Messiah of Evil.

Review #2622: Messiah of Evil.

Cast: 

Michael Greer (Thom), Marianna Hill (Arletty Lang), Joy Bang (Toni), Anitra Ford (Laura), Royal Dano (Joseph Lang), Elisha Cook Jr (Charlie), Charles Dierkop (gas attendant), Bennie Robinson (albino trucker), and Walter Hill (victim in prologue) Written, Produced and Directed by Gloria Katz and Willard Huyck (#1704 - Howard the Duck)

Review: 

I guess it makes sense to pick a possible "cult favorite" every now and then. You might remember that Gloria Katz and Willard Huyck were a married screenwriting duo that had a notable connection in filmmaking when Huyck met George Lucas when each were students at USC and their film school. Huyck and Katz were hired by Lucas to work on a treatment for what eventually became American Graffiti. The resulting success on its August 1973 release came right as Katz and Huyck were to do their first film together with, well, Messiah of Evil. It was a low-budget movie that had several of their friends play bit parts (Walter Hill, Billy Weber, Bill L. Norton). Apparently, Katz co-directed the film with Huyck (sources list her as uncredited) in what was her only directorial credit. The movie either finished as it was planned or it was left* with a few scenes left to actually finish (honestly, the latter seems more there) before just being dropped into theaters in December 1974. There apparently were multiple titles that the film got released in for later years, such as "Return of the Living Dead", "Revenge of the Screaming Dead", "Night of the Damned", and "Dead People". Katz once called it a "real bowwow", although Huyck eventually warmed to the film, even attending a sold-out Q/A screening for it in later years. The following year after the release of Messiah, Huyck and Katz got tasked to do script-work on Lucky Lady [1975] before working on French Postcards [1979].

What's there to say that isn't merely just stating things that occur in the film? You might wonder what the film is about. Well, in the vaguest way possible, a woman tells of what happened when she visited a coastal town to see her artist father only to find a diary of his strange experiences alongside a few strangers that happen to need to stay at the place because of strange things that only get stranger (I suppose it's not a spoiler to say it starts at the loony bin). People gather around bonfires to stare at the moon while people's eyes weep blood and a "dark stranger" apparently may return 100 years after being a survivor of the Donner Party. Around that is a variety of things that happen from albino truckers to narration to basically carry what isn't evident. This is...one of those movies where you really, really need to experience the "atmosphere" and see if it actually will hit for you in the unsettling manner that comes through in all-consuming, all-bewildering dread. Hill doesn't really get much to actually say besides reacting to what is going on (around her and to her with the vomiting insects), which works in some ways to accompany her growing fear that doesn't exactly get a chance to really explode at what actually comes out in the art of unsettled lunacy. The best sequence might be in the movie theater with a growing array of people coming inside that actually shows some sort of terror on screen. You have to fill in some of the blanks with the looming terror because damned if the movie is going to allow you to have an easy time doing it, particularly when it ends just as abruptly as it starts, because nothing is that easy to resolve. As a whole, Messiah of Evil is basically a dreamscape type of movie, one that will either hit the chords required for off-putting interest in what is said and left unsaid or will pass through with the bare minimum of "well, that was a movie". For me, it was pretty okay, and I suppose that is a tacit endorsement worth checking out least once on a dreary night.

Overall, I give it 7 out of 10 stars.

Next up: Keeping it a surprise.

Song of the day!

*Anita Ford claimed this as such: Anitra Ford's Personal Blog: Be afraid, very afraid -- for 6 minutes

Daughters of Darkness.

Review #2611: Daughters of Darkness.

Cast: 

Delphine Seyrig (Countess Elizabeth Bathory), John Karlen (Stefan Chilton), Danielle Ouimet (Valerie Chilton), Andrea Rau (Ilona), Paul Esser (Pierre), Georges Jamin (retired policeman), Joris Collet (butler), and Fons Rademakers (mother) Directed by Harry Kümel.

Review: 

"My films are about other films — that’s obvious. I’ve always watched an enormous number of movies, and I still do. These days, you can see everything online — especially old French cinema in beautiful quality. It’s a problem for film archives, of course, but wonderful for viewers. I don’t consciously pay homage to anyone, but I’m shaped by the filmmakers I admire: Joseph von Sternberg, John Ford, and, of course, Alfred Hitchcock — the Mozart of cinema."

Sure, what's horror without at least one arthouse scare? Yes, here's an international production between Belgium, France, and West Germany that ended up filmed in English. Harry Kumel (who had started directing features with Monsieur Hawarden [1968]) was approached by a group of producers who apparently wanted to make something "erotic, bloody, full of horror". Given that he was still in the midst of preparation for Malpertuis (1973), he had a good chance to take on the task, complete with being inspired by the supposed exploits of Elizabeth Báthory, a Hungarian countess that had been accused of torturing and killing several girls and women from 1590 to 1610 before she was convicted (alongside her servants) and eventually died in prison in 1614. Supposedly, she bathed in the blood of virgins to retain her youth, which, well, obviously was more folklore hokum than based on fact; of course, the lead character is also styled after Marlene Dietrich (for which Kümel once called her a "demagogue"), while Rau's is meant to be styled after Louise Brooks), so there's that. Interiors were done in Brussels, Belgium. Four writers ultimately received credit: Kümel, Pierre Drouot, Jean Ferry (who upon hearing it said it was "the great liberation!"), and Joseph Amiel. Apparently, Kümel still gets offers to talk about the movie every now and then and once stated that his French distributor "has to delete the film from YouTube almost every week", although he also noted that where the sincerity starts/ends is "intentionally ambiguous" (this was probably a reply to one certain critic that called the film the type to belong in what she called "psychological high Gothic").

Sure, the movie dances around the idea of someone being a vampire for quite a while in its 100-minute runtime. But it's a war of nerves within the dance of art and sleaze, and I suppose that's part of the interest for a movie that has plenty of womanly desire within the game of dominance. I guess you could call that bleak, or maybe there's something else lurking within the fringes of not just being the Dracula's Daughter of would-be vampire wooing. It's the horror of contradictions with a group of people that probably shows the horrors of what "love" seems to actually be more than anything. It dilly-dallies around a hotel with few people around while showing a couple that is most decidedly not waiting to assert their love or trying to go home as opposed to those castle-bound/village-bound vampire movies. It's a cold modern movie (well, 1971 modern) that I wish I could like more than I ended up doing, which is mostly because it does loiter a bit too much in actual execution besides some dances with the erotic (to be honest, it works more with Rau and her energy more than, well...). It all rides on Seyrig and her performance that basically glides across the proceedings with icy charm that can play head (or neck) games with the best of them, which is pretty unsettling to see with such easy targets. Rau doesn't say much, but she seems a bit less unsettled than Ouimet, that's for sure. Probably the one regret that stuck with Kümel was the casting of Karlen, who apparently was cast with photos that had been a few years old (at the time, the former Dark Shadows alum was in his late thirties - of course, Kümel wanted Malcolm McDowell, who was ten years younger). Granted, the fact that Karlen is playing the one male lead to a certain type of unpolishedness (well, for a character that has the twist that, well, doesn't actually want to call Mother...whoever that is). At least Ouimet and Karlen being unsettling together is mostly on purpose. The film rides on atmosphere and the occasional moods that come in color before eventually, finally, getting to what really is going to go on with creatures of the night that happen to leave a trail of bodies in their wake. Never boring, it's a mild success for those who like some curious choices for their vampire movies, that's for sure.

Overall, I give it 7 out of 10 stars.

Song of the day!

The Amityville Horror (1979).

Review #2609: The Amityville Horror (1979).

