Month: May 2020

The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1976)

THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME (1976)
TV-Movie
Article 4510 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 4-20-2014
Directed by Alan Cooke
Featuring Kenneth Haigh, Warren Clarke, Michelle Newel
Country: UK
What it is: Literary adaptation

An orphan hunchback, adopted and cared for by an archdeacon, becomes embroiled in the life of a gypsy girl when his master becomes obsessed with her.

The 1939 version of this story is one of my favorite movies, and the only other version of it that I’d bother to see again is the 1923 version with Lon Chaney. This one is much closer to the original story, but it’s been many years since I read the novel. If anything, this version makes me want to go back and reread it, if for no other reason than to find out if I would end up disliking most of the characters in the same way I do from this version. I don’t expect to like the character of Frollo (he is the real villain of the piece), but I don’t recall disliking Esmeralda in the other versions I’ve seen as I do here; in this one, she comes off ultimately as a stupid, ungrateful fool. I suspect the culprit of this one is the script; there’s too many times where the characters seem obvious and one-dimensional, and there were too many times where I wished the characters would shut up and express their feelings with more subtlety. I wasn’t particularly impressed by any of the performances, for that matter, but I’m not sure that the script as written gave any real opportunities. And, quite frankly, I’m never going to be quite satisfied with any version of the story where the crowds of Paris are represented by a group of about twenty extras. In short, I didn’t care for this one.

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Dreamchild (1985)

DREAMCHILD (1985)
Article 4509 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 4-19-2014
Directed by Gavin Millar
Featuring Coral Browne, Ian Holm, Peter Gallagher
Country: UK
What it is: Speculative biography

In 1932, Mrs. Alice Hargreaves (who, as a child, was the real-life inspiration for the Alice books) is invited to Columbia University in America for a centenary celebration of Lewis Carroll’s birth. While there, she comes to terms with her memories and association with the famous author.

For those who know a little bit more about Rev. Charles Dodgson’s life than the fact that, as Lewis Carroll, he wrote some of the most beloved children’s books of all time, there are some very unsettling facts to reckon with, and there is the possibility that he may have been a repressed pedophile. The uneasiness of this fact pervades this movie, and in many ways, it gives the movie a complexity and a poignancy that it might not otherwise have. The movie moves back and forth through three modes. The first tells the story of Mrs. Hargreave’s trip to the United States in 1932. The second involves flashbacks to her encounters and relationship with Charles Dodgson. The third involves fantasy encounters with various characters from “Alice in Wonderland”; these sequences involve creations by Jim Henson, and I suspect the fact that these creations look somewhat twisted and disturbing is intentional. The movie is anchored by stunning performances from Carol Browne (as the 80-year old Mrs. Hargreaves) and Ian Holm (as the very repressed Charles Dodgson), and one can feel the intensity of their emotions which they can never explicitly express. The movie is definitely not for everyone, but for those willing to give it a chance, it is complex, multi-layered, powerful and poignantly moving.

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The Spy Who Loved Me (1977)

THE SPY WHO LOVED ME (1977)
Article 4508 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 4-18-2014
Directed by Lewis Gilbert
Featuring Roger Moore, Barbara Bach, Curd Jurgens
Country: UK
What it is: James Bond movie

When a British and a Russian submarine disappear, James Bond is sent out on a mission to get a hold of the plans for the machine that was used to locate the submarines. However, a female Russian agent is also after the same plans.

I haven’t seen all of them yet, but of the ones I’ve seen, this is easily my favorite of the Roger Moore Bond movies. It’s heavier on the science fiction gadgetry than many of the others, it’s one of the most visually attractive of the series, and Jaws (as played by Richard Kiel) is one of the most memorable henchmen in the whole Bond series. I particularly like atmosphere of the first third of the movie in Egypt; the scenery is breathtaking, and the scenes with Jaws have an almost horror feeling to them. Things get a little sillier as the movie progresses, and it all runs on a bit too long, but it’s nice to see Milton Reid pop up as another henchman, and it’s always a treat to see Caroline Munro. I couldn’t help but notice that the producers of the film changed their mind on what the next movie of the series would be; at the end of the film, FOR YOUR EYES ONLY was announced, but MOONRAKER would be the next one made. All in all, this was one of the more satisfying movies from the franchise.

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The Haunting of M. (1979)

THE HAUNTING OF M. (1979)
Article 4507 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 4-17-2014
Directed by Anna Thomas
Featuring Sheelagh Gilbey, Nini Pitt, Evie Garratt
Country: USA
What it is: Ghost story

In 1906, when a photograph is taken at a party at the home of a genteel family, a mysterious presence who was not there appears in it. Shortly after this, the family’s dowager aunt falls ill, and the younger daughter begins acting strangely. Can the older daughter discover the secret of the photograph, and solve the family mystery?

