Month: June 2021

Quatermass (1979)

Quatermass (1979)
Article 5917 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 1-3-2021
Directed by Piers Haggard
Featuring John Mills, Simon MacCorkindale, Ralph Arliss
Country: UK
What it is: Apocalyptic Sci-Fi / Horror

Bernard Quatermass comes out of a hermit-like isolation to discover civilization has degenerated and large groups of young people have become members of a cult that believes they will be transplanted to a new planet if they gather at strategic sites on the planet. When a large group of them are destroyed at Ringstone Round, Quatermass tries to grasp the nature of the horror that threatens the Earth.

Generally, this extension of the Quatermass series is considered a bit of a disappointment by many, but though I do have a few problems with the story, I still find it satisfying nonetheless. Certainly, the nature of the horror is much vaster than the ones in the previous entries of the series, but that fits the pattern; in each of the series, the horror becomes bigger and more difficult to grasp. The story does have a few problems; it’s over-reliant on coincidences on occasion, and I’m not sure it succeeds in accomplishing all it sets out to do. I did remained entranced and entertained by the serial, though, and feel that it makes for a good ending to the Quatermass saga.

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The Lost Dream (1949)

The Lost Dream (1949)
Article 5916 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 1-1-2021
Directed by Bill Tytla and George Germanetti
Featuring the voices of Jackson Beck, Mae Questel, Amanda Randolph
Country: USA
What it is: Little Audrey cartoon

When one of her dreams misses the boat back to Dreamland, Little Audrey decides to escort the dream back to its home. Her reward is a tour of Dreamland, but she can’t keep away from the big black door that leads to nightmares.

Little Audrey was Famous Studios’ replacement for Little Lulu; since she was a character created at the studio, they didn’t have to pay for the rights to the character. This one is mostly in the area of whimsicality rather than comedy. It’s okay, but I wish she’d have opened the black door of nightmares earlier in the cartoon so it would have more time for the scary stuff; as it is, it’s almost over by the time we reach that point. This one is passable, but it’s not one of the better cartoons from the series.

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L’obsession de l’or (1906)

L’obsession de l’or (1906)
Article 5915 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 12-30-2020
Directed by Segundo de Chomon and Lucien Nonguet
Cast unknown
Country: France
What it is: Not quite complete

An artist is in danger of losing his home when he can’t pay the rent. After he sends his female companion out to pawn her jewelry, he is visited by dancing money chests that offer him gold.

It’s a little difficult to make a judgment on this one, as it appears to be incomplete. It’s a fairly big jump from having a man glory in a fantasy about having tons of gold to hanging himself, and I suspect a chunk of plot is missing. It’s also a little on the disappointing side for Chomon; it’s a little too similar to the work of Melies and lacks Chomon’s individual touch that usually sets it apart; it even has the standard Melies dancing girls number. Maybe a version that isn’t missing footage would be better; as it is in this form, it’s not essential Chomon.

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A Lively Quarter-Day (1906)

A Lively Quarter-Day (1906)
Article 5914 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 12-30-2020
Directed by J.H. Martin
Cast unknown
Country: UK
What it is: Half comedy, half special-effects

An attempt to clean and furnish a room leaves the place in a shambles.

The first half of this silent short has no fantastic content; it’s just a slapstick series of destructive accidents. It’s only in the second half where the fantastic content manifests itself; the man moving into the room is a magician, and he uses his arts to magically fix everything in the room through the magic of running the film backwards. It’s a bit like some of Melies’s shorts where a magician/devil furnishes a room, but it has a bit more in the way of story. The most striking detail to me is that when we reach the point where they start using the backwards footage, it isn’t just a reverse of the sequences where the destruction first occurred, so they must have shot two destruction sequences that resulted into roughly the same mess.

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The Little Match Girl (1954)

The Little Match Girl (1954)
Article 5913 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 12-29-2020
Director unknown
Featuring the voice of John Nesbitt
Country: USA
What it is: A non-merry Christmas

A starving, freezing little girl sees visions in the matches she has failed to sell on the street.

Here we have another version of the single most depressing Christmas story of them all; I suspect Hans Christian Andersen wasn’t in a very happy state of mind when he conjured this one up. The credits above only apply to the Castle Films release of the short; I have strong reason to suspect that this is actually either a silent or foreign movie with the soundtrack removed and narration added. It’s probably a 1952 French version called LE JEUNE FILLE AUX ALLUMETTES; I see the cast lists a ballerina in the credits, which would match up with the dance sequence. I suppose I can’t blame all of these versions for trying to find some way to make this Christmas sourball of a story joyous; how else would you handle it? For those who like a good Christmas cry with their Christmas cheer.

