TARGETS (1968)
Article 2213 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 4-7-2007
Posting Date: 9-3-2007
Directed by Peter Bogdanovich
Featuring Tim O’Kelly, Boris Karloff, Arthur Peterson

An over-the-hill horror actor decides to retire from acting in the belief that the horror movies he is making are irrelevant amidst the horrors of the modern age. Meanwhile, a disturbed young middle-class man snaps mentally, kills his wife and mother, and then goes out on a shooting spree.

It’s easy to hate Karloff’s last four Mexican movies for no other reason than their abysmal quality. However, there is a greater reason to hate them; were it not for them, this movie would have been his last film appearance, and given its personal relevance to Karloff and his career, I can’t think of a better farewell movie for any actor. Director Peter Bogdanovich was given free reign to make any film he wanted to by Roger Corman, provided that he used stock footage from THE TERROR and used Boris Karloff’s skills as an actor for two days. Bogdanovich crafted the inspired and self-referential script, in which a director (played by Bogdanovich himself) tries to convince a retiring horror actor (Karloff) to do one more movie with a script specially crafted for his talents. For horror fans, the movie is fascinating; the contrast with the more conventional cinematic horrors (represented here by footage from THE TERROR) and the cold modern-day horrors (the sniper on the loose) is fascinating. It’s possible to approach the movie primarily from the point of view of what it says about violence in our society, but I’ve always felt this was a bit too limiting. Though the sniping scenes are scary, it is Karloff who makes the movie memorable. My favorite scenes include a sequence where both him and the director wake up in the same bed after having drunk too much the night before (Karloff scares two people in this scene), one in which Karloff decides to take advantage of his public appearance by telling a scary story (which puts his story-telling abilities on display), and his encounter with the sniper in the final scenes of the movie and his last line ( “Is that what I was afraid of?”). It may have well been Karloff’s most complex movie performance since the Val Lewton days. The movie also features a memorable clip of Karloff from Howard Hawks’s THE CRIMINAL CODE.

THUNDERBIRDS ARE GO (1966)
Article 2204 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 3-29-2007
Posting Date: 8-25-2007
Directed by David Lane
Featuring the voices of Sylvia Anderson, Ray Barrett, Alexander Davion

International Rescue is called in to keep a new spaceship called Zero-X from being a victim of sabotage by enemy agents.

I vaguely recall having seen at least one of these Gerry Anderson series as a kid (I think it was “Stingray”). I remember liking it all right, but it never really became a favorite, and its been years since I’ve seen any of them; this is my first reexposure to them in three and a half decades. I do like some aspects of it very much; the puppets move and emote with an understated subtlety, the movie takes itself rather seriously, and some of the puppet movement is quite effective. I also like the use of color and the set design; it’s full of lots of appealing little details. Furthermore, there is a real charm to the proceedings. These pluses are a good thing, as it compensates for the occasional turgid pace and the rather static presentation at times. At least one of the reasons for the latter problem is that the puppets are rarely seen walking; most of the scenes involving them have them remaining in one place, and after a while you really get to notice it. Still, I can understand why they were reluctant to have you see them walking around; the one scene where you really get a good look at their leg movement (during a dream sequence which features an appearance of puppet versions of Cliff Richard and his band, the Shadows) shows that they were rather awkward in this regard. Still, it works well enough in this scene, which comes across like a puppet music video and remains my favorite part of the movie; It’s silly, but appropriately so. Still, I suspect that I might have enjoyed this one better had I been a fan of the series.

THE TOY BOX (1971)
Article 2198 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 3-23-2007
Posting Date: 8-19-2007
Directed by Ronald Victor Garcia
Featuring Sean Kenney, Ann Myers, Neal Bishop

A depraved man known as Uncle has been hosting parties where guests perform sex acts and are paid for their performances via a chest known as the Toy Box. However, this time Uncle is dead, but the party is still going on and the acts are performed before his slightly animated dead body. Then dead bodies start showing up…

I only cover sex movies when they have some fantastic content, but usually it’s only for the sake of comprehensiveness; usually, the fantastic content is only a lame framing device for the sex scenes. This is one of the exceptions; the revelations concerning Uncle are more interesting than usual, and the horror elements eventually evolve into some offbeat science fiction elements as well. Still, the movie primarily exists for the sex scenes, but the fantastic and horrific themes occasionally play interesting roles in the proceedings; I had to admit that the scene where a woman is seduced by her own bed was quite unusual. It’s pretty cheap (there are a lot of scenes that were unconvincingly dubbed after the fact, and there isn’t even one single exterior shot of Uncle’s home, which might have given us a sense of location), and the orgy scenes get pretty tiresome after a bit, but for this type of movie, I found it more interesting than usual.

THE TRIAL (1962)
aka Le Proces
Article 2196 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 3-21-2007
Posting Date: 8-17-2007
Directed by Orson Welles
Featuring Anthony Perkins, Arnoldo Foa, Jess Hahn

A man finds himself arrested, but on what charge he is not told. He tries to wend his way through the legal system, but finds himself distracted, diverted and kept in the dark about his case.

