By Ed Garea
This is Cinema
Inhabituel for the week of September 15-22, the collection of films
once forgotten now vindicated and those that still have us scratching our
heads.
September 17
8:00 pm White Cargo (MGM, 1942) – D: Richard Thorpe. Starring Hedy Lamarr, Walter
Pidgeon, Frank Morgan, Richard Carlson, and Reginald Owen.
“I am Tondelayo.” Now
what film fan hasn’t heard that line at one time or another? Ever curious about
where the line originated? Well, wonder no more – here’s the film. Hedy Lamarr,
in one of her best-known roles, is the highly-seductive Tondelayo, who keeps
the blood of all males boiling on a British plantation post in Africa. Her
success rate would compare with any World War II flying ace. Once she gets her
hooks into them, she drains their souls of its marrow and then discards what’s
left. Her sights this time are set on the new boss, Walter Pidgeon. He has been
warned that she destroyed his predecessor, but everything he’s seen and heard
is of no avail. She begins by completely entrancing Pidgeon’s assistant,
Richard Carlson. Once done with him, it’s on to the boss himself. Even toned
down by MGM to meet both the strict sexual and racial mores of the time, White
Cargo still packs a potent punch, for it’s based on every young man’s
jungle fantasy. Is it a classic? By no means, but that doesn’t means it’s not a
helluva lot of fun to watch, especially for Lamarr.
1:45 am The Window (RKO, 1949) – D: Ted Tetzlaff. Starring Barbara Hale, Arthur
Kennedy, Paul Stewart, Ruth Roman, and Bobby Driscoll.
It’s the old story of
the boy who cried wolf brought to the screen in this cult classic, a film
unjustly overlooked by many. Bobby Driscoll is a boy with a vivid imagination,
but when he witnesses a real murder, no one believes him, even after he finds
himself the target of a killer that wants to eliminate any witness to his
crime. It’s based on a novella by the great mystery writer Cornell Woolrich and
has been redone numerous times over the years, the most recent attempt
being Cloak and Dagger (1984), with Henry Thomas. Definitely
mark this one on your list, you’ll find it well worth it.
September 18
8:00 pm Gabriel Over the White House (MGM, 1933): D: Gregory LaCava. Starring
Walter Huston, Karen Morley, Franchot Tone, Arthur Byron, and Dickie Moore.
Right after you’re done
viewing this film you are going to scratch your head and ask yourself how the
hell did this ever get made? Guaranteed. Consider this plot: a crooked
politician is elected president. A party stooge of the highest rank, he’s more
interested in satisfying his cronies than the people who elected him. A short
time into his presidency he’s involved in a serious car accident, but
miraculously survives – thanks to the intervention of the angel Gabriel, who
has plans for the redemption of the president’s soul.
When he recovers, people
around him discover that he’s a changed man – in more ways than one. Whereas
before he was rather nonchalant and happy-go-lucky, he’s now serious and
high-minded. He storms into the House of Representative and convinces Congress
to give him total power under a “state of emergency” to deal with the problems
of the Great Depression. He uses that power to plow through bureaucratic
roadblocks – solving the unemployment problem and putting people back to work;
gunning down gangsters without trial, and bullying world’s leaders into sitting
down and signing a disarmament accord. Once his goals are met, he passes on,
for he really dies in that car crash.
The solutions may seem a
bit draconian, but they were a reflection of what many felt needed to be done
at the time. It’s no accident that Cosmopolitan Studios, owned by newspaper
magnate William Randolph Hearst, produced this film. It’s a bizarre film that
needs to be seen in order to be believed, and if I could only nominate one film
on this list as a must-see, it is this film.
September 21
2:15 am The Town That Dreaded Sundown (AIP, 1977) D: Charles B. Pierce. Starring
Ben Johnson, Andrew Prine, Dawn Wells, and Jimmy Clem.
This is a nice little
gem of a movie from American International, of all places. Actually based on a
true story of a hooded serial killer who stalked the town of Texarkana in 1946.
Despite the movie’s
low-budget, it still manages to convincingly re-create a 1940’s town (forget
some of the fashions and hairdos). In fact, the low budget actually works for
the film, giving a sort of documentary feel. Director Pierce, who cut his teeth
with the 1972 hit, The Legend of Boggy
Creek, provides a lot more graphic violence than in his earlier work,
earning it an “R” rating, and we can safely say that this is perhaps the first
of the slasher films that became ubiquitous a few years later.
Considering that he’s a
neophyte in the director’s chair, Pierce does a yeoman job of heightening the
tension in the film by casting himself as Patrolman A.C. “Sparkplug” Benson,
the comic-relief of the picture. In one scene, Benson dresses in drag to try
and trap the killer and his scenes are underlaid with “comedy” music. But
rather than dilute the goings-on, when these scenes are intercut with the
scenes of the killer at work, it makes for an even more effective film,
ratcheting up the tension.
