THE DAY OF THE TRIFFIDS (1962)
Article #1467 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 3-21-2005
Posting Date: 8-18-2005
Directed by Steve Sekely
Featuring Howard Keel, Nicole Maurey, Janette Scott

A breed of killer plants infests the earth at just the time when almost the entire human race has been stricken blind by a meteor shower.

Those who have read John Wyndham’s novel on which this movie was based generally find this movie to be a disappointment. Fortunately, there is a 1981 TV version of the novel that is much better in this regard. This earlier version is largely a monster movie, and I think for the most part it works well enough on that level; in fact, in some ways, it is genuinely terrifying. It’s not so much the plant monsters that are scary (though the sound they make does raise some goose bumps); it’s the premise of a blinded human race that gets to you, and this movie does make good use of the concept. Still, it really does have problems; Howard Keel is a little too bland here to be memorable, the special effects fall short at times, and neither the ending of the Howard Keel storyline (which is somewhat dull) nor the lighthouse storyline (which is a little too pat, though flashier) really satisfies.

Incidentally, I first saw this on my local Creature Feature years ago. Now, in order to fit these movies into the proper time slots, they were usually cut. For this movie, the cut was very simple; all the lighthouse scenes were excised. I was quite surprised at these sequences when I first saw the complete movie on videotape.

THE DOLL (1962)
(a.k.a. VAXDOCKAN)
Article #1452 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 3-6-2005
Posting Date: 8-3-2005
Directed by Arne Mattson
Featuring Per Oscarsson, Gio Petre, Tor Isedal

A lonely night watchman uses an attempted burglary as an excuse to procure a mannequin who becomes the focus of his fantasies.

The above description should give you a clue that this movie is both disturbing and sad. I think it clearly qualifies as genre as well, since he begins to imagine that the mannequin can walk and talk. Though there’s some question at first as to whether the mannequin came to life, as the movie progresses, it becomes clear that it is the madness of the night watchman that pushes him on. The movie has several subjects worth pondering, such as the problems which can be caused by pervasive loneliness, the way fear can overrun and take over our lives, and finally that it is much easier to fall into madness than to get back out of it. The movie is hard to watch at times, but quite fascinating, and peopled with some interesting characters, including a scarred landlady who may well have strong feelings about the night watchman, but whose disfigurement leaves her feeling as lonely as he is. This one is definitely worth a peek for anyone interested in the cinema of madness.

DICK TRACY’S G-MEN (1939)
(Serial)
Article #1448 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 3-2-2005
Posting Date: 7-30-2005
Directed by John English and William Witney
Featuring Ralph Byrd, Irving Pichel, Ted Pearson

Dick Tracy matches wits with a spy named Dr. Zarnoff.

Fantastic content: The opening episode involves a drug that causes the breathing to stop, which helps the criminal survive the gas chamber. There’s also a remote control boat steerer in one of the other episodes.

This is the third of the four Dick Tracy serials. It’s actually pretty good. Irving Pichel makes an interesting villain, the serial avoids most of the hackneyed cliffhangers, and there’s a little curiosity value in seeing Jennifer Jones before she hit it big. Still, I find it hard to get excited about this one. This may be due, of course, to the fact that it followed up DAREDEVILS OF THE RED CIRCLE, and there aren’t many other serials that would look good next to that one.

One question, though; why is it that when the villain of a serial uses the old automatic smokescreen trick during a car chase, the hero never has the presence of mind to slow down so his vision isn’t impaired and just follow the trail of smoke from a distance? Instead, they always seem to go at full speed and end up getting into a car accident. The answer is simple; in serials, car crashes are more important than common sense.

DAREDEVILS OF THE RED CIRCLE (1939)
(Serial)
Article #1432 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 2-14-2005
Posting Date: 7-14-2005
Directed by John English and William Witney
Featuring Charles Quigley, Bruce Bennett, David Sharpe

Three daredevils decide to help the police track down an escaped criminal known by his prison number (39013) when one of his acts of sabotage brings about the death of their young mascot.

