L’Epee du spirite (1910)

L’EPEE DU SPIRITE (1910)
aka The Spirit of the Sword
Article 4390 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 12-12-2013
Director unknown
Cast unknown
Country: France
What it is: Trick short

A stranger arrives at an inn and demonstrates the power of his magic sword to those present. When he settles down for the night, a manservant absconds with the sword, but finds it difficult to control…

I didn’t know the French title when this film entered my hunt list, but once I consigned it to my “ones that got away” list, not only was I given the French title, but I discovered that I had it in a collection of Segundo de Chomon shorts I had. I can’t say for sure whether it was directed by Chomon or not, but it is definitely a Melies-inspired compendium of special effects, though Melies would have probably kept all of the action in one room for so slight a plot. The special effects are amusing enough, though I’d imagine that this type of trick short was getting old by this time. In short, this is passably entertaining, if not great.

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Alien Contamination (1980)

ALIEN CONTAMINATION (1980)
aka Contamination
Article 4389 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 12-10-2013
Directed by Luigi Cozzi
Featuring Ian McCulloch, Louise Marleau, Marino Mase
Country: Italy / West Germany
What it is: Alien invasion movie

When a seemingly abandoned ship shows up in New York, it turns out the entire crew was killed by deadly, poisonous green eggs that cause people to explode on contact. It turns out the eggs are extraterrestrial, and there is a plot to infest the world with them…

Here’s another Italian rip-off of a highly successful American movie (in this case, ALIEN), but at least it doesn’t clone the whole movie; it borrows a few elements (alien eggs, an alien creature, and exploding bodies obviously inspired by the chest-buster of the original) and builds a new story out of them. That’s not to say that the story it builds out of them is particularly novel, but then, it’s not the story that is the big selling point of this one; it’s the exploding bodies that are the main attraction, and whenever bodies are not exploding, the movie has all the energy of an empty egg-carton. I don’t know what the Italian dialogue was like, but the dubbed English version is a compendium of dumb cliches on whatever subject comes up in the conversation. It’s probably a good thing that the final monster is kept in the shadows; what you can see of it looks pretty silly. All in all, it’s pretty much for fans of exploding bodies, and I suppose you know who you are.

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2019: After the Fall of New York (1983)

2019: AFTER THE FALL OF NEW YORK (1983)
aka 2019 – Dopo la caduta di New York
Article 4388 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 12-9-2013
Directed by Sergio Martino
Featuring Michael Sopkiw, Valentine Monnier, George Eastman
Country: Italy / France
What it is: Post-apocalyptic action

After the apocalypse, all women have been rendered sterile by radiation. What remains of the American government recruits a loner to infiltrate New York (under the control of an invading foreign power), find the only fertile woman left on the planet, and get her out of there so they can save the human race.

As should be fairly obvious, the movie is one of the many clones of THE ROAD WARRIOR and ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK, with Michael Sopkiw playing a Mad Max/Snake Plissken role. As such, it doesn’t score any big points on originality, and it has its share of problems, with the jittery, hard-to-follow action sequences being one of them. Still, amid the very familiar elements, it does have a few interesting touches. My favorite of these is that the sterility of the human race ends up having a side effect of causing a resentment of dwarfs because of their resemblance to children; the latter have a hidden colony in the sewers of the city. It also shows a certain tenderness and a sense of philosophy on occasion; yes, these touches don’t always work, but given that the rest of the movie is non-stop action, I’m a little surprised they exist. As a result, though the movie is nowhere near as good as its models, it isn’t a total waste of time either, and those with a weak spot for this type of movie will like this one all right.

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Jubilee (1978)

JUBILEE (1978)
Article 4387 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 12-8-2013
Directed by Derek Jarman
Featuring Jenny Runacre, Nell Campbell, Toyah Wilcox
Country: UK
What it is: Postpunk art film

Queen Elizabeth is transported by her astrologer into England 400 years in the future to witness a punkish, post-apocalyptic vision of the future.

This is an art film, and though I don’t object to giving them a try, I must confess that I’m no expert on them. So instead of trying to analyze what the movie is trying to do and how it’s trying to do it, all I can do is try to give a vague sense of whether the movie speaks to me in any way. It was quite a ways into the movie before I began to sense that there was a point to it all, and that was only when the movie showed a few hints of having some sort of a story; up to that point, the movie seemed to me to be a pretentious exercise in stylistic overkill on the theme of nihilistic meaninglessness. It might be more meaningful to someone who was part of the English punk scene in the late seventies, but I wasn’t there, and though I do enjoy some of the music of that era, I have little use for its attitude and fashion statements, and those are the aspects that get most of the attention here. There’s lots of sex, lots of violence, some music, and lots of dialogue that, if you don’t find it utterly fascinating, is more likely to make your eyes glaze over. In the end, I can’t say that I got much out of this one.

