To Be or Not to Be (1942)

While later re-made by Mel Brooks as a film which I remember as being rather blah, the original To Be or Not to Be is still fresh, bright, and brimming with wit, in short it has the Lubitsch touch. Made during the second world war its a comedy set in occupied Poland and concerns a theatrical troop that must use its talents to dupe the Nazi's concerning a double agent who could potentially cause the collapse of the Polish resistance movement. Kind of a ballsy production to mount at a time when Hitler was alive, winning, and technically not yet our enemy during most of the period of production. The films stars are Jack Benny, who is really good in a variation on his standard send-up of himself, and Carole Lombard, who sadly died in a plan crash before this film was released, there is also a young Robert Stack in the cast as well as a bunch of enjoyable character actors. A real testament to the truism to 'stick with the original', this 'To Be or Not to Be' is certainly 'To Be.' ***1/2

Little Big Man (1970)

This movie has been on my list of films to see since the 1990's. Sort of a subversive 'anti-western', based on the novel of the same name by Thomas Berger the film tells the story of a young man (played as an adult by Dustin Hoffman, who at this time in his career was hitting everything out of the park) raised by Indians and his Forrest Gump like adventures on the great planes of mid 19th Century America. The film is full of great character parts for performers from Martin Balsam, to Faye Dunaway to Chief Dan George, who is the best part of the movie, all do respect to the rest of the talented cast. The production has a number of tonal shifts, and handles those well which not everybody can do so kudos to Arthur Penn. A smart satire with its share of poignancy, not a lament for the passing of an old west, but a lamination on an old west that has rightly passed. ***1/2

Child Bride of Short Creek (1981)

Child Bride of Short Creek is a 1981 made-for-TV movie built around the 1953 raid on the Short Creek polygamist compound in Arizona. The Short Creek raid was the biggest on a polygamist sect in the US up until that time, not topped until the 2008 raid on the FLDS Church's 'Yearning for Zion Ranch' in Texas. While the Short Creek raid is interesting in its own right, that's not truly the focus here, but rather the forbidden, because its psychological healthy, romance between a young Diane Lane and the guy from The Blue Lagoon (Christopher Atkins). The film also stars a young Helen Hunt,   E. T. mom Dee Wallace, and the dad from 'Diff'rent Stokes' Conrad Bain, who is suitably creepy as the polygamist 'prophet'. Most notable for the appearance of some of the young stars involved, this movie is also a then rare depiction of post 19th Century polygamy in America, something we see much more of in our popular entertainment now (see Big Love and Sister Wives). Not bad for the kind of movie it is. **1/2

The Cabinet of Caligari (1962), The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (2005)

A classic of German, silent, expressionist horror, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari has spawned a number of bastard children, here we will briefly look at two.

The Cabinet of Caligari is a British horror film scripted by Robert Bloch, who is best known for writing the novel on which the iconic Hitchcock horror film Psycho was based. As Psycho was a tremendous success Bloch understandably wanted to cash in so he wrote this script which is a lose retailing of Caligari but with a female lead, (Glynis Johns, and it turns out that I watched this film on her 91st birthday). The films quite slow so I got restless and looked the movie up online thus spoiling its twist ending, which turns out wasn't much of a twist because its basically the same one as in the original film. In essence with this film Bloch tried to overlay the basic form of Psycho onto the Caligari story and it didn't work very well, even not knowing the twist before hand I suspect I would have found it lame and derivate. So basically this film was a bore. *1/2

That fact that the 2005 remake of  The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari even exists is interesting. It's very much a fan film, more of a tribute and a retailing then a 'movie' in its own right, and this is by design. Director David Lee Fisher did something that hadn't been done before, through the use of computers and green screen technology he remade a silent film with the very sets it was first shot on. So technically this film is very intriguing and impressive, though about 10 years on the effects look like something you'd see in a TGWTG production. This film is not silent like the original, there is plenty of dialogue here, but there's nothing great about the acting and the whole thing has kind of an amateurish feel about it, despite its technical achievements and even the novelty of the whole enterprise. **

In short, best to stick with the original.

