What Classics Did You See Last Week? (May 8th-May 14th)

1st views -

13th (2016 Documentary) 9/10 The "Free" market meets crime and punishment. Is everything in America measured in dollars?
The Founder (2016) 8/10 A fable of capitalism and fast food.
Alien: Covenant (2017) 7/10 Twice as much Fassbender means twice as good as Prometheus.
Last Holiday (1950) Alec Guinness shines in a classic dramedy.
The Directors Series (2014 TV Series) - 5 episodes featuring the career of Stan Kubrick. A bit too gushing in its praise of the director but quite interesting nonetheless. 7/10


Revisits -

If.... (1968) 7/10 McDowell rebels against the "establishment".
Mindhunters (2004) 5/10 Silly but fairly entertaining.
Written on the Wind (1956) 8.5/10 A superior 50s melodrama.
Airplane! (1980) 7/10 Still crazy after all these years.
WarGames (1983) 7.5/10 Stands up pretty well after all these years.

It's in the Bag! / Richard Wallace (1945). Radio comedy giant Fred Allen only appeared in a half-dozen or so full-length movies. “It’s In The Bag?” is probably his very best, one he was the guiding hand in. The story is based on the 1920s Russian satirical novel, “The Twelve Chairs” (“It’s A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World” and Mel Brook’s “The Twelve Chairs” are also based on this novel). Basically, there are a number of identical chairs that have been sold to people all over. The upholstery of one of the chairs contains a hidden fortune. Allen and his writers reduce the number of chairs to five and jettison everything else from their source in favor of a series of wacky and generally hilarious set-pieces. Allen’s writing partners, by the way, included Alma Reville (Mrs. Alfred Hitchcock) and a favorite of Groucho’s, Morrie Ryskind. In 1945 radio was the king of home entertainment. One of the staples of radio comedy was the fake feud, for example W.C. Fields and his encounters with Edgar Bergan’s ventriloquist dummy Charlie McCarthy. Another popular “feud” was that between Fred Allen and his real-life good friend Jack Benny. The two would often tag one another on their radio shows and occasionally the guested on each other’s show to trade insults face to face. (Fred Allen: Jack Benny couldn’t ad lib a belch after a Hungarian dinner.” Jack Benny: “You wouldn’t dare say that if my writers were here.”). In the funniest scene in “It’s In The Bag!” – it approaches comedy greatness – Allen’s character finds out that Jack Benny now owns one of the chairs. The 1945 movie audience would have been entirely In on the joke, knowing all about their “feud” as well as Benny’s persona as a tightwad and skinflint – a persona that gets a workout during Jack’s extended cameo. Other well-know comedy actors and comedians that Allen encounters included Minerva Pious from Allen’s show as Pansy Nussbaum, William Bendix as a nature and poetry loving gangster who is only with the mob because he inherited the business from his mother, Machine Gun Molly; Sidney Toler is a detective who follows Allen around; Don Ameche, Rudy Vallee, and Victor Moore spoof their own images as three has-been film stars reduced to working as singing waiters; Jerry Colonna is a psychiatrist. Comedy gold. In this clip, Fred Allen introduces the movie during the opening credits:



Ixcanul (Volcano) / Jayro Bustamante (2015). My first film from Guatemala and my first in the Mayan language, or to be specific, the Kaqchikel language of the Mayan family. The film focuses on a family who lives something of a feudal existence in the modern world. They live in company housing on a large coffee plantation on the side of a volcano where the father works. Their existence is pretty much day-to-day. The only child, a teenage daughter named Maria, dreams of going to the United States but her parents are arranging a marriage for her with a middle aged widower, a manager of the plantation who lives in a higher social status and can even speak Spanish. Maria is attracted to a young seasonal worker named Pepe who is there for the coffee harvest. She asks him, “What is on the other side of the volcano.” He says, “The United States,” but quickly adds that Mexico is in the way. (When Maria asks her mother the same question, Mama answers, “Cold Weather.”) Pepe says he will take her when he goes if she is “nice” to him, but he later disappears without even learning that Maria is pregnant. This is a remarkable film that shows how families like Maria’s are trapped and exploited in ways that keep them impoverished and under the thumb of “the boss.” Yet, between the family members there is a lot of love and laughing and hope for the future while at the same time accepting their helplessness. This is not a feel-good film but in its own way is a testimony to endurance as well as a social document. “Ixcanul” was Guatemala’s entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 88th Academy Awards (the films of 2015), but was not nominated. It also won a prize at the 2015 Berlin Film Festival as a film that "opens new perspectives on cinematic art".

