Reviews

This epic Musical Western may not be an artistic triumph but is an unbeatable entertainment with larger-than-life star-power. By sharp contrast to the elegance and sophistication of the Lerner & Loewe team's exquisite MY FAIR LADY, GIGI and CAMELOT, the entirely revised movie version of PAINT YOUR WAGON throws all grace and poise to the winds in its raunchy celebration of the pure joy of dancing and wallowing in gloriously filthy mud.

The original 1950's Broadway show was daring at the time for its interracial romance between a white woman and a Mexican native, but by 1968 this theme had become dated. Thus producer/lyricist Alan Jay Lerner based his bawdy screenplay on an entirely new story by playwright Paddy Chayefsky, which parodies "Sodom and Gomorrah" as a grandiose comedy of colorful moral follies in Gold Rush California.

The previous Lerner & Loewe film, CAMELOT -- also directed by Joshua Logan (SOUTH PACIFIC) -- had focused on an adulterous triangle relationship, so the new PAINT YOUR WAGON seeks to top that with a marriage-threesome at center. But in place of the tragic fall of a shining ideal, the inevitable collapse of "No Name City" (the Las Vegas of the Old West) is played entirely for uproarious belly-laughs.

Seven songs from the original show are retained, including "I Talk to the Trees", "There's a Coach Comin' In", and (supremely) the show- stopping aria "They Call the Wind Maria" (powerfully sung by Harve Presnell in full "Howard Keel" mode). In support of these are five new songs written by Lerner with composer Andre Previn (standing in for the retired Frederick Loewe).

The production and costumes are spectacular, but it is the bold casting that makes this a memorable show. Clint Eastwood has natural singing ability and demonstrates how cool an old-fashioned Musical can be with "Gold Fever" (the one Lerner-Previn song that gives the vintage score a real challenge). In other respects Eastwood is in good form as the easy- going side of his unique screen persona. Jean Seberg is fine as well, leavening the broad comedy with an underplayed wry humor.

However, the movie truly belongs to the great Lee Marvin, who is its heart and soul. Besotted old "Ben Rumson" is one of the actor's most memorable characters, evoking his Academy Award-winning role in another comic Western, CAT BALLOU. Taken as a super-vehicle for Marvin, this PAINT YOUR WAGON becomes something special.

As for the caliber of Lee Marvin's talk-singing: Don't let it be forgot that the soundtrack recording of his rough yet poignant performance of the Lerner-Loewe classic "Wandrin' Star" was a #1 hit in England.

Rating: 8/10 **** OUTSTANDING.

Call me crazy, call me corny... but I have fallen head over heels for this exuberant little bluegrass comedy thriller.

Two endearingly dumb hick hillbillies, Dale (Tyler Labine) and Tucker (Alan Tudyk) are happily settling in for a vacation at their ramshackle cabin in the woods when their bliss is disrupted by the arrival of a carload of mindless college kids.

During a late-night fishing excursion, the beer-loving buddies witness a swimming party and rescue one of the girls from drowning, taking her back to their cabin to recover.

While Tucker spends his day working in the woods, Dale devotes every moment to humbly caring for their unexpected guest. Nice, pretty, intelligent and bland Allison (Katrina Bowdan) quickly loses her initial fear of her bearded, beer-bellied Bear of a captor as she discovers him to be awkwardly shy, gentle, sweet-natured and seriously cute. In turn, the self-negating Dale is overwhelmed by the unexpected acceptance and warmth of this unattainable dream person. The two develop an unlikely friendship and cozily settle down to await the return of her friends.

This is not how Allison's friends perceive the situation. They have been frightened by tales of bloodthirsty killers in the area and are certain that Allison has been captured by savage rednecks. In their zeal to rescue her, they each rush to the attack - and accidentally cause their own violent, bloody deaths in the best Friday THE 13th manner.

TUCKER AND DALE vs. EVIL, like the classic ABBOTT AND COSTELLO MEET FRANKENSTEIN (1948), is that rarity: a Horror-Comedy that honors the genre and works on every level. It can be seen as the Laurel and Hardy version of such rustic thrillers as DELIVERANCE and THE Texas CHAINSAW CHAINSAW MASSACRE. In this case the humor is restrained and character- oriented, and all physical comedy stems directly from the situation.

The film's admirable achievement is that it maintains a buoyant sense of humor without ever mocking or compromising genre conventions. The point of view of the two groups of characters determines the alternating shifts of tone. The good OK' boys and their open-minded girl friend see the story as a rustic romantic comedy whereas the shallow college kids exist in a generic slasher-flick dimension, played straight with menacing music and every edge-of-seat beat in place. Whenever the two worlds happen to meet, the resulting absurdity twists the standard blood'n'guts "Kills" as a dynamic unity of shock and laughter. The deft balancing of this sharp contrast is the key to TUCKER AND DALE's success.

