Monthly Archives: January 2018

“X” (AKA X: The Man with the Xray Eyes)
Directed by Roger Corman
Written by Robert Dillon and Ray Russell
1963/USA
Alta Vista Productions
First viewing/Netflix rental

[box] Dr. James Xavier: I’m blind to all but a tenth of the universe.

Dr. Sam Brant: My dear friend, only the gods see everything.

Dr. James Xavier: My dear doctor, I’m closing in on the gods.[/box]

I got much more than the cheesy fun I was expecting.

Dr. James Xavier (Ray Milland) is doing some sort of expensive research that his grant donors are questioning.  It turns out he is developing an eye drop that will increase man’s range of vision from 10% of the spectrum to perhaps all of it.  Naturally, he is his own guinea pig.  When the committee finds out what Xavier is up to, it pulls his funding.  Xavier goes back to the practice of medicine where his Xray vision gets him into trouble with less gifted colleagues.  He must flee.

Xavier ends up doing mind-reading at a carnival.  His promoter (Don Rickles) discovers that his mind-reading is real and tries to blackmail him to become a faith healer.  As the story progresses things get worse and worse for Xavier.  By the end, all he longs for is darkness.

This was one of Corman’s best films and Milland’s best performances to date.  It’s sort of a Frankenstein story where the mad scientist becomes his own pathetic creature. Recommended to fans of this sort of thing.

The DVD contains two excellent commentaries – one by Roger Corman and the other by a film historian.

The Old Dark House
Directed by William Castle
Written by Robert Dillon from the book by J.B. Priestley
1963/UK/USA
Columbia Pictures Corporation/William Castle Productions/Hammer Films
First viewing/Netflix rental

[box] Agatha Femm: [Knitting] I capture time and space in my stitches. Sometimes I wonder what would happen if I stopped.

Tom Penderel: Happen? To you?

Agatha Femm: No, no. To the world.[/box]

This lackluster horror spoof bears no comparison to James Whale’s great 1932 original.

American Tom Penderel must deliver a luxury car personally to eccentric Roderick Femm (Robert Morley) in England.  He accepts an invitation to visit the old dark house where his even more eccentric family lives.  Many mildly funny and/or scary hijinx ensue.  With Peter Bull as twins; Janette Scott as the “sane” one; and Joyce Grenfell as a knitter.

Despite the presence of some of my favorite British comic actors, this just didn’t work for me.  Watch the original and have a potato!

Muriel ou le temps d’un retour
Directed by Alain Resnais
Written by Jean Cayrol
1963/France/Italy
Argos Films/Alpha Productions/Les Films de la Pleiade/etc.
First viewing/Netflix rental

[box] “A clear conscience is the sure sign of a bad memory.” ― Mark Twain[/box]

A potentially haunting film about memory was marred for me by the dissonant music and constant cutting.

All of the principals are trying and failing to cope with painful past.  Helene Aughain (Delphine Seyrig) invites Alphonse Noyard to visit her in the seaside town of Boulogne.  He arrives with his beautiful young “niece” in tow.  Helene and Alphone were lovers during the War.  Their affair was tumultuous and both suffered from wartime trauma.  Helene lives with her stepson Bernard, who has been home for eight months after service in Algeria.  He may never recover from his involvement in the torture of a woman named Muriel.

Things don’t go well for anyone involved.

Just when you think you might be understanding the plot, Resnais starts frenetically cutting between random incidents in the day of the various characters.  This movie also features a lot of very irritating dissonant soprano opera singing.  I can understand why a lot of people like this film more than I do but I was more annoyed than anything else.

The Raven
Directed by Roger Corman
Written by Richard Matheson from a poem by Edgar Allen Poe
1963/USA
Alta Vista Productions
First viewing/Amazon Instant

[box] Dr. Craven: Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary, / Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore. / While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping, / As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door./ “‘Tis some visitor,” I muttered, “tapping at my chamber door. / Only this and nothing more.”[/box]

This Poe-inspired comedy can be pretty corny.  But it’s also really enjoyable to watch three classic horror actors ham it up to the max.

The movie begins with Vincent Price’s somber voice-over reading of Poe’s poem.  As soon as we move into the story, though, it becomes obvious we are in for a comedy.  The bird tapping at the chamber door is Dr. Adolphus Bedlo (Peter Lorre) who has been transformed into a raven by magician Dr. Scarabus (Boris Karloff).  He has come to Dr. Erasmus Craven (Price) to be changed back into his original form.  Scarabus was the arch enemy of Craven’s father.

