Oh, Brother! Another Holiday Season Film Thread

Further late November seasonal odds and ends.

I am coming close to the end of a string of Godzilla films. You could definitely call this Godzilla 2017 for the blog as I have covered many of them throughout the year. Mothra vs. Godzilla (1964) was just Saturday and I couldn’t have been more pleased by how it turned out. Granted, the 1968 Godzilla monster mash-up, Destroy All Monsters! was quite incredible in its own right if just for all the creatures the film throws at us, including alien ladies from an asteroid somewhere near Mars looking to colonize underground where the hot temperature will allow them to remain humanoid instead of rock! You have a space station on the moon (and the aliens also having a device inside it to control the monsters if need-be) and a science station on “Monster Island” that keeps all the world’s creatures (Godzilla, Mothra’s offspring, Anguirus (that tortoise-like monster with the spiked shell), Godzilla’s son (Minilla), Gorosaurus (basically a dinosaur with no distinctive features that makes it different than a T-Rex variant), Kumonga (that giant silk-spitting spider), Rodan, and Manda (a type of snake with iguana legs)) contained from causing destruction. The aliens known as Kilaaks develop devices that control the scientists at the facility on Monster Island and the monsters as well. Soon the monsters are freed from Monster Island and go on a rampage across the globe, invading the likes of Paris and the United States, even Beijing. Tokyo has been spared any attack and the military, scientists, and astronauts involved with the UN are curious as to why. Meanwhile the Kilaaks look to continue to make their presence felt as they invade the planet to set up new digs and flex their superiority, with their overconfidence eventually leading to their downfall. The all monsters attack eventually alters course when the devices controlling them by the Kilaaks are undermined by the heroes, with the UN taking over after the outpost on the moon is destroyed (and device controlling the monsters is commandeered by our heroes). Of course, not before the Kilaaks order Godzilla to once again attack Tokyo, but at least this time an evacuation was prepared and successful. King Ghidorah eventually is unleashed on Godzilla and his team as the Kilaaks’ underground headquarters is discovered when Anguirus is hurled at Mt. Fuji causing an avalanche. If you love monsters, this entry will be for you. It also has plenty of sci-fi action with trips to the moon, devices found on humans, alien girls flexing their power and threatening extinction if humankind doesn’t submit. Even Minilla gets in on the fun when one of his “flame rings” kills the middle dragon head of Ghidorah. If you ever wanted to see Ghidorah really battle it out (and ultimately lose when Anguirus’ bite to one of the dragon-head necks bleeds as Godzilla stomps the last dragon-head silly) this is the entry for you. To use a pro wrestling term, this film ultimately turned Godzilla babyface, going from menace to savior. The film introduces a Monster Island and allows all of the creatures to return to it (voluntarily). Godzilla purposely attacking the Kilaak’s Mt Fuji underground headquarters seems to indicate it has an understanding of good versus evil. Gradually, this serves as an example of how Godzilla would transform from the monster that just lays waste to cities and countrysides to a defender of the Japanese people against other invading monsters. ****

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From another cool Kaiju entry to a Charlie Brown special I didn’t get a chance to fit into October, but I was glad to actually view it this Monday evening. It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown was the very case of “better late than never”. It has been quite too long. I will bet you I was probably knee high to a grasshopper when I last watched this. Anyway, this heavily features Linus (Lucy’s brother, with the always trusty blanket) with Chuck stuck in a ghost sheet where he went a bit too “scissors-happy” (and only receiving rocks from all the homes he visits while others in better ghost sheets got the expected candies). Snoopy “pilots” his doghouse in full fighter pilot regalia while the kids are trick-or-treating in the neighborhood and Linus (with a less than thrilled Lucy who stays with him because she has an enduring crush on him…although it is strained after a night wasted without anything to show for it) awaits the Great Pumpkin’s many gifts. Linus has gotten it into his head that some great pumpkin will be the Halloween Santa and deliver gifts to him at some point during the night after a heartfelt letter was sent in the mail. Lucy and the others roll their eyes at him cynically. Linus even spends the night in the pumpkin patch, patiently believing that he’ll get that visit and reward. Eventually Sally walks away in a huff (“Linus, you blockhead!”), letting Linus know she isn’t happy he wasted her time. Meanwhile Chuck, Peppermint Patty, Marcie, Pigpen, Franklin, and Lucy head for Violet’s house for a Halloween party after a night of trick-or-treating. Linus’ disappointment is understandable considering his dedication that is all for naught. And Lucy once again goads Chuck into trying to kick the football, once again landing with a hard thud on the ground. ****

