Secret Agent (1943)

Secret Agent (1943)
Article 5604 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 12-21-2018
Directed by Seymour Kneitel
Featuring the voices of Bud Collyer, Joan Alexander, Jackson Beck
Country: USA
What it is: Superman short

A blonde secret agent is trying to get information about a spy organization to the authorities. However, she’s being chased by the spies. Can Superman come to her rescue?

Though I haven’t covered all of the Fleischer Superman cartoons, this is the last one I’ll be doing for the time being. It is also, I gather, the last one done by the organization, and maybe it was just as well. It was probably inevitable that the series would eventually turn to wartime propaganda, and this has Superman going against the Nazis. Superman has only two words of dialogue, and Lois Lane is nowhere to be found, though Joan Alexander provides the voice for the female spy. This one really stretches credibility during its climax; Superman takes so long to come to the secret agent’s urgent rescue that rightfully she should have been dead long before he gets to her. And maybe it’s just me, but doesn’t one of the evil spies bear a strong resemblance to Dick Tracy?

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The Underground World (1943)

The Underground World (1943)
Article 5603 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 12-21-2018
Directed by Seymour Kneitel
Featuring the voices of Bud Collyer, Joan Alexander, Jackson Beck
Country: USA
What it is: Superman short again

Lois Lane and Clark Kent accompany an explorer on a quest to find a lost underground world. However, the quest is perilous, and Superman soon must come to the rescue.

This is the first of the group I’ve been covering recently that wasn’t directed or co-directed by Dave Fleischer himself. Nonetheless, it’s a good entry, especially insofar as it provides a real change of pace from the other entries; it’s much less interested in non-stop action and more interested in picturesque adventure. One might well feel that a story like this needs more length than the eight-minute format will allow, but if you consider that the “lost civilization” type of story is generally a compendium of cliches, you can admire how this one gets through them in such efficient fashion. Still, it doesn’t say much for the intelligence of some of the protagonists that they put themselves in peril by failing to tie up their boat properly.

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Electric Earthquake (1942)

Electric Earthquake (1942)
Article 5602 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 12-19-2018
Directed by Dave Fleischer
Featuring the voices of Bud Collyer, Joan Alexander, Jackson Beck
Country: USA
What it is: Superman short

An irate native American demands that Manhattan be returned to his people. When he is turned down, he unleashes an electric earthquake from his underwater laboratory. Can Superman save the day?

For some reason, I really liked this one; the plot seems a little better thought out, the animation seems particularly well done, and there are some nice surprises here and there. In some ways, it’s similar to the first one in the series, but manages to avoid being merely an imitation. This is another good entry in the series.

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The Magnetic Telescope (1942)

The Magnetic Telescope (1942)
Article 5601 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 12-17-2018
Directed by Dave Fleischer
Featuring the voices of Bud Collyer, Joan Alexander, Jackson Beck
Country: USA
What it is: Superman animated short

When police try to prevent an overzealous scientist from pulling in a comet with his magnetic telescope, the resulting complications cause a comet to come hurtling towards the earth. Can Superman prevent the collision?

I was about to give the whole series a rest for a bit, but this one varies the formula enough that it caught my interest. Rather than a villain or a monster as Superman’s foe, he’s up against a force of nature, and it’s one in which brute force alone cannot solve the problem. Instead, the problem will be solved by Superman’s endurance and quick thinking. It’s also nice that Lois Lane for once proves to be part of the solution rather than as merely someone to be rescued. It also varies a few other minor cliches of the series so it doesn’t come across as derivative. For my money, this is one of the better entries.

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The Bulleteers (1942)

The Bulleteers (1942)
Article 5600 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 12-17-2018
Directed by Dave Fleischer and Orestes Calipini
Featuring the voices of Bud Collyer, Joan Alexander, Jackson Beck
Country: USA
What it is: Another Superman short

Criminal extortionists with a flying bullet plane threaten Metropolis with destruction if they don’t pay them. Can Superman defeat them?

I will openly confess that I’m not a big superhero fan; unless the superhero has an interesting character to go along with his superpowers, I lose interest rapidly. That’s why ultimately the Fleischer Superman shorts get a little tiresome for me; in the quest for non-stop action, personality is left on the sidelines, and the series get repetitive. This one does very little for me; though well animated and colorful, the story feels like a cross between the first Superman short and THE MECHANICAL MONSTERS, both of which were fresher and more fun. Granted, those that love superheroes will quickly forgive any shortcomings like these and enjoy them well enough, and it’s for those people these shorts were made.

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The Arctic Giant (1942)

The Arctic Giant (1942)
Article 5599 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 12-17-2018
Directed by Dave Fleischer and Willard Bowsky
Featuring the voices of Bud Collyer, Joan Alexander, Jackson Beck
Country: USA
What it is: Fleischer Superman short

When the refrigeration unit on a giant frozen dinosaur goes on the fritz, the beast thaws out and goes on a rampage. Can Superman stop him?

