THE FERNANDO ARRABAL COLLECTION (VIVA LA MUERTE/ I WILL WALK LIKE A CRAZY HORSE/ THE GUERNICA TREE) -- DVD review by porfle

 

Originally posted on 4/13/10

 

As much as I enjoyed volume two of THE FERNANDO ARRABAL COLLECTION from Cult Epics, it feels like a somewhat less essential assortment of odds and ends compared to this first set containing the Spanish filmmaker's most twisted, controversial, and aggressively surrealistic images and ideas.

The most autobiographical and visually confrontational of Arrabal's films, his feature debut VIVA LA MUERTE (1971) is the story of a little boy named Fando (short for Fernando, I'll bet) dealing with the arrest and imprisonment of his father during the Spanish Civil War and the discovery that it was his mother who turned him in to the fascist government for being a "red" and an atheist. Fando idolizes his missing father, whose forbidden ideologies begin to transform the teachings of his domineering mother and other elders into warped Freudian nightmares in his fervid adolescent mind.

The delirious onrush of puberty that fuels Fando's imagination becomes an Oedipal obsession which finds him lustfully keyhole-peeking on his mother. In one scene, he literally strokes his lizard as he peers at her half-naked body, then bites its head off. Okay, I can partially identify with that, because if I was in a movie and the exquisite Núria Espert played my mom, I'd probably stroke my lizard, too. But I wouldn't bite its head off. Unless I found out that I was in a Fernando Arrabal movie, in which case it would probably be the most normal thing I'd do that day.

The message of the film is that both the fascist state, which uses violence to crush dissent, and rigid conformity, which does so in a variety of insidious ways, are bad. This is a springboard for Arrabal to indulge in plenty of scenes, both real and imagined, which ridicule religion and the military. Of particular note is a fantasy in which Fando and some other boys castrate the local priest and feed him his own junk. "Oh, my balls! How tasty they are!" he gushes. "Thank you Lord, for this divine dish."

Another highlight finds Fando's mother stripping to the waist and forcing him to whip her back with a belt in penance for her sins ("Harder! Faster!" she moans in ecstasy) while she in turn grabs his crotch and gives it a vise-like squeeze. Her treachery in blowing the whistle on Fando's father inspires a vision in which she tapes black X's over his eyes as he's tied to a post, then gleefully mounts a tank and exhorts the leering soldiers, to whom she has given herself sexually, to shoot him. In one of the film's most startling moments, he's bound in a tiny wooden cage while she stands over him and defecates on his head.


Fando, meanwhile, is either increasingly losing touch with reality or it's losing touch with him. When his beloved grandpa dies and he's told to give the departed a last kiss, Fando does so and then begins to lick the old man's face. He lights up a cigarette during class one day and sits there puffing like Bogart while his teacher, a pudgy nun whom he envisions as a rooting pig, has a fit. The adult world around him grows stranger by the minute as he struggles to make sense of his father's fate, while both his alienation from and strange sexual attraction to his mother continues to confuse him. (Mahdi Chaouch, as Fando, is an amazing child actor who is convincingly in character every moment he's onscreen and gives a performance of surprising subtlety and depth.)

This, however, is nothing compared to the dizzying heights of weirdness Arrabal has in store for the viewer. An actual slaughterhouse is the setting for a sequence that will leave mortified animal lovers agog as a live bull is violently beheaded, disembowled, and castrated. Fando's mother holds the bull's testicles aloft and then squirms ecstatically through the flowing gore (Núria Espert is the very definition of a "trouper" here) before inserting a grown-up Fando into the animal's open carcass and sewing him up inside it. It's a crashing wave of repellant but disturbingly potent symbolism that leaves the incredulous viewer aghast. And if you're like me, you'll wonder how in the hell Arrabal managed to persuade his cast to enact some of this way-OTT stuff.


Back in what passes for the real world in this movie: increasingly suffocated by his mother's overbearing influence and that of his other stodgy and oppressive elders, Fando begins to develop a constant cough. Although the doctor diagnoses it as TB, it seems more as though his lungs are rejecting the very atmosphere around him. As he's taken to the hospital for a barbaric operation, his possessions are ordered burned--we see his little handmade theater and the crude dolls that represent his family going up in flames--as though his odd presence is being purged from the village. In the end, the only person who loves Fando for himself and remains loyal to him is a sweet little girl named Thérèse whose other constant companion is a pet turkey on a leash.

The DVD is in 1.78:1 widescreen with both French and dubbed-Spanish soundtracks and English subtitles. Along with a lobby card gallery and a trailer for I WILL WALK LIKE A CRAZY HORSE is an interesting interview with Arrabal during which he fondles a wooden chair and smells his shoe. The keepcase also contains a six-page foldout booklet with liner notes by Rayo Casablanca.

Often accompanied by an incongruously cheerful children's tune that will reappear in much of Arrabal's later work, VIVA LA MUERTE is a heady concoction of perverse, Bosch-like images that aren't easily assimilated. I'll probably watch it again whenever my life starts to feel a little too normal and I need a stiff dose of crazy.



I WILL WALK LIKE A CRAZY HORSE, aka J'irai comme un cheval fou (1973), features yet another warped mother-son relationship that makes me wonder how much of it is also drawn from Arrabal's own experiences and/or hangups, and how much is just him messing with us. The main part of the story, however, is like a wish-fulfillment dream that mixes the surrealism of his other work with the childlike fantasy of THE EMPEROR OF PERU, building to a bizarre yet oddly optimistic ending.

After apparently murdering his rich, clinging mother and fleeing with her cash and jewels into the desert, Aden Ray (American actor George Shannon) encounters a primitive Pan-like troll named Marvel. This naive and gentle soul lives in a cave with his goat Theresa and various snakes, scorpions, and insects, and knows nothing of the outside world. When asked if he can read, Marvel responds, "What does 'read' mean?"

Marvel asks about civilization, and as Aden tells him how wonderful it is we see people in gas masks making joyless love and racing around with shopping carts. Television, he explains, is "a blind woman who teaches philosophy and caresses the foulest recesses of our brains."
Every time Aden describes the wonders of his world his words seem hollow and meaningless, although the naive Marvel finds them intriguing and funny.

Fascinated by Marvel's utterly guileless innocence and mystical communion with nature, and reveling in the first taste of freedom that he's ever known, Aden nevertheless can't wait to introduce the eager naif to the big city, which, of course, will have consequences both delightful and dire. All the while, police continue to close in on the fugitive Aden, and his newfound happiness with his soulmate Marvel proves fleeting.

While VIVA LA MUERTE was unrelentingly downbeat, this time Arrabal renders dreamlike images both dark and enchanting. The former dominates early on as we see some of the traumas that warped Aden's childhood, including the time he stumbled upon his mother (Emmanuelle Riva) being willingly sexually abused and degraded by the handyman. While she gets what is commonly known as a "facial", a distraught and confused Aden masturbates himself into a frothing epileptic seizure.


Heavily symbolic scenes include the boy Aden as Baby Jesus, mouth taped shut, as his Virgin Mary mother drives needles into his penis, and the older Aden lying catatonic in his mother's arms as she lights his erect member like a candle. Yikes. It's no wonder that he fantasizes about nailing her outstretched tongue to a table.

On a lighter note--traditionally handsome Aden and childlike dwarf Marvel make quite a pair. Their first meeting is hilarious--Marvel offers Aden some food, which he likes. What is it, he asks. "I wrapped it in rose petals," Marvel says proudly. "A little flour...mixed with goat shit." Aden watches in wonder as Marvel greets the morning by twirling ecstatically like a top beneath the rising sun until he levitates. Some blind desert dwellers arrive and implore him to heal them, which he does by dabbing their eyes with his saliva.

