Cult Classic of the Week: Eyes Without a Face (1960)

My experience with French cinema is fairly limited. I'm familiar with some of the main themes and leading filmmakers; I've seen some of the New Wave classics, like Breathless and Le Samouraï, and modern ones like Amelie. Still, I feel my knowledge of French film is lacking.

I'm grateful, then, that when I was researching Eyes Without a Face (Les Yeux sans Visage) I found film historian David Kalat's essay for the Criterion Collection DVD. Kalat covers the history of the film and the career of director Georges Franju, and some very good points about the French film industry at the time. It's a short essay, and recommended reading.

Eyes... follows the plans and experiments of a brilliant medical doctor, and his attempts to repair the horribly-scarred face of his daughter (in a car accident when he was driving) by transplanting the faces of unwilling young female donors. She is hidden away in his country house after having "escaped" from the hospital. One of the donors dies from her injuries and is dumped into the river by Dr. Génessier’s assistant. When her body is found, and the doctor is called in to identify the body, presumed to be his daughter, it's his chance to officially declare Christiane dead -- allowing him more time to perfect his transplantation techniques...

There are two points in Kalat's essay that I would like to elaborate on:

The key was in finding the right tone. Feuillade’s genius was in his affectless, matter-of-fact depictions of the wildest, pulpiest lunacy. Franju inverted the equation, while still juxtaposing the fantastique with the mundane, the impossible with the everyday. Franju was on record that “I’m led to give documentary realism the appearance of fiction.” Or, put another way: “Kafka becomes terrifying from the moment it is documentary. In documentary I work the other way round.” Any way you slice it, Franju was fixated on the seam between actuality and fantasy.

Part of what makes Eyes... so effective is this realism. I find the matter-of-fact, realistic style of film-making very compelling and unsettling, particularly for horror and suspense movies. It's the difference between The Blair Witch and Blair Witch 2, as an example. Eyes... doesn't flow in the same way as "horror" films from the time. Only the face transplant scene has any gore, and even then it's very tame by modern standards (looking more like grape jelly to me than blood). The film is much more ethereal with the ever-present darkness, fog and isolation. It adds to the effect of Dr. Génessier’s guilt and obsession. I think this is where we see some of the French film-making style in action.

Edith Scob had worked with Franju on Head Against the Wall in a small but memorable role, and the two became a team: Franju cast her in four more films after this one. Yes, Edith is beautiful and vulnerable, but beyond that she has an intangible air of mystery about her. Franju said of her: “She is a magic person. She gives the unreal reality.”

Scob's character Christiane is the key to the film. She drifts through the film as things happen around her, until the end when she acts, almost as an avenging angel, but gently.

In the U.S. Eyes... was cut slightly, evocatively re-titled The Horror Chamber of Dr. Faustus and run on a double-bill with the U.S./Japanese co-production The Manster.

Eyes Without a Face is available in an excellent special edition DVD from the Criterion Collection. This is the source of Netflix's streaming version, which is the method I used to watch it.

Happy 80th Birthday, Leonard Nimoy!

Following on from Shatner's 80th this week, Leonard Nimoy turns 80 today. Although he was portrayed poorly with regards to a raise and increased creative influence on the Original Series, I've always liked Nimoy and I'm not alone in that. He projects professionalism in whatever project he is working on, and he's always been good to the fans; a real gentleman. One of my favorite non-Trek projects of his was the 1970s paranormal investigation TV show In Search Of... The credits music used to creep me out. Scary!

In the spirit of birthday wishes and good humor, take a little trip to the Shire for "The Ballad of Bilbo Baggins"...

Happy 80th Birthday, William Shatner!

I've been woefully behind on my blog reading and blog posting for over a week now. A double whammy of flu and an important project deadline has keep me from the interwebs. I almost neglected to post something for both William Shatner's birthday and International Talk Like Shatner Day:

VIDEO: Celebrities Honor Talk Like William Shatner Day

80 Reasons Why William Shatner Is Awesome

See Winners & Finalists For Int’l Talk Like William Shatner Day Video Contest

Japan Earthquake/Tsunami Relief

Some ways to help:

The Google Crisis Response page for the event lets you donate directly to the Japanese Red Cross.

Several Japanese popular culture writers, including Patrick Macias and August Ragone, are pointing to the Japan Society of New York's relief fund page, where "100% of your generous tax-deductible contributions will go to organization(s) that directly help victims recover".

On that same point, comics and animation writer Mark Evanier links to Operation USA, another organization who uses 100% of the donations for relief efforts.

DriveThruRPG and RPGNow are collecting $5 donations for the Red Cross.

The Comics Journal now online and the Frazetta family feud

This week, the new online edition of The Comics Journal went live. It's sad to see another long-running print magazine disappear from the rack, although in this case it's still going in another medium.

I was surprised to see that the lead story for the first online "issue" was a piece on the on-going turmoil between the children of artist Frank Frazetta. I've written about his work here save for the family troubles after his wife's death and his passing. The situation was just too fluid for me to get a handle on although I tried to read the ongoing articles from the Pocano Record website.

I was very glad to read Levin's article "Goodbye To All That" as it's one of the best summations so far of a confusing mess, and I consider it a must-read for anyone interested in Frazetta specifically or even 20th-century illustration in general. I liked the parallel with the Barnes Museum fiasco, the idea of artists' wishes for their works, and I also generally enjoy autobiographical pieces when the subject at hand is contrasted with the feelings and events in the life of the author. On the other hand, I felt, like many others, that it was lacking. The author disclosed his lack of knowledge about his subject and, although Levin seems to have done some good research, it was puzzling to me that a leading comic book industry publication would assign such an article to someone without further knowledge or contacts.

Be sure to check the comments. One can assume that what was expected from some of the readership for this article was a more objective and up-to-date journalistic piece. The tone and voice changed at several points in the article. The most recent event noted was the sale of "Conan the Destroyer" in July 2010. Any word on what has happened with the family or the artwork since then? That may be the reason for the disappointment.

I might also suggest that the author's opinion of Frazetta's work may have discouraged some readers. For myself, I was taken aback by this comment:

"There was no indication that, even in his private moments, Frazetta accessed the quirky, personal corners of the mind that, for me, made art tingle."

