What classics did you see last week ? (12 Aug- 18 Aug 2018)

Doctor X / Michael Curtiz (1932). A series of gruesome murders that involve slices of flesh being cut off of the victims leads to Dr. Xavier’s (Lionel Atwill) surgical research lab. Dr. Xavier convinces the cops to give him two days to find out which of his staff of physicians is the killer. He takes them to a secluded Old Dark House to test each scientifically. He is helped by his daughter Joanne (Fay Wray) and Dr. Webb (Preston Foster) who could not possibly be the strangler because he had lost his left hand. Dr. X is also dogged by a reporter (Lee Tracy) who is a comic character (e.g. acting all panicky when seeing a skeleton in the laboratory) which is a jarring contrast to the rest of the goings-on. The climax is actually kind of scary, if implausible, and ventures into horror territory.





Highway Dragnet / Nathan Juran (1954). Jim Henry (Richard Conte), just home from the Korean War with a suitcase full of metals but no money, strikes up a conversation with a bottle blonde (Mary Beth Hughes) in a bar. She gets mad at him, there is some yelling, a tussle, and a kiss. The next morning she is found murdered and the cops are convinced Jim did it. He breaks away and goes on the run. He falls in with two women, a fashion photographer (Joan Bennett) and her model (Wanda Hendrix) as he flees the police. The resolution of the plot depends upon an amazing, impossible coincidence, so outrageous that it cannot be overlooked. Richard Conte's performance, tough, unapologetic, holds the story together. Bennett seems unhappy like she doesn’t want to be there and Hendrix is pretty. Also featuring Reed Hadley as Lt. White Eagle, the top cop on Conte’s trail. “Highway Dragnet” was a product of small picture independent producer William F. Broidy. His brother, Steve Broidy, was the head of Allied Artists which is the company listed as the film’s theatrical distributor.

Hendrix, Bennett, Conte


The Left Hand Of God / Edward Dmytryk (1955). At the end of WWII, China was in turmoil with much of its territory ruled by War Lords. Within a lawless area, a Catholic religious and medical mission staffed by Americans is expecting a priest to take up duties. Father O’Shay (Humphrey Bogart) arrives having lost his mount, his chalice, and all his vestments crossing a river. He makes a big hit with the Chinese villagers and with the young nurse, Anne (Gene Tierney). They also find out he can be tough. When a ruffian enters the village, the padre drops him with two punches. At almost the exact half-way point in the run time, there is a revelation that sends the story into a new direction. The summary at the database, I swear, mentions the secret in its plot summary but can’t prove it because I think it has been changed since I first looked at it last week. Anyway, the Maltin books spoil it. Soon after filming ended, Gene Tierney suffered a nervous breakdown from family pressures and didn’t make another film for about seven years. Bogart was kind to her and helped her through some tough scenes. As for Bogie, himself, “Left Hand” was his next to the last movie. He went straight from “The Desperate Hours” into “Left Hand” but the later film beat the earlier into theaters by about two weeks. I enjoyed “Left Hand” much more than I thought I would. Bogart was again working with Dmytryk (after “The Caine Mutiny” in 1954). It is shot in Technicolor and wide-screen. E.G. Marshall plays the missionary doctor and Agnes Moorhead is his wife. Lee J. Cobb plays an American university educated War Lord.



Son Of Robin Hood / George Sherman (1958). It is 10 years after the death of Robin Hood. His Merry Men are aging as England is threatened once again by a tyrant who plans to capture the throne. But wait…Robin Hood had a child named Deering Hood. He could come and take command of the resistance. When Deering arrives, Little John finds that son of Robin Hood is, in fact, *gasp*, a GIRL! (June Laverick). Luckily, another stranger, Jamie (David “Al” Hedison), arrives at the same time and is convinced to pose as Deering because, well, everybody knows that a slip of a girl cannot lead men, even after she proves herself with a bow. Although the real Deering takes back her name by the ending and proves herself a strong fighter, she is sidelined for much of the middle portion of the film. On the plus side, this is shot in (surprisingly) Cinemascope and Technicolor. The final sword fight between Jamie and the main villain is a good one, in the tradition of Flynn vs. Rathbone and Granger vs. Ferrer. The movie was no doubt very popular with the younger set at Saturday matinees.



