The Serpent’s Egg (1977)

 ☆ ☆ ☆

The Serpent’s Egg (1977) – I. Bergman

Ingmar Bergman’s first film shot outside of Sweden (and second in English, after 1971’s The Touch).  This stars David Carradine (selected based on his work on the Woody Guthrie biopic Bound for Glory, 1976) and Bergman’s muse Liv Ullmann. It takes place in 1923 Berlin where inflation has made the Deutschmark completely worthless. Carradine is a former trapeze artist now out of work and a Jew.  The latter is significant because Bergman seems to want to say something about the factors that led to Hitler’s rise and the Holocaust. But he takes a long time to get to the point (and to reveal the meaning of the title).  So, for most of the film, we are treated to Carradine (as Abel Rosenberg) wandering Berlin, often drunk, in and out of the cabaret where his ex-sister-in-law (played by Ullmann) works.  He is frequently interviewed by the police (led by Goldfinger’s Gert Fröbe) who seem supportive but overly interested in his whereabouts and doings (based on his brother’s suicide and his proximity to other recent victims, murders or suicides).  It seems as though we may get a murder mystery from Bergman but it doesn’t really end up that way – instead, we are treated to a sort of twist ending, meant to foreshadow later Nazi experimentation on humans (even as Hitler’s short-lived Munich Putsch is ironically used to suggest he has no future as a leader in Germany).  Bergman does establish a compelling time and place here (with his biggest budget yet) but Carradine is an odd fit for the role and the looseness of the screenplay leaves viewers wondering too much of the time.      

Alucarda (1977)

 ☆ ☆ ☆

Alucarda (1977) – J. L. Moctezuma

Psychotronic insanity here. Horror but not scary. Exploitation, for sure, but not leering (despite the plentiful nudity). After her parents are killed, Justine is sent to a convent/girl’s school where she falls under the influence of Alucarda, another girl who is too curious for her own good.  In the woods, they meet a satyr-like man (with billy goat beard) who may actually be Satan himself. After an orgy (and lesbian tryst) they shock the nuns with a Satanic pledge. In response, the nuns organise an exorcism for Justine – but it goes horribly wrong. Soon everyone is covered in blood (some also naked), Alucarda is summoning demons, Justine is murderous, and nuns are dying left and right. You’ve got to marvel at the sheer craziness on display and the willingness for all involved to go for the gusto.  Mexican director Moctezuma captures something weird here, using limited resources to good effect – of course, it’s not for the easily offended.

 

The Haunting of Julia (1977)

 ☆ ☆ ☆ ½

The Haunting of Julia (1977) – R. Loncraine

I guess I agree with those who complain that the plot isn’t exactly coherent here, but if you just treat this as a chilly and spooky Seventies horror, complete with piano/weird synth soundtrack, and that is your thing, then it is highly enjoyable. The opening moments of the film are the most difficult to watch: Mia Farrow and Keir Dullea lose their daughter to a choking accident.  This sets the stage for a film about grief – and ghosts.  Julia (Farrow) retreats to a newly purchased London house in Bayswater, separating from selfish Dullea who continues to hound her, and seeking support in easy-going Tom Conti. Soon, however, she is hearing noises in the old house and the heater keeps getting cranked up.  A séance reveals that the ghost may not actually be her own daughter – so, she does some digging into the history of the house and the neighborhood.  But then people start dying.  The film never quite shows us any ghosts and it is possible, just possible, that Julia may be going crazy…   You know this film already!  A mood piece.

