Cave of the Living Dead (1964)

Herr Director: Akos Rathonyi
Starring Adrian Hoven; Erika Remberg; Carl Mohner; Wolfgang Preiss
Germany; Objectiv Film, 87min
A/K/A Night of the Vampires (its US release title)
Tagline: "Beyond the black mouth of the cursed cave lurk the unfleshed ..."

 

~~~ O ~~~

 

I watched this Saturday night ... well, to be truthful, I had to watch it over the course of Friday and Saturday night, because this film takes a little bit to get going in the early parts. The synopsis is that there's a murderer on the loose in this small town, so a detective scarpers off to see what's up. He stumbles upon a vampire plot, run by one of a few shady characters in the village. This movie plays itself out more like a mystery than straight up horror.  There are a few creepy suspects - the village physician (played with menacing aplomb by Mohner) is an especially effective character.  But, seriously, once you hear the villagers talk of the scientist that lives in the abandoned castle that just recently moved to the area ... it's a no-brainer.

Wolfgang Preiss comes to this film having spent the better part of five years ushering in the role of Dr. Mabuse, starting with 1960's "The 1000 Eyes of Dr. Mabuse" and rounding out with "Dr. Mabuse vs. Scotland Yard," which was released the year prior to this film.¹ He portrays Dr. von Adelsberg with a satisfactory air of menace; however, because of that, if the director was going for a mystery angle with this vampire horror film, all pretense of anyone else being the villain goes out the window (as I mentioned before).

I also liked the character of John the man-servant, portrayed by actor John Kitzmiller.  He provided a strong supporting role for the inspector later in the film.  The Civil Rights Act was in its infancy - having been enacted the same year as this film was released - so there were still a lot of "mammy" and "Stepin Fetchit"² roles in films, so to see this butler play a mannered, erudite man of the world is actually pretty refreshing (the "colored" references and a brief bit where two characters joke about the possible existence of a "black vampire" notwithstanding).

The vampire kill scene is pretty creepy, so that gets some big points.  Upon the death of the lead vampire, the other vampires (which number all of one at this point in the film) die as well.  John the butler offers the denouement on the proceedings, and we fade to black under the same swingin' jazz tune that started the film.  All of this leaves the film a bit flat, but really, how do you end films like these the most effectively?  They can't all be "He tampered in God's domain," right?³

Rating: 2 1/2 count

¹Points in between are: "Return of Dr. Mabuse," 1961; "Invisible Dr. Mabuse," 1962; and, "Terror of Dr. Mabuse," 1962.
²Stage name of actor Lincoln Theodore Monroe Andrew Perry; a controversial actor, since he was the first black actor to receive a screen credit, but he instilled his roles with negative stereotypes for black people in behavior, speech, mannerisms, thought process, etc.  See: Watkins, M.  (2006).  Stepin Fetchit: the life & times of Lincoln Perry.  New York: Random House.
³The final words (flatly) spoken at the end of Ed Wood's "Bride of the Monster," (1955), a prototype for awkward endings in films.

Outlook for DVD releases next week: 25 September 2012

I'm actually curious about what other DVDs will be competing with the "Avengers" onslaught next week.  I always like digging around in the farthest (i.e. lowest) end of Amazon's Coming Soon list, filtered by "Most Popular."  Let's see what treasures await, shall we?

Undertaker's Streak Wrestling Observer Star Ratings

I've been working on a wrestling match "tournament" of sorts, with the intent to compare the matches that Dave Meltzer (of the Wrestling Observer¹) has rated as "five stars" (the highest rating given) to each other, to see what, in my opinion, ends up being the best one.

More on that later.

In doing the research for these matches, I began to be curious about different star ratings under different categories. After crunching numbers and looking at different wrestlers and different pay-per-views, etc., I got curious about all of those matches that have made up the Undertaker's Wrestlemania streak². From his first Mania match to the most recent as of this writing (his 20th, incidentally), here's what Melzter rated those matches:

Ratings from * (lowest) to ***** (highest) , with occasional special ratings ascribed to some matches.

