Seven Days to Noon (1950)

SEVEN DAYS TO NOON (1950)
Article #1272 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 9-7-2004
Posting Date: 2-4-2005
Directed by John Boulting and Roy Boulting
Featuring Barry Jones, Andre Morell, Hugh Cross

A scientist working on top-secret nuclear projects becomes convinced that his work is evil, and threatens to blow up London with a stolen bomb unless the Prime Minister promises to stop producting such weapons.

This is one of those thrillers that may or may not fall into the realm of science fiction depending on where you draw the lines of the genre. Like SEVEN DAYS IN MAY or THE BEDFORD INCIDENT, it toys with the possibility of certain events transpiring which would be of such immense political and social significance that it threatens to shift into the realm of science fiction, and as such, it hovers very near the margins of the genre. To say whether it qualifies or not may well give away the ending of the movie, which I won’t do here. On its own terms, it’s a memorable thriller. The viewer spends part of the time following the moves of the government and the police in tracking down the scientist, and the other part of the time following the moves of the scientist as he tries to keep undercover and evade them. It’s done with that quiet British reserve that you might expect from one of their thrillers (the evacuation is very orderly, for example), and even feels confident enough with itself to include some humor (the evacuee who is constantly turned back because he doesn’t want to give up his doom-declaring placard, and the soldier engaged in searching for the scientist who takes some time to go through a woman’s underwear drawer), but it does keep you on the edge of your seat. It’s definitely worth catching, and also useful as a starting point for the discussions of the boundaries of science fiction.

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Federal Agents Vs. Underworld, Inc. (1949)

FEDERAL AGENTS VS. UNDERWORLD INC. (1949)
(Serial)
Article #1271 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 9-6-2004
Posting Date: 2-3-2005
Directed by Fred C. Brannon
Featuring Kirk Alyn, Rosemary La Planche, Roy Barcroft

David Worth, Federal Agent, tries to discover who kidnapped an archaelogist name Clayton, and finds himself dealing with a crime organization intent on acquiring a golden hand unearthed in the country of Abistahn.

I usually find the strength of the Republic serials to lie in the production values they put into their serials, and in the excellent fight choreography. However, this one leaves me cold, and I suspect the reason is that the fight choreography here looks fairly ordinary. It’s a bit of a shame; the basic premise is rather unusual, and there is at least one interesting twist to the proceedings. Nevertheless, this one lost my interest, and having at least one cliffhanger that looks like footage from another serial (I think I’ve seen the “bomb on the bridge” sequence several times) and an episode consisting mostly of flashback material certainly doesn’t help the proceedings. The main fantastic content appears to be that of the fictional country of Abistahn.

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Riding On Air (1937)

RIDING ON AIR (1937)
Article #1270 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 9-5-2004
Posting Date: 2-2-2005
Directed by Edward Sedgwick
Featuring Joe E. Brown, Guy Kibbee, Florence Rice

A small-town reporter becomes the target of a crooked financier when he wins $5000.

I’m tempted some time to start keeping a list of fantastic concepts that become trendy enough for a while to have several movies made about them. This movie includes one of them; I’m sure I’ve seen several movies dealing with the concept of radio-controlled airplanes. It’s a minor concept here; except for a handful of gag moments, the concept is largely used as a Macguffin to drive the swindling aspect of the plot. On its own terms, this is another Joe E. Brown vehicle, and though I like him well enough, he’s usually more effective in smaller roles; his own vehicles seem to be rather ordinary, and this one is no exception.

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Repulsion (1965)

REPULSION (1965)
Article #1269 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 9-4-2004
Posting Date: 2-1-2005
Directed by Roman Polanski
Featuring Catherine Deneuve, Ian Hendry, John Fraser

A disturbed young woman finds herself unable to cope with the departure of her sister on a holiday, and begins to sink into madness.

As a result of the popularity of PSYCHO at the beginning of the decade, many of the horror films of the sixties were about mad killers. This movie differs from many of those in one main respect; whereas most of those were focused on the threat they presented to their victims, this one is almost totally focused on the disturbed killer herself. The movie is unsettling, but fascinating. The two things I like best are Catherine Deneuve’s fantastic performance and Roman Polanski’s ability to zero in on imagery that gives you a sense of her madness. The repeated shots of the slowly rotting rabbit on the plate, the sudden appearance of cracks in the woodwork, and the jarring sound of the telephone and the doorbell every time they invade the woman’s solitude have a way of really putting you on edge. It’s not really a horror film so much as a drama about madness, but horror fans will find plenty here to hold their interest. This is one of my favorite of Polanski’s films.

