Houdini (1953)

HOUDINI (1953)
Article #122 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing date: 7-16-2001
Posting date: 11-29-2001

The life and loves of the famous magician and escape artist.

In coping with Hollywood biopics and other films based on true stories, I make it a policy never to assume that the movie will accurately reflect what really happened; a good, carefully researched book on that particular subject would prove more useful in that regard. This gives me the opportunity to enjoy the movie for what it is, rather than placing expectations on it that it can’t possibly meet. Therefore, I won’t fool myself into thinking that I know the real Houdini after having seen this movie; what I have seen is what Hollywood thinks I would like to see about the life of Houdini. In this case, it thinks I would be most interested in seeing the trials and tribulations of Houdini’s love life. Not only is this aspect of Houdini’s life the one that find least interesting, but I feel I can safely say that the cute Hollywood-type events that surround this relationship in the movie have little bearing on what really happened.

Then there is the question of how this movie fits into the world of fantastic cinema; I will readily admit that it is one of the more marginal movies I’ve covered in this series. When setting up my viewing list, I decided to make no attempts to predetermine whether a movie qualifies for the category or not; I’ll watch it and decide afterwards. There are three points of interest for fans of fantastic cinema. One is that magicians by their very nature have a certain appeal for fans of the fantastic. Second is that Houdini himself appeared in several silent films that could qualify for the category. The third reason is the most interesting; there is a certain idea that pops up in the story after Houdini’s escape from a supposedly escape-proof strait-jacket; he doesn’t know how he escaped, and thinks he may have performed the feat through mystical means. He spends part of the movie looking for a magician who has experienced the same phenomenon. I don’t know if this was a real issue in Houdini’s life or not (though the fact that he had a penchant for exposing charlatan mystics calls it into question), but it does give this movie some of its most interesting touches, irrespective of whether I believe it or not.

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The Phantom Creeps (1939)

THE PHANTOM CREEPS (1939)
(Serial)
Article #121 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing date: 7-15-2001
Posting date: 11-28-2001

A mad scientist creates inventions that can be used to take over the world. Government agents try to prevent him from doing so, and foreign spies try to steal his secrets.

The plot is set up in the first two episodes of this serial, and the next nine episodes involve a box which contains the source of the scientist’s power being stolen back and forth between the various parties involved. Admittedly, it does find a bit of variety in coming up with ways to vary this particular routine, but you are still aware that the actual story has ground to a halt by this point; it’s only in the last episode when Dr. Zorkov unleashes his attack on the world (such as it is) that the plot starts moving again.

Still, there’s a lot of fun to be had in this old serial. Bela Lugosi does well, especially at the top of the second episode when he discovers that his attempt to cover up his tracks has caused the death of his wife. Edward Van Sloan is also on hand as the head of the spy ring. The real star of this one may be the world’s ugliest robot (played by Ed Wolff); that permanently grimacing face is a scream. After a while, you notice how the robot is trotted out at some point in each episode, even if it has nothing better to do at that point than to carry a heavy box.

Here’s a list of other fun things to watch for.

1) Notice how many times Lugosi’s cowardly assistant is shot by the police or the spies, and this generally fatal event always results in nothing worse than stunning the man.

2) Count the number of times Lugosi sics the robot on his own assistant to keep him in line.

3) Notice how many times the assistant complains about being in danger.

4) Enjoy the most ridiculous sequence in the serial when Lugosi decides to move his hideout out of his home and into the same office building where the spies reside. Lugosi knows the spies are there, but he decides that it will give him an opportunity to keep an eye on them. His box of power is then stolen within minutes of moving into the new hideout. This is not, in my opinion, one of the scientist’s more brilliant ideas.

And just as a side comment, even after watching all twelve episodes, I still couldn’t tell the difference between the two government agents in the serial. I think it might have helped if they had had personalities.

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The Evil of Frankenstein (1964)

THE EVIL OF FRANKENSTEIN (1964)
Article #120 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing date: 7-14-2001
Posting date: 11-27-2001

Dr. Frankenstein revives an old creation of his, but employs a hypnotist to help establish a connection with his mind. The hypnotist uses the monster to take revenge on villagers who offended him.

One of the reasons I’m engaged in this movie-watching project is to take the time to familiarize myself with some types of movies of which I don’t have a working knowledge. This is my way of saying that I really don’t know the Hammer movies all that well; my local creature feature never ran the Hammer horrors, and ouside of the Quatermass series, I’ve never really made much of an effort to see and understand them. Hopefully, as this project of mine continues, I will see many more of them and gain a sense of their strengths and their world.

