STAR WARS: EPISODE VI – RETURN OF THE JEDI (1983)
Article 3657 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 8-4-2011
Posting Date: 8-19-2011
Directed by Richard Marquand
Featuring Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher
Country: USA
What it is: Space opera

Luke Skywalker and his friends embark on a mission to save Han Solo from the clutches of Jabba the Hut, and then they must face a final showdown with Darth Vader and the Empire.

A giant monster lies dead. Some men enter the room, and one big shirtless man, obviously the monster’s keeper, looks at it, turns to one of the other men and starts to cry.

If you’ve seen this final episode of the original trilogy in the Star Wars franchise, you probably remember that scene. I mention it specifically because when I was watching it this time, I realized how much light, humorous moments like this defined just how much fun the original trilogy was. This is the third time I’ve seen this movie. The second time was many years ago, and I watched it then with the sort of sad realization that it was the last and least of the series; this was long before the prequel trilogy emerged. This time, I found myself watching the movie with that later trilogy in mind, and I really found myself wondering that, when the time comes for me to revisit that later trilogy, if I was going to light on little favorite moments like this. Somehow, I don’t think so; to my mind, the later trilogy lost that lightness of touch and became mired in its own mythology to the point that the series just wasn’t much fun anymore. As a result, I found myself enjoying this one quite a bit.

Nevertheless, I do still think of it as the weakest of the original trilogy. The first third of the movie is for me the strongest part of it; I like the various creature designs, and I like the way the plot bit by bit weaves in all of the major characters one by one. I’m not quite as down on the Ewoks as some other people are, but then, I have a high tolerance for teddy bears as long as they don’t have rainbows on their bellies and the word “Care” in front of them. But they are a little more cute than is strictly necessary, and the middle of the movie does drag a bit. My biggest disappointment is that the climax of the movie involves another assault on another Death Star; it leaves me with the feeling that the series was really starting to run short of new ideas. And I do want to say that I really liked Ian McDiarmid’s performance as the Emperor, at least for the reason that I rarely hear any mention made of him or his performance in the movie. And, for the record, I watched the original theatrical release of the movie, rather than one of the “digitally enhanced” versions.

SHORT STORIES OF LOVE (1974)
aka Rex Harrison Presents Stories of Love

TV-Movie
Article 3655 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 8-2-2011
Posting Date: 8-17-2011
Directed by John Badham, Arnold Laven, and Jeannot Szwarc
Featuring Rex Harrison, Bill Bixby, Lloyd Bochner
Country: USA
What it is: Anthology series pilot

Rex Harrison presents three short story adaptations on the subject of love. The first involves a shy computer programmer who discovers that the supercomputer he has been working on can write love poetry, and he uses the poems to woo a female co-worker. The second involves a man from the air force who meets and falls in love with a movie usherette, unaware that the woman has a secret. The third involves a French shopkeeper who agrees to help an American painter who loves the shopkeeper’s daughter to sell his paintings… especially when he sees the painter has made a stunning copy of a Watteau.

I always feel a bit antsy when I’m watching a movie anthology that isn’t specifically geared to the genres; I’m always a little afraid that it will turn out to be a false lead and have no fantastic content. However, in this one, two of the stories do hinge on the genres. The first one features Bill Bixby, and is based on the Kurt Vonnegut Jr. short story EPICAC, and is clearly science fiction; despite a rather far-fetched premise, it’s rather endearing and even moving towards the end. The second is based on a Daphne Du Maurier story called KISS ME AGAIN STRANGER, and given that radio announces early on that a serial killer is on the loose who preys on men from the air force, it’s clear that the second one has some horror touches as well. This one features Leonard Nimoy and Juliet Mills; both do quite well, though Nimoy can’t quite hold on to his British accent. The third (Somerset Maugham’s THE FORTUNATE PAINTER) is likable enough and has some fun performances in it from Lorne Greene, Agnes Moorehead and Alan Hale Jr., but it has no fantastic content, and it is also the one that least fits in with the others, as the theme of love seems more of a side issue than the main focus of the story. Still, overall it’s an interesting combination of stories, and it might have been interesting to see what the series would have been like had the pilot sold.

