THE ADVENTURES OF REX AND RINTY (1935)
(Serial)
Article #906 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 9-7-2003
Posting Date: 2-4-2004
Directed by Forde Beebe and B. Reaves Eason
Featuring Rex, Rin Tin Tin Jr, Kane Richmond

The God-Horse of Sujan is kidnapped and brought to America. It escapes, befriends a dog named Rinty, and is rescued by a polo player intent on returning the Horse to its original owner.

How about that? It’s a serial where I can tell the heroes apart. Granted, it helps that one of them is equine, another is canine, and only one of them is human, but I’m not complaining. In fact, having animals take center stage here has an even greater novelty value than making the Dead End Kids the focus of a serial (a la SEA RAIDERS), and the serial is quite entertaining as long as the focus remains on the animals. Unfortunately, the story gets repetitive after the first three episodes, and the focus shifts more and more to the human heroes and villains from that point onwards. Things do pick up again when the action shifts back to Sujan, but that’s not until late in the action. The fantastic elements are incidental, but they are there; firstly, the mythical island of Sujan itself, and secondly, there appears to be something of a psychic link between the high priest of Sujan and his agent in America, which is the most striking fantastic aspect here, even if it isn’t really used all that effectively.

AIR HAWKS (1935)
Article #882 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 8-14-2003
Posting Date: 1-11-2004
Directed by Albert Rogell
Featuring Ralph Bellamy, Tala Birell, Douglas Dumbrille

An airline company is suffering from attacks from a rival company intent on putting them out of business.

The opening fifteen minutes are mostly concerned with the business and romance ends of the story and are pretty dull, but once you get to the laboratory scenes and the introduction of a ray gun that can take a plane out of the sky, this little programmer picks up tremendously. Plotwise it’s pretty standard stuff, with the ray gun being the usual science-fiction gadgetry popular at the time, but the solid and efficient pacing, acting and direction all lift the movie somewhat higher off the ground than the first fifteen minutes would leave you to believe. In fact, this may well be one of my favorite ray-guns-taking-down-airplanes movies, an idea that was used ad nauseum during the thirties and forties.

ALI BABA AND THE SEVEN SARACENS (1964)
(a.k.a. SINBAD AGAINST THE SEVEN SARACENS)
Article #852 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 7-15-2003
Posting Date: 12-12-2003
Directed by Emimmo Salvi
Featuring Gordon Mitchell, Bella Cortez, Dan Harrison

Ali Baba (or is it Sinbad) takes on the evil Omar. Somewhere in the plot are a mute with a map on his back, a mewling eunuch, a midget and Seven Saracens (I’m taking the last one on faith).

Title: No comment until tell someone tells me if that’s Ali Baba or Sinbad. I also think the Seven Saracens should either be given readily identifiable names (Sneezy, Dopey, Grumpy, etc) or at least wear t-shirts that say “Saracen Number One”, “Saracen Number Two”, etc., so I can identify them.

Even by sword-and-sandal standards, this one is lame. The fight scenes are some of the least exciting and most lethargic ever staged, one of the outdoor scenes is so obviously done inside a studio you can see the lights shining on the blue tarpaulin on the back wall. IMDB says Gordon Mitchell plays Sinbad (or Ali Baba), but unless I’m getting my musclemen confused, it sure looks like he’s playing Omar the bad guy here. The dubbing is also subpar (even for sword-and-sandal movies). Other than the existence of a character named Ali Baba (or Sinbad), there are no fantastic elements here. Those interested in investigating the genre should start elsewhere than here.

THE ANATOMIST (1961)
Article #850 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 7-13-2003
Posting Date: 12-10-2003
Directed by Leonard William
Featuring Alastair Sim, George Cole, Adrienne Corri

A medical student finds his impending marriage to a young woman is threatened by his association with Dr. Knox, who may be using resurrection men to supply his medical school with cadavers.

Title check: Appropriate enough, as Dr. Knox was an anatomist.

This is another of the many movies based on the exploits of Burke and Hare; this one is more focused on Dr. Knox, and plays out more like a historical drama than a horror movie. It’s based on a stage play and was shot for television, which goes a long way towards explaining the style of the movie; most of it takes place on only three sets, and it largely consists of characters talking (and shouting) at each other. It’s well acted, even if it’s played somewhat over the top; there were scenes here where I felt that the actors were competing to see who could best channel the spirit of Tod Slaughter. All the action scenes take place offstage.