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The Three Lives of Thomasina (1964)

THE THREE LIVES OF THOMASINA (1964)
Article 4386 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 12-6-2013
Directed by Don Chaffey
Featuring Patrick McGoohan, Susan Hampshire, Laurence Naismith
Country: UK / USA
What it is: Fantasy drama

When a veterinarian (who lost his wife years ago) is forced to put his own daughter’s cat to sleep, he finds himself losing her love and affection, and must find within himself the strength to love again.

Despite the fact that the cat is the title character in the movie, she’s really more of a plot device than the main character. The main character is that of the veterinarian, who has lost much of his faith, compassion and ability to love due to the loss of his wife during a plague. In that sense, this is a story of redemption, and, being a soft touch for this type of story, it’s no surprise that I got caught up in it and enjoyed the movie tremendously. It helps that the veterinarian is played by Patrick McGoohan, who plays him with a real human complexity, and the movie often features characters making difficult choices. There’s also very good work from Susan Hampshire as a woman believed to be a witch who has the qualities the veterinarian lacks, Laurence Naismith as the reverend who serves as the veterinarian’s conscience, and Karen Dotrice as the inconsolable daughter. As for the movie’s fantastic content, I suppose it may be up for debate; the woman believed to be a witch is actually no such thing, and the possibility that Thomasina was actually dead and came back to life could be seen as ambiguous. However, since the story is told from the cat’s point of view, and there is a scene in which the cat visits the world of the afterlife (for cats), I’d say the fantastic content is substantial enough for inclusion here. I recommend this one, especially to animal lovers.

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Tarzan the Magnificent (1960)

TARZAN THE MAGNIFICENT (1960)
Article 4385 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 12-5-2013
Directed by Robert Day
Featuring Gordon Scott, Jock Mahoney, Betta St. John
Country: USA
What it is: Tarzan movie

Tarzan captures a wanted criminal who killed a friend of his, and vows to have him taken through the jungle to a city where he can collect the reward for his capture and distribute the money to the dead friend’s family. But the criminal’s own family are out to rescue him, and they won’t let anyone stand in their way…

This Tarzan movie has no more fantastic content than the one I saw yesterday, but beyond that, there’s a world of distance between the two movies. Yesterday’s was a lazy, uninspired affair, unconvincingly shot in the studio and loaded with filler. This one focuses in on the story, the action and the characters. Jane and Boy are not in the picture, and after a token antic-free scene early in the movie, Cheta is left in the care of someone else and plays no subsequent role in the movie. This one is shot on location in Africa and it shows it. Gordon Scott is back as Tarzan, and Jock Mahoney (who would eventually take on the role of Tarzan himself) plays the main villain of the piece. Other names in the cast include Lionel Jeffries as a big-talking man who proves a coward when put to the test, and John Carradine as the criminal’s father. It’s well directed by Robert Day, and it manages to keep the suspense fairly high during the proceedings. For the most part, the movie is a chase film of sorts, with Tarzan and company trying to evade pursuit from the criminal’s family; it gets a little tiresome before it’s all over, but the final fight scene is memorable, and it’s such an improvement over the last Tarzan movie I saw that it’s like a breath of fresh air.

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Tarzan’s Fight for Life (1958)

TARZAN’S FIGHT FOR LIFE (1958)
Article 4384 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 12-4-2013
Directed by H. Bruce Humberstone
Featuring Gordon Scott, Eve Brent, Rickie Sorensen
Country: USA
What it is: Tarzan jungle antics

Tarzan gets caught up in a conflict between a benevolent doctor trying to maintain a hospital in the jungle and a witch doctor who sees him as competition.