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I normally watch A Christmas Carol (1938) on the first or second week in December. For a few years it was more or less a feeling of obligation, but I think my decision to watch it late November this time was ideal. I really responded well to Reginald Owen’s misanthropic Scrooge in the early going, and his firing of Cratchett is sold well by Gene Lockhart (although the remarks about his plump and healthy weight considering he’s supposed to be poor by critics might have some merit). I think Lockhart’s disappointed face is just right, too, and his ache when surrounded by his mourning family over the passing of Tiny Tim is palpable. His decision to make the most of it after grouchy Scrooge ruins his Christmas Eve by just splurging on a good Christmas meal isn’t in any other adaptations making this inclusion special to me. I think there isn’t enough darkness, though. We need to see the loss of the sister, the cold shoulder of his father, his dismissal of the potential love of his life, the descent into greed, all of that. Instead we get a trip inside a church and hymns sung. Not against the spirit of Christmas being shown, necessarily, but I think its inclusion over key character arcs that defined the miser Scrooge would become hurts. Still I thought Owen was a treat in his transition, and that smile does indicate a joy never quite felt before. Owen just won me over this year. The ice sliding gets a lot of time as does snow fighting (which led to Scrooge’s “sacking” Cratchett), but I think Barry MacKay as nephew Fred gives off plenty of charm. And kudos to a young June Lockhart with those welling tears when her (real life) dad sits around the fire speaking about Tim and Fred’s kindness offered him. ***

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Tis the Season...to Slice and Dice. Although not watched on Monday, I had a late Sunday night viewing of Dorm That Dripped Blood and review needing a place. So here it is.

At the end of November, and kicking off December, I've got some slashers (some of which are seasonal, some not) currently on the itinerary (so to speak).

Now although this has been most widely known as The Dorm That Dripped Blood (and to a lesser extent, Pranks), I happened to watch this 1982 slasher as Death Dorm. Whatever the case, it is a mildly effective slasher with some decent shock-gore (spiked bat to the side of a head multiple times, a hand gets split by a machete, a woman is garroted, another girl is driven over by a motor vehicle, a janitor locates his missing drill, except it is to his skull, etc.) and a small but likable enough cast. As most of the college students of a dorm that is to be gutted and abandoned for future use now that it will no longer be inhabited by occupants, a few stay behind during the Christmas holidays to strip it, empty it, and board it up. A killer, however, doesn’t seem too happy with these arrangements, deciding to target all who are party to this. It was to be two weeks of work, where furniture and items currently (of that time) inside the dorm would be removed so that it could be used for other purposes. This Death Dorm is perhaps the best version I’ve seen of the film. I watched the less-than-satisfactory edited version (I believe this is early VHS), a better version a little later that at least had some gore added on YouTube (better than the edited version but still in need of a better transfer), and this version tonight which looked and sounded significantly better than previous viewings. Co-directors Obrow and Carpenter’s screenplay gives us a flimsy twist on why the killer is bringing the savage to these victims, going with the obsessive love excuse. It does, however, offer a terribly unfortunate result for Laurie Lipinski’s Joanne, the remaining member of her party only spared due to the killer’s psychotic infatuation for her. I think the best kill is perhaps not the grisliest but due to its tragic outcome for Bobby Lee (Dennis Ely), picking up “discards” removed from the dorm to be taken off, encountering Joanne after the killer subdues her and convinces the cops that he is the one on the murder spree…the killer has a knife in his hand, concealed from the cops, telling Bobby Lee that he is going to die regardless as guns are drawn telling him if he makes any sudden moves he’s dead! The mutilated body of Brian (David Snow) is the goriest even thought Joanne finds him after the fact. Stephen Sachs, as Craig the jerk prankster, taunts and mocks but he’s saddled with a character whose motives aren’t quite satisfying. But this is 1982, when slashers were still early in their run before oversaturating the marketplace so perhaps the killer’s reasoning for his murder spree wasn’t as derivative then to that audience as it is to us…us who have seen more than our share of these twists where victims are executed because either they are too close to the person the killer admires/desires or are considered nuisances supposedly in the way. How Joanne seems to just remain limp after a considerable amount of time as the killer carries her to incinerator is a bit much. **

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Actually early Thanksgiving morning, Black Christmas (1974) was on flix and I watched most of it. I hadn’t really decided, though, if this would be the only time. I think 3 a.m. can be quite an effective time to watch this movie, although its spell seems to work on me regardless of when I view it. I did momentarily ask a question that came to mind on Facebook but removed it after feeling it perhaps belonged on the blog instead. Why would Jess (Olivia Hussey) even tell Peter (Keir Dullea) about her pregnancy if she had her mind already made up about an abortion with him not having a say-so one way or the other? And on the day of his piano presentation in front of critics who might make or break his future career as a pianist? Why wouldn’t she even wait and tell him afterward? No wonder he reacts as he does. Yes, it is her body and she can dictate whether or not the child is to be aborted but considering Peter had dedicated such time and effort to this presentation why bring this to him when it could wait? And if his input didn’t matter anyway, why not just go and abort it? Since I plan to watch it again anyway, this was the prevalent question on my mind. And it does become an important plot development, building Peter as a red herring, having him a nervous wreck that goes through his emotional ups and downs until he seems relaxed and calm at the very end as he approaches Jess seemingly no longer upset with her…unfortunately, she isn’t exactly in the right frame of mind to welcome his company.