Captain Mephisto and the Transformation Machine (1966)

CAPTAIN MEPHISTO AND THE TRANSFORMATION MACHINE (1966)
Feature Version of the Serial MANHUNT OF MYSTERY ISLAND
Article 2041 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 10-16-2006
Posting Date: 3-15-2007
Directed by Spencer Gordon Bennet, Yakima Canutt, Wallace Grissell
Featuring Roy Barcroft, Richard Bailey, Linda Stirling

An investigator does battle with a pirate intent on getting his hands on a secret invention.

MANHUNT OF MYSTERY ISLAND is one of the better serials out there, but this feature version of it does no more worthwhile a job of turning it into a workable feature than most of the other attempts at this that I’ve seen, Beyond that, I have little more to say about this one.

I think that if there’s one thing I’m looking forward to in this series, it’s the moment when I finally have done with watching these feature versions of serials. Never more than when I’m watching these do I get the feeling that I’m doing little more than checking a number off of a list. These are also the movies that give me the greatest sense of “cinema as product” (as opposed to “cinema as art” or “cinema as entertainment”), probably because they aren’t even really movies. Even watching Jerry Warren movies at their dullest gives me more of a sense of doing something worthwhile than these do.

Yet, at the same time, there’s a touch of sadness to the whole thing. There’s a part of me that wants every movie to be available, no matter what my opinion is of its worth. These feature versions of serials served a purpose at one time, but that time is long gone, and with the availability and marketability of full serials, I see very little future for these feature versions. Though I’ve watched plenty of them, there are still quite a few that have eluded me entirely, and I think as time goes by, they will only become harder to find. And this saddens me.

MISSILE MONSTERS is the feature version of a serial that has been on my list the longest without my having successfully found a copy. If I ever do find it, I’ll probably think it stinks. But I’ll be glad I found it. And that’s the irony of this whole project.

 

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Invasion of the Body Stealers (1969)

INVASION OF THE BODY STEALERS (1969)
aka THE BODY STEALERS, THIN AIR
Article 2040 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 10-15-2006
Posting Date: 3-14-2007
Directed by Gerry Levy
Featuring George Sanders, Maurice Evans, Patrick Allen

When military skydivers begin vanishing in midair during drops, an investigator is called in to find out why.

I like a movie that opens with a solid mystery, and this one certainly does that. Still, there’s really not a lot in the way of surprises in the revelations that occur, especially as the title of my copy and the tagline (“Can the Earth survive against aliens from outer space?”) make it all too clear who the culprit will be. The acting is solid, and the story is fairly entertaining, but it’s indifferently directed, and I don’t care for some of the touches, such as trying to add some James-Bond style touches to the main character and the fact that the score carries on like you’re being treated to nerve-shattering horror on occasion. As the story progresses, it just becomes more obvious and disappointing. It’s watchable but ultimately forgettable.

 

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Radar Men from the Moon (1952)

RADAR MEN FROM THE MOON (1952)
Serial
Article 2039 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 10-14-2006
Posting Date: 3-13-2007
Directed by Fred C. Brannon
Featuring George Wallace, Aline Towne, Roy Barcroft

Commando Cody has to deal with saboteurs from the moon intent on softening up our defenses for an upcoming invasion.

Though it doesn’t hold a candle to their best serials from the forties, this is perhaps the best serial from Republic during the fifties that I’ve seen so far. Chalk it up to a fairly decent pace and the fact that it takes the time to shift locations to the moon every once in a while. At any rate, it’s certainly a better rocket man serial than ZOMBIES OF THE STRATOSPHERE. At any rate, a few comments…

1) The rocket man popularly known as Commando Cody is known here as…Commando Cody! Cody even has a cool logo on the wall near the entrance to his building.

2) Based on a few comments here and there, I’ve come to the conclusion that Cody’s first name is actually Commando. This, of course, makes me wonder about the state of mind of Cody’s parents.

3) Sure, the rocket suit is cool and all, but let’s face it; the real test of a hero is how well they handle themselves in a good, solid fistfight. Unfortunately, almost every time Cody and his assistant Ted get involved in one, they get the crap kicked out of them. Maybe they shouldn’t have been tussling with Clayton Moore, the Lone Ranger himself.

4) Retik can brag all he wants about the superiority of moon weapons to earth weapons, but watching him fumble clumsily with his hand ray-gun (which can only fire a single shot before having to reload) while Cody proceeds to mop the floor with Retik’s associates (in one of the few fights where he proves his mettle) and then consistently missing when he does fire – well, let’s just say I’m not quaking in my boots about the fate of the world in the hands of these moon men.

5) I think somebody should take a look at the shocks on those moon tanks.

