Tower of London (1962)

TOWER OF LONDON (1962)
Article #891 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 8-23-2003
Posting Date: 1-20-2004
Directed by Roger Corman
Featuring Vincent Price, Bruce Gordon, Michael Pate

This movie tells the story of Richard III, and his rise to power.

Richard III seems to be another historical personage whose life story is often presented as horror. Part of it is probably the physical deformities that are attributed to him (hunched back and club foot), and part of it is the brutality of his rise, in which he does away with anyone who stands in his way. This version ups the horror content from the 1939 version of the story by having Richard being haunted by the ghosts of his victims, though these apparitions may merely be a part of Richard’s madness. Vincent Price appeared as Clarence in the original version, where he was drowned in a vat of malmsey; here, he is Richard and gets to do the dunking himself. Price isn’t the only thing borrowed from the 1939 movie; according to the accompanying documentary, the battle scenes at Bosworth are also lifted from that movie, probably for budgetary reasons. This could not have been done had the movie originally been done in color as planned, but a last minute decision was made to make the movie in black and white. Though it’s not entirely successful, the sets look beautiful, and Vincent Price is fun as always.

0 CommentsLeave a comment

Shadows in the Night (1944)

SHADOWS IN THE NIGHT (1944)
Article #890 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 8-22-2003
Posting Date: 1-19-2004
Directed by Eugene Forde
Featuring Warner Baxter, Nina Foch, George Zucco

A woman consults a psychiatrist to try to figure out if her strange dreams are really dreams; he visits her home and becomes embroiled in a murder mystery.

The Crime Doctor series was based on a popular radio show; there were ten movies made in the series, but this is the first one I’ve seen. Though it’s certainly more of a mystery than any other genre, there are touches of both horror and science fiction in the mix; a bizarre phantom-like figure appears at certain points, and a ‘hypnotic gas’ plays a part in the proceedings. This one is truly satisfying; it’s efficient, fast-moving, well-acted, and some of the events that take place are very mysterious indeed. Not only that, there is enough information to figure out who the culprit is by the time the last reel comes around. And for horror fans, there is always George Zucco to enliven the proceedings. This one is solid b-movie fun.

0 CommentsLeave a comment

The Sorrows of Satan (1926)

THE SORROWS OF SATAN (1926)
Article #889 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 8-21-2003
Posting Date: 1-18-2004
Directed by D. W. Griffith
Featuring Ricardo Cortez, Adolphe Menjou, Carol Dempster

A down-and-out writer deserts his girlfriend when he comes by great wealth through his association with a suspicious man.

D. W. Griffith was one of the great pioneers of cinema, and his impact on the history of movies can not be overstated. However, by the time he made this movie, his style had become quaint and old-fashioned, and he had lost his independence as a filmmaker. This movie was an enormous flop, and it ended his career with Paramount. It’s easy to see why it failed; this update of the Faust story is obvious, overlong and predictable, and the first half of the movie is about as lively and fast-moving as a funeral march. Things pick up somewhat in the second half, but it’s a bit of slog until then. On the plus side, Adolphe Menjou is well cast as Prince Lucio, and you should have no trouble figuring out who he is. The script also gives the character some odd and interesting characteristics; since every person who resists him will win him an hour at the gates of paradise, he is in the bizarre position of having to hope for failure in his temptations. Nonetheless, these touches come in fairly late in the proceedings. In short, the next time I want to see a Faust tale made in the twenties, I’ll probably opt for the Murnau version.

0 CommentsLeave a comment

The Rocking Horse Winner (1950)

THE ROCKING HORSE WINNER (1950)
Article #888 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 8-20-2003
Posting Date: 1-17-2004
Directed by Anthony Pelissier
Featuring Valerie Hobson, John Howard Davies, John Mills

A boy discovers that he can pick the winners of horse races while riding a rocking horse.

