Mystery Mountain (1934)

MYSTERY MOUNTAIN (1934)
Serial
Article 2870 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 3-17-2009
Posting Date: 6-22-2009
Directed by Otto Brewer and B. Reeves Eason
Featuring Ken Maynard, Tarzan, Verna Hilie
Country: USA

Railroad detective Ken Williams is trying to discover the identity of a criminal known as the Rattler, who is trying to prevent the completion of a railroad tunnel through a mountain.

For me, the real mystery of this western serial is – what’s the fantastic content? Left to my own devices, I would have been at a loss. I might have guessed that the Rattler would have fallen under the category of “masked” killers, but usually this means the killer is wearing a hood or something that makes them look scary. In this case, the Rattler’s “primary” mask (see below) is a fake set of glasses with a nose and moustache, which makes him look like Father Guido Sarducci, who is not scary. Since I couldn’t quite accept that, I checked Don Willis’s guide to see what he had to say about it, and he mentions a plot element in which the Rattler disguises himself as various other characters through the use of very convincing “secondary” masks. I suppose this is a fantastic concept (and one I’ve always found singularly unconvincing), but I’ve seen this trick done so often in the movies that I tend to think of it as a movie convention rather than as an honest-to-goodness element of fantastic content. Unfortunately, that’s about all there is; I’ll leave it your own judgment whether this qualifies, but for me, it doesn’t.

As for the serial itself, it’s rather ordinary. Since most of the action is on horses, we don’t have the nonstop bailout cliffhangers, which is good. Ken Maynard is likable enough, Syd Saylor’s comic relief avoids being totally annoying, and the rest of the cast is forgettable, though Gene Autry appears in a small (and uncredited) role. The real scene-stealer here is Ken Maynard’s horse, Tarzan, who does some great tricks on occasion and ends up being the one to unmask the killer at the end. Otherwise, this one is run-of-the-mill.

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Spy in the Sky! (1958)

SPY IN THE SKY! (1958)
Article 2869 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 3-16-2009
Posting Date: 6-21-2009
Directed by W. Lee Wilder
Featuring Steve Brodie, Andrea Domburg, George Coulouris
Country: UK / USA

Spies are searching for a Soviet rocket scientist to learn his secrets.

False alarm, everyone. This is just another Gizmo Maguffin, and the Gizmo is just cashing in on the fears surrounding Sputnik; the closest we get to anything remotely in the realm of science fiction is seeing a light move across the sky during the opening title. From then on, it’s static Spy vs. Spy stuff, barely competent at best, aggressively snooze-inducing at worst. You’ll recognize the static style of Billy Wilder’s brother W. Lee Wilder here; he’s the same man who gave us PHANTOM FROM SPACE, KILLERS FROM SPACE and THE SNOW CREATURE.

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The Oldest Profession (1967)

THE OLDEST PROFESSION (1967)
aka e Plus vieux metier du monde
Article 2868 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 3-15-2009
Posting Date: 6-20-2009
Directed by Claude Autant-Lara, Mauro Bolognini, Philippe de Broca, Jean-Luc Godard, Franco Indovina, Michael Pfleghar
Featuring Michele Mercier, Enrico Maria Salemo, Gabriele Tinti
Country: France / West Germany / Italy

The history of prostitution is presented in six tales.

You know, it takes time to watch a movie. And when you watch a movie a day and you find the print of the movie you were watching has a fatal flaw, you don’t often have time to watch another movie. That’s my excuse for covering this one, despite the fact that my print is missing one whole episode. That might not have been fatal in a movie in which only certain segments contain fantastic content if the missing segment had been one lacking said content, but alas, I’m missing the one segment that takes place in the future directed by Jean-Luc Godard, reportedly the best one of the bunch. But I’m in no mood to watch another whole movie, so I’m reviewing it as is, with the addendum that I’m going to hunt for a more complete copy, and should I find one before I post this review, I’ll add the review of that segment as an addendum.

So what can I say about this episodic comedy about prostitution? It’s mostly lame. The prehistoric section (which has no prehistoric creatures and nothing to recommend it), the Roman section, and the one in Modern-day Paris are all forgettable and of little importance. The other two sections (one in revolutionary France and the other during the Gay Nineties) come off better and actually do a good job of giving us similar but opposite stories; in the first, a customer pulls a trick on a prostitute to keep from paying, and in the other, the prostitute tricks a customer (who she discovers is a banker) into marrying her. These two are good, but not great. Still, it’s the Godard piece that is supposed to be the highlight here. Let’s hope I have an addendum to add to this in the near future.