Two scenes in the movie
stand out. In one, the killer has his victim bound to a tree. He attaches a
knife to the slide of her trombone and while awkwardly playing notes on the
instrument, impales her in the back. The second scene has become notorious
among fans of psychotronic films. The killer has stepped up his game to home
invasion and his victim in this case is none other than Dawn Wells, co-star of
the hugely famous Gilligan’s Island
back in the ‘60s, a series that, thanks to reruns, may never go away. It seems
on this end that the crew took a particular delight in showing her character
chased, shot in the face, and crawling in a muddy cornfield looking for help.
As in real life, the
killer was never caught, but it’s the chase, frustrating though it is, that
keeps us glued to our seats. The murders still remain unsolved to this day.
September 22
12:00 pm Mark of the Gorilla (Columbia, 1950) D: William Berke. Starring Johnny
Weissmuller, Trudy Marshall, Suzanne Dalbert, and Onslow Stevens.
There is trash and there
is bad trash. This film is clearly in the latter
category.
Johnny Weissmuller is
Jungle Jim, or Tarzan in street clothes. Now, Jungle Jim films by their very
nature demand a certain degree of preposterousness. Make them too close to
conventional drama and the result is a borefest whose only mitigating factor is
its short running time. But make it too outrageous and one has this sort of
movie.
A greedy doctor
(Stevens) is after gold buried by the Nazis on an African game preserve. So, to
get at it he dresses up his men in gorilla suits to scare off the local
populace. Well, it may fool them, but it doesn’t ol’ Jungle Jim (or anyone else
with an IQ in triple digits). And how does Jim know? Get this – he remarks that
the Nagandi district isn’t gorilla territory! Wow. Even a ten-year old could
spot the difference between these and the real thing.
The only tension in the
movie comes from watching to see if Weissmuller can actually deliver a line
convincingly. All these years and he still can’t act. But wait! The real bad
treasure in this film is Suzanne Dalbert. Think Weissmuller is terrible?
Compared to her, he comes off like John Gilbert, Richard Attenborough and
Laurence Olivier all rolled into one.
Recommended for all who
love a bad movie as a nice change of pace.
1:30 pm It! The Terror From Beyond Space (U.A./ Vogue Pictures, 1958) D: Edward L. Cahn. Starring
Marshall Thonpson, Shirley Patterson, Dabbs Greer, and Kim Spalding.
Despite its title, do
not make the mistake of lumping this in with the previous film. This is
actually a tidy little thriller with a wonderful script from noted science
fiction writer Jerome Bixby (the classic Star Trek).
So why does this film
make the list? Because Ridley Scott lifted it premise for his big-budget sci-fi
classic, Alien. It’s 1973 (!) and a rescue craft has been sent to
Mars after receiving notification from the commander of the first ship
(Thompson) that he is the lone survivor of the nine originally aboard. Things
look tough for the commander, but unbeknownst to the crew, a Martian has stowed
away on the ship right before takeoff. The creature, being on a harshly dry
planet, needs fluids to live, and the astronauts aboard certainly have plenty
of that. He goes on to wreak plenty of havoc and death before a way is finally
found to stop him.
The creature is played
by former B-cowboy star and stuntman Ray “Crash” Corrigan in a suit created by
Corman veteran Paul Blaisdell. Because Corrigan wouldn’t come to Blaisdell’s
house for a fitting, the designer had to improvise, with the result that the
costume itself fit perfectly, but the head was a mite too small and Corrigan’s
chin ended up sticking out. What to do? They make-up department painted
Corrigan’s chin to simulate a tongue, so when you watch, watch the monster’s
head closely.
3:45 am The Shanghai Gesture (U.A., 1941) D: Josef Von Sternberg. Starring Gene Tierney, Walter
Huston, Victor Mature, Ona Munson, Phyliss Brooks and Eric Blore .
There is an old joke
about the tour of the homes of the Hollywood Stars. They all have a big front,
but look behind and it’s discovered that the front is only a mirage to hide a
run-down shack.
The Shanghai Gesture is a lot like that. The viewer can easily
be taken in by the film’s seductive atmosphere, but look closely and it will be
seen that this is a bad movie. Set in Shanghai during the ‘20s or ‘30s, it’s
the story of a young woman’s descent into the decadence that was the red light
district of Shanghai. Poppy (Tierney) has come to the gambling emporium of Mother
Gin Sling (Munson) and takes to both the casino and its inhabitants as to the
manner born. In particular, Poppy is completely captivated by Doctor Omar
(Mature), who, besides being as “doctor of nothing,” is also Gin Sling’s lover.
As the movie progresses we find that this section of Shanghai has been
purchased by developers and that its buildings, including Mother’s emporium,
are slated for demolition. The man behind this is Sir Guy Charteris (Huston),
who turns out to be Poppy’s father. At the end, Sir Guy gets the shock of his
life and Poppy discovers who her real mother is. But until then we are
subjected to an awful lot of melodrama punctuated by the bad acting of Victor
Mature.
It’s important for its
later discovery by the French critics that were putting forth the auteur theory.
While it’s true that Von Sternberg had quite a hand in the planning and shaping
of his movies, he should also get the blame for when they turn out to be
overcooked turkeys.
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