World of Horror (1968)

WORLD OF HORROR (1968)
aka Swiat Grozy
Article 3780 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 11-8-2011
Posting Date: 12-20-2011
Directed by Witold Leseiwicz, Czeslaw Petelski, Ewa Petelska
Country: Poland
What it is: Anthology

Three tales from the world of horror are told. They are “Lord Arthur Savile’s Crime”, “A Terribly Strange Bed”, and “The Canterville Ghost”.

Adventures in Moviehunting: When this movie first entered my list via the John Stanley book, there was no accompanying entry on IMDB, usually a sign that the likelihood of me ever seeing it is slight. However, I periodically go through my hunt lists and double check movies like this to see if any new information has been added. When I encountered this title during one of those checks, I decided to check the title against CITWF, which often has entries for films not listed on IMDB. Sure enough, I found it listed, with the alternate Polish title of SWIAT GROZY. Though I still couldn’t find this title on IMDB, I made a check of one of the directors’ names, and I noticed that there was TV short entitled DUCH Z CANTERVILLE from the same year. Knowing I was on too something, I did manage to locate all three shorts on IMDB. A check on one of my sources quickly revealed that all three were available, and so here I am with my review.

Technically, I’m bending the rules a little not watching the version that was edited together, but it’s not the first time I’ve done it, and research reveals that probably no more was done than to change the credits sequences. Furthermore, I was fortunate that two of the shorts did come with English subtitles; only LORD ARTHUR SAVILE’S CRIME left me high and dry, as I don’t remember having read the original story (or the original stories for the other two either). Still, even with that problem, all three were very entertaining; I’ve long held that even if you don’t understand the language, you can sometimes recognize good acting and superior production, and this one has both. I suspect the first story has to do with the murder of an old lady and its potential for discovery by a palm reader. I’m not going to say much about A TERRIBLY STRANGE BED other than that if it’s true to the original story, William Castle was probably familiar with it. As for the final story, it was in many ways very different from the Charles Laughton movie version, and I suspect this one is probably closer to the original source; it just feels more like the work of Oscar Wilde. This one is very amusing, as it deals with an ancient ghost’s frustrations at trying to scare off some stubborn Americans who not only don’t believe in him, but aren’t scared of him when they encounter him. All in all, this one was quite enjoyable.

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Hoffmanns Erzahlungen (1916)

HOFFMANNS ERZAHLUNGEN (1916)
aka Tales of Hoffmann
Article 3779 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 12-7-2011
Posting Date: 12-19-2011
Directed by Richard Oswald
Featuring Kurt Wolowsky, Max Ruhbeck, Paula Ronay
Country: Germany
What it is: Opera anthology

A young man dreams three stories based on experiences in his life.

I’ve seen the Powell/Pressburger version of this movie, which recounts the same three stories as this one does, though the ones here are far less elaborate. All the stories are about lost loves, with the first one in which our hero falls in love with an automaton being the one with the most clear fantastic content. The second story had clear fantastic content in the later version (which involved a magician and a man’s soul being kept in a mirror reflection), but those elements seem to be missing in this one, though that may simply be because, with no English title cards in this version, I may have missed those elements. The third story is about a woman who dances herself to death; in the later version, it is singing that causes the woman to die. I don’t know which way the original opera went on this one, but dancing is certainly a more visually compelling choice for a silent movie. All in all, I thought this early version was quite well done; despite the fact that the title cards are in German, I didn’t have a whole lot of trouble following it because, on top of having at least some familiarity with the language, the movie does work a lot in visual turns. I particularly liked seeing the ways the events in the young man’s life dovetailed with stories in his dreams.

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The Bespoke Overcoat (1956)

THE BESPOKE OVERCOAT (1956)
Short
Article 3778 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 12-6-2011
Posting Date: 12-18-2011
Directed by Jack Clayton
Featuring David Kossoff, Alfie Bass, Alan Tivern
Country: UK
What it is: Ghost story

An elderly clerk, unable to afford a sheepskin coat from the factory where he works, commissions a tailor to make him a new coat. Unfortunately, the clerk is sacked and dies before the coat is completed. The tailor is then visited by the ghost of the clerk, who wants one last favor from him – to help him steal a sheepskin coat from his former employer.

