THE MANIPULATOR (1971)
Article 5021 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 12-16-2015
Directed by Yabo Yablonsky
Featuring Mickey Rooney, Luana Anders, Keenan Wynn
Country: USA
What it is: Art film

An insane man keeps a woman hostage in an old warehouse full of theatrical props. There he imagines he is directing her in a movie production of “Cyrano de Bergerac”.

IMDB describes this movie as a “horror/thriller”. And maybe it is. Certainly, the plot description and the basic situation lends itself to that approach, and there are moments when the movie is downright nightmarish. Unfortunately, the director seems more interested in indulging himself in all sorts of arty distancing techniques; there’s weird camera angles, dream sequences, slow motion and fast motion, all of which seem to add a bizarre drug-tinged haze over the proceedings, and the script is a rambling mess that probably only makes sense in the mind of a madman. I certainly don’t blame Mickey Rooney for any of this; he dives into his role of the insane would-be director with gusto and real commitment, and in terms of showing us just what he was capable of, it’s an impressive performance. But in the context of this movie, the performance starts to feel like little more than another artistic distancing technique, and the fact that the only other two speaking actors in the movie (Anders and Wynn, the latter in a cameo) don’t seem particularly sane either, it doesn’t really have an effective context in which it can shine. The end result is a movie that wears out its welcome very rapidly; it’s unpleasant, annoying and distracting. As impressive as Rooney’s performance is, it really needed to be in a much better movie.

THE MIDNIGHT HOUR (1985)
aka In the Midnight Hour
Article 5005 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 12-1-2015
Directed by Jack Bender
Featuring Lee Montgomery, Shari Belafonte, LeVar Burton
Country: USA
What it is: Halloween comedy TV-Movie

On Halloween night in the small town of Pitchford Cove, a group of teenagers play a prank by reading a ritual designed to raise the dead in a local cemetery. Unbeknownst to them, they’re successful, and though some of the dead are just looking for fun, others are more deadly…

I’d have to describe this one as a comic cross between CHILDREN SHOULDN’T PLAY WITH DEAD THINGS and AMERICAN GRAFFITI, with a common urban legend thrown in for good measure. On top of the usual assortment of zombies, we have some vampires and werewolves thrown into the mix, as well as a midget Frankenstein monster. I quite liked this one; the humor is often effective, the romance subplot is actually a bit on the charming side, and it gets positively surreal when it turns to horror, especially during a nightmarish little montage sequence in which the dead and newly dead wreck the town. To top it off, it features the voice of Wolfman Jack (and the man himself in a cameo, if my eyes don’t deceive me) and a great oldies soundtrack. It also features both Dick Van Patten and Kevin McCarthy becoming undead during the run of the film. No, it’s no classic, but it’s a lot of fun, and would make a good choice for Halloween viewing.

MIRAGE (1965)
Mirage (1965)
Article 4987 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 11-13-2015
Directed by Edward Dmytryk
Featuring Gregory Peck, Diane Baker, Walter Matthau
Country: USA
What it is: Mystery thriller

A man is disoriented when he finds himself in a skyscraper with the electricity off from which another man has fallen to his death. People he knows claim to have not seen him in a long time, and he finds himself threatened by someone known as the Major. Is he crazy? Is he the target of strange conspiracy?

This is one type of movie that I love; it starts eerily with an intriguing mystery that keeps getting deeper, and the main character must unravel the mystery to save his own life. This is a good one; because you don’t know any of the details or the rules of the situation in which he is immersed, you become as interested as he is finding out just what is going on. It’s also one of those movies where you end up trying to sort out the fantastic content; does it qualify because his situation adds a thick air of unreality to the situation, or will some element of the film clearly emerge as that content? As it so happens, a clear element does emerge in the film. Ultimately, the story involves an amazing scientific discovery, but since the discovery is used primarily as a Gizmo Maguffin, the movie remains marginal from a genre perspective. What is interesting is that it’s not the primary Maguffin of the main story, but rather, it’s the Maguffin of the story behind the story. I won’t go into any more detail than this, and I’ve been purposefully vague about a lot of this simply because this is one of those movies that is best appreciated if you go into it blind. That being said, it is an exciting and gripping movie, with excellent performances from all (especially from Matthau). This one is highly recommended.

