THE WITCHMAKER (1969)

We see a young woman bathing in her bra and panties in a swamp in the Louisiana bayou. As she gets out, a man attacks her; he rips open her bra, hangs her upside down from a tree, paints an upside-down ankh symbol on her stomach, then slices her throat open and catches the blood in a bucket. It seems this is only the latest in a string of ritualistic murders in the area, as an old-timer cabin caretaker tells the group of folks he has escorted into the bayou by boat. The group leader, Ralph Hayes (Alvy Moore), says they are movie location scouts, but we soon find out that Hayes is actually a researcher of the paranormal, staying for a week in an isolated cabin (with no phone) with some grad students, a reporter, and a psychic "sensitive" named Tasha. Hayes has a theory about witches and hopes to discover the genuine one he thinks is behind the recent slayings. We know that the murderer is indeed a witch (or warlock) who calls himself Luther the Berserk (John Lodge); he is the head of a coven of witches who are hundreds of years old and they use the blood they've collected for rites to communicate with Satan—they rub the blood on the teeth of a fairly creepy demonic statue to which they pay homage. Luther's coven is one short, so he asks the immortal witch Jessie of Coventry for help to gain a convert: Tasha. Jessie agrees if Luther will tell Satan to give her back her youth. That is indeed arranged, and soon our vulnerable group is whittled down (mostly as resources for more ritual blood), until it's up to the skeptical reporter (Anthony Eisley) to try and save Tasha by substituting pig's blood for human blood in the final conversion rite.

I'd never heard of this movie until I found it in recommendations on Amazon, and though it may not be a classic, it's a solid piece of 60s B-horror which takes its devil worship a little more seriously than others of its ilk. A creepy atmosphere is built up from the beginning, and even the daytime scenes have a disturbing feel to them. The set-up, with exposition and some character development, is fine, though the middle drags a bit. But the ending makes up for that. Alvy Moore is mostly known as the bumbling Hank Kimball on the TV series Green Acres, so I expected him to be comic here, but he plays an academic fairly convincingly. Eisley, whom I know as one of the Hawaiian Eye detectives from 60s TV, is fine as the theoretical hero. German actress Thordis Brandt is mostly eye candy as Tasha, and Tony Benson is a somewhat cute grad student, but the best performance is from the beefy John Lodge as Luther who makes for a chilling villain. This is definitely low-budget filmmaking but it looks pretty good most of the time. Recommended. Pictured are Lodge and Brandt with the creepy statue. [Amazon Prime]

EARTH VS. THE FLYING SAUCERS (1956)

Persistent reports of UFOs are coming in to the Hemisphere Defense Command. At the same time, the Command's Operation Skyhook is faltering; every attempt at sending satellites into space ends with them crashing back down to earth. As space scientist Hugh Marlowe is driving down a desert road bantering with his wife (Joan Taylor), a huge flying saucer buzzes right over them. At the launch of satellite #12, a saucer lands at the military base, vaporizes soldiers who fire at it, destroys some buildings, and spacesuited aliens kidnap a general, Joan's father. Foregoing government permission, Marlowe manages to communicate with aliens by radio and sets up a rendezvous. Inside the ship, the aliens tell him that they are the remnants of a dying race and want to colonize the earth. They ask him to arrange a meeting with world leaders but at the same time continue their destructive ways, showing Marlowe that they have emptied the brain of his wife's father and left him a zombie-like shell. Marlowe works on developing a weapon that will be effective against them, but soon the aliens' saucers are wreaking havoc all over the world, and Washington, D.C is next on their list.

Ray Harryhausen supervised the special effects here and they are the main reason to watch. Though primitive compared to what CGI can do, the shots of the saucers and their siege of the nation's capital are still effective. The look of the saucers and aliens influenced sci-fi movies (and UFO sighting reports) for years. The human aspect of the film is less compelling. Hugh Marlowe has to be one of the most wooden actors ever to carve out a long-lasting acting career in movies--this is one of his few leads, as he was mostly relegated to supporting parts (The Day the Earth Stood Still, All About Eve). He's about on a par with the average male lead in 50s science-fiction B-movies, though this film has close to an A-level budget. The rest of the cast is mostly OK, though let's face it, we don't come to these films expecting great acting. However, the weakest scene in the film is when Marlowe and Taylor first see a flying saucer; the matted effect is pretty scary, but their reaction is mild--Marlowe doesn’t even put on the brakes while driving. An influential film which still generally holds up as one of the early entries in the UFO invasion genre. [DVD]

BACK FROM THE DEAD (1957)

Dick and his pregnant wife Mandy are staying at a coastal town getaway house with Mandy's sister Kate, but Mandy feels uncomfortable and can't pinpoint why. One night, Dick plays a recording of eerie theremin music to which Mandy has a visceral reaction; later, she collapses and suffers a miscarriage, and when she awakens, she thinks she is Felicia, Dick's first wife who drowned years ago at this very location. Everyone takes this seriously because 1) Dick had never told Mandy about Felicia (way to start married life on the good foot!); 2) they know that theremin music was a favorite of Felicia's. Mandy has seemingly been possessed by the dead woman, a theory which is clinched when Mandy meets Felicia's parents and rattles off all kinds of details about Felicia's past. Felicia was a notorious flirt and John, an architect friend of Dick's who was present the night Felicia died (falling from a cliff in a possible act of suicide), still feels guilt over that night, afraid that his expression of disapproval of her slutty behavior may have led to her death. We soon discover that a group of Satanists, led by the mysterious Maitre Renault, is behind the possession, encouraged by Felicia's mother. Can our handful of vanilla heroes defeat the dark powers of evil and bring Mandy back?

