1941 (1979)

The question that often gets asked in Film Studies classes is: Who’s your favorite filmmaker? Without any hesitation I can tell you that my favorite filmmaker is Steven Spielberg. What? Blasphemy, you say! How can you rank Steven Spielberg higher than the likes of Alfred Hitchcock or Jean Luc Godard? Okay, maybe you’re not saying this, but this response was common amongst the UW-Milwaukee film professors. One of my professors had nothing but disdain for Spielberg, claiming that his films were “manipulative.” Which is true, but then again so are the films of Hitchcock and for that matter Jean Luc Godard.  In fact, the underlying success to all GREAT cinema is manipulating the audience into caring about the characters that inhabit the screen.  Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho is possibly the most manipulative movie ever made; for the first 45 minutes the audience roots for Marion Crane, completely sympathetic to her plight, and are thus horrified when she is brutally murdered right before their eyes. The whole success of this scene is dependent on whether or not the audience cares for Marion, if they don’t, then it’s a complete bust! 

Now a film professor might respond with, “The shower scene is terrifying regardless as to whether or not the audience sympathizes with Marion.”  It might be, if the shower scene happened at the very beginning of the film, but it happens midway through the actual movie, after the audience has spent a good deal of time observing Marion Crane. If they don’t connect with her character on some level, then more than likely, they won’t make it to the shower scene, thus rendering it useless.  

I bring this point up, because the idea that Spielberg is a lesser filmmaker for being  manipulative is a completely INVALID point. In fact, what makes Spielberg a great filmmaker is his ability to get an emotional reaction out of his audience, despite the fact that what’s onscreen is absolute fiction (I’m of course talking about his wonderful fantasy films, as opposed to his problematic attempts at history).   E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial became one of the highest grossing films of all time, because Spielberg was able to make his audience care about a rubber puppet.  This may not seem impressive at first, but once you watch the 1989 rip off Mac and Me, you’ll totally appreciate just what Spielberg was able to accomplish. Jaws was a movie that in lesser hands could have been laughable, but thanks to Spielberg’s expertise became a classic. Again, if you doubt my word, watch any of the Jaws rip offs that have cluttered the video shelves and the Syfy channel for the last few decades, you will greatly appreciate the restraint Spielberg brought to the material.  Whether they admit or not, one of the main reasons why people from my generation got into film was because of Steven Spielberg. His films played a crucial part in most of our lives. 

Now, I’m sure one of the three people reading this article will say to him/herself, “Yeah, those films were good, but, God almighty did that last Indiana Jones film suck!  What was with that awful scene in which that annoying Shia kid swings from vine to vine like Tarzan? How embarrassing! Worst…Movie…EVER!”   First off, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull is far from being the worst movie ever made, that dubious distinction belongs to the Robin Williams movie Patch Adams. Secondly, it’s true that Spielberg has had a few misfires in his long career, but then again, so has just about every director in cinema history. It happens. However, even Spielberg’s misfires often have a few scenes that make it worthwhile; Crystal Skull maybe laughable in many parts, but the chase scene through the college campus is a lot of fun.  The Lost World is a dreadful film, but I personally like the scenes of the T-Rex rampaging through the streets of San Diego; there’s very little logic at work, but they are amusing.  And this is when I turn my attention to Spielberg’s first major misfire 1941; a big budgeted comedy about the paranoia that enveloped the West Coast following Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor. 

1941 was a God send for Spielberg’s detractors, “At last,” they proclaimed, “that Spielberg is finally being exposed for the fraud that he is.” They gleefully chuckled as the film died at the box office, hoping that this would be the last they would ever see of this “upstart” filmmaker, only to have their hopes dashed two years later when Raiders of the Lost Ark would prove to be a huge box office smash.  At this point in his career, Spielberg had never really tasted failure before; his first theatrical film The Sugarland Express did very little business at the box office, but it was made for a rather modest budget, hence it proved to be a low risk venture for the studio.  Jaws essentially created the blockbuster and Close Encounters of the Third Kind was a huge hit, even if its success was overshadowed by Star Wars. Spielberg was riding a hot hand and was thought to have the Midas touch; he could do no wrong in the studio’s eye. 

In theory 1941 had all the ingredients of a box office bonanza; a great director at the helm, a screenplay by two gifted writers (Robert Zemeckis, Bob Gale), an impressive array of stunts and special effects, and more importantly, an all star cast.  The most inspired piece of casting was getting John Belushi to play the small, but pivotal role of Wild Bill Kelso. Belushi at this point was a huge star on “Saturday Night Live” and was coming off his scene stealing role as Bluto in National Lampoon’s Animal House; he was a hot commodity and thus making it more impressive that he was willing to play a supporting role.  However, despite his limited screen time, Belushi is given prominent billing in the credits and it’s usually his face that is seen on the posters as well as most merchandise and promotional items. 

