THE COMPUTER WORE TENNIS SHOES (1969)
Article 1953 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 7-20-2006
Posting Date: 12-17-2006
Directed by Robert Butler
Featuring Kurt Russell, Cesar Romero, Joe Flynn

After he’s zapped by a computer cable, a college student develops super intelligence.

With this, I complete the Dexter Reilly shopping-cart movies Disney put out in the late sixties and going into the seventies. None of these movies are particularly strong, but at least NOW YOU SEE HIM, NOW YOU DON’T had great special effects and a good dose of energy to it, and at the very least, THE STRONGEST MAN IN THE WORLD trotted out a dazzling display of well-known actors. This one is relatively listless. Not only that, whereas shopping-cart movies are more likely to suffer from an overabundance of silliness, this one almost forgets it’s a comedy for good stretches of the story. Given the fact that the story is utterly routine (the first half is Dexter-learns-a-valuable-life-lesson, the second half is Let’s-rescue-Dexter-from-the-kidnappers-so-we-can-win-the-big-college-quiz-game), it would have been better off going for big laughs. This one was remade as a TV-movie in the mid-nineties, a trend of Disney’s that has gotten far too common.

THE CURSE OF THE DOLL PEOPLE (1961)
aka Munecos infernales
Article 1923 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 6-20-2006
Posting Date: 11-17-2006
Directed by Benito Alazraki and Paul Nagle
Featuring Ramon Gay, Elvira Quintana, Quintin Bulnes

Several men fall under the spell of a voodoo curse when they steal an idol from a temple. The curse takes the form of murderous dolls that stalk and kill their victims.

I have to confess that I find this movie a mixed bag. On the plus side, the killer dolls are truly unnerving. They bear the faces of their previous victims, and the effect is truly eerie; quite frankly, they’re some of the scariest monsters to come out of a Mexican horror movie. They also aren’t strictly automatons, and some of them actually end up engendering a certain amount of sympathy in the process. The zombie isn’t quite as effective, but he does add to the scares a little. On the down side, the pacing is pretty awful, and the repetitive and dull soundtrack really drag the movie down quite a bit. The dubbing is none too good, either, but I’m used to this enough that it didn’t really hurt as much as the pacing. Still, those dolls are certainly memorable, and for many people this may more than compensate for the movie’s weaknesses.

COLOSSUS AND THE AMAZON QUEEN (1960)
aka Colossus and the Amazons, La Regina delle Amazzoni
Article 1922 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 6-19-2006
Posting Date: 11-16-2006
Directed by Vittorio Sala
Featuring Rod Taylor, Ed Fury, Dorian Gray

Glauco and his friend Pirro take up a job of guarding pirate treasure, only to find themselves drugged and left for the Amazons to find.

I tend to be blindsided by movies like this. It’s hard to take the Italian sword-and-sandal movies seriously when they’re done straight, so I never really find myself prepared when they actually play them for laughs, as they do here. This is the best Italian sword-and-sandal comedy I’ve seen, which is damning it with faint praise; it’s only competition is HERCULES VS. MACISTE IN THE VALE OF WOE , and that one is quite awful. This one benefits from the fact that the two leads are not only both speaking English, but have a good grasp of comedy as well; both Rod Taylor and Ed Fury are thoroughly amusing. The movie also gets a little mileage out of the reversal-of-the-sexes theme of the Amazons; the scene where we see all of the Amazons’ male menials cleaning, washing, cooking, and chattering away like housewives is pretty hilarious. The crowning touch came, though, when the ceremonial dance (practically every sword-and-sandal movie has one) opens with three scantily-clad men, and though the women soon take over the dance, I had to admit that was a brilliant touch. There’s some nonsense about a sacred girdle, our hero Ed Fury is constantly getting knocked out by any number of people, and there’s a scene where the Amazons are being attacked by invading pirates that is blocked out like a western scene where Indians attack pioneers in circled wagons. There are feats of super-strength and bear-wrestling. The only question I have is a simple one – Who’s Colossus?

LE CORBEAU (1943)
aka The Raven
Article 1896 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 5-24-2006
Posting Date: 10-21-2006
Directed by Henri-Georges Clouzot
Featuring Pierre Fresnay, Ginette Leclerc, Micheline Francey

A small town is plagued by an onslaught of poison pen letters signed by someone called The Raven, most of which target a doctor who is suspected of performing abortions.

