10/20/09: BEGINNING OF THE END (Bert I. Gordon, 1957) 
This was much better than Leonard Maltin’s *1/2 rating would suggest: in fact, the unflattering comments in his book (where it is described as “awful”!) pretty much kept me from acquiring the now-OOP Image DVD (complete with Audio Commentary track). Also, watching this hot on the heels of Gordon’s other giant insect flick EARTH VS THE SPIDER (1958), I realize he was not always aiming squarely at the exploitation market – for this is as intelligent, indeed persuasive, as they come (knowing the devastation left in the wake of locust plagues, imagine just what would happen if it were to be magnified). Pity, then, that the evident low-budget cramped the overall effort: this is especially true during the climax, where it is obvious the grasshoppers are only normal size and the tall buildings either models or, worse, no more than blown-up photographs! Likewise, the monsters’ come-uppance is somewhat rushed: hell, even my mother who came in halfway through and stayed to watch (often commenting aloud on the action as is her amiably irritating habit!) expected the film to end on a shot of the river covered with dead insects so as to stress their annihilation…but there was none!! The small cast is led by likeable Peter Graves and lovely Peggie Castle (overcoming the annoying connotations of the obligatory intrepid female reporter part); the most notable supporting characters, then, are Graves’ assistant – rendered a deaf-mute by radiation and who naturally is soon made to expire at the hands of the grasshoppers – and the elderly General who, in a desperate attempt to stall the insects’ march, is even willing to throw an A-bomb over Chicago!
10/20/09: TI ASPETTERO` ALL’ INFERNO (Piero Regnoli, 1960)
In every challenge I participate in, I like to embellish the popular or, if you like, obvious choices with some very obscure stuff (even to me) – so, after the mix of swashbuckling and horror that was UNA SPADA PER BRANDO (1970), here we have a caper/crime movie that becomes a ghost story! While it is no lost classic, this unlikely hybrid plays much more successfully here; that said, the supernatural events are given a twist which might be considered a cop-out (though I predicted something to that effect much earlier). The film starts off immediately with the robbery or, rather, the ingenious idea to sound the alarm of the targeted establishment beforehand so that the police arrive on the scene in vain and the caretaker, almost in shame, turns it off for the rest of the night. No sooner has he done this that the criminals pounce on him and, typically, he ends up killed in the ensuing fracas – but, no, he is not the ghost in question. When the gang meets to divide the proceeds (a cache` of diamonds), their true natures emerge and soon start bickering, with one of them eventually drowning in the nearby swamp! The other two decide to lie low in the country but do not really trust each other – especially since the leader (an intense John Drew Barrymore) is obviously a psycho. His partner (Massimo Serato) is actually a respectable businessman who, on the night of the job, even creates a solid alibi for himself by literally bumping into the Police Commissioner at a nightclub! At this point, a girl (Eva Bartok) enters into the picture; soon after, Barrymore starts being haunted by his dead associate (in the form of whispered calls, writings and even the planting of a photo among his killer’s things)! The catch is that this female ‘intruder’ is not as naïve as she lets on and, to complicate matters, Serato falls for her while the misogynistic Barrymore attempts to rape the girl! Anyway, it all concludes with a return to the fateful swamps and another drowning (guess who gets to go under this time around?). The boggy atmosphere and level of suspense are adequate for a clearly low-budget effort – though, in the end, it is the bearded Barrymore’s histrionics which make the film worthwhile. For the record, director Regnoli had co-scripted the seminal I VAMPIRI (1957) and, among his other credits in this capacity, are two which I will be checking out presently as part of the Halloween Horror Challenge i.e. THE THIRD EYE (1966) and OBSCENE DESIRE (1978). By the way, the literal English translation of the film's original Italian title is I’LL WAIT FOR YOU IN HELL.
