BLACKHAWK (1952 serial)

Blackhawk and his associates (also known as Blackhawks) are a gang of pilots who go after spies for the government with, as the credits tell us every episode, "no weapons but their strong fists and alert minds," though they are not above using a gun if one finds its way into their hands. This 15-chapter serial features three fairly distinct plotlines, all involving a group of Eastern European spies led by the exotic Laska, who takes her orders from a Leader whose face we never see until the last chapter. The first three chapters feature Laska trying to get Stan, one of the Blackhawks whom she knew back home (in a land that, we are told, is now "in the hands of the Reds") to join her side. When he refuses, he is kidnapped and his twin brother Boris is planted at Blackhawks HQ for sabotage. The first fisticuffs scene occurs at nine minutes in and one happens at least once an episode—they are good, energetic fight scenes often done in long takes. By episode 4, with Boris taken care of, Laska's gang goes after an electronic combustion ray being worked on by Prof. Rolf that could eventually destroy an entire city. (In serials like this, it always seems to come as a surprise to inventors that such a device might be used for nefarious purposes.) Blackhawk asks Rolf to see a demonstration of what he calls "the secret device you've been secretly developing." Laska's gang tries to get the ray and when that fails, they kidnap the professor to make him develop a new ray for them. There are fights on a city street and in an oil field leading to the spectacular destruction of many of the towers in the field. In chapter 7, a new MacGuffin is introduced: Element X, a theoretically inexhaustible fuel, a vial of which gets tossed about between the good guys and bad guys for the next eight chapters until we finally see the Leader (a disappointing and predictable personage) who himself turns against Laska, accusing her of "selfishly thinking of yourself," though both are brought down in the end.

This Columbia serial came fairly late in the serial era but it's a pretty good one. Some pros: the emphasis on three different stories makes each episode seem a little less repetitious, even though they really are—someone or something is captured, people chase and fight, and someone is put in mortal danger at the cliffhanger. Almost all of the vigorous fight scenes are pulled off well. The larger scale destruction moments are effective, and one chapter that takes place in Mexico feels fairly fresh. Some weak points: the bad guys are, as usual, not well differentiated, though there's one who looks like Jerry Stiller who I could always tell apart. The promise of exciting flying scenes is mostly unfulfilled; despite the Blackhawks being pilots, most of the action happens on the ground, though there is one nice moment involving a parachuting man trying to catch a man whose parachute didn't open. The bad guys move to new hideouts in almost every chapter, but the interiors are all the same. This is made light of a couple of times when both good guys and bad guys wonder out loud why the hideouts all look alike. The acting is very good by serial standards. Kirk Alyn, the first live-action Superman (in a 1948 serial), is Blackhawk and he's fine, though his second-in-command (John Crawford as Chuck) outshines him in looks and acting, seeming more fully engaged in scenes of both talk and action. Busy character actor Rick Vallin nicely handles the dual role of Stan and Boris, though later he drops in and out at various places along the way. There are four other Blackhawks whom we see occasionally; they seem to live together at HQ and I would like to have seen more scenes in which they fought as a team. We never learn Blackhawk's real name. Seen with chapters spaced out over a few days, this was enjoyable and I recommend it to serials fans. The YouTube print is pristine and probably came from a DVD remaster. The serial is also known as Blackhawk: Fearless Champion of Freedom and The Miraculous Blackhawk. Pictured are Crawford and Alyn. [YouTube]

THE RESURRECTION OF ZACHARY WHEELER (1971)

A couple making out while driving crash into a car driven by Senator Zachary Wheeler (Bradford Dillman, at right). TV reporter Harry Walsh (Leslie Nielsen) is on the scene and rides in the ambulance that delivers the gravely injured Wheeler to a hospital. Walsh's station puts the story on the air, but later Walsh is told that Wheeler was never taken to the hospital, and Wheeler's office claims that the senator, who is considered a leading candidate for the presidency, is on a fishing trip and will be back soon. We see that Wheeler has been whisked away to a secret medical facility in New Mexico to be given an experimental treatment by Dr. Redding (James Daly) and Dr. Johnson (Angie Dickinson) in which Wheeler's DNA is implanted through an osmosis process into a "compatible life form," what they call a soma or what we would call a partially formed clone, which is then harvested for internal organs to be transplanted into Wheeler, making him as good as new, while the clone is then destroyed. Wheeler is horrified, especially when Redding tells him that the process must remain secret because the key to what could be eternal life can only be shared with the few important people, not the common many. The entire project has been run and funded by Hugh Fielding, who heads a committee which is called upon to select who might get the process. We cut back and forth between the recovering Wheeler having philosophical debates with the doctors about the ethics of what they’re doing and Walsh sneaking into the medical facility, trying to expose the operation. 

