EVIL OF DRACULA (1974)
(a.k.a. BLOODTHIRSTY ROSE/CHI O SUU BARA)
Article #1409 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 1-22-2005
Posting Date: 6-21-2005
Directed by Michio Yamamoto
Featuring Toshio Kurosawa, Kunie Tanaka, Katsuhiko Sasaki

A new professor at a girls’ college has reason to suspect that the principal is a vampire.

This was the last of three vampire movies directed by Michio Yamamoto, and if IMDB is correct, these three movies account for fully half of his output in a directorial capacity. This would also be the last movie he would direct. I haven’t seen the first of the three movies, but I have seen the second, known here as LAKE OF DRACULA, and at the very least, this movie has a better (albeit rather generic) title than that one. There are some interesting touches here; the backstory involving the torture of a Christian (at a time in Japanese history when that faith was not allowed) is unusual, the use of a white rose with sharp thorns (and which turns red at one point) is a good touch, the vampires bite their victims on the breast rather than on the neck, and, this being Japan, there is no use of the usual Christian symbols to ward off vampires. Still, outside of the novelty value of seeing the Japanese trying to do a Hammer-style horror film, there’s not a whole lot here that’s really different in terms of story; in other words, you’ve seen most of this before.

EYES WITHOUT A FACE (1960)
(a.k.a. LES YEUX SANS VISAGE/
THE HORROR CHAMBER OF DR. FAUSTUS)
Article #1384 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 12-27-2004
Posting Date: 5-26-2005
Directed by Georges Franju
Featuring Pierre Brasseur, Edith Scob, Alida Valli

A scientist is murdering young women in order to restore the beauty of his daughter whose face was mangled in an automobile accident.

Most of the French cinema that I’ve covered for this series has been in the realm of fantasy; French horror and science fiction films are a bit of a rarity. However, this one is a real treat. I usually find French cinema to be somewhat tricky and deceptive; when they take on a genre, they usually transform it into something else. Therefore, one of the biggest surprises I had with this one is that it is exactly what it pretends to be; it’s first and foremost a horror film. In fact, it dredges up one of the most common horror scenarios; that of the scientist who commits murders in order to help a loved one. In short, it has the same basic premise of THE APE or THE CORPSE VANISHES. However, it’s an exquisitely directed and breathtakingly beautiful horror film; Georges Franju has a strong visual sense and he uses it here to good effect. Not only that, but the beautiful visuals never seem forced or artificial. The movie even has a gross-out scene (where the surgically remove a woman’s face) that manages to be somewhat beautiful as well as repulsive. I also love the use of music and sound; the constant sound of barking dogs sticks in the mind. All in all, a very satisfying horror film, and highly recommended.

THE ENCHANTED FOREST (1945)
Article #1353 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 11-27-2004
Posting Date: 4-26-2004
Directed by Lew Landers
Harry Davenport, Edmund Lowe, Brenda Joyce

A hermit who lives alone in a forest finds a child floating in the river (he fell into the river during a train wreck), and brings him up in the forest.

Fantastic element: The hermit is able to talk with the animals and hear the voice of the forest.

This was quite an ambitious task to come out of PRC; it was shot in Cinecolor on 16mm and expanded to 35mm for theatrical release, and it was probably the only way they could afford it. You can see they didn’t have a lot of money to play with when you watch it, but it doesn’t matter. The movie has a great deal of charm. Much of this comes from the warmth and simplicity of the story, from the unaffected performance of Harry Davenport as Old John the Hermit, and from the excellent use of trained animals. The movie is filled with memorable touches; the hermit kindly admonishing the crow for stealing his glasses, the hermit explaining about guns and killing to the grieving child, and then conducting a burial of a squirrel, and the moment when the hermit leaves the newly discovered baby alone for a couple of minutes only to have a cougar enter the living quarters. There are also good performances from everyone else, including Brenda Joyce (the mother of the lost child) and Edmund Lowe, who plans on building a sanitarium in the forest.

EARTH II (1971)
Article #1253 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 8-19-2004
Posting Date: 1-16-2005
Directed by Tom Gries
Featuring Gary Lockwood, Anthony Franciosa, Scott Hylands

A space station called Earth II must cope with a Chinese satellite harboring nuclear warheads.

