TARZAN AND THE GOLDEN LION (1927)
Article #791 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 5-15-2003
Posting Date: 10-12-2003
Directed by J. P. McGowan
Featuring James Pierce, Frederick Peters, Edna Murphy

Tarzan and his faithful lion Jab try to prevent crooks from stealing the jewels of a native tribe.

With a rating of 3.8 on IMDB at the time of this writing, one thing I can say is that this particular movie doesn’t seem to be too popular among Tarzan afficiandos. This may well be due to the blandness of James Pierce in the title role (no, he does NOT play the golden lion). He really doesn’t make Tarzan a memorable character at all. Not that it really matters; the movie is so focused on action that character development is left on the wayside fairly early on in the proceedings. The most interesting things about this movie are 1) the presence of a faithful lion friend for Tarzan; he is even referred to as the “friend of the lions”, which, considering how many fights he has with them in other movies, leaves me wondering just how much of a cat person he is. Thus, instead of everyone being charmed by the presence of Cheetah, we find them perpetually nervous in the presence of Jab, who occasionally has to be disciplined by Tarzan to keep him from thinking of the guests as lunch. The other interesting aspect of the movie is the presence of Boris Karloff as (get this) a disgraced African chieftain. Ain’t Hollywood casting wonderful?

THE 27TH DAY (1957)
Article #784 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 5-8-2003
Posting Date: 10-5-2003
Directed by William Asher
Featuring Gene Barry, Valerie French, George Voskovec

An alien gives five people from around the world capsules with which they can destroy all life on the planet Earth.

The situation at the center of this movie is pretty contrived, but I have to admit that I found myself quite intrigued on the “What would I do if I were in their shoes” level, and the first half of the movie, which focuses on the reactions of these five very different and interesting characters to their situation makes for fascinating viewing. The second half is less satisfying; it eventually settles into a much more conventional cold war good-guys-vs-bad-guys scenario that I found far less interesting, though it was hardly a surprise that the movie would go in this direction given the time and place it was made. Still, the fact that the fate of the world lies in the hand of any one of the characters does maintain my interest. The ending itself was a real disappointment and pushes the whole movie into the realm of pure fantasy as far as I’m concerned, but I could see how others might find it compelling; nonetheless, this is one movie whose central ideas are a bit more interesting than its execution. And incidentally, Gene Barry really does look quite different with a moustache.

THE TRIUMPH OF HERCULES (1964)
Article #760 by Dave Sindelar
Date Viewed: 4-14-2003
Date Posted: 9-11-2003
Directed by Alberto de Martino
Featuring Dan Vadis, Moira Orfei, Marilu Tolo

Hercules is called upon to avenge the murder of a king.

During the first five minutes of this movie I saw two elements that I have seen umpteen times before in Sword and Sandal movies; a bunch of helmeted horsemen fighting peasants in a village, and the assassination of a king by a pretender to the throne. This, combined with the fact that Hercules was played by someone who I’ve never heard of (Dan Vadis) led me to suspect that I was going to see nothing more than the usual S & S spectacle. Then I noticed something odd; I could actually follow the plot! I didn’t need a scorecard to keep track of the characters, and in every scene I knew what was going on and why the people were there and what they were doing. Now with most other genres, to praise a movie by saying the story is coherent is to damn it with faint praise; in a Sword and Sandal movie, it’s such a rarity, that I have to marvel at actually getting lost in the story. Not that the story is great; it’s pretty standard stuff, but (here I go again) YOU CAN FOLLOW IT! It even has some great comic relief scenes, including a scene where Hercules tussles with some golden musclemen, and a sequence involving pickpockets and a monkey who manages to get hold of a magic knife. And there’s not a single temple dance in the whole thing! And you can follow the plot!!!!

It’s amazing how watching too many of these things can lower your expectations so much that you really learn to count your blessings.

THE TIME OF THEIR LIVES (1946)
Article #757 by Dave Sindelar
Date Viewed: 4-11-2003
Date Posted: 9-8-2003
Directed by Charles Barton
Featuring Bud Abbott, Lou Costello, Marjorie Reynolds

A tinker and a nobleman’s wife are mistaken for traitors during the revolutionary war. They are shot, and their bodies left in a well with a curse on their spirits. They return as ghosts, but it is not until many years later that they are allowed to prove their innocence.

