by Matt Singer
Readers who keep up with the Hollywood news will notice the inclusion of a film by director John Frankenheimer, who recently passed way. It's an odd coincidence; I watched and reviewed the movie just days before Frankenheimer died. If there's any good that comes out of the deaths of men like Frankenheimer, or Rod Steiger, or Billy Wilder, it's that people like us who love movies but haven't seen as many old ones as we'd like might be spurred into picking up some of the classics they made.
THE GOOD
THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE (1962)
Starring Frank Sinatra, Laurence Harvey
Directed by John Frankenheimer
Rated PG-13, 125 minutes
Available on VHS & DVD
Frank Sinatra is remembered as one of the most distinctive voices of the twentieth century, but his film career is nearly forgotten. He's known as the head of the Rat Pack in films like OCEAN'S 11 or ROBIN & THE 7 HOODS, but he made quite a run outside that group as a major leading man. He even won an Oscar, for his supporting work in FROM HERE TO ETERNITY. John Frankenheimer gave Sinatra and his clout the credit for getting THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE off the ground; if he hadn't been willing to star in it, we might never have gotten one of the finest paranoia thrillers of the Cold War.
Sinatra's character is Major Ben Marco, a Korean War veteran recently returned from the front lines. He survived the war, but he's plagued by strange dreams where his company is sitting in a New Jersey women's club talking about flowers. Or at least, it appeared this way to the men in Marco's company. They were actually brainwashed by Chinese communists; and as Marco looks on with hypnotic indifference, one of his men, Raymond Shaw (Laurence Harvey), strangles one of the other men and the uses Marco's pistol to kill another man. The dreams come every night and Marco starts cracking up, so his superiors give him indefinite leave from the Army.
Shaw has returned to returned to a hero's welcome; he is given the Congressional Medal of Honor for saving his men from capture by the enemy. At least, that is what Marco wrote in his report, and what he remembers, although he is haunted by his visions and his doubts. Shaw himself seems indifferent to the award and downright cold to his domineering mother (Angela Lansbury), who is married to a Senator who has begun "outing" Communists in the Defense Department.
Quickly, the truth comes into focus. Marco's dreams are the truth; his company was captured and Shaw was transformed into a soulless assassin. The trigger used to activate Shaw is a great movie idea: anytime Solitaire is mentioned he immediately stops whatever he's doing and starts playing, until he comes upon the Queen of Diamonds. The Red Queen now controls him.
That rather ominous symbol is the only clue I'm willing to reveal about the final hour of CANDIDATE, a great movie that is equal parts political intrigue, social commentary, action movie, and mystery. Frankenheimer took the film out of circulation for decades after the Kennedy assassination made the film too relevant for its own good. It's widely available now, and while the Cold War is long over, it is still powerful.
The film's longevity lies within its most potent theme, men committing heinous deeds over which they have no control - "the enemy within," if you will. The McCarthy-esque subplot adds an interesting irony; the Senator is pointing fingers at alleged communist spies in the Defense Department, using the issue to thrust himself into the national spotlight. While he plays the enemy-within card, he ignores the TRUE enemy within, in this case, within his own family.
If this concept sounds familiar it's because this theme is always being used in movies - FIGHT CLUB is a recent example. This film is made especially chilling because of the sense of futility it extends to Shaw's dilemma. He is utterly powerless to stop himself, and that is what makes his killings shocking and brutal, even though Frankenheimer's direction is relatively bloodless.
Sinatra is surprisingly good in his role (Only his thick New Yawk accent distracts from an otherwise fine performance), and Laurence Harvey is perfect as Shaw, a very complex character defined by his disturbingly cold performance. Lansbury is famous for her role as Shaw's mother--despicable and domineering even though she was, in reality, only one year older than the actor playing her son. In a priceless moment, she attends a costume party as Little Bo Peep, all the men in attendance her flock of mindless sheep. The only odd note is struck by Janet Leigh in a pointless role as Marco's love interest. Her actions are as inexplicable (giving her address and phone number to a combat shocked veteran she's just met) as they are unnecessary to the movie.
