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Fog Island (1945) 1hr 9mins
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5415469961076529844&q=fog+island&hl=en
Sisters of Death (1978) 1hr 27mins 15secs
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-816908160810293091&q=carnival+of+souls
Assignment Outer Space (1961) 1hr 12mins 55secs
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8130113579409214470&q=carnival+of+souls
Topper Returns (1941) 1hr 28mins 31secs
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4732710015928288721&q=carnival+of+souls
Billy the Kid Trapped (1942) 54mins 52secs Buster Crabbe
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7283941008047972146&q=carnival+of+souls
Oasis of Zombies (1981) 1hr 25mins 26secs
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7436986526211161686&q=carnival+of+souls
Battle of the Worlds (1964) 1hr 23mins 51secs
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5274453589446386855&q=carnival+of+souls
Dr. Tarrs Torture Dungeon (1971) 1hr 22mins 42secs
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2988367268950096631&q=carnival+of+souls
La mansión de la locura [The Mansion of Madness]*
*U.S. release as Dr. Tarr's Torture Dungeon (1976)
(Prods. Prisma**, 1971) Prod: Roberto Biskin; Dir: Juan López Moctezuma; Scr: Carlos Illescas, Juan López Moctezuma; Addtl text: Gabriel Weiss; Orig Story: Edgar Allan Poe ("The System of Dr. Tarr and Professor Feather"); Photo: Rafael Corkidi; Music: Nacho Méndez; Assoc Prod: José Borchowsky, Jacobo Guss Elster; Prod Mgr: Luis Bekris; Asst Dir: Tito Novaro; Film Ed: Federico Landeros; Costume Supv: Leonora Carrington; Art Realization: Gabriel Weiss; Choreog: Tita Arroyo; Camera Asst: Miguel Garzón; Makeup: Graciela González; Dialog Rec: Ricardo Saldívar
**The print used for the Magnum Video version carries a 1975 copyright date for "V.I.P. Productions."
CAST: Claudio Brook ("Dr. Maillard" aka Raúl Fragonard), Arthur Hansel (Gastón Leblanc), Ellen Sherman (Eugenie), Martín Lasalle (Julién Couvier), David Silva (priest), Mónica Serna (Julién's niece), Max Kerlow (real Dr. Maillard), Susana Kamini (priestess), Francisco Córdoba ("Marshal"), Roberto Dumont, Henry West, Jorge Bekris (Henri), René Alis, Mario Castillón Bracho, Oscar Saro, Diane Shay [?Sharp], Virgilio Leos, Abraham Stabans, Paloma Zozaya, Sofía Solorio, Julia Marichal, Ramón Barragán, José Antonio Alcaraz, Nadine Markova, Javier Bátiz Macaria, Peter Jones, Victorio Blanco (old monk), Gerardo Zepeda (bandit), René Barrera (bandit), Juan Garza (bandit), Kevin McCormick, León Singer, Vicente Lara (bandit), Antonio Zubiaga (soldier), Joan Mary, Simon Alikan, Sammy Viskin, Lya Engel, María Antonieta Domínguez, Beatriz Velo
NOTES: This is not a great film, but it is a very good one, the first directorial effort by Juan López Moctezuma, who had been associated with Alejandro Jodorowsky on that director's earlier pictures. The English-language version (at least the one released on videotape) is significantly shorter (82 minutes) than the (reported) length of the original (99 minutes, according to the Filmoteca Nacional database), but there are no glaring plot holes (although in fact, the plot isn't that complex to begin with).
Mostly shot on location (including an abandoned textile mill), La mansión de la locura is a wonderful visual experience, filled with baroque images, although some scenes show a tendency towards theatrical staging. The sequences inside the mansion are also acted in a theatrical manner, with long, flamboyant discourses (the scenes in the woods outside the walls of the asylum are more naturalistic in tone).
But, despite the fact that this was López Moctezuma's first feature film as a director (he had worked primarily in radio and the theatre), La mansión de la locura is generally not slow or stagey. The camerawork and editing are quite fluid, stylish and professional (there is an exciting fight between Gastón, Julién and some bandits, for instance).
