Fantomas – A L’ombre de la guillotine (1913)

FANTOMAS – A L’OMBRE DE LA GUILLOTINE (1913)
Article #701 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing date: 2-14-2001
Posting date: 7-14-2001
Directed by Louis Feuillade
Featuring Rene Navarre, Edmond Breon, Georges Melchior

An archvillain named Fantomas is on the loose, and an inspector sets out to catch him.

Some time ago I covered a movie called JUVE CONTRE FANTOMAS; this was actually the second episode in a five-part serial; however, since each episode is roughly the length of a short movie, and IMDB lists them as separate entities, that is how I will review them. Since I’ve already covered the second episode, I’ll be covering the other four over the next few days.

The whole serial seems to only marginally belong to the world of fantastic cinema, it is here the roots of the whole “Supercriminal” subgenre can be found, and since a lot of that genre is borderline science fiction, it qualifies somewhat. I’ve managed to net the whole serial on an import DVD from France, which presents a little problem; the subtitles are also in French. However, the story is clear enough in the first episode that I didn’t really feel the need for them; the visual presentation is striking, clear, and easy to follow. It’s very clever, and there’s a light touch to the proceedings. The basic story in this episode involves the successful capture of Fantomas, and then covers the details of how he effects his escape. It’s quite entertaining, and one thing that comes across is that both Juve and Fantomas are good matches for each other; Juve’s capture of Fantomas is just as clever as Fantomas’s escape. One really is left wondering who will ultimately prevail.

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Dr. No (1962)

DR. NO (1962)
Article #700 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 2-13-2003
Posting Date: 7-13-2003
Directed by Terence Young
Featuring Sean Connery, Ursula Andress, Joseph Wiseman

James Bond investigates the murder of an associate in Jamaica who was investigating the causes of missile sabotage at Cape Canaveral.

Somehow, I find it serendipitous and quite fitting that Musing article #700 should be an 007 movie, though it is a coincidence. However, never really having been a James Bond devotee, I can’t really get excited about it. It’s not that I think the James Bond movies are poorly made or are not good examples of their type of entertainment; it’s just that I’ve always found them and their ilk to be just a little too ingratiatingly escapist for my taste, with their emphasis on violence, stunts and sex over plot seeming like an overly obvious and easy formula. Therefore, I think it’s vital that my opinions on these movies be taken with a grain of salt, perhaps discarded in their entirety; I can never quite turn my mind off to the extent that I would need to do to enjoy them fully.

Of course, this was the first of the series, and it takes itself a little more seriously. It does have a plot, but it’s easy to miss because it doesn’t dwell on plot points for any length of time (they’re in a hurry to get to the sex and violence). There are touches I like and touches I don’t like; as an example of the former, I do like how Dr. No’s physical handicap plays a subtle but marked impact on his ultimate fate near the end of the movie, and as an example of the latter, I’m always annoyed when supposedly intelligent characters mistake machines for living creatures (the “dragon” is so obviously a motor vehicle that I don’t see how anyone could possibly mistake it for a “real” dragon). All in all, it’s an entertaining time-killer, but for me, I’m afraid it will never be anything more than that.

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Dirty Work (1933)

DIRTY WORK (1933)
Viewing Date: 2-12-2003
Posting Date: 7-12-2003
Directed by Lloyd French
Featuring Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, Sam Adams

Stan and Ollis are working as chimney sweepers in the home of a mad scientist.

One of the nice things about doing a comprehensive survey of fantastic cinema is that I end up watching a fairly wide variety of movies. As it happens, practically every great comedian has ventured into the realms of the fantastic at one point or another, so I get to touch on a lot of them. Unfortunately, it is often not their best work; I certainly hope no one judges the talents of Charlie Chaplin on the strength of HIS PREHISTORIC PAST (though, in all honesty, some of his other works will be represented before all is said and done). This one gives me another chance to touch on Laurel and Hardy, though I don’t quite rate this one with their best shorts. It follows a standard pattern for them; it gives them a specific profession and allows them to wreak havoc with it. The chimney-sweeping scenes are the best parts of this short, though the snidely sarcastic butler gets in a few zingers. The mad scientist plot (he has created a rejuvenation formula) is what causes this short to qualify as fantastic cinema; it is also there primarily to set up the final gag. All in all, this is pretty standard Laurel and Hardy, and that is not a bad thing by any rate.

