Cinemaventure

 Quo Vadis and I go back a long way.  About the middle of the last century MGM released two recordings from this film.  One was a dialogue highlights album in which, I admit, I have no interest.  I want Rozsa's score.  MGM also released a 10-in LP, long out of print.  It also came out as a 78RPM album.  I found one at a sale back around 1972 or 1973.  Sadly, the first disk had a small chip on the edge, but the others were in pretty good shape so I was able to make do. An new recording conducted by Miklos Rozsa with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and Chorus released in the seventies or early eighties was, to me, a disappointment.  The poor mixing made it impossible to catch any of the lyrics sung by the chorus and, I seem to recall, the tempo was too slow.   Quo Vadis was based on a novel by Henryk Sienkiewicz set during the reign of the Emperor Nero.  Robert Taylor, Deborah Kerr, Leo Genn, and Peter Ustinov.  Genn, as Petronius and Ustinov as Nero stole the show, and

  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's vision of Barbaric Splendor.  The Huns are portrayed as behaving

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 catalog is a treasure trove of great films, many beautifully restored.  Siegfri

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 Disneyland .  Fess Parker was Davy Crockett and we learned

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 at the Princess Theater, which I belie

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 Edgar Barrier have the misfortune of playing