THE TALE OF OSAKA CASTLE (1961)
aka Daredevil in the Castle, Osaka jo monogatari
Article 2876 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 3-23-2009
Posting Date: 6-28-2009
Directed by Hiroshi Inagaki
Featuring Toshiro Mifune, Kyoko Kagawa, Yuriko Hoshi
Country: Japan

A mountain Samurai comes to Osaka to get a job at the castle, but becomes embroiled in a political struggle that is threatening to turn into a war.

The fantastic content is pretty light here; there’s a short sequence in a scary underground cave with bats and snakes, and I’m not familiar enough with Japanese history to know if this is based on a real historical event or if it’s a borderline fantasy. Like the other Toshiro Mifune movies I’ve seen that were not directed by Kurasawa, it’s not up to the level of the movies he acted in for that great director, but Mifune is still a charismatic and appealing actor. Here he’s a lot of fun as a brawling loose cannon who just wants to keep out of the war, but finds himself drawn into it when he falls in love with a woman at the castle. He uses humor and body language exquisitely, and he’s particularly good in the action sequences. The story gets a bit confusing at times, but the final battle sequence is quite exciting as Mifune must find a way to light a wagon full of gunpowder on a bridge as the enemy rapidly approaches. The cast also features Akikhiko Hirata and Takashi Shimura.

THE THIRTEENTH HOUR (1947)
Article 2875 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 3-22-2009
Posting Date: 6-27-2009
Directed by William Clemens
Featuring Richard Dix, Karen Morley, John Kellogg
Country: USA

The boss of a small trucking firm ends up at odds with a police officer who is his rival for the affection of the woman who runs the local diner. The rivalry intensifies when the policeman tickets the trucker for drunk driving and causes him to lose his license. The trucker is then forced to take it on the lam when he is framed for the murder of the policeman.

Though it isn’t apparent from the title, this is another entry in “The Whistler” series of movies, and, like many of the others, the shadowy figure of the Whistler (who serves as our narrator) is the sole fantastic element in the movie. Still, this is one dandy little B movie, with Richard Dix capturing our sympathy as an everyman who gets caught up in a situation that is over his head, and which eventually leads to a diamond smuggling operation. The script is quite strong. I like that the characters here act with intelligence; when our hero is forced to write a note to his fiancee, he manages to find a way to clue her in to the true nature of his situation by writing a comment that seems quite innocent on the surface, for example. One really gets the sense of paranoia and oppression of being on the lam as well. “The Whistler” was one of the better B-Movie series out there, and this entry in the series is one of the reasons why.

TARZAN AND THE SHE-DEVIL (1953)
Article 2874 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 3-21-2009
Posting Date: 6-26-2009
Directed by Kurt Neumann
Featuring Lex Barker, Joyce Mackenzie, Raymond Burr
Country: USA

Tarzan must match wits with Ivory hunters who kidnap members of a friendly native tribe and use them as slaves.

On IMDB, this movie has a 5.0 rating, and a quick check of all of the other titles I have watched for this series which begin with the word “Tarzan” reveals it’s tied for the lowest with two other movies, TARZAN’S REVENGE and TARZAN THE FEARLESS. However, neither of those two movies are part of the series that began with TARZAN THE APE MAN in 1932, and would eventually lead to this one. For the first half of the movie, I was wondering why the rating was so low; it seemed like a derivative but passable Tarzan movie up to that point. Unfortunately, the movie goes off track at the halfway point, when Tarzan’s tree-house is burned down and he believes Jane has died in the inferno. He then proceeds to spend almost the rest of the movie in a surly mope. Not only is this a downer of the worst variety, but it’s also counter to what I believe is an essential quality of Tarzan; he’s only a step away from a savage jungle animal, and I find it impossible to believe that he would choose depressed moping over enraged violence. Had the series fallen this far from the original conception of the character? At any rate, this would be Lex Barker’s last movie in the role; Gordon Scott would take over in the role after this one.

