Lincroft-Holmdel Science Fiction Club Club Notice - 12/3/86 -- Vol. 5, No. 21 MEETINGS UPCOMING: Unless otherwise stated, all meetings are on Wednesdays at noon. LZ meetings are in LZ 3A-206; MT meetings are in MT 4A-235. _D_A_T_E _T_O_P_I_C 12/10 LZ: THE LEFT HAND OF DARKNESS by Ursula K. LeGuin (Sexual Identity) 12/17 MT: ENDER'S GAME by Orson Scott Card (War in Space) 01/7/87 LZ: NEUROMANCER by William Gibson (Consciousness) HO Chair: John Jetzt HO 1E-525 834-1563 LZ Chair: Rob Mitchell LZ 1B-306 576-6106 MT Chair: Mark Leeper MT 3E-433 957-5619 HO Librarian: Tim Schroeder HO 2G-427A 949-5866 LZ Librarian: Lance Larsen LZ 1C-117 576-2068 MT Librarian: Bruce Szablak MT 4C-418 957-5868 Jill-of-all-trades: Evelyn Leeper MT 1F-329 957-2070 All material copyright by author unless otherwise noted. 1. Christmas time is coming and the Leeperhouse film festival will remember the old tradition of telling ghost stories at Yuletide. On Thursday, December 11, at 7 PM we will be showing two salty ghost stories. Seaside Spirits ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN MARVEL Chap. 1 (1941) dir. by Witney & English EYES OF THE AMARYLIS (1982) dir. by Frederik King Keller THE UNINVITED (1944) dir. by Lewis Allen EYES OF THE AMARYLIS is a genuinely obscure ghost story of a young girl who goes to live by the seaside with her grandmother. Her grandfather was lost at sea thirty years earlier, but her grandmother still waits for his return. This is a subtle and atmospheric film. THE UNINVITED has long been a favorite ghost story. A writer (Ray Milland) and his sister buy an old house by the Cornish seaside only to discover that the house is haunted and will remain so until the unhappy spirits are appeased. This is a great old(-ish) film. "_T_H_E _A_D_V_E_N_T_U_R_E_S _O_F _C_A_P_T_A_I_N _M_A_R_V_E_L _w_a_s _r_o_a_r_i_n_g _g_o_o_d _j_u_v_e_n_i_l_e entertainment. The twelve-chapter serial was a good example of what happens when the right people undertake a project at the right time... The elements of direction and stunt work made CAPTAIN MARVEL and outstanding serial." - 2 - Raymond Stedman THE SERIALS I have never seen ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN MARVEL. I previewed the first two chapters and it seems to me to be one of the best serials. After seeing FLASH GORDON, I was pleased to see that the plot actually advances in CAPTAIN MARVEL. There is a real story to it and if I have to keep missing it to answer the door... well... I won't be happy. Admittedly one reason we show serial is to give people more time to show up before the main feature, but do try to be a little more punctual, huh? 2. Since Mark mentioned punctuality, I might as well iterate (or re-iterate) some of the "house rules": - Be prompt (see comment above). Having people trickle in throughout the serial is bad enough, but having to answer the door every ten minutes throughout the entire first feature is very distracting to everyone. - No smoking. (No one's tried yet, but we might as well make this clear.) - No heckling. There's nothing wrong with reacting to the film, but "humorous" commentary is not welcome. This is particularly true for this week's films, which rely a lot on atmosphere. - It's fun to talk about the films afterward, and a certain amount of discussion is expected, but people should be aware that *our* working hours start at 8 AM. While you may be able to "sleep in" on Friday, we have to get up at 6:30 AM. So plan on leaving by midnight at the latest (leeway allowed if the films are extra-long). [-ecl] Mark Leeper MT 3E-433 957-5619 ...mtgzz!leeper STAR TREK 4: THE VOYAGE HOME A film review by Mark R. Leeper Capsule review: The one-time crew of the Enterprise are back in what is probably their best film so far. While the script occasionally borrows from _T_i_m_e _a_f_t_e_r _T_i_m_e or lapses into low comedy (with a rather silly hospital visit), the main plot