SUPERMAN (1948)
(Serial)
Article #937 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 10-8-2003
Posting Date: 3-6-2004
Directed by Spencer Gordon Bennet and Thomas Carr
Featuring Kirk Alyn, Noel Neill, Carol Forman

Superman comes to Earth and does battle with a villain known as the Spider Lady (not to be confused with the Spider Woman).

I’ve already covered the sequel to this serial (ATOM MAN VS. SUPERMAN), and many of the things I liked about that one I like about this one. I don’t mind the use of animation for the flying sequences; though it may seem jarring at first, it does add action and interesting movement to those sequences. I like the first several episodes the best, as they deal with the origins of Superman and his joining the reporting team of the Daily Planet. I also like the fact that using a stock group of well-known characters gives us a greater variety of performances among the secondary characters than is usually found in serials. The serial also does not include a single episode that consists mostly of footage from earlier episodes, which is also a plus. However, there are certain disappointments; the Spider Lady is as dull a serial villain as any I’ve known (despite her slinky black dress); Carol Forman doesn’t appear to be having any fun with the role, and comes across as if she’d much rather be home painting her toenails. Also, things get very silly at times; though I realize that the suspension of disbelief is necessary for this sort of thing, I found it impossible to swallow that Superman could use his x-ray vision to pierce through the disguise of a villain IN A PHOTOGRAPH to figure his real identity. All in all, I’m afraid I prefer the sequel a little bit more.

S.O.S. TIDAL WAVE (1939)
Article #929 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 9-30-2003
Posting Date: 2-27-2004
Directed by John H. Auer
Featuring Ralph Byrd, George Barbier, Kay Sutton

A television newsman feels ambivalent over blowing the whistle on a local corrupt politician.

I was initially unsure as to why this movie qualified as fantastic cinema, but one of the guides I used pointed out that the movie took place in the future when television was common. This is pretty much the qualifying factor in what is essentially a pretty ordinary political melodrama that borrows from both the panic that accompanied Orson Welle’s broadcast of ‘The War of the Worlds’ as well as ample footage from DELUGE. At times it’s quite effective; at other times it’s quite silly, and at least one manipulative sequence involving an injured child and a ventriloquist’s dummy is about as badly handled as any scene I’ve ever seen. Ralph Byrd is largely remembered for playing Dick Tracy in several serials and movies.

SKELETON ON HORSEBACK (1937)
(a.k.a. BILA NEMOC)
Article #928 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 9-29-2003
Posting Date: 2-26-2004
Directed by Hugo Haas
Featuring Hugo Haas, Zdenek Stapanek, Bedrich Karen

A doctor discovers the cure to a leprous disease that is decimating the world, but decides he will only use it if the dictator of his country does not wage war.

Don’t wait around for a physical manifestation of the English title; it is only a metaphor in this Czech work of medical/political science fiction. Sadly, my copy is in unsubtitled Czech, and a great deal of the plot requires dialogue rather than visualization; I was only able to figure out certain aspects of the plot by checking a couple of sources that had more elaborate plot descriptions. Nonetheless, the emotional tenor of the situations comes across very strongly indeed, and even without knowing the plot details I was able to appreciate both the strong anti-fascist nature of the movie and the chilling irony of the ending of the movie. Apparently, this was the last movie made in Czechoslovakia before the Nazi invasion, and the movie was banned by the Nazis for its message; it was smuggled to the United States by Hugo Haas himself and given distribution in this country by Carl Laemmle. Hugo Haas would end up making a bunch of low-budget potboilers with Cleo Moore. All in all, this is one movie that deserves to be more widely known and seen. Ths movie was based on a play by Karel Capek, who gave us the play “R.U.R.” where the term “robot” was first coined, as well as the classic satirical novel “War of the Newts”.

SIREN OF ATLANTIS (1949)
Article #923 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing date: 9-24-2003
Posting date: 2-21-2004
Directed by Gregg Tallas
Featuring Maria Montez, Jean-Pierre Aumont, Dennis O’Keefe

Two foreign legionaires discover the lost civiliation of Atlantis in the middle of the desert.

