The Night of the Strangler (1972)

THE NIGHT OF THE STRANGLER (1972)
Article 3520 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 3-10-2011
Posting Date: 4-4-2011
Directed by Jay N. Houck Jr.
Featuring Micky Dolenz, James Ralston, Michael Anthony
Country: USA
What it is: Offbeat crime drama

A woman announces to her two brothers, one of whom is racist, that she intends to marry a black man. Shortly after that, the woman’s prospective suitor is murdered. The woman is also killed shortly afterwards, and the killer makes it look like a suicide. A year later, more murders start taking place, all of them tied to the two remaining brothers. Who is the killer and what is his motivation?

The John Stanley guide describes the plot of this one as involving women dreaming they’re being attacked by a strangler, only to wake up and find themselves actually being attacked by a strangler. He’s either been misinformed or has it confused with another movie. In truth, this really isn’t a horror movie, though the deceptive title certainly doesn’t alleviate that confusion. It’s more of a crime drama/mystery, and actually not a bad one; I was genuinely curious as to who the murderer was and what his motivation would be. I was also curious as to whether the police would figure things out, which is something you won’t know until the last moment. Some plot points are made fairly clear and are handled quite cleverly; for instance, I like the way the movie establishes that the man and the woman at the beginning of the movie are killed by different people. The movie did keep me guessing till the end, especially as far as the motives for the murders. For those who want a couple of slight hints to help them figure it out, here they are. First, take note of the fact that in all of the investigations of the murders, the first murder is never addressed after it occurs. And secondly, you’ll notice that they avoid showing the face of the primary murderer, but there’s another character whose face is not shown.

Incidentally, I thought the presence of Micky Dolenz, former Monkee, in the cast would prove to be gimmick casting, but, truth to tell, he does quite a decent job as the younger brother. The fantastic content is provided by some of the bizarre murder methods.

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The Night God Screamed (1971)

THE NIGHT GOD SCREAMED (1971)
Article 3519 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 3-10-2011
Posting Date: 4-3-2011
Directed by Lee Madden
Featuring Jeanne Crain, Alex Nicol, Dan Spelling
Country: USA
What it is: Not quite what you’d expect

When her preacher husband is robbed and crucified by a bizarre cult of Jesus freaks, a woman fingers three of the killers, who are tried and sentenced to death. The fourth killer was unidentified because he was wearing a hood. A year later, she returns to the area where the crime was committed to look after the teenage children of the judge, who is leaving town with his wife for the weekend. But have the cultists forgotten the woman who identified their leader…?

You know, there is something to be said about a movie that you can’t quite second guess. In some ways, the movie is a very familiar type of horror movie, but it gets away with it because it seems like a different familiar type of horror movie. There is a certain novelty value to the fact that cultists are not Satanists, as one of my sources misinformed me; they’re actually a Christian cult that considers all other practitioners to be phonies. The script is very clumsy around the edges, and characters frequently act with utter stupidity, but there’s even an explanation for that. It all ends with a double twist; I was half-right about the first twist, but once I realized I was halfway wrong, I immediately figured what the second twist was going to be. I’m not sure how I feel about the twists; part of me feels they were stupid, but another part admires the way they changed my interpretations of the earlier scenes. In fact, I’m not quite sure how I feel about the whole film; it doesn’t quite work and it doesn’t quite fail. I will say this however; this is easily the best movie of the last five or so that I’ve seen.

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Modesty Blaise (1968)

MODESTY BLAISE (1968)
Article 3518 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 3-9-2011
Posting Date: 4-2-2011
Directed by Joseph Losey
Featuring Monica Vitti, Terence Stamp, Dirk Bogarde
Country: UK
What it is: Swinging sixties superspy/supervillain movie

British Intelligence hires a female secret agent to prevent the theft of a large shipment of diamonds. However, neither side trusts the other, and the female secret agent may want the diamonds for herself…

I’ve encountered Joseph Losey enough in this series to have considered him a rather odd choice to helm this variation on the superspy/supervillain trend so popular during the sixties. Upon having seen the movie now, I’ll extend that to saying that he was definitely the wrong choice for this type of movie. Though I’m a little impressed with the cast, the movie seems distracted, arty, and self-indulgent; there are times where it seems to be trying for humor and only succeeds in making me wonder what he was trying to do. Having the lead characters break into a badly-warbled romantic song while they’re being shot at doesn’t make sense on any level. It occasionally shows some flashes of wit, mostly thanks to Harry Andrews, whose clearly-delineated spy character is the only one who is consistently funny. Most surprisingly, the action sequences are singularly lame, which seems almost unforgivable in this type of movie. From what I read, the movie bombed at the box office, playing to nearly empty houses, but a novelization of the original version of the screenplay (not the one used) sold so well that it spawned a whole series of sequels.

