On the Comet (1970)

ON THE COMET (1970)
aka Na komete
Article 3910 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 4-18-2012
Posting Date: 4-28-2012
Directed by Karel Zeman
Featuring Emil Horvath, Magda Vasaryova, Frantisek Flipovsky
Country: Czechoslovakia
What it is: Science fiction comedy

A comet passes close to the Earth, and pulls off a section of North Africa with it when it goes. The people living on that section find their personal and political lives changed by the event.

Frankly, the concept of the movie is one of Jules Verne’s more outrageous and hard-to-swallow ideas. Somehow, that doesn’t bother me when the adaptation is in Karel Zeman’s hands; Zeman works in such a non-realistic mode that he’s a natural choice for such a concept. The visual style he uses here is the style of old postcards, and though there were always touches of comedy in his other movies, this is the one that seems most overtly comic; the story takes satirical aim at imperialism and at inflexible mindsets, and some of the antics of the French army in trying to adjust to the change of conditions are hilarious. As usual, it’s half animated and half real-life, with the two styles juxtaposed in his usual fashion. It’s also one of his most streamlined movies; at only 74 minutes, it doesn’t have time for some of the dull spots that occasionally pop up in his movies. My favorite scene involves an encounter with dinosaurs and its aftermath. This one is definitely recommended, especially if you’re a fan of Zeman.

0 CommentsLeave a comment

Little Red Riding Hood and Her Friends (1961)

LITTLE RED RIDING HOOD AND HER FRIENDS (1961)
aka Caperucita y sus tres amigos
Article 3909 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 4-17-2012
Posting Date: 4-27-2012
Directed by Roberto Rodriguez
Featuring Marcia Gracia, Manuel “Loco” Valdez, Santanon
Country: Mexico
What it is: The madness continues

The wolf, now working as a guard for the village, finds himself torn between his animal instincts and his desire to keep true to the pact he has made with the villagers. However, when one of the villagers plots against the wolf, he goes wild and becomes a threat to the village once more. Can Little Red Riding Hood save the day?

The Mexican LITTLE RED RIDING HOOD must have been quite popular; not only did it spawn two sequels, but the wolf and the skunk appeared independently in a non-series movie called THE QUEEN’S SWORDSMAN. Personally, I thought the original was a jarringly bizarre piece of insanity; this sequel is relatively sedate. Which is not to say that this movie doesn’t have some head-scratching moments of strangeness; it isn’t every day you get to see a movie where a skunk delouses a wolf. What surprised me is that it actually took off just where the first movie left off, with the wolf forgiven of his crimes and employed as a guard of the village. Furthermore, the movie actually seems to be story-driven, insomuch as it remains more or less focused on the story of the uneasy relationship between the wolf and the villagers; the original movie wanders all over the place. Granted, you still have to put up with the wolf and the skunk singing, but at least it balances this out with a scene where the wolf and the skunk each accuse each other of being a horrible singer (they’re both right). It could be argued that this is the better movie of these two, but, truth to tell, this one isn’t near as memorable as the first one. On the other hand, I still have the third movie of the series to contend with, called LITTLE RED RIDING HOOD AND THE MONSTERS. Something tells me that one is going to fly off the goofy meter.

0 CommentsLeave a comment

Jack Frost (1965)

JACK FROST (1965)
aka Morozko
Article 3908 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 4-16-2012
Posting Date: 4-26-2012
Directed by Aleksandr Rou
Featuring Aleksandr Khvylya, Natalya Sedykh, Eduard Izotov
Country: Soviet Union
What it is: Fairy tale

A young man meets and falls in love with a young woman, but the path of true love does not run smooth. The young man is given the head of a bear by a mushroom, and must learn humility to return to normal, while the girl is tormented by an evil stepmother and then abandoned in a forest in the middle of winter. Can the two lovers find happiness?

