ALGOL (1920)
Article #1085 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 3-4-2004
Posting Date: 8-1-2004
Directed by Hans Werckmeister
Featuring Emil Jannings, John Gottowt, Hans Adalbert Schlettow

A miner is given the secret to limitless energy by a mysterious friend, and uses it to become the master of a global economic empire.

This obscure german science fiction movie may be at least partially fantasy; the opening scene describes the star of Algol as being “the eye of the devil”, and there is some reason to suspect that the character named Algol may be the devil himself. As such, the movie hovers in a somewhat odd area between FAUST and METROPOLIS, though it really can’t be fairly compared with either one. One odd thing about the movie is that it really doesn’t seem to dwell on political or social commentary despite the theme of economic oppression; the focus seems to be on how the miner’s eventual growth into an economic tyrant destroys his personal relationships, and it is ultimately his loss of those aspects of his life (rather than a realization of the widespread suffering he is causing) that causes him to take the final actions that he does. Despite the fact that the character could be extremely unpleasant, you end up caring somewhat about him, and you’re sad to see him destroy the love and affection that surrounds him. Much of this can be attributed to Emil Janning’s excellent performance. My print has German subtitles, but I was fortunately provided with a translation of the title cards that went a long way to explaining the story; without it, you would have had another one of those confused “what’s going on here” reviews that I find myself doing whenever I don’t understand the language.

A special thanks goes here to the person who was kind enough to provide me with a copy of the film.

ASSIGNMENT OUTER SPACE (1960)
(a.k.a. SPACE MEN)
Article #1083 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 3-2-2004
Posting Date: 7-30-2004
Directed by Antonio Margheriti
Featuring Rik Van Nutter, Gabriella Farinon, Archie Savage

When a space station threatens to destroy the earth with its photonic generators , it’s up to a crew of astronauts and a reporter to save the day.

I’m going to coin another term here. You know how in some movies, the musical soundtrack is in sync with the action on the screen, enhancing and heightening the mood at all times? If so, then I’m sure you’ve noticed how in some movies, the musical soundtrack does no such thing; it just plows on without a care for the action on the screen, sounding the same during the thrilling, tense sequences as it does during the thoughtful sequences or the exposition? It’s obvious in such cases that the soundtrack is only there to fill in empty silence, much like elevator music is only there to give you something to listen to in an elevator. This type of soundtrack which heightens nothing, enhances nothing and reduces everything it touches to dreary sameness of mood I hereby dub the “Elevator Soundtrack”.

This movie starts out with a certain initial charm, with a savvy space pilot subtly taunting a know-it-all reporter on his first trip into deep space. The bargain basement special effects also had a certain charm to them; when I first saw them, I found myself hearkening back to my childhood when I used to watch “Space Angel” on a local cartoon show, a space opera which displayed just how limited limited animation could be. In fact, I’m a little surprised at how cheap the special effects seem to be; frankly, I think the Rocky Jones movies have better effects, and at least one effect (in which a burning and clearly earthbound car is used to substitute for an explosion in outer space) may win the award for the most desperately bad special effect I’ve seen. The charm does wear off, though, and between the dubbing (it’s in sync but poorly acted) and that Elevator Soundtrack, the movie ends up being like a long trek through the mud. It’s a bit of a shame, though; the story itself isn’t too bad, and at least one scene (in which one character navigates a space taxi through a narrow and invisible tunnel by tossing extraneous items about him to figure out the safe route) really caught my attention. Probably the most memorable thing about the movie is Archie Savage, whose striking physical appearance (a black man with snow-white hair) causes him to steal every scene he’s in without trying.

ALIEN (1979)
Article #1082 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 3-1-2004
Posting Date: 7-29-2004
Directed by Ridley Scott
Featuring Tom Skerritt, Sigourney Weaver, Veronica Cartwright

The crew of a mining expedition is pulled out of suspended animation to investigate the possibility of intelligent life on a distant planet.

Much has been made of how this science fiction/horror movie resembles IT! THE TERROR FROM BEYOND SPACE, but unless someone has tracked down undeniable proof that the earlier movie was the inspiration for this one, I’m more likely to chalk it up to coincidence, as the idea of a marauding space alien loose aboard a spaceship seems to me a fairly logical concept that could easily occur to anybody. In fact, I suspect that the idea may be largely a serious retread of the comic take of the idea from DARK STAR, as Dan O’Bannon also helped write the script of that one. When I saw this years ago in the theater, I was less than impressed with the movie for somewhat trivial reasons. I didn’t care much for the fact that the eggs in the movie had such little resemblance to the eggs featured prominently in the ads, I thought the use of the cat for cheap scares to be annoying, and I really thought it was stupid for Ripley to go back for the cat after she had started to self-destruct mechanism (incidentally, I have no idea why I concocted this latter complaint; every viewing of the movie I’ve had since shows I clearly had my time line mixed up, and nowadays I chalk it up to proof that the memory can play tricks on you).

Watching it again, I feel very different about these things. The egg is a non-issue, and I now perceive that the scares involving the cat are actually somewhat witty. What I didn’t appreciate at the time was the movie’s strengths; the excellent visual sense of the movie, the incredible design of the Nostromo, the alien, the alien spaceship, etc., and most particularly the excellence of the performances and the depth of the characters; most movies of this ilk wouldn’t bother much with character development of this sort. The exquisite use of sound and silence and the masterful pacing also help the movie to hold up well through the years. If I have any regret, it’s that the movie didn’t quite scare me enough to keep me awake all night, which is kind of ironic, because…well, that’s a story for another time.

