The Unearthly (1957) “Here’s to youth, here’s to eternity” John Carradine the ubiquitous actor

The Unearthly (1957) Directed by Brooke L Peters (IMDb has the director listed as Boris Petroff). Scripted by Jane Mann and Geoffrey Dennis. The film stars the ubiquitous character actor John Carradine, the sultry Allison Hayes, the mammoth Tor Johnson, Myron Healey, Marilyn Buferd, Arthur Batanides, and Sally Todd.

First let me say, that I truly believe Carradine has been in almost half of the films and television ever made. Also, he is one of my favorite essential character actors!

John Carradine with his characteristic cello like voice plays Dr. Charles Conway, the iconic mad scientist who has developed a 17th artificial gland. Conway believes he has discovered the secret to eternal youth and immortality. As Dr Conway revels “I can prolong life for thousands of years, perhaps forever this 17th gland is the secret of youth”

The voluptuous Allison Hayes (Attack of The 50 Foot Woman, The Undead) plays Grace Thomas, a woman who has suffered a nervous breakdown and is brought to Dr Conway’s house for a rest cure. Grace has been tricked by her doctor, Dr Loren Wright (Roy Gordon) who’s been working with Conway, by procuring the victims as well as making sure they do not have any living family members who can trace them. Dr. Wright slips up, when he doesn’t realize that Grace has a father. The plan is to take her coat and hand bag and fake her suicide.

Myron Healy is Mark Houston an undercover cop posing as an escaped convict, that Lobo finds lurking on the grounds. Dr Conway having heard the description of the man, threatens to call the police, but offers Mark sanctuary because he is a perfect specimen to experiment on.Houston is purposely posing as the escaped murderer in order to infiltrate Conway’s operation.

Tor Johnson as Lobo once again (Bride of The Monster and Plan 9 From Outer Space) is a giant with the mind of a child who is the caretaker,body guard, and overall man servant to Dr Conway.

Dr Conway and his icy assistant Sharon Gilcrest (Marilyn Buferd) are experimenting on these human guinea pigs trying to find the secret of eternal youth.

Also there is the unfortunate Jedrow who is stuck in a cataleptic state, with a huge gash in his neck where the 17th gland was implanted. It’s sweet when Lobo washes his face with a wet rag.He somewhat looks like the Man Who Turned To Stone or an extra from Carnival of Souls

Dr. Conway’s home is a front for his experiments, seemingly a sanatorium for neurotics.While his guests/patients Danny Green (Arthur Batanides) an edgy drug addict, Sally Todd as Natalie Anders suffering from chronic sex appeal?

They all think that Conway is actually trying to help them get over what ever affliction they’re supposedly troubled by. Sharon is drugging their milk and secreting them away for the glandular transplants.

Unfortunately his operations have failed, only creating monstrous and insane mutants that wind up locked away in his basement dungeon.

Sally reads trashy romance novels and flirts with all the men, even Lobo, who mumbles Pretty Girl like a 2 year old. Danny is a cranky ragaholic who’s temper tantrums are irritating.

Mark and Grace discover that Conway has experimented on Natalie turning her into a horrifically scarred version of herself. Together with Danny they stop Conway’s experiments, but ultimately as is typical it is one of Dr Conway’s own creations that kills him. And his assistant Sharon is taken away by the police. Grace and Mark go off into the sunset.

Some memorable quotes:

“In science there’s always been some necessary sacrifices”-Dr Conway
“The unearthly  In science nothing is taken for granted”-Dr Conway
“Here’s to youth, here’s to eternity”
“Alright I wear a leather jacket and I’m not a midget, so what?” -Mark Houston
“I’m a scientist, thinking is my business”-Dr Conway

Sam Fuller’s The Naked Kiss (1965): Part I: “There’ll be no later, this town is clean”

The Naked Kiss (1965) Shock and Shame, the story of a Night Girl.

Let me say that this is one of my favorite films. I think that it’s such a bold concoction of visual style, specific alienation that we as spectators experience along with Kelly our female Protagonist. The undercurrent of sexual pathology of a perverse nature and a raw energy that fuels some crude reactionary moments on film. Normally I wouldn’t write about the ending of a film as not to ruin it for the viewer, yet Constance Tower’s remarkable performance and Fuller’s raw cinematic veritae must be experienced, the story will not lose anything by my relating it here. I actually consider this part of my women in peril series, but more aptly put, it’s a womanhood in peril film.

Samuel Fuller’s B post noir films are not like anyone else’s. Fuller’s work is often confrontational and visceral considered the kinkiest of all the B post noir auteurs.

From Alain Silver and James Ursini’s Film Noir Reader 2 “Fuller’s Naked Kiss “boldly offers a different kind of descriptive pause. Fuller takes on Patriarchy and directly assaults the spectator with a bizarre opening”

In their book they inform us that Fuller actually attached a camera to actor Monte Mansfield who plays Kelly’s pimp Farlunde, the guy she pummels in his swanky apartment right from the tip of the film.Thus creating an off kilter and disorienting mood. The opening of The Naked Kiss, is perhaps for me one of the most audacious beginnings to any cinematic work. It sort of punches you right in the face along with Farlunde.

The greater theme of the film is it’s narrative of womens’ role within society. In a way not unlike Elia Kazan, Fuller has created a sociological framework, to lay out questions of what womanhood, as well as motherhood, means discursively. While at the end of the film, Kelly is relegitimized as being a savior and not a whore, she is still not allowed to live amongst the clean town’s people. She is still an outsider. Silver and Ursini also correctly bring out in their noir reader the  fact that the context of the film is a “discursive-based attack on men and how they define women as well as the limits they place on them”. Also notable is the displaced female rage that only became better articulated later on with  feminists during the 60s and 70s.

