Day 197: The Naked Jungle (1954) - Rank 4/5

It's Charlton Heston at his most "womanizingest!" Yes, while this film could easily be dismissed as an attempt to exploit the crown that went for "The African Queen," the incendiary nature of Heston, the production of George Pal (the 1950's answer to Jerry Bruckheimer) and an onslaught of army arts all make this a noteworthy investment in viewing.

Heston is Leiningen - a tough-as-nails owner of a cocoa plantation in South America. He drinks, he's not afraid of a brawl and he knows what he wants. He wants a family so he orders a bride from New Orleans, Joanna (Eleanor Parker). Joanna suffers Leiningen's verbal abuse, is forced to watch tribesmen be executed and even has the pleasure of having a bottle of perfume dumped on her, getting slapped a bit and nearly raped by her drunken husband. Ah, but Joanna's the type of tough ol' broad that frontiers were made for, so she sticks by her husband as they defend the plantation from the MARABUTA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The film is tripe and corny at times, but it's entertaining fodder that never tries to beat you over the head with morals or schmaltz. Heston chews the scenery as much as the ants, but I wouldn't expect any less. As for the direction, I was both surprised and pleased to learn that the task was handled well by none other than Byron Haskin, the director behind episodes of "The Outer Limits" such as "The Architects of Fear," "Hundred Days of teh Dragon," "A Feasibility Study," and "Demon with the Glass Hand." The assault of the marabuta/ants feels a little anticlimactic, but still an enjoyable view as all George Pal productions typically are.

Day 196 - The Awful Dr. Orlof (1962) - Rank 3/5

I remember hearing this film's title as a youth and thinking: "Awesome! It sounds like 'The Abominable Dr. Phibes!" I came to learn later that it was not a film in the vein of the Phibes films, largely because it precedes them by a decade. Yet the horror flick doesn't feel too terribly original either. The script was obviously influenced, to a very high degree, by "Eyes Without a Face," which preceded "The Awful Dr. Orlof" by two years.

Like its predecessor, the story surrounds a mad doctor who repeatedly kidnaps beautiful women so he can attempt to graft their faces onto his "horribly disfigured" daughter (which, after watching "The Oblong Box" and then this film, I'm beginning to wonder if filmmakers have any idea what "horribly disfigured" means. When I'm expecting a countenance that will make me wince, I just get a mug with a dash of liquid latex and rigid collodion). Anyway, he employs the use of a blind henchman, whose strangling abilities hinge entirely on the fact that the woman will keep screaming and that she won't hastily dart around furniture. There's also a henchwoman/lover that lives about as long as it takes Dr. Orlof to blather out the exposition on how she came to be under his employ, and an incompetent inspector who bungles his way into saving the day. The daughter does absolutely nothing - a waste.

The film isn't so much of a letdown as it is mediocre. The cinematographer, one Godofredo Pacheco, utilized high contrast lighting and Dutch angles enough to keep the film fairly atmospheric (to a degree that I found reminiscent of the work that Conrad Hall did for "The Outer Limits"). But the story never offers any real suspense or surprises (save one of the earliest, needless "titty shots" in a horror film that I can recall). It did leave me with a yearning to watch "Eyes Without a Face" again, but I don't think that was the intent.

Day 195 - Downfall (2004) - Rank 5/5

When I saw "Blind Spot: Hitler's Secretary" in 2002, I felt it was one of the best documentaries I'd seen. To this day, I still feel that it is one of the best character focuses done in a documentary (rivaling "The King of Kong" and "Mr. Death: The Rise and Fall of Fred A. Leuchter Jr."). That's why I anticipated the opportunity to catch this film in theatres (for the film is based largely on secretary Traudl Junge's accounts). Alas, at the time, our theatre was embroiled in a legal battle with Newmarket, so "Downfall" never saw the light of day in Louisville. A pity too, for it's easily one of the best films 2006 had to offer.