ARREST BULLDOG DRUMMOND (1939)
Article #1081 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 2-29-2004
Posting Date: 7-28-2004
Directed by James P. Hogan
Featuring John Howard, Heather Angel, H.B. Warner

Captain Hugh Drummond tries to solve the murder of an inventor of a stolen death ray.

I’ve covered several of the Bulldog Drummond movies, and though I find the series thoroughly enjoyable, as of yet, the fantastic aspects have been very slight. This is probably the one so far that would have the most attraction for fans of the fantastic; the death ray (which explodes gunpowder from a distance) puts it definitely in the realm of science fiction, and the main villain is horror mainstay George Zucco (this isn’t giving away the plot; we know it’s Zucco from the beginning). As usual with the Drummond series, it’s all done with a light touch. There is also a talking blackbird, a good joke involving the word “duck”, a running joke involving the phrase “Don’t call me inspector”, and Drummond’s usual cohorts Algy, Tenny and Colonel Nielsen (played respectively by Reginald Denny, E.E. Clive, and H.B. Warner).

ABBOTT AND COSTELLO GO TO MARS (1953)
Article #1080 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 2-28-2004
Posting Date: 7-27-2004
Directed by Charles Lamont
Featuring Bud Abbott, Lou Costello, Mari Blanchard

Two simpletons accidentally start up a rocket and end up going to Venus.

I really like certain aspects of this movie, in particular that it was the first real attempt by a comedy team to take on the science fiction trend that was coming to life during the fifties. The movie touches upon certain aspects of the early space travel movies; the weightlessness, the magnetic shoes, the meteors, etc. that were rapidly becoming cliches. It also takes on one of the silliest science fiction plotlines of the era, that of another planet being made up entirely of women; in fact, it beats most of the other variations of that story to the screen and was smart enough to realize that the concept was best played for comedy. Unfortunately, the jokes and gags are very uneven; the weightlessness sequence is not only highly inaccurate, it’s also bizarre rather than funny. The addition of two comic characters who slightly resemble Bud and Lou also seems unnecessary. My favorite sequence is probably the middle part, where they land in the bayou near New Orleans and visit the town during Mardi Gras under the belief they are on Mars. Lou Costello was immensely popular with children, and this is perhaps the movie where he most plays up that popularity by making his character particularly childlike; his first scene is among children at an orphanage, and he maintains a certain innocent wonder throughout, though this dissipates somewhat when the story shifts into the Venus sequence. Overall, it’s something of a disappointment, but it does have its moments.

ALICE IN WONDERLAND (1933)
Article #977 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 11-17-2003
Posting Date: 4-15-2004
Directed by Norman Z. McLeod
Featuring Charlotte Henry, Cary Grant, W.C. Fields

Alice goes through the looking glass and falls down the rabbit hole into a strange world.

Lewis Carroll’s Alice books remain to this day my favorite children’s stories of all time. They are also, to my mind, almost unfilmable. Part of the reason is that, despite the many memorable fantastic images present in the stories (the Tenniel illustrations are indelible), the stories are largely driven by a contortionistic verbal illogic that really can only be appreciated by those with a sense of mathematical absurdity. About the only director I would trust with this work is Terry Gilliam, whose years with Monty Python would put him in good stead to take on the absurdity of the work.

As it is, this version is more of curiosity than anything else; it has a plethora of Hollywood stars in costumes that disguise their features (Cary Grant, W.C. Fields, Gary Cooper and Edward Everett Horton are only the most well-known of the bunch), and it has some very nice special effects throughout. It also more or less takes a real stab at being somewhat faithful to the work, with most of the dialogue directly from the stories. What it lacks is real energy and a grasp of the spirit of the whole thing; it feels mannered and perfunctory, cranking out some of the better-remembered moments without ever achieving the sense of absurdist flow necessary to bring the whole thing to life. Nonetheless, as a curiosity piece, it does have its uses, and those who really want to see W.C. Fields as Humpty Dumpty won’t want to pass it by.

THE ADVENTURES OF ICHABOD AND MR. TOAD (1949)
Article #972 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 11-12-2003
Posting Date: 4-10-2004
Directed by James Algar, Clyde Geronimi, et al.
Featuring the Voices of Basil Rathbone, Bing Crosby, Eric Blore

Two stories are told. The first is about a toad whose wild exploits land him in trouble with the police. The second is about a schoolmaster who ends up competing with the town bully for the hand of a beautiful woman.

This was made during the forties, when Disney was reckoning somewhat with the unpredictability of making animated features, where a single feature could take an enormous amount of time which could then be lost if the movie failed to make a profit. One of his solutions was to make some features which actually consisted of several stories at once. I’m not sure what inspired him to combine “The Wind in the Willows” and “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow”, other than that they were both adapted from works of literature. I remember reading “The Wind in the Willows” as a child, but I don’t really recall this particular toad adventure, and though it is occasionally entertaining, it certainly isn’t representative of the book as a whole. In fact, this never really comes to life; there are reasons these characters never became Disney favorites. The Ichabod sequence comes off much better, though it too reduces many of the events to slapstick comedy; even the scary headless horseman sequence (the best part of the movie and the part most of interest to horror fans) suffers a little bit from the overuse of gags. Nonetheless, the headless horseman himself is never played for laughs, and the ambiguous ending is retained. Overall, I’d have to say that this was a pretty minor effort from Disney.