Crime Wave (1954)

☆ ☆ ☆ ½

Crime Wave (1954) – A. de Toth

Sterling Hayden is the tough homicide detective who won’t give ex-con Gene Nelson an even break when he suspects him of harbouring three escapees from San Quentin.  Poor Nelson has actually gone straight, but the thugs threaten his wife as a way of getting him to help, even to the point of driving getaway for a bank heist.  Hayden is never far behind and his staccato and monotone delivery rips into Nelson whenever he’s in reach. You kinda feel sorry for the guy.  The film is shot on location in L. A., often at night, with a mostly unknown cast (including a young Charles Bronson) and some noir lifers (hard Ted de Corsia, freaky Timothy Carey).  There’s an edge here, a rawness, possibly due to the low budget, that makes it feel as though violence could erupt at any moment – and it’s on the street in front of your house.

Shadow of the Thin Man (1941)

☆ ☆ ☆

Shadow of the Thin Man (1941) – W. S. Van Dyke

Two years later, Nick and Nora Charles are back in the third sequel to The Thin Man (1934), originally based on stories by Dashiell Hammett (but no longer).  Their son, Nick Jr., is about 4 or 5 years old but fortunately he is restricted to the first few minutes of the film.  I must say that Myrna Loy really is proving to be William Powell’s equal in her sly bumbling way (helping to solve the crimes) and her way with a “knowing look” is superb. This time they are charged with breaking a gambling syndicate after a jockey’s death.  Powell really does round up the suspects and have them in Detective Sam Levene’s office at the end of the picture for the final “reveal” – which I didn’t see coming.  But should I have?   For those who wish to indulge in the lighter side of comedy-mystery.

  

Lost Horizon (1937)

☆ ☆ ☆ ½

Lost Horizon (1937) – F. Capra

I have owned this on VHS for many years but watching it again now, it seems rather long and drawn out.  The story (from James Hilton) is a good one. The British foreign secretary (Ronald Colman), sick of war and conflict, is lost in the Himalayas when his plane is hijacked and goes down.  There he finds (or is found by) the Lamas of Shangri-La who live in a peaceful idyllic community protected on all sides by mountains.  Somehow there is no stress, no sickness, no strife – humans have everything they need.  Colman and some notable character actors (Thomas Mitchell, Edward Everett Horton) grow to realize that Shangri-La is better than the world outside.  But yet some of the plane crash survivors and even some residents of the valley wish to leave.  Colman helps them but then finds that he can’t face ordinary human society and (we learn in a third person rendering) he does everything he can to make the incredibly arduous journey back to the peaceable theocracy.  Director Frank Capra avoids the big issues and just lets the characters spout some platitudes.  Maybe the film’s heart is in the right place but last night it seemed just too fantastic.

Soylent Green (1973)

☆ ☆ ☆

Soylent Green (1973) – R. Fleischer

Soylent Green is … probably not based on a true story.  I say “probably” only because this dystopian version of 2022 has not yet come to pass – but it might (maybe in 2082).  Food and water are in short supply and the cities are jam packed.  The film is extremely dated and pretty hamfisted, saddled with Charlton Heston’s wooden acting and an obviously low budget.  Otherwise, it plays like any of a variety of conspiracy thrillers from the period (early 70s) in which a protagonist fights the system to understand their big secret.  The government is always involved.  This also marked Edward G. Robinson’s departure from films – he died 10 days after shooting finished.  Fortunately, he does not really embarrass himself.  Ultimately, this is a film that probably needs to be seen just to get the full impact of Heston’s guttural closing lines.  We really should try to save our environment too.

  

Gone Girl (2014)

☆ ☆ ☆ ½

Gone Girl (2014) – D. Fincher

David Fincher’s film left a bad taste in my mouth (I haven’t read the book nor paid attention to any of the controversy around it).  Ben Affleck may be responsible for the disappearance of his wife (Rosamund Pike).  He arrives home to find the door open, some furniture over-turned, and her gone.  Of course, Affleck becomes the number one suspect (because, really, he is that type of guy).  However, if we are encouraged to consider Affleck’s perspective, even in the face of possible domestic violence, are we also asked to blame the victim? Fincher seems to indulge in the same kind of shenanigans that Mamet once toyed with (in Oleanna; and perhaps Hitchcock too), getting us to identify with the probable or stereotypical guilty party. So, is it a misogynistic film, if it explores the victim’s deservingness even as it raises awareness about family violence?  There is no easy answer but still I say yes.  Aside from any potential value still remaining for film to tell us how bad the media’s three ring circus has become, the film serves only to reinforce some people’s negative beliefs about some women   But then again it is only a film and quite gripping for most of its tawdry length.

