These Three (1936)

☆ ☆ ☆ ½

These Three (1936) – W. Wyler

(First) Hollywood version of Lillian Hellman’s play (The Children’s Hour) which focuses on accusations of lesbianism between teachers in a girls’ school but is here “sanitised” to heterosexual cheating (with hints of menage a trois, perhaps?).  The crux of the drama is about a girl’s lying accusations and the damage that they do to everyone involved, including the two teachers (Merle Oberon and Miriam Hopkins), their doctor friend (Joel McCrea), the girl herself (Bonita Granville), and her grandmother (Alma Kruger) who uses her social pressure to close the school.  There may be a moral in here – don’t believe kids? Or probably, don’t be quick to judge? But perhaps something has been lost when the stigma shifted from sexual orientation (still stigmatised today) to something a bit less relevant (although sure to have caused moral panic in the 1930s).  The drama itself takes its time to introduce and flesh out the characters before getting to the pivotal event.  McCrea is friendly and engaging, Oberon a bit distant, and Hopkins a bit negative but together they make a good trio and we are on their side all the way through.  The tacked on Hollywood ending (not sure if this is in the play) tries hard to undo the damage done and manages to sand off some of the film’s sharp (bitter) edges. 

Drug War (2012)

☆ ☆ ☆ ½

Drug War (2012) – J. To

Johnnie To achieved international stardom as a director (after a long varied career) with Election (2005) and Election 2 (2006), Hong Kong gangster films that followed in the wake of the success of Infernal Affairs and its sequel earlier in the decade (not to mention John Woo’s 1980s films).  Drug War follows in the same vein, giving equal attention to the cops and the criminals:  Honglei Sun as the wily police captain who excels at undercover stings vs. Louis Koo as the drug manufacturer forced to work for the cops to take down the kingpin.  The plot is tight with little fat, a great deal of suspense is built up by the various twists and turns, and it all culminates in a massive shoot-out outside a primary school. Of course, there is very little depth here but there are character quirks and eccentric choices enough to make this more than a routine actioner.    

The Endless (2017)

☆ ☆ ☆

The Endless (2017) – J. Benson & A. Moorhead

What have we here?  There’s an outsider/weird American folk horror/stoner vibe to the proceedings (set in rural southern California) that usually garner praise from these quarters  except for the fact that the acting by the leads (also the directors) is sub-par and also because the film dissolves into some sort of self-reflexive in-joke that goes nowhere.  But aside from that I really dug the weirdness:  two guys who were raised in a cult (but then escaped as young adults) return, because of a VHS tape and then nostalgia.  Of course, the prophecies of the cult (three moons etc.) start to come true – or maybe it’s the drugs everyone is doing? A lot of this is just cult members talking but there is a steady sense that something is going to happen (sex, horror, both?). Someone (Glenn Kenny?) mentioned Annihilation (2018) and there’s the same fried feeling here (and invisible god/monster?) and the same eventual total collapse of logic.  But I get the feeling that some viewers don’t quite care whether plots hold up (see the straight-to-video horror genre, for example) and, for them, any WTF is good WTF. I guess I prefer it when there’s actually a pay-off.  But yeah, this has the vibe.

  

The Last Man on Earth (1964)

☆ ☆ ☆ ½

The Last Man on Earth (1964) – U. Ragona & S. Salkow

Vincent Price stars as the last lonely man in a world that has quickly succumbed to an airborne virus that turns everyone else into a zombie-vampire. (Yes, helluva time to watch this one!).  This was a forerunner to Night of the Living Dead (1968) and shot in the same ultra-low-budget style (although there should be some fancy blu-ray copies available now, not like the dingy public domain version I watched. The screenplay is by Richard Matheson from his novella “I am Legend” (later remade as The Omega Man and also with Will Smith).  Despite (or perhaps because of) the cheapness of the proceedings, this is something of a masterwork of Existential Dread:  Price reflects on the drudgery of a meaningless life with all loved ones gone (seen only in a very sad flashback) and the same dire routine day-after-day (making wooden stakes to kill zombie-vampires is much like factory work, after all).  By day, he scours his city (apparently Rome!) looking for sleeping z-v’s but at night he is locked up in his house with the ghouls smashing at the doors and windows (but either too dumb to get in or warded off by garlic and mirrors).  Then one day, he meets another “survivor” and his hopes are raised (as an epidemiologist/virologist himself, he also has been working on a vaccine).  But this is not a film to raise your spirits – it’s horror American International Pictures style.       