Central to the movie's charm are the appealing performances of the three leads; especially big -- and big-hearted -- Tyler Labine, whose personal warmth and good-humor make this a splatter with soul.

Add to this a genuinely warm and moving story of love and friendship between characters we come to care for, and you have a one-of-a-kind indie winner to treasure and remember.

THE 13 GHOSTS OF SCOOBY-DOO is an unusually promising middle-period variant of the long-running Mystery-Comedy Cartoon series. The addition of a strong fantasy element is a breakout landmark.

Most of all, the continuing guest character of mystic "Vincent Van Ghoul", voiced by Classic Horror Star Supreme, VINCENT PRICE, lends this particular show a distinction unmatched in the Universe of Doo.

13 GHOSTS is the first serialized version of SCOOBY-DOO which follows in sequence a continuing storyline established in the initial episodes. An intriguing element is the focus on some of Scooby's earliest encounters with "real" supernatural spooks (as opposed to masked crooks). This foreshadows such superior DVD animated features as SCOOBY-DOO ON ZOMBIE ISLAND, SCOOBY-DOO AND THE WITCH'S GHOST and SCOOBY-DOO AND THE GOBLIN KING.

A disappointing aspect of 13 GHOSTS is that the serial abruptly stops just shy of the overall story's conclusion. Unfortunately, the show was prematurely canceled before the final episodes could be made.

The absence of regular characters Freddy and Velma, the misuse of made-over ingénue Daphne as mere decor, along with the (albeit subdued) presence of unpopular little Scrappy-Doo, are further counts against the show.

However, it is the grating dominance of the extraneous new character Film-Flam--a token ethnic street brat with a flippant, arrogant attitude--that most seriously mars the series.

Happily, the redeeming presence of the magnificent Price and a fresh touch of color and imagination save the show and restore the relatively high quality of earlier (pre-Scrappy) SCOOBY-DOO series. For these reasons 13 GHOSTS is highly recommended to fans of the Scoob.

{Vincent Price may be best known to young viewers for his deliciously sinister spoken monologue in Michael Jackson's momentous "THRILLER". Reasonably mature SCOOBY-DOO fans desiring a deeper acquaintance with Price would enjoy the legendary Hollywood actor's rich, deliciously over-ripe performances in the following "starter set": THE INVISIBLE MAN RETURNS, LAURA, DRAGONWYCK, HOUSE OF WAX (1953), HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL (1958), THE FLY (1958), RETURN OF THE FLY, THE TINGLER (1959), HOUSE OF USHER (1960), PIT AND THE PENDULUM (1961), TALES OF TERROR, THE RAVEN (1963), COMEDY OF TERRORS, THE HAUNTED PALACE, THE MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH (1964), THE TOMB OF LIGIEA, WITCHFINDER GENERAL/THE CONQUERER WORM, THE ABOMINABLE DR. PHIBES, DR. PHIBES RISES AGAIN and THEATRE OF BLOOD.}

Rating: GOOD.

Tobe Hooper and Kim Henkel's original pop-culture classic (1974) is not exactly an object of reverence to me but I do regard it with strong admiration and even a sense of awe. Gifted with certainly the greatest exploitation title of all time, the film is dynamically powerful in its utter rawness and trash vitality. It succeeds not in spite of the impoverished production circumstances but largely because of them.

There's a magnificent collusion of the mundane and the imaginative alive in that film that lifts it into an octave of its very own. Through some mystical combustion of accident and talent, the original is a distinctive work of modern cinema art--not just because of museum validation. After decades of sequels and imitations it retains all of its vibrant potency.

CHAINSAW MASSACRE 03 delivers everything it promises. The slick, crassly commercial new version replaces the original's suggestive restraint with the extreme graphic violence and blatant gore that will meet the demands of a jaded contemporary audience. It brings the iconic figure of Leatherface back to convincing life and manages to wring its quota of scares and shocks from material that has been worked to death.

The film's not terrible. It's handsomely photographed by Daniel Pearl, who shot the original. It rates some credit simply for being, against all expectation, a reasonably effective teenage thriller.

And yet, unlike the historic genre masterpiece from which it is derived, it remains, after all, just another movie.

Rating: AVERAGE.

Cast: Bud Abbott, Lou Costello, Kathryn Grayson.

Director: S. Sylvan Simon.