When I began this viewing project, I didn’t expect that I would end up watching as many serials as I have. This wasn’t a particular pleasure, as far as I was concerned, because I’m not really a fan of the form. Yes, they sounded really cool when I was a kid, but my enthusiasm was quickly cooled when I actually saw one (probably ZOMBIES OF THE STRATOSPHERE), and saw how far they fell short of my imagination. As a consequence, I’ve learned to scale down my expectations of what to expect from the form quite a bit.

Nonetheless, it is nice that every once in a while I encounter a serial that actually comes close to being everything a serial is supposed to be, and this is one of them. The science fiction elements are slight (a death ray plays a role in a couple of episodes), but in all other respects it is truly worthy. The heros are a lot of fun—three daredevils with individual talents (one is extremely limber, another is very strong, and another is an escape artist) which use them in the course of the adventure (though when Tiny prevents some criminals by escaping by lifting the back end of their car so that the wheels are off the ground, they go a little too far; after all, that’s Superman-style strength there). The villain himself is also a winner, both in the fact that he’s played by Charles Middleton and also because his particular gimmick is memorable; he wears a disguise to make him look like the daredevils’ boss, who is actually being held prisoner in a secret room in his own house. The serial is largely free of the more mundane cliffhangers, and seems perpetually inventive. It also allows the child to die in the first reel, which not only gives the daredevils a real motivation to catch the criminal, but spares us from having to deal with the kid for the rest of the serial. One touch I really love is that there’s a mysterious double agent at work. Now, most serials have this element, but it’s usually someone spying on the actions of the good guys and informing the bad guys. This one reverses it; the daredevils get hints and clues from a mysterious friend known as the Red Circle, and you’ll have a lot of fun speculating as to who the spy is (though I must admit to being a little disappointed at the final revelation in this regard).

In short, this is one of the very best serials I’ve ever seen. I can only speculate as to how my attitude towards the form would have changed if I had seen this one for my first serial rather than ZOMBIES OF THE STRATOSPHERE.

THE DOOR WITH 7 LOCKS (1962)
(a.k.a. DIE TUR MIT 7 SCHLOSSERN)
Article #1363 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 12-7-2005
Posting Date: 5-6-2005
Directed by Alfred Vohrer
Featuring Heinz Drache, Sabine Sesselman, Hans Nielsen

Scotland Yard begins investigating a series of murders of people with two things in common; they all have connections to an heir named Selford, and they all have a key on a chain in their possession.

Fantastic content: The horror content starts flying thick and fast towards the end of the movie, but to say more would give too much away. However, the big, brutish man known as Giacco appears early enough in the proceedings to qualify as a horror element. Incidentally, he is played by Ady Berber, who also appeared in a similar role in DEAD EYES OF LONDON.

The German Edgar Wallace movies are a lot of fun, but they can be a little difficult. Usually, I feel I’ve been tossed in the middle of a story without having been properly introduced to the central characters, and it leaves my head swimming for a great deal of the running time. However, I suspect they would hold up well on rewatching and they’re filled with interesting characters and puzzling mysteries. This is a good one for horror fans, especially when we discover that one of the central characters has really gone round the bend; just wait till you see what’s behind that bookcase. It also has a sense of humor about the proceedings. This is certainly one of my favorites of the genre so far.

THE DEVIL’S HAND (1943)
(a.k.a. LA MAIN DU DIABLE)
Article #1352 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 11-26-2004
Posting Date: 4-25-2004
Directed by Maurice Tourneur
Featuring Pierre Fresnay, Josseline Gael, Noel Roquevert

A one-armed stranger at an inn has a package stolen from him. He then recounts the story of how he came by the package, which contains a hand which gives its owner great powers, but dooms the owner to damnation if he doesn’t sell it for less than he bought it.

This French horror / fantasy is probably the earliest example I’ve seen of a dubbed foreign movie. However, the dubbing is excellent, not so much in getting the words to match the movements of the speaker’s mouths (you can tell it’s dubbed), but in the acting abilities of the British actors who performed the dubbing. The dubbing voices are even credited in the opening titles, and though I wasn’t familiar with most of the names, I did recall seeing the name of Valentine Dyall listed. At any rate, from an acting standpoint, this movie doesn’t suffer from its dubbing at all.

