Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla (1974)

GODZILLA VS MECHAGODZILLA (1974)
aka Godzilla vs. the Cosmic Monster, Gojira tai Mekagojira
Article 5395 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 3-15-2017
Directed by Jun Fukuda
Featuring Maasaki Daimon, Kazuma Aoyama, Reiko Tajima
Country: Japan
What it is: Kaiju

An ancient prophecy predicts that a monster would arise to destroy the world, but two monsters would come to the rescue of the Earth. The destroyer turns out to be a robot version of Godzilla, while the savior monsters are King Seesar and the real Godzilla.

If I’m not mistaken, this title should complete my reviews Toho’s kaiju output from the fifties to the seventies. This was the second to the last of that run of the Godzilla series, and for what it’s worth, it’s an improvement over the previous two installments of the series (GODZILLA VS MEGALON and GODZILLA ON MONSTER ISLAND). However, this is not due to the tired old story, where, for the fifth or sixth time space aliens use giant monsters (or, in this case, a giant robot) to destroy the Earth. Rather, it’s because it marks the debut of one of Toho’s most memorable creations; Mechagodzilla is their most impressive creation since Ghidorah, and proves to be one of Godzilla’s most dangerous foes. The same cannot be said for the forgettable King Seesar (I don’t know if the spelling is correct; I’ve seen it spelled several different ways); this floppy-eared puppy-dog monster gets a lot of hype in the movie, but once he appears, he feels unnecessary. I wish I could have seen the movie in a nice subtitled version, but all I’ve got available is an old VHS (poorly) dubbed pan and scan version. The aliens this time turn into apes when they die, and the movie is a bit on the bloodier side than many of the other Godzilla movies. Our hero can also turn himself into a giant magnet in this one, which is one of his more improbable powers.

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The Fog (1980)

THE FOG (1980)
Article 5394 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 3-14-2017
Directed by John Carpenter
Featuring Adrienne Barbeau, Jamie Lee Curtis, Janet Leigh
Country: USA
What it is: Vengeance from beyond the grave

100 years ago, a ship of lepers on their way to a new colony crash on the rocks due to a conspiracy of six men, and this ends up providing the basis for the founding of a seaside town called Antonio Bay. At the town’s centennial, a fog creeps into the town… and in the fog the ghosts of the dead arrive to seek six victims for vengeance.

This was John Carpenter’s theatrical feature film follow up to his phenomenally successful HALLOWEEN, and if my memory doesn’t deceive me, it wasn’t as well-received as the earlier movie. This is the first time I’ve seen it, and I do have to admit that of the Carpenter movies I’ve seen to this point, this was the most disappointing. At least part of it is that the characters aren’t as engaging this time round; I didn’t find myself really caring about anyone enough to have a strong emotional investment in their fate. I will admit that it has the best performance from Adrienne Barbeau I’ve seen to date, but I was particularly disappointed in Hal Holbrook’s performance; his character never really develops the dimension it needs to be compelling. It makes some good use of sound and silence, and there are some creative moments, but it never got my pulse racing, and there are moments I found myself waiting for the movie to just get on with going where I knew it was going. And as far as horror movie cliches go, there’s really not a whole lot of difference between not being able to turn over an engine and being stuck in the mud.

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Flash Gordon (1980)

FLASH GORDON (1980)
Article 5393 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 3-13-2017
Directed by Mike Hodges
Featuring Sam J. Jones, Melody Anderson, Max von Sydow
Country: UK / USA
What it is: Camp space opera

Football player Flash Gordon, newspaper woman Dale Arden, and scientist Hans Zarkov take a rocketship to the world of Mongo to defeat Ming the Merciless, who is destroying the earth with a machine that causes natural disasters.

After the success of STAR WARS, I shouldn’t be surprised that someone would hit on the idea of doing a remake of one of the most famous science fiction serials of all time. And, given the time, I’m not surprised either that they decided to go the “intentionally campy” route with the concept. Unfortunately, going this route leaves me a movie that isn’t quite funny enough to be a full-blown comedy, nor does it take itself seriously enough for me to take it seriously. In short, I didn’t laugh much and I had no emotional investment at any time in the proceedings. I was hoping that the presence of Max von Sydow would make me like it better, but here I was disappointed; he didn’t do badly, I suppose, but he didn’t really add anything special to his performance of Ming. So I just had to hunt for aspects of the movie I did enjoy, and I found a few. I like the colorfulness of the proceedings, I really enjoyed Peter Wyngarde’s performance as Ming’s right hand man (though his face is almost totally obscured, he delivers his lines with just the right amount of wry humor that he ends up giving the best performance in the movie), and I applaud the perfect casting of Brian Blessed in the role of Vultan. I do rather like Queen (who did the soundtrack for the movie), but the incessant Flash melody isn’t one of my favorites of theirs, and their best moment for me was their rendition of “Here Comes the Bride”, a piece of music ideal for Brian May’s guitar orchestrations. Overall, the movie mostly was reminiscent of BARBARELLA, and I never cared much for that movie. It’s a loud, messy movie, and I’m not surprised that the promised sequel never came about.

