BLAST OFF (1956)
TV-Movie edited from “Rocky Jones, Space Ranger”
Article 2048 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 9-23-2006
Posting Date: 3-22-2007
Directed by Hollingsworth Morse
Featuring Richard Crane, Sally Mansfield, Paul Marion

Rocky Jones and Bobby are forced to land on an unexplored planet when their ship suffers damage in a meteor cluster. There they find a band of primitive men who mistake them for gods who have promised to return.

I’ve always held that the Rocky Jones “movies” are best watched with an awareness of just what they are; episodes of a low-budget syndicated juvenile science fiction adventure series edited together. It helps that the groups of episodes were meant to tell a single story in each case, but I do advise taking a little break every twenty-five minutes at the point where each episode ends; the stiffness and slow pace are much better taken in small doses. If you have a little sympathy for its innate limitations, you might find things to like about them.

For those wishing to try the series, this might be a good one to start with. The show developed its own little mythology, and sometimes it’s a little hard to keep track of the various characters, but this one is fairly self-contained. The concept of space travelers being mistaken as gods by a primitive tribe is common enough, though I’m not sure I can think of a movie or TV show that featured the plot previous to this one. Science fiction movie fans may also enjoy the presence of Donna Martell (who played Briteis in PROJECT MOON BASE) and Don Megowan (THE CREATURE WALKS AMONG US, THE CREATION OF THE HUMANOIDS) as two of the cave people.

If I’ve calculated correctly, there should be only two more of the Rocky Jones movies to go…

BLOOD SABBATH (1972)
Article 2038 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 10-13-2006
Posting Date: 3-12-2007
Directed by Brianne Murphy
Featuring Anthony Geary, Susan Damante-Shaw, Sam Gilman

A guilt-ridden Vietnam vet falls in love with a water nymph who cannot be his lover because he has a soul. However, luckily (or unluckily) for him, there is a nearby witch’s coven which will gladly take his soul. However, there’s a catch…

You know, I really can’t help but admire a movie that really tries to be different. Of course, that doesn’t mean the movie will work, and this bizarre cross between seventies witch movies, NIGHT TIDE, LOVE STORY and ORGY OF THE DEAD, with romantic meadow-romping, tepid gore effects, crass exploitation (it really should be called BOOB SABBATH, if you get my drift) and bad acting is, in a word, awful. Tony Geary would, of course, go on to be a mainstay in the soap opera “General Hospital”; I’ve never seen that show, but his acting here is certainly nothing to recommend. It’s one of those movies where people yell a lot when they want to express emotion (that is, if they aren’t romping around the meadow or running around naked). Incidentally, did you know the way you lose your soul involves being caressed by a coven of naked witches? Sure, it sounds like fun, all right, but based on Geary’s performance, I can only come to the conclusion that it really hurts. Granted, I’ve never been in a position to try it myself…

EL BESO DE ULTRATUMBA (1963)
aka THE KISS FROM BEYOND THE GRAVE
Article 2006 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 9-11-2006
Posting Date: 2-8-2007
Directed by Carlos Toussaint
Featuring Armando Acosta, Buillermo Alvarez Bianchi, Antonio Bravo

A newly married couple discover that they are broke when the bride’s father dies in debt. They are forced to sell their belongings and move into a creepy, dilapidated house. Strange people start showing up…

I don’t know if this Mexican horror movie ever made it to the States; I know the only copy I was able to find is in unsubtitled Spanish. I suspect fans of Mexican horror might be a little disappointed by this one; quite frankly, it takes a while before the plot gets going, and most of the early scenes involve long conversations between characters. It does appear to be well-acted, though, and as the movie progresses, I began to recognize it for what it was – another variant on the “Gaslight” scenario. I may not be quite right on this; I’m never really sure whether the reason the husband acts the way he does is due to bad intentions or just lazy neglect. Nevertheless, it does appear to fit the template, and it seems to be a pretty good take on the plot as well. The patient viewer will be rewarded with the last fifteen minutes of the movie, when the tables turn in a major way, and the last scene is a real knockout. Despite the slow beginning and the language barrier, I found this to be a truly satisfying Mexican horror thriller.

BOOM (1968)
Article 1998 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 9-3-2006
Posting Date: 1-31-2007
Directed by Joseph Losey
Featuring Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, Noel Coward

A dying female tycoon who lives on a mountain on an island treats her staff and the residents of the island dictatorially. She is visited by a poet who is known as the Angel of Death because every woman he is associated with dies.

