Ladies in Retirement (1941) directed by Charles Vidor

 

Ido Lupino plays a housekeeper trying to keep her two mentally problematic sisters from the madhouse. Since they are about to be kicked out of their current home she asks her boss if they can stay with them. At the amenities time her "nephew" rips off her boss, an old actress with a wild past and decides he can do the same to his aunt when she returns. 

Spoilers:

This was presented to me as a dark comedy in the vein of "Arsenic and Old Lace" but I don't think so. It does have light moments but it's more drama with some levity than anything else. Everyone in it is good in their roles, though except for the old actress, they are play terrible people. The actress tires of the two sisters who are quite a handful and wants them and Ida gone... so Ida kills her. The nephew shows ups, eventually finds out and tries to blackmail his auntie the killer. He is wanted by the police already. 

Since this is not a well know film, I won't spoil too many more details but I am not sure what the moral, if any there is. It's pretty good overall, though. The sets and matt paintings give it a great old horror film vibe and it looks amazing. The opening titles are fantastic! 

It! The terror From Beyond Space (1958) directed by Edward L. Cahn

 

A second mission to mars arrives at the red planet to discover the fate of the previous crew sent there. Only one is left alive, the rest were killed by some creature... according to the survivor who is not believed and taken back with the to stand trial for multiple murders. It  seems he wasn't lying afterall when the creature is discovered to have made it's way on to their ship and is now travelling back to earth with them and killing the crew along the way. 

This film is certainly a low budget product of its time but does have good points. One of those isn't the monster, however. it's pretty ridiculous looking. The acting isn't great and neither is the writing... what's left? The effects of the ship are fairly well done and some of the shots are well thought out. It made me realize how much can be told by one shot and not need further explanation. An example if this is when the nurse disconnects a bottle of blood from a patient injured by the monster, she puts it on a table and there is a shot of the table with about 10 more empty bottles and it tells you right away there is a now a shortage and the treatment isn't working. The basic setup is also interesting and will remind filmgoers of "Alien" as the the ship is divided into layers separated by hatches and the deadly Martian comes from them floor by floor, hiding in ducts and picking off the crew one by one. 

Not the best or the worst of this sort of 50s sci-fi so something to watch if you happen to catch it and can deal with the acting. 

Conquest of Space (1955) directed by Byron Haskin

 

Another George Pal sci-fi extravaganza from the 50s. Like many of his sc-fi films it brings with it some novel ideas at the time that were very forward thinking. Circular rotating space station, a ship to mars built in space, the time and distances involved in space travel along with the dangers. Of course other aspects are way off but easily forgiven since we had no idea what the Surface of mars looked like and the biggest sin space movie make even today... while on Mars the crew would take off their gloves and touch the dirt! NO concern for bacteria, exposure to the cold etc... they did keep the rest of their spacesuit on though. 

In the film, a crew on "the wheel"  has been in training for a long time for a trip to the moon but as time grows near they are told the moon is no the real objective, Mars is. This is so they can see if they can exploit materials there as Earth is running low. Why they had to lie about this at all is never explained. There are asteroid hits and near misses and the crew is almost killed by the ship captain who turns into be a religious nutcase en route and thinks they should all die for "Blaspheming" and other planet he thinks God does not approve of them visiting. Before this happens he quotes from a bible, something many Pal films do and I wondered what his religious affiliations were. Apparently they were not that strong but he felt that he had to put bible citations in his science orientated films to avoid controversy... though making the villain of this movie a religious crazy pants seems to indicate he wasn't all that into the subject himself. 

The crew has to deal with loss of water from sabotage done by the captain and they can't leave Mars until Earth in line with their trajectory home. A lucky snowfall saves them and they manage to take off despite an earthquake as they try to leave. 

I would say this is an OK film, the least of Pal's films in this genre. The dated effects are fine to watch but the characters are terrible and annoying. The acting is not great and the interactions are forced, especially the "comedy". No one is qualified for a trip to Mars! The only women we see are on a video screen and there is one Japanese crewman ( brave for that so close to the end of WWII) but no other people of colour who are missing in his other sci-fi outing as well. 

I initially the movie got no so great write-ups in the press but in later years it was considered much more favourably, mostly because of the high production values. I am siding with the earlier reviews on this one. It drags and the human interactions are painful at times. Not unwatchable but not memorable either. 

Forbidden Planet (1956) directed by Fred M. Wilcox

 

(my interpretion of elements of the film)

 Inspired by Shakespeare's "The Tempest", Forbidden Planet is film with a list of firsts in Science Fiction  cinema. It was the first science fiction film to depict humans traveling in a man-made faster-than-light starship.It was also the first to be set entirely on a planet orbiting another star, far away from Earth and the solar system. Robby the Robot character was more than just a dumb machine that walked and has a distinct personality. The film was groundbreaking as the first of any genre to use an entirely electronic score. The film was nominated for special effects and for good reason, they are really over and above other films at the time. The design of the saucer shaper spaceship is iconic and stands out to this day. 