Horror movies involving devil worship are relatively few and far between, and this one has potential. The plot sounds like the stuff of dark Gothic thrillers (it was based on a novel), and the seaside setting, the theremin music, a spot of human sacrifice, and the strong performance of Peggie Castle as Mandy/Felicia are all pluses. It doesn't quite rise to the occasion, however, thanks to dialogue-heavy scenes instead of action, a bland TV-movie visual style, and some sloppy plotting. I could never quite forgive the screenwriter (Catherine Turney, who also wrote the novel) for the odd touch of Dick never having told Mandy about Felicia, especially when they were staying in a town where lots of people knew her. But having said all that, I stuck with it and was relatively satisfied, even if we never get to see any creepy Satanic rituals. Arthur Franz (Dick), Marsha Hunt (Kate) and Don Haggerty (John) are all OK. It helped that the movie kept reminding me of the junky B-classic TORMENTED, with occasional thematic strains of Dark Shadows. I think this showed up on Chiller Theater back in the day, but it's not widely available right now, so check YouTube now if you're interested. [YouTube]

THE BLOB (1958)

One night in a small Midwestern town, Steve and Jane are in his car necking when they see what looks like a shooting star. But instead of streaking across the sky, it comes slamming down to earth in some hills on the outskirts of town. As they drive off to find it, an old man who lives nearby the landing site finds a small egg-like object which cracks open to release a bit of glowing goop that attaches itself to his arm and won't let go. Steve and Jane find him writhing in agony and take him to the local doctor who is stymied by the substance. Soon the old man has been completely engulfed by this organism. The doc discovers that even throwing acid on it does nothing and soon he is consumed by this gooey blob which grows bigger and bigger and begins to run rampant in the town. Steve tries to get the police to investigate but they think he's pulling an elaborate prank.The blob traps Steve and Jane inside an empty grocery store and they manage to escape, but when it invades the local movie house, which is showing a midnight spook show, it gets bigger and bigger and soon the entire town is frantic for help. The military arrives with bombs but even those can't stop it. Things look hopeless until Steve remembers that the blob avoided the grocery meat locker--could the blob be vulnerable to cold?

I started my October horror and sci-fi viewing with this low budget teen exploitation film which has become a minor sci-fi classic, though I suspect it's only because it was the first starring role for Steve McQueen (pictured at left in yellow, who, though playing 19, looks 30, which is about how old he was). It's well shot and brightly colored, but it largely fails to build a truly scary atmosphere like Roger Corman would have done with even less money. In fact, way too much of the 90 minute running time is taken up with padding, chatter and plotlines that go nowhere. Time is taken for an incident in which fellow teen Tony challenges Steve to a midnight drag race, setting up a traditional teen turf conflict, but it turns out that Tony and Steve are too friendly to really be threatening to each other. Two cops are given personalities, amounting to one (Dave) being understanding and tolerant and the other (Bertie) being a pain in the neck, but little is done with this. Even Jane (Aneta Corseaut), after some mild resistance to Steve's continued attempts at necking, becomes just a warm body to get in the way of the blob. The oddest plotline involves a dog that belongs to the old man. Jane takes the dog with her from the man's house, but at some point it gets away only to be stalked by the blob in the grocery store. We think it gets eaten, but a teenager claims to have seen it get away, and we never see it again. The blob itself is very effective, though the theater scene, which gets a lengthy buildup, is ultimately disappointing. As other viewers have pointed out, there seems to be no meaning to any of this, not even a simple "Keep watching the skies!" lesson. OK but not really a classic. [Streaming]

KALEIDOSCOPE (1966)

In a London traffic jam, American playboy gambler Warren Beatty (at right) meets cute with sexy young fashion designer Susannah York, though their date ends with them going their own ways. For Beatty, this means a trip to Geneva where he executes a well-planned scheme: breaking into the Kaleidoscope playing card factory, marking the card engraving plates with a code so he can read each card from the back, then making note of which casinos the cards will be shipped to. His plan is to play once in each casino, win a lot of money, and not go back so no one catches on to his ploy. In Monte Carlo, the plan works well, and as an added bonus, he meets up with York who becomes intrigued with him. Though he insists that she is his "lucky rabbit’s foot," she's pretty sure he's got something underhanded going on. As it happens, her father (Clive Revill) is a Scotland Yard inspector who is trying to bring down Eric Porter, a casino owner and big-time drug dealer (he got his start with morphine stolen from the British army at the end of WWII). York brings Beatty to her father's attention, but instead of arresting him, Revill blackmails him into helping out the Yard. Porter is in potentially ruinous debt, and Revill's plan is to get Beatty to play high-stakes poker with him and get him to lose everything. Eventually, Beatty works his way into one of Porter's big games and, thanks to the marked cards, wins big--until, by sheer accident, a new deck is introduced which is not a Kaleidoscope pack. Can Beatty still prevail? And, in any case, can he and York escape the vengeance of Porter if he loses everything?

This very Sixties caper movie was the last film Beatty made before the seismic shock of Bonnie and Clyde changed Hollywood and Beatty's career. He's a natural here as a charming romantic lead, and the sexy York is pretty much his equal, though her character, after some development in the first half, is pretty much just around for the ride. The plot is fairly outlandish as it takes Beatty from swinger to cat burglar to successful casino cheater to improbably good poker player--and, by the by, he's also independently wealthy and pulls the card cheat just for the challenge. The introduction of Eric Porter's character pushes the last half of the movie into James Bond territory; he's a somewhat campy bad guy who is practically a Goldfinger-esque supervillain by the end (he lives in a castle and he has a traitor in his group killed by flamethrower). But the improbable concluding sequence does give the film a nice action jolt, similar to the early scene of Beatty's break-in at the card factory. Clive Revill is fun as York's father--sometimes, he resembles Jerry Van Dyke. Murray Melvin plays Revill's assistant; a bit on the effeminate side, he is mostly a comic relief figure, though he's instrumental in saving Beatty and York from certain death near the end. I also thought I detected a playful, almost sexual, chemistry between Melvin and Revill. The film's visual style is understated psychedelica with lots of color and kaleidoscopic scene transitions. Despite plotholes, a pleasant time-passer. Best dialogue: on the run from Porter and his men, York petulantly announces, "I hate guns and I don't like fighting!" Beatty replies, "How does living grab ya?" [TCM]

OSCAR WILDE (1960)

The story of Oscar Wilde's undoing, largely at his own hands, is told in a straightforward but rather boring way, though the performance by Robert Morley as Wilde is quite good, perhaps still the best screen Wilde. Filmed at a time when homosexuality was still a taboo issue in films, the movie largely pussyfoots around the topic, though the word "sodomite" does crop up, and though no sex or even lovey-dovey behavior is seen, it's pretty clear what’s going on. At a performance of his play Lady Windermere's Fan, Wilde makes eyes at young Lord Alfred Douglas (John Neville) and, in a moment that would be right at home in Wilde's novel The Picture of Dorian Gray, the besotted Douglas tells Wilde that the play has been the greatest experience of his life. Douglas is being blackmailed because of some incriminating love (or lust) letters he wrote to a boy who later killed himself. Wilde (who is married with children) helps him, and he and Douglas then become "involved." Though Wilde's friends counsel him to be careful about the affair, he and Douglas aren't, and soon Douglas's father, the Marquis of Queensbury, sends Wilde a note in public accusing him of "posing as a sodomite," and Wilde recklessly sues him for libel. The courtroom scenes, near the end of the movie, grow repetitious, though Morley and Ralph Richardson, as the Marquis' lawyer, spar well together. Morley is especially good as he begins certain that his wit will win the court over, then slowly realizing that he no longer has the upper hand. The unrepentant Wilde ended up going to prison, and the film ends with Wilde in Paris a few years later, reading from the Bible. A rather colorless film, even if it does hit the high points historically. The same year, another movie, The Trials of Oscar Wilde, was released covering the same ground with Peter Finch as Wilde. The critics seem to have found it a better movie than the Morley version, though it's been so long since I've seen it that I can't say how I felt about it. Pictured are Morley and Neville. [TCM]