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The Reluctant Astronaut (1967)

THE RELUCTANT ASTRONAUT (1967)
Article #1268 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 9-3-2004
Posting Date: 1-31-2005
Directed by Edward Montagne
Featuring Don Knotts, Leslie Nielsen, Joan Freeman

A carnival worker with a fear of heights is given a job at NASA as a janitor. However, his father is convinced that his son is an astronaut.

Back when I was a child, I really enjoyed the comedies of Don Knotts, but I haven’t seen anything of his in years. Several of his movies fall into the realm of fantastic cinema, so I knew I’d be watching some of them again, and I have to admit feeling a bit of trepidation at watching him again for fear that I might find his shtick unwatchable. Fortunately, that isn’t the case; he’s actually weathered the years fairly well. His worst problem is his mugging, but he keeps it to a minimum, and to some extent (given his pop-eyed face and persona), the mugging is a bit unavoidable. At his best, he exhibits a sure sense of comic movement, he has a way of expressing himself that lets you know just how he’s feeling, and there are times that he even reminds me a bit of Buster Keaton. He also knew how to nail the pathos in certain scenes. The most effective scene here is one where his father reveals the secret truth about his war years, and both Arthur O’Connell and Knotts are excellent in it; in fact, it fleshes out O’Connell’s character so well that it makes you fully understand why he was so annoying during the first half of the movie. The movie itself is fairly weak; the direction is uninspired, it’s fairly slow, and it really doesn’t have that many laughs to it. However, it emphasizes character over slapstick shenanigans (which plays to Knotts’ strengths), and it is fun to catch perennial Maytag repairman Jesse White as well as Leslie Nielsen in his pre-comic days.

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Rasputin: The Mad Monk (1966)

RASPUTIN: THE MAD MONK (1966)
Article #1267 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 9-2-2004
Posting Date: 1-30-2005
Directed by Don Sharp
Featuring Christopher Lee, Barbara Shelley, Richard Pasco

Rasputin uses his healing powers and his mastery of hypnotism to gain prestige with the czarina in Moscow.

One problem I often have with Hammer films is that I often find the actual scripts and stories to be somewhat perfunctory and weak, and this one is no exception. It pretty much does what you’d expect they would do with the Rasputin story; they forego any of the epic sense that could underlie the story and play up the horror aspects. I think their strengths consisted in their ability to make their movies look much classier than they might have done otherwise, and they used the best actors they could afford. In this case, the casting of Christopher Lee in the title role was inspired, and you can tell that Lee knew he had a great role in this one; he gives one of his finest performances, and he looks like he’s having a lot of fun as well. As far as I’m concerned, it is his performance that makes this movie work, and the movie is worth catching simply for him.

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Race With the Devil (1975)

RACE WITH THE DEVIL (1975)
Article #1266 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 9-1-2004
Posting Date: 1-29-2005
Directed by Jack Starrett
Featuring Peter Fonda, Warren Oates, Loretta Swit

After witnessing the murder of a young girl by a Satanic cult, four vacationers in a recreational vehicle find themselves being pursued by members of the cult.

In some ways, I can appreciate what this movie is trying to do; it’s trying to build a sense of dread by hinting at a vast intricate conspiracy, thereby compensating for the fact that it keeps the identities of the actual Satanists vague, shadowy and unsubstantiated. Unfortunately, in order to pull this off, you really have to know how to turn the screws of suspense, and that’s what this movie fails to do. Not only is there too much empty time and too many pointless scenes here, the tense sequences are shrill and confusing rather than scary. Consequently, the sense of conspiracy comes across as improbable rather than ominous, and when you consider that their attacks on the vacationers put themselves in a great deal of unnecessary danger, you’re not too impressed with their intelligence. Maybe that’s why the big scene of the movie is an extended chase sequence with lots of car crashes; I sense that the makers of this movie felt a lot more comfortable with the action aspects of the plot than with the horror aspects. As it is, the scariest thing in this movie is the opening credits, and that’s not a good thing. A decent cast tries hard, but a weak script lets them down.

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The Headless Eyes (1971)

THE HEADLESS EYES (1971)
Article #1265 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 8-31-2004
Posting Date: 1-28-2005
Directed by Kent Bateman
Featuring Bo Brundin, Gordon Ramon, Kelley Swartz

An artist has an eye gouged out while trying to rob a girlfriend. He becomes an insane murderer who kills and gouges the eyes out of his victim’s heads.

Here are ten reasons not to bother with this movie.

