LICENSE TO KILL (1964)
aka NICK CARTER VA TOUT CASSER
Article 2072 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 11-16-2006
Posting Date: 4-15-2007
Directed by Henri Decoin
Featuring Eddie Constantine, Daphne Dayle, Paul Frankeur

A scientist hires Nick Carter to protect his invention (a machine that uses a small flying saucer to destroy things) from Chinese spies.

Don’t let the title fool you; this movie is not one of the rash of James Bond clones that appeared in the mid-to-late sixties. No, this movie owes much more to detective B movies, mysteries, and yellow peril movies from the thirties and forties. The only time I’ve really had a chance to encounter Eddie Constantine before this was in ALPHAVILLE, and I suspect that that movie (having been dominated by director Jean Luc-Godard) didn’t really represent his oeuvre very well. In this one he is thoroughly charming. Part of it may be that this is the first time I’ve heard him use his own voice for the English dubbing, which is wonderful for the part. The movie has a naive don’t-take-it-too-seriously charm about it, and is filled with fun elements from old mystery and detective movies; Nick Carter has a jealous secretary and a dim-witted assistant, the plot involves a locked door mystery at one point, there’s lots of gadgetry (Carter’s watch dial is able to burn through ropes), and it even can’t resist ending the movie with a parting joke reminiscent of movies from an earlier era. Best of all are the fights; they’re hardly convincing, but they’re hilarious, as Nick Carter dispatches gangs of assailants with unflappable ease. My favorite moment in the latter is where he encounters a series of killers with machine guns who, despite the fact that their weapons are spurting out lead at an incredible rate, never hit a target and are dispatched with one shot of Carter’s pistol. Taken seriously, the movie is hard to swallow; take it as a comedy, and it’s great fun. Recommended.

THE LEGEND OF BLOOD CASTLE (1973)
aka THE FEMALE BUTCHER, CEREMONIA SANGRIENTA
Article 2071 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 12-15-2006
Posting Date: 4-14-2007
Directed by Jorge Grau
Featuring Lucia Bose, Espartaco Santoni, Ewa Aulin

A countess discovers that bathing in the blood of maidens can restore her youth. Her husband (who pretends to be a vampire) supplies her with the maidens to allow her to do this.

This movie is filled with interesting ideas and fascinating moments. I like the character of the marquess, who is quite dismissive of the vampire legend. I also liked the character of the housekeeper, whose sinister presence goes a long way towards leading the marquesa down her path. I also like the scenes where a vampire (already staked and consequently unable to defend himself) is put on trial for his crimes (his corpse in attendance), and the firing of the servants once the marquess and marquesa have begun their evil ways. Still, I’m less impressed with the presentation, much of which may be due to the dubbing; most of the actors sound bored out of their skulls, and my interest level dips quite low on occasion. My version runs about 85 minutes, which is a good 17 minutes short of the complete version, which may make a significant difference in the proceedings. The ending moment is, however, truly memorable.

LONG DISTANCE WIRELESS PHOTOGRAPHY (1908)
Article 2058 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 11-2-2006
Posting Date: 4-1-2007
Directed by Georges Melies
Featuring Georges Melies

An elderly couple visits an innovative photographer whose larger-than-life photographs come alive. All is fine until the old man decides to have his picture taken, and then…

More special effects silliness from Melies here. I’m not sure where the “long-distance” comes into play here; all of his photographs are of people or things right in the studio. Still, the vision of the old man’s face (which looks like that of a manic monkey puppet) is pretty memorable, and it’s full of fun-looking machinery. And remember to keep your fingers out of the electrical machinery!

LADRON DE CADAVERES (1957)
aka THE BODY SNATCHERS
Article 2037 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 10-12-2006
Posting Date: 3-11-2007
Directed by Fernando Mendez
Featuring Columba Dominguez, Crox Alvarado, Wolf Ruvinskis

A mad scientist experimenting with monkey-to-human brain transplants hits upon the idea that the ideal subjects for his experiments are wrestlers. He begins murdering them and absconding with the bodies.

With a translated title that recalls a certain Val Lewton film, and scenes that hearken back to FRANKENSTEIN and KING KONG, there’s no doubt in my mind that Mexican horror movies did their share of mining from various sources. Still, they put these elements together in unique ways, and even in the unsubtitled and undubbed version that I saw of this one, that creativity made the movie continually interesting and not really all that difficult to follow. In fact, this may be one of the best of the Mexican horror movies; it was made shortly before EL VAMPIRO caused the genre to explode in popularity, and the wrestling backdrop predates the whole wrestling/horror angle by half a decade. There’s some memorable scenes here; I like the credits sequence (which pop up against the backdrop of newspaper headline), and the scenes where the scientist and his cronies put into effect clever schemes to acquire the bodies are very entertaining. The scene in the gymnasium (which helps the scientist pick out his first subject wrestler] is also very strong. The climax is definitely memorable, as Wolf Ruvinskis (who ends up the subJect of the doctor’s experiment) goes on a violent rampage, all the time getting uglier and more ferocious.