STATION WEST (1948)

In an Old West town, two Army officers have been shot dead while guarding a gold shipment, just the latest in a series of such robberies. Dick Powell comes strolling into town and gets a room at the hotel run by Burl Ives, who spends most of his time singing ballads about strangers coming to town. Powell heads to the saloon where he watches Jane Greer sing and takes a shine to her, then picks a fight with a young soldier, but later we find out that the fight was planned; the soldier was waiting for Powell, who has been sent from back East by the Army to investigate the gold robberies. Powell is taken to meet Tom Powers, the commander of an army post, and his mistress (Agnes Moorehead), a gold mine owner, who both seem skeptical that he'll be able to accomplish much. But Powell soon gets the lay of the land: Greer is actually the owner of the saloon and casino, and the de facto head of the community; Gordon Oliver is her right-hand man; Guinn Williams is a tough bouncer; Raymond Burr is a lawyer who is in over his head with gambling debts owed to Greer. Powell gets into an intense fistfight with Williams which he barely wins. Greer warms up to him and gets him a job working security for a stagecoach, and on one nighttime run with a gold shipment of Moorehead's, Powell's coach is attacked. His assistant is killed and he is knocked unconscious. Getting to the bottom of the mystery may be difficult until Powell can figure out who is friend and who is foe.

This is often considered a Western noir, but it's really an average Western crime story with a femme fatale figure (Greer) who might be at home in a real film noir--as she was a year earlier in the classic OUT OF THE PAST. The presence of Powell, who does his tough guy turn as he did in the 1944 MURDER MY SWEET, may also seem like a noir element. The existing print of this film runs about 80 minutes, but a running time of 97 minutes is reported on IMDb. The trimming of nearly 20 minutes would explain some odd plotholes near the end. An Army uniform button seems to be an important clue to something, but I never figured out what. Even more puzzling, Moorehead pulls a stunt with the gold that seems out of character and it's never explained. Greer is not as effective here as in PAST, but there's a strong supporting cast (Moorehead, Oliver, Burr, Regis Toomey) that keeps things moving. The fight between Powell and Williams goes on for a while, but is choreographed rather sloppily. Watchable but don't expect a genuine film noir. Pictured are Greer and Powell. [Criterion Channel]

ENTER LAUGHING (1967)

In 1938 Brooklyn, young David Kolowitz (Reni Santoni) works as an assistant to a machinist. He dreams of being an actor even though he lives with his parents who want to send him to pharmacy school. His idol is Ronald Colman and we see David doing an interior monologue in Colman's tones in front of a mirror, and, misquoting from Lost Horizon, dreaming of a Shangri-La "with naked ladies." He answers an ad looking for acting apprentices for a somewhat shabby acting company run by Harrison Marlowe (Jose Ferrer), an actor whose prime is long past. His audition for the play, an old-fashioned drawing room melodrama, doesn't go well (he speaks stage directions as if they were lines of dialogue and overacts wildly), but Marlowe's daughter Angela (Elaine May), the star of the show, takes a shine to the handsome boy and talks her father into giving him the part, though instead of getting paid, he has to pay Marlowe for learning on the job. In the two days before he is to go on, his life gets very complicated as he deals with his disapproving mother, his girlfriend who is feeling neglected, and his boss who is worried that he’s becoming undependable. David's mother tries to guilt him into quitting the play just before opening night, but after more complications, he gets his moment in the spotlight, with friends and parents in the audience. 

This is Carl Reiner's first film as a director; it's based on a play that was based on Reiner's semi-autobiographical novel. Though it has a few problems, I found it to be a very likeable coming-of-age comedy. Despite an opening card that reads "1938," it feels much more like the 1950s, despite references to actors of the era (Colman, Paul Muni, Jean Harlow). In fact one character, the sexy Miss B. (Nancy Kovack) has a decidedly 60s hairdo. Santoni is good-looking and personable, and does a nice job by underacting slightly (except when his character is overacting, most memorably in his audition scene when he goes through a very funny repertoire of overblown laughs for his "enter laughing" scene). Shelley Winters is fine as the Jewish mother--she resists exaggeration--and Elaine May (pictured with Santoni) is just as good, though the character sort of vanishes for much of the last half-hour when it seems like she should be front and center. Ferrer is OK in a role that could have used a smidge more energy, though he gets one of the best lines; while watching David act, he mumbles, "Thank God I'm an alcoholic." Michael J. Pollard, Don Rickles, Richard Deacon and Jack Gilford provide solid support. David Opatoshu practically sleepwalks through his role as David's father, and Janet Margolin does what she can with the underwritten part of the girlfriend. Santoni has had a long career as a character actor on TV, but I'm sorry that his comic gifts weren't put to better use in the movies--he’s just right here. Despite a few pacing problems that bog down the middle, this is a sweet movie. (Not long before I watched this, Carl Reiner passed away, and a month later, Santoni did as well.) [TCM]

LUV (1967)

On a New York City bridge, the bedraggled and despairing Harry (Jack Lemmon) is about to jump to his death when he is saved, more or less accidentally, by a wandering well-dressed fellow named Milt (Peter Falk). It turns out that the two were good friends in college, but fifteen years have gone by. Milt is married, makes decent money at an office job and has a side business selling junk. Harry, on the other hand, who was ambitious in college, is alone, neurotic, and suicidal, partly because he's never been in love. Milt decides take Harry under his wing. Milt's wife Ellen (Elaine May) is lovely but unhappy, particularly with the downturn of their sex life (the frequency of which, or lack thereof, she plots on a large chart). For his part, Milt has fallen for Linda (Nina Wayne), a young sexy exercise instructor. Milt comes up with a plan: get Harry to woo Ellen so she will divorce him and he can marry Linda. It works but soon Ellen gets tired of Harry's bizarre behavior--he has spells of hysterical blindness and deafness--and Milt gets tired of Linda's lack of ambition (one morning, she won't get out of bed, claiming to be "tired… from all those years of calisthenics!"). Milt and Ellen realize they are still in love and Milt initiates another plan: get Harry interested in Linda. When that backfires, there's one more solution: get Harry back on the bridge and push him to his death.

