SPIRITS OF THE DEAD

 

SPIRITS OF THE DEAD (1968) is an adaptation of three Edgar Allan Poe tales, but it has little in common with the Roger Corman/Vincent Price/AIP series featuring that author's work. The film can also be defined as a horror anthology, but it isn't in the class of the Amicus productions of multi-story chillers. SPIRITS OF THE DEAD (original French title HISTOIRES EXTRAORDINAIRES) is a perfect definition of 1960s art house cinema, with three acclaimed directors (Roger Vadim, Louis Malle, and Federico Fellini), and an international main cast made up of trendy, beautiful young stars (Alain Delon, Terence Stamp, Brigitte Bardot, and Jane & Peter Fonda). 

The first story, "Metzengerstein", directed by Roger Vadim, stars Jane Fonda as the cruel and capricious Countess Frederique Metzengerstein, a gorgeous and powerful young aristocrat who spends her time pursuing pain and pleasure with her debauched followers. The Countess becomes obsessed with her estranged cousin Baron Wilhelm (Peter Fonda), even more so after he rejects her advances. In revenge, the Countess orders a servant to burn down the Baron's barn, which contains his beloved horses. The Baron dies in the blaze, while at the same time a wild, untamed black stallion finds its way onto the Countess' estate. The woman transfers her obsession to the animal, and she rides it to a fitting end. 

"Metzengerstein" is a very simple tale--the symbolism of the horse is very obvious--and its best attributes are Claude Renoir's cinematography and Jane Fonda's outrageous costumes (despite the story being set sometime in the Middle Ages, the Countess seems to have had access to Barbarella's wardrobe). Jane Fonda is quite sexy (in a lethal way) as the Countess, but the story is one-dimensional, and it goes on too long. (One could make that same observation about the other two tales in this picture.) 

"William Wilson" (directed by Louis Malle) deals with a sadistic man (Alain Delon) who is constantly thwarted in his depravities by a mysterious double. Wilson eventually learns that the double is far closer to him than he thinks. 

This story is highlighted by the malevolent handsome looks of Alain Delon, who ably portrays Wilson, a man who can hurt and torture others without so much as a flicker of movement upon his attractive face. Brigitte Bardot appears in this tale as a desirable woman Wilson plays a mammoth card game with, in order to take all her money and force her under his control. The card game isn't as exciting as it should have been, and it is too lengthy. What makes "William Wilson" stand out is that it is an "evil twin" story in which the evil twin has actually been the main character all along. With cinematography by Tonino Delli Colli. 

"Toby Dammit" (directed by Federico Fellini) has Terence Stamp as a famous British actor taking a nightmarish trip to Italy, and sitting through a surrealistic awards ceremony. The troubled actor (who looks as if he's mentally & physically ill, or on drugs) escapes by driving away in a new Ferrari, given to him by the producers of a "Catholic Western" that he has agreed to star in. No matter how fast Toby speeds away, he can't escape the image of a creepy little girl who carries a white ball--an image that ends the actor's troubles. 

The "Toby Dammit" segment is the most famous part of SPIRITS OF THE DEAD, due to Fellini's typical bizarre imagery and use of discordant editing techniques and disturbing faces. The whole thing comes off as an alcoholic or drug-addled hazy dream of Toby's, while also serving as a satire on the Italian film industry. One way of looking at it is to assume that the plane bringing Toby to Italy has crashed, and the actor is now in Hell or purgatory. (More literal-minded viewers will see the episode as being pretentious.) The creepy girl with the ball is an image taken straight from Mario Bava's KILL BABY KILL, and one wonders what Bava himself could have done with this story (heck, one wonders what the film would have been like if Bava had directed the whole thing--it probably would have turned out a lot better). The music for this episode was provided by Nino Rota. 

The version I watched of SPIRITS OF THE DEAD had a French voice track, with English subtitles. AIP obtained the American distribution rights to the film, slapped on a short voice over of Vincent Price reciting a few lines of Poe, and made a few cuts to it. (The international trailer for SPIRITS goes out of its way to mention the three cult directors involved in it, while the American trailer doesn't mention the trio at all!)

SPIRITS OF THE DEAD feels like three different short films attached to each other, but the trio of stories do have some similarities. The title characters of each tale are all arrogant and misanthropic, and they all get exactly what they deserve (in this way SPIRITS does recall the Amicus anthologies). The trio are also all physically attractive, while at the same time spiritually dead inside. SPIRITS is beloved by a number of astute film experts whose opinion I respect, but its languid pacing and unsympathetic characters will put many off. All three stories have some arresting moments, but there's also a lot of shots that go out of their way to say "This Means Something". If you're looking for something off-beat to watch for Halloween, SPIRITS OF THE DEAD is an apt choice, particularly for those who haven't seen it before. While I didn't dislike the movie, when it comes to horror film anthologies my tastes run toward something like THE HOUSE THAT DRIPPED BLOOD. 

CALL HER SAVAGE

 

Last night Turner Classic Movies showed the notorious 1932 Fox Pre-Code film CALL HER SAVAGE, starring Clara Bow and Hitless Wonder Movie Blog favorite Thelma Todd. It was a first-time viewing for me. 

CALL HER SAVAGE starts out with a Native American attack on a wagon train, and that's one of the more routine things in this movie. The attack takes place in the Old West, and the wagon master is caught off guard, because the married man is busy fooling around with another woman. This sequence sets up the idea that the sins of the wagon master will be visited upon his heirs, namely his future granddaughter Nasa Springer (Clara Bow). 

Nasa grows up rich and spoiled on a large Texas ranch, and among the things she gets away with are: taking a whip to a rattlesnake, and then using the same whip on a part-Native American part-white man named Moonglow (Gilbert Roland), who has a crush on Nasa. (He has such a crush on her that he stands absolutely still and takes it while the young woman violently strikes him over and over again--in a too-obvious metaphor, he's literally her whipping boy.) Less than a minute after the attack on Moonglow, she's coyly flirting with him, but soon she's smashing a guitar over the head of a ranch hand. She's sent to a special school in Chicago by her disappointed father, but Nasa disobeys him and marries dissolute rich playboy Larry Crosby (Monroe Owsley). Nasa soon finds out that Larry married her just to get back at his mistress (Thelma Todd), so she decides to live it up and spend as much of Larry's money as possible. The money runs out, and Nasa discovers she's pregnant, and her problems get worse and worse.....but her biggest obstacle is her tempestuous nature. 

CALL HER SAVAGE was considered a comeback of sorts for Clara Bow. The "It Girl" had been away from acting for a while due to her many personal problems. The Fox Corporation signed Bow to a big contract, and they went all out to make the story stand out. The movie is now considered one of the prime examples of the Pre-Code era, but what hurts the picture is that it tries to be so salacious it winds up bordering on the absurd. Nearly every scene deals with a major issue or problem that Nasa has to deal with, and among the things that come up are catfights, a sexual assault by her estranged (and deranged) husband, and an attempt at prostitution in New Orleans after she winds up broke and her baby needs medicine. 

There's all sorts of urban legends about how Clara Bow's film career turned out when talkies arrived. All I can say is in CALL HER SAVAGE her voice sounds perfectly fine, and her line readings are natural and unaffected. Her best moments as Nasa are those without dialogue, as she ably shows how behind the woman's tough exterior there's a deep well of pain and sadness (no doubt the actress' own personal life had an impact on how she played the role). Bow looks great, and she gets to wear plenty of outfits that show off her figure and her cleavage. The main explanation for Nasa's outlandish antics is that she is the result of a fling between her mother and a Native American--an idea that is of course patently ridiculous, and doesn't take into account the fact that Moonglow, who has a similar racial background, is kind and gentle. (If anything, Nasa's actions make one believe that she's very likely bipolar.) 

Thelma Todd and Clara Bow in CALL HER SAVAGE

Thelma Todd once again plays the "other woman" role, and she once again makes such an impression in such a short time that one wishes she had more to do. (The catfight between Thelma and Clara is one of the big highlights of the entire Pre-Code era.) Monroe Owsley is a true Pre-Code villain--his Larry Crosby is such an arrogant jerk that one wonders what any woman would see in him, no matter how rich he might be. (Not only does Larry assault Nasa, he shoves Thelma Todd straight over a chair--luckily Thelma had plenty of experience in falling down due to her association with Hal Roach.) Film geeks will notice among the supporting cast Mary Gordon, Bert Roach, Three Stooges veteran Symona Boniface, and Mischa Auer, who starts a brawl in a Greenwich Village eatery that Nasa and her escort happen to be visiting. (Said eatery also features a couple of flamboyantly gay singing waiters--this is a Pre-Code film, after all.) 