TARZAN AND THE LOST SAFARI (1957)
Article 2873 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 3-20-2009
Posting Date: 6-25-2009
Directed by H. Bruce Humberstone
Featuring Gordon Scott, Robert Beatty, Yolande Donlan
Country: UK

Tarzan rescues the passengers of a private plane that crashes in the jungle. They team up with an adventurer who agrees to lead them out of the jungle. However, the adventurer is in cahoots with a tribe of natives who wants to sacrifice the passengers to their god…

Gordon Scott is likable in the role, the color is nice, and there is lots of animal footage. Still, at heart, what we have here is a Double-Stuffed Safari-O with a third-rate plot whose predictability is incredibly apparent; there are no surprises and a lot of padding in this movie. Scott would appear six times as Tarzan before turning to sword and sandal movies. The fantastic content here is no more than the slight fantasy touches to any story about Tarzan.

TRILOGY OF TERROR (1975)
TV-Movie
Article 2809 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 1-15-2009
Posting Date: 4-22-2009
Directed by Dan Curtis
Featuring Karen Black, Robert Burton, John Karlen
Country: USA

Three tales of terror are presented. In the first, a student uses blackmail to seduce a teacher, but discovers a surprising fact. In the second, a prim woman seeks to murder her libertine sister. In the third, a Zuni fetish doll comes to life and terrorizes a woman.

If you’re a big Karen Black fan and also love TV-Movie horror anthologies, this is for you; she plays four different roles in three stories, and is pretty much the only significant acting presence in the movie. The movie seems to have a certain amount of popularity, given its 7.0 rating on IMDB. I’m afraid I’m less taken with it. I’m not a big Karen Black fan nor a TV-Movie fan, and as far as I’m concerned, only the third story works. The first one plays mostly like a soap opera, and though it does have an interesting twist, it’s quite dull. The second I found blatantly obvious; it’s one of those stories that probably works a lot better in print than brought to life on the TV tube. It almost seems as if only the third story is even trying to be scary, and despite the fact that it has its problems (the woman’s opening conversation with her mother goes on forever), it does get you on the edge of your seat. I suspect that this movie’s reputation lies with this segment; it looks like all the artwork I’ve seen for it prominently feature the doll. All three are based on Richard Matheson stories, but Matheson worked on the screenplay himself only on the third one. Incidentally, the French vampire film at the drive-in is actually THE NIGHT STALKER.

TORSO (1973)
aka I corpi presentano tracce di violenza carnale
Article 2808 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 1-14-2009
Posting Date: 4-21-2009
Directed by Sergio Martino
Featuring Suzy Kendall, Tina Aumont, Luc Merenda
Country: Italy

A strangler is on the loose killing college girls in Rome.

Of the giallos I’ve seen to date, this is the one that most resembles an American slasher movie, especially during the first two murders. It’s also one of the sleazier giallos I’ve seen, as well as one of the bloodiest. Yet, I must admit that I found it overall to be fairly uninspired as far as giallos go; I didn’t find it compellingly stylistic, and the revelations at the end about the causes of the killer’s psychosis seem very weak. Still, it does manage to work up a decent amount of suspense in the final third of the movie, when the killer sets about disposing of several bodies in a house while being unaware that there is still one other person on the premises who knows she’s in danger but is unable to escape; in some ways, this plot element reminds me of a similar one in the SEE NO EVIL. There’s lots of nudity here and the usual (almost obligatory for a giallo) lesbian encounters. This one is so-so.

13 GHOSTS (1960)
Article 2807 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 1-13-2009
Posting Date: 4-20-2009
Directed by William Castle
Featuring Charles Herbert, Jo Morrow, Martin Milner
Country: USA

A family that is struggling financially inherits a house that they can only keep if they live in it. The house contains a fortune hidden by the former owner… and it also contains ghosts collected by him as well.

William Castle was the king of the gimmicks, but, if you look at his movies, for the most part the gimmicks were momentary side issues to the plot; the floating skeleton in HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL affected only one scene, the “choose the ending” scenario in MR. SARDONICUS only came into play at the end of the movie, as did the Coward’s Corner gimmick for HOMICIDAL, etc. This is the most significant exception; the glasses could be used several times throughout the movie, and it seems to me that the movie was actually built around the use of the gimmick. I think this is somewhat responsible for my dislike of this movie; I was extremely disappointed by it on first viewing, and though I’ve given it couple of other chances, I think it falls flat. One of the problems is that many of the ghost scenes end abruptly, which somehow kills any suspense that it may have built up. Another problem is that the dialogue sounds forced and phony; someone like Vincent Price might have made it work, but he’s not in the movie, and the cast here looks rather lost with most of it. In the end, I just don’t find it anywhere near as much fun or as scary as his better films, and I suspect the primary appeal of the film depends on the gimmick; it’s probably a lot more fun if you have the glasses to play with. Still, it doesn’t help that the glasses used in the movie itself look pretty silly. Margaret Hamilton plays the housekeeper, and though some talk is made about her being a witch, it just doesn’t really hold much water here. I consider this one of Castle’s bigger disappointments.

