End of August at the Hotel Ozone (1967)

END OF AUGUST AT THE HOTEL OZONE (1967)
(a.k.a. KONEC SRPNA V HOTELU OZON)
Article #931 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 10-2-2003
Posting Date: 2-29-2004
Directed by Jan Schmidt
Featuring Jitka Horejsi, Ondrej Jaricheck, Vanda Kalinovat

A band of woman wander through the countryside after the apocalypse searching for food.

Yes, it’s another Czech movie without subtitles, but once you are aware of the above plot description, you actually have enough knowledge to make a go at enjoying this movie. Yes, all the dialogue is in Czech, but since the movie really relies more on visuals to tell its story, you’ll still find plenty to hold your interest. It’s fairly brutal in some ways; animals certainly don’t fare well here, as several are killed during the length of the film (and unless the special effects are very convincing, I don’t think the deaths were faked). It’s also very sad, especially at the end, in which the existence of a gramaphone and a recording of “Roll Out the Barrel” in Czech play a decisive role in the fate of one of the characters. Perhaps the saddest thing at the end of the movie is the realization that all our links with civilization (outside of a few pieces of paraphernalia) as we know it have been severed, and as such it may well be one of the bleakest after-the-apocalypse movies I’ve seen.

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Der Tunnel (1933)

DER TUNNEL (1933)
(a.k.a. THE TUNNEL)
Article #930 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 10-1-2003
Posting Date: 2-28-2004
Directed by Curtis Bernhardt
Featuring Paul Hartmann, Attila Horbiger, Olly von Flint

A massive construction plan is undertaken to build a tunnel from America to Europe underneath the Atlantic Ocean.

It’s been some time since I’ve seen the English language remake of this movie by Maurice Elvey in 1935, but I do remember enough of the ending of that one to say that it is rather different from the ending of this one. There are other differences as well, I am sure, but the fact that my print of this movie is (here we go again) in unsubtitled German severely damages my ability to make any serious comparison between the two movies. I can say that the spectacle of this one is quite entertaining, maybe even a hair more than the spectacle of the remake, and I do enjoy seeing Otto Wernicke as something other than Lohmann (from M and THE TESTAMENT OF DR. MABUSE), but all in all, watching this one was a fairly unnecessary experience without subtitles. Nonetheless, I did so for the sake of completeness, so here it is. And I’m sure I’ll have plenty of similar experiences in the future. Ah, the life of a completist.

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S.O.S. Tidal Wave (1939)

S.O.S. TIDAL WAVE (1939)
Article #929 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 9-30-2003
Posting Date: 2-27-2004
Directed by John H. Auer
Featuring Ralph Byrd, George Barbier, Kay Sutton

A television newsman feels ambivalent over blowing the whistle on a local corrupt politician.

I was initially unsure as to why this movie qualified as fantastic cinema, but one of the guides I used pointed out that the movie took place in the future when television was common. This is pretty much the qualifying factor in what is essentially a pretty ordinary political melodrama that borrows from both the panic that accompanied Orson Welle’s broadcast of ‘The War of the Worlds’ as well as ample footage from DELUGE. At times it’s quite effective; at other times it’s quite silly, and at least one manipulative sequence involving an injured child and a ventriloquist’s dummy is about as badly handled as any scene I’ve ever seen. Ralph Byrd is largely remembered for playing Dick Tracy in several serials and movies.

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Skeleton on Horseback (1937)

SKELETON ON HORSEBACK (1937)
(a.k.a. BILA NEMOC)
Article #928 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 9-29-2003
Posting Date: 2-26-2004
Directed by Hugo Haas
Featuring Hugo Haas, Zdenek Stapanek, Bedrich Karen

A doctor discovers the cure to a leprous disease that is decimating the world, but decides he will only use it if the dictator of his country does not wage war.

Don’t wait around for a physical manifestation of the English title; it is only a metaphor in this Czech work of medical/political science fiction. Sadly, my copy is in unsubtitled Czech, and a great deal of the plot requires dialogue rather than visualization; I was only able to figure out certain aspects of the plot by checking a couple of sources that had more elaborate plot descriptions. Nonetheless, the emotional tenor of the situations comes across very strongly indeed, and even without knowing the plot details I was able to appreciate both the strong anti-fascist nature of the movie and the chilling irony of the ending of the movie. Apparently, this was the last movie made in Czechoslovakia before the Nazi invasion, and the movie was banned by the Nazis for its message; it was smuggled to the United States by Hugo Haas himself and given distribution in this country by Carl Laemmle. Hugo Haas would end up making a bunch of low-budget potboilers with Cleo Moore. All in all, this is one movie that deserves to be more widely known and seen. Ths movie was based on a play by Karel Capek, who gave us the play “R.U.R.” where the term “robot” was first coined, as well as the classic satirical novel “War of the Newts”.

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Rubezahl’s Wedding (1916)

RUBEZAHL’S WEDDING (1916)
(a.k.a. RUBEZAHLS HOCHZEIT)
Article #927 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 9-28-2003
Posting Date: 2-25-2004
Directed by Paul Wegener and Rochus Gliese
Featuring Paul Wegener, Lydia Salmonova, Arthur Ehrens

A giant becomes enamored with an elf, and tries to win her hand in marriage.

I’m guessing a little on the plot, as the title cards on this movie are in German, and given the fact that my print seems to be fairly well down the line on the dupe heirarchy, they are also hard to read. However, it looks like a fairly fun comic fantasy. The fantasy elements are quite strong; Rubezahl is obviously a giant, and there are several scenes of him towering over a mountainous landscape; there is also a witch involved, and a unicorn pops up at one point. I can only hope that someday these forgotten silent movies can be given proper restorations and translated subtitles so that there are aren’t so many obstacles to my enjoyment of them.

