(1971)
Dir - Don Siegel
Overall: GOOD
The Southern Gothic thriller The Beguiled marked the third collaboration between director Don Siegel and star Clint Eastwood, itself an adaptation of Thomas P. Cullinan's novel of the same name. Noted for Eastwood playing against type as an emasculated Union soldier, it has exploitative elements inherent in a story where a houseful of well-to-do women get the upper hand on their traumatic situation, with Eastwood's arrival opening up a barrage of sexual aggression and feminist agency. Set in the South where the trials and tribulations of the Civil War have become commonplace, the women help-up in a seminary school are constantly only the look-out for soldiers or drifters on either side who would take sexual advantage of a house that is exclusively made up of females. While Eastwood's character has trace elements of a conman, he must also be seen as just another person, (like the women), who is taking advantage of his present traumatic situation. This makes the ending less about comeuppance than it is about the crippling religious and moral values brought on by a divided nation, and the whole thing is done with enough well-intended style to be of merit.
(1972)
Dir - Bernard Girard
Overall: MEH
Punctuated by strong performances, The Happiness Cage, (The Mind Snatchers, The Demon Within), is director Bernard Girand's adaptation of Dennis J. Reardon’s stage play of the same name. Taking place almost entirely in a spacious, isolated clinic in Frankfurt, Germany, the small cast get to indulge in wordy exchanges that never get too introspective, with hardly any action and the explicitly dubious scheme of the U.S. military only getting explored in the final act. There is nothing particularly unique here about yet another story where scientific tests are exploited to make mindlessly obedient soldiers, but Christopher Walken, (in his first lead role), elevates the low-key material as a stubborn army private who inadvertently becomes victim to Joss Ackland's hijacked brain manipulation methods. Ronny Cox fares just as strong as a fellow corrupt patient who is pushed to the brink of loneliness and is tragically unable to withstand the cerebral operation that is conducted on him. Elsewhere though, Girard's direction is lifeless and the low-budget affords for zero cinematic flourishes, hardly warranting a film interpretation of the material in the first place, thought the bleak final scene is at least chillingly effective.
(1974)
Dir - Mohy Quandour
Overall: WOOF
The second full-length from sporadic director Mohy Quandour was the cheap, laboriously dull The Spectre of Edgar Allan Poe. It may be of interest to genre fans for containing the last performance from The House on Haunted Hill and Spider Baby's Carol Ohmart, plus Cesar Romero shows up as an insane asylum doctor doing dubious mad scientist stuff because movies. The story itself tells a fictionalized account of Poe's life, presenting a scenario where his often written about muse Lenore was an actual woman that he was infatuated with; a woman whose mind breaks and whose hair goes white after nearly being buried alive. This sets things up in the aforementioned asylum where Lenore is admitted, at which point Poe decides to hang out for macabre inspiration. Though the premise is not inherently humdrum, the presentation is exactly that. Most of the film is nothing more than characters slowly walking around poorly-lit sets while thunder blares on the soundtrack for ominous ambiance. Whatever Romero's character is up to is poorly explained if it is explained at all and the same goes for Ohmart who barely says anything before spontaneously going mad herself. All of the performances are lackluster, yet this is largely due to the uninspired material that is void of both suspense and compelling set pieces.
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