Certainly the author is entitled to his opinion, but I'm not sure that the samples shown on the museum website should be representative of the artist's work as a whole. And these qualities were not seen in the published materials consulted for the article?

The books consulted for this piece may also play a role here. The original Ballantine collections are good, but, aside from the documentary DVD (2003), the most recent book in the list was published in 1994. The three volume retrospective from Underwood published from 1998 to 2008 should be the beginning point of any serious look at Frazetta's life and work.

del Toro closes down "Mountains of Madness"

Just read on The Digital Bits this evening that Guillermo del Toro has withdrawn from negotiations with Universal Pictures over his production of H.P. Lovecraft's "At the Mountains of Madness". Check the article for details; the short answer is that they didn't want the likely "R" rating.

GDT and Peter Jackson are probably the two A-list director/producers who have the vision and the clout to do justice to "Madness", or any Lovecraft stories. Hopefully he gets another studio to greenlight the project.

Like Bill Hunt at the 'Bits, I'll wish Universal well with their big-budget adaptation of Battleship...

Happy GM's Day!

There aren't many single special days or "holidays" in this gaming hobby of ours -- convention season, Free RPG Day, new product day each week at the local store -- but there is one event that began fairly recently. GM's Day started out through postings on ENWorld and soon spread throughout the online gaming community. The date of GM's Day coalesced around the anniversary of Gary Gygax's passing.

 

Be sure to check out some of the sales at DriveThruRPG/RPGNow this weekend:

 

http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/rpg_gmsday.php?filters=0_0_0_0_31817&src=newsletter

 

And if you're not a GM, what better time to start than now? 

 

Cult Classic of the Week: The X from Outer Space (1967)

[Finally, the first kaiju eiga in this series.]

Shochiku was one of the major studios in Japan. They specialized in the naturalistic style of Yasujiro Ozu and their biggest successes were the Tora-san traveling salesman comedies. In the mid-1960s, most of their production was focused on television. Their motion picture output lagged behind other studios and they didn't take many chances.

Shochiku missed the science-fiction/giant monster boom of the late '50s and the '60s that Toho and Daiei Studios cultivated. Their first foray into the genre, Giant Insect War (a.k.a Genocide) in 1967 was a disappointment. The only insects were a swarm of bees, and they weren't giant bees. Still trying to break into the sci-fi genre, they followed up with Uchu Daikaiju Guilala, known internationally as The X From Outer Space.

In the near-future (a future with space travel and a moonbase, but also mid-60s Volkswagen Beetles), six Mars missions have gone missing. A seventh mission is sent in the most advanced ship available. The crew encounters a UFO near the moon, and the ship's doctor takes ill. They take a side trip to the moonbase to exchange doctors, then continue on towards Mars. The UFO makes a return appearance and fires glowing goo at them which sticks to the ship. The team's German biologist, Lisa, makes a spacewalk with the pilot to retrieve samples, and they turn back to Earth to avoid the UFO. The egg-like sample melts a hole in the laboratory floor, and soon it grows into a monstrous creature which roams the countryside looking for energy sources to absorb. A recently-discovered element on the moon prevents energy absorption. Can the crew of the AAB-Gamma get to the moon and return in time before Tokyo is destroyed?

The X From Outer Space has a certain goofy charm. It will probably appeal more to those who remember growing up watching movies like this on TV. Don't expect logical progression in the story or the best special effects from the era. This was director Kazui Nihonmatsu's first film. He co-wrote it with two novice screenwriters. Some events in the film are explained in quick single lines of dialogue. Other times a scene is set up between the rocket base director and the German nuclear scientist just for the purpose of exposition. Often it seems that something important might have been left on the cutting room floor. There is a love triangle set up between the ship's pilot, the biologist, and Michiko, a crewmember from the moonbase. Initially Michiko is very cold to Lisa, but then all of a sudden they are fast friends. The UFOs are never explained.

The moonbase seems more like a Hilton hotel rather than a working scientific base. The crew arrives just in time for happy hour at the cocktail lounge. Later when the crew returns successfully to Earth, the German nuclear scientist at the rocket base invites everyone to his house for a celebratory party. It's a very social movie. The upbeat theme song, repeated throughout the film, fits the jazzy lounge mood.

It takes 45 minutes for the giant monster Guilala to make its appearance. The movie perks up then, and it's enjoyable kaiju action but not at the level of a Toho or Daiei film. The monster suit is well done and an interesting design. Some of the other miniatures (planes, tanks, etc.) are less effective. Two of the crew members use the rocket base's nuclear fuel as a decoy to lure Guilala away. The chase scene, with a jeep and trailer being followed by the monster, is totally unrealistic (for a giant monster film...) with the changing scale of Guilala's claw, but it fits the bizarre feel of the movie.

American-International picked up the film for U.S. distribution but it went directly into their television syndication package. It would be a mainstay of late-night and Saturday afternoons for years.

Fun and enjoyable films would continue to be made into the 1970s, but the "golden age" of the daikaiju eiga was nearing the end. The last Toho monster film of the '60s directed by Ishiro Honda, Space Ameoba (Kessen Nankai no Daikaiju, a.k.a Yog, Monster from Space) would be released in 1970. Toho's special effects master, Eiji Tsuburaya, had already passed away. Later, Shochiku would release the cult classic Goke: Body Snatcher from Hell. Another of the majors, Nikkatsu Studios, created their one and only kaiju film,  Gappa, The Triphibian Monster (Monster from a Prehistoric Planet), in 1968.

The X From Outer Space was released on a full-frame VHS tape by Orion. It's available in Japan on DVD. I watched the non-anamorphic widescreen Japanese version with the international English dubbing. There is a version out there with the AIP-TV English dub, and I think that might be the preferred way to watch this.

Another Lulu.com coupon code

Another code, this time for Lulu's "birthday"; 20% off any order, or 25% off an order over $500. The code expires right at midnight tomorrow (Monday).

