What classics did you see last week ? (8 Jul - 14 Jul 2018)

My 2 favourite Hitchcocks were revisited



2 first views, one very enjoyable, the other VERY disappointing

 6/10

 9/10


 8/10

Here is my little mix:


Not perfect, but it did have some really funny sequences. A movie with Robert Duvall can't be all bad!


aka Winged Migration, fascinating.


Modern version of von Stroheims legendary Greed, it doesn't work it's as if it can't decide to be comedy or drama.


Great!


Don't be fooled by this poster, it's actually an entertaing detective story, I liked seeing Brigitte as a smart resourceful wife who tries to solve a crime. AKA Come Dance with Me.


Masterpiece! aka Wild Strawberries


Hitchcock light, beautiful and entertaining

Blonde Ice / Jack Bernhard (1948). In film noir which features a femme fatale, the main character is usually the male who plays the sap for her. “Blonde Ice” is the rare one that puts the femme in the lead role and most of the film is from her POV. The FF in question is Claire Cummings (Leslie Brooks) who, when the film opens, is getting married to the rich Carl Hanniman. Once the ceremony is over, she retires to the balcony to declare her undying love to newspaper man Les Burns (Robert Paige). “I’ll be thinking of you on my honeymoon,” she tells him. Wow. Consider the implications of THAT! Claire proves to be the textbook sociopath, doing anything she has to, including murder, to get the wealthy life she thinks she deserves. Toward the end, someone tells her, “I once said I couldn’t figure you out; I can now. You’re not a normal woman. You’re not warm. You’re cold like ice. Yeah, like ice. Blonde ice.” The middle section gets a little repetitious with discussions over and over about alibis and motives so that it seems longer than its 74 minute run time. You keep asking yourself when they would get back to the mayhem. Ultimately, though, Claire’s murderous ways continue making this a highly satisfying noir. Also in the cast are two of my favorite ‘40s supporting players: Walter Sande and James Griffith.

Claire gets an unwelcome diagnosis from a psychiatrist (David Leonard)


If “Blonde Ice” can be said to have an auteur, it would be writer - producer Martin Mooney. Mooney had a long career as a newspaper man who was well-known for his articles on gambling rackets in New York. He was once fined and served time for refusing to name a source. He was almost 40 when he came to Hollywood to work for the Gower Gulch studio PRC. He served as associate producer for Edward Ulmer’s “Detour.” One writer said of Mooney: “[His] stories were fresh, dialog crisp, and who got top production values on the screen, far exceeding the restrictions of his budgets” (“Poverty Row: 1930-1950” by Gene Fernett, 1973). BI was the first of two movies from Mooney as an independent producer.

“Blonde Ice” was shot at Chaplin Studios in Los Angeles. The site of Chaplin Studios (started 1917) at 1416 N. La Brea Avenue is now the Jim Henson Company Lot. Kermit the Frog is displayed prominently but there is a entrance arch and a representative gate with a cut-out of Charles Chaplin inside. A nice tribute to the past.



The Fat Man / William Castle (1951). In January 1946 a new radio show premiered called “The Fat Man.” It was promoted as “Created by Dashiell Hammett.” That made since because Hammett had also created The Thin Man and in the film of “The Maltese Falcon,” before Casper Gutman was identified by name, he is referred to three times as “the fat man.” However, it seems that Hammett had nothing to do with the show except lend his name. On radio, The Fat Man was a private detective and gourmet diner who had the unlikely moniker of Brad Runyon and was voiced by J. Scott Smart. As the radio show was ending in 1951, a film version was made. Smart went on to play Runyon in the last of his few film roles. For a B-mystery, it’s a pretty good one. When a dentist is murdered while at a professional convention, his secretary (Jayne Meadows) hires Runyon to look into the case. The only thing missing from the unfortunate dentist’s effects were some x-rays of bridge work belonging to Roy Clark (Rock Hudson – seen only in flashback). Runyon traces Clark back to gangster Gene Gordon (John Russell, TVs “Lawman”) which puts Runyon in immediate danger. Also in the cast is Julie London and renowned circus clown Emmett Kelly in his film debut. Now, to the “fat” question: Smart/Runyon is, indeed, overweight. When called “the fat man,” he takes a bite of food and replies that it is a name he hopes to live up to. Later, a crowd gathers on a sidewalk to watch and laugh as Runyon tries to squeeze himself into a small sports car. But here’s the thing: starting about 20 years after this film came out, the “plumping of America” was underway. By the time we hit the 21st century, Smart/Runyon would not have been given a second look. He might even be thought to be at a healthy weight.