From that summary, you may not have figured out that this is a comedy. It's based on a hit 1964 play which had just three characters (Harry, Milt and Ellen) and one physical setting (the bridge), and was apparently theater of the absurd crossed with mainstream slapstick. The movie opens the setting up into the real world of New York City (though a Coney Island amusement park scene was shot in California) and heightens the slapstick, and that's where it gets in trouble. The opening ten minutes on the bridge with just Lemmon and Falk is delightful, but once they wander off into the streets and bars and houses, the proceedings begin to feel heavy and fussy. The manic, existential mood of some of the humor falls flat or feels sour in realistic settings. Falk (looking truly handsome for perhaps the only time in his career) and May (sexy and funny) are very good, and their scenes together often overcome the stylistic bumps, but sadly, the talented Jack Lemmon is just not right here, painfully overacting and making the slapsticky moments drag. There are two exceptions: a scene in which the central trio try to outdo each other with painful memories of their awful childhoods (Monty Python would riff on this a few years later--"There were a hundred and sixty of us living in a small shoebox in the middle of the road!"), and a later scene involving elevator mayhem in a department store, in which Lemmon just basically stands still and lets things happen around him. Lemmon's best moment is a quiet one: Ellen tries to convince Harry that he's actually a latent homosexual and is love with Milt--you can see Lemmon give it some thought, cock his eyes oddly, then dismiss it. More subtlety overall might have made this work, but the few truly fun moments--the ending, which goes back to the bridge, is good--aren't quite worth sitting through 90 minutes of irritating schtick. Pictured are May and Lemmon. [DVD]

SHIP AHOY (1942)

Tommy Dorsey and his band play their last date in New York before setting sail for a gig in Puerto Rico. After the show, band singer Tallulah Winters (Eleanor Powell) is whisked away by some government agents and asked to perform a patriotic duty: take a small prototype of a magnetic mine, an American military secret, and deliver it to a contact in Puerto Rico. After she is given the mine (small but with a very powerful charge) and sent to the ship, we discover that the agents are actually foreign spies, led by Dr. Farno, who are using her like a drug mule might be used today. Farno got the idea from a pulp fiction adventure story written by Merton Kibble (Red Skelton), whom we meet as he's dictating three different pulp stories—one involving his popular superhero Wonder Lad—to three secretaries at the same time. Merton's assistant Skip (Bert Lahr) is sweet on Fran (Virginia O'Brien), a chorus girl with Dorsey's band, and he convinces Merton, who is ready to collapse from stress, to join him on the ship to Puerto Rico. Meanwhile, real government agents are also on board, having learned that the mine is being transported. On the ship, Merton and Tallulah begin a tentative romantic relationship. Once in Puerto Rico, Tallulah delivers the mine, but when she realizes that Farno is a spy and that the bad guys want to dispose of her and Merton, she taps out an SOS with her feet, while doing a spectacular tap number, to notify the genuine American agents that she's in trouble. All is made right by the fadeout.

Despite seeming like a plot-heavy movie, this is actually a fairly frothy musical—I'd estimate that at least half of the movie's 90 minute running time is devoted to songs and production numbers. However, this isn't a musical where people burst into song on the streets; all the music is presented in a performing context. In addition to Dorsey, Powell, and O'Brien, we are entertained by the legendary drummer Buddy Rich and by an up-and-coming crooner named Frank Sinatra (who isn't actually given screen credit). Though the narrative has some clever turns, the musical performances are the reasons to watch. Rich gets a couple of energetic solos, Sinatra sings nicely, and Powell burns up the screen, especially in a number in which she is tossed across the half-length of a pool and caught by a man on a large floating platform. Her Morse Code tap number at the end, to "On Moonlight Bay," is a fitting climax. I'm not a fan of Skelton's rather manic manner, but Lahr is fun in his vaudeville shtick way, and I love the deadpan Virginia O'Brien. For me, it was worth watching the whole movie to see her turn to the camera in the middle of singing a comic number to Lahr, who's been pestering her constantly, and exclaim, "Murder, Jack!" Skelton's highlight is struggling with a small suitcase that contains the magnetic mine. I was startled to hear Tommy Dorsey use the slang term "Groovy!"—I had assumed that was strictly a 60s thing. John Emery is Farno and William Post Jr. has a nice moment or two as one of the agents. Fun, but only essential for fans of Powell and O’Brien. Pictured are Lahr and O'Brien. [TCM]

TERRY AND THE PIRATES (1940 serial)

Dr. Lee has brought a small expedition to the jungle village of Wingpoo to look for evidence of a legendary lost civilization. His assistant Pat and Lee's young son Terry have arrived bringing "important documents" (as we told at the beginning of every one of the 15 chapters of this serial), but Lee has already gone into the jungle. The local governor is more interested in daydrinking than in helping Pat and Terry find Lee, and we discover that the governor, and seemingly half of the Anglo villagers, work for local warlord Fang (described as a "sinister half-caste"). But with the help of two men—Connie, their faithful Asian assistant, and Big Stoop, an imposing local magician and man of few, if any, words—Pat and Terry persevere. Fang attempts to befriend Lee, whose men were attacked and killed. Fang wants to find the Temple of Dawn, sacred to the followers of the ancient god Mara, enslave the natives by claiming to speak for Mara, and steal the untold riches buried beneath the temple. In doing so, he would set himself up at odds with the Dragon Lady, the rightful ruler of Mara's followers. Lee discovers his agenda and escapes with Fang's men in hot pursuit. Drake, a local plantation owner, and his daughter Normandie join up with Pat and Terry to fight Fang, but the Dragon Lady is skeptical of their motives and for a time has them captured. However, Fang outfits a large statue of Mara with a record player and sound system to make the natives believe that Mara is talking to them. When Mara suggests a revolt against the Dragon Lady, she joins Pat and Terry to fight Fang. Eventually, in grand serial style, all the characters and plot points come together at the Temple when Fang makes one last play for the hidden treasure.

