Month: March 2021

Dante’s Inferno (1924)

Dante’s Inferno (1924)
Article 5562 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 7-19-2018
Directed by Henry Otto
Featuring Ralph Lewis, Winifred Landis, William Scott
Country: USA
What it is: Dante’s poem… sort of

A heartless slumlord is put under a curse and reads the first book of Dante’s trilogy.

The appeal of filming “Dante’s Inferno” is the opportunity to present visions of hell. The down side is that there really isn’t much in the way of a story, and what there is requires a strong knowledge of history. Maybe that’s why, of the three versions I’ve seen, only the 1911 Italian version is a straight take on the tale; this one and the 1935 version have modern day framing stories to surround the visions of hell. The 1935 version at least had a fairly elaborate and interesting framing story; this one is little more than an “A Christmas Carol” clone involving the reformation of a scoundrel. That pretty much leaves the visions of hell as the main attraction, but the print I saw wasn’t in good enough condition to really see much in the way of detail. At any rate, this is easily the weakest of the three versions.

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The Company of Wolves (1984)

The Company of Wolves (1984)
Article 5561 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 7-14-2018
Directed by Neil Jordan
Featuring Sarah Patterson, Angela Lansbury, David Warner
Country: UK
What it is: Fairy tale/horror/art movie hodgepodge

A girl dreams of living in a medieval village where her grandmother warns her about werewolves.

That this movie has a cult following is no surprise. I’m also not surprised that it has a bit of a lukewarm reputation; though it’s sometimes fascinating to look at and is original, in the final analysis it’s not quite satisfying. It’s basically a variation on the Red Riding Hood story with something of a horror spin to the proceedings and a strong sexual atmosphere. At times it even feels a bit like an anthology movie, as it occasionally goes off on a tangent when it reenacts a werewolf tale one of the characters is telling. The performances are solid and the medieval world and the ominous-looking forest are very well-realized. Those expecting a more conventional horror movie will not be satisfied, but even those expecting something different may be a little put out by it; I emerged from the movie with the feeling that for all it’s trying to do, it’s still missing something.

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Peter Pan (1924)

Peter Pan (1924)
Article 5560 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 7-7-2018
Directed by Herbert Brenon
Featuring Betty Bronson, Ernest Torrance, George Ali
Country: USA
What it is: Fantasy

A flying boy who never wants to grow up meets a girl and takes her to Never Never Land to be a mother to the Lost Boys. However, Never Never Land is also a world of pirates…

I’ve never read or seen the original play by J.M. Barrie, so I can’t say how closely the various versions of the story hone to the original story. All I can say is that of the various versions I’ve seen, this one is my favorite (and, yes, that means I like it better than the Disney version). It manages to avoid feeling like a photographed stage play while retaining some of the crucial elements that would make a viewing of the stage play a magical experience; I love the fact that both Nana the dog and the crocodile are played by actors in costume. For me, the story in this one feels more complete and unified; the other versions I’ve seen feel more episodic. A couple of odd elements stand out. The movie breaks the fourth wall on one occasion by exhorting audience members to clap their hands in order to save Tinkerbell’s life (which I suspect is from the original play), and for some odd reason, there’s a streak of American patriotism in this version; given that J.M. Barrie is Scottish and this is primarily an English story, this nationalism feels a bit forced.

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Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah (1991)

Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah (1991)
aka Gojira vs. Kingu Gidora
Article 5559 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 7-4-2018
Directed by Kazuki Ohmori
Featuring Kosuke Toyohara, Anna Nakagawa, Megumi Odaka
Country: Japan
What it is: Kaiju

Time travelers from the future offer Japan the opportunity to go back in time and prevent the creation of Godzilla, warning them that if they don’t, the destruction of Japan at Godzilla’s hands are imminent. But are the time travelers telling the truth…?

