NIGHTMARE CASTLE (1965)
(a.k.a. AMANTI D’OLTRETOMBA)
Article #613 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing date: 11-18-2002
Posting date: 4-14-2003

A scientist tortures and murders his wife and her lover, uses the blood to restore the youth of his lover, and then marries his former wife’s sister in order to get the inheritance.

One of the aspects of Italian horror movies that made me feel somewhat ambivalent about trying them out was their obsession with sadism; they seem to linger on long sequences of torture (especially against women) with emphasis on pain, and these tend to make their movies very unpleasant. In the hands of someone like Bava, it has its uses (quite frankly, he does an amazing job with the theme in THE WHIP AND THE BODY), but it’s movies like this one that generally drive me away. I feel the need to point out that my print of the movie is none too good, and the dubbing on it is even worse than usual for this type of movie, so this may color my feelings about it, but there’s not much here to make me feel that a subtitled print would raise it to the level of a movie that I would like. The story feels overly familiar, as if there’s nothing I’ve seen here that I haven’t seen in other (better) movies, and the unpleasant first ten minutes just makes the whole thing a rather nasty affair. Most likely, I won’t bother with this one again unless I’m given reason to believe that a subtitled version is clearly several times superior.

THE NIGHT STALKER (1972)
Article #612 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing date: 11-17-2002
Posting date: 4-13-2003

A vampire is loose in Las Vegas, and an ambitious reporter attempts to get the authorities to realize what they are dealing with.

The first time I had a chance to see this in its entirety was long after I had been familiar with the Kolchak character throught the TV series, and I found certain aspects of the original TV-Movie to be somewhat jarring, particularly the fact that Kolchak had a girlfriend; this has more to do with the nature of a TV series (where you gain a certain intimacy with a character who you see week after week) versus that of a movie (in which your total experience with a character is most likely for the length of that movie). Produced by Dan Curtis, and with an excellent script by Richard Matheson, this movie took an unusual approach to the vampire story, putting special emphasis on the aspects of how the police and the government would handle a series of murders that belong more to the world of legend rather than the more mundane criminals they usually deal with. Still, it is Darren McGavin who steals the whole movie, with a character who is something of a modern version of the wise-cracking reporters so common in the thirties, but updated and given dimension to flesh him out; he is unforgettable. The movie also establishes Kolchak’s perpetual boss/antagonist, Simon Oakland as Tony Vincenzo, his editor, who, though something of a minor character here, would be the only character in the movie that would follow Kolchak through his later investigations. The vampire is played by Barry Atwater, and I couldn’t help but note that one of the many aliases of the vampire was Bela Blasko, the true name of Bela Lugosi.

NIGHT OF THE BLOOD BEAST (1958)
Article #611 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing date: 11-16-2002
Posting date: 4-12-2003

A man comes down from outer space carrying the embryos of an alien life form.

This American International cheapie has some interesting ideas, and the story seems somewhat like a cross between two pictures from Executive Producer Roger Corman, notably, ATTACK OF THE CRAB MONSTERS and IT CONQUERED THE WORLD. Unfortunately, both of those movies have better acting and a more solidly realized script; this movie suffers from poor exposition, lackluster direction, and uninspired performances, all of which contribute to making the movie a lot duller than it should have been. Certainly, the idea of a man being made the host for the fetuses of aliens would get better use in ALIEN twenty years later, but this is probably the first time the idea was used. It’s a little sad; with a little more work on the script, more care and a better cast, this one could have been a winner rather than a disappointment. This was not AIP’s finest hour.

THE NANNY (1965)
Article #609 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing date: 11-14-2002
Posting date: 4-10-2003

A boy just returned home from a mental hospital is hostile to his family and especially his nanny, who he believes is trying to kill him.

The whole story in this film hinges upon a backstory involving the death of the boy’s sister, and the movie is almost two-thirds of the way through before we make our way to the two crucial flashbacks which explain the story. This stretch could have been tedious, but the strong acting throughout, interesting characters, and a stunning performance by Bette Davis in the title role hold the viewer’s attention until then. Though I’d seen several Davis movies before this one, this is the one that convinced me she was a truly great actress; playing a character who must keep her true feelings hidden while keeping a loving, caring surface on display inspires her to give a powerful, subtle performance, one where a simple shifting of the eyes is enough to speak volumes; I’ve never seen her more restrained nor more effective. The flashbacks themselves are unexpectedly powerful, telling a nightmarish but devastatingly sad tale that fleshes out the movie immensely. There is also some superb editing at work, particularly in the second flashback and the climactic scene of the movie. It’s not perfect; the child is a little too petulant and blase for the situation that he is in, and the very last scene is a little too neat, easy and contrived, but all in all, this remains perhaps the most compelling Hammer movie I’ve seen, one that owes more to Val Lewton than to their other horror movies.

THE NEW ADVENTURES OF TARZAN (1935)
Article #597 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing date: 11-2-2002
Posting date: 3-28-2003

Tarzan goes to Guatamala to rescue an old friend and ends up fighting criminals trying to steal an idol containing an explosive secret.

Edgar Rice Burroughs was one of the producers of this serial, so this is probably one of the more accurate portrayals of Tarzan as envisioned in the original books. Herman Brix plays Tarzan, and his yell is something else; my wife thought it sounded like Lou Costello screaming in fright while turning inexplicably into Minnie Pearl. Actually, the serial is pretty good; it takes itself somewhat more seriously than some of the others I’ve seen, and there’s a definite savage touch to the violence that makes it a bit more engrossing. Cheating cliffhangers abound, but actually, the action sequences are done well enough that they don’t bother me at all this time around. However, if you get to the last episode, you might be excused for wondering if the story is over in the first five minutes of it. In which case, you’d be right; the last three-quarters of this episode is mostly recycled footage from the first episode. The acting is not particularly good, but you only notice that when the actors are just standing around talking, which isn’t very often; the emphasis is definitely on action.