Hachemi Marzouk is perfect in the role--you can't help but be captivated by this grotesque little bundle of joy as he scurries around with no ambition whatsoever except to know and give happiness, and dispensing miracles without a second thought. "What is happiness?" he asks, and while Aden ponders the question, Marvel answers it himself by scampering down a sand dune with joyful abandon.


When the two arrive in the city, we fear that the awestruck Marvel will be corrupted by its sin and temptation. Yet it's as though he has a force-field of innocence that prevents this from happening. When a scheming circus owner tricks him into dancing around in boxer shorts for paying customers, Marvel not only enjoys the experience but shares his joy with everyone else by releasing some lions from their cages, causing a panic. Aden keeps trying to get unwilling hookers to give him his first sexual experience, yet Marvel, with his sweet personality, manages to snag a beautiful woman into a whirlwind marriage ceremony presided over by his goat.

One of the most vividly moving sequences takes place in a church after Marvel impulsively insists on attending mass. As a dour priest haranges his flock about their impending damnation, the tearful Marvel approaches a large crucifix and gently removes the crown of thorns and a nail from one hand, magically drawing blood. "Blasphemer!" everyone angrily accuses, yet for a moment we see the image of a loving Christ smiling down upon him.

The DVD is in 1.78:1 widescreen with French soundtrack and English subtitles. Extras include a lobbycard gallery, the trailer for VIVA LA MUERTE, a six-page foldout booklet with liner notes by Rayo Casablanca, and another interesting interview with Arrabal.

After the on-the-nose autobiographical odyssey of VIVA LA MUERTE, I WILL WALK LIKE A CRAZY HORSE finds Arrabal beginning to express other feelings in other ways. The final gripping minutes are both horrifying--some will find them utterly disgusting--and inspirational, climaxing in a thrilling moment of hard-earned transcendence. The horror has barely faded before a happy ending leaves us smiling, and the swirling maelstrom of Arrabal's imagination seems to have been allowed a brief moment of peace.



With THE GUERNICA TREE, aka L'arbre de Guernica (1975), Arrabal takes the Spanish Civil War head on with his most ambitious work to date. He shows us how the war affects the small village of Villa Ramiro, which is lorded over by Count Cerralbo (Bento Urago) and his fascist nephews. The count's only son, a liberal artist named Goya (Ron Faber), refuses to side with him against the common people and retreats to the nearby town of Guernica, where liberty is cherished.

Vandale (Mariangela Melato, FLASH GORDON), a beautiful but very eccentric woman regarded as a witch by the people of Villa Ramiro, also flees to Guernica on her donkey after the count's nephews attempt to rape her and runs into Goya. As they dance during the town's celebration of its renowned "freedom tree" the fascist military attack Guernica from the air and bomb it to smithereens.

Vandale and Goya return to Villa Ramiro to fight with the peasants, who have stormed the count's castle and are preparing for the coming siege by Franco's forces. Arrabal's anti-Catholic imagery here is some of his strongest stuff yet--a church is desecrated as a man gleefully urinates on a religious statue while a midget rapes another statue of the Virgin Mary and smears her face with his semen. A priest, who represents the Vatican's support of the fascists, has the large crucifix (which is shot to pieces) wrested from his hands and replaced with a shovel. Later, another priest will demonstrate his support of the military by ceremoniously licking a general's face and then passionately French-kissing him.

The battle scenes are infused with the same energy and scope of Sergio Leone's depiction of the American Civil War in THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE UGLY. Black-and-white newsreel footage is inserted throughout, somehow fitting right into the mood of Arrabal's footage without any jarring effect. Vandale rises to the occasion as her innate courage and determination make her a leader of the revolt, with the brave Goya fighting by her side, both discovering qualities they weren't even aware they possessed. Arrabal explores Mariangela Melato's highly-photogenic face with an artist's joy.

While the usual surrealism continues to appear, these scenes interrelate more with the story rather than commenting on it from a distance. As the film progresses, the absurdity of the more fanciful images barely surpasses that of the historical events, until the difference between the two becomes almost indistinguishable. It's as though Arrabal's creative zest in depicting the actual atrocities of the war matches his desire to express himself symbolically.


When we see a bullfighter elegantly slaying helpless midgets in the ring as the jaded nobility look on, it fits almost seamlessly into the rest of the narrative, as do the horrific executions which take on a carnival-like atmosphere. And with such strong material to work with, Arrabal no longer needs to expand his imagery so far into the realm of the fantastic in order to express himself.

During the military tribunal which follows the fascist victory, a teacher is sentenced to death by firing squad for the murder of Count Cerralbo. When the count shows up to prove that he's alive and to testify on the teacher's behalf for hiding him during the fighting, the teacher's death sentence is revoked--to be replaced by another one, death by garrotting, for having enough influence with the Communists to ensure the count's protection in the first place. The mass executions which follow are a free-for-all of depravity. (It's no wonder that after such an exhausting study of injustice and inhumanity, Arrabal would next choose to make a children's film with Mickey Rooney.)

The DVD is in 1.78:1 widescreen with a French soundtrack and English subtitles. Extras include a lobbycard gallery, theatrical trailer, a six-page foldout booklet with liner notes by Rayo Casablanca, and an amusing featurette with Arrabal hanging around outside Grauman's Chinese Theater asking passersby if they've ever heard of Guernica.

With Goya and Vandale's passionate embrace amidst the shimmering rays of a setting sun, the film ends with optimism and hope in the face of bitter defeat. The music swells grandly as we're left with a stirring image of romantic beauty that is one of Arrabal's most heartfelt and triumphant moments. A work of crude magnificence and fierce conviction, THE GUERNICA TREE secures Arrabal's place as one of the most fascinating and intriguing directors of all time.


As a filmmaker, Arrabal operates as though the camera were connected directly to his torrid, overheated subconcious and simply expelled reels of bizarre film imagery as he thought it up. For someone to consciously create this kind of stuff, he'd not only have to be seriously whacked out, but also revel in it and devote his life to exploring it. Which, as THE FERNANDO ARRABAL COLLECTION so clearly demonstrates, is exactly what he has done.

ATTRACTION -- DVD review by porfle

 

originally posted on 10/26/09

 

attraction aka nerosubianco aka black on white (1969) is a story told in images and sounds about a woman wandering through her life unsatisfied, not knowing what she wants, she seems to be experiencing a sexual awakening, a growing awareness that's beginning to dawn on her as she observes the changing world around her, a new way of thinking and behaving that she's drawn to but afraid to embrace

stream of consciousness images in the park, on a city street, her mental musings merging with ambient voices and snippets of radio ads that are mostly sexual in nature, ads about sex aids and orgasms

freestyle editing of a cascade of images, a constant wave of visual impressions

a musical group seems to appear wherever she goes and sings about what she's seeing and feeling as she drifts through one montage of images and sounds after another

a handsome, mysterious young black man begins to fascinate her and she fantasizes about him, we see snippets of her fantasies, as he follows her, his civilized fascade, the wild man she imagines him to be chasing her naked through the forest

naked people boldly romp in public, and she imagines herself naked, shedding inhibitions

she ducks into a beauty salon and imagines the customers as cows, and her emotionless lover calling a doctor to treat her nonresponsiveness, and the doctor becomes the black man