The Horse’s Mouth (1958)

☆ ☆ ☆ ½

The Horse’s Mouth (1958) – R. Neame

Sir Alec Guinness is the drawcard here – and he offers up another eccentric performance, following on from the diverse range of characters he played in the Ealing Studio Comedies earlier in the ‘50s.  Unfortunately, The Horse’s Mouth isn’t quite as funny as those earlier films (Kind Hearts and Coronets, The Lavender Hill Mob, The Man in the White Suit, and The Ladykillers) but Guinness himself is impressive.  He plays Gully Jimson, an irrepressible artist scrounging his way through life by harassing rich patrons into keeping him afloat (on his houseboat). When a millionaire couple depart on holiday leaving Jimson their keys, he takes the opportunity to paint a huge mural (principally of bare feet) on their living room wall (destroying most of their flat in the process).  Guinness plays Jimson with a husky growl and a mischievous look in his eye, appearing 50 or 60, despite being only 44.  Although there is a plot arc of sorts, this is really a character study—everyone else stands back to let Guinness mug for the camera.  Amazing that this is the same man who portrayed sombre George Smiley in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (not to mention other famous and different roles). Truly a great actor.

The Medusa Touch (1978)

☆ ☆ ½

The Medusa Touch (1978) – J. Gold

After The Exorcist (1973) and The Omen (1976) were big hits, I guess there was a great temptation to jump on the bandwagon and make supernatural horror films.  I had never even heard of this one – and for good reason, it turns out.  Richard Burton stars (in flashback) as a man who believes that he can cause disasters just by willing them – at the start of the film, he is murdered but his will to live is too strong and he remains in a coma.  Inspector Brunel (Lino Ventura) is assigned to the case and slowly uncovers the facts, mostly by interviewing Burton’s psychologist (played by Lee Remick), who nevertheless seems to be hiding something.  It all feels rather clichéd and perhaps only one step above TV fare (for the time) but I did enjoy the scenes with Ventura (star of many Melville films) who is nevertheless burdened by a clunky script (best line has him hoping that he is actually insane himself).  Burton, in contrast, is mostly silent and pretty grim throughout.  Has he really willed an airplane to crash into a building (!!!) and will he soon cause Westminster Abbey to come crashing down, on the Queen even?  The finale drags far too much and the sting in the tail doesn’t really connect as well as it should (I didn’t get the sense of foreboding dread that I should have).  Watch at your own risk.

Heaven Can Wait (1978)

☆ ☆ ☆ ½

Heaven Can Wait (1978) – W. Beatty

While watching Heaven Can Wait, which surely I must have seen before (but with only faint memories this time), I felt it rather silly – but now a day later, it seems rather sweet (not funny, but sweet).  Beatty (who also directed) plays a gridiron quarterback who is accidentally taken before his time by his heavenly escort (Buck Henry who co-directed). As his body has been cremated, he needs to be relocated into another body – someone who has just passed away – and it turns out to be millionaire Leo Farnsworth who apparently was a stereotypic evil capitalist.  Beatty’s character, an airhead, tries to make the morally right choices, despite the dismay caused in his Board of Directors and personal assistant (Charles Grodin, who also attempts to murder him with Farnsworth’s wife, Dyan Cannon).  But more importantly, he contacts his old trainer, played by Jack Warden, and convinces him he is reincarnated in Farnsworth’s body – and that he wants to play in and win the Super Bowl.  Of course, everyone thinks he is nuts, except love interest Julie Christie.  This is a remake of Here Comes Mr. Jordan (1941) with Jordan played here by James Mason; the earlier film was a big hit (Claude Rains was a better Jordan, but Beatty’s football player is more charismatic than Robert Montgomery’s boxer).  I think Beatty (and Buck Henry) made the right decision to keep the film as clean as its predecessor (no profanity, nudity, or violence) and it leaves you with a pleasant aftertaste.