Enter coupon code HAPPY305 at checkout and receive 20% off your order. The maximum savings for this offer is $100. Enter coupon code BIRTHDAY305 at checkout and receive 25% off your order of $500 or more. The maximum savings for this offer is $500. Sorry, but these offers are only valid in US dollars and cannot be applied to previous orders. You can only use these codes once per account, and unfortunately you can't use these coupons in combination with other coupon codes. These great offers expire on February 21, 2011 at 11:59 PM.

http://www.lulu.com/?cid=021711_en_email_HAPPY305

Cult Classic of the Week: Horror Express (1972)

On an expedition to Szechuan, China, in 1906, Dr. Saxon (Christopher Lee) finds what he believes to be a missing link -- an ape-man, thousands of years old, frozen in an icy cave. The "fossil", as Saxon describes it, is crated up for a trip back to England. But people begin to die around the crate at the station even before it's loaded onto the Trans-Siberian Express...

"The two of you together... that's fine. But what if one of you is the monster?"
"Monster? We're British, you know."

Peter Cushing is one of my favorite actors, but I haven't studied much about his personal life. Both of his autobiographies are still in print and I plan to read them at some point. Two things I do know about him: 1) So far, I haven't read a disparaging word about him by anyone with whom he worked. He truly was "the gentle man of horror", and 2) he didn't really recover after the 1971 death of his wife Helen.

Horror Express was the first film he made after this loss. According to the DVD liner notes, Cushing informed Bernard Gordon, the producer, that he wouldn't be able to do the film on the same day that he arrived in Spain for shooting. Gordon spoke with Christopher Lee. At the hotel that night, Lee monopolized the conversation between the three men, trying to put Cushing in a good humor and not let him have an opening to voice his concerns. Lee followed up his farewells with "See you at work tomorrow, Peter," and filming began the next day. The two would remain close friends until Cushing's death in 1994.

There isn't much pointless exposition in the film; things happen quickly aboard this train. There are a few leaps of logic here and there. Dr. Saxon's belief that the frozen fossil is now alive and killing people turns on a dime when confronted by Cushing's character Dr. Wells. Overall, however, the story is quite good, taking some cues from John W. Campbell, Jr.'s story "Who Goes There?", also filmed as The Thing From Another World (1951) and The Thing (1982), with an alien creature frozen in the ice and able to move from body to body, stealing memories as it goes.

The script takes the story deadly serious, but there are some great moments that give a nod to, and celebrate, the previous horror films of Cushing and Lee. They seem to be enjoying their time in this production and it shows in their work, particularly their line delivery (as in the quote above). Dr. Wells' assistant has some of the best sarcastic quips. Note also the cuts between scenes of a character cutting steak and the autopsy of the baggage clerk. It could play as a parody of the genre, but the talent involved in front of -- and behind the camera -- raise it more to the level of homage. The duo also shares more screen time together here than in almost any other.

The film was produced by Scotia International, a US-UK production company that made several movies in Spain, mostly westerns. It was a low-budget film even then ($300,000) and some of that shows on the screen at times, but there was also some innovative and creative work done with this production. The makeup for the victims of the monster required custom-made all-white contact lenses. Red plastic lenses with lights inside were fitted over the eyes of the actors playing the characters possessed by the monster, and the lights were activated by a technician on the set.

There are some genuinely creepy shots in the film, and the environment of the characters being isolated on a speeding train rolling through a winter wasteland heightens the effect. The train car sets were left over from the production company's version of Pancho Villa filmed prior to this, with Telly Savalas in the title role. All the scenes set in a particular train car were filmed at once, then the car was redressed as another car for more scenes. The miniature train and its tracks were re-used as well, to spectacular effect in the final scene.

There are two interesting moments that I want to highlight. Dr. Wells is shown having dinner in the dining car with a stowaway (later revealed to be a spy), but also with a faraway look in his eyes. She mentions that her glass is empty, bringing him back into the moment. "Forgive me, my mind was elsewhere." She asks, "What is it?", to which he replies, "Sorry, I can't tell you." We believe that it's the murdered baggage clerk and the monster on the loose that are on his mind, but I can't help but think that it is also Cushing's grief over his wife that shows through in this scene.

Lee's character, Dr. Saxon, develops over the course of the film, although in staggered steps. At the beginning of the film he is stoic, single-minded of purpose in the cause of scientific discovery. In conversations with Countess Pretrovski over the course of the film, we see him develop a soul. He realizes that he "doesn't care as much as he should" about the deaths that have occurred. By the end of the film, when the creature (in the body of a Rasputin-like monk) offers him knowledge, the history of the planet that the creature has acquired over the years, if it is released, Saxon understands that life is more important than scientific discovery.

I watched the out-of-print 1999 Image DVD of the film. Horror Express is in the public domain, and has been the subject of many low-quality VHS tapes and dollar-store DVDs. "Digitally mastered" doesn't mean restored, however. This has been the best presentation so far but the print used has some scratchy moments, and the DVD is in non-anamorphic letterbox. There are three pages of liner notes in the snapper case, and on the disc are text filmographies for both Lee and Cushing. The one real extra is a good one: the isolated music and sound effect audio track. Many European films made at this time did not record audio on set, with the actors (or other voice actors) dubbing in their lines later. Lee, Cushing and Savalas dubbed their own characters for English-speaking markets.

Severin Films is currently restoring a film print for eventual release on DVD and Blu-ray. It can also be found on YouTube (with ads or without) and the Internet Archive in various file formats. Hulu has it but apparently the film cuts off after 59 minutes...

Happy (Belated) Birthday, Bruce Timm

I didn't realize until this weekend that February 9th was the fiftieth birthday of comic artist and animation designer Bruce Timm. He has been involved in animation as an artist, writer, director and producer going back to Blackstar in 1981, but he is probably best known (and justifiably so) for his work in character design for Batman: The Animated Series beginning in 1992.

His sparse, angular retro-1960s style is extremely influential in both animation (The Incredibles is one example, also any of the other DC/Warner Brothers animation that has followed Batman) and comic book art. He can create tone, mood and action using a low level of detail, very similar to a couple of my other favorites, Alex Toth and Jack Kirby. I'm not an artist, but I believe this is referred to as "economy of line". Compare this to artists such as Todd McFarland or Jim Lee, who will fill a panel with an abundance of lines and detail to achieve the same effect. I find Timm's work just much more stylish.