It’s been years since I’ve read the Kafka novel on which this is based, so I can’t personally say whether this movie version is true to the novel; the novel, which feels like a bad and frustrating dream, is by its very nature difficult to remember. However, I have read that liberties were taken with the story, but that in essence, the movie does capture the book. I am inclined to believe this; the sense of impenetrable labyrinths, paranoia and claustrophobia is very strong. Furthermore, since Kafka himself never finished the novel (it was edited by a friend after his death), it’s nearly impossible to say what would constitute a true version of the novel. At any rate, this satirical fantasy is fascinating to look at, and the style of the movie may well have influenced directors such as David Lynch and Terry Gilliam (I found myself thinking of both ERASERHEAD and BRAZIL while watching this). Anthony Perkins is memorable as the beleaguered citizen under arrest, though he seems unaware how his own haughty arrogance and selfishness only make matters worse for himself. Akim Tamiroff and Orson Welles are also memorable as another accused man and as Josef K’s advocate. It’s rather difficult to follow, but I suspect that may be the point; I think we are supposed to be as lost as Josef K is in the process, and equally frustrated with the fact that no one ever gives a straight answer to any question. It’s fascinating, but it helps if you’re in the mood for something like this.

THE TERRORNAUTS (1967)
Article 2179 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 3-4-2007
Posting Date: 7-31-2007
Directed by Montgomery Tully
Featuring Simon Oates, Zena Marshall, Charles Hawtrey

When scientists receive what they believe to be a distress call from outer space, they use a radio telescope to reply. They then find themselves kidnapped by a spaceship that takes them to an alien fortress inhabited by a robot, where they must undergo a series of tests, but to what end?

This silly, unconvincing science fiction epic is nonetheless entertaining and offbeat. The screenplay was written by noted science fiction author John Brunner (his only produced writing foray into cinema) and based on a novel by another famed science fiction writer, Murray Leinster. Had this story been made a couple of decades later, there would no doubt have been a video game based on it, as its puzzle-solving plot and Space Invaders-style action sequence at the end both lend themselves to it. Curious touches abound; I like the one scientist’s memory of having been given an alien artifact as a kid that led to his interest in listening for messages from the stars. It also has some very cliched touches; notice how the movie bends over backwards to make sure that the strictly-for-laughs prissy accountant and crusty old coffee lady just happen to be in the building at the time that it is spirited away, just to make sure that we can enjoy (if that is the correct word) their comic antics during the movie; as far as the plot goes, they are nonessential. The scene in the advertising where a beautiful lady is about to be sacrificed by green-skinned aliens takes up about two minutes of the plot, most of which is spent on the spaceship with a robot, and the monster that shows up at one point (with an eye on his lower left side) is pretty goofy. Still, I can’t help but like a movie where the ultimate reward for out planetary heroes is to be arrested by a French gendarme; really, there’s just no justice in the world.

THE THREE STOOGES IN ORBIT (1962)
Article 2170 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 2-23-2007
Posting Date: 7-22-2007
Directed by Edward Bernds
Featuring The Three Stooges, Carol Christensen, Edson Stroll

When the Three Stooges are on the verge of having their animated TV show axed, they hook up with a scientist who can save their show with a machine designed to create a new type of animation. In return, they help him to demonstrate his new machine that can run on land, in the sea, in the air or in outer space. They also help him to defeat invading martians.

The Three Stooges honed their talents with shorts; by the time they finally graduated to features, they were past their prime and had lost both Curly and Shemp. Yet, considering these handicaps, there features were pretty decent. They don’t really spend much of the time in orbit, but there are some good gags here; I like the “old dark house” parody of the early scenes in particular. It’s positively surreal at times, especially with some of the bits surrounding the new type of animation, which, for some reason, requires that they dress up like refugees from a rock group from PHANTOM OF THE PARADISE and do the twist (the “new animation process” looks suspiciously like rotoscoping). Still, despite the presence of the Stooges, my favorite work in this movie comes from two other sources. One is Emil Sitka, who is simply delightful as the scientist. The second is Edwin H. Bryant, the editor, who does a bangup job of maintaining comic momentum with the creative use of stock footage; for once, it’s highly amusing to see scenes lifted from other sources (especially from EARTH VS. THE FLYING SAUCERS). The martians, with their big square heads, look like bizarre variations of the Universal Frankenstein monster. All in all, this one is fun and actually quite bizarre at times, especially during the sequence in which the head martian is convinced that it would be better to destroy the Earth rather than invade it.

