TOPPER TAKES A TRIP (1939)
Article #1113 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 4-1-2004
Posting Date: 8-29-2004
Directed by Norman Z. McLeod
Featuring Roland Young, Constance Bennett, Billie Burke

Topper must go to France to prevent his wife from getting a divorce and marrying a man who is after her money. He is accompanied by the ghost of Marion Kerby.

If this movie labors under one burden, it is that Cary Grant, who played George Kerby in TOPPER, does not appear in this sequel except in footage from the original movie. Fortunately, this isn’t a particularly heavy burden; the appeal of the Topper movies was in the variety of eccentric comic characters rather than any one in particular, and when all is said and done, Roland Young was probably the actor whose presence was most necessary. My print suffers under another burden; it is one of those colorized prints that makes everything a dullish pastel color, and as usually the case of colorization, it merely adds unnecessary distraction. The movie itself is for all practical reasons a repeat of the previous movie; outside of giving a little more for Billie Burke to do, it really doesn’t add anything really new to the mix. It’s amusing and well-done (as was the original) but also a bit unnecessary. Cosmo Topper would return in one more movie, TOPPER RETURNS, which, unlike the other two movies, was not directly based on a novel by Thorne Smith.

TERROR ABOARD (1933)
Article #1107 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 3-26-2004
Posting Date: 8-23-2004
Directed by Paul Sloane
Featuring John Halliday, Charles Ruggles, Shirley Grey

When the owner of a luxury yacht discovers that his fraudulent business schemes have made him an outlaw who will be arrested the second he comes to port, he decides to dispose of the crew and guests aboard the yacht and escape to a deserted island with the woman he loves.

This movie starts out with a very intriguing sequence in which the crew of a boat discover a yacht cruising in circles in the middle of the ocean. When they board the boat, one member of the crew is attacked, and the others find several corpses, including a woman lying on the deck who has frozen to death in the middle of the tropical climates. The movie then switches to the flashback that marks the main story, and by that time your curiosity is so piqued that you are already caught up in the nightmarish scenario that unfolds. In some ways, it’s like one of those old dark house movies where people are killed off one by one (except in this case, we know who the murderer is beforehand) or like one of those revenge movies where somebody kills off a group of people who have wronged him (except in this case, it is not revenge but the desire to cover his tracks that is the motive). At any rate, it is fascinating to watch the man’s schemes unfold, as he uses every means imaginable; though most of the murders are just that, in other cases he uses emotional manipulation to get certain people to kill each other or themselves. It’s only marginally a horror movie, but it makes for gripping viewing nonetheless. Unfortunately, because the movie is so effective in presenting its succession of murders, the comic relief character (Charles Ruggles as a superstitious steward) comes off as intrusive; it’s not a bad performance by any means, but every time he appears he brings the story to a dead halt, and that hampers the momentum and the suspense somewhat. Nevertheless, this is one impressive little thriller.

TURNABOUT (1940)
Article #1091 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 3-10-2004
Posting Date: 8-7-2004
Directed by Hal Roach
Featuring Adolphe Menjou, Carole Landis, John Hubbard

A constantly bickering married couple agree on only one thing, and that is that they wished they could switch places with each other. A mystical statue grants them their wish.

The Switcheroo theme is a fairly standard comic plot, even if it isn’t used that often. The basic plot is simple; two people switch places and live each other’s lives for twenty-four hours. They both discover how hard it is to be the other person and switch back, their lives changed by this very important lesson. That’s pretty much the plot of this one in a nutshell, but since the story is based on a novel by Thorne Smith (the man who gave us the stories for TOPPER, NIGHT LIFE OF THE GODS and I MARRIED A WITCH, among others), things are a hair more outrageous than the usual take on the theme. The movie gets a lot of comic mileage from the simple ruse that when they switch bodies, they do not switch voices (or wardrobes, for that matter), and must find excuses for the sounds of their voices. The movie is peopled with eccentric characters, bizarre situations (when the husband buys a Pekingese dog for his wife, it accidentally gets switched with a little bear), and some risque situations that must have worried the Hays office (this may be the first movie to feature a pregnant man). Even though the various Thorne Smith novels have been directed by different people, there are definite qualities of his that consistently shine through that I quite like. Though he stops short of anarchic comedy, you never really know how outrageous he is going to be from moment to moment, and there’s always a surprise around the corner. Other fun things in the movie include performances by Donald Meek as a butler who must deal with the changes in his employers, and Marjorie Main, whose commentaries on the action alternately remind me of ones you’d expect to hear from W. C. Fields or Groucho Marx. There’s also a relaxed but hilarious scene where Adolphe Menjou and William Gargan try to destroy a radio so they won’t have to hear the advertisements of the sponsor whose account they have lost.

THE TALES OF HOFFMANN (1951)
Article #1090 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 3-9-2004
Posting Date: 8-6-2004
Directed by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger
Featuring Moira Shearer, Ludmilla Tcherina, Anne Ayars

A poet relates to the guests at an inn the tales of his three great loves.