10/20/09: THE SOUL OF A MONSTER (Will Jason, 1944)
What little reputation this film has is very mixed, so it is no surprise my own reaction proved likewise. Revolving around an intriguing concept, yet the script (by genre regular Edward Dein) is seemingly at a loss about what to do with it: an eminent and much beloved physician (George Macready) lies dying and, in desperation at the unfairness of it all, his wife (lovely Jeanne Bates – who, late in life, somehow got to appear in two David Lynch movies!) renounces God and asks the Devil for help; immediately afterwards, a mysterious woman (Rose Hobart – from the 1931 DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE) turns up, restores Macready to health and basically starts running his life. While happy to see her husband get better, Bates soon notices that his personality has changed – becoming distant, aggressive and even loses interest in his work: in short, alienating everyone around him – so that she actually wishes he had died back then! All of this sends her running into the arms of Macready’s best friend, Erik Rolf (looking like a cross between Glenn Ford and the young Orson Welles...or, for that matter a local film-buff friend of mine, Robert!!): his character and relationship to the couple is pretty ambiguous – he acts almost as their spiritual advisor (thus being instantly and openly averse to Hobart’s machinations), yet is a constant presence even at social engagements, hardly deigning to keep the ‘love triangle’ situation in check! Anyway, Macready’s negligence costs a colleague’s life and the once-respected doctor is put on trial…only this takes us back to the very beginning, so that all that went on in the interim turns out to have been nothing more than a death-bed hallucination – the moral being that one must face up to death with dignity and resignation, apparently after having done one’s bit for the good of mankind (which should have especially resonated with wartime audiences)! The film offers more than adequate atmosphere (courtesy of future double Oscar-winning cinematographer Burnett Guffey) and Hobart (with an icy demeanor and a devilish coiffure to boot) is quite good – the combination of which leads to its eeriest moment, the very first appearance of the Devil’s envoy in which she is unperturbed by a car running her over and then, after following her in a tilted camera angle shot, no less, she is seen literally electrifying her surroundings! However, as I said at the start, the plot is insufficient as Macready is not seen doing much of anything after he is revived (what was the point, then?) and Hobart actually has to prod him towards committing murder (naturally because it constitutes the extremity of an evil deed)! That said, the choice of target (the ‘pastor’/rival) would benefit each of them – only he flubs it and, so does the film, since this clearly Lewtonesque sequence is kept on going much longer than necessary!; consequently, the inherent suspense in having the ‘sleepwalking’ Macready (armed with an ice pick long before BASIC INSTINCT [1992]!!) stalk Rolf by night out on the streets is gradually diffused…particularly with the unintentionally comic off-screen effect of the sudden opening of a rising street elevator’s hatch sounding like Macready had bumped into some dustbin or a mailbox around the corner! Mind you, I am glad I acquired the film also because, as it happens, this viewing actually urged me to get back to work on my unfinished review of the slightly similar but far superior ALIAS NICK BEAL (1949; which I had originally watched on my birthday back in August) – in which Macready now actually (and atypically) takes on the role of the Minister Of God who strikes fear into (and eventually brings down) the Agent Of Hell.
10/21/09: REVENGE OF THE ZOMBIES (Steve Sekely, 1943)
There is not much to say about this one except that it is probably the worst of the early spate of zombie movies (I may get to watch another one, REVOLT OF THE ZOMBIES [1936], before the month is out). For all star John Carradine’s intention of building an army in the service of the Third Reich with them, they are not seen to do much at all!; James Baskett (Uncle Remus from SONG OF THE SOUTH [1946]!) plays their leader, who also serves as Carradine’s manservant. Black comic Mantan Moreland reprises his ‘fraidy cat’ chauffeur role from KING OF THE ZOMBIES (1941), as does the exotically named Madame Sul-Te-Wan as Carradine’s housekeeper. Unfortunately for Carradine, his supreme achievement – the zombification of his wife – brings him all sorts of trouble: not only do her relatives turn up at his remote abode/lab to inquire into her sudden death (which means he has to fake a funeral service!) but she actually proves disobedient and indignant, eventually ‘persuading’ her fellow zombies to rise against their master!! Also involved is cowboy star Bob Steele (still best-known for his bit in Howard Hawks’ THE BIG SLEEP [1946]) who plays a U.S. secret agent posing as a Nazi posing as a Sheriff! Thankfully, director Sekely would have much better luck with his next genre effort, THE DAY OF THE TRIFFIDS (1962).
