SANTA CLAUS (1959) Lobby Cards and Poster Art

I don't understand exactly why but I find myself drawn to this disaster of a holiday film nearly every year. I cannot defend this choice in any way. 

 

Review - CYCLONE (1978)

The 1970s in America spawned many troubling things. Stagflation, platform shoes, pet rocks and disco music were all terrible poxes upon the land but Hollywood boasted the most worrisome of all ’70s plagues — the Disaster Movie! And of course, in the wake of the huge Hollywood success of The Poseidon Adventure and The Towering Inferno came a host of imitators all trying to find a different catastrophe to work into a screenplay. Earthquakes, tidal waves, tornadoes, avalanches and giant rabbits all made their way to big screens to threaten civilization and B-list actors. It was only a matter of time before a cyclone was deployed to entertain the masses. Enter Mexican exploitation filmmaker René Cardona Jr. with a script ripped from the headlines. No, wait — that was another of his films, Guyana: Cult of the Damned. This movie is simply another low-budget 'epic' for fans of cinema misery. Somehow, I fit that description.

Three groups of people are in the Caribbean at the wrong time. Group A is taking a short sightseeing tour around the islands aboard a glass-bottomed boat. Group B is a crew of professional native fishermen currently down on their monetary luck trying hard to make a big haul. Group C is a mixed bag of travelers and tourists flying to the islands on a chartered plane. When a sudden cyclone sweeps in from the Atlantic all three groups are caught far from land and suffer the consequences (of being in a disaster film). The fishermen have to abandon their sinking vessel for a small dinghy; the glass-bottomed boat runs through all of its fuel just to keep from being swept out to sea, while the plane crashes, killing most of the passengers and crew. The rescue searches begin immediately, with relatives and friends pushing for swift help to locate the missing. Over the course of a few days the three groups of survivors find each other and cluster together on the tour boat. A few fish are pulled from the ocean for food but the limited amount of fresh water soon becomes their main concern. Even with strict rationing it quickly becomes clear that rescue is going to be too late for most to live if something isn't done. When the idea of cannibalism is finally broached it's clear that it may be the only chance they have to survive long enough to be found. So, with the sun beating down on them, sharks circling the boat, a baby about to be born and no help on the horizon, what will they do?

Cyclone isn't a terrible film, although it is fairly dull for the first hour or so. The time spent introducing the players and setting up the situation is routine and slow with only some nice underwater photography to enliven things. Like most disaster films the characters are nothing more than stereotypes sketched in just enough to provide contrast with each other. There's the greedy businessman, the priest, the pregnant woman, the young boy, the stern boat captain, the over-privileged rich bitch, etc. A few of the characters are given a little bit of depth but not too much, as their primary purpose here is to suffer. It's hard to care about any of these folks even if several of the standard movie heart-tugging moments do manage to hit their marks. (I'll give up my water for the pregnant woman!) The priest (Arthur Kennedy) is the voice of moral guidance and has more than enough to say in the eventual debate over eating the dead members of the group. The pregnant couple is blandly endearing and the owner/captain of the boat is slightly interesting but mostly the group remains ciphers. It's only in the last 45 minutes that the movie really comes to life with arguments and anger finally boiling over. These scenes between people pushed to the edge by nature make the desperate quality of events start to feel real. Enough time is spent on the nastier points of how these people survive to make the grittiness seem a straightforward look at circumstances instead of just exploitation — at least most of the time. No matter how realistic or necessary the death of the rich woman's dog might be, it's never going to feel like anything more than a scene contrived to shock the audience.

This being a low budget affair there are some times when the script's reach exceeds its grasp. The storm sequence is only sporadically effective. The reality of the cyclone is pretty shakily displayed and smartly moved past as fast as possible to get to the focus of the tale. It can be hard to film effective displays of raging nature without huge amounts of money but there's no reason to complain here. They seem to have known their limitations and covered them fairly well (even if they lean on the stock footage a little too often). Only the shots of the crashed and sunken airplane really sell the sense of danger the actors are conveying. Of course, the later shark attacks are also pretty unconvincing, as it looks like the beasts are ripping into bags of paint rather than human flesh. Still, this is far from the worst the disaster genre has to offer and though it certainly isn't the best, it's worth seeing for its effective moments.

