Monthly Archives: December 2019

Zatoichi Challenged (Zatoichi chikemuri kaido)
Directed by Kenji Misumi
Written by Ryozo Kashahara; story by Kan Shimozawa
1967/Japan
IMDb link
First viewing/Criterion Channel

[box] There are only two forces in the world, the sword and the spirit. In the long run the sword will always be conquered by the spirit. — Napoleon Bonaparte[/box]

Number 17 in the series about my favorite blind swordsman is one of the better entries.

The basic plot outline is always the same: Zatoichi is honor-bound to protect women and children against the predation of evil yakuza gangs and kicks ass while doing so.  In this one, a woman on her death bed asks Zatoichi to bring her small son to his father, an artist. En route, the two run into a troupe of actors that Zatoichi must also protect.  Turns out the father has been blackmailed by the gang into producing highly illegal pornographic images.

This moved along at a good clip and has some awesome swordplay.  It also looks really handsome and Shintaro Katsu is up to his usual superb standard.  Does continue the unfortunate trend of saddling the hero with an annoying comic-relief kid but mostly just great.

Privilege
Directed by Peter Watkins
Written by Norman Bogner, Johnny Speight and Peter Watkins
1967/UK
IMDb link
First viewing/Netflix rental

[box] Rev. Jeremy Tate: This black card will be issued to you as you leave the Stadium tonight. On it there are three words.They are simple words but they are vital words. They are words which we must now, all of us, begin using because, since the end of the War, we in Britain have become apathetic, slack, loose in our morality. National cohesion has become unimportant to us! We must fight this. We must. Now, all of us begin to use the words on the card! “We will conform.”[/box]

Innovative directing cannot save terrible acting and a ponderous tone.

It is some time in the near future, as of 1967. The British Government controls the population through its idolization of pop singer Steven Strayer (Paul Jones).  First, an ultra-violent act releases societal tensions.  Then, the government decides it would prefer a nationalistic mass religious conversion.   Jean Shrimpton plays an artist who tries to set Strayer straight.

I thought both Jones and Shrimpton were zombie-like, despite their fake emotional outbursts.  The plot plays out like an ersatz “1984”.  The music is OK.  Other people appear to like this way more than I did.

Journey to the Center of Time
Directed by David L. Hewitt
Written by David L. Hewitt
1967/US
IMDb link
First viewing/Amazon Prime

[box] Dr. ‘Doc’ Gordon: And since space-time is a continuum, the present is only a point moving constantly along that continuum

Mr. Denning: When you put it like that, Doctor, even I can understand it[/box]

Don’t watch this if you are already bored.  In fact, no need to watch it at all.

A group of scientists in 1968 is experimenting with time travel.  They are threatened with losing their grant.  So they stage a demonstration.  Unfortunately, they lack control of the process.

We see scenes ranging from 1 million B.C. to 6968 A.D.  Unfortunately, they are all glimpsed through a monitor from a cardboard set while scientists spout endless “scientific” jargon.  Don’t bother.

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

The President’s Analyst
Directed by Theodore J. Flicker
Written by Theodore J. Flicker
1967/USA
IMDb Link
First viewing/Amazon Instant

[box] Dr. Sidney Schaefer: If I was a psychiatrist, which I am, I would say that I was turning into some sort of paranoid personality, which I am![/box]

This dated spy spoof was really not my cup of tea.

Dr. Sidney Schaefer (James Coburn) is plucked from all the analysts in New York City to become the President’s analyst.  We never glimpse the President or his therapy sessions. We only know that Schaefer must be ready the instant his patient calls.  This puts a damper on his sex life.

The main plot is that the CEA and FBR are very worried a foreign power will get hold of the President’s secrets.  And, indeed, the Russians, British, and even the Canadians are scheming to kidnap him.  The CEA wants him dead.  Schaefer escapes to a musical hippy commune where he tries to avoid the bad guys.  With Godfrey Cambridge as a patient.

The plot summary does not sound all that funny and neither is the picture despite all the gags and one-liners.  Coburn was not cut out to do broad comedy like this.  The jokes are very dated.  I hated Lalo Schifrin’s score.  And whose idea was it to have Canadians speak with Cockney accents?  To me the whole thing was just a bunch of silly chaos.

Who’s That Knocking at My Door (AKA “I Call First”)
Directed by Martin Scorsese
Written by Martin Scorsese and Betsi Manoogian
1967/US
IMDb link
First viewing/Amazon Instant

[box] J.R.: Everybody should like westerns.[/box]

Martin Scorsese’s first feature is a fascinating look at the introduction of themes that would follow the director throughout his career.