Fox put a lot of effort into CALL HER SAVAGE, and director John Francis Dillon provides a few expressionistic touches. Pre-Code fans consider most movies made during that era as wild & crazy romps--but I wouldn't put CALL HER SAVAGE in that category. It's very gruesome at times, and while Clara Bow does very well in a difficult role, Nasa Springer isn't the type of person you want to spend a lot of time with. This film also has a dark undercurrent to it when one realizes how many emotional & mental issues Clara Bow dealt with. The actress made only one more film after CALL HER SAVAGE, and then she retired from the screen for good. When one thinks about how the role of Nasa Springer might have affected Bow's fragile mind, that decision was probably for the best. 

TARZAN'S MAGIC FOUNTAIN

 

A Tarzan movie?? The main reason for this blog post is that TARZAN'S MAGIC FOUNTAIN (1949) stars Evelyn Ankers, the lovely Universal scream queen of the 1940s. 

Ankers plays Gloria James, a famous aviatrix who has been presumed dead since she disappeared while flying over Africa 20 years ago. Gloria is still alive--after bailing out of her plane, she stumbled onto a secret valley which contains a village of white-skinned natives who, due to the powers of a nearby fountain of youth, never age. Tarzan (Lex Barker) knows about the valley, and guards its secrets. But Jane (Brenda Joyce) comes upon a newspaper article stating that Gloria's fiancee might beat a murder charge if the aviatrix was alive to give testimony. Tarzan travels to the lost valley, brings Gloria back, and she travels to England to help the man she loves. Gloria's arrival at a local trading post attracts the attention of a couple of nefarious characters (played by Albert Dekker and Charles Drake), who want to know the reason why the woman has not aged. Gloria soon returns, with her now-husband (Alan Napier). Being away from the valley has caused Gloria to return to her natural age, but she wants to go back to the spot with her husband to regain the years they were apart. Tarzan reluctantly takes her to the valley, but the goons from the trading post intervene, causing trouble for everyone. 

I haven't seen a lot of Tarzan films, but the ones I have mostly follow the same basic pattern--a group of white interlopers, greedy for a treasure, or some sort of element, take advantage of Tarzan and Jane's good natures and create havoc in the jungle. TARZAN'S MAGIC FOUNTAIN uses this pattern, but the subplot involving Gloria James and the lost valley makes it stand out. Actually, the story of the missing aviatrix and the village containing a fountain of youth would have been enough for a whole movie on its own, and it might have been better without all the Tarzan trappings. Gloria James' story is far more interesting than whatever Tarzan and Jane are up to, and the supposed zany antics of Cheeta the chimp just slow the movie down. 

By the time this film was made, the Tarzan series had moved from MGM to RKO, and the entries had more of a lower-budget B picture aspect to them. TARZAN'S MAGIC FOUNTAIN was Lex Barker's debut as the King of the Jungle (he was the first actor to succeed Johnny Weissmuller in the role). Barker is a decent Tarzan, but he's not all that charismatic. While this was Barker's first time in the series, this was also Brenda Joyce's last outing as Jane, and both Barker and Joyce are unable to make as much of an impression as Evelyn Ankers and the bad guys. 

Ankers gets one of the better roles in her screen career as Gloria James. She gives a fine, understated performance as the lost aviatrix (and the makeup she sports for her natural age is understated and effective as well). She pleads to Tarzan to return her to the hidden valley, but she's not a vain woman desperate to regain her youth--she just wants to be able to finally spend time with the man she loves. Albert Dekker and Charles Drake make a dangerous pair (Dekker even gets a very dramatic close-up during his death scene), and Henry Brandon (who played Scar in THE SEARCHERS) plays an antagonistic native of the lost valley who mistrusts Tarzan. The original movie Tarzan, Elmo Lincoln, has a small cameo. 

Lee Sholem directed TARZAN'S MAGIC FOUNTAIN, and the story was co-written by Curt Siodmak, who wrote many of the Universal horror films Evelyn Ankers starred in. The film works best when it deals with the lost valley--there are several impressive matte shots as the characters travel to and from there--but the scenes with Tarzan, Jane, and Cheeta are dull. The result is that this is a Tarzan film where the main character is overshadowed by a story that will remind viewers of both Amelia Earhart and Frank Capra's LOST HORIZON. 

BARNACLE BILL

 

BARNACLE BILL (1957) was one of the last of the famed Ealing comedies made in England, and the last Ealing film that Alec Guinness appeared in. It's another very light comedy involving a naval theme, quite similar to THE CAPTAIN'S PARADISE, the subject of my last blog post. (In America the movie was titled ALL AT SEA.) 

Alec Guinness plays Captain William Horatio Ambrose, a man who is descended from a long line of British naval heroes. This Ambrose, however, starts to get queasy as soon as he even sees water. Because of his affliction, Ambrose's military career has been rather limited. Ambrose has always wanted a command of his own, and he gets it as a civilian by buying a rundown amusement pier. The Captain starts to build the place back up, but the local town council is against him--they have plans to tear the place down. Ambrose comes up with a out-of-left-field idea--he registers the pier as a sea-going vessel, and attracts customers to stay on it by advertising that it's the only cruise ship that is not affected by the ocean waves. The new "ship" is a big success, but Ambrose must confront his seasickness problems to save his command from being sunk by conniving local politicians. 

BARNACLE BILL was directed by Charles Frend, who made a number of fine films (such as THE CRUEL SEA), and written by T.E.B. Clarke, who penned many of the best Ealing comedies. Despite this, and the fact that it has a superior cast, the movie feels more on the level of a TV sitcom story instead of a witty British classic. The humor is more silly than truly funny, and the quirkiness of the characters and the situation seems forced. Due to his seasickness, one expects Alec Guinness to be playing a timid, Don Knotts type of fellow, but Captain Ambrose is a tried and true military man, and a stickler for efficiency, so one never gets the feeling that the odds are all that against him. 

Where BARNACLE BILL really shines is in its cast. Film buffs and Hammer fans will recognize plenty of notable character actors: Percy Herbert, Harold Goodwin, Victor Maddern, Maurice Denham, Charles Lloyd Pack, George Rose, Lionel Jeffries, Miles Malleson, and Sam Kydd. Jackie Collins (sister of Joan and future novelist) has a small role, and smaller roles are filled by Joan Hickson (who gained fame for playing Miss Marple on TV in the 1980s) and Donald Pleasence. (Pleasence's role is so small that one wonders why such a striking performer was put into it.) It appears that Alec Guinness was trying to make Captain Ambrose more than just the typical strange nerdy comedic leading character type who fights against the system. (According to multiple sources, Guinness didn't think much of the movie, and he only appeared in it as a favor to the director.) As in THE CAPTAIN'S PARADISE, Guinness gets a chance to show his stuff on the dance floor. 

BARNACLE BILL is well-done technically. The cinematographer (working in black & white) was Douglas Slocombe, and most of the story was filmed on an actual pier in Norfolk, England. (The pier is established a few times by some effective miniatures and special effects.) The overall production just doesn't grab you the way THE LAVENDER HILL MOB or THE LADYKILLERS would. As I mentioned in my last post about THE CAPTAIN'S PARADISE, I got the Kino DVD that contains both films at a discount, and I have to say I wouldn't buy it at full price. BARNACLE BILL and THE LADYKILLERS are certainly not bad films, but they are not standout entries in Alec Guinness' big-screen career. 

THE CAPTAIN'S PARADISE

 

Among my recent purchases from Edward R. Hamilton Booksellers was a $6 DVD, a Kino double feature of two 1950s British comedies starring Alec Guinness, one of my favorite actors. Today I'll be discussing THE CAPTAIN'S PARADISE, a 1953 film produced & directed by Anthony Kimmins. 

THE CAPTAIN'S PARADISE concerns Henry St. James (Alec Guinness), who is in charge of a ferry ship running back and forth from Gibraltar to Kalik in Morocco. The Captain believes he has found the key to a perfect life. In Gibraltar he's married to Maud (Celia Johnson), a gentle Englishwoman who is dedicated to being the ultimate housewife. In Kalik, the Captain is married to Nita (Yvonne De Carlo), an exotic Spanish nightclub dancer who enables James to live out his wild side. Of course, the situation is too good to last, and the Captain realizes he doesn't know his two loves as much as he thought he did. 

One can assume all sorts of wild complications when reading a plot description of THE CAPTAIN'S PARADISE, and if the movie had been made in America, it probably would have fulfilled them. But this is an English film, and the tone is more down-to-earth and subtle. While watching this a viewer will react with chuckles rather than long laughs. Alec Guinness plays the Captain as a cool customer rather than a screwball type, and he does it very well. Guinness does get to show off his dancing chops with Yvonne De Carlo, and he also gets to speak multiple languages in a few scenes. Guinness also prevents the Captain from coming off as self-absorbed and arrogant (which in some ways the character is). 