It stars Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, is directed by Joseph Losey, and has a script from Tennessee Williams. How bad can it be? Well, there may be something here for the persistent searcher who doesn’t mind that the movie isn’t going to help him much. Me, I think it’s an exercise in self-indulgence in which only a select few emerge with their dignity intact. Burton comes off best, and Joanna Shimkus and Michael Dunn do all right in their respective roles. The worst excesses come from the script itself; I love some of Williams’ plays, but this one utterly fails to click. The costume designer also is a major problem, especially that freaky Kabuki hat Taylor wears during a dinner scene; it’s so distracting, it’s a nearly impossible job to pay attention to anything else. Noel Coward is saddled with a role that requires him to resort to bird calls all the time, and Taylor – well, let’s just say if you want to see a movie where Elizabeth Taylor spends practically every moment being bitchy, screaming, cussing or having coughing fits, this one is for you. I love checking the user ratings on IMDB for users like this; with most movies you end up with a consensus of some sort, but with this one, the ratings are scattered all over the place, with the extremes getting the most votes and about even on those. At heart, it’s one of those movie that either clicks with you or it doesn’t, and for me, this one didn’t. I suspect that the “Angel of Death” plot point is the fantastic content.

BLUEBEARD (1963)
aka LANDRU
Article 1990 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 8-26-2006
Posting Date: 1-23-2007
Directed by Claude Chabrol
Featuring Charles Denner, Michele Morgan, Danielle Darrieux

In order to support his wife and family, an antique dealer takes to marrying, seducing and murdering lonely women for their money.

This is the fourth version of the Landru story that I’ve covered. In approach, it’s most similar to Chaplin’s take on the story, MONSIEUR VERDOUX. Based on some comments on IMDB, I gather that this is fairly faithful to the facts, and that Charles Denner looks very much like Landru. The dubbing seems to have been quite good; and the first half of the movie is very effective; watching how Landru meets and wins over his victims is fascinating and witty; he is particularly adept at figuring out what techniques work best with each individual woman. Much of it plays with an effective comic edge, and some of Chabrol’s direction is simply beautiful. It does have certain problems, though; once you reach a certain point in the story, you don’t need to see any more of Landru’s methods, but the movie continues to dwell on them when it should move on to his capture and trial. Unfortunately, once the arrest is made, the charm goes out of the story, and things get a bit dull; maybe the director just wanted to stretch out the better part of the movie. At any rate, it runs too long, and though it does have definite points of interest, I think the viewer would probably be better off with Chaplin’s take on the story.

BELL BOOK AND CANDLE (1958)
Article 1985 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 8-21-2006
Posting Date: 1-18-2007
Directed by Richard Quine
Featuring James Stewart, Kim Novak, Jack Lemmon

A witch uses a spell to win the affection of a man about to be married to an old rival, but risks losing her powers when she starts to fall in love with him.

Had this been the first time I’d seen this movie, the main attraction for me wouldn’t have been Stewart, Novak, Lemmon, or Lanchester; it would have been to see Ernie Kovacs, one of the greatest innovators of television comedy. However, since I had seen the movie before, I knew that I would be a little disappointed with Kovacs here, not because he gives a weak performance here (he doesn’t; he’s still one of my favorite things in the movie), but because performing in this capacity did not give him the opportunity to really indulge in his strengths as one of the great television surrealists. Granted, I really shouldn’t have expected it, but I’m disappointed nonetheless.

The movie does have its strengths; the cinematography is beautiful, the special effects (the few that exist anyway) are very good, the use of color is stunning, and it has an excellent cast. It’s the story that leaves me cold. It was originally conceived as a drama, but only became a comedy when laughter during auditions indicated that it would work better that way. Still, I find very few laughs here, and despite the excellent cast, I simply didn’t find the characters interesting enough to bring this overlong but rather ordinary love story to life. And, despite the magic and witchcraft, I think the story is very ordinary – it’s one where a woman gives up everything for love, and that’s fairly common. No doubt the movie is loved in some quarters, and those who do are welcome to it; I find it overlong and dull. Still, it does say something that the comic-relief talking bird isn’t totally annoying.

BRING ME THE VAMPIRE (1963)
aka ECHENME AL VAMPIRO
Article 1974 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 8-10-2006
Posting Date: 1-7-2007
Directed by Alfredo B. Crevenna and Alberto Mariscal
Featuring Maria Eugenia San Martin, Carlos Requelme, Hector Godoy

A group of heirs to a massive fortune are lured by a ghost to a spooky house where they have to stay to collect the money. They begin dying one by one.

Forget the vampire – after this one, you’ll want someone to bring you an aspirin. It’s a horror comedy with an “old dark house” setting, with ghosts, a vampire, talking skeletons and mummies all thrown into the mix. But, unlike PHANTOM OF THE RED HOUSE (another Mexican “old dark house” comedy with a surprsing amount of good laughs in it), this one is shrill, desperate, annoying and utterly unfunny. It does manage to dredge up a bit of mood in a few scenes, and it does have one good scare (involving a dinner tray), but these moments are hardly enough to save me from considering it the nadir of the Mexican horror genre. Granted, I’m sure a lot of what’s awful about it is the horrendous dubbing, but I suspect that it’s not that much better in its own language. The story is thoroughly confusing, and the ending is just unbelievable. When a movie makes me wish that I was watching the Ritz Brothers in THE GORILLA, you know it’s bad.

