El Topo (1970)

Sam Peckinpah meets Siddhartha. Alejandro Jodorowsky's Spanish language film (the title translates as "The Mole") achieved notoriety after cinema owners started showing it at night after their regular schedule of films, becoming in effect the first midnight movie. Other then actually seeing it nothing communicates the oddity of this film better then a description of its plot, so *SPOILERS* I leave you with its Wikipedia summery:


The film takes place in two parts. The first half resembles a western; albeit a surreal one. The second is a love story of redemption and rebirth.

Part 1

The first half opens with El Topo (played by Jodorowsky himself) traveling through a desert on horseback with his naked young son. They come across a town whose inhabitants have been slaughtered, and El Topo hunts down and kills the perpetrators and their leader, a fat balding Colonel. El Topo abandons his son to the monks of the settlement's mission and rides off with a woman whom the Colonel had kept as a slave. El Topo names the woman Mara, and she convinces him to defeat four great gun masters to become the greatest gunman in the land. Each gun master represents a particular religion or philosophy, and El Topo learns from each of them before instigating a duel. El Topo is victorious each time, not through superior skill but through trickery or luck.

After the first duel, a black-clad woman with a male voice finds the couple and guides them to the remaining gun masters. As he kills each master, El Topo has increasing doubts about his mission, but Mara persuades him to continue. Having killed all four, El Topo is ridden with guilt, destroys his own gun and revisits the places where he killed those masters, finding their graves swarming with bees. The unnamed woman confronts El Topo and shoots him multiple times in the manner of stigmata. Mara then betrays him and rides off with the woman, while El Topo collapses and is carried away by a group of dwarves and mutants.

Part 2

The second half of the film takes place years later. El Topo awakes in a cave, to find that the tribe of deformed outcasts have taken care of him and set him up as a God-like figure, while he has been asleep and meditating on the gun masters' "four lessons". The outcasts dwell in a system of caves which have been blocked in — the only exit is out of their reach due to their deformities. When El Topo awakes, he is "born again" and decides to help the outcasts escape. He is able to reach the exit and, together with a dwarf girl who becomes his lover, performs for the depraved cultists of the neighbouring town to raise money for dynamite.

A young monk arrives in the town to be the new priest, but is disgusted by the perverted form of religion the cultists practice. He also discovers that El Topo is his father, who had abandoned him to the mission. He threatens to kill El Topo, but agrees to wait until he has succeeded in freeing the outcasts.

With the help of his now-pregnant girlfriend and son, El Topo creates a new exit from the cave. The outcasts come streaming out, but as they enter the town they are shot down by the cultists.

El Topo helplessly witnesses his community being slaughtered and is shot himself. Ignoring his own wounds he massacres the cultists, then takes an oil lamp and immolates himself. His girlfriend gives birth at the same time as his death, and she and his son make a grave for his remains. This becomes a beehive like the gun masters' graves.

As the film ends, El Topo's son, girlfriend and baby ride off on horseback, the son now wearing his father's clothes.

***

Billy Jack (1971)

I first became aware of Billy Jack as a favorite movie of the characters Lorelei and Rory Gilmore on the television show Gilmore Girls. I had the film marked out as something to see and about a year ago recorded it on my DVDR when it was shown during a preview of the channel EPIX Drive-In, which is a channel I kind of wish I hard permanently. Anyway it wasn't until just the other week that I finally watched it, not knowing until after I did so that the films star and director Tom Laughlin had just passed away on December 12th.

Laughlin had had a mildly successful career as an actor in the 1950's with highlights including appearances in the movies South Pacific and Gidget as well as the television show Climax! By 1961 Laughlin had completely left Hollywood to work full time in a Montessori pre-school he and his wife actress Delores Taylor had founded in 1959 in Santa Monica. In the mid-60's Laughlin started making plans to get back into film again and that eventually took the form of the 1967 film The Born Losers, featuring Tom as a character he had created for himself, Billy Jack, a half-Indian Vietnam War vet turned vigilante, basically the source material for Rambo. Anyway The Born Losers (which I have not seen) proved pretty popular with the public, popular enough to spur the making of Billy Jack and two other sequels (which I have also not seen.) Having now watched Billy Jack , I must confess that I now want to see the whole quadrilogy.

Billy Jack has the title character living in either southwestern California or Arizona and helping out a Montessori type school run by Laughlin's real-life wife Delores. The school is persecuted by local toughs, especially after they take in the abused and pregnant daughter of a sheriffs deputy who is also a right hand man to the corrupt local political boss. There's actually a suprising amount of characters and plot to this film, so I won't get into things in detail save to say that Billy Jack can only be pushed so far when the people he loves are wronged. The film is quite engaging, you never quite know where its going, and is thusly full of a lot of unexpectedly things, which are generally done very well. I totally understand how this would become a cult movie. Not for everybody, including older Gilmores, but a pretty dang original piece of film making. ***

Rashomon (1950)

Akira Kurosawa's film Rashomon is not only widely regarded as one of the greatest films of the 20th century, but also as one of its greatest pieces of art of any form. It's hard to appreciate how good the film is now because we've all seen its central conceit done so many times since then, namely showing an event from multiple characters biased perspectives (I think I first saw this done on an episode of Perfect Strangers). Its a great way to explore human biases, the mutability of memory, and the difficulty of arriving at absolute truth. The story here is of a rape and a murder and we see events  as retold by the three principle players, including one who is dead, before getting a more or less objective eye view from a witness who had remained silent. The film doesn't stop there however but shows some of the characters grappling with what these diverse retailing's mean, there is cynicism expressed, but also a desire to move beyond petty self interest into some kind of expansive humanity. This is a movie that asks its audience to think clearly and piece things together and then ask themselves introspective and existential questions about truth and humanity, and its shot beautifully. ****

Lady of Burlesque (1943)

Murder mystery based on the novel The G-String Murders by Gypsy Rose Lee, or perhaps more accurately by her ghost writer. It has a bit of a paint by numbers feel to it, as if in trying to tie a conventional who-done-it into Ms. Lee's all but trade-marked milieu of the burlesque house, the writer(s) show more concern with getting all the parts in (a love triangle here, a creepy old guy there, plenty of red hearings) then they do with the finished whole. Still star Barbara Stanwyck caries the picture by shear Chutzpah. The burlesque featured here in is no doubt greatly toned down for the production code. Moderately entertaining. **

How Did This Get Made?

Mission to Moscow (1943)

This movie is a strange cinematic artifact from that narrow neck of time when the United States was allied with the Soviet Union during the second world war. This movie was made during a time when there was a perceived need among some in the American establishment to humanize our new Russian allies, to make them more acceptable to an American public who had been taught to mistrust them since the revolution of 1917. Based on the best selling memoire of cooperate lawyer turned  American ambassador to the USSR Joseph E Davis, this feature aims to put the best possible spin on then recent Soviet history, and as a result its awkward, propagandistic, and rather troubling.

One hopes that Mr.. Davis was no where near as naïve as he comes across in this film, here portrait by Walter Huston, an actor often tasked  with playing grinding moralizers. A former Wilson administration association of FDR, Davis left a very successful private practice for the post of Ambassador to the USSR (1936-1938) specifically tasked by the president to give an honest non-diplomats eye view of the country. If this movie is at all an accurate representation of what he communicated to FDR, Davis did the Politburo's job for them.

In the course of the movie Davis treats the famed 'Moscow Show Trials' as not being show trials at all, but rather the Soviet government rooting out actual pro-German traitors. The whole trial sequence in the film is completely unbelievable, with a parade of the accused confessing under seemingly no pressure to their nefarious schemes, basically saying 'yes we were evil bad guys conspiring out of greed and pride against the great Joseph Stalin and the glorious Soviet Union' (Stalin appears in the film played by Manart Kippen in a portrayal not unlike one that might be given to a Catholic Saint). Being a lawyer himself Davis know better then to accept what the Soviet government arrayed before him. Later on in the film the Soviet non-aggression pact with the Nazi's is excused while the Russians subsequent invasion of Finland is justified.

Needless to say when the political climate in this country turned against the Soviets this movie became something of a liability to those involved in making it, studio head Jack Warner had to testify under oath about why this movie was made to the House Un-American activities Committee during the McCarthy era. Robert Buckner, one of the films produces said the film was "an expedient lie for political purposes, glossily covering up important facts with full or partial knowledge of their false presentation," and that " I did not fully respect Mr. Davies' integrity, both before, during and after the film. I knew that FDR had brainwashed him..."

