January 15th, 2007
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Star Dana Andrews made a few westerns but always seemed ill suited to them. Here he looks uncomfortable in western costume, walking around as if someone’s starched his long johns, although that could have more to do with his advancing years as he was well into his fifties when he made the film. He plays US Marshal Johnny Reno who arrives in a small western town accompanied by a prisoner he apprehended en route. He’s there to see old flame Nona Williams (Jane Russell). After finding that his prisoner is wanted by the townsfolk he holds up in the town jail, enlisting the aid of the town Sheriff to keep the outlaw safe when it becomes clear the Mayor wants him dead for reasons unknown.
I’ve never understood the appeal of Russell beyond the obvious and that appeal must have stared to sag by this point in her career. Like Andrews she was over the hill, just not quite as far over, only in her mid forties. Only Lon Chaney Jr. as the corrupt sheriff who gets a shot at redemption stands out from the supporting cast but he’s given little chance to really shine.
We’ve seen the lawman fighting off the mob who are trying to break the prisoner out of jail (either to hang or free him) far too often and this fails to offer anything new. It’s the sort of thing was done far better in Howard Hawks’ Rio Bravo and El Dorado but then Dana Andrews is no John Wayne.
January 15th, 2007
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The House of Exorcism (1975) Region 2
I’ve never seen Maio Bava’s Lisa and The Devil but from the original footage used in this bastardised version it looks like a pretty standard giallo murder mystery. This re-edited version, featuring new footage shot by the producer Alfredo Leone to cash in on the success of The Exorcist, is another animal altogether.
The structure of the film has been completely altered so that Bava’s footage is used in flashback to reveal what happened to Lisa Reiner (Elke Sommer) that resulted in her hospitalisation and the subsequent involvement of a priest played by Robert Alda. This restructuring results in the film making virtually no narrative sense.
Bava was an inventive filmmaker who could do a lot with a minuscule budget, creating such stylish features as Black Sunday and Planet of the Vampires, the latter an obvious influence on Ridley Scott’s Alien. Sadly here his style is so diluted as to be all but unwatchable.
The performances are nothing to shout about either. Elke Sommer is there primarily to look pretty while Telly Savalas plays the lollypop sucking butler (or is he the devil?) as if he were Kojak.
So does the film have anything to recommend it? Well yes, sort of. If features some hysterical exorcism scenes that are far funnier than anything featured in The Exorcist spoof Repossessed starring Leslie Nielsen.
January 7th, 2007
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Glenn Ford excelled at playing laid back laconic characters particularly in westerns and this film finds him on familiar ground. Here he’s John Stroud the only survivor of the Alamo and a man branded a coward for it. Of course he had a good reason; he left in the hope of protecting his family and the families of some of the other defenders of the mission. The men drew lots and Stroud “won” but he reaches the families too late, all have been massacred save a Mexican boy who tells him that it wasn’t Mexicans but white men dressed as Mexican soldiers that were responsible.
Ford is the best thing about this fairly average revenge oater, relying on star charisma to fill in for a script that has neither the time (the film only runs 76min) nor the inclination to be anything more than an action packed B western. He gets some decent support from a couple of western regulars; Chill Wills as a newspaper man and Neville Brand playing his standard villain role as one of the men who killed Stroud’s family.
Director Budd Boetticher is most famous for the series of western he made in the 50’s with Randolph Scott. He had a gift for action and here he does a decent job, keeping things moving at a cracking pace. Yet the film lacks any real depth, there’s no meat on its bones. You’re left with the feeling that had a little more time and effort been spent on the script this could have been a classic instead of just an enjoyable time waster that will not linger long in the memory.
January 7th, 2007
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For the first of these double bills we’ve got a couple of zombie flicks and we’re talking old skool voodoo zombies.
The Dead One (1961) Region 2
This is set just outside New Orleans on a plantation inherited by John Carlton, who’s taken his new wife there for their honeymoon. Cousin Monica is none to happy about this as she had been running the plantation prior to John’s arrival and as she moonlights as a voodoo priestess she’s not someone you’d want to piss off. She hatches a plan to use her zombified brother to kill John’s wife in the hopes of holding on to the land through a loophole in their Grandfathers will.
