Reviews

American author George Barr McCutcheon's six Graustark books (appeared 1901-1927) copy the idea of British author Anthony Hope's three Ruritania books (appeared 1894-1898). The plot of "Beverly of Graustark" (1904), the second book in the series, is even very similar to that of "The Prisoner of Zenda", the first Ruritania book. Given the large number of films based on the latter, it is not surprising that there were also two silent movies based on the Graustark version of the theme of friendly impersonation of a monarch. The first was Beverly of Graustark (1914).

Despite its light touch, the present film is so blunt in its humor that it can perhaps better be called a farce than a comedy, although that is in part due to it being silent. Marion Davies was popular in cross-dressing roles, so it is not surprising that this angle is maximally exploited. Still, it is a very effective comedy for the time and quite amusing even today.

The last 3 or 4 minutes are in black, red and white: apparently realized with an early form of Technicolor.

It is possible to make good low budget movies, and this one almost succeeds. An important factor for this is that they got the plot of this science fiction sex comedy right. It's not perfect, but it definitely is good enough:

For decades, the women on Vanisia have been living without a single man. Finally they are desperate enough to send a man-crazy delegation of three on a hunt through space.

Meanwhile in Beverly Hills, awkward aging would-be playboy Baron Von Benson has no luck with women. His expectations totally unrealistic, and the only women who humor him are those hoping to exploit him.

When the spaceship crashes outside Von Benson's house, everything seems to move towards the obvious solution, complicated only by a meddling space agency hunting for the aliens and a scheming woman. But there is a little surprise at the end that makes this film even more obviously a male wish fulfillment fantasy.

The film's main problem is the acting. I have a relatively high tolerance for bad acting, but here it is often so cheesy that even I found it jarring. Low budget films often seem to recruit professional models who are keen on getting non-nude roles for their main roles. Occasionally this works very well, but here it doesn't.

Fortunately, someone had the brilliant idea of framing the main story as a tale told by the future queen of Venisia to her children. This domestic setting is so fake and campy that it lowered my expectations to the point that I was just happy the acting wasn't as bad as I expected, and in fact I felt it could be explained as depicting imperfections in the trashy queen's interpretation. A bold move which for me definitely worked.

Consequently, I rate this film 5 out of 10 stars, which for a low-budget amateur movie such as this is a really respectable rating. A professional director such as Roger Corman who knows how to deal with extreme budget restrictions could potentially have done much better. For an example of what I have in mind, consider J.F. Lawton's Cannibal Women in the Avocado Jungle of Death (1989), which manages to be an outstanding film despite some similarities and what seem to have been similar restrictions.

This is a humorous British detective series produced for private TV, clearly inspired by Topper (1953). Similar to the previous series The Champions (1968), it combines two genres that were very popular at the time. This time: Secret agent / mystery like The Avengers (1961) or The Champions (1968) combined with supernatural sitcom like Bewitched (1964) or I Dream of Jeannie (1965), with more elements taken from the latter than before.

Jeff Randall and Marty Hopkirk run a detective agency, with Marty's wife Jean acting as secretary. When Marty dies in the first episode, he returns as a ghost and helps solve his own murder case, then stays to support his partner. Only Jeff can see and hear Marty's ghost; Jean is completely unaware that Marty isn't resting peacefully in his grave. Marty's abilities to interact with the world apart from Jeff are extremely limited, and his continued propensity to fear, panic, rash actions and jealousy about his wife and car also adds to the basic setup.

On top of that, the series' writers kept coming up with interesting new ways to exploit the setting by adding psychiatrists, exorcists, other ghosts and the like, good or evil, in various constellations. Only one season of 26 episodes was produced, but it is well worth watching.

The 1960s were a time of secret agent series such as The Avengers (1961) or The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (1964) (which has a tone similar to this one), but also of sitcoms involving supernatural powers in ordinary daily life, such as Bewitched (1964) or I Dream of Jeannie (1965). This British series produced for private television combines the two ideas by equipping three secret agents of Geneva-based UN organization NEMESIS with superhuman powers which they must hide even from their organization. Although not among the very best and never too original beyond the basic premise, this is a solid entry in the genre.

In the first episode, Richard Barrett, Sharron Macready and Craig Stirling crash land in the Himalayas, where they mysteriously acquire their superpowers. No doubt it is no accident that similar to James Hilton's novel "Lost Horizon" and the film based on it (Lost Horizon (1937)), this happens while they are fleeing from China. The mysterious culture they meet, which may consist of aliens or of a secret parallel civilization, must be identical with the famous Shangri-La.

There is tendency for the plots to involve submarines and/or nuclear bombs, but apart from that they are as diverse as one would hope. After a typical assignment our three heroes return to Geneva where they make a detailed report to Tremayne, the head of NEMESIS. As a running gag, Tremayne gets frustrated because the report implies some superhuman power that they cannot convincingly explain.

