CUL-DE-SAC (1966)
Article 3274 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 6-6-2010
Posting Date: 8-1-2010
Directed by Roman Polanski
Featuring Donald Pleasence, Francoise Dorelac, Lionel Stander
Country: UK
What it is: Darkly comic crime drama

A meek artist and his philandering wife live at a castle on a stretch of land that is cut off from the rest of the world when the tide comes in. Two wounded criminals, one near death, take refuge in the castle when their car breaks down. Strange relationships develop between the surviving gangster and the couple.

I’m covering this title because it is included in Lentz’s “Science Fiction, Horror and Fantasy Film and Television Credit Volume One”, and, like some of the others in the book, it’s a false alarm. I suppose if one squints real hard, you may see it as a borderline horror story; given that one character is a basket case by the end of the movie, it touches on the theme of madness a little. Still, that’s quite a stretch, and despite the fact that both Polanski and Pleasence both have prominent fantastic film credits, this one really doesn’t qualify.

It is, however, a fascinating movie in its own right. The set-up points the way to a crime thriller, with the basic premise of a desperate criminal holding two people captive until his boss can rescue him. However, the various character relationships don’t play out as simply as that. The criminal may be desperate, but he’s not sadistic nor sociopathic; if he could get out of his situation without hurting anybody, he would. He’s also not a particularly smart or competent criminal, which also makes him a little less threatening. The couple would probably be all right if they didn’t already have issues of their own. The thing that really drives the plot is the wife’s desire that her meek husband prove her love for her by standing up to criminal; to that end, she constantly sets up situations intending to force her husband’s hand, putting them all in danger that could have been avoided. The performances are stellar. Donald Pleasence is perfectly cast as the meek husband, especially as the movie progresses and he finds himself forced more and more to act out of character. Francoise Dorleac is also wonderful as the wife; she is the sister of Catherine Denueve, but whose career was cut short by a tragic car accident. Lionel Stander is also great. I’ve seen him many times before, or course, and generally found his characters enjoyable if a tad mannered. Here he comes across as extremely natural while retaining his charm; his criminal is perhaps the most likable character in the cast. The relationships are complex and fun; I particularly enjoy the sequence where the criminal has to pretend to be the couple’s gardener/servant when relatives of the husband show up out of the blue.

CRIME DOCTOR’S MAN HUNT (1946)
Article 3273 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 6-5-2010
Posting Date: 7-31-2010
Directed by William Castle
Featuring Warner Baxter, Ellen Drew, William Frawley
Country: USA
What it is: Crime Doctor mystery

When Dr. Ordway discovers that one of his patients has been murdered by two men, he contacts the police. Though the initial investigation leads to a dead end, Ordway begins to follow his few leads and begins to piece together the crime.

Sometimes just checking IMDB can give you the extra clue you need to solve a mystery, and I don’t necessarily mean the plot summaries or the user comments. Occasionally, I have the cast list up while watching a movie so I can identify certain actors and actresses, and one performer was giving such an odd performance that I decided to check who it was. In the process, I discovered that the cast list did not list one character in the movie at all, and this one detail, combined with what I had already observed, and taking into account the nature of the Crime Doctor movies (Ordway is a psychiatrist, and the solutions to the mysteries usually have a psychological angle to them), I was able to figure out the surprise ending long before we reached it. Granted, reading the tagline of the movie (also on IMDB) might have also given me that clue.

Well, nevertheless, I do rather enjoy the Crime Doctor movies, and this one is no exception. Some interesting names pop up in the cast; William Frawley is the police inspector, an uncredited Myron Healey is the murder victim (the opening scene of him walking past a succession of gaming booths is a highlight of the movie), and Olin Howland who does a nice comic cameo as a phrenologist. The fantastic content is pretty sketchy; the various mental conditions at play here hint at the horror theme of madness, there is a slightly spooky deserted house, and one plot element has to do with a fortune teller. None of these are really strong enough to nudge the movie into horror territory, so I’ve consigned it to the world of marginalia.