You Were Never Really Here / Lynne Ramsay (2017). This film is structured around several “hit man” movie tropes yet presents them in new and creative ways. We have seen it enough times: the hit man-assassin-hero has a job go wrong and then unknown forces try to kill him (e.g. The American). Joaquin Phoenix is Joe, a burly thick bearded guy who is caregiver for his elderly disabled mother. As a job, he works finding runaway young girls and teens. If the girls are being sexually exploited, he doles out justice with a ball-peen hammer (all the death-by-hammer scenes are shot obliquely either through b&w security camera footage or reflected from a distance in a mirror). When he takes the assignment to rescue the daughter of a state senator who has aspirations to governorship, he succeeds but is immediately attacked and the girl taken away. Escaping, he retaliates the only way he knows how. Joe is very soft spoken (and hardly speaks) making his violence even more shocking. The senator’s daughter is played by 14 or 15 year old Russian-American actress/model Ekaterina Samsonov who is very good in this. Impressive writing and directing by Lynne Ramsay (“We Need To Talk About Kevin”). Phoenix won Best Actor at the Cannes Film Festival.



Disobedience / Sebastián Lelio (2017). When Rabbi Rav “The Rav” Krushka (Anton Lesser) is stricken and dies in the middle of a sermon, the entire Jewish community of his city goes into mourning. Meanwhile, in New York City, The Rav’s estranged daughter Ronit (Rachel Weisz) receives an anonymous message notifying her. She returns to her home town and is greeted with some dismay and passive/aggressive hostility. She finds that her two childhood friends Dovid (Alessandro Nivola) and Esti (Rachel McAdams) are married and that Dovid is considered the successor to The Rav. Ronit is also disturbed to find out that her father didn’t mention her in his will and left the family home to the synagogue. What was the reason for the estrangement between father and daughter? What does it have to do with Dovid and Esti? To go any further would be unacceptable spoilers even though other reviews do go farther and it is not tough to figure it out on your own (the poster gives it away). Suffice to say that the three people have some difficult issues to deal with and decide on. Weisz and McAdams are terrific. Nivola has always seem bland to me. I never recognize him from one role to another.

The Beastmaster (1982) 6/10

Den of Thieves (2018) 5/10

Batman Ninja (2018) 6/10

Point Blank (1967) 7/10

Payback (1999) 4/10

Dune (1984) 2/10

Kings (2017) 3/10

Suicide Squad: Hell to Pay (2018) 8/10

The Dressmaker (2015) 7/10

Midnight Lace (1960) 6/10

The Land Unknown (1957) 5/10

Hell yeah, Nate and Hayes is great.

ROCK & RULE (1983) 35TH ANNIVERSARY this year. Back in the day, Nelvana appeared to be creative and atypical in its Animated fare before they went completely to the Children Product stuff like STRAWBERRY SHORTCAKE and CARE BEARS (Check out THE DEVIL AND DANIEL MOUSE or A COSMIC CHRISTMAS). This animated feature (with songs by Debbie Harry, Cheap Trick, Earth, Wind & Fire, etc.) was the prime of that earlier approach. I remember seeing parts of it on HBO back in the mid-80s, then didn't get the full film until a bootleg DVD from a Comicon. Then I got the official DVD, which includes the original different-Omar-VA cut. I watched the theatrical cut, and some scenes from the original, which had new scenes and altered pieces (one changed a character's fate). Unearthed Films DVD.

MYSTERY SCIENCE THEATER 3000 (1993) "The Magic Voyage of Sindbad" 25TH ANNIVERSARY. Joel and the Bots handle the americanized version of Alexander Ptushko's Russian Fantasy SADKO, the dub attempting to be an Arabian Nights adventure despite lacking anything Arabic (Last season, the gang handled Ptushko's fantasy SAMPO, or in its THE DAY THE EARTH FROZE US version). Bootleg DVD.

NARUTO SHIPPUDEN (2011) "Two Fates" Viz Media DVD.

DRAGON BALL (1988) "The Nyoi-Bo's Secret!" 30TH ANNIVERSARY The Anime intro to the version of Piccolo DBZ fans know. Funimation DVD.

DRAGON BALL SUPER (2017) "Defeat These Terrifying Enemies! Kuririn's Fighting Spirit Returns!" I watched two versions of this episode, as Kuririn deals with his PTSD (he'd been killed three times) fighting illusions of his past opponents, three of them were his murderers. One is the Japanese Sub (via a Bootleg DVD), and the other is the English Dub, which premiered Saturday Night on Cartoon Network. I also viewed "Awaken Your Sleeping Fighting Spirit! Son Gohan's Fight!" on a Bootleg DVD (Its English version is scheduled to air this September).