  

1941 is from the “the bigger the better” style of comedy that is seen in movies like: It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, The Great Race, Catch-22, and The Russians Are Coming, The Russians Are Coming. These films are not just comedies, but grand spectacles as well.  The irony is that, especially in the case of 1941 and It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, the biggest laughs often come from a well known dramatic actor, instead of the big named comedians that mug endlessly for the camera. Spencer Tracy’s performance in It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World is easily the best thing about the movie, largely due to his understated acting; Tracy is able to get a laugh by slightly changing the expression on his face. In 1941, the funniest scene is not of Belushi hamming it up, but of Robert Stack (as General Stilwell) getting overwhelmed with emotion while watching Dumbo. Stilwell up until this point in the movie (and after) is a fairly straightforward, no nonsense character and it’s absolutely hilarious to see this rather uptight man tear up to the song “Baby Mine” and sing along to “When I See An Elephant Fly.”

I have a confession to make….I absolutely love 1941. It’s true that as a whole the film simply doesn't work; it never quite gels together and too often the characters get lost in all the chaos. The film’s main flaw is not the lack of original ideas, but it’s that there are just too many ideas onscreen. It is littered with endless subplots and supporting characters, so along with Stilwell watching Dumbo, we are shown the following stories:

1)      Bobby is a young man from the “wrong side of the tracks,” whose main goal is to dance with the lovely Betty as the USO. However, he is constantly being thwarted by the Neanderthal that is Corporal “Stretch” Sitarski (Treat Williams), who has his eyes on Betty as well, despite her resistance to him. In theory, Bobby is the true protagonist of 1941 as he’s the only character given an actual character arc; he goes from being a disrespected "hoodlum" to being put in charge of sinking the Japanese sub at the film’s end.  Bobby Diciccio is likable enough as Bobby and Dianne Kay is appealing as Betty, but Spielberg doesn’t do them any favors by constantly cutting away from their story line  Whenever it seems you’re just about to get caught up in their lives the film will cut another story line, already in progress. 

2)      Captain Birkhead’s (Tim Matheson) attempts to go all  the way with  Donna Stratton (Nancy Allen). It is revealed that Stratton has an airplane fetish and will only go all the way if she is up in an airplane. Birkhead finally gets her up in the air and is nearly killed for his effort.

3)      Wild Bill Kelso (John Belushi) is a crazy airplane pilot, who is convinced he is chasing a squadron of Japanese fighter pilots.  Kelso really doesn’t come into prominence until  the second half of the film, but ends up tying the stories together. (He shoots down the plane with Birkhead and Stratton, tells Stilwell about the sub, and orders Wally (after being trapped underneath a giant plastic Santa Claus) to sink the sub. Belushi is always amusing, but never really funny (except for the fall he does off the wing of the airplane).

4)      The Japanese submarine crew, whose mission it is to destroy Hollywood in hopes it will demoralize the Americans. They blow up an abandoned amusement park instead and think they have accomplished a great victory for Japan. The scenes are amusing largely due to the interaction between horror great Christopher and Kurosawa regular Toshiro Mifune. 

5)      Sgt. Frank Tree and his incompetent tank crew. Though, in one of the rare instances, the Frank Tree storyline nicely intertwines with Bobby’s, as Sitarski is a member of Tree’s crew. Tree himself is often the voice of sanity, when Sitarski is about to punch Bobby at the beginning, he intervenes saying, “I hate see Americans fighting Americans.” Later on, he suppresses a riot between the Zoot Suits, the Navy, and the Army by giving a similar speech.

6)      The army installs an anti-aircraft gun in Betty’s father’s (Ned Beatty) backyard and he destroys his house while trying to sink the Japanese sub with it.

7)      And there are minor scenes thrown in the mix, like those involving the insane Col. Maddox (the great Warren Oates), who is convinced the Japanese have already mounted a land invasion of the West Coast. And the scenes between two air raid wardens sitting on a ferris wheel, Claude Crumm (Murray Hamilton) and the ever annoying Herbie (Eddie Deezen) and his dummy. 

It’s like Spielberg and friends had a checklists of ideas they wanted to see in the movie and put them in there, regardless as to whether they worked or not. I actually think the film would work better without the Japanese submarine crew, instead have it be a figment of everyone's imagination. The film is about panic that swept the West Coast after Pearl Harbor, and in a way the submarine justifies the panic. Sure, they don't bomb anything important and no one is killed, but they were still threatening to do so.  

  Earlier, I mentioned that Psycho is a classic movie largely because it has a strong protagonist the audience can relate to (Marion Crane), this is completely lacking in 1941; we might like a few of the characters, but we are not drawn to them they way we are to Marion Crane. Bobby’s best moments often get overwhelmed by the pyrotechnics and stunts that are happening around him, while Betty is a fairly passive character.  General Stilwell has a few nice scenes, but is missing for most of the action; he’s determined to watch Dumbo at any costs and won’t even let a riot outside the cinema get in his way.  However, in spite of its flaws (or because of them) I am absolutely drawn to 1941 every time I watch it.  From a narrative perspective the film is rather weak, but as spectacle it is top notch; it has some of the best set pieces Spielberg has ever filmed. Here are just a few that I really like: 

1.       The opening scene is a parody of Spielberg’s own film Jaws. It opens the exact same way: a young lady (Susan Blacklinie, the same actress in Jaws) goes skinny dipping in the ocean, but instead of being attacked by a shark, finds herself straddling the periscope of a surfacing submarine. Modern day audiences may just shrug with complete indifference, as pop culture references have become prevalent in today’s comedies, but in 1979 this was basically unheard of in the movies. A year later, the Zucker brothers would also open their film Airplane with a parody of Jaws, instead of a sharks fin breaking the water surfacing; it’s an airplane fin breaking the surface of the clouds. 