Best. Team-Up. Ever.

What I love about his work is that it's timeless and still rooted in history. He know the history of the characters that he draws and uses it to great effect while still bringing a freshness to the work. He's influenced by many of the same things that I find appealing: comic books, movies, movie poster art, animation, monsters, pin-up art, and pulp fiction.

If the Avengers movie is half this entertaining...

Bruce Timm does not appear to have an official site or any real presence on the web despite his popularity. Not surprisingly, there are quite a few pages where his work is posted. A few highlights:

Fifty-one favorite Bruce Timm illustrations
A Halloween-themed post with many of Timm's monster-related art
Gallery at Comic Vine
The ladies of Bruce Timm's art (site NSFW)
Comic Art Fans gallery (some art NSFW)
A site whose name is probably NSFW...

Making D&D 4e Fun (link)

...not that it isn't fun right now. I'm sure it is. I haven't had the experience of playing the Fourth Edition rules yet but I've read through parts of it. The Dungeon Delve book is a great idea. My only experience of actual play comes from the flamewars discussions about it that I've read online. Some people love it as a great new method of play with low prep and easy player buy-in, others decry it as a complete sell-out to the MMORPG way of play and short attention spans, a betrayal of "role-playing" in favor of "roll-playing".

The situation isn't helped when even WotC doesn't know how to market the line. What is "Dungeons & Dragons" today? Is it the three core books? Is it D&D Essentials? If the Starter Set is intended for people who have never played before, why use the nostalgia factor of the Mentzer Red Box artwork and trade dress?

Beyond these questions, on the actual subject of playing, The Chatty DM recently wrote about a D&D Essentials game that he ran for a group of media professionals working on geek-related TV shows and/or websites (part 1, part 2). Most of them were new to tabletop gaming. It turned out to be one of his best D&D games due to the energy level of the players, his design decisions, and some ideas that he incorporated into the game (one idea from Burning Wheel). It isn't necessarily about the mechanics, it's about play style and having fun.

Free Issue of Kobold Quarterly -- Ends Today

The good folks at Kobold Quarterly magazine are offering a free PDF copy of issue 11. The offer ends today. Enter the KQ store, drop issue 11 in your cart, then use the coupon code KQ11Gift. Kobold Quarterly has in many ways taken up the mantle of default RPG print magazine since the demise of Dragon, and is worth checking out. 

Cult Classic of the Week: The Abominable Dr. Phibes (1971)

Dr. Anton Phibes, genius, holding advanced degrees in theology and music (a world-famous organ player) was presumed dead, killed in an automobile accident. But if that were true, then who is killing the doctors who worked on his deceased wife?

The Abominable Dr. Phibes was Vincent Price's 100th film, and the last film he appeared in for American-International Pictures. Filmed in England, it it is set in the mid- to late-1920s, but there is also a contemporary look to the sets. The art direction of the Art Nouveau sets and the costuming is reminiscent of the Twenties as seen through the prism of the early Seventies, with that Swinging London vibe. I'm not sure if floor-to-ceiling mirrors were in vogue at the time.

Price ends his run with AIP with a bang, and he heavily chews the scenery here, even if the character really doesn't "say" anything, as it were. Phibes takes his revenge on the medical team who treated his wife (what the surgery was for is never mentioned) by using his theological knowledge -- each murder is a meticulously-planned recreation of the Plagues of Egypt.

When Phibes leaves a clue to that effect at the scene of one of the murders, Scotland Yard begins to put the pieces together. This is an interesting part of the editing. We follow Phibes as he plans, carries out, and celebrates each murder, then we cut back to follow the police investigation. I haven't timed it out but the movies feels almost like two separate films in that respect.

Although these are senseless, murderous acts, we feel some sympathy for Dr. Phibes. He seems to be fully in command of the situation, his brilliant mind always several steps ahead of the hapless police. I think that might be the preferred reaction, as it really only works as a black-comedy/horror film. I'm a huge fan of Mr. Price, but I think I still prefer many of his other films over this one. Still, it's only a personal observation, as this is one of the landmark films of the horror genre, and can be seen as a progenitor of the "deathtrap" horror film, eventually leading to the Saw franchise. Two years later, Price starred in another British production, this time for United Artists, Theatre of Blood, with a similar premise: an actor shunned by the critics for a Best Actor Award in his final season has his revenge by killing them in methods based on various Shakespearean plays.

Bonus cult movie fact: The photos of Phibes' wife are of the uncredited actress Caroline Munro.

I watched the MGM Midnite Movies disc with the trailer being the only extra feature. It was later released as a Midnite Movies double-feature with the sequel, Dr. Phibes Lives Again!, and the same double-feature disc was included in the Vincent Price MGM Scream Legends box set.

Snow Day Fun -- Simplified D&D for Kids

Kaiju's lair is covered over with snow drifts from our latest snow storm. If you have a snow day like us, and have little ones at home (or even big ones that are little kids at heart), check out Jimm Johnson's simplified rules for Dungeons & Dragons for young children. It seems more like a board game, and he used Dwarven Forge cavern terrain for the dungeon layout. Looks like fun!

Housekeeping

I have added a few links  to nearly all of the left sidebar categories and trimmed a dead link to Gaming Report. The site was purchased by Scrye Magazine several years ago, then by Comic Buyer's Guide who promptly killed it. Alas, it once was a great one-stop-shop of gaming news.

Here's one of my favorites from the new links. Take a look at this blast from the past. I like to imagine them drinking Manhattans and listening to Xavier Cugat or Esquivel on the hi-fi.

Howard's Sword Woman and Other Historical Adventures

In the previous post I neglected to mention that the next volume in Del Rey's Robert E. Howard Library is out this coming week.

Sword Woman and Other Historical Adventures collects the majority of Howard's medieval-era historical fiction stories, poems, synopses and fragments. Some of the earlier Celtic hero stories are not part of this collection, so there's a hope that they might be included in a future Del Rey volume (or a collection from the Foundation, at least). A list of contents can be found at REHupa.