Only one season of 30 episodes was produced. The series was essentially followed by Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased) (1969), a detective series with a similar cross-over concept and a slightly more humorous tone. Episode 25 is very weak. I think the last 5 episodes contain some allusions to earlier The Avengers and The Man from UNCLE, fleshing NEMESIS out a bit more.

Some reviewers mentioned they were not shown this episode on TV, or being confused as to what is supposed to be objectionable about it. I did not know about this before watching it, but I independently arrived at the conclusion that it is problematic. That doesn't necessarily mean it should no longer be shown, but it would be a good idea to add a little bit of contextualisation when broadcasting it, in the form of a short disclaimer before and after it.

A small North African country (located in the Sahara?) is thrown into chaos by a well executed assassination. As the country is rich in a strategic resource, the West naturally wants to control it. Sorry, I mean, the West wants to restore peace. This is best achieved by making the son of the elderly monarch (the Bey), who had been deposed a long time ago, return and take power. (This plot seems inspired by how British and American secret services supported a coup against the democratically elected government of Iran in 1953 and gave political power to the Shah in order to continue profiting from the country's oil. Of course some details were changed.)

Obstacles include the fun loving young monarch's resistance to the plan, the machinations of the revolutionary group behind the assassination, and the wild desert.

I have no problem with the fact that the Arabic characters are played by British actors. That's perfectly normal for a time when Arabic actors weren't easy to find. But the entire Arabic culture depicted here feels very much off. It seems to be inspired by the Tales of 1001 Nights at least as much as informed by the realities of North Africa, and that's not normal even for the 1960s. Especially the Bedouins are othered in a way that just isn't acceptable. They are gun-toting savages, ready to kill a foreign monarch (who is their guest!) for money, enjoying the erotic dancing of an obviously European looking woman in exotic clothes. It's not wrong because it's racist, it's wrong because it's stupid. Similar things could be said about many of the other episodes, but for some reason this one seems to be bad enough to stand out.

Even in other respects this is one of the weakest episodes, though I still did enjoy it. With less racism I would rank it 6 out of 10.

Watching the Champions episodes in order, this episode is where I first felt that things were getting a bit too repetitive. It's the second submarine plot in a row, and the last nuclear missile plot wasn't too long ago either. I guess they just had the infrastructure for submarine takes available and made use of them, and of course the temptation to let your superheros prevent nuclear disasters is always hard to resist. But otherwise the episode itself is really good.

The Nazis in this episode and their boss reminded me of KAOS and its boss Siegfried. Altogether, it seems appropriate to mention the Get Smart episode Rub-A-Dub-Dub... Three Spies in a Sub (1966) here, which may well have served as partial inspiration.

As far as Kung Fu movies and their parodies go, this one is perfect. The only reason I cannot give it 10/10 is that it involves comical extreme violence. That's perfectly appropriate and in fact required for this particular style of movie, but it does mean that it is not suitable for everyone.

Sing, the protagonist, is a criminal anti-hero who as a child bought an overpriced pamphlet on "Buddhist palm Kung Fu" from a scammer. When he thinks he has learned its content and tries to apply it to save a mute little girl from bullies, he is told a harsh lesson that sets his life on the wrong path.

Many years later Sing, supported by his fat friend Bone, tries to blackmail the poor tenants of a slum-like house by posing as members of the infamous Axe gang. The plot goes horribly wrong, resulting in a series of ridiculous escalations of violence between the Axe gang and the tenants of the house.

And THEN the fun starts.

This lively and amusing series is marketed as a spin-off of Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries (2012), but it needs to be taken on its own terms. The series quite appropriately alludes to the secret agent genre that was so popular in the 1960s, with great classical entries such as The Avengers (1961). Season 1 consists of four 85-minute episodes. The occasional abrupt cutting suggests that they may have had trouble pressing the plots into the time. That makes it even more surprising that Season 2 consists of eight 45-minute episodes. Although the cases still feel complete, the character changes and sometimes even feels like a grown-up version of The Big Bang Theory (2007).

Each episode revolves around a theme. For Season 1 the themes are fashion, surfer music, alien abduction and Chinese cooking. For Season 2 the themes are architecture, flight attendancy, country life, dog show, bowling, pigeon racing, fishing and live band. All episodes are great, but for me the one about alien abduction stood out particularly. The handling of the topic and its resolution are so cool that I am tempted to reveal too much about it! (I don't know if the idea is original, but I have certainly not seen it before.)

Ms Fisher is very convincing as a niece, but not a clone, of Miss Fisher. A lot of viewers were disappointed that the original series was discontinued, and blamed the present series for it. This clearly led to some unfair downvoting. As much as I loved the original series, I personally like the present one even a bit better. I guess this is in part due to the fact that it is more lively and more nerdy, making it more relatable for me. I am just disappointed that it looks like it may be discontinued after only 12 episodes. That would be a shame.

