DOUBLE INDEMNITY (1973)

 

In my last blog post, I mentioned that I had finished reading FROM THE MOMENT THEY MET IT WAS MURDER: DOUBLE INDEMNITY AND THE RISE OF FILM NOIR by Alain Silver and James Ursini. The book discusses an actual official remake of DOUBLE INDEMNITY that was produced by Universal for the ABC television network and first shown on TV in 1973. 

I had almost forgotten that I had this TV remake on home video. Earlier in this century I purchased a two-disc DVD special edition of the original DOUBLE INDEMNITY. The second disc contained the TV remake--and I had never watched it. I thought at the time, "How can a 1970s TV movie in any way compare with one of the greatest film noirs??" The very idea of remaking DOUBLE INDEMNITY seemed ridiculous to me. (Of course, that's how I feel about nearly every remake and reboot that comes down the pike.) 

After finishing Silver & Ursini's book, I decided to dig out the DOUBLE INDEMNITY DVD and finally view the TV remake. I was a kid in the 70s, and I spent plenty of time watching TV from that era, including many movies made for TV. The TV DOUBLE INDEMNITY was about what I expected (which wasn't much.) 

The 1973 DOUBLE INDEMNITY is an almost exact remake of its renowned predecessor, but it does not take place in 1938, as the movie does. It is contemporary all the way--and that includes the costumes and the interior design (if you were around in the 1970s, you won't be surprised that the dominant colors are brown and tan). Instead of the original's black & white heavy atmosphere, the TV version has a flat, dull, overly bright generic look common to American television at the time. 

The TV version is only 73 minutes long (it was made to fit into a 90-minute time slot with commercials), but at times it feels lengthier than the original 107 minute version. The pacing is slow, especially during the many dialogue scenes. One of Billy Wilder's greatest strengths as a director was how he handled snappy dialogue sequences (and it was he himself that was responsible for most of that dialogue in his movies). The '73 version uses much of Wilder's and Raymond Chandler's dialogue from the original film, but the timing of it is off, and it doesn't have the effect that is intended. 

Richard Crenna plays Walter Neff in the TV version. Fred MacMurray's original Neff had a cynical, hard-bitten quality about him that made you believe he'd get hooked up with a devious dame in a murder plot. Crenna's Neff drives around in a Mercedes convertible, lives in a fancy apartment that looks down on a marina, and he also wears fashionable suits. One doubts that this Neff would get involved with a shady lady and wind up killing someone. Crenna was a consummate pro as an actor but his Neff is too normal. 

Barbara Stanwyck created one of the most iconic roles of all time when she played Phyllis Dietrichson in the original DOUBLE INDEMNITY. Any actress would have trouble living up to Stanwyck's indelible portrayal. Samantha Eggar had the thankless job of playing Phyllis in the TV remake. Eggar is certainly attractive, but her Phyllis is much more low-key--she lacks Stanwyck's cold deviousness. Eggar's Phyllis is also much more anxious and nervous, and she doesn't get a lot of screen time (in the main credits Eggar is listed as "guest starring"). 

Samantha Eggar and Richard Crenna in the 1973 TV version of DOUBLE INDEMNITY

Lee J. Cobb takes over Edward G. Robinson's role as claims manager Barton Keyes. Cobb is about the best thing in the remake, but he's still competing with a performance that should have gotten Robinson a Best Supporting Actor Oscar. 

The '73 DOUBLE INDEMNITY was directed by Jack Smight and written by Steven Bochco, both long-time industry veterans. As mentioned before, much of the dialogue from the original film is used, but it mostly falls flat. "Flat" would be an apt description for the entire production--the setup, story, and characters are there, but there's no life or spark to them. 

Taking one of the ultimate 1940s film noirs and putting it in a generic 1970s setting was a terrible idea (as was remaking the movie in the first place). The best film noirs have a timeless quality, mainly because they are set in their own "universe", much like a Gothic horror film or a classic Western. Almost nothing has aged as badly as 1970s fashions and culture--this remake took DOUBLE INDEMNITY and turned it into a mediocre Murder Mystery of the Week. The TV version of DOUBLE INDEMNITY is a curiosity, nothing more. 

APOLOGY FOR MURDER

 

I recently finished reading a book titled FROM THE MOMENT THEY MET IT WAS MURDER: DOUBLE INDEMNITY AND THE RISE OF FILM NOIR by Alain Silver and James Ursini. The book carries the Turner Classic Movies label, and it takes a deep dive into the making of DOUBLE INDEMNITY, the talent involved in it, and the history and use of the term "film noir". 

One subject the book covers is a 1945 film made by the Poverty Row company PRC called APOLOGY FOR MURDER. Authors Silver and Ursini state that the PRC production is an unofficial remake of DOUBLE INDEMNITY. I had no idea that APOLOGY FOR MURDER even existed, so I decided to track it down and see for myself (APOLOGY FOR MURDER can be found on YouTube and the Internet Archive). 

Without doubt APOLOGY FOR MURDER is a cheap knockoff of DOUBLE INDEMNITY. It uses nearly every element of Billy Wilder's classic film, but it makes slight variations on the material. It's almost fascinating from a film geeks standpoint to watch DOUBLE INDEMNITY and APOLOGY FOR MURDER one after the other to see how PRC pulled this off, and avoided getting sued in the bargain. (Apparently PRC was planning to call their film SINGLE INDEMNITY--I find it hard to believe that even they would have gone that far. Maybe they should have called the film APOLOGY TO PARAMOUNT.) 

In APOLOGY FOR MURDER, the two scheming lovers are played by Hugh Beaumont and Ann Savage. Beaumont's Kenny Blake is a newspaper reporter, and he meets Savage's Toni Kirkland when he goes to interview her husband Harvey Kirkland (Russell Hicks), a rich businessman who is much older than his wife. In literally just a few minutes, Kenny and Toni start up an affair, and it isn't much longer than that when Toni brings up the idea to murder her husband before he divorces her and leaves her with nothing. Kenny is first shocked by the idea, but he's so obsessed with Toni he goes ahead with it, sealing the couple's ultimate doom. 

Needless to say, APOLOGY FOR MURDER can't in any way compete with DOUBLE INDEMNITY. APOLOGY doesn't have anywhere near the budget, talent, or the running time (it lasts just a little over an hour). There's no subtlety or nuance in APOLOGY. In DOUBLE INDEMNITY Fred MacMurray is a cynical guy with a chip on shoulder, while Hugh Beaumont comes off as a dope way over his head. Ann Savage's Toni doesn't have the layers of villainous complexity that Barbara Stanwyck had in the Wilder classic. Toni is just plain greedy. 

In DOUBLE INDEMNITY the killing of the lead female's husband is carried out at night, and a stretch of lonely railroad track is used to dump the body. In APOLOGY FOR MURDER the killing happens in broad daylight, at the side of a dirt road out in the country. The seedy atmosphere of ordinary Los Angeles locations prevalent in DOUBLE INDEMNITY is nowhere to be found in APOLOGY FOR MURDER. 

APOLOGY FOR MURDER's equivalent of the Edward G. Robinson character in DOUBLE INDEMNITY is Ward McKee (Charles D. Brown), the editor at Kenny's newspaper. Like Robinson in the earlier film, McKee has a sixth sense that Harvey Kirkland was murdered, and he has a running gag with Kenny concerning them lighting the other's smokes. Brown isn't as ingratiating as Robinson is, but to be fair, the script doesn't allow him to be. 

Low budget maven Sam Newfield directed APOLOGY FOR MURDER. Newfield certainly wasn't in Billy Wilder's class (although he did wind up making hundreds of films and TV shows). APOLOGY does come off a bit better than the usual PRC product (which isn't saying much), but if it didn't have the DOUBLE INDEMNITY rip-off tag, it wouldn't generate any interest whatsoever. Many Poverty Row features from the 1940s have fallen off the face of the earth, and I now wonder what other "remakes" PRC and similar companies whipped up that I have no knowledge of. 

THIS IS THE NIGHT On Blu-ray From Universal

 

The very lighthearted 1932 romantic comedy THIS IS THE NIGHT has been released on Blu-ray by Universal. (The film was made by Paramount, but Universal owns the rights to it.) Cary Grant made his feature film debut in this production. 

Grant and Thelma Todd are featured on the cover of the Blu-ray disc case, along with their names, but they are not the main stars of the film. The story concerns the amorous adventures of one Gerald Gray (Roland Young), a man of means living in Paris who is having an affair with the gorgeous (but married) Claire Mathewson (Thelma Todd). Claire orders two train tickets to Venice so she and Gerald can have a romantic getaway, but her husband Stephen (Cary Grant) finds out about the scheme. To avert suspicion, Gerald's best friend Bunny (Charles Ruggles) tells Stephen that Gerald is married--but Stephen decides to accompany his wife to Venice anyway. Bunny hires an out-of-work actress who calls herself Chou-Chou (Lili Damita) to pose as Gerald's "wife". Gerald isn't happy about this situation, especially when upon arriving at Venice, the personable Chou-Chou makes Claire jealous, while both Stephen and Bunny are attracted to Chou-Chou as well. Gerald himself starts to fall for Chou-Chou, while the young woman is tired of playing a wife instead of having a real relationship. 

