Terrified (1963)

TERRIFIED (1963)
Article 2021 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 9-26-2006
Posting Date: 2-23-2007
Directed by Lew Landers
Featuring Rod Lauren, Steve Drexel, Tracy Olsen

A variety of people are being terrorized by a masked killer in a ghost town. All the people have something in common; they have close ties with a young woman.

This low-budget fright flick, the last movie by veteran director Lew Landers, has a mixed reputation; some people have fond memories of being scared by the movie, while others find it cheap and unconvincing. Me, I find both sides evenly matched on this one, as I feel both ways about it. There are times where the characters show a surprising degree of intelligence (I love the moment where one potential victim figures out that the murderer is purposefully trying to lure him away from the cemetery, and resolves to go there at once to find out why), but I think the movie is least successful when it’s trying to be frightening. The killer’s cat-and-mouse game with his victim (where he places him in peril, then allows him to escape only to capture him again) is pretty clever in theory, but it’s so badly marred by his harping on how scared his victim should be that it undercuts the effectiveness of the ruse; personally, I think it would have been a lot better if the killer didn’t say a word during his acts of terror. The identity of the killer is painfully obvious; I knew who it was ten minutes into the movie, but the movie actually works itself up to an effective ending once the unmasking occurs and we get some insight into why he’s doing what he’s doing. In short, this is one very mixed bag, but it has its moments, I think is worth catching for these alone.

 

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Student Bodies (1981)

STUDENT BODIES (1981)
Article 2020 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 9-25-2006
Posting Date: 2-22-2007
Directed by Mickey Rose and Michael Ritchie
Featuring Kristen Riter, Matthew Goldsby, Richard Brando

A killer known as The Breather is on the loose knocking off homecoming queen candidates and their boyfriends.

I’ve barely touched upon the slasher genre in my series so far, and here I am already covering a parody of the genre. Since this movie was written and partially directed by a collaborator with Woody Allen on some of his earlier films, it’s no surprise that the movie has some good moments and ideas; I like the on-screen body-count, the highlighted emphasis on plot points, the scene where the killer chooses his weapon from a roll-top desk, and the bizarre emphasis on horse-head bookends, to name a few. But for every good gag, there’s a plethora of bad ones, pointless ones, and crude ones that miss the mark. For a parody of an extremely bloody and skin-filled genre, there’s a surpising scarcity of blood and nudity, so much so that the movie has to go out of its way to get its R rating (one of the funnier scenes of the movie). It even manages to sneak in some parodies of CARNIVAL OF SOULS and THE WIZARD OF OZ in the mix, and if you’ve seen CARRIE, you’ll see the final gag coming. All in all, it’s pretty dumb, but at least its opening “This is based on a true story” explanation is honest.

 

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Stereo (1969)

STEREO (1969)
Article 2019 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 9-24-2006
Posting Date: 2-21-2007
Directed by David Cronenberg
Featuring Ronald Miodzik, Jack Messinger, Iain Ewing

A Canadian institute engages in experiments on telepathy and eroticism.

This, like CRIMES OF THE FUTURE , is one of David Cronenberg’s very early art films; apparently, he got funding for the film from the Canadian government by pretending that he was writing a novel. I find this little piece of trivia rather interesting; the style of the movie (black and white photography, no dialogue, incidental sound or music, action explained (or not) by various narrators) leaves me feeling like I’m reading a book rather than watching a movie. Unfortunately, the book is rather dry; the narration sounds like passages from a scientific report, and even the most sympathetic viewer will find the movie a trial to get through in one sitting; it has, if possible, even less discernible plot than CRIMES OF THE FUTURE. Which is not to say that the movie isn’t interesting; Cronenberg’s works can be intellectually stimulating, and there is plenty food for thought here. It’s just rather exhausting, and the visceral touches never quite make up for that. Still, like CRIMES OF THE FUTURE, there is much here that fits in neatly with Cronenberg’s obsessions and interests, and I suspect that his early movies might well benefit from sympathetic reviewings, dry as they are.

 

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Serpent Island (1954)

SERPENT ISLAND (1954)
Article 2018 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date:9-23-2006
Posting Date: 2-20-2007
Directed by Tom Gries
Featuring Sonny Tufts, Mary Munday, Tom Monroe

A woman hires a hard-drinking harbor bum to accompany her on a quest for a fortune of gold. However, the captain she hires to take them to Haiti also has his eyes on the prize….