Outside of the fact that certain aspects of this ghost story are left open-ended, there’s really not a whole lot to the story that I haven’t encountered before. However, the flavor of the movie is its main distinction; it’s staged and directed as a deliberately-paced period piece; in a sense, it can be described as having been done in the style of THE INNOCENTS. There’s not a whole lot in the way of overt scares; the movie is mostly interested in carefully doling out the details of the family secret while keeping it in pace with the the way the haunting manifests itself. In the end, I quite like it; its emphasis on character and subtlety are quite refreshing, and it managed to hold my interest throughout. However, many horror fans may well find the style of the movie to be quite boring, so whether you respond to it at all will probably depend on your patience for and appreciation of deliberately-paced period pieces.

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The Harlem Globetrotters on Gilligan’s Island (1981)

THE HARLEM GLOBETROTTERS ON GILLIGAN’S ISLAND (1981)
TV-Movie
Article 4506 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 4-16-2014
Directed by Peter Baldwin
Featuring Bob Denver, Alan Hale Jr., Jim Backus
Country: USA
What it is: You don’t know?

An evil scientist plans to get possession of the island in order to corner the market on a rare mineral only to be found there. Can the castaways keep from getting bilked by him? And can the Harlem Globetrotters come to their rescue?

I was of the generation that grew up watching reruns of “Gilligan’s Island” in syndication, and I wouldn’t be surprised if I’ve seen every episode of the series at one time or another. And, yes, I have a soft spot in my heart for the show. But I don’t have any illusions about the quality of the show; it was what it was, a compendium of dumb silliness. This revival of the show is pretty bad, but I can’t really call it disappointing; it’s as dumb and silly as the original show (so I can’t call it a betrayal of any sort), but an aging cast, a loss of freshness, and the stretching of something that worked better in thirty-minute doses to feature length are the biggest culprits here. There is, however, plenty of fantastic content, what with the super energy fuel and the presence of several robots in the storyline. The saddest thing about his is that Jim Backus is barely in it; he was ill at the time of its making and could only do a cameo at the end of the movie. I can’t recommend it, but I can’t hate it, either; it is what it is.

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The Spell (1977)

THE SPELL (1977)
TV-Movie
Article 4505 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 4-15-2014
Directed by Lee Philips
Featuring Lee Grant, Susan Myers, Lelia Goldoni
Country: USA
What it is: Made-for-TV CARRIE

An overweight teenage girl finds herself the brunt of cruelty at both home and school. However, she turns out to have psychic powers…

Let’s state the obvious first; this movie probably wouldn’t exist if CARRIE hadn’t been such a big hit and offered itself as a model for imitation. That being said, at least this TV-Movie doesn’t try to ape its model religiously; the movie chooses to concentrate more on the girl’s home life than it does her school conflicts. When the movie explores the family dynamic of her home life, it’s at its most interesting. However, I think the movie makes one huge strategic mistake; by making the teenage girl unsympathetic (she’s petulant and sometimes as mean-spirited and shallow as her tormentors), it ends up making it very hard to care for her plight. Maybe that’s why the movie ends up spending more time with the girl’s mother than the girl herself. The more the movie strays into CARRIE territory, the sillier and less effective it becomes, though I will give it credit for having a plot twist towards the end that is actually pretty logical. And, given the discovery we make about the girl’s mother towards the end of the movie, I have to say that the latter seems rather dim in taking so long to figure out what’s going on with her daughter.

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The Face of Another (1966)

THE FACE OF ANOTHER (1966)
aka Tanin no kao
Article 4504 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 4-14-2014
Directed by Hiroshi Teshigahara
Featuring Tatsuya Nakadai, Mikijiro Hira, Kyoko Kishida
Country: Japan
What it is: SF Drama

A man feels his identity is slipping away after an industrial accident leaves him horribly scarred. His psychiatrist offers him the opportunity to have a lifelike mask (modeled off of another person) created for him by a new process, with the ulterior motive of trying to discover if the mask grants the patient with a new identity.