she relaxes on a ferry and observes the lives of people in peephole-vision through their windows, surreal images that seem to be only in her mind, she smiles

she recalls watching television with her husband and he becomes so unresponsive as to grow as stiff and malleable as a doll

the boat ride becomes a heady experience as she drifts through fantasies of mechanical lovemaking with her lover becoming indistinguishable with repetitive fitness exercises while a woman's voice speaks of whether or not it's a sin to have orgasms while doing chin-ups, she pictures herself naked in a steamy spa that's like the misty recesses of her subconscious

she runs outside into the rain and the black man is there with an umbrella, she sees her lover at the door and shoots him with a toy gun, her lips and the black man's lips almost touch over the lover's body

she goes to a seaside amusement park and takes a ride through the love tunnel, but instead of fanciful things she sees real people with painted faces behaving impulsively, and the black man keeps appearing over and over, all very symbolic innit

her lover appears as a glowering priest and sternly announces that all prohibited scenes of nudity and lovemaking will now be replaced by acceptable scenes of violence and war, racial injustice and horror, and sure enough we're bombarded by a visual assault of shocking images that are like a splash of cold water in the face

she finds herself at an anti-war rally and the black man is there too, at the dawning of her political awareness--"now you see the people in another light, and it plays upon your brain" the singer sings

a wonderfully comic moment at a photo booth devolves into a clockwork orange-like nightmare, the woman begins to be overcome by her irrational fears as she is overwhelmed by the ugliness of the world around her

finally she returns to the park where it all started--will she take the next step? bite the apple? does she really even want to?

suddenly it occurs to me that i've pretty much described the entire movie scene by scene, suffice it to say that attraction is about a repressed and unfulfilled woman trying to find herself during a weird day filled with new experiences and sensations

attraction (originally released in the usa as a heavily-edited softcore sex flick retitled "the artful penetration of barbara") smashes 60s taboos all over the place and remains a fascinating and wildly experimental film experience from start to finish, with camerawork and editing and a sensibility not unlike that of the monkees' "head" except there's an actual story and it definitely isn't a comedy or as clumsily pretentious as this review

i like the actress (anita sanders) who plays the woman because she's beautiful and serenely expressive, while terry carter (the black man), needless to say has a million likability points already from being in stuff like "mccloud" with dennis weaver and the original "battlestar galactica"

each phase of the film is like a free-form late 60s acid-rock music video by freedom, a group consisting of the remnants of procol harum, and these guys are awesome

i want the soundtrack to this movie until i realize that the dvd itself is pretty much the soundtrack to this movie

i notice that this "cult epics" dvd release is an italy/uk co-production in 1.85:1 widescreen with dolby digital 2.0 sound, taken from film promoter radley metzger's rare 16mm print, and the dvd also features a lobby card gallery and trailers

i feel that attraction is, as they say "a trip", a cinematic carnival ride, an extended peek into a woman's psyche as she in turn observes us, a vivid waking dream by a wildly imaginative filmmaker (tinto brass), and i wouldn't be surprised if roger waters has seen it on acid at some point in his life and it blew his mind.

"Star Trek III: The Search For Spock" With a "CHiPs" Ending (video)

Video by Porfle Popnecker. I neither own nor claim any rights to this material. Just having some fun with it. Thanks for watching!

VOYAGE TO THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA: SEASON FOUR VOLUME TWO -- DVD review by porfle

Originally posted on 1/23/11

 

Not one of my favorite shows as a kid, I regarded the truly schizophrenic "Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea" as either too grown-up for me in its early episodes or too childish and silly later on.  After the adult-oriented first season, the network urged producer-director Irwin Allen ("The Time Tunnel", "Land of the Giants") to turn the series into a kid's show, and boy, did he ever. 

At times, the final half season contained in the DVD set VOYAGE TO THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA: SEASON FOUR VOLUME TWO makes Allen's "Lost in Space" look like FORBIDDEN PLANET.  Yet, some episodes are fairly straightforward sci-fi action thrillers.  This makes the collection a bit like Forrest Gump's box of chocolates--you never know what you're going to get.

Now that I'm a grown-up (so to speak) I get a big kick out of watching the more absurdly juvenile science-fantasy episodes.  It's fun to see just how cavalierly the writers will disregard logic and scientific accuracy to concoct colorful adventures that sometimes resemble the world of Adam West's "Batman", only totally lacking the self-mockery.

Things often don't make sense on the Seaview--the laws of physics operate in certain ways just because the writers want them to, while situations and character behavior may seem totally illogical.  Plot holes are blithely ignored and the juxtaposition between serious drama and deadpan farce is fascinating.





Based on the 1961 film which was also written and directed by Irwin Allen, the series takes place in the (then) near-future of the 70s and 80s and follows the adventures of the colossal atomic submarine Seaview and her crew.  Richard Basehart plays ship's designer Admiral Nelson (replacing Walter Pigeon, who starred in the film), a brilliant scientist whose research institute coordinates Seaview's missions along with the government.  David Hedison is Captain Lee Crane, the dynamic young skipper.  Rounding out the main cast are Robert Dowdell as executive officer Chip Morton, Del Monroe as sonor man Kowalski, and Terry Becker as Chief Sharkey.

The DVD collection sets sail with one of the dumbest episodes imaginable, "The Return of Blackbeard", with the titular pirate (Malachi Throne) somehow taking over the will of crewman Kowalski (Del Monroe) and others, and wreaking havoc aboard the Seaview.  Throne plays the character as though he were cavorting blind drunk through a dinner theater production of "My Favorite Year", and the episode is padded with so much empty action that it resembles a chapter from a bad serial. 

I remember seeing the preview for the next episode when I was a kid and being flabbergasted to find the Seaview menaced by...a leprechaun?  "Terrible Leprechaun", in fact, features twin leprechauns, both played by an ideally-cast Walter Burke.  The evil one is bent on using the submarine to obtain a horde of gold coins buried beneath the ocean floor, while the good one is out to stop him.  This episode just had me shaking my head in disbelief the whole time.


"The Lobster Man" boasts one of the hokiest monster suits in TV history.  Ditto for "Abominable Snowman", although it's surprisingly serious and not a bad story--a good example of how some of the plots straddle the line between adult and juvenile fare.  Fortunately, these are the last segments which feature such ridiculous-looking creature suits.

In between the two is the first truly riveting episode in the set, "Nightmare", which harkens back to the more grounded-in-reality feel of the first season despite its fantastic elements.  While piloting the Flying Sub, Crane spots a UFO in the vicinity of the Seaview.  He returns to the ship to find the crew gone and encounters a mysterious stranger (Paul Mantee) who claims to be a UFO expert sent by the military. 

A morose Nelson, Morton, and Kowalski suddenly appear and subdue Crane by force, sentencing him to death and announcing their plan to fire nuclear missiles at Washington, D.C.  With a darker, less kid-oriented tone and more real drama, this one's a corker.

Mark Richman guests in the exciting "Secret of the Deep" as a double agent trying to keep the Seaview from discovering a hidden underwater base while the sub is attacked by a number of impressive sea monsters.  "Man-Beast", with Lawrence Montaigne ("Stonn" of ST:TOS' "Amok Time"), is a genuine old-fashioned horror yarn with Captain Crane turning into a hairy, snarling werewolf after a failed extreme-depth experiment in the ship's diving bell. 