As time goes by, these Mexican horror movies are getting more respect and notice. Let’s hope some subtitler out there gets ideas about this excellent outing.

LADY FRANKENSTEIN (1971)
aka LA FIGLIA DI FRANKENSTEIN
Article 1969 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 8-5-2006
Posting Date: 1-2-2007
Directed by Mel Welles and Aureeliano Luppi
Featuring Joseph Cotten, Rosalba Neri, Paul Muller

Frankenstein’s daughter gets a medical degree so she can help her father with his transplant experiments. When her father is killed by his own creation, she undertakes to continue his experiments on her own.

You know, for a sleazy low-budget stab at the Frankenstein story, this isn’t half bad; I find it a lot more palatable than FRANKENSTEIN’S CASTLE OF FREAKS, for example. It has its problems, of course. The character of the monster isn’t particularly well handled; though the dialogue talks about him consciously doing away with everyone responsible for him being a monster, he never acts in any way other than a mindless killing machine, and that is a disappointing choice. The movie ups the exploitation elements; there is quite a bit of gratuitous nudity here. The odd thing I find about his nudity is that it doesn’t start cropping up until Joseph Cotten’s character is dead; now I know that movies aren’t necessarily shot in order, but it made me feel as if maybe they didn’t want their name star to know just how sleazy the movie was going to be; this is probably just imagination on my part. Still, one of the most memorable scenes in the movie is sleazy and downright perverse, and that is when they decide to kill a handyman for the use of his body, and they do so at a very specific moment. The movie also features Mickey Hargitay, and was co-directed by Gravis Mushnik from THE LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS.

LOST CITY OF THE JUNGLE (1946)
Article 1940 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 7-7-2006
Posting Date: 12-4-2006
Directed by Lewis D. Collins and Ray Taylor
Featuring Russell Hayden, Jane Adams, Lionel Atwill

An agent from the United Peace Foundation is sent to the isolated province of Pendrang to find out if a man named Geoffrey Wood  (believed deceased) is really a warmonger known as Sir Eric Hazarias. This turns out to be true, and Hazarias is in Pendrang to try to locate a rare element that will allow him to create a defense to the atomic bomb, a device that would give any nation the power to take over the world.

There’s a very curious plot device to this serial; despite the fact that the main bad guy is supposed to be the Atwill character (Sir Eric Hazarias), he claims that his secretary Malborn (John Mylong, the fatherly scientist in ROBOT MONSTER) is the actual leader and brains behind the outfit. With this plot set-up, I was preparing myself for a specific twist – namely, that Malborn would turn out to be the real Sir Eric Hazarias, and that the Atwill character would turn out to be a decoy of some sort. However, events in chapter 12 proved me incorrect, and so I was left wondering what the reason was for this odd plot device.

However, IMDB lists one piece of trivia about the serial which provides a clue as to why this happened. Lionel Atwill was ill during the filming and died of bronchial cancer. This would explain the odd structure; if he was unable to shoot certain scenes, the device of having another man who was actually in charge would allow him to substitute for Atwill in a number of scenes. This makes more sense to me than the other explanation I had, as it seemed to me to be a little too clever for the type of plot that serials usually have. Still, this strange plot set-up fueled my curiosity about what the final revelations would be, and it may have made the serial a little more interesting to me than it otherwise would have been. Still, I did like the fact that the leader of Pendrang (a woman called Indra) was one of those characters that could end up siding with either hero or villain. There’s also a significant amount of fantastic content in this one, including a device that can destroy buildings through sound vibrations, and the deadly radioactive element Meteorium which can disintegrate anyone who looks at it unless they’re wearing protective garb. The serial also features Keye Luke and Gene Roth.

LASH OF THE PENITENTES (1937)
aka The Penitente Murder Case
Article 1895 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 5-23-2006
Posting Date: 10-20-2006
Directed by Roland Price and Harry Revier
Featuring Marie DeForrest, William Marcos, Victor Justi

A writer investigates a cult of Penitentes in New Mexico.

The cast list above is questionable; though they may have appeared in the movie as it originally appeared, only about half of the footage survives, and what does survive does not include a nude scene that was rare for that time. Still, exploitation fans will probably have a use for this one; it mostly consists of documentary footage of the Penitente self-flagellation cult going about their business, and some of the footage is quite bloody. Still, I’m not sure that this really qualifies as a horror movie; if it does, than I’ll probably be covering stuff like MONDO CANE sometime in the future. It’s quite possible; at least one of the goals of horror is to shock, and there’s no doubt that to most of us, this is pretty shocking. Still, it does make you wonder just what kind of frame of mind you’d have to be in to be a member of this cult.

Incidentally, the Penitentes don’t treat chickens all that well either.