Ultimately, this might all work, as the story itself is interesting enough. Unfortunately, I was somewhat disappointed by it. Part of the reason is I’m not quite sure if the movie has any real point of view on the matter. The ending makes me suspect that we’re supposed to feel sympathy for Knox, but outside of a single admission of his that he feels a bit of guilt over the deaths of the victims of the resurrectionists, his arrogance and other unpleasant personality traits leave me feeling very unsympathetic towards the man. Though it’s not without merit, I suspect there are several other movies on the same subject that I would rather watch.

AMPHITRYON (1935)
Article #846 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 7-9-2003
Posting Date: 12-6-2003
Directed by Reinhold Schunzel
Featuring Willy Fritsch, Kathe Gold, Paul Kemp

Jupiter comes down from Mount Olympus and disguises himself as a mortal to romance a woman.

Title check: Amphitryon is the name of the mortal whom Jupiter imitates. No problem.

If I were asked to say what I thought about German musical comedies, I would have precious little to say, since I didn’t even know they made any. Well, here’s one, and I still have little to say because it’s all in German without subtitles. It seems well-acted enough, but the music is not particularly memorable, and it’s not possible to say if the jokes are funny when you can’t understand the language, though some of the visual moments are quite striking. There is also a French version of the movie made at the same time called LES DIEUX S’AMUSENT, which I haven’t seen. Some of the special effects are also quite nice. I’ll leave further commentary for those who can understand the language.

THE AMBUSHERS (1967)
Article #826 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 6-19-2003
Posting Date: 11-16-2003
Directed by Henry Levin
Featuring Dean Martin, Senta Berger, Janice Rule

Secret agent Matt Helm is forced to ogle many women in their underwear, and can only defend himself by an endless barage of double entendres.

Title check: I suppose the ambushers are the ones who captured the flying saucer in the opening scene. The title song would have you believe they are the many women lying in wait for Matt Helm.

Let’s face it; once I started covering James Bond movies, it was only a matter of time before the Matt Helm movies started popping up. These movies feature Dean Martin as Matt Helm. He meets women in various stages of undress. We get lots of closeups of their figures. Matt Helm then says double entendres. He has a fight with some vague bad guys. Then he meets more women in various stages of undress, and delivers more double entendres. When his female companion tries to come on to him at one point, he says “In broad daylight?”, and she says “What’s wrong with a broad in daylight?” (Warning: this is one of the BETTER jokes). Dean Martin drinks lots of beer, and blows smoke into the faces of a firing squad, the members of which then break out in fits of laughter. He then ogles more women in various states of undress and responds with more double entendres. Etc. Etc. Etc.

The Matt Helm series is for people who consider the James Bond series too arty, too pretentious, too subtle, too British, too witty and too action-packed. Either that, or they’re for people who are satisfied with hearing endless double entendres while looking at beautiful women in various states of undress. Personally, I can take that for about ten minutes before I’m ready to move on. The movie runs 102 minutes. You do the math.

THE AMAZING MR. X (1948)
(a.k.a. THE SPIRITUALIST)
Article #799 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 5-23-2003
Posting Date: 10-10-2003
Directed by Bernard Vorhaus
Featuring Turhan Bey, Richard Carlson, Lynn Bari

A woman who has begun hearing the voice of her dead husband hooks up with a medium in order to contact him.

Title check: “Amazing” is always a matter of opinion, but since we’re referring to a medium, it’s appropriate enough, though I do think that anyone known as Mr. X should have a last name that begins with an ‘X’. At heart, I prefer the quieter alternate title.

Though it really isn’t a horror movie, it certainly plays like one during the first third of the movie, enough so that it easily falls into the realm of fantastic cinema. It starts off pretty strongly, but loses a bit of steam during the middle section; however, there is a plot twist about two-thirds of the way through that definitely threw me for a loop and added a new factor to the story, and even though it left me with a few unanswered questions (I’m very unsure about why a certain character is doing what he or she is doing), I have to admit that I was quite satisfied with the movie as a whole. In particular, I think this is may be the best performance I’ve seen from Turhan Bey; it’s certainly a far more complex character than the ones he was usually given. I also like the final moments, which involve a crow. Horror fans may want to give this one a look.

ACE DRUMMOND (1936)
(Serial)
Article #775 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 4-29-2003
Posting Date: 9-26-2003
Directed by Ford Beebe and Cliff Smith
Featuring John King, Jean Rogers, Noah Beery Jr.

