THE SWORD IN THE STONE (1963)
Article #1616 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 8-17-2005
Posting Date: 1-14-2006
Directed by Wolfgang Reitherman
Featuring the voices of Karl Swenson, Rickie Sorensen, Sebastian Cabot

A young boy named Wart meets the great wizard Merlin, who takes him in order to give him an education.

For me, the story of Disney’s progress with animated feature films from the thirties to the eighties was one of steady decline; they reached their peak early on (possibly with SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARFS), and each succeeding feature (with a few exceptions) lost a bit of that magic. Granted, you might not notice it unless you start comparing the earlier movies with the later ones, and I suspect for the most part it didn’t bother the kids, but there is a dropping off of quality. It wasn’t entirely their fault; animated features were expensive and risky, and corners had to be cut to keep them profitable. This entry from the early sixties (based on the first of a series of clever novels by T. H. White which retold the King Arthur story) has some amusing moments, but the script is pretty weak. We have several scenes of Merlin engaging in magic that are reminiscent of the fairy godmother sequences from CINDERELLA (which, if you think about it, this movie somewhat resembles), then we have some sequences where Merlin turns Wart into a variety of animals, and though these sequences are amusing enough (particularly the squirrel sequence), they really don’t take the story anywhere because Wart really doesn’t learn anything from them that he can apply to his real life experiences (at least in the story as is). There is a talking owl, a duel between Merlin and Madam Mim the witch, some anachronistic jokes (Merlin is portrayed as something of a time traveler, but if my memory serves me right, in the novel he actually lived backwards through time), and lots of cuteness. But in comparison to many of Disney’s earlier movies, it’s a rather bland and soulless affair for the most part.

THE STORY OF THREE LOVES (1953)
Article #1615 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 8-16-2005
Posting Date: 1-13-2006
Directed by Vincente Minnelli and Gottfried Reinhardt
Featuring Pier Angeli, Ethel Barrymore, Leslie Caron

Three people aboard an ocean liner muse about the loves of their lives.

What we have here is another anthology of stories, only one of which has fantastic content. The quality is somewhat variable, though I feel that it makes its progression from the weakest story to the strongest.

The first story involves a ballet dancer who is forced to quit dancing due to her heart condition. She then meets a ballet impressario who is smitten with her and wants her to dance, unaware of her condition. This segment features strong performances from all concerned, but at heart the story is straightforward tearjerker. It also suffers from having been seen by me too soon after having seen the superior THE RED SHOES, with which it shares some of its themes, a similarity only increased by the presence once again of Moira Shearer as the ballet dancer. Ultimately, the predictability of the story blunts its impact.

The second story is the most light-hearted. Here, a young boy who hates his governess, because he’s tired of having to learn French from her and of having to listen to her recite love poetry, meets a witch who gives him the power to turn into a full-grown man for a short while. In some ways, this segment is something of a gender-reversed version of “Cinderella”. The performances are once again quite good, and the story has some surprises. The only real problem I have with it is the presence of Ricky Nelson as the young version of Tommy; it’s not his performance that is at fault, but his voice was just shrill enough to start hurting my ears before this segment was finished.

It’s the final segment of the movie that’s the real gem. It’s the story of a disgraced trapeze artist hoping to make a comeback who hooks up with a melancholy, suicidal and guilt-ridden woman. Both Pier Angeli and Kirk Douglas are excellent in this story, which is the darkest of the bunch and shot through with real tragedy. This segment benefits enormously from Douglas’s athletic performance during the trapeze sequences, and my favorite part of the movie is when Douglas trains Angeli on the tricks of the trapeze trade, a sequence which manages to be effectively detailed and realistic. I also like the surprise ending of this one, though others may not. The cast also features Farley Granger, James Mason, Agnes Moorehead, Zsa Zsa Gabor and Richard Anderson.

