DR. TERROR'S HOUSE OF HORRORS

Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing

DR. TERROR'S HOUSE OF HORRORS (1965). Director: Freddie Francis.

In this horror anthology from Amicus, the fortune teller Dr. Shreck (Peter Cushing) entertains fellow travelers on a train by using his cards to tell their futures, none of which look especially bright. All of the tales that follow employ very familiar concepts. Architect Jim Dawson (Neil McCallum) goes to work at the old house and discovers a werewolf with other, bloody plans for him. Inspector Hopkins (Bernard Lee) investigates when a very strange and intelligent plant begins killing people. A musician (Roy Castle) incurs the wrath of a voodoo god when he uses a West Indian chant from a religious ritual for one of his songs. Art critic Franklyn Marsh (Christopher Lee) is so humiliated by painter Eric Landor (Michael Gough) when the former praises a painting actually done by a chimp, that he runs Landor over -- and the latter's disembodied hand begins following him everywhere. Dr. Carroll (Donald Sutherland) discovers the surprising identity of a vampire who is on the loose. The only really memorable segment in this is the one with the severed hand, and that's primarily because of the performances of Lee and Gough, who make marvelous antagonists. Peter Cushing and others in the cast are all quite good, including Jennifer Jayne [They Came from Beyond Space], who loses herself in the characterization of Carroll's French wife, Nicole; Sutherland [The Split] is also excellent. That same year there appeared a much better "killer plant" story on TV's The Avengers, "The Man-Eater of Surrey Green."

Verdict: Not much originality in this, but it's entertaining and well-acted. **1/2.

THE HOUSE THAT DRIPPED BLOOD

Jon Pertwee tries out his cloak

THE HOUSE THAT DRIPPED BLOOD (1971). Director: Peter Duffell. Screenplay by Robert Bloch.

"Dracula -- the one with Bela Lugosi, of course, not this new fellow." -- Paul Henderson

A well-known actor in horror films has disappeared from an old house he had rented, and this leads into the telling of four tales centered around this creepy domicile. In "Method for Murderer" a fiction writer's creation, a maniac (Tom Adams of The 2nd Best Secret Agent in the Whole Wide World), seems to come to life to cause havoc for which the writer (Denholm Elliott) is blamed. In "Waxworks," two men (Peter Cushing; Joss Ackland of Crescendo)  become obsessed with the wax figure of Salome, who reminds each of them of a lost love, whom -- you might say -- they lose their heads over. In "Sweets to the Sweet" the stern John Reid (Christopher Lee of The Horror of Dracula) hires a nanny (Nyree Dawn Porter) for his strange little girl, Jane (Chloe Franks), with terrible results. The fourth tale, "The Cloak," is an amusing black comedy in which actor Paul Henderson (Jon Pertwee) finds a cloak in a shop which turns him into a vampire each time he puts it on; Ingrid Pitt is Anderson's female lead in this and is fine. But the best performances come from Cushing, Lee, Pertwee, and little Franks. The House that Dripped Blood is very entertaining, and is one of the best of the horror anthologies, not lame as some of Bloch's other screenplays.

Verdict: Chills and laughs all served up with relish. ***.

FROM BEYOND THE GRAVE

FROM BEYOND THE GRAVE (1974). Director: Kevin Connor.

This anthology, based on the work of R. Chetwynd-Hayes, features stories that are loosely tied in with an antique shop run by an elderly proprietor (Peter Cushing). The first story deals with a mirror  with a demonic inhabitant who urges the owner, Edward Charlton (David Warner) to butcher women. In the second story Christopher Lowe (Ian Bannen), a man saddled with a harridan of a wife (Diana Dors,) encounters an old fellow veteran (Donald Pleasance of You Only Live Twice), and his rather odd daughter (Angela Pleasance) who falls for him -- or so he thinks. The third story is about a man (Ian Carmichael) and his wife (Nyree Dawn Porter) who hire a medium, Madame Orloff (Margaret Leighton of The Astonished Heart), to get rid of an "elemental" that is causing havoc. The fourth and final episode, which is easily the best and most suspenseful, has a man (Ian Ogilvy of And Now the Screaming Starts) affixing an antique door to a cupboard and discovering that it now opens into a cobwebbby and sinister old room that is kept alive by human sacrifices, one of whom almost becomes his wife (Lesley-Anne Down).

Verdict: Well-produced Amicus film with some good actors and generally mediocre scripts. **1/2 out of four.

NIGHTMARES

NIGHTMARES (1983). Director: Joseph Sargent.

This horror anthology is unusual because it has no framing sequence. "Terror in Topanga" is the old chestnut about an escaped maniac terrorizing a town. Phil (Joe Lambie of Falcon Crest) tells his wife Lisa (Cristina Raines) not to go out for cigarettes, but she doesn't listen. The ending to this segment is so utterly flat that it's a wonder anyone bothered reading past it in the screenplay. "The Bishop of Battle" is equally forgettable, a silly business about a young man, J. J. (Emilio Estevez of Mission: Impossible), who has a desperate need to reach the highest level of a video game and wishes that he hadn't. 'The Benediction" is a lower-case version of Duel and The Car, with a priest (Lance Henriksen of Damian: Omen 2) who is having a crisis of faith, being pursued on the highway by a demonic van. This is religious twaddle, but the highway scenes are not badly done. The fourth and best episode is "The Night of the Rat," in which a couple (Veronica Cartwright and Richard Masur) discover that their home has been invaded by a giant and rather intelligent "Devil Rat." Some would dismiss this segment as monster schlock, but it is undeniably creepy and suspenseful with some very effective scenes.

Verdict: "Night of the Rat" pretty much saves this otherwise lame horror pic. *** out of 4.

FROM A WHISPER TO A SCREAM

Vincent Price

FROM A WHISPER TO A SCREAM (aka The Offspring/1987). Director: Jeff Burr.