THIS IS THE NIGHT has a very heavy Ernst Lubitsch influence, with all the romantic complications and misunderstandings, European locations, and wealthy main characters who are usually decked out in tuxedos and evening gowns. There's not a trace of the Depression in this movie. It has very little to do with real life, especially when one considers that the two main characters are a couple of anxious-looking, fussy, fidgety middle-aged men played by Roland Young and Charles Ruggles. 

One must remember that this was Cary Grant's movie debut, so he wasn't going to get the lead role, but I'm sure even audiences back in 1932 must have wondered why the two main women in the story were more interested in Roland Young than Grant. Cary acquits himself very well despite his inexperience, and already he's much more charismatic onscreen than Young and Ruggles are. 

As for Thelma Todd, once again she's the "other woman" who is a rival to the leading ladies' affections. Thelma does happen to be the main focus of the opening sequence, in which her dress is caught in a car door by Gerald's befuddled servant (Irving Bacon) and is ripped off. The result is a song called "Madame Has Lost Her Dress", which various Paris residents recite in glee as the camera shows one amused onlooker after another. There's a couple other sequences in the film where the music is synchronized to what is happening onscreen. It's a cute effect, and one that probably should have been used a bit more. 

Thelma gets her wardrobe torn off multiple times in the story after this (and this would happen to her throughout her too short movie career). Those with a 21st Century mindset might look upon this as an indignity, but this is a Pre-Code film, after all, and even Lili Damita at one point starts to disrobe when Gerald believes that she's not alluring enough to be his wife. (Damita is very cute here, but I must admit my preference leans toward Thelma by far). 

Needless to say, the nebbishy Gerald isn't the most perceptive guy in the world (one has to assume that he inherited all his money--there's no way a guy like him would have been able to earn it). The most frustrating aspect of watching THIS IS THE NIGHT from today's standpoint is that the most of the screen time is taken up by the very underwhelming Gerald and Bunny, while Thelma Todd and Cary Grant are pushed off to the side. One expects Cary to take off with both Thelma and Lili Damita and leave Young and Ruggles to themselves. (If this movie was made just a few years later, the casting would have been radically different.)

THIS IS THE NIGHT was directed by Frank Tuttle, who, of course, wasn't Lubitsch. The movie makes great use of the Paramount version of upper-class Europe, but from today's perspective it is Cary Grant and Thelma Todd that the viewer is interested in. 

The Blu-ray of THIS IS THE NIGHT looks fantastic, with very sharp picture quality. There are two options for viewing the film--one option is to watch the tinted version, which has a number of night scenes tinted a deep blue, a rather striking effect that gives the film an extra kick. The other option is a straight black & white version. 

There are no extras--if Kino had released this, they probably would have added an audio commentary by a classic film expert. Nevertheless, film geeks should be happy that Universal has released THIS IS THE NIGHT on Blu-ray, and that they made Cary Grant and Thelma Todd the prominent focus of the disc case, even though they're not the major stars of the film. 

MACHINE-GUN KELLY

 

Another Roger Corman mobster tale, this time based on a real criminal. Charles Bronson stars as the title character in MACHINE-GUN KELLY, released by American-International Pictures in 1958. 

Roger Corman was drawn to the story of 1930s hood George Kelly by the way he was captured by authorities. Kelly didn't go down with his gun blazing--he promptly gave up because he knew he'd probably get killed if he resisted. Corman liked the idea of a gangster movie ending so unexpectedly, and he gave the big screen Kelly some other unique traits as well. 

In this film George Kelly is a moody, temperamental cuss--but he also has a phobia about death, and it affects him so much he has a tendency to freeze up when confronted by reminders of his own mortality. He also has a very complicated relationship with his girlfriend Flo (Susan Cabot). Flo is just as cold and callous as Kelly is, and she is the one who has pushed George into attempting to be a big-time gangster (something the not very bright fellow is not really made out for). 

The movie opens with a finely-honed dialogue free five minute bank robbery sequence, one of the best moments of Roger Corman's directorial career. Kelly has gained his "Machine-Gun" reputation due to a series of bank jobs, but he screws one up when he gets flustered by seeing a coffin. After dealing with the rest of his former gang, Kelly and Flo decide there's more money to be made by kidnapping. The devious duo snatch the preteen daughter of an oil executive, but George's mental hangups and Flo's nasty nature cause that plan to fall apart fast, leading to Kelly accepting defeat instead of death. 

MACHINE-GUN KELLY is a lively film, proving that Roger Corman could deal with any type of genre. As Corman did in all his gangster pictures, he doesn't try to make the audience feel sympathy for the lead hood, or try to "understand" him. Corman presents these gangsters just as they are. George Kelly isn't someone the audience can relate to, especially during the kidnapping part of the story when he reveals that he will kill his very young captive if he feels it is necessary. 

The role of George Kelly provided Charles Bronson with his first lead in a theatrical production. Kelly is a bit more chatty than the usual Bronson character, and the actor is able to show that the man has some major mental issues without going overboard with this aspect. Bronson is ably matched by Susan Cabot, whose Flo is in some ways more dangerous than her gangster boyfriend. Way too many film geeks have read way too many things into Roger Corman's pictures, but it has to be pointed out that Corman's work always featured strong, interesting female characters, and MACHINE-GUN KELLY is a prime example of this. 

Bronson and Cabot overshadow the rest of the small cast, but I do need to mention Morey Amsterdam, who has a supporting role as a weasely associate of Kelly's who is crippled by him. Mention must also be made of Gerald Fried's frenetic score, which constantly drives the narrative forward. 

MACHINE-GUN KELLY got Roger Corman some attention among European film critics, and it still holds up as a low-budget no frills gangster flick that goes against the grain. It also shows that despite his minimalist acting style, Charles Bronson still had enough of a strong, rugged screen presence to carry a film on his own. 

I, MOBSTER

 

Sunday will be the 100th anniversary of the birth of filmmaker Roger Corman. I decided to mark this occasion by viewing a movie directed by Corman that I had never seen before--I, MOBSTER, a gangland tale from 1958. 

It would have been much easier to discuss one of Corman's more famous horror or science fiction features, but I've always thought obscurity is the better part of valor. Some might be surprised that Corman made a movie like I, MOBSTER, but the low-budget maven directed a number of gangster tales. Corman did screen biopics of such real-life hoods as Machine Gun Kelly, Al Capone, and Ma Barker (albeit in a very fictional manner). I, MOBSTER isn't based on any real person, but it is much more straightforward and low-key than most "authentic" gangland sagas. 

The main character of I, MOBSTER is Joe Sante (Steve Cochran), the son of Italian immigrants. The movie begins with Joe testifying before a Senate committee in Washington investigating organized crime, bringing to mind the Kefauver hearings. As Joe takes the fifth over and over again, he starts to reminisce about his life, from when he was an 11 year old working for a numbers runner through his rise in the gangster hierarchy. 

The main characters in gangster pictures are usually brash and larger than life, but Steve Cochran's Joe Sante is cool and calculating. Sante rarely shows emotion, and he doesn't go off the rails. Some might say this is due to Cochran's tight-lipped matter of fact acting style (a style some may call boring), but I think Roger Corman wanted to get away from the James Cagney--Edward G. Robinson tough guy type. Joe Sante is embarrassed by his working-class upbringing, and he certainly doesn't want to be poor, but even when he finds success as a gangster he doesn't have an extravagant lifestyle. He's more like a hard-edged businessman than a hood kingpin. There's very little actual violence in I, MOBSTER. 

Joe Sante's true love is a nice girl from his neighborhood named Teresa (Lita Milan). Teresa is attracted to Joe, but not to his choice of profession. Because of this she doesn't enter into a relationship with him, until ironically Joe kills her loser brother in self-defense (Joe had given the kid a start in the rackets). It's after this incident that Joe and Teresa become an actual couple. This is another plot element that makes I, MOBSTER stand apart. 

The supporting cast includes Robert Strauss as Joe's gangster mentor, Celia Lovsky as Joe's mother and conscience, and Yvette Vickers as a dame who tries to seduce Joe in order for him to forget about her drug debt. (Vickers is in only one small sequence, but she all but steals the picture). Burlesque performer Lili St. Cyr gets a chance to strut around during a nightclub scene, but this just seems to have been a way to pad the running time. 