I assumed from the look and feel of this that it was a TV movie, but actually it was one of the first theatrical movies to be shot on videotape and transferred to film. (The 1965 Harlow biopic with Carol Lynley was made in a similar way though it looks worse, more like a cheap and murky theatrical feature than a TV movie.) The film is interesting if not fully successful, better at presenting ideas than at building a compelling narrative. The presence of the clones is unsettling, as are the ideas being promulgated by Fielding and Redding. But an atmosphere of fear and paranoia is never fully developed, adding to the TV- movie feel. The actors are fine. Nielsen is central to the first half but later fades away a bit. Dillman, Dickinson, and Daly are good. The discussions about ethics between Wheeler and Johnson are used partly to deepen Wheeler's character, making him a rare political good guy in 1970s cinema. Some viewers don't like the ambiguous ending: Johnson is injured in a car crash and Redding uses the process on her, though we don't see that outcome. Also, [spoiler] before we learn if Walsh and Wheeler will in fact go public with what they know, it's announced that Chinese premier Chou En-Lai has had a coronary and will be flown in to New Mexico to receive the cloning treatment. The film ends at that point. (Some critics and viewers miss this reference, and thus a major plot point, with one IMDb commenter interpreting the name as "Joanne Lie.") The ethical issues raised here remain relevant, and though Fielding is presented as fairly villainous, Redding and Johnson are less one-note. Interesting movie that I wish looked better. [YouTube]

CROW HOLLOW (1952)

Ann meets a doctor named Bob, they have a week-long whirlwind romance, and they get married. Mrs. Wilson, a dying patient who knew Bob's family, tells Ann to take good care of him, but to avoid going to Crow Hollow, the family's country home. The land was known for its gatherings of crows which were said to bring bad luck, though they rarely show up now. But Bob decides they should live at Crow Hollow, and be taken care of by his three older aunts: Aunt Judith who collects insects (her giant Australian spider freaks Ann out), Aunt Hester who does parish charity work and is known for her somewhat mysterious but therapeutic soups, and Aunt Opal who runs the house. Ann begins to adjust to the kindly aunts, though she does complain to Bob that she feels like she's just a guest in the house and would like to get their own home soon. Complicating matters even more is Willow, the young paid companion who seems rather haughty and acts coldly toward Ann. There is some mystery about Willow's background which is clarified a bit when Ann meets Diana, daughter of the now-dead Mrs. Wilson, who says that Willow had been her mother's maid. Ann also learns that Bob's mother, who was not well liked by the aunts, died young. The crows begin to return to the land, and when Ann is sickened by (she thinks) one of Hester's soups, she decides to leave for London, but when she enters her room, she finds Willow dead, stabbed in the back while wearing a dress of Ann's. The police are called in but Ann worries that she was the intended victim, and one day, she discovers that Bob has been called away on a phony case and she's alone with the aunts, one of whom or all of whom might want her dead.

Not so much noir as gothic lite, this B-melodrama has a lot of things going for it. The plot, while largely a rehash of any number of other damsel-in-distress stories, is solid and subverts one of the gothic genre's primary plotlines: instead of the young bride's husband acting menacing in an old dark house, we have three relatively friendly old ladies maybe being menacing in a brightly lit country house—as I recall, most of the scenes are set in daylight. The aunts mostly don't come off as threatening (though they do act a bit controlling) so for half the movie, we're not sure if Ann is really in danger or just imagining things. The house, while not ostentatiously creepy, does come to feel unsettling. I wasn't terribly familiar with the cast but the acting is fine, especially Natasha Parry as Anne (a little edgy without seeming too paranoid), Donald Houston as Bob (nice looking and, we're pretty sure, a nice guy, or is he?), Patricia Owens as Willow (trampy and secretive), and Melissa Stribling in the small role of Diana. The aunts don't draw a lot of attention to themselves and I found it difficult to tell them apart, but that's not really a problem. The movie has a drab look and though it's low-key feel is mostly welcome, it would benefit from a good background score—there is almost no music—to heighten the tension. Worth a view for fans of the gothic melodrama. Pictured are Perry and Houston. [YouTube]

