Month: July 2020

In Search of Bigfoot (1976)

IN SEARCH OF BIGFOOT (1976)
Article 4749 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 2-4-2015
Directed by Lawrence Crowley and William F. Miller
Featuring Robert W. Morgan, Rene Dahinden, John Green
Country: USA
What it is: Bigfoot documentary

An expedition is made to the forests of the Pacific Northwest in order to locate Bigfoot.

Most of the recent documentaries that I’ve seen on the “strange creature/psychic phenomena/UFO” axis of the seventies have been muddled hodgepodges of outlandish theories that have been more likely to bring out the skeptic in me than the part of me that still has that “sense of wonder”. This one has the benefit of being at least focused; it tells the story of a single expedition to an area known for its Bigfoot sightings, and if it does manage to do one thing, it convinces me of the sincerity of the people involved. Though it does to some extent try to convince the audience of the existence of Bigfoot (the main reason given is the multitude of sightings), but it does seem more interested in the hunt for the creature than in trying to sell its existence to the audience. Granted, that doesn’t mean that the documentary is always effective; there’s a certain amount of dead time and unnecessary footage here, especially when the movie shifts focus to a skimpily-dressed female member of the expedition cavorting under waterfalls and swimming. You’ll probably figure out how the thing ends; after all, had the expedition been successful, it would probably be a much more famous documentary. As it is, believers will find the ending rather sad in that the plan to locate the creature is frustrated by an act of nature, while skeptics will find it all too convenient.

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Witches’ Brew (1980)

WITCHES’ BREW (1980)
Article 4748 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 2-1-2015
Directed by Richard Shorr and Herbert L. Strock
Featuring Teri Garr, Richard Benjamin, Lana Turner
Country: USA
What it is: Lame comedy horror

A psychology professor is helped along in his career by his wife, who practices witchcraft. When he decides to dispose of all of the charms that have been protecting him, he finds that his luck has run out… and that the door has been opened to a great horror.

Now, let’s see here…we have witches helping their husbands further there careers in the world of academia. If that doesn’t strike a familiar chord, then you haven’t seen WEIRD WOMAN or NIGHT OF THE EAGLE, and you haven’t read the novel on which both of them were based – Fritz Lieber’s “Conjure Wife”. Regrettably, I have yet to read the Lieber novel, but I can say that the other two movies based on the book are superior to this uncredited take on the tale. I don’t blame the actors; they’re doing the best they can with what they’ve been given to work with. It’s the clumsy, laughless, muddled script that is the worst offender here, though it’s abetted by lackluster and uninspired direction as well. Reportedly, the movie had been finished two years earlier as WHICH WITCH IS WHICH?, and then was reedited with new footage; I don’t know who shot which footage, but there’s not much here worth keeping. About the best thing I can say about this one is that the last third of the movie works better than the first two-thirds, but that’s largely because the movie stops trying to be a comedy at that point. This one is forgettable.

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The Magician (1900)

THE MAGICIAN (1900)
Article 4747 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 1-31-2015
Directed by Edwin S. Porter
Cast unknown
Country: USA
What it is: Magic trick short

A magician appears and performs magic tricks, most of which involve his clothes.

Sometimes the difference between a dreary magic trick film and a fun one is a matter of performance. Even in his weakest magic trick films, Melies gave energetic and deeply involved performances; he looked like he was interested in the proceedings and having fun. The magician that shows up here comes across as somewhat bored, and since the tricks aren’t particularly interesting (he mostly throws pieces of clothing up into the air and they don’t come back down), you end up a little bored as well. Thankfully, the short lasts only just over a minute, so it’s rather painless. If you imagine Melies in place of the magician you see here, you’d see how much more fun it could have been.