The Naked Kiss written, directed and produced by Sam Fuller, opens wide like a steel trap, with Constance Towers as Kelly viciously beating up a pimp Farlunde in his swanky apartment, smashing away at him with her handbag. Hitting his face and neck, it’s like watching a brutal choreographed dance. Fuller creates this wavering movement to give us a sense of the dizzying brutality. Farlunde begs “I’m drunk Kelly please,” “enough Kelly please.” The savage jazz riffs underscoring the bashing. Her wig comes flying off, and now we see a bald Kelly still attacking the man relentlessly. The jazz more coherent with hyper active saxophone.

Stripped of her hair looking like a mannequin (perhaps to show us Kelly as an “object”) she beats him till he staggers to the floor, spraying seltzer water in his face. He’s wasted by the beating, she rifles through his pockets and grabs some cash from his wallet. “Eight hundred dollars… you parasite… I’m taking only what’s coming to me.” She starts counting out bills, throwing them down upon his chest, “fifty, sixty, seventy-five… I’m not rolling you, you drunken leech, I’m only taking the seventy-five dollars that’s coming to me.”

She crumples up her share, shoves it into her bra and kicks him while he’s lying there. She stares at us like we’re her mirror. Gratified she puts her wig back on and the title rolls, The Naked Kiss. Sam Fuller’s story of alienation, gender subjugation and the question of immorality and deviant sexual pathology, opens up in a big way.

The Paul Dunlop score becomes more dreamy, with melodramatic strings and Kelly brushing her wig. getting it right. The credits roll and Kelly is applying her eye pencil transforming herself back into a woman and not blood thirsty she-devil. Now the blush is applied, the music fades back into the jazz number and we see Farlunde knocked out, lying on the floor.The saxophone is hurling trills at us, Kelly grabs a photograph down from a collection of beauties and she starts tearing it up to pieces, throws them on the ground, the Farlunde stirs, coughs a bit and starts to get up, Kelly slams the door.

As he starts picking up the debris Kelly has left in her wake he puts crumpled up bills on top of a calendar and we see the date July 4, 1961. A quick cut, flash forward to a banner in the street touting August 12, 1963 and the melodramatic music is serenading us again. The camera pulls out for a wider angle, we can see the entire banner now, it reads 2 years later. August 12, 1963 Fashion Show for Handicapped Children Grantville Orthopedic Medical Center

The top of a bus moving through the street, a parked car, a mostly empty street, with a few people crossing it, and mulling about. This is the suggestion of a quiet, quaint American town.

Then a car horn toots, 3 men standing outside a Bus Depot, Griff (Anthony Eisley) says “Ten bucks, that right Mike?” Mike says “why spend your own money on that punk?” Griff turns to the young man and says while stuffing it in his pocket “Here’s your ticket” smiles at him and shoves some money into his pocket as well. All the time the young man is looking down as if ashamed. He says “Thanks a lot Griff… I’ll pay you back.” Griff looks at him sternly, “I’m giving you a break, cause your brother was in my outfit… I don’t want to see you in this town again.” The young man looks down again.

Then a Greyhound bus pulls over to the curb. We see the marquee of the movie theater is playing Shock Corridor, a nod to Fuller’s other psychologically wrenching film about a newspaper reporter going undercover in a lunatic asylum, only to become one of the patients.

The bus door opens, from our vantage point, we see a woman’s foot taking a step, long slender legs attached,the screen flirts with us, a little more leg with skirt now, the scene is taking it’s time, showing us the woman. Skirt holding suitcases and the characteristic horn plays a sexy VaVaVa Voom riff. The bus porter meets the woman we see her face in silhouette, wearing a nice lightly colored tailored suit. He comes to greet her and help with her bags. Griff’s expression looks interested. “Please check my trunk” she says. It’s Kelly, with what looks like a fully grown head of blond hair, nicely coiffed. She’s smiling pleasantly, “lady like”, “I’ll send for it later” she says in softly spoken tones. She tips Mike, he blushes and says “thank you ma’am.” She smiles back.

Kelly and Griff make eye contact. She inquires where the wash room is. Griff says as if gritting his teeth, “inside, to the right.” She lilts her head, using her eyes to convey her gratitude, “thank you.” She walks off, Griff’s eyes following her all the while. The VaVaVoom sax as signature theme which characterizes her sex appeal. Now Griff breaks his gaze and turns to the young man. “Get on it, and get lost.” He picks up his bags and gets on the bus, then a Mike the porter and his little girl Bunny with her mother walk over. Mike’s wife is holding a bag of groceries, “pot roast tonight Griff”, he says “oh not tonight” the man says “oh I wanted to finish that game Griff.”
“Danny’s been taken to the hospital…I’m pulling duty for him for tonight”

The little girl fingers the letter embossed on the trunk and asks “what’s this K mean?” Griff tells her, “that’s the name of the owner.” The little girl Bunny giggles “K is no name,Uncle Griff”Mike says “Bunny…don’t you fool around with that” the little girl says “yes dad” Mike’s wife says “see ya at home Mike.” Griff is smiling with pride, this is a lovely little family he’s thinking.”By daddy.” “Bye.”

Sensual washes of music bring Kelly back onto the screen. Coyly leaning up against the wall, shooting eyes at Griff and Mike, the sax flirting out tones.Kelly smiles over at them. Tilts her head and walks away, swinging her hips. Griff watches her walk, “that’s enough to make a bull dog bust it’s chain.” Griff starts to follow her. Kelly passes two little girls playing jump rope by a baby carriage. Kelly looks into the carriage and smiles placing a baby bottle into the infant’s mouth.

Does this sexualized figure have a mother instinct? Is this act of caring for the infant alluding to a maternal aspect to Kelly?

We don’t hear sexy horns anymore, now it’s sweeping strings, romantic swells, of the grandiose potential for the American Dream. A normal life ahead? Kelly continues to walk through the park with her bags. Passing yet another woman on a park bench with a baby carriage. The visual narrative lets us know that this is a family town. Now we see Griff still following her. Fixes his jacket and checks to see if anyone notices that he’s tracking Kelly.