 

The Psychic (1977)

☆ ☆ ☆

The Psychic (1977) – L. Fulci

This may not be a fair review, because, honestly, I kept dozing off and then waking back up.  Probably this is my fault rather than the movie’s (although I often struggle with dubbing) but it might have suited, or amplified, the dreamlike quality of the proceedings.  Now having seen the end of the film, I know the killer’s identity and therefore I might not watch this again anytime soon.  Basically a giallo, from director Lucio Fulci (who went on to make some gory horror films in the zombie and slasher genres) and starring Jennifer O’Neill as a psychic who experiences a vision of a murder -- in a room that turns out to be in the mansion of her new husband (his former bedroom and the body is of a former girlfriend).  After unearthing the corpse in the first few minutes of the film and with her husband arrested as a suspect in the crime, O’Neill starts putting the clues from her vision together, along with her therapist, in the hopes of exonerating her husband.  There isn’t much gore or violence here but a lot of creeping around and opening of doors (at least as far as I saw!).  Apparently, Tarantino is a fan and used the soundtrack in Kill Bill (the film is also titled Murder to the Tune of the Seven Black Notes) – my kids complained from their bedroom that it was too spooky. In the final minutes, all the pieces fell into place with a nod to Edgar Allen Poe – perhaps I didn’t earn the clever resolution but the payoff still worked for me.  If this genre is your thing, then this might be worth a look.

  

Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger (1977)

☆ ☆ ☆

Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger (1977) – S. Wanamaker

Surprisingly, I found this penultimate Ray Harryhausen production a good watch – but perhaps I have simply adjusted my expectations after watching three of his earlier films first or perhaps it is because I am watching them with my 7-year-old son and seeing them through his eyes.  In this one, Sinbad (a different actor each time; this time Patrick Wayne) needs to help a prince who has been turned into a (dynamation) baboon by travelling with a Greek philosopher and his daughter to the arctic where a mysterious pyramid will help to transform the prince back to human form.  Sinbad’s love interest is the prince’s sister (Jane Seymour) and the main foe is evil witch Zenobia (Margaret Whiting).  A lot of the special effects here are camera tricks (characters grow big or small and change into seagulls and such) but Harryhausen animates a (friendly) troglodyte (early human), a sabre-toothed tiger, some alien-looking monsters, a big bee, a bronze minotaur, and an awesome giant walrus.  That walrus was something else.  Again, the plot is rather beside the point here, come instead for the Harryhausen creations which are pretty well integrated into the live action.   

  

Capricorn One (1977)

☆ ☆ ☆ ½

Capricorn One (1977) – P. Hyams

About ¾ of the way through this very entertaining conspiracy thriller, I posited that there could only be two possible endings: 1) the conspiracy is exposed; or 2) the conspirators win.  Since this was the 1970s, I expected the bleakest outcome (e.g., The Parallax View, 1974, if I am remembering correctly).  However, bleak didn’t always win (see All the President’s Men, 1976,for example) – but just demonstrating that the conspiracy is out there was probably enough to fit the zeitgeist.  In Capricorn One, we are shown how the moon landing could have been faked – except the script shows us a future mission to Mars instead (and Kubrick has nothing to do with it!).  The astronauts (James Brolin, Sam Waterston, and O. J. Simpson) are kept in the dark until the very last moment when they are pulled from the rocket and transported to a secret military base that has been rigged up to look like the surface of Mars; they are told that their families will be harmed unless they cooperate and stage the Mars landing for the TV cameras.  Although the plan for rescuing them from the capsule when it lands in the sea after the mission is carefully explained to them (by boss/friend/bad guy Hal Holbrook), it doesn’t take long before they realise that they really aren’t going to be allowed to live...  Elliott Gould plays the clichéd alcoholic but intrepid reporter who stumbles onto the conspiracy (with help from Karen Black and Telly Savalas).  Writer-Director Peter Hyams throws everything at the audience (stunts with cars, helicopters, airplanes), including all the usual conspiracy thriller elements, and comes up with fun popcorn fare.   

The Devil, Probably (1977)