Next comes "Savage Jungle", in which an alien (Perry Lopez, CHINATOWN) smuggles three silver-skinned soldiers aboard in doll form so that they can use the Seaview to turn the entire world into a jungle.  The aliens of "Flaming Ice" are Frost Men who sport Flock of Seagulls hairdos and are led by an almost unrecognizable Michael Pate.  The story takes place beneath the polar ice cap and gives Kowalski another chance to freak out, which he's prone to do with disturbing regularity.


"Attack!" is a lively conglomeration of more aliens, more flying saucers, and more jungle scenery as Nelson and his crew struggle to stop a full-scale invasion from space which begins with the destruction of an entire fleet of ships.  Kevin Hagen ("Little House on the Prairie") leads a force of hostile spacemen in really bad uniforms while the great Skip Homeier totally awesome-izes the episode as peaceful alien Robek.  This one makes the next tale, "The Edge of Doom", seem almost mundane by comparison, although the story of a Seaview officer being replaced by an enemy lookalike bent on destroying the ship will keep you guessing.

The jungle set is reused yet again in "The Death Clock", the first of two time-traveller tales.  In this one, the evil Mallory (Chris Robinson) creates a time warp in which a future version of Captain Crane murders Admiral Nelson, then strands the crew in another dimension where they'll be blown to bits when the device of the title counts down to zero. 

The final episode of the series, "No Way Back", features venerable character actor Henry Jones as Mr. Pem, whose time travel device whisks the Seaview back to Revolutionary War-era America and pits the crew against Benedict Arnold (Barry Atwater).  It sounds goofy, but it's actually one of the best episodes of the set and treats its subject pretty seriously.  

The distinguished Basehart (THE BROTHERS KARAMAZOV, MOBY DICK) is such a fine actor that his performances are always rock-solid even when he seems less than enthusiastic about dealing with pirates and leprechauns.  David Hedison, on the other hand, acts his way though each story as though his life depended on it.  I never realized how good he is before--he's always on his best game. 

The pacing of some episodes lacks momentum and tends to get a little monotonous.  However, the bizarre, anything-can-happen nature of the stories usually compensates for this.  The special effects are always interesting to look at, especially those beautiful models of the Seaview and the Flying Sub in action (much stock footage from the feature film is used).  Musical scores by composers such as Alexander Courage, Leith Stevens, and Harry Geller are consistently good.

An often-spoofed feature of the show is the "rock and roll", in which the actors hurl themselves repeatedly from one end of the set to the other as the camera lurches back and forth.  Unless I'm mistaken, this occurs in literally every episode of the set.  The ship's electrical circuitry bursting into flame or exploding as though packed with Roman candles is another familiar sight.


The DVD from 20-Century Fox is in full-screen with English and French mono sound and English subtitles.  The 13 digitally-remastered episodes are on three double-sided flipper discs.  Side six contains the special features, including a photo gallery.  Best of all, though, are two versions of the show's original pilot episode, "Eleven Days to Zero"--the unaired version, and the broadcast version complete with extra footage and original commercials, from a rare print furnished by Mrs. Irwin Allen.

This ragged black-and-white print is a priceless, dazzling piece of film that shows writer-director Irwin Allen at the height of his creative powers.  The opening alone is an audacious and breathtaking action setpiece, paving the way for a riveting sci-fi thriller that moves at a breakneck, almost frantic pace from start to finish. 

There's a sense of genuine gravity as the Seaview sets out to prevent a worldwide calamity with a powerful enemy trying to destroy them.  This malevolent organization, which resembles SPECTRE from the James Bond stories, is led by the mysterious Dr. Gamma (Theo Marcuse) and gives the film a Cold War vibe.  The Seaview is bombarded by depth charges and attacked by another sub (commanded by Werner Klemperer) while trying to stop an underwater earthquake which will flood the world's coastal regions.  A team of divers also encounter a giant octopus during a hazardous attempt to effect repairs. 

Lead performances are top-notch.  Baseheart, in particular, takes the whole thing as seriously as though he were starring in a big-budget war film.  Hedison is also sharp as a tack here, and guest star Eddie Albert lends even more weight to the episode.  Direction is lean and imaginative with some nice stylistic touches.  There's a robust musical score by Paul Sawtell (his main theme music became a permanent part of the series) which at times recalls Max Steiner's music for KING KONG.

Although uneven in tone and frequently downright silly, most of the thirteen episodes in VOYAGE TO THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA: SEASON FOUR VOLUME TWO are nevertheless wonderfully entertaining.  Fans of the show will know what to expect--others should just sit back and let this wildly unconventional series take their grasp on reality apart piece by piece.

I GOT YOU BABE: THE BEST OF SONNY & CHER -- DVD Review by Porfle

 

Originally posted on 1/24/20

 

I'm old enough to remember watching TV on August 1, 1971 when "The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour" premiered on CBS. It would go on for four seasons, and I would be right there in front of the TV watching just about every episode. 

That's why seeing Time-Life's 5-disc, 10-episode DVD set I GOT YOU BABE: THE BEST OF SONNY & CHER (1971-73) is like playing back actual memories that are still floating around inside my head.

It also rekindles the feelings I had while watching these shows, which consists mainly of a warm fondness for the two leads and a giddy appreciation of the silly, often zonked-out comedy displayed by their onstage comedy bits and frenetic ensemble skits.

Each show begins with the titular couple themselves coming out to perform for the live studio audience, usually singing some clumsy, showbiz version of a popular pop song of the time, before lapsing into their comedy act.

This consists of Sonny reveling in his own inflated ego while the dry, utterly deadpan Cher cuts him down to size (almost literally) with a non-stop arsenal of short jokes, Italian jokes, withering remarks about his sexual prowess, and general putdowns.

This aspect of their act, in fact, is what gave them renewed popularity after their huge chart success during the 60s (with such hits as "I Got You, Babe" and "The Beat Goes On", both of which are used as themes for the show) had wound down and found them struggling in small venues.

Even after their career as a vocal duo had run its course, they were now delighting audiences with this mixture of songs and caustic putdown humor, Sonny brilliantly portraying the insecure schlub and Cher as the dead-shot insult machine (although Sonny could always fire back with jokes about Cher's big nose and American Indian heritage).

With their customary live-audience intro out of the way, each episode then proceeds to avail us with some of the corniest, cringiest comedy skits imaginable, which at the time somehow seemed more "hip" than the usual variety show content but in retrospect are just as old-fashioned as the oldest vaudeville routines.

What livens these moments up are the sheer exuberance shown by Sonny & Cher, who are surprisingly adept at comedy, as well as their celebrity guests who all seem to be having a fun time doing the show.

This is especially true of Tony Curtis when he portrays the corpulent "Detective Fat" (a take-off on the current series "Cannon") and Jerry Lewis, who gets a chance to go nuts with a succession of goofy characters and the silliest comedy routines the writers could devise.  A casual atmosphere that encourages botched lines and improvisation adds to the show's appeal.

Just about all of the guests seem to share this chance to let their hair down, including such names as Jimmy Durante, Carroll O'Connor, Art Carney, Jim Brown, Bobby Vinton, Jim Nabors, and Joe Namath. Even musical guests Dinah Shore, Bobby Vinton, The Supremes, and the Righteous Brothers get into the act.

Among the regular bits that long-time viewers will recall are the memorable "V-A-M-P" skits in which Cher portrays famous historical femme fatales, and spoofs of opera and other highbrow entertainment hosted by an irreverent Freeman King.

