Nothing But the Night

First time watching of this curiosity. This was the first and only movie produced by Charlemagne Films, a production company set up by Christopher Lee and veteran Hammer Horror producer Anthony Nelson Keys. It didn't prove to be a success in any level, which quickly seemed to bury Lee's career as a producer. Directed by Peter Sasdy (Taste the Blood of Dracula, Countess Dracula), starring good old pals Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing, with Diana Dors in a meaty supporting turn, the basic elements should be there for an entertaining movie. But how does it hold up today? 

I have to say the first part of the movie seems to be clunking on quite poorly. Playing out like a fairly ordinary murder mystery, it throws in some unnecessary distracting plot elements and red herrings, and offers hardly anything to do for our top billed stars, Lee and Cushing. They play an investigator and a doctor, who, despite seemingly being the lead characters, don't really get involved with the plot that much, other than meeting with each other a few times and wondering what's going on and what are they doing in this movie. 

Luckily the movie improves significantly on the second half, with the action moving to a remote orphanage. In there it develops some atmosphere, has a few creepy scenes, and our stars get into the action a bit more. Beware of spoilers and you'll be in for a few surprises! 

Overally it's hard to give this a very positive rating, but at least there were some elements here that could have made an interesting thriller with some horror themes, if it had been pieced together better. With Lee and Cushing having so little to do individually, it might have made sense to combine their parts into one meatier role. As it is, their companionship here reminds of a poor man's version of the vastly superior Horror Express, made one year earlier. 

 

Nefertiti, Queen of the Nile

It was the birthday of Vincent Price and Christopher Lee a few days ago, so I decided to look out for a movie from either of them that I haven't seen before. Turned out that Amazon Prime has the 1961 Italian produced historical movie Nefertiti, Queen of the Nile, featuring Vincent Price. So naturally I picked that one, excited to see Vincent in another historical epic.

Right from the beginning you get a feeling that this is a (much) cheaper knock off of Cleopatra (1963). 

You might be fooled by the fact that Nefertiti came out in 1961, two years before Cleopatra, but let's look at the production dates more closely. According to IMDb, Cleopatra had already been in pre-production since 1958, and filming, famously excruciatingly, between 1960-1963.  Meanwhile this slick Italian production was filmed within March-April 1963, and released the same year! But do the differences in production length show up on the screen?

They definitely do; while Nefertiti does best it can with its limited budget, it doesn't really feel like an historical epic nearly in the same scale of Cleopatra or others. But production values aside, I'm here to see Vincent Price chewing the scenery. How does that work out?

Sadly, this seems to be quite stiff and restrained performance from Vincent. Appearing without moustache, he does possess a kind of ageless Egyptian mystic aura, making him more fit the scenery better than you might guess. But the script doesn't really offer him much to work with. 

Otherwise as a movie this plays out like a pretty standard love triangle (no, Vincent is not part of the triangle), between the beautiful leading lady Jeanne Crain, and the two lifelong friends played by Edmund Purdom and Amedeo Nazzari. One of them of course is the Pharaoh, and one of them a lowly sculptor. You might guess that Crain's interest favors the lowly sculptor, and at one point of the movie the pharaoh appoints him to sculpt a portrait of Crain. Hey doesn't this sound exactly like the plot of Tulip Fever? 

The lack of budget ensures that there is no emphasis on battle scenes or crowd spectacle, instead we have pretty drawn out lengthy dialogue sequences, and a lot of badly dubbed bit players (being an Italian production).  

Recommendation:  Worth checking out if you catch it for free, but not worth paying for. Don't expect spectacle or excitement, and you might find it a decent sunday afternoon time waster. 

Happy Birthday Peter Cushing!

 

Peter Cushing was born on May 26, 1913, so he would be 108 today. Enjoy the occasion by watching some of his old movies!