SEVEN FOOTPRINTS TO SATAN (1929)
Article #794 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 5-18-2003
Posting Date: 10-15-2003
Directed by Ben Christensen
Featuring Thelma Todd, Creighton Hale, William V. Mong

A man and his fiancee are kidnapped and taken to a house full of strange characters who serve Satan.

Title check: The title is a very direct reference to an incident that happens toward the end of the movie.

The above description can only give a vague sense of what this movie is like; after the kidnapping, the plot starts popping off into any number of directions, and a dizzying array of characters are introduced, leaving you with sense of disorientation in trying to figure out who can be trusted and who can’t. In fact, so many suspicious characters show up (an imposing housekeeper, an ugly man on crutches, a gorilla, a dwarf and a Fu Manchu-like oriental are only the most noticeable) that you start to wonder just how seriously you can take this movie, and that it may really just be a comedy of sorts, and certainly, the end of the movie bears this out. Certainly, the movie ends in probably the only way that could explain all that went before, even if it does feel slightly like a cop-out. Nevertheless, this is one of the odder “old dark house” movies you’re likely to see. Incidentally, the dwarf is played by Angelo Rossitto.

SECRETS OF A SOUL (1926)
Article #793 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 5-17-2003
Posting Date: 10-14-2003
Directed by G.W. Pabst
Featuring Werner Krauss, Pawel Pawloff, Ruth Weyher

A man who accidentally cuts his wife’s neck with a razor (he was shaving the back of her head) when he is startled by a cry of murder (also involving a razor) develops both a phobia of knives and a desire to kill his wife.

Title check: I suppose it depends on just how you define the word “soul”, but if it includes the human psyche, the title is quite appropriate.

G.W. Pabst is one of my favorite directors, and this movie certainly doesn’t change my feelings about that. The movie itself is a reenactment of a true story; it belongs only marginally to the genre of fantastic cinema, largely through the movie’s interest in madness, and a stunning and memorable dream sequence which is the centerpiece of the movie (and which is revisited during the psychoanalysis sequence). There is a great image of a city growing out of the ground during this sequence that is a particular highlight. This is a quite interesting movie, particularly for anyone interested in psychoanalysis.

SATAN’S SATELLITES (1958)
Article #788 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 5-12-2003
Posting Date: 10-9-2003
Directed by Fred C. Brannon
Featuring Judd Holdren, Aline Towne, Wilson Wood

Martian “Zombies” plan to destroy the Earth so they can move Mars into Earth’s orbit. The Rocketman tries to prevent them.

Title check: Though it could be argued that Mars and Earth are indeed satellites (of the sun), Satan is nowhere to be found.

One phenomenon that I have never touched upon yet is that of motion pictures edited from serials; in general, if a serial is listed, I opt for the full serial version. However, my book specified this one by title, so here it is (I plan to cover ZOMBIES OF THE STRATOSPHERE as a separate entity). Now, if you’re the type of person who thinks that a feature movie made up of nothing but the action sequences from a serial sounds like a neat idea, you’re welcome to this one. Me, I find the end results to be dreadfully repetitive, because the story never builds to anything and it’s just one “thrill” after another. Sure, it’s got Leonard Nimoy and the Rocket Man commonly known as Commando Cody, but so does the serial itself, which is much easier to watch. All in all, this movie is a good argument against cutting corners.

SATANIK (1968)
(a.k.a. SATANIC)
Article #785 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 5-9-2003
Posting Date: 10-6-2003
Directed by Piero Vivarelli
Featuring Magda Konopka, Julio Pena, Armando Calvo

An ugly scarred woman drinks a potion to make herself beautiful and becomes a criminal.

Half Italian horror movie, half Italian super-criminal movie—wait a second, let me adjust that—one-eighth Italian horror movie, seven-eighths Italian super criminal movie. Let’s face it; the ugly woman turning into a beautiful woman is largely a gimmick and isn’t really used well. The fact that the potion turns people violent doesn’t really come through in the script; she commits her first murder before she takes the potion, and most of the other murders take place when the potion wears off. Her ugly face makeup is awful; it doesn’t look like she was scarred for years but rather like she was scarred about ten minutes ago (actually, it looks like she’s wearing makeup to make her ugly), and when she drinks the potion, it not only rejuvenates her and heals her scars, it doubles the length of her hair, changes its color, gives her a great new ‘do, does a complete makover on her face (eyeshadow, mascara, fake eyelashes, lipstick, the works), and shortens the length of her skirt; pretty potent stuff. Ultimately, the movie tries to get by on three things; sex, violence and swinging-sixties style camerawork; the plot is dull and the characters are nonentities. I’ve heard it was based on a comic book, much like either BARBARELLA or DIABOLIK was, but if this movie does anything, it makes me appreciate how classy and witty those other two movies are in comparison; this one is a complete waste of time.

