EYE ON SCIENCE FICTION

EYE ON SCIENCE FICTION: 20 Interviews with Classic SF and Horror Filmmakers. Tom Weaver. McFarland; 2003.  

Tom Weaver has put together a number of collections of interviews of people involved with horror/sci fi films of the past, and this is one of the very best. The great cover features a shot of the "cyclops" inside the alien spaceship in The Atomic Submarine. Inside are interviews with producer Herman Cohen (who describes poor Barbara Payton with a vulgar term); Mike Connors of Mannix and several B movies; Arnold Drake discussing his screenplay for The Flesh Eaters; David Hedison giving his frank opinion of his series Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea; Brett Halsey discussing his career in both American films and Italian giallo pictures; John Hart, who played both the Lone Ranger and Captain Africa; William Wellman Jr. on the lost Macumba Love; and others. 

Verdict: If you're like me, you'll devour this book practically in one sitting. ***1/2. 

SMILE BEFORE DEATH

Silvano Tranquilli and Rosalba Neri

SMILE BEFORE DEATH (aka Il sorriso della iena/1972). Director: Silvio Amadio. 

After her mother Dorothy's supposed suicide, teenager Nancy Thompson (Jenny Tamburi) leaves school and comes home, where she meets her late mother's photographer friend, Gianna (Rosalba Neri of The French Sex Murders), and her stepfather, Marco (Silvano Tranquilli of The Slasher ... is the Sex Maniac). The housekeeper Madga (Dana Ghia) knows that Dorothy (Zora Gheorgieva) wanted to divorce the greedy, philandering Marco and had taken a lover of her own (Hiram Keller of Fellini Satyricon). Nancy develops an attraction for her stepfather which he does nothing to discourage, and then seems to make a play for Gianna. Nancy tells Gianni that she thinks Marco murdered her mother and may be trying to kill her as well ... 

Dana Ghia and Jenny Tamburi

Smile Before Death has a twisty and interesting script and some good performances but is nearly done in by very listless direction and a score that could best be described as hideous. The first half of the film is relatively uneventful and tedious, but there are clever developments in the second half. The main twist at the end of the film is kind of silly, but there's a highly satisfying coda afterwards. As usual, there's a brief lesbian love sequence. At least the script is fairly unpredictable.   

Verdict: Half of a good movie. **1/4. 

ANT-MAN AND THE WASP: QUANTUMANIA

Jonathan Majors as Kang

ANT-MAN AND THE WASP: QUANTUMANIA (2023). Director: Peyton Reed. 

Ant-Man/Scott Lang (Paul Rudd), his mentor Henry Pym (Michael Douglas), Pym's wife Janet (Michelle Pfeiffer), their daughter Hope/the Wasp (Evangeline Lilly) and Lang's daughter Cassie (Kathryn Newton) are pulled into the weird microscopic quantum zone that Janet escaped from (in Ant-Man and the Wasp) when Cassie uses a device to explore that world without actually entering it. Unfortunately, a dictator named Kang the Conqueror (Jonathan Majors) is alerted to this signal because he ultimately wants to escape from the zone, which he has taken over. Lang's adversary from the first Ant-Man, Darren Cross (Corey Stoll) has been turned into the killing machine MODOK, which is basically an enormous head in a flying chair with weaponry. Will the combined efforts of the ant team be enough to stop someone as deadly and powerful as Kang?

Corey Stoll as big-headed MODOK

Quantumania is certainly colorful and there are, as usual, some wonderful effects, but the whole thing is a strange combination of the grim and the campy, a combination that generally doesn't work that well. Ant-Man himself seems almost lost in the miasma with not only the other characters to contend with but all of the weird figures of the Quantum Zone as well, one of which is very well-played by Bill Murray. Although Kang at first does not come off like the character in Marvel comics -- and not just because of the racial switch -- eventually Jonathan Majors is quite impressive as an alternate Kang -- he is a wonderful actor who gives the most notable performance in the film. He wisely underplays through most of the movie, saving his fiery outbursts for the climax. 

Lilly, Rudd, Newton

There is some inventive stuff in the Quantum Zone, such as living buildings that walk around on giant legs, and an aircraft whose controls are also alive, exuding funnels which engulf Pym's arms so he can fly the plane. The performances are all good, although the character of Cassie is irritating and unnecessary. The score is full of those majestic, triumphant tones that ring hollow in a film that is rather silly all told. Still, older children may find it entertaining. 