Apparently this has been released on DVD once before under its alternate U.S. title, Terror Storm. I've not seen that disc but I can't imagine it looks or sounds better than what Synapse offers here. The film is presented in 16x9 enhanced widescreen and is letterboxed at 1.78:1. The nicely effective soundtrack is the original mono processed in Dolby Digital. Showing the usual care expected from Synapse, the DVD is apparently a fully uncut version and is remastered from the original negative. The only disappointment is the lack of extras. The DVD insert has a great two-page essay by David Hayes about Cardona and Cyclone that touches on enough interesting things to make me wish for more information about the man and his trashy movies. And though there is no trailer for Cyclone they've included promos for two of Cardona's other low budget masterworks. And I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the great cover artwork. I don't know if this effectively gruesome piece was used as a theatrical poster but it certainly sells the film well.

The Art of Mexican Wrestling Movie Posters

What I Watched in August

I've been catching the Lucha Libre films that the El Rey channel has been running for the past couple of months and really enjoying them. Most of these I had already seen with subtitles as they were never dubbed into English but it was fun to see these new versions. It seems that El Rey has sprung for a new soundtrack for each film which provides a 2020 English dub to make the movies easier for casual fans to absorb. I don't think these dubs are very good - in fact they are little more than serviceable - but if it opens more eyes to the joys of El Santo and the Blue Demon (plus the female wrestlers) then they have done their jobs well.

The List 

CANDYMAN : FAREWELL TO THE FLESH (1995) – 6 (rewatch on Blu) (better than I remembered)

SANTO & BLUE DEMON VS DR. FRANKENSTEIN (1974) – 6 

PANIC BEATS (1983) – 7 (rewatch)

THE BEAST IN THE CELLAR (1970) -7 (rewatch on Blu)

THE WESTWARD TRAIL (1948) – 5 (standard PRC B western with Eddie Dean singing)

THE GIRL WHO KNEW TOO MUCH (1963) – 8 (rewatch on Blu – Italian version)

SAN ANTONIO (1945) – 7 (Errol Flynn western)

SANTO AND BLUE DEMON VS DRACULA AND THE WOLFMAN (1973) – 6 (rewatch of the newly dubbed version)

THE DARKNESS (2016) – 6 (well done but unremarkable horror film)

GASLIGHT (1940) – 8

RIDERS TO THE STARS (1954) – 6 (low budget near-documentary SF about getting to Earth orbit)

THE LADY KILLS (1971) – 5 (French rape-revenge film)

SPACE AMOEBA (1970) – 6 (Toho SF monster film)

A BELL FROM HELL (1973) – 8 (rewatch)

SHADOW OF THE CAT (1961) – 7 (rewatch on Blu)

BATMAN: GOTHAM BY GASLIGHT (2018) – 8 (animated adaptation)

SHE-WOLVES OF THE RING (1965) – 5 (lucha drama)

BUCHANAN RIDES ALONE (1958) – 8 (excellent Randolph Scott western)

NIGHTFALL (1988) – 6 (Interesting low budget attempt to tell this Asimov tale)

BLOODY SECT (a.k.a. Secta siniestra) (1983) – 6 (mad Spanish horror film)

SKINNER (1993) – 4 (serial killer film with an interesting cast)

SCREAMS OF A WINTER NIGHT (1979) – 7 (rewatch of the long version on Blu)

DER ZINKER (a.k.a THE SQUEAKER) (1963) – 7 (krimi fun on Blu)

CENTRAL PARK (1932) – 7 (slight but good crime tale with Joan Blondell)

Blue Demon Movie Poster Art!

I'm feeling the urge to watch one of Blue Demon's cinematic adventures! 

FRANKENSTEIN, THE VAMPIRE AND CO (1962)

Comedy is the most difficult film genre to recommend to anyone else. Just because something makes you laugh doesn't necessarily mean that it will make anyone else in the world laugh. This is certainly true of older movies which makes it very difficult to recommend that a modern audience watch an older comedy film. But there are a handful of older comedies that I think can be safely recommended to most younger viewers as long as they are curious.