STAR TREK: THE MOTION PICTURE (1979)
Article #1614 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 8-15-2005
Posting Date: 1-12-2006
Directed by Robert Wise
Featuring William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, DeForest Kelley

Admiral Kirk takes over captainship of the Enterprise to investigate a mysterious and deadly force that is headed for the Earth.

From a story perspective, this movie could have easily fit into an episode of the TV series which spawned it. However, a TV episode wouldn’t have suffered from the main problem of this movie; we wouldn’t have had endless scenes of people standing around staring at special effects. Still, I can’t be too hard on this one; the story itself isn’t bad, and when I watch it, I find myself transported to that time in the late seventies when the phrase “Star Trek” conjured up memories only of the original series, which had been canceled almost ten years earlier and had since then existed solely in syndication (outside of a short-lived animated version). At that time, it was a real joy to see all these characters again; in particular, Kelley’s opening scenes as the cranky Dr. “Bones” McCoy brought back floods of nostalgia for me. And I think the movie works well enough for what it turned out to be; if it had been the only “Star Trek” movie, it would remain a disappointment, but as the launch of a franchise, it passes muster. The second movie in the series would kick things into high gear. Apparently, the Director’s Cut of this one improves things considerably.

SPIRITS OF THE DEAD (1968)
(a.k.a. HISTOIRES EXTRAORDINAIRES /
TALES OF MYSTERY AND IMAGINATION)
Article #1612 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 8-13-2005
Posting Date: 1-10-2006
Directed by Roger Vadim, Louis Malle, Federico Fellini
Featuring Brigitte Bardot, Alain Delon, Jane Fonda

Three noted French/Italian directors take on three stories from Edgar Allan Poe.

To some extent, I think how you react to this anthology of Poe stories is dependent on how you feel about the individual directors. I’ve never had much use for Roger Vadim, who helms the first segment “Metzengerstein”; Vadim seems a lot more interested in outlandish costumes and hedonistic debauchery than in telling an interesting story, and the segment suffers for it. Things improve considerably with the second story; in general, I like the work of Louis Malle, and I like this story, and though it’s heavy on the sadism, at least I feel that the sadism is more the obsession of the character of William Wilson than that of the director’s; in other words, it seems relevant. However, the real keeper here is Federico Fellini’s wild and very liberal adaptation of Poe’s “Toby Dammit”. Fans of the story probably won’t recognize it until the end, but Fellini’s adaptation (which involves Terence Stamp as a drunken, arrogant British actor who comes to Rome to star in a movie in which the Christ story is told as a western, and who hopes to get a Ferrari out of the deal) allows him to indulge in his fascination with strange faces and bizarre situations, and it’s a joy. It even retains the comic feel of the original story. Far and away, the third story is the one that makes this movie worth watching.

SPELLBOUND (1945)
Article #1611 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 8-12-2005
Posting Date: 1-9-2005
Directed by Alfred Hitchcock
Featuring Ingrid Bergman, Gregory Peck, Michael Chekhov

The head of a mental asylum is retiring, and a woman who practices psychiatry there falls in love with the man who replaces him. However, she discovers that the replacement is not the actual famous psychiatrist he’s supposed to be, but an amnesiac who may have murdered the original psychiatrist.

Fantastic content: The theme of madness is present throughout, which nudges the movie a little ways into the realm of horror. Also, the Salvador Dali dream sequences are weird enough to give a touch of fantasy to the proceedings. Nonetheless, this one is marginal.

Hitchcock’s movies from the forties are in general quite highly regarded, but I have to admit to not quite enjoying them as much as I do his works from other decades. It’s not that I think they’re badly done. Rather, it seems to me that he doesn’t quite ratchet up the level of suspense as well as he did both before and after; as a result, I tend to get a little bit bored with them. Such is the case with this one, as the fairly long buildup starts to take its toll on me. I think the movie also suffers somewhat from its use of Freudian psychology; it was innovative and relevant for its time, but now it seems dated and simplistic. Nonetheless, the movie is well done; the acting is top notch (especially from Ingrid Bergman and Leo G. Carrol), the story is quite fascinating, the dream sequences are well done, and the ending is fantastic. I also love the scene involving the straight razor and the glass of milk; it’s one of the tensest moments of the movie, and it has a great resolution. All in all, the strengths outweigh any weaknesses here, and it is a worthy entry in Hitchcock’s oeuvre.