SOUL OF A MONSTER (1944)
Article #774 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 4-28-2003
Posting Date: 9-25-2003
Directed by Will Jason
Featuring George MacReady, Rose Hobart, Jim Bannon

A man is saved from death by a strange woman, but his character is changed to that of a cruel, sinister man.

I don’t know who Will Jason is, but according to IMDB he was a composer as well as a director; this might go some ways to explaining why music plays a key role in one sequence of this movie. One other thing I can say was that he must have seen and been influenced by the movies of Val Lewton; there are definite touches here that recall the movies of that producer (though he does overdo it a bit in a couple of scenes). I have to admit that the opening sequence (in which a woman walking down the street is hit by a car, and then walks calmly away, causing sparks to shoot up out of streetlights as she passes) caught my attention in a big way, and I found myself really wondering what was going on for a good part of the movie; my first clue as to the nature of what I was watching came when one character mentioned the name of a writer who is primarily famous for a specific play. Overall, I’m still not sure; the movie is fascinating at times, but it’s incredibly talky, courts pretension, and the ending is less than satisfying. Still, it is unique; in feel it mostly reminded me of DAUGHTER OF HORROR, a movie that is really far stranger than this one is. It’s worth a look for the curious, but I know some people hate this movie, so be warned.

SUNSET BLVD. (1950)
Article #744 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 3-29-2003
Posting Date: 8-26-2003
Directed by Billy Wilder
Featuring Gloria Swanson, William Holden, Erich von Stroheim

A down-on-his-luck writer hooks up with an actress from the silents intent on making a comeback.

The issue here is not the quality of the movie; it is recognized as a classic and one of Billy Wilder’s finest moments, and I plan to say nothing to the contrary. It is chock-full of memorable dialogue, fascinating characters and great acting from all concerned. It also has a priceless set of cameos of Hollywood personalities playing themselves (Cecil B. DeMille, Hedda Hopper, Buster Keaton, etc.), and gives Erich von Stroheim, the man you love to hate, one of his most sympathetic characters. No, the issue here is why I am covering this film noir in my survey of fantastic films. The answer is quite simple; the movie has several elements that bring it within shoulder-rubbing distance of the horror genre. The whole story is narrated by a corpse, to start with. Then the subplot about the interment of the monkey has a sense of grotesqueness that would not be out of place in a horror film. Norma Desmond’s decrepit mansion could very well make a fine setting for a horror movie, and finally, her inevitable descent into madness touches upon another horror theme. Not that it every really becomes a horror movie; it definitely remains in the realm of marginalia. But if you think about it, it really is only a couple of small steps away from WHAT EVER HAPPENED TO BABY JANE, which may mean that it is a little closer to horror than it would initially seem.

THE SPHINX (1933)
Article #743 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 3-28-2003
Posting Date: 8-25-2003
Directed by Phil Rosen
Featuring Lionel Atwill, Sheila Terry, Luis Alberni

The main suspect in a series of murders of stockholders is a deaf-mute; however, witnesses all claim he can talk when it has been proven medically impossible for him to do so.

I was able to think up at least four explanations as to how this movie would pan out before I reached the actual ending, and my first explanation turned out to be correct. I would have to say therefore that this mystery wasn’t really very mysterious. However, that doesn’t mean I wasn’t entertained; on the contrary, I found it quite enjoyable. Part of the reason is that the dialogue was quite witty at times, particular some of the lines of the reporter hero. Another big factor was Lionel Atwill’s strong performance in a role where he rarely speaks a word; except for the fact that his sign language looked less than convincing, he did a very convincing rendition of a deaf mute. However, the horror elements are perhaps too slight to qualify the movie as horror, so I have to consign this one to the realm of marginalia as well.

SINISTER HANDS (1932)
Article #742 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 3-27-2003
Posting Date: 8-24-2003
Directed by Armand Schaeffer
Featuring Jack Mulhall, Mischa Auer, Phyllis Barrington

Police try to solve the murder of a wealthy man who was killed during a seance.

