THE MOUSE ON THE MOON (1963)
Article 2745 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 11-11-2008
Posting Date: 2-17-2009
Directed by Richard Lester
Featuring Margaret Rutherford, Ron Moody, Bernard Cribbins
Country: UK

A miniscule country in Europe decides to get money for plumbing by asking the United States for money for rocket research, a grant that is given under the belief that this small country provides no real threat to the space race. However, when it is discovered that the local wine contains properties that make it a powerful rocket fuel, the country acquires a rocket from Russia and plans a trip to the moon.

This sequel to THE MOUSE THAT ROARED could well have been disastrous; after all, the absence of Peter Sellers from this sequel must have seemed like a real setback. At worst, though, the movie is merely uneven; the three performers who more or less replace Peter Sellers in his respective roles (Bernard Cribbins as a bumbling ne’er-do-well, Ron Moody as a wily Prime Minister, and Margaret Rutherford as the dotty queen) are all well cast, and the satirical aspects of the story (in which the governments of various concerned countries all play diplomatic games to make the best of the situation) are a lot of fun. It’s an early movie for Richard Lester, who would really come into his own with his next film, A HARD DAY’S NIGHT. The script is a little clumsy in the more overt comedy, but the movie is far from an embarrassment. My favorite laugh: a joke about the privy council.

THE MISADVENTURES OF MERLIN JONES (1964)
Article 2741 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 11-7-2008
Posting Date: 2-13-2009
Directed by Robert Stevenson
Featuring Tommy Kirk, Annette Funicello, Leon Ames
Country: USA

The scientific experiments of a college genius get him involved with a local judge.

Well, what do you know! This shopping cart movie manages to emulate one of those manifestations in which two separate episodes of a TV series are edited together to form a bogus movie. In the first half, Merlin Jones develops the ability to read minds, and begins to suspect the judge of being a master criminal. In the second, he experiments with hypnotism and ends up using the judge as a subject in an experiment to find out whether hypnotism can really force someone to go against his own moral code. Factor in the overall sense of blandness to this one, and the fact that, unlike most of the other Disney shopping cart movies, this one does not build to anything like a rousing climax, and the sense of watching TV episodes becomes that much stronger. Yet I can find no evidence that this was from a TV-series; nevertheless, I suspect that these were originally conceived as two episodes of Disney’s long-running TV series but which somehow ended up as a feature film. Well, for whatever reason, I have to admit that this one really falls flat for me; the best part of the movie is the opening animation, but after that, the blandness drags it down. Fans of Tommy Kirk and Annette Funicello may well enjoy it, as will those with nostalgic fondness for the movie. It must have done well enough in the theaters; it inspired a sequel, THE MONKEY’S UNCLE, which also appears to tell two different stories.

THE MEPHISTO WALTZ (1970)
Article 2740 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 11-6-2008
Posting Date: 2-12-2009
Directed by Paul Wendkos
Featuring Alan Alda, Jacqueline Bisset, Barbara Parkins
Country: USA

A one-time pianist turned journalist is invited to meet a legendary classical pianist, who takes an instant liking to him. The journalist’s wife is suspicious of the motives of the pianist and dislikes the pianist’s daughter. However, when the pianist dies and the journalist undergoes a startling change of personality, she begins to feel that something is truly wrong…

Though it may not be apparent from the plot description above, it didn’t take me long while watching it to realize that this movie is mostly a clone of ROSEMARY’S BABY with certain plot details changed. It’s eerie enough in spots and it features a fine score by Jerry Goldsmith, but it’s overlong, and for the most part it’s very predictable, especially once you recognize its similarity to the previously mentioned movie. It only really caught fire towards the end of the movie when the wife decides to fight fire with fire, and then I found myself quite engrossed in trying to figure out how she was going to get what she wanted. Alas, the ending only left me disappointed because I found it hard to believe that what she gets is really what she wanted. There was a lot of talent from TV at work on this one; director Paul Wendkos mostly worked in television, and the movie was produced by none other than Quinn Martin. On a side note, this is the second movie in a row to feature a central character dying of leukemia but somehow managing to find a way to survive.

MAD DOCTOR OF BLOOD ISLAND (1968)
Article 2739 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 11-5-2008
Posting Date: 2-11-2009
Directed by Gerardo de Leon and Eddie Romero
Featuring John Ashley, Angelique Pettyjohn, Ronald Remy
Country: USA / Philippines

Travelers come to an island where people are being killed off by a strange green monster.