is new and engaging and the special effects are--occasionally--very impressive. I usually try to start my reviews by giving a little bit of background information. Well, if there's anyone out there who is unfamiliar with what "Star Trek" is, send me mail and I will fill you in. I have just seen the fourth and (well, so much for suspense) best entry of the "Star Trek" film series. It continues the story started with _S_t_a_r _T_r_e_k _I_I: _T_h_e _W_r_a_t_h _o_f _K_h_a_n, picking up shortly after _S_t_a_r _T_r_e_k _I_I_I: _T_h_e _S_e_a_r_c_h _f_o_r _S_p_o_c_k left off. But for most of the screen time the characters are involved in an unrelated adventure that takes them to San Francisco in the 1980's. (How convenient! The TV series had let Kirk see Earth of the 1960's but never had he seen Earth as it was in the 1980's.) While Lucas's "Star Wars" series purports to tell one long story, the segments of the "Star Trek" series are much better integrated together. In fact, with the fourth film the "Star Trek" series may be surpassing the "Star Wars" series for the quality of its story-telling. It certainly doesn't hurt that the "Star Trek" series is getting away from the scientifically flawed concept of the Genesis Project. Ah, but these are generalities. Specifically, what is _S_t_a_r _T_r_e_k _I_V: _T_h_e _V_o_y_a_g_e _H_o_m_e about? Unfortunately, I cannot say very much about that. There is a giant thingee from space that is menacing Earth and to save Earth Kirk and the regulars of the cast must go back in time to our present. I could say more but if you've seen the film you'd already know what I would say and if you haven't you wouldn't want to know the nature of the menace beforehand. The problem is the plot comes in so unexpectedly that almost anything I could say about it would be spoiler. Suffice it to say that the crew is set loose in modern-day San Francisco and must try to seem normal there as H. G. Wells did in Nicholas Meyer's film _T_i_m_e _a_f_t_e_r _T_i_m_e. In fact, in several places the script borrows heavily from _T_i_m_e _a_f_t_e_r _T_i_m_e That need not be so surprising since one of the four listed authors for the script was Nicholas Meyer. The script takes on a slightly didactic tone in espousing one of the commoner causes of our day, but it is well-justified by the plot. With the exception of three strikingly unconvincing matte paintings, Industrial Light and Magic has provided some terrific special effects. Most of the film required no special effects at all, so the effects budget could be focused on the few scenes where it was really needed. Some of those are spectacular and constitute the main reasons you want to see this film on a wide screen if at all possible. The - 2 - music by Leonard Rosenman is in several places reminiscent of his score to _L_o_r_d _o_f _t_h_e _R_i_n_g_s. It is competent but on the whole probably not up to James Horner's score for _S_t_a_r _T_r_e_k _I_I. I am not sure why Horner was replaced except perhaps that his score for _S_t_a_r _T_r_e_k _I_I_I was too much like his previous score. _S_t_a_r _T_r_e_k _I_V is fun and still tells a reasonable science fiction story. Rate it a low +3 on the -4 to +4 scale. Retrospective on THE WALKING DEAD A film review by Mark R. Leeper After Boris Karloff made a name for himself in Universal horror films like _F_r_a_n_k_e_n_s_t_e_i_n, _T_h_e _B_l_a_c_k _C_a_t, _T_h_e _R_a_v_e_n, _T_h_e _M_u_m_m_y, and _B_r_i_d_e _o_f _F_r_a_n_k_e_n_s_t_e_i_n, he starred in a number of lesser horror films for other studios. All of them seem to have similar plots that have Karloff returning from the dead after having been executed as he was in _T_h_e _M_a_n _T_h_e_y _C_o_u_l_d _N_o_t _H_a_n_g or frozen as he was in _M_a_n _w_i_t_h _N_i_n_e _L_i_v_e_s. Similar films include _T_h_e _M_a_n _W_h_o _L_i_v_e_d _A_g_a_i_n and _B_e_f_o_r_e _I _H_a_n_g. Most of these were less than memorable, but one does