After Beth Chandler (Susan Tyrrell) witnesses the execution of murderess Katherine White (Martine Beswick of Dr. Jekyll and Sister Hyde), she visits White's father, Julian (Vincent Price), who tells her that his daughter was affected by the evil influence of the town of Oldfield. To illustrate his point, he relates several stories from varying time periods. Stanley Burnside (Clu Gulager) has a weird relationship with the sister (Miriam Byrd-Nethery) he lives with, but is developing a passion for a co-worker that leads to disaster. Jesse Hardwick (Terry Kiser), on the run from gangsters, runs into a very old man named Felder Evans (Harry Caesar), who has a life-sustaining potion that Jesse tries to kill for him, but Evans gets terrible revenge upon him. Steven Arden (Ron Brooks) is afraid to love Amarrillis (Didi Lanier) because he's scared of the "Snakewoman" (Rosalind Cash) who runs the carnival where he is employed as a glass eater. This voodoo priestess has terrible powers that keep everyone in thrall to her. Finally, during the very final days of the Civil War, Sgt. Gallen (Cameron Mitchell) and his fellow soldiers come afoul of a group of children who answer to a creepy "magistrate" who does not have the soldiers' best interests at heart. From this situation emerges the new and creepy Oldfield. From a Whisper to a Scream has EC Comics-style plots and features some good performances, especially from Price, Cameron [Pier 5 Havana], and Gulager in a well-done character turn.

Verdict: Absorbing if imperfect horror anthology with a more subdued Price in good form. **1/2.

BECKET

Richard Burton and Peter O'Toole

BECKET (1964). Director: Peter Glenville.

In the 12th century the Saxon Thomas Becket (Richard Burton) becomes friend, companion -- and some feel, collaborator -- with King Henry II (Peter O'Toole) -- and the two go "drinking and wenching" together. First Henry makes Beckett the Royal Chancellor, and then hits upon the idea of making him Archbishop of Canterbury. This is done because of the friction between the king and the Catholic Church, but Henry gets a surprise when Becket takes his role seriously and becomes seriously pious. When an arrested priest escapes jail and is killed by a Nobleman, Becket wants the man excommunicated, which Henry sees as a blow against England. If Becket goes ahead with his plans, there will be terrible consequences ... Becket is a handsome, well-produced, and well-acted film with a fine score by Laurence Rosenthal, striking production design by John Bryan, and excellent wide-screen photography by Geoffrey Unsworth, but Becket must not be taken as literal history. Edward Anhalt's script was based on a poorly-researched play by Jean Anouilh which ignores the fact that Becket was not a Saxon, but a Norman as Henry was. While this may add more motive and conflict to the story, it simply isn't true. Then there's the blatant homoerotic element. The relationship between the two men first seems like a warm if cautious friendship, but turns strange (by 1964 standards) when Henry's wife and mother both object to the presence of Becket in the king's life. Henry's mother accuses her son of having an "unhealthy" and "unnatural" obsession with him; O'Toole plays certain scenes like a discarded lover; Henry clearly loves Becket much more than his wife and children; and at one point cries out in anguish in front of his men at how much he still loves Thomas Becket. If King Henry II had romantic or sexual longings for Becket, or if the two had a relationship early in life, there has never been any historical proof of it . In a sense the portrayal of Henry is the cliche of the tormented homosexual or bisexual man who acts as much out of "twisted" passion and rejection as anything else, like Rod Steiger's character in The Sergeant.

Richard Burton is excellent as Becket, while O'Toole is superb as the king. There is also fine work from John  Gielgud as the King of France; Donald Wolfit [Room at the Top] as Bishop Folliot, who'd hoped to be made Archbishop himself; David Weston as Brother John, a would-be assassin (of Becket) turned monk; and Sian Phillips as Gwendolyne, who loves Becket and comes to a sad fate. As the movie's representations of Henry's mother and wife, respectively, Martita Hunt [The Brides of Dracula] and Pamela Brown seem merely to be striking poses and busily "acting" compared to the others. Besides the distortion of history, there are other problems with the movie, such as the "cutesy" element of some scenes, with the king acting like a girl-crazy adolescent and the Pope almost turned into a figure out of a sitcom. There is absolutely no sense of the passage of time.

Verdict: Entertaining, dramatic "history" served up on a now dated psycho-sexual platter. ***.

THE WICKED LADY

Lock Up Your Valuables: Margaret Lockwood

THE WICKED LADY (1945). Director: Leslie Arliss.

"How can I fail to love a man as rich as he is?" --  Barbara Worth.

Sir Ralph Skelton (Griffith Jones) is engaged to lovely Caroline (Patricia Roc), when her cousin, Barbara (Margaret Lockwood), shows up and manages to steal Ralph away from her. After the marriage the somewhat masochistic Caroline stays on to help run the estate. Barbara becomes a little careless and in a card game loses an heirloom, a beautiful necklace that belonged to her mother, to the unctuous Henrietta (Enid Stamp-Taylor). Hearing of a notorious highwayman who robs coaches, Barbara decides to emulate him to get the heirloom back and for excitement continues her career as  a masked desperado. The Wicked Lady seems to take a weird turn at this point, but that's when things get really interesting, with Barbara falling in love with the highwayman, Captain Jerry Jackson (James Mason) even as her husband, Ralph, pursues the both of them without knowing her true identity. The performances from the entire cast, including Felix Aylmer [Never Take Candy from a Stranger] as the pious servant, Hogarth, are excellent; the movie has a fast pace; and the situations that develop are suspenseful and fascinating, Lockwood [Hungry Hill] and Mason [Child's Play] make a great team -- the two appeared together in the terrible A Place of One's Own -- and Michael Rennie delivers in a small but significant role as another man who falls in love with Barbara.