This short, by the director who would later helm THE INNOCENTS and SOMETHING WICKED THIS WAY COMES, was based on a story by Nikolai Gogol. Given the subject matter, I was expecting a twist ending of sorts, but that’s not the way this one works; it’s more of a character piece, and both David Kossoff and Alfie Bass give excellent and memorable performances as the tailor and the clerk. Actually, it reminded me a bit of THE BICYCLE THIEF, in the way that it shows us some characters for whom an ordinary item (that you or I might take for granted) becomes the center of their existence. The short is moving and beautifully photographed. My favorite moment has the ghost deciding to not try walking through a wall because he would feel rather silly.

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La poupee (1962)

LA POUPEE (1962)
aka The Doll
Article 3777 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 12-5-2011
Posting Date: 12-17-2011
Directed by Jacques Baratier
Featuring Zbigniew Cybulski, Sonne Teal, Claudio Gora
Country: Italy / France
What it is: Political satire

In a mythical South American country, a dictator is impersonated by a look-alike revolutionary while a robot/cyborg version of the dictator’s wife stirs up revolution.

Like yesterday’s movie, here’s another title that ended up on my “ones that got away” list, only to finally make its way into my hands so I could see it. And, like yesterday’s movie, there are no English titles, so I am limited in my ability to understand and discuss the movie. However, whereas yesterday’s movie left me feeling that I wouldn’t particularly be impressed even if it were in English, this one really has me yearning to know what’s going on. It’s obviously a satire, and there’s a surreal air to the proceedings, and it has a real sense of style. I’m not sure exactly how to describe the the doppelganger of the dictator’s wife; I’ve heard it described as either a robot or a cyborg, but it’s hard to make out which based on a purely visual take on the movie. One of the most interesting comparisons between yesterday’s movie and this one is this; whereas I went through most of yesterday’s movie feeling that Asta Nielsen looked like a female impersonator, I discovered that the person who plays the wife and the cyborg in this one was indeed a female impersonator… and I would have never guessed. Sometimes, this project gets very strange.

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Erdgeist (1923)

ERDGEIST (1923)
aka Earth Spirit
Article 3776 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 12-4-2011
Posting Date: 12-16-2011
Directed by Leopold Jessner
Featuring Asta Nielsen, Albert Bassermann, Carl Ebert
Country: Germany
What it is: Drama

A woman named Lulu destroys the lives of all the men she meets.

This title sat on my hunt list so long that it eventually got shuttled off to my “ones that got away” list; however, I finally did manage to get a hold of a copy. And, as is often the case where I do find a movie after this long a wait, the copy I found didn’t have English title cards; the ones on this are in Russian, so I couldn’t even pretend that I was able to read them. To help me a little, I checked a few of my resources, and discovered that the movie was largely based on the same stories that resulted in PANDORA’S BOX, and that the fantastic content was that it featured the character of Jack the Ripper. If it does, then I wasn’t able to pick him out from the rest of the characters, so this title may be a false alarm. The movie itself mostly shows people going through emotional turmoil against black backgrounds while actress Asta Nielsen wears strange costumes, including one that makes her look like some sort of bizarre black angel. To be truthful, this got old very quick, and, despite the fact that the movie has a fairly strong rating on IMDB (7.2), I found myself fairly bored by the whole thing. Maybe it would have helped if I had been able to understand the title cards. One thing that did occur to me is how much tastes change over the years. Asta Nielsen was reportedly one of the most popular and beautiful actresses of the silent screen, and no doubt she was; however, every time the camera got close enough to her that I could get a good look at her, she looked for all the world like a female impersonator to me.