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Who Wants to Kill Jessie? (1966)

WHO WANTS TO KILL JESSIE? (1966)
aka Kdo chce zabit Jessii?
Article 4746 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 1-20-2015
Directed by Vaclav Vorlicek
Featuring Dana Medricka, Jiri Sovak, Olga Schoberova
Country: Czechoslovakia
What it is: Sci-Fi comic book screwball comedy

A woman scientist develops a drug that can alter the dreams of a man or animal; however, unknown to her, the displaced dreams manifest themselves in the real world. When she thinks her husband is dreaming of another woman, she gives him the drug, unaware that he has been dreaming of several characters from a comic book…

I have to admit that of the many foreign movies I’ve seen for this series, the ones that seem to most consistently delight me are the ones from Czechoslovakia. This is especially true of the comedies like this one; the fact that I have to enjoy them via subtitles doesn’t make them any less funny, and this one is quite hilarious. I love some of the creative things they do with the idea; the comic book characters are a truly odd bunch (a sexy woman scientist, a cowboy and a Superman clone who is one of the villains), and the fact that they still communicate via comic book balloons (a consistently clever special effect in the movie) adds to the charm. I also like that the movie delves into some interesting side issues, such as – when the comic book characters engage in destruction, who is legally responsible? Oddly enough, the movie is structured a bit as a sex farce involving the struggles of a married couple who both find themselves attracted to other people. This is truly and enjoyable, wonderful movie.

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Les des magiques (1908)

LES DES MAGIQUES (1908)
aka Magic Dice
Article 4745 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 1-29-2015
Directed by Segundo de Chomon
Cast unknown
Country: France
What it is: Trick short

Dice of various sizes are used in a series of magic acts and dance numbers.

At his best, Chomon manages to stake out an identity that sets him apart from his primary inspiration, Georges Melies. Unfortunately, he’s not at his best with this one. Its biggest problem is a certain lack of variety. The short has a fixed format; first, a trick involving the dice is performed, then a dancer or acrobat (or group of dancers or acrobats) appears and dances or performs acrobatics, then another trick, then more performers, etc. until the short finishes. Unfortunately, the short runs on long enough that you have enough time to spot and get tired of this pattern. The tricks aren’t particularly novel, and though Chomon makes more extensive use of running the film backwards than Melies does, here he overuses it. It’s pretty enough to look at, but the lack of surprises eventually takes its toll.

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The Seed of Man (1969)

THE SEED OF MAN (1969)
aka Il seme dell’uomo
Article 4744 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 1-28-2015
Directed by Marco Ferreri
Featuring Marco Magine, Anne Wiazemsky, Annie Girardot
Country: Italy
What it is: Surreal post-apocalyptic science fiction drama

A man and a woman survive a devastating plague and take refuge in an isolated house which is converted into a museum. The government of the survivors wants the couple to bear children to repopulate the world; the man desires to do so, but the woman resists. Then another woman shows up who may be less resistant…

I’ve encountered Marco Ferreri before; I’ve also seen THE APE WOMAN, which I found quite interesting. Though I think I’ll have to see more of his oeuvre to decide how I feel about him overall, I must say that I like this one as well. The premise is fairly straightforward, and the movie does remain focused on it, but it’s also full of strange moments, bizarre touches, and memorably surreal sequences. There is an encounter with a flying Pepsi bottle, a beached whale, and a barn full of human replicas. It has moments of tenderness and moments of unexpected brutality; some moments seem inevitable, others come way out of left field. In some ways, it reminds me of Corman’s LAST WOMAN ON EARTH, but only on the surface; I don’t think I’ve really seen anything quite like it. It’s an art film of sorts, but I find it more approachable than a lot of other examples of that type. I’m not sure I can say I love the movie, but I like it quite a bit.

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La revanche des humanoides (1983)

LA REVANCHE DES HUMANOIDES (1983)
aka Revenge of the Humanoids
Article 4743 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 1-27-2015
Directed by Albert Barille
Featuring the voices of Annie Balestra, Roger Carel, Claude Chantal
Country: France
What it is: Animated space opera

Space travelers have adventures and battle evil.