La mansión... is also deliberately humorous, almost absurdist in tone, in some ways (even visually) reminiscent of (except that it actually pre-dates) Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Julién Couvier is the butt of some of this humor: captured by "bandits" from the asylum, he is bound and gagged but escapes by hopping away (with "funny" music on the soundtrack) when his captors are distracted. Another sequence features "Mr. Chicken," a feathered mental patient (who brings to mind the old joke with the punchline: "But we needed the eggs!"). It's hard to imagine the reaction to these aspects by a U.S. audience lured in to see something called Dr. Tarr's Torture Dungeon, and expecting a routine horror movie!
The film also contains a variety of literary (and filmic) allusions. These include Aleister Crowley ("Do as thou wilt shall be the whole of the law"), John Donne (the "I run to death" quote, also heard in Val Lewton's The Seventh Victim), the "Rime of the Ancient Mariner," and even Little Caesar (as the false doctor expires, he says "Can this be the end of Maillard?").
La mansión de la locura (or to be more exact, Dr. Tarr's Torture Dungeon, which is the version I have seen) begins and ends with voiceover narration by Gastón Leblanc; presumably this is from Edgar Allan Poe's original story. The time is the late 1800s: Gastón was born in France but educated as a journalist in the United States; he is back in his native land to write a story about the mental hospital run by Dr. Maillard, who reportedly uses novel methods. Gastón is sharing a coach with his friend Julién--whose estate is near the asylum--and Julién's niece. Their coachman is the immensely strong Henri. The occupants of the coach are surprised to see an aged monk confronting an odd man (his top hat sports several branches, like antlers) on the forest roadway. At the gate of the asylum, Gastón is originally denied entry by several armed guards, but he is eventually admitted, and bids Julién goodbye. However, a short distance away, the coach is attacked by "bandits" (inmates from the asylum), who rape Julién's niece and tie them all up. As noted above Julién later manages to make his escape.
Meanwhile, Gastón has met the flamboyant Dr. Maillard and his beautiful daughter Eugenie. Maillard says the patients at the asylum--most of whom are wandering around freely--are encouraged to explore their fantasies and delusions as a path towards recovery. For some, like "Dante" who is locked up in a dungeon, the treatment is less generous. Gastón also notes that not all of the patients are well-disposed towards the doctor: at end of a performance of a dance, Eugenie even tries to stab Maillard!
That night, Eugenie and Gastón meet. She tells him that "Dr. Maillard" is really a notorious bandit named Raúl Fragonard, who escaped from Devil's Island and came to her father's asylum to hide out. He then fomented a revolt among the patients, and now runs the institution as his private kingdom. Eugenie and Gastón escape into the forest, pursued by Fragonard's men. They join forces with Julién, but eventually are all recaptured. Julién is thrown into a cell with the real Dr. Maillard and Henri the coachman.
At a grand ceremony, Fragonard condemns Eugenie and Gastón to death. Three "crow men" appear and do a long, intricate dance of death (these performers--obviously professional dancers--are made up to look like members of Kiss or even the much-later comic book character "The Crow"). But before they can use their razor-sharp scythes on the captives, Julién and the others arrive, having broken out of their cell. A battle ensues, and Fragonard is mortally wounded. Dr. Maillard regains control of his asylum.
Claudio Brook is satisfactory as Maillard/Fragonard, although by this time he was somewhat typecast as a fanatic (Arturo Ripstein would continue this trend by using him in El castillo de la pureza the following year); he worked again for López Moctezuma in Alucarda. Arthur Hansel, usually a professional gringo in Mexican movies, has the hero's role, a rarity for him (López Moctezuma would also give him a major role in Mary, Mary, Bloody Mary); Ellen Sherman was not a Mexican cinema regular, although she had been in some Hollywood productions, and acquits herself adequately. The rest of the cast includes some performers who would become López Moctezuma regulars: Susana Kamini, Martín Lasalle, and David Silva (who had appeared in El Topo as the bandit leader).