I’m quite fond of the earlier versions of L’Atlantide from 1920 and 1932, mostly for the subtle poetry they used in telling their stories. This is not to say that this version of the story doesn’t try for subtlety or poetry; it’s just that when it does, it slops them on in great big greasy spoonfuls so that the end result isn’t sublime beauty but rather monumental silliness. Which to some extent is what I’d expect of a Maria Montez movie, though I would have thought they would have shot this on in color like her movies with Jon Hall. At any rate, you’ll definitely want to be in the mood for a Montez film when you watch this one. And as much as I enjoy watching Henry Daniell at work, he’s a lot more effective if they give him dialogue that isn’t quite as oily as this. This is not my favorite take on the story.

STRANGE PEOPLE (1933)
Article #922 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing date: 9-23-2003
Posting date: 2-20-2004
Directed by Richard Thorpe
Featuring John Darrow, Gloria Shea, Hale Hamilton

Several people are called to a spooky mansion late at night, and discover that they all sat together in the same jury during a murder trial.

Once the characters start recognizing each other from the trial, you know what’s coming, and so do they; in fact, the characters harp so persistently on the fact that they’re in an ‘old dark house’ situation (where a murderer out for revenge picks off his victims one at a time) that this should clue you off to the fact that things aren’t what they seem. And indeed, they’re not; in fact, the plot twists in this forgotten horror are almost sublimely jaw-dropping, and there is something so charming in the silly audacity of this movie that it wins me over. Actually, it starts winning me over even earlier; when a woman is preparing to leave the house, she is stopped by a man who waxes so melodramatically about the terror that may be waiting for her out in the rain that I was tempted to write down the whole speech and quote it here; the reason I didn’t is that it turns out to be a joke that is best left untold until you have a chance to see the movie yourself. As far as forgotten horrors, this one is a knockout, but a sense of humor is an absolute must for this one. The only two names I recognized in the cast list were Walter Brennan (as the radio repairman) and Jack Pennick (as the plumber); if you don’t recognize the name of the latter, you’ll know him instantly when you see the face.

SPIES (1928)
(a.k.a. SPIONE)
Article #907 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 9-8-2003
Posting Date: 2-5-2004
Directed by Fritz Lang
Featuring Rudolf Klein-Rogge, Gerda Maurus, Lien Deyers

A spy organization attempts to prevent a treaty with Japan, and secret agents attempt to thwart them.

I can tell the spies are supposed to be Russian because Rudolf Klein-Rogge spends most of the movie made up to look just like Lenin, and I doubt that this is more than just coincidence. At any rate, this is a pretty entertaining movie, and like all of Lang’s silent movies, it’s worth catching, though I do prefer either of his Mabuse films, METROPOLIS or M. There are some definite surreal touches here, particularly in a cafe that has a combination dance floor / boxing ring (this was in the days before mosh pits, remember). However, those looking for the touches of fantastic cinema will find little of interest here, other than a typical spy-movie style gadget or two. And despite the fact that the last part of the movie prominently features one of the scariest creatures known to man (a clown), I can’t really call it a horror movie by any means. Nevertheless, it’s exciting enough and has a truly bizarre ending.

STAIRWAY TO HEAVEN (1946)
(a.k.a. A MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH)
Article #894 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 8-26-2003
Posting Date: 1-23-2004
Directed by Michael Powell
Featuring David Niven, Kim Hunter, Roger Livesey

When an RAF pilot bails out of his airplane without a parachute, the angel assigned to deliver his soul to heaven misses him in the fog, and he survives the fall to live another twenty hours. In that time, he falls in love, and when the angel comes to claim him, he demands a hearing of his case.

