The Invisible Terror (1963)

THE INVISIBLE TERROR (1963)
aka Der Unsichtbare
Article 2480 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 1-18-2008
Posting Date: 5-27-2008
Directed by Raphael Nussbaum
Featuring Hannes Schmidhauser, Ellen Schwiers, Herbert Stass
Country: West Germany

A scientist creates an invisibility formula. Unfortunately, he vanishes at the same time a guard is murdered during a payroll robbery.

It starts out like your basic science fiction story, but once the invisibility formula starts being used, the invisible man vanishes. Unfortunately, I don’t mean just that he becomes invisible; I mean that for a goodly portion of the story, he seems to disappear from the storyline, as the movie takes a turn into krimi territory; this is a German movie from the early sixties, you know. It even name-drops the Edgar Wallace series at one point. In short, it largely turns into a crime/mystery movie, and, like too many of the krimis, too many characters clutter the landscape, and it becomes nearly impossible to follow. There’s the occasional interesting idea (invisible men show up in photographs) and the oddball character here and there (the harmonica player named Fatso who would take advantage of invisibility by following Brigitte Bardot), but for the most part, it’s a badly-dubbed bore. It did make me want to go out and buy a guinea pig, though.

 

0 CommentsLeave a comment

King Arthur, the Young Warlord (1975)

KING ARTHUR, THE YOUNG WARLORD (1975)
Article 2479 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 1-17-2008
Posting Date: 5-26-2008
Directed by Sidney Hayers, Pat Jackson, Peter Sasdy
Featuring Oliver Tobias, John Watson, Michael Gothard
Country: UK

The adventures of a young Arthur, before he became king, are recounted.

My source for this one claimed it was a British TV Movie. Maybe so, but on viewing, I began to detect that unmistakable odor of episodes of a TV series edited together to form a movie. You know the sense; that feeling that you’re watching a series of disconnected stories without any real overriding arc. And, sure enough, that’s just what this is; it was edited from several episodes of a series called “Arthur and the Britons”. It doesn’t appear to be a bad series; the whole thing kept me well entertained, and the performances are all very good, with Jack Watson (as Arthur’s iron-armed sidekick Llud) and Brian Blessed (as rival warlord Mark of Cornwall) particularly memorable; the latter (who, to my mind, is notoriously given to overacting) is only over-the-top during the opening story. Then there’s the issue of the fantastic content to deal with. The basic legend of King Arthur has ample fantastic content, what with the Excalibur story and Merlin the magician coming to mind. However, the only character from Arthurian legends here is Arthur himself, and everything is done in a realistic mode; in other words, no magic or other fantastic elements. If the whole King Arthur story qualifies, this movie might qualify as borderline fantasy; as it is, it’s more historical fiction. Still, I much prefer the look and feel of this take on the character than I do in either KNIGHTS OF THE ROUND TABLE or THE SWORD IN THE STONE.

 

0 CommentsLeave a comment

Blue Demon contra las diabolicas (1968)

BLUE DEMON CONTRA LAS DIABOLICAS (1968)
aka Blue Demon Vs. the Diabolical Women
Article 2478 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 1-16-2008
Posting Date: 5-25-2008
Directed by Chano Urueta
Featuring David Reynoso, Ana Martin, Alejandro Munoz Moreno
Country: Mexico

Blue Demon must catch a gang of crooks. He must also contend with a murderer who wears a Blue Demon costume when he attacks women.

This was the first color Blue Demon movie, and it feels like a companion piece to the one I covered a little while ago, BLUE DEMON CONTRA CEREBROS INFERNALES. Same wrestling hero, same garish colors, same snazzy nightclub, same band with the thyroidal trumpet, same lack of English dubbing. With the latter condition, it is, of course, hard to follow, and you’ll probably be scratching your head wondering where the diabolical women are; the bad guys all look like men. Of course, there’s the ringleader, whose back is always turned away from us; and once you notice that the boss’s voice changing during the course of the movie, you’ll figure out the final revelation – that is, if the title didn’t give it away. Of course, with a sham Blue Demon wandering around, you know you’re going to have a fight between them at some point where you can’t tell one from the other, and sure enough, there is one; the only surprise is that it’s actually in the wrestling ring. However, the fantastic content seems particularly lacking in this one, unless some of Blue Demon’s gizmos move it into the realm of marginal science fiction. Personally, I found the follow-up movie mentioned above to be more fun.

