TAINSTVENNY OSTROV (1941)
aka Mysterious Island
Article 3067 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 9-30-2009
Posting Date: 1-6-2009
Directed by Eduard Penslin
Featuring A. Krasnopolsky, Pavel Kiyansky, A. Andriyenko-Zemskov
Country: Soviet Union
What is is: Jules Verne adventure story adaptation with science fiction elements

Some civil war prisoners make an escape in a hot-air balloon and end up on a deserted island, but mysterious events lead them to believe they are not alone on the island…

I really shouldn’t be surprised to discover that the Soviet Union did an adaptation of this novel, but I am anyway. I know the reason for this; Jules Verne has always struck me as being a distinctly American author, which is of course incorrect – he was French. Nonetheless, I always sensed an American air to his work, and the fact that the protagonists of this story are Americans underscores this. I’d have to say at this point that this may be the most faithful version of the Verne story I’ve seen to date; it is bereft of many of the additional fantastic touches (undersea creatures, giant chickens, miniskirt-wearing Venusians) that have popped up in the other adaptations I’ve seen. Granted, it’s not totally faithful; it’s been a while since I’ve read the novel, but I don’t remember any youngsters being along, and I’m also suspicious about the domesticated ape subplot. Furthermore, since my print is in unsubtitled Russian, I have no idea what the characters are actually saying, and I wouldn’t be surprised were I to discover that the story had been politicized to reflect a more Soviet way of thinking. Nevertheless, this looks like a solid version of the story, and the final scenes (in which we find out why it’s a sequel to “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea”) are quite memorable.

TRACK OF THE MOON BEAST (1976)
Article 3059 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 9-22-2009
Posting Date: 12-29-2009
Directed by Richard Ashe
Featuring Chase Cordell, Leigh Drake, Gregorio Sala
Country: USA
What it is: Wolf Man variation of the lizard variety

A geologist is hit by a meteor from the moon. A piece of it lodges in his brain, and he turns into a murderous lizard monster on a nightly basis.

This movie sat on the shelf for four years before it found a distributor. That’s no surprise; it’s a tired variation on THE WOLF MAN, badly scripted, flatly directed and atrociously acted. The most striking thing I noticed about it is that the director must have also seen THE LEOPARD MAN; he borrows a key moment from that movie, though he doesn’t handle it near as well as it was in that one. The dialogue runs from the trite and cliched (“Why did this have to happen to you?”) to the ludicrous (“Moon Rocks? Oh, wow!”). It might be good for a laugh, but little else.

TIME AFTER TIME (1979)
Article 3058 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 9-21-2009
Posting Date: 12-28-2009
Directed by Nicholas Meyer
Featuring Malcolm McDowell, David Warner, Mary Steenburgen
Country: USA
What it is: Time travel story with horror overtones and a comic edge

Writer H.G. Wells is appalled to discover that one of his closest friends is actually the notorious Jack the Ripper… and is doubly shocked to discover that that friend has stolen his time machine to continue his murders in the future. Fortunately, the time machine returns to its original time, and H.G. Wells uses it to go to the future and track down Jack the Ripper.

This has long been one of my favorite time travel movies. I find the premise clever, I like the juxtaposition of two historical characters thrust into modern times, and having them try to adjust to how the actual future diverges from their views of it. All three leads are excellent; both Malcolm McDowell and Mary Steenburgen are engaging, and David Warner is the perfect choice to play Jack the Ripper. The movie has a fair amount of humor, especially with Wells trying to come to terms with such modern conveniences as telephones, cars, garbage disposals, and fast-food restaurants. It has its social commentary as well; when Jack the Ripper shows Wells all the violence on TV and describes himself as an ‘amateur’, we get the point. It’s quite scary on occasion, especially when the Ripper discovers how Wells got his address. One thing I noted with this viewing; the scenes in England actually feel like they’re from movies from the late fifties or early sixties (when the original version of THE TIME MACHINE was made), and it doesn’t start feeling like a modern movie until H.G. Wells reaches the present day. In between we get the time travel sequence, which looks like the stargate sequence in 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY, and I couldn’t help but feel how that made a perfect bridge from the earlier movie style to the later one. My favorite moment is when H.G. Wells replaces his broken glasses.

TARZANOVA SMRT (1962)
aka The Death of the Ape Man
Article 2947 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 6-2-2009
Posting Date: 9-8-2009
Directed by Jaroslav Balik
Featuring Rudolf Hrusinsky, Jana Stepankova, Martin Ruzek
Country: Czechoslovakia

A noble, lost in the jungle as a kid and raised by apes, returns to civilization and must adjust. He finds himself torn between two factions of people who want to use him for their own ends.

Because my copy of this movie is in unsubtitled Czech, the above plot description may not be completely accurate, though given the references to Tarzan, I think my assumption about the man having been raised by apes is correct, even if we have no scenes of him in the jungle. The language barrier did make the movie more difficult to appreciate, but the spirit of the whole affair does seem to come through. IMDB classifies it as a comedy, and indeed it is, but the comedy is tempered with a dark, tragic edge. Visually, it’s quite good at times, with a scene in which two groups of people, both plotting to get our hero to marry a specific woman, have a free-for-all in the foyer of a mansion while decked out in formal attire. This scene is particularly fascinating; visually, it’s the funniest scene in the movie, but it’s also the one where we see the dark threads of the tale coming together as our hero ends up learning about guns and what they can do, and though much of the fighting is comic, the deaths are real. It’s an intriguing movie, and I find myself really hoping that someone takes the time to add English subtitles at some time so I can appreciate it better. And I find it rather fitting that a movie this comic and tragic would open and close with a singing clown.

