Archive 505

Quick Reviews

Cry Havoc - 1943 - Nurses and various refugees gather at a military support camp in the Philippines during the Japanese conquest of the South Pacific during World War II. While the American lines begin to crumble the ladies have to figure out what they're going to do and what has happened to the men they care about. Margaret Sullavan, Joan Blondell and Ann Sothern bicker and fight with each other but the ladies (and there's quite a few more than just these three) pool together their resources and emotional strengths as their situation looks increasingly doomed. Not as dark as the earlier nurse war drama So Proudly We Hail which came out three months earlier, but the two films share a common core story that enduring defeat is better than not being able to endure it. Cry Havoc looks to be unique in that men are rarely seen in the film at all unless they are about to die, and otherwise living males are made known only by off screen voices or through communications equipment, making Cry Havoc an "all girl show."

The More the Merrier - 1943 - Jean Arthur has space to rent at her apartment in wartime Washington DC (she feels it's her patriotic duty) where immense overcrowding is taking place, with lines of potential renters showing up wherever a vacancy sign appears. Charles Coburn has to outfox Arthur in order to get her extra space since she is only willing to rent to a woman. Once Coburn has accomplished getting the spare room, out of sympathy for a homeless aeronautical engineer (Joel McCrea) who is sleeping in the park, he then sub-rents his small space to him. The comedy of the tale works in several directions at once, with Coburn playing faery godfather to the incubating romance between his two unwilling cotenants, the dilemma of three adults trying to live together in a small space, and the general trouble of wartime Washington DC, crowded with people and sudden changes due to the federal government management of the war effort. The More the Merrier is in the vein of screwball comedies of the 1930s (and because of the cast is related somewhat to the earlier Jean Arthur film The Devil and Mrs. Jones) but with a sense of reality seeping in around the edges because of the war. Arthur and Coburn are a well-oiled comedy team, and the slightly sarcastic McCrea fits right in as the third wheel.

Venom - 2018 - A superhero movie without superheroes, only super villains, and paranoia. Tom Hardy plays a malfunctioning investigative reporter (named Eddie Brock) who learns of a rather serious breach of medical ethics at Life Foundation, a San Francisco "research facility" that actually functions as a large toy laboratory for amoral super genius Carlton Drake (Riz Ahmed). When alien life forms of throbbing, wiggling goo called "symbiotes' which are being studied at Drake's lab attach to a human volunteer, the two separate beings go through a synthesis, becoming a combo human being/alien (think demon possession but by other means, or Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde) and then mayhem ensues. Venom is heavily doctored in the now-traditional mode of CGI superhero films, and the design work and effects are well done, but the script is a menu of sci-fi and comic book cliches. Tom Hardy does a stumbling, mumbling portrait of a man not quite in charge of himself who is benefitted greatly by having an often funny, and surprisingly ethical, alien whispering into his brain, and on occasion, taking over his body, turning it into an enormous muscular, long-toothed, black-suited anti-hero. Though Venom is modeled on other Marvel hero movies, this film was made by Columbia Pictures only in association with Marvel. The difference for us is that Columbia greenlit a script far crazier than the pseudo-rational, nailed down tics of Disney's Marveldom. What Venom lacks in internal consistency and plot invention it somewhat compensates for with unexpected and absurd turns that makes it a movie Marvel/Disney could never have made, despite (mostly) looking like a Marvel film.

Stagecoach - 1939

Stagecoach - Released March 2, 1939. Directed by John Ford

Claire Trevor as Dallas in John Ford's genre-changing Stagecoach

Lon Chaney Jr., Ghost of Frankenstein

Ghost of Frankenstein - released March 13, 1942. Directed by Erle C. Kenton

Revived again (with Lon Chaney Jr. doing the honors) and again taken under Ygor's wing (Bela Lugosi returns as the hunchbacked lab assistant), the two set out for a better environment when it is clear the local villagers don't want them around. They travel to Frankenstein's other son's (Ludwig Frankenstein) home town and set up shop. When it becomes clear a new brain is going to be needed, Ygor is first in line to volunteer, with an obvious relish, envisioning a future in which his brain could direct the actions of a gigantic, powerful body. This, of course, was not in the best interests of anybody (not even Ygor, as things were to turn out) but Ygor's scheming pays off and soon he gets his wish, though it comes with a price, and that is explored in the next Frankenstein sequel, Frankenstein Meets the Wolfman (1943).

The Ghost of Frankenstein / Son of Frankenstein - Double Feature - Amazon DVD

The Creature Walks Among Us - 1956

The Creature is back for the third and final time as (again) a captured specimen used by wrong-headed scientists wishing to manipulate nature. With Jeff Morrow, Leigh Snowden and Rex Reason. More The Creature Walks Among Us.

