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The Twilight Zone: Nothing in the Dark (1962)
Predictable today, but still a good episode
I often wonder how some plays, movies, and TV shows were seen by the public in terms of being innovative and fresh, or of being trite and preachy.
This is one such case. I don't know the answer. Today, the story of "Death" in human form is so common that people would only be amazed if a character who might be "Death" actually wasn't "Death".
Redford gets to play the role here. Is he "Death"? I don't think it's a spoiler to say that he is. An old lady suspects R G Armstrong of perhaps being "Death" out to get her.
The old lady closes herself off in a condemned building, and is overly afraid of "Death".
So, what will be the outcome of all this?
Pretty predictable today. In 1962, it probably was just as predictable for anyone over 30. Today, it would be predictable for most people over 12.
It's well done, and it's a good story.
The Twilight Zone: Once Upon a Time (1961)
An episode that depends on performance, and gets it
This is one of the "comic episodes" of Twilight Zone.
Like most of the comic episodes, the story is very basic and depends on "performance", and like all of the other comic episodes, we get great comic performances.
Here, the noted performances are from Keaton and Adams, and Maytag repairman White, as a simple gentle soul, a conniving but likeable rogue, and a repairman.
It begins as a silent movie, because it begins in a bygone era, where Keaton is a simple soul who works for an inventor, and accidentally puts on a "time travel helmet".
Travelling to the future, he finds help from a likable rogue (Adams), and they have some misadventures while learning the lesson of "the grass always seems greener on the other side of the hill".
Serling always managed to get perfect casting, particularly for his comedies. This is no exception.
The Twilight Zone: Showdown with Rance McGrew (1962)
very good comedy
This episode is obviously a comedy, yet I notice that.some reviewers actually take it seriously.
Well, some of us like good old fashioned "pie in the face" slapstick, and this is low budget slapstick.
An actor who happens to become a star of a Western TV series, needs a double for anything more than stretching his arms. Everyone else makes fun of him behind his back.
There's a bit of self righteous scapegoating here, but it's slapstick, and that happens in slapstick. The lead character retains some dignity, even though he is a laughing stock.
The "twilight zone" aspect comes in when he does a show where he defeats Jesse James, only to be transported magically to the old West by the real Jesse James to be humiliated.
Why does Jesse James have so much power beyond the grave? Well, there is no reason, and since this is a comedy, you don't need a reason. Comedy ghosts and comedy ghost busters don't need logic.
If this was a serious piece, I could see having issues with it, but it's clearly a preposterous tale meant just for fun. The two lead characters have a lot of fun, and it is funny. Case closed.
The Twilight Zone: I Sing the Body Electric (1962)
A very basic story
This episode is about a very realistic looking robot who is a nanny for three kids.
As usual, the kids aren't very accepting of the nanny at first, and it isn't a spoiler to say that they eventually come to appreciate the robot nanny.
It's a very basic story. I notice that it flows very well, because it doesn't seem to take any time to tell the story, and that is actually a good sign. It means that the story flows well, and is told well.
The robot lady who cares for the kids can be seen as a metaphor for the human being who is divided from a larger body, perhaps the body of a good or bad god, who fulfills a lifetime experience and then experiences an answer to the question of whether it will unite again or divide again.
I'm not saying that it is a metaphor, but I do say that it is intended to be such a metaphor.
The Twilight Zone: The Little People (1962)
A classic story
This is a classic episode of the Twilight Zone.
Two astronauts, as depicted in the romantic days of the fifties and sixties, when space travel was seen in a light that wasn't very realistic, are on an asteroid and need to repair their ship.
Akins plays the mature one, and Maross plays the brat.
The astronaut played by Maross finds that there are "little people" , very microscopic, nearby, and he becomes a god to them. He has them build a statue of him. In a wild spoiled brat frenzy, he stomps around and murders many of the "little people".
The character played by Akins is appalled by this, and tries to get the other one to leave when the ship is repaired.
