Movies

STRANGE BEHAVIOR (1981) was directed by Michael Laughlin as the first of a “Strange” trilogy (but so far only the 1984 Strange Invaders has been made) wherein a small 1960s town tries to figure out the reason for a series of brutal murders while the town teenagers—completely coincidentally, of course—are participating in sinister neurological experiments at a nearby lab …Better than I found Strange Invaders, but not by much. “In time, I shall empty out our prisons.”
MISSION IMPOSSIBLE: Ghost Protocol (2011) has the IMF team disavowed after they’re linked to a Russian nihilist’s plan to wipe out humanity and start the world over (the villain reminds me of the Renegade Detente-Rejecting Communist movies used to provide Soviet adversaries when Cold War politics shifted), which leads to Tom Cruise climbing the world’s tallest skyscraper, running from Russian intelligence and crashing a party in Mumbai. I’m a little annoyed they never explained the opening scam (how exactly did Cobalt know they were there to frame them?), but entertaining in its own right (though TYG was pretty much convulsing over the technical errors in the computer scenes). With Simon Pegg as the supporting tech geek. “If it’s red, you’re dead.”
THEM! (1954) has LAPD cop James Whitmore investigating a mysterious string of death and destruction that turns out to be the result of ants mutated to giant size by radiation. And when they wipe out the nest, it turns out a fertile queen has already flown to Los Angeles … A landmark for its desert setting, the giant-insect menace and a scientist named Pat (thereby shocking Whitmore and James Arness when it turns out “Pat” is a woman, a gimmick used in several more films). Quite aside from its influence, this is a first rate thriller, well worth watching. “There’s enough formic acid in him to have killed 20 men.”
IT CAME FROM BENEATH THE SEA (1955) follows faithfully in the style of Them!—mysterious incidents leading to the discovery of a giant monster (octopus this time), then the struggle to destroy it—but it’s much weaker: The cast (including Kenneth Tobey and Faith Domergue) isn’t as strong, the opening incidents aren’t as eerie and this takes far too long to get to the monster. Ray Harryhausen’s spectacular octopus attack on the Golden Gate Bridge is impressive, nonetheless. “That haystack may be a lot smaller than we thought.”
THE GHOST OF FRANKENSTEIN (1942) is what convinces son Ludwig (Sir Cedric Hardwicke) to replace the Monster’s defective brain with a new, improved model in the dullest episode of the series. While I give them points for actually making use of the Defective Brain in the plot (although the monster’s affection for a small girl rather undermines the argument that he’s innately murderous) the results is a flat, talky drama, with Lon Chaney as a stiff Monster (even more generic a hulking brute than the creature in Son of Frankenstein). They’re also flexible on the Frankenstein legend: Nobody in town seems to connect Ludwig F. with any sort of monstrousness (or his father’s infamy) but the Torch-Wielding Mob at the climax attacks him as if he’d been monster-making for years (similar blurring would follow in later films). With Bela Lugosi as Ygor (despite dying in the previous film), Lionell Atwill as Ludwig’s evil assistant and Ralph Bellamy and Evelyn Ankers as young lovers. “Better death than a life like this.”
TOKYO JOE (1949) has Tokyo night club owner Humphrey Bogart return to Japan after World War II and reclaim his ex-wife, only to find his charter-aircraft business has entangled him with a Black Dragon scheme to take over Japan for Communism. The Black Dragon would have made this worth mentioning in Screen Enemies of the American Way (ditto Bogart’s argument that Communism is just an updated version of Japanese feudalism) if I’d known about it, even though it’s clear the evil Japanese are a minority; in contrast to WW II-era films which portrayed Japanese as fanatical fiends, this resembles the WW II movie Germany (a good country oppressed by an evil ideology). “I hold all the cards—and look at the hand I have.”