What classics did you see last week, August 8 to August 14?
Aug 16, 2021 0:34:49 GMT
teleadm, wmcclain, and 5 more like this
Post by marianne48 on Aug 16, 2021 0:34:49 GMT
Television pilot: The Medicine Man, "A Pony for Chris" (1962)--Watching some old clips and TV shows of Ernie Kovacs this week; this sitcom pilot was included on the DVD set The Ernie Kovacs Collection, Volume 2. Those familiar with Kovacs' work may find this pilot incredibly bland in comparison, because it pretty much is--it's typical of that 1960s era of mildly amusing family-oriented TV sitcoms, filmed with an irritating canned-laughter soundtrack. Kovacs plays a snake-oil salesman in the Old West who finds himself up against a gang of even worse criminals. He travels with his young orphaned nephew and an un-PC Indian sidekick, and there's a subplot with a female sharpshooter who presumably would have served as a love interest for Ernie in subsequent episodes. There are some sweet moments with the young nephew, and some humor with the taciturn sidekick, played by--Buster Keaton!
Although this was not the kind of format Kovacs was comfortable with (he disliked conventional sitcoms), he apparently agreed to do this show because of financial woes, and while it may have seemed a somewhat disappointing departure for him, the pilot is in great condition and it's a pleasant viewing experience mainly because it brings together TV genius Kovacs and film genius Keaton--it would have been great if the show had run for a season or two and given Keaton more exposure to 1960s television audiences. Tragically, Kovacs was killed in a car crash the day after completing filming on this pilot; CBS wanted to air the show at the time, but his family members refused.
Victim (1961)--Lists of good LGBT-oriented films tend to be largely made up of movies from the past thirty years or so; before that, there don't seem to be many, as studios tended to be very leery of homosexuality and generally tiptoed around the subject or avoided gay characters altogether. It's surprising to come across a 60-year-old film which deals with gay characters in such a sympathetic and non-sensationalized way; this film seems years, if not decades, ahead of its time. Dirk Bogarde plays a closeted bisexual attorney in the UK, at a time when homosexual activity was not only stigmatized, but illegal and punishable by jail time. Gay men were regarded as targets for blackmailers, and often turned to suicide when faced with ruined careers and criminal records. Bogarde decides to risk his career and his marriage by standing up to his blackmailer. This film reportedly helped to influence the eventual decriminalization of homosexuality in England. Also a good little mystery in finding the identity of the blackmailer.
The Mind Benders (1963)--A patriotic professor mysteriously turns traitor; he then commits suicide. Investigators consider the possibility that he was the unwitting victim of brainwashing as a result of sessions in a sensory deprivation tank. Dirk Bogarde is a colleague
who attempts to prove that this was the case by agreeing to serve as a guinea pig and repeat the brainwashing experiment in the tank himself. We first see him living a blissful existence with his wife and children--in movies, this is generally a sign that something terrible is going to happen to him. The experiment is performed on him, with the assistance of colleagues who each has his own motives. Interesting sci-fi thriller, which may have inspired the later film Altered States and definitely inspired the name of Wayne Fontana's Mind Benders.
The Stranger (1946)--Disappointingly sloppy thriller with some good stars, anyway--Edward G. Robinson is a government agent trying to track down Orson Welles, who plays a Nazi officer spending his postwar years in the guise of a respectable schoolteacher in a sleepy Connecticut town, and the newlywed husband of Loretta Young, daughter of a local judge. The plot is hokey and contrived--Robinson arrives at his conclusions about Welles in one of those moments when he suddenly is jolted awake by recalling a comment uttered by Welles (hey, I always thought Karl Marx was Russian, myself); until then, he believes Welles to be innocent. Another character tries to kill Robinson by haphazardly flinging a gymnast's rope ring at his head--why would a heavy ring like that be long enough to clock somebody in the head in the first place, especially a short guy like Robinson? Whacked in the back of the head, he later shows up with a bandage on the front of his head. Welles later tries to set up a murder, but it's one of those set-ups that relies on perfect timing, chance, and no last-minute changes in plans; is that the work of a practiced killer, or just a contrived plot device? What happens to Robinson and Richard Long in the clock tower seems to be badly edited. Poor Loretta Young, as the wife, is used as bait to trap her husband; hard to believe that her family members would agree to leave her in the path of the murderous Welles and just see what happens. The climax is both predictable and almost silly--one look at that figure on the clock, and you can guess what happens. For what seemed to be a serious-minded story about postwar war criminals, this is a pretty mediocre effort--something like The Third Man was miles ahead of this.