Cast: 

James Brolin (George Lutz), Margot Kidder (Kathleen 'Kathy' Lutz), Rod Steiger (Father Francis 'Frank' Delaney), Don Stroud (Father Bolen), Murray Hamilton (Father Ryan), John Larch (Father Nuncio), Natasha Ryan (Amy Lutz), K. C. Martel (Greg Lutz), Meeno Peluce (Matt Lutz), Michael Sacks (Jeff), Helen Shaver (Carolyn), Amy Wright (Jackie), Val Avery (Sergeant Gionfriddo), Elsa Raven (Mrs. Townsend), and Irene Dailey (Aunt Helena) Directed by Stuart Rosenberg.

Review: 

In 1974, there was a terrible murder in a house on 112 Ocean Avenue in a neighborhood in Amityville on the shoes of Long Island, New York. The man killed six family members and ultimately was convicted to life in prison, where he resided until the day he died. One year after the murders in the house, the Lutz family moved into the house with their children and dog. 28 days later, they fled the house, claiming that strange things of the paranormal spooked them enough to leave and never return. The Lutzes were introduced soon after to a man named Jay Anson, who they decided to send many hours of recollections of what they apparently saw and heard on tape, for which Anson wrote a book published in 1977. Samuel Z. Arkoff of American International Pictures fame quickly bought the rights to the book from Anson, who actually wrote a teleplay for what was originally envisioned for a TV film before Sandor Stern was hired to write the eventual screenplay. For probably obvious reasons, the authorities did not allow the filmmakers to film at the actual Amityville residence, so they settled with a place in Toms River, New Jersey for location shooting. Perhaps lost in the shuffle is director Stuart Rosenberg, who had done a string of "okay" to middling movies since Cool Hand Luke (1967). Both Brolin and Kidder were asked by the studio to do promotions for the movie that basically had them see the actual house and talk about the claims made by the Lutz family, for which they later doubted the actual claims. The movie was a considerable hit with audiences, and there has been a few people who have noted their appreciation of the movie, most notably with Stephen King, who eventually saw the film as an "enduring classic of its kind" that argued for it serving as a parable for financial anxieties. Anson died the year after the film was released. Two months after the release of the film, the attorney of the murderer claimed that he and Lutz made up the tales of the house being haunted over a series of drinks. Various people went on to look at the house, most notably with Ed and Lorraine Warren (a pair of so-called "demonologists"*) while Mr. Lutz registered the phrase of the book as a trademark and later stated that the film producers embellished events in the movie. Both the actual house and the Toms River house have seen renovations (with the former having its address changed) and the people of Amityville would rather see people shut up about the house. Unlike other franchises that came around because people wanted to make some sequels, Amityville took the cake for shamelessness. Dino De Laurentiis oversaw Amityville II: The Possession [1982] (for which the Lutzes sued to have no affiliation) while the road to the gutter went to 3-D the following year that was the last theatrical release until the 2005 remake. Amidst all of the subsequent indie and direct-to-video slop* (of which there are dozens, with the most recent being "Christmas Vacation" in 2022), discussions for a re-imagining have occurred for years.

With all of that in mind, it gives me no pleasure to say that I loathed this utterly mediocre movie. It actually almost makes me irritated to see anyone try to hold it up as anything other than a mealy-mouthed, shambling, fraud of a film. Far from being one of the "scariest films ever", it will only inspire the viewer to bash their skull in the company of their own house because heaven forbid having to watch one more minute of a movie with no actual scares in it. Ahhhhh, the house we paid money for is turning into a money pit! Ahhhh, I'm having totally-real nightmares about a murder I never saw! Ahhhh, my phone keeps giving me static when the dopey priest is calling! Ahhhh, there's no real ending! I hope you get my perspective, because I'll be damned if I could understand Stephen King's perspective* or any perspective that doesn't call it a turgid, uninspired mess of fiction (besides, when having a fear of money troubles, my thoughts go to "get the calculator", not "how can I make this into a horror story?"). At least when The Blair Witch Project (1999) tried to play their horrors off with the mythology of being based in some sort of reality, there was the idea of an actual threat amidst all of the madness. Here, all the movie has is a few spooky images and the occasional Lalo Schifrin musical beat to carry a movie that is too irritating to take as either a joke or based in reality. Apparently, Brolin was approached about doing the movie, so he read the book with some pants over the door and somehow, when he was reading a "scary part" of the book, the pants fell off the floor that spooked him enough to laugh and also decide, yes, he had to do this film, one where he plays it with growing agitation and the appearance of a shaggy bum. He can only go so far in trying to lift this movie up with any semblance of terror and vulnerability as a patriarch that can only keep chopping wood. Kidder and Steiger basically took the film on for the same reason of wanting to accept any job offered (the latter in particular had been recovering from open-heart surgery). I think you can see the level of "commitment" on display from each person, with one basically giggling through the crap with Kidder (I sure wish I could laugh at this movie without checking how long it is to end the 118-minute runtime is) and the other trying their damndest to chew the entire screen with Steiger that actually borders on embarrassing after, what, the stigmata starts to show? It doesn't even matter if the movie had any sort of made-up explanation of why the house is what it is, what could possibly hold up such vaunted spooky things such as black ooze, exploding doors, malevolent sash windows, disappearing cash, and babysitters getting locked in closets while an imaginary being later revealed to be a pig is in the area. I could go on and on, but I think the best way to assess a horror movie is this: did I enjoy what I was watching? No, not really. Would I recommend it even with the acknowledgement that there have been just as many flawed movies involving spooky houses or the semblance of tension even with a lack of monster/explanation? No, because it personally annoyed me and didn't even have a payoff. Would I like to see just how the two subsequent "sequels" and remake turned things into an even bigger joke? Well, never say never. I think you get my point: The Amityville Horror is a dull, shambling mess that is mostly fit for those who know the fine line between doggerel and, well, dogshit.

Overall, I give it 4 out of 10 stars.

Song of the day - a special one on the day of the World Series of Milwaukee Brewers and the Tampa Bay Rays: a song from Milwaukee's own Steve Miller - go Brewers!

*There is probably some perspective that offers a good reason to check out direct-to-video stuff or "on-demand" stuff. For me, it just sounds like the biggest waste of time imaginable - I'm here for stuff that made a theater, what's the point?

*Yes, yes, The Conjuring became a franchise with the loosest characterizations of the Warrens. It should be noted that aside from being frauds that have no credibility in any shape or form (I do not engage with "ghost hunters", I would rather see them get a real job), Ed was accused of having a sexual relationship with a 15-year-old. Lorraine personally wrote into the contract of the film series that her and Ed would not be portrayed as "engaging in crimes, including sex with minors, child pornography, prostitution or sexual assault. Neither the husband nor wife could be depicted as participating in an extramarital sexual relationship". At least the Warrens are both dead now.

*What, was King still snorting cocaine when coming up with that perspective? 

The House That Dripped Blood.

Review #2606: The House That Dripped Blood.

Cast:

Framework story: John Bennett (Detective Inspector Holloway), John Bryans (A.J. Stoker), and John Malcolm (Sergeant Martin)

"Method For Murder": Denholm Elliott (Charles Hillyer), Joanna Dunham (Alice Hillyer), Tom Adams (Richard/Dominic), and Robert Lang (Dr. Andrews)

"Waxworks": Peter Cushing (Philip Grayson), Joss Ackland (Neville Rogers), and Wolfe Morris (Waxworks Proprietor)

"Sweets to the Sweet": Christopher Lee (John Reid), Nyree Dawn Porter (Ann Norton), Chloe Franks (Jane Reid), Hugh Manning (Mark), and Carleton Hobbs (Dr. Bailey)

"The Cloak": Jon Pertwee (Paul Henderson), Ingrid Pitt (Carla Lynde), Geoffrey Bayldon (Theo von Hartmann), Jonathan Lynn (Mr. Petrich)

Directed by Peter Duffell.

