MANHUNT IN THE AFRICAN JUNGLES (1943)
(Serial)
(a.k.a. SECRET SERVICE IN DARKEST AFRICA)
Article #1732 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 12-11-2005
Posting Date: 5-10-2006
Directed by Spencer Gordon Bennet
Featuring Rod Cameron, Joan Marsh, Duncan Renaldo

A secret service agent tracks down Nazi spies in Casablanca.

All right, let’s get my issue with the titles out of the way. I don’t care which one you pick; both of them seem to indicate that the action will take place in the jungle areas of Africa. At least that’s what I’ve always thought of as “darkest Africa”; to me, this movie looks like it takes place in a particularly well-lit and de-jungled part of Africa. In fact, it looks like it takes place in California, but I suppose there’s a reason for that.

But once you get past the title, this is Republic in their prime. The fantastic aspects are minor (a death ray pops up at one point) and I find neither the hero nor the villain particularly fun, but the furniture-busting warehouse-destroying fights are top-notch, and the cliffhangers are pretty darn good for the most part. I’m surprised it took the hero as long as it did to suspect that the tall blond Aryan-looking servant to the shiek who badmouths the United Nations and the hero at every opportunity is a Nazi spy, but otherwise, they wouldn’t have had fifteen episodes. Still, this is one of the better serials out there.

MYSTERIOUS ISLAND (1961)
Article #1726 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 12-5-2005
Posting Date: 5-4-2006
Directed by Cy Endfield
Featuring Michael Craig, Joan Greenwood, Michael Callan

Several Union soldiers escape from a Confederate prison camp in a balloon. They are swept out to sea by a storm and land on a deserted island populated by strange vegetation and giant creatures.

I’ve always preferred Ray Harryhausen’s color movies from the late fifties and early sixties to his black and white movies from the fifites. This was because I found that in his earlier films, my interest level went way down when the Harryhausen creations weren’t on the rampage, and I never had these problems with his later color films. Still, there’s another factor involved, and that was that my local Creature Feature never showed any Harryhausen movies, and the only ones that popped up in my regular viewing elsewhere were his color movies on prime time. As a result, I just don’t quite have the same nostalgic fondness for EARTH VS. THE FLYING SAUCERS or IT CAME FROM BENEATH THE SEA that I do for JASON AND THE ARGONAUTS, FIRST MEN IN THE MOON, and this one.

If anything, this is the one I remember best from my childhood. Four of the scenes have stayed with me for years; the battle with the giant crab, the somewhat humorous encounter with the giant chicken (my favorite scene), two of the castaways being sealed up in a honeycomb by a giant bee (which was pretty merciful if you consider just what other thing a giant bee could have done to them), and the scene where Captain Nemo rises out of the sea in his shell-shaped diving gear. This was my real first encounter with the character of Nemo, and, despite James Mason’s excellent portrayal of the character in 20,000 LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA, I retain a strong fondness for Herbert Lom in the role. The movie actually sticks a little closer to the book than it might have; outside of the addition of the giant beasties (which is more of a touch I’d expect from H.G. Wells than Jules Verne) and the addition of two women to the plot, it retains the basic story of the Verne novel. I was glad to see that it still held my interest even when the monsters aren’t on the loose; in particular, I like the exciting escape sequence in the balloon at the beginning of the movie. There are a few problems; in particular, I don’t see any woman from nineteenth century England feeling quite at ease with a skirt of as short a length as the one worn by Beth Rogan in the second half of this movie (and it certainly doesn’t look like it or her visible panties were made with goat skin). Still, this will always be a welcome favorite, and I could watch that chicken sequence a hundred times and not get tired of it.

MURDERS IN THE RUE MORGUE (1971)
Article #1725 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 12-4-2005
Posting Date: 5-3-2006
Directed by Gordon Hessler
Featuring Jason Robards, Herbert Lom, Christine Kaufmann

A masked madman is killing members of a theatre troupe situated in the Rue Morgue.

I believe I once complained about the liberties that the 1932 movie THE MURDERS IN THE RUE MORGUE took with the original Poe story. Well, compared to this one, that earlier version was downright faithful. This one jettisons Dupin and the Orangutan altogether, and though it could be argued that the actor in the hairy costume qualifies as the latter role, to me it just looks like they decided to recycle the mask from TROG. For the most part, the movie seems content to recycle THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA – scarred masked guy terrorizes members of an acting troupe. There are some other elements. One woman is having dreams about a man falling to his death and of being chased by a man with an axe, but these dream sequencecs are more silly than scary. There’s also a sinister dwarf, and as far as I’m concerned, the presence of Michael Dunn in the role is the best thing about the movie. Herbert Lom (who had already played the Phantom of the Opera in the Hammer version of the movie) is on hand as the masked villain, and it was entertaining to see one-time Bond villain Adolfo Celi as a detective on the case. All in all, I found the movie dull, unfocused and confusing, yet oddly predicatable nonetheless; certainly the revelation about who was responsible for the scarring of the villain was no surprise.

THE MUMMY (1959)
Article #1724 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 12-3-2005
Posting Date: 5-2-2006
Directed by Terence Fisher
Featuring Peter Cushing, Christopher Lee, Yvonne Furneaux

When an archaelogical expedition opens the cursed tomb of Ananka, the head of the expedition goes mad. Years later, the leaders of the expedition are being killed off by a mummy.

One of the problems I have with mummy movies is that most of them have little more to do than to repeat the same storyline line (with slight variations) again and again. That’s what this one does; on the basis of plot alone, there isn’t anything here that wasn’t done in the Universal Kharis the mummy series years ago. There are more ways to judge a movie than on plot alone, though, and I think this movie has some definite pluses. First of all, both Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee give strong performances; Cushing gives a lot of dimension to his role, and Lee manages a fine job with a role that really only gives him his eyes and body language to work with. In particular, I love his expression when he first meets Cushing’s wife, who resembles the princess Ananka. Also, the attack scenes are much more intelligently and effectively staged. Lee’s mummy isn’t really that much faster than that of Universal’s mummy, but he doesn’t waste a second. In particular, I like the way that he takes full advantage of the shock and surprise that his second victim undergoes at his appearance to move in for the kill before the victim can gather his wits to run. It’s touches like this that make the movie work as well as it does.

On IMDB, this movie about Kharis rates higher than any of the ones in the Universal series. Though I am more of a Universal fan than a Hammer fan, I find myself agreeing with this evaluation.

THE MONSTER OF PIEDRAS BLANCAS (1959)
Article #1723 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 12-2-2005
Posting Date: 5-1-2006
Directed by Irvin Berwick
Featuring Les Tremayne, Foreest Lewis, John Harmon

A lighthouse keeper knows the secret behind a series of grisly deaths that occur in the vicinity of his lighthouse.

This monster movie has a bit of a following, and I can see why. For one thing, it is unusually gruesome for a movie of its time, especially with the severed heads that pop up on occasion. Second of all, I remember thinking that the monster looked rather cool in the stills I saw of the movie. Unfortunately, it’s a lot cooler in photographs than it is in action, where its turgid, clumsy movement works against it and its hodgepodge design (it was thrown together from various bits and pieces of monsters from several Universal films) becomes rather apparent. The script is terrible as well; there’s no explanation for what the monster ate before the lighthouse keeper began feeding it, for one thing. It’s also loaded with clumsy, uninteresting conversations, and it’s quite dull when the monster isn’t involved. Still, I always enjoy the easy charm of Don Sullivan and the wonderful voice of Les Tremayne. On an interesting note of trivia, director Irvin Berwick was a child prodigy on the piano.