10/21/09: THE MAN IN THE BACK SEAT (Vernon Sewell, 1961)
Mentioned in the sole IMDb comment on the recently-viewed Italian thriller TI ASPETTERO` ALL’ INFERNO (1960) as being similar, this is even less of a ghost story than that one was – the haunting being relegated to the very last scene – but at least it does not cheat and have the ‘manifestations’ revealed as gimmicks! Anyway, this is one of an outburst of British B-movies (pretty much the equivalent of the ‘quota quickies’ of the 1930s but clearly having greater merit) which came out throughout the first half of the decade: most were thrillers and ran barely an hour in length (this one, in fact, clocks in at 54 minutes!). As far as I can recall, the only previous title I watched in this vein had been STRONGROOM (1962) – with which this shares director and leading man (Derren Nesbitt) – a long time ago early one morning on Italian TV…but have just acquired Sewell’s HOUSE OF MYSTERY (1961; a genuine ‘haunted house’ movie this time around!) in time for this Halloween challenge, and also own at least two more i.e. THE IMPERSONATOR (1960) and THE TRAITORS (1962) in my collection. THE MAN IN THE BACK SEAT, then, is the ‘ghost’ in question, a bookie beaten up and abducted (since the money bag is chained to his wrist!) by “layabout” Nesbitt (with one leg in a cast!) and his married associate (Keith Faulkner); much of the proceedings take place in the car as everything seems to go wrong thereafter, and the couple are forced to drive around all night carrying their quarry – his life slowly ebbing away – with them. Faulkner wants to drive him to a hospital but the entry is blocked by security guards; the car gets a flat tyre and subsequently runs out of fuel – both of these bad breaks re-enforces Nesbitt’s decision to get rid of the bookie, but they next attempt to have the man treated by a neighboring doctor who, suspecting foul play, does not want to get involved (so Nesbitt pays for his services, and his silence, with the blood money itself!). In the meantime, Faulkner’s wife (Carol White) also becomes an unwitting accomplice, especially after having come across the secreted money bag; the robbers even try to dump their hapless victim on the street and make it look like he is a drunk, but Nesbitt had carelessly removed his gloves to douse him in alcohol – trying to rectify this mistake, the two are interrupted by a policeman on patrol so, they have to once more take to the road in tandem. Eventually, the man bites the dust as the other two are trying to reach yet another hospital; on their way to “scarper” from the scene of his final disposal, Faulkner begins to get paranoid – not only thinking every other car is the police chasing them, but he even keeps seeing the dead man’s face in the rear-view mirror, which leads him to run their vehicle off the road into a ravine below. Nesbitt is killed instantaneously yet Faulkner barely survives and, when the police arrive, pleads with them to see to the third passenger…but the car blows up before they can do anything about it! Terse, gripping and stylish, the film makes for a sterling example of just what can be accomplished even with meager resources.
10/21/09: MANIAC (Dwain Esper, 1934)
Esper’s most notorious effort is almost a fiction film; I say almost because while there is certainly a story being told here, there are continual interruptions – sometimes in mid-sequence! – by title cards blandly delineating the nature of various types of mental disorders. The plot concerns a mad scientist and his even nuttier assistant – cue some of the most florid, yet oddly enjoyable, overacting in movie history – who steal a fresh corpse from the morgue (looking more like the basement of Dracula’s castle!) in order to revive it by transplanting a beating human heart the doc has somehow acquired. However, the two cannot see eye to eye – especially when the old man asks his pupil to shoot himself so that he will then perform a transplant on him as well! Naturally, at this, the latter kills the scientist instead and, being something of an actor (“Once a ham, always a ham!” Dr. Meirschultz snidely remarks) impersonates him, since he happens to own a personal make-up kit and carries it along with him! Soon, he gets his first patient – a man who thinks he is the killer ape from Poe’s “Murders In The Rue Morgue”(!): however, the inexperienced medico ‘unwittingly’ (hardly since the two needles are so obviously different in size!) administers the wrong medication and he goes berserk, first ranting about how his brain is on fire and then making off into the countryside with the revived girl from the morgue and ravages her (after which he is never heard from again)!! That said, his wife – who had accompanied him to the doctor’s – is a schemer and hangs around; more trouble comes the protagonist’s way when he is visited by his estranged wife while he is posing as the scientist. So, he has a stroke of genius and sends the two women to the basement of his lab armed with hypodermic needles making each believe the other is dangerous and needs to be sedated! Still, the much-talked about catfight which ensues between them does not really involve the syringes as they are dropped practically instantly. Also worth mentioning is the liberal but totally irrelevant use of footage from two Silent masterworks – Benjamin Christensen’s HAXAN (1922) and Fritz Lang’s THE NIBELUNGEN (1924) – in an attempt to emphasize the lead character’s deranged state-of-mind, and also the abhorrent treatment of cats on display – among the film’s most infamous sequences is that in which a feline has one of its eyes ripped out and eaten (though a completely different and apparently half-blind animal was used expressly for this shot!) but when it is violently thrown against a sheet of glass, this seems all-too-real!! The film ends with the Police bursting on the scene to find the two women still in the basement and the deceased Professor walled-up a` la “The Black Cat”, having been alerted to his presence – as in Poe’s tale (and countless other films) by the meowing of the feline which had itself been inadvertently entombed! Had Esper exerted more self-control and infused some real cinematic sense into his picture, MANIAC could well pass off for one of the oddest horror outings of the 1930s…but, as it stands, can only be deemed a relic and an undeniable curio – as both ‘Grade Z’ exploitation and, for what it is worth, a record of known variations of insanity (and their attributes) up to that time. Incidentally, in case anyone is wondering, this film rates higher than BOMB for me because - unlike NARCOTIC (1933) which was a total bore - this actually manages to be so preposterous as to be highly amusing.
Edited by Mario Gauci - 10/23/09 at 8:28am
