Rochelle Films released Ms 45 in the United States on 24 April 1981.

It is my favorite rape-revenge film. This is not a genre that is easy to enjoy. I Spit on Your Grave taxes the audience — often to the breaking point with its 25-minute assault on the main character. Ms 45 is quite different.

Thana (Zoë Lund) is a young mute woman who works at a low-level in the fashion industry. While walking home, a man rapes her on the street. (In a wonderful bit of meta-content, the rapist is played by the director, Abel Ferrara.) Although short, it is violent. On returning home, she encounters a burglar who rapes her. She use a glass apple to hit him twice. As he gets up, she grabs an iron and kills him with it as you would a knife.

This functions as an origin story. Its original title is accurate: “Angel of Vengeance.” The film climaxes with a company costume party. Thana comes dressed as a nun. Her lecherous boss tries to seduce her, so she shoots him. Then she shoots various men at the party. Ultimately, a female co-worker stabs her but Thana does not shoot her.

The film works very well. It would have been weaker if Thana had survived. But I would have loved to see a sequel like “The Trial of Ms 45.” Regardless, the whole thing is a bit like Falling Down. In it, the world has pushed Foster too far. But he ends as exactly what he was fighting. “I’m the bad guy?” Thana is not. Of course, she’s been so much more wronged.

I have figured out a way to rework the story to save Thana. There is one man in the film who doesn’t really deserve to be killed. He is depressed and angry. His wife left him for a woman. Thana shoots him, but her gun misfires. He grabs the gun and kills himself. If she had left the gun in his hand, he would have been blamed for the murders. She would be free. Assuming she stopped being the angel of vengeance!

Ms 45 is an excellent film. It has 7 minutes that are tough to get through. But it’s pretty fun after that!

Other 24 April Anniversaries

Filmmakers:

• William Castle (1914-1977): Iconic producer and director of films like House on Haunted Hill and Homical.
• Richard Donner (1930-2021): Director of psychotronic classics like The Omen, Superman, and Lethal Weapon.
• Michael Parks (1940-2017): Actor in many unusual films including From Dusk Till Dawn 3: The Hangman’s Daughter.
• Peter Jason (1944-2025): Actor known for his work with John Carpenter like Prince of Darkness and In the Mouth of Madness.
• Eric Kripke (1974-): Creator of Supernatural.

Films:

• Night of Terror (1933): Family heirs attend a seance and start dying; with Bela Lugosi.
• Godzilla Raids Again (1955): Another Godzilla fights Anguirus.
• Cannibal Ferox (1981): Jungle adventure from Umberto Lenzi.
• The Hand (1981): An artist loses his hand, which (he thinks) begins killing people; starring Michael Caine.
• My Demon Lover (1987): Comedy about a guy who becomes a demon when he’s horny.
• Killer Movie (2009): Slasher movie parody about a reality TV show.
• The Pit and the Pendulum (2009): David DeCoteau film where students in an experiment disappear.
• Moose: The Movie (2015): Silly comedy about a violent moose-man who a new park ranger must stop.

Ms 45 poster via Wikipedia under Fair Use.

On this day, 23 April, in 1999, one of my favorite films was released: eXistenZ.

This was right after The Matrix was released and a lot of people think that if that hadn’t been the case, eXistenZ would have been a hit. The two films have a number of similarities. But people who think this are wrong. eXistenZ was never going to appeal to a wide audience.

eXistenZ is way too Cronenberg. Who thinks, “I’ve got this idea for a film about game realities so obviously we’re going hard into amphibian organs”? Well, David Cronenberg, of course. Even by his standards, this film is pretty weird.

It’s also way too clever for a multiplex audience. I don’t mean that in a bad way. It’s just that it’s hard to really appreciate eXistenZ the first time through. There are so many signs that things are wrong at the beginning of the film. Yet I just went with them, assuming that was the reality of the film. On second viewing, funny things stand out like Gas working at COUNTRY GAS STATION.

There are only a few other Cronenberg films that see him in top form: Videodrome, The Fly, Naked Lunch, and Crash. Who knows how I would rank these films. Any filmmaker should count their blessing that they made one film as good as any one of these in a whole career.

The thing about eXistenZ is that it’s the Cronenberg film I’ve watched the most. So in that way, it could be considered his best (as far as I’m concerned). But that’s not fair given the profound effect the other films have on me — especially Crash.