From the publisher's description:

The immortal legacy of Robert E. Howard, creator of Conan the Cimmerian, continues with this latest compendium of Howard’s fiction and poetry. These adventures, set in medieval-era Europe and the Near East, are among the most gripping Howard ever wrote, full of pageantry, romance, and battle scenes worthy of Tolstoy himself. Most of all, they feature some of Howard’s most unusual and memorable characters, including Cormac FitzGeoffrey, a half-Irish, half-Norman man of war who follows Richard the Lion-hearted to twelfth-century Palestine—or, as it was known to the Crusaders, Outremer; Diego de Guzman, a Spaniard who visits Cairo in the guise of a Muslim on a mission of revenge; and the legendary sword woman Dark Agnès, who, faced with an arranged marriage to a brutal husband in sixteenth-century France, cuts the ceremony short with a dagger thrust and flees to forge a new identity on the battlefield.

Lavishly illustrated by award-winning artist John Watkiss and featuring miscellanea, informative essays, and a fascinating introduction by acclaimed historical author Scott Oden, Sword Woman and Other Historical Adventures is a must-have for every fan of Robert E. Howard, who, in a career spanning just twelve years, won a place in the pantheon of great American writers.

In particular, I'm most interested in "Blades for France" and the other Dark Agnes stories, and finally reading "The Shadow of the Vulture", about the Siege of Vienna. This is the story with the character Red Sonya of Rogatino, whose name and red hair was the basis for the Marvel Comics character Red Sonja.

I'm not too sure about the cover painting, but the samples I've seen of the interior illustrations look great.

Happy Birthday, Two-Gun Bob!

Saturday marks the 105th anniversary of the birth of pulp writer Robert E. Howard. It has become a tradition on this date for Howard fans to read a favorite story and toast to his shade with a favorite beverage.

It's hard to go wrong with any of the stories, and there should be one to suit your preference: sword and sorcery, hard-boiled detectives, weird horror, historical fiction, boxing, westerns, pirates and sword-wielding puritans. One of my favorites that I often choose for a birthday reading is "Worms of the Earth", a story of Bran Mak Morn, last king of the Picts, and a weapon "to terrible to use, even against Rome". It's available in many publications but I would suggest the text found in Del Rey's Bran Mak Morn: The Last King.

For more information on his life and career, start with the following sites:

• Robert E. Howard United Press Association
• The Robert E. Howard Foundation
• Howard Works bibliographic database
• The Cimmerian (no longer updated)

I would also recommend Mark Finn's Howard biography, the Locus and World Fantasy Award-nominated Blood and Thunder: The Life and Art of Robert E. Howard. An expanded edition is due this year from the REH Foundation.

Cult Classic of the Week: Black Sunday (1960)

Much like Kurosawa, Mario Bava made his early reputation by ghost-directing films for more prominent directors. He started as a cameraman and director of photography. His first major directing jobs came when he directed part of Hercules (1957) and most of Hercules Unchained (1958).  Riccardo Freda tricked Bava into taking over directing duties on Caltiki the Immortal Monster, and the producer rewarded Bava's good work by allowing him to choose his own film for his official directorial debut. That story became The Mask of Satan, better known by the American-International Pictures release title of Black Sunday.

I grew up watching horror and science-fiction movies on TV. I was well-versed with the standards shown in late-night and Saturday afternoons. Black-and white Universal monster films, giant bug movies of the 50's, the color Poe films that Roger Corman made for AIP -- it was a rare treat to catch one of those -- Godzilla (of course) and even the oeuvre of Edward D. Wood, Jr. It wasn't until I discovered a copy of Cult Movies Magazine (either # 5 or 6) in a bookstore around 1991 that I really started reading about and studying this strange and wonderful world of movies outside the mainstream, and that included learning about the works of Mario Bava.

It's surprising just how prolific Bava was. In addition to Black Sunday, highlights of his directing career would include Hercules in the Haunted World (1961), Black Sabbath (1963), the first true Italian giallo Blood and Black Lace (1964), Planet of the Vampires (1965), Kill, Baby...Kill! (1966), Danger: Diabolik (1968), and Baron Blood (1972). The filmography on the DVD suggests that the full extent of his fill-in work still continues to be discovered.

Black Sunday answers the age-old question: If you are a doctor, a professional, and you know that the coffin that you find in a crypt has a window on it so that the corpse will forever see the stone cross standing above it, do you just leave the coffin alone if you accidentally break the cross? What if you reach into the coffin to pull off the mask that has been hammered onto the face and, in doing so, you leave behind enough blood on the broken glass to bring the corpse back to life?

Bava intended to film Nikolai Gogol's story "The Vij", but little remains of the original story. Instead we have family curses, cobwebbed castle corridors, villagers with torches and pitchforks, and witches brought back to life, acting more like traditional vampires. Instead of a stake through the heart, they get a stake in the eye!

The atmosphere of the film is a mix of the Universal Monster and the British Hammer movies: lots of old, dark castle and crypt scenes with unexpected gore. It's a bit of a surprise to see a spiked mask hammered onto the face of a witch (with the resulting blood spurts), or tiny scorpions crawling out of a corpse's empty eye sockets. Tame by today's standards, but shocking enough to be trimmed from the AIP release (and you couldn't use "Satan" in the title, either). Bava's familiarity with the camera is on display here. Even at this early point in his career the shots are composed beautifully, and there is a great 360-degree pan around the crypt in the ruined chapel.

This is the film that started Barbara Steele's career in horror films. She's quite popular as the first real "Scream Queen" of horror movies, but I must admit that I'm not that familiar with her work other than The Pit and the Pendulum.

I watched Image's 1999 DVD release of the original Italian director's cut with English dubbing. It includes three pages of liner notes and an audio commentary by Video Watchdog Magazine's Tim Lucas, who is the foremost authority on Bava and literally wrote the book on him.

Update: Kino Lorber released a new edition of this film on DVD and Blu-ray in September 2012.

Cult Classic of the Week: An Introduction

This is one of those new blog features that I mentioned around New Year's Day. My main purpose was to find another way to talk about movies I'm interested in. Also, I wanted a system for making decisions on what movies to watch.

