Phantom Raiders (1940)

PHANTOM RAIDERS (1940)
Article #1112 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 3-31-2004
Posting Date: 8-28-2004
Directed by Jacques Tourneur
Featuring Walter Pidgeon, Donald Meek, Joseph Schildkraut

Nick Carter is hired to investigate a series of mysterious ship explosions that are tied to an insurance racket.

The character of Nick Carter has had a long literary heritage, but he’s never really taken off on the silver screen. This movie was part of a short-lived series featuring Walter Pidgeon as Carter, and this is the only one I’ve seen of the bunch so far. If this one is representative, then it was an energetic, fun and witty series, with Donald Meek stealing the movie as Carter’s strange partner, Mr. ‘Beeswax’ Bartholomew, who not only goes out of his way to make sure that Carter takes the case, but helps him in the oddest of ways throughout the movie. There is a zany humor that runs through this movie, including a woman who knows no English but constantly repeats English phrases that she’s learned from sailors and a well-meaning but rather dim bodyguard (who else but Nat Pendleton) who has to be sent out for walks by the villain to keep him from knowing about his schemes. It’s light but entertaining, and the scene in which Carter uses ‘Beeswax’ in a diversionary tactic to get the villain out of the way so he can search his office is one of the funniest things I’ve seen in a movie like this. The movie also features Cecil Kellaway and Dwight Frye as a hood sent out to kill Carter. The fantastic content consists of a device that can explode bombs from a distance.

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The Cat Creeps (1946)

THE CAT CREEPS (1946)
Article #1111 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 3-30-2004
Posting Date: 8-27-2004
Directed by Erle C. Kenton
Featuring Lois Collier, Fred Brady, Paul Kelly

The attempt to solve a fifteen-year-old murder and the possibility of finding a hidden treasure of two hundred thousand dollars lead several people to an old house on an isolated island.

By the time this movie made it to theatres, the “old dark house” genre had been done to death and had largely vanished from theatres. In fact, the opening few minutes of the movie made me wonder if it was going to be an “old dark house” film at all, being concerned as it was with a politician coming under suspicion for an old murder and possibly losing an election as a result. It also never feels like an “old dark house” movie; the characters all speak in hushed tones and take it all very seriously. Even Noah Beery Jr.’s comic relief photographer underplays everything. It’s almost like the movie is trying to take on the mood of a Val Lewton film or a film noir. This might have actually worked if the movie had had more substance than it does; unfortunately, it really is nothing more than an “old dark house” film, only gloomy, somber, and not much fun at all. As such, it almost seems a death knell for this subgenre, and one of Universal’s weakest horror entries. Even the Paula Dupree series looks pretty good compared to this one.

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Captain Sindbad (1963)

CAPTAIN SINDBAD (1963)
Article #1110 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 3-29-2004
Posting Date: 8-26-2004
Directed by Byron Haskins
Featuring Guy Williams, Heidi Bruhl, Pedro Armendariz

Sindbad finds himself trying to save a princess from a cruel tyrant who is seemingly impervious to being killed.

I don’t want to be too hard on this Arabian Nights fantasy; it’s spirited, energetic, and really trying its best to entertain. Unfortunately, it’s constantly straining against the limitations of a budget that is obviously too small for its ambitions, and the movie suffers for it. As a result, the exteriors look like interiors, the models and miniatures look like models and miniatures, and one never gets a real sense that the sets extend to a real world beyond the range of the cameras. Consequently, the movie is infected with a cheesiness that is so inescapable that when it is announced that Sindbad must do battle with a truly terrifying beastie in the arena, it comes as no real surprise that the primary visual attribute of said beastie is invisibility. We also get some pathetic-looking crocodiles, a puppet hydra, and a beating disembodied heart that looks more like a Valentines day gift than a real bodily organ. The movie still can be enjoyed, but it does require that you to give it the benefit of the doubt and play along with the illusions. The most notable acting performance is Abraham Sofaer’s as the eccentric magician, Galgo; I can’t quite decide whether it’s good or bad, but I will go so far as to say that it is entertainingly strange.

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The Brides of Dracula (1960)

THE BRIDES OF DRACULA (1960)
Article #1109 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 3-28-2004
Posting Date: 8-25-2004
Directed by Terence Fisher
Featuring Peter Cushing, Martita Hunt, Yvonne Monlaur

A woman on her way to a situation as a schoolteacher finds herself staying in a strange castle with a lonely baroness, and discovers a man chained up in a separate part of the castle.