Amazing detective series placed in Melbourne, Australia, in the Roaring Twenties. A few decades after Sherlock Holmes and not long before elderly spinster Miss Marple, young Miss Fisher seems to be roughly the same age as Dorothy Sayers' Lord Peter Wimsey. In addition to plots that often seem custom made for the location and time period, the producers went to great expense to conjure up those years in which the horse-drawn carriages have almost completely been replaced by motorcars and the fashion ideal for women was to look almost like cross-dressing men. If you can overlook the occasional anachronism (such as an electric torch that is clearly too small and too bright for the time), the atmosphere contributes significantly to the enjoyment of this series. Here we have a female detective for modern tastes, placed a century ago in a period in the past when such a character briefly was plausible.

Like Sherlock Holmes, Miss Phryne Fisher is a capable private detective, able to effortlessly navigate all strata of society. Like Miss Marple, her method of solving cases involves proper work rather than jumping to unlikely conclusions based on bizarre clues. I am not sure why she reminds me of her (even more recommended!) modern African colleague Mma Ramotswe of The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency (2008), as she is far less conservative and has a far richer private life that keeps getting entangled with her cases. Unlike all her colleagues, she is a flapper, a scandalous young 1920s woman. In many ways she reminds me of John Steed from The Avengers (1961).

To make things even more interesting, Miss Fisher quickly acquires a Catholic sidekick as well as a complex relationship with Detective Inspector Jack Robinson.

This series can easily hold its own compared to the classical Sherlock Holmes adaptations, including those with Basil Rathbone and those with Jeremy Brett. The same is true in relation to the classical Miss Marple adaptions including those with Margaret Rutherford and those with Joan Hickson. And also in relation to the various miniseries starring Lord Peter Wimsey. By being so Australian, it is almost as English as all of these.

While every episode is about an independent case, the Season 1 episodes are loosely tied together by a story arc that comes to the foreground in the last two episodes: an unsolved crime case in her personal history. In Season 2, the main protagonists of the series slowly and gradually work on their relationships. In Season 3, we get to know Miss Fisher's father, and we finally get a wedding. Perhaps as a substitute for the fourth season that never came, the tale of Miss Fisher ends with Miss Fisher and the Crypt of Tears (2020), a film that you may want to skip if you don't like action films with ridiculous plots of the Indiana Jones / Lara Croft type. If you don't expect too much, it can be fun, though.

There is also Ms Fisher's Modern Murder Mysteries (2019), a spin-off series that promises to take the concept into the 1960s by following the exploits of Miss Fisher's niece Ms Fisher. Instead of her aunt's emotional independence, the niece inherits a team of exceptional women to support her. The spin-off's IMDB rating currently suffers from downvotes by viewers who are disappointed that the original series was terminated and that Ms Fisher is not exactly like Miss Fisher. But if you take the spin-off series on its own terms, you will find that it is about equally good, if not better.

Earl and Joel are living on their farm together. Joel's unusual hobby, interstellar subspace amateur radio, leads to some tensions between the two brothers as well as to important consequences for Earth. Or does it?

Maybe the point of this science fiction short film is its pointlessness. Or maybe it isn't, and more is going on than Earl and Joel realize? Are the brothers too gullible? Should they have pressed their compensation claim with the NC-lala agents who claimed not to have received relevant training?

This short film reminds me of mid-20th century American science fiction short stories. Like this film, they were often centered more on how future technology might affect ordinary humans than on the technology itself or on porting traditional adventure stories to a future context.

This film is about the fight between a commando unit of the Ugandan army and a group of criminals known as the Tiger Mafia. The answer to the question in the title is initially: "nobody", as the commandos are led by Captain Alex. The Tiger Mafia is led by a man called Richard.

The plot is only an excuse for surprisingly good action scenes involving a lot of blood, helicopters, and karate. Therefore I am not spoiling anything by summarizing the main plot points. I will not disclose who killed Captain Alex, but I note that the film's motto "Expect the unexpectable" applies in an unexpectable way.

First a contingent from the Tiger Mafia including Richard's brother and one of Richard's wives meet a business partner and are surprised by the commandos. After a lot of killing, Richard's brother is arrested.

Returned to their headquarters, the Tiger Mafia people keep Richard in the dark about the capture of his brother. When he learns about it from the TV news, we soon understand why: Richard is so volatile that he starts randomly shooting people, including one of his wives.

Richard orders his people to kidnap Captain Alex, presumably to exchange him for his brother. This should be easy, because Captain Alex unwittingly spends his nights with a female member of the Tiger Mafia. However, just when they are about to capture Alex, he is killed mysteriously by an unknown person.

Richard predictably goes ballistic after this second setback. Meanwhile Captain Alex's brother appears, who happens to be a karate expert trained in the Ugandan Shaolin temple. As his master refuses to help him revenge his brother, he sets out alone. He finds one of Richard's wives, whom he had shot earlier in his rage, and so learns the location of the Tiger Mafia headquarters.

