Dementia 13 (1963)

Irish mansion, morbid ceremony, family secrets, ax murderer, big reveal, roll credits.

While working with Roger Corman on The Young Racers, a very young Francis Ford Coppola somehow convinced him to finance his own film. He used existing sets and locations, enlisted film school friends, wrote a script, finagled additional funding, and filmed during down times. The title was inspired by Hitchcock’s Psycho, but there was already a 1955 film named Dementia, so he added the number 13. You know, because 13 is unlucky.

Coppola borrowed a few actors from The Young Racers but the only recognizable face is William Campbell. He had a long film and TV career, but to me he will always be General Trelane, retired. The film’s two pretty blonds each have a sexy sexy scene (by 1963 standards) calling back to Coppola’s earlier work on nudie cuties.

A close look at this film may reveal clues of a director that would be one of the all time greatest for an eight year stretch, but without the insight of hindsight I doubt even an educated viewer could pick that out. It is at times clumsy, some of the acting is quite poor, and the story is really a mess. It feels as if a few interesting elements were awkwardly tied together into a narrative. It’s worth noting that his previous directing experience was creating additional scenes to somehow save The Terror. Coppola learned a great many things during the process, but the importance of budget and time may have been the best lesson.

Dementia 13 is a watchable and mostly interesting film, if only because of the director. But it is by no means a good or important film. There are flaws the viewer must overlook, but at least it’s brief. AMRU 2.5.

“Especially an American girl. You can tell she's been raised on promises.”

 

The Masque of the Red Death (1964)

Prince Prospero (Vincent Price) is a terrible man. He visits a small village for reasons I forget and is given an earful by two residents. He sentences them to fight to the death, but two things happen: he takes a fancy to the pretty Francesca and discovers that the village is infected by The Red Death, which is apparently some kind of plague. He orders the village burned and takes the pretty lady and two men back to his castle. There he contemplates ways to kill his prisoners, tries to woo the pretty girl (because, you know, consent), and plans a masquerade ball.

This is another of Roger Corman’s eight Poe films, of which I’ve now seen three. The teenaged Jane Asher was quite charming as the prince's captive. Prospero’s lady in waiting (Hazel Court) is jealous of this new love interest and starts operating on her own agenda. After her initial ingenue period, Court appeared in a fair number of low budget horror flicks. After Masque she moved to television and had a lengthy career there. In a side story a tiny dancer catches the eye of Hop Toad the dwarf. Turns out that actress was only eight years old at the time.

The Masque of the Red Death has an air of artificiality about it. The dialog is stilted and mannered. The sets are brightly colored, brightly lit, and very set-looking. People are locked in rooms that we don’t doubt for a moment the actors couldn’t punch their way through. There is much to pick apart if one were inclined. But this is the disbelief we are supposed to suspend. So, it is what it is. It holds your interest even if the story sometimes makes no sense. I should read the Poe story. AMRU 3.

The Face of Another (1966)

A man loses his face in an industrial accident, and his outlook and relationships are profoundly affected. His psychologist offers to create a lifelike mask, in effect a new identity.

The Face of Another is a horror film with an art house heart. It is an exploration of the self, who you are, how you are perceived, and how you believe you are. The sets of the Doctor’s laboratory are abstract, stripped down to the basic elements, and the dialog is laden with symbolism. The open question is will the mask allow Mr. Okuyama to become himself again and re-enter society or will he become what the mask wants him to be. Trippy stuff.

Emboldened by the mask, he tells his wife he is going on a business trip, and rents an apartment as his new identity. His behavior becomes more troubling.

The story essentially revolves around three characters: Mr. Okuyama, his estranged wife, and his doctor. There are, however, curious characters in the periphery. The Doctor’s nurse, a girl known only as “Yo-Yo Girl”, and the enigmatic “Girl with Scar”. They add texture to the narrative without distracting from it, and their purpose in the story is open for debate.

The Face of Another leaves me with questions. Questions I won’t explore here lest I spoil or influence interpretation. I doubt I will watch it again, but I think it will stick with me for a while. AMRU 3.5.

Blood and Black Lace (1964)

A model at a haute couture fashion house is murdered by a man with a creepily hidden face. When her diary is discovered, the models who take it become the next target of the hidden killer.

Mario Bava's Blood and Black Lace is an early example of the Italian Giallo genre of slasher thrillers, perhaps the first. They tend to focus more on atmosphere and imagery rather than story or character. And they seldom delve into the supernatural and thus fall partially outside of my definition of Horror.

There are plenty of suspects and a bit of a reveal at the end, but this isn’t a who-done-it. It’s a film for people who likes to see great cinematography, excellent sets, and pretty women brutally murdered. And it’s the sexualization of murder I cannot get on board with. Just not my thing. We don’t get to like the victims, don’t get to hate them. We just see them die. It's purely visual.

My problem with Blood and Black Lace, and Giallo in general, is that I feel like I am trying to watch a different film than the one on screen. I want there to be more story, better developed characters, smarter in general, and therefore disappointed. This is entirely a Me problem. With all that said, it wasn’t a hard film to watch. Enough action and detail to keep you interested, and it does look stunning. AMRU 3.

Pitfall (1948)

Middle-aged insurance man Forbes (Dick Powell) is tired of his predictable life. He crosses paths with Mona, a pretty young woman who’s embezzling boyfriend lavished her with gifts, and starts an ill conceived relationship. Unfortunately the company PI (Raymond Burr) already called dibs.

The put-upon wife is played by Jane Wyatt, better known as the mom in Father Knows Best. I’ve never seen an episode. Raymond Burr is compellingly despicable as Mona’s unwanted admirer. He was said to be a nice guy in real life. Go figure.

Lizabeth Scott plays the pretty Mona. She seemed something of a Veronica Lake type. The former understudy of Tallulah Bankhead, it is said she was the model for Eve from All About. Ambitious and difficult, she was often derided for her talent, but her understated performance worked fine here. Producer boyfriends and better roles dried up once north of 30, so she rounded out her career on television.

Independently produced, Pitfall has a snappy script and pretty good performances. It skirted some Hays code conventions that studio productions might not have been able to. Nothing too scandalous, though. This is pretty much still a by-the-books 40’s noir.

Honestly, this won’t be a film that sticks with me. It is a good but not great film, but I had to get the bad taste of that last one out of my mouth. It has some good dialog and a few interesting moments, and is worth a watch. AMRU 3.5.

Tommy: “Dad was a boxer in college!”
Doctor: “I think he was wise to go into insurance.”