FLASH GORDON (1936)
Article #61 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing date: 5-16-2001
Posting date: 9-29-2001

Flash Gordon meets up with Doctor Zarkov and Dale Arden, and they go to the planet Mongo to defeat the evil emperor, Ming the Merciless.

This is probably the best serial I’ve seen to date. The story doesn’t start spinning its wheels after the first two episodes; in fact, the story lasts throughout the full length of the serial. It also avoids the trick used by many serials of editing new scenes before the cliffhanger in the following episode, a trick that I find somewhat dishonest and unsatisfying. The costumes and monsters are a bit silly, but that’s part of the fun. This is one of the serials that is actually as fun as they are supposed to be.

FREAKS (1932)
Article #49 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing date: 5-4-2001
Posting date: 9-17-2001

A trapeze artist marries a midget for his money, and then slowly poisons him.

For me, this was a good example of what Tod Browning was capable of doing as a director. The plot seems secondary to the themes; the real aim of the movie is to give us a sense of the humanity and the sense of community of the freaks. We get to see them living their normal lives, their relationships with each other, and their sense of cameraderie. Only the last ten minutes feels like a horror movie; the rest almost feels like a documentary, and a real intimacy is achieved with the subjects of the movie. I sense this was one of Browning’s most personal works, and I always find it fascinating.

FRANKENSTEIN MEETS THE WOLFMAN (1943)
Article #48 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing date: 5-3-2001
Posting date: 9-16-2001

Graverobbers accidentally revive Larry Talbot, who begins his nightly rampages during the full moon again. To find a cure, he seeks out Maleva, the old gypsy woman whose son turned him into a werewolf, and they begin searching for Dr. Frankenstein, who they believe may have the power to cure Larry of his curse.

This is both the immediate sequel to THE WOLF MAN and the fourth sequel to FRANKENSTEIN. It is also remarkable in several ways; it marks the first time Universal tried pairing monsters together, it attempts to take the supernatural aspects of the werewolf myth and find scientific solutions to it via the Frankenstein story, and it has Bela Lugosi playing the part of the monster for the first and only time. Bela does the best he can, but he is hoodwinked by both the editors, who removed all references to the monster being blind, and the fact that (to my mind) he is physically wrong for the part. The makeup was designed to work with Karloff’s face, and though Chaney and Glenn Strange had faces that more or less worked with that makeup scheme, Lugosi’s face simply wasn’t a good match. The movie also features Lon Chaney Jr. as (of course) Larry Talbot, Lionel Atwill, Dwight Frye, and (my favorite performance) Maria Ouspenskaya reprising her gypsy woman role. It was also while I was watching this movie that I finally figured out how to identify Dwight Frye; though I could never remember what he looked like, I discovered how distinctive his voice was, and by using this method, I was able to spot him.

All in all, I like the movie (as I do all the Universal Frankenstein movies), but with some reservations. Outside of the problems with Lugosi, I’ve always felt the final battle between the wolfman and the monster was cut short, almost as if the makers of the movie couldn’t decide who would win. But I absolutely love the opening of this movie, one of the scariest scenes in any of the Universal horror films.

FRANKENSTEIN (1931)
Article #46 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing date: 5-1-2001
Posting date: 9-14-2001

Once again, I’ll dispense with a plot description. I’m also tempted to dispense with commentary, as this is one of those movies that has been talked about so often, I doubt that I will have anything new to add. It was the movie that brought Boris Karloff to light after years of obscurity, and the first of James Whale’s horror movies, the ones for which he is most remembered today.

Unlike DRACULA, this movie has never put me to sleep; in fact, I’m always a bit surprised at how well it grabs and holds my attention. The great acting and the wonderful sets are just two of the reasons I love the film; there are many more.

I do want to take a moment to point out something I noticed for the first time the last time I watched this movie; at one point, Dwight Frye, when climbing the steps, stops long enough to pull up a sock that has fallen down. I can’t tell you how much such little, inexplicable moments like this delight me.

THE FLYING SERPENT (1946)
Article #45 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing date: 4-30-2001
Posting date: 9-13-2001

An archaelogist finds the living incarnation of Quetzelcoatl (a living flying killer serpent), and discovers that it will attack anyone in possession of one of its feathers. He plants its feathers on his enemies, and then releases the serpent.

For all practical reasons, this is a remake of THE DEVIL BAT. George Zucco plays the Bela Lugosi role. The bat has been replaced by a flying serpent of roughly the same size (making it hard to believe that this is supposed to be an Aztec god), and the feathers replace the shaving lotion of the original. All these changes are for the worse, unfortunately. Zucco does an adaquate job, but he lacks the inspiration that drove Lugosi’s performance. The flying serpent is even less convincing than the devil bat, and the use of its feathers is nowhere near as interesting as the shaving lotion was in the original. In fact, in order to emulate the ending of THE DEVIL BAT, the use of feathers requires that a key character in the story to act with monumental stupidity at the end of the movie. This badly contrived ending makes this movie the next recipient of the DS Rubber Brick award, for movies whose endings make you want to throw something at the TV.