CHARLIE CHAN’S MURDER CRUISE (1940)
Article 3272 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 6-4-2010
Posting Date: 7-30-2010
Directed by Eugene Forde
Featuing Sidney Toler, Victor Sen Yung, Robert Lowery
Country: USA
What it is: Charlie Chan mystery

When a close friend from Scotland Yard is strangled in his office, Charlie Chan investigates. He knows the killer is one of several people taking part in a cruise party, so he goes along with the cruise in order to catch the killer.

As corny as the aphorism gimmick is, I couldn’t help but notice in this movie how much of Charlie Chan’s heart and soul are captured in these little observational nuggets; because Chan is required to be calm and objective on the surface, it is here (thanks to the solid writing and Sidney Toler’s fine performance) that his wit and humanity are allowed to shine through. This is definitely part of the charm of the Chan movies. This one has a fun cast that includes Lionel Atwill, Charles Middleton and Leo G. Carroll, who I didn’t recognize immediately because I’m used to seeing him a bit older. The mystery is entertaining and clever, even threatening to break the “red herring” rule at one point. The fantastic aspects here are harder to pin down; the opening scenes imply that the murderer is a serial killer of sorts, but I don’t really see how the story effectively explains murders that were previously committed to the ones that occurred here, even though it is these that bring the Scotland Yard detective into the story in the first place. In my mind, these don’t really qualify as serial-type killings. The other fantastic content is also implied; a female spiritualist is one of the suspects, but little is made of this; there isn’t even a seance scene. So, enjoyable as this one is, it’s too marginal to really belong to the fantastic genres.

CITY OF THE WALKING DEAD (1980)
aka Incubo sulla citta contaminata
Article 3261 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 5-24-2010
Posting Date: 7-19-2010
Directed by Umberto Lenzi
Featuring Hugo Stiglitz, Laura Trotter, Maria Rosaria Omaggio
Country: Italy / Mexico / Spain
What it is: Zombie flick

An airplane passes through a radioactive area, and it turns the passengers into bloodthirsty zombies. When the plane lands, they go on a rampage of destruction.

Well, the zombies are fast moving, know how to fly planes, drive cars, cut telephone lines, and rescue trapped elevator riders, though they don’t appear to be able to talk; at least the movie gets points for making the zombies somewhat formidable. One of my sources praises the movie for being nihilistic. I don’t know about you, but for something to be effectively nihilistic, it also has to be convincing, and it never reaches that level. In fact, it’s more campy than scary, what with the idiotic dialogue of the English-dubbed version, where people state the obvious, speak in platitudes, moralize, etc; Mel Ferrer in particular never convinces me that he’s dealing with a real crisis. Oh, there’s plenty of grue for the gorehounds, and for those looking for flesh, the zombies do have a habit of tearing the blouses off their female victims before killing them. But almost every scare is telegraphed and every twist is predictable. No, I take that back; I have to admit that I didn’t see that final plot twist coming. Unfortunately, that final plot twist makes the movie several times stupider. I certainly hope this isn’t the best of the Italian zombie flicks, because it’s really the only one I’ve seen so far, and as far as I’m concerned, it’s a washout.

COUNT DRACULA AND HIS VAMPIRE BRIDE (1973)
aka The Satanic Rites of Dracula
Article 3246 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 5-9-2010
Posting Date: 7-4-2010
Directed by Alan Gibson
Featuring Christopher Lee, Peter Cushing, Michael Coles
Country: UK
What it is: Updated Vampire mayhem

A group of four VIPs are photographed taking part in Satanic rituals with a fifth unknown person. One of the VIPs is a scientist who develops a deadly strain of bubonic plague. Could Dracula be behind it all?

