BACK TO THE FUTURE (1985)
Article 4927 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 9-13-2015
Directed by Robert Zemeckis
Featuring Michael J. Fox, Christopher Lloyd, Lea Thompson
Country: USA
What it is: Comic time travel story

A teenager accidentally travels back in time thirty years, and interferes in an event that caused his parents to meet for the first time. He now not only has to find a way to get back to his own time, but also has to bring about events to cause his parents to marry or else he will fade from existence.

As far as this movie-watching project of mine goes, the times when I feel the most uncomfortable with it is when I’m forced to revisit a movie I’ve seen before and for which the outlook I had from that viewing differs sharply from the current critical outlook of the movie. At this point of time, this movie has a very high reputation and is considered one of the great science fiction classics, whereas I came away from my first viewing with some disappointments. There’s a certain high-tech and slick cuteness to the proceedings that I didn’t care for, I didn’t find the performances of Lea Thompson and Crispin Glover in the 1985 incarnations of their characters convincing (though I had no problem with their 1955 incarnations, the ones in the present looked and felt too much like young people trying to pretend to be old people), and I was especially annoyed at the double climax; after resolving the issue involving his parents (which had both personal and existential impacts), I was ready for the movie to end, but the whole action sequence of him returning to the present felt to me like it was just jerking us around with the movie’s fairy dust.

However, watching the movie again does amend my feelings somewhat. My objections to the cuteness and the portrayal of the parents still stands, but I realize that I misunderstood the purpose of the second climax. Rather than being a mere diversion to extend the length of the movie, I realized that the real center of the second climax is the survival of the Christopher Lloyd character, and that added the extra level of dimension that I missed the first time. Actually, I’m surprised I missed this; for both viewings, my favorite thing about the movie was Christopher Lloyd and his performance as Dr. Emmett Brown. I’ve never been a big fan of Michael J. Fox, though I have no issues with his solid performance here. However, I did find it interesting to realize this; the movie initially takes place in 1985 and then shifts to 1955, thirty years earlier. This year is 2015, so I’m watching it thirty years later. That means that the present of this movie is just as distant in the past as the past of this movie is from this movie’s present. This being said, I couldn’t help but notice some of the elements in this movie that make it seem quaint; the Delorean time machine itself, the reference to Pepsi Free (the product placement here certainly didn’t help that drink), and the Fotomat at the mall; it immediately occurred to me that you don’t see any of those around anymore.

BLUE DEMON Y LAS INVASORAS (1969)
aka Blue Demon vs the Seductresses
Article 4902 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 8-16-2015
Directed by Gilberto Martinez Solares
Featuring Blue Demon, Regina Torne, Gilda Miros
Country: Mexico
What it is: Mexican wrestling movie

Mini-skirted female invaders from outer space seek to kidnap men for breeding purposes. Fortunately, Blue Demon the wrestler is available to stop them.

My print of the movie is in Spanish without subtitles, so I’m not going to pretend that I was able to follow the ins and outs of the plot. However, when you combine the above plot description with the fact that it’s a Mexican wrestling movie, and throw in the bargain-basement special effects with the laugh-inducing foley effects and the perfunctory acting, I think I can safely assume that the script wasn’t in danger of being nominated for any awards. Simply on a visual level, this is one of the silliest entries in this fairly silly genre. For those who keep track of such things, there’s one nightclub scene (though there’s also a private performance for one person) and two wrestling scenes (one with Blue Demon, one with female wrestlers). There’s the usual plethora of fight scenes and a fair amount of head-scratching here. Like most of these types of movies, it’s best viewed with the brain’s critical faculties disconnected.

THE BLUE EYES OF THE BROKEN DOLL (1974)
aka Los ojos azules de la muneca rota, House of Psychotic Women
Article 4874 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 7-17-2015
Directed by Carlos Aured
Featuring Paul Naschy, Diana Lorys, Eduardo Calvo
Country: Spain
What it is: Spanish giallo

An ex-convict vagabond takes a job in the house of three disturbed women. Shortly after that, blue-eyed blonde women start being murdered in horrible ways.