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Hamlet (1913)

HAMLET (1913)
Article 5392 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 3-12-2017
Directed by Hay Plumb
Featuring Walter Ringham, Johnston Forbes-Robertson, S.A. Cookson
Country: UK
What it was: Shakespeare without the words

A Danish prince is told by the ghost of his father to avenge his death by killing his murderer… his uncle who is now married to his mother and King of Denmark.

I’ve heard tell that a full production of the uncut text of “Hamlet” can run more than four hours. Therefore, I’d imagine a silent version of the play (which would have to eliminate a good percentage of the play’s prime ingredient – its words) could comfortably be told in fifty-three minutes, the running time of the version I watched. In fact, this version does tell the whole story at an effective pace. In fact, if the inter-titles had been a little more frequent, it might have passed muster as a version of the story that could have been viewed and enjoyed by someone who went into it without previous knowledge of the original play. However, as it is, it’s another example of a silent adaptation that is best enjoyed by someone already familiar with the original; if you do, you’ll know what’s going on (and its significance) in certain scenes which would leave the more casual viewer in the dust. My guess is that it’s based on a specific stage production of the work; it’s only real concessions to the fact that it’s a movie is that it uses real exterior locations and features a ghost who is indeed translucent. It is well acted, however, and I can say I enjoyed it, but then, I’m one of those who is quite familiar with the work in question. It does point out one phenomenon, though, The role of Hamlet is such a great, enticing part that it often attracts actors who are skilled and experienced enough to handle it but do not fit the role physically, which is my way of saying that Johnston Forbes- Robertson as Hamlet looks older than the cast members playing his putative parents, and indeed, he was – he was sixty whereas his parents were 37 and 41.

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The Devil’s Wedding Night (1973)

THE DEVIL’S WEDDING NIGHT (1973)
aka Il plenilunio delle vergini
Article 5391 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 3-11-2017
Directed by Luigi Batzella and Joe D’Amato
Featuring Mark Damon, Rosalba Neri, Esmeraldo Barros
Country: Italy
What it is: Vampires and virgins

A scholar hunting for the ring of the Nibelungen visits Dracula’s castle to find it. There he becomes enmeshed in the net of a vampiress.

Take the Nibelungen legend, mix well with the Dracula story and the legend of Countess Bathory, throw in a bit Edgar Allan Poe and lots of nudity and sex, edit some of the scenes in a Cuisinart and throw in some abstract footage to let people know you’ve seen 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY, and what do you get? Yes, I know… a mess. I only wish it was a more interesting mess, but its attempts at artiness tend to leave more annoyed than fascinated, and the muddled presentation leaves me more bored than enticingly mystified. My guess is that this one will appeal more to those who are into the exploitation elements than the story. This one just didn’t work for me.

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The Car (1977)

THE CAR (1977)
Article 5390 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 3-10-2017
Directed by Elliot Silverstein
Featuring James Brolin, Kathleen Lloyd, John Marley
Country: USA
What it is: Death on four wheels

A killer car is on the loose in a small Utah community. Can the law enforcement officers stop it?

My first brush with this movie was when my wife told me that she’d seen the trailer; it apparently sent her into fits of laughter. So you can imagine that I didn’t go into this one with the highest of expectations. Fortunately, the movie was much better than I expected; the car is creepy enough to pass muster, it uses silence very effectively, and there are moments in the story that are really unexpected. Yet, at least partially because the concept itself doesn’t seem promising, it is always skirting the edge of being campy and comic. The movie also has a sense of weirdness that sometimes works and sometimes doesn’t; the “taunting from the cemetery” sequence and the scene where one character is injured by being knocked aside by the car’s door suddenly swinging open were scenes I found more head-scratching than effective. Also, given the powers that the car exhibits, I find it hard to believe that anyone would really believe that the car was defeated at the end of the movie, but that may be intentional, since the movie heavily hints at a sequel that never came. I will say this much; the movie did hold my interest throughout, and there are not a lot of movies that can do that.