With this movie I finish off Hammer’s Dracula series, and the only reason I can’t say that it couldn’t have ended on a stranger note is that THE LEGEND OF THE 7 GOLDEN VAMPIRES was just around the corner. Still, this movie is a pretty odd amalgam at that; in fact, if it weren’t for the vampirism touches, this feels more like a Fu Manchu movie than a Dracula movie. In the end, I don’t know why Dracula needs both Satanic rituals AND a deadly bubonic plague virus to spread his evil, and the movie has that “everything but the kitchen sink” air about it. I do get the sense that they were starting to scrape the bottom of the “how to kill the vampire” barrel here, with a hawthorn tree and an indoor sprinkler system called into play to defeat the vampires. Dracula himself comes across as more of a super-villain rather than a creature of ancient evil, and the movie never really gels. Still, Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing are very good as usual, and despite the silliness factor the movie is entertaining enough.

THE CREATURE WITH THE BLUE HAND (1967)
aka Die blaue Hand
Article 3235 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 4-28-2010
Posting Date: 6-23-2010
Directed by Alfred Vohrer and Samuel M. Sherman
Featuring Harald Leipnitz, Klaus Kinski, Carl Lange
Country: West Germany
What it is: Edgar Wallace mystery

One of a pair of twin brothers is committed to an asylum for the murder of the family gardener. When he is mysteriously helped to escape, he returns to his family home and takes up the identity of his twin brother, who has disappeared. But someone is now killing off the family members with a blue gauntlet of retractable razor-sharp blades. Is the twin being framed…?

One of my memories from my childhood was seeing a big ad in the newspaper for a drive-in double feature of BEAST OF THE YELLOW NIGHT and CREATURE WITH THE BLUE HAND; for some reason, that ad haunted me. I finally got to see the first feature this year for the first time, and was quite disappointed. This, the second feature, I’d first seen years ago when it popped up on my local creature feature; I remember being a little disappointed that there was no real creature, (just someone using that blue gauntlet), but certain scenes in the movie did stick with me. It was only later that I knew the movie was part of the West German krimis of the sixties, and it is the first one I ever saw. I think this one holds up all right, especially if you’re familiar with krimis and know what to expect; the plot is overall confusing, but individual moments work well enough. Most memorable here are the blue hand attacks, and a scene in an asylum involving snakes and rats. The comic relief is subtler than usual here, with an odd butler and a pompous police inspector the primary sources. Years later, extra footage involving cannibalism would be grafted onto the movie by Samuel M. Sherman, an idea which certainly could not have improved the movie at all. All in all, I consider this one of the more enjoyable examples of the krimi form.

CAGLIOSTRO (1910)
aka Cagliostro, aventurier, chimiste et magiien
Article 3221 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 4-13-2010
Posting Date: 6-9-2010
Directed by Camille de Morlhon and Gaston Velle
Featuring Jean Jacquinet, Jacques Normand, Helene Du Montel
Country: France
What it is: Version of the Cagliostro story

Cagliostro kidnaps a gypsy girl and uses his hypnotic powers to turn her into a medium.

Sometimes you just accept these short silent films for what they are, but others you find yourself acutely aware that the story can’t be told in the time allotted. That’s the feeling I had about this one; in terms of story, there is a perfunctory feel about the whole affair here. However, I suspect that it isn’t so much about the story as the special effects; the beginning scene (in which a wizard uses special effects to show Cagliostro the gypsy girl) and a party scene (which is basically Cagliostro using the girl in his magic act) seem to exist solely to make extensive use of camera tricks. Nevertheless, it was nice to see another version of the Cagliostro story; I have had several on my hunt list over the years, but most of them seem unfindable.

CURSE OF THE FLY (1965)
Article 3208 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 3-31-2010
Posting Date: 5-27-2010
Directed by Don Sharp
Featuring Brian Donlevy, George Baker, Carole Gray
Country: UK
What it is: Mad scientist tale

An escapee from a mental institution meets and falls in love with her rescuer, and they marry. He takes her to his home, where his father has been experimenting with teleportation. However, some of the father’s experiments weren’t quite successful, and what is left of his subjects aren’t entirely human…