J.R. (Harvey Keitel in his film debut) lives in Little Italy.  He hangs out with a bunch of slackers who think a good evening out consists of drinking, goofing around, fighting and hiring a couple of hookers to service all of them as “dessert”.  J.R. meets a never-named girl (Zina Bethune) on his way to Staten Island.  They strike up a conversation.  She is looking through a French magazine for the pictures.  He likes Westerns.  She likes art films. She likes jazz.  He likes soul music.  They fall in love.

But J.R. is saddled with a Madonna/Whore complex that makes it impossible for him to consummate their love outside of marriage.  Sex with prostitutes is perfectly OK.  Then she reveals to him that she had been date raped in the past.  Things work out about as well as might be expected.

I enjoyed this despite the frequent arty non sequiturs that actually detract from some great story-telling.  Scorsese’s nascent style is already evident.  The pop music soundtrack and movie references are there as are the themes of machismo, male-bonding, and Catholicism.  The clip below where the two leads talk about The Searchers is priceless. Recommended to the curious.

Clip – 100% Scorsese!

The St. Valentine’s Day Massacre
Directed by Roger Corman
Written by Howard Browne
1967/US
IMDb link
First viewing/Amazon Instant

[box] Reporter: Y’know some are sayin’ that it really was the cops who shot those men.

Bugs Moran: You must be new to this town, mister. Only Al Capone kills like that.[/box]

20th Century Fox gave cheapskate Roger Corman $2 million and some A list actors to make this film.  I think he could have made a better movie with less money.

The story of how Al Capone’s gang wiped out a good portion of Bugs Moran’s gang on February 14, 1929 has been told many times.  I don’t need to repeat it here.  With Jason Robards as Al Capone, George Segal as hitman Peter Gusenberg, and Ralph Meeker as “Bugs” Moran.

Naturally, Corman came in ahead of schedule and under budget once again.  He claimed he could have made the film for half as much if he had been allowed to shoot on location.

The final product was marred by incessant monotone voice-overs that sucked the life right out of it.  In addition, whose idea was it to cast Robards?  He doesn’t even attempt to appear or sound Italian and makes a pretty boring Capone, not withstanding his cigar chomping.  Corman made some very entertaining films when he actually sat in the director’s  chair.  This was not one of them.

Clip

Our Mother’s House
Directed by Jack Clayton
Written by Jeremy Brooks and Haya Harareet from a novel by Julian Gloag
1967/UK
IMDb link
First viewing/YouTube rental

[box] Tagline: The children’s story that is not for children…[/box]

So fantastic to find a sleeper like this.  And with my beloved Dirk Bogarde to boot!

Mother bore seven children, now ranging from about three to sixteen.  She is a religious fanatic, does not believe in doctors, and has evidently been bedridden for some time.  The house is a poor one but very well ordered.  When mother dies, the children, fearing they will separated or sent to an orphanage, bury her in the backyard.  They get along pretty well by forging mother’s monthly welfare checks and sticking to her rules.  The rules are sometimes harsh.

When one of the girls gets sick and the others refuse to get her medical care, a brother reaches out to mom’s estranged husband Charlie (Bogarde).  Charlie moves in and vacillates between loving playmate and debauched opportunist.  I’ll end the plot summary here.  With Pamela Franklin and Mark Lester among the children.

I thought this was pretty great. I don’t think I’ve seen Bogarde play a Cockney before but he knocks it out of the park as usual.   The film has some of the  haunting feeling of Clayton’s earlier The Innocents (1961).  The mixture of childhood merriment and impending doom is handled extremely well.  Also includes a good Georges Delarue score. Recommended.

Trailer – spoiler

Frankenstein Created Woman
Directed by Terence Fisher
Written by Anthony Hinds
1967/UK
Hammer Films
IMDb link
First viewing/Netflix rental
They Shoot Zombies Don’t They

[box] Baron Frankenstein: Everything we don’t understand is magic – until we understand it.[/box]

One of the better late Hammer Horror entries.  Not to be confused with The Bride of Frankenstein!

As the film begins, a man is executed by the guillotine as his terrified son looks on.  Later, Baron Frankenstein (Peter Cushing) is awoken from his cryogenic slumber raring to start reanimating the dead.  Conveniently, the now grown son is executed in the same manner leaving his sweetheart Christina to commit suicide.

The Baron combines the body of the beauty with the brains of the decapitated lover. Christina is now out to get revenge on the sadistic town swells who caused both their misery.

As the Hammer Horror franchise matures, it becomes more hit or miss for me.  This one was a hit.  Cushing played Frankenstein over and over.  This time he is so good that one hardly misses Christopher Lee.  Terence Fisher’s direction certainly doesn’t hurt. Recommended to fans of this genre.