Tag Archives: Donald Pleasence

October Hacks: Buried Alive (dir by Gerard Kikoine)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

1990’s Buried Alive may be the worst Edgar Allan Poe adaptation ever filmed.

The film takes place at the Ravenscroft Institute, a former mental asylum founded by the fearsome Jacob Julian (John Carradine). Jacob’s son, Gary (Robert Vaughn), took over the Institute after his father’s death, treated his patients with kindness and compassion, and preached about the need for “freedom.” Now, Gary has transformed Ravenscroft into an all-girls school for juvenile delinquents. The students worship him because he tells them that nothing is their fault and that they deserve to live the life they want. His newest teacher, Janet (Karen Lorre), is a fan as well. In fact, she soon finds herself falling in love with Gary.

However, from the minute Janet shows up at Ravenscroft, she starts having strange visions. She sees thousands of ants crawling over her feet. She hears strange sounds in the walls. At one point, an arm reaches out of a toilet and tries to grab her. She thinks she sees a distinguished Shakespearean character actor sealed behind a wall. Is she losing her mind, or has she stumbled across something more sinister?

Now, when I say that Buried Alive is one of the worst Edgar Allan Poe adaptations I’ve ever seen, understand that it is not the fault of the cast. There are some truly talented people in this film. A young Nia Long plays a student named Fingers. Ginger Lynn Allen has fun playing a bully named Debbie. Robert Vaughn is appropriately intense as Gary, and John Carradine is… well, he’s John Carradine. This was one of Carradine’s final films, and he actually died before it was released. Obviously, Carradine doesn’t do much, but, as was often the case, his intimidating screen presence meant that he didn’t have to do much to make an impression. He just had to exist. Donald Pleasence plays Dr. Schaeffer, a German-accented member of the staff who wears round glasses and an ill-fitting toupee and who pops up occasionally to tell Janet not to wander around at night. Pleasence was obviously not in the best of health when he played Schaeffer, but, much like Carradine, his eccentric presence gives the film some much-needed atmosphere, and there is a fairly effective twist involving his character. Finally, there’s an absolutely adorable black cat that randomly appears throughout the film. It’s the film’s way of acknowledging Edgar Allan Poe, I imagine.

No, the failure of Buried Alive is not due to the cast. It’s really not even due to the script, which borrows the idea of someone being buried alive and not much else from the Poe story. Instead, the fault almost entirely rests with the film’s direction. The story unfolds with little momentum, some scenes meander while others are over far too quickly, and the director seems to think that filming anyone in an extreme close-up will automatically make them creepy. There are a few gross sequences involving a bunch of ants and the film has a few slasher moments, like the silencing of one annoying victim via a garden tool to the forehead , but otherwise there’s little horror and next to no suspense. I actually found myself getting angry over how poorly directed this film was.

The cast deserved better.

The TSL Horror Grindhouse: American Rickshaw (dir by Sergio Martino)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

1989’s American Rickshaw opens in Florida. Scott Edwards (played by Olympic gymnast Mitch Gaylord) is a college student who pays the bills by pulling a rickshaw through the streets of Miami. One day, he sees an elderly Asian woman (Michi Koba) sitting by herself at a bus stop. When it starts to rain, he offers her a free ride home. Though Scott was just being nice, it turns out that this is the most important thing he’s ever done. The woman is a witch, and when Scott is subsequently implicated in the murder of the son of televangelist Rev. Mortom (Donald Pleasence), she uses her powers to help him escape both the police and the hitman trying to track him down. The witch, aided by both a cat and a cobra, has a history of her own with the duplicitous Rev. Mortom.

American Rickshaw is an odd hybrid of a film. In many ways, it’s a standard action film. Gaylord plays Scott as a lovable loser who gets set up by a stripper named Joanna (Victoria Prouty) and Jason Mortom (Gregg Todd Davis). While Joanna seduces Scott on a boat, Jason hides behind a two-way mirror with a video camera. When Scott hears Jason behind the mirror, he breaks Jason’s camera and leaves the boat with a videotape he thinks features him and Joanna. Only later does he discover that he grabbed the wrong tape. When Scott returns for the correct tape, he discovers that Jason has been murdered. With the hitmen determined to get the tape Scott did take, he ends up getting chased all over Miami.

