MODEL FOR MURDER

 

MODEL FOR MURDER is a 1959 low-budget British film that reminds one of the many B pictures made by Hammer Films in the early 1950s. This movie features several performers associated with Hammer: Hazel Court (THE CURSE OF FRANKENSTEIN), and Michael Gough, George Benson, and Barbara Archer, who all appeared in HORROR OF DRACULA. 

MODEL FOR MURDER also has a somewhat dull American male lead in Keith Andes, a factor that was a constant in many low-budget British would-be noirs and crime stories in the 1950s. Andes plays David Martens, a merchant seaman who has come to England to clear up some issues involving his late brother. Andes becomes involved with Sally (Hazel Court), who happens to work in the design department at the same couture house that his brother's ex-girlfriend models for. The ex-girlfriend is killed during a jewel robbery at the modeling establishment, and Martens is framed for the crimes. Sally helps Martens to clear his name. 

The best aspect of MODEL FOR MURDER is its cast. The movie itself lasts about 70 minutes, and it's not all that thrilling. The viewer is shown what happens during the robbery/murder, which means the only suspenseful element is how Martens is going to get out of his predicament. It doesn't help that Keith Andes takes a very low-key approach. Instead of a man desperate to prove his innocence, he comes off as someone who is mildly annoyed by the situation. Why the appealing Hazel Court (who looks better than the models that she works alongside) immediately falls for Martens and does everything she can to help him is the real mystery. 

Michael Gough does what he can to enliven things, as he gives another of his slimy, sardonic portrayals as the man who runs the couture house. (Could you imagine a sitcom revolving around a modeling house with Gough as the unctuous owner??) Patricia Jessel (CITY OF THE DEAD) is a grande dame fashion designer who acts very suspicious, but winds up being just a red herring. 

Terry Bishop directed MODEL FOR MURDER. Bishop did a lot of TV work during the same period, and this film feels very much like an hour long episode of a series. (There's even some "cute" music on the soundtrack during what is supposed to be some lighthearted moments.) The entire movie has a very perfunctory feel to it, and it wastes a promising cast. If you want to know how a crime story set in a modeling house should really be presented, go check out Mario Bava's BLOOD AND BLACK LACE. 

Book Review: THE HAMMER HORROR OMNIBUS

 

The present-day Hammer Films company has been releasing a torrent of merchandise in the last few years, causing fans who actually work for a living (like myself) to pick and choose what goodies we should spend our money on. One of the more affordable items is THE HAMMER HORROR OMNIBUS. This is a paperback reprint of four novelizations of different Hammer movies, all originally published in 1966. 

The novelizations were written by John Burke, an English writer who specialized in the movie adaptation field. Film novelizations are extinct today, but before the advent of home video they were an important movie marketing commodity (I bought plenty of them in the 1980s). 

The four films adapted in this omnibus are THE GORGON, THE CURSE OF FRANKENSTEIN, THE REVENGE OF FRANKENSTEIN, and THE CURSE OF THE MUMMY'S TOMB. Each adaptation runs about 90 pages. 

The adaptations are for the most part fairly basic and straightforward. If you are a Hammer fanatic looking for alternate scenes and/or subplots left on the cutting room floor, you won't find them here. I'm sure Burke's job was to provide an accurate account of the features involved instead of filling in any story gaps or going off on any concepts of his own. Burke's writing style in this volume is brisk and to the point--it won't take an experienced reader long to finish this book. 

The standout items in this omnibus are the adaptations of THE CURSE OF FRANKENSTEIN and THE REVENGE OF FRANKENSTEIN. Each of them is a first-person narrative from Baron Frankenstein himself, and Burke perfectly captures the Baron's narcissism, snobbery, and self-assurance. You can't help but hear Peter Cushing's voice as Frankenstein while reading these adaptations, and it is a pity that the actor wasn't recorded doing a reading of them. 

The novelization of CURSE has a few subtle differences from the film. One is that the Baron actually looks forward to his marriage to Elizabeth (mainly due to the fact that he believes it will give him a better public persona), while in the movie Cushing barely tolerates her. Another is how the scene where the Baron and Paul Krempe go after the Creature in the woods is portrayed. In the film it is heavily hinted (but not shown) that the Creature kills an old man and his young grandchild. In the book the Baron and Krempe find the two would-be victims very much alive. (Was Burke trying to provide some sympathy toward the Creature this way?) The adaptations of CURSE and REVENGE are placed one right after the other in this omnibus, and the result is that one feels they are reading a mini-biography of the Baron, told from his perspective. 

THE HAMMER HORROR OMNIBUS contains a Forward by Stephen Gallagher, in which he discusses the career of John Burke and the attributes of movie novelizations in general. There is also an Afterword by Ramsey Campbell in which he examines aspects of the adaptations. This book is not illustrated, but it does contain fantastic cover art by Graham Humphreys (I'm surprised Hammer hasn't created a poster of it). 

I wouldn't say THE HAMMER HORROR OMNIBUS is a must-have, but it is a nice collectible for major Hammer fans. A follow-up volume is scheduled to come out in a few months, and one wonders if Hammer might decide to create a whole new line of novelizations for some of their films. 

ARIZONA COLT RETURNS

 

I assumed ARIZONA COLT RETURNS (1970) was one of those Euro Westerns which took advantage of a character's name from another Euro Western, but this movie does have a rough continuity with the original ARIZONA COLT. Ernesto Gastaldi, who was one of the writers of the original film, provides the story here, and actor Roberto Camardiel returns as Arizona's whiskey-swilling comic relief sidekick. (The movie also goes by a number of alternate titles, including the one on the European poster shown above.) 

The main difference between this Arizona Colt movie and the first one is how the title role is portrayed. The original Arizona Colt was played by Giuliano Gemma, a fresh-faced charismatic actor who had a sense of crafty humor about him. ARIZONA COLT RETURNS has Euro Western veteran Anthony Steffen as the main character, and his bounty hunter is scruffy, beady-eyed, and poker faced. 

Steffen is so taciturn and emotionless that one gets the feeling he's poking fun at the typical Spaghetti Western protagonist. In fact, the first part of ARIZONA COLT RETURNS feels like a spoof, with some goofy hi-jinks and a very lighthearted score by Bruno Nicolai. As the story heads toward the end, things become darker and more brutal. 

The main plot concerns Arizona's battle against a fearsome bandit (Aldo Sambrell) who has attacked the spread of a wealthy rancher, while also stealing his gold and kidnapping his daughter (Rosalba Neri). Arizona is hired to bring back the gold and the girl, and he and what few friends his has are made to suffer for it. 

Aldo Sambrell (another Spaghetti Western veteran) and the exquisite Rosalba Neri wind up being more interesting than Anthony Steffen, who looks and acts more like a villain than a hero. Sambrell appeared in dozens of Euro Westerns, and his part here happens to be one of his best in this genre. Neri doesn't get nearly enough screen time in the small but crucial role as the rancher's daughter. 

ARIZONA COLT RETURNS was directed by Sergio Martino, who is best known now for being a Giallo stalwart. As one would expect, the darker parts of this film flow much better. There's nothing all that extraordinary about ARIZONA COLT RETURNS, except perhaps how it goes from an almost Trinity vibe to a story where no characters are safe. I watched this on Tubi, which presented it in a very nice-looking widescreen print, and an English-dubbed dialogue track that could have used more vitality. 

JUST PLAY DEAD

 

JUST PLAY DEAD is a brand new movie, which I rented on demand. It's not playing in any theaters in my area, and after watching it I doubt it is going to have any sort of theatrical future at all. 

The movie concerns con artist Jack Wolfe (Samuel L. Jackson), who is living in luxury on the Caribbean island of San Miguel. Wolfe finds out he is going to be indicted for fraud, so he comes up with an idea to fake his death and collect on a $30 million dollar insurance policy. He tries to entice his wife Nora (Eva Green) into the plot, but she has plenty of reasons of her own to have Jack killed for real, and she's also juggling two lovers who might be enticed to help her: a cop (Eoin Macken) and a dopey boy toy (Jason Fernandez). 