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The Cockeyed Miracle (1946)

THE COCKEYED MIRACLE (1946)
Article #698 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 2-11-2003
Posting Date: 7-11-2003
Directed by S. Sylvan Simon
Featuring Frank Morgan, Keenan Wynn, Cecil Kellaway

A man dies and meets his father, who is ready to escort him to heaven. However, he doesn’t want to leave until he helps his family solve some of their problems.

About fifteen minutes into this movie, I became suspicious that I was watching a movie adaptation of a stage play, and sure enough, that’s just what it is. Actually, in some ways, though, that really isn’t a problem here; the cast is talented and do all they can to bring the play to life. The big problem here is the play itself; the script is contrived, repetitive and predictable, and the comedy is strained and tiresome. Ultimately, one of the main problems in the story is that the dead men can only influence the outside world by causing storms, so naturally the plot bends over backwards to set up situations where that is exactly what must be done to solve a problem. Unfortunately, we get an endless series of scenes where the dead characters yell at the living characters in order to get them to do something to no avail, and this gets positively annoying, especially during the last twenty minutes of the movie. The actors do their best; in particular, Gladys Cooper manages to imbue her character with a sense of real strength and depth (fortunately, she doesn’t have to try to contend with the lame dialogue) and Keenan Wynn actually manages to wring some good laughs out of his lines, but ultimately they lose out to a poor storyline. I cannot recommend this movie, but if you do watch it, keep an eye out for Morris Ankrum as a doctor.

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The Uninvited (1944)

THE UNINVITED (1944)
Article #697 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 2-10-2003
Posting Date: 7-10-2003
Directed by Lewis Allen
Featuring Ray Milland, Ruth Hussey, Gail Russell

A songwriter and his sister buy and inhabit a deserted house by the sea, only to discover it is haunted.

I had watched this horror movie many years ago and was sorely disappointed at the time, though that had a lot more to do with my expectations than any flaw in the movie itself. For one thing, I’m pretty sure I was put off a little by the brightness of most of the scenes, and a light comic touch that pops up occasionally. I liked it much better this time around; the brightness is only used in scenes when it is appropriate, and the comic touches are a bit of a relief from some of the heavy-handed comic touches that pervade a lot of horror movies. Probably the most important difference to me this time was that I actually followed the plot line, which is essential to appreciating the events in this movie; when I first saw it, I was a little too lazy to pay attention to the details, and my appreciation was somewhat less. The scary scenes are quite effective, and there’s something about the final confrontation between Ray Milland and the ghost on the stairs at the end of the movie which really was satisfying this time; last time, I felt it was a letdown. In many ways, this is an archetypal haunted house movie, and I’m glad I gave it a second chance.

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The Testament of Dr. Cordelier (1959)

THE TESTAMENT OF DR. CORDELIER (1959)
Article #696 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 2-9-2003
Posting Date: 7-9-2003
Directed by Jean Renoir
Featuring Jean-Louis Barrault, Teddy Bilis, Jean Topart

A lawyer investigates a strange will in which a psychiatrist leaves his fortune to a savage man known as Mr. Opale.

****NOTE**** This is a slightly amended version of the original review.  One of my readers noted a spoiler in the original version of the review, so I’ve removed a few details to make it less of one.

If it doesn’t occur to you fairly early on in the proceedings, you will finally figure out that this is nothing more than a retelling of the well-known story with changed character names, updated to modern times and moved to Paris. Those who know the story from the original novel will probably figure it out right off the bat, as this version seems to follow the progression of the novel more closely than any of the other cinematic versions I’ve seen. Granted, once you’ve figured this out, you’ll know some of the plot twists. Nonetheless, I really liked this version of the story; in particular, I like the character of Mr. Opale. He’s almost a comic character here, from his bizarre jerky walk to the silly music that plays when he appears; however, his savage and impulsive brutality is indeed no laughing matter, and it’s almost scary to watch this guy terrorizing people, as he almost always takes on people obviously weaker than himself (he attacks a little girl and kicks the crutches out from under a cripple); he is definitely an unpleasant character. He also seems well thought out, and it is sometimes fascinating to try to figure out what is going through his mind. Actually, this may be one of my favorite takes on the source story.