The film is quite well made however, and in fact was the movie that famed Hollywood director Michael Curtiz made between the World War II classics Casablanca and This is the Army. This movie is a truly bizarre curio that feels like it came out of an alternate reality. Worth seeing for those with an interest in propaganda. **1/2

War Arrow (1953)

Largely forgettable western stars Jeff Chandler as an Major charged with getting Indian Tribe A to help the army fight Indian Tribe B in the mid 19th century southwest. Maureen O'Hara plays an army widow and Chandlers love interest. Did I mention this movie is pretty forgettable? **

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Primary (1960)

Documentary about the 1960 Wisconsin presidential primary contest between Senators John Kennedy of Massachusetts and Hubert Humphrey of Minnesota (Kennedy ended up beating Humphrey by 2-to-1 largely due to support of urban Catholic communities while Humphrey carried the rural areas). The film has minimal narration and is notable for just kind of following the candidates around with a camera, this is now a common documentary troop but at the time was   unusual. Not as much 'off the cuff' feeling stuff here as I had hopped, but it  does do a good job of capturing the candidates in full cheesy, vote grubbing, politician mode (though more so Humphrey then Kennedy). Interesting fly on the wall moment of history. **1/2

Bulworth (1998)

In the late 1990's there was a little spat of pretty sharp political satires coming out of Hollywood, most notable among these being Primary Colors and Wag the Dog. Bulworth was the lest successful financially of this trilogy (there might be more, but I can't think of any). How this movie was even made is kind of a funny story, I'll let Wikipedia tell it:

"Bulworth was made in complete stealth and released by 20th Century Fox only after protracted contractual wrangling, only for a brief period of time, and practically without any publicity. As Peter Swirski reports in his study of this film, "after 20th Century Fox backed out of producing Dick Tracy, Beatty used the leverage of a lawsuit to wangle unprecedented artistic freedom," disclosing only the barest outline of the story and essentially duping Fox into bankrolling the project."

So this subversive (in the Oliver Stone sense) movie was made subversively. Now it would kind of have to have been because this is not the kind of picture any major studio of the time would have been over joyed to make. Should 20th Century Fox have known something was up? Well they know Warren Beatty had made Reds.

Anyway the plot of Bulworth centers around a long time United States Senator from California, alliteratively named Jay  Billington Bulworth, who is facing a strong primary opponent as he runs for his 4th or 5th term as part of the 1996 election cycle. As the film beginngs Senator Bulworth is having a crises of confidence, again from Wikipedia:

"Bulworth is losing his bid for re-election to a fiery young populist. Bulworth's socialist views, formed in the 1960s and 1970s, has lost favor with voters, so he has conceded to more conservative politics and to accepting donations from big corporations. In addition, though he and his wife have been having affairs openly for years, they must still present a happy façade in the interest of maintaining a good public image.

Tired of politics and his life in general and planning to commit suicide, Bulworth negotiates a $10 million life insurance policy with his daughter as the beneficiary in exchange for a favorable vote from the insurance industry. Knowing that a suicide will void his daughter's inheritance, he contracts to have himself assassinated within two days' time.

Turning up in California for his campaign extremely drunk, Bulworth begins speaking his mind freely at public events and in the presence of the C-SPAN film crew following his campaign. After ending up in a night club and smoking marijuana, he even starts rapping in public. His frank, potentially offensive remarks make him an instant media darling and re-energize his campaign."

So this shouldn't work, both in the story sense and as a movie, but somehow it does, and in fact its oddly endearing. The rapping coming for a white sixty something liberal is (surprisingly) good, funny, and informative.. The cast is full of good character actors, including Oliver Platt, Paul Sorinvo and Jack Warden. Halle Berry, still fairly early in her career is good as a Bulworth campaign volunteer and potential love interest for the Senator. The movies balance between the cynical and the sentimental is very well maintained. Inherently awkward at points the film still manages to coalesce into something worth seeing and thinking about. I particularly liked the sequences set amongst the California black community. This is a flawed, minor classic, political tract of a film. ***

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Classic Television Showbiz

The Duel at Silver Creek (1952)

I liked this movie but I don't want to spend a lot of time summarizing it, so I will quote from the Wikipedia:

Luke Cromwell, aka the "Silver Kid" (Audie Murphy), loses his father to mine claim-jumpers. He is deputised by Marshal Lightning Tyrone (Stephen McNally) of Silver City who wants to defeat the claim jumpers. Both men fall for woman, Tyrone for the treacherous Opal Lacey (Faith Domergue), who is secretly in league with the claim jumpers, and Cromwell with tomboy, Dusty Fargo (Susan Cabot).

Standard western fair, nothing that interesting or original about it, but it was well executed and as a result likable. Interestingly Audie Murphy is only the secondary lead, Stephen McNally is really at the center of events and gets probably a little more screen time. The fact that this film was shot in color helps it, its a pleasant looking picture. Some times an uncomplicated Louie Lamour-ish story just hits the spot. **1/2

Rain (1932)

This is one of several film versions of the W. Somerset Maugham story Miss Thompson. More specifically Rain is an adaptation of the 1923 play of the same name that was adapted from Maugham's story, and like many films of its time that come from plays this movie feels oddly stage bound (especially for a story set in the south seas) and very talkie. The story concerns the passengers of an ocean liner who are unexpectedly forced to stop and stay in American Samoa after something happens to their boat (the movies not real clear on what happened with the boat but I read on line that it might have been a cholera outbreak on board).

Among the passengers put ashore is the prostitute Sadie Thompson (Joan Crawford) who is fleeing legal troubles in the States, and the party of Alfred Davidson (Walter Houston) a "moral reformer" and missionary and Dr. Robert MacPhail (Matt Moore) and their wives. These characters all end up staying in the same lazily decaying hotel in Pago Pago, where Davidson becomes obsessed with either saving Miss Thompson, or ensuring that she gets severely punished for her life of sin. Dr. MacPhail tries to calm Davidson down and intercede for Miss Thompson, who was on her way to (I think) Tahiti to take up a legitimate job working for a friend. Davidson however will not budge and uses his political influence to force the governor of the island to agree to send Sadie back to the States where she expects to go to prison. The stress and trauma of this is enough to  cause Sadie to have a breakdown and become extremely pliable to Davidsons wishes. But by this time his reformers zeal has given way to baser desires, and things will not end well for him.

I'd have to agree with what the Motion Picture Herald said about this film:  "Because the producers have made such a strong attempt to establish the stern impressiveness of the story, it is rather slow. In its drive to become powerful, it appears to have lost the spark of spontaneity....Joan Crawford and Walter Huston are satisfactory." Crawford is playing a role kind of similar to Bettie Davis's in Of Human Bondage and Huston plays the kind of excessively moralizing role he was often expected to carry in films of this time such as Gabriel Over the Whitehouse and Dodsworth.  Everyone does what they can with this material, director Lewis Milestone even manages to work in a few interesting tracking or angled shots, and the seat design is appropriately moody (the constant rain effect even works for the most part). However I don't think that film is the right medium for this story, on the stage or the page this was likely more satisfying stuff. **1/2

The Landlord (1970)

A year before gaining cinematic immortality with his cult film Harold & Maude, Hal Ashby directed his first movie, an adaptation of African-American novelist Kristin Hunters 1966 novel The Landlord. Prior to directing Ashby had made his mark as director Norman Jewison's editor of choice, earing an Oscar for his work on 1967's In the Heat of the Night. As a lapsed Mormon from Ogden, Utah the anti-establishment themes of his directorial work may well have stemmed from an unhappy childhood. Watching this film I couldn't help but think what a middle finger it was to Mormon racial dogma of its time. This is not to say that racism is anything near a Mormon monopoly, though the films boldness in pointing out racial insensitivities is pronounced in a way that would have rubbed many contemporary Mormons, white southerners and others 'the wrong way'. Though not entirely uncritical of the urban black populace as regards a stream of self pity, the films big satiric guns go for the white establishment, most memorably conveyed in uneasy scenes at a costume party, and one of a wealthy white family having an argument with strong racist overtones as their black servants serve them the various courses.

The plot of the film centers on Elger Enders (Beau Bridges in one of his few screen roles in which he rivals his brother Jeff in lackadaisical coolness) the younger son of a respected, wealthy, WASP family, who at 29 finally purchases his own place, a tenement house in Brooklyn. At first Elger intends to evict the current tennets and dramatically remodel the building to his own tastes, but his contact with said tenants changes his mind. The story conceit of a man raised in a closed off society coming to embrace members of another social strata, and different race seems kind of trite and obvious when we think about it today, but then, and particularly in the way this movie does it, it was bold, so non-schmaltzy or romanticized, it is something to behold. This is not a movie about minimizing cultural differences, those differences are there and they matter, this is not a movie about making 'blacks' seem more 'white' for white audiences (as say Guess Whose Coming to Dinner largely was), but a movie about acknowledging those differences and then telling the white audience members to take care of the beam in there own eye before worrying about the mote in the others.

This is a bold film, but its also a clever one, its got unique editing flourishes, including the kind of  'peak into the characters mind' cutaways that wouldn't become main streamed until say Alley McBeal in the late 90's. The characters are often ideocentric but full (see again the works of David E Kelly). The aura of the film is kind of proto-hipster, but without trying to be. This is what distinguishes the work of Ashby and makes it to my mind superior to his later imitators, especially Wes Anderson who always seems to be trying too hard, Ashby makes this look easy, almost off the cuff. As impressive a first film as your likely to find out of any director, though sadly it seems to have been largely forgotten. A real find. ***1/2

Killing Kennedy (2013)

Based on the best selling book by Bill O'Reilly and Martin Dugard, this is a television movie made for the National Geographic Channel, yes apparently they do air the occasional TV movie. Anyway the format is a dual biography, covering roughly the five year period ending with the first Kennedy assassination. The Kennedy part of the film we've all seen many times before, a largely hagiographic greatest hits real of Jake (Rob Lowe) and Jackie (Gennifer Goodwin, now the second Big Love wife to play this particular first lady) , who really do love each other in spite of everything. The really interesting part the film is the lesser know story of  Oswald (Will Rothhaar, who nails the grandiose self obsessiveness of his character) and his Soviet born wife Marina (Michelle Trachtenberg, who is a better actress then you might expect her to be). I now feel even more sorry for Marina then I did before watching this film. I also think that its important we remember that Lee Harvey Oswald was a communist, a haunting fact when seen in the stories cold war milieu, and one that is often overlooked in the wider conspiracy mania now associated with this turning point event in American history. Better and more informative then expected. ***

The Untouchables (1987)

Directed by Brian De Palma and written by David Mamet this film has a fine pedigree. Based loosely on the 1957 ghostwritten memoirs of Elliot Ness, which in turn served as the inspiration for the popular late 50's early 60's TV show of the same name staring Robert Stack. The Untouchables movie is a kind of reboot of the entire prohibition gangster genera, grittier and better written then what came before, but still conveying the essence of what constituted the genera and made it popular. It is hard to imagine there being a Boardwalk Empire (currently one of my favorite shows on television) with out there first being 1987's The Untouchables.