JUST PLAY DEAD has a style that I would call "pseudo-Tarantino", which is probably the main reason Samuel L. Jackson was cast. All the characters try to act as cool and self-assured as possible, there's plenty of long dialogue exchanges in which every other line features a certain four-letter word, and there are flashbacks and flash-forwards. Director Martin Campbell (who is a long way from his THE MASK OF ZORRO and CASINO ROYALE days) tries to make things as edgy as possible, at least from a 21st Century perspective. Nora's boy toy beach bum is constantly stoned, and she and Jack are either always smoking cigarettes or drinking copious amounts of liquor. All the bad-ass posturing gets tiresome after awhile--all the characters are backstabbing each other or screwing one another (literally and figuratively). Due to the overall cynical nature of the film, the viewer really doesn't care what happens to anyone. 

The movie was filmed in the Canary Islands, and it at least looks attractive, as does Eva Green. Eva is once again playing a scheming femme fatale, and she proves here that she's still far more alluring and seductive than just about all the actresses half her age. Samuel L. Jackson does what is expected of him, but it's still entertaining to listen to him recite dialogue in his special way. 

One good thing about JUST PLAY DEAD is that it's only about 90 minutes long, but other than Samuel L. Jackson and Eva Green, it doesn't have many more positive attributes. 

SANGSTER DIRECTS HAMMER On 4K/Blu-ray From Severin

 

In my last post, a tribute to LITTLE SHOPPE OF HORRORS magazine, I mentioned that the Hammer Films brand may be stronger than ever. One prime example of that is this mammoth box set from Severin. It contains three Hammer movies--all directed by Jimmy Sangster--but it's the supplemental materials that make this set stand out. 

The set contains 7 total discs--3 UHD and 4 Blu-ray. There are 18 hours of special features spread out over the discs, and this set also contains a 312 page (!!!) book containing all sorts of articles on Hammer and English Gothic cinema. 

The films in this set are THE HORROR OF FRANKENSTEIN, LUST FOR A VAMPIRE, and FEAR IN THE NIGHT. All of these productions have been released on home video numerous times, and I wouldn't call any of them among Hammer's best (but I would put LUST FOR A VAMPIRE among Hammer's worst). The first chapter of the 312 page book has Severin's David Gregory even explaining why his company put out this set in the first place. Are these three films worthy of reappraisal? They haven't exactly been in hiding (I think you can even watch some of them for free on the Tubi streaming channel). It appears that Severin got a chance to put together a Hammer set with these three features, and they figured they better make it stand out....and it certainly does. 

Each of the three movies gets a UHD and Blu-ray disc, and each get plenty of extras, along with new audio commentaries. I've had this set for a couple months now, and I'm nowhere near watching or listening to everything on it.....but I'd much rather have a release that has too much stuff on it (if there is a sort of thing) instead of not enough. 

I'm not going to list all the extras in their entirety (you can go on the Severin website to find that) but I will list some of the highlights. There are new interviews with performers such as Judy Matheson, Christopher Neame, and Kirsten Lindholm, and archival talks with Veronica Carlson, Yutte Stensgaard, and David Prowse. There are special programs detailing the life and careers of Jimmy Sangster and Ralph Bates, along with a featurette on the horror film career of Joan Collins. There are also discussions on Mary Shelley, J. Sheridan Le Fanu, the Frankenstein myth, and lesbian vampire movies. 

Now we have to get to the book, which has chapters on Kate O'Mara, Ralph Bates, Mike Raven, David Prowse's performances as the Frankenstein Monster, and Hammer's production history during the early 1970s. The cover of the book has the famous (or some would say infamous) image of Yutte Stensgaard's blood-spattered Carmilla rising from her tomb, an image that pops up all over this set, as well it should. 

The accumulated extras are not just a bunch of random fluff--they are interesting and intriguing, and pure catnip for major Hammer fans. One could say that the extras on this set are more important than the films themselves. 

Speaking of the films, it must be pointed out that this is technically a Jimmy Sangster set. The program on his life and career makes the case that Sangster--whose main work in film was that as a writer--was an important player in classic English Gothic cinema. I agree with his importance to the genre--but I don't feel he was a great writer. I believe that Sangster was good at plot construction and good at coming up with ideas, and he certainly knew how to take famous tales and transform them into Hammer product. The extras on this set point out that Sangster did a lot of work on American television in the 1970s and 80s. That might surprise some, but his knack for quickly coming up with ideas and writing for a certain budget made him perfect for that era of TV. Sangster wasn't the best director in the world--an opinion he would have agreed with--but considering what he had to work and deal with, he did the best he could. I think Sangster's best work as a screenwriter was on the series of so-called "mini-Hitchcock" suspense stories he created for Hammer, and FEAR IN THE NIGHT, included in this set, is an example. 

I'm sure most Hammer fans already own the three films in this set, but Severin has provided so many exemplary extras that it is a must for English Gothic lovers. Severin knew they had to come up with something extraordinary to stand up to all the high-end sets Hammer themselves have been recently putting out, and you can't deny that they truly did so. 

An Ode To LITTLE SHOPPE OF HORRORS

 

The final issue of LITTLE SHOPPE OF HORRORS, "The Journal of Classic British Horror Films", is now available. Issue #53 marks the end of a publication that for decades has provided fans of Hammer Films and English Gothic cinema with pages and pages of insight and information on numerous genre movies and the people that were involved in making them. 

I first started buying LSOH in the mid-1990s (my first issue was #12). I've gotten every issue since. Not only has it been one of my favorite film magazines, I've wound up having a personal connection to it. 

I wrote an article on the making of Joshua Kennedy's Hammer-influenced HOUSE OF THE GORGON in issue #41, and I also provided a memorial tribute to my dear friend Veronica Carlson in issue #48. I've become friends with LSOH creator/editor Richard Klemensen, and I've also met and befriended talented LSOH contributors Mark Maddox, Neil Vokes, and Sam Irvin. LSOH writers John Hamilton and Bruce Hallenbeck are Facebook friends of mine. (By the way, my buddy Josh Kennedy also wrote the cover article of LSOH #47, concerning his favorite movie of all time, THE GORGON.) 

So yes, I'm a bit biased when it comes to the subject of LSOH. But even if I hadn't contributed anything to the magazine, or never even met anyone associated with it, I still would have been a dedicated reader. If you profess to be a fan of Hammer Films, you have to have read at least a few issues of LSOH. It has become an unofficial "official" guide and historical resource for everything and anything connected to and created by Hammer. 

LSOH has often been referred to as a "fanzine", since it is an independent publication that doesn't get shelf space at mainstream outlets, but I feel that description is undeserving. The word "fanzine" seems to bring to mind the idea of something amateurish, or below average. During its long history I've found LSOH to be far above average when it comes to genre films publications. Each issue is filled with insightful and informative articles and plenty of Hammer-related artwork from all sorts of talented individuals. Richard Klemensen (who I call Mr. K) has always steered the magazine on a steady course between Monster Kid goofiness and highbrow film theory. You don't have to be an Arts Major to enjoy LSOH, or even the greatest Hammer fan in the world. LSOH is a celebration of the movies of Hammer and its English Gothic cousins, but it also doesn't shy away from the fact that some of these films are not the best productions of all time. (I think the fact that Mr. K is from the American Midwest and that he actually worked for a living has a lot to do with LSOH's overall outlook). 

It goes without saying that LSOH has played an important role in how the films of Hammer have been looked upon and appreciated, but it needs to be pointed out that LSOH deserves a place in cinema history overall. Several people who worked in front of and behind the camera on various genre features have been interviewed in the pages of LSOH, and for most of them it was their only properly documented discussion. The thoughts, opinions and feelings of dozens of artists who worked in the movie industry only exist due to LSOH, and that fact alone makes the magazine worthy of high praise. 

Issue #53 may be the swan song of LSOH, but the magazine isn't taking a leisurely victory lap. #53 is a 162-page spectacular, and it fittingly features Peter Cushing on the cover (see above). It contains in-depth articles on THE ABOMINABLE SNOWMAN, THE GAMMA PEOPLE, and THE HORROR OF FRANKENSTEIN, and there are also archival interviews with Cushing, Christopher Lee, Roy Skeggs, and Anthony Hinds. There's also an eight-page color section showcasing fantastic artwork from some long-time LSOH contributors. 

I've seen a lot of horror & science fiction movie magazines come and go in my lifetime. Most of them faded away, some of them morphed into something totally different, and some others just simply limped along. LSOH is going out on its own terms, and it has never failed to be fresh, vital, and enjoyable for English Gothic cinema fans. I'm proud to have been a very small part of it, and I'm happy to know that back issues of LSOH will be available on the magazine's website. One could say that the Hammer brand name is bigger than ever, especially when one takes into account all the special edition home video sets and books dedicated to the company's product that have been released recently. Richard Klemensen and LITTLE SHOPPE OF HORRORS has had a major impact on the history of the classic Gothic horror film and on pop culture overall. 