For the second day in a row I find myself in the realm of Spanish horror. This is Paul Naschy’s attempt at a giallo, and though director Carlos Aured doesn’t quite have the stylistic panache of the Italian masters of genre, he certainly isn’t afraid to supply a plenitude of bloody mayhem. The script is a bit of a mess, and it spends too much time dwelling on characters who are obvious red herrings, and I have to admit that for most of the movie, I was expecting to write a very negative review. Yet, in the final analysis, I think the movie works. Why? It’s because it really does supply one humdinger of an ending, one that is quite outlandish and gruesome, and the fact that it is also unbelievable doesn’t seem to matter as much. The ending pulls the movie out of its bloody doldrums and gives you something to remember about it. However, I doubt that animal lovers will find much to love here, especially in an unnecessary scene where a pig is slaughtered. All in all, I must rate this with Paul Naschy’s better films.

THE BIRD CAME C.O.D. (1942)
Article 4856 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 6-27-2015
Directed by Chuck Jones
Featuring the voice of Mel Blanc
Country: USA
What it is: Warner Brothers Cartoon

A hapless cat delivers a potted palm to a theater, but his attention is caught by a magician’s hat. In it he encounters a very small but pugnacious bird who has little patience with the cat’s antics.

This was the first appearance of Conrad Cat, a short-lived character patterned after the comedian Ben Blue. As a character, Conrad is more odd than funny, with his defining characteristic being an abrupt self-conscious chortle. I rather like him myself, but I can see why he didn’t last long. One of the things I like about this cartoon is that there isn’t a word of dialogue, and I’m assuming that the credit to Mel Blanc is for the chortle. I’ve noticed that that is a discipline Chuck Jones liked to use; the Road Runner cartoons, for example, usually didn’t have any words save the Road Runner’s signature “Meep Meep”, and if it weren’t for the musical numbers, ONE FROGGY EVENING wouldn’t have any dialogue. I also like the use of music here, especially the bouncy little signature melody of the bird. It’s not one of Warner Brothers’ best cartoons buy a long shot, but I find it quite amusing myself.

BUNCOED STAGE JOHNNIE (1908)
aka Pour l’etoile S.V.P.
Article 4841 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 6-4-2015
Directed by Georges Melies
Cast unknown
Country: France
What it is: Comedy

A star-struck old man gives a stage hand a bouquet to give to an actress, but the stage hand gives it to a fat cleaning lady instead. Comedy ensues.

This movie only exists in fragmentary form, but since it’s the final part of the short, I decided to go ahead and cover it. Fortunately, there’s some opening text to explain the action from the missing footage. This is not to say that it still isn’t a bit confusing; the fragment opens right in the middle of a confusing comic bit that had me scratching my head. After that, the short proceeds to the punch line of the short, but it’s pretty obvious and not really all that funny. More to the point, perhaps, is the issue of fantastic content. It’s listed in the Walt Lee guide, but without an explanation. I suspect that it got in because the story involved a “trick”, but the “trick” in question here (the stage hand’s joke on the old man) isn’t of the fantastic variety. Unless there’s something hidden in the missing footage (which seems unlikely), I’m just going to have to classify this one as a false alarm.

BROTHERHOOD OF MAN (1945)
Article 4770 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 2-28-2015
Directed by Robert Cannon
Voice cast unknown
Country: USA
What it is: Animation with a message

A man wakes up in the future to find his world has shrunk so much that he now lives right next to people from other cultures. The two sides of his personality then argue with each other whether to treat his new neighbors with friendliness or hostility.

In many ways, this is a rather striking short. It featured early animation by UPA and was financed by a union. It was quite prescient in recognizing that technological advances were making the world a smaller place and that we would increasingly find ourselves interacting on a regular basis with people from other cultures, and it was also ahead of its time in advocating racial tolerance and understanding. It does so by emphasizing the similarities between the various races instead of dwelling on the differences between them. The message was considered quite controversial, and several people connected with the film were investigated during the McCarthy era. Though in some ways the short is overly optimistic and rather simplistic, the message is still quite relevant, and anyone who keeps track of current events knows that the world still has a long way to go. This one is a piece of history.

THE BABES IN THE WOODS (1912)
aka Les enfants perdus dans le foret
Article 4697 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 11-30-2014
Directed by Georges Denola
Cast unknown
Country: France
What it is: Fairy tale

An evil uncle decides to do away with two children in order to inherit a fortune. They are left stranded in an enchanted forest.