Verdict: A far cry from those charming old Ant-Man stories in Tales to Astonish. **1/4. 

THE MAN WITH THE GLASS EYE

Narzib Sokatscheff

THE MAN WITH THE GLASS EYE (aka Der Mann mit dem Glausage/1969). Director: Alfred Vohrer. 

A man is stabbed to death in his hotel room where a glass eye is found, and his lover, a dancer, is later poisoned via two needles in her mask. Inspector Perkins (Horst Tappert) investigates and is assisted by Sgt. Pepper (Stefan Behrens), a relative buffoon. This incredibly convoluted Edgar Wallace-based story bounces from a theater where the "Las Vegas Girls" are performing -- along with a knife thrower and a ventriloquist with a huge, ugly dummy -- to a billiards parlor which is a front for a white slavery gang allegedly run by the "Boss" (Narzib Sokatscheff), who has a glass eye. There is also Lord Bruce (Fritz Webber), whose monster-mother Lady Sheringham (a vivid Friedel Schuster) objects to his relationship with another dancer named Yvonne (Karin Hubner). Of course Sir Arthur (Hubert von Meyerinck) and his assistant Mabel (Ilse Page) of Scotland Yard are along for the ride.  

Friedel Schuster

The Man with the Glass Eye actually has an interesting plot once you decipher what's going on, but the execution is generally dismal. Many of these West German Wallace flicks lay on the humor too thickly, and this production is one of the worst offenders -- the tone of the whole thing is just plain stupid. What makes it worse is that the forced prostitution angle is rather grim and at complete odds with the general ambiance. There are a few interesting bits throughout the running time but the movie only really comes alive in the final twenty minutes or so, once we meet the sinister Lady Sheringham and learn her true relationship with Yvonne, who knew her years before. The climactic sequence between the nasty old lady and the actual killer aboard ship is well-done. Behrens as the comedy relief is given an awful dubbed voice like something out of a cartoon, but otherwise he doesn't seem as irritating as Eddi Arent who appeared in many other krimi movies. This was the last of director Alfred Vohrer's Wallace adaptations. 

Verdict: A good story nearly ruined by too many silly characters. **. 

THE CASTLE OF FU MANCHU

Christopher Lee as Fu Manchu

THE CASTLE OF FU MANCHU (1969). Director: Jess (Jesus) Franco. 

The diabolical Chinese doctor Fu Manchu (Christopher Lee) has developed a new weapon with which he intends to blackmail the world. Unless his (unspecified) demands are met, he will turn the world's oceans into "one gigantic block of ice." He demonstrates this weapon by destroying an ocean liner (in scenes that are lifted from the British film about the Titanic disaster, A Night to Remember. In another sequence stock footage from a different UK film shows a damn being destroyed and some workers who offended Fu being drowned). Fu offers an alliance with a Turkish criminal named Omar Pasha (Jose Manuel Martin) because he desires huge amounts of opium. Fu betrays Pasha and takes over the castle in Istanbul where the opium is stored. In the meantime Fu kidnaps Dr. Kessler (Gunther Stoll) and his associate Ingrid (Maria Perschy of Die Slowly, You'll Enjoy It More) so they can perform a heart transplant on the dying Professor Heracles (Gustavo Re) because Fu requires his expertise. Naturally Nayland Smith (Richard Greene) -- teamed up with Omar Pasha -- decides to storm the castle, so to speak, and put an end to the nefarious efforts of Fu Manchu. 

Lee, Stoll and Perschy

All of these various elements could have resulted in a perfectly good Fu film, but after a while one gets tired waiting for any kind of memorable sequence. This low-budget opus, helmed by the generally hapless Jess Franco, holds the attention in a limited way but never bursts out into any genuine excitement despite the occasional gunplay and other kinds of action. Fu's army of presumably highly-trained killers, called dacoits, are so inept that they are easily defeated by characters who have no kind of training at all! Lee and Greene are professional; Howard Marion-Crawford plays Smith's crony Dr. Petrie as a bumbler; Rosalba Neri (of Smile Before Death) is good as Omar's girlfriend, Lisa; and Tsai Chin is vivid as Fu's nasty daughter, Lin Tang. At least Castle does a fairly good job of maintaining a period atmosphere, and the locations are effective. The prologue of the film simply re-uses the climax of The Brides of Fu Manchu even though it is a different weapon and completely different sequence! Jess Franco also directed Night of the Skull and many others.