The Magnificent Seven / Antoine Fuqua (2016). One thing you can say for the new “Magnificent 7” is that they didn’t slavishly stick to either the plot of “Seven Samurai” nor the 1960 American western of the same title, yet they carefully referenced the older oater in several places as a tribute. On the other hand, the new film is made up of bit, pieces, and huge slabs of more modern westerns, viz. strong echoes from “Django Unchained” (a faux western from 2012) and “The Salvation” (2014) with its plot of the cruel rich man who controls a town with terror. I might even mention “Mad Max: Fury Road” as an influence because of its portrait of the Old West as almost a post-apocalyptic wasteland ruled by a cruel warlord and his army of unquestioning henchmen. In the 1960, the team leader, Chris (Yul Brynner) is given no definite motivation for helping the villagers. Even though he and the new leader, Chisolm (Denzel Washington), share the same response (“I’ve been offered a lot for my services but never Everything”), Chisolm is given a concrete revenge motive for his actions which robs the remake of a most of its myth-making ability. The finale is, pardon the expression, overkill. To wit, the town defended by the 7 is attacked by an army of 200 mercenaries who are battled endlessly as an impossible body count keeps going up and up. The actors playing the 7 try hard to create colorful characters but only Vincent D'Onofrio’s huge mountain man with an unexpected high-pitched voice succeeds entirely. Ethan Hawke comes in second as a famous and feared gunfighter who is losing his motivation. There is not much here for anyone looking for anything resembling a classic American western. This film will delight fans of the modern “action” film. I can’t find much positive to say.

"The Malta story"
"The Purple max"
"All the young men"
"In harm's way"
"The Prowler" (film noir)

During the week I watched 10 feature films, 12 short films, 3 TV episodes, and 1 internet video.

Film:

Danny Boy (1941, UK, 75 minutes) - 7.5/10. For a b-musical, this is quite good. In this film, a singer (who had spent a few years in the U.S.) returns to Britain to search for her ex-husband and son, not knowing that they are living in relative poverty as street musicians. Despite this storyline, the whole film is rather upbeat and has some comedy added in. There are a lot of references to WW2, which add some historical interest.

Men Against the Sun (1952, UK & Kenya, 55 minutes) - 6/10. Dated film. It is a drama set in Kenya in 1890, and surprisingly for such a low-budget production it was actually filmed there (this is actually a co-production between two countries, something that was starting to become common in the 1950s). The plot concerns some people trying to build a railroad and being attacked by two lions. The production company, Kenya Films, never did another film. The director, Brendan J. Stafford, only directed two other films. The writer, Alastair Scobie, only wrote two other films. All of which is reflected by the rough production values and awkward script. Nevertheless, this film offers some entertainment value despite its very dated subject matter. Unfortunately, the film print is in bad condition, and I suspect the original running time was longer.

Naked as Nature Intended (1961, UK, 59 minutes) - 7/10, but then again this film cannot be rated on the same level as most other films. You see, this was an example of the "nudie film" genre. Basically, a bunch of naked women, showing their breasts and butts, but always photographed so that the, uh, other personal part of their body is not seen. The nudity only appears in the final 20 minutes of the film, prior to that, it's actually a travelogue of the English countryside, showing off stuff like Stonehenge and an ancient castle. This is an odd approach for a film to take, I admit. But it is nicely photographed in glorious Eastmancolor, the ladies drive around in a classic American car, and the mid-century stock music is lovely. So this is not a good film, but it's enjoyable and relatively well-made (though I spotted some goofs in editing and narration), and on that note 7/10 seems fine.

Look at Life: A Car is Born (1959, UK, 9 minutes) - 8/10. A fun, breezy look into the world of automobiles. Car proving grounds, car design, car safety, and car racing are all looked into. The "Look at Life" series of shorts ran from 1959 to 1969 and were widely seen in UK cinemas. Many of these "Look at Life" shorts are available on DVD compilations.

The Misadventures of Buster Keaton (1950, USA, 63 minutes) - 7/10. This film requires a bit of explanation. In the early 1950s, Buster Keaton did a TV series called "Life with Buster Keaton", which was reasonably well-received despite only running for one season. A British film distributor felt that there was a market for a new Keaton film, and so had several episodes of the TV series edited into a pseudo-film which could be shown at cinemas. The result doesn't really work as a film, but it contains some laughs and isn't too bad (it's better than his late-1930s/early-1940s shorts for Columbia Pictures, for example).

