Flickers in Time

House on Haunted Hill
Directed by William Castle
Written by Robb White
1959/USA
William Castle Productions
First viewing/Netflix rental

[box] Annabelle Loren: And you call this a party?

Frederick Loren: Could be.[/box]

I can’t believe I lived this long without seeing the quintessential Vincent Price performance! It was well worth waiting for.

Millionaire Frederick Loren (Price) offers seven strangers $10,000 apiece if they can stay until morning in a haunted house.  After midnight they will have no choice as they will be locked into the impregnable fortress.  He claims the “party” was his wife Annabelle’s idea, though she refuses to participate at first.  Before midnight, a number of shocking events have the guests ready to flee but they are not quick enough.

Then things get even spookier.  To add to the fun, Loring passes out guns to each of the participants for “self-defense”.  With Elijah Cook Jr. as the owner of the house.

This movie is 110% fun!  Price is at his snide, menacing best with his tongue planted firmly in his cheek at all times.  The scares are frightening enough to make a girl clutch her date’s hand but not enough that you’ll want to close your eyes.  The plot falls apart after about 30 seconds of scrutiny but we’re not watching for that, are we?  Recommended.

Trailer

Plan 9 from Outer Space
Directed by Edward D. Wood Jr.
Written by Edward D. Wood Jr.
1959/USA
Reynolds Pictures
Repeat viewing/Netflix rental

[box] Colonel Tom Edwards: This is the most fantastic story I’ve ever heard.

Jeff Trent: And every word of it’s true, too.

Colonel Tom Edwards: That’s the fantastic part of it.[/box]

When the extremely weird meets the utterly inept, you have a classic, my friends.

Earthlings refuse to admit the existence of flying saucers so aliens are forced to resort to “Plan 9”. Plan 9 involves resurrecting the dead to attract our attention. Ultimately, our visitors aim to prevent our “juvenile minds” from destroying the universe. I think.

The ineptitude of this movie must be seen to be fully appreciated. It cannot be topped for chutzpah. For example, Bela Lugosi supposedly plays one of the zombie creatures. Inconveniently, he had died several years earlier. This did not deter Ed Wood. He simply combined footage taken of Lugosi with film of a much shorter, younger actor holding a cape across his face. Gravestones are obviously made of cardboard and shake when the actors walk by although how hard could it have been to film in an actual cemetary?

That said this was a lot of fun and don’t forget: “We are all interested in the future, for that is where you and I are going to spend the rest of our lives. And remember my friend, future events such as these will affect you in the future.”

Classic clips

Return of the Fly
Directed by Edward Berends
Written by Edward Berends from the short story “The Fly”
1959/USA
Associated Producers
First viewing/Netflix rental

[box] [first lines] Francois Delambre: [voice over] Here passes from this earth Helene Delambre, widow of my brother, Andre, whom I loved deeply, hopelessly. She was destroyed in the end by dreadful memories, a recollection of horrors that did not dim as the years went on, but instead grew monstrously, and left her mind shocked and unsteady, so that death, when it came, was a blessed release.[/box]

Along with the color, this sequel removes a certain oomph from the original.  It’s very watchable though.

Philippe, the son of star-crossed inventor Andre Delambre and his beloved wife Helene, is left an orphan at the beginning of the film.  Kindly uncle Francois (Vincent Price) takes him under his wing.   Not even the most doting uncle can keep the boy out of his father’s lab, however.  Fate has a double-whammy in store.

This is quite OK.  The effects are good but nowhere near as creepy in black-and-white.

Trailer

The Hound of the Baskervilles
Directed by Terence Fisher
Written by Peter Bryan based on the novel by Arthur Conan Doyle
1959/UK
Hammer Films
First viewing/YouTube rental

[box] Sherlock Holmes: This is, I think, a two-pipe problem.[/box]

Peter Cushing gives my beloved Basil Rathbone a run for his money in the Sherlock Holmes department.

The plot is a spiced up version of the Arthur Conan Doyle story.  The movie starts in the distant past when a vicious dog gets revenge on the sadistic Sir Hugo Baskerville after he rapes and murders a servant girl.  Some believe that the Baskerville descendants are cursed to die in the same savage manner.

