FILM REVIEW OF ''ADIOS, SABATA" (Italian-1971)

Gianfranco Parolini’s “Adios, Sabata” (**** out of ****) ranks as one of the top 10 Spaghetti westerns of all time. Melodramatic scripting, scenic photography, clever dialogue, marvelously choreographed gunfights, flavorful music, and harsh rugged scenery make this outlandish Yul Brynner horse opera worth watching. No, it has nothing to do with the Lee Van Cleef movies oaters “Sabata” (1969) and “Return of Sabata” (1971). The original title for this exhilarating Yul Brynner shoot’em up was “Indio Black.” Like most successful Spaghetti westerns, it adopted the name of a profitable screen hero. Scores of westerns were named after “Django,” “Sartana,” and “Trinity.” Indeed, where Lee Van Cleef’s Sabata is elegant and well-dressed, Indio adopts the garb of a cavalry scout. He wears a fringed buckskin outfit. Unlike Sabata, who relied primarily on a derringer, Indio wields a sawed-off, lever-action, repeating carbine with a sideways ammunition magazine. He reserves the last chamber in each magazine for a cheroot. After he dispatches his adversaries, he takes the time to enjoy his tobacco. Black brandishes a derringer, too, but rarely uses it to kill. In fact, “Indio Black” remains the only Spaghetti western that Brynner made, but it qualifies as a superior sagebrusher with provocative, offbeat characters, a larger-than-life, six-fisted plot with loads of narrative foreshadowing, and one of composer Bruno Nicolai’s liveliest orchestral scores. Parolini lacks the baroque visual artistry of Sergio Leone. However, he knew how to tell a good story and he could stage interesting set-pieces. Parolini co-authored the screenplay with Renato Izzo who had penned “Kill and Pray” and “A Man Called Amen.”

Oscar-winning actor Yul Brynner plays a sympathetic, sharp-shooting, American soldier-of-fortune in black. He supports the Mexican revolutionaries in their cause to expel the Austrians from their country during the post American Civil War period. Hollywood hasn’t made that many memorable westerns about Emperor Maximilian’s reign over Mexico. The best of the bunch is Robert Aldrich’s “Vera Cruz,” rivaled only by Don Siegel’s “Two Mules for Sister Sara.” As the villain, Austrian Colonel Skimmel dresses as elegantly as he shoots straight, and he behaves like an egotist. Indeed, he has commissioned a portrait of himself. Skimmel has no qualms about killing and makes a splendid villain. He detests informers, exploits their information, and then kills them. Half-way between Sabata and Skimmel is Ballantine. This soldier-of-fortune (Dean Reed of “God Made Them... I Kill Them") is an opportunist who throws his lot in with Sabata. Actually, he has no qualms about getting whatever there is for himself and nobody else. “Three Crosses of Death” lenser Sandro Mancori captures the arid Spanish landscape in all its eternal grandeur and the vistas are beautiful. Mancori and Parolini hail from the school of filmmaking that relied heavily on zoom shots. “Indio Black” has more than its share of zoom shots. “Indio Black” emerges as a hugely entertaining western epic with the usual ritualistic conventions, such as duels and gunfights, intrigue, plot reversals, and outright surprises.

The action opens at a Catholic mission as the priest Father Mike addresses a young Mexican village boy, Juanito (Luciano Casamonica of “Tepepa”) laments the descent of mankind into savagery. “There is too much violence in the world.” Juanito reminds him the Murdock brothers deserve punishment because they stole everything from them. Ever gentle Father Mike replies, “You must try to forgive. Not sink into revenge.” Colonel Skimmel, a monocled, bewhiskered, autocrat in a dress uniform. He likes to demonstrate his marksmanship with a rifle. Skimmel’s favorite practice is to turn loose prisoners below on the parade grounds and let them see if they can outrun him without being shot down. Colonel Skimmel never misses. Meanwhile, in Texas, the Murdock brothers show up at the County Hunter Agency and slap leather with Sabata. Sabata wipes them out without a scratch. Parolini does an excellent job staging this initial shoot-out. The three Murdocks ride into the dusty station. One drives a wagon with a coffin on it. “We’re all set for you to go out in style,” the oldest Murdock boasts.” A weather vane stands motionless in front of the station. Before they exchange gunfire, Sabata and the oldest Murdock display their lethal marksmanship. Their bullets turn the vane into a blur. Once the vane stops turning, they are told that they can blast away at each other. Even after Sabata has killed them, he fires more shots. A Murdock corpse clinging to a corral fence falls when Sabata’s bullets obliterate the railing. Sabata shoots the coffin lid so it falls shut on the dead Murdock.

After the gunfight, Señor Ocaño (Franco Fantasia of "The Lion of St. Mark") enlists Sabata to help them discover when the gold shipment leaves the fort at Guadalupe and what road it will travel. He is also to make arrangements with the men who will sell the revolution firearms. Ocaño informs his ally, Escudo (Pedro Sanchez of "Any Gun Can Play"), about Sabata, but Escudo hates that the revolution must stoop to a foreign soldier-of-fortune. Meanwhile, Colonel Skimmel has cooked up his own scheme about the getting the gold out of the fort at Guadalupe. He sends out a detachment with the gold wagon, and his own men gun down the detachment. Sabata intervenes and Escudo and he commandeer the gold wagon. Sabata rides to Kingsville, Texas, where he discovers Colonel Skimmel’s cohort Folgen (Gianni Rizzo of “Mission to Hell”) has wiped out the gunrunners. Sabata decides that they need to take the gold back to Ocaño. A small army of plainclothes Austrians ambush them, but Sabata turns the odds against them with his skillful shooting.

Later, they discover that the bags contain dirt not gold and that Skimmel has the gold back at the fort. Our heroes attack the fort, but they are captured and disarmed by Skimmel, except for Ballantine’s diary. Sabata has stashed two vials of nitro in the book and Ballantine throws the book at the firing squad due to execute them. They escape death and Sabata confronts Skimmel. Skimmel has him covered with two single-shot pistols and acknowledges that Sabata is the only man who has even beaten him at shooting. Apparently unarmed, Sabata waits for the right moment and hurls a deadly knife that skewers Skimmel through his portrait. Ballantine fakes his death to steal the gold wagon and our heroes pursue him toward the border bridge at Guadalupe. Sabata blows holes in the rear of the wagon and the gold pours out as Ballantine lashes the horses for the border. He crosses the bridge and hurriedly detonates the charges that demolish it. At this point, he discovers that the gold lies in trails on the other side of the bridge and he is out of luck.

Writer & director Parolini does an excellent job of setting up and paying off several situations. Colonel Skimmel’s model of a sailing vessel perched atop a dresser is wired to the highest drawer so when an unsuspecting fool opens the drawer, the movement triggers a deadly broadside from the canon protruding from the side of the ship. If you love Spaghetti westerns, you owe it to yourself to watch “Adios, Sabata.”

