Fascinating early werewolf novel that is not, even so, the werewolf equivalent of Dracula. Dracula is myth brought to life; Endore reverses the formula and equates life, in all its ugliness, to myth. Convinced by overwhelming circumstantial evidence that his "nephew" is a werewolf, a Frenchman tries first to lock him up, then, when the boy escapes, to track him down in Paris. The boy, now a young man, falls in love with a girl with an unusual attraction to death, desperately hoping their love will cure him. Much of the story plays out against the tumultuous backdrop of the Franco-Prussian War. Yes, the book is a philosophical and political allegory (if that is the right word: Endore doesn't even try to mask his thoughts), but it is also a terrific horror story, one that attacks the reader from a multitude of directions -- physical, medical, psychological, sociological. What the boy does to his girlfriend will not soon be forgotten. It's a convoluted tale, but rarely confusing -- so clear is Endore's writing, which is both perceptive and frequently humorous. A truly remarkable book that, like few others (William Peter Blatty's Legion comes to mind), is both thoughtful and deeply frightening.
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Fascinating early werewolf novel that is not, even so, the werewolf equivalent of Dracula. Dracula is myth brought to life; Endore reverses the formula and equates life, in all its ugliness, to myth. Convinced by overwhelming circumstantial evidence that his "nephew" is a werewolf, a Frenchman tries first to lock him up, then, when the boy escapes, to track him down in Paris. The boy, now a young man, falls in love with a girl with an unusual attraction to death, desperately hoping their love will cure him. Much of the story plays out against the tumultuous backdrop of the Franco-Prussian War. Yes, the book is a philosophical and political allegory (if that is the right word: Endore doesn't even try to mask his thoughts), but it is also a terrific horror story, one that attacks the reader from a multitude of directions -- physical, medical, psychological, sociological. What the boy does to his girlfriend will not soon be forgotten. It's a convoluted tale, but rarely confusing -- so clear is Endore's writing, which is both perceptive and frequently humorous. A truly remarkable book that, like few others (William Peter Blatty's Legion comes to mind), is both thoughtful and deeply frightening.
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++++1/2 First a book by William March, then a Broadway play by Maxwell Anderson, this film is based on both the play and the book, and it is like nothing you have ever seen before. It's about Christine Penmark (Nancy Kelly), a young mother who comes to the terrifying realization that her 8-year-old daughter, Rhoda (Patty McCormack), is not merely sociopathic, but murderously so. Where the book lacked a certain emotional drama, the film has that and then some -- and then some more. Without the play, this would have been a very different film, but as it is, watching this deliciously dialogue-heavy movie is like walking in on a messy domestic situation and gawking, dumbfounded, at the horror of the human condition. Is it excessive? Yes, at times, but then Rhoda does another of her little manipulative turns or Christine plumbs a little deeper into her moral swamp or the mother of a boy Rhoda has killed, drunk and despondent and defiant, drops by to lay the guilt on just a little thicker or the mean caretaker tries yet again to frighten a girl he really shouldn't be messing around with -- and then it's all back on track again, this relentless tour of all the closets and all the skeletons therein. The story doesn't end quite the way it did in the book, but it's a strangely satisfying ending nonetheless. The ending of the film, on the other hand, is another unusual element, and the viewer is advised not to turn it off during the curtain calls for the actors, for LeRoy offers a final coda of macabre humor. ++++ Modern wife (Katharine Ross) begins to suspect a frightening connection when she moves with her family to the small town of Stepford, where most of the women are strangely contented housewives and their husbands, including her own, all belong to the same club. Forbes and screenwriter William Goldman wisely let the satire take care of itself and focus instead on creating a believable atmosphere of mounting horror that wastes no time explaining mysteries better left to our imagination. Not much action until the end, but that's as it should be. An underappreciated gem. Forgettably remade in 2004 as a comedy. Based on Ira Levin's novel. ++++ Gripping account of the last night of the Titanic's maiden voyage, reconstructed from official reports, news articles, and interviews with survivors. Lord's blow-by-blow account begins late on the night of April 14, 1912, just moments before the ship struck an iceberg in the freezing waters of the Atlantic, opening a gash in the hull. Lord can't put us on the bridge at the fateful moment (the captain, of course, didn't survive), but by utilizing the words and testimony of survivors, he is able to take us all over the rest of the ship (and, later, into the lifeboats), revealing the degree to which human nature is a strange and varied thing, a spectrum from the laudable to the contemptible -- with a bit of whimsy on the side. This is a short book, barely over a hundred pages, with an enormous "cast" that can make things confusing at times, but Lord does an admirable job of pulling it all together, mixing technical detail with human reaction to create an exciting and intensely dramatic story. All while leaving room for a few pages of social commentary and the intriguing story of J. Bruce Ismay, the Managing Director of the White Star Line, of which the Titanic and its sister ship the Olympic were the crown jewels, who, we learn, rarely spoke and became something of a recluse following his rescue. If you've never been particularly interested in the story of the Titanic, this book -- which is, in a way, the story of all of us -- might just change your mind. Made into a film in 1958. ++++ Fourteen-year-old girl hires the toughest Federal Marshall she can find to help her track down and bring to justice the man who killed her father in cold blood. Somewhat to her consternation, their party is joined by a handsome Texas Ranger who has been after the killer for months for another murder. Young Mattie Ross is a force to be reckoned with -- self-possessed, strong-willed, and educated (by cowboy standards); she is, however, utterly humorless, and much of the charm of