Meanwhile the commandos, now under new and improved leadership, plan a helicopter-assisted assault on the Tiger Mafia. The plan leaks to Richard, who reacts by ordering an attack on the capital with a stolen police helicopter. Even though the attack by the commandos is not a surprise, after a long battle they manage to capture Richard.

For the fighting scenes, the film relies on green screen, a two-dimensional helicopter prop, fake blood, wooden machine guns, and a lot of computer-generated explosions. But most importantly, there seems to be substantial number of actors with surprisingly good karate skills.

At just over an hour, the film does not overstay its welcome. The film plays it straight throughout, but seems to be making fun of itself and the circumstances of its production, with a budget, we learn, of no more than $200. During the end credits, we get to see some very poor and unkempt locals having fun with the props during the making of the film.

Over 70 languages are spoken in Uganda. The official languages are English and Swahili. The film's dialog seems to be in Swahili, with English translations in subtitles. Unfortunately, this original version of the film was has been lost. Fortunately, the version that we still have gives us a good idea of how films are enjoyed in Uganda.

A "video joker" (a term probably derived from "video jockey") or just "VJ" is a person who provides live comments to a film while it is shown, to make it accessible and more enjoyable to the audience. The VJ translates the dialog or, as in this case, just reads the subtitles aloud. He also provides comments that clarify what is going on or reinterpret the scenes similarly to what film reviews of bad films such as MST3K often do.

The widely available copy of this film includes the English comments by VJ Emmie. For viewers who are not used to VJs, this adds even more novelty to an amazing experience. For example, when a flashback scene in black and white shows a woman being tortured so that she consents to marrying Richard, the VJ says that this is punishment for having watched Nigerian movies (instead of Ugandan movies).

This film is currently available for free both on YouTube and on the website of production company Wakaliwood. The film serves as advertisement for Bad Black (2016), which can be thought of as a sequel. The company's website is well worth visiting, as it plays with the chaotic low-budget feel of the movies.

The screwball comedy is an early sound film genre, but this relatively late silent film is also a good example for it. It is also one of those timeless classics that almost but not quite managed to stay popular in the sound film era. Definitely still worth watching.

Patricia (Marion Davies) is bullied by her mother and sister. Only her father is on her side, but he is too docile to be much help. Patricia is in love with her sister's boyfriend Tony (Orville Caldwell), who barely acknowledges her existence.

The film starts at a leisurely pace as a visual comedy, beginning with a quietly funny dinner scene. Then the tempo increases, and some of the intertitles become seriously funny.

The following intertitle in the middle of the movie puzzled me at first:

"Begone! It's Mr. Google! OK-MNX."

Mr. Google seems to refer to the contemporary cartoon character Barney Google, and MNX may be a play on the enigmatic letters OK, which were still rather fresh at the time.

This Disney film is a sequel to the MGM film The Wizard of Oz (1939). Unfortunately it demonstrates how an excellent sequel to an excellent film can flop if it it does not fully cater to viewers' wish for just more of the same.

The two most obvious changes compared to the original film were more or less unavoidable given that the sequel came out 46 years later.

* In 1939, making all Kansas scenes black and white to stress how bleak life in the real world is for Dorothy was a very natural trick, created a nice surprise when the film finally switches to color (and a nasty one at the end when it switches back to black and white), and reduced production costs considerably because Technicolor was still a very new and very expensive technology. In 1985 it would have been weird to try the same trick. Black and white in cinema had become weird.

* In 1939, musical films were all the rage. In 1985, a musical film for the entire family would have been unusual, very expensive, and a great risk.

There were two changes, however, that seem to have been caused by artistic decisions that likely made the film better, but also made it defy expectations.

* Unlike the original film, the sequel presents very real dangers in a very realistic, threatening manner. Some reviewers here have called this a horror film for children. I think this goes a bit too far, but for the first two thirds or so of this film I wouldn't outright reject this description, either. Unlike the original film, this one is definitely not for the youngest cinema goers.

* Dorothy's original companions in Oz appear, but only very briefly. The other, secondary, characters generally do not reappear at all. Instead we get a new cast of characters. We see some of the old places, but also not to the extent many viewers will hope.

For the last third or so, the sequel returns to the genre (except for the singing) and voice of the original film, but at that point it is too late for those who expected the entire sequel to be like this and is a disappointment for those who preferred the beginning and don't like artificial sweetness.

This film is not for everyone and particularly not for the youngest children. But for the right audience it is a worthy sequel to The Wizard of Oz, maybe even better than the original film. In particular, the imagery for Oz is sufficiently congruent with the original. It is unfortunate that this film flopped because of the artistic decisions, but I can't be unhappy about the artistic decisions themselves.

In American TV series there is a tradition that each season has precisely one episode (sometimes referred to as a clip show episode) that consists almost completely of clips from earlier episodes. Typically this is done by making two or more protagonists reminisce about their exploits. As a 1960s British TV series, The Avengers thankfully does not follow this tradition. However, after a change of production teams one of the earliest Tara King episodes produced was reworked by the new team into something that has pretty much the same feel, even though there is only a small number of scenes taken from earlier episodes and most of the clips are original. (To the original episode that is, which unfortunately we can't watch instead.)