At the same time, it’s a horror film. The witch uses her powers to help Scott, which means there are scenes of hitmen suddenly seeing a snake approaching them. The witch’s cat also shows up and stares at the ocean until Scott finally realizes he’s meant to dive in so he can find a clue. It’s established that the witch has a magical past with the demonic Rev. Mortom and that Mortom himself is involved in his own son’s murder. “He’s the devil!” Mortom’s wife (Judy Clayton) yells at one point, and it turns out she’s pretty much right.

This, of course, is all a polite way of saying that the film doesn’t make much sense, but anyone familiar with the films of Sergio Martino will not be surprised to hear that. Like many of the great Italian horror and thriller directors, Martino was always more interested in a few strong set pieces than in a coherent plot. American Rickshaw is more about the chase than the destination, and there are enough weird moments to keep things entertaining. Mitch Gaylord is just as blandly engaging here as he was in American Anthem. (“Steve Tevere has thrown a tripus!”) What Gaylord may have lacked in range, he made up for with earnestness.

Of course, the main attraction here is Donald Pleasence, playing the televangelist with an appropriately predatory glint in his eyes. Pleasence doesn’t get a lot of scenes, but, as always, he’s a memorable presence and he commands the screen whenever he does show up. The reverend is such a strange character that it’s hard to think of any actor other than Donald Pleasence in the role.

American Rickshaw is one of those films that seems to get a lot of bad reviews, largely from people who aren’t familiar with the unique style of Italian exploitation films. Personally, I think it’s impossible not to enjoy something as weird as this film. Seriously, how can anyone resist Donald Pleasence and Mitch Gaylord in the same movie?

Horror Film Review: The Mutations (dir by Jack Cardiff)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

In 1974’s The Mutations, Donald Pleasence stars as Professor Nolter. A genetic scientist, Nolter is convinced that plants are the greatest examples of evolution. During the classes he teaches at the local university, Nolter raves about the wonders of the Venus flytrap. Is there anything better than a plant specifically developed to eat bugs? When we see Nolter’s students listening to him, the majority of them appear kind of bored with the whole thing. Only Brian Redford (Brad Harris) is really that interested in anything Nolter has to say.

What no one knows is that Nolter has been conducting experiments of his own. Nolter has hired the deformed Lynch (Tom Baker) to abduct young women and eventually young men so that Nolter can try to speed up their evolution by injecting them with plant DNA… or something. To be honest, I’m not totally sure what Nolter was doing in that laboratory, and I kind of suspect the same was true for the screenwriter. What I can say for sure is that there were a lot of close-ups of the hypodermic needle Nolter was holding in his hand. Unfortunately, all of Nolter’s experiments have failed, and his victims have been transformed into strange creatures. One girl becomes a lizard woman. One guy is turned into a crab-like plant monster.

Fortunately for Nolter, Lynch owns a carnival, and Nolter’s victims just become the latest attractions. Lynch was himself once a carnival “freak.” He was known as “the ugliest man in the world,” and he’s never recovered from the shame and the trauma of being taunted for years. Nolter has promised to cure Lynch of his disfigurement in return for Lynch continuing to abduct new subjects for him. However, when a group of Nolter’s students come to suspect that a classmate has been transformed into a reptile, everything starts to come crashing down.

