TERROR FROM THE YEAR 5000 (1958)
Article #308 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing date: 1-17-2002
Posting date: 6-3-2002

Scientists experimenting with a time travel apparatus bring a radiation-scarred mutant from the future into our time.

This movie has a lot of problems: it’s cheaply shot, it’s not directed particularly well, the acting is quite poor at times, and the soundtrack has too many moments that sound like they were lifted from sitcoms. What it does have is an interesting story and some very nice touches and ideas here and there, so it holds you’re interest. Quite frankly, it’s one of those movies that could leave either a good or bad impression, depending on whether you see the glass as half empty or half full; me, I found it quite engaging. I especially like the touch when the woman from the future tries to accost someone by speaking in ancient Greek; she thought that was the native language when she was sent a fraternity medal with Greek letters on it.

TEENAGE CAVE MAN (1958)
Article #307 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing date: 1-16-2002
Posting date: 6-2-2002

A rebellious cave man keeps breaking the laws of the tribe to explore the regions in the land across the river.

It’s easy to poke fun at the obvious cheapness and the silliness of a lot of this movie, but if you consider that it was a caveman epic, it was quite ambitious in some ways. It’s actually trying to make some real commentary on the nature of law and tradition, and I can’t help but admire the intention; if only the script weren’t so preachily verbose about it, it might have worked better. The fact that the story just seems to wander from scene to scene doesn’t help much, either; it really could have used a couple of rewrites. Still, it gives you a chance to see ample dinosaur stock footage, with my favorite slurpasaurs Ignatz and Rumsford thrown into the mix to perform their classic battle dance. You also get to see footage from THE DAY THE WORLD ENDED and THE SHE-CREATURE, not to mention the costume from NIGHT OF THE BLOOD BEAST. The movie features a young Robert Vaughan, Frank De Kova, Leslie Bradley, Beech Dickerson (in several roles) and Jonathan Haze.

20 MILLION MILES TO EARTH (1957)
Article #296 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing date: 1-5-2002
Posting date: 5-22-2002

A boy sells the ingredients of a cannister that was among the wreckage of a space expedition to Venus. This turns out to be a rapidly-growing Venusian that was brought back for scientific testing.

Though it isn’t a perfect movie by any means, I think this is Harryhausen’s best black-and-white SF effort; Nathan Juran keeps the story moving as usual, so the plot has fewer dead spots than other Harryhausen movies, and the monster is one of his most well-developed in terms of character. In fact, he’s the most sympathetic character in the whole story, as even the heros take too much part in tormenting the creature. I also love the work Harryhausen did on the elephant; so much so that it seems as real and life-like as the scenes where a real elephant is used in place of the animation; being able to pull off this trick is a real accomplishment.

TOBOR THE GREAT (1954)
Article #295 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing date: 1-4-2002
Posting date: 5-21-2002

A scientist creates a robot to replace astronauts in planned explorations of space.

Everybody feels the need to point this out, so why should I be any different; Tobor is robot spelled backwards (and Great is anagram of the word grate, a fact that nobody finds interesting). The movie is currently sitting with a 4.0 rating on IMDB, which is a little unfair; the movie is what it is, and what it is is a children’s movie. Specifically, it’s a movie for boys who love robots. Yes, the dialogue is a bit of the gosh-wow variety (The phrases “Gee whilikers” and “I just gotta see that robot. I just gotta!” do appear), but it’s nowhere near as condescending or simplistic as it could have been. In fact, it may be a shade too nasty; the scene where the bad guys threaten to torture the child with a blowtorch may be a bit much, even though they never actually do so. Sure, it’s indifferently acted and directed, but I always feel the need to cut the movie some slack.

THE TRANSATLANTIC TUNNEL (1935)
Article #293 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing date: 1-2-2002
Posting date: 5-19-2002

An engineer’s dream of building a tunnel to connect England and America takes a high toll on those involved, professionally and personally.

I really enjoyed this impressive science fiction drama, a movie that carefully balances the spectacle with the human drama. I admire the scope of the movie, in that it deals with the events in business, personal, and political terms without losing its sense of focus on the engineer protagonist, played by Richard Dix. It’s a tribute to this movie that I didn’t actually know how it was going to end; whether the tunnel was going to be completed or not remains a question until the very last minutes of the movie. The movie also doesn’t settle for easy moralization; you are merely shown the price that is being paid to accomplish this task, and are left to decide for yourself whether it is worth it or not. Science fiction dramas are rare beasts, and it’s always nice to find one that pulls it off.

