Evil Dead II (1987)
Article 5815 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 7-20-2020
Directed by Sam Raimi
Featuring Bruce Campbell, Sarah Berry, Dan Hicks
Country: USA
What it is: More of the same… only sillier…and a lot more

More people are in the cabin in the woods terrorized by evil undead beings. Who will survive?

So how do you follow up a movie as audacious as the original? Well, if you’re Sam Raimi, you basically do a remake, bring your star up front and center, use a bigger budget, and make what was an undertone in the first movie an overtone here; the first movie hinted at comedy, this one IS a comedy. Much of the violence has a knockabout Three Stooges vibe to it, it’s fully aware that it’s working as both remake and parody, it sends up the cliches rather than succumbing to them, and it does it all with a rollicking sense of fun. It’s the kind of a movie that when one character does something monumentally stupid, you smile because it’s part of the joke. No, it’s not scary; it doesn’t slow down enough to let fear creep in, but that’s all right with me. This is simply a fun ride from beginning to end.

Eternal Evil (1985)
aka The Blue Man
Article 5814 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 7-19-2020
Directed by George Mihalka
Featuring Winston Rekert, Karen Black, John Novak
Country: Canada / USA
What it is: Ghosts? Vampires? Possession?

A failed-filmmaker-turned-commercial-director takes an interest in astral projection, but then some of the people in his life begin dying in horrible ways…

This movie has a pretty dismal rating on IMDB, and I can understand why; it’s slow-moving, sometimes very cheesy (especially the score), not particularly well-mounted, and lacking in the gore that was pretty common for the genre of horror at that time. It does, however, have some novel ideas at its core, and those ideas did sustain my interest enough that I never found the movie intolerable. It also had a few plot surprises up its sleeve, which also helps. The big name in the cast is Karen Black as the girlfriend to the main character, and her performance is a little on the weird side, though given some of the plot developments, it makes a certain amount of sense. All in all, I liked it enough that I was able to set aside it’s dodgier aspects, but your mileage may vary; its 3.6 rating means quite a few people found little of interest here.

Escape From Galaxy 3 (1981)
aka Giochi erotici nella terza galassia
Article 5813 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 7-18-2020
Directed by Bitto Albertini and Luigi Cozzi
Featuring Sherry Buchanan, Fausto Di Bella, Don Powell
Country: Italy
What it is: Uhhhhh….

Two survivors from a destroyed planet try to escape Oroclon, king of the night. They land on planet Earth after the apocalypse, meet natives, and learn about love…

The first third of the movie is a STAR WARS clone. The second third of the movie becomes an after-the-apocalypse coming of age story in which the child-like immortal aliens learn about the joys of love, a plot element which causes the already idiotic story to descend to even lower levels of dumbness. The third third of the movie returns to being a STAR WARS clone, only dragging it’s new-found dumbness with it. Many of the special effects were lifted from STAR CRASH; in fact, in some places, this movie was known as STAR CRASH 2. Incidentally, STAR CRASH was better, and you can’t say that about many STAR WARS clones. I heard a rumor that despite the nudity and sexual themes, this movie got a G rating, but I have been unable to confirm that and find it highly unlikely; if it is true, it would be proof positive that those giving the ratings didn’t watch the movie. This is perhaps the dumbest movie I’ve seen in a long time. If there’s one dumber out there, I hope it waits until I recover.

Escalofrio diabolico (1972)
aka Diabolical Shudder
Article 5812 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 7-18-2020
Directed by George Martin
Featuring George Martin, Patty Shepard, Mariano Vidal Molina
Country: Spain
What it is: Unhealthy people with secrets in an old castle… you know the routine

Mysterious and unhealthy things go on in a sinister castle; there’s a cult and imprisoned people.

I just watched a copy of this movie that I had lying around for years, and of course, it’s in Spanish without English subtitles. As such, I can’t really give this movie a meaningful review (not knowing Spanish), but I also have to admit that I didn’t see anything happening that wasn’t really out of the ordinary for this sort of movie. You know the women are in peril and the men can’t be trusted and that the plot will mostly meander around until the climax when everyone shows their true colors. The first two-thirds is a lot of talk, so it’s not surprising that the only story arc you can follow is that of the mute man-servant, whose secrets are revealed visually. Maybe it will be a little better if I find a subtitled version, but I’m guessing it wouldn’t be a considerable improvement. At any rate, I can check this one off.

Enoken no Tobisuke boken ryoko (1949)
Article 5810 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 7-15-2020
Directed by Nobuo Nakagawa
Featuring Ken’ichi Enomoto, Yuki Daigo, Kiyoko Hanashima
Country: Japan
What it is: Comic fantasy

A puppeteer is injured when he tries to rescue a little girl from a kidnapper. The little girl takes the puppeteer on a quest to a place where he will be healed, but the path is filled with perils.

