The Gorilla (1939)

THE GORILLA (1939)
Article #52 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing date: 5-7-2001
Posting date: 9-20-2001

A man finds himself threatened by a mysterious killer known as the Gorilla. He hires three bumbling detectives to protect him.

As a horror movie, this is a pretty conventional old-dark-house type of movie, enlivened by the presence of Lionel Atwill and Bela Lugosi. It even has a twist at the end that catches me a little off guard, so I give it points for that.

As a horror comedy, I consider it an atrocity; not merely lame, as I find most other horror comedies, but painfully frustrating. The Ritz Brothers are IMHO the worst of the movie comedians, but not because I think their timing is bad or their jokes are lame; it’s because I don’t think they have any jokes. With most comedians, I can at least point to where the joke is and say “That was supposed to be funny.” With these guys, I see only big empty spaces where I sense jokes should be. The comic relief maid doesn’t help any, though I think she’s a little better than the Ritzes. As it is, the best comic performance comes from Bela Lugosi, who, as an obvious red herring, walks around with a slight grin on his face as if he’s fully aware that everyone in the audience already knows he’s not the main villain.

To paraphrase my wife’s description of the movie, in most bad comedies you don’t laugh; in this one, you feel you may never laugh again.

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Godzilla, King of the Monsters (1956)

GODZILLA, KING OF THE MONSTERS (1956)
Article #51 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing date: 5-6-2001
Posting date: 9-19-2001

A series of mysterious disappearances leads to the discovery of a huge radioactive monster living in the depths of the ocean.

This, the first of the Japanese giant monster movies, is reputed to be even better in its original Japanese edition, which I have yet to see. The American version adds footage of Raymond Burr talking to Asian actors, only interacting with the characters from the original movie if they could find an actor or actress who resembled them from the back, or if he talked to them on the telephone. There is a certain amount of dubbing, but it is kept to a minimum; the scenes without dubbing are handled by having another actor explain to Burr (whose Japanese is a little rusty) what the other characters are saying. Despite the fact that these tactics to Americanize a movie rarely work, this is one of the more successful examples along these lines; the movie is not ruined by them.

As for the Japanese footage, it’s pretty impressive stuff; the model work that went into the making of these movies was much more effective in black and white, and one really gets the feeling that the entire city of Tokyo is being destroyed by the monster, not just a street here or there. It is also one of the few monster movies of this sort to emphasize the human suffering as well as the physical destruction caused by the monster; since Godzilla is at least partially a metaphor for the A-Bomb, this is unsurprising, as Japan remains the only country to have actually been attacked with such a weapon. The scene where a childrens’ chorus sings a hymn to the dead and dying is quite moving.

Many other Godzilla movies have been made; none of them have had this impact.

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The Ghoul (1934)

THE GHOUL (1934)
Article #50 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing date: 5-5-2001
Posting date: 9-18-2001

An Egyptologist has a scarab jewel wrapped onto his hand when he is dying, because with it he hopes to attain eternal life. When the jewel is stolen after his death, he rises from his tomb to seek for the jewel.

This British horror movie has an impressive cast: Boris Karloff, Ernest Thesiger, Sir Cedric Hardwicke and Ralph Richardson are all on hand; unfortunately, the movie is a bit of a disappointment. There are too many characters, which serve to clutter up and confuse the storyline. It finally picks up in the second half of the movie when Karloff starts hunting for the jewel, and gets fairly exciting (and even a bit gory) from this point onwards. The print I saw was none too good, but I’ve heard that this was from the only print in existence; the film had been considered lost for years until a print was unearthed in Prague. This may be untrue; I’ve heard claims from people that there are other prints, but I suspect that a really good print of this movie does not exist.

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Freaks (1932)

FREAKS (1932)
Article #49 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing date: 5-4-2001
Posting date: 9-17-2001

A trapeze artist marries a midget for his money, and then slowly poisons him.