Final notes: the Magnum video of this film has the main title in English, but the opening credits are in Spanish. Then the end credits are in English! The typeface is the same for all. Some of the minor characters seem to have been dubbed into English, but most of the major performers seem to be doing their own dialogue. Regarding this and López Moctezuma's other films, I am not sure if the Mexican release versions were entirely dubbed into Spanish (i.e., even those performers who were bilingual and could have done their own Spanish dialogue), or if Claudio Brook, et al, did their own dubbing. Given the budgetary circumstances under which López Moctezuma worked, I seriously doubt if he shot two versions of scenes--one in English, one in Spanish--so that the ironic circumstance is that these "Mexican" movies were probably made (mostly) in English! (note: unlike many Italian and Spanish movies, Mexican films were generally shot with "live" sound, rather than being shot silent and entirely post-dubbed)
Certainly a highly recommended film.
Link: http://www.wam.umd.edu/~dwilt/mansion.htm
Bird of Paradise (1932) King Vidor 1hr 20mins 32secs
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7935634736012705942&q=carnival+of+souls
The Revenge of Dr. X (early '60's) 1hr 33mins 49secs
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5074520914321662305&q=carnival+of+souls
Africa Screams (1949) 1hr 19mins 18secs Bud & Lou
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7191434980630568254&q=carnival+of+souls
The Last Man on Earth (1964) 1hr 27mins
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1663597729999672400&q=%22The+Last+Man%22&hl=en
The Mad Monster (1942) 1hr 15mins 37secs
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6872182113436338495&q=roger+corman&hl=en
The Corpse Vanishes (1942) Bela Lugosi 1hr 3mins
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-293213811886765078&q=%22The+Corpse+Vanishes%22&hl=e....
Swamp Women (1955) Roger Corman 1hr 8mins 30secs
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4373407269676973360&q=roger+corman&hl=en
The Terror (1963) Roger Corman 1hr 19mins 5secs
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2907052977400374757&q=roger+corman&hl=en
The Last Woman On Earth (1960) Roger Corman 1hr 12mins
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8733811505990703650&q=public+domain&hl=en
The Wasp Woman (1960) Roger Corman 1hr 12mins 32secs
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5447192756143174663&q=public+domain&hl=en
Murder by Television (1935) Bela Lugosi 54mins 2secs
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6612004246458278592&q=public+domain&hl=en
Unknown World (1954) 1hr 13mins 56secs
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8860095974632212529&q=public+domain&hl=en
Da uomo a uomo/Death Rides a Horse (1967) 1hr 54mins 25secs
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7094648234476852053&q=public+domain&hl=en
The Phantom Ship (1936) 1hr 1min 21secs Bela Lugosi
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7090496720933773976&q=public+domain&hl=en
Algiers (1938) 1hr 39mins 6secs
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7780740801547017564&q=public+domain&hl=en
Meet John Doe (1936) Frank Capra 2hr 2mins 50secs
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5136596607482667346&q=public+domain&hl=en
Oktyabr 1927 Russian Sergie Eisenstein (Ten Days That Shook the World)
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5145681159754581676&q=M+fritz+lang
Ivan the Terrible, Part 1 (1944) Sergie Eisenstein
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3061268185454718323&q=ivan+the+terrible
M - Eine Stadt sucht einen Moerder 1931 Fritz Lang
http://video.google.com/videosearch?q=M+fritz+lang
THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL
* * * *
Michael Rennie Klaatu
Patricia Neal Helen Benson
Hugh Marlowe Tom Stevens
Sam Jaffe Dr. Barnhardt
Billy Gray Bobby Benson
Frances Bavier Mrs. Barley
Lock Martin Gort
Directed by Robert Wise. Written by Edmund North (based on a story by Harry Bates). 1951. Running time: 92 minutes.
WARNING: This article contains several spoilers and plot details. If you are planning on seeing The Day the Earth Stood Still it is recommended that you don't read any further . . .
One critic remarked of The Day the Earth Stood Still that, for a movie with avowedly liberal leanings, it has a rather strange attitude towards the role of violence in controlling people. For starters, it is rather favourable towards the concept . . .
