PRINCESS NICOTINE; OR, THE SMOKE FAIRY (1909)
Article 4247 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 6-10-2013
Director unknown
Featuring Paul Panzer and Gladys Hulette
Country: USA
What it is: Weird tobacco fantasy

A tobacco enthusiast discovers fairies living in his tobacco box.

I have to admit I’m not sure what to make of this odd little trick short. It’s a hodgepodge of special effects that includes stop-motion, giant props, and miniaturization via mirrors (as in opposition to double exposure) among its tricks. It really doesn’t seem to have a story per se; it’s basically the smoker and the fairies playing tricks on each other. It will leave you wondering if someone has been smoking something other than tobacco, though.

LA POSADA SANGRIENTA (1943)
aka The Bloody Inn
Article 4244 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 6-6-2013
Directed by Fernando A. Rivero
Featuring Julio Ahuet, Carolina Barret, Alfonso Carillo
Country: Mexico
What it is: An “old dark inn” movie, in Spanish

A young couple’s car breaks down, and they find themselves at an inn where several murders have taken place… and they find themselves under suspicion.

Given that my copy of the movie is in unsubtitled Spanish, I’m making a few guesses as to the plot line, but I don’t think I’m that far off the mark. It’s definitely an “old dark house” variation, though not a particularly inspired one; quite frankly, the whole movie has the air of having been slapped together without much inspiration or thought. The biggest giveaway in this regard is the score, which appears to be a compendium of stock classical music pieces that are at times quite distracting and inappropriate. The comic relief character is one of those types who gets most of his laughs by reacting to everything with cowering cowardice. Outside of that, the two most striking things about this one are the opening scenes involving people listening to a radio show, and the fact that the police detective bears an uncanny resemblance to Bob Hope. There may be some fun to had in the dialogue, but since I couldn’t understand it, that did me no good; as it is, I found this one pretty forgettable.

PLONGEUR FANTASTIQUE (1906)
aka The Fantastic Diver
Article 4241 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 6-3-2013
Directed by Segundo de Chomon
Cast unknown
Country: France
What it is: Trick film

A swimmer shows off his unique diving styles.

The fantastic content here is that not only does the diver jump into the water; he also jumps out of the water back onto the diving board in an impossible way (through the magic of running the footage backwards). So we have a series of dives juxtaposed with a series of returns to the diving board, and I will credit the movie with having the foresight to not use the same backwards footage that they just ran forwards, so each scene is a little bit different. Still, that doesn’t change the fact that the trick gets old pretty quick; the initial gag is the best in that his first dive is fully clothed, but he returns wearing a swimsuit, but from there, even with the short’s slight running time of about three minutes, it gets tiresome. The Walt Lee book credits Gaston Velle as the director, but IMDB gives it as Chomon, which I assume may be the result that it’s often hard to figure out who actually directed these shorts.

PLANE DAFFY (1940)
Article 4240 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 6-2-2013
Directed by Frank Tashlin
Featuring the voices of Sara Berner, Mel Blanc, Robert C. Bruce
Country: USA
What it is: Wartime Warner Brothers cartoon

Secret message couriers are falling prey to the irresistible spy, Hatta Mari. In order to defeat her, they send out their resident woman-hater, Daffy Duck.

You know, after sampling some of the cartoons from the other studios, it really is a treat to return to the Warner Brothers studio during their classic period, and here they’re in top form. This one features Daffy in his manic loose cannon period (before he became the all-too-human antihero in the hands of Chuck Jones), and one thing you can say about him during this era is that you never really know what he’s going to do next. That, combined with the exaggerated speed, split-second comic timing, out-of-left-field gags, superb score (Carl Stalling as always) and voice work (Mel Blanc and others), you barely have time to breathe as this one goes through its paces. Though he’s not as famous as Chuck Jones or Tex Avery, Frank Tashlin was one of the masters of the animated cartoon.

THE PATCHWORK GIRL OF OZ (1914)
Article 4235 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 5-25-2013
Directed by J. Farrell MacDonald
Featuring Violet MacMillan, Frank Moore, Raymond Russell
Country: USA
What it is: Fantasy adventure

When a magician uses a powder to bring a patchwork girl to life, his new creation ends up using a petrification powder on several people. In order to restore their friends to life, a quest is undertaken to find the items that will make a magic potion to restore the petrified ones.