Although this was not the kind of format Kovacs was comfortable with (he disliked conventional sitcoms), he apparently agreed to do this show because of financial woes, and while it may have seemed a somewhat disappointing departure for him, the pilot is in great condition and it's a pleasant viewing experience mainly because it brings together TV genius Kovacs and film genius Keaton--it would have been great if the show had run for a season or two and given Keaton more exposure to 1960s television audiences. Tragically, Kovacs was killed in a car crash the day after completing filming on this pilot; CBS wanted to air the show at the time, but his family members refused.
Victim (1961)--Lists of good LGBT-oriented films tend to be largely made up of movies from the past thirty years or so; before that, there don't seem to be many, as studios tended to be very leery of homosexuality and generally tiptoed around the subject or avoided gay characters altogether. It's surprising to come across a 60-year-old film which deals with gay characters in such a sympathetic and non-sensationalized way; this film seems years, if not decades, ahead of its time. Dirk Bogarde plays a closeted bisexual attorney in the UK, at a time when homosexual activity was not only stigmatized, but illegal and punishable by jail time. Gay men were regarded as targets for blackmailers, and often turned to suicide when faced with ruined careers and criminal records. Bogarde decides to risk his career and his marriage by standing up to his blackmailer. This film reportedly helped to influence the eventual decriminalization of homosexuality in England. Also a good little mystery in finding the identity of the blackmailer.
The Mind Benders (1963)--A patriotic professor mysteriously turns traitor; he then commits suicide. Investigators consider the possibility that he was the unwitting victim of brainwashing as a result of sessions in a sensory deprivation tank. Dirk Bogarde is a colleague
who attempts to prove that this was the case by agreeing to serve as a guinea pig and repeat the brainwashing experiment in the tank himself. We first see him living a blissful existence with his wife and children--in movies, this is generally a sign that something terrible is going to happen to him. The experiment is performed on him, with the assistance of colleagues who each has his own motives. Interesting sci-fi thriller, which may have inspired the later film Altered States and definitely inspired the name of Wayne Fontana's Mind Benders.
The Stranger (1946)--Disappointingly sloppy thriller with some good stars, anyway--Edward G. Robinson is a government agent trying to track down Orson Welles, who plays a Nazi officer spending his postwar years in the guise of a respectable schoolteacher in a sleepy Connecticut town, and the newlywed husband of Loretta Young, daughter of a local judge. The plot is hokey and contrived--Robinson arrives at his conclusions about Welles in one of those moments when he suddenly is jolted awake by recalling a comment uttered by Welles (hey, I always thought Karl Marx was Russian, myself); until then, he believes Welles to be innocent. Another character tries to kill Robinson by haphazardly flinging a gymnast's rope ring at his head--why would a heavy ring like that be long enough to clock somebody in the head in the first place, especially a short guy like Robinson? Whacked in the back of the head, he later shows up with a bandage on the front of his head. Welles later tries to set up a murder, but it's one of those set-ups that relies on perfect timing, chance, and no last-minute changes in plans; is that the work of a practiced killer, or just a contrived plot device? What happens to Robinson and Richard Long in the clock tower seems to be badly edited. Poor Loretta Young, as the wife, is used as bait to trap her husband; hard to believe that her family members would agree to leave her in the path of the murderous Welles and just see what happens. The climax is both predictable and almost silly--one look at that figure on the clock, and you can guess what happens. For what seemed to be a serious-minded story about postwar war criminals, this is a pretty mediocre effort--something like The Third Man was miles ahead of this.