SCROOGE: OR MARLEY’S GHOST (1901)
Article 2828 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 2-3-2009
Posting Date: 5-11-2009
Directed by Walter R. Booth
Cast Unknown

Scrooge is visited by Marley’s Ghost, who tries to change his feelings about Christmas.

Supposedly this early version of the perennial Christmas classic lasted about eleven minutes, which makes it an epic for its day. Only about five minutes still exist in my copy; it cuts off abruptly during the scenes of the Christmas yet to come. Of course, it cuts corners; Marley’s ghost does all of the work, sparing us the need to handle the three other spirits who pop up. On its own terms, it doesn’t make much sense, but I’m pretty sure the makers were counting on the viewer being already familiar with the story. As expected, this bare bones treatment can do little more than hit story highlights, though it does show how movies were starting to get a little more ambitious at the time.

THE SPIRIT OF THE BEEHIVE (1973)
aka El Espiritu de la colmena
Article 2805 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 1-11-2009
Posting Date: 4-18-2009
Directed by Victor Erice
Featuring Fernando Fernan Gomez, Teresa Gimpera, Ana Torrent
Country: Spain

A young girl in a rural Spanish village in 1940 becomes obsessed with the Frankenstein Monster after seeing the movie FRANKENSTEIN. She begins to imagine that she can conjure his spirit, and he becomes a part of her fantasy life.

It’s a Spanish art film rather than any sort of a horror movie, and I won’t pretend to have a thorough understanding of everything that goes on in this one, but if you’re familiar with the James Whale version of FRANKENSTEIN, you might well find this as fascinating as I did. In particular, I like the way several incidents parallel or recall incidents in that movie. For example, there’s a scene in a schoolroom where the kids are called upon to put the missing organs back on a cardboard cutout of a man (called Don Jose), a scene which recalls the creation of the monster. The movie gets deeper and deeper into the girl’s fantasy life, and much of this is no doubt brought about by the distance that so many people put between themselves and others; outside of the two sisters, we rarely see any of the members of the family in the same frame with each other. The fantasy life reaches a crucial turning point when an escaped criminal hides out in the abandoned house where the little girl believes the spirit of the Frankenstein monster lives. It’s really an indescribable movie, and must be seen to be appreciated.

SUPERMAN (1978)
Article 2795 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 1-1-2009
Posting Date: 4-8-2009
Directed by Richard Donner
Featuring Marlon Brando, Gene Hackman, Christopher Reeve
Country: UK / USA

The last surviving resident of the planet Krypton is a child sent to Earth by his father. On earth he has superpowers, and becomes a hero known as Superman. He must pit his wits against a supervillain named Lex Luthor, who is intent on causing California to slide into the ocean.

As the first big-budget superhero movie, it is no doubt beloved by fans. Though I consider it watchable enough, I have strong reservations. The movie has something of a split personality; the first half of the movie deals with his mythic origins, and it is mostly stiff, pompous and humorless; only Glenn Ford manages to lift things up a bit by adding a much needed touch of humanity to the proceedings. The second half of the movie has far too much humor in it; everyone seems to be playing it for laughs. No, I don’t object to Christopher Reeve turning the role of Clark Kent into a clumsy buffoon (quite frankly, this is my favorite aspect of Reeve’s performance, as it keeps the character from falling into blandness as well as providing a sharp contrast between Kent and Superman). But my heart did sink to see Lex Luthor played for laughs (a fault I attribute to the script rather than Gene Hackman’s performance, as I think he simply played it the way it was written to the hilt). It only starts taking itself seriously again during the special-effects laden climax, which unfortunately relies on giving Superman the power to turn back time, thereby straining credibility way too far for my taste. Yet, for all that, the movie is entertaining enough; I just wish this cinematic meal hadn’t ended up feeling like so many empty calories. My favorite moment: Superman rescues a cat caught in a tree.

STAR TREK II: THE WRATH OF KHAN (1982)
Article 2793 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 12-30-2008
Posting Date: 4-6-2009
Directed by Nicholas Meyer
Featuring William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, DeForest Kelley
Country: USA

When a Starfleet vessel stumbles upon the remnants of Khan’s marooned spaceship, Khan takes it over and plots revenge on his old friend, Admiral James T. Kirk.

Whatever faults there were with STAR TREK: THE MOTION PICTURE, it must be credited for one thing; it got the ball rolling for the transplantation of the TV series to the big screen. Still, I suspect that if this movie had been no better than that one, the franchise would have quickly burned itself out. Instead, we get a solid script that manages a fine balancing act between giving us a story that was strongly reminiscent of the original series (helped no doubt by making it a direct sequel to the “Space Seed” episode) while making it special enough to warrant a full movie treatment. It also avoids being in awe of its own technology and concentrates on the human elements of the story; though the special effects are state of the art, they are there to augment and support the story. A good script helps, as well as strong performances from all of the returning cast members of the series and from Ricardo Montalban in his return to the role of Khan. It also gives us an emotionally charged ending that sets up a situation for the sequel, a case of having one’s cake and eating it, too. I remember seeing this one in the theater back when it was released, and really having the feeling that the series had truly been revived. The only problem I have is one that some people have excuses for; Chekov was not a character during the first season of the series when “Space Seed” aired, but its clearly established that Khan and Chekov know each other in the movie. Excuses notwithstanding, this always bothered me a bit. Nevertheless, it was great to have the series back.