I'd rank this a bit above the average serial, though it can't avoid the doldrums of the middle chapters that affect most of these movies. There is a lot of action throughout with exposition (and narrative logic) kept to a minimum--in fact, the plotline involving Dr. Lee's search for an ancient civilization more or less vanishes by the end with the focus on the treasure which, oddly, seems to consist of a single large diamond. The serial's chief asset is Granville Owen (later in his career known as Jeff York) who plays Pat. He's handsome and athletic and holds his own in the regularly scheduled fisticuffs, but he's also got a bit more personality than usual: he can be cranky and impatient, even manic, and often reacts in irritation to the antics of his young pal Terry. At times, I felt his performance was almost a parody of the traditional serial hero. William Tracy as Terry is often a liability. The actor was 23 playing a teenager, and speaks in a rather shrill, exaggerated way that sometimes seems calculated to be comic relief, but not always. I liked Tracy as the ambitious bicycle messenger in THE SHOP AROUND THE CORNER (made the same year), but he plays Terry in the exact same way and the mannerisms that worked in that Budapest-set romantic comedy don't travel comfortably to the jungles of Wingpoo. Dick Curtis (Fang) is irritatingly one-note in his villainy and Sheila Darcy (the Dragon Lady) is too colorless for a role that should be mysterious, and even a little femme-fatale-ish. The very tall Victor DeCamp (as Big Stoop) and the very short Allen Jung (as Connie) are fun, though not given enough to do; both are pictured at left. A hulking gorilla named Bombo pops in and out as needed. (Owen and Tracy are pictured at top right.)

Fang's Leopard Men look menacing enough in interior scenes, but their costumes consist of leopard masks and striped bathrobes, and in exterior location shots, they seem more silly than threatening. The record player device is used well (including a twist on it in the final chapter) and the sets are OK. A brief instance of a ritual of human sacrifice seems thrown in just to take up some narrative time. The action, as I've noted, is pretty constant--during one 20-minute chapter, I counted fist fights breaking out an average of every three minutes. The cliffhangers are generally fine, though the oddest thing about this serial is that each chapter ends with a post-cliffhanger preview of the next chapter. Yes, we know that our heroes will always get out of imminent danger, but the added preview negates the tension built up by the crocodile pit or the exploding cabin, or wherever it is Pat and Terry are stuck. My favorite line is delivered by Normandie, the distressed damsel who is given to loud shrieking when in danger. In Chapter 5, when she goes off to find Pat and Terry, she says perkily to her father, "You know I can take care of myself--see you at breakfast!" after which she promptly falls into an animal trap and is menaced by Bombo. Despite being a couple of chapters too long, I'm glad I stuck with this. [TCM/YouTube]

OSS 117: PANIC IN BANGKOK (1964)

aka SHADOW OF EVIL

There have been a number of plague outbreaks in India and secret agent Christopher Lemmon, suspecting the deliberate spread of the disease, has tracked the source down to vaccination serums made by Hogby Laboratories in Bangkok. But before he can act on the information, he is shot to death getting out his car. Enter OSS 117, first name Hubert (Kerwin Mathews, pictured at right); as soon as he arrives in Bangkok, he is chased down and shot at but lives to meet up with his local assistant Sonsak. He also meets the agency's lovely blonde secretary Eva, but he suspects she may be up to no good, possibly providing classified information to whoever the bad guys might be. The most obvious suspect is Dr. Sinn, a physician, healer, and dabbler in metaphysics who has a following in Bangkok, and who is, in fact, behind the poisoning of the vaccines—he heads up a cult called the Elected People who want to depopulate the world to save it from itself and plan on spreading the plague on a global level. As Hubert investigates, he takes a liking to Sinn's sister Lila (Pier Angeli), though it's not clear where she might stand on the good/evil continuum. There are car chases, exploding boats, balcony climbers, and plague-carrying rats. The scene involving a car which has been equipped with a bomb to go off in fifteen minutes is particularly tense, and a good example of Hitchcock's theory of suspense; that is, the audience knowing something that the characters on screen do not. Despite being rather long at a full two hours, this is still fun to watch. The producers had a decent budget and shot largely on location, and Mathews (a lead swashbuckler in 60s fantasy movies like 7th Voyage of Sinbad and Jack the Giant Killer) makes a good hero; he's no Sean Connery, but who is? In the supporting cast, I especially liked Dominique Wilms as the ambiguous Eva. This is my first OSS 117 film, but won't be my last. [DVD]

THE WESTLAND CASE (1937)

Bob Westland is six days away from execution for the murder of his wife—she had money which was left to him and he had a mistress to take care of. Westland’s lawyer gets an anonymous letter saying that the writer knows Westland is innocent, and the lawyer hires private dick Bill Crane (Preston Foster) to investigate. The casual, flippant Crane and his equally flippant associate Williams (Frank Jenks) dig into the circumstances of the murder, in which Mrs. Westland was found shot dead in her locked apartment. Reports of phone calls and visits that evening, and the whereabouts of some keys and guns are all followed up on. Among the other suspects: Emlly Martin, the mistress; two of Westland’s possibly shady business partners and the company accountant; a gangster; and a blonde totsy who is now living in the old Westland apartment. After a number of fairly unlikely incidents (including the realization that the change to daylight savings time on the night of the murder may throw some testimony in doubt), Crane cracks the case mere minutes before the scheduled execution. 

This is the first in a series of eleven Crime Club B-mysteries that Universal released between 1937 and 1939 with a variety of actors playing a variety of sleuths. Earlier this summer, I watched a later film with Foster and Jenks as Crane and Williams (THE LADY IN THE MORGUE), and my review of that one could be repeated here: fun bantering chemistry between Foster and Jenks, decent supporting players (including the sexy Barbara Pepper in both films, as different characters), a convoluted plot, an old-fashioned roomful-of-suspects finale. They are also both short (between 60 and 70 minutes) though this one starts to drag about halfway through. None of the suspects is particularly likable (and neither is Westland), so I didn’t have much invested in who was or wasn’t the killer. Still, it’s painlessly watchable and the suspects roundup leads to a satisfying ending. Pictured are Preston Foster and Frank Jenks. [YouTube]

REPEAT PERFORMANCE (1947)

It's a windswept midnight on New Year’s Eve, 1947, and actress Sheila Page (Joan Leslie) has just shot and killed her husband Barney (Louis Hayward) in their penthouse apartment. She stumbles out into the crowded streets and runs into her pal, troubled poet William Williams (Richard Basehart), and on their way to get help from her producer John Friday (Tom Conway), Sheila wishes out loud that she could live 1947 over and fix all the problems that led to the murder. When she enters John's apartment, there's a party going on and she soon realizes she's gotten her wish: it's New Year's Eve, 1946. After she's gotten her bearings, she begins trying to alter the future. First, she warns William away from Mrs. Shaw, a rich woman who wants to take him under her wing, so to speak, but who will eventually play a part in having William committed to an asylum; next, she enlists John in an effort to stop Barney from getting to know playwright Paula Costello, which will lead to an affair and Barney's descent into alcoholism. What Sheila finds is that, though she may be able to change some of the small stuff, the bigger things have a way of happening anyway.