A bunch of stuff happens that leads Craven to believe he must pay a call on Dr. Scarabus. He is accompanied by his own beautiful daughter Estelle, Bedlo, and Bedlo’s son Rexford (Jack Nicholson).  When he gets there he discovers his lost love Lenore has actually been lured away by Scarabus.  The raven gambit was actually Scarabus’s way of luring Craven to his mansion and learning the secrets of his powerful magic.  The film ends with a comic “duel to the death” between the two magicians.

Everything is played strictly for laughs.  All the actors turn in good performances but perhaps the most memorable is Lorre’s.  It’s not a bad way to spend 90 minutes.

Bandini
Directed by Bimal Roy
Written by Jarasahnda, Nabendu Ghosh, and Paul Mahendra
1963/India
Bimal Roy Productions
First viewing/Netflix rental

[box] To other countries, I may go as a tourist, but to India, I come as a pilgrim. Martin Luther King, Jr. [/box]

Bollywood also made musical dramas like this pretty good one.

Kalyani is confined to women’s prison.  She bravely volunteers to nurse an inmate with TB. The prison doctor falls in love with her but she turns him down due to her terrible past. She is due to be released from prison, though, and the jailer convinces her to write her story.  We then segue into flashback and learn how Kalyani’s ill-fated romance with a freedom fighter led her to commit murder.  We return to the present and learn how Kalyani’s romance with the doctor turns out.

This 2 1/2 hour film could have used at least half an hour of strategic cutting.  Nevertheless, it held my interest throughout.  The leading lady is the best thing about the movie and fortunately she is on screen most of the time.  The songs are OK.  There is no dancing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZolzVlVOtk4

Clip – no subtitles – a freedom fighter goes singing to his execution

Youth of the Beast
Directed by Seijun Suzuki
Written by Ichiro Ikeda and Tadaki Yamakazi from a novel by Haruhiko Obayu
1963/Japan
Nikkatsu Film Company
First viewing/FilmStruck

[box] I make movies that make no sense and make no money. – Seijun Suzuki[/box]

Was Seijun Suzuki the Sam Fuller of Japan?  Possibly.

The plot is almost too complicated to follow.  The movie begins with a newspaper story about the double-suicide of a police officer and a call girl.  From there we move to the mysterious, gun-crazy Jo Mizuno who offers himself as a yakuza hitman in what proves to be a Yojimbo like fashion.  Eventually, we learn that Mizuno’s real mission is to solve the case of the police officer, which he believes to be a murder.  It’s hard to pay attention to plot details, though, among the heaping helpings of ultra-violence.

Suzuki had an outsider’s vision of the world that makes his gangster films particularly fascinating to watch.  There are some stunning scenes including backgrounds from other films, stripteases, etc. In the end it’s just too violent for my taste, however.

No subtitles but a lot of dialogue-free action

Jason and the Argonauts
Directed by Don Chaffey
Written by Jan Read, Beverley Cross, and Apollonios Rhodios
1963/UK/USA
The Great Company/Morningside Productions
First viewing/Amazon Instant

[box] Hera: [asked why the gods set temptations and traps for mortals] So that the gods may know them, and men may know themselves.[/box]

Who needs CGI when you can have Ray Harryhausen?

Pelias usurps the throne of Thessaly by killing King Aristo.  However, there is a prophesy that he will eventually be defeated by a child of the King.  He makes the mistake of slaying a daughter of the King who has sought Hera’s protection.  Thereafter, Hera becomes the benecfactrix of the daughter’s son Jason.

The baby Jason grows up and is ready to punish the man who murdered his father and take up the throne.  Before he can do so, he must retrieve the fabled Golden Fleece from the island of Colchis.  He obtains a vessel, the Argos, and brave crew that includes the demi-God Hercules.  On the way to the fleece, Jason and his men undergo many fantastic adventures.

The genre makes it likely that this would not be a favorite.  The stop-motion animation, however, makes it a joy to watch throughout. Ray Harryhausen reached the top of his game with this one.  It is just mind-blowing the amount of skill that went into making an entire army of individual skeletons move so realistically.  Recommended to fans of this kind of thing.

Trailer

Clip (The version on Amazon Instant has been restored to pristine condition, making the effects that much more impressive.)