The Hindenburg (1975)

Part of the disaster movie craze of the 1970's The Hindenburg (directed by Robert Wise, who seemed to want to try his hand at every conceivable genera, good thing he was so good) takes the true story of the 1937 Hindenburg Zeppelin disaster and imposes a conspiracy theory dramatic story upon it (why exactly the Hindenburg went up in flames is still disputed). Since the ending, fiery explosion, is well known the movie produces its suspense through the mystery narrative of who the bomber is going to be, though I figured that out early on so the real suspense was who is going to survive, which had I searched online before hand I would have known. Yes the people, at least most of them, in this film are based on real folks both on and off the titular blimp. George C. Scott is the star, he plays Col. Franz Ritter based on the real life Colonel Fritz Erdmann who was really aboard the flight. Here Col. Franz is shown as a reluctant Nazi who is secretly considering defecting with is wife, he is assigned by his superiors to sniff out a bomber on the blimp after questionably credible evidence that someone is plotting to blow up the dirigible comes to their attention.

Among the passengers/suspects are a disgruntled countess (Anne Bancroft), a questionable pilot (William Atherton) a desperate business man (Gig Young), a couple of professional gamblers (Burgess Meredith and Rene Auberjonois) and various others. At the end of the movie, when the explosion happens, the film switches from color to black and white which I actually thought was effective. Though not well liked by contemporary critics, who had probably had there fill of disaster movies by 1975, I didn't think that The Hindenburg was that bad, derivative sure but well enough acted, and the blimp sets were wonderful. I'm sure its too slow for many peoples tastes but I actually enjoyed it. **1/2

Summer and Smoke (1961)

Film adaptation of the Tennessee Williams play of the same title. Being a Tennessee Williams work it is a story about sexual repression in the American south, but its also a beautifully written melodrama. Set in small town Mississippi? in the 1910's? its the story of a repressed preachers daughter (Geraldine Page) and the neighbor boy she's loved since childhood (Laurence Harvey) who returns to town after medical school as very much a playboy. There is much angst, Pamela Tiffin is super cute and Earl Holliman has a cameo part. ***

Bernie (2011)

I had this film recommended to me by a friend of mine (and his wife) who briefly worked in the funeral services industry. I had actually read an article about the true story the film is based on and found it rather different and intriguing. My mother is really into the whole 'True Crime' genera so I'm exposed to a lot of it on television and find I can only take so much before it becomes boring and repetitive to me. Bernie on the other hand while truly a true crime story is very unlike most of the genera, for one thing you really like the murderer.

In the 1990's Bernhardt "Bernie" Tiede II, a mortician and fixture on the local community theater circuit in Carthage, Texas befriended a rich and much reviled local widow, then spent years as her good friend, traveling companion and later employee. The widowed Marjorie "Marge" Nugent became increasing possessive of Bernie and his time until he became her virtual prisoner and slave, at a certain point Bernie just kind of lost it and 'accidently on purpose' shot her in the back four times and killed her. Bernie, who was beloved in his small community proceeded to cover up Marge's death, store her body in a freezer for later burial, and use her money to help the townspeople, saving a local business, paying for an extension on the Methodist church, and lavishing people with gifts, until his crime was finally discovered roughly nine months later.

Berine was so beloved by his neighbors and Mrs. Nugent so detested that the DA had to get a change of venue to ensure the man would be convicted of a murder he had willingly confessed too. Though about a murder the film is surprisingly and enjoyably light and playful. Directed by Richard Linklater who would later make the movie Boyhood, the films is quasi documentary in style, many local residents are interviewed about the events described an these interviews are interspersed throughout the traditional dramatic narrative of the piece. Jack Black plays Bernie and it is a wonderful charming performance unlike anything I've seen Black do before. Shirley MacLaine plays Marge and Matthew McConaughey plays local district attorney Danny Buck Davidson. An enjoyable and unique film I highly recommend it. ***1/2

The Ides of March (2011)