2.       Stilwell assuring reporters that no bombs will be dropped on  California, while simultaneously a bomb is accidentally dropped from a bomber (after Donna has slugged Birkhead, who lands on the release mechanism) and rolls their way. 

3.       The jiggerbug dance scene in which Wally tries to simultaneously dance with Betty and evade the wrath of Sitarski.  This scene is a lot of fun to watch, thanks largely to its inventive choreography and the energy of the performers.  It would have paid off a lot better had the film been told solely from Wally’s perspective, but it works wonders as standalone sequence. This scene is followed up with an all out brawl after Sitarski punches Wally. 

4.       The scenes of Stilwell watching Dumbo. My favorite bit is when Stilwell is finally informed of the riot outside the movie theatre, but keeps trying to watch Dumbo and getting upset at a MP that is blocking his view of the screen. He orders the guy to sit down and relax. 

5.       The funny scene in which Wild Bill Kelso meets his soul mate in Col. “Madman” Maddox. Kelso is convinced there’s a Japanese squadron flying over California, while Maddox is convinced they have already launched a land invasion. Before Kelso takes off, Maddox asks Kelso if he can hear his guns. Kelso fires his guns, shooting up the place, while Maddox and his men cheer on. 

6.       In a futile attempt to sink the Japanese sub with the anti-aircraft gun in his backyard, Ward Douglas instead destroys his house.

7.       After having suppressed the riots, Frank Tree gives a patriotic speech that unifies the crowd.  It’s actually a fairly funny speech filled with paranoid xenophobia and “American can do” sentiment that was dominant during WWII. At one point Tree asks the crowd, “Look at Santy Claus? Isn’t he cute? Do you think the Japanese believe in Santa Claus? Instead of turkey for your Christmas dinner, how would you like to have raw fish heads and rice? Do you think the Krauts believe in Walt Disney? Yeah, well was that Mickey Mouse I saw blitzkrieging across France? Pluto in Poland? Or Donald Duck at Pearl Harbor?” 

8.       The destruction of the amusement park, which leads to the Ferris Wheel rolling into the ocean. It may be shallow spectacle, but it is impressive nonetheless.

9.       Sitarski getting his just desserts at the hands of Wally. The two foes meet face to face in the street and have the following exchange:
Wally: I know I can’t beat you in a fair fight.
Sitarski: Stupid, I don’t fight fair.
Wally: Neither do I.
Wally then kicks Sitarski in the crotch and hits him across the face with a gun belt. The Sitarski/Wally rivalry is one of the few storylines the film does good job of setting up and it is completely satisfying seeing Sitarski get his.  

      

      1941 has been labeled a flop by many sources; this isn’t true as it actually made a decent profit during its initial release. The reason why it was thought to be a flop was that compared to the box office of Spielberg’s last two films (Jaws, Close Encounters of the Third Kind) it was disappointing. The film was not a great success among critics and understandably so, it is a very loud and busy movie. There’s lots of spectacle, but very little heart.  However, any film that features a scene that has Slim Pickens being interrogated by Christopher Lee (speaking German) and the great Toshiro Mifune (speaking Japanese) can’t be all bad. 

Cast:  Dan Aykroyd (Sgt. Frank Tree), John Belushi (Wild Bill Kelso), Bobby Di Ciccio (Wally Stephens), Dianne Kay (Betty Douglas), Robert Stack (Maj. Gen. Joseph W. Stilwell), Ned Beatty (Ward Douglas), Treat Williams (Cpl. Chuck “Stretch” Sitarski), Warren Oates (Col. “Madman” Maddox), Tim Matheson (Capt. Loomis Birkhead), Nancy Allen (Donna Stratton), Toshiro Mifune (Cmdr. Akiro Mitamura), Christopher Lee (Capt. Wolfgang von Kleinschmidt), Murray Hamilton (Claude Crumm), Lorraine Gary (Joan Douglas), Slim Pickens (Hollis Wood), Wendie Jo Sperber (Maxine Dexheimer), Joe Flaherty (Raoul Lipschitz), Penny Marshall (Miss Fitzroy), John Candy (Pvt. Foley), Eddie Deezen (Herbie Kazlminsky), Lionel Stander (Angelo Scioli).

Dir: Steven Spielberg.

Screenplay: Robert Zemeckis, Bob Gale.

Running Time: 146 min. 

