The Fury of Achilles (1962)
aka L’ira di Achille
Article 5568 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 8-25-2018
Directed by Marino Girolami
Featuring Gordon Mitchell, Jacques Bergerac, Cristina Galoni
Country: Italy
What it is: Sword and Sandal poem adaptation

During the Trojan war, Achilles becomes enraged with Agamemnon and refuses to take part in battle, thus turning the tide of the war against the Greeks. Can Achilles be swayed to return to the fight?

Given the number of sword and sandal movies I’ve already seen, and given the lack of plot variety in the form, I’m almost surprised that I was able to notice right off the bat that I hadn’t seen and reviewed this one. But then, I would have remembered one based on Homer’s great epic poem, “The Iliad”, which I have read. Still, I’m not surprised that this movie isn’t listed in many fantastic movie guides; since the Iliad is based on a war that is now believed to have actually occurred, it was thought of as a historical film rather than a fantasy. However, there are fantastic touches here (and in the poem); the ancient gods are active in the story, and Achilles himself, though he doesn’t have supernatural strength, does have supernatural invulnerability, and that detail does play a role in the plot. One thing I liked about “The Iliad” is that it does not attempt to tell the whole story of the war, but just a dramatically united section of it; it’s the story of the events that lead to Achilles’ estrangement from and subsequent return to the Trojan war; the poem ends when the Achilles story arc is completed. To its credit, the movie follows suit, and roughly follows the story of the poem, though it does spend a lot more time on romantic subplots absent from the poem and takes about half of its running time just to get to the beginning of the poem. It’s certainly one of the more ambitious sword and sandal movies out there, but I’m not sure it really manages to rise too far above the general quality of that form. Gordon Mitchell does a decent job in the title role, and some of the fight sequences are pretty good. It is definitely on the long side, though.

Filibus (1915)
Article 5552 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 6-10-2018
Directed by Mario Roncoroni
Featuring Mario Mariani, Cristina Ruspoli, Giovanni Spano
Country: Italy
What it is: Supervillainess vs. detective

Supercriminal Filibus sets up a trap for the detective who is trying to discover her identity by which he himself will be mistaken for her

Here’s an Italian take on the French supervillain genre pioneered by Louis Feuillade; this is like a long episode of Feuillade’s FANTOMAS serial. In fact, it looks like it was intended to be the first in a series; the ending of this one seems to promise more Filibus adventures, though as far as I can tell, this is the only one made. Filibus has some sci-fi gadgetry to help her; she works out of an airship, uses a sleep spray, and has a technique to use other people’s fingerprints in her crimes. There is also a miniature camera that may be a little advanced for its time. It’s entertaining if a little far-fetched; it’s hard to believe that the villain can sneak up on people by being lowered in a big canister from an airship so high it can’t be seen. It also has the novelty in that the primary villain is a woman rather than a man.

The Furies (1934)
Article 5524 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 12-26-2017
Directed by Slavko Vorkapich
Cast unknown
Country: USA
What it is: Experimental music video

Avenging angels arise out of the blood of a murdered man.

For the record, in Greek mythology, the furies were avenging spirits who set upon Orestes after he murdered his mother (Clytemnestra) as vengeance for the murder of his father (Agamemnon). What exactly they’re up to in this short I’m not sure; they seem to be breaking the windows of people making out in skyscrapers. Still, the fact that this doesn’t quite make sense to me doesn’t detract from the fact that this short is visually impressive and stirring; it’s fascinating to watch the title characters fly over this urban landscape. It runs less than three minutes, and even feels a bit incomplete, but I quite liked what I saw.

Fifty Million Years Ago (1925)
Article 5518 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 11-7-2017
Director unknown
No cast
Country: USA
What it is: Short animated science documentary

A summary is made of the history of earth before the rise of man.

This is more science fact than science fiction, but fans of the fantastic may find it interesting anyway because of the inclusion of stop-motion footage of dinosaurs. However, it is best to keep one’s expectations in check here; the stop-motion footage is very low on what we would call “action”, and many of the dinosaurs do little more than move their head and neck. Granted, with a running time of eight minutes and with footage dedicated to other subjects (such as the creation of the planet), there really isn’t time for much more. And there is a certain fun ambiance to this short to compensate. Still, this one is largely for stop-motion dinosaur completists.