Even with its pedigree and cast, which included Kevin Costner at the height of his popularity and Robert De Niro having a ball as Al Capone, there apparently was some trepidation from the studio about the film. That didn't last long however as the movie was very well received by audiences and critics and went on to be one of the most successful films of 1987, which itself was a pretty good year for movies. This may also have been the film that started Sean Connery's late career renaissance.

The film has a lot of memorable actions pieces in it, the most iconic of which is 'the baby carriage sequence' that was later parodied in the 3rd Naked Gun movie and doubtless elsewhere. While its name is The Untouchables its characters aren't, or at lest not fully. The good guy stay committed to certain general principles, but even more to each other and take some legal liberties along the way. One aspect of the film which lends it an air of moral complexity is that 'The Untouchables' are enforcing a law, Prohibition, which they know to be untenable and don't really agree with, yet it is the law. Ironically they will break other laws to enforce it, I like's me some good moral complication. A very solid film that is everything it could be, very enjoyable both as action and drama. ****

The Night Stalker (1972), The Night Strangler (1973)

Based on the unpublished novel The Kolchak Papers by Jeff Rice, The Night Stalker was a TV movie made for ABC in the early 70's, its was popular enough that a second tele-film was made for the network a year later The Night Strangler, which was itself followed by a full television series that ran from 1974-1975 (a series reboot, tie-in novels and comics would follow later). The films and series are acknowledged for runners to the later, and more successful X-Files Franchise. In fact the latter shows creator Chris Carter wanted to have Kolchack star Darren McGavin reprise his role as  on his series, McGavin declined to play Kolchack again but did appear as another character (agent Arthur Dales) on the program in the late 1990's.

Carl Kolchack is an investigative reporter, tenacious, but with a habit of getting himself fired. Now in middle age Kolchack is working for a paper in Las Vegas, he is investigating a series of murders of young women that start to look more and more like they may be the work of a vampire, which of course they are. Kolchack tries to get somebody, anybody to listen to him, but of course he is rebuffed by the police, his editor, his colleges, ect. This in turn gives birth to what will turn out to be Kolchacks standard formula, he is right about a supernatural element in a recent crime spree, but no one, or  almost no one, will believe him, and in the end he defats the bad guy and gets the story, but no one will publish it and he is forced out of town (in Night Stalker it's Las Vegas and a vampire, in Night Strangler is Seattle and a 144-year old alchemist). Kolchack also tends to end up with beautiful young girlfriends, which is the wish fulfillment part of the show.

The first film was really fun, it felt clever and original, the 2nd film though the plot is arguable more interesting and better constructed still  feels mostly like a re-tread of the first film. Doubtless this how the TV series will largely feel, but these movies are still good enough, and McGavin likable enough that I am interested in watching the TV show. Kolchack in short has the makings of a guilty pleasure.

The Night Stalker ***
The Night Strangler **1/2

In Like Flint (1967)

Sequel to the 1966 movie Our Man Flint, gives us further adventures of America's suave ladies-man, super-genius, super-spy Derek Flint (James Coburn). This time Flint is pitted against a group of uber -powerful feminists in tenuous league with a radical faction of the US military to rule the world through control of a newly launched orbital platform. This plot offers a certain degree of symmetry with the first film, where the plot involved a very male chauvinist groups plot to rule the world. In addition to Coburn as Flint, Lee J. Cobb ( I always like Lee J. Cobb) reprises his role as Lloyd C. Cramden, Flints former boss at the spy agency, now in charge of the launch of the orbital platform. Like its predecessor this film is a parody of James Bond, but its plot is more coherent and grounded then the later Austin Powers films. This movie is loaded with attractive women, some well done action sequences, and a surprisingly substantive sub-plot for Mr. Cobb. Andrew Duggan plays both the U.S. President and his villainous doppelganger, Dugan would go on to play real world presidents Dwight Eisenhower in the mini-series Backstairs at the Whitehouse and Lyndon Johnson in  the movie The Private Files of J. Edgar Hoover. ***

Disco Godfather (1979)

Yes I admit it, the only reason I watched this movie is its awesome title, sadly it doesn't really deliver. There is disco sure, but most of that is dispensed with in the first 20 minutes, and the organized crime aspect is there, but not anywhere near the level of The Godfather. The 'Disco Godfather' of the movies titles is in fact an ex-cop named Tucker Williams (Rudy Ray Moore) who has reestablished himself as the "Disco Godfather", owner and chief DJ of a popular night spot. When Tucker's beloved nephew Bucky (Julius Carry) nearly overdoses on "Angle Dust", Tucker leads a small group of concerned locals in an effort to take down the PCP operation of some guy whose name I can't be bothered to look up. The acting here is consisting some of the worst I've ever seen in a film, and I've seen Ed Wood movies. I swear the guy who plays the police Lieutenant must have been helping to finance this thing because I don't see how otherwise he's not kicked off the project after his first line reading. Unexpectedly this movie is surprisingly boring, except for the last ten minutes or so when the bad guys capture the Disco Godfather and get him hopped up on PCP. That is crazy, but it can't save this sadly disappointing example of blacksplotation cinema. *1/2

ABC Movie of the Week Channel- Youtube. Made for TV flicks from the late 60's and early 70's.

Dracula: Prince of Darkness (1966)

Belated "true sequel" (ignore 1960's tangential and misleadingly titled The Brides of Dracula) to the 1958 Hammer Studio release Horror of Dracula. Set 10 years after the events of the first film (that would place this movie some time in the 1890's), Van Helsing has moved on, and while paranoia about vampires continues throughout Transylvania, things have been pretty safe on that front for the last decade. In fact a local, Grizzly Adams type monk named Father Sandor (Andrew Keir) has a bit of a hard time keeping the locals from needlessly impaling there recently deceased through the heart, you know just to make sure. Anyway Father Sandor comes across two English brothers and their wives traveling through the country on vacation, he invites them to come and visit him at his monastery and cryptically warns them away from the Karlsbad area they are thinking of visiting (home to Castle Dracula).

The English of course ignore the good Father and journey to Karlsbad anyway, their carriage driver freaks out and leaves them alone in the woods so the four stranded tourists make way to the  nearby castle. There they are greeted by and fed by the castle keeper Klove (Philip Latham) who informs them that it was his late masters desire that the castle be kept open as a sanctuary for any stranded visitors that may come across it. Three of the four seem more then happy with their luck by one (Barbara Shelley) is terribly freighted by the place remembering Father Sandor's warning. Well its not long before Barbara is turned into a vampire after Klove brings his master back from the dead- dead by spilling the blood of Barbara's husband (Charles "Bud" Tingwell) on Dracula's ashes laid out in a coffin (kind of ingenious way for the writers to bring back Christopher Lee).

Lee's Dracula doesn't say much, well anything except hisses in this film because apparently the dialogue written for him to say was so awful he just refused to say it. The morning after Dracula's resurrection the castles two remaining guests (Francis Matthews and Suzan Farmer) can't find the others and leave the castle, but then come back, but then get away again, and then end up in Father Sandor's monastery, but Dracula comes after Suzan and ect ect. The movie ends with Dracula plunged under some ice into freezing water that will no doubt preserve him to come back to life in the half dozen or so remaining sequels in this Hammer Franchise. All in all a satisfactory Dracula outing that paves the way for the doubtless increasingly campy sequels to come. **1/2

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The Tingler (1959)

Early William Castle horror gimmick film with Vincent Price. Price plays Dr. Warren Chapin a pathologist who has developed a theory that extreme fear in humans manifests as a physical creature he calls 'The Tingler', that attaches its self to the spine which it is capable of breaking should its host be unable to release its tension through screaming, once the host screams however the 'The Tingler' dissolves into nothingness. Eager to prove his theory Dr. Chapin conducts an ethically wanting experiment on a deaf mute women, a 'Tingler' is brought into being and kills her. Because she did not scream the 'Tingler' continues to exist, proves nearly indestructible and gets lose. The highlight of the film on its original release was  a scene in with  'The Tingler' getting lose in a movie theater, Castle had little joy buzzers attached to seemingly random seats in the theaters which were activated during that scene to create a surprise 'tingling' sensation for unlucky audience members. Sometimes this effect would be heightened by having paid actors scream in the theater during that sequence.

