The Sadistic Baron von Klaus - 1962 - Spain

The Sadistic Baron von Klaus - 1962 - 5/10
AKA - Le Sadique Baron von Klaus

 
Every few generations, the village is plagued by the curse upon the von Klaus family.
Mind you, the curse is inflicted upon attractive females of the village.
Despite a Gothic look and atmosphere of menace, the plot meanders.
A few characters look mildly suspicious, yet the whole thing is a muddle.
Early Franco attempt should have been better, a misfire.
English subs = https://sub-scene.com/subtitle/3370436

The Carpet Of Horror - 1962 - Germany

The Carpet Of Horror - 1962 - 6/10
AKA - Der Teppich des Grauens

 
He intended to turn over evidence to Scotland Yard.
Too bad, he failed to notice the sphere roll onto the carpet, releasing poisonous gas.
Next man in the chain, a criminal chain, is equally blind, and just as doomed.
Fast-paced Krimi set in moonlit London, in between bright rooms.
The plot is convoluted to the point of confusion.  The Yard, secret agents, a sinister organization.
Empty headed, but fun.  I never grasped the aims of the thugs.
English subs = https://sub-scene.com/subtitle/3366934

Le Paris des Mannequins - 1962 - France

Le Paris des Mannequins - 1962 - 6/10

 
The models depart the building, head for a rooftop photo shoot.
Stilted, frozen poses, akin to high-stepping shoe adverts in Vogue.
Then they hit the streets and alleys for impromptu work.
Reactions of onlookers vary from surprise to hey-look-at-me.
The sly humor caught me off guard and made this memorable.

 
English subtitles = https://sub-scene.com/subtitle/3364480

The World’s Greatest Sinner - 1962 - USA

The World’s Greatest Sinner - 1962 - 6/10

 
Insurance salesman Clarence, bored and disillusioned, gets himself fired.
High on the vast potential of life, Clarence decides to write a book - and - enter politics.
The book is more a pamphlet on ultimate self-improvement.
From ordinary folk to super-humans to being gods.
Swelling followers are soon chanting, “We are gods, we are gods” while destroying things.
Clarence, by the way, has renamed himself to simply – God.
And, being a god, proceeds to violate taboos, especially sexual.
Bizarre film best viewed as inspired Outsider Art.
English subtitles = https://sub-scene.com/subtitle/3359935

No Man Is An Island - 1962 - USA

No Man Is An Island - 1962 - 6/10

 
Early in the Pacific War, Guam is overrun and occupied.
Navy radioman Tweed is one of a handful who are overlooked and escape to the hills.
Well, not for long.  The Japanese are no fools and soon scour the island.
This is based a real serviceman who eluded search parties for over two years.
Good war movie, with perhaps less action than run and hide.
Hunter fine as the furtive Tweed.

The L-Shaped Room - 1962 - UK

The L-Shaped Room - 1962 - 6/10

 
Jane, 27-years-old, finally escapes her provincial and conservative French family.
In England, she has a brief dalliance, and, first timeout, hits Baby Jackpot.
Unsure of what to do, she rents the top room in a cheap flophouse.
Starts meetings fellow tenants, sharing stories, listening, opening her heart.
Themes and characters and backstories seem well-advanced for cinema in 1962.
This is an adult drama of souls whose worlds and choices seem to constrict tighter every year.
Marvelous peek at the nightclub scene just at the cusp between the Beatnik and Swinging.

The House On Bare Mountain - 1962 - USA

The House On Bare Mountain - 1962 - 4/10

 
Granny Good runs the home for good girls.
There are some morning exercises and learning, but mostly the girls traipse around naked.
An upcoming party promises to get out of hand.
Yeah, it’s all a front, since Granny runs a bootlegging business from the basement.
This is akin to Benny Hill meets Doris Wishman.
Silly, juvenile.  Why Nicolas Winding Refn chose to restore this is beyond me.

English subtitles = https://subscene.cam/subtitle/3309595

Wild Guitar - 1962 - USA

Wild Guitar - 1962 - 5/10

 
Country boy motorcycles into Los Angeles with a guitar and a suitcase full of songs.
Lucky breaks hits straightaway when a local TV performer is ill, so he steps before the camera.
No time flat, he is a smasharoo, babe.
Along comes the crooked manager, cynical studio musicians, fake publicity.
Sort of a cross between “A Star Is Born” with “So You Wanna Be A Rock N Roll Star”.
Arch Hall Jr. is winning in this, although I don’t “get” this guy in the doggone least.
Arch Hall Sr. steals the film as the wily promoter / agent.
Superb restoration by Nicolas Winding Refn on his website, though the audio mix is super low.