I was inspired to try this because of two items I read recently. At the end of last year, I discovered a fairly new blog on horror and other genre films, From Midnight, With Love. I appreciate The Mike's sense of humor and his writing about film, but my favorite part is his Midnight Movie of the Week posts. A weekly review is a great format and a schedule that I could perhaps keep up with. "Midnight Movie of the Week" is such a perfect title for what I have in mind, but I don't want to steal it.

Second, there was a posting on the Home Theater Forum titled "How do you decide which DVD to watch from your collection?" This might seem like a silly question but I understand exactly what the initial post author means when he asks it. Often when I have the time and the inclination to watch something, I look at the shelves and have "decision paralysis". Usually I'll watch a DVD because it came up in a conversation, or we were reminded of it by a news item (as in the case when we watched Forbidden Planet after Leslie Nielsen passed away), or it's a new DVD that I just purchased. I'm a collector, so I have DVDs of favorites because I enjoy owning them and watching them whenever I like. Deciding which one to watch, however, can be difficult as I tend to revisit some discs and neglect others.

The solution? Leave it up to chance! First, I'll roll a d6 to see if the movie is from my DVD collection or from Netflix. Next, I'll check a list of random letters to choose the title. I used the random letter generator at Random.org to make a list of two-letter character strings in Excel. For the second letter of the string, I chose only the more frequently used letters. I didn't think that any film titles would start with "Zq".

There's a certain amount of fudging that will probably go on. I'll look for the film title that's the closest to the random letters, but it is not an exact science. It will depend on what titles are available, and if that film meets my criteria for a cult classic.

I haven't found a satisfying definition for "cult movie". It's a very subjective term. To paraphrase Judge Stewart, I know it when I see it. The definition that Peary used in his landmark book on the subject was a movie that is taken to heart and championed by segments of the movie audience. That's part of it, certainly, but to me that is incomplete. It may have been true in film studies of the 70s and early 80s, but since then I think that a more specific definition is in order, one that includes the relative obscurity or strangeness of the film. Look at the list of movies from his book and ask yourself what you would consider to be a "cult movie". I Married a Monster from Outer Space? Pink Flamingos? Caged Heat? Definitely cult movies. Singing in the Rain? The Searchers? The Wizard of Oz? I'm not so sure.

There are films in my collection that I love, that are considered classics, but not necessarily "cult classics". For this project, I want to shine a light on more obscure titles, the sort that the average person on the street wouldn't know about. So it's a random choice to a point, but then I might need to move one way or another on the shelf, or in the Netflix Instant search box, to find the right title.

Because of the open-ended nature of this project, I'm hoping to avoid the problem of not being able to finish, as was the case with my 100 Films in 100 Days project. I'll do my best to review a movie each week although it won't disrupt the schedule if I need to catch up later. "Review" might be a strong word for it. They may not be as detailed as my Green Slime DVD review, but I hope to cover some history and my own general impressions about the movies that I watch. I might entertain requests, too.

Arrrrr! Treasure from Lulu.com

Another code, this time a pirate treasure theme (maybe a chance to buy a Freeport book) with 20% off any order:

Enter coupon code TREASURE305 at checkout and receive 20% off your order. The maximum savings for this coupon is $100. Offer good towards print costs only - shipping and tax amounts are excluded. You can only use the code once per account, and you can't use this coupon in combination with other coupon codes. This great offer ends on January, 17 2011 at 11:59 PM so try not to procrastinate!

http://www.lulu.com/static/011311_TREASURE305wv.html/?cid=011311_en_email_TREASURE305

Best DVDs of 2010

I didn't personally see enough of the films or DVDs/Blu-rays released last year to competently comment on the best of the year. I'll leave that to the professionals:

Adam Jahnke's "The Best Discs of 2010"

Adam Jahnke's Best and Worst Films of 2010

DVD Savant Picks the Most Impressive Discs of 2010

2010: The Year They Finally Got Blu-ray Right

And a bonus: DVD Savant's 2011 DVD Wish List

After a couple of years with few real gems, it's heartening to see so many great discs released in the year that streaming video was labeled "the death of the disc".

To any "Best of 2010" DVD list I would add Vampire Circus and The Green Slime (Stuart Galbraith IV's review), but that's just me.

A phrase for the New Year

With the start of the new year, I thought about writing a recap of last year with some ideas for this one, but I could probably write the same post that I did last year at this time without many changes. I do have a few ideas for new blog features that I'm still thinking through.

Instead, I would like to point you towards a posting from Fred Hicks (via Stargazer's World) with a simple but profound message: Play More. Run More. Share More.

Yet another Lulu coupon

I missed the 25% off coupon from Christmas Day, but here's another:

Enter coupon code WINTER305 at checkout and receive 25% off your book order. The maximum savings for this coupon is $50. Offer good towards print costs only - shipping and tax amounts are excluded. You can only use the code once per account, and you can't use this coupon in combination with other coupon codes. This great offer ends on January, 5 2011 at 11:59 PM.

10 Unconventional Winter Holiday Movies (link)

If you want to watch a Christmas movie, but you are tired of the more traditional fare, Wired Magazine's GeekDad blog posted a link to ten unconventional holiday movies -- titles like Die Hard and Batman Returns. I may have to dig up my VHS copy of the MST3K version of Santa Claus Conquers the Martians.

Also, in the spirit of the holidays, take a look at a model of Serenity... in gingerbread.

Links of the Week

Some links that I found interesting in the past two weeks:

Dungeons & Dragons alignments in the Doctor Who universe.

Dungeons & Dragons alignments in the Batman universe.

An Apple engineer recreates the functions of the Antikythera Mechanism... out of Lego.

The best tic-tac-toe moves for any situation.

The evolution of human flight in film.

21 scandalous secrets revealed on WookieLeaks.

Equation: Formula for Calculating a Skycraper’s Sway (and the pendulum that keeps it in place).

Cheap DIY Camera Systems Perform Amazing Photographic Feats.

Coding for the masses.

The flight manual for the Harrier Jump Jet.

The 1982 Tron Holiday Special.