John Russell and J. Scott Smart


Rock Hudson wearing prison garb in The Fat Man



Shield for Murder / Edmond O’Brien & Howard W. Koch (1954). Edmond O’Brien gives an intense performance in this thriller which is actually pretty exceptional, at least for about the first three-quarters of its time. O’Brien plays Barney Nolan, a homicide detective who is burned out, full of rage and violence, and going just a little psycho. In the pre-credits sequence we see him waylay a mob runner carrying $25,000 from one place to another. Nolan shoots him using a suppressor, searches his body for the money, then fires his gun loudly into the air. Claiming he was bringing the man in when he tried to run, the other cops believe him and move into damage control mode (like they still do). However, a man who cannot hear nor speak has seen the whole thing from his second story apartment window. Nolan’s protégé, Mark (John Agar), on the detective force begins to have his doubts about Barney’s story. As both mobsters and cops close in, Barney begins to melt down. About the last 25 minutes, however, devolves in a long chase as Barney tries to find a way out of town. This becomes a little tedious. Others in the cast include Marla English as Barney’s fiancé (who he ends up physically abusing), Emile Meyer as the gruff Precinct Captain, Joe Sawyer as the head mobster, Claude Akins as mob muscle, Carolyn Jones, Vito Scotti, Robert Bray, William Schallert, and a very young but unmistakable Richard Deacon. Last producer and director credit for Howard W. Koch.

John Agar tries to bring in Edmond O’Brien by himself (it doesn’t work).


A Life At Stake / Paul Guilfoyle (1955). Actor Paul Guilfoyle (1902-1961, not the guy of the same name on CSI: Crime Scene Investigation) sits in the director’s chair for this tricky noir. Cut guy Edward Short (Keith Andes, first seen in his boarding house room with his shirt off) is still depressed after losing all his money (and the life savings of several of his friends) to a scammer. When he is approached by a lawyer with a deal from a rich couple, Doris and Gus Hillman (Angela Lansbury and Douglass Dumbrille), who wants his expertise as a house architect and contractor to build tract houses, Edward comes out of his funk. When he meets Doris, he is struck by her beauty and the fact that she is floating in her swimming pool in a form revealing bathing suit. Soon, Edward and Doris are meeting on those frequent occasions when the older Gus is out of town. A turning point comes when the Hillman’s ask Edward to take out a $175,000 life insurance policy to protect their investment. He consents but finds out too late that Doris’ first husband made the same deal then died in an auto accident. Coincidence or do Doris and Gus have the same plan for Edward? Does Doris love Edward as she claims or is it a act? These questions keep your attention until the very end. Lansbury’s second and last foray into film noir as the femme fatale.

Sultry Angela Lansbury vamps helpless male Keith Andes



Perry Mason S.2 Ep. 23 “The Case of the Howling Dog” One of Erle Stanley Gardner’s best and an early series best. This novel was also (heavily) adapted in 1934 as the most memorable of four Perry Mason films starring Warren Williams. Mason’s (Raymond Burr, as if you didn’t know) client in “Howling Dog” is played by classic film star Ann Rutherford. Rutherford played Mickey Rooney’s girlfriend Polly Benedict in 12 of the 16 Andy Hardy movies from 1938-1942, beginning when she was 21 years old. In between Hardy family dramas, she essayed the youngest Bennet sister, Lydia, in “Pride and Prejudice” (1940) and Scarlett O’Hara’s sister in GWTW (1939). She was offered the role of Old Rose in “Titanic” (1997) but turned it down. Gregory Walcott plays one of the major suspects. Walcott later became a fundamentalist Christian and amateur preacher. In 1966 or ’67, I attended one session of a revival meeting he was leading. Even though I was interested in religion at the time, I mostly went just to hear and see the star, the hero, of “Plan 9 From Outer Space.”

