RETURN TO GLENNASCAUL (1951)
(a.k.a. ORSON WELLES’ GHOST STORY)
Article #1478 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 4-1-2005
Posting Date: 8-29-2005
Directed by Hilton Edwards
Featuing Orson Welles, Michael Laurence, Shelah Richards

On break from his filming of OTHELLO, Orson Welles picks up a stranded man on his way to Dublin, and is told an eerie tale by him.

Orson Welles directed OTHELLO in Europe over a three-year period, as he had to occasionally shut down production for one reason or another. To help finance his project, he would occasionally appear in other movies during this period. He also narrated and appeared in this short (as himself, which serves as a bit of a joke at times), directed by the actor who was playing Brabantio in OTHELLO. It’s a fairly straightforward ghost story with little in the way of surprises, but it’s simply and elegantly told, and the presence of Welles gives it a special touch of humor. The short was also nominated for an Academy Award in the “Best Short Subject 2-Reel” category.

ROAD TO MOROCCO (1942)
Article #1399 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 1-12-2005
Posting Date: 6-11-2005
Directed by David Butler
Featuring Bob Hope, Bing Crosby, Dorothy Lamour

Plot: Bob Hope, Bing Crosby and Dorothy Lamour appear in a road picture. Actually, that’s as good a plot description as any…

Believe it or not, I will be covering all the Road pictures as part of this series. Though this may be surprising, it’s not totally unexpected. If there’s anything innovative about these movies, I’d say it was that they took not taking themselves seriously to a new level. Consequently, anything could really happen, and some of what happens falls into the realm of the fantastic. In this movie, there are at least three fantastic elements; Bing and Bob are haunted by the ghost of their Aunt Lucy (Bob Hope in drag), a ring that grants three wishes appears at one point, and we have talking camels (but no appearance of Humpy, the Educated Camel).

I’m not a particular fan of either Hope or Crosby, but I find myself inordinately fond of the Road movies. They’re anarchic, but casual instead of frantic, and the humor never feels forced or strained. It makes no attempt whatsoever to convince you it’s really happening. Some of the exteriors in this movie are so obviously interiors that it would destroy any sense of reality, but since the movie never aspires to reality, you recognize it for what it is — part of the joke. I love the charm of the joke and admire the chutzpah used in putting it over.

RASPUTIN (1930)
(a.k.a. RASPUTIN, DAMON DER FRAUEN)
Article #1394 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 1-7-2005
Posting Date: 6-6-2005
Directed by Adolf Trotz
Featuring Conrad Veidt, Paul Otto, Hermine Sterler

This is the story of Rasputin’s rise to power and subsequent assassination.

With this, I’ve now seen four different biopics of Rasputin from four different countries; RASPUTIN AND THE EMPRESS from the U.S.A., RASPUTIN, THE MAD MONK from Great Britain, THE NIGHT THEY KILLED RASPUTIN was an Italian/French coproduction, and this one is from Germany. It’s also in German without subtitles, so I’m glad it’s far enough down the line that my familiarity with the story can help me to follow it. With all due respect to Christopher Lee and Lionel Barrymore, Conrad Veidt is probably the best actor to assay the role, and as far as I can tell given the language barrier, he does a fine job here. Still, it’s difficult to make any real evaluation of the movie. The fantastic aspects are even more muted here; Rasputin’s use of hypnotism isn’t obvious from the visuals, though the faith-healing aspect does play a role in keeping it near the realm of fantastic cinema. I do feel that Rasputin’s death scene here is the best of the many versions I’ve seen.

ROBINSON CRUSOE ON CLIPPER ISLAND (1936)
Article #1361 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 12-5-2005
Posting Date: 5-4-2005
Directed by Ray Taylor and Mack V. Wright
Featuring Mala, Rex, Buck

A U.S. Intelligence agent is sent out to investigate sabotage on a remote island that was serving as a refueling base for a dirigible company.

Fantastic content: Touches of horror in the native ceremonies and touches of science fiction in the technology used by the villains. All in all, pretty marginal.

There are three different types of cliffhangers, which I describe thusly;

1 – The Honest Cliffhanger. The action at the top of the following episode does not modify or amend the action at the bottom of the previous episode in any way. This type of cliffhanger is rarer than you might think.

2 – The Cheating Cliffhanger. The action at the top of the following episode inserts scenes into the footage used from the previous episode. For example, if we see the hero in a runaway car that plows into a building and explodes, a scene will be inserted where the hero sees it coming and bails out of the car in time. This is the most common type of cliffhanger.

3 – The Lying Cliffhanger – The action at the top of the following episode omits scenes from the previous episode, replacing it with new footage that contradicts the cliffhanger. For example, the end of one cliffhanger clearly shows a plane crashing into the water (you see the splash and the explosion) while the top of the next episode shows the pilot pulling out of the dive just in time, and the footage of the crash is missing completely. Fortunately, these are even rarer than honest cliffhangers.

I mention these distinctions because one problem this serial has is that it is one of the worst offenders I’ve ever seen in terms of having Lying Cliffhangers; there are at least four or five episodes in which the cliffhanger if contradicted by the action in the next episode. It has some other problems; though he has a certain amount of charisma, Mala (an eskimo actor who ended up specializing in exotic native types) isn’t much of an actor (I don’t feel that he’s mastered the basic acting technique of articulation, for one thing), and he’s unconvincing as a U.S. Intelligence agent. Still, he’s comfortable in his loincloth, athletic, and makes a decent enough serial hero.

