Monthly Archives: January 2019

Black Girl (La noire de …)
Directed by Ousmane Sembene
Written by Ousmane Sembene
1966/Senegal/France
Filmi Domirev/Les Actualites Francaises
First viewing/Amazon Instant

[box] The development of Africa will not happen without the effective participation of women. Our forefathers’ image of women must be buried once for all. — Ousmane Sembene[/box]

Mbssine Therese Diiop plays Diouana a young Senegalise woman who seeks work as a servant in the French Quarter of Senegal.  She succeeds in securing a place as nanny to a household with three kids.  The lady of the house asks Diouana to accompany them all back to France where they have an apartment on the Riviera.  She coaxes Diouana to come by describing all the shops and other wonders of France.

But Diouana is shocked to find the children are off somewhere and she is expected to be a combined maid-cook-and-laundress.  As she apparently has no time off, her position becomes a prison.  And Diouana simply was not made for that kind of life.

This is reportedly the first feature film made by a Sub-Saharan African director.  Sembene really rose to the occasion.  He has a great eye and a gift for the telling detail.

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I’m going away for a few days to visit family.  Will be back February 4.

El Dorado
Directed by Howard Hawks
Written by Lee Brackett from a novel by Harry Brown
1966/US
Paramount Pictures/Laurel Productions
First viewing/Amazon Instant

[box] Sheriff J. P. Harrah: What the hell are you doin’ here?

Cole: I’m lookin’ at a tin star with a… drunk pinned on it.[/box]

This is basically Rio Bravo (1959) with a bit of a role reversal.  I prefer the earlier film but you really can’t miss with John Wayne and Robert Mitchum.

Sheriff J.P. Harrah (Mitchum) has been on a two-month bender since a romance ended badly.  His old friend Cole Thornton (Wayne) is working as a gun for hire.  Thornton comes to town at the request of Bart Jacobs (Ed Asner) who is trying to steal water from a family of farmers.  He thinks better of it after talking to Harrah.

For the rest of the film, Harrah and Thornton team up to fight Jacobs and the other guns he eventually hires.   But first Thornton must sober the sheriff up. He also flirts mildly with the town saloon owner.  James Caan in the Ricky Nelson part, Arthur Hunnicutt  in the Walter Brennan part and Charlene Holt in the Angie Dickinson part.

John Wayne apparently lobbied hard to play the drunken sheriff.  Now that would have made an interesting movie!  As it is, we get the kind of solid, traditional Western that could have been made years earlier.

Clip

Lord Love a Duck
Directed by George Axelrod
Written by Larry H. Johnson and George Axelrod from a novel by Al Hine
1966/USA
George Axelrod Productions
First viewing/Amazon Instant

[box] Alan: Dear sweet simple minded Barbara Ann. Barbara Ann whose deepest and most heartfelt yearnings express with a kind of touching lyricism the total vulgarity of our time.[/box]

Axelrod’s “act of total aggression” has something to offend everybody.  Some will find it funnier than others.  I am one of the others.

Alan Musgrave (Roddy McDowell) and Barbara Ann Greene (Tuesday Weld) are high school seniors.  (McDowell must have been held back at least 10 years).  Musgrave has nicknamed himself “Mollymauk” after an extinct duck and has hypnotic powers.  He discovers all of Barbara Ann’s yearnings for popularity, marriage, and stardom and sets out to fulfill these.

Anyone who gets in Mollymauk’s way ends up dead somehow or other.  The master manipulator revels in the messes he creates.  With Ruth Gordon and Lola Albright as interfering mothers.

Some will find this funny and others will find it cringe-worthy.  The most cringe-worthy part in my opinion is where Barbara Ann seduces her own father into buying her enough cashmere sweaters to qualify for a sorority she wants to join.  The movie kind of lost me after that.  On the other hand the cast and acting can’t be faulted.  I think Tuesday Weld is underrated and even when she is acting crazy you believe every minute.

Gammera the Invincible
Directed by Sandy Howard and Yoriaki Yuasa
Written by Richard Kraft and Niisan Takahashi
1966/US/Japan
Harris Associates/National Telefilm Associates
First viewing/Amazon Prime

[box] Tagline: The super-monster even the H-bomb cannot destroy…[/box]

Americanization makes what looks like a lame original even lamer.

A giant fire-breathing turtle is awoken from his Arctic hibernation and begins moving toward Tokyo.  Along the way, a young turtle-loving boy forms a special bond with him.  Japan eventually brings in both the Soviets and the Americans for a military solution.  With Albert Dekker as the U.S. Secretary of Defense and Brian Donlevy as a General.

This is a re-edited version of Daikaiju Gamera.  The American inserts feature some really bad acting.  Lousy miniature work plus annoying little kid so it’s not much of a good time. Love the rock-and-roll theme song!