From the many comments I’ve read about this movie heretofore, I gather that this isn’t the place to start. After watching it, I felt neither elation nor disappointment; it seemed like nothing more than a pleasant way to kill an hour and a half. Peter Cushing was good, as usual, but on the downside, I didn’t feel the script brought anything new to the table; it all seemed like a standard horror-by-the-numbers story. Also, the monster makeup was crummy, but I have to admit that I have yet to find a Frankenstein monster whose makeup was anywhere near as interesting as that of the original Jack Pierce creation.

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Dr. Renault’s Secret (1942)

DR. RENAULT’S SECRET (1942)
Article #119 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing date: 7-13-2001
Posting date: 11-26-2001

A man visits his fiancee who lives in a French village. There he meets Noel, a strange hulking manservant of his fiancee’s uncle, Dr. Renault. When the man switches rooms with a local drunk, and the drunk is murdered, suspicion falls on Noel, who is very attached to the man’s fiancee.

I saw this one years ago, and back then it didn’t make much of an impression on me; seeing it recently turned out to be a revelation. I now consider this movie to be a little gem, anchored by two outstanding performances; first, by J. Carrol Naish as Noel, who plays the part much like he would later play Daniel in HOUSE OF FRANKENSTEIN, with an overwhelming sense of sadness and longing. It also contains one of my favorite performances by George Zucco as Dr. Renault, who makes the character seem so likeable in the first half of the movie that the revelations in the second half really do come as surprises. The unexpected presence of Mike Mazurki as the real villain of the story, Rogell, adds to the fun. The story gets a bit messy at times, but it has some unique and interesting touches to it. All in all, a worthy little SF/Horror movie.

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The Picture of Dorian Gray (1945)

THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY (1945)
Article #118 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing date: 7-12-2001
Posting date: 11-25-2001

A young man, fearful for the loss of his youth, wishes that a portrait of his would age instead of him. The wish comes true, as the picture starts reflecting the effects of time and debauchery instead of his own body.

Of all the famous authors I know of, Oscar Wilde seems to be one of the last ones I would have thought to have penned a classic horror novel: however, I am not surprised that the one he did write would have been along these lines. I don’t think the Dorian Gray story is quite as compelling to horror fans as certain other classics, and I think part of the reason is that it covers a lot of the same ground as the more adaptable Jekyll and Hyde story, in that they both deal with the seduction of man by his own innate evil, as well as taking place in the same basic milieu. Still, I was surprised at how much I enjoyed this movie, and though I haven’t read the novel in many years, I wouldn’t be surprised to find out that many of the witty nuggets of conversation voiced by Sir Henry Wotton (George Sanders—now that is exquisite casting) are from the original novel. It is fascinating watching the gradual transformation of Hurd Hatfield’s Dorian Gray from an innocent young man into a truly amoral cad. The use of occasional color (in the close-ups of the actual picture) is also a nice touch. Donna Reed, Angela Lansbury, and Peter Lawford also show up in the cast.

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Revolt of the Zombies (1936)

REVOLT OF THE ZOMBIES (1936)
Article #117 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing date: 7-11-2001
Posting date: 11-24-2001

A timid student of dead languages loses the woman he loves to a friend with a much more aggressive philosophy. When he discovers an ancient technique to turn men into zombies, he adopts his friend’s aggressive technique and uses the power to try to gain the woman back.

After seeing a few of the Halperin Brothers’ movies, I really have to admire their ambition; while most of the other low-budget horror movies of the time were content with an “old dark house” and a few murders, the Halperins really tried to fill their movies with wonderful ideas and concepts. Yet, despite the novel ideas and the occasional atmospheric moment, the sheer creakiness of their directorial style drags them down, and never so badly as it did in this one; it is shot so uninterestingly and unfolds so slowly that everything that was potentially good about it shrivels up to nothing. And we’ve seen the floating eyes of Bela Lugosi too many times; they add nothing to this movie. Dean Jagger (who plays the lead in this movie) definitely went on to better things.

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The Return of the Ape Man (1944)

THE RETURN OF THE APE MAN (1944)
Article #116 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing date: 7-10-2001
Posting date: 11-23-2001

While experimenting with suspended animation, a scientist revives an ape man found in the polar regions, and decides to give it half a new brain in order for him to communicate with it.

For me, this was by far the goofiest of the Monogram horrors Bela Lugosi made during the forties. Despite the title, it has nothing to do with the earlier Monogram movie THE APE MAN. The fun starts with the opening newspaper headline, which talks about the disappearance of a “noted wino” (those may not be the exact words, but you get the gist), which makes me wonder just how slow a news day this was.