Still, even with its problems, this is a very entertaining serial. I’m glad it’s largely set on an island; when that happens, the writers have to be more creative than to just give us a string of “bailing-out-of-the-car” cliffhangers. It also has animals (Rex is a horse and Buck is a St. Bernard) who are quite helpful to Mala, two comic relief sidekicks who are also helpful (though not quite as much), a lot of native hijinks, some dirigible action, volcanos, abandoned castles, etc. There’s plenty of great spectacle in this one; this was made before the budgets really started to be cut for serials. Recommended, but watch out for those lying cliffhangers.

RADAR PATROL VS. SPY KING (1950)
(Serial)
Article #1346 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 11-20-2004
Posting Date: 4-19-2005
Directed by Fred C. Brannon
Featuring Kirk Alyn, Jean Dean, Anthony Warde

A saboteur is trying to thwart the attempts of the government to make a radar ring by developing a device to neutralize it.

One of the distinguishing qualities of a Republic serial is that they featured many kinetic fight scenes, both exciting and somewhat funny in their high energy and their destructive nature. However, as time went by, the budgets got smaller and the inspiration dwindled, and the biggest thing I noticed about this serial from the later forties/early fifties is that the fight scenes lack that special energy. Neither the villain nor the hero are particularly memorable here, most of the cliffhangers were pretty standard and uninspired, and I found this one to be pretty dull going. The science fiction elements are also very slight. This is not one of Republic’s better serials.

THE ROBOT VS. THE AZTEC MUMMY (1958)
(a.k.a. LA MOMIA AZTECA CONTRA EL ROBOT HUMANO)
Article #1277 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 9-12-2004
Posting Date: 2-9-2005
Directed by Rafael Portillo and Manuel San Fernando
Featuring Ramon Gay, Rosa Arenas, Crox Alvarado

A mad scientist intent on gaining an ancient treasure builds a human robot to do battle with an Aztec mummy.

By any conventional standards this one is a stinker. By certain camp standards, it holds a lot of promise; we have a gleefully mad scientist, a robot with a human head that looks like it came from a cheap serial from the thirties, moments of howlingly bad dialogue (some samples: “I tortured many animals…with pleasure!”, “You’re not only mad, but ignorant also!”), and some frightfully bad dubbing. Unfortunately, I find the movie sorely lacking in energy, and it has a static quality that gives it the feel of some of the very earliest talkies. In fact, there are stretches here where nothing is happening, such as the first few minutes of the robot resurrection scene, and cutting back and forth constantly between the characters staring at the robot on the slab does nothing to cover this up. As a result, watching this one is a bit of a chore. Other notes –

The big fight in question takes up about a minute of screen time near the end of the movie.

The movie itself is only forty minutes long. The reason it runs sixty-five minutes is that it opens with twenty minutes of footage from THE AZTEC MUMMY followed by five minutes of footage from CURSE OF THE AZTEC MUMMY.

RETURN TO BOGGY CREEK (1977)
Article #1276 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 9-11-2004
Posting Date: 2-8-2005
Directed by Tom Moore
Featuring Dawn Wells, Dana Plato, David Sobiesk

Three children who fish out in the swamps near Boggy Creek encounter the monster.

This is one of the two separate sequels to the 1973 docudrama THE LEGEND OF BOGGY CREEK. Though that movie is no classic, the documentary approach taken by that movie gave it more flavor than it might otherwise have had. This one jettisons the documentary approach, so what you’re left with is an unoriginal and silly story that is not particularly well written and with highly variable acting. As far as the latter goes, Dawn Wells (Mary Ann on “Gilligan’s Island”) comes off best, though her worrying mother role is the stuff of cliches, and Jim Wilson is fairly good when he’s being a colorful storyteller; his best moments are when he concocts the mysterious “catfish Kool-aid” that the children use as bait, and when he tells another group of children his own variation on the Hansel and Gretel story. Outside of these moments, the best thing about the movie is the location footage and the atmosphere that goes with it. Otherwise, this one is pretty forgettable.

RIDING ON AIR (1937)
Article #1270 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 9-5-2004
Posting Date: 2-2-2005
Directed by Edward Sedgwick
Featuring Joe E. Brown, Guy Kibbee, Florence Rice

A small-town reporter becomes the target of a crooked financier when he wins $5000.

I’m tempted some time to start keeping a list of fantastic concepts that become trendy enough for a while to have several movies made about them. This movie includes one of them; I’m sure I’ve seen several movies dealing with the concept of radio-controlled airplanes. It’s a minor concept here; except for a handful of gag moments, the concept is largely used as a Macguffin to drive the swindling aspect of the plot. On its own terms, this is another Joe E. Brown vehicle, and though I like him well enough, he’s usually more effective in smaller roles; his own vehicles seem to be rather ordinary, and this one is no exception.

REPULSION (1965)
Article #1269 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 9-4-2004
Posting Date: 2-1-2005
Directed by Roman Polanski
Featuring Catherine Deneuve, Ian Hendry, John Fraser

A disturbed young woman finds herself unable to cope with the departure of her sister on a holiday, and begins to sink into madness.

As a result of the popularity of PSYCHO at the beginning of the decade, many of the horror films of the sixties were about mad killers. This movie differs from many of those in one main respect; whereas most of those were focused on the threat they presented to their victims, this one is almost totally focused on the disturbed killer herself. The movie is unsettling, but fascinating. The two things I like best are Catherine Deneuve’s fantastic performance and Roman Polanski’s ability to zero in on imagery that gives you a sense of her madness. The repeated shots of the slowly rotting rabbit on the plate, the sudden appearance of cracks in the woodwork, and the jarring sound of the telephone and the doorbell every time they invade the woman’s solitude have a way of really putting you on edge. It’s not really a horror film so much as a drama about madness, but horror fans will find plenty here to hold their interest. This is one of my favorite of Polanski’s films.