Month: January 2021

Ramper, der Tiermensch (1927)

RAMPER, DER TIERMENSCH (1927)
aka The Strange Case of Captain Ramper
Article 5352 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 1-22-2017
Directed by Max Reichmann
Featuring Paul Wegener, Mary Johnson, Hugo Doblin
Country: Germany
What it is: Bizarre drama

A noted aviator crashes his plane while making a daring flight over the polar regions. In order to survive, he lives a brutal, beast-like existence that buries his humanity. Many years later, he is captured as a “polar ape”, and then is sold as a sideshow attraction, despite the fact that the seller has been told that he is human…

Here’s another movie that ended up on my “ones that got away” list years ago; I had been aware that some footage existed, but I was never sure there was enough to make it worth a viewing. Then, just recently, an incomplete print practically dropped into my lap (and a hearty thanks to the man who sent this to me) and I got a chance to see it. I’m glad I did; this may be one of the most interesting of the Paul Wegener movies I’ve seen. It falls somewhat into the area of science fiction at one point with a theory about the existence of a gland that can be used to restore humanity to a debased man. From what I see, the movie explores the nature of humanity and whether a man can truly say he has a better existence than that of a beast. The movie is not complete, and much of the ending is missing, but there is enough here to enjoy the movie and to guess how things could have turned out; I’m halfway tempted to hunt down the original play and see how it panned out. I’m very glad to have seen it; if it was complete, I think it may have a chance to be judged as Wegener’s best movie.

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No More Bald Men (1908)

NO MORE BALD MEN (1908)
aka No More Bald Heads
Article 5351 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 1-21-2017
Director unknown
Cast unknown
Country: France
What it is: Comic special effects short

A bald man is delighted when he is given a hair-growing potion that works. However, he isn’t very careful in his use of it…

Here’s another title that languished on my “ones that got away” only to be finally resurrected on YouTube under a slightly different title. It’s a pretty delightful short; it finds just the right comic tone, and it handles the special effects of hair suddenly appearing on a man’s head with skill. However, the person who directed my attention to the availability of this short brought up some interesting questions as to the actual date of this short. Apparently, Pathe Freres on occasion was given to shooting remakes of earlier shorts whose prints had deteriorated and replacing those prints with those of the remakes. My source claims this may actually be a 1912 remake of a 1904 film; notice that neither of these dates is 1908, the date on IMDB. I tend to agree with this evaluation, mainly because I’ve now had a chance to see many films from this era, and one thing I noticed is that it movie acting evolved during this time. The acting in this short seems much more assured in its style than what I’d expect from 1904 or 1908; it does seem to fit in well with 1912, though.

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Koneko no rakugaki (1957)

KONEKO NO RAKUGAKI (1957)
aka The Scribbling Cat
Article 5350 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 1-20-2017
Directed by Taiji Yabushita
No cast
Country: Japan
What it is: Whimsical animated short

A cat’s scribblings on a big white wall come to life. However, when two mice steal his pencil, the cat must chase them in his drawn universe.

One advantage of making a short without any dialogue is that it can be readily appreciated by people who speak other languages without dubbing or subtitles. This utterly charming short is an example of such a film; it tells its fun and whimsical story with a great deal of imagination. It’s one of those concepts that requires animation to work. I’ve encountered Yabushita at least one before; he also gave us PANDA AND THE MAGIC SERPENT as well as ALAKAZAM THE GREAT. All in all, this is another fun foray into the world of Japanese animation.

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Noah’s Ark (1928)

NOAH’S ARK (1928)
Article 5349 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 1-19-2017
Directed by Michael Curtiz and Darryl F. Zanuck
Featuring Dolores Costello, George O’Brien, Noah Beery
Country: USA
What it is: Thinks it’s INTOLERANCE

An American soldier in Europe falls in love with a German woman from a theatrical troupe on the eve of WW1. When war comes, the man feels compelled to join the army, and is separated from his love, with whom he is now married. What will be their fates?