 

0 CommentsLeave a comment

The Manchurian Candidate (1962)

THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE (1962)
Article 2477 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 1-13-2008
Posting Date: 5-24-2008
Directed by John Frankenheimer
Featuring Frank Sinatra, Laurence Harvey, Janet Leigh
Country: USA

A Korean war veteran receives the Medal of Honor for having rescued nine men from his platoon. However, when a Major in the military begins to suffer nightmares that seem to contradict this event, he tries to find the truth. He discovers that the war hero has actually been brainwashed by communists to assassinate someone – but who, when and where?

The last movie for this series that I’ve seen from John Frankenheimer was THE EXTRAORDINARY SEAMAN; it’s hard to believe that the director of that stinker is the same man who brought us this brilliant and gripping political thriller. The story is simply amazing; it manages to combine a bizarre array of elements (such as games of solitaire, a woman’s garden club meeting on hydrangeas, a man jumping in the lake in Central Park, a dysfunctional (and possibly even incestuous) mother-son relationship, a faked hit-and-run accident, a snake bite, McCarthy’s list of “known communists”, and a magician’s trick deck of cards) into a nail-biting story about an attempted coup by communists to take over the United States. It takes a while before all the various elements start to come together, but the movie is fascinating every step of the way. The performances are all top notch, with Frank Sinatra, Laurence Harvey and Angela Lansbury in particular very strong. The movie is full of great scenes; the nightmare sequences, the moment when we discover the identity of the American operative, and (my personal favorite) the scene where Sinatra’s character attempts to undo the brainwashing of Harvey’s character. The only flaw in the movie is that Janet Leigh’s character and the subplot about her romance with Sinatra’s character is unnecessary. The fantastic content of the movie includes the brainwashing techniques and the fact that the overall political plot puts the movie into marginal science fiction territory. The cast also features Henry Silva (who engages in an early martial arts fight with Sinatra), James Gregory (as a drunken senator partially modeled off of Joe McCarthy), John McGiver (as a Senator), Whit Bissell, and Reggie Nalder. And, of course, that’s Paul Frees on narration.

 

0 CommentsLeave a comment

Masters of Venus (1962)

MASTERS OF VENUS (1962)
Serial
Article 2476 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 1-12-2008
Posting Date: 5-23-2008
Directed by Ernest Morris
Featuring Norman Wooland, Mandy Harper, Robin Stewart
Country: UK

Two children are forced to launch themselves into space to escape saboteurs. Fortunately, they were able to save the lives of the two pilots, and they all head to the planet Venus.

This may be the only non-American sound movie serial I’ve seen for this series; I only added the word “sound” above when it occurred to me that I saw some early French serials. It’s a juvenile space adventure, made exclusively for Saturday Morning Cinema Clubs. Plotwise, it’s pretty standard stuff, with the kind of story that made for movies like FLIGHT TO MARS. Certainly, it isn’t up to the level of the Nigel Kneale science fiction TV serials of the era. However, it is interesting to compare them to the American serials of the previous few decades. When you do this, the plot feels pretty sophisticated; in each episode, something happens to advance the plot, whereas the American serials usually worked with the plot in the beginning and ending episodes and used the basic situation mostly to hang action sequences on. This serial is at its best at the beginning before they land on Venus; after that, it’s pretty cliched. According to one source of mine, this serial was edited into a feature, but that must be even harder to find than the serial itself.