A ridicules movie really, it holds together surprisingly well, the actors play things straight and once the silly rules of the movie are established, they are never deviated from. There is even a pretty good twist thrown in near the end that I really didn't see coming, Castle's track record with his movie twists compares well with M. Night Shymalan's, I'd say they both work about half the time. The Tingler is a strange, enjoyable movie that works better then you might expect. ***

The Abominable Dr. Phibes (1971)

Vincent Price horror/schlock vehicle set in 1925 London finds the awesome voiced one playing Dr. Anton Phibes, who is not a medical doctor but rather a wealthy and famous organist who has doctorates in music and theology. Dr. Phibes is presumed dead in a car accident which followed shortly on the death of his beloved wife Victoria Regina Phibes (an unaccredited Caroline Munro, appearing only in photographs). But years after his suspected demise Dr. Phibes returns from the dead to murder the nine member medical team who failed to save his wife in surgery. He dispatches the team via elaborate executions inspired by the Biblical ten plagues of the Book of Exodus, such as having one doctor stung to death by bees, a nurse eaten by locusts, that sort of thing. (A very similar premise in structural conceit is followed by the 1973 Price film Theater of Blood, where failed actor Price kills hostile critics through elaborate tortures inspired by Shakespeare's plays.)

Scotland Yard Inspector Harry Trout (Peter Jeffery) suspects that there must be some kind of connection in regards to this recent spike in highly ideocentric deaths of medical professionals, and eventually he tracks things back to the Victoria Phibes case, and enlists the aid of the chief surgeon there of Dr. Vesalius (Joseph Cotton). Phibes, Trout and Vesalius eventually have something of a final confrontation but Dr. P gets away paving the way for a sequel Dr. Phibes Rises Again released the next year. In the end Scotland Yard only manages to save the life of one of the nine, so congratulations to inspector Trout on figuring things out, but you still leave a lot to be desired in your execution, or more precisely your ability to prevent them. Oh well, maybe next film.

My one huge nit about this movie has to do with Dr. P's beautiful but silent assistant Vulnavia (Virginia North). It is never revealed where she came from, or how it is Dr. Phibes knows her. Now we do know that Dr. Phibes is using Vulnavia as his public face, as it were, in carrying out his cryptic plans, and that the doctor somehow funneled a large portion of his estate into her name following his supposed death. But where did she come from? Dr. Phibes is suppose to be obsessively in love with his late wife, so how come he had a pliant babe so handy when he despaired from the world. This would be an important plot point to know, but it is completely and unsatisfactory dropped by the filmmakers, resulting in my writing this paragraph long rant. Otherwise this movie is a mildly satisfying piece of Price horror camp. **1/2

The Lepord Man (1943)

This Val Lewton produced horror 'thriller' is not one of his best. A serial killer in New Mexico is murdering young women in such  a way that at first there deaths are blamed on a leopard. Potentially intriguing premise, and slightly unusual location hold promise, but films is rather plodding and the leads (Dennis O'Keefe & Jean Brooks) are terminally bland. Even the killer didn't have a lot of effort put into him, the most interesting characters are the three victims, who gets nice little character vignette's before they are dispatched off screen. Sadly forgettable. **

Gravity (2013)

Director Alfonso Cuaron's first film since the excellent 2007 feature Children of Men. It was Alfonso's son Jonas who convinced his father to get back in the directors saddle and make this film which the two of them co-wrote. It is the story of a disaster in space, (which not to give too much away is the Russians fault) that strands two astronauts (Sandra Bullock and George Clooney) in space and kills the rest of their shuttle crew. The film is done in close to real time, and is quite hart ponding, it has a kinetic off kilter cinematography as there is no up and down in space and your constantly moving. It is technically very much a triumph, the space effects mostly quite convincing and with the glut of making of DVD features anymore I am usually not interested in how visual effects are achieved, I've seen it all, but this one I am genially curious to learn more about.

There is not a ton to the plot, if the movie can be said to be about anything its about the will to live, and of course the visual experience. The writing is a little bit lazy in shoe horning in a stock back story for the Bullock character, but her performance is quite strong, this looks like it would have been an exhausting shoot and she certainly conveys the sense of strain someone in her characters position would undoubtedly be feeling, George Clooney meanwhile coasts by mostly on charm. Defiantly a film worth seeing on the big screen and in the 3D  format it was shot in, its a film that conveys pretty much everything its got to say to you directly on screen so there is not a lot of subtext to analyze. Its one of those movies that is an experience more then anything. ***1/2

The Return of the Living Dead (1985)

The film that is generally considered as the true start of the modern zombie movie, Night of the Living Dead, didn't really become a pop culture phenomenon until after repeated television showings in the 1970's. The two writers of that film George A Romero and John A Russo had different visions of what they wanted to do with the now re-invigorated property and parted ways, with Russo retaining the rights to the 'Living Dead' title and Romero free to make his own, ultimately better known series of zombie flicks. Various circumstances kept Russo from making an additional zombie film until 1985 and by that time his vision for the franchise may well have changed. While Romero's films are noted for their subtext of social commentary, Russo's work is decidedly more tongue in cheek.

From the Wikipedia plot description of this movie:

"At a medical supply warehouse in Louisville, Kentucky, a foreman named Frank tries to impress the company's newest employee, Freddy, by showing him military drums that accidentally wound up in the basement of the building. The drum contains the remains of an army experiment gone wrong that inspired the film Night of the Living Dead. Frank accidentally unleashes the toxic gas inside the barrel. Frank and Freddy discover that the body inside the tank has disappeared, believing it to have probably melted. The gas reanimates a corpse inside a meat locker, forcing Frank and Freddy to call upon their boss and warehouse owner Burt Wilson to help them deal with the situation. When the three fail to kill the walking cadaver by damaging its brain and decapitating it, Burt decides to bring the zombie to the nearby mortuary to have its dismembered parts burned in a gambit to destroy it once and for all."

So there you get something of a sense of the movies tone, its a sort of sequel to Night of the Living Dead, only in this film Night of the Living Dead is treated as a heavily fictionalized version of the 'real events' this movie is a true sequel to. While the zombies in Romero's and most subsequent zombie films are relatively easy to kill, you just destroy the brain, Russo's zombies are much more freighting in that they are almost impossible to 'kill', you destroy the brain, you slice them up, they still keep coming at you. These zombies differ from the now generally accepted Romero from in other significant ways, they eat only living human brains rather then all kind of living flesh, they are re-animated corpses in the truest sense not merrily the recently deceased victims of a 'zombie virus', and they are considerably more intelligent, capable of group planning and speech. These latter attributes also make them seem sillier then Romero's zombies.

Despite how terrible and freighting these zombies are, here they are mostly re-animated corpses in various stages of decay from a Louisville cemetery that are brought back to life by the leaked chemical from the medical supply warehouse (though a couple of characters exposed directly to the chemical later join their number, and possibly some of the brain eaten victims as well), this movie is played kind of for laughs. It's a dark comedy, moments of terror intermixed with moments of ridiculousness. In addition to the employees of the medical supply warehouse you have the kind of acerbic director of the neighboring funeral home and a group of 80's style punk rocker youths, the friends of new warehouse employee Freddy. There is also an army colonial based in California who has been charged with eliminating the zombies at all cost should those long missing barrels from the failed army experiment of the 1960's ever show back up. It is because of this latter characters actions that the movies end becomes even more apocalyptic then it might otherwise have been.

One the whole this is an odd but satisfying film, enjoyable for having a take on zombies so different from that of the current norm.  ***

Hitchcock (2012)

In 1959 Alfred Hitchcock was on top of the world, his bright Technicolor thrillers such as North By Northwest were making fortunes, he had a top rated television series and was recognized and admired all over the world. What Hitchcock wasn't however was cutting edge (any more) and that's what he wanted to be. So along comes Psycho, author Robert Bloch's novel based loosely on the life of Wisconsin murder and grave robber Ed Gein. This gruesome property was quickly snapped up by Hitch and with the weight of industry opinion against him the 'master of suspense' mortgaged his own home to get his movie made. In black and white, inspired by an unpleasant  true story, a quarter of the budget of his previous picture, little advertising, and with undertones of homosexuality and mother obsession, not to mention losing its female lead less then halfway through the story, Psycho quite unexpectedly become a phenomenal, cinematic touchstone, career highlight of a success  (Budget $806,947, Box Office $50,000,000).

Based on Stephen Rebello's 1990 non-fiction book Alfred Hitchcock and the Making of Psycho, director Sacha Gervasi's film tells the behind the scenes story of a landmark films creation, from Hitchcock's initial desire to shatter the expectations of all he had done before, to Psycho's ultimate great success. Now Hitchcock pads things, its not a documentary and I'm not sure how much strain Alfred and wife Alma's marriage was going through during all this, and I don't much care either way because the weakness of the film is inherent in the conceit of its basic plot, its just about making a movie, and we know how this one turns out, so its not a lot to hang a 98 minute dramatic narrative on.

The best thing this movie has going for it is Anthony Hopkins as Hitchcock, he does an amazing imitation, with the voice, and in all that prosthetics, but I honestly think it would have been put to better use hosting a new version of Alfred Hitchcock Presents. Helen Mirren plays Alma Reville Hitchcock, she's always good and Mrs. Hitch is interesting, but the marital difficulties here feel pro-forma, I'm sure he wasn't the easiest man to live with, but I'm sure she had her ways of dealing with it, they were married for 54 years after all. Scarlett Johansson and Jessica Biel are eye candy who play eye candy of a different era, Kurtwood Smith plays the Breen Office, James D'Arcy suitably brings out Anthony Perkins fay qualities, and Michael Stuhlbarg is safely cast as Lew Wasserman but sadly given the perfectness of this has very little to do.