I’ve never seen a version of this fairy tale before, and based on a few short plot descriptions I’d seen, I used to wonder if it was really just another title for HANSEL AND GRETEL. Now that I’ve seen this, I know they are two distinct stories, despite certain similarities. And, if the version I’ve just seen is a faithful telling of the fairy tale, I can see why this one doesn’t get revived a lot; it’s a fairly depressing story in which evil is left unpunished and innocence is put through the wringer, and unless you’re the type of person who equates “being beyond earthly cares” with a happy ending, this one won’t cheer you up. Nevertheless, there’s some striking sequences in the enchanted forest sequence, including one with a fire-breathing dragon. All in all, this one is not badly done, but it is a downer.

THE BIBULOUS CLOTHIER (1899)
Article 4689 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 11-22-2014
Directed by James H. White
Cast unknown
Country: USA
What it is: Comic trick short

A tailor with a taste for the bottle discovers that his customer’s dimensions change every time he (the tailor) takes a drink.

Here’s another one of those shorts that spent some time on my “ones that got away” before a copy finally became available to me, and in cases like those, I find myself not wanting to complain about the quality of the copy when it may be the only chance I have to see it. However, it has to be said that the muddiness of the print I found compounded with an intrusive logo splashed across the middle of the screen made it difficult to me to figure out what was going on; I had to watch it twice and consult a plot description of the movie. I have to admit the central idea is rather cute, but I wasn’t impressed with the execution, though the fact that I found it hard to see may have been a big factor there. At any rate, this isn’t one of the more impressive silent shorts I’ve seen.

BUSTER IN THE JUNGLE (1954)
aka The Gorilla Story
Article 4688 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 11-21-2014
Directed by Arthur Hilton
Featuring Buster Keaton and Fritz Feld
Country: USA
What it is: Episode of “The Buster Keaton Show”

Buster dreams that he goes to Africa to find the missing link.

Usually, I don’t cover episodes of TV shows, but the story behind this one is this. Walt Lee’s “Reference Guide to Fantastic Films” lists a Buster Keaton short from 1954 called THE GORILLA STORY which was released in England, and he mentions that it was probably an episode from a TV show. The TV show in question was most probably “The Buster Keaton Show”, and the details on the short match those of the episode called “Buster in the Jungle”, and amazingly enough, I had a copy of that episode. As for the episode itself, it’s a mixed bag. One of the things I liked best about Buster Keaton during his classic silent period was the precision of his gags. In comparison, much of the comedy in this episode is sloppy and messy, with only occasional hints of Keaton’s comic genius; a sequence where he is trying to straighten a tent is the best moment here. However, once the talking gorilla shows up, the episode takes a turn into deadpan absurdity that I find rather likable, though you will find yourself wondering why Buster decided to bring a ping-pong table into the jungle with him. It’s certainly not Keaton at his best here, but there is a certain charm to the proceedings.

THE BRAVE TIN SOLDIER (1934)
Article 4612 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 8-25-2014
Directed by Shamus Culhane, Al Eugster and Ub Iwerks
Voice cast unknown
Country: US
What it is: Fairy tale cartoon

When a toymaker accidentally breaks the leg of one of his toy tin soldiers, he tosses it in the trash. That night at midnight, the toys come to life for festivities, and the broken tin soldier tries to join in, but is laughed at for his affliction by all but a ballerina. When the king of the toys tries to hit on the ballerina, the soldier comes to her rescue.

Ub Iwerks was an early animator for Disney who struck out on his own in the early thirties with his own animation studio. He had a couple of continuing characters as well as a series of color fairy tales, and this cartoon belongs to that series. Both the animation and color are quite good in this cartoon, and it has some striking elements (both good and bad) that make it interesting. One is that the cartoon, though it changes quite a bit from the source story, retains a very downbeat ending found in the original fairy tale; given that the basic premise of the cartoon has occurred many times in cartoons and we’re used to the usual way this story pans out, it’s rather startling when we reach that point. I couldn’t help but notice, though, that a coda was added to give the story a (more or less) happy ending. I also noted that the use of Hollywood caricatures doesn’t really work in this one, especially when the caricatures include such obviously comic characters as Laurel and Hardy and two of the Marx brothers; probably the reason they don’t work in this cartoon is that it’s more of a tear-jerker than a comedy. Still, the retention of the darker elements of the story make it an interesting watch.