LAS MUJERES PANTERAS (1967)
aka The Panther Women
Article 4979 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 11-5-2015
Directed by Rene Cardona
Featuring Ariadna Welter, Elizabeth Campbell, Yolanda Montes
Country: Mexico
What it is: Horror wrestling movie

The wrestling women face off against a Satanic cult that features several were-panthers and a crusty zombie.

This is another of the several Mexican “wrestling women” series, though it looks like the actress who played Gloria Venus has been replaced for this one. It also throws in a substitute Santo in the person of a wrestler called “El Angel”; if my notes are correct, this was a fictional wrestler created for this movie, though he was played by a real wrestler outside of his usual persona. As usual, the wrestling women have their boyfriends in tow, including one of them played by Manuel “Loco” Valdes; he plays the comic relief, of course, but I don’t recall him having been in the other wrestling women movies either. My copy is in Spanish without English subtitles, but in these types of movies, the plot usually doesn’t matter a whole lot. This one is a little on the dull side; it has the usual amount of wrestling for these types of movies, but it’s a little thin on the monster action, and the pace is rather slow. In general, the Santo and Blue Demon movies were a lot more fun.

THE MAGIC EXTINGUISHER (1901)
Article 4977 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 11-3-2015
Directed by James Williamson
Featuring Sam Dalton
Country: UK
What it is: Magic trick film

A magician makes animals disappear and reappear with a large cone.

Here’s another imitation of the Melies magic trick shorts, minus Melies of course. Unfortunately, that also means it’s missing Melies’s wonderful backdrops and his exuberant theatricality, and though Sam Dalton makes a game effort at the magician here, he doesn’t quite have the charisma of his model. There is a bit of novelty in the fact that living animals are used as part of the illusions, but that’s about all that really sets this one apart.

A MAN CALLED RAGE (1984)
aka Rage, Rage – Fuoco incrociato
Article 4949 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 10-6-2015
Directed by Tonino Ricci
Featuring Bruno Minniti, Stelio Candelli, Werner Pochath
Country: Italy / Spain
What it is: After the Italian apocalypse

It’s after the apocalypse. A soldier of fortune is hired to locate a source of uranium that is the only element that can cure post-apocalyptic poisoning, Much action happens.

I have yet to see the bottom of sword-and-sandal movies, spyghetti thrillers, or gialli (if that’s the plural of giallo). I can only speculate how bottomless the well of Italian after-the-apocalypse movies of the eighties will be, as I’m still pretty early on in that subgenre. Imagine the Mad Max movies without a shred of the imagination or a grasp of how to stage an action sequence, and that will give you a good idea of what this one is like. I have no idea what the original Italian dialogue is like, but the English-dubbed dialogue here is truly atrocious, and any movie that takes a whole half-hour to set up a plot that could be summarized in two minutes isn’t exactly going to win any awards for pacing. The movie’s worst problem is how it fumbles its best idea; the concept of a chase sequence between a variety of ground vehicles and a speeding train is worth exploring, but this movie manages to make the whole sequence an exercise in dullness, at least partially due to a droning musical score that sounds like it’s trying to lull you to sleep. Oddly enough, it’s most effective moment may be its most unexpected; it tries for a somewhat lyrical and philosophical ending, and though it doesn’t succeed enough to redeem the movie, it works a lot better than might be expected. All in all, this one was pretty bad, but not totally worthless.

MISSION GALACTICA: THE CYLON ATTACK (1979)
TV Movie
Article 4926 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 9-12-2015
Directed by Christian I. Nyby II and Vince Edwards
Featuring Richard Hatch, Dirk Benedict, Lorne Greene
Country: USA
What it is: Space Opera edited from TV episodes

The Galactica encounters the Battlestar Pegasus after having believed it was destroyed in a previous battle. However, the Pegasus’s commander, though a brilliant military tactician, is also obsessed with glory, and tries to force the Galactica to join it on a foolhardy attack on a Cylon outpost.

As stated in my review of BATTLESTAR GALACTICA, I’ve never seen the original series, though the fact that many of the episodes were edited into TV movies will ultimately result in me watching quite a bit of it. This one edits together three episodes of the series; “The Living Legend” (parts one and two), and “Fire in Space”. I didn’t know that as I was watching this. Knowing it now, I recognize that what I saw had the dirty fingerprints of what happens when you edit together different episodes of a TV series; you get a lopsided plot that does not feel like an organic whole. This one is particularly annoying in that it never resolves the story arc that takes up the first two-thirds of the movie (which is actually a rather intriguing story); it gets mired in the “Fire in Space” episode and then practically dismisses the original story with a couple of lines of dialogue. One thing I have discovered from watching this, though; I dislike the Cylons as villains, and I found the character of Baltar (who I gather is a renegade human helping the Cylons) particularly tiresome, as he seems to spout nothing but evil-villain cliches. At this point, based on what I’ve seen so far, I’d have to say that the original series was a very mixed bag indeed.