BATMAN AND ROBIN (1949 serial)

Cranky old professor Hamill has invented a device that can, through remote control, take over the running of any vehicle, even able to force it off a cliff. But the prototype of the machine is stolen from a research plant by the cowled and masked villain The Wizard. The machine is powered by diamonds so he and his henchmen have to pull of some diamond robberies as they stay one step ahead of Commissioner Gordon and the police, who are getting help from the costumed crimefighters Batman (actually idle playboy Bruce Wayne) and Robin (actually his young ward Dick Grayson). Hamill is confined to a wheelchair, helped by his valet Carter, but we see that he can, in secret, seat himself in an electrified chair and regain the power to walk again. For most of the serial’s running time, we are led to believe that Hamill is the Wizard, though why he would want to steal his own invention is not made clear. Another suspicious character is radio host Barry Brown who is constantly reporting on the Wizard's next activities. Gordon thinks Brown has an inside source (duh!) but Batman and Robin begin to wonder if Brown himself could be the Wizard. The good guys chase the bad guys for fifteen chapters before the Wizard is finally unmasked.

There is so much wrong with this that I feel I should make note of the good things first. Overall, in terms of narrative, it's not quite as repetitious as your average serial of the era, and the cliffhangers are mostly adequate: an exploding plane, electrocution by iron rod, poison gas, a warehouse on fire, a fall from a tall building. A machine that can neutralize the remote control device appears on the scene, and the Wizard uses it and the other device in tandem to become invisible—though because they can quickly overheat, threatening to catch fire, he can only remain invisible for a short time. Robert Lowery, a B-favorite of mine, is fine as Batman, though his costume is a bit ill-fitting and you can tell it's difficult for him to see out of his equally ill-fitting bat-mask. Johnny Duncan is OK as Robin, though as Dick Grayson he looks a bit like a curly-haired, pug-nosed ruffian who says his lines like he's always pissed off. I didn’t like him at first but he grew on me. Lyle Talbot, who has almost 350 credits on IMDb, is his laconic self as Gordon. The handsome Rick Vallin (pictured at left) is quite good as the cocky and suspicious Barry Brown—he has a big scene in the climax but unless I missed something, we never quite learn if he's an active bad guy or not. Photographer Vicki Vale is played well by Jane Adams but she's a predictable pain in the ass, especially her complaining about the laziness of Bruce Wayne. Her brother Jimmy is a moderately interesting character; we assume he's a good guy but he's involved in the Wizard's gang, though he does try to un-ensnare himself in a memorable scene.

Now for the problems. The bad guys in their suits and hats are largely indistinguishable from each other and have no personality. William Fawcett as Hamill is pretty awful, stuck in a one-note performance as a mean old man. His ability to walk seems like it's a secret, but near the end, he walks about plainly and no one questions it. There is no Batmobile, just a big car which is parked at least once right in front of Bruce Wayne's house. For a couple of chapters, the bad guys inexplicably shift their focus to a new explosive, the X-90, which is then quickly forgotten. Fisticuff scenes are pulled off OK but are surprisingly short. Some viewers are put off by the Bat Signal being used and fully visible in broad daylight, but I didn't mind. Alfred the butler is present but is a total non-entity. Speaking of non-entities, the Wizard is ultimately revealed to be a very minor character and we get no explanation as to why he's been so (moderately) evil. Fifteen chapters is certainly four or five too many, but despite my criticisms, I enjoyed watching this over a period of weeks—it ran on Saturday mornings on TCM, and I recorded them and watched two or three chapters at a time. Is it worse than the 1943 Batman serial (with different actors in the lead roles)? Both are low-budget somewhat scruffy productions, and they seem pretty equal to me. [TCM]

THREE STEPS IN THE DARK (1953)

