GILDERSLEEVE’S GHOST (1944)
Article #820 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 6-13-2003
Posting Date: 11-10-2003
Directed by Gordon Douglas
Featuring Harold Peary, Marion Martin, Frank Reicher

Gildersleeve is running for police commissioner, but finds his credibility is strained when he claims to see a gorilla that no one else believes exists.

Title check: I’m not quite sure. It runs sixty-four minutes, but my print is only forty-eight minutes. Harold Peary also is credited with appearing as a couple of ghosts that don’t appear in my print, which makes me suspect that I have an incomplete print.

This movie asks the cinematic question: just how many times can you try to pull off the old gorilla gag. You know the gag I mean: 1) man dresses up in gorilla suit, 2) real gorilla shows up, 3) confusion and hilarity ensues. I swear, this setup has been used so many times over the years that if someone had taken out a patent on the idea, they’d be rich by now. This movie tries it three times in forty-eight minutes, and this would be at least two times too many if it weren’t for the fact that Charlie Gemora is in the gorilla costume, and quite frankly, I get more laughs from his reactions than I do from the rest of the cast (and he isn’t even billed). Gildersleeve was a popular radio character of the time, but I would never have heard of him myself if it hadn’t been for a parody of the character that appeared in a Bugs Bunny cartoon from the forties in which Bugs tussles with Gildersleeve who is a clerk in a department store; it makes me wonder how many comedians and character actors from the thirties and forties are primarily remembered nowadays by their appearances in cartoons. In fact, Richard LeGrand’s catchphrase (“Well, now, I wouldn’t say that!”) was used constantly in these cartoons. As for Harold Peary, I’m afraid he’s an acquired taste I don’t quite share.

THE GHOST GOES WEST (1935)
Article #819 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 6-12-2003
Posting Date: 11-9-2003
Directed by Rene Clair
Featuring Ronald Donat, Eugene Pallette, Jean Parker

When a Scottish nobleman dies hiding from members of another clan, his ghost is condemned to haunt the halls of his castle until he can find a descendant of the rival family to apologize for the insult.

Title check: Well, from the vantage point of Scotland, I would agree that Florida is indeed to the west, but the title tends to make me think of cowboys and indians, and there are none in this film. Technically correct.

This movie has an attractive and likeable cast, is directed by a master of light comedy, and has a number of great plot points and interesting ideas; I particularly like how it answered one question I had, and that was how you could get a ghost who was doomed to walk the halls of his ancestral home to move to a new location. However, once the movie finishes with its backstory (which is quite similar to the one in THE CANTERVILLE GHOST) and turns its action to the present, it becomes somewhat disappointing. Part of the problem is that Robert Donat’s two characters (he plays both the ghost and the current owner of the castle) are really not all that interesting; the owner of the castle tends to be somewhat shy and for the most part merely floats along with the action, while the ghost (who was a lot of fun in the backstory before he dies) seems rather glum and depressed for the most part, and I find it hard to get involved in their stories. So I end up waiting for the great character actor Eugene Pallette to brighten the proceedings, and he is far and away the most interesting character in the latter part of the story. The movie is only sporadically funny, and it seems to get most of its mileage with the racial stereotype that Scots are penny-pinching, though my favorite gag along this line has a servant answering a guest’s question as to what the difference is between grouse and duck. Not a bad movie, but it falls somewhat short of what it could have been.

LE GOLEM (1936)
(a.k.a. THE GOLEM)
Article #815 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 6-8-2003
Posting Date: 11-5-2003
Directed by Julien Duvivier
Featuring Harry Bauer, Germaine Aussey, Roger Karl

The inhabitants of the Jewish ghetto in Prague are hoping that the Golem will come to life and save them from their oppressors, but the emperor wants to get hold of the Golem himself.

Title check: Simple. Q: Is there a Golem in the movie? A: Yes.

This movie is neither a sequel nor a remake of the 1920 movie, THE GOLEM; it’s more like a sequel to the story that inspired that version. Those expecting the usual stone monster machinations of that movie may be disappointed; we don’t see the Golem until almost two-thirds of the way into the movie, and it doesn’t really do anything until near the end. This is not to say that it’s a minor character; the whole movie revolves around it, and there is constant talk among all parties about the creature. In fact, the movie seems a lot more interested in the political significance of the creature (as a freer of slaves) than the 1920 version, and a great deal of the movie involves the attempts of several people to get a hold of the statue for their own purposes. What really holds the movie together, though, is Harry Bauer as Emperor Rudolf II, a desperate, paranoid and possibly insane man who ultimately can’t tell his friends from his enemies; he even tries to befriend the statue at one point. His performance is ultimately the movie’s strength, which in other respects I find a little reminiscent of the Sword and Sandal movies so prevalent in the sixties, (only with a mobile statue rather than Hercules). It’s definitely worth a watch for anyone interested in the legend.

