IN THE DEVIL’S GARDEN (1971)
aka Assault
Article 4496 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 4-6-2014
Directed by Sidney Hayers
Featuring Suzy Kendall, Frank Finlay, Freddie Jones
Country: UK
What it is: British giallo

The police attempt to find the identity of a killer/rapist who has been terrorizing girls in a wooded area known as Devil’s End near a girl’s school.

At about the halfway point in the movie, I saw a scene that I vividly remember catching on the local Creature Feature at one point in my life. It’s about all I remembered from the movie, but that’s not surprising; given the movie as a whole, it must have been heavily cut for airing on television, and that may well have left the movie a confused mess. In fact, I’m wondering if the print I just saw was cut as well; it runs four minutes shorter than the given time on IMDB. The main fantastic content seems to be that an eyewitness who saw the killer claims that he looked “exactly like the devil”, a fanciful description that we know is metaphorical, but the fuss that’s made by everyone about it as if it was a literal description is one of the biggest weaknesses of the movie. Once you get past that point, you end up with a not-bad little mystery/thriller, and if you’re like me, you’ll figure out the identity of the killer just at the time that the movie wants you to find out. Freddie Jones has a memorable role as a pushy reporter who ends up helping with an attempt to catch the killer, and the cast also features Lesley-Anne Down, and future “Doctor Who” villain Anthony Ainley.

THE INVINCIBLE BROTHERS MACISTE (1964)
aka Gli invincibili fratelli Maciste
Article 4473 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 3-13-2014
Directed by Roberto Mauri
Featuring Iloosh Khoshabe, Mario Novelli, Claudie Lange
Country: Italy
What it is: Sword and Sandal

Two brothers named Maciste do battle with an underground kingdom run by an evil queen.

Here’s a concept for you; this movie has TWO Macistes; Maciste the Elder and Maciste the Younger. This must certainly be a blessing for anyone who can’t get enough of Maciste. Unfortunately, it looks like this concept must have been more expensive than I’d thought; the rest of the production looks very cheap, almost threadbare on occasions. One thing is for sure -not much money was spent on the translation or the dubbing, which is full of stiff, wooden dialogue delivered badly. The main compensation is that the two Macistes are actually pretty good when they’re not talking; they know how to handle themselves in a fight, and they have the necessary screen presence to hold the interest, (especially Iloosh Khoshabe as the older Maciste). The story is the usual evil queen nonsense, though since most of the action takes place in an underground matriarch inhabited by beautiful women and leopard men, it has at least a decent amount of fantastic content, and this is further enhanced by the fact that both of the Macistes do have super strength. Yes, it may be one of the chintziest films from the genre, but it certainly isn’t the worst.

INVASION OF THE BEE GIRLS (1973)
Article 4454 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 2-18-2014
Directed by Denis Saunders
Featuring William Smith, Anitra Ford, Victoria Vetri
Country: USA
What it is: Science fiction exploitation

A town with a government research facility is the site for a number of deaths of men who have had heart attacks from an overabundance of sexual activity. A government agent is sent to investigate.

Apparently Nicholas Meyer wanted to have his name taken off the credits due to script tampering. I can’t help but wonder what elements were his and what was the result of tampering. Given that the movie isn’t outright porn, I suspect the only place it could lead is into exploitation, and that’s what you get here; there’s lots of nudity, quite a bit sex humor,  I’m never quite sure exactly what the experiments that result in the bee girls are supposed to accomplish, but in a movie like this, explanations are probably extraneous. At any rate, I suspect that the main audience for this one are those who are attracted to the central concept in the first place. For those primarily interested in its fantastic content, there’s not a lot here.

THE INVISIBLE MAN (1975)
Article 4415 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 1-7-2014
Directed by Robert Michael Lewis
Featuring David McCallum, Melinda O. Fee, Jackie Cooper
Country: USA
What it is: Successful TV pilot

A scientist develops a method of making things invisible, and experiments on himself, only to discover that the change eventually becomes permanent.

Well, it may credit its source as the H.G. Wells novel, but it really only borrows the title and the concept. The story isn’t much; it really does little more than set up the premise for the TV series. That being said, the movie is well acted, the special effects are acceptable, and it must have gone over well enough in order for it to actual spawn a series, albeit a short-lived one. If there’s anything I particularly like about the movie, it is that it addresses with some thought an element of the premise that could have been taken for granted; the mask. I’ve seen too many movies where people wear masks (usually to look like someone else) that are supposed to be so convincing that they fool people; this one at least addresses that the mask would have to be made by a very special process, and that the game could be given away by someone actually touching it. I’m surprised that the movie chose to dwell on this aspect of the story, and I like the attention paid to this detail. Still, that doesn’t mean that everything was well thought out; when the title character removes the mask at one point to make himself totally invisible, I had to wonder where he kept the mask in those cases.

