1960s Mario Bava Part Two

HERCULES IN THE HAUNTED WORLD
(1961)
Overall: GOOD

With his only entry in the Hercules franchise, (once which numerous countries over numerous years indulged in), Mario Bava does commendable work once again on an air-tight budget whilst juggling a joyously silly, over-stuffed plot.  Hercules In the Haunted World, (Ercole al centro della terra), has one time Mr. Universe Reg Park in the title role, which was his second time appearing as such with Hercules Conquers Atlantis also coming out the same year.  To help bolster the proceedings, Christopher Lee is appropriately on board as the villainous King Lico.  Unfortunately Lee's voice is dubbed in the English language version of the film, but he still commands respect in a role that could have been far more forgettable in the hands of a lesser thespian.  The plot here combines as many desperate, hammy elements as can be such as generously tweaked Greek mythology, melodramatic love arcs, a stone monster, and even vampires.  Bava not only keeps up the pace rather frantically while racing from one story element to the next, but his usual, striking use of color gets a full workout as he gets to decorate the lens with scenes transpiring in otherworldly planes such as Hades and an underground crypt.  In the latter, a slew of undead rise from their tombs to attack Hercules while flying at him with visible strings attached.  It is quite a fun experience where you can laugh at how most people in it just stare at dangerous things approaching them without running away and how Hercules' answer to practically every problem is "just throw giant rocks at it until it goes away".

BLOOD AND BLACK LACE
(1964)
Overall: GOOD

On the rather long list of significant Mario Bava films that would have a profound impact on horror cinema overall, his prominent giallo offering Blood and Black Lace, (6 donne per l'assassino, Blutige Seide), could be chief among them.  A masked killer stalking and killing pretty girls who lack the common sense to not be all alone nor turn any lights on wherever they happen to be getting murdered was not anything particularly new when Bava made the film, but the style with which he does so was unique.  Having the murders themselves be particularly brutal, the movie revolving around a fashion house which offers up above average sex appeal, and of course the inventive way in which he stages the kills with primitive colors, darkness, tracking shots, and silence would all become benchmarks of Italian slashers.  Though even outside of that country, you cannot name enough other movies that leisurely borrowed from the rules Bava sets up here.  While this would ultimately be for the worst as the 80s in particular begat the most boring and uninspired slasher sub-genre that still unfortunately lingers today, just like Psycho or Halloween, Blood and Black Lace can still be viewed as quite an exceptional precursor to *sigh* later garbage.

KILL, BABY, KILL
(1966)
Overall: GOOD

The most celebrated Gothic horror work of Mario Bava's career along with Black Sunday, Kill, Baby, Kill, (Operazione paura), proved as influential as any other Italian film in pretty much any genre.  The contemporary "creepy kid + toy ball = scary" motif can be directly traced back to here and thankfully Bava still cannot make his movies look anything but extraordinary, even if he tried.  Shooting both on location in Calcutta and at Titanus Appia Studios, the overly-cobwebbed, eerily lit sets are endlessly effective, wholly benefiting the movie's illogical, dreamlike narrative.  The production ran out of money while filming which not only forced the cast and Bava to work unpaid for much of it, but also warranted that they improvise the allegedly unfinished script and resort to using stock music.  These budgetary elements present the only fair problems one can sight as the plot is a bit too underdeveloped and the nearly relentless, unremarkable musical score gets in the way more often than not.  It is still highly impressive that Bava was able to make such a still lauded work with all of the obstacles faced.  It is no less flawed than many other good to excellent Italian horror outings, especially many that would come in its wake and freely borrow from its groundwork.

1960s Mario Bava Part One

BLACK SUNDAY

(1960)

Overall: GOOD

 

Though Mario Bava's stylized use of color is one of the most lauded talents he brought to horror cinema, the black and white Black Sunday, (The Mask of Satan, Revenge of the Vampire, La Maschera del Demonio), still probably sits in most people's mind as his definitive film.  It is certainly one of the most atmospheric Gothic horror movies ever made and would prove largely influential across the globe, reestablishing Universal's monster movie tropes for more generations to come.  Particularly in Italy, logic and realism are rarely a concern and memorable visuals, gore, and moody evilness instead take center stage.  This is certainly the case here, where silly moments could become distracting if not for the near suffocatingly dreadful and sinister ambiance that oozes from every frame.  Shadows, darkness, crypts, spiderwebs, howlings, plus a thousand other horror staples are all exploited marvelously here, with the added element of gore and sexual tension.  The only shortcomings present are with the melodrama and lousy musical score, both of which are common drawbacks of the era more than anything else.  Still, this established both Bava's reputation as a master in in the genre as well as British actor Barbara Steele's place as arguably Europe's premier scream queen.

