Downhill. Alfred Hitchcock, 1927.
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Edition screened: Included on Criterion Blu-ray #885 The Lodger, released 2017. Scored and with English intertitles, no dialogue track. Runtime approximately 110 minutes.
Summary: No particular depictions of violence or harm to animals.
Emile de Antonio: Films of a Radical Saint. Emile de Antonio, 1968-1989.
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Edition screened: Home Vision/Image 4-DVD set, released 2008. English language. Cumulative runtime of the four feature films approximately 368 minutes.
Summary: No particular depictions of violence or harm to animals.
The Image set includes bonus material and the four very good documentaries:
In the Year of the Pig (1968)
Millhouse: A White Comedy (1971)
Underground (1976)
Mr. Hoover and I (1989)
The Fat and the Lean (Le gros et le maigre). Roman Polanski, 1961.
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Edition screened: Included on Criterion DVD #215 Knife in the Water, released 2003. Scored and with an effects track; no dialogue. Runtime approximately 15 minutes.
Summary: Cheap humor with a dead goose and mindless beating of agrarian animals.
Details:
1) A goose has been shot and falls from the sky at 2:58. Polanski puts the goose in the oven and indulges in some ‘comedy’ with the bird’s head caught in the oven door, 3:09, and again at 3:34.
2) A friendly white goat is hit on the back of the head for no reason while she is being milked, 7:14, and again at 11:48.
The In-Laws. Arthur Hiller, 1979.
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Edition screened: Criterion Blu-ray #823, released 2016. English language. Runtime approximately 103 minutes.
Summary: No particular depictions of violence or harm to animals.
Knife in the Water (Nรณz w wodzie). Roman Polanski, 1962.
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Edition screened: Criterion DVD #215, released 2003. Polish language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 94 minutes.
Summary: No animals or references to animals in the film.
The Criterion release also includes eight early short films by Polanski, mostly free of violence to animals with the exception of When Angels Fall and a shockingly criminal sequence in Two Men and a Wardrobe.
Knowing. Alex Proyas, 2009.
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Edition screened: Summit DVD, released 2009. English language. Runtime approximately 121 minutes.
Summary: Fantasy sequence of animals dying horribly.
Details: Young Caleb is given a vision of the forest or possibly the entire world burning, with all species of animals running in horror while being burned alive, 47:31-47:44. The computer-generated scene is intentionally slightly surreal, but still horrible and a reminder of the unreported anguish and suffering that happens every time we here that “two homes were lost” in a raging fire.
Lake of the Dead (De dรธdes tjern). Kรฅre Bergstrรธm, 1958.
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Edition screened: Included in Severin Blu-ray box set All the Haunts Be Ours: A Compendium of Folk Horror, released 2021. Norwegian language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 77 minutes.
Summary: A dog is found dead.
Details: A spaniel is found dead and we are told that he has been shot in the head, 22:20-22:24. All we see is a dog’s still body beside a pond, with no visible indication of injury.
The Lake of the Dead BD in the Severin box set also includes Tilbury (1987 Viรฐar Vรญkingsson) and A White Spot in the Back of the Head (1979 Viรฐar Vรญkingsson).
The Lamp (Lampa). Roman Polanski, 1959.
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Edition screened: Included with Criterion DVD #215 Knife in the Water, released 2003. Scored and with an effects track; no dialogue track. Runtime approximately 7 minutes.
Summary: No particular depictions of violence or harm to animals.
Legend. Brian Helgelant, 2015.
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Edition screened: Universal Blu-ray, released 2016. English language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 132 minutes.
Summary: No particular depictions of violence or harm to animals.
The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog. Alfred Hitchcock, 1927.
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Edition screened: Criterion Blu-ray #885, released 2017. Scored and with English intertitles, no dialogue track. Runtime approximately 90 minutes.
Summary: No particular depictions of violence or harm to animals.
The Criterion Blu-ray includes several supplemental exposรฉs and Hitchcock’s subsequent feature Downhill (1927, 110 minutes).