The story centres around a crew from Earth sent to discover the fate of an expedition on the Planet Altair which was lost 20 years previous. After arriving in orbit, they warned off by Morbius telling them their safety cannot be guaranteed if they land and he has no need of them. They do land as per their orders and discover every one of the expedition except for Morbius and his daughter, who has never seen other humans, are all that is left. 

Spoilers:

It turns out the previous crew were all killed by a mysterious force when they tried to leave the planet and for reasons unknown Mobius and his daughter were spared. They feel immune to the attacks but also do not think the threat has gone away by any means. The residence they live in is on top of the entrance to what was a super advanced civilization that all died out thousands of year ago overnight. Morbius has been trying to understand how and why and learning how their tech works. His daughter seems happy enough but even he realizes she must return to earth at some point to have a normal development. 

The visiting ship is attacked and people start dying from an unseen force which turns out to be an invisible monsters which is briefly seen as it breaks though the force field around the ship as it kills several more crewman. 

The daughter decides to leave with the earthmen and the monster now seems to be after her as well. In a really great twist, it turns out the machines that Morbius has been using to boost his intelligence has tied him into the very system that doomed the origin race, the Krell. It was supposed to let them make their thoughts become real with no need of physically making things but their "Id", the subconscious mind, hid horrors and violence that an advanced race could suppress but not rid itself of. The monster was produced by Morbius himself to avoid leaving the planet and to keep his daughter in his control. When he realizes that he is at fault he he tries to unsuccessfully disown the monster of his Id but is killed in the process, but not before he has the ship captain set off a series of explosion that will destroy the planet and keep this technology away from mankind before they too disappear. 

If you have never seen Leslie Nielsen as anything other than Frank Drebin from the Baker Gun films and series this is a great film to expose you to his career as a handsome young leading man in serious films. Robby the Robot has been in so many movies and films you might not know this is where he was first seen and his design and character are fantastically realized. Ann Francis is an odd character, both naive and very aware and in control of herself and not a screamer in search of a man to save her, though she of course falls in love with the captain and they head back to Earth as a couple. 

As recent as November 15th of 2024 there was word of script for a remake but I am not sold there needs to be one, this holds up on its own! 

Sylvie et le fantôme (1946) directed by Claude Autant-Lara

 

Sylvie is obsessed with the portrait of her grandmother's lover in the family estate and is distressed when her father sells it to pay some bills. There are stories that Alain, the man in the portrait haunts the estate and he does in fact do just that. Before the painting is hauled off he leaves it and begins walking around the house and sort of stalking Sylvie in a way not cool by today's standards. 

To make her feel better, her dad has a 16th birthday ball for her and hires a ghost visit her so she can feel better about losing the painting. Robbers and the son of the man who bought the painting are caught creeping around the estate one night but are mistaken for actors hired to play the ghost. The real actor arrives and they decide that 3  is better than one since he can instantly appear in different locations. The real ghost is till walking about as well. 

This is sort of needlessly complicated and I can see that it's light enough to watch and find some charm in it but I found it a bit banal. The best thing in for me were the effects. They used the same reflection effects Disney's Haunted mansion uses to make it appear translucent ghosts are integrated into the sets and its very well done.  Not a must see but maybe light enough to watch before bed. 

October Horror: White Zombie (1932) directed by Victor Halperin

 

While not a huge success financially or critically, White Zombie has gained a good reputation over the years as not only the first Zombie film but as underrated one. 

The story is simple enough, a couple has gone to Haiti to be married in the castle like home of a man they barely know. That man has met to to be bride on a voyage and has fallen in love with her and decides that in order to have her, he will use the magic powers of Murder Legendre, seriously that IS his name, who has a small battalion of zombies at his disposal. Things do not go as planned and the bride is turned into a creature under the control of Legendre and her wanna be lover realizes too late that zombies are not fun dates and he would prefer her happy, even if not with him. Lugosi's Legendre has other plans but is thwarted by the local priest and the newlywed husband. 

This movie has some stunning matte paintings, very moody and cool cinematography and. especially for the time, a unique zombie premise that has more to do with real zombie legends than pretty much most other films that have come after it. What it does not have is good acting (except by Lugosi who is amazing and carries the film), good pacing or decent music appropriate for the setting.

