THE CASE OF THE SMILING STIFFS (1973)
aka Case of the Full Moon Murders

Article 3674 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 8-21-2011
Posting Date: 9-5-2011
Directed by Sean S. Cunningham and Brud Talbot
Featuring Sheila Stuart, Jed Ziegler, Cathy Walker
Country: USA
What it is: After hours horror

A vampire is loose in Miami whose method of attack leaves a number of happy corpses around. Dragnet-style cops investigate.

The producer of LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT and FRIDAY THE 13TH shows that he was as interested in live bodies as he was in dead ones with this movie; yes, the title does indeed have a double meaning. Apparently, this movie was made in both hardcore and softcore versions, with only the latter version surviving. Now I find these movies rather difficult to review; since they’re something in the way of a “specialty” genre, they really need to be judged on the degree they provide that “specialty”, and other factors (such as acting, plot, etc.) are of minimal importance. However, I have no interest in reviewing movies on those terms, so let’s just say that I’ve watched this on to get it off my hunt list. I will make one comment, though; the “Dragnet” style narration really gets tiresome before this one is through.

CHRISTMAS EVIL (1980)
aka You Better Watch Out

Article 3672 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 8-19-2011
Posting Date: 9-3-2011
Directed by Lewis Jackson
Featuring Brandon Maggart, Jeffrey DeMunn, Dianne Hull
Country: USA
What it is: Christmas psycho movie

After suffering a traumatic childhood experience involving his father in Santa Claus outfit, a disturbed toy factory worker fixates on Santa Claus in an unhealthy way. When Christmas cynicism pushes him over the edge, he takes on the role one Christmas eve to reward the good boys and girls… and to murder the cynics.

With only a 4.4 rating on IMDB, this entry in the “killer Santa” subgenre is not very well respected. But I believe anyone who goes into this one with the expectation of seeing a full-blown slasher film will walk away very disappointed. Rather than having some mindless killer knocking off people one by one, this one attempts to paint a portrait of a disturbed man and his obsessions while exploring some of the slightly creepy undercurrents of the Santa legend itself. He doesn’t don the Santa suit until the second half of the movie, but where many people find the first half dull, I was actually fascinated by seeing the details of his obsession, and I think the first half has the most suspenseful scene (where he covers himself with mud to hide himself while spying on one young boy). It looked initially to me that it was going to go downhill once he was in the suit; his first scene has him flashing a knife in a self-consciously “scary” way, and this made me fear that the main character was going to lose all of his dimension. However, there are some real surprises during this half, largely because the main character is such a loose cannon we’re not sure what he’s going to do in certain situations. There are some flaws, of course. The police investigation is extraordinarily lame; despite the fact that they have a clear description of the killer’s distinctive van and the fact that he leaves his fingerprints all over creation, they decide to arrest every one they find in a Santa suit on Christmas Day. And though the movie does add a bit of a homage to the Universal Frankenstein movies by having Santa chased around by villagers bearing torches, it seems really forced because there is simply no logical reason why these people would even have torches handy to begin with. The ending of the movie is very unexpected, but quite interesting in its way. All in all, I quite liked this one.

CAGLIOSTRO (1929)
aka Cagliostro – Liebe und Leben eines grosssen Abenteurers

Article 3649 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 7-27-2011
Posting Date: 8-11-2011
Directed by Richard Oswald
Featuring Hans Stuwe, Renee Heribel, Alfred Abel
Country: Germany / France / Sweden
What it is: Historical intrigue

An adventurer who dabbles in alchemy and the black arts becomes embroiled in the intrigues of the court of France just before the revolution, and has a brush with the Inquisition.

Here’s another movie that was rescued from my “ones that got away” list, and I was quite delighted to find that my print had English title cards. It only runs 53 minutes so it may not be complete, but the story is clear enough. It’s supposed to be based on a novel, but Cagliostro is a historical personage, albeit one shrouded in mystery. The movie deals mostly with his disgrace when he makes an unfortunate prediction about Marie Antoinette’s fate, and his plans for revenge which involve a diamond necklace. Afterwards, he is arrested by the Inquisition, but the movie seems to have an ending that doesn’t coincide with what happened in real life. The movie is actually quite entertaining, but the fantastic content only plays a partial role in the proceedings, though he does dabble in alchemy, black magic, faith healing, mind reading, and predicting the future. At heart, it’s a love story as well, as it covers the journey he must take to finally fully win the heart of his wife. It’s nice to finally have seen this one.