FILM REVIEW OF "HORROR OF DRACULA" (BRITISH-1958)

The worldwide success that Hammer Films reaped with its widescreen, Technicolor release of director Terence Fisher's “Curse of Frankenstein” prompted the small independent British film company to plunder another sacred Universal monster franchise “Dracula.” Peter Cushing, who had impersonated the insane Baron in “Curse of Frankenstein,” played Doctor Van Helsing, the good guy, opposite his monstrous “Curse of Frankenstein” co-star Christopher Lee who bared his incisors as the undead Count. Remakes and sequels are often damned for altering or updating the original narrative. Indeed, “The Curse of Frankenstein” scenarist Jimmy Sangster tampered with the legendary Stoker novel, but his changes provide a greater sense of momentum and chills. Christopher Lee is cast as an aristocratic vampire who wears evening apparel beneath a long, black, flowing cape that he sports with a flourish. Unlike Lugosi who stood six foot one, Lee imposed his presence on others with this six foot five statue. He is quite a civil fellow in the early scenes, but his civility vanishes for the remainder of this brisk 82-minute melodrama after an expendable supporting character deprives him of his voluptuous vampire companion. The shot of Harker hammering a stake into the heart of the vampire woman looks really cool because Fisher shoots the reflection of Harker's shadow on a wall.

Most of the story survives in “Horror of Dracula” (***1/2 out of ****), but Sangster and director Terence Fisher have eliminated the sea voyage that appeared in “Nosferatu” to a Germanic port and in “Dracula” to Whitby Harbor. Meaning, there is no ship’s captain who ties himself to the wheel and dies in route to dock. Mind you, Harker (John Van Eyssen of “Murder in the Cathedral “) still travels to Transylvania by horse-drawn carriage, but he doesn’t arrive at the inn at sunset. Since he cannot convince a coachman to convey him to Castle Dracula, he hikes to the castle during daylight, so the scene with an incognito Dracula perched atop a stagecoach ready to conduct him to his castle has been eliminated. Harker feels a change in temperature as he crosses a stream in front of Castle Dracula. In this version, Harker finds a handwritten message awaiting him instead of Dracula; his gracious host has left him some food and an explanation that he will not be there to greet him on his arrival. Furthermore, Harker doesn’t present himself in the capacity of a real estate agent as his predecessors. Instead, he is a librarian. Harker finishes his meal and prepares to peruse some papers when he knocks a plate of bread onto the floor. As he retrieves the bread, cutlery, and plate from the floor, somebody slips up behind him. Dracula’s nymphomanical bride approaches him. She begs him to help her escape from Dracula. Dracula appears and she flees. Eventually, she attacks him and Dracula doesn’t intervene in time save Harker. Consequently, the scene where the visitor cuts himself in front of Dracula as well as the voyage to a major city has been omitted. Furthermore, Dr. Seward's importance has been reduced to two scenes, and there is no sanitarium.

Altogether, three major changes have occurred in “Horror of Dracula” that differentiate it from Tod Browning’s “Dracula.” These changes are (1) Jack Asher’s brilliant Technicolor cinematography, (2) composer James Bernard’s sensational atmospheric score, (3) Sangster’s unbridled screenplay brimming with lurid action, sexy female vampires, and Christopher Lee’s disintegration scene. In other words, unlike Bela Lugosi’s Dracula, Lee could actually bare his fangs and the blood flows in bright red colors. The scene where Harker is bitten presents Dracula in his full glory with bloodshot eyes and blood on his jowls. Meantime, none of Lugosi’s wives displayed cleavage, but Dracula’s wife in "Horror of Dracula" literally thrusts her breasts at us. Christopher Lee makes a fantastic Dracula, and Peter Cushing’s Dr. Van Helsing is a good rival who gets quite athletic before everything concludes. Future “Batman” butler Michael Gough co-stars as Arthur, Lucy’s brother, with Lee and Cushing. Arthur participates more in the action during the latter half of the narrative when he assists Van Helsing. Sangster doesn’t dawdle like most vampire movies. He cranks up the action rather quickly when we learn that Harker is only posing as a librarian so that he can kill Dracula. Unfortunately, Dracula’s lusty wife thwarts his efforts, infects him, and he winds up killing her first when he had a splendid opportunity to stake the count. Of course, the filmmakers could not let Dracula perish too early in the action. Dracula gets Harker and remembers the beautiful pictures that Harker brought with him of his girlfriend Lucy. Later, when Van Helsing arrives at Castle Dracula, he is nearly run over by a rampaging hearse tearing off the premises with a white coffin in the back. Van Helsing discovers the dead vampire siren and his old friend Harker.

Fisher doesn’t let the action slow down and exposition is inserted palatalably into the dialogue scene. One difference here is that Van Helsing refutes the theory that vampires can shape-shift into either bats or wolves. Indeed, Fisher and Sangster have put a small scene where Van Helsing goes over vampire essentials. This scene lays down the rules. Van Helsing plays back his finds on a primitive recording device that relies on a tube as a recording device. "Research on vampires. There are certain basic facts established. One: light. The vampire is allegic to light. Never ventures forth in the daytime. Sunlight fatal. Repeat, fatal. It would destroy them. (Obviously, this serves to foreshadow the final showdown between Van Helsing and Dracula.) Two: garlic. Three: crucifix. Symbolizes the power of good over evil. The power of the crucifix in these cases is two-fold. It protects the normal human being but reveals the vampire or victim of this vile contagion whenin advanced stages. It is established that the victim consciously detest being dominated by vampirism, but are unable to relinquish the practice similar to addiction to drugs. Ultimately death results from loss of blood. But unlike normal death, no peace manifests itself for they enter into the fearful state of the undead." The Hammer Films franchise sticks rather closely to this dictum.

In a later scene, after Arthur Holmwood has perused Jonathan's diary, he discusses the incredible attributes of a vampire with Van Helsing. "Vampires are known to have gone on from century to century. Records show that Dracula could be 500 to 600 years old," Van Helsing assures Holmwood. When Arthur brings up the issue of shape-shifting into bats and wolves, Van Helsing dismisses this out of hand. "That's a common fallacy. The study of these creatures has been my life's work. I carried out research with some of the greatest authorities in Europe. And yet we've only just scratched the surface. You see, a great deal is known about the vampire bat. But details of these re-animated bodies of the dead, the "undead," as we call them ... are so obscure that many biologists will not believe they exist." Van Helsing convinces Holmwood to agree to help him. He adds, "We also know that during the day the vampire must rest in his native soil."

Lee’s Dracula remains as he is through the action. The two women, Lucy and Mina, constitute a major part of the story. Lucy (Carol Marsh of the 1951 “Scrooge”) is Harker’s girlfriend who has been stricken by illness. After Van Helsing discovers Harker’s body, he refrains from sharing his gruesome knowledge with both Arthur (Michael Gough) and his wife Mina (Melissa Stribling of “Ghost Ship”) because he fears that they won’t believe him. Meanwhile, Dr. Seward (Charles Lloyd Pack of “The Safecracker”) suggests to Mina to get a second opinion about Lucy, and Mina consults with Dr. Van Helsing. Van Helsing examines Lucy and stipulates that the windows to Lucy’s room must remain closed and garlic must be placed in her room. Van Helsing is quite emphatic that he can save Lucy’s life, but he reminds Mina that she must abide by his orders. No sooner does Lucy have a bad reaction to the garlic than she convinces Mina’s servant Gerda (Olga Dickie of “The Kiss of the Vampire “) to disobey Mina’s strict orders and remove not only the objectionable garlic but also throw open the doors.