I, MOBSTER may not be on the same level as GOODFELLAS, but it's still a proficient and well-moving story. (Actually I, MOBSTER and GOODFELLAS have a lot more in common than you would think.) I've always felt that Roger Corman may not have been a great director, but he was certainly an efficient and inventive one who at times showed a quite creative bent. He was in some way responsible for hundreds of films that still entertain audiences to this day. Like Terence Fisher, Corman gets either too much or not enough credit from film geeks, but no matter how you may personally feel about his cinematic talents, there's no doubt that Roger Corman left a major mark in film history. 

SPACEWAYS

 

This 1953 Hammer Films attempt at science fiction was made after the company's FOUR SIDED TRIANGLE. Both movies were directed by Terence Fisher. Of the two films, SPACEWAYS is the more lackluster. 

Dr. Stephen Mitchell (Howard Duff) is an American rocket scientist working at a top-secret military base in England. Mitchell is determined to get a vehicle into orbit, and to get humans into space as well, but he's burdened by his embittered wife Vanessa (Cecile Chevreau), who is annoyed by the security restrictions of having to live on the base and Stephen's workaholic nature. Vanessa is also having an affair with Dr. Crenshaw (Andrew Osborn), one of the men assigned to Stephen's project. An important test flight does get a ship into orbit, but it doesn't reach the altitude that it was supposed to. While Stephen tries to figure out what went wrong, he learns that Vanessa and Dr. Crenshaw have disappeared. An official from military intelligence named Smith (Alan Wheatley) arrives on the base to investigate, and he comes to the rather fantastic conclusion that Stephen killed his wife and Crenshaw, and hid their bodies on the test rocket before it was shot into space. Stephen believes the only way to prove his innocence is to go up into space himself and bring back the test rocket. Project mathematician Lisa Frank (Eva Bartok) takes it upon herself to accompany Stephen, since she herself is in love with Mitchell. 

SPACEWAYS is another 1950s sci-fi feature that bites off more than it can chew. A glance at the poster above makes one assume there will be space stations and multiple spaceships on hand, but there isn't. Most of the story is decidedly down to earth (pun intended). Howard Duff is very dry here, to the point that one understands why his character's wife would want a new life. On the other hand, it's hard to see why Eva Bartok's Lisa would be so smitten with Mitchell, and why she would risk herself by sneaking aboard a spaceship to go into space with him. 

The whole main idea of Stephen becoming the first man into space just so he can defend himself against a ridiculous murder charge is a weird one, even for low-budget 1950s sci-fi. Every other character in the film seems to accept this idea right away, and there's no type of discussion over whether such a historic event should be attempted over a very personal issue. 

Stephen and Lisa do manage to get up into space, but it's a very short ride, and it is also an unnecessary one, since back on Earth Smith has come to his senses and figures out that Crenshaw and Vanessa are still very much alive, and Crenshaw is actually a spy. The mixture of love triangle, noir espionage, and early rocketry doesn't come off too well--the movie would have been much better if it had stuck to just one main element and played that all the way through. 

Terence Fisher does what he can to move the story along, using a lot more closeups than would be usual for him, and having a lot more cuts than most movies of this type would have. The big problem with SPACEWAYS is that it is a character-driven story, and those characters have very little life to them. The only figure of interest is that of Smith, a quirky fellow who appears to have his own agenda in accusing Mitchell of murder. Smith is the type of role that one could easily see Peter Cushing playing if Hammer had made this movie a few years later. 

SPACEWAYS was a co-production with American Robert Lippert's company, and a few effects shots from Lippert's ROCKETSHIP X-M were used. As expected there is also the obligatory stock footage, but SPACEWAYS does have a few decent mattes. Overall the movie doesn't look as threadbare as other low-budget space flicks, but considering its title, and the way it was advertised, one expects way more out of it. 

This film is part of the current Hammer Films series of high-end 4K home video releases. I haven't ordered the new SPACEWAYS 4K/Blu-ray....I'm sure Hammer has attached all sorts of bells & whistles to it, but I'll save my money for something more worthy. Besides, Tubi has a very nice full-length print of SPACEWAYS available on its streaming channel. 

TARGET EARTH

 

TARGET EARTH (1954) is another 1950s sci-fi flick that takes a novel premise and tries to dramatize it as cheaply as possible.

The movie starts out intriguingly, with a young woman waking up in her bedroom to the sound of a ticking clock. (A shot of a half-empty bottle of sleeping pills lets us know the woman has some issues.) The woman, Nora King (Kathleen Crowley) precedes to dress and walk about her boarding house searching for the other tenants, who are missing. Nora goes outside and quickly realizes her town is deserted. After a few minutes of her wandering around trying to find anyone, she stumbles upon a dead body, and a very live man named Frank Brooks (Richard Denning). Frank explains he was knocked out by muggers and left in an alley the night before, and he and Nora try to find out what has happened. The duo hear music from a bar, and they discover a wisecracking couple (Richard Reeves and Virginia Grey) who also have no idea what is going on. The four discover a jittery milquetoast and a strange shadow, and the group runs into a hotel, where from newspapers they are informed of an invasion of mysterious robots. This is why the town was evacuated, and now the group is in the crossfire between the military and the robots. 

The main plot of TARGET EARTH--small group of people wandering around a deserted city trying to figure out what has happened--has been used for all sorts of science fiction movies and TV episodes, usually as a way to save on the budget. TARGET EARTH is one of the lesser examples of this genre element. Its group of survivors holes up in a generic hotel suite, debating the situation, while the story cutaways to scenes of military officers discussing how to defeat the robot threat. The military has discovered an inert robot, and it is examined at a lab that appears to be located in someone's basement (the main scientist is played by the ubiquitous Whit Bissell). Of course, the military figures out a way to overcome the robot army at the last minute, and the story comes to an abrupt end. 

What hurts TARGET EARTH the most is the fact that we only see one of the robot "army" at a time--due to the fact that the production only had one robot to use. The robot itself is as clunky as it gets--I'm sure even back in the Fifties it got laughs. For some reason a number of characters believe that the robot army is from Venus, although there's no evidence presented to back this up. (it would have been much better if it had been revealed at the climax that the robots were created by a foreign power.) As expected, there's plenty of stock military footage, but even this is used in a lackadaisical manner. 

What TARGET EARTH mostly consists of is a group of people with various personal issues sitting around a hotel suite. This static setup is helped greatly by true pros such as Richard Denning and Virginia Grey, but it isn't enough to make a viewer stop wishing a bunch of robots would show up. Near the climax an armed hoodlum appears to threaten the group, but this is just another distraction from the main story. This movie was directed by Sherman A. Rose and produced by Herman Cohen, whose later use of teenagers mixed up with mad middle-aged men would have been very welcome here. 

While watching TARGET EARTH last night (for the very first time, I must point out), I came to the realization that the movie was sort-of remade as THE EARTH DIES SCREAMING in England in 1964. Both films deal with a small group of survivors trying to figure out why the local area is totally deserted,  they both have an army of robots as antagonists, and even the method to defeat the invaders is very similar.  The main difference is that THE EARTH DIES SCREAMING is set in an English village instead of a large American city, and that movie was directed by the much more capable Terence Fisher. 

TARGET EARTH is very reminiscent of several other science fiction movies and TV episodes, but it isn't as good as the ones that come to mind. It also doesn't do justice to genre legend Richard Denning. 

MARK OF THE TORTOISE

 

Yes, it's another Krimi--with a title like MARK OF THE TORTOISE, what else could it be?? This one is from 1964, made by Rialto, the German company that produced the "official" Edgar Wallace series. MARK OF THE TORTOISE, however, is not based on anything written by Edgar Wallace--it apparently is based on a novel by James Hadley Chase. 

Donald Micklem (Gotz George) arrives at his rich uncle's English estate to find out that he is being blackmailed by a mysterious figure known as "The Tortoise". Micklem's uncle refuses to pay, and he is killed. Donald decides to track down the gang behind the murder, and he becomes involved with the Tortoise's main subordinate, Lorelli (Hildegard Knef) a woman whose motives are not entirely clear. 

MARK OF THE TORTOISE (original German title WARTEZIMMER ZUM JENSEITS) is very different from the usual run of Krimi fare. Its main hero is not a Scotland Yard inspector, but a close relative of the main victim, and the leading lady isn't pursued by the major villain--she's actually working for him. The film noirish aspects of the Krimi are toned down as well, as a large part of the story is set in Trieste (where surprisingly the production actually traveled to and shot scenes there). There are more daytime sequences in MARK OF THE TORTOISE than there are in about a dozen Krimis picked at random altogether. 

Being that it is a different type of Krimi, some of the weirder aspects of the genre are not present here, but there are still some outlandish details. The calling card of The Tortoise is a real live tortoise that has a skull painted onto its shell, a particularly bizarre touch. The Tortoise's base of operations is a large castle in Trieste that has underground levels with all sorts of tricked-out rooms, and the villain (Richard Munch) resembles Dr. Strangelove, in that he wears dark glasses and is wheelchair bound. (His wheelchair is tricked out as well). 