I enjoyed both The Lodger and Downhill more than I like most Hitchcock films. These early works show a smart director who understands the potential of film as a unique and wonderful medium, rather than just an opportunity to merely record a corny play with hysterical overacting and pointlessly excessive exposition.
Mammals (Ssaki). Roman Polanski, 1962.
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Edition screened: Included with Criterion DVD #215 Knife in the Water, released 2003. Scored; no dialogue track. Runtime approximately 10 minutes.
Summary: No particular depictions of violence or harm to animals.
Massacre Time (Le colt cantarono la morte e fu... tempo di massacro). Lucio Fulci, 1966.
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Edition screened: Included in Arrow box set Vengeance Trails: Four Classic Westerns, released 2021. English language. Runtime approximately 92 minutes.
Summary: No particular depictions of violence or harm to animals. A pigeon gets a little human blood on him at the very end of the movie and flies away.
Mr. Hoover and I. Emile de Antonio, 1989.
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Edition screened: Included in Home Vision/Image 4-DVD set Emile de Antonio: Films of a Radical Saint, released 2008. English language. Runtime approximately 90 minutes.
Summary: No particular depictions of violence or harm to animals.
Murder (Morderstwo). Roman Polanski, 1957.
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Edition screened: Included with Criterion DVD #215 Knife in the Water, released 2003. No audio track. Runtime approximately 2 minutes.
Summary: No animals or references to animals in the film.
My Name Is Pecos (2 once di piombo). Lucidi Maurizio, 1966.
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Edition screened: Included in Arrow box set Vengeance Trails: Four Classic Westerns, released 2021. English language or Italian with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 84 minutes.
Summary: No particular depictions of violence or harm to animals.
Pity. John Pata, 2014.
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Edition screened: Included on Arrow Blu-ray The Stylist, released 2021. English language. Runtime approximately 7 minutes.
Summary: Around the 5:00 mark the actor speaks of a rabbit tortured to death. During these few seconds are two extremely fast flashes of something generally pink, presumably rabbit. It goes by too quickly for comprehension.
Seven Women for Satan (Les week-ends malรฉfiques du Comte Zaroff). Michel Lemoine, 1976.
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Edition screened: Mondo Macabro Blu-ray, released 2020. French language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 90 minutes.
Summary: Depiction of a dead dog.
Details: A woman and a Great Dane lie dead on the ground below the window from which they apparently fell, 54:15-54:17.
Straight to Hell Returns. Alex Cox, 1987.
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Edition screened: Microcinema DVD, released 2010. English language. Runtime approximately 91 minutes.
Summary: No particular depictions of violence or harm to animals.
The Stylist. Jill Gevargizian, 2020.
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Edition screened: Arrow Blu-ray, released 2021. English language. Runtime approximately 104 minutes.
Summary: No particular depictions of violence or harm to animals.
The Arrow release of this entertaining horror film also includes Gevargizian’s short initial exploration of the same killer (2016, The Stylist, 15 minutes).
Also provided is the 7-minute film Pity, created by a crew member of The Stylist, and including some violence to animals.
Sweet Movie. Duลกan Makavejev, 1974.
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Edition screened: Criterion DVD #390, released 2007. English language and French, Polish, and Spanish with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 98 minutes.
Summary: No particular depictions of violence or harm to animals. No harm comes to the pet white mouse.
Teeth Smile (Usmiech zebeczny). Roman Polanski, 1957.
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Edition screened: Included with Criterion DVD #215 Knife in the Water, released 2003. No audio track. Runtime approximately 2 minutes.
Summary: No animals or references to animals in the film.
Tilbury. Viรฐar Vรญkingsson, 1987.
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Edition screened: Included in Severin Blu-ray box set All the Haunts Be Ours: A Compendium of Folk Horror, released 2021. English and Icelandic with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 57 minutes.
Summary: No particular depictions of violence or harm to animals.