The real highlight of this movie is Yvonne De Carlo as Nita. She's definitely alluring, but she makes the woman more than just an obvious sexpot. There's more to Nita than meets the eye, something that the Captain (to his regret) learns too late. De Carlo and Guinness might seem one of the strangest romantic couples in screen history, but the two of them have a great rapport here, and they're impressive on the dance floor as well. (If you've ever wanted to see Obi-Wan Kenobi and Lily Munster cut a mean rug together, this is your chance.) De Carlo also gets some dance numbers of her own. 

Celia Johnson gets the less showier role of Maud, the domesticated lady (the Captain buys her presents such as a vacuum cleaner and a sewing machine, while he buys Nita lingerie). As expected, Maud and Nita wind up meeting each other, while being unaware of the other's status. Their meeting doesn't precipitate the ending of the Captain's paradise....it's the Captain taking the women for granted that causes problems. (Maud wants to go out and get more out of life, while Nita wants to stay home and be a "normal" wife.) The plot of the film, and the Captain's treatment of his two wives and his expectations for each of them will offer plenty of material for 21st Century gender studies types....but I just see the movie as a lighthearted comedy. 

The film is enlivened by actual location shooting at Gibraltar, although it appears that none of the main cast actually went there. The supporting players are decent enough, but they lack the cult names that one finds in English movies made during this period (Miles Malleson does have a small role). THE CAPTAIN'S PARADISE is in full frame and black & white. 

I liked THE CAPTAIN'S PARADISE, but while watching it I kept thinking how different the presentation would have been if it was made by Americans, and had starred American comic actors. I discovered that Alec Coppel's story for this film was nominated for an Academy Award, and the basic idea of a man with two happy marriages at the same time is a good one--but I felt that this idea could have been developed a bit more. The main virtues of THE CAPTAIN'S PARADISE are Alec Guinness and Yvonne De Carlo. 

THE STRANGE COUNTESS

 

This is another entry in the German Rialto series of Edgar Wallace Krimi thrillers. THE STRANGE COUNTESS (1961) concerns a young London secretary named Margaret Reedle (Brigitte Grothum). Margaret is getting ready to take on a new position, but she's getting threatening phone calls, and there's even been attempts on her life. Her current boss (Fritz Rasp) assigns a detective named Mike Dorn (Joachim Fuchsberger) to keep an eye on Margaret, and she starts her new job, working for a mysterious Countess Moron (Lil Dagover) and living in the elderly woman's large castle. Despite her protection and new employment status, things get even worse for the woman, as she gets tangled up in a 20-year old murder case, and becomes the unwitting patient of a bizarre sanitarium. 

THE STRANGE COUNTESS is quite different from the usual German Krimi film. The action revolves around Margaret Reedle's problems, and there are no international crime syndicates, nefarious supervillains, or hooded killers dressed in black. One would think that this would make the film unappealing, but Margaret Reedle isn't a glamour girl, or a helpless damsel in distress. As played by the likable Brigitte Grothum, she's a relatively normal, straightforward person, and this encourages a viewer in taking interest in her plight. THE STRANGE COUNTESS has more of an Agatha Christie vibe than Edgar Wallace, and it even has some Hitchcock-like aspects to it as well. 

The movie still has some of the expected Krimi elements, such as the striking black & white photography, jazzy music by Peter Thomas, and a stalwart hero played by Joachim Fuchsberger. There's also Eddi Arent as the Countess' quirky son, and Klaus Kinski as a mental patient (talk about obvious casting). Kinski gets a big showcase here--he's the first person in the movie that you see onscreen--and he gives it his all, with one of his most creepiest and jittery performances. Kinski's mental patient reminds one of Dwight Frye's Renfield in the '31 DRACULA--especially in how he seemingly escapes from the sanitarium at will--and at times Kinski even looks a bit like Frye. 

Lil Dagover was one of the major stars of early German cinema--she's best known for being the female lead in the legendary THE CABINET OF DR. CALIGARI. Her countess is a Norma Desmond/Grand Dame type of role, and Dagover brings plenty of screen presence to it. It's a treat for film geeks to see Dagover and Fritz Rasp, another major German screen figure, sharing scenes together. 

Lil Dagover in THE STRANGE COUNTESS

THE STRANGE COUNTESS was well directed by Josef von Baky. Despite the lack of usual Krimi outlandishness, the movie is still diverting enough, with a plot that is toned down a bit from most examples of this genre. It also contains one of Klaus Kinski's most notable performances. 

THE BAT WHISPERS On Blu-ray From VCI

 

Director Roland West's THE BAT WHISPERS is a 1930 sound remake of his silent 1926 film THE BAT, based on the popular play by Mary Roberts Rinehart and Avery Hopwood. THE BAT was one of the main progenitors of the "Old Dark House" mystery thriller story that had a major impact on American popular culture in the first half of the 20th Century. 

West actually made two versions of THE BAT WHISPERS--a full frame "regular" version, and a widescreen 65mm "Magnifilm" version. VCI Entertainment has released a new 2-disc Region Free Blu-ray set which contains three cuts of the film--a full frame American version, a full-frame British version, and the widescreen version. All three versions have been restored and remastered for home video. 

I had already owned the old DVD release of THE BAT WHISPERS from Image Entertainment, which included the full-frame and widescreen versions. The movie itself is a decent example of its genre, but if it wasn't for Roland West's attempts at visual wizardry and the widescreen version, it wouldn't generate a lot of attention. The story is very stagy at times (which is to be expected), and it has way too much comic relief. If you thought Maude Eburne was annoying in THE VAMPIRE BAT, you'll find her incessant caterwauling in this movie as a cowardly maid to be insufferable. Her mediocre stooging is matched by Spencer Charters as a moronic caretaker and Charles Dow Clark as a so-called detective who appears to be an ancestor of Barney Fife. While watching Eburne, Charters, and Clark, one wishes that The Bat would kill them.

Chester Morris plays a very belligerent police inspector, and Una Merkel is very cute as the ingenue, but the visual tricks of THE BAT WHISPERS are far more interesting than the cast. The Bat himself is presented most effectively, but it's very easy to guess who the culprit is (just go by how dramatically lit each character is). One big problem with THE BAT WHISPERS is the lack of any background music. 

All three versions of THE BAT WHISPERS on this set have subtle differences from each other. Among the many extras on this release are featurettes that compare the three versions. Out of the three, I believe the widescreen version looks and sounds the best overall, but it doesn't have many of the striking close-ups presented in the full-frame versions. The full-frame British version, in my opinion, looks and sounds better than the full-frame American version. (The full-frame versions are on disc one, and the widescreen version is on disc two.) 

The extras include a 10-page booklet that has an article on the restoration of the film and stills from the production. There's a poster & stills gallery, along with a comparison between the silent 1926 THE BAT and THE BAT WHISPERS (this video proves that Roland West remade the film scene-by-scene). There's also a presentation of restored scenes from THE BAT (which will be released on Blu-ray itself soon). There's a new audio commentary as well, by Mick LaSalle, but it is a very disjointed and haphazard discussion (the talk is attached to the widescreen version). The 1959 version of THE BAT is also here as a bonus--it appears to be a print that is in the public domain, and it has not been remastered in any way. The '59 version has an interesting cast (Vincent Price, Agnes Moorhead), but I've always thought it was very mediocre. 

VCI has made this release of THE BAT WHISPERS a very enticing package, with three versions of the film and plenty of extras. It's a good thing that this has all sorts of bells & whistles, because the movie itself isn't as impressive as the technical tricks involved in making it. THE BAT WHISPERS and this Blu-ray set will be more appreciated by film geeks than a general audience. 

THE RED CIRCLE

 

This is another Krimi thriller from Germany, one of the earlier ones, actually the second in the Rialto series of Edgar Wallace films. THE RED CIRCLE (1960) was based on Wallace's THE CRIMSON CIRCLE. 

The movie gets your attention at the start, with a sequence showing a botched attempt at an execution in France by guillotine. The criminal who was sentenced to die later escapes from prison, and years later winds up in London, where he blackmails several affluent folk, and kills them if they don't pay up. His calling card is marked by a red circle, and the fiend is given this moniker. A veteran Scotland Yard inspector named Parr (Karl-Georg Saebisch) is assigned to the case, but the Red Circle seemingly continues to commit crimes at will, even after a smooth private eye (Klausjurgen Wussow) agrees to help out. 

THE RED CIRCLE isn't as outrageous as the later Edgar Wallace Krimis of the 1960s, but it has most of the basic elements, including sharp black & white photography, rain-slicked streets, plenty of suspicious characters, and a jazzy music score. The title menace is one of the many main Krimi villains who dress all in black, wear a hood, and speak in a low, threatening voice. One of the main plot points here is that the Red Circle consistently commits crimes right under Inspector Parr's nose, causing Scotland Yard to be embarrassed by the state of affairs. (In all honesty, Scotland Yard doesn't come off very effective in any of the German Krimis.) The combination of the pudgy, middle-aged, thoughtful Parr and the more leading-man type P.I. is a good one, although it might have been better if the duo were played by genre mainstays Gert Frobe and Joachim Fuchsberger. 