I think the movie gods are trying to teach me a lesson for taking potshots at yesterday’s movie CHOSEN SURVIVORS. This seems to be its polar opposite; instead of taking place underground during a nuclear holocaust, this one takes place in the new frontier of outer space where hope of a new vision of humanity reigns supreme. Instead of having unpleasant characters yell at each other all the time, this one has pleasant people talking nicely to each other in normal tones of voice. And instead of a hysterically dark view of human nature, this one gives us a bland feel-good view of man and his future. Unfortunately, the key word here is bland; this movie not only courts blandness, it’s married it and made a lifelong commitment to it. It also, like many science fiction movies of the era, borrows a lot of its style from 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY (also note the presence of Gary Lockwood), and like so many others that tried the same trick, it has no clue as to why that style was appropriate for that movie and deadly for others. One example of its wrongheadedness; whereas the extended docking sequence in 2001 was shot like with a ballet-like lyricism to the strains of “The Blue Danube Waltz”, this one is shot flatly to the strains of some anonymous elevator music. I’m not sure whether it’s a theatrical release or a TV-Movie; IMDB lists it as the latter, but also points out that it had a theatrical rating (G, or course). I’m opting for TV-Movie, myself; this one has “pilot for potential TV series” written all over it. I’m just grateful it wasn’t picked up.

By the way, the main character is named David Seville. Despite this, the Chipmunks do not show up. This is a pity; they would have helped this one immensely.

EVERYTHING’S DUCKY (1961)
Article #1216 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 7-13-2004
Posting Date: 12-10-2004
Directed by Don Taylor
Featuring Mickey Rooney, Buddy Hackett, Jackie Cooper

Two sailors are ordered to release a duck into a pond, only to discover that the duck can talk. Hilarity ensues.

What we have here is FRANCIS THE TALKING MULE with Donald O’Connor replaced by Buddy Hackett and Mickey Rooney, and Francis replaced by Scuttlebutt the Duck. Here are some of the purportedly funny things in this movie.

The sailors are stationed in the middle of a desert.

When the sailors finally do get out on the water, they get seasick.

One of them is named Admiral John Paul Jones. “Admiral” is his name. This confuses people.

The duck can’t swim, but he drinks martinis.

The duck can’t quack, but he can do an impression of Cary Grant.

The military wants to recapture the duck so they can cut out his brain.

The sailors go to see a psychiatrist after hearing the duck talk.

Despite having a talking duck in their possession, the sailors can’t make any money off of him.

One of the sailors is always trying to get a date with a secretary who can’t stand him.

In the end, the sailors and the duck go up in a rocket to one of the lamest non-endings I’ve ever seen in a movie in my life.

If you’re a fan of Mickey Rooney or Buddy Hackett, or if you really want to see a movie about a talking duck that plays like a Disney shopping-cart movie without the energy, this one is for you. Me, I’m looking forward to the next Francis movie.

ESPIONAGE IN TANGIER (1965)
(a.k.a. MARC MATO, AGENTE S.077)
Article #1182 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 6-9-2004
Posting Date: 11-6-2004
Directed by Gregg C. Tallas
Featuring Luis Davila, Jose Greci, Perla Cristal

When a scientist develops a powerful ray gun, it is stolen, and superspy Mike Murphy is sent out to recover it.

At the time of writing this review this movie is sitting with a 9.5 rating on IMDB. I guess this proves that I just don’t get the genre, because I thoroughly disliked it. The opening of the movie is actually quite good; within a two-minute period we actually see four double-crosses and the resulting four deaths; this all happens so fast that it’s the comic highlight of the movie. Unfortunately, I should have turned it off then; between the unpleasant hero (he’s no good at double entendres so he gets women to sleep with him by slapping them around), the dull car chases, the sometimes sadistic violence and torture, and a horribly lame ending, this was one of the most unsatisfactory trips I’ve ever had into these low-budget Bond rip-offs. The movie’s full length is 92 minutes; my version only runs sixty. I consider this a blessing. Your mileage may be better if you’re a fan of this type of movie, or if the prospect of keeping your eyes pealed for a pre-Bond George Lazenby seems like a good time to you.

Oh, and did I mention the soundtrack? I can’t decide which movie music is worse; the one-fingered piano playing or that shrill warbling noise that pops up occasionally.

EXORCIST II: THE HERETIC (1977)
Article #1176 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 6-3-2004
Posting Date: 10-31-2004
Directed by John Boorman
Featuring Linda Blair, Richard Burton, Louise Fletcher

A priest investigates the death of Father Merrin, and discovers more about the nature of the demon that possessed Regan MacNeil.