☆ ☆ ☆ ½

The Devil, Probably (1977) – R. Bresson

Robert Bresson was known for his austere style, which focused the camera on the hands and feet of people doing actions and avoided psychologizing.  His films often raised spiritual questions and he seemed particularly interested in the problem of undeserved suffering. One of his most famous films, Au Hasard Balthazar, 1966, is about a donkey and its harsh existence.  Bresson seems to be in awe of those who persist through suffering unbowed although they may end defeated or dead (or very occasionally they succeed, as in A Man Escaped, 1956, about a prison break).  However, The Devil, Probably, is a more difficult case.  In this film, the young protagonist, Charles, doesn’t actually suffer much himself – however, he sees the environmental degradation of the world around him (pollution, unrestricted logging, nuclear weapons, etc.) and he knows that it will lead to the suffering of all humankind.  He investigates various solutions, religion, political action, marriage, escape into sex/drugs but finds them wanting, although his friends vary in terms of their reactions to the oncoming despair.  None of them, however, show any emotion, which is another aspect of Bresson’s style (said to heighten the viewer’s reactions); the actors are taught to be as inexpressive as possible, and here they are nearly somnambulant. In the end, Charles chooses suicide, not because his own life is hopeless but because the world is a dead end.  Or so we can conclude from what is really a very sterile (and bleak) intellectual exercise.  The young people around him are concerned about Charles (whose fate we know from the very start of the film) but they seem powerless to stop him (or perhaps they understand him all too well).  The ending is rather horrific after a sombre 90 minutes of mundane actions and some ambiguous talk.  Only a brief scene on a bus where a few other riders chime in, like a Greek chorus, to suggest that it is the Devil (probably) who is responsible for the world’s decline, contains any spark -- and if by Devil, we mean human weakness, then I would elevate the level of probability to certainty.   Depressingly relevant, forty years on. 

Demon Seed (1977)

☆ ☆ ½

Demon Seed (1977) – D. Cammell

Weird – but not weird enough.  Donald Cammell (fabled director of Performance with Nic Roeg) finds himself trapped in a locked house (courtesy of Dean Koontz) with an artificially intelligent supercomputer and Julie Christie.  There are therefore constraints on what he can do. The plot, with shades of Rosemary’s Baby, involves the computer (Proteus) seeking to impregnate Christie – against her will.  So, that’s gross.  But this is a horror film after all – women in peril etc etc.etc.  Nevertheless, you do catch glimpses of Cammell’s psychedelic yearning in the ‘70s era computer animation on display (by Jordan Belson) and in some of the odd pseudo-futuristic creations littering the set. Why does the wheelchair robot have only one arm anyway? The moral of the story is again that computers will menace us if they become smart enough to be jealous of our real existence.  But don’t be tempted if this theme is appealing to you – this is grueling fare. 

The Sentinel (1977)

☆ ☆ ½

The Sentinel (1977) – M. Winner

Well, director Michael (“Death Wish”) Winner is a hack but the cast had enough solid names (Burgess Meredith, Martin Balsam, Arthur Kennedy, even Ava Gardner and John Carradine) and the post-Exorcist “hell is real” theme could be spooky if done well – so I took the leap.  However, we are mostly treated to the subpar acting of Cristina Raines and Chris Sarandon and amazingly nothing really happens for most of the picture, though I’ll admit the concept is a bit creepy.  The film attracted some condemnation (and not just by the Church) due to its sudden over-the-top conclusion involving real people with deformities (cf. Tod Browning) as well as actors in make-up.  This turn toward exploitation was probably too much of a shock for a mainstream film—but the whole enterprise isn’t scary (although it is weird), so there you go.

Sorcerer (1977)

☆ ☆ ☆ ½

Sorcerer (1977) – W. Friedkin

Friedkin’s remake of The Wages of Fear by H. G. Clouzot died at the box office in competition with surprise blockbuster Star Wars.  This makes sense, as Friedkin’s film feels bloated and over-done in comparison to the comic-book serial storytelling of the latter. It must have been tempting for Billy to take on Clouzot’s challenge of showing four desperate men driving trucks full of nitroglycerin over tough South American terrain – suspense is inherent in the situation but must be built through careful editing and tempo.  Friedkin used his gigantic budget (courtesy of The French Connection and The Exorcist) to create insane set-pieces (such as heavy old trucks driving over a rickety rope bridge during a rainstorm) that were beyond Clouzot in the ‘50s.  But he also bobbles the characters’ backstories in the lengthy preamble to the real action -- I, for one, got confused.  Still, we do see how desperate Roy Scheider and the multinational crew must have gotten down in Vera Cruz (or wherever) – truly grim.  However, the whole film could have been trimmed by 30 minutes, I think.