10/16/09: THE FIEND (Robert Hartford-Davis, 1972) 
This is one of the more notable British horror films from the early 1970s, a stylish and generally accomplished mix of religion, psycho-drama, music and exploitation. The opening cross-cutting between a prayer meeting – accentuated by a powerful gospel song – and a vicious murder is so stunning that the rest of the film actually struggles to live up to it, though the ending – appropriately over-the-top – is worth waiting for. Thematically, the film anticipates Pete Walker’s equally good HOUSE OF MORTAL SIN aka THE CONFESSIONAL (1975) – but here we get the added bonus of a typically intense performance from Patrick Magee as the religious group’s fanatical leader. Ann Todd (the former Mrs. David Lean) is one of his closest collaborators – in fact, her house is a converted church! – but who has to keep her diabetic condition a secret because the intake of insulin is prohibited by her faith! Her son (Tony Beckley), a security guard and part-time swimming instructor and pamphlet distributor, is repressed and unbalanced – and soon revealed to be the serial killer of nubile girls terrorizing the neighborhood (he even records on tape the victims in the throes of death a’ la PEEPING TOM [1960]!). Todd’s new nurse happens to have a reporter sister (genre regular Suzanna Leigh) who, alerted to the inhabitants’ conspicuous Puritanism, concludes that all is not well with the house and decides to investigate. Given the permissive era in which this was made, violence and gratuitous nudity (along with the standard prerequisites associated with such fare) contend for the running-time – and the audience’s attention – with a moderately serious treatment of the subject at hand. The end result may not be surprising or even particularly insightful but nonetheless proves wholly absorbing, thanks also to its undeniable surface polish.
10/16/09: NARCOTIC (Dwain Esper and Vival Sod'art, 1933) BOMB
Of the various low-budget exploitationers of the 1930s, I was only familiar with the similarly drug-related TELL YOUR CHILDREN (1938), better-known by its alternate title REEFER MADNESS – actually produced by Dwain Esper, the co-director of this one and a film-maker whose notorious reputation (for lack of talent) rivals that of Ed Wood himself! Here, then, we ostensibly have the case history (cue exhaustive exposition in the form of title cards) of a doctor who indulged in various types of drugs, starting out with opium (suggested by the stereotypical wise-yet-evil Chinese) but soon progressing to heroin…all of which ends with him losing everything (living in a two-bit dive and eventually turning a gun on himself!). While I was expecting horrific hallucinations or (unintentionally hilarious) hyperbolic reactions resulting from the intake of drugs, all one got is an excess of dull talk which quickly exasperated this viewer long before the film’s brief 57 minutes were up! Still, there were at least three scenes which have to be seen to be believed: a chauffeur popping pills while driving gets his car smashed by an oncoming train; the lengthy “drug party” itself with the participants freely sniffing coke and injecting heroin while dancing and bickering amongst themselves; and a completely irrelevant bit (obviously stock footage) of a couple of snakes fighting capped by the victor literally swallowing up the defeated reptile!