Predictably, Lucy perishes, but then Arthur hears strange stories, the strangest from Gerda’s daughter that she has seen Lucy walking. Finally, Arthur learns the awful truth about Harker’s demise and peruses Harker’s diary that reveals the quest to kill Dracula. Dracula doesn’t waste time after he dispatches Lucy to go after Mina. Meanwhile, Van Helsing puts Lucy to the stake and her corpse doesn’t disintegrate or grow old as Dracula’s wife’s body. When Arthur and Van Helsing realize that Mina is now Dracula’s new target, they maintain surveillance over the house, but Dracula strikes anyway and nearly kills Mina. Van Helsing discovers the Dracula has placed his coffin in the basement. By this time, Dracula knows his game is up and flees back to Transylvania with Mina in the back of a hearse. Dracula breaks down the barrier at the border and the border official turns into a comic character that reacts with a combination of outrage and anxiety when Van Helsing and Arthur appear not long after Dracula.

The ending of “Horror of Dracula” is very athletic. Van Helsing confronts Dracula and the count nearly defeats him, but Van Helsing fools him and tears down a curtain over a window to let in enough sunlight to turn Dracula into dust. Of course, Dracula would not remain inert for long because Hammer cranked out six sequels to the “Horror of Dracula.”

FILM REVIEW OF "HERCULES" (Italian-1958)

Anybody who enjoyed this larger-than-life mythological adventure should know that “Attila” director Pietro Francisci’s “Hercules” (***1/2 out of ****) spawned the sword and sandal genre. These films constituted a sub-genre of the Hollywood historical epic, and the stories occurred either during classical antiquity in Greece and Rome or Biblical times in other Mediterranean locales. Basically, these European produced films featured a brawny, footloose warrior as the protagonist who performs incredible feats of strength that enabled him to destroy supernatural monsters, topple evil tyrants and free enslaved peoples. Sometimes, the hero was a gladiator like the Kirk Douglas hero in “Spartacus.” Often, the hero’s name varied when these films arrived in America. The muscular champion was called Hercules, Samson, Goliath or he was a son of Hercules with an entirely different name. In Italy, however, the strongman hero was always known as Maciste.

Although “Hercules” was the first of some 300 sword and sandal sagas to follow until the Spaghetti western eclipsed the genre around 1964, the Italians had been producing sword and sandal movies long before “Hercules.” One of the first major silent films, director Giovanni Pastrone’s “Cabiria” appeared in 1914 and concerned the abduction of the eponymous little girl that pirates kidnapped during an eruption of Mount Etna during the third century B.C. A Roman spy and his mesomorphic muscle-bound slave Maciste rescued Cabiria. Aside from revitalizing a moribund genre, Francisci’s “Hercules” is notable not only for its star, bodybuilder Steve Reeves of “Mr. Universe” fame, but also for lenser Mario Bava and his splendid widescreen pictorial compositions as well as his atmospheric lightning. Bava’s photography is nothing short of brilliant. His cameras are always in the best place to capture the action. Reeves went on to star in several more pepla, and Bava later helmed “Hercules in the Haunted World.” “Hercules Unchained” with Reeves and co-star Sylva Koscina followed “Hercules.”

Aesthetically, “Hercules” qualifies as an above-average effort for the genre. Francisci and his scenarists derived their screenplay from Apollonius of Rhodes’ Greek epic poem "Argonautica" that dealt with Jason and his quest for the Golden Fleece. In this film, Hercules literally usurps Jason as the hero when in reality the son of Jupiter played a peripheral role in the exploit. British director Don Chaffey helmed the best cinematic version of the Golden Fleece myth in 1963 with his exciting “Jason and the Argonauts” that boasted the superb stop-motion animation of Ray Harryhausen. One of the problems with “Hercules” is that Jason recovers the fleece rather too easily from a giant reptile that sleeps near the tree where the fleece hangs. Reeves has a few uncomfortable moments when he goes on the rampage, literally blowing his cool, and sounds a mite unbelievable. Mind you, this was the bodybuilder’s first starring role so he can be forgiven. Francisci plays everything straight down the line, except for the campy monster guarding the Golden Fleece that Jason tries to retrieve. Of course, some of the hand-to-hand combat scenes where Hercules tangles with livestock such as a lion and a bison looks staged. Typically, the animal trainer would substitute for the star or the director would orchestrate the fights so ersatz animal heads and paws could be used. Consequently, while it is an entertaining escapism, “Hercules” isn’t as much hokum as later strong man sagas. Indeed, "Hercules" concerns murder in the palace; a princess who fears the truth about her father

"Hercules" became a blockbuster during its North American release and the success of the film in the United States can be attributed to Joseph E Levine. According to A.T. McKenna in his thesis “Joseph E. Levine: Showmanship, Reputation and Industrial Practice 1945 - 1977,” “Hercules” made Levine an “industry big shot.” After every Hollywood studio passed on Francisci's film, Levine bought the film for a modest $120,000, dubbed in English dialogue, and changed the title from "The Labors of Hercules" to simply "Hercules." Levine's folly wound up raking in a fortune from its U.S. release and sequels that followed. Levine pioneered 'saturation' booking and opened "Hercules" in 600 theaters. According to the Turner Classic Movies website, this method of opening a movie was "unheard of" in the 1950s. Levine relied on radio and television advertising to arouse the public's curiosity and he succeeded beyond his wildest dreams. “I had no misgivings about Hercules,” Levine explained to the media. “It had something for everybody. It had a dragon for kids, musclemen for growing boys, a shipwreck scene for waiters and clerks. Who doesn’t dream of getting stuck on an island with some broads? And the picture had Steve Reeves. He appealed to women.” Gordon Scott, Gordon Mitchell, Ed Fury, Dan Vadis, Mark Forest, Reg Park and other American bodybuilders went to Europe to star in these films. Inevitably, continental bodybuilders took umbrage because of the reliance by their own producers and directors on Americans when just as many suitable muscle-bound specimens resided in Italy, the foremost being Alan Steel.

“Hercules” unfolds with a venerable scene straight out of an old western. A beautiful woman, Princess Iole (Sylva Koscina of "Michael Strogoff"), shatters the afternoon calm when we loses control of a pair of horses hauling her chariot. She scatters a herd of goats. Francisci cuts to a close-up of tree roots being torn out of the ground and shows Hercules (Steve Reeves of “Jailbait”) hurl the tree it into the path of the runaway horses. “I thank the gods for providing me such a strong man when I needed him,” Iole says. Hercules carries her from the chariot and sets her on a rock. “I’ll admit that the sight of those runaway horses had me worried about you.” Hercules suspects Iole is royalty from the standard on her chariot. As it turns out, Iola is the daughter of King Pelias of Iolcus (Ivo Garrani of "Roland the Mighty"), and our hero is in route to train Pelias’ son Prince Iphitus (Mimmo Palmara of “Attila”) in the art of warfare. Iole furnishes Hercules with a brief history of her father’s suspicious rise to power, the death of his brother the king, and the thief of the Golden Fleece. Afterward, Hercules accompanies Iola back to the palace. An impulsive, arrogant young man, Iphitus hates Hercules. When a lion terrorizes the land, Hercules slays the beast. Iphitus interferes with Hercules, and the lion kills Iphitus before Hercules can kill it. A grief-stricken Pelias tells Hercules the only way that he can redeem himself is to kill the Cretan bull.

