Monthly Archives: March 2018

Charulata
Directed by Satyajit Ray
Written by Satyajit Ray from a story by Rabindranath Tagore
1964/India
R.D. Banshal & Co.
Repeat viewing/Netflix rental

[box] “You smiled and talked to me of nothing and I felt that for this I had been waiting long.” ― Rabindranath Tagore[/box]

Satyajit Ray had a special understanding of women.  Here he makes a film about the loneliness of a gifted one.

It is late 19th Century Bengal.  Charulata (Madhabi Mukherjee) is married to Bhupati, the editor of a Bengali political paper that speaks its mind on issues of the day.  He is totally consumed with his buisness and cause. Realizing that his wife is dying of boredom and loneliness, he invites his brother-in-law, sister, and young cousin Amal to live with them. The brother-in-law criticizes the management of the paper and Bhupati turns the day-to-day operations over to him so he can concentrate on editorial issues.

Charulata has nothing in common with the brother-in-law and sister but is drawn to the dreamy, literary Amal.  He encourages her to write.  It turns out she is better at it than he is.  Guilt, soul-searching, and betrayal ensues.

This is another the line of Satyajit Ray films in which everyone is trying to the right thing (with one notable exception here) but all are working at cross purposes.  It’s a beautiful story stunningly filmed.  Recommended.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oGkv2Y2YpQE

Clip

Seance on a Wet Afternoon
Directed by Bryan Forbes
Written by Bryan Forbes from a novel by Mark McShane
1964/UK
Beaver Films/Allied Filmmakers
Repeat viewing/My DVD collection

[box] Myra Savage: What we are doing is a means to an end. Now you agree with the end, don’t you? Well then you must agree with the means! You can’t have one without the other.[/box]

This unsettling gem contains two of the greatest performances you will ever see.

Myra (Kim Stanley) and Billy Savage (Richard Attenborough) are a childless married couple of limited means.  He is unable to work due to asthma and she makes a small living by holding weekly seances.  She claims to be in communication with Arthur, their baby who was stillborn.  Arthur gives her many bad ideas.

Arthur inspires Myra to concoct a scheme in which the couple will kidnap a wealthy family’s daughter.  Aside from collecting a ransom, Myra will gain fame and fortune by intuiting the location of the girl.  A very reluctant Billy is assigned all the dirty work involved.  Nothing, but nothing, will go the way it was planned.

The thriller plot is interesting but more than anything this is a sensitive study of two lonely people, one of whom is deranged and the other of whom is desperately weak.  You really believe things could happen just this way.  The camerawork is super effective.  It’s been a while since I watched it last time and it was just as good as I remembered if not more so. dHighly recommended.

Kim Stanley was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress.  Richard Attenborough was at least her equal and got shafted.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W6dbk6RXALI

The Tomb of Ligeia
Directed by Roger Corman
Written by Robert Towne from a story by Edgar Allen Poe
1964/UK
Alta Vista Productions
First viewing/Amazon Instant

[box] Verden Fell: Christopher, not ten minutes ago I… I tried to kill a stray cat with a cabbage, and all but made love to the Lady Rowena. I succeeded is squashing the cabbage and badly frightening the lady. If only I could lay open my own brain as easily as I did that vegetable, what rot would be freed from its grey leaves?[/box]

Roger Corman’s farewell to his Poe series is sumptuously shot and atmospheric.

Verden Fell (Vincent Price) has spent the last several years of his life mourning the death of his wife Ligeia (Elizabeth Shepherd) , whose tomb is guarded by a malevolent black cat. Fell’s grief has also made his eyes ultra-sensitive to light.  One day, during a hunting party,Lady Rowena (also played by Shepherd) stumbles on the tomb.  She is strangely drawn to the reclusive Fell and before long the two are married.

But the honeymoon is soon over and Fell is back to obsessing about the dead Ligeia. Soon Lady Rowena is under her power as well.

The movie with made with care and the requisite creepiness.  I can only fault if tor its climax, which devolves into an uneasy mixture of three different denouments.

Joe Dante comments – Trailers from Hell

The Creeping Terror
Directed by Vic Savage
Written by Robert Silliphant
1964/USA
Metropolitan International Pictures
First viewing/YouTube

[box] Narrator: The monster next appeared at Lover’s Lane. Anyone who witnessed that catastrophe and survived would never go there again.[/box]

I was not amused … or terrorized.

Deputy Sherriff Martin and his wife Brett are just returning from a blissful honeymoon when Martin is called on to investigate several mysterious deaths.  The culprit is soon revealed to be a space creature who appears to stun its victims into paralysis and then vacuum them whole into its mouth.  Even a kindergartener could out run the thing.  Bonus:  some of the worst teenage dancing ever.

I’ll gave to give the MST3K version a try sometime.  I was unable to manufacture any laughs on my own steam.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0LrJ17oR1MA

Marriage Italian Style (Matrimonio All’Italiana)
Directed by Vittorio De Sica
Written by Renato Castellani, Tonino Guerra, Leonardo Benvenuti, and Piero De Bernardi from a novel by Eduardo De Filippo
1964/Italy/France
Compagna Cinematografica Champion/Les Films Concordia
First viewing/Netflix rental

[box] Domenico Soriano: [subtitled version] The more the world changes, the more it stays the same. Houses, palaces, skyscrapers. And in the middle… an old story like ours.[/box]

Loren and Mastroianni make an unbeatable couple.