Verdict: Dark and twisted romantic melodrama with excellent performances. ***1/2,

CONSTANTINE AND THE CROSS

CONSTANTINE AND THE CROSS (aka Costantino il grande/1961). Director: Lionello De Felice.

Cornel Wilde [The Naked Prey] is cast as Emperor Constantine, who as a general beat back the barbarian hordes, in this fictionalized story of his trials and tribulations and his relationship to his Christian mother Elena (Elisa Cegani); wife Fausta (Belinda Lee of Footsteps in the Fog); and her evil brother, Maxentius (Massimo Serato), who accuses Constantine of murdering his own father, among other melodramatic elements. Then there is the secondary romantic couple, also Christians, Livia (Christine Kaufmann) and the centurion, Hadrian (Fausto Tozzi). The multi-national cast in this Italian epic isn't bad, and there is some excellent widescreen photography (Massimo Dallamano) of sweeping battles and the like. Wilde has his usual commanding presence.

Verdict: Not bad historical epic with an interesting cast. ***.

THE OTHER SIDE OF THE RAINBOW: WITH JUDY GARLAND ON THE DAWN PATROL

THE OTHER SIDE OF THE RAINBOW: With JUDY GARLAND on the Dawn Patrol. Mel Torme. Galahad; 1970.

Mel Torme, who had a successful career as a singer in his own right, was importuned to sign up as the musical director of the new Judy Garland Show for television during a slow period. Torme's marriage was also breaking up at the same time, and dealing with the difficult, mercurial, and neurotic Garland while also dealing with his unhappy wife almost gave him nervous prostration. Then there was the usual behind-the-scenes backstabbing and power plays that are generally a part of TV shows where more than one ego is wrestling for control. Due to her consumption of pills and liquor, Garland went through mood swings and personality changes and the crew and co-stars never knew if the lady would even show up for the rehearsals and taping and how good -- or how bad -- she would be if she did. Torme talks about the best and worst moments of the show, and many of these bits can be seen on youtube. While The Other Side of the Rainbow is a good and fast read, the details of how this show was put together by an insider may be more interesting than the already familiar and unpleasant stuff about dipsomaniac Garland. Torme gives the woman her due as a great singer and entertainer, but underneath the praise you can tell there was some honest hatred of Garland over her two-faced and unfair dealings with Torme. For one thing, she sort of tried to push him out after she developed a hankering for young singer, Bobby Cole.

Verdict: Anything you ever wanted to know about The Judy Garland Show and a good look at the inner workings of a dying TV series as well. ***.

THE PRETENDER

Charles Drake, Albert Dekker, Catherine Craig

THE PRETENDER (1947). Director: W. Lee Wilder.

Kenneth Holden (Albert Dekker) has been steadily "borrowing" funds from a trust set up for his client, Claire Worthington (Catherine Craig). It seems the only way Kenneth can save himself from disaster and criminal prosecution is by marrying Claire. Unfortunately, Kenneth has a rival in Dr. Leonard Koster (Charles Drake), so he decides to hire an unknown hit man to kill him. But when the rather selfish Claire agrees to marry Ken, it occurs to him that now he will be the target of the hired killer. What to do? ... Dekker  [Destination Murder] and Craig [Doomed to Die]  give good lead performances in this, and there are a host of flavorful character actors, such as Charles Middleton as the butler, William. Serial heroine Linda Stirling [The Tiger Woman] appears as Flo. The photography by John Alton is a plus.

Verdict: Fair to middling crime drama. **1/2.

BLACK ORCHID

Olga Edwardes, Ronald Howard

BLACK ORCHID (1953). Director: Charles Saunders.

Dr. John Winnington (Ronald Howard) has a terrible marriage to the attractive Sophie (Mary Laura Wood). Sophie's sister, Christine (Olga Edwardes), has always had a thing for her brother-in-law, and it turns out that those feelings are returned. Unfortunately John learns that even if he and Sophie are divorced, there is some obscure law that states that a man can't marry his (former) sister-in-law while the wife is alive. Naturally Sophie comes to a bad end ... Black Orchid is like the British equivalent of an especially cheap Republic second feature. A writer friend named Eric Blair is played by John Bentley, while Sheila Burrell [Paranoiac] enacts the role of the maid, Annette. Black Orchid has a running time of less than an hour, but the average episode of Perry Mason is much more entertaining. The whole thing is like a TV production in any case. The actors in this are especially obscure. Charles Saunders also directed Womaneater.

Verdict: Forgettable. **.

ALL GOOD THINGS

ALL GOOD THINGS (2010). Director: Andrew Jarecki.

David Marks (Ryan Gosling) is considered the fucked-up son of real estate man, Sanford Marks (Frank Langella). One good thing in his life seems to be his wife, Katie (Kirsten Dunst), who discovers that he's becoming increasingly moody, distant, and violent. One day Katie simply disappears and is never seen again. Then bad things happen to two of David's friends, Deborah (Lily Rabe), who may have been blackmailing him, and Malvern Bump (Philip Baker Hall). All Good Things is, of course, a thinly-disguised look at the life, times and literal trials of Robert Durst, widely believed to have been responsible for the deaths and or disappearances of at least three people. Ryan Gosling [Fracture] and Kirsten Durst [Spider-Man 2] give very good performances, as do Rabe and Hall, and Frank Langella [Diary of a Mad Housewife] nearly walks off with the movie in one of his best roles. But while All Good Things holds the attention, it is also a bit obvious and stilted, and probably not as fascinating nor entertaining as true-crime shows that have focused on Durst, such as Dateline. Jumping back and forth in time only makes the picture confusing at times.

Verdict: Acceptable crime drama but nothing special. **1/2.

FLASH ... AND FLESH!

Charles Middleton and Buster Crabbe

FLASH .. AND FLESH.