Hercules believes that Pelias has treated him unfairly and he goes to the temple of The Sybil (Lidia Alfonsi of “"Hercules vs. the Hydra") to demand an explanation. During the conversation, Hercules reveals that he wants to shed his immortality and be like mortal men so that he can love Iola and have a family. The gods release Hercules from his immortality and he praises them. Before he can kill the bull, Hercules spots a young man crouched over the body of a dying man. Hercules kills the bull after a brief struggle; essentially, he slams two lethal blows with his fist into the bull’s head. Later, he follows the young man to a cave and discovers his old friend Chironi (Afro Poli of “Tosca”) has been gored by the bull and lies dying. Chironi brings Hercules up to date about the disappearance of the Golden Fleece and how Jason and he left the country with it but lost it. Chironi hid the Golden Fleece in an oak tree before they sailed back home. Before Chironi dies, he explains that the mystery of the king’s death can be solved by reading an inscription written in the Golden Fleece. The dying Chironi entrusts Jason (Fabrizio Mioni of “"Roland the Mighty") to Hercules’ care. During their journey back to the palace, Hercules and Jason encounter a woman trying to cross a river with her three daughters. She doesn’t want them to get wet and she entreats our heroes to help her. While Jason is helping two daughters across the river, he loses a sandal. Hercules remembers that a man with one sandal will take Pelias’ kingdom away from him. Jason treats the loss of the sandal as no big deal.

Pelias gives Hercules three months to bring back the Golden Fleece to prove that Jason is the rightful heir to the throne. Ulysses (Gabriele Antonini of “"Head of a Tyrant") and his father Laertes (Andrea Fantasia of “War and Peace”), the shipbuilder Argos (Aldo Fiorelli of "The Barbarians"), the twins Castor (Fulvio Carrara of “"Hercules Unchained") and Pollux (Willi Colombini of "Odessa in Flames"), the lyre-strumming Orpheus (Gino Mattera of "Faust and the Devil"), the physician Aesculapius (Gian Paolo Rosmino of “Il fanciullo del West”) and others accompany Jason and Hercules on a long, rough sea voyage on the ship Argos. One of those others is the treacherous Eurysteus who is King Pelias’ spy and troublemaker. After a storm that frightens the men enough to prompt Eurysteus to lead a mutiny, our heroes land on an island of gorgeous Amazon women. Initially, the women are helpful to the starving sailors and allow them to replenish their store of supplies. Later, however, the women try to kill them with poisoned wine, but the men outsmart them. Eventually, our heroes make it to the island of Colchis and fight with a tribe of hairy ape-men. Meantime, Jason reclaims the Golden Fleece after an encounter with a dragon. Just as Chironi had told them, the answer to the mystery of the king’s death is revealed. When the Argos docks in Pelias killed his brother. Jason becomes the rightful ruler of Iolcus, Pelias’s henchman Eurysteus (Arturo Dominici of "Yvonne of the Night") snatches the Golden Fleece so that Jason has no evidence to present to the King. Pelias imprisons Hercules, but the strong man escapes after ripping the chains out of the wall meant to restrain him. Hercules wraps the chains around Eurysteus’ neck and kills him. Afterward, he stops Pelias' cavalry by looping the chains around the palace portico and bringing it down upon them like Samson did to the Philistines. The vanquished Pelias swallows poison and Jason wins the throne back. “Hercules” ends with Iole and he walking away arm in arm.

FILM REVIEW OF "BLAZING SADDLES" (1974)

"The Producers" director Mel Brooks took the traditional white Hollywood western down an entirely different trail with this audacious 93-minute slapstick horse opera. "Blazing Saddles" (**** out of ****) stands every convention and cliché in the corral on their respective heads and then gives the genre a boot in the butt. Were you to start watching this western satire and not realize that it was a crude, rude, lowbrow comedy with lots of one-liners, vaudeville routines, campy shticks, sight gags, dopey imitations and comic anachronisms, you might either be appalled or outraged by the intolerance toward African-Americans, minorities in general, and homosexuality. Indeed, when "Blazing Saddles" came out in 1974, during the heyday of blaxploitation cinema--you know "Shaft" and "Super Fly"--use of the derogatory epithet N-word still wasn't considered as politically insensitive as in our current multi-cultural society. Moreover, the epithet "faggot" was used, too.

Brooks has said that his lowest common denominator western spoof "truly broke ground, and it broke wind." Mind you, the administrative suits at the studios cringed at the racial degradations as well as the wind-breaking campfire scene where cowboy consume copious quantities of baked beans and break wind. One studio executive wanted Brooks to eliminate this scene and the scene where Alex Karras knocks the horse down, but Brooks refused. Initially, even Brooks had some misgivings about the campfire scene and approach studio executive John Calley who advised him to ‘ring the bell.’ The campfire scene didn’t alienate audiences, and "Blazing Saddles" emerged as one of the top cinematic box office hits of 1974. Basically, a quintet of scribes, including Brooks and future comic superstar Richard Pryor, appropriate the empire building plot about the evil railroad out to destroy a town in its way. The railroad runs into quicksand and their nefarious boss Hedley Lamarr (Harvey Korman of “The April Fools”) decides to destroy the town of Rock Ridge to obtain the right-of-way without paying a dime. Hedley dreams up a surefire scheme, “If I could find a sheriff who so offends the citizens of Rock Ridge that his very appearance would drive them out of town.” He persuades the incredulous Governor William J. Lepetomane (Mel Brooks) to appoint an African-American railroad laborer Bart (Cleavon Little of “Vanishing Point”) as an all white town’s new sheriff. Brooks and company couldn’t have made this oater at a better time!

One of the railway laborers, Bart, gets into trouble when Taggart (Slim Pickens of “Dr. Strangelove”) dispatches him and his friend Charlie (Charles McGregor of “Super Fly”) to take a hand car down the line to investigate the presence of quicksand. Indeed, the rails have been laid in quicksand because Bart and his friend sink into the stuff. The railroad foreman pulls the hand car out of the quicksand and leaves Bart and his buddy to die. Bart climbs out of the quagmire and wraps a shovel around Taggart’s head. This insolence lands Bart in jail with a date for the executioner, until Hedley decides that he has a better use for him. Indeed, Hedley realizes that he is breaking the fourth wall and addressing the audience when he comes up with his scheme. “Why am I asking you?” He turns away from the camera and heads off to see Governor Lepetomane. As upset as Lepetomane is about Bart becoming the new sheriff of Rock Ridge, Hedley spins the situation so that it appeals to the governor. “Yes,” he assures Lepetomane about the egalitarian message it will send to one and all about his liberality, “the first man ever to appoint a black sheriff.” Of course, Lepetomane believes that he can only reap the worst of a bad situation. Hedley struggles to convince him that Lepetomane will win a place in history alongside Washington, Jefferson, and Lincoln with his appointment of Bart as the Rock Ridge lawman.