So is eXistenZ David Cronenberg’s feel-good people pleasing film? Maybe for Cronenberg fans. Most people I’ve introduced to the film hated it. But if you haven’t seen it, and you are reading this, I suspect you’ll love it.

Other 23 April Anniversaries

Filmmakers:

• Ernest Laszlo (1898-1984): Cinematographer of many genre films like DOA, Fantastic Voyage, and Logan’s Run.
• Myron Waldman (1908-2006): Animator for Fleischer Studios.
• Simone Simon (1911-2005): Star of Cat People and The Curse of the Cat People.
• Shirley Temple (1928-2014): Star of musicals throughout the 1930s and 1940s.
• Lee Majors (1939-): The One, The Only, The Six Million Dollar Man. He also played Ash’s dad in Ash vs Evil Dead.
• Hervé Villechaize (1943-1993): Actor known for Fantasy Island and The Man with the Golden Gun.
• Michael Moore (1954-): Comedy documentary filmmaker.
• Craig Sheffer (1960-): Actor in Nightbreed and The Grave.
• George Lopez (1961-): Actor known for comedies like Balls of Fury.
• John Hannah (1962-): The comedy relief in The Mummy franchise.

Films:

• The Legend of Sleepy Hollow (1912): The first filmed version of the story — now lost.
• She (1917): 50-minute silent fantasy film.
• The Vanishing Shadow (1934): Revenge serial.
• The Mystery of Marie Roget (1942): Noir mystery.
• Rattlers (1976): Toxic chemicals make rattlesnakes super aggressive.
• Carnage (1984): Andy Milligan film featuring newlyweds haunted by newlyweds.
• The Dark Half (1993): Romero film based on a Stephen King novel about a writer whose retired pen name comes to life kills people.
• Beyond Re-Animator (2003): The third Re-Animator film is a ton of fun.
• Requiem For A Vampire (2006): Vampires run a blood bank.
• Through the Woods (2010): Paranoid horror.

eXistenZ (1999) poster via Wikipedia under Fair Use.

John Waters turns 80 years old today! He was born on 22 April 1946.

It’s kind of hard not to love him because his work is all over the place. Who in the world doesn’t enjoy either Pink Flamingos or Hairspray or both? His interests are bizarre. But he weds them to a sweet temperament. So everyone should be able to find something in his catalog that they will enjoy.

And what psychotronic fan can resist Waters’ love letter to all of us, Serial Mom?

But it’s hardly surprising that Waters has given up directing. (Mostly, anyway. He may be in pre-production for a new film, “Liarmouth: A Feel-Bad Romance.”) Waters can competently direct a standard narrative film. He has shown that a number of times. But he is not much interested in that.

In Female Trouble, far more care was taken applying the tread marks to Divine’s underwear than were applied to any shot in the film. What John Waters added to cinema was his unique interests and twisted sense of humor.

This is core to this site. If you have the money, creating a professional film is easy (as long as you are willing to let the professionals do their jobs). But what’s most interesting is when a filmmaker offers something unique. John Waters does that.

On his birthday, let’s watch Cry-Baby, John Waters’ campy love-letter to 1950s teen films.

Other 22 April Anniversaries

Filmmakers:

• Mark Damon (1933-2024): Actor in House of Usher and lots of Italian films like The Young, the Evil and the Savage.
• Jack Nicholson (1937-): Part of the Corman stable and much more.
• Jason Miller (1939-2001): Noted playwright and actor in The Exorcist and The Ninth Configuration.
• Marilyn Chambers (1952-2009): Star of Behind the Green Door and Rabid.
• Catherine Mary Stewart (1959-): Actor in Night of the Comet and The Last Starfighter.
• Sheryl Lee (1967-): Laura Palmer in Twin Peaks.
• Eric Mabius (1971-): Actor in Welcome to the Dollhouse and Resident Evil.
• Sarah French (1982-): Actor in Pretty Boy and Blind.
• Amber Heard (1986-): Actor in The Stepfather and The Ward.

