CREATURE OF THE WALKING DEAD (1965)
Article #1674 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 10-14-2005
Posting Date: 3-13-2006
Directed by Jerry Warren
Featuring Rock Madison, Ann Wells, Willard Gross

A man moves into the home of his ancestor (a scientist who discovered the secret of eternal youth which involved the draining of blood from young woman, and for which he was executed). When he discovers the scientist’s body, he revives him, and a new rein of terror begins.

This is another of Jerry Warren’s attempts at taking a foreign movie (a researcher at IMDB says it’s a Mexican movie called LA MARCA DEL MUERTO) and, using his usual methods of minimal dubbing, slicing and dicing and tedious inserts, tries to adapt it for English-speaking audiences. He fares a little better than usual; there aren’t quite as many dull inserts, and the story remains somewhat comprehensible despite his fiddling. Granted, the story itself is so over-familiar that it’s harder to not know what’s going on. But an over-familiar story can still work if the movie is able to build a proper sense of drama and tension, but Warren’s fiddling prevents this at every turn; his avoidance of dubbing and use of voice-over narration makes everything that happens seem distant and uninteresting, and the movie has no emotional impact at all. And as for the inserts, they’re just as dull and distracting as anything else he’s done in this regard. Best example – there’s a scene here where Bruno VeSota (and for those of you who don’t know this actor by sight, let me just say that his physique is the polar opposite of that of John Carradine’s) has an endless conversation while receiving a massage. Now, if I were to make a list of things I don’t want to see in a movie, I’m sure that Bruno VeSota getting a massage is one of them; nevertheless, given the choice of trying to make sense of the droning dialogue and concentrating on the massage, I chose the latter.

THE CRAWLING HAND (1963)
Article #1673 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 10-13-2005
Posting Date: 3-12-2006
Directed by Herbert L. Strock
Featuring Peter Breck, Kent Taylor, Rod Lauren

When a space mission is aborted at the insistence of the astronaut, the wreckage is strewn across a beach near a small California town. A young student finds the dismembered arm of the astronaut and takes it home for research, not knowing that the arm has a life of its own.

This movie has a poor reputation, and let’s face it; there’s something inherently silly about the concept of a hand crawling around and strangling people. Somehow, though, I just don’t have any real disdain for this movie; it doesn’t quite deserve its camp reputation as far as I’m concerned. It does have some problems; some of the comic relief is lame, the special effects are somewhat weak (though they were probably the best they could do for the budget), and the ending scene is pretty corny. Nonetheless, I think the script actually does an interesting job with the story, the acting is solid, the direction is efficient, and some of the camerawork is quite clever. It also finds the right balance between seriousness and light-heartedness. I also enjoy seeing some familiar faces in the cast, such as Kent Taylor, Alan Hale Jr., and Allison Hayes (who is sadly wasted in a dull role). Perhaps the biggest surprise was finding out that the Soda Shop owner was none other than Syd Saylor, a comic actor who I’ve never appreciated, but who I quite like here. In fact, he takes part in the best scene of the movie; the sequence where the killer teenager assaults the old man in the soda shop while the jukebox blares out “The Bird’s the Word” is a model of lighting, sound and editing, and is actually one of the most memorable scenes in a horror/science fiction film from the period. Not for nothing does the sole credit at the end of the movie go to the Rivingtons.

CIRCUS OF FEAR (1966)
(a.k.a. PSYCHO-CIRCUS)
Article #1585 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 7-17-2005
Posting Date: 12-14-2005
Directed by John Llewellyn Moxey
Featuring Christopher Lee, Leo Genn, Anthony Newlands

Detectives investigate a robbery that resulted in the murder of a guard. Their investigation leads them to a circus populated by any number of sinister characters.

