Subject: Misc: Neglected Gems of Fantasy, Horror, and Science Fiction Films

From: Mark R. Leeper <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 25 Sep 2001 01:23:38 -0000

Neglected Gems of Fantasy, Horror, and Science Fiction Films
                     Film comment by Mark R. Leeper
                Copyright 1994, 2000, 2001 Mark R. Leeper
       Available at http://www.geocities.com/markleeper/forgot.htm

One of the things I like to do occasionally in my film reviews is to
make reference to some very good film that I doubt most of my readers
have heard of and to which I would like to call some attention. There
are a lot of decent films, and a handful of very good ones, that at this
point may exist only in the film libraries of obscure television
stations, and when these few prints disappear the films will be gone. I
would like to generate some interest in four of these films, if not to
help save them, at least to alert people that if they do get a chance to
see these films, it is a rare chance and you should give them a try.

Of course, there are a lot of obscure films that are showing up on
videotape today, many of them very poorly made films. It is ironic that
some terrific films are being over-looked, but in each case I think I
can understand why some producer would think the film would not sell
well on tape. I still recommend these films highly to watch for. This
list was composed in the mid-70s, but in the interim I have been adding
to it, and in some cases deleting. I have removed Quatermass and the Pit
(a.k.a. Five Million Years to Earth), still in my opinion the best
science fiction film ever made, because it is no longer really obscure.
I take some pride that my efforts to bring this film to people's
attention may be part of the reason it no longer is obscure in the US.
Perhaps this list will help in some small way to make some of the other
films more available and perhaps be discovered by new fans. Every one of
these films had something unique that appealed to me. Not every film
will appeal to every viewer. If these films had appealed to every
viewer, it is much more likely they would still be around and popular.

It is of interest to notice how often the name Richard Matheson shows up
in this listing. That is probably as it should be. Matheson is one of
the great under-appreciated names in fantasy, horror, and science
fiction. He has made a greater contribution than Stephen King, but most
modern fans do not even know his name. This list was intended to bring
attention to neglected films, but just as important, I hope it brings
attention to a neglected man.

Faust (1926)

Director F. W. Murnau is best known for Nosferatu, the making of which
was dramatized in Shadow of the Vampire. This is another fine film from
him. There is a lot of good visual fantasy in this film version of the
famous play by Goethe. There is a terrific image of the Devil spreading
his cape over a village, and many other visual surprises throughout.

 The Man Who Laughs (1928)

The story, based on a lesser-known novel by Victor Hugo, could be
better, but Conrad Veidt is terrific in the role of a man whose face is
carved into an obscene, huge, involuntary grin. This makes everybody
interpret him as constantly happy. Veidt conveys a full range of
emotions through his eyes alone. The grinning Veidt was the visual
inspiration for Batman's foe The Joker.
 The Dybbuk (1939)

At times this is very slow but also at times a very effective horror
film. This was a low-budget film done in Yiddish but is now restored and
subtitled in English. The "Dance of Death" scene has become an eerie
classic. The story deals with a man's soul returning from the dead to
possess the woman promised to him and whom he loved. Most of the
filmmakers died in the Holocaust shortly after the film was made.

 The Seventh Victim (1943)

Other Val Lewton films get more attention but this film is blacker and
bleaker than anything ever done in film noir is. This is a solid mood
piece that stands above Lewton's other films. A woman searching for her
sister runs afoul of murder and Satanists.

 Night of the Demon (a.k.a. Curse of the Demon) (1957)

This film has gotten some attention because of an allusion in a song in
The Rocky Horror Picture Show, but at the time of the original writing
it was rarely seen. Now it is a little better known, but still not to
the degree it deserves. That is a pity because it is quite a nice little
supernatural thriller. It suffers a little from showing the audience too
much too soon, but it still is suspenseful and well-written.

 The Mind Benders (1962)

This film combines Cold War thriller elements with science fiction and a
compelling human story. A scientist working on sensory deprivation
commits suicide and is discovered to have been passing secrets to the
Soviets. Was he to blame or could his mind have been twisted while under
the influence of the sensory deprivation tank? The government
investigator decides to experiment to find out. Another scientist
working in the same field (played by Dirk Bogarde) is very devoted to
his wife and family. Can the government investigators change that in his
personality while he is in the tank? This film is well acted,
enthralling, and atmospheric.

 Night of the Eagle (a.k.a. Burn, Witch, Burn) (1962)

When Richard Matheson and Charles Beaumont co-write a screenplay based
on a novel by Fritz Leiber, you just naturally expect a good thriller.
This story about an empiricist college professor discovering that his
wife and several other professors' wives around him are actually
witches. It is very well made and remains tense throughout.