The scene cross fades into Kelly and Griff sitting on a park bench. Kelly’s reading a book and Griff is leaning on her suitcase. He asks “traveling saleslady? she says” “uh ha” “Staying long?” Still looking at her book “long enough to cover this territory.” Griff says “Well there’s one Hotel in town, special rates for salesmen…” Looking down at her case “what’re you selling?” She puts her book down grabs the case and says “Angel Foam” opens up the case and reveals 3 bottles “champagne.” Griff seems delighted. Kelly tells him “best on the market.” He asks “what are the pens for?” She gives a little shake of her head “customers.” A strange undertone to the way she says “customers.” A few years back or as recently as present day “customer” means something very different for Kelly.

Griff asks “How ’bout a sample.” She slams the case closed. We hear the clasps jingle as she says “uh uh, no free sips.” He readjusts himself and leans in and tell her “well I’m pretty good at popping the cork…if the vintage is right.”

The sexual double entendre is blatant. Kelly’s looking at her book again, he’s trying to get her attention. He looks like he’s trying to find a word and says “Angel Foam… never heard of it.” She smiles but still doesn’t look at Griff. “It’s an exclusive line I’m introducing in this state.” Griff asks  “domestic or imported?” Now Kelly looks at him, with piercing eyes, as if to say you couldn’t handle my goods.

“Angel Foam goes down like liquid gold.. .and it comes up like slow dynamite… for the man of taste.” Again the sexual innuendo is clearly part of their dialogue. The cover of the book shows a woman in peril, trying to flee some unseen assailant the title reads. Dark Rage. Here the word rage is introduced subliminally, also the fact that Kelly is selling something associated with romance with a name like Foam…is this code for climax or ejaculation? For 1965 Fuller rips the surface right off the film, and doesn’t hint around the issue of desire, the male gaze and sexuality at all in Naked Kiss.

Kelly asks “Do you think you can afford it?” And Griff says “how much for a bulls eye?” “Ten dollars a bottle.” “Ten dollars, well that’s dirt cheap.” She closes the book. “Well we practically give it away to the first customer.” He looks puzzled she tells him “it’s called, good will in business” looking at him, still in control of the conversation.

Fade out, then fade into:

Griff lying on the couch drinking from a champagne glass. Kelly’s on the floor brushing out her beautiful blond hair. As she brushes she remarks “wonderful, just wonderful.” Griff bleets “thank you.” “Not you, I’m talking about my hair.” We hear Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata playing in the background. He says “you’re crazy mussing it up that way” she glows “you’ll never know what a thrill this is…it’s all new.” He furrows his brow “new?” Still brushing, “mmh hmm, it’s just grown back.” “Did it fall out because you were sick?” She shakes her head no “Uh uh.”Griff starts to rise up on the couch “don’t tell me you had your head shaved?” She turns and smiles “it wasn’t my idea.” He looks concerned and asks her “what happened?” She tells him “It’ll keep.”

Then the tension breaks and he smiles, puts his arm around her and kisses her neck. There’s a shot of money on a small table, next to a chilled bottle in an ice bucket.”Well at least you made a ten spot on Angel Foam.” “I thought you gave me a twenty?” “Isn’t that enough wine to make you see double?” he answers. He starts rubbing her neck and cheek and she says “Ah, Moonlight Sonata… my favorite.” He kisses her neck she says “I see myself in a boat when I hear that… a boat… on a lake… and the moonlight… leaves lazily falling on me… what do you see?” He’s still kiss her, hand on her neck, “I’m tone deaf” he says.

Kelly obviously aspires for better things. She has a sense of refinement. Appreciation for the classics. This is a woman with many layers. She is not just a whore.

Cross Fade, Griff is now getting dressed. He tells Kelly that she can sleep at his place, just for the night. She’s still sitting on the floor. Leaning up against the couch contemplative. She gets up and asks “How long have you been a cop?” He turns around after taking a sip of coffee “is my badge that obvious?” Kelly says “is mine?” Griff says “well I was taking no chances.” She says “in my business I have to.” These are two marked people, Griff and Kelly. The user and the used.

He puts his jacket on “Well I don’t see any battle scars.” Kelly says “that’s ’cause I practice the first rule of the house… end with the local law first, break the ice for later.” But Griff looks down at her “they’ll be no later… this town is clean.”

Kelly takes the remark like a slap in the face. She gets up angered “what do you mean by that?” “That means that you and me will get along like noise and a hangover if you pitch tent in my bivouac.” She looks so harmed by his insult. He has lost his lazy carefree demeanor and has now donned the cop uniform with Kelly. She tells him “for a cop, you oughtta read books… Goethe (she pronounces it Gotha, but at least she tries to appear intelligent) for instance.” “Go who?” “Goetha the poet… he said nothing is more terrible than an act of ignorance and mister you proved him one hundred percent right.”

She mispronounces Goethe but now we see a scrapper, who is trying to better herself, by opening up to philosophical ideas and poetry, looking for meaning in life. Representing her desire to improve her station in life. Griff’s insult isn’t lost on me either as the viewer. What hypocrisy, that she was good enough to use for his sexual pleasure, but now she’s not good enough for the town. As if Griff’s hands were clean. As if he isn’t a willing participant in the act of prostitution. This is one instance where Fuller challenges Patriarchy, and the double standard that it practices.

She continues “I’m not going to start the Bubonic plague here” Griff grabs her “Now listen, it’s nothing personal Muffin…if I let you set up shop in this neighborhood, people’d chop me like a ripe banana.” she comes back at him “then why’d you buy my merchandise.” She now joins in objectifying herself as a commodity. A thing she can sell. Her body and sex are equal components to her total worth.

