VENUS MEETS THE SON OF HERCULES (1962)
(a.k.a. VENUS AGAINST THE SON OF HERCULES /
MARTE, DIO DELLA GUERRA)
Article #1295 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 9-30-2004
Posting Date: 2-27-2005
Directed by Marcello Baldi
Featuring Roger Browne, Jackie Lane, Linda Sini

Tammanus (the son of Jupiter) comes to earth to save a kingdom from an attack by evil foreigners. However, he falls for a mortal woman and gets caught up in the machinations of a schemer to the throne.

This one is just plain weird, and I’m not even sure I can quite put my finger on the reason why. The hero is actually a god in this one, though he becomes sporadically mortal; still, he appears only intemittently in the story. The movie itself jumps back and forth between the cheesy (the dubbing and the dialogue) to the spectacular (the opening battle sequence is actually quite impressive at times) to the arty (the entire dance sequence in the temple of Venus) to just plain surreal (the encounter with Venus and the end of the movie). It has a comic relief character who is actually somewhat amusing; I was even a little scared for him when he almost dies in the final battle. I also has one of the strangest torture sequences I’ve ever seen (involving two spiked walls, a narrow wooden plank, and gallons of burning hot water). It also gives you a chance to see a Greek God prance around in his dark blue underwear. The soundtrack isn’t really awful, but it does seem to belong to a different movie. The climax involves a giant man-eating plant. And it begins and ends with the catchy “Son of Hercules” theme.

By now, you should know whether you want to catch this one or not.

VARAN THE UNBELIEVABLE (1962)
Article #1294 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 9-29-2004
Posting Date: 2-26-2005
Directed by Jerry A. Baerwitz and Ishiro Honda
Featuring Myron Healey, Tsuruko Kobayashi, Clifford Kawada

In experimenting with a method of purifying salt water, the military unwittingly revives and angers a giant monster.

Poor Varan! When it was time for him to make his trip from Japan to the U.S., the powers that be decided that his flying scenes (the only thing that really separates him from Godzilla) don’t make the grade, so they’re lopped from the American release. To compensate for this, they shoot a lot of footage of Myron Healey and friends to fill out the running time. Now I don’t think adding footage to movies like this to make them more accessible to Americans is necessarily a good idea, but at least GODZILLA, KING OF THE MONSTERS did it respectfully, and KING KONG VS. GODZILLA at least made the footage in question a little fun, and both of them managed to still tell a coherent story. This one is a mess, however; not only does the new footage seem totally uninterested in fleshing out the monster footage, it gets caught up in its own dull subplot about Myron Healey trying to deal with his wife’s concern about his reputation. Furthermore, it’s edited with a cuisinart, and when it was released on home video, not only did they not bother to find a decent print, but they recorded it at EP speed. The resultant mishmash of a movie is a dull bore, with the odd scene here and there that makes you wonder what the original was like. Varan himself never really became a hit; except for a token appearance in DESTROY ALL MONSTERS (the costume was in such poor shape that they could only use it for a few seconds), he would never appear in another movie (unless he appears in GODZILLA: FINAL WARS). As it is, this is the worst example of the Americanization of a kaiju I’ve ever seen, though GODZILLA 1985 certainly gives it a run for its money.

VOICE OF THE WHISTLER (1945)
Article #1248 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 8-14-2004
Posting Date: 1-11-2005
Directed by William Castle
Featuring Richard Dix, Lynn Merrick, Rhys Wiliams

When a lonely, dying millionaire passes out in a cab, the cabbie takes care of him and urges him to change his suspicious nature and distrustful ways.

One of the books that I use as a reference to choose movies for this series claims that in this movie, hypnotism is used to cause someone to commit murder. If they thought so, it’s no surprise they included it; however, there’s no hypnotism at work in this movie, though we do have a man who is tempted into a murder by another man’s suggestion. In truth, the only fantastic elements in this movie are the existence of the Whistler, that strange, shadowy character who sees all, knows all and tells all (though in a purely passive sense – in other words, he plays no role other than that of narrator) and a certain horror atmosphere towards the end of the movie. In short, this movie is another false lead.

