Zou Zou (Zou-zou). Marc Allégret, 1934.
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Edition screened: Included with Princesse Tam-Tam on Kino Lorber Blu-ray, released 2022. French language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 92 minutes.
Summary: No particular depictions of violence or harm to animals.
You Were Never Really Here. Lynne Ramsay, 2018.
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Edition screened: Lionsgate Blu-ray, released 2018. English language. Runtime approximately 90 minutes.
Summary: No particular depictions of violence or harm to animals.
Witchhammer (Kladivo na carodejnice). Otakar Vavra, 1970.
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Edition screened: Included with Viy (Disc 4) in Severin Blu-ray box set All the Haunts Be Ours: A Compendium of Folk Horror, released 2021. Czech language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 107 minutes.
Summary: No particular depictions of violence or harm to animals.
Viy (De dødes tjern). Konstantin Ershov and Georgiy Kropachyov, 1967.
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Edition screened: Included with Witchhammer (Disc 4) in Severin Blu-ray box set All the Haunts Be Ours: A Compendium of Folk Horror, released 2021. Russian language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 76 minutes.
Summary: Striking a pig.
Details: As a young man beds down on a stack of hay at 10:54, he kicks a friendly pig confined in a neighboring stall in the head for no reason. Not hard enough to injure the animal, but reinforcing our multicultural tradition to treat these kind, intelligent animals with pointless brutality.
Two Witches. Pierre Tsigaridis, 2021.
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Edition screened: Arrow Blu-ray, released 2022. English language. Runtime approximately 98 minutes.
Summary: Dead birds and murder of a rabbit.
Details:
1) Two dead songbirds are suspended like drying herbs in the witch’s cabin, 4:51-4:56.
2) The witch snaps the neck of a domestic bunny, 1:22:10. This is over quickly and we barely see it.
The Return of Count Yorga. Bob Kellijan, 1971.
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Edition screened: Included in Arrow The Count Yorga Collection, released 2022. English language. Runtime approximately 97 minutes.
Summary: No particular depictions of violence of harm to animals.
The Arrow set also includes Count Yorga, Vampire (1970).
Princesse Tam-Tam. Edmond T. Gréville, 1935.
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Edition screened: Included with Zou-Zou on Kino Lorber Blu-ray, released 2022. French language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 77 minutes.
Summary: No particular depictions of violence or harm to animals.
This double feature of early Josephine Baker films made in France also includes the 1928 short Fireman of the Folies-Bergère (8 minutes, director unknown); a decent multipart documentary about Baker’s career and accomplishments; and two 1-minute excerpts spotlighting the famous dancer.
Identification of a Woman (Identificazione di una donna). Michelangelo Antonioni, 1982.
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Edition screened: Criterion Blu-ray #585, released 2011. Italian language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 130 minutes.
Summary: No particular depictions of violence or harm to animals.
Fireman of the Folies-Bergère (Le Pompier des Folies Bergères). Unknown director, 1928.
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Edition screened: Included on Kino Lorber Princesse Tam-Tam/Zouzou Blu-ray, released 2022. Scored, no dialogue track. Runtime approximately 8 minutes.
Summary: No depictions of violence or harm to animals.
A fireman’s drunken fantasies provide the framework for entertaining early special effects, a surprising amount of full nudity, and a brief cameo by (clothed) Josephine Baker.
Count Yorga, Vampire (The Loves of Count Iorga, Vampire). Bob Kellijan, 1970.
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Edition screened: Included in Arrow The Count Yorga Collection, released 2022. English language. Runtime approximately 93 minutes.
Summary: Depiction of murdered cat.
Details: In a famous and startling scene, Erica is caught eating a small gray cat, still holding it with blood on its neck, 33:05 - 34:00.
The Arrow set also includes The Return of Count Yorga (1971).
Come Drink with Me (Da zui xia). King Hu, 1966.
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Edition screened: Arrow Blu-ray, released 2022. Mandarin language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 94 minutes.
Summary: No depictions of violence or harm to animals.
The Bellboy and the Playgirls. Fritz Umgelter and Francis Ford Coppola, 1962.
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Edition screened: Included on Kino Lorber Blu-ray 3-D Nudie-Cuties Collection, released 2019. English language. Runtime approximately 97 minutes.
Summary: No depictions of violence or harm to animals. o.5/5❤
A Dobie Gillis-type bellboy travels physically to various rooms of a hotel in the color sections of the movie, then travels . . . some other way . . . to various historical epochs in the black-and-white sections of the movie, all to learn how to charm the ladies. And to be a private eye. Ultimately, we all learn why people walk out of theaters and throw televisions out the window.