This is another, somewhat unusual, "theme" week for Great Old Movies, focusing on movies revolving around the words "flash" and "flesh." Naturally we've got the third and last Flash Gordon serial, Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe, and the 1980 motion picture Flash Gordon, not to mention a whole book on the Flash Gordon serials. Then we've got the TV series based on the comic book exploits of the super-hero The Flash. As for "flesh," we've got Barbara Stanwyck and Charles Boyer, among others, in Flesh and Fantasy, not to mention Veronica Lake in her final film, Flesh Feast. Combining both Flash and Flesh, we've got the 1974 parody film Flesh Gordon.

Now who could ask for more?

FLASH GORDON CONQUERS THE UNIVERSE

The wonderful Charles Middleton as Ming the Merciless

FLASH GORDON CONQUERS THE UNIVERSE (12 chapter Universal serial/1940). Directors: Ford Beebe; Ray Taylor.

The third and final Flash Gordon serial has a plague striking earth, leaving purple spots on victims' foreheads. This is caused by Ming (Charles Middleton) the Merciless' "death dust," which Flash (Buster Crabbe)  and his allies, Dale (Carol Hughes) and Zarkov (Frank Shannon), must stop or else. A cure for the death dust is Polarite, which can be found in the frozen kingdom of Frigia on Mongo. Flash has a few allies in the form of Queen Fria (Luli Deste of The Case of the Black Parrot) of Frigia; Prince Barin (Roland Drew of The Invisible Killer) of the medieval kingdom of Arboria; and Ming's daughter, Princess Aura (Shirley Deane). Aura has a handmaiden named Sonja (Anne Gwynne), who is secretly in league with the bad guys -- she and Dale have a "cat fight" in chapter ten. There are some decent cliffhangers, such as Flash falling into a bottomless pit in chapter one; an avalanche in chapter two; and the electrical ray in chapter four. We see more of Mongo's delightful giant lizards, one of whom snacks on a soldier (off-screen) in Ming's army. Crabbe and Shannon could have acted their parts in their sleep by now; Hughes [Meet the Boyfriend] is perhaps not as glamorous as Jean Rogers  but she's spunky enough. Byron Foulger, Roy Barcroft, Tom Steele, and Donald Curtis are also in the cast.

Verdict: Flash Gordon's last gasp, and not a moment too soon. **.

FLESH AND FANTASY

Who is that masked lady? 

FLESH AND FANTASY (1943). Director: Julien Duvivier.

This is a collection of three macabre stories with a framing device of one man relating the tales to another. The first story deals with a supposedly homely woman (Betty Field) who is given a mask (see photo) that makes her appear beautiful to everyone and that she must return by midnight. In the second story, Edward G. Robinson is given a prediction, which he initially scoffs at, that he will commit murder. The second story runs into the third, which has a high-wire acrobat (Charles Boyer) having premonitions of disaster when he meets a mysterious woman (Barbara Stanwyck) whom he has seen in a recurring dream in which he falls to his death; meanwhile the lady has secrets of her own. In a cast of talented actors, Thomas Mitchell [Theodora Goes Wild] and Dame May Whitty [The Sign of the Ram] almost walk off with the picture and it's quite interesting to see Boyer and Stanwyck together. Alexander Tasman contributed some quirky theme music. Duvivier also directed Lydia.

Verdict: Perhaps less here than meets the eye, but it's well-acted for the most part and entertaining. ***.

FLESH FEAST

Veronica Lake

FLESH FEAST (1970). Director: Brad F. Grinter. Co-produced by Veronica Lake.

Newspaper man Ed Casey (Phil Philbin) hires a woman named Kristine (Heather Hughes) to play nurse in order to infiltrate a compound run by a mysterious doctor named Elaine Frederick (Veronica Lake). Dr. Frederick plans to use flesh-eating maggots on certain patients in order to give them a highly unusual (and totally improbable) face lift. The first patient is Max Bauer (Chris Martell), who looks like a million bucks after "surgery" but who has unfortunate anti-social tendencies, to say the least. Dr. Frederick has certain unexpected plans for the next patient in the lurid if satisfying finale. Jose (Bill Rogers) is a kind of hit man who falls for a pretty young nurse also working in the compound. Dr. Frederick reports to the leader of a group of revolutionaries who turn out to be Nazis. An interesting early scene has an associate of Casey's being killed by a broom with a knife on the end of it as he sits in a phone booth. Flash Feast is probably not Lake's worst movie; it holds the attention and some of the acting, including Lake's, is perfectly okay. Although not unattractive, Lake [Bring on the Girls] looks older than her 47 years due to heavy drinking and was dead three years later. This was her last movie. Brad F. Grinter also co-directed Blood  Freak, which was much, much worse than this.

Verdict: And you thought botox was bad! **1/2 out of 4.

FLESH GORDON

Flesh Gordon offers to repay Prince Precious

FLESH GORDON (1974). Directors: Michael Benveniste; Howard Ziehm.

