Month: December 2019

Sonicman (1979)

SONICMAN (1979)
aka Supersonic Man
Article 4060 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 10-19-2012
Directed by Juan Piquer Simon
Featuring Antonio Cantafora, Cameron Mitchell, Jose Luis Ayestaran
Country: Spain
What it is: Superhero hijinks

Supersonic Man comes from outer space to prevent an evil genius’s plan to conquer the world.

If you’ve committed to making a low-budget rip on SUPERMAN and you know it’s going to end up bad, you could do worse than make it at least colorful and goofy, which this one does. It has Cameron Mitchell as the villain, a flame-throwing robot, lots of people running around with blasters, a comic relief begging wino and a stupid theme song. Granted, it’s not in the same league as INFRA-MAN as far as inspired goofiness goes, but it’s at least much better than THE PUMA MAN. And, truth to tell, I would have liked to see a sequel… but only if they followed up on the ending of this one and gave the comic-relief wino the super powers as they seem to be doing. But I’m not going to hold my breath for the release of SUPERSONIC WINO.

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The Clock-Maker’s Dream (1904)

THE CLOCK-MAKER’S DREAM (1904)
aka Le reve de l’horloger
Article 4059 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 10-18-2012
Directed by Georges Melies
Featuring Georges Melies
Country: France
What it is: Trick film

A clock-maker falls asleep and dreams his clocks have transformed into women.

Some of Melies’s shorts are still pretty fun to watch. However, some of them really can only be appreciated in respect to the time they were made and the novelty of the special effects they were exhibiting. It seems a great deal of care went into this one in terms of making the special effects flow as smoothly as possible, but the lack of anything resembling a story and the somewhat static nature of the tableaus that result leaves us with a somewhat dull short here. It’s similar in some ways to THE BALLET-MASTER’S DREAM, only with less movement. Fortunately, the running time of three minutes keeps this one from overstaying its welcome.

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The Christmas Dream (1901)

THE CHRISTMAS DREAM (1901)
aka Le reve de Noel
Article 4058 by Dave Sindelar
Directed by Georges Melies
Featuring Georges Melies
Country: France
What it is: Holiday sentiment

Children dream about the holiday on Christmas Eve.

There’s no real plot to this early Melies short; it’s largely a compendium of various scenes illustrating Christmas themes and traditions. The fantastic content includes angels delivering gifts and toys coming to life. There’s the ringing of a bell in a church, and a beggar is allowed to share Christmas dinner with the nobles in an act of goodwill to man. For a Melies film, this is very light on the special effects, and though it’s not a great film, it’s likable enough in its sincerity and artlessness.

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Sunny Italy (1950)

SUNNY ITALY (1950)
Article 4057 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 10-15-2012
Directed by Connie Rasinski
Voice cast unknown
Country: USA
What it is: Mighty Mouse cartoon

Mighty Mouse must save his girlfriend from Oilcan Harry in various Italian locations.

Ten thoughts on SUNNY ITALY:

1) I remember thinking the first time I saw one of the operetta-style Mighty Mouse cartoons that the series finally found its voice. Unfortunately, I’m finding out with this one that the concept (animated serial-style thrills combined with opera warbling) wears thin rather quickly.

2) Granted, some of my reaction may have been affected by the fact that the copy that I watched was the only one on Youtube… and seems to have been enhanced with an unremoveable Spanish voice translation layered over the cartoon. This is annoying and distracting, to say the least.

3) One problem I have with certain superheroes is that there’s no clear delineation of the extent of their powers, and if this cartoon is any indication, Mighty Mouse is one of the great offenders. Please reference the rest of the items on this list.

4) While Oilcan Harry has Mighty Mouse’s girlfriend suspended from the top of the Leaning Tower of Pisa, Mighty Mouse is unable to free her because he’s fighting lions in the Colosseum. But there’s no top on the Colosseum, so why doesn’t he ignore the lions and fly to her rescue.

5) Mighty Mouse has the ability to beat up ten lions, but lacks the power to break out of a plaster statue.

6) Why does Oilcan Harry break the plaster statue surrounding Mighty Mouse (rather easily by hitting it with his cane) when it’s obvious that the latter can’t do anything while he’s encased in it?

7) Why, when he’s not strong enough to break a plaster statue, does Mighty Mouse have the power to close off a volcano with a lasso?

8) Mighty Mouse apparently has the ability to hypnotize and frighten lava. How many times in his life would he find this a useful ability?

9) Why am I spending so much time on the logic errors in a Mighty Mouse cartoon?

10) This cartoon seems particularly heavy on the opera, with a long sequence where the girlfriend sings while being held prisoner on a Venetian gondola. Maybe it’s because this one takes place in Italy…

Yes, this is all pretty nit-picky, but that’s what ran through my mind while watching this. Granted, since the cartoon runs less than six minutes, it was hardly a great burden on my life.

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Ching Ling Foo Outdone (1900)

CHING LING FOO OUTDONE (1900)
Article 4056 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 10-14-2012
Directed by Edwin S. Porter
Cast unknown
Country: USA
What it is: Wishful thinking

A magician makes a tub of water appear, and then makes ducks and a young boy appear in the tub.

A read up a little on Ching Ling Foo before I wrote this. This is apparently a reenactment of his most famous magic trick where he would make a boy appear out of a tub of water; the movie throws in some ducks as well. Still, a film of a magician using jump cuts for his illusions simply isn’t in the same league as watching a live magician perform the stunt, so I’d hardly say Ching Ling Foo was seriously outdone here. In fact, the film doesn’t even beat it’s most appropriate competition, which is the similar works from Melies, who, for what it’s worth, is a more energetic and fun actor than the anonymous magician who appears here. Ultimately, this movie is just another Melies imitation.

