Deadly Harvest (1977)

DEADLY HARVEST (1977)
Article 2031 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 10-6-2006
Posting Date: 3-5-2007
Directed by Timothy Bond
Featuring Clint Walker, Nehemiah Persoff, Geraint Wyn Davies

When changing weather patterns and poor governmental management result in a worldwide famine, the government covers up the crisis by instituting deceptive rationing and martial law. Farmers soon find themselves under siege from desperate men who want their food.

There are plenty of flaws in this Canadian science fiction doomsday feature; the acting is highly variable, though Nehemiah Persoff comes off best as a black market food dealer. The score is also uneven; it will be movingly sublime one moment and annoyingly intrusive the next. It’s also a little on the obvious side and given to blatant manipulation on occasion. However, the basic premise is interesting, and the story (which weaves together four basic groups of people; a farm family trying to feed and protect themselves, and a city family trying to acquire food, a group of black market food rustlers, and a protection group which offers their services to local farmers for food) is sturdy enough. It’s also interesting to consider thematically how it compares with other survivalist/end-of-the-world scenarios; there are certain similarities here with PANIC IN YEAR ZERO and ON THE BEACH. The underlying theme is a common one to these types of movies; just where does a conventional morality fit in these violent and brutal times? As a result, the movie holds the interest despite the flaws. The movie also features an early performance by Kim Cattrall.

 

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Wild in the Streets (1968)

WILD IN THE STREETS (1968)
Article 2030 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 10-5-2006
Posting Date: 3-4-2007
Directed by Barry Shear
Featuring Shelley Winters, Christopher Jones, Diane Varsi

A politician, hoping to catch the youth vote, hooks up with a pop star to perform at his rallies and help in his plan to bring the voting age to eighteen. The pop star has ideas of his own, though, and he uses this connection as a springboard to to pursue his own agenda, which includes reducing the voting age to 14 as well as making that the minimum age for members of Congress and the Presidency. The pop star manages to get himself elected, and puts into effect some radical policies.

This paranoid foray into social science fiction is definitely a product of the late sixties. The premise is outlandish, but it’s a tribute to director Barry Shear and writer Robert Thom that they manage to concoct a storyline that (for the most part) makes the premise seem possible. It’s effective enough, and it helps that the music actually does feel authentic enough to pass muster; in fact, the signature song, “The Shape of Things to Come” is included on the “Nuggets” boxed set. Some of the satire is cuttingly incisive; just for example, I can appreciate the supreme irony that the singer gets elected on the Republican ticket, and the irony is not lost on the singer and his group either. A good cast sells the story as well; as well as the ones listed above, the movie features Hal Holbrook, Richard Pryor, Ed Begley, and in cameos, Melvin Belli, Dick Clark, Walter Winchell and others. Teen idol Bobby Sherman, Monkee Peter Tork, and child actor Bill Mumy also appear. This one is definitely interesting, though its dark irony is offset by its basic naivete. And given the premise, the ending was logical and inevitable.

 

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When Worlds Collide (1951)

WHEN WORLDS COLLIDE (1951)
Article 2029 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 10-4-2006
Posting Date: 3-3-2007
Directed by Rudolph Mate
Featuring Richard Derr, Barbara Rush, Peter Hansen

When a wandering star named Bellus is discovered to be on a collision course with the earth, a group of people decide to build a rocket that will take them to safety on the star’s sole planet, Zyra.

This doomsday movie from producer George Pal is generally well received. Certainly, the special effects are top-notch (with the exception being the shot of the Zyra landscape, an effect that Pal wanted to do as a miniature but the film got shipped out before he could). I always find the movie a bit on the disappointing side, though I like it a lot better than some of Pal’s weakest efforts (CONQUEST OF SPACE and ATLANTIS, THE LOST CONTINENT). The problem I have is that the human conflicts and stories that surround the event are pretty cliched; the use of a love triangle is particularly unimaginative, though at least none of the two rivals for Barbara Rush’s character’s hand dies heroically saving the others. Still, there are nice bits; I like the scenes where Riichard Derr’s messenger pretends to know more than he does in order to find out the nature of the message he’s delivering, and I like the scene where one of the rivals almost leaves the other stranded on the top of a flooded house. The movie also features John Hoyt, but sadly, this is one of his few performances I don’t like; his selfish millionaire is a fairly one-note affair, though in all fairness I should point out that it was written that way. Still, the scenes of the flooding of New York and the construction of the rocket ship are fun. Fans of TV sitcoms from the sixties should also recognize Hayden Rorke and Frank Cady in the cast.

 

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When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth (1970)

WHEN DINOSAURS RULED THE EARTH (1970)
Article 2028 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 10-3-2006
Posting Date: 3-2-2007
Directed by Val Guest
Featuring Victoria Vetri, Robin Hawdon, Patrick Allen

A blonde woman escapes one tribe intent on sacrificing her and joins up with another tribe, but the brunette women of that tribe are jealous of her but one caveman loves her and there are dinosaurs.