It looks like L. Frank Baum, the author of “The Wizard of Oz” as well as several sequels, became a movie producer at one point and produced a few Oz movies based on his books. I’ve seen a few of them, and though I wouldn’t exactly call them great, I do think it’s interesting to see how the world of Oz was envisioned before the famous 1939 movie version of the first novel became a nearly insurmountable cultural artifact; any Oz movie made afterwards is under that one’s shadow, while these earlier ones were made outside of it. I do like the sense I get that Oz is a much larger place than envisioned in the 1939 movie, and even though several of the characters from “The Wizard of Oz” reappear here, they are minor characters and aren’t part of the main story. I like some of the strange creatures, especially the part cat-part box creature called the Woozy, and we get to meet a few of the other races of Oz, such as the one-legged hoppers. The story meanders at times, especially in scenes involving a mule-like creature and one of those flying monkeys. Still, the costumes are fun and the acting is energetic, and though it’s a bit of a mess, there is some fun to be had here. The movie isn’t complete; there’s a reel missing near the beginning, but you’ll figure out what happened.

A PAGE OF MADNESS (1926)
aka Kurutta ippeji
Article 4227 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 5-12-2013
Directed by Teinosuke Kinugasa
Featuring Masuo Inoue, Yoshie Nakagawa, Ayako Iijima
Country: Japan
What it is: An encounter with madness

A man takes a job at an insane asylum in the hopes that he can free his wife from it.

From what I gather, very little Japanese silent film is extant, and now I’ve seen two from the era in the same week. Furthermore, they’re both by the same director, Teinosuke Kinugasa, and if these movies are any indication, he was a definite cinematic genius; this one is even more breathtaking stylistically than JUJIRO. According to IMDB, this was made on an extremely low budget; if so, it shows just how much can be done on a tiny budget with creative editing and innovative camerawork. The plot itself is a bit obscure at times, partially due to the fact that there are no subtitles, and partially because the style of the piece (which occasionally puts us in the position of seeing the world through the eyes of the madmen) often leaves us unsure of what is real. From a story perspective, I’m not sure it can be called a horror film, but because of the way madness pervades the film, it becomes one anyway. At any rate, this is one genuinely unsettling cinematic experience.

PAS QUESTION LE SAMEDI (1966)
aka Impossible on Saturday
Article 4179 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 3-16-2013
Directed by Alex Joffe
Featuring Robert Hirsch, Dalia Friedland, Misha Asherov
Country: Italy / Israel / France
What it is: Comedy

A Jewish conductor, after having lived a sinful life, is visited by the ghost of his father on his deathbed, and told that he can only redeem himself if his six sons (only one of whom is legitimate) all marry Israeli wives and get together for a memorial prayer in one month’s time.

For a while, I thought this was going to end up on my “ones that got away” list despite my best intentions; I knew the movie existed and that it was on DVD in France, but for the longest time I couldn’t find a dealer who was willing to ship a copy to me here in the USA. However, I finally found one, and here it is. I knew at the outset that it wouldn’t have English subtitles, so I armed myself with a short plot description and sat down and watched. Fortunately, that was enough; though a number of details certainly eluded me, much of the humor and plot is conveyed through visual terms, and I did find myself caught up in the movie and rather than having been left scratching my head. In particular, I like the scenes involving the conductor and his father (both of whom are ghosts throughout most of the length of the movie), and I especially like that the ghost of the father (who is dressed in white to indicate his purity) is talked into interfering with situations in the real world to save his son’s soul, only to find pieces of his clothing turn black as he does so. Robert Hirsch does an excellent job in thirteen roles (I wish I could spot them all); I especially like his performance as a German woman dressed as a man in hopes of getting herself a share of the fortune. Again, it would have been better if I had seen it with English subtitles, but at least this was one of the cases where making the effort paid off.

