Les cinq gentlemen maudits (1931)

LES CINQ GENTLEMEN MAUDITS (1931)
Article 3570 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 5-1-2011
Posting Date: 5-24-2011
Directed by Julien Duvivier
Featuring Harry Baur, Rene Lefevre, Rosine Derean
Country: France
What it is: Curse movie

After attempting to remove the veil from a woman, five men are placed under a curse by an Algerian beggar, who lists the order of their deaths. Then they begin to die, one by one…

My copy of this movie is in unsubtitled French, so part of the plot description comes from other sources and a few reviews I read. The basic plot appears to be straightforward enough, and with a little foreknowledge it’s easy to see the significance of a number of the scenes; I was even able to figure out a little what was going on with the plot twists towards the end. Nevertheless, I don’t think it was really the story that works best here; what is really effective are some of Duvivier’s directorial touches and the effective use location footage in Morocco, where the story takes place. The use of music is also quite effective; you really get a sense that you’ve been transported to an alien culture from the very first moments in the movie. The movie doesn’t have a really high reputation, but I liked what I saw; bear in mind, of course, that I couldn’t understand the dialogue, which no doubt makes a difference. I’ve seen Harry Baur before and quite like his work, but despite his getting top billing, it appears that he really has a secondary role here.

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Los Astronautas (1964)

LOS ASTRONAUTAS (1964)
Article 3569 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 4-30-2011
Posting Date: 5-23-2011
Directed by Miguel Zacarias
Featuring Marco Antonio Campos, Gaspar Henaine, Gina Romand
Country: Mexico
What it is: Science fiction comedy

Two women from Venus hook up with two rather silly Earth men. Hilarity ensues.

I’m rather vague on the plot because my copy of the movie is in unsubtitled Spanish, but it’s the type of movie where you suspect the plot is of little importance. The two main characters were a comedians known as Viruta and Capulina, and the movie is mostly a vehicle for their slapstick antics. Along with the Venusian women, they have to contend with angry athletes and ugly Martians, and they get to play with freeze rays and amulets that give super-strength. Much of the humor is visual; most of it is also pretty obvious, even without the verbal setups that comprehension of the language would have given me. There’s not really a whole lot to this one; it just is what it is.

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Engineer Garin’s Hyperboloid (1965)

ENGINEER GARIN’S HYPERBOLOID (1965)
aka Giperboloid inzhenera Garina, The Hyperboloid of Engineer Garin

Article 3568 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 4-29-2011
Posting Date: 5-22-2011
Directed by Aleksandr Gintsburg
Featuring Evgeni Evstigneev, Vsevolod Safonov, Mikhaie Astangov
Country: Soviet Union
What it is: Science fiction thriller

An engineer has developed a ray that can penetrate the earth’s crust and find an unlimited source of gold… and can also be used to destroy his enemies.

You know, there’s nothing quite as disappointing as going into a movie with a word like “hyperboloid” in the title in the hope that the word will describe some clever new science fiction concept, and then to discover it stands for a concept as trite and overused as a death ray. In fact, for part of its running time, it looked like the death ray was going to be just another in a long line of Gizmo Maguffins, in which the whole plot revolves around people getting their hands on it rather than its actual use. To its credit, the movie actually does more with the concept than that; and it’s a lot of fun when the death ray is actually put to use. The movie is light on propaganda, has some nice stylistic touches, and sets its actions in the twenties, when the death ray concept was much more prevalent. On the down side, the movie is more than a little confusing; I was a good ways in before I could sort out the characters, and it may take an additional viewing to sort out the whole plot. Still, this was one movie that I liked better as it went along.

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The Balcony (1963)

THE BALCONY (1963)
Article 3567 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 4-28-2011
Posting Date: 5-21-2011
Directed by Joseph Strick
Featuring Shelley Winters, Peter Falk, Lee Grant
Country: USA
What it is: Strange drama/comedy

During a violent revolution, a brothel that caters to men wishing to role-play their erotic fantasies remains open. When the chief of police shows up as the only surviving authority figure of the revolution, he hatches a plot to restore order by using the costumes and acting skills of the residents and customers of the brothel…