The Tilbury BD in the box set also includes Vรญkingsson’s 1979 A White Spot on the Back of the Head and Kรฅre Bergstrรธm’s 1958 Lake of the Dead.
Trainwreck. Judd Apatow, 2015.
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Edition screened: Universal Blu-ray, released 2019. English language. Runtime approximately 129 minutes.
Summary: No particular depictions of violence or harm to animals.
Two Men and a Wardrobe (Dwaj ludzie z szafa). Roman Polanski, 1958.
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Edition screened: Included on Criterion DVD #215 Knife in the Water, released 2003. Scored and with an effects track; no dialogue track. Runtime approximately 14 minutes.
Summary: Murder and desecration of a kitten.
Details: The offensive scene is cued at 7:33 by a shot of black kitten eating. Immediately following, a group of young men throw apples at the kitten, and we see the kitten hit with a large apple at 7:41. One throws a substantial rock at 7:46, we see the other young men laugh at the apparent impact, and then see the kitten lying on its side dying 7:49-7:51. The men then torment people with the dead kitten by shoving its body in people’s faces, concluding with throwing the poor kitten at one of the wardrobe men and laughing, 8:53.
This scene is so unacceptable that it will forever change my perception of Polanski. The point, or at least one main point, of Two Men and a Wardrobe is that the two titular men are stand-ins for immigrants or people who otherwise are sociologically different and treated badly. They carry around a cumbersome wardrobe everywhere they go, marking them as different or strange as they interact with a broad cross-section of Polish society. The men who kill and defile the kitten presumably are the young scum of society who also regard the Two Men with violence and humiliating disrespect.
And So What? There are many other ways to show that a group of people are morally corrupt trash. Torturing an animal is and always has been the thoughtless and easy way to depict this faction in film. Polanski made the film while he was still quite young, but I see not reason to overlook his foul offense, and I’m sticking with complete condemnation. This monstrous directorial decision probably reflects his true personal interior before learning to artificially curb his impulses for The Big Time. I am supposed to feel outrage that Polanski allegedly had sex with an underage girl. I shall forever be too busy hating him over the kitten.
Underground. Emile de Antonio, 1976.
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Edition screened: Included in Home Vision/Image 4-DVD set Emile de Antonio: Films of a Radical Saint, released 2008. English language. Runtime approximately 87 minutes.
Summary: No particular depictions of violence or harm to animals.
Vengeance Trails: Four Classic Westerns. Various directors, 1966-1970.
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Edition screened: Arrow Blu-ray set, released 2021. Italian language with English subtitles. Cumulative runtime approximately 372 minutes.
Summary: And God Said to Cain and Bandidos each contains a single brief incident of animal violence. Massacre Time and My Name Is Pecos are clean.
The Arrow box set includes:
Massacre Time (Lucio Fulci, 1966)
My Name Is Pecos (Maurizio Lucidi, 1966)
Bandidos (Massimo Dallamano, 1967)
And God Said to Cain (Antonio Margheriti, 1970)
I found these films surprisingly enjoyable and well-made except for Bandidos which did not catch my interest. Klaus Kinski carries And God Said to Cain with subtle excellence.
The Way We Were. Sydney Pollack, 1973.
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Edition screened: Columbia TriStar DVD, released 2001. English language. Runtime approximately 118 minutes.
Summary: No particular depictions of violence or harm to animals.
When Angels Fall (Gdy spadaja anioly). Roman Polanski, 1959.
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Edition screened: Included on Criterion DVD #215 Knife in the Water, released 2003. One second of Polish language subtitled in English, but otherwise lacking a dialogue track. Runtime approximately 21 minutes.
Summary: Typical rural violence.
Details: A typical country lad (ugly little brat) whips a toad with a long stick; I think a “switch” is the folky noun; 8:41-8:46.
A White Spot in the Back of the Head (Tache blanche sur la nuque). Viรฐar Vรญkingsson, 1979.
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Edition screened: Included in Severin Blu-ray box set All the Haunts Be Ours: A Compendium of Folk Horror, released 2021. French with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 33 minutes.
