Albert Dekker | Through the Shattered Lens

cracked rear viewer

Tonight I’ll be watching the Major League Baseball All-Star Game, but for those of you non-baseball fans, here’s a look at five funny films from the 1930’s & 40’s:

IT’S A GIFT (Paramount 1934, D: Norman Z. McLeod) The Great Man himself, W.C. Fields , works his magic in this delightfully demented domestic comedy about hen pecked grocer Harold Bissonette, who dreams of owning an orange grove in California. His wife (Kathleen Howard) is a domineering battle-axe, his kid (Tommy Bupp) an obnoxious, roller skating brat, and daughter Mildred (Jean Rouveral) doesn’t want to leave her “true love”. This sets the stage for some of Fields’ funniest surrealistic scenes, including his grocery store being demolished by blind Mr. Mickle and perennial nemesis Baby Leroy; poor W.C. trying to get some sleep on the porch while being constantly disturbed by noisy neighbors, a wayward coconut, a man looking for “Carl LeFong”, and…

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Late night every Saturday, the Late Night Movie crew and I gather over in the SyFy Designs chat room and we watch an old movie. Last night, we watched the 1966 killer turtle film, Gammera The Invincible.

Gammera The Invicible began life as Gamera, a Japanese monster film that was made in an attempt to rival the popularity of the Godzilla films. Gamera is a giant, prehistoric turtle who, after being awakened by an atomic bomb, proceeds to attempt to destroy the world. (And, when you think about the way the world works, who can really blame him?) Unlike the small, passive turtles that live in the creek next to my house, Gamera can not only fly but breathe fire as well. He’s one hell of a turtle.

Anyway, when Gamera was released in the States, it was retitled Gammera The Invincible*. Director Sandy Howard shot some new scenes (featuring American actors like Albert Dekker) and that footage was crudely mixed with scenes from the original Japanese film. The Japanese actors were badly dubbed and the end result was disjointed, to say the least.

But, disjointed or not, Gammera The Invincible is a lot of fun. Why? Well, first off, Gammera is a lot cuter than Godzilla. How can you go wrong with a giant turtle? Secondly, Gammera is that rare Japanese monster film that invites you to dance. I dare you to listen to the Gammera theme song and not be happy!

For me, everything great about Gammera can be seen in the scene below. As that nameless actor quite correctly puts it, who cares about monsters when you can dance?