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Monday, January 30, 2023

A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET - #2 IN A TERRIFYING TRIO OF CLASSIC HORROR FILMS FINALLY TICKED OFF ON MY 'MUST-SEE' MOVIES LIST

 
Publicity poster for A Nightmare On Elm Street (© Wes Craven/New Line Cinema/Media Home Entertainment/Smart Egg Pictures – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair use basis for educational/review purposes only)

Previously at Shuker In MovieLand I reviewed The Silence of the Lambs (click here to read it) – the first in a terrifying trio of classic horror movies that it has taken me far too long to get around to watching. Today, here are my thoughts regarding the second of those movies – A Nightmare On Elm Street.

On 7 August 2022, after buying its DVD on a whim in a charity shop the previous day, I finally viewed the supernatural/fantasy slasher movie A Nightmare On Elm Street – but it was nothing like what I'd expected it to be.

Directed and written by Wes Craven, and released in 1984 by New Line Cinema, A Nightmare On Elm Street is an enduring favourite flick among horror aficionados. So perhaps it's just movie-hardened me from two years of binge watching during the two years of Covid lockdowns, 2019-2020, here in the UK, as well as much movie viewing thereafter too, but I didn't find it even remotely frightening. In fact, it came over as dark comedy more than anything else.

The blood-drenched plot (its filming featured over 500 gallons of fake blood!) centres upon Freddy Krueger (played by Robert Englund), a facially-scorched serial kid killer who was murdered by his victims' parents when they burned him alive but whose evil spirit now manifests itself from beyond the grave, specifically within the dreams of a bunch of teens living in and around Elm Street (whose precise location within the USA is never revealed). Krueger wears a special glove with long razor-sharp knives attached to its fingers that he uses to slaughter the teens one by one, killing them in their dreams, so they never wake up.

Yet the execution of this premise (which was inspired by Brugada or Asian Death Syndrome, a genuine medical condition in which people die during nightmares) and the accompanying special effects are wildly OTT.

The lascivious tongue emerging from the landline telephone of this movie's lead teenager character Nancy Thompson (Heather Langenkamp), for example, is both hilarious and ridiculous! And the blood geyser scene in which Nancy's boyfriend Glen Lantz is killed (more about Glen below) is Grand Guignol of the most grandiose kind!

Equally, Englund's Krueger is positively camp and as hammy as a prize porker at times. And some of the acting from certain other stars is so wooden that it's in dire danger of attracting a termite infestation – yes indeed, Johnny Depp, in your movie debut! Depp plays Glen, winning the role over the likes of Nicolas Cage, John Cusack, C. Thomas Howell, Brad Pitt, Charlie Sheen, and Kiefer Sutherland, who were all considered for it.

But far from being faults, these very same attributes were what I found so enjoyable, albeit highly unexpected, in a film that I hadn't previously thought I'd ever even watch, let alone be entertained by. The magic of Movieland working its marvels and miracles yet again!

Incidentally, in precisely the same way that I alluded to regarding Dr Hannibal Lecter in my afore-mentioned review of The Silence of the Lambs, the villain of A Nightmare On Elm Street is conspicuous by his remarkably rare screen appearances in this movie – Krueger's total on-screen time is less than 7 minutes out of a total movie run-time of 91 minutes. Less is more, clearly.

If you wish to wander down for a few briefest of moments the terror-shadowed but very tongue-in-cheek (not to mention tongue-down-telephone!) path of Elm Street (which btw was named after the street in Wheaton, Illinois, where Wes Craven went to college), be sure to click here to watch on YouTube an official trailer for A Nightmare On Elm Street.

Next time here at Shuker In MovieLand I'll be offering my thoughts on the third member of this terrifying trio of horror movies very belatedly watched by me – The Howling. Don't miss it!

To view a complete chronological listing of all of my Shuker In MovieLand blog's other film reviews and articles (each one instantly accessible via a direct clickable link), please click HERE, and please click HERE to view a complete fully-clickable alphabetical listing of them.

 
The official DVD of A Nightmare On Elm Street that I purchased and watched (© Wes Craven/New Line Cinema/Media Home Entertainment/Smart Egg Pictures – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair use basis for educational/review purposes only)

 

Saturday, January 28, 2023

THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS - #1 IN A TERRIFYING TRIO OF CLASSIC HORROR FILMS FINALLY TICKED OFF ON MY 'MUST-SEE' MOVIES LIST

 
Three publicity posters for The Silence of the Lambs, A Nightmare On Elm Street, and The Howling (© Jonathan Denne/Strong Heart Productions/Orion Pictures / © Wes Craven/New Line Cinema/Media Home Entertainment/Smart Egg Pictures / © Joe Dante/International Film Investors/Wescom Productions/Embassy Pictures/Studiocanal – all three illustrations reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair use basis for educational/review purposes only)

With the notable exception of its monster movie/creature feature contingent, horror has never been one of my favourite movie genres, so my viewing history of such films contains as many gaps and holes in it as a piece of fine filigree lace or a hunk of finest Swiss cheese!

Every so often, however, I do make an attempt at amends to my feeble record of horror watching, and during the past 12 months(ish) I finally – finally! – got around to viewing three absolute classics from this genre. Namely, The Silence of the Lambs, A Nightmare On Elm Street, and The Howling. So here over the next few days are my thoughts about them, beginning today with The Silence of the Lambs.

 

 
My 2-disc Special Edition DVD of The Silence of the Lambs (© Jonathan Denne/Strong Heart Productions/Orion Pictures – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair use basis for educational/review purposes only)

On 13 December 2021, I filled another of the many gaping holes in my blockbuster movie viewing, due to my passion and over-riding preference for seeking out and watching lesser-known, esoteric films instead, by finally getting around to viewing – only 30 years after it was released – none other than the multi-Oscar-winning film The Silence of the Lambs!

Directed by Jonathan Demme, based upon the 1988 Thomas Harris novel of the same title, and released in 1991 by Orion Pictures, any movie that can win all of the 'Big Four' Academy Awards – Best Picture, Director, Leading Actor, and Leading Actress – as well as a fifth one for Best Adapted Screenplay, has to be something truly extraordinary, and this movie definitely was. Indeed, what can I say about it that hasn't already been said at greater length, in greater depth, and including greater detail by others? But here goes anyway.

