What classics did you see last week? (10 Jul to 16 Jul 2017)

Late Jul 9 to this hour Jul 16

SHOW BOAT (1936) Dir: James Whale. The final big Universal production under its founder Carl Laemmle Sr. This musical is a truer adaption of the 1927 Jerome Kern-Oscar Hammerstein II Broadway musical than the studio’s previous version in 1929 (although that one was more faithful to Edna Ferber’s novel). Directed by James Whale, featuring a cast familiar to the subject, whether they were in the original production (Charles Winniger, Helen Morgan) or other major stage versions (Irene Dunne, Paul Robeson) alongside Allan Jones, Helen Westley, Hattie MacDaniel, and Charles Middleton. Viewed this on Warner DVD-R.

MYSTERY SCIENCE THEATER 3000: THE GIANT GILA MONSTER. Dir: Ray Kellogg. Today’s subject has Joel Robinson (Hodgson) and his robot pals Crow and Tom Servo watch Ray Kellogg’s 1959 B-movie concerning Teenagers, singing, and the title subject (actually a Mexical lizard on miniature sets). Don Sullivan’s impromptu “I sing whatever I sing” would be a point of reference in later episodes. This episode, aired during its 4th season, aired in June 1992, twenty-five years ago. Since the fourth season was a favorite of mine, I’ve decided to watch the rest of its episodes (the ones I have) this year as anniversary viewings. I watched this one on the series’ Volume 10.2 DVD set (it was a replacement entry when the original Volume 10 was discontinued due to possessing a film- GODZILLA VS MEGALON- that was not cleared by its owners). Rhino.

THE MIRACLE WORKER (1962) Dir: Arthur Penn. Based on the Broadway play (itself based on a TV-play based on Helen Keller’s autobiography), this film deals with Annie Sullivan’s efforts to educate the deaf-blind child Helen Keller into communicating despite of her handicaps. Starring Anne Bancroft and Patty Duke, reprising their stage roles, the play has been adapted several more times (one with Duke as Annie), but this is the popular version. The film’s recognition by the Academy Awards would be a plot-point in the recent series DUEL: BETTE AND JOAN.

WHOOPEE (1930) Dir: Thorton Freeland. Based on the Broadway musical, this two-color Technicolor production (one of the few that survive with its color intact) began Eddie Cantor’s film career as well as introducing Busby Berkeley and Alfred Newman (and Betty Grable) to audiences (the play also gave the world “Making Whoopee”, “My Baby cares for me” and- deleted from the film “Love Me or Leave Me”). I remember watching parts of this one on the Nostalgia Channel in 1991 and later- complete- as part of an Eddie Cantor Prime Time Broadcast Week on American Movie Classics this month of July, 25 years ago. Viewed on HBO Video VHS.

NARUTO SHIPPUDEN “Nine Tails, Captured!” Based on Masashi Kishimoto’s manga series, Naruto’s battle with Pain reaches a setback ending with the Jinchikuri now under Pain’s entrapment. DVD Set 14 by Viz Media.

THE TIME OF THEIR LIVES (1946) Dir: Charles Barton. One of the few Abbott and Costello comedies where the pair are rarely together. Costello’s partner in crime is Marjorie Reynolds, joined as ghosts of Revolutionary War-era civilians accidentally mistaken for accomplices in the 1780 West Point conspiracy (by Benedict Arnold and John Andre), killed and cursed to eternal wandering in an estate. 160 years later, the estate has been restored as a museum piece, recently visited by a historian and his friends (one of whom- Abbott- is a descendant of an Estate servant). Horatio and Melody (the ghosts’ names) see a chance to find a document that would reveal their innocence and end their ghostly exile. First saw this one on American Movie Classics in 1991 (one of my sisters actually liked it, and we even pretended to be Horatio and Melody haunting a house). Viewed this one on a VHS recording of a 2004 TCM airing (with the late Robert Osborne doing an intro).

ROMEO AND JULIET (1936) Dir: George Cukor. Irving Thalberg’s 1941 or HEAVEN’S GATE (Expensive obsession project that made little money) if you will, made at a brief time Hollywood toyed with adapting Shakespeare until this film’s poor performance made the Bard ‘Box Office Poison’ for years. I know the drill for 25 years: overproduced, and the actors (Thirtyish Norma Shearer, Fortyish Leslie Howard, Fiftyish John Barrymore) are too old. Feh, I liked it (it was probably my first intro to Shakespeare, first viewed it back on Showtime 1991). Interestingly, it was her wish to play the Nurse that prevented Edna Mae Oliver from reprising the role of Panthy in the 1936 SHOW BOAT, a role she originated on Broadway. Viewed on Warner DVD.

A PLACE TO CALL HOME “A Nagging Doubt”, “Good in a Bad Way”, “When You’re Smiling”, “Home Roost” An Australian-made TV series about a Jewish-Left-Wing woman (not to mention former-Holocaust survivor) trying to start a new life in 1950s Australia. These episodes are from the fourth series. Acorn DVD.