Films:

• Invaders From Mars (1953): Martians replace humans.
• The Monster of Piedras Blancas (1959): Lighthouse keeper feeds dangerous sea monster.
• Hands of a Stranger (1962): Pianist gets new hands that drive him crazy.
• The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962): Western with James Stewart and John Wayne.
• Monster From a Prehistoric Planet (1967): Vaguely bird-like monster.
• Beast Must Die (1974): Bizarre werewolf film focused on a hunter.
• The Deadly Spawn (1983): Space aliens attack a small town.
• Brain Damage (1988): Comedy body horror.
• Lady in White (1988): Little boy sees a ghost starring a very young Lukas Haas.
• The Unholy (1988): A priest confronts a demon that kills sinners.
• 976-Evil II (1992): Evil teacher gets supernatural powers.
• Brainscan (1994): Evil computer game starring Edward Furlong.
• Deadly Species (2002): Monster in the jungle.
• Witchunter (2002): Witches feed monster.
• Graves End (2005): Ex-cons are disappearing.
• Earth Day (2009): Ecology-based slasher comedy.

Image cropped from John Waters by PEN America, licensed under CC BY 2.0.

Elaine May, is 94 years old today. She was born on 21 April 1932. She first came to prominence as part of a comedy duo with Mike Nichols. They are both great directors. May is one of the greatest comedy writers ever.

Sadly, May has not done all that much in Hollywood. Part of it is doubtless that she’s a woman and a demanding artist. She made two moderately successful and widely loved films A New Leaf (which she also starred in) and The Heartbreak Kid.

Her next film could well be her masterpiece, Mikey and Nicky. But it went well over budget and was almost a year late so Paramount Pictures did the mature thing and killed the film by basically not releasing it. (It no longer shocks me just how petulant and self-destructive studio executives are.)

Ishtar

Because of this, May didn’t direct anything for another decade and when she did, it went even worse. Warren Beatty put together the funding for Ishtar. And I think we all know how that ended.

Sadly, most people do not know much about the film except that it supposedly sucks. Of course, it doesn’t. It’s hilarious. And looking back, I really think the problem was that the critics found out how much money it cost. That’s never a good sign (eg, Heaven’s Gate).

I’ve written about Ishtar in the past. So let’s watch Mikey and Nicky with Peter Falk and John Cassavetes. After all, it is probably her most psychotronic film. And for any critics out there, the budget was still pretty small.

Other 21 April Anniversaries

Filmmakers:

• Anthony Quinn (1915-2001): Iconic actor who didn’t do much psychotronic work but played the title role in The Hunchback of Notre Dame and typecast as Zeus in five made-for-TV Hercules films.
• Alistair MacLean (1922-1987): Writer of war films like The Guns of Navarone and Ice Station Zebra.
• Larry Forrester (1924-1988): Writer of Tora! Tora! Tora! along with Akira Kurosawa writers Hideo Oguni and Ryûzô Kikushima.
• Charles Grodin (1935-2021): Actor in various interesting films like Catch-22, The Heartbreak Kid, and King Kong.
• Andie MacDowell (1958-): Actor in Sex, Lies, and Videotape and the horror comedy Ready or Not.

Films:

• Trick or Treat (1933): Pre-Code mystery film.
• DOA (1950): Noir where a man walks into a police station to report his own murder.
• City Beneath the Sea (1953): Underwater action film.
• Pet Sematary (1989): The first filmed version of the Stephen King novel.
• Alien Fury: Countdown to Invasion (2000): Science fiction film about a fake space alien invasion.
• My Dead Girlfriend (2006): Comedy with a man who accidentally kills his girlfriend and uses her occult books to bring her back to life.
• Silent Hill (2006): Exceptional horror film based on game.
• The Hunted: Terms of Extermination (2009): Micro-budget science fiction.

Image cropped from “RIP Mike Nichols 1931-2014” from Rossano aka Bud Care under CC BY 2.0.

Veronica Cartwright is 77 years old today. She was born on 20 April 1949. She is the older sister of Angela Cartwright (Penny on Lost in Space). But Veronica is much more interesting.

She was born in England but her family moved to Los Angeles when she was still young. This probably explains her lack of accent.

As a child actor, Veronica Cartwright starred in the saccharine Ray Bradbury-penned “I Sing the Body Electric” episode of The Twilight Zone. Following that, she starred in The Birds. But I’m not that interested in her work as a child actor. She was lucky to get a second act in her career.

As an adult, she starred in Inserts with Richard Dreyfuss, Jessica Harper, and Bob Hoskins. And just four years later, she had a very psychotronic period. She starred in Goin’ South, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, and, of course, Alien. Cartwright claims she showed up on the set of Alien, thinking she was playing Ripley. She would have been great in it. But she brings a toughness to the role of the emotional Lambert that works really well. And frankly, I just don’t think Sigourney Weaver would have been good as Lambert.