One of them – and indeed, one of the best comedies of all time - is ABBOT AND COSTELLO MEET FRANKENSTEIN (1948). It is an amazing movie and still funny to this day. What makes this even more impressive is that one of the most difficult things to pull off is the combination of horror AND comedy. This movie pulls it off with near perfection making it a fine addition to the comedic genre as well as an excellent part of the monster rally series it caps. It serves as the final entry in the Universal horror series that stretched from 1931 to 1948 as well as one of the finest of Abbot and Costello’s cinema adventures. It regularly ends up on favorite and best of lists for the genre no matter who you’re quizzing as long as their parameters are not restricted by date of production or a prejudice against black & white.  I've seen youngsters of almost every age fall in love with this very funny film. It walks a tight wire act of treating its monsters seriously while being loose enough let the famed comedy team generate a lot of genuine laughs.

A few years ago, I learned that there was a Mexican film that was an incredibly close intentional remake of this Hollywood classic. I, of course, knew that I would have to see it just out of curiosity if for no other reason. I have now done so and I have to say it was a mildly painful experience.

FRANKENSTEIN, THE VAMPIRE AND CO (1962) is the title of this loose remake. It tries to repeat the things that work in the original but makes several mistakes. Instead of a comedy duo the humor is presented in the performance of Manuel 'Loco' Valdés who seems to be inserting a previously established comedic personality into the story. His humor seems to be built on some silly voices and noises and an odd hopping movement that is supposed to indicate anxiety. Add to these very unfunny antics the repeated choice to have Valdés face the camera while his ‘prankster’ ideas are related in a voiceover and you have a comedian who is just not very amusing – for me. Perhaps he was funny as hell in 1962 for a younger Mexican audience but I have no way to know.

Regardless, I was not amused which left me with only the monster elements to be potentially entertained by. Sadly, this was a letdown as well. The werewolf makeup was a pretty bad pull-over and probably store-bought mask while the Dracula surrogate is just a guy arching his eyebrows running around in a cape. The Frankenstein monster was less embarrassing but still poorly made-up and nearly a non-entity in this silly mess. The film does vaguely follow the outline of the movie it’s copying but I found it difficult to care after about the halfway mark. It was interesting to see this bizarre piece of cinema but I can’t imagine ever watching it again or recommending it to others. If you are curious to see a film that you love being replicated in another country on a much smaller budget then it’s worth seeing. Who knows – there may be a large contingent of Universal horror fans out there that enjoy this movie. If you’ve seen this and liked it, please let me know.

Mexican Vampire Cinema: A Brief History

This is the first episode in a fantastic series on ...well... Mexican Vampire Cinema! I was alerted to it by Steve Sullivan and it deserves to be much better known. Check it out! 

Rare Mexican Horror Films

The above poster art is for a selection of hard to find Mexican made horror films from the 1960's to the 1930's! I have yet to see any of them but I have put them on 'Hunt Down' list because they look extremely interesting. I was clued-in to the these movies by a friend linking to this BLOG POST  that does a good job of making them seem quite enticing. 

OK. I'll be honest. 

I've already found three of these features in the darker areas of the web. And they have subtitles. The fourth one is still escaping me but, with a little luck, I'll track subs down for it as well! 

Beyond Naschy #18 - SANTO VS DOCTOR DEATH (1973)

This episode of Beyond Naschy has us coloring outside the lines in a couple of different ways. We are covering a Mexican wrestling film starring the magnificent El Santo which puts us well outside of our usual area of expertise. So, to add some well needed context and background, we called up our buddy Juan from the Creepy Swamps to help us understand the world of Santo and his amazing career. If you have ever listened to the excellent B-Moviecast show you will be aware of Juan and his deep knowledge of cinema. His lifelong fascination with horror and science fiction movies has made him a great resource for information on classic (and not so classic) b-flicks and we are thrilled he agreed to join us for this discussion. We talk about SANTO VS DOCTOR DEATH as well as El Santo comic books and I even get him to list his favorite movies from the great masked wrestler's career.

