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The Tomb of Ligeia, a review by Antares

The Tomb of Ligeia (1964) 61/100 - As the opening screen credits were rolling on this film, I noticed that the screenwriter was Robert Towne. This came as a surprise and I felt it boded well for this viewing. But after the film was over, I was kind of disappointed not only with Towne's screenplay, but also with Vincent Price's rather lackluster performance. I've never read Edgar Allan Poe's short story Ligeia, upon which this film was based, but after reading a short synopsis of the tale, I wish that Towne had stayed a bit closer to the original theme. Here's the synopsis from Wikipedia...

The unnamed narrator describes the qualities of Ligeia, a beautiful, passionate and intellectual woman, raven-haired and dark-eyed, that he thinks he remembers meeting "in some large, old decaying city near the Rhine." He is unable to recall anything about the history of Ligeia, including her family's name, but remembers her beautiful appearance. Her beauty, however, is not conventional. He describes her as emaciated, with some "strangeness." He describes her face in detail, from her "faultless" forehead to the "divine orbs" of her eyes. They marry, and Ligeia impresses her husband with her immense knowledge of physical and mathematical science, and her proficiency in classical languages. She begins to show her husband her knowledge of metaphysical and "forbidden" wisdom.

After an unspecified length of time Ligeia becomes ill, struggles internally with human mortality, and ultimately dies. The narrator, grief-stricken, buys and refurbishes an abbey in England. He soon enters into a loveless marriage with "the fair-haired and blue-eyed Lady Rowena Trevanion, of Tremaine."

In the second month of the marriage, Rowena begins to suffer from worsening fever and anxiety. One night, when she is about to faint, the narrator pours her a goblet of wine. Drugged with opium, he sees (or thinks he sees) drops of "a brilliant and ruby colored fluid" fall into the goblet. Her condition rapidly worsens, and a few days later she dies and her body is wrapped for burial.

As the narrator keeps vigil overnight, he notices a brief return of color to Rowena's cheeks. She repeatedly shows signs of reviving, before relapsing into apparent death. As he attempts resuscitation, the revivals become progressively stronger, but the relapses more final. As dawn breaks, and the narrator is sitting emotionally exhausted from the night's struggle, the shrouded body revives once more, stands and walks into the middle of the room. When he touches the figure, its head bandages fall away to reveal masses of raven hair and dark eyes: Rowena has transformed into Ligeia.

Taking this theme, Towne should have played upon the possibility of the narrator slowly murdering both of his wives and the ensuing madness which befalls him, with an ending comprised of both Ligeia and Rowena coming back from the dead to seek retribution for his crime. It would have made for a much more suspenseful and less surreal film than Corman and Towne forge. It also would have given Price a role he could have sunk his teeth into, as opposed to the rather vacant and one note character he's forced to play.

What the color coding means...

Teal = Masterpiece
Dark Green = Classic or someday will be
Lime Green = A good, entertaining film
Orange = Average
Red = Cinemuck
Brown = The color of crap, which this film is

(From Antares' Short Summations on October 24th, 2012)

102 Dalmatians, a review by Dragonfire

Get ready for outrageous fun in Disney's 102 DalmatiansMy Thoughts

This is an entertaining movie, though it wasn't as good as 101 Dalmatians (1996).  Glenn Close was still great as Cruella, but too many things seemed to resort to silliness..excessive silliness.  It also seemed a bit odd to me that Roger and Anita weren't around or even mentioned, yet one of the puppies was back as an adult dog with a new owner.  Waddlesworth was cute with how he thought he was a dog.  This was a decent family movie, though the fact that Cruella wanted to make a coat out of puppies again could be upsetting to younger children.  Cruella herself might be a bit scary at times to some children as well.

 

(From Dragonfire: What I've Been Watching on December 29th, 2008)

Pete's Pilots, a review by addicted2dvd

Gilligan's Island
A three-hour tour? No way! Not when you have all 36 Season-One episodes of 'Gilligan's Island' plus a cargo of DVD extras that include the originally unaired pilot.

The S.S. Minnow first sailed into living rooms on September 26, 1964, and from there steered into legend. Certainly much credit for the show's three-year run and amazing afterlife goes to the remarkable cast whose characters managed to endure life on the island while never losing their comic timing. Bravo to Bob Denver, Alan Hale, Jim Backus, Natalie Schaefer, Tina Louise, Russel Johnson and Dawn Wells. It's a joy to be stranded with them time and again - here on Gilligan's Isle.

Two on a Raft
The shipwrecked castaways awaken to find themselves marooned on an uncharted island, so Gilligan and Skipper set out on a flimsy raft to find civilization.

My Thoughts:
A silly but fun show. That one short sentence pretty much describes it. Sure some of it is ridiculous. I have to admit... I enjoyed it more when I was a kid then I do now. But I still get in the mood to watch it sometimes. And Brittany really enjoyed it as well. I kinda like how the pilot episode introduces you to all the characters... with the news on the radio listing them and what they do where they talk about them being lost at sea. And the shark attack was pretty fun as well. The first season (of 3) is the only season that is in Black and White. I own the first two seasons... and I do plan on eventually getting season 3 if for no other reason to complete the series... but I would like to see the episodes again anyway... as I am sure would Britt.

My Rating:

(From Pete's Pilots on January 26th, 2010)