A lot of people really miss the point here. The point is "maturity". It so happens that the mature astronaut is the commander, but as astronauts, both of them are elite characters who already have much stewardship and much command. One of them is a a poor steward. It could just as well be the commander as the second in command.
The Cockleshell Heroes (1955)
Fairly accurate
During WW2 the "cockleshell heroes" actually did exist, and actually were ten men. Most of the "results" and "fates" depicted in this film are accurate.
Having watched a documentary on the real story, I personally felt the real story was more interesting, but the actors in this film were obviously interesting. If you're looking for Christopher Lee in the movie, you have to wait until the ten men are transported to their mission, as Lee plays the captain of the sub that takes them there.
Jose Ferrer got the better role in this movie. Trevor Howard plays a very stodgy and stiff and more stereotypical character, but all of the actors are very good here.
One trouble is that we really don't get to distinguish the nine men from each other during the movie, as their names are whipped by in quick takes, with two exceptions. The actors do a very top notch job, though. I would rather that the director give us more than a few seconds in the spurts with most of the characters.
It's a good and entertaining film, and close enough to the History (unless you're a real stickler) to enjoy as History.
Dr. Phibes Rises Again (1972)
the epitome of style over substance
This horror movie is the definition of "style over substance". It's a sequel to one of the worst horror movies ever made, and it does improve on that one, if only because it doesn't try to be anything serious.
The plot is undefined. Dr. Phibes tries to raise his beautiful wife from the dead with some unexplained secret in some unexplained way.
Like I said, there's no plot. There doesn't even seem to be a script, screenplay, or story. Just a bunch of action scenes plied together.
Phibes has a rival, but instead of killing his rival, he kills a bunch of innocent people for no reason.
His rival has more humanity than Phibes, but we get the feeling that we're supposed to care about Phibes, but there is no way that anyone who isn't a homicidal maniac can care about Phibes.
There is a weird orchestra and some dance scenes with the sexy gorgeous assistant to Phibes. They're nice to look at, for guys. It's part of the "style over substance".
The saving grace is that Phibes at least tries to save a couple of gorgeous women. At least that makes this better than the first Phibes movie.
The Outer Limits: The Duplicate Man (1964)
Was just as predictable a half century ago
There were a few clunkers in the Outer Limits that get praise only because the writers were overrated hacks.
This one deals first of all with a "super monster", a perfect killing machine, although it seems to be a very poor killing machine in practice.
The story has one contrived bit after another in order to make the story about clones that are supposed to die within a few hours of creation, or else there is a risk that the clone takes the place of the original subject.
Everything about the story is contrived. Worse still, there is not one bit of credible motivation for any of the characters. We're supposed to care about a total creep whose unmotivated desire to study this creature becomes a danger to all human life.
The "monster" is "goofy" looking, but that doesn't bother me. Neither does the already debunked version of the future. These don't bother me. It's the poor writing and the stupidity that makes this a sub par episode.
What's worse is there is no payoff, no inspiration. And no motivation. This was just as poor and predictable a half century ago as it is today.
Fiend Without a Face (1958)
Cheesecake helps ordinary sci fi
This is a very ordinary science fiction movie.
Marshall Thompson has the lead. He is always the ultimate "straight man" to the monsters. Here, the monster is a bunch of little monsters that are the result of mad scientist actions.
What helps this one is the "cheesecake" of Kim Parker as the hot babe in a bath towel. This is certainly a case of "selling sex" in order to get people to watch the movie.
The fatalities are very predictable and very Hollywood. The logistics aren't all that great, with a lot of the "logic" in setting coming from left field, so to speak. The solution to the problem seems to be just made up for convenience.
Guys will love the cheesecake, but other than that, it's pretty ordinary.
Kolchak: The Night Stalker: The Energy Eater (1974)
Just more Hollywood preaching
Grasshoff and Rice continue their relentless preaching of neo Nazi ideology where women are the fair sex or else they are eliminated.