This movie was listed as a fantasy by “The Motion Picture Guide”, hence its inclusion in this series. I’ve noticed that on occasion the book will classify as a fantasy a movie that deals with fantasy and illusion, even if the movie doesn’t strictly fall into the genre, and such is the case here. The movie was based on a play by Jean Genet, and I’m really not surprised that there are political subtexts here; what does surprise me is that the movie was made in the USA, which is perhaps one of the last countries where I’d expect this story to make it to film, though reportedly much of the language from the original play was cleaned up. I’m tempted to call this a “reality vs illusion” movie, but truth to tell, I think the movie is actually saying that there is no reality at all; the people essentially are acting out the roles of their costumes, even to the point that they sometimes believe they actually are in the roles they pretend to be in. Despite the serious subject matter, I found quite a bit of humor in the proceedings, especially during a pompous and ridiculous speech made by Peter Falk’s Chief of Police. The movie also features Leonard Nimoy as a rebel leader who fantasizes about being the Chief of Police, and Jeff Corey, a gasman who wants to be a bishop. I ended up enjoying this movie much more than I thought I would, but I’d suggest anyone trying it to remain patient during the first thirty minutes or so; the plot doesn’t really start moving until Peter Falk shows up. Still, genre-wise, it really doesn’t qualify.

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Rock & Rule (1983)

ROCK & RULE (1983)
Article 3566 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 4-27-2011
Posting Date: 5-20-2011
Directed by Clive A. Smith
Featuring the voices of Paul Le Mat, Susan Roman, Don Francks
Country: Canada
What it is: Animated Rock and Roll fantasy

In a post-apocalyptic world where animals have evolved into human-like forms, a legendary rock performer tries to circumvent his waning popularity by summoning a demon from another dimension at his next concert. To do so, he needs a special voice, which belongs to a female singer in an unknown band. He kidnaps her, but the other members of her band set out to rescue her…

The first animated feature produced entirely in Canada owes a lot more to Bakshi than it does to Disney. Still, it’s not as jagged as some of Bakshi’s work, and overall, the animation is quite good. The story is merely passable, and the movie doesn’t really make much use of either the “evolved animals” or the “post-apocalyptic world”. What it does use, and what is probably its big selling point, is the talents of the rock artists involved; the music is provided by Cheap Trick, Debbie Harry, Lou Reed and Earth, Wind and Fire (Iggy Pop is also in there somewhere). The movie also models its characters off of some of the rock performers; the main rock group in the movie more or less resembles Cheap Trick (with Debbie Harry sharing lead vocals with Robin Zander), with characters clearly modeled off of Bun E. Carlos and Rick Nielsen, the latter being played like a certain Bowery Boy who Nielsen resembles, though it should be pointed out that the rock stars only provide the singing voices and not the talking voices. Lou Reed does the singing voice for the main villain, who looks not so much like Reed as he does a cross between Mick Jagger and the Grinch. Overall, the movie was quite entertaining, if nothing really special.

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L’Esorciccio (1975)

L’ESORCICCIO (1975)
aka The Exorcist: Italian Style

Article 3565 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 4-26-2011
Posting Date: 5-19-2011
Directed by Ciccio Ingrassia
Featuring Ciccio Ingrassia, Lino Banfi, Didi Perego
Country: Italy
What it is: EXORCIST parody

When his son is possessed by an evil spirit as the result of a talisman, the mayor of a small Italian village calls on a local con man posing as an exorcist to exorcise him.

The copy I found of this one was in unsubtitled Italian, so I can’t exactly say I understood all the subtleties of the story; some of the details of the plot description I got from other sources. However, it’s really not that horribly difficult to follow, and it uses visuals to tell things quite a bit. It does confirm one of my suspicions, and that is that I’ve long believed that the team of Franco and Ciccio would have been improved by one simple adjustment – remove Franco. This movie, without Franco but with Ciccio (one of the only two he directed as well) is much easier to put up with. During the course of the story, several people get possessed; the most direct parodies of THE EXORCIST occur when the teenage daughter gets possessed. It seems to get weirder and sillier as it goes along, and it gets a lot of its laughs with the running gag of levitating furniture. Not bad for a movie I couldn’t really understand, and, for my money, it’s also one of the better Italian takes on THE EXORCIST.

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L’Abeille et la rose (1908)

L’ABEILLE ET LA ROSE (1908)
aka The Bee and the Rose

Article 3564 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 4-25-2011
Posting Date: 5-18-2011
Directed by Segundo de Chomon
Cast unknown
Country: France
What it is: Early silent fantasy

A bee wanders away from the hive and is threatened by a spider.

