Cinéma Inhabituel for October 1-15

A Guide to the Interesting and Unusual on TCM

By Ed Garea

October is the Psychotronic Month, but TCM isn’t showing as many of them as it did last year. There are some days of wonderful B-Westerns. In the next column we’ll tell you the Westerns the station should be showing.

DRACULA

This October, Dracula is TCM’s “Monster of the Month,” and TCM has a goodly supply of our favorite vampire on hand. 

October 1: We begin at 8:00 pm with Bela Lugosi in the original Dracula. Directed by Tod Browning in 1931, it creaks along rather slowly, but the performances of Edward Van Sloan, Dwight Frye and, especially Bela Lugosi, make this always one to catch. Following at 9:30 is Dracula’s Daughter (1936) with Gloria Holden as the titular vampire, Countess Maria Zaleska, who wants to be cured of her vampiric curse and looks up psychiatrist Jeffrey Garth (Otto Kruger) to see if he can pull it off. He can’t, of course, and she wants to make him a vampire to live with her for eternity. But she runs into unforeseen complications that end in her doom. An excellent film, atmospheric and blessed with strong performances from Holden, Kruger, Edward Van Sloan and Irving Pichel as her green eyed manservant. 

Universal reasoned that if Dracula could have a daughter, he could certainly have a son, and so Lon Chaney, Jr. stars in Son of Dracula (1943) as Count Alucard, Dracula himself, who has come to America in search of new blood. An underrated horror picture that is definitely worth seeing. Finally comes Nosferatu (1922) at 12:30 am, director F.W. Murnau’s take on Dracula, only it isn’t because Murnau hadn’t bothered to secure the screen rights from the Stoker estate. Dracula becomes Count Orlock in this version, a creepy rodent-like member of the Undead, convincingly played by Max Schreck. When Stoker’s widow, Florence, learned of the film, she sued for copyright infringement and won an easy victory. The court ordered that all existing prints of the film be destroyed. However, one print of the film had already been distributed worldwide. The print was duplicated over the years and Nosferatu became one of the first cult films. As the prints suffered from further cuts in length due to censorship and reissue, it was decided in 1981 to attempt a complete restoration. A restoration team led by Enno Patalas (then head of the Munich Museum of Film), in conjunction with the Cineteca di Bologna, brought  together prints from several different European archives. Further improvements were made in 1984 and 1987, and in 1995 Patalas made a complete overhaul of the film using a recently discovered original French print as his basis.

October 8: The Dracula fest continues with Francis Lederer in The Return of Dracula (1958) at 8:00 pm.  In this low budget effort from Gramercy Pictures, released through United Artists, Dracula flees Eastern Europe for the fresh fields of California. To hide his identity he kills a Czech artist named Belak Gordal (Norbert Schiller) and assumes his identity. He then moves in with Gordal’s American cousins in the quaint town of Carleton, California. Once ensconced he begins to put the bite on everyone until he is finally tracked down by Czech vampire hunters and put out of everyone’s misery. Lederer makes for a good vampire, but the lousy script lets him down.

At 9:30 we return to Universal for 1945’s House of Dracula. John Carradine as Dracula joins Lon Chaney Jr. as Larry Talbot to visit mad scientist Dr. Edlemann (Onslow Stevens) to get cures for their afflictions. While Talbot is sincere, Dracula is really interested in getting hold of the doc’s gorgeous nurse (Martha O’Driscoll) in order to turn her into a vampire. Dracula reverses the devampirizing process on the doc, turning him into a beast. Meanwhile, Talbot has found the Frankenstein monster (Glenn Strange), and what self-respecting mad scientist wouldn’t want to revive him and have little fun? In the end Talbot is cured, but not for long as he reverts to form in Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein in 1948. Good performances by the cast almost compensate for a wacky, ill conceived and executed script.

The last film on tonight’s bill is also the worst. Billy the Kid vs. Dracula (1966) was made by Embassy Pictures as part of a double bill with Jesse James Meets Frankenstein’s Daughter (also 1966). Both films were directed by William Beaudine in his swan song before retiring. Both films also feature lots of bad writing, over-the-top performances and unintentional humor. Sharp-eyed viewers of Billy the Kid vs. Dracula will notice that blood isn’t the only thing Drac is drinking. (Read our essay on it here.)