THE TORTURE CHAMBER OF DR. SADISM (1967)
aka BLOOD DEMON, DIE SCHLANGENGRUBE UND DAS PENDEL
Article 2139 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 1-23-2007
Posting Date: 6-21-2007
Directed by Harold Reinl
Featuring Lex Barker, Christopher Lee, Karin Dor

A lawyer receives a mysterious message which promises to unveil the secret of his past. He visits the castle of Count Regula in the company of a baroness, her servant, and a priest, only to discover that Count Regula was a sorcerer who was drawn and quartered thirty-five years ago. However, this doesn’t mean that he’ll remain dead…

Despite the fact that a lot of the krimi have horror elements to them, the fact of the matter is that not a lot of horror movies came from Germany during the sixties. This is one of the exceptions, and it’s an odd one; the basic plot is very familiar indeed, but it has bizarre and decidedly eccentric touches to it. The music is pretty uneven, the American title is a lie (there is no Dr. Sadism in the movie) and the credits weren’t carefully researched (just for the record, “The Pit and the Pendulum” was not a novel). The German title is accurate enough; there is a snake pit, and there is a pendulum. Outside of the debt it owes to Poe, it also owes one to Mario Bava’s BLACK SUNDAY; in fact, heroine Karin Dor looks quite a bit like Barbara Steele. It’s not a particularly coherent movie, but the best scenes stick in the memory; my favorite moment is a carriage ride through a spooky forest littered with dead bodies, and the scene where Count Regula rises from the dead (which involves his body attaching itself back together) is great. The set design is excellent; Count Regula’s castle walls are decorated with paintings that look like they were done by Heironymous Bosch. I saw this one as a kid, and I never forgot it, and I think it still holds up pretty well today.

THE TWENTIETH CENTURY TRAMP; OR, HAPPY HOOLIGAN AND HIS AIRSHIP (1902)
Article 2094 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 12-9-2006
Posting Date: 5-7-2007
Unknown director
Featuring J. Stuart Blackton

A tramp flies over New York City until his machine explodes.

The Edison company put out a number of early shorts that featured panoramas of famous places. This combines that idea with some special effects to give us the image of a tramp in a flying machine passing over a panorama of the New York skyline. Granted, special effects were far from perfect at this time, but the split screen effect here is painfully obvious, with clearly defined lines separating the top of the screen from the bottom of the screen, and these are noticeable despite the fact that my copy of this movie is in such poor condition, it’s hard to make out any details. At the end, the flying machine explodes, but it happens so quickly (and the print is so bad), that I found myself wondering if there was just something wrong with the print. Before the explosion, nothing happens other than seeing the tramp flying around. This is a curio, but little else.

THE TIN MAN (1935)
Article 2079 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 11-24-2006
Posting Date: 4-22-2007
Directed by James Parrott
Featuring Thelma Todd, Patsy Kelly, Matthew Betz

Two women and a escaped criminal find themselves trapped in a spooky house with a mad scientist and his robot.

One of the pleasures of this project is when a movie that has been sitting on my hunt list a long time finally manifests itself so I can watch it. This is true even when the movie in question isn’t very good. This was one of a series of short comedies Thelma Todd and Patsy Kelly made in the early thirties until Thelma’s death in 1935. Most of the humor comes from their interaction with the robot, who drinks what I can only assume is oil, pours water on one of the women’s heads, and short-circuits when water is thrown on him. The escaped criminal gets the worst of it. It’s amusing enough, but the gags just aren’t strong enough to pass muster. Still, it’s nice to cross this one off the list at last.

EL TOPO (1970)
aka THE MOLE
Article 2053 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 10-28-2006
Posting Date: 3-27-2007
Directed by Alejandro Jodorowsky
Featuring Alejandro Jodorowsky, Brontis Jodorowsky, Jose Legarreta

A man wanders the desert with a naked child. He deserts the child for a woman who urges him to find and defeat four masters in the desert.

This is one of those unique, personal, and somewhat abstract films that end up falling under the fantastic categories simply because the events are so bizarre that it ends up having fantastic elements almost by accident. In this case, some of the masters in the desert have supernatural powers, and the main character is able to draw water out of stones (just one of many religious references). It was the first movie to really gain fame as a midnight movie, and for this reason alone it is historically interesting.

Still, I find it a little difficult to cover movies like this. It’s too personal for me to really pretend that I understand it enough to make much in the way of meaningful commentary, and usually what I end up doing is giving my gut-level and personal reaction to it (which, given that the movie is very personal in the first place, makes it somehow appropriate). Somehow, I sense that this movie isn’t quite as complex and impenetrable as it might seem; certainly, the religious references seem like definite starting points for exploration. But as far as personal cinematic statements go, I don’t find it quite as compelling as some others I’ve seen; I think that I would be more likely to watch ERASERHEAD or THE TESTAMENT OF ORPHEUS (both of which strike me as somewhat more unique and sincere) than this one. At heart, this movie feels like a combination of spaghetti western, samurai film and religious epic, and somehow the fact that those same elements can also lead you fairly close to the TV show “Kung Fu” makes it all seem a little less impressive. Still, I did find it a consistently interesting watch.