I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE (1978)
aka Day of the Woman
Article 4339 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 10-17-2013
Directed by Meir Zarchi
Featuring Camille Keaton, Eron Tabor, Richard Pace
Country: USA
What it is: Revenge thriller

A woman writer goes to a cabin in the woods in a small town to finish her novel. When she is attacked and raped by four of the residents, she decides to exact a bloody revenge.

If I weren’t committed to be as comprehensive as possible for my movie-watching project, there are a few movies I would skip. This is one of them; I’d heard about it for years, and I never had the slightest desire to see it. To me, it sounded like the ultimate in pandering revenge dramas, a movie where the first half consists of a group of people doing horrible things to someone for the sole purpose of making you want to see horrible acts of vengeance performed on them in the second half. Having watched it now, I can say that I’m right; that’s pretty much what the movie is all about. If there was anything that surprised me about the movie, it was that it was as competently directed and produced as it was. Oddly enough, that may have made the manipulation of the first half less effective; had the movie been cheaper and more amateurish, the violence might have had the effect of seeming grittier and more real. The same effect might have been accomplished had the direction and editing been sharper and more intense. As it is, the movie’s worst problem is that the rape sequence is just interminable, encompassing as it does three separate attacks; it runs almost thirty minutes, and after a while you start to resent the filmmakers for trying to stretch it out as long as they could. Still, despite the fact that I would love to reject the movie completely, it’s not totally worthless; in some ways, it gives insight into the nature of “rape culture”, a subject that has been in the news lately. Still, those observations could have been made in a much less exploitative movie, so I really can’t bring myself to recommend this one to anybody.

THE INVISIBLE DR. MABUSE (1962)
aka Die unsichtbaren Krallen des Dr. Mabuse
Article 4331 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 10-9-2013
Directed by Harald Reinl
Featuring Lex Barker, Karin Dor, Siegfried Lowitz
Country: West Germany
What it is: Dr. Mabuse thriller

A gang of criminals is after something known as Operation X, and an FBI agent is sent abroad to stop them. He comes to the conclusion that the mastermind is none other than Dr. Mabuse, who was believed to be dead.

I’ve never been quite sure just what defines the “krimi” films from Germany in the sixties, so I’m not quite sure whether the Dr. Mabuse films were actually part of that genre or not, since they’re not based on the works of Edgar Wallace. They are, however, pretty much in the same style as the krimis, and often shared the same casts and directors. In general, the Dr. Mabuse films were better than the usual run of the krimis; they were much easier to follow, and Mabuse himself was a fascinating villain. This isn’t one of the stronger of the Mabuse films, as Mabuse doesn’t come across as quite as much of a clever threat as he does in some of the others. It is, however, much heavier on the fantastic content, as invisibility plays a major role in the storyline of this one. The plot also involves an operetta of the French revolution, an evil Clown (yeah, I know, that’s redundant), a nasty torture sequence, and a badly mutilated scientist to add to the mix. It’s fairly light on the humor this time round, with no painfully obvious comic relief character. All in all, this one is moderately entertaining, though I will point out that the English title is inaccurate, as Dr. Mabuse himself never really becomes invisible.

I.N.R.I. (1923)
Article 4273 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 7-26-2013
Directed by Robert Wiene
Featuring Gregori Chmara, Henny Porten, Asta Nielsen
Country: Germany
What it is: Retelling of the Passion

The story or Jesus Christ is told, with emphasis on the events leading up to the crucifixion.

You know, the idea of the director of THE CABINET OF DR. CALIGARI taking on the story of the Passion of Christ isn’t a bad idea in theory; one could envision what he might do with it. However, those attracted to the movie on this basis will be sorely disappointed; it never approaches the level of audaciousness of his earlier work. This is not to say that the movie doesn’t have a sense of style; it does, but the style is far too similar to the usual ways this story is filmed. At times, it feels like a photographed stage play, and there are scenes where the characters move so slowly and deliberately that I found myself wishing the movie had been recorded at the wrong projection speed so that things would start moving a little faster. Granted, I do have to point out that my copy of the movie had no music and featured title cards in some East European language I couldn’t understand, so I can’t say I saw it under ideal circumstances. Still, it tells a very familiar story, and except for a few short segments of a framing story that were intended to turn the story into anti-Bolshevist propaganda, I found it easy to follow. But even the fact that my version runs only 72 minutes (a good half-hour short of the 102 running time listed on IMDB), I found this one rather tedious.