It’s opera again, folks, and I didn’t expect another one to pop up so soon, but here we are. As I mentioned during my review of THE MEDIUM, I’m not an opera buff and I find the form a little alien. As for my comments that the vocal phrasing in opera was the equivalent of listening to your native tongue in a bizarre dialect, all I can add to that is that my wife sat down and watched about ten minutes of this movie with me, and then asked what language it was in. This opera is, like THE MEDIUM, in English.

Fortunately, it’s directed by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, the same team that gave us A MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH, and the visual sense that pervaded and enhanced that movie are in full sway here as well. This movie is simply stunning on a visual level, and it uses color in such a memorable, daring and evocative way that it makes most color movies look like they’re in black and white. It’s by no means merely a photographed opera; it’s a thoroughly cinematic experience, taking full advantage of the flexibility that marks one of the advantages that films have over live productions. I heartily recommend the movie to anyone interested in brilliant direction, the works of Powell and/or Pressburger, and anyone interested in opera.

However, it is opera, and as such, there came a point for me where the dazzling visuals couldn’t quite overcome my exhaustion at trying to figure out what the characters were warbling, and my attention began to stray quite badly during the second tale. Fortunately, the last tale turned out to be the easist of the three to understand in terms of hearing what the characters were saying, and it drew my interest back in long enough for me to truly appreciate the rest of the movie, including the ironic and sad denoument of the framing story. Incidentally, all three of the stories are fantastically themed; the first has Hoffmann falling in love with a dancing marionette whom he watches through a pair of magic spectacles. The second involves a woman who is under the spell of a magician who steals the mirror reflections of his victims. The third is about a woman who labors under a curse that she will die if she should sing (considering that they do nothing but sing during an opera, how long do you think she will last?).

TWENTY THOUSAND LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA (1916)
Article #1068 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 2-16-2004
Posting Date: 7-15-2004
Directed by Stuart Paton
Featuring Allen Holubar, Dan Hanlon, Curtis Benton

A scientist goes on a voyage to investigate a sea monster; it turns out to be a submarine helmed by the mysterious Captain Nemo.

When I checked IMDB for some information about this movie, I discovered a rather interesting fact; the entire cast of the movie is uncredited. Jules Verne’s name is mentioned repeatedly, producer Carl Laemmle gets a credit, and most of the attention goes to George and Ernest Williamson, who developed the first underwater photography that was used in this movie; in fact, these two are featured in the opening of the movie. In some ways, this is certainly appropriate; this movie could not have been made without the work of these two, though you would think that the actor who played Nemo would at least get a credit (by the way, he’s Allen Holubar).

In a sense, the movie undertakes a daunting task; not only does it take on the Verne novel of the title, but “Mysterious Island” as well. Furthermore, it comes up with an elaborate backstory about the history of Captain Nemo (and the credits tell us that Verne didn’t tell us this part), and in some ways, that sequence is the most exciting in the movie. The structure of the movie is somewhat bizarre; in some ways, it only glosses over the two Verne novels and spends more time and energy on the characters in the backstory, plus it only tells the backstory after the most of the rest of the movie has ended. Still, it’s the spectacle that rules this one, and the underwater scenes are fascinating to watch, even if things are a little hard to see in them. In particular, the scenes of the divers walking against the undertow are very memorable. However, I do feel the need to point out that as far as squids and octopi go, you’re better off with the squid fight in the Disney version than you are with the rather lame and obviously fake octopus that pops up in this one. Incidentally, one of the many uncredited cast members is none other than Noble Johnson.

TRAPPED BY TELEVISION (1936)
Article #1067 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 2-15-2004
Posting Date: 7-14-2004
Directed by Del Lord
Featuring Mary Astor, Lyle Talbot, Nat Pendleton

A young man who has just invented television finds himself the target of crooks who don’t want him to sell his product.

The movie has an intriguing enough title, but underneath it all it’s a pretty ordinary melodrama with a better-than-average cast and only slight science elements (the television of the title). There are some nice things about the movie; there’s a villain who plays darts with a blowgun, Nat Pendleton walks around constantly saying “Science is my hobby” but has trouble pronouncing “cathode-ray tube”, and there’s an appealing cast. The down side is that there’s simply not much depth to it; it’s entertaining enough for the ride but pretty forgettable once it’s all over. Still, it’s worlds better than MURDER BY TELEVISION, and it would be best not to mistake the two.

THE TOMB OF LIGEIA (1965)
Article #1066 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 2-14-2004
Posting Date: 7-13-2004
Directed by Roger Corman
Featuring Vincent Price, Elizabeth Shepherd, John Westbrook

A noblewoman falls in love with a strange man who lives in an abandoned abbey and obsesses about his former wife.