The Villain Still Pursued Her (1940, USA, 66 minutes) - 7/10. Bizarre parody of Victorian melodrama. The cast gives intentional bad performances as part of the spoof. Inane, but amusing. Buster Keaton has a role but doesn't do any of his trademark comedy.

A Matter of Murder (1949, UK, 52 minutes) - 6.5/10. Extremely low-budget crime drama film. I didn't like the ending. But it was fairly amusing, and the director manages to add some nice touches to the film despite the low budget. This was once considered a lost film, but has since turned up in somewhat poor condition. It appears on a DVD along with two other films.

Timber War (1935, USA, 53 minutes) - 7/10. A b-movie drama starring Kermit Maynard, who was the star of various mid-1930s b-movies but was quickly reduced to doing uncredited parts. A shame, he's not that terrible of an actor. It seems very few people have seen this film, I think I'm like the 10th person to rate it on IMDb. There's some interesting footage of logging in this film, so I suppose the film might also have value as stock footage.

The Wicked Witch (1943?, UK, 2 minute) - 6/10. Theatrically-released advertisement for Rinso. No, really.

Look at Life: Down in the Dumps (1965, UK, 9 minute) - 7.5/10. This short is infamous on YouTube for a scene in which a lovely 1930s car is crushed into a cube. The short is about waste, including scrap cars and general household rubbish. It is also a plea for recycling of things like tin cans and paper, something that is surprising to see from the 1960s. I think that, destruction of lovely cars aside, this short was rather ahead of its time.

Sabotage! (1942, UK, 1 minute) - 8/10. A excellent piece of WW2 propaganda. Viewers are shown, in an amusing way, how to minimise wear on their clothing. It's unusually well-directed for this kind of short, more so given the director was only 17 years old and this was his first film as director.

Cookery Hints: Oatmeal Porridge (1940, UK, 6 minutes) - 7.5/10, but this cannot be rated on a conventional rating system. It is a cooking film (yes, a cooking film, like a cooking show but it's a film), showing how to make porridge using a haybox. This was because fuel was limited during WW2, and haybox cooking required using the kitchen stove for a lot less time.

Boots! Boots! (1934, UK, 71 minutes) - 7/10. Zero-budget comedy/musical, has some laughs. For years this film only existed in incomplete form, now a more complete copy exists, and benefits from the additional scenes.

An English Village (1957, UK, 20 minutes) - 7.5/10. An idealised documentary showing - you guessed it - an English village. This film is only 60 years old, yet it's already a time-capsule of the world that no longer exists in any way, shape or form.

His Trysting Place (1914, USA, 21 minutes) - 7/10. Decent comedy short, I guess.

The Grassy Shires (1944, UK, 15 minutes) - 7.5/10. Documentary about farming in rural England during WW2. Quite fascinating to watch.

Salvage with a Smile (1940, UK, 6 minutes) - 8/10. Fairly fast-paced film telling people why recycling is important in war time, and how to make recycling easier for the "dustman". These days we take recycling for granted, and it's interesting to see how it was sold to 1940s people.

The Diesel Train Driver: Part 1 - An Introduction to the Diesel Train (1959, UK, 7 minutes) - 7.5/10. This documentary isn't interesting in terms of being a film, but the footage contained is interesting, and that provides the entertainment value. Seeing these early diesel trains is quite fascinating.

The Six Men (1951, UK, 63 minutes) - 7.5/10. An entertaining low-budget crime drama. These kind of films are addictive!

Swing It Professor (1937, USA, 60 minutes) - 7.5/10. Highly enjoyable low-budget musical/comedy/crime film. It's instantly forgettable, but it's fun while it lasts.

A Letter for Wales (1960, UK, 21 minutes) - 7.5/10. Enjoyable travelogue, filmed partially in colour and partially in black-and-white, with interesting results.

Signal Advice (1958, Australia, 2 minutes) - 7.5/10. Theatrically-released safe-driving PSA. Nice to see those 1950s cars. The cars featured include a Holden FE and a Morris Minor.



Television:

Night in the City (telecast 14 June 1957, UK, 29 minutes) - 8/10. A documentary about life during the late night hours in a working class town. Teenagers dance to rock and roll, people watch a wrestling match, others attend a faith healer service, night watchman at work, a taxi driver declares why his job is so great, two men rid a building of rats, a Black man can't find a place to live, people drink at a bar, a child has run away from home, while others are lonely and perhaps going out of their minds.....very well-filmed and thought-provoking, this appears on the DVD set "Visions of Change: BBC 1951-1967".