Abbott & Costello's three MGM films (RIO RITA, LOST IN A HAREM and ABBOTT AND COSTELLO IN Hollywood) are slicker, more polished and slightly more sophisticated in tone than their Universal series begun with BUCK PRIVATES. They also lack the brash energy that makes those films so enduring in entertainment value.

Even so, one personally finds RIO RITA to be one of the better movies the classic comedy team were associated with. It must, however, be approached with the understanding that it is a Musical with comedy rather than the other way around.

RIO RITA is an updated, entirely re-written version of Florenz Ziegfeld's comic operetta, previously filmed in 1929 with star comics Wheeler and Woolsey repeating their roles from the Broadway blockbuster.

Bud and Lou receive first billing due to their great popularity, but the new production is a primarily a vehicle for pretty young soprano Kathryn Grayson (ANCHORS AWEIGH, SHOW BOAT, KISS ME KATE!) who was then being groomed for MGM stardom as an answer to Universal's Deanna Durbin. Hence the focus is on Grayson who performs several good songs (including two from the original show) and an operatic aria which displays her formidable vocal ability.

Even more than A&C's other early movies, comedy takes rather a back seat to music and romance. Even the dated dramatic situation involving Nazis infiltrating a Western ranch, original to this version, is secondary to the charms of the leading lady.

RIO RITA is, not unlike Abbott and Costello's introductory Musical Comedy film ONE NIGHT IN THE TROPICS, a matter of taste. Fortunately, it is a taste that can be acquired. Personally, one loves Musicals, is fond of Kathryn Grayson and is an admirer of Abbott & Costello; therefore one was thoroughly primed to enjoy this. The movie is recommended to all fans of the comedy team, but some may need several viewings, music and all, to come to terms with it.

Rating: GOOD.

Paris Opera understudy Christine Daae (Asia Argento) is corrupted by a human rat and indiscriminate killer known as The Phantom (Julian Sands) who lurks in the bowels of the opera house. However, the mindless prima donna cannot decide between her weird seducer and an equally unappealing nobleman, and the threesome's tiresome sexual excesses eventually result in a nasty mess.

This visually striking but ludicrous film version of Gaston Leroux's famous story unaccountably proved to be the nadir in the illustrious career of Dario Argento, successor to Mario Bava as the master creator of such ultra-violent and brilliantly cinematic Italian "giallo" thrillers as THE BIRD WITH THE CRYSTAL PLUMAGE, DEEP RED, TENEBRAE and THE STENDAHL SYNDROME. Argento had stumbled before (FOUR FLIES ON GREY VELVET, TWO EVIL EYES and TRAUMA) but never with such promising material and on such a grandiose scale. The debacle of PHANTOM seemed to indicate a premature decline, exacerbating a schism among the director's admirers that persists to this day and has negatively impacted acceptance of such superior recent films as MOTHER OF TEARS and GIALLO.

It's been my understanding that Dario Argento made this film under duress, the subject having been chosen for him in a contest-poll of fans. Argento had already created his variation on the theme as one of his best gialli, OPERA/TERROR AT THE OPERA, which displays all the passion, energy and genuine artistry his PHANTOM lacks.

I don't pretend to know what goes on in Argento's bizarre head, but my gut feeling is that he expressed his disinterest and resentment for this unwanted project by deliberately trashing it. It is uninspired, disorganized, and never begins to express the genuinely surreal mystique of Argento's ambitious art films such as SUSPIRIA, INFERNO and PHENOMENA. Most of this unfocused mess could have been "directed" by any hack (Luigi Cozzi?), as only a few scenes and choice moments display evidence of the Maestro's usual creativity and high style.

The ill-conceived project shows every sign of having been further botched in the editing process, usually one of Argento's strong points. Unlike most of the artist's films, PHANTOM is based on a literary source, but the narrative structure is hopelessly choppy and confused, with events occurring out of order and a sense of much story footage having been deleted. Far from the mesmerizing, dream-like effect often achieved by the director, the film's sense of flow is undone by the barrage of barely-related scenes crashing one upon the other like a traffic pile-up.

The main problem is the script, written with former Roman Polanski collaborator Gerard Brach, which treats the material as grotesque parody and unromantic romance. The absurd scenario focuses almost entirely on extraneous episodes, and unworkable "ideas" such as the Phantom's relationship with rats, while the central story is left to die miserably. Argento and Brach plainly intended a burlesque but turned out a dismal travesty betraying a sleazy disrespect for the source material. The notorious low-points are the effete leading man's visit to a brothel, a slapstick sequence involving the rat-catcher's phallic Ratmobile, and the so-called Phantom's infamous rat-masturbation scene.