This episode is a bit of a counterexample to the principle that the quality of an experience is determined by the beginning, the end, its best moment, and its worst moment:

The beginning, a spoof of Arsenic and Old Lace (1944), is extremely strong. The end, in which Steed is irritated by the fact that Mother's assistant never speaks, and tries to do something about it, is slightly better than the average Steed/King ending. The problem is that the beginning is also the high point, and is followed immediately by the low point: the set-up of the boring framework in which Mother tells the original story.

Despite these problems, I did enjoy this episode because there is enough of the original version left to be genuinely interesting. It's framed to make it ridiculous, but personally I don't mind. Ever since the days of Tara King's predecessor Mrs. Peel, the series has never taken itself very seriously anyway. I assume I would have enjoyed the original version even more, but apparently it is lost. (To be honest, the material that didn't make it into the clip show may have been awful; it seems unlikely, but we just don't know.)

The story told in the clip show concerns Intercrime, and is a continuation of Intercrime (1963), an episode of the era before the series was sold to the US, featuring Mrs. Peel's predecessor Mrs. Gale.

This series is an excellent example of how to make a language course engaging. It was a coproduction of German and French TV stations for German TV. Each episode opened with a French-only segment that advanced the plot. This was followed by explanations concerning grammar etc. When the course ran on German TV, viewers could buy accompanying material such as books and audio recordings.

The series fully embraced the typical cheesiness that comes with such a production and turned it into an asset. We learn French by following the exploits of a family who suddenly find themselves in France without speaking a single word of French.

Or indeed any Earth language: The Gammas are a family of long-haired space hippies stranded on Earth with their spherical wooden spaceship / mobile home. Confronted with French culture, they naturally run into more misunderstandings and amusing situations than the typical German does when visiting the country.

This science fiction parody is produced like a stage play plus a few very cheap special effects, but it makes up for this with charming characters and a zany plot.

This is a perfect example of an episode that makes as much sense taken at face value as it does as a mere pretext for creating amusing situations.

Bibliothek is the Commonwealth version of the Mafia, and it takes the stereotype of an 'honorable' criminal society to the next level. All its regional leaders pose as members of the Anglican clergy, staying in character (to the extent practicable) even when they are among themselves.

The leader, the 'Bishop of Winnipeg', travels to London with his secretary/bodyguard Sister Johnson to convene a meeting for the election of his successor. Despite the religious cover, one of the delegates, the 'Reverend Harbottle', is caught by police at the airport. This gives John Steed a chance to infiltrate the organization by posing as Harbottle's successor.

There is a slightly amusing though not terribly original subplot related to an antique German doll, which keeps Cathy Gale occupied. But the episode's real strength lies in the comportment of the pretend clergymen during their meeting, which takes place in a school room. Many elements of their behaviour can be characterized as simultaneously typical for two out of the three groups of schoolboys (and teacher), church dignitaries, and scheming criminals.

Cathy Gale is the main protagonist in this episode, leaving only a minor supporting role to John Steed. But the real star is Plato, a house-sized early electronic computer. The computer's military function attracts foreign agents trying to annihilate it, which results in two deaths of operators trapped in the computer. The computer's principal operator is Dr James Kearns, an immature genius played by Anthony Booth.

Cathy Gale's way of dealing with the spies is quite amusing, and so are James Kearn's antics and the dynamic between the two. But what I found most interesting is the way the computer is portrayed. This episode predates the era of 'minicomputers' with tape reels for storage, which are usually the oldest computer technology we get to see (as for example in Star Trek (1966)). I don't know how realistic the depiction was in terms of computers of the era, but from a modern point of view there are almost steampunk vibes here.

This doesn't seem to have been an ultra-low budget movie, but it has the quirkiness of one. The acting and direction are at least competent. (I notice when it's really bad, but that's the full extent of my my discernment in this area.) The same is true for the dialogs, except for the parts that are in 1950s youth jargon -- these are often hilariously stilted or feel otherwise out of place. The plot is competent but not great as a thriller, and it is competent but not great as a film with an educational message.

Based on all these elements, I would consider this film a 5/10 ('meh'). But the total work is better than its elements. The elements don't really fit together, but have been forged together in a way that feels seamless and almost natural. Another plus for me is that many characters behave in hilariously implausible ways without breaking the immersion. Part of the educational message is just wrong. Overall, I feel amused by this film in much the same way as by a really bad one.

This is definitely not a good movie, but it is quite original, unusual, and not bad at all, making it slightly better than a 6/10 ('not bad'). Recommended for those who are running out of bad movies to watch and those interested in 1950s' American culture (not that it's depicted accurately...) or the history of attitudes to drugs.

