Scarlet Street (1945)
Article 5574 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 9-30-2018
Directed by Fritz Lang
Featuring Edward G. Robinson, Joan Bennett, Dan Duryea
Country: USA
What it is: Film noir

A meek and married bank teller becomes infatuated with an attractive woman when he drives away her attacker, not knowing that the woman’s attacker was her boyfriend. To impress her, he leaves her with the impression he is a famous artist. The woman’s boyfriend talks her into milking the teller for all he’s worth…

I honestly didn’t think I’d be covering this movie when I began to watch it, but towards the end of the movie, the protagonist finds himself tormented by the voices of the dead. Though we know the voices are in his own mind, that still gave me enough in the way of fantastic content (albeit marginal) to give me an excuse to cover it. Yes, I could have just added it to my marginalia category, but I wanted to cover it, if for no other reason that it is a collaboration between one of my favorite directors (Fritz Lang) and one of my favorite actors (Edward G. Robinson). The latter seems initially to be cast against type as the bank teller, but as the story progresses, it prepares us for the violence that will ultimately erupt. Robinson, Bennett and Duryea are all excellent. I’ve loved this movie ever since I first saw it, and I find the final scene in the movie to be heartbreaking. In one regard, it reminds me of Lang’s earlier movie FURY, in that he has to do a little twisting at the end to make the movie fit in with the demands of the Hays Office, but he does it very effectively here. It’s a lesser known film noir, but one of my personal favorites.

Sasquatch: The Legend of Bigfoot (1976)
Article 5572 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 9-23-2018
Directed by Ed Ragozzino
Featuring George Lauris, Steve Boergadine, Jim Bradford
Country: USA
What it is: Bigfoot movie

An expedition is launched in British Columbia to locate possible stomping grounds for the Sasquatch.

This movie apparently came under some criticism because it wasn’t a documentary, and that’s partially the fault of the movie itself; it sets itself up like one in the opening scenes. Because of that, I initially thought it was one, but some of the subsequent scenes dispelled that illusion for me, largely because the characters were portrayed in such a way that made me suspect that they were creations of a writer rather than real people; the colorful guide who talks to his mule certainly didn’t feel like a living, breathing person. This is not to say that the movie can’t be enjoyed somewhat without that illusion; there’s a fair amount of interesting nature footage, even if it’s not relevant to the plot. Still, had it been a documentary, it might have covered up the fact that this movie is, in essence, one long Double-Stuffed Safari-O; not much really happens until you get to the end of the movie, and even that section falls short of satisfying. All in all, it’s passable for a Bigfoot movie, but it’s useful to remember that the bar for Bigfoot movies is set pretty low.

Sky Racket (1937)
Article 5566 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 8-12-2018
Directed by Sam Katzman
Featuring Bruce Bennett, Joan Barclay, Monte Blue
Country: USA
What it is: Action thriller

A runaway bride stows away on a mail plane designed to serve as bait to catch a bunch of criminals using a death ray that kills the engines of planes.

If it’s the thirties and the plot involves an airplane and it has some science fiction content, it’s a fairly safe bet that the movie’s fantastic content will feature a death ray designed to bring down planes; there are exceptions, but not many. Since the opening quarter of the movie consists of about 95 percent of the footage involving the runaway bride (which plays as a comedy) and only 5 percent of the footage setting up the death ray angle, you can forgive me for hoping that the movie was going to vary the formula a bit by combining the plane-downing death ray story with a screwball comedy angle, but in truth it pretty much sticks to the routine, but then, what do you expect from a Sam Katzman cheapie? The cast also features Duncan Renaldo and Hattie McDaniel, which adds a little novelty value to this one. Nonetheless, this one is rather dreary and uninspired.

Sherlock Jr. (1924)
Article 5558 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 6-27-2018
Directed by Buster Keaton
Featuring Buster Keaton, Kathryn McGuire, Joe Keaton
Country: USA
What it is: Surreal slapstick fantasy

A movie projectionist aspires to be a detective. When he is framed for the theft of a watch belonging to his girlfriend’s father, he tries to use his amateur detective powers to clear himself.