Cartwright works a lot — and shows few signs of slowing down. But I don’t think about much of that, except for one film. She was amazing in The Witches of Eastwick. Especially in the cherry scene. (Be careful! The scene always makes me nauseous!)

But let’s celebrate Veronica Cartwright’s birthday by watching Alien.

Other 20 April Anniversaries

Filmmakers:

• Donald Wolfit (1902-1968): Actor who starred in Blood of the Vampire.
• Bruce Cabot (1904-1972): The original Jack Driscoll.
• George Tomasini (1909-1964): Editor of Psycho and The Birds.
• George Takei (1937-): Known for Star Trek but he’s been in psychotronic films like Oblivion.
• Judith O’Dea (1945-): Iconic actor in the original Night of the Living Dead.
• Jessica Lange (1949-): Actor in King Kong and Cape Fear.
• Clint Howard (1959-): Character actor who works a lot — in many psychotronic films including Ice Cream Man.
• Crispin Glover (1964-): Resting creep face actor in films like Willard.
• Andy Serkis (1964-): Actor known for his motion-capture roles as King Kong and Gollum.

Films:

• The Monster and the Ape (1945): Serial about a robot and a killer ape.
• The Catman of Paris (1946): Murder mystery horror.
• Conquest of Space (1955): George Pal science fiction.
• Night of the Grizzly (1966): Western featuring Keenan Wynn.
• Martians Go Home (1990): Science fiction comedy starring Randy Quaid.
• Dark Harvest (2004): Killer scarecrow.
• Vacancy (2007): Stranded couple in danger starring Kate Beckinsale, Luke Wilson, and Frank Whaley.
• Witchmaster General (2009): Faust with murder.
• Night of the Pumpkin (2010): Killer pumpkin-man.

Veronica Cartwright via The Ultimate Rabbit under Fair Use.

Don Sharp was born on 19 April 1921.

He was born in Tasmania. During World War II, he joined the Royal Australian Air Force. On the side, he performed as an actor on the stage and radio. He was injured in the war. Back home, he continued to perform in the theater. After the war, he moved to England because he wanted to perform in movies.

This never really happened. He was successful on the stage but has only a handful of film credits. But at the same time, Sharp succeeded as a screenwriter of low-budget films. And in 1955, he got his first directing job. From there, he was doing pretty well — including directing for TV.

He got a big break in 1962. Hammer hired him to direct Kiss of the Vampire. It was meant to be the follow-up of the second of the Dracula series. No one knows why Hammer didn’t market it that way. The second film, The Brides of Dracula, is notable for not featuring Dracula! And if Kiss had been in the series, it would have been one of the best.

According to Don Sharp, he had never even seen a horror film when he was hired. I kind of doubt that. Regardless, he was a good director and came out of the gate strong. He went on to direct two classics: Curse of the Fly and Psychomania (The Death Wheelers).

Psychomania is a weird film. But you can’t get more psychotronic than it! (Okay; nothing is as psychotronic as Alabama’s Ghost; but that’s a ridiculously high bar!) It’s an occult biker film. And it was the last film of George Sanders, which is awesome. But I’m not that fond of the film. Biker films tend to leave me cold. But tt is a psychotronic classic. You should see it at least once.

Curse of the Fly is the last of The Fly trilogy. Of the three, it is my favorite. It is also not really a sequel. That may be why I like it so much. It’s good to watch to see just what Don Sharp could do with a micro-budget.

Other April 19th Anniversaries

Filmmakers:

• Hugh O’Brian (1925-2016): Star of six seasons of The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp.
• Dick Sargent (1930-1994): The worse Darrin on Bewitched; he was in The Ghost and Mr Chicken and Parts: The Clonus Horror.
• Jayne Mansfield (1933-1967): Star of various comedies and musicals.
• Ox Baker (1934-2014): Wrestler who appeared in Blood Circus and Escape from New York.
• Dudley Moore (1935-2002): Actor who worked closely with Peter Cook in films like Bedazzled and The Hound of the Baskervilles.
• Tim Curry (1946-): Actor best known for The Rocky Horror Picture Show, but has worked widely.
• Kate Hudson (1979-): Mostly known for romantic comedies, she’s been in some interesting stuff like The Skeleton Key and The Killer Inside Me.

