L’ISOLA DEGLI UOMINI PESCE (1979)
aka Island of the Fishmen, Screamers
Article 5050 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 1-14-2016
Directed by Sergio Martino
Featuring Barbara Bach, Claudio Cassinelli, Richard Johnson
Country: Italy
What it is: Horror/adventure movie

Survivors of a shipwreck end up on an island run by a mysterious man and plagued by strange fish monsters.

First, a bit of background. When this Italian movie was brought over to the United States, it was decided that it didn’t have enough gore content, so about twelve minutes of gory new footage featuring Cameron Mitchell and Mel Ferrer was edited into the movie, and other elements were shuffled around as well. This version was retitled SCREAMERS. For the record, I seem to have seen the original Italian version, though I was fortunate enough to see one that was dubbed into English.

Probably the main reason this version is pretty light on gore is that it really isn’t a horror movie; the story plays out more like an adventure story. It’s an odd hodgepodge of genres and ideas; it’s partially inspired by THE ISLAND OF DR. MOREAU and THE MYSTERIOUS ISLAND, and it throws in elements of voodoo as well as the lost continent of Atlantis before it’s all through. It’s not well regarded, but I actually found the hodgepodge rather interesting, and I have to admit that it’s one of the more entertaining of Sergio Martino’s movies to me. It also features Joseph Cotten as a professor involved in some bizarre experiments. It’s a bit of mess, but overall I thought it was pretty decent.

INFERNO (1980)
Article 4999 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 11-26-2015
Directed by Dario Argento
Featuring Leigh McCloskey, Irene Miracle, Eleanora Giorgi
Country: Italy
What it is: Horror, Argento style

When a woman discovers a book made up of the notes of an architect who claims to have built three houses for “The Three Mothers”, it sets off a string of bizarre murders and deaths.

All I can say is that it’s a good thing that Dario Argento is the consummate stylist that he is; if he had to rely on coherent story-telling to make his movies intriguing, movies like this would be exercises in frustration. As it is, his stunning use of color, his use of repeated visual motifs and themes (water, broken figurines, cats, small cuts and gashes), and his ability to instill a sense of dread goes a long ways to compensate for the fact that you’re not really sure what’s going on. This was apparently the second of three movies that make up a trilogy, the first of which was the excellent SUSPIRIA. This one isn’t quite up to that level, but it still made for a great viewing experience. Apparently, Mario Bava did some second unit direction and helped with the visual effects; he died before the movie was released.

THE INCREDIBLE HULK (1977)
Article 4998 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 11-24-2015
Directed by Kenneth Johnson
Featuring Bill Bixby, Susan Sullivan, Jack Colvin
Country: USA
What it is: Superhero TV pilot

A scientist discovers the secrets behind what causes otherwise normal people to perform amazing feats of strength in stressful situations. He experiments on himself by dosing himself with gamma rays, but he uses far more than he was aware. His anger then transforms him into an extremely powerful but uncontrollable green giant.

I’ve encountered this TV series adaptation of the Marvel superhero once before when I covered the second pilot for the series, DEATH IN THE FAMILY. That one gave a better idea of what the series would be like as a going affair; this is the one that sets up the details of the premise and provides the “fairy dust” of how David Banner gained the ability to change into the Incredible Hulk. It’s quite well done; it compensates for the fact that it can’t afford to be a real special effects extravaganza by concentrating on the human stories of the characters, and it is well directed and edited. It’s an origin story, of course, and as such, it gets a little dull when it spends too much time on the details of the “fairy dust”, but I like the way it fives Dr. Banner a real motivation for his research by anchoring it in a personal tragedy at the beginning of the movie. It’s a solid intro to the series.