Ignore for the moment that plot description; it’s not really what makes this short movie special. Most of the movie is Keaton doing what Keaton usually does (which, during this era, is certainly nothing to sneer at; he’s excellent throughout). During these sequences, he plays what amounts to parallel roles; he’s the hapless beau trying to woo his girlfriend in the main story, and the brilliant detective in the movie-within-a-movie that makes up most of the second half. It’s the transition from one story to the next that is Keaton at his most brilliant; he falls into a dream in which he gains the power to enter the movie-within-a-movie itself by walking directly into the screen. The sequence that follows has Keaton attempting to deal with an abruptly changing landscape in which he is the only consistent figure, and this sequence owes much to some of the comic tricks of Melies as later movies would owe to this sequence (both THE PURPLE ROSE OF CAIRO and DUCK AMUCK come to mind). In the end, the movie seems to be smitten with the magic of movies while at the same time recognizing that much of the movie world is a work of deception; I think it’s very fitting that in the final analysis, Buster’s problem is resolved not by any sleuthing tricks but rather by a straightforward question from the girlfriend to the proper individual. This long short (45 minutes) is considered one of Buster’s finest moments, and I’d concur with that.

The Spoiled Darling’s Doll (1913)
Article 5551 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 6-6-2018
Director unknown
Featuring Marie Eline, Helen Badgley, David Thompson
Country: USA
What it is: The reform of a brat

A spoiled brat has a nightmare where her doll comes to life to teach her a lesson.

From what I gather, Marie Eline (who plays the spoiled brat) was quite the sensation in her day, at least until she started aging. And there’s no doubt that she gives a great performance as the spoiled brat from hell. However, for this short to work, we need a performance from someone else that equal’s Eline’s, and that’s the role of the even younger child playing Eline’s doll. Helen Badgley is effective enough imitating a doll and being a bit creepy, but when the story requires that she put the brat through the same ringer that the brat has been putting the servants through, she falls a long ways short. To some extent, you only really know what’s going on during the dream sequence because you have an inkling as to what is supposed to be going on. Still, if this short doesn’t quite work, there are the pluses of Eline’s performance, and the last few minutes of the short, where we see how the parents and servants react to the changed Eline; I have to admit that the latter did make me laugh a bit.

Song at Midnight (1937)
aka Ye ban ge sheng
Article 5545 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 5-28-2018
Directed by Weibang Ma-Xu
Featuring Menghe Gu, Ping Hu, Shan Jin
Country: China
What it is: China’s first horror movie

A group of traveling actors come to town and set up shop in a dilapidated space. The lead actor is coached by a mysterious hooded figure who hides in the building. This hooded figure has a tragic story…

IMDB describes the movie as China’s first horror movie, and perhaps it is; I’m not aware at this time of any other candidates for that title. Yes, it is modeled off of THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA to some extent, but it also has some remarkable similarities to CYRANO DE BERGERAC in some of its plot elements. The movie gets off to a rocky, confusing start, and the plot as such doesn’t really begin until about twenty minutes into the movie, but it’s worth being patient, because it’s pretty good once it gets going. The mysterious figure is much more sympathetic than Eric in THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA; he really doesn’t terrorize anyone, and he’s much more the victim than the villain. In fact, his primary goal in life is to help his former girlfriend recover from the madness she has fallen into when she believed he was dead. It’s well-directed and exciting, and the ending recalls that of the 1931 FRANKENSTEIN. I really liked this one.

Seven Golden Men Strike Again (1966)
aka Il grande colpo dei 7 uomini d’oro
Article 5540 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 5-3-2018
Directed by Marco Vicario
Featuring Philippe Leroy, Rossana Podesta, Gastone Moschin
Country: Italy / France / Spain
What it is: Spaghetti heist

A criminal mastermind and his henchmen are captured by the authorities, but agree to help them in the kidnapping of a South American dictator in return for their freedom. However, that doesn’t mean they don’t have their own plot on the side…

Along with the various Spyghetti movies I’ve covered, Italy also put out an assortment of super-criminal movies as well which share the spy genre’s love of gadgetry. There’s a lot of gadgets in this one (including jet-packs) that pushes the movie into science fiction territory. It’s a sequel to SEVEN GOLDEN MEN (which I haven’t seen), and is played more for laughs than thrills; the gang here is more apt to out-talk than to out-shoot their adversaries. I found the movie witty and fun, with my favorite scene being one in which the leader quenches a rebellion among his henchman. It’s not a great movie, but it’s an entertaining little time killer.