IMDB classifies this movie as a science fiction drama. One of the user reviews makes a point of claiming that some of the surreal scenes that pepper the movie don’t really make it qualify for that genre. While I do agree that the scenes in question don’t make the movie science fiction (though they nudge the movie into fantasy territory), I do believe the movie could qualify as science fiction anyway. Since a realistic mask of this sort didn’t exist at the time the movie was made (or now, as far as I know), the movie becomes a speculative exploration of the impact of a new scientific discovery/creation on those who encounter it, and that’s one of the definitions that cause something to qualify. It uses the device to explore identity and the role physical appearance plays in the shaping of it; there’s a lot of speculation as well on the impact that would occur if these masks became commonplace. It took me a while to realize it, but it would make a nice companion feature with SECONDS from the same year, another movie dealing with appearance and identity. The movie is quite fascinating, and well worth a watch. There’s also a secondary story interspersed throughout the movie about a girl badly scarred on one side of her face, though the fantastic content is much less pronounced in this side story.

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Bloody Birthday (1981)

BLOODY BIRTHDAY (1981)
Article 4503 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 4-13-2014
Directed by Ed Hunt
Featuring Lori Lethin, Melinda Cordell, Julie Brown
Country: USA
What it is: THE BAD SEED as a slasher

Three children, all born during a total eclipse, grow up without consciences. As their tenth birthday approaches, they engage on a murder spree.

I’ve seen several sources describe this movie as THE BAD SEED conceived as a slasher film, and that’s about as good a description as any. Of course, being a slasher film, it has none of the literary or psychological ambitions of its model, but I didn’t expect that it would. Considered as a slasher film, at least the concept is a bit novel in comparison to the usual masked killing machine. The movie itself is flatly directed, and not particularly good, and it seems more interested in nudity than bloodletting for some reason. It is interesting to consider in light of the unspoken taboo against killing children in a movie; the only people that are killed by the evil children are adults and older teenagers, and though one of their targets is a fellow child, they can never actually get around to doing so. Furthermore, the perpetrators themselves cannot be killed without breaking that taboo. Given this situation, it becomes obvious that neither good nor evil can be totally triumphant in this movie. It’s no surprise that the ending has to be a compromise of some sort. And, despite the fact that it sets itself up for one, no sequel was forthcoming.

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Silent Rage (1982)

SILENT RAGE (1982)
Article 4502 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 4-12-2014
Directed by Michael Miller
Featuring Chuck Norris, Ron Silver, Steven Keats
Country: USA
What it is: Chuck Norris movie that thinks it’s a slasher film

When an incredibly resilient homicidal madman is fatally wounded in a police shootout, a doctor saves his life using a new serum that gives him incredible powers of healing. The madman then goes on a rampage. Can local lawman Chuck Norris stop him?

So this is a Chuck Norris film! I can honestly say that I’ve never seen one before. Yeah, I know the central question in the movie is supposed to be “Who will prevail, Chuck Norris or the superhuman madman?”, but given this is a Chuck Norris film, the answer to that is a no-brainer. The more interesting question is “Who is stupider, the sheriff’s comic relief deputy (who tried to dry off his dog by putting him in a deep-freeze) or the brilliant doctor who invented the serum (who thinks that giving a homicidal maniac super-human powers is a good idea)?” The answer is – the brilliant doctor; at least the deputy has the self-awareness to realize he did something really stupid. But that just leaves us with the next question – “Who’s most annoying, the stupid comic relief deputy or the sheriff’s panicky, screaming girlfriend?” The answer is – neither one; it’s the screechy housewife and the yelling kids at the top of the movie who are the ones who drive the madman around the bend. After spending the few minutes you do with this family, you will fully understand why someone might go on a homicidal rampage. The movie is okay, I suppose, and the gratuitous fight scene with the bikers in the bar is probably the high point. Still, when the movie tries for anything but action or horror, it gets pretty awful. And, despite the final twist, I am sincerely glad it didn’t yield a sequel.

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School of Death (1975)

SCHOOL OF DEATH (1975)
aka El colegio de la muerte
Article 4501 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 4-11-2014
Directed by Pedro Luis Ramirez
Featuring Dean Selmier, Sandra Mozarowsky, Norma Kastel
Country: Spain
What it is: Odd little horror thriller

An orphanage/boarding house sends out girls who reach a certain age to become experimental subjects for a mad doctor. When one of the girls in the orphanage spots a former resident who was believed to be dead, the police are called in.

The movie seems fairly obvious to begin with; it’s a “sadistic girl’s school” movie mixed with a mad scientist flick. However, the movie unfolds in an unexpected fashion, the details that hover around the edges of the story are pretty interesting, and after a while I found myself wondering just what the story was leading to. It wasn’t until I was well into the movie before it occurred to me that the movie had just the feel of a krimi, and I certainly didn’t expect anything like that coming out of Spain in the seventies. The deliberate pacing does sometimes slow things to a crawl, but that was only a minor problem for me. I ended up quite liking this one, and it does have one very unexpected but rather satisfying twist towards the end. I always like it when a movie surprises me, and this one does.

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