stand out. That film is the 1936 _T_h_e _W_a_l_k_i_n_g _D_e_a_d. It was the earliest of Karloff's man-returned-from- the-dead films for other studios and by far the best. Warner Brothers made _T_h_e _W_a_l_k_i_n_g _D_e_a_d a year after _B_r_i_d_e _o_f _F_r_a_n_k_e_n_s_t_e_i_n and designed it to appeal to both their gangster film audience and Universal's horror film audience. A criminal gang wants to get revenge on a judge who sentenced one of their number to prison. They decide to murder him and frame an innocent man. Boris Karloff plays John Ellman, whom the same judge had sentenced to prison years earlier and who has just been released. They kill the judge and frame Ellman, but their crime was witnessed by a pair of young assistants to Dr. Beaumont (played by Edmund Gwenn), a great medical researcher. The witnesses, played by Warren Hull and Margarette Churchill, remain silent, having been threatened by the mob. Finally on Ellman's execution day, they can keep quiet no more and tell Ellman's attorney who is actually in league with the mob. The attorney delays stopping the execution until it is too late to save Ellman. Dr. Beaumont steps in and asks for Ellman's body, then brings it back to life. Returning from the dead, John Ellman seems to have learned in death that he had been framed. He visits each of the racketeers, simply asking why they wanted to kill him, but his sepulchral appearance and the expectation of his vengeance frightens them literally to death. (Not surprisingly, death has hollowed Ellman's cheeks, bent his neck, and given him stiff hair with a shock of grey so that he looks almost like a punk rocker!) Dr. Beaumont ignores all this in his mania to find out what Ellman experienced while dead. Beaumont never finds out and as Ellman dies a second time--shot by the last gangsters he frightened to death--he tells Beaumont to let the dead stay dead. To direct their horror/gangster film, Warner Brothers chose Michael Curtiz, who had previously directed for them such horror films as _D_r. _X, _M_y_s_t_e_r_y _i_n _t_h_e _W_a_x _M_u_s_e_u_m, and _C_a_p_t_a_i_n _B_l_o_o_d. Curtiz went on to direct _A_d_v_e_n_t_u_r_e_s _o_f _R_o_b_i_n _H_o_o_d, _A_n_g_e_l_s _w_i_t_h _D_i_r_t_y _F_a_c_e_s, _T_h_e _S_e_a _H_a_w_k, _T_h_e _S_e_a _W_o_l_f, _Y_a_n_k_e_e _D_o_o_d_l_e _D_a_n_d_y, _M_i_l_d_r_e_d _P_i_e_r_c_e, and, of course, _C_a_s_a_b_l_a_n_c_a. For me _T_h_e _W_a_l_k_i_n_g _D_e_a_d has always been the film I think of when I want to give evidence that Karloff was a good actor. The pathos in - 2 - Ellman caught in a vice of circumstance, pitifully objecting to a gangster's cruelty with "But they said that you'd help me" is an effective piece of acting. Besides Karloff, the film featured Edmund Gwenn, who made a career of likable, if strong-willed, old men. Gwenn is probably best remembered for playing Kris Kringle in _M_i_r_a_c_l_e _o_n _3_4_t_h _S_t_r_e_e_t. He also played the scientist in _T_h_e_m!. Also in the film as hoods were Barton McLane, a familiar face, who usually played either a crook or a policeman like Lt. Dundy, who menaced Bogart in _T_h_e _M_a_l_t_e_s_e _F_a_l_c_o_n. Joe Sawyer went on to play various gangster roles as well as the comical Sgt. O'Hara in the television series _R_i_n _T_i_n _T_i_n. He also played a telephone lineman possessed by aliens in _I_t _C_a_m_e _f_r_o_m _O_u_t_e_r _S_p_a_c_e. _T_h_e _W_a_l_k_i_n_g _D_e_a_d is a long way from greatness but it is a quality production whose somber tone somehow brightened the Saturday night late movie several times when I was a teenager. The resurrected John Ellman's piano recital could be the inspiration for the singing and dancing monster scene in _Y_o_u_n_g _F_r_a_n_k_e_n_s_t_e_i_n, but it is played melodramatically serious. As the dark sunken eyes of John Ellman sweep the room accusingly at the men who had him killed and now have come to hear him play, the film offers a lasting chill.