I’m currently in the midst of reading the complete works of Poe, but I haven’t gotten to “Ligeia” yet, so I can’t say how close the movie is to the story. I can say that it does contain some elements of the other Corman Poe movies; we have the heightened senses of HOUSE OF USHER (sight rather than hearing this time), a black cat running around, and the basic disturbed nobleman and his wife that pops up quite a bit in the other movies. This one was scripted by Robert Towne, and it’s perhaps the most subtle of the Poe scripts; in fact, some people consider this the best of the Poe adaptations, and I can see why. It’s a beautiful movie, especially in the shots of the abandoned abbey, and Price gives one of his most restrained and very best performances here, and Shepherd also does very well in a dual role. However, the movie has its detractors, and I can see why; Towne’s script may be subtle and literate, but sometimes it’s a little too talky and slow for its own good. Still, this is a classy Poe adaptation, and has some fine work from directer Roger Corman and cinematographer Arthur Grant.

THE THIRTEENTH GUEST (1932)
(a.k.a. LADY BEWARE)
Article #1063 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 2-11-2004
Posting Date: 7-10-2004
Directed by Albert Ray
Featuring Ginger Rogers, Lyle Talbot, J. Farrell MacDonald

A detective investigates a series of murders that have something to do with a fatal dinner party that occurred thirteen years ago.

I once heard that Alfred Hitchcock wondered how a movie audience would react if he killed off the leading lady in the first reel; PSYCHO was his take on that idea. It wasn’t the first time that idea was used, though; Ginger Rogers turns up dead five minutes into this movie. Of course, the similarity ends there; Rogers does pop up again before the movie is over, but to give away the circumstances would be to give away hefty chunks of the plot, so I’ll leave that a surprise. I like the script and the basic story of this one; it’s one of the more creative of the “old dark house” genre, with an unusual backstory, a creepy hooded villain, and a fairly insidious way of committing murder. However, the low Monogram budget, uninspired direction and turgid pacing all sap quite a bit of the life from the proceedings, which is too bad, as this could have been one of the best of the forgotten horrors. As it is, it’s also worth catching for the early performance by Lyle Talbot as well as for Ginger Rogers.

THE TELL-TALE HEART (1960)
Article #1061 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 2-9-2004
Posting Date: 7-8-2004
Directed by Ernest Morris
Featuring Laurence Payne, Adrienne Corri, Dermot Walsh

A disturbed man becomes obsessed with a woman who lives in the next house, but she has eyes for his best friend.

“The Tell-Tale Heart” is a great little story by Poe. I’ve always felt the best element of the story was not the horrific heart-beating-under-the-floorboards concept, but the fact that the murderer is so confident and cocky that he isn’t even aware at how his own madness brings him down. I’d love to see a version of this story that retains that character, and I’m sure there are a few out there somewhere. This version has some very atmospheric moments and a couple of good shock scenes in the second half, but I have real problems with it as a whole. In order to expand the movie to full-length, the story ends up relying on the most unoriginal of storylines, that of the romantic triangle. Once the woman meets her boyfriend’s good-looking best friend, I knew exactly where the story would be going for the next thirty minutes. The movie also loses points for its lack of subtlety; for one thing, after the movie establishes that the woman has a thing for the handsome friend, it belabors the point for ten minutes; just how many times do we need to see the woman staring intently at the friend before we get the picture? Payne’s performance as the disturbed young man would have been better had it been given a greater variety of reactions; as it is, I really get tired of the incessant closeups of his sweaty insane face and his throwing inanimate objects around. And as for the “twist ending”, it’s the type of thing for which I invented the DS Rubber Brick Award (for those movies in which you feel the need to throw something at the TV set).

TARZAN’S DESERT MYSTERY (1943)
Article #1060 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 2-8-2004
Posting Date: 7-7-2004
Directed by Wilhelm Thiele
Featuring Johnny Weissmuller, Nancy Kelly, Johnny Sheffield

Tarzan, Boy and Cheetah go to the desert to gather plants for malaria serum, but they end up stranded in Balehira where Tarzan is arrested as a horse thief.

This is a fairly strange entry in the Tarzan series, with most of the action taking place in the desert rather than the jungle, and with unexpected science fiction and horror elements cropping up near the end of the movie. Jane isn’t present, as she is back home caring for war victims, so Nancy Kelly is on hand as an itinerant magician to provide the pulchritude. The story itself is fairly ordinary, but there are moments that leave me scratching my heard; for example, when Tarzan is in jail with Boy and Cheetah and after Tarzan has just strangled the guard, the keys have fallen out of reach. They concoct a scheme to escape by having Cheetah go through the window and steal turbans, so they can unwind them to make a rope to escape. My question; why didn’t they just send Cheetah through the bars of the jail to grab the keys; he’s small enough. The ending involves a giant spider, man-eating plants and Ignatz and Rumsford doing their usual wrestling bit from ONE MILLION B.C.; these guys do get around. The best moment is probably Cheetah showing off on a high wire.

This movie is not to be confused with TARZAN’S DESSERT MYSTERY, in which Tarzan tries to figure out if that’s pudding or gelatin.