Films:

• Succubus (1968) — West Germany erotic horror film
• Kids in the Hall: Brain Candy (1996) — way under-seen funny and disturbing comedy
• Murder By Numbers (2002) — mystery horror film starring Sandra Bullock and Ryan Gosling
• Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Movie (1996) — riffing on the “bad” (!) This Island Earth
• The Scorpion King (2002) — an action film set in ancient Egypt
• The Curse of La Llorona (2007) — supernatural horror
• Dark House (2009) — haunted-haunted house attraction film starring Jeffrey Combs
• Stem Cell (2009) — David DeCoteau science fiction horror film starring Dee Wallace
• Hyenas (2011) — human-hyena creatures hunt humans
• The Man Who Killed Don Quixote (2018) — Terry Gilliam’s long-pursued film, which is fine.

Don Sharp via Wikipedia under Fair Use.

Edgar Wright is 52 years old today. He was born on 18 April 1974.

He co-wrote and directed the Three Flavours Cornetto Trilogy: Shaun of the Dead (2004), Hot Fuzz (2007), and The World’s End (2013). Few people know of any of his other work. Even me. I know him from those films. And I know him for writing films like The Adventures of Tintin and Ant-Man.

Wright madea 40-minute film, Dead Right, which IMDb describes as, “Dirty Harry meets Airplane.” A couple of years later, he made his first feature film, A Fistful of Fingers. It is a comedy western. That is the thread that runs throughout his career: comedy.

He is a great comedy writer. But direction is where most comedies die. And Wright is one of the best comedy directors. Most important for people here, he loves genre and psychotronic films.

After Fingers, Edgar Wright spent about a decade directing TV and music videos. Then came Shaun of the Dead. Of the three films, it is my second favorite. As I’ve said before, Hot Fuzz is my favorite. I am least interested in The World’s End. But for an unusual reason.

The film creates such interesting characters. And their dynamics are so engaging. When the aliens show up, I wanted to go back to the regular tragicomedy that was presented previously. Or at least that was how I felt the first time I watched it. I like it just fine now. But I still think the first part of the film is the best.

The World’s End was the least successful of the three with audiences. And I commonly run into people who haven’t seen it. So let’s celebrate Edgar Wright’s birthday by watching it!

Other April 18th Anniversaries

Filmmakers:

• Shinobu Hashimoto (1918-2018): Screenwriter of The Hidden Fortress and Harakiri.
• Barbara Hale (1922-2017): Actor who portrayed loyal secretary Della Street in Perry Mason and its many films.
• Clive Revill (1930-1925): Actor in The Legend of Hell House and The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes.
• James Drury (1934-2020): Star of the TV series The Virginian.
• Hayley Mills (1946-): Star of Pollyanna, The Parent Trap, and many psychotronic films like Twisted Nerve.
• James Woods (1947-): Psychotronic icon in films like Videodrome and Vampires.
• Rick Moranis (1953-): SCTV star who was in a number of films like the remake of Little Shop of Horrors and The Flintstones.
• Eric Roberts (1956-): Actor who works so much (over 900 credits on IMDb) that it’s hard to know where to start; he was in Sanctimony and Raptor, to name but two.
• Maria Bello (1967-): Actor known for Payback and A History of Violence.
• David Tennant (1971-): The tenth Doctor in Doctor Who.
• Eli Roth (1972-): Director of Cabin Fever, Hostel, and more.

Films:

• The Whispering Shadow (1933) — mystery serial starring Bela Lugosi
• The Man With Nine Lives (1940) — science fiction horror film starring Karloff
• She (1965) — Hammer adventure film with Ursula Andress and Peter Cushing
• Legend (1985) — fantasy film starring Tom Cruise
• At Close Range (1986) — crime thriller starring Sean Penn and Christopher Walken
• RoboCop 3 (1993) — silly and sweet sequel
• 8 Heads In A Duffel Bag (1997) — crime comedy with Joe Pesci
• Head Cheerleader, Dead Cheerleader (2000) — teen horror
• The Forbidden Kingdom (2008) — Jackie Chan fantasy martial arts
• Zombie Strippers (2008) — zombie comedy starring Robert Englund
• Deadland (2009) — post-apocalyptic adventure.