"Spring and Autumn" - Episode telecast 23 July 1973 (UK, 22 minutes) - 8/10. Strange to think the writers of something as lovely as this also wrote something as horrible as "Love Thy Neighbour". This series was about an elderly man who befriends a child. In this episode, they decide to take a trip on a heritage railway. There isn't really anything more to the plot, but it has a lot of charm. The running time is odd, normally these old ITV sitcoms run about 25 minutes.

"The Fosters" - Episode titled "Who Needs Friends?" (episode telecast 18 June 1977, UK, 25 minutes) - 7.5/10. Amusing episode of the first UK sitcom to have an all-Black cast.


Internet:

"Murphey's Muskets" - Episode titled "Shooting An Original 1853 Enfield Rifle Musket" (uploaded 15 February 2015, USA, 10 minutes) - 8/10. I absolutely hate war....but I really like muskets. I guess I'm weird. By niche content YouTube standards a well-produced video.


Not viewed, but I'll mention them anyway....
I also made IMDb pages for things previously not listed on IMDb. Among these are a number of Australian television programs aired on non-commercial television. I haven't seen these rare programs. Do any of them sound interesting? Some of these survive, but none are available for viewing. The channel they aired on, ABC, is said to have been fairly stuffy during the 1960s, although I'd rather watch stuffy programs than the sensationalist programs common these days.

The Enchanted Lake (1963), an ice skating ballet fantasy.

You Can't Play Football in a Kimono (1963) - a documentary in which Australian children visit Japan and visit the cities and tourist attractions.

The Four Elements (1963) - a program featuring ballet and poetry, themed around the "four elements". The running time of 22 minutes is odd given it aired on non-commercial television...wonder what they filled the rest of the half-hour with.

Vostok 900 (1963) - a documentary filmed in Antarctica, showing a journey from Wilkes station to Vostok station.

Lake Tyers Report (1964) - A documentary about the Aboriginal settlement at Late Tyers. Running time is not clear, one source says 30 minutes and another says 45 minutes. I have no idea if this program survives or not.

Remarkable Occurrences (1964) - A half-hour documentary about Captain James Cook.

New Heart for Graham (1964) An hour-long documentary about a child who has a heart operation.

In Brilliant Company (1963) - a documentary in which the history of aviation is shown via model aircraft which were being shown at the Qantas museum.

Fisher's Ghost (1963) - An opera set in 19th century New South Wales. A kinescope of the program exists, but has yet to be digitised.

I was fairly busy last week (and am this week as well), so I only got a chance to see two or three movies last week (I write "two or three" because I watched most of one but didn't finish the whole thing).

I saw--

The Mystery of Marie Roget (1942)

A whodunit so confusing that after finishing it I had no idea not only about the identity of the murderer but also about anything that happened in the plot (and, unlike The Big Sleep, I highly doubt that was the intention). The Gothic trappings were nice, though--some scenes at the end had sets apparently based on La Boheme--and some performances were above-par (though Patric Knowles seems to be quite literally sleepwalking through his starring role, Maria Ouspenskaya is quite good for those who, like me, only knew her from The Wolf Man and its sequel, and Lloyd Corrigan is amusing as a police commissioner), so I did enjoy it, even if I didn't understand it one iota.

Murder in the Blue Room (1944)

The second remake of the quite fun '33 whodunit Secret of the Blue Room (the first was '38's The Missing Guest, which I haven't seen). Probably just as fun but still, on the whole, weaker, if only because the cast isn't as great. Amusingly enough, more time is devoted to an Andrews Sisters knockoff trio than our nominal hero and heroine! Again, it's still somewhat fun, but I still was called out and had to drop it, so I missed the last few minutes, though I know the ending from the earlier film.

Clark Holloway's Re-Edit of Dracula (1931)

An interesting re-edit of a not-so-great classic (which is still, however, one of my favorites of the Universal monster cycle). Clark is a poster over on Monster Kids Classic Horror Forum, and a few years back he realized that the editing in the Spanish-language version of Dracula is how the script originally intended the English-language version as well. So he re-edited Dracula according to the script (and the Spanish version) and came out with this version. (He and I went through hell and high water to allow me to download his re-edit, so I'm very thankful to him.) Very interesting, to be sure, but I'm not sure how much of an improvement it is--while some scenes make far more sense, others are choppier, and the whole seems not particularly better or worse than the original. Still, I greatly enjoyed watching it and seeing another take.

The Graduate(1967)  still holds up

Irene (Jean Arthur) & Paul (Charles Boyer) resigned to their fate aboard the stricken vessel the  "SS Princess Irene"  which is on its maiden voyage.

Eng. Title?