Review: 

Sure, let's march into the 1970s for Amicus to make their mark with anthology films. Apparently, it was reported that the movie was to have Freddie Francis to direct but it fell through due to prior commitments, which led to Peter Duffell. This was actually the feature film debut for Peter Duffell, who had gotten his start in 1961 with a number of shorts and episodes in television. He wound up spending most of his time in television (having rejected doing more films for Amicus due to not wanting to be typecast) but directed a few more times with England Made Me (1973), Inside Out (1975), and King of the Wind (1989). He wanted to go with "Death and the Maiden" as a title instead of, well, "The House That Dripped Blood" but ended up with the one insisted by producers because, duh (sure, there isn't actually blood in the movie, but, well...). Pertwee claimed in his memoir that the film was initially to be filmed as a comedy-horror piece but that the producer saw some of the rushes and insisted on the film being shot as is for horror. The movie was written by Robert Bloch, as adapted from his four short stories, although Russ Jones apparently delivered uncredited work on "Waxworks". Bloch wrote one more movie for Amicus with Asylum (1972).

It's an average anthology movie where you really only get some enjoyment out of certain stories because damn it, they really can only go so far with the pacing and violence, can they? Anyway, what's the framework of this 102-minute movie you say, well, here it goes: An old country house was rented out by an actor that happens to have mysteriously disappeared and a man from Scotland Yard comes to investigate only to be told about the history of the house (complete with the estate agent popping in for the latter setup) and the tenants that lived in the house beforehand (you might be wondering, why wouldn't the inspector just insist on getting the story of the guy who was missing *before* everyone else, well, who knows). The first story (lasting roughly 23 minutes) involves a hack writer (as played pretty well by Elliott) and his wife moving into the house that finds growing fear over trying to write a new novel about a crazed killer. The twist is the goofiest thing imaginable, but the monster is kind of interesting. The second story is basically the shortest at almost 20 minutes and probably disappoints me the most because it has Cushing and little else to show for with a story that involves a man that encounters a wax museum with a sculpture that happens to look like someone he formerly loved and the frenzied reactions that come with the two other people that also happen to be curious about the sculpture. A lonely Cushing is one thing to maybe drive something spooky, but it leads to nothing because, really, we are talking about a wax sculpture.

The third story, perhaps not surprisingly, is the longest at 24 minutes that has Lee play an oddball dad that kept his daughter away from school, socializing, or even dolls which naturally changes when a new tutor comes into the picture and a tantalizing secret is revealed. It's probably the only segment that would've made an interesting film in its own right, with an eerie Franks and a suitably composed Lee selling the payoff (which is necessary for a movie that shows a burning of a figure rather than, say, a body). The final story (roughly 20 minutes) is the one to wait for with some chuckles. Pertwee (in the middle between filming seasons of Doctor Who)* plays a stuffy star of horror movies (which, well, is basically him doing a riff on Christopher Lee, complete with saying that his favorite type of Dracula was Bela Lugosi at one point) that encounters an antique shop with "real" authenticity to it. Sure, the idea of a cloak being associated with maybe becoming a vampire is a bit corny, but I did like what I saw from Pertwee's hammy nature. All of this helps because the framework is pretty lame with the payoff from Bryans and his character that actually talks to the audience at the end about the house reflecting the personality of the person who lives in it (after getting the fate of the inspector encountering a vampire because....yeah). As a whole, it's a decent movie with some highlights that might make for a useful watch for those who love to see a few short stories try to get their due.

Overall, I give it 7 out of 10 stars.

Song of the day!

*Yes, that's the Third Doctor. Did you know he did a novelty song? I Am The Doctor (Jon Pertwee)

Tourist Trap.

Review #2600: Tourist Trap.

Cast: 

Chuck Connors (Mr. Slausen), Shailar Coby (Davey Slausen), Jocelyn Jones (Molly), Jon Van Ness (Jerry), Robin Sherwood (Eileen), Tanya Roberts (Becky), Dawn Jeffory-Nelson (Tina), Keith McDermott (Woody), and Linnea Quigley (a Mannequin) Directed by David Schmoeller.

Review: 

Because many horror films tend to be low budget, this is one genre where many first time directors can get a start. And unfortunately, many horror films are pretty shlocky. So the general impression is that horror films are mostly shlocky. But there is a real stigma about the horror film, you're right. I suppose because of the violence and the lawlessness of it. It tends to scare, even bother people. And you're absolutely right, as a result much good work in the horror genre is overlooked or dismissed...by film critics in particular and the audience in general. Their loss, huh?

I guess there really are more horror movies involving old film/TV stars getting to play it up for everyone. Louisville native David Schmoeller studied at the Universidad De Las Americas in Mexico City (for undergraduate work) and at the University of Texas at Austin. Apparently, he encountered film directors Luis Buñuel and Alejandro Jodorowsky when he was 20 years old and this influenced him to go to film school. It was during his time in Austin where he made his thesis film with "The Spider Will Kill You", which had taken inspiration from his observations of mannequins he saw at J.C. Penney's (namely the smoothed-over features by the time one saw adult mannequins) for what was apparently a short involving a blind man and a mannequin. He enlisted J. Larry Carroll, who he knew from his time at UT and wanted to use The Texas Chainsaw Massacre as their model (it should be noted that Carroll was the co-editor of Massacre) in making a feature film of it. They pitched it around to people such as Samuel Z. Arkoff, Bruce Cohn Curtis, and Charles Band, with the latter going along with it (incidentally, it was Band who proposed the telekinesis). Distribution ended up being done by Irwin Yablans and Compass International Pictures. Incidentally, despite being filmed just before Halloween [1978], Tourist Trap wasn't released until the spring of 197 (apparently, Yablans told Schmoeller of his belief that Tourist Trap was going to be a big hit, although Pino Donaggio's music score somehow soured that belief). David Ayres did the masks while a majority of the effects were done by Robert A. Burns (also someone who worked on Texas Chainsaw Massacre), specifically the mannequins and the manipulations that occur with the use of say, rotating the set (for the opening), wires, or in one instance, taping a block of wood behind someone's hair and attaching a knife with a wire to hurl at said block. Shot over 24 days, the PG-rated film (yes, really) ended up being a modest success. 

Schmoeller ended up directing a handful of films over the next few years from The Seduction (1982) to the direct-to-video Puppet Master (1989); for many years, he was a film professor at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas, while Carroll ended up being a regular writer on TV. Tourist Trap has plenty of familiar aspects to it (as a loving cribbing from Massacre or, well, House of Was [1953] and Psycho [1960]), but there's enough of a strange atmosphere involving a fully game Connors and a film that doesn't really aim explanation and select moments within the figures for creepy chuckles. Connors (the athlete-turned star of The Rifleman) was not the first choice for the main role, but Jack Palance and Gig Young saying no opened the door for him; he apparently wanted to try and get roles like this to be a horror veteran on the level of, say, Vincent Price. Sure, it didn't exactly work that way for him in the remainder of his career, but he proved fairly effective with what is needed here in that distinct sense of curiosity for what lurks around for an odd old soul that perhaps likes his figures a bit too much. It slashes away with laughs at the growing terror, you might say. The rest of the folks are basically wrapped up in standard stuff of being trapped in a place for a bit too long with one inevitable final girl. Nobody sticks out besides what goes with the body count (and the terror shown in dealing with encountering how the proverbial sausage is made with plaster) without going into full skin-stuff; Jones is an adequate presence to slowly go further in the unraveling of more than just tourist spots and fun. The sequence near the end with the revelation that someone being less of what they thought they were is actually neatly unsettling (it's more interesting to see it than to spoil it). As a whole, this is a movie built on familiar horrific aspects that goes the way it goes for enjoyment in the eyes and ears of the beholder, which in this case is a spooky enough film worth checking out once.