Image cropped from Edgar Wright by John E Manard under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Let Us Prey premiered at the Brussels International Fantastic Film Festival on 17 April 2014.

The Irish Film Board and Creative Scotland jointly produced the film. But lots of other companies were involved with the production. And just about every country had a different distributor. No one distributed it in the United States, as far as I know.

The title “Let Us Prey” is clever in the abstract. But it is a lousy title for this film. The Portuguese-language title is Aprisionados (Brazil) and Encarcerados. They both mean roughly “The Imprisoned.” That’s much better. The French-language title is Colère Divine (“Divine Wrath”), which isn’t great but is certainly much better than the English-language title.

It is one of my favorite horror and religious films. Pollyanna McIntosh plays Rachel, a new police officer working her first night. Liam Cunningham plays Six, a mysterious man held in jail on vagrancy charges. So there’s your Scottish-Irish connection!

Everyone else is just awful. It has the feel of Dante’s Inferno. And that makes sense. Six is actually Satan, come to town to collect souls. But he is not what modern Americans normally think of. Satan is more like he is in the Book of Job. He is the prosecutor.

But Let Us Prey does not stick to the Bible. The subtext is that Yahweh and Satan are having a disagreement. Yahweh is all about mercy. And Satan is all about justice. And given the characters in this film, we side strongly with Satan.

The overall story is that Satan is lonely, and he has found a woman he can love. The police station ends in a blaze of fire with all the bad people killed. But in that context, we get one of the most romantic endings to a film I’ve ever seen.

I cannot recommend this film highly enough. If you are a horror fan, you need to watch it. But remember what I said about the Inferno. It’s no more disturbing. But it’s also no less!

Other April 17th Anniversaries

Filmmakers:

• William Holden (1918-1981): Hollywood legend in movies such as Sunset Boulevard, The Wild Bunch, and Network.
• Olivia Hussey (1951-2024): Actor in, among others, Black Christmas.
• Roddy Piper (1954-2015): Actor in Hell Comes to Frogtown and They Live.
• Sean Bean (1959-): Great actor in countless films including Silent Hill.
• Jennifer Garner (1972-): Elektra in Marvel films.

Films:

• Things To Come (1936): Humans rebuild after a century of war; based on the novel by HG Wells.
• The Strange Case of Dr Rx (1942): Police search for a vigilante killer but it turns out to be a mad scientist.
• The Lady and the Monster (1944): A rich man’s dead brain controls people telepathically because why not.
• Gamera vs Barugon (1966): The flying turtle takes on a big lizard.
• Macabre (1980): A woman who accidentally killed her lover is out of the mental hospital and seems to be having an affair with the lover.
• The Watcher in the Woods (1980): An American family moves into an English manor and the two daughters discover an occult mystery; it stars Bette Davis.
• Caveman (1981): Silly caveman comedy starring Ringo Starr; also starring Dennis Quaidand Shelley Long.
• Delicatessen (1991): A landlord murders people and sells the meat to his tenants; directed by the men who brought you The City of Lost Children.
• Summer Camp Nightmare (1987): Campers revolt and take over the camp but things go wrong.
• Major League: Back to the Minors (1998): A washed up pitcher becomes the manager of a triple-A minor league team.
• Suicide Kings (1998): A group of upper-class young men kidnaps a mob boss to save a kidnapped friend; it stars Christopher Walken.
• Paulie (1998): A parrot searches for its original owner.
• Mind Morgue (2008): A writer struggles with visions from his latest book.
• The Morgue (2008): A small group of people get trapped in a morgue for the night; you’ll never guess the twist — unless you’ve watched more than a dozen horror films.
• Blood River (2009): A newlywed couple’s car breaks down and they walk to a ghost town where they meet a mysterious stranger.
• Unfriended (2015): Online friends are harassed by an account of a dead friend.

Let Us Prey (2014) poster via Wikipedia under Fair Use.

On this day, 16 April, in 1889, Charlie Chaplin was born. I remember reading a quote from Woody Allen talking about how he preferred Chaplin’s films to Buster Keaton’s. And he admitted that Keaton made better films (as film). This is true. Chaplin’s films really do suck in terms of cinematic art. Basically, he just set up a camera and shot the whole scene in a long shot. In other words: he was filming plays.

But I’m with Allen. I admire Keaton. But I almost never watch his films anymore. But I own both The Gold Rush and Modern Times. And just recently, I watched The Kid. And City Lights is an outstanding film.