October 15: Tonight Dracula is down to a double bill from Hammer. Leading off at 8:00 pm is Horror of Dracula (1958) with Peter Cushing as Van Helsing and Christopher Lee in his star-making turn as Dracula. Following at 9:45 pm is The Brides of Dracula (1960). Lee and Cushing were to have reprised their roles, but a funny thing happened along the way. Lee dropped out. There are two versions of why this happened. Version 1 comes from Lee himself, saying he turned down the sequel out of fear off being typecast. Version 2 comes from Hammer insiders who claim that Lee was just not as important to the studio as Cushing and that anyone could have played the vampire. So enter David Peel as Baron Meinster, who is kept shackled by his mother in the basement and fed pretty young things for nourishment. Peel makes for as different type of vampire than Lee. He’s more feral and certainly, with his looks, much more fey, more in keeping with Lord Byron than Stoker. And more than a match for Van Helsing, though the intrepid vampire hunter comes out on top in the end. After overcoming Van Helsing, Meinster puts the bite on him, drawing out enough blood to ensure the doctor’s future as one of the Undead. But Van Helsing has a radical cure. Painting a cross over his bite marks, he takes a red hot branding iron and applies it to the wounds, later daubing the scars with Holy Water to make them disappear. When Christopher Lee returned to the role in 1966, Hammer all but forgot this version, but it has gained a steady following over the years to the point where many critics believe it to be the best of Hammer’s Dracula series. Tune in and find out for yourselves.

MELVILLE

October 1: When it comes to French directors, Jean-Pierre Melville is right at the top of my list of favorites. There are precious few as good at the crime or heist film as he was. And one of his best was Le Cercle Rouge (1970), scheduled to air at 2:00 am. It’s a different sort of buddy movie with a plot that is pure Melville: We first meet master thief Corey (Alain Delon) has just been released from prison. The night before, a prison guard approached him with a scheme to rob a jewelry emporium. On the lam from Rico (Andre Ekyan), a criminal boss he robbed, he meets up with Vogel (Gian Maria Volonte) by blind chance. Vogel had just escaped from veteran police detective Mattei (Andre Bourvil) and hid in the trunk of Corey’s car. 

With Mattei hot on their trail Corey and Vogel, needing a big score, plot the jewel heist. They recruit Jansen (Yves Montand), an ex-cop who has a serious problem with the bottle. The heist is performed with the planning and precision we have come to expect of a movie heist. In this sense it resembles Rififi, with a little of Bob le flambeur (read our essay on the film here) thrown in. But here’s where Melville parts ways with other heist films. As with Bob le flambeur, the heist itself is not the main focus of the movie, for this movie is not about their jobs, but rather about their natures. Melville sees the true test of ethics as being in how men comport themselves under pressure (he fought with the Resistance during World War II). Do they comport themselves honorably, or do they compromise to save themselves? For Melville that is the central question. Rico is seeking his revenge and Mattei, while efficient, is highly unethical and will use any means to get his result. This test of character vs. characters is what makes Le Cercle Rouge a film to catch.

NAKAGAWA

October 8: Director Nobuo Nakagawa is saluted with a double-feature highlighting his unique take on horror. Leading off at 2:00 am is Jigoku (aka The Sinners of Hell), his 1960 film that has become a cult classic. The story concerns two friends, the naive Shiro (Shigeru Amachi), engaged to his theology professor’s daughter Yukiko (Utako Mitsuya), and the sinister Tamura (Yoichi Numata). One night, riding in a car with Tamura at the wheel, Shiro is involved in the hit-and-run fatality of a drunken yakuza who had staggered out onto a poorly-lit country road. Shiro is unable to convince his friend of their complicity in the accident. Racked by guilt, he persuades Yukiko to accompany him to the police station to turn himself in. But their taxi careens off the road, leaving Yukiko dead. His future now in chaos, Shiro falls precipitously into drink and despair. 

A medical emergency concerning his mother brings Shiro to Tenjoen, his father’s countryside retirement facility. However, instead of being the “heavenly garden” its name promises, and a place to escape his haunted conscience, he instead finds an earthly version of hell, a place populated by drunken painters, unrepentant adulterers, criminally negligent doctors, lecherous cops, and, most painfully, an unsettling double of Yukiko. Shiro again meets up with Tamura, followed by the arrival of their victim’s mother and former girlfriend who, having learned the identity of the guilty couple, are intent on avenging his death. A night of drunken revelry follows, with a feast of tainted fish and poisoned sake, which by morning has killed the entire community, Shiro included. As Shiro is sent screaming into hell, his horrifying journey into darkness has only begun. 

Nakagawa's hell is approximately based on Buddhist conceptions. Those who have sinned in life will, in death, go to hell to atone. Once there, depending on the severity of their sins, they will be assigned to one of several different kinds of hell, with punishment in each kind different and presided over by King Enma, a red-skinned, bearded giant. But Buddhist Hell is not eternal: once atonement is completed the redeemed sinner can moved on to higher states of existence. While Shiro is presented with a path of redemption, others are in for a very long and tortuous sentence, complete with esoteric and brutal forms of punishment, all of which makes Jigoku a film to catch.