Gotz George and his comic relief sidekick played by Hans Clarin are not exactly standout heroes, and they are overshadowed by The Tortoise and his gang. The bad guys include familiar Krimi faces such as Pinkus Braun and Carl Lange, and good old Klaus Kinski shows up, as the thug who carries out the murder of Micklem's uncle. (Unfortunately Kinski doesn't stay around too long.) Hildegard Knef's femme fatale with a heart is by far the most interesting character. Her ambiguity gives the story an added twist--you have no idea which way she's going to go. 

MARK OF THE TORTOISE was directed by Alfred Vohrer, who made a number of Krimis. With this one he focuses more on the adventure aspects of the story. There's no real mystery in MARK OF THE TORTOISE--we are shown who the bad guys are, and where they hide out. The main suspense is how the hero is going to get back at them, but due to Gotz George's lighthearted nature, the movie doesn't have as much of an edge to it as it should. MARK OF THE TORTOISE is available on Tubi, in an excellent looking black & white widescreen print with an English dubbed voice track. 

ACES HIGH

 

ACES HIGH is a 1976 British film, a loose adaptation of JOURNEY'S END, an acclaimed stage drama concerning life in the trenches during World War One. It is a movie that is almost unknown today, despite its worthy cast. 

Set in 1917, somewhere in France, the story concerns a squadron of British pilots commanded by Major Gresham (Malcolm McDowell). A very young replacement flyer named Croft (Peter Firth) arrives to join the group, much to the consternation of Gresham. Croft is the younger brother of Gresham's girlfriend, and the lad looks up to his commanding officer (the two men attended the same boarding school). Gresham has to drink just to be able to fly, and he doesn't want Croft to discover this. He also doesn't want to be responsible for the younger man's life--pilots don't last very long in this type of war. The eager Croft is full of enthusiasm for what lies ahead, but he soon learns that the life of a military pilot is dreary and deadly instead of being adventurous and heroic. 

One can understand why producer Benjamin Fisz wanted to turn JOURNEY'S END into an aviation tale--Fisz himself was a pilot in WWII, and the original play isn't very cinematic. ACES HIGH tries to mix personal drama exciting action sequences, and the result is the movie has an in-between type of feel. (In an interview presented as an extra on the Kino Blu-ray of ACES HIGH, Malcolm McDowell suggests this feeling is why the film wasn't a major success.) 

The aerial sequences are very impressive, and the movie also makes excellent use of models and miniatures, but I wouldn't call ACES HIGH an action-packed spectacular. It's not on the epic level of WWI sagas such as WINGS or HELL'S ANGELS. What ACES HIGH does feature is some outstanding performances from a number of fine British actors. 

Malcolm McDowell's Gresham is based on the lead character of JOURNEY'S END, Captain Stanhope. Stanhope was memorably played by Colin Clive on stage and screen. Clive's Stanhope was edgy and ready to snap at a moment's notice. McDowell's Gresham, despite his drinking problem, is still able to keep things together and do his job. One would think that McDowell, with his reputation for snarky flamboyance, would go all out with the role of Gresham, but he surprisingly underplays the part--it's one of McDowell's most restrained screen appearances, and it's an approach that works well here. Gresham may be boiling inside, but he's an English gentleman, and he has a duty as a soldier, and McDowell shows that no matter what, he's determined to carry it out. 

Peter Firth is very good as the callow Croft, and Christopher Plummer plays an older officer of the squadron known as "Uncle". Uncle is a kind man who quietly serves as a mentor for the young flyers and as someone Gresham can depend upon. Simon Ward plays a pilot who has lost his nerve, and the film is ably served by guest appearances from John Gielgud, Trevor Howard, Ray Milland, and Richard Johnson. 

ACES HIGH didn't make much of a splash when it came out in 1976. It didn't get much of an American theatrical release (some sources say that it wasn't released in America at all). I assume the main reason for it being passed by was that in the mid-1970s something like this would have seemed very old-fashioned (the movie has no overt gore or explicit material). ACES HIGH was capably directed by Jack Gold, and I enjoyed it very much, especially considering that I am a history buff. I must point out though that what happens in the film is very familiar. If you've seen a number of movies concerning WWI flyers, you'll know all the plot points of ACES HIGH: young men trying to survive a pressured-packed situation, the folly and inevitability of war, the idea that the higher brass care little for the men who actually do the fighting, etc. Despite this familiarity ACES HIGH is a fine production that deserves more attention. 

DER HEXER

 

So I finally caught up with what is considered one of the greatest Krimi movies of all time. DER HEXER (also known as THE MYSTERIOUS MAGICIAN) is a 1964 adaptation of Edgar Wallace's crime novel THE RINGER. 

Rialto, the German production company that was responsible for the "official" Edgar Wallace film series, pulled out all the stops for DER HEXER. It stars three different male Krimi stars--Joachim Fuchsberger, Heinz Drache, and Siegfried Lowitz. The trio are all investigating "The Ringer"--a notoriously cunning vigilante who has been barred from setting foot in England ever again, due to his nefarious capabilities.

The Ringer (real name Arthur Milton) sneaks back into London however, when he finds out that his younger sister has been killed and her body dumped into the Thames. It turns out that Miss Milton had too much knowledge about a white slavery ring, and her brother is determined to get revenge. Inspectors Higgins (Joachim Fuchsberger) and Warren (Siegfried Lowitz) are hoping that The Ringer will lead them to those behind the ring, so they can catch all involved, including the vigilante, in one fell swoop. Also on The Ringer's trail is a mysterious fellow named James Wesby (Hans Drache), who apparently is writing a series of articles on Arthur Milton--but could he be the culprit himself?? 

DER HEXER also features Edgar Wallace series regulars Siegfried Schurenberg (as Scotland Yard head Sir John) and Eddi Arent (once again playing a presumed silly butler). What the movie doesn't have is Krimi Queen Karin Dor, but this is more than made up for by having three attractive ladies play a major part in the story. Sophie Hardy is Inspector Higgins' hot-to-trot girlfriend, Margot Trooger is The Ringer's wife, and Ann Savo is Sir John's curvaceous secretary. (Surprisingly, Klaus Kinski isn't in this one either--maybe they just couldn't fit him in.) 

DER HEXER, directed by another series veteran, Alfred Vohrer, moves along at a pretty good clip, except when things slow down for the byplay between Inspector Higgins and his girlfriend. It's also a bit lighter than the typical Krimi--it's as if those taking part in it realized the absurdity of the goings-on, and decided to go with the flow. Usually the main thrust of a Krimi plot is finding out who the killer/main villain is, but here it's who The Ringer is. The final revelation of this crafty character is a major surprise, although some viewers might consider it a cheat. (If you're expecting logic and sense in a Krimi movie, you should be watching something else.) 

Among the highlights in this film are a mini-sub, a parochial school for girls which is the front for the white slavery ring, and the three major Krimi heroes chasing each other around while The Ringer plays them all like a fiddle. A bonus treat is Peter Thomas' off-the-rails music score (the title theme has to be heard to be believed). 

DER HEXER was so successful and well-received in its native country that it spawned a follow-up sequel with the title character (I haven't seen that one yet). I haven't viewed enough of the entire Rialto Edgar Wallace series to declare it the best Krimi of them all, but I can safely say it's one of the most entertaining I have watched so far. (If you are new to the Krimi genre, I would watch a few of them before giving DER HEXER a chance. I feel your enjoyment of DER HEXER would increase this way.) 

THE CRIME OF DR. CRESPI

 

THE CRIME OF DR. CRESPI is a low-budget thriller, released in 1935, that attempts to ride the wave of early 1930s Hollywood horror. The movie's credits state that its story was "suggested by Edgar Allan Poe's 'The Premature Burial'", but it isn't much of a suggestion. 

Dr. Andre Crespi (Erich von Stroheim) is an esteemed surgeon, and the head of an exclusive medical clinic. A former flame of Crespi's, Mrs. Estelle Ross (Harriet Russell), asks Crespi to use his vast skills to save her husband (John Bohn), who has been injured in a car crash. The thing is, Stephen Ross once worked alongside Crespi, before he took Estelle away from him. Crespi agrees to help Ross, but it's all a ruse. The mad doctor injects Ross with a serum which shuts down all his bodily functions and gives him the appearance of being dead. Crespi gleefully looks forward to Ross being buried alive, and getting another chance to romance his wife, but a couple of doctors at the clinic interrupt the wicked scheme. 

THE CRIME OF DR. CRESPI is a decent terror tale, but it takes awhile to get going, and it feels stilted at times. The fact that it's set in contemporary times doesn't help--it might have been more atmospheric if the events were placed in the early 20th or late 19th Century. 

