffmann
Article 3779 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 12-7-2011
Posting Date: 12-19-2011
Directed by Richard Oswald
Featuring Kurt Wolowsky, Max Ruhbeck, Paula Ronay
Country: Germany
What it is: Opera anthology

A young man dreams three stories based on experiences in his life.

I’ve seen the Powell/Pressburger version of this movie, which recounts the same three stories as this one does, though the ones here are far less elaborate. All the stories are about lost loves, with the first one in which our hero falls in love with an automaton being the one with the most clear fantastic content. The second story had clear fantastic content in the later version (which involved a magician and a man’s soul being kept in a mirror reflection), but those elements seem to be missing in this one, though that may simply be because, with no English title cards in this version, I may have missed those elements. The third story is about a woman who dances herself to death; in the later version, it is singing that causes the woman to die. I don’t know which way the original opera went on this one, but dancing is certainly a more visually compelling choice for a silent movie. All in all, I thought this early version was quite well done; despite the fact that the title cards are in German, I didn’t have a whole lot of trouble following it because, on top of having at least some familiarity with the language, the movie does work a lot in visual turns. I particularly liked seeing the ways the events in the young man’s life dovetailed with stories in his dreams.

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The Bespoke Overcoat (1956)

THE BESPOKE OVERCOAT (1956)
Short
Article 3778 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 12-6-2011
Posting Date: 12-18-2011
Directed by Jack Clayton
Featuring David Kossoff, Alfie Bass, Alan Tivern
Country: UK
What it is: Ghost story

An elderly clerk, unable to afford a sheepskin coat from the factory where he works, commissions a tailor to make him a new coat. Unfortunately, the clerk is sacked and dies before the coat is completed. The tailor is then visited by the ghost of the clerk, who wants one last favor from him – to help him steal a sheepskin coat from his former employer.

This short, by the director who would later helm THE INNOCENTS and SOMETHING WICKED THIS WAY COMES, was based on a story by Nikolai Gogol. Given the subject matter, I was expecting a twist ending of sorts, but that’s not the way this one works; it’s more of a character piece, and both David Kossoff and Alfie Bass give excellent and memorable performances as the tailor and the clerk. Actually, it reminded me a bit of THE BICYCLE THIEF, in the way that it shows us some characters for whom an ordinary item (that you or I might take for granted) becomes the center of their existence. The short is moving and beautifully photographed. My favorite moment has the ghost deciding to not try walking through a wall because he would feel rather silly.

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La poupee (1962)

LA POUPEE (1962)
aka The Doll
Article 3777 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 12-5-2011
Posting Date: 12-17-2011
Directed by Jacques Baratier
Featuring Zbigniew Cybulski, Sonne Teal, Claudio Gora
Country: Italy / France
What it is: Political satire

In a mythical South American country, a dictator is impersonated by a look-alike revolutionary while a robot/cyborg version of the dictator’s wife stirs up revolution.

Like yesterday’s movie, here’s another title that ended up on my “ones that got away” list, only to finally make its way into my hands so I could see it. And, like yesterday’s movie, there are no English titles, so I am limited in my ability to understand and discuss the movie. However, whereas yesterday’s movie left me feeling that I wouldn’t particularly be impressed even if it were in English, this one really has me yearning to know what’s going on. It’s obviously a satire, and there’s a surreal air to the proceedings, and it has a real sense of style. I’m not sure exactly how to describe the the doppelganger of the dictator’s wife; I’ve heard it described as either a robot or a cyborg, but it’s hard to make out which based on a purely visual take on the movie. One of the most interesting comparisons between yesterday’s movie and this one is this; whereas I went through most of yesterday’s movie feeling that Asta Nielsen looked like a female impersonator, I discovered that the person who plays the wife and the cyborg in this one was indeed a female impersonator… and I would have never guessed. Sometimes, this project gets very strange.

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Erdgeist (1923)

ERDGEIST (1923)
aka Earth Spirit
Article 3776 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 12-4-2011
Posting Date: 12-16-2011
Directed by Leopold Jessner
Featuring Asta Nielsen, Albert Bassermann, Carl Ebert
Country: Germany
What it is: Drama

A woman named Lulu destroys the lives of all the men she meets.