Unless you've been living on the moon or down a cave since the onset of the 1990s, you'll know that the central character in The Silence of the Lambs is a brilliant but twisted psychologist whose cannibalistic tendencies have led to his being incarcerated within the Baltimore State Hospital for the Criminally Insane, boasting as much security as Fort Knox. However, he is sufficiently intrigued by a young rookie cop and her bravery in visiting his caged cell to seek his assistance in tracking down another warped serial killer for him to actually agree to do so, after a fashion…

 
A singularly chilling publicity poster for The Silence of the Lambs (© Jonathan Denne/Strong Heart Productions/Orion Pictures – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair use basis for educational/review purposes only)

Consequently, I was actually surprised by the relatively short amount of screen time occupied by Anthony Hopkins as Dr Hannibal 'The Cannibal' Lecter (less than 25 minutes out of this movie's 118-minute total running time), but he makes every second count, in mesmerisingly menacing fashion, employing a reptile's unnervingly low frequency of eye blinks coupled with a voice that Hopkins memorably described as a combination of Truman Capote and Katharine Hepburn. (Incidentally, other actors who had been considered for the role of Lecter included Sean Connery, Robert Duvall, Robert De Niro, Louis Gossett Jr, Gene Hackman, Dustin Hoffman, John Hurt, Jeremy Irons, John Lithgow, Christopher Lloyd, Jack Nicholson, and Patrick Stewart.)

It is also without question the best performance by Jodie Foster that I have ever seen (she won the role over the likes of Nicole Kidman, Michelle Pfeiffer, and Meg Ryan). The climactic scene where her rookie FBI officer Clarice Starling (a character that apparently inspired the creation of Agent Dana Scully in The X Files) is trapped with skin-stripping serial killer Jame 'Buffalo Bill' Gumb (Ted Levine) inside his house's pitch-black labyrinthine basement is almost literally heart-stopping – I caught myself physically holding my breath on more than one occasion during it. And the clever twist that reveals her to be there unsupported by any other officers is very slickly presented, big-screen legerdemain of the highest calibre. Ditto for Lecter's ingeniously macabre escape scene. Also, be sure to look out for brief cameo appearances in acting roles by acclaimed horror-movie directors David Lynch and George A. Romero, as well as by this movie's own director, Jonathan Demme.

If I had a moan after watching this movie, it was of a wholly zoological nature, inasmuch as the deathshead hawk moth Acherontia atropos (click here for my ShukerNature blog's coverage of this spectacular insect), which features so intrinsically in it and is so striking in the adult moth form, is barely seen in close-up – only the chrysalis and one very brief albeit key view of an adult moth inside BB's house. Other than that, they simply fly around with no visuals highlighting this species' characteristic deathshead-like thoracic marking, which by contrast is readily visible in most (although by no means all) publicity material.

However, following an investigation of this apparent anomaly, I discovered the likely reason for it. Namely, the moths that were actually filmed for this movie were not genuine deathshead hawk moths – instead, they were tobacco hornworm moths Manduca sexta, with the deathshead marking painted onto a body shield fixed to their thorax! Nor was that the only lepidopteran subterfuge used. For if you look very closely at the deathshead on the moth's thorax in this film's publicity material, you'll discover that it's not the genuine skull simulacrum present on this insect species' thorax but is in fact an exact reproduction in miniature of the famous surrealist picture 'In Voluptas Mors' ('Voluptuous Death') by Salvador Dali, maestro of the macabre, in which the 'skull' is actually composed of seven naked women!

 
Composite illustration showing how Salvador Dali's artwork 'In Voluptas Mors' was subtly incorporated into publicity illustrations for The Silence of the Lambs (© Salvador Dali Estate / (© Jonathan Denne/Strong Heart Productions/Orion Pictures – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair use basis for educational/review purposes only)

Moth manipulations aside, The Silence of the Lambs is a terrific tour-de-force, and became the first horror movie ever to win an Academy Award for Best Picture. Earlier on 13 December, I'd bought on spec for 50p the 2-disc Special Edition DVD of it, with the second disc (still to watch) containing deleted scenes, interviews, and much more, so I had a great find, with both discs in mint condition too. And as a big Edward Norton fan, I've also bought the DVD of Red Dragon (2003), a prequel movie to The Silence of the Lambs, in which his character pursues and finally snares Lecter, thereby ending his killing spree and beginning his caged imprisonment where Clarice later meets him for the first time.

Finally: if you've never watched The Silence of the Lambs (or read the Thomas Harris novel on which it is based), you may be wondering what its title means in relation to the movie. As a youngster, Clarice lived on her uncle's ranch, which had sheep. One early morning she awoke to the sounds of screaming from terrified lambs in the slaughterhouse close by, so she crept inside, hoping to rescue them, but only succeeded in running away with a single lamb. However, she felt that even the saving of one might somehow contribute to the saving of all of them, thereby stopping their screaming and restoring the silence. Now, as an adult FBI officer, she is still heavily influenced by this traumatic experience, inasmuch as she is fervently hoping that if she can rescue Buffalo Bill's latest abductee, a senator's daughter, it will bring to an end his history of kidnap and murder, thereby saving other potential victims and thus restoring to these human lambs the silence of safety.

If like me you have somehow managed not to see this movie during the three decades that have passed since its release, be sure to click here to view on YouTube an official trailer for it in order to discover just what you've been missing – while watching it you could even open a nice Chianti and have an old friend for dinner!

Also, be sure to check out here at Shuker In MovieLand my thoughts regarding the second member of this terrifying trio of horror movies very belatedly watched by me – A Nightmare On Elm Street. Don't miss it!

To view a complete chronological listing of all of my Shuker In MovieLand blog's other film reviews and articles (each one instantly accessible via a direct clickable link), please click HERE, and please click HERE to view a complete fully-clickable alphabetical listing of them.