1984 (1956)
Article #539 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing date: 9-5-2002
Posting date: 1-29-2003

A man of the future defies his oppressive government by taking a lover.

I’ve read the famous George Orwell novel on which this novel is based, and after having done so, I must admit that I have very little impetus to see any of the movie adaptations of it; not that I didn’t like the novel or that I thought it was unfilmable, but more because any movie adaptation would either have to capture the feel of the book, or it would fail; if the latter, it seems a bit of a waste to see the movie, and if the former, I’m not sure that I would WANT to go through the experience again. This version of the movie is more or less faithful to the novel, but the scenes in the Ministry of Love lack the harrowing brutality of the novel, though in all honesty, I didn’t expect the scenes would do so. However, it is worth catching for some fine performances by all, and it is nice to catch an early performance by Donald Pleasence. Of the remaining versions of 1984 out there, I will admit to being curious about the Peter Cushing version, and undoubtedly I’ll have to catch that one of these days.

NIGHTWING (1979)
Article #480 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing date: 7-8-2002
Posting date: 12-1-2002

An Indian reservation finds itself the site of an infestation of vampire bats.

This movie reaches its make-or-break moment (it’s first full-blown bat attack) at about the halfway point; since my first reaction on seeing the bats was to say to myself, “Look at the puppets,” I would have make a call of “break” on this one. Not that it was batting a thousand before we reach that moment; the movie was suffering from catatonic acting (I was grateful to David Warner for being able to instill some energy in the proceedings) and an abundance of overly-familiar subplots (an evil corporate bigwig who tries to suppress the knowledge of the bats’ existence, for example). Still, for all that, the movie never quite becomes an unwatchable snoozefest; but it never really gets exciting, scary, or convincing, either. It does serve as a nice background movie for working a crossword puzzle, as you can proceed with the full confidence that nothing is going to become so involving (in either the puzzle or the movie) that it will totally distract you from the other task at hand.

NIGHTMARE (1964)
Article #473 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing date: 7-1-2002
Posting date: 11-24-2002

A teenage girl who witnessed the murder of her father by her mother is haunted by nightmares.

This Hammer horror-thriller has a solid and satisfying ending; in fact, it would have made an excellent episode of either “Alfred Hitchcock Presents” or “Thriller”. I think it would have also been the right length if it had been an episode of one of these two shows; as it is, I feel that both halfs of the movie drag a little too much from trying to fill out the running time. In fact, it’s a good thing the movie does fall into two distinct halves; there was a certain point during the first half of the movie where I feared that I was going to have to endure an endless succession of scenes of the teenage girl following people in hallways and then opening a door to something scary, and then screaming and waking from her dream. Not bad overall, but it does leave you many opportunities to raid the fridge.

THE NIGHT WALKER (1964)
Article #471 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing date: 6-29-2002
Posting date: 11-22-2002

A woman has nightmares involving a handsome young man as well as her ugly, blind husband who died in a bizarre explosion.

Actually, combining the manipulative scare tactics of William Castle and a script by Robert Bloch is a pretty good idea. Close exploration of the story will most likely result in a multitude of plot holes, but it says something about the movie that I enjoyed it enough not to bother to hunt them out. The opening animated montage is particularly fun in this one, but my favorite scene in the movie is the creepy wedding ceremony involving a deserted chapel populated only by mannequins and a whirling chandelier; this is one of my favorite sequences in the William Castle canon. There are no gimmicks this time round that I know of, but the plot twists come thick and fast at the end and are liable to keep your head swimming. This one joins my list of favorite William Castle movies.

NIGHT MONSTER (1942)
Article #461 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing date: 6-19-2002
Posting date: 11-12-2002

Strange strangulation murders are being committed in the vicinity of a mansion owned by a man suffering from paralysis.

I’ve never quite understood the logic of casting horror stars like Bela Lugosi and Lionel Atwill, and then consigning them to worthless and immemorable roles, as this movie does. There’s not much to Atwill’s role at all, and he vanishes from the story about half-way through, and Lugosi is once again consigned to the butler role, where he doesn’t even function as a red herring. Yet during the opening credits, it’s their names that are front and center to bring in the viewing public. It’s no wonder Lugosi made so many movies with Monogram; at least when they cast him, they gave him a role as prominent as his listing in the credits.

These are all side issues, of course; as for the movie itself, it’s a minor Universal horror film, to be sure, but it’s probably my favorite of their lesser ones. There’s very little padding or wasted space, and it has the courage of its convictions in that it isn’t simply a mystery disguised as a horror film (which one might suspect, given the fact that the movie is sort of a variation of the “Old Dark House” type of movie). The first time I saw this movie was in unusual circumstances; my local Creature Feature had mixed the final reels of this movie with the opening reels of THE MUMMY’S HAND, and I found myself suddenly thrown into another plot halfway through the movie. Nevertheless, at least one scene remained stuck indelibly in my memory; this is the scene where we learn the truth about the paralysis suffered by the patriarch of the house. Also, the clever use of sound is memorable; the croaking frogs in the vicinity become quiet whenever the murderer is around. The movie uses this devise sparingly, but very effectively. This was one movie I hadn’t seen in years until I saw it for this series of movies. It was nice to see how well it held up.