SHRIEK OF THE MUTILATED (1974)
Article 2792 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 12-30-2008
Posting Date: 4-5-2009
Directed by Michael Findlay
Featuring Alan Brock, Jennifer Stock, Tawm Ellis
Country: USA

A group of college students go to an island to get a photograph of the Yeti. They begin dying one by one.

I first heard about this movie from Michael Weldon’s Psychotronic Movie Guide. Weldon claims at one point of the book that he never gives away the ending of a good movie. He gives the ending away to this one.

I next encountered this title after having watched the wretched INVASION OF THE BLOOD FARMERS. That movie was directed by Ed Adlum. I looked up his full credits on IMDB, and found out he also had prominent credits in another genre movie – this one. He doesn’t direct, but he produces, writes and acts in this one.

One of the early scenes of this movie consists of couple. The man scours the kitchen for a drink and finds a beer. The woman gets into a fight with him, and he attacks her with a serrated knife, leaving her for dead. We next see him lying fully clothed in a full bathtub, drinking his beer and lazily trying to rub the bloodstains off of his shirt. The woman is, however, not quite dead. We see her crawling to the bathroom with a toaster. With her last ounce of energy, she plugs it in and dumps it in the bathtub.

Any one of the above things would have prepared me for a truly awful movie, and I was well-prepared; this is a stinker of the first order. I’m not giving away the twist ending, though practically everyone else does; I’m just going to say that an early restaurant scene in which a special meal not on the menu is prepared for one of the servants is indeed relevant to the plot. The rest is consummate silliness. Though it doesn’t quite reach the insane levels of INVASION OF THE BLOOD FARMERS, it still earns its place in the annals of bad moviedom and gets weirder as it goes along. But then, what do you expect of a Yeti movie which doesn’t feature an ounce of snow in it?

THE SECRET KILLER (1975)
aka Eyeball, Gatti rossi in un labirinto di vetro
Article 2787 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 12-24-2008
Posting Date: 3-31-2009
Directed by Umberto Lenzi
Featuring Martine Brochard, John Richardson, Ines Pellegrini
Country: Spain / Italy

A killer who gouges out eyeballs is loose in Barcelona. The killer is somehow attached to a group of tourists, some of whom end up victims of the killer.

The best thing about this giallo is the mystery surrounding the modus operandi of the murder; mainly, why is the killer gouging out eyeballs and what is being done with them? The answer is a far-fetched doozy that I’m willing to accept in the context of a giallo; in short, I don’t have a major problem with it. It’s the rest of the movie that gives me problems; for some reason, this one just falls flat. Maybe it’s because the movie never really becomes stylistically engaging; there are some touches, but they don’t sustain interest. Maybe it’s the overuse of certain musical themes that just scream “travelogue”; given that it’s about tourists in Barcelona, it’s appropriate enough, but travelogue music is counter-suspenseful. Maybe it’s because most of the characters are either undeveloped, underdeveloped, or obvious, from the strange priest to the overly-protective Texan father to the lesbian photographer and her model/partner. Use the basic rule that the murderer is the only major character on whom no suspicion falls, and you should have no trouble spotting the killer. At any rate, the movie lacks tension, and even the murders are only marginally interesting. There are much better giallos out there.

THE SURVIVOR (1981)
Article 2783 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 12-20-2008
Posting Date: 3-27-2009
Directed by David Hemmings
Featuring Robert Powell, Jenny Agutter, Joseph Cotten
County: Australia

The only survivor of the crash of a 747 is a pilot who can’t remember what happened. He ends up meeting a psychic who says she can help him sort out what happened. Meanwhile, those investigating the crash are being killed off.

This movie’s at its best at the very beginning with the crash of the plane, an effective and memorable scene. It also has some interesting touches here and there, including a vision of young girls playing a game (one of those where you sneak up on someone but stop when they turn around). It also makes some good use of a wrecked 747 as an atmospheric location. Unfortunately, the movie quickly loses steam, spending less time investigating the mystery of the crash and more time just being mysterious, with the scenes in which various people are killed off seeming rather out of place. It’s not until the last twenty minutes of the movie that it begins to investigate what happened, and the revelation is… well, disappointing, given what went on before, with a final twist that I saw coming halfway through the movie. The performances by Robert Powell (as the pilot) and Jenny Agutter (as the psychic) are good, but Joseph Cotten is given little more to do than give the pilot a Bible at one point. Still, the movie did win several awards from the Australian Film Institute, but I suspect that’s for its sense of style, which is much stronger than any story it tells.