In short Hitchcock is just an okay movie about a really impressive movie. **1/2

Boise Classic Movies

Classic Nick Online

Rome, Open City (1945)

After Mussolini's ouster from power in mid 1943 it was not long before the remaining Italian government found its self no longer capable of defending the capital and declared it an 'open city', a Nazi occupying force quickly took over and held Rome until the Allies took it in June of 44'. Six months later Roberto Rossellini begin the filming of Rome, Open City based on a screen play co-written by Frederico Fellini, which came about as a fictionalized amalgam of what started as two different documentary projects, one a film about the patriot priest Don Pieto Morosini who assisted the resistance in the' open city' days and was killed by the Nazi's, and another about Roman children who fought the Nazi's during the occupation. With the Italian film industry literally in ruins Rome, Open City was made on the cheap, used real locations, and mostly non-professional actors.

The movie is a slice of life tale about occupied Rome, it tells the stories of a number of different players in the resistance, including a patriot priest (an impressive performance by Aldo Fabrizi), an atheist resistance fighter (Marcello Pagliero) and his pregnant semi-lapsed Catholic fiancé (Anna Magnani, amazing performance) as well as a group of young boys who have formed themselves into a resistance unit, but whose use of home made bombs on occupying targets ultimately draws unwanted Nazi attention to the tenement complex where most of the characters live. A very important early example of what became known as the Italian neo-realist school of film making, Rome, Open City is a dynamic, heart felt, jagged, character infused, tale of courage, all the more remarkable for the hard circumstances of its production, and its incredible proximity in time to the resistance, I mean all involved were making a movie that could have gotten them executed for treason less then a year before. An important and fantastically good film that would be an important addition to anyone's film literacy. ****

Niagra (1986)

As part of  my recent vacation I went with my tour group to a first generation IMAX theater in Niagara Falls, Ontario to watch this 41 "docu-drama" about the famous falls. Basically Niagara is a bunch of little vinyets about highlight moments in the history of the falls, including an Indian legend about its origin, the journey of a former tour boat down the river, a guy who tight rope walked half way across the falls, a middle age lady who went over the falls in a barrel with her cat, and a young boy who survived going over the falls after a boat accident on a family outing in the 1960's. Now the quality of the acting, the costuming (except for the last sequence when they didn't even try to make it look like the 60's), and the style of the music and cinematography kept making me think of the early 1990's church film Legacy, and when the first title card came up in the credits I knew why, 'Directed by Keith Merrill'.

Now my mom grew up with the Merrill family in the San Jose area of California in the 1960's, so I'm more aware of Keith's work then I might otherwise be, though growing up LDS and visiting the Legacy Theater in SLC several times I couldn't help but encounter his work. Keith Merrill was long the go to director for LDS Church produced features, they probably got the idea because this Mormon filmmaker did short touristy films for places like Niagara Falls and the Alamo. As Legacy and later The Testaments: Of One Fold and One Shepard would be the tourist oriented films shown at Church venues like Temple Square, the choice must have felt right. Anyway Merrill has a style that's readily identifiable, its hooky and idealistic, of a best face forward temperament. I've long been curious to see the film that won Keith Merrill his first Oscar early in his career, the 1973 documentary The Great American Cowboy (he later won a second Oscar, in this case for best documentary short for Amazon in 1997), but this early film is surprisingly hard to find.

Niagara is fine for the kind of movie it is, though since they've been showing it at the falls for almost thirty years it might be time for the local tourist board to think about updating it, Keith Merrill's probably available. **

The Velvet Mouse Show

Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011)

This most recent effort to revive the once prominent Planet of the Apes franchise is far more successful on nearly every level then was the disastrous 2001 Tim Burton reboot. (As a side note I remember hearing in the 1990's that Oliver Stone of all people was interesting in doing a remake of Planet of the Apes with Arnold Schwarzenegger, I'm pretty sure that would have been a disaster as well, but probably a more interesting one then Tim Burton's rather pointless and uninspired effort. Moving on). Screen writers Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver's new take servers as an origin story or jumping off point for what 20th Century Fox no doubt hopes will be a long and success series of films, and I'm pretty sure at least one of those predicted future films will deal with the crew of the first manned mission to Mars as this movie goes out of its way to mention them although it has no bearing on the immediate plot. Also (spoiler) there is that plague the apes are immune too which is hardly dealt with in this film but will doubtless be the catalyst for the Earth becoming a 'planet of the apes'.

The plot of this movie has to deal with Dr. James Franco and his efforts to come up with a cure of Alzheimer's as his father Jon Lithgow has that tragic disease. Dr. Franco is testing the potential cures he is working on on Apes, his viral-based drug "ALZ-112' shows promise until one of the test apes "Bright Eyes" (wink, nod) goes nuts and the project is terminated with the surviving apes on the serum all slated to be exterminated. One Ape, a new born  James names Caesar, is saved however and taken home by the doctor to live with him and his father. Caesar shows that he has inherited the heightened intelligence his mother had developed as a result of James drug, Dr. Franco studies him and keeps working on his serum which he eventually gives to his father to great effect, at least temporarily. James also gets an obligatory love interest in the form of a veterinarian played by Freida Pinto (note to studios, more Freida Pinto please).

The ape Caesar is played by the Olivier of motion capture Andy Serkis and is the best thing in the film, which is rather odd when you think about it.  Much of this movie is from an apes perspective, and Caesar, a non-human is by far the most developed and nuanced character in the film. Now I'd say this mostly works, but it also kept tugging at the back of my head throughout the film as I watching a lot of humans die at Ape hands, its a weird position for a viewer to be in loyalty wise. Not great, not bad, but intriguingly original in its take on a nearly half century old movie property. ***

To Boldly Flee (2012)

The third movie in the TGWTG (That Guy with the Glasses) Website 'Anniversary trilogy', proceeded by Kickassia and Suburban Knights. TGWTG is a website that hosts various comedic reviewer 'personalities' who discuses and skewer, in character, various pop culture products like movies, video games, comic books ect. For three years most of the better known reviewers got together to create multi-part 'anniversary movies' for the website. Each year the movies actually got more ambitious, and even contained semi-legitimate character arcs.

Like the previous entries in this series To Bold Flee is largely a combination of website in-jokes and pop culture references, the plot cut, pasted and riffed on various films it parodies, in this case large portions of the film (even down to extended dialogue sequences) consist principally of  plays on such movies/franchises as Ghostbusters, Star Wars, Star Trek, and The Matrix. This is also the film where website creator Doug Walker killed off his principle character 'The Nostalgia Critic', a decision he fairly quickly regretted as he brought the character back from the dead about seven months later.

I found this film quite enjoyable and well done, the special effects especially good and appropriately tongue in check for this kind of production. Despite having much backing in website in humor, the plot is coherent enough that you could watch it without  being familiar with the website, though it would doubtless be kind of  a surreal experience. The movies build on each other well and this film (video) is more emotionally effective if you've seen the previous entries in the series. There is nothing quite like this series, and the care and enthusiasm with which these movies were made makes them something kind of special. ***

Clear History (2013)

Like John Wayne, or more obviously Bob Hope and Woody Allen, Larry David has a basic character he has refined and plays in nearly all of his work, namely that of a fussy, self-obsessed, socially awkward, sabotager of self, and HBO's surprisingly big modest scale comedy Clear History is the perfect vehicle for him, pun intended. David plays Nathan Flomm, a veteran advertising man who has gotten in on the ground floor of a California based company hopping to put out the first affordable mass market electric car in America. However Nathan has a falling out with his boss Will Haney (Jon Hamm, showing again that ultimately what he wants to do is comedy) over the latters decision to name the new car after his son Howard. Nathan doesn't think that Howard's an appropriate name for a car and says so loudly, ultimately agreeing to take up Wills offer to by out his share in the company before the vehicle is released. Needless to say given the kind of movie this is 'The Howard' is tremendously successful (I'd drive one) and Nathan has lost out on the Billion dollars he would have netted on his former share of the company.

Extremely embarrassed at being known as the man who foolishly lost out on a billion dollar investment at the 11th hour, Nathan goes underground, changing his appearance (early in the film he sports wild hair and a massive beard), and reinvents himself on Martha's Vineyard with the  new identity of Rolly DaVore, he gets a job as the care taker of an older women and becomes surprisingly well liked by the locals. Only after 10 years on the down low it looks like Rolly/Nathans old life might come back to haunt him, when his now multi-billionaire former boss decides to build a massive mansion on the Vineyard. At first Rolly thinks he's going to have to pick up an leave again, but when he catches a late night showing of the movie The Fountainhead (for whose protagonist Will's son, and by extension electric car model are named) Nathan gets the idea of blowing up the mansion, thus driving Will from the island forever.