SUPERGIRL (1971)
TV-Movie aka Supergirl – Das Madchen von den Sternen

Article 3651 by Dave Sindelar

Viewing Date: 7-29-2011
Posting Date: 8-13-2011
Directed by Rudolf Thome
Featuring Iris Berben, Marquard Bohm, Nikolaus Dutsch
Country: West Germany
What it is: Either an art film or somebody’s idea of a joke… and maybe both

A woman from space comes down to Earth to warn of an impending invasion… maybe.

SUPERGIRL! – You will believe a woman can…. uhh… walk around and talk to people. Yes, the movie indeed has the title above, and the credits match that of my source for the movie. According to John Stanley’s movie guide, the girl comes to Earth to warn of an impending invasion, but everyone just wants to sleep with her; I’m glad he had that description, because it gave me the only clue to just what this movie is about. However, the plot description makes it sound more exciting and sexier than it is. You see, the problem is that my copy of this movie is in unsubtitled German, and the only visual hint I have that this movie has any fantastic content at all is the title. No super powers, no spaceships, no strange-looking aliens – a woman goes around and talks to people who drink a lot, and the only hint we get that something interesting is supposed to be going on is that the soundtrack goes all crazy whenever a black Cadillac shows up. The only sign of action we get (if we discount the moment when a man throws a newspaper on the floor) is when someone shoots a gun at someone in a garden, but if that goes anywhere, it’s a mystery to me. The biggest item of interest here is that Rainer Werner Fassbinder is in the movie, though he goes uncredited; I think think he plays the guy in the Cadillac. If there is anything at all exciting here, it’s hidden in the dialogue, but given that the movie has a rating of 3.6 on IMDB (which hopefully was rated by people who understood the language), I suspect there’s really nothing much here worth digging out.

THE SPY RING (1938)
Article 3634 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 7-12-2011
Posting Date: 7-27-2011
Directed by Joseph H. Lewis
Featuring William Hall, Jane Wyman, Esther Ralston
Country: USA
What it is: Spy movie

A captain is assigned to protect the secrets surrounding a new machine gun (that will revolutionize anti-aircraft warfare) after its inventor is killed.

I don’t really care what they call this enhancement to the machine gun; I know a Gizmo Maguffin when I see one. Still, like the better movies with your basic Gizmo Maguffin plot, this one uses the Maguffin in the final reel, but that doesn’t really change the fact that the Maguffin is rather dull and that the whole plot essentially revolves around spies trying to get a hold of it. It’s efficiently directed and has some good moments, but I find the script a little confusing, and I don’t find the idea that the plot hinges on the results of a polo game to be particularly interesting. Actually, the most fun I had with the movie was in checking the credits afterward; I was curious about who played the part of an intimidating craggy-faced character known as “The Champ” only to discover it was none other than Glenn Strange.

SECRET OF THE CHATEAU (1934)
Article 3633 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 7-11-2011
Posting Date: 7-26-2011
Directed by Richard Thorpe
Featuring Claire Dodd, Alice White, Osgood Perkins
Country: USA
What it is: Mystery

A murderer who kills for rare book editions is on the loose, and a Gutenberg Bible is his or her next target. Will the police inspector be able to spot the murderer?

At about the fifty minute mark of the movie, a policeman makes a passing comment that the mysterious tolling of the bells may be the work of a ghost. Nobody really takes the comment seriously, and this is also pretty late in the game for what has played out up to that point as a straightforward mystery. Therefore, I can safely say consign this movie to the realm of marginalia for its horror content, though the fact that the bells toll mysteriously in the first place and the presence of a hunchback also give it a slight push in that direction. It is, however, a fairly entertaining mystery. Much of what’s fun about it is found in Ferdinand Gottschalk’s performance as the Inspector; he reminds me of Alastair Sim on occasion. The movie also has one of the better comic relief characters I’ve encountered from the period. It’s by no means a classic, but it’s rather enjoyable if you’re in the mood for it.