the novel, which is told by Mattie a quarter century after the fact, lies in the way she is perceived by others, and how those perceptions fly right over her head. The style is simple and formalized, giving the humor an understated quality that can creep up on you, but also making the book highly readable (it's a pleasure, for instance, not to have to slog through a lot of broken English and cowboy slang). The marshal is Rooster Cogburn, a fat man with only one good eye, who early on seems to recognize something of himself in Mattie's indomitability. Ultimately, it's all about Mattie, but Portis never wanders far from the plot, which makes this thoroughly enjoyable book exciting as well as funny, and even a little touching. Made into a film the following year starring Kim Darby and John Wayne. First Line People do not give it credence that a fourteen-year-old girl could leave home and go off in the wintertime to avenge her father's blood but it did not seem so strange then, although I will say it did not happen every day. ++++ Powerful, intelligent, and darkly funny adaptation, by Tennessee Williams himself, of two of Williams' one-act plays, 27 Wagons Full of Cotton and The Long Stay Cut Short. Carroll Baker is 19-year-old Baby Doll Meighan, coerced into marriage to the much older Archie Lee (Karl Malden), owner of a cotton gin that is put out of business by Sicilian Silva Vacarro (Eli Wallach) and his modernized cotton company. Nothing, Archie Lee decides, that a touch of arson can't fix -- but he doesn't count on Silva figuring he did it and making a play for Baby Doll in revenge. With superb acting and substantive dialogue, and at best a moving target for our sympathies. Controversial when first released (it was "condemned" by the Catholic Legion of Decency and banned as obscene in Aurora, Illinois, for instance), the film is still today racy enough to make its "sex" scenes suspenseful and somewhat nerve-wracking, particularly one set on an outdoor swing. ++++ Two British diplomats, an American, and a female missionary are kidnapped while trying to escape a political revolution in India and flown to the mountains of Tibet where they are welcomed into a hidden lamasery (or monastery) called Shangri-La, which proves to be a place that is as difficult to leave as it is to find. The question Hilton poses is, Why would you want to leave, if you had found paradise? The story merges character and ideas to paint a complex portrait of a man (Conway, the elder of the two diplomats) who is neither hero nor coward and none the better for it: though he deserves his new-found peace and happiness (after surviving the trenches of World War I and his exemplary public service following the war), the only way to preserve it is to be what he is not, as he discovers in what can only be described as the intellectually exciting climax to this outstanding novel. A novel that is, as well, Hilton's pointed yet rather gentle critique of modern life -- frantic, chaotic, and violent; Shangri-La, his alternative, is built on the principle of moderation in all things, including moderation itself, a place as equally suited to the pursuit of philosophical as physical pleasure. And while Hilton makes a number of good points about how humans do (and, conversely, should) conduct themselves, he is wise enough to show us, in dramatic fashion, that paradise, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder. Modern readers should note that this book is hardly one that would comport well with any feminist ideal. The novel has been adapted twice for film, first (and most famously) by Frank Capra in 1937, then as a musical in 1973. **** Fascinating, exceedingly low-key noir horror film about a young woman (Kim Hunter) whose search for her missing sister leads her to an odd cult of satanists in Greenwich Village. From the producer (Val Lewton) and writer (DeWitt Bodeen) of Cat People and Curse of the Cat People, so expect the off-beat. The sister (Jean Brooks) says things like, “I’ve always wanted to die.” This haunting, depressing film is not recommended for the clinically depressed. "[T]otally unbelievable hocus-pocus about a strange Greenwich Village coterie." - Variety, December 31, 1942 **** In sum, a romantic mystery coupled with its personal and practical aftermath, as those left behind cope with the fate of four college girls who, on Valentine's Day, 1900, during an outing to Hanging Rock, a volcanic formation in Australia, wended their way toward the top of the rock, where three of them disappeared and the fourth ran away screaming. The larger portion -- the investigation and the differing ways the tragedy affects the lives of those touched by it -- is well-constructed to maintain suspense, but frankly it isn't what makes this movie so haunting and so memorable. That distinction belongs to the first third of the film, recounting the mystery itself, which Weir evokes with rare poetry: a combination of gorgeous photography, portentous atmosphere, and pointed (if yet ambiguous) dialogue. Based on a novel (by Joan Lindsay), but not an actual event. "Horror...may be a warm sunny day. the innocence of girlhood and hints of unexplored sexuality that combine to produce a euphoria so intense it becomes transporting, a state beyond life or death." - Vincent Canby, The New York Times, February 23, 1979 "Russell Boyd's cinematography unfolds in a series of images so lush and chimerical that they seem less the product of his camera than the result of brush-strokes by the elder Renoir." - Ed Roginski, Film Quarterly, Summer, 1979 **** Hitchcock's adaptation of the Graham Winston novel is about a frigid kleptomaniac with a dreadful past and the man determined to rehabilitate her, even if it means binding her with blackmail and thrashing her with his unwanted sexual advances. It is, according to the original poster, Alfred Hitchcock's "suspenseful sex mystery." (Whatever that might be -- a glory hole, perhaps?) More likely, it is an exploration of the mystery of sex, albeit the darker side of it. It asks questions like, "How far do love and good intentions allow a man to go?", "Is blackmail ever justified?", and "When is rape for a woman's own good?" Clearly, this is no movie for the knee-jerk crowd. Yet it's Hitchcock all the way. The suspense is generated by Marnie's life of crime, the mystery by her psychological problems (they date back to her childhood), and the sex by about a million years of cold, hard instinct. Not quite as good as the book (which has different emphases), but a classic in its own right. Starring Tippi Hedren and Sean Connery. |
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