This entry in the Hammer Dracula series seems to split the fans. There are those that consider it one of the very best of the series, while others consider it one of the weakest. The non-presence of Christopher Lee may have something to do with it, and certainly David Peel doesn’t have Lee’s imposing presence, but since Peel isn’t supposed to be Dracula himself but a lesser vampire, I have no problem with this. Others dislike what they perceive as logic errors; why couldn’t Baron Meinster escape his silver shackles by transforming himself into a bat? This one also doesn’t bother me, as I’ve always felt that there was an implication that these shackles confined and restricted his powers, rendering him unable to make that transformation. Myself, I really enjoy this Hammer entry; I think it looks better than HORROR OF DRACULA, and I find it more interesting on a scene-by-scene basis than DRACULA, PRINCE OF DARKNESS. It’s the little touches I like; the vampire who is so embarassed by her transformation that her first impulse is to hide her fangs, the minion calling on the budding vampire to dig herself out of the grave, and Peter Cushing’s method of burning the vampire poison out of his system are all clever and powerful variations on the vampire theme, and this is what makes a movie like this interesting for me. It does have certain flaws; some of the acting is a little over-the-top at times, and Hammer had a way of overplaying its hand on occasions (I think people start acting too consistently scared too early in the movie for it to be really effective), but overall, I find this one of the more enjoyable Hammer outings.

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Zoo in Budapest (1933)

ZOO IN BUDAPEST (1933)
Article #1108 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 3-27-2004
Posting Date: 8-24-2004
Directed by Rowland V. Lee
Featuring Loretta Young, Gene Raymond, O.P. Heggie

Three refugees find themselves trapped in a zoo overnight. One is an orphan girl trying to escape the orphanage before she is bonded out to someone, the second an employee whose habit of stealing and burning fur coats from the visitors has gotten him in trouble with the law, and the third a young boy who escapes from his mother so he can ride the elephant at the zoo.

The title certainly doesn’t make this sound like a movie with fantastic elements; for that matter, neither does the plot description. Having seen it, I myself am not so sure whether it has or not; other than the fact that the zoo employee has an unusually high rapport with animals, I don’t think it does, and I’m not so sure that the rapport is enough to make it qualify. It is charming, however, with Gene Raymond’s athletic and spirited performance a particular highlight. And if the movie doesn’t really have fantastic elements, nonetheless it has certain spectacular elements; in particular, the last twenty minutes of the movie involves the escape of several wild animals (tigers, lions, leopards, elephants and the anomalous porcupines) and a daring rescue operation. In summary, if the slight fantastic elements don’t appeal to you, you still might find this one a good watch, particularly if you’re an animal lover or a fan of love stories.

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Terror Aboard (1933)

TERROR ABOARD (1933)
Article #1107 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 3-26-2004
Posting Date: 8-23-2004
Directed by Paul Sloane
Featuring John Halliday, Charles Ruggles, Shirley Grey

When the owner of a luxury yacht discovers that his fraudulent business schemes have made him an outlaw who will be arrested the second he comes to port, he decides to dispose of the crew and guests aboard the yacht and escape to a deserted island with the woman he loves.

This movie starts out with a very intriguing sequence in which the crew of a boat discover a yacht cruising in circles in the middle of the ocean. When they board the boat, one member of the crew is attacked, and the others find several corpses, including a woman lying on the deck who has frozen to death in the middle of the tropical climates. The movie then switches to the flashback that marks the main story, and by that time your curiosity is so piqued that you are already caught up in the nightmarish scenario that unfolds. In some ways, it’s like one of those old dark house movies where people are killed off one by one (except in this case, we know who the murderer is beforehand) or like one of those revenge movies where somebody kills off a group of people who have wronged him (except in this case, it is not revenge but the desire to cover his tracks that is the motive). At any rate, it is fascinating to watch the man’s schemes unfold, as he uses every means imaginable; though most of the murders are just that, in other cases he uses emotional manipulation to get certain people to kill each other or themselves. It’s only marginally a horror movie, but it makes for gripping viewing nonetheless. Unfortunately, because the movie is so effective in presenting its succession of murders, the comic relief character (Charles Ruggles as a superstitious steward) comes off as intrusive; it’s not a bad performance by any means, but every time he appears he brings the story to a dead halt, and that hampers the momentum and the suspense somewhat. Nevertheless, this is one impressive little thriller.

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The Power of the Whistler (1945)

THE POWER OF THE WHISTLER (1945)
Article #1106 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Day: 3-25-2004
Posting Day: 8-22-2004
Directed by Lew Landers
Featuring Richard Dix, Janis Carter, Jeff Donnell

When a woman reads the fortune of a stranger and sees death in his future, she tries to warn him but discovers that due to a head injury, he has lost his memory. She then tries to aid him in recovering his memory and discovering his identity.

