THE MERRY FROLICS OF SATAN (1906)
aka LES QUATRE CENTS FARCES DU DIABLE
Article 2067 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 11-11-2006
Posting Date: 4-10-2007
Directed by Georges Melies
Cast Unknown (but I bet that’s Melies as Satan)

Two travelers embark on a journey, but find themselves bearing the brunt of tricks by Satan along the way.

I don’t know who dreamed up the English title for this Melies fantasy, but it’s certainly one of my favorites. The movie is no slouch, either; Melies pulls practically every trick in the book in this one, and things get pretty wild. In this one, you will see a man kicked by a giant foot, a trunk that contains several other trunks of the same size, each including a couple of demons who connect all the trunks together and transform them into a passenger train, a wild carriage ride with a skeletal horse through the stars (keep your eyes pealed for one of my favorite continuing characters in the Melies oeuvre, the cranky guy in Saturn), and the final scene where one of the travelers is taken to hell where he suffers a nasty fate. Yep, Satan sure has merry frolics, doesn’t he? There isn’t much of a plot with this one, but the special effects are witty and fun.

THE MADNESS OF DR. TUBE (1915)
aka LA FOLIE DU DOCTEUR TUBE
Article 2066 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 11-10-2006
Posting Date: 4-9-2007
Directed by Abel Gance
Featuring Albert Dieudonne

A mad scientist develops a powder that distorts everything around him. He uses it on a dog, his assistant, himself, and two pairs of young lovers.

How mad is he? After a few minutes of his eye-rolling, you won’t be making bets on his sanity. Basically, it’s a one-note joke – most of the movie looks like it was shot through a fun house mirror – but it’s a fun and visually interesting one, rather similar to Abel Gance’s later AU SECOURS! in technique, though the latter has a better story.

MARQUIS DE SADE’S JUSTINE (1969)
aka DEADLY SANCTUARY
Article 2044 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 10-19-2006
Posting Date: 3-18-2007
Directed by Jesus Franco
Featuring Klaus Kinski, Romin Power, Maria Rohm

Two young women are expelled from a convent when their money runs out. One turns to prostitution and, following her evil ways, rises in the world. The other chooses the path of virtue and finds herself victimized at every turn by the unscrupulous.

I’m not familiar with the writings of De Sade, nor do I particularly have much interest in pursuing that knowledge, so I can’t say whether Franco’s foray into his work really captures the views and philosophy of the man. I will say, however, that this is the first movie I’ve seen of Franco’s that makes me understand something of his appeal; it definitely has a marked sense of style about it, and I never once get the feeling that the movie is running on automatic pilot. It’s only marginally genre, however; take away the torture sequences in the monastery and the fact that the monks are quite mad, and there’s no horror content here at all. Reportedly, it was his most expensive movie to date, which may explain how he was able to gather together a fairly impressive cast; Jack Palance (who gives a truly eccentric performance), Klaus Kinski (as de Sade), Akim Tamiroff, Mercedes McCambridge and Howard Vernon all appear. One impression I got from the movie is that, despite all the darkness and perversion, it is at least partially a comedy, particularly during the first half; since I saw the complete 124 minute version, it leaves me wondering which thirty minutes were cut from the movie and what it was like in that form. At times Franco’s style is annoying, particularly during the first scene where he overuses the technique of going in and out of focus. Nonetheless, I found this movie much more watchable and enjoyable than most of the other Franco movies I’ve seen. Quite frankly, I’m surprised; I thought I was going to hate this one and that I would have to strain to say something nice.

MAGDALENA, POSSESSED BY THE DEVIL (1974)
aka MAGDALENA, VOM TEUFEL BESESSEN, BEYOND THE DARKNESS
Article 2013 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 9-18-2006
Posting Date: 2-15-2007
Directed by Walter Boos
Featuring Dagmar Hedrich, Werner Bruhns, Michael Hinz

A woman at a boarding school gets possessed by the devil, cusses a lot, is raped by invisible demons, and uses her wiles to lure men into killing each other, makes furniture move, and baffles scientists.

If you didn’t know THE EXORCIST was a big hit, you might figure it out by how many imitations were made in its wake. This one ups the sleaze factor by making the possessed girl several years older; that way, they can add a lot more sex and nudity to the proceedings to compensate for the lack of blood and pea soup. There are a few good ideas in the mix, but for the most part, it’s an unfocused poorly-dubbed mess. Exploitation director Walter Boos helms this one; he’s mostly known for a series of movies that begin with the words “Schoolgirl Report”, which should give you an idea where he’s coming from. The ending is probably the most memorable part of the movie; it’s probably the only thing I’ll remember about it in a few months, but that doesn’t mean it works; it’s the type of scene that would be pretty effective in the middle of a movie like this, but as a climax, it’s – well – anticlimactic. This one is pretty much for fans of sleaze who could care less about the story.