1) The artists shrill, pained howl “My EYE!” gets repeated on the soundtrack about three hundred times during the length of the movie. (Yes, that is an exaggeration, but not by much.) Another thing I noticed is that….

2) …the mad artist keeps attacking the cameraman. Actually, I never saw this, but it’s the best explanation I can think of for the constant shakiness of the photography. Still, the shaky photography goes hand in hand with…

3) ..the sound, which is so bad that it’s hard to hear….

4) …the artist’s pretentious internal monologues, which together with the….

5) …arty attempts at surreal psychological sequences combined with the…

6)…annoying soundtrack which sounds like the instrumental sections of really bad psychedelic songs. This soundtrack drones on and on and on and on and on except in scenes where….

7)…the movie pretends it has a plot. We meet the artist’s girlfriend who wants to help him. We also meet a student artist who wants to learn from him. These scenes set up potential story arcs and then never pursues them. The reason for this is….

8)… that the movie is really about nothing but a psycho going around killing people. That’s it. Oh, they touch a little bit upon the policemen trying to track him down, but….

9)…the police haven’t a clue as to who it is or how to catch him, despite the fact that after he kills someone, he chatters constantly and loudly for all to hear while prying out their eyes. Oh, there’s one cop who’s clever enough to set a trap for him, but…

10) … this cop is stupid enough to try to take him alone in an isolated place and gives the artist ample opportunity to make a surprise attack on him.

In short, this one is pointless, pretentious, annoying, and no fun at all. Don’t bother.

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Man Alive (1945)

MAN ALIVE (1945)
Article #1264 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 8-30-2004
Posting Date: 1-27-2005
Directed by Ray Enright
Featuring Pat O’Brien, Adolphe Menjou, Ellen Drew

Due to a series of circumstances brought on by a night of drunkenness, a car salesman is believed dead after the body of a con-man is found wearing his ring and his clothes. The salesman uses this oppotunity to pose as his own ghost in order to prevent his wife from running off with an old flame of hers.

Back when I covered RAINBOW ISLAND, I questioned that whether a man posing as a native god might be enough to throw a movie into the realm of fantastic cinema. The question arises again here in a slightly different form; we know from the beginning there is no real ghost, but we do have a character posing as one and certain other characters believing the pose. We also have two other aspects of the movie that skirt the fantastic genres; when the salesman first recovers from his accident, he looks through a window and sees a throng of singing angels. Thinking he is in heaven, he walks through a door, and is then dismayed to find the devil shoveling coal into a furnace; they are all actors aboard a showboat. We also have a sequence with a phony medium who gets his comeuppance when he thinks he’s found a real ghost. I’d say there’s enough here for this movie to qualify as marginalia. On it’s own terms, it starts off a little slow, but it picks up speed as it progresses as the salesman has to contend with the complications that arise from his actions. One major problem I have with this one is the Adolphe Menjou character; I’m never quite satisfied as to the explanation he tenders for attaching himself to the salesman and screwing up his life. Still, this is a rather amusing comedy.

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The Boy and the Pirates (1960)

THE BOY AND THE PIRATES (1960)
Article #1263 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 8-29-2004
Posting Date: 1-26-2005
Directed by Bert I. Gordon
Featuring Charles Herbert, Susan Gordon, Murvyn Vye

A boy who dreams of the days of pirates finds himself spirited there as a result of his finding a genie in a bottle. Unfortunately, there’s a catch. Unless he returns the bottle to the place where he found it in three days, the genie will go free and the boy will be forced to take his place in the bottle.

There are some nice things about this movie. The special effects are quite good, and the movie manages to achieve the right balance between cuteness (the pirates dealing with bubblegum having gotten in their stew; Blackbeard discovers safety matches) and brutality (the boy is threatened with a red-hot metal rod at one point; Blackbeard has the habit of spontaneously offing those who defy him). It also has a fun sense of irony that could have been played up; the boy doesn’t care much for having to mop the floor at home or having to eat vegetables (which pirates never eat, he believes), but once on the pirate ship his first job is swabbing the deck, and he also has to serve in the galley by peeling vegetables.

Unfortunately, the movie suffers because of a rather glum air over the proceedings. The reason for this is Charles Herbert’s performance as the boy; his main reaction to his situation is one of dour grumpiness, and it saps a great deal of fun from the proceedings. The adults fare somewhat better, particularly Murvyn Vye as the rather unpredictable Blackbeard, and Paul Guilfoyle as Snipe, the pirate most sympathetic to the plight of the children. All in all, it’s not bad, but it never quite acquires the sense of fun that it should have.

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