Onyx the Fortuitous and the Talisman of Souls

Abaddon the Demon in Onyx the Fortuitous and the Talisman of Souls
Andrew Bowser stars in, wrote, and directed Onyx the Fortuitous and the Talisman of Souls, an engaging comic horror film. Bowser strived over a decade to get this project off the ground and was able to crowdfund enough financing to achieve his dream. Bowser's influences (80s comic horror flicks like Ghostbusters and Beetlejuice) are a bit too goofy for my taste, but Bowser's film is fast-paced and buoyant with mirth. The cast achieves a nice balance between comic book hysteria and faux seriousness amidst much mumbo jumbo. The one exception is Bowser's own performance which is laden with tics. Still, anyone savvy enough to cast Jeffrey Combs and Barbara Crampton (stars of the immortal Reanimator) can be forgiven his self-indulgences.

Onyx...is ridiculously lightweight and overly concerned with pre-teen sexual anxiety; especially considering that there are no pre-teens in the film. There are collectibles which should clue one in to the arrested development feel to the flick. What redeems the film's dopey premise is the craft behind the flick. The set decoration, make-up, costumes, and monsters all display the handmade effort and love that was lavished on them. The puppetry used to animate the monsters (see above) adds to the film's tactility and sense of deja vu. Onyx... is a tribute to a more hands-on era before the rise of CGI.
 

Show People

Marion Davies
King Vidor's Show People, from 1928, is a winning and affectionate satire of Hollywood, The story was probably old hat even at the time, but provides a good setting for Marion Davies' comic talents. Ms. Davies plays Peggy Pepper, a green wannabe from Georgia who wants to break into movies. Show People opens with Peggy and her Pa driving down Hollywood Boulevard dressed as if they had escaped from a roadshow production of Uncle Tom's Cabin. Peggy meets established comic Billy Boone (William Haines) who helps her get a break with his troupe. Peggy is an instant hit and parlays her success by taking on more serious roles under her new stage name, Patricia Pepoire. Success goes to Ms. Pepoire's head, but, don't worry folks, true love wins out in the end.

Ms. Davies' career declined swiftly during the sound era, but performances like this one show why critics years later rehabilitated her reputation as a crackerjack comedian. She certainly could not be accused of taking herself too seriously. That was William Randolph Hearst's assumed duty. Mr. Vidor is also not taking himself very seriously. Vidor gets to poke fun at his own films, The Big Parade and Bardelys the Magnificent, which Billy Boone terms "a punk drama". Show People closely resembles the career of Gloria Swanson who started out working for Mack Sennett. Vidor has great fun mimicking Sennett's manic shorts. A spray bottle is repeatedly utilized as are various pastry. What impressed me the most was Vidor's indulgence of his bit players. Half of Hollywood cameos in the film, but Vidor wrings funny moments from such unheralded players as Polly Moran, Kalla Pasha, and Rolfe Sedan. Light as a feather, Show People is available to stream in a tolerable print on Tubi.


Samurai Wolf 2: Hell Cut

Isao Natsuyagi is the Samurai Wolf

Hideo Gosha's Samurai Wolf 2: Hell Cut is the second and best of the two Samurai Wolf features. This 1967 film is the more evocative and intricately structured of the two, though both share many similarities. They run barely over 70 minutes, are in black and white, and are decidedly B budget films in terms of production. Isao Natsuyagi's playing of "Kiba the furious wolf" was only his second film role, an indication that Gosha was watching his pennies when he made the initial Samurai Wolf. Gosha had started in radio, which explains his proficiency using sound effects, and had been directing television shows. Samurai films were an opportunity to make a surefire hit and the 1966 Samurai Wolf delivered, necessitating the sequel.

Most sequels are rote and dull facsimiles of the original. However, some sequels offer filmmakers the opportunity to expand their vision with a bigger budget and inspired variation. That is why I prefer Spider Man 2 over Spider-Man, The Evil Dead 2 over The Evil Dead, The Godfather 2 to The Godfather, For a Few Dollars More to A Fistful of Dollars, and Sanjuro over Yojumbo. The latter two sequels stem from the work of Gosha's acknowledged influences, Sergio Leone and Akira Kurosawa. In the Samurai Wolf , Isao Natsuyagi borrows a good deal of Toshiro Mifune's feral intensity from his appearances in Kurosawa's films. ...Hell Cut even has the same mountainous locations featured in Kurosawa's The Hidden Fortress to equally striking effect. Toshiaki Tsushima's scores for both Wolf film tips its sombrero to Morricone's scores for Leone, featuring lengthy plaintiff harmonica solos as horseman ride. 

...Hell Cut opens up Kiba's personality allowing him a tentative friendship and romance. In the first film, Kiba is such a lone wolf that he even spurns the romantic overtures of an elegant blind lady. In Hell Cut, the literal bond formed with his loved one saves his life. Kiba is contrasted with the more mercenary and merciless ronin, Magobe. Fortitude is contrasted with moral weakness, honesty with deceit. Magobe has helped operate an illegal gold mine which is poisoning the waters of local streams, a prescient environmental note. As in Leone, greed warps and corrupts men. Gosha uses more bravura techniques in the sequel than in the original, always to signal a mood or heighten a theme, A track into an obdurate dojo master quickens our anticipation of a duel. Freeze frames express the silence and finality of death.

The multiple flashbacks of Kiba's childhood with his doomed ronin dad fleshes out his saga. The short duration of ...Hell Cat contains a wealth of compressed details and emotional development. There is not a fold of fabric or hair pin out of place. Both Rumiko Fuji and Kiba's handy shears are welcome returns from the first film. The sinister presence of crows points the way to Gosha's later color samurai masterpiece, Goyokin (1969). Another film about greed, specifically, "The Gold of the Shogunate". The poetic touches of Samurai Wolf 2: Hell Cut are sometimes self-conscious, but they liberate Gosha enough for some exultant genre filmmaking.