Gibel sensatsii (1935)

GIBEL SENSATSII (1935)
aka Loss of Feeling
Article 2800 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 1-6-2009
Posting Date: 4-13-2009
Directed by Aleksandr Andriyevsky
Featuring Sergei Vecheslov, Vladimir Gardin, M. Volgina
Country: Soviet Union

In order to solve the problem of workers going crazy on the assembly line, an inventor creates a corps of robots to do the work.

Because my copy of this movie is in unsubtitled Russian, it was rather difficult making heads or tails out of some aspects of the plot. However, knowing that the movie was made in the Soviet Union (a country which practiced governmental control of motion pictures with the aim of spreading Soviet philosophy) and given their probable stance on machines that would take the place of the proletariat, I wasn’t really surprised at the attitude of the movie towards the robots; the key piece of information that I found out from a plot summary after watching this was that it does not take place in the Soviet Union, but in an “English-speaking capitalist land”. It’s visually inventive, and has some truly memorable scenes, including a cabaret number about robots, and a stunning scene in which a saxophonist performs a solo amidst an army of 9-foot tall robots who are waving their massive arms about. From what I can tell, it’s very well done and quite effective; the fate of the saxophonist is particularly shocking. The opening scene conjured up visions of both METROPOLIS and MODERN TIMES, and you might suspect it’s a version of R.U.R. when you see that acronym emblazoned across the robots’ chests, but it’s not based on the Capek play and has an entirely different viewpoint. Let’s hope that someone eventually gets some subtitles on this and it gets an official release; it looks to be one of the great early science fiction movies.

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The Thirteenth Hour (1927)

THE THIRTEENTH HOUR (1927)
Article 2799 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 1-5-2009
Posting Date: 4-12-2009
Directed by Chester M. Franklin
Featuring Lionel Barrymore, Jacqueline Gadsden, Charles Delaney
Country: USA

A murderer / burglar is on the loose who always commits his crimes in the hour after midnight. A detective is on his trail, and has the help of his trusty dog Rex.

What we have here is a basic “old dark house” setup (the house has secret passages, and the criminal has a device that can see through walls and control the doors of the house) with a heroic animal thrown into the mix. It’s pretty silly stuff, but then, most “old dark house” movies were fairly silly, and that doesn’t mean they weren’t fun. If you like Lionel Barrymore or heroic dogs, you’ll like this one just fine. It has more clutching hands than I’ve ever seen in a movie, it has a curtain that kidnaps people, and it ends with an exciting battle on a rooftop. All in all, it’s a fairly fun bit of nonsense.

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They Saved Hitler’s Brain (1963)

THEY SAVED HITLER’S BRAIN (1963)
TV-Movie
Article 2798 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 1-4-2009
Posting Date: 4-11-2009
Directed by David Bradley
Featuring Walter Stocker, Audrey Caire, Carlos Rivas
Country: USA

A scientist who knows the formula for an antidote to a poison gas is kidnapped. His family follows the trail of his kidnapping to the small country of Mandoras, where a gang of Nazis keep a sinister secret…

Some secret – the title gives it away. Incidentally, THE MADMEN OF MANDORAS (the source from which this movie was cobbled together) is treated as a separate entity by IMDB, so I will give it its own separate review when the time comes. I saw it once many years ago, when my attempt to buy this version of the movie resulted in getting that one. Until I rewatch it, all I can remember about it was that, outside a couple of campy moments, it was a dull movie.

This version was doctored up for television release, adding new footage about a couple of agents of the CID who are on the trail of the kidnappers of the doctor. Just why this footage was added is a mystery; maybe it was intended to add more action to the story. As it is, it only adds confusion and a sense of weirdness, as it is patently obvious that the new footage does not match the footage of MANDORAS in any way. Furthermore, I’m sure the date above cannot be trusted for this TV release version; the hairstyles and fashions in the new footage are obviously from several years later.

Still, it doesn’t really change much. Though the movie has a reputation as one of the great bad movies, it really only has a great bad title and a couple of campy scenes that entertain; the rest is snoozefest incarnate. I suspect that I’ll end up saying much the same about THE MADMEN OF MANDORAS when it comes time to tackle that one as well.

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Taste the Blood of Dracula (1970)

TASTE THE BLOOD OF DRACULA (1970)
Article 2797 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 1-3-2009
Posting Date: 4-10-2009
Directed by Peter Sasdy
Featuring Christopher Lee, Geoffrey Keen, Gwen Watford
Country: UK

Three respectable gentleman, pursuing a secret second life of sensualist decadence, hook up with a libertine who promises them a sensational experience. This involves drinking the reconstituted dried blood of Count Dracula, but the three gentlemen back out at the last moment and kill the libertine after he ingests the blood. The libertine is transformed into Dracula, who vows vengeance on the three gentlemen.

