The Pit and the Pendulum (1961).

Review #2295: The Pit and the Pendulum (1961).

Cast:

Vincent Price (Nicholas / Sebastian Medina), John Kerr (Francis Barnard), Barbara Steele (Elizabeth), Luana Anders (Catherine Medina), Antony Carbone (Doctor Leon), Patrick Westwood (Maximillian), and Lynette Bernay (Maria) 

Produced and Directed by Roger Corman (#368 - The Little Shop of Horrors, #684 - It Conquered the World, #852 - The Terror, #931 - Not of This Earth, #1007 - Attack of the Crab Monsters, #1039 - Five Guns West, #1042 - War of the Satellites, #1136 - Gas-s-s-s, #1147 - X: The Man with the X-ray Eyes, #1186 - A Bucket of Blood, #1423 - The Wild Angels, #1425 - The St. Valentine's Day Massacre, #1674 - Machine-Gun Kelly, #1684 - Creature from the Haunted Sea, #1918 - House of Usher, #2030 - The Trip, #2113 - The Undead, #2211 - The Intruder, #2275 - The Wasp Woman)

Review: 

"I had a lot of theories I was working with when I did the Poe films... One of my theories was that these stories were created out of the unconscious mind of Poe, and the unconscious mind never really sees reality, so until The Tomb of Ligeia, we never showed the real world. In Pit, John Kerr arrived in a carriage against an ocean background, which I felt was more representative of the unconscious."

Well, when you get one successful movie based on the Poe stories, who not another? House of Usher (1960) and this film share the same screenwriter (Richard Matheson), the same cinematographer (Floyd Crosby), the same set designer (Daniel Haller) and even the same lead actor (Price). Apparently, one plan to follow up Usher was to adapt "The Masque of the Red Death", but either Corman or Samuel Z. Arkoff decided that the 1842 story "The Pit and the Pendulum" by Poe would be better to adapt next (Corman claimed that making Masque would inspire comparisons to The Seventh Seal [1957]); it wasn't exactly set in stone to make a series of Poe films yet, it just so happened that the first was a hell of surprise in being a hit that they thought they could another one. The original story was merely a brief tale involving the Spanish Inquisition that involved a razor pendulum and eventually a contraption involving moving red-hot walls, which made it a tough one to crack for adaptation at first. Matheson reflected on the fact that he basically imposed an "old suspense mystery" in an attempt to do Poe. A prologue was shot for TV that sometimes is included for home media releases to view. The next film in the Poe cycle would be the unusual one of the group in The Premature Burial (1962), which originally started out as a non-AIP venture in financing (before soon becoming one, although Ray Milland was the star). Matheson didn't write that film, but he did write for the next two Corman-Poe films with Tales of Terror (1962) and The Raven (1963).

Admittedly, one probably does have an early sense of familiarity watching this any time after doing so with Usher, since both start with someone going up to a foreboding place involving a doomed Price and a doomed lady. But if you know Corman well enough, you know that he had the spark to make a worthwhile venture when everything comes up his way in execution for 80 minutes. He may have had 15 days to shoot the film, but he makes the film look like it came out of the woodwork with no trouble at all, one that shows his craftsmanship and his imagination in perpetuating his ideas of Poe and the unconscious mind. As spearheaded by Haller, the film utilized a handful of discarded pieces of sets (such as archways and stone wall units) for its look that looks dazzling in unnerving enjoyment. I'm not quite sure which is better among Usher or Pendulum, but one would be forgiven for just going along with the ride when it comes to a seminal actor like Price to lead the way. One can wonder just how to describe how good Price is when you've seen him in plenty of horror movies, but he has that certain type of talent that means one never seems to see him phone it in just for the sake of it all. His descent into madness is our descent because of how lurid everything looks and feels to us. I can't help but smile when the film kicks into the climax in delightful terror, probably because there is something befitting in smiling at what otherwise is a scary prospect: torture-traps and looping into old traumas by manipulation. The fact that the torture device looks spooky enough to actually look dangerous helps to really bring it all together for a movie that could've just as easily weltered with such a specific amount of people to focus on (five, really). Kerr may be ordinary, but he at least is steady enough to keep things Steele may not have much to do, but she does prove a worthy conniving match with Anders when it comes to strange bedfellows, particularly when it comes to that final rundown and shot. In totality, it is a delightful movie, making a worthwhile addition to the horror tradition that plays loosely with the Poe story in the best way possible for one's mind to look with.