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Chimney Sweep (1906)

CHIMNEY SWEEP (1906)
aka Jack le ramoneur
Article 4055 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 10-13-2012
Directed by Georges Melies
Cast unknown
Country: France
What it is: Odd little curiosity

A chimney sweep dreams that he is swept to a fantasy land where he is treated as a king. But his real life is less than royal…

I found myself reading the user comments on this movie on IMDB in preparation for trying to tackle my own discussion of it, and somehow I’m not surprised that the movie got two such different reactions. One praised the movie for its political subtext on the horrible treatment of young boys who worked as chimney sweeps in those days; the other dismissed the movie as a dull and confusing muddle. They both have a point; the subtext is certainly there, but it’s nearly impossible to tell if that’s the point of the short. There’s something baffling about the structure of the movie; the first half takes place in the chimney sweep’s dream world, and though there are a number of fantastic images during this bit, nothing is really happening. The second half starts with the chimney sweep being abused, and then finding a hidden fortune in a chimney, which leads to an oddly comic chase scene that leads nowhere. Any individual moment here might be taken on its own terms, but taken all together it simply doesn’t add up to anything that makes sense, especially since nothing seems to be resolved at the end. Melies made a lot of movies that had neither a plot nor a point, but this one feels like it should have both, but doesn’t. Quite frankly, I’ve never been more puzzled by one of his shorts.

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The Cheese Mites, or Lilliputians in a London Restaurant (1901)

THE CHEESE MITES, OR LILLIPUTIANS IN A LONDON RESTAURANT (1901)
Article 4054 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 10-12-2012
Directed by Walter R. Booth
Cast unknown
Country: UK
What it is: Trick film

A diner is startled to discover that there are little people living inside his beer and his wedge of cheese.

For its time, this trick film is pretty bare bones; it really has only one special effect to it, but then, a number of film makers were still trying to catch up to Melies. For me, the most interesting thing is that the diner seems delighted to see these little people popping out of his food. I’m not sure how it was back then, but nowadays I’d be pretty sure that some health regulations were being broken if I found little people living in my supper. Then I’d feel bad about the fact that by consuming the cheese, I’d be eating them out of house and home… literally. These are pretty silly things to be worrying about, but that’s what happens when you’re reviewing a one-minute movie.

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The Ocean Waif (1916)

THE OCEAN WAIF (1916)
Article 4053 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 10-8-2012
Directed by Alice Guy
Featuring Carlyle Blackwell, Doris Kenyon, Edgar Norton
Country: USA
What it is: Romantic drama

An orphan escapes from her abusive guardian and ends up in a relationship with a famous novelist.

Once again we have a movie which isn’t technically genre, but with touches of the fantastic in the subplot; the young couple meet at a supposedly haunted house, and the girl is initially mistaken for a female ghost. The movie doesn’t really play this up as horror, except in the mind of the writer’s butler. The latter is played by Edgar Norton in his first screen role; he would of course go on to play many more. The movie runs only forty minutes, but there’s enough plot to make it a full length feature. In fact, I suspect that the movie originally ran longer; there’s some jump cuts in the surviving print which makes me think that it’s not complete. The movie is entertaining enough, but since the horror element is minor, the movie remains marginal in terms of genre.

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The Brahmin and the Butterfly (1903)

THE BRAHMIN AND THE BUTTERFLY (1903)
aka La chrysalide et le papillon d’or
Article 4052 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 10-7-2012
Directed by Georges Melies
Featuring Georges Melies
Country: France
What it is: Trick short

A Brahmin lures a caterpillar into a cocoon, where it transforms into a butterfly. However, he makes the mistake of trying to capture the butterfly for his own.

I was expecting little more than another Melies trick short here, but it actually, in its own bare-bones way, tells a story about the error of trying to catch for ourselves what we cannot have. The tricks are a little offbeat this time, such as the effects for the giant crawling caterpillar and the flying butterfly. Though it’s certainly not one of his best, I rather enjoyed this simple little short.

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A Safe Place (1971)

A SAFE PLACE (1971)
Article 4051 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 10-6-2012
Directed by Henry Jaglom
Featuring Tuesday Weld, Orson Welles, Jack Nicholson
Country: USA
What it is: Art film

A woman deals with her two lovers, as well as memories of her encounter with a magician and her having been able to fly.

When movies as singularly personal as this come along, it’s often difficult to discuss the fantastic content, as there doesn’t seem to be an objective reality to use as a reference point. Did the woman really fly? Does she end up flying at the end of the movie? Does the magician really make anything disappear? And, on the movie’s terms, does it even matter whether these questions have answers? It can also be difficult to give them meaningful reviews, especially if the movie remains elusive to the reviewer. Did the filmmaker fail to make himself understood, or is there simply too great a distance between the individual minds? So I’m just going to settle with saying that, even though I can’t point to anything specific about the movie that doesn’t work, I found myself a little bored by the whole affair, even though I do recognize why others might be entranced by it. In some ways, Jaglom’s work reminds me of the work of Fellini, but Fellini can fascinate me consistently, whereas Jaglom can’t. Still, I do have to admire a man who can gather this amount of talent for his first movie; on top of the three performers listed above, the movie also features Firesign Theater’s Phil Proctor.

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