Don Johnson Movie:

		List Price: $14.98		Label: 20th Century Fox Salesrank: 25998 Released: September 11, 2007
		Our Price: $8.73
		Used Price: $7.70
		MPAA Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested) Media: DVD

Editorial Review:
Disc 1:House on Skull Mountain (1974) Disc 2:Mephisto Waltz (1971)

The House on Skull Mountain / The Mephisto Waltz Reviews:
A few miscellaneous comments
2009-10-10 - Please note that this review is just for The Mephisto Waltz.

Although in some ways this movie seems very dated in its 60s and 70s obsession with the occult, this movie can still provide some chills and thrills. Curt Jurgens (who I remembered well from his role as a German submarine commander opposite Robert Mitchum in "The Enemy Below," one of the best WWII sub movies) is the leader of a Satanic cult and a brilliant but sadistic pianist with a sinister plan. He intends to take possession of, and switch bodies with, the younger Alan Alda's more youthful character so he can be young again.

The Satanists leave too many clues to their sinister shenanigans, however, and Jacqueline Bisset plays the mother who eventually discovers the plan and tries to stop the evil Satanists. There's some decent acting, and Bisset's riveting performance makes the conjuring scene entirely believable. Note for the prudes out there--there's an occasional but briefly exposed breast of Bisset and Parkins, but then how many guys are going to object to that? I suppose no movie about a practicing Satanic cult would be worth its salt without at least one boob shot.

Overall, it's not a bad movie and with less capable directing and acting could have been pretty cheesy, which it isn't.

Didn't watch the Skull Mountain and thought the Mephisto Waltz was an utter disappointment!
2009-07-20 - Wow, where do I start? The only redeeming feature of the Mephisto Waltz? Jacqueline Bissette! It's always a win-win situation looking at that lady. Wowzers...

The plot is not clever at all and really a rehash of Star Trek episodes with people changing bodies and throw in an occult angle to it and voila.

What is so hilarious is how everyone acts like Alan Alda is the sexiest thing, couldn't figure that one out? The rituals didn't seem authentic to a satanic cult, the psychodelic stuff got tiresome, and ultimately the ending was possibly THE worst ending in history....WARNING SPOILER AHEAD...why in the heck would Jacqueline Bissett's character want to:

a) change bodies with Barbara Parkins' character, Roxanne? That's like jumping from a Porsche to a Camry

b) why would someone who has had these satanists kill her own precious daughter and slay her husband want to make a deal with the devil herself and play ball with the diabolical? Fighting evil with evil and giving in?

c) inhabite the body of Roxanne and then end up with the husband body you started out with (again, Alan Alda, ????) only this time the soul/personality of that far-from-handsome body is a diabolical and evil murdering musician? How superficial and weak can we get here?

The story wasn't scary at all, seemed very cheesy, and was predictable except for the insane ending...didn't see that stupid plot coming! The atmosphere wasn't as scary as some devilish flicks. There was no sense of forboding or doom. It was bland. Again, the rituals seemed unrealistic and not authentic and I asked myself, "why in the heck did I buy this movie?" Ebay time! I'm unloading this stinker!

I must re-emphasize: only redeeming factor: Jacqueline Bissette!



Cheesy voodoo blaxploitation trash that's actually kind of watchable.
2009-06-01 - The House on Skull Mountain (Ron Honthaner, 1974)

Silly blaxploitation effort that's actually not half bad, as long as you're willing to ignore the fact that most of the aspects of this movie were done better in other flicks.

Plot: an old voodoo woman who lives in a mansion outside Atlanta (as you may surmise, the mansion is, in fact, on Skull Mountain) dies, and her descendants are gathered together for the reading of the will. Her descendants are something of a mixed lot (of just about every stereotype you'd expect to find in a low-rent blaxploitation flick, including the mysterious white descendant, played by Victor French), and when they go to visit the grave soon after all have arrived, weird things occur, and there's a drug-induced vision--or is it reality? Watch on and find out...

Things get a lot weirder from there, including a cult of mind-controlled thugs, a handful of folks who may or may not be zombies, a lot of voodoo, and perhaps most distressingly, a love-story subplot between French and female lead Janee Michelle (who, despite the differences in skin color, are supposed to be close relatives).

