THE SPIDERS, PART 1: THE GOLDEN SEA (1919)
Article #723 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 3-8-2003
Posting Date: 8-5-2003
Directed by Fritz Lang
Featuring Carl de Vogt, Ressel Orla, Georg John

An adventurer competes with a criminal organization to reach an island inhabited by Incan descendants with a vast treasure.

I’ve already covered the second part of this projected series (of which four parts were planned but only the first two were made), and I’d watched the first part then so that I would know what was going on. My print runs about 56 minutes, though that does not match the times I see on IMDB. At this time, it is extremely fast-moving; it’s almost a little hard to follow at times because of that, but there’s no doubt it’s energetic. It’s quite good (once again, it makes me wish that Lang had directed THE INDIAN TOMB), though not quite up to the level of some of his later classics.

SAADIA (1953)
Article #717 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 3-2-2003
Posting Date: 7-30-2003
Directed by Albert Lewin
Featuring Cornel Wilde, Mel Ferrer, Rita Gam

A French doctor plying his trade in Morocco falls for a girl named Saadia.

If the above description fails to contain any information to explain why this movie falls within the purview of a survey of fantastic cinema, there’s a reason; though there are elements here that are often found in horror films (specifically, the presence of a witch who is jealous of the doctor’s success in both taking away her trade and the companionship of Saadia, and her attempts to lay a curse on him), the movie only uses these elements to point up a recurring theme of the power of the mind to overcome limitations of the body, and the movie never falls into real horror territory. The movie doesn’t appear to be well loved, probably due to the fact that it is very subdued, almost somnambulent at times. It does have a nice sense of exotic culture in the colorful locations and the dancing and singing of the natives, but you really need to be in a pretty patient laid-back mood to enjoy it, and even then, it never really becomes anything more than a fair movie. In short, this is highly marginal and not required viewing.

SYLVIA AND THE PHANTOM (1945)
Article #715 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 2-28-2003
Posting Date: 7-28-2003
Directed by Claude Autant-Lara
Featuring Odette Joyeux, Jacques Tati, Francois Perier

The father of a young woman who has sworn not to marry due to her love for an ancestral phantom decides to hire an actor to impersonate the phantom at a ball.

This movie is sitting with a low rating on IMDB, and I wonder if it might be due to the fact that Jacques Tati, who is better known for his Monsieur Hulot comedies, appears in it; it is certainly not what a fan of his work might expect. Me, I found the subtitles a little confusing on occasion, and I’m sure that I missed some of the subtleties, but ultimately I was charmed by the whole affair. Much of it has to do with the appealing characters that appear throughout the story, and the fact that the story never quite falls out the way I would expect. It’s a gentle, funny and sad movie, and I found myself totally caught up in it. Nonetheless, the low rating at IMDB does serve as a bit of a warning, and Jacques Tati fans in particular may be disappointed.

THE SCOUNDREL (1935)
Article #662 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 1-6-2003
Posting Date: 6-5-2003

An unmitigated cad destroys the lives of those around him, but when he dies…

For those waiting around for the fantastic elements in the story, you’ve got a ways to go; they don’t manifest themselves until about three-quarters of the way through. Still, it was a little easier for me to be patient while accompanied by the likes of Noel Coward, Stanley Ridges, Alexander Woollcott, and especially Lionel Stander, one of the most distinctive character actors of all time. The real star, though, is the wonderful witty script by Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur, who also directs. The acidic humor in the dialogue goes a long way towards alleviating the fact that you’re dealing with a singularly unpleasant character throughout the movie, and since the ultimate message of the movie is pretty simple when you consider it, it’s a good thing getting there is half the fun. This is another example of some of the odd areas that an exploration of fantastic cinema can take you.

SWAMP OF THE LOST MONSTER (1956)
Article #649 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 12-24-2002
Posting Date: 5-19-2003

When a body mysteriously disappears from a casket during a burial, a cowboy detective and his sidekick are called in to solve the mystery.

If you’ve ever wondered how the Mexicans would fare in making a movie that crossed THE CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON with a B western, here is the answer in all its awful glory. Our hero’s gimmick is that his horse does a bizarre prancing routine (a talent which proves virtually useless in helping the hero during the length of the film). The monster looks like a lanky frog, and the comic relief sidekick sings (correction: tries to sing) and says lines like “You’re wetter than tomato soup!” Conclusion: the monster is funnier than the comic relief and the comic relief is scarier than the monster. The plot (such as it is) involves a woman fooling people for several months into thinking that she’s not blind. It also asks the cinematic question; how many henchmen can you drop into a hayloft? The story is incredibly muddled. Even by Mexican standards, this is bottom of the barrel, unless you really want to see that prancing pony.

STRANGE CONFESSION (1945)
Article #647 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing date: 12-22-2002
Posting Date: 5-17-2003

A chemist explains to a lawyer the events that led up to him committing a murder.