In this erotic parody of the Flash Gordon serials, Flesh Gordon (Jason Williams) and Dale Ardor (Suzanne Fields) travel with Dr. Jerkoff (Joseph Hudgins) in his Phallic spaceship to the planet Porno, where the evil Emperor Wang (William Dennis Hunt) is aiming a destructive "sex ray" at the earth. Most of this is a sophomoric semi-romp featuring painfully obvious double entendres (some of which are amusing) with some stop- motion animation by David Allen [The Day Time Ended] and Jim Danforth to enliven the proceedings. The "penisauruses," with big eyeballs at the end of their stalks, aren't badly done; there's a metal insectoid creature that reminds one of the moonmen in First Men in the Moon; and a giant, talking, hooven satyr who carries off Dale at one point -- there are some smooth shots of this creature as well as crude ones. The movie is both progressive and regressive for its day, with the members of the Amazon Underground trying to have their way with Dale and called "Dykes!" by Jerkoff. Meanwhile Prince Precious (Prince Barin in the original), played by Mycle [sic] Brandy, leads a band of gay merry men. Unlike the amazon queen the prince is not played as a stereotype except for one scene when he screams like a woman. After the prince helps save Flesh and the others, Flesh asks him if he can repay him -- Precious gives Flesh a blow job! While there are plenty of naked breasts "fleshing" about, this is pretty soft-core, with sexual activity being more suggested than anything else. Joseph Hudgins, who is actually quite good, does a dead-on imitation of Frank Shannon in the original serials. (As Dr. Jerkoff puts it as regards his rocket ship: "I was able to get most of the parts from the Sears catalog.") Fields and Brandy are fine in their respective roles, getting into the spirit of the silliness, while it's tempting to say that Williams makes Sam J. Jones (as well as Buster Crabbe) in Flash Gordon look like Laurence Olivier, but he's adequate. Hunt chews the scenery as Wang, which is appropriate, but doesn't erase the memories of the much more restrained Charles Middleton. Ultimately, this would have worked better as a short sketch instead of a 90 minute movie! Craig T. Nelson [Poltergeist] did the voice of the giant Satyr. Followed by Flash Gordon Meets the Cosmic Cheerleaders which replaced Jason Williams with Vince Murdocco, and which, if I recall correctly, had some gross if imaginative touches to it.

Verdict: A somewhat clever, more often dopey, college kid's movie, with occasionally decent visual effects. **.

FLASH GORDON (1980)

Flash and winged Vultan lead the attack on Ming's palace

FLASH GORDON (1980). Director: Mike Hodges.

Flash Gordon (Sam J. Jones) and Dale Arden (Melody Anderson) are shanghaied to Mongo by nutty professor Arkov (Topol of For Your Eyes Only) when Ming (Max von Sydow) begins terrorizing the earth for sport. There Flash meets Ming's daughter, the sexy Princess Aura (Ornella Muti), who has a hankering for the hunky quarterback; Prince Barin of Arboria (Timothy Dalton), who is betrothed to the unfaithful Aura; and Vultan (Brian Blessed), leader of a race of winged warriors. These disparate groups eventually become allies but will even they be able to beat the forces of Ming? While there are many things to like about this version of Flash Gordon, ultimately it's a disappointment. There's no reason to harp about its silliness, as the original serials were pretty silly (but not campy). Jones is acceptable as the heroic Flash, and Anderson isn't bad as Dale, but the acting honors go to von Sydow (although he can't erase the memory of the wonderful Charles Middleton); Dalton as the prince; Peter Wyngarde as Klytus, the masked head of the secret police (Wyngarde's face is never seen but he makes a definite impression); and Mariangela Melato as the nasty General Kala, who wields a mean whip. Muti deserves special mention for her excellent, seductive portrayal of Aura, who switches sides when her own father has her tortured by (unseen) bore worms. Flash Gordon's strength lies in its striking scenic design -- Ming's magnificent palace; the land of Arboria which consists of mile-high trees; Vultan's HQ in the sky -- and a couple of memorable scenes, chief of which is a battle between Flash and Barin atop a floating platform, miles in the air above Mongo, which begins to tilt precariously during the battle and even shoots out spikes from its surface. There's also a crab-like creature that lives below the surface of Arboria and reaches up to ensnare Flash, and an interesting sequence when Zarkov's memories are expunged and we see quick glimpses of his life as it goes backwards. A sobering scene, at odds with the rest of the movie, depicts a boy who tests his manhood in a bizarre ritual, and dies (with hardly anyone giving him a thought). A big problem with the movie is that it has no suspense or real sense of danger -- that the earth itself is about to be destroyed -- until the very final minutes. Rock group Queen's theme music is awful, but it's interesting that Wagner's wedding march from Lohengrin is played even on Mongo! The ending sets up a sequel which never materialized. One wouldn't have considered this an auspicious debut for Jones (he actually had small roles in two previous films), but the actor amassed 76 credits after this film, and starred as The Spirit on TV. Anderson mostly did TV work as well. Muti has had a long career of mostly Italian films. Peter Wyngarde was the star of Burn, Witch, Burn.

Verdict: Opulent, with some good scenes and performances, but one can see why there wasn't a sequel. **1/2.

THE FLASH GORDON SERIALS, 1936 - 1940: A Heavily Illustrated Guide

THE FLASH GORDON SERIALS, 1936 - 1940: A Heavily Illustrated Guide. Roy Kinnard, Tony Crnkovich, and R. J. Vitone. McFarland; 2008.

Packed with rare photographs, The Flash Gordon Serials takes a loving look back at the three cliffhanger serials devoted to Flash Gordon in the late 1930s: Flash Gordon, Flash Gordon's Trip to Mars, and Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe. The authors provide a synopsis of each and every chapter, as well as production and other notes for most of the installments, and include an appendix listing all of the actors in these serials with background info. There are also sections on Buck Rogers and the 1980 Flash Gordon, along with other interpretations of the character. I confess I have never been that big a fan of the Flash Gordon serials -- although they have their loopy charm -- and the authors dismiss the Republic serials out of hand, but this book will certainly interest the fans who love these chapter plays as much as the authors obviously do. Lavishly illustrated.

Verdict: For Flash Gordon fanatics, sci fi addicts, and serial enthusiasts. ***.

THE FLASH (2014)

Grant Gustin as The Flash

THE FLASH (2014 WB television series).

This hit TV series is based on a comic book character that first appeared in 1956 (Showcase 4), who in turn was based on a speedster of the same name (if different origin) that appeared in the 1940's (or "golden age" of comics). The silver age series ran for 350 issues over many years, after which that character's nephew, Wally West, took over. The Flash was police scientist Barry Allen, who was killed off about the time that the comic book series ended. Barry Allen came back from the dead, and got his own series again, although the character has been reinvented for modern times. The same is true for this television series, which mixes various comic mythologies to come up with its own take on the character. There was also a series about The Flash, in 1990, in which Barry Allen was played by John Wesley Shipp, who is cast as Barry's father in the new series.