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Pigs (1972)

PIGS (1972)
aka Daddy’s Deadly Darling
Article 3775 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 12-3-2011
Posting Date: 12-15-2011
Directed by Marc Lawrence
Featuring Toni Lawrence, Mark Lawrence, Jesse Vint
Country: USA
What it is: Psychos and hungry animals

A disturbed young woman (who killed her father after he raped her) escapes from an asylum and takes refuge in the cafe of a small town. The owner of the cafe has a secret; his pigs have become addicted to human flesh, and he has to keep them supplied with food. Can this end well?

Hey, this movie has something in common with the last four movies I’ve seen. Like NIGHT OF THE GHOUL, it has a scene where a woman keeps hunting for someone who is calling out “Help me! Help me!” (though I do need to point out that in the earlier movie, the scene had a purpose; here it’s a head-scratching question mark). Like GIRLY, it gives us multiple psychos in the same household. And like C.H.O.M.P.S, it’s an animal story, and come to think of it, C.H.O.M.P.S would be a good name for this one as well, given that it’s partially about the the dining habits of the pigs. Here’s one of the taglines for this movie – “If you go down to the woods today… you’re in for a PIG surprise!” This may be one of the silliest taglines I’ve encountered, and the movie lives up to it, what with its bizarre confusion between human bodies being eaten by pigs and human beings being turned into pigs (I think someone was taking the phrase “You are what you eat.” too literally), it’s freaky snatches of conversation (such as the sheriff who points out that “Dead people have no rights!”), and some of the most twitchily bent and hilarious conversations I’ve ever encountered. I actually remember seeing an ad for this on TV once many years ago, and then I never heard of it again until now; I don’t think it ever played in a theater anywhere near me. And, with it’s weird, deja vu-ish jump cuts that make you feel like you’re unstuck in time, this certainly must rank as one of the worst-edited films ever made. It’s awful, but hilariously so, and that’s saying something.

Oh, and I forgot to comment on what it had in common with THE GIANT OF METROPOLIS – it takes place in some super-scientific community. At least, that’s the only way I can explain why the motor vehicles in this movie have a tendency to start driving away before you hear the motor start. Or maybe that’s just more editing problems…

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C.H.O.M.P.S. (1979)

C.H.O.M.P.S. (1979)
Article 3774 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 12-2-2011
Posting Date: 12-14-2011
Directed by Don Chaffey
Featuring Wesley Eure, Valerie Bertinelli, Conrad Bain
Country: USA
What it is: Faux shopping cart movie

A young inventor tries to win his job back at a security agency by creating the ultimate burglary prevention device – a robotic dog. However, there’s an industrial spy at the agency who wants the dog and the plans for a competitor…

So this is what happens when American International and Hanna-Barbera productions join forces – an imitation of a Disney shopping cart movie, with some familiar names in the cast (Valerie Bertinelli, Jim Backus, Conrad Bain, and Chuck McCann and Red Buttons as a pair of incompetent burglars) and the kind of plot you’d expect, but lacking the special effects expertise of its model. No, it’s not very good, but it’s not significantly worse than Disney’s own comedies from the period, and it’s harmless enough. Technically, since C.H.O.M.P.S stands for Canine Home Protection System, the title should be C.HOM.P.S, but that’s nit-picking; in truth, the most annoying things about the movie are the presence of an unnecessary and uncredited voice-over on a big dog named Monster who throws in some gratuitous light cussing, no doubt to avoid the dreaded G rating, and a repetitive melody that shows up whenever the robot dog springs into action. I’m not sure just how cost-effective this robot dog would be; given its propensity for leaping through doors, windows, walls when its in action, you’d think the damage it would do would end up outweighing its benefits.

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Girly (1970)

GIRLY (1970)
aka Mumsy, Nanny, Sonny & Girly
Article 3773 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 12-1-2011
Posting Date: 12-13-2011
Directed by Freddie Francis
Featuring Michael Bryant, Ursula Howells, Pat Heywood
Country: UK
What it is: Black comedy

A family of psychos lure strangers into their home, where they play twisted games with them, and then murder them when they get bored with their new playmates. One man who has been drawn in, realizing his precarious situation, decides not to try escaping but sees if he can play the various members of the family against each other. Will he be able to succeed before they decide to send him to the angels?

