Reviews
Halloween (1978)
Pretty good, but a classic??????
Still a pretty entertaining film in spots, with some nice buildup of tension, great music, some good cinematography, but it's overrated due to its unquestionable cinematic milestone status. There's so much silliness: Laurie's dumb, slutty friend, played by P. J. Soles, who was about thirty at this time, and looked it (it's easy to accept P. J. as a tramp--but as a high schooler?!!)--am I the only person thinking how tacky she was during the supposedly thrilling kill scene to have been over at these people's house (where her friend was supposed to be babysitting) having sex with her boyfriend, smoking in their bed and drinking their beer? The whole thing was just an excuse to show off her breasts, this being at heart a cheap 70s horror flick, but it lacks the thrills it should have. The scene where all the bodies pop out at Laurie is so over the top as the be hilarious, not horrifying, and how can Laurie keep killing this guy and then he comes to life again? It's dumb. Of course, this film set the pattern for all the horror film clichés over the next thirty years (sluts get killed after showing their breasts, good girl survives, killer inexplicably survives stabbing, shooting, explosions, etc.), so I guess people just accept this stuff without question as "tradition." Donald Pleasance is very good as the Van Helsing figure, but he remains too disconnected from the action of the film until the end. He did more to convince me of the evil of Michael than Michael did--he needed some more screen time. Jamie Lee is great--unlike her the actresses playing her two friends, she very much comes off like a high school senior. The monster chase of the fair damsel Jamie Lee at the end is good, but not exceptional.
In short, good buildup, poor finish. I know it's sacrilege, but in its own way, Halloween is as silly as those 40s monster films. A film like The Descent actually is better made and scarier, imo, as is Psycho, among older films. Still, Halloween is better than most of what it spawned over the next thirty years. It just doesn't compare with the nostalgia.
The Twilight Zone: He's Alive (1963)
Tedious Serling lecture
Sometimes Rod Serling throws any semblance of entertainment out the window and just gives us a lecture on the virtues of tolerance. This is one of those episodes. We watch as a tiresomely whiny, unconvincing Dennis Hopper makes an effort to rise as an American neo-Nazi leader, aided by an old man who turns out to be...Adolph Hitler!--or, more accurately, a figment of the Hopper character's tortured imagination. But there's never any real tension or suspense, just a loooong narrative unwinding (it's a fifty-minute episode) till we get to Serling's undeniably true moral lecture at the end. You'd be much better off watching Downfall or Judgment at Nuremberg or a documentary. I add one star for Curt Conway's excellent Hitler impression.
The Twilight Zone: The Thirty-Fathom Grave (1963)
"They're calling muster on me!!"
This is one of the best Twilight Zones episodes, in my opinion, despite coming from the much-maligned season four, the one with the hour-length episodes. I agree that stretching out the material to fit the longer format could be a problem in several episodes, with boring stretches filled with long, expository speeches, but "Thirty-fathom Grave" doesn't suffer from this problem. On the one hand, we have Chief Bell, in a great performance by Mike Kellin, in peril from the strange manifestations, on the other we have Captain Beecham in a typical, first-rate authoritative performance by Simon Oakland (everyone remembers him as the psychiatrist in Psycho) trying to get to the bottom of it all. The plot is an expansion and enhancement of King Nine Will Not Return, from season two (with seaweed instead of sand!). That was a good, atmospheric episode, with a solid performance by Bob Cummings, but Grave is more haunting and moving, with a kicker of a final revelation and some really eerie visual and aural effects that make it one of film's most memorable ghost stories. Above all is Tony winner Mike Kellin's performance, which really drives home Serling's moving point about war survivor guilt in a way you won't forget, long before we began to hear, after the end of Vietnam War, of post-traumatic stress disorder. One of the great pleasures of Twilight Zone is its highlighting of fine actors like Kellin, who were not first-tier films stars, but were still powerful performers who deserved some spotlighting. Twilight Zone often gave these fine thesps a deserved chance to shine. Kellin's seven- minute scene with Oakland near the end of the film offers marvelous dialogue and a master class in great acting. John Considine as the diver and David Sheiner as the doctor also give strong performances. And, yes, there's a quite young Bill Bixby, as ingratiating as ever. But it's Kellin who sticks in your mind, like those lost, sunken sailors.