One of my sources sees fit to include practically every Tarzan movie ever made, even though for the most part, they can only be considered marginal fantasies at best. I’ve covered quite a few of them at this point, and when a series is that long lasting, it becomes difficult to find fresh, new situations for the characters. This one in particular feels tired, and the usual padding that fills up the movies (Tarzan and Jane swimming, Cheta engaged in antics, stock footage, etc.) becomes extremely noticeable. It’s also very studio bound, and when you show the studio jungle right next to authentic location stock footage and scenes culled from other Tarzan movies that were shot on location, the contrast becomes almost embarrassing at times; the scene where Tarzan talks and shares food with some friendly tribesmen is particularly bad in this regard. Gordon Scott makes for a muscular Tarzan, and Woody Strode has great presence as a warrior named Ramo, and they are the best things about this one; the rest is jungle business as usual.

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The Mistletoe Bough (1904)

THE MISTLETOE BOUGH (1904)
Article 4383 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 12-3-2013
Directed by Percy Stow
Cast unknown
Country: UK
What it is: Short tragedy

A bride disappears from her wedding party and hides in a crate. She can not be found by the other members of the wedding party. Then, thirty years later….

This macabre little silent short just recently popped up on the internet, thus allowing me to retrieve it from my “ones that got away” list. The short is not quite complete; it’s missing its final reveal, but given the action that leads up to it, it’s not that difficult to figure out what is seen, and I checked the Willis guide for a quick rundown to help. It’s based on a poem that I haven’t read, so I’m not familiar with the story. As such, the short leaves many unanswered questions for me; why was the woman hiding in the crate? How did it get sealed? Why didn’t anybody bother to open the crate for thirty years? And, perhaps most interestingly, why would someone have a premonition thirty years after it would do anyone any good? The story itself is rather compact, but I did find the short rather slow-moving, especially in the beginning; for me, a long dance sequence is no way to kick off a story. At any rate, I’m glad to have had a chance to cross this one off of my list.

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Sherlock Holmes and the Deadly Necklace (1962)

SHERLOCK HOLMES AND THE DEADLY NECKLACE (1962)
aka Sherlock Holmes und das Halsband des Todes
Article 4382 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 12-2-2013
Directed by Terence Fisher
Featuring Christopher Lee, Thorley Walters, Hans Sohnker
Country: France / Italy / West Germany
What it is: Sherlock Holmes movie

Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson try to prevent the theft of a priceless Cleopatra necklace by Professor Moriarty.

There’s some real points of interest to this movie. It gives us something of an opportunity to see how Christopher Lee would fare in the role of the world’s most famous detective. It also gives us a taste of how Sherlock Holmes would fit it into the world of the krimi. It also gave Terence Fisher another shot at a Sherlock Holmes movie after his take on THE HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES. However, there are some strikes against it. For one thing, it looks like it was very cheaply made. Secondly, the English dubbing was done without the help of the original members of the cast, so we often see very familiar actors with very unfamiliar voices; I did get used to the substitute voice for Lee, but I could never adjust to the voice used for Leon Askin. I actually found the story rather fun in its way; there are plot elements that capture the sense of a Sherlock Holmes story, even if the music seems jarringly out of place. I suspect the movie was intended to be part of a series, as the ending leaves one unresolved conflict, but I suspect the movie didn’t succeed well enough to justify carrying it on. And then, there’s the question of the fantastic content; there is none to be found, and I suspect that this movie was another addition to the Lentz book I’m currently using as my guide that was made without careful consideration. Some people hate this movie, but I found it to be satisfying enough on certain levels.

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Damien: Omen II (1978)

DAMIEN: OMEN II (1978)
Article 4381 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 12-1-2013
Directed by Don Taylor and Mike Hodges
Featuring William Holden, Lee Grant, Jonathan Scott-Taylor
Country: USA
What it is: Antichrist sequel

Damien is now 13 years old. Those who know the truth about him or threaten him die horribly.

To be blunt, I don’t care for this movie. But then, I didn’t really care that much for the original, either, and often for the same reasons; I expect a more profound and subtler evil from the Antichrist than concocting elaborately bizarre ways for people to die. Nor does this movie have the same level of star power as the original, which was for me the best thing about that movie. I also get very tired of this movie’s most common modus operandi, which is to keep introducing new characters whose sole purpose is to somehow be a threat to Damien and thus give targets for those elaborately bizarre ways to die. The most interesting thing about this movie is that it tries to set up a situation in which Damien is supposedly unaware of his true identity or destiny; unfortunately, these scenes are some of the most unconvincing in the movie, and they’re hard to swallow when he spends so much time glowering evilly on those who are fated to die in elaborately bizarre ways. Ultimately, despite the fact that Damien is several years older, this movie really does little else but repeat the previous movie. I’m afraid I simply can’t call myself a fan of this franchise.

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