The Street Fighter (1974) - Kung Fu Krazy Fest

It's really part of the nature of this blog that most of the time I'm writing about "classic" films - older, black and white, even silent-era movies that have moved into the public domain because of the time that they were created. And since, due to the changes made in copyright law over the years (especially since the late 70's) no new movies (or books or music or anything else for that matter) will enter the public domain until at least 2019, it's likely to be that way for awhile. Still, there are some more recent films that over the years have in various ways "slipped through the cracks" and made their way into the public domain, and some of those movies could even be considered modern-day classics. Such is certainly the case with today's entry, the rousing Sonny Chiba martial-arts flick The Street Fighter.

Actually, The Street Fighter is notable for a number of different reasons. Though it was not Chiba's first movie, (he had been making science fiction and crime films and appearing on television in his native Japan for at least a decade before) it wasn't until this film that he became an internationally known superstar. The film also gained notoriety because it was the first movie to garner an X-rating from the MPAA solely because of its violence. It is also noteworthy because of the number of spinoffs and sequels that it spawned.

Sunday Serials - The Heroes Take Over #4 - The Adventures of Captain Marvel (1941)

So who was the first superhero to actually make it to the big screen? Batman? No. Superman? Nope. Although both of them would later have their own serials, the first was actually the Fawcett Comics hero Captain Marvel.

Now I know for some of you, Captain Marvel is gonna be kind of a "whozzat?" hero. Others may remember him from the 1970's Saturday morning TV show "Shazam!". Still others may know him from his current comics incarnation and wonder why I called him a "Fawcett Comics hero" instead of a DC comics hero, since that's who publishes his adventures today. The truth, however, is that the history of this hero, originally created as a rival to Superman, is rather convoluted. Fortunately, it's also not all that relevant to the subject of today's essay, the 1941 Republic serial version of the character, except perhaps as an amusing sidebar in that as William Witney, notes in his book  In a Door, Into a Fight, Out a Door, Into a Chase: Moviemaking Remembered by the Guy at the Door, the previous Republic serial, The Mysterious Dr Satan was originally intended to be a vehicle for Superman, in which case he would have beaten his rival to the screen. As it turned out, however, National Comics (as DC was known at the time) pulled out of negotiations, the hero for Dr. Satan was changed to the Copperhead (a non-powered masked man) and the Captain Marvel follow-up became the first official comics-to-film adaptation.

The Cat and the Canary (1927) - It Was a Dark and Silent Night

Ok, gang, time to jump into the way-way-back machine and set the dial for 1927, and the American debut of famed German director Paul Leni who has just combined the expressionism movement of his home country with the burgeoning horror-comedy genre of this country to create what may be one of the most influential films of the mid 1920s, The Cat and the Canary.

Now I've made no bones before about my love for the so-called "old dark house" genre of films. I've used the analogy before, but in a lot of ways,  for me sitting down for one of these movies is like tucking into a favorite meal of... oh, go ahead and pick your own comfort food. It's the kind of thing where it doesn't matter how many times you've eaten it, no matter how well you may know the taste of it, that's a large part of the enjoyment of it. You know what I'm talking about, the kind of thing that may bring back special memories, maybe from your childhood, maybe of a particular time with someone special, maybe of a place that you once visited and want to go back to. It's the kind of thing you maybe keep in the back of your mind when you go to a new restaurant, something that even if you're unsure of the menu, you know that you're going to enjoy this particular dish. That's how I feel about old dark house mysteries - they're my fall back comfort food, because even when they're not that great, there's usually some aspect of them that I can enjoy.

But if the old dark house mysteries are comfort food, then watching The Cat and the Canary was, for me, like going back to the place where it all started, finding that little English pub or off the byway place where your favorite dish was created. Or maybe talking to the great grandparent that first came up with the secret family recipe and realising that all along there had been something missing. Like taking that first bite and realising that no matter how many times you' had the dish, how many variations you've tried, there really is nothing quite like the original.

A Sunday Serials Bonus - The Avengers (1952)

Ok, to make up for the long time between posts (and the fact that the "Sunday Serial" isn't actually hitting until Monday morning), here's a little bonus for you. Youtuber whoiseyevan has made a series of trailers for what he calls "premakes". The basic concept is sort of what if certain movies like Raiders of the Lost Ark or The Empire Strikes Back were made in a different era? Then through the strategic editing of classic clips and new narration he has made trailers for these unfortunately never-to-be-seen classics.

Well, since all of the Marvel movies such as Iron Man, Thor, and Captain America have been leading up to a certain blockbuster that actually will be in theaters next summer, and since we took a look at the actual Captain America serial this week, it seemed only appropriate to share this premake trailer with you:

Yeah, now that's a flick I'd love to see.Let's just hope next year's big-budget version shows half the imagination and excitement of this short.

And be sure to check out whoiseyevan's other premakes on his youtube page.

Until next time, Happy Treasure Hunting,
-Professor Damian

Sunday Serials - The Heroes Take Over #3 - Captain America (1944)

So pretty much anybody that's been to a theater this summer or watched any kind of television has at least an idea of who Captain America is. The trailer for the new flick lays it out pretty well, and if you've actually seen the movie, well, then you're steps ahead of the game here. Steve Rogers, a scrawny 78 pound weakling who has a big heart but is too stupid to know when to give up in a fight wants desperately to join the army so that he can join his bestest ever friend James "Bucky" Barnes in getting his face shot off in World War II. Repeatedly rejected by the military despite continuously trying and lying about who he is on his enlistment papers, this sad sack is finally spotted by an ex-nazi scientist who wants to continue his experiments in creating the master race of soldiers over here (experiments that the government and military apparently have no problem not only approving but financing, which should really come as no surprise to anyone familiar with the phrase "The Tuskegee Experiment") and is taken back to a secret laboratory where he is shot chock full of super-steroids and irradiated until he finally becomes enough of a beefcake that the army decides he will, if not win the war single-handedly, at least be useful for some great propaganda films and USO tours.

Yeah, well, forget all of that, at least for today, because that's not Captain America. At least not in this 1944 Republic serial.

The White Shadow (1924) Half of a Lost Hitchcock Film, or...?

Hitch auditions for the lead in Home Alone.

It's being hailed as one of the greatest finds of the century (so far, anyway) - the first three of the six reels of "Alfred Hitchcock's first film", The White Shadow. The reels were found among a number of unidentified American nitrate prints that were donated to the New Zealand Film Archive in 1989 after the death of projectionist and collector Jack Murtagh. The Archive has been slowly going through these prints and has already identified and begun restoration of a number of significant films, many of them, like The White Shadow, thought to have been lost forever. (For more on this discovery/restoration project, please check out my previous article on the subject and the website of the film archive itself.)

So what exactly is The White Shadow about? Well, according to an article released by the National Film Preservation Foundation,

The film is... an atmospheric melodrama starring Betty Compson, in a dual role as twin sisters—one angelic and the other “without a soul.” With mysterious disappearances, mistaken identity, steamy cabarets, romance, chance meetings, madness, and even the transmigration of souls, the wild plot crams a lot into six reels. Critics faulted the improbable story but praised the acting and “cleverness of the production.”