I really should have covered this one when I had my Chomon-a-thon some time back, as it was on my hunt list at that time, but sometimes it takes a while for me to reconcile recent acquisitions with my hunt list, especially when the titles I find are only in foreign languages. There’s really not a lot to this one; the bees are played by ballerinas, and most of the emphasis is on the dancing, and it’s a bit of shame my copy of the movie has no music on it. The spider attack scene is short, and the foe is easily dispensed. It does have some enjoyable special effects, however.

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Pursuit (1972)

PURSUIT (1972)
TV-Movie

Article 3563 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 4-24-2011
Posting Date: 5-17-2011
Directed by Michael Crichton
Featuring Ben Gazzara, E.G. Marshall, William Windom
Country: USA
What it is: Suspense thriller

A government agent is on the trail of an extremist whose recent activities have made him an object of suspicion. The agent discovers that the extremist has managed to acquire information about a military secret weapon, and has also acquired information about the agent’s personality profile, which means the extremist knows he’s being watched and plans to use what he knows about the agent to further his plans.

For the second day in a row I’m watching a movie that features as one of its plot elements an attempted assassination of a president, but the two movies couldn’t be further apart. Whereas yesterday’s movie was a dark and subversive satire with a definite political agenda, this one is more of a conventional thriller and keeps political views out of the mix; in fact, the extremist makes it clear early on that he considers both political parties to be equally evil, and we never learn precisely what policies he objects to. The emphasis here is clearly on the cat-and-mouse game between the agent and the extremist. The most interesting aspect of this one is that the extremist has access to the psychological profile of the agent, and builds his plot around trying to predict what the agent is going to do to prevent it and using it as a tool to further his ends. Though the movie could have gone further with this, it does make for an interesting idea. Some of the plot revolves around a nerve gas which I assume is a science fiction aspect rather than a real entity. Overall, it’s not a bad little thriller and it has a good cast. It was also Michael Crichton’s directorial debut.

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Hail (1973)

HAIL (1973)
aka Hail to the Chief

Article 3562 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 4-23-2011
Posting Date: 5-16-2011
Directed by Fred Levinson
Featuring Dan Resin, Richard B. Shull, Dick O’Neill
Country: USA
What it is: Political satire

The Secretary of Health becomes concerned when his close friend, the President, starts having paranoid delusions and creates a private army to suppress dissenters.

This political satire suffers somewhat from self-aggrandizement (the opening crawl) and heavy-handedness (the Christ-walking-on-water sequence comes to mind). It’s also, thanks to an emphasis on hippies, more than a little dated. It does, however, manage to be one of the darkest of satirical comedies, and the fact that the movie does eventually promote the assassination of the President as a solution, there’s no doubt it was subversive enough that it had to sit on the shelf for a few years before any distributor would touch it. Nevertheless, it does have effective moments and occasionally seems relevant, and the ending is quite memorable. And it does leave one wondering what would happen if the paranoia of being in high office were to spiral out of control. All in all, it’s flawed and one-sided, but interesting, and it’s best to remember that it IS a satire.

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The Formula (1980)

THE FORMULA (1980)
Article 3561 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 4-22-2011
Posting Date: 5-15-2011
Directed by John G. Avildsen
Featuring George C. Scott, Marlon Brando, Marthe Keller
Country: USA / West Germany
What it is: Gizmo Maguffic-style crime thriller

A police detective investigates the murder of a friend, and the investigation leads him to Germany and a secret formula for synthetic fuel. But is he acting as a free agent, or is he a pawn in a game…?

As stated above, the synthetic fuel is a Gizmo Maguffin – that is, a science fiction concept that is rarely used for itself but rather as something to drive the plot of a movie that is really about something else. The cast is impressive and the director was an Oscar winner, but the movie was a flop and doesn’t have much of a reputation. I think the reason may be the very nature of the story; it’s difficult to make movies about business corruption, cartels and finances gripping to the general public, and the movie doesn’t pull it off. There’s also the simple problem that the movie is often rambling and unfocused; all too often the characters will break into “meaningful” conversations that have little to do with the matters at hand. The performances are quite good, though Brando’s combination of eccentricity and slurred speech is a little on the annoying side; you’ll be glad he has only a handful of scenes. The movie got nominated for an Oscar for its cinematography, and for several Razzies. The movie isn’t very good, but it isn’t that bad; it does, however, take quite a bit of patience to appreciate it.

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