This title sat on my hunt list so long that it eventually got shuttled off to my “ones that got away” list; however, I finally did manage to get a hold of a copy. And, as is often the case where I do find a movie after this long a wait, the copy I found didn’t have English title cards; the ones on this are in Russian, so I couldn’t even pretend that I was able to read them. To help me a little, I checked a few of my resources, and discovered that the movie was largely based on the same stories that resulted in PANDORA’S BOX, and that the fantastic content was that it featured the character of Jack the Ripper. If it does, then I wasn’t able to pick him out from the rest of the characters, so this title may be a false alarm. The movie itself mostly shows people going through emotional turmoil against black backgrounds while actress Asta Nielsen wears strange costumes, including one that makes her look like some sort of bizarre black angel. To be truthful, this got old very quick, and, despite the fact that the movie has a fairly strong rating on IMDB (7.2), I found myself fairly bored by the whole thing. Maybe it would have helped if I had been able to understand the title cards. One thing that did occur to me is how much tastes change over the years. Asta Nielsen was reportedly one of the most popular and beautiful actresses of the silent screen, and no doubt she was; however, every time the camera got close enough to her that I could get a good look at her, she looked for all the world like a female impersonator to me.

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Pigs (1972)

PIGS (1972)
aka Daddy’s Deadly Darling
Article 3775 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 12-3-2011
Posting Date: 12-15-2011
Directed by Marc Lawrence
Featuring Toni Lawrence, Mark Lawrence, Jesse Vint
Country: USA
What it is: Psychos and hungry animals

A disturbed young woman (who killed her father after he raped her) escapes from an asylum and takes refuge in the cafe of a small town. The owner of the cafe has a secret; his pigs have become addicted to human flesh, and he has to keep them supplied with food. Can this end well?

Hey, this movie has something in common with the last four movies I’ve seen. Like NIGHT OF THE GHOUL, it has a scene where a woman keeps hunting for someone who is calling out “Help me! Help me!” (though I do need to point out that in the earlier movie, the scene had a purpose; here it’s a head-scratching question mark). Like GIRLY, it gives us multiple psychos in the same household. And like C.H.O.M.P.S, it’s an animal story, and come to think of it, C.H.O.M.P.S would be a good name for this one as well, given that it’s partially about the the dining habits of the pigs. Here’s one of the taglines for this movie – “If you go down to the woods today… you’re in for a PIG surprise!” This may be one of the silliest taglines I’ve encountered, and the movie lives up to it, what with its bizarre confusion between human bodies being eaten by pigs and human beings being turned into pigs (I think someone was taking the phrase “You are what you eat.” too literally), it’s freaky snatches of conversation (such as the sheriff who points out that “Dead people have no rights!”), and some of the most twitchily bent and hilarious conversations I’ve ever encountered. I actually remember seeing an ad for this on TV once many years ago, and then I never heard of it again until now; I don’t think it ever played in a theater anywhere near me. And, with it’s weird, deja vu-ish jump cuts that make you feel like you’re unstuck in time, this certainly must rank as one of the worst-edited films ever made. It’s awful, but hilariously so, and that’s saying something.

Oh, and I forgot to comment on what it had in common with THE GIANT OF METROPOLIS – it takes place in some super-scientific community. At least, that’s the only way I can explain why the motor vehicles in this movie have a tendency to start driving away before you hear the motor start. Or maybe that’s just more editing problems…

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C.H.O.M.P.S. (1979)

C.H.O.M.P.S. (1979)
Article 3774 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 12-2-2011
Posting Date: 12-14-2011
Directed by Don Chaffey
Featuring Wesley Eure, Valerie Bertinelli, Conrad Bain
Country: USA
What it is: Faux shopping cart movie

A young inventor tries to win his job back at a security agency by creating the ultimate burglary prevention device – a robotic dog. However, there’s an industrial spy at the agency who wants the dog and the plans for a competitor…

So this is what happens when American International and Hanna-Barbera productions join forces – an imitation of a Disney shopping cart movie, with some familiar names in the cast (Valerie Bertinelli, Jim Backus, Conrad Bain, and Chuck McCann and Red Buttons as a pair of incompetent burglars) and the kind of plot you’d expect, but lacking the special effects expertise of its model. No, it’s not very good, but it’s not significantly worse than Disney’s own comedies from the period, and it’s harmless enough. Technically, since C.H.O.M.P.S stands for Canine Home Protection System, the title should be C.HOM.P.S, but that’s nit-picking; in truth, the most annoying things about the movie are the presence of an unnecessary and uncredited voice-over on a big dog named Monster who throws in some gratuitous light cussing, no doubt to avoid the dreaded G rating, and a repetitive melody that shows up whenever the robot dog springs into action. I’m not sure just how cost-effective this robot dog would be; given its propensity for leaping through doors, windows, walls when its in action, you’d think the damage it would do would end up outweighing its benefits.

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