This was the second of the “Blood Island” trilogy; I don’t know if there’s a direct connection to the first, BRIDES OF BLOOD, but the follow-up, BEAST OF BLOOD is definitely a sequel. Fans of gimmick marketing will certainly be charmed by the opening, in which the audience is told to drink the green blood that they received when they came to see the movie; this is supposed to protect them from becoming green-blooded monsters. Fans of bloody mayhem will be satisfied by this one; the attacks are truly gruesome and gory, making the sequel seem rather anemic by comparison. The non-English-speaking actors aren’t well dubbed, but it doesn’t really matter; the English-speaking actors don’t exactly rack up the best actor nominations either. It’s kind of fun in that sleazy drive-in sense, but I found the annoying camera tricks whenever the monster shows up (we get rapid zoom-in-zoom-out-zoom-in-zoom-out-etc. effects) is almost nauseating, and not in a fun way. There’s also a fair amount of nudity to add to the gore, including a nude love-making scene with Angelique Pettyjohn and John Ashley. It’s intermittently fun but intermittently disappointing as well.

MICKEY’S GALA PREMIER (1933)
Animated Short
Article 2738 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 11-4-2008
Posting Date: 2-10-2009
Directed by Burt Gillett
Featuring the voices of Walt Disney and Marcellite Garner
Country: USA

A plethora of Hollywood movie stars comes out to Grauman’s Chinese Theater to see the premier of Mickey Mouse’s latest movie.

If you set aside for the moment the cartoon convention of talking animals, the fantastic content of this one is slight; among the audience members we have the Frankenstein Monster, Dracula and Mr. Hyde. Still, anyone who loves movies from the era will have a treat here, as we get a dizzying array of caricatures of stars from the period, including the Marx Brothers, Laurel and Hardy, Joe E. Brown, Edward G. Robinson, Bette Davis, Joan Crawford, Mae West, Clark Gable, Charlie Chaplin, Eddie Cantor, Jimmy Durante…. I could just go on. The antics of the audience are the real attraction here; the Mickey Mouse cartoon they watch (a movie within a movie) is fairly ordinary, though it does feature Mickey riding an odd array of beasties in his chase to rescue Minnie from Pegleg Pete. Actually, it would be fun to put together an animated anthology of cartoons that featured caricatures of great movie stars; I know Warner Brothers put out several cartoons over the years that feature that format. Great fun.

MADE FOR LOVE (1926)
Article 2699 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 9-21-2008
Posting Date: 1-2-2009
Directed by Paul Sloane
Featuring Leatrice Joy, Edmund Burns, Ethel Wales
Country: USA

A woman finds herself frustrated by her archaeologist fiance’s obsession with his job. She becomes embroiled with a local prince, who is secretly plotting to murder the archaeologist before he can break into the inner chamber of a tomb (which the prince has been secretly rifling for riches).

The fantastic content of this movie is that there is a curse on the tomb. So how does this play into the plot? Well, if you buy into the movie, lots. However, if, like me, you notice that most of the misfortune attributed to the curse can easily be explained by the stupidity and evil of certain characters rather than by any supernatural manifestation, then you might be wondering why you are wasting your time with what is essentially a romance (as if you couldn’t tell by the title). You know what a romance is, don’t you? It’s a movie where two characters who love each other act with monumental stupidity for the first ninety percent of the movie, and only reach a happy ending by regaining normal intelligence in the last reel. Sure, I can understand a man being too distracted by his job to pay sufficient attention to his fiancee, but not when most of that distraction involves staring at a vase for hours on end. Still, the lovers aren’t as thick-headed as the three would-be comic relief suitors who follow the fiancee around in the vain hope of winning her hand; really, if I were trying to win a woman, I would choose a better method than forming a comedy team with two other men trying to win her, because I’d know that any other suitor that came along would end up with a definite advantage. By the way, that’s Brandon Hurst as the pharoah in the flashback.

MUMMY’S DUMMIES (1948)
Article 2693 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 9-11-2008
Posting Date: 12-27-2008
Directed by Edward Bernds
Featuring Moe Howard, Larry Fine, Shemp Howard
Country: USA

The Three Stooges sell used chariots in ancient Egypt. They meet king Rootintootin and discover a plot to steal tax money.