THE TERMINAL MAN (1974)
Article 2806 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 1-12-2009
Posting Date: 4-19-2009
Directed by Mike Hodges
Featuring George Segal, Joan Hackett, Richard Dysart
Country: USA

A man suffers from a mental condition that causes him to become homicidal on occasion. Scientists install chips in his brain designed to stop the violent episodes when the conditions that bring them on appear. The operation appears to work, but the scientists discover a flaw in the concept that could make him even more dangerous. Unfortunately, by that time, the man has escaped from their care and is on the loose…

You don’t need to be an expert on Michael Crichton to know about his basic theme of technology going wrong, and if you keep that in mind when watching this movie, you know basically what’s going to happen very early on. The appeal is in the details, of course, and I find the description of the central flaw in the process to be a very compelling little detail that sounds quite convincing. In fact, once this point in the story is in reach, the movie has the makings of a neat and tense little thriller. Unfortunately, the movie is shot with a somewhat arty feel to it that is a little too distancing, and it remains distant when it should really be pulling you into it. Furthermore, the arty touches make the movie feel like it should be more complex and original than it is; all in all, the story is very standard, and it jars a little with the artiness, especially when the movie breaks into cliche territory. It’s a shame; this could have been a tense little variation on the serial killer theme.

THE THIRTEENTH HOUR (1927)
Article 2799 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 1-5-2009
Posting Date: 4-12-2009
Directed by Chester M. Franklin
Featuring Lionel Barrymore, Jacqueline Gadsden, Charles Delaney
Country: USA

A murderer / burglar is on the loose who always commits his crimes in the hour after midnight. A detective is on his trail, and has the help of his trusty dog Rex.

What we have here is a basic “old dark house” setup (the house has secret passages, and the criminal has a device that can see through walls and control the doors of the house) with a heroic animal thrown into the mix. It’s pretty silly stuff, but then, most “old dark house” movies were fairly silly, and that doesn’t mean they weren’t fun. If you like Lionel Barrymore or heroic dogs, you’ll like this one just fine. It has more clutching hands than I’ve ever seen in a movie, it has a curtain that kidnaps people, and it ends with an exciting battle on a rooftop. All in all, it’s a fairly fun bit of nonsense.

THEY SAVED HITLER’S BRAIN (1963)
TV-Movie
Article 2798 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 1-4-2009
Posting Date: 4-11-2009
Directed by David Bradley
Featuring Walter Stocker, Audrey Caire, Carlos Rivas
Country: USA

A scientist who knows the formula for an antidote to a poison gas is kidnapped. His family follows the trail of his kidnapping to the small country of Mandoras, where a gang of Nazis keep a sinister secret…

Some secret – the title gives it away. Incidentally, THE MADMEN OF MANDORAS (the source from which this movie was cobbled together) is treated as a separate entity by IMDB, so I will give it its own separate review when the time comes. I saw it once many years ago, when my attempt to buy this version of the movie resulted in getting that one. Until I rewatch it, all I can remember about it was that, outside a couple of campy moments, it was a dull movie.

This version was doctored up for television release, adding new footage about a couple of agents of the CID who are on the trail of the kidnappers of the doctor. Just why this footage was added is a mystery; maybe it was intended to add more action to the story. As it is, it only adds confusion and a sense of weirdness, as it is patently obvious that the new footage does not match the footage of MANDORAS in any way. Furthermore, I’m sure the date above cannot be trusted for this TV release version; the hairstyles and fashions in the new footage are obviously from several years later.

Still, it doesn’t really change much. Though the movie has a reputation as one of the great bad movies, it really only has a great bad title and a couple of campy scenes that entertain; the rest is snoozefest incarnate. I suspect that I’ll end up saying much the same about THE MADMEN OF MANDORAS when it comes time to tackle that one as well.