Jigoku is followed at 4:00 am by Nakagawa’s 1959 opus, Tokaido Yotsuya kaidan (aka The Ghost of Yotsuya). One of the most popular and famous Japanese ghost stories, it is based on a kabuki play written in 1825 by Nanboku Tsuruya. Filmed many times over the years, Nakagawa’s version is the one favored by critics. It is a story of fate, passion, betrayal and revenge, classic themes not only of kabuki, but Greek theater and Shakespeare as well.     

Iemon (Shigeru Amachi) is a ruthless wandering samurai with designs on Oiwa (Katsuko Wakasugi), who comes from the respectable Yotsuya family. When Iemon asks her father, Samon (Shinjirô Asano) for her hand in marriage, he is coldly rebuffed. Iemon reacts by murdering both Samon and his retainer. But there is a witness – Naosuke (Shuntaro Emi), a lamp carrier. He helps Iemon dispose of the bodies in exchange for a partnership that will benefit them both. In time Iemon grows bored with Oiwa. As their life together is beset by constant poverty, Iemon begins to pursue wealthy heiress Oume (Junko Ikeuchi). Soon he is plotting Oiwa’s death. He first arranges an adulterous tryst for her with Takuetsu (Jun Otomo), an admirer. He will then poison her and slay her suitor. All goes well until Iemon's wedding night. The vengeful ghosts of Oiwa and Takuetsu appear and trick Iemon into murdering his new wife and her parents.

The Ghost of Yotsuya is a stylish film, opening like a stage play and transitioning to a mixture of natural locations combined with an outlandish art direction. Nakagawa’s use of color shows the strong influence of the Hammer horrors The Curse of Frankenstein (1957) and Horror of Dracula (1958). Another clear Hammer influence can be seen in the level and intensity of violence – grisly close-ups of slashed bodies and amputated limbs. The images of Oiwa observing the horrible disfigurement of her face from the poison or seeing the spirits rise from a blood red swamp, their bodies nailed to wooden boards, will remain with the viewer for quite some time to come. 

GEORGE PAL

October 11: A two-day tribute to fantasy film and sci-fi producer George Pal kicks off at 8:00 with the wonderful documentary, The Fantasy Film Worlds of George Pal (1985). At 10 pm it’s The Puppetoon Movie (1987), a compilation of selected short films from the producer. At 11:30 Pal gives us a science-fiction film with much more science than fiction: Destination Moon (1950). If you’re looking for villains with ray guns or monsters, look elsewhere. Based on Robert Heinlein’s novel, Rocketship Galileo, and made for Eagle-Lion, this is a wonderful low-budget feature about a manned expedition to the moon. I loved it as a kid and still love it today.

Later, at 1:00 am, comes on of Pal’s best loved features: The Time Machine (1960). It’s a terrific adaptation of the H.G. Wells dystopia about the future starring Rod Taylor and Yvette Mimieux. Mimieux never achieved the stardom she was being primed for, but she is pitch perfect as Weena, a member of the Eloi, who are submissive and raised as food by the Morlocks, who live underground and are extremely sensitive to light, only coming to the surface after sundown. As The Time Machine is serious, the night’s next feature, Atlantis, The Lost Continent (1960), which airs at 3:00 am, is silly. Anthony Hall is Demetrios, a Greek fisherman who rescues Antillia (Joyce Taylor), who turns out to be a princess. He takes her back to Atlantis, which is now ruled by the evil wizard Zaren (John Dall), who turns slaves into animal-men and rulers through use of an atomic crystal. As is usual with these kind of pictures, Atlantis is wiped out by a volcanic eruption and a tidal wave. And finally, at the wee hour of 5:00 am, it’s The Power from 1968, an underrated film set at a research facility in Southern California and focusing on the members of the Human Endurance Committee, a group of scientists studying the human body’s capacity for pain in order to better prepare astronauts for space travel. She learn that someone in the group has extraordinary mental powers and is using them for evil, beginning with the murder of Dr. Hallson (Arthur O’Connell). As other members are being picked off, Inspector Corlaine (Gary Merrill) suspects the head of the project, Dr. Tanner (George Hamilton) of perpetuating the dirty deeds. For his part, Tanner begins looking for the real killer. 

October 12: We begin at 8:00 pm with Pal’s excellent 1958 feature, Tom Thumb, starring Russ Tamblyn as the six-inch tall boy who is taken in by a kindly couple and has to go up against the villainous Terry-Thomas and his henchman, Peter Sellers. Following at 10:00 pm comes another excellent feature, The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm (1962), an imaginative biography of the 19th-century Bavarian writers Wilhelm Grimm (Laurence Harvey) and his brother Jacob (Karl Bohm), who became world famous for their fairy tales. The story of the brothers is brilliantly intercut with three of their tales – “The Dancing Princess,” “The Cobbler and the Elves,” and “The Singing Bone” – all brought to life with the help of Pal’s famed Puppetoons.