HURRICANE ISLAND

 

HURRICANE ISLAND is about the most perfect example of a B movie that there is. It was produced (Sam Katzman) and directed (Lew Landers) by veterans of the form, it lasts only around 70 minutes, and it provides decent low-budget entertainment. 

This movie was shown recently on TCM as part of the cable channel's "Summer Under The Stars" day featuring the redoubtable Marie Windsor. She's the main reason to watch this pirate tale, which is set in the early 16th Century and deals with Spanish explorer Ponce de Leon's attempt to find the fabled Fountain of Youth in Florida. 

Windsor plays the striking and vivacious Jane Bolton, who leads her own pirate crew based in Cuba. (In her very first appearance, she is referred to as a "noisy wench".) Jane finds out about Ponce de Leon's expedition to Florida, and, assuming there will be gold found, joins up by infiltrating a group of women who are going along to become wives to those who will settle in the new land. 

Jane's ruse is soon discovered by Captain Carlos (Jon Hall), the second-in-command to de Leon (Edgar Barrier). Jane's crew follows along, and they and a tribe of natives cause plenty of trouble for the Spanish expedition. 

Sadly, Marie Windsor isn't used to her full advantage in HURRICANE ISLAND. Her character is so intriguing that she deserved her own movie, but in the later part of the story Jane Bolton gets very little to do. Windsor has far more screen presence than Jon Hall, a minor league Errol Flynn who for some reason got to play the lead in all sorts of period adventures. Windsor's Jane even falls for Hall by the end, an improbable turn of events that robs the viewer of the chance to see Marie heft a sword and engage in some daring-do of her own. The only standout in the supporting cast is long-time bad guy Marc Lawrence as Jane's treacherous pirate companion. 

Needless to say, historical accuracy wasn't much of a concern to those who were involved in HURRICANE ISLAND. No one acts as if they are Spanish, or even as if they come from the 16th Century, and the native tribe appears to be a mixture of Apaches and Polynesians. The climax is notable for the fact that it brings in a supernatural element. Not only does this element give a reason for the film's title, it also provides a twist that will be recognizable to any one who has seen any movie versions of H. Rider Haggard's SHE. 

HURRICANE ISLAND was filmed in a process known as "Supercinecolor", and the mediocre print shown by TCM didn't do it any favors. Marie Windsor still looked great, and it's too bad that the movie's budget and plot didn't do the actress justice. 

THE FORGOTTEN PISTOLERO

 

THE FORGOTTEN PISTOLERO is a 1969 Euro Western based on the ancient Greek tale of Orestes, a story concerning revenge and family betrayal. The movie's original title is IL PISTOLERO DELL'AVE MARIA, or GUNMEN OF AVA MARIA. 

This is a Spaghetti Western that is more concerned with the emotional dynamics between the main characters than violence or gunplay. It has a slower pace than most examples of the genre, and there are no quirky eccentric types to provide any comic relief. 

The story revolves around the murder of a well-to-do Mexican General named Carrasco. After returning home from fighting the French in the 1860s, the General is killed by his younger wife Anna (Luciana Paluzzi) and her lover Tomas (Alberto de Mendoza). Years later the General's son Sebastian (Leonard Mann) teams up with his boyhood friend Rafael (Peter Martell) to get revenge. Rafael has his own personal reasons for going after Carrasco's widow and Tomas--they have denied him the love of Sebastian's sister (Pilar Velazquez). 

A dark, brooding air hangs over THE FORGOTTEN PISTOLERO. Director Ferdinando Baldi made many other Italian Westerns and action-adventures that were far wilder and more rambunctious, but here he sticks to a mood of tragedy and regret. Leonard Mann and Peter Martell make effective, if dour, protagonists, but they resemble each other so much that at times it's hard to tell which one is which. 

The performance that really gets your attention in this film is that of Luciana Paluzzi as Anna. Paluzzi is best known for playing the feisty Fiona Volpe in THUNDERBALL, so one would assume that Anna is nothing more than a seductive, scheming femme fatale. She is that to an extent, but the script and Paluzzi give Anna some complexity--this is a woman who is haunted by what she has done, and she is well aware of how many other people she has hurt due to her actions. 

Perhaps the most notable aspect of THE FORGOTTEN PISTOLERO is its music score by Roberto Pregadio. Even if you have never heard of this movie, you've probably heard its main theme before, even without realizing it. The score is considered one of the best examples of Euro Western music (at least the best example of a score that wasn't composed by Ennio Morricone). Pregadio's theme has been used in various other movies, TV shows, documentaries, etc. It's a score that could be attached to every other Spaghetti Western ever made and still work. 

Tubi has an excellent-looking widescreen version of THE FORGOTTEN PISTOLERO with an English voice track, and it appears to be uncut as well. If you are looking for violent cheesy fun, this isn't the movie for you, but if you are interested in a Euro Western that takes a somewhat different tack, THE FORGOTTEN PISTOLERO is well worth your time. 

THE TALK OF THE TOWN

 

I recently purchased this movie on DVD at a discounted price (what did you expect??) I had seen THE TALK OF THE TOWN multiple times before, but it had never caught my fancy, despite the fact that it stars two of my favorites, Cary Grant and Jean Arthur. The film was produced and directed by George Stevens, and it wound up getting nominated for seven different Academy Awards (including Best Picture), but for me it is an uneasy mixture of screwball comedy and social drama. 

Jean Arthur plays Nora Shelley, a schoolteacher renting out her old family home during the summer to a distinguished Harvard law professor named Michael Lightcap (Ronald Colman). One night while Nora is getting the house ready for Lightcap's arrival, her childhood acquaintance Leopold Dilg (Cary Grant) shows up, looking for sanctuary. Dilg has escaped from jail, where he was awaiting trial on charges of murder & arson. The professor also shows up, a day early, and Nora has to hide Leopold while keeping the suspicious Lightcap happy. Leopold reveals himself, posing as a gardener, and he and Lightcap become friends, despite their very different opinions on the application of the law--the professor believes the law should be followed to the letter, while Leopold thinks a flexible human element should be injected into it. Both men are also attracted to Nora, while she's also attracted to them. Nora tries to figure out a way to get Lightcap to help Dilg prove his innocence while keeping the latter from being captured. 

Needless to say, the plot of THE TALK OF THE TOWN is rather convoluted. The story veers from romantic-triangle farce to discussions about law and its effect on the individual. There's also a political aspect to it--the movie takes place in a fictional town called Lochester, which happens to be corrupt. Dilg is accused of burning down the factory owned by the town big-wig, and it's highly likely that Leopold will be lynched if he is caught again. 

With all the various elements of the plot, the movie (and George Stevens) never figures out which tone to take. It appears that Stevens was trying to go down the Frank Capra route, but he isn't able to pull it off, despite all the award accolades the movie received. 

One big issue is that in my opinion Cary Grant is miscast as Leopold Dilg. It is established in the story that Dilg is the town malcontent, a guy always getting into trouble--and one just can't see Grant as that type of person. The very name "Leopold Dilg" suggests someone who has a working-class immigrant background, and that is decidedly not Cary Grant's screen persona. Someone like John Garfield would have been much better as a desperate wanted man with a chip on his shoulder. 

Another issue is that while Dilg and Professor Lightcap are set up as opposites, they wind up becoming fond of each other, almost as fond as each of them are to Nora. Predictably both men even come around to the other's point of view about the law. If the men really had been major romantic and intellectual rivals, the movie would have had more of an edge to it, and it would have been more interesting. (The dramatics over Dilg's plight are tempered by the fact that you just know Cary Grant isn't a murderer and an arsonist.) 

Jean Arthur's poor Nora is stuck in between both men and all the plot complications, and she spends the whole movie in a state of exasperated panic. Arthur is great in this type of role, but you never get the feeling that she's all that enamored of either Dilg or the professor--she worries about them simply because she's the main female lead, and that's what she's supposed to do. 

Among the supporting cast in THE TALK OF THE TOWN: Edgar Buchanan, Glenda Farrell, Tom Tyler, Rex Ingram, and a very small appearance by a young Lloyd Bridges. It's the three main stars that get all the attention, and there are plenty of talky scenes involving the trio that feel like they come from a stage play. 

Cary Grant and Jean Arthur are always worth watching, and Ronald Colman is quite good as the bemused upper-class fellow trying to do the proper thing, but THE TALK OF THE TOWN never seems to come together properly. It is a production that tries hard to be important instead of natural and entertaining. 