This also backs up my earlier claim that in the Monogram horrors, Bela Lugosi was apt to do things the hard way. In order to prove the effectiveness of his suspended animation process, he decides that he needs to find an ape man frozen in a block of ice for thousands of years; what is amazing is that he actually manages to find one. He replaces half the brain of the ape man with half the brain of John Carradine, and ends up with an ape man who not only murders, but can play the piano.

George Zucco was originally supposed to play the ape man, but Frank Moran took over when Zucco backed out; this was a wise decision for Zucco, because this is the movie with the infamous scene where, when the ape man exits the lab through a high window, you get a clear view of…uh…well, whatever is under his animal skin. There are some who believe he’s not wearing anything underneath (which would most likely have been historically accurate), but my print isn’t clear enough to verify this; let us hope, in this case, that historical accuracy was not in force here, and we’re seeing nothing more than the ape man’s BVDs.

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The Return of Dr. X (1939)

THE RETURN OF DR. X (1939)
Article #115 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing date: 7-9-2001
Posting date: 11-22-2001

When a reporter discovers a dead woman, he calls in the story to his newspaper. Unfortunately, the body vanishes and the woman later turns up alive. The reporter eventually discovers that the woman was treated by a mysterious doctor and his suspicious assistant.

The title would lead you to believe that this is a sequel to DOCTOR X, but ouside of the existence of synthetic blood to parallel the synthetic flesh of that movie, there is no real connection. This movie is notorious for being Humphrey Bogart’s sole foray into horror; reportedly, he was given the role as punishment by Warner Brothers, and he hated it. Actually, he doesn’t do a bad job in the role, but I’m glad he didn’t take to horror; if he had, it would have most likely denied the world his great performances in several classic movies. The movie itself is quite interesting; it was one of those movies that really keeps you guessing as to what explanation you’re eventually going to be given for the mysterious events. This one is worth a look.

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Queen of Outer Space (1958)

QUEEN OF OUTER SPACE (1958)
Article #114 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing date: 7-8-2001
Posting date: 11-21-2001

Whan a space station is destroyed by a mysterious ray, several astronauts in a rocket ship investigate. They are pulled onto the planet Venus where they discover a race of miniskirt-wearing, man-hungry women and their queen with a mutilated face. From then on, you’re too distracted to pay attention to the story.

Ben Hecht was responsible for the story idea. It was written by “Twilight Zone” regular Charles Beaumont. William Beaudine, Jr., the son of William “One-Shot” Beaudine, was assistant director. I mention him because I originally mistook him for his father, who is the only one of these people I’d suspect would be involved with a project like this. There have been several movies where space-farers have encountered mini-skirt wearing all female societies on other planets, and they’re all pretty dumb; this is no exception, but at least it feels as if it was intended to be a comedy. The special effects are pretty cheesy, especially the spider in the cave that always seems to appear in movies of this ilk. And then there’s Zsa Zsa Gabor.

Actually, pointing out flaws in movies like this is like shooting fish in a barrel. It’s also like trying to play the role of Hamlet in a production that also features Pamela Anderson in the role of Ophelia; you can do your damnedest, but you’ll eventually realize that no one is paying any attention to YOU. I have a word for movies like this—they’re “centipede” movies. I call them this because the second you hear the word “centipede,” all you can think about are the legs.

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Queen of Blood (1966)

QUEEN OF BLOOD (1966)
Article #113 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing date: 7-7-2001
Posting date: 11-20-2001

The earth receives a message from an alien race informing them they will be sending them an emissary. When the aliens’ craft becomes stranded on Mars, the earth sends an expedition to rescue survivors. The lone survivor turns out to be a strange mute woman who has a special diet…

Several movies were made during the sixties that were built around Russian science fiction footage; this is probably the best of them. Granted, it would have probably been best if they had just tried to do a straighforward dubbing of the Russian movie, but I’d rather that they did what they did do (build a whole new movie around the special effects footage) than to try to incorporate part of the plot of the original movie with cut-ins of American actors that never interreact with the cast of the original (the Jerry Warren approach). It has a few familiar faces in it; Basil Rathbone, John Saxon, and Dennis Hopper are all there, as well as Forrest J Ackerman as an assistant to Rathbone. I quite like Hopper in this film; I found him distracting in Curtis Harrington’s earlier NIGHT TIDE, but here he adds some very nice human touches to his character. And Florence Marly, who plays the alien queen, really does leave you with that creepy feeling that despite her human form, she is totally alien on the inside.

Overall, I quite like the movie. I think it’s one of those that may have had an influence on ALIEN. I also find the ending quite intriguing in its way, despite the fact that it is an example of what I think of as the “typical seventies downbeat ending” only in a movie from the sixties. Nonetheless, I really wonder what is going to happen next, and this is one movie to which I would have liked to see a sequel.

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