The story itself is great fun and quite effective. In some ways, it’s a very familiar story, but I love some of the twists that occur. I won’t give too much away on this point, but let’s just say there are some rather interesting temptations and loopholes open to the tormented artist who possesses the hand, and that the movie addresses one issue that I often wonder about in movies like this; to wit, if the devil is the prince of lies, how can you trust anything he says? The real truth of the situation comes out in the best scene in the movie, where the artist has a dinner with seven one-armed masked men, and discovers them to be the previous owners of the hand.

Oddly enough, this is the third movie in a week’s time that belongs to the category of French fantasies from the forties that feature the devil. Unlike either THE BEAUTY OF THE DEVIL or THE DEVIL’S ENVOYS, this one is less arty and more straightforward. All three are recommended.

THE DEVIL’S ENVOYS (1942)
(a.k.a. LES VISITEURS DU SOIR)
Article #1351 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 11-25-2004
Posting Date: 4-24-2005
Directed by Marcel Carne
Featuring Arletty, Maria Dea, Fernand Ledoux

Two minions of the devil arrive at the castle of a Baron where preparations are being made for an upcoming wedding. They intend to break the hearts of all involved.

This romantic fantasy is a tribute to the power of love. The two minions were once cruel lovers who would manipulate and destroy their partners but reached a stalemate with each other. They have now sold their souls to the devil and break hearts in his service. They have been given extraordinary powers to help them with their task, and two of my favorite moments in this movie demonstrate them. In the first, the male companion (whose kind heart will serve as both his undoing as well as his salvation) takes pity on an entertainer whose dancing bear has been killed, and the second has them slowing time to a stop so they can have time to start working on their targets. When the male companion actually falls in love with his target, the devil himself arrives to take things in his own hand. The movie is a bit slow in the middle half, but is leisurely, evocative and memorable, and I found it quite inspiring. I’m also fond of the ending, in which the devil exacts a revenge on one pair of lovers which is not only ineffective in its ultimate intent, but renders them impervious to all else he can inflict.

DICK TRACY VS. CUEBALL (1946)
Article #1332 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 11-6-2004
Posting Date: 4-5-2005
Directed by Gordon Douglas
Featuring Morgan Conway, Anne Jeffreys, Lyle Latell

Dick Tracy tries to solve a series of murders that revolve around the theft of some rare diamonds. The killer is a bald ex-convict known as Cueball.

Fantastic aspects: Other than that Cueball strangles people with his hatband (which gives the movie only a slight tinge of horror), there are none. This movie was included in a reference book that had the habit of including all movies from a series in which only a few movies of the series actually had more pronounced fantastic elements.

Before “The Golden Turkey Awards”, the Medveds had put out an earlier book about bad cinema called “The 50 Worst Films of All Time” (this title may be approximate). DICK TRACY VS. CUEBALL was one of the movies singled out for this unfortunate award, and though the movie is no classic, it certainly doesn’t rate that low. The main thrust of their argument for its inclusion was the extreme sadism of Cueball. There is a certain amount of truth to this point; the murder scenes are a bit too nasty for what is essentially supposed to be light-hearted fare. Still, I don’t think it sinks the movie completely; in fact, I found the movie quite entertaining.

I’ve seen two of the Dick Tracy movies so far and three of the serials, and quite frankly, I like the movies better. I think it’s because the movies actually tried to get a bit of the flavor of the comic strip into them; the serials just plugged a comic strip character into standard serial plots. The comic strip sense is strong here; there is a jeweler named Jules Sparkle, there is a tavern called The Dripping Dagger (complete with a great little animated neon sign to go with it), and it is run by a character named Filthy Flora who allows criminals to hide out there. Dick Wessel’s Cueball is not the smartest crook on the block (actually, he’s pretty dumb), but his brutality makes him a bit of a threat. Ian Keith has a field day as the pill-popping and florid Vitamin Flintheart, and any movie that gives us the cadaverous Milton Parsons (even as an antique dealer, he can’t escape association with undertaking; he ends up serving a man intent on furnishing his crypt) and the photogenically ugly Skelton Knaggs (talk about an actor who would have been great as an ugly villain in a Dick Tracy movie) can’t be all bad.

