GENIUS AT WORK (1946)
Article #1117 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 4-5-2004
Posting Date: 9-2-2001
Directed by Leslie Goodwins
Featuring Wally Brown, Alan Carney, Anne Jeffreys

Two radio detectives find themselves targets of a murdering fiend when their on-the-air recreations of the murders prove to be too accurate.

The last time I saw Lionel Atwill and Bela Lugosi team up for a comedy was for THE GORILLA (1939). I find the sense of deja vu pretty strong here; like that one, I felt that the horror and suspense elements were a lot more successful than the comedy. I don’t find Brown and Carney to be as desperately unfunny as the Ritz Brothers were in that earlier movie, but that’s only because they were less strident; whereas the Ritzes came across as potentially funny comedians who simply didn’t have any material to work with, Brown and Carney come across as merely lukewarm imitations of Abbott and Costello. Incidentally, Brown and Carney are playing characters of the same names as the ones they played in ZOMBIES ON BROADWAY (also with Bela Lugosi), though I can’t really say whether they were supposed to be the same characters. Fans of Atwill, Lugosi, or that earlier movie might like this one; me, I’d opt for the movie in which Lugosi teams up with the real Abbott and Costello than this one.

THE GREEN HORNET STRIKES AGAIN (1941)
(Serial)
Article #1027 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 1-6-2004
Posting Date: 6-4-2004
Directed by Ford Beebe and John Rawlins
Featuring Warren Hull, Keye Luke, Wade Boteler

The Green Hornet tries to break up an insurance racket.

I’ve figured out a general rule of serials; usually you have either an interesting hero or an interesting villain; rarely do they give you both. In this case, the hero is the center of attraction. His theme song is the appropriate “Flight of the Bumblebee”, he tools around in a speedy car that makes a buzzing noise, and he has a gas gun (the sole science-fiction concept here) that puts his enemies to sleep. Furthermore, he is not recognized as a hero by the police or the public; he is thought of as a gangster, and he plays the part up. This being the case, he cannot expect the cooperation of the police or his friends when he is disguised as the Hornet; in fact, one of his employees (he is a newspaper editor in real life) is an Irish ex-cop obsessed with catching the Hornet, and this conflict provides one of the better running jokes throughout the serial. The villain, however, is nothing more than a dullish old guy sitting at a desk and telling people what to do. It would have more interesting if Jay Michael, who plays a campy, rather slimy gangster who pops up in the fourteenth episode, had been the real boss; his performance was a hoot.

Oddly enough, I didn’t see a whole lot of cliffhangers that had the cliche I’ve been complaining about in this one; you know, where it looks like the hero is going to crash, and you find out in the next episode he bailed out just in time. However, we do have a number of accident cliffhangers, but the revelation is usually that the hero just happened to survive, which is even less interesting. Maybe it’s because this is the first Universal serial I’ve seen in a while after a string of Republic ones. I also noticed it’s less action-oriented and talkier, the fights are not as interesting, and the cliffhangers in general are rather lame. Still, it gets points for having an interesting hero.

G-MEN VS. THE BLACK DRAGON (1943)
(Serial)
Article #1011 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 12-21-2003
Posting Date: 5-19-2003
Directed by Spencer Gordon Bennet and William Witney
Featuring Rod Cameron, Roland Got, Constance Worth

A government does battle with the Black Dragon, an organization bent on using sabotage to aid the Japanese war effort.

You can tell this is a yellow peril serial right off the bat; the title of the first episode is “Yellow Peril”. Of course, this being a wartime serial, the peril is from Japan rather than China; in fact, the hero’s second-hand man is an agent from China.

When I started watching this one, I vowed to keep track of just how many times the serial used the most tired cliffhanger of all; i.e. the hero is seen to die in a fatal vehicular accident, and the next episode shows that he saw it coming and bailed out just in time. Of the fourteen cliffhangers here, five of them feature this cliffhanger, but fortunately, only two involve cars; two others are by plane and one is by boat. Oddly enough, I thought the score was going to be less than that, because there were so few in the first ten episodes of the serial. However, towards the end of the serial it starts becoming common; in fact, the last three cliffhangers of the serial are all of this variety.

Nonetheless, this is definitely one of the better serials I’ve seen. Part of the reason is that the villain is fairly fun, mostly because his pet raven gets into some of the action. The female member of the team of good guys actually gets in on the action, too, and isn’t there just to be rescued on occasion. The fight scenes are wonderfully staged; energetic, creative and easy to follow. All in all, this is an excellent example of the work Republic would put into their serials. And not a single episode of the fifteen succumbs to the money-saving tactic of recycling action footage from earlier in the serial.