 

THE GIRL WHO KNEW TOO MUCH
(1963)
Overall: GOOD

Serving as both Mario Bava's final film in black and white as well as one that is regularly regarded as the first official giallo, The Girl Who Knew Too Much, (La ragazza che sapeva troppo, The Evil Eye), is a historically important thriller from one of horror's most important filmmakers.  There are a couple of instances where Bava lets the flow drag a bit, failing to successfully ride that line of building tension where instead, some of the scenes become drawn-out and snore-inducing.  There are some tonal problems as well when the movie occasionally decides to be a comedy, though this almost happens enough to conclude that it was meant not to be taken all that seriously.  Bava himself was not that impressed with the senseless script or from working with American John Saxton who allegedly practiced his martial arts too much on set for the director's liking.  Issues aside, the film is photographed beautifully, with Bava doubling as cinematographer.  Shooting locations such as the Spanish Steps and the Trinità dei Monti in Rome are shown in expansive, shadow-drenched ways.  As a precursor to the giallo film which would begin to get made in growing abundance over the following years, Bava proves quite innovative not so much in the slasher aspects of the sub-genre but more in the film noir/crime mystery ones where a pretty girl sees "too much", gets threatened, and becomes hellbent on discovering her pursuer.

THE WHIP AND THE BODY
(1963)
Overall: MEH

Drastically flawed due to its arduous pacing, The Whip and the Body, (La frusta e il corpo, What!, Night Is the Phantom), is nearly recommendable as a high water mark for Mario Bava's fantastic, visual style at least.  The film was put together deliberately as an Italian answer to Roger Corman's The Pit and the Pendulum and Bava was brought in to direct and act as cinematographer, (uncredited), while Christopher Lee was scored in a practically tailor-made part as a sadomasochistic, black sheep of a noble family.  From a pure optical standpoint, this is a triumph as Bava works his true strengths framing nearly every shot beautifully in expressive color pallets and shadows while staging some purely memorable scenes involving hands emerging out of blackness, eerily-lit crypts and hallways, and intense closeups of women's terrified eyes.  Lee is naturally menacing and brutish, and even though his screen time is rather minimal, the most is made out of his foreboding demeanor.  Sadly though, the movie is sloooooooooooooow as all hell.  It becomes cumbersome how so many shots linger on and on while the story itself has virtually nothing to it.  The whole thing succumbs to a boring game of people seeing and hearing things, screaming, and then other people running in to tell them it was all in their imagination.

PLANET OF THE VAMPIRES
(1965)
Overall: MEH

Mario Bava did not dip his toes too frequently into sci-fi throughout his career, making Planet of the Vampires, (Terrore nello Spazio), a rather unique work.  Virtually all of its story elements are standard, familiar stuff with an alien force mysteriously overtaking a bunch of marooned astronauts.  Yet while the script is not the most ingeniously original of its kind, it has some merit for its creepy atmosphere and colorful look which is straight out of pulp science fiction comics.  The film was internationally financed by studios in American, Spain, and Italy and the ethnically diverse, (and post dubbed of course), cast are just as varied.  Being made cheaply as a double feature though, the lack of budget is charmingly noticeable and Bava works quite a few wonders drenching the small sets with enough vibrant, multi-colored fog to obscure the plastic rocks and clunky toy spaceship.  The big, giant alien skulls look pretty damn cool too.  The only problem really is a common one in that the movie drags and absolutely no investment is made to flesh out any of the characters.  This makes it problematic to care as everyone simply goes through the motions exploring their environment, trying to fix their ship to return to earth, and tediously discovering what is going on.