PASSION AND DEATH OF CHRIST (1903)
aka La vie et la passion de Jesus Christ, Life and Passion of Christ
Article 4177 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 3-13-2013
Directed by Lucien Nonguet and Ferdinand Zecca
Featuring Madame Moreau and Monsieur Moreau
Country: France
What it is: The life of Christ

The story of Christ is told from the Annunciation to the Ascension.

Adventures in Movie-Hunting: This movie was listed in the Walt Lee guide as “Life and Passion of Christ”, but when I couldn’t find a match under that title on IMDB, I did a search on director Ferdinand Zecca’s name. At first I stumbled across a 1907 version of the same story with his name and director and thought that was the match, but by doing a search on the other director’s name, I saw I was mistaken. Nevertheless, I’m grateful for the mistake because it led me to a copy of the movie. The copy exists on Amazon Instant Video, but it’s attached to the listing for the 1907 version of the movie instead of the 1903 version. To further confuse the issue, it lists actors who actually appeared in FROM THE MANGER TO THE CROSS from 1912. Nevertheless, I had a hunch that I had the correct movie, and I rented it. And, based on the final credits from the people who restored the film, I now believe I have the right film. I mention this merely to illustrate how maddening it is sometimes to find these early silents, especially when those providing them don’t do the proper research.

Now, I’m not particularly devout or reverent, and despite the fact that I accept that the Christ story (and indeed, the whole Bible) are at the very least important touchstones of Western culture, the thought of watching all of these early adaptations of the story (many of which are extant) doesn’t really excite me, at least partly because they are geared for the devout and reverent. I will say that this one is one of the more entertaining that I’ve encountered. It’s heavy on the special effects (though there are just too many magical appearances of angels), it uses effective if subdued hand tinting, and some of the scenes are very well staged (particularly in its use of depth and the creative use of backdrops). It’s also efficient and doesn’t let its various scenes run on too long. All in all, I think this is a very good adaptation, and if you get a bit bored with the very familiar story, you can have some fun spotting how many times the Pathe rooster is incorporated into the scenery. Once again, the presence of angels and miracles place the movie in the realms of fantastic cinema.

THE PHANTOM LIGHT (1935)
Article 4128 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 1-10-2013
Directed by Michael Powell
Featuring Binnie Hale, Gordon Harker, Donald Calthrop
Country: UK
What it is: Mystery thriller

A lighthouse keeper comes to Wales to take over the management of a lighthouse that is supposedly haunted; its last two keepers have vanished mysteriously, and one of the men in the lighthouse has gone mad. Is the lighthouse really haunted, or is there another explanation…?

Even great directors sometimes have to serve apprenticeships, and Michael Powell (who directed such movies as THE RED SHOES, STAIRWAY TO HEAVEN and TALES OF HOFFMANN) spent most of the thirties serving one. This movie is largely a variation of THE GHOST TRAIN, and I’m quite surprised that so many genre guides reject this one; even though the threat turns out to not be supernatural at all, I’ve covered plenty of movies listed in those other guides which have even less fantastic content than this one. At the very least, there’s a lot of talk about the lighthouse being haunted. It’s pretty standard fare, but there’s some nice visual moments here and there, and the editing during some of the climactic scenes is sharply done. The Welsh setting also adds a little color to the proceedings. This one is pretty minor, but not bad.

THE POSSESSED (1977)
TV-Movie

Article 4126 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 1-8-2013
Directed by Jerry Thorpe
Featuring James Farentino, Claudette Nevins, Eugene Roche
Country: USA
What it is: Evil incarnate thriller

A girls’ school is beset with incidents of spontaneous combustion and other strange events. A defrocked priest who underwent a near-death experience comes in to investigate.

There’s some nice ambiance on hand at times in this movie, as well as some effective music, a few striking performances (including one from a pre-STAR WARS Harrison Ford and a weird one by Joan Hackett), and a somewhat offbeat feel. But it’s sometimes trying to be too mysterious for its own good, and the movie often comes across as being annoyingly vague. A torpid pace and too many talky scenes mar the movie as well. It’s a bit of a shame; the movie has a unique vibe, and I wished it worked better than it did. As it is, it comes across as a missed opportunity.