 
Illustration of a genuine deathshead hawk moth (public domain)

 

Wednesday, January 25, 2023

MOOMINS, MOVIES, AND MEMORIES

 
My mini-menagerie of Moomins and Snorks – the little one with yellow hair is the Snork Maiden, the other three are Moomintroll (aka Moomin); the two large ones are plush figures, whereas the two small ones are connected to each other and constitute a plastic lamp that glows when plugged in or with batteries inserted (© Dr Karl Shuker)

Right from a once-young child to a now-elderly adult, I have been an abiding fan of the Moomins – those affable and very endearing long-tailed, all-white, hippo-like creatures originated by Swedish-speaking/writing Finnish artist and writer Tove Jansson (pronounced 'TOR-vay YAHN-son') during the 1940s, who share their beautiful valley in a secluded part of rural Finland with a very diverse array of (mostly) amiable but often decidedly idiosyncratic, offbeat friends and neighbours. They have featured in nine novels plus numerous comic-strips produced by Jansson down through the decades, and have made her one of the world's most successful children's authors ever.

Fairly recently, I've watched not only the first original English-language full-length animated feature film to star the Moomins but also two on-screen biopics of their creator, who lived a life deemed by various others back then to be as unorthodox and unconventional as those of her creations. So here is a trio of reviews by me of Moomins, movies, and memories.

 

 
Publicity poster for Moomins on the Riviera (© Xavier Picard/Handle Productions/Pictak Cie/Sandman Animation Studio Moomin Characyers/Nordisk Film/Gebeka Films/Vertigo Films/Lionsgate – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)

MOOMINS ON THE RIVIERA

A Finnish/French production directed and co-written by Xavier Picard, and released in 2014/2015 (depending upon territory) by Nordisk Film/Gebeka Films/Vertigo Films, Moomins on the Riviera is the first original English-language animated Moomins feature film (as opposed to compilation films derived from various TV series), with a total running length of 80 minutes, and is based upon a Moomin comic-strip.

Apart from the first couple of scenes, however, featuring a ship of pirates and their escapee prisoners Mymble and Little My, which have no connection or relevance to the remainder of the film, this movie as its title suggests takes place not in the familiar setting of Moominvalley but instead on the French Riviera. For this is where the Moomin family (Moominpappa, Moominmamma, and their son Moomintroll, aka Moomin) decide to take a holiday, journeying there by boat, and accompanied by Little My, freed from the pirates' clutches, as well as by the Snork Maiden (aka Snorkmaiden), Moomintroll's Moomin-like girlfriend (although very similar to Moomins in overall form, Snorks can change colour and have hair on their head, whereas Moomins are always white, and don't have head hair).

Unexpectedly for a Moomin production, therefore, this means that other than the latter two characters, none of the Moomins' familiar, much-loved friends, neighbours, and other supporting characters – such as Sniff, Stinky, the Snork, Too-Ticky, the Hemulens, the Hattifatteners, and the Groke – make more than a brief appearance in the first couple of scenes. Even Snufkin, Moomintroll's best friend, and the principal non-Moomin/Snork character in the novels, selects to stay in the valley with the others rather than join the Moomins in their sea voyage to the Riviera. This means, therefore, that the movie's principal dramatis personae is much smaller and far less diverse than aficionados of the Moomin novels will be expecting.

It also means that the weight of the movie is carried squarely on the shoulders of the Moomins themselves, which is something of a shortcoming, for the crucial reason that in the novels it is often the other characters that provide much of the plot's impetus and comedic anarchy, with the mild, philosophical Moomins tending to play the bland, conservative, uncontroversial roles (apart from when an ever-energetic Moomintroll inadvertently causes chaos or mishaps from time to time).

Consequently, without such characters of contrast this film is a little too drawn-out (dare I even say dull, at least in parts?) for my liking, a little too laid-back (but perhaps it works better in its original comic-strip format?). Much emphasis is placed upon contrived, farcical plot devices in order to keep the storyline moving along. In particular: when the Moomins arrive on the Riviera, they are soon scooped up by the premier hotel there, The Grand, and feted as near-regal guests due to a misapprehension on the hotel's part but actively fostered by Moominpapa who passes off his family not as the mere Moomins but rather as the aristocratic DeMoomins, which leads to all manner of confusion and mayhem.

Eventually, however, Moominmamma and Moomintroll depart from The Grand and live modestly back in their boat instead, because they feel uncomfortable with the heady, hedonistic lifestyle at the hotel. Adding to Moomintroll's woes is the Snork Maiden, who makes him jealous by becoming infatuated with egotistical playboy Clark Tresco and snooty but vapid movie star Audrey Glamour.

Moominpappa, meanwhile, makes friends with an eccentric but genuinely aristocratic sculptor named Marquis Mongaga, whose principal talent appears to be the creation of numerous life-sized elephant statues that can walk, but which no-one wants – not even The Grand, when Moominpappa offers one of them to the hotel to pay for their stay there.

Ultimately, albeit unintentionally, the Moomins wear out their welcome on the Riviera, especially once their humble identities and origin are revealed, alienating them with the phoney bigoted folk there. So they decide to return home to their Finnish valley where they do fit in and are truly loved by everyone there – and this is what they do. Yet another variant on the old tried and tested but also very often true Wizard of Oz homily, there's no place like home.

Moomins on the Riviera is very sweet and beautifully animated, with exquisite pastel colours and flourishes of delicate Art Nouveauesque curls and swirls throughout. Yet in the glaring absence of their usual supporting cast, its fluffy white hippo-lookalikes struggled to sustain my interest for the full 80 minutes – and I'm a devoted Moomin fan!

For me, Jansson's nine original Moomin novels and the many Moomin comic-strips (lately collected into a monumental published compendium) produced by her and subsequently her brother Lars for newspaper syndication worldwide will forever remain unsurpassed by any on-screen treatment, even though there have been many, including several different TV series. But click here and here to view a couple of official Moomins on the Riviera trailers on YouTube and see what you think.

 

 
Publicity poster for Tove (© Zaida Bergroth/LevelK/Helsinki Filmi – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)

TOVE

On 11 June 2022, my movie watch, on the UK TV channel BBC4, was Tove.

Directed by Zaida Bergroth, and released in 2020 by Helsinki Filmi, Tove is the internationally-acclaimed yet independently-produced Finnish (with English subtitles) biopic of Tove Jansson (1914-2001). She was the famous Swedish-speaking/writing Finnish author who penned one of my all-time favourite series of children's novels – the Moomin books, featuring those friendly, long-tailed, white-furred, hippo-like trolls who have wonderful adventures within and beyond their Finnish forest valley homeland.