Griff fumbles for the words “I, I was thirsty.” He puts his arm around her, she smiles a little, he starts walking her around the apartment like he’s about to give her fatherly advice.He says “Across the river, there’s a wide open town… Delmar Falls… it’s not in this state.. .there’s a salon there, and I don’t mean a beauty parlor.. .Candy Ala Carte…(he smirks)… Candy’s a personal friend of mine”. He grabs her neck affectionately tough, she looks at him, he says “I’ll buy a bottle from you now and then.”

She nods, and then he finally asks “What’s your name?” She answers “Kelly.” He’s still holding onto her with his hands. He barks at her “Your real name!” She jabs back equally on par with his tone”K E double L Y.” He tells her she’ll be his sounds like “ichi van” that’s a Japanese expression, he picked it up in Tokyo. She knows what it means, tells him “means number one..” He looks at her approvingly as if surprised that she’s intelligent. Now she asks”what’s your name tiger?” “Za, I mean Griff.” Now she says “your real name” as he puts his hat on he spells out “G R I double F.” She asks “rank?” “Captain.” She looks over his suit “no uniform?” “Everybody knows me.” He tilts his hat down over his eyes. Is that a gesture of shame?

Kelly hands him a pen “a reminder not to change brands.” Another innuendo, he reads the writing on the pen “Angel Foam guarantee’s satisfaction.” He snickers, “it’s almost as good as Candy’s trademark.” Kelly crosses her arms and looks skeptical “Oh what does Candy guarantee?” Griff answer “indescribable pleasure…(Kelly nods)… she got it out of a book, it’s stamped on all her glasses… tell her I sent you.” He tilts his head and looks at her and with a stern voice and says “Kelly” as if asking a question. She replies “Yes sir?” “Didn’t you forget something?” She pauses then acts like the light bulb just went on, “oh, thank you for the room Captain” she says in a wispy voice. Griff says “you owe me ten bucks change” she says “uh uh” as she fixes his tie. “I never make change” just then the sexy vava voom sax starts playing,

Kelly is identified again as call girl, night girl, as the DVD cover says “the story of a night girl.” Griff lightly thumbs Kelly’s chin and kisses her on the nose, nods to her and sticks the pen in his hat. The sexy music a little more playful and less seductive at this point. He walks away and Kelly smiles after him. Griff is very content having Kelly remain as she is “a night girl”.

We see a street scene again, this represents the town, the clean town. but we quickly switch to Kelly, stirring in bed. Left arm over her eyes to block out the light. It’s morning. As she starts to arise, she looks over at a newspaper clipping GRANT SAVES GRIFF IN KOREA; WOUNDED says the Grantville Gazette. She smells some of Griff’s cologne, approves and then splashes some on her neck. She stops by a mirror, then suddenly looks sullen, she touches under her eye and follows the cheekbone. She goes to the other side of her face. there shows a level of discontent at the image in the mirror. The music tells us she’s disturbed with harp chords that cascade, the contrast of light music rather than darker score makes the scene more powerful. Until now Kelly has exuded confidence and strength. What is Kelly thinking? Is she reflecting upon who she’s been, and where she’s going? The mirror symbolizes self-recognition.

Now from a distance, a far off lens, we see her walking down the sidewalk lined with trees, she seems so small in the scene. She’s closer now, we hear her heals clicking on the pavement. She looks up, there is a sign, Madam Josephine Seamstress. Kelly smiles, then we see that she is reading a sign Pleasant Room For Rent a closer shot, emphasis on the word Pleasant.

Kelly shakes her head and smiles with a joyfulness. She walks up the steps and rings the bell. With her back turned looking out over the town, she shakes her head like “yes, this is for me, this is the place for me.” An old woman Miss Josephine played by Betty Bronson, opens the door, and says good morning. Kelly says “you have a room for rent.” “Please come in” Kelly walks into the house, and looks pleased. The kindly old woman wearing an apron says”here let me take that” and grabs Kelly’s bag.”Thank you” “I’ll show you the room…this is the room…it has a beautiful view, it faces the river.” Kelly gets excited and walks around a four poster bed. “it’s a family heirloom…do you realize we spend about a third of our lives in bed?”

Kelly smiles ironically at that statement, she starts to comment then just looks down and loses the words. The old woman says “to sleep in comfort is very important…I used to say a little verse about it, like to hear it?” Kelly says sure, a little music box tinkling begins “Four corners to my bed, four angels round my head, one to watch, and one to pray, and two to bare my soul away.” Kelly beams, “I’d like to rent this room…and the four angels that go with it” “Oh I’m so delighted.” “I’m a stranger in town, don’t you need my character reference?” The old woman waves her finger to gesture no, and grabs Kelly’s hand and walks her to the mirror.” Again, the film is utilizing a symbolic mirror.

“Your reference is that face Ms Kelly.” Kelly laughs “Oh” the woman looks adoringly at her, still holding her hand.”Good heavens I forgot, I’ll have to move Charley out of your room”" Charley?”"I wouldn’t want him to bother you while you’re asleep” She move a screen to the side and exposes a dressing dummy with military medals and hat. “I named him Charley after a gentleman I was to marry… I kept this room ready for him ever since I got the president’s wire that Charley was killed in the war.” She’s holding his hat. “That was 20 years ago, oh I come up here all the time and talk to Charley.” She replaces the hat on the figure. “Last week I realized the president was right and Charley was dead, and I’d never get married.” Kelly looks sympathetically at her. “Well I’ll move him downstairs.” “Oh he won’t be in the way.” Kelly asserts with a kind smile. The old woman’s eyes brighten “you don’t mind?” “No in fact it’ll do me good to talk to him now and then.” “Well he’ll always agree with you.” Both woman laugh together.