A pimped-out looking Bart dressed in a leather outfit rides a horse with Gucci saddle bags. He rides by Count Basie and his orchestra on the plains as he heads to Rock Ridge. Meanwhile, the dutiful citizens of Rock Ridge have prepared a reception for the arrival of their new sheriff. No, they do not know that he is black. Gabby Johnson (Jack Starrett of “Kid Blue”), a send-up of perennial western character actor Gabby Hayes, spots Bart riding into town and tries to warn his fellow citizens that Bart is an African-American. A bell cuts Gabby off every time that he says the N-word, and everybody believes Gabby is saying, “The sheriff is near.” The townspeople are appalled when they see Bart. Bart ascends the platform and states, “By the power invested in me by the honorable William J. Lepetomane, I hereby assume the duties of the office of sheriff in and for the township of Rock Ridge.” Not surprisingly, everybody pulls a gun on Bart and Bart imitates them by pulling his own gun on himself. The whites put down this revolvers and Bart admires his talent. Later, at a town meeting, the citizens complain about Bart. Harriett Johnson (Carol Arthur of “Making It”) sums up the sentiments of everybody, “The white, God-fearing citizens of Rock Ridge wish to express our extreme displeasure with your choice of sheriff. Please remove him immediately!”

Indeed, the only friend that Bart has in Rock Ridge is a prisoner hanging upside down his jail cell. Jim (Gene Wilder of “Bonnie and Clyde”) surprises Bart when he identifies himself as ‘the Waco Kid.’ “He had the fastest hands in the west,” an incredulous Bart observes. Jim adds, “. . . the world.” Jim demonstrates his swift hands when he grabs a chess piece off the board before Bart can snatch it. “Well, it got so that every piss-ant prairie punk who thought he could shoot a gun would ride into town to try out the Waco Kid. I must have killed more men than Cecil B. DeMille. It got pretty gritty. I started to hear the word "draw" in my sleep. Then one day, I was just walking down the street when I heard a voice behind me say, "Reach for it, mister!" I spun around... and there I was, face-to-face with a six-year old kid. Well, I just threw my guns down and walked away. Little bastard shot me in the ass. So I limped to the nearest saloon, crawled inside a whiskey bottle, and I've been there ever since.” Jim gazes at Bart and inquires, “What’s a dazzling urbanite like you doing in a rustic setting like this?” Bart explains that his family came west as part of a wagon train. They encountered a Jewish Indian chief (Mel Brooks) and the Native Americans allowed them to settle because they were darker.

Taggart suggests that Hedley send Mongo (Alex Karras) to Rock Ridge to kill Sheriff Bart. Mongo rides into Rock Ridge on a bull, but he doesn’t stay out of jail long. “You can’t shoot him,” Jim warns Bart. “You’ll only make him mad.” Bart dresses up like a delivery boy and hands Mongo a candy gram that blows up in the big guy’s face. The next time that we see Mongo, he is tried up to the barred doors of the jail cell. Miraculously, Bart’s sneaky way of trapping Mongo impresses the strong man so much that he becomes Bart’s friend. Mongo points out that Bart is the only man who has ever whipped him. Eventually, Bart and Jim learn the truth about Hedley Lamarr and the railroad when they question Mongo. All Mongo will admit is that he is “only pawn in the game of life.” Meantime, Hedley decides to send in the voluptuous Lili Von Shtupp (Madeline Kahn of “High Anxiety”) to seduce Bart and lead him to his demise. Lili is the epitome of the female vamp. She invites Bart back stage to visit her in her dressing room after her big number. She sidles up to Bart and inquires if it is true what they say about African-American men. The next morning finds Lili fallen under Bart’s spell. She cannot live without him and behaves hysterically when he leaves. “What a nice guy,” she oozes. Hedley has one last idea. He tells Taggart: “I want rustlers, cut throats, murderers, bounty hunters, desperados, mugs, pugs, thugs, nitwits, halfwits, dimwits, vipers, snipers, con men, Indian agents, Mexican bandits, muggers, buggerers, bushwhackers, hornswogglers, horse thieves, bull dykes, train robbers, bank robbers, ass-kickers, shit-kickers and Methodists.” Our heroes—Bart and Jim—knock out a couple of Ku Klux Klanners and masquerade as them.

Just when everything seems lost, Bart proposes a plan to save Rock Ridge. When the townspeople refuse to listen to him, he observes, “You’d do it for Randolph Scott.” They let Bart speak and Bart’s plan is to build a replica of Rock Ridge that Taggart and his army of desperados can burn down. This is exactly what the townspeople and the railroad workers get together and construct. They build a false-fronted town like Rock Ridge. Jim and Bart slow down the approach gunmen by setting up a toll booth. When Taggart and his men storm into the fake Rock Ridge, they are almost fooled until Taggart kicks down a building that turns out to be a false front. A huge donnybrook erupts in town and suddenly Brooks drops any pretense to realism and we find ourselves on the Warner Brothers backlot. Hedley tries to escape from Bart and Jim and momentarily takes refuge in a movie theater. At the same time, the fight on the western set spills over to another set when Buddy Bizarre (Dom DeLuise of “The End”) is having trouble orchestrating a huge dance number with men dressed up in top hats and tails. The cowboys and the homosexuals tie into each other with hilarious results. Eventually, Bart tracks down Hedley in modern day Hollywood and guns the chief villain dead. Sheriff Bart bids everybody farewell, “Keep the faith, brothers,” and rides off with Jim. They pause at one point and dismount to climb into an El Dorado Cadillac and cruise away.

Incongruity generates the best comedy and Brooks directs “Blazing Saddles” like a profane situation comedy. The idea of a black sheriff sent to save a white western town is a stroke of genius. The Waco Kid is a parody of every reformed gunfighter and the joke is that he is so fast that you never see his guns leave his holsters. Gene Wilder is a revelation as Waco. The biggest surprise occurs near the end when a fleeing Hedley winds up on the set of a movie musical with queer guys galore struggling to perform a dance number. Alex Karras is hilarious as Mongo, a thug who knocks a horse down with his fist.

FILM REVIEW OF "MACGRUBER" (2010)

This "Saturday Night Live" inspired spoof of the legendary Richard Dean Anderson ABC-TV adventure series "MacGyver" (1985-92) has its moments. Trouble is those moments are few. Freshman writer & director Jorma Taccone with “Saturday Night Live” scenarists Will Forte and John Solomon display a conspicuous lack of wit. The moronic humor in “MacGruber” (* out of ****) yields lowest common denominator chuckles seasoned with an R-rated surfeit of F-bombs. For example, the only reason the dastardly Dieter Von Cunth has such an anatomical name is so the good guys can use it as often as possible without appearing profane. The gratuitous abuse of the villain’s surname quickly wears this joke out in no time. Again, the humor is largely tasteless, infantile, and ad nauseam repetitive. Although he is a highly decorated Green Beret, Navy SEAL, and Army Ranger, our hero amounts to a completely clueless '80s-style action hero. MacGruber turns into MacGoober whenever the shenanigans hit the fan. He uses a buddy as a shield from three men armed with machine guns because he is so pusillanimous. Rarely do MacGruber’s spontaneous improvisational acts pay off. Remember, the real MacGyver shunned guns and converted ordinary household items into weapons. Nevertheless, MacGruber lacks the charisma of either Steve Martin's Inspector Clouseau or Steve Carrell's Maxwell Smart. MacGruber is so colossally arrogant you feel no sympathy for him when he is reduced to soliciting oral sex. MacGruber qualifies as a MacIdiot. Basically, “MacGruber” ridicules the conventional of formulaic, high-octane testosterone-laced male actioneers. Unfortunately, it lacks both the outlandish budget and insane hilarity of “Tropic Thunder.” Unless you’ve seen the “SNL” skits about the eponymous champion, you may find his adventures rather bland.