Yes, the plot description is extremely vague, but that’s because the only copy I could find of this one was in French. Usually, when the plot is a simple good-vs-evil story, that’s not a big problem; however, I’m not sure that summary is quite accurate for this one, though it seems so at first. I had quite a few impediments in trying to follow the story visually. The first problem is simply that the movie is several episodes of an animated series edited together; the series was a French animated series called IL ETAIT UNE FOIS…L’ESPACE, and any time you edit a series like this into a movie, it’s usually hard to follow even if you understand the language. Furthermore, because much of the animation is of the limited variety, you can’t read character expressions very well to tap into the emotional sense of the dialogue. Combine that with a bewildering array of characters, and the movie becomes rather impenetrable, and the fact that several sequences seem to be flashbacks certainly doesn’t help. So I’m mostly at a loss with this one; all I can say is it starts out feeling like an animated STAR WARS imitation but seems to end on cosmic/mystical note. Well, at least I can mark this one as “seen” on my list.

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The Love of Zero (1927)

THE LOVE OF ZERO (1927)
Article 4742 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 1-24-2015
Directed by Robert Florey
Featuring Joseph Marievsky, Tamara Shavrova, Anielka Elter
Country: USA
What it is: Impressionistic short

Zero romances and wins the heart of Beatrix with his trombone playing. However, she is eventually forced to leave him forever, and he must deal with heartbreak and a descent into madness.

If you can imagine a short, partially comic cross between THE CABINET OF DR. CALIGARI and DAUGHTER OF HORROR, you might get an idea of what this experimental collaboration between Robert Florey and William Cameron Menzies is like. The opening crawl claims that the movie was made for only two hundred dollars, and I will say that the movie looks more expensive than that; in fact, this short has more edits than some full-length movies I’ve seen. The scenery is abstract in the extreme, camera tricks abound (including split-screen and multiple exposure) and the feel ranges from coyish whimsicality to the darkly surreal. The movie is delightfully strange and quite enjoyable, both funny and sad. It almost makes you wonder what you could do with two hundred dollars (or whatever its current equivalent would be).

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Les locataires d’a-cote (1909)

LES LOCATAIRES D’A-COTE (1909)
aka Next Door Neighbors
Article 4741 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 1-22-2015
Directed by Emile Cohl
Cast unknown
Country: France
What it is: Enjoyable cross of animation and live action

Two couples live next door to each other in an apartment building. When one couple decides to spy on the other by drilling a hole through the wall separating them, the other couple perplexes them by turning into various animated characters.

This short manages to be not only an early example of split-screen technique, but also an early example of mixing live action with animation. It’s a pretty clever idea, and it gives an amusing context to Cohl’s stream-of-consciousness animation technique in that not only are we watching the animation, but we’re watching others watch the animation as well. There’s even some interaction between the two rooms, as the animations do things such as hook up a hose to the drilled hole and shower the residents in the other apartment. I always find Cohl fun to watch, but this one is particularly amusing.

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The Diabolical Church Window (1911)

THE DIABOLICAL CHURCH WINDOW (1911)
aka Le vitrail diabolique
Article 4740 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 1-21-2015
Directed by Georges Melies
Cast unknown
Country: France
What it is: A devil’s prank

A demon decides to torment an alchemist by having a woman magically form itself on a stained-glass window and having it come to life.

Most of the Melies shorts I’ve been seeing lately have been “magic trick” shorts, in which a magician performs a series of tricks. At least this one is a break from those, though it does illustrate another of Melies’s common themes; it’s one where a demon torments someone. At least once during these shorts, we have a scene where the torment involves the appearance of a beautiful woman who entices the victim, only to disappear or to turn into a monster. The special effects are quite good here, especially during the sequences where the woman appears piece by piece in the window, but I couldn’t quite escape the feeling that Melies is just repeating himself here; it’s really just a pale shadow of THE MERRY FROLICS OF SATAN, which was his epic take on the theme.

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