The movie's plot brings to mind such films as 1935's THE RAVEN and MAD LOVE, which also featured loony surgeons driven mad by unrequited love. Erich von Stroheim is by far the main reason to watch this production. He gives Dr. Crespi plenty of eccentric ticks, along with a nasty temper. The creepiest scene in the film is when Crespi sneaks into the morgue late at night and gloats over the assumed dead body of Ross, knowing full well his victim can hear and understand what he is saying. This is followed by Ross' funeral, where director John H. Auer uses plenty of expressionistic techniques. 

One of the doctors who digs up Ross and saves him is, ironically enough, played by Dwight Frye, who by this time had plenty of experience in dealing with the uncanny on the big screen. One would expect Frye to have played Crespi's bizarre assistant, but instead he's a doctor at the clinic who suffers Crespi's wrath. Despite this Frye is so nervous and anxious throughout that one assumes he's up to something himself. After Ross is "resurrected", he shambles off in zombie-like fashion to confront Crespi, but the climax is a dud. (The cute nurse that Ross scares after his revival was played by Jeanne Kelly, who would later be known as Jean Brooks and gain cult fame for appearing in a couple of the Val Lewton RKO thrillers.) 

THE CRIME OF DR. CRESPI has its moments, but there's too many distractions in the way of the good stuff, such as a subplot dealing with an Italian woman having quintuplets at the clinic, and a obligatory romantic couple, a doctor and nurse who work under Crespi and who could have been written out of the story altogether without any major effect. 

Strangely enough, Erich von Stroheim made only very few horror films in his career. That might have been his choice, but if he had pursued or accepted more roles in that genre, he might have gotten as much of a reputation as Karloff or Lugosi. 

4D MAN

 

I thought I had written a blog post on this film before, but I haven't. 4D MAN is an underrated 1959 science fiction feature from producer Jack Harris and director Irvin Yeaworth, the men behind the original THE BLOB. I've seen it multiple times, but it wasn't until recently that I obtained it on Blu-ray (at a discount of course). 

The movie is really about the relationship between two brothers, the Nelsons. Tony Nelson (James Congdon) is the younger one, more emotional, more impetuous. Scott (Robert Lansing) is the older one, more steadfast and responsible. The two men are both scientists. Despite his talent, Tony can't keep a job, because he's too busy dealing with his own experiment, an attempt to fuse different materials together. Scott gets Tony a job at the top-secret research facility he's working for. Tony immediately makes a connection with Scott's lab assistant and love interest Linda (Lee Meriwether). 

Scott, depressed over the fact that Linda prefers Tony over him, starts to tinker with Tony's experiment late one night in the lab, and he succeeds in the fusion process, due to the fact that Scott's brainwaves have been amplified by the radioactive materials he has been working around. In other words, Scott has willed the experiment to happen, and he's able to take things farther, in that he literally becomes a man of the fourth dimension--he can pass through solid walls, whether brick, stone, or metal. There's a price to pay for this power--Scott uses so much energy in doing it he ages considerably each time it happens. Scott discovers he's able to revive his energy and appearance by draining other human beings--and killing them. 

Scott's newfound abilities are affecting his mental state as well, and instead of trying to deal with his situation, the 4D Man decides to use his power for his own benefit, and force Linda to be with him. Now a menace to society, Scott is hunted by the police as Tony and Linda try to find a way to stop him. 

For a low-budget 1950s sci-fi flick, there is a lot of food for thought in 4D MAN. If anything, the movie bites off more than it can chew, as Scott's abilities, and their effects on him, are not fully explored. But 4D MAN deserves credit for attempting some bold leaps, and for making some twists on the usual "mutated being on a rampage" tale. 

The film takes a while to get going, as it builds the foundation of the love triangle between the three leading characters. Once Scott obtains his fourth dimensional state, things move pretty fast. A number of Scott's 4D activities happen off-screen, more than likely due to budget considerations, and perhaps due to the fact that the audience wouldn't have much sympathy for Scott if it kept seeing him kill over and over again. At one point the 4D Scott and a very young Patty Duke have a "Monster and Maria by the lake" moment that does not get resolved, to the frustration of the viewer. 

The special effects are simple but effective, and there are little details that stop the story from being totally outlandish. (When Scott is able to put his hand through a block of steel for the very first time, his fingers on the other side of the block start to numb, because he has lost circulation in them.) One major reason the movie has a believable aspect to it is due to the performance of Robert Lansing as Scott. 

Robert Lansing was a fine actor, a consummate pro who didn't make as much of a mark in movies or television as he should have. (Internet bios of Lansing suggest he preferred stage work.) Lansing was an actor who gave off an attitude of quiet intelligence--his characters always seem to have something on their minds. Scott Nelson is someone whose decency and hard work has probably been taken for granted most of his life, and his newfound powers truly do make him a new man. Scott isn't an evil man--he's a tragic figure, one that isn't able to cope with his situation (or the fact that the woman he loves is attracted to his irresponsible brother). Usually in a movie like this the younger, more emotional brother/colleague is the one that gets in trouble, and the older, more stable counterpart is the one to solve the situation, or help track his opposite down. Here the welcome twist is that the more mature Scott gets to be bold and outrageous, but he pays a horrible price. Having Robert Lansing play the lead character of 4D MAN was a huge advantage, even though (believe it or not) this was Lansing's feature film debut. 

Lee Meriwether does well with the underwritten role of Linda, and James Congdon's smug portrayal of Tony ensures that the viewer will feel favorably toward Scott. 4D MAN has a very jazzy music score by Ralph Carmichael. It's an unusual sound for this type of film, but it times it overwhelms the dialogue and sound effects. 

4D MAN doesn't have the cultural impact of THE BLOB. 4D MAN is a bit darker, there's no teenagers involved, and Robert Lansing isn't as famous as Steve McQueen. Still, 4D MAN is a Fifties science fiction product that deserves more attention and respect. (The Kino Blu-ray of the film gives it a very fine showcase.) 

HITCHCOCK'S PRO-NAZI FILM?

 

HITCHCOCK'S PRO-NAZI FILM? is about as clickbait a title as you can get. This is a 2023 documentary about Alfred Hitchcock's 1944 film LIFEBOAT, and the controversy it caused upon its release. 

I was not aware of the existence of this film until I saw the DVD of it listed among the new arrivals on the Edward R. Hamilton website last month. I happen to think that LIFEBOAT is one of Hitchcock's most underrated productions, and the DVD wasn't expensive, so I took the plunge and ordered it. 

I must say that the title made me a bit wary, but this is a well-made and well-paced documentary. What makes it fall short of being truly excellent is writer-director Daphne Baiwir's tendency to focus on various political and social issues instead of the main topic. 

LIFEBOAT is best known for taking place entirely within the small title vessel, as a group of survivors from a ship sunk by a German U-Boat in the Atlantic try to survive. The group hauls aboard a man who happens to be one of the U-Boat sailors, and this German soon takes the lead in making sure the lifeboat and the people within are able to survive. 

After LIFEBOAT was released, a number of critics complained that the movie was sympathetic toward the German character. I've found this idea to be ridiculous--the German is resourceful, clever, and cunning, but the film certainly doesn't take his side. Apparently some in 1944 felt Germans should have been portrayed as either fools or propaganda-spouting fanatics. The fact that the German in LIFEBOAT was shown as capable and redoubtable rubbed some people the wrong way, but I think Hitchcock made the right choice in having the man be realistic instead of a wartime caricature. 

HITCHCOCK'S PRO-NAZI FILM? looks at the film's reception, but it takes a while to get there. Much of the documentary focuses on people connected to LIFEBOAT, such as John Steinbeck (who wrote the original story on which LIFEBOAT was based), columnist Dorothy Thompson (who criticized the film when it was released, and whose life supposedly inspired the character played by Tallulah Bankhead), and black actor Canada Lee, who appeared in LIFEBOAT. 

The result is that we get a lot of info on the lives of Steinbeck, Thompson, and Lee, and while this info is interesting enough, one gets the feeling that Daphne Baiwir would much rather focus on them than the nuts & bolts of the making of LIFEBOAT. 

The main talking head of HITCHCOCK'S PRO-NAZI FILM? is Patrick McGilligan, who wrote a fine biography of the director (a biography I happen to own). McGilligan is the one who keeps things on track regarding the actual making of LIFEBOAT. 

Considering the title of this documentary, I don't think it gave enough evidence to suggest that there was any sort of sympathy toward Nazi Germany in LIFEBOAT. I think Daphne Baiwir's biggest issue is that she feels Alfred Hitchcock wasn't as left-wing as John Steinbeck, Dorothy Thompson, and Canada Lee. Hitchcock admirers will at least want to view this, and the documentary has inspired me to pull out my old DVD of LIFEBOAT and watch it again. 