Starring Alma Pöysti as Jansson, this movie focuses in particular upon what was deemed by some way back then to be her rather unconventional and free-spirited bisexual lifestyle, especially with female theatre producer Vivica Bandler. However, it also documents how, during the 1940s and 1950s, what would become her life-long career in writing and art slowly yet surely emerged, as she progressed gradually from being a struggling painter to becoming a highly successful comic-strip artist and author, thanks to her obsession with her Moomin sketches and manuscripts.

As a massive Moomin fan, ideally I'd have liked the movie to concentrate more upon Moomins and less on lifestyle, in order to devote additional time revealing in greater detail her inspirations for and development of these delightful, timeless characters, but there can be no doubt that her free-spirited nature was intrinsic to their creation and originality.

For almost 80 years now (the first Moomin book was published in 1945) the gentle innocence and joyful optimism of the Moomins have inspired and enchanted generations of children (and a fair few adults too), and will continue to do so for all time.

To sample the many twists and turns in Tove Jansson's very eventful and enterprising life, be sure to click here to watch an official trailer for Tove on YouTube.

 

 
Publicity still for Moominland Tales: The Life of Tove Jansson (© Eleanor Yule/BBC Scotland – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis fo educational/review purposes only)

MOOMINLAND TALES: THE LIFE OF TOVE JANSSON

On 28 September 2022, I watched on YouTube the fascinating and very moving 2012 BBC Scotland hour-long documentary Moominland Tales: The Life of Tove Jansson.

Produced and directed by Eleanor Yule, and featuring Janet Suzman as the voice of Jansson herself, this engrossing production readily complimented the biopic Tove that I'd watched a few months previously.

Whereas the latter focused upon what was back in Jansson's time her somewhat unorthodox social life, however, this TV documentary concentrated primarily upon her prolific output of work – from her fine art and her adult writings, to, above all else, her enchanting creation for both children and grown-ups alike of the marvellous Moomins, in both book form and comic strip. It also featured the interesting memories recalled by a wide selection of her friends, surviving family, biographers, and associates who worked with her during her life.

In particular, I was intrigued to discover how closely the lives and mannerisms of the Moomins emulated those of Jansson's own family members, the latter having inspired many of her most beloved characters from the series. Also, to my surprise I discovered that there were not eight Moomin novels, as I'd always supposed and read as a child, but nine, but with the very first one, The Moomins and the Great Flood, not having been translated into English until as recently as 2005, many decades after all the others had been. Yet why had it not been translated earlier, especially as it was the first book in the series? No explanation was given in the documentary.

I have now purchased this highly significant and beautifully illustrated but hitherto-missing member of my Moomin novel collection, and will be reading it shortly. Moreover, once having done so, I may well re-read the other eight again, in order. No such thing as too much of a Moomin muchness!

To view Moominland Tales: The Life of Tove Jansson in its entirety – and free of charge – on YouTube like I did, please click here.

Finally: To view a complete chronological listing of all of my Shuker In MovieLand blog's other film reviews and articles (each one instantly accessible via a direct clickable link), please click HERE, and please click HERE to view a complete fully-clickable alphabetical listing of them.

 

Thursday, January 19, 2023

ANONYMOUS REX

 
Official USA DVD of Anonymous Rex (© Julian Jarrold/Sci Fi Channel – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)

On several previous occasions here at Shuker In MovieLand, I've recalled how, while seeking one particular movie either online or in physical DVD/video format, I've inadvertently stumbled upon a completely different one, and which has turned out to be far more interesting than the one I'd originally been looking for. And so it proved with the movie under review here now – an engrossing, highly original sci fi twist upon the unsuspected survival into modern-times of dinosaurs (other than birds!). Its title? Anonymous Rex.

Directed by Julian Jarrold, Anonymous Rex is a TV movie produced by the Sci Fi Channel (now renamed Syfy) and first screened in 2004. It is based upon the second in a trilogy of satirical dinosaur-themed sci fi novels authored by Eric Garcia (who also served as one of this movie's co-producers). These were: Anonymous Rex (published in 1999), Casual Rex (2001, a prequel to Anonymous Rex), and Hot and Sweaty Rex (2004, a sequel to Anonymous Rex). Before going any further, however, I need to resolve what may otherwise be a source of confusion. Despite being entitled Anonymous Rex, this movie is not based upon the 1999 Garcia novel of that selfsame title; instead it is based upon his 2001 novel, Casual Rex. Why this confusing nomenclatural situation should be, I have no idea, but there it is. So if you plan on reading the novel upon which this movie is based, make sure that you buy Casual Rex, not Anonymous Rex.

Anyway, back to the movie. It was while searching recently through the IMDb website for details concerning some film that I can't even recall now that I happened to find myself on its page entry for Anonymous Rex, a movie I'd never previously heard of. After reading its plot synopsis, however, I was so captivated by it that I lost no time in seeking out the movie, watching it, and totally loving it throughout!

Normally at this point in one of my film reviews, I present my own summary of the film in question, but seeing that it was specifically the IMDb synopsis for it that directly inspired me to track down and watch Anonymous Rex, it seemed appropriate that I should incorporate this here for you to read as well, so here it is:

The dinosaurs didn't go completely extinct when the asteroids hit 65 million years ago. Today, every ten thousandth person in the country is a dinosaur, evolved to be human-sized, wearing sophisticated solid-light holographic disguises to maintain the façade [of looking exactly like humans], getting stoned off regular cooking herbs like basil, rosemary and tarragon, and living by their own shadow government's laws; any human who stumbles upon them is to be immediately executed. Two dino private investigators, velociraptor Vincent Rubio and triceratops Ernie Watson, are hired by one of Ernie's old girlfriends to find out why her younger brother committed suicide, and discover a dino cult called [The] Voice Of Progress that wants dinokind to come out of the closet and reclaim the planet. —Jeff Cross <blackjac_1998@yahoo.com>

So there you have it. The modern-day world is home to a concealed sub-culture of dinosaurs (belonging to a wide variety of different species), all flawlessly disguised as humans, infiltrating every vocation and walk of life, working and living alongside humans, but with our species none the wiser…usually. For although the dinosaurs do not pose a threat to us as long we do not discover their true, reptilian identity, they will not hesitate to eliminate any of us who do (one remorseless example of this policy is shown at the very beginning of the film). But to be fair, they did learn the hard way about remaining hidden, as I'll now explain.

