Thursday, December 10, 2009

this is a comedy, right?


got an early non-Xmas present yesterday and watched it last night.  it's a gorgeous presentation from Dark Sky Films of The She-Beast (1966).  there's commentary from the director and three of the stars, but I haven't listened to that just yet.

it starts out pretty typically, and pretty slowly.  there's some intentional comedy going on here and there, due mostly to Mel Welles.  at the 45 minute mark (more or less) we get to the "action" of the story, the dreaded she- beast coming back to life.

well, not too much action, actually.  as I was sitting here watching it, the more I started to think this was a comedy.  you've got the van Helsing who revives the witch, and then runs around the rest of the movie sticking her and some gendarmes with a hypodermic needle to knock them out.   he's also rolling around on the ground while doing so, and our hero is clubbing the police with a gun. 

there's also car crashes and being dunked in water.  change the scary music, add some Three Stooge style sound effects and this movie becomes hilarious. 

the cast is quite earnest in their performances (apparently Ms Steele shot all of her scenes in one day).  it sounds like some of have been dubbed, but I'll leave that to the experts to decide if it's so.  like I said, the DVD looks and sounds amazing.

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