Cataclysm

"The investigation into the mysterious death of an aging Nazi war criminal hunter brings a surprising revelation to the cop working on the case. It appears the old man was actually following an individual with ties to the Nazis, who seems to have not aged in appearance in spite of the passage of over 30 (sic) years. The policeman and some other individuals decide to track down the mysterious individual to find out his horrifying secret," according to the DVD sleeve's synopsis.

The appropriately named Faith Clift (as Dr. Claire Hansen) and atheist writer husband Richard "Charles" Moll (as James Hanson) go to sinful Las Vegas to see the shows and promote Mr. Moll's book "God Is Dead". Ms. Clift is troubled by nightmarish dreams about Nazis. Meanwhile, Marc Lawrence (as Abraham Weiss), a blathering Jew, has traced Nazi war criminal Robert Bristol (as Mr. Olivier) to Vegas; and, he reports the finding to police lieutenant Cameron Mitchell (as Sterne). At first, Mr. Mitchell won't believe old Mr. Lawrence, because young Mr. Bristol hasn't aged in 35 years.

"Cataclysm" (aka "Satan's Supper" aka "The Nightmare Never Ends") is a classic "so-bad-it's-good" film. Although others try, nobody in the cast can best Clift's supremely awful performance; her effort is astonishing. Also, watch Mitchell ("High Chaparral") defeat Moll ("Night Court") for best artificial hair. Bristol is delightfully devilish; it's too bad he, Maurice Grandmaison (as Papini), Klint Stevenson (as Jim), and Christie Wagner (as Ann) have so few screen credits; their characterizations are perfect.

Films like this hardly ever have good endings; admittedly, it's truly difficult to appropriately end a story as bad as this one -- but writer Philip Yordan and company come up with a real winner; it may make you want to click your heels… or hooves, as the case may be. See it with an open heart, or liver

This film has good intentions. There is something lacking, but I't hard to put one's finger on it. This tells the tale of a Satanic figure who passes through time by recreating himself. An Nobel author, played by Richard Moll, Bull from "Night Court" of all people, has written a kind of Scientology book about God being dead. It has received much attention and he becomes of interest to the Satanic figure. The movie starts out with a Nazi hunter engaging the police to help him capture the man who was responsible for the deaths of his family members during the Holocaust. The thing that is always in the way is that if Satan is so powerful, why does he need to do much of anything. If there are people who threaten him (which they obviously can't), why doesn't he just kill them outright. I know he is searching for souls and all that, but his invulnerability makes him relatively uninteresting in this film. He does some things that don't make much sense in the world of the film. The ending is kind of fun, I guess.

An aging Jewish man calls upon a detective to investigate the mystery of an unscrupulous Dorian Gray-style scoundrel who, despite his youthful appearance, may be a notorious Nazi war criminal.

In addressing this film, I must begin by saying that it will not be well received by most viewers. If, however, you possess a willingness to extend impunity to poverty-row cinema, then you might find a blink or two of mildly amusing frippery in this dicey little three-dollar-bill.

That this flick was committed to cheap, ashen filmstock is an immediate indicator that this was an empty-pockets production. Quite simply stated, there's a discernable messiness to the entire mechanical wheel of the film, yet it does manages to catalyze a shadowy, spectral veneer, and inject a few moments of trashy David Lynchian surrealism.

A page ripped straight from the manual on how to quash a perfectly good prospect. 4/10.

When I was a teenager, though I wasn't really big on sitcoms (if I watched TV, I primarily enjoyed crime/police/detective stories), I must admit I loved the occasional episode of 'Night Court', though by no means did I watch it enthusiastically or with any regularity. My favourite actor in it was Richard Moll, who had that unique presence of a Richard Kiel, yet was better both in charisma and comic timing.

A few months ago, I saw a crappy horror portmanteau from the 80's ('Night Train to Terror'), of which directors' Marshak, McGowan and Tallas' segment, 'The Case of Claire Hansen', was by far the most interesting and best realized (thanks to 'Hollie Horror' for the info!), yet in the panoramic jetsam of my mind, in watching 3+ films a day, I wondered why I was getting this strange sense of deja vu. It was neat to see the entire work. Moll's face and voice were very familiar, yet he had a full head of hair (he was bald in 'Night Court', for those who don't remember), and his name was listed as 'Charles Moll' in the credits, so I was a tad confused--perhaps it was a brother?--but it ended up being the same person.

The film itself plays upon the same chord as horrific greats from its preceding decade, such as 'The Exorcist', 'The Omen' and 'The Amityville Horror', in which the classic conflict of good vs. evil is fought, and demons from the underworld are its root cause. For a no-budget film, it has a decent sense of atmosphere and mood, interesting actors and cinematography, and a really outstanding climactic scene. The special effects are uneven: Sometimes they are decent, yet sometimes laughingly bad--probably due to having THREE directors involved--usually NOT a good omen for a film, if simply one story is being presented (too many cooks DO spoil the broth, at least cinematically). One exceedingly bad aspect was Faith Clift as the female protagonist, Claire Hansen. Though for her age she was beautiful, her monotone voice was dreadful.

I recommend the film wholeheartedly and with no reservations, if you like horror films and want a good time some evening for 94 minutes.

What can be said about THE NIGHTMARE NEVER ENDS? Well, it's NOT a quality film. Everything about it is bad: acting, dialogue, script, cast, cinematography, etc, are all way below average. It's a truly wretched film of cataclysmic proportions. For instance, take the dialogue: Cameron Mitchell says at one point, "I see swastikas swimming in my oatmeal!' which had me rolling on the floor. It's my new all time favorite line of dialogue. In another scene, a vigilante sorts named Papini wants the Nazi war criminal killed. He's been stalking a doctor (played by Faith Clift) and wants her to kill the criminal. One day, Papini storms in her office without her permission and asks her why she didn't kill him when she had the chance. So how does she answer? "I'm a doctor, I cannot kill." That's it. No anger or anything. It's priceless. Faith Clift is the worst actress of all time.

With that being said, the film is totally unforgettable, not just because it's so wonderfully bad but because there are some truly effective moments in it. Yes, even with its staggeringly inept quality there are several moments that elicit real horror or shock. More so than any horror film made these days. The state of horror films today is truly sad when a disaster like this is more effective than 90% of all horrors films made today.

The effective moments come out of nowhere: when someone takes his shoe off...didn't expect that! A nightmare inducing scene; the nightmare sequences are so bizarre and weirdly shot that they're oddly effective; the discotheque is...eh, weird. It makes me more uncomfortable than anything else in the film; the actor who plays the Nazi war criminal is just weird; and last but not least the ending which has to be seen to be believed. My jaw was on the floor.

Needless to say even with those effective moments the film is still crap. Well worth watching if you're a fan of obscure horror flicks or "so bad it's good" movies. Everyone else should abstain.