TERROR IN THE HAUNTED HOUSE (1958)
(a.k.a. MY WORLD DIES SCREAMING)
Article #273 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing date: 12-14-2001
Posting date: 4-29-2002

A woman has awful dreams about an old house. She marries a man she meets after a whirlwind romance, and when he takes her home, it turns out to be the house she dreamed about.

Filmed in a process called Psychorama, in which subliminal images are flashed on the screen to create an atmosphere of dread, this is one of those movies that is supposed to be really scary and ends up being really annoying. In some ways, it reminds me of GASLIGHT; it’s one of those movies in which the lead female character is required to be in a perpetual state of fear and dread throughout the entire movie, and quite frankly, I’ve never liked those types of movies; rather than scaring me, they leave me feeling tired and impatient. This problem is only compounded by having almost all the characters behave suspiciously all the time, irrespective of whether they have a reason to act that way or not. In fact, this movie is so obvious about trying to scare you, and attempts to do so without a modicum of wit, that it inspires boredom rather than terror; all in all, this is one of the most boring movies I’ve seen. You’ll have more fun trying to stop the movie whenever the subliminal pictures flash up so you can get a good look at them.

TARGET EARTH! (1954)
Article #272 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing date: 12-13-2001
Posting date: 4-28-2002

A city is invaded by robots from another planet.

This movie is a recipient of the DS Bait-and-Switch award, for movies that start out promising and then go down the tubes. In this case, the first few minutes of the movie, where a woman awakens from a failed suicide attempt into a world of dead silence, really sets up an air of tension; it is an exquisitely directed and memorable scene. This gets you through a slightly uneven first third, but after that the movie becomes a talky, interminable bore. The addition of a human villain in the final act comes across as desperation rather than clever plotting; ultimately, there’s very little here to hold the interest. I’ve also never been able to figure out why it is that people have trouble figuring out that the invaders are robots; they always seem so surprised to find out, when I take one look at them and think “robots.” I think this strange phenomenon has popped up in a few other movies, though THE MYSTERIANS is the only other one that comes to mind.

TORTURE SHIP (1939)
Article #267 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing date: 12-8-2001
Posting date: 4-23-2002

A doctor performng unorthodox experiments helps several criminals to escape from justice on a boat that is on a voyage to nowhere. There he performs glandular experiments on them, and when they don’t quite pan out the way he wants them to, he starts experimenting on his own nephew.

Interesting little horror movie with SF and gangster elements has the novelty of taking place onboard a ship rather than in a creaky old house. The movie was directed by Victor Halperin, and fortunately it’s not quite as creaky as some of his other films. The cast includes Lyle Talbot, Irving Pichel and Skelton Knaggs as one of the gangsters. It was also one of the fledgeling productions of the company that would later become PRC. In it’s own way, this is a fun little film, and you don’t find out what exactly the doctor is trying to accomplish in his experiments until the end of the movie; I was quite surprised at what his goal turned out to be.

TWO LOST WORLDS (1950)
Article #137 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing date: 7-31-2001
Posting date: 12-14-2001

The first mate of an American clipper ship is injured in a pirate attack, and is left in a small farming village in Australia to recuperate. There he gets involved in a romantic triangle and tangles with the pirates some more. Eventually, he ends up on a deserted island and has a brush with slurpasaurs.

James Arness appeared in two of the finest science fiction movies of the fifties. He also appeared in this one, which, if Rich Wannen’s theory is correct, was originally a straightforward pirate movie that had slurpasaur footage added to make it more marketable. This footage lasts about a minute and a half, and has little to do with the rest of the movie, which is a lot more concerned about clipper ships than it is about lost worlds. As a pirate flick, it seems competent but totally uninspired; as a lost world movie, it is a waste of time.

Now I’ve gone on about the title of this movie before, and I’ll probably do so again, and I’m certainly not going to miss this opportunity; where the hell is the other lost world? The title promises two; the island with the slurpasaurs is one; where is the other? Is it Australia? Does Australia really qualify as a lost world? If so, how about Nebraska? Does this make me the resident of a lost world? This movie wins the uncoveted DS Bait-and-Switch award for deceptive film titles.

By the way, those two slurpasaurs look like my old friends from ONE MILLION B.C., Ignatz and Rumsford! Glad to see you back, boys. Destroy a clipper ship for me, won’t you?

Possible alternate titles:

ONE LOST HOUR
TWO LOST SLURPASAURS
CLIPPER SHIPS A-BLAZING!

Sorry, I’m babbling. It’s been a long week.

20,000 LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA (1954)
Article #136 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing date: 7-30-2001
Posting date: 12-13-2001

A sea monster believed to be responsible for the destruction of several ships in the 19th century turns out to be a submarine called the Nautilus, helmed by the enigmatic Captain Nemo.

One of the fun things about this project is having two movies in a row that link up in some way; in this case, we have another Verne adaptation today.