My Top 25 Horror/Monster Films, Part III (10-1)

10. The Thing (1982)

Dir: John Carpenter
Running Time: 108 min.
The Thing was largely criticized when it came for being  overly violent and too gory, yet compared to the horror films of the last decade it is pretty tame. More importantly, the gore effects in The Thing actually serve a function to the overall story; the titular creature survives by assimilating the creatures around it. The audience never truly realizes the sheer horror of the Thing, until it is shown trying to assimilate sled dogs that are around it, and later when one of the humans is revealed to be a part of the Thing. The real tension in the film doesn't lie in its gruesome effects, but on the idea that the characters (and the audience) can never be certain as to who is human and who has been assimilated. This one of the few remakes that improves upon the original film, The Thing From Another World.  This is largely due to the fact that it’s more faithful to novella both films are based on, “Who Goes There?” by John W. Campbell. Lots of scenes from Carpenter’s film are taken directly from the novella, like the famous blood test scene.

9.  The Bride of Frankenstein (1935)

Dir: James Whale
Running Time: 75 min.
It’s often a tough choice for me to decide which film I like better: Frankenstein or The Bride of Frankenstein, because both are wonderful movies. In the end, I choose Bride of Frankenstein because it’s a far more complete film. The original Frankenstein sets up a love triangle that never pays off; it is hinted throughout that Henry Frankenstein’s fiancée, Elizabeth, will inevitably end up with his best friend, Victor, but this subplot gets abandoned by the film’s end. In the sequel Victor is completely forgotten about and Henry is allowed to create another monster with his demonic mentor, Dr. Pretorious (the wonderful Ernest Thesiger). Boris Karloff once again plays the monster in a sympathetic light and the ending in which his “bride” rejects him is truly saddening.  Once Karloff relinquished the role of the monster, it essentially was relegated to a walking prop, occasionally showing up at the end of future films to stumble around the set for a few minutes before everything went up in flames.

8. Rosemary’s Baby (1968)

Dir: Roman Polanski
Running Time: 136 min.
Rosemary’s Baby is a wonderful piece of misdirection: the first few minutes play like a cheesy day time soap; two newlyweds get an apartment in New York and are hoping to add a child into the mix. Then surely, but slowly everything starts to unravel, until it is revealed that the weird old couple next door are actually Satan worshipers and Rosemary’s husband is in on the plot to impregnate Rosemary with the devil’s child. In lesser hands this film would be completely laughable, but director Polanski builds tension with the power of mere suggestion.  In one famous shot, the character of Minnie (Ruth Gordon) is seen talking on the phone in her bedroom, but her face is blocked by the doorway; it’s a seemingly normal scene, but the blocking suggests something isn't quite right. Also, because the film is largely seen from Rosemary’s point of view, there are a few times where the audience starts to question her sanity; is there really a conspiracy going on or is all in her head? In fact, there are many people who claim that the film’s film scene is in fact, a hallucination caused by the stress Rosemary has put herself through. I don’t agree with the interpretation, but these ambiguities are what make Rosemary’s Baby such a classic horror film.

7. Island of Lost Souls (1932)

Dir: Erle C. Kenton
Running Time: 70 min.
Island of Lost Souls was the first adaptation of the H.G. Wells novel “The Island of Dr. Moreau” and it’s by far the best, even though the author himself hated it. In the novel Moreau is seen in a more kindly light, whereas he’s completely diabolical in the film version. Charles Laughton is a magnificent as the maniacal Moreau, who through vivisection hopes to accelerate the evolution of animals by transforming them into humans.  Bela Lugosi is terrific in a small, but memorable role as the Sayer of the Law.

6. Evil Dead II (1987)

Dir: Sam Raimi
Running Time: 84 min.
Evil Dead II is simply a joy to sit through. The first Evil Dead was a straight forward horror film filled with lots of gore and Bruce Campbell stumbling through the scenery as the cowardly Ash. Evil Dead II takes the same premise, but adds humor to the mix to make it one of the more memorable films of the 80s. It’s hard to dislike such a silly movie like this, hell, even Roger Ebert gave it a good review. Yet, despite the humor, there still are a few genuine scares scattered throughout, like the sudden emergence of the possessed Ed, or when the corpse of Henrietta bursts from the cellar floor. However, the highlight has to been Ash’s continuous battle with his possessed severed hand.

5. The Pit and the Pendulum (1961)

Dir: Roger Corman
Running Time: 80 min.
Vincent Price is one of my all time favorite actors; so it’s a sure bet that at least one of his film would be included in my top five. I decided on The Pit and the Pendulum largely due to the fact that it was the first Vincent Price film I ever saw, at the tender age of six. It was one of the first films my dad recorded on our new VCR, and I remember staying up late to watch it with him, my sister, and my cousin Mike, but not being able to finish it, because it creeped me out. It’s still rather chilling nearly 26 years later; especially the idea of being buried alive. The film presents this motif twice: When, in a flashback, Nicholas’ (Vincent Price) dad is shown interring his mother alive by building a wall of bricks around her, and later when it is revealed Nicholas wife was buried alive, which drives him to the brink of insanity.  And who can ever forget the ending, with an insane Price leering on as poor Francis (John Kerry) is strapped to a table while the pendulum swings ever closer to his body.

4. Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)

Dir: Don Siegel
Running Time: 80 min.
Invasion of the Body Snatchers doesn’t contain too many effects shots, but it’s far more effective than the many effects laden monstrosities that have dominated the horror genre in the last two decades. The film moves at a fast pace, largely due to the fact that the characters are constantly on the run. The premise is genuinely frightening:  the people in our community are not who we think them to be and, are in fact, duplicates lacking in the emotion department.  The most horrifying shot is when Miles (Kevin McCarthy) kisses Becky (Dana Wynter) and realizes she has been replaced due to the dead look in her eyes. A lot of political subtext has been attached to the film; there are some people who claim that it is anti-communist, while other are adamant it is anti- McCarthy, but regardless of its intentions (or lack thereof) it succeeds as a scary sci-fi/horror film.

3. Psycho (1960)

Dir: Alfred Hitchcock
Running Time: 109 min.
What’s amazing about Psycho is that despite the fact that I went in knowing both of its twists (the heroine get killed halfway through in a shower, the reveal that Mrs. Bates is actually her son Norman in drag), I was still drawn in by the narrative. The film succeeds because the audience relates to the character of Marion Crane (Janet Leigh), which makes even more shocking and appalling when she is killed off right before our eyes forty five minutes into the film. If there is a flaw in Psycho it is the fact that the second half of the film is far less compelling, largely due to the fact that Marion’s sister Lila (Vera Miles) is not a particularly likable character. However, Psycho still remains a favorite due to its wonderful set pieces:  Marion being stalked by a highway patrolman, the shower scene; Norman (Anthony Perkins) cleaning up after his mother, the murder of detective Arbogast (Martin Balsam), and the reveal at the end. If you have hard time appreciating Psycho, then I suggest you watch the many imitations that followed it (William Castle’s Homicidal, I Saw What You Did, and Hammer’s Paranoiac and Nightmare); I guarantee these minor films will make realize what a genius Hitchcock truly was.

2. King Kong (1933)

Dir: Merian C. Cooper, Ernest B. Schoedsack
Running Time: 100 min.
The first time I saw King Kong was when I was twelve years old. I was stayed up until three in the morning on a Saturday night to finally catch a film I had heard so much about throughout my childhood. Practically everyone knows about King Kong a top the Empire State Building, whether they have seen the film or not. The first forty minutes of the film effectively builds up to Kong’s first appearance, and I remember being excited that I was finally going to see Kong, BUT when he made his appearance…I LAUGHED! I thought to myself, “Wow! These effects are horrible. Kong looks like he’s made of clay.” However, as the film progressed, a funny thing happened….. I stopped thinking of Kong as a dated special effect and began to think of him as a genuine character. King Kong is a highly entertaining film, but it’s most amazing achievement is that somehow Willis O’ Brien and his team of animator were able to inject a personality and life into an 18 inch model covered with rabbit fur. Kong is  a fully realized character; he goes through a whole array of emotions throughout the course of the film and, despite being the villain, his death at the end is truly heart breaking. King Kong is one of the most influential films ever made and it’s a tribute to directors Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack that the film is just as popular today as it was eighty years ago.

1. Jaws (1975)

Running Time: 124 min.
Dir: Steven Spielberg
Jaws, like Psycho, has inspired countless imitations (and three unnecessary sequels) and once you have seen any of them, it makes you realize just how wonderful the original truly is. Jaws is the kind of the film that in lesser hands could have been absolutely dreadful, but director Steven Spielberg builds the suspense by never allowing the audience a good look at the shark until the film is two thirds over. The icing on the cake is that the characters are extremely likable and are capable of having genuine conversations; the most memorable being Quint (Robert Shaw) recounting surviving the U.S.S. Indianapolis sinking. It’s a scene that’s not necessarily relevant to the plot, but it adds depth to the character of Quint and explains why he’s so obsessed with killing this one shark.  It’s a highly entertaining and, in my opinion, one of the greatest films ever made. 

My Top 25 Horror/Monster Film, Part II (20-11)

20. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974)

Dir: Tobe Hooper
Running Time: 84 min.
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is one of the most unnerving films ever made; it is completely unrelenting in its horror and never allows the audience a moment to breathe. You never feel comfortable around the main characters, because they are often at each other’s throats.  Franklin, despite being in a wheel chair, is completely unsympathetic and is often a huge burden on Sally and her friends.  Despite it’s rather gruesome title, the film is fairly tame in its use of gore; most of the horror is implied, rather than shown in full detail. The 2003 remake with Jessica Biel tried to replicate the look of the original film, but failed in that in tried too hard in making Leatherface a sympathetic character by giving him a painful back story. In the original, it is implied that the family turned to cannibalism largely due to economic factors (the closing down of the slaughter house, the scarcity of gas). It was a nice, subtle touch that was completely lacking from the remake, which went for the whole, “Leatherface was picked on when he was a kid, which is why he hacks up people.” 

 

19. Horror of Dracula (1958)

Dir. Terence Fisher
Running Time: 80 min.
Horror of Dracula is far and away my favorite Dracula film, largely because it moves at a very swift pace. The 1931 Dracula starring Bela Lugosi has a great opening in Transylvania, but comes to a complete halt once it switches locations to London.  The actors just stand around, read their lines, and wait for their cue to exit the scene; it’s like watching a stage play.  Christopher Lee as Dracula is a commanding presence, while Peter Cushing is wonderful as Van Helsing. Cushing’s no nonsense approach to the role really sells the threat of Dracula, while Lee is menacing regardless of what he is doing, be it baring his fangs at his potential victims or just walking into the frame.