On its own terms, I found it quite engrossing, though not necessarily in terms of its murder story; If considered merely in that aspect, the movie takes far too long to get going (which is why my plot description doesn’t touch on it at all). No, it’s the human drama and the themes that made it interesting for me; it deals with loneliness and how it is bred by distrust, and how distrust arises from having to cope with fame or riches and consequently not being able to tell a true friend from a false one. It’s handled somewhat simplistically, but I found it engaging nonetheless. In fact, I was even a little disappointed when the movie does turn into a murder story in the latter part of the movie, since it is somewhat at odds with the rest of it. Of course, I can’t say that I’m surprised; if murder weren’t involved, this wouldn’t be a Whistler movie. Still, the murder setup is rather clever, and the ending is quite sad. Ultimately, I must admit I really enjoyed the movie, even if I don’t think it quite works as a whole.

VICE VERSA (1948)
Article #1092 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 3-11-2004
Posting Date: 8-8-2004
Directed by Peter Ustinov
Featuring Roger Livesey, Kay Walsh, Petula Clark

A boy and his father wish upon the eye of an idol from the temple of the laughing hyena and end up switching bodies.

Switcheroo comedies are really not all that common, so it’s actually pretty strange that I would run into two in a row, as this one follows right on the heels of TURNABOUT, but that’s the way things fall out. This is a British take on the concept which takes place at the turn of the century; the credits are presented in the form of a slide show of old placards that is quite amusing. In its way it’s as wild as TURNABOUT, though it’s more in that British absurdist mode where the world itself seems to have gone mad; it’s quite surreal at times and occasionally reminiscent of Monty Python. Roger Livesey and a very young Anthony Newley play the father and son, and a young Petula Clark also appears as the daughter of the cruel headmaster. I found it all very amusing, but you do need to be a fan of British comedy of this sort.

VOYAGE TO THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA (1961)
Article #1075 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 2-23-2004
Posting Date: 7-22-2004
Directed by Irwin Allen
Featuring Walter Pidgeon, Joan Fontaine, Barbara Eden

When the Van Allen Belt bursts into flames, an intrepid Admiral determines that the only way to save the world is to shoot a nuclear missile at it from his submarine.

Irwin Allen is pretty strong on the eye candy; it’s fun to see the submarine tooling around in the ocean and to observe all the gadgetry aboard. He also knows how to keep the action going, especially towards the end when we have several crises occurring at once. I just wish he would make certain concessions to reality. The central crisis is patently ridiculous; the Van Allen Belt is a radioactive belt that follows the magnetic field of the earth outside of its atmosphere; not only is it incapable of bursting into flames, but there’s no oxygen to sustain it if it does. We also have the submarine threatened by sinking chunks of ice (and what does ice do in water?). Another problem is that the characters are so poorly developed that they never seem like real people; some of them have only enough character to make them useful at certain plot points (Joan Fontaine, Michael Ansara); others have the equivalent of no character at all (Peter Lorre in particular is wasted). Also, the movie never varies its level of tension; the ending of the movie should be a lot more exciting than any other part of the movie, but it feels just like every other scene. So the end result is that I never really believe that the world really is in danger and I just don’t feel the necessary suspense. And I’m also afraid that this is another movie that shouldn’t have a romantic theme song, even if Frankie Avalon is in the cast.

THE VIRGIN SPRING (1960)
(a.k.a. JUNGFRUKALLAN)
Article #1074 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 2-22-2004
Posting Date: 7-21-2004
Directed by Ingmar Bergman
Featuring Max von Sydow, Birgitta Valberg, Gunnel Lindblom

A farmer discovers that vagrants who have turned up at his farm are the men who raped and murdered his daughter.

The basic story from this movie was borrowed by Wes Craven for his notorious horror film THE LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT, which to date I have not seen. That movie is usually considered without question to be a horror movie, while this one is never considered one; its inclusion here is due to the final moment of the movie (which inspires its title), and the hint at one point that the events that play out were the result of a prayer to Odin. What marks the difference between a movie being a horror movie and one being a drama is the reason the story is being told. In horror movies, the story exists as an excuse for the violence, whereas in a movie like this, the violence is essential to telling the story. In other words, it is not the violent revenge exacted here that is the point of the story; it is how the events effect everyone and alter their lives. This movie is intensely moving, and Max von Sydow’s silent reaction at one point of the proceedings when he realizes what he’s done is simply one of the finest single moments of acting I have ever seen. This is a sad and powerful movie indeed.

