Daily Archives: September 23, 2018

Die, Monster, Die! (1965)

Posted on September 23, 2018 | Leave a comment

Die, Monster, Die!
Directed by Daniel Haller
Written by Jerry Stohl from a story by H.P. Lovecraft
1965/UK/USA
Alta Vista Productions
First viewing/Netflix rental
Listed in They Shoot Zombies, Don’t They?

[box] Susan Witley: But, Steve, no one ever goes into the greenhouse at night![/box]

Triffids take the next step toward world conquest.

Young Steven Reinhart (Nick Adams) and his fiancee visit her family manse, Whitely Castle.  They are not welcome guests.  Almost immediately the fiancee’s father Nahum (Boris Karloff) tells him to get out.  But the intrepid Reinhart stays to get to the bottom of the mystery of the greenhouse.  Nahom has come into possession of a radioactive meteorite that causes plants to grow to gigantic proportions.  Unfortunately,  the radioactivitely also does a number on humans.  How to destroy the stone?

Any movie with an axe-wielding Boris Karloff automatically has something to recommend it. Nick Adams … not so much.  I thought the “monsters” here were really creepy and the special effects are decent.

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Posted in 1965

Chimes at Midnight (1965)

Posted on September 23, 2018 | 2 comments

Chimes at Midnight (AKA “Falstaff”; Campadas a medianoche)
Directed by Orson Welles
Written by Orson Welles from plays by William Shakespeare based on Holinshed’s “Chronicles”
1965/Spain/Switzerland
Internacional Films/Alpine Films
First viewing/Netflix rental
One of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die

[box] Falstaff: My King! My Jove! I speak to thee my heart!

Prince Hal: I know thee not, old man; fall to thy prayers!/ How ill white hairs become a fool and jester![/box]

I wasn’t really in the mood for Shakespeare, but Chimes at Midnight lured me in with excellent acting and striking camera work.

Welles condensed episodes from Richard III; Henry IV, Parts I and II: Henry V; and (I think) The Merry Wives of Windsor into one story centering on the friendship between Prince Hal (Keith Baxter) (later Henry V) and the obese, earthy and witty older man Falstaff (Orson Welles).  Prince Hal enjoys a life of debauchery in the company of Falstaff and his cronies while his father, Henry IV (John Gielgud), despairs the decadence of his son and heir.

Prince Hal is all too aware, however, that the Crown will occupy him exclusively once it is his. He coldly casts off his one-time mentor.  With Jeanne Moreau as prostitute Doll Tearsheet and Margaret Rutherford as Mistress Quickly.

Welles plays Falstaff as a sort of naughty Santa Claus and is downright lovable in this part.  The production is sumptuous and and contains everything from battle scenes to farce to intimate character study.  Welles’s directorial imagination is still working at full fever pitch in this, his own favorite of his films.  Recommended.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OAs2bL4Sasw

 

 

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Posted in 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die, 1965