An early sixties black and white Krimi about a mysterious criminal who has arrived in London to get revenge on the gang that killed his sister, The story is actually somewhat coherent and a bit more serious in tone (though it is still really silly at times). The identity of Der Hexer remains a mystery to the final reel with an unexpected ending that may leave some unsatisfied. They once again shoehorn a school for delinquent girls into the plot and Peter Thomas’s music swings throughout.
As I was finishing up as a graduate art student, I taught life drawing for a year or so. Teaching life drawing is a bit like watching paint dry. You just need to make sure there is a model present and then run the students through various practice exercises. Basically, my criteria for passing the class was to just show up (and yet there would always be one less-than-moron who couldn’t even muster the energy to do that).
However, mastering rendering the figure requires a bit more work than showing up. A very important part is to familiarize oneself with the basics of human anatomy. I was never really taught this (the University of Illinois art department was, how shall we say, lacking in this area) so I took it upon myself to learn what I could and then impart my knowledge onto my students. I would deliver this information as weekly handouts that took the form of a comic book, This was the most basic of basic anatomy overviews but it hit some of the more important topics.
A Lesson in Artistic Anatomy: Page 1A Lesson in Artistic Anatomy: Page 2A Lesson in Artistic Anatomy: Page 3A Lesson in Artistic Anatomy: Page 4A Lesson in Artistic Anatomy: Page 5A Lesson in Artistic Anatomy: Page 6A Lesson in Artistic Anatomy: Page 7A Lesson in Artistic Anatomy: Page 8
I eventually went to Kinkos and bound the entire thing up in a cheap cover. I was recently reminded of this work when a random visitor to this site (yes, your favorite site on the Internet) informed me that they were given a copy from drawing professors Fennell & Becker. This visitor informed me that, on occasion, they had used the comic in their own drawing classes. Very cool. In the process of reminiscing I scanned the comic and here I am making available to the Internet for the first time ever. Download the PDF, print and enjoy!
So far, this is the wildest Krimi film I’ve seen. Despite the title, there isn’t as much gorilla crime as you would expect. Instead there are multiple scenes at a figure drawing themed night club, yet another home for delinquent girls, and plenty of bumbling sexist police action.
As per usual, the solution to the mystery doesn’t really make any sense but that doesn’t matter. This movie is bathed in so much Bava-esque cinematography that it’s a visual delight from beginning to end.
The writing of this giallo is absolutely terrible. The story doesn’t make any sense and every single person who walks into frame is presented as a red herring. There is some bad silly putty looking gore and the film’s climax is just bonkers nonsense. Not a top-tier giallo by any stretch but does drift into so bad it’s good territory the way French Sex Murders does.
I’m beginning to get a feel for these German Krimi films: a masked killer, suspicion of supernatural, bumbling police, show who the bad guys are immediately, and then finally reveal who the mastermind behind it all really was. That final reveal is never satisfactory because there are no clues whatsoever as to the solution. It just is the person you would least likely have any cause to suspect. But throughout I love the lighthearted tone. That’s something you would never expect to describe a movie that features Klaus Kinski. Anyhow, there needs to be a big blu-ray box set of these films because they are great fun.
Looks like The Expanse TV show will not be returning so now I have to read a dozen novels to find out how the story ends. Thanks, Avasarala. This novella tells the story of Bobbie back on Mars and her nephew who wants to save a drug addict girl. Mildly enjoyable story that reads like a thirty minute television episode but doesn’t really advance any of the main plotlines.
This engraving started out as a portrait of my cat (see the prep drawing) but it just became a more generic feline. After creating a quick one-off science fiction print, I thought I might continue that theme with a bunch of aliens worshipping a giant cat. Somehow that morphed into me wanting to draw a bunch of ugly brutalist buildings.
Process Photos
Click the thumbnails for a closer view.
Prep DrawingImage TransferCutting OutlinesBlock ProgressMore ProgressFinal Prints
Another Paul Naschy film in which all the ladies can’t resist his barrel-chested charms. This one starts off in Japan and then, rather than explore its exotic location possibilities, goes right back to a Spanish countryside manor. Naschy is a double-crossing jewel thief who is nursed to health at a family pig farm complete with a pair of farmer’s daughters vying for his interests. Eventually this becomes a black-gloved killer movie and starts to jump between elements of thriller, crime film and horror. I thought it was quite entertaining despite the lead character laying in a bed most of the time.
A prosecutor and his lady friend of the night are held captive in the house of his uncle, a prominent judge, After the bloody false opening scene not much happens action-wise. Most of the movie takes place in a single room and the bad guys, who spend most of the movie looking for old court documents, are dubbed with ridiculous cockney accents. Given the right cast, this could have been a really tense drama, but it kinda falls flat.
Gothic horror is really where Paul Naschy shines. This werewolf/vampire movie is quite fun despite the fact that a lot of the plot doesn’t make any sense and it is, for some reason, set in modern times yet is full of 19th century villagers and horse drawn carriages. You can almost skip the first quarter of the movie but it really picks up in the second half with a trio of ghostly, female vampires that plots against Naschy as the werewolf. The simple makeup effects are very effective.