Actually, the dinosaurs don’t do a particularly good job of ruling in this one; most of them end up as petroleum-products-to-be at the hands of those annoying mammalian pests. Still, my own title for the movie (THE EARTH GETS MOONED) would probably have been rejected by the powers that be, even though it’s far more accurate; after all, the plot (such as it is) does seem to revolve around the earth acquiring the moon, and the skimpy costumes of all cast members (male and female) guarantees a generous amount of mooning. This takes place in that dim and distant time in the past where cavemen coexisted with dinosaurs, the earth had yet to acquire its satellite, and the most prominent invention was the underwired bra. A 27-word caveman lingo was devised for this movie, but I found it nearly impossible to follow; they use the word “akita” so many times that I thought it meant “hey”; actually, it means “look”. Due to the language barrier, the plot is difficult to follow, but I suspect that it’s your basic “the course of true love never did run smooth” tale. All in all, prehistoric business as usual.

 

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The Ghosts of Berkeley Square (1947)

THE GHOSTS OF BERKELEY SQUARE (1947)
Article 2027 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 10-2-2006
Posting Date: 3-1-2007
Directed by Vernon Sewell
Featuring Robert Morley, Felix Aylmer, Yvonne Arnaud

Two military men die while testing a trap in their house, and are condemned to haunt the place until reigning royalty comes to visit.

This is a fairly entertaining ghost comedy, with solid performances throughout, especially from our two leads, Robert Morley and Felix Aylmer, who constantly try to manipulate the current residents of the house to bring in royalty, which will release them from their curse. It’s fun to see the various groups who come to inhabit the house; at one point it’s a brothel, at another point it’s a medical hospital, and at one time or another a circus moves in as well as the Nawab of Bagwash (who apparently doesn’t count as royalty). Naturally, the schemes to bring in royalty backfire, often through the ghosts’ own actions. The cast also features Ernest Thesiger as a member of a psychical research society whose investigation of the haunted house could bring the much wanted visit. Director Vernon Sewell was also responsible for several other fantastically-themed movies, including LATIN QUARTER, THE BLOOD BEAST TERROR, CURSE OF THE CRIMSON ALTAR, and THE HORRORS OF BURKE AND HARE.

 

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Panther Girl of the Congo (1955)

PANTHER GIRL OF THE CONGO (1955)
aka PANTHER GIRL OF THE KONGO
Serial
Article 2026 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 10-1-2006
Posting Date: 2-28-2007
Directed by Franklin Adreon
Featuring Phyllis Coates, Myron Healey, Arthur Space

A female photographer contacts an adventurer to help her find the evidence she needs to prove to the authorities the existence of giant crawfish monsters terrorizing a jungle village. However, two hunters in the hire of an evil chemist try to prevent them from doing so, in the hopes of scaring away the natives so they can work a diamond mine.

When I covered the feature version of this serial (THE CLAW MONSTERS), I think I mentioned that any fondness I had for this one was that it actually supplied monsters, a rarity in serials. Having seen the whole thing, I feel no different; I like the monsters simply because I like monsters, even when they’re pretty lame (as these are). As for the rest of it, it mostly consists of tepid cliffhangers, footage from the Nyoka serials, and dull storylines. This was one of the last of the Republic serials, and the form was on its last legs. I only regret that Republic never saw its way towards incorporating monsters into its serials while they were still in their prime.

 

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Dark Ride (1978)

DARK RIDE (1978)
aka KILLER’S DELIGHT
Article 2025 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 9-30-2006
Posting Date: 2-27-2007
Directed by Jeremy Hoenack
Featuring John Karlen, James Luisi, Martin Speer

A serial killer is targeting hitchhikers and patrons of a swimming pool. A cop tries to track down the killer.

This movie was based on the Ted Bundy murders of the late seventies. Given the events in the picture, I’m assuming that it’s a highly fictionalized telling of the story. The emphasis here is not on the killer, but on the investigation of the crime. Parts of the movie are interesting enough; in particular, I like the attempt to trap the killer in the last part of the movie. However, it’s full of cliches and the direction is singularly uninspired; despite the nudity and the violence, it looks and feels like a TV movie most of the time. The cop who has trouble with his superiors, has a wise-cracking buddy, and who plays by his own rules is certainly a cliche. The middle section of the movie gets rather repetitive as well. The movie isn’t awful, but it never really comes to life, either.

 

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Utopia (1951)

UTOPIA (1951)
aka ATOLL K
Article 2024 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 9-29-2006
Posting Date: 2-26-2007
Directed by Leo Joannon, John Berry, Alfred J. Goulding and Tim Whelan
Featuring Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, Suzy Delair

Laurel and Hardy inherit an island and a boat. On the way to the island, they get stranded with their cook and a stowaway on an atoll that rises out of the sea during a storm. They manage to survive, and grow to enjoy their privacy. Then, when it is discovered that Uranium exists on the island and several countries try to claim it as their own, they are forced to form their own government to keep hold of it.