It’s not even that they are funny — even though they still make me laugh. They are just so sweet at the same time that they are subversive. The Little Tramp is not exactly a believer in the American Dream. He’s just trying to get by.

The Little Tramp Begins

Charlie Chaplin’s first film was made in 1914. Think how late that is: 1914! The Great Train Robbery was released in 1903. That was pretty much the first film that used the editing technique of cross-cutting: cutting between two locations to indicate that what is occurring is going on at the same time. (People claim it isn’t the first example, but no one has ever shown me anything earlier.)

Just one year after Chaplin’s start would come The Birth of a Nation — probably the first thoroughly modern film. So Chaplin’s career in film started pretty late, which probably explains partly why they live on.

I had always thought that Charlie Chaplin’s first film was, Kid Auto Races at Venice. It is a little six-minute film in which the Little Tramp keeps trying to get in the picture of some guys trying to film the races.

There really is nothing more too it. It’s funny for the same reason the Little Tramp was always funny: his arrogance despite his low stature in society.

The First Chaplin Film

But that was not Charlie Chaplin’s first film. That was the first film in which the little tramp starred. It came out a whole five days later than his first film, Making a Living.

Making a Living is a far more complex film. Kid Auto Races at Venice was just an improvised film. It has no real plot — just a single gag done over and over. The director pushes the tramp out of the scene at the end, but he’s done that several times before and there is every indication that it will continue on as it has.

In Making a Living, Charlie Chaplin pretends to be a gentleman, out and about. He stops a passer-by and they chat. But it is all a setup to ask for money.

Then, inexplicably, Chaplin gets a young woman to agree to marry him. While telling her mother, the same man comes by and proposes, but she refuses. Chaplin and the man fight. And so on. It actually has a very nice comedic narrative until it, like all Mack Sennett films, just stops.

My Favorite Charlie Chaplin Film

But let’s end this with my favorite Charlie Chaplin Film: Modern Times:

Other April 16th Anniversaries

People:

• Barry Nelson (1917-2007): The first James Bond in the 1954 made-for-TV Casino Royale, as well as the Overlook Hotel manager in The Shining.
• Peter Ustinov (1921-2004): Actor in Blackbeard’s Ghost, Logan’s Run, and other odd films.
• Edie Adams (1927-2008): Comedic actor in various films like It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World and Up in Smoke.
• George “The Animal” Steele (1937-2017): Pro wrestler who played Tor Johnson in Ed Wood.
• David Graf (1950-2001): Cadet and then Sgt Eugene Tackleberry in the Police Academy films.
• Billy West (1952-): Voice actor who works widely including as Philip J Fry and many other characters on Futurama.
• Ellen Barkin (1954-): Actor in Buckaroo Banzai, The Big Easy, and Switch.
• Jon Cryer (1965-): Actor in lots of zany comedies, but here because of Superman IV: The Quest for Peace, where he plays Lex Luther’s nephew.
• Martin Lawrence (1965-): Actor in the Bad Boys franchise and much more.
• Lukas Haas (1976-): Actor in films like Johns and Brick, but I most like him in Mars Attacks!
• Claire Foy (1984-): More of a serious actor who was in Terry Pratchett’s Going Postal, which I really like.

Films:

• Horrors of Spider Island (1960): A dance troupe crashes on an island with a deadly spider that infects their manager.
• Beast in the Cellar (1970): Thoughtful horror film about army personnel being murdered by an abused young man.
• Blood on Satan’s Claw (1971): Children turn to witchcraft and grow fur for Satan, which is way better than it sounds.
• Killer Workout (1987): Slasher in a gym where it turns out it isn’t who you think it is; and then it is!
• Hard Boiled (1992): Chow Yun-fat is a badass who takes on a mobster.
• The Thirteenth Floor (1999): VR-based mystery similar to the other 1999 releases, eXistenZ and The Matrix.

Charlie Chaplin via Wikipedia. It is in the public domain.

Hans Conried was born on 15 April 1917. He long suffered from heart problems and died at 64 on 5 January 1982.

He started working in Hollywood in the late 1930s. Although he worked a lot, he performed mostly very small roles. This improved through the 1940s and 1950s. And in the mid-1950s, he moved to television. He did still make some traditional films like The Monster That Challenged the World.

