NATHALIE, AGENT SECRET (1959)
aka Atomic Agent
Article 4372 by Dave Sindelar
Date:11-20-2013
Directed by Henri Decoin
Featuring Martine Carol, Felix Marten, Dario Moreno
Country: France / Italy
What it is: Spy story

A model turned adventuress finds herself involved with spies who are after an atomic motor.

Here’s another title that I saved from my “ones that got away” list, and like many of the others, I was only able to come by it without English subtitles or dubbing. This one is extremely talky, so much so that I found it nearly impossible to make out the plot; I’m not even sure whether the spies are trying to get the plans for the atomic motor or whether they already have them. One thing I can say is that for a movie that IMDB classifies as an action thriller, there’s not much in the way of action or thrills. If it’s not an outright comedy (which is what it feels like), it’s certainly not to be taken very seriously. In fact, the key word in the plot description would be “model”; the movie seems more interesting in the revealing and sexy costumes the main character wears during the movie. It reminds me a little bit of Jesus Franco’s TWO UNDERCOVER ANGELS which I’ve seen recently, albeit with much less interest in de Sade; I couldn’t help but note the presence of Franco favorite Howard Vernon here. Well, whatever the merits of this movie, I can say this much; the atomic motor which provides the fantastic content is seen sputtering away in the first scene of the movie, and then is not seen in action again, so as far as the fantastic content goes, it’s probably pure Gizmo Maguffin.

NEBELMORDER (1964)
aka The Fog Murderer
Article 4370 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 11-18-2013
Directed by Eugen York
Featuring Hansjorg Felmy, Ingmar Zeisberg, Elke Arendt
Country: West Germany
What it is: Krimi

A serial killer who attacks victims in the woods on foggy nights is on the loose. Police attempt to track him down.

Even when they’re dubbed into English, krimis can be a little difficult to follow, so I didn’t expect to have a lot of luck following this one, which is in German without subtitles. Still, this doesn’t look like your usual krimi; it’s more youth-oriented, less stylish, and seems to be more straightforward than usual. Furthermore, it seems to be from another company than the usual run of krimis. It is also, unfortunately, very talky, and therefore very difficult to follow; I will have to reserve judgment on this one. However, I suspect that this one could prove to be pretty good if I could follow it; there seems to be an interesting plot element involving insects, and even with not being able to understand the language, there’s a climactic interrogation sequence that looks fairly gripping. There’s only a few moody scenes for the horror content, though; most of the movie involves students talking to each other or police investigating. I suspect this one would prove to be fairly decent.

THE NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS (1933)
Article 4347 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 10-25-2013
Directed by Wilfred Jackson
Featuring the voice of Donald Novis
Country: USA
What it is: Christmas cartoon

While the children sleep, Santa comes down the chimney and sets out toys for the children.

It’s a Disney “Silly Symphony” from the thirties. It’s very well animated and packed with whimsy. The toys help Santa to decorate the tree, Santa fills up the stockings, the kids hear something and come to investigate, Santa escapes before they arrive… you know, when you get down to it, this is the kind of stuff I’d expect from an animated Christmas cartoon. So why am I somewhat disappointed? It’s because, for all the whimsy, there’s nothing that happens that is truly surprising or causes the cartoon to become something special. In short, as well done as it is, it’s not really inspired. It’s Disney on automatic, and I doubt I’ll remember much about it after I finish this review.

NURSE SHERRI (1978)
Article 4346 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 10-24-2013
Directed by Al Adamson
Featuring Geoffrey Land, Jill Jacobson, Marilyn Joi
Country: USA
What it is: Sex and horror

When a cult leader dies on the operating table, his spirit takes possession of a nurse and seeks to destroy everyone involved with the operation.

The opening ten minutes of this movie deals with a diabetic cult member who was told by the leader that he no longer needed to take insulin if he just believed in the powers that the leader had. The cult member dies, and he cult leader is convinced that he can solve the problem by using the powers to bring the boy back to life. I found that a much more intriguing premise than the one that is the center of this movie; it turns out that the whole beginning is merely a set-up to get the leader to have a heart attack and wind up on the operating table, and it never returns to the earlier ideas. This is another Al Adamson movie, and if there’s one thing I can say about him, it’s that he has a discernible style; if it weren’t for the endless parade of softcore sex scenes to pad out the movie, it could fit in easily with his late sixties/early seventies output. As it is, the sex scenes may be the only thing that keep you awake, as the movie is lifeless and dull; the script is silly, and the acting is weak. You know, I can’t help but notice that ever since I moved from the silent shorts I was watching to the more recent movies, I’ve had the misfortune to encounter Jerry Warren, Larry Buchanan, Andy Milligan and Al Adamson all within one month. Maybe I should have stuck with the silent shorts….

A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET (1984)
Article 4341 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 10-19-2013
Directed by Wes Craven
Featuring John Saxon, Ronee Blakley, Heather Langenkamp
Country: USA
What it is: Dreamworld serial killer

Several teenagers begin having nightmares about a stripe-shirted razor-fingered mutilated man trying to kill them. When one of them ends up dying horribly, it becomes apparent that the death at the hands of the killer means death in real life.

