Month: April 2020

A Deal With the Devil (1914)

A DEAL WITH THE DEVIL (1914)
aka Den mystiske Fremmede
Article 4392 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 12-15-2013
Directed by Holger-Madsen
Featuring Olaf Fonss, Ebba Thomsen, Alf Blutecher
Country: Denmark
What it is: Faust variation

A medical student, dreaming of fame and riches, makes a deal with the devil that allows him to become an extraordinary success.

This short movie ended up on my “ones that got away” list, but thanks to a friend, I was able to find a copy that not only has English subtitles, but fills in the missing second reel with a “stills recreation” summary of the missing action. I’m really glad to have a chance to have seen this one; it’s a very well done variation on the Faust story. Two things in particular impressed me. One is that it makes excellent use of a visual motif it sets up early on; when the aspiring medical student visits a patient, the devil will appear at either the head or the foot of the bed, a clue which will indicate whether the patient will live or die. Another thing it does well is that it manages to set up a fairly common and quite noticeable plot device (you know how it will end when the student falls asleep early on), but manages to make the rest of the story involving enough that you forget about the coming plot twist until it finally comes around. Alf Blutecher is very effective as the devil, and this is definitely one of the better horror movies of the era.

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The Awakening (1980)

THE AWAKENING (1980)
Article 4391 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 12-13-2013
Directed by Mike Newell
Featuring Charlton Heston, Susannah York, Jill Townsend
Country: UK
What it is: Ancient Egyptian evil meets THE OMEN

When an archaeologist unearths a tomb containing the mummy of an Egyptian queen whose name has been eradicated from history, it unleashes an evil that sets its sights on his own family.

I went into this movie with the knowledge that its reputation was not very high. An early scene in which the actions of the opening of the tomb coincide with pains undergone by the archaeologist’s pregnant wife did manage to intrigue me enough that I hoped the movie would be somewhat better than its reputation. However, once the bizarre deaths start happening, I begin to suspect the movie was primarily an imitation of THE OMEN. However, as the movie progressed, I began to feel that the bizarre deaths had less to do with the movie’s conscious attempt to borrow from the other movie, but more to do with the an attempt to cover up the movie’s real problem, which is that the movie gets more muddled and lethargic as it progresses, so much so that by the time the ending rolls around, I found myself having not the slightest interest in how it came out. In short, the movie is just plain dull, and even Heston’s star power can’t do a thing to pull it out of the doldrums. It’s a little ironic that a movie with this title should make you fall asleep, but there it is.

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L’Epee du spirite (1910)

L’EPEE DU SPIRITE (1910)
aka The Spirit of the Sword
Article 4390 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 12-12-2013
Director unknown
Cast unknown
Country: France
What it is: Trick short

A stranger arrives at an inn and demonstrates the power of his magic sword to those present. When he settles down for the night, a manservant absconds with the sword, but finds it difficult to control…

I didn’t know the French title when this film entered my hunt list, but once I consigned it to my “ones that got away” list, not only was I given the French title, but I discovered that I had it in a collection of Segundo de Chomon shorts I had. I can’t say for sure whether it was directed by Chomon or not, but it is definitely a Melies-inspired compendium of special effects, though Melies would have probably kept all of the action in one room for so slight a plot. The special effects are amusing enough, though I’d imagine that this type of trick short was getting old by this time. In short, this is passably entertaining, if not great.

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Alien Contamination (1980)

ALIEN CONTAMINATION (1980)
aka Contamination
Article 4389 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 12-10-2013
Directed by Luigi Cozzi
Featuring Ian McCulloch, Louise Marleau, Marino Mase
Country: Italy / West Germany
What it is: Alien invasion movie

When a seemingly abandoned ship shows up in New York, it turns out the entire crew was killed by deadly, poisonous green eggs that cause people to explode on contact. It turns out the eggs are extraterrestrial, and there is a plot to infest the world with them…

Here’s another Italian rip-off of a highly successful American movie (in this case, ALIEN), but at least it doesn’t clone the whole movie; it borrows a few elements (alien eggs, an alien creature, and exploding bodies obviously inspired by the chest-buster of the original) and builds a new story out of them. That’s not to say that the story it builds out of them is particularly novel, but then, it’s not the story that is the big selling point of this one; it’s the exploding bodies that are the main attraction, and whenever bodies are not exploding, the movie has all the energy of an empty egg-carton. I don’t know what the Italian dialogue was like, but the dubbed English version is a compendium of dumb cliches on whatever subject comes up in the conversation. It’s probably a good thing that the final monster is kept in the shadows; what you can see of it looks pretty silly. All in all, it’s pretty much for fans of exploding bodies, and I suppose you know who you are.