I was startled to see that this movie was based on a story by D.H. Lawrence, but that was because I hadn’t correctly taken the measure of this movie before I watched it. To me, the concept sounded like one of those cute whimsical ideas that I’d expect to find in a Disney ‘shopping cart’ movie, where the kid and the rocking horse are kidnapped by comic relief crooks and must be rescued by his befuddled uncle Fred MacMurray. Well, this movie is not only NOT whimsical, it doesn’t even flirt with whimsicality; in fact, the fantasy of the concept verges far closer to horror than anything else, with the demonic face of the rocking horse and the chilling whispers of the house pleading for more money. The end result is unforgettable; this is a powerful and sad movie about a child who tries to take on the responsibilities that his parents have failed to meet, and the price is not cheap. In a sense, the movie hovers somewhere between THE CURSE OF THE CAT PEOPLE and THE INNOCENTS, while really being like neither one. Highly recommended.

0 CommentsLeave a comment

Rasputin and the Empress (1932)

RASPUTIN AND THE EMPRESS (1932)
Article #887 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 8-19-2003
Posting Date: 1-16-2004
Directed by Richard Boleslawski
Featuring Ethel Barrymore, John Barrymore, Lionel Barrymore

This is the story of Rasputin’s rise to power and his role in the destruction of Russia.

Rasputin is such a colorful and powerful historical personage that cinematic tellings of his story almost inevitably lend themselves to being included in the horror genre; certainly, the use of hypnotism in this one falls within the realms of horror. Nonetheless, this movie approaches him from a historical standpoint, but it never quite reaches the epic sweep to which it aspires. The first thirty minutes is somewhat confusing, partly because of the welter of character introductions and the difficulty of tackling those Russian names. Surprisingly, it is Lionel who plays Rasputin rather than John, who I think would have been wonderful in the role. As a matter of fact, I also thought Lionel could have been wonderful in the role also, but unfortunately it seems he takes this opportunity to give one of the ripest and hammiest performances of his career; the power of the character becomes diffused and is lost within the distractions and scenery-chewing. It doesn’t destroy the movie, but it prevents it from reaching the dramatic heights that it could have attained. The best scene involves Rasputin forcing the son of the empress to watch a battle between an ant and a fly.

1 CommentLeave a comment

Miracle in Milan (1951)

MIRACLE IN MILAN (1951)
(a.k.a. MIRACOLO A MILANO)
Article #886 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 8-18-2003
Posting Date: 1-15-2004
Directed by Vittorio de Sica
Featuring Francesco Golisano, Paolo Stoppa, Emma Gramatica

An orphan has a magical effect on the lives of the homeless people in Milan.

The first scene in this movie has an old lady finding a baby in her cabbage patch. The next scene takes place several years later, when the old lady returns home to her son to find that the milk has boiled over on the stove and left a trail of milk on the floor; rather than cleaning it up, she gleefully sets up toy houses and trees around the spill to make it look like a river running through a village. It was at this point in the proceedings that I knew I was watching something special, and this brilliant, quirky, surreal comic fantasy is truly unique. Though there is a sense of magic in the proceedings, it doesn’t really go into sheer fantasy until the last half hour of the movie, but I think it best to leave that as a surprise to the viewer. What is truly amazing is how the movie remains thoroughly joyful throughout, even when a certain darkness creeps in around the edges, and there are times when you fear the movie will take the dark, sad turn into cynicism; after all, Vittorio de Sica is one of the pioneers of Italian realism, and his THE BICYCLE THIEF is a movie with very little joy in it. Most of all, though, I’m grateful for this movie giving me some of the best laughs I’ve had in months of watching these movies.

0 CommentsLeave a comment

I Married a Witch (1942)

I MARRIED A WITCH (1942)
Article #885 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 8-17-2003
Posting Date: 1-14-2004
Directed by Rene Clair
Featuring Fredric March, Veronica Lake, Susan Hayward

A witch and her warlock father emerge from an oak tree where their souls were imprisoned after they were burned, and seek revenge on the descendant of the man who condemned them.