What’s strange about it? Well, for one thing, about five minutes into the movie I started to get intense feeling of deja vu. It was more than the fact that this was an “Inner Sanctum Mystery” starring Lon Chaney Jr., or that it featured both J. Carrol Naish and Milburn Stone, both of whom had appeared in other Inner Sanctum mysteries as well. It was that the plot itself seemed extremely familiar, though not to the other movies in the series; instead, it bore a strong resemblance to THE MAN WHO RECLAIMED HIS HEAD. The similarity is more than coincidence; both movies were based on the same play; the main difference is that this one is somewhat shorter, and the profession of the main character has been changed from a writer to a chemist. Like the other movie, this isn’t really a horror movie; it’s a drama with marked horror elements during the denoument, so you shouldn’t go in expecting a horror movie throughout. The change of profession of the main character also adds a touch of science fiction not present in the original, as the plot at least partially revolves around a new drug designed to cure the flu, but the science fiction aspect of this idea may be too slight to be of any significance. It’s not really a mystery, either; there’s no search for a murderer, and everything is told in a very straightforward fashion. This is not to say the movie is weak; it may be one of the strongest of the Inner Sanctum movies, in fact. And though Lon Chaney Jr. isn’t quite as strong an actor as Claude Rains (the star of the original), he still does all right. And as this one is more readily available than the original, it might serve as a temporary substitute for those who have been frustrated in the search for the original.

STRAIT-JACKET (1964)
Article #646 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 12-21-2002
Posting Date: 5-16-2003

A woman is placed in an asylum after she kills her husband and his lover with an axe. She is released twenty years later, and soon the axe murders start up again.

Much as I love William Castle’s movies, there are some of them that don’t appeal to me at all. This is one of them. Part of the reason may be that I am simply not a Joan Crawford fan. In this movie, I sense that I’m supposed to feel sympathy for her plight, but in truth, I never do; this may be because she is so vehemently unpleasant when she’s not playing for sympathy. It’s no surprise she took the part, and in some ways she’s a good choice for someone with an unhealthy mother/daughter relationship (which goes a long way to explain this movie and BERSERK!). Another part of the problem is that subtlety is not Castle’s strong suit; it doesn’t bother me that neither THE TINGLER nor HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL aren’t subtle, but here it does; the movie is way too ham-fisted in the way it constantly reminds Crawford’s character of her past murders (two passing comments about animals being slaughtered in one minute is one comment too many). The movie also features a seedy-looking George Kennedy as a hired hand.

SPIDER BABY (1964)
Article #643 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 12-18-2002
Posting Date: 5-13-2003

A family of degenerates is visited by relatives intent on getting their hands on the family fortune.

Lon Chaney Jr. not only plays Bruno, the family chauffeur in this movie, but he sings the theme song, too! Chaney is excellent, by the way; this is one his best latter-day performances. In fact, we get fine performances from everyone in the cast, which includes Carol Ohmart (Price’s wife in HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL), Sid Haig, and Mantan Moreland(!). The story itself is the darkest of dark comedies. I’ve heard it described as being like the Addams family with a bent towards real depravities such as inbreeding, murder, rape and cannibalism, and the description is apt; the movie is quite amusing even with the horrible events going on, but it could prove a little revolting if you’re not ready for it. This is pretty strong stuff, though not gory or particularly graphic in any way.

THE SON OF DR. JEKYLL (1951)
Article #642 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing date: 12-17-2002
Posting date: 5-12-2003

The son of Dr. Jekyll attempts to prove his father’s innocence by recreating his experiments.

This movie starts out with a bang; enjoy it while you can. As for the rest of the movie, however, I could live without it. Not that it’s badly acted; actually, the acting throughout is quite good. The problem is that the movie promises certain types of thrills and then substitutes a series of mediocre and disappointing mundanities in their place. Quite frankly, given the choice, I’d forgo Jekyll’s son for his daughter any time; at least that one had the good sense to supply a real monster when one was needed. There are far better ways for you to spend seventy-seven minutes.

THE SLIME PEOPLE (1962)
Article #641 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 12-16-2002
Posting Date: 5-11-2003

Five people trapped in Los Angeles try to do battle with invaders that come up from the sewers known as the Slime People.

This movie does for fog what THE FLYING SAUCER does for snow, and that is not a compliment. There are some interesting ideas here; the wall that forms out of the fog and the fact that the slime creatures need to be killed with hollow poles to keep their wounds from closing up and healing are both entertaining concepts. Unfortunately, the movie has a major problem in tone; every scene feels like every other one, so the movie is distressingly lacking in variety (the repetitive soundtrack only makes it worse). This is especially a problem when Les Tremayne’s eccentric goat-loving writer appears; he is far and away the most interesting character here, but the movie’s total inability to treat his scenes any differently than the other scenes makes his character feel less like a breath of fresh air and more like an incongruous intrusion from another (and more interesting) movie. But the worst culprit is the fog that takes over many of the scenes here. Though fog can be used effectively for atmosphere and mood, here it just obscures the action on a regular basis, making many of the scenes hard to see (not to be confused with making scenes hard to watch). Thus, watching the movie ends up requiring more work than is necessary, and the movie just isn’t interesting enough to merit that extra work. Consequently, despite the potential for interest here, the movie is no fun.