Another Thin Man (1939)

☆ ☆ ☆

Another Thin Man (1939) – W. S. Van Dyke

It is always a pleasure to be in the droll company of Nick and Nora Charles, played to comic perfection by William Powell and Myrna Loy.  Here, in the second sequel to the smash hit The Thin Man (1934), they are back to sleuthing even though they are new parents; Nick Jr. is in tow as they head out to Long Island to help munitions tycoon C. Aubrey Smith (the veteran character actor) who is being blackmailed and threatened with murder (and ultimately becomes the victim).  Although Nick is always on the look-out for a cocktail, he nevertheless pays attention to the clues as they slip by.  Much like many of the other mystery series of the time, there are a number of suspects, some of whom are clearly red herrings – and they all wind up in Nick and Nora’s hotel room at the end of the movie.  At this point, Nick tells us how he solved the mystery and the murderer is apprehended.  Apparently some of this came from an actual Dashiell Hammett story. Yet, even though the film became rather routine (and the joke about Nick being buddies with a bunch of ex-cons and hoods somewhat stale), Powell and Loy slyly make things feel fresh.  

  

Pandora and the Flying Dutchman (1951)

☆ ☆ ☆ ½

Pandora and the Flying Dutchman (1951) – A. Lewin

What sort of leading man is James Mason anyway?  Sophisticated, but vaguely sinister?  Here, as the legendary and immortal Flying Dutchman who sails a ghost ship and can only set forth on land every seven years to find a woman who would die for him, he is definitely an ambivalent figure.  Ava Gardner, as the romantically doomed woman in question, is similarly ambivalent – she is wilfully demanding and controlling of the various men falling at her feet but willing to give herself up in toto to Mason (despite being engaged to someone else).  Director Albert Lewin uses technicolor and an artist’s eye (and help from his friend, Man Ray) to decorate the screen – the Spanish seaside locales don’t hurt one bit.  Overall, this is a romantic fantasy full of grand gestures (including from an impetuous matador) but in which the central figures’ chemistry is strangely lacking.  So, when the foreordained happens and Mason and Gardner can finally achieve peace, it seems that the rest of the characters will just go on without really missing them one bit.

Basic Instinct (1992)

☆ ☆ ☆

Basic Instinct (1992) – P. Verhoeven

Okay, if you strip away (so to speak) the explicit over-the-top sexual content and the unnecessary characterization of lesbian or bisexual women as murderers, Basic Instinct might actually contain a solid noir-ish plot.  But then this wouldn’t be Paul Verhoeven’s sleazy movie or Joe Eszterhas’s sensationalistic script, I guess.  I skipped this one back in the day and I only watched it now because Jonathan Rosenbaum has it on his 1000 essential films list.  Perhaps he too has also reflected on the noir aspects of the story that might have been filmed in the ‘50s with Dana Andrews or Glenn Ford in the lead as a traumatized cop investigating a suspect who befriends murderers to understand their psychology in order to incorporate it into characters in her novels.  (Let’s set aside how badly psychology is misunderstood on screen – it’s a time honoured tradition).  Sure, the sexual tension would still be present (if not explicit, and perhaps more tense for that reason) and the cop and other characters (internal affairs cop, police department psychologist) could still have more or less the same relationships.  Michael Douglas isn’t right for the part – he seems too phony at times (even Mickey Rourke might have pulled it off better) -- but I’m happy just to reimagine the film as directed by Fritz Lang or Joseph H. Lewis and to forget about all the tawdry bits.

  

The Grandmaster (2013)

☆ ☆ ☆ ½

The Grandmaster (2013) -- K.-W. Wong

Wong Kar Wai’s movies typically emphasise style and mood over substance and The Grandmaster is no exception.  Although I usually steer away from kung fu movies featuring stunts on wires and digital manipulation of the image, this film, where each frame seems a fully composed painting of its own, made the artificiality somehow acceptable.  I can see how using modern techniques can also lend themselves to a beautiful work of art.  However, the story, which follows Ip Man (Tony Leung) who eventually became Bruce Lee’s master from the 1930s until the 1960s, is disjointed at best.  Equal time is granted to Zhang Ziyi playing Gong Er, his rival and possible love interest – but the tension surrounding their unfulfilled romance seems unnecessarily muted. True, I seem to have wound up with a heavily edited version of the film and this may be part of the problem – but even so, the narrative loses focus in favour of dreamy slow motion shots or dazzlingly stylish fight scenes.  It is easy to forget the significance of the actions at hand.  Nevertheless, it is clear that Wong is an absolute grandmaster himself at the technical wizardry required to create a film – if only he could also keep control of pacing and narrative at the same time.