Foney Fables (1942)
Article 5497 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 8-11-2017
Directed by Friz Freleng
Featuring the voices of Sara Berner, Mel Blanc, Frank Graham
What it is: Warner Brothers cartoon

A series of gags are made about fairy tales.

One common type of cartoon Warner Brothers churned out was the “blackout gag” cartoon. These consisted of a set of blackout gags on a specific subject, and usually featured one running gag in the mix. In this case, the theme was fairy tales, so it offers at least some fantastic content in the form of a genie and a two-headed giant. However, the gags aren’t particularly memorable, and many of them haven’t aged well because of the topicality of the many WWII gags would need explanation. I remember seeing this one as a kid, but the only thing I remembered about it was the running gag, which had to do with the Boy who Cried Wolf, and I’m guessing if you saw it as a kid, you might remember it as well. This is not Warner’s at its best.

Fifth Column Mouse (1943)
Article 5492 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 8-5-2017
Directed by Friz Freleng
Featuring the voices of Mel Blanc, Michael Maltese and the Sportsmen’s Quartet
Country: USA
What it is: Warner Brothers cartoon

A mouse is bribed by a cat to convince his brothers that the cat has friendly intentions and means to protect him, but really…

Since anthropomorphic animals alone are not used by me as fantastic criteria for cartoons anymore, I wasn’t quite sure at first whether to review this one or not; the plot ends up having the mice build a dog-shaped tank with which to attack the cat. In an ordinary movie, I’d consider this as possible marginal science fiction content; whether it deserved inclusion would hinge on whether we were dealing with an invention that actually existed at the time. When you start debating on whether animated mice had dog-shaped tanks in 1943, you’re in “seriously divorced from reality” mode, and so I thought I’d go ahead and review.

This is obviously a topical cartoon about the war, a concept that is underlined by the fact that the cat at one moment gives a big “Japanese stereotype” grin and the betraying mouse gives a “Seig Heil” salute. The highlight of the cartoon is a musical number; the mice sing “We Did It Before (and We Can Do It Again)” while preparing for war with the cat. It’s not one of Warner’s best, but it is an entertaining wartime curio for all that. It’s interesting to see that writer Michael Maltese contributed to the voice acting as well as writing the script for this one.

Fright to the Finish (1954)
Article 5489 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 8-3-2017
Directed by Seymour Kneitel
Featuring the voices of Jackson Beck, Jack Mercer and Mae Questal
Country: USA
What it is: Popeye cartoon

Olive Oyl reads ghost stories while both Popeye and Bluto impatiently wait for the other to leave so he can be alone with her. Bluto hits upon a scheme of posing as an assortment of spooks and framing Popeye for the gags.

Usually, a Popeye cartoon which doesn’t even feature the use of spinach would be sorely lacking in fantastic content indeed, but the spooky nature of this one compensates for that. We have several faked manifestations of headless men, ghosts and skeletons here, and there’s even one touch of real fantastic content, albeit one that’s pretty common in cartoons; when you rub vanishing cream on your body, you really vanish. It’s pretty standard Popeye fare for this period of time; it’s mildly amusing, and my favorite moment has a skeleton downing a pitcher of water.

Fetiche (1933)
aka The Mascot, The Devil’s Ball
Article 5461 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 5-26-2017
Directed by Wladyslaw Starewicz
Cast unknown
Country: France
What it is: Bizarre puppet animation

When the ailing daughter of a toymaker asks for an orange, she is told they don’t have the money for one. However, a stuffed dog made by the toymaker hears the request. When the stuffed dog is sold, he escapes and manages to find an orange for the girl, but can he avoid having it stolen in a demonic nightclub?

