Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves (1944)

ALI BABA AND THE FORTY THIEVES (1944)
Article 1852 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 4-10-2006
Posting Date: 9-7-2006
Directed by Arthur Lubin
Featuring Maria Montez, Jon Hall, Turhan Bey

When the son of the Kalif of Baghdad sees his father destroyed in a trap by Cassim (who betrays him to the Mongols), he encounters a band of thieves and recruits them to help him fight the Mongol threat.

It’s a Jon Hall – Maria Montez – Arabian Nights – Technicolor – epic. It’s not bad, I suppose, but quite frankly, I find little of interest here. I’ve just seen too many of them to get excited by them anymore (and by them, take your pick as to whether I mean Hall / Montez movies or Arabian Nights epics), and given that the fantastic nature is pretty light in this one (outside of the magical rock door that opens to “Open, O Sesame”, there’s nothing), my interest level flags pretty quickly. What pleasure I do get from them is usually tied to the character actors that fill out the edges, so I enjoy seeing Andy Devine, Turhan Bey and a quick cameo by Angelo Rossitto. Outside of that, it’s the usual scimitar-waving routine.

0 CommentsLeave a comment

The Vengeance of She (1968)

THE VENGEANCE OF SHE (1968)
Article 1851 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 4-9-2006
Posting Date: 9-6-2006
Directed by Cliff Owen
Featuring John Richardson, Olga Schoberova, Edward Judd

A woman finds himself being called to the lost city of Kuma. She is under the power of a high-priest who is using her resemblance to Ayesha to trick the leader Killikrates into giving him immortal life.

Olga Schoberova is stunningly beautiful and the sets and scenery are quite lovely. Still, these aspects of the movie add up to little more than eye candy, and given that Schoberova wasn’t much of an actress, that the movie is noticeably short of the star power that helped the original (no Ursula Andress, no Peter Cushing, no Christopher Lee), that the script is largely just a retread of the original with a few details changed and moved around, and that the script is a bore, you really have to be an eye candy fan to make this one fly. Most of the soundtrack is built around a saxophone riff that is actually quite nice until the movie repeats it for the umpty-ninth time. Oddly enough, the movie got a ‘G” rating despite the amount of skin that Schoberova puts on display throughout the movie.

0 CommentsLeave a comment

Tomb of Torture (1963)

TOMB OF TORTURE (1963)
aka Metempsycho
Article 1850 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 4-8-2006
Posting Date: 9-5-2006
Directed by Antonio Boccaci
Featuring Annie Alberti, Adriano Micantoni, Marco Mariani

A woman who may be the reincarnation of a dead countess is plagued by bad dreams that recount the death of her previous incarnation. Her father takes her to the village near the castle of the countess to try to cure her. There she meets a reporter who is there to investigate the deaths of two young women who were murdered by a monstrous creature inside the castle.

I’m not quite sure what to make of this bizarre little Eurohorror. As a horror movie, it’s a little too obvious to be really effective; it’s one of those movies that tries to get its scares in by having women scream at everything. It certainly doesn’t help that the monster is both overused and has a goofy laugh; it would have worked a lot better if they had kept his face hidden until the final reels and if we only heard him breathing. The movie also seems at least partially a comedy, and the primary comic relief character is our reporter-hero; just as a rule, don’t put too much hope on how effectual your hero will be if his musical theme prominently features an oboe. Overall, the movie is rather clumsy and crude, but it somehow remains rather watchable all the same; just don’t think about it too much. This would be Antonio Boccaci’s sole directorial effort.

0 CommentsLeave a comment

The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1968)

THE STRANGE CASE OF DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE (1968)
aka Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
Article 1849 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 4-7-2006
Posting Date: 9-4-2006
Directed by Charles Jarrott
Featuring Jack Palance, Denholm Elliott, Leo Genn

A doctor experiments with a potion to separate the good and evil parts of man, and ends up creating a monstrous villain.

Without straining I can think of eight versions of this story that I’ve already seen for this series, and so I can say with some confidence that when I watch a new version, I don’t really expect to be surprised. And, true enough, this version doesn’t really surprise me; however, it doesn’t bore me in the least and holds my attention throughout. I’ve heard it said that it’s more faithful than any of the other adaptations, though I’d have to compare it to the Stevenson story (which I haven’t read) as well as to THE TESTAMENT OF DR. CORDELIER (which I suspect is also very true to the story) to say for sure. I do know this; the differences between this version and the other versions I’ve seen help to give the movie a freshness that made it quite enjoyable. You can thank the strong production by Dan Curtis, the tight direction of Charles Jarrott, and the excellent performance by Jack Palance as well. The rest of the cast is also first-rate, including Denholm Elliott as George Devlin and Oscar Homolka as Stryker. Still, it’s Palance who really impresses me here; he does such a fine job in both of the roles that he once again confounds my expectations of what a typical Jack Palance role would be like; I think he was an incredibly versatile performer. My only problem with this one is that the script occasionally overplays its hand; in particular, the opening scene where Dr. Jekyll faces off with a sneering panel of physicians is a little too cliched to really be effective, and having most of the dialogue reprised during the final confrontation scene is the one down side to what is otherwise an extraordinarily effective scene. But these are really minor quibbles; the movie works very well indeed, and I look forward to seeing some of Curtis’s other TV horror movies from the same era.