DESTINATION MOON On Blu-ray From Film Masters

 

Film Masters continues its series of home video releases of neglected classic genre films with a sparkling Blu-ray of George Pal's 1950 space exploration saga DESTINATION MOON. This release also comes with a bonus disc featuring the 1951 sci-fi adventure FLIGHT TO MARS, a movie about as different from DESTINATION MOON as you can get. (I will be covering FLIGHT TO MARS in a future blog post.) 

DESTINATION MOON was meant to be a serious and earnest attempt to dramatize a realistic trip to the moon, based upon what was known at the time. I'm sure that for many viewers today DESTINATION MOON comes off as quaint and old-fashioned, but one can't deny the honesty and integrity that producer Pal, artist Chesley Bonestell, and writer Robert A. Heinlein applied to the project. 

What needs to be realized is how far-sighted DESTINATION MOON actually was. The main plot details how a group of industrialists and businessmen band together to plan and implement a trip to the moon, despite the fact that the American government--and shadowy forces--are not too keen on the endeavor. That plot description has a very 21st Century feel to it. There are some elements of DESTINATION MOON that seem creaky--Dick Wesson's wisecracking "regular guy" crew member in particular--but the overall production holds up very well if one places it in the proper context. 

What's most important is how great DESTINATION MOON looks on this Blu-ray. The transfer was taken from a new 4K scan of 35mm elements, and it is colorful and clear, bringing out all sorts of detail. The sound quality is excellent as well. 

As usual, Film Masters provides plenty of nice extras. This release comes with an illustrated 15-page booklet that has an essay on the film's production history by Sloan De Forest. The disc has a 23 minute featurette which also details the movie's background and history, along with a gallery of pictures from the film's pressbook. There's also a 40 minute audio reading of an article written by Bob Burns detailing how he actually visited the set of DESTINATION MOON, and his long friendship with George Pal. This extra is presented by Tom Weaver, and it is set up to run along with the last half of the movie. An original restored trailer for the film is also included. 

The main extra is a new audio commentary by George Pal biographer Justin Humphreys. It is an excellent talk that is well-paced, insightful, and informative. Humphreys provides the listener with everything they need to know about DESTINATION MOON, and he rightfully goes out of his way to explain why the movie is one of the most important American genre films ever made. 

For some reason DESTINATION MOON very rarely gets shown on TV anymore, so hopefully this magnificent release gives the film some much-needed attention. A 75 year old movie about a trip to the moon may seem totally outdated to most, but it had a major impact on the cinematic science fiction boom of the 1950s, even though most of its brethren were not in any way as well crafted or as well thought out. Film Masters has been coming out with some impressive products recently, and this Blu-ray of DESTINATION MOON is one of their best releases yet. 

THE DEATH KISS

 

A few weeks ago I took advantage of Kino's summer sale to purchase a few items. One of the Blu-rays I picked up was THE DEATH KISS, a 1932 murder mystery that has become a public domain staple. 

THE DEATH KISS has had a multitude of home video releases over the years, mainly due to the fact that it features three performers from Universal's 1931 DRACULA: Bela Lugosi, David Manners, and Edward Van Sloan. Despite this, THE DEATH KISS is not a horror film--its main novelty comes from the story being set in a minor Hollywood studio. 

The movie starts out with a very clever double twist. We see a well-dressed man exiting what appears to be a nightclub, and a sultry woman proceeds to walk up to him and give him a kiss. The man is then gunned down in a very early cinematic example of a drive-by shooting. It is revealed, however, that this is a scene being staged for a film....and then it is revealed that the actor really was shot and killed. 

This sequence is the best thing in the movie, and it also provides the reason for the title (the man in the scene was given "the death kiss"). The murdered actor is Myles Brent, who despite being the leading man of Tonart Studios has a very bad reputation. Screenwriter Franklyn Drew (David Manners) takes it upon himself to investigate the crime, even though he's hampered by a sarcastic police inspector (John Wray) and the studio manager (Bela Lugosi). 

THE DEATH KISS is what I would call a nifty little feature. There's nothing outstanding about it, but it does provide 70 minutes of decent entertainment, especially if you are an old movie geek. Seeing the behind the camera aspects of a 1930s production company is one major highlight (the story was shot at the Tiffany Studios). There's also the bonus of seeing David Manners, Lugosi, and Edward Van Sloan playing different types of characters. I've always found David Manners to be lightweight and annoying, but he comes off more personable in this picture, even though I have to agree with the police inspector that the screenwriter is a bit of a noisy pain in the neck. Edward Van Sloan plays film director Tom Avery. Usually in a movie that is about movies, directors are portrayed as cartoonish dictatorial types, but Van Sloan's Avery is shown as someone who is trying to get a job done (in more ways than one). The only major female role, that of Tonart Studios' main leading lady, is played by Adrienne Ames, whose character appears to have some sort of involvement with every man in the story. 

Bela Lugosi fans have always been disappointed in THE DEATH KISS, for he really doesn't get all that much to do in it. Bela is once again a red herring, but this time he doesn't even act all that suspicious. At least in this film Lugosi got to play a "normal" role, and he looks quite sharp wearing early 1930s-era suits. A number of misleading publicity stills (see below) were taken for this movie in which it appears that Bela is some sort of diabolical menace, which he assuredly is not. 

The mystery aspects of THE DEATH KISS are quite good, and the methods of murder are quite inventive. The movie can't be called an all-out thriller due to its excess of comedic scenes. There's a dopey studio cop (Vincent Barnett) who gets way too much screen time, and there's also the studio president (Alexander Carr) who constantly mangles the English language, and a prissy production assistant. The movie is enlivened with some brief color hand-tinting, which was restored for this Kino Blu-ray. The hand tinting is striking, but there's very little of it. 

THE DEATH KISS was the directorial debut of Edwin L. Marin, who went on to become a solid Hollywood filmmaker. Like most early 1930s pictures, the story zips along, and it's fun to see a studio from the inside, so to speak. (This movie continues a cliche that I've seen over and over again--whenever a film or TV show is set on a studio lot, we always see cowboys and chorus girls wandering around in the background. The next time you watch a show or movie with studio scenes, look out for this--you could play a drinking game with this cliche.) 

I wouldn't call this Kino Blu-ray of THE DEATH KISS a brilliant restoration, but it is better looking than the usual versions one sees of this film. If you can get over the fact that Bela Lugosi doesn't have anything major to do in it, you'll find that THE DEATH KISS is a nice example of entertaining low-budget 1930s movie making. 

Bela Lugosi and Adrienne Ames in a very misleading publicity still for THE DEATH KISS 

HORROR OF DRACULA On 35mm!

 

Last night I had the rare opportunity to see a 35mm Technicolor print of HORROR OF DRACULA in Chicago at the Gene Siskel Film Center. The showing was part of the Chicago Film Society's "Technicolor Weekend" series, in which a number of classic features were shown in their original color prints--a unusual treat in today's digital age. 

A lady from the Chicago Film Society gave an introduction before the showing, and she explained that this print of HORROR OF DRACULA came from a private collector, who couldn't remember where it came from. It was the real deal--it opened with the Universal-International logo, and it was the full version of the movie, or at least the full American version of the film. 

The print had not been restored or remastered in any way--it had some scratches on it, and there were times when the focus wavered a bit, and it had some wear--but it was a glorious experience to see one of my favorite movies shown in this manner. 

One thing I noticed in particular was how deep and vivid the colors were. if you've seen HORROR OF DRACULA you know that the main titles are in red--and this was a very rich red. The settings and the costumes came off magnificently. The sound was very clear and direct--James Bernard's fabulous punctuation of a score came out wonderfully. 

Once again, this wasn't the version that the present-day Hammer is preparing to put out on home video soon. This was the 1958 HORROR OF DRACULA, shown to American audiences....and I can assure you, there was absolutely no blue tint!!!!

Now....I have to cover the audience reaction, which was notable, to say the least. 

First of all, the seating accommodation in the theater in which it was shown wasn't large, but nearly every seat was filled. I assumed there might be plenty of other Hammer fans in the audience....but as the movie was rolling along, there were plenty of snickers and laughs. There were even some laughs during the climax!

I certainly didn't expect people to worship this film, but some in the theater were laughing at it most of the time. I thought maybe a big-city audience made up of cineastes would put HORROR OF DRACULA in the proper context, but maybe I was expecting too much. (Michael Gough's performance as Arthur Holmwood really got blasted--the audience laughed at nearly everything he said and did.) 