Charlie’s Country (2013)

☆ ☆ ☆

Charlie’s Country (2013) – R. de Heer

David Gulpilil (Walkabout, The Last Wave) is charismatic as an elderly Aboriginal man in a remote community in the Northern Territory doing it pretty tough by modern standards.  You see, his culture has been pretty well eradicated by the incursion of white European culture, leaving him with few options but junk food, alcohol & drugs, and laws preventing him from hunting on his own.  When he decides to escape back to the bush to live by the old ways, he finds he is too old and sick to make a go of it.  After a stint in a hospital in Darwin, he joins up with a city-dwelling group of Indigenous people from another tribe and ends up in prison.  Only returning to his country and getting in touch with his traditions (dance, in particular) can bring Charlie peace.  Rolf de Heer’s film takes us to a place not often seen depicting situations as current as today’s headlines (Tony Abbott’s government is cruelly trying to close some remote indigenous communities).  However, it often feels didactic, scoring undoubtedly important points at the expense of a more naturalistic feel. Gulpilil (who co-wrote the script) is a star.

Captains Courageous (1937)

☆ ☆ ☆ ½

Captains Courageous (1937) – V. Fleming

Freddie Bartholomew is a spoiled little shit and the movie is insufferable for its first 30 or 40 minutes as we see his annoying antics at boarding school.  The point, of course, is to set up the fact that he has been neglected by his father and that he really needs a good whupping by life.  So, when he falls off a cruise ship and is rescued by a fishing boat out of Gloucester, Mass., he is in for some growing up.  Enter Spencer Tracy as a happy-go-lucky fisherman with a really bad faux-Portuguese accent.  Over the course of 3 months at sea, Tracy and Bartholomew form a bond (welcome the father figure-elect).  The scenes at sea (filmed in the studio “tank”) do create a realistic world of their own with no small thanks to Lionel Barrymore and John Carradine.  Naturally, things prove awkward (and almost cringeworthy) when the voyage ends and Bartholomew haltingly returns to his tycoon father (Melvyn Douglas). But maturity has set in and a happy ending (of sorts) can’t be too far off. Ultimately, Kipling’s story could have been made into a successful ripping yarn for boys, but this version makes too many missteps in its retelling (for me) to fully deserve its classic status.

The Big Steal (1949)

☆ ☆ ☆

The Big Steal (1949) – D. Siegel

After their success with Out of the Past (1947), screenwriter Daniel Mainwaring and stars Robert Mitchum and Jane Greer are back in this light-hearted chase film with Don Siegel at the helm.  Noir by association only (given its crime theme and the presence of other Noir stars like William Bendix), the action takes place in Mexico, where Patric Knowles has apparently absconded with the military payroll (in Mitchum’s possession) and $2000 of Greer’s money (a romance swindle).  Bendix is Mitchum’s superior officer who thinks Mitchum stole the money himself;  Mitchum is chasing Knowles across Mexico to get it back with Bendix hot on his heels.  Greer is along for the ride.  There are a few twists but nothing gets as dark as you would see in a traditional noir – all told, it’s good for a bit of fun but doesn’t hit any deeper notes.

  

Death by Hanging (1968)

☆ ☆ ☆ ½

Death by Hanging (1968) – N. Oshima

Oshima’s searing attack on the death penalty begins in stark documentary style, showing us the prison facilities involved in “death by hanging” and the steps taken in an individual execution.  This feels almost like a horror movie, especially when the hanging is unsuccessful and the prisoner lives.  Then, gradually Oshima reveals that his movie is really a dark farce, as the prison officials and chaplain begin to argue about how to proceed.  Should they hang the prisoner a second time or is that prohibited?  They decide that this is only possible if his mental faculties return and he can again appreciate his own guilt.  To make sure this happens, they act out his crimes (rape and murder of two teenage girls).  The film is now even more horrifying.  Gradually, Oshima begins to offer Brechtian/Godardian didactic statements in inter-titles and from a number of different characters.  The focus might have been on the death penalty but soon we are further afield, with a particular emphasis on the prejudice directed toward Korean-Japanese (the prisoner is one) by the Japanese majority. Further still, we are treated to imaginary fantasies (of collective guilt) and characters who appear and disappear from view in the execution chamber.  And then, unfortunately, the viewer gets quite lost.  However, for much of its length this is a potent and powerful and very dark critique of an unjust and barbaric punishment that still exists even to this day (and should not).  