How The West Was Won - 1962 - USA

How The West Was Won - 1962 - 7/10

 
Overlong “Western” is as good or bad as any given chapter.
The West sweeps from the  Alleghenies to Arizona in a rough fifty year span.
Generations of one family are profiled, but they are stand-ins for everyone.
Yarns about river pirates and the Civil War seem the weakest, with poorly drawn characters.
The wagon train is too Hollywood for my taste, but this has one of the few roles I’ve enjoyed Gregory Peck in.
Final two chapters are rousing excitement.
Railroad going though Indian territory, unflinching is observing (broken) agreements with tribes.
An outlaw gang trying for a train robbery as civilization begins to the “wild” West.
Recent BluRay addresses / fixes the Cinerama bars.
I originally saw this old-fashioned Hollywood spectacle with my grandfather, and a recent rewatch reminds me of how completely immersive it had been – and how it is less now.

Two For The Seesaw - 1962 - USA

Two For The Seesaw - 1962 - 6/10

 
Unusual pairing of Robert Mitchum and Shirley MacLaine in film version of then-popular Broadway play.
Nebraska lawyer, going through mid-life crisis, relocates to New York City (where old chum now lives).
He arrives in the middle of a boisterous Greenwich Village apartment party.
Intellectuals, artists, beatniks, big-talkers and hangers-on.
Shirley is ditzy dancer (getting old at 29).
Despite age difference, they give the relationship thing a whirl.
Talky, rather dated, almost completely shot on a handful of interior sets.  Screams stagebound.
Interesting curio, nonetheless.  Glimpse of topical Broadway, circa 1960.

The Notorious Landlady - 1962 - USA

The Notorious Landlady - 1962 - 6/10

Gridley of the US State Department is transferred to London.
He finds accommodations at Grubbage Square, well appointed and close to work.
Mrs. Hardwicke, landlady, is an ex-pat Yank, and either divorced, separated or widowed.
No matter, she’s easy to look at, possessing a gorgeous set of hazel eyes.

 
Then Gridley finds out Scotland Yard believes Mrs. Hardwicke murdered her husband.
And all the neighbors, observant as cats, have decided he will be victim number two.
The story staggers like a drunk down a foggy lane.  Mystery, murder, Gothic, comedy.
If an extremely silly finale does not put you off, this makes for a charming rom-com.

Satan In High Heels - 1962 - USA

Satan In High Heels - 1962 - 6/10

 
Stacey, working the cooch show at the carnival, robs her hop-head husband and flies to New York.
A “talent scout” sizes her up right quick, and Stacey is brought in to audition at Pepe’s.
While higher class than the burlesque, Pepe’s is an upscale gin joint.
Stacey is repackaged into a glossier object of desire, although her impulses remain doggedly primal.
Flirting, affairs (with the owner, his son, and Pepe), drinking, homicidal urges.
The narrative perks along, in a tawdry, sleazy route, and would have been taboo in ’62 – for any who saw it.
For a cheap indie film, this looks terrific!
Songs vary from smokey (Stacey’s moan is something between Nina Simone and Julie London), to funny.
I enjoyed the mixed audience of aging debauchees and Greenwich Village bohos.
Study the lower cast names, most are the production crew.
Recent restoration by Nicholas Winding Refn is the one to watch.
Subs = https://subscene.com/subtitles/satan-in-high-heels

Burn, Witch, Burn - 1962 - UK

Burn, Witch, Burn - 1962 - 6/10
AKA - Night Of The Eagle

 
Professor Taylor is on an academic fast-track.  He is talented, skilled, forceful.
And – as it turns out, married to a witch.
He regards superstition, voodoo, hexes, charms as stuff and nonsense.
Once aware, he forces her to burn all her protective amulets, whereupon then Life sours.
Good horror outing, based on Fritz Lieber’s “Conjure Wife.”
Taylor is such a pig-headed prig, part of me roots for the forces of darkness to crush him.

Confessions Of An Opium Eater - 1962 - USA

Confessions Of An Opium Eater - 1962 - 6/10
AKA - Souls For Sale

 
Strange, cult gem, set in 1902 San Francisco.
Gilbert De Quincey (Vincent Price) gets involved in Tong wars, slave trafficking, opium dens.
Price seems to work for one side, then the other, while beautiful girls hang suspended inside bamboo cages, waiting to be bartered for opium bricks.
Exteriors shrouded with fog to disguise minimal sets, though the entire film has a dreamy (drugged) quality.
Secret tunnels, subterranean waterways, trick doors add to the maze vibe.
Movie filled with fortune cookie dialogue:
“The more we approach our enemies the more they think of us as lambs.”
“The superior man blames himself, the inferior man blames others.”
“There is not poison in a green snake’s mouth, as in a woman’s heart.”
“The path of righteousness lies around us, for the eye that will see and the foot that will follow.”