Again, they bend over backwards to preach this philosophy, and contrive every circumstance to meet it. The seventies was a big era for the Nazi party to dominate Hollywood movies and definitely to dominate TV. While Grasshoff is a plodding Nazi, he gets his job due to Nazis even higher up the ladder.
So, in this episode, the boring and predictable killings are at a hospital. And the Nazi ideology demands that the killing of any woman with dark hair be deemed a natural supernatural desire.
Men won't like this episode, unless they're already totally brainwashed by the relentless preaching of the seventies.
Unfortunately, this era has film students who are only allowed to progress if they worship Hitler ideology.
It's very depressing that this is all we seem to get from the hacks of the movie and TV industry.
Wagon Train: The Benjamin Burns Story (1960)
Actual drama and theater in dynamic episode
Guest stars Naish and Franciscus are the "old man, young man" in this great episode of the wagon train.
In a search for water, the scout Flint McCullough (Robert Horton) searches for water with the two guest stars. Others searching for the water decide to head back to the train and figure another solution.
They need the water to survive, though, and the three men find themselves in a dilemma. Through some natural mishaps, the old man is dying, and Flint is delirious from a rattlesnake bite, leaving the young man (Franciscus) a greenhorn, to pretty much be a fish out of water.
The episode deals with harsh reality, and with desperation, and the need for humans to understand what desperation can lead to, even for the best people. It's a drama as much as action in this episode. It's an important episode, and an important story, and an important lesson for people of all ages.
Star Trek: Bread and Circuses (1968)
Highlight is the Spock McCoy arena scene
Kirk finds that one of his colleagues has violated his oath of noninterference with a culture.
This results in a sort of Roman empire with a very dull and stereotypical Hollywood villain along with a stereotypical Hollywood villain stooge.
The "violator", who is now a stooge for the main villain, had transported his entire crew to be in gladiator games. Kirk is faced with death for himself, Spock, and McCoy if he doesn't do the same with his crew.
The highlight of this episode, and its one saving grace, is the appearance of Spock and Dr. McCoy in an arena fight against two gladiators. We see the mastery of Spock's Vulcan character, and the humility of DeForest Kelly in his willingness to be a weak fighter in the arena.
St. Elmo's Fire (1985)
A movie to fall asleep to
I really can't say what the plot of this movie is. I don't think there is one. It certainly isn't a character study, because the characters are not one bit identifiable, mostly due to a terrible script with lines that are clumsy.
The actors try to make the lines fit, but they fail. Good actors can make any lines into something that works. That is what actors are trained to do.
But since not one actor makes the lines fit, I have to believe the director is at fault here.
The scenery is dull. Just rooms and city streets. The lines are forgettable and sound like clumsy words put together that no one ever said.
There appears to be seven people at the center of this, but they are dull characters. The favorable reviews appear to be from just a few people with several fake user names. One must remember that 1985 is still a modern era, and the people involved with the movie are voting on this site and on other sites, along with their children and other relatives.
It isn't depressing, though, and it will help you get to sleep if you try to watch more than 15 minutes at one sitting. It has to be seen in spurts. It does cure Insomnia.
Reservoir Dogs (1992)
More Tarantino stupidity for the dorks
Like most of Tarantino's works, there is no story here. Tarantino is not a writer. Some people think that he is a writer, but those people are on meth or cocaine.
Tarantino can't even writer believable dialog. Like all of his movies, the dialog is forced by good actors who sell it to the geeks.
Here, a bunch of guys who speak like gay guys trying to be tough are given colorful names by one old guy who doesn't want them to know each other, so Tarantino is doing a bit of Kansas City Confidential here.
The story goes back and forth in time, and just like Pulp Fiction, it goes back and forth for no reason, with no artistry. It's like Butthead writing a movie for Beavis.
The colorful named guys commit some crime. We really don't know what it is from their gay fast talk, so like all poor movies, you're required to look at the "program" to understand what a poor writer and director is trying to say.