So many films set during WWII focus on sympathetic protagonists ("The Pianist," "Mrs. Miniver," "Schindler's List") or heroes and epic battles ("Saving Private Ryan," "The Dirty Dozen," "The Great Escape," etc). Director Oliver Hirschbiegel picked a unique setting - Germany during its last two weeks in the war. The last vestiges of Nazi power are confined to a bunker in the center of Berlin as the city is bombarded by Russian forces. Despite the inevitable conclusion of the war, Hitler remains more deluded than optimistic that the German forces will turn the battle around. As the last of the German forces are destroyed, we're left with a sad portrait of some of history's most nefarious leaders as they contemplate and carry out their ends.

To make a film where the audience actually begins to feel a shred of pity for Hitler is certainly impressive. Hirschbiegel is even conscious enough to fill the screen with figures of Jews slain at the dictator's behest and casualties that were the result of the war, as if to remind viewers at the end of the film that Hitler was "the bad guy." However, Bruno Ganz portrays Hitler as a very upset, betrayed and...well, human individual to such a degree that it's hard not to sympathize with him at some point. It would have also been quite easy to make Hitler's collapse the primary objective of the film, but the story continues long after the Fuhrer commits suicide. At its core, the film is a depiction of the downfall of Germany as a world power as seen through the eyes of Traudl Junge, the one person that personally saw the end of the Nazi regime and lived to tell about it. With such an amazing life story, I suppose it would take a large effort to make it anything less than enthralling.


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Day 194: The Oblong Box (1969) - Rank 4/5

Gordon Hessler finally redeems himself, in my eyes. After the gritty and unpleasant "Cry of the Banshee," the convoluted "Murders in the Rue Morgue" and the tremendous disappointment of the absurd and pointless "Scream and Scream Again" (where Christopher Lee, Vincent Price and Peter Cushing all in one film are still boring), I got to see his first "Poe adaptation" - "The Oblong Box." However, to call the film a Poe adaptation is about as accurate as calling the upcoming "G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra" a G.I. Joe film. Yes, it is a period piece and there are Poe elements to the tale, but a story adaptation...I think not.

That's not to say that's a bad thing. Roger Corman had tremendous success with very liberal interpretations with some of Poe's work several years prior, also while working with Vincent Price ("The Raven" is a perfect example of a film that really has nothing to do with the source material, save the name, but still works). Hessler and screenwriter Lawrence Huntington take the oldest cliche in the realm of horror - a crazed relative locked in the attic - and make it seem fairly fresh with African voodoo and repressed, colonial crimes. The film kicks off with Julian Markham (Vincent Price) discovering his brother Edward (Alister Williamson) being ritualistically tortured. His brother, disfigured and mad, is kept in the attic until his death is staged and he ends up in the hands of a corrupt doctor (Christopher Lee) who purchased him under the assumption that he was a corpse. The story feels like a Rube Goldberg device at times, but it works.

Though Price and Lee share about thirty seconds of screen time together, their performances within their separate domains of the film are enough to merit your attention. Edward's crazed killing are hokey for even B-movie standards, but it wasn't enough to dispel the fun of the film. So, for both "Golden Voyage of Sinbad" and now "The Oblong Box," Hessler has essentially redeemed himself for me...to a certain extent.


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Day 193: Mahler (1974) - Rank 4/5

This lesser-seen film happens to be the second in Ken Russell's "Composer Trilogy" and as such, it ranks between its two companions in the domain of visual style and excellent storytelling. "The Music Lovers" still ranks as Ken Russell's best work, with a brilliant script and a solid performance as Tchaikovsky. While it lacks some of the visual panache Russell became infamous for, its still a gorgeous film. "Lisztomania," the final in the trilogy, is filled with mind bending imagery (think "Tommy" on acid), but any trace of a coherent plot is lost, making the film tedious and convoluted. "Mahler" dances the fine line between both worlds.