In the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest in 9 AD, Germanic peoples managed to completely destroy 3 Roman legions, or half the regular military presence of the Romans in the Rhine region. This was made possible by the treason of Arminius, a Cheruskan chief who was considered a very trustworthy ally of the Romans. There has long been speculation that Arminius had been raised in Rome as a hostage. This series adds the additional twist that he was raised by Varus, Roman general and appointed governor of Germania in 7 AD.

The first season (which this review is based on) is centered around three Cheruskan childhood friends: Arminius, Thusnelda (a strong female character based on Arminius' wife) and Folkwin (Thusnelda's completely fictional lover). It is these three together who change history.

Being historically correct clearly wasn't the primary goal of this series, but generally speaking it is unusually good in this respect. I guess they tried to get things right whenever it wasn't expensive and didn't get into the way of any other goals. This goes as far as the Romans actually speaking Latin, with the reconstructed historical pronunciation. In the original version, the Germanic people speak modern German. Latin dialog is sometimes translated to German by a translator. Only when this is not the case, it is subtitled.

For some reason, Germanic tribes are always represented as living in small clearings in thick forests. It's what people expect to see and it's easier to arrange than a realistic setting, so I am not surprised the series went with this tradition. The age structure is unrealistically similar to today's.

As far as I can tell, the actors otherwise fit their roles perfectly and are consistently very good.

There is one glaring problem: The great battle itself. We have next to no details about the historical battle and it is not clear where exactly it took place. But that's no excuse for the bizarre goings-on in the depiction of the battle, in the last episode of Season 1. I expected to be entertained, not educated, but even so the battle broke my suspension of disbelief.

But overall I enjoyed the first season enormously despite the weak ending. The intricate plot and the acting just pulled me in.

I heard that the historical advisors dropped out of the production for the second season, so I am not in a hurry to go on watching at that point.

This film came out in August 1930, only 8 months after Melodie des Herzens (1929), the first German talkie. It was basically an experiment with the new genre. Apparently it was quite well received at the time, but I think today it is of little interest except for film historians or Max Hansen fans.

The title suggests that this should be a parody of German expressionist silent movie Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari (1920), but it is not. I don't think a Dr. Larifari even occurs in the film. It is a series of short spoof sequences (parodying well known films or cabaret acts or spoofing entire genres) held together by a self-referential framing story. In the first scene, three men sitting in a café spontaneously decide to found a talkie film company to fight their boredom. None of them has any capital, but that is explicitly not an obstacle.

The remainder of the film alternates between scenes based on the three men's ideas of what directing a film company is like, and excerpts from various films that this company might produce. Unfortunately the pacing is rather slow and the humor too low-key by today's standards. For example, the Bavarian singing student scene, which is clearly intended as a parody of comedian Karl Valentin, is so boring that I wouldn't even call it a sketch. The film company interior looks grotesque as in an expressionist film, for example a ridiculously high door. That was probably quite funny at a time when expressionist films had been out of fashion for about 5 years and all the old silent films had become irrelevant anyway. But for us modern viewers, the difference between a black and white talkie from 1930 and a silent film from 1925 is far less dramatic, so the joke falls mostly flat.

The founders of the Trio Film Company, who are also its principal actors (besides being the principal chasers of the company secretary), were three contemporary stars who might have appeared in a Kabarett (political cabaret) together.

Max Hansen was an operetta tenor, Kabarett singer and actor. Born out of wedlock to a Danish actress in Germany, he was technically Danish but grew up in Germany. His father was probably a Hungarian of Jewish descent. Today he is still somewhat known for his excellent pop songs, many of which also exist in later cover versions. (Although the original recordings are much better in my opinion.) One of them, "War'n Sie schon mal in mich verliebt?" (1932), made fun of Adolf Hitler and caused him difficulties that forced him to emigrate.

Paul Morgan was an Austrian actor and comedian of Jewish descent who would later be murdered at Buchenwald.

Carl Jöken was a German tenor and occasional actor.

The Trio-Film GmbH was actually a real film company founded by the three actors in real life, but it never produced another film after this one. I doubt that it was because of a dispute over the secretary. More likely the funding ran out because their first film wasn't such a big hit, after all.

The eponymous Auvergnat inherits a fortune and travels to Strasbourg to collect it. His initial adventures show that he is shrewd but totally out of touch with modern city life. He takes the number 9 bus to Kehl, the little German city just across the River Rhine, to meet Lisbeth, the young woman he played with when they were children. She seems willing to marry him for his money.

When he spends most of his fortune on buying the bus from the ticket officer, some of the ensuing complications are easily predictable. But most are not. Via the notary who handled the inheritance, the Auvergnat gets into contact with two local businessmen who he infects with the bus-buying craze. And that's about as much as I should reveal about the plot.

The mad intricacy of the plot and a cringe factor that is out of this world are both the film's strength and its weakness. I am not sure I would want to watch this film again if my French was good enough to have understood all the details the first time round.