I like the Stooges best when their timing is sharp, and it’s pretty sharp in this one. There really isn’t much in the way of fantastic content, though; outside of the fact that one of them pretends to be a bull-headed oracle and Shemp disguises himself as a mummy, there’s little here. Despite a similar title and the reappearance of King Rootintootin, this is not a remake of WE WANT OUR MUMMY.

MYSTERIOUS ISLAND (1951)
Serial
Article 2652 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 7-10-2008
Posting Date: 11-16-2008
Directed by Spencer Bennet
Featuring Richard Crane, Marshall Reed, Karen Randle
Country: USA

Five prisoners of the Confederate Army during the Civil War escape in a balloon, but a hurricane carries them to a mysterious island. There they encounter a masked stranger, a wild man, pirates, a tribe of volcano people, and aliens from Mercury.

This isn’t the first serial I’ve seen based on a novel; THE GREEN ARCHER and DRUMS OF FU MANCHU both come to mind. It is, however, the first serial I’ve seen that’s based on a novel I’ve read. This gives me an opportunity to see how serials adapt novels. I was surprised that the serial more or less follows the novel closely… for the first fifteen minutes of episode one, that is. Then the volcano people (who wear nice uniforms and carry lightning-bolt shaped spears) and the space aliens from Mercury show up, and all resemblance to the original novel is gone. Even by serial standards the plot is lame; for ninety percent of the serial, most of the story seems to be a series of enemies turning to allies and back again; after a while, the only real mystery is who is going to end up an ally and who is going to end up an enemy at the end of the serial. All right, there IS the mystery of the identity of the mysterious masked stranger, but anyone remotely familiar with the story knows who that is. The rest is routine serial thrills, and I had more fun recognizing Richard “Rocky Jones” Crane as Captain Harding and Gene Roth as the head of the pirates. However, I do give the movie points for retaining the character of Neb, having him played by a black, and not turning him into a stereotype.

MY FRIENDS NEED KILLING (1976)
Article 2624 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 6-12-2008
Posting Date: 10-19-2008
Directed by Paul Leder
Featuring Greg Mullavy, Meredith MacRae, Clay Wilcox
Country: USA

A disturbed Vietnam vet flips out and decides to kill off all of his former company members who participated in the massacre of the residents of a small village.

I’m primarily familiar with Paul Leder from his having directed A*P*E, a movie which… well, I think I’ll hold off on saying anything about THAT one until I cover it as a separate entity. Suffice it to say that I went into this one expecting the very worst. To my surprise, it isn’t half bad; it’s well acted, and the script has some interesting moments. It also has a fair share of cliches, it doesn’t have the emotional impact for it to be really effective, and when it gets unpleasant, it’s just repellent. If the ratings are of any indication on IMDB, it’s Leder’s best movie, and I’m not surprised to discover that his worst has already been mentioned in this review. If this movie is any indication, he’s better on serious movies than on those that require a lighter touch.

MYSTERY OF EDWIN DROOD (1935)
Article 2621 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 6-8-2008
Posting Date: 10-16-2008
Directed by Stuart Walker
Featuring Claude Rains, Douglass Montgomery, Heather Angel
Country: USA

A choirmaster with an opium addiction is secretly averse to his nephew’s impending marriage to the woman they both love. Another man arrives on the scene and falls in love with the same woman, resulting in a confrontation that stops just short of murder. Then, when the nephew disappears, an investigation is begun to find out if he’s alive, and if not, who killed him.

I find this attempt by Universal to give an unfinished novel by Charles Dickens something of a horror spin to be rather interesting, if not entirely successful. I remember the movie popping up on my local Creature Feature when I was young, and being very quickly bored with what seemed to me another bogus non-horror movie trying to pose as one. I still feel that way a little; though there are some horror touches here (there’s a sense of decadence, some eerie sets, and a great storm sequence), it’s really more of a crime film than anything else. Fortunately, it’s anchored by a great performance by Claude Rains and a good one by Douglass Montgomery. It does manage to preserve a lot of the Dickens flavor, which is nice, though it does turn out to be a mixed blessing. Some of Universal’s supporting players are a bit on the hammy side, and when you combine them with some of Dickens’s broadly drawn characters, the results can be so caricaturish that they’re impossible to believe; the mayor’s buffoonish pompousness is so thick in this movie that it’s a major distraction. Still, it’s quite interesting to see the subject of drug addiction being treated in a movie that was released while the motion picture code was in effect, and the movie is overall rather satisfying.