GANG BUSTERS (1942)
(Serial)
Article #738 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 3-23-2003
Posting Date: 8-20-2003
Directed by Ray Taylor and Noel Smith
Featuring Kent Taylor, Irene Harvey, Ralph Morgan

Police try to break a ring of gangsters known as The League of Murdered Men.

I have to confess to not being a particular fan of action movies; mere action in and of itself doesn’t really interest me. For the action sequences to catch my interest, there have to be other conditions that serve as an incentive; either the characters need to have really grabbed my attention, or the action choreography has to have been particularly well-done, or the fights are peppered with a good sense of realism, or the movie has to have really built up the right amount of suspense, etc. All too often, I see nothing but bland, predictable characters throwing their fists at each other, and this simply leaves me cold, especially when the good guys look just like the bad guys. This is perhaps why I’ve never been fond of action-oriented serials (in contrast to adventure-oriented ones); watching fisticuffs break out every five minutes leaves me tired rather than thrilled, no matter how many people they throw into them. GANG BUSTERS is an action serial, but I’m thrilled to say that I find it a refreshing change of pace from the others I’ve seen.

Part of it is a strong sense of grittiness that pervades the story; everybody is playing it serious, and I like that. The characters are more interesting than you usually find, particularly Ralph Morgan’s villain, Dr. Mortis, who shows from time to time a greater range of emotion than most villains in this type of thing. The episodes never skimp on the suspense, and there’s just a lot of details I really like, from the villains’ wonderful hideout (underneath a manhole found between the tracks of a subway train, so that even the act of getting into the hideout is fairly harrowing) to the creative way each episode segues into its cliffhanger; instead of narration explaining the last episodes, various characters in the middle of the action discuss the events that lead up to the cliffhanger, which is then recreated. Add to this the emphasis on actual police detection methods (fingerprints, chemical analysis, etc.), and a plotline that throws out the usual scientist-with-a-new-invention-gets-kidnapped-by-gangsters storyline with a simple revenge-driven motive coupled with the science fictional concept of gangsters being revived from death, and you have a novel story indeed. I’ve seen several people put this serial near the tops of their lists of favorite serials. It’s definitely at the top of my list so far.

A GUY NAMED JOE (1943)
Article #724 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 3-9-2003
Posting Date: 8-6-2003
Directed by Victor Fleming
Featuring Spencer Tracy, Irene Dunne, Van Johnson

A pilot who dies during a mission spends his afterlife helping another pilot learn his craft.

This movie made by MGM, directed by Victor Fleming, and featuring an A-list cast was one of many movies that came in the wake of HERE COMES MR. JORDAN in which the spirits of the dead remain among the living to guide their lives; in fact, this movie features actor James Gleason (always a welcome addition to a movie), who also appeared in that earlier movie. There’s no doubt that the concepts here have a certain appeal; after all, Steven Spielberg felt compelled to remake this movie (as ALWAYS). There are some lovely scenes here, the acting is top-notch, and the special effects during the battle scenes are breathtaking. Unfortunately, I find the pace too leisurely, and it’s two-hour running time really starts to test my patience, though I strongly suspect that others may not feel this way. Nevertheless, I am of the belief that a good thirty-minutes could have been trimmed off of this movie, and the impact of what remained would be that much stronger. Nevertheless, this could be quite enjoyable to anyone who doesn’t mind a little bit of schmaltz.

THE GARDEN MURDER CASE (1936)
Article #711 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 2-24-2003
Posting Date: 7-24-2003
Directed by Edwin L. Marin
Featuring Edmund Lowe, Gene Lockhart, Virginia Bruce

Philo Vance investigates the suspicious accidental death of a jockey and the murder of a tycoon.

There are a lot of familiar names and faces in this entertaining mystery, though Nat Pendleton steals the proceedings somewhat as one of the dimmest policemen I’ve ever seen. This is the first Philo Vance movie I’ve seen, and if it’s any indication, they should be fairly entertaining. It’s pretty standard, and wouldn’t qualify as fantastic cinema except that a revelation near the end of the movie (which I won’t give away here) does push the movie into marginal horror territory; if you’re on your toes, you should be able to figure out what that revelation will be.