At 12:30 am, Chinese magician Dr. Lao (Tony Randall) uses his magical powers to save a Western town in 7 Faces of Dr. Lao (1964). Read our essay on it here. Doc Savage: The Man of Bronze (1975), Pal’s last feature, airs at 2:30 am. Ron Ely, famous as one of the later Tarzans, stars. The director, Michael Anderson, directed Logan’s Run the next year. The evening concludes with a repeat showing of The Puppetoon Movie at 4:30 am.

VAL LEWTON

October 10: The evening is devoted to RKO B-producer Val Lewton, who with minuscule budgets created some of the most fascinating and enduring horror classics of all time. Here’s the schedule – 8 pm, Cat People (1942); 9:30 pm, The Body Snatcher (1945); 11:00 pm, Martin Scorsese Presents, Val Lewton: The Man In The Shadows (2007); 12:30 am, I Walked With a Zombie (1943); 2 am, The Seventh Victim (1943); 3:30 am, Bedlam (1946); 5 am, The Leopard Man (1943).

October 11: The action spills over to the next morning with Richard Dix in The Ghost Ship (1943) at 6:15 and Karloff in Isle of the Dead (1945) at 7:30.

OTHER PSYCHOTRONICA

October 3: A night of classic horror features Frankenstein (1931) at 8 pm, The Bride of Frankenstein (1935) at 9:30, The Mummy (1932) at 11:00, and The Wolf Man (1941) at 12:30 am.

Other classics on tap this night includes Island of Lost Souls (1933) at 2 am, The Black Cat (1934) at 3:30 am, and The Invisible Man (1933) at 4:45 am.

October 8: The 1920 silent classic, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari airs at 12:15 am.

October 13: A morning and afternoon of horror. Highlights include the premiere of The Snake Woman (1961) at 8 am. Set in 1890s England, a doctor injects his wife with snake venom to cure her “sick mind.” She gives birth to a baby the villagers dub “The Devil’s Baby.” Years later a Scotland Yard detective is sent to the village to investigate a rash of deaths that are caused by snakebite.

Other notable films – The Nanny (1965) at 11 am;  Margaret Lockwood and James Mason in a study of a young girl’s possession, A Place of One’s Own (1945) at 2:45 pm; and Val Lewton’s sensitive study of a child’s loneliness, The Curse of the Cat People (1944) at 6:45 pm.

October 14: Beginning at 2 am it’s Blacula (1972),  Starring William Marshall as the titular vampire followed by Scream, Blacula Scream (1973) with Pam Grier at 4 am.

October 15: In addition to the aforementioned Dracula films, the evening also includes The Phantom Carriage (1921) at midnight, Diabolique (1955) at 2 am, and the 1944 version of Gaslight at 4 am.

BUSTER KEATON

October 4: A morning and afternoon of Buster Keaton movies, beginning at 6 am with the 1917 Coney Island. Other highlights include The Passionate Plumber (1932) at 6:30; Sidewalks of New York (1931) at 9 am; Spite Marriage (1929) at 10:30; Parlor, Bedroom and Bath (1931) at noon; Doughboys (1930) at 1:45 pm; The Cameraman (1928) at 3:15; the documentary Buster Keaton: So Funny It Hurt! (2004) at 4:30; Steamboat Bill Jr. (1928) at 5:15; and The General (1926) at 6:30.

PRE-CODE

October 2: James Cagney became a star as Tom Powers in the brutal and brilliant The Public Enemy (1931) at 5:45 pm. At 5 am socialite Kay Johnson, in order to secure her trust fund fortune, marries condemned miner Charles Bickford, but at the last minute he’s freed when the real criminal is found, in Dynamite. Now Cynthia is stuck with someone she doesn’t know and doesn’t want to know, but to fulfill the terms of her financial agreement, she must live with him as husband and wife. This 1929 drama was Cecil DeMille’s first talkie.

October 8: Frank Buck traps anything that moves on his Malaysian expedition in the 1932 Bring ‘Em Back Alive at 6 am. Following at 7:15 Robert Armstrong is an American who stumbles into a morass of international intrigue in Blind Aventure (1933). Assisting him are the beautiful Helen Mack and Roland Young.

October 12: Grand Hotel, the 1932 all-star extravaganza with Garbo, John and Lionel Barrymore, Wallace Beery, Lewis Stone, and Joan Crawford, airs at 6 pm.

October 15: Gold-digging chorus girl Jean Harlow tries to keep her virtue while searching for a rich husband in the wonderful The Girl From Missouri (1934) at 6 am. Lionel Barrymore, Franchot Tone, Lewis Stone and Patsy Kelly co-star.