With their numbers greatly depleted following the asteroid collision at the end of the Cretaceous, the dinosaurs lived very much in the shadow of the now-dominant mammals from then on, but that was not a major problem – until humans evolved, that is. By the Middle Ages, the dinosaurs were facing the biggest threat to their survival since the asteroid. They had evolved into the dragons of myths and legends (except of course these stories were actually true!), but humans sent forth numerous errant knights and other heroes to slay them and rescue any distressed damsels that may have strayed their way. Consequently, in order to avoid extinction at the hands, and weapons, of their human aggressors, the dinosaurs decided that they had no option but to disguise themselves as humans. Initially, these disguises took the form of unconvincing rubber suits and suchlike, but dinosaur scientists working covertly in their own laboratories hidden far away from human detection proved far smarter than their mammalian counterparts, and by the late 20th Century they had invented the extraordinarily advanced holographic human disguises that rendered dinosaurs outwardly indistinguishable from the real thing – but not from each other... More about this shortly.

As noted in the IMDb review, Anonymous Rex focuses upon a pair of dinosaur gumshoe PIs – taciturn velociraptor Vincent Rubio (played by Sam Trammell, and also acting as the movie's narrator) and his more amiable triceratopsian partner Ernie Watson (Daniel Baldwin), tasked with discovering the truth behind the supposed suicide of the young brother of one of Ernie's former girlfriends, Louise (Lori Alter). Their investigations lead them to The Voice of Progress, a sinister activist dinosaur cult of which Louise's late brother had been a member, and which is fronted by an enigmatic woman named Circe (Tamara Gorski). She is also the cult's literal voice, espousing at a meeting of the cult attended by Vincent and Ernie how dinosaurs have spent long enough suppressing their true form and nature, forced to live a false existence throughout their life, as something that they are not – humans. Why should this be allowed to continue? It was high time, she exclaims, that dinosaurs not only make their presence publicly known but also reclaim what had it not been for the asteroid would still be theirs – the world!

Ernie is unaffected by Circe's exhortations, but to his surprise and discomfort Vincent finds himself somewhat sympathetic to the cult's cause (and is further conflicted by finding himself romantically attracted to Circe…) – until, that is, he discovers how it intends to achieve this reptilian uprising. In a secluded area of the cult's headquarters, Vincent sees a living cow being led into a chamber, followed by hideous screams from the cow mixed with the sounds of flesh-tearing and bone-crunching. Peering inside, he is aghast to see a feral undisguised carnivorous dinosaur, drugged to the hilt on cooking herbs, ripping the cow apart and devouring its carcase in a bloodthirsty frenzy mostly occurring off-screen, thankfully! (In contrast, civilised dinosaurs gave up eating raw flesh 10 million years ago, after they discovered fire.) This, Vincent realizes to his horror, is the fate that the cult plans for humans! Somehow he has to stop what will be a bloodbath and social devastation, unquestionably inciting a full-scale world war between two lineages that at least in modern times has succeeded in living side by side in relative harmony (albeit with humans being blissfully unaware of any of this!).

To make matters even worse, the cult's villainous sponsor and kingpin, Raal (Alan van Sprang), becomes aware of Vincent's interest in it and in his belief that it is directly implicated in the killing – not suicide at all – of Louise's brother. So Raal decides to do something about this, part of which involves abducting Ernie's 23-year-old daughter Gabrielle (Stephanie Lemelin). When Ernie discovers what has happened, he frantically calls Vincent to meet him, as he has a major confession to make before they can go out looking for her.

But what Ernie informs him undermines and shocks Vincent even more than the cult's frightening plans uncovered by him earlier. Vincent knows that Ernie shares his home with Gabrielle, but what he hadn't known until now is that she is not his daughter – and that she is not even a dinosaur!

It turns out that 23 years ago, a dinosaur squad had been sent to liquidate a family of human hippies who had uncovered the dinosaurs' big secret and had amassed incriminating documents and photos that they'd planned to use for blackmail purposes. After the adults had been killed, Ernie had been sent in to remove all this evidence, but was shocked to discover the hippies' baby daughter, who had been hidden away and thus overlooked by the squad, but was now an orphan. Unable to bring himself to abandon her to a foster home (the usual fate of babies orphaned in this manner but who are too young to realize about the dinosaurs and thereby pose any threat to them), Ernie took her back home with him instead and raised her as his own daughter, Gabrielle. Of course, this meant that he had to reveal the dinosaurs' secret existence to her, for her own safety as a human living incognito within dinosaur society, but he also offered her the choice of living her life either as the human she is or as a human pretending to be a dinosaur pretending to be a human, She chose the latter option without a moment's hesitation, due in no small way to the fact that Gabrielle loves Ernie very much, as he is the only parental figure she can ever remember having in her life. However, maintaining the subterfuge is proving more difficult now that she is an attractive young woman.

Indeed, Gabrielle currently has a dinosaur boyfriend, who is anxious to get to know her more intimately, but to do so means switching off their holographic suits first, which in turn means revealing to each other their true, dinosaur forms – except, of course, Gabrielle can't do this, because she isn't a dinosaur, she's a human! Consequently, she is forced to sidestep her boyfriend's increasingly-emphatic requests, leaving both of them frustrated, but for more reasons on Gabrielle's part than her boyfriend suspects! In addition, even though they look exactly like humans when cloaked by their head-to-toe holographic suits, dinosaurs can still instantly recognize other dinosaurs, by virtue of the reptilian pheromones that they exude, and which are undetectable by humans. So to ensure that Gabrielle's human identity is not betrayed by her inability to exude such pheromones, Ernie has always obtained supplies of an artificially-created version, a supply of which she keeps with her at all times in a tiny aerosol vial, and always sprays on her neck before leaving their house – but this aspect of her life may now prove her undoing, which is why Ernie had no choice but to make Vincent fully aware about who, and what, Gabrielle actually is.