“MacGruber” opens in Siberia after the villain’s henchmen have knocked-off a Russian convoy transporting the X-5 nuclear warhead. Dieter Von Cunth (Val Kilmer of “Tombstone”) smuggles the X-5 into the United States, but he still needs the pass codes to fire the missile. In Rio Bamba, Ecuador, Colonel Jim Faith (Powers Boothe of “Extreme Prejudice”) and Lieutenant Dixon Piper (Ryan Phillippe of “Chaos”) track down MacGruber to a remote monastery where the retired special ops legend exiled himself since his wife’s death. Like John Rambo’s mentor Colonel Samuel Trautman, Colonel Faith taught MacGruber (Will Forte with an 80’s mullet) everything he knows. Well, everything but executing a back flip. MacGruber has misled everybody into thinking that he has been deceased for a decade. He has withdrawn from the human race. He considers himself a man of peace. Colonel Faith explains that Dieter has stolen a dangerous nuclear warhead and has it aimed at Washington, D.C. Predictably, MacGruber refuses to recover the warhead so Faith appeals to his sense of vengeance. It seems Dieter blew MacGruber’s bride Casey Janine Fitzpatrick (“Saturday Night Live” cohort Maya Rudolph of “Idiocracy”) to smithereens at their wedding. Later, we learn that MacGruber seduced Casey from Dieter and told her to abort Dieter’s unborn child. Ostensibly, this is the reason that Dieter kills Casey. When a gung-ho Lieutenant Dixon Piper pleads to accompany him, MacGruber turns him down and tells him off. Our hero assembles his own team of brawny heroes. Clearly, these muscle-heads constitute MacGruber’s ‘dream team.’ MacGruber slaps together homemade C-4 explosives and stores them in the delivery van with his trigger-happy ‘dream team.’ As our protagonist bids farewell to both Colonel Faith and Lieutenant Piper, the C-4 explosives demolish the delivery van and obliterate MacGruber’s ‘dream team.’ MacGruber runs around hysterically begging anybody to call 911. When Colonel Faith relieves MacGruber of the mission, our rugged hero begs to be reinstated, he even offers to perform oral sex on Lieutenant Piper. Piper rebuffs the blow job from MacGruber but agrees to join his team. Faith stipulates that the team must have three members. MacGruber recruits former aide-de-camp Vicki St. Elmo (Kristen Wiig of “Whip It”), and Vicki winds putting her neck as well as other anatomical parts on the line.

Like the typical larger-than-life, high-octane actioneer, “MacGruber” flaunts its share of blood and gore. MacGruber takes a slug in the thigh, and Vicki probes around with a pair of pliers before she removes the bullet. Initially, she wanted to have nothing to do with MacGruber’s mission. Vicki harbors horrible memories of MacGruber’s wedding to Casey. When Dieter blew up Casey, Casey showered her best friend Vicki with blood. When MacGruber found her, Vicki had embarked upon a career as a musician. She realizes that she cannot resist being around MacGruber and joins MacGruber. Consequently, MacGruber demonstrates his lack of courage when he dresses Vicki to look like him so she can distract the opposition. One scene has MacGruber dispatching Vicki to a dinner where Dieter’s people hang out. MacGruber relays orders via an ear-piece to Vicki about how to impersonate him from his inconspicuous van parked some twenty blocks away. Pugnacious Dieter minion Hoss Bender (Andy Mackenzie of “Shoot’em Up”) discovers them and starts blasting bullet holes in their van. MacGruber starts screaming in fear. Meanwhile, back at the dinner, Vicki hears the screams, grovels on the floor, and scream, too, as the patrons watch her without comprehension. Only later does she realize what a fool she has been and tries to make an unobtrusive exit. Ironically, this is the only time that MacGruber doesn’t screw everything up. Wedging a mop against the accelerator, MacGruber kills Hoss by ramming the villain with the van.

MacGruber and his team track down the bad guys to a warehouse rendezvous where Dieter’s man, Constantine (Timothy V. Murphy of “Green Street Hooligans 2”), has gone to buy to the pass codes. Again, MacGruber dispatches poor Vicki who masquerades as the bearded Hoss Bender. Another minor league shoot’em up erupts, but Constantine manages to escape with the pass codes and MacGruber loses again! Colonel Faith decides to take MacGruber off the case and MacGruber begs to be reinstates, hoping that the promise that he will give Faith a blow job will change everything. Faith turns him down. Eventually, MacGruber realizes the Dieter plans to use the X-5 to nuke both the White House and Congress during the President’s State of the Union speech.

Taccone stages several minor action sequences without flair. Guys blast away at other guys, but the violence breaks no new ground compared to the recent “Rambo” sequel. “Indecent Proposal” lenser Brandon Trost makes these low-budget antics look better than it has any right. Aside from one scene with an older woman posing nude to Dieter to paint, nudity is confined largely to our hero’s hairy belly and bare buttocks. If “MacGruber” had been made in the 1980s, the only nudity would be beautiful female nudity. Once during the action, Forte parades around with a piece of celery protruding from his bare buttocks as a way to distract the opposition. Later, Lieutenant Piper follows MacGruber’s example. After he has sex with Vicki, MacGruber visits his late wife’s grave and has sex with her as a way to relieve his guilty conscience. A cemetery groundskeeper watches in disbelief as the totally naked MacGruber has sex with an apparition. Of course, the groundskeeper cannot see Casey, but MacGruber believes that she is there. Taccone saves the best scene for last. Our MacGoofy protagonist finally triumphs over evildoer Val Kilmer. Not only does MacGruber transform him into a sieve with his machine gun, but he also blasts Dieter with a grenade launcher. Were that not enough still, MacGruber urinates on Dieter’s corpse. Later, he tries to defecate on Dieter’s remains in a body bag. Too bad the previous 80 minutes were not as insane and hare-brained. It is some consolation that the soundtrack teems with classic Top-40 hits from the 1980.

FILM REVIEW OF "DIE ANOTHER DAY" (British 2002)

The twentieth installment in the long-running James Bond film franchise, “Die Another Day,” concluded Pierce Brosnan’s tenure as 007 and celebrated the 40th anniversary of the series with references galore to previous Bonds. The credibility of this epic 133 minute extravaganza suffers mildly from some hopelessly unrealistic but nevertheless exciting predicaments that challenge our globe-trotting British secret service agent. Ultimately, New Zealand director Lee Tamahori doesn’t let Ian Fleming fans down and he directs with a vivid sense of flair. Tamahori approaches “Die Another Day” (***1/2 of of ****) as if he were Hong Kong action director John Woo and often accelerates the editing with jump cuts to cover a lot of territory faster. Another example of Tamahori ratcheting up the action occurs when Bond kills the villain in the last quarter-hour of the plot.