As the film begins, Domenico Soriano’s (Marcello Mastroianni) preparations for his wedding to a young cashier are interrupted by a call to the apartment of his mistress Filumena Marturano.  She is apparently at death’s door.  The priest who performed last rites begs Soriano to make an honest woman out of her with a death bed marriage.  As soon as the short ceremony is performed Filumena perks right up.  Soriano is livid.

Most of the film consists of flashbacks to the couples’ 20-year relationship through the eyes of one or the other.  Filumena moves from prostitute, to mistress, to virtual housewifery, to a kind of business partner.  She is devoted but Soriano is less so, taking frequent “vacations”.  By the end ,she has had more than enough.  She also has a few surprises to spring on the callous bachelor.

I loved every minute of this.  It deepens from comedy to heartfelt drama.  And Loren!  How could one woman be so beautiful and so talented at the same time?  Mastroianni is no slouch either, obviously.  Warmly recommended.

Marriage Italian Style was nominated for Academy Awards in the categories of Best Foreign-Language Film and Best Actress.

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I won’t post again until March 16.  I’m going to Las Vegas to welcome the latest addition to our family.

The Horror of Party Beach (1964)
Directed by Del Tenney
Written by Richard Hilliard
1964/USA
Iselin-Tenney Productions
First viewing/Netflix rental

[box] Dr. Gavin: Tina’s death has affected a great many people… but it doesn’t give you or anyone else the right to be discourteous.[/box]

Combo of bad beach party movie with minimal, ludicrous monster action.

A vessel is disposing of barrels of radioactive waste by throwing them into the sea (!).  One splits and spills its contents.  We witness a skull morphing into a disfigured mass of limbs. But by the time it hits the air our monster looks more like a man in a comical rubber suit.  In the meantime, bikini-clad teenagers are partying and dancing to the tunes of the Del-Aires.  The inevitable occurs ….

This was bad enough but didn’t hit my funny bone.  I might seek out the MST3K version later.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tOS31j9dtoA

The Leather Boys
Directed by Sidney J. Furie
Written by Gillian Freeman
1964/UK
Raymond Stross Productions
First viewing/YouTube

[box] “The lonely evenings in the life of a newly married girl may be really agonizing.” ― Girdhar Joshi[/box]

Not the biker film the poster would imply.  It’s the coming-of-age story of both parties to a teenage marriage.

Dot (Rita Tushingham) and Reggie marry much too young and find their dreams of independence have no relation to reality.  She, far more extraverted than he, wants them to spend all their time out on the town.  She fails to meet his expectations for a (house)wife.  The sex dries up rapidly.

Then Reggie’s grandfather dies, grandmother shouldn’t be left alone, and Dot refuses to move in with the old lady.  So Reggie does, on his own.  Soon he is spending all his time with a biker friend who becomes more and more possessive….

I could watch Rita Tushingham’s mobile and vulnerable face all day.  The situation seems real and I enjoyed the film.

The Human Dutch (Alleman)
Directed by Bert Haanstra
Written by Simon Carmiggelt
1964/Netherlands
Haanstra Filmproductie
First viewing/YouTube

Narrator:  The worst part of the Dutch climate is the weather.

This thoroughly charming documentary made me wish the whole world were Dutch.

The shots were filmed with a hidden camera and give an intimate, humorous view of the Dutch circa 1964 at work and play in all seasons.

The editing of this film is fantastic and the cinematography nice and crisp on You Tube.  I was delighted the entire time.  The carnival and beach scenes are particularly wonderful.  Recommended.

The Human Dutch was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary, Feature.

The Last Man on Earth
Directed by Ubaldo Ragona (Italian prints) and Sidney Salkow (U.S. prints)
Written by William Leicester and Richard Matheson from Matheson’s novel “I Am Legend”
1964/USA/Italy
Associated Producers/Produzioni La Regina
First viewing/Amazon Instant

[box] [first lines] Robert Morgan: Another day to live through. Better get started.[/box]

The zombie apocalypse begins here …

Scientist Robert Morgan is the sole survivor of a 1965 plague that killed off the rest of humankind and left many corpses to resurrect as weak, slow-moving, but relentless vampires.  He remembers the tragic fates of his family and colleagues via flashback.

Morgan has spent every day of the three years since in the struggle to protect himself from the nightly invasions of the undead.  This he does by a combination of garlic and mirrors as well as by seeking out his foes during the daylight hours and killing them with stakes through the heart.

One day, Robert finally meets a woman who appears to be alive.  Or is she?  What is her secret?

I thoroughly enjoyed this film, which must have inspired George A. Romero when it came time to make Night of the Living Dead. The creatures obey vampire rules but are otherwise zombies to their bones.   The feel is eerie, horrifying and fun simultaneously. Price gives one of his very best performances.  Recommended.

The American version I watched on Amazon Instant was colorized. The complete film is currently available in black and white on YouTube. The same source novel was adapted as The Omega Man (1971) and I Am Legend (2007).