Monthly Archives: September 2017

The Brain That Wouldn’t Die
Directed by Joseph Green
Written by Joseph Green, original story by Green and Rex Carlton
1962/USA
Rex Carlton Productions
Repeat viewing/Amazon Prime

[box] Dr. Bill Cortner: Oh, come on now, Doris. Do I look like a maniac who goes around killing girls?[/box]

Not the best in the “brain-in-a-bottle” genre.

Dr. Bill Cortner is a hot-shot young surgeon.  His father cautions him against experimenting on humans but he disregards all advice.  He has been doing horrific operations at the family’s summer place.

Bill is engaged to surgical nurse Jan.  He is called out to the summer place to deal with an emergency and takes her with him.  He is driving way over the speed limit when he crashes into a barrier and down a cliff.  Bill is ejected from the car, which explodes in flames.  He manages to save Jan’s head …

This movie had real potential to be bad movie gold.  The best and most ludicrous part is the doctor’s speedy rescue of the head which he does without a knife or scalpel.  There are also some nice moments with a “creature” and Jan is pretty good.

Unfortunately, the film has been padded out to fill its 82 minute run-time.  This means we have to sit through interminable bad driving sequences, burlesque dancing, etc. before we get to the good stuff.

The Pirates of Blood River
Directed by John Gilling
Written by John Hunter and John Gilling; story by Jimmy Sangster
1962/UK
Hammer Films
First viewing/Netflix rental

[box] Brocaire, a pirate: [Realizes the sword thrust through him is fatal] Oh, Mama… [He falls over dead][/box]

The highlight of this movie is Christopher Lee and his French accent.

A couple of generations ago, French Huguenots fled to the Isle of Devon in the Caribbean to escape religious persecution.  The ideals of their forebears have been corrupted and the island is now run by religious fanatics.  As the movie starts, Jonathan Standing (Kerwin Matthews), is caught kissing one of the elders’ wives.  He is tried by a panel including his own father, who is also an elder, and sentenced to 15 years in the penal colony.  This is tantamount to a death sentence as the jailers are brutal.

Jonathan manages to escape and runs into pirates headed by Capt. LaRoche (Christopher Lee). Jonathan makes a deal with LaRoche so that the pirates will take him back to the village to organize a rebellion.  Unbeknowst to Jonathan, the pirates are actually nterested in treasure and will kill until its location is revealed.  This might be a problem as Jonathan is convinced there is no treasure.  Mayhem ensues.   With Oliver Reed as one of the pirates.

Hammer Studios was not known for its pirate movies but the gore carries over from the better-known Gothic horror films.  There are plenty of swordfights and other brutality to be had.  It’s mildly OK.

Trailer

These Are the Damned (AKA “The Damned”)
Directed by Joseph Losey
Written by Evan Jones from a novel by H. L. Lawrence
1962/UK
Columbia Pictures Corporation/Hammer Studios/Swallow Productions Ltd.
First viewing/Netflix rental

[box] Freya Neilson: You know, someone once told me when a bureaucrat wants to keep his job, he stamps everything ‘Top Secret.’ [/box]

The story is an uneasy mixture of JD movie with sci-fi thriller.  Director Joseph Losey keeps all of it powerful, if not coherent.

As our story begins American tourist Simon Wells (McDonald Carey) is visiting an English seaside resort.  Joanie (Shirley Anne Field) gives him the eye and he picks her up only to be brutally mugged by a gang of “teddy boys” headed by King (Oliver Reed), her brother. King has an unhealthy obsession with his sister’s virtue (think Scarface).  But Simon is the only man who has ever treated her like a lady and she cannot stay away from him.

We are also introduced to a bureaucrat and his estranged artist wife and learn that the former has some kind of sinister secret.

Simon and Joanie sail down the coast in Simon’s boat and happen to hide out in the bureaucrat’s house, which has been long vacant.  But the estranged wife arrives to spend the summer there and they are found out.  Before too long, Kind and his gang come looking for his sister and trouble.

Simon and Joanie escape and eventually find themselves in a cave with some children who are desperate to escape their current situation.  The bureaucrat’s secret, which involves these children, gradually unfolds over the remainder of the story.  Simon and Joanie are now in danger from both King’s gang and the bureaucrat’s assistant.