Quick Reviews:

The Male Animal - 1942 - Henry Fonda is a professor at Midwestern University in Michigan, and he and his wife (played by Olivia de Havilland) run into unexpected problems in both their marriage and his career when a former college football hero (Jack Carson) comes back to town for the "big homecoming game." Based on a stage play, the movie starts off very wordy, with de Havilland and Hattie McDaniel trading a lot of dialogue, but before the movie bogs down completely in wordplay, Jack Carson appears (he's the ex-football champ) and the tale picks up speed as we learn he's also the wife's ex-boyfriend. Now mild-mannered Henry Fonda has to confront something that can't be solved by analyzing a book, and he's coming up short. Eugene Pallette is the head of the university trustees who puts immense pressure on Fonda's professor to not read a controversial piece in his English class, and now Fonda is facing not only the dissolution of his marriage (mostly coming about through his poor reading of his wife's mood and his own propensity to reacting only intellectually to life) but also the professor has to either abandon his plan to read the piece (and his personal integrity) or he will possibly blow up his whole academic career. Jack Carson's input saves this movie from melodrama and helps Fonda and de Havilland pull out their comic chops for several series of funny sequences. Pallette and Carson as football-mad adults adds to the screwball nature of the tale.

The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer - 1947 - Cary Grant and Myrna Loy with Shirley Temple.

More The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer

New Invasion of the Body Snatchers disc

New bluray disc - More info on the Shoppping Page

New Capra disc coming

Olive Films has a new documentary disc Mr. Capra Goes to War coming November 6. On the disc are Capra's World War II documentariues Tunisian Victory, Prelude to War, The Battle of Russia, The Negro Soldier, Your Job in Germany. The disc also features ace Capra biographer Joseph McBride who discusses the film series in a feature piece and then also contributes introductions to each individual film. 310 minutes.

I didn't see any indication in the descriptions if restoration work was on done on the films. Ragged versions of the Why We Fight series has been showing up since the very beginning of the home video revolution: I bought cheap VHS versions from the Wal-Mart bins around 1988. Equally cheap versions in inexpensive DVD sets (like the Victory at Sea series, Why We Fight seems to either be easy to license or easy to rip off).

AMAZON: Mr. Capra Goes To War: Frank Capras World War II [Blu-ray]

Link to Olive Films

Joseph McBride's Capra bio Frank Capra: The Catastrophe of Success [AMAZON]

The Adventures of Hajji Baba - 1954

Twilight Time has released a HD Bluray disk of the film starring John Derek and Elaine Stewart

New Criterion titles

Some of the coming new Criterion Collection Blurays:

NOVEMBER 2018:

The Magnificent Ambersons - 1942 - Orson Welles famous dark film about American nostalgia in which RKO slashed out forty minutes and reshot the ending. AMAZON: The Magnificent Ambersons (The Criterion Collection) [Blu-ray]

DECEMBER 2018:

Forty Guns - 1957 - Sam Fuller directs Barbara Stanwyck as a cowgirl boss over forty hired gunman. AMAZON: Forty Guns (The Criterion Collection)

Panique - 1946 - Michel Simon stars as an eccentric Parisian who is wrongly fingered as a murderer. Directed by Julien Duvivier. AMAZON: Panique (The Criterion Collection)

JANUARY 2019:

In the Heat of the Night - 1967 - Sidney Poitier and Rod Stieger. Southern racism troubles a lonely sheriff trying to sort out a murder while accompanied by a vacationing African-American detective who shocks the local white and black populace. AMAZON: In the Heat of the Night (The Criterion Collection) [Blu-ray]

Notorious - 1946 - Hitchcock directs Cary Grant and Ingrid Bergman. She's a jaded society girl who becomes a spy, and he's her contact who is conflictedabout her with combinations of disgust, admiration and love. AMAZON: Notorious (The Criterion Collection) [Blu-ray]

Review: Beauty and the Beast - 1946

Jean Cocteau's (french) tale of the beautiful Belle who conquers the heart of a wrathful beast who rules a faery tale castle where she is imprisoned. Dreamlike imagery and optical effects benefit this phantasy film which is much more than the cartoon imitations that have followed in it's wake.