ADDENDUM – Well, I found a copy with Godard section, and it is easily the best of the bunch. It’s the one that shows the most creativity, and its view of the future is somewhat similar to the one in ALPHAVILLE. It mainly involves a time when visitors supply robot prostitutes for its guests, but a man wants a replacement because his can’t talk, but he finds that robots are a bit specialized, and the one that can talk isn’t able to… well, I won’t give anything away on this point. The weirdest touch has people eating from aerosol cans (there goes the ozone layer), and the big question I have is this: why is the character who is supposed to be human the one who most talks like a robot? It’s a good segment, but not great, and overall, the movie is on the weak side.

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The Magician (1958)

THE MAGICIAN (1958)
aka Ansiktet
Article 2867 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 3-14-2009
Posting Date: 6-29-2009
Directed by Ingmar Bergman
Featuring Max von Sydow, Ingrid Thulin, Gunnar Bjornstrand
Country: Sweden

A magician and his troupe arrive at a town where they are forced to stay under the eye of the leading townspeople who want to witness their performance with the aim of debunking the supernatural elements. However, the magician has a few more tricks up his sleeve than expected…

This is the weakest of the four Ingmar Bergman movies I’ve seen for this series, but that’s no putdown; after all, the other three (THE SEVENTH SEAL, THE VIRGIN SPRING and WILD STRAWEBERRIES) are considered some of his finest works. It is, however, the movie I’ve seen that may be the closest to a horror movie he’s made, and at least one scene (in which a coroner finds himself terrorized by the man on whom he’s just performed an autopsy) wouldn’t be out of place in a horror film. It’s basically a struggle between reason and the supernatural, with the magician and his troupe against a collection of skeptical townspeople. Max von Sydow is fascinating as the magician; he pretends to be a mute, but that’s only a front. Gunnar Bjornstrand is also fine as the doctor who performs the autopsy, as is Naima Wifstrand as a grandmother who may or may not be a witch. Bergman’s usual themes crop up here again, but that adds to the appeal. The movie also opens with a fun scene in which the troupe passes through a forest believed to be haunted.

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Les freres corses (1962)

LES FRERES CORSES (1962)
aka The Corsican Brothers, I Fratelli Corsi
Article 2866 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 3-13-2009
Posting Date: 6-19-2009
Directed by Anton Giulio Majano
Featuring Geoffrey Horne, Gerard Barray, Nerio Bernardi
Country: France / Italy

Two Siamese twin brothers are separated and raised in different worlds when their family is massacred. They meet again many years later when one of them undertakes to kill a tyrant.

This version of the Dumas novel is in French without subtitles, and, though I’m at least a little bit familiar with the basic story and have seen the earlier version with Douglas Fairbanks Jr. the story has never really planted itself firmly in my mind. This means that I was fairly lost for most of the movie, though the fantastic element (the brothers have a psychic link in which one can feel the other’s pain) is apparent, if used only slightly. Going on feel, though, the movie seemed fairly ordinary; it’s more talk than action, and only seems to come to life at the beginning and end of the movie. To be sure, a dubbed or subtitled version would give me a better chance to judge it, but I doubt that I’d radically change my opinion if I saw one.

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Fata / Morgana (1965)

FATA/MORGANA (1965)
aka Left-Handed Fate
Article 2865 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 3-12-2009
Posting Date: 6-17-2009
Directed by Vicente Aranda
Featuring Teresa Gimpera, Marianne Benet, Marcos Marti
Country: Spain

In a city that is nearly empty (the residents having departed due to “collective fear”), a model discovers that she is to be the victim of a murder before the day is through. A detective who knows about the upcoming murder seeks to prevent it.

I’d like to describe this one as a bizarre thriller, but I can’t; it’s too arty to really work up much in the way of thrills, though I have no problems with the word “bizarre” here. I’ve only seen one other movie by this director (THE BLOOD-SPATTERED BRIDE), and, if anything, it makes me understand why some of the scenes in that movie are pretty strange as well. Still, with art movies, they either work for you or they don’t, and, though I don’t agree with the whole theme of “people who are born to be murdered” that is central to the story here, it more or less worked enough that I was not bored. Some bizarre scenes stand out; a woman kills two men with a fish, a series of men try to pick up the model as she walks down the street, a group of men steal the model’s image from a billboard, and a man completely disguises his face with bandages a la the invisible man. It’s odd, but it may benefit from a second watching.

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Enchanting Shadow (1960)

ENCHANTING SHADOW (1960)
aka Ching nu yu hun
Article 2864 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 3-11-2009
Posting Date: 6-16-2009
Directed by Han Hsiang Li
Featuring Betty Loh Ti, Ngai Fung, LI Jen Ho
Country: Hong Kong

A traveler stays for a few nights at a haunted temple. At night he encounters a beautiful ghost who attempts to seduce him. He resists, but finds himself under the wrath of the ghost of the woman’s bloodthirsty grandmother.