I presume one director made the color sections and the other made the b-&-w sections. For one moment early in the film I anticipated that quick checking would clarify this, but I quickly matured into not caring. The title sequence is entertaining, made in good late-50s off-register commercial style.
America as Seen by a Frenchman. François Reichenbach, 1960.
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Edition screened: Arrow Blu-ray, released 2020. French language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 90 minutes.
Summary: The cruel and trashy spectacle of a high-diving horse, 44:22-45:12. There is no indication of physical injury to the horse. This time.
Adam and 6 Eves. John Wallis, 1962.
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Edition screened: Included on Kino Lorber Blu-ray 3-D Nudie-Cuties Collection, released 2019. English language. Runtime approximately 60 minutes.
Summary: No depictions of violence or harm to animals. 1.5/5❤
The story of a chubby and prematurely grizzled prospector crossing a desert in cheap vinyl shower shoes with his donkey, searching for his lost treasure map but finding instead a tropical oasis with five immortal scantily-clad-sometimes-topless pinup girls in Erisian conflict with a lone outcast girl, she also scantily-clad-sometimes-topless but having a witch-like putty nose and Joey Ramone hair.
Oh, the unexpected part is that Old Stinky’s donkey is a Chris Bouchillon imitator who narrates the action ‘talkin’ blues’ style with metered olde-time precision, like “Why, that man is so lazy he’ll stand all day with a cocktail shaker a-waitin’ for an earthquake.”
The 3-D Nudie-Cuties Collection. Various directors, 1953-1962.
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Edition screened: Kino Lorber Blu-ray, released 2019. English language. Cumulative runtime approximately 167 minutes.
Summary: No depictions of violence or harm to animals. o.5/5❤
Details: This adventure in tedium includes two shorts naps (noted below), a 90-minute excruciation, and a 60-minute unbelievability:
• The Bellboy and the Playgirls (1962 Fritz Umgelter and Francis Ford Coppola)
• Adam and 6 Eves (1962 John Wallis)
• Love for Sale (1953 Klaytan W. Kirby)
- a 10-minute compilation of clips featuring Bella Starr dancing around in her dressing room and flapping her hands at the camera.
• Beauty in 3rd Dimension (circa 2019)
- a 3-minute compilation of stills showing print ads for the 1951 Kodachrome Stereo Viewer and examples of the 1940s-style pinup images available separately.
Deported Women of the SS Special Section (Le deportate della sezione speciale SS). Rino Di Silvestro (as Alex Berger), 1976.
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Edition screened: Included in the Full Moon DVD set Nazi Basterds & Bombshells, released 2014. English dub. Runtime approximately 98 minutes.
Summary: No depictions of violence or harm to animals. 2/5❤
Family Camp. Brian Cates, 2022.
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Edition screened: Watched online. English language. Runtime approximately 111 minutes.
Summary: No particular depictions of violence or harm to animals.
OMG, as old people say. While traveling, I guessed that this was the most tolerable choice among limited viewing options. I have been wronged.
La Femme-Objet (Programmed for Pleasure). Claude Mulot (as Frédéric Lansac), 1981.
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Edition screened: Pulse/Vinegar Syndrome Blu-ray, released 2021. French language with English subtitles; decent English dub also available. Runtime approximately 86 minutes.
Summary: No depictions of violence or harm to animals. 3.5/5❤
Flatliners. Joel Schumacher, 1990.
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Edition screened: Arrow UHD, released 2022. English language. Runtime approximately 114 minutes.
Summary: A dog is seriously injured.
Details:
1) Kiefer Sutherland has recurring death dreams in which his childhood dog is seen from a distance walking with a crippled gate, his pelvis and two back legs wrapped in bandages. These scenes are not alarming.
2) From 1:32:42 through 1:32:51 we learn how the dog was injured: A child falls from a tree, bringing a large branch down with him. We see the downed branch pinning the dog to the ground across the hips with a little blood visible.
Fräulein Devil (Elsa Fräulein SS/Captive Women 4). Patrice Rhomm (as Mike Staar), 1977.
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Edition screened: Included in the Full Moon DVD set Nazi Basterds & Bombshells, released 2014. English dub. Runtime approximately 81 minutes.
Summary: A Nazi officer pauses to observe a dead young bird on the ground, 49:54-50:00. 1/5❤
Fräuleins in Uniform (She Devils of the SS/Eine Armee Gretchen). Erwin C. Dietrich, 1973.
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Edition screened: Included in the Full Moon DVD set Nazi Basterds & Bombshells, released 2014. English dub. Runtime approximately 66 minutes.
Summary: No depictions of violence or harm to animals. 1/5❤
The Lost City. Aaron and Adam Nee, 2022.
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Edition screened: Watched online. English language. Runtime approximately 92 minutes.