Overall, I give it 9 out of 10 stars.

Creature from the Haunted Sea.

Review #1684: Creature from the Haunted Sea.

Cast: 

Antony Carbone (Renzo Capetto), Betsy Jones-Moreland (Mary-Belle Monahan), Robert Towne (Sparks Moran / Agent XK150 / Narrator), Beach Dickerson (Pete Peterson Jr), Robert Bean (Happy Jack Monahan), Esther Sandoval (Porcina Perez), Sonia Noemí González (Mango Perez), Edmundo Rivera Álvarez (General Tostada), Terry Nevin (Colonel Cabeza Grande), Blanquita Romero (Carmelita Rodriguez), and Jaclyn Hellman (Agent XK-120) Produced and Directed by Roger Corman (#368 - The Little Shop of Horrors, #684 - It Conquered the World, #852 - The Terror, #931 - Not of This Earth, #1007 - Attack of the Crab Monsters, #1039 - Five Guns West, #1042 - War of the Satellites, #1136 - Gas-s-s-s, #1147 - X: The Man with the X-ray Eyes, #1186 - A Bucket of Blood, #1423 - The Wild Angels, #1425 - The St. Valentine's Day Massacre, and #1674 - Machine-Gun Kelly)

Review: 

In his autobiography How I Made a Hundred Movies in Hollywood And Never Lost a Dime, Corman briefly talked about the movie, one that came about when in production for filming Last Woman on Earth and Battle of Blood Island (he directed the former while producing the latter), and it should also be mentioned that money for this film came from stuff left that wasn't used for The Wild Ride (1960). This movie and the aforementioned Earth film share the same trio of actors of stars with Carbone, Jones-Moreland, and Towne. He discovered that there were tax incentives available for "manufacturing" in Puerto Rico, which included moviemaking. During the two-week shoot for the aforementioned Earth film, he contacted Charles B. Griffith about making him a script. Charles B. Griffith had written the scripts for a variety of films for Corman, such as Naked Paradise (1957) and Beast from Haunted Cave (1959), and this film has a few similarities to those; he was told to make a comedy-horror movie ripe for filming, complete with having a week to do it, although Corman dictated the ending (incidentally, each film had one day of preproduction). Believe it or not, he actually intended to have a small part in the film, telling Griffith to write a small part with Happy Jack; Griffith responded by making a part with mood swings that Corman noticed he couldn't do, so he gave it to a performer that had worked on one of Corman's productions in Robert Bean (he also got to play the Creature), one that was used for animal noises while also being the boom mic operator.

The movie begins with probably the most interesting moment with an animation sequence directed by Monte Hellman (who coincidentally was the director of Beast from Haunted Cave), one of the numerous folks who collaborated with Corman that gave them a start in filmmaking. So yes, Puerto Rico is doubling for Cuba, and the plot involves a gambler helping exiled Cubans with getting a fortune of gold out of the country before his crew plans to take down the group with a cover story of a mythical monster. Somewhere in all of that is an American secret agent that narrates the movie that falls in with the group and fails to do anything of importance because he bumbles in a crush on one of the criminals while others fall in with the natives. Technically, since the movie never seems like a real movie at any point, this should be interesting. Honestly though, its energy level really matches The Fast and the Furious (1954) in true average value. Carbone might sound like Humphrey Bogart, but it doesn't make him seem anything other than mildly bemused to be standing with a semi-comedy/thriller. Jones-Moreland thought it sounded better as just a takeoff on what Corman had done before, but she felt it got lost somewhere in the middle, and she is quoted as wishing she had never heard of it. That is more words to use for her than the performance, which is just okay. Robert Towne (future writer of films such as Chinatown) stars as one of the actors, although he is credited as Edward Wain. He had first met Roger Corman when each were in an acting class together (taught by Jeff Corey); never one to miss giving a chance to untested individuals, Towne wrote for Corman with the film Last Woman on Earth in 1960 (he would also write for Corman with The Tomb of Ligeia four years later). The costs for bringing him along with the actors would have meant Towne would need to be hired as an actor by Corman, so he did so, taking the trip to Puerto Rico. Technically speaking, he reminds me of a fluky parody of a noir character, but he isn't exactly Don Adams, if you know what I mean. At least Bean gets to make a bunch of noises. The language gags (i.e., look up some of the phrases translated from Spanish to English) are okay, but there isn't exactly anything particularly big to standout for fun.

