LET’S LIVE AGAIN (1948)
Article #973 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 11-13-2003
Posting Date: 4-11-2004
Directed by Herbert I. Leeds
Featuring John Emery, Hillary Brooke, Taylor Holmes

A nuclear scientist loses his brother in an airplane accident. He then believes a dog he encounters is the reincarnation of his brother.

I first encountered John Emery as one of the scientists in ROCKETSHIP X-M; at that time, I didn’t think of him as a comic actor, and none of the other roles of his that I’d seen led me to believe anything different. Yet here he is, playing the lead role in this comedy about a man who may or may not be suffering from delusions, and after watching it, I’m only more firmly convinced that he isn’t a comic actor; his performance comes across as rather quiet and glum, and this just doesn’t make for good comedy. As a whole, the movie comes across as forced and unconvincing; it never works up any energy and all seems rather pointless. It’s a shame; I’ve been curious about this one for some time based on the plot description, as I believe it could have gone in some interesting directions. As it is, I believe there are good reasons this movie is as obscure and hard-to-find as it is.

THE LAST REUNION (1955)
Article #969 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 11-9-2003
Posting Date: 4-7-2004
Directed by Leonard Brett
Featuring Eric Portman, Michael Gough, Basil Appleby

The survivors of the crew of a bomber raid get together yearly to reminisce about their commander, the only man to die in the raid. However, one of the members feels the ghostly presence of the commander during these reunions.

Basically, this plays like an episode of “The Twilight Zone,” and at 53 minutes, runs no longer than one of the hour-long episodes of the series. I suspect that if it had been done as an episode, it would have most likely been reduced to one of the shorter episodes, though; the first half of the movie is quite talky, with a great deal of speculation on the nature of death and the role of grieving. This talk can be quite fascinating in its way, and it allows us to get to know the various characters, so they have a certain dimension to them before we reach the central dramatic moment of the story where the characters recreate the mission; this sequence makes very effective use of sound and lighting to add to its drama. It’s all anchored by an excellent performance by Michael Gough; this movie demonstrates exactly how great an actor he is. The ending is effective and very sad indeed. It’s recommended for TZ fans with an interest in philosophy.

THE LOST MISSILE (1958)
Article #951 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 10-22-2003
Posting Date: 3-20-2004
Directed by William A. Berke
Featuring Robert Loggia, Ellen Parker, Phillip Pine

A missile of extraterrestrial origin and of a temperature of one million degrees begins orbiting the earth, burning up everything in its path.

Though the central concept is more than a little far-fetched (a million degrees is painfully excessive), it’s also engaging enough to make this one fairly interesting. It’s also helped by the fact that the acting is fairly good throughout, and that the scenes directed specifically for this movie do have the necessary sense of drama and pacing that is vital to making the story come alive. However, it’s badly crippled by its sheer cheapness, which results in the movie having to rely on huge amounts of stock footage and narration to get by. In fact, this movie probably has a greater percentage of stock footage than INVASION U.S.A., and though it makes better use of it than that one did, there’s still far too much of it for the movie to handle, and after a while my patience wears out. It’s a shame; this would have made an above-average thriller if a little more money had been thrown into it. Incidentally, the script was cowritten by Jerome Bixby, who also wrote the script for IT, THE TERROR FROM BEYOND SPACE and the short story, “It’s a GOOD Life”.

THE LAST WARNING (1929)
Article #924 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing date: 9-25-2003
Posting date: 2-22-2004
Directed by Paul Leni
Featuring Laura La Plante, Montagu Love, Roy D’Arcy

A murder is committed onstage during a performance of a play called ‘The Snare’. Several years later, the theatre reopens in an attempt to stage the same play.

I was having a strong sense of deja vu while watching this bizarre silent movie, and for good reason; I had already seen the 1939 remake called HOUSE OF FEAR. My copy has a bizarre, dissonant soundtrack that is like nothing else I’ve heard during a silent movie; this music along with the almost-psychedelic opening made me think that I was watching a sound movie at first, so I was quite surprised when the first character opened his mouth and title cards started to pop up. It’s all done with an a great deal of style; in fact, it’s almost excessive. Certainly, the middle part of the story in which a succession of scare scenes occur without any real sense of rhyme nor reason is a case where style without substance becomes tedious. I’ll probably watch it again some time to enjoy the stylish direction, but if I want to watch it for the story, I’ll probably opt for the remake.