THE BABY (1973)
Article 1973 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 8-9-2006
Posting Date: 1-6-2007
Directed by Ted Post
Featuring Anjanette Comer, Ruth Roman, Marianna Hill

A social worker takes charge of a case involving a full grown man who is supposed to be mentally deficient; his mother and two sisters keep him in diapers and a crib, and treat him like a baby. She suspects that there may be more here than meets the eye, and decides to investigate.

Whatever else you can say about it, there’s no doubt that this movie is pretty sick, even if it rated no worse than PG on its release in this country. It should come as no surprise that the family that harbors the baby is not mentally well; part of the mystery of this movie is discovering just how unwell they are, compounded with the discovery that they may not be the only ones. The sickness of the movie (and a very good and logical final twist) are the movie’s best attributes, but sadly, the movie never really becomes compelling, and it fails to build up any suspense; the sequence where the family invades the social worker’s home is quite dull. The acting is also rather uneven, with David Mooney (in the potentially embarassing title role) coming off best. The movie is not without a certain degree of interest, but I doubt I’ll be watching it again.

LA BRUJA (1954)
aka THE WITCH
Article 1962 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 7-29-2006
Posting Date: 12-26-2006
Directed by Chano Urueta
Featuring Lilia del Valle, Ramon Gay, Julio Villarreal

The daughter of a scientist is killed when hoodlums break into his laboratory to steal a formula. The scientist then devises a formula to turn an incredibly ugly woman beautiful, and then uses the woman in a scheme to get revenge on those responsible for his daughter’s death.

My copy of this Mexican horror movie is unsubtitled and undubbed, but I was able to figure out the plot with the help of some plot descriptions elsewhere. Not that this one was particularly difficult to sort out; it’s a fairly common horror-type story, and, except for a few details, it manages to come through in the visuals. One advantage of watching a movie like this in a language you can’t understand is that it puts you in a position to concentrate on the visuals, and that plays to this movie’s strengths. It’s full of wonderfully moody horror images; for example, there are several memorable shots of the scientist as seen through or around his lab equipment that are quite fun. In fact, this whole movie feels like one of the better Mexican efforts, and it really leaves me wondering just how much damage bad dubbing has done to these movies. Had this one been poorly dubbed (as most of the Mexican horror movies were), would I have dismissed it because the dubbing would have made the movie seem cheap and stupid? I don’t really know. I am glad, however, that I’ve taken the chance on watching some of these movies even when saddled with the difficulty of not understanding the dialogue; it makes you appreciate how much can be lost in translation.

BOCCACCIO ’70 (1962)
Article 1921 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 6-18-2006
Posting Date: 11-15-2006
Directed by Vittorio De Sica, Federico Fellini, Mario Monicelli and Luchino Visconti
Featuring Anita Ekberg, Romy Schneider, Sophia Loren

Four Italian directors take on stories based on Boccaccio’s “The Decameron”. In the first, a woman employed by a book-keeper must keep her marriage a secret if she doesn’t want to lose her job. In the second, a self-appointed moral watchdog tries to censor a billboard placed outside of his apartment – one in which Anita Ekberg is advertising milk. In the third, a rich celebrity caught in a scandal about his involvement with prostitutes must turn to his wife to save him from the bad publicity. The fourth is about a woman who decides to make her fortune by raffling off her favors in a carnival.

With a running length of 208 minutes, you can understand why I was tempted to watch only the second tale (which is the one with the fantastic content) and skip the other three, but I guess that just didn’t seem right to me. Fortunately, the movie turned out good enough that I didn’t really mind the investment of the entire running time. Still, I must admit that I liked the second tale far and away the best, not so much because of its fantastic content, but because it was directed by Federico Fellini. This hilarious tale features Cupid playing a trick on the moral watchdog by having him tempted by a giant Anita Ekberg (who emerges from the billboard in the second half of the segment to torment him). This movie also features a funny scene where we witness the filming of a sword-and-sandal movie. There’s also a short sequence of the first story that takes place in a movie theatre where our protagonists watch part of a vampire movie. This first sequence was originally cut from the American release to bring the length of the movie down, a decision that actually caused a bit of an uproar at the time. Outside of the Fellinii sequence, my favorite was the last sequence, in which the woman who raffles off her favors must contend both with a jealous boyfriend and the exceedingly meek man who actually wins the raffle. The other two sequences are much more serious in tone, and though I didn’t like them as much as the Fellini and De Sica sections, they’re not bad. What I’d really like to see, though, is the full version of the Fellini sequence, which orginally ran over eighty minutes long and had to be cut by twenty minutes before it was incorporated into the movie.