More Beauty and the Beast 1946

Re-released book on Kay Francis

McFarland Books has reprinted the 2008 The Complete Kay Francis Career Record - All Film, Stage, Radio and Television Appearances

Amazon page for Kindle, Hardback and paperback versions The Complete Kay Francis Career Record: All Film, Stage, Radio and Television Appearances

McFarland web site page. From the description:

"... the definitive guide to the film, stage, radio and television career of Kay Francis, one of the most glamorous stars from the golden age of Hollywood. For each film, the authors provide a thorough synopsis plus cast and crew information (including biographies), opening dates, production notes, behind-the-scenes details, and reviews. In addition, information is provided on her stage, radio, and television appearances, and a section is devoted to collecting Kay Francis memorabilia, including such items as cigarette cards, sheet music and soundtracks. Also covered is the stage and vaudeville career of Kay Francis’ mother, Katherine Clinton. A brief biography of Kay Francis is provided, along with an insightful foreword by film scholar James Robert Parish. Truly a treasure trove for Kay Francis fans and anyone interested in classic filmmaking in the 1930s and 1940s, the book includes more than 130 illustrations, many of them rare."

Review: The Falcon in Hollywood - 1944

Veda Ann Borg and Tom Conway investigate murder on a Hollywood movie set - More The Falcon in Hollywood, 1944.

Quick Reviews:

Pot O' Gold - 1941 - Stars Jimmy Stewart and Paulette Goddard. This comedy/romance movie looks and sounds like imitation Frank Capra (particularly his version of You Can't Take It With You). Based on a radio series, Pot O' Gold is plagued by an episodic, variety-show structure and the kind of physical comedy that better suited a 15 minute comedy short. Goddard and Stewart do well with what they do but the film story, dialogue and structure is working against them. On the plus side, Pot O' Gold has a lot of music (well done and recorded) and particularly features the music band Horace Heidt and his Musical Knights.

Peppermint - 2018 - Jennifer Garner is a mother who survives a drive-by assassination that kills her daughter and husband. When she is able to pick out the culprits in a police line up, corrupt attorneys and judges begin working at the behest of a Los Angeles drug gang to make sure she will be discredited. Partly a toned-down reversion of Death Wish with a healthy dollop of superhero thrown in, Peppermint is a phantasy movie about revenge (or, if you agree with the viewpoint of the main character, Justice) in which an unstoppable grieving mother with a mission against evil people both inside and outside of "the system" cannot help but be triumphed over by the end titles. Garner is the earnest revenge-artist and John Ortiz is a Los Angeles detective with a sense of what's really going on, not just with the avenging "soccer mom," but with the duplicity within his own department.

Madame Peacock - 1924

Madame Peacock - released Oct 24, 1920. Starring Alla Nazimova.

Madame Peacock is one of the thousands of "lost films" from the silent era. In it, Nazimova played both mother and daughter, in which she abandons her child and gains fame working in the theatre, and then later, the grown daughter (also Nazimova) becomes an actress and achieves greater popularity, ultimately replacing the mother (still Nazimova) in stardom.

At this point in her career, Nazimova was aged 41, and released four films in 1920, three of which she produced (Madame Peacock, The Heart of a Child, Stronger Than Death) and two films which she also scripted (Billions, Madame Peacock). In total, her career has 23 film acting credits, seven producer credits, four writing credits, and two directing credits, one being her most famous silent movie: Salome, which is officially credited to Charles Bryant. Stories about the filming of Salome insist that Nazimova actually directed the movie, but Bryant was coached to "play" the director (saying "Action" when required) on set as Nazimova had been under criticism for her productions for having "done too much" in their making.

New Bluray Release

Black Widow - 1954

Directed by Nunnally Johnson

Stars: Ginger Rogers, Van Heflin, Gene Tierney, George Raft, Peggy Ann Garner, Reginald Gardiner, Otto Kruger

Disc includes the feature film and Isolated Music Track / Audio Commentary with Film Historian Alan K. Rode / Ginger Rogers at Twentieth Century Fox / Gene Tierney: Final Curtain for a Noir Icon / Original Theatrical Trailer

AMAZON: Black Widow Bluray 1954

Review: The Emperor's Candlesticks - 1937

Espionage and unintended love get mixed up together in this story of two master spies (Wm. Powell and Luis Rainer) who crosspaths, each carrying a secret message that means the death of the other if successfully delivered.

More The Emperor's Candlesticks - 1937

To see more movie poster art

The Frozen Ghost - 1943

Lon Chaney Jr (as Gregor the Great / Gregor the Mentalist) has a load of worry on his mind after his power of hypnosis seem to have gone beyond his control and is actually killing people. He retires from his stage act to think this over while incognito at a wax museum, but this only stirs up more trouble as the whole roster of actresses in The Frozen Ghost cast are either in love with him or are carrying a heavy crush, a situation that is driving the unstable Dr. Rudi Poldan (Martin Koslek) to plan a murderous revenge.

More on the 1945 Inner Sanctum film The Frozen Ghost

Sophia Loren: A Life in Pictures - 192 Pages - Amazon.com

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