Nathan via the agency of his best friend Frank (Danny McBride) recruits two locals  to blow up the mansion, Joe Stumpo (Michael Keaton) and "Rags" (Bill Hader) who are rednecks and particularly resentful of Will for building on what was once Stumpo family land. However they need both a fuse and an in at the site, which results in Rolly having to purchase the former from a shady Chechen named Tibor (Live Schreiber, unaccredited), and quit his job with the old lady to get the latter, guilting Philip Baker Hall into giving him a job on his construction team because he once found the mans lost dog years ago. On the job site Rolly accidently strikes up a friendship with Wills young trophy wife Rhonda (Kate Hudson), who seems unhappy and who Rolly convinces himself is romantically interested in him. What better way to get back at Will then to steal his wife out from under him thinks Rolly, but Stumpo and Rags have their hearts set on blowing the mansion up, and Tibor is after Rolly for more money for a fender bender he had with the formers Howard, while simultaneously the Chechen is courting Rollys newly slim friend Jennifer (Eva Mendes), and Rolly also just must know if the rumors he's heard about his ex-girlfriend Wendy (Amy Ryan) and members of the soon to be visiting band Chicago (who provide the movies sound track) are true. The awkward thus escalates until it ends in a perfect self defeating crescendo.

This is a  fun, satisfying comedy, which while boosting a large all-star cast, thanks to the fact that its a cable TV vanity project doesn't have to try too hard, which relives it of the kind of financial pressure which makes so many comedies opt for the safe and routine. Clear History is not routine, rather its a lightly quirky little gem of a comedy. ***

Cloud Atlas (2012)

When I first heard/saw images from the movie Cloud Atlas I knew that I wanted to see it. The more I read about the movie however the more I came to the conclusion that I should really read the book first. Cloud Atlas, both book and movie are very epic in scope and somewhat complicated in structure, I even read one reviewer state, and I'm paraphrasing, that you basically need to have read the book first as a sort of atlas to help you find your way around the movie. So I read the book.

David Mitchells 2004 novel is an epic, philosophical mediation on a number of subjects, as well as an impressively pulled off exercise at writing in multiple voices, styles and genres', and yet having the six tales that comprise the book be complimentary and add up to a much greater whole. The movie is also quite impressive, the late Roger Ebert called it "one of the most ambitious films ever made", and indeed the film is reminiscent of  the silent epic Intolerance, with its multiple store lines set in different times but all built around the same theme or subject matter, which in this earlier case being 'intolerance.'

A film adaptation of a novel, especially one as epic and multi-layered as this one, is forced to cut, compress, and change things in order to be workable, but the hope is always (or should be always) to stay more or less true to the spirit of the source material, Cloud Atlas the film does this well.  I'd say the film stays about 60% true to the book story wise, with the most faithful segment being The United Kingdom 2012, and the lest faithful probably England and Scotland 1936, which leaves out a major romantic sub-plot and relocates its setting from Belgium to the UK. As part of this necessary compression the films three directors, Tom Tykwer and Lana & Andy Wachowski center there philosophical mediation on the  maxim "only the strong survive" or in this rendering "The weak are meat the strong do eat" as a kind of law of nature that is periodically upended when brave individuals rise above themselves for the sake of others, and that it is this rebellion against the natural order that constitutes the essence of what makes one truly civilized.

This theme is played out through the stories of an American lawyer traveling the South Seas in the mid 19th century, a struggling English composer during the great depression, an investigative reporter in 1970's San Francisco, a sixty-something book publisher in the contemporary UK, a cloned waitress in 22nd century Korea, and a struggling goat herder in the post-apocalyptic ruins of 24th century Hawaii. The film emphasizes the link between these characters and stories as being symbolic of the human condition, or looked at another way as evidence of re-incarnation, by casting largely the same group of actors in multiple stories lines, sometimes under unrecognizable layers of makeup, sometimes playing characters of different genders. So needless to say there is an awful lot going on here in both stories and visuals, and that can no doubt be overwhelming and off putting to some views. I myself have wondered how I would have received this movie had I not read the book first.

These theoretical reservations aside however I think there is an awful lot in this movie to go away impressed, and even moved by. It's extraordinarily well put together, where is its editing Oscar, the main cast's a fine one including Tom Hanks, Halle Berry, Hugh Grant, Jim Broadbent and Hugo Weaving, though on occasion they can be sort of awkwardly worked into some stories. The sets, visuals, costumes, all show tremendous dedication to detail, and while I have a long standing tradition of acting put off at the Wachowski's all but inevitable (Speed Racer excluded) instance on ostentatiously loading their films with material from a freshman philosophy class, here I thought they were appropriately restrained, you come to the films meaning more or less on your own, they don't club you over the head with it, save lightly at the very end.

All in all a dammed impressive project that shows there is still a lot of freshness and vibrancy available to the film medium, even when its put in the service of mining some of human civilizations oldest questions. ***1/2

The Handmaid's Tale (1990)

Film adaptation of Canadian author Margaret Atwood's 1985 dystopian novel of the same name. The story is set in the near future in the Republic of Gilead, a theocratic military dictatorship that has arisen out of a recently collapsed United States. Our protagonist Kate (Natasha Richardson) is a former librarian who is captured by Gilead forces when she attempts to flee the country to Canada along with her husband and child. Because increased environmental pollution has greatly reduced the number of women capable of bearing children and Kate has proven herself fertile via the existence of her young daughter, she is taken by the government to serve as a "handmaiden", a position apparently derived from  the Biblical story of Sarah giving her handmaiden Hagar to Abraham in order to conceive a child. Kate is assigned to be a handmaiden for an important military leader (Robert Duvall) and his rather bitter wife (Faye Dunaway).

Atwood's original novel is basically a long monologue by its protagonist and deals mostly with very internal subject matter via a stream of consciousness narrative that goes back and forth through time as intruding memories interrupt Kate's rendering of her time as a handmaid. This structure presents difficulty when it comes to adapting the story as a film, and this movie can in no way convey the full power and subtitley of Atwood's excellent novel, however it does succeed as a dramatic work in its own right.

The cast is high caliber, the writing strong, the aesthetics intriguing. It is a tale of life under an American Taliban, a subject matter surely more resonate now post 9/11 then it was on original release. Nothing is explicitly spelled out for us in much detail relating to how the world of the film came to be, or even really how it works, or doesn't as the case may be. I actually like that in a work like this, especially given how much of this has to work on a metaphorical level. Gilead is not a likely society to consume the US, though doubtless there is a sizable minority who would like to see something like it put in place. However a policy change here and a new law there and some societal pressure in between can move a nation in a given direction, and here in a story born of an outsiders perspective of an increasing religious right influence on Regan era America, a worst case scenario is put forward, to scare us back a little. This movie, and more so the book it was based on do this, and they make it interesting. ***

The Spy in Black (1939)

The Spy in Black aka U-Boat 29

British "quota quickie" based on the WWI espionage novel of the same title by Scottish author J. Storer Clouston. This movie is most notable as the first teaming of director Michael Powell and writer Emeric Pressburger, the duo would go on to have a successful multi-decade movie making partnership and become collectively known as "The Archers" or just "P & P". Having now seen this film, which I'd long been curious about, my first instinct is to assure you that the duos work gets better with subsequent films. That is not to say that The Spy in Black is a bad film, it was pretty well received in its time and today should be regarded as fair in quality.

The story is perhaps a little complicated and has to deal with German efforts to get British navel plans from a disgruntled officer. This scheme requires kidnapping a young women on her way to the Isle of Hoy to serve as a new school teacher and replacing her with a German agent, it also requires secreting a German U-boat Captain onto the same island to met with the treasonous English officer. Like later Archers films with their strong evocations of a particular British setting, like I Know Where I'm Going with the Isle of Mull or  A Canterbury Tale with, well Canterbury, The Spy in Black evokes its isolated location in the Orkney Islands, a small chain north of Scotland that due to its out of the way  location was an important safe staging point for British vessels during both World Wars.

The story does have one pretty good twist that I honestly didn't see coming, but is talkie without being much involving (something that is not an issue in later P&P films), and the action sequences not particularly thrilling. The movie does however show signs of the structural innovation that would become a P&P hallmark, and the teams instance on bringing depth to German characters who might otherwise just be throw away villains. **

Dogville (2003)

This film was first introduced to me ten years ago on Ebert & Roper as being something of an anti-American film. Now given that its director Lars von Trier is a self righteous European type and seemingly famous for being anti-most things, its perhaps not surprising that he would make a film that is widely perceived to be anti-American in nature. But it is in the context of the time in which the film was produced, the lead up too and early stages of the second American lead war against Iraq, that the film is perhaps best understood. The film is a parable, the meaning of which is don't trust Americans, they may appear to be largely harmless though notability low brow folks at first glance, but given the right circumstances they become pretty repugnant monsters.

The staging of the film is interesting, its like a minimalist stage play. There is one set, seemingly a warehouse environment with the various houses and buildings of the town of Dogville (a mythic every town USA said to be located in the Rocky Mountains of a Great Depression era United States), drawn in chalk with minimal prop and set accompaniments. The narrative structure is divided into 9 chapters and a prolog and there is a regular narration by John Hurt that is descriptive enough that the audio track of the film could easily be released as a book on tape. These production elements that harken to the stage or literature are counterpointed by the all star international cast of the piece that includes the diverse likes of Nicolle Kidman, Lauren Bacall, Chloe Sevigny, Paul Bettany, Stellan Skarsgard, Ben Gazzara and Patricia Clarkson.

