RHYTHM IN LIGHT (1934)
Article 4254 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 6-22-2013
Directed by Mary Ellen Bute, Ted Nemeth, and Melville Webber
No cast
Country: USA
What it is: Abstract music illustration film

A series of images are shown to a musical segment of Grieg’s “Peer Gynt Suite”.

Yes, we’re in the realm of the abstract art film again, and the reason for their inclusion is because the abstract images make the movie a virtual fantasy. This one mostly consists of undefinable images moving in rhythm to the music. It makes for rather pleasant viewing, though it doesn’t quite have the kinetic power or sense of brilliance of the Man Ray movie I saw recently. It looks like the directors made several of these, one of which (ESCAPE) I’ve also reviewed.

LE RETOUR A LA RAISON (1923)
aka Return to Reason
Article 4253 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 6-20-2013
Directed by Man Ray
Featuring Kiki of Montparnesse
Country: France
What it is: Experiment in Dadaism

A succession of abstract images are shown.

Man Ray was a proponent of the Dadaist/Surrealist art movements of the first half of the twentieth century, and what we have here is his first foray into cinema. If the trivia on IMDB is correct, he made the film when he discovered that he was credited with the exhibition of a film at a Dadaist festival, and he threw this together so he would have something to present. Dadaism essentially was an anti-art movement that rejected meaning and reason in art, and relied on abstraction and absurdity; it was a reaction to the horrors of World War I. So what we have here is another abstract film, and as usual, these can be interesting but are hard to review, especially with Dadaism, which eschewed meaning. Nonetheless, I found this short quite enjoyable; it involves a few images actually taken with a camera (the lights of a carousel ride and shadows projected over a naked female torso) along with images created in a darkroom with various objects placed directly over the film itself. It has a certain kinetic energy, and does not run on too long, which is pretty important for these kinds of films.

THE RAJAH’S DREAM (1900)
aka Le reve du rdjah ou La foret enchantee
Article 4252 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 6-17-2013
Directed by Georges Melies
Cast unknown
Country: France
What it is: Trick film

A rajah’s nap is interrupted by a nightmare.

Here’s another one of Melies’s earlier trick films. One of the advantages of his earlier films is that he kept them short and quick-moving; some of his later work suffers from pacing problems. During the dream, he encounters a huge butterfly, one of those pieces of furniture that teleport from one place to the next, a tree that turns into a demon wrestler, and the usual coterie of dancing girls, in this case armed with axes and with other ideas in mind than merely entertaining the rajah. Though certain odd touches help, this one doesn’t really stand out from the crowd of early Melies shorts.

RABBIT TRANSIT (1947)
Article 4251 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 6-16-2013
Directed by Friz Freleng
Featuring the voice of Mel Blanc
Country: USA
What it is: Bugs Bunny cartoon

Bugs Bunny has a race with Cecil Turtle to Grant’s Tomb. Bugs thinks he has it in the bag, only to discover that Cecil Turtle has a jet-propelled shell.

The Bugs Bunny cartoons featuring his races against Cecil Turtle are somewhat odd entries in the Bugs Bunny canon in terms of his character. Here he’s neither the wild zany of his early cartoons nor the cool-headed master of all situations of this later ones. In these cartoons, his character is pretty similar to that of Daffy Duck’s in his later years; he’s ego-driven, underhanded, and given to temper tantrums. Granted, Cecil himself is no saint; he can be equally underhanded and can play the con man himself; in fact, he’s perhaps the only character Bugs has encountered several times who has proved the ultimate master of the situation. Well, whatever role these cartoons play in the evolution of Bugs Bunny, they’re still pretty amusing and full of great gags, and it is one of the better cartoons from Friz Freleng.

LES ROSES MAGIQUES (1906)
aka Magic Roses
Article 4195 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 4-3-2013
Directed by Segundo de Chomon
Cast unknown
Country: France
What it is: Trick short

A magician does a variety of tricks, mostly involving turning flowers into women and vice versa.

This short is included on the Georges Melies “Encore” disc from Flicker Alley, though it isn’t a Melies short. It was intended as an example of one of the several Melies-inspired filmmakers that came in his wake. From that point of view, this is a good choice; of the ones I’ve seen from Chomon, this one most feels like it was Melies-inspired. Still, one of my favorite moments from this one involves the creation of an elaborate flower design that uses backwards footage extensively, and that’s one innovation that I don’t recall seeing from Melies. There also seems to be a touch of romanticism to this one that feels unique to Chomon. If anything, I think this does show that Chomon was more than just an imitator.

RED RIDING HOOD (1907)
aka Little Red Riding Hood, Le petit chaperon rouge
Article 4187 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 3-26-2013
Director unknown
Cast unknown
Country: France
What it is: Fairy tale

Red Riding Hood is sent out to deliver a baked tart and a pot of butter to her ailing grandmother, but will be she outwitted by the hungry wolf?