MY BLOOD RUNS COLD (1965)
Article 2001 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 9-6-2006
Posting Date: 2-3-2007
Directed by William Conrad
Featuring Troy Donahue, Joey Heatherton, Barry Sullivan

The daughter of a ruthless and possessive business tycoon almost runs over a man who claims to have known her in a previous life. Despite her father’s wishes, she falls in love with the man, and decides to run off with him. Unfortunately, the man isn’t quite what he seems…

I’m mostly familiar with William Conrad for his having played the title role in the TV series “Cannon”, and for his voice-over work on “Rocky and Bullwinkle”. In truth, he appears to have had a varied career, which includes a lot of radio work, some producing, and even some composing. As a director, he mostly worked for television. This isn’t the first time I’ve encountered him in this capacity; he did some uncredited work on COUNTDOWN. At any rate, I’m not particularly impressed with his work on this one, but it’s mostly the story that leaves my blood running tepid. With all the potential for fantasy-horror here (what with the reincarnation angle and the psycho-on-the-loose plotline), somehow the movie seems little more than a variation of REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE; just substitute a homicidal psycho for a troubled teen, and you’re pretty much in the same territory. The acting is variable, with Jeanette Nolan coming off the best as the heroine’s Aunt Sarah; she’s far and away the most unpredictable and interesting character in the story. Nocolas Coster also does surprisingly well when you consider that he has the thankless role in the movie (that of the the girl’s other boyfriend) and Sullivan also comes off well. Troy Donahue does all right, but his character is a little too obvious to be effective, and, though she is undeniably very attractive, I didn’t find Joey Heatherton to be very convincing in her role. The most fun I had with this movie was figuring out who does the voice of the helicopter pilot near the end of the movie.

MANHUNT OF MYSTERY ISLAND (1945)
Serial
Article 1992 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 8-28-2006
Posting Date: 1-25-2006
Directed by Spencer Gordon Bennet, Yakima Canutt, and Wallace Grissell
Featuring Richard Bailey, Linda Stirling, Roy Barcroft

A scientist has been kidnapped and is being held prisoner on Mystery Island by a pirate named Captain Mephisto. Investigator Lance Reardon travels to the island to rescue the scientist and figure out the pirate’s true identity.

At this point, the average episode length of the Republic serial was a little less than fourteen minutes per episode, and a good deal of that running time was taken up with credits, footage from the previous episode, and a repeated sequence in which Mephisto transforms himself to his real identity (or vice versa, as the case may be). Furthermore, episode ten is one of those annoying recap episodes made up mostly of footage from previous episodes. Though there’s a part of me that’s tempted to complain, I really don’t have the heart; I like this one too much. For one thing, I like it when Roy Barcroft plays the main villain; they’re always a bit more interesting, and they take part in the fights rather than sitting behind desks and barking orders. Furthermore, the science fiction content is pretty high here; not only does the scientist come up with an interesting array of inventions, but Captain Mephisto himself uses a machine to change his appearance. It also helps that the female lead is one who actually proves useful on occasion rather than being one in perpetually need of rescue. But the real high point here is the high quality of those Republic warehouse-wrecking fights, which are in top form here. Ed Wood favorite Kenne Duncan also has a more pronounced role here as the main henchman. All in all, I rate this as one of the better serials I’ve seen.

THE MONOLITH MONSTERS (1957)
Article 1978 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 8-14-2006
Posting Date: 1-11-2007
Directed by John Sherwood
Featuring Lola Albright, Grant Williams, Les Tremayne

A meteor brings a rock-like substance to earth, which, when wet, sucks in all the silicates around and grows to dangerous proportions. Unless a way of stopping it is found, it threatens the safety of the world.

The story structure here is fairly pedestrian, and there’s not many surprises in the way this monster movie unfolds. Yet, despite this, this one remains a favorite. I can attribute this primarily to one thing; the monster has a great novelty value to it, in much the same way as the one in THE MAGNETIC MONSTER does. I really love the way the monster behaves; essentially mindless, it merely grows until it can’t stay erect any longer, falls, shatters into many pieces, and then each of the pieces begins to grow into a new monolith, repeating the whole process again a hundredfold. It is the sights of these pillars falling and shattering that stick in the memory here more than anything. And despite the fact that the story is predictable, it’s still well presented and logically holds together. John Sherwood mostly worked as an assistant director throughout his career; this is one of only three movies he directed, one of which (THE CREATURE WALKS AMONG US) also belongs to the fantastic genre; quite frankly, I think this comes off a lot better than that one did. Keep your eyes open for a memorable little cameo from William Schallert as a weatherman.