This interesting mix of fantasy, melodrama and film noir was considered lost until recently, and it's quite a find. Though the actors and budget indicate a B-film, the story and character interplay keep one engrossed. The opening sequence before time reverses is especially rich in atmosphere, though visually the movie never reaches that height again. The plot, based on a novel by William O'Farrell, works well, even when the production code doesn't allow it to go places where the novel did. For example, the poet William in the book is a somewhat gender-fluid fellow who goes by the joint name of "William and Mary" and his benefactor in the book is an older gay man. But Basehart does a lovely job of giving the character some subtle sexual ambiguity without flouncing or lisping, and he winds up the most sympathetic character of the bunch. The Code also does not allow the ending to be quite as bleak as the book's—though to the filmmakers' credit, it's not exactly sugarcoated, either. Leslie and Hayward are just adequate in the leads (Ann Sheridan and Errol Flynn would have been great), but they don't hurt the movie. Natalie Schafer has a nice bit as Mrs. Shaw. The Broadway background—most of the characters are involved in the theater—is brought to life nicely (albeit on a B-movie level), and the noir theme of feeling trapped by destiny, and the tone of existential dread, are present. The Twilight-Zone feel of the fantasy element isn't overdone. TCM ran this late last year and a DVD release is apparently in store. I would recommend this as a purchase, for its unusual nature if nothing else. Pictured above are Leslie and Basehart. [TCM]

MURDER BY CONTRACT (1958)

Dark, handsome Claude (Vince Edwards) is a driven young man with a fairly middle-class dream--he wants to build a house on the Ohio River. But he figures he'll never make enough money at his current job so he branches out, becoming a killer for hire. A man named Brinks puts him in touch with a man named Moon who keeps him waiting for a while as a test of Claude's determination, but soon Moon gives him assignments and he is a success, killing one man by posing as a barber and slicing his throat, killing another by posing as a doctor and cutting off a patient's life support. Claude is calm and cool, and theorizes that he'll never get caught because, as a hired gun (though he doesn't like to use guns), he doesn't know any of his victims and, assuming the job is done cleanly, he can't be tied to any of them. Eventually Brinks calls him to kill Moon, which he does. Then he has to go to Los Angeles for a more high-profile hit: kill Brinks' former mistress who is about to testify against him in a court case. In L.A., he is met by a pair of keepers, Marc and George. Though the three hit if off, Marc and George are kept on their toes when Claude insists on taking it easy, having them chaperone him around town before he gets down to business. Billie, the mistress, is a jazz pianist who has essentially barricaded herself in her suburban home with plenty of police protection. Reluctantly, Claude turns to a plan using guns. He fudges it the first time and, with only a day left before Billie's court date, Marc and George are told to get rid of Claude. But Claude has a different idea. 

This is a taut, straightforward thriller with hints of film noir in its tone (an antihero at the center of the narrative) and look (a low-budget unfussiness about sets and camera style). The first half of the movie is paced briskly with its no-nonsense relating of the plot; though Edwards is on screen for almost the entire film, we never get to know him or learn what makes him tick. But once the story moves to Los Angeles, the pace slackens, just as Claude shifts into what seems to be vacation mode. The tone has been dead serious until now, but Marc (Phillip Pine) and George (Herschel Barnardi) supply some comic relief with their befuddlement over Claude and his leisurely approach toward accomplishing his hit. Edwards is exactly right in his role. Despite his surface calm, we can sense an intensity that bubbles up now and then. As I noted above, Claude remains a psychological blank, though we figure out that he is something of a woman-hater; he’s not happy to learn that his target, Billie, is a woman, saying that women are "not dependable," hence harder to get at. A later scene involving a hooker might lead us to a reading of Claude as closeted homosexual, but that remains only a hint. Pine and Bernardi are fun but are also good at being serious when they have to. A woman named Caprice Toirel is very good as Billie, but surprisingly, she never made another movie. The last half-hour drags just a bit as Claude's plans go awry, but otherwise I recommend this highly. Edwards' career changed gear a couple of years later when he played a doctor on the hit TV show Ben Casey, and when Claude strolls the halls of the hospital in his disguise, I had to laugh because he looks exactly like Ben Casey. [TCM]

FANTOMAS (1964)

We see a well-dressed couple, a British lord and his wife, enter Van Cleef & Arpels, a high-class jewelry shop, pick out 5 million francs worth of jewelry, pay with a check, and leave. No sooner is their car out of sight when the writing on the check vanishes and the name Fantomas appears. The brilliant crook Fantomas has struck again! Police inspector Juve appeals to the public for calm, but cocky reporter Fandor writes a series of mocking articles, climaxing with a fictitious interview which gets front page placement—along with a faked photograph of Fandor dressed up in a mask and cape—drawing the ire of the real Fantomas who kidnaps Fandor to his lair (very Batcave-ish). Fantomas enters, as dramatic organ music plays (shades of Phantom of the Opera), wearing a skintight blue mask which gives his face a blank, artificial look, and announces his intent to disguise himself as Fandor and commit a daring jewel robbery; as he says to Fandor, “You haven’t heard the last of you!” He later kidnaps Fandor’s girlfriend Helene, intending on seducing her in the guise of Fandor, and then becomes Inspector Juve as he tosses a bomb into a theater showing a movie based on Fantomas’ exploits. Fantomas’ partner in crime, Lady Bentham, becomes jealous when she learns about his plans for Helene and she lets Fandor and Helene escape, but also cuts the brakes on their getaway car, and they go careening down a mountain road. The last half-hour of the movie is basically a long chase scene involving cars, trains and helicopters that lets Fantomas live to wear disguises another day.