One thing I did notice this time is there are a lot of fight scenes in warehouses. I couldn’t help but notice that in these fights, if you threw a man against against a big wooden crate (say, 6 foot by 10 foot by 3 foot), the crate will tip over. Maybe it’s just me, but I do believe a crate that size would require a lot more effort to tip over, even if it’s empty. Unless it was made of balsa wood, of course, but I don’t think they ship items in balsa. At any rate, there are a lot of crates and barrels in this one that seem awfully easy to move in comparison to their real-life counterparts.

GULLIVER’S TRAVELS (1939)
Article #939 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 10-10-2003
Posting Date: 3-8-2004
Directed by William Bowsky, Orestes Calprini, et. al.
Featuring the voices of Jessica Dragonette and Lanny Ross

Gulliver lands in the land of Lilliput and gets caught up in their war with Blefiscu.

This was Fleischer Studio’s attempt to get in on the full-length animation market that Disney had opened with SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARFS, but this one was something of a failure. For one thing, there didn’t seem to be any attempt to change the approach they used for shorts in making the movie; the movie’s plot is weak, not to mention nonexistent for good stretches of the running time. Furthermore, the ‘realistic’ characters (Gulliver, the prince and the princess) are stiff, bland and seem to come from another movie entirely; when Gulliver’s most memorable lines are “Well, well.” and “My, My.”, you know you’re not dealing with an exciting and vibrant character. The more comic caricatures work better, though Gabby is annoying and the music is largely forgettable. There are some very evocative moments here and there, but you know the plot is stalled when Gulliver doesn’t even wake up until the movie is half over, and even after that, most of the footage consists of his interactions with the various characters that neither advance the plot nor are interesting in and of themselves. It’s not a disaster but a disappointment, and in the long run, it’s no surprise that Fleischer Studios are better remembered for their shorts than their features.

GREGORIO AND THE ANGEL (1970)
(a.k.a. GREGORIO Y SU ANGEL)
Article #938 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 10-9-2003
Posting Date: 3-7-2004
Directed by Gilberto Martinez Solares
Featuring Broderick Crawford, Connie Carol, German Valdez (Tin Tan)

When a statue vanishes from a church in an orphanage, the well-loved but drunken janitor is blamed and then fired. He leaves the orphanage and ends up encountering a little girl who can work miracles.

There are definite charms to this fantasy coproduced by both the United States and Mexico. One is the performance of Broderick Crawford, who wisely underplays the role of the janitor. Another is the Mexican scenery that serves as a background for much of the action. A third is the presence of Connie Carol, who is cute as the dickens as Inez, the little girl who can work miracles. I’m less taken with the static, lifeless direction, a factor that made the movie rather tiresome until the other charms really started to work on me. I’m also not taken with German Valdez’s performance as the devil; his blatant mugging would have been appropriate in high slapstick, but it’s intrusive in this movie which requires a much gentler comedic touch. The aimlessness of the plot is also a bit of a problem, and after a while I felt the story was largely there just to give us as many ways as possible for Broderick Crawford to sneak a drink. So overall what we have here is a rather odd mixed bag, and I’m not quite sure myself how I feel about it. It does however avoid the sickly sweetness that is possible for this sort of story, and that is a plus.

THE GREEN PASTURES (1936)
Article #913 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 9-14-2003
Posting Date: 2-11-2004
Directed by William Keighley and Marc Connelly
Featuring Rex Ingram, Oscar Polk, Eddie ‘Rochester’ Anderson

Stories from the Bible are played out as envisioned in the imaginations of young black children in Sunday school.

This movie has an all-black cast, and unsurprisingly it occasionally relies on cliches and black stereotypes of the time it was made, so it will no doubt seem offensive to many. However, its virtues are quite strong indeed; for one thing, the gospel music is pretty great. For another thing, it’s one of the few biblical epics out there that doesn’t sink under the weight of it’s own pompous self-importance; the presentation is somewhat mannered, but it not only allows itself to relax on occasion, it also isn’t afraid of using humor when the opportunity arises. It also does something quite daring in allowing the character of ‘De Lawd’ (wonderfully played by Rex Ingram, who also plays other parts throughout) to grow and somewhat develop as a character throughout the proceedings; this gives the movie a compelling story arc rather than letting it feel like just a series of different stories. All in all, I have to admit that I was more entertained and moved by this one than I was by any of the other biblical epics I’ve seen. The movie also benefits from fine special effects, and the fun of seeing Eddie ‘Rochester’ Anderson as Noah.