MYSTERY SCIENCE THEATER 3000: TEENAGERS FROM OUTER SPACE Dir: Tom Graeff. Z-list sci-fi about a conscientious alien visitor (David Love) to Earth trying to prevent his kind from conquering the planet (Either the director or the star lost his mind and went Holy Prophet). This presentation also aired 25 years ago this summer. Personally, the skits were the highlights, with Joel and the Bots discussing the differences between Reel Life (the alien getting a rent-free apartment with a lovely girl-next-door and kind landlord) and Real Life (unpaid rent leads to a cardboard box, a girl whose a high-school dropout slob, and a landlord drug addict who looks into your underwear drawer) and a reproduction of the now-defunct ‘General Cinema Snack in Space’ bumper. Volume 6 DVD set. Rhino.

Let's see--what did I see?

The Black Swan ('42), which was great swashbuckling fun, with Tyrone Power and (especially) Laird Cregar giving hearty and hilarious performances.





Malice ('93), a somewhat awkward thriller that was fun but confused; it felt that the writers didn't even know what they were intending.


The twists were not entirely unexpected, but that was not my major problem with them; rather, they didn't evolve organically out of the characters, but seemed instead obviously written, out of a writer's box of tricks. That's a significant problem with many modern "twist" thrillers, in my opinion. Still, the film is worth watching at least for Nicole Kidman's performance (the script is bad, but she does wonders with that bad script) and for Anne Bancroft and George C. Scott's cameos.






Rio Lobo ('70), the third (and weakest) of Hawks's "trilogy" of films in which the Duke played pretty much the same character. ("Why would I read the script, Howard? I've already done the damn movie twice.") Ironically, the Rio Bravo parts are actually the weakest; the train derailing and robbery that opens the picture is well-filmed and interesting. Wayne plays Wayne, but the supporting cast is weaker than Rio Bravo or El Dorado. Not bad, but not great either--middling.






Spartan ('04), a superior thriller done in pure Mametian style. I'm a huge Mamet fan, and I nearly always enjoy even his weaker films (or plays). Val Kilmer gives the best performance of the movie--a cold, nigh-inhuman killing machine, forced to reconsider the concept of human emotion--but Kristen Bell and William H. Macy come close. Mamet does have surprises up his sleeve, unsurprisingly, but the surprises are less important than the people involved, and the picture ends up as far more verisimilar and convincing than, say, Malice. A very fine picture, in which meaning and story are intertwined.






Fracture ('07), another superb thriller, particularly fascinating for the way in which Anthony Hopkins plays on and twists his Hannibal Lecter performance for a man who (we know) has killed his wife but whose guilt cannot be proved. Good performance from Ryan Gosling, but the show is all Hopkins's, and--God!--does he make the most of it. I guessed a major twist (about the gun), but I missed the central clue, and it was all greatly satisfying. Again, the twists are based in the characters-as-revealed, and thus more convincing and clever. Particularly memorable for Hopkins's gleeful subversions of the American legal system. My only real criticism is that the ending seems a bit too pat

Matthew the Swordsman

Sherlock Holmes and the Baskerville Curse was probably one of the first Holmes pictures I ever saw when I was young. I remember liking it because of its fidelity to Doyle's book (unlike the '39 version, the only other one I'd seen), but then I haven't seen it in years and years--and it's probably not half as fun as the '39 picture.

River Of No Return(1954) nice to see MM in some scenes without her usual garish makeup--beautiful scenery in Western Canada

Following a few threads I stumbled upon two movie that I watched on youtube,

 1948, dir Lawrence Huntington with David Farrar, Marius Goring and Greta Gynt. An elderly British schoolmaster is upset when a new teacher comes to the school and is an immediate success with the boys. Someone called it the dark side of Mr Chips. 7/10


1949 dir Anthony Pelissier with Valeire Hobson, John Howard Davies (Oliver Twist) and Ronald Squire. A young boy receives a rocking horse for Christmas and soon learns that he is able to pick the winning horse at the races. A really creepy movie as it goes along, and not a comedy. 8/10

F/X 1986 dir Robert Mandel, with Bryan Brown, Brian Dennehy, Diane Venora, Thriller, A movie special effects man is hired to fake a real-life mob killing for a witness protection plan, but finds his own life in danger. It hasn't aged well, though still entertaining enough. 7/10

An American Werewolf in London 1982 dir John Landis, with David Naughton, Jenny Agutter and Griffin Dunne. Horror with comedy. Two American college students on a walking tour of Britain are attacked by a werewolf that none of the locals will admit exists. Fullblooded horror movie with tons of humour that works very well. 9/10

Out of Africa 1985 dir Sydney Pollack, with Meryl Streep, Robert Redford, Klaus Maria Brandauer. Based on a true story-Romance-drama. In 20th-century colonial Kenya, a Danish baroness/plantation owner has a passionate love affair with a free-spirited big-game hunter. Winner of 7 Oscars, though none for the actors. Big movie that doesn't feel overwhelming. 

Repeat Viewing:

Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory

First time viewing:

The Lodger 7/10
The Asphalt Jungle 7/10.