18. Black Christmas (1974) 

Dir: Bob Clark
Running Time: 98 min.
Black Christmas has one of the most interesting gimmicks in history; a horror film in which you never actually see the killer. It’s this very ambiguity that makes it such a creepy film, the audience is never given a back story on who the killer is and why he is stalking a house of sorority girls, so they have to rely on their imaginations to fill in the blanks. However, despite never seeing the killer, the audience is still never given a chance to fully relax, because they are forced to listen to the killer; he calls up the sorority and makes obscene phone calls; after he kills a victim he laughs for what seems to be an eternity.  The film was remade in 2006 and (as is the case for most horror remakes) the body count increased while the very little was left to the imagination; in this case the killer was given an elaborate back story and looked like a cast off from The Hills Have Eyes.

17. Poltergeist (1982)

Dir: Tobe Hooper
Running Time: 112 min.
Poltergeist has two scenes that still creep me out:
1)  The opening shot, which begins on a close up a television signing off and then follows the family dogs as it walks room to room. Nothing happens onscreen, but it is completely unnerving, mainly due to the fact that it shot from the point of view of a child. This scene establishes that the family is being watched by an unseen force and that it’s only a matter of time before it reveals itself to the Freelings.

2) The attack on Robbie by the freaky clown doll. This scene is set up beautifully; first there is a shot of the clown doll sitting on a chair facing Robbie while he’s in bed. Then it cuts to Robbie as he hides his head beneath his blanket. Then he pulls down the blanket to see if the clown is still there, only to find to his horror that it has disappeared. He then checks to see if it is hiding under the bed and when he gets back up, the clown doll is standing right behind him and proceeds to attack him. I've seen this scene numerous times and it gets me every time.

16. House of Wax (1953)

Dir: Andre de Toth
Running Time: 88 min.
House of Wax is a remake of the 1933 Warner Brothers film Mystery of the Wax Museum and is a vast improvement. The original film is laden with comedy relief; the main protagonist is a wisecracking blonde reporter (Glenda Farrell) who is trying to solve the mystery of all the disappearing corpses from the city morgue and her research leads her to a Wax Museum in New York, where her roommate is the mad sculptor’s next target.  The remake does away with this character and focuses more on the mad sculptor’s (Vincent Price) attempt to recreate his old Wax Museum (that was burned down by his greedy partner, hoping to cash in on the insurance) in London by using the cadavers of murder victims. It’s biggest claim to fame is that it was shot in 3-D and, having seen it in 3-D, it’s one of the few films that actually works, largely because the director Andre de Toth fully embraces the gimmick, whether it’s relevant to the story or not. The most famous 3-D scene is the paddle ball man, who for no reason other than to show off the effect, continuously hits rubber balls at the screen, while telling the audience all about the wonders of the wax museum. It’s hokey, but it is a lot of fun and Vincent Price is in top form as the mad sculptor Jarrod.

15. Night of the Living Dead (1968)

Dir: George A. Romero
Running Time: 96 min.
Night of the Living Dead is almost relentless in its horror, because you never get the feeling that the characters are safe from the terror lurking outside. They don’t board themselves inside a house, because they are trying to find a solution, but rather out of a fear.  Even when the zombies are off screen, you get the feeling that it’s all going to come crashing down sooner rather than later. This is largely due to the fact that when the characters aren’t fighting the zombies they are at odds with one another. Harry Cooper thinks its best that they all go into the cellar and try to wait out the night, while Ben (the character the audience roots for) is adamant they remain in the living room, where they at least have a fighting chance if the zombies should break in. However, the irony of the film is that Ben survives the night by locking himself in the cellar, after the shit has hit the fan.  It’s a film that plays with the audience’s expectations, where we think one thing is going to happen, only to get blindsided by something else; the two romantic leads are killed in explosions and their remains gets gobbled up by the zombies, Helen is viciously murdered by her daughter, and Ben shoots an unarmed Harry.  It’s a disturbing film and is hard to shake off after having seen it. 

14. The Mummy (1959)

Dir: Terence Fisher
Running Time: 88 min.
Christopher Lee is my favorite Mummy actor of all time, with apologies to the great Boris Karloff. What I like about Lee’s mummy is that he is nothing but sheer, brute strength...a force of a nature to be reckoned with.  Boris Karloff’s Mummy (Ardeth Bay) used black magic to strike terror into the hearts of his enemies, but was physically weak. When Universal revived the series in the 1940s, starting with The Mummy’s Hand, the character of Kharis plodded through the scenery and never seemed a believable threat, despite the look of horror on the actor’s faces. The problem was that Kharis only had one good leg and one good arm; his victims could have easily gotten out of harm’s way had they just walked at a brisk pace, instead of just gawking at him like complete morons. Lee’s Mummy is a sight to behold; he smashes through doors, bends prison bars, and in one case gets impaled by a poker and still keeps on coming.   

