The Tomb of Ligeia (1964)

The Tomb of Ligeia was the second of Roger Corman’s Edgar Allan Poe films to be made in England. Judging by his statements on the DVD commentary track Corman seems to have found the British approach to film-making rather congenial. Certainly he’s full of praise for the mostly British cast and crew. And with good reason. In some of the other films in this series Vincent Price really has to carry most of the acting burden himself but this time he has a strong supporting cast to work with. English actress Elizabeth Shepherd does a fine job in the dual role of Rowena/Ligeia and there are some delightful English character actors in minor roles. Oliver Johnston as the butler Kenrick and Derek Francis as Lord Trevanion are wonderfully entertaining. For this film Corman decided to abandon his previous practice in the Poe films of shooting entirely in the studio. He’d done that in order to get as artificial a look as possible, since he was dealing with the unconscious mind and was trying to capture a kind of dreamlike quality. This time there’s lots of location shooting. I liked the artificial feel of the previous movies but I must admit his change of technique works very well also. The sets (the studio shooting was one at Shepperton Studios in England) also look great – the visual style of the movie is extremely gothic and also a little decadent. On the whole the visuals still look very good, and still stand up very well 40 years after the movie was made.

Vincent Price gave some great performances in Corman’s movies and this one is no exception. Verden Fell is a man under the spell of a dead wife, a wife who believed that her indomitable will would allow her to overcome and defeat death. Price’s performance is understated and subtle. There’s really not much plot – the film is almost entirely about character and mood – but Corman’s visual flair endures that the audience’s attention remains riveted. Compared to modern horror movie there’s no gore and very little overt horror; there is however an overwhelming gothic atmosphere, an atmosphere of unhealthy and tragic obsession. It’s an effective and highly entertaining film. The DVD commentary track by Corman is simply splendid. He really does wonderful commentary tracks for his movies – he explains how and why he did particular shots in a particular way and the explanations are just technical enough to give you a real insight into his method without being too technical for a non-expert to understand. He explains his intentions and his motivations clearly and concisely (and it’s clear that in the Poe films at least Corman was a serious and thoughtful film-maker). He’s also charmingly generous in his praise of the people he worked with. The movie (in the MGM Midnite Movies DVD series) also looks fantastic – a very worthwhile buy for lovers of classic horror.

The Bloody Judge (1970)

The success of Michael Reeves’ Witchfinder General (or The Conqueror Worm as it’s also known) inspired a host of witch-hunter films, including the excellent Blood on Satan’s Claw, and also Jess Franco’s The Bloody Judge. Franco’s film is a little different since the is not primarily on witchcraft – Judge Jeffries, the bloody judge of the title, earned his notoriety during the 1680s for his condemnation of hundreds of alleged conspirators and traitors against the unpopular Catholic king of England, James II. Witchcraft was merely a convenient charge to use against the king’s perceived enemies when there was insufficient evidence of treason, although in fact Jeffries required very little evidence indeed in order to sentence an unfortunate prisoner to death for treason. The Bloody Judge is more of a historical adventure with elements of fairly grisly horror added to the mix. It follows the fortunes of the young son of one of Jeffries’ political opponents, a young man who is involved with the sister of a woman condemned as a witch by Jeffries. The great strength of this movie is Christopher Lee as Judge Jeffries. It was a role that Lee was very keen to play, and it’s a performance of which he is justly proud. Lee gives a restrained but chilling performance, portraying Jeffries as a man whose behaviour is a combination of genuine zeal for his profession and for the service of the king and an overwhelming ambition for power. Lee plays him as a man who has just about convinced himself that his actions really are both necessary and just, but also as a man who is intelligent enough to have some disagreeable twinges of conscience. He is also a man who is able to dispense brutal and summary justice because he makes sure he never actually sees the unpleasant results.

