THE MT VOID
Mt. Holz Science Fiction Society
10/29/10 -- Vol. 29, No. 18, Whole Number 1621
Frick: Mark Leeper, mleeper@optonline.net
Frack: Evelyn Leeper, eleeper@optonline.net
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Topics:
The Pale Future of American Cinema (comments
by Mark R. Leeper)
My Picks for Turner Classic Movies for November (comments
by Mark R. Leeper)
Some Comments on Origami (letter of comment by Steve Milton)
This Week's Reading (MR. POTTERMACK'S OVERSIGHT and
THE DOSSIER OF SOLAR PONS) (book comments
by Evelyn C. Leeper)
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TOPIC: The Pale Future of American Cinema (comments by Mark
R. Leeper)
Back when I was growing up the only way I could see vampire stories
was to watch the old Universal horror films on Saturday night.
These days the situation is very different. Vampire movies are
today very big at the box office. The new generation of actors
coming in get their start playing vampires in movies aimed at a
teenage crowd. I think the result is that in ten years movies will
look very strange, with every major actor in movies having the same
blanched white face with red lips. [-mrl]
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TOPIC: My Picks for Turner Classic Movies for November (comments by
Mark R. Leeper)
We have another new month coming up on Turner Classic Movies. It
is time for my monthly guide to the unusual and lesser-known films,
particularly films of fantasy. I was expecting that after their
Halloween bash, TCM would be cutting back on fantasy films. Not
so. November 2010 is actually a very good month on TCM. The
schedule of fantasy films is at:
http://tinyurl.com/BMC-novemb
Note: Access there is limited to members of the Yahoo group. But
if you are unable to read it, you can just look at the complete
November calendar:
http://tinyurl.com/TCM-novemb
METROPOLIS (1927, from the rediscovered negative)
This is a wower. You possibly know that the greatest science
fiction film of the pre-sound era was METROPOLIS, directed by Fritz
Lang. You probably have seen pictures with the robot Maria, whose
look inspired C3PO in STAR WARS. The film has been shown for years
in a multitude of versions. It has been edited. Scenes have been
taken out; some scenes have been shortened, some lengthened. Over
the years people have forgotten what the original film editing was
like. Then in 2008 the negative of the original film as it
premiered was found in Buenos Aires. The original film as first
seen has been shown in some cities and a small number of people
have been able to see this important piece of science fiction film
history. I have been expecting it might show up on DVD for some
onerous price. Nope. It will be available to the general public
in all its 149-minute glory on TCM. Starting at 8PM on November 7
it is in a three-hour slot. It is immediately followed by a
documentary entitled METROPOLIS REFOUND. (Sunday, November 7, 8
PM)
METROPOLIS REFOUND (Sunday, November 7, 11 PM)
PANDORA AND THE FLYING DUTCHMAN (1951)
This is a fantasy film that few fans have ever seen. The title is
a little more fanciful than the film. Pandora is not the woman
from Greek mythology who curiosity loosed evil on the world. It is
Pandora Reynolds (played by Ava Gardner about as alluring as she
has ever been on screen). She is an heiress living a life of
dissipation in a fishing village in Spain. If I remember she is
having a torrid affair with a bullfighter. Along comes the third
leg of the triangle, a mysterious Dutch sailor from the sea. And
unlike Pandora, he really is who the title suggests he is. For
those who do not know, the Flying Dutchman is a legendary ghost
ship with a phantom Dutch captain. The Dutchman did something or
other to offend God. And his punishment is to forever haunt the
seas in a ghost ship. Richard Wagner wrote an opera, THE FLYING
DUTCHMAN, in which he is allowed periodic land liberties, maybe
once a year. So is the Dutchman in our story (played by James
Mason). Pandora must choose between the jealous toreador and a
cursed ghost from the sea. I used to describe it as fantasy film
about the kind of people that Hemingway wrote about. (Thursday,
November 4, 10 PM)
M (1931)
Shortly before Fritz Lang, director of METROPOLIS, fled Germany he
made one sound film, M. The film made a star of newcomer Peter
Lorre and it is probably Lorre's best work. There is a child
murderer in Berlin causing a reign of terror. Innocent bystanders
who fall under suspicion are getting hurt by angry mobs. The
police are unable to find the killer and can only crack down on
organized crime. Mobsters who themselves hate a child-killer are
finding the police are killing their livelihood. Both the crime
mob and the police desperately want to find and eliminate the
killer. The noose is tightening around the killer (Peter Lorre).
The film is tense and Lang makes great use of jagged images to
reflect the torment in the killer's mind. Fritz Lang made M when
he was making a transition from silent to sound films, and it also
makes use of long sequences with no sound or limited sound.
(Tuesday, November 9, 2 AM)
SPIONE (1928)
Showing right after the METROPOLIS films and before M is this Fritz
Lang spy thriller. (Monday-Tuesday, November 8, Midnight)
THE LAST WAVE (1977)
Australian Peter Weir's apocalyptic fantasy was his first
international hit. Something funny is happening to the climate in
Australia. Weather is behaving in ways it never did before.
Hailstones fall out of season or maybe mud falls from the sky.
Meanwhile a murder occurs in the city community of Aborigines in
Sydney and some are arrested. A city lawyer (Richard Chamberlain)
is chosen for the defense. But he is suffering from frightening
visions. He finds he may be the fulfillment of an ancient
Aborigine prophecy. Weir does a terrific job of creating a mood of
dread. Images of water are the most disturbing of all. This is a
very unusual horror film. (Friday, November 19, 8 PM)
[-mrl]
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TOPIC: Some Comments on Origami (letter of comment by Steve Milton)
In response to Mark's comments on origami in the 10/22/10 issue of
the MT VOID, Steve Milton writes, "Origami robots could be quite
practical if the things (boats, airplanes, etc.) they folded into
were functional. The Mars rover mission required fancy folding of
the solar arrays on each rover to get them to fit into the
capsule." [-smm]
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TOPIC: This Week's Reading (book comments by Evelyn C. Leeper)
MR. POTTERMACK'S OVERSIGHT by R. Austin Freeman (ISBN 978-1-596-
54693-6) is a detective story from the classic era, written by the
author of the "Thinking Machine" stories. Unfortunately, this is
one of those stories that turns on a fact that was probably obscure
even when it was written, but now is completely unknown. I won't
say exactly what it is, but a similar example from a different
story had to do with picking the one name out of a list that could
have been dialed as a phone number--except that at the time of the
story, phone numbers were only four digits long. Still, there is a
"Columbo" aspect of MR. POTTERMACK'S OVERSIGHT (you see the crime
being committed--the question is how the detective will figure it
out) which was unusual for when the novel was written.
THE DOSSIER OF SOLAR PONS by Basil Copper (ISBN 978-0-897-33252-1)
is the eighth in the series of Sherlock Holmes pastiches featuring
Solar Pons. (The first seven were written by August Derleth.) Of
all the "copies" of Holmes, Solar Pons is the best, and also the
one who appears primarily in short story form (as did Holmes). One
of the things Derleth did when he started the series was to place
it in the 1920s rather than the late 19th century. This lets Pons
use somewhat more up-to-date methods, while still setting the story
back in a more picturesque time. [-ecl]
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Mark Leeper
mleeper@optonline.net
Nothing is more dangerous than an idea, when it is
the only idea we have.
-- Emile Chartier, 1908