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Zasadil dedek repu (1945)

ZASADIL DEDEK REPU (1945)
Article 5389 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 3-9-2017
Directed by Jiri Trnka
No cast
Country: Czechoslovakia
What it is: East European whimsy

An old man plants a beet in his garden.

The title translates as “Grandfather Planted a Beet”. It’s an early work from animator Jiri Trnka, who here works in the realm of hand-drawn animation rather than the puppet stop-motion style with which I’m mostly familiar from him. It’s a charming bit of whimsy without a shred of dialogue, so it’s one of those shorts that doesn’t require subtitles or translations. I’m not going to give away too much of the action here; it’s best enjoyed as it unfolds at its own pace. I will say that the fantastic content turns out to be that the beet grows to massive proportions before the short is over. There’s almost a sense of mime to the way the characters move and communicate in this one. This one is cheery and pleasing.

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Pest in Florenz (1919)

PEST IN FLORENZ (1919)
aka The Plague in Florence
Article 5388 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 3-8-2017
Directed by Otto Rippert
Featuring Theodor Becker, Karl Bernhard, Julietta Brandt
Country: Germany
What it is: Historical horror

The arrival of a beautiful seductress brings turmoil to the oppressed town of Florence. When her presence leads to the murder of the city’s ruler by his son, the town gives in to hedonism and debauchery. But there will be a price to pay…

The copy I found of this movie has German intertitles with French translations; in other words, no English. However, I didn’t have a lot of trouble following it for several reasons. One is that I managed to find a few useful plot descriptions. It also helped that with two sets of languages to choose from on the title cards, there were more clues I could follow to understand them. But an even bigger factor may be that the acting in this movie is… well, let’s just say it’s not subtle. Though this would normally count against a movie, it’s actually helpful when you’re struggling with a language problem; at the very least, you know how the characters feel about their experiences. If the horror content isn’t clear from the plot description, let me just say that the plot eventually centers around a plague in the city, and we have a skeletal female figure personifying the plague. We also get a short trip through hell as well as some mystical moments to add to the fantastic content. It’s all perhaps a bit over the top, but it is entertaining and effective. The final scene is definitely memorable. Incidentally, the script was written by Fritz Lang and is partially based on Poe’s “The Masque of the Red Death”.

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La duquesa diabolica (1964)

LA DUQUESA DIABOLICA (1964)
aka The Diabolic Duchess
Article 5387 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 3-7-2017
Directed by Arturo Martinez
Featuring Sergio Barrios, Rene Cardona, Roberto Canedo
Country: Mexico
What it is: Swashbuckling drama

In days of yore, an evil duchess escapes from prison by drinking a potion that allows her to fake her own death. She teams up with the doctor who prepared the potion and poses as her twin sister. She has a plot do drive a wedge between a father and a son.

After all of the cheap-looking horror movies I’ve seen that came from Mexico, I’m a little surprised that this one, which looks like it has higher production values all around and is in color, has languished in obscurity; in fact, it doesn’t have any votes on IMDB, and it doesn’t appear to be that hard to find. The costumes are great and colorful, and the sword fights actually look pretty good. I suspect its obscurity has something to do with its failure to exploit its more fun qualities. IMDB classifies it as horror and fantasy as well as adventure and drama, but the horror is practically nonexistent, and the only fantastic content is the presence of a few potions. It also doesn’t help that there are a lot of static talking scenes to slow things down. I wish I could say more about this, but I was unable to find a copy of this with English subtitles, and that means I can’t give a real evaluation. However, I do get the feeling that overall, the movie isn’t particularly engaging overall, despite its production values.

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Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1910)

ALICE’S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND (1910)
Article 5386 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 3-6-2017
Director unknown
Featuring Gladys Hulette
Country: USA
What it is: Another version of you-know-what

Alice falls down the rabbit hole and has adventures in Wonderland.

This version of the Alice story proved elusive enough that it ended up on my “ones that got away” list, but a copy of it has popped up on YouTube. It’s not the best copy one could hope for; it looks like it was recorded off a theatrical showing of the film, and the print is in ragged condition. Nevertheless, I’m glad for the chance to see it. Like the other short versions of I’ve seen, it’s mostly a compendium of assorted scenes from the novel with no real attempt to tell a coherent story, but it does have a scene that I’ve not encountered in the other versions; this has Alice’s short encounter with a giant puppy. For what it is, it’s not a bad version of the story; it has some fun with growing and shrinking scenes during the early part of the story. It’s not the best version I’ve seen, but it’s not the worst either.

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