With a moderately generous budget and some great locations in Portugal this is a rather slick and glossy production from Franco, with a couple of surprisingly convincing battle scenes as the Duke of Monmouth’s rebellion against King James comes to a disastrous end. Howard Vernon contributes an outrageously sadistic performance as the king’s executioner, Leo Genn is very good as Jeffries’ enemy Lord Wessex, and Maria Schell and Maria Rohm are quite adequate in supporting roles. But it’s Christopher Lee’s picture, and his performance is the main reason to see this film. It’s also a highly entertaining movie, and the Blue Underground DVD is, as usual with that company, immaculate. The interviews with Franco and Lee are the highlights of the extras.

The Devil Rides Out (1968)

The Devil Rides Out is one of the most lavish and most expensive of the horror movies made by Hammer Films. With Hammer’s best director, Terence Fisher, at the helm, a cast headed by Christopher Lee and a script by Richard Matheson you’d have expected the results to be pretty special. And they are. This is possibly Hammer’s finest moment. The larger than usual budget allowed them to depart from their customary 19th century setting. This one is set in the 1920s, and it looks scrumptious. It’s a tale, bade on a Dennis Wheatley pot-boiler, of the dangers of meddling with Dark Forces. Christopher Lee is the arrogant Duc de Richleau, who is something of as control freak, but this time Lee is one of the good guys, battling the Forces of Darkness. Lee actually knew Dennis Wheatley and it’s obvious from the commentary track that he actually believes in the reality of these satanic forces. That may have given his performance added zest, because he turns in a career-best performance. Patrick Mower is good as the naïve young man dabbling in wickedness. The special effects are excellent by the standards of 1968. It’s a movie that stands up very well today – the feel of malevolent agencies lying in wait for the unwary is conveyed extremely well, there’s plenty of action and there’s plenty of suspense. And there are some real chills. This is one of the less camp Hammer movies – it was intended to be taken seriously, and it works as a serious horror film. And the print on the Anchor Bay DVD is absolutely gorgeous, a very sharp picture and wonderful colour. A very good and very entertaining movie.

Necronomicon (AKA Succubus, 1968)

Necronomicon - Geträumte Sünden, probably better known under its US release title of Succubus, was one of the first Jess Franco movies I saw, when I first discovered everyone’s favourite exploitation auteur a few years ago. It impressed me enormously at the time, and seeing it second time I’m even more impressed. This film, along with Venus in Furs and Vampyros Lesbos, sees Franco at his most self-consciously arty. This is the story of Lorna, a stripper who does a kinky act at a club in Berlin. The S&M aspects of the act start to bleed into her life outside the club. Franco describes the movie as a study in paranoia, and it certainly captures the feel of paranoia extremely well. Reality and delusion become inextricably mixed, and it’s increasingly unclear exactly whose delusions we’re seeing. It’s packed with bizarre and disturbing imagery and with overheated eroticism. There are moments that seem silly, but then dreams seem pretty silly anyway so it doesn’t really matter. In fact it captures that element of the silly and incongruous that is often the thing that tells us that we’re dreaming. So having the psychiatrist pick up a model of a pig and then ask Lorna what she thinks of pachyderms makes sense in the garbled world of dreams. There are moments that go close to kitsch but somehow he gets away with it – the scene with Lorna and the mannequins, for example, which manages to be genuinely erotic and disturbing. Janine Reynaud is extraordinary as Lorna. Jack Taylor’s detached non-acting style of acting adds just the right touch of alienation, and the result is a heady fever dream of sex and madness. Very little is actually explained in this movie. If you like your movies neatly wrapped up at the end you’ll hate this one, but then if you like your movies comfortingly conventional you probably won’t get past the first ten minutes. This one and Venus in Furs remain my favourite Franco movies.