The Mutations is an odd film. On the one hand, the carnival setting and Donald Pleasence’s mad scientist definitely feel like they could have been lifted from any number of old, black-and-white horror films. At the same time, the nudity, the gore, and the clear implication that Lynch is a pervert, along with everything else, clearly establish that this film was made in the ’70s. Indeed, there’s a scene in which some students talk about dropping acid that practically seems to be shouting, “See? This film is modern and hip!” The film works best when it pays homage to the older films that inspired it. As always, Donald Pleasence seems as if he was born to play an obsessive and quite mad scientist. Tom Baker is brutish as Lynch, but he also communicates the pain that Lynch carries in his heart. (Baker especially deserves credit for managing to give such an expressive performance despite acting underneath a ton of makeup.) Michael Dunn also gives a good performance as the sympathetic leader of the freaks. Unfortunately, the college students are never as interesting. Our heroes are duds. Luckily, the villains are entertaining.

This film was directed by cinematographer Jack Cardiff and, not surprisingly, it looks great. This was Cardiff’s final film as a director. After this film, he returned to working as a cinematographer. One of his last credits was for Rambo: First Blood Part II. No matter what you may think of that film, it looks good! The same can be said of The Mutations.

Horror Film Review: Specters (dir by Marcello Avallone)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

In the 1987 Italian film Specters, Donald Pleasence plays Professor Lasky. Lasky is investigating the catacombs underneath Rome. When he discovers a previously unknown tomb, he speculates that it may be the final resting place of a Roman emperor who was sacrificed to a pagan god by his own subjects. Lasky says that Roman historians tried to cover up the existence of the emperor because it was simply too scandalous to admit that he had been killed by the very people over whom he ruled. Now Lasky might have proof of his existence. But at what cost?

The main reason I watched Specters was the presence of Donald Pleasence. Unfortunately, as was often the case with Pleasence’s post-Halloween films, he doesn’t really get to do much in Specters. He appears in a handful of scenes, and he’s just as intense as always. Rather than being excited about the possibility of having made a major discovery, he seems rather worried about why the tomb was so well hidden in the first place. Pleasence brings his trademark intensity to the role. As always, it’s a joy to listen to the slightly unhinged timbre of his voice. That said, it’s hard not to wish that Pleasence had been given a bigger and more active role. John Carpenter’s Prince of Darkness, which was released the same year, showed that Pleasence was still capable of being a compelling actor when given the opportunity.

Instead, Specters is largely about Professor Lasky’s assistant, Marcus (John R. Pepper), and his girlfriend, Alice (Trine Michelsen). Alice is an actress shooting a horror movie in Rome, and Specters actually has a fairly clever sequence in which a scene of Alice being chased turns out to be a scene from the movie she’s shooting. For the most part, Alice just wants Marcus to stay home so they can have sex. Unfortunately, Marcus keeps getting called back to the catacombs. The one time they do have sex, we discover that Marcus has an incredibly hairy back, and it kind of ruined the mood for me. I will say that, as someone who owns over a hundred nightshirts, I was jealous of Alice’s collection. The nightshirt with all the months listed on it was to die for.

Opening the tomb releases an evil force in Rome. Lasky and his assistants are targeted, but occasionally the evil force seems to go after anyone who happens to be around. It’s not a particularly well-defined evil force, which occasionally makes the film effective. There’s a scene involving a suddenly erudite beggar that’s actually rather creepy. The film makes frequent use of a wind machine. Whenever the evil force is floating around, a big wind starts up and doors and windows are thrown open or slammed shut. At one point, Alice sinks into a bed, and we’re left to wonder if Freddy Krueger was sealed up in the tomb.

It’s a confusing film, one made up of multiple set pieces that don’t always seem to go together. The incoherence is not necessarily a bad thing. Fulci’s Beyond trilogy and Argento’s Inferno both showed that Italian horror cinema often benefits from dream logic. The main problem is that, with the exception of the underused Donald Pleasence, none of the characters are really interesting enough to hold our attention. The Beyond trilogy benefited from the presence of likable actors like Catriona MacColl and David Warbeck. Inferno may not have always made sense, but Argento was smart enough to populate his dreamscape with people like Daria Nicolodi, Irene Miracle, and Leigh McCloskey. (McCloskey may not have been the greatest actor, but his stolid presence grounded the film.) Specters just feels like a random assemblage of scenes that don’t really belong together. There are a few effective moments, but they don’t add up to much.