And to top it off, I wore my Peter Cushing shirt to the event.....and no one acknowledged it. Maybe it was because I was also wearing a White Sox hat, or maybe I'm just weird to begin with--heck, I don't know. 

Even though the audience didn't react the way I thought it should, I don't regret driving all the way out to Chicago and dealing with tolls and bad traffic--when are you going to be able to see a Peter Cushing-Christopher Lee film in original 35mm Technicolor? Seeing HORROR OF DRACULA on the big screen in an actual theater was truly tremendous. 

THE MAN UPSTAIRS

 

The final film that I will be covering in Kino's BRIT NOIR COLLECTION III Blu-ray set is THE MAN UPSTAIRS, a 1958 film released by British Lion. 

The entire story of THE MAN UPSTAIRS takes place in a dingy apartment building. The man of the title is played by Richard Attenborough, who one cold night goes out of his way to annoy nearly everyone else in the building he is staying at, causing one of the tenants to call the police. When the police arrive, the situation takes a turn for the worse. The mysterious man (who goes by the name of Wilson) barricades himself in his upstairs room, while various authorities and the other tenants debate how to deal with him.

One would expect THE MAN UPSTAIRS to be all about Attenborough's character and his problems, but he doesn't have as much screen time as one would think. Much of the story is devoted to how numerous officials react to the situation, and how the other tenants feel about Wilson in the context of their own lives. The other tenants are a bickering lot, and they become so annoying that one wonders if they are the ones who have driven Attenborough over the brink. 

The movie tries hard to create sympathy for Attenborough's character and his plight, but it doesn't give the viewer much to go on. Attenborough is edgy, nervy, and temperamental, and eventually we learn he was somehow involved in some sort of accident which caused the death of his fiancee's brother, but this incident isn't established enough. The result is that while watching this movie I kept thinking "Is someone finally going to go up there and deal with this guy??" (I kept expecting a flashback explaining what set off Attenborough, or at least one showing what his character was like when he was "normal", but it never comes.) 

The supporting cast does what they can with some very one-note roles. Bernard Lee is a tough police inspector who just wants to go up and end the situation once and for all (and I can't say I blame him), while Donald Houston is a welfare officer who bends over backward to try and help Attenborough. Patricia Jessel (from CITY OF THE DEAD) is the building's brash landlady, while Kenneth Griffith is a milquetoast tenant and a young Edward Judd plays a constable. 

THE MAN UPSTAIRS was directed by Don Chaffey, who is best known now for helming such colorful fantasy adventures as JASON AND THE ARGONAUTS and ONE MILLION YEARS B.C. Those movies are about as far away from THE MAN UPSTAIRS as you can get. THE MAN UPSTAIRS is in black & white, very talky, and very claustrophobic. Chaffey and cinematographer Gerald Gibbs do throw in a few unusual shots here and there, and the pace does go up a bit as the story goes along....but just when it seems things are coming to a boil we get another sequence where various people stand around and debate what to do. THE MAN UPSTAIRS might have been better if the focus was squarely on Attenborough and the viewer had more info and insight into his character. 

As in the other BRIT NOIR COLLECTION sets, the visual and audio quality in the third one is excellent. Once again new audio commentaries are provided for each film. In my opinion PAYROLL is the best movie in the third set......and yes, Kino has a BRIT NOIR COLLECTION IV set coming soon. 

If Hammer Films Had Made THE ODYSSEY

 

I know what you are thinking....."Hammer Films would have never had enough money to make a version of THE ODYSSEY!!!" Your thoughts are correct--they would have never even attempted such an epic and highbrow concept. 

But let's say that Hammer's 1965 version of SHE became a huge mainstream success, and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, their partner in that production, decided that they wanted to use the British company to make even more ancient spectacles. So....MGM gives Hammer more money than they are used to working with, and they suggest an adaptation of Homer's classic tale. 

Let's imagine that the movie starts out with Peter Cushing as Homer, telling the story to a rapt audience. The film then fades into the main action, with Cushing's voice periodically narrating parts of the story and filling in gaps (such as describing scenes that Hammer didn't have the money or the wherewithal to shoot). 

The cast & crew of this non-existent spectacular is listed below. I know one thing--no matter how it would have turned out, it wouldn't have taken more than three hours of your time to watch it! 

MGM and Hammer Films Presents THE ODYSSEY 

Starring 

Stanley Baker as Odysseus

Oliver Reed as Telemachus

Barbara Shelley as Penelope

Ursula Andress as Helen of Troy

Christopher Lee as Agamemnon

Michael Gough as Antinous 

Michael Ripper as Eumaeus

Martine Beswicke as Athena

Hazel Court as Calypso

Francis Matthews as Menelaus

Andrew Keir as Eurylochus 

Milton Reid as the Cyclops

Richard Pasco, Patrick Troughton, Duncan Lamont, Marne Maitland and George Pastell as members of Odysseus' crew

With special guest star Barbara Steele as Circe and Peter Cushing as Homer 

Special Effects by Ray Harryhausen 

Music by Bernard Herrmann

Screenplay by Richard Matheson 

Produced by Michael Carreras and Anthony Nelson Keys

Directed by Don Chaffey 

THE ODYSSEY

 

I realize that this movie is the major trending topic right now, but personally I wasn't impressed with it. Christopher Nolan's adaptation of Homer's ancient epic is a lumbering, dreary affair that has a murky, overcast look to it. 

Nolan tries to make the story "realistic", which results in a lot of awkward dialogue and awkward performances. None of the main actors seem comfortable with what they are doing--things might have worked better if Nolan used a cast of unknowns, but if he did he wouldn't have gotten the clickbait he received from the trendy people he did use. 

There's a lot of flashbacks and flash-forwards in THE ODYSSEY, which is a Nolan staple, but here it just seems to drag things out more. As with all of Nolan's work, there's a remoteness and coldness here that prevents a viewer from being all that engaged with what is going on. 

Plenty of folks are absolutely gushing over this film, so what do I know? For whatever reason, I just wasn't able to get into it. If someone had given Mario Bava about $200,000, a cast of European cult actors, and about 90 minutes of screen time, and told him to do a version of THE ODYSSEY, he no doubt would have a much more entertaining--and much more interesting--film. 

THE MAVERICK QUEEN On Blu-ray From Kino

 

This is a 1956 Republic Western that I had never seen, despite the fact that it stars one of my favorites, Barbara Stanwyck. 

Stanwyck plays the title role, a hard-edged woman named Kit Banion. Kit has managed to make herself a bigwig in the Wyoming town she resides in, mostly due to her association with Butch Cassidy (Howard Petrie) and the Sundance Kid (Scott Brady). A drifter named Jeff (Barry Sullivan) rides into town, convincing Kit he's one of the Younger gang....but he's actually an undercover Pinkerton agent who is trying to infiltrate the Wild Bunch. Kit starts to fall for Jeff, but he has an interest in local cattle rancher Lucy (Mary Murphy). 

THE MAVERICK QUEEN was based on a Zane Grey novel, but its most notable quality is that it was shot on some spectacular locations in Colorado. There's some stunning scenery here, all rendered in a widescreen process that Republic called "Naturama" and a technique the studio referred to as "Trucolor". Director Joe Kane makes great use of the outdoor locations, and the result is one of the best looking Westerns of the 1950s. 

The story is rather predictable--Stanwyck had already played a number of roles just like Kit, and there isn't much surprise in how the ending comes out (especially considering that Mary Murphy, who gets as much screen time as Stanwyck, is the "Good Girl" equivalent to Kit). The main notable aspect of the plot is that it involves Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid, over a decade before their famous big-screen portrayals by Paul Newman and Robert Redford. Here Butch and Sundance are about as far away from Newman and Redford as you can get. Howard Petrie and Scott Brady are scruffy, ornery, and violent....and in this movie they are most assuredly not good buddies. 

Like most Westerns of the 1950s, THE MAVERICK QUEEN has plenty of recognizable actors, such as Jim Davis, Wallace Ford, and John Doucette. Mary Murphy is very good as the spunky Lucy, and of course it's a treat to watch Barbara Stanwyck in anything. Barry Sullivan may not be most people's choice as a formidable Western hero, but he and Stanwyck work well together (the two would reunite in Sam Fuller's FORTY GUNS). Being that this is a Republic film, the stunt work is as excellent as expected. 