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Hawk of the Wilderness (1938)

HAWK OF THE WILDERNESS (1938)
(Serial)
Article #695 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 2-8-2003
Posting Date: 7-8-2003
Directed by William Witney and John English
Featuring Herman Brix, Mala, Monte Blue

Explorers land on a strange island in the Arctic circle kept warm by an active volcano. There they encounter a tribe of Indians and the son of a previous explorer, who undertakes to save them from the machinations of unscrupulous bandits out for treasure.

I can’t tell you what a relief it was to encounter this serial after suffering the tiresome repetitiveness of CAPTAIN MIDNIGHT or THE BATMAN; unlike either of these Columbia serials, this one from Republic throws a fairly elaborate story and a certain degree of production value into the work. There are problems; the villains are a colorless lot, the black comic relief isn’t funny, and at least one good character suddenly turns bad for no other reason than so you won’t feel bad when he’s killed ten minutes later, but on the good side, there’s a good variety of action here, and even has a slight sense of humor on occasion. The science fiction content is probably nothing more than the existence of the island itself, and the horror content is very slight, probably consisting of nothing more than a certain subplot about an evil masked guardian of a cave, so this is fairly marginal. However, I did quite enjoy this one.

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Je t’aime, je t’aime (1968)

JE T’AIME, JE T’AIME (1968)
Article #694 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 2-7-2003
Posting Date: 7-7-2003
Directed by Alain Resnais
Featuring Claude Rich, Olga Georges-Picot, Anouk Ferjac

A man who survives a suicide attempt volunteers to be the guineau pig in a time-travel experiment. When he is sent back, he loses himself in the timestream, and begins hopping back and forth between moments in his life from the last few years.

The movie definitely has a fascinating concept underneath it, and in that way is similar to Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five. The story is fairly linear until the experiment gets underway, but as you might expect, once he starts popping back and forth in time, it loses that linearity. It’s fascinating to watch, though you do have to let the events in his life wash over you in the random peeks you are given. Nonetheless, it works pretty well, and though the ending is a little confusing, there was something very satisfying and very sad about it. This one is recommended for anyone not put off by French artiness.

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A Nous la Liberte (1931)

A NOUS LA LIBERTE (1931)
(a.k.a. LIBERTY FOR US)
Article #693 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing date: 2-6-2003
Posting date: 7-6-2003
Directed by Rene Clair
Featuring Raymond Cordy, Henri Marchand, Paul Ollivier

When two convicts try to make a prison esscape, only one succeeds while the other sacrifices his chances to let the other one get away. Years later they meet again, the one who made his escape having become a phonograph tycooon, and the other still a vagrant.

The above description certainly doesn’t sound like it has anything to do with fantastic cinema, but since some of the plot revolves around the tycoon’s new fully-automated factory, it does fall within the bounds of science fiction. It’s a pretty amazing movie; despite having certain satirical points to make, it never becomes dark or heavy-handed. Thanks must go to Rene Clair, whose ability to add a light and delicate comic touch to all that he does is in prominence here; two scenes in particular where the action seamlessly flows from the devastatingly sad to the joyous (one involving an attempted suicide, the other when the tycoon first meets his old friend and believes he’s there to blackmail him) illustrate a master at work. The two friends are excellent (Henri Marchand and Raymond Cordy) as well as the rest of the cast. It apparently has strong similarities to Chaplin’s later MODERN TIMES, so much so that there were some legal actions taken. I’d heard about this movie for years; I’m overjoyed to finally have had a chance to see it.

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Terror Island (1920)

TERROR ISLAND (1920)
Article #692 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing date: 2-5-2003
Posting date: 7-5-2003
Directed by James Cruze
Featuring Harry Houdini, Jack Brammall, Lila Lee

An inventor helps a woman to save the life of her father who is stranded among savages.

This is probably the most entertaining of the movies I’ve seen that feature Harry Houdini; it’s not complete, though. My print is missing two of the reels, so there is a gap of action in the middle of the film. Nonetheless, what remains is pretty entertaining, with Houdini doing his own stunts, including a good escape from a trap made by cannibals and some underwater swimming that involved him holding his breath for quite a while. The cannibals are probably the only horror elements in the movie; the science fiction element is a little more striking, as Houdini has a specially designed submarine to help him in his endeavors. The movie also features a very young (and very thin) Eugene Pallette.

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