THE BLACK CAMEL

 

This is a 1931 Charlie Chan film produced by Fox, the second title to star Warner Oland as the Chinese detective, and the earliest Oland-Chan feature to survive for viewing. 

Actress Shelah Fane (Dorothy Revier) is in Hawaii appearing in a movie, but she also has plenty of relationship issues. Fane is soon found murdered, and Honolulu police inspector Charlie Chan is placed in charge of the investigation. It turns out that Fane was connected to the murder of an actor named Denny Mayo, which happened three years ago. Chan figures out who the culprit is, and discovers the killer's accomplice as well. 

THE BLACK CAMEL is notable mainly due to its supporting cast, which includes Bela Lugosi and Dwight Frye (this movie was made after Universal's original DRACULA). There are also appearances by Mary Gordon and J.M Kerrigan, who would both go on to play roles in multiple Universal horror films. Robert Young made his screen debut in this movie. 

When I was a kid the Charlie Chan movies were on TV all the time. I can't say that I'm a huge Charlie Chan fan (or expert), but I am familiar with the basics of the Chan series. Warner Oland's Chan in THE BLACK CAMEL acts very differently than he does in his later appearances. THE BLACK CAMEL Chan is much more energetic and eager, and he's even set up as kind of a what would be decades later called a Columbo type. Due to Chan's constant use of aphorisms and his kind nature, the suspects here don't take him very seriously. It is clearly established in THE BLACK CAMEL that Chan is an actual police inspector who has to answer to higher ups, instead of a world famous sleuth who can basically do whatever he wants. At one point there's a scene showing Chan at the dining table with his very large family. 

Bela Lugosi plays a professional mystic called Tarneverro. The role is a red herring type, one that Lugosi would portray over and over again during his acting career, The difference here is that except for one scene in which Tarneverro performs a phony seance in order to intimidate Shelah Fane, Bela doesn't try to be mysterious or threatening. He's congenial and chatty, and he looks great (throughout the film he wears either a tuxedo or a natty suit). Lugosi also is rather friendly to Charlie Chan, and Bela and Warner Oland play off each other very well. (As Chan Oland would later face off against Boris Karloff, and Sidney Toler's Chan would have to deal with Lionel Atwill and George Zucco.) Lugosi's spooky guy reputation hadn't been totally established yet--if THE BLACK CAMEL had been made later in the 1930s, Tarneverro would have no doubt turned out to be more of a menace. 

Warner Oland and Bela Lugosi in THE BLACK CAMEL

Dwight Frye isn't even named on the main credits, but he gets attention as a shifty butler. (Frye constantly complained about the fact that he got stuck playing shady or nefarious characters, but he has that look of someone you just can't trust.) 

Much of THE BLACK CAMEL was actually filmed in Hawaii, which was unusual for a Hollywood feature made during this time period. The locations do make the movie stand out, although it does get stagnant at times. (The director was Hamilton MacFadden.) The mystery elements are okay, but one big problem the story has is Chan's police assistant, a Japanese fellow who literally runs in and out of every scene he's in as if he's a buffoon in a vaudeville sketch. The assistant is more ridiculous than comedic. 

I haven't seen enough Charlie Chan movies to determine how THE BLACK CAMEL rates within the context of the entire Chan series, but I can say that the film should be seen by Bela Lugosi fans. Even in a supporting role Bela has more screen presence than any other male member of the cast. I viewed this movie on Tubi, and the visual and sound quality was very good. 

A FEAST AT MIDNIGHT On Blu-ray From Severin

 

Severin's THE EUROCRYPT OF CHRISTOPHER LEE COLLECTION 3 includes A FEAST AT MIDNIGHT, a 1995 light comedy which has Lee playing an outwardly intimidating teacher at a British boys boarding school. 

Young Magnus Gove (Freddie Findlay), a poor little rich boy, arrives at Dryden Park prep school, where, as a new kid, he immediately encounters difficulties. One of Magnus' problems is the monolithic Major Longfellow (Christopher Lee), a member of the faculty who has been bestowed the nickname "The Raptor" due to his towering presence. Another problem is the school's strict health food policy. Magnus starts to rebel the best way he knows how--by sneaking into the school kitchen at night and creating gourmet treats (the boy is a budding chef). Magnus starts up a group of fellow student outcasts and calls it "The Scoffers", and he also makes a connection with Major Longfellow's teenage daughter (Lisa Faulkner), who is something of an outcast herself. Eventually Magnus' late-night feasts are discovered, but he gains confidence and self-respect. 

A FEAST AT MIDNIGHT gives Christopher Lee one of his best roles during the 1990s. Major Longfellow certainly deserves the fearsome reputation given to him by his students, but he's not a stock comic villain. Lee makes Longfellow a human being, a traditionalist with certain values but a man who is more well-rounded than one would expect. Lee doesn't rant or rage here, and he doesn't need to, as a cold look from the Major is worth a thousand shouted lines of dialogue. Lee also shows off a talent for deadpan, dry humor. 

Lee was very proud of having appeared in this film, and he should have been. A FEAST AT MIDNIGHT was directed by Justin Hardy, the son of Robin Hardy (who had directed Lee in THE WICKER MAN). Justin Hardy also co-wrote the film's script with producer Yoshi Nishio, and both men had attended British boarding schools, giving them an insight into the situations involved in the story. It's obvious Hardy and Nishio wanted to make a decent, positive movie. The tone is very light, almost gentle at times. The movie stays away from the darker aspects of children not fitting in, but it does give subtle hints that Magnus' family situation is very complicated. 

What helps A FEAST AT MIDNIGHT is that Freddie Findlay, and the kids overall, really do act like kids instead of polished mini-adults. Robert Hardy plays the kindly headmaster of the school, and Edward Fox has a cameo as Magnus' father. Julie Dreyfus also has a cameo as Magnus' mother, and her appearance and dress is almost exactly how she looks in the KILL BILL movies. 

The visual and sound quality on this Blu-ray of A FEAST AT MIDNIGHT is fantastic, and it makes it hard to believe that this was Justin Hardy's directorial debut--one would assume he had been making features for years. The disc includes an original trailer, and it also has a brand new audio commentary with Justin Hardy and Yoshi Nishio. The two men discuss the trials and tribulations they had making what was for them their first feature, and how they managed with a very small budget. They also have plenty of insights and stories about Christopher Lee--major fans of the actor would be well advised to listen to this talk. This is a Region Free disc. 

Some on the internet have complained about Severin including A FEAST AT MIDNIGHT on their latest Christopher Lee box set. I have to say that originally I was surprised by the choice, but after having seen the film for the very first time, I was quite impressed with it. It's very, very British (an American version of this tale would be harsher and more confrontational), but it's also charming in its own way. I do have to say that I think adults will probably enjoy it more than youngsters--the kids of today (especially American ones) will either be puzzled or bored. 

Even if a movie about upper-class British children isn't to your taste, watching Christopher Lee play a role that truly does give him a chance to stretch his abilities is more than compensation enough. There are plenty of low-budget, low-quality films featuring Lee that Severin could have inserted in this set, but I'm glad they gave A FEAST AT MIDNIGHT a high quality release instead. 

THE BISHOP MURDER CASE

 

THE BISHOP MURDER CASE is a 1929 sound film produced by MGM. It is another adaptation of a S.S. Van Dine novel featuring upper-class amateur sleuth Philo Vance, with a young Basil Rathbone portraying the character. 

THE BISHOP MURDER CASE was made and released during the same period that Paramount was making a series of Philo Vance films starring William Powell. This shows how popular the Van Dine novels were at this time, with two major Hollywood studios making films with the same character concurrently. 

I have read a few of the Van Dine Philo Vance novels, but I have not read THE BISHOP MURDER CASE. The movie has a series of murders, with clues involving nursery rhymes and chess. Rathbone's Vance is much more personable than the literary one (as was William Powell's), but he's still an erudite, fastidious fellow who appears to have major knowledge of just about every subject. The characters of District Attorney Markham (Clarence Geldert) and Sergeant Heath (James Donlan), regulars in the Van Dine novels, show up here as well, with Heath once again portrayed as a comic relief dolt. One thing that is notable in this film is that Markham essentially lets Vance take charge of the case, to the point where Philo tells the D.A. and Heath what to do. 

Since this is a very early sound film, there are some creaky elements to it, and there are times where it feels like a stage play. There are, however, some outdoor sequences, and Nick Grinde (credited as "screen director") sets up a number of expressionistic shot compositions. David Burton was credited for stage direction, and while Rathbone is his usual precise self, the supporting cast is somewhat hammy--the lovely Lelia Hyams is very fluttery as the leading lady. Roland Young plays a sarcastic suspect who at multiple times refers to Rathbone's Vance as "Holmes", in a snarky bit of forecasting. 