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Little Johnny Jet (1953)

Little Johnny Jet (1953)
Article 5912 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 12-29-2020
Directed by Tex Avery
Featuring the voices of June Foray and Daws Butler
Country: USA
What it is: Tex Avery cartoon

A B-29 can’t find employment because all the airports are hiring only jets. He discovers he’s going to be a father, but junior turns out to be a jet. Can the father learn to accept the son?

The presence of anthropomorphic animals alone is no longer sufficient criteria for me to review a cartoon, but anthropomorphic airplanes are a slightly different matter, especially when the gags are as outrageous as they are here. This one is pretty good and Avery milks as much humor as he can out of the premise. My favorite touch is the existence of a mechanical stork to deliver airplane babies. This is another memorable cartoon from the cartooniest of the animators.

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L’horloge magique ou La petite fille qui voulait ete prinesse (1928)

L’horloge magique ou La petite fille qui voulait etre princesse (1928)
Article 5911 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 12-26-2020
Directed by Wladyslaw Starewicz
Featuring Nina Star, Bogdan Zoubowitch
Country: France
What it is: Astounding fantasy

A clock-maker creates a clock that tells the story of a princess’s love for a man who must battle an evil black knight. When the story is about to end in tragedy, the clock-maker’s little girl breaks the clock, and then falls into a fever dream where she becomes a princess and may herself need a prince to rescue her…

Here’s another stunning work from animator Wladyslaw Starewicz. I am in awe of the breadth of imagination of this man; between the live-action segments he manages to create two whole elaborate fantasy worlds full of outrageous and bizarre creatures, all fascinating and lovingly animated. Granted, the story is a bit hard to make out (the narration is in French), but I think the story is secondary; it’s the creation of these amazing worlds and characters that brings things to life. I’m probably repeating myself, but I find his work breath-taking.

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Les yeux du dragon (1925)

Les yeux du dragon (1925)
aka Eyes of the Dragon
Article 5910 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 12-24-2020
Directed by Wlaydslaw Starewicz
No cast
Country: France
What it is: Animated fantasy

A prince and princess in love seek a land of happiness, but a wicked Mandarin and a dragon stand in their way.

My copy of this short has all the title cards in French, but IMDB had a plot description that helped me through it. However, it appears there is a framing story that doesn’t seem to be a part of my copy of it. However, that didn’t really damage the viewing experience; the visual quality of the short is so sumptuous and the animation so enticing that this short is a joy to watch. Starewicz was a true master of animation, and this is one of his masterpieces.

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Le roi des dollars (1905)

Le roi des dollars (1905)
Article 5909 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 12-23-2020
Directed by Segundo de Chomon
Cast unknown
Country: France
What it is: Magic trick short

A number of magic tricks are performed with coins.

I’ve covered so many “magic trick” shorts from the early silents that I was tempted to skip reviewing this one. However, I was struck by the fact that Chomon found such a novel way to frame the magic tricks here that I felt it deserved notice. Chomon focuses only on the arm and hand of the magician, so we get a much closer look at the coin appearing out of nowhere. Since I suspect camera tricks were used rather than sleight of hand, I have to say that the cuts are pretty seamless for the most part, and the hand movements really make it look like it’s sleight of hand. What I found most striking is that the tricks also involve a man’s head being tapped by the hand, causing him to spit out a stream of gold coins (thanks to hand-coloring). I don’t know who the head really belongs to, but he looks for all the world like Melies, which may be a reference or may be coincidence. At any rate, this is indeed a striking example of the “magic trick” short.

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Leprechauns Gold (1949)

Leprechauns Gold (1949)
Article 5908 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 12-23-2020
Directed by Bill Tytla and George Germanetti
Featuring the voice of Jackson Beck
Country: USA
What it is: Noveltoon

When they run out of potatoes for their stew, a gang of leprechauns send out the youngest of the bunch to get some. But will this soft-hearted youngster be the cause of them losing all their gold?

Here’s an okay little leprechaun fantasy from Famous Pictures, and though the quality of the studio’s work did drop after the Fleischers were gone, they still did passable work. Apparently, leprechauns make shoes in their spare time and wash their gold on a regular basis (two facts I was not aware of, but then, I’m no authority on leprechauns). Part of the plot revolves around the hoariest of old cliches; the villain is a landlord demanding payment from a woman and her daughter. It’s more whimsical than funny, but I’m used to that by now. All in all, a passable timekiller.

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