Buffet Froid (1979)

☆ ☆ ☆

Buffet Froid (1979) – B. Blier

There must be other touchstones besides “Waiting for Godot” but none are coming to mind just now.  Blier’s film is as abstract, surreal, and nonsensical as Beckett’s play but it exists more decidedly in the real world of crime and cops, relationship disintegration and loss, towering apartment buildings and empty subway stops.  A young Gerard Depardieu stumbles from one set-up to the next – is he potentially a murderer himself? Even he doesn’t know.  Blier’s father is genial as the police inspector who seems more interested in being left alone and drinking wine than investigating crime and Jean Carmet is pathetic as a weak-willed killer of women. These latter two form a ridiculous trio of sorts with Depardieu.  The plot frenetically (but absurdly) bounces from one setting and new acquaintance/lover/foe to the next, ending finally in a beautiful natural locale with beautiful Carole Bouquet putting everyone out of their misery.  Doesn’t overstay its welcome but might require some tolerance – that is, you could be alienated by this riff on alienation.

  

Horror of Dracula (1958)

☆ ☆ ☆ ½

Horror of Dracula (1958) – T. Fisher

Hammer studios really knew how to stage a good gothic horror and nowhere better than here in their first Dracula effort.  Taking huge liberties with Bram Stoker’s novel, the team refocuses Jonathan Harker as a potential vampire killer himself, in league with Dr. Van Helsing (Peter Cushing), who unfortunately is no match for the Count (Christopher Lee, getting himself typecast with few lines but amazing presence with bloodshot seductive eyes and a bedside manner that seems more than appreciated by the ladies).  Laying the groundwork for their many adaptations to come, Hammer chooses their setpieces wisely:  an amazing castle, spooky cemetery, the woods at night, all fitting perfectly into the horse and carriage days of the 1880’s.  A notch above Browning’s (Lugosi) version but no match for Murnau (Schreck) or Herzog (Kinski).

Invincible (2001)

☆ ☆ ☆

Invincible (2001) – W. Herzog

Somehow I missed this fiction film from Werner Herzog (along with Scream of Stone, it seems), even as I caught up on many of his documentaries from the same period.  Of course, my expectations were high, but this turned out to be more conventional than much of Herzog’s output.  But I wanted to think otherwise. Indeed, at the start, in a small1930’s Polish village, you could almost feel that you are in the same fictional space in which Herzog set The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser (1974) -- and nonprofessional actor (and full-time strongman) Jouko Ahola is not unlike a gentler less pessimistic Bruno S.  If he was trying to cash in by going mainstream, Herzog didn’t try very hard. Tim Roth and Udo Kier (known for weirdness) may be the only recognizable actors amongst a cast of amateurs and people with real skills (playing the piano or lifting heavy weights).  But even as Herzog tackles very weighty issues (ahem), such as the rise of the Nazi’s and the plight of the Jews, he seems to have misplaced his ability to raise his material to another level.  True, he throws in undulating jellyfish and hordes of red crabs (the latter in a dream sequence), but these overt touches only tend to demonstrate what is lacking from the film as a whole.  Nevertheless, from any other director, this would be a solid (if longish) retelling of the true story of the New Samson, a Jew who dazzled Berlin as the strongest man in the world and warned of the terrible Holocaust to come.  Of course, Herzog’s version might not entirely match up with the facts, but I’m okay with that. 

  

Le Amiche (1955)

☆ ☆ ☆ ½

Le Amiche (1955) – M. Antonioni

Antonioni’s 1950’s films adhere more consistently to narrative conventions than his films of the 60’s; however, Le Amiche’s plot still tends to wander.  We are led to identify with Clelia, who is visiting Turin from Rome in order to set up a dressmaker’s salon.  In Turin, she falls in with a group of women after discovering a failed suicide in an adjacent hotel room.  Antonioni then demonstrates, through a variety of social situations, just how bitchy and alienating this social circle is to those within it.  Even the woman who attempted suicide readily betrays one of her friends by having an affair with her husband (later to appear as Sandro in L’Avventura, a film that builds on and extends the themes here). But the husband is too self-concerned to be able to see how his actions will affect either of the women (wife and friend) with whom he becomes involved.  Antonioni’s attention to the various characters fluctuates but none gain too much depth, apart from Clelia who seems sympathetic but ultimately ambivalent toward these new “friends” in Turin.  As he would continue to do throughout his career, Antonioni depicts the idle rich as pursuing lives of meaninglessness and cruelty; as a film, Le Amiche represents one more step on the road toward the exciting levels of abstraction he would achieve later on to convey this theme.