For me, this was a good example of what Tod Browning was capable of doing as a director. The plot seems secondary to the themes; the real aim of the movie is to give us a sense of the humanity and the sense of community of the freaks. We get to see them living their normal lives, their relationships with each other, and their sense of cameraderie. Only the last ten minutes feels like a horror movie; the rest almost feels like a documentary, and a real intimacy is achieved with the subjects of the movie. I sense this was one of Browning’s most personal works, and I always find it fascinating.

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Frankenstein Meets the Wolfman (1943)

FRANKENSTEIN MEETS THE WOLFMAN (1943)
Article #48 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing date: 5-3-2001
Posting date: 9-16-2001

Graverobbers accidentally revive Larry Talbot, who begins his nightly rampages during the full moon again. To find a cure, he seeks out Maleva, the old gypsy woman whose son turned him into a werewolf, and they begin searching for Dr. Frankenstein, who they believe may have the power to cure Larry of his curse.

This is both the immediate sequel to THE WOLF MAN and the fourth sequel to FRANKENSTEIN. It is also remarkable in several ways; it marks the first time Universal tried pairing monsters together, it attempts to take the supernatural aspects of the werewolf myth and find scientific solutions to it via the Frankenstein story, and it has Bela Lugosi playing the part of the monster for the first and only time. Bela does the best he can, but he is hoodwinked by both the editors, who removed all references to the monster being blind, and the fact that (to my mind) he is physically wrong for the part. The makeup was designed to work with Karloff’s face, and though Chaney and Glenn Strange had faces that more or less worked with that makeup scheme, Lugosi’s face simply wasn’t a good match. The movie also features Lon Chaney Jr. as (of course) Larry Talbot, Lionel Atwill, Dwight Frye, and (my favorite performance) Maria Ouspenskaya reprising her gypsy woman role. It was also while I was watching this movie that I finally figured out how to identify Dwight Frye; though I could never remember what he looked like, I discovered how distinctive his voice was, and by using this method, I was able to spot him.

All in all, I like the movie (as I do all the Universal Frankenstein movies), but with some reservations. Outside of the problems with Lugosi, I’ve always felt the final battle between the wolfman and the monster was cut short, almost as if the makers of the movie couldn’t decide who would win. But I absolutely love the opening of this movie, one of the scariest scenes in any of the Universal horror films.

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Buck Rogers (1939)

BUCK ROGERS (1939)
(Serial)
Article #47 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing date: 5-2-2001
Posting date: 9-15-2001
Due to an accident, Buck Rogers goes into suspended animation. When he awakes in the twenty-fifth century, he joins forces with a resistance movement fighting the world’s dictator, Killer Kane.

I’m afraid I have to confess that serials aren’t real favorites of mine. I was too young to see them in theaters, but I’d heard about them and thought I would enjoy them. I knew I enjoyed TV shows like “Doctor Who” that had several episodes to a story, but I was years into adulthood before I really saw my first serial. I can’t even begin to express my disappointment.

My problem with serials is that they are basically action-adventure movies drawn out over several episodes. Whole episodes will sometimes pass without any plot development or new discoveries, but will contain nothing more than a series of “thrilling” action sequences, ending with a cliffhanger that all too often will be resolved in the next episode by editing a scene in where there was none before, usually showing how the hero escaped the disaster before it even happened. This, to my sensibilities, is cheating.

I’ve figured out the best way to watch serials is one episode at a time over a given period. Don’t try to watch them all at one sitting; they weren’t designed or structured to be enjoyed in that way. You also have to be patient with plot points being repeated ad infinitum. You also have to be patient with seeing the same footage repeated again and again in various episodes so they can pad out the running time.

In the case of BUCK ROGERS, you will get plenty of shots of spaceships entering the secret entrance to the resistance movement’s hideout by flying through the hidden door in the side of a mountain. All in all, this one isn’t too bad for one of these things; at least there’s a decent variety to the episodes to hold the interest throughout the whole series.