Russell's depiction of Gustav Mahler, considered by many to be the last, great German composer, is a loving one. Any notion of a linear story is thrown out the window as the primary focus shifts to a train ride with Mahler, his wife and his former competitor in the world of romance. Mahler suffers a heart attack and most of the film is told through the composer's reflection on the events in his life that not only shaped him as a man, but as a man who rose above the banality of playing others' works. Each reverie is accompanied by the symphony that was inspired by the moment, making it as much of a musical tribute as a drama.

Russell regular Robert Powell excels as the tormented composer, depicting the strange existence of a man who cannot express his emotions, even to his beloved wife, in a verbal way; those thoughts and ideas can only be conveyed through music. There are a number of surreal, yet beautiful, "dream sequences" - ranging from his wife's slow emergnece from a cocoon to the Nazi fueled nightmare Mahler suffers at the fear of death. While it would be easy for these moments to become mere tangents within the film and nothing more, Russell expertly blends them in with the story, adding his own sense of style with superior direction.

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Day 192: Fletch (1985) - Rank 3.5/5

Chevy Chase playing Chevy Chase? Fine by me. In the case of "Fletch," Chase goes Peter Sellers by playing Chevy Chase in multiple roles. The antics begin when undercover reporter Fletch is picked up by an affluent individual named Alan Stanwyck (Tim Matheson). Stanwyck proposes to give $50,000 and a getaway ticket should he kill him. The notion of Stanwyck paying someone to kill him strikes Fletch as odd, so he investigates the situation in a number of disguises, eventually uncovering a whole drug trafficking ring, battling crooked cops (Joe Don Baker) and corrupt doctors (M.Emmett Walsh) along the way.

The story feels a little contrived at times, but I suppose that could be said by and Chase vehicle, from "Foul Play" to the National Lampoon's Vacation series. The movies exist as an opportunity for Chase to drop one-liners as readily as possible. I absolutely love the aforementioned films and feel that they excel beyond "Fletch's" realm. I do think that Chase has better material in those films, but I think another factor is that I grew up with those movies, so the humor became ingrained with nostalgia, making them seem funnier than they possibly are (but I think that's only a small, contributing component). "Fletch" still has hilarious moments ("Sugar in your coffee, Mr. Poon?" "No, never!") but the electronic, Casio-generated soundtrack really dates the film...and not in a good way.

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Day 191: The Lives of Others (2006) - Rank 5/5

It must have really sucked to have lived East Germany during the era of the GDR, is all I can say. Director Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck creates an atmosphere of fear for government officials very early in the film and it only increases in intensity as the plot thickens. The manner in which it is done is as subtle as a teacher putting a check mark next to the name of a student who questions whether tortuous interrogation is really necessary, or as tactless as an apartment torn asunder by a gang of Stasi thugs. This environment only enhances the sense of risk behind the actions that Gerd Weisler, a Stasi spy, carries out.

Weisler is put in charge of spying on playwright Georg Dreyman by the Hempf, the minister of culture. Hempf suspects that Dreyman harbors sympathy for the West and wants Weisler to expose Dreyman for the traitor he is. Weisler is assigned to the job because he's good...too good, in fact, for he quickly learns that Hempf is motivated by lust. He craves Dreyman's girlfriend and actress, Christa-Maria, and he's using his office and position of power to get an innocent man put into jail, eliminating the competition. But soon, Dreyman becomes moved by the suicide of a close friend to produce anti-party literature. Weisler, disillusioned by the corruption of his office, begins covering for the couple that's he's become attached to, merely by listening to their conversations and love-making, but the further Dreyman goes, the more at risk Weisler is at his "help" being exposed and ending up in jail with Dreyman.

The story feels positively Hitchcockian at times, with elegant twists of coincidence and a strange, voyeuristic attachment to a situation that feels reminiscent of "Rear Window." With such a heavy-handed plot, it would be easy to leave the audience feeling utterly bleak afterward, and it would be cheating to provide a chipper, cop out ending that would leave folks upbeat. Donnersmarck finds the perfect harmony between the two delivering a lesson in compassion over blind dedication, making it a masterpiece of altruism.

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