In some ways, I really admire what this movie was trying to do, and that was to not merely repeat the formula of the first movie. Unfortunately, it fails to really find a coherent story of its own, and despite some flashy special effects at times, this mixture of exorcism, African demons, locusts and hypnotic gadgets never really gels into anything solid; the movie remains vague, unfocused, and quite unscary. One of the big problems I have with the movie is the acting, particularly from the three leads. Richard Burton does all right half the time, but the rest of the time he seems twitchy and confused. Louise Fletcher appears to be bored out of her skull for most of the movie. The worst problem, though, is Linda Blair; whereas in the first movie she was largely a vehicle for the special effects, here she is required to have a fully developed and complex character, and she just doesn’t deliver. Every time the camera gives her a close-up, I can’t read any emotions in her face whatsoever, and as a viewer, it left me completely frustrated. And whoever thought it would be scary to have evil manifest itself as a plague of locusts should sit down and watch THE BEGINNING OF THE END sometime and find out just how unscary grasshoppers are.

EGGHEAD’S ROBOT (1970)
Article #949 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 10-20-2003
Posting Date: 3-18-2004
Directed by Milo Lewis
Featuring Keith Chegwin, Jeffrey Chegwin, Kathryn Dawe

A child uses a robot to substitute for him in a cricket game.

Adventures in Movie Hunting: One of the ironies of this whole project is that sometimes you spend a goodly amount of time hunting for movies that you suspect will prove to be ordinary and forgettable at best. I eventually found this one at Sendit.com (formerly Blackstar) on a double feature of movies by a group called the Children’s Film Foundation, and that was after stumbling across it on a google search, because you can’t search for it directly on the site. It’s fifty-three minutes long and consists entirely of by-the-numbers kiddie slapstick alternating with cricket footage, a game which (as I am not of British heritage) makes no sense to me whatever. Watch a robot mow the lawn really fast! Watch a robot accidentally uproot all the flowers in the garden, and then (through the magic of running the film backwards) put them all back in! Watch the grouchy groundskeeper fall into the pool of muddy water three (no, make that four) times! It’s not really awful, but the above description should give you a fairly good idea of what the whole thing is like. For robot completists only.

END OF AUGUST AT THE HOTEL OZONE (1967)
(a.k.a. KONEC SRPNA V HOTELU OZON)
Article #931 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 10-2-2003
Posting Date: 2-29-2004
Directed by Jan Schmidt
Featuring Jitka Horejsi, Ondrej Jaricheck, Vanda Kalinovat

A band of woman wander through the countryside after the apocalypse searching for food.

Yes, it’s another Czech movie without subtitles, but once you are aware of the above plot description, you actually have enough knowledge to make a go at enjoying this movie. Yes, all the dialogue is in Czech, but since the movie really relies more on visuals to tell its story, you’ll still find plenty to hold your interest. It’s fairly brutal in some ways; animals certainly don’t fare well here, as several are killed during the length of the film (and unless the special effects are very convincing, I don’t think the deaths were faked). It’s also very sad, especially at the end, in which the existence of a gramaphone and a recording of “Roll Out the Barrel” in Czech play a decisive role in the fate of one of the characters. Perhaps the saddest thing at the end of the movie is the realization that all our links with civilization (outside of a few pieces of paraphernalia) as we know it have been severed, and as such it may well be one of the bleakest after-the-apocalypse movies I’ve seen.

ESCAPE IN THE FOG (1945)
Article #919 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing date: 9-20-2003
Posting date: 2-17-2004
Directed by Budd Boetticher
Featuring Nina Foch, William Wright, Otto Kruger

A woman has a dream of a man being attacked on the Golden Gate bridge on a foggy night, and then meets the man who was in her dream when she awakes.

The fantastic element in the movie is that the dream comes true, and by saying that I don’t think I’m really giving too much away, as the dream comes true early enough in the proceedings that I don’t really feel I’m giving away the ending, and since the movie up to that point is clearly leading to the moment when the dream comes true, it doesn’t come as a surprise. Other than a possible minor science fiction element involving a recording mechanism hidden in a clock, that is the only fantastic element in this story, which is mainly a wartime espionage potboiler; in fact, the dream sequence seems more of a plot device to cause things to happen at a particular moment than anything else, and any themes of precognition in the movie are minor at best. The movie itself is sporadically entertaining, but not particularly memorable.