THE SINISTER MONK (1965)
(a.k.a. DER UNHEIMLICHE MONCH)
Article #1610 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 8-11-2005
Posting Date: 1-8-2006
Directed by Harold Reinl
Featuring Karin Dor, Harald Leipnitz, Siegfried Lowitz

When an old man dies, several relatives engage in manipulative attempts to take hold of the family fortune, but things get complicated when they start to be knocked off by a whip-wielding monk.

Trying to follow the plot of a krimi is difficult at the best of times, and this one involves a bewildering assortment of elements such as a girls’ school, secret wills, whip-wielding monks, kidnapping rackets, carrier pigeons, death masks, and water guns filled with sulphuric acid to contend with. However, at least the other krimis I’ve seen have a consistent stylistic tenor to them that I can relate to. Now, despite the fact that this movie has some great moments (my favorite: a whip attack on a man in a convertible), I found this one more annoying than enjoyable. The reason is simple; I dislike the musical soundtrack, which sounds vaguely James Bondian and which I found to be profoundly at odds with the stark black and white photography and the general serious mood of the piece. As a result, I didn’t know how I was to react to most of the scenes; the whip attacks would have been a lot scarier if the monk’s organ theme wasn’t so melodramatically corny, and I found myself badly distracted from the story at times. This is probably a matter of taste; I’ve seen a number of reviews of this one from people who really enjoyed the music. They can have this one; I suspect the next time I’m in the mood for a krimi, this is not the one I’ll put on.

SH! THE OCTOPUS (1937)
Article #1607 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 8-8-2005
Posting Date: 1-5-2006
Directed by William C. McGann
Featuring Hugh Herbert, Allan Jenkins, Marcia Ralston

Two police detectives investigate a report of a murder at an old dark lighthouse, and found themselves enmeshed in a web of diabolical crime from someone known only as The Octopus.

There are some things in this world that are simply wastes of time. One of them is trying to sort out the plot of this bizarre horror comedy. It’s your basic “old dark house” story set in a lighthouse, with a corpse hanging from the rafters but no way to get up there, a tentacled monster, a hook-handed captain (who isn’t what he seems), a young, handsome painter (who isn’t what he seems), a young woman looking for her father, etc, etc. On top of the octopus, we also have encounters with frogs, a turtle and a barking seal. There’s weird plot twists at every turn, more comic relief than anything for it to relieve (courtesy of Hugh Herbert and Allen Jenkins), and one of the most strikingly effective villain unmaskings I’ve ever seen in a movie of this ilk. And it all leads up to…well, I won’t give away the ending other than to say there’s a reason why the story doesn’t make any sense. Still, it’s really nice to have an octopus on the loose rather than the usual man in a gorilla suit. By the way, Nanny’s a goat.

SHOCK WAVES (1977)
Article #1606 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 8-7-2005
Posting Date: 1-4-2006
Directed by Ken Wiederhorn
Featuring Peter Cushing, John Carradine, Brooke Adams

Survivors of a boat wreck find themselves on an island terrorized by underwater zombies, the product of Nazi experimentation.

My DVD of this movie has a quote calling it “The best of the Nazi Zombie movies”, and it may be; truth of the matter, I had to strain to think of others I’ve seen, and the only one I could dredge up (REVENGE OF THE ZOMBIES) wasn’t much competition to begin with. And when I checked the “nazi-zombie” category on IMDB, I didn’t see anything there that would give this movie a run for its money. Yet, I have to say that if this movie is the best of the subgenre, I feel it’s more by default than by this movie’s intrinsic strengths.