It looks like I’m having a bit of a run of child-murderer movies here. Actually, I’ve long been curious about this one. The basic concept is brilliant; having a killer that can stalk his victims in their dreams really opens the door to all sorts of possibilities in terms of spooky, non-realistic imagery. It also means that during the dream sequences, normal standards of logic and smart behavior are not relevant; when confronting a killer in a dream, there may be no such thing as a good choice. Still, a certain degree of internal logic makes for a more intriguing story, and when the script starts addressing the issue of how the dream world interfaces with the real world, opening up the possibilities that Freddy Krueger is indeed a defeatable entity, it’s a lot of fun. Unfortunately, the script as a whole isn’t quite up to the concept or its best moments; clumsy moments abound, and the script ultimately turns its back on its own internal logic. As a result, I can understand why the concept was interesting enough to lead to a whole slew of sequels, but I can also see why the series would get quite tiresome after a bit. The movie also features the movie acting debut of Johnny Depp, and Robert Englund would actually achieve a certain level of horror movie stardom as Freddy Krueger. All in all, it’s a good horror movie; a better script might have made it a real classic.

NUMBER 1 (1939)
Article 4286 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 8-9-2013
Directed by Harry Smith
No cast
Country: USA
What it is: Abstract animation

No plot.

After noticing that this one had 46 votes on IMDB, I checked for user comments and didn’t find any. I’m not really surprised; when it comes to abstract animation, even if you can decide whether you like it or not, it’s rather difficult to capture in words your experience. I found this on YouTube, though it seems edited together with two other movies by the same director, NUMBER 2 and NUMBER 3, and since there’s no real break in the musical background (which makes me suspect that the music wasn’t added until all three were edited together), I would be hard pressed to say exactly where each one begins and ends. I’m assuming this one is about the first two and a half minutes, and though no plot is apparent, I do think part of it is an abstract meditation on sex, conception, and growth in the womb, based largely on a sort of Rorschach-style interpretation of the abstract symbols. I won’t cover the other two here, but I do think there is a difference between the patterns of the symbols that do seem to indicate three different segments. Interesting, but, as stated above, difficult to describe.

A NIGHTMARE (1896)
aka Le cauchemar
Article 4232 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 5-18-2013
Directed by Georges Melies
Cast unknown
Country: France
What it is: Very early trick film

A man dreams that a beautiful woman appears on his bed… but she turns into a minstrel and then a clown, and then things get weird.

One of Melies’s common motifs was of the innocent bystander (or, in this case, bysleeper) who is befuddled and put out by the transformations made possible by the use of special effects. This may be the first such example of this type of movie, as our sleeper is startled by the sudden appearance of a beautiful woman, who suddenly turns into a minstrel singer, and then a clown. Then the moon tries to eat his arm, so the sleeper has to punch the moon back to its proper place in the sky. It’s simple and short, and sets a template that he would return to several times. As such, it is historically one of his more important films, and it is quite entertaining in its own way as well.

THE NIGHT WATCHMAN (1938)
Article 4229 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 5-15-2013
Directed by Chuck Jones
Featuring the voices of Mel Blanc and Margaret Hill-Talbot
Country: USA
What it is: Animated lesson in bravery

A young cat must take over his father’s night watchman duties in the kitchen due to the latter’s illness. There he encounters a gang of tough, bullying mice. Will he be brave enough to face them down?

Let’s face it; in animated cat-and-mouse stories, cats are rarely the heroes; they’re mostly portrayed as scary monsters terrorizing these cute little mice. Occasionally, it’s been pointed out to me that in real life, people would probably prefer to have a cat around than to have their homes overrun with mice. Well, here’s an example that reverses the usual animated approach; the cat is the sympathetic character, and the mice are ugly and brutal, and you’re looking forward to the moment when the cat gains the courage to give them their comeuppance. Granted, in order for this to work, the mice have to be bigger than the cat (which they are), which, come to think of it, is why mice are usually the more sympathetic characters in these cartoons, because they’re the tiny ones. This is a typical example of early Chuck Jones, with more of an emphasis on whimsy than outright humor; in fact, the cartoon emphasizes the story over the bits of humor that do appear. This is still not the Warner Brothers animation department at its best, but one can definitely see an improvement over the revue-styled entertainments they churned out only half a decade earlier.

THE NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS (1905)
Article 4228 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 5-13-2013
Directed by Edwin S. Porter
Cast unknown
Country: USA
What it is: Christmas tale

Santa prepares for his yearly journey, and so do the children waiting for him.

This is a charming little Christmas short, alternating scenes of Santa preparing for his journey and scenes of a family preparing for Santa’s arrival. It’s simply conceived; we see scenes of Santa feeding the reindeer, making toys, and checking his naughty/nice list mixed with scenes of the children hanging up their stockings, trying to sneak out of bed, and having a pillow fight. The best scene in the short is a continuous special effects shot of Santa and his reindeer trotting through the landscape on their way to deliver the presents. The scene also answered a nagging question I had. If Santa doesn’t have any help (he’s seen working alone in each of his scenes), how can he possibly get all the work done in time? Well, the answer is simple. During the delivery sequence, we see Santa bypassing several places (including a whole city) without stopping or even slowing down. I can only conclude from this that there were a lot more naughty children than nice ones on this particular year, thereby making it unnecessary for him to employ the extra elf help that is his wont. And, considering that he makes toys the old-fashioned way, it’s good that he has enough magic to decorate the whole tree with a sweep of his hand; the last thing I wanted to see was Santa spending ten minutes hanging tinsel.

NEPTUNE’S DAUGHTERS (1900)
Article 4226 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 5-11-2013
Director unknown
Cast unknown
Country: USA
What it is: Trick dance short

Ghosts turn into dancing girls who ply their trade while superimposed over a ship.

Back when I saw DAVEY JONES’ LOCKER (which consisted of footage of a dancing skeleton superimposed over a ship), I was mostly taken by the pointlessness of the exercise. This one manages to be even slightly less interesting. According to IMDB, it was edited from another short called BALLET OF THE GHOSTS by superimposing the ship image with that one. Let’s write it off as another dancing girl short, and move on, shall we?