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FEATURED THREADS for 10-18-22

 
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Tue Oct 18, 2022 8:25 am    Post subject: FEATURED THREADS for 10-18-22 Reply with quote



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More classic horror/science fiction from the 30s and 40s.

The first is a big budget adventure from 1935 called She, which was originally planned to have stop motion — but didn’t, more’s the pity. Sad

The second is about the discovery of the lost city of Atlantis . . . in the desert. (No wonder it was lost! Who’d have thought to look there?)

And the third one is about a doctor who upholds a proud family tradition started by his father — the creation of new living people by stitching together the parts of old dead people. (The ultimate recycling program!) Shocked




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She (1935)

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An ambitious tale of adventure with some very impressive names listed in its title credits. The novel is by H. Rider Haggard ("King Solomon's Mines"), the producer is Merian C. Cooper ("King Kong"), the music is by Max Steiner ("King Kong"), and the special effects are by Kong's creator, Willis O'Brien.

Stop motion sequences were originally planned, but never done. The closest we get is a scene in which a group of explorers discover a frozen sabre-toothed tiger inside a wall of ice.

High above the Arctic Circle the explorers discover a lost civilization, the Kingdom of Kor, hidden inside a mountain. Kor is ruled by a 500-year old queen who stays young and beautiful by entering the Flame of Life, which bathes her in a "new form radiation" (great special effects).

This is the only screen appearance by actress Helen Gahagan (later a Congresswoman). The immortal gueen beleives one of the explorers (Randolph Scott) is the reincarnation of her lost lover, an ancestor of Scott's who found the lost kingdom centuries earlier. She wants him to enter the Flame of Life with her. Helen Mack ("Son of Kong") is the pretty heroine who accompanies the explorers.

Co-starring Nigel Bruce (Dr. Watson from the Sherlock Holmes series), Noble Johnson (the native chief in "King Kong"), and Gustav Von Seyffertitz (frequent character actor from the 1930s).

Directed by Irving Pichel (who later did "Destination Moon") and Lancing C. Holden. The action is lack-luster by "Kong" standards, and the ending seems both abrupt and weak. But the huge art-deco sets are very impressive.

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Siren of Atlantis (1949)



This is the first of two unskilled attempts to glean high adventure from a winning concept, modeled after the 1935 classic "She". Jean Pierre-Aumont and his fellow desert trekkers discover the legendary city of Atlantis beneath the sandy wastes.
Okay, never mind the fact that the legend says Atlantis was a continent that sank beneath the ocean -- after all, "Fire Maidens from Outer Space" put Atlantean survivors on a moon of Jupiter!

The decadent queen of Atlantis is Maria Montez, who played a similar role in 1944's "Cobra Woman", a much more enjoyable "lost kingdom" movie. In one scene, the immortal queen displays her collection of mummified lovers.

Sets and costumes for "Siren of Atlantis" are fairly good, but the film is so poorly done that all three of the directors (yes, three -- Arthur Ripley, Douglas Sirk, and John Brahm) declined screen credit, listing the editor's name instead!

Thirteen years later, veteran sci-fi director Edgar G. Ulmer ("The Man from Planet X", "Beyond the Time Barrier") made "Journey Beneath the Desert", the second unsuccessful attempt to make this promising (though illogical) premise work.


Suggestion: Watch "Siren of Atlantis with "Fire Maidens from Outer Space" and call it an Atlantis-where-you-least-expect-it double feature.
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Son of Frankenstein (1939)



The third film in the famous series is, like the monster itself, a combination of both good and bad elements.

The good part of the film is the cast, the sets, the production values, and the sincerity with which they are all applied by director Rowland V. Lee. Basil Rathbone is perfectly cast as the grown-up son of Victor Frankenstein, returning to his ancestral castle with wife and son.

Rathbone's ability to play a man of minimum emotions and maximum logic earned him the long-running role of Sherlock Holmes. As Wolf Von Frankenstein, Rathbone develops a keen interest in the notorious experiments of his father, despite warnings from the local police inspector (Lionel Atwill), who shows Rathbone the artificial arm he must wear because his real arm was ripped off by the monster.

Rathbone meets an old shepherd named Ygor (Bela Lugosi in one of his best performances), whose neck is deformed by an unsuccessful hanging he survived after being convicted of body-snatching. Lugosi shows Rathbone the hiding place of the monster's unconscious body, in the Frankenstein family crypt beneath the castle. Rathbone revives the monster (Boris Karloff's last appearance in the role), but Lugosi secretly uses the monster to resume his systematic elimination of the jurors who convicted him.

"Son of Frankenstein's" nightmarish photography, surrealistic sets, and odd lighting give it a delightfully gothic look. The plot is rich in the atmospheric mood of the genre.

But on the down side of all this is the way the film demotes the monster to a mere homicidal weapon, wielded by Lugosi. The monster isn't even allowed to speak (as he did in "Bride of Frankenstein"). This change in character was the sad beginning of the monster's subsequent portrayals as little more than a malfunctioning robot.

The superhuman strength to which later films make frequent reference is clearly an exaggeration of the original concept. The essence of the Frankenstein monster was supposed to be his tortured, unpredictable brain.

Fault-finding aside, "Son of Frankenstein" is a powerhouse motion picture, a delight to horror fans and a fascinating chapter in this classic multi-movie saga. It was originally intended as Universal's first Technicolor feature, but color tests revealed that Karloff's makeup didn't photograph well. Dwight Frye appears in the color tests but was not cast in the final film.

Followed by a sequel: "Ghost of Frankenstein" (1942).

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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)
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