Overall, I give it 7 out of 10 stars.

Song of the day!

Coincidentally, this was the first movie among the handful to be shown on the July 2018 Marathon of The Last Drive-In with Joe Bob Briggs. As started at 10:58, he calls it a severely underrated movie - The Last Drive-In With Joe Bob Briggs - Tourist Trap Intro

Lust for a Vampire.

Review #2597: Lust for a Vampire.

Cast: 

Michael Johnson (Richard LeStrange), Yutte Stensgaard (Mircalla Herritzen/Carmilla Karnstein), Ralph Bates (Giles Barton), Barbara Jefford (Countess Herritzen), Suzanna Leigh (Janet Playfair), Helen Christie (Miss Simpson), Mike Raven (Count Karnstein; dubbed by Valentine Dyall), Harvey Hall (Inspector Heinrich), Michael Brennan (landlord), Pippa Steel (Susan Pelley), Judy Matheson (Amanda), David Healy (Raymond Pelley), Jonathan Cecil (Biggs), and Erik Chitty (Professor Herz) Directed by Jimmy Sangster (#2107 - The Horror of Frankenstein)

Review: 

You might remember The Vampire Lovers (1970) from Hammer that had the loosest of inspirations from 1872 novella Carmilla from Sheridan Le Fanu that dealt with Austrian castles, affection and obsession by a female vampire. Screenwriter Tudor Gates had co-adapted the film for Roy Ward Baker that had Ingrid Pitt, George Cole, Kate O'Mara and Pete Cushing that actually was a co-production with American International. The following year, in a co-production with EMI Films came this film, which had, well, um, at least Pippa Steel appeared in both movies? Apparently, Gates had written a script for Mario Bava that was about a girls school with a serial killer and he based it for what eventually was cobbled into this movie, which went from having ideas of Terence Fisher to direct (felled by injuries in a car accident) to Jimmy Sangster, complete with having to use a pop song. With a display of more sex and violence than, say, a film from the previous decade, how could one go wrong? Well, Sangster did not have fond memories of the film (in fairness, he wasn't big on his third and final film as a director with Fear in the Night [1972]) and one of the stars in Bates apparently later called it "one of the worst films ever made". Others have argued that the film belongs in the category of "camp". Released in January 1971, the final film of the "trilogy" in Twins of Evil was released nine months later.

Well, "lesbian" vampire is a bit of a stretch, mainly because of the sequence involving our two leads (as played with a damn song over it), but I suppose trying to lure people in with a bisexual vampire would possibly be more fit for the seedy underpages,* Set roughly four decades after the events of the last film in the 1830s, the vampires here are a bit more curious, what with their ability to walk in the daylight and being impervious to, say, fire. This all puddles in comparison to the sleaze factor (namely in a bit of nudity, not in serial lovemaking) that...can only go so far in holding up a pretty measly effort. That's not to say there isn't some fun in its 91-minute runtime, because there are ideas of a premise worth watching, it just so happens to be in a movie that doesn't have lead performances with anything particularly compelling to show. Bates playing the hooligan version of the creep at the fair isn't even worth more than one sentence. You've got a novelist trying to do research on vampires with "in-depth" studying and a boarding school student who totally isn't torn in their feasting life. To say nothing of burning castles, dopey school fears, and throwing people down the well. Johnson was mostly involved in TV roles with the occasional supporting role, and I can't really say that there is anything here beyond the bare minimum of British drywall target for romance. This was the penultimate performance for Stensgaard (who soon moved to the States that saw her work in a radio station, among other things), who has the unfortunate task of trying to be a conflicted vampire (sexual or otherwise) when there is just nothing for here to really grab onto. This isn't just saying "poor man's Ingrid Pitt", this is just a case of a movie that loiters around showing a bit of nudity and violence but has no enthusiasm to it (basically the equivalent of a joyless grab of the crotch) that basically springs down to the leads for little drama to say anything about for the inevitable conclusion. Raven (actually named Churton Fairman) was actually a British radio disc jockey before he actually wanted to try his hand at appearing in movies, with this being the first of four appearances (the others were I, Monster [1971], Crucible of Terror [1971], Disciple of Death [1972]). Naturally, he gets dubbed by regular TV/radio presence in Valentine Dyall, who provides a worthwhile hash voice that also seems amusing to also pair with a momentary shot of, well, Christopher Lee's eyes from one of the Dracula movies. In general, the movie plods along with goofy execution, a middling pace and in general just seems too tired to actually get it up in terms of excitement to make it worth anything other than for the curiosity of, well, being another Hammer movie. 

Overall, I give it 6 out of 10 stars.

Song of the day!

*I can see it now: "the Bisexual Vampire Hotline: are you ready to be sucked off or are you a sucker?"

The Legacy (1978).

Review #2589: The Legacy.

Cast: 

Katharine Ross (Maggie Walsh), Sam Elliott (Pete Danner), Roger Daltrey (Clive Jackson), John Standing (Jason Mountolive), Ian Hogg (Harry), Margaret Tyzack (Nurse Adams), Charles Gray (Karl Liebnecht), Lee Montague (Jacques Grandier), Hildegard Neil (Barbara Kirstenburg), and Marianne Broome (Maria Gabrieli) Directed by Richard Marquand (#115 - Return of the Jedi)

Review: 

Sure, why not a co-production between the States and the United Kingdom for an original (i.e. one that actually isn't based on a book) horror movie? Apparently, Hammer mainstay Jimmy Sangster wrote the original script before further work was done by Patrick Tilley and Paul Wheeler. At the helm to direct for the first time was Richard Marquand. Born in Wales as the son of a politician, he started out as a TV/documentary director in the early 1960s. Marquand ultimately directed a total of seven films (most notably Return of the Jedi*) before his sudden death at the age of 49 in 1987. For whatever reason, the movie was released first in the UK in September 1978 and then an American release...in September 1979 (got to love a poster that actually advertises the "best-selling" book of the movie right then and there). With a budget of over $2.5 million, the movie did make some money with audiences, even if cast members weren't too fond of it; Anne Coates later stated that despite being convinced to do the film by Marquand, she felt he "clearly didn't know what he was doing at all", while Sam Elliott once called the film "fifteen years behind its time". Regardless of all the quibbles, it found a steady life on TV and home video.

With a plot that might as well have been cribbed from Rosemary's Baby (1968), The Omen (1976) and any movie involving old dark houses (with a bit of Ten Little Indians present just for the hell of it), you may get at least some entertainment from just ridiculously it all comes together in such an ersatz experience. You might be wondering, what could possibly be the "legacy" in the plot? Well, it involves six people all being invited to a rambling country estate in where else but jolly old England where odd butlers and spooky cats lurk within a few casual revelations involving, well, birthright and the craft. Somehow, within the powers of "witchcraft", escape or getting a ring off one's finger is basically impossible and somehow, a whole bunch of people start dying because, yes, six living heirs actually translates to "the Devil does in fact have takesies-backsies". It falls to Ross to try and sell the shock of not only being stuck in a strange new place (what, it's the English*) and I wish I could say she sells it, but no, it just feels like she is more on a bland trip of "oh I guess I'm going a bit nutty, that'll flush out", but I guess you could say the chemistry between her and Elliott* is curious. It just feels like a series of mild inconveniences, and sometimes I wish it was more about Elliott and his wiseass attitude towards the ridiculousness of this whole thing (imagine being told that your woman looks like someone in a painting while people are randomly dying and *then* you get stuck in a warp where you can't drive away). You wish there was more from Daltrey (as best known from his work with the Who*) or with Gray before they inevitably kick the bucket, which probably sticks out more; one dies through choking on a chicken bone and the other catches fire in a manner that makes sure the house is left totally unscathed. There just isn't a big enough ham or real villainous threat (Standing is barely present in a bed) to actually generate anything besides chuckles with seeing unsavory people getting offed. There are some pretty shots and fine gore, but it really does feel like a movie warped out of time without the energy to match. Even the ending feels too casual to actually work - imagine seeing what you've seen, climax and all and it just ends on more ring-giving. As a whole, it's a goofy little movie that doesn't exactly conjure up anything besides a few gore scenes and some offbeat conclusions to jump through by the time it concludes its tale of death and despair. It's the kind of movie you stumble onto and wonder, where the hell did the time go in all of the chuckles for such a mediocre time.