Try as I might, I can’t really bring myself to classify this mystery / drama as belonging to any of the fantastic genres. Yes, it deals with the theme of madness, and one character is slightly crippled (deformities are often used in horror films), but neither of these aspects of the story are used in any way to suggest horror. Of the sources I have been using to compile my hunt list, only the Lentz guide lists this movie, and I suspect he may have been taken in by its translated title. After all, I’ve covered three other films also called THE RAVEN, and though all three are quite different (Universal horror Lugosi/Karloff vehicle , AIP fantasy comedy , and silent Poe biopic ), all of them do use the Poe poem as a source of inspiration. This one has nothing to do with Poe, but I can understand how someone seeing the title THE RAVEN on something would automatically assume a connection.

Nonetheless, this is a very good movie. It was made during the German occupation of France, and the film was condemned both by the Nazis and the French, as well as the Catholic church. Clouzot would be banned from the film industry for two years for making movies under the Nazi regime, though this movie is hardly pro-Nazi. In fact, one of the political interpretations of the film is that the fear caused by the poison-pen letters was very similar to the fear of being under Nazi control during this period. The movie will leave you guessing as to the identity of the title character, and I was able to notice a certain similarity to LES DIABOLIQUES , which should come as no surprise, as Clouzot also directed that movie. All in all, a sad, powerful and fascinating film.

CRASHING LAS VEGAS (1956)
Article 1842 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 3-31-2006
Posting Date: 8-28-2006
Directed by Jean Yarbrough
Featuring Leo Gorcey, Huntz Hall, Mary Castle

When Sach is shocked by electricity, he develops the ability to predict winning numbers on roulette wheels. Slip uses this ability to win a trip to Las Vegas, where Sach then begins to make a fortune gambling. However, some shady types believe he has a secret method for winning, and they plan to find out what it is…

A quick glimpse of the above plot description should clue you in that this is another one of those movies that follows the formula I talked about in BLUES BUSTERS . It’s a pretty amusing one, as well; I especially liked the game show sequence (in which a vagrant wins two prizes that he can’t possibly use) and the dream prison sequence (where the warden has to figure out how to electrocute four Bowery Boys when he has only three electric chairs). There are other plot elements that are quite amusing, but still things just don’t seem as they should be. One of the first things I noticed was the absence of Louie Dumbrowsky and his malt shop, and the other is that Leo Gorcey seems rather distant and unfocused here. Both of these things are the result of the same situation; Bernard Gorcey (Leo’s father and the actor who played Louie) had died of complications from an automobile accident, and Leo was overcome with grief. Maltin’s guide claims that Leo Gorcey appears inebriated in some scenes, and that’s quite possible; all I know is that Leo’s mind was obviously elsewhere during the making of this movie, and afterwards, he would depart the series, leaving Huntz Hall as the star. Knowing this adds a sad touch to the proceedings, and it becomes rather difficult to laugh at times.

I’d just like to take a minute here and dedicate this review to Leo and his dad Bernard, as thanks for the many hours of joy they brought me through their movies.

THE CURSE OF NOSTRADAMUS (1961)
aka La Maldicion de Nostradamus
Article 1834 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 3-23-2006
Posting Date: 8-20-2006
Directed by Federico Curiel and Stim Segar
Featuring German Robles, Domingo Soler, Julio Aleman

The son of Nostradamus, who sleeps on the ashes of his father and has become a vampire, vows to force a professor who preaches against all superstition to acknowledge the power of his father and publicly admit to the existence of the supernatural. He plans to demonstrate to the professors his abilities by predicting the deaths of several people, and then forcing the predictions to come true.

With this entry I have finished my coverage of the whole Nostradamus series, though it appears that, having started with BLOOD OF NOSTRADAMUS and ended with this one, I seem to have watched them all mostly in reverse order. I like the basic concept of the series; Nostradamus makes for an interesting vampire, and some of the stories are rather clever. My only wish is that the presentation had been stronger; even taking into account the fact that I’ve only seen the badly dubbed English prints (where Nostradamus’s ugly hunchbacked assistant sounds a little too much like Goofy), I get the feeling that the style would be static and dull in any language. This movie covers about three episodes of what was originally a serial of sorts, and makes a lame attempt at the end to make us believe that the vampire has been killed, but we know better; there were three more movies to come. Still, the way the various victims of Nostradamus meet their fates does make the movie more interesting than it could have been.

CITY OF FEAR (1959)
Article 1833 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 3-22-2006
Posting Date: 8-19-2006
Directed by Irving Lerner
Featuring Vince Edwards, Lyle Talbot, John Archer

An escaped convict flees to Los Angeles with a container of what he believes to be illegal drugs but is actually a radioactive substance in a deadly powder form.