This is the movie that got Beau Willimon the head writer gig for the American version of House of Cards. Williom adapted (with the aid of Grant Heslov and the films co-star George Clooney) from his own 2008 play Farragut North. Willimon had worked on the Democratic presidential primary campaigns of Bill Bradly in 2000 and Howard Dean in 2004, so he knows something about behind the scenes politicking and can weave an intriguing and dark yarn about human frailty. The tone here is defiantly similar to House of Cards and the story is about an idealistic campaign workers fall from idealism to cynical corruption. Clooney plays a charismatic governor with lofty rhetoric while Ryan Gosling plays the idealistic number 2 man on his campaign. In the week leading up to the crucial Ohio primary vote Gosling is approached by the campaign director of a rival (Paul Giamatti), starts to lose some confidence in his own boss (Philip Seymour Hoffman), starts a relationship with a young intern (Evan Rachel Wood) and discovers a secret about his candidate that could change the campaign. This movie is not for everyone, I'm sure there are a lot of people who would think it boring, but if you like political intrigue and House of Cards you'll probably find it interesting. ***

Forbidden (1932)

Director Frank Capra is best known for a signature style that employed heavy use of Americana and high idealism. This style had not yet been fully developed at the point that Mr. Capra (here credited as Frank R. Capra) wrote and directed this original 1932 story. Staring Capra's muse at the time Barbara Stanwyck, Forbidden tells the story of  lonely librarian Lulu Smith (Stanwyck) who meets and falls in love with older lawyer Bob Grover (Adolph Menjou) on a cruse to Cuba, afterword she moves to the city to be near him only to find out that he is both married and the local district attorney. Having by this point become pregnant by him and not wanting to complicate his life and career Lulu disappears for a few years but is eventually tracked down by Grover who in course of events, and not his intent, ends up taking custody of his own daughter who is presented to his infertile wife as a child he adopted for her.

Lulu ends up writing an advise column of all things for a city paper that has taken an editorial dislike to Grover, whose political star rises from district attorney, to congressman, to senator, and eventually gubernatorial nominee. During these roughly twenty years Grover continues to see Lulu on the side and eventually his health starts to fail, at which point he decides he wants to give up his career and reputation to spend what time he has left with the woman he really loves (Grover's actual wife is a good person, whom he seems to have married out of a combination of pity for her own chronic ill health as well as her family's money being of aid in launching his own political career). To prevent Grover from dropping out of the governors race Lulu finally agrees to marry the anti-Grover newspaper editor Holland (Ralph Bellamy, early in his career) who has been trying to marry her for decades. What happens when the anti-Grover Holland realizes that his new wife has been his political enemy's mistress for decades constitutes the climax of the film, which I won't spoil.

Needless to save Forbidden is unlike any other Frank Capra film I've ever seen, the mans been dead for nearly 25 years yet his work was still able to surprise me. I've seen most of Capra's sound pictures but I'd almost forgotten that this one even existed when I saw it show up on TCM's schedule recently, I looked it up in the directors autobiography and he devotes only three short paragraphs to the film, and generally seems to have considered it a mistake. This is probably because its kind of uneven and so tonely different from his later work, yet I'd say the films still a success and particularity interesting as its show the man capably, if not expertly, handling a different kind of film making, probably the only movie by Frank Capra that could really be considered part of the 'pre-code' genera of film. A surprising curio. ***

Land of the Minatour (1976)

Land of the Minotaur aka The Devils Men is a Greek horror film saved from being nigh unto un-watchable by its producers ability to afford casting Donald Pleasence and Peter Cushing. Pleasence plays Father Roche, an Irish priest and expert on world religions who befriends young archaeologist working near his home in Greece. Unfortunately these young archaeologists keep disappearing so Roche eventually brings in a private detective he knows from New York (the Fathers just happening to know a private detective from New York is briefly explained so I will give the film credit for that) to help him investigate. Turns out the young archaeologist are being sacrificed as part of a pagan cult run by a Bulgarian baron in exile played by Peter Cushing. There is also a fire breathing Minotaur statue in this film as well as Luan Peters legs, not a lot else to say for it though, it's strangely slow in places. **

The Crater Lake Monster (1977)