There are a couple of ways to approach this movie. From a standpoint of it being an Abbott and Costello movie (i.e. a movie by the team), it is disappointing; they only have one scene together as characters who know each other, and it is fairly short and doesn’t allow them to indulge in their usual team antics. However, if seen from the angle of a movie that is not a vehicle for the team, but rather just featuring both members of the team in distinct roles, it is very interesting indeed. It may well be the most solid movie they’ve done from the standpoint of story, and as distinct characters rather than team members, both Bud and Lou are given a much wider range of acting space than they would have otherwise. The revolutionary-war period of the movie has a great deal of period charm, and the latter part of the movie (it’s a haunted house movie told from the point of view of the ghosts, which is a rather unique approach) achieves a certain ambience, and though the movie could have been converted to a team vehicle (with a little work, the Marjorie Reynolds role could have been changed around to work for Bud Abbott), I think it would have lost that ambience. In some ways, it is one of the strongest ghost stories of the forties. My only complaint is that Gale Sondergaard’s role could have been given more dimension than it has; she does well, but there really isn’t a whole lot to it.

THE TIME MACHINE (1960)
Article #749 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 4-3-2003
Posting Date: 8-31-2003
Directed by George Pal
Featuring Rod Taylor, Alan Young, Yvette Mimieux

A man invents a time machine at the end of the nineteenth century, and takes a journey into the far future.

This adaptation of the H.G. Wells novel is much more faithful to the source story than Pal’s earlier WAR OF THE WORLDS was to its source. It has one of the all-time great props; the time machine itself is a wonderful and memorable creation, and the time travel sequences are breathtaking indeed. However, I usually emerge from the movie with an odd sense of disappointment, and it’s a little hard at times to say why. I had read the original story of Wells several times when I was young, long before I ever actually got to see the movie, and though I haven’t read the story closely in quite a while (I have a collection of H.G. Wells novels that I will be rereading in the near future), I always get the sense that the story has been “dumbed down” in subtle ways; just as an example, the scene where Weena asks the time traveller how women wear their hair in his time seems overly cute, false, and out of tenor with the story, and I don’t believe that would be a question Weena would actually ask.

This may sound like nit-picking, and perhaps it is, but it does seriously hamper my enjoyment of the movie. I also miss the omission of chapter 11 from the story, in which the time traveller goes even farther into the future into a time where Earth is nearing its last days, and this has always been the one chapter of the book that has most embedded itself into my memory; it’s omission from the movie tends to leave a fairly big emotional hole for me.

Still, even if I feel that the ultimate version of the story has yet to be made, I applaud George Pal’s attempt. I also really loved one final touch in the movie, and that is that it leaves it to the viewer’s own imagination as to which three books are missing at the end of the movie. It’s a subtle, effective touch that is entirely unexpected and thought-provoking, and I have to smile when we reach that point.

TARZAN FINDS A SON! (1939)
Article #747 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 4-1-2003
Posting Date: 8-29-2003
Directed by Richard Thorpe
Featuring Johnny Weissmuller, Maureen O’Sullivan, Johnny Sheffield

Tarzan and Jane discover a baby who is the only survivor of an airplane crash, and the rear the boy as their own. Years later, the boy’s relatives come to the jungle in search of him.

Had I watched this movie after having seen the first three Weissmuller Tarzans only, I would have mourned what would have been another step in the domestication of the character; however, after having seen TARZAN AND THE AMAZONS, I really appreciate how this one still retains enough of the savagery that made the initial entries so appealing. The characters are more complex than in that later movie, there is still that wonderful chemistry between Weissmuller and O’Sullivan (this was supposed to be her last outing as Jane, but the ending was changed), and Africa is still inhabited largely by animals and fierce native tribes, an aspect that had almost vanished entirely in the AMAZON movie. There are some powerful scenes here, particularly a moving moment when Tarzan has to keep a baby elephant from running to his mortally-wounded mother who is making her way to the elephant’s graveyard. Yes, it pales next to the first three of the series, but it’s still a richer and more resonant experience than some of the later ones. Sometimes you just need to sit back and count your blessings.

TOPPER (1937)
Article #746 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 3-31-2003
Posting Date: 8-28-2003
Directed by Norman McLeod
Featuring Cary Grant, Constance Bennett, Roland Young

A stodgy and dull bank president finds himself haunted by two ghosts intent on getting him to enjoy life.

First, a rant.