Finished off the Batman & Robin (1949) movie serial. Not as exciting as the first Batman serial, too many bad cliffhangers and Batman and The Wizard were badly miscast. Still, worth a look for fans, like me.



True Memoirs of an International Assassin (2016), a very funny idea, but they didn't really run with it and it was just alright.



Plunder Road (1957), an excellent film noir. Was really enjoying it, then the abrupt ending, but I suppose that kind of ending was more common back then. It's available on YouTube for anyone to enjoy.



The Hitch-Hiker (1953), which YouTube suggested I watch after I watched Plunder Road. Directed by Ida Lupino, a real nail biter of film noir suspense!



Deep Blood (1990), several men must stop a killer shark from stalking their beach community...what an original premise! Interesting that they decided to go with pink blood instead of the usual red for this film. Little did I realize this would not be the worst killer shark movie I would see this week...



The Last Shark (1981) was originally meant to be released in North America in the early 80's under the title "Great White" but Universal insisted they just go away instead because of the obvious similarities to Jaws. But it got released and it is also available on YouTube. It is very similar to Jaws and Jaws 2, but it is also slightly original in other ways, and I found myself liking it for various reasons. One of them was the late Vic Morrow's accent and the other was the bobbing up and down of the shark's head. It's fun. I had seen it before and was checking it out again with a friend. Not sure why the title change from Great White to The Last Shark, to avoid Universal's wrath maybe? And why is this the last shark? There are still lots of sharks! Mostly, my friend and I argued over who James Franciscus reminded us of: Charlton Heston or a blond Sean Connery.



Just when you thought it was safe to watch Jaws ripoffs on a lazy Sunday, along comes Cruel Jaws, which turned out to be even worse than I'd heard, and all I'd heard prior was bad! Basically, the majority of the movie is made up of clips from the Jaws series, The Last Shark and Deep Blood! A few new scenes involved some local Florida actors strutting their stuff, followed by the entire plot of The Last Shark interspersed with various shark attack scenes from the movies mentioned. Bloody Hell, how is this legal? I thought Psycho Shark (2009) (a.k.a. Jaws in Japan) was poor, but at least they were not plagiarists!



On the day Tab Hunter died, I watched The Arousers (1972) (a.k.a. Sweet Kill). He plays a serial killer and it does have some interesting moments. It also has a hilarious amount of nudity. I believe the film was originally released with the title Sweet Kill and marketed more as a thriller, and then was later released with the title, The Arousers to cash in with the T & A crowd. Very hard to fathom that this was director Curtis Hanson's first movie, the man who gave us Wonder Boys and L.A. Confidential.





Retreat (2011), a good UK apocalyptic thriller.



Silent Retreat (2016), an okay horror flick.



MI:5 (2015), spy movie based on a UK TV show I've never seen. Still, it was enjoyable, nice to see Jon Snow down from North of the Wall.



Jungle (2017) was an excellent lost-in-the-jungle movie, and a true story too. Daniel Radcliffe is very good here, he's the whole movie, basically. Even more enjoyable if you think of it as a prequel to Swiss Army Man, like me and my friend did while watching it.



Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle (2017) was a fun sequel and not the remake I was expecting. It's very silly so you either roll with it or switch it off, like my friend did. But since I'm silly, I stuck with it and had fun.



The Road To El Dorado (2000), an animated romp with the dueling voices of Kenneth Branagh and Kevin Kline.



Can I Do It...'Til I Need Glasses? (1977) and If You Don't Stop It...You'll Go Blind (1975) were crude comedies, basically the dirtiest jokes of the 70's made into skits. I watched both because I thought Robin Williams was supposed to be in one of them, turns out he was cut from Can I Do It...'Til I Need Glasses?, however, I have since learned that the clip of his scene is on YouTube, but have yet gotten around to seeing it.

Hi Mike,sorry about the late post. I really enjoyed reading your Blonde Ice review,esp the background info on Mooney. I was wondering if it share many similarities to Bernard's Decoy?