The big problem for said critic comes in with the statement by the visiting alien Klaatu (played with a certain elan by Michael Rennie) towards the end of the movie when it is revealed that he represents a galactic federation of sorts - a plethora of various worlds - all of them held in check by a race of super robots (represented by the huge silver robot Gort) which they had had built and designed themselves.
These robots keep the galactic peace - if a particular planet shows aggressive behaviour towards its neighbouring or other worlds, then they are immediately attacked by said super robots. Think of a sort of galactic United Nations backed up by serious hardware - in this case said robots, which fire laser beams from their eyes - and you get the idea.
At first glance this may seem to be acceptable, but it doesn't hold up to closer scrutiny. We would all like the aggressors and bullies to be punished and halted in its tracks. Imagine having some competent school prefects around on your primary school playground that simply stopped the other bigger kids from beating the crap out of you! Wouldn't that have been cool? But The Day The Earth Stood Still is mostly informed by such school playground metaphysics - it simply doesn't not hold up to the real world which isn't black and white at all . . .
A bomb goes off in a popular night-club killing several clubbers - including a woman. Clearly the people who planted the bomb are in the wrong and should be brought to justice. But what if I told you that the people who planted that particular bomb represented more than two-thirds of that country's population who have no voting rights? Who is in the wrong now? The club's name is Magoo's and it is mid-1980s. It was planted by the military wing of the ANC opposed to the then South African apartheid regime.
Killing civilians is clearly wrong you may argue - but what if the cause is noble? (Slaughtering civilians in bombing raids have always been American military policy - e.g., the 120 000 killed in Dresden in 1945, about 80 000 in Hiroshima and let's not forget the bombing of Hanoi and Baghdad. In the case of Hanoi, it wasn't even done with a formal declaration of war by the USA against North Vietnam in case you want to insist on international law niceties.)
See what I mean about a certain race of super robots going around and neutralising aggressors? Not that The Day the Earth Stood Still equates this race of robots with the post-WWII international role of the United States. However, the analogy is inescapable and the question lingers: if we can't manage to have impartial global policemen, then who says alien races will get it right?
The main message of The Day the Earth Stood Still is that we Earthlings should set our differences aside and act as a planet - not as a loose confederation of nation states. When Klaatu's flying saucer lands in Washington D.C. it is clear to humanity that the pond has just gotten bigger and that we can no longer think of ourselves as Americans, Russians, Canadians, Brazilians, South Africans or whatever. Alas, when Klaatu asks for a conference of world leaders to hear him out nobody would comply. It is the height of the Cold War and the Russians refuse to sit down with the Americans at the same table and vice versa.
Klaatu gets the world attention by incredibly shutting down all electricity (except in cases where it might be life threatening) around the world. The earth literally stands still for a day! But it is a show of force by superior technology, the equivalent of being the only nation of Earth to have the atomic bomb and dropping it on two major cities - to end a seemingly endless war, true, but also to impress future enemies (in this case, Soviet Russia under Stalin).
The desire for god-like aliens to sort our problems for us, either by direct action or by leading example is very strong in celluloid science fiction. It is a strong theme in The Abyss - Special Edition and the idea of benevolent aliens was also touched upon in the likes of The Fifth Element, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Star Trek - First Contact, Contact and 2001: A Space Odyssey (humans evolving to a next step in evolution thanks to the interference of an alien race). However, moral relativity remains the hallmark of international political discourse in the 20th century and probably will remain so in the 21st as well - despite the current so-called "idealpolitik" efforts by the West in Kosovo, East Timor and elsewhere.
When The Day The Earth Stood Still was made, it was 1951 and America has just helped defeat the morally repugnant and evil Nazi Germany. Back then it was easy to believe in moral absolutes - of black & white issues - Vietnam was still a long way off. Hitler was clearly evil - but was Ho Chi Minh who led a movement that was clearly more populist nationalist in nature than communist? The school playground has just turned several shades of grey . . .
(By the way, if you want to read an excellent book on the reasons why America "lost" that conflict, then try Canadian historian Gabriel Kolko's Vietnam - Anatomy of a War.)