Centuries later, Sir Charles Baskerville apparently dies from either a heart condition or fright depending on the belief of the diagnostician.  His heir Sir Henry (Christopher Lee) comes to England from South Africa to claim his title.  It is immediately apparent that the nobleman’s life is in grave danger.  Who better to call on than Sherlock Holmes (Cushing)?

Hammer did a great job all-around with the gothic atmosphere in this one.  Cushing had Holmes’s intelligence and supercilious attitude nailed.  It was nice that the filmmakers did not choose to make Watson a comic relief character as in the Rathbone series.  This is a very strong issue in the Hammer catalogue.  Apparently, the public expected monsters with its gothic thrillers and Hammer stopped after its first Holmes title.

Trailer

Darby O’Gill and the Little People
Directed by Robert Stevenson
Written by Lawrence Edward Watkin suggested by “Darby O’Gill stories” by H.T. Kavanaugh
1959/USA
Walt Disney Productions
First viewing/Netflix rental

[box] King Brian: Three wishes I’ll grant ye, great wishes an’ small! But you wish a fourth and you’ll lose them all! [laughs][/box]

This pleasant family film might make good St. Patrick’s Day viewing if you’ve already seen The Quiet Man too many times.

Darby O’Gill (Albert Sharpe) is getting on in years.  He and his daughter Katie (Janet Munro) are caretakers of an aristocratic estate.  Since his wife died, Darby is more interested in spinning tales about leprechauns at the local pub than he is in his duties.  The Lord of the place decides it is time to retire Darby and replace him with the energetic young Michael McBride (Sean Connery).  When Darby learns of this demotion, King Brian of the Leprechauns decides it is time for the old man to join his kind permanently.

Before this can happen, however, Darby must keep Katie out of the clutches of the local bully and arrange her match with Michael.

This is exactly what any one would expect from a 50’s Disney presentation of The Old Sod.  It hits each and every stereotypical note with great affection.  Actually, it’s pretty entertaining and a good way to get acquainted with the pre-Bond Connery.

Clips – Sean Connery sings!

A Summer Place
Directed by Delmer Daves
Written by Delmer Daves from a novel by Sloane Wilson
1959/USA
Warner Bros.
First viewing/Netflix rental

[box] Molly Jorgenson: I’m… I’m sure everything’s clean, mother.

Helen Jorgenson: You can never be too sure.[/box]

We can see the eventual inevitable demise of the Hayes Code in this and other Peyton Place style melodramas.

Bart Hunter (Arthur Kennedy) is the scion of one of the most prominent families on Pine Island.  He is married to Sylvia (Dorothy McGuire) with whom he has a teenage son, Johnny (Troy Donahue).  Bart’s alcoholism has brought the family to hard times and they must now rent out their mansion for summers to make ends meet.  They receive an offer from the wealthy Jorgenson family.  Ken Jorgenson (Richard Egan) used to work on the island as a life guard and Bart is not looking forward to him lording his new wealth and social standing but beggars can’t be choosers.  Ken comes with his prudish, social climbing wife Helen and lovely daughter Molly (Sandra Dee).

Ken and Sylvia had been lovers as teenagers and hardly a day passes before they are seeing each ofther on the sly.  Molly and Johnny also form an immediate, if more chaste, romance.  Ken’s wife seems to have been looking for an opportunity to cash in on a scandalous divorce and that is just what happens.  The parents try to separate the children permanently by sending them to different boarding schools but nothing can conquer their desire for each other.  With Beulah Bondi as a wise spinster aunt.

This is well-made melodrama but had some drawbacks for me.  I wish they hadn’t made the scorned spouses so utterly despicable.  Both are such terrible human beings that there hardly seem to be any ethical or moral questions involved in the infidelity.  Sex is a subtext to almost every situation, but in that late-50’s whitewashed way that makes it all seem pretty smarmy.

The Max Steiner theme music for the film became a major pop hit at the time and has been covered numerous times and used as background in many TV shows.