The King of Kong (2007)

☆ ☆ ☆

The King of Kong (2007) – S. Gordon

It must be fun, although painstaking, to make documentaries.  The film would almost have to come together in the editing room, from hundreds of hours of footage.  But there’s so much crap out there and seemingly more docos than fiction films on Netflix, so it can’t be easy to do it right or to make a buck. You have to have the right idea.  Seth Gordon started out to make a film about competitive videogaming on classic games (donkey kong, centipede, defender, etc.) but stumbled into a rivalry between world champion mullethead Billy Mitchell and suburban Seattle dad Steve Wiebe to have their name in the Guinness Book as Donkey Kong master.  Each contender is dutifully given some backstory and characterized (as almost good vs. evil) and the film builds tension along the way to their showdown.  It is highly amusing – but is it real? Apparently, some lines were crossed to tell a good story.  This may be what Werner Herzog does but his attempts to get at the real reality seem less concerned with narrative structure and emotional manipulation and more interested in capturing perfect zen moments that create strange thoughts in your brain.  As it should be.

  

Five: Dedicated to Ozu (2003)

☆ ☆ ☆ ½

Five: Dedicated to Ozu (2003) – A. Kiarostami

As a break from his narrative films, Kiarostami shot this distinctly non-narrative experimental feature composed entirely of five long shots (ranging in length from about 8 minutes up to about 30 minutes).  The only links to Yasujiro Ozu’s films would be to the still life shots that Ozu often interspersed between scenes and to the fact that Ozu’s camera often seemed to rest statically on a tripod creating a frame in which people could move in and out, inviting us to look at the composition within the frame.  Here we see scenes that would be unlikely in any Ozu film: 1)  a medium shot of waves with driftwood; 2) the same waves in the background behind a boardwalk with people passing by (all of whom must feature in the opening credits – an example of Kiarostami’s sense of humor, I think); 3) a long shot of the waves and creatures in the distance which are too indistinct to make out until you suddenly realize what they are when one moves – this shot eventually bleaches out; 4) a close up shot of the beach and lots of ducks passing back and forth; and 5) a very very dark shot of the surface of a pond at night, then rain, then sunrise.  Especially in this last scene (and also with regard to the ducks’ pitter patter footsteps), the soundtrack is meticulously crafted (possibly with foley assistance) to enrich the experience.  Indeed, the whole film may be more than what it seems:  as in all of Kiarostami’s oeuvre, there is a high level of intelligence at work here, guiding us to new and different experiences that ask us to question what we are seeing and why (that is, the director’s intentions).  And, in the end, this was pretty soothing stuff!

Predestination (2014)

☆ ☆ ☆

Predestination (2014) – M. Sperig & P. Sperig

From a short story by Robert A. Heinlein about time travel comes this too-clever-for-its-own-good Australian film starring Ethan Hawke and Sarah Snook.  The premise involves the hoary old chestnut of returning to the past in order to change the future, for example, in order to prevent a great tragedy. Along for the ride comes the idea that you could, of course, meet yourself and change your own future.  The Sperig brothers have created a slick good-looking film, set in the US to appeal to that market (with Hawke as the big name), but the story folds in upon itself just a bit too much to remain logical and, even so, it is too easy to see the big twist coming.  That said, it doesn’t really overstay its welcome at only 97 minutes, so it might be worth your “time”.

  

Hell Drivers (1957)

☆ ☆ ☆ ½

Hell Drivers (1957) – C. Endfield

Sullen Stanley Baker arrives at the gate of a trucking company looking for work.  He’s willing to take the job, despite the clear pressure to break road rules to deliver as many loads as possible each day.  Rough tough and possibly insane Patrick McGoohan is the pacesetter (18 loads per day) and foreman who won’t stand any competition – and will sabotage another driver to keep his status.  Herbert Lom is gentle “Gino” the Italian immigrant who befriends Baker and Peggy Cummins is their love interest.  Cy Endfield directs with panache and this is a truly taut tense tough and gripping affair.  Who knew delivering rocks could be this exciting?  (Maybe Clouzot did – but he had nitroglycerine as the load in The Wages of Fear).  Great cast of British character actors and stars-to-be (including young S. Connery).