A B-movie set at the B-Crater Lake, not the one in Oregon, but a lesser known one in northern California. A meteorite crashes into the lake one night and its heat acts as a sort of incubator for a long dormant plesiosaurus egg. The egg hatches, and over the course of a few months the creature eats basically everything in the lake and grows to be really big, eventually it starts munching on tourists. This is a real low budget film, I don't think it has any professional actors in it. It's most memorable for its wonderfully fake looking stop motion dinosaur, though I did kind of enjoy Arnie and Mitch, the films failed attempt at a comedy team. For a while I didn't thing we were ever going to see the sheriff in uniform, because then they'd have to buy a uniform for Richard Cardella, and that hardly seems worth it. You know Richard Calkins is supposed to be a professor, because one time you see him with a pipe. *1/2

And Then There Were None (1945)

The first of several cinematic adaptations of one of Agatha Christie's most popular works, I'd seen I think the 1974 version once, in middle school, so I was vaguely familiar with the plot, though had forgotten the details in the subsequent 20 years, I'd even forgotten who the murderer was. It's kind of like the game of Clue, there is a murder at an isolated mansion, and you gradually wither down the suspects, in this case as characters keep dying they gradually diminish the number of possible culprits. I won't say much about the plot, but I will say there are bunch of good character actors here like Barry Fitzgerald, Walter Huston, and Judith Anderson, so its fun to watch them do there thing. A pleasant watch, nice atmosphere, kind of ridicules story, but one that has become a popular classic for genera fans. If you haven't you should probably watch some version of this, both for cultural literacy and because you'll probably like it, its a crowed pleaser. ***

Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015)

For me this just couldn't live up to the first Avengers movie. That first movie was like nothing I'd ever seen before, it was four franchises converging into one movie, its scale was epic, it was a Marvel comic book on the big screen, not too dark, and just goofy enough. Age of Ultron replicates this, and does that well, its just not new anymore, we've seen it. Frankly I was hoping for more, the movie introduced some interesting new characters, and had the required action set pieces, I particularly liked the ending one, but it wasn't the joy that the first movie was. It felt like what it is, one issue in a cinematic graphic novel, and not a stand out issue at that, one that mostly serves to pave the way for hopefully more interesting later editions. That's not to say that movie wasn't fun to watch, and didn't have some interesting ideas and moments, though I thought it rather weak on the character development front. The movie even had James Spader voice Ultron, which is a plus. Still Avengers: Age of Ultron was for me just another summer blockbuster, diverting but not challenging, or even innovative. ***

American Sniper (2014)

I put off seeing this movie until it got into the cheap seat theaters, and I did so in part because I have some, we'll call them 'concerns' about Chris Kyle's philosophy, attitudes, and politics. American Sniper is already the highest grossing American war film of all time (not adjusting for inflation) and director Clint Eastwood's (no small name he) biggest box office success ever, either in front of or behind the camera. Based on the same titled memoire of the man generally regarded as the deadliest marksman in U.S. history, Sniper tells the story of Chris Kyle (excellently portrayed by Bradley Cooper), his patriotic/conservative religious upbringing, time on the rodeo circuit with his brother, enlistment and training with the Navy, romance and marriage with his wife Taya (Sienna Miller), the births of their children, and for good measure his four tours of service in Iraq, where he was really good at shooting the enemy. To further push this last point home, which is arguably the whole point of the movie, for some reason it was decided to create a fictional enemy sniper to pit Kyle against, as a kind of evil mirror version of himself. I don't think that was necessary, the movie does a fine job of communicating what an amazing shot and living legend Kyle became even after only a short time 'in country'.

The movie is episodic, and bit sparse on context which I guess it assumes that its audience is already aware of, Kyle is portrayed as anxious to go overseas to get revenge for 9/11, only he of course was sent to Iraq which was not involved in 9/11. The movie is hagiography, it makes Kyle a Saint, which he wasn't wither you like him or not. The obvious point of comparisons for this movie to me was the 1941 movie Sergeant York with Gary Cooper. Alvin York was a great sharp shooter and war hero himself, and his Hollywood biopic also made a point of ironing out his character wrinkles and playing up his love story. The biggest difference between York and Kyle in my mind is York was a known