6) Any saboteur organization that spends an inordinate amount of time trying to get finances for their diabolical plans doesn’t strike me as effective. And any such organization that hits upon the idea of getting money by kidnapping their most prominent foe and holding him for ransom doesn’t strike me as particularly intelligent.

7) As for the cliffhangers, let’s just say this – there’s a lot of bailing out going on.

 

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Blood Sabbath (1972)

BLOOD SABBATH (1972)
Article 2038 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 10-13-2006
Posting Date: 3-12-2007
Directed by Brianne Murphy
Featuring Anthony Geary, Susan Damante-Shaw, Sam Gilman

A guilt-ridden Vietnam vet falls in love with a water nymph who cannot be his lover because he has a soul. However, luckily (or unluckily) for him, there is a nearby witch’s coven which will gladly take his soul. However, there’s a catch…

You know, I really can’t help but admire a movie that really tries to be different. Of course, that doesn’t mean the movie will work, and this bizarre cross between seventies witch movies, NIGHT TIDE, LOVE STORY and ORGY OF THE DEAD, with romantic meadow-romping, tepid gore effects, crass exploitation (it really should be called BOOB SABBATH, if you get my drift) and bad acting is, in a word, awful. Tony Geary would, of course, go on to be a mainstay in the soap opera “General Hospital”; I’ve never seen that show, but his acting here is certainly nothing to recommend. It’s one of those movies where people yell a lot when they want to express emotion (that is, if they aren’t romping around the meadow or running around naked). Incidentally, did you know the way you lose your soul involves being caressed by a coven of naked witches? Sure, it sounds like fun, all right, but based on Geary’s performance, I can only come to the conclusion that it really hurts. Granted, I’ve never been in a position to try it myself…

 

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Ladron de cadaveres (1957)

LADRON DE CADAVERES (1957)
aka THE BODY SNATCHERS
Article 2037 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 10-12-2006
Posting Date: 3-11-2007
Directed by Fernando Mendez
Featuring Columba Dominguez, Crox Alvarado, Wolf Ruvinskis

A mad scientist experimenting with monkey-to-human brain transplants hits upon the idea that the ideal subjects for his experiments are wrestlers. He begins murdering them and absconding with the bodies.

With a translated title that recalls a certain Val Lewton film, and scenes that hearken back to FRANKENSTEIN and KING KONG, there’s no doubt in my mind that Mexican horror movies did their share of mining from various sources. Still, they put these elements together in unique ways, and even in the unsubtitled and undubbed version that I saw of this one, that creativity made the movie continually interesting and not really all that difficult to follow. In fact, this may be one of the best of the Mexican horror movies; it was made shortly before EL VAMPIRO caused the genre to explode in popularity, and the wrestling backdrop predates the whole wrestling/horror angle by half a decade. There’s some memorable scenes here; I like the credits sequence (which pop up against the backdrop of newspaper headline), and the scenes where the scientist and his cronies put into effect clever schemes to acquire the bodies are very entertaining. The scene in the gymnasium (which helps the scientist pick out his first subject wrestler] is also very strong. The climax is definitely memorable, as Wolf Ruvinskis (who ends up the subJect of the doctor’s experiment) goes on a violent rampage, all the time getting uglier and more ferocious.

As time goes by, these Mexican horror movies are getting more respect and notice. Let’s hope some subtitler out there gets ideas about this excellent outing.

 

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Hercules Against Rome (1964)

HERCULES AGAINST ROME (1964)
aka ERCOLE CONTRO ROMA
Article 2036 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 10-11-2006
Posting Date: 3-10-2007
Directed by Piero Pierotti
Featuring Sergio Ciani, Wandisa Guida, Livio Lorenzon

Hercules must save the Roman emperor from a plot against him by the pretorian guards.

At least that’s the plot I got off of IMDB. You know, I usually don’t have much trouble locating the Sword-and-Sandal movies that pop up on my list; I manage to find them without a great deal of hassle (if I don’t already have them in my collection). This one was far and away the hardest to get. When it finally made itself available, I was quite glad, even if the print was undubbed and subtitled in what looks like Dutch; if the latter statement is true, that means that in the Netherlands they subtitle Sword-and-Sandal movies, a fact that actually gives me pause.

In truth, it hardly made a difference to me. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen a Sword-and-Sandal movie where the plot made much of a difference to me, and the fun things about it (watching Hercules kick butt) are still here in spades. I really like Alan Steel; he looks like he’s having the time of his life during the fight scenes. Not only does he knock someone off his horse with a really big mallet, he also attacks people with pillars, hits them with logs, pushes a huge rock off of a cliff, and when it comes time for him to bend the bars back, he chooses instead to just pick up a big rock and knock the whole cell door down. He even dispatches one of the villains with an anvil, an act that would make Bugs Bunny proud. The main fantastic content is, of course, Hercules’s great strength; you try dispatching someone with an anvil and see how hard it is.