Even the obligatory, overdone gore scenes do not grow out of the substance of the piece but seem perfunctorily shoe-horned in. Not only is gross-out gore inappropriate to this story but there is not sufficient blood and guts on display to satisfy the jaded expectations of a contemporary Horror audience likely to be bored silly by the film's dreary pretensions.

The undeniable assets of the production are the gorgeous Budapest locations, at a sumptuous opera house, in the cellars of a real castle and in actual caves featuring a genuine underground lake. Costumes, except for the Phantom's chintzy-looking cape, are attractive.

Although several classical pieces are excerpted, there is a notable absence of operatic production. This is more than atoned for by the great Ennio Morricone's eerie and bittersweet, if listless, music score (more absorbing when heard separately on CD).

Even the visual and aural grandeur are diminished by the flat video-photography, poor dubbing and the film's air of cheapness, carelessness and haste. There is also some really awful CGI imagery and a ridiculous animatronic Mother Rat that only a desperate Phantom could love. Overall the film looks suspiciously like an unfinished made-for-TV movie that went to theaters instead.

Such a fiasco might have been salvaged if the film offered a reasonably effective Phantom. Although the character wears no mask in this version, there is something unbearably ghastly about his face: it is that of Julian Sands, whose ugly-pretty features (in a fright-wig) are seen throughout. Sands' dire miscasting is the production's central death-blow. Supporting casting and performances are not much better.

Unaccountably, Dario Argento even fumbles the project's golden opportunity as a showcase for his actress daughter, Asia Argento, who appears to have gone through this experience entirely on her own. Generally she is in control, but too often is allowed to flop awkwardly about as if unguided by the director or even a coach. There are also disturbing scenes in which Asia has been instructed by her creepy father to behave like a depraved porno starlet. Still, Asia's distinctive screen presence and offbeat characterization are among the film's primary assets; a forlorn remnant of grace and beauty left standing in the ruins.

Seen in perspective, it is clear that period Gothic Romance is simply not Dario Argento's gig. Yet such a perverse artist as Argento can make only a fascinating failure. Any viewer interested in the Argentos, the classic story or Euro-Horror cinema should see this film at least once, and some will be drawn back to fathom its odd mysteries.

RATING: MEDIOCRE.

NOTE: Be aware that the 5.1 Dolby track on the 2003 Ardustry Home Entertainment DVD is out of synch, wreaking especial havoc with the dubbed arias. The 2.0 Stereo track is correct.

BEYOND THE FOREST (1949)

Cast: Bette Davis, Joseph Cotten, David Brian.

Director: King Vidor.

King Vidor's delirious BEYOND THE FOREST is best appreciated as a dry run for Bette Davis' grotesque tour-de-force as "Baby Jane" in Robert Aldrich's black-comic thriller.

In such flamboyantly bizarre later films as DUEL IN THE SUN, THE FOUNTAINHEAD, RUBY GENTRY, WAR AND PEACE and SOLOMON AND SHEBA, Vidor demonstrated a perverse fetish for deliberate camp to the point of self-parody. In the universally derided BEYOND THE FOREST, Vidor indulges a florid Gothic Noir driven by Davis' insane performance as a wicked whore from hell.

Seen in this light, BEYOND THE FOREST is revealed as an absurdist fore-runner of such wildly over-ripe Davis extravagances as HUSH...HUSH, SWEET CHARLOTTE and THE ANNIVERSARY.

Horror Note: The name of Count Dracula's homeland, Transylvania, literally means "Beyond the Forest": "trans" (beyond), "sylvan" (forest). Just thought you might like to know.

Rating: OUTSTANDING.

William Peter Blatty, author of THE EXORCIST, based the character of Father Lankester Merrin on the Jesuit scholar Teilhard de Chardin. In books such as "The Phenomenon of Man", de Chardin theorized a metaphysical concept he called the World Mind, an interpretation of Christian mysticism which sees all minds as joined and gradually evolving into a full awareness of Being as a single consciousness akin to the New Thought idea of Christ Consciousness--the "only begotten" extension of Universal Consciousness, or God. This idea, a synthesis of Christian and Asian religious concepts, is resonant with many unorthodox spiritual teachings from Theosophy to the psychology of Carl Jung. After de Chardin's death his papers were suppressed by the Vatican and his work was investigated on charges of heresy (his ideas being heretical by the standards of the Catholic Church.)