The movie’s strengths are easy to see; it has the novelty value of giving us both Peter Cushing and John Carradine together for the first time; it’s too bad that the character played by the latter is already dead before the character played by the former shows up, so they have no scenes together. The make-up is quite striking, and the scenes of the zombies walking underwater and rising up from the waves are very effective. Unfortunately, the movie uses them so much they lose their effectiveness; after the umpteenth shot of a zombie poking his head out of the water and then ducking back down, I was ready to move on. The movie also has a weak script and some poor editing; many of the characters are left undeveloped, some of the scenes seem to be happening at random, and often it’s difficult to figure out where the zombies are in relation to the human characters. The droning and repetitive soundtrack is eerie enough, but has too little variation to be really effective and it also tends to make each scene of the movie feel more or less like all the others. It’s a shame; the basic premise and situations here show a lot of promise, and with a better script, more assured direction and a stronger sense of pace, this one could have been a knockout rather than a mixed bag.

THE SHIVER OF THE VAMPIRES (1970)
(a.k.a. SEX AND THE VAMPIRE / LE FRISSON DES VAMPIRES)
Article #1605 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 8-6-2005
Posting Date: 1-3-2006
Directed by Jean Rollin
Featuring Sandra Julien, Jean-Marie Durand, Jacques Robiolles

A pair of newlyweds decide to spend their honeymoon at the castle of two of the bride’s cousins, but they discover on their arrival that the cousins are dead. In truth, they have now become vampires.

Hey it’s Mr. Jean (Arty-erotic-gory) Rollin again with another vampire flick. Of the four movies I’ve covered of his so far, three have been about vampires. Once again, all of the female characters spend most of the movie in various states of undress, there is a fair degree of blood, and all sorts of camera tricks and affected acting are on hand to remind you that you’re watching “art”. Naturally, the movie is beautiful to look at, but the arty touches are sometimes intrusive, and occasionally the result is unintentionally comic. Still, I found this one easier to follow than his other vampire movies (though in all honesty, I have to excuse THE NUDE VAMPIRE because I didn’t see it with subtitles), and there are some odd and interesting touches to the vampire lore. There’s a vampire that emerges from a clock, a murderous brassiere, and lots of lesbian encounters. If you’re familiar with Rollin, you know what to expect, but if you’ve tried him and don’t like him, this won’t change your mind. Me, I can take him or leave him, but I do find him easier to endure than Jesse Franco.

THE SEVEN DEADLY SINS (1952)
(a.k.a. LES SEPT PECHES CAPITAUX)
Article #1604 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 8-5-2005
Posting Date: 1-2-2006
Directed by Yves Allegret, Claude Autant-Lara, Eduardo De Filippo, Jean Dreville,
Georges Lacombe, Carlo Rim, Roberto Rossellini
Featuring Michele Morgan, Francoise Rosay, Jean Debucourt

A barker at a fair invites everyone to knock down the targets in ball-throwing game—the Seven Deadly Sins. For each sin, a story is told depicting that sin.

The fantastic content in this movie is relegated to the second of the stories, that of Sloth. In this story, St. Peter is frustrated by the breakneck pace of life on Earth, decides to turn Sloth into a virtue and sends Sloth to earth. It’s a cute story, full of special effects, but the story itself isn’t particularly satisfying, though at least it somewhat avoids the obviousness of some of the other stories.

At heart, that obviousness is the main problem I have with the movie; given the fact that you know which sin is being discussed at the beginning of each story, you find yourself generally unsurprised by the denouements of the particular segments. The stories generally work best when the characters are particularly well drawn, or the subjects are handled with a certain degree of depth. As a rule, the stories get better as they go along, with the hilarious take on Gluttony leading the pack; sure, you can see the final twist coming a mile away, but the set-up is inspired. The story of Envy shows perhaps the greatest depth, and it’s fascinating that the target of the main character’s envy is not another human being, but a cat. The movie also throws in an eighth deadly sin, but I largely see that one being something of an offshoot of Pride.