Despite its outlandish reliance on some obvious computer generated imagery, this inventive Bond adventure qualifies as one of the better 007 sagas and a fitting conclusion for the Brosnan Bond. The race across the ice and Bond’s escape from this predicament is the primary culprit here as well as the chief villain’s frozen Icelandic residence. Gustav Graves has constructed an entire palace out of ice. Interestingly, “Die Another Day” incorporates African conflict diamonds in its serpentine plot, four years before the fashionable Edward Zwick thriller “Blood Diamond” (2006) with Leonardo DiCaprio dealt with these controversial gems. Naturally, Judy Dench returns as Bond’s superior M, and John Cleese was on his own for the first and last time as her Majesty’s quartermaster Q. The most incredible gadget that Bond receives is an invisible Aston Martin with the usual arsenal of weapons. Toby Stephens and Rick Yune make two audacious villains and “Reservoir Dogs’” Michael Madsen appears as a duplicitous, high-ranking C.I.A. executive.

“The World Is Not Enough” scenarists Neal Purvis & Robert Wade maintain the larger-than-life action with exotic locales, good-looking ladies, but a marginally darker tone since betrayal is involved. Bond amounts to a renegade British Intelligence agent out for revenge against those vile dastards who framed him for security transgressions that he would never made. In some ways, Purvis and Wade were inspired not only by John Glen’s “Octopussy” with North Koreans committing criminal acts just as the renegade Soviet general did in that outing, but also Guy Hamilton’s “Diamonds Are Forever” with a villain who deploys a satellite in outer space constructed of diamonds that can projects a monstrous beam of destructive energy. Hardcore 007 fans will spot the encore of Commander Bond’s small “Thunderball” underwater breathing gadget. The escape from a cargo plane at the end is reminiscent of “The Living Daylights.” Purvis and Wade spring a number of surprises—at least three if you are counting—that really shake up the movie. These surprises along with Tamahori’s sensational helming make “Die Another Day” a memorable 007 escapade.

“Die Another Day” opens on the Pukch’ong Coast of North Korea as 007 and two other agents surf unobtrusively into the beach. Bond and his companions steal an attaché case filled with diamonds from Mr. Van Bierk (Mark Dyman of “Until Death”) and appropriate his helicopter to fly to a secret rendezvous in the de-militarized zone in North Korea. Bond places two bricks of C-4 explosives with a timer under the diamond trays and set off to keep an appointment the arrogant Colonel Moon (Will Yun Lee of “Elektra”), son of General Moon (Kenneth Tsang of “The Replacement Killers”), who has no qualms during a U.N. embargo about trading arms for African conflict diamonds. Moon’s second-in-command, Zao (Rick Yune of “The Fast and the Furious”), takes a digital picture of Bond with his Sony Ericsson cell phone and uploads it to the Internet. Later, Zao shares the results of his search with Colonel Moon, and they discover that Van Bierk is really a British assassin named James Bond. Immediately, Colonel Moon arrests Bond and destroys the helicopter with a tank-busting weapon. General Moon calls his son because he is approaching the de-militarized zone where he has his headquarters. Hastily, Colonel Moon orders his men to disperse and take the weapons with them. He orders Bond executed, but the explosives in the attaché case ignite and Bond escapes. Zao is stricken by a shower of diamonds that embed themselves in his face. Colonel Moon and Bond battle it out on the hovercraft that Moon used to transport the weapons to the location. Thousands of land mines on the border of North and South Korea pose no problem to Moon because the hovercraft can float harmlessly float over them. Bond and Moon exchange small arms fire and Moon even resorts to a flame thrower. They run out of room to maneuver and Moon plunges over the edge of a cliff while Bond seized a bell and survives. “Saved by the bell,” he quips until he sees General Moon arrive with an army. Moon takes Bond and turns him over to North Korean interrogators and during the title credit sequence, Bond is tortured.

Eventually, months after his arrest, Bond learns that he is scheduled to be released as part of an exchange for Zao. M (Judy Dench of “Shakespeare in Love”) isn’t pleased to see 007. Not only did Zao kill three Chinese agents when he tried to blow up a summit meeting, but also because British Intelligence suspects that Bond spilled his guts and exposed deep cover agent in North Korean high command. M agreed to get Bond out of North Korea to ensure that he didn’t expose more agents. Naturally, Bond said that he didn’t capitulate to his captors and betray Her Majesty’s Secret Service. Bearded and ragtag, Bond vows to get the individual who set him up, but M rescinds his double-0 status. Furthermore, she informs him that he is going to be taken to an evaluation center in the Falklands. Bond has other plans and fakes a heart attack. After he escapes from British Intelligence in Hong Kong harbor, Bond begins his search for that mysterious person. Initially, with the help of the Red Chinese, 007 treks to Cuba to find Zao.

In Cuba, he finds out that Zao is in an island clinic run by Dr. Alvarez (Simón Andreu of “Bad Man’s River”) who specializes in DNA replacement. Bond meets into Jinx (Halle Berry of “Monster’s Ball”) in Cuba. She emerges from the sea like Ursula Andress did in Terence Young’s “Dr. No.” Jinx is after Alvarez, too. They team up in semi-sort of fashion and destroy Alvarez and his clinic. Bond fails to kill Zao and the villain escapes. Jinx is cornered on a cliff by two gunmen and performs a header into the ocean. She dives in just as Colonel Moon had plunged into the ocean in similar fashion.

Bond finds himself back in the good graces of British Intelligence. M meets him at an abandoned London subway station. They discuss the conflict diamonds and we get a thumbnail sketch of the latest villain, Gustav Graves, at about an hour into the action. M points out that Graves is a politically connected individual. Indeed, he is about to be honored by the Queen. She adds that Graves was an orphan who wound up working in an Argentine diamond mine. He learned engineering and discovered a trove of diamonds in Iceland, half of which he donated to charity. Bond suspects that Graves has been using his discovery of diamonds in Iceland as “a front for laundering African conflict diamonds. M allows Bond to return to M.I. 5 Headquarters and pick up several gadgets from Q, such as the invisible Aston Martin with adaptive camouflage as well as a sophisticated ring that can shatter glass. Q explains that the ring contains an “ultra-high frequency single-digit sonic agitator unit. Bond meets Graves during a fencing competition and the two fight each other for money. Graves loses control and the fight escalates with the use of cutlasses, but Graves’ public relations expert Miranda Frost (Rosamund Pike of “Doom”) intervenes and keeps the guys from killing each other. Tamahori does an excellent job of staging the cutlery clash between hero and villain. Graves gracefully accepts defeat at Bond’s hands and observes, “You’re a rare challenger, Mr. Bond.”

Several things differentiate Brosnan’s final outing as the redoubtable civil servant earlier as well as later entries. First, the bullet is finally seen entering the gun barrel during the pre-credit sequence. Thus far this represents the one and only time that this has occurred in the series. Second, the title theme sequence continues the narrative with Bond enduring torture while incandescent women appear on screen and scorpions are seen scuttling about to Madonna’s song. Third, this is the only time that James Bond appears with a full beard, giving Brosnan look like a 17th century buccaneer. Fourth, the initial action transpires in Korea, the first time that this location with its volatile real life implications for possible nuclear war has been appropriated. Fifth, the plot later takes 007 from places like Cuba to Iceland. Sixth, the C.I.A. has its own agent out there in the form of Halle Berry’s Jinx Johnson. Seventh, the pre-credit sequence qualifies as one of the livelier ones with Bond battling a crazed North Korean colonel as they sweep over a mine field in hovercrafts blasting away at each other with machine guns and flamethrowers. As usual, Bond still finds the time for the classical throwaway witticism and the women are seductive.