Gigi (1958)

☆ ☆ ☆

Gigi (1958) – V. Minnelli

The problem with this film (and perhaps with life generally) is that there is rather too much Louis Jourdan and not enough Maurice Chevalier.  That said, the Chevalier here, charming though he may be, is really only one step away from dirty old man (and also tainted by his real-life involvement with the Vichy government).  I prefer the young Chevalier energetically enacting French stereotypes in Love Me Tonight (1932).  But to return to the film at hand, as I said, there is too much Louis Jourdan and the picture becomes a bit dreary as we wait for him to realize that he is in love with young Leslie Caron. He is much better in Letter from an Unknown Woman (1948).  Caron herself is delightful as a rambunctious young girl being groomed to be a courtesan/prostitute – but playing younger than her age (27 playing, what, 16?) exaggerates her age difference with Jourdan which is kind of icky.  The songs by Lerner & Loewe vary in quality – only “Thank Heaven for Little Girls” was familiar to me.  However, Vincente Minnelli and his art department do work their magic to recreate Paris at the turn of the (last) century and overall the film is diverting enough to have won a bunch of Oscars. 

  

Christmas in July (1940)

☆ ☆ ☆ ½

Christmas in July (1940) – P. Sturges

Compact early Preston Sturges effort that actually has nothing wrong with it – it just isn’t a masterpiece like the comedies he would make in the next few years.  Dick Powell (post-musicals, pre-noir) is an earnest but poor guy hoping to win a slogan contest run by a big coffee company offering $25K as a price (with inflation that’s $400K to you and me).  When the guys in his office send him a prank telegram telling him he’s won, things spiral out of control from there (in true Sturges fashion).  Good support from Ellen Drew as his gal, Raymond Walburn as the coffee company boss, and, of course, Sturges regular William Demarest in a bit part.  At just over an hour, you can’t lose. 

The Infinite Man (2014)

☆ ☆ ☆

The Infinite Man (2014) – H. Sullivan

South Australian feature that has a clever premise – a man invents a way to travel back in time to “fix” an anniversary date that goes wrong.  The twist here is that when he travels back in time, there are then two of him in the past.  Since he does this numerous times and also brings his girlfriend and her ex back with him, things get rather complicated.  Ultimately, it’s cute and gently amusing when it had the potential to be something more.  So, it plays itself out in 85 minutes and that’s enough.  South Australia looks strikingly desolated (and that fits this three-hander). 

  

Pretty Poison (1968)

☆ ☆ ½

Pretty Poison (1968) – N. Black

This film seems to exist only as a reaction to other films.  Hitchcock’s Psycho is most prominent as Tony Perkins’s young arsonist could easily be a reimagined Norman Bates released from an institution and a little shaky on the outside.  Meeting young Tuesday Weld allows him to engage fantasies of being a CIA agent and fighting industrial pollution (!!!) but she turns out to be even more sociopathic than him.  Thus we also receive echoes of the previous year’s Bonnie and Clyde.  However, the tone of Pretty Poison is strange – the music cues soft and sentimental feelings even as the young pair get deeper into trouble (including murder).  So, the film can’t quite decide if it feels sorry for an increasingly anxious Perkins or wants to take the sex and violence exploitation route with Weld.  Unfortunately, it winds up somewhere in between and loses some momentum as a result.

The Ghost and Mrs. Muir (1947)

☆ ☆ ☆ ½

The Ghost and Mrs. Muir (1947) – J. L. Mankiewicz

Gene Tierney is romanced by the undead (Rex Harrison as a crusty sea captain) in this lush fantasy picture (lots of scenes of rolling crashing waves).  But whose fantasy is it?  Is it a woman’s picture? Would women of the ‘40s like to be loved and protected by a gruff but colourful old barnacle bill?  Or is this a man’s fantasy in which even after death Rex gets to perv at lovely Gene Tierney (while invisible)?  Of course, there is pleasure for all in the gentle tension of the screenplay that leaves both characters available to be together at death.  Only despicable George Sanders is a possible threat to their romantic eternity and he is quickly dispatched.  Later, they made a TV show using this concept but the sweep of the movie’s arc was dismantled.

Mad Love (1935)

☆ ☆ ☆

Mad Love (1935) – K. Freund

Perhaps more appropriately titled, “The Hands of Orlac”, after the French source material, this horror film involves a hand transplant (from knife throwing murderer to concert pianist) where the hands have a will of their own.  Peter Lorre, in his first American film, is disturbing as the icky sleazy warped doctor who is infatuated with the actress married to the concert pianist.  There are some good creepy moments where Lorre seems to drool over torture scenes in a play starring the actress – what is his infatuation with her?  Is it some kind of degraded sexual fetish? Lorre makes you think so.  The rest of the film (and even Karl Freund’s heralded direction) can’t keep up with Lorre’s standards.