 

0 CommentsLeave a comment

Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex * But Were Afraid to Ask (1972)

EVERYTHING YOU ALWAYS WANTED TO KNOW ABOUT SEX * BUT WERE AFRAID TO ASK (1972)
Article 2475 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 1-11-2008
Posting Date: 5-22-2008
Directed by Woody Allen
Featuring Woody Allen, John Carradine, Lou Jacobi
Country: USA

Several stories are presented based on concepts on David Reuben’s book about sex.

Three of the seven segments of this anthology movie have fantastic content; the first one, in which a court jester attempts to seduce a queen, features a ghost and a love potion; the sixth one, in which a mad scientist performing horrible experiments with sex unleashes a giant breast loose on the world, and the final one, in which the workings of a brain during a sexual encounter are portrayed as a science fiction epic. The movie is amusing enough, but I think it gets its biggest laughs when Woody Allen nails the correct styles for the genre takes on the various episodes; in particular, the third episode (which parodies Italian movies, complete with subtitling), the fifth episode (a parody of a TV game show) and the sixth episode (horror movie parody with John Carradine exceedingly well cast as a mad scientist) work the best. The other episodes have moments as well; Gene Wilder and Lou Jacobi both give great performances as, respectively, a doctor in love with a sheep and a transvestite. After this movie, Woody Allen would take another shot at science fiction with SLEEPER.

 

0 CommentsLeave a comment

Aladin ou la lampe merveilleuse (1906)

ALADIN OU LA LAMPE MERVEILLEUSE (1906)
aka Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp
Article 2474 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 1-10-2008
Posting Date: 5-21-2008
Directed by Albert Capellani
Featuring Georges Vinter
Country: France

Aladdin discovers a lamp with a genie and uses it to win the hand of a princess.

Yes, it’s the basic Aladdin story told in twelve minutes as a silent. All the title cards are in French, but if you know the story, it’s no obstacle at all. My copy is in beautiful hand-tinted color and in very nice condition. It’s pretty straightforward, though I do wonder why the genie appears as an imp in most of the scenes but as a misshapen giant in the scene where they redecorate Aladdin’s home. Still, whatever you think of them, you have to admire these early silents for their efficiency; you reach the end of the story by the time most movies are just getting started.

 

0 CommentsLeave a comment

Kismet (1944)

KISMET (1944)
Article 2473 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 1-9-2008
Posting Date: 5-20-2008
Directed by William Dieterle
Featuring Ronald Colman, Marlene Dietrich, James Craig
Country: USA

A self-proclaimed King of the Beggars decides to make his daughter the queen of Baghdad; towards that end, he masquerades as the prince of a distant land and befriends the Grand Vizier, whom he believes will assassinate the current Caliph and take his place. Unbeknownst to him, however, his daughter has been secretly meeting the man she loves – the Caliph disguised as the son of the royal gardener. Complications ensue.

This Arabian Nights epic was filmed seven times over the years; this was the fifth one. It’s based on a play by Edward Knoblock, and I would describe the story as similar to that of the one of Aladdin, only redone and somewhat inverted. It also lacks the fantastic content of the Aladdin story; without a genie in the story, the only real fantastic content is the beggar’s magic tricks. I’ve always liked William Dieterle as a director, and he does a fine job here. I also like Ronald Colman as Hafiz the beggar; he had a way of delivering the stylized dialogue that made it sound perfectly natural. I also really like Edward Arnold as the Grand Vizier; he always made such great villains. However, I’m not all that taken with Marlene Dietrich here; to me, she’s one of those actresses that simply doesn’t belong in an Arabian Nights movie, and I find her presence somewhat jarring, and I was less than enthralled by her exotic dance (in which she had her legs painted gold). Hugh Herbert plays his usual character, and is used sparingly (a wise decision). Though this movie was given an opulent production, it’s still fairly lightweight fare, and it isn’t particularly memorable.