MENACE FROM OUTER SPACE (1956)
Article 1972 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 8-8-2006
Posting Date: 1-5-2007
Directed by Hollingsworth Morse
Featuring Richard Crane, Scotty Beckett, Sally Mansfield

When a comet heading towards the earth turns out to be a missile from a far-off moon, Rocky Jones and crew decide to visit the planet to investigate the possibility of new energy sources. However, he finds resistance in the form of a runaway criminal from Earth and an invasion by a hostile planet.

Despite the turgid pace and the sometimes silly dialogue (“Right as Rockets!”), I always thought the Rocky Jones series showed a bit more in the way of smarts than a lot of other juvenile science fiction from the period. This one has some real surprises right off the bat; it looks like they went on location for part of the story, with Professor Newton puttering around what looks like an honest-to-goodness real observatory, and with certain scenes that take place out of doors. The latter is a real surprise; almost everything else I’ve seen for the show was obviously shot in the studio. Still, I couldn’t help but notice that, even though the series took place in the distant future, the cars look an awful lot like the ones from the fifties.

As usual, this one is entertaining enough if you’re willing to be patient and attuned to the fact that you’re watching three episodes of a TV series strung together. The first half of this one plays off a bit like ROCKETSHIP X-M, and then becomes a bit similar to FLIGHT TO MARS before going off on its own tangent. This one is one of my favorites of the series, but if you’re not a Rocky Jones fan, I doubt that it will do much for you.

THE MASK (1961)
Article 1970 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 8-6-2006
Posting Date: 1-3-2007
Directed by Julian Roffman
Featuring Paul Stevens, Claudette Nevins, Bill Walker

A psychiatrist has a patient who believes he has been lured into committing murder by an evil mask. When the patient commits suicide, the psychiatrist receives the mask in the mail. He decides to try it on for himself…

Let’s get right down to the main attraction of this movie; when it was shown in theaters, the audience were supposed to put on their 3D glasses whenever they heard the phrase “Put the mask on NOW!”, and they would be treated to some of the trippiest 3-D horror sequences they’ve ever seen. I have to give the movie credit; these sequences are truly bizarre, full of unsettling and grotesque images, and with a nightmarish stream-of-consciousness technique. If the movie was to be judged on these sequences alone, it would have been great.

Unfortunately, there’s not only the rest of the movie to contend with, there’s also the problem with how these scenes fit into the context of the movie. The movie would like to see itself as a psychological thriller, but there really isn’t much in the way of psychology on display here. The script is fairly weak and obvious, and the nightmare sequences never really effectively hook up with the rest of the story, which is to say that all those nightmarish images never really gain a relevance; they remain little more than scary images.

Probably the worst problem with the movie is the middle section. Once the psychiatrist tries on the mask for the first time, he is so totally changed by the mask that we know he’s going to start killing people once he opens his mouth. The trouble is, it takes him the rest of the movie to get around to it. It would have worked a lot better had the changes to the psychiatrist’s personality been more gradual, with each donning of the mask bringing him closer to madness. This would have required either a more subtle script and more nuanced acting from the actor playing the psychiatrist, but such is not the case. As a result, the movie as a whole falls flat. Still, everyone should have a look at those trippy nightmare sequences at least once.

THE MAGIC FACE (1951)
Article 1939 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 7-6-2006
Posting Date: 12-3-2006
Directed by Frank Tuttle
Featuring Luther Adler, Patricia Knight, William L. Shirer

A professional impersonator in Nazi Germany is arrested and thrown into prison when Hitler takes a fancy to his wife. He manages to escape, and hatches a plot to destroy Hitler by murdering him and taking his place.

Given the hysterical and lurid promises of the ad campaign (“See HITLER KILLED IN SHAME MURDER – after wild wine party!” and “See HITLER SLAIN IN LOVE NEST – after shameless champagne party!”) and the far-fetched premise of the plot, the movie actually comports itself with a decent amount of dignity and tries to make itself convincing. I do like the little attentions to detail; they spend some time showing that the actor has to learn the duties of a valet before he takes on the job itself, and we see a number of scenes of the actor closely watching Hitler so that he’ll know how to imitate him. I also think Luther Adler does an excellent job in the role, and at one time or another he gives imitations of Mussolini, Chamberlain and Selassie as well as Hitler.

For this series, though, the question is whether this movie qualifies as genre or not. I’m inclined to say it doesn’t. The closest explanation I could come up with that someone would classify it as such is that the premise bears a certain similarity to ‘alternate histories” in the science fiction genre, but these histories give us a world different from the one we live in, whereas this movie is trying to offer an explanation as to why certain things happened, in particular, as to why Hitler began making major tactical mistakes in his war planning. And, for the record, the only “wild wine party” here is held by the warden of the prison (with Hitler not on hand) long before Der Fuhrer is assassinated.