  

Hot Tub Time Machine (2010)

☆ ☆ ½

Hot Tub Time Machine (2010) – S. Pink

That wasn’t exactly my 1980s (Poison, Motley Crue) but there is enough cheesy stuff from the decade on display here (when John Cusack et al. accidentally travel back in time in their hot tub) to make me wonder how we lived through it.  Naturally, Cusack and his friends aren’t allowed to change anything in the past to avoid affecting the future but they want to and this is basically the engine that drives the plot.  I think that would be enough to create a funny movie but, no, the creative powers behind this one had to layer on the usual unfunny crassness to try to create laughs where laughs aren’t.  Rob Coddry is particularly grating.  (There may also be an odd conservative political undertone). But some of this still works, even if there are tiresome bits to sit through.  I’ll admit that I’m rarely on the same wavelength with Hollywood comedies, but hey there’s Crispin Glover and Chevy Chase and that funny feeling of weird nostalgia now that we’re old(er).

La Collectionneuse (1967)

☆ ☆ ☆ ½

La Collectionneuse (1967) – E. Rohmer

There is something refreshing about a Rohmer picture, at least the ones I have seen. This is the third of his “Moral Tales” from the late ‘60s/early’70s that I’ve watched, along with My Night at Maud’s and Claire’s Knee.  As others have written, this earlier film shows Rohmer finding his way.  The characters engage in leisurely action and somewhat unproductive self-reflection.  They also ponder about sex and relationships and about why or why not they are having them.  In this case, our idle protagonist in his late 20s, Adrien (Patrick Bauchau), offers occasional narration about why he becomes absorbed with Haydée, a younger girl sharing an absent friend’s ocean-side villa with him (and another more nihilistic nonconformist, Daniel). They dub her the Collectionneuse, since she seems to be sleeping with different boys each night – but she says she is just searching.  Adrien himself seems rather lost, since he has a girlfriend away in London, so he shouldn’t really be playing (mental) games with Haydée – and perhaps he is wrong about her anyway.  So, the film is refreshing if you are surprised to see the talk talk talk (and corresponding sexual tension) of aimless young people in a beautifully shot European locale.

Privilege (1967)

☆ ☆ ☆

Privilege (1967) – P. Watkins

Peter Watkins melds his faux documentary style (featured in The War Game, 1965, which shows Britain after a nuclear attack) with a more traditional narrative approach in this “near future” look at manipulation of the masses. Presciently, it is a pop star who is used, first, to encourage youth to release their violent impulses through music appreciation rather than protest, and secondly, to get them to embrace nationalism and religion – that is, a group of business leaders see the pop star as a way to set up a fascist government (coalition of tory and labor parties, as a matter of fact).  Only artist Jean Shrimpton sees through everything and convinces the wan Paul Jones (from Manfred Mann) to rebel against his minders.  A lot of good provocative ideas here but things drag a bit. I wondered too whether such centralized manipulation is even possible in this new age of social media and a thousand independent voices (but, yeah, they could just shut down the internet and be done with it, I guess).

The East (2013)

☆ ☆ ½

The East (2013) – Z. Batmanglij

Brit Marling (who also co-wrote the film) stars as an agent for a private intelligence firm that sends her undercover to infiltrate an anarchist group (“the East”) that is attacking corporations that have poisoned and polluted the environment.  Of course, she begins to feel a part of this group of warm and lovable rebels who really want the right things (but who are using the wrong methods).  Things unfold pretty gradually but with a slick thriller framework that means that deeper character development and the more serious implications of the issues at hand are foregone in lieu of pulse-quickening music and tense action scenes and some romance for good measure.  But even in the film’s quieter moments, you get the feeling that you’ve been here before (even if the surface details – a private spy agency? -- are rather new).  Nevertheless, a strong female lead in a thriller is always welcome; it’s just too bad that the script can’t quite rise above its schematic set up.  Perhaps too it is deeply ambivalent about whether evil corporations should be fought by any means necessary or not. The moral complexity of these issues deserves a more contemplative treatment than the Hollywood thriller format can offer.