0 CommentsLeave a comment

Grizzly (1976)

GRIZZLY (1976)
Article 1848 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 4-6-2006
Posting Date: 9-3-2006
Directed by William Girdler
Featuring Christopher George, Andrew Prine, Richard Jaeckel

A killer grizzly is on the loose at a state park, and it is a park ranger’s job to apprehend it.

Director William Girdler is perhaps best known for ABBY, a rip-off of THE EXORCIST that was blatant enough to bring down the wrath of Warner Brothers, who sued American-International over the movie and kept it out of circulation for years. Who better to film this one, a rip-off of JAWS with a killer bear instead of a killer shark. Not that the movie is particularly good; the acting is quite uneven, the dialogue is embarrassing at times, and the music is a far cry from the classic John Williams score for JAWS. Still, it’s watchable enough, largely due to the appeal of the three leads, who manage to be likable and interesting even when struggling with some very bad dialogue. Nonetheless, the movie doesn’t really end up being very convincing. The worst problem is that we never get a good comparison shot between the bear and the humans; most of the good shots of the bear are of him alone, and his scenes with the humans usually only feature his claw or a close-up of his furry hide. As a result, we never get the sense of real danger, and the generous amounts of gore don’t quite compensate for it. Still, the movie is efficient, and has a few scares; for this sort of thing, it could have been a lot worse.

0 CommentsLeave a comment

The Man Who Turned to Stone (1957)

THE MAN WHO TURNED TO STONE (1957)
Article 1847 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 4-5-2006
Posting Date: 9-2-2006
Directed by Laszlo Kardos
Featuring Victor Jory, William Hudson, Charlotte Austin

A woman’s prison is plagued with unexpected deaths. The culprits are a group of scientists from the eighteenth century who have been doing experiments on the extension of life. A heroic psychiatrist tries to discover their secret.

Maybe it’s because I’m a little tired of the rash of Bowery Boys movies and feature-versions of serials lately that I’m just glad to get to a straightforward science fiction / horror movie from the fifties. This one doesn’t have a good reputation, but I enjoyed it nonetheless; Victor Jory makes a good villain (as always), even if his hairstyle makes it hard to notice anything but his ears. The real problems with this one are the weak script (with huge gaping plot holes; ask yourself why they don’t drug the girls before carrying them away for experiments so that their screams don’t alarm everyone), the plodding direction, and some rather poor special effects (except for the recycling of that clever makeup filter trick that they used back during the Fredric March DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE ). Still, I enjoyed it well enough; after all, this is the type of movie that made me want to do this whole Movie of the Day thing to begin with.

0 CommentsLeave a comment

Smugglers’ Cove (1948)

SMUGGLERS’ COVE (1948)
Article 1846 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 4-4-2006
Posting Date: 9-1-2006
Directed by William Beaudine
Featuring Leo Gorcey, Huntz Hall, Gabriel Dell

Slip mistakenly believes that he has inherited a mansion, and when he goes down to visit it with the other Bowery Boys, he discovers that there are mysterious goings-on.

Though they were cut from the same cloth, I think the Bowery Boys had a comedic style that was fairly distinct than that of the East Side Kids. Maybe that’s why this one feels like such a throwback; despite the fact that the movie was based on a story called “Smugglers’ Cove” (I’m willing to bet that it was heavily modified to accommodate the talents of the Boys), it feels more like a remake of GHOSTS ON THE LOOSE than a new Bowery Boys movie. It’s somewhat better than that one, but the shtick feels pretty similar. Bernard Gorcey is noticeably absent from the proceedings (though he is referred to in passing a few times), and Gabriel Dell is given a lot more to do than usual. The fantastic content is incredibly slight; though there is some talk about the house being haunted, it largely amounts to people getting scared at seeing Martin Kosleck’s face in the window. There’s a few amusing bits; in particular, I like Leo Gorcey’s attempt to beat the crap out of Eddie Gribbon (as Digger the Caretaker) who gets the unusual task of playing someone who is even dumber than the Boys.