Summary: No particular depictions of violence or harm to animals.
This very good short film is included on the Lake of the Dead / Tilbury BD in the box.
Willy’s Wonderland. Kevin Lewis, 2020.
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Edition screened: Screen Media Blu-ray, released 2021. English language. Runtime approximately 89 minutes.
Summary: No particular depictions of violence or harm to animals.
A custom Willy’s Wonderland pinball machine is featured periodically throughout the film.
The Young Savages. John Frankenheimer, 1961.
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Edition screened: Kino Blu-ray, released 2014. English language. Runtime approximately 103 minutes.
Summary: No depictions of violence or harm to animals.
A bingo-type pinball machine is first seen at 43:10, with a better view at 45:24. Not conclusively identifiable at this time, but it appears to be made by United and the words “deluxe shuffle alley” are prominent.
And God Said to Cain (E Dio disse a Caino…). Antonio Margheriti (as Anthony Dawson), 1970.
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Edition screened: Included in Arrow box set Vengeance Trails: Four Classic Westerns, released 2021. English language or Italian with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 100 minutes.
Summary: Poisonous snake killed.
Details: Klaus Kinski slams a rattle snake with an enormous wooden hammer at 3:16. This two-second shot shows the injured snake squirming under the hammer but not the impact.
Bandidos. Massimo Dallamano (as Max Dillman), 1967.
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Edition screened: Included in Arrow box set Vengeance Trails: Four Classic Westerns, released 2021. English language or Italian with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 96 minutes.
Summary: Baby chicks fall from a high shelf.
Details: A basket of chicks is dumped from a train’s overhead luggage shelf onto the floor at 6:45, and we see a dead man lying on the floor holding a live chicken by the legs through 6:57. No depiction of the chicks or hen being hurt, but the handling is grossly inappropriate and endangering.
Blade: Trinity. David S. Goyer, 2004.
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Edition screened: New Line DVD, released 2007. English language. Runtime approximately 123 minutes.
Summary: Three vampire dogs charge through a plate glass window on an upper floor of a high rise and presumably fall to the street below. We do not see anything of the fall, carnage, or the presumed regeneration as vampires do in the Blade films. The special effects of their Alien-like mouths is much more disturbing than their crashing through the breaking glass.
The Blood on Satan’s Claw (Satan’s Skin). Piers Haggard, 1971.
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Edition screened: Screenbound Blu-ray, released 2020. English language. Runtime approximately 97 minutes.
Summary: Being set in Olde England, most interior scenes inevitably have a few dead rabbits hanging somewhere if you look for them, but there is no killing, butchering, or particular attention paid to them. The schoolmaster’s pet domestic rabbit does a great job in his supporting role and comes to no harm.
Break Up the Dance (Rozbijemy zabawe). Roman Polanski, 1957.
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Edition screened: Included with Criterion DVD #215 Knife in the Water, released 2003. Scored, no dialogue track. Runtime approximately 8 minutes.
Summary: No particular depictions of violence or harm to animals.
Carnal Highways/Carnal Olympics. Carlos Tobalina, 1980-1983.
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Edition screened: Vinegar Syndrome DVD #Peek-001 Peekarama: Carnal Highways/Carnal Olympics, released 2020. Garbled English language. Cumulative runtime approximately 163 minutes.
Summary: No depictions of violence or harm to animals in either feature.
Carnal Highways. Carlos Tobalina as C.H. Howard, 1980, approximately 80 minutes. 2/5❤
Carnal Olympics. Carlos Tobalina as Troy Benny, 1983, approximately 83 minutes. 1.5/5❤
Cashback. Sean Ellis, 2006.
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Edition screened: Magnolia DVD, released 2007. English language. Runtime approximately 102 minutes.
Summary: No particular depictions of violence or harm to animals.
The Magnolia DVD also includes the 18-minute original version of the film (2003) with the same cast, plot, and many scenes re-used in the full-length film.