The film takes place in Strasbourg in winter and includes some scenic views of the city in the 1960s, though not half enough for my taste. I don't know what it is, but despite being contemporary with Hibernatus (1969) and in color, this film feels at least as old-fashioned to me as Don Camillo (1952). (Though of course not as good. That would be a very high bar.) This may be intentional, as it fits the theme.

The protagonist is played by Fernand Raynaud. Unfortunately it was his last film, as he died in a car accident.

Many of the other faces are very familiar. For example, the ticket officer is better known as one of the gendarmes of Saint-Tropez; their boss appears here as a policeman who objects to being called a gendarme.

This movie is criminally underrated. I guess this is in part because it is not a big Hollywood production, in part because its title evokes expectations of nudity and gore that it thankfully does not fullfil (except for some bathing cannibal women at the very beginning), and in part because the theme of feminism raises expectations of one-sided campaigning that the movie also thankfully doesn't fullfil. Maybe it's also a little harder to enjoy some of the jokes and allusions if you are not an academic.

Formally speaking, this is probably a parody of Joseph Conrad's "Heart of Darkness". But there is no need to know that book to enjoy this film. (As a German, I haven't yet got around to reading it myself, and I love this film.) It appears that the book just provides a narrative structure that is known to work, and which is here turned into an excellent comedy spoofing B movies, Indiana Jones, 2001, and whatever else was at hand.

This film is yet another proof that you don't need a large budget to create a nearly perfect movie. Roger Corman, who was not involved in the present film, is well known for his approach: getting all the cheap things right enough and not doing anything expensive. This has allowed Corman to produce so many films that accidental hits such as The Little Shop of Horrors (1960) were practically guaranteed to occur. It seems that J.F. Lawton, script writer and director of the present film, used a variant of this approach; only he made success more likely by starting with a perfect script that takes the budget limitations into account.

The 3 principal actors are each fully competent, perfectly believable in their roles, and work very well together as an ensemble:

Playboy Miss November 1981 Shannon Tweed, then still not far into her acting career, must have been eager to get a lead role in which she could prove her competence without muddling things by taking her clothes off (which she didn't). Clearly a good actress, she is convincing as Margo Hunt, the feminist professor who is pressured to go on a dangerous jungle mission by two military types from the Department of Agriculture and from the Avocado Affairs division of the National Security Commission. ("Miss Hunt, this is a matter of national importance. We need to speak to you immediately. Alone.")

Naive student Bunny ("I've been thinking of changing my major from Home Economics to Feminist Studies, but I wasn't sure if you had any feminist cooking classes.") was inexplicably allowed to attend the confidential briefing by the military types. Prof. Hunt, realizing that the jungle may be less dangerous for Bunny than the imminent frat party ("For special girls like you, we are going to have a wet t-shirt contest." - "But all my t-shirts are dry."), eventually allows her to join the expedition. Bunny is played by Karen M. Waldron, who had recently appeared in Return of the Killer Tomatoes! (1988).

The uncharted avocado jungle controlled by cannibal women is located in California, spreading from Bakersfield to the Mexican border. With all the required teaching supplies fortunately in stock at Spritzer College (including ten manila envelopes and 1,000 rounds of ammunition, half hollow and half teflon to combine maximum stopping power with armor piercing qualities), Prof. Hunt and her student drive to San Bernardino, a "rough speck of civilization on the edge of the Avocado Belt", where they enter the saloon to look for a local guide. After teaching an unsavory character a lesson and scaring away a black Rambo, a ninja and a masked avenger, Prof. Hunt settles for Jim - a poor Indiana Jones imitator who happens to be a former one-night stand of hers and whose main qualification is owning an out-of-print guidebook. Jim is played by Bill Maher, then still early in his career.

It appears that Adrienne Barbeau was hired for name recognition only - for only a day to save money. No wonder she is a bit unremarkable as Dr. Kurtz, the feminist author turned jungle cannibal empress. The name "Kurtz" is taken from Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness, which provided the overall structure for this film.

The building chosen as the Piranha Women's temple is impressive and perfectly appropriate. I found it easy to identify with a quick web search.

The happy ending, which turns this movie retroactively into a romantic comedy, isn't a big surprise, but like everything else it is just right.

Overall, I am in awe at how much was achieved here with how little expense. Now I'll stop writing and watch the movie once more to look for things I haven't noticed last time.

Ludovic Cruchot, the eponymous 'custom-made' gendarme of this famous French comedy, is played by Louis de Funès in his typical way: as an excitable, opportunistic authoritarian with a soft core. At age 49, this film essentially catapulted him to his rank as the most popular French actor, a rank he essentially still holds to this day, four decades after his death.

The film starts as an old-fashioned comedy in black and white, featuring Cruchot as a widower with a barely adult daughter, and the single gendarme of an idyllic mountain village in the French Alps. He is dedicated to his profession to the point where he can be described as hyperactive. He is also prone to comical mishaps. The film proper begins with Cruchot's advancement to a minor leading position in the glamorous seaside resort Saint-Tropez (in the South of France on the coast of the Mediterranean). This is where the film turns into color, the music becomes jazzy, and the real opening credits start.