Verdict: Poor Fu deserves much better! **. 

THE INDIAN SCARF

Klaus Kinski and Heinz Drache

THE INDIAN SCARF (aka Das indische Tuch/1963). Director: Alfred Vohrer. In widescreen "Ultrascope."

After Lord Lebanon is strangled in his castle, lawyer Frank Tanner (Heinz Drache) gathers the relatives in the dining room and reads the first of two wills. They all must stay together in the castle for several days before they can hear the details of the final will, or forfeit their inheritance. As an unknown figures goes about strangling virtually the entire cast with the title object, Tanner tries to figure out which of the household is homicidal: the hated American Tilling (Hans Nielsen); his shrewish wife (Gisela Uhling); the bastard Ross (Klaus Kinski); the butler Bonwit (Eddi Arent); the strange and hulking Chiko (Ady Berber); Lady Lebanon (Elisabeth Flickenschildt); her son, Edward (Hans Clarin), a classical pianist; or someone else? 

Elisabeth Flickenschildt and Hans Clarin

Like other West German Edgar Wallace adaptations, The Indian Scarf has a good (if rather familiar) plot, but its execution is mediocre. With its inappropriate musical score and flaccid direction, there are only a few arresting moments, but not a dollop of tension or major suspense, and with this storyline that's criminal. As usual the acting is good -- another vivid performance from Flickenschildt, for instance, and Clarin is quite effective -- and just as usual Eddi Arent nearly stinks up the whole production with his unsubtle allegedly comic approach. However, Siegfried Schurenberg is not cast as a police superintendent but as a victim for a change. An actress named Corney Collins is cast as the Lovely Young Lady and Alexander Engel is the reverend. Although the final scenes are quite well-done, there is a campy coda involving the benefactor of the will that may have you groaning. At least we do hear some nice classical music throughout the film, especially Chopin's "Fantasie-Impromptu" (popularized as "I'm Always Chasing Rainbows") although the jazzed-up version played over the credits is unfortunate. 

Verdict: Even absurd plots should be taken seriously if they're going to work. **1/2.

DEADLY MANOR

That great old house!

DEADLY MANOR (1990). Written and directed by Jose Ramon Larraz. 

A bunch of young people are trying to find a lake when a hitchhiker named Jack (Clark Tufts) tells them it's actually two hours away. Looking for a place to relax before continuing, Rod (Mark Irish) drives down a rutted lane until they come across what appears to be an abandoned old mansion. Outside the house is a wrecked and burned car that seems set up as if it were some kind of a shrine. Helen (Claudia Franjul) is convinced someone lives in the house and runs off in anger, while Jack kicks in the back door. Inside they find coffins in the basement, tons of dust and debris, huge cracks in the walls, and numerous photographs of an attractive young woman. Then the killings begin ... 

cast members of Deadly Manor

Deadly Manor may not be a masterpiece but it isn't as terrible as some would suggest. The young cast members are attractive if a touch amateurish at times, but there is some good work from Jennifer Delora as Amanda and the uncredited actor who plays Alfred. Greg Rhodes is the handsome dude playing Tony -- he figures in a sexy erotic dream sequence -- and Jerry Kernion makes an impression as the rotund, likable Peter. The characters are all likable, which makes the film easier to take as it slowly builds up suspense and a modicum of chills. The location of the old house -- which was torn down when filming was over -- is a major asset to the production, but one wishes the direction had been more inventive and skillful. An inexplicable scene has Tony finding pictures in an album of what appear to be a number of corpses, but he has no reaction to this despite the fact that most people would think they'd broken into the home of a serial killer. Kathleen Patane handles her "final girl" scenes with aplomb. Gore geeks won't want to bother with this film as it isn't terribly graphic. The screenplay for this is not at all bad. Larraz also directed Edge of the Axe.

Verdict: Despite flaws, this is an unusual and fairly worthwhile entry in the slasher sweepstakes. **1/2.  

CREATURE WITH THE BLUE HAND

The Blue Hand zeroes in on a victim

CREATURE WITH THE BLUE HAND (aka Die blaue Hand/1967). Director: Alfred Vohrer.  