Not that Tarantino is the worst director or writer. There are other big names who are lamer (Coen brothers, Leone, Nolan), all of whom are revered by the sheep who believe in the old Greek mythology that some men are gods, some are demigods, and the rest of you are mortal or sheep.
At least Tarantino makes fun of the very people who esteem this "demigod classical Greek hero" garbage, which is why he gets 3 stars out of ten, compared to the 1/10 that those hacks deserve.
Most of the action takes place in an abandoned warehouse where we get the forced, unnatural dialog of geeks pretending to be tough.
It's plodding for most of the way, despite all of the bloodshed. Many directors have simulated action without actual action, and given us more "bang per violent act" than this movie, but at least Tarantino can laugh at himself, playing both ends against the middle, placating the Beavis who thinks this is a cool movie, and the other people who realize that it's not meant to be credible.
Still, it's not a good movie. Not even a good one for watching on the elliptical.
Star Trek: The City on the Edge of Forever (1967)
More brainwashing from Hitler ideology
Harlan and Gene write a script that has no subtlety at all.
During this period of "Star Trek", the directors and writers all worshipped Adolf Hitler's ideology of "women are the fair sex" with no woman ever surviving an episode unless she was blond and fair.
Not only do they kill off the dark haired women in praise of the video reels of Nazis marching beautiful gypsy women to be executed, but the writers brainwash the viewers into rationalizing this as "nature" and as "for the greater good".
In this predictable episode, Dr. McCoy goes back in time and changes the future with the horrible act of saving the life of one such dark haired beauty, so Kirk must go back in time and change that.
It's rationalized by some stupid claim that her survival caused a Nazi regime to grow, which is ironic, considering that the writers are the Nazi regime.
I won't spoil it by saying if Kirk succeeds in changing History back, because the entire point is that it's all contrived to kill the brunette again and again and again, and to bore the audience with this, but mostly to brainwash the audience.
This gets a lot of praise from the Nazis, but don't let the high rating fool you. Nazis are control freaks, and control freaks make fake user names and vote these Nazi propaganda shows up in ratings. This is proven by the top 250 on this site, and on other sites. It is what it is.
Harland Ellison never was a crafty writer, and the only reason he gets any attention is because of his Hitler worship. And yet History records that they lost WW2. Well, they control the publishing companies and the production companies.
Hopefully, maybe a hundred years from now, people won't be so easy to brainwash, and the demon of Nazi ideology will be passe.
Bear Island (1979)
The same repetitious Hitler worship from MacLean
If you've read one of the Hitler worshiping Alistair MacLean's books, you've read them all.
This one is set in snow, like many of this books. Too bad that he wastes a theatrical setting for his worship of Adolf and Eva.
It's a spy movie. It's contrived for the Nazi propaganda of killing any woman with dark hair. That's his entire story. That's the forest of a MacLean book. The "trees" are always the same denial that he preaches Nazi propaganda.
Is there more to this story? The usual "trees" that would be suspense if it wasn't so predictable and monotonous, but MacLean fits it well with the Hollywood Nazi preaching.
Very Bad Things (1998)
Poor screenwriters run the show.
All you need to do to get produced as a scree
is to sell out to the Nazi party like Peter Berg does, and just write another dead girl with dark hair into the script, and you can have stupid dialog that sounds like no one you have ever met, like this script about a dead brunette.
Nothing makes any sense, but it fits the neo Nazi preaching that Berg and so many others go along with. That's really all this movie is about. Some guys have a bachelor party and kill a brunette and make a bunch of noise, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.
This is retro 1970s when the Nazi party totally dominated Hollywood, and now the poor writers of the seventies and eighties and nineties are the judges and producers who ensure that no talent ever gets through into the ranks.
I'm sorry, but there's nothing else in this movie.
The Other Side of the Door (2016)
Most predictable movie ever
Johannes Roberts and Ernst Riero join the multitude of Hitler worshipers who get the green light from producers to make more of these predictable Hollywood horror movies.
A lot of people pretend to miss the forest for the trees with these neo Nazi propaganda movies.