1960s Roger Corman

THE LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS
(1960)
Overall: GOOD

It says a lot about Roger Corman's maverick filmmaking abilities that he was able to produce both the seminal, first Gothic Edgar Allan Poe adaptation with Vincent Price in House of Usher and then The Little Shop of Horrors in the same year.  These two movies alone could not differ more drastically, but then again most movies PERIOD do not resemble this one.  As was often his infamous trade, Corman snatched up the chance to make the film with a leftover set, stock actors, and no money from A Bucket of Blood, finishing principal photography in a whopping two days while employing as many corner-cutting tricks as he was expertly able.  At the same time, he and screenwriter Charles B. Griffith concocted an absurd farce that openly makes fun of Jewish stereotypes, slubbish heroes, killer monster movies, and deadpan detective serials all at once.  The fact that it was pulled off so cheaply yet remains a cherished cult film, (and spawned a hit Broadway play, star-studded 80's remake, and even a cartoon series), is simply a testament to Corman's uncanny skills to think on his feet and occasionally get pretty damn lucky in the process.

THE PREMATURE BURIAL
(1962)
Overall: GOOD

The third in the "Poe Cycle", Roger Corman's The Premature Burial was the only one in the series not to feature Vincent Price, as he was under contract with American International Pictures exclusively at the time production began.  Corman worked independently from the studio this time even though AIP ended up distributing the movie anyway once it was finished.  Ray Milland does a fine if considerably less memorable job than Price presumably would have, and the story is so similar in tone and theme to Corman's previous two Poe vehicles House of Usher and The Pit and Pendulum anyway that perhaps seeing Price once again playing a manic eccentric cooped up by his own eccentricities in another gloomy castle would have been even more redundant.  As predictable and familiar as the presentation is, Corman still works his Gothic horror magic with beautiful sets, creepy dream sequences, and by utilizing mainstay Floyd Crosby, (David Crosby's dad), as cinematographer once again.  Corman would begin to incorporate comedy into his Poe adaptations with the next few entries and permanently bring Price back to the proceedings, but this one is still enjoyable if not as essential by comparison.

X: THE MAN WITH X-RAY EYES
(1963)
Overall: GOOD

Based off of one of his own ideas, Roger Corman got Ray Russell and Robert Dillon to put together a screenplay about the all-seeing eyes of Dr. James Xavier, (not to be confused with Marvel's Prof X who coincidentally would debut in comics the exact same month that this film was released), and the result X: The Man with X-Ray Eyes is solid for the most part.  The religious tag at the end is random and clashes with the rest of the movie, plus the blurry, headache inducing POV effects hardly work convincingly.  Otherwise though, the film has a solid performance from Ray Milland, plus Corman takes the material seriously enough to make it captivating.  There is an amusing scene where Milland is testing out his new powers at a party where everyone is dancing, seeing them all in their birthday suits.  We also have Don Rickles in a small though important part as a character he was virtually born to play, (a crowd-insulting carnie).  Yet aside from all of that, the camp level is toned down with the "man playing god" angle taking center stage.  It is predictably tragic by following the same beats where a protagonist who starts off with somewhat noble intentions gradually becomes power-obsessed.  As far as Corman's contemporary-set horror films from the period go though, this is easily one of the better ones.

1960s American Horror Part Four

DEMENTIA 13
(1963)
Dir - Francis Ford Coppola/Jack Hill
Overall: MEH

Obviously notable as the first film written and directed almost solo by Francis Ford Coppola, (Jack Hill was hired to shoot addition scenes since producer Roger Corman was displeased with the initial version), Dementia 13 suffers from some understandable problems.  As usual, Corman had just wrapped up a movie in Ireland under budget and offered Coppola the chance to make a cheap, Gothic horror outing while they were still there with the same crew.  Coppola then wrote the script in three days with the help of friend as well as art director Al Locatelli, the result coming off as quite the rushed, limited funded project it is.  To say that the story is confusing would be an understatement with most of the character's motivations underwritten and several plot avenues abandoned at various points.  It kind of just goes through a number of sections and by the end, it has the feeling of being three or four different movies disastrously spliced together.  Coppola even this early on had a flair for some nifty camera work and the opening scene on a row boat, as well as the moment where Luana Anders, (The Pit and the Pendulum), undresses, swims underwater, and then meets some grisliness once she resurfaces are indeed pretty well done.