10/16/09: THE UNEARTHLY (Boris Petroff, 1957)
I decided to acquire this (albeit from other sources rather than the legitimate Image DVD) following Michael Elliott’s solid *** review of some time ago. Surprisingly enough, I found this modest genre outing to be quite engaging and enjoyable most of the way and certainly undeserving of the dubious honor of being currently positioned at #95 on the IMDb’s “Bottom 100” list! John Carradine gives his usual commitment to the standard ‘mad doctor’ role; the hero Myron Healey is quite sympathetic and the film’s three female leads (Allison Hayes, Marilyn Buferd and Sally Todd) very attractive. On the debit side are Tor Johnson’s amusing blazer-tie-sandals attire and moronic speech (“Time for go to bed” he blurts out to the guests at one point) as Lobo, Carradine’s all-purpose assistant (valet-cook-bodyguard- guinea pig) and the incessant histrionics of the other male inmate (Arthur Batanides) – although the insults the latter hurls at the former during breakfast are fairly hilarious! Despite the misleadingly other-worldly title, the villains and crimes perpetrated here are decidedly mundane (especially given the clumsy and panic-stricken antics of Carradine’s elderly partner Roy Gordon). It is all well and good that the would-be escaped convict hero is revealed to have been an undercover cop all along but it seems improbable that he would discover Carradine’s underground lair of Dr. Moreau-esque failures (including a creepy pre-CARNIVAL OF SOULS (1962) wraith-like creature) so easily and it would have been much more convincing if, say, Gordon had inadvertently mentioned it to Hayes or, better still, left them unlocked for some reason. Equally silly is the fact that Carradine reveals the full extent of his experiments to Healey from the get-go and then allows him to roam freely among the potential (and, as I said, good-looking) victims themselves!! Besides, how anyone can mistake a Southern mansion in the middle of a swamp for a health spa is beyond me. In any case, despite the above-mentioned absurdities, the film contrives to end with a bang as we get a good look at the results of Carradine’s previous guinea pigs.
10/17/09: LADIES IN RETIREMENT (Charles Vidor, 1941) 
This film is very much the essence of Grand Guignol: fog, swamp, old dark house, eccentric characters, skeletons in the closet and even a feigned dead-of-night haunting. The resulting Gothic atmosphere is thoroughly enveloping and indeed exquisite – garnering deserved Oscar nominations for the art direction-set decoration and the music score, though the cinematography and even star Ida Lupino ought to have been similarly recognized if you ask me (amazingly, this future pioneer among women film-makers was never even up for the golden statuette in either category)! Interestingly, she and her leading man here – likeable, dashing Louis Hayward – were married to each other at the time and they are accompanied here by a splendid ensemble that includes Elsa Lanchester (as one of Lupino’s ‘mad’ sisters), Evelyn Keyes (as a gushing maid) and Isobel Elsom (as the past-her-prime mistress of the house). The picture’s reputation seems to have dimmed somewhat with time (a rather weak and misleading title does not help), but I was highly impressed myself – despite watching it in less than congenial circumstances as, due to compatibility issues with my Philips machine, the disc froze no less than five times during playback! Plot, characterization and dialogue are alike rigorous so that no possible nuance is overlooked in the perfect screen definition of the dictum ‘Blood Runs Thicker Than Water’ (more or less the same scenario would be treated as black comedy in ARSENIC AND OLD LACE [1944]). The fact that, here, a sensitive and essentially low-key approach is maintained throughout, when it could easily have gone the scenery-chewing route (all the more to keep the viewers on their guard), is the sign of real talent at work. For the record, I own another equally well-regarded psychological thriller from this director i.e. BLIND ALLEY (1939): both films, incidentally, would be deemed worthy of a remake; in the case of LADIES IN RETIREMENT, it was turned into THE MAD ROOM (1969) which gave a gorier spin to the proceedings and, apparently, is even harder-to-find than the original!