Overall, I give it 6 out of 10 stars.

Song of the day!

*A damn good movie, as I'm always prone to reminding people.

*Look man, willingly getting on a plane doesn't sound like my cup of-oh hell, throw the tea out.

*Incidentally, Elliott and Ross eventually married each other, so at least someone got a happy ending.

*The Who are neat, that's the note.

Stay Hungry.

Review #2577: Stay Hungry.

Cast: 

Jeff Bridges (Craig Blake), Sally Field (Mary Tate Farnsworth), Arnold Schwarzenegger (Joe Santo), R. G. Armstrong (Thor Erickson), Robert Englund (Franklin), Helena Kallianiotes (Anita), Roger E. Mosley (Newton), Woodrow Parfrey (Uncle Albert), Scatman Crothers (William), Kathleen Miller (Dorothy Stephens), Fannie Flagg (Amy), Joanna Cassidy (Zoe), Richard Gilliland (Hal), Mayf Nutter (Richard Packman), Ed Begley Jr (Lester), John David Carson (Halsey), and Joe Spinell (Jabo) Directed by Bob Rafelson (#2159 - Head)

Review: 

"I place a great deal of faith in the collaboration of the entire company, and in the atmosphere in which I am shooting. I try to remain susceptible to what the characters are telling me, what the weather is telling me, what the sounds around me are telling me… While I do enormous amounts of preparation, I go through a strange emptying process before I go to the stage, and try to evaporate all the preconceived notions I have about how the day’s work is going to be. I try to stay vulnerable."

Sure, let's hitchhike our way down to the other other other Bob Rafelson movie. Some might associate him with Head (1968), featuring The Monkees (of which he helped to develop), or perhaps with Five Easy Pieces (1970), or even The King of Marvin Gardens (1972), with the latter two featuring Jack Nicholson. After the release of Gardens, Rafelson found himself hitchhiking across the South. Rather than doing a movie about the slave trade (with countless time spent in libraries and apparently Ghana), he landed upon something suggested to him by a friend: a book by Charles Gaines called Stay Hungry. Sure, he didn't really care about making a straight adaptation of the book, but he felt that the "conclusions of his novel were not unlike the conclusions I had come to in both Five Easy Pieces and The King of Marvin Gardens" (of course, in the book, it ends with a death). Stay Hungry made a bit of money when it came out in April 1976, and you can safely say each of the three leads went on to bigger things. Incidentally, the actual Gaines was an interesting fellow - he was a writer and outdoorsman that could talk about the outdoors just as much as bodybuilding, and he served as one of the driving forces behind Pumping Iron (1977, as inspired on his 1974 book with George Butler), the docudrama featuring Schwarzenegger during the 1975 Mr. Olympia competitions*. Rafelson's next film was to be Brubaker, only to be fired due to having troubles with a certain studio executive (who he apparently socked in the jaw). Instead, he returned to the screen with The Postman Always Rings Twice (1981).

It's not every day you get a movie where someone decides, hey, let's steal a painting from a building for the hell of it, nighttime be damned. It's the kind of movie that makes you feel like you're on the road without actually travelling very far in any one direction. It's a freeform movie with plenty of episodes of things to go around, whether that involves the pursuit of bodybuilding (particularly at the end), bluegrass playing, hookers, women trying to do karate*, and dudes who really chase the hunger of the next thing rather than stay comfortable. That last point, wrapped in the eccentricities of what Rafelson loves to show in the "New" South makes for a movie that will please its admirers and annoy those who can't get into its 102-minute runtime. I thought it was mildly fun, mainly when it actually does find some footing with these people for warm fun, which mostly comes with Schwarzenegger*, who has a sweet sense of charm within his acceptance of being a big man in a world that likes to look (and use) big men like him for as long as they possibly could (not particularly sure what the costume worn for the workouts is supposed to really mean, but, well, that's something else). Bridges and Field have a certain type of casual nature together that sees both just dally around for the sake of dallying, where the former has to realize he needs something in his life, anything that sounds different than the usual hollow times in a big house (or drunk) while the latter can only help but speak her mind. These are folks who think that any type of different thing is better than whatever they have now (even if choosing a fling over barhopping is not particularly that effusive). Granted, this is also a movie that doesn't really paint a wide canvas of characters as you want it to do (I could take more time with whatever Kallianiotes is doing in karate, for example), but there are a handful of amusing little moments if you let the movie wash over. You get bits of wormy Spinell to go with a fairly youthful Englund, a fairly creepy (and timely) Armstrong and a climax that lets things hangout without too many definitive endings. It is a movie firmly wrapped in its time and place of a different type of South with Birmingham that moves on its own terms in ungainly but fascinating entertainment.  It's a movie for folks who want to make their own mark and think shooting the breeze might as well be the way over as long as the hunger burns. 

Overall, I give it 7 out of 10 stars.

*Did I mention that he was a co-creator of the sport of paintball? No, really. Incidentally, Schwarzenegger earned his one acting award for "Golden Globe for Best Acting Debut in a Motion Picture", mainly because they forgot that it actually wasn't his first film role: others may remember him, billed as "Arnold Strong" playing Hercules (albeit in a dubbed capacity) in Hercules in New York [1970]. He also appeared in a bit role in The Long Goodbye [1973].

*There is a rumor that Rafelson asked for Field to take off her shirt and kiss him (specifically Field said it in her autobiography). He denied this, although he subsequently did get divorced from his wife (and production designer) Toby Carr Rafelson soon after this film. So it goes.

*Orange belt as a kid, folks. Kinda fun.

Cisco Pike.

Review #2570: Cisco Pike.

Cast: 

Kris Kristofferson (Cisco Pike), Gene Hackman (Detective Leo Holland), Karen Black (Sue), Harry Dean Stanton (Jesse Dupre), Viva (Merna), Doug Sahm (Rex), Roscoe Lee Browne (Pawnshop Owner), Joy Bang (Lynn), Severn Darden (Lawyer), Antonio Fargas (Brother Buffalo), with Don Sturdy (Recording Engineer), and Allan Arbus (Sim Valensi) Directed by Bill L. Norton.

Review:  

My favoritism does ring strong for select folks, admittedly. How many people can beat Barbra Striesand at their own game in trying to be the big fish in terms of actual presence in a movie (I fondly still remember watching A Star is Born (1976) and being amazed its sheer mediocrity). The Brownsville-born nomad was prolific enough at Pomona College that there were ideas of him being a writer, complete with study at the University of Oxford. Instead, he ended up as a jack of all trades in odd jobs (okay there was stuff in the middle of that such as being in the Army), one of them being a janitor at Columbia Records as a wannabee songwriter. He did appear in his first film with the adventure from hell in The Last Movie (1971). Apparently, in the aftermath of drunkenly stumbling through being rejected for a part in Two-Lane Blacktop, he got offered the script for this film and decided against the advice of taking acting lessons for a character that he thought he related to. Inadvertently, this also is a chance to spotlight a forgotten filmmaker that had a brief flash in the sun. Bill L. Norton was the son of William W. Norton, who actually was a writer in Hollywood that ranged from television with The Big Valley to movies with White Lightning [1973]*. As for the younger Norton, he graduated from UCLA and went from writing stuff such as How to Succeed with Girls (1964) and (uncredited) camera operating on movies like The Fortune Cookie (1966). But when film producers looked for any type of "freethinkers" or "hippie" perspective in the wake of Easy Rider's success in 1969, Norton got his chance to be a director with a script (with one working title being "Dealer") that attracted producer Gerald Ayres and Columbia Pictures. Robert Towne was asked to look over the script, with his most noted contribution being the addition of Hackman's character, although he was left uncredited. Lumped in some circles to other counterculture movies such as Getting Straight [1970] and Making It [1971], the movie had its opening premiere in late 1971 before going into limited release in 1972 that resulted middling reviews and a lack of an audience. The next Norton movie was More American Graffiti (1979). While there were a few showings to theaters that still had a print, the movie wasn't available on home media such as VHS or DVD until a release in the latter format in 2006. 