This is the first I’ve seen of a movie series based on a radio series about the Whistler, who is not actually a character in the action but an all-knowing narrator. I’d heard about the series and was looking forward to seeing some of them, and I have to say I wasn’t disappointed. This movie starts with an intriguing situation which gets positively bizarre as they follow up clues (the contents of the man’s pockets) that lead to blind alleys and strange coincidences, and things get steadily more ominous as the investigation continues. Clues include a prescription written by a doctor who has been dead for fifty years, a birthday cake delivered to the warden of an asylum, and flowers delivered to a showgirl. Scenes of a girl crying over a damaged doll, and the discovery of a dead bird and a dead squirrel all add to the unease as you find yourself unraveling the truth as the characters do. The only problem I had was that the actual narration from the Whistler was a little intrusive and annoying at times, though the opening shots of the main character being followed by a shadow that is not his are suitably eerie. This entry is well worth investigating for anyone curious about the series.

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The Night the World Exploded (1957)

THE NIGHT THE WORLD EXPLODED (1957)
Article #1105 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Day: 3-24-2004
Posting Day: 8-11-2004
Directed by Fred F. Sears
Featuring Kathryn Grant, William Leslie, Tristram Coffin

A rash of earthquakes is being caused by a new element that reacts with nitrogen to cause violent explosions.

You know, if I were to stage a performance of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony, I would try to make sure my orchestra consisted of something more than a triangle and a kazoo. Though this is overstating the case somewhat, I think it does capture the way I feel about this movie. The idea is fairly good, the story is told efficiently, the script is decent enough (except for a very bad scene where the heroine gets terrified trying to climb down a rope ladder), and the actors would be acceptable with a little sympathetic direction. But to really do justice to the idea, you need to throw a decent amount of money at it, and that just doesn’t happen here with Sam Katzman holding onto the pursestrings. Consequently, the movie never moves into the realm of believability, and you spend your time thinking about how much better it would have been given a proper treatment. As it is, it is interesting to sit back and try to figure out how you would change certain scenes around to make them work better, or how you would direct the actors to add more drama to the scenes, or even where you would add music to accentuate the proceedings (except for during the credits, there is no music at all). And it does have one good unintentional laugh during a scene in which a man talks about the volcano that has arisen just outside his window.

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Night Key (1937)

NIGHT KEY (1937)
Article #1104 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Day: 3-23-2004
Posting Day: 8-20-2004
Directed by Lloyd Corrigan
Featuring Boris Karloff, Jean Rogers, Warren Hull

An elderly inventor is cheated for the second time when he tries to sell his new alarm system to a burglar alarm company. He then invents a device that hoodwinks their current alarm system in order to force them to install his new invention.

So what do you do with a horror actor when horror has fallen out of favor? 1937 was one of the lousiest years for horror movies, and so that’s why we found Boris Karloff as a lovable and distinctly non-threatening grandfatherly type in what is a fairly standard crime melodrama with touches of science fiction. Oddly, it opens like many of his horror movies do, only in those movies his revenge was much more sinister; here, he breaks into stores to set up harmless practical jokes which nonetheless display his ability to subvert the alarm system. It’s a decent enough little film, well acted by all (especially Karloff), but it was really too minor a film to effectively open up a whole new genre of film for Karloff. Fortunately, horror would be back in a couple of years, and he would find himself in much more demand. The movie also features Ward Bond as one of the gangsters.

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The Bride and the Beast (1958)

THE BRIDE AND THE BEAST (1958)
Article #1103 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Day: 3-22-2004
Posting Day: 8-19-2004
Directed by Adrian Weiss
Featuring Charlotte Austin, Lance Fuller, Johnny Roth

A newly married woman finds that she has a strange attraction to the gorilla that her husband keeps in the basement.

Take the central romantic relationship in KING KONG (the one that doesn’t involve Bruce Cabot). Reduce the male participant to the size of your average man-in-a-gorilla-suit and make the woman behave with bland passivity as much as possible (this should give you an idea about Charlotte Austin’s acting range). Let this relationship run its obvious course over the first twenty minutes of the movie. Then throw in a little Bridey Murphy style hypnotic regression, just pausing long enough to engage in a soliloquy about the joys of angora (just to clue you off that the script is by none other than Ed Wood) before coming to the obvious conclusion that the woman’s previous incarnation signifies that the woman’s attraction to Spanky the simian wouldn’t have resulted in quite the mixed marriage that you might expect. So where can the movie go from here? Why, none other into that most mundane of genres, the Double-Stuffed Safari-o. The fact that this sequence is slightly more entertaining than others of its ilk doesn’t quite disguise the fact that the story has come to a screeching halt. We return to the monkeyshines in the last seven minutes of the movie, and I won’t give away the ending except to say that those who thought KING KONG ended sadly might find this movie to have a much more cheerful denouement. Of course, we all know that the theme of previous-incarnational-bestiality is poppycock; all the same, I’d suggest you keep me away from the armadillos for awhile. And I still say that if Lance Fuller hadn’t named his gorilla Spanky, it wouldn’t have become the unmanageable brute that it did.

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