As for the movie itself, I feel quite ambivalent about it, as I do about the whole Disney machine anyway. The movie is anchored by a solid performance by James Mason as Nemo, and there are definite joys to be found in the production; it’s beautiful to look at, for one thing, the design of th Nautilus is classic, and the fight with the giant squid is amazing. But it’s also inundated with touches that I don’t like. It makes me a bit queasy to see Kirk Douglas trying to give the character of Ned Land these light, cute comic touches, such as his playing with a seal and singing that godawful “Whale of a Tale” song. Nor do I believe for a moment that a seasoned sailor would be disgusted by seafood meals during the dinner sequence. I also think Peter Lorre is wasted in the role of Conseil. I really think the movie would be much better overall if it took itself more seriously, or made the comic aspects less cute; as it is, the movie spends too much time reminding you it came from Disney.

A TRIP TO THE MOON (1902)
Article #135 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing date: 7-29-2001
Posting date: 12-12-2001

Scientists are shot to the moon from a big gun. There they encounter exploding moon men.

This is perhaps the most famous movie of the very early years of cinema; only THE GREAT TRAIN ROBBERY really gives it any competition in this regard. Certainly it is the best known work of Georges Melies, a stage magician who became enamored by the magical possibilities of film, and then proceeded to make more than five hundred shorts that experimented with visual special effects. If you haven’t seen it, at least you’ve probably seen the most famous moment in stills, where the capsule embeds itself in the eye of the moon (I love the description of this moment in the narrated version of this short, where the rocket is described as “kissing” the eye of the moon).

The movie was never intended to be a realistic depiction of a trip to the moon; it was meant as a witty spectacle, and on that level it succeeds. Unfortunately, Melies never quite mastered cinematic story-telling techniques, so it can be quite difficult to tell what is going on at times. If you can find a narrated version of the short, it will help, even though the narrator has a very thick French accent.

This wasn’t the earliest SF movie, but it may be the earliest one that can be found easily; most of the other early ones involved sausage-making machines. Melies himself had been making movies for four years before he made this one; he would go on making movies for another eight, but he was never really able to surpass this one.

THE THIEF OF BAGDAD (1924)
Article #134 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing date: 7-28-2001
Posting date: 12-11-2001

A thief sneaks into the castle of the caliph and falls in love with her daughter, which causes him to lose his thieving spirit. In order to win her hand, he has to engage in a heroic quest.

This epic Arabian Nights fantasy is a bit long, but it is enormous fun, and one of my favorite movies in this genre. A lot of the credit has to go to Douglas Fairbanks, who gives one of the most gleefully energetic performances I’ve ever seen; you can tell he loved doing this sort of thing (he also cowrote and produced the movie). Raoul Walsh directs with great flare, and the sets by William Cameron Menzies are wonderful. Anna May Wong, Noble Johnson, and Brandon Hurst are all along for the ride. I have to admit I much prefer this to the 1940 Korda version, though I’m sure I can expect disagreement on this point.

THEM! (1954)
Article #133 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing date: 7-27-2001
Posting date: 12-10-2001

Strange attacks in the desert lead to the revelation that nuclear testing has resulted in a race of giant ants.

This is far and away my favorite of the giant bug movies, and it still thrills today. On top of the enjoyable performances (James Whitmore, Edmund “Kris Kringle” Gwenn, James Arness, and in smaller roles, Onslow Stevens, Fess Parker, Olin Howlin; also according to IMDB, William Schallert, Leonard Nimoy and Ann Doran are all in there), it is one of the most suspenseful science fiction movies I’ve ever seen.

What amazes me the most about this movie, though, is the skill with which the first third of the movie (before the appearance of the ants) is handled. Even though I knew the movie was about giant ants from the outset, I still found the step-by-step revelation of them to be totally engrossing; the opening shots of Sandy Descher wandering through the desert in shock are exquisite and unforgettable. There’s always something interesting going on, and I don’t end up sitting there impatiently waiting for the monsters to show up, as I’m apt to do in some other movies from the fifties.

SPOILER

I also admire that the movie had the guts to kill off one of its main characters, and on top of this, the one to which I’d become most attached.

THE TERROR (1963)
Article #132 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing date: 7-26-2001
Posting date: 12-9-2001

A soldier of the Napoleanic wars encounters and falls in love with a strange woman. She somehow seems to be connected with a mysterious baron and a witch.

For some reason, this movie seems to be one of the most commonly discussed of Corman’s many films. Part of the reason is that in its own way it is somewhat legendary; it was made in order for Roger Corman to take advantage of the few extra days he had Boris Karloff under contract. Several directors worked on it, including Francis Ford Coppola and (according to IMDB) Jack Nicholson himself, plus it was being written practically as it was being shot. Other reasons include the presence of Nicholson and Karloff together, with Karloff in the type of role he could probably play in his sleep, and Nicholson in a poorly conceived and quite awful role; the end result is that Karloff comes off looking like the much better actor. The presence of Dick Miller is a definite plus. I’ve seen it a few times, and as a movie, I don’t think it’s very good, but considering how it was made, it’s an accomplishment that it is as good as it is.

I also have to feel a little sorry for Nicholson; of his movies, this one and LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS are in public domain, and marketers love to pair the two movies and call it their Jack Nicholson collection; considering he has little more than a cameo in the latter movie (albeit a great one), and that this movie has one of his poorest performances, I find it a little sad that anyone would think that these two movies give an adequate presentation of this man, his career, and his talent.