Dave Emerson (Klaus Kinski), who has a twin brother named Richard, claims that he was wrongfully convicted of murdering the family gardener and escapes from an institution run by the weird Dr. Mangrove (Carl Lange of The Fellowship of the Frog). Inspector Craig (Harald Leipnitz of The Brides of Fu Manchu) realizes that Dave has taken Richard's place, but feels he is telling the truth, despite the misgivings of Sir John (Siegfried Schurenberg) of Scotland Yard. Meanwhile an unknown figure in a cloak and hood who wears a blue glove with spikes on it runs about the Emerson castle killing the relatives of an appalled Lady Emerson (Ilse Steppat of The Sinister Monk). Her stepdaughter, Myrna (Diana Korner) is kidnapped and taken to Mangrove's asylum, where she faces an assortment of mice and snakes unless she signs certain papers. But who is the sinister "boss" who not only gives orders to Mangrove -- who is paid to put sane wealthy people away to steal their money -- but to the homicidal Blue Hand as well?

Ilse Steppat and Klaus Kinski

The Blue Hand is another convoluted Edgar Wallace story which remains a bit confusing but generally explains most of what's going on at the end. Kinski, who played supporting roles in many of these films, practically has the lead, and is quite good as the twins. Also noteworthy is Ilse Steppat, most famous for her role as Irma Bunt in On Her Majesty's Secret Service. (Sadly she died at only 52 after making that movie.) Albert Bessler makes an impression as the butler, Anthony, who always seems to be around just when you need him. The mastermind behind all of the goings-on isn't revealed until practically the last moment. 

Verdict: Weird, colorful, amusing -- and confusing -- Edgar Wallace concoction. **1/2. 

BARE BONES # 20

 

bare bones # 20 Winter 2024 - 2025. Edited by Peter Enfantino and John Scoleri. 

This is it! A huge, super-sized special issue for a measly $14.95!

To quote from the back cover, in this issue you will find: 

"*William Schoell turns on the lights and sirens for Code 3.
*A look at the Doomed Professional in film by Larry Blamire.
*J. Charles Burwell on Steve Frazee’s vision of the west.
*Joseph Wambaugh on screen by Derek Hill.
*Jack Seabrook untangles the lost TV show, The Web.
*The Weird Tales of Not at Night by Stefan Dziemianowicz.
*Tim Lucas explores the crime quickies of Montgomery Tully.
*More Mike Shayne Mystery Magazine coverage by Richard Krauss.
*Duane Swierczynski spotlights Robert Edmond Alter in his Field Guide to L.A. Pulp.
*Night of the Living Dead and more, as seen on Bay Area TV by John Scoleri.
*Peter Enfantino is back in Sleaze Alley.
*The Search for New Grails in David J. Schow’s R&D column."

You can order your copy direct from amazon.

THE HAND OF POWER

Death's Head: the killer laughs

THE HAND OF POWER (aka The Zombie Walks aka Im Banne des Unheimlichen/1968). Director: Alfred Vohrer. 

In yet another West German film based on a novel by Edgar Wallace, laughter seems to come from the coffin at Sir Oliver's funeral. This unnerves his brother, Sir Cecil (Wolfgang Kieling of Our Man in Jamaica), especially when someone wearing a death's head mask, cape and hat starts running around poisoning victims via a ring shaped like a scorpion. As Inspector Higgins (Joachim Fuchsberger, as usual) investigates, there are several suspects: Dr. Brand (Siegfried Rauch of The College-Girl Murders); Potter, the vicar (Hans Krull); the stonemason Ramiro (Peter Mosbacher); nurse Adela (Claude Farell); the black chauffeur, Casper (Jimmy Powell); and others. Meanwhile reporter Peggy Ward (Siw Mattson) runs about alternately investigating and interfering. 

Siw Mattson and Joachim Fuchsberger

The film is introduced by a voice claiming to be (the late) Edgar Wallace. This is followed by an absolutely terrible theme song. The plot is very good and quite intriguing, but there's a surfeit of dumb humor, which greatly minimizes any tension. Instead of the buffoonish Sir John, we get the equally buffoonish Sir Arthur (Hubert von Meyerinck) giving Higgins his orders -- he is not only a ballet fan but tries out a few steps in the office. At least the annoying Eddi Arent isn't in the cast. 

Verdict: Good story; so-so execution. **3/4.