I suppose it makes sense that Norton called it his rendition of La Dolce Vita but set in L.A." In the domain of the Venice neighborhood with things of yesteryear such as the Pacific Ocean Park (closed since 1967). You could consider how Kristofferson considered acting to be as one that could be "just understanding a character, and then being just as honest as you can possibly be" (as said in 1974), or, for what he thought about the movie over 50 years later, one where he mused about what exactly "gave me the audacity to think I could act." The movie coasts along with a lead character that basically is an anachronism going through a travelogue in a type of California (West L.A.) that either runs on the fumes of banality or, well, is curious enough to actually see all the way through its 95-minute runtime. Kristofferson is the drifter, the has-been, the elusive one, the guy in all of us that can't just be one thing without some smart aleck or oddball trying to get one over us (such as trying to not be a dealer). Hackman made the movie right before doing The French Connection (Cisco premiered shortly after Connection). His panicky oddness popping in every now and then (for what could generously be estimated as being less than 20 minutes) is a curious one to see when compared to the familiar comforts of the kooky Black (by this point a recent Academy Award nominee with Five Easy Pieces [1970]) or the splattering of support that comes with Viva or the withered Stanton. Any observation about the movie, positive or negative, basically can be responded to with "it depends, man". The songs from Kristofferson are delightful for those who roll with doing something for the sake of it that basically is the movie in a nutshell: you drift in and drift out and maybe figure something out by the time it all has come to pass (or not). I can't call it a great movie, but a drifting movie with likeable enough folks and music is more than enough to at least call it a possible gem for the curious.

Overall, I give it 7 out of 10 stars.

Song of the day!

Next up: Fuck it, it's 20 years old: 8.18.06: SNAKES ON A PLANE

*Honestly, I have no bias against Streisand, I just...never got into watching her movies. Or her songs. I accidentally took nearly 15 years of Movie Night to actually get to a Jane Fonda movie, it isn't exactly a surprise that I've seen two Streisand movies in the span of 16 years.

*Mr. William W. Norton was a strange guy. He crapped on his contributions to movies (once stating that one would only know his films if their "I.Q" [was] low enough"), later moved to Ireland and got mad about Roman Catholic residents getting attacked to the point where he went back to the States to run guns to the Irish National Liberation Army. He got caught and served 19 months in prison. He moved to Central America only to get robbed and killed one of the robbers. He moved around before finally being smuggled back to America. He died in 2010 at the age of 85 while his son Bill still lives.

*Forgot to send a link: LIFE - Google Books

Red Sun (1971).

Review #2564: Red Sun.

Cast: 

Charles Bronson (Link Stuart), Ursula Andress (Cristina), Toshirō Mifune (Kuroda Jubei), Alain Delon (Gauche), Capucine (Pepita), Barta Barri (Paco), Lee Burton (Mace), Anthony Dawson (Hyatt), Gianni Medici (Miguel), George W. Lycan (Sheriff Stone), Luc Merenda (Chato), and Tetsu Nakamura (the Japanese Ambassador) Directed by Terence Young (#150 - Dr. No, #278 - From Russia with Love, #335 - Thunderball, #1763 - Inchon)

Review: 

Yes, there are some movies that do slip by the radar despite having a few big names around the sun. Apparently, the film had been in development since 1968, complete with Toshiro Mifune being tapped early but the idea of having Clint Eastwood as a co-star eventually fizzled. Instead, in perhaps amusing irony, you've got Charles Bronson (one of the stars of The Magnificent Seven, the remake of Seven Samurai) co-starring with Mifune. Laird Koenig wrote the story for the film before a handful of screenwriters came in with Denne Bart Petitclerc (in his first screenplay after writing for TV and fresh off the one season run of creating Then Came Bronson [1969-70]), William Roberts (coincidentally a writer on the Seven film), and Lawrence Roman for what became a French-Italian-Spain production (i.e. filming in Spain and plenty of worldly companies producing the venture, which actually was supposed to be a Warner Bros.-Seven Arts movie). It was the second of three movies that Young made back-to-back with Bronson (a favorite of making movies in Europe that he once stated were thought to be foreign by Americans and American by the Japanese) with Cold Sweat (1970) and The Valachi Papers (1972) being the others (each with varying levels of involvement from French-Italian companies). Incidentally, Mifune learned his lines phonetically, as he did for roles in English (which, well, he didn't know the language, and this isn't even getting into movies where he is dubbed like with Midway [1976]). It didn't exactly become a widely well-known hit, although Mifune's presence apparently got it a couple of attendance records in the run in Japan. Apparently, Quentin Tarantino noted his appreciation of the film on at least one occasion.

 

The term "Spaghetti Western" referred to Westerns produced in Europe that were mostly made in either Italy or Spain. Here lies the setting in 1870, a couple of years after the first Japanese ambassadors arrived in America and yet there are perilous times ahead on a journey through the West through railroads and outlaws. You get an "East meets West" type of buddy movie that makes for an unwieldy but serviceable time to sit through at least once. By the first 25 minutes of its 112-minute runtime, you get the setup that appeals to the most ridiculous of time limits: if the duo fails to recover a gold-handled tachi in one week for the ambassador, the bodyguard and the ambassador will actually commit harakiri (ritualistic suicide*). Heck, by the time 40 minutes are gone, you already got a brief goofy fight to make light of Bronson trying to "fight" Mifune. In that sense, Bronson probably benefits from a clash of macho-ness with Mifune where he seems to not aim for the usual dry self in the "shoot-and-slash" pace of action. Sure, he still is outdone by Mifune in the type of presence that comes with basically commanding the screen without having to say much, but I think you get the appeal that each bring in learning what really matters in "honor". Honestly, the film needed a bit more from Andress and others, because it really is a road film with Bronson & Mifune and Delon basically sucks out the rest of the energy even with the limited time basically being a mustache-twirler type of adversary. The sequence near the climax where they have to confront Comanches does veer into a few cliches, but at least the movie finds a way to close itself out with a mostly deserving finish (predictable, sure, but familiar fun is still fun). The landscape may seem familiar, and the carnage may be inevitable (dynamite, train robberies, and double-crosses), but that's part of the fun if you buy what Young and company is selling for flim-flam charm. As a whole, it isn't a great movie by any means, but it has a few entertaining moments with a dynamite enough duo with Bronson and Mifune leading the way to make it a curious recommendation for those who like oddball type of Westerns.

Overall, I give it 7 out of 10 stars.

Song of the day!

Come one, come all, be ready for another month-long celebration in August on Movie Night with...Acknowledged in August Again

*Seppuku, harakiri, you get the idea.

Cannonball.

Review #2559: Cannonball.