Kino's presentation of THE MAVERICK QUEEN on this Blu-ray is simply astounding. The movie is shown in the 2.35;1 aspect ratio, and the colorful transfer looks gorgeous. Other than some trailers for some similar films, the only extra is a new audio commentary by Dwayne Epstein, a somewhat ragged talk in which he spends most of the time reciting personal details about many of those involved in the production. 

THE MAVERICK QUEEN isn't what I would call a game-changing Western, but it is an entertaining one, and it is one of the best-looking 1950s movies I've seen on Blu-ray. 

NOWHERE TO GO

 

It's back to Kino's BRIT NOIR COLLECTION III Blu-ray set, with NOWHERE TO GO, a 1958 Man-On-The-Run story from Ealing Studios. 

The movie opens with an impressive sequence detailing a man breaking into a prison to break another man out. The escapee is Paul Gregory (George Nader) a Canadian who conned an older woman out of her rare coin collection. Gregory sold the coins, then put the money in a safe deposit box, while allowing the law to put him away. Gregory's overall goal is to get out of prison, get the money, and get out of England--but of course, things don't go as planned, as the felon gets himself into more and more trouble. 

NOWHERE TO GO reminded me of the 1950s low budget crime stories made by Hammer Films, mainly due to the fact that it has an underwhelming American-born leading man trying to get out of a desperate situation. The director of NOWHERE TO GO, Seth Holt, would even go on to work for Hammer a number of times. This was Holt's feature film directorial debut (he had mostly worked as an editor), and he brings plenty of style and panache to a very simple tale. Holt probably felt he had to do this, because George Nader shows no charisma, or even likability, as Gregory. If the story had Gregory set up for the crime, or a victim of mitigating circumstances, the viewer might have had more sympathy for his plight, but he's a criminal through and through, and he doesn't seem a very bright one at that. 

This film's supporting cast has several notable names, such as Bernard Lee, Geoffrey Keen, Lionel Jeffries, Andree Melly (THE BRIDES OF DRACULA), and Howard Marion-Crawford (Dr. Petrie in the Christopher Lee Fu Manchu series). Silent film star Bessie Love plays the woman fleeced by Gregory in the beginning of the story, and Maggie Smith gets her first major film role as an upper-class young woman who tries to help Gregory (her character readily admits to having a thing for hard cases). 

NOWHERE TO GO is a very apt title, because with such a dour personality as George Nader in the lead, the movie literally has nowhere to go. It is Seth Holt's direction and the supporting cast that makes NOWHERE TO GO notable. 

PAYROLL

 

It's time to delve into Kino's BRIT NOIR COLLECTION III Blu-ray set, which as in the first two sets features three black & white British crime films from the 1950s and 60s. Today I'll be discussing PAYROLL, a 1961 armored car robbery story that made a big impression on me. 

The first part of PAYROLL details the planning and implementation of the robbery, and the second half of the story deals with the repercussions of the crime, as a downward spiral of greed and mistrust causes those involved in the plot to destroy themselves. 

The main man behind the robbery, Johnny Mellors (Michael Craig), is a cold-blooded and calculating fellow who thinks he can figure a way out of any situation--but he gets upended by a couple of females who can be as cold-blooded and calculating as he is. One of them is the wife (Francoise Prevost) of the weak accountant (William Lucas) who acts as the "inside man" for the heist by providing the robbers with plans to the armored car. Johnny is having an affair with this woman. The other lady is the widow (Billie Whitelaw) of the armored car driver, who was killed during the robbery. The widow doesn't become a grieving victim--she takes it upon herself to find out who was behind it, and she's very clever in how she helps instigate the downfall of the gang responsible. 

PAYROLL was excellently directed by Sidney Hayers, and its fine script was written by George Baxt. The movie plays out as a sort of working-class, low-budget version of HEAT. Much of the film was shot at locations in and around Newcastle, and the story has a realistic, gritty look to it. (It's notable to have a British movie involving a big heist not taking place in London.) PAYROLL is filled with plenty of suspenseful sequences, and all sorts of twists and turns. The production is backed by a really snazzy music score by Reg Owen, a score I'd love to find on CD or LP. 

The acting in PAYROLL is top-notch all across the board. The lack of big names is actually a plus in a story like this one. Michael Craig's Johnny has handsome looks and a surface charm, but he's also someone who won't hesitate to stab anyone in the back to get what he wants. The members of Johnny's gang are played by Tom Bell, Kenneth Griffith, and Barry Keegan. Francoise Prevost and Billie Whitelaw (who is particularly memorable here) are two women determined to get the results they desire, while William Lucas plays a role that no doubt would have been essayed by Elisha Cook Jr. had this movie been made in America. 

Kino presents PAYROLL in a 1.66:1 aspect ratio, and the visual quality is very sharp. I had never seen this film before --I had not even heard of it--and I have to say I was quite taken with it. It's fast-paced, well-edited, and it keeps the viewer hooked. I believe it holds up to any American crime thrillers made during the same period, and I'd even go so far to say that out of all the features I have watched on all of Kino's BRIT NOIR COLLECTION sets so far, this is the best one overall. 

TALES THAT WITNESS MADNESS

 

This is a 1973 British anthology horror film directed by Freddie Francis.....but it does not come from Amicus. World Film Services was so impressed with THE CREEPING FLESH that they allowed Francis to develop this project from a script by Jennifer Jayne, an actress who had worked for the director in a few of his other features. (For this movie Jayne was billed on-screen as Jay Fairbank.) 

The film features four tales, and the opening linking segment takes place at a mysterious clinic. A VIP (Jack Hawkins, dubbed by Charles Gray) arrives at the clinic to investigate the findings of a doctor (Donald Pleasence) who is working to verify the "reality" of truth. The doctor shows the VIP four different patients, and tells the reasons why they have been committed. 

The first tale is "Mr. Tiger". A young boy (Russell Lewis) is stuck with very argumentative parents (Georgia Brown & Donald Houston). The boy's only friend is a tiger, which only he can see....but the animal soon makes its presence known quite firmly. The next story is "Penny Farthing", which concerns an antique dealer (Peter McEnery) who receives an inheritance from an aunt that includes a penny farthing cycle and a framed picture of a ancestor called Uncle Albert. The portrait exerts a strange power over the dealer, forcing him to mount the penny farthing and go back in time when Uncle Albert was a young man. The dealer and his girlfriend (Suzy Kendall) try to fight this power. 

The third tale is "Mel". The leading character in this one (Michael Jayston) finds an unusual-looking tree in the forest, and proceeds to bring it into his ultra-modern home and set it up in his living room. His high-class wife (Joan Collins) isn't thrilled with the idea, especially since the tree has a bit of a resemblance to a human female. The wife grows jealous over the tree....but the hunk of wood isn't impressed with her, either. 

The final story "Luau", won't gain any accolades from Pacific Islander groups. A Hawaiian author (Michael Petrovitch) is charged by his dying mother to complete a pagan sacrificial ceremony in order to prevent his family from being cursed. The author's agent (Kim Novak) happens to have a teenage daughter (Mary Tamm) who is technically still a maiden, so......

I recently obtained a cheap DVD of TALES THAT WITNESS MADNESS. I had never seen it, mainly due to the fact that I had never read anything positive about it. In tone and style it feels very much like one of the Amicus anthologies, and it has a fine cast, but none of the stories is all that noteworthy. The ending of each tale is very predictable, and the characters in them are not memorable. 

The one notable part of TALES THAT WITNESS MADNESS is the tree segment. What makes the segment work is the idea that Joan Collins--one of the most blatant man-eaters in movies and TV--has to compete with a tree. That very idea is ridiculous, and Collins plays it as if she can't believe it either. At one point in the tale there's a dream sequence in which Collins is trapped in an expressionistic forest, as all sorts of branches and limbs reach out to attack her. The sequence is enlivened by some colored lighting effects, and it has a very Mario Bava-type of feel to it. What makes the sequence stand out even more is that, from my understanding, it is the tree that is having the dream! Unfortunately very little in the rest of the film stands out. 

In his book THE MEN WHO MADE THE MONSTERS, Paul Jensen included a chapter on Freddie Francis. In that chapter, Jensen states that Francis didn't even think that TALES THAT WITNESS MADNESS was a horror film when he was making it, and that he also thought the movie was more of a dark comedy. According to Jensen, Francis added some retakes after the producers thought it didn't have enough of a horror element. TALES THAT WITNESS MADNESS isn't all that scary--the viewer knows basically how each story is going to end--and it doesn't come off as comedic, sardonic, or ironic. (If those were the vibes Francis was reaching for, he missed by a mile.) 