FILM REVIEW OF "NOSFERATU, A SYMPHONY OF TERROR (German-1922)

"Faust" director F.W. Murnau's silent 1922 classic horror film "Nosferatu, a Symphony of Horror" (****out of ****) ranks as the earliest surviving vampire epic. As many as twenty movies about vampires, some of them short films, had been produced before the release of Murnau's landmark epic. Sadly, none of these earlier vampire movies have survived the ravages of time. Ostensibly, "Golem" scenarist Henrik Galeen and Murnau appropriated Bram Stoker's celebrated Gothic horror novel "Dracula," published in 1897, as the basis for their plot, but they neglected to obtain copyright clearance from Stoker's estate. Inevitably, Stoker's widow Florence sued Murnau and company, won the case in court, and demanded that the authorities confiscate and destroy every print and negative of "Nosferatu." Happily, despite its plagiaristic origins, "Nosferatu" survived the justice of this court order, and audiences can enjoy it today. Not only does "Nosferatu" qualify as the first adaptation of "Dracula," but it also is a touchstone picture in the vampire genre because its vampire, Court Orlok, was emaciated and hideously ugly. He looked nothing like the sartorially elegant princes of seduction that either Bela Lugosi or Christopher Lee embodied. Max Schreck portrayed Court Orlok as a loathsome vampire. He sports needle type fangs in the front of his mouth, and he looks like a Nazi concentration camp inmate.  Mind you, in some prints of "Nosferatu," Court Orlok is referred to as Count Dracula.

"Nosferatu" isn't a slavish adaptation of "Dracula." Apparently, Galeen and Murnau thought they might skirt the copyright issue if they altered the setting and changed some names. Clearly, the courts saw the issue otherwise when it ruled in favor of Florence Stoker. Basically, the plot remains intact with some geographical revisions, name changes, and the marginalizing of certain characters. "Orlok doesn't set sail for England, but heads to Bremen. The Count takes six coffins for his journey rather than some forty or more. One major departure from Stoker's novel, however, involves the character of Professor Van Helsing. Usually, Van Helsing acts as Dracula's arch enemy. Galeen and Murnau have reduced his role here to providing exposition about parasitic vampire organisms. Furthermore, the Murnau film takes place in Germany in 1838 whereas the Stoker novel occurred in the 1890s in Victorian England. Interestingly, unlike Dracula, Orlok does not spawn other vampires with his bite. He kills his victims, and the plague that follows in his wake serves as a metaphor for his evil. One precedent that "Nosferatu" established was that vampires were susceptible to sunlight. Meaning, the sun could obliterate them, something that wasn't the case with Stoker's literary protagonist who would stroll around during the day, though his powers were considerably attenuated.

Meanwhile, enough similarities existed to seal the filmmakers' fate. In Bremen, Germany, a creepy real estate agent Knock dispatches Thomas Hutter (Gustav von Wangenheim), to travel the Carpathian Mountains in distant Transylvania to discuss a business deal with the Count. In Stoker's novel, the Hutter character was named Jonathan. Anyway, Thomas is a rather adolescent, happy-go-luck fellow. He dismisses the warnings of the local folk as superstitious nonsense. He discovers a book entitled "Of Vampires, Terrible Phantoms, and and the Seven Deadly Sins left in his room and casts it aside in contempt. Presumably, the local equivalent of the Gideons stash this tome in every wayfarer's room as a sort of admonition. An eerie moment occurs when the coachmen take Hutter to a bridge and leave him afoot because they refuse to cross over into the province of phantoms. Later, a sinister coach drawn by horses decked out in dark hoods arrives with a creepy looking driver. Hutter climbs aboard for a whirlwind ride to the foreboding castle where a peculiar nobleman awaits his arrival. When he meets Hutter, The Count (Max Schreck) explains that his staff has gone to bed so he must attend to his needs.  Later, The Count explains without reason that he wants to pull up stakes in and relocate in Bremen right across the street from Hutter's house.

Camparatively, the two eponymous vampires forsake their homeland and embark on a voyage to another city. Before the Count departs, he attacks Hutter and leaves him for dead. Meanwhile, the Count loads his coffins by himself onto a wagon, climbs into the topmost coffin, levitates the lid into place on it, and sets the horses in motion for the harbor. This "Dracula" is very supernaturally endowed. Moreover, not only can Count Orlok control things nearby, but he can also control things at a great distance and has acquired power over Hutter's employer Knock. Eventually, Knock goes insane, and he is put in a strait-jacket and placed in a psychiatric asylum. In the Stoker novel, the character of Knock was named Renfield.  Like Knock, Renfield referred to the vampire as his "Master."


During the voyage, both Dracula and Orlok assume command of their vessels. For the record, Orlok embarks on his seagoing passage in August of 1838. In "Nosferatu," the outbreak of the plague is associated with the rats that infest Orlok's coffins. We learn that the dirt in the Orlok's coffins is plague dirt. Everybody dies on the respective ships in both yarns. The Count arrives in the ship at Wisborg with nobody left alive, but the ship is teeming with rats carrying a plague that wrecks havoc. German officials examine the ship, peruse the captain's log, and dread the worst: plague. Before long, panic grips the public about the plague, and people start to perish. The scenes where town officials mark front doors looks almost Biblical. Meanwhile, Hutter escapes from Orlok's castle and nearby peasants nurse him back to health. By now, Orlok has killed everybody on the ship. Orlok is entranced by Hutter's wife Ellen, and he takes a dilapidated building across the street from Hutter's house. While all of this is going on, Ellen has developed a psychic connection with Nosferatu. She will exert her power, but in the process she will die as she lures the undead villain to dally in her room until the morning rays of sunlight penetrate his body and he disappears.

The problem with watching public domain copies of "Nosferatu" is that these versions lack the tints that distinguish whether a scene occurs during either the day or after dark. Consequently, when Hutter meets Orlok at his foreboding castle, they appear to be drenched in bright sunlight. The blue tints on the Kino and Image DVD versions of "Nosferatu" make it clear that this scene takes place after dark. The absence of these tinted scenes is not confined strictly to "Nosferatu," but is also a problem with many public domain prints of silent films.

Although many critics try to pigeonhole Murnau in with the German Expressionist movement, he was not entirely enamored with expressionism. For instance, Expressionists prefer to shoot inside the orderly confines of a studio, whereas Murnau took his cameras onto location to shoot some scenic footage for the film. Incredibly, some of the settings, particularly the warehouse like building facing Hutter's home is still intact. Watch closely and you will see that Schreck never blinks. "Nosferatu" qualifies as one of the greatest horror films and Schreck's performance as the "Dracula" vampire is without parallel.  Indeed, for most people, watching "Nosferatu" poses many problems, not the least of which is that it is silent and looks tacky.  The ride through the woods on the haunted coach may look bad, but Murnau was striving to generate atmosphere.  There is an interesting moment when Murnau uses a hyena as the visual equivalent of a werewolf.  After you watch it several times and grow accustomed to its 'otherness,' "Nosferatu" is really great.  Some viewers might prefer the version that David Carradine introduces and has Type O Negative performing the soundtrack. Boo!