Then, after all the silliness had run its course, Sonny & Cher would return for a straight singing segment featuring more of their strident, soulless recycling of past and current pop hits before their traditional goodbye to the audience which consisted of a reprise of their theme song "I Got You, Babe" and often included an appearance by cute-as-a-button daughter Chastity (who is now their son, Chaz).

The final two shows in the set, "The Sonny & Cher Years Special (Parts 1 and 2)", are of interest as retrospectives of their 60s success as well as featuring a cast of musical superstars such as Chuck Berry, Jerry Lee Lewis, Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons, Paul Anka, Peter Noone, Neil Sedaka, and the Coasters. Period celebrities Dick Clark, Edd Byrnes, and Wolfman Jack are also on hand to join in the fun.

Oddly, all of these performers are relegated to brief segments of their best songs during a medley that begins each of the two episodes, and then for the rest of the show they participate in the silly comedy skits. It's fun to see them having fun, but I'd think their musical talents would've been given more air time than their comedy chops.

Be that as it may, the series as a whole is a lot of dumb, often wince-inducing fun (thanks in part to great regulars such as Ted Ziegler, Teri Garr, Freeman King, Murray "The Unknown Comic" Langston, and a young, bearded Steve Martin, who was also a writer along with Bob "Super Dave" Einstein).

And as I GOT YOU BABE: THE BEST OF SONNY & CHER demonstrates, Sonny and Cher in their glitzy, showbiz prime, before their eventual divorce and ensuing gossip-mag scandals, were two of the most appealing variety-show entertainers who ever graced our TV screens.



Bonus Features:
  Interviews:
        Cher
        Frankie Avalon
        Producers Allan Blye and Chris Bearde
  The Barbara McNair Show (“Sonny & Cher Pilot,” Original Air Date: February 15, 1970)
  Jerry’s Place (1970)
  Illustrated booklet

THE LURKER -- Movie Review by Porfle

 

Originally posted on 11/27/19

 

Nice to see that current slasher movies are no longer required to possess a SCREAM-style self awareness and can just go back to being slasher movies.  A case in point is the low-budget, very 80s influenced THE LURKER (2019), which takes its story of a troubled high school senior  and her classmates being terrorized by a masked killer very seriously.

Not a stellar production by any means, this is a perfectly adequate and at times above-average effort that spends enough time focusing on Taylor (Scout Taylor-Compton), her personal problems, and her volatile interactions with various classmates to raise it above the usual "obnoxious teens get slaughtered one by one during a party" drivel.

Taylor, it turns out, yearns to be an actress and is currently playing Juliet in the senior play to a Romeo who's little more than an obnoxious horndog.  Meanwhile,  some mean girls have gotten Taylor at a disadvantage by learning her most dreaded secret and are using it to push all her buttons as often as possible.

As if that weren't enough, Taylor comes from a broken home (her father disappeared, leaving her with a caring mother and her current boyfriend) and, for some reason, the play's director has developed a raging hard-off for her, vowing with considerable contempt that she will fail in her acting aspirations.

The film concentrates so much on Taylor's personal problems, in fact, that the first couple of kill sequences seem tacked-on.  This will change later on, however, when a cast party at "Romeo's" house becomes a hunting ground for the deadly stalker in the black hoodie and bird-beak mask. 

Up until that point THE LURKER moves at a leisurely pace that's punctuated by the brutal murders of a school counsellor who suffers multiple stabbings with a sharp, jagged object, and a classmate whose head is pulverized by a cinder block behind the theater during a break in the play. 

Later, when the party's bloody festivities get under way, gore fans will be treated to several killings but may not be entirely satisfied with the rather run-of-the-mill throat slashings, chokings, blunt-object bludgeonings, and the like, some of which occur either off-camera or in very quick shots.

Still, things remain lively throughout the film's second half, during which everyone ends up back at the school (I missed exactly how that happened) for more bloody mayhem and a plot revelation or two.  The real shock ending comes later at the hospital, where the massacre's survivors discover that the carnage is yet to reach its final horrific peak.

As the story unfolds, we're treated to a few possible candidates for the title role.  These include a creepy long-haired janitor named Drew (Eddie Huchro) with an unhealthy interest in Taylor, as well as her co-star's even creepier dad who shows up at the party drunk and wielding a shotgun, and who has an even unhealthier interest in Taylor when she asks him where the bathroom is.

Technical aspects are nicely done--director Eric Liberacki (SPOILED FRUIT) does a solid job--and the performances are good. The doctor in the hospital scenes is played by none other than the original Jason in "Friday the 13th", Ari Lehman. Scout Taylor-Compton (THE LUMBER BARON, 247°F, CYNTHIA) will be familiar to many as Laurie Strode in Rob Zombie's "Halloween" films.

Slow spots and improbable story points are pretty much forgiven once the action gets going, which it does in fairly good style for such a modest, well-meaning shocker.  THE LURKER sets out to be a bloody 80s-style slasher movie that doesn't kid around, and it does so in entertaining fashion.


TECH SPECS
Runtime: 80 minutes
Format: 1:78 HD
Sound: Dolby Sr.
Country: USA
Language: English
Rating: Pending - should be an R

SHE DEMONS Dance to "I Eat Cannibals" (Toto Coelo) (video)

This is the famous dance sequence from the 1958 classic SHE DEMONS...

...set to the exciting jungle rhythms of Toto Coelo's "I Eat Cannibals."

No editing was required--the music and images just went together perfectly.


I neither own nor claim the rights to any of this material. Just having some fun with it. Thanks for watching!

TELETUBBIES: BUBBLES -- DVD Review by Porfle

 

Originally posted on 6/18/17

 

I grew up with TV shows that were designed for very young children to watch, shows that taught us our ABCs and how to count to ten in addition to little life lessons and stuff.  But what we didn't have in those days were shows that were literally designed for babies (or, at most, pre-pre-schoolers), which is a niche that "Teletubbies" has been filling almost exclusively since 1997.

The show was enough to blow my adult mind in its original form, but now, with more advanced digital backgrounds, green-screen effects, and other visual enhancements, the new, improved Teletubby world is more cheerfully bizarre than ever, as seen in Sony's six-episode DVD release TELETUBBIES: BUBBLES (2017).

Teletubby Land is a peaceful place of verdant, rolling meadows, colorful flowers, and scampering bunny rabbits, where the sun is a giant baby head that observes all with a bemused laugh and four fat, fuzzy creatures with TV antennas on their heads and monitor screens in their tummies--namely, the Teletubbies--emerge from their underground "home dome" to play until the sun goes down. 

Tinky Winky, Dipsy, Laa-Laa, and Po, whom you can distinguish only by their color and shape of their antennae, think and speak on an almost pre-verbal level, using a few simple phrases ("Eh-oh!" means "Hello") but mainly repeating what the dulcet-voiced narrator says. 

Interestingly, the narrator gives them their cues--for example, he'll say "The Teletubbies ate some Tubby Toast" and the Teletubbies, upon hearing this, will hop around with joy and activate their giant Tubby Toast toaster.

At other times, they seem to be subjects in some strange laboratory experiment when a number of odd periscope-shaped devices emerge from the ground to observe them and issue instructions such as "It's sleepy-time" and "Wake up!"  But since there's no conflict or any individual concerns in this world, it's all just an excuse to celebrate and be happy for the eternally amenable Teletubbies. 

This results in a viewing experience that practically radiates calm and good vibes.  Plot is practically nonexistent, so what the show mainly does is to introduce toddlers to the most basic words, ideas, and images which are probably still new to them, and then to show the roly-poly characters having a little innocent and entirely harmless fun with it all.  It's like a visual tranquilizer. 