This, the second sequel to THE FLY, ditches the human/fly gene mixing of the first two films and tries for some vaguer type of horror. The experimental subjects don’t seem to be crosses with other creatures; they’re just misshapen. The movie has some effective moments, especially when two of the misshapen creatures are teleported together and come out as something truly abominable. However, the movie has its fair share of problems; the situation with the son marrying an escapee from a mental institution (the movie opens with her breaking out dressed only in her underwear and running away) is heavily contrived, the reactions of the characters to various events are hard to swallow, and the acting is variable. It’s one of the movies where I can sense that Brian Donlevy had been drinking; though he’s professional enough, some of his line deliveries seem strange and unfocused. The motivations of the female servant seem very odd; why does she leave the photograph of the escapee’s husband’s previous wife in her bedroom at one point? The slow pace during the first half of the movie also drags things down a bit, though the ending is pretty good. This is a mixed bag.

CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND (1977)
Article 3207 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 3-30-2010
Posting Date: 5-26-2010
Directed by Steven Spielberg
Featuring Richard Dreyfuss, Francois Truffaut, Teri Garr
Country: USA
What it is: Alien contact story

When a lineman encounters a UFO, he becomes obsessed with a shape that will lead him to the meaning of his experience.

This beloved UFO movie appears on a lot of people’s best ten lists for science fiction movies. There’s no doubt that in many ways it is a brilliant movie. Spielberg has a truly profound understanding of film language, and the way he has of telling a story and imparting information is wondrous. He also has the ability to come up with some truly impressive crowd scenes. The sense of mystery is strong here, and we feel for the various characters as they try to deal with their lives after their encounters. In many ways, this is a stunning movie.

Yet I resist the movie a little; for some reason, I’m a little disappointed with the ending. This may seem like a ridiculous statement; the ending is a masterpiece of special effects technology at the very least. But for me, the ending lacks a certain emotional resonance that I was hoping for. After doing a lot of thinking about it, I decided the problem is that the ending is a little too heavy on the “awe” end of the scale; in my mind, an encounter with aliens from outer space would have a more complex set of reactions than this. The rest of the movie has touches of fear and paranoia that seem to vanish at the end, and I don’t think they should vanish. Which is not to say that the movie should have a darker ending; I’m just saying that the existence and acknowledgment of that darkness would go a ways toward making the end of the movie a more complete experience.

Nevertheless, I must admit that I found this less of a problem this time than with my previous two viewings of the movie. Spielberg’s vision is breathtaking, and there are new things to be observed on each re-viewing. Whatever its flaws, the movie is a rich experience.

THE CASTLE OF FU MANCHU (1969)
Article 3202 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 3-25-2010
Posting Date: 5-21-2010
Directed by Jesus Franco
Featuring Christopher Lee, Richard Greene, Howard Marion-Crawford
Country: West Germany/Italy/Spain/UK/Liechtenstein
What it is: Fu Manchu movie

Fu Manchu plans to take over the world by using a secret formula that turns water into ice.

It took five countries to make this movie? This is the last of the Christopher Lee Fu Manchu movies, which, given the quality of this one, was no great loss. What can you say about a movie in which the big opening action sequence (a confused mess) is made up entirely of footage from two other movies (namely, A NIGHT TO REMEMBER (about the Titanic) and THE BRIDES OF FU MANCHU), one of which was in black and white? I’d say it was either a sign of desperation or a sign of laziness, but in truth, it was probably the sign of an extremely low budget and the fact that nobody seemed to really care about the production. Most of the rest of the movie is full of dead space; do we really need to see the complete coffin-transportation scene to grasp that the doctor and his nurse have been kidnapped by Fu Manchu? Still, in the movie’s defense, I can say this; despite its obvious weaknesses, it never becomes unwatchable, despite the snail’s pace. And one must also remember that much of this movie’s reputation is due to MST3K fans who are judging it solely from its appearance on that show, where certain scenes are missing and some plot points get lost in the shuffle; the movie does have a plot that can be sorted out, and a certain amount of your attention can be occupied trying to do so. In short, as weak as it is, it’s not one of the worst movies ever made. And one should keep in my mind that my copy is NOT the recent DVD release by Blue Underground, which is reported as having given the movie a much better presentation.