I’m not really keen on movies about angels; nor am I particularly fond of love stories. However, I am a fan of inspired and brilliant film-making, because a visionary director can do wonders with any subject he chooses. Michael Powell was visionary when he took on the subject of homicidal psychosis in PEEPING TOM; here he is simply breathtaking. Half the movie is in black and white, and the other half of the movie is in color, and it’s startling to see one bleed into the other as it does in several scenes here. Some of the sequences are as surreal as anything from Bunuel, and the movie seems to span decades of movie making; though it was made in 1946, it sometimes feels like an art film from the sixties or the seventies, and at other times it almost feels like a silent movie from the twenties. It’s a masterpiece, and that is a word I use sparingly; in fact, I find it almost impossible to talk about this one without falling over the endless stream of superlatives that would come out of my mouth. I suspect that it will be a long, long time before I see anything that impresses me as much as this one did.

SEA RAIDERS (1941)
(Serial)
Article #893 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 8-25-2003
Posting Date: 1-22-2004
Directed by Ford Beebe, John Rawlins
Featuring Billy Halop, Huntz Hall, Bernard Punsley

A gang of wharf rats find themselves wanted by the police and chased by a gang of saboteurs known as the Sea Raiders.

The tape package says they’re the East Side Kids; the credits in the serial call them the “Dead End” Kids and the Little Tough Guys. I get around this confusing dilemma by thinking of them in all their various combinations as the Bowery Boys. Whichever name is the correct one, what it comes down to is that though it features Billy Halop and Huntz Hall, there is no Leo Gorcey (for some reason, he didn’t appear in any of the serials). This was before the group settled into comedy, so the boys play it more or less straight. Actually, having them star in a serial wasn’t a bad idea as far as I’m concerned; they were somewhat more interesting than the usual bland hero that serves as the focus for most serials. Otherwise, it’s business as usual, with one really good and unusual cliffhanger involving whaling, a smidgen of science fiction involving a torpedo boat and new types of torpedos, and lots of stock music. As for the latter, I wish they hadn’t chosen a piece as familiar as ‘The Barber of Seville’ for the soundtrack; I can’t hear it without thinking of Bugs Bunny giving Elmer Fudd a haircut. Otherwise, a standard selection of serial thrills.

SHADOWS IN THE NIGHT (1944)
Article #890 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 8-22-2003
Posting Date: 1-19-2004
Directed by Eugene Forde
Featuring Warner Baxter, Nina Foch, George Zucco

A woman consults a psychiatrist to try to figure out if her strange dreams are really dreams; he visits her home and becomes embroiled in a murder mystery.

The Crime Doctor series was based on a popular radio show; there were ten movies made in the series, but this is the first one I’ve seen. Though it’s certainly more of a mystery than any other genre, there are touches of both horror and science fiction in the mix; a bizarre phantom-like figure appears at certain points, and a ‘hypnotic gas’ plays a part in the proceedings. This one is truly satisfying; it’s efficient, fast-moving, well-acted, and some of the events that take place are very mysterious indeed. Not only that, there is enough information to figure out who the culprit is by the time the last reel comes around. And for horror fans, there is always George Zucco to enliven the proceedings. This one is solid b-movie fun.

THE SORROWS OF SATAN (1926)
Article #889 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 8-21-2003
Posting Date: 1-18-2004
Directed by D. W. Griffith
Featuring Ricardo Cortez, Adolphe Menjou, Carol Dempster

A down-and-out writer deserts his girlfriend when he comes by great wealth through his association with a suspicious man.

D. W. Griffith was one of the great pioneers of cinema, and his impact on the history of movies can not be overstated. However, by the time he made this movie, his style had become quaint and old-fashioned, and he had lost his independence as a filmmaker. This movie was an enormous flop, and it ended his career with Paramount. It’s easy to see why it failed; this update of the Faust story is obvious, overlong and predictable, and the first half of the movie is about as lively and fast-moving as a funeral march. Things pick up somewhat in the second half, but it’s a bit of slog until then. On the plus side, Adolphe Menjou is well cast as Prince Lucio, and you should have no trouble figuring out who he is. The script also gives the character some odd and interesting characteristics; since every person who resists him will win him an hour at the gates of paradise, he is in the bizarre position of having to hope for failure in his temptations. Nonetheless, these touches come in fairly late in the proceedings. In short, the next time I want to see a Faust tale made in the twenties, I’ll probably opt for the Murnau version.