The titles of the six episodes (approx. 12 and a half minutes each) tell the whole story of each: "Bubbles", "Music Box", "Puddles", "Wake Up Time!", "Windy Day", and "Bumps!", the latter featuring a brief segment on bumper cars along with a little bumpy dancing by the Tubbies. 

When a nearby broadcast antenna is activated and its spinning wheel begins radiating multicolored stars (always an exciting part of their day), the Teletubbies writhe on the ground with pleasure until one of them receives a transmission via his tummy telly. 

This is our introduction to a short film with happy children demonstrating the episode's fun new thing (in "Puddles", we see two girls in galoshes splashing around in the rain; in "Bubbles", children are actually encased in large bubbles; the other shorts are equally self-explanatory) to which the Teletubbies invariably respond with "Again! Again!" for an abridged instant replay. 

Their subterranean home is a colorful playspace with a Tubby Custard machine that doubles as a train ride and a big smartphone that calls them with fun messages.  A new feature that still has me a bit freaked out is a miniature terrarium-like dollhouse containing tiny versions of themselves known as "Tiddly-Tubbies", which we see only when it's time for them to go to sleep. 

(I have no idea what's going on there, but it reinforces my feeling that this is all some strange experiment conducted by the mysterious periscope beings.)

Each episode ends with a cheerful goodbye and several group hugs ("The Teletubbies love each other", the narrator comfortingly assures us) before the furry brethren retire to their home dome for the evening and Big Baby-Head Sun slowly sets.  If Arnold Schwarzenegger were a Teletubby, his main catchphrase would definitely be "Big Hug." And unless you're a total cynic, the feeling should prove somewhat infectious.  

The pre-schoolers for whom TELETUBBIES: BUBBLES is intended won't care about any of that stuff, though.  I think these simple, repetitive, candy-coated little adventures will captivate them with their playful charm and tranquil, benevolent ambiance. And considering all that's going on in the world today, there's certainly no harm in a show that can make someone happy just thinking about bubbles for awhile.


Bonus Features:

·“Heads, Shoulders, Knees and Toes” Song
·"Meet the Characters": Laa-Laa

1.78:1 Anamorphic Widescreen
Dolby Digital Sound
English Subtitles
Approx. 75 min./Color

Read our original coverage

FLIPPER: SEASON TWO -- Blu-ray Review by Porfle

 

Originally posted on 8/28/17

 

More of the day he came home--and by "he", I mean everyone's favorite dolphin, Flipper.

FLIPPER: SEASON TWO (Olive Films, 3-disc set) offers up thirty more half-hour episodes of good, clean family fun (1965 style) that even a crusty old curmugeon such as myself can sit back and binge watch till I'm seasick.

The boys, freckle-faced Bud (Tommy Norden) and older brother Sandy ("16 Magazine" heartthrob Luke Halpin), are back and still having adventures with their aquatic pal, the world's smartest dolphin. 

Their dad, oceanic park ranger Porter Ricks (Brian Kelly), spends much of his time keeping Bud out of trouble when he isn't taking care of poachers, smugglers, dolphin-snatchers, and other problems that keep this from being just a harmless kiddy show.

Episodes range from innocuous kid-type concerns (paper routes, homework) to actual suspense and danger stuff, as when the boys discover a cache of counterfeit money in a sunken wreck but are unaware that it's booby-trapped with explosives. 

In another instance, an attractive female oceanographer named Ulla (new semi-regular, Ulla Strömstedt) gets trapped underwater as her scuba tank starts running out of air. Later, she'll take part in such adventures as helping to track down an escaped convict (Burt Reynolds) who steals her mini-sub.

A lot more happens this season, with Flipper getting caught in a net next to a floating mine and going deaf in yet another underwater explosion.  In the two-part season ender, he even gets a girlfriend. 

All of it is light and easy to take, done in an era when TV shows knew how to pack a lot of entertainment into a briskly-paced half-hour time slot.  There's always time for fun, excitement, and, every once in a while, even heartwarming moments between father and son (or boy and dolphin). 

And unlike some shows of its kind, this one does it all with surprising subtlety, restraint, and a refreshing lack of cloying sentimentality.

The familiar jaunty theme song is jazzed up this time around, with some guy named Frankie Randall crooning new lyrics that include "Beware of Flipper, Flipper, he's such a lover..."  Production values are as simple, colorful, and appealing as usual.

Guest stars for the season include the aforementioned Burt Reynolds, Bo Svenson as a coral poacher, and Daniel J. Travanti.

Having never been a fan before, I never thought I'd be watching this show with such enthusiasm, but I'm captivated. FLIPPER: SEASON TWO is great fun that takes me right back to the good old days of family TV entertainment.


Buy it at Olive Films

YEAR: 1964-1965
GENRE: DRAMA
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH (with optional English subtitles)
LABEL: OLIVE FILMS
TOTAL RUNNING TIME:  780 mins
RATING: N/R
VIDEO: 1.33:1 Aspect Ratio; COLOR
AUDIO: MONO
RELEASE DATE: August 29

Read our review of Season One

FLIPPER: SEASON ONE -- Blu-ray Review by Porfle

 

Originally posted on 8/26/17

 

Even as a kid, I avoided producer Ivan Tors' "Flipper" because I thought it just another dumb show about a kid and his freakishly intelligent pet getting him out of trouble all the time.  Now, however, with the 3-disc Blu-ray FLIPPER: SEASON ONE from Olive Films, I've been binge-watching this show like there's no tomorrow.

It's basically the same sort of kids-and-pets premise as "Lassie" (a boy and his dog on the farm) or "Fury" (a boy and his horse on a ranch) or "Gentle Ben" (a boy and his grizzly bear wherever they were) only instead of a dog or a horse, the rambunctious young freckle-faced kid (Tommy Norden as Bud) and older brother Sandy (Luke Halpin) are having adventures on the Florida coast with their beloved dolphin while helping Dad (Brian Kelly as Ranger Porter Ricks) with his duties as a park ranger for a marine preserve.

The uncomplicated plots still manage to generate conflict and suspense, usually on the mild side (although Dad occasionally has to get rough with various poachers, smugglers, etc.) 

This is a good example of how they used to be able to cram lots of story into a half-hour episode without any filler and keep us sufficiently entertained the entire time.  It also takes us back to a more innocent television era when such stories were simple and fun.

The characters are surprisingly realistic, frequently engaging in sincere, understated father-son exchanges that ring true while teaching valuable lessons to both kid and adult viewers.  Moreover, their actions rarely strain credulity or descend into forced humor or bathos.

Even the fantasy element of Flipper seeming to understand and respond intelligently to Bud is done sparingly and with some subtlety (we only occasionally get the standard "Go get help, Flipper! Find Dad!" scene).

Dad's job as aquatic park ranger is fodder for a wealth of exciting stories.  In the pilot, "300 Feet Below", a shark-attack victim calls for help from his boat before passing out, and it's up to Flipper to make sure he gets needed plasma in time for a transfusion. (A young Jessica Walter appears as his wife.)

In another story, lobster trap poachers overpower Ranger Ricks during a nocturnal arrest and leave him stranded in the middle of the ocean to die.  (Andy Devine guest stars.) A hurricane threatens coastal inhabitants in "The Second Time Around", with an impossibly young Linda Day as a former water-skiing champion who loses the will to live after being confined to a wheelchair.