The one familiar Krimi face in THE RED CIRCLE is comedic actor Eddi Arent, who plays a police sergeant whose main function appears to be annoying his superiors at every opportunity. The leading lady role is played by an actress named Renate Ewert, who shows plenty of spunk and screen presence as a young woman named Thalia, who gets involved in the various schemes going on and keeps the audience guessing as to what her ultimate agenda is. German silent screen legend Fritz Rasp gets a supporting role. 

THE RED CIRCLE isn't as fast-paced as later Krimis, but there's plenty of story threads going on....so many that at times it's a task to keep track of everything. The best part of the film is the climax, which springs a major surprise as to the identity of the Red Circle, and also provides a couple of other clever twists as well. 

I don't think THE RED CIRCLE belongs among the best of the Edgar Wallace Krimis, but it is a decent mystery story, and one will appreciate it more if you stick all the way through the end. 

THE SINISTER MONK

 

This is one of the better entries in the series of German films made in the 1960s based on the works of British mystery writer Edgar Wallace. This Krimi has an iconic title character, a hooded, cloaked figure who carries a whip and is quite proficient at using it. Like many of the other German Edgar Wallace thrillers, THE SINISTER MONK was directed by Harald Reinl. 

The story centers around Darkwood Manor, a former monastery which is now the home of the Gilmore family. During an obligatory dark & stormy night, the elderly Lord Gilmore passes away, and his family schemes to get control of the estate, especially after they learn that Lord Gilmore's granddaughter Gwendolin (Karin Dor) is meant to inherit. The manor is being used as a girl's boarding school, which is run by Gilmore's daughter (Ilse Steppat, who Bond fans will recognize from ON HER MAJESTY'S SECRET SERVICE.). Gwendolin is invited to stay at the manor by her greedy relatives, and she learns that a number of girls from the school have gone missing or have been murdered, and the grounds are supposedly haunted by a whip-wielding monk. She also learns that there's way, way much more going on around the estate than she can even imagine, and her life is very much in danger. 

THE SINISTER MONK has all sorts of things going on in it. There are plenty of twists and turns in the plot, and numerous shady characters and red herrings. As expected from a German Krimi, the sharp, expressionistic black & white cinematography adds much to the atmosphere, and Harald Reinl keeps the story moving. 

This Krimi doesn't have as many of the familiar faces one encounters in this genre--Klaus Kinski and Joachim Fuchsberger are not in this one--but veterans Karin Dor and Eddi Arent pick up the slack. Dor is once again appealing in the damsel in distress role, and Arent plays another comedic servant, although this time he's much more subdued, for a very important reason. The girls school element (a common plot device in plenty of Euro genre films) gives the movie an excuse to feature a bevy of young lovelies, including Uta Levka, who would later appear in SCREAM AND SCREAM AGAIN. The girls wind up being victims in an international kidnapping scheme, run by the Sinister Monk himself. One point that must be made about this picture is the music score by Peter Thomas. Thomas' Krimi soundtracks have a tendency to be over-the-top, but this one is so flamboyant that one wonders if it was written for another movie altogether. You'll either be annoyed or amused by it. 

The titular Monk doesn't have a lot of screen time, but maybe that's just as well, for the character would probably lose effectiveness with more exposure. When the Monk was finally unmasked, I was absolutely surprised, as will anyone who watches this film for the first time with some knowledge about Krimi actors. 

The unexpected ending of THE SINISTER MONK adds to the overall entertainment value of the movie. It's a wild, crazy ride, and it has the bonus of even having some scenes that were actually filmed in London. There's a number of Krimi films I haven't seen yet, but out of the ones that I have, THE SINISTER MONK ranks at the top. 

PUBLIC HERO #1

 

PUBLIC HERO #1 is a 1935 MGM gangster story with some comedic elements. Much of the film is inspired by the criminal life of John Dillinger. 

The movie begins with Jeff Crane (Chester Morris) being incarcerated in a large prison. Once inside, Crane goes out of his way to cause as much trouble as possible--so much so, you just know there's a reason for it. Sure enough, Crane is an undercover Federal agent, and he's trying to earn the trust of his cellmate, Sonny Black (Joseph Calleia). Sonny is the leader of the notorious Purple Gang, but he's in jail on a lesser charge, and the Feds are hoping to use him to track down the rest of the gang. Jeff and Sonny escape, but the latter is wounded while fleeing the law. While the two men hide out, Jeff is sent out to find the drunken doctor (Lionel Barrymore) who provides medical services for the Purple Gang. While finding the doc Jeff encounters a pretty young woman named Terry (Jean Arthur). She is trying to find her brother, who she hasn't seen in years--and Jeff learns that her sibling is none other than Sonny. Jeff is determined to bring Sonny and the Purple Gang to justice, but he also doesn't want to hurt Terry, since the two have fallen for one another. 

PUBLIC HERO #1 starts out as a hard-boiled prison drama, and it immediately reminds one of THE BIG HOUSE, a famous tale about convicts that was also made at MGM and starred Chester Morris. Once Jeff goes off on a stormy night to find the tipsy doctor, the movie almost becomes a screwball comedy, as Lionel Barrymore's wildly hammy antics and Jeff and Terry's back-and-forth patter take center stage. The climax goes back to crime thriller mode, as the downfall of Sonny and his gang parallel major events in John Dillinger's life. The gang has a hideout in Wisconsin called "Little Paree" (Dillinger and several other gunmen hid out in Little Bohemia, Wisconsin), and a major gun battle takes place there, much like the one that actually did happen in Little Bohemia. After getting away in the chaos of the gunfight, Sonny attempts to change his appearance through plastic surgery (as Dillinger did), and eventually he's gunned down in an alley near the "Bijou" theater, while Dillinger came to his end outside the Biograph in Chicago. 

The always-surly Chester Morris is perfect as Jeff Crane, although his tough-guy act while in prison is way too obvious. Jean Arthur is appealing as always as Terry (one big twist is that she goes out of her way to attract Jeff's attention, instead of the other way around). There are times when it feels as if Arthur is acting as if she's in another film altogether, and it's hard to believe that the blonde, perky actress could be the sister to the dark, brooding Calleia. (Ann Dvorak would have been much more fitting as Terry.) It's also hard to believe that Terry would have such loyalty to her brother, especially when she finds out what he has done, and considering how he treats her. Instead of acting like the typical brash & bold big shot gangster, Calleia gives Sonny a quiet, snakelike menacing aura that works very well. Paul Kelly plays Jeff's boss, a tough Federal agent determined to wipe out the Purple Gang. (Ironically Kelly spent time in prison himself due to a manslaughter conviction.) 

Lionel Barrymore gets top billing as the drunken doctor, but he's character is basically a nuisance, and the actor overplays outrageously (even for him). The Purple Gang features such tough-guy actors as Paul Hurst and George E. Stone, and among the supporting cast are Lewis Stone as the warden of the prison in the beginning of the film, and Bert Roach and Arthur Housman, who have comedic roles. 

PUBLIC HERO #1 was directed by J. Walter Ruben, who doesn't have much of a legacy among classic Hollywood studio directors (probably due to the fact that he died quite young). The real talent behind this film is cinematographer Gregg Toland, who gives the crime scenes an expressionist feel, while making Jean Arthur look fantastic at the same time. 

I'm a huge Jean Arthur fan, but I must say that PUBLIC HERO #1 might have been better if her character had not been in it, and the story was just a straight crime thriller. Despite the lead billing of Lionel Barrymore and Arthur, their characters only serve as distractions from the main drama between Chester Morris and Joseph Calleia. Perhaps MGM was hoping that Barrymore and Arthur would steer the movie away from being a violent gangster tale and getting in trouble with the Code--it is rather brutal at times for a picture made at that particular studio. 

THE VICTORS

 

I've seen most of the epic World War II movies made in the 1950s and 60s, but until last night THE VICTORS (1963) had eluded me. The movie has never been officially released on DVD or Blu-ray in North America, and I don't remember any TV showings of it in my area during my younger days. 

THE VICTORS was written, produced, and directed by Carl Foreman, a man who was primarily a screenwriter. Foreman wanted THE VICTORS to be different than the standard WWII picture--the film follows a squad of American GIs as they fight through Europe, but there's no main character, and there are no major battles or action sequences. There isn't even what one could technically define as a plot--the script is made up of several random incidents involving members of the squad that are strung together. They serve in England, Italy, Western Europe, and one of the group winds up in 1946 postwar Berlin. 

The squad includes Sgt. Joe Craig (Eli Wallach), Cpl. Frank Chase (George Peppard), Cpl. Trower (George Hamilton), and smaller roles played by Vince Edwards, James Mitchum, Michael Callan, and Peter Fonda. Among their experiences are getting drunk whenever they can, encountering survivors from a concentration camp, witnessing a fellow soldier being executed for desertion, and dealing with a number of women along the way. 