The original Fantomas was a criminal mastermind from the pages of French crime fiction, memorably brought to the screen in a series of silent serials and movies between 1910 and the mid 1940s. This version arrived at the height of the popularity of James Bond and partakes of the same spirit of the European comic book movies—such as Danger Diabolik and Modesty Blaise—that came later in the 1960s. This certainly has visual style, humor, and the episodic feel of a serial, and it begins and ends at what feel like random moments in the criminal career of Fantomas. But Jean Marais, a leading man in French cinema since the 1940s (he’s the Beast/Prince in Cocteau’s Beauty and the Beast from 1946), is a bit too old the part. He was 50 and looks it, though he was still a handsome man, and he is certainly game for the role’s challenges—apparently he did most of his own stunts, including a dazzling bit where he escapes from a rooftop via a dangling ladder from a helicopter. But when he’s not in action, he seems tired and stodgy. John Philip Law (from Diabolik) or Franco Nero (the original Django) would have been more fun. But I love the blue mask make-up; it looks creepily real, like artificial skin. Louis de Funes, a famous French comic, is fine as Juve, as is Mylène Demongeot as Helene.  There are quite a few nice setpieces, though the epic climactic chase goes on a bit too long for my tastes. Enjoyable enough that I’ll probably watch the two sequels. [Blu-ray]

THAT'S MY BOY (1932)

Thomas Jefferson Scott (Richard Cromwell) is off to Thorpe University, intending on working his way through school and becoming a doctor, even though his small-town folks think he's biting off more than he can chew. During a hazing event, the Flag Rush in which the sophomores try to keep the freshmen from taking a pennant off the football field, Tommy displays great skill in broken-field running, and Coach Adams (Douglas Dumbrille) gets him to sign on to the football team. Their plan is to train him in secret this year, and spring him as a surprise next fall. Tommy's reluctant to devote so much time to the training as it stands in the way of his getting a job, but Al, the assistant coach (Leon Ames), gives him a good-paying part-time job which consists of watching the boiler room and turning a dial once a night. He's also given free room and board with Ames and a nice wardrobe. When he finally plays, he's a hit with his game-winning running ways and is given the nickname Snakehips. He begins dating Dorothy (Dorothy Jordan), daughter of a rich businessman, but becomes disillusioned with his college experience when he meets a former college football hero who is now a lowly accountant. Realizing that he now has no time for his medical studies and will likely face a diminished future as an adult, he asks for more money from the coaches. They form a company to sell stocks in Tommy's name and cut him in for 10%. At first, it's a success, but soon Tommy learns that the company has actually lost all the money paid in by the investors, which include his parents and many of their friends. When this becomes public, will Tommy find a way to redeem himself in the eyes of his fans, his girlfriend and himself?

For a movie that's over eighty years old, this has surprising relevance today in this age of big money in college sports. The later plot twists (which I have not discussed above) turn fairly melodramatic in the last half-hour and the climax, during a big football game, is rushed and unrealistic, but nevertheless satisfying. Cromwell, fresh-faced and attractive, does not have an athletic build, but the emphasis on his running talent lets us accept him as a football star. He also remains likable despite the plot developments that threaten to tarnish his character. Leon Ames, in one of his earlier roles, is quite good, and it was odd to see Douglass Dumbrille, known mostly for his terse villains, get to play something as average as a football coach.  Ads for the movie trumpeted the use of actual USC football players, and John Wayne and Buster Crabbe are among the athletes on the field. Despite its still-current topic, the film does feel a little outdated but it's still watchable. Pictured are Ames and Cromwell. [TCM]

LAST OF THE PAGANS (1935)

This exotic romantic melodrama is set, we are told, "below the Equator, amongst those distant isles where the white man's civilization is but a rumor." (This was filmed in Tahiti in French Polynesia, if that helps.) One of the mating rituals of the islands is that, when one island runs out of eligible single women for their young men, the men go racing off to a nearby island and take however many women they want. Taro is one of a gang of desperate and horny men who travel to an island and chase the women down—to a background score of inappropriately humorous music. A bunch of local lads with spears show up to run them off, but Taro chooses Lilleo in a slightly more civilized manner, and asks permission before taking her. Back on his island, Taro's kindly mother tries to make Lilleo feel at home, and when Taro saves her from a wild boar, his captive bride begins to soften toward him. A ship full of white men comes to the island as they do periodically to shanghai native men to work in enforced slavery in some nearby phosphorus mines. A group of men, including Taro, is lured on board with drinks and trinkets, and Taro, not knowing what he is doing, signs up for five years of work. The next morning, on the mining island, Taro is furious at being taken from Lilleo, but soon he decides to play the game and becomes an ideal worker despite some dangerous conditions—Taro is warned by another worker that the mines' "devil dust tears the throat." When Taro saves the lives of several men during a mine collapse, the bosses decide to fetch Lilleo for him from his island. But when they get there, they discover that she has been claimed by the island's chief. Still, she manages to stow away on the ship, and she and Taro are reunited for a night of sex (not shown but strongly implied). The next day, she is taken back, but Taro is determined to find her again. They reunite on a ship at sea but when a typhoon hits, their happiness is threatened.

Back in the early 30s, it was not unusual for a big studio to produce a movie like this that is part fictional melodramatic narrative (this one supposedly based on Herman Melville's Typee) and part travelogue, though by 1935 this cycle had pretty much worn itself out. The two leads, Mala (as Taro, pictured above) and Lotus Long (as Lilleo), were professional actors—he was an Inuit and she, New Jersey born, was Japanese and Hawaiian. But the rest of the islanders were Polynesian non-actors. They speak their dialogue in their native tongue with large English subtitles onscreen. A good chunk of the 70 minute running time is spent in travelogue mode, with shots of the islands, the natives, the animals, etc., and I got a little bored by that. But the climactic storm makes for a rousing finale, and [Spoiler!] I liked the happy ending, with Taro and Lilleo surviving the typhoon and discovering a new island where they will presumably be Adam and Eve figures. Mala, sometimes credited as Ray Mala, made over 20 movies, including a Flash Gordon serial, and Lotus Long had a similar career, appearing as Asian supporting characters in Mr. Wong and Mr. Moto movies. An interesting novelty. [TCM]

A CHRISTMAS MOVIE CHRISTMAS (2019)