It's definitely odd, and derivative as all get-out, but with the exception of one all-too-long scene that takes repetition in film to heights rarely seen outside the world of structural filmmaking, it's watchable in that cheesy sort of way. Honthaner, who spent most of his Hollywood career as an editor, never directed another film, so I can't be certain when I say the movie was meant to be cheesy, but I certainly get that impression from it. If I look at it with that eye, then it succeeds. Don't expect greatness and you should have fun with this one. ** ½

* * *

The Mephisto Waltz (Paul Wendkos, 1971)

1970 was a pretty bad year for Twentieth Century Fox, thanks to a number of rather spectacular box-office failures in 1969; in fact, times were so tight they produced only a single film during the entire calendar year of 1970. You'd expect in such circumstances they'd have tried to go with something that would really be a blockbuster for them, wouldn't you? Instead, they decided to greenlight The Mephisto Waltz, which, despite having an incredible cast, manages to be memorable only because Alan Alda gets to make out with both Jacqueline Bisset and Barbara Parkins, two of the most beautiful women in cinema at the time.

Based on a potboiler by Fred Mustard Stewart, The Mephisto Waltz tells the story of journalist Myles Clarkson (Alda), a former piano prodigy who gave it up after his first recital got mediocre reviews. He gets a chance to interview the famed, eccentric pianist Duncan Ely (The Spy Who Loved Me's Curd Jurgens), and the two of them hit it off, with the result that Clarkson gets invited into Ely's inner circle of eccentrics. While Clarkson's wife Paula (Bisset) is initially thrilled, she soon realizes that the bunch of them are as dangerous as they are weird. As well, it seems Roxanne (Peyton Place's Barbara Parkins), the high priestess of Duncan's bizarre cult, has romantic designs on Myles. She's partly right, but sex is only the tip of the iceberg where these folks are concerned...

I described the novel as a potboiler, and the movie follows suit very well. This is typical of the genre in every way, featuring a number of utterly predictable plot twists, some gratuitous nudity and violence, needless psychedelia, and a title sequence that's straight out of late-sixties television. Not an awful way to kill some time when you've got a very slow night ahead of you, but not at all what you'd expect from one of Hollywood's biggest studios' only film in an entire year. **


See Mephisto, skip House on Skull Mountain
2009-05-04 - A pair of long-limbed occult movies here, neither particularly memorable (thus a disc I've already sold). HOUSE is a blaxploitation voodoo yarn with a white hero (Victor French, of all people). Essentially an Old Dark House-style mystery with estranged relatives (three black, one white) brought together for the reading of their great-grandmother's will, but the maid and butler, who practise voodoo, have other plans for the money. Good concept, but the production is strictly TV movie level, hardly surprising considering the cast, almost all of whom were small screen thesps at best. French was a TV mainstay who would soon go on to LITTLE HOUSE ON THE PRAIRIE, while Mike Evans, the other most recognizable face in the cast, had a few telemovies to his name, but would shortly start an extended run as Lionel on the classic sitcoms ALL IN THE FAMILY and THE JEFFERSONS.

Much better, but still severely dated, is THE MEPHISTO WALTZ, one of the few theatrical features of TV vet Paul Wendkos, and it looks like a TV movie, too, only with more boobs, gore and swearing, as music journalist Alan Alda get possessed by the spirit of newly-departed concert pianist and satanist Curt Jurgens. Jackie Bissett is Alda's wife, who becomes hip to the ruse after Alda takes over the dead man's career and their daughter dies of an unexplained illness. Some creepy moments and an intriguingly dark twist, but the oh-so-typically Hollywood-liberal portrayal of the outwardly conservative tuxedo classes as society's truly debauched sin-seeking swingers was pretty worn out even by 1971, when this was made.

Skull House NO/Mephisto Waltz YES
2009-03-29 - Buy this movie exclusively for the Mephisto Waltz, the Skull House is the worst directed, acted and predictable movie ever made. The Mephisto Waltz is a great psych thirller, even thought I can only see Alan Alda as Hawkeye for MASH. Pay close attention because the plot can be complicated and the switching of time frames makes it difficult to follow, but still worth it. Good acting and directing!!