Carl Foreman went out of his way to avoid the heroic or exciting elements one typically finds in WWII movies featuring American soldiers. The squad in THE VICTORS are not Audie Murphy types, nor are they memorable personalities. They're just regular guys trying to get through the war the best way they can. 

The gritty realism that Foreman was aiming for is negated by the sequences involving the women the squad encounters. The ladies are played by a half-dozen Euro babes--Melina Mercouri, Jeanne Moreau, Rosanna Schiaffino, Romy Schneider, Senta Berger, and Elke Sommer. All of the characters played by these women have been negatively affected by the war in various ways, yet they still all manage to look gorgeous (see photo below). The scenes with the ladies have a soap opera type of feel to them, and they make an already slow paced film even more sluggish. 

The version I saw of THE VICTORS on Tubi ran a little bit over two and a half hours. Throughout the movie a number of newsreels of the period are inserted, as a way to let the audience know how time is progressing. If the newsreels had not been included, the film's pace might have improved. According to multiple sources the original running time of THE VICTORS was about three hours. One of the sequences that was cut in involved a young refugee boy who survives by being a prostitute, and there was also a nude scene for Elke Sommer. 

If it's surprising that Foreman would try to put in elements involving child prostitution and nudity in a 1963 production, consider that the writer/director had a left-leaning attitude, which permeates THE VICTORS overall. This attitude is heavy-handed at times. At one point while members of the squad are relaxing at a cafe, some racist soldiers come in and attack a couple of black GIs, while the song "Remember Pearl Harbor" is being played. During the sequence showing the execution of the deserter, the incident is backed by Frank Sinatra's version of "Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas". The ending has a confrontation between Cpl. Trower and a Russian soldier in 1946 Berlin, a meeting that Foreman presents as a warning of what could happen if the "victors" of WWII do not learn to get along with one another. (The Russian soldier is played by Albert Finney, who, despite getting second billing, has only a couple minutes on screen, and doesn't even get to speak any lines in English.) 

THE VICTORS has elements of a true epic (it was filmed on location in England and Europe), but none of the characters reach out and grab you, and the multiple vignettes give the film a meandering, depressing tone. The six Euro babes generate some interest, but honestly their sequences could have been replaced by scenes that gave the squad more important things to do. THE VICTORS certainly is an unusual type of WWII movie, but it goes on too long and it never really comes together. 

Romy Schneider in THE VICTORS

The 70th Anniversary Restoration Of SEVEN SAMURAI

 

Last night I had the great privilege of seeing the 70th anniversary restoration of Akira Kurosawa's SEVEN SAMURAI on the big screen, at the Browning Cinema on the campus of the University of Notre Dame, along with my good friend Paul Lyzun. 

Seeing SEVEN SAMURAI under any circumstances is a treat, but viewing a fantastic looking and sounding version of it in an actual theater, with an audience, was magnificent. There's no need for me to state how great this film is--but watching it again last night did make me notice a few things in particular. 

One is what an exemplary performance Takashi Shimura gives as Kambei, the leader of the Seven. When it comes to actors in this film everyone talks about Toshiro Mifrune as the roguish Kikuchiyo--it is the showiest role, and Mifune does make the most of it (and the audience last night had a big reaction to his antics). But Shimura is the heart and soul of this picture, he's the one that holds everything together. Kambei is such a wise and knowing leader that not only would you want the man next to you during a difficult situation, but you'd want him to coach your favorite sports team. SEVEN SAMURAI doesn't even contain Shimura's greatest performance--that would be his haunting portrayal in Kurosawa's IKIRU--but the movie shows what a fine (and underrated) actor he was. 

Something else about Takashi Shimura's Kambei--he's the original Jedi Master. THE HIDDEN FORTRESS gets the major credit as the main Kurosawa influence on George Lucas and STAR WARS, but SEVEN SAMURAI should get plenty of notice as well. (As Paul Lyzun pointed out to me, the villagers joining together to fight the bandits are basically the Ewoks battling the Imperial troops on Endor.) SEVEN SAMURAI has inspired hundreds of movies and TV shows--or more accurately, hundreds of movies and TV shows have ripped it off, including less obvious examples like THE A-TEAM and THE LEGEND OF THE 7 GOLDEN VAMPIRES. A group of misfits banding together to accomplish an impossible mission? That has to be one of the most frequently used tropes in filmed entertainment history....but no one did it like Akira Kurosawa did. 

What really comes out in SEVEN SAMURAI is Kurosawa's adept use of the environment and the terrain. No director used such elements so well as Kurosawa did (except maybe John Ford and David Lean). You don't think you're just watching a movie while viewing SEVEN SAMURAI--you believe you are in 16th Century Japan, and you are witnessing a real-life event unfold in front of your eyes. Wind, rain, fire, mist--you feel as if you are experiencing all these things along with the characters. That's how effective and complete the situation is that Kurosawa created here. 

There's not as many action sequences in SEVEN SAMURAI as one would think (it's actually more of a character study). But when the action does come, it's swift and compelling. The final battle isn't filled with perfectly choreographed moves and tight editing, it's presented as a muddy, chaotic mess, as if the actors are actually trying to kill each other, while at the same time not having much of an idea about what is happening. It's no video game, that's for sure. 

If the restored version of SEVEN SAMURAI happens to be playing at a theater near you, by all means take the opportunity to see it. It truly is one of the greatest movies ever made. 

THE EXECUTIONER (1970)

 

This is another Tubi discovery, a movie I had never heard of. It's a Cold War espionage tale that came out after the 1960s spy craze had already died down. It doesn't try to be an exciting Bond-like glitzy adventure--it takes the dour John Le Carre route of lies, deceit, and bureaucratic infighting, and it succeeds too well in doing it. 

George Peppard is British Intelligence agent John Shay (the character was born in England, but grew up in America, explaining his accent). Shay gets the blame for a botched operation in Czechoslovakia, but he believes the fault is that of a double agent working for the Russians. With the help of his girlfriend Polly (Judy Geeson), who happens to be a clerk in the Intelligence office, Shay gets access to files that convinces him the traitor is high-level operative Adam Booth (Keith Michell). Booth happens to be married to Sarah (Joan Collins), an old flame of John's, and mainly due to this no one takes Shay's charges seriously. Undaunted, Shay proceeds to take matters into his own hands, causing more trouble and grief to all those involved in the situation. 

THE EXECUTIONER has a slow pace, very little action, and a storyline that is hard to follow (it doesn't help that a number of flashbacks are inserted from time to time). The choice of leading man also hurts the movie. On the big screen George Peppard, at least in the films I've seen him in, always has a remote, detached persona, and he certainly has that in THE EXECUTIONER. One could make the excuse that an intelligence agent needs to be remote and detached, but Peppard's Shay doesn't engage the audience, and he's not very likable either. Shay uses his girlfriend to steal files for him, causing her to lose his job, while still desiring Sarah, who happens to be married to the man he's accusing of being a traitor. It's no wonder Shay's bosses at British Intelligence don't believe him--while watching the movie I started to wonder if Shay was the one who was going to turn out to be a Russian agent. (Peppard did much better as an actor on American TV.) 

The delectable Judy Geeson does bring some much needed brightness to the plot as Polly, a young woman, who, amazingly, stays loyal to Shay throughout the film. Joan Collins as Sarah is less truculent than usual, but she's still portraying a woman who entices multiple men, and causes problems for all of them. The cast is rounded out by the likes of stalwart supporting players one always sees in this type of international production--Oskar Homolka, Charles Gray, Nigel Patrick, and George Baker. 

THE EXECUTIONER was produced by Charles Schneer, who is best known for his collaborations with Ray Harryhausen and Columbia Pictures. The movie was directed by Sam Wanamaker, who uses a lot of artsy camera set-ups, but doesn't do much to increase the pace or make things more gripping. The film was shot in London and Greece, but none of the locations particularly stand out. 

A late plot twist in THE EXECUTIONER might have enabled it to stand out from all the other many spy films made during this period, but the twist is negated at the very end in order to make a "safer" ending. The result is that the movie is very low on the list of 007 knockoffs. It's not very entertaining, or suspenseful, and the leading character is someone you're not all that concerned for. 

SWING HIGH, SWING LOW

 

SWING HIGH, SWING LOW is the third of four films made by Paramount that starred Carole Lombard and Fred MacMurray. Today the movie, which fell into public domain, is only available in a mediocre-looking version that doesn't give credit to the talent and effort of those who worked on it. Turner Classic Movies showed the film recently, and their presentation had a bit better visual quality than the public domain version, but the dialogue was still hard to make out at times. 