0 CommentsLeave a comment

Slaves of the Invisible Monster (1966)

SLAVES OF THE INVISIBLE MONSTER (1966)
Feature Version of Serial
Article 1845 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 4-3-2006
Posting Date: 8-31-2006
Directed by Fred C. Brannon
Featuring Richard Webb, Aline Towne, Stanley Price

An invisible madman plans to create an invisible army if he can get the necessary equipment and supplies. However, a heroic insurance investigator stands in his way…

I didn’t know invisible monsters had slaves! But then, he’s not really a monster, is he? I do know that they recut serials (in this case, THE INVISIBLE MONSTER) to make features out of them, and this one does such a sloppy, slapdash job of it (with clumsy jumpcuts and skipped plot points), that I don’t think they even tried to make it look like a real feature. In which case, I don’t see why I should be expected to give it a real review.

I will, however, dwell gleefully on our villain (creatively called The Phantom Ruler, a title which must have taken them all of three microseconds to come up with) and his “power”; namely, that he can become invisible if he wears a robe sprayed with a special solution while someone points a spotlight at him. This particular power seems to have severe limitations. So I would like to list several more dubious and compromised powers.

1) The ability to lift huge boulders but only while Ethel Merman is singing.

2) The ability to run at an accelerated speed but only through revolving doors.

3) The ability to be irresistible to the opposite sex but it only works on creatures from other species.

4) The ability to fly while woodpeckers peck out the rhythm to “Tea for Two”.

5) The ability to use X-Ray vision but only at nudist camps.

6) The ability to call all sorts of animals to your aid but only during outdoors bagpipe concerts.

7) The ability to stop time but only when being accosted by “Weird Al” Yankovic.

8) The ability to set things afire with your eyes but only within one hundred yards of a marshmallow factory.

9) The ability to take out a hundred ninjas with one kick of the foot but only after reciting the complete lyrics of “American Pie”.

10) … and finally, the ability to effectively capture supervillains but only during the last episode of a serial.

Actually, I think a lot of heroes have that last one…

0 CommentsLeave a comment

The Nitwits (1935)

THE NITWITS (1935)
Article 1844 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 4-2-2006
Posting Date: 8-30-2006
Directed by George Stevens
Featuring Bert Wheeler, Robert Woolsey, Fred Keating

When a music publisher is murdered by a mysterious phantom known as The Black Widow, two nitwits try to use a new truth-telling invention to trap the man they suspect is the real murderer.

I’ve only had the opportunity to see one other Wheeler and Woolsey movie to date, and that one (the totally forgettable MUMMY’S BOYS ) certainly didn’t give me a desire to pursue their oeuvre. Fortunately, this movie is much better; it not only has a decent amount of energy (especially in the climax), but it has some clever set pieces to boot. My favorite sequences involve Woolsey (the bespectacled man with the cigar) believing that Wheeler killed a man and trying to save him from being arrested by the police (and Wheeler, having committed no murder, being blissfully unaware of Woolsey’s intentions), and a rather surreal sequence where they put on stilts to try to visit a woman in prison who has been accused of the murder. Solid direction by George Stevens (who would go on to a distinguished career with such movies as GUNGA DIN, I REMEMBER MAMA and SHANE) no doubt helped. Willie Best is on hand, but his gags are largely the expected ones; acting scared and playing dice. Though I certainly don’t put Wheeler and Woolsey in the front rank of film comedians, at least this movie helps me to understand their appeal somewhat. The truth-telling machine adds a touch of science fiction, and the mysterious Black Widow (who dresses up as a skeleton at one point) adds some touches of horror to the proceedings.

0 CommentsLeave a comment

Murder in the Air (1940)

MURDER IN THE AIR (1940)
Article 1843 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 4-1-2006
Posting Date: 8-29-2006
Directed by Lewis Seiler
Featuring Ronald Reagan, John Litel, Lya Lys

When the body of a noted saboteur is found in a train wreck, it is discovered that he is carrying a money belt with fifty thousand dollars and a letter of invitation to a group of conspirators disguised as a patriotic agency. Federal Agent Brass Bancroft pretends to be the saboteur in order to uncover the plans of the conspirators.

This was the last of four movies in a short-lived series about a federal agent played by Ronald Reagan. The series does not appear to be fondly remembered; I found this one watchable but pretty ordinary, with a stalwart hero, evil spies, and tepid comic relief in the form of Eddie Foy Jr. The fantastic content consists of a new weapon called the Inertia Projector, a device that stops all energy at its source; the conspirators are attempting to get their hands on the plans for this invention. The invention is used twice near the end of the movie, once during a serious chase scene and secondly as a gag device for the movie’s parting joke.

0 CommentsLeave a comment