The fantastic element in this, Laurel and Hardy’s final movie, is probably the fantasy element of a fictional country, which is what the island becomes once Ollie pens a constitution for it. It’s a strange entry in the Laurel and Hardy oeuvre, and I would love to read about the making of this movie. I suspect that the original story didn’t feature Stan and Ollie at all, and that it was rewritten afterwards to take advantage of their involvement; certainly, the political satire isn’t an element of standard Laurel and Hardy cinema, though it is common to the cinema of France, which is where the movie was made. It’s not as bad as its reputation would have you believe; Stan and Ollie still retain their sense of comic timing, and there are some laughs, but there are some real problems. The English dubbing is particularly noticeable, partially due to the fact that Stan and Ollie aren’t dubbed, but all the other characters are, and when the conversation goes back and forth, the sudden change (in mouth movements and ambient noise) is jarring. Furthermore, Ollie appears to have gained a lot of weight, and Stan looks deathly ill at times; he was ill, in fact, and the movie had to be delayed while he had an operation. It’s rather difficult to enjoy them in this condition. Also, I found myself a little disappointed to hear the boys take a few physical potshots at each other, with Stan making a comment about Ollie’s weight and Ollie making one about Stan’s ears; I don’t recall them having engaged in that type of humor before, and I really didn’t like it.

 

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Two Thousand Maniacs! (1964)

TWO THOUSAND MANIACS! (1964)
Article 2023 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 9-28-2006
Posting Date: 2-25-2007
Directed by Herschell Gordon Lewis
Featuring William Kerwin, Connie Mason, Jeffrey Allen

A group of northerners travelling in the South find themselves guests of honor during a centennial in a small southern town called Pleasant Valley. What they don’t know is that the guests of honor are slated to die in horrible ways as vengeance for an atrocity that occurred during the Civil War.

Herschell Gordon Lewis’s best film? Based on what I’ve seen of his work so far, I’m inclined to agree. Sure, it’s got plenty of problems; some of the acting is quite awful, (though both William Kerwin and Connie Mason are better here than they were in Lewis’s earlier BLOOD FEAST) and the final revelations are cliched and run on too long, to name a couple. But the movie lacks that static hangdog air that plagues so many of Lewis’s other movies; it’s the only movie I’ve seen of his that doesn’t seem to flaunt how low its budget is. Instead, there’s a surprising amount of energy here most of the time, and I attribute this to a variety of reasons. For one thing, it wasn’t produced by Lewis himself, and the budget was somewhat higher than is usually the case for his movies. But the biggest reasons may be the use of crowd scenes and the bluegrass music of the Pleasant Valley Boys; both of these elements add a marked energy to the proceedings.

There are also some striking and unusual moments here; the scene after the bloody “horse race” where one of the party organizers has to browbeat the shocked residents and the Pleasant Valley Boys into enjoying the proceedings really leaves one wondering whether this vengeance is the agenda of the whole town or only of a selected dictatorial few. I also liked a moment where a couple of the residents marvel at the invention of the car and speculate as to what sort of inventions they’ll have to play with at the next centennial. It’s moments like these which add a bit of dimension to what would otherwise be a one-note affair.

 

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Triumph of the Son of Hercules (1963)

TRIUMPH OF THE SON OF HERCULES (1963)
aka TRIONFO DI MACISTE
Article 2022 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 9-27-2006
Posting Date: 2-24-2007
Directed by Tanio Boccia
Featuring Kirk Morris, Cathia Caro, Liuba Bodina

An evil queen is sacrificing peasant maidens to a fire god. Maciste is enlisted to defeat her and free the people.

I like to joke a little about how the same elements appear again and again in sword-and-sandal movies, and there is at least one storyline that repeatedly pops up in the form. The best known version of it is HERCULES UNCHAINED. The basic plot is this; an evil queen is doing something horrible to the peasants, a muscleman decides to stand up to her, the muscleman is captured by the queen, the queen gets the hots for the muscleman and uses magic to wipe out his memory and make her love him, he recovers his memory and escapes, he saves an imperiled women while peasants stage a revolt and defeat the evil regime.

That’s pretty much the plot in this one once again, and it makes this peplum utterly predictable; the only thing missing is a scene where Maciste bends the bars of a prison wall. The fantastic elements are the usual ones; Maciste has super strength, the queen has a magic sceptre, and the fire god is served by a race of horrific Uri men with long fingernails. Despite the fact that I have a soft spot for sword-and-sandal movies, I do find their repetitiveness rather tedious at times, and I’m afraid that’s the case here.

 

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