I'd seen this a couple of times previous and never really got on with it. Basically because it's not Bava's Black Sabbath (1963) segment The Wurdulak which is one of my all time favourites of Gothic horror. And yet i still bought the recent(ish) Blu-ray from Raro Video.
As you may have guessed Night of the Devils is also based on Tolstoy's story The Wurdulak but is set in the present day or at least the present day in 1972.…
"Wounds my heart with a monotonous languor"
The past weeks viewings of Castle Keep, Von Ryan's Express, White Tiger, Sink the Bismarck!, Tobruk, The Devil's Rock, The Train, Eye of the Needle, The Silent Enemy, Fury and The Enemy Below have all been leading up to this.
My annual viewing of this WWII classic on this most ed of days.
The sixth of June.
D-Day.
It struck me towards the end of this master piece how visual effects legend Ray Harryhausen lulls you into proceedings. Beginning with the statuesque Talos, a slow moving almost lumbering giant cast out of bronze. Then we have a couple of Harpies, more complex in their movements especially when in flight.
The Clashing Rocks are the calm before the storm so to speak because soon after the shit really does hit the stop motion fan with the multi headed snake…
John Frankenheimer's excellent WWII drama starring Burt Lancaster as a railwayman attempting to prevent a slightly unhinged Nazi officer (Paul Scofield) pillaging art treasures from Paris and transporting them via rail to Berlin as the Allies advance draws near.
Frankenheimer's direction is flawless, allowing the story to build from something slight into a gripping race against time. The French locations are used superbly and the fact real trains were also used really adds to events making this seem like a…