Don’t let the fact that Bert I. Gordon produced this movie fool you; there are no giant monsters to be found in this rather lame tropical island/jungle tale. The fantastic aspects consist of stock footage of a voodoo ceremony, an element which really doesn’t play into the story at all, but merely serves as a mood enhancer once the action moves to the island during the second part of the movie. The first half of the movie mostly takes place on the boat, with a budding romance between the two main characters and someone trying to steal the letter with the info about the treasure. You should be able to figure out who the latter character is; you know it isn’t one of the two main characters, and of the only other three characters who exist in the cast outside of the stock footage, only one is on the boat. The acting is weak, the dialogue is clumsy, and there is little to recommend here; the best thing about it is that it manages to be just watchable enough to see you through the length of the movie, much of which is due to the fact that the hokey dialogue is good for a few laughs. Both Gordon and director Tom Gries would go on to better movies.

 

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Savage Weekend (1979)

SAVAGE WEEKEND (1979)
Article 2017 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 9-22-2006
Posting Date: 2-19-2007
Directed by David Paulsen and John Mason Kirby
Featuring Chrisopher Allport, Jim Doerr, David Gale

Several people from New York City go upstate to supervise the building of a boat, and find themselves targets of a masked killer.

Apparently this slasher movie was filmed in 1976 before HALLOWEEN kicked off the genre, but was not released until afterwards. I can see why. I found it extremely dull, despite the copious amount of nudity, sex and fetishism. Part of the reason is that the acting is quite poor at times, but the fact is that most of the characters are so unpleasant that you don’t really care what happens to them. It’s also littered with some uninteresting subplots. The movie can’t even work up much suspense when the murders start happening. It does work up a bit of excitement towards the end when two central characters engage in a fight, one armed with a machete and the other with a chainsaw, but it’s too little, too late. Not recommended.

 

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Road to Bali (1952)

ROAD TO BALI (1952)
Article 2016 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 9-21-2006
Posting Date: 2-18-2007
Directed by Hal Walker
Featuring Bing Crosby, Bob Hope, Dorothy Lamour

Two entertainers get involved with natives who are after a box of jewels.

Yes, it’s another Hope/Crosby road movie, and if you’ve seen one of them, you know the basic routine. In this one, the fantastic aspects are a little more prominent; in particular, there is a giant squid that threatens Bob Hope when he’s deep sea diving. There’s also a magic flute that causes women to appear out of baskets (including Jane Russell at one point), a couple of men-in-gorilla-suits (one of which, playing a female gorilla, takes a bit of a liking to both Hope and Crosby) and a native tribe of headhunters who worship a volcano. Other cameos include Dean Martin, Jerry Lewis, Humphrey Bogart (who appears in a clip from THE AFRICAN QUEEN) and Bing’s brother Bob Crosby, who gets a shot in the movie. Like the other Road movies, this is amusing fun.

 

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The Pied Piper of Hamelin (1957)

THE PIED PIPER OF HAMELIN (1957)
Article 2015 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 9-20-2006
Posting Date: 2-17-2007
Directed by Bretaigne Windust
Featuring Van Johnson, Claude Rains, Lori Nelson

A town beset by rats hires a magical piper to get rid of the rodents. Then, when the mayor decides to get out of paying the piper his fee, the piper decides to exact a fitting revenge…

When reviewing children’s movies, I don’t really try too hard to figure out how it will go over with children; I’m really more interested in how well it goes over with my adult self. I quite like this one, and one reason for this is that there is much to interest the adult viewer, what with the political satire surrounding the mayor’s machinations. In fact, I think this fairy tale is more geared for adults anyway; after all, it is the adults who have the lesson to learn in this one. I also quite like the music, much of which comes from Grieg; I especially love the use of “In the Hall of the Mountain King”. The acting is also good, especially from Claude Rains (as the Mayor) and Van Johnson in the dual role of Trusom and the Piper. There are some very strong scenes here; the scene where the children are led into the mountain is the one scene I recall from a viewing many years ago (and it’s still quite powerful, especially when one child is left behind), and the scene where the piper climbs to the top of the bell tower to give his warning to the people is also memorable; pay close attention to the statues in this scene. And if I were Jim Backus’s character, I’d be very grateful that cannon did not go off.

