Untamed Mistress (1956)

UNTAMED MISTRESS (1956)
Article 5204 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 7-13-2016
Directed by Ron Ormond and Allan Nixon
Featuring Allan Nixon, Jacqueline Fontaine, Byron Keith
Country: USA
What it is: Bungle in the Jungle

A safari tries to locate a tribe of gorillas. They bring along a woman who was raised by the gorillas and then civilized, but will her return to the jungle cause her to revert to her savage ways?

“The Motion Picture Guide” calls it a horror movie, which is how it got onto my hunt list. To its credit, it does have some talk about a cursed shrunken head and a magic talisman, and though that’s slight as far as fantastic content goes, it’s closer than some other jungle movies. IMDB calls it a drama, which accords the movie more dignity than it really merits. I’m calling it as I see it; it’s a Double-Stuffed Safari-O with a heavy exploitation angle (lots of topless women) that ultimately manifests itself as an inadvertent comedy. Jacqueline Fontaine’s appeal has little to do with her acting abilities, and this is a fairly daring movie for 1956. There’s lots of stock footage incorporated into the movie, and some of it is ridiculous; when the men encounter a native dance in the middle of the jungle, the fact that the dance footage features people watching from tiered bleachers in the background makes us realize they were nowhere near a jungle when this was filmed. Yes, it’s really bad, but it’s also quite funny bad, and I will say the ending is pretty novel for this sort of movie. Incidentally, whoever wrote up the cast list for this movie on IMDB engaged in a bit of editorializing; Allan Nixon is billed as playing “Insipid Hero”.

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Entr’acte (1924)

ENTR’ACTE (1924)
Article 5203 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 7-12-2016
Directed by Rene Clair
Featuring Jean Borlin, Inge Friss, Francis Picabia
Country: France
What it is: Dada weirdness

Plot: Yes, there is one… sort of…

This avant-garde short was originally shown as part of an opera; the first two minutes were shown before the ballet, and the rest of the movie was shown between the two acts. With a cast that includes Francis Picabia, Marcel Duchamp and Man Ray, there’s one thing you can be sure of, and that is that you’re in deep Dada territory, but the presence of Rene Clair also adds a strong dose of humor to the proceedings. There is something of a plot involve a runaway wagon carrying a coffin, but it’s mostly there as a frame from which to hang the bizarre and sometimes amusing visuals. There is some fantastic content; for example, we have a man rising from a coffin and making people disappear with his wand, as well as a cannon that moves of its own accord. There are lots of abstract and experimental films out there, but this is one of the most fun that I’ve seen.

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Edgar Allan Poe (1909)

EDGAR ALLAN POE (1909)
Article 5202 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 7-10-2016
Directed by D. W. Griffith
Featuring Barry O’Moore, Linda Arvidson, Clara T. Bracy
Country: USA
What it is: Mini-bio

Edgar Allan Poe, desperate to buy food for his ailing wife, is inspired to compose his most famous poem (“The Raven”), but will he be able do sell it?

If it weren’t for the fact that a raven magically appears on a statue near the beginning of the movie, I’m not sure there would be any real fantastic content here, despite the fact that the title character is a famous horror writer and the poem itself would qualify. As it is, it’s historical event as a tear-jerking example of tragic irony. I think it’s efficiently directed, but I do find myself wondering about the audience reaction at the time it was made; to these eyes, both the leads are overacting, using a declamatory acting style that would net horselaughs today. In some movies, this wouldn’t matter, but when you’re trying for pathos, it’s pretty fatal. Reportedly, the original title cards for the movie misspelled Poe’s middle name as “Allen”.