 Devil Doll (1963)

This is a wildly uneven film, but it has many very good moments. There
have been several attempts to do the stories of ventriloquist dummies
who have lives of their own. This is the most intriguing treatment of
that theme. For once the secret of what is happening is not a let-down.

 Unearthly Stranger (1963)

A secret project is working on space exploration right in the heart of
London. The approach to exploration is a novel one. Rather than sending
the whole human into space, they are working on a sort of technological
out-of-body experience. One can project ones mind to another planet and
there have it take on physical form ... invasion by mental projection
and out-of-body experiences. The rub is that scientists on the project
are being killed in some mysterious way involving super-high energy. And
the wives of some of the scientists seem to have no background that
project security can trace. The script is tense and the acting is quite
good, with a cast that includes John Neville (A Study in Terror, The
Adventures of Baron Munchausen) and Jean Marsh (Upstairs, Downstairs).
(This film is so obscure that Leonard Maltin's usually very complete
Movie and Video Guide overlooks it.)

L' Ultimo Uomo Della Terra (a.k.a. The Last Man on Earth) (1964)

One of the more negative aspects of this film is that it started the
whole sub-genre of Living Dead and Zombie movies. It is a fairly
effective adaptation of Richard Matheson's novel I Am Legend, screenplay
by Matheson himself. Matheson must have been disappointed with the film
or with Vincent Price's performance since he had his name taken off of
the film. He probably lived to regret that decision since this film is
much more intelligent than most modern horror films and it is certainly
better than the big-budget empty remake, Omega Man. One human remains
alive while every other human dies of the plague, but returns as a sort
of vampire. Now the one human rules while the sun is up, but at night is
besieged by the dead. I saw it on a double feature with the
above-mentioned Unearthly Stranger. Wow!

 Crack in the World (1965)

The first and last ideas of this film are pretty silly, but in between
this is a fairly exciting super-disaster film. A scientist uses a
nuclear missile to open a passageway to the hot core of the earth. Like
a crack in a car windshield, this fissure starts to spread threatening
to break apart the whole world. Some of the visuals are spectacular.
There is also some interesting human drama.

 Dark Intruder (1965)

This film is only 59 minutes long and originally was intended as a
television pilot, but was released to theaters to play with films such
as William Castle's I Saw What You Did--which it far out-classed. Leslie
Nielsen plays a detective in late 19th Century San Francisco whose
foppish appearance hides a man very knowledgeable and adept in matters
of the occult and the supernatural. A series of weird unsolved murders
and a friend's blackout spells may be connected and have some occult
significance. Mark Richman and Werner Klemperer also star. The latter,
best known as the gullible commandant from Hogan's Heroes, does a
terrific job in a sinister role.

 The Devil Rides Out (a.k.a. The Devil's Bride) (1968)

Richard Matheson's very faithful adaptation of the black magic novel by
Dennis Wheatley takes a science fiction-like approach to Satanism. It is
fast-paced and at times fairly intelligent. As an economy measure they
cheapened the effect of showing the Devil by not using a lot of special
effects with the ironic effect that he seemed much more immediate and
corporeal. This is one of Hammer's best horror films.

 Witchfinder General (a.k.a. Conqueror Worm) (1968)

A vital and well-made historical fringe-horror film about one of the
great villains of English history, Matthew Hopkins. Even Vincent Price
does a reasonable acting job. The original musical score is actually
quite beautiful, though there is a version with an entirely different
and much less enjoyable score.

 Satan's Skin (a.k.a. Blood on Satan's Claw) (1970)

In some ways an imitation of the style of Witchfinder General. A 17th
Century English ploughman turns up the remains of a demon and the
artifact exerts satanic influence on the children of the region. This is
a very atmospheric film with an authentic historical feel.

 Quest for Love (1971)

This film is loosely adapted from the short story "Random Quest" by John
Wyndham. Colin Trafford (played by Tom Bell) is a leading scientist at
Britain Imperial Physical Institute when one of his experiments goes
wrong. Suddenly he finds himself in a parallel London in a parallel
Britain that has not been to war since the Great War in the early part
of the century. In this world Trafford here is not a physicist, but a
popular playwright. He is also now married to a beautiful woman (played
by Joan Collins) whose life he has made miserable with his selfish ways
and his philandering. Can Colin convince the world he is the playwright
while convincing his new wife that he is different? Then there are plot
complications that lead to a fast-paced climax across parallel worlds.
Denholm Elliot also stars in the story which is part science fiction
adventure and part love story.