QUEEN OF BLOOD
(1966)
Dir - Curtis Harrington
Overall: GOOD

Made for American International Pictures on a typically small scale budget, Curtis Harrington's Queen of Blood further swiped its special effects shots from two Russian films Mechte Navstrechu, (A Dream Come True), and Nebo Zovyot, (Battle Beyond the Sun).  They also scored Basil Rathbone for a day and a half of shooting as well as a young Dennis Hopper, who is always amusing to see in such clean-cut, pre-Easy Rider roles.  Even though Harrington takes quite a long time to get to the good stuff, the film's first two acts are pretty briskly paced as all of the pieces are quickly set up to get our astronauts in contact with the title character.  Every aspect of Queen of Blood looks as silly and dated as can be and once cannot think of how incredible 2001: A Space Odyssey must have come off in comparison a mere two years later.  As was common for many hokey sci-fi movies of the day, (even if this one more closely resembles the ones that were coming out in droves a decade or so earlier), everyone takes things rather seriously which makes it possible to fully invest in the proceedings.  Harrington's script is rather textbook, poses some thoughtful questions, wisely glosses over the space travel details as they are hardly important, and also has some laughable leaps of logic, yet it is still plenty charming and occasionally memorable.

JESSE JAMES MEETS FRANKENSTEIN'S DAUGHTER
(1966)
Dir - William Beaudine
Overall: MEH

Boring, stupid, and cheap, William Beaudine's companion piece to the comparatively less boring, stupid, and cheap Billy the Kid Versus Dracula plays nearly all of its cards wrong.  The movie is competently acted and Estonian actress Narda Onyx chews as much scenery as possible in the Dr. Maria Frankenstein role, but there is hardly anything to recommend anywhere else.  Jesse James Meets Frankenstein's Daughter goes through the motions for the first half, presenting two totally different movies for awhile before haphazardly smashing them together later.  It never gets tortuously inept, but it also never picks up any momentum either and the amount of lazy plot devices mount up embarrassingly.  Any "scientific" details to Miss Frankenstein's experiments seem like they were imagined by a five year old and her entire motivation in the first place is shrugged off as an afterthought.  Both of the female characters fall dramatically in love with Jesse James within minutes of meeting him and the amount of charisma John Lupton brings to the role is completely unconvincing.  It is not his or anyone else's fault though since the film barely tries and all these years later, it is nearly impossible to find the end product even sparsely interesting.

1960s American Horror Part Three

THE HYPNOTIC EYE
(1960)
Dir - George Blair
Overall: MEH

The pieces never properly come together in the hokey, gimmick-laden The Hypnotic Eye, though the film still manages to be fun at times.  The opening scene is a good grab where a woman casually lights her hair on fire over a stove top.  We actually end up getting a few other properly gruesome and memorable moments like this while the mystery is still hovering over us.  Sadly, once it is revealed what is going on, the payoff is about as underwhelming as it gets.  It almost seems like large chunks of the script were not filmed to successfully convey what was happening.  The movie actually consulted noted pioneer in hypnotism Gil Boyne to stage its numerous scenes where Jacques Bergerac hypnotizes both the people in the movie and the members of the theater audience, looking directly into the camera as part of its "Hypnomagic" gimmick.  Unfortunately though, the big moment of this comes near the end and goes on for an excruciatingly boring ten minutes, sucking all of the life out of what was meant to be a heart-racing finale.  Elsewhere, the lack of plot development and mostly wooden performances do not help much on the engaging front.  Still, director George Blair and cinematographer Archie R. Dalzell do put together a small handful of creepy scenes.  James Lipton's real-life beatnik dad Lawrence even shows up in one of them, coming off as pretentious as one would imagine.

BLOODLUST!
(1961)
Dir - Ralph Brook
Overall: MEH

Though it is likeable in several respects, Bloodlust! has a few too many unmistakable flaws to truly stand out amongst the plethora of Richard Connell's "The Most Dangerous Game" adaptations.  Wilton Graff is distinguished looking enough yes, but his performance as the film's villain is rather stiff, while the rest of the cast who is trapped on his island do not come off any more exciting either.  The plot holes though are numerous and large.  There are many opportunities to easily thwart Dr. Balleau's diabolical plans which he leisurely explains to them while sitting at his desk with no henchman around and everyone that he announces that he is going to hunt and kill just stand right next to him and listen patiently.  Just tackle and beat up the guy already, or at the very least restrain him.  Such moments are frequent and it is never NOT silly how nonchalantly everyone just goes along with a lunatic trying to murder them as they are left to rather freely roam around.  Surprisingly, the film takes itself somewhat seriously though, is pretty briskly paces, and has some clever design work like the doctor's hidden trophy room, (even if the cave walls are clearly just large sheets of crumpled up paper).  The embarrassing aspects of it keep it somewhat fun and it is hardly the worst movie MST3K ever tackled, though tackle it they did.