When Blatty declined to write Warner Bros.' sequel, John Boorman and his creative associate Rospo Pallenberg developed an original script from a treatment by playwright William Goodhart, the credited screenwriter. Boorman accepted the project as a means to artistically express metaphysical ideas in which he was absorbed. The link to Teilhard De Chardin provided an ideal venue. The story of Father Lamont's spiritual odyssey is specifically a meditation on the Grail Quest theme, derived from Celtic mysticism and Arthurian legend, which underlie a thematically-related sequence in Boorman's early work: DELIVERANCE, ZARDOZ, EXORCIST II: THE HERETIC, Excalibur and THE EMERALD FOREST, comprising an important cinematic exploration of the Quest as Initiatory path.

In EXORCIST II: THE HERETIC, the late Father Merrin's reputation has fallen into disrepute and Father Lamont (Richard Burton), suffering a crisis of faith, is ordered by the Cardinal to investigate "the circumstances surrounding the death of Father Merrin" and the legitimacy of the exorcism before Merrin's papers (his life's work) can be released.

The title character of THE EXORCIST was that of Father Merrin (Max Von Sydow); this role then passed to the younger priest, Father Karras (Jason Miller). Just so, the heretic in EXORCIST II is initially Merrin until, through young Regan (Linda Blair), Father Lamont makes contact with the mind of Merrin and in that psychic joining shares his vision. Thus Lamont's descent into (and beyond) heresy is an initiatory quest which deepens as he goes against the Church's orders and ultimately calls upon the demon for guidance to the "evil heart" of the mystery.

In the scene at the Natural History Museum, the attentively listening viewer will discover (in the full 117-minute version) that Father Lamont tells Regan about Teilhard de Chardin and briefly explains the World Mind theory. The science-fictional device called the Synchronizer allows the World Mind concept to be expressed in cinematic images. (Among the many differences between this film and THE HERETIC is that the original's emphasis is strongly verbal whereas THE HERETIC expresses its complex ideas almost entirely in visual and symbolic terms.) A distinction is drawn between the peace and unity of the World Mind and the insanity ("evil") and corruption of its opposite, the ego: a state of separation from consciousness which mimics the One-Mindedness of God or the Universe. In THE HERETIC, this imitation or false Christ is symbolized by Pazuzu, the Babylonian genie and locust god--one of many "heathen" idols demonized in the Judeo-Christian tradition. (The demon was named in Blatty's novel but not in the original film.) Its activity of separation masked as joining is symbolized by the locust swarm which forms a single-mindlessness ("a Locust Mind, if you will") in mockery of Whole (Holy) Consciousness (Spirit). The resulting psychic fragmentation is reflected in the mirror images which permeate the film. Regan represents an evolutionary step toward the "Omega Point", the healing of the separation; a forerunner of Kubrick's Star Child.

John Boorman's film doesn't spell itself out for the viewer any more than does Kubrick's 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY and there is no Arthur C. Clarke novel to "explain it all for us". Boorman intends THE HERETIC to stimulate intelligent and imaginative thought and speculation. Where Kubrick and Clarke's ideas (initially met with great perplexity) have long been sanctioned as worthy of consideration, Boorman's somehow flew over the heads of a viewer-ship which, threatened by the film's non-dualistic subversion of the original's simplistic "good vs. evil" formula, has for thirty years ridiculed a misunderstood artwork. The original mass audience which condemned the film on first release was fresh from making the relatively ghastly Italian EXORCIST imitation Beyond the Door a huge box office success because it gave them what they wanted and only what they wanted: puke, puke and more puke. And so like the swarming locusts, the mundane Philistine mentality endlessly repeats the hypnotic chant: "worst sequel, worst sequel, worst..." There is no actual "Director's Cut" of EXORCIST II: THE HERETIC. The 117-minute Theatrical Version is John Boorman's official cut.

During the disastrous initial release, Warner Bros. hastily issued instructions to theaters to remove specified sections of the film which had drawn audience hostility, without consulting the director. Under extreme pressure, Boorman subsequently prepared a third, more carefully edited version for the international release. The re-editing rendered a difficult and highly symbolic film incomprehensible to the horror-show expectations of the audience. The most significant deletion was the discussion of Teilhard de Chardin's World Mind theory, the central focus of the film.

This bastardized version debuted on cable in the United States and for a decade the film was available exclusively in this distorted form. The full-length version, unseen since the early weeks of the initial release, was restored in the late 1980's for home video and is currently available on DVD. Mercifully, the Butcher's Cut has been permanently withdrawn.

Given his experience with the film, it is unlikely that Boorman would involve himself in a new Director's Cut edition. Given the mindless disrespect shown the film, he seems to have washed his hands of it and its detractors.