The Flash is a little more realistic (if that's the word!) than the old comic series, which was often comically, but charmingly, absurd, yet it borrows many characters and concepts from the comic while fashioning some of its own. Although the boyish Grant Gustin  -- he looks about sixteen -- doesn't seem old enough to be a police scientist, he is a fine, sensitive actor and is perfect casting for this Barry Allen/Flash. The comic book Flash works on his own or with members of the Justice League, but in this show he has a whole group of supporting characters -- too many, perhaps, as if it's a super-hero committee -- assisting him, although most of these characters are as appealing as the actors who play them.

As in the comics, the main adversary is the Reverse-Flash or Professor Zoom. In the silver age these sinister speedsters were the same person, one Eobard Thawne from the future, but when Allen's nephew Wally West took over as Flash, there was also a new Zoom, Hunter Zolomon. Frankly, it's hard to tell these two characters apart. Making things even more confusing, the Zoom of the first season of the show was Thawne, but now he appears to be Zolomon, a Zoom from a different dimension, perhaps. Adding to the confusion is that the sympathetic character of Jay Garrick (Teddy Sears), who plays the Flash of "Earth-2" (essentially the golden age Flash, who had the same secret identity and also wears a helmet like Mercury) turns out to actually be Zoom! Hopefully this will all be explained in subsequent episodes.

The creators and writers of The Flash obviously know their comic book history and are respectful of the character's colorful past, rich back story, and often bizarre villains. In the episode in which Barry discovers the dimension of "Earth-2" where another Flash, Jay Garrick resides, the show uses a variation of a scene which appeared on the cover of the classic issue 123 of the silver age Flash: a person calls out for help from the Flash as he's about to be killed and both Jay and Barry, in costume, rush toward the near-victim shouting "I'm coming!' The title of this episode is the same as the title of Flash 123: "Flash of Two Worlds." Cute, eh?

The Flash has an exceptional multi-cultural cast. On the show Barry was raised by his father's black friend, Joe West (Jesse L. Martin), and grew up with his daughter, Iris (a luminescent Candace Patton), with whom he has fallen in love. Unfortunately Iris got engaged to her father's handsome partner, Eddie Thawne (Rick Cosnett, the only cast member killed off in the first season). Playing Barry's scientific associates are Danielle Panabaker [Mr. Brooks], Tom Cavanagh, and Carlos Valdes as Cisco, who loves coming up with names for the various super-powered characters (and which are always taken from DC comics). Cisco has developed some powers of his own in this second season, which may be a little more of the likable Cisco than we need. Patrick Sabonqui plays the openly gay police captain David Singh, but he only shows up on occasion.

The Flash isn't perfect -- and this season it seems a little too clever for its own good -- but it has sharp acting, excellent special effects work, some intriguing situations and characters, and more than a few good stories. NOTE: The Flash will also be a separate theatrical film due in 2018, but this time the character will be played by Ezra Miller. You can read more about the Flash in The Silver Age of Comics.

Verdict: Snappy show that combines the new with the old in an appealing and often exciting mixture. ***.

THE PUBLIC ENEMY

James Cagney and Jean Harlow

THE PUBLIC ENEMY (1931). Director: William A. Wellman.

Tom Powers (James Cagney) and his pal, Matt (Edward Woods), grow up in a tough part of the city, and get in with a bad crowd. Tom becomes a gangster and killer during prohibition, earning the enmity of his brother, Mike (Donald Cook), who has little but contempt for him. Tom is such a creep that at one point he even shoots a horse! Tom and Matt work for Nails Nathan (Leslie Fenton) and Paddy Ryan (Robert Emmett O'Connor), and get involved with such "broads" as Gwen Allen (Jean Harlow), Mamie (Joan Blondell), Kitty (Mae Clarke), who gets a grapefruit in the face, and Nail's unnamed girlfriend (Dorothy Gee), who earns Tom's scorn by getting him drunk and going to bed with him. The Public Enemy is refreshingly frank and well-acted, with Cagney getting high marks, along with Fenton [The House of Secrets], O'Connor, and Beryl Mercer [Jane Eyre] as Ma Powers. Harlow was still considered a lousy actress this early in her career, but she's actually competent, if unexceptional, and her performance is satisfactory. Frankie Darro and "Junior" Coghlan (Frank Coghlan, Jr.) play Matt and Tom as boys and are both good. One of the best scenes is a dinner at the Powers house where ex-soldier Mike can no longer control his anger at his brother and bootleg beer goes flying, and the death of Putty Nose (Murray Kinnell of Charlie Chan in Paris) is also well-handled. That said, The Public Enemy has not really worn well with time -- especially when you take into account the many superior gangster films that came later --   but it still remains an interesting picture. The great final scene of the movie almost makes the whole movie! Handsome Edward Woods was supposed to play Tom Powers, the lead role, but it was given to Cagney instead,; he became a star and Wood's career eventually faded out after only 13 credits.

Verdict: Cagney holds the attention. *** out of 4.

DONOVAN'S BRAIN

DONOVAN'S BRAIN (1953). Director: Felix Feist.