Cranky old rich man Arnold Burgoyne has gathered his heirs (two nephews and a niece) to his estate at Clarendon to hash out his affairs, and to figure out if he needs to make a new will. Philip and his wife Dorothy breed racehorses on a large chunk of land nearby and he claims not to want any money or the estate. Sophy is a successful mystery author who seems to be well-liked by the old man. The problem relative is Henry. Arnold paid for his education with the intention of hiring him someday to be the estate manager at Clarendon, and eventually leaving him the estate. However, Arnold has a big problem with Henry's fiancée Esme, whom he has discovered is not officially divorced from her previous husband, and he announces that, if Henry doesn't leave Esme, he will leave the property to his long-suffering housekeeper, the elderly Mrs. Riddle. With the old man's lawyer present, tensions are high and Esme, without telling anyone, decides to leave and catch a train to London that night. Henry leaves to take a long walk and think things over. Philip goes into the study to talk to Arnold. Mrs. Riddle hears two shots from the room and Philip reports that Arnold is dead. He claims the old man was shot from outside and that the second shot was Philip shooting through the window at a shape he saw. Esme and Henry return to the house and when Inspector Forbes arrives, he puts everyone under house arrest until the killer is caught. Henry comes down with a bad case of the flu, though Sophy suspects that someone is poisoning his medicine. We see that Philip may have the hots for Dorothy, and the butler, Stokes, is caught making a suspicious phone call. Sophy helps investigate, though she's still a suspect. Who did it and why? And is another murder in the offing?

This is pretty much the very definition of a British "quota quickie," a short B-movie made to satisfy a regulation that a certain percentage of films in British theaters had to be locally made. There's nothing special about this, but also nothing really wrong with it either. Everything, from the writing to the acting to the direction, is B-level, so it comes off as a well-made TV-movie. The biggest names are Norwegian born Greta Gynt as Sophy, Hugh Sinclair (who played the Saint in two British B-films a few years earlier) as Philip, and Sarah Lawson (the put-upon wife in THE DEVIL RIDES OUT) as Dorothy. Katie Johnson (in the small role of Mrs. Riddle) won a BAFTA award a couple years later as the little old lady in THE LADYKILLERS. There is no real standout performance, though there’s also no weak link either. This film was considered lost for many years and was eventually unearthed and released on home video. The worst thing I can say about this movie is that it’s sad that virtually no attempt is made at creating an interesting visual atmosphere, which leads to a distinct lack of tension. Still, I don't feel my hour was wasted. Pictured are Gynt and Sinclair. [YouTube]

THE SHAME OF THE SABINE WOMEN (1962)

This film starts with a five-minute history lesson about the founding of Rome in 753 B.C.E. climaxing with Romulus killing his brother turned rival Remus. Years later, Rome is a great city but it's populated almost entirely by men, something which is never explained. So that Rome will have a future, Romulus sends delegations out to nearby lands in an attempt to barter for groups of women who will become Roman wives and mothers. All their requests are turned down, so Romulus and his chief sidekick Hostus trick Titus Taitus, ruler of the Sabines, into sending their women to Rome for a market festival. The women have a fine time, but when they go to leave, the Romans take them prisoner and the men have a free-for-all gathering in which they claim women as wives. The women are told, "You will find the man you have unconsciously wished for"” Still, this does not go down well with the Sabine women. We follow three primary pairings: Romulus takes Hersilia, a modest and quiet type; Hostus takes Rhea, who is what they might have called in the 1960s a spitfire who never stops fighting back; their friend Horatius takes Agea, whom he tries very hard to comfort and get on his side. In the pages of history, this event is referred to as the "rape of the Sabine Women," and we do see a couple of women being assaulted, but we also see those men whipped in public as punishment. One man who is whipped into unconsciousness is revived by the "wife" he raped, a clue to the sexual politics this movie will espouse: the women eventually, even if it takes years, fall in love with their captors, bear them children, and begin to feel like Romans. One ragtag army tries to fight the Romans but are defeated. Two years later, Titus finally feels like he has gathered an effective army and they attack, but the Sabine mothers rally themselves to protest both sides in the conflict and get the Romans and Sabines to agree to live together. 