This is one bizarre fairy tale. The plot involves a magic mushroom man, a grandfatherly personification of winter, a witch that lives in a hut with chicken legs, a gang of bandits, a pig that turns into a sled, and ambulatory trees, to start with. It’s all thrown together with a manic energy that leaves your head swimming. The music is equally bizarre, but I can actually say it didn’t annoy me, and I think leaving the lyrics in some of the songs in Russian rather than translating them into English was a good idea. As a result of the movie’s strangeness (and also because the movie was featured on MST3K), the movie is often dismissed in this country as merely bad, but I prefer to not look at it that way. I myself get the feeling that the movie is steeped in fairy tales of another culture; for one thing, I DO recognize the character of Baba Yaga, who I recognized as a common folklore character in certain cultures. In the end, there’s an air of authenticity to this movie that makes it an interesting watch, and I suspect that it relies on archetypes from another culture that can’t be easily translated.

0 CommentsLeave a comment

The Curious Case of the Campus Corpse (1977)

THE CURIOUS CASE OF THE CAMPUS CORPSE (1977)
aka Campus Corpse, The Hazing
Article 3907 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 4-15-2012
Posting Date: 4-25-2012
Directed by Douglas Curtis
Featuring Jeff East, Kelly Moran, Sandra Vacey
Country: USA
What it is: Not what some people would have you believe…

An athlete, going to college on a scholarship, decides to join a fraternity, but as part of his initiation, a terrible accident happens that results in the death of a fellow initiate. The head of the fraternity decides to cover up the incident, and the new initiate finds himself unwillingly caught up in the plot…

First of all, a few facts. My copy of the movie is in a DVD case that shows a close-up of a bloody face of a corpse, and has the phrase “From the producer of FREDDY VS. JASON” at the bottom. The tag line on the poster on the back cover says “What begins in fun suddenly becomes one corpse with thirteen killers… Now it’s their time for terror!” Now, from these two pieces of evidence, I’m under the impression that there was a real attempt to market this movie as a horror film. Well, I don’t want to let the cat out of the bag on this one too much, but I do feel compelled to at least point out that the movie is not a horror movie, and anyone going in expecting one will be sorely disappointed.

Yet, at the same time, I can understand why it was marketed that way; it’s the type of movie that doesn’t want to give itself away. Anyone who wants to find a more accurate genre appraisal of the movie need check no farther than its classification on IMDB. However, despite its attempt to cover up its true intent, that poster does give the game away; it has one little blurb under the title of the movie, and I won’t repeat it here, but I will say that it’s the type of blurb that could have been used for movies like PSYCHO or HOMICIDAL. I saw the blurb before I saw the movie, and it was all I needed to figure out ahead of time things that the movie didn’t want me to know.

So if you’re interested enough by the plot description to see the movie, you may want to do so with as little advance knowledge as possible. Don’t expect a horror movie; go in expecting something along the lines of a crime drama inspired by a true story, and you’ll at least not go in with too many misconceptions. As for the movie itself, I though it was okay… no more, no less, though I might have liked it a little better had I not read that blurb I talked about. And there is at least one moment in the movie which does give it a twinge of horror.

0 CommentsLeave a comment

Philadelphia Experiment II (1993)

PHILADELPHIA EXPERIMENT II (1993)
Article 3906 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 4-14-2012
Posting Date: 4-24-2012
Directed by Stephen Cornwell
Featuring Brad Johnson, Marjean Holden, Gerrit Graham
Country: USA
What it is: Science fiction time travel movie

When an attempt is made to revive and enhance the original Philadelphia Experiment, the lone survivor of the first one is thrust into a parallel reality where the USA lost World War II to Hitler, due to the anomalous appearance of a stealth fighter from the future. Can the hero escape the fascist regime, go back in time, change history, and return in time to give his son the confidence he needs to win his first game in a Little League tournament?

