Cinemaventure

  Kriemhild's Revenge is the second of Fritz Lang's films dealing with the Niebelungen.  Kriemhild seeks justice for the murder of her husband Siegfried but her brother King Gunther (who gave the order for Siegfried's killing) protects his loyal henchman Hagen Tronje.  Spurned, she accepts an offer of marriage from Attila the Hun (also known as Konig Etzel in some prints).  This sets the stage for Kriemhild's plan to avenge Siegfried.      It sounds like a soap opera, but grand opera is closer.  Richard Wagner used the original legend as the plot source for his Ring Opera cycle.  Fritz Lang used it as an example of just how costly revenge can be.       As in Siegfried this film moves slowly, or deliberately.  It begins in King Gunther's court in Burgundy which represents Civilization and grandeur in the midst of the Dark Ages.  When it moves to Attila's court we are treated to Lang'...

Back in Ancient Times when I collected movies on honest-to-goodness film one that always proved to expensive for me was Fritz Lang's 1924 epic Siegfried , the first part of Die Nibelungen .  This ancient Germanic story featured an almost invulnerable hero, dwarfs, heroics, treachery, and, best of all, a dragon.      Elements of the original story appeared through the centuries in various forms.  The original myth served as the basis of Wagner's Ring Cycle or operas.  A sword broken was made whole again and appeared in Tolkien's Lord of the Rings .  There was an invisibility cloak (more like a head cover) that enabled the hero to win over opposition and used by boy wizard Harry Potter a few centuries later.       The second part was called Kriemhild's Revenge , but more on this later.      Finally this long sought treasure came within my grasp thanks to its release on DVD by Kino.  Their catalo...

I had hoped to be in San Antonio this weekend for the annual Alamo Symposium and other events commemorating the fall of the Alamo, March 6, 1836.  I did make the trip in 2011 and had a wonderful time.  The dawn ceremony on the sixth of March was very moving and inspiring.  For people interested in the subject of the Alamo and its defenders the Alamo Society is the place to go.  For information, please click on this link:  http://www.alamosociety.org/  .   The Alamo has featured in a number of movies since the 1911 film The Immortal Alamo , which told the story of the Alamo and the Battle of San Jacinto in one reel, a little over ten minutes, depending on projection speed.  Although this is a lost film photos exist.  Information on this and other movies may be found in the book Alamo Movies by Frank Thompson.   Like most of my generation I first encountered the Alamo courtesy of Walt Disney and the television program Disne...

Part of the excitement (yeah, sure) of aging is when you realize just how long ago it was when you first encountered something.  Last year (2012) was the fiftieth anniversary of the momentous day I discovered James Bond, not as a book, or a movie, but as a comic book.  DC, which was not known for adapting movies into comic books, released a comic adaptation of the upcoming thriller Dr. No .  I was in the eighth grade, finishing junior high, getting ready to leap into high school.  The comic intrigued me and I anxiously awaited the movie.  Distribution must have been spotty in Knoxville, or for some other reason, I missed it at first.  But I convinced my mother to take me to see Dr. No in Harriman, a small town west of Knoxville where my father operated his dental lab.  He preferred the 35-mile commute instead of having to deal with dentists at all hours of the night.  But, I am going astray here. My mother drove me to Harriman to see the movie...

There are movies that are so bad they are fun to watch.  I have to admit the movies of Ed Wood do not fit this category for me.  They are so bad they are painful.  Fortunately Sam Katzman sometimes fills the bill.  Katzman (1901-1973) was a producer and director whose career started in 1933.  He worked in Westerns, serials such as Columbia's Superman (1948), Jungle Jim movies with Johnny Weismuller (earning the nickname "Jungle Sam"), and even produced an Elvis Presley movie.  Reportedly he did not care for the experience because the large budget made him uncomfortable.  He worked cheap and fast but usually delivered watchable product.  But even a low-budget mogul such as Katzman could pinch pennies in the wrong area.  In this case it was special effects that suffered. The Giant Claw (1957) is a comedy riot, which is not what was intended.  A good cast of professionals including Jeff Morrow, Mara Corday, Morris Ankrum, and Edga...

Once upon a time in a magic land called Hollywood there were entities called "Studios". They came in all sizes, from giant (MGM) to mite (PRC). The biggest Little Studio was called Republic Pictures and was home to stars such as John Wayne and Roy Rogers. The ruler of this studio was Herbert Yates whose talent involved getting a lot of product for a small amount of money. However, he was not as cheap as PRC and made motion pictures that looked good. Herbert Yates had one fatal flaw; he fell in love with former Olympic skater Vera Hruba Ralston and married her. He also made her the star of many motion pictures (hereafter called pictures because your scribe is getting lazy). He had hoped to make her another Sonja Henie, but there was just so much you could do in a picture wearing ice skates, so he placed her in other movies. There were many actresses prettier and more talented than Vera, but there were also those much worse, but they tended to work for even smaller st...

This is certainly a sad day for us Baby Boomers. Fess Parker who played Davy Crockett has passed away, March 18, 2010. For those of us of a certain age Fess WAS Davy Crockett. Later he played Daniel Boone but we always considered him as Davy using another name. I remember he first impressed me with a small role in my favorite Big Bug Movie, Them! (1954). He portrayed Alan Crotty, a pilot who had an encounter with the giant ants. It was a small role, but Fess Parker made the most of it. I am sure I also saw him in some of his other pre-Davy roles. I watched Dragnet and Stories of the Century (he played Grat Dalton), but it was as Davy Crockett that he became an important part of my young life. "Davy Crockett: Indian Fighter" was broadcast on my sixth birthday and I became a lifelong fanatic on David Crockett of Tennessee. By the time "Davy Crockett at the Alamo" was broadcast I was a confirmed history buff. Fess Parker played other roles at Disney. He was...