Scarlet Street (1945)

Scarlet Street (1945)
Article 5574 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 9-30-2018
Directed by Fritz Lang
Featuring Edward G. Robinson, Joan Bennett, Dan Duryea
Country: USA
What it is: Film noir

A meek and married bank teller becomes infatuated with an attractive woman when he drives away her attacker, not knowing that the woman’s attacker was her boyfriend. To impress her, he leaves her with the impression he is a famous artist. The woman’s boyfriend talks her into milking the teller for all he’s worth…

I honestly didn’t think I’d be covering this movie when I began to watch it, but towards the end of the movie, the protagonist finds himself tormented by the voices of the dead. Though we know the voices are in his own mind, that still gave me enough in the way of fantastic content (albeit marginal) to give me an excuse to cover it. Yes, I could have just added it to my marginalia category, but I wanted to cover it, if for no other reason that it is a collaboration between one of my favorite directors (Fritz Lang) and one of my favorite actors (Edward G. Robinson). The latter seems initially to be cast against type as the bank teller, but as the story progresses, it prepares us for the violence that will ultimately erupt. Robinson, Bennett and Duryea are all excellent. I’ve loved this movie ever since I first saw it, and I find the final scene in the movie to be heartbreaking. In one regard, it reminds me of Lang’s earlier movie FURY, in that he has to do a little twisting at the end to make the movie fit in with the demands of the Hays Office, but he does it very effectively here. It’s a lesser known film noir, but one of my personal favorites.

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The Harryhausen Chronicles (1998)

The Harryhausen Chronicles (1998)
Article 5573 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 9-29-2018
Directed by Richard Schickel
Featuring Ray Harryhausen, Leonard Nimoy, Ray Bradbury
Country: USA
What it is: Documentary

The life and career of special effects artist Ray Harryhausen are explored.

At the moment, I’m going through my DVDs and watching everything I can on them, and though I’ve seen quite a few documentary extras on them, I usually don’t review them; mostly, they’re interesting enough and tell me a few things I didn’t know, but most of them aren’t really special in any way. This one is an exception. It is both the story of and a tribute to Ray Harryhausen, and it features a lot of footage of Ray himself talking about some of his creations, as well as interviews with other special effects artists and lifelong friend Ray Bradbury. The movie clip footage is well-chosen and useful, and it features rare footage of special effects from projects that were never completed. I can honestly say my respect for the man and his work has gone up a few notches, especially when I gain an understanding of the difficulty of filming such sequences as skeleton battle from JASON AND THE ARGONAUTS or the animation of the seven-headed hydra. The fact that most of his work was a one-man operation only makes the accomplishment greater. I’m really glad to have caught this one, and highly recommend it.

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Sasquatch: The Legend of Bigfoot (1976)

Sasquatch: The Legend of Bigfoot (1976)
Article 5572 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 9-23-2018
Directed by Ed Ragozzino
Featuring George Lauris, Steve Boergadine, Jim Bradford
Country: USA
What it is: Bigfoot movie

An expedition is launched in British Columbia to locate possible stomping grounds for the Sasquatch.

This movie apparently came under some criticism because it wasn’t a documentary, and that’s partially the fault of the movie itself; it sets itself up like one in the opening scenes. Because of that, I initially thought it was one, but some of the subsequent scenes dispelled that illusion for me, largely because the characters were portrayed in such a way that made me suspect that they were creations of a writer rather than real people; the colorful guide who talks to his mule certainly didn’t feel like a living, breathing person. This is not to say that the movie can’t be enjoyed somewhat without that illusion; there’s a fair amount of interesting nature footage, even if it’s not relevant to the plot. Still, had it been a documentary, it might have covered up the fact that this movie is, in essence, one long Double-Stuffed Safari-O; not much really happens until you get to the end of the movie, and even that section falls short of satisfying. All in all, it’s passable for a Bigfoot movie, but it’s useful to remember that the bar for Bigfoot movies is set pretty low.

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Geisha Girl (1952)

Geisha Girl (1952)
Article 5571 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 9-22-2018
Directed by George P. Breakston and C. Ray Stahl
Featuring Steve Forrest, Martha Hyer, Archer MacDonald
Country: USA
What it is: Comedy

A pair of American G.I.s on leave in occupied Japan disguise themselves as civilians so they can enjoy the pleasures of Tokyo to which they would otherwise be denied. One of them accidentally ends up in possession of a bottle of super-explosive pills, so they find themselves targeted by both Japanese gangsters and military police.