The only other horror movie from Hong Kong that I’ve seen is REVENGE OF THE ZOMBIES, but these two movies couldn’t be further apart. This is from a much earlier era, and it is an evocative film, as much a fairy tale as a ghost story. As always, it’s interesting to see movies from other countries; the color photography here is breathtaking, though the camerawork is a hair shaky on occasion, and the use of sound is exotic and truly strange. The atmosphere is quite thick, especially during the scene when the traveler awaits the arrival of the grandmother’s ghost in the room of a swordsman, and the final encounter in a forest. In some ways, the experience of watching this one can’t be adequately described, though the movie it most reminds me of is KWAIDAN. It’s a difficult movie to find, but is worth digging up.

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The Sorceress (1956)

THE SORCERESS (1956)
aka La Sorciere, Blonde Witch
Article 2863 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 3-20-2009
Posting Date: 6-15-2009
Directed by Andre Michel
Featuring Marina Vlady, Nicole Courcel, Maurice Ronet
Country: France / Italy / Sweden

A French engineer comes to a remote village in Northern Sweden to help build a road. He encounters and falls in love with a local girl believed to be a witch by the villagers, and this creates a rift between him and the villagers and places the girl’s life in danger.

The witch in question does appear to have magical powers; she is able to magically heal wounds, cause people to trip, and, at one point, fixes a car by magic. However, the magic seems almost beside the point, and the movie could well exist without these touches. It’s essentially a tragedy, one that is brought about by the engineer’s selfishness and his inability to respect the superstitions and beliefs of the people with whom he must interact. In some ways, it’s the psychological equivalent of many a horror movie in which a man defies the superstitions of the natives only to fall victim to it; many a mummy movie is of this variety. The primary difference is that in this one, it’s not the reality of the superstition that defeats him; it’s the fact that the psychological need for people to believe in their superstitions is not something that can be callously dismissed, especially when they are willing to act on them. It’s a good movie, if a little slow to get started and a bit predictable at times, but I suspect that those drawn to it primarily for its fantastic content will be disappointed.

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Ursus in the Land of Fire (1963)

URSUS IN THE LAND OF FIRE (1963)
aka Son of Hercules in the Land of Fire, Ursus nella terra di fuoco
Article 2862 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 3-9-2009
Posting Date: 6-14-2009
Directed by Giorgio Simonelli
Featuring Ed Fury, Claudia Mila, Adriano Micantoni
Country: Italy

Ursus must defeat an evil general who usurps the throne and tries to force the princess into marrying him.

If THE SIEGE OF SYRACUSE was an example of the type of Sword-and-Sandal movie rarely covered in this series, here’s one that sticks to the same formula that makes up most of the others that I’ve covered. Evil queen, evil general, oppressed plebians, feats of strength, super-strong hero who undergoes brutal tortures… you know the routine. It’s a hair more brutal than some of the others, and Ed Fury adds some slightly offbeat touches to his performance of Ursus, but the movie never strays too far from familiar territory. Now if only my print didn’t have some of the worst pan-and-scanning I’ve seen in recent memory…

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The Siege of Syracuse (1960)

THE SIEGE OF SYRACUSE (1960)
aka L’Assedio di Siracusa
Article 2861 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 2-8-2009
Posting Date: 6-13-2009
Directed by Pietro Francisci
Featuring Rossano Brazzi, Tina Louise, Sylva Koscina
Country: Italy / France

Syracuse lies between the warring nations of Rome and Carthage; as long as the balance of power between the nations remains intact, both nations are willing to preserve the neutrality of Syracuse. However, Rome has now gotten the upper hand in its struggle for power. The fate of Syracuse lies in the hands of its leader, the famed inventor and scientist Archimedes.

My print runs some eight minutes short of the original running time. I wouldn’t bother to report this detail usually; after all, most sword-and-sandal movies have been so damaged by bad dubbing and ill treatment by the time they hit our shores that I’d be more surprised if the running time did match. However, this isn’t your ordinary sword-and-sandal movie, at least for this series of reviews I’m writing. For one thing, it’s letterboxed and subtitled, which leaves its dignity intact, though, unfortunately, it also makes the abrupt jump cuts especially noticeable, hence my comment about the running length. It’s also different in that the central character isn’t the muscleman variety; as a king and a scientist, it’s more involved in politics and science and less with action. The first half of the movie is, unfortunately, a bloody bore; it’s mostly obsessed with the love life of Archimedes. It’s not until his love life becomes ensnarled with his politics and the impending war with Rome that the movie becomes interesting. From this point on, the movie is rather engaging, if far-fetched; it relies on certain plot devices (can you say “amnesia”?) that seem very contrived. However, given the dearth of superstrong musclemen, the movie can’t rely on the usual elements that qualify a movie as belonging to the fantastic genres. This one gets in as science fiction, as I suspect that the the mirror reflecting device that is used to set fire to the Roman fleet during the battle scenes (the world’s first death-ray?) never existed in real life. All in all, it’s uneven, but it has its moments.

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