SWING HIGH, SWING LOW was based on a Broadway play called BURLESQUE, and the main story had already been adapted to film in 1929. The property would be made again as WHEN MY BABY SMILES AT ME, starring Betty Grable. All the versions deal with the tribulations of a performing man-and-wife team who break up. 

Carole Lomabrd plays Maggie King, a not-very-successful singer who gets stranded in Panama after the boat she is working on stops at the Canal Zone. While there she meets Skid Johnson (Fred MacMurray), who has just left the military. Maggie and Skid are both broke, and they wind up staying with Skid's friend Harry (Charles Butterworth). Skid plays the trumpet, and Harry plays the piano, and they and Maggie get jobs at a local cafe. Maggie and Skid develop an act together, and get noticed--but it's Skid who gets an offer to go and play in New York City. Not wanting to hold Skid back, Maggie lets him go on his own. While in the big city, Skid enjoys the high life, forgetting all about Maggie back in Panama. Maggie borrows money to go to New York and track Skid down, but a misunderstanding causes her to want a divorce. Because of this Skid literally hits the skids, but in classic Hollywood fashion, Maggie shows up at the end to save the day. 

SWING HIGH, SWING LOW is a comedy/drama/musical. and the elements don't mesh very well. The movie starts off with Maggie and Skid developing their relationship while trying to earn a living in Panama. From my point of view this was the best part of the film. It gave Carole Lombard and Fred MacMurray a chance to show off their easy rapport with each other, and they both got plenty of snappy dialogue. Once Skid gets the chance to go to New York, the story becomes very predictable. You just know that Skid is going to get a swelled head, and that poor Maggie is going to be left in Panama to worry about their relationship. You also know that Skid is going to get his comeuppance (which happens over about a couple minutes). 

This means that once again we see another Carole Lombard movie where the actress gives his heart, soul, and loyalty to a man that doesn't deserve it. Fred MacMurray is more appealing than most of Lombard's leading men of the 1930s, but Skid lacks focus and commitment, and various characters even tell Maggie she shouldn't fall for the guy. (It would have been nice, if, just once in a Lombard movie, she tells one of her below-average beaus "The hell with you, I'm outta here" and just walked away for good--but this was 1930s Hollywood, after all.) 

Director Mitchell Leisen (who worked with Lombard and MacMurray in their first pairing, HANDS ACROSS THE TABLE) and cinematographer Ted Tetzlaff (an expert technician who Lomabrd insisted be assigned to her features) went out of their way to try and make SWING HIGH, SWING LOW special. There's plenty of expressionist camera work and unique shot angles. Lomabrd is given several exquisite closeups (one can only imagine how beautiful Carole would look in a pristine print of this film), and she also gets to wear an impressive Travis Banton-designed wardrobe, despite the fact that the character of Maggie supposedly doesn't have much money. The movie also has a number of showy montage sequences depicting Skid's rise and fall in New York. There's also the musical aspects of the story. While Fred MacMurray's trumpet playing was dubbed, Lombard actually got a chance to sing a few times, although she didn't want to. Carole does more reciting than singing, but she comes off well. Dorothy Lamour, who plays an old flame of Skid's, gets a few numbers of her own. Of course Lamour becomes a rival of Carole's on-screen, but according to various Lombard biographies the star went out of her way to help the young up-and-comer. 

The supporting cast has the aforementioned Charles Butterworth, along with Jean Dixon, who almost stole MY MAN GODFREY, and just about does the same thing here. Anthony Quinn and Franklin Pangborn have small roles. 

When it comes to the Lombard--MacMurray pairings, I believe that SWING HIGH, SWING LOW isn't as good as HANDS ACROSS THE TABLE or THE PRINCESS COMES ACROSS, but it is better than the silly TRUE CONFESSION. A restored print of this film, with much-improved picture and sound, would do wonders for it, but it still wouldn't do much for the plot. According to multiple sources, SWING HIGH, SWING LOW did make a lot of money for Paramount in 1937, proving the popularity of Carole Lombard. 

RENDEZVOUS

 

RENDEZVOUS is a 1935 World War One spy story from MGM, with (unfortunately) a lot of light comedic elements. 

The film is set in 1917, and former newspaperman Bill Gordon (William Powell) is itching to get to the front. American intelligence agencies, however, want Bill to work for them stateside, since he's written a book on cryptography. Gordon reluctantly takes up their offer, and he starts to investigate a German espionage ring. Bill's biggest challenge isn't foreign agents--it is the trying affections of Joel Carter (Rosalind Russell), a flighty young woman who happens to be the niece of the Assistant Secretary of War. 

There's a good spy tale inside of RENDEZVOUS, but it's overwhelmed by the screwball-like antics of Rosalind Russell's Joel Carter. The character is supposed to be a comic annoyance, but she's such an intrusion on the plot the viewer starts to wince whenever she shows up. In fairness to Russell, the role isn't written very well, and the actress wasn't even supposed to be in the movie originally--Myrna Loy was picked to play the part, but she didn't due to issues she had with MGM at the time. Russell was at the beginning of her movie career, and she was understandably nervous about replacing Loy and co-starring with Powell. If Loy did do the role, I think she would have done it in a more subtle manner. In all honesty, the story would have worked much better if the character of Joel Carter wasn't even in it--but there was no way MGM was going to star William Powell in a movie and not give him a romantic interest. 

Speaking of Powell, he's always entertaining to watch, and he tries to strike a balance to his role, with Bill Gordon seriously taking his job and wanting to get to the front lines, while at the same time still being smooth and urbane (and still winding up wearing a tuxedo at a few points.) Gordon's frustration at not being "Over There" is a major plot element, but in real life it would be a waste to have a man with such capabilities wind up being cannon fodder. 

Being that this is an MGM production, it has the expected high class gloss, and a fine supporting cast. Binnie Barnes plays a Mata Hari type who becomes a romantic rival to Rosalind Russell. Barnes' character's name is Olivia Karloff--yes, you read that right (I wonder what Boris thought of that?). Lionel Atwill is a British intelligence officer who is having an affair with Barnes. Atwill is still able to make a distinctive mark despite the fact that he's only in the first half of the film (his character comes to a surprising fate). Ironically the year before Atwill appeared in another MGM WWI spy drama, playing the same type of role, called STAMBOUL QUEST, which starred.....Myrna Loy. (That might have been a main reason why Loy didn't want to be in RENDEZVOUS--in STAMBOUL QUEST, Loy was the lead, while in this film she would have been comic relief.) The rest of the cast has such familiar faces as Cesar Romero, Henry Stephenson, Charles Trowbridge, and Samuel S. Hinds. There's also "blink and you'll miss them" cameos by Margaret Dumont and Mickey Rooney. 

RENDEZVOUS was directed by William K. Howard and the cinematographer was William Daniels, but while researching info about this movie on the internet, I learned that the ending of it was re-shot with director Sam Wood and cinematographer James Wong Howe, the duo that worked on.....STAMBOUL QUEST. I don't know what the original ending was, but I assume it was changed to make William Powell's character more heroic. 

Something else I learned about the production of this film....while watching it I noticed that a couple of times William Powell's lines are dubbed by what was obviously another person. I couldn't understand why, I just assumed that there wasn't enough time to do it properly, but I discovered that MGM was attempting to edit out the mention of the words "German" or "Germany", because supposedly the studio didn't want to offend the current regime! If that's true, that's very disappointing--and it also doesn't make much sense, since from what I can remember other characters in the film do mention Germany, and spies are shown in the story speaking German, and anyone who watched this film in 1935 had to have known that Germany was the main antagonist in World War One. 

The main attributes of RENDEZVOUS are William Powell and Lionel Atwill, but the silly antics of Rosalind Russell's character prevents it from being above average. 

THE TERRORNAUTS

 

I haven't seen every film made by Amicus Productions, the British outfit run by producers Max Rosenberg and Milton Subotsky that was a rival to Hammer Films in the 1960s and 70s, but I think it's safe to say that the worst movie from that company has to be the 1967 science fiction story THE TERRORNAUTS. 

Actually calling this film science fiction is somewhat of an insult to the genre. THE TERRORNAUTS does have spaceships, a robot, and aliens, but it's also cheap, the pace is interminable, and the characters are dull. 

Inspired by a childhood incident, British astronomer Dr. Joe Burke (Simon Oates) is convinced he can contact beings from outer space by radio. He gets funding to create Project Startalk, and he has his own lab on the site of a large observatory. Burke, however, hasn't made or received any contact from space in four years, and his funding is in danger of being cut off. Burke and his team--assistants Ben (Stanley Meadows) and Sandy (Zena Marshall)--finally do receive a signal, but in the process of responding to it, their lab is taken straight out of the ground and captured by an alien spacecraft. On exploring the craft, Burke and his friends discover that it is up to them to take information from a dead alien race and use it to save the Earth from invaders. 