Stories such as this emphasize the human element that the series handles with ample skill.  Most are involved enough for adults but with a vicarious fantasy element that should appeal to kids as they watch Bud and Sandy living on the beach, constantly swimming and scuba-diving, having fun adventures with Flipper, etc.  It's enough to make me wish I were a kid again myself. 

Kelly is solid as the stern but easygoing Dad, with Luke Halpin ably portraying a likable teen on the verge of manhood while satisfying the "16 Magazine" readers in the audience. Red-headed Tommy Norden is ideal as the precocious kid who gets into trouble sometimes but is basically a model son.

The show benefits from colorful, simple, down-to-earth production values as well as the active participation of underwater expert Ricou Browning (CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON).  Olive Films' three-disc Blu-ray (full screen, mono, English subtitles, no extras) nicely preserves the show's brightness and clarity despite some occasional wear in the original elements.

Even if you weren't a fan of this series the first time around, you may find yourself warming up to it considerably upon reappraisal.  It's great light viewing if you're in the mood for something simple and uncomplicated.  As for me, FLIPPER: SEASON ONE is the kind of easy-to-take family entertainment that I can binge watch till it's coming out of my ears.


Buy it at Olive Films

YEAR: 1964-1965
GENRE: DRAMA
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH (with optional English subtitles)
LABEL: OLIVE FILMS
TOTAL RUNNING TIME:  780 mins
RATING: N/R
VIDEO: 1.33:1 Aspect Ratio; COLOR
AUDIO: MONO
RELEASE DATE: August 29

Read our review of Season Two

PREEXISTING CONDITIONS -- DVD Review by Porfle

 

Originally posted on 1/29/18

 

If John Waters' "Pink Flamingos" is just too classy and highbrow for you, you might want to give writer/director/star Brian Dorton's PREEXISTING CONDITIONS (Olive Films/Slasher Video, 2015) a try. 

Actually, those who do like the John Waters anti-classic might tire of this film's dogged efforts to be as outrageous. The cast features male actors in bloated, big-haired drag interacting with various skid-row characters and engaging in shocking or just plain dumb activities while incessantly yakking away or screaming at each other.

When Waters did this kind of stuff there was a sort of jittery, renegade style to it as we could almost see him trying to glue cheaply-shot footage of sordid urban insanity together into a projectable film while avoiding Baltimore police and riding herd on some of the weirdest characters in cinema history.

Here, it's just some people goofing around playing dress-up with a digital camera. The script has its moments of mildly amusing, oddball humor but without any aura of the dangerous or subversive.  Still, those who prefer their off-kilter comedy a little more on the blander side may find this to be a plus. 

Not that PREEXISTING CONDITIONS is a Sunday afternoon cakewalk, however.  A full-figured black woman named Clitty Hyman (played by actual female Ayana Moore) suffers a drive-by bombardment of fried chicken by some cackling skinheads before picking it up off the street and eating it. 

She's on her way to see her gal friends, conservative Melissa (Douglas Conner) and wild-girl Katrina (Dorton), as they go about their white trash lives, dealing with both infidelity (Melissa's boyfriend of six months cheated on her just as she was about to cook them a lobster dinner, so she threw his TV set out the window) and the threat of being murdered by a gang of vengeful yokels over a past offense from the previous film, "Trashology." 

Amidst much running and driving around (it's pretty much a shaggy-dog story) Melissa and Katrina meet Ms. Green (Gerica Horn), an eye-patched old lady in a wheelchair who comes off as the film's most endearing eccentric, a guitar-playing nun (also Gerica Horn) who helps the girls fulfill Ms. Green's wish that they poop on the grave of the late pastor of the Westboro Baptist Church, and various other wacky lowlifes. 

The best thing about PREEXISTING CONDITIONS is its gender-fluid and rather versatile cast--with several of them playing multiple characters of both sexes, you never know who's going to show up as who next.  This leads to some of the film's most revolting images, namely the softcore sex scenes with guys in drag pretending to be actual women getting pounded and some of the least appealing naked bodies since "Pink Flamingos." 

Things finally start to get moderately more interesting in the final act when stuff starts to happen that actually resembles a plot.  It still meanders to a bland conclusion, after which I didn't really feel as though I'd just spent the last 90 minutes or so as productively as possible. 

The DVD from Olive Films and Slasher Video is in 1.78:1 widescreen with stereo sound and optional English subtitles. Extras include the short film "A Handsome Dick", deleted and alternate scenes, bloopers and outtakes, Katrina's ALS Ice Bucket Challenge, a photo gallery, and a trailer.

PREEXISTING CONDITIONS is the very definition of a "time-waster."  How fondly you regard its scattershot efforts to cheerfully gross you out depends entirely upon your generosity as a viewer and your tolerance for fart, barf, poop, and gross sex jokes that might even make Shane Dawson queasy.


Order it from Olive Films

THE MONSTER OF PIEDRAS BLANCAS -- DVD Review by Porfle

 

Originally posted on 9/13/16

 

I don't know how often your local stations showed it, but when I was a little Monster Kid back in the 60s I only got to see THE MONSTER OF PIEDRAS BLANCAS (1959) once.  So viewing the new DVD from Olive Films was literally only my second time to watch this modest but effective monster thriller from the tail end of the 50s creature-feature era.

Still, I always remembered it fondly, and I have a feeling a lot of lifelong Monster Kids also hold this seldom-seen gem in warm regard.  Partly because it's such an enjoyably low-key and earnest effort, but mainly due to its titular monster, a scaly, bloodthirsty, and extremely foul-tempered beast with a penchant for decapitating his victims.

Indeed, the most enduring images from the film, which many of us first saw in the pages of "Famous Monsters of Filmland" magazine, are those of the monster carrying around a bloody, realistic-looking severed head (as he does right there on the DVD cover itself).  This really piqued our morbid imaginations in those days since such graphic gore was still a novelty, especially on television. 

For the most part, however, THE MONSTER OF PIEDRAS BLANCAS is pretty standard stuff for a low-budget independent horror feature, though nicely done on all counts.  The simple story takes place in a small seaside town and centers around the lighthouse which is maintained by crabby old Mr. Sturges (John Harmon, FUNNY GIRL, MONSIEUR VERDOUX), who seems to know more than he lets on about the rash of mysterious, violent deaths occurring around town. 

While his attractive daughter Lucille (Jeanne Carmen) spends her school break with him and romances local boy Fred (the great Don Sullivan of THE GIANT GILA MONSTER and TEENAGE ZOMBIES) on the sly, Sheriff Matson (Forrest Lewis, THE ABSENT-MINDED PROFESSOR) and Dr. Jorgenson (Les Tremayne, WAR OF THE WORLDS) try to solve the mystery of the headless corpses popping up all over town.

Lewis, Tremayne, and Harmon, each of whom appeared in films both big and small, use their considerable collective acting experience to lend gravitas to the production.  As for the younger players--Sullivan is an old favorite of mine, even when he has his ukulele with him (his awful solo number in GIANT GILA MONSTER is the stuff of legend), and Carmen, a close friend of Marilyn Monroe who led quite a colorful life in showbiz, gives a likably restrained, earthy performance as Lucille. 

 

I like the smalltown ambience the film establishes--everyone knows everyone else and the phone numbers are only three digits long--as well as the unhurried pace that scripter H. Haile Chace and director Irvin Berwick (MALIBU HIGH, HITCH HIKE TO HELL) maintain until the monster's first shocking appearance jolts us out of our seats. 

