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Post by Nalkarj on Apr 28, 2017 15:47:43 GMT
One strange thing about At The Opera, Salzmank: it appears that early on, during that thunderstorm sequence, when Gravelle is escaping from the institution for the criminally insane,--I think that's right--it appears that he kills a guard. It's not made clear, as I recall, but then I haven't watched it for a while. The last time I was aware of it and I don't remember it being referenced later in the film. Maybe he just knocks the guard out. Is it mentioned in a newspaper account at some point later in the film? Boris Karloff cut an imposing figure in those days, with his slow, deliberate movements he looks like a man who could kill someone easily without straining himself. The name Frankenstein is actually mentioned in the film later on, jokingly, and that movie that made Karloff famous had come out just five years earlier; the sequel, one year before. This is worth dwelling on a bit as if the Gravelle character did commit murder then he couldn't just walk at the end, could he? He's bedridden in his final scene but I don't think he's dying. His ultimate fate, as to his character arc, isn't mentioned, or at least I don't think so. As to Gerald Mohr's Dr. Zodiac: I don't know how successful a radio actor Mohr was in 1939. Ten years later he was quite a prominent player. He may well have literally phoned his performance in for all we know... You're right about ...at the Opera, Telegonus. Hmm... I just took another look (through YouTube). He certainly does something to a hospital worker, because the guy is lying on the floor while Karloff puts on the guard's uniform, but it's not made clear whether or not the man's dead. As for the guard... the newspaper says, "Maniac overpowers guard, escapes: patient flees sanitarium in guise of intern." So that isn't made clear either... Actually, looking at the scene again, how Karloff makes his escape is curiously similar to how Hannibal Lecter made his escape in The Silence of the Lambs (without some more--er--gruesome elements, I hasten to add). I'm sure it's just a coincidence, of course, especially seeing how Mike Grost has identified another very similar predecessor to Lecter's escape in C. Daly King's "The Episode of the Nail and the Requiem." As for Karloff and his ultimate fate, yes, good catch there. I wonder if the Hays Code just didn't really notice, or care, because (1) it's oblique and (2) it's not in some major production (though the quality is certainly "A-level"). It's amazing what got by the Code in those early days, even when they'd actually started enforcing it. I mean, heck, you and I both know how much went right over the authorities' heads in such horror pictures as The Black Cat and Bride of Frankenstein. I wish I had some more information on Mohr. I could try to do some detective work (Charlie Chan would be pleased), but (1) I have a lot of work left to do and (2) I am helping someone else with another movie mystery, where a particular Laurel & Hardy scene did (or, maybe, did not) appear, on MovieChat.
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Post by telegonus on Apr 28, 2017 17:06:16 GMT
Thanks for the effort, Salnzmank. My guess is that the guard isn't dead, though Karloff's character had committed a criminal act. On the other hand, he was mentally unstable at the time for understandable reasons. The "open" ending is doubtless deliberate. It feels happy.
The whole Mohr business and Treasure Island feels odd, as maybe he was on vacation or just visiting L.A. at the time and they caught him on the wing, so he did the voice work, maybe/maybe not appeared in the film. It's sort of a borderline minor credit. I think it was Columbia that got the ball rolling for Mohr on the coast a few years later.
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Post by Nalkarj on Apr 29, 2017 2:21:08 GMT
Thanks to whoever broke the tie! (And, for any grammar sticklers out there, I checked, and it is indeed whoever, not whomever. That's a problem over which I too have unduly fretted.) By the way, may I ask who did break the tie? No particular reason, just wondering.
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Post by Nalkarj on Apr 30, 2017 15:28:06 GMT
Anyone else? We're in a tie for second place, but it's still possible for a contender to steal Opera's first-place spot. (Read in a horse-race announcer's voice, of course--forgive my lack of knowledge of horse-racing terminology.)
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Post by Nalkarj on May 1, 2017 15:54:16 GMT
Recently re-watched Charlie Chan's Murder Cruise, which is a decent, if middling, entry. As I wrote to telegonus, I found it most interesting for its being a remake of the sadly-lost Charlie Chan Carries On, with a significant piece of the plot from Charlie Chan in Paris thrown in for good measure. (That same plot point from ...in Paris was also used in ...at Treasure Island, my favorite of the series.)
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Post by Nalkarj on May 3, 2017 0:44:39 GMT
C'mon, everyone, we need some movement in the polls here! Who else has some favorite Charlie Chans?
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Post by Nalkarj on May 3, 2017 23:21:23 GMT
Aha!
Treasure Island has made a comeback and is now tied for first with Opera!
Thank you, mystery voter!
I suppose mystery voter does not care to tell me who he or she is?
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Post by Nalkarj on May 8, 2017 21:18:43 GMT
We still have a tie and only a week and change in which to break it...
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Post by Deleted on May 9, 2017 13:31:10 GMT
CC @ The Olympics
CC's Secret
CC @ The Racetrack
WORST (FWIW): CC in Egypt (great potential ruined by Stepin Fetchit. "Racetrack" actually has similar issues at the beginning, but has a wild ending).
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Post by Nalkarj on May 9, 2017 13:52:23 GMT
Interesting choices, @colehambone. Any particular reason you dislike CC in Egypt, other than Fetchit? I find the picture one of the best Chans, and I think Fetchit is so Dada in his comedy routine, so separated from the world around him, as to take all the racism out of it.
And I knew I was justified in putting CC's Secret on the list! Not one of my favorites, but a very interesting one, with good direction and spooky atmosphere.
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Post by telegonus on May 9, 2017 17:59:06 GMT
Interesting seeing Opera and Treasure Island still tied with 4 votes each, with "others" tied at same. I'd have thought there would be greater effort to put just one film over. OTOH, the top 2 films are of nearly equal quality, though for what I suspect are different reasons.
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Post by Nalkarj on May 17, 2017 2:22:01 GMT
3 days before it closes, folks, and we're still at a tie!
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Post by Nalkarj on May 18, 2017 20:20:42 GMT
Very little time left, everyone. No one else wants to vote?
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Post by Nalkarj on May 21, 2017 2:39:47 GMT
It's over, everyone. Our dual winners are Charlie Chan at Treasure Island and Charlie Chan at the Opera. Thanks for voting, everyone!
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