Sherlock Holmes And The Deadly Necklace - 1962 - Germany

Sherlock Holmes And The Deadly Necklace - 1962 - 6/10
AKA - Sherlock Holmes und das Halsband des Todes

 
Necklace being the one originally possessed by Cleopatra.
Holmes is involved because Professor Moriarty has extended his murderous hands.
Christopher Lee is a stolid, forceful Holmes, but this tale is far from canon.
No, this is a Krimi, a German production similar to the films based on Edgar Wallace novels.
There is less action than viewers might have anticipated, and Moriarty seems to bear as much screen time as Holmes.
Though well-staged, the plot stumbles and there is little tension.
This is a misfire.  Lee would have another crack at Sherlock in 1991.

Married Too Young - 1962 - USA

Married Too Young - 1962 - 4/10

 
Young, as in still seventeen.
Young man has part time job as mechanic, plans to go to med school after graduating.
He and his sweetie impulsively marry, confront enraged parents, mounting bills, and arguments.
Marked as a comedy, though there are few laughs, though parents are squeezed through the wringer.
More a sanitized time capsule of white bread suburbia, between 50's rock n roll and British Invasion.
Dull, despite the va va voom presence of bad girl Marianna Hill.

The Avengers: S02 - 1962 - UK

The Avengers: S02 - 1962 - 6/10

Interesting season, this, and under-appreciated by the Emma Peel contingent.
Stories range in quality and style, as producers rebooted the series after one season.
This model of Steed is more ruthless than in later years, prone to fistfights, gunplay and manipulation.
Predating Goldfinger, he even drives an Aston Martin DB5 in E09 "The Sell-Out."
There are infrequent meetings with spy bosses, One-Ten or One-Twelve, and he works with three partners.
Dr Martin King only lasts three episodes.
Singer Venus Smith is in six, and she seems the road not taken.

 
Miss Smith is a light jazz singer (think Beverly Kenney) engaged by Steed from time to time.
Light duty work.  Take photos, eavesdrop.  She reminds one of a Doctor Who companion.
Steed casually puts her in dangerous situations, never telling her what is ongoing.
These episodes are more playful, and while I have a fondness for Venus, her character is hardly suitable.
Besides, she pales in comparison with the third character, badass Cathy Gale.

 
Cathy Gale is an anthropologist, martial arts expert, artistic and culturally astute.
She is fearless, shrewd, capable, even deadly at times.  One can see why many intimidated males dislike her.
Gale would have made a great Bond.

 
Audio miking varies from episode, one was particularly difficult to understand.
Shooting was on videotape so the image was soft.
Camerawork is often clumsy.  In E23, "Conspiracy Of Silence," the camera visibly bumps into furniture, though the players take that in stride, as they do offscreen crashes and noises.

Lady In White - 1962 - Sweden

Lady In White - 1962 - 6/10
AKA - White Lady  //  Vita Frun

 
Though listed and discussed at various Noir sites, this Swedish film is more a whodunit.
Reminiscent of creaky manor mysteries of the early 1930's, with a dollop of Gothic.
Family and high placed associates gather for the reading of the will.
From delighted to disappointed to distraught.
Warnings are followed by corpses.
The large estate and grounds are a maze of back hallways, listening tunnels, and half glimpsed figures.
Music is a strange mix of combo jazz, wordless chorus and electronic.
Everyone is out for gain, nefarious business during late nights and in the nearby swamps.
Old fashioned, drawing room clichés, evident throughout, may be fun for fans of this type.

Cleo From 5 To 7 - 1962 - France

Cleo From 5 To 7 - 1962 - 7/10

 
Pop songstress visits the tarot reader, and the cards are dire.  Twice.
She quickly dashes into her career, distracting herself.
Shopping, dining, listening to her tunesmiths (pianist Michel Legrand), complaining.
Fame is fleeting, and the cards only confirm her fears after an earlier visit to the doctor.
Corinne Marchand is beguiling as Cleo, nervous, high strung, flighty, and yet, in the second half of the film, her character relaxes and you see a different person beneath the celebrity facade.
Throughout, wonderful street scenes of early 60’s Paris.

Band Of Assassins - 1962 - Japan

Band Of Assassins - 1962 - 6/10
AKA - Shinobi no Mono  //  忍びの者

 
Fast paced action in feudal Japan.
Warlord Nobunaga overpowers rival houses and crushes opposition alliances.
The emperor seems a target, as do the ninja fortresses.
Narrative follows ninja attempts to thwart, stall, stop Nobunaga as the wily family chief orders Goemon (peerless Ichikawa Raizo) to assassinate the ruthless chieftain.
Skills dominate over magic.  Treachery is the main tool, as well as manipulation, sexual and emotional.
Followed by numerous sequels and a craze for ninjas.  007 fans will recognize sequences later cribbed for You Only Live Twice,