MR. FREEDOM (1969)
Article 4012 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 8-23-2012
Directed by William Klein
Featuring Delphine Seyrig, John Abbey, Donald Pleasence
Country: France
What it is: Superhero satire

An American superhero is sent to France to save the country from communism, and he uses drastic means to achieve his goal.

Though it uses a superhero motif, this movie is less a parody of the superhero genre than it is a counter-cultural satire on the United States and its policies during the era of the Vietnam War. Mr. Freedom himself is a parody of the extremist right-wing mindset. Some of the satire is still relevant; after all, extremism isn’t restricted to any particular era of history. My problem with the movie is that once you see where it’s coming from, it’s all a little too obvious, and I’m afraid that the humor that is supposed to redeem it falls pretty flat for me. And though Klein is a creative director (I’m intrigued, for example, by the way he handles Mr. Freedom’s encounter with a window-washer), without the laughs the movie becomes loud, busy, distracting and overbearing. It’s also one of those movies that is so focused on its political viewpoint that it never conjures up a single real, living, breathing character amid the caricatures. I’m afraid I found this one a disappointment.

LA MADRE E LA MORTE (1911)
aka If One Could See into the Future
Article 4008 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 7-20-2012
Directed by Arrigo Frusta
Featuring Paolo Azzurri, Maria Bay, Oreste Grandi
Country: Italy
What it is: Tragic fantasy

A woman, bereft at having her young son taken by Death, seeks out the Grim Reaper and asks that her son be returned. He takes her to a pool that shows how the child’s life would have turned out had he lived.

The English title of this one makes it sound like a work of science fiction, but it’s not; it’s a fantasy in which it is not the future of the world that is seen, but what the ultimate fate of a child would have been if it had lived. When this one popped up on my “ones that got away” list, I commented that it sounded pretty depressing, and sure enough, it is; you really feel sorry for the woman in this one who not only loses her child, but her hope that the child would have grown up to be something wonderful. Like yesterday’s movie, there is at least one truly startling effect; in the opening scenes, when Death picks up the baby, he doesn’t just vanished in the “jump cut” sense we’re used to, but he almost seems to implode. More and more I find myself respecting the early pioneers of cinema.

THE MALTESE BIPPY (1969)
Article 4006 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 8-18-2012
Directed by Norman Panama
Featuring Dan Rowan, Dick Martin, Carol Lynley
Country: USA
What it is: Horror mystery comedy

A man believes that a strange family from next door is trying to turn him into a werewolf.

Anyone who was around during the late sixties/early seventies knows who Rowan and Martin are, as they hosted the hit show “Laugh-In”. However, outside of that show and this movie, I was unaware of anything else they had done, so I checked their individual credits. They’d actually been working together since the late fifties, and they split the team after “Laugh-In”; Rowan was a diabetic who appeared sporadically on TV after that, while Martin would find a lot of work as a TV director. They apparently appeared in three movies together, with this one being probably the most famous, most likely because it was their only starring vehicle at the height of their success. However, the movie was a flop, and I can see why; whatever magic they had on the TV screen dissipated here, where they were required to play characters and not just exchange quips. It’s the kind of movie that, despite the fact that it opens with the two comedians trying to shoot a nudie film, nevertheless ends up with a ‘G’ rating in the theaters. It tries some bizarre comic tricks at the beginning and end of the movie, but for the most part it’s a bland and predictable variation of the “old dark house” movie, and the only werewolf action is during a dream sequence. It’s also startlingly unfunny; I only came close to laughing once, and that was at Martin’s response to Rowan’s set-up line “I’m not sterile.” There’s a little fun to be had with an assortment of familiar actors; Fritz Weaver, Julie Newmar, Robert Reed, Leon Askin and Mildred Natwick are all on hand, and, if anything, they’re more fun than the leads. I actually thought the script seemed like it would have worked better for Abbott and Costello; there were a few times I imagined Rowan’s lines being said by Bud Abbott and Martin’s lines being said by Lou Costello, and I could get a feel on how much funnier they might have been. As it is, there is a reason we don’t have a whole slew of Rowan and Martin movies out there.