THE LODGER (1932)
(a.k.a. THE PHANTOM FIEND)
Article #908 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 9-9-2003
Posting Date: 2-6-2004
Directed by Maurice Elvey
Featuring Ivor Novello, Elizabeth Allan, W.E. Bascomb

A new tenant in a boarding house is suspected of being a Jack-the-Ripper-like murderer.

It’s a little difficult for me to evaluate this remake of the Alfred Hitchcock silent classic, as I find myself hampered by the fact that my copy of the movie has such loud incidental noise that it somewhat interferes with my being able to hear through the British accents of the cast. However, since it is a remake and it basically follows the same story as the original, I really wasn’t at risk of getting lost. It’s not bad, overall, but Elvey isn’t Hitchcock, and the ending here simply doesn’t hold a candle to that of the superior silent version. As a result, the worst problem with the movie is simply that it feels unnecesary; if you’ve seen the Hitchcock version, you can probably safely skip this one, even if you find a copy with better sound than mine.

THE LOVES OF EDGAR ALLAN POE (1942)
Article #880 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 8-12-2003
Posting Date: 1-9-2004
Directed by Harry Lachman
Featuring Shepperd Strudwick, Linda Darnell, Virginia Gilmore

This movie tells the story of the life of Edgar Allan Poe and the women in his life.

This isn’t the first biopic I’ve seen for this series; in fact, it isn’t even the first Poe biopic (that honor goes to THE RAVEN (1914)). Unfortunately, that earlier biopic, though it was weird and hard to follow, did capture more of the feel of Poe, especially during its dramatization of ‘The Raven’; here, we only see bits of it read in front of an audience. In fact, the only fantastic aspect of this movie is that it’s about a writer of horror stories. I don’t know the exact details of Poe’s life, but I do know they sound somewhat interesting; however, I’m really not interested in Poe’s romantic entanglements near as much as the makers of this movie were. As it is, I find it rather dull and obvious, with the high points being appearances by Henry Morgan (who I wouldn’t have recognized except that his voice hadn’t changed all that much between this movie and his stint on ‘M*A*S*H’) and an early appearance by perennial army general Morris Ankrum as a publisher. It also features historical personages Thomas Jefferson and Charles Dickens among its characters.

LIFE RETURNS (1935)
Article #857 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 7-20-2003
Posting Date: 12-17-2003
Directed by Eugene Frenke
Featuring Onslow Stevens, George Breakston, Valerie Hobson

A scientist working on life resuscitation loses his job and then his wife, and then discovers that the law wants to send his son to a juvenile home.

Title check: It refers to the central gimmick of the film; see below.

This movie was built around footage of Dr. Robert E. Cornish bringing a dead dog back to life; this footage does indeed look like stock footage of a real life event rather than original footage, and the dialogue during this sequence has the quality of having been said rather than written, which is not the case during the rest of the film. I wasn’t sure whether to call this science fiction or not, but I’ve heard the revival of a dead animal is highly dependant on how soon you can get to it after it dies; since I suspect the span of time implied in the plot of the movie is most likely longer than the span of time of the real life event, I’ll call it science fiction. I am somewhat amused that rather than filming the story of the doctor himself, they seem to film the story of a fictional associate that then becomes a tear-jerking children’s movie, where the scientist’s wife dies of something that no one bothers to explain. Part of the plot revolves around the child trying to save his dog from an evil dogcatcher who plans to gas him. It’s corny, silly, and poorly written, though I’m willing to bet if I saw it as a child I would have been in tears. Still, it is a curious approach to telling this type of story.

THE LEMON GROVE KIDS (1965)
Article #856 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 7-19-2003
Posting Date: 12-16-2003
Directed by Ray Dennis Steckler
Featuring Cash Flagg (Steckler), Carolyn Brandt, Coleman Francis

There are several adventures involving a group of teenagers and kids known as the Lemon Grove Kids.