The overall acting does veer toward hammy at times (was that part of the dark comedic element?). Seeing Kim Novak in a film like this is certainly unique (her role was originally going to be played by Rita Hayworth), but, like all the other characters in this movie, her part is underdeveloped. 

The linking story gets rather confusing at the end--there's even a suggestion that the stories didn't actually happen. Donald Pleasence does just enough to put over the idea that his doctor is probably crazier than his patients. 

I've no doubt that someday TALES THAT WITNESS MADNESS will get the super-duper home video 4K treatment, with loads of extras trying to convince that this is an overlooked classic (there's plenty of other Golden Age of British Horror features that already have). Freddie Francis had already made a couple of the best British horror anthologies when he helmed this, but a lackluster air hangs over the entire proceedings. TALES THAT WITNESS MADNESS is mainly for those who have the need to see every English Gothic film, and those who are fans of either Freddie Francis or Kim Novak. 

CHILDREN OF THE WICKER MAN

 

On the surface, the 2024 documentary CHILDREN OF THE WICKER MAN is an examination of the making of a 1973 folk horror movie that has gained massive critical acclaim. It is more accurate, however, to point out that it's really about two brothers (from different mothers) struggling to come to grips with how they feel about their father. 

The brothers are Justin and Dominic Hardy, and their father was Robin Hardy, the man who directed THE WICKER MAN, a picture now considered one of the greatest horror films ever made. Justin and Dominic Hardy, along with Chris Nunn, are credited as directors of CHILDREN OF THE WICKER MAN. 

The brothers were inspired to make this film after getting access to a large collection of their father's personal papers. The brothers delve into the papers to trace the production history of THE WICKER MAN and they also venture to Scotland to visit many of the movie's shooting locations. They also interview several people who worked on the film. Their findings establish that it was a chaotic production with all sorts of financial difficulties and egos getting in the way. (In later life Robin Hardy was celebrated at various festivals and screenings for his direction of THE WICKER MAN, but CHILDREN shows that many who worked alongside him during the shoot thought he was in over his head--even though Hardy had plenty of experience on commercials he had never helmed a feature film before.) The documentary also goes into THE WICKER MAN's original reception (or lack thereof), and how it grew into a cult item. 

CHILDREN really shines when it focuses on the Hardy family drama. There's no doubt Robin Hardy had a complicated personal life--he was married five times and he had eight children. He also had numerous financial issues that affected his family and friends. As the documentary goes along, we see how Justin and Dominic Hardy try to come to some sort of mental resolution over their feelings about their father and his cinematic legacy. 

My take on THE WICKER MAN is that it certainly is a unique and unsettling film, especially when one watches it for the very first time, but I wouldn't give it the oft-used label "the CITIZEN KANE of horror movies". The human dynamics behind THE WICKER MAN take center stage in this documentary. At the end of it Robin Hardy remains an enigma, much like the film that he is best known for. CHILDREN OF THE WICKER MAN shows that behind any creative endeavor there are real people, and how these people interact with and treat one another has far more repercussions than any movie's legacy. 

THE LONG ARM

 

The last film in Kino's BRIT NOIR COLLECTION II Blu-ray set I need to cover is THE LONG ARM, released in America as THE THIRD KEY. It was produced by Ealing Studios, and released in 1956. The movie reunites director Charles Frend and actor Jack Hawkins, who worked together on the fine WWII picture THE CRUEL SEA. 

THE LONG ARM is more of a police procedural than a all-out noir, but it does have a number of nighttime set sequences with lonely rain-slicked streets, and it uses plenty of actual locations, giving it a gritty and down-to-earth feel. The story revolves around Scotland Yard Superintendent Tom Halliday (Jack Hawkins), who is engaged on an investigation of a spate of safe robberies. Halliday is resolutely determined to catch the culprits behind the thefts, especially when a man is killed in a hit & run by the vandals after one of the robberies. 

Jack Hawkins brings his solid, no-nonsense bearing to the role of Halliday. The Superintendent is shown to be a dogged investigator, but we are also introduced to his wife and young son, and we see him breaking in a new Detective Sergeant (John Stratton). Halliday is a thorough professional, but Hawkins gives the viewer a glimpse into his human side. Much screen time is devoted to all the various procedures used by Scotland Yard to track down criminals, and Hawkins spends so much time and effort in catching his quarry that the viewer can't help but want to see him succeed. 

Halliday encounters several character types during his investigation, and they are all enacted by a solid cast including Ursula Howells, Geoffrey Keen, and Ian Bannen. None of the supporting players particularly stand out, but I think this was due to the story being presented in a more realistic manner. There's nothing really unbelievable or over-the-top in THE LONG ARM. Halliday is no Dirty Harry, but he does take part in a mini-action sequence at the end which fits in well with the movie's overall tone. Gerard Schurmann's music score adds greatly to the drama. 

Out of all the three movies in the BRIT NOIR COLLECTION II set, THE LONG ARM is the best. It is also the best looking overall--the black & white visuals are very sharp here. The BRIT NOIR COLLECTION II set has audio commentaries for each film, and the set has two discs. 

Kino has already announced BRIT NOIR COLLECTION III and IV (they must have rights to a bunch of 1950s and 60s British films). As in the first set, I believe the definition of noir is used rather loosely here, but for Region A folks we're getting introduced to a number of well-made rare British films that are filled with fine acting talent. 

THE INTRUDER (1953)

 

It's back to Kino's BRIT NOIR COLLECTION II Blu-ray set with a look at 1953's THE INTRUDER, produced by British Lion and directed by Guy Hamilton. 

Once again I have to question the classification of a movie as noir. THE INTRUDER is more of a melodrama dealing with how war and military service affects individuals. The story begins with a stockbroker named Merton (Jack Hawkins) coming home from a golf outing to find that there's a burglar on the premises. Merton is shocked when he recognizes the perpetrator as Ginger Edwards (Michael Medwin), a man who served under him during World War II. Edwards runs away before he can be caught, and Merton decides to track him down on his own, hoping to find out why such a fine soldier has been reduced to theft. 

THE INTRUDER takes on an almost anthology feel as Merton encounters a number of men from his former brigade and asks them about Edwards. There are a number of flashbacks to WWII throughout the film, and each is almost a mini-story in its own--there's even a comic vignette. When we finally get to the sequence explaining what has happened to Edwards since he came home from the war, it comes off too abruptly--the fellow's entire life falls apart literally in a few scenes. I believe the story would have worked better if more time had been spent setting up and detailing Edwards' plight. 

Jack Hawkins provides his usual stalwart presence, and he's backed up by a typically commendable British supporting cast of the period, featuring the likes of Dennis Price and George Cole. (Hammer fans will recognize Michael Ripper and Duncan Lamont in small roles.) 

This was Guy Hamilton's second feature as a director. (Ironically his first one, THE RINGER, is included in Kino's BRIT NOIR COLLECTION I set.) He does well juggling all the flashbacks and the present day scenes. The golf course shown at the beginning of this movie would be used by Hamilton again for a famous sequence in GOLDFINGER. 

One would assume that THE INTRUDER is a dark, brooding tale about one man's downfall, but it winds up being an ensemble piece dealing with a group of men who served together during WWII. This film's climax in particular is much more positive than that of most American noirs made around the same time. 

Book Review: METRO-GOLDWYN-VAMPIRE

 

Greg Mank gives readers another fast-paced ride down the dark corridors of classic Hollywood with his third novel METRO-GOLDWYN-VAMPIRE. 

The story is set in late 1934. MGM is getting ready to shoot director Tod Browning's latest thriller, a remake of his silent-era production LONDON AFTER MIDNIGHT. Recent events off the set, however, are far more horrifying than anything Browning could dream up. A number of young women are being savagely murdered--and the victims have one major thing in common: they all auditioned for a part in Browning's new opus...the role of "Luna the Bat Girl". 

Against his better judgement, private investigator Porter Down gets involved in the case (he has a problematic relationship with the movie industry, particularly the folks at MGM). Down has faced danger many times in his adventurous life, but what he experiences in METRO-GOLDWYN-VAMPIRE literally brings him to the edge of madness. 

Once again the author puts his massive knowledge of Hollywood history and his vivid imagination to excellent use in fashioning a 1930s Gothic horror mystery that is decidedly creepy. METRO-GOLDWYN-VAMPIRE features an exceedingly nasty occultist and his "creation", a blasphemous being that just might be the most loathsome thing Porter Down has ever faced off against. 