King of Hearts (Le roi de coeur)
Directed by Philippe de Broca
Written by Daniel Boulanger and Maurice Bessy
1966/France/Italy
Fildebroc/Les Productions Artistes Associes/Compagnia Cinematografica Montoro
Repeat viewing/Netflix rental

[box] Why is the King of Hearts the only one that hasn’t a moustache? — James Branch Cabell [/box]

It’s hard for me to imagine a film more Gallic or charming than this one.  Love it, love it, love it.

The setting is a small French town during WWI.  Charles Plumpick (Alan Bates) is an ornithological specialist in the British Army (keeps the carrier pigeons).  He is mistaken for a demolitiions expert and ordered to go to town to disarm a bomb – location unknown – that is set to destroy the entire place.  The population evacuates.  Charles is scared witless and escapes some German soldiers by fleeing into the insane asylum, whose doors were left open by departing employees.  He is immediately welcomed as the “King of Hearts” and adopted wholeheartedly by the inmates.

Everybody goes out on the town and puts on clothing that suits his insane persona.  So we get a general (Pierre Brasseur), a Duke (Jean-Claude Brialy) and a madam.  The madam’s brothel includes a sweet virgin called Coquelicot (Genevieve Bujold).  The madam quickly sets up a tryst for the King with her.  At the same time, the animals have escaped from a circus adding to the atmosphere.

Charles tries his best to complete his mission but keeps getting distracted by his lovable new friends.

This was one of the first foreign movies I saw in the movie theater, probably in the early 70’s.  I’ve loved it since that day throughout the years.  It never gets old.  My husband thought the anti-war message was heavy handed in places  but we both enjoyed the comedy.   Warmly recommended.

The Endless Summer
Directed by Bruce Brown
Written by Bruce Brown
1966/US
Bruce Brown Films
Repeat viewing/Amazon Prime

[box] Narrator: Many of us ride winter and summer, but the ultimate thing for us would be to have an endless summer. The only way to do this is to travel around the world.[/box]

In this documentary, two surfers travel the world in search of the perfect wave.  The scenery is breathtaking and the surfing is phenomenal.

Director Bruce Brown follows surfers Mike Hynson and Robert August as they surf waves both perfect and less so and interact with the “locals”.  The documentary takes them to Africa, Australia, and Tahiti among other locations. Brown also includes some spectacular sequences with other surfers in California and Hawaii.

This film was a huge surprise hit when it came out in 1966.  It was made for $50,000 and grossed $20 million.  I still remembered a lot of it vividly from the original release.  It held up fabulously.  Love the laid-back humorous narration by Brown.  Warmly recommended.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4tsHF020-1k

Manos: The Hands of Fate
Directed by Harold P. Warren
Written by Harold P. Warren
1966/US
Norm-Iris/Sun City Films
First viewing/YouTube

[box] Master’s Wife: The woman is all we want! The others must die! They ALL must die! We do not even want the woman![/box]

A family of three gets lost in the desert, where they happen upon a hotel of sorts occupied by crazed caretaker Torgo.  Torgo is a devotee of The Master, the undead “husband” of multiple brides whom he defaces with a burning hand.  The mother is The Master’s intended next victim but he’s going to have to move fast to get in ahead of Torgo.

Fan trailer

Night Train to Mundo Fine (AKA Red Zone Cuba) 
Directed by Coleman Francis
Written by Coleman Francis
1966/US
Hollywood Star Pictures
First viewing/YouTube

[box] [last lines] Narrator: Griffin ran all the way to hell… with a penny, and a broken cigarette.[/box]

Plot?  We don’t need no stinkin’ plot!  Well, some guys decide to fly to Cuba and invade.  The team of eight is easily captured by an artificially bearded Castro look alike and executed one by one.  Three escape and somehow get back to the U.S. where they continue to fight each other.  With the producer and director in the leads and John Carradine acting daft and singing the theme song.

THE BATTLE

Needless to say, there would be no battle if these were not both exceedingly bad movies.  In that regard, they share lame dialogue, continuity errors, boring driving and walking sequences and bizarre soundtracks.  Now this is not a fair fight because I watched Manos sans riff track and Night Train in its Mystery Science Theater 3000 version because that was all that was available to me.  I would say that Manos has more boring bits than Night Train, which is just consistently bizarre.  I might say that Coleman Francis is an auteur along the lines of Edward P. Wood in the bad movie genre.  Harold P. Warren is a (un) talented amateur whose more endearing trademarks include making the wrong cinematic choice in virtually every situation.  If I had to pick one to rewatch, it would be Night Train to Mondo Fine.  The many death scenes are a hoot and that theme song can’t be beat!  So which movie is worse?  Depends on your perspective.

Random Internet user’s list. Note that all three Coleman Francis movies appear.