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Frankenstein (1931)

FRANKENSTEIN (1931)
Article #46 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing date: 5-1-2001
Posting date: 9-14-2001

Once again, I’ll dispense with a plot description. I’m also tempted to dispense with commentary, as this is one of those movies that has been talked about so often, I doubt that I will have anything new to add. It was the movie that brought Boris Karloff to light after years of obscurity, and the first of James Whale’s horror movies, the ones for which he is most remembered today.

Unlike DRACULA, this movie has never put me to sleep; in fact, I’m always a bit surprised at how well it grabs and holds my attention. The great acting and the wonderful sets are just two of the reasons I love the film; there are many more.

I do want to take a moment to point out something I noticed for the first time the last time I watched this movie; at one point, Dwight Frye, when climbing the steps, stops long enough to pull up a sock that has fallen down. I can’t tell you how much such little, inexplicable moments like this delight me.

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The Flying Serpent (1946)

THE FLYING SERPENT (1946)
Article #45 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing date: 4-30-2001
Posting date: 9-13-2001

An archaelogist finds the living incarnation of Quetzelcoatl (a living flying killer serpent), and discovers that it will attack anyone in possession of one of its feathers. He plants its feathers on his enemies, and then releases the serpent.

For all practical reasons, this is a remake of THE DEVIL BAT. George Zucco plays the Bela Lugosi role. The bat has been replaced by a flying serpent of roughly the same size (making it hard to believe that this is supposed to be an Aztec god), and the feathers replace the shaving lotion of the original. All these changes are for the worse, unfortunately. Zucco does an adaquate job, but he lacks the inspiration that drove Lugosi’s performance. The flying serpent is even less convincing than the devil bat, and the use of its feathers is nowhere near as interesting as the shaving lotion was in the original. In fact, in order to emulate the ending of THE DEVIL BAT, the use of feathers requires that a key character in the story to act with monumental stupidity at the end of the movie. This badly contrived ending makes this movie the next recipient of the DS Rubber Brick award, for movies whose endings make you want to throw something at the TV.

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Equinox (1970)

EQUINOX (1970)
(a.k.a. THE BEAST)
Article #44 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing date: 4-29-2001
Posting date: 9-11-2001

A group of students searching for a professor in a wooded area stumble across an old man who leaves them with a bizarre book. Then they begin to have run-ins with strange monsters and a sinister ranger named Asmodeus.

I remember seeing the ads for this movie on after-school television in the early seventies, and for years I wanted to catch the movie (I never got a chance to see it in theatres). It finally popped up on my local creature feature, and I was thrilled to finally get a chance to see it. I’m also glad to say that I was not disappointed; I think it has a real power to it, despite the obvious cheapness and the long shooting schedule which results in characters aging before your eyes. It has a compelling sense of Lovecraftian evil that I find fascinating. The movie features Frank Bonner, later of “WKRP in Cincinnati”, and science/fiction fantasy author Fritz Leiber as the professor.

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Enemy From Space (1957)

ENEMY FROM SPACE (1957)
(a.k.a. QUATERMASS 2)
Article #43 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing date: 4-28-2001
Posting date: 9-10-2001

Professor Quatermass (Brian Donlevy) discovers a full-scale recreation of his model for a moonbase in a remote corner of England. The same area has also been the site of strange meteor showers. When an assistant of his suffers an accident involving one of the meteors, and is then taken away by black-suited guards from the moonbase, he investigates the situation.

This is the second of the three Quatermass movies made by Hammer. Even though I have a slight preference for the other two, this is far from a disappointment; it is a top notch SF thriller, with nice performances from all involved, and a palpable sense of dread and paranoia. The Quatermass films remain to this day my personal favorite movies of those put out by Hammer, and I think a great deal of credit has to go to the creator of the whole series, Nigel Kneale.

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