Fade to black

Continued in Part II

The Mask (1961) “I tried to stop, I can’t, I don’t want to”

The Mask (1961)Canadian director Julian Roffman only made 2 films. The Bloody Brood, starring one of my favorite actors Peter Falk about a gang of psychotic beatniks, and dope dealers who actually feed a delivery boy ground up glass so they can watch him die!

Then there’s Roffman’s The Mask which is a oneiric trippy experience. The Mask that looks like a tribal bejeweled skull, enables the wearer to see his own Psyche, much like The Cheaters television episode of Boris Karloff’s Thriller. The dream sequences are surreal and quite disturbing for it’s day, just for extra fun, it was originally released in 3D.

And the film’s titles have gone through several incarnations with alternative titles like, Face of Fire, Eyes of Hell and the ridiculous The Spooky Movie Show.

The Mask was scripted by Frank Taubes and Sandy Habner. the film cast is Paul Stevens, Claudette Nevins(another busy television actress), Bill Walker, Anne Collings and Martin Lavut.

Paul Stevens (soap opera star from Another World and television shows such as The Streets Of San Fransisco and The Rockford Files) plays psychiatrist Allan Barnes who has primal hallucinations when ever he wears the mask, which becomes like an addiction for him. The mask represents a hunger, to wear the mask and indulge in the hallucinations that create a rapturous psycho sexual urge that lies buried deep in the subconscious part of our minds. When ever these hallucinations occur, the film utilizes the gimmick of 3D to enhance the visual experience for us. The Mask came out after the 50s craze was over, when 3D was causing a stir at movie theaters. The suits in Hollywood realized that 3D was not a powerful enough draw to get people away from the advent of television, so they quickly abandoned it’s novelty.

Psychiatrist Allan Barnes has a patient that is a challenge for him. Michael Radin an archeologist played by Martin Lavut, who works for the Museum of Ancient History. Michael is struggling with horrible nightmares in which he is on a murderous rampage killing women. Radin, doesn’t believe that these are nightmares he’s having, He thinks that he is being taken over while actually committing these crimes, and has no power to stop.

In addition to this notion archeologist Radin thinks that it’s an ancient South American mask that belongs to the Museum that is holding sway over his consciousness.Radin’s theory is that wearing the mask puts the person in a deep trance like state, then causes their most repressed subconscious urges, usually evil ones to become externalized.

As usually it is the case in films of the 50′s and 60′s the idea of an ancient religious artifact representing a primitive and savage culture was very common in various genre films. To portray another culture as “other” was an ethnocentric ritual of Hollywood. The dark deeds of a people other than white America, with no value system in place, and bizarre rituals were expected. And it’s only because a white American donned the evil foreign mask which was a)taboo, and b)made the wearer completely unaccountable for their heinous actions. The characterization of the savage inside us all, being invaded from without, by a foreign influence or idea. A place where dark gods and goddesses reign.

The mask requires blood sacrifices and the person wearing it is forced to commit these murderous rituals. Again, the other underlying theme of the film, is the idea of addiction. The person wearing the mask becomes compelled to wear it, it becomes a compulsion. “I’m like an addict” Radin tells Barnes.

Barnes tries to to convince Radin that the mask has no power over him and that the truth lies in his own mind. Radin becomes infuriated with Barnes and storms out of his office. That night Radin kills himself, but not before he sends the mask to Barnes first.

Barnes is obviously disturbed by the news that his patient has committed suicide, but once he receives the mask he starts to develop a fixation on it. During these times of preoccupation he/we hear a voice that tells him to “Put the mask on now” and so Dr Barnes does it.

Once Barnes wears the mask, the film begins it’s journey into the realm of the three dimensional world.During it’s theatrical release the audience was actually given cardboard copies of the mask with built in 3-D glasses, and when Barnes was told to wear the mask, that was our cue to put the mask on as well.

During the 3-D segments, we are taken to a visually nightmarish landscape, complete with sacrificial altars, ritualistic figures who look like macabre Greek choruses in tattered black robes or players from the theater of the absurd., post modern architecture that mimic ancient Aztec structures or perhaps visions of Hell. Snakes and fireballs would come hurling out of the movie screen at us. Snakes have often represented the sexual, fire often meaning purification which most cultures who’s use of human sacrifices were meant to purify the soul along with being an offering.Does the mask even take us beyond the Id, where women dress in silken black tatters just waiting to embrace us.

In the dream world,there is a man who looks like Barnes in a shredded suit, and Radin who comes in and out of sequence, with one eye horrifically dangling down by his cheek. These segments were very surreal, without much context to them, but were meant to be hallucinatory and primal excursions for the mask wearer and us viewers.

After putting the mask on the first time Barnes is convinced that the mask holds deep secrets into the human Psyche, “Even deeper than the subconscious” Barnes tells us, just like Timothy Leary and Ram Dass taking an LSD acid trip during the 60′s. Perhaps Roffman, Taubes and Habner felt that everyone wears a mask in society, and that only going deeper into the subconscious can we be free to be who we truly are. A bunch of maniacal blood lusting savages. Or maybe it was just darn fun to hurl fireballs at us from the movie screen. Or both are true. It’s definitely a cautionary tale about the dangers of addiction. When Barnes says ” I tried to stop, I can’t, I don’t want to” his girlfriend Pam says,”Do you have to take the drug again, Allan?

Barne’s girlfriend Pam Albright played by Claudette Nevins, doesn’t approve of him messing around with something so unnatural, so taboo. But it’s too late, because Barnes has fallen under the spell of the mask and is now compelled to wear it as Radin was.Barnes tells Pam that it orders him to pick it up, so Pam grabs it and plans on returning it to the museum. So that it can remain a relic and not a substance that can be abused.