Irresponsible scientist Patrick Cory (Lew Ayres) removes the brain from a dead plane crash victim, and decides to keep it alive for study. It never occurs to him the living hell into which he has put his victim -- sort of alive and conscious, but unable to see, move, hear etc. (none of which is dealt with in this dumb movie) -- which is why it seems like ironic justice when the brain takes over Cory's mind. The dead man was a very wealthy and ruthless character, and he tries to get back his life and fortune by possessing the hapless Cory. Meanwhile, the brain starts inexplicably growing in size inside its tank...  Ayres gives a good performance in this clap trap, along with Nancy Davis (later Nancy Reagan) as his wife, while Gene Evans [The Giant Behemoth] is a cut below as an alcoholic associate of Cory's. The performers should be credited with playing their roles in this absurd film with straight-faced conviction. Steve Brodie is also fine as a blackmailing reporter who comes afoul of "the Brain." The music  by Eddie Dunstedter does a lot of the work. One good thing about the movie is that Cory doesn't just walk away from things without being held accountable for his actions. Feist also directed The Man Who Cheated Himself.

Verdict: As far as disembodied brain movies go, this isn't nearly as much fun as The Brain from Planet Arous. ** out of 4.

KING OF THE CARNIVAL

KING OF THE CARNIVAL (12 chapter Republic serial/1955). Director: Franklin Adreon.

Bert King (Harry Lauter) is a former paratrooper who is now a high-wire trapeze artist with a circus run by Jess Carter (Robert Shayne), who is also the ringmaster. His former army buddy and fellow paratrooper Art Kerr (Rick Vallin), now an agent with the Department of the Treasury, has tracked down a gang of counterfeiters to the circus and environs. Art sort of deputizes both Bert and his partner, June (Fran Bennett), to help with the investigation and spy on suspicious characters within the circus. The HQ of the gang is in a water-tight compartment on what appears to be a sunken ship, with gang members entering through a water lock. Although he is not the big boss -- there is little attempt to disguise his identity -- a foreign agent named Zorn (Gregory Gaye) is the one who manufacturers the counterfeit bills, with which he hopes to flood Europe. There are some decent cliffhangers involving high-wire performers dangling over a circle of lions, and a bit with a rushing train, as well as a good mid-chapter sequence with a gasoline fire on a water tank. Much of the serial was cobbled together from stock footage, but it still manages to be entertaining -- Adreon's direction is snappy and fast-paced -- although it does become a little tedious towards the end. Lauter and Shayne are fine, although Fran Bennett, mostly a TV actress, has a somewhat flat delivery. Robert Clarke, Stuart Whitman, and Tom Steele have smaller roles. This was the last Republic serial ever made.

Verdict: Handsome Harry handles the hoodlums! **1/2.

MAN-TRAP

David Janssen and Jeffrey Hunter

MAN-TRAP (1961 ) Director: Edmond O'Brien.

"Lipstick on your chin is almost a sign of innocence. If he wasn't innocent all the lipstick would have been wiped off."

Matt (Jeffrey Hunter) saves Vince's (David Janssen) life on a Korean battlefield, so Vince tries to repay the favor by cutting him in on a deal. Matt works for his father-in-law and is married to an adulterous borderline shrew, Nina (Stella Stevens), but he is having his own affair with a sympathetic woman named Liz (Elaine Devry), who also works for his father-in-law's firm. Fed up with Nina, and wanting to run off with Liz, Matt agrees to Vince's suggestion to steal a suitcase of money which is supposedly to be used to buy guns for a South American revolution. However, this caper is not nearly as simple as Vince has led him to believe ... Man-Trap is a completely unpredictable thriller with interesting developments and twists and turns throughout its running time. Hunter and Janssen both offer excellent performances, and are at least matched by Steven's [The Mad Room] vital portrayal (making the woman much more dimensional in her way than a lesser actress might have done) and Devry, who gets across all of the conflicted feelings her character has about Matt. Virginia Gregg [Crime in the Streets] is also wonderful as Ruthie, Matt and Nina's housekeeper, and one of the best scenes in the movie is her ugly confrontation with Nina. Another memorable scene has Nina taking a poker to her husband's head and nearly being strangled because of it. The robbery sequence is well-handled and even a bit chilling. Bob Crane and Frank Albertson have smaller roles. Nina and her drunk friends are fond of running around with water pistols full of booze. Actor Edmond O'Brian only directed two films -- the less interesting Shield for Murder was co-directed by Howard W. Koch --  but he does such a good job with this one it's too bad he didn't direct others.

Verdict: Very snappy and absorbing crime thriller with fine performances. ***.

SUPERHUMAN: THE BRONZE AGE OF COMICS

SUPERHUMAN: THE BRONZE AGE OF COMICS. Timbre Books; 2016.

Shameless promotion time again.

Here at last is my follow up to The Silver Age of Comics. In this tome you will learn:

* How feminist hero Ms. Marvel told off her teammates on the Avengers when they seemed to think all she needed was a good lay to settle  her down.
* How Marvel's first African-American super-hero, the Black Panther, went from being King of Wakanda to a strange Jack Kirby fantasy creation.
* How the X-Men's Jean Grey turned into the Phoenix, who wiped out an entire galaxy with nary a thought.
* Why Batman and Robin split up -- only to get back together again. Did it have something to do with Catwoman, or Ra's al Ghul's daughter, Talia?
* How black superhero Luke Cage, aka Power Man, teamed up with blond and blue-eyed martial arts master Iron Fist.
* Why Brainiac-5 of the futuristic Legion of Super-Heroes went nuts.
* How Spider-Man's frail Aunt May went into a nursing home, died, then came back again!
* Why Brother Blood, arch-enemy of the New Teen Titans, wound up in a war with the disembodied Brain and his Brotherhood of Evil.
* How the Justice League of America took on hungry mutated animals who slayed humans in a bloody arena, and helped bring the golden age's Justice Society back into prominence.
* How Wonder Woman finally lost her virginity -- and to whom.
* Why the Flash was put on trial for murdering the woman who killed his wife!
* The differences between Marvel and DC Comics competing undersea kings, Aquaman and Namor, the Sub-Mariner.
* Why Thor's father, Odin, tried to murder his son -- more than once!
* Why Black Goliath and Black Lightning used the word "black" in their names even though it was obvious they were African-American.
* What did Shang-Chi, the Master of Kung Fu, have to do with venerable villain Fu Manchu?