Yes, you’ve read that right – a movie about the Great Flood of the Bible is mostly a drama about World War 1. That’s because the movie has a conceit, and that is that WW1 was the modern (at that time) equivalent of the flood. If that conceit seems a bit forced, join the club; even by expanding the Noah story (which the movie eventually gets around to telling) with an elaborate sword-and-sandal style subplot, the parallel never quite gels, and the movie comes off as a bit of a head-scratcher. This is not to say that the movie doesn’t have its moments; there is some impressive spectacle here. Yet even this is marred by the fact that some of the spectacle was handled irresponsibly; huge amounts of water was dumped on many untrained and unprepared extras, and three actors were killed and many more were seriously injured. Eventually, this incident would lead to the drafting of new stunt safety regulations. Reportedly, two of the extras to survive the movie were John Wayne and Andy Devine, according to IMDB. My favorite scene is the one where God finally gets around to telling Noah to build the ark, giving him instructions in a huge rock book with burning letters. As corny as that sounds, it makes for an impressive visual feast in the movie; it’s certainly more impressive than just having a Twitter account.

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Le tout petit Faust (1910)

LE TOUT PETIT FAUST (1910)
Article 5348 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 1-18-2017
Directed by Emile Cohl
No cast
Country: France
What it is: The Faust story with stop-motion puppets

Faust makes a deal with the devil and tries to win the hand of Marguerite.

Emile Cohl is a bit out of his usual element here in doing a five-minute adaptation of the first part of Goethe’s play with stop-motion puppets. I like Cohl, but I don’t think he was at his best with puppet animation; the movement seems pretty ragged to me. Nor does a five-minute condensation of the Faust story really do it justice, though we do have plenty of fantastic content, with Mephistopheles appearing and disappearing, and Marguerite eventually going to heaven. It’s probably best viewed as a curiosity, and it’s hardly Cohl’s best work.

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The Pointer (1939)

THE POINTER (1939)
Article 5347 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 1-16-2017
Directed by Clyde Geronimi
Featuring the voices of Walt Disney and Lee Millar
Country: USA
What it is: Pluto cartoon

Mickey Mouse takes Pluto out quail hunting in order to show him how to become a hunting dog.

I’ve been trying to set down some rules for deciding whether any specific animated cartoon truly deserves to be included in the realms of the fantastic; comic exaggeration never quite seems enough of a reason, and anthropomorphic animals have the air of being more a tradition of the form than of signifying true fantastic content. One rule I have devised is this: If an anthropomorphic animal in a cartoon could be replaced by a human character without adversely affecting the story, than the use of the animal is only marginal.

Take this cartoon for example. There are several animals in this cartoon, but only one is truly anthropomorphic, and that is Mickey Mouse; all other animals more or less act like real animals. Mickey could be easily replaced by a human character and the story would work just as well. Hence, I could conclude that the fantastic content in this one is pretty negligible.

On its own terms, the cartoon is a good but not great Disney offering. It’s strength is that Pluto is such a likable character that we care when he makes a mistake and is chewed out by Mickey. However, much of the cartoon uses an old comic gag in which Mickey is followed by a bear, but never turns around to see him and thinks he’s still out with Pluto. I’ve seen this type of gag many times, and though it’s all right here, it’s also been done better elsewhere. It’s Pluto’s (non-anthropomorphic) character that is the real draw here.

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The Pleasure Garden (1953)

THE PLEASURE GARDEN (1953)
Article 5346 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 1-15-2017
Directed by James Broughton
Featuring Jean Anderson, Lindsay Anderson, Maxine Audley
Country: UK
What it is: Experimental film

Several people converge on a public park in search of pleasure, but a cadaverous man tries to prohibit them from experiencing it. Can a witch undo the damage?

Not all experimental films are difficult or incomprehensible; it’s pretty obvious what this one is about. If the title alone doesn’t clue you off, it’s about sex; specifically, it’s about battle between the forces of repression (personified by a group of people in black who want to turn the park into a cemetery) and those of expression (led by the witch and her magic shawl). It’s about as daring as a movie could be made on this subject in 1953. It’s also quite a bit of fun, and since it only runs about 38 minutes, it doesn’t wear out its welcome; a bit longer and the movie would start to bore. It makes fun use of music and has some surreal visual touches. On looking up the oeuvre of director James Broughton, I suspect he made something of a career making shorts on this subject.