According to Wikipedia, the overarching story here is fairly accurate, though of course the character specifics are fictional, even though some real names are used (Romulus, Titus, Hostus). Genre purists might not call this film a peplum because it wasn't made in Italy, but it looks and feels like one. There is little information out there about this Mexican/Spanish movie, perhaps because there was a competing Italian film the year before that stole its thunder. The Rape of the Sabines, aka Romulus and the Sabines, starred a young Roger Moore as Romulus and seems to have been marketed as a comedy adventure. There was also a more legit peplum from 1961, DUEL OF THE TITANS, about Romulus and Remus, which ends where SHAME begins. As a B-adventure, this is OK, though it's not the epic it wants to be. The two battle scenes are poorly handled, generating virtually no excitement. The acting is a smidge better. Wolf Ruvinskis, also a Mexican pro wrestler, is the only cast member to exhibit the physical bearing to play a hero, but his voice in the English dub, done by Paul Frees or an exact soundalike, doesn't do his appearance justice. Alex Johnson (Hostus) and Leandro Vizcaino (Horatius) are handsome and energetic and enough on the hunky side to be effective in their roles. Of the women, Lorena Velazquez is the most effective as Hersilia. Her real-life sister Tere is mostly compelling as the fiery Rhea, but sometimes her reactions are used in a comical manner that doesn't fit the character. Also released as The Rape of the Sabine Women. Pictured are Ruvinskis and Johnson. [YouTube]

THE RETURN OF CHARLIE CHAN (1972/1979 TV-movie)

This Charlie Chan TV-movie reboot is set in the present day (of the 1970s). The retired Hawaiian detective lives on a pineapple farm with his family. His son Stephen is in a rock band, and he delights in the time he spends with his grandchildren, though he is also actively trying to get his kids to stop calling him "Pop." But Chan is coerced out of retirement and heads to Vancouver (accompanied by his stowaway son Peter and daughter Doreen) to help rich Greek tycoon Alex Hadrachi who was shot at on his yacht. Others present, and therefore possible suspects, include Hadrachi's adult children Paul and Irene; Andrew Kidder, an author and old friend of Chan's; Lambert, the head of security on the yacht, who foiled an apparent assassination attempt against Chan at the Vancouver airport; a German couple who own a vineyard; Alex's young second wife Ariane; and actor Noel Adamson who may be flirting with Ariane. Chan notices tensions among most of the yacht occupants, and discovers that not everyone is who they say they are. Kidder's secretary is killed, apparently while he was typing something. Thinking he's unnoticed, Adamson leaves the yacht with Ariane in tow after a party, but Lambert brings them back. It turns out that Ariane has had a number of affairs. The cops suspect Adamson, but Chan's not so sure. There’s another death and another potshot taken at Chan before he gathers the suspects to announce the identity of the killer.

There is a lot of misinformation out there about this movie. It was produced by NBC as a TV pilot in 1972 (some sources actually say 1970 or 1971) but shelved and not broadcast until 1979 (and then as an ABC late night movie). Wikipedia claims it was broadcast on ABC in 1973 which is demonstrably false (I think it's just a typo because they have the month and day of the 1979 showing correct), though it did get a theatrical release in England in 1972 under the title Happiness is a Warm Clue, one of Chan's aphorisms in the film. Following the Hollywood model, Chan is played by a non-Asian actor, Ross Martin—some online sources say the show was originally shelved over PC concerns about having a white actor in the role but that's never been corroborated. He was probably chosen because of his portrayal of Artemus Gordon, master of disguises, in The Wild Wild West, and he's not bad; I like that he downplays the broken English of the 30s and 40s Chan actors though he is still in yellowface makeup (he's pictured at top right). He's lighter on his feet and less heavy than previous portrayers. Second billed is Richard Haydn as Andrew Kidder, who acts for much of the movie as Chan's sidekick. He's quite good, and sounds and acts nothing like he did as Max in The Sound of Music. Leslie Nielsen, who is billed as a guest star, is pretty good as Alex, and he gets to do a Zorba the Greek dance at one point. There is a large supporting cast which is a bit problematic: there are too many characters and they are introduced quickly, so it took me a while to be able to keep track of them. Louise Sorel, who became a renowned soap opera actor, is fine as the wife; the only other standout is Don Gordon (at left) as Lambert. Ultimately though I liked this, and think it could have been the start of a decent series, it didn't quite feel like a Chan mystery, more having the style of a generic TV mystery. Though two children are present, they have little to do and I missed the byplay between Chan and one of his sons. [YouTube; also available on gray market DVDs]

EQUINOX (1970)