Night-time photos of Earth from the International Space Station.

More incredible photos from the ISS, including some of the most inspiring... and most creepy.

A year-end coupon code from Lulu.com

Another coupon code was sent out from Lulu this week, this time for 20% off an order. The code is REMARKABLEYEAR305 and it expires on December 31, 2010 at 11:59 PM EST. I might try to get the new issue of Fight On! or one of the Robert E. Howard publications that I haven't picked up yet.

Various opinions on net neutrality

I try to avoid writing about political issues on this blog. This should be a space to get away from that and talk about games, movies and other fun things. The idea behind what is known as "net neutrality" shouldn't be a political issue but it has become one.

For better or worse, the internet is an important part of our lives, and if you are interested in this medium (since you are reading this blog, I assume that you are) you owe it to yourself to research this issue and the ramifications.

This has been a hot story this week due to the upcoming FCC vote and the Comcast-Netflix conflict. Here are a few recent stories:

FCC Announces Net Neutrality Order for December Meeting
http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2010/12/net-neutrality-order/

Comcast Busted: New Tolls for Netflix Aren't All You Should Worry About
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/timothy-karr/comcast-busted-new-tolls-_b_789786.html

FCC chief backs some rationing of Internet traffic
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20101201/media_nm/us_fcc_netneutrality

Julius Genachowski, Chairman, Federal Communications Commission: Preserving a Free and Open Internet
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/julius-genachowski/preserving-a-free-and-ope_b_790553.html

FCC Chairman Announces Fake Net Neutrality Proposal
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/josh-silver/fcc-chairman-announces-fa_b_790307.html

Leslie Nielsen, RIP

We were saddened to hear the news late Sunday night that actor Leslie Nielsen had passed away.

I first knew of him as a serious actor, in The Poseidon Adventure, Disney's The Swamp Fox and especially Forbidden Planet (which Mrs. Kaiju saw for the first time last night).




Then in 1980, Airplane was released... My family and I used to watch that all the time, on broadcast and cable TV. It was one of the first VHS tapes we ever purchased, along with Raiders of the Lost Ark.

It's difficult to explain exactly how much influence Airplane had on comedy in the movies, and how important it was in the forming the sense of humor of a generation. I consider it one of the top comedy films ever, right alongside Blazing Saddles, and much of that reputation is because of Mr. Nielsen's performance.

I remember watching his TV series Police Squad! when it first aired, and I recall seeing the two VHS tapes (three episodes each) in the local Camelot Music record store several years later but I never got them. When DVD arrived I hoped for an eventual release of the series on that format, which happened in 2006. If you enjoy The Naked Gun, it's worth tracking this disc down.

I liked the first Naked Gun movie, but didn't care for the other two. I must admit that I haven't seen much of Mr. Nielsen's later work past Dracula: Dead and Loving It, in movies like Spy Hard, Mr. Magoo and the Scary Movie series.

The reaction on the 'net has been interesting. Many condolences and thanks, as is usual for a celebrity who has died, but this time I've seen repeated lines from Airplane or The Naked Gun used in Facebook statuses, Tweets, and article comments. I don't see it as being disrespectful; on the contrary, I think it's a testament to the sense of humor that he had, and that many, many people share, and how much his work has meant to so many. I don't believe that he would have been offended, in fact it's probably the sort of tribute he would have loved.

This clip from Monday's NBC Nightly News is one of the best tributes in the media so far:

Frank: It's the same old story. Boy finds girl, boy loses girl, girl finds boy, boy forgets girl, boy remembers girl, girl dies in a tragic blimp accident over the Orange Bowl on New Year's Day.

Jane: Goodyear?

Frank: No, the worst.

Thanks for all the laughs, Mr. Nielsen.

Cyber Monday deal from Lulu.com

Another coupon code from Lulu.com, good only until midnight tonight -- 25% off your order using code CYBER305.

 

http://www.lulu.com/static/112910_CYBER305wv.html

 

 

Ingrid Pitt, RIP

While checking the Doctor Who News Page yesterday, I saw the news that Ingrid Pitt had passed away. She had just turned 73 on Sunday. For the generations that grew up watching horror films in the 1960s and 70s, she became as iconic -- and as identified with the British horror of Hammer and Amicus Studios -- as Lee's Dracula or Cushing's Frankenstein.

Her real life story was as remarkable as any movie. Born in Poland, her father German and her mother Jewish, she and her family were held in a concentration camp. She survived the war, married an American soldier in the 1950s and moved to America, and worked as a waitress while trying out for parts as an actress.

Her film debut came as a minor role in Doctor Zhivago. Soon after, she had a speaking role opposite Richard Burton and Clint Eastwood in Where Eagles Dare.

In the late 1960s and early 70s, Hammer Studios (and others) tried to press the easing censorship rules by adding more sex appeal to their Gothic horrors. Ms. Pitt's first breakout part in the horror field was The Vampire Lovers (1970, directed by Roy Ward Baker, who died in October). She later starred in Hammer's Countess Dracula.

Aside from her famous horror film roles, she also appeared in many other movies and television programs (twice on Doctor Who) in the UK and the US. She formed a successful touring theater company, and wrote a number of fiction and non-fiction books, magazine articles, screenplays, and a weekly column at Den of Geek.

I don't remember which film I first saw her in. It was probably Where Eagles Dare. Rather than any one particular role, I will continue to remember Ms. Pitt mainly as being representative of that era of movie-making, when corseted vampires crept about through Gothic landscapes and spoke the Queen's English with the slightest Eastern European accent. Thank you, Ms. Pitt.

Our cat Java does her best Ingrid Pitt impersonation.

A quick Hammer DVD List update

My main interest regarding England's Hammer Studios has always been their horror output, and that was the focus of the Region 1 DVD list. I've since added others, including their suspense films and Robin Hood movies, to name a few examples.

The latest update adds VCI's great double-feature film noir sets, and also The Old Dark House. I did not realize that it was on the William Castle Collection set.

The American remake of Let the Right One In is also included, as it was released by the "new" Hammer Productions. It's due on DVD and Blu-ray in February.

Delays

Various real-world responsibilities have keep me from posting recently. Hopefully there will be new posts here this week.

