DR. CYCLOPS (1940)
Article #69 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing date: 5-24-2001
Posting date: 10-7-2001

A scientist with bad vision experiments with the power to miniaturize animals. He invites a group of scientists to his jungle laboratory to solve a minor problem, and when they don’t leave after he’s finished with them, he miniaturizes them.

This is a solid SF adventure flick from one of the directors of KING KONG, and though I don’t consider it a real classic, it’s certainly quite enjoyable. I particularly like Albert Dekker’s performance as Dr. Thorkal a.k.a. Dr. Cyclops; his madness is peppered with a number of quirky traits, and he is in fact a surprisingly vulnerable individual. He is like no other mad scientist that I can think of, and this novelty gives the movie much of its appeal.

DELUGE (1933)
Article #68 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing date: 5-23-2001
Posting date: 10-06-2001

An eclipse of the sun causes the destruction of most of the earth. Afterwards, the survivors face the challenge of trying to rebuild civilization.

Watching foreign movies is always a bit of a problem. Having subtitles with the movie is the preferable way, though it does tend to divert your attention from the visuals. Dubbing allows you to keep your eyes on the screen, but tends to be distracting to the ears. So imagine, if you will, the experience of watching a movie that is both subtitled and dubbed, which is perhaps the only way you can see this movie, despite it having been an English-language film. The only known print had been dubbed into Italian, and for American release on video, English subtitles were added. Given the situation, I think I would have preferred that this movie be redubbed.

Nonetheless, I think this is a very good early sound science fiction epic. The destruction of New York by tidal wave is a great special effects sequence, and is the highlight of the film. The second half settles into a kind of post-apocalyptic soap opera, but because the characters and situations are handled with a certain amount of honesty, this sequence is also quite good. This is definitely a movie worth catching even with having to watch it in its current condition.

THE DEADLY MANTIS (1957)
Article #67 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing date: 5-22-2001
Posting date: 10-5-2001

Nuclear testing releases a giant preying mantis from captivity, and it begins a reign of terror on the world.

This is another one of the Big Bug movies that appeared in the wake of THEM!, and like many of the others, it used that movie as a blueprint, even if it never quite understands why or how the original worked. I find the characters unmemorable, the story a bit clumsy, and some of the scenes poorly handled. (The scenes of the soldiers slobbering over the only woman they’ve seen in months is, in fact, embarassing to watch.) Yet, despite all this, the movie is fun and quite energetic; credit director Nathan Juran for having the good sense to keep things lively, a trait he seems to possess no matter what kind of ridiculous movie he was given to direct. In fact, I have a couple of favorite scenes from this movie; the scene where the soldiers run from the mantis amidst a snow field full of barrels, and the quite funny scene where the people talk about their inability to find the mantis while we see the legs of the beast walking around outside the window.

THE DEVIL’S PARTNER (1958)
Article #64 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing date: 5-19-2001
Posting date: 10-2-2001

An old man makes a pact with the devil. A few days later, his nephew rolls into town to discover that the old man was found dead, and has already been buried at the town’s expense. He takes over the old man’s shack, and then a series of strange deaths occur. A man suffering from TB dies of a coronary after drinking some milk from one of the old man’s goats; the owner of a gas station is attacked by his faithful dog, etc. The local sheriff begins to investigate.

This “pact with the devil” film sat on the shelf for four years before it was released. The ads for the movie show a woman riding the back of a centaur; five minutes into the movie, you will know no such scene is going to occur, as the cheapness of the movie becomes evident. For all that, it’s watchable enough, but the plot is poorly thought out. The death of the old man who drinks the goat’s milk serves no purpose whatsoever, and the wino character is nothing but a badly contrived plot device to pass on crucial information to the sheriff. Also, the nature of the powers granted by the devil seems to change in midstream; the nephew begins by being able to control animals, but later has the power to change into them instead. Though this latter power may seem more impressive, he uses it at times where he would have been better off controlling another animal instead of putting himself at risk. This is one badly plotted movie.

THE DEMON BARBER OF FLEET STREET (1936)
(a.k.a. SWEENEY TODD, THE DEMON BARBER OF FLEET STREET)
Article #62 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing date: 5-17-2001
Posting date: 9-30-2001

An evil barber, Sweeney Todd (Tod Slaughter), makes his fortune by murdering rich customers and taking their money. He is partners with an old woman running a meat pie shop, who takes care of the disposal of the bodies. Problems arise when his partner begins to suspect he is cheating on splitting the money with her. She ends up helping the beau of the woman whom Sweeney wants for his own.

This is the first and (at this time) only Tod Slaughter movie I’ve seen; there is no doubt that he loved playing villainous characters, with his gleeful laugh and contempt for all. The whole story is fun, with Sweeney as a Dickensian villain, terrorizing his apprentices and cajoling his victims with the promise of how quickly he will “polish them off.” I also like how the movie never becomes explicit in how the old lady disposes of the bodies; it adds some nice touches of comic subtlety to the movie, my favorite being a discussion on that particular topic as one of the comic relief characters merrily munches away on one of the meat pies.

DRUMS O’VOODOO (1934)
(a.k.a SHE-DEVIL/LOUISIANA)
Article #41 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing date: 4-26-2001
Posting date: 9-8-2001

The unsavory manager (Morris McKinney) of a local juke joint takes a liking to the niece (Edna Barr) of a Baptist preacher (Gus Smith, who also wrote the play on which this movie was based) and wants her to join his house of prostitution. In order to get his way, he threatens to reveal the preacher’s past, as they both served together on a chain gang at one point. In order to save them, the grandson (Lionel Monegas) of a local voodoo priestess (Laura Bowman) pleads with her to use her powers to stop the manager.