Louisiana Story (1948)

☆ ☆ ☆ ½

Louisiana Story (1948) – R. Flaherty

Late film from Robert (“Nanook of the North”) Flaherty who is well known for “staging” his documentaries, thereby capturing the ecstatic truth rather than the accountant’s truth (as Werner Herzog might have it).  Here, Flaherty makes no bones about casting his nonprofessional (and therefore “real”) actors in a loose “fictional” story about a young Cajun boy who observes oil-drilling wildcatters in the bayou.  The plot’s suspense lies in the failure of the well to produce for most of the film, until the boy superstitiously throws salt and spits in the well to bring luck.  A subplot involves his pet raccoon that may or may not have gotten himself eaten by a giant alligator.  The story, simplified to sub-Disney levels and with very little dialogue, is not the point here.  Instead, viewers are advised just to gawk at the amazing images of the bayou and the oil rig (shot by Richard Leacock) and to see how the principles of montage are used in action (e.g., shot of boy looking; shot of alligator swimming; shot of boy’s alarmed reaction).  Even the chase sequences (alligator vs. raccoon and boy vs. alligator vs. father) use cross-cutting as D. W. Griffith would have, in order to keep things moving and to keep us interested.  Overall, something seems missing, however – maybe the real Louisiana?  Selected for the National Film Registry in the Library of Congress.

Autumn Has Already Started (1960)

☆ ☆ ☆

Autumn Has Already Started (1960) – M. Naruse

Mikio Naruse turns his depressive’s eye toward kids, showing how they must cope when buffeted by events beyond their control.  12-year old Hideo and his mother move to Tokyo from rural Nagano prefecture when his father dies of TB.  She leaves him with her brother’s family and begins work at a nearby inn.  Hideo gets teased by other boys but meets a young girl, Junko, a couple of years younger who befriends him.  It turns out that her mother is his mother’s employer.  This might be fine but Hideo’s mother suddenly disappears, apparently running off with a customer from the ryokan.  As it turns out, Junko’s father is only vaguely in the picture, he’s a married businessman from another city and only visits occasionally.  When he shows up with his other older kids, there is tension.  Neither Hideo nor Junko fully comprehend their circumstances but they have their friendship.  When Junko suddenly moves away, Hideo is alone again – and the film ends.  Sad, but rings true.  

  

Caged Heat (1974)

☆ ☆ ½

Caged Heat (1974) – J. Demme

Jonathan Demme’s directorial debut is an exploitation film, no doubt about it.  But it holds up pretty well and is a bit more engaging than most similar fare – not that I’ve seen too much.  As far as Women in Prison films go, Caged (1950) with Eleanor Parker has got to be the pinnacle – but that was more of a serious problem pic than a go-for-broke B-picture.  What more can be said? The trials and travails of a bunch of ladies in the slammer, with loads of gratuitous nudity, some violence (and fake blood), a couple of lobotomies and some shock treatment, a few gals in solitary, a breakout, a repressed and sadistic warden (Barbara Steele!), and some truly 1970’s low budget cars, clothes, and hairstyles.  Apparently John Cale wrote the soundtrack (!).  Amiable and fun, not sordid and lurid.

Party Girl (1958)

☆ ☆ ☆ ½

Party Girl (1958) – N. Ray

With Cyd Charisse in the lead, of course there must be dancing in the plot – even in a gangster flick (1950s gazing back at 1930s here).  So, she’s a showgirl and she falls for Robert Taylor’s mob lawyer (the kind of mob lawyer who is ashamed of what he does…or she makes him feel that way).  Critic Jonathan Rosenbaum suggests that this film fits in with director Nicholas Ray’s penchant for featuring flawed people learning to cope with life (and often coming together in the effort) although perhaps the widescreen technicolor presentation and Lee J. Cobb’s usual scenery-chewing distracted me from the smaller story.   Taylor is a fine actor but Charisse seems, um, less so … except in those dance sequences where suddenly her character seems to embody all of the intensity that is otherwise lost on the screen.  If only there were more of these sequences, the film might have become something stranger and more compelling.  As it stands, it’s enjoyable but doesn’t levitate you.

Tales of Terror (1962)

☆ ☆ ☆

Tales of Terror (1962) – R. Corman

Roger Corman directed this trilogy of Poe tales for American International Pictures following the success of The Pit and the Pendulum (also starring Vincent Price).  Other better Poe adaptations with Price were to follow but this triptych does have some charm.  Price is suitably haunted by the death of his wife, Morella, and the return of his long lost daughter in the first tale.  In the second, Peter Lorre takes center stage as a drunken reprobate who comically matches wits with Price’s expert wine-taster leading to a twist on The Cask of Amontillado.  Finally, Basil Rathbone appears as a mesmerist who offers the dying Price freedom from pain in exchange for the chance to hypnotize him at the moment of death (with hypnotic control extending beyond the grave).  Creepy fun for 90 minutes scripted by horror maestro Richard Matheson.