TARZAN’S PERIL (1951)
Article 2943 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 5-29-2009
Posting Date: 9-4-2009
Directed by Byron Haskin
Featuring Lex Barker, Virginia Huston, George Macready
Country: USA

Tarzan must hunt down an escaped gun runner loose in Africa.

This was the first Tarzan movie to be shot in Africa (though only partially), and it shows; there is an air of authenticity to this one that is missing from most of the other Tarzan movies I’ve seen. This sense of authenticity adds a lot to the proceedings, as does a stronger-than-usual cast (George Macready is great as the villainous Radijeck) and occasional moments that are extremely good; in particular, I love the scene where Tarzan does not find the bodies of the commissioners, but is able to piece together what happened by observing the lions and hyenas in the area. Still, the story is very standard stuff, the moments when they switch from the African footage to the non-African footage are rather obvious, and some of the editing decisions are bad; really, couldn’t they have found a better moment in the movie to perform the gag where Cheeta eats the commissioner’s watch? It also features a moment where Tarzan battles a puppet snake so unconvincing I kept expecting Kukla and Fran to show up as well. The slight fantastic content that comes automatically with the Tarzan movies is augmented a little by the appearance of man-eating plants at one point. The movie was originally intended to be in color, but much of the footage was ruined on location, so it was converted to black and white.

TOTO SCEICCO (1950)
aka Toto the Shiek
Article 2936 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 5-22-2009
Posting Date: 8-28-2009
Directed by Mario Mattoli
Featuring Toto, Tamara Lees, Laura Gore
Country: Italy

When his master leaves to join the foreign legion, a majordomo is sent by a marquesse to fetch him back. Complications arise, however, when the majordomo is mistaken for the son of a shiek.

In terms of Italian comedy, I would choose Toto over Franco and Ciccio any day. However, one must bear in mind that this choice is based upon viewings of their movies without the benefit of English dubbing or subtitles, so I can’t say I can fully appreciate them. In the purely visual sense, I know that Toto appeals to me more; his facial expressions don’t seem to resort to the shameless mugging of the Franco and Ciccio movies, and his movies just seem to be more creative. I’d love to know what’s going on in some of the scenes towards the beginning, especially one in a restaurant involving a kissing sound and lots of sausages. Things becomes a little easier to follow in the second half of the movie when Toto stumbles across the lost world of Atlantis; this part is essentially a parody of L’ATLANTIDE, which I’ve seen. It seems fairly amusing, though not as memorable as TOTO IN HELL, though there does seem to be an inordinate amount of joking about mirages in this one.

TINTIN ET LES ORANGES BLEUES (1964)
aka Tintin and the Blue Oranges
Article 2906 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 4-22-2009
Posting Date: 7-28-2009
Directed by Philippe Condroyer
Featuring Jean Bouise, Jean-Pierre Talbot, Felix Fernandez
Country: Spain / France

The mysterious appearance of blue oranges causes Tintin and the Captain to travel to Spain, where they must rescue a kidnapped professor.

Tintin is an incredibly popular comic book character in Europe whose popularity never crossed the ocean to the United States, though that may change if Spielberg manages to get a movie based on the character made. I know very little about the character, and though this movie probably helps by introducing some of the regular characters, it probably won’t serve as a effective introduction; not only does a 4.7 rating on IMDB suggest that the movie isn’t very good, but the fact that the only copy I could find was in unsubtitled French (and for the record, I’m not really surprised by this) means that I’m not going to get much from the movie anyway. It’s got some action and some comedy; the most amusing scene for me was a split screen moment in which two nearly identical men settle in to their respective rooms. Since two professors are kidnapped and appear to be working on some scientific research, I’m assuming that the movie has some science fiction touches surrounding the title fruits, but exactly what their significance is is lost to me. I do know that Tintin has a dog and strange hair, and the captain loves his liquor; the rest may have to wait until I can experience Tintin in a different context.

TRILBY (1915)
Article 2880 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 3-27-2009
Posting Date: 7-2-2009
Directed by Maurice Tourneur
Featuring Wilton Lackaye, Clara Kimball Young, Paul McAllister
Country: USA

A musician named Svengali decides to make his fortune by using his hypnotic powers to turn a Paris model into a singer.

IMDB lists eleven versions of the Du Maurier story, seven of which feature Trilby’s name in the title and five of which feature Svengali’s name in the title; the reason it adds up to twelve rather than eleven is that one version is called TRILBY AND SVENGALI. It’s not surprising that the use of Trilby’s name is more common, as that is the title of the original novel, but I’ve always felt Svengali was the more interesting character, and I’m not surprised that the most interesting movie version of the story is the one with the most striking performance of that character; namely, John Barrymore’s version from 1931. This version is quite good, but I don’t find Wilton Lackaye’s performance to be near as memorable as Barrymore’s, and I suspect that I’ll find this true about any of the other versions of the story I encounter. This marks either the third or fourth version of the story I’ve seen; it depends on whether you count ELLA LOLA A LA TRILBY, which, personally, I don’t.