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The Mighty Jungle (1964)

THE MIGHTY JUNGLE (1964)
Article 3517 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 3-7-2011
Posting Date: 4-1-2011
Directed by Arnold Belgard, David DaLie and Ismael Rodriguez
Featuring Marshall Thompson, David DaLie and Antonio Gutierrez
Country: USA / Mexico
What it is: Don’t ask

Two explorers go on safaris, one in Africa, the other in South America.

They’ve done it! They’ve finally gone and done it! They’ve crossed a Double-Stuffed Safari-O with…. another Double-Stuffed Safari-O and created a… Quadruple-Stuffed Double Safari-O! This is known as inbreeding, and it produces monsters! Furthermore, it borrows the same technique of storytelling used by THE CREEPING TERROR and THE BEAST OF YUCCA FLATS, and you know what that means – Narration, and plenty of it. There’s a modicum of plot about a search for a missing party, but don’t think it leads anywhere and don’t count on a resolution. If there’s any fantastic content, it’s in the hallucination the one explorer undergoes after he imbibes some peyote-like substances and imagines himself among ancient peoples performing human sacrifices. One safari goes smoothly and uneventfully; the other one goes wrong spectacularly, which is not to say that it ever approaches being spectacular. So let’s rename this movie GOOFUS AND GALLANT ON SAFARI and be done with it, and let’s add this one to that ever growing list of unbelievably bad jungle movies, a genre that seems to have had more than its share of stinkers.

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The Meateater (1979)

THE MEATEATER (1979)
Article 3516 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 3-6-2011
Posting Date: 3-31-2011
Directed by Derek Savage
Featuring Arch Joboulian, Dianne Davis, Peter Spitzer
Country: USA
What it is: Regional horror film

A disgruntled shoe salesman buys a movie theater in a small town in the hope of making a living on it. However, there’s a secret resident in the theater – a badly burned former employee who eats rats and kills intruders.

This zero-budget regional horror has title theme music that sounds like a cross between “The Funeral March of the Marionettes” and the theme from “The Addams Family”, and this just made me wonder if the movie was intended as a comedy. In truth, it’s a little hard to tell. It’s never made clear, but the psycho may also be a cannibal. That might explain the movie’s obsession with food; it seems that a good seventy-five percent of the movie is obsessed with food, with cops chowing down while investigating murders, lots of scenes at the concession stand, talk about Jimmy Dean sausages and a family sing-along of the Oscar Mayer Wiener jingle. Not to mention that the movie they’re watching (GRIZZLY SAFARI, which is described on the marquee as “wholesome” and is supposed to be G-rated as the new owner promises the real estate agent) is mostly about animals killing and eating each other. The killer has an obsession with Jean Harlow; he runs silent films of the star during the theater’s off hours, and if you notice that the theater owner’s teenage daughter has a resemblance to Harlow, you’ll guess at least one plot development along the way. It’s certainly hard to take a movie seriously when one of the names of the characters is Lieutenant Wombat. The movie is bad, but weirdly engaging nonetheless, if for no other reason that the moments of weirdness make it a little hard to get one’s mind around it.

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Mark of the Witch (1970)

MARK OF THE WITCH (1970)
Article 3515 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 3-5-2011
Posting Date: 3-30-2011
Directed by Tom Moore
Featuring Robert Elston, Anitra Walsh, Darryl Wells
Country: USA
What it is: Resurrected witch tale

A group of students studying superstitious rites performs a ritual to resurrect a witch; though it appears not to have worked, one of them has in fact been possessed by a witch. The witch intends to revitalize her coven and take vengeance on the descendant of the man who betrayed her.

For about the first twenty minutes, the movie is little more than a predictable set of cliches, including the pre-credits sequence where the witch, just prior to being hanged, places a curse on her betrayer. It’s not until the witch is resurrected that the movie starts showing a bit of imagination by incorporating some interesting details in the story; I particularly like the fact that the witch doesn’t come into the present with the knowledge of how the modern world works. The movie also works itself up to an interesting and slightly different ending. It does have moments of silliness, but that’s no real surprise; the movie’s biggest problem is that its pace is just too leisurely to work up much in the way of suspense, and you never really get caught up in the story. That being said, the movie is better than I expected it would be.

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Body Melt (1993)

BODY MELT (1993)
Article 3514 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 3-4-2011
Posting Date: 3-29-2011
Directed by Philip Brophy
Featuring Gerard Kennedy, Andrew Daddo, Ian Smith
Country: Australia
What it is: Gore comedy

A health spa has developed a drug with gruesome side effects that eventually results in the body self-destructing… and it’s using the residents of a suburban neighborhood as its guinea pigs.

