EATEN ALIVE (1977)

What a bizarre movie.  Instead of doing the logical thing and following up THE TEXAS CHAIN SAW MASSACRE with a cash-in sequel (who knows, maybe there was an legal issue) TCM director/producer/writer/composer Tobe Hooper, writer Kim Henkel and main actress Marilyn Burns created this almost fever dream-like story of an old coot (Neville Brand) running a hotel near a swamp.  Despite the fact that the hotel is completely dilapidated, there's no road nearby and the owner is clearly insane the place still gets a steady stream of customers...whom, the owner, kills about as quickly as they show up and then feeds to his huge crocodile.  It makes no sense at all.

Still, there's something about EATEN ALIVE that you can't take your eyes off of it.  It's just so strange that it's more fascinating than it is entertaining.  Over-the-top acting by an whole cast of weird characters, sudden unexpected spurts of violence, gritty camerawork that reminded me at moments of TCM, eternal nighttime, two surprisingly nice topless scenes, strange set design, fake as hell looking crocodile, Marilyn Burns underused (she should have had a bigger role), lots of fog (at one point - 1:19:53 - I swear Neville does the Leatherface dance, but there's so much fog it's hard to tell), old timey country music playing almost non-stop, surreal colours, Freddy Krueger topless.

Not horrible, but not good either.  Just strange.

STALAG 17 (1953)

Set in a prisoner-of-war camp in Nazi Germany STALAG 17 tells the story of a group of American soldiers who are constantly working on a way to escape.  The film opens with two soldiers making their way through a tunnel a bunch of the guys have been working on.  They get all the way to the other side of the fence only to find guards waiting on them...guns blazing.  How did the guards find out about the tunnel?  It was top secret.  There's gotta be a rat in the barracks.  But who could it be?  It's probably Sefton (William Holden).  That piece of shit is always making deals with the guards to look the other way on all of his schemes.  Motherfucker has more cigarettes than Philip Morris himself!  And so it begins.  The men turn on Holden, thinking he's to stooge, but he's not.  Now, under constant surveillance and ass-kickings, Holden has to figure out who the rat is himself.

STALAG 17 is nearly a great film.  The thing that holds it back from being a great film is the unneeded comedic elements.  I understand that Billy Wilder always enjoyed mixing genres, but watching this film now the comedic parts are so horribly dated(?) and unfunny that they're almost painful to watch. The tension's going along good when suddenly you got two morons singing, dancing and slapping a guard in the face with a wet paint brush.  I guess audiences liked it though since Robert Struss actually got a Best Supporting Actor nomination for his ridiculous performance!  Holden ended up winning the Oscar for Best Actor, but I think it should have gone to Montgomery Clift for FROM HERE TO ETERNITY instead.

Minus the "funny" parts STALAG 17 is an excellent film.  Strong cast, great looking sets, compelling story with lots of tension.  Definitely worth a watch.