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The Overcoat (1952)

THE OVERCOAT (1952)
aka Il cappotto
Article 5345 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 1-14-2017
Directed by Alberto Lattuada
Featuring Renato Rescel, Yvonne Sanson, Giulio Stival
Country: Italy
What it is: Comedy / Drama

A harried and somewhat hapless government clerk becomes enamored with the idea of getting a fine new coat to replace his raggedy one. When he gets an unexpected bonus, he finally gets his dream… but for how long?

For those familiar with the Gogol story on which this was based, the fantastic content (the appearance of a ghost) doesn’t manifest itself until near the end of the story. This is the third adaptation of the story I’ve seen for this series. The first one I saw increased the amount of fantastic content, but only borrowed aspects of the original story and went in a different direction. The second one was more faithful, but ended the story previous to the manifestation of the ghost. This one, though it updates the action to the present and changes the professions of some of the characters, is perhaps the most faithful and retains the fantastic content.

This movie has a high rating on IMDB, but I have to admit to being somewhat disappointed with the first half of the movie. That’s because the movie is very slow to get moving; it dedicates too much of its running time to comic scenes with the lead actor and to scenes featuring the pompous, self-important mayor. Not that the scenes are bad, mind you; they’re just overlong and interfere with the story getting into gear. The movie improves immensely once it decides to focus on the main plot, and the second half is immensely satisfying. Two scenes in particular stand out. One has the mayor’s dedication ceremony being interrupted by the appearance of a horse-drawn hearse. The other is the final scene in the movie, which should linger on in my memory, even if it somewhat modifies the ending of the Gogol story. This one is recommended, though I advise patience during the first half. And, after two days of foreign movies without subtitles, it’s nice to see one that has English subtitles in all their glory.

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Los jueves, Milagro (1957)

LOS JUEVES, MILAGRO (1957)
Article 5344 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 1-13-2017
Directed by Luis Garcia Berlanga
Featuring Richard Basehart, Jose Isbert, Paolo Stoppa
Country: Spain / Italy
What it is: Comedy /Satire

A group of men from a small village (once famed for its medicinal spa which then lost its power) decide to revive tourism by faking the miraculous appearance of a local saint. Things go well at first, but complications arrive when a stranger arrives in town who knows the truth about the miracle.

My copy of this movie is in Spanish without English subtitles, but the plot descriptions I found helped me through most of the movie; the action does become somewhat more obscure for me during the second half of the movie. The movie was directed by prominent Spanish film director Luis Garcia Berlanga, but reportedly it was held up from release for many years by censors, and what remains is a very watered-down version of what was intended. Still, I did get some enjoyment out of the movie; much of the humor is handled visually, and the scene where they first fake the appearance of the saint is a definite highlight of the movie. The fake miracle is the obvious initial fantastic content, but later developments augment that content and the movie becomes a fantasy of sorts; the first appearance of the stranger gives a definite clue to his secret. I liked this one, though the language limitations do mean that I can’t give a full evaluation of it.

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Byakuya no yojo (1958)

BYAKUYA NO YOJO (1958)
aka The Temptress and the Monk
Article 5343 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 1-12-2017
Directed by Eisuke Takazawa
Featuring Yumeji Tsukioka, Ryoji Hayama, Tadashi Kobayashi
Country: Japan
What it is: Eerie Japanese horror/fantasy

A monk, lost in a sinister forest, seeks refuge at a house where a woman lives with her dwarf husband. She seduces passers-by and turns them into animals, but will she do so to the monk?

This is another one that ended up on my “ones that got away” list, but it apparently popped up on YouTube and someone pointed me the way to it. It’s in Japanese without English subtitles, but a basic plot description helped me to follow it, and though some of the plot details eluded me, I found it quite enjoyable. It’s well acted, has a nice visual sense, and has a lot of eerie atmosphere. In particular, I liked the use it made of animal sounds; every time you hear one you wonder if it’s made by one of the women’s conquests. The movie has only a mediocre reputation based on its rating on IMDB, and perhaps it’s less satisfying if you can understand the language, but on the terms that I saw it, I found it satisfying enough.

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