The costume was designed by Beach Dickerson, which was assembled from a collection of helmets, a wetsuit, moss, Brillo pads, tennis & ping-pong balls, pipe-cleaner claws, and oilcloth that came out to $150. Honestly, the only reason to really see the movie is to see just how amusing the costume ultimately turns out, even though you really don't see it much in 75 minutes of run-time. I wonder if it would be a better movie in terms of "laughs" if you saw the monster more. It isn't exactly that funny of a movie anyway, so one might as well just take amusement at the dopey prop, but there is a lack of focus here that reminds one of more interesting times with films like Attack of the Crab Monsters (1957), A Bucket of Blood (1959) or the obvious one in The Little Shop of Horrors (1960; at least no one will try to make an inferior musical this time around). Somehow, the advertising failed the movie, because it promoted the thriller aspects more so than the comedy, but Corman is the ultimate chameleon filmmaker, honing to the tastes of what seems like a good idea, whether that involves the works of Edgar Allan Poe or producing other varied works. The movie isn't good at any real consistent point, but folks wanting to watch a silly Corman product will not mind too much, as long as they are patient enough to go through some flaky comedy to get to its monster.

Overall, I give it 6 out of 10 stars.

A Bucket of Blood.

Review #1186: A Bucket of Blood.

Cast: 
Dick Miller (Walter Paisley), Barboura Morris (Carla), Antony Carbone (Leonard de Santis), Julian Burton (Maxwell H. Brock), Ed Nelson (Art Lacroix), John Brinkley (Will), John Herman Shaner (Oscar), Judy Bamber (Alice), Myrtle Vail (Mrs. Swickert), and Bert Convy (Lou Raby) Directed by Roger Corman (#368 - The Little Shop of Horrors, #684 - It Conquered the World, #852 - The Terror, #931 - Not of This Earth, #1007 - Attack of the Crab Monsters, #1039 - Five Guns West, #1042 - War of the Satellites, #1136 - Gas-s-s-s, and #1147 - X: The Man with the X-ray Eyes)

Review: 
Horror and comedy films are generally entertaining on their own, but mixing the two genres together can certainly invite the possibility of something really interesting, particularly if you have a good set of hands on and behind the camera. Roger Corman and an handy ensemble cast are sure up to the task. Unsurprisingly, the budget and time to shoot for this film was fairly low - $50,000 and five days (shooting under the working title of "The Living Dead"). The sets themselves were leftovers from another AIP film, Diary of a High School Bride (1959). Fittingly, the sets would be re-used for The Little Shop of Horrors the following year. Miller, although he was happy with the story and humor from the finished product, wasn't too happy with the production values, noting the mannequins used for the statues and the fact that they didn't put plaster on him (instead using grey makeup) for the last scene. Corman and screenwriter Charles B. Griffith spent a day drifting around beatnik coffeehouses, using observations of the scene along with ideas and reactions to make the basic story, which in some ways resemble Mystery of the Wax Museum (1933).

In any case, this is a pretty enjoyable little movie, shining fairly well with a good degree of black humor and occasional scares that prove efficient for a 66 minute run-time. Perhaps a longer film might've resulted in the characters being fleshed-out a bit more (or perhaps a bit more emphasis on horror), but the material involving the beatniks is pretty funny anyways, as one might expect from people with a bit of pseudo-intellectualism and offbeat nature. Miller does well making this hapless yet ambitious lead interesting to view the film through - after all, he is basically playing a serial killer (with a calling card, no less), but he manages to have the right kind of presence the film needs to go on. The other cast-mates don't have as much time, but they each do decently with their roles when needed, such Morris and her encouraging nature or Burton and his offbeat poetry. The movie has its limits with money and time, but it manages to carry itself with some dark charm through some magic with silly lines and a game cast that make for a good time. Like with other Roger Corman films, this is certainly one to advise for anyone with a curiosity towards some fun that makes for quite a delight.

Rest in peace to Dick Miller, who died yesterday. He was a noted character actor who appeared in several films over six decades of work - appearing in films such as The Terminator (1984) alongside over a dozen films for Roger Corman.

Overall, I give it 8 out of 10 stars.