Month: April 2021

Electric Earthquake (1942)

Electric Earthquake (1942)
Article 5602 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 12-19-2018
Directed by Dave Fleischer
Featuring the voices of Bud Collyer, Joan Alexander, Jackson Beck
Country: USA
What it is: Superman short

An irate native American demands that Manhattan be returned to his people. When he is turned down, he unleashes an electric earthquake from his underwater laboratory. Can Superman save the day?

For some reason, I really liked this one; the plot seems a little better thought out, the animation seems particularly well done, and there are some nice surprises here and there. In some ways, it’s similar to the first one in the series, but manages to avoid being merely an imitation. This is another good entry in the series.

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The Magnetic Telescope (1942)

The Magnetic Telescope (1942)
Article 5601 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 12-17-2018
Directed by Dave Fleischer
Featuring the voices of Bud Collyer, Joan Alexander, Jackson Beck
Country: USA
What it is: Superman animated short

When police try to prevent an overzealous scientist from pulling in a comet with his magnetic telescope, the resulting complications cause a comet to come hurtling towards the earth. Can Superman prevent the collision?

I was about to give the whole series a rest for a bit, but this one varies the formula enough that it caught my interest. Rather than a villain or a monster as Superman’s foe, he’s up against a force of nature, and it’s one in which brute force alone cannot solve the problem. Instead, the problem will be solved by Superman’s endurance and quick thinking. It’s also nice that Lois Lane for once proves to be part of the solution rather than as merely someone to be rescued. It also varies a few other minor cliches of the series so it doesn’t come across as derivative. For my money, this is one of the better entries.

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The Bulleteers (1942)

The Bulleteers (1942)
Article 5600 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 12-17-2018
Directed by Dave Fleischer and Orestes Calipini
Featuring the voices of Bud Collyer, Joan Alexander, Jackson Beck
Country: USA
What it is: Another Superman short

Criminal extortionists with a flying bullet plane threaten Metropolis with destruction if they don’t pay them. Can Superman defeat them?

I will openly confess that I’m not a big superhero fan; unless the superhero has an interesting character to go along with his superpowers, I lose interest rapidly. That’s why ultimately the Fleischer Superman shorts get a little tiresome for me; in the quest for non-stop action, personality is left on the sidelines, and the series get repetitive. This one does very little for me; though well animated and colorful, the story feels like a cross between the first Superman short and THE MECHANICAL MONSTERS, both of which were fresher and more fun. Granted, those that love superheroes will quickly forgive any shortcomings like these and enjoy them well enough, and it’s for those people these shorts were made.

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The Arctic Giant (1942)

The Arctic Giant (1942)
Article 5599 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 12-17-2018
Directed by Dave Fleischer and Willard Bowsky
Featuring the voices of Bud Collyer, Joan Alexander, Jackson Beck
Country: USA
What it is: Fleischer Superman short

When the refrigeration unit on a giant frozen dinosaur goes on the fritz, the beast thaws out and goes on a rampage. Can Superman stop him?

Here’s another helping of typical Superman thrills, and though it’s colorful and well animated, I do wish a little care was taken with some of the other aspects of the production. For one thing, it would have been nice if the dinosaur had indeed resembled the Tyrannosaurus it’s supposed to be rather than a snaggle-toothed generic dinosaur. It would also have been nice if Lois Lane hadn’t been quite as dim-witted about getting into danger; with a rampaging dinosaur on the loose, there’s no point in her pointlessly putting herself in peril. Maybe Superman should have defeated the dinosaur first rather than rescued her from the rubble of the museum. Still, since I’m more of a dinosaur fan than a superhero fan, this one has a little more appeal for me.

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Billion Dollar Limited (1942)

Billion Dollar Limited (1942)
Article 5598 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 12-17-2018
Directed by Dave Fleischer
Featuring the voices of Bud Collyer, Joan Alexander and Jackson Beck
Country: USA
What it is: Fleischer Superman short

Masked crooks in an armored car attempt a train robbery to get the largest shipment of gold ever made. Can Superman stop them?

Personally, if I were in charge of the biggest gold shipment in history, I certainly wouldn’t invite the press in so they can have a big front-page story about it, but what do I know? What we have here is another efficient Superman animated short from the forties; it’s packed with action and short on character (the villains in particular are pretty anonymous this time), but that’s par for the course. Granted, it looks like the villains are more interested in crashing the train rather than robbing it, but I’m sure that was just their way of stopping it so they could get the gold out. It’s entertaining enough, but the cookie-cutter style of plotting for this series is becoming rather apparent.

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Someone at the Top of the Stairs (1973)

Someone at the Top of the Stairs (1973)
Article 5597 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 12-16-2018
Directed by John Sichel
Featuring Donna Mills, Judy Carne, David de Kayser
Country: UK
What it is: Strange happenings in a boarding house.

Two female students take a room in a boarding house, but there are clues of suspicious activity and the other boarders are a creepy lot. And who is the mysterious tenant in the top floor….?