That said, it is always good to see Donald Pleasence. And Rome, as always, is lovely.

Horror on the Lens: The Pumaman (dir by Alberto De Martino)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Okay, so technically, the Italian 1980 film The Pumaman isn’t really a horror film.  However, it does fit in with Halloween because it’s about a super hero and who hasn’t dressed up as a super hero for Halloween?  (Well, I never have but I’m sure a lot of other people have!)

The Pumaman is actually a paleontologist named Tony (Walter George Alton) who, though he doesn’t realize it, is the last in a long line of Pumamen.  Fortunately, an Aztec mystic shows up and lets him know.  When Tony expresses some doubt, the mystic responds by tossing him out a window.

And you know what?

It’s a good thing that Tony has learned the truth about his heritage because the evil Dr. Kobras (Donald Pleasence) has an evil scheme to do something evil.  To be honest, I’m not sure what Dr. Kobras is trying to do, though it has something to do with an ancient mask and mind control.  The important thing is that Dr. Kobras is played by Donald Pleasence and it’s always a good time to watch Donald Pleasence in October.

Scenes that I Love: John Grant Meet Doc Tydon in Wake In Fright

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

107 years ago today, the great actor Donald Pleasence was born.

Pleasence is, of course, best-known for playing Dr. Loomis in Halloween. He’s so identified with that franchise that it’s always seemed appropriate that he celebrated his birthday in October. And usually, to celebrate his birthday, we would share a scene of Dr. Loomis yelling at or shooting Michael Myers.

This year, though, I’m going to do something a little different and share a scene from a different type of horror movie, 1971’s Wake in Fright. In this Australian film, Donald Pleasence plays Doc Tydon, an alcoholic doctor who lives in the Australian outback and who befriends John Grant (Gary Bond), a naïve school teacher who has become stranded in a town full of people who don’t have much respect for Grant’s intellectual pursuits. Actually, befriends is perhaps the wrong word. Tydon allows Grant to stay with him but it soon become apparent that Tydon, like almost everyone else in this movie, might have a less-than-friendly agenda of his own.

Wake In Fright features what may be Pleasence’s best performance. In the scene below, Tydon and Grant meet for the first time and Pleasence shows that he was capable of far more than just playing Blofeld and Dr. Loomis.

Film Review: The Eagle Has Landed (dir by John Sturges)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

The 1976 film, The Eagle Has Landed, takes place during World War II.

The year is 1943 and, with the war turning against Germany, Heinrich Himmler (Donald Pleasence, in a chilling turn) orders Colonel Max Radl (Robert Duvall) to come up with a plan to kidnap Winston Churchill.  When Radl learns that Churchill is scheduled to visit a small, coastal British village, he recruits a cynical member of the IRA, Liam Devlin (Donald Sutherland), to travel to the village and make contact with a Nazi sleeper agent, Joanna Grey (Jean Marsh).  While Devlin sets up the operation in Britain and falls in love with Molly Prior (Jenny Agutter), Radl recruits disillusioned Colonel Kurt Steiner (Michael Caine) to lead the mission to kidnap Churchill.

At first the village is welcoming to Steiner and his men, who are disguised as being Polish paratroopers.  However, it doesn’t take long for the plan to fall apart.  Soon, Steiner and his men are holding the villagers hostage in a church while battling a group of American soldiers led by the incompetent Colonel Clarence Pitts (Larry Hagman) and Captain Harry Clark (Treat Williams).  Meanwhile, in Germany, Radl learns that Hitler did not actually authorize the mission to kidnap Churchill and that he has been set up as the scapegoat in case the mission fails.