Conried had a very distinctive voice. As a result, he did a lot of voice work. This included radio through the 1950s. He also formed a long collaboration with Jay Ward. Most notably, he was the voice of Snidely Whiplash in “Dudley Do-Right” and Professor Waldo P Wigglesworth in Hoppity Hooper. He also did a lot of work with Dr Seuss.

Like most TV character actors, he worked extensively but (as far as I know) never as a lead actor. So despite dying relatively young, he racked up hundreds of credits. Still, he tended to steal any show he was in. A good example of this is the season two episode of Lost in Space, “The Questing Beast.”

In it, he plays a kind of Don Quixote character questing after a red dragon. It turns out the dragon is a woman. The episode ends with the two in an almost romantic relationship. In addition to Conried’s excellent performance, the episode is notable for two things. The first is that the dragon is voiced by iconic voice actor June Foray, who worked with Conried on “Dudley Do-Right.” The second is that it introduced the spectacled Basset Hound that showed up almost randomly in later episodes.

Other than providing a playlist of Hans Conried’s animated work (which you can easily find on YouTube), let’s watch this episode of Lost in Space!

Other April 15th Anniversaries

Filmmakers/Scholars:

• Elizabeth Montgomery (1933-1995): star of Bewitched (1964-1972) and made-for-TV films like The Victim (1972), Mrs Sundance (1974), and The Legend of Lizzie Borden (1975).
• Robert Walker Jr (1940-2019): played the commune leader Jack in Easy Rider, the hippy Herby in The Happening, and perhaps most notably the title character in the Star Trek episode “Charlie X. His actor father played the villain in Strangers on a Train, but died of a mishap following a psychiatric incident.
• Michael Kamen (1948-2003): film composer for many psychotronic films, including The Dead Zone (1983), Brazil (1985), Lifeforce (1985), Highlander (1986), Die Hard (1988), and many more.
• Craig Zadan (1949-2018): producer of Footloose (1984) and Hairspray (2007)
• Glenn Shadix (1952-2010): actor in Beetlejuice (1988), Demolition Man (1993), and Planet of the Apes (2001).
• Tom Weaver (1958-): Film historian and author of numerous books about films and filmmakers with a focus on horror and science fiction.
• Emma Thompson (1959-): actor in Nanny McPhee (2005) and Stranger than Fiction (2006)
• Seth Rogen (1982-): actor and director of films like This Is the End (2013) and The Interview (2014); he was also the voice of the title character in Paul (2011).
• Emma Watson (1990-): besides the Harry Potter films, she was in This Is the End (2013) and Regression (2015).

Films:

• The Monster Maker (1944): a mad scientist film featuring Glenn Strange.
• Devil Bat’s Daughter (1946): an evil psychiatrist uses his skills to kill his wife and frame a patient.
• Stage Fright (1950): Hitchcock film where Jane Wyman tries to prove a friend’s innocence; Marlene Dietrich is a femme fatale.
• Crack in the World (1965): scientists crack the crust of the Earth while drilling to the core to create thermal energy and must fix it; starring Dana Andrews.
• Women of the Prehistoric Planet (1966): a spaceship crashes on a prehistoric planet with giant monsters that turns out to be Earth; featuring John Agar and a young Stuart Margolin.
• Curse of the Crimson Altar (1970): AIP film about a man searching for his brother who was killed by a cult; starring Christopher Lee, Boris Karloff, and Barbara Steele.
• Horror House (1970): Another API film about young people in an old house getting murdered one by one; starring Frankie Avalon.
• The Evil Dead (1981): Young people on holiday unleash demons that take over humans.
• The Resurrected (1992): Dan O’Bannon directed this film based on Lovecraft’s The Case of Charles Dexter Ward.
• DarkWolf (2003): A cop needs to protect a half-werewolf woman from a full-werewolf man who wants to mate.
• The Amityville Horror (2005): Ryan Reynolds stars in this remake of the 1979 film.
• The Curse of El Charro (2005): A demon with a machete harasses four young women on vacation for a familial wrong; Danny Trejo is the voice of the Demon.
• The Curse of Lizzie Borden 2: Prom Night (2008): A museum worker kills students at a local college during prom.
• Orville (2009): A man “tames” his wife via torture.
• Scream 4 (2011): The last of the Wes Craven-directed films in this franchise.

Hans Conreid via Wikimedia. It is in the public domain.