This movie didn’t get an American release for quite a while, partially because it was perceived as having a definite anti-American bias. This is because part of the movie takes place in 1944 during World War II, and, given we were on opposite sides during that war, it’s not surprising that the Americans during this sequence are not treated sympathetically. Still, this sequence plays into the most interesting aspect of the movie, as it involves the relationship between a Japanese soldier and the prehistoric monster who saved his life on an island, a monster who is actually Godzilla in his pre-irradiated form. Had this relationship been explored as the central concept of the movie, it might have been a very different and original take on Godzilla; as it is, the movie relegates this relationship to a subplot and goes for more conventional thrills. At first, the time travel aspect makes it seem like there’s more novelty value on hand, but after awhile you figure out it’s just a slight variation on MONSTER ZERO with elements of THE TERMINATOR thrown in the mix. The monster action is a long time coming in this one, and the movie occasionally lapses into silliness; some of the special effects involving the android are laughable (especially the fast motion), and there’s something comic about a plot in which Godzilla is needed to stop the threat of King Ghidorah followed by King Ghidorah needed to stop the threat of Godzilla. It has its moments, but it is a couple steps down from GODZILLA VS. BIOLLANTE.

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Sherlock Jr. (1924)

Sherlock Jr. (1924)
Article 5558 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 6-27-2018
Directed by Buster Keaton
Featuring Buster Keaton, Kathryn McGuire, Joe Keaton
Country: USA
What it is: Surreal slapstick fantasy

A movie projectionist aspires to be a detective. When he is framed for the theft of a watch belonging to his girlfriend’s father, he tries to use his amateur detective powers to clear himself.

Ignore for the moment that plot description; it’s not really what makes this short movie special. Most of the movie is Keaton doing what Keaton usually does (which, during this era, is certainly nothing to sneer at; he’s excellent throughout). During these sequences, he plays what amounts to parallel roles; he’s the hapless beau trying to woo his girlfriend in the main story, and the brilliant detective in the movie-within-a-movie that makes up most of the second half. It’s the transition from one story to the next that is Keaton at his most brilliant; he falls into a dream in which he gains the power to enter the movie-within-a-movie itself by walking directly into the screen. The sequence that follows has Keaton attempting to deal with an abruptly changing landscape in which he is the only consistent figure, and this sequence owes much to some of the comic tricks of Melies as later movies would owe to this sequence (both THE PURPLE ROSE OF CAIRO and DUCK AMUCK come to mind). In the end, the movie seems to be smitten with the magic of movies while at the same time recognizing that much of the movie world is a work of deception; I think it’s very fitting that in the final analysis, Buster’s problem is resolved not by any sleuthing tricks but rather by a straightforward question from the girlfriend to the proper individual. This long short (45 minutes) is considered one of Buster’s finest moments, and I’d concur with that.

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L’auberge rouge (1923)

L’auberge rouge (1923)
Article 5557 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 6-26-2018
Directed by Jean Epstein
Featuring Leon Mathot, Gina Manes, Jean-David Evremond
Country: France
What it is: Crime / mystery

Two travelers encounter a diamond merchant at an inn. One of them is tempted to murder and rob the merchant, but doesn’t… only to wake up and find the merchant murdered and robbed.

My main familiarity with Jean Epstein is as the director of a 1928 version of THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF USHER, a movie that is so visually stunning that I overlook that in terms of story-telling, he’s not quite as successful. There are some nice visual touches to this movie as well, but it’s not as striking in that regard as the later movie, and so I notice that this one is slow and not always effective. For one thing, it spends too much time on the framing story (in which the events are told as a tale at a dinner table) than it does on the meat of the tale. Granted, the print I saw was about eight minutes short of the running time listed on IMDB, so there’s a chance I’m missing some details, but overall, I consider this one less effective. The fantastic content mostly revolves around the presence of a fortune teller that predicts the upcoming murder.

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Once in a New Moon (1934)

Once in a New Moon (1934)
Article 5556 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 6-18-2018
Directed by Anthony Kimmins
Featuring Eliot Makeham, Rene Ray, Morton Selten
Country: UK
What it is: Romantic comedy masquerading as political satire masquerading as Vernesque adventure

A small town in England is plucked off the Earth by a passing star and turned into a new moon. The residents vie for power politically while a rich man’s son romances a newspaperman’s daughter.