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2019: After the Fall of New York (1983)

2019: AFTER THE FALL OF NEW YORK (1983)
aka 2019 – Dopo la caduta di New York
Article 4388 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 12-9-2013
Directed by Sergio Martino
Featuring Michael Sopkiw, Valentine Monnier, George Eastman
Country: Italy / France
What it is: Post-apocalyptic action

After the apocalypse, all women have been rendered sterile by radiation. What remains of the American government recruits a loner to infiltrate New York (under the control of an invading foreign power), find the only fertile woman left on the planet, and get her out of there so they can save the human race.

As should be fairly obvious, the movie is one of the many clones of THE ROAD WARRIOR and ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK, with Michael Sopkiw playing a Mad Max/Snake Plissken role. As such, it doesn’t score any big points on originality, and it has its share of problems, with the jittery, hard-to-follow action sequences being one of them. Still, amid the very familiar elements, it does have a few interesting touches. My favorite of these is that the sterility of the human race ends up having a side effect of causing a resentment of dwarfs because of their resemblance to children; the latter have a hidden colony in the sewers of the city. It also shows a certain tenderness and a sense of philosophy on occasion; yes, these touches don’t always work, but given that the rest of the movie is non-stop action, I’m a little surprised they exist. As a result, though the movie is nowhere near as good as its models, it isn’t a total waste of time either, and those with a weak spot for this type of movie will like this one all right.

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Jubilee (1978)

JUBILEE (1978)
Article 4387 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 12-8-2013
Directed by Derek Jarman
Featuring Jenny Runacre, Nell Campbell, Toyah Wilcox
Country: UK
What it is: Postpunk art film

Queen Elizabeth is transported by her astrologer into England 400 years in the future to witness a punkish, post-apocalyptic vision of the future.

This is an art film, and though I don’t object to giving them a try, I must confess that I’m no expert on them. So instead of trying to analyze what the movie is trying to do and how it’s trying to do it, all I can do is try to give a vague sense of whether the movie speaks to me in any way. It was quite a ways into the movie before I began to sense that there was a point to it all, and that was only when the movie showed a few hints of having some sort of a story; up to that point, the movie seemed to me to be a pretentious exercise in stylistic overkill on the theme of nihilistic meaninglessness. It might be more meaningful to someone who was part of the English punk scene in the late seventies, but I wasn’t there, and though I do enjoy some of the music of that era, I have little use for its attitude and fashion statements, and those are the aspects that get most of the attention here. There’s lots of sex, lots of violence, some music, and lots of dialogue that, if you don’t find it utterly fascinating, is more likely to make your eyes glaze over. In the end, I can’t say that I got much out of this one.

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The Three Lives of Thomasina (1964)

THE THREE LIVES OF THOMASINA (1964)
Article 4386 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 12-6-2013
Directed by Don Chaffey
Featuring Patrick McGoohan, Susan Hampshire, Laurence Naismith
Country: UK / USA
What it is: Fantasy drama

When a veterinarian (who lost his wife years ago) is forced to put his own daughter’s cat to sleep, he finds himself losing her love and affection, and must find within himself the strength to love again.

Despite the fact that the cat is the title character in the movie, she’s really more of a plot device than the main character. The main character is that of the veterinarian, who has lost much of his faith, compassion and ability to love due to the loss of his wife during a plague. In that sense, this is a story of redemption, and, being a soft touch for this type of story, it’s no surprise that I got caught up in it and enjoyed the movie tremendously. It helps that the veterinarian is played by Patrick McGoohan, who plays him with a real human complexity, and the movie often features characters making difficult choices. There’s also very good work from Susan Hampshire as a woman believed to be a witch who has the qualities the veterinarian lacks, Laurence Naismith as the reverend who serves as the veterinarian’s conscience, and Karen Dotrice as the inconsolable daughter. As for the movie’s fantastic content, I suppose it may be up for debate; the woman believed to be a witch is actually no such thing, and the possibility that Thomasina was actually dead and came back to life could be seen as ambiguous. However, since the story is told from the cat’s point of view, and there is a scene in which the cat visits the world of the afterlife (for cats), I’d say the fantastic content is substantial enough for inclusion here. I recommend this one, especially to animal lovers.