One potentially sensitive issue here is whether stories based on the Bible belong in the realm of fantastic cinema; certainly, devout Christians would argue that the events portrayed are true, and such a movie should be considered historical rather than fantastic. For my part, I will simply say that any story in which miracles occur are worthy of being considered in a survey of the fantastic, so I’m including it here.

THE GAMMA PEOPLE (1956)
Article #910 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 9-11-2003
Posting Date: 2-8-2004
Directed by John Gilling
Featuring Paul Douglas, Eva Bartok, Leslie Phillips

Two reporters get stranded in a small European country that is under the yolk of a scientist performing experiments with human intelligence.

If this movie had been incompetently directed and acted, it would probably have a reputation as an amazingly bad movie; as it is, it is one of the strangest science fiction movies of the fifties and totally unlike anything else I’ve seen. The basic story is a straightforward mad scientist variation with horror overtones, but most of the movie seems to have been plotted, written and acted as if it is a mythical-kingdom high comedy; certainly, the staggering amount of coincidence in the plot (especially the circumstances by which the two reporters end up stranded in the country) certainly owes more to comedy than to science fiction or horror. Nevertheless, the SF/Horror aspects are played straight and seem to come from a totally different movie; in fact, the movie quite often jumps back and forth between the two approaches so abruptly that one is often at a loss to know to react to the proceedings. Nonetheless, many individual moments work very well indeed, in both the comedy and horror aspects, though there are times when it is painfully obvious that the dubbing for the outdoor scenes was handled indoors. Paul Douglas and Leslie Phillips are quite good in their respective roles. All in all, this is one of the most baffling oddities of fifties science fiction.

THE GHOST OF ST. MICHAEL’S (1941)
Article #884 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 8-16-2003
Posting Date: 1-13-2004
Directed by Marcel Varnel
Featuring Will Hay, Claude Hulbert, Charles Hawtrey

An incompetent teacher takes a position at a school in Scotland, where the courses are being held in an old supposedly haunted castle.

Will Hay is apparently better known in England than he is here in the states, and I will admit that he is amusing enough here. The only cast member that I recognized immediately, though, was Charles Hawtrey, who would go on to make several CARRY ON… movies. The fantastic content is largely tied to the aforementioned ghost, and since it never appears physically, you may be excused for suspecting that the truth is somewhat less supernatural; certainly, nobody in the movie (except a superstitious caretaker) really believes a ghost is at work, and since mention is made of Nazi spies at one point…., well, I’ll leave it to you to decide how you think it’s going to end up. For my part, I will only say that the fantastic content consigns this one to the realms of marginalia.

THE GIRL FROM SCOTLAND YARD (1937)
Article #879 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 8-11-2003
Posting Date: 1-8-2004
Directed by Robert Vignola
Featuring Karen Morley, Robert Baldwin, Eduardo Cianelli

A woman who works with Scotland Yard investigates the source of strange explosions and encounters a reporter who is hunting for the lost husband of a friend.

Another of those mystery/thrillers of the thirties with a marginal and cliched science fiction aspect; in this case, the ubiquitous ‘death ray’ machine. There are nice touches here and there (the final sequence involves a fairly exciting dogfight) and occasional bursts of momentary bad acting (since the actors are pretty competent outside of these moments, I suspect these lapses may be the result of bad direction), but all in all, it’s merely rather ordinary. Not bad for a slow day and keep your expectations in check.

THE GHOST OF RASHMON HALL (1947)
(a.k.a. THE NIGHT COMES TOO SOON)
Article #859 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 7-22-2003
Posting Date: 12-19-2003
Directed by Denis Kavanagh
Featuring Valentine Dyall, Anne Howard, Alec Faversham

A couple buys a house that is haunted by ghosts.

Title check: At a certain point in this movie, they pronounce the name of the Hall, and it certainly doesn’t sound like ‘Rashmon’; the title of the house also appears as a word in a book, and it looked far too long to be ‘Rashmon’. Maybe they made a movie about the wrong ghost…

There’s some interesting twists that pop up in the story towards the end, and the painting that has characters appearing, moving and disappearing is an interesting touch, but overall, this is just another ghost story. It’s creaky, slow-moving, and not particularly scary, and I’ll probably forget all about it before another day passes. This one is for ghost movie completists.