Theme music set to clips

Pork Chop Hill
Directed by Louis Milestone
Written by James R. Webb from a book by S.L.A. Marshall
1959/USA
United Artists/Melville Productions
First viewing/Amazon Instant

[box] I was drafted during the Korean War. None of us wanted to go… It was only a couple of years after World War II had ended. We said, ‘Wait a second? Didn’t we just get through with that?’ Clint Eastwood [/box]

The objective is valueless except as a chip at ongoing Peace Negotiations.  This hardhitting film takes a look at the challenges of leading men whose primary aim is not to be among the last casualties of the war.

Lt. Joe Clemens (Gregory Peck)’s platoon is ordered to play a key role in re-taking Pork Chop Hill.  He is supposed to work in concert with a couple of other platoons.  Clemens’s first job is to motivate men who spend all their time glued to the radio for news on progress at the Peace Talks.  Clemens must motivate these by tough talk and brute force.

Once they hit the field, the men are also bombarded with non-stop propaganda “advice” from the Red Chinese.

Perhaps the most discouraging factor is the constant miscommunication from headquarters, which consistently seems to be clueless as to the location of its troops and conditions on the ground. General staff is unable to increase supplies and unwilling to order withdrawal at this sensitive political juncture.  Despite or because of the enormous casualties, though, the troops at last become determined to keep the hill.  With Harry Guardino, Rip Torn, George Peppard, Woody Strode, Norman Fell, Robert Blake, and Martin Landau (in his film debut) as soldiers.

Louis Milestone brings as another anti-war film late in his career.  It is not as epic as All Quiet on the Western Front but hard-hitting for all that.  It made me think about all the paradoxes created by this modern way of fighting and negotiating at the same time.

Trailer

Invisible Invaders
Directed by Edward L. Cahn
Written by Samuel Newman
1959/USA
Robert E. Kent Productions
First viewing/Amazon Prime

[box] Dr. Adam Penner: Dear Lord, I pray that I am insane, that all that happened is only in my mind. I pray that tomorrow the sun will shine again on living things, not on a world where only the dead walk the Earth.[/box]

Invisible aliens and living dead certainly do save on the old special effects budget …

As the film begins, an atomic lab explosion kills scientist Karol Noymann (John Carradine). Noymann’s friend, Dr. Adam Penner, is prompted to resign his position as head of a nuclear commission by the concurrent accidental release of radiation.  When Penner returns home to the desert he is contacted by an invisible alien occupying Noymann’s dead body.  The alien announces that the countries of the world have 24 hours to surrender.  Otherwise, aliens, all clothed in bodies of the dead, will inflict mass destruction and take over.

Penner, another scientist, a military man (John Agar), and Penner’s lovely daughter all retreat to an impregnable bunker where they race against the clock to find a way to materialize the aliens and destroy them.

This is OK for what it is.  I doubt that I will have a clue what it was about by next week.

Trailer

Jazz on a Summer’s Day
Directed by Bert Stern and Aram Avakian
Written by Albert D’Annibale and Arnold Perl
1959/USA
Galaxy Productions/Raven Films
First viewing/Netflix rental

Never play anything the same way twice. — Louis Armstrong

I was in heaven during this, the granddaddy of all the great rock concert documentaries.

The film is set in Newport, Rhode Island on the weekend of the 1958 Newport Jazz Festival and Americas Cup trials.  Performers are too numerous to mention but include Louis Armstrong, Mahalia Jackson, Anita O’Day, Gerry Mulligan, Dinah Washington, Chico Hamilton, George Shearing, Thelonious Monk and Chuck Berry.

This is more than a straight-forward video of a concert.  We feel that we are really there on a sunny Saturday afternoon and evening.  While we listen, we see the rapt or distracted concert goers, the sea and the sailboats, and the parties on the margins.  The musicians are all in their prime and are photographed tellingly.  I’m a huge Dinah Washington fan and she was probably my favorite closely followed Mahalia Jackson.  Chuck Berry kind of sticks out like a sore thumb among the jazz performers but made me feel like dancing with his “Sweet Little Sixteen”.  Highly recommended to all music lovers.

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