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Phantom (1922)

PHANTOM (1922)
Article #926 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 9-27-2003
Posting Date: 2-24-2004
Directed by F. W. Murnau
Featuring Alfred Abel, Grete Burger, Lil Dagover

A government clerk falls for a woman after being hit by her carriage in the street; this, along with the belief that he’s about to become rich as a poet, causes him to borrow money recklessly.

My print of this movie had German subtitles, but fortunately I had a printed translation of the subtitles. Unfortunately, they fall hopelessly out of sync towards the end, so I had to do a lot of guessing from that point onwards. It’s an entertaining enough drama, but those attracted to the movie by the supernatural title and the fact that Murnau also gave us NOSFERATU will be severely disappointed; the phantom is purely mental. It’s the image of the woman he loves but can never attain, and despite the fact that the metaphor is manifested physically in the movie (as a ghostly carriage that he chases), there is precious little here for lovers of the fantastic other than a stunning shot of the buildings of the city threatening to fall in upon our hero. The script is by Thea von Harbou, who would participate in many of Fritz Lang’s silent classics.

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Terror (1924)

TERROR (1924)
(a.k.a. TERREUR/PERILS OF PARIS)
Article #925 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 9-26-2003
Posting Date: 2-23-2004
Directed by Edward Jose
Featuring Pearl White, Robert Lee, Henry Bandin

Criminals attempt to get hold of an element known as Radiominium.

I don’t know a whole lot about this Pearl White thriller, but one source claims the movie runs 65 minutes; since my print runs only thirty-eight minutes, I would guess that this, like TERROR ISLAND, is a couple of reels short. This goes a ways toward explaining sudden breaks in the action that I encountered while watching it. It’s fun enough despite the confusion, and at least part of the reason is that Pearl White was a fun performer; instead of playing a helpless ingenue who keeps getting rescued, she herself is willing to tussle with the bad guys. Outside of the Radiominium, there is a strange looking car that adds to the science fiction elements in this obscure little movie. It definitely has an interesting twist at the end which plays up its theme of ‘Terror of Failure’, which seems a rather an odd choice for a theme of a thriller.

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The Last Warning (1929)

THE LAST WARNING (1929)
Article #924 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing date: 9-25-2003
Posting date: 2-22-2004
Directed by Paul Leni
Featuring Laura La Plante, Montagu Love, Roy D’Arcy

A murder is committed onstage during a performance of a play called ‘The Snare’. Several years later, the theatre reopens in an attempt to stage the same play.

I was having a strong sense of deja vu while watching this bizarre silent movie, and for good reason; I had already seen the 1939 remake called HOUSE OF FEAR. My copy has a bizarre, dissonant soundtrack that is like nothing else I’ve heard during a silent movie; this music along with the almost-psychedelic opening made me think that I was watching a sound movie at first, so I was quite surprised when the first character opened his mouth and title cards started to pop up. It’s all done with an a great deal of style; in fact, it’s almost excessive. Certainly, the middle part of the story in which a succession of scare scenes occur without any real sense of rhyme nor reason is a case where style without substance becomes tedious. I’ll probably watch it again some time to enjoy the stylish direction, but if I want to watch it for the story, I’ll probably opt for the remake.

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Siren of Atlantis (1949)

SIREN OF ATLANTIS (1949)
Article #923 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing date: 9-24-2003
Posting date: 2-21-2004
Directed by Gregg Tallas
Featuring Maria Montez, Jean-Pierre Aumont, Dennis O’Keefe

Two foreign legionaires discover the lost civiliation of Atlantis in the middle of the desert.

I’m quite fond of the earlier versions of L’Atlantide from 1920 and 1932, mostly for the subtle poetry they used in telling their stories. This is not to say that this version of the story doesn’t try for subtlety or poetry; it’s just that when it does, it slops them on in great big greasy spoonfuls so that the end result isn’t sublime beauty but rather monumental silliness. Which to some extent is what I’d expect of a Maria Montez movie, though I would have thought they would have shot this on in color like her movies with Jon Hall. At any rate, you’ll definitely want to be in the mood for a Montez film when you watch this one. And as much as I enjoy watching Henry Daniell at work, he’s a lot more effective if they give him dialogue that isn’t quite as oily as this. This is not my favorite take on the story.

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Strange People (1933)

STRANGE PEOPLE (1933)
Article #922 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing date: 9-23-2003
Posting date: 2-20-2004
Directed by Richard Thorpe
Featuring John Darrow, Gloria Shea, Hale Hamilton

Several people are called to a spooky mansion late at night, and discover that they all sat together in the same jury during a murder trial.

Once the characters start recognizing each other from the trial, you know what’s coming, and so do they; in fact, the characters harp so persistently on the fact that they’re in an ‘old dark house’ situation (where a murderer out for revenge picks off his victims one at a time) that this should clue you off to the fact that things aren’t what they seem. And indeed, they’re not; in fact, the plot twists in this forgotten horror are almost sublimely jaw-dropping, and there is something so charming in the silly audacity of this movie that it wins me over. Actually, it starts winning me over even earlier; when a woman is preparing to leave the house, she is stopped by a man who waxes so melodramatically about the terror that may be waiting for her out in the rain that I was tempted to write down the whole speech and quote it here; the reason I didn’t is that it turns out to be a joke that is best left untold until you have a chance to see the movie yourself. As far as forgotten horrors, this one is a knockout, but a sense of humor is an absolute must for this one. The only two names I recognized in the cast list were Walter Brennan (as the radio repairman) and Jack Pennick (as the plumber); if you don’t recognize the name of the latter, you’ll know him instantly when you see the face.

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