The story is really all over the place and does not bear scrutiny.  There were too many coincidences for me.  Also, I don’t want to give away the secret but it is insufficiently fleshed out.  I wish the movie had ditched a lot of the JD parts, particularly the “Black Leather Rock” song.  That would have given some more time to explain.

Setting the story aside, the film is beautifully and powerfully filmed.  Oliver Reed’s acting makes up for Carey’s inherent dullness and the rest of the cast is fine.  Recommended to sci-fi fans.

It was not until I was doing research for this film that I realized Oliver Reed was director Carol Reed’s nephew!

Trailer

The Awful Dr. Orlof (Gritos en la noche)
Directed by Jesus Franco
Written by Jesus Franco
1962/Spain/France
Hispamer Films/Leo Lax Production/Ydex Eurocine
First viewing/Netflix rental

[box] I feel that cinema should be like a box of surprises, like a magic box. And in that world, anything is allowed to enter, as long as it’s always treated with a spirit of “Pop!”. Not in the spirit of “Now you understand the problems of society in 1947”. No, I don’t give a shit about that. I think cinema should be like magic, a surprise, that’s all. That’s why, to conclude, I love movies . . . and stories. – Jesus “Jess” Franco[/box]

Though the version I watched left a lot to be desired, there was a much to like about this take on the Eyes Without a Face plotline.

The movie is set at the turn of the last century.  As it begins, we see a blind, scarred zombie-like figure murder a woman in her bedroom and take the body away.  Segue to the police force and we find out there has been a string of missing women.  At first, it was assumed they had run off with men but now it is surely murder.  Soon after, we learn that the blind man is the faithful servant of a doctor who is trying to restore his daughter’s lost beauty.

Naturally, the police inspector assigned to the case has a fiancee who is the spitting image of the doctor’s daughter.  She is eager to help and does the most stupid things imaginable.

Although it is no match for the film it ripped off, there is some really beautiful camerawork in this film.  The horror parts are enjoyably lurid but there is some comic relief that brings the movie down a notch.  This was one of Franco’s first films.  I’m interested in seeing a few of the other 202 films he directed.

Unfortunately, the DVD contained only a dubbed and a French-language version of the film.  I had to watch the dubbed version since there were no subtitles .  Between the poor sound quality and the lack of a match between the dialogue and the lips, I had a hard time understanding the English and it made the acting seem really wooden.  The dissonant score was also an irritant.

Trailer

The Tale of Zatoichi Continues (Zoku Zatôichi monogatari)
Directed by Kazuo Mori
Written by Minoru Inuzuka; story by Kan Shimozawa
1962/Japan
Daiei Motion Picture Company
First viewing/Filmstruck

[box] “There’s none so blind as those who will not listen.” ― Neil Gaiman, American Gods[/box]

The filmmakers keep the standard high in the second of the “Blind Ichi” films.

This is truly a continuation of the story with many of the same characters reappearing.  Ichi is wandering the land.  The mild mannered masseuse cannot seem to help attracting the attention of every sword-happy samurai he meets.  He dispatches about 20 of them in the first five minutes of the film.  Then he is asked to massage a Lord.  In doing so, he is privy to the secret that the noble is a half-wit and the retinue send out a couple of thugs to silence him.  I do not need to tell you what happens to the thugs.  The Lord’s retainers do not give up on doing away with Ichi and hire a local gang boss to slay him.

It is the one year anniversary of Ichi’s duel with the consumptive samurai from the first film and Ichi returns to the same setting to pay his respects to the only man he was able to call friend.  The boss from the first film does not have fond memories of Ichi.  Finally, he encounters women old and new who are attracted to his goodness and his own no-good brother.

This has way more action than the first film.  I was less surprised by the story but equally entertained.  You can see the entire series on Filmstruck but multiple complete versions are also currently available on YouTube.

Clip with extraneous soundtrack – would recommend muting!

The Tale of Zatoichi (Zatôichi monogatari)
Directed by Kenji Misumi
Written by Minoru Inuzuka from a short story by Kan Shimozawa
1962/Japan
Daiei Motion Picture Company
First viewing/FilmStruck

Tane: Why don’t you live a decent life?
Zatôichi: It’s like being stuck in a bog; it’s not easy to pull yourself out once you’ve fallen in.