LE CIEL SUR LA TETE (1965)
aka Sky Above Heaven

Article 3640 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 7-18-2011
Posting Date: 8-2-2011
Directed by Yves Ciampi
Featuring Andre Smagghe, Marcel Bozzuffi, Henri Piegay
Country: Italy / France
What it is: Science fiction thriller

A radioactive satellite pursues an aircraft carrier.

Some time ago I remember watching an American movie that seemed more like a foreign movie than anything else; I wish I could remember what movie it was. This movie seems to be its mirror opposite; though it’s a French/Italian coproduction, it seems more like an American movie, especially when it lovingly dwells on the spectacle of military technology. I just wish I could tell whether the movie is good or not; my copy is in unsubtitled French, and despite its emphasis on military spectacle, most of the plot seems to be encompassed in dialogue, so I can’t say whether its stylistic touches (it makes some truly interesting experiments with color, and the sound is loud, even shrill at times) make it work. I’ve found at least one reviewer considers the movie more of a commercial for the French aircraft carrier “Clemenceau”, and based on what I see here, I’d have to say that it’s the real star of the show, given how much screen time it’s given. The first half is pretty talky, but it does seem to pick up quite a bit towards the end; I just wish I knew precisely what was going on. At any rate, here’s another movie that has been saved from my “ones that got away” list.

THE CASK OF AMONTILLADO (1954)
Article 3617 by Dave Sindelar

Viewing Date: 6-25-2011

Posting Date: 7-10-2011

Directed by Nathan Zucker

Featuring Monty Woolley, Shepperd Strudwick, Caren Preiss

Country: USA

What it is: TV adaptation of Poe story

A man hatches a plot do take vengeance on a rival during Mardi Gras.

This came on to my list as a movie, but I’m not sure it was ever released as such. It was an episode of an obscure TV show called “On Stage with Monty Woolley”, and it runs just about twelve minutes long. You know it’s a bare bones treatment when you don’t see any of the bricks or mortar for the final sequence of the story; it does this more through lighting, sound effects and suggestion. Monty Woolley is obviously having the time of his life as Montresor, and even though it feels a bit stagebound, it’s done with a certain creativity and efficiency. This one is rescued from my “Ones that got away” list, though I notice there’s still no listing on IMDB for it, neither the TV series or this specific episode.

CLASH OF THE TITANS (1981)
Article 3608 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 6-16-2011
Posting Date: 7-1-2011
Directed by Desmond Davis
Featuring Laurence Olivier, Claire Bloom, Maggie Smith
Country: USA
What it is: Harryhausen mythological epic

In order to fulfill his destiny by marrying the princess Andromeda, Perseus must face a number of dangers, including the deformed Calibos, the gorgon Medusa, and the Kraken.

Given that this was the last film of special effects giant Ray Harryhausen, it’s hard to watch this film and not feel a little sad at how the growth of special effects technology had reached the point where Harryhausen’s talents were no longer needed. And, despite the fact that the movie has its flaws (an occasionally clumsy script, some dull stretches, most of the big names in the cast are wasted), it’s also hard not to enjoy it; whatever problems it had, it was still an improvement over SINBAD AND THE EYE OF THE TIGER. The movie’s high point is Perseus’s battle with Medusa; it’s easily the scariest scene in any Harryhausen movie, and it’s a bit of a shame that it isn’t the climax of the whole movie. There are times when it tips its hat to STAR WARS; the ending sequence involving constellations seems designed to get the movie to end in outer space, and Bubo the Owl seems like it’s supposed to be this movie’s R2D2; I am grateful that Bubo is no more annoying and tiresome than he is. I’m a little disappointed in some of the gratuitous nudity in a movie that’s otherwise a good family film, but I do like that Calibos is not a totally unsympathetic villain. All in all, there’s good points and bad points, but the fact that it marks the end of an era makes it rather special.

CATHY’S CURSE (1977)
aka Cauchemares

Article 3607 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 6-15-2011
Posting Date: 6-30-2011
Directed by Eddy Matalon
Featuring Alan Scarfe, Beverly Murray, Randi Allen
Country: France / Canada
What it is: A denizen of its own little world

A man moves into his dead father’s home with his wife and daughter. The daughter finds a doll that belonged to her aunt, and gets possessed by the aunt’s spirit. Strange things happen.