Copyright © November 1999 James O'Ehley/The Sci-Fi Movie Page
Link: http://www.scifimoviepage.com/nov99pik.html
THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH
(1934)
With Leslie Banks , Edna Best, Peter Lorre, Pierre Fresnay, Frank Vosper, Nova Pilbeam
Directed by Alfred Hitchcock
Black and White
Reviewed by JL
Hitchcock arrives. After his nine years and 16 studio-product films of varying quality and genre, THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH marked the beginning of the first major phase of Hitchcock's career. To me, there's no debate as to which is the better version of TMWKTM, this film or its 1956 remake. Whereas this first incarnation was mostly effective and contained a few classic sequences, it's no match for the mature polish of the later version (which itself had its problems, albeit less blatant). I suppose the opening skiing-tournament scene is as effective as a scene cobbled together from glaringly obvious back projection and stock footage can be, but it tends to call to mind the similar scenes in W.C. Fields's "The Fatal Glass of Beer." (At any rate, I got a laugh out of the wife when I made a "milk the elk" joke during the scene.) There's a bit more technical clumsiness here and there, and someone should have really taught poor Leslie Banks how to hold a gun. And as an example of how Hitchcock would grow as a storyteller, note how the assassination plot is much more credible, less ad-hoc, and more suspenseful in the remake -- and it's the same assassination plot in both films. Still, the 1934 version has much to recommend it, including a fast and consistently exciting pace, the business with the dentist, Nova Pilbeam held hostage, and a thrilling climactic scene in Albert Hall. But the main strength of the film is Peter Lorre, equal parts menace and campy fun. Overall, THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH still works despite its flaws, and it's of high importance in Hitchcock's canon.
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Remakes
The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956) (Directed by Alfred Hitchcock)
Link: http://otherstuff.laurelandhardycentral.com/manwho1.html
Carnival of Souls
Public Domain Torrents
1 hr 23 min 11 sec - Jun 16, 2006
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5889611170298886879&q=carnival+of+souls
Night of the Living Dead (1968)
Image Ten
1 hr 35 min 17 sec - Apr 14, 2006
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2956447426428748010&q=sherlock+holmes
Charlie Chaplin's The Kid
Charlie Chaplin
1 hr 7 min 32 sec - Mar 17, 2006
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8307280380112470568&q=sherlock+holmes
ps. doesn't appear to be any sound...FWIW.
The Outlaw (1943)
Howard Hughes Productions
1 hr 55 min 44 sec - Apr 14, 2006
yamaloaf33.tripod.com
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5183845801951323179&q=sherlock+holmes
DOA
Rudolph Maté
1 hr 23 min 9 sec - Mar 19, 2006
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3444192259821201896&q=sherlock+holmes
Battleship Potemkin - Bronenosets Potyomkin 1925
Sergei M. Eisenstein
1 hr 12 min 50 sec - Mar 20, 2006
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1630669376406423668&q=sherlock+holmes
Sherlock Holmes - Woman in Green
Another outing for Sherlock Holmes featuring the classic pairing of Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce. This story sees the duo investigating a series ...
Universal Pictures - 1 hr 7 min - Mar 19, 2006
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6984881137359838398&q=sherlock+holmes
Sherlock Holmes and the Secret Weapon
Classic wartime tale of Sherlock Holmes verses the Nazis. Starring Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce.
Universal Pictures - 1 hr 9 min - Mar 17, 2006
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2671463631838051578&q=sherlock+holmes
Dressed To Kill (1946)
Fell out of copyright... Aka 'Sherlock Holmes in Dressed To Kill' - features Basil Rathbone as Sherlock Holmes. A convicted thief in Dartmoor prison ...
Universial Pictures - 1 hr 12 min - Apr 14, 2006
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1107300005439660604&q=sherlock+holmes
I was surprised to see this film: The Day The Earth Stood Still 1951 listed as a public domain film. Well, perhaps it is. I'll be studying this area here and the computer tech/software/advances and so on that make tv shows/movies and the like much more available and accessible by computer.
We'll see how this goes.
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