BIKINI BEACH (1964)
Article 3269 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 6-1-2010
Posting Date: 7-27-2010
Directed by William Asher
Featuring Frankie Avalon, Annette Funicello, Martha Hyer
Country: USA
What it is: Beach party movie

The Beach Party gang has to contend with a millionaire who is campaigning against their depravity. Furthermore, Frankie has to worry that Dee Dee will be stolen from him by that British recording star, the Potato Bug.

What can I say – it’s a Beach Party movie, and that means loud, energetic, dumb, and rather irresistible. I think it’s the only one of the series that I’ve seen for my project that features both Annette Funicello and Frankie Avalon in lead roles, so it’s probably the most representative of the ones I’ve covered. There’s surfing, drag racing, dancing, music, a chase scene, a brawl, a monkey (Janos Prohaska really does an impressive job in a fairly convincing monkey outfit here) who drives and surfs, and an array of guest stars (Keenan Wynn, Don Rickles, Stevie Wonder and Boris Karloff). The big question is, though – how does it qualify for this project? It’s pretty marginal for the most part; one could say that the talented monkey and a talking hawk-like bird push it into the realm of fantasy, but the most prominent element is the inexplicable appearance of a werewolf in a pool room (he just sits there). Still, to fans of fantastic cinema, the movie is probably most famous for the Boris Karloff cameo, which I’d heard about for years, and though his “monsters” comment is his most famous line here, I think I like his passing reference to Vincent Price even more.

THE BLACK CAT (1966)
Article 3234 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 4-27-2010
Posting Date: 6-22-2010
Directed by Harold Hoffman
Featuring Robert Frost, Robyn Baker, Sadie French
Country: USA
What it is: Low-budget Poe adaptation

If this movie seems to be famous for anything, I’m guessing it would be the effectively gory axe murder sequence; I remember seeing stills of that one. And since the axe murder does take place in the original Poe story, we can’t really call it gratuitous. In fact, I do have to credit the makers of this movie for attempting a certain type of fidelity to the original story; it’s updated to the present, and fleshes out the characters and situations, but it manages to be true to the story as written. Still, it doesn’t quite flesh things out enough to hold the interest level high throughout the running time of the movie, and some of the additions are obvious (let’s have lots of scenes of him drinking, let’s have lots of scenes of him talking like a loony, let’s have a car chase, etc.). Fortunately, some of the touches are nice; I like that our main character has other pets around as well as the cat, I like the bizarre sequence where he his serenaded by a rock band of one-eyed men, and I like his startled attack on a black purse. Let’s face it; for a movie made on an extreme low budget, this one works pretty well. I just wish they had taken extra care with spelling Edgar Allan Poe’s name correctly. Incidentally, I suspect the Robert Frost of this movie is not the well known poet, despite his opening lines of poetry.

BLUEBEARD (1972)
Article 3206 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 3-29-2010
Posting Date: 5-25-2010
Directed by Edward Dmytryk and Luciano Sacripanti
Featuring Richard Burton, Raquel Welch, Joey Heatherton
Country: France/Italy/West Germany
What it is: Updated take on the Bluebeard story

A World War I veteran, presently a Nazi, has murdered several of his wives. His current wife discovers where he has hidden their bodies, and, in order to save her own life, tries to get to the bottom of his problem.

In the opening scene of this movie, we discover that the title character actually does have a blue beard. It could be argued that this revelation is actually a surprise, I suppose, as you don’t really expect that degree of obviousness; nevertheless, there was something about the literalness of it that annoyed me. As for the rest of the movie, I’m not quite sure what to make of it. Our title character has a pet falcon, plays the organ, and keeps his dead mother in the attic, with all of these conventional horror trappings, I tried to figure out if it was straight horror or camp, but the movie never really veers one way or the other. It’s only when he starts to tell the tales of his previous wives that the movie takes a definite direction, as the movie clearly becomes a black comedy; unfortunately, it doesn’t stay on that level. And once you find out the reason he’s killing all his wives… well, let’s just say the revelation isn’t worth the two-plus hour length of this movie. Richard Burton actually underplays for much of the movie, which may have been a mistake; I think this is one movie that could have used a bit more hamminess. In the end, the movie is an unsatisfying mixture of horror, black comedy, sex comedy and drama, and I emerged from more confused and frustrated than anything.