DEAD MAN’S EYES (1944)
Article #1329 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 11-3-2004
Posting Date: 4-2-2005
Directed by Reginald Le Borg
Featuring Lon Chaney Jr., Jean Parker, Acquanetta

When an artist loses his eyesight during a freak accident, the father of the artist’s fiancee agrees to give his own eyes for corneal transplants to help restore his vision. Then the father turns up dead…

Fantastic content: Unless there’s some science fiction content involved in the corneal transplants, the only fantastic element here is that floating head in the crystal ball that introduces most of the “Inner Sanctum” mysteries.

I think this marks the sixth and final movie I’ve covered for the series, and I have to admit to being not too impressed with this one. The script is clumsy, the real murderer is obvious, and Acquanetta, beautiful as she was, should not have been cast in a role that gave her extensive dialogue. On the plus side, some of the performances are fun, particularly from Paul Kelly as the artist’s psychiatrist buddy and Thomas Gomez as the detective on the case. Chaney does only a fair job here, but his part isn’t particularly well written and it’s loaded with cliches. For my money, this was one of the weakest of the series.

THE DEVIL AND DANIEL WEBSTER (1941)
(a.k.a. ALL THAT MONEY CAN BUY)
Article #1305 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 10-10-2004
Posting Date: 3-9-2005
Directed by William Dieterle
Featuing Edward Arnold, Walter Huston, James Craig

A down-on-his-luck farmer makes a deal with the devil for seven years good luck.

When I first started this series, the name of William Dieterle didn’t mean a lot to me. It was only after I realized that this man was responsible for two old favorites (THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME (1939), PORTRAIT OF JENNIE) as well as some newer discoveries (SIX HOURS TO LIVE and this one), that I’ve really grown to appreciate the man’s craft and vision. William Dieterle is one of the great directors of all time, and I’m glad that this series has helped me to realize this.

This movie is indeed something special; it’s basically a folksy New England legend done with such charm, wit and visual splendor that it transcends itself. The biggest attractions here are the acting and the visual sense. The casting of the roles was perfect, though a little unexpected. I’m usually used to seeing Edward Arnold in more villainous roles, but the role of Daniel Webster is a perfect fit for him, especially during the trial sequence that climaxes the movie. I was also a little surprised to see John Qualen in the role of Miser Stevens, which seemed an odd bit of casting; however, when Stevens starts to spill his soul during the party sequence, I can see precisely why he was cast. Add to that the great Walter Huston as Mr. Scratch, Simone Simon as the seductive Belle Dee, Jane Darwell as the mother, James Craig and Anne Shirley as the young couple, and other familiar names and faces such as Gene Lockhart, Frank Conlan and H.B. Warner, and you’re in acting heaven.

The visual style is breathtaking, almost surreal at time. Just a list of them is worth considering; the appearance of Mr. Scratch after Jabez says that he’ll sell his soul for two cents, the hailstorm that breaks out when Jabez first tries to efface the date in the tree, the eerie faces peering through the window during the party scene, and the ensuing dance (I wouldn’t be surprised if Herk Harvey was as much influenced by this sequence as he was by Bergman and Cocteau when he made CARNIVAL OF SOULS), and the introduction of the judge and jury of the quick and the dead. Furthermore, Dieterle’s direction is masterful in even seemingly small moments; the scene where Mr. Scratch causes the gold pieces to rise out of the ground, the one where Jabez manages to kill his conscience by shaking hands with the devil, and the one where Daniel Webster gives a spanking to his godson all stick in mind. Throw in a simply sublme score by Bernard Herrmann, and you have an unforgettable cinematic experience. And I bet that final scene is a real treat in a crowded theatre.

This one’s a classic. Don’t miss it if you can.