On a side note, the movie as I saw it qualifies for fantastic cinema in one element only, and that is that there seem to be angels in the opening scene in the manger. The miracles aren’t shown, and the movie ends with death of Christ on the cross, so we don’t have anyone returning to life or ascending to heaven. Granted, if the movie is missing thirty minutes, these scenes might have existed at one point. But if it weren’t for the angels, there would be no fantastic content here, and I’ve never been quite sure whether movies based on stories with fantastic content that have removed that content really qualify as genre. It’s a side issue, but one I’ve run into before.

LES INVISIBLES (1906)
aka Invisible Thief
Article 4239 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 5-31-2013
Directed by Gaston Velle
Cast unknown
Country: France
What it is: A bizarre trick short

A scientist concocts a potion that can turn people invisible for short periods of time. Two crooks steal the potion and go on a crime spree.

Somehow I think it’s rather apt that the opening scene of this one has the scientist blowing his mind – literally. That’s because this early invisibility short goes off on a couple of mind-blowing tangents before it’s all over. Most of the effects are of the Melies variety, but there’s some original tricks here as well; for example, I love the way they concoct a chase scene through the use of silhouettes at one point. A few effects come out of left field; when the scientist puts his potion away, he stores it in the closet where he keeps a skeleton (which is a joke in itself). When the thieves open the closet door, the skeleton comes to life, goes to pieces and does a dance. Still, the strangest moment comes at the very end, and I won’t give it away, but if anyone out there remembers the old animated series “Hoppity Hooper” and recalls a story known as “The Traffic Zone”, you’ll be prepared for the final scene. I thought this one was going to be lost; I’m delighted to see it still exists, because it’s a lot of fun.

L’IDEE (1932)
aka The Idea
Article 4201 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 4-12-2013
Directed by Berthold Bartosch
No cast
Country: France
What it is: Animated allegory

While contemplating the universe, a man engenders an idea personified by a naked woman whom he sends out to the world. The idea is rejected unless it is clothed, but it refuses to be so. The man tries to defend his idea, but is judged, found guilty, and executed. Can the idea continue to exist without him?

Outside of some opening titles in French, this animated short (it uses paper cutouts for its effects) has no dialogue and tells its story with visuals and music; it seems to be mostly famous for using an instrument known as Ondes Martenot, which I gather is a theremin of some sort. It is primarily an allegory about the rise of, resistance to, and acceptance of new ideas, and despite some moments that are a little obscure, it’s mostly easy to follow and understand. It reminds me somewhat of a movie I’ve seen recently (though not for this series) called HYPOCRITES from 1915; that one also uses a naked woman as a symbol, in that case Truth, and is once again rejected by society because they can’t handle the “naked truth”. It’s quite engaging in its way, it’s thematic obviousness somewhat offset by the fact that it only run 25 minutes. Still, the wonderful, moody animation makes it worth hunting up.

I AM SUZANNE! (1933)
Article 4173 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 3-6-2013
Directed by Rowland V. Lee
Featuring Lilian Harvey, Gene Raymond, Leslie Banks
Country: USA
What it is: Musical romance

A dancer falls in love with a puppeteer, much to the consternation of her manipulative manager. The puppeteer himself seems more interested in his puppets than in romance with her. Can she find true love?

The above plot description doesn’t really capture the bizarre and surreal flavor of this strange but compelling movie. The two putative stars are merely okay (among the actors, it’s Leslie Banks who steals the show as the unctuous manipulative manager), but the real star of the movie is The Yale Puppeteers, who handled the fascinating elaborate marionette work used throughout the production. The script (by director Lee and Edwin Justus Meyer) is also surprisingly sturdy, using the whole puppet theme as a metaphor for the way the title character is manipulated and controlled by others in her life; it’s fitting that the title of the movie is uttered by two other characters before Suzanne has the strength to say it herself. The movie has a few fantasy elements; a snowman comes to life in an early musical number, and there’s a dream sequence where Suzanne finds herself on trial for murdering a puppet. The final sequence us a combination of live action and puppet show in which Satan is shown to be a cruel puppet master capable of controlling and destroying those under him, and this adds some horror to the proceedings as well. The end result is truly unusual, and is particularly recommended to fans of puppetry. It’s one of those movies that inhabits its own unique place in the world of cinema; there’s really nothing else quite like it out there.