Rating: EXTRAORDINARY.

I hadn't seen the acclaimed FAERIE TALE THEATRE show since it was new and, at the time, didn't care for it; Folk and Fairy Tales were, perhaps, overly sacred and I disliked what then seemed a disrespectful contemporary comedy element.

I also failed to discern how true and insightful these adaptations are in regards to the source material.

Since then I have been through the ups (SNOW WHITE, SLEEPING BEAUTY) and the downs (most of the rest) of the cheap-jack "Cannon Movie Tales"; the hilarious and instructive book POLITICALLY CORRECT BEDTIME STORIES; the irreverent SHREK films; and a joyous re-acquaintance with the FRACTURED FAIRY TALES from the ROCKY & BULLWINKLE cartoons. I have also endured several grind-house kiddie-matinée atrocities and such horrors as THE EROTIC ADVENTURES OF PINOCCHIO.

These varied experiences liberated me to fully enjoy and appreciate producer Shelley Duvall's gracious legacy.

My own favorite tale is "Sleeping Beauty", whether in the Grimm or Perrault versions, the Tchaikovsky ballet or the classic Walt Disney animated feature film (1958). I find the present version to be oddly conceived, but Bernadette Peters' beautiful rendition of the standard "I'm Nobody's Baby" and the funny performance by George Dzunda as the Woodsman Narrator stand out. Also, the boudoir scene with Rene Auberjonois' amorously clueless King is a hoot.

Other personal favorite stories are, I think, among the very best in the series. "Snow White" is an excellent version of a story which has been especially well-served by the cinema, highlighted by wonderful performances by Vanessa Redgrave as the wicked Queen and Vincent Price as the Magic Mirror. "Rapunzel" is first-rate and one of the best-acted, with both Jeff Bridges and host Shelley Duvall outstanding and Gena Rowlands a truly formidable witch. "Cinderella" is very fine as well.

Roger Vadim's "Beauty and the Beast" is an exquisite tribute to Jean Cocteau's 1946 French masterpiece, recreating the distinctive look of the original film and perfectly cast with Susan Sarandon and the amazing Klaus Kinski.

The beautiful literary tales of Hans Christian Andersen are exceptionally well done. "The Nightingale", starring Mick Jagger as the Emperor, is one of the most impressive. (Supporting comic Bud Cort is a scream). And "The Snow Queen" is an enchanting dramatization of Andersen's classic novella, with Lee Remick perfect as the glacially fatal beauty.

Of course, as with any television series, the show does feature a few duds. One found "Jack and the Beanstalk" to be rather a stinker, despite a howling funny performance by Elliott Gould as the profoundly stupid Giant, and a show-stopping tour-de-force by Spot, the Cow. (I much prefers the 1952 Abbott and Costello version.)

On the other hand, while the story of "The Frog Prince" has never been among my favorites, this particular episode is an especially witty and often hilarious sophisticated comedy. The young Robin Williams (a little of whom goes a long way) is at the top of his game here, but Teri Garr steals the show right out from under him as a spoiled princess we can all relate to. (It's a reminder of how good she really was in YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN and CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND.)

Best of all, Francis Coppola's haunting "Rip Van Winkle", from the story by American author Washington Irving, is a small masterpiece.

This is a literate and sophisticated show that will appeal to viewers of all ages.

Rating: EXTRAORDINARY.

FOLLOW ME, BOYS! (1966)

Producer: Walt Disney.

Director: Norman Tokar.

Cast: Fred MacMurray, Vera Miles, Kurt Russell, Lillian Gish, Sean McClory, Charles Ruggles.

I initially watched FOLLOW ME, BOYS! out of a sense of duty, as an adult admirer of the art of Walt Disney. I had been anything but a Boy Scout and expected the film to be syrupy and nauseating, but was surprised to find it to be a solid drama as well as one of Uncle Walt's warmest and most genuinely sentimental works. It is now among my personal favorite "live-action" Disney films.

The story is engrossing, the characters rich, and the whole is beautifully acted, written and directed. Fred MacMurray is in his element here, giving one of his best and most moving performances, with an exceptional cast in strong support. Especially impressive is the very young Kurt Russell in his first leading role.

FOLLOW ME, BOYS! shares much of the quality and entertainment value of such realistic Walt Disney classics as OLD YELLER, POLLYANNA and THOSE CALLOWAYS, along with their compelling spirit of genuine goodness and positive idealism. Perhaps more than any other of his films, it reflects in form and content Disney's admiration for the work of Frank Capra.

The film is one of the most polished of Walt Disney's latter-day productions and was the last released during his lifetime; happily, he died knowing that it was a success.