That generic plot description I just wrote makes THE TERRORNAUTS sound way more intriguing than it really is. Even with a running time of around 75 minutes, the story takes forever to get going, and director Montgomery Tully (a long-time British B-movie veteran) handles things as simply as possible. Simon Oates and Stanley Meadows are very bland actors, and Zena Marshall (who played the sexy Miss Taro in DR. NO) has little to do other than be the obligatory beautiful young woman. 

Also along for the ride inside the captured lab building is Charles Hawtrey, who plays the accountant of the foundation that has funded Project Startalk, and Patricia Hayes, who is the observatory's tea lady. The two are supposed to be the story's comic relief, but.....they're not funny. (Hawtrey appeared in a number of CARRY ON films, and he's kind of a British version of Don Knotts.) 

THE TERRORNAUTS could best be compared to a DOCTOR WHO episode made around the same time, except that the average 1960s WHO program would be way more entertaining, and have much better special effects. The FX for THE TERRORNAUTS is credited to legendary technician Les Bowie's company, but it's hard to believe Bowie would allow such slapdash work to get on the screen--one assumes he didn't have much time or much of a budget. Watching this film (or trying to stay awake and watch it, as was my experience), one gains more respect for the talents of filmmakers like Mario Bava and Antonio Margheriti, who could have easily made something much more out of this whole affair. 

Surprisingly the script was not written by Milton Subotsky, who usually penned (or tried to have input into) the majority of Amicus' features. One wonders why this movie was made at all, or at least why it was made at such a low budget and with such a lackluster cast & crew. THE TERRORNAUTS was paired with another Amicus sci-fi non-epic, THEY CAME FROM BEYOND SPACE, for a very mediocre double bill. It must be pointed out, though, that THEY CAME FROM BEYOND SPACE looks like a masterpiece compared to its running mate. 

It appears that Milton Subotsky was hoping that THE TERRORNAUTS would be a follow up to Amicus' two Dr. Who big screen adventures--a pair of films that were tailored to kids and those with vivid imaginations. The only thing imaginative about THE TERRORNAUTS is that it will probably put you to sleep, and then you'll dream up a scenario that's far more energetic and captivating. As far as I know, THE TERRORNAUTS has never had a major home video release in North America, and there are very good reasons for that. 

THE COCKLESHELL HEROES

 

One of my favorite movie genres is the World War II film. It might be surprising to some how extensive that genre is--there's still plenty of major features about the conflict that I haven't caught up to yet. Last night I viewed for the first time a 1955 British production called THE COCKLESHELL HEROES, which stars Jose Ferrer, who also directed. 

THE COCKLESHELL HEROES is loosely based on the real-life Operation Frankton, in which a group of British Royal Marines were dropped off the coast of France, and then made their way up river to Bordeaux, traveling in two-man kayaks. The Marines then attempted to attach limpet mines on various German merchant ships, hoping to damage or destroy them. The operation took place in late 1942, and only two of the Marines involved in the mission survived.  

Most British WWII movies made around the time of THE COCKLESHELL HEROES were taut, down-to-earth stories that were usually in black & white, and focused more on character and plot instead of large-scale battle scenes. THE COCKLESHELL HEROES has more flair than these, being in color and in Cinemascope. 

Jose Ferrer plays Major Stringer, a canoe expert who comes up with the plan to destroy German ships docked at Bordeaux. Stringer is assigned to gather up a team for the mission, and attached to the group is Captain Thompson (Trevor Howard). Thompson is a life-long by-the-book Marine, who has spent most of his career behind a desk, and he's jealous of the idea of a "newcomer" like Stringer getting a chance to lead and take part in a dangerous mission. Stringer has only been in uniform since the war started, and he has very different ideas on how to train and encourage individuals. Needless to say, the two men clash often, but they eventually learn to appreciate how the other thinks and start to work together for the benefit of the operation. 

The "two military officers who are total opposites from each other" is a familiar war movie trope, and THE COCKLESHELL HEROES has plenty of others, such as a motley group of men being whipped into shape, a tough drill sergeant, one of the group going AWOL before the mission due to a marital problem, and a last-minute incident that causes a major change in plans for the operation. This movie is so effectively done, however, that this isn't a handicap. 

Most of the film is taken up with the training of the men by Stringer and Thompson, and there's a lot of light humor in these sequences (maybe too much for some viewers). There's even a pub scene which has a beautiful Wren singing a song about London right before a comedic brawl breaks out between the Marines and members of the Royal Navy. Once the mission begins, things become much more suspenseful. 

Jose Ferrer does well as Stringer, although some may find it hard to see him as a British war hero. Trevor Howard might have been a better choice as Stringer, and the actor plays Thompson as if he knows this. The supporting cast is filled with fine British players such as Victor Maddern, Anthony Newley, David Lodge, Peter Arne, Percy Herbert, and John Van Eyssen. Christopher Lee has a very small role as the captain of the submarine that transports the Marines to the coast of France. 

Jose Ferrer also does well as a director, although it has to be said he got a lot of help from plenty of British behind-the-camera talent. The excellent cinematography was by Ted Moore and John Wilcox, and the rousing music score was by John Addison. The screenplay was by Bryan Forbes and Richard Maibaum, and the film was made by Warwick Productions, a company run by Irving Allen and future Bond producer Albert Broccoli. (A lot of the crew involved with THE COCKLESHELL HEROES would work on future Bond films, such as Ted Moore and Richard Maibaum). 

I enjoyed THE COCKLESHELL HEROES. The characters in the film are fictional, but the picture does present the basic details of the actual mission, and the cast helps make the story entertaining to watch. The movie was very successful when it originally played in the U.K., and it is one that American war movie fans need to seek out if they are not aware of it. 

THE LAST REBEL

 

THE LAST REBEL is a 1971 Euro Western that features professional football star quarterback Joe Namath as the leading man--and that's the most noteworthy thing about it. 

Somewhere in Missouri in April, 1865, Confederate soldiers Hollis (Joe Namath) and Matt (Jack Elam) are at a lonely outpost when word comes in of General Lee's surrender in Virginia. Hollis and Matt fear they will be sent to a prison camp, so they head for the hills. During their flight they prevent a black man named Duncan (Woody Strode) from being lynched, and the now-trio bring in a runaway stagecoach to a nearby town. While there Hollis wins thousands of dollars from a pool shark, inciting plenty of scoundrels to go after the sum, including Matt, who has turned against his fellow Confederate. 

Despite the fact that it was shot in Italy, THE LAST REBEL was produced & directed by Larry G. Spangler and written by Warren Kiefer (THE CASTLE OF THE LIVING DEAD), who were both Americans. This may account for the film's underwhelming tone. THE LAST REBEL is rather tepid compared to the usual examples of low-budget spaghetti westerns. There's not all that much action, at least until the climax, and even the amount of money that everyone in the story covets is far lower than the average pile of Euro Western loot. THE LAST REBEL could have even been mounted as a TV movie with just a few trimmings. 

Joe Namath is no Clint Eastwood, but he does have a low-key, laid-back type of charisma, and he does appear comfortable in front of the camera. There isn't all that much to the character of Hollis, however. He seems to be an amiable fellow that wants nothing more than a good time, and other than the fact that he's played by Joe Namath, there's nothing that really makes a viewer want to know what's going to happen to him. The title of THE LAST REBEL is a misnomer--it makes one think that Hollis is a true-blue son of the South, committed to the cause, but he doesn't have any major convictions one way or the other. If Hollis is so much of a "rebel", why did he risk his life to save a black man from a lynching? That incident never gets fully explained in the film, and neither does the bond that develops between Hollis and Woody Strode's Duncan. Namath's "Broadway Joe" playboy image gets a lot of play here, as every major female character swoons over Hollis as soon as they first lay eyes on him. 

There's an attempt to inject a racial element in THE LAST REBEL, but it's handled in a very clumsy manner. At one point Jack Elam's Matt and some of his goons go after Hollis and Duncan while dressed as Klansmen, and Duncan forges an alliance with a young orphan black child. This attempt at social commentary feels out of place, and there should have been much more development of the characters instead. 

Jack Elam and Woody Strode are always welcome in any Western, but they don't have much to work with here (Elam's transition from being Namath's sidekick to wanting to kill him is very abrupt.) Ty Hardin plays the sheriff of the town, and his character acts inconsistently as well. The rest of the supporting cast, even the ladies, are very generic types. 

I have to mention the music score, which was provided by Deep Purple keyboardist Jon Lord and British musician Tony Ashton. To say that it is eclectic is an understatement--it's one of the most unusual scores I've ever heard for a Euro Western (if you're a fan of this genre, you know that's saying something). The score changes tone constantly, and there's even a few songs, and they sound more fitting for a contemporary drama. 