Barnes steals it back, and the urges become even greater, ultimately he gets the craving to kill his secretary Jill Goodrich played by Anne Collings. This scares Barnes and forces him to confront what’s happening to him, so he calls a colleague of his, Dr Quincy,(Norman Ettlinger). Unfortunately Quincy’s reaction is the same as when Radin came to Barnes. That the mask has no power, that it’s all in Barne’s head. But his friend Dr Quincy is concerned and tells Pam that he’s worried Barnes is headed for a total breakdown.

Barnes wearing the mask once again, starts to pursue his secretary “I must experience the greatest act of the human mind, to take another human life” But girlfriend Pam gets the cops involved and they wind up arresting Barnes and putting him away.

The last sequence of the film shows us that the mask is back at the museum, and of course there is another man gazing at it with fascination like Radin, and Barnes. That the evil events are destined to repeat themselves, because curiosity is the damnation of human nature.

The Mask was certainly original for it’s time. The otherworldly dream sequences had disturbing images that weren’t usual for American made horror films, in particular dealing with drug abuse and repressed sexuality.

Not until later on with the counterculture of the 60s and early 70s with LSD “trip” films like

The Angry Breed 1968 The Trip 1967, Angel Angel Down We Go 1969 and Go Ask Alice 1973

Even back in the days of George Melies with his 1902 classic A Trip to the Moon an iconic piece of film work that blends science fiction with psychedelic aspects that were very ahead of it’s time.

I’m a big fan of The Mask because it really creates a nightmarish experience for it’s actors and us, and is an original contribution to the genre of cult horror films.

The Maze (1953) Of Highlands and Amphibians

The Maze (1953)William Cameron Menzes directed and was responsible for the art design on The Maze which had it’s theatrical release in 3D. You’ll actually live it! the film hails.

William Cameron Menzes known for his visually oneiric classic sci-fi films with dreamlike landscapes.The fantastical (Invaders From Mars)(1953),Things To Come)and the uncredited  director of Duel In The Sun and The Thief of Bagdad, and the epic Gone With The Wind)

Dan Ullman’s screenplay gives us some atmospheric scenes that are compelling to watch and although at times The Maze seems prozaic and down right laughable, It’s been a guilty pleasure of mine for years and I think it’s a charming little chiller from the 50′s due to it’s originality and Menze’s art design. Plus I enjoy watching Michael Pate, always looking like his underwear is on too tight for his gingerbread men.

Richard Carlson (It Came From Outer Space, Creature From The Black Lagoon)plays Gerald MacTeam, a Baronet and next in line to reign at Craven Castle after his Uncle Samuel dies. The isolated and dreaded Craven Castle has held a mystique about it for centuries, up there in the highlands of Scotland, where an ancient curse hangs over the MacTeam clan.

Aunt Edith(Katherine Emery) spends some time narrating the tale to us as if telling us a bed time story or fairytale.

Gerald is engaged to Kitty Murray(Veronica Hurst). In the beginning of The Maze we find Gerald and Kitty regaling their engagement in Canne, with Kitty’s Aunt Edith, played by Katherine Emery(Isle of The Dead). Suddenly Gerald receives an urgent telegram telling him to come to Craven Castle immediately, although he has just told the women, that he had not been there in years.

Gerald leaves abruptly with the promise that he’ll contact Kitty once he’s settled. But weeks go by with no contact from Gerald. Her telegrams have all been delivered but there is still no answer from her fiance for several weeks.

Aunt Edith guides Kitty that Gerald’s silence is his answer. But Kitty is determined to find out why Gerald hasn’t contacted her. She’s worried that he’s in trouble , reading the announcement in the newspaper that his Uncle Samuel has passed away at age 45,Kitty insists that she and Aunt Edith go to Scotland to help Gerald who must be in terrible shape not to answer her telegrams.

Kitty is relentless and irritating throughout the film. You don’t admire her determination, rather you resent her ignoring Gerald’s wishes, and not respecting his privacy once they arrive. Prying and questioning all the rules of the MacTeam family. Gerald coldly telling her to leave, yet she insinuates herself into the situation, against his wishes. Kitty even has the audacity to invite their friends to the castle without Gerald knowing about it.

The male servants try everything they can at thwarting Kitty’s inquisitiveness. One of the maids has quit, because she wandered into the maze and was horrified. Gerald insists that from now on, William is to hire only male help.

When Kitty and Aunt Edith arrive at Craven Castle cloaked in the foggy Highland mist, they are greeted by the stoic and stern William played by Michael Pate(The Killer is Loose, Curse of the Undead, an interesting vampire western).

When Kitty sees the changes in Gerald, who looks like he’s aged 20 years, hair turned white on the sides his face frozen in a stony expression, she’s shocked. Gerald is furious that she’s come to the castle. He had written Edith specifically telling them that he is releasing Kitty from the engagement. That if he were to leave the castle, it would mean certain death. This line of the note is scratched out in pencil, but Kitty erases it and reads what he has written. This only propels Kitty’s prowess to see her fiance even more. Aunt Edith goes along unwillingly yet for moral support.

Gerald insists that they leave in the morning, putting them in adjoining rooms. Aunt Edith had been forewarned about the strange rules of the castle, but Kitty is unnerved when they are locked in at night.She sees a light under the door,and we hear a strange slithering, dragging noise as it passes by her room.This does not discourage her, she finds a secret passage way to a look out and watches as a light moves along the maze in the dark. She tells Aunt Edith that something is going on and begs Aunt Edith who merely has the sniffles to feign illness so that they can stay a bit longer to investigate.

The curious rules, the rubber matting on the floors, the steps that are more like platforms, the strange sounds and lights, the drastic change in Gerald’s demeanor all work on the spirit of Kitty’s curiosity to find out the truth.

Kitty conspires to send a telegram to her friends in London, one a doctor friend Burt Dilling (John Dodsworth) and invites him and Hillary Brooke as Peggy Lord, and another couple to come to the castle under the guise of them stopping by while touring the Scottish countryside. All this a ruse to get Dr. Burt Dilling to check in on his friend Gerald.