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Tarzan the Magnificent (1960)

TARZAN THE MAGNIFICENT (1960)
Article 4385 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 12-5-2013
Directed by Robert Day
Featuring Gordon Scott, Jock Mahoney, Betta St. John
Country: USA
What it is: Tarzan movie

Tarzan captures a wanted criminal who killed a friend of his, and vows to have him taken through the jungle to a city where he can collect the reward for his capture and distribute the money to the dead friend’s family. But the criminal’s own family are out to rescue him, and they won’t let anyone stand in their way…

This Tarzan movie has no more fantastic content than the one I saw yesterday, but beyond that, there’s a world of distance between the two movies. Yesterday’s was a lazy, uninspired affair, unconvincingly shot in the studio and loaded with filler. This one focuses in on the story, the action and the characters. Jane and Boy are not in the picture, and after a token antic-free scene early in the movie, Cheta is left in the care of someone else and plays no subsequent role in the movie. This one is shot on location in Africa and it shows it. Gordon Scott is back as Tarzan, and Jock Mahoney (who would eventually take on the role of Tarzan himself) plays the main villain of the piece. Other names in the cast include Lionel Jeffries as a big-talking man who proves a coward when put to the test, and John Carradine as the criminal’s father. It’s well directed by Robert Day, and it manages to keep the suspense fairly high during the proceedings. For the most part, the movie is a chase film of sorts, with Tarzan and company trying to evade pursuit from the criminal’s family; it gets a little tiresome before it’s all over, but the final fight scene is memorable, and it’s such an improvement over the last Tarzan movie I saw that it’s like a breath of fresh air.

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Tarzan’s Fight for Life (1958)

TARZAN’S FIGHT FOR LIFE (1958)
Article 4384 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 12-4-2013
Directed by H. Bruce Humberstone
Featuring Gordon Scott, Eve Brent, Rickie Sorensen
Country: USA
What it is: Tarzan jungle antics

Tarzan gets caught up in a conflict between a benevolent doctor trying to maintain a hospital in the jungle and a witch doctor who sees him as competition.

One of my sources sees fit to include practically every Tarzan movie ever made, even though for the most part, they can only be considered marginal fantasies at best. I’ve covered quite a few of them at this point, and when a series is that long lasting, it becomes difficult to find fresh, new situations for the characters. This one in particular feels tired, and the usual padding that fills up the movies (Tarzan and Jane swimming, Cheta engaged in antics, stock footage, etc.) becomes extremely noticeable. It’s also very studio bound, and when you show the studio jungle right next to authentic location stock footage and scenes culled from other Tarzan movies that were shot on location, the contrast becomes almost embarrassing at times; the scene where Tarzan talks and shares food with some friendly tribesmen is particularly bad in this regard. Gordon Scott makes for a muscular Tarzan, and Woody Strode has great presence as a warrior named Ramo, and they are the best things about this one; the rest is jungle business as usual.

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The Mistletoe Bough (1904)

THE MISTLETOE BOUGH (1904)
Article 4383 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 12-3-2013
Directed by Percy Stow
Cast unknown
Country: UK
What it is: Short tragedy

A bride disappears from her wedding party and hides in a crate. She can not be found by the other members of the wedding party. Then, thirty years later….

This macabre little silent short just recently popped up on the internet, thus allowing me to retrieve it from my “ones that got away” list. The short is not quite complete; it’s missing its final reveal, but given the action that leads up to it, it’s not that difficult to figure out what is seen, and I checked the Willis guide for a quick rundown to help. It’s based on a poem that I haven’t read, so I’m not familiar with the story. As such, the short leaves many unanswered questions for me; why was the woman hiding in the crate? How did it get sealed? Why didn’t anybody bother to open the crate for thirty years? And, perhaps most interestingly, why would someone have a premonition thirty years after it would do anyone any good? The story itself is rather compact, but I did find the short rather slow-moving, especially in the beginning; for me, a long dance sequence is no way to kick off a story. At any rate, I’m glad to have had a chance to cross this one off of my list.

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