For the second time in a row, I find myself watching a movie that deals with time travel, alternate realities, and paradoxes involving a character’s voyage back into time only to have his father killed before he was born. But instead of the witty and amusing foray into the genre that I KILLED EINSTEIN, GENTLEMEN was, this is a rather predictable, ponderous and rather dull action take on the subject, with an unbelievable plot, too much slo-mo in the action sequences, and weak dialogue. There’s a few touches I like; the people have bar codes tattooed on their arms, and I like the sequence where Gerrit Graham has the music changed on a propaganda film from classical music to country. I found Brad Johnson to be a rather dull action hero; another actor played his role in the original film (which I’ve not seen), and I’m willing to bet the original was better. At any rate, if they had any ideas of extending the whole thing into a franchise, this one killed it off.

0 CommentsLeave a comment

I Killed Einstein, Gentlemen (1970)

I KILLED EINSTEIN, GENTLEMEN (1970)
aka Zabil jsem Einsteina, panove
Article 3905 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 4-13-2012
Posting Date: 4-23-2012
Directed by Oldrich Lipsky
Featuring Jiri Sovak, Jana Brejchova, Lubomir Lipsky
Country: Czechoslovakia
What it is: Science fiction comedy

When a new bomb causes women to grow beards, a desperate government decides to fix the problem by having the inventor of a time machine go back into time and assassinate Albert Einstein, the father of modern physics, thus preventing the development of the bomb. However, meddling with history isn’t always easy, and has its side effects…

What we have here is a variation on the old idea of going back in time and assassinating Hitler before he became a dictator, and the movie does give the original concept some lip service in a rather amusing scene. The movie opens with a scene which looks for all the world like two men kissing, but you’ll quickly find that that’s not what you’re really seeing. However, it is a great way to catch your attention and it drew me into a movie that, at least for the first half, is one of the funniest comedies I’ve seen in a long time; I found myself laughing out loud quite a few times during this part. It loses a bit of steam in the second half, mostly due to the fact that the addition of a resistance group that is trying to prevent the assassination of Einstein complicates the plot enough that you’re distracted from the humor by trying to figure out who everybody is and what is going on. Still, there’s a few clever moments in the second half as well, and the style of direction makes me wonder if Terry Gilliam might have seen this movie. Despite the weaker second half, I still think the movie is a creative and interesting comedy overall, and I highly recommend it .

0 CommentsLeave a comment

You’ll Like My Mother (1972)

YOU’LL LIKE MY MOTHER (1972)
Article 3904 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 4-12-2012
Posting Date: 4-22-2012
Directed by Lamont Johnson
Featuring Patty Duke, Rosemary Murphy, Richard Thomas
Country: USA
What it is: Thriller

A pregnant widow visits the home of her mother-in-law for the first time and gets a frosty reception. She decides to leave, but a blizzard strands her in the house, forcing her to stay. Then she begins to uncover some of the sinister secrets of the household…

I found this to be an enjoyable, tense and effective little thriller. One thing I like is that our heroine uses her brains; as she uncovers the family secrets, she’s smart enough to know that if the others in the household knows that she knows, her life will be in great peril, and she tries her best to keep her knowledge a secret from them. The fact that she’s pregnant ups the ante a little, especially considering that her baby is born while she’s at the house, and both of their lives are at stake. It’s also interesting to see Richard Thomas in a pre-WALTONS role; anyone who is only familiar with his work on that show will be surprised to see the scary psycho he plays here. There’s also a real warmth here; you end up caring about the heroine, and the dim-witted family sister who she befriends. The story itself isn’t particularly original, but it’s handled well and quite effective.

0 CommentsLeave a comment

The Death of Ocean View Park (1979)

THE DEATH OF OCEAN VIEW PARK (1979)
TV-Movie
Article 3903 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 4-11-2012
Posting Date: 4-21-2012
Directed by E.W. Swackhamer
Featuring Mike Connors, Diana Canova, Perry Lang
Country: USA
What it is: Amusement park disaster movie

A woman is having premonitions of a disaster at the amusement park where her husband works. Meanwhile, a former owner of the park believes that there is some real danger at the park because of a recent hurricane, but the new owners don’t take him seriously.

