THE GOLDEN VOYAGE OF SINBAD (1973)
Article 4871 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 7-14-2015
Directed by Gordon Hessler
Featuring John Phillip Law, Caroline Munro, Tom Baker
Country: USA
What it is: Arabian nights fantasy

Sinbad finds himself in competition with an evil black sorcerer for a wonderful treasure – a crown of untold wealth.

I know there are some who consider this the best of Ray Harryhausen’s Sinbad movies, but I still lean more towards THE 7TH VOYAGE OF SINBAD; I feel the earlier movie is more efficiently mounted, and the Ray Harryhausen creations are more memorable. However, this one does have a few advantages. I think it’s the best acted of the three movies, with Law as an effective Sinbad, several solid turns from the supporting cast, and an (especially) memorable performance by Tom Baker as the black sorcerer Koura; Baker adds several nice touches that bring his character to life, and the movie proved instrumental in him being cast in DOCTOR WHO. There are some definite highlights in Harryhausen’s animation here; my favorite moments of these include the creation and the taming of the homunculus, and the scenes involving the multi-armed statue of Kali, my favorite creation in this movie. I do find myself wondering how it would have turned out if the casting had gone differently; Christopher Lee was the front-runner for the Tom Baker role, and Robert Shaw was desperate for the role of Sinbad; the latter does an uncredited performance as the voice of the Oracle. All in all, it’s a solid entry in the series, and much better than the third one, SINBAD AND THE EYE OF THE TIGER.

GODZILLA VS MEGALON (1973)
aka Gojira tai Megaro
Article 4870 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 7-13-2015
Directed by Jun Fukuda
Featuring Katsuhiko Sasaki, Hiroyuki Kawase, Yutaka Hayashi
Country: Japan
What it is: Godzilla movie

Nuclear testing causes an underground empire to strike back to the surface people on Earth by releasing a giant monster named Megalon. He is joined by Gigan in a fight against Godzilla and a robot named Jet Jaguar.

I have a weakness for Japanese giant monster movies, so when I saw this one popping up on my hunt list, I decided to order the new version on Blu-Ray so I could see a restored, nice-looking subtitled version (rather than the shoddy dubbed panned-and-scanned VHS one that I already had). Now, one pitfall of watching an improved edition of a movie that you’ve already seen before is that it looks so much better that you’re thinking the movie itself has improved. In a few minor ways, it has; watching it in its original screen ratio is a definite plus, and some plot points that get lost in the shuffle in the English dubbed version are clarified here. Still, it remains one of Toho’s most threadbare entries in the series; the script is one of those where most of what happens happens because that’s what happens in other movies of the series, and several of the action sequences (the fight with the military, the fight with the planes, and the destruction of the city) are made up primarily of footage from other films. Take special note during the city destruction sequence that you never actually see Megalon in the city; you see the scenes of destruction and then see Megalon’s head against an undefinable background that could be anywhere. Still, the movie does feature two special effects sequences that are rather impressive; the opening sequence involving the earthquake on the lake, and the destruction of the dam (where the monster comes riding down on the rush of water) are very good. Still, as good as my new copy looks, this remains to my eye one of the weakest of the series.

GUNNAR HEDES SAGA (1923)
aka The Story of Gunnar Hede
Article 4811 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 5-2-2015
Directed by Mauritz Stiller
Featuring Gustav Aronson, Stina Berg, Hugo Bjorne
Country: Sweden
What it is: Drama

A young man is enamored with the story of his grandfather (who began life as a wandering violinist and then made his fortune in a reindeer migration scheme) much to the chagrin of his somewhat dictatorial mother. The young man rebels and leaves home with a juggling troupe, but then decides to invest his money in a reindeer migration scheme similar to his grandfather’s. However, things go horribly wrong…

Technically, this movie is a drama with a few fantastic touches, but to my mind, the fantastic touches are impressive and bizarre enough to warrant mentioning. There’s a sequence where a portrait of the hero’s grandfather seems to come to life, there are a few moments of precognition (especially when the hero’s girlfriend has a dream involving a sleigh being pulled by what look like bears to me), and there’s a hallucinatory moment or two when the hero goes mad after a truly freaky accident involving a reindeer. As for the movie itself, it’s well worth watching; it’s the story of how a mother and her son both go through their own personal hells in order to come to terms with one another, and it’s partly very familiar and partly like nothing else I’ve seen before. The scenes involving the reindeer migration are in particular quite spectacular. Sadly, the movie does not exist in its entirety; my print only runs half the length of the original, but though there are a few gaps, it does tell a coherent story. I definitely recommend this one to anyone who can find a copy.

GHOST GUNS (1944)
Article 4765 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 2-22-2015
Directed by Lambert Hillyer
Featuring Johnny Mack Brown, Raymond Hatton, Evelyn Finley
Country: USA
What it is: Weird Western

A U.S. Marshall investigates a series of murders and cattle rustlings in a small western town. He discovers a gang that, with the help of a phony judge, plans to steal the land in the surrounding area.

With a B western, I don’t expect a lot; if it’s efficiently directed and has a fair amount of action, it’s probably done all that it’s set out to do. Furthermore, if it’s a so-called “weird western”, I really don’t expect a lot from the fantastic content; too much of that is likely to throw the western elements off balance. This one is efficient enough; Johnny Mack Brown is likable, Raymond Hatton is amusing enough as his sidekick, and there’s enough action to fill its hour running time. The fantastic content is pretty slight, as well; in this case, a man who is believed dead poses as a ghost to scare a confession out of one of the bad guys. You also get a song (“Red River Valley”), some trick horse riding, and a demonstration of Johnny Mack Brown’s gun-twirling technique. So this one passes the test; it’s certainly no classic, but it’s a pleasant enough way to kill an hour.