Rating: EXCELLENT.

DARK SHADOWS is unique as a television show and as a media phenomenon. Most remarkably, it serves as a vortex for the whole of romantic Gothic literature. The ongoing scenario incorporates almost every important classical Gothic work since the novels of Horace Walpole (THE CASTLE OF OTRANTO) and Anne Radcliffe (THE MYSTERIES OF UDOLPHO). Most of the foremost authors of the genre are represented within its epic scope: Charlotte Bronte (JANE EYRE), Emily Bronte (WUTHERING HEIGHTS), Bram Stoker (DRACULA), Mary Shelley (FRANKENSTEIN), Edgar Allan Poe, Henry James (THE TURN OF THE SCREW), Robert Louis Stevenson (THE STRANGE CASE OF DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE), Daphne Du Maurier (REBECCA)...the list goes on and on. DARK SHADOWS' special accomplishment in this regard is not only its comprehensive derivation, however, but its synthesis of fundamental genre elements, presented in a fresh and original manner within its own framework.

One aspect of DARK SHADOWS which requires particular comment is the maligned LEVIATHAN storyline, which intensifies the science fiction concepts (such as Parallel Time) that dominate the latter half of the serial. In contrast to the bravura approach of the main body of the show, this story is subtle, suspenseful and genuinely creepy. The generally sober tone is a relief coming after the campiness of the generally excellent "1897 Flashback". LEVIATHAN is DARK SHADOWS for the thinking person.

The segment is rich in film and literary influences. The general storyline, loosely based on the Cthulhu Mythos of H. P. Lovecraft ("The Dunwich Horror", "The Shuttered Room", "The Shadow Out of Time", "The Thing on the Doorstep", "The Case of Charles Dexter Ward", THE HAUNTED PALACE), involves alien creatures from earth's prehistory which absorb the minds and wills of humans in their quest to regain supremacy through the generation of a Leviathan messiah.

LEVIATHAN also draws on the 1940's films of Alfred Hitchcock (SUSPICION, SPELLBOUND); film noir (Val Lewton's THE SEVENTH VICTIM); science fiction (Jack Finney's INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS, John Wyndham's VILLAGE OF THE DAMNED); and shivery paranoid thrillers like THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE and Ira Levin/Roman Polanski's ROSEMARY'S BABY. The subplot based on Oscar Wilde's THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GREY is carried over from the "1897 Flashback". The underworld journey of Quentin and Amanda is a variant on the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice, while their survival into the twentieth century is borrowed from Barré Lyndon's THE MAN IN HALF MOON STREET (and its Hammer remake THE MAN WHO COULD CHEAT DEATH). Elements of PORTRAIT OF JENNIE and ALL THAT MONEY CAN BUY/THE DEVIL AND DANIEL WEBSTER are included for good measure.

LEVIATHAN represents a return to the mysterious early months of DARK SHADOWS and provides good dramatic material for the actors, notably series star Joan Bennett whose role had been greatly diminished since the advent of Barnabas (Jonathan Frid) and Quentin (David Selby). The segment is deliberately paced, relying on intrigue and suggestion, and may seem dull to viewers conditioned by the wildness and blatancy of the vampires and werewolves which take a back seat for a refreshing change.

Rating: EXTRAORDINARY.

BEYOND THE DOOR (1974)

Cast: Juliet Mills, Richard Johnson, Gabriele Lavia.

Directors: Ovidio Assonitis (as Oliver Hellman) and Roberto D'Ettorre Piazzoli (as R. Barrett).

Pregnant with a diabolical entity, a San Francisco house-wife (Mills) becomes possessed and displays all manner of "strange behavior", much to the consternation of her dense husband (Lavia) and obnoxious children. When abortion is discussed as a practical solution, the wicked mother's satanic ex-lover (Johnson) returns from beyond the door of death to demand that "The child must be born!"

The artistic merit of writer William Peter Blatty and director William Friedkin's horrific yet serious religious drama THE EXORCIST (1973) was somewhat overshadowed at the time of initial release by the hysterical media circus surrounding the film's worldwide blockbuster success. The mass audience focused not on the film's excellence, depth and meaning but on its surface spectacle of shocking profanity, debased manners and graphic grotesquerie. Once a guilty secret of the Catholic Church, demonic possession was suddenly all the rage and "Linda Blair" became a household name.