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Duel Personalities (1939)

DUEL PERSONALITIES (1939)
Article 5201 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 7-9-2016
Directed by George Sidney
Featuring Our Gang, Allan Randall, Ruth Tobey
Country: USA
What it is: Our Gang short

Alfalfa is place under hypnosis and made to believe he is D’Artagnan. He challenges Butch to a duel for the hand of Darla, but the spell is broken before the duel…

I’m not extremely familiar with the Our Gang / Little Rascals series of shorts, only having seen a couple of them for this series, but I hear tell that the quality went down after MGM took over production of the series in 1938. This is apparently one of the better ones of that era, with Carl “Alfalfa” Switzer giving a good performance, especially when he is under hypnosis believing he’s in THE THREE MUSKETEERS. The hypnotism is the fantastic content here, or course. It also has a logical but amusing ending, so this one is fairly decent. Only time will tell if I will be encountering other episodes from the series.

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Calino a mange du cheval (1908)

CALINO A MANGE DU CHEVAL (1908)
aka Result of Eating Horse Flesh
Article 5200 by Dave SIndelar
Date: 7-8-2016
Directed by Romeo Bosetti
Featuring Paul Bertho
Country: France
What it is: You are what you eat in action

Calino, unhappy with his meal at home, goes to a butcher who deals in horse flesh and buys a cut. He brings it home, and eats too much of it. And then…

You know, there’s one good thing about so many of the silent era movies being lost; it spares me from having to watch the many variations on this theme that were made at the time. For the record, the result of eating horse flesh is the same as drinking a bottle of horse embrocation; you act like a horse. Is it obvious? Yes. Is it funny? Not really; most of the movie has the title character running around with a cart and creating predictable mayhem. It does come up with a creative ending gag, but that’s about it. As it is, it’s just another in a long line of shorts in which humans are made to act like animals for comic effect. Actually, I think I’ve only seen two of these (both involving men acting like horses); I know there’s quite a few of them finding ways to get men to act like monkeys.

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The Red Spectre (1907)

THE RED SPECTRE (1907)
aka Le spectre rouge
Article 5199 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 7-7-2016
Directed by Segundo de Chomon and Ferdinand Zecca
Cast unknown
Country: France
What it is: Magic short plus

A devilish skeletal figure presents his magic act; unfortunately, he may be thwarted by a good spirit.

This short can be described as a variation of Melies’s many magic-themed shorts in which a magician appears and does his act. What sets this one apart is that the magician is a devilish skeletal figure whose tricks are surrounded by a hellish atmosphere, and the presence of the whisper of a plot involving his conflict with a good spirit. The plot as such isn’t much, but the vivid hand-coloring of the print and the macabre atmosphere add so much flavor to the proceedings that this becomes one of the most entertaining variations I’ve seen of this theme. I think my favorite moments involve the main character advancing to the camera to perform some of this tricks up close; this is an approach that I don’t think Melies ever tried. It’s not as slickly done as the Melies shorts at their best, but this still may be my favorite example of the early silent era magic short.

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The Dover Boys at Pimento University, or The Rivals of Roquefort Hall (1942)

THE DOVER BOYS AT PIMENTO UNIVERSITY, OR THE RIVALS OF ROQUEFORT HALL (1942)
Article 5198 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 3-5-2016
Directed by Chuck Jones
Featuring the voices of Mel Blanc, Bea Benaderet, John McLeish
Country: USA
What it is: Old-time juvenile boys books parody

The Dover Boys romance the lovely Dora Standpipe, but must come to her rescue when she is kidnapped by that cad, Dan Backslide.

This is perhaps Chuck Jones’s first classic cartoon, and he almost lost his job over it. In parodying juvenile adventure books from a half a century earlier, he radically changed the style of animation by having characters strike exaggerated poses while keeping the transitions to a minimum, creating a style of incredible speed. The result is a hilarious cartoon, with one of the highlights being Mel Blanc’s vocal performance as Dan Backslide. The cartoon was so innovative that it almost didn’t get a release and Jones was almost fired; however, Warner Brothers did release it (they had to fill a quota) and Jones was retained, although it would be several years before he would return to experimenting with this type of movement.