The Eagle Has Landed can seem like a bit of an odd film.  For a film that was released in the same year as Network, All The President’s Men, and Taxi Driver, The Eagle Has Landed feels rather old-fashioned and almost quaint in its storytelling.  This was the final film to be directed by John Sturges, a director who started his career in the 1940s and whose best-known films included The Magnificent Seven and The Great Escape.  Sturges’s direction is efficient but not at all flashy.  (It’s a film that feel like its very much a product of the mid-60s as opposed to the mid-70s.)  The story plays out at a deliberate pace, one that leaves no doubt that the film was based on a novel.  In fact, it sometimes feels as if the film itself should have chapter headings.  The film holds your interest but it’s hard not to feel that a film that should have been an epic action film has instead been turned into something far less ambitious.

Sturges works with an ensemble cast, with no one member of the cast really dominating over the other.  (I guess if the film has a main character, it would be Donald Sutherland’s Liam Devlin but, for all the time that’s devoted to him, he actually doesn’t do that much once the action starts.)  The cast is full of good actors, though a few of them are miscast.  Neither Michael Caine nor Robert Duvall make much of attempt to sound German.  As a member of the IRA, Donald Sutherland sounds as Canadian as ever.  Fortunately, Caine, Duvall, and Sutherland are all strong-enough actors that they can make an impression even with somewhat distracting accents.  Treat Williams is a bit bland as the heroic American but Larry Hagman generates a few chuckles as Williams’s amazingly dumb commanding officer.  The important thing is that ensemble is strong enough to hold the viewer’s attention.

The Eagle Has Landed is an old-fashioned but still entertaining film.  The actors are fun to watch, the action scenes are fairly exciting, and it ends with a clever twist, one that was apparently historically accurate.  It’s a well-done historical melodrama, even if it’s never quite as epic as it aspires to be.

Lisa Marie’s Take On Escape From New York (dir by John Carpenter)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

I was a bit shocked to realize that I hadn’t reviewed Escape from New York for this site.  Leonard’s reviewed it.  Jeff’s reviewed it.  I’ve reviewed quite a few Italian films that were inspired by Escape from New York.  Last year, I devoted an entire day to how much I love Kurt Russell.  I’ve shared John Carpenter’s theme music, more than once.  I’ve reacted to Mamdani’s election by telling my friends that it’s time to escape from New York.  I’ve lost track of the number of times that I’ve told Leonard that it is “Time to leave the Bronx,” even though he doesn’t live in the Bronx.  (What do I know?  I live in Texas.)  But I’ve never actually reviewed Escape From New York.

I love Escape from New York but I have to say that the film itself can’t live up the brilliant poster art.  The first time I watched Escape from New York, I was really disappointed that the Statue of Liberty’s head never appeared in the middle of a street in Manhattan.  If the film were made today, one imagines that the filmmakers would be able to do all sorts of things with the Statue of Liberty.  But Escape from New York was made in 1981, in the days before rampant CGI.  Escape from New York was made at a time when directors had to be somewhat clever and that definitely works to the film’s advantage.  The lack of big time special effects meant that Carpenter had to emphasize character and atmosphere.  Escape From New York might not feature the Statue of Liberty’s head but it does feature an amazing cast and a host of unforgettable characters.  When you manage to get Kurt Russell, Ernest Borgnine, Donald Pleasence, Harry Dean Stanton, Adrienne Barbeau, Lee Van Cleef, and Isaac Hayes all in the same film, there’s no way it isn’t going to be memorable.

We all know the plot.  Kurt Russell plays career criminal Snake Plissken.  (Everyone thought Snake was dead.)  When the President (Donald Pleasence) finds himself trapped on the prison island of Manhattan, Snake is the man who is sent to rescue him.  The fate of the world depends on rescuing the President.  If the President isn’t rescued, it could lead to nuclear war.  Snake doesn’t really care about the fate of the world.  He does care about the fate of himself, however.  He’s been injected with a poison that will kill him unless he receives the antidote in 24 hours.

(The doctor who gives Snake the poison is named Dr. Cronenberg.  Meanwhile, Frank Doubleday appears as a thug named Romero.  Lee Van Cleef’s police commissioner is named Hauk, as in Howard Hawks.  Tom Atkins plays Captain Rehme, as in producer Bob Rehme.  The film may be about the collapse and possible end of the world but John Carpenter’s having fun.  And, of course, so are we.)