ICEMAN (1984)
Article 4997 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 11-23-2015
Directed by Fred Schepisi
Featuring Timothy Hutton, Lindsay Crouse, John Lone
Country: USA
What it is: Science fiction drama

When a frozen Neanderthal found in the arctic regions turns out to still be alive, an anthropologist seeks to make contact with him. However, other scientists want to use him as a research specimen to discover how he was able to keep from dying in his frozen state, and the two aims aren’t compatible…

If there’s any one single reason to see this movie, it is for John Lone’s performance as the revived Neanderthal. In his hands, the Neanderthal becomes such a fascinating, alive character that I’m amazed he didn’t even get an Oscar nomination for his work. His performance compensates somewhat for the flaws in the script itself. To my mind, the script is unfocused; it has several good ideas, but it doesn’t really settle in on which direction it wants to go until late in the movie, and then it makes the disappointing but audacious choice to plunge into the mystical. As moving as this might be for some, I find myself wishing it had pursued some of the other paths that the movie considers. I have a few other problems with the movie, such as the fact that the Neanderthal manages to escape his controlled environment with an unrealistic ease; certainly, someone would have been thoughtful enough to put up more safeguards. Nevertheless, there is always Lone’s performance to buoy the movie up, and the movie is worth watching for that alone.

IF…. (1968)
Article 4960 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 10-17-2015
Directed by Lindsay Anderson
Featuring Malcolm McDowell, David Wood, Richard Warwick
Country: UK
What it is: Political allegory

Rebellion brews in a dictatorial boys’ school in England.

I’ve encountered Lindsay Anderson’s work before when I saw O LUCKY MAN!, so I was somewhat prepared for what to expect in terms of the cinematic style and the potential fantastic content. That being said, this one is more focused and less sprawling than the other movie, and though it takes a certain amount of time for the shape of the movie to manifest itself, it has quite a lot of power when it does. The cast is broken out into five groups; the rebellious “Crusaders”, the privileged class that serves as disciplinarians and policemen, the “Whips”, the “Staff” of the school, and the “Juniors” and “Seniors”, the younger boys and older boys of the school. As the head of the “Crusaders”, Malcolm McDowell practically steals the movie, but after reading his bio on IMDB, I gather that he had plenty of personal experience to rely on for help in shaping his role. The fantastic content includes the various surreal touches that lend an air of unreality to the film. Still, it remains primarily a drama and is only marginally a fantasy.

DIE INSEL DER SELIGEN (1913)
aka Island of the Blessed
Article 4890 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 8-4-2015
Directed by Max Reinhardt
Featuring Paul Davidson, Erika De Planque, Wilhelm Diegelmann
Country: Germany
What it is: Odd fantasy

Two young women, two young men, two rotund fathers, and two weird suitors all visit an island inhabited by the Roman gods, who proceed to interfere with their lives.

The intertitles are in German on this silent film, so I couldn’t rely on them to help me with sorting out the plot. The basic premise is fairly clear, though; several mortals find their lives changed due to the interference of a gaggle of gods. It’s basically a variation on “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” with one crucial difference; by the end of the movie, the gods do not undo the damage and mischief they’ve done, and the ending is a bit grotesque. In fact, it’s not just the ending that is grotesque; some of the human characters seem a little bizarre and twisted, and though I suspect these are supposed to be comic touches, it’s rather hard to tell. The end result is a movie that, instead of coming across as comic, comes across as weird and unsettling. Incidentally, Max Reinhardt was a noted theatrical director who is primarily remembered for having helmed the 1935 version of A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM.

IT’S ALIVE (1974)
Article 4876 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 7-19-2015
Directed by Larry Cohen
Featuring John P. Ryan, Sharon Farrell, James Dixon
Country: USA
What it is: Mutant killer baby movie

A mutant killer baby is born and terrorizes a town.

The idea of a mutant killer baby is one of those concepts that seems so outlandish that I’m a little surprised that they didn’t go the obvious route and play it for laughs. But writer/producer/director Larry Cohen goes the difficult route and plays it seriously, and I think for the most part he succeeds. He keeps the baby in the shadows for the most part and mostly plays the attack scenes out of the frame (probably because he knew they wouldn’t be very convincing), and instead concentrates on finding a good emotional thread by which to carry the story, and that emotional thread is that of the baby’s father’s attempt to come to terms with bizarre situation in which he’s thrown, one that ends up having a profound effect on his work, his relationships and his life. The script is even clever enough to see the parallels between his situation and that of Frankenstein’s, and when he speculates on the confusion between the man and the monster, we begin to wonder as to which one he will turn out to be. Still, the movie doesn’t quite transcend its campy reputation, and it you do have to laugh a bit when the baby attacks a milkman. Nevertheless, the script goes a long way towards making this movie more thoughtful than it might have been.