The "trees" is the dumb story of a woman who thinks that she can bring her dead son back to life.
The "forest" is that this is just another predictable 1970s style Nazi Hollywood movie that goes out of its way to preach that women are the fair sex, by way of killing any blond male and any dark female.
That's the only thing that Johannes Roberts preaches here, and it's not even subtle. Just predictable. You'll wonder why you sat through an entire movie for this same old story.
Berenshtein (2021)
lots of action and dialog with no explanation
How much of this is true? Probably most of it, or at least it's told as well as Berenshtein himself knew how to tell it.
A story during WW2 of Russian resistance against the German onslaught, with Berenshtein apparently in a few quandaries, one of which is whether or not to even reveal his real name.
The story is ultra confusing. And it's hard to understand the dialog. It's dubbed in English, and without subtitles, you really can't understand more than a few words by any actor other than the main character.
Still, you do get a "feel" for what is going on. It's just confusing. There is a commander over Berenshtein, but he is also a leader of what seems to be a squad.
One command character parachutes in early and gives Berenshtein's commander some static about his role in the war. They're supposed to cover for thousands of troops crossing a river.
Berenshtein is part of an intelligence unit, and the plot jumps into the future without explanation often. At one point, although they are lacking in food, Berenshtein is at a dinner for officers, and one of them angers him, but I have no idea what the anger is from. He invites the officer outside and hits the officer, and then nothing else happens from this incident.
Later, he parachutes with his squad into a place further West, landing in Poland, where he doesn't want to be. We're led to believe he's a hundred miles from his destination, then we hear him say he's two miles away, so again there is confusion.
The squad learns of a German super weapon that sounds like something Captain America would run into, and their plans change. Their plans change again to do a humanitarian effort. Do they get back to the Captain America plan? I won't tell you.
I think the point here is that everyone is confused in the war, and that's okay, because that's the point of the movie I think.
House of Frankenstein (1944)
The usual Kenton/Siodmak formula, with Lowe along for the ride
Kenton and Siodmak combine again with their unnnatural Hitler ideology of Aryan women, determined to have females known as the "fair sex" the way Nazis learned to do. Lowe may be along for the ride, because this is simply a rehash of the usual Kenton/Siodmak Hitler worship.
A bunch of movie monsters come together. Big stars and a gypsy beauty are wasted in this racist work.
Frankenstein is replaced by an even more evil scientist. The monster must also appear. For some reason, the evil Wolfman and Dracula also appear, and Siodmak seems to believe those two are likable, even though they're monsters. It's the same snake oil that Eastwood sells to feeble minds to accept a killer of women and children to be an "okay guy".
So, if you're feeble minded and willing to accept Hitler as your god, you'll enjoy this. Otherwise, it really is just depressing as Siodmak bends over backwards to manipulate scripts to kill dark haired women.
Kraft Suspense Theatre: The Long Ravine (1965)
The hardships of prospecting and Ha Ha Ha
Jack Lord (Hawaii 5-0, God's Little Acre) plays a 20th century prospector in a gritty and realistic story about a man up against the elements and rivals.
He makes a partner of his wife's brother, played by Andre Prine, and they have high hopes. The elements have already beaten down Lord a bit, and he puts up with a lot of disrespect from their landlord so that he can have a last "Ha ha ha" on him.
They are given a hard time by their landlord, played by Broderick Crawford (Highway Patrol, Last of the Comanches), who shows the hard working prospectors no respect, and makes a move on Lord's wife, but doesn't push it.
The prospectors finally find something good, and an assayer tells them it's good. They make the mistake of telling their landlord.
Of course the landlord will do some conniving claim jump, and do it legally.
It's the characters and the drama that follow that makes this perhaps the best and most credible story ever on any anthology series. The story combines action with drama with theatrics with reality that is very unusual, althugh it was more usual in this era before about 1970.
This isn't one for the Beavis crowd, but it is a superior story for the more mature viewer.