The Twilight Zone: Twenty Two (1961)
Room for one more, honey!
Stylish, suspenseful episode sadly filmed on videotape, which looks just awful even on the fine new DVD set. It's really just a variation on an episode form the fine British forties horror film Dead of Night, but it's done well. The actress playing the morgue attendant manages to be spectacularly creepy in a vampira sort of way. It is true, as one reviewer has said, that the episode has possibly the worst "special" (man, is it!) effect in the history of television, but try to suspend your belief! The suspense is worth it. Much worse is the poor quality, degraded videotape. It's a constant irritant, though stylistically it works well for the nightmarish dream scenes.
The Twilight Zone: Back There (1961)
History is Lame
At least it is with this episode. Here we have a time traveler, the Professor from Gilligan's Island, no less, going back in time to 1865. What does one do--why try to save Lincoln of course! No really interesting variations are rung on this old theme. As another reviewer has stated, this episode is particularly drab and unstylish, with little to suggest that "the Professor" really is back in the 1860s. Budget limitations are readily apparent, and the direction is stolid. John Wilkes Booth adds a spark but it remains a very flat production. We too often feel we are on stage sets, waiting for something clever to happen. There is a minor twist at the end, but I emphasize minor.
The Twilight Zone: A Most Unusual Camera (1960)
Does crime ever pay?
A neat morality tale played for laughs. Husband and wife crooks knock off an antique shop, finding in the haul of junk a magical camera that takes picture of the future. What do out crooks do? Take the camera to the races, of course, with the wife's dim bulb escaped con brother in tow. They rake in dough, but does crime ever pay on fifties television, even in the Twilight Zone? Nothing especially stylish about this episode, but the script is cute and the acting top notch from three steady pros. A standout is the wonderful Jean Carson, whom people should remember as the "fun girl" from that Andy Griffith episode who so intimidated Barney Fife ("Hello, doll!"). She's just as funny here. RIP Jean, thanks for the laughs.
The Twilight Zone: Dust (1961)
Earnest failure
One of Serlings's more heavy handed, preachy episodes, where the earnestness is admirable but makes for labored viewing. How much better are the episodes where he goes allegorical on us and provides a clever twist at the end. Here everything moves to a predictable finish, after twenty minutes of undissipated gloom. Clearly Serling wanted to make a comment on the lynching mentality in the South at this time, so he gave us an episode about the judicial hanging of a poor, noble Mexican in the Old West who just happens to kill a little girl while driving his wagon recklessly though town drunk. To save him his father buys "magic dust" from a rotten, con artist salesman, splendidly played by Thomas Gomez. Might the dust actually work?...I bet, dear viewer, you know the answer!
The Twilight Zone: The Trouble with Templeton (1960)
Underrated episode
An underrated time dislocation episode about an aging stage actor (Brian Aherne) in an unhappy second marriage to a much younger floozey who finds himself extremely nostalgic about his past. His travel back to the past takes unexpected turns, and makes a sharp lesson for him and the viewer. The twenties are stylishly and movingly evoked, with Pippa Scott making one fantastic flapper. An extremely young Sydney Pollack shows up in the present, playing an obnoxious director (there's a stretch!). But the show is Aherne's and he does a wonderful job with it, reminding us of the quality actors this series attracted. Nothing horrifying or scary, but it's one that sticks with you.
Ivy (1947)
Ivy clings!
An excellent period murder melodrama, with Fontaine effectively playing against her earlier naive wallflower type, in a role that reportedly Olivia DeHavilland turned down. That's fine, because Fontaine is wonderful. Scripted by Charles Bennett, who had written for Hitchcock in the thirties and also later penned the excellent script for the classic British horror film Night of the Demon. The opening scene, where Ivy visits a sinister fortune teller played by the wonderful Una O'Connor (the screecher of James Whale fame), is a tour de force, and the film maintains interest throughout the numerous sinister machinations. I hope to see this film on DVD someday, but despair of that ever happening, because it seems to be an undeservedly obscure film. Fortunately I got to see it on AMC some seven or eight years ago, but have not seen since. Catch it if you can!