BILLY THE KID VERSUS DRACULA
(1966)
Dir - William Beaudine
Overall: MEH

Filmed in eight days along with Jesse James Meets Frankenstein, (and released on the same day as part of a double bill), Billy the Kid Versus Dracula is the type of B-movie that is clearly designed to spark interest on its desperately hokey title alone.  Sandwiching the western and horror film together was not anything new by 1966, yet it still was not a well-mined genre mash-up either.  The alluring nature on paper here does not much matter in the end as it is too cheaply made and too flawed to maintain one's interest, let alone become any sort of memorable vampire movie.  It must be said though that John Carradine, (back reprising his role as the undead Count for the first time since Universal's House of Dracula twenty-one years earlier), is actually kind of menacing in his early moments.  That is before he is given too much dialog and the movie's generous script blunders become overwhelming.  The vampire mythos are not clearly defined either as Carradine talks about sleeping all day yet clearly has no problem getting around at night.  Also, random townsfolks seem to know vampire lore and the ending is laugh out loud dumb with Billy the Kid throwing a gun at Dracula, knocking him to the ground, and then a bat is scene flying away, (?!?) after  Dracula is shown still on the floor where he turns into a skeleton after being staked.  Sure, why not?

1960s American Horror Part Two

ORGY OF THE DEAD
(1965)
Dir - A.C. Stephen
Overall: WOOF

When viewing anything under the Ed Wood umbrella of awful, you are usually guaranteed to be in for a very bizarre experience to say the least.  Orgy of the Dead is an Ed Wood movie in all but the fact that it was technically "directed" by A.C. Stephen, with Wood handling nearly every other level of production including holding up the cue cards for one of his most infamous alumni The Amazing Criswell to badly and obviously read from.  Essentially nothing more than a nudie-cuite, (an exploitation subgenre and precursor to adult films featuring female nudity in place of any narrative content), Orgy of the Dead features a whopping total of ten topless dance sequences, all performed by women who look as bored as we are watching them.  The fact that these striptease scenes make up over an hour of the movie's ninety-two minutes is the one thing that makes it an easy contender as one of the most absolutely boring movies ever made.  Actually, if not for how suicide-inducingly dull all of the nudity is, the movie would have otherwise been a masterpiece of trash.  The dialog, acting, and preposterous set up of Criswell and his female ghoul/vampire/whatever, (plus a werewolf and mummy for no reason), conversing with each other is just hilariously stupid.  It further boggles the mind that Wood would later turn the "script" here into a novel, yet another example of how he was probably the most clueless filmmaker who ever breathed air.

THE GHOST AND MR. CHICKEN
(1966)
Dir - Alan Rafkin
Overall: MEH

Hot off his success on The Andy Griffith Show, Don Knotts scored a contract with Universal for a number of staring vehicles, the only one of which that had a horror connection being The Ghost and Mr. Chicken.  Unfortunately this is not one of the comedies of the day that has aged particularly well as it remains pretty consistently unfunny throughout its running time.  As one could imagine, Knotts spends the entire movie with his eyes wide open while being nervous and scared at absolutely everything.  Right from the very opening scene where he is frantically screaming at everyone that he just witnessed a murder, it becomes something of a chore to sit through.  It is hardly spoiling anything that the "ghost" of the title is simply a Scooby Doo-style red herring and naturally it is a rather shrug-worthy twist.  Then there is also an "adda boy" running gag that likewise gets really old, really fast.  Perhaps if the movie spent more than one scene in the Gothic mansion and delivered a few more fun, spooky moments, (and if Knotts toned down his cartoonish persona a bit), The Ghost and Mr. Chicken could have been more welcoming, but alas it is just adequately dull.