But she cannot distract from the suspenseful assassination plot for long. Frankenheimer blends suspense and messages with skill, and the script by George Axelrod is tight and gritty. Given its topic, MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE should have grown dated long ago. Thanks to its creators, it will remain a worthy viewing for a long time.
IF YOU LIKED THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE, CHECK OUT: SECONDS (1966), another Frankeheimer picture, with Rock Hudson as a man who gets his face remade and gets a second chance at life. Like the darkest episode of Twilight Zone, only darker.
THE BAD
SPIDER-MAN: THE DRAGON'S CHALLENGE (1979)
Starring Nicholas Hammond, Robert F. Simon
Directed by Don McDougall
Unrated, 92 minutes.
Out-of-print on VHS
With Spider-Man fever gripping the country, you might be inclined to check out some of these old live-action Spider-Man flicks you can find at fine video stores or at bootleg video booths at comic and sci-fi conventions. This one, THE DRAGON'S CHALLENGE, does not involve any dragons and the main challenge it presents is watching it from start to finish in one sitting.
While Batman's old TV show still lives on in the national consciousness, recently resurfacing on TV Land Network, Spider-Man's show has been almost completely forgotten. While BATMAN was filled with psychedelic humor, SPIDER-MAN aired from 1977 to 1979, meaning it was filled with disco hairdos, wide lapels and funky wakka-cha-wakka music. People look back fondly on the 60s. People look back with regret at the 70s. That, along with the rather shabby quality of the series, has relegated it to television obscurity.
In CHALLENGE, Peter Parker (Nicholas Hammond) gets involved in a convoluted spy plot when Min (Benson Fong), an old college friend of J. Jonah Jameson's (Robert F. Simon), returns from China, desperate to clear his name for stealing military secrets. Back in China a "mysterious" white gentleman eats lots of food while planning his enemy's demise from a far. He is a Spider-Man villain, I suppose, but he doesn't get an interesting code name. I just referred to him as Mysterious White Guy.
Mysterious White Guy's constant attempts on Min's life require Peter Parker and Min's bitter niece to head to China with an ex-Marine-turned-college-professor-of-Peter-Parker (how convenient) to clear Min's name, while Min kicks his feet up and takes it easy. Of course,
Spider-Man is along for the ride, fighting assassins and spies and more assassins. And then more spies, and some more assassins. Ninety minutes is a lot of screen time to fill.
Astonishingly, no one seems to make the Peter Parker / Spider-Man connection even when Peter Parker travels to Hong Kong and Spider-Man just happens to show up at the same time. Even the people traveling with Peter, who see Peter run away and Spider-Man appear are completely clueless. Finally, someone does unmask Spider-Man. It's shocking the person recognized Parker at all. One expects them to go "Who the hell is that guy?" The character does seem to take the news a little too calmly, probably just trying to play off the fact that they have been so oblivious to the signs that have been there all along.
The film's interpretation of Spider-Man is a little weird. He has these Oakley sunglasses for eyes, a clunky metal utility belt, and one webshooter around his right wrist. The webshooter has a hilariously slow delivery; crook after crook gets trapped by a thin beam of silly string that my grandmother could have evaded. Then again, hardcore Spider-Man fans who hated Sam Raimi's terrific film will appreciate the metallic webshooter and applaud the movie for sticking to the comic books and having no originality whatsoever.
I enjoyed the funky seventies soundtrack that pumps loudly behind the rooftop chase scenes, and director Don McDougall does pull off a few impressive shots, like a Spidey POV from the side of a building where the camera really looks like it is suspended in midair. When Spider-Man does swing into action, it's typically underwhelming, though it's not without its retro charm. Some of the set pieces, like a boat chase (Spider-Man chasing bad guys on a boat?!?), are downright bizarre. Unfortunately, most of the movie is filled with talking heads blabbering on and on about a plot that is needlessly complicated. A clearing-the-innocent-man story also becomes a revenge movie, a lost money movie and, when the scene shifts to Hong Kong, an unbearably slow travelogue. If you can be entertained staring at Spider-Man underoos for hours on end, you might enjoy this movie. Otherwise, just wait
for the Raimi version on DVD.
