Moon of the Wolf (1972)

Who's in it?: David Janssen (The Fugitive, The Green Berets), Barbara Rush (When Worlds Collide, It Came from Outer Space), Bradford Dillman (Piranha, Sudden Impact), and Geoffrey Lewis (Every Darn Thing You've Ever Seen)

What's it about?: A Louisiana bayou sheriff (Janssen) investigates a series of vicious attacks and begins to suspect they may be supernatural.

How is it?: Moon of the Wolf was an ABC Movie of the Week in Fall 1972, so the budget and production quality reflect that. That said, it's not a bad piece of work and exactly the kind of thing I would've loved finding randomly on TV as a kid.

Janssen's great as the no-nonsense, but vulnerable Sheriff Whitaker and the story gives him plenty of suspects as potential werewolves. It plays out for a long while as a straight murder mystery with Whitaker's investigating the brutal death of a young woman. At first it looks like an animal attack, but Whitaker uncovers evidence that it may have been foul play and starts to work that angle. Lots of people had motives for wanting the woman dead, from the victim's brother (Lewis) to the local doctor, who just so happens to be Whitaker's best friend.

When the victim's Cajun father suggests a supernatural predator that may not be responsible for its own actions, the suspect list opens wide to include everyone in the town of Marsh Island, but particularly the wealthy Rodanthe siblings. Andrew Rodanthe (Dillman) has been a member of the community for a while, but his sister Louise (Rush) is just back after a scandalous relationship in New York turned sour.

For a while, the werewolf kills unseen. I suspected at first that that was for budget reasons and fully expected the monster to be played by a large dog when it was finally revealed. Fortunately, Moon of the Wolf did have some makeup money though and when the werewolf appears it's very much in the style of Jack Pierce's work on The Wolf Man.

I wouldn't dare compare Moon of the Wolf too favorably to The Wolf Man, but as family-friendly monster movies go, there are a lot worse.

Grade: B-







[Screen grabs from A Haunting on the Screen]

Saturday Matinee | Queen of the Amazons (1947)

Who's in it?: Robert Lowery (Batman in the 1949 Batman and Robin serial), Patricia Morrison (Tarzan and the Huntress, Song of the Thin Man), J.E. Bromberg (The Mark of Zorro, Son of Dracula), and John Miljan (The Ten Commandments).

What's it about?: A woman (Morrison) leads a safari into Africa to learn the whereabouts of her fiance who disappeared on an earlier expedition. But will she still want to marry her man after spending so much time with Gary the jungle guide (Lowery)? And will her man want to marry her after so much time among the Amazon women he's been living with?

How is it?: Pretty dreadful. There are some outdoor shots of the cast, but way too much of the movie is just them standing on generic sets and commenting on action going on in stock footage. The story moves from India to Africa for no other reason than the filmmakers' having footage from both places they wanted to use.

None of the characters have any depth and none of the actors have any chemistry, so the movie's only redeeming qualities are its jungle setting in general, the Amazons concept, and a half-baked mystery about a murderous ivory poacher who may have infiltrated one of the safaris. Jungles and Amazons go a long way with me though, and mystery plots are always welcome. It was also fun to see Lowery in a different role, since I like him as Batman.

Grade: C-

Saturday Matinee | The Incredible Petrified World (1957)

You know what I miss? Watching old movies and and writing about them. I got the bug around this time last year, but burned myself out by trying to do it daily. I actually liked doing it that often; I just couldn't keep up with the schedule. But what if I try to do it weekly instead...?

Who's In It?

John Carradine (Stagecoach, House of Dracula), Phyllis Coates (The Adventures of Superman, Panther Girl of the Kongo), Robert Clarke (The Man from Planet X)

What's It About?

Three scientists (Clarke, Sheila Noonan, and Allen Windsor) and a reporter (Coates) escape a wrecked diving bell and take refuge in air-filled, but underwater caves.

How Is It?

Interesting for Superman fans, especially those - like me - who like Phyllis Coates as Lois Lane in the first season of the '50s TV show. Coates plays a reporter here too, but she's no Lois Lane. Her husband is leaving her for another woman, leading Coates' character to hate everybody. And sadly, that one note is the strongest characterization anyone gets in this movie.

Sheila Noonan's (Beast from Haunted Cave) character isn't so bad and gets a couple of good scenes in while arguing with Coates over the reporter's attitude, but like all the other characters in the movie, Noonan's has no life outside of the movie's plot. Even John Carradine is wasted as the inventor of the diving bell. After the accident that leaves the bell stranded at the bottom of the ocean, Carradine seems more concerned about figuring out the flaw in his design than he does about the presumed deaths of the four victims.

There's barely a story here at all. A ton of set-up (including a pointless documentary about sea life that's the only appearance of the octopus from the lying poster) finally leads to the point where the four leads are stranded and escape to some dry, undersea caves. Most of the movie is an unexciting survival tale as they explore the caverns. They meet a stock-footage monitor lizard and a crazy hermit with a fake beard, but that's as thrilling as it gets.

Meanwhile, Carradine and Company are on the surface planning a second expedition with a new diving bell. It's all for science though, not a rescue mission, since everyone believes that the first divers are dead. That means that there's no tension around the second mission and - without anything to be afraid of in the caves - no stakes for the main cast. There are some volcanic earthquakes toward the end of the movie, but by that time the second expedition is underway and the resolution is obvious. In fact, the earthquakes are just there to push the leads out of the caves so that they can be spotted by the second team. I know that sounds spoilery, but "spoiler" implies that a surprise is being ruined and I promise that there are already no surprises in the way this movie ends.

Grade: D+