NIGHTMARE IN WAX
(1969)
Dir - Bud Townsend
Overall: GOOD

The deliberately cheap, ham-fisted House of Wax rip-off Nightmare in Wax very oddly overcomes its shortcomings and makes the absolute best use out of its silliness.  Technically speaking, the movie is poor for the most part.  The cinematography is occasionally terrible, the sound design is muffled, there are some embarrassing attempts at humor, and the ending is either incomprehensible or laughably stupid.  Plot details are hardly important as within the first few minutes, we pretty much then know exactly what is going to happen for the whole movie.  All of that said though, the camp level is certainly high and great mileage is gotten out of the familiar premise of a wax museum operator out for revenge.  Cameron Mitchell mostly made a career out of appearing in B-movies that were all levels of bad, (from fun bad to unwatchably bad), and thankfully he was still giving it his all here, sinking his scenery-chewing jaws into the material.  While he does not bring a level of class to the proceedings like say a Vincent Price or Christopher Lee would have, he makes up for it with a delightfully outlandish portrayal that is anything but shallow.  His performance is enough yet all things considered, this is the good kind of dumb movie that keeps up the pace, making it quite user-friendly to chuckle at.

1960s American Horror Part One

THE FLESH EATERS
(1964)
Dir - Jack Curtis
Overall: MEH

Relatively gory for the time period, Jack Curtis' The Flesh Eaters has aged as a rather mediocre though still somewhat admirable B movie.  As usual with an independent film like this, the lack of convincing special effects are easy to overlook and are actually rather charming in their simplicity.  A moment where a corpse is terribly superimposed over a backdrop where you can see through his eaten out rib cage, (see picture), is as ineffective as they get, but it is still complimented somewhat by how sincere the production is.  The small cast is pretty solid and professional, all except a disgustingly obnoxious beatnik who shows up midway though and sadly does not get killed immediately.  The movie was scripted by comic book author Andrew Drake and it does have that kind of fun, pulp quality to it while incorporating a giant, mutated monster and a Nazi scientist together.  All being set on a single island with only a handful of characters though, there is not enough steam in the story to keep things from getting a bit dull.  The ending gets messy too with the exposed, untrustworthy German doctor double crossing the manly, chiseled hero and damsel in distress a little too easily and frequently.

CHAMBER OF HORRORS
(1966)
Dir - Hy Averback
Overall: MEH

Originally proposed as a television series, Chamber of Horrors was turned from a pilot into a theatrical feature with some added, extra bloody scenes and a few William Castle-esque gimmicks such as the red "Fear Flasher" and "Horror Horn" that pop up right before all of the nasty murders that take place.  There are a handful of amusing moments here, including a random cameo from Tony Curtis, José René Ruiz as a noble, midget sidekick, Wildfrid Hyde-White's charming wax museum owner/true crime novelist Harold Blount, a bizarre, creepy wedding ceremony at gunpoint opening, and the overall concept of a killer with a missing right hand that he can hook on any type of murder weapon to.  All of this said though, comedy actor and radio personality Hy Averback is hardly a master of suspense and the movie never picks up any necessary, heart-racing momentum.  The script is rather lazily structured and underwritten, repeatedly slowing down for long intervals and then introducing new characters and situations that are left too open ended.  This is most likely due to the fact that it was all originally meant to set up a TV series and would have eventually gotten around to fleshing more things out.  As it is though, it does not quite work well enough as a stand alone movie.

INCUBUS
(1966)
Dir - Leslie Stevens
Overall: GOOD

A strange history accompanies this strange film from Outer Limits creator Leslie Stevens which was made at the end of that show's run, shortly before star William Shatner was to go on to become iconic as Captain Kirk in Star Trek.  Stevens had much difficulty getting it distributed and it ended up only showing in France before it was presumed lost for thirty years, a French print eventually emerging in 1996 and re-subtitled into English.  Made deliberately as an arthouse movie with cinematographer Conrad Hall, (who also started on The Outer Limits), Incubus was filmed in the language of Esperanto which the entire cast learned phonetically.  It was also shot in black and white and plays like a curious fairytale where witches, demons, and both evil and good magic seem to be toying with everyone's fate.  The story is simple yet not necessarily coherent, but the movie's random logic is befitting to the bizarre, atmospheric way that it is presented.  People who actually speak Esperanto may find it unintentionally hilarious due to the cast's piss-poor pronunciation and occasionally Stevens lets the pace drag a bit, but overall this is a rather fascinating bit of occult filmmaking.