William and the other servants are mysterious and steadfast in their protection of the secret of the MacTeam legacy and why Gerald has turned his back on his modern life, and engagement to the beautiful Kitty. Now the secret of Craven Castle and what lurks in The Maze unfolds in vintage 50′s campy style. The Maze is a lot of fun, it rekindles that childhood memory of being shocked at the time, now its just wonderful to watch Richard Carlson a great mainstay of the genre play the tormented Gerald who must now take up the mantle of the family legacy.

There is a bit of Lovecraftian theme to The Maze which seldom translates well enough on screen yet does give this film enough of an eerie quality, in retrospect.

{http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hYpnHLSisAM}

And Cryptozoologists’ will have a ball at the climax of the film. I only wish I could have seen it in it’s 3 Dimensional glory!

 

They Live By Night (1948) Part Two “A woman is sort of like a dog”

It’s the first 10 minutes of They Live By Night that sets the stage for our ill fated lovers. When Keechie comes out to the barn to get water, Bowie follows her, rattles some chains to make noise, and then he slumps down against the wall. When the headlights of a car startle him, he begins to whisper a little ritualistic number counting verse to himself, a way to calm himself. Perhaps something he picked up in jail. Bowie is 23 years old and spent 7 years of it on the prison farm where he met Chickamaw and T-Dub.

He tells Keechie that he doesn’t really know how to talk to a woman. Then old man Mobley shows up in a car with a woman. It’s Mattie, wife of T-Dubs brother still in jail trying to get paroled. Mobley is soused and nearly crashes the car, but smashes some crates and tires and damages the front tire. Mattie gets out complaining about the drive there, and the drunken fool who picked her up.”That’s the best you can send?”

They go into the cabin, and leave Bowie and Keechie still in the barn. Keechie asks Bowie if he likes his old man? He says “not much.” Then Bowie asks if it’s true that her Ma ran off, and she answers yes. He tells her his ma ran off with a guy who ran a pool hall. His Pa used to take him there. He relates to her a story how one night, there was an argument, but there is usually an argument centered around a game of pool. This time his Pa raised his cue but the other guy had a gun. His Pa turned to him like he was trying to say something, his face went white like he was going to cry.”The blood running into his eyes” then Ma went to live with the guy who killed him.

Here the backstory lays the groundwork for the couple, who never had a chance to live a normal life, with decent parents who could raise them with a moral code.

She asks why Bowie would run with men like T-Dub and Chickamaw, her uncle “lives for trouble”and is “wild” Bowie keeps a newspaper clipping in his pocket about a guy convicted of murder just like him,who had no due process of the law. The Supreme Court said “Let that man out!” Bowie fantasizes about running away to Mexico. Dreams are all he has.

This is what Bowie is living for, the day he can afford the Lawyer in Tulsa, who can over turn his conviction and he can get himself “squared around” a significant phrase that will come back at the end of the film. The idea that these young people are fueled by the desire to belong to the right side of society. Bowie and Keechie start to develop an obvious attraction to each other.

Mattie takes an instant dislike to Bowie and tells Keechie that he’s Jail Bait.

Chickamaw and T-Dub want to pull a big job in Zelton Texas, rob a bank. Bowie agrees to be the driver of the getaway car.

The day before the robbery, we see a large street clock, Bowie looks at it, always asking what time it is. He’s sitting in the car, we hear a train whistle blow. Then Bowie cases the bank. He purchases a beautiful woman’s watch for Keechie at the Zelton Jewelry Store. He doesn’t have smaller bills with him so that the jewelery store owner will have to take him over to the bank to break the large bills.

T-Dub and Bowie return to the house where Mattie and Chickamaw are. T-Dub asks Mattie what’s going on. It appears there might be a sexual relationship between the pair. Chickamaw says “How long does a woman wait for one man?” Mattie gets upset “listen you crumby one eyed nut” T-Dub goes to slap Mattie but Chickamaw grabs him, and Mattie smashes a mirror. Bowie spooked says “That’s 7 years!” is there an emphasis on his superstition because he is uneducated and from a lower class.

The day of the bank robbery, the same train whistle blows, the clock is standing in the same spot outside the bank, Bowie is in the car waiting for the two men to give the signal, when the jeweler recognized Bowie and tried to strike up conversation with him. When Bowie keeps telling him to “get away”and he doesn’t stop talking, Bowie pushed the man to the ground and he hits his head.

All 3 men are in the getaway car now, fleeing the robbery, back on the wide expanses of open land. Blue Grass music is playing on the radio. They pull off the road. Chickamaw pulls out a gas can and sets the robbery car ablaze. The radio starts to die out as the car is consumed by the flames until it sounds like a dying doo hickey.

They drop T-Dub off and Chickamaw says, they can start struttin’ and the one thing Bowie has to learn “is to look and act like other people.” Again we see the emphasis on trying to fit into normal society. They buy fancy clothes and new cars. On the way back to the house, an old jalopy cuts off Bowie and they crash the car. A police officer comes over to question them about how fast they were going and requests that they come along with him, and Chickamaw calls him “friend” then shoots him.

Chickamaw takes Bowie, who’s sprained his back in the crash, to his brother’s place so Keechie can take care of him. Old man Mobley starts complaining about having to close the station, but Chickamaw says not to worry, and shoves a wad of cash in Keechies blouse pocket. Her uncle Chickamaw has a very unhealthy boundary around his niece. He leers at her a good deal of the time and objectifies her, by calling her the girl instead of his niece. When Keechie hands the money over to her father, the old man says, “Girl that’s more money I seen since we collected on that fire we had.” He takes the money, and we know that he’ll blow all of it on booze later on.

