UN CENTENAR DE JUEGOS (1906)
aka A Hundred Tricks, Les cent trucs
Article 4629 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 9-12-2014
Directed by Segundo de Chomon
Cast unknown
Country: France
What it is: Trick short

A magician appears and performs several tricks for us.

This is Segundo de Chomon’s take on one of Melies’s more common subjects; basically, it’s nothing more than a series of cinematic magic tricks as performed by a magician. He actually does a fairly decent job of it as well, with some of the tricks very well timed. I don’t think it ever reaches to a count of 100 in its three-minute running time, but it is lively. On a side note, I like the clever way the short tried to protect itself from cinematic pirates (a common problem in the early years of cinema) by having one trick involving the name of the production company (Pathe Freres) written across one of the props. There’s nothing really new here, but it’s an amusing trifle.

CINDERELLA (1899)
aka Cendrillon
Article 4628 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 9-11-2014
Directed by Georges Melies
Featuring Barral, Bleuette Bernon, Carmely
Country: France
What it is: Fairy tale

With the help of her fairy godmother, Cinderella is able to go to the ball, but will she be back by midnight?

Georges Melies took two stabs at the Cinderella story, both of them extant. This, the earlier one, tells the story in five minutes and 41 seconds, so you can imagine that things are rather rushed. Also, given Melies’s love for special effects spectacle, it is perhaps no surprise that the fairy godmother first appears about ten seconds into the production and immediately starts in on all of the magic transformation of preparing Cinderella for the ball. Once she gets there, we get about ten seconds of dancing before the clock strikes midnight, and after being warned by the gnome of the clock (which I’m pretty sure is original to this version of the story), she turns back and rushes off, leaving the slipper. It’s here that Melies definitely goes off on his own tangent, as Cinderella arrives back home only to be tormented by creatures from the clock, which allows Melies to indulge in a lot more magical hocus-pocus. Then the prince shows up, tries on the slipper, and finds Cinderella, and the fairy godmother reappears to give her nice clothes to wear. The amazing thing at this point is that the movie still has about two minutes to go, so we have about one minute of a long wedding procession and then another minute of dancing girls. Well, I will say this much about the movie; it’s definitely true to Melies’s muse, and even with the padding in the last two minutes, it’s rather fun.

THE CHRISTMAS ANGEL (1904)
aka L’ange de Noel
Article 4624 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 9-7-2014
Directed by Georges Melies
Cast unknown
Country: France
What it is: Christmas tear-jerker

In the cold of winter, a poverty-stricken man with a sick wife, no wood to heat the house, and on the verge of being evicted, sends out his daughter to beg for alms. However, bad luck prevails and the daughter is soon near death from the cold. But then….

Let’s face it; dramas are not Melies’s forte, and this one has its fair share of flaws, such as some over-theatrical acting and a story that tries to push the pity buttons a little too insistently. Nevertheless, this is perhaps one of Melies’s more successful forays into drama; the story is efficiently told and easy to follow (even without the English narration), the sets are wonderful, and it maintains the right mood. There’s only a single element of fantastic content to the story, and that can be found in the title; it doesn’t appear until near the end of the short, but you can probably figure out how it plays into the story. It’s one of Melies’s better departures from his usual style.

A CANTERBURY TALE (1944)
Article 4622 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 9-4-2014
Directed by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger
Featuring Eric Portman, Sheila Sim, Dennis Price
Country: UK
What it is: Unusual comedy/drama

An American soldier, a British solder, and a girl from London all en route to Canterbury end up in a small farming town called Chillingbourne. The girl encounters an assailant who pours glue in her hair, and it is discovered that she is one of eleven girls who have been so assaulted. She vows to solve the mystery of the identity of this man, and the two soldiers assist her.

There’s no way to adequately describe this offbeat, gentle, bizarre and sometimes moving movie. Though it initially plays itself out like a mystery of sorts (via the investigation of the Glueman’s identity), this plot line is mostly a framework from which we can examine the various characters and the losses that each one has endured in their lives. This is all tied to the fact that these characters, like the ones in Chaucer’s “The Canterbury Tales” (from which the movie derives its title) are, in their own way, on “pilgrimages” of their own, and their own personal stories will play their way out when they finally arrive in Canterbury during the last quarter of the film. It’s an engrossing movie for those willing to sit back and let the movie take its own time in unfolding; those only interested in the mystery aspect will probably find the movie frustrating. The fantastic content here is subtle but intentional; the historic significance of the Road to Canterbury is sprinkled with mysticism, and the story ultimately culminates with a series of “miracles” (the quotes are here to indicate that there is certain amount of ambiguity as to the degree to which they might be called “miraculous”). It also bears mentioning that the concept of the Glueman may be one of the strangest and least sinister variations on the horror concept of a serial killer. It’s an entrancing movie, but I’ve always come to expect something a bit special whenever Powell and Pressburger combine their forces, as they do here.

LE CERCEAU MAGIQUE (1908)
aka The Magic Hoop
Article 4621 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 9-3-2014
Directed by Emile Cohl
Cast unknown
Country: France
What it is: Trick / animation short

When her hoop breaks, a little girl gets a replacement from a magician, and this hoop has magic powers.

This short adds a little variety to the oeuvre of French animator Emile Cohl. About half of it is a live-action trick film, with the magic hoop showing its ability to change its size and to make the person looking through it change their clothing. This part is entertaining but standard trick-film fare for its time. The animation section only begins at about the halfway point when the hoop is hung on a wall by itself; at that point, animated events occur within the confines of the hoop. During this sequence, Cohl toys with stop-motion animation, with some of the special effects involving pieces of paper being folded into origami shapes. Part of it is the usual stream-of-consciousness animation we’ve come to expect from Cohl, but about a minute of the footage is hard to make out, due to the extreme deterioration of the print. As a result, this isn’t quite as enjoyable a watch as it might have been (though that is not Cohl’s fault), but it is fun seeing him vary the routine somewhat.

