Poster Art for Django and its Unofficial Sequels

I think I've seen most of these. I think. 

THE GOLDEN VOYAGE OF SINBAD (1973)

As The Golden Voyage of Sinbad begins, the fabled nautical adventurer (John Phillip Law) and his crew are sailing on the open sea when they spot a strange flying creature. Frightened by an arrow fired by one of the sailors, the creature drops a small golden tablet. After Sinbad ties the object around his neck he has several nightmarish visions of a tall man dressed in black and a dancing girl with an eye tattooed on the palm of her hand. When a storm blows the ship off course, Sinbad is sure the land they come upon is connected to his dream somehow. Going ashore alone he encounters the man in black from his vision. The dark man (Doctor Who's Tom Baker) identifies himself as Prince Koura, a sorcerer who claims the golden tablet as his own and demands its return. Escaping into a nearby city, Sinbad is met by the benevolent, golden-masked Grand Vizier (Douglas Wilmer), who explains Koura's bid to obtain ultimate power. To gain this power, the wizard must unite the three separate pieces of a magical sign. The golden tablet Sinbad wears about his neck is one of these pieces, while the Vizier controls another. When combining their two segments they discover a map that can lead them to the third and so together they vow to foil Koura's evil scheme. A rich man's wastrel son and the slave girl Margiana (Caroline Munro), whose tattooed hand may play a part in stopping the Prince, join Sinbad on the journey. They set sail for the legendary isle of Lemuria with Koura and his henchmen in close pursuit.

Of the three Sinbad movies made by Ray Harryhausen, Golden Voyage has always been my favorite. Most people prefer 1958's The 7th Voyage of Sinbad and I can understand that, but I feel the story in Golden Voyage is better and I really like John Phillip Law in the lead role. He seems much more suited to the character and even affects an accent to add to his performance. It also helps that Caroline Munro — one of the most beautiful women to ever grace the silver screen — is the only female on display here, giving us more time to stare longingly at her tanned body and lose ourselves in her lovely eyes. (And she's not even a special effect!) 

Although Jason and the Argonauts will always be Harryhausen's greatest film, this one gives him plenty of moments to shine and he capitalizes on all of them. Each creature brought to stop-motion life here is a wonder to behold with beautiful details and amazing, flowing movement. I'll never get over my original childhood fear of the prow of Sinbad's ship, which comes to life under Koura's power. It's a combination of the blank, unchanging face of the wooden woman and the creepy sounds of her moving that send chills down my spine.

There are two showstoppers in Golden Voyage that rival the skeleton fight in 7th Voyage. One is the grotesque one-eyed centaur that battles a mighty griffin, the other the living, six-armed statue of Kali. The fight between Kali and Sinbad's crew is a masterful bit of action that bears repeated viewings. With all these pyrotechnics you might expect the film to be a bit too broad, but my favorite moment in the film is the quiet scene of Koura's new homunculus awakening to life. The detailed facial expressions and body language of the small winged beast is mesmerizing; this is one of the best animation sequences of Harryhausen's career. Moments like this make Golden Voyage a wonderful film that will go on entertaining audiences for generations to come.

It's often said that 'They don't make 'em like they used to' and this film is a perfect example of that statement's truth. The clearness of purpose that can be felt behind Harryhausen's fantasy films is almost never evident in cinema today. Each of his movies feels as if it were crafted by people who cared very much about making the best possible film they could create. These stories weren't shaped by committees, vetted by a legal department or altered by businessmen looking for a good Happy Meal tie-in. These films were put together by people in love with the stories and in love with filmmaking. Any story changes were done for budgetary or time constraints, not because the vice-president of marketing thought his kids would like a blue monster instead of a green one.

So much of what has been lost over the years in Hollywood is a plain unwillingness to admit that creativity needs both freedom and limits — the freedom to attempt new and untried things and the limits imposed by schedules and money. If a Sinbad movie were to be made today there would be more effort put into the toy and fast food tie-ins than on the script or pre-production. And you know what happens when that approach is used? The Mummy, The Mummy Returns, The Scorpion King, Spider Man 3, the Transformer movies and the 1998 Godzilla film... Empty marketing tools camouflaged as entertainment. But you won't find the folks behind those bad movies agreeing with me — each one made more than $100 million domestic. Who needs a good story, well told, when the audience seems perfectly happy with crap? Give the people what they want. Thank goodness that the Harryhausen films are still around to let us see the qualities we can hope for in a fantasy film.