Wrestlemania 7

Undertaker d. Jimmy Snuka *

Wrestlemania 8

Undertaker d. Jake Roberts 3/4* (three-fourths of one star)

Wrestlemania 9

Undertaker d. Giant Gonzalez *1/4

Wrestlemania 11³

Undertaker d. King Kong Bundy -* (negative one star)

Wrestlemania 12

Undertaker d. Diesel (Kevin Nash) **1/4

Wrestlemania 13

Undertaker d. Sid Vicious *1/4
- for the WWF Heavyweight Title

Wrestlemania 14

Undertaker d. Kane *1/2

Wrestlemania 15

Undertaker d. Big Boss Man "DUD"
NOTE: This was a Hell In The Cell match.

Wrestlemania 17⁴

Undertaker d. Triple H ***1/2

Wrestlemania 18

Undertaker d. Ric Flair ***

Wrestlemania 19

Undertaker d. Big Show & A-Train *1/4
NOTE: This was a handicap match.

Wrestlemania 20

Undertaker d. Kane *1/4

Wrestlemania 21

Undertaker d. Randy Orton ***1/2

Wrestlemania 22

Undertaker d. Mark Henry *1/2
NOTE: This was a casket match.

Wrestlemania 23

Undertaker d. Batista ****
- for the World Heavyweight Title

Wrestlemania 24

Undertaker d. Edge ****1/4
- for the World Heavyweight Title

Wrestlemania 25

Undertaker d. Shawn Michaels ****3/4

Wrestlemania 26

Undertaker d. Shawn Michaels ****3/4
NOTE: Michaels stipulated that if he lost this match, he would retire.

Wrestlemania 27

Undertaker d. Triple H ****1/2

Wrestlemania 28

Undertaker d. Triple H ****3/4
NOTE: This was a Hell in the Cell match. Shawn Michaels was assigned as the special guest referee.

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Now, I'm all about dorking out with stats.  Here's the Undertaker "streak" matches, ranked from highest to lowest ranking:

4.75 - (tie x3) vs. Shawn Michaels (WMs 25 & 26); vs. Triple H (WM 28)
4.5 - vs. Triple H (WM 27)
4.25 - vs. Edge (WM 24)
4.0 - vs. Batista (WM 23)
3.5 - (tie) vs. Triple H (WM 17); vs. Randy Orton (WM 21)
3.0 - vs. Ric Flair (WM 18)
2.25 - vs. Diesel (WM 12)
1.5 - (tie) vs. Kane (WM 14); vs. Mark Henry (WM 22)
1.25 - (tie x4) vs. Giant Gonzalez (WM 9); vs. Sid Vicious (WM 13); vs. Big Show & A-Train (WM 19); vs. Kane (WM 20)
1.0 - vs. Jimmy Snuka (WM 7)
> 1.0 - vs. Jake Roberts (3/4*, WM 8); vs. King Kong Bundy (-*, WM 11); vs. Big Boss Man (DUD, WM 15)

Mean star rating (with DUD = 0): 2.4, or **2/5 ...
Jesus Harold Christ, 11 matches under the three star line.  He may be undefeated, but he hasn't been bringing even his "C" game for these matches.

Highest rated title match: vs. Edge, WM 24 (****1/4)
Lowest rated title match: vs. Sid Vicious, WM 13 (*1/4)

Highest rated gimmick match: vs. Triple H, WM 28 (Hell in the Cell, ****3/4)
Lowest rated gimmick match: vs. Big Boss Man, WM 15 (Hell in the Cell, DUD)

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Notes:
¹The Wrestling Observer Newsletter began in 1983, beginning life as a print zine. One of the first publications to cover wrestling from a more journalistic, non-carny angle, the WON covered behind-the-scenes news and reviewed wrestling from a perspective far removed from the Apter magazines, a family of wrestling magazines that covered the more "kayfabed" aspects of pro wrestling.

²The Undertaker has never lost a match at Wrestlemania. Of the twenty matches that 'Taker has participated in, he has won seventeen matches by pinfall, one match by disqualification (vs. Giant Gonzalez, Wrestlemania 9), one match by casket imprisonment (vs. Mark Henry, Wrestlemania 22), and one match by submission (vs. Edge, Wrestlemania 24).

³The Undertaker missed Wrestlemania 10 due to surgery.

⁴The Undertaker missed Wrestlemania 16 due to a torn tricep.

Nate vs. Will: Witchboard (1996)

Whereupon Will prefers Tawny Kitaen’s performance in Whitesnake’s “Here I Go Again” video to Stephen Nichol’s entire oeuvre, and Nate questions the taste in hats of the undead …