Several sources refer to the radioactive substance by different names, but it sure sounds to me like they’re actually calling it Cobalt 60 in the movie. I also don’t know to what extent the movie is science fiction, but I’m assuming that its inclusion in at least one source means that it at least rubs up against the genre. As for the movie itself, it’s not bad, especially if you consider its budget; it’s well acted, has some interesting scenes, and the story is decent enough. However, I don’t think the movie really succeeds at being a nail-biting suspense thriller; despite the fact that the whole city of Los Angeles is supposed to be in deadly danger from the substance (hence the title), you never really feel that any more than a handful of people are really at risk in the movie. Nonetheless, the movie is rather efficient, and it’s effective enough to make for worthwhile viewing.

A CHRISTMAS CAROL (1951)
aka Scrooge
Article 1832 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 3-21-2006
Posting Date: 8-18-2006
Directed by Brian Desmond Hurst
Featuring Alastair Sim, Kathleen Harrison, Mervyn Johns

A bitter old man with an intense hatred of Christmas is visited by the ghost of an old associate who has a plan for saving his soul.

The classic Dickens Christmas story is so familiar that it’s nearly impossible to look at it afresh. To someone planning an adaptation of the story, it must be very tempting to just trot out all the familiar elements and have done with it. This version of the story is often considered the best one, and I can see why; it manages to make me see aspects of the story that I had never considered before, and I was able to get some fresh perspectives on it. The performance of Alastair Sim is a major plus; from the moment he opens his mouth, I begin to get a very different idea of Scrooge than I usually have. His Scrooge is a full character rather than an icon. For one thing, his Scrooge’s dislike of Christmas has a bit more depth to it; it stems out of the fear of feeling the type of compassion that would undermine his whole business ethic. Yet he must have some innate love of the holiday; otherwise, bringing it up wouldn’t make him as angry as it does.

Furthermore, this version helped me to realize more fully the importance of the character of Tiny Tim in the story. He is Scrooge’s opposite – he is bright and cheerful while living in poverty with severe physical handicaps, whereas Scrooge is miserable despite having plenty of money. His death (during the “what-might-be” visit from the Spirit of Christmas Yet to Come) is deeply mourned, whereas Scrooge’s serves as merely the opportunity for the scavengers to gather.

Maybe some of these observations are obvious, but it took this version of the story to make me aware of them. For this reason alone, I would have to rank this as the best adaptation of the story I’ve seen to date; it made me think more fully about the story than any other version I’ve seen. Well done on all counts!

THE CHESS PLAYER (1938)
aka Le Joeuer d’echecs
Article 1831 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 3-20-2006
Posting Date: 8-17-2006
Directed by Jean Dreville
Featuring Francoise Rosay, Conrad Veidt, Paul Cambo

A toymaker who specializes in large mechanical men builds an automatic chess player to hide a refugee.

Well, here’s another movie I can’t say too much about, due to the fact that my print is in French and is only sporadically subtitled. Furthermore, when the subtitles do show up, they are often illegible and/or poorly positioned. Granted, it helps that I have seen the 1927 version of the original movie, but that was more than three years ago, and it’s not fresh in my memory. Let’s just say that the many automatons make for the science fiction element of the story, and that the main appeal of this version seems to be the presence of Conrad Veidt in the role of the inventor / puppeteer. There is the occasional visual highlight, usually involving the automatons. However, this is pretty puny in comparison with the silent version, which is longer, more epic, and easier to find. Despite the presence of Veidt here, I’m afraid the choice is fairly obvious.

CHARLIE CHAN AT TREASURE ISLAND (1939)
Article 1830 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 3-19-2006
Posting Date: 8-16-2006
Directed by Norman Foster
Featuring Sidney Toler, Victor Sen Yung, Cesar Romero

When a friend commits suicide on an airplane flight, Charlie Chan becomes suspicious about a mystic who he thinks may have been blackmailing him.

I’ve been fairly critical of Sidney Toler’s performances in the Charlie Chan role for some time now, but I must admit that up to this point, I haven’t seen him perform with the same advantages that Warner Oland had when he played the role; specifically, working with the series while it was at Fox rather than at Monogram and while the series still was commanding good scripts. This is an excellent script indeed, and though I still prefer Oland in the role, Toler does just fine this time round. It makes me wonder if the weakness of the other Toler performances may have had something to do with his awareness of how the scripts had gone downhill, though I must say that this is just speculation. At any rate, he adds just the right touch of humor here to make the role sparkle.

This entry in the series also has perhaps the sharpest fantastic elements in comparison to the ones I’ve seen before. The plot involves spiritualism and hypnotism, and there does exist a character who has (within the context of the movie) a very real talent for telepathy. The seance scene is very moody indeed, with Dr. Zodiac proving a memorable presence. The final revelation is quite good, and Victor Sen Yung handles the comic relief duties admirably. However, anybody who expects the plot elements to have something to do with pirates (as per the title) will walk away disappointed; Treasure Island was a site at the World’s Fair in San Francisco.