THE MAN WITH THE TWISTED LIP (1921)
Short
Article 4004 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 8-15-2012
Directed by Maurice Elvey
Featuring Ellie Norwood, Hubert Willis, Robert Vallis
Country: UK
What it is: Another “Adventure of Sherlock Holmes”

Sherlock Holmes is called in by a woman to investigate the possible murder of her husband by a beggar who lives above an opium den. However, Holmes discovers the truth isn’t really that simple…

Here’s another episode in the Ellie Norwood series of Sherlock Holmes shorts, and this one has no real fantastic content to it. I’ve read the complete Sherlock Holmes stories from Doyle, and though I barely remember most of them, there are a few that I do remember well, and this is one of them. That was why I was able to really appreciate the foreshadowing at the beginning of the story when Watson encounters Holmes in disguise at the opium den; while being a perfectly natural occurrence in a Sherlock Holmes story, it does give a hint to the denouement of this one. I warmed up to Ellie Norwood’s performance in this one; the trouble with the last one is that it placed Holmes in the situation of having, for most of the movie, to be sickly and bedridden; here, he’s playing Holmes in his more usual element, and his body language and sense of authority comes through. I also like the close-up scene of Holmes removing all of his makeup at one point. I’d say of the episodes of the series I’ve seen so far, this is my favorite, but I suspect that I will be only watching one more of them.

THE MECHANICAL MONSTERS (1941)
Animated short
Article 3993 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 7-29-2012
Directed by Dave Fleischer
Featuring the voices of Joan Alexander, Bud Collyer, Julian Noa
Country: USA
What it is: Superman cartoon

Superman has to come to the rescue when a giant flying mechanical man steals a fortune in precious gems, and Lois Lane sneaks aboard the mechanical man’s storage area.

I’ve always had a little bit of a problem with the Fleischer Superman cartoons; in order to fit all that action into the short running times, the characters were kept paper thin and the plots were very simplistic. Still, I know that wouldn’t bother most people, and while watching this one, I found myself most captivated by the incredibly fluid and detailed animation and the wonderful use of color. It certainly looks as if everyone was putting their best foot forward in this one, and there isn’t a moment here that isn’t fun to watch. In fact, it’s so fast-moving and energetic, it probably gets my vote as the best of the Fleischer Superman cartoons.

MARTIN (1976)
Article 3983 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 7-18-2012
Directed by George A. Romero
Featuring John Amplas, Lincoln Maazel, Christine Forrest
Country: USA
What it is: A vampire movie…or a serial killer movie?

A young man who believes he is a vampire but disdains all the magical paraphernalia associated with the affliction moves in with an elderly cousin who is aware of the vampirism.

I went into this one expecting a serial killer who thinks he’s a vampire, which, in itself, isn’t necessarily a great or original concept. However, this movie is too clever to be fall into the cliches and traps of either vampire or serial killer movies, at least partially because it remains ambiguous about the true nature of the title character; is he deluded or is he an eighty-four year old vampire? That he lives in something of a fantasy world is no doubt (he imagines that his victims desire his embrace), but could the black-and-white sequences include memories as well as illusions? It’s the way that the movie manages to be both a character study while playing with the cliches of both the vampire and serial killer movies that make it unexpectedly rich. I like that the fact that the only person he seems to open up to is a late-night talk show host who sees him as an opportunity to increase the ratings of his show. And I also like the myriad ironies of the end of the movie, an ending that is both inevitable and unexpected. Romero himself plays a small role as a priest, and Tom Savini plays the boyfriend of the old man’s granddaughter. This is a clever, fascinating movie.

THE MONKEY TALKS (1927)
Article 3965 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 6-28-2012
Directed by Raoul Walsh
Featuring Olive Borden, Jacques Lerner, Don Alvarado
Country: USA
What it is: Circus melodrama

In order to make ends meet, members of a circus concoct an act in which one of their members will impersonate a monkey who can talk. In order to make sure the scam works, the small group keeps the secret to themselves, but when a beautiful tightrope walker joins the circus, complications arise when both the man impersonating the monkey and the man taking the role of the trainer fall in love with her.