VERTIGO (1958)
Article #797 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 5-20-2003
Posting Date: 10-17-2003
Directed by Alfred Hitchcock
Featuring James Stewart, Kim Novak, Barbara bel Geddes

An ex-detective suffering from acrophobia is asked by a friend to tail his wife, who he believes may be possessed by the spirit of a woman who committed suicide.

Title check: Since the title refers both to the detective’s illness as well as to the somewhat giddy and queasy nature of the story, I would say the title is very apt.

I saw this movie for the first time years ago after endlessly hearing how great it was, and I was less than thrilled. Now, watching it many years later with more realistic expectations (and even more significantly, a greater sense of just what the movie is about), I can see it and enjoy it for what it is. Hitchcock’s direction is, as always, exquisite; I like in particular how he can use background noises and visuals to highlight and intensify the characters actions and emotions, and Bernard Herrman’s score is equally up to the task. It could be argued that this really doesn’t belong to the realm of fantastic cinema, since the possession angle turns out to have a more mundane explanation, but it plays such a powerful role in the first half of the movie that I for one have no desire to object to the movie’s inclusion on these grounds. Kudos to the whole cast, though I was especially impressed with both Stewart and Barbara Bel Geddes as his long-suffering girlfriend, who vanishes from the story much too early.

THE VAMPIRE (1957)
Article #706 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing date: 2-19-2003
Posting date: 7-19-2003
Directed by Paul Landres
Featuring John Beal, Coleen Grey, Kenneth Tobey

A doctor accidentally takes some pills that turn him into a vampiric predator.

Personally, I don’t particularly find the concept of taking a traditional monster and trying to turn him into a science fiction monster to be necessarily interesting, so I didn’t really go into this movie expecting much. However, I ended up really liking this movie; I think it’s very effective, largely because it fleshes out and differentiates the various interesting characters, and the whole thing is quite well acted. In particular, John Beal (in the title role) really projects a sense of the horror of his situation and his desire not to hurt the ones he loves. This compensates a lot for the fact that the monster make-up is pretty lame; fortunately, you really don’t see much of it. The movie doesn’t have much of a reputation; it’s sitting with a 4.1 rating on IMDB, but I thoroughly enjoyed it.

VOODOO WOMAN (1957)
Article #669 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 1-13-2003
Posting Date: 6-12-2003

A mad scientist tampers with voodoo in order to create an invincible monster.

It’s serious lapse-of-taste time on my part, folks; I actually like this silly voodoo movie, despite the ridiculous story and the fact that it’s sitting on IMDB with a 2.7 rating (at this point). It may be nothing more than the fact that there were enough fun characters and energy to keep my attention throughout; maybe it was because the print I was watching was very good in comparison with the murky print of the serial episode I watched with it. Whatever the case, I found it plain dumb fun, and far less boring than some of the other voodoo flicks I’ve seen. Maybe I should also credit Edward L. Cahn, a director who on occasion reminds me sometimes of the philosopher’s stone (the legendary element that was able to transform lead into gold). And though I would hardly say that this story was transformed into gold, I will go so far as to say it was transformed into more interesting lead.

THE VAMPIRE’S COFFIN (1957)
Article #668 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 1-12-2003
Posting Date: 6-11-2003

A doctor and his suspicious assistant steal the coffin and body of a vampire in order to run tests, and end up resurrecting the vampire.

Ahh, some good old-fashioned Mexican monster scares! This is a sequel to THE VAMPIRE (a Mexican movie not to be confused with an American movie of the same title made the same year), and like that movie, it features two of my favorite Mexican horror actors; Abel Salazar (who played Baron Vitalia in THE BRAINIAC) and German Robles (who played the title role in the Nostradamus movies). At least, they’re my favorites inasmuch as I can say, since I’ve only heard their work via dubbed movies; nonetheless, they are comfortable horror presences and seem to be decent actors. Salazar’s character seems to have a comic streak here; granted, the dubbed dialogue is amusing anyway, but there’s something in his body language and reactions that tells me the character was comic on purpose. It’s all pretty silly, and I find it a little irresistible. It also includes a scene where a person running from the vampire chooses to hide in the absolutely worst place imaginable; I would say more, but that would ruin the fun.