There is a point in this movie where the rich man confronts the boyfriend of his daughter, who he has discovered is a gangster. The rich man says “You’ll marry my daughter over my dead body.” The gangster says, “Very well – I will marry your daughter over your dead body!” After the gangster leaves, the rich man turns off the recording machine that was running. It was precisely at this point that I realized several things:
1) This was a murder mystery.
2) The rich man was going to be a murder victim very shortly.
3) The recording would show up during the investigation.
4) I knew for sure of one suspect who was going to turn out NOT to be guilty.

In a very short period of time, I also figured out several other suspects who would also be innocent. I also knew that the police investigator’s assistant’s irritation at people calling him Watson (his name is Watkins) would be a running joke. In fact, I pretty much zeroed in on who the real murderer would most likely be, because if there is any rule one should keep in mind for murder movies of this ilk, it’s that the real murderer will be the one who doesn’t have a motive that was established in the first half of the movie. In short, there are no surprises here.

Yet, on one level, I enjoyed this cheap little movie, despite the cookie-cutter plot and the indifferent writing, direction and acting. It was so spare and so obvious that it almost seemed more like a template for a murder mystery. It reminded me of a comment I’d heard about the rock group The Ramones; that their early albums sounded as if they had wanted to see how much they could take away and still have music. In this movie, everything is perfunctory; the characters are developed only to the point that their motives are established and the facts that establish their guilt (or innocence) are displayed. Yet I felt that if I wanted to write a murder mystery, I might well use this movie as a model on which to build my story; in this way, the movie has its uses.

The fantastic elements are slight; in fact, Walt Lee omits this movie from his books do to the lack of fantastic elements. However, Don Willis does include the movie, and I think it is due to the seance sequences. At any rate, this one goes in the realm of marginalia.

SAMSON IN THE WAX MUSEUM (1963)
Article #741 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 3-26-2003
Posting Date: 8-23-2003
Directed by Alfonso Corona Blake
Featuring Santo, Norma Mora, Fernando Oses

Samson is called onto the case when a series of mysterious disappearances occur in the vicinity of a wax museum.

A couple of movies ago I posed the cinematic question; How did Samson end up in thirteenth-century China? Now I ask what he was doing in a Wax Museum, a phenomenon somewhat even farther from the biblical times from which Samson hearkened. The answer is simple; it’s not Samson, it’s Santo, the Silver Maskman; in fact, if you listen during the crowd scenes in the wrestling matches, you can hear them calling out ‘Santo! Santo! Santo!”, not “Samson! Samson! Samson!”. Of course, all the other dialogue is dubbed (and badly), but that’s to be expected. The movie trots on for about forty minutes pretending that no one has any idea who is responsible for the disappearances (anyone in the movie, that is; the average viewer should figure it out in ten seconds). There’s some nice horror scenes of wax figures coming to life, and some scattered fun throughout. Incidentally, there are three wrestling scenes; this translates into three trips to the refrigerator, though you may want to catch Santo’s cocky opponent in the third match. Incidentally, the climax of this movie bears a slight resemblance to the one in THE ABOMINABLE DR. PHIBES.

SAMSON AND THE SEVEN MIRACLES OF THE WORLD (1961)
Article #737 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 3-22-2003
Posting Date: 8-19-2003
Directed by Riccardo Freda
Featuring Gordon Scott, Yoko Tani, Helene Chanel

A strong man named Samson comes to the aid of the Chinese in the thirteenth century to help them throw off the yoke of the evil mongols.

Ever get the feeling of Deja Vu, that weird sense that you’ve lived through something before? When I watched HERCULES AND THE BARBARIANS, I asked myself how Hercules managed to find himself in thirteenth century China; now I find myself asking how Samson got there. Of course, the answer is the same; he’s not really Hercules/Samson, but just someone who is really strong that took on the name. Furthermore, the Italian titles on both the movies indicate that the hero is really Maciste, but that doesn’t really answer the question, as Maciste first appeared in Roman times in the movie CABIRIA. And the Seven Miracles? Well, I can’t tell you what they are, because the wise man who keeps track of them doesn’t appear until the last twenty minutes of the movie and we have to take his word that five of them have already happened. I suppose I shouldn’t complain; it’s sword-and-sandal, which usually means that what you get is a random assortment of action set pieces only vaguely tied together by a plot. Samson/Maciste uproots a tree, saves some Chinese rebels from a horrible execution (probably the most memorable scene of the movie), rings a bell, and causes an earthquake after being buried by a dwarf. And me, all I do is sit here and write reviews. Let’s face it; some people have more interesting lives.