And sure enough, it all begins to unravel in a key scene that takes place in the kidnap car (Raal's limousine) speeding away with her inside it, sandwiched between Raal and one of his cult henchmen, both of whom are of course dinosaurs. The problem is, whereas dinosaurs exude their reptilian pheromone in a natural, ongoing manner as it is created internally and continuously, the artificial version that Gabrielle has to apply to herself externally (on her neck) begins to fade if not reapplied regularly – and this is exactly what is happening right now. By being trapped between the two dinosaurs in the car, however, she cannot take out her vial to reapply the pheromone, even though Raal's acute sense of smell is starting to detect that her scent is fading, and he duly comments about this to her – uh-oh! I don't smell her pheromone either, but I do smell trouble for her – big trouble!

I won't give away the remainder of this absorbing film's swift-moving plot, which is well planned and well executed. Special effects are decent if not dazzling, with dinosaur-into-human transformations not over-employed, wisely utilising a less is more approach instead. Faye Dunaway and Isaac Hayes have cameo appearances as members of an elite dinosaur council, and the movie itself is played very much as at least a tongue-in-cheek film noir pastiche, even if not an outright spoof (and with some not entirely subtle pleas for toleration between different factions worked in for good measure). I enjoyed it very much – one of my favourite and most distinctive, memorable movies viewed for quite some time, in fact. Indeed, I may well purchase and read the Garcia novel on which it is based (i.e. Casual Rex, not Anonymous Rex, remember!).

By its very nature, Anonymous Rex calls to mind the famous TV series V: The Visitors, as well as Alien Nation, and even the vampire series Moonlight and Forever Knight. Moreover, this movie was actually created and pitched as a feature-length pilot for a planned TV series, but sadly the series never materialized. In my opinion, this is a real shame, as it held great promise – offering a compelling mix of sci fi, film noir, comedy, and a hefty dose of off-the-wall, offbeat eccentricity. Who knows, with the plethora of sci fi/fantasy TV shows filling the schedules nowadays, perhaps Anonymous Rex as a TV show was simply too far ahead of its time – today it would have fitted in just fine, I'm sure, rather like the dinosaurs do amongst the humans in this movie, in fact!

As I discovered, Anonymous Rex is not the easiest film to track down in physical form, though I finally traced it in Region 1 (USA/Canada-compatible) DVD format; I don’t think that it's ever been released in Region 2 (UK/Europe-compatible) DVD format. But if you simply want to watch it, and I heartily recommend that you do, you currently can by clicking here to view this movie for free in its entirety on YouTube.

To view a complete chronological listing of all of my Shuker In MovieLand blog's other film reviews and articles (each one instantly accessible via a direct clickable link), please click HERE, and please click HERE to view a complete fully-clickable alphabetical listing of them.

 
Sam Trammell as Vincent Rubio, a hard-bitten (and hard-biting?) velociraptor-in-disguise PI, from Anonymous Rex (© Julian Jarrold/Sci Fi Channel – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)


Tuesday, January 17, 2023

SADKO & THE MAGIC VOYAGE OF SINBAD

 
Publicity poster for The Magic Voyage of SinbadAleksandr Ptushko/Artkino Pictures/Roger Corman/The Filmgroup – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)

In my previous Shuker In MovieLand post (click here to read it), I revealed how on 19 April 2021, following years of unsuccessful searching online, I finally discovered which movie contained some very striking chevron-headed monsters and gigantic hell hounds that I'd recalled seeing a long time ago in a film clip on YouTube. The movie was Almighty Thor, which I later watched on DVD and have now reviewed here. However, this was a very fortuitous, serendipitous discovery, because on that particular occasion I was actually searching for a totally different yet equally mystifying movie that once again I recalled seeing a clip of on YT several years earlier but whose identity I'd once again been unable to uncover. All I knew about it was that it was an Arabian Nights-type film that featured a very distinctive magical bird with the head of a woman, which I remembered very clearly from the YT film clip that I'd viewed.

Consequently when on 19 April 2021, brimming with delight at finally identifying Almighty Thor, I posted some details about it on my Facebook timeline page, I also added a brief mention of the Arabian Nights mystery movie with the woman-headed bird, in the hope that it may sound familiar to someone else. And sure enough, only a little later on that very same day, FB friend Richard Hing posted a comment beneath mine, in which he conclusively identified the latter film – thanks Richard!

It turned out to be The Magic Voyage of Sinbad, an English-dubbed version of a Russian movie originally released a decade earlier with the title Sadko – a movie that, ironically, has precious little to do with either Sinbad or the Arabian Nights, as I discovered to my surprise after tracking down and watching both versions as well as reading about their odd history. All will now be revealed.

 
Publicity poster for Sadko (© Aleksandr Ptushko/Mosfilm/Artkino Pictures – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)

Directed by Aleksandr Ptushko, produced by Mosfilm, and released with English subtitles in the USA by Artkino Pictures in 1953, Sadko was adapted by Konstantin Isayev from the famous Russian composer Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov's 1898 opera Sadko. This in turn had been based upon a bylina (a medieval Russian oral epic poem) of the same title.

The movie Sadko tells of its namesake (played by Sergei Stolyarov), a noble medieval mariner and musician from the Russian city of Novgorod, who has been away for some years but has now returned to Novgorod, only to discover to his horror that during his absence the city's ordinary folk have become so poor that many are starving, or have been forced to sacrifice themselves into slavery in order to survive. Meanwhile, the rich merchants have become ever more wealthy and disparaging to the poor ordinary folk, treating them with disdain and mockery, and deliberately flaunting their money and resplendent clothes. Sadko entreats the merchants to be kind to the poor people, to give them money and make everyone in Novgorod happy, but they laugh in his face, dismissing him as a fool, a simpleton.

As well as being an experienced sailor, however, Sadko is also a skilled singer and player of a zither-like musical instrument called a gusil, which originated in Novgorod. One night, sitting alone beside a lake, he plays his gusil and sings a beautiful ballad so sweetly that he enchants the youngest daughter of the great Sea King, who rises up from the lake and promises to help him persuade the merchants to give money, food, and clothing to Novgorod's poor people.

 
The beautiful sea princess from Sadko (© Aleksandr Ptushko/Mosfilm/Artkino Pictures – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)

The sea princess (Ninel Myshkova) tells Sadko to go into town the following morning and challenge the merchants to a wager – if he should succeed in netting some magical golden fishes before the end of that same day, they must give the poor people their riches. This Sadko does, and with the princess's unseen underwater assistance he nets three golden fishes before sundown, forcing the merchants to honour their pledge. But Sadko is shocked to find that even when they do, there are simply too many poor people in Novogorod for all of them to be adequately fed, clothed, and rendered truly happy.