TIME FLIES (1944)
Article #292 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing date: 1-1-2002
Posting date: 5-18-2002

Several people go back to Elizabethan times in a time machine. There they meet various personages from that era, including Shakespeare, Queen Elizabeth, and Sir Walter Raleigh.

This slight British comedy with jazzy musical numbers (which impress the Elizabethans, though not the queen) was never released in this country, but is now available through the miracle of home video. Unless you find Tommy Handley the pinnacle of hilarity, it’s not really worth bothering about, but it is historically important in the history of science fiction cinema, as it may be the earliest movie to feature a time machine. There were earlier stories about time travel, but usually they involved dreams or magic of some sort. It doesn’t make the movie any better, though the costumes are quite elaborate. This one is a matter of taste.

THE TINGLER (1959)
Article #290 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing date: 12-30-2001
Posting date: 5-16-2002

A scientist studying the effects of fear on humans discovers a force known as the Tingler which grows on the human spinal cord and feeds on fear. When a deaf-mute woman is scared to death, he manages to retrieve one from her body.

This bit of goofy fun is my second-favorite of William Castle’s movies, with some good performances, particularly from Vincent Price and Judith Evelyn (as the deaf-mute) who manages to convey so much wih her eyes. There are some classic sequences here, especially the scene where the woman is scared to death (with its tricky partial-color sequences), and the scene where the Tingler gets loose in a movie theatre (an idea truly worthy of William Castle if ever there was one). It was one of the first movies to feature an LSD trip, though the sequence itself is disappointing; so much more could have been done with it. The plot isn’t particularly strong, but I don’t think it was intended to be; it’s merely there so that Castle has something onto which he can hang his scare sequences.

THINGS TO COME (1936)
Article #289 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing date: 12-29-2001
Posting date: 5-15-2002

A story that spans the years concerning war, tyranny and progress.

I’ve always wondered what H.G. Wells thought of the various adaptations of his works, but I suspect that this may be the only one he might have liked; many of the others seem to have little use for the social commentary that was behind much of his work. The movie is talky, but it has a lot to say, and I can’t help but admire the audacity of this movie. The scenes in the future city are breathtaking; there’s no doubt this is one of the major keystones of science fiction cinema. Along with Raymond Massey, it also features Ralph Richardson and Cedric Hardwicke in key roles.

One subtle moment was mentioned by my wife upon viewing this movie; she noticed that a poster shown at one point during the war sequences has the lettering made up of several different fonts. To her, nothing got across how much things had deteriorated by the fact that the printers couldn’t even get together a complete array of letters in a single font.

THE THIEF OF BAGDAD (1940)
Article #275 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing date: 12-16-2001
Posting date: 5-1-2002

When a king is tricked by his evil adviser into losing his crown, he befriends a thief and tries to win the hand of the daughter of a sultan.

Though it shares many elements in common with the 1924 movie of the same name, it’s not really a remake; the storyline is entirely different. However, with all the obvious imagination, skill, and care that went into this production, it always leaves me a little disappointed; I guess I never really get caught up in the magic of the proceedings. It may be one of those movies I would just have to see on the big screen to really appreciate, or maybe it’s one I would have enjoyed more if I had seen it when I was a kid. For one thing, the plot has always seemed oddly structured to me; I have trouble adjusting to the plot shifts, especially the fact that the first third is told in flashback from the prince’s point of view, followed by a shift to the present, and then followed by a long sequence where the prince vanishes from the action and we have Sabu’s encounter with the genie and his raid on the temple. All these sequences work well enough individually, but I find the shifts between them somewhat jarring. I also dislike the pastel color scheme in use throughout the movie (I tend to prefer bright colors), but it appears that I may simply not have a good print of the movie.

As it is, despite great performances from all concerned, especially John Justin, Sabu, Conrad Veidt, and Rex Ingram, and a wealth of truly great moments (particularly the temple sequence with the giant spider) I never really get lost in the story. Maybe someday, if I catch it in just the right mood…

TERROR IS A MAN (1959)
(a.k.a. BLOOD CREATURE)
Article #274 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing date: 12-15-2001
Posting date: 4-30-2002

The lone survivor of a shipwreck finds himself on an island where a scientist is performing strange experiments on an animal.

I’ve never quite known what to make of this off-beat variation on the Dr. Moreau story. In fact, off-beat doesn’t seem like the right way to explain it; it’s not what happens that is unusual, it’s how it is handled. It almost seems like it isn’t trying to be a horror movie; the characters are fleshed out quietly and subtly, and it refuses to make easy moral statements or decisions. I don’t think it’s quite successful, but I think it’s trying for something out of the ordinary; if it were more successful, I might be able to tell just what it is. As it is, it’s still one of the better horror films to come out of the Philippines that I’ve seen.