I had been looking forward to starting this series and the first entry did not disappoint.

The hero Ichi is blind.  He used to work as a masseuse before self-studying sword fighting and becoming a gangster.  As the series begins, he arrives in a new town looking for a previous acquaintance and is insulted by the locals.  We soon learn that it is a grave error to get on the wrong side of Ichi.  When his acquaintance, the boss of the local gang, comes he orders that Ichi be treated with tender loving care.  Secretly, the boss wants to start a gang war with the gang in a neighboring town and hopes to use Ichi as his big guns.

In the meantime, Ichi meets the samurai that has been hired by the rival gang. The samurai is dying of consumption.  The two form a special bond though it appears that they must inevitably face off.  Ichi also forms a special bond with the sister of the no-good lackey of “his” boss.  The movie culminates in some awesome mayhem.

There are 26 films in the series and luckily it starts off with a bang.  The absurd hero actually works perfectly in context.  I was expecting lots of swordplay.  I wasn’t prepared for the sensitive story that leads up to it.  I’m looking forward to the next one. Recommended.

Clip – actually available by searching the title on YouTube

Billy Budd
Directed by Peter Ustinov
Written by Peter Ustinov and DeWitt Bodeen from the play by Louis O. Coxe and Robert H. Chapman based on the novel by Herman Melville
1962/UK
Allied Artists Pictures/Anglo Allied
First viewing/Netflix rental

[box] Billy Budd: There are many ways to lie, Mr. Claggert, but there is only one way to tell the truth.[/box]

The acting is the thing in this symbolic maritime tragedy.

Angelic young Billy Budd (Terence Stamp) is everyone’s favorite among the crew on the merchant ship Rights of Man.  It is the Napoleonic Wars and impressment is a constant threat to merchant sailors.  Sure enough, the HMS Avenger commanded by Post Captain James Vere (Peter Ustinov) arrives and selects Billy as the likeliest fighting man from the ship.  Billy greets this turn of events will cheerful equanimity.  He soon becomes the favorite of almost everyone on the Avenger.

Everyone, that is, is except Master of Arms John Claggert (Robert Ryan).  Claggert is sadist that mercilessly works the men under him and is as widely hated as Billy is loved. The thing is that Claggert seems to have a need to be hated.  He begins to plot Billy’s destruction.  Captain Vere is eventually left with a dreadful dilemma.  With Melvyn Douglas as an ancient mariner and a host of British character actors.

The Christ symbolism is applied here with a trowel, just as it was in the play and, I imagine, the novel.  But the acting is so strong that it overcomes some pretty clunky dialogue. Director Ustinov made marvelous use of the sea setting and the services of cinematographer Robert Krasker (The Third Man).  Recommended.

The DVD I rented contained a terrific commentary in the form of a conversation between Steven Soderbergh and the erudite and amusing Terence Stamp.

Terence Stamp was Oscar-nominated as Best Supporting Actor for his film debut (despite playing the lead).

Cape Fear
Directed by J. Lee Thompson
Written by James R. Webb from a novel by John D. MacDonald
1962/USA
Melville Productions/Talbot Productions
Repeat viewing/Netflix rental

[box] Max Cady: Go ahead. I just don’t give a damn.[/box]

Mitchum’s Max Cady is scarier than any monster.

Max Cady has just been released from eight years in person for assaulting a woman. Attorney Sam Bowden (Gregory Peck) was the eye witness at his trial. Max looks him up and begins a subtle but effective campaign of terror which he soon escalates.

Bowden is not about to take this lying down, especially since the main threat is to his wife (Polly Bergen) and teenage daughter.  But everything he tries makes things worse until he feels compelled to take drastic action.  With Martin Balsam as a police chief.

Robert Mitchum seems to have been born to play a villain – that is until you see him play a hero.  This performance may even surpass his bravura turn in Night of the Hunter for sheer evil.  Director Thompson ratchets up the suspense to eleven.  The tension is heightened by the fantastic Bernard Herrmann score.  I do get a bit frustrated with all the wrong-headed moves Peck’s character makes.  Highly recommended.