This does not make for a great film but one worth seeing, in my opinion anyway. Like many older films I feel like a reedit could help it immensely. Taking out the long drawn out scenes and condensing the film to the essentials would pick up the pace and make little plot problems like what couple would decide to get married at some weird stranger's house on a zombie island because they met him on a boat. There is a decent, maybe fantastic film in here and it peeks through enough to keep you watching. Lugosi proves why he was such a star, his powers over the undead are shown solely through his physicality and not through effects like they would be today. 

Poster: Creature of the Black Lagoon

  

Click images to see larger versions.

Still not sure how successful this is but it is a much more fully realized illustration I think. It has background and foreground elements and isn't as graphic design oriented as my giant monster  or sci-fo posters. Again done in Krita and charcoal brushes and too about 25 hours of drawing time. There are many details hard to see unless you are close up to it, like the texture on the creature's skin. I used  the blending stump brush like I did with real charcoal sticks on paper. I drew the underwater weeds over and over again, simpler versions just didn't look right. The sketch was a good guide even though I changed some details like how the swimmers foot was postitioned. For something like this I make a detailed sketch so I can make a grey silhouette and then add shadows, highlights and details and the drawing seems to push itself out of the canvas as I draw. The bubbles etc were just freehand with no plan. I just kept at them until it looks OK to me.  

I looked through the film for references and used bits and pieces as inspiration but I have found the clearest references were photos people took of models made of the monster. The film is burry and grainy and the details are often obscured, especially with the pose I was looking to use. I wish I had unlimited funds to buy some of these toys so I could play with more poses myself. 

I love the costume from this movie. It's one of the best monster design out there and rivals Lon Chaney Jr's Wolfman make-up. It is really well thought out and detailed. The eyes look a little too painted on in some shots but it works

The Wolfman (1941) directed byGeorge Waggner

Part of the original classic Universal Horror series of films, the Wolfman is an iconic film from that era. Larry Talbot returns to his home town after his brother's death, meets a pretty girl, get introduced of the local legend of a man who turns into a wolf and quickly gets attacked by one and acquires that trait.

If you haven't seen this movie in a long time you might want to revisit it. It's probably not exactly how you remember it. Many aspects of werewolves we take for granted now are not in the movie or in a form that is very different from what is taken to be "true" legends. A fascinating thing about this movie is much of the lore in it was made up completely for the movie by the screenwriter and some of the more famous elements you might expect are missing, having been added in sequels to the film.

Two examples:
The little poem recited thought the film:
Even  man who is pure at heart and says his prayers at might; may become a wold when the wolfs bane blooms and autumn moon is bright. 

No mention of the full moon. That came in later movies. It is mentioned that the transformation takes place several times  a year but the full moon is mentioned as the cause.

The werewolf is not killed by a silver bullet. In fact, silver bullets are not mentioned. Both werewolves we see are beaten to death by the same silver headed cane.

Most of the cast is great, Maria Ousenskaya, Bela Lugosi, Claude rains are fantastic. Lon Chaney Jr is pretty terrible, though. You have to give him credit for sitting for up to 6 hours in makeup for the transformation, but he is not the actor his dad was. The effects are pretty good, the wolfman make up has become iconic and for good reason. The exterior sets are just so-so, you know are in a studio. The interiors are much better.

This film is.... not good overall - can you say that about such a classic? The editing is really inconsistent. No matter what Talbot is wearing when is becomes the werewolf, he is next seen an outfit we only see when he is in full make up. Does the werewolf make a fashion choice to change clothes before going out on each killing spree? Larry Talbot is a creep, spying on the romantic interest who is already engaged to a nice guy and pursues her anyway. The first time we see a werewolf... its just a wolf, but when Chaney transforms he is a different creature entirely. The dead Talbot brother's death is never fleshed out - he just died and both his father and brother seem pretty nonplussed about it.

Should you see it? Even after that last paragraph I would say yes. Parts are cringe worthy, but it is a classic and the makeup alone is worth seeing for yourself in action. The blu-ray restoration is excellent and the 180,000$ budget was put mostly to good use. In any case, it's MUCH better than the  2010 remake!

She's got somethin' to say...

Collin Wilcox Paxton, best known for her star turn as a "rape victim" in 1962's 'To Kill a Mockingbird,' died Oct. 14 of brain cancer at her home in Highlands, N.C. She was 74.

Wilcox Paxton began her acting career on the stage in Chicago as part of an improvisational group that included Mike Nichols, Elaine May and Shelley Berman, then moved on to Broadway, where she starred in 'The Day Money Stopped' opposite Richard Basehart. That 1958 production won her the Clarence Derwent Award for best supporting actress. She also starred opposite such grand dames of the stage as Tallulah Bankhead ('Crazy October') Geraldine Page ('Strange Interlude') and Ruth Gordon ('La Bonne Soup').

