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Zaporozhets za Dunayem (1939)
LITTLE KNOWN ULMER
I have a fascination for Edgar G. Ulmer, the only Poverty Row director to be justifiably deemed an auteur. Ulmer started out as an art director in Germany in the early 1920s and, after emigrating directed "The Black Cat" - one of the gems of Universal's pre-Code horrors and one of the films for which he is best known. His affair with the wife of a studio executive caused him to be blackballed in Tinseltown and he spent the next several years scrounging for work with the most independent of independent producers, working with microscopic budgets and miniscule shooting schedules. Eventually he would find himself back at a Hollywood studio but it would be PRC, the lowliest and lowest regarded of the minor studios. The initials stood for Producers Releasing Company but some insisted they meant Pretty Rotten Crap. Much of their product was pretty dire in terms of scripting and acting (if in some cases it could really be called that) but in terms of sets often looked pretty good. Ulmer may well have been at least partly responsible - he certainly took credit for it in an interview - but he can safely be given credit for directing some gems during his tenure at the studio. Most would cite that bleakest of noirs, "Detour" (one of the first 100 films deemed worthy of preservation by the Library of Congress) and "Bluebeard" of his PRC seven day wonders, but I'd also point the way toward "Club Havana", his "Grand Hotel" on a shoestring, and "Strange Illusion", his modern take on "Hamlet" (both are on YouTube).
This film is from his time in the wilderness, quite literally as it was lensed in the farmlands of New Jersey, back to back with another ethnic film, the Yiddish "The Light Ahead". It's an adaptation of the famous Ukrainian comic opera - well, famous if you're Ukrainian anyway - "Zaporozhets za Dunayem" (Zaporozhian (Cossack) Beyond the Danube) with spoken dialogue, music and libretto by Semen Hulak-Artemovsky (1813-1873). The story is based on the historical destruction of the Zaporizhian Cossacks' island fortress by the Tsar's troops who sent them packing off to the Ottoman Empire (now part of Romania). Comedy arises from the refugee clan's struggles to adapt to their new home and the chance encounter of an old Cossack, Ivan Karas, and a Sultan who's traveling incognito (it just isn't an opera unless someone is in disguise). Aside from stunning close-ups and startling edits, viewers will find little of Ulmer's stylistic stamp here (he was probably hard-pressed just to get the thing in the can). Curiously the subtitles come and go; several arias (I counted at least four) are completely without them, but it doesn't seriously affect following the story. (I should note this is how the film went out and not some lack on Alpha's part.) The print is a bit soft but it's nice for us Ulmer completists to have it available again.
Union Furnace (2015)
Low budget thrills
UNION FURNACE 2015 / Metropol Pictures / 89m / $19.99 BR / NR
If one is embarking on a low budget picture it's wise to be cognizant of the financial limitations. Unlike many a production whose goals exceed their capital "Union Furnace" was conceived from the get-go to be produced for very little cash. Set in a dying Appalachian town the main locales are a tacky motel and what appears to be a decrepit social hall (an antlered head on the wall might be an elk – the sparse lighting makes it difficult to be certain). Small time crook Cody (Mike Dwyer, who co-wrote the script with director Nicholas Bushman) gets hooked up with a mysterious stranger (Seth Hammond) who offers him the chance to earn tens of thousands of dollars. All he has to do is compete against other desperate contestants in front of a masked audience that will be wagering on each game. The premise isn't anything we haven't seen before but the presentation has rarely been so grim and gritty thanks to the cash-strapped budget and a cast of mostly unfamiliar faces. (Keith David is the closest thing to a name here and his presence suggests that his career has not exactly been going full bore since "Platoon.")
In addition to the low-rent settings (the most elaborate and colorful "set" is a strip club that assuredly is not something constructed for the film), the disguised audience wears cheap dimestore Halloween masks (which are surprisingly unsettling) and, except for the final sequence, the photography makes no effort to sweeten the lighting from the harsh and nasty fluorescent illumination available. I can think of no film since "Night of the Living Dead" that has made such a virtue of its threadbare financing to deliver a visceral impact. Now this isn't a great film and it may not even be a particularly good one. The chief deficit is that, despite many of them being given a soliloquy, none of the characters are fleshed out enough for the viewer to much give a damn who wins and who loses as the games grow increasingly more dangerous and ultimately lethal. The most intriguing character is the ambiguously menacing stranger who, in a gold lion masks acts as the emcee for the games. First time film actor Hammond (who also produced) is strangely reminiscent of Matthew McConaughy in "Big Mike," particularly when he breaks out some slinky dance moves. Ultimately he may be the very best thing about a film that trots out a familiar trope and imbues it with a few new twists. longsshorttakes.wordpress.com/