It is best to warn horror fans from square one; despite the title and certain horror elements (the presence of Christoper Lee as a lion tamer who wears a hood to hide his hideously scarred face, several knife murders), this is far more of a crime / mystery thriller than a horror piece. Actually, this isn’t so different from the common practice in the thirties to pass off old dark house mysteries as horror films, so it’s hard to get really offended over this. For a crime / mystery thriller, it’s not too bad; it has a few decent surprises and some interesting moments. It’s not particularly well done, though, and it misses a few opportunities; much as I like the fact that one scene involves two people having a fight in a ring filled with trained elephants, I don’t think the director made this moment as exciting as it could have been. Still, I have to grouse about one thing, and that is how often Klaus Kinski is wasted in movies like this; he’s a great actor with a memorable face, but he seems to be used for cameos more than anything else when he should be front and center. For the record, the movie’s most disappointing moment is getting our first look at the animal trainer’s hideous countenance.

CRIMES AT THE DARK HOUSE (1940)
Article #1539 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 6-1-2005
Posting Date: 10-29-2005
Directed by George King
Featuring Tod Slaughter, Sylvia Marriott, Hilary Eaves

A con artist murders a prospector and takes over his identity under the belief that he will be heir to a fortune. Unfortunately, he discovers that he was actually the heir to a whopping debt, and must engage in further murder and mayhem to recoup his losses.

You know, you really have to hand it to Tod Slaughter. It takes a special talent to walk that tightrope in which he managed to be so gleefully villainous without actually falling into complete parody, and when you’re given lines like “I’ll feed your entrails to the pigs!”, you’re going to need that sense of balance. Though I still prefer the perverse CRIMES OF STEPHEN HAWKE, there is no doubt that this movie is one of Tod Slaughter’s finest hours, and it may even be a better introduction to his style for those unfamiliar with his work. Slaughter is just hypnotic; you always know what’s running through his mind even when he hasn’t said a thing, and he has a way of loading his every gesture with meaning. It’s also packed full of great lines; outside of the entrails line quoted above, check out his teetotaler line towards the end of the movie. It’s only marginally horror, but some of the murders are quite grotesque, and the theme of madness rears its head as well.

CITY OF LOST MEN (1935)
(a.k.a. THE LOST CITY)
Article #1538 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 5-31-2005
Posting Date: 10-28-2005
Directed by Harry Revier
William ‘Stage’ Boyd, Kane Richmond, Claudia Dell

A madman named Zolok plans to take over the world with his electrical machine hidden in the African jungle.

At this point I’ve seen many of the classic serials – DAREDEVILS OF THE RED CIRCLE, GANG BUSTERS, SPY SMASHER, FLASH GORDON, THE CRIMSON GHOST, etc. So why is it that the one whose siren song I hearken to with the most affection is one of the cheesiest of the lot, THE LOST CITY? I don’t know; maybe I’m just perverse. It is, after all, the PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE of serials, loaded with bad acting and hilarious dialogue. Maybe it’s because I can actually tell all the characters apart, something that doesn’t happen very often with other serials. Maybe it’s just because the campy acting, bad dialogue, silly costumes and general air of cheapness holds my interest a lot more than non-stop action. I don’t know. The fact of the matter is that I just love that serial.

Heck, I even like this feature edit of the serial, though reportedly this is just one of several. Nevertheless, I do think that this serial-turned-feature does at least one thing right; rather than attempting to cram the whole serial into eighty minutes, it just grafts together the first three and a half episodes and then staples on the last ten minutes of the last episode. Does this result in an outrageous break in continuity? It sure does. The simple fact of the matter is, though, that I find this huge break of continuity much easier to bear than the flood of nonstop action of most other feature versions of serials. Besides, the best part of the original serial was the first few episodes and the ending anyway. And I do find it rather amusing that at this point my tolerance for the feature version of a serial runs in inverse proportion to the quality of the serial itself.

CINDERELLA (1950)
Article #1512 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 5-5-2005
Posting Date: 10-2-2005
Production Supervisor: Ben Sharpsteen
Featuring the voices of Ilene Woods, Eleanor Audley, Verna Fulton

The beautiful girl is abused by her cruel stepmother and ugly stepsisters, but is given a chance for happiness when the local king stages a ball to find a wife for the prince.