Kraft Suspense Theatre: The Hunt (1963)
the lamest Most Dangerous game screenplay ever
This had to be embarrassing for the actors. Not only were Rooney, Caan, and Dern excellent in their roles, but so was everyone else. The performances are excellent.
The trouble is the screenplay.
It's no secret that this is a "Most Dangerous Game" story. I won't spoil it by saying who wins, although you can guess easily, with Caan playing the beloved surfer, and from New York to boot, and what screenplay ever showed a New York boy get killed? Will this be the first one?
The story line is in a day and age when perhaps somewhere a sheriff might actually play the most dangerous game, but it really wasn't possible after about 1975, and this was well before that.
However, the sheriff is very blatant about it, and the script is a perfect example of "expository" and "contrived".
The real problem is the character played by Caan. He doesn't play a "survivor". He plays a moron who stick his nose in where no survivor would ever stick his nose into.
A bit of cockiness does count to survival, but not being an outright moron. Yet, when he is hunted, he turns into a thinking person and tries not to "break jail", which his character isn't savvy enough to think about the dangers, and he also thinks of ways to beat the scent that the dogs follow. Again, one would think that some of the seven people who were killed before his hunt would have thought of that before a moron like this arrogant, superior minded character would think of it.
The ending is also contrived. This truly is the worst of the most dangerous game stories, saved only by excellent acting from top to bottom.
Kraft Suspense Theatre: A Cause of Anger (1964)
No motivation in a nonsense story.
Director Bare, and writers Gordon and Wormser, combine for a very underwhelming story.
Brian Keith and the other actors do their best to sell this story, but it's just full of hate, and unmotivated characters.
An ex officer has a job for one of the secret services to transport a boy genius several hundred miles in the Southwest, beginning in LA. A woman who appears to be a social worker accompanies them.
They are followed by a car on the way.
The car breaks down, and that's not explained whether it's part of a conspiracy or not, but it helps the people following them.
While the car is broken down, a young woman helps them. They go to a diner, where a beautiful Native American girl waits on them. The boy is allowed to go to a party with her.
The girl is beaten up badly, and for the rest of the story lies unconscious in a hospital. Her father is a lawman who winds up assisting the "good guy" played by Brian Ketih.
Throughout all of this, the story has no real motivation, and no one but the father seems to care one whit about the beautiful girl who is hurt so badly.
None of this makes any sense, and there is no payoff. It's a sick story about sick people with no motivation. In fact, the boy genius, who is supposed to be the disturbed one, is the only one who seems to have any motivation at all.
Kraft Suspense Theatre: A Cruel and Unusual Night (1964)
Punk kidnaps judge
Some lamer brains think there is a message here against the death penalty for human monsters.
If so, the writer failed miserably.
A judge who has no compunction for issuing a death penalty to men who have abused their gifts and talents and abilities and resources in murdering people whom they look down upon as inferior beings, is kidnapped by a man whose life has been a blessing, with a gorgeous wife and healthy body, who once murdered a man whom he felt was beneath his dignity to let live.
This murderer gets a reprieve from the death sentence, and he wants to make the judge suffer the agony of a death sentence.
Palm Springs (2020)
This just doesn't work as anything
This bit of nonsense tries to be deep and meaningful or satirical or something, and even tries to be some avant garde sci-fi, but whatever it tries to do, it fails miserably in any category, and there's nothing "fresh" about it either. There's no way to stay awake through a full one sitting of this movie.
It's pretty much just actors deciding to act out roles, with dialog that sounds like it was written on paper. You will never rmeet anyone who speaks anything like a single character in this movie.
Now, that could work in a satire, but this doesn't appear to be satire. It's just people in certain locations saying words. It's as though the people just stopped in certain places and decided to shoot some sloppy scenes.
There's a hero and heroine. The heroine is smoking hot, and much hotter than the plain Jane that the guy is married to, so the one thing that makes sense in this movie is his attraction to her.
However, she's very shallow. None of the characters are interesting, and there's not one character that you could probably relate to or care about.