 Count Yorga, Vampire (1973)

This low-budget horror film redefined the concept of the vampire. As a
reaction to the staid, hypnotic, and slow vampires of British horror
films, this film makes most vampires fast moving predatory deadly
animals who hunt in packs. At the time this was pretty scary stuff and
the film still has a lot of its impact.

 The Big Bus (1974)

Not very good as a science fiction film, but it is science fiction and
it is a good film. Years before Airplane! was this film along the same
lines and very nearly as funny. This is a satire of disaster films as
the evil villain Ironman tries desperately to destroy Cyclops, the first
nuclear powered bus on its maiden voyage from New York to Denver.

 Phase IV (1974)

Two mutually alien intelligences are seen in the beginnings of a serious
war. It is really more about how each side collects information about
the other and uses its physical differences against the other. Ants
somehow develop a gestalt mind and prepare to make themselves the
masters of the world. Visually very striking with direction by visual
artist Saul Bass (best known for creating arresting title sequences for
other directors' films). There is also some terrific insect photography.

 Who? (1974)

This fairly accurate adaptation of Algis Budrys' novel had film stock
problems (!) and could not be released to theaters. That is a genuine
pity. Cold War story of its near future has a scientist important to
military defense in a bad accident. The East Germans get hold of him and
return him to the West more prosthetic than living matter. Now the
problem is, how do you prove that he is who he says he is?

 To the Devil, A Daughter (1976)

In spite of some scenes that are overly graphic for some viewers and a
low-key ending, this is a fast paced supernatural thriller. The hero
played by Richard Widmark is disreputable author of popular exploitation
books about the supernatural. The villain played by Christopher Lee is a
stop-at-nothing idealist trying to save the world in a dangerous
experiment using dark forces. The writing is crisp and unusual.

 The Last Wave (1977)

Australian Peter Weir build his reputation on this strange, mystical
film about a lawyer who finds he might be the fulfillment of an
Aboriginal prophecy. Images of nature out of balance and an intriguing
story make this story a real spellbinder. This is a hard film to
pigeon-hole and the intelligence of the writing never flags. This is a
film of the quality of The Wicker Man, but one which has gotten much
less attention.

 Dragonslayer (1981)

Lots of films try to do Medieval high fantasy, but this is probably the
best. With the death of a great magician, his young apprentice must see
if he has mastered enough of his master's art to destroy a terrific
dragon who is ravaging the countryside. There are lots of nice touches
in the script and years later the dragon remains the best ever created
on film.

 Knightriders (1981)

George Romero says he got this out of his system and never has to make
another film like Knightriders. What a pity! This was one of the best
films of its year. Superficially this is the story of a traveling
Renaissance Fair that features jousts on motorcycles. But it has some
terrific characters and a theme of the struggle between integrity and
commercialism and between idealism and practicality. And late in the
film the viewer realizes that the film has also been doing something
else all along--it would be a spoiler to reveal what. This is a neat
piece of writing.

 Lifeforce (1981)

Very few fans are willing to look beyond the naked woman and the zombies
to see what is one of the most bizarre and audacious concepts for any
science fiction film. Vampires, we learn, are really beings that leak
lifeforce into the atmosphere like a tire with a slow leak leaks air.
They must replenish the force regularly or they die. Much as we put
bacteria into milk to multiply and make yogurt or cheese, some huge,
incomprehensible, amoral, alien race seeds earth with vampires. The
numbers of these vampires will increase exponentially, leaking more and
more lifeforce into the environment so the aliens can vacuum it up.

 Brainstorm (1983)

Okay, admittedly I do not like the last third of this film. Up to that
point it is magnificent. This is the film that they had to patch
together because of the death of Natalie Wood. Up to that point it is a
superb examination of how a new invention--the electronic communication
of brain sensation, electronic telepathy--is going to completely change
the human race. Most films do not portray the R&D environment very well,
this one does it nearly perfectly. You could make fifty films an never
use up the implications of the premise of this film.

 Something Wicked This Way Comes (1983)

I am not generally a fan of Ray Bradbury's poetic prose. In this film I
can appreciate what he is trying to do and he does create a good
suspense. Jonathan Pryce really projects malevolence as the owner of an
evil carnival. This may be one of the most artistic horror films ever
made. This film has several very good scenes and no bad ones. I really
like a scene in which the evil Mr. Dark is tempting the Jason Robards
character.