This is apparently a slightly edited “show-at-home” version of the original short; all of the original scenes are there, but they have been shortened, and copious intertitles were added. Granted, given the familiarity of this story, I’m not sure how many of them were necessary. There are some points of interest in this version of the story. The titles tell us that Little Red Riding Hood’s red riding hood was made by her mother (thus delving into the mythic origins of Little Red Riding Hood), the wolf is played by a live animal (who seems very friendly, even if we do get a scene of it attacking grandma), the wolf disguised as Grandma invites Little Red Riding Hood into bed with her (which I’m sure is meant in all innocence, but once you let your imagination run wild, you end up in all sorts of places you’d rather not be), and this version of the story omits the woodsman, which means the final scene leaves only one character still living in Grandma’s house at the end, thus rendering it one of the more depressing versions of the story, as well as making the revelations about Little Red Riding Hood’s mythic origins rather a wasted effort. Still, I will admit, I was entertained by this one.

LE RITUEL DES MUSGRAVES (1912)
aka The Musgrave Ritual
Article 4136 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 1-22-2013
Directed by Georges Treville
Featuring Georges Treville and Mr. Moyse
Country: UK / France
What it is: Sherlock Holmes mystery

Sherlock Holmes is called in to investigate the disappearance of a butler and a precious jewel. The solution to the mystery is tied to a strange family ritual.

This Sherlock Holmes mystery really only falls marginally into the realms of the fantastic, and that is because the solution of the mystery involves the death of a character by a specific means; without giving away the solution for those not familiar with a story, let’s just say that it’s related to a type of death that Poe was fond of dealing with. This short is more or less faithful to the original story, though not slavishly so; it changes a few plot details, at least partially due to the fact that they would have been clumsy to deal with in a short silent movie. Treville definitely looks the part of Holmes, and does well enough in the role, given the limitations of the production. All in all, this is not a bad adaptation of the story.

THE RAVAGER (1970)
Article 4093 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 11-29-2012
Directed by Charles Nizet
Featuring Pierre Agostino, Darlene Dawes, Lynn Hayes
Country: USA
What it is: Psycho exploitation

After having witnessed the torture, rape and murder of a woman, a Vietnam vet, disturbed by his experience, goes on a rampage of rape and destruction.

Those who want to find some sort of message or subtext to this one are welcome to it. To me, it seems obvious that the movie pretty much exists for its exploitation elements; sex scenes followed by bursts of violence, usually involving dynamite. Still, I will credit Pierre Agostino for at least one thing; he looks and acts the part of a disturbed serial killer, and the fact that two of his other movies are THE HOLLYWOOD STRANGLER MEETS THE SKID ROW SLASHER and LAS VEGAS SERIAL KILLER, it seems that playing that type of character is some sort of specialty of his. I suppose the movie could be described as offensive, but, truth to tell, if the artwork on the cover of the DVD is a recreation of the poster for the movie, than the poster is even worse, not to mention a misrepresentation of the movie; it shows a handsome virile-looking young man (instead of the ugly creep in the movie) surrounded by eager and willing nude women. Anybody drawn to the movie by that poster was in for a rude surprise. This one is really for exploitation fans only.

ROBOMAN (1973)
aka Who?
Article 4045 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 9-30-2012
Directed by Jack Gold
Featuring Elliott Gould, Trevor Howard, Joseph Bova
Country: UK
What it is: Spy thriller

When a brilliant American scientist in charge of a top secret scientific project is horribly injured in an accident near the East German border, he is rescued by the Communists and repaired to the best of their abilities. When he is returned to the Americans, he is unrecognizable due to the replacement of most of his body with metallic parts. An FBI agent is given the task of trying to figure out whether this man is really the scientist in question, or a ringer.

Here’s another movie with an interesting premise that suffers from an uneven production and script. It attempts to work both as a mystery and an espionage thriller. As the latter, it is least interesting; it’s slow-moving and low-key, and when the movie decides to go for thrills (a car chase at about the middle of the movie), it feels less like it’s finally taking off and more like it’s slipped the tracks. As a mystery, it does have some interest value, thanks to a interesting cinematic technique where we see the present day juxtaposition of the grilling of the scientist by FBI agents beside flashback grillings of the scientist by a Communist general, leaving us fully aware that there is very little that the scientist says that couldn’t be taught to a ringer. Yet the mystery itself remains muted, largely because the most engaging thing about the story is the plight of the scientist, and if you make a certain assumption about the identity of the man in the metal mask, the mystery becomes irrelevant but the story becomes much more engaging. So it’s as a character study that it works best; it isn’t about not knowing who the man is, it’s about a man proving who he is, and the cost of doing so. And on that level, this movie has a certain amount of power.

ROLLERBABIES (1976)
Article 4043 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 9-28-2012
Directed by Carter Stevens
Featuring Susan McBain, Alan Marlow, Terri Hall
Country: USA
What it is: Adults only

In the future, sex is prohibited to all but licensed exhibitionists who perform on television. A TV show producer must find a new gimmick if he wants to stay in the business.

Once again my cinematic journeys take me into the realm of the adult film, and probably not for the last time. Like a lot of movies in the adult realm, its title is a take on a well-known popular movie of the time, in this case, ROLLERBALL. It has two things in common with that movie – it takes place in the future, and something is done on roller-skates (and it shouldn’t take a genius to figure out what). When it’s not engaging in the type of spectacle that is de riguer for the form, the movie appears to be a comedy, and like most adult comedies I’ve seen, it’s atrocious on that level. As for the level on which the movie is intended to be enjoyed…. well, this is neither the time or place for that. Suffice it to say that I’ve seen it and can now cross it off my list.