INSTEAD OF SPIDERMAN: THE DRAGON'S CHALLENGE, CHECK OUT: THE PUMAMAN (1980)- A hilariously bad super hero adventure. Seriously, The Pumaman couldn't stop Paste Pot Pete.
THE UGLY
KILLER NERD (1991)
Starring Toby Radloff, Heidi Lohr
Directed by Mark Steven Bosko & Wayne A. Harold
Unrated, 90 minutes.
Available on VHS
If SAVED BY THE BELL's Screech was pushed too far after watching a lot of FRIDAY THE 13th movies, his geeky, blood-soaked rage would probably resemble the carnage in KILLER NERD. A creamy blend of I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE (with a male doing the spitting) and PSYCHO, it's a no-budget horror revenge action musical comedy. All right, scratch the last two. Actually unscratch the comedy part; this movie is so far gone into weirdsville it IS funny.
Our protagonist dweeb is Harold Kunkle (Radloff). He is a nice enough
spaz, except he gets picked on by bullies and forgotten by girls. It's tough that the guy's age is somewhere in the neighborhood of 30 and he's getting picked on by biker-jacket wearing street toughs who roam the streets of Kunkle's town, seemingly earning a living by beating the tar out of men with pocket protectors. Nice work if you can get it.
When I tell you that the title is not ironic in any sense (He's not a really cool, or "killer," nerd), you know what is going to happen. Harold gets fed up and goes on a rampage, assuming that removing people's flesh in inventive ways will somehow restore the dignity he has lost. A logical man would probably just get some therapy, move to a new town, or pretend to be a hunk on the Internet. But KILLER NERD is anything but logical.
This film has all the trappings of the Ugly movie genre. It's shot on VHS, lit with what appears to be a handful of matches (most of them soggy), filled with continuity errors, and directed like a funeral. My favorite goof comes while Harold is watching a late-night movie; before a commercial the announcer says he's watching "Ty-Bor;" but when they return the movie has become "Ty-Bar" which sounds like it should star Billy Blanks. Sometimes the editing is so poor that the cuts come seconds before the dialogue is read. Miniature eternities roll by as the performers stare off into space, until finally, emotionlessly, they reply "Yeah. Let's go." It's like a movie with a learning disability.
These flaws work in the movie's favor. If KILLER NERD had been well-shot and stylishly directed, the visuals would not have meshed with tremendous dialogue like "Roses are red, violets are placid. You screwed me over, here's a face full of acid!" and "Step right up! You're the next contestant on the cavalcade of death! Nerd! Nerd! Nerd! Nerd! Nerd! Nerd! Nerd!" And a "classy" movie would not have been able to put together a soundtrack this strong, with songs like "Thrashasaurus Rex" "Slave to the Blade" and "Axemaster" by bands like Silent Knight, Indian Rope Burn, and Axemaster.
As the murderous spaz, Radloff plays the early scenes like a corpse and the later scenes like the corpse in WEEKEND AT BERNIE'S. His forced, staccato laughter, used to suggest the character's insanity, is already haunting my dreams. The fact that he took the role was proof enough for me that the guy was nuts; he should have just stopped right there.
The Nerd could have been a computer programmer or a movie reviewer, but instead he chose to kill the people who annoyed him. Please everyone, don't fall into the same trap as KILLER NERD. It's not worth it. Trust me; you don't want your exploits shown in video to the sound of Thrashasaurus Rex. Just re-adjust your pocket protector and take a deep breath. It'll work out fine in the end.
IF YOU LIKED KILLER NERD, CHECK OUT: BRIDE OF KILLER NERD (1992). Hard to get a mate when you're killing every person you know, but Killer Nerd finds a way!
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