A mysterious criminal known as the Dragon is sabotaging an airline company trying to open an airport in Mongolia, and Ace Drummond is called in to investigate.

There’s a radio station in our area that they play at work; it claims to repeat no songs from nine to five on weekdays, so you can listen the whole day and not hear the same song twice. That’s all well and good; however, what they don’t tell you is that each day of the week they play all the same songs they did the previous day, usually in the same order. As far as I’m concerned, this makes them predictable and dull.

What does this have to do with serials? Well, some serials are like that; each episode is just like the last one, and if you were to take all but the first and last episodes of some serials, toss them in a box and pull them out at random, you might find that it wouldn’t make any difference which order you watched them. If anything, I’ve grown to appreciate those that don’t suffer from this problem. Fortunately, this is one of those where the order of the episodes makes a difference, and there is a decent variety between the episodes; it doesn’t just repeat the same thing over and over again.

I also like some other aspects of this one; the characters are differentiated from each other well enough so that you can keep track of them (though Lon Chaney Jr. has been consigned to a truly forgettable henchman role), and the opening of each episode (in which the plot so far is updated via a series of pictures drawn in comic-strip fashion, which is fitting for a serial based on a comic strip). The identity of the villain remains a closely guarded secret, though if you watch carefully during the last episode, you just might figure out who it is several minutes before it is actually revealed. Also, the villain has a somewhat clever way of transmitting his messages (via prayer wheels, water wheels, electric fans; basically any object that does circular revolutions). Their are several light science-fiction touches throughout, the music is quite nice (though I do wish our hero would learn more than one song), and some quite fun moments. It’s not quite up there with GANG BUSTERS, but it’s world’s better than QUEEN OF THE JUNGLE, so I certainly can’t complain.

THE ABOMINABLE SNOWMAN (1957)
Article #761 by Dave Sindelar
Date Viewed: 4-15-2003
Date Posted: 9-12-2003
Directed by Val Guest
Featuring Peter Cushing, Forrest Tucker, Maureen Connell

A scientist accompanies an opportunist on an expedition to track down the Yetis.

To say that this is the best Yeti movie I’ve seen so far isn’t saying much; that just means it’s a better movie than either THE SNOW CREATURE or MAN BEAST, a feat that isn’t particularly difficult. To say it’s the best genre movie I’ve seen with Forrest Tucker is somewhat better, placing it above THE CRAWLING EYE, anyway. I’m not sure I can say it’s the best Peter Cushing genre movie; he’s had so many good ones, but I will say I found this one scarier, more suspenseful and more thoughtful than any of Hammer’s Frankenstein or Dracula movies I’ve seen to date. One thing I definitely won’t say is that it’s the best movie I’ve seen with Nigel Kneale’s name attached to it, not with the Quatermass movies out there. However, the fact that Nigel Kneale’s name IS attached to this one goes a long way to explaining its strengths; a thoughtful storyline, well-developed characters, subtlety, and a real sense of tension as the screws start to tighten are all here, and they’re all aspects I’ve come to expect from him. The most unexpected pleasure I got from the movie came out of left field, though; I wouldn’t have anticipated that Forrest Tucker and Peter Cushing would have had such chemistry together. As it is, they play off of each other’s strengths beautifully, and it is a joy to watch them talk with each other. This is good, because there is a lot of talk in this movie, and they go the extra mile to make it fascinating.

THE ATOMIC MAN (1956)
(a.k.a. TIMESLIP)
Article #705 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing date: 2-18-2003
Posting date: 7-18-2003
Directed by Ken Hughes
Featuring Gene Nelson, Faith Domergue, Peter Arne

An unidentified man in the hospital who has been saved from drowning bears an uncanny resemblance to a nuclear scientist.

I have omitted in the above plot description the intriguing science fiction concept that is included in every other description of the movie; the man in the hospital is living exactly seven and a half seconds in the future. This is definitely an offbeat idea, and I’ve been wondering for some time just how a movie would handle that concept. This movie, however, does precious little with it; it’s merely a gimmick, and could have easily been replaced with the more conventional “he’s in a delirious state” cliche, for all the effect it really has on the story. This is basically an industrial espionage story, very ordinary at best, though there’s some nice acting to liven up the proceedings, but the science fiction aspects are poorly used, and the scientific explanation for his condition is one of the least convincing explanations I’ve heard since the single-cell heart theory in THE AMAZING COLOSSAL MAN.