 

0 CommentsLeave a comment

Jack the Giant Killer (1962)

JACK THE GIANT KILLER (1962)
Article 2472 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 1-8-2008
Posting Date: 5-19-2008
Directed by Nathan Juran
Featuring Kerwin Mathews, Judi Meredith, Torin Thatcher
Country: USA

A farmer saves the princess of the realm from a kidnapping by a giant. The king offers him the job of protecting her from the wiles of the evil wizard Pendragon. When Pendragon abducts the princess, he must rescue her.

This is a deliberate attempt to ape the success of the Harryhausen fantasy movies, right down to hiring Nathan Juran, Kerwin Mathews and Torin Thatcher, who all worked on THE 7TH VOYAGE OF SINBAD. Jim Danforth was hired for the stop motion animation. Danforth’s animation isn’t up to the level of Harryhausen’s, and many of the other special effects look rather cartoony. However, this doesn’t necessarily make the movie bad; the special effects as they are give the movie a rather colorful, unique flavor. Storywise, it’s less mythological and more fairy-tale than the Harryhausen movies; in fact, it often reminded me more of THE MAGIC SWORD than any of Harryhausen’s movies. It’s entertaining enough, though it does suffer a little from lackluster direction and pacing, and a sense of derivitiveness. And, for the record, I watched the non-musical version of the movie; I’ve never seen the musical version, but I have a funny feeling I’d find it truly annoying. Heck, I was already annoyed enough by the rhyming leprechaun (they call him an imp, but I know a leprechaun when I see one) to want to hear him with music.

 

0 CommentsLeave a comment

Blue Demon contra cerebros infernales (1968)

BLUE DEMON CONTRA CEREBROS INFERNALES (1968)
aka Blue Demon vs. the Infernal Brains

Article 2471 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 1-7-2008
Posting Date: 5-18-2008
Directed by Chano Urueta
Featuring David Reynoso, Ana Martin, Noe Murayama
Country: Mexico

Mad scientists are removing the brains of non-mad scientists, putting new brains in their heads, and turning them into zombies. Mexican wrestler Blue Demon must prevent this.

Let’s define our terms.

MEXICAN WRESTLING MOVIE – what this is

BLUE DEMON – heroic Mexican wrestler. You can’t have a Mexican Wrestling Movie without one.

MASK – What heroic Mexican wrestlers wear. Blue Demon’s is blue. As if you couldn’t guess.

BEAT UP BAD GUYS – What heroic Mexican wrestlers do in these movies.

WRESTLE – What heroic Mexican wrestlers do in these movies when they aren’t advancing the plot.

WRESTLING SCENES – What happens in this movie when the plot isn’t being advanced.

SINGING AND DANCING SCENES – What happens in this movie when the plot isn’t being advanced and the heroic Mexican wrestler is in the bathroom.

BRIGHT COLORS – What you’ll see lots of if you see my copy of this movie. Honestly, this is one of the most colorful Mexican wrestling movies I’ve ever scene.

THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE – What you won’t get any of if you see my copy of this movie. In short, undubbed Spanish.

BAD SPECIAL EFFECTS – What you’ll get during the scenes where brains are being removed and inserted.

BRAINS – What the bad guys are taking out of and putting into the scientists’ heads.

SCIENTISTS’ FOREHEADS – What the bad guys will press their disembodied brains against when they’re trying to give the illusion they’re putting brains back into the scientists when it’s obvious the scientists’ heads are fully intact. See BAD SPECIAL EFFECTS.

SEXY GO-GO DANCERS – What the bad guys’ female robots look like.

JANITORS – What the bad guys’ male robots look like.

SEXY GO-GO DANCERS WITH PARALYZING GUNS – What the referees miss when they’re trying to manage one of those wrestling scenes.

TRUMPET WITH SEVERE NECK STRAIN – What is played by the band during the Singing and Dancing scenes.

MINISKIRTS – What is worn by the females during the dancing scenes.

BLUE CAPE AND TIGHTS – What Blue Demon wears all the time.

LAME EXCUSE FOR A REVIEW – What you’ve just read.

 

0 CommentsLeave a comment