THE GLADIATOR (1938)
Article #680 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 1-24-2003
Posting Date: 6-23-2003
Directed by Edward Sedgwick
Featuring Joe E. Brown, Man Mountain Dean, Jean Travis

A man returning to college is talked into joining the football team, but is nothing but the brunt of jokes until he is given a drug that makes him super strong.

I’ve seen Joe E. Brown in several other movies, and I’ve always liked his rubbery-faced, big-mouthed charm. This is the first of his comedy vehicles that I’ve seen, and sadly, I didn’t think it was all that funny; in fact, the funniest line is given to his boss when he’s told who his replacement will be at the children’s hospital. Nevertheless, even though I was disappointed by the comic aspects of this movie, I still quite liked Brown’s performance. For one thing, he was very good at handling the sentimental side of things, giving them a light, honest touch to keep them from being too sickly sweet while remaining very strongly affecting. He also avoids desperation in his comic bits, and generally avoids mugging, which is actually quite a feat considering how easy it would be for him to engage in it with that face of his. Thus, it’s the warmth and sincerity that make this work.

Incidentally, Man Mountain Dean would be one of the wrestlers who would take on Mighty Joe Young in the movie of the same name; I ended up being somewhat amused that the first reference to him in this movie was a verbal joke concerning him and a monkey.

GAMERA VS. BARUGON (1966)
(a.k.a. WAR OF THE MONSTERS)
Article #616 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing date: 11-21-2002
Posting date: 4-16-2003

A priceless opal turns out to be the egg of a fierce monster that has the ability to freeze things with his tongue and shoot deadly rainbows from his back. Gamera comes to the rescue.

The best way to watch a foreign movie is in a subtitled version, but if dubbed versions are all that is available to you, you have two choices here; the version entitled WAR OF THE MONSTERS is an AIP version from the sixties, while GAMERA VS. BARUGON is the Sandy Frank version. The latter version is longer, but the dubbing is horribly substandard; the earlier AIP version actually shows a lot more care in that regard, and the main scenes that it seems to be missing are some meetings with military officials that are easily covered in short narration segments. Gamera movies (from the sixties) were low-rent versions of Godzilla movies, but there are points of interest in this one; for one thing, it was probably the most adult movie of the series, with a stronger dose of violence than the others (among the humans, that is). It’s still pretty silly, with Barugon a highly improbable creature, but the whole thing takes itself quite seriously indeed. And there’s not a single six-year-old in short pants to be found!

One side note: Gamera must have a really bad publicity agent in the states; not only did they misspell his name in the first American version (GAMMERA THE INVINCIBLE), but in the WAR OF THE MONSTERS version, they mispronounce it, with the middle syllable accented (guh-MARE-uh) instead of rhyming with camera.

GORILLA AT LARGE (1954)
Article #598 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing date: 11-3-2002
Posting date: 3-29-2003

Murders are being committed on the grounds of a circus, and there is some suspicion that the murderer may be the fierce gorilla from one of the acts.

That a 3-D murder mystery involving a gorilla (played by George Barrows) which features Cameron Mitchell and Raymond Burr exists really doesn’t surprise me much; what does surprise me is that the cast also includes Anne Bancroft, Lee J. Cobb, and Lee Marvin (as a comic-relief Irish cop). It’s more of a murder mystery than a horror movie, and actually not a bad one; there are several very good suspects, and you’re really not sure who is responsible, and there are enough good twists to keep things lively. Actually, if anything really saves the movie, it is the solid acting throughout to balance out the basic silliness, and Barrows gives one of his better performances as a gorilla in this one. I enjoyed this one much more than I suspected.

GORGO (1961)
Article #561 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing date: 9-27-2002
Posting date: 2-20-2003

When English fishermen discover a giant monster off the coast of Ireland, they bring it to London and put it in a circus, only to discover it is a child, and its mother shows up to rescue it.

Those of you who have found the Japanese man-in-a-monster-suit movies too alien for your tastes may well prefer this English attempt at the same sort of thing; its story may be somewhat more accessible to western audiences. If, however, you love the Japanese movies (as I do), this one may come off as a bit of a disappointment, as it does for me. The special effects are quite good (except for the falling rubble effect which is used repeatedly in the last half of the movie), but I find there’s kind of a dull, drab feel to the whole movie that leaves me somewhat bored. The lack of really interesting characters is another problem; the child is the most interesting, but he’s also somewhat annoying. And the lack of music for a good deal of the movie is also a problem; they try to compensate by having the monster roar repeatedly during its attack on London, and I got bored with the call long before the movie did. Granted, my copy of the movie is none too good, but I don’t sense a better print will really make it a lot more interesting to me. It does capture a good sense of the destruction of human life that a beast of this size would cause, though.