Elric of Melniboné - Books of my Youth

I was recently dusting bookshelves and realized that although I have nice editions of many other of Moorcock's lengthy series of Eternal Champion stories I don't have any of the Elric tales. I read the DAW paperback series when I was a teenager (as I'm sure most long-term fans do) but I somehow have lost track of when I traded away, loaned or lost my copies of those old books. Now I'm feeling the urge to reread those novels but I also still haven't read the Corum, Hawkmoon or Nomad of the Time Stream books yet and they are sitting there on the shelf, mocking me. 

What I Watched in December

I wasn't able to go out to the theater a single time in December and that is not cool. I wanted to see several films in wide release but could not manage to make the time to go. Instead, on New Year's Eve, I agreed to rent THE INTERVIEW and see if Sony's hack cost them a triumph or saved them some embarrassment. Actually, I'm sure the film would have earned a butt-ton of money regardless of the silly controversy around its release but I would probably never have seen it - and I wish it had stayed unseen by my eyes! Oh, the pain!

First, I have to say that the Rogan/Franco comedies have been very hit or miss with me. PINEAPPLE EXPRESS was a stultifying bore but THIS IS THE END was very funny and surprising in its desire to provoke the audience. Sadly that desire to mess with the audience is put to bad use in this new film as the story is never more than a poorly thought out idea. What they have could have made a pretty good short film but at feature length the seams not only show they tear. The contrived plot mechanics are so perfunctorily staged ("Yeah- you're not a REAL journalist, bro!") that they might have been better off skipping the half-assed attempts to provide Rogan's character with motivation beyond fame and glory. And Franco's character is such a joke that I kept waiting to laugh at his antics but the film never lets you into the story enough to see his self-centered TV host as anything more than a silly cipher. I knew I didn't care about a damned thing that was happening when Franco's character is having his huge revelation about the true nature of his new buddy Kim-Young Un and all I could think about was how expensive his shoes must be.

I'll give the movie credit for being fantastically photographed but as a comedy it just failed for me. Next! 

THE SKIN UNDER THE CLAWS (1975)- 4 (OK but poorly directed thriller)

THE RAID 2 (2014)- 9 (awesome!)

MY FRIEND, THE VAGABOND (1984)- 6

SNOWPIERCER (2014)- 6

ARSENE LUPIN (1932)- 8 (excellent mystery)

SILENT NIGHT, DEADLY NIGHT (1984)- 7 (rewatch)

MAKE WAY FOR TOMORROW (1937)- 7 (good sort-of Christmas film)

HELLBENDERS (2012)- 4 (misfire of a great concept)

SILENT NIGHT, BLOODY NIGHT (1974)- 5 (OK but muddled)

THE SHOP AROUND THE CORNER (1940)- 9 (excellent!) 

THE ROOST (2005)- 3 (terrible, slow and boring horror effort)

CURTAINS (1983)- 6 (interesting slasher)

DOCTOR WHO AND THE DALEKS (1965)- 7 (rewatch)

THE INTERVIEW (2014)- 3 (clunky, sloppy and dumb in a bad way -I laughed three times) 

Brief Thoughts - BREAKHEART PASS (1975)

I was in the mood for some wintery western action and noticed this solid little film was on NetFlix. Press Play! I've seen this movie a couple of times now and it holds up very well as a well paced mystery set on a train in the old west and might now qualify as Comfort Viewing for me. In fact, 'mystery set on a train in the old west' may just be the most perfect description to get me to watch any film in the world. The cast here is excellent with the often undervalued Bronson doing a great job while backed up by a fantastic cast of legendary character actors that includes Richard Crenna, Charles Durning, Ben Johnson, Ed Lauter, David Huddleston and Robert Tessier. What a lineup! My only complaint with the film is that it feels a little too trimmed down, as if there is a slightly longer and possibly better movie lurking in between the edits - but that doesn't stop me from loving what is presented.

I think this film has been overlooked, even by Bronson fans, but it is ripe for discovery now by a whole new generation of movie fans. Check it out!

Favorite Spaghetti Western List

I was asked by a commenter to the blog to list my favorite Spaghetti Westerns so I decided to give it a little thought and produce a top twenty. What is odd is that I had to leave off several movies I love just to keep it from becoming a top thirty! 