LA SENORA MUERTE (1969)
aka Lady Death, Madam Death
Article 2761 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 11-28-2008
Posting Date: 3-5-2009
Directed by Jaime Salvador
Featuring John Carradine, Regina Torne, Elsa Cardenas
Country: Mexico

A deformed woman must kill young women for their blood so that a mad scientist can make her beautiful again.

I watched this one in Spanish without subtitles. I can’t say it was undubbed, though; you’ll see John Carradine’s face, but that’s not his voice issuing from it. So, what kind of horror movie would John Carradine make in Mexico? Well, from what I can tell, it’s no better than the ones he was making elsewhere at the time; this one looks pretty bad. It’s something of a cross between ATOM AGE VAMPIRE and BLOOD AND BLACK LACE; the deformed woman works at a fashion agency, so there’s lots of pretty models around for her to stalk. Unfortunately, as a side effect to this, the movie is heavily padded with fashion show footage; there’s at least two extended sequences of models walking by in the latest styles in front of appreciative audiences, and these scenes do nothing but bring the action (such as it is) to a screeching halt. John Carradine has a mute hunchbacked assistant who bears a certain resemblance to Bud Cort; in the most “touching” sequence of the movie, the assistant tries to make up for the accidental destruction of a bottle of beautiful woman’s blood during his attempted rape of the woman (during one of her beautiful phases) by showing up with a bottle of his own blood in exchange. Let’s face it; if your doctor is John Carradine, you’ve had it, especially if you find his disembodied head appearing to you in your mind urging you to kill. By the way, the doctor’s computer is one of the sillier giant props I’ve seen in a horror movie.

SON OF GODZILLA (1967)
aka Kaijut no kessen: Gojira no musuko
Article 2752 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 11-19-2008
Posting Date: 2-24-2009
Directed by Jun Fukuda
Featuring Tadao Takashima, Akira Kubo, Bibar Maeda
Country: Japan

A group of scientists experimenting with weather control encounter difficulties when they discover the island they are working on is the home of Godzilla and his newly hatched son.

There’s only so much you can do with the concept of a giant monster, but I have to give Toho credit for trying to find as much variety as they could with the premise; all of the Godzilla movies for the first fourteen years or so were somewhat different from each other. It wasn’t until after DESTROY ALL MONSTERS that the series began resorting to formula. Some of the attempts to find something new to do with the Godzilla were pretty far out; I tend to place this movie, GODZILLA VS. THE SEA MONSTER, and GODZILLA’S REVENGE in a group by themselves as ones that gave us the most radical departures from the usual giant monster mayhem. You have to have a high tolerance for cute with this one; the scenes of Godzilla trying to teach his comic-relief son could be either delightful or painful, depending on how you feel about Minya. I have to admit to having a weak spot for Minya, and I was highly amused by the fact that he originally blew smoke rings and had to be trained to use his radioactive breath. Plotwise, it’s a mess, though; between the scenes of the monsters, we have an extremely episodic and not very interesting human story about scientists experimenting with weather, and this story really has no forward momentum and only cursory interest level; they’re just there to fill in time between the monster scenes. Still, whatever its weaknesses, the final shot of Godzilla, covered with snow, cradling his son in his arms, and preparing to go into hibernation, is somehow more powerful and moving than you might think; it’s one of my favorite images from the series.

SANTO CONTRA EL CEREBRO DIABOLICO (1963)
aka Santo vs. the Diabolical Brain
Article 2744 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 11-10-2008
Posting Date: 2-16-2009
Directed by Federico Curiel
Featuring Santo, Fernanado Casanova, Ana Berthe Lepe
Country: Mexico

Santo and friends take on some sadistic criminals in a western town.

That’s about all I was able to figure out of the plot based on watching it, and Robert Cotter’s “The Mexican Masked Wrestler and Monster Filmography”, which I usually turn to for help in cases like this, is of little help. Apparently, this makes the third in a trilogy of films that includes SANTO VS. THE KING OF CRIME and SANTO AT THE HOTEL OF THE DEAD. I’ve seen both of the latter, and they’re sorely lacking in fantastic content, as is this one; about the only thing I could spot is that there’s a wristwatch that can be used to contact Santo, and the wrestler has some gadgetry in his lair. Other than that, this one mostly plays like a western, with horses, fistfights in saloons, etc. There’s some interesting moments; there’s a scene in which two women have a heartfelt and emotional conversation while a singer croons a sad song in the background. This scene definitely feels out of place in a Santo movie, but then, Santo himself doesn’t appear in it much either. He does have the best scene, though, in which he singlehandedly prevents a small plane from taking off. This is not to be confused with Santo’s first movie, SANTO CONTA CEREBRO DEL MAL, or SANTO VS. THE EVIL BRAIN. Incidentally, despite the title, the brain remains firmly in the head of the main villain.