This movie was based on a French stage play that was a big hit, but when it first came to the US, it failed to have the same commercial impact, and the movie adaptation was given a perfunctory production. Still, Jacques Lerner (who played the role of the monkey-man in both France and the U.S.) gives a great, energetic performance, and, even though the only surviving print of this is in decrepit condition, the movie is quite entertaining. Granted, it is a far-fetched premise, and the movie version apparently made a number of changes to the storyline of the play (particularly in the relationship between the monkey/man and his master). Still, even though it ends up on the melodramatic side, I found myself involved with the characters and their situations; I have to admit to being a bit of a sucker for noble sacrifice, so there you go. Still, the fantastic content is slight, though there are a few touches of horror involving a real monkey getting mixed up in the story and other touches of animal horror. All in all, I liked it despite its flaws.

Incidentally, I was able to augment much of this review by reading the entry on it in McFarland’s book, “American Silent Horror, Science Fiction and Fantasy Feature Films 1913-1929” by John T. Soister, Henry Nicolella, Steve Joyce and Harry H. Long, which I just received in the mail today. Consider this a plug!

THE MUTILATOR (1985)
aka Fall Break
Article 3963 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 6-26-2012
Directed by Buddy Cooper
Featuring Matt Mitler, Ruth Martinez, Bill Hitchcock
Country: USA
What it is: Slasher

Years ago, a young boy accidentally kills his mother while cleaning a shotgun. In the present, the boy, now a teenager, goes to spend fall break with a bunch of friends at a seaside condo owned by his dad. But soon his friends start dying one by one…

Here we are back in slasher territory again. The script is bad, the acting is weak, the direction is tepid, the characters are annoying, the music is strangely inappropriate, and it opts for every slasher cliche that it gets near. There’s a bit of nudity, and the violence and gore are a bit on the nasty side, which is probably why the movie has its share of defenders. That’s all I really have to say about this one; those who still want to see it will probably like it well enough.

MICKEY’S APE MAN (1933)
Article 3960 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 6-23-2012
Directed by Jesse Duffy
Featuring Mickey Rooney, Billy Barty, Kendall McComas
Country: USA
What it is: Comedy short

Mickey hopes to win a prize by doing the best imitation of an ape man as part of a movie promotion. But is one of the other members of his gang a better choice to be the ape man?

It looks like the McGuire’s Gang shorts (of which this is a member) were like The Little Rascals, albeit more in a slapstick mode; some of the gags are the type you’d expect in animated cartoons. Just on the surface, this seems pretty marginal in terms of its fantastic content; after all, Tarzan movies are generally on the marginal side, and a short about kids imitating the Tarzan movies seem even further away from the genre. However, since the kids are practicing near one of the least secure zoos in the country, they end up having to face off with an escaped gorilla, and since gorillas often substituted for monsters, I’ll give this one a pass. I wish I knew who played the gorilla; at times it looks like it might be Charley Gemora, but other times not. At any rate, Billy Barty steals the show here.

MAUSOLEUM (1983)
Article 3893 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 4-2-2012
Posting Date: 4-11-2012
Directed by Michael Dugan
Featuring Bobbie Bressee, Marjoe Gortner, Norman Burton
Country: USA
What it is: Demonic possession movie

Traumatized by the death of her mother, a young girl ends up releasing a demon from a mausoleum. Years later she is possessed by the demon, and begins a rampage of terror.

You know, there are moments where I rather admire this movie; the concept has some original touches to it, and certain individual moments work rather effectively; I particular like the touch at the climax that the woman seems to physically revert to her ten-year-old self at times. But the movie has some touches that are really silly (the family name is Nemod, the black maid is a throwback in the worst sense, and Marjoe Gortner’s death is just too ludicrous to take seriously), and the often lifeless direction and weak acting pull it down at every step. At least the twist ending wasn’t the one I expected, but, on the other hand, it’s one that doesn’t make any real sense, either. In short, this one is a misfire, though it does have some points of interest.