 

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Crucible of Horror (1970)

CRUCIBLE OF HORROR (1970)
aka THE CORPSE
Article 2014 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 9-19-2006
Posting Date: 2-16-2007
Directed by Viktors Ritelis
Featuring Michael Gough, Yvonne Mitchell, Sharon Gurney

A cruel and abusive man is targeted for murder by his wife and daughter, but things don’t quite go in the direction they expect.

I’ve often wondered how many movies you could describe by merely mentioning the movie which served as a template for it; in this case, I was fairly certain by the halfway point that I was watching a variation of DIABOLIQUE. It may still be one, but I’m not quite sure, largely because the end of the movie didn’t answer my questions. There is the distinct possibility that I may have missed some subtle plot points that explain the whole thing, and that this is one of those movies that you just need to think through before you can come to any conclusions. Unfortunately, this is not a movie I really care to think about; despite the fact that the acting is quite good from all concerned, the movie itself is so dreary and depressing that all I wanted to do after it was over was to shake it off, not think about it. I do have two possible explanations for the ending, but I don’t like either of them. One (which involves figuring out what a fourth character who is not present during most of the main action of the movie may be up to) was what I was anticipating for most of the movie, and the lack of a surprise would have been depressing, and the other (about the mental state of one of the central characters) makes me suspect that most of what happened didn’t happen. Neither of these explanations leave me satisfied, and the various bizarre arty touches (jaggedly edited flashbacks and a preponderance of bizarre close-ups) don’t really do much for me either. All in all, I found this one frustrating and unrewarding.

 

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Magdalena, Possessed by the Devil (1974)

MAGDALENA, POSSESSED BY THE DEVIL (1974)
aka MAGDALENA, VOM TEUFEL BESESSEN, BEYOND THE DARKNESS
Article 2013 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 9-18-2006
Posting Date: 2-15-2007
Directed by Walter Boos
Featuring Dagmar Hedrich, Werner Bruhns, Michael Hinz

A woman at a boarding school gets possessed by the devil, cusses a lot, is raped by invisible demons, and uses her wiles to lure men into killing each other, makes furniture move, and baffles scientists.

If you didn’t know THE EXORCIST was a big hit, you might figure it out by how many imitations were made in its wake. This one ups the sleaze factor by making the possessed girl several years older; that way, they can add a lot more sex and nudity to the proceedings to compensate for the lack of blood and pea soup. There are a few good ideas in the mix, but for the most part, it’s an unfocused poorly-dubbed mess. Exploitation director Walter Boos helms this one; he’s mostly known for a series of movies that begin with the words “Schoolgirl Report”, which should give you an idea where he’s coming from. The ending is probably the most memorable part of the movie; it’s probably the only thing I’ll remember about it in a few months, but that doesn’t mean it works; it’s the type of scene that would be pretty effective in the middle of a movie like this, but as a climax, it’s – well – anticlimactic. This one is pretty much for fans of sleaze who could care less about the story.

 

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Cinderfella (1960)

CINDERFELLA (1960)
Article 2012 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 9-17-2006
Posting Date: 2-14-2007
Directed by Frank Tashlin
Featuring Jerry lewis, Ed Wynn, Judith Anderson

The heir to a hidden fortune finds himself oppressed by his stepmother and two stepbrothers. He then meets his fairy godfather, who tells him that he will hin the hand of Princess Charming.

I don’t quite know what to make of this attempt to turn the old fairy tale into a vehicle for Jerry Lewis. Despite having a simple and basic story to use as a template, the script seems more intent with muddying up the proceedings by introducing a subplot about a hidden fortune, making oddball observations about the effect of the Cinderella story, and playing for pathos at all the wrong times. Though I loved Lewis’s comic persona when I was a kid, as an adult I find it gets old quickly, and I think it doesn’t lend itself at all well to the pathos that it strives for on occasion. Also, with the exception of the musical numbers by Count Basie and his orchestra, the music numbers here are extremely weak; Lewis really shouldn’t sing. Still, the movie has an interesting cast, what with Ed Wynn, Judith Anderson, Henry Silva and Robert Hutton on hand; Anderson in particular does an excellent job bringing to life and fleshing out the stepmother. And Lewis did have some real comic gifts; my favorite moment here is when, while listening to a Count Basie number on the radio, he puts on a pantomime of playing the various instruments, a sequence which nonetheless has nothing at all to do with the story.

 

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