The merely sensational aspects of the EXORCIST phenomenon were mindlessly reproduced by the slew of cheap imitations (ABBY, THE TEMPTER, HOUSE OF EXORCISM, etc.) which pandered to an audience newly voracious for vulgarity-and-vomit thrills. BEYOND THE DOOR, the first and most notorious of the cash-ins, blatantly simulated every lurid sub-EXORCIST trademark (blasphemy, levitation, revolving heads, evil spirit voices, foul-mouthed brats, green bile, pea soup) without evoking the original's high quality. So exact was the replication, right down to the sound effects, set design and distinctively eerie style of lighting, that Warner Bros. sued—ostensibly for copyright infringement, but more likely to restrict competition with their 1975 reissue of THE EXORCIST. A settlement was reached, but the extra publicity only increased the rival production's enormous international success, as BEYOND THE DOOR unexpectedly raked in millions and was officially established as one of the all-time horror rental champs.

It took no less than seven writers to concoct this unsavory witch's brew from bits of Blatty with elements of ROSEMARY'S BABY mixed in for the hell of it. The uneven script is incoherent and often ludicrous with moments of surprising intelligence ("Evil cannot create; it can only repeat…"). An appalling mess by mainstream standards, the medium-budget Italian production sports slick, arty photography and reasonably impressive special effects. Co-producer/co-writer Assonitis and cinematographer/co-writer Piazzoli direct awkwardly but manage some potent scenes and striking visual stylistics (flames, mirror reflections and touches of devilish red). The interiors were filmed in Rome, with extensive location shooting in California.

The production's most intriguing attribute is the presence of talented British stage and television actress Juliet Mills, the daughter of actor John Mills (Oscar-winner for David Lean's RYAN'S DAUGHTER) and elder sister of Walt Disney legend Hayley Mills (POLLYANNA, THE PARENT TRAP). Although the great Billy Wilder cast her, opposite Jack Lemmon, in the leading role of his first-rate sophisticated comedy AVANTI! (1972), Juliet was most familiar to American audiences as the star of the warmly-remembered TV series NANNY AND THE PROFESSOR (1970-71), a sitcom MARY POPPINS about a magical governess. She also lent her voice to the film version of JONATHAN LIVINGSTON SEAGULL (1973).

Whatever "possessed" lovely Juliet Mills, at this point in her career, to accept the starring role in a tacky Italian horror-exploitation movie remains a mystery, even if she needed the money and enjoyed the travel perks. (In the film, Mills' character satirizes her sweet image with a pointed line about "spoonfuls of sugar".) In any event, the disgusting scatological acrobatics "Nanny" shamelessly exhibits with such evident relish provide BEYOND THE DOOR with a special and scandalous shock value. A committed professional, Mills took all the cussing and puke-licking in stride. She won an Emmy award the following year for the television drama QB VII, and in addition to her theatrical work had a decade-long run on the supernatural TV serial PASSIONS.

Also lending the film a needed touch of class is co-star Johnson, a long way from his memorable leading role in Robert Wise's ghostly classic THE HAUNTING (1963). The otherwise respectable British stage and film actor (THE PUMPKIN EATER, JULIUS CAESAR) was mired for years in sleazy Italian flicks, notably Lucio Fulci's infamous ZOMBIE (1979). Then-unknown Italian actor Lavia, known to horror fans for his roles in Dario Argento's DEEP RED (1975) and INFERNO (1980), went on to a thriving career in the European theatre. (Lavia was dubbed in the English-language version while Mills and Johnson looped their own voices.)

Shown in Italy as CHI SEI? (WHO ARE YOU?), the film was inexplicably re-titled BEYOND THE DOOR for its U.S. theatrical release. The United Kingdom title, restored on-screen for the 35th Anniversary DVD edition, was THE DEVIL WITHIN HER—also the U.S. title of yet another demon-baby clone, Peter Sasdy's British I DON'T WANT TO BE BORN (1976) starring Joan Collins.

The commercial success of BEYOND THE DOOR led to two in-name-only "sequels". Mario and Lamberto Bava's superior but unrelated SHOCK (1977) was first shown in the United States as BEYOND THE DOOR II, while Assonitis' THE TRAIN (1991) was deceptively re-titled BEYOND THE DOOR III for its U.S. direct-to-video release. Assonitis tried to repeat the commercial fluke with crude copies of JAWS (TENTACLES [1977]) and THE OMEN (THE VISITOR [1979]), to no avail. He later produced David Keith's H. P. Lovecraft adaptation THE CURSE (1987).

A Eurotrash cult classic by virtue of its popularity, BEYOND THE DOOR scores points for sheer audacity, for delivering the promised gross-out goods—and for the astounding performance of Juliet Mills.

Rating: MEDIOCRE. (As a Grade-B modern horror movie.)