Summary: No particular depictions of violence or harm to animals.
Love Camp 7. Lee Frost, 1968.
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Edition screened: Something Weird DVD, released 2003. English language. Runtime approximately 96 minutes.
Summary: No particular depictions of violence or harm to animals. 1/5❤
Mystery Train. Jim Jarmusch, 1989.
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Edition screened: Criterion Blu-ray #521, released 2010. English language. Runtime approximately 140 minutes.
Summary: No particular depictions of violence or harm to animals.
Nazi Basterds & Bombshells. Various directors, 1973-2013.
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Edition screened: Full Moon 5-DVD set, released 2014. English language. Cumulative runtime of feature films approximately 425 minutes.
Summary: Fräulein Devil includes several seconds of a dead bird lying on the ground feeding insects. The other three period films are free of violence to animals. 1/5❤
The Full Moon set includes four B Movies combining the Women in Prison genre with Nazi obsession, plus an original documentary on the topic by Charles Band. See individual titles for details.
Nazithon: Decadence and Destruction (2013 Charles Band)
Deported Women of the SS Special Section (1976 Rino Di Silvestro)
The Beast in Heat (SS Hellcamp) (1977 Luigi Batzella)
She Devils of the SS (Fräuleins in Uniform) (1973 Erwin Dietrich)
Fräulein Devil (1977 Patrice Rhomm)
The Northman. Robert Eggers, 2022.
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Edition screened: Watched online. English language. Runtime approximately 140 minutes.
Summary: Ritual sacrifice of horses.
Details: No timing cues available, but each incident is clearly telegraphed and lasts only a few seconds:
1) When it looks like the dog is going to attack someone in the house, sure enough he does and is stabbed.
2) The horse in silver tack is beheaded at the Viking funeral, off-screen.
3) A decapitated horse lies on the ground at The Beautiful Reunion on The Other Side.
Sins of the Flesh (Les charnelles). Claude Mulot, 1974.
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Edition screened: Mondo Macabro Blu-ray, released 2020. French language with English subtitles. English also available. Runtime approximately 89 minutes.
Summary: No depictions of violence or harm to animals. 3.5/5❤
Francis Lemmonier plays a 1973 Bally Monte Carlo at 34:19, then a few seconds later at 34:33 walks past a 1973 Gottlieb Jack In The Box.
Some Came Running. Vincente Minnelli, 1958.
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Edition screened: Warner Blu-ray, released 2021. English language. Runtime approximately 136 minutes.
Summary: No particular depictions of violence or harm to animals.
Sinatra walks past a woodrail in the bar (18:37) that has a prominent ‘5-4-3-2-1’ on the backglass but is not adequately in focus to identify. Later around 36:00 we see people playing that machine plus a man bent over a second machine that is not clearly shown.
SS Hellcamp (The Beast in Heat/La bestia in calore). Luigi Batzella, 1977.
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Edition screened: Included in the Full Moon DVD set Nazi Basterds & Bombshells, released 2014. English dub. Runtime approximately 86 minutes.
Summary: No depictions of violence or harm to animals. 1/5❤
Switchblade Sisters. Jack Hill, 1975.
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Edition screened: Arrow Blu-ray, released 2021. English language. Runtime approximately 91 minutes.
Summary: Around the 2-minute mark, with opening credits over the action, we see Lace in her bedroom applying perfume. She throws the empty bottle at a rat. The bottle bounces off the floor, alarming but not hurting the animal.
The big fight at the roller rink includes several shots of the same small cluster of mixed pinballs and video games, 55:40 through 56:00, not identifiable.
Uncut Gems. Benny and Joshua Safdie, 2019.
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Edition screened: Criterion Blu-ray #1101, released 2021. English language. Runtime approximately 135 minutes.
Summary: Depiction of dead tropical fish.
Details: At 1:10:45 a red-colored sports drink is poured vindictively into an aquarium tank. There is much hysteria and shouting to fetch glasses of water, into which the fish could be transferred. Later at 1:38:25 we see a small dead tropical fish in a glass of water on a desk.
I like films that not only entertain but also have something to teach. In Uncut Gems we learn that it’s ok to say No if your neighbor asks to use your bathroom.
The Criterion Blu-ray also includes the Safdie brothers’ short film Goldman v Silverman starring Benny Safdie and Adam Sandler (2020, about 8 minutes), and a somewhat entertaining 20-minute FAQ chat with the Safdie brotherss, Adam Sandler, and Jason Bateman, staged as a chance encounter in a diner.
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 (Nóz 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 dødes tjern). Kåre Bergstrøm, 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 Viðar Víkingsson) and A White Spot in the Back of the Head (1979 Viðar Víkingsson).
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 exposés 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.