Bowie is laying face down on the bed. Keechie takes her hair down and starts brushing it. The first sign that she is embracing her sexuality, her womanhood, amidst these band of dirty thugs, her father included. Bowie awakens and is framed on screen behind a wrought iron bed, that looks like the bars of a jail. Noir characters are often trapped by framing.

Bowie asks Keechie “Who’s your fella…other girls have em?” she says “I don’t know what other girls have.” She rubs his back down with something, and the wind in the telephone wires from out the highway, make an eerie noise outside. Bowie asks if she ever thinks about leaving town, most girls would want to go, again she say “I don’t know what most girls want.” Keechie has been so sheltered from the world. He tells her that he has lots of money now from the robbery, but this offends Keechie. He doesn’t mean to offend her, but she replies, “I’d do this for a dog.” Then he tells her to look in the side pocket of his shirt. She takes out the package and finds the watch he bought for her. She mentions that there is no clock in the cabin, though she wants to set the watch to the right time. Perhaps people who live outside of society have no sense of belonging so need to track the hours in the day. That’s the sense I got from all the references to time and why it was so important for Bowie and Keechie to know what time it was.

He puts the watch on her. She says she never saw any sense in having a fella, then asks him if he’s trying to say that he should be her fella. He says “I guess maybe it is.” This is a very sweet moment for the two of them. She tells him to stay until morning, by then her drunken father will have shot off his mouth all over town, so he’ll need to get away. She’ll go with him.

They leave on a bus. A baby crying incessantly, on a seat next to Bowie, but the mother could care less about quieting the child. They stop for coffee, and notice a flashing neon sign Marriages Performed. The waitress pours more coffee and interjects, Hawkins class B, organ music and everything for $2o. She says the way people pop in and out of there you’d think they’re getting dog licenses. At that point Bowie tries to tell Keechie that he’s no good for her. He’ll always be a black sheep. and she tells him “the only thing black about you is your eyelashes.” She saw the goodness in him from the beginning. After complaining about how awful that wedding place is, he asks her to marry him and they get off the bus, and enter Hawkins, to be married. The old man running the quicky ceremony says to Bowie “you don’t think much about the way I marry people” “I sure don’t” “me neither but you gotta give people what they want.” Then he sells them a car and head off for their honeymoon, at Lamberts Inn where they take a room all the way at the end,from Mr Vines and his little son Alvin. They set up house there. And life seems quiet and “normal” like other people.

In the meantime, old man Mobley, goes to the police and tells them about Bowie, kidnapping his daughter. Tells them where they can find him. “That boy belongs in the electric chair, and I’d like to be the one to pull the switch!”

Bowie asks Keechie about “these women who don’t wait for their men” she gives him her philosophy. “Those women don’t love…woman only loves once. I guess a woman is sort of like a dog, a bad dog would take things from anybody, he’ll bite anybody who tries to pet him. There was a man back up home,and after he died, his dog wouldn’t eat or do anything, and he died too.”

Chickamaw shows up”aint you shacked up nice and cozy” He asks for alcohol, but since there wasn’t any, he asks for candy and starts munching on it. Tells Bowie the newspapers are plastored with his face.” Every time some dingbat robs a filling station , they say it’s “Bowie the Kid”, the Zelton bandit. “You’d have to have wings to be every place they say you did.”

Chickamaw and T-Dub are out of money and now want to pull another job. ” kid we got a bank in Cedars, just itching to be charged” Bowie offers half his loot from the Zelton robbery but Chickamaw strong arms him into coming along. “you know that’s friendly, real friendly…you aint gonna be handing me out no two bits at a time for ice cream cones, that doe you got where’d you get it?! working the shoe store, it takes 3 to pull a trick and you’re number 3, even if the papers say you’re number one.”T-Dub tells him later on that they took him out of jail over other men. Keechie is furious with Bowie for going along.

After the bank job, Chickamaw is gets righteously riled. T-Dub got killed during the bank robbery. Chickamaw tells Bowie that it “rips his guts out” all the papers do is talk about Bowie the Kid.He wants Bowie to stop for a drink, but Bowie refuses, Chickamaw grabs a pipe from the back seat and tries to hit him with it. Bowie orders him to get out of the car.

Bowie returns home that night to Keechie. “I guess you heard over the radio” “I heard T-Dub’s dead, Chickamaw was killed breaking into a liquor store…they say it runs in threes.”

She tells him she’s going to have a baby, no matter what. Bowie says “that’s right, he’ll have to take his chances just like us.”

They go out for the day and walk around the park like other “real people”, Bowie talks about going to Mexico again. they go out for supper, and dancing.

A drunk stumbles into Keechie, so they decide to leave, but Keechie asks Bowie to get her some cigarettes. While in the bathroom getting the pack of cigarettes from the machine, a man crouches behind him and says”Bowie the kid”pulls the gun away from Bowie “Papers say you carry a .45″ Bowie comes back “papers say a lot of things.” The man tells him “We want you to leave town tonight, we don’t want any trigger happy hillbillies around.”

There are no safe places for Bowie and Keechie to belong. They’re too innocent for the thugs like Chickamaw and T-Dub, yet they’re perceived as hicks by a whole other hierarchy of criminals. They Live By Night really is a story about human suffering and class disparity.

When the couple realize that the plumber who came to fix the busted pipes in their place has recognized Bowie, they flea their little home and head out for the Prairie Plaza Hotel, a piece of property that Bowie remembers Mattie owns. Mattie is not happy to see Bowie, even though she finds out that Keechie’s ill and pregnant, unknown to the young couple, she turns them into the police in exchange for her husband finally getting paroled.

Bowie goes back to the man who married them, asking about getting help to flee to Mexico, but the old man tells him that he’s a thief just like Bowie, but he won’t sell him “hope” when there ain’t any. Bowie realizes that there just isn’t a place in the world for “people like us.”

Note :the use of the metaphor of dogs is used a lot in the film– as obedience, faithfulness, submissiveness. loyalty.