L’INCONNU DI SHANDIGOR (1967)
aka The Unknown Man of Shandigor
Article 4817 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 5-9-2015
Directed by Jean-Louis Ray
Featuring Marie-France Boyer, Ben Carruthers, Jaques Dufilho
Country: Switzerland
What it is: Eurospy, arty comic style

A scientist creates a method of nullifying nuclear bombs, but goes into isolation with only his daughter and his assistant. He becomes the target of several groups of spies, all of which want the scientist’s secret for their own ends.

I was halfway through watching this movie before I realized that I had English subtitles to help me sort out the French dialogue, so I went back to the beginning and watched it with the subtitles. But I don’t consider my half-viewing the first time around to be wasted; having had a chance to concentrate on the visuals and the acting during that time, it made me realize just how comic the movie is, and that’s something I might have missed if I had been concentrating on the story. It’s a spy story shot like an art film, and feels like a sly parody of both. There’s at least five groups of spies in the movie, and in a sense, there’s no real hero, and one is left wondering which of the groups (if any) will prevail. At times the movie gets truly bizarre; the strangest scenes has one group of spies embalming a deceased member of their team while their leader plays and sings a weird ditty on the organ. There’s torture by psychedelic music, a massacre in a bowling alley, and an unseen aquatic monster kept by the scientist in a swimming pool. Howard Vernon is on hand as the closest the movie comes to a James Bond character, a man named Bobby Gun (who, incidentally, uses a knife). The weird-looking Daniel Emilfork almost steals the movie as the scientist. All in all, I was charmed and delighted by the movie, though it might take a couple more viewings to sort out some of the plot details.

I YAM WHAT I YAM (1933)
Article 4803 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 4-21-2015
Directed by Dave Fleischer and Seymour Kneitel
Featuring the voices of William Costello, Charles Lawrence and William Pennell
Country: USA
What it is: Popeye cartoon

Popeye, Olive Oyl and Bluto are in a lifeboat at sea. They make it to shore and inhabit a log cabin prepared by Popeye, but are then set upon by Indians.

The series hadn’t quite hit its peak yet; Popeye’s hilarious muttering is not yet present, and the short doesn’t use Fleischer’s wonderful three dimensional backgrounds. But then, what do you expect from only the second one in the series? And if you consider that, this one is pretty impressive; there’s a real confidence with the characters on display here, and it’s energetic, full of gags, and fast-moving. In fact, it’s almost a surprise for Popeye to pull out the spinach in this one; he’s always in control of the situation, and both Olive and Wimpy seem to be doing a decent job of defending the cabin without him. The strangest gag involves a caricature of a famous Indian leader, and by Indian, I don’t mean “American Indian”; it’s one of the only times I’ve known a cinematic work to address the fact that the Native Americans were mistakenly titled as residents from an entirely different country. It’s easy to see why the Popeye series would become as popular as it did. Fantastic content includes Popeye’s super powers, and anthropomorphic lightning.

IN SEARCH OF BIGFOOT (1976)
Article 4749 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 2-4-2015
Directed by Lawrence Crowley and William F. Miller
Featuring Robert W. Morgan, Rene Dahinden, John Green
Country: USA
What it is: Bigfoot documentary

An expedition is made to the forests of the Pacific Northwest in order to locate Bigfoot.

Most of the recent documentaries that I’ve seen on the “strange creature/psychic phenomena/UFO” axis of the seventies have been muddled hodgepodges of outlandish theories that have been more likely to bring out the skeptic in me than the part of me that still has that “sense of wonder”. This one has the benefit of being at least focused; it tells the story of a single expedition to an area known for its Bigfoot sightings, and if it does manage to do one thing, it convinces me of the sincerity of the people involved. Though it does to some extent try to convince the audience of the existence of Bigfoot (the main reason given is the multitude of sightings), but it does seem more interested in the hunt for the creature than in trying to sell its existence to the audience. Granted, that doesn’t mean that the documentary is always effective; there’s a certain amount of dead time and unnecessary footage here, especially when the movie shifts focus to a skimpily-dressed female member of the expedition cavorting under waterfalls and swimming. You’ll probably figure out how the thing ends; after all, had the expedition been successful, it would probably be a much more famous documentary. As it is, believers will find the ending rather sad in that the plan to locate the creature is frustrated by an act of nature, while skeptics will find it all too convenient.