LILIOM (1934)
Article 1893 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 5-21-2006
Posting Date: 10-18-2006
Directed by Fritz Lang
Featuring Charles Boyer, Madeleine Ozeray, Florelle

A young woman falls in love with a charismatic but brutish carnival man.

Forget CAROUSEL and the 1930 version of this movie; when I want to experience this one, I’m going with this version, even if my copy is in unsubtitled French. Why? Two words: Fritz Lang. With him at the helm, the story is a rich cinematic experience; many of the scenes are fascinating even if you don’t know understand the language, and some of them tell their parts of the story so well, language is unnecessary. The opening scene is just an example; the visuals, acting, body language and facial expressions are so vivid and informative you know exactly what’s going on in the scene. Another plus is Charles Boyer; to date, he is the only person I’ve seen in the Liliom role who brings it to life; just watching his reactions to various events makes the movie a joy, especially the scene where he learns that he’s going to be a father (which, I must admit, I was only able to figure out because I’ve seen other versions of the story). Lang doesn’t stint on the darkness of the story, which is a good thing, but he also pays attention to the romantic underpinnings of it all. He also remains the only director who has handled the movie with such aplomb that I’m willing to overlook my main objection to the story, which is that it comes a little too close romanticizing abusive behavior for my liking. It helps that we see Liliom’s own reaction to seeing himself slap Julie in flashback (during the afterlife sequence, the reason this movie qualifies for this series), and it also helps that when they get to the “slap that felt like a kiss” line, it’s in French so I don’t really know what’s being said. Maybe this is my way of saying that ignorance is bliss, and if it is, so be it. Still, I think I’d like this version of the movie with subtitles just as well. And the scene with the lawyer trying to stamp the papers is hilarious in any language.

THE LAND THAT TIME FORGOT (1975)
Article #1765 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 1-13-2006
Posting Date: 6-12-2006
Directed by Kevin Connor
Featuring Doug McClure, John McEnery, Susan Penhaligon

A small boat of survivors of a sunken British ship manage to capture a German U-Boat, but in the ensuing power struggle, they get lost in the ocean. They manage to find a previously undiscovered prehistoric world called Caprona.

This was the first of four adventure movies directed by Kevin Connor and starring Doug McClure that were made in the mid-to-late seventies; I’ve already covered the last one, WARLORDS OF ATLANTIS for this series. Though none of them are very good, there seems to be a certain amount of affection for the series, and even I, who never warmed to them, feel reluctant to dwell on their flaws. I think it might be because I admire these movies for the modesty of their goals and their lack of pretension. At heart, they were trying to revive an old-fashioned type of adventure story that had almost vanished in cinema at that time, and even if I don’t warm to the movies themselves, I warm to the concept. Yes, the special effects are often less than convincing, but they’re not so bad that they merely become laughable, and I would imagine that anyone who came to these movies for the sole purpose of having a good time would find them acceptable. In fact, there were certain elements of this movie I really liked; the concept that as you go further north in Caprona, the evolutionary level progresses, and my favorite moment is the one where the primitive caveman Ahm leaves his new companions and joins another tribe as he moves up the ladder of evolution himself. Still, I wish the movie really did more with the concept. My favorite character is probably that of the U-Boat commander, Captin Von Shoenvorts, and I was about to praise the performance of John McEnery, but I just discovered that his voice was dubbed by Anton Diffring in this movie, so both actors merit a mention in this regard. The cast also includes Anthony Ainley, who would take over the role of The Master on “Doctor Who” in a few years.

THE LEGEND OF LYLAH CLARE (1968)
Article #1731 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 12-10-2005
Posting Date; 5-9-2006
Directed by Robert Aldrich
Featuring Kim Novak, Peter Finch, Ernest Borgnine

A director hoping to shoot a biopic about a famous actress who died under strange circumstances discovers a woman who looks identical to her, and decides to prepare her for the role. However, the woman’s mousy character starts to give way to the personality of the actress she’s portraying.

Robert Aldrich made some classic movies, but this isn’t one of them. Even its supporters seem to like it mainly for its campy bad-movie elements. Though I will admit to liking many bad movies for precisely the same reason, this type of bad movie isn’t my cup of tea. The fantastic element is a bit of a question mark; has the woman hired to play the role of Lylah Clare actually been possessed by her spirit? The trouble is (from the position of verifying its fantastic content) that the movie never really addresses this issue; it’s too busy presenting us with its succession of Hollywood stereotypes and movie-making cliches. It’s one of those movies where too many women speak with (supposedly sexy but bad) foreign accents, too many arrogant, egotistical and/or bitchy characters show up, and the human elements and the satirical jabs get lost in the mix. Overall, it feels like a bloated soap opera. For those interested in seeing a good Robert Aldrich movie, you can scan the theater marquee in the movie for the name of one. For me, the best moment in the movie was a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it appearance of Dick Miller as a reporter, and the fun I had speculating about certain similarities between this movie and another Kim Novak movie made for a rather famous director.