13. Halloween (1978)

Dir: John Carpenter
Running Time: 90 min.
The creepiest aspect of Halloween is the idea that a seemingly normal kid for a normal family could just one day flip out and murder his teenage sister. The film never explains why this happened, but the implication is terrifying. The horrible Rob Zombie remake tries to fill in the blanks by giving Michael Myers an over the top back story; he comes from a dysfunctional family, his mother is a stripper and his dad is an abusive redneck that is stuck in a wheel chair. It’s a pretty needless opening and really doesn't give you much insight into the character of Michael Myers.  The original film left things to the imagination, while Zombie’s version does a full assault on the viewer’s senses, there’s nothing ambiguous about his film. There’s really nothing more I can say about Carpenter’s film that hasn't been said before, so I will use the awful pun from the 2003 making of documentary, it’s a “cut above the rest.”

12. Carnival of Souls (1962)

Dir: Herk Harvey
Running Time: 84 min.
Carnival of Souls was the only full length commercial film Herk Harvey ever did and it’s a good one.  An emotionally aloof woman finds herself drawn to a crumbling lake side a pavilion, while being stalked by a pale faced man. The film is amazingly effective in its simplicity; in one scene the heroine finds herself wandering the streets of Salt Lake City while citizen’s fail to acknowledge her existence, she literally becomes a lost soul.  In another jarring sequence, the heroine is driving at night, only to find a face staring at her through the passenger window. It’s these little moments that make the film so eerie. If they film were remade now a days, they would probably be CG ghoulies run amok, mutilating the people closest to the heroine as she decides what her next course of action  should be.

11. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1932)

Dir: Rouben Mamoulian
Running Time: 96 min.
There have been many adaptations of the Robert Louis Stevenson novel The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, but Rouben Mamoulian’s is by far the best. This is largely due to Mamoulian’s imaginative direction; the first transformation is done in a long continuous take, the camera never leaves Jekyll as he slowly begins to change. This simple effect baffled film historians for years, it was until the 1990s (and after Mamoulian’s death) that it was figured out how it was done, let’s just say it involved lighting and filters. Fredric March is terrific as the suffering Dr. Jekyll and the feral Mr.Hyde.  As the film progresses Mr. Hyde becomes increasingly more and more terrifying, at first his antics are slightly comical as he is more a prankster than a monster, but with each successive transformation he turns a tad bit darker until he’s a fully fledged homicidal maniac.

My Top 25 Horror/Monster Films, Part I (25 - 21)

There are two types of people out there: those who absolutely loathe horror and those that can’t get enough of them; I definitely fall in the latter category as a good portion of my movie collection is of the horror genre.  If you ask any person what their top ten horror films are, you would probably get a different list each time. I have done better, rather than list my top ten horror films; I have opted instead to list my top 25 horror films.  I initially was going to do a top ten list, but the more I thought of it, the more I realized that there were so many to choose form that ten just would not do. This is by no means a “GREATEST” horror films list; in fact many films on this list are more guilty pleasures than they are high quality film making  When all is said and done movies are a form of entertainment, and each of these titles are entertaining in their own sick and twisted ways. I’m a big fan of old school horror and it’s fairly apparent when you read this list; all the films were made prior to 1990. It’s not to say that there hasn't been any worthwhile horror films in the last twenty years, it’s just that very few have been memorable.  Scream is the exception, but I find it tad bit overrated. It got rave reviews by the critics for the way it “sent up” the horror genre, but it was hardly the first film to do so. Practically every a decade has a horror film parodies the conventions of the time. The little loved The Mummy’s Ghost has a scene in which a security guard is listening to a horror program on the radio, unaware that it is foreshadowing his soon to be demise.

25. Friday the 13^th, Part 2 (1981)

Dir: Steve Miner
Running Time: 87 min.

The Friday the 13^th series is one of the most critically maligned franchises in the history of cinema and justifiably so.  They are horribly contrived, extremely unoriginal in their execution, and often are cluttered with one dimensional characters that have no narrative function, except to be killed in many horrible and gruesome ways. Yet, despite all this, I absolutely love the first four Friday the 13^th films. My inner critic tells me this is wrong, yet I enjoy them nonetheless.  They are horror at its most basic: Teenagers isolated in the woods being stalked by an ax wielding maniac. It doesn't get any simpler than that and the first four Friday the 13^th films exploit this to great effect. The later entries tended to be ridiculously over the top with Jason becoming more super human as the series progressed.

  Part 2 is my favorite for a few reasons:

1)      Jason, despite his apparent resurrection from the dead, is kind of clumsy. It brings an air of realism to the series that the later films lack and it doesn't seem a mismatch when the heroine confronts him face to face at the film’s end. 

2)      Best heroine in the series.   Amy Steel (as Ginny) is far and away my favorite leading lady in the entire series. The character of Ginny is a fairly intelligent character that uses her field of study (child psychiatry) to bring down Jason. However, she also has a nice sense of humor about her, especially at the beginning when she shows up her boyfriend in front of the other camp counselors.  She’s easy to like.

3)      It strays from the norm in regards to the character of Ted (Stu Charno). Ted takes delight in playing pranks on the other counselors, which means that he is ripe for the picking. In the first Friday and the third, the prankster of the group dies fairly early in the proceeding. You spend the entire film wondering how Ted is going to get his…..BUT HE SURVIVES. Ted and other counselors go to the bar and are spared being massacred. It’s a rather nice, unexpected touch.