 A Chinese Ghost Story (1987)

Hong Kong for a while was making its own horror film movement for their
own audience. Their films are fast-paced, usually liberally laced with
comedy and martial arts, but also having some interesting horror
concepts. No one such film is all that terrific (at least among the
films I have seen so far) but some are astonishing and full of
unexpected touches. Look for the "Chinese Ghost Story" films, Wicked
City, and Mr. Vampire (which must have a different name in China since
it is really about Chinese "Hopping Ghosts").

 The Runestone (1990)

Not a perfect horror film, but one with an intriguing idea and some
decent humorous writing along with the horror. The ancient Norse hid a
runestone in Pennsylvania to be rid of the thing. It is the key to
releasing the Fenris Wolf and bringing about the holocaust of Ragnarok.
The stone is found setting in motion events that could bring the end of
the world. Peter Riegert is great as a laconic policeman pulled into the
proceedings.

 The Rocketeer (1991)

Hey, my introduction to science fiction was with Commando Cody, Sky
Marshall of the Universe, who flew with a rocket pack on his back. Those
serials were tacky. This is what they would have done if they had a
budget. We have a stylish look at Southern California in the 1930s with
airplanes, movie stars, gangsters, and Nazi agents. In the middle of all
this Cliff Secord finds a jet pack that lets him fly like Superman does.
This film was popular in Japan, but never found much of a market in it
native United States.

 Cronos (1993)

A strange but very good film from Mexico about an alchemist's invention
that gives the user immortality, but only at the cost of making that
person a vampire. An aging antique dealer finds the immortality device
only to have it destroy his life. One of the most creative horror films
to be made in years. Filmmaker Guillermo del Toro has a very creative
eye.

 Dellamorte Dellamore (a.k.a. Cemetery Man) (1994)

The Italians made the zombie movie that started the sub-genre, L' Ultimo
Uomo Della Terra (a.k.a. The Last Man on Earth), it is appropriate that
they also made the film that put a bullet into the genre. This film
lampoons all the conventions of the zombie film by just accepting them
and taking them deadpan. Francesco Dellamorte manages a cemetery so the
important job falls to him to kill the dead when they come back. It is
not the world's greatest job but someone has to do it and it does allow
him to indulge in occasional necrophilia. Very strange film and at times
very funny if you are not turned off by the subject matter.

 Richard III (1995)

An alternate history science fiction film by William Shakespeare? I
generally hate modern dress for operas and plays set in the past. Here
it adds new meaning to Shakespeare's play. By setting Richard III in the
1930s, it becomes a stylish film of a fascist takeover of Britain. Ian
McKellen is always great, but has never been better than as the elegant,
malevolent usurper of the throne of England.

 Kyua (a.k.a. Cure) (1997)

Even giving away the premise of this Japanese crime film probably gives
away too much; however, since the film will probably almost never be
seen outside of Japan, I will give the premise. The police have to solve
a series of bloody murders, each with a different killer. The killers
generally stay at the scene of the crime, but they have no memory of the
crime, no motive, and are completely confused. Each case seems to be
temporary insanity, but the pattern is too regular to be chance. One
person is by force of will influencing chance passersby to become
murderers. The process takes only an instant. Even knowing what is going
on, the police are stumped how they can find the perpetrator and stop
him.

 Last Night (1998)

The film covers six hours, from 6 PM to midnight. Midnight is when the
world comes to an end. How would you spend the last six hours of not
just your life but the last six hours of the human race? The star,
writer, and director is Canadian Don McKellar, who explores just that
question in a film literally about the last night. This film is almost a
loose and uncredited adaptation of Richard Matheson's 1953 short story
"The Last Day." Still, McKellar manages comedy, drama, and a whole gamut
of emotions.

 Lake Placid (1999)

The fun of this film is not the monster, a giant crocodile, but the
dialog as a mismatched group of investigators hunt for the creature in
their local lake. The script writers formerly wrote for Northern
Exposure and the dialog is very funny. The actual story of the film is
just okay, but that is not why the film is worth seeing.

 Titus (1999)

A horror film by William Shakespeare???? You better believe it. Broadway
genius Julie Taymor (The Lion King) brings Shakespeare's Titus
Andronicus to the screen as the sickest, most violent, most perverted
most wonderful Shakespeare film ever made. Anthony Hopkins in Hannibal
seemed like a pale echo of his blood-lusting character in Titus. Jessica
Lange also stars. Sudden death, rape, dismemberment, maiming,
cannibalism is all part of the story. And it is not toned down because
it is for a Shakespeare audience. This noses out Richard III (above) as
the best Shakespeare experience I have ever had. Much Ado About Nothing
comes in third. 

-- 
Mark R. Leeper, <[email-masked]>
http://www.geocities.com/markleeper/
Or try your search engine on "Mark Leeper"

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