Director Barry Mahon’s claim to fame is that the part played by Steve McQueen in the Great Escape was loosely based on him. That’s as close to making a classic film as he came; it’s clear from this that he was a kindred spirit to that master of (mis)direction, Ed Wood.
The first twenty minutes are padded out with a couple of New Orleans jazz bands and an appearance by exotic dancer Bella Bella, the latter ends up tagging along to the plantation for no other reason than to provide someone for the zombie to kill.
October 10th, 2006
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The Film
I love 50’s Sci Fi movies. Some of them are so good they transcend the genre and are considered classic films in their own right. The Day the Earth Stood Still, Forbidden Planet, Invasion of the Body Snatchers and The Incredible Shrinking Man are four personal favourites from this type. Then you have the ‘so bad they’re good’ kind epitomised by Plan 9 from Outer Space. This Island Earth falls into neither bracket. It’s decent SF but lacking in enough areas to stop it reaching masterpiece status.
While it’s not unusual for films of the era to be preoccupied with the then relatively new concept of atomic power what sets this apart is it’s pro-atomic stance. Fear of the bomb and the effect of radiation was one of the top two topics for science fiction of the time (the other being the communist threat) but it usually manifested itself as a danger to nature in films like Them! or The Incredible Shrinking Man. Here it’s presented as a force for good.
Scientist Dr. Cal Meacham (Rex Reason) is looking into practical uses for atomic energy when he’s contacted by a secret organisation led by a man named Exeter (Jeff Morrow.) Having had a glimpse of the miraculous technology at their disposal, he can’t resist the offer to join them. Whisked away in a pilotless plane to a hidden location he finds himself working on a secret project with a group of top scientists. Before long, it becomes clear that they aren’t working for any earthbound government but rather an alien race from the planet Metaluna. After a foiled escape attempt, Meacham and fellow scientist Ruth Adams (Faith Domergue) are transported to the doomed planet in the hope they will become it’s saviours.
September 13th, 2006
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The Movies
Jess Franco! A name to strike fear into the heart of any true cinephile. He’s been called Spain’s answer to Ed Wood and manages to live down to that billing extremely well and yet, for lovers of trash cinema there’s often much to enjoy in a Franco film. With titles like Swedish Nympho Slaves and Diary of a Nymphomaniac you’re not really expecting another Citizen Kane. And how can you not want to see Killer Barbys vs. Dracula?
This second release in Tartan’s Jess Franco Double Bill series pairs a couple of lesser-known offerings from the schlockmeister’s 70’s heyday.
First up is Devil’s Island Lovers from 1974. One of Franco’s preoccupations, particularly in the 70’s, was with imprisoned women. Caged Women (aka Barbed Wire Dolls in the US), Women Behind Bars and Ilsa, the Wicked Warden all came from his fevered mind. Devil’s Island Lovers is one of his earliest entries in the genre.
A fictional island’s corrupt governor who lusts after the girl, Beatriz, frames her and her lover for murder. The plot doesn’t really make a lot of sense, it’s just there to get the girl into the prison, although it takes almost half an hour to get there. The main reason for this is the flashback nature of the narrative, it’s told from the perspective of the couples’ lawyer as his investigations begin to uncover what happened to the young lovers.
September 11th, 2006
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The Movie
I first came across Parkour, or Free Running as it’s also been called, in the British TV documentary Jump London in 2003. It was an amazing film, charting the history of the sport/art as well as showing it in action around some London landmarks and I remember thinking that it would work well in a film. The highly successful French producer/director/writer Luc Besson had the same idea two years before me when he came up with Yamakasi (2001.) He only provided the basic idea for that film but in 2004, he returned to the sport this time coming up with District B13.
The French seem to have a thing for loose remakes of John Carpenter films; Florent Emilio Siri made The Nest (2002) that had much in common with Assault on Precinct 13, and District B13 is a French take on Carpenter’s Escape from New York. What sets these films apart from Hollywood-style remakes is that they only take the basic idea and use it as a springboard to create a new and exciting story.
The year is 2010 and the French government have walled in the most crime infested areas of the major cities. The worst of these is B13, though it’s not without its decent citizens and one such is Leito a man doing his best to clean up the streets he lives in. Sadly, the local Police aren’t looking to do the same and it’s Leito who finds himself in prison.