The plot concerns Grace Margaret Mulligan (Kidman) the runaway grown up daughter of a big time gangster (James Caan) who is fleeing her father for a place where she can live with her moral principles. An aspiring young writer/philosopher Tom Edison Jr. (Bettany) who lives in Dogville with his retired doctor father (Philip Baker Hall) befriends Grace and convinces her to let him call a town meeting (Dogville has a population of about 25) on weather or not to grant her asylum as her mob background potentially threats the towns folks safety. Tom Jr. convinces the locals to give Grace a two week trial period to decide weather or they want to continue to shelter her from searching gangsters and local authorities. At Bettany's urging Grace offers to do odd jobs for free for the local towns people to try and endear herself to them, at first this is not received well as the locals are too proud to take that kind of charity, but when the people are convinces to start thinking of Grace's efforts not as doing things they need to be done, but rather things that they would like to be done, well things go much better.

After two weeks the people of Dogville unanimously vote to grant Grace asylum, they even start to pay her some for her efforts, and convert an old building from the towns former mining days into a permanent residence for her. Things go really well for a while, until the towns peoples baser natures start to show through. Hank (Stellan Skarsgard) raps her, and a ten year old boy Grace has been tutoring (Miles Purinton) begins to blackmail her into giving him spanking that he sedo masochistically enjoys. Things get increasingly worse until Grace is literally kept as a slave by the people of Dogville, chained to a heavy weight and used to satisfy the sexual appetites of all the men in town except for Tom Jr. who really loves her, but in time himself will turn against her. The townsfolk blame Grace for her troubles, insisting she brought them upon herself, that they are really being quite generous to her, and refusing to acknowledge among themselves the horrible things they have done to her. The meaning I suppose is that Americans are full of themselves and can never acknowledge the evil that they do, that they heedlessly inflict destruction thinking they are doing good. That Iraq really has weapons of mass destruction and they are freeing the people from a ruthless dictator, never mind the death and civil war they leave in their wake.

You can take or leave this interpretation of the film, but I found it an effective examination of the problem of evil even if you completely disregard the then contemporary political overtones. Self righteous and judgmental at times to be sure, what morality play isn't, but also probing and forces the viewer to confront head on the evil that people (not just Americans) do. Perhaps this even one of von Triers more watchable films. ***

We Have A Pope (2011)

We Have A Pope aka Habemus Papam

Italian film billed as a reluctant pontiff comedy has some dramatic heft and ultimately doesn't go in quite the direction I thought it would. The most common description of the film (the one you find on its IMDb page) goes as follows: "A story centered on the relationship between the newly elected Pope and his therapist." Now based on this description alone I can write a pretty standard endearing comedy in my head, but the fact of the matter is that the two central characters, Cardinal come Pope designate Melville (French actor Michel Piccoli) and the atheist psychologist brought in by the Vatican when the new Pope refuses to appear in public (Nanni Moretti, also the films director) spend very little screen time together. Early on Melville escapes from his Vatican handlers and strikes out by himself in Rome, needing some time to reflect on the awesome responsibility of the new position he's been asked to hold, while the never named psychologist is forced to stay cooped up in the Vatican as the Conclave never officially closed and no one is suppose to leave, in part to prevent leaks to the media.

Melville ends up in the company of a group of actors and we learn that being an  actor is what the old man had originally wanted to do with his life, but his sister rather then he was the one admitted to an acting school. Moretti, hold up with a bunch of aging cardinals, tries to practices his wears on them for a while, but mostly ends up playing cards with them, and eventually organizes a round robin volleyball competition among the various colleges of cardinals, which is the films comedic high point. Despite his longing to be an actor, and a perfect set up to allow him to appear on stage as one (the troops lead actor has something of a psychic breakdown and Melville knows his lines) the film choses not to take the obvious route, nor does atheist Moretti ever achieves a spiritual epiphany among the cardinals, nor are they much influenced by him. In fact the ending was a surprising downer, but not an inconsistent one given what comes before. On the whole a clever bit of somewhat insightful film making. ***

Elysium (2013)

Elysium explores the same old socio-metaphorical trope of the rich living above and the poor living below that has been traipsed throughout the history of science fiction in works ranging from H.G. Wells The Time Machine, and Fritz Lang's Metropolis to that one episode of the original Star Trek.  The exact meaning of the films name, which  in context refers to an 22nd century Earth orbiting space station which houses this planets refugee wealthy, I had to look up, according to Wikipedia:

Elysium or the Elysian Fields (Ancient Greek: Ἠλύσιον πεδίον, Ēlýsion pedíon) is a conception of the afterlife that evolved over time and was maintained by certain Greek religious and philosophical sects and cults. Initially separate from the realm of Hades, admission was initially reserved for mortals related to the gods and other heroes. Later, it expanded to include those chosen by the gods, the righteous, and the heroic, where they would remain after death, to live a blessed and happy life, and indulging in whatever employment they had enjoyed in life.^{[1][2][3][4][5][6]}

So in short, and drawing a pronounced though not explicitly stated reference to contemporary economic discourse, the 1% enjoy a life of idealic pleasure calling the shots for the rest of humanity up on Elysium, while the other 99% toil out a meek subsistence on the overpopulated, polluted Hades that is the Earth circa 2154. Our hero is Max Da Costa (played as an adult by Matt Damon), an orphan raised by a group of Catholic sisters in a third world ghetto of Los Angelis, who goes on to have a criminal career as a thief and spend some time in prison, before deciding to go straight and landing a job at a factory that produces law enforcement robots.

In the course of the film Damon is accidently exposed to a lethal level or radiation at work and given some very effective pain suppressing medication and five days to live. He then decides to take up the offer of some old criminal associates to work with them on the planed kidnapping of a visiting executive from Elysium, who happens to be Max's old boss at that the plant (William Fichtner). The crooks intend to steal some valuable information that has been downloaded into Fichtner's brain, and in exchange promise to smuggle Max onto Elysium where there advanced medical technology, which they cynically withhold from the poor people of Earth, could actually cure him.

Thrown in for complication are Max's childhood sweetheart Frey (Alice Braga) whose Leukemia stricken young daughter could certainly use some of that Elysiuon healing technology, and the space stations French Secretary of Defense Jessica Delacourt (Jodie Foster) who is plotting a cue against Elysiums pseudo-liberal (but really doesn't care about people much) President Petal (Faran Tahir),  and oh Sharlto Copley as a crazy mean South African sleeper agent Delacourt assigns to retrieve Fichtner's super-secret brain information from Damon. A good, serviceable action movie, it doesn't ask too much of you, and delivers about what you'd expect.

One of the things that surprised me about the film, though I didn't really fully realize it until after seeing the film and doing some reading about it online, is that the film can be considered a critique of open boarders and cultural 'invasion'
from the south. The LA of the film is in essence a Latin American slum, and Damon one of a very few white characters you see there. The wealthy are concerned about preserving there way of life, and by extension culture, so the Caucasian and Asian characters have built themselves a sort of gated community in space, complete with spacious villas under a sort of Dysoinion bio-sphere. So liberals and conservatives both have cultural critiques they can potentially applaud in this film, though I wonder how intentional the later is. ***

Repulson (1965)

Directed and co-written by Roman Polanski and released three years before his better known horror masterpiece Rosemary's Baby, Repulsion is a very original, finely crafted, effective, and even landmark physiological horror film in its own right. The story is centered on the character of Carole/Carol Ledoux (very effectively portrayed by Catherine Deneuve) a native of Belgium who lives in a London flat with her older sister Hélène/Helen (Yvonne Furneaux), we are never given much background information on the sisters and why they are in London, but it is implied that their family was once well off but is not now. Carol works in a high end beauty salon doing nails and such for rich older women, Helen's job is never made explicitly clear but seems to be more professional in nature.

Carole, being played as she is by miss Deneuve is a breathtaking beautiful women, yet her character is very shy, keeps to her self, and seems very uncomfortable with anything involving the male sex. Carole is pursed by a nice guy would be suitor named Colin (John Fraser), we never learn how they met (any kind of background information is kept at a minim in this movie, which really works for it), but Colin is very taken with her and tries to see her whenever he can, he acts very patient with Carole but inwardly is quite frustrated by his seeming inability to make real headway with the young lass. Carole doesn't like physically contact, she is repulsed by anything sexual is nature, and is openly cold and disapproving of her sisters boyfriend Michael (Ian Henrdy). Yet Carole does have sexual desire, she just bottles it up, unable for some unexplained reason to deal with it. Deneuve's performance is littered with the tiny, personal ticks and quarks of her character, she constantly plays with her hair, touches her lips, rubs her arms, and does other things to simulate a physical contacts she craves, yet can not truly abide.

Carole in short is a women on the edge, but seems to have been that way for so long that the people who know her, to the extent that anyone in this film can be said to truly know her, just kind of deal with it, and don't make a fuss. They don't realize just how close she is to a psychic break, and she starts to really go over the edge when her sister leaves with her boyfriend for a 10 day vacation in Italy. Carole is morose, doesn't clean up the apartment, misses work, becomes paranoid, starts having visual hallucinations of walls cracking, auditory ones of people in the outside hall at night, and eventually seemingly physical ones of a man she'd seen on the street rapping her. Alone most of the time she retreats more and more into herself, and starts acting increasingly child like, hiding under the bed, reciting singsongy nonsense words to herself, ironing cloths wit the iron unplugged. The few people she interacts with don't know how to help her, or even how to interact with her, and that in the end will prove very dangerous for at least one of the them.