I don’t know if this is Freddie Francis’s best movie, but I will say that it is his most interesting. It’s somewhat reminiscent of SPIDER BABY in that it mines the same vein of queasy sleaziness. The movie is definitely rather unpleasant at times, but it becomes fascinating to watch how the various members of the family deal with having the tables being turned on them in various ways. You end up being really curious as to whether the “new friend” will outwit them; even when he’s making progress, you can tell he’s rather appalled at the degree of psychotic sickness in the family. Despite the fact that there’s virtually no explicit gore in the movie, this is definitely not for the faint of heart. And if anybody asks you about someone named Tony Chestnut, make sure to be on your guard.

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The Giant of Metropolis (1961)

THE GIANT OF METROPOLIS (1961)
aka Il gigante di Metropolis
Article 3772 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 11-30-2011
Posting Date: 12-12-2011
Directed by Umberto Scarpelli
Featuring Gordon Mitchell, Bella Cortez, Roldano Lupi
Country: Italy
What it is: Sci-fi sword and sandal

Muscular hero Obro comes to the city of Metropolis in Atlantis to defeat an evil king who is dabbling in science that is not meant for man.

I’m surprised it took me so long to get to this particular sword-and-sandal title; it’s perhaps the one that can most easily be classified as science fiction as well, given that it takes place in the super-scientific town of Metropolis. And, to its credit, the offbeat setting seems to inspire a plot that doesn’t blindly follow the well-worn tracks of most movies of its ilk; there are some unusual plot developments here. However, that’s not an unmixed blessing. One problem is that it’s a movie with a message, which is that nature shall take vengeance on those that try to subvert it through science; the movie is so self-consciously aware of its theme that it gets very preachy at times. As a result, it’s one of the duller, talkier sword and sandal movies out there. You’d also think that this super-scientific city would come up with something in the way of useful projectile weapons; instead, we have standard-issue clubs, weapons that seem to be nothing more than glorified pointed sticks with thyroid problems, and faux lobster claws. I also can’t help but notice that, despite the science, they still practice astrology, like to spend a lot of time hanging around caves, and still have an addiction to liturgical dance; the scene involving the latter convinces me that the choreographers of Metropolis work overtime while their composers are asleep at the wheel. Overall, I’m very disappointed with this one; I’d like to like it, but it’s way too talky and preachy to be much fun. And the scene where the hero has a battle with a ray of light may be one of the most embarrassing moments in the whole genre.

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Night of the Ghoul (1975)

NIGHT OF THE GHOUL (1975)
aka The Ghoul
Article 3771 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 11-29-2011
Posting Date: 12-11-2011
Directed by Freddie Francis
Featuring Peter Cushing, John Hurt, Alexandra Bastedo
Country: UK
What it is: House with a dark secret

A flapper gets involved in a road race that leaves her stranded at a mansion located in a marsh. What she doesn’t know is that the mansion holds a dreadful secret…and it may cost her her life.

There’s a scene in this film where the woman looks at a photograph of a woman who is supposed to be the dead wife of Peter Cushing’s character. According to the trivia section on IMDB, that photograph was of Peter Cushing’s real wife, who had died shortly before filming began. If nothing else, this explains why there’s something terribly moving about Cushing’s performance in this movie; the grief is very real indeed. I only wish it had been in a better movie. Plotwise, this is pretty standard fare; it’s of the “madman in the attic” variety, and there’s not much here that hasn’t been done before. It does, however, have a strong level of unpleasantness, at least partially due to John Hurt’s performance as a truly repulsive character. The biggest disappointment comes at the end of the movie; if you’re going to try to ratchet up the suspense value of not showing a character’s face throughout most of the movie, than you’d better be able to provide a good jolt when you do show it, and the revelation is truly anticlimactic.

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