The Green Slime: a DVD review

I made some brief comments about The Green Slime and the Warner Archive program in an earlier post when the title was first announced. We received the new DVD last Tuesday and watched it that night.


In the future, Commander Jack Rankin (Robert Horton) is called back from retirement. A rogue asteroid is on a collision course with Earth, and Rankin is charged with leading a team of astronauts to set charges and destroy the asteroid. The staging for the mission takes place at Space Station Gamma III, under the command of Rankin's old friend Commander Vince Elliot (Richard Jaeckel), who is now engaged to the station's doctor -- and Rankin's old flame -- Dr. Lisa Benson (Luciana Paluzzi). This love triangle plays out against a backdrop that includes the tense but successful mission to the asteroid, and shortly thereafter the discovery that something was brought back attached to a space suit...


The Green Slime was a co-production between American, Italian and Japanese studios: MGM, RAM Films and Toei. It is often considered as part of the "Gamma" films, including the Italian science fiction films War of the Planets and Wild, Wild Planet. Reportedly, MGM gathered together the actors, while Toei offered the studio, crew, set construction and special effects. Although filmed in Japan, the entire cast was foreign actors. Background extras were recruited from the US Air Force base near Tokyo.


This is important for the feel of the film, as it has a definite sense of a military organization and mission. In this way it is in the same tradition of "quasi-military force" science fiction as Forbidden Planet and Star Trek. Robert Horton was best known for Westerns, but Richard Jaeckel distinguished himself the year before as Lee Marvin's second-in-command Sergeant Bowren in The Dirty Dozen.


Kinji Fukasaku was known as a dependable director. For the majority of his career he worked at Toei Studios directing yakuza films. Although he delivered what the studios expected, he was still able to innovate and express his own ideas through his films. For The Green Slime, he wanted to deliver a Vietnam-era parable, about a nebulous fight against an enemy that could not be contained or controlled. Some of that shows through, but the ongoing struggle between the producers and the director over scheduling and costs held back the extremes of Fukasaku's vision. Five years later, he would direct the first in a series of films based on the memoir of a Hiroshima yakuza boss, and would be critically acclaimed around the world: Battle Without Honor and Humanity.


What we do find as a result of this international collaboration is a claustrophobic, paranoid, and almost Lovecraftian struggle against a foe that does not stop, that takes on energy from its surroundings and the very weapons used against it to reproduce.


Rankin and Elliot are fighting over Dr. Benson, but also fighting for command of the situation on the station -- literally and metaphorically. There are spacious areas on board the station (see the celebration scene), but we're still in an enclosed and self-contained space with nowhere to run. Even the sickbay isn't safe.


The hunting of the Slime through the dark and empty corridors of Gamma III is a precursor of military sci-fi and horror films like Alien, Aliens, and The Thing. The shots of the aliens swarming on the outside of the station and trying to break into the docking bay are reminiscent of the Martians in the dream recording from Quatermass and the Pit -- a nameless multitude marching on.


Considering the budgets that were available to films of this era, the special effects are quite good. The model work is excellent. The ship models are filmed against a starfield backdrop which gives it a slightly less-than-realistic feeling, but this technique also avoids the problem with matte lines that plague effects work from other contemporary films. The sets are expansive and spacious. It's remarkable to think that all of the locations were built for the film.


The master used for the DVD is a newly-created anamorphic 2.35:1 master scanned from a "beautiful" inter-positive print. For those of us who have only ever seen the movie on cable TV or videotape, the most obvious change is the widescreen presentation. Watching in the proper aspect ratio lets us see so much more of the frame, and therefore more of the action. It's still claustrophobic at the right times, but now it isn't the artificial 4:3 format that causes it.


Colors on the DVD are bright and good, and the blacks deep, so that details in shadow are still visible. Good examples are the service tunnel and darkened corridor sequences. The colors don't pop quite as much as I expected, but still comparable to other similar films of this era. Some speckles are noticeable, along with the occasional scratch in the film, but nothing glaring. The only odd film effects are two quick shots of astronauts outside the station, where the matte effect seen at DVD-resolution levels gives the actors a greenish glow. Overall, this is, without a doubt, the best that the movie has looked since the theatrical release.


The audio track is Dolby Digital mono. No special features are included. I understand that extra features mean additional expenses, although a good print of the trailer would have been a great treat.

I noticed something interesting when viewing this again for the first time in at least ten years: I felt sorry for the alien creatures. Their home asteroid was destroyed, some of their cells were carried to a strange and alien environment, and they just tried to survive and reproduce according to their instincts.

Any fan of Japanese science-fiction/fantasy films would enjoy The Green Slime. The film sits at the intersection of several noteworthy and historic trends. It's part of the career of an internationally-famous and inventive director. It was one of the first major international film co-productions. The effects were created by former employees of Toho Studios and Eiji Tsuburaya's effects crew. The theme song of the American version was written by the composer of the music for Barbarella and Happy Days. It deserves to be part of any cult movie fan's collection.


War of the Planets and Wild, Wild Planet are also new releases from the Warner Archive. I haven't seen either one before, but I definitely plan to pick them up in the future.

Upcoming posts

I received my DVD of The Green Slime in the mail yesterday, and Mrs. Kaiju and I watched it last night. Unfortunately, I won't be able to post a proper review until the weekend.

Other future postings will include more upcoming DVD news, a look at the "Red Box" D&D 4th edition starter set, and an overview of the state of manufactured-on-demand DVD releases from the major studios.

A Halloween treat from Lulu.com

If you've been thinking about ordering a print-on-demand game (or book, or any other items) from Lulu.com, they just released two coupon codes valid this weekend only. From the announcement email:

Enter coupon code TRICK305 at checkout and receive 20% off your order. The maximum savings for this offer is $100. Enter coupon code TREAT305 at checkout and receive 25% off your order of $500 or more. The maximum savings for this offer is $500. Sorry, but these offers are only valid in US dollars and cannot be applied to previous orders. You can only use these codes once per account, and unfortunately you can't use these coupons in combination with other coupon codes. These great offers expire on November 1, 2010 at 11:59 PM...