Then, of course, Troy and I put the film under the microscope and marvel at its high quality. Filmed mostly in Spain it stars several Spanish actors familiar to fans of Paul Naschy. In fact, this movie feels a lot more like a Euro-Spy film than a typical Santo adventure but it fits comfortably in both worlds. We talk about the great secret life Santo has as a freelance Interpol agent, the joys of Mexican style wrestling, the ability to fly on commercial aircraft wearing a mask, what accommodations you can expect when you buy a castle and just how far some people will go to own art. Both of us were impressed with the well choreographed fight scenes throughout the film and any movie that ends with a combination boat/helicopter chase is obviously a classic! Be aware that we spoil the entire film so if that is something you wish to avoid you might want to stop the show at about the two hour mark. Sadly, that means you will miss the mailbag section which is packed with some great information regarding our last three shows.

And if you have any information for us the email address is naschycast@gmail.com or you can find us over on the Facebook page. If you subscribe through iTunes please consider rating and reviewing the show over there. Thanks for downloading and listening!

iTunes LINK 

Direct MP3 Download LINK  

Santo & Friends 

EL LATIGO (1978) and its Sequels!

I love that in 2016, after decades of hunting for interesting, obscure films from all over the world I can still find things that blow my mind. My latest discovery is the three film series from Mexico that follows El Latigo a.k.a. The Whip! I had never heard of this character until spotting the DVD artwork for the third of the series El latigo contra las momias asesinas (1980)  - that translates to The Whip Against the Killer Mummies!! It's as if this movie were made specifically for me! A fake Zorro fighting killer mummies? Take my money now!

Luckily for me - and anyone else like me - that fine gentleman Juan over at Fifth Dimension Films has done the world a service by making these obscure movies available with English subtitles. Sadly, I am unilingual with only the vaguest understanding of a few words and phrases in French, Spanish and German so without an English option these kinds of films would be completely lost to me. Indeed, I would probably never bother with them at all because the frustration of not knowing what was going on would enrage me. Yeah sure, I might be able to dope out the basics but that is just not enough. But through the hard work of Juan I can not see EL LATIGO (1978) and it's sequels and for that I am incredibly grateful.

So, how are the movies? Well, I have watched the first two so far and I've loved them! Much as the Zorro legend the stories are set in Mexico in the late 1800's where we meet The Whip in his civilian disguise. Strangely, this disguise changes from one film to the next with him pretending to be an archeologist in the first film and a traveling magic elixir salesman in the second. Regardless of the secret identity each film has The Whip show up, discover villainy is afoot which he then sets out to put right. Just like any good superhero he goes after the bad guys and helps the victims of their nefarious schemes.

In the first film the villains are pretty straightforward in their goals and methods. They are standard western genre gunslingers and corrupt lawmen hiding behind a thin veneer of respectability until the Whip starts ....... whipping things into shape. But the second film takes a hard left turn as you might conclude from the title - THE WHIP AGAINST SATAN (1979)! Whoa, says I! From thieves and kidnappers to Beelzebub is a mighty big leap. Since The Whip seems loath to use guns (an oddity I find amusing) I felt that surely he was not well armed enough to take on a hoard of demons much less Satan himself. But heroes are made of sterner stuff than mere mortals such as I so into battle he goes. I won't give away the ending but needless to say he does manage to whip things into shape. (Sorry!)

I haven't watched the third film yet. I'm a little busy right now with show prep and I want to be able to give it my full attention but I fully expect it to be just as much fun as the first two. As you might have guessed from the fact that The Whip doesn't use guns the movies are a little juvenile in their approach but I find that part of their charm. Our hero doesn't kill people (kinda iffy on demons) and his actions are always honorable even in rough situations. In a way these play like lost western adventures from the 1950's shot through a Mexican lens. They conform to the rules of the genre while stretching certain details into unfamiliar shapes. For a jaded movie nut like me they are like a cool breeze on a hot day - refreshing!

If you're interested in checking these out for yourself go on over to Fifth Dimension Films and look them over. The trove of subtitled Mexican genre cinema doesn't stop at weird westerns - Juan also has a vast collection of uncut Santo movies as well! Oh yeah! 

Santo Poster Art

After a couple of emails this afternoon I'm happy to say that Troy and I will be covering a Santo film later this year! It'll be an episode of Beyond Naschy as this particular film stars several Naschy co-stars from the golden age of Spanish Horror. So cool!