Here’s another helping of typical Superman thrills, and though it’s colorful and well animated, I do wish a little care was taken with some of the other aspects of the production. For one thing, it would have been nice if the dinosaur had indeed resembled the Tyrannosaurus it’s supposed to be rather than a snaggle-toothed generic dinosaur. It would also have been nice if Lois Lane hadn’t been quite as dim-witted about getting into danger; with a rampaging dinosaur on the loose, there’s no point in her pointlessly putting herself in peril. Maybe Superman should have defeated the dinosaur first rather than rescued her from the rubble of the museum. Still, since I’m more of a dinosaur fan than a superhero fan, this one has a little more appeal for me.

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Billion Dollar Limited (1942)

Billion Dollar Limited (1942)
Article 5598 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 12-17-2018
Directed by Dave Fleischer
Featuring the voices of Bud Collyer, Joan Alexander and Jackson Beck
Country: USA
What it is: Fleischer Superman short

Masked crooks in an armored car attempt a train robbery to get the largest shipment of gold ever made. Can Superman stop them?

Personally, if I were in charge of the biggest gold shipment in history, I certainly wouldn’t invite the press in so they can have a big front-page story about it, but what do I know? What we have here is another efficient Superman animated short from the forties; it’s packed with action and short on character (the villains in particular are pretty anonymous this time), but that’s par for the course. Granted, it looks like the villains are more interested in crashing the train rather than robbing it, but I’m sure that was just their way of stopping it so they could get the gold out. It’s entertaining enough, but the cookie-cutter style of plotting for this series is becoming rather apparent.

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Someone at the Top of the Stairs (1973)

Someone at the Top of the Stairs (1973)
Article 5597 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 12-16-2018
Directed by John Sichel
Featuring Donna Mills, Judy Carne, David de Kayser
Country: UK
What it is: Strange happenings in a boarding house.

Two female students take a room in a boarding house, but there are clues of suspicious activity and the other boarders are a creepy lot. And who is the mysterious tenant in the top floor….?

I’ve seen several movie-length episodes from the British TV series “Thriller”, and in terms of the fantastic content, they’ve mostly been a bit on the marginal side. This is one of the exceptions; the revelations in the final third of the movie take the story in the direction of the supernatural. There’s a few plot holes, and the story doesn’t stand up to close inspection, but the first two-thirds of the movie are creepy enough (and a little depraved as well) that I was almost expecting the final act would be a let-down; fortunately, it doesn’t disappoint in this regard. It’s not the best episode I’ve seen so far, but it’s a good entry in the series.

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Le moine (1972)

Le moine (1972)
aka The Monk
Article 5596 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 12-13-2018
Directed by Adonis Kyrou
Featuring Franco Nero, Nathalie Delon, Nicol Williamson
Country: France / Italy / West Germany
What it is: Faustian temptation

A charismatic monk succumbs to temptation and falls into sin, crime, sorcery and depravity.

This movie was based on a sensational eighteenth century novel. Apparently, Luis Bunuel had made two attempts to get this one made, but both fell through; this one was directed by a friend of his with a script at least partially inspired by the Bunuel treatment. I wonder what it would have been like if Bunuel had directed; it certainly would have ended up better than this rather tepid affair. The most interesting touches are in the story itself; the title character attempts to reap the benefit of the devil’s help without actually selling his soul, but the devil is tricky enough to entrap the monk in a spiral of misfortune until things get so desperate that the monk is forced to make the deal. From what I can tell, the movie takes some definite liberties with the novel; in particular, the ending is very different. I suspect the ending is very much Bunuel’s contribution to the script, as it fits in well with his anti-clerical attitude. It’s interesting, but it falls short of what it could have been.

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Fiddler on the Roof (1971)

Fiddler on the Roof (1971)
Article 5595 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 12-11-2018
Directed by Norman Jewison
Featuring Topol, Norma Crane, Leonard Frey
Country: USA
What it is: Musical

In pre-revolutionary Russia, a Jewish milkman must contend with a changing world that challenges the traditions in which he believes.

I didn’t right away expect to be reviewing this one because I had forgotten that the movie does indeed have fantastic content; the fake nightmare that Tevye dreams up to convince his wife to change the marriage plans for their eldest daughter features corpses and ghosts risen from the dead. There’s also a somewhat more subtle touch of fantastic content here as well; the title character is an anthropomorphic metaphor rather than a real person, and he remains something of a mystical character. As for the movie itself, the story inhabits a special place in my world. Though I do some local acting, I’m not fond of musicals and don’t audition for them. There’s only one musical I would consider doing, and that’s the one this movie is based on. Why? Because for me, it’s the only musical I’ve seen that works on such a deep emotional level that it transcends the artifice of the form; the music deepens the emotional and thematic elements of the story in a way that I’ve not seen before or since. it may be a musical, but it inhabits a very real world indeed, and one that can be deeply tragic. Yet it’s Tevye’s emotional struggle to hold on to his faith while watching the traditions that define it fall apart that really make’s the movie so deeply satisfying to me. It’s hands down my favorite musical, and I’m glad the fantastic content allowed me a chance to review it here.

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