After that, we get to see more and more of the reptilian beast until the film's exciting and suspenseful climax, which takes place atop the lighthouse itself.  The monster suit itself resembles a poor man's "Creature From the Black Lagoon" with much more grotesque features (similar to the fearsome alien in IT! THE TERROR FROM BEYOND SPACE), and is definitely a cut above the usual zipper-up-the-back job. 

The DVD from Olive Films is in 1.78:1 widescreen with mono sound.  Subtitles are in English.  No extras.  Picture quality is quite good.

If you don't have a warm spot in your heart for low-budget horror fare from the 50s, chances are THE MONSTER OF PIEDRAS BLANCAS will either leave you cold or put you to sleep, or both.  But if the very title puts a smile on your face while sending a pleasant little chill up and down your spine, then this soulful nostalgia fix should give you a potent buzz. 

JOHNNY GUITAR -- DVD Review by Porfle

 

 

Originally posted on 9/22/16

 

 

 

One of the great adult westerns of the 50s, Nicholas Ray's classic JOHNNY GUITAR (1954, Olive Signature) is a real treat for lovers of the genre who are looking for something that not only touches on a lot of the familiar tropes but also twists them around in novel ways.

The main novelty, of course, is that two of the main characters are a couple of gun-totin' gals who can be just as rough and tough as the guys.  Joan Crawford, exuding pure movie-star magic, is at her brassy best as no-nonsense frontier broad Vienna. (That better be a Pepsi in yore hand, pardner!) 

Clad in traditionally male western garb and packing a pistol, her image in this film is iconic.  Vienna is the owner of a luxurious saloon/casino which she has built right where the train will soon be coming through, with lucrative plans for an entire town under way.  

On the opposite side is one of my all-time favorite actresses, Mercedes McCambridge (she played Luz in GIANT, rolled a cigarette with one hand in LIGHTNING STRIKES TWICE, and was the voice of you-know-who in THE EXORCIST), an exhilarating spitfire of pure hate as Vienna's sworn enemy, Emma Small, a rancher opposed to the coming of the railroad among other things.

Just as Mercedes' method acting style clashes with Joan's Old Hollywood performance, so do Vienna and Emma go at each other's throats over old scores that are rekindled when Emma's brother is murdered during a stagecoach holdup that's blamed on Vienna's friend, the Dancing Kid (Scott Brady) and his gang of ne'er-do-wells. 

The Kid and his men--Bart (Ernest Borgnine), Corey (Royal Dano), and the callow Turkey (Ben Cooper)--claim to have been working their secret silver mine during the robbery, but a mob led by Emma and equally hot-headed rancher McIvers (Ward Bond in one of his most robust roles) are out for their blood.  Vienna accuses Emma of being unreasoningly hostile toward the Kid due to his rejection of her affections, which only enrages her further.

Into this hair-trigger situation rides the mysterious Johnny Guitar (Sterling Hayden, DR. STRANGELOVE, THE GODFATHER), who claims he was hired to play music in Vienna's place but, as it turns out, has quite the history with her.  Johnny doesn't carry a gun but can handle himself pretty well all the same, as burly Bart discovers when he makes the mistake of picking a fight with him. 

This opening sequence in Vienna's saloon takes up nearly thirty minutes of screen time but is riveting every step of the way, from Johnny's arrival to his turbulent introduction to the Dancing Kid (jealousy rears its ugly head), to the tense scenes between Vienna and the hostile group that will eventually become a frenzied lynch mob later in the story. 

Nicholas Ray's (REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE) handling of all this drama within the single setting's confines is masterful.  Equally good although somewhat more conventional is the later action involving a bank robbery (Vienna is accused of being involved, of course), the attempts of the Dancing Kid and his boys to escape the bloodthirsty posse, and the aforementioned lynching.  

What we're really waiting for, and Ray delivers, is the final guns-a-blazin' showdown between Vienna and Emma--truly a memorable moment in western movie history.  The two get the film's best closeups, too--Crawford, impossibly iconic and effortlessly charismatic, and McCambridge, wild, frenzied, and almost sexually ecstatic after having set fire to Vienna's saloon.

The familiar Republic Pictures "Trucolor" process looks wonderful, and Victor Young (SHANE) contributes another of his exquisite musical scores.  Dialogue is sharp and often quite delicious, particularly when Vienna and Johnny are agonizing over old times or Emma is on a tear, which is always. 

The handsome set design in Vienna's place is a marvel unto itself, resembling something from the vivid imagination of Ken Adam during his days as production designer on the early James Bond films albeit with a rich western flavor. 

I like the way Vienna's softer side comes through in her private upstairs domain, and later when she dresses in feminine fashion for Johnny.  When the lynch mob blusters into her saloon after the bank robbery, she's seen in a delicate gown playing the piano, a picture of rough-hewn class in stark contrast to their potential barbarism.  

Sergio Leone, who would be inspired by this film during his masterpiece ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST, seems to have derived some of the qualities of his female protagonist "Jill" from Vienna--both are women exerting a civilizing influence on the Old West amidst the coming of the railroad while standing to profit greatly from it. 

Johnny himself may have influenced Charles Bronson's character ("Johnny Guitar" could just as easily be "Johnny Harmonica") while some of Ray's visual style was certainly admired by Leone, whose own westerns were an homage to the American ones that he loved.

Much is made, of course, of the many Freudian aspects of the story, as well as the fact that Ray, reportedly bisexual himself, may have added a lesbian undercurrent to the relationship between Vienna and (the sexually-confused?) Emma.  How much of this one consciously acknowledges while watching is up to the individual viewer--I find it all rather intriguing while also pleased that Ray doesn't try to drive any of this home with a sledgehammer.

There's also the well-known supposition that the whole business of being falsely accused and urged to give false witness against others (Turkey is offered amnesty if he will incriminate Vienna) is an indictment of the whole House Un-American Activities Committee era in Hollywood.  Again, we're allowed to give this as much credence as we choose to.

One thing that can't be denied, however, is the excellence of this cast comprised of both major stars and some of Hollywood's finest character actors.  In addition to Crawford, McCambridge, Brady, and Hayden, plus the aforementioned Borgnine, Dano, Cooper, and venerable John Ford/John Wayne regular Ward Bond, the film also benefits from the presence of such stalwart players as John Carradine, Paul Fix, Rhys Williams, Sheb Wooley, Frank Ferguson, and Denver Pyle. 

The DVD (also available in Blu-ray) from Olive Films' "Olive Signature" label is in 1.66:1 widescreen with mono sound, mastered from a new 4k restoration. English subtitles are available.  Extras include an introduction by Martin Scorcese, a commentary track by critic Geoff Andrew, a theatrical trailer, and several featurettes including "Johnny Guitar: A Western Like No Other", "Johnny Guitar: A Feminist Western?", "Tell Us She Was One of You: The Hollywood Blacklist and Johnny Guitar", "Free Republic: The Story of Herbert J. Yates and Republic Pictures", "My Friend, the American Friend" (memories of Nicholas Ray with Tom Farrell and Chris Sievemich), and the text essay "Johnny Guitar: The First Existential Western" by critic Jonathan Rosenbaum.  Rosenbaum's essay is also reprinted in a handsome illustrated booklet that comes with the DVD.

As an ardent fan of the western genre, I've somehow gone my whole life without experiencing JOHNNY GUITAR until now.  Which is fine with me--one needs these little belated cinematic thrills that only a newly-seen classic film can give.  Which this one does, in spades.  

Buy it from Olive Films:
Blu-ray
DVD