The President has been captured by the Duke of New York (Isaac Hayes).  It doesn’t take Snake long to track down the Duke.  But rescuing the President and making it back to safety turns out to be far more difficult and violent than anyone was anticipating.  Snake gets some help, from characters like Cabbie (Ernest Borgnine), Brain (Harry Dean Stanton), and Maggie (Adrienne Barbeau).  Of course, that help is largely due to everyone’s self-interest.  The recurring theme is that no one really cares that much about whether or not the President or even Snake lives or dies.  Maggie loves Brain but, otherwise, there’s not much individual loyalty to be found in this film.  Instead, everyone just cares about getting the Hell out of New York.  In the end, even the President turns out to be a bit of a jerk.

(I do have to say that I absolutely love Donald Pleasence’s performance in Escape from New York.  The “You’re the Duke!  You’re the Duke!  A Number One!” scene?  That was Pleasence at his most brilliant.)

It’s a wonderfully acted and directed film, one that is often darkly humorous.  (While Kurt Russell delivers his lines with a endearing self-awareness, Carpenter has a lot of fun imagining the type of criminal society that would emerge on an isolated Manhattan.)  It’s also a film that understands the power of New York City.  Depending on who you ask, New York either represents the worst or the best of America.  That’s true today and, watching Escape from New York, it’s easy to guess that was probably true in 1981 as well.  There’s a power to the “New York” name and it’s why this film wouldn’t have worked if it had been called Escape From Houston or Escape From Spokane.  (One reason why Escape From LA failed was because the cartoonishness of Los Angeles couldn’t compete with the grit of New York.)  We all know the saying — “New York, New York: If you can make it there, you can make it anywhere.”  This film reminds us that it’s also true that if you can escape from there, you can escape from anywhere.  Escape from New York brilliantly captures the way that most of the rest of country view New York but, by limiting the action to Manhattan, it also presents a story that can be enjoyed by people in Brooklyn, the Bronx, Queens, and Staten Island.  I imagine the film is especially popular on Staten Island.

Escape From New York is a brilliant work of the pulp imagination.  It’s a film that will probably outlive the city.

The Pumaman (1980, directed by Albert De Martino)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

Dr. Kobras (Donald Pleasence) has got an evil scheme.  He’s going to use an ancient gold mask to take over people’s mind and eventually take over the world.  Only the Pumaman, a man who has inherited God-like powers, can defeat Dr. Kobras and keep the mask from falling into the wrong hands.  Unfortunately, Prof. Tony Farms (Walter George Alton) doesn’t understand that he’s the Pumaman.  Vadinho (Miguel Angel Fuentes), an indigenous shaman, travels to London to convince him.

Perhaps the worst super hero movie ever made, Pumaman was an attempt to cash in on the popularity of the Superman movies.  Pumaman didn’t start out in a comic book.  He was created directly for the screen and his first movie was obviously meant to be the start of many adventures.  It didn’t work out that way.  Pumaman has plenty of fantastic powers but he’s not sure how to use them and he spends a lot of the movie complaining.  He might as well just be called Whinyman.  From the minute that he meets Tony, Vadinho has an expression on his face that reads as, “I’ve made a terrible mistake.”  Beyond Pumaman just being plain unlikable, the movie also features some of the worst special effects that I’ve ever seen.  The success of a film like that depends on whether or not you believe that a man can fly.  Pumaman flies but he looks really stupid doing it.  That was the failure of Pumaman.

How bad is Pumaman?  Even Donald Pleasence looks embarrassed.  Pleasence always made a good villain.  He set the standard for Bond villains in You Only Live Twice.  Pleasence also had the right sensibility for a good super hero film.  If he had been born a decade or two later, he would have been equally well-cast as either Professor X or Magneto in the first X-Men film.  In Pumaman, he rolls his eyes while delivering his lines.  Not even he can believe this movie.

Pumaman saved the day and then disappeared.  Earth already had enough heroes.