In no particular order - 

1. THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY (1966)

2. DJANGO (1966)

3. FOR A FEW DOLLARS MORE (1965)

4. THE BIG GUNDOWN (1967)

5. DEATH RIDES A HORSE (1967)

6. COMPANEROS (1970)

7. A MAN CALLED BLADE (a.k.a.MANNAJA) (1977)

8. FOUR OF THE APOCALYPSE (1975)

9. KEOMA (1976)

10. THE MERCENARY (1968)

11. A BULLET FOR THE GENERAL (1966)

12. SABATA (1969)

13. JOHNNY HAMLET (1968)

14. THE GREAT SILENCE (1968)

15. AND GOD SAID TO CAIN (1969)

16. CUT THROATS NINE (1972)

17. MY NAME IS NOBODY (1974)

18. FACE TO FACE (1967)

19. A FISTFUL OF DOLLARS (1965)

20. CEMETERY WITHOUT CROSSES (1968)

And, for no good reason, here is a list of five of my least favorites- 

1. ANY GUN CAN PLAY (1967) - I generally dislike jokey, acrobatic westerns

2. ACE HIGH (1968)- often lauded but this one bored me

3. MATALO! (1970) - snooze inducing

4. THE LAST GUN (1964) - not even Cameron Mitchell can salvage this

5. DJANGO AND SARTANA ARE COMING...IT'S THE END (1970) -almost incomprehensible

A LONG RIDE FROM HELL (1968)

Steve Reeves plays Mike Sturges, a rancher who, with his brother Roy (Franco Fantasia) and his mother, is raising horses in the desert southwest. Things are going well for the family Sturges until a herd of their animals is stolen on the way to market and all but one of the ranch hands with them are killed during the theft. Mike, Roy and another hand set out to track the herd but are ambushed by an old friend of Mike's named Maynard (Wayde Preston). Maynard and his gang injure the Sturges boys and leave them for dead near the scene of their next crime — a daring train robbery to lay hands on a shipment of newly minted gold coins.

The brothers' protestations of their innocence go unheeded and soon both are tossed into Yuma prison. The harsh conditions of the infamous hard labor pen take their toll on Roy, with his physical weakness drawing an outsized amount of attention from the sadistic guards. Mike knows there is nothing he can do and develops a stoic attitude refusing to even talk, regardless of the provocation. But when the cruel attentions of the head guard finally kill Roy, his brother snaps and within minutes stages a reckless escape that gets many guards and several inmates killed. Mike makes it to the nearest town and receives aid from a sympathetic prostitute (the luscious Rosalba Neri), who also helps him off the sadistic head guard when he comes calling for his regular Saturday night thing.

Mike makes it home to find his ranch lifeless and gone to ruin while his mother has died of a broken heart months before. Having nothing left to live for, Sturges decides to hunt down the men responsible for the destruction of his life and exact harsh revenge...

As you can tell there really isn't much in the bare bones of the story of A Long Ride from Hell to distinguish it from dozens of other spaghetti westerns. A man done wrong suffers hideously until he can turn the tables on his tormentors and take a full measure of revenge — pretty standard stuff even by 1968. The elements that make this film stand just a little out of the pack is a combination of a fine movie star making a strong play to break out of his usual ‘muscle man’ genre rut and some nice, stylish touches from director Camillo Bazzoni. He didn't have a long career in the director’s chair, with only eight other movies to his credit, but his lengthy list of jobs as a cinematographer show where his talent lies. Although this DVD doesn't present a perfect print of the movie it's clear enough to see that Bazzoni's eye for well framed shots and interesting blocking served the story well. The repeated use of angles that put Reeves against the empty sky display his despair at his fate or shrink him down to small size to emphasize lack of power demonstrate a desire to have form follow function — as much as possible. The occasional sloppy scene does break the effect from time to time but overall the director seems to have done well with his camera. My favorite directorial touch is the way in which Roy’s tortuous crucifixion on a large wheel is shown hovering over the prisoners as they break rocks under the burning sun. It’s a great image and I would like to know if it came from the source material or was created by the filmmakers.

As noted in Charles Ambler's brief liner notes on the back of the DVD case, this film was more than just Steve Reeves’ attempt to create a new movie persona for himself (even if he’s seen wrestling a bull to the ground in the opening minutes). He had bought the rights to Gordon Shirreffs’ novel The Judas Gun and worked as both producer and co-scriptwriter to get the film made. Having worked for years in the Italian film industry — starting in the late 1950s with the world-famous Hercules films — Reeves had plenty of insight into how to pull together a good cast and crew. Besides Bazzoni (working under the pseudonym Alex Burks) he hired scripter Roberto Natale, who had writtenBloody Pit of Horror and two Mario Bava films; composer Carlo Savina, who was responsible for the scores of dozens of peplum and western films before and after this one; and as director of photography Enzo Barboni, who'd go on to direct the Trinity comedy/westerns. In front of the camera A Long Ride from Hellboasts just as many high quality participants besides the already mentionedLady Frankenstein herself, Rosabla Neri. Mimmo Palmara, Nello Pazzafini and Silvana (Camilla 2000) Venturelli handle their roles very well and are only a few of the familiar faces for Euro-Cult fans throughout the movie.