We are in obscure territory here; this movie is mentioned in Turner and Price’s “Forgotten Horrors” book. This movie was produced for black audiences, and the cast is made up entirely of blacks. It was based on a failed stage play called “Louisiana”; in fact, it’s largely a photographed stage play, with a series of static sequences filmed as unimaginitively as possible. It was also heavily censored. Furthermore, the print that I watched was not in the best of condition, especially towards the end. As a result, it’s hardly what I would call easy viewing, but it does provide a nice example of a certain genre of moviemaking in the thirties.

One thing I do find quite fascinating about this movie is the way the forces of Christianity and the forces of voodoo team up to fight off a mutual antagonist. Someone pointed out to me that voodoo did in fact arise out of a combination of black beliefs and Christianity, and he may be right, but I’m still amazed that this concept got past the censors, though it is possible that the Hays office may not have been in effect yet. If they did exist at this time, it makes me wonder if they didn’t pay much attention to movies that weren’t geared to white audiences. At any rate, this is one of those movies that is more interesting to talk about than it is to actually watch.

DRACULA’S DAUGHTER (1936)
Article #40 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing date: 4-25-2001
Posting date: 9-7-2001

The Countess Marya Zaleska (Gloria Holden) is the title character, and she attempts to find a cure for vampirism with the help of Dr. Jeffrey Garth (Otto Kruger), despite the insistence of her manservant Sandor (Irving Pichel) that she cannot be cured. Meanwhile, Professor Van Helsing (Edward Van Sloan) finds himself arrested for the murder of Dracula: that is, until his body disappears.

I’ve never had trouble staying awake through this sequel to Universal’s DRACULA; I find it quite atmospheric, eerie and fascinating. I particularly like the relationship between the countess and the manservant: it can be a little interesting to compare the latter with the assistant who pops up in many mad scientist movies who ends up serving as the scientist’s conscience. I also like the fact that the movie is a very direct sequel to the original; taking up almost immediately from the point where the original left off, and then taking the story in a very different direction indeed. Van Helsing’s arrest for murder adds a nice realistic touch to the movie.

DRACULA (1931)
Article #39 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing date: 4-24-2001
Posting date: 9-6-2001

Dracula (Bela Lugosi), a vampire from Transylvania, moves to London in search of fresh blood with the help of a realtor who becomes ensnared in his web (Dwight Frye). There he tries to seduce Mina Seward (Helen Chandler) to his dark ways, but is challenged by Professor Van Helsing (Edward Van Sloan) who knows what he is.

As the movie that turned Bela Lugosi into a horror star as well as the initial film in Universal’s horror cycle of the thirties, there is no doubt that this is an important film. There is also a number of things to admire in this movie. Tod Browning chose to direct the movie in a static, otherworldly fashion that is actually quite hypnotic, and it works beautifully for the first ten to fifteen minutes. Unfortunately, the magic dissipates once we reach London, and what was once hypnotic becomes sleep-inducing, its stage origins all too apparent in this directorial style. For many years, I was never able to sit through this movie without nodding off; it was only when I watched it with the Philip Glass soundtrack that I was able to last through the whole thing (which is not to say the soundtrack was great; it merely kept me distracted enough not to fall asleep). This helped me to admire some of the good performances in the movie; Bela Lugosi, Dwight Frye, Edward Van Sloan and Helen Chandler are all very good.

I can’t help but touch a little on the Tod Browning debate; was he a great director or a talentless hack? If this had been the only movie of his I’d ever seen, I know which one I’d pick, but after seeing some of his other movies, I tend to cut him a little slack; this is the only one that really drags me into a slumber. And the interest in freaks and circus people in his works have certainly contributed to a wealth of common horror themes over the years.

DOCTOR X (1932)
Article #34 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing date: 4-19-2001
Posting date: 9-1-2001

A series of cannibalistic murders are being committed, and the source of the murders seems to be a medical institute run by Dr. Xavier (Lionel Atwill). Xavier gets the police to agree to let him try to solve the mystery by hooking the suspects up to a machine that will measure their reactions to a recreation of the murder with the help of his daughter (Fay Wray). A real murder takes place during the first attempt, so the second time, the suspects are handcuffed to their chairs.

This movie features the horror film debuts of both Lionel Atwill and Fay Wray. It was directed by Michael Curtiz and shot in two-strip technicolor, which gives the movie a very unique look. The movie is a lot of fun, and even the somewhat ridiculous “Ssssynthetic Flessssh” sequence works well enough within the context of the film. I wouldn’t place it in the very top line of thirties horror movies, but it’s a fairly solid entry nonetheless.

DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE (1920/II)
(with Sheldon Lewis)
Article #33 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing date: 4-18-2001
Posting date: 8-31-2001

No, not the famous Barrymore version, but the almost forgotten Sheldon Lewis version of the story. With a running time of forty minutes, it’s more of a long short (how’s that for an oxymoron?) than a full length movie.

I actually don’t have a lot to say about this one; I watched several silent versions of this story in close proximity, and they tended to melt together in my mind. I don’t know exactly how many silent versions were done of this movie, but there may be anywhere from eleven to seventeen (my favorite title variation: DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE DONE TO A FRAZZLE—unfortunately, this is one that didn’t survive). It must have been wildly popular back then; compare the relatively few silent versions of either DRACULA or FRANKENSTEIN.

What I do remember of this particular version is not good. The story was updated to the present and moved to New York. The storyline at one point involves Mr. Hyde going to the electric chair.

This movie is also the first recipient of the DS RUBBER BRICK AWARD, for movies which are best watched while keeping a rubber brick handy, as the ending will most likely make you want to throw something at your television set.