Out of the Past: The Week in Film

Cinema Cess Pool Selection:
NA

The Banal, The Blah, The Banausic:

1. Son of Dracula (1943) Dir. Robert Siodmak - US

2. Link (1986) Dir. Richard Franklin - UK

Astounding Cinema:

4. MST3K 3000: The She Creature (1956) Dir. Edward Kahn - US

3. The Boxer's Omen (1983) Dir. Kuei Chih-Hung - Hong Kong

2. The Cottage (2008) Dir. Paul Andrew Williams - UK

1. In A Lonely Place (1950) Dir. Nicholas Ray - US

Theatrical Releases:
4. Year One (2009) Dir. Harold Ramis - US 4/10
3. The Country Teacher (2008) Dir. Bohdan Slama - Czech Republic 8/10
2. My Sister's Keeper (2009) Dir. Nick Cassavetes - US 9/10
1. The Stoning of Soraya M. (2008) Dir. Cyrus Nowrasteh - US 10/10

And there it is, a second week in a row without a miserable piece of cinema. However, two particular films came close. Robert Siodmak, perhaps best known for his enduring film noir works such as Criss Cross (1949) or The Killers (1946) helmed a little turkey in the Dracula series, Son of Dracula (1943), starring a chubby Lon Chaney, Jr. as the evil vampiric spawn, who is nowhere near as interesting or intriguing as Gloria Holden in Dracula's Daughter (1936). Claiming Hungary is all "dried up," Count Alucard (which is Dracula spelled backwards, a "twist" literally spelled out for as often as it's pointed out that Dracula is a vampire) woos a young aristocratic woman in the US and marries her. Though it's rather unclear why exactly he has to marry her, (as master of the house seems a bit of a flimsy excuse), the film is a bit predictable and altogether unenthralling. Worst of all are the little old men pursuing the evil vampire, especially actor Frank Craven as the doctor. Some of the atmospheric effects save the film from utter disaster, whereas moments where the doctor paints the mark of the cross over vampire bites on small child's neck to cure him are a bit catastrophically asinine.

As for an oft forgotten subgenre of horror, the 1986 film Link provided me with my weekly fix of primate horror. While certainly not a good film, it has several moments of absolute hilarity that could have made this a favorite piece of camp cinema, except that it gets real dull right away. Terence Stamp stars as an animal researcher whom Elisabeth Shue assists for a summer job type of situation. Stamp happens to be a professor of anthropology (or something like that) and Shue, as a supposed bright young woman, sells him on hiring her claiming she can cook and clean, as being female, she has a "genetic aptitude." Stamp, looking like Bonnie Tyler singing "Total Eclipse of the Heart" in that ne plus ultra of bizarre music videos, keeps three primates at his seaside mansion with which Shue has to help him conduct vague experiments/research upon. The household is virtually run by Link, an orangutan that used to be a circus performer. Link likes to dress up as a butler, and he seems like a friendly enough little fella until we learn that Stamp is selling an insane chimp, Voodoo, to a vivisectionist and wants to have Link disposed of as well. Yes, Link goes a little ape shit, as only primates can quite manage to do. The most memorable scene of the film (besides opening with the scene where Marlene Dietrich performs "Hot Voodoo" in a gorilla costume in Blonde Venus) is a bathtub scene with Shue in which Link coerces his way into the bathroom and obviously ogles Shue's nubile young frame, and is also the only scene where the primate is not wearing his shirt. If that's not monkey horror, I don't know what is. (Though my personal favorite is Monkey Shines - 1988). A contender for the best picture directed by Richard Franklin (who is perhaps best known for his better-than-you'd expect Psycho II - 1983, starring Michael Jackson, errr, I mean Meg Tilly).

A champion of cinema the world over, a neglected genre for me is the martial arts film. Though The Boxer's Omen isn't quite a martial arts film, it was distributed by the Shaw Brothers Studio, which specialized in Hong Kong/martial arts films. The Boxer's Omen is more of a bizarre horror film involving an injured boxer asking his brother to go on a quest to lift a curse affecting his family---or something like that. The film is a bit all over the place and in between characters chopping off animal parts and eating them, spitting them up and feeding them to others, along with a plethora of other disgusting goop and fluid scenes, the plot gets a little lost. But I will say it is one of the most bizarre films I've seen recently that somehow manages to keep your interest, if in a vague sort of way. As many have pointed out, the film is also gorgeous to look at when you're not bombarded with intestines and maggots. And I now know that it is my destiny to discover other works by director Kuei Chih-hung. The Boxer's Omen was his last film.

The director of the bizarre black comedy/horror hybrid, The Cottage, Paul Andrew Williams, also happened to pen the deliciously morbid The Children (2008). The Cottage stars Andy Serkis (Gollum from The Lord of the Rings) and Reece Shearsmith (Shaun of the Dead - 2004) as two polar opposite siblings that kidnap the daughter of Serkis' gangster employer. Jennifer Ellison (The Phantom of the Opera - 2004) stars as the foul mouthed daughter, resembling the evil bitch twin of Emma Bunton. Ellison steals the film, which plays like a black comedy gangster film until 3/4 of the way into the film it becomes The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. The gear change is intriguing and abrupt, making the film lose a little steam but creating a lasting impression nonetheless as the four individuals now involved flee from a monstrous being that could be Leatherface's brother.

Landing in the top spot of this week's DVD selections is Nicholas Ray's excellent study of loneliness masquerading as film noir with In A Lonely Place (1950). Starring Humphrey Bogart as Dixon Steele, a bitter Hollywood screenwriter suddenly finding himself suspected of murdering a young woman he had invited to his home and Gloria Grahame as his neighbor that provides his alibi and falls in love with him, In A Lonely Place was meant to be, as Ray points out, a film about the "violence in all of us." As the murder investigation continues, Bogart's character becomes more and more violent, to the extent that he frightens Grahame, who has now becomes his fiancee. Grahame was never better (and actually looking quite a bit like Scarlett Johansson) as she is here. It was during the filming of this picture that Nicholas Ray and Grahame ended their marriage (she would go on to marry one of his sons from a previous marriage---woa!) but both kept it a secret so they wouldn't be replaced during filming. The film's everlasting lines "I was born when she kissed me, I died when she left me, I lived a few weeks while she loved me," should affect those of us plagued by a romantic disposition. Excellent stuff. Ray will perhaps be best known as the director of Rebel Without A Cause (1955), but I rank this film, as well as Johnny Guitar (1954) as far superior.