BARRACUDA (THE LUCIFER PROJECT) (1978)
Article 3205 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 3-28-2010
Posting Date: 5-24-2010
Directed by Harry Kerwin and Wayne Crawford
Featuring Wayne Crawford, Jason Evers, Roberta Leighton
Country: USA
What it is: Starts out as JAWS ripoff, then changes

Barracudas have begun attacking and killing people. A student investigates the possibility of pollution in the cove of a small town. Are these incidents related…?

It starts out as a simple JAWS ripoff; all well and good. Then it layers on the pollution subplot, which gives the movie two types of seventies movies from which it can borrow its plot trappings. By the time it gets around to throwing the paranoid conspiracy thriller into the mix, the barracuda attacks have definitely been placed on the back burner. And once you know you’re dealing with a paranoid conspiracy thriller, you’ll know how it’ll end. Though some of our heroes are likable enough, the indifferent acting, slow pacing, and the repetitive music start to take their toll. If the movie had concentrated on the subplot about behavioral changes of the townspeople, it might have worked itself up to something really interesting; as it is, it tries to cover too many over-familiar and exploitable bases at once and comes up short. But then, with a production company called Marketing Film, what do you expect?

THE BROTHERHOOD OF SATAN (1971)
Article 3199 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 3-23-2010
Posting Date: 5-18-2010
Directed by Bernard McEveety
Featuring Strother Martin, L.Q. Jones, Charles Bateman
Country: USA
What it is: Devil worship thriller

A man, his girlfriend, and his child become stranded in a strange town that seems to have fallen under an evil spell. Children are disappearing, families are being slaughtered, and strange powers prevent anyone from leaving and entering the town.

After having watched this movie, I was quite startled to see it sitting on IMDB with a measly 3.9 rating. Near as I can figure, it’s one of those movies that is more apt to alienate and bore the viewer than entice him; it all depends on who the viewer is. Me, I was sucked in from the beginning. It opens with a child’s toy tank juxtaposed with what appears to be a very real tank crushing a car and its inhabitants during the pre-credits sequence. The story then continues with the travelers discovering the crushed car, driving into town to report it to the sheriff, and then finding themselves threatened by that same sheriff and then by the whole town. Between these two scenes I found myself glued to the screen trying to figure out what was going on and waiting to see what was going to happen next. The movie does have the potential to be dull and confusing, but even the slow scenes have something going on in them; the long conversationless drive near the beginning of the movie will either bore you or entice you, depending on what you’re paying attention to. This movie was part of a handful of productions co-produced by L.Q. Jones and Alvy Moore (who appear in the movie); they also gave us THE WITCHMAKER and A BOY AND HIS DOG. Apparently, this movie was paired with THX 1138, which must have made for a very interesting double feature.

THE BOY WHO CRIED WEREWOLF (1973)
Article 3198 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 3-22-2010
Posting Date: 5-17-2010
Directed by Nathan Juran
Featuring Kerwin Mathews, Elaine Devry, Scott Sealey
Country: USA
What it is: Werewolf movie

A young boy (whose parents have separated) accompanies his father on a camping expedition. When they are attacked by a werewolf, the father is bitten. Soon the boy has to contend with the fact that his father has now also become a werewolf… but no one will believe him.

You know, the basic concept behind this movie has some promise; I can see possibilities in how the lycanthropy could play an interesting role in the son’s having to deal with the separation of his parents. Unfortunately, the movie itself doesn’t do much with the premise, and the clumsy, poorly written dialogue, the weak acting (especially from the boy), and certain ideas that don’t make that much sense (why would a werewolf bother trying to bury the head of one of his victims in a barn) all combine to make this one a real disappointment. As it is, the most interesting sequences involve a commune of Jesus freaks who unexpectedly (even to themselves) turn out to have the ability to battle the evil of the curse; the fact that they’re largely played for comic relief doesn’t really hurt this, but I do wish they were actually funny as well. Somewhere in here is a better movie trying to get out.

THE BELL FROM HELL (1973)
aka La campana del infierno
Article 3195 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 3-18-2010
Posting Date: 5-14-2010
Directed by Claudio Guerin and Juan Antonio Bardem
Featuring Renaud Verley, Viveca Lindfors, Alfred Mayo
Country: Spain / France
What it is: Bizarre Eurohorror

After his release from a mental institution, a young man seeks revenge on his aunt and her daughters, who were responsible for his being committed so they could get his inheritance. What follows is a battle of wits between several parties.