SUPERBUG GOES WILD (1971)
aka Superbug – The Wild One, Ein Kafer geht aufs Ganze

Article 3626 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 7-4-2011
Posting Date: 7-19-2011
Directed by Rudolf Zehetgruber
Featuring Rudolf Zehetgruber, Gerd Duwner, Kathrin Oginski
Country: West Germany / Switzerland
What it is: Herbie the Love Bug ripoff

An adventurer comes by a yellow Volkswagen with a mind of its own, and decides to drive it as a service car to a hovercraft in a rally through Africa in order to make money to save a down-on-its-luck medical clinic.

Sometimes trying to match up a movie listed in a reference book with its matching listing on IMDB, and then finding a copy of the movie itself can be a maddening process. The John Stanley guide lists the title as SUPERBUG-THE WILD ONE, which matches on IMDB to EIN KAFER AUF EXTRATOUR, the third in the series. However, the plot description says that most of the action takes place in Switzerland, whereas the plot description in the Stanley guide says most of the story takes place in Africa. After searching around a bit, I established that the African Superbug movie was actually EIN KAFER GEHT AUFS GANZE, the first in the series, though the Stanley guide says it’s one of the later ones. I found a copy of the movie called SUPERBUG GOES WILD, which, fortunately, turned out to be the correct movie. So now that I’ve finally been able to match things up, on with the review.

For the record, Superbug is a German rip-off of Herbie, the Love Bug; Superbug is actually named Dudu, and someone claims this is the word for “bug” in whichever African country this takes place in. Throughout the movie, the main character keeps referring to his car as the “love bug”, to further heighten the sense of rip-off. As for the movie itself, it is horrible; there’s not a funny scene in the movie, there’s no sense of a real race being run at any time, and the female doctor keeps showing up in every location, which really leaves us wondering just what route this race is taking. Dudu’s powers seem to consist of occasionally having eyes, saying “Jumbo Jumbo” on occasion, and transforming itself into a toy car so it can do 180 degree turns. Its vaunted abilities rarely come into play during the action. I’ve been curious about the Superbug movies for some time, but if this movie is any indication, they’re a truly dismal lot. Fortunately, there’s only three more I’ll have to see.

SUMMER OF SECRETS (1976)
Article 3625 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 7-3-2011
Posting Date: 7-18-2011
Directed by Jim Sharman
Featuring Arthur Dignam, Rufus Collins, Nell Campbell
Country: Australia
What it is: A strange experiment

A young couple arrive at a deserted beach house, but their solitude is shattered when they are spied on by the assistant of an eccentric scientist who lives nearby. The woman is kidnapped by the assistant, and the young man must confront the scientist to find out why…

The first two-thirds of the movie is almost impenetrable; we know something is going on and we’re given plenty of little plot hints to deal with (the scientist is obsessed with his dead wife, the assistant is almost painfully paranoid, the scientist is having the assistant shoot movies about his memories), but since we’re never given the threads that pull these things together, you end up antsily waiting for it all to make sense with the possible fear that it never will. It’s not until we get a major revelation two-thirds of the way through the movie that it starts coming together, and I can say that the situation is rather interesting indeed. However, one question remains – is it interesting enough to compensate for the willful eccentricity of the first two-thirds of the movie? Sadly, I have to say “not quite”, and this is especially apparent when you hit the end of the movie, and you realize the story never quite hits the level of emotional resonance that it needed to really make it work; the earlier part of the movie is so off-putting that it distances you too much from the characters. Furthermore, certain parts of the movie never do quite mesh; in retrospect, much of the behavior of the assistant never makes any sense. I wouldn’t doubt that the movie has a bit of a cult following; after all, it was directed by the same guy who gave us THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW, and there is enough here that I can see how someone might be really taken with the movie. Nevertheless, I think this is one movie that could have been a lot better if it hadn’t been trying so hard to be difficult.