I’m mystified as to what effect this strange little movie that hovers in a no-man’s-land somewhere between THE EXORCIST, THE OMEN and CARRIE is trying for. If it’s horror, it missed the mark; however, if it’s head-scratching befuddlement, it succeeds all too well. Oh, it has the trappings of a horror film, all right, but it gets lost somewhere in a labyrinth of confused writing, direction, acting and editing. Scenes follow scenes without continuity, rhyme or reason, people react (or don’t react, as the case may be) in the oddest ways to strange, supernatural events, and if the ghost of the aunt has any real consistent agenda, it’s lost in the muddle. Watching this movie is like listening to someone tell a long, rambling anecdote that you keep listening to in the hope that it has a point, only to discover it’s nothing but one long non sequitur. It’s watchable in its way, but don’t try to think about it too much; it will only give you a headache.

LE COURANT ELECTRIQUE (1906)
aka The Electric Current

Article 3597 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 6-5-2011
Posting Date: 6-20-2011
Directed by Segundo de Chomon
Cast unknown
Country: France
What it is: Comic silent short

A grocer electrifies his goods to prevent thieves from running off with his ware. Unfortunately, the current can’t tell the difference between thieves and other people…

Here’s another Segundo de Chomon movie that I could have covered during my Chomon-o-thon, but it wasn’t until this morning that I was able to match the English title under which it entered my list (THE ELECTRIC CURRENT) with the French title. In fact, IMDB didn’t even have the English title listed under their entry, and it wasn’t until I checked CITWF that I connected the two titles and realized that not only was it listed on IMDB, but I had a copy of the movie. That’s a lot of explanation going towards a movie that barely runs over a minute; it’s mostly a short comic bit where we get to see a bunch of people jumping around spasmodically to electric shocks. I do like the ending twist, though.

LE CHEVALIER DE LA NUIT (1953)
aka Knight of the Night

Article 3590 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 5-27-2011
Posting Date: 6-13-2011
Directed by Robert Darene
Featuring Renee Saint-Cyr, Jean-Claude Pascal, Gregoire Aslan
Country: France
What it is: Jekyll-and-Hyde romance

A ballerina’s husband has been split into two personalities, and she finds herself falling in love with one of them while growing to hate the other.

Because I knew my copy of this was going to be in unsubtitled French, I tried finding a few plot descriptions. Those that I found made a bit of a deal about the Jekyll-and-Hyde connection, but I found knowing this sometimes confused the issue when I was trying to watch the movie. One of the personalities seems to be an arsonist who can set fire with his touch, but the other one is the one who seems mean and cruel. This somewhat confuses the issue about which is good and which is evil, though maybe that’s the point; I do know the arsonist seems to mostly work on people who themselves are not good, such as the man who is beating a horse. Still, I wish there were subtitles to help me clarify it, but since this is one of those movies that ended up on my “ones that got away” list after lingering too long on my hunt list, I consider myself lucky just to have seen it. There’s some nice spooky touches, especially in a dark castle during the first part of the movie. Part of my confusion may be due to the fact that it seems more like Poe’s “William Wilson” than “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde”, if for no other reason in that the two sides of the personality have separate but identical bodies.

LES CINQ GENTLEMEN MAUDITS (1931)
Article 3570 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 5-1-2011
Posting Date: 5-24-2011
Directed by Julien Duvivier
Featuring Harry Baur, Rene Lefevre, Rosine Derean
Country: France
What it is: Curse movie

After attempting to remove the veil from a woman, five men are placed under a curse by an Algerian beggar, who lists the order of their deaths. Then they begin to die, one by one…

My copy of this movie is in unsubtitled French, so part of the plot description comes from other sources and a few reviews I read. The basic plot appears to be straightforward enough, and with a little foreknowledge it’s easy to see the significance of a number of the scenes; I was even able to figure out a little what was going on with the plot twists towards the end. Nevertheless, I don’t think it was really the story that works best here; what is really effective are some of Duvivier’s directorial touches and the effective use location footage in Morocco, where the story takes place. The use of music is also quite effective; you really get a sense that you’ve been transported to an alien culture from the very first moments in the movie. The movie doesn’t have a really high reputation, but I liked what I saw; bear in mind, of course, that I couldn’t understand the dialogue, which no doubt makes a difference. I’ve seen Harry Baur before and quite like his work, but despite his getting top billing, it appears that he really has a secondary role here.