I first became familiar with this Starewicz short via a shortened version known as THE DEVIL’S BALL, which focuses on the nightclub scene. This sequence is definitely the highlight of this short; it’s a masterpiece of bizarre animation, with nightmarish and freaky characters; it certainly had an influence on THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS. However, the story is utterly obscured in that version, and the short USA version known as THE MASCOT is longer, it’s still only half the length of the full short, and omits some of the ball footage as well. Fortunately, I managed to see the full French version, and though I couldn’t understand some of the dialogue, there’s really not a lot of it, and the short is overwhelmingly visual. This is perhaps Starewicz’s masterpiece, and it even has a subplot or two added to the mix, most notably a romance between a clown and a ballet dancer (both dolls). Highly recommended. Incidentally, when I decided to abandon my “Movie of the Day” approach to this project and opened it up to watching what I chose to watch for the series, this was one of the first items I knew I had to see.

THE FOG (1980)
Article 5394 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 3-14-2017
Directed by John Carpenter
Featuring Adrienne Barbeau, Jamie Lee Curtis, Janet Leigh
Country: USA
What it is: Vengeance from beyond the grave

100 years ago, a ship of lepers on their way to a new colony crash on the rocks due to a conspiracy of six men, and this ends up providing the basis for the founding of a seaside town called Antonio Bay. At the town’s centennial, a fog creeps into the town… and in the fog the ghosts of the dead arrive to seek six victims for vengeance.

This was John Carpenter’s theatrical feature film follow up to his phenomenally successful HALLOWEEN, and if my memory doesn’t deceive me, it wasn’t as well-received as the earlier movie. This is the first time I’ve seen it, and I do have to admit that of the Carpenter movies I’ve seen to this point, this was the most disappointing. At least part of it is that the characters aren’t as engaging this time round; I didn’t find myself really caring about anyone enough to have a strong emotional investment in their fate. I will admit that it has the best performance from Adrienne Barbeau I’ve seen to date, but I was particularly disappointed in Hal Holbrook’s performance; his character never really develops the dimension it needs to be compelling. It makes some good use of sound and silence, and there are some creative moments, but it never got my pulse racing, and there are moments I found myself waiting for the movie to just get on with going where I knew it was going. And as far as horror movie cliches go, there’s really not a whole lot of difference between not being able to turn over an engine and being stuck in the mud.

FLASH GORDON (1980)
Article 5393 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 3-13-2017
Directed by Mike Hodges
Featuring Sam J. Jones, Melody Anderson, Max von Sydow
Country: UK / USA
What it is: Camp space opera

Football player Flash Gordon, newspaper woman Dale Arden, and scientist Hans Zarkov take a rocketship to the world of Mongo to defeat Ming the Merciless, who is destroying the earth with a machine that causes natural disasters.

After the success of STAR WARS, I shouldn’t be surprised that someone would hit on the idea of doing a remake of one of the most famous science fiction serials of all time. And, given the time, I’m not surprised either that they decided to go the “intentionally campy” route with the concept. Unfortunately, going this route leaves me a movie that isn’t quite funny enough to be a full-blown comedy, nor does it take itself seriously enough for me to take it seriously. In short, I didn’t laugh much and I had no emotional investment at any time in the proceedings. I was hoping that the presence of Max von Sydow would make me like it better, but here I was disappointed; he didn’t do badly, I suppose, but he didn’t really add anything special to his performance of Ming. So I just had to hunt for aspects of the movie I did enjoy, and I found a few. I like the colorfulness of the proceedings, I really enjoyed Peter Wyngarde’s performance as Ming’s right hand man (though his face is almost totally obscured, he delivers his lines with just the right amount of wry humor that he ends up giving the best performance in the movie), and I applaud the perfect casting of Brian Blessed in the role of Vultan. I do rather like Queen (who did the soundtrack for the movie), but the incessant Flash melody isn’t one of my favorites of theirs, and their best moment for me was their rendition of “Here Comes the Bride”, a piece of music ideal for Brian May’s guitar orchestrations. Overall, the movie mostly was reminiscent of BARBARELLA, and I never cared much for that movie. It’s a loud, messy movie, and I’m not surprised that the promised sequel never came about.