During the first twenty-five years in which he was engaged in making feature-length cartoons, Walt Disney achieved a certain level of excellence that cannot be denied; almost every one of these features is a recognized classic. However, that doesn’t mean that each feature was the equal to all the others, and though this feature is certainly a worthy addition to the list, I think it lacks the inspiration of many of the others. It certainly gets by on charm; like PINOCCHIO; the plot is at a standstill for the first quarter of the movie, but it really doesn’t matter because it so charmingly introduces us to the characters. In fact, the movie maintains that level of charm throughout. Yet, to some extent, it feels like a lesser version of SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARFS, with which it shares certain similarities. Like Snow White, Cinderella is at the mercy of her stepmother, but whereas the Queen in SNOW WHITE was evil and murderous, the stepmother here is merely mean, petty and selfish, and though one can’t really belittle Cinderella’s suffering, it’s obvious that the stakes are nowhere near as high as they were for Snow White. Instead of the seven dwarfs, we have an assortment of talking animals, but these are comparatively undeveloped, without even a Grumpy to win over.

Perhaps the most telling detail about his movie is that, unlike every single other Disney animated feature I’ve covered so far, there is not a single moment that blows you out of the water and makes your jaw hang open. Just to pick one at random from each, SNOW WHITE had the pursuit of the witch through the rain, PINOCCHIO had the transformation into donkeys, FANTASIA had the dancing ostriches and hippos, SLEEPING BEAUTY had the battle with the dragon, THE ADVENTURES OF ICHABOD AND MR. TOAD had the encounter with the Headless Horseman, and DUMBO had Pink Elephants on Parade. There’s simply nothing in this movie to equal any of those moments. As a result, it feels relatively minor; it’s the difference between hearing a musical genius play an extraordinarily difficult number brilliantly and hearing the same musician play an easy number very well indeed. There’s nothing necessarily wrong with the second piece, but it’s the first one that reminds you why he got to be called a genius in the first place.

Still, I won’t condemn a movie for failing to be brilliant, especially when it’s very good indeed. And let’s face it; during the sixties, seventies and eighties, it was a rarity for Disney to make an animated feature that was even this good.

A CONNECTICUT YANKEE IN KING ARTHUR’S COURT (1949)
Article #1498 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 4-21-2005
Posting Date: 9-18-2005
Directed by Tay Garnett
Featuring Bing Crosby, Rhonda Fleming, Cedric Hardwicke

A mechanic of the twentieth century suffers an accident that sends him back to the time of King Arthur.

Mark Twain’s novel was basically considered a satire, and was at times darkly cynical. There’s not much of that here, but then, given that Bing Crosby is the star, I didn’t expect it would be; I expected a light-hearted musical comedy, and that’s what it is. Oddly enough, it does get a little dark at times; at one point, Crosby’s character visits a poor peasant family who just lost their father to the plague. Though this event causes the character to hatch a scheme to take King Arthur out into the real world disguised as a peasant so he can see the suffering and injustice of the world, the movie immediately undercuts the idea by having our disguised friends sing a cheery, happy song about the joys of being free and without responsibility. The music is merely okay, but the comedy is quite good on occasion; there’s a scene where Sir Sagramore (William Bendix) plays around with a gun without the slightest idea of its danger that is rather enjoyable. All in all, it’s watchable, enjoyable and forgettable, though in all honesty, I must admit that Rhonda Fleming is stunningly beautiful here. Still, I find it impossible to believe that she could effectively disguise herself as a young boy as she does at one point in the proceedings.

THE CLONES (1973)
Article #1497 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 4-20-2005
Posting Date: 9-17-2005
Directed by Lamar Card and Paul Hunt
Featuring Michael Greene, Susan Hunt, Gregory Sierra

A scientist escapes from a near disaster to discover that someone who looks just like him has taken his place.

