After Six Days (1920)

AFTER SIX DAYS (1920)
aka La Sacra Bibbia
Article 5215 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 7-26-2016
Directed by Pier Antonio Gariazzo and Armando Vey
Featuring Umberto Semprebene, Ada Marucelli, Bruto Castellani
Country: Italy
What it is: Biblical epic

The story of the Bible is told from the creation of the world to the reign of Solomon.

Reportedly, this movie had a budget of around three million dollars, and the original print consisted of eleven reels. That version is lost. The version that is extant was a re-release made in 1929 which reduced the length to 62 minutes, destroyed some of the framing, and added ponderous and tiresome narration. This was distributed by the Weiss Brothers on a states rights basis. It rushes through most of the early stories (the creation of the world, Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel, Noah, etc.) and only slows down for the stories of Joseph, Moses and Solomon. Some of the spectacle is amazing; the scenes involving the Ark and the Tower of Babel are pretty impressive. The story (for this version of the movie) is less so, largely because the narration is so annoying; the original version certainly must have been much better. As is usual in epics of this sort, the miracles are the main fantastic content; there’s even an early attempt at the parting of the Red Sea. In it’s present state, the movie is more interesting to look at than to listen to, and the stories are better told in the Bible itself.

0 CommentsLeave a comment

The Invisible Mouse (1947)

THE INVISIBLE MOUSE (1947)
Article 5214 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 7-25-2016
Directed by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera
Voice cast unknown
Country: USA
What it is: Tom and Jerry Cartoon

Jerry jumps into a bottle of invisible ink while escaping from Tom, and discovers it makes him transparent. He decides to use this ability to torment Tom.

Recently, I read that Chuck Jones envisioned the Road Runner cartoons initially as a parody of the Tom and Jerry cartoons, with the intent of showing how stupid the whole chase format was. They ended up becoming popular in their own right, and I think much of that has to do with the Jones’s exquisite comic timing and the heightened air of absurdity to the whole concept. I love the Road Runner cartoons, but despite the fact that I’d like to like them, I’m afraid a lot of the Tom and Jerrys leave me cold. Even this one, which has the fantastic gimmick of Jerry turning invisible, feels like a routine exercise in the duo’s modus operandi of torturing each other; except for a section in the middle where Tom thinks he’s going out of his head, the invisibility gimmick doesn’t do a whole lot to change the pattern. This one is rated pretty high on IMDB which means it’s probably a favorite of fans of the series, but the gags just don’t hit my funny bone; they seem obvious and predictable. It may just come down to the fact that I’m not a Tom and Jerry fan.

0 CommentsLeave a comment

Who Can Kill a Child? (1976)

WHO CAN KILL A CHILD? (1976)
aka Quien puede matar a un nino?, Island of the Damned
Article 5213 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 7-24-2016
Directed by Narciso Ibanez Serrador
Featuring Lewis Fiander, Prunella Ransome, Antonio Iranzo
Country: Spain
What it is: Demonic children movie

An American couple takes a vacation to the island of Almanzora, only to discover that all the children on the island have become homicidal.

There have been quite a few “evil children” movies made over the years, but of those I’ve seen so far, this one digs the deepest into the theme of the inherent wrongness of the killing of children; to the vast majority of human beings, the killing of children is a moral atrocity. The movie is in some ways a variation of NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD, only instead of crusty cannibalistic zombies (the killing of which does not carry moral consequences, which is to some extent the reason for the popularity of the “zombie apocalypse” subgenre), we have homicidal children. The movie implies that the reason for this event happening is that it may be a revenge for the irresponsibility of adults in their management of the world and the way the children suffer most from it; the movie opens with a series of historical snapshots in which children were horribly treated (such as the Holocaust). At any rate, the movie is effective enough that I can easily see it upsetting any number of people; in fact, it certainly ranks as one of the strongest Spanish horror movies I’ve seen. It’s a bit too long and there are times where I think the characters make very poor decisions, but it does make for an interesting “what would YOU do?” viewing experience, though it’s definitely not for everybody.

0 CommentsLeave a comment

Studie Nr. 6/Studie Nr. 7 (1930)/(1931)

STUDIE NR. 6 / STUDIE NR. 7 (1930)/(1931)
Articles 5211/5212 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 7-22-2016 / 7-23-2016
Directed by Oskar Fischinger
No cast
Country: Germany
What it is: Abstract animation

Yes, I’m reviewing two movies at once, but given the fact that they’re two movies of a 14-part series that consist of abstract animated shapes moving in sync to the music on the soundtrack, I think my decision is understandable. Actually, the Walt Lee guide which listed these lists numbers five through eleven of the series as a single entry; why it didn’t include the first four or the last three is unknown by me. At any rate, they’re cut from the same cloth; the first has mostly bird-like shapes moving around to “Los Verderones”, while the second has mostly flat paper-shapes dancing around to Brahms’ “Hungarian Dance No. 5”. They’re both well done and short enough so that they don’t overstay their welcome. I suspect the rest of the series is similar, but these appear to be the only two that are quickly and easily available for viewing; I saw excerpts for 5 and 8, but would prefer to cover the full shorts when they become available. Believe it or not, the Nazis labeled him a degenerate due to the abstract nature of these shorts, no doubt because they were suspicious of anything they couldn’t understand. He would later help design the abstract sequence in FANTASIA, but would quit when the powers that be made his abstract designs more representational.