Shamus (1958)
Article 5538 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 4-8-2018
Directed by Eric Marquis
Featuring John Francis Rooney, Tiny Littler
Country: UK
What it is: Children’s fantasy

An Irish boy manages to get his hands on a leprechaun’s pot of gold, but is placed under a curse by the leprechaun so that he has the tale of a monkey which will only go away when he meets an Irish donkey.

Here’s another title that ended up on my “ones that got away” list until it recently showed up on YouTube. For those not familiar with that list, it consists of movies that ended up on my hunt list but which I was never able to find for one reason or another and which I eventually purged from my hunt list by leaving them on this one. Many of these movies are known to be lost. Some of them I simply don’t know if they still exist or not (and in some cases, they may never have existed). The rest are, like this movie, known to exist but are beyond my reach for one reason or another.

This movie had me thinking about reasons why I’ve not been able to find some of these movies in the last category, and I think there’s at least one simple reason – many of these movies simply don’t generate enough interest to merit their being released on home video or otherwise made available to the general public. Take this movie, for example. It’s a low budget children’s movie with no big or familiar names in the cast or crew, and it contains little in the way of special effects. The movie is not awful enough to garner a camp following, nor is it good enough to really capture the imagination of many children. For what it’s worth, it tells its story efficiently, and it keeps things moving enough to fill it’s short running time (less than an hour). Still, for a movie with a magical premise, there’s not much magic here, and it would largely go unmourned if it faded into obscurity. Yet I’m always glad to find and see one of these movies, if for no other reason than its rarity and my memory of not having been able to find it initially. But I could only recommend it to completists who have to see everything.

Sweeney Todd (1928)
Article 5516 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 10-28-2017
Directed by Walter West
Featuring Moore Marriott, Iris Darbyshire, Judd Green
Country: UK
What it is: Time for a shave and a snack

A barber and an innkeeper who specializes in meat pies join forces to kill rich men for their money.

From what I gather, this silent version of the Todd story was a fairly low-budget affair, and the print I saw was not in the best of condition; furthermore, there may be some footage missing. Nevertheless, it is an entertaining version of the story, and is arguably better than the more-well-known Tod Slaughter version. It has a few curious touches to add to the mix. It has a framing story in which a husband returns home and gets caught up in reading the story about Sweeney Todd in the paper, and begins dreaming he himself is Todd. It also takes a definite turn into clear fantastic territory when a ghost shows up near the climax of the movie. The movie doesn’t make the cannibalism angle explicit, mostly using subtlety and suggestion to imply it. It may be the most enjoyable version of the story I’ve seen, though I should point out that I’ve never seen the famous musical version.

The Secret of Death Valley (1906)
Article 5515 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 10-22-2017
Director unknown
Cast unknown
Country: USA
What it is: The first weird western?

Several men set out on an expedition to prospect for gold. When one of them hits a big stake, another man kills him off as well as the others so he can have the gold for himself. However, that doesn’t mean he won’t pay for his crime…

Here’s another title that ended up on my “ones that got away” list that has finally revealed itself. I’m glad it did; it’s in the running as possibly the earliest example of the “weird western” subgenre. The fantastic content in this case involves the wife of one the murdered men having a vision of his murder; though this is a bit on the marginal side, it is a plot point of sorts, and, for that matter, the fantastic content of many weird westerns is pretty marginal as well. Despite being only about eight and a half minutes long, the short is pretty slow to get started; gold isn’t discovered until nearly half way through the short. Still, fans of weird westerns might want to check this one out.