Consequently, Sadko announces that he plans to set sail on an epic voyage to far-off lands in search of a fabled creature known as the Bird of Happiness, which he will capture and return with to Novgorod so that everyone's sadness there will be vanquished forever. Unfortunately, however, such a voyage will cost a great deal of money, far more than Sadko possesses, but once again the sea princess comes to his aid, by transforming the three golden fishes netted by him into a huge pile of gold!

Now a very rich man, Sadko with three newly-acquired ships and their personally-selected crews duly sets forth on his quest for the Bird of Happiness, but during their first landing in search of it, on a rocky, wind-swept island, they encounter a belligerent band of weapon-brandishing Viking warriors. However, Sadko and his men bravely confront these attackers, and eventually achieve victory. They also capture a beautiful horse that the Vikings have left behind, so they take it with them when they continue their search elsewhere for the Bird of Happiness, having correctly decided that such a heavenly creature couldn't possibly exist in such a hellish land as this Viking-infested island.

 
Sadko holding up the magical golden fishes caught by him (© Aleksandr Ptushko/Mosfilm/Artkino Pictures – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)

Eventually Sadko and company reach India, where the bird is said to be securely housed in the uppermost, golden-hued tower of a heavily-fortified palace owned by a despotic Indian prince and protected by a thousand guards. But despite encountering initial hostility from the prince, Sadko finally extracts a promise from him that he and his men can freely take the Bird of Happiness back home to Russia with them if he beats the prince at a game of chess. If he loses, however, the prince will receive the beautiful Viking horse. Sadko agrees to this proposition, and wins the chess game, so the prince shows them a pair of enormous doors inside the very heart of the palace that open to reveal a hidden passageway leading up via a steep series of steps to the golden tower's chamber in which the wondrous bird resides.

Once Sadko and three of his men are inside the passageway, however, the huge doors close behind them, exactly as the treacherous prince had planned. With no backward exit from the passageway now available to them, therefore, nor any other option other than to continue their journey forward through it, Sadko and his comrades duly clamber upwards until they finally enter the tower's secluded chamber – and there, at last, they encounter the Bird of Happiness…except that it's not!

Instead, it proves to be a sirin, a creature from Russian mythology but derived directly from the sirens of classical Greek legends. For whereas it sports the body of a large bird regally adorned with shimmering green plumage, its head is that of a woman, wearing not only a glittering crown but also an imperious, perpetual scowl on her haughty, disdainful face – not an expression that I'd expect any authentic Bird of Happiness to be wearing, that's for sure!

 
Hardly a picture of happiness! The sour-faced sirin from Sadko (© Aleksandr Ptushko/Mosfilm/Artkino Pictures – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)

The sirin also possesses the malign power to lull swiftly into deep, eternal sleep anyone who hears her soporific chant-like singing, which she attempts to accomplish with Sadko and his three companions, but Sadko is sufficiently strong-willed to resist her deadly lullaby and is able to awaken the others, who have indeed fallen asleep. Although he now realises that this evil creature is not the Bird of Happiness, Sadko decides to take her with them anyway, so he encloses her inside a large sack – a decision that soon proves very propitious. For when they successfully escape from the chamber with this magical bird, and are pursued by the prince's numerous guards, by plucking out a couple of her tail feathers Sadko and his men force the sullen sirin to sing, and all of the guards fall to the ground, fast asleep (Sadko & Co have presumably blocked their own ears to avoid suffering the same somnolent fate!).

After sailing onward to other exotic locations in search of the real Bird of Happiness, including Egypt (and where, bizarrely, the Pyramids and Great Sphinx of Giza are on the coast!), but always without success, a homesick Sadko decides to seek his feathered quarry no longer, and to journey back to Russia instead, but that is by no means the end of his adventures. For during some very stormy weather at sea, their three ships are in imminent danger of capsizing, so Sadko sacrifices himself to the sea gods by throwing himself overboard in the hope that they will bestow calm weather upon his ships and their crews in return. Instead of dying, however, he finds himself on the ocean bottom, where he miraculously survives without drowning and makes the acquaintance of the elderly Sea King (Mikhail Troyanovsky). However, the king promptly forces Sadko to select one of his many princess daughters as his bride, because he is anxious for Sadko to take over as ruler of the undersea world once he has died.

Sadko chooses the king's youngest daughter, as she turns out to be the princess who had earlier helped him net the magical golden fishes and transform them into gold, but he cannot love her as he is already betrothed to a fair maiden named Lyubava (Alla Larionova) waiting for him in Novgorod and whom he truly loves. The king is not best pleased about this, but despite her own profound sadness and love for him the princess helps Sadko to escape – fleeing upon a very speedy hippocampus (giant sea horse) from the pursuing Sea King, and returning home to Novgorod both a hero to its people and a man of independent means, thanks to the remainder of the transmuted fish-into-gold that he still owns. So is that the end of the movie? Not quite…

 
She's mean and green but seldom seen – the sinister sirin ensconced inside her gilded chamber (© Aleksandr Ptushko/Mosfilm/Artkino Pictures – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)

The movie closes with Sadko very belatedly experiencing an epiphany of sorts, comparable with that of Dorothy Gale from The Wizard of Oz – informing his fellow noble Novgorodians that in fact they don't actually need a Bird of Happiness from a far-flung land to bring happiness to them after all. For in reality, Sadko goes on to state, it is here, within their own homes, where true happiness exists – or, as Dorothy would more succinctly say, there's no place like home. What a pity that he didn't extract this pearl of wisdom from his oyster-shell brain before launching his exceedingly arduous sea-quest! Who'd be the long-suffering crew members of an even longer sea voyage led by such a flighty bird-brain? (And I don't mean the sirin either!)