Repulsion is a horror film, but its also a psychological case study, and is grounded in a sense of the real world that makes what happens all the more terrifying. A quite, brilliant piece of writing, acting, and directing, Repulsion still stands as a truly unique and unsettling, piece of innovative, even daring film making. ****

Lured (1947), Ted (2012), Man Hunt (1941)

Lured

A serial killer of young women taunts the London police with cryptic poems, inspector Henry Temple (Charles Coburn) of Scotland Yard recruits an American dance hall girl (Lucille Ball) to serve as bait, after her best friend is murdered by the killer. This noir mystery is not the kind of film we usually associate with Ms. Ball, and its also not the kind of film you generally think of when you think of its director Douglas Sirk, who is best known for a series of beautifully colored 1950's melodramas (Lured is in black and white as fits its genera). The film is uneven, Lucille Ball's Sandra Carpenter appears to be the main character for much of the film, but disappears for most of the movies final third which concentrates instead on Henry Temple, Sandra's love interest Robert Flemming (George Sanders, yea!) and of course the killer. For a good chunk of the film Sandra's search for the killer leads her to a number of red hearings, one of which is a mentally unhinged former dress designer played (or rather mugged) by Boris Karloff, which feels rather tacked on (Studio Boss: You know we haven't used Boris in a while...) Still its an entertaining, and enjoyably unique film. **1/2

Ted

This Seth McFarlane directed comedy boasts an enviably brilliant comic premise, a lonely little boy in 1980's Boston wishes the stuffed teddy bear he got for Christmas would come alive, and he does. Needless to say this was a big deal when it happened, warranting international media coverage and a guest appearance for the bear on Johnny Carson (well done video tomfoolery using an "ALF" guest appearance to insert the diminutive Ted on the classic late night program). But as the films easily distracted narrator Patrick Stewart reminds us, 'no matter how big a deal you may become, sooner of later nobody's going to give a shit'. So flash forward nearly 30 years and Ted (voiced by McFarlane) is still living with a now grown John Bennett (Mark Wahlberg) and the latters girl friend Lori (Mila Kunis). What was cute when they were children is now just odd that they are adults, and both John and Ted are very much adults.

Per pressure from friends causes Lori to put pressure on John to "stop spending so much time with Ted", so the walking, talking stuffed bear moves out on his own and gets a job at a grocery store. But John continues to spend more time with Ted (often getting stoned) then Lori would like and this puts pressure and her and John's relationship, also Lori's arrogant boss (Joel McHale in the Joel McHale part) has designs on Lori and hopes to break her and John up. In addition there is a kidnapping sub plot and a guest appearance by the star of the 1980 film Flash Gordon Sam J. Jones.

The film is often crude but mostly good natured and pretty darn funny. I loved the general acceptance of the characters that there would be this talking stuffed bear walking around, and how he's kind of a b-grade celebrity with people occasionally stopping him to get pictures taken with him, and how Ted seems fine with this. The movie fits perfectly in the slightly crude, man child, gene-X pop culture infused, children's programing for adults niche that director star McFarlane has carved out for himself, and one wonders what on Earth kind of movie he's going to make next. ***

Man Hunt

The journey from page to screen for the story of Man Hunt was an unusually quick one. Author Geoffrey Households 1939 topical thriller Rouge Male  went from serial magazine publication, to novel, to major motion picture in just two years. The story is about a legendary but retired English big game hunter Captain Thorndike (Walter Pidgeon) who a few months before the outbreak of the second world war travels to Germany with his rifle to see if it would be possible for him to take out Adolph Hitler. Now the question of whether Thorndike was doing this as just a vanity exercise to prove to himself that he could do it, or if he really intended to kill the German dictator is debated throughout the film, with Thorndike himself appearing psychology unsure about his own motivations. Well whatever the intent was Thorndike is captured by the Germans on the property of Der Fuhrers mountain retreat, and a German officer who goes by the name of Quive-Smith (George Sanders again, yea) who himself is an amateur big game hunter, seems sure that Thorndike was acting as an assassin for the British government, (Thorndike's brother Lord Risborough (Frederick Worlock) is in fact a British diplomat).

Quive-Smith tries to get Thorndike to sign a confession implicating his government in an assassination plot agents Hitler, which the Germans in turn intend to use as propaganda fodder for the war with the UK they are already planning. Thorndike refuses, the Nazi's torture him for a while, and then decide to push him off a cliff in the mountains and make like his death was a hunting accident, only they miscalculate and throw Thorndike into a marsh, and he survives and gets away. The wounded hunter eventually makes it to a port where an English cabin boy (Roddy McDowall) aboard a Danish freighter helps hide him an smuggle him back to England. But the Nazi's, now lead by John Carradine, follow him determined to use him for propaganda purposes. Now in London a desperate Thorndike takes refuge with a beautiful British girl named Jerry (Joan Bennett), who depending on how you read the film is either a prostitute or a seamstress, who takes quite a shinning to him. Thorndike's a little big oblivious to Jerrys obvious affections but still doesn't want to see the girl hurt, and turns her away when she insists on accompanying him to the English countryside where intends on hiding until things 'blow over'. Things don't turn out as Thorndike had hopped.

Man Hunt is a call to arms and very obviously anti Nazi film that was made in the US, with a largely British cast and an ex-patriot German director (Fritz Lang) months before American involvement in the war. This movie very clearly skirted, all right violated the neutrality act then in effect in its blatant advocacy for US involvement against the Nazi's, in fact it was slated to be a subject of congressional hearings on 'alleged' Hollywood violations of the neutrality act, but those hearings were canceled after the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor and American entire into both theaters of the war. A solid, norish chase film with good performances, the story is more them somewhat contrived, but reasonably effective as the propaganda that it is. This was also the start of a long standing working, personal, and rumor has it romantic relationship between director Fritz Lang and actress Joan Bennett, who would do much of her best work under the directors supervision. ***1/2

Monty Python's The Meaning of Life (1983), The Thing That Couldn't Die (1958)

Monty Python's The Meaning of Life

A return to their roots for the Monty Python team, instead of a semi-coherent story like Holy Grail and Life of Brian, The Meaning of Life is a collection of short skit-like segments arranged around a general thematic journey from birth to death. Some times I think Python is brilliantly funny and surprisingly smart, and I can admire the audacity of the idiosyncratic humor and their  multi-million dollar movies largely made for their own amusement, and then sometimes their just juvenile and gross. This is a little of column A and a little of column B, I think it works better as a film them Life of Brian, but Holy Grail will always be there most iconic work. This movie simultaneously has both the most cross-dressing and the most breasts of any Python film. It boasts some dang catchy music, as well as some surprisingly good effects in places, and Terry Gilliam's 17 minute "supporting feature" The Crimson Permanent Assurance is one of the great vanity projects of all time (it should have been a cartoon, so he did it live action). **1/2

The Thing That Couldn't Die

The funniest thing about many a vintage sci-fi/horror movie is the absurdity of their plots, that is certainly the case here. On a struggling dude ranch in southern California a young "water witch" (Carolyn Kearney) warns her aunt (Peggy Converse) and the visiting archeology student she's in love with (William Reynolds) against digging up a 400 treasure chest she locates on the property. She is of course ignored, and before long two hired hands on the ranch have freed an animate, telepathic severed head (Robin Hughes) of a wayward member of the Francis Drake expedition. Said head wants to find his body which was also buried in the vicinity and if he has to break-up some other guests engagement, kill a few people, and get Carolyn to start dressing like a member of an interpretive dance troop to do it, he will. But will he succeed.... kind of, but on the whole no. Really its the absurdity that gets you through this movie, that otherwise has very little budget, and very bland talent (but a lot of hutzpah). **

White House Down (2013), The Man (1972)

White House Down

I was genuinely surprised how much I enjoyed this movie. For the kind of film it is, its just about perfect. Action, a little bit of comedy, which seemed to have been enjoyed more by the audience I was in the theater with then myself, but no matter, decent twist, good performances, and all in all Roland Emmerich trying to make up for Anonymous. The film follows the directors tried and true general contours, wreaking monuments and a strained father child relationship that must be healed. Jamie Foxx is Barack Obama, Channing Tatum is action lead, and James Woods is most fun when he's evil. ***1/2


The Man

Another black president movie, perhaps the first. Adapted by Rod Serling from the novel of the same name by Irvin Wallace, this was originally a made for television production but apparently did get some theatrical distribution. When the President and Speaker of the House are killed in a building collapse and a critically ill Vice President demurs the position, the black President pro tempro of the Senate Douglass Dilman (James Earl Jones) is elevated to the Presidency (at the time the President of the Senate was elected to that position by his colleagues, today it goes to the longest serving member of the majority party in that body).

Now there are a lot of ways a film with this set up could go, but this movie choses to focuse on how President Dilman deals with a young a black American (George Stanford Brown) who may or may not have attempted the assassination of the South African Defense Minister, and whether or  not to honor that notoriously raciest regimes request for extradition. Dilman handles himself admirably on this point, though it takes him a while to really assert himself in his new office. A mildly though provoking little curio of its time, though it might have worked better as a TV series. ***