LE CAUCHEMAR DE FANTOCHE (1908)
Article 4620 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 9-2-2014
Directed by Emile Cohl
No cast
Country: France
What it is: Early animation

Fantoche has a nightmare.

So, what kind of nightmare would Fantoche have? Well, given that this is directed by Emile Cohl, I’m guessing it involves stream-of-consciousness animation, and that’s exactly what we have here. Fantoche is set upon by any number of of shapeshifting objects, such as coffeepots, funnels, giant heads, elevators, fishermen, etc. He even gets to play with his own head like a ball for a bit. It moves pretty fast, runs only a little over two minutes, and has no real ending, but then, it has no real story; it’s just a succession of surreal images and events. As such, though, it’s a fun short to watch, and doesn’t go on so long that it gets old.

NOTE I’ve been informed that Fantoche is not a name, but the word for puppet. I stand corrected.

CAPE FEAR (1962)
Article 4605 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 8-11-2014
Directed by J. Lee Thompson
Featuring Gregory Pick, Robert Mitchum, Polly Bergen
Country: USA
What it is: Thriller

An ex-con, released after serving eight years on an assault charge, blames the lawyer who witnessed his attack for his incarceration. He begins to subtly stalk the lawyer, using the knowledge he gained in prison about law to keep himself on the right side of it. Will the lawyer be able to defend himself and his family, and will he himself break the law in his struggle to defend them?

Given that I’ve covered such marginal thrillers as WAIT UNTIL DARK and THE NIGHT OF THE HUNTER for this series, I’m not surprised that someone somewhere would consider this movie as belonging to the realm of horror. The biggest argument for its inclusion to the genre is probably the fact that Robert Mitchum plays one very scary and smart sociopath here. Nevertheless, the thematic focus of this one is on the plight of the lawyer; he wants to protect his family, but he can’t get the help of the law until after the sociopath commits a crime, which may be too late. The movie is really about his temptation to break the law by being proactive, and finding a way to remove the threat before it takes action. It’s a nail-biting thriller with substance, and it’s enhanced to two stunning performances from Peck and (especially) Mitchum. The movie was powerful enough that Martin Scorsese would remake it thirty years later; I have seen that one (though it’s been a while), and it doesn’t quite have the impact as this one. My favorite moment in this movie may be the ending; given the theme of the movie and what we know about the characters, it’s just about perfect.

A CAT’S TALE (1951)
aka The Cat’s Tale
Article 4586 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 7-22-2014
Directed by Mannie Davis
Voice cast unknown
Country: USA
What it is: Mighty Mouse cartoon

A nervous cat, scared of mice and with a bad smoking habit, tells us the reason for his fear.

I’m not surprised there was one of these floating around somewhere, but I suppose it was inevitable; it’s a Mighty Mouse origin story. As a baby he’s left on the doorstep of an old mouse couple by a shadowy figure who may be a witch of some sort; the cartoon never clarifies this exactly, but from the looks of that green, wrinkled hand, that’s my guess. It turns out that the mouse has super powers, and soon becomes the terror of all the cats. From there, it veers into typical Mighty Mouse territory; the cats find a giant cat to do away with Mighty Mouse, and the cartoon mostly follows their battle. Despite its status as an origin story, this is pretty run-of-the-mill stuff; neither the origin story nor the final battle are of much interest. For the record, this one lacks the operetta trappings of some of the more fun Mighty Mouse cartoons.

LES CINQ GENTLEMEN MAUDITS (1920)
aka Five Doomed Gentlemen
Article 4573 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 7-7-2014
Directed by Luitz-Morat and Pierre Regnier
Featuring Luitz-Morat, Pierre Regnier, Andre Luguet
Country: France
What it is: Thriller

When five gentlemen humiliate a merchant in a Tunisian bazaar, the latter curses them, telling them the order of their deaths within a given time frame. The men begin to die in the order they were chosen…

This title ended up on my “ones that got away” list, but I was pointed to a cut-down print of the movie that broke it up into ten episodes; the whole thing probably runs about twenty-five minutes; I’m assuming the full version is lost. It seems to tell the full story, but as is often the case with cut-down versions, the story points are rushed and the emotional impact is somewhat damaged by this; furthermore, the action in the final episode is somewhat confusing. Still, it’s nice to see a version of the story with a translation; I’ve seen the 1931 version, but had trouble following it due to the lack of English titles. All in all, I quite enjoyed this version.

CURSE OF THE BLACK WIDOW (1977)
TV-Movie
Article 4552 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 6-3-2014
Directed by Dan Curtis
Featuring Anthony Franciosa, Donna Mills, Patty Duke
Country: USA
What it is: Monster on the loose

A private investigator is called in on a series of murders in which the symptoms indicate attack by a giant spider. Could this be part of an ancient curse that causes women to turn into giant spiders?

There’s at least one thing I can feel confident about when I see Dan Curtis’s name in the credits, and that’s that we are going to end up with an authentic monster rather than just someone committing murders and making it look like a monster did it. This has the feel of an extended episode of “Kolchak: The Night Stalker” with a few modifications to accommodate a different set of characters. I don’t mind that in the least; for the most part, the movie is lively and entertaining, and there’s quite a few familiar names in the cast, such as June Lockhart, Sid Caesar, Vic Morrow and (for the second day in a row) Jeff Corey. The movie only starts to lose steam in the final act, just about the time it really should be taking off. Nevertheless, I rather enjoyed it overall, and I’m a little surprised that it doesn’t appear to have been intended as pilot for a new TV series; certainly, the final twist in this one would have been a bit different if it had been one.