I really like the first half of the movie, despite the fact that I don’t care for Ralph Bates’s performance as the libertine. It’s fascinating in the way it deals with the double nature of the gentlemen, who are respectable (even self-righteous) on the outside but debased on the inside. I also like the novel way it has of resurrecting Dracula. It’s only after the resurrection that the movie loses steam; it loses interest in the themes that drove the first half of the movie, it becomes over-familiar and sloppy, and the ending of the movie is particularly weak. It’s also one of those movies where you understand why Christopher Lee wasn’t particularly fond of the dialogue he was given; quite frankly, he could have conveyed everything without a single word, and the movie would have been better had it omitted his few lines. Overall, it’s not bad, but a stronger second half would have made a world of difference.

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Tales that Witness Madness (1973)

TALES THAT WITNESS MADNESS (1973)
Article 2796 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 1-2-2009
Posting Date: 4-9-2009
Directed by Freddie Francis
Featuring Jack Hawkins, Donald Pleasence, Georgia Brown
Country: UK

A director of an asylum presents four of his cases in an attempt to prove his theory.

I have to admit to rather liking this anthology movie, though it may be simply for having a different feel from the Amicus anthologies on which it was obviously modeled. This is not to say that the movie doesn’t have its problems. For one thing, the stories are fairly predictable. You know how the first story is going to end the second you discover the nature of the young boy’s imaginary friend. The third and the fourth stories (about a human-looking tree stump and a promise to a mother) pretty much follow the routes you’d expect. Only the second (about a portrait of a man named Uncle Albert and a bicycle) has the novelty of being unpredictable; unfortunately, it’s not particularly satisfying, as we never get an idea of exactly what Uncle Albert is trying to accomplish. The framing story is curious, and I’m not quite sure exactly what is happening when it winds down at the end of the movie. Yet, in its way, I found the whole thing entertaining enough, and it does have the advantage of not running on too long.

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Superman (1978)

SUPERMAN (1978)
Article 2795 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 1-1-2009
Posting Date: 4-8-2009
Directed by Richard Donner
Featuring Marlon Brando, Gene Hackman, Christopher Reeve
Country: UK / USA

The last surviving resident of the planet Krypton is a child sent to Earth by his father. On earth he has superpowers, and becomes a hero known as Superman. He must pit his wits against a supervillain named Lex Luthor, who is intent on causing California to slide into the ocean.

As the first big-budget superhero movie, it is no doubt beloved by fans. Though I consider it watchable enough, I have strong reservations. The movie has something of a split personality; the first half of the movie deals with his mythic origins, and it is mostly stiff, pompous and humorless; only Glenn Ford manages to lift things up a bit by adding a much needed touch of humanity to the proceedings. The second half of the movie has far too much humor in it; everyone seems to be playing it for laughs. No, I don’t object to Christopher Reeve turning the role of Clark Kent into a clumsy buffoon (quite frankly, this is my favorite aspect of Reeve’s performance, as it keeps the character from falling into blandness as well as providing a sharp contrast between Kent and Superman). But my heart did sink to see Lex Luthor played for laughs (a fault I attribute to the script rather than Gene Hackman’s performance, as I think he simply played it the way it was written to the hilt). It only starts taking itself seriously again during the special-effects laden climax, which unfortunately relies on giving Superman the power to turn back time, thereby straining credibility way too far for my taste. Yet, for all that, the movie is entertaining enough; I just wish this cinematic meal hadn’t ended up feeling like so many empty calories. My favorite moment: Superman rescues a cat caught in a tree.

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Estigma (1980)

ESTIGMA (1980)
aka Stigma
Article 2794 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 12-31-2008
Posting Date: 4-7-2009
Directed by Jose Ramon Larraz
Featuring Christian Borromeo, Alexandra Bastedo, Emilio Gutierrez Caba
Country: Spain / Italy

An adolescent boy has the power to kill with his mind. He also bleeds from his lip on occasion.

This is the third movie I’ve seen of Jose Ramon Larraz’s, and, other than a couple of nice touches in SYMPTOMS, I’ve just not been very impressed. Still, it is a bit dodgy trying to review a movie that you’ve only seen in a language you can’t understand (with no subtitles to help), but, given his track record so far and with what I’ve been able to get visually from this one, I suspect that I wouldn’t care for it even if I could follow it. Oh, it’s pretty strange in its way, what with the dream sequences and the fact that it all seems to be tied to an experience he had in a previous life, but there was no event in this movie that really jumped out and grabbed my attention or nibbled at my curiosity. The dream sequences look like typical horror movie dream sequences, and all the usual Eurohorror trappings (nudity, a hint of lesbianism, incest, and sexual perversions) are trotted out mechanically. Unless there’s something fascinating going on in the dialogue, I don’t anticipate gaining much from seeing it subtitled.

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Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982)

STAR TREK II: THE WRATH OF KHAN (1982)
Article 2793 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 12-30-2008
Posting Date: 4-6-2009
Directed by Nicholas Meyer
Featuring William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, DeForest Kelley
Country: USA

When a Starfleet vessel stumbles upon the remnants of Khan’s marooned spaceship, Khan takes it over and plots revenge on his old friend, Admiral James T. Kirk.