David Fielding is running down a highway from an unseen figure, and is knocked over by a speeding car with no driver. A year later, he is still in a hospital, catatonic and diagnosed as a melancholic. A reporter arrives to do a story on him and is allowed to listen to taped interviews done with David a year ago. In flashback, we see David and his friends (Jim, Susan and Vicki) at an isolated cabin to visit their geology teacher, Prof. Waterman, but are dismayed to find his cabin mostly destroyed and him missing. A studly park ranger who calls himself Asmodeus is both friendly and a bit threatening, and warns the kids away from searching for Waterman. But the group persists and runs into a variety of strange occurrences. They see a castle in the distance which later vanishes. Large claw prints are found in the ground. A giggling old man offers to give them an old book which is a "veritable encyclopedia of evil." Eventually Waterman shows up and the kids discover that he has been using the book to conjure up demons (which will come as no surprise to anyone who is familiar with the name Asmodeus). We see that a giant tentacled creature (Cthulhu, anyone?) destroyed the cabin. The rest of the movie consists of the group's adventures involving escaping from a giant ape-like creature, a giant shambling man, and the park ranger who tries to rape Vicki. But one by one, the kids are possessed by the devil until only David is left, running for safety as we saw at the beginning. A satanic creature had predicted that David would die in a year and day, which happens to be the very day the reporter has come visiting.

This amateur film was shot over two years' time, finished in 1967, for some $7,000. The director, twenty-year old Dennis Muren, also co-creator of the special effects, used the film as a demo reel in order to get a job in the movie industry, but producer Jack H. Harris saw its potential as a feature film. He hired Jack Woods to direct a new version and got the cast together to shoot new scenes, with Woods himself playing Asmodeus. Released in 1970, it became a minor cult hit. Muren went on to become a creative director at George Lucas' Industrial Light and Magic effects studio, and was a celebrity guest on this year's TCM Classic Cruise. The movie largely vanished until Criterion released a deluxe 2-disc version that includes the original demo film. For me, the appeal of this movie is that it feels like something that anyone could have shot in a backyard (indeed, some scenes were shot that way). To say it's rough around the edges is an understatement: the acting is mostly amateurish because most of the actors were indeed amateurs—Barbara Hewitt (Susan) was a Rose Bowl queen; all the dialogue was post-dubbed, sometimes awkwardly; it's full of plot holes. But all that adds to the charm of the film. 

On top of that, the effects, though also rather roughly done, are effective, especially a really creepy flying devil (pictured top right) that swoops down and carries Susan off. Frank Boers Jr., who plays Jim, was the only actor who went on to a professional career, changing his name to Frank Bonner and playing Herb on the long-running series WKRP in Cincinnati; he's quite good and his dubbed dialogue is excellent. (According to the audio commentary, he was the only one of the actors who had much experience and so he dubbed his own lines; the rest of the cast was dubbed by others.) Though shot mostly outdoors and in daylight, a nicely demonic atmosphere is sustained throughout. I watched the original film (66 minutes versus the later version’s 82 minutes) and the story is basically the same, with the order of events shuffled a bit. Both versions are watchable, though the Asmodeus figure really adds a shot of energy to the longer film. The ending is anti-climactic, as though they ran out of time and money to shoot the final scene, though the filmmakers argue that they intended the conclusion to be a bit ambiguous. Both versions have commentaries that are fun to listen to. Pictured at left are Bonner and Edward Connell as David. [DVD]

THE BLOOD ON SATAN’S CLAW (1971)

In a small British village in the 1700s, a young farmer named Ralph digs up a buried skull with, oddly, one intact eyeball still in place and a patch of fur. Calling it the face of a fiend, he reports it to the local judge but it vanishes before the judge can see it. But this seems to be the catalyst for a number of odd occurrences in the village. Young Peter brings his fiancée Rosalind to stay in the home of his aunt, where the judge is lodging while he's in town, but that night, she claims that she was attacked in the dark and goes a little nuts, barricading herself in her room. She has to be led screaming out of the house, during which time Peter notices that one of her hands has become a furry paw with claws. The next night, Peter is attacked by a clawed creature and tries to chop away at it, only to find he's cut off his own hand. Meanwhile, Reverend Fallowfield is upset at the "insolent ungodliness" being displayed by the young members of his Bible study group who are falling away into a possibly satanic circle (looking a bit like 60s flower children) led by the sexy Angel Blake who tries to seduce Fallowfield and leads her followers in dangerous games, one of which results in the death of a young boy. The upshot of all this: Angel is conducting black masses to resurrect the demon that Ralph found in his field, with fur sprouting on the skin of various body parts of people which are intended to be used in the reconstruction of the demon. The judge, who left town to study up on fighting the devil, returns for the bloody climax at a ritual intended to be the final step in the return of the devil in earthly form.