The Return of Dr Mabuse (1961)

With his 1922 movie Dr Mabuse, der Spieler Fritz Lang created one of the enduring villains of 20th century cinema. The shadowy figure of Dr Mabuse was to appear in several more of Lang’s films, including his final film The 1000 Eyes Of Dr Mabuse, and in moves by countless other directors. Like a diabolical spider, Dr Mabuse sits in the middle of a gigantic web of corruption and criminal conspiracies. Dr Mabuse enjoyed a renaissance in early 1960s German films. The Return of Dr Mabuse (Im Stahlnetz des Dr Mabuse) opens with a series of murders, apparently related to large-scale international organised crime activities. At first Commissioner Lohmann (Gert Fröbe) has no reason to suspect Dr Mabuse’s involvement – Mabuse is, after all, dead. It soon becomes apparent, however, that this is no ordinary criminal plot. He is up against an army of men who have been turned into virtual robots, with no will of their own, mindless and remorselessly carrying out their orders. The plot also seems to go beyond mere crime. It’s exactly what you’d expect from Dr Mabuse. But Dr Mabuse is dead. Isn’t he? Then Lohmann discovers the charred remains of a book at one of the murder scenes, where a notorious female mobster from Chicago has been assassinated by means of a flame-thrower concealed in a truck. The book, by a mysterious clergyman, mentions Mabuse by name. Lohmann is more and more convinced that the evil doctor is somehow involved. He is also starting to wonder if the FBI agent who is assisting him in the investigation is really who he says he is. And is there a connection with the city prison’s strange inability to account for some of its more notorious inmates?

The movie has more than enough energy and style to overcome the limitations of its low budget. Gert Fröbe is delightful as Commissioner Lohmann, Lex Barker is solid as FBI man Joe Como, and Daliah Lavi adds some glamour as a nosy reporter. There’s also a mad scientist, so really this film has everything you could want. It’s all terrific fun. It’s a bit similar in feel to the Edgar Wallace krimis that were such a staple of the German film industry in the 60s. I’m getting totally hooked on the German movies of this period.

Horrors of Spider Island (1960)

Horrors of Spider Island is a strange little 1960 German exploitation movie. A group of female dancers are recruited for a show that’s going to tour Asia, starting with Singapore. Unfortunately their plane crashes, and they find themselves on a deserted tropical island. Eight beautiful girls, and Garry their manager. Things seem hopeful when they find a cabin on the island, but the cabin turns out to contain the corpse of a scientist, trapped in a gigantic spider’s web. For a while it looks like it’s going to be a straightforward horror movie, then a couple of the dead scientist’s young male assistants arrive, and it mutates into a kind of beach party movie. Then it goes back to being a horror film. A very bad horror movie. But this is one of those rare cases when a movie really does work in a so-bad-it’s-good kind of way. It’s so goofy and good-natured you can’t help liking it. And, although the set-up – eight beautiful girls trapped on an island menaced by a monster – would lead you to expect an outrageously sexist movie, surprisingly enough it isn’t sexist at all. The hunky guys are as scantily-clad as the girls, and the girls (although some are obviously the type of girls who enjoy having a good time) are never portrayed as brainless bimbos. If you love bad campy horror movies then Horrors of Spider Island delivers the goods. The Something Weird DVD release includes three very strange little short films, all involving young women and spiders.

F.P.1 Doesn’t Answer (1932)

F.P.1 Doesn’t Answer (F.P.1 antwortet nicht) is an odd little film, a 1932 co-production between Gaumont British Pictures and the famous German UFA studios. The cast is a mix of British and German talent, including Jill Esmond, Conrad Veidt and Peter Lorre. It’s a spy thriller with a dash of science fiction. A brilliant naval officer designs a floating airfield, a kind of gigantic stationary aircraft carrier, that is to be moored in mid-Atlantic. Various unspecified powers are determined to sabotage this project. Jill Esmond plays Claire Lennartz, the owner of the shipyard responsible for building the F.P. 1 (Floating Platform 1), a woman who is involved in a romantic triangle. Her would-be lovers are Droste, the designer of the F.P.1, and Major Ellissen, an adventurer and pioneering aviator. When saboteurs strike she realises which of the men she loves, but she has to call on the other man to carry out a daring rescue operation. The print I saw seems to be a drastically shortened version of the original release, making the plot rather obscure. The early 1930s aircraft are fun, and the special effects are reasonably impressive for a 1932 movie. This was a big-budget production filmed simultaneously in English and German. The idea is more exciting than the execution, and even the shortened version drags in places, but it’s worth seeing if you’re a fan of off-beat movies and strange genre hybrids.