Gone Girl (2014)

If you'd like to have yourself a smart and satisfying film going experience, well Gone Girl would be a safe bet. Based on the best selling novel by Gillian Flynn, who also penned the screenplay, Gone Girl is directed with aplomb by the always strong David Fincher. Fincher excels at dark, mind bending thrillers with some cerebral gravitas, and that's exactly what you get here. Ben Affleck  does well as the lead, a not so faithful husband whose beautiful wife mysteriously goes missing, leaving an intriguing crime scene at their home. There's a good supporting cast here as well but this picture really belongs to Rosamund Pike as the wife, the titular 'Gone Girl'. I'd heard the name Rosamund Pike before but prior to seeing this movie I don't think I could have named a single other film that she was in, well now I'd consider myself a fan, she just owns this movie, its a delayed break-out performance, and I suspect we'll be seeing a lot of her in the near future.

I'd say more about the story but this film is to new to risk spoiling, and I was grateful and impressed that I was able to go into the film without having it spoiled for me ahead of time. I think all your really need to know about this move going in is summed by the films excellent pedigree and the rave notices its been getting. To summarize what I read another reviewer saying about, its very difficult to pull off an innovative and compelling thriller anymore, but Gone Girl sustains its self throughout the whole of 2 /12 hour running time, and honestly feels new. ****

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Iron Sky (2012)

In hindsight probably not the best choice to be my follow up review to The Diary of Anne Frank. I first became aware of this movie through this video essay by Renegade Cut. Iron Sky looked like it would truly be something to see, so I saw it, though not with the highest of expectations. Though I wanted to see it because I thought it would be goody, and it was, I still didn't think the premise would sustain the films run time, yet somehow this movie did and I was never bored.  The execution here truly is remarkable considering this could of been just so much Syfy Channel type filler. The movie was engaging and clever, I liked the characters, and even liked the satire, it took the brains behind the film years to finally get it made, so they had plenty of time to perfect what they were trying to do. This is a cheesy, guilty pleasure film that wasn't just tossed off, it even reminds me a bit of the work of Kurt Vonnegut. Not to read to much into the film, its silly, but well done and defiantly earned its place in the list of films that blur the line between trash and treasure. ***

The Diary of Anne Frank (1959)

The Diary of Anne Frank has come to be almost the representative story of the Jewish holocaust experience. However the story is really not representative in a couple of ways, primary that Anne and her family were so successful at hiding from the Nazi's for so long, something like two years, most didn't get a chance to really hide, or at least not for long, and also the story that Anne's diary tells ends before her capture, time in a concentration camp and death. But because the story is told through the eyes of a young girl, only 13 when she starts her narrative, its accessible to a wide audience and here in the states is generally taught in the Jr. High or Middle School years, where it works well at introducing kids similar in age to Anne to the horrors of the Nazi's final solution.

This film adaptation is not direct from the book, but rather its based on the Pulitzer winning 1955 play which adapted many of its lines straight from Anne's diary. The film version was originally to have been directed by William Wyler, who did such definitive World War II home front pictures as Mrs. Miniver and The Best Years of Our Lives. However as often happens in pre-production things change and the film was ultimately directed by George Stevens. Stevens pictures like Giant an Shane  were often delivered on a large canvas, so the closterphobic setting for Anne Frank may seem counter intuitive, but I believe he was the right choice to direct because Stevens also possessed the tremendous sense of character empathy which this picture required, he also makes great use of the four story set they built of the of the Amsterdam building were Anne, her family, and a few others hid for those two plus years.

The drama here for me was not as interesting as the idea of the situation Anne found herself in. Millie Perkins is good as Anne, she's not a tremendous actress but she manages to carry the producing's with the right amount of innocence, preconsciousness and character growth for the part. A good assortment of supporting players as the Franks and the other Jews who shared there hiding place, include Joseph Schildkraut reprising his stage role as Otto Frank, Shelley Winters who won an Oscar as Petronella van Daan, and Lou Jacobi also reprising his stage role as Hans van Daan. I also want to point out Diane Baker for her nicely underplayed performance as Anne's intensely private sister Margot.

I had forgotten a lot of the details of the story, but as I said the idea of their situation was more interesting to me then the day-to-day incidentals. There are few strong moments of suspense in the film, including multiple break-ins to the office bellow the Franks cramped attic hiding place. This film is one of the first made in America to really deal with the Holocaust, which as a subject matter was so often skirted and walked around by the post war pop culture, witness the complete lack of reference to the subject in the Oscar winning Gentleman's Agreement (1947) which was suppose to be about anti-Semitism! The Diary of Anne Frank is a well handled rendering of an iconic story, not as deep or brutally honest as much later work about the Holocaust, but possessing a subtle poignancy capable of reaching a large audience. ***1/2