The story sets up things so that one major suspect appears to be the murderer, only to reveal another character as the culprit instead. It's a nice twist, but after the movie was over I thought it was a bit incredible that the actual perpetrator could have been able to accomplish all the crimes, but one could say that about nearly every murder mystery tale. 

I viewed THE BISHOP MURDER CASE on Tubi. It was a decent print, but there were times when the sound quality was not very clear, but one must remember this is a talkie made in 1929. It's a good murder mystery, but one wonders how better it would have been if it had been made a few years later when cinematic sound techniques had been much improved. An older Basil Rathbone would have been great as a more authentic Philo Vance--one could easily imagine him as an acid-tongued know-it-all snob. But would audiences have wanted to watch such a character? 

CRIME BOSS

 

In my blog post review of Severin's special edition release of THE GHOST, I mentioned that one of the discs in the set was a CD compilation of soundtrack music by Francesco De Masi. Seven tracks on the CD feature music from a film called CRIME BOSS, a 1972 Eurocrime drama starring Telly Savalas and Antonio Sabato. CRIME BOSS just so happens to be available on Tubi in a widescreen print with an English dubbed soundtrack. (The original Italian title for the film is I FAMILIARI DELLE VITTIME NON SARANO AVVERTITI, which roughly translates into "The Victim's Families Won't Be Told". I can understand why the title was changed for the English release, but you'd think they would have at least come up with something less bland than CRIME BOSS.) 

Antonio Sabato is Antonio Mancuso, a small-time Italian hood who ingratiates himself into a powerful crime family led by Don Vincenzo (Telly Savalas). Mancuso develops a bond with Vincenzo, and he also starts up an affair with the Don's striking young niece (Paola Tedesco), but the ambitious fellow has plans of his own, and he'll double-cross anyone to achieve his goals. 

It's easy to assume that CRIME BOSS was meant to be a cheap knockoff of THE GODFATHER. It's director, Alberto De Martino, made a number of movies influenced by better known features (and I've written blog posts on a few of them). De Martino was a capable filmmaker, but CRIME BOSS has more talk than action, and despite location filming at such places as Milan, Palermo, Rome, and Hamburg, there's nothing about the story that makes it particularly stand out. 

When it comes to Italian crime thrillers, Antonio Sabato is no Tomas Milan, but in fairness to him his character is very inconsistent. During the first part of the film it appears that Mancuso is a Man With No Name clone, a clever killer who uses pluck and guile to eliminate those who are worse than him. As the movie goes on, however, it's established that Mancuso is getting revenge for his father, who was killed by the mob. There are times when Mancuso seems dismayed by all the things he has to do, but he also manages to betray just about everyone he deals with. At one point I was convinced that Mancuso was actually an undercover agent for the police--and I was wrong....although honestly, that plot idea would have made the ending much better. 

Antonio Sabato doesn't have the screen presence that Telly Savalas does. Savalas isn't onscreen all that much in CRIME BOSS, but he makes one wish the story was much more about Don Vincenzo. As a matter of fact, Paola Tedesco (who could have passed for Rosalba Neri's sister) makes more of an impact than Antonio Sabato does. There's a hint that Tedesco's character is as conniving and ambitious as Mancuso, but this subplot is not developed enough. 

Many of the Italian crime movies of the 1970s are as wild and outlandish as their Euro Western counterparts from the 1960s, but CRIME BOSS is just a standard Mafia tale. 

BATTLE OF THE JAPAN SEA

 

BATTLE OF THE JAPAN SEA is a 1969 war epic from Japan's Toho Studios, directed by Seiji Maruyama and produced by Tomoyuki Tanaka, the instigator of the Godzilla film series. This was the last movie that special effects genius Eiji Tsuburaya worked on, and it is filled with dozens of intricate model battleships and explosions. 

The title of the film refers to the Battle of Tsushima, one of the climatic acts of the Russo-Japanese War, but the story is a mini-history of the entire conflict. It begins in 1904, as a narrator, along with animated maps, lays out the background behind Japan and Russia's decision to fight one another. Much of the focus of the film rests upon Admiral Togo (Toshiro Mifune), the resolute Japanese naval commander who became a national icon due to his overseeing his country's overwhelming victory at the Battle of Tsushima. 

I'm certainly no expert on the Russo-Japanese War, but from what I could ascertain the movie follows the actual events closely for the most part. One has to realize that this is a Japanese film, so obviously there will be some sort of slant. Despite that, the overall tone is not as jingoistic as other cinematic war epics. The Russians portrayed in the story actually speak their native language, and they are not shown as monsters or villains. At the end of the film Admiral Togo visits his Russian counterpart, who was wounded in the final battle, captured, and is now recuperating in a Japanese hospital. Togo and the Russian admiral treat each other with respect and courtesy, as fellow warriors. 

The battle scenes are the main reasons to watch BATTLE OF THE JAPAN SEA. No matter what genre they were working on, the technicians at Toho Studios were proficient experts, and they knew how to put together outstanding action sequences. There's even a land battle sequence, with Japanese troops attempting to storm a virtually impregnable Russian position. When it comes to the violence and scope of major military actions, BATTLE OF THE JAPAN SEA can hold its own with any other American or British war picture made in the 1960s. 

One factor this movie does not have is the extraneous fluff one finds in other historical epics. There's no love interest for any of the Japanese officers shown in the film--as a matter of fact, there's no major (or even minor) female roles whatsoever. There are almost no scenes of what is going on back in Japan during the conflict--the narration and animated maps continue throughout the story, giving the viewer info on what is going on and why. Theodore Roosevelt's attempts at bringing the Russo-Japanese War to an end are not even mentioned. 

BATTLE OF THE JAPAN SEA was made in color and Tohoscope, and I was able to find an excellent, uncut print to view on the internet which actually had English subtitles. It is a well-made film which makes excellent use of the widescreen image, and it has a rousing music score by Masaru Sato, a composer who had worked with Akira Kurosawa several times and was also a Godzilla series veteran. 

As a history buff and film geek, I was impressed with BATTLE OF THE JAPAN SEA, but I'm sure that I would have appreciated it even better if I had more knowledge about the Russo-Japanese War. What this movie shows is that Toho, like Hammer Films, was capable of making a much broader product than the usual genre films they are associated with. 

THE LIFE AND DEATHS OF CHRISTOPHER LEE On Blu-ray From Severin

 

Included in Severin's THE EUROCRYPT OF CHRISTOPHER LEE COLLECTION 3 box set is the 2023 documentary THE LIFE AND DEATHS OF CHRISTOPHER LEE, written and directed by Jon Spira. 

Jon Spira also wrote and directed ELSTREE 1976, a film that I enjoyed. With ELSTREE 1976, Spira looked at the making of STAR WARS from a unique angle--the memories of various background and supporting players who were involved in the production. The unique angle Spira uses in THE LIFE AND DEATHS OF CHRISTOPHER LEE is having the main story told by a marionette made up to look like Lee, voiced by Peter Serafinowicz (who does a decent representation of Lee's tone and speaking pattern). 

The result is....unusual, to say the least. It takes a while to get used to this approach, especially when it is combined with different forms of animation that attempt to recreate certain events in Lee's life. There are times when the use of the marionette and the animation gets a bit too cute. It's not the approach I would have chosen, but what do I know??

I've read plenty of interviews, books, and articles about Lee, and I own a copy of one of the versions of his autobiography (yes, there are multiple ones). I can say that the narration presented in this film from this representation of Lee is a good approximation of the real man's statements and opinions--but while watching this documentary one must remember that it is an interpretation of Lee--you can't assume that what is shown and said here is 100% what Lee really felt. 

The documentary gives a good overview of Lee's long and varied life, and fans of the actor will be familiar with most of the details, such as his descending from Italian nobility, the mystery over his military career during World War II, his attempts at breaking away from his horror movie image, and his reputation for being distant and even pompous at times, a reputation that nearly all of the guests on this film go out of their way to refute. 

Among those guests who talk about their relationships with Lee are directors Joe Dante, John Landis, and Peter Jackson, along with Lee's son-in-law Juan Aneiros and niece, the actress Harriet Walter. Lee biographer and English Gothic expert Jonathan Rigby also appears, and his insights, along with those of Walter, make the most impact. 

Due to the fact that Lee "appears" in this documentary as a marionette and we "hear" his voice, there isn't very much actual footage of Lee as his real self. There is plenty of footage from his films. The major highlights of Lee's acting career are presented, but there are a few moments that I thought should have been mentioned. Considering that Lee lived to be 93 years old, appeared in hundreds and hundreds of films, and this documentary is 102 minutes long, one can understand that the filmmakers behind this had to pick and choose what could be discussed. (On the extras included on this disc, the filmmakers mention that rights issues hindered them from showing certain things.) 