24. The Exorcist (1973) 

Dir: William Friedkin
Running Time: 123 min.

The Exorcist is not nearly as high on my list as it used to be; possibly because as I've gotten older it just doesn't have the same impact it did when I was a teenager.  In fact, I find the find the first half of the film far more compelling than the second half, due to its understated nature. The film is very methodical in how it slowly rules out the scientific as embraces the supernatural for Regan’s (Linda Blair) condition. In a way it’s a shame that the subtleties of the first half eventually give way to the fire and brimstone of the second, because ambiguous route might have the served the story better. Is Regan really possessed? Or is it in her mind? Are the priests really giving her an exorcism? Or is it all the power of suggestion? Still, it’s a genuinely well made film and the acting is top notch, especially Ellen Burstyn as Regan’s suffering mom.  The Exorcist is what I liked to call an “aftershock” horror film; it’s not necessarily scary while watching it, but it stays with you for quite some time. I remember a week I had watched it for the first time, I was alone in the house and kept thinking of the possessed Regan. Every time I heard a creak in the house I jumped. When I had to go upstairs to my room, I grabbed the family dog for protection. At the top of the stairs was the attic door and I was convinced something would jump out and grab me. 

23. Alien (1979) 

Dir: Ridley Scott
Running Time: 117 min.

Aliens takes “the old dark house” premise and transports it to space. There’s really nothing at all original about Alien, the premise is extremely reminiscent of the underrated 50s thriller It! The Terror From Beyond Space. However, this is one case where the “rip off” is a vast improvement over the original source.  For one thing, the production design of Alien vastly trumps It! The Terror From Beyond Space.  This is largely due to the fact that Alien had a fairly decent sized budget, while It! was bogged down by an extremely low budget.  The creature in Alien is genuinely frightening, while the creature in It! is rather silly looking when seen in full light (the filmmaker Edward L. Cahn, for the most part, does an effective job handling the creature by either shooting in shadows, or only giving us quick glimpses of it). The chest bursting sequence still packs wallop, despite the many sequels and imitations that have followed.

22. Black Sabbath (1963)

Dir: Mario Bava
Running Time: 92 min.

(SPOILERS)
Mario Bava is one of the most influential horror directors in cinema history, he essentially created the slasher film with the wonderfully ridiculous Bay of Blood, while Black Sunday is probably the definitive “witch” movie.  However, I prefer Black Sabbath, because it’s an anthology of stories that allows Bava to exercise his style and it features the great Boris Karloff, who does double duty as the narrator of the film and stars in the second story “The Wurdalak,” in which he plays a vampire.  

It should be noted that the American version complete reshuffles the order of the stories and completely alters the narrative of “The Telephone,” dropping the lesbian subtext in favor of a more supernatural explanation.  In “The Telephone” a beautiful woman receives threatening phone calls supposedly from her former boyfriend, who is behind bars. However, it is revealed an elaborate ruse by her jilted lady friend, Mary, who essentially uses the threatening calls as a way to get back together with Rosy.  After getting the phone calls, Rosy calls Mary and has her spend the night, because she doesn't feel safe alone.  The next morning Mary writes Rosy a letter confessing her guilt, only (HERE’S THE TWIST) to be strangled by Rosy's crazy ex-boyfriend, who has just escaped from prison.  The American version reedits the story so the audience never sees the reveal that it is Mary making the phone calls. Also, instead writing a confession at the end, Mary is seen writing a note that says she’s going to help Rosy find a good doctor. It deflates any tension that actually existed in the story, especially in one scene where Mary is seen brandishing a knife and looks like she's going to use it on Rosy. In the America version, it  is supposedly the ghost of Rosy's ex-boyfriend that strangles Mary, which makes little sense, because he gets killed at the end of the story. Is it possible to kill a ghost?  The American version also makes the mistakes of putting the scariest story “The Drop of Water” first, while in the Italian version is serves as a fitting climax to the movie, as each story tops the previous one.  “The Drop of Water” concerns the story of a nurse that is haunted by the corpse of a countess whose ring she has stolen. 

21. A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)

Dir: Wes Craven
Running Time: 92 min.
The thing that strikes me about the first A Nightmare on Elm Street is that Freddy Krueger (Robert Englund) is a genuinely scary villain. This largely due to the fact that Wes Craven wisely keeps Freddy in the shadows or never allows the audience to get a good look at him until the ending of the film.  This may seem trivial, after all, the villain in a horror film is supposed to be scary, so why make a big deal out of it? Well, mainly because as the series progressed Freddy went from being the villain of the piece to the wise cracking hero.  No longer did the audiences care about the fate of the teenagers, but rather they went to see whatever crazy antics Freddy had in store for them…..and laughed along with him. By the time of Freddy’s Dead: The Final Nightmare, he ceased being scary and was largely the comic relief. The absolute nadir of the series was when Freddy was shown straddling a broom, shouting, “I’ll get you my pretty!” Freddy’s Dead desperately tries to be funny, but it’s just sad reminder of how far the series had fallen.