Title check: Since they’re called the Lemon Grove Kids (they live on Lemon Grove Street), no problem here.

Ray Dennis Steckler bore an uncanny resemblance to Huntz Hall of the Bowery Boys, and this is one of the most blatant uses of someone’s similarity to another celebrity since Sammy Petrillo appeared as a Jerry Lewis character in BELA LUGOSI MEETS A BROOKLYN GORILLA. The movie is actually three shorts. Imagine, if you will, a Bowery Boys movie in color during the swinging sixties with Three Stooges style antics (though not their timing) at breakneck speed in which the Bowery Boys have been stripped of all dignity (and if you didn’t think the Bowery Boys had dignity, you will after seeing this). In some ways, it’s pretty audacious, but Steckler’s editing tends to give me a slight headache, and except for a scene in which Steckler’s character (named Gopher) does battle with a mummy who fights by trying to do the old Three Stooges poke in the eyes gag, I was more stupefied than amused. Both the first and the third shorts have fantastic elements; the first features an insect creature from outer space and his vampire-like assistant, and the third features the mummy and a gorilla, not to mention a cameo from Rat Pfink from another Steckler movie.

LET’S SCARE JESSICA TO DEATH (1971)
Article #843 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 7-6-2003
Posting Date: 12-3-2003
Directed by John Hancock
Featuring Zohra Lampert, Barton Heyman, Kevin O’Connor

A woman newly released from a mental hospital goes with her husband and a friend to a secluded house on an island, where they encounter a strange woman.

Title check: At first, the title makes it sound like a “Cat and the Canary” comedy variant, but a few minutes into the movie you’ll know it’s not a comedy. Then I thought it was going to be a “Gaslight” variant, but it’s not that either. Let’s just say that the title is too flip for the movie.

This movie’s strength is its moody subtlety; it has a genuinely unsettling feel to it, and does a wonderful job of setting you on edge. However, the mysterious subtlety that pervades the movie also leads you to believe that the ensuing events are going to be somewhat more original than what they turn out to be; in fact, for a movie this subtle, its attempts at making the horror more blatant are often ham-fisted and obvious, which undermines the mood that the subtlety has created; specifically, this movie would have been a lot better if the word “vampire” was never used. Furthermore, the subtlety walks hand in hand with a sense of general vagueness and maintains a distance between the action and the viewer. This doesn’t cause a problem in the first half of the movie, but the second half of the movie never takes off as a result of it. All in all, I felt the movie was a failure, though an interesting one; it either needed a more direct, visceral approach to its story, or it needed a better story than the one it has.

THE LEGEND OF DOOM HOUSE (1971)
(a.k.a. MALPERTUIS)
Article #783 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 5-7-2003
Posting Date: 10-4-2003
Directed by Harry Kumel
Featuring Orson Welles, Susan Hampshire, Michel Bouquet

A dying man wills his fortune to several heirs, provided they all agree never to leave the house of Malpertuis; the survivors will be allowed to keep the money.

Now that you’ve read the above plot description (which makes it sound for all the world like a latter-day variation of the Old Dark House type of movie), throw it out of your mind; this movie is something else entirely, and the above description is merely a representation of the most familiar plot element in the story. Despite some very definite horror elements (some grotesque murders, and a strong atmosphere of dread and decay), this is really an art movie with a fantasy premise masquerading as a horror movie, one that will leave you scratching your head for a good deal of the running time. Still, it is fun to see Orson Welles as the bed-ridden uncle, and the movie has a unique visual sense about it. Still, it is an art movie, and if you don’t like art movies, you might want to pass this one by; if you do, you might want to take a peek at this disorienting, slightly disturbing and sometimes infuriating movie. You may want to avoid reading too much about it beforehand; most of the descriptions I’ve seen give away one of the final revelations of the movie, and it’s more fascinating if you aren’t prepared for it; then again, whether you like the revelation may be a different matter entirely.