My copy of this obscure movie has no English subtitles, so I can’t really go into more plot details than I have above. It is, however, a very visual movie, and it held my attention as the travelers encounter any number of strange people, places and creatures. The set design is also highly non-realistic, and that adds to the appeal. Let’s hope this one is released with English subtitles in the future.

The Emerald Isle (1949)
Article 5809 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 7-12-2020
Directed by Seymour Kneitel
Featuring the voices of Jackson Beck, Jack Mercer and Mae Questel
Country: USA
What it is: Follow the bouncing ball

The world of Ireland is explored, and everyone gets to sing a song.

Famous Studios at Paramount put out a whole slew of “Screen Songs”, shorts that were half-cartoons and half “follow the bouncing ball” singalongs of some song, in this case the song being “MacNamara’s Band”. Though they were probably fun events in a crowded theater, as cartoons they were rather forgettable. I don’t think I’ve covered any of these before this, and I probably wouldn’t have reviewed this one if a few ghosts hadn’t popped up and done a jig as one of the gags. As far as I can tell, this is a typical entry of the series, and unless one of them really ratchets up the fantastic content, I probably won’t be covering another one.

Eliza on Ice (1944)
aka ‘Eliza on the Ice’
Article 5808 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 7-11-2020
Directed by Connie Rasinski
Featuring the voice of Tom Morrison
Country: USA
What it is: pretty ironic

The chase scene in “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” is performed as a sporting event. Will Mighty Mouse prevent Simon Legree from prevailing?

Given how many ordinary, uninspired and just plain dull Mighty Mouse cartoons there are, I wouldn’t be surprised if some people wonder where the imagination and creativity (which should be there) have gone to. I think I found the answer; it went here. It is one of the most energetic, funniest, and fastest-moving of the Mighty Mouse series, and it has an absurdist Tex Avery feel to it as well. It might be considered one of the best of the Mighty Mouse cartoons if it didn’t have a major problem; it is so full of offensive racial stereotypes that it will probably languish in obscurity. It certainly won’t be popping up on TV any time soon.

The Electric House (1922)
Article 5807 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 7-10-2020
Directed by Edward F. Cline and Buster Keaton
Featuring Buster Keaton, Virginia Fox, Joe Keaton
Country: USA
What it is: Buster Keaton short

Due to a mix-up of diplomas, a botanist is mistaken for an electrical engineer and hired to electrify a rich man’s house.

Most of the shorts and features I’ve covered by the classic silent comedians have been ones where the fantastic content was pretty marginal. Not so this one. Not only is it packed to the gills with bizarre modern-house gadgetry, but the gadgetry is front and center in terms of the comic content; you’re laughing at all the strange technical marvels in the place. Things get a little wilder when the man who should have gotten the job in the first place seeks revenge, but that just adds to the fun. Keaton is in prime form this time, especially when he has to contend with a staircase that turns into an escalator. And there’s even a little bit of horror content as well, when one of the staff of the house is mistaken for a ghost at one point. This one was a lot of fun.

Education for Death: The Making of the Nazi (1943)
Article 5806 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 7-7-2020
Directed by Clyde Geronimi
Featuring the voice of Art Smith
Country: USA
What it is: Wartime anti-Nazi propaganda

It’s the story of a young German boy named Hans, and how he is indoctrinated into the Nazi mindset.

Anybody who has seen and liked the movie JOJO RABBIT might be interested in hunting down and checking out this Disney wartime exploration of the dissemination of Nazi propaganda to the youth of Germany. I wouldn’t be surprised if there was a little exaggeration in this short (both sides engaged in propaganda), but for the most part this short rings alarmingly true about how youth can be seduced, manipulated, and pressured into becoming a tool for a tyrant state. Make no mistake; this short takes itself very serious indeed, and rightfully so. It’s also something I probably wouldn’t cover if it didn’t have a sequence in which it is shown how the story of “Sleeping Beauty” is rewritten to teach Nazi philosophy; the witch is democracy, and the knight in shining armor is Hitler himself. Unfortunately, this sequence also marks the short’s biggest stumble; it abandons its serious approach and turns the ending of the Sleeping Beauty story into a slapstick farce where Sleeping Beauty is revealed to be an overweight beer-guzzling German woman who is too fat for Hitler to lift on his horse. This kind of mocking caricature is out of place here, because ultimately you feel sad at seeing children’s spirits being snuffed out to serve the Nazi cause. Nevertheless, despite its flaws, this is a powerful short.