The main thesis of THE LIFE AND DEATHS OF CHRISTOPHER LEE is that the actor, despite his commanding presence, was a sensitive man who was concerned about his reputation in the film industry. Christopher Lee fans won't see this as a major revelation--I remember years ago a quote I read from Peter Cushing where he said that Lee was basically a shy person, an assessment that makes a lot of sense. Just about any performer or creative individual is sensitive in some way--they couldn't do what they do if they weren't. This documentary does show that Lee was much more human and relatable than most would think. 

Severin presents THE LIFE AND DEATHS OF CHRISTOPHER LEE on a region free disc, and as would be expected from a recently made film, the picture and sound quality is exemplary. The extras include a new audio commentary with director Jon Spira and producer Hank Starrs. The two veer wildly from one unconnected subject to another, and they really don't give much insight into how the film was made. 

Another extra is a Q & A with Jon Spira, Hank Starrs, and Jonathan Rigby, held at a screening of the documentary by the BFI. In this short session Spira and Starrs do give some details about their decisions in shaping the film. 

There's also extended interview footage of most of the guests that appear in the feature, and I have to say that some of the stories and anecdotes they tell are more interesting than what appears in the finished film. A trailer is included as well. The artwork for the disc cover (see above) was created by Graham Humphreys. 

Christopher Lee is one of my favorite actors of all time, and my appreciation for his life and career has only grown over the years. THE LIFE AND DEATHS OF CHRISTOPHER LEE is a well-done tribute to the man, but it wouldn't call it the definitive examination of his life. Lee's life was so varied and extraordinary that I don't think there can be a definitive summation of it. This documentary works best when it shows Lee's human side as presented by those who knew and worked with him. 

STORM OVER THE PACIFIC

 

STORM OVER THE PACIFIC is a 1960 Japanese film, produced by Toho Studios, that covers the Pacific theater in World War II from Pearl Harbor to the Battle of Midway. 

Toho is of course best known for their Godzilla series, and other science-fiction and monster movies, but they also made several historical & military epics. STORM OVER THE PACIFIC gives a viewpoint from the other side, so to speak, at least for English-speaking audiences. 

The movie begins with the Japanese fleet sailing to Hawaii to begin the attack on Pearl Harbor, with the focus on a young navigator-bombardier named Lt. Kitami (Yosuke Natsuki). The surprise raid is successful, and through Kitami's narration and a series of montages, the viewer learns about the Japanese military dominating in the Western Pacific. Kitami gets leave to marry his hometown sweetheart, but on the day of the ceremony he's called back to his ship, the aircraft carrier Hiryu. The Hiryu is to be part of a large force that will be sent out to attack and invade Midway Island, in the hopes of bringing out the American fleet so it can be destroyed. In the battle the Japanese fleet is devastated, with Kitami barely surviving the sinking of his carrier. Back home recuperating, Kitami realizes that the Japanese authorities are not letting the public know about the massive losses suffered at Midway. His enthusiasm dampened, Kitami goes off on another mission, his future uncertain. 

STORM OVER THE PACIFIC will be a treat for WWII buffs--just make sure you find the original unedited Japanese version of this film, which is available on the Internet Archive. (The movie was edited, dubbed, and released in the U.S. with the title I BOMBED PEARL HARBOR.) The film portrays events in a matter-of-fact manner--there's no grandstanding or angry attitudes. Kitami is a likable fellow who is proud to serve his country, but he's not filled with rage against any enemy. After his marriage, he even questions the idea of his life being sworn to the Emperor. 

Armchair historians will appreciate the fact that the movie highlights the strategic and tactical decisions (and mistakes) made by the Japanese navy during the period after Pearl Harbor. At one point Admiral Yamaguchi (played by the legendary Toshiro Mifune) discusses with Admiral Yamamoto why Japan must inflict as much damage to America in as short a time as possible, in order to bring about a quick end to the war. The reason for this is that Japan does not have the supplies and the infrastructure to survive a long campaign--something the officers in this story know all too well. While STORM OVER THE PACIFIC presents the early successes of the Japanese in WWII, there's also a sense of foreboding. (Toshiro Mifune would go on to play Yamamoto multiple times.) 

If you are a fan of Toho's Godzilla series, STORM OVER THE PACIFIC features plenty of familiar names and faces, such as actors Takashi Shimura, Jun Tazaki, and Akihiko Hirata. The producer of the film was Tomoyuki Tanaka, the man who instigated the Godzilla series, and the battle sequences, which contain plenty of models and miniatures, were overseen by FX master Eiji Tsuburaya. There are some that will never get used to models in a movie like this, but for me I personally find them much more watchable than CGI. (Besides, there's no way Toho could have made a film like this without the use of models.) A large sunken pool was constructed on the Toho lot to film the battle scenes of STORM OVER THE PACIFIC, and this construct was used for almost every Kaiju movie the studio made thereafter. (Battle footage from STORM OVER THE PACIFIC was used for TORA, TORA, TORA and MIDWAY.) 

STORM OVER THE PACIFIC is a very well-made war picture, and it at times even winds up being more realistic than most American WWII movies. 

FOCUS ON LOUISE BROOKS On Blu-ray From Flicker Alley

 

For this Region Free Blu-ray Flicker Alley and the San Francisco Film Preserve have gathered together clips and fragments from four different films featuring Louise Brooks. 

In a number of ways Louise Brooks is the equivalent to Marilyn Monroe and James Dean in that her image and legends about her personal life have had far more impact than any of her movie performances. FOCUS ON LOUISE BROOKS gives an example of how hard it is to get an appreciation for Brooks' early acting career. Of the four films covered on this disc, none of them presently survive in a complete form....and Brooks is not the main star in any of them. Nevertheless, she still manages to have a striking onscreen charisma, even in these short clips. 

This Blu-ray has trailers and a few test shots (some in early color) from THE AMERICAN VENUS, in which Brooks got her first onscreen credit. About 20 minutes exist from NOW WE'RE IN THE AIR, a silly WWI comedy starring Wallace Beery and Raymond Hatton. The publicity stills that Brooks posed for (see the one used for the disc case above) are more familiar than anything in the actual movie. Brooks actually had a dual role as twins, but the footage that exists only shows her as one of the ladies. 

About thirty minutes exist of JUST ANOTHER BLONDE, a romantic comedy in which Brooks plays the second female lead to Dorothy Mackaill. 

The main feature on this disc is THE STREET OF FORGOTTEN MEN, a 1925 production which contains Louise Brooks' screen debut. This film exists almost in its entirety, except for the second reel, which has been recreated with stills and excerpts from a copy of the script. THE STREET OF FORGOTTEN MEN is a melodrama concerning a group of characters from the Bowery section of New York City in the early 1900s who pretend to be disabled and down and out so that they can make a living as professional beggars. The most successful of this group is a man called "Easy Money Charley" (Percy Marmont) who has a secret life in which he raises an orphan (Mary Brian) in the suburbs away from his underhanded activities. Charley's ward falls in love with an upper-class lawyer (Neil Hamilton), and the fake vagabond goes to great lengths to make sure her past and her association with him is not known. The movie has a major Lon Chaney/Tod Browning vibe to it, and it is well-directed by Herbert Brenon. 

Brooks has a very small part toward the end of THE STREET OF FORGOTTEN MEN--she plays the female companion of the story's heavy--but she still makes a big impression. Her freshness and modern looks make her appear to be a visitor from another planet when compared to the disreputable denizens who surround her in the very short time she is in front of the camera. 

FOCUS ON LOUISE BROOKS may not actually have much footage of Brooks, but it has plenty of extras to compensate. It comes with a 16-page illustrated booklet, with articles on the films covered on the disc by Brooks expert Thomas Gladysz, and notes on what it took to restore this footage by Robert Byrne. The booklet also has info on the two men who provided original music for the footage on the disc, Wayne Barker and Stephen Horne. For each collection of footage on this disc, extensive text notes appear that detail the restoration involved for it. 

The disc also has a featurette that runs about a half hour long called "Looking at Lulu", in which film historian Pamela Hutchinson gives a concise examination of Brooks's life and acting career. Hutchinson also provides a fine audio commentary for THE STREET OF FORGOTTEN MEN. 

Thomas Gladysz, Robert Byrne, and Kathy Rose O'Regan also do audio commentaries on the rest of the footage, and they detail Brooks' work on each film and the restoration process for each of them. There's also an extensive image gallery, and the disc sleeve is reversible. If one orders this disc direct from Flicker Alley, it comes in a special slipcase (see below). 

There really isn't all that much footage of Louise Brooks on this disc, but once again her image takes center stage throughout it. A lot of time and effort went into the restoration of the footage included here, and while it is not extensive, it's enough to show that Louise Brooks could project a notable screen presence with very little to do. Perhaps Flicker Alley has plans for more Louise Brooks-related product, since there are still a few of her films that still exist and have not had a major home video release.