Cast: 

David Carradine (Coy "Cannonball" Buckman), Bill McKinney (Cade Redman), Veronica Hamel (Linda Maxwell), Gerrit Graham (Perman Waters), Robert Carradine (Jim Crandell), Belinda Balaski (Maryann), Mary Woronov (Sandy Harris), Diane Lee Hart (Wendy), Glynn Rubin (Ginny), James Keach (Wolf Messer), Dick Miller (Bennie Buckman), Paul Bartel (Lester Marks), Stanley Bennett Clay (Beutell Morris), Judy Canova (Sharma Capri), Archie Hahn (Zippo), and Carl Gottlieb (Terry McMillan) Directed by Paul Bartel (#955 - Eating Raoul, #2231 - Death Race 2000, #2440 - Private Parts)

Review: 

Yes, the Cannonball Baker Sea-to-Shining-Sea Memorial Trophy Dash inspired quite a few movies. Once upon a time, in the 1970s, a couple of people got together and wanted to go cross-country across the United States really really fast. It was devised by car magazine writer/auto racer Brock Yates and Car and Driver editor Steve Smith that ran a couple of times in the 1970s (1971, 1972, 1975, 1979) that liked to celebrate the interstate highway and protest against traffic laws.* Various things came about involving speed limits and car rallies (One Lap of America and Gumball 3000, specifically). Believe it or not, Yates actually was planning to do a movie screenplay but was instead beaten to the punch by Samuel W. Gelfman, a producer who hired Paul Bartel and David Carradine (fresh off Death Race 2000 [1975]) to make a movie that would be distributed by Roger Corman's New World Pictures. The resulting script was cobbled together from Paul Bartel and Donald C. Simpson (this was Simpson's only credited screenplay, as the following year saw him named vice president of production at Paramount). Released in July, it was released one month before The Gumball Rally from Warner Bros. (the car race movie with Michael Sarrazin as star). Bartel later stated that while he was never interested in cars or racing, he decided loading the film with cameos and gimmicks that interested him would work out for him (which included a scene of Bartel playing the piano, naturally). The movie (which includes a gauntlet of cameos from Roger Corman to Sylvester Stallone) was not as big a success as Death Race 2000. Yates did get his screenplay made into a film, albeit with an all-star ensemble cast in Hal Needham's The Cannonball Run (1981), complete with a cameo appearance. Coincidentally, both movies had funding from Hong Kong companies: Cannonball had the involvement of Shaw Brothers Studio while The Cannonball Run had the involvement of Golden Harvest (and even the involvement of Jackie Chan as one of the stars).

It's a movie with a very macho Carradine that goes around driving through the mayhem that comes from exploding cars, mid-wit brothers, cars piling onto themselves, and good ol' scrappy fun. Sure, it does plod along at 93 minutes with an array of jokes and action set-pieces that are pretty hit and miss. But I enjoy the general enthusiasm that comes through to say that it is at least curious to sit through once, perhaps as part of a double-header with Death Race 2000 (or, to see the comparison of familiar faces, The Cannonball Run, a movie my dad surely liked enough to have on DVD). If you like Carradine and cars, this is somehow second of a sort-of-trilogy of Carradine, cars, and New World distribution. In 1978, Carradine happened to do another vehicle-related car movie with Deathsport (1978) for New World (with Allan Arkush and Nicholas Niciphor as director). It's the usual type of understated macho performance from Carradine that coasts through the experience with a few kicks and the same number of expressions as say, Clint Eastwood (in other words: fine?). McKinney and his loosely defined adversary position is at least interesting to see play off Carradine here and there, but it mostly is a film for bits and pieces of things (most significantly with Miller, the "that guy!" king). Hell, he probably is almost outshone by R.Carradine and Balaski taking the time in doing the race (which even sees them take a competitor to the hospital). It's a movie built for theatrics: guys playing country songs in a fast car will eventually go by the wayside for a stunt jump over an unfinished bridge (which is cool). Strangely enough, this and Cannonball Run share the same type of conclusion: the lead doesn't actually win the race because a last-second snafu (okay it's a bit dourer in this film as compared to the other one, but still) with its own type of punchline in bringing the wreck back home. It's a movie where you either go "cool", "eh", or "nope", pure and simple. As a whole, it certainly is a step down from Death Race 2000 (1975) in terms of entertainment with the second and last collaboration between Bartel and Carradine, but it still is worth a watch for those who like offbeat movies on the road that is sometimes funny but generally involving to see to the end.

Overall, I give it 7 out of 10 stars.

Song of the day!

*In a movie, it's whatever, but here's an easy take: follow traffic laws. People shouldn't die because some pissant had to go 100 on a 75 or because some moron doesn't use their turn signals. 

Godzilla vs. Megalon.

Review #2558: Godzilla vs. Megalon.

Cast: 

Katsuhiko Sasaki (Inventor Goro Ibuki), Hiroyuki Kawase (Rokuro Ibuki), Yutaka Hayashi (Hiroshi Jinkawa), Robert Dunham (Emperor Antonio of Seatopia, Seatopian agent on motorcycle; Gorō Naya as Japanese voice of Antonio), Kotaro Tomita (Lead Seatopian Agent), Wolf Ohtsuki (Seatopian Agent), Gentaro Nakajima (Truck Driver), Sakyo Mikami (Truck Driver's Assistant), with Tsugutoshi Komada (Jet Jaguar), Shinji Takagi (Godzilla), Hideto Date (Megalon), and Kenpachiro Satsuma (Gigan) Directed by Jun Fukuda (#1668 - Ebirah, Horror of the Deep, #2070 - Son of Godzilla, #2525 - Godzilla vs. Gigan)

Review: 

Oh, poor Jun Fukuda. It's not easy making four Godzilla movies where the highlight is either a mediocre Son of Godzilla or one brimming with mockery amidst the use of stock footage. With this film, the 13th Godzilla movie, you've got a clash of ideas and ambitions all bubbling to the surface: All Monsters Attack (1969)'s original villain was going to be a giant mole cricket before a series of reworkings (one involving pairing it with other monsters under the command of hostile alien invaders) led to, well, a giant beetle. Now, you might wonder what the hell "Jet Jaguar" plays into it. Togo had a contest for kids in late 1972 that apparently resulted in a robot called Red Arone (apparently, it looked something like this). Shinichi Sekizawa did a few story ideas but did not have time to actually write a script, which fell to Fukuda to write the screenplay for a film that reportedly took just three weeks to shoot. As you probably would guess, extensive stock footage is utilized, whether that is films from nearly ten years ago with Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster (1964) to others such as Invasion of Astro-Monster (1965) and Godzilla vs. Gigan (1972). In some ways, this movie has been credited as giving the perception of kaiju movies as being a bit campy or comedic, with the 1976 American release by Cinema Shares having a poster featuring Godzilla and Megalon...fighting on the World Trade Center (because if one is going to straight up "spoof" the King Kong (1976) poster, you might as well go all the way, even if it reeks of hackery). It was also featured on Mystery Science Theater 3000). It even had a primetime broadcast on NBC in 1977, albeit in a form that was cut to less than an hour. Thankfully, with the modern age, you can just watch the damn movie with subtitles like a normal person (Criterion or otherwise) *. Fukuda got one more Godzilla movie to do with Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla (1974). 