SEXY CAT (1973)
Article 3624 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 7-2-2011
Posting Date: 7-17-2011
Directed by Julio Perez Tabernero
Featuring German Cobos, Lone Fleming, Monika Kolpek
Country: Spain
What it is: Serial killer movie

“Sexy Cat” is a popular comic strip about a woman who takes sadistic pleasure in murdering her enemies. An artist claiming to be the true creator of the strip hires a detective to find the necessary proof. The artist then becomes the first in a series of killings of people involved with the strip or with a TV show adaptation, and the detective must help the police to find the killer, who is using the same methods of murder as the character in the comic strip.

I really wasn’t expecting much from this one going into it, but it turned out to be a surprisingly entertaining horror mystery. The murders are rather gruesome and bloody (and the on-screen killing of a snake with a machete won’t endear it to animal lovers), and the mystery aspect is rather fun. It also has a sense of humor, especially in the scenes where the detective has to deal with a somewhat befuddled police inspector. Giallo fans may be disappointed, as the movie has little in the way of stylistic touches, but once I picked out the person who I suspected was guilty of the crimes, I found the movie really held my interest if for no other reason than to see if I was right. All in all, this was not bad for a cheap little Spanish production.

THE SCREAMING WOMAN (1972)
TV-Movie

Article 3603 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 6-11-2011
Posting Date: 6-26-2011
Directed by Jack Smight
Featuring Olivia de Havilland, Ed Nelson, Laraine Stephens
Country: USA
What it is: Thriller

A rich but possibly mentally unstable old woman discovers that a woman has been buried alive in the ruins of an old smokehouse on her property. Her attempts to get help to save the woman are met with disbelief in her mental capacities, and time is running out for the buried woman…

It’s been years since I read the Ray Bradbury short story on which this movie was based, but the entry in John Stanley’s “Creature Feature Movie Guide Strikes Again” reminded me that in the original story, the person who discovered the burial was not an old woman but a child. It would have been more interesting had the movie retained this approach; after all, I think the fear of not being believed because you were just a kid is more universal than not being believed because you’re a mentally unstable rich woman, but I suspect the latter route lent itself to more standard TV-Movie dramatic approaches, which was no doubt a factor. Still, that doesn’t mean that the movie doesn’t more or less work; it does, in fact, work well enough. Still, it could have been better. There’s a few false moments here and there; in particular, the old woman’s reaction to her discovery of the burial (she runs through the woods screaming nonstop) is way too overwrought and melodramatic to be convincing. I would also have liked the movie better if it had featured less of either the old woman’s daughter-in-law and the buried woman’s husband’s lover (two pushy and unlikable characters who add little to the story) and spent some time developing the character of the buried woman; after all, it’s her life that is really on the line here, and she’s treated as little more than a plot device. It’s not near as suspenseful as it could have been.

SOMEONE BEHIND THE DOOR (1971)
aka Quelqu’un derriere la porte

Article 3582 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 5-16-2011
Posting Date: 6-5-2011
Directed by Nicolas Gessner
Featuring Charles Bronson, Anthony Perkins, Jill Ireland
Country: France
What it is: Thriller

A neurosurgeon takes in an amnesiac patient with schizophrenic tendencies. However, the doctor has ulterior motives; he plans to implant artificial memories into the patient with the intent of getting him to murder the lover of the doctor’s philandering wife.

The opening scenes in the hospital really do a nice job of building up a good sense of tension, and it uses nothing more than clever editing and sound, and this is even before the story gets started. It’s a good thing, too; it buoys you through the deliberate setup of the plot that occupies the next hour or so of the movie. For the most part, the movie works fairly well, and when it finally swings into action, things don’t go quite as planned and you’ll really not be sure as to how this will all pan out. Unfortunately, the movie does strike a few false notes on occasion, and though some like the ending, I find it somewhat unsatisfying and even a little annoying, especially when it gets all arty during the closing credits. All three principals give interesting performances, but I give the edge to Charles Bronson, who is playing somewhat against type. Though not strictly a horror movie, we do have one insane killer in the mix, and I found it quite odd that he turns out to be the most sympathetic character in the movie. All in all, I found this one an interesting oddity.