Her big-screen debut came in the adaptation of Harper Lee's 'Mockingbird,' where she played the white-trash girl who falsely accused Brock Peters' character of rape. After that once-in-a-lifetime role, Wilcox Paxton moved to television, where she guest-starred in a host of series including 'Dr. Kildare,' 'The Alfred Hitchcock Hour,' 'The Defenders,' 'The Twilight Zone,' 'Playhouse 90,' 'Death Valley Days' and 'Columbo.'

Wilcox Paxton's heart belonged to the stage, however, and she left Hollywood in 1981 to return to Highland, where she met and married Scott Paxton and founded the Highlands Studio for the Arts. She briefly returned to Hollywood in the 1990s and appeared in the 'Christy' TV series, as well as 'Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil,' among other roles.

In addition to her husband, Wilcox Paxton is survived by her children Kimberley and Michael.

The Creature of the Black lagoon

The Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954) is by far one of the best monster movies of all time. Filmed in 3D as many new are now I thought it was a good time to remind people of not only a great film, but a pretty good trilogy. Many people don’t realize that «Creature» was a trilogy. «Revenge of the Creature» and «The Creature Walks Amoung US» followed up, with limited success at the box office but actually expanded teh mythos of the gillman in ways you just don’t see in today’s monster flicks. Many classic monsters we not just villians, in fact humans were usually the evil force... going into nature and distubing it’s natural balance, attacking things they didn’t unsterstand and sometimes people were just plain sadistic jerks in the name of «science».

The creature is no exception and even expands on the theme. In the first film, explorers go into the jungle find a living gillman and think of nothing but capturing him to make money off it, the second film, they bring him back to an aquarium and «experiment» on him by giving him electric shocks (where did these scientist go to school? Was Illsa - She wolf of the SS a professor there?). The third film really gets poignant as the gillman loses his gills and is made to wear clothes and become «one of us». In the end he finds his way back into tthe ocean... and drowns.

Technically, the costume of the monster is fantastic, scary and not at all like a cheap halloween costume some people expect from films from that era. The music is memorable particularly since the theme is played literally HUNDREDS of times through the film which sadly lends itself to parody despite the fact that little riff is quite jarring to hear. The 3D is as annoying as always (only the 1st 2 films use it BTW). 3D is almost always, without fail, a headache inducing, distracting experience, even with today’s «advancements» in the technology.

In short... spend a Saturday afternoon watching all 3 before it gets remade by Micheal Bay... seriously.

Remembering John Hughes

I frequently talk about David lynch and John Waters, but I also like mainstream movies and my favorite mainstream film maker is John Hughes. John Hughes, in my opinion, was the film maker for my generation and no other epitomizes the 80s like he does. I believe that his movies are so rooted in the culture, mores and norms of the 80s that younger viewers may have trouble relating to them, but if they didn't try they'd be missing out on the universal truths that he put in every movie: question authority, opposites attract, and there's someone for everyone. So, let's raise our glasses to John Hughes, a man who entertained and educated as well.

The Crowd

This film is one of the all time classics of cinema. Made in 1928, it follows the life of a «nobody» born on July 4 who has asperations of grand things in his life. Wherever he goes, whatever he does, he does not really distinguish himself from the crowd or society, which in this film becomes a character in of itself, always present and taking away his space, always surrounding him and restricting his movements in some way.

The lead character is (played by James Murry) and, in fact, the whole story is morally ambiguous. He seems a total egotisical jerk really, concerned only with his own delusions that he is better than everyone else. Somehow... he has no clear idea how or why. His life is a mess and so tragic you can’t help but feel not only sorry for him but for yourself. Who amoung us hasn’t has big dreams only to find they were in fact, impossible to reach no matter what efforts made? He and us all have to learn to live in the world we get, not the one the one we wish we could live in. As a result, the film is thoughtfully indifferent to him all the way to the happy/bitter end.

Visually, the direction by King Vidor is outstanding and the effects top-of-the-line. Some fo the images so powerful they stick on your head long after the film is done. For me the shot of the parents in the window watching helplessly as thier daughter is accidently hit by traffic, the father moments ago waving a doll he bought her now slumped against the window with the doll hanging lifeless in his hand show just how powerful silent films were and still are to those of us open enough to watch them. Director Jean Luc Godard was asked once why films about ordinary people were not being made. He responded with "Why remake «The Crowd?» It has already been done".

The one terrible thing about this film is that, somehow, it is not on DVD.The lack of certain films updated and restored to the current format is, in my opinion, an abuse of the film going public. In fact only recently did we get good copies of «Metrolpolis» (which will be updated further with 10 minutes of newly found footage I have heard) and «Pandora’s Box». Who knows when or even if this film will be in our homes in the future.