My DVD of this movie says in its promotional blurb that it features special effects from the people who gave you DEAD ALIVE and MATRIX: RELOADED; this should give you an idea of what the movie is going to emphasize. The plot is a muddled mess, but I suspect that didn’t matter to anyone; the main goal of the movie is to have as much gross-out body-parts exploding footage as it can fit into its 80 minute running time. It’s also supposed to be a comic satire about suburbia, but I didn’t laugh once, and if it actually has something to say about the subject of suburban life, it gets lost in the gore. It’s probably a cult favorite of some kind, but I can’t help but notice that it was the last directorial effort from Philip Brophy. For gorehounds only.

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Doomwatch (1972)

DOOMWATCH (1972)
Article 3513 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 3-3-2011
Posting Date: 3-28-2011
Directed by Peter Sasdy
Featuring Ian Bannen, Judy Geeson, John Paul
Country: UK
What it is: Ecological disaster thriller

A scientist from an environmental research agency known as “Doomwatch” visits a small island to research the effects of an oil spill. The villagers on the island are hostile and suspicious, and it soon becomes apparent that they have something to hide… and that something far worse than an oil spill has happened in the area.

My first reaction on hearing about the group known as Doomwatch here was that it would make a fine concept for a TV series; I then learned that it in fact this movie was based on a TV series of the same name. I went into this one expecting a horror movie, and the first half of the movie certainly gives the sense that that is what it’s going to turn out to be. The movie then suddenly shifts gears and becomes a mystery; the action leaves the island and becomes concerned with finding the causes of the illness suffered by the people, and the movie becomes something of a science fiction drama. For once, the behavior of the villagers is much more than just a way to build suspense; the final scenes of the movie are concerned with the scientist trying to break past the hostility in an effort to urge the villagers to seek the help he is offering. I like this movie enough to wish it was better than it was, the weak direction and uneven acting blunt some of its impact. Still, I think it worked well enough to get by; the ending in particular is very sad. Whatever its flaws, I don’t think I’ll easily forget this movie.

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One Family (1930)

ONE FAMILY (1930)
Article 3512 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 3-2-2011
Posting Date: 3-27-2011
Directed by Walter Creighton
Featuring Douglas Beaumont, Sam Livesey, Michael Hogan
Country: UK
What it is: Bizarre British propaganda

A little boy dreams he takes a tour of Buckingham palace, where he is tasked with the job of making the King’s Christmas pudding. He must visit the various part of the British Empire to gather the ingredients.

This movie ended up on my “Ones that Got Away” list, but an online version became available from the British Film Institute; unfortunately, the print is in bad shape, and the viewing was extremely buggy. I had to restart the movie several times and jump ahead to various points to catch most of what was left of the movie, and this made for a difficult watching experience. The movie is essentially a travelogue for the British Empire, and was the first movie to be filmed in Buckingham Palace. It was produced by British Instructional Films in the hope it would get a commercial release, but the movie (which started production as a silent) was plagued with problems, and then had to have dialogue post-dubbed because of the demand for talkies. Rather than making a bundle for BIF, the movie was a commercial disaster. Even given the fact that my viewing experience was very far from ideal, I suspect that the movie wouldn’t make much sense even in a complete state. As it is, it’s one of the most bizarre movie-viewing experiences I’ve ever undergone. Still, I suspect this is the only chance I’ll have to see this one, and I’m glad to check it off my list. The fantastic content seems to consist of the bizarre fantastical ways the child has of traveling to the various parts of the world.

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The Man from 1997 (1956)

THE MAN FROM 1997 (1956)
TV-Episode of “Conflict”
Article 3511 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 3-1-2011
Posting Date: 3-26-2011
Directed by Roy Del Ruth
Featuring Jacques Sernas, Gloria Talbott, Charles Ruggles
Country: USA
What it is: Fifties science fiction, TV style

An immigrant janitor stumbles upon an almanac from the year 1997 in a book shop, and believes he can win the woman of his dreams if he uses the information to make himself rich. However, there’s another man searching for the book, and he’s from the future…

I’m not quite sure if this TV episode really qualifies as a movie per se; it runs about fifty minutes without commercials. Nevertheless, it’s listed as one in the Willis guide, and so I’m covering it. Personally, I’m just glad I was able to find it. What caught my eye from the very start was seeing that it was based on a short story by Alfred Bester, one of my favorite science fiction authors and one who has rarely been adapted for the movies. I’d recently read a collection of his short stories, but I didn’t recognize the story until the twist near the end involving a dollar bill. The story is basically a fairly gentle science fiction fable, despite a subplot involving gangsters who are after the almanac; the main thrust of the story involves the man from the future trying to convince the immigrant to sell the almanac to him for a dollar in the hopes that he won’t try to use the information to make his fortune, a situation which doesn’t sit well the the immigrant’s prospective girlfriend. It’s a fun little story, and the cast also features James Garner in an early role. Incidentally, there may be an error in the IMDB listing for this episode; the character of “Man” is listed as having been played by an actor named Johnny Vlakoz, who has no other acting credits to his name, which doesn’t surprise me, since Johnny Vlakoz is actually the character name of the immigrant in the movie.

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