A GRANDMOTHER’S STORY (1908)
aka Conte de la grand-mere et reve de l’enfant
Articler 4690 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 11-23-2014
Directed by Georges Melies
Featuring Andre Melies
Country: France
What it is: Whimsy

A child is told a bed-time story by his grandmother. He then goes to sleep and dreams of the fantasy places in the story.

This is basically a whimsical mood piece; there’s no story. It’s one of those shorts where you’re most likely to notice Melies’s creative scene design, and on that level it’s entertaining enough. Nevertheless, the lack of any story makes it a little dull, and there’s nothing particularly new or novel in the special effects in this one. In short, this one is pretty to look at, but there’s not much beyond that.

THE GLOVES OF PTAMES (1914)
Article 4687 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 11-20-2014
Directed by David Aylott
Cast unknown
Country: UK
What it is: Comic trick short

A family receives a gift of ancient Egyptian gloves with strange properties; in short, anything they touch while wearing the gloves vanishes. They throw the gloves away, but the gloves are picked up by a succession of passers-by, until one of them figures a way to turn them to his own profit.

At first it looked like the gloves would give the wearer the ability to make Melies-style trick shorts, but it soon became apparent that only one trick was used – that of making things disappear. At first I thought the short would do nothing but repeat that effect, but once somebody figures out how to use them for constructively (for himself, that is to say), the short takes on a story of some sort. Unfortunately, the copy I saw is missing its ending, in which the man profiting from the gloves gets his comeuppance, but there is enough there to give you an idea of what probably happened. All in all, this is a fairly amusing short.

GOOD GLUE STICKS (1907)
aka La colle universelle
Article 4686 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 11-19-2014
Directed by Georges Melies
Featuring Georges Melies
Country: France
What it is: Comic short

A street vendor selling a super form of glue is closed down by two policemen. The street vendor seeks revenge, and you can do some mischief with super glue.

The fantastic content is the super-glue. That being said, this seems to be one of Melies’s shorts that is more interested in comic mischief than special effects; there’s a couple of minor trick moments in this one, but that’s about all. The comic content is pretty obvious; we get scenes of people getting stuck to things due to the super-glue, which is mildly amusing but hardly inspired. This is not essential Melies.

THE GENII OF FIRE (1908)
aka La genie du feu
Article 4671 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 10-3-2014
Directed by Georges Melies
Cast unknown
Country: France
What it is: Special effects horror short

A pair of tourists explores an ancient temple despite the warnings of a guard.

Around this time, Melies seems to have been concentrating on the story-telling aspect of his craft, and he wasn’t always successful. On that level, this is one of his better efforts in that, from a story perspective, it’s fairly easy to follow. Granted, with a running time of about four minutes, it isn’t exactly a very complex story, and the special effects attached to the story are pretty much standard Melies fare; they’re well done, but they’re also nothing new. It’s also one of his more serious outings; at any rate, it’s about as serious as he can make it despite the ubiquitous tumbling imps and contortionists he likes to use in his shorts. Still, it is one of his lesser shorts.

GEE WHIZ-Z-Z-Z-Z-Z-Z (1956)
Article 4670 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 11-2-2014
Directed by Chuck Jones
Featuring the voice of Paul Julian
Country: USA
What it is: Road Runner cartoon

A coyote continues with his hapless attempts to catch a road runner.

I can’t exactly say the fantastic content in this cartoon involves talking animals; outside of the innocuous “beep beep” sound the road runner makes, the animals don’t talk. However, the characters (the coyote in particular) can be considered anthropomorphic, and he does communicate in English via hand-held signs. Furthermore, the cartoon qualifies as a fantasy in that the laws of physics don’t get a lot of respect here; the only law that seems to apply is that whatever disaster happens, it will happen in the funniest way possible. There’s a bit of super-hero shtick in this one with a Batman costume and even a touch of science fiction with a jet motor with handlebars attached; Wile E. Coyote was quite an inventor, though that never compensated for the fact that the character was one of the most cursed creations in cinema history. The Road Runner cartoons rarely had plots; they were mostly a series of black-out gags, and you tend to remember individual gags more than whole cartoons. This one featured a gag with a stick of dynamite attached to a long-range hand extender, a gag with an outrun bullet, a gag with a large painting of a bridge being out, and the final classic moment where the coyote, falling once more from a height, makes a request of the animators that is mercifully granted. No, they’re not the best work from Chuck Jones, but I love his Road Runner cartoons anyway.

GOODNESS, A GHOST (1940)
Article 4604 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 8-10-2014
Directed by Harry D’Arcy
Featuring Harry Langdon
Country: USA
What it is: Comedy short

A sound effects man gets an acting break to play a cop while wearing his grandfather’s police uniform. However, the ghost of his grandfather shows up and insists that if he’s going to wear the uniform, he has live up to the standards of a real cop, and won’t let him back out when he’s confronted by dangerous criminals.

I’m going to start out by saying that I’m not familiar with Harry Langdon’s work from the silent era; reportedly, he was at his peak during that era and his sound work doesn’t live up to it. Therefore, I don’t really have that benchmark with which to compare this one. I say this because I get the sense that fans of the comic are appalled by this one, and though I don’t find the short particularly good (it’s passable at best), I don’t find it awful. It does seem to go for easy and obvious slapstick gags, and the poker game is perhaps the sequence that I found the most amusing. Still, I find if I imagine someone like Buster Keaton being stuck in this role, I can sense the disappointment fans of Langdon might feel at this one.