LA MUERTE ENAMORADA (1951)
aka Death in Love
Article 4915 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 9-1-2015
Directed by Ernesto Cortazar
Featuring Miroslava, Fernando Fernandez, Jorge Reyes
Country: Mexico
What it is: Death personified comedy

An insurance agent who has wasted is life is visited by Death (a beautiful woman in black). Instead of taking him immediately, she offers him a few extra days of life if she can move in with him and experience what it’s like to be a human.

My copy of this movie is in Spanish without English subtitles, and much of what happens is dialogue-driven, so I’m really not in a good position to give a real evaluation of the movie. However, it does appear to be a good movie. The acting is quite strong, especially from Miroslava in the role of Death. Certain moments do come through; there’s a subplot involving Death’s attachment to a young girl, and we have several scenes of the insurance agent unsuccessfully attempting suicide. Given the language barrier, easily the most striking scene for me occurs when Death has a dream where she watches a musical troupe of skeletons perform a jazzed up version of Camille Saint-Saens’ “Danse macabre”; it’s a fun number and is only marred by the fact that the dancers don’t appear to be in sync with each other. Overall, it feels like a comic take on DEATH TAKES A HOLIDAY, and despite the language barrier, it left a good impression on me.

THE MAN WHO HAUNTED HIMSELF (1970)
Article 4910 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 8-25-2015
Directed by Basil Dearden
Featuring Roger Moore, Hildegard Neil, Alastair Mackenzie
Country: UK
What it is: When you’re your own worst enemy

After he dies on the operating table after a car accident, a man is revived but momentarily has two heartbeats. Afterwards, he begins to hear stories of his having been places and meeting people that he doesn’t remember. Is he going crazy, or is something more sinister going on?

I’d only been familiar with Roger Moore’s work in the James Bond movies, so it’s really nice to see him in a role (or two, as the case may be) that gives him a much greater emotional range; his performance is definitely a highlight of this movie. The movie itself is an exploration of the doppelganger concept, and it does a good job of turning the screws and putting you on edge. It does get a little weird around the edges, though I’m not sure if it’s a good thing or a bad thing; certainly, Freddie Jones’ eccentric performance borders on the distracting, even if our first encounter with him in the movie is one of the more stylishly memorable scenes. The ending is also on the strange side and is open to interpretation, but it did have me hearkening back to scenes earlier in the movie, making me wonder if the character was a split personality to begin with. All in all, I quite liked this one, and I think it will be one that will bear revisiting.

THE MAN WHO LAUGHS (1966)
aka L’uomo che ride
Article 4909 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 8-24-2015
Directed by Sergio Corbucci
Featuring Jean Sorel, Lisa Gastoni, Ilaria Occhini
Country: Italy / France
What it is: Period action movie

A man whose face was mutilated by gypsies in childhood becomes embroiled in a conflict between the Borgias and a rebel named Astorre Manfredi.

I’m quite fond of the 1928 version of this story, but I must admit that I’ve not read the Victor Hugo novel on which it was based. It’s been a while since I’ve seen that earlier movie, but as I watched this one, I found myself not recognizing most of the story elements, and at a certain point in the plot, I became rather curious as to whether either of the two movies matched the plot of the Hugo novel. I checked some plot summaries at Wikipedia, and I can say with some certainty that the 1928 version is far more faithful to the novel than this one is, as I saw no mention of the Borgias in that summary. That’s a bit of a comfort, actually; I’d rather not blame Hugo for some of the silly story developments that pop up in this adaptation. I was a little puzzled at first as to why the same actor played both the title character (here named Angelo rather than Gwynplaine) and Astorre, but the reason became clear during the final third of the movie. This, of course, brings us to the fantastic content in the movie; there’s the obvious horror content of a disfigured man, but the movie also ventures into science fiction territory when it posits the existence of plastic surgery at the time of the Borgias. I have no idea how this plot was concocted; it almost seems they had a whole different storyline written and then attached a few elements borrowed from the Hugo novel. The movie is pretty weak, but it’s so different from the 1928 version that I doubt that it will ruin anyone’s memory of that version.