If the super-explosive pills in the plot description above make you suspect they primarily serve the plot in a Gizmo Maguffin capacity… you’d be right. It is true that they get used at one point, but you never actually see them in use and the only evidence you see of it is a newspaper headline. However, that doesn’t entirely consign this movie to the realm of fantastic marginalia; there’s another plot element involving what amounts to the character of a super-hypnotist appearing in the story. He’s so powerful, he can actually put himself to sleep if he looks in the mirror without sunglasses on, so this amounts to a super-power. This character not only substantially increases the fantastic content of the movie, but the humorous content as well; he’s certainly funnier than the somewhat smarmy Archer MacDonald who plays the primary comic character of this rather tepid comedy. For me, the most interesting thing about it is that it was shot on location in Tokyo during the American occupation of the country, and parts of the movie feel like a travelogue.

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Miracle in Paradise Valley (1948)

Miracle in Paradise Valley (1948)
Article 5570 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 9-9-2018
Directed by James M. Constable
Featuring Kirby Grant, Eddie Parkes, Jean Mowry
Country: USA
What it is: Farm safety film

A young farmer encounters a mystical character intent on getting him involved in a movement to prevent accidents on the farm. Only by bringing the farmer into the future can the mystical character win him over.

There’s no listing for this forty-minute short IMDB, probably because it’s in that cinematic limbo which includes films that weren’t intended for general cinematic release; it was a farm safety film. I’ve seen several of these types of films, and this is one of the best ones I’ve encountered; it looks professionally done, is generally well-acted, and actually has a bit of punch to it. It’s a good example of a common strategy of these films; create a mystical character whose purpose is to pass the gospel of whatever the message is, and have him teach it to a human. It’s corny and preachy, but it also demonstrates how an effective and dramatic presentation can really bring a subject home; the high point is when the farmer attends a presentation on farm safety, and has to go on stage to keep a crowd of hecklers from derailing the message. The farmer’s ability to make farm safety a subject that touches everyone personally is pretty impressive. In some ways, it reminds me a little of the Rip Van Winkle story I saw recently.

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Road to the Stars (1957)

Road to the Stars (1957)
aka Doroga k zvezdam
Article 5569 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 9-3-2018
Directed by Pavel Klushantsev
Featuring Georgi Solovyov, Leonic Khmara, Georgi Kulbush
Country: Soviet Union
What it is: Documentary about space travel

The history of space travel from the point of view of the Soviet Union is shown.

Given the Soviet Union’s propensity for using political propaganda in their movies, I wouldn’t be surprised if this documentary skewed the history a bit in favor of their own country. However, that doesn’t make this documentary any less informative or entertaining, and the only overt hint I get of it is the criticism of the Czarist regime for overlooking the work of scientist Konstantin Tsiolkovsky. The first half of the movie covers the development of the theories of space travel (primarily from Tsiolkovsky) and the experiments toward that end; this half climaxes with the launch of Sputnik. The second half is speculation on what the next few years of space travel will bring, and it is here the movie turns into science fiction, though it never loses its documentary flavor. The special effects are excellent, and though events didn’t quite pan out in the way predicted, it was nonetheless fairly accurate about what some of the developments would be (such as finding out if humans could live in space and the first space-walk). I found this quite enjoyable, and it was nice to see a documentary for this series that wasn’t made in the seventies and didn’t discuss ancient astronauts, psychic phenomena, or cryptozoology.

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The Fury of Achilles (1962)

The Fury of Achilles (1962)
aka L’ira di Achille
Article 5568 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 8-25-2018
Directed by Marino Girolami
Featuring Gordon Mitchell, Jacques Bergerac, Cristina Galoni
Country: Italy
What it is: Sword and Sandal poem adaptation

During the Trojan war, Achilles becomes enraged with Agamemnon and refuses to take part in battle, thus turning the tide of the war against the Greeks. Can Achilles be swayed to return to the fight?