If I have the backstory on this movie correct, the park where this was made was bought by Playboy and was to be torn down. They decided to make the park’s destruction a part of a movie, and the script for this one was chosen. I’m glad I discovered this; I was initially thinking of praising the movie for its excellent special effects, but knowing that the destruction scenes were other than the usual movie magic makes it somewhat less impressive. Some of the plot descriptions I’ve found of this one talk about the accidents at the park being due to some supernatural force, but the movie doesn’t bear that out; in the movie itself, all that is discussed is the juxtaposition of various natural phenomena, whereas from a visual point of view, the culprit seems to be a damaged gas line. Still, the presence of the precognition subplot does add the necessary fantastic content, but overall, the script is trite and predictable. Occasionally, the acting and professionalism go a way towards alleviating the script’s weaknesses, and that helps a little. Overall, the movie is only so-so.

0 CommentsLeave a comment

Carnival of Blood (1970)

CARNIVAL OF BLOOD (1970)
Article 3902 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 4-10-2012
Posting Date: 4-20-2012
Directed by Leonard Kirtman
Featuring Earle Edgerton, Judith Resnick, Martin Barolsky
Country: USA
What it is: Psycho in a carnival

Somebody is knocking off women at Coney Island. A policeman investigates, unaware that his girlfriend may turn out to be one of the victims.

Who is the killer? Is it the fortune-telling woman? The balloon barker? His hunchback assistant named Gimpy? Personally, between this batch of suspects, it’s pretty obvious. This one is pretty bottom of the barrel, with a lousy script, shaky camerawork, less-than-convincing gore effects, and a total inability to milk any suspense out of the material. Still, there are moments when this one gets by on sheer strangeness; there’s the bizarre and unexplained opening credits which have something to do with the talking but silent head of a disembodied woman (if this means anything, I don’t get it), and then there’s one of the weirdest flashback sequences I’ve ever seen near the end of the movie, just to name a couple. Still, for the most part, the movie seems obsessed with showing you just how annoying the victims are; it spends endless time wandering around the carnival with them before they finally get offed, and even that’s no relief, because the movie will just move on to another annoying character. This one does have the novelty of featuring at least one actor who became something of a name; Burt Young plays Gimpy, which is (apparently) his character’s real name.

0 CommentsLeave a comment

The Phantom Baron (1943)

THE PHANTOM BARON (1943)
aka Le baron fantome
Article 3901 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 4-9-2012
Posting Date: 4-19-2012
Directed by Serge de Poligny
Featuring Andre Lefaur, Odette Joyeux, Jany Holt
Country: France
What it is: Gothic romantic drama

When a baron mysteriously disappears with all his worldly belongings, his heirs are left to fend for themselves. Eventually, a romantic entanglement occurs between a woman of the baron’s family, her servant, a dashing soldier, and the son of the old caretaker of the castle.

As you may gather from the above plot description, this isn’t a horror movie, despite the title. But that doesn’t mean it’s devoid of horror atmosphere; the beginning sequence, in which the scared caretaker of the castle narrates the story of the disappearance of the baron and his property is full of eerie touches, especially in a sequence where the sleepwalking baron walks off with a statue. But except for this scene and a later sequence (where we discover the fate of the baron), it’s a romantic drama of sorts. The dialogue was written by Jean Cocteau (who also plays the baron), and there are moments of poetic imagery here, especially in another sleepwalking sequence later on. The story has some odd twists and turns in it, especially in the way it becomes entwined with a fake dauphin (played memorably by Andre Lefaur), but I wouldn’t call it particularly gripping. Still, I think any horror fan would at least enjoy the first ten minutes of the movie.

0 CommentsLeave a comment