THE LAST REBEL was an obvious attempt at using the fame of Joe Namath to attract moviegoers. At the time Namath was a huge pop icon--in some ways, he still is--and he had already made a splash with the biker film C.C. & COMPANY, which paired him with Ann-Margaret, to the delight of gossip columnists everywhere. Namath could have picked a much more interesting spaghetti western to appear in--THE LAST REBEL meanders along until the climax, which seems set up just for the excuse of the main characters to engage in a shootout. 

Joe Namath didn't have much of a movie career after THE LAST REBEL--he certainly didn't make as much of a mark on the big screen as his contemporaries Jim Brown and O.J. Simpson did. Namath's best role was playing himself on all sorts of TV shows and commercials, where his cool-guy persona was able to come through best. You know there's a problem with THE LAST REBEL when it isn't even able to let a dynamic personality like Joe Namath shine. 

STARSHIP INVASIONS

 

Since I wrote a post on END OF THE WORLD yesterday, I might as well do one on the other 1977 sci-fi flick starring Christopher Lee: STARSHIP INVASIONS. 

Lee plays Captain Rameses, the commander of a flying saucer and its crew who are sent to Earth to determine if the planet is suitable for conquest. Rameses's race needs a new home, since their planet's sun is dying. Before any plans can be implemented, Rameses must deal with an intergalactic league that has a secret base on Earth underwater. This league secretly watches over the Earth. Rameses and his crew attack and take over the base, but a league ship manages to escape and make contact with a UFO researcher named Allan Duncan (Robert Vaughn). The good aliens and Duncan join forces to fight Rameses and his incoming fleet, and stop the signal that is causing people all over Earth to commit suicide. 

STARSHIP INVASIONS is another low-budget science fiction feature that bites off more than it can chew. The production just isn't able to properly depict outer space battles and ship-to-ship dogfights. The worst aspect of the movie, however, is its timing. It was released during the same period as STAR WARS and CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND, and those two spectaculars immediately made STARSHIP INVASIONS appear ridiculous in comparison. 

It's a bit unfair to compare this film with STAR WARS. STARSHIP INVASIONS was influenced by the UFO craze of the 1970s, and it also has a "Chariots of the Gods" aspect to it. (The good aliens inform Robert Vaughn that they have been observing Earth for thousands of years, and they were the ones who built the pyramids in Egypt. Captain Rameses also informs his crew that they are descendants of Earth beings.) A lot of the UFO urban legends are trotted out in the story, including the idea that aliens abduct dopey rural folk. All the spaceships, even the ones the good aliens fly, are similar-looking flying saucers (apparently throughout the galaxy you can only get the same basic make and model of transport). The good aliens have to hide themselves from humanity because we're too dumb and violent to accept them, etc. 

The best idea contained in writer-producer-director Ed Hunt's script is that there is a secret base under the ocean on Earth, a sort of rest area for intergalactic beings (the base is shaped like a pyramid). This rest area even has a reception room filled with young attractive females dressed in scanty outfits--not only does the intergalactic league believe in peace and harmony, they also believe in having a good time as well. All the aliens in STARSHIP INVASIONS wear form-fitting outfits that resemble workout garments (it appears that none of the aliens are overweight). Captain Rameses and his crew wear black outfits with a bizarre form of headgear (see picture above). The bad aliens have a winged serpent emblazoned on their uniforms, which makes them look like extras from either a sword & sandal epic or background soldiers from a kung fu picture. The base also comes staffed with a group of very clunky looking androids who wouldn't have passed muster in any episode of DOCTOR WHO being made at the time. 

It has to be said that despite having to wear this type of costume Christopher Lee still is able to maintain a commanding presence, but there's no getting over the fact that he looks distinctly uncomfortable in it. Lee's performance also isn't helped by the fact that the aliens communicate telepathically. The viewer is able to hear their thoughts through voice overs, but the actors playing the outer space beings are stuck having to stare glumly at one another. Even though we can hear Lee reciting Rameses's thoughts, he himself is not able to act while speaking--and believe me, that does make a difference. (Since we hear what the aliens are thinking anyway, what was the point of the telepathic powers? I assume it was just a way to make them more alien.) 

The only other recognizable name in the cast is Robert Vaughn. To his credit, he doesn't play down to the material. He makes his UFO researcher a relatable and believable figure. There isn't much to say about the other characters, who are all unmemorable. 

If STARSHIP INVASIONS had been made 5 or 10 years earlier, it might have been received better, but coming along with the likes of STAR WARS and CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND, it had no chance. The film made its American TV network debut fairly quickly (I even remember seeing commercials for it), but I'm sure it had very little impact. 

Christopher Lee would finally wind up in an actual STAR WARS film about 20-some years later--ATTACK OF THE CLONES. I wonder if while working on CLONES Lee thought about his mediocre 1977 sci-fi double feature. He probably was hoping that no one else on the set was thinking about them. STARSHIP INVASIONS not only gives one a sense of what low budget movie sci-fi was before STAR WARS, it also shows how deep the UFO craze was at the time. I'm surprised the movie didn't try to bring in Bigfoot or the Loch Ness Monster--it might have been a lot more entertaining if it had. 

END OF THE WORLD

 

One thing about being a Christopher Lee fan is that you can never run out of titles in which to watch him perform. END OF THE WORLD is a 1977 science fiction story, produced in the USA by Charles Band, which I recently acquired on DVD (at a cheap price of course). 

1977 saw the release of STAR WARS, which featured Christopher Lee's close friend and frequent co-star Peter Cushing. As for Lee, 1977 saw him appearing in END OF THE WORLD and STARSHIP INVASIONS, a couple of sci-fi flicks that are at a far lesser level than George Lucas' blockbuster. END OF THE WORLD has Lee playing two roles--a priest named Father Pergado and his alien clone. 

The movie starts out with plenty of bangs, as a dazed Father Pergado stumbles into a diner late at night, and asks to use the telephone to call the authorities. Before the priest can contact anyone, things start exploding all over the diner, and the man working the counter is killed. Father Pergado returns to his convent, where he is welcomed by his exact double. 

After this promising opening, the story slows down to a crawl, as it follows a NASA scientist named Andrew Boran (Kirk Scott) who is puzzled by a number of strange signals he has been monitoring from space. While Boran and his wife Sylvia (Sue Lyon) go out on a lecture tour, they investigate the signals, which lead them to the convent where Father Pergado resides. The Borans learn that the priest and the nuns of the convent have all been duplicated by aliens, and these beings need to fix their time/space portal in order to get back to their native planet. Andrew just so happens to be working with a device called a "Variance crystal"--the exact type of device the aliens need, so they force the scientist to bring it to them. There's another major reason the aliens want to get away from Earth--a number of ecological disasters have been triggered, which will lead to the planet's destruction. 

Christopher Lee is the major reason to watch END OF THE WORLD, but he isn't in it enough. Much of the running time of the film is taken up with Kirk Scott and Sue Lyon (who played the title role in Kubrick's LOLITA) going from one place to another, and the duo are not very interesting. (If this film were made in the 1950s, the lead couple would have been played by the likes of Jeff Morrow and Mara Corday--and they would have been a lot more entertaining to watch.) The movie's ultra-low budget probably wouldn't have been enough for a major TV network program made during the same period, and it's saddled by one of the most annoying music scores I've ever heard. 

The cheap production values account for the plot's inconsistencies. The fake Father and his coterie of nuns have all sorts of super powers, but they can't venture anywhere away from the convent. The disasters befalling Earth are presented through stock footage from other films. There are cameos from veteran actors such as Lew Ayres, Dean Jagger, and Macdonald Carey, but they don't really add anything to the story, other than pad the running time. (In his biography of Lee, Jonathan Rigby quotes the actor as saying he agreed to be in the project due to the fact that he was told the likes of Arthur Kennedy, Jose Ferrer, and John Carradine were going to be in the picture. Even if they had been, it's doubtful Lee would have had scenes with them, since he doesn't share the screen with any of the guest stars who were actually in it.) 

Lee had just played a dangerous priest in TO THE DEVIL A DAUGHTER, and despite the bargain basement aspects of the production, he's still able to give the alien Pergado an eerie presence. As the results of the fake Pergado's powers are shown on screen, a close-up of Lee's eyes is superimposed.....a device that recalls scenes from the actor's Dracula films, and goes all the way back to Bela Lugosi. The creepiest thing in the movie other than Lee is the group of cloned nuns, a dour-looking handful of middle-aged women who might bring up bad memories for those who attended Catholic schools. 

END OF THE WORLD does have an unusual climax, which one could say is either a clever deviation from how one would expect the movie to end, or just a cheap way to wrap things up. The ending doesn't have the impact it should have because one never feels the entire world is at risk, only a very, very small part of it. 

One thing about the DVD I purchased--the disc case states that the version used comes from a 16mm remastered print, but the sound and picture quality are mediocre. END OF THE WORLD is another of a long line of features that didn't deserve (or make the best use of) the talents of Christopher Lee.