70's Foreign Horror Part Sixteen

THE INVISIBLE DEAD

(1970)

Dir - Pierre Chevalier

Overall: MEH

 

Howard Vernon returns with another Dr. Orloff vehicle The Invisible Dead, (Orloff Against the Invisible Man, Dr. Orloff's Invisible Monster, Orloff and the Invisible Man, La vie amoureuse de l'homme invisible), the only one in the official series not to be directed by Jesús Franco.  Not that one would notice since Pierre Chevalier utilizes many of the lackluster hallmarks that Franco movies repeatedly indulged in, meaning wretched pacing, gratuitous nudity, women writhing around for minutes on end while the camera incessantly zooms in on their genitalia, various genre cliches, unintentional humor, and embarrassing plotting.  On paper, the concept of a mad scientist making an invisible ape man because science is nothing if not absolutely ridiculous, but the film never leans into such moronic material with a spoofing agenda.  Instead, it is all played dreadfully straight and dull with Paco Valladares making one of the least charismatic leads that anyone is likely to see and Vernon doing very little besides sitting in a chair to spin some incredibly boring exposition.  The finale throws flour on the guy in a gorilla suite while he makes cartoon noises, at which point Vernon shows up to announce that said gorilla set the house on fire and refused to obey him off screen, but even these hilariously inept moments are hardly enough to save the rest of the production.

ONE MINUTE BEFORE DEATH

(1972)

Dir - Rogelio A. González

Overall: WOOF

 

The first of two similarly themed Canadian/Mexican/US co-productions by director Rogelio A. González that were shot in Vancouver, British Columbia, One Minute Before Death is a dreadfully dull reading of the will/old dark house/premature burial melodrama with more cliches and despicable characters at its disposal than you can wave a stick at.  Utilizing the same crew and much of the cast for the following year's also lackluster Edgar Allan Poe adaptation The Oval Portrait, this one starts off with a weak scare and only gets weaker from there as Wanda Hendrix spends nearly the entire thing stuck in a bed, fully conscious as her odious relatives voice their disdain for her and/or reveal their diabolical plots to inherit her vast fortune.  Most of the proceedings are told via flashback as the romantic musical motif endlessly swells over it and without exception, everyone we meet is either a backstabbing and bitter curmudgeon or some poor fool who "never meant" to fall in love with another person to excuse them for their shady behavior.  All of Hendrix' pleadings of still being alive have been done to much creepier effect in other productions and the finale's attempts at beyond-the-grave comeuppance is yawn-inducing in its hokiness.

 

THE LAST WAVE

(1977)

Dir - Peter Weir

Overall: GOOD

As his follow up to Picnic at Hanging Rock, Australian filmmaker Peter Weir delivered the ultra-moody, Aboriginal supernatural mystery The Last Wave, (Black Rain) which creates some evocative atmosphere while remaining comprehensibly void.  The frustrating nature of the narrative is directly addressed though as Richard Chamberlain's Sydney attorney tries in vain to gain any direct answers from the Indigenous people that he is trying to defend against a mysterious murder charge, with his clients either remaining completely silent or speaking cryptically.  Chamberlain suffers from a series of premonitions which relate just as vaguely to the local, ancient concept of Dreamtime which somehow paint him as a decedent of mystical spirits, yet none of this gets either he or the audience any closer to pragmatic conclusions.  Weir adopts a severe tone, omitting humor almost entirely and letting the didgeridoo soundtrack work its ominous magic.  The cultural juxtaposition between the Aboriginal people's otherwordly, ancient customs and the established Victorian settlers contemporary set of laws and leisure remains a driving undercurrent.  It all might be too impenetrable to connect  in an emotional manner, but as more of a sensory, imaginative experience, it is chillingly successful.