Whatever faults there were with STAR TREK: THE MOTION PICTURE, it must be credited for one thing; it got the ball rolling for the transplantation of the TV series to the big screen. Still, I suspect that if this movie had been no better than that one, the franchise would have quickly burned itself out. Instead, we get a solid script that manages a fine balancing act between giving us a story that was strongly reminiscent of the original series (helped no doubt by making it a direct sequel to the “Space Seed” episode) while making it special enough to warrant a full movie treatment. It also avoids being in awe of its own technology and concentrates on the human elements of the story; though the special effects are state of the art, they are there to augment and support the story. A good script helps, as well as strong performances from all of the returning cast members of the series and from Ricardo Montalban in his return to the role of Khan. It also gives us an emotionally charged ending that sets up a situation for the sequel, a case of having one’s cake and eating it, too. I remember seeing this one in the theater back when it was released, and really having the feeling that the series had truly been revived. The only problem I have is one that some people have excuses for; Chekov was not a character during the first season of the series when “Space Seed” aired, but its clearly established that Khan and Chekov know each other in the movie. Excuses notwithstanding, this always bothered me a bit. Nevertheless, it was great to have the series back.

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Shriek of the Mutilated (1974)

SHRIEK OF THE MUTILATED (1974)
Article 2792 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 12-30-2008
Posting Date: 4-5-2009
Directed by Michael Findlay
Featuring Alan Brock, Jennifer Stock, Tawm Ellis
Country: USA

A group of college students go to an island to get a photograph of the Yeti. They begin dying one by one.

I first heard about this movie from Michael Weldon’s Psychotronic Movie Guide. Weldon claims at one point of the book that he never gives away the ending of a good movie. He gives the ending away to this one.

I next encountered this title after having watched the wretched INVASION OF THE BLOOD FARMERS. That movie was directed by Ed Adlum. I looked up his full credits on IMDB, and found out he also had prominent credits in another genre movie – this one. He doesn’t direct, but he produces, writes and acts in this one.

One of the early scenes of this movie consists of couple. The man scours the kitchen for a drink and finds a beer. The woman gets into a fight with him, and he attacks her with a serrated knife, leaving her for dead. We next see him lying fully clothed in a full bathtub, drinking his beer and lazily trying to rub the bloodstains off of his shirt. The woman is, however, not quite dead. We see her crawling to the bathroom with a toaster. With her last ounce of energy, she plugs it in and dumps it in the bathtub.

Any one of the above things would have prepared me for a truly awful movie, and I was well-prepared; this is a stinker of the first order. I’m not giving away the twist ending, though practically everyone else does; I’m just going to say that an early restaurant scene in which a special meal not on the menu is prepared for one of the servants is indeed relevant to the plot. The rest is consummate silliness. Though it doesn’t quite reach the insane levels of INVASION OF THE BLOOD FARMERS, it still earns its place in the annals of bad moviedom and gets weirder as it goes along. But then, what do you expect of a Yeti movie which doesn’t feature an ounce of snow in it?

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My Brother has Bad Dreams (1972)

MY BROTHER HAS BAD DREAMS (1972)
aka Scream Bloody Murder
Article 2791 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 12-28-2008
Posting Date: 4-4-2009
Directed by Robert J. Emery
Featuring Paul Vincent, Marlena Lustik, Paul Ecenia
Country: USA

A man, traumatized and disturbed by having witnessed his mother’s murder by his father when he was a child, is under the care of his older sister. When he brings home a motorcyclist he’s befriended, his sister strikes up a romance with his new friend. However, this leads to the brother’s disturbance bubbling to the surface…

First of all, let’s clear up a bit of confusion. This movie entered my hunt list under the title SCREAM BLOODY MURDER. The plot description my source gives involves a boy who becomes a killer after losing his hand when he ran over his father with a tractor. Now, this movie certainly exists (I have a copy of it), but my source then lists the cast for THIS movie rather than for that one, and since I use the cast credits to help decide which movie to pick when there’s some confusion, it is this one I added to my list. I just wish to point out that there are two movies from the early seventies that carry this title.

As for this movie… well, it’s one of those movies that you can see where it’s going fairly early on, and then takes far too long to get there. So unless you’re really fascinated by some lame nightmare footage, or find the incestuous desire for his sister or his fetishistic fascination with mannequins or his desire to keep his mother’s wheelchair around or his relationship with the mailman to make for compelling cinema, you’re in for a long, tiresome stretch ahead. And once the event you know is going to happen happens, the movie doesn’t have anywhere to go and it takes a good stretch of time getting there, thanks to a gratuitous and dull police chase and a head-scratching ending. There’s a plot twist about the murder of the mother as well, but it’s hardly an earth-shaker. All in all, this is a fairly lame psycho killer movie.

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