10/17/09: CURSE OF THE UNDEAD (Edward Dein, 1959)
This was another long-awaited acquaintance (acquired literally a couple of days ago) after having pored over a giant still from it in one of my father’s books since childhood. Luckily for me, the film turned out to be worth waiting for – unlike BLOOD OF DRACULA (1957) – and a good deal more successful in its anachronistic combination of the Western and Horror genres than THE BEAST OF HOLLOW MOUNTAIN (1956) had been, not to mention the similar ‘Vampire-Out-West’ concept later seen in BILLY THE KID VS. DRACULA (1966). Shot in atmospheric black-and-white by long-standing genre exponents Universal, it also features an effectively eerie (if a little too obvious) theremin-led score. The director is best-known for his oddball noir SHACK OUT ON 101 (1955; which is still lying in my unwatched pile) and would go on to helm THE LEECH WOMAN the following year (and which I will be watching presently). The cast here is quite decent: Australian actor Michael Pate is suitably menacing as the undead Mexican aristocrat posing as a gunslinger(!); John Hoyt as the town doctor is killed off rather too early; and a similar fate awaits no-nonsense Sheriff Edward Binns. The film’s romantic leads are, for once, not a liability either: preacher Eric Fleming and Hoyt’s vengeful daughter Kathleen Crowley. We have the usual Western scenario – a feud between two families, bar-room shoot-outs and open-air duels – and the expected horror elements – graveyard disturbances, night-time attacks (Pate is seen indiscriminately going for both male and female victims!) and love-starved vampires. The one major blunder that the film commits (and which, regrettably, made me lop off half-a-star from my rating) was the fact that Pate (after having been repeatedly seen sleeping in his coffin and complaining about how the sun affects his eyesight), he still accepts the preacher’s invitation for a high-noon duel – where he is felled by a cross-marked bullet supposedly made out of Christ’s very own crown of thorns!! Unfortunately, the copy I watched plagued with excessive combing but seeing how the film is inexplicably M.I.A. on DVD, it will have to do for some time to come…
10/17/09: DARK INTRUDER (Harvey Hart, 1965)
This was another last-minute inclusion in the ongoing Halloween Horror challenge, and one which also proved among the most rewarding viewings so far. I first knew of it from Leonard Maltin’s *** capsule review in his esteemed “Film Guide”, where the piece’s TV origins (“Black Cloak” was actually the working title) and “one-of-a-kind” nature are mentioned. I was surprised to find it a period piece, but the end result still elicits a definite “Twilight Zone” feel – while anticipating, in concept and abrasive hero (ideally cast Leslie Nielsen and, who, incidentally, has a midget for valet/assistant!), the “Kolchak” series from the early 1970s. Despite the obvious low budget at the director’s disposal, the film evokes a flawless gothic atmosphere throughout. The fascinating plot involves a “House Of Wax”-type disfigured ‘monster’ – given an appropriately creepy make-up and played, of all people, by an unrecognizable Werner Klemperer of “Hogan’s Heroes” fame! – causing havoc in fog-bound San Francisco (the attacks are quite vicious for a film of this kind), whose dual identity is gradually disclosed. There is, however, a method to his madness: a calling-card is left at the murder sites in the form of a mystical spoke-wheel; the period between each killing gets proportionally smaller; while the victims are eventually revealed to have been involved in his back-story. The level of suspense (and action) is considerable – especially in view of the film’s very brief duration, a mere 59 minutes! – notably Nielsen’s own numerous brushes with the monster (including one in which the hero spells out his suspicions to the Police Chief after yet another murder unaware that the villain is still present in the room with them!). The final twist, then, is the icing on the cake – with the tale having already reached a satisfactory conclusion, the script is seen to have one more ace up its sleeve. As can be expected, given the film’s rarity, the print utilized could do with a restoration – but, really, this is no more than a minor quibble, when all the various components had come perfectly together to produce a classy (and memorable) show.
10/17/09: MASTERS OF HORROR: PRO-LIFE (TV)
The second John Carpenter episode in the series is pretty good if clearly a lesser achievement than his previous one, CIGARETTE BURNS (2005), which had been one of the very best. Still, for all the genre felicities and competent acting (especially mismatched father Ron Perlman and daughter Caitlin Wachs) on display here, the overall impression remains that of being a disparate collage of earlier and much superior movies like ROSEMARY’S BABY (1968; the demon impregnating a human being), LEGEND (1985; the look of the demon is virtually identical to Tim Curry’s Darkness), as well as Carpenter’s own ASSAULT ON PRECINCT 13 (1976; the besieged institution i.e. abortion clinic) and THE THING (1982; the hybrid look of the monster infant). As with most contemporary horror fare, there is much unnecessary splatter/gore effects but these strike one as ludicrous (such as when a brain is blown off merely from a hand-gun bullet)! At least, Carpenter’s son Cody provides an effectively subtle, piano-led score a` la his father’s classic theme for HALLOWEEN (1978).
I think I need to update this DVD. It's low rez.