The highest-ranking officer of the gendarmerie at Saint-Tropez is Adjudant Gerber, Cruchot's immediate superior and instant target of his brown nosing. Cruchot himself commands the other four gendarmes with an iron fist, starting right after he leaves the bus. All the gendarmes live in the old gendarmerie building with their wives, or in Cruchot's case with his daughter Nicole.

This film isn't really about plot, but there is a minor plot about the gendarmes' battle against illegal nude bathing and a major plot related to Nicole's somewhat chaotic efforts to be accepted by the local (jetset) youth. They give rise to interaction with criminals and some nice action sequences.

The five sequels (1965-1982) are surprisingly diverse while retaining most of the atmosphere of the present film. The last three were noticeably more mad, though. All six films were directed by Jean Girault.

In Le gendarme à New York (1965), the 6 gendarmes of Saint-Tropez are selected to represent France at an international gendarmerie congress in New York. Travel there on the same boat as their Italian rivals. Complications again arise from Nicole's fear of missing out.

In the unrelated hilarious and very successful comedy Oscar (1967), Claude Gensac played the wife of Louis de Funès' character, and turned out to be the perfect comedic foil for his antics. So it shouldn't come as a big surprise that just a year later, in Le gendarme se marie (1968), she plays a general's widow who turns up in Saint-Tropez, apparently with the single goal of making Cruchot her new husband. He fits the deceased's uniform, so she just needs to make him propose to her and ensure he advances through the ranks. The main complication is related to a dangerous criminal. This is the last film in which we see Nicole.

In Le gendarme en balade (1970), the six familiar gendarmes of Saint-Tropez are forced to retire and make place for the next generation. They are not at all happy with this situation, and after going through a series of mad adventures while illegally wearing their old uniforms, they end up saving the city from a nuclear explosion, and are reinstated.

There was almost a decade without another sequel while other successful Funès films came out, but also Star Wars (1977). The latter film's success apparently made it inevitable to confront the gendarmes of Saint-Tropez with hostile extra-terrestrials. Le gendarme et les extra-terrestres (1979) did this without losing its grounding and became another popular and financial, though not critical, success. Unfortunately, four relatively important roles had to be recast.

Another sequel about the revenge of the extra-terrestrials was scrapped in favor of the unrelated Funès film La soupe aux choux (1981), also directed by Jean Girault.

For Le gendarme et les gendarmettes (1982), Claude Gensac was again available to play Mme Cruchot. Things go spectacularly wrong when the gendarmerie of Saint-Tropez is selected to host four young female gendarmes. The deaths of Jean Girault and Louis de Funès prevented any further sequels.

Among the elements that tie the six films together, there is the regular appearance of a bubbly, short-sighted young nun with a taste for speed. The car chases in which she drives a 2CV seem a likely inspiration for a similarly hilarious car chase in For Your Eyes Only (1981).

This boulevard comedy is to Louis de Funès and to French comedies of error what Arsenic and Old Lace (1944) is to Cary Grant and to American black comedies. You would expect each to be just another entry in a long list of theater adaptations, but each is perfectly executed by a brilliant ensemble led by one of the most famous actors of all time.

In terms of plot, this is a standard but well written comedy of errors concerning daughters, prospective sons-in-law and suitcases. But the execution, with great pacing and comedic timing, takes it to another level.

It appears that Louis de Funès is internationally best known for Les aventures de Rabbi Jacob (1973). In France he has continuously been the most popular actor since the decade this film came out, and even in my native Germany he comes close. Here, as I believe in most of Europe, he may not be the most popular actor, but he is still immensely popular and the most popular French actor. Unfortunately, this may be changing due to German TV's recent propensity to endlessly repeat the weaker sequels of Le gendarme de Saint-Tropez (1964) while being stingy with gems such as the present film.

Louis de Funès plays the standard type that he is known for: the hyperactive, choleric, bad-faith but ultimately likeable, businessman thrown into hilariously chaotic circumstances. Clearly the star of the film, he nevertheless doesn't try to run away with the show. Everyone gets their moments in which they are featured. Claude Gensac is perhaps best known for playing the wives of de Funès' characters, and in this film we can see why. Her role is relatively minor, but with her deadpan delivery she makes the perfect comedic foil (straight man) for de Funès' eccentricity.

No doubt this film was devised as the blaxploitation version of a Dracula film. But there is only very little of the cheesiness that one would expect. Sure, the name "Blacula" is silly and implausible, and the whole slavery angle is naive. Also the film begins sort of self-referentially with two stereotyped gay men importing Dracula paraphernalia because they are camp. But that's it. The rest of the film is played straight and is really good. I am not sure why, but this combination just works and makes this a really enjoyable 'cult' movie.

Above average for movies in general and for vampire movies; significantly above average for blaxploitation.