This novel also gives film buffs plenty to geek over, with appearances by historical figures such as Browning, Bela Lugosi, Elizabeth Allan, Guy Endore, William Randolph Hearst, Marion Davies, and Thelma Todd. 

METRO-GOLDWYN-VAMPIRE is over 400 pages, but once you start reading it, you'll find it hard to put down. If you are an old movie buff willing to delve into the ghoulish and the gruesome, this book is perfect summer reading. 

Book Review: VAMPIRE OVER LONDON--Bela Lugosi In Britain

 

I purchased this volume a couple weeks ago at the 2026 Summer Monster Bash Conference. 

Perhaps no other actor's profile has been affected by various myths and legends as that of Bela Lugosi. Many of these fables are still all over the internet, to the point where one must be very wary when reading something about Lugosi on social media. 

VAMPIRE OVER LONDON--Bela Lugosi In Britain, is a heavily researched, minutely detailed book that deals in facts, not legend. Written by Frank Dello Stritto and Andi Brooks, the volume takes a deep dive into the 1951 British stage tour of DRACULA starring Lugosi, and the three films the actor made in England (MYSTERY OF THE MARY CELESTE, THE DARK EYES OF LONDON, and MOTHER RILEY MEETS THE VAMPIRE). 

Legend says that the 1951 DRACULA tour was so unsuccessful that Bela and his wife Lillian went broke and were basically stranded in England, forcing Lugosi to take part in the terrible MOTHER RILEY movie just to raise enough money to get home. The authors reveal that Lugosi spent nearly six months touring on stage in the U.K as the Count, giving 229 performances despite physical travails and worries over his career. 

A number of people that were actually involved in the tour, either on stage or off, have been interviewed for this book, along with many folks who were blessed to witness one of Bela's performances. They state that despite Bela being in his late 60s, he was still a compelling and captivating figure on stage. 

The book also gives an almost day-by-day portrait of Lugosi during a tumultuous period in his life. Bela was a complicated individual, but he still had plenty of Old World European charm, and despite his frustrations over typecasting, he could easily slip into his Dracula persona when he needed publicity. 

VAMPIRE OVER LONDON also shines a much-needed spotlight on Lillian Lugosi. Out of all of Lugosi's wives, Lillian lasted the longest, and this book shows that she was Bela's one-woman entourage, taking care of him and watching over him at all times. It's no coincidence that after Bela and Lillian split up the actor's life went downhill. 

VAMPIRE OVER LONDON is nearly 500 pages long, and it is jammed packed with material and heavily illustrated, with many rare photos of Lugosi. The book has a number of appendices that give even more knowledge on Lugosi's overall appearances on stage as the Count, and how critics at the time reacted to the 1951 British stage tour. 

This volume is an absolute must for Bela Lugosi fans. We will never know what it must have been like to see Lugosi play Dracula on stage, but VAMPIRE OVER LONDON gives the reader as close of an approximation of that experience as one could have. It also gives us a much better idea of what Bela was like as a human being. The book is published by Cult Movie Press. 

THE SPACE CHILDREN

 

The title of this film is somewhat of a misnomer--there are no space children in it, and no children in it actually go out in space. THE SPACE CHILDREN is a 1958 science-fiction tale produced by William Alland and directed by Jack Arnold. Alland and Arnold together made some of the most notable genre films in the 1950s for Universal, but on this one they were working under the auspices of Paramount. 

THE SPACE CHILDREN takes place at a top secret military base on the California coast. An important launch is being prepared there of a satellite that will be carrying advanced weaponry. During the run up to the launch, a number of strange occurrences take place. A being from outer space, a being that resembles a glowing, growing, pulsating brain, has been making contact with a group of children of the civilian workers on the base. The point of this contact is to stop the weapon from being launched into orbit. 

THE SPACE CHILDREN has a few things in common with another William Alland-Jack Arnold film, IT CAME FROM OUTER SPACE, and it also calls to mind VILLAGE OF THE DAMNED, even though the children in that film are far more lethal. The 'being" is using innocent humans to achieve its goal, but it isn't overtly threatening or dangerous (except in one instance). There's very little FX in THE SPACE CHILDREN, and the expected clash between the military and the being never comes to pass. 

In the science-fiction films he directed Jack Arnold usually made much use of the terrain the stories were located in, and he does this plenty in THE SPACE CHILDREN. There's plenty of scenes showing characters going back and forth over the rocky shore, and the sound of the pounding surf is a constant throughout. Arnold even trots out one of his favorite tricks, the "character being unexpectedly grabbed from off-screen" jump scare. Arnold's use of the environment is rather pronounced here, probably due to the fact that there isn't much to the plot. The movie only lasts about 68 minutes, and it could have easily been turned into a half-hour TV show. 

Due to the short length of the film we never get to really know any of the kids--they're a generic group of bright-eyed youngsters, but none of them stands out. (Michel Ray as Bud, the sort-of-leader of the kids, does show an unusual maturity.) None of the adult characters stand out either--the parents of the kids are overly emotional and argumentative, another way of reminding us that only innocent children would be able to understand an alien force that just wants us to stop destroying ourselves. (It is mentioned that there are children all over the world who are in the same situation, but due to this film's low budget, we are never shown any of this.) 

The cast is notable for the presence of four performers best known for their roles in classic TV shows: Raymond Bailey (Mr. Drysdale on THE BEVERLY HILLBILLIES), Russell Johnson (The Professor on GILLIGAN'S ISLAND), Jackie Coogan (Uncle Fester on THE ADDAMS FAMILY) and Johnny Crawford (the son of THE RIFLEMAN). Russell Johnson plays against type as the parent who is a drunken lout (he's also the only character killed by the being in order to stop him from beating his stepson). Johnson's part is such an obvious jerk that one wonders how in the heck he has a job at a top-secret military base. 

It's fairly accurate to say that William Alland and Jack Arnold were trying to make a gentler kind of 1950s sci-fi story, with an anti-nuclear weapons message. It's a decent effort, but it's not on the same level as the earlier sci-fi tales made by Alland and Arnold. The budget is too low, and there's just not enough going on in the story to make it memorable. 

HOME AT SEVEN

 

Kino's BRIT NOIR COLLECTION II is now available, and like the first set, it contains three black & white British films from the 1950s and 60s whose stories involve crime and murder. Today I'll be discussing 1952's HOME AT SEVEN (also known as MURDER ON MONDAY), a London Films production based on a R.C. Sherriff play, starring Ralph Richardson, who also directed. (HOME AT SEVEN was the only theatrical feature the esteemed actor ever helmed.) 

HOME AT SEVEN gets things going right off the bat, as bank clerk David Preston arrives home from work at 7 pm, as he usually does. He finds his wife Janet (Margaret Leighton) in a state of hysterics, however--she hasn't seen him since he left for work Monday morning, and this is Tuesday. The befuddled Preston comes to the realization that he has no memory of what happened to him the last 24 hours--and neither, apparently, does anyone else. To make matters worse, a large amount of money was stolen from Preston's club, an organization in which he was the treasurer, and a member of the club--a man Preston despised--has been found murdered. Preston struggles to find out what exactly happened, with help from Janet and his Doctor (Jack Hawkins). 

HOME AT SEVEN is more of a suburban mystery story than a full-fledged noir, although there is a psychological element to Preston's mental block. The story's origins as a stage play are quite evident, with many dialogue-heavy scenes and events being described instead of dramatized visually. (The important character of the murdered man is never even shown.) 

Ralph Richardson played the role of David Preston on stage, and it fits him well. Richardson always brought a quirky aspect to whatever part he played, and while Preston appears to be a straightforward unassuming white-collar man, the viewer gets the feeling that he's hiding something. Richardson gets good support from Margaret Leighton as his loyal wife and Jack Hawkins as the trustworthy doctor. Many of the other roles in this film were played by actors who, like Richardson, also appeared in the stage version of the story. 

HOME AT SEVEN sets up a very intriguing premise, but the climax is a bit of a disappointment. Ralph Richardson is always entertaining to watch, and he directed this film capably enough, but if this story were remade again I've no doubt a few extra plot twists would be added. Ironically enough a BBC TV adaptation of HOME AT SEVEN was made in 1957, starring my favorite actor Peter Cushing in the lead role. I'd certainly love to see that, but it appears no copies of it exist.