I wonder just how many more of these I’m destined to see.

 

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The Automobile Chase (1905)

THE AUTOMOBILE CHASE (1905)
aka PARIS TO MONTE CARLO, LE RAID PARIS-MONTE CARLO EN DEUX HEURES
Article 2035 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 10-10-2006
Posting Date: 3-9-2007
Directed by Georges Melies

An automobile races from Paris to Monte Carlo, wreaking havoc along the way.

The fantastic content in this comic Melies film is somewhat slighter than usual, but a scene in which they run over and flatten a person (who is then returned to the correct shape through the use of tire pumps) moves it into the area of fantasy. The car may also be a science-fiction invention as well; I don’t recall other cars of the era looking that way, and it does get somewhat airborne on occasion, so that might qualify. My favorite scene is when the car hits the biggest obstacle on its trip; a guard uses his big round stomach to push the car back in the direction it came. My print has some of the hand-coloring used at the time, but it ends rather abruptly.

 

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The Apparition (1903)

THE APPARITION (1903)
aka LE REVENANT
Article 2034 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 10-9-2006
Posting Date: 3-8-2007
Directed by Georges Melies
Featuring Georges Melies

An old man tries to read, but his candle proves uncooperative. Then he tries to rid the room of ghosts.

Georges Melies made over five hundred short movies during the first 20 years of cinema, and most of them probably have fantastic content. Yet I’ve only covered a handful of them so far, largely due to the fact that my sources for movie titles to this point largely neglect the silent era. That changes with the inclusion of Don Willis’ first volume of “Horror and Science Fiction Films”, which made a real attempt to be complete. Though my hunt list will now be quickly filled with obscure and unfindable early silents, it will also give me a chance to delve more extensively into some of the extant films from the oeuvre of Melies.

The story here is basically comic, with the old man trying to keep a mobile candle in one place long enough to read his paper. With the ghosts, he attempts to do battle with them and ends up wrecking his own room. Beyond that, there’s very little in the way of a story here, but you can enjoy some of these early experiments with double exposure and trick editing.

 

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Ghidrah, the Three-Headed Monster (1964)

GHIDRAH, THE THREE-HEADED MONSTER (1964)
Article 2033 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 10-8-2006
Posting Date: 3-7-2007
Directed by Ishiro Honda
Featuring Yosuke Natsuki, Yuriko Hoshi, Hiroshi Koizumi

When a giant three-headed monster wreaks havoc across the Earth, Mothra tries to convince Godzilla and Rodan to join forces to defeat the menace.

This movie marks a turning point in the Godzilla series. Not only does it introduce the title monster, Ghidrah (probably Toho’s greatest creation since Godzilla himself), but it also marks Godzilla’s change from a menace to a hero (albeit reluctantly). It takes quite a while for the monster action to start, but the first half of the movie remains fun nonetheless because of the innumerable plot elements that get woven together, including visitors from Mars, an attempted political assassination of a princess, the investigation of a strange meteorite, and a doom-speaking prophetess. It’s difficult to say how serious to take the movie, because much of the humor may be from the dubbing. At any rate, despite the fact that he doesn’t reform until the end of the movie, Godzilla doesn’t really come across as much of a threat; Rodan certainly seems to be getting the better of him in their one-on-one fight. The funniest sequences involve the monsters, including a scene where Rodan and Godzilla bat a rock back and forth while Mothra watches as if it’s a tennis match, and the scene where the fairies translate the monster’s conference; apparently, Godzilla can cuss up a blue streak. It may be silly at times, but it’s one of the most entertaining movies of the Godzilla series.

 

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The X from Outer Space (1967)

THE X FROM OUTER SPACE (1967)
aka UCHU DAIKAIJU GIRARA
Article 2032 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 10-7-2006
Posting Date: 3-6-2007
Directed by Kazui Nihonmatsu
Featuring Eiji Okada, Toshiya Wazaki, Itoko Harada

A space ship embarks on a trip to Mars to discover why all previous expeditions were destroyed. They encounter a flying saucer, and end up retrieving a substance that grows into a huge monster when taken to earth.

If there was a competition going for the worst of the Kaijus, this one would have its chicken-shaped foot squarely in the ring. The special effects are abysmal, the plot is a mess, the chicken-headed monster with wiggling antennae is goofy, and the score is horrid. The monster’s name is Guilala (not X), and he has the most appalling and repetitive monster theme ever; it consists of pulsating drums and what sounds like two out-of-tune clarinets blaring the same note repeatedly. I also don’t care for the perpetually-out-of-focus flying saucer (which, to my eyes, looks more like a meat pie than a fried egg). Still, I can’t deny there’s a certain campy charm to the whole thing, though I do feel the first half of the movie is an almost total snoozefest. If you’re just getting into kaijus, this is not the place to start.

 

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