I’m not sure what to make of this surreal, often confusing, perverse and sometimes nasty horror movie. The disjointed narrative is probably the main culprit; our introduction to the various characters is done through a bewildering series of seemingly disconnected incidents, and often certain story threads get lost in the shuffle. Part of the problem may be that the American version is shorter than the Spanish version by thirteen minutes. Nevertheless, there’s an undeniable power to this movie, and it can creep you out; when the young man takes a job at a slaughterhouse, then leaves after a few days with the comment that he’s “learned enough”, you’re definitely prepared for the worst. The most unsettling thing about this production, though, is something that happened behind the scenes; on the last day of shooting, director Claudio Guerin either fell or jumped to his death from the bell tower used in the film. One can’t help but wonder what other movies of his might have followed in the wake of this one. I somehow suspect that this is one of those movies I won’t shake off easily.

THE BLOCK SIGNAL (1926)
Article 3192 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 3-15-2010
Posting Date: 5-11-2010
Directed by Frank O’Connor
Featuring Ralph Lewis, Jean Arthur, Hugh Allan
Country: USA
What it is: Railroad drama

An engineer whose eyesight is beginning to suffer depends on his fireman to tell him the color of the signals. An ambitious fireman, hoping to open up a position for himself, deceives the engineer about the color of the block signals, and the result is a two-train collision. The engineer loses his job and the fireman takes his position. Can the ex-engineer be vindicated?

You’ll have to get through half of this movie before the fantastic content starts to manifest itself; the second half of the movie revolves around the ex-engineer’s attempt to invent and test a new type of brake that can be used to prevent train accidents, an element which pushes the movie into the realm of science fiction. The overall story is entertaining enough, though it is a bit clumsy and rather contrived. Fortunately, the heroes are likable enough that you hope they come out all right, and some of the train footage is quite exciting. Overall, not a bad little movie.

THE BEAST OF THE YELLOW NIGHT (1971)
Article 3187 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 3-17-2010
Posting Date: 5-13-2010
Directed by Eddie Romero
Featuring John Ashley, Mary Charlotte Wilcox, Leopoldo Salcedo
Country: Philippines / USA
What it is: Cross between the story of Faust and a werewolf movie

A starving man sells his soul to the devil for food. He becomes immortal, but must propagate evil for his master. When he fails, he is transformed into a murderous beast.

I’ve read that John Ashley claims that this was the most cerebral film he made in the Philippines, and I’m willing to buy that; with its philosophical delvings and offbeat characters, it’s something of a horror art film. It’s different enough that I feel a bit inclined to defend it. Sadly, it doesn’t really work, as much of the talk is simply dull, and the main character’s relationship with his wife degenerates into soap opera shtick. The horror often gets pushed on the back-burner as well, and the monster isn’t memorable, nor are his rampages particularly effective. The best scenes and conversations feature Vic Diaz as the devil, but you really don’t see enough of him. And for all the philosophical discussions, the conflict comes down to whether the main character can regain his soul, thus sloughing off his enforced immortality and allowing him to die, and this doesn’t require near the amount of talk we’re given. In the end, the movie is neither fish nor fowl, and is bound to disappoint no matter what the expectations are. In short, it’s a failure, albeit not an uninteresting one.

LA BELLE AU BOIS DORMANT (1908)
aka Beauty of the Sleeping Woods
Article 3161 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 2-18-2010
Posting Date: 4-10-2010
Directed by Albert Capellani and Lucien Nonguet
Featuring Julienne Mathieu
Country: France
What it is: Fairy tale

A princess falls victim to a witch’s curse and pricks her finger on a spindle, causing her and the other residents of her castle to fall asleep for a hundred years. Can a handsome prince save her?

At eleven minutes, there’s only so much you can do with a story. One little problem with this version of the Sleeping Beauty story is that the Prince’s rescue is peculiarly eventless; he never seems to be in any peril, and just kind of walks in and wakes her up. Maybe that’s why the first half of the movie concentrates on the curse coming true. It’s done in a very Meliesian style, though it’s not quite as heavy on the special effects; the most prominent of these include some bushes that enter and then depart the landscape, once when they are becoming barriers, and once when the prince gets through them. Still, it’s pretty to look at, especially with some of the hand coloring. All in all, a minor silent short.