For the answers read SUPERHUMAN: The Bronze Age of Comics, available on Amazon in a spanking new Kindle edition. [Also downloadable on computers and mobile devices.] Naturally many of these comic book characters appeared in movies and TV shows decades after they were created for the comics.

GUILTY AS SIN

Don Johnson and Rebecca De Mornay

GUILTY AS SIN (1993). Director: Sidney Lumet.

"He chose me to defend him before he murdered his wife."

Rising attorney Jennifer Haines (Rebecca De Mornay) takes on a client who is handsome if immoral, a gigolo named David Greenhill (Don Johnson) who has been accused of pushing his wealthy wife out of a window. Jennifer takes Greenhill's case against her better judgment, regrets it, tries to back out, but is told by a judge (Dana Ivey) that dropping pro bono cases is a no no. Meanwhile her friend and investigator Moe Plimpton (Jack Warner) discovers some disturbing things about her client, who seems to have been obsessed with Jennifer for quite some time. Then Jennifer's boyfriend, Phil (Stephen Lang), is brutally attacked, and worse things are in store for other of Jennifer's associates. Guilty as Sin is an entertaining, if far-fetched, thriller with good performances -- Johnson and De Mornay, make a good team, if that's what it can be called -- although Larry Cohen's screenplay has Jennifer doing things that she seems too smart to do. Norma Dell'Agnese makes her mark as Jennifer's secretary, Emily, as do Christina Grace and Barbara Eve Harris as two of David's "admirers." Stephen Lang [Save Me] is fine as Phil, and gets the bedroom scenes that, oddly, they never give Johnson, who was considered a sex symbol (along with De Mornay) at the time. Don Johnson [The Hot Spot] is quite good and exhibits star appeal, but never quite made it as a major movie star; he's now back on television in Oil. De Mornay's [The Trip to Bountiful] career is also more low-profile these days, with much television work as well. As for director Sidney Lumet [Child's Play], this is a minor work in his canon. A death-by-fire scene is one of the liveliest in the movie.

Verdict: Improbable at times, but well-acted and engaging. ***.

SECRET FILE HOLLYWOOD

Robert Clarke

SECRET FILE HOLLYWOOD (1962). Director: Ralph Cushman (Rudolph Cusumano).

After an incident in a bar during which someone is shot, private eye Max Carter (Robert Clarke) loses his license. He gets mixed up with a shady lady named Nan (Francine York), who says she'll pay cash if he helps her set up a married director, James Cameron (John Warburton), with a babe and takes pictures for a scandal sheet. Gay takes her orders from a mysterious person who leaves instructions on audio tapes like something out of an old-time movie serial (although then they used records). The "babe" in the set-up is actually an actress named Gay Shelton (Maralou Gray), who simply wants to audition for Cameron in his home and has no idea of how she's to be used. When this whole business blows up in everyone's faces, a TV personality named Rutherford (uncredited) excoriates the scandal sheets on his show. Max and Gay team up to uncover the perpetrator behind the whole sleazy scheme. Secret File Hollywood is a cheap movie -- you can see the boom mike hovering overhead in half of the shots -- with a supporting cast of amateurs, but it is entertaining, and Clarke [Outrage; The Hideous Sun Demon], handsome and more than competent in the role, is perfect as Carter; he would have made a great lead in a private eye TV show.  York, Warburton. Gray, and Sydney Mason as "Hap," an associate of Nan's to whom Max owes money, also give good performances.

Verdict: Some good acting puts this over and Clarke is always appealing. **1/2.

FIFTY SHADES OF GREY

Jamie Dornan and Dakota Johnson in the tub

FIFTY SHADES OF GREY (2015). Director: Sam Taylor-Johnson.

"I don't make love. I fuck. Hard." -- Christian. 

Anastasia Steele (Dakota Johnson) interviews handsome 27-year-old billionaire Christian Grey (Jamie Dornan) and eventually falls into a romance with him -- of sorts. Christian is a "dominant" who needs to be with a "submissive" and goes so far as to show Ana his s&m playroom. Ana turns out to be a virgin -- quite literally -- making her perhaps not the best person to be a happy candidate for the kink and fetish scene. Another problem is that Christian tells Ana that he's not really looking for a romance, doesn't like to be touched (without permission) and draws up a contract for her to sign detailing her rights and responsibilities as to being his submissive. Now most women not into the kink scene would run screaming into the night at this point, but dumb Ana (or not so dumb, remember Chris is a handsome billionaire) continues to see Chris, although she holds off on signing that contract. Clearly things will not go well for this couple ... Despite the erotic trappings, Fifty Shades of Gray is old-fashioned at its core, does nothing to explore the scene with any depth, and amounts to little more than a romantic fantasy crafted by the book's author, E. L. James, who is highly unlikely to be lusted after by a handsome billionaire. This is only the umpteenth movie to have a heroine falling for a guy who wants no entanglements (at least at first) and there's even a point when he tells her what amounts to "don't get hooked on me, baby!" That said, Fifty Shades of Grey is not as cheesy as it sounds, because the actors are quite good, the production gloss high, and the direction solid. I'll leave it to others to judge if this is a sad story of a man unable to commit due to his kinks, or a clueless woman who can't deal with the fact that the man she loves has kinks (what in a less enlightened era would be called "perversions") in the first place. Conventional at its heart, there is nothing that risky or edgy to the movie [it might have been fun to have Ana find Christian in bed with his hunky chauffeur.] While Dakota Johnson is attractive and appealing, by Hollywood standards she is comparatively plain, which may or may not be the point, but makes the sex scenes less sizzling than they are, perhaps, meant to be. No less than two sequels are being filmed even as I post.

Verdict: This might have worked better if it had been played as a wild and campy comedy. **1/2.