I’ve seen several movie-length episodes from the British TV series “Thriller”, and in terms of the fantastic content, they’ve mostly been a bit on the marginal side. This is one of the exceptions; the revelations in the final third of the movie take the story in the direction of the supernatural. There’s a few plot holes, and the story doesn’t stand up to close inspection, but the first two-thirds of the movie are creepy enough (and a little depraved as well) that I was almost expecting the final act would be a let-down; fortunately, it doesn’t disappoint in this regard. It’s not the best episode I’ve seen so far, but it’s a good entry in the series.

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Le moine (1972)

Le moine (1972)
aka The Monk
Article 5596 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 12-13-2018
Directed by Adonis Kyrou
Featuring Franco Nero, Nathalie Delon, Nicol Williamson
Country: France / Italy / West Germany
What it is: Faustian temptation

A charismatic monk succumbs to temptation and falls into sin, crime, sorcery and depravity.

This movie was based on a sensational eighteenth century novel. Apparently, Luis Bunuel had made two attempts to get this one made, but both fell through; this one was directed by a friend of his with a script at least partially inspired by the Bunuel treatment. I wonder what it would have been like if Bunuel had directed; it certainly would have ended up better than this rather tepid affair. The most interesting touches are in the story itself; the title character attempts to reap the benefit of the devil’s help without actually selling his soul, but the devil is tricky enough to entrap the monk in a spiral of misfortune until things get so desperate that the monk is forced to make the deal. From what I can tell, the movie takes some definite liberties with the novel; in particular, the ending is very different. I suspect the ending is very much Bunuel’s contribution to the script, as it fits in well with his anti-clerical attitude. It’s interesting, but it falls short of what it could have been.

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Fiddler on the Roof (1971)

Fiddler on the Roof (1971)
Article 5595 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 12-11-2018
Directed by Norman Jewison
Featuring Topol, Norma Crane, Leonard Frey
Country: USA
What it is: Musical

In pre-revolutionary Russia, a Jewish milkman must contend with a changing world that challenges the traditions in which he believes.

I didn’t right away expect to be reviewing this one because I had forgotten that the movie does indeed have fantastic content; the fake nightmare that Tevye dreams up to convince his wife to change the marriage plans for their eldest daughter features corpses and ghosts risen from the dead. There’s also a somewhat more subtle touch of fantastic content here as well; the title character is an anthropomorphic metaphor rather than a real person, and he remains something of a mystical character. As for the movie itself, the story inhabits a special place in my world. Though I do some local acting, I’m not fond of musicals and don’t audition for them. There’s only one musical I would consider doing, and that’s the one this movie is based on. Why? Because for me, it’s the only musical I’ve seen that works on such a deep emotional level that it transcends the artifice of the form; the music deepens the emotional and thematic elements of the story in a way that I’ve not seen before or since. it may be a musical, but it inhabits a very real world indeed, and one that can be deeply tragic. Yet it’s Tevye’s emotional struggle to hold on to his faith while watching the traditions that define it fall apart that really make’s the movie so deeply satisfying to me. It’s hands down my favorite musical, and I’m glad the fantastic content allowed me a chance to review it here.

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Camille 2000 (1969)

Camille 2000 (1969)
Article 5594 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 12-9-2018
Directed by Radley Metzger
Featuring Daniele Gaubert, Nino Castelnuovo, Eleanora Rosso Drago
Country: Italy
What it is: Sexed-up classic

A young man falls in love with the courtesan of a rich nobleman.

For the record, the Lentz guide lists this movie as genre, but the Walt Lee guide consigns it to the “Exclusions” list for movies lacking fantastic content. A viewing of the movie makes me give the point to Walt Lee, but I can’t really blame Lentz; we have a right to expect any movie made before the millennium change that ends with “2000” to be science fiction. And maybe it does take place in the year 2000; that might explain why some of the costume and set design choices are so bizarre (though my own belief is that some set and costume designers just like it that way). But there’s nothing in the script that specifies that it takes place in the future, and really, is there any reason to set this Dumas tale in the future when the present could work just as well? As for the movie itself, it’s an update of “Camille” that takes advantage of the new permissiveness in the cinema to add a bunch of softcore sex scenes to the mix. For all that, the movie is a straightforward telling of the story; it’s pretty to look at, but nothing special. And as for all of the sex scenes, I will fall back on my belief that one man’s erotic fantasy is another’s consummate silliness, and after the S&M D&S party scene, I found it hard to take the movie seriously anymore.

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Les escargots (1966)

Les escargots (1966)
aka The Snails
Article 5593 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 12-6-2018
Directed by Rene Laloux
No cast
Country: France
What it is: Animated short

A farmer discovers the only way his crop will flourish is to water them with human tears. He does so, but the crop attracts snails, who eat them and grow to tremendous size…

There are comic touches in the other works of Rene Laloux, but they tend to be muted by the general tone of darkness that pervades his works. This one is the reverse; the darkness is here, but the comic sense predominates, especially in its final twist. But then, I’d expect it to be a bit comic; it is, after all, a marauding giant monster movie, though it is less concerned with how humanity defeats the monsters than with what happens once the snails have laid waste to the world. At any rate, this is easily the most enjoyable of the three Laloux shorts I’ve seen recently.

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