Lacy Bell visits her sister Eve at work and finds her watching "Christmas in Christmas Cove," her favorite Christmas movie, which features her favorite TV-movie star Chad Matthew Monroe. Lacy chastises her for her escapes into fantasy and for letting her mean boss, Mr. Peterson, ignore her attempts to get promoted. Eve chastises Lacy right back for floating through life, not committing to jobs or boyfriends. It's Christmas Eve and the two sisters, who live together, are feeling sorry for themselves. When they pass a streetcorner Santa, Eve asks for a perfect Christmas-movie Christmas, and the next morning, the two wake up in a strange bed (with their make-up on and their hair done) in a strange house with a strange woman who claims to be their grandma (or Gran Gran as she likes to be called). Surprise! They are living in a Christmas movie, in a cozy town called Holiday Falls with snow, quaint shops and cute kids (and mean Mr. Peterson as a Scrooge figure). It's a week before Christmas and there are problems that need to be solved, like putting on the Christmas festival and raising money for the animal shelter. Also in town is Chad Michael Monroe who is "playing" a pop star named Russell. Eve is ecstatic, especially when she winds up being courted not only by Russell but by Dustin, the local innkeeper with a big-city backstory. Lacy is less happy—she doesn't tell Eve what her Santa wish was, but we find out it involved wanting to be a better person—and gets even crankier when she becomes the object of the attentions of Paul, the town baker. He is handsome, whimsical, and donates his time to good causes—like the animal shelter—but Eve thinks he's a bit of a stalker, as he makes a stream of homemade cards for her and even stands outside her bedroom window watching her sleep as he places the cards around the yard. Complications ensue: Dustin's ex-girlfriend from the city visits and causes problems for Dustin and Eve; Russell agrees to sing at the Christmas festival, but when he finds out that Dustin is vying for Eve, he petulantly decides to leave town on Christmas morning. Will Eve and Lacy work out a happy ending in Holiday Falls? And, more importantly, in real life?

I loved this cute holiday movie satire, which manages to be quite funny and also avoids being too snarky. Though it originally aired on UpTV, it's harmless enough that it could easily play on the Hallmark Channel without offending anyone. The cliches are mocked (the incessantly cheerful grandma, the small town personalities, the pile-up of problems that need to be fixed by Christmas, the big-city gals who need to have their lives fixed by the down-to-earth small-town guys) but generally respected. I won't spoil all the jokes, but my favorite is when the gang has only a few hours to fix the Christmas festival. Lacy asks how on earth they can manage to do so much, and Eve shouts, "Montage!" followed by a montage of all the fixing they can pull off. The movie obviously had a smaller budget than the Hallmark movies and it shows occasionally, though one plus is that it was filmed in Frankenmuth, Michigan at a year-round Christmas village and the decor seems more authentic and less fussy than the Canadian locations used by Hallmark.

Despite some problems with the budget and the storyline (the ending, though satisfying, doesn't quite work), the actors, mostly from TV and other Christmas movies, put this over. They seem to be having fun without veering off into silly exaggeration. Lana McKissack is absolutely right as the sweet Eve and Kimberly Daugherty is just as good as the more cynical Lacy—and they even look like they could be sisters. Ryan Merriman suffices as the blandly handsome Dustin (though he winds up playing an oddly passive role in the story's outcome), and Addy Stafford is note-perfect as the ex-girlfriend/bitch who shows up to put a temporary damper on things. Best of all is Brant Daugherty as Paul; he manages to walk a tightrope edge, balancing charm, whimsy, and non-threatening small-town masculinity. The sparkle in his eye helps to keep the slightly stalkery aspect of his love for Lacy in check. And he is as good-looking and sexy as any traditional Christmas hero (he had experience in MINGLE ALL THE WAY). Brant and Kimberly, married in real life (pictured at top left), wrote the screenplay. This is the last of my Christmas in July posts, but I doubt I will find another Christmas movie this year that is more fun than this. [Amazon Prime]

THE STORY OF ROBIN HOOD AND HIS MERRIE MEN (1953)

This Walt Disney take on the famous folk hero and his band of buddies begins in 1190 with King Richard taking off for the Crusades, leaving his brother Prince John (Hubert Gregg) in charge of the country. But first we meet Robin (Richard Todd, at left) and Marion (Joan Rice), acting like schoolkids with crushes on each other—while Robin practices his archery, Marion fiddles with the target so he keeps missing. Marion's father joins King Richard and leaves his daughter in the care of the Queen Mother. As the king and his forces depart, John promises to serve the country well and the Archbishop of Canterbury gives his blessings. But soon, John has appointed the sinister Delancey (Peter Finch) the Sheriff of Nottingham; the two are in cahoots in order to place new onerous taxes on the people to benefit themselves. When the two hold an archery contest in order to build an small army of tax collectors, Robin and his father Hugh win but refuse publicly to join the Sheriff's group. On their way back home, Hugh is shot dead and Robin takes off into the forest, vowing to fight against John and the Sheriff. Over the years, Robin collects a band of like-minded men who live in the forest and do what they can to steal from the Sheriff's men and give back to the peasants. We meet the usual names from folklore such as the burly Little John, the troubadour Allan-A-Dale, Friar Tuck and Will Scarlet. Marian eventually joins the band of outlaws, and when King Richard is captured on the way from the Crusades and held for ransom, she gets the Merrie Men to publicly donate much of their ill-gotten money toward the ransom, hoping to force John and the Sherrif into giving some of their personal fortunes for the ransom. The trick works, but John abducts Marian and plots to disgrace Robin and his men once and for all.

No movie version of the Robin Hood story is likely to match up to the wonderful Errol Flynn film from 1938. In the Flynn film, Marian is a member of the royal court who doesn't have a past history with Robin, unlike Marian in this version, though otherwise the story and incidents in the two movies are largely the same. Being a Disney family film, this has been sanitized and simplified a bit, and despite the death of Robin's father, Robin and his men rarely seem truly in danger. The Sheriff's villainy is mostly unmotivated—he's bad because the story demands it—and because of this, Finch's performance never takes off, and this becomes a rare bland outing for the actor. The rest of the cast ranges from very good (Todd as Robin, James Robertson Justice as Little John, and Gregg nicely underplaying the evil Prince John) to adequate (Rice as Marian, Martita Hunt as the Queen Mother Eleanor). It moves along at a good pace with, as befits the story, a fair bit of humor cropping up here and there. The Merrie Men send messages through the forest by arrow, and the sound the arrows make as they shoot through the air is a bit like I imagine the German bombs sounded during the London Blitz. Expect a Disney film and you won't be disappointed. [TCM]