Given the number of sword and sandal movies I’ve already seen, and given the lack of plot variety in the form, I’m almost surprised that I was able to notice right off the bat that I hadn’t seen and reviewed this one. But then, I would have remembered one based on Homer’s great epic poem, “The Iliad”, which I have read. Still, I’m not surprised that this movie isn’t listed in many fantastic movie guides; since the Iliad is based on a war that is now believed to have actually occurred, it was thought of as a historical film rather than a fantasy. However, there are fantastic touches here (and in the poem); the ancient gods are active in the story, and Achilles himself, though he doesn’t have supernatural strength, does have supernatural invulnerability, and that detail does play a role in the plot. One thing I liked about “The Iliad” is that it does not attempt to tell the whole story of the war, but just a dramatically united section of it; it’s the story of the events that lead to Achilles’ estrangement from and subsequent return to the Trojan war; the poem ends when the Achilles story arc is completed. To its credit, the movie follows suit, and roughly follows the story of the poem, though it does spend a lot more time on romantic subplots absent from the poem and takes about half of its running time just to get to the beginning of the poem. It’s certainly one of the more ambitious sword and sandal movies out there, but I’m not sure it really manages to rise too far above the general quality of that form. Gordon Mitchell does a decent job in the title role, and some of the fight sequences are pretty good. It is definitely on the long side, though.

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Rip Van Winkle (1960)

Rip Van Winkle (1960)
aka Rip van Wyk
Article 5567 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 8-24-2018
Directed by Emil Nofal
Featuring Jamie Uys, Wynona Cheyney, Gert van den Burgh
Country: South Africa
What it is: Fish-out-of-water comedy

A man from 1860 drinks a potion given to him by a bearded passer-by, and wakes up one hundred years in the future.

I bought the movie under the RIP VAN WYK title, but the title on the film itself is RIP VAN WINKLE, which made me suspect that it was to be a straightforward rendering of the old legend, and for the first ten minutes or so, it feels like it is. However, in place of the gnomes and the bowling game, we have a bearded man whose presence is responsible for the man’s jump to the future, and it doesn’t appear that he slept that long, either; he’s the same age as when he began. It’s basically a likable fish-out-of-water comedy in which the man tries to come to terms with his change of environment, only to run afoul of the police in the interim and to be believed mad. Though it’s amusing enough, you spend much of the movie wondering if there’s a point or a purpose beyond the comic set-up. There is, but it takes quite a while to get to it, and I won’t give it away except to say that it’s about the main character’s being given an opportunity to right an inadvertent wrong he committed in the past. In some ways the movie is a bit obvious, but it’s a solid, satisfying movie and lightly amusing.

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Sky Racket (1937)

Sky Racket (1937)
Article 5566 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 8-12-2018
Directed by Sam Katzman
Featuring Bruce Bennett, Joan Barclay, Monte Blue
Country: USA
What it is: Action thriller

A runaway bride stows away on a mail plane designed to serve as bait to catch a bunch of criminals using a death ray that kills the engines of planes.

If it’s the thirties and the plot involves an airplane and it has some science fiction content, it’s a fairly safe bet that the movie’s fantastic content will feature a death ray designed to bring down planes; there are exceptions, but not many. Since the opening quarter of the movie consists of about 95 percent of the footage involving the runaway bride (which plays as a comedy) and only 5 percent of the footage setting up the death ray angle, you can forgive me for hoping that the movie was going to vary the formula a bit by combining the plane-downing death ray story with a screwball comedy angle, but in truth it pretty much sticks to the routine, but then, what do you expect from a Sam Katzman cheapie? The cast also features Duncan Renaldo and Hattie McDaniel, which adds a little novelty value to this one. Nonetheless, this one is rather dreary and uninspired.

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The Golden Bat (1966)

The Golden Bat (1966)
aka Ogon batto
Article 5565 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 8-8-2018
Directed by Hajime Sato
Featuring Shin’ichi Chiba, Osamu Kobayashi, Wataru Yamagawa
Country: Japan
What it is: Japanese superhero vs bad guys

A warrior known as the Golden Bat is resurrected and helps a group of scientists battle the evil Nazo, who had directed a planet to collide with the Earth.

I initially thought this one was going to be weirder than it was, but it fits rather neatly into the Starman/Prince of Space Japanese superhero mold. This is not to say that the Golden Bat isn’t rather bizarre; as a skull-masked baton-wielding cackling superhero, he seems more cut out for the villain role than the hero role. He’s certainly more charismatic than Nazo, who looks like a claw-armed four-eyed pantomime pooh bear and lives in a palace that drills up from the ground. The Golden Bat spends most of the movie batting around evil space ninjas with his baton and cackling maniacally. Yes, it’s silly, but it is on the fun side, and I rather enjoyed this one.

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