However, the fantastic content in this one is a little more difficult to pin down. Unlike most cartoons, there are no talking or anthropomorphic animals (although an argument could be made that the sailor character who provides a running gag isn’t quite human), nor or there any of the usual horror, science fiction or fantasy elements to be found. Still, there is one moment; super-strength is on display when a tree is uprooted, though the cartoon plays it more as an oversight. Barring that, it is probably the animated exaggeration that makes the cartoon qualify as a virtual fantasy.

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David et Goliath (1910)

DAVID ET GOLIATH (1910)
aka David and Goliath
Article 5197 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 7-3-2016
Directed by Henri Andreani
Featuring Berthe Bovy
Country: France
What it is: Biblical rock slinging

Young shepherd David fights a battle with the giant Goliath.

Well, it’s time for another edition of “Dave grousing about some technical detail of a movie that everyone else seems to accept”, but I’ll just fall back on the defense that I’m covering these movies due to their fantastic content. And, in the case of the David and Goliath story, the fantastic content is the presence of a giant. Now, when you promise me a “giant” and offer me no more than a big man whose size is within the bounds of normal human variation… well, maybe I can understand the difficulties of offering me a REAL giant in a film like this, but I’m still not only going to be disappointed, but I will point out that it severely defantasticizes the fantastic content of the concept. Nor do I really understand the strategy of using “Peter Pan” casting (having an actress portray a young man) for the role of David; you’re telling me they couldn’t find a slight young man able to pull off the thespic load of this role? Still, I’d put up with that if they’d given me a REAL giant. As it is, it’s a pretty standard silent short treatment of the familiar story, and I suppose it accomplishes what it sets out to do. For the record, though, my favorite scene is when David demonstrates his slingshot prowess against an eagle in the first scene.

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Daffy Duck and the Dinosaur (1939)

DAFFY DUCK AND THE DINOSAUR (1939)
Article 5196 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 6-30-2016
Directed by Chuck Jones
Featuring the voices of Mel Blanc and Jack Lescoulie
Country: USA
What it is: Warner Brothers cartoon

Casper Caveman and his pet dinosaur Fido go on an expedition to catch a duck for breakfast. But their target is Daffy Duck, so…

If this cartoon had been made a few years later, the caveman would have probably been Elmer Fudd and the prey would have been Bugs Bunny. As it is, the caveman is modeled after Jack Benny and Daffy is the prey, but it plays out pretty much the same. This is an early Chuck Jones effort; it’s good but not great. The two extended gags include Daffy trying to avoid a rock from a slingshot, and a sequence where the caveman follows a series of signs (some of which are parodies of thirties-era advertisements) to a duck breakfast. The dinosaur is used for a couple of gags, but it really doesn’t play much of a role in the proceedings; with minor modifications, it could have been set in the present. My favorite gags are some of the signs, and the scene where a rock realizes it’s just been tricked.

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Topper (1979)

TOPPER (1979)
Article 5195 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 6-28-2016
Directed by Charles S. Dubin
Featuring Kate Jackson, Andrew Stevens, Jack Warden
Country: USA
What it is: Supernatural TV-Pilot comedy

Two fun-loving socialites die in an automobile accident, but they can’t go to heaven until they do a good deed. They decide to help a stuffy financial adviser to cut loose and have a good time.

The original had Cary Grant. This one has scenes in a disco. Okay, that’s a bit of a cheap shot from someone who hated the whole disco scene, but one of the lines from the movie during the disco scene is “Nobody comes here for sparkling conversation!”, and that’s an apt description for this version of the movie, though not the original. I don’t object to Jack Warden in the title role, but he doesn’t hold a candle to Roland Young; in fact, I don’t think there’s anyone in the cast I would prefer over the equivalent actor in the original. Nor is there wit in the script nor energy in the direction; this movie just seems to meander absent-mindedly through its plot. If there’s anyone here that stands out, I’d have to choose Kate Jackson; at least she seems to be trying to tap into the spirit of the original movie, and given that she’s one of the executive producers and was hoping this would make it into a series, that’s understandable. But the movie is glum and joyless. Fortunately, the original is still around, and it’s much easier to find than this forgotten remake.

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