Those who think that cloning paranoia began with Dolly the sheep should check out this one. I remember ads for this movie running on my local TV station, but the movie never actually showed up in town. No wonder. To begin with, the movie gives away its biggest mystery in the title. Then there’s the fact that despite the science fiction premise, the movie largely descends into rather dullish action fare; car chases, gunfights, fistfights, etc. etc. etc. Arty trip sequences add nothing and go nowhere, and the shaky hand-held camera work gets pretty tiresome as well. There’s the odd good moment; the opening is mysterious enough, there’s a scene where our hero checks the bathroom before stealing a car from a service station, John Drew Barrymore has a memorable cameo as a hippie, and Angelo Rossitto fans may want to catch it for a short scene in a phone booth. Other than that, this one is a tedious washout; even having the final shootout take place in an amusement park falls flat. How does it end? Well, it was the seventies, so…

Incidentally, this is also the last credit listed for serial and feature star Bruce Bennett, though where he appears in the movie is a mystery to me.

CRY OF THE BANSHEE (1970)
Article #1465 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 3-19-2005
Posting Date: 8-16-2005
Directed by Gordon Hessler
Featuring Vincent Price, Hilary Heath, Carl Rigg

A witch places a curse on the family of a magistrate after he slaughters several members of her coven. The curse causes a banshee to kill off the magistrate’s family members.

You know, I’ve been pretty hard on some of Corman’s Poe movies. I honestly wish I had watched this unpleasant, unsatisfying movie before reviewing them; I found it made me really appreciate them. This one opens with a quote by Poe, but at least it doesn’t claim that the story comes from him. The basic premise isn’t bad, and Vincent Price is always fun to watch in action, but I found this movie to be merely unpleasant and exploitative. The main focus of the movie seems to be on the degradation (via torture and stripping) of as many young female characters as it can fit into its plot, and the character development exists almost entirely to bring this about; in short, there’s a lot of sadistic characters. Even Price’s character is woefully underdeveloped, though he does his best to fight this. It also doesn’t help that with a few exceptions (Price, Elisabeth Bergner, Marshall Jones and Hugh Griffith), the acting is pretty subpar. And (unless I’m very much mistaken) I really think they should have gotten a real dog to do the barking for the mad dog in the movie; someone’s dog imitation just doesn’t pass muster here.

COUNTDOWN (1968)
Article #1464 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 3-18-2005
Posting Date: 8-15-2005
Directed by Robert Altman
Featuring James Caan, Joanna Cook Moore, Robert Duvall

For political reasons, the leading candidate for the job of the American astronaut to make the first moon landing is replaced by a man with no military connections, who must then take a crash course in learning the ropes for his trip to the moon.

Robert Altman is one of those directors I more admire and respect than actually like, and though I really like some of his more bizarre efforts (BREWSTER MCCLOUD and 3 WOMEN come to mind), some of his masterpieces leave me cold (I’ve seen MCCABE AND MRS. MILLER twice, and it still does nothing for me). This one was made a couple of years before he would hit it big with MASH, and I consider it a mixed bag. It’s very well acted and I find that Altman is particularly strong at handling scenes with several people, but it’s so low-key that I find my attention wandering quite a bit of the time. I also don’t care much for the musical soundtrack; it’s conventionally melodramatic, and often I felt that it was trying too hard to add suspense and excitement to scenes that would have been better handled in silence or with a more subtle soundtrack. The movie does have its moments though. I’d seen this one before, and the one moment that embedded itself into my memory is so beautifully and simply done that I’ll probably never forget it. I won’t give it away since it occurs near the end of the movie, but I will say that it has to do with the reflection of a red light. The executive producer for the movie was William Conrad, who I most remember for playing Frank Cannon on the TV series “Cannon”, though he’s also well known for being the voice of Matt Dillon on the radio version of “Gunsmoke”, and doing narration for various Jay Ward productions.