0 CommentsLeave a comment

Faust and Mephistopheles (1903)

FAUST AND MEPHISTOPHELES (1903)
aka Faust et Mephistopheles
Article 5210 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 7-21-2016
Directed by Alice Guy
Cast unknown
Country: France
What it is: Two minutes of the story

Faust makes a deal with the devil that ends up doing little more than tormenting him. Can a woman with a cross save him?

Alice Guy didn’t try to emulate George Melies all that often, which is understandable, because she really didn’t seem to capture the sense of fun that Melies had with his work. She does, however, try to tell a variation of the Faust story… or as much of a variation as she can manage in a two-minute running time. It mostly consists of the signing of the pact, people being turned into other people and a sudden happy ending. It’s cute and moves fast, but it’s not really all that enjoyable and the story doesn’t amount to much. There’s no dancing ladies… but no tumbling imps, either.

0 CommentsLeave a comment

Le mystere Saint-Val (1945)

LE MYSTERE SAINT-VAL (1945)
aka The Saint-Val Mystery
Article 5209 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 7-20-2016
Directed by Rene Le Henaff
Featuring Fernandel, Arlette Guttinguer, Germain Kerjean
Country: France
What it is: Old dark house, French style

An insurance investigator who won an amateur policeman contest is sent out to the Saint-Val mansion to investigate the death of a man who recently bought a life insurance policy. Then the residents begin dropping dead…

Apparently, American comedians weren’t the only ones who would try to work a “haunted house/mystery” comedy into their oeuvre; here’s one from the French comedian Fernandel. I found this one on YouTube, but it’s not complete (it’s short about twenty minutes) and it doesn’t have English subtitles, so plotwise I was left somewhat in the dark. However, it does have a fair amount of atmosphere, there’s a fun assortment of mysterious characters, and there are a few visual jokes to liven up the proceedings. Due to the language issue, I can’t give a real evaluation of the movie, but it did look fairly fun and I enjoyed what I could from it.

0 CommentsLeave a comment

Spermula (1976)

Spermula (1976)
aka L’amour est un fleuve en Russie
Article 5208 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 7-18-2016
Directed by Charles Matton
Featuring Dayle Haddon, Udo Kier, Francois Dunoyer
Country: France
What it is: Adult art film

A secret society that developed supernatural powers concerned with the “Rapture of Being” vanished in 1935, only to return to the world many years later where they possess the women and use the men. However, have they returned too soon…?

Quite frankly, I expected porn, and given the title, can you blame me? I was very surprised when a copy of this one showed up on YouTube, of all places, and that was a big tip-off to me that this movie didn’t quite fit that pigeonhole. Granted, there are several versions of this movie out there (and I hear tell that the English language version is very silly), but the French version I saw, while still clearly an adult film of sorts, is more stylistically surreal than openly erotic; even when the sex shows up, I was more entranced than aroused. It’s not an easy movie; much of it is confusing, and it takes a bit of work to sort through the characters, but it did catch my interest enough that I think it might be worth revisiting. Now if only the title wasn’t so crass; the French title translates as “Love is a River in Russia”, a line from the movie.

0 CommentsLeave a comment

Marionettes (1939)

MARIONETTES (1939)
Article 5207 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 7-17-2016
Directed by Ben Carleton
Cast unknown
Country: UK
What it is: Eerie amateur movie short

A puppeteer becomes enamored with a life-size female dancer marionette, but becomes jealous when she seems to prefer another life-size marionette, a clown. However, this is all in the puppeteer’s mind, isn’t it?…

Since most of my sources understandably pay little attention to the world of amateur film, I rarely venture there myself in my cinematic journeys. However, the Walt Lee guide is an exception, and its listings include this film from Ben Carleton, who made movies as a hobby. This one was made in 1939, but had to wait until 1948 to get shown due to the advent of WWII. Now “amateur” doesn’t mean the same thing as “amateurish”, and this eerie little tale (shot silently with music) is well acted, well edited, and quite effective; it’s better than many professional films I’ve seen. Even given the fact that it was shot silent, it actually feels a bit more modern than other films of the era, and that’s quite an accomplishment.

0 CommentsLeave a comment

Extraordinary Illusions (1903)

EXTRAORDINARY ILLUSIONS (1903)
aka Illusions funambulesques
Article 5206 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 7-15-2016
Directed by Georges Melies
Featuring Georges Melies
Country: France
What it is: Magic short

A magician performs tricks in which he creates a woman from his magic box, only to have her turn into a cook.

It’s another magic short from Melies, and like many of the others, it only runs about two minutes long. Some of the special effects seem quite sharp this time, including scenes in which the magic box and a table move of their own accord. Beyond that, this is pretty much run-of-the-mill Melies, but I did take note that he might have geared this one to audiences who speak English; despite being a French film-maker, I noticed that the Magic Box was marked as such in English.

1 CommentLeave a comment

An Extraordinary Cab Accident (1903)

AN EXTRAORDINARY CAB ACCIDENT (1903)
Article 5205 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 7-14-2016
Directed by Walter R. Booth and Robert W. Paul
Cast unknown
Country: UK
What it is: Comic trick short

A man is run over by a horse-and-buggy when he crosses the street. The cop catches the driver, but is the pedestrian dead?

There’s not much to write about on this one-minute short, either in terms of its plot (it’s basically a joke story with a punch line) or its fantastic content (which is the punch line itself). Suffice it to say that the story involves either accelerated healing or resurrection from the dead. Oops, did I give away the ending without a spoiler warning? Well, so be it, but when the movie’s this short, it’s unavoidable. Still, it plays its surprise ending fairly well.

1 CommentLeave a comment