Nowadays widely deemed (and rightly so) to be a cinematic masterpiece, Sadko is a beautifully shot movie, the vibrant colours of its magnificent sets rivaling those of an American Technicolor film, and the undersea sequences are both highly imaginative and exquisitely staged, especially for that time period. True, the characters are two-dimensional stereotypes rather than three-dimensional individuals – Sadko is indefatigably noble, cheerful, handsome, and brave, the sea princess is unwaveringly demure, loving, beautiful, and self-sacrificing, and so forth. But as someone who has seen all too many modern-day fantasy movies in which the principal characters have been invested by the script writers with all manner of 'issues' and troubled back-stories that were conspicuous only by their absence in the original folkloric source material, it was actually very refreshing to encounter here some characters that simply played their parts in an uncomplicated, unburdened manner, exactly as presented in the original medieval Russian fairy story.

Also needing a serious mention here is this movie's exquisite musical score, appropriated very extensively but effectively from Rimsky-Korsakov's opera, to yield a sizeable number of melodious songs and energetic dances that make it a bona fide musical film, and with the hypnotic 'Song of India' accompanying the somniferous sirin's first appearance being a particularly inspired choice. Speaking of which: the sirin is indeed the woman-headed bird that I remembered so well from the film clip I'd viewed all those years ago on YouTube, and is a visual highlight of this film.

 
From the scene in Sadko featuring the woman-headed bird aka the sirin that I remember so well seeing on YouTube several years ago (© Aleksandr Ptushko/Mosfilm/Artkino Pictures – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)

That, then, is Sadko, the original 1953 Russian movie featuring a medieval Russian singer-sailor travelling to India and elsewhere in search of an elusive Bird of Happiness but encountering a creepy sleep-inducing woman-headed bird from Russian folklore instead. So how did this same film later come to feature Sinbad and an Arabian Nights setting? I'm glad you asked!

The year 1958 saw the release of the smash-hit Columbia Pictures Hollywood film The 7th Voyage of Sinbad, the first in a now-classic trio of Sinbad-entitled fantasy movies in which the eponymous Arabian Nights sailor pits his wits against a plethora of spectacular monsters of the stop-motion Dynamation variety created by special-effects genius Ray Harryhausen.

Mindful of how successful it was, and mindful also of Sadko, American film director Roger Corman had the novel idea of acquiring the latter's rights and converting it into a Sinbad movie, which he duly did, retitling it as The Magic Voyage of Sinbad, providing it with English dubbing, and releasing it in 1962 through his own company The Filmgroup.

 
Publicity poster for The 7th Voyage of Sinbad (© Nathan H. Juran/Charles H. Schneer/Ray Harryhausen/Morningside Productions/Columbia Pictures – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)

Corman achieved this ostensibly unlikely movie plot conversion by employing a certain youngster named Francis Ford Coppola to adapt (uncredited) the script of Sadko accordingly in a number of ingenious ways. Firstly, despite the fact that all of the characters in medieval Novgorod were, naturally, dressed in medieval Russian attire, Novgorod was recast as a city beyond Arabia and renamed Kobasan (vt Copasand in some coverages), home of Sinbad. Speaking of whom: Sadko was renamed Sinbad, and a vocal narration was added that opened the movie with a back-story for Sinbad, and which even referred to his adventures in the earlier, afore-mentioned Harryhausen film (though not actually mentioning the latter film by name). Quite a few other place-names and character names were changed too, to ones in accordance with a Middle Eastern setting, and even Sadko's gusil was now reimagined as a magical harp owned by Sinbad.

The movie's basic storyline remained the same (albeit with Soviet Communist propaganda present in Sadko mostly deleted from it here), but the Bird of Happiness was now the phoenix – even though none of the phoenix's most famous attributes, such as burning itself alive in its conflagrating nest, and being reborn from its own ashes, were present. Nor does the phoenix's mythology state that it sported the head of a woman, brought happiness, or could lull people to sleep with its song. In short, this was all merely a conversion of convenience, the best Arabian avian replacement available for the Russian sirin. Another notable change was the excising of virtually all of the songs and much of the music that had featured in Sadko, and which in my view had immeasurably enhanced its appeal. No longer a musical as such, but thereby closer in form and content once again to the successful Harryhausen style of Sinbad movies. Finally, the names of the cast and technical crew in the movie's credits list were anglicized as much as possible, to give them more of an American appeal, disguising their Russian reality. For instance, Sadko/Sinbad actor Sergei Stolyarov became Edward Stolar, Sea King actor Mikhail Troyanovsky became Maurice Troyon, Lyubava actress Alla Larionova became Anna Larion, and so on.

Transforming Sadko into The Magic Voyage of Sinbad was an inventive cinematic experiment, and aside from the lack of geographical costume correspondence it actually worked quite well, but it never attracted even remotely the attention and acclaim either from the critics or from the viewing public that Sadko has done, or the bona fide Sinbad films of Harryhausen. This is a great shame, because even though it is a repackaged movie, it is still sumptuous to behold, with sets and effects wholly unlike anything previously seen in an ostensibly Western fantasy film (this being due of course to the fact that in reality it was of Russian, not Western, origin). Hence I recommend The Magic Voyage of Sinbad to anyone like me who has a particular liking for fantasy movies with an Arabian Nights flavour. To appreciate fully what you are viewing, however, you obviously need to watch it in its original unadulterated Russian form, as Sadko.

 
Publicity poster for the 2018 animated movie The Underwater Adventures of SadkoVitaliy Mukhametzyanov/Maksim Volkov/CTB Film Company – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)

Incidentally, in 2018 Sadko reappeared as the star of a full-length Russian animated feature film variously entitled in English as The Underwater Adventures of Sadko or simply Sadko. However, this version, although visually stunning, plays very fast and exceedingly loose with the original Sadko storyline – I certainly don't recall a villainous tentacular undersea witch named Barracuda in the latter! Directed by Vitaliy Mukhametzyanov and Maksim Volkov, and released by CTB Film Company, an English-subtitled version of The Underwater Adventures of Sadko can be viewed for free on YouTube by clicking here.

Meanwhile, if you'd like to view the original 1953 Russian movie Sadko, click here to watch it in its entirety for free and with English subtitles on YouTube. And click here to view free of charge on YT its repackaged, English-dubbed, Arabian Nights equivalent, The Magic Voyage of Sinbad, in its entirety.

Finally: to view a complete chronological listing of all of my Shuker In MovieLand blog's other film reviews and articles (each one instantly accessible via a direct clickable link), please click HERE, and please click HERE to view a complete fully-clickable alphabetical listing of them.

 
Sadko, depicted in a traditional Palekh miniature painting (public domain)