Ever order a movie on the internet, and then wait with baited breath for it to arrive, and when it does, you discover to your horror that you got the COLORIZED version? ARRGGGHHHH!!!!! Not only that, but it was one of the very first movies to undergo colorization, so it’s done particularly badly. Double ARRRGGGHHHH!!!!!

Still, it was the only copy of the movie I had, so I watched it anyway. Fortunately, it’s a good one, with great dialogue and wonderful performances from Roland Young, Constance Bennett, Cary Grant, Billie Burke, Alan Mowbray and Eugene Pallette. Hedda Hopper and Doodles Weaver are also in there somewhere. It’s consistently amusing and fun to watch, but I do have a couple of minor quibbles (outside of the ghastly colorization); there’s a long stretch in the second half where Cary Grant is nowhere to be found (he’s one of my all-time favorite actors), and despite all the fun, it never quite cuts loose in the way you hope it might. Still, it was a joy to watch, and though I definitely plan to watch it again sometime, I will wait until I have a chance to upgrade my copy to one in which the predominant colors are various shades of grey.

TARZAN AND THE AMAZONS (1945)
Article #745 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 3-30-2003
Posting Date: 8-27-2003
Directed by Kurt Neumann
Featuring Johnny Weissmuller, Brenda Joyce, Johnny Sheffield

Tarzan tries to prevent a group of adventurers from discovering the secret home of the Amazons.

In TARZAN ESCAPES we saw how the Hays office had taken steps to declaw the Tarzan series and remove the savagery and the violence. Here we are, nine years later, and the series has been thoroughly domesticated. I don’t think there’s a single fight with a wild animal this time, and the emotional center of the plot is Tarzan’s relationship with Boy, which becomes strained when he takes a liking to the adventurers. Maureen O’Sullivan is long gone, and there’s a lot more talk than action this time around, and Tarzan’s most violent act is breaking Boy’s hunting bow. It’s not bad, but it’s a long way from what fans of the Tarzan character may expect. As far as the Amazons, they appear for a couple of minutes towards the beginning and then disappear from the story until the last third, so those watching the movie to catch those particular charms may be excused for taking a forty minute break in the middle of the movie. And even though Maria (Maleva, the old gypsy woman) Ouspenskaya is an excellent actress, the fact that she is playing the leader of the tall, statuesque, leggy and youthful Amazons is nothing short of anomolous.

TOMORROW AT SEVEN (1933)
Article #740 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 3-25-2003
Posting Date: 8-22-2003
Directed by Ray Enright
Featuring Chester Morris, Vivienne Osborne, Frank McHugh

A murderer known as the Black Ace threatens to murder a man at seven o’clock the next day.

I’d have to say this is one of the better forgotten horrors I’ve seen. It has some unusual choices of locations for a murders, a very effective opening scene, and the comic relief is much stronger than usual for this type of thing. For the latter, thanks must go to Frank McHugh and Allen Jenkins, who make a great team as the two detectives on the case, though Charles Middleton also has some fun in his appearance as Simons. It’s also interesting to note that the only role for a black performer is not a comic relief role, and he ends up playing a serious role in the proceedings. Though it hovers in that grey area between murder mystery and horror, this is probably one I would recommend for those interested in experimenting with the world of forgotten horrors.

THREE WISE FOOLS (1946)
Article #718 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 3-3-2003
Posting Date: 7-31-2003
Directed by Edward Buzzell
Featuring Margaret O’Brien, Lionel Barrymore, Lewis Stone

The three guardians of an orphaned Irish girl try to get hold of her property, which contains a tree she believes is inhabited by fairies.

All right, you have Margaret O’Brien as a sweet delightful young girl brimming with youthful vivacity and Irish charm going up against three curmudgeonly cynics, one of whom is played by Lionel Barrymore, who has always seemed to me to be the one actor most inclined to play the role of a crusty old curmudgeon whose heart would melt at the charm and vivacity of a orphaned irish girl. If you’re a betting man, you should know on whom to place your money in this battle of wills.

And incidentally, the whole movie is narrated by a pixie (as played by Henry Davenport, who I’ve always like as an actor, even a role like this).

When I embarked on this survey of fantastic films, I knew there would be movies like this. Therefore, I will offer no excuses; I’ve made my bed, and I’m sleeping in it.

Oh, and take your insulin shot; you’ll need it.