It’s interesting to combine the wild comedy of Thorne Smith (author of ‘Topper’), who started but did not finish the story on which this was based (it was completed by Norman Matson) and the light-as-air comic touch of Rene Clair. The result is somewhere in between; not quite as light as some of Clair’s other work and not quite as wild as some other Smith tales, but a bright cast and some interesting characters make for an enjoyable viewing experience. The always-enjoyable Robert Benchley is on hand to add his touch to the proceedings, but the movie is stolen by Cecil Kellaway as the witch’s father, who reveals he has an agenda of his own in a memorable scene involving a gun. However, the biggest laughs I found were during a funny election sequence, and an opening scene where the witch-burning undergoes a short intermission. The special effects and fantasy elements are quite effective, as they usually are in Rene Clair films.

0 CommentsLeave a comment

The Ghost of St. Michael’s (1941)

THE GHOST OF ST. MICHAEL’S (1941)
Article #884 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 8-16-2003
Posting Date: 1-13-2004
Directed by Marcel Varnel
Featuring Will Hay, Claude Hulbert, Charles Hawtrey

An incompetent teacher takes a position at a school in Scotland, where the courses are being held in an old supposedly haunted castle.

Will Hay is apparently better known in England than he is here in the states, and I will admit that he is amusing enough here. The only cast member that I recognized immediately, though, was Charles Hawtrey, who would go on to make several CARRY ON… movies. The fantastic content is largely tied to the aforementioned ghost, and since it never appears physically, you may be excused for suspecting that the truth is somewhat less supernatural; certainly, nobody in the movie (except a superstitious caretaker) really believes a ghost is at work, and since mention is made of Nazi spies at one point…., well, I’ll leave it to you to decide how you think it’s going to end up. For my part, I will only say that the fantastic content consigns this one to the realms of marginalia.

0 CommentsLeave a comment

Before Midnight (1933)

BEFORE MIDNIGHT (1933)
Article #883 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 8-15-2003
Posting Date: 1-12-2004
Directed by Lambert Hillyer
Featuring Ralph Bellamy, June Collyer, Claude Gillingwater

A man fears that an ancestral curse is taking place that will result in his death, and when he dies, a detective investigates.

Walt Lee considered this movie for inclusion in his ‘Fantastic Movies’ reference book, but he rejected it and it ended up on his ‘Out’ list. This surprised me a little, as it seemed to me that the horror element is fairly prominent here in the first twenty minutes of the movie, with a strange curse (blood appears under the portrait of an ancestor and a clock stops shortly before the murder occurs), a storm, and a spooky house. After the death, however, the movie clearly becomes more of a mystery, which is the genre to which it primarily belongs. It’s the second movie I’ve seen in a row that features Ralph Bellamy in the leading role, an actor I’ve always liked ever since seeing him outtalked by both Rosalind Russell and Cary Grant in HIS GIRL FRIDAY, and his presence helps to hold my interest throughout the confusing twists and turns of the story; there’s quite a bit of plot crammed into the running time of this one. It’s not a classic, but enjoyable enough for anyone who might be lucky enough to dig up a copy.

0 CommentsLeave a comment

Air Hawks (1935)

AIR HAWKS (1935)
Article #882 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 8-14-2003
Posting Date: 1-11-2004
Directed by Albert Rogell
Featuring Ralph Bellamy, Tala Birell, Douglas Dumbrille

An airline company is suffering from attacks from a rival company intent on putting them out of business.

The opening fifteen minutes are mostly concerned with the business and romance ends of the story and are pretty dull, but once you get to the laboratory scenes and the introduction of a ray gun that can take a plane out of the sky, this little programmer picks up tremendously. Plotwise it’s pretty standard stuff, with the ray gun being the usual science-fiction gadgetry popular at the time, but the solid and efficient pacing, acting and direction all lift the movie somewhat higher off the ground than the first fifteen minutes would leave you to believe. In fact, this may well be one of my favorite ray-guns-taking-down-airplanes movies, an idea that was used ad nauseum during the thirties and forties.

0 CommentsLeave a comment