Over the past few years, a new horror genre has been identified, folk horror, which is, somewhat like film noir, a label that is being retroactively applied to movies from the past. It usually involves the use of rural folklore and pagan or satanic rituals. 1973's The Wicker Man is the most famous movie to receive the folk horror name, with 2019's Midsommar being one of the more obvious recent entries. The problem with the label—as with the noir label—is that it can end up being too inclusive and losing its definitions. Some people call anything that features witchcraft folk horror—early examples supposedly include Night of the Demon, Witchfinder General and The Devil Rides Out, all of which are good movies but on shaky ground as folk horror—and that makes the genre too elastic for my taste. The more the film involves a small community, locally passed-down rituals or actual folklore (The Dark Secret of Harvest Home, The Blair Witch Project), the more it feels like legitimate folk horror. I think this movie fits the bill, though it's unclear how Angel's teen cult comes into being. Did the demon possess her because she touched a claw remnant? Did she have a bent for evil? Did it involve some elements of the village's past? 

A muted color palette and mostly outdoor settings give the film a darkly folkloric feel, with production values that make it seem like a scruffy version of a Hammer movie. The central presence of teenagers as the main cult members feels like a very Seventies strategy, though it also harks back to Arthur Miller's The Crucible. Specifics of the demonic reconstruction are left rather vague, which for me is a fault, keeping me from fully engaging with the plot and characters. Acting is about average, with the only real standout being Linda Hayden as Angel. I appreciate that the judge, the witchfinder stand-in played by Patrick Wymark, is not presented as evil or perverted, but he is also absent for the bulk of the film and his return near the end doesn't feel organic to the narrative, though it is necessary for the town's salvation. But overall, as an example of folk horror, this is worth seeing. An alternate title is Satan's Skin which is actually more appropriate if less interesting. Pictured top right are Linda Hayden and Godfrey James as Angel's father; above left is Simon Williams as Peter.[Streaming]

GIANT FROM THE UNKNOWN (1958)

In Pine Ridge, a small town in a wooded area of California, residents have been dealing with the mysterious mutilation of cattle and horses. Now a man named Banks has been found dead out near Devil's Crag, a spot where geologist Wayne Brooks has been hanging out doing research. The sheriff suspects Brooks, though for no clear reason, or maybe old timer Indian Joe who warns that vengeful Indian spirits may be roaming the area. Enter visiting archeologist Frederick Cleveland and his spunky daughter Janet, searching for the remains of the legendary seven-foot tall Vargas, the Diablo Giant, leader of a group of conquistadors who vanished five hundred years ago. As Wayne cozies up to Janet, the three set up camp at Devil's Crag and, using metal detectors, find some buried conquistador armor and a skull. Also nearby, though they don't see him, is Vargas who has been lying in suspended animation all these years—we're told later that something in the soil might have served as a super-preservative. He dons his armor, grabs an axe, and engages in more mayhem, eventually kidnapping Janet with Wayne, Cleveland, and a posse from the town in pursuit. As monster movies go, this is fairly mild stuff. Though he's definitely menacing looking, Vargas looks more like a cranky old prospector with a mud-caked face. Six-foot-seven Buddy Baer, who plays him (pictured), was the uncle of Max Baer who played Jethro on The Beverly Hillbillies and he's reasonably effective in the dialogueless role. The rest of the actors are just about adequate. Ed Kemmer (Wayne) was the star of an early 50s TV show called Space Patrol and had a long career in television. He has a heroic bearing but never comes off as very commanding. Sally Fraser (Janet) is fine and has decent chemistry with Kemmer. 1930s western star Bob Steele is colorless as the sheriff though Morris Ankrum is a bit more energetic as Cleveland. When we first see Vargas, he appears to be awakening from his long sleep, so I was uncertain if he was indeed responsible for the earlier mayhem. Maybe it was Indian Joe the whole time (though he becomes a casualty of Vargas' rampage). At the end (spoiler!) Vargas falls into a waterfall and is assumed to die, but the promise of a sequel does hang in the air, though it never happened. This B-film is no gem but it’s fine fodder for Chiller Theater night. [YouTube]