This title has been on my “ones that got away” list for ages, and it’s finally shown up. And as a science fiction epic somewhat modeled after Verne’s OFF ON A COMET… well, it’s not much; special effects are kept to a minimum, and it mostly uses its concept as a springboard for its political satire, wherein the ruling class does battle with socialists. Given that the political satire seems to be the whole point of the movie, it’s rather disappointing that the movie opts for a deus ex machina ending in lieu of letting the satirical action play out, so I can only conclude that ultimately, it’s about the romance; at least that plays out to its end. As a comedy, it’s pretty short on laughs; Morton Selten comes off best as the wealthy man elected president who is more interested in his stamp collection then ruling. All in all, this is neither particularly fun nor particularly memorable.

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Der var engang (1922)

Der var engang (1922)
aka Once Upon a Time
5555
Date: 6-16-2018
Directed by Carl Theodor Dreyer
Featuring Clara Pontoppidan, Svend Methling, Peter Jerndorff
Country: Denmark
What it is: Fairy tale

The Prince of Denmark tries to woo a haughty princess who has rejected every suitor.

The only movies I’ve seen yet from Dreyer are VAMPYR and DAY OF WRATH, and they were both so somber and serious that I was a little surprised to see the light touch employed in the first half of this movie; this sequence is rather fun. However, once the princess is exiled and forced to leave the castle so she can live with a potter, it takes a definite somber, even bleak, turn. Still, I’d find the basic plot a little depressing to begin with; it’s a variation on Shakespeare’s “The Taming of the Shrew”, and there’s something a bit unpleasant about any movie that focuses on breaking the spirit of a spirited woman. Still, it’s a tribute to Clara Pontoppidan’s performance that she makes her character’s changes feel like growth rather than destruction. I ended up quite liking the movie, though it is incomplete; it looks like some of the movie had to be shown as a still restoration, and that includes the climax of the movie, so that makes it a little hard to judge. I also do find myself wondering about the elaborateness of the plan the Prince uses to win the princess, as it appears that it requires him to be a skilled potter as well.

As far as the fantastic content, one of the plot points revolves around a magic pot, and if I’m not mistaken, the pot is a gift from a mystical creature and has real abilities. However, it seems to be the only fantastic content in the movie, and for some odd reason, it feels a bit out of place and unnecessary.

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Prichozi z temnot (1921)

Prichozi z temnot (1921)
Article 5554 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 6-13-2018
Directed by Jan S. Kolar
Featuring Theodor Pistek, Anny Ondra, Josef Svab-Malostransky
Country: Czechoslovakia
What it is: Strange horror film

A landowner must find a way to protect his wife from two predators; one his neighbor and the other an ancestor of his who has gained eternal life with the help of an alchemist.

I found the plot of this movie very confusing, but for a very good reason; only forty minutes of this one hour movie are still extant, and given that some of the story is told through nested flashbacks, it doesn’t take too much footage to be missing before the plot thread is lost. Fortunately, things start to settle down a bit during the second half, and I was able to more or less follow it at that time. Visually, it’s an enjoyable movie, and certain of the plot elements bear a resemblance to the various mummy movies over the year, only without a shambling wrapped creature. Still, I don’t feel I can fully evaluate the movie without the missing footage, and though I found it interesting enough, the jury is out until a more complete version manifests itself.

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Oh’phelia (1919)

Oh’phelia (1919)
Article 5553 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 6-11-2018
Directed by Anson Dyer
No cast
Country: UK
What it is: Shakespeare….maybe

Ophelia is driven mad by Hamlet… or was it the snail that did it?

Any adaptation of “Hamlet” that jettisons the ghost runs the risk of having its fantastic content removed, but then I’m not sure this is really an adaptation of the classic work; an irreverent reworking with a touch of the surreal is a better description. Sure, I remember the part where Hamlet drives Ophelia mad, but I don’t remember the part where he becomes a boy scout and saves her life. The scene in the queen’s bedroom is changed to that of the queen’s kitchen, Laertes looks like a western desperado, Claudius suffers from gout, and a censor is on hand to make sure the word that begins with “bloo” is acceptable to all ages. Furthermore, there are a few touches of the fantastic to the proceedings, including a tree with a face and a snail shell that puts out its own “for rent” sign. Quite frankly, I was delighted by this bizarre animated short, and I hope to see more work from Anson Dyer. Recommended.

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