I first saw footage of the film in what else but James Rolfe's "Godzilla-a-thon" years ago (the one that briefly recapped each movie up to 2004*), so I had an inkling of what was going to come. It sure is a shame about the "camp" label, mainly because that label always seems to be used for a tired argument very now and then about movies they want to find a longwinded way of just saying "silly"*. You'll never believe this: it's an 81 minute Godzilla movie with a few silly moments, a few familiar things, fairly forgettable humans (with one exception?) and a pretty bog-standard quality that reminds you that there are better movies out there. Look. you get to see a flying two-feet karate kick from Godzilla and a goofy robot that doesn't even change its expression with Jet Jaguar, a suddenly sentient being that can grow really really tall (I'm sure there is a measurement in feet or "meters", but Movie Night does not recognize the latter). The irony is that for all the interesting visuals (the bits not from 1970, anyway), I could not find one interesting thing to say about Saskai, Kawase, or Hiyashi (you think modern Godzilla movies have dodgy human characters? Watch this movie and get back to me). They are there, they show up, they remind you that even robots have more to really say than kid actors, and so on and so forth. It is delightfully preposterous in ways that are entirely easy to see coming: dudes wearing what appear to be a toga (Dunham, complete with some chest hair) dealing with an underground kingdom that send monsters rather than negotiate (we are past the part the military not mattering) and Godzilla (don't ask about the suit, at least they tried making it seem freshly new) basically taking longer than a superhero to show up in the film. But when it does get moving, there are some amusing parts that remind you that even a bad Godzilla movie (with one Emmerich-sized exception) can at least be an amusing time. Not a movie for serious analysis or fans of good films, but if you like watching Godzilla or. monster mashes, maybe you'll have a time worth noting.

Overall, I give it 6 out of 10 stars.

(Jet Jaguar's) song of the day!

*No, I will not budge on subtitles over dubs. I didn't give a shit who was doing the English dub of, say, The Boy and the Heron, so it is either original dub or nothing. You can also bookmark this and call me an idiot if I pull a hypocritical move.

*I love the old Cinemassacre. No comment on the AVGN Movie though.

*Unrelated, probably. You can call it a conspiracy theory, but I firmly believe that a good deal of critiques of horror movies with "misogyny!" is actually just folks looking for an easy punching bag because they don't have anything better to do with their time. And there is no "campy" horror, that's just "comedy-horror", so stop it!

For the purposes of having a reference of previous Godzilla movies, inquire here: 

The original 1954 classic and its decent 1955 sequel

King Kong vs. Godzilla (1962) - Godzilla fights King Kong to a relative draw.

Mothra vs. Godzilla (1964) - Mothra joins the mash!

Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster (1964) - A monster so important it made the title

Invasion of Astro-Monster (1965) - Nick Adams in: Spaceman's Adventure

Ebirah, Horror of the Deep (1966) - Terrorists, lobsters, and more.

Son of Godzilla (1967) - A real family drama

Destroy All Monsters (1968) - Mash like it's 1999 in Monsterland

All Monsters Attack (1969) - Children and Minilla have to fight their own battles instead of Godzilla

Godzilla vs. Hedorah (1971) - Trippy environmentally hip fun for the whole family

Godzilla vs. Gigan (1972) - Godzilla towers and a clip show all in one

The Outlaw Josey Wales.

Review #2554: The Outlaw Josey Wales.

Cast: 

Clint Eastwood (Josey Wales), Chief Dan George (Lone Watie), Sondra Locke (Laura Lee Turner), Bill McKinney (Captain Terrill), John Vernon (Fletcher), Paula Trueman (Grandma Sarah Turner), Sam Bottoms (Jamie), Geraldine Keams (Little Moonlight), Woodrow Parfrey (Percy Long), Joyce Jameson (Rose), Sheb Wooley (Travis Cobb), Royal Dano (Ten Spot), Matt Clark (Kelly), John Verros (Chato), Will Sampson (Ten Bears), William O'Connell (Sim Carstairs), Madeleine Taylor Holmes (Grannie Hawkins), John Quade (Ciril E. Forebaugh), Frank Schofield (Senator James Henry Lane), Buck Kartalian (Shopkeeper), Len Lesser (Abe), and Doug McGrath (Lige)

Directed by Clint Eastwood (#1252 - Space Cowboys, #1310 - Million Dollar Baby, #1476 - Pale Rider, #1501 - Unforgiven, #1550 - Gran Torino, #1638 - Bird, #1757 - Sudden Impact, #1831 - High Plains Drifter, #2487 - The Rookie)

Review: 

"When people stop me in the street, it tends to be about Josey Wales. They seem to like that one. I rented it recently, it still holds up."

As we approach the Semiquincentennial of America, I suppose it only makes sense to cover a film that came across in the dawn of the Bicentennial fifty years ago. The movie was based on a book called The Rebel Outlaw: Josey Wales (titled Gone to Texas in later editions), which was published in 1973 with the writer being listed as Forrest Carter. He had sent the book unsolicited to Eastwood's office with a letter talking about "Eastwood's kind eyes", and go figure, producer Robert Daley felt it looked like a good idea to approach it to Eastwood, who soon agreed to work with optioning Carter's book. When Philip Kaufman looked at the book for the first time, he thought, well, that it was written by a "crude fascist". He co-wrote the screenplay with Sonia Chernus, which included the characters of Terrill and Fletcher that was not previously included in the book. It didn't help with filming, as disagreements with Eastwood in the shooting led to Kaufman's firing in favor of Eastwood, which he once said was "the worst moment of my life"*. It was his fifth film as a director, after the release of The Eiger Sanction (1975). The resulting film made over eight times its $3 million budget back with audiences when released (premiering in late June for a festival before going into release in July and August). As for Carter, he actually was born Asa Earl Carter, an Alabama-born segregationist who for whatever reason decided to try and rebrand himself as a writer with Cherokee background that lived in Abilene, Texas. Sure, there were rumbling questions about who Carter really as early as 1975 (only a few years prior, he ran a failed campaign for governor of Alabama), but Carter kept the facade on long enough to have written three further books, one of which was The Education of Little Tree (which was adapted into a film in 1997). He died at the age of 53, which apparently came after choking on his own vomit after a fight with his son. Plans to do a movie based on his second novel with the Wales character in The Vengeance Trail of Josey Wales (1976) did not come to pass with Eastwood involved. In 1986, Michael Parks directed and starred in The Return of Josey Wales, which dealt with confronting corrupt lawmen in Mexico.

Sure, you might wonder how it goes to make a movie about an ex-Confederate guerilla (incidentally, Jesse James was one of them), particularly with a person that believed that the "values of a civilization never died so long as they’re kept alive in legend.” Simply put, there are people who really thought there was a lost cause to a group of losers who never won a war, never deserved a monument to being traitors, and never did anything meaningful for the United States of America besides dying, because goddamn it, you should know the war was fought over slavery before you leave high school*. But, and this is the important part, it is such a worthwhile movie to see a tale of a man at war with himself that becomes whole again (besides, some people called Dirty Harry "fascist", it didn't stop them from making four more of those movies), or at least much as possible when the iron in his words is akin to the iron of a pistol. All he wants to do is move on and pick up what was broken in him from the war and move on. As Eastwood once said, man becomes his most creative in war, so you can only do so much to clean the blood stain from the tapestry. It isn't even that much of a revenge tale, because McKinney (and to a lesser extent in adversarial nature, Vernon) is not present in the movie as much as, say, George is for the 135-minute runtime, as if to suggest that it matters to see the frontier for what it really is beyond the cliches matters more than if one is going to rattle the sabre right into a man's heart, which, well, yes. It's a violent movie that also has plenty of offbeat moments, such as the moment where one says that hell is coming to breakfast. Everything collides for a reckoning of the soul, whether that's Eastwood and his ambivalence, George and his straightforward nature or otherwise. New order, old order, we thrive on the myths and tales we tell for ourselves, regardless of where they may spring from. As a whole, The Outlaw Josey Wales freewheels history and the usual conventions of the Western for a pretty solid result in offbeat entertainment that is expertly filmed and executed by Eastwood and company for a movie that reckons with community and what really matters to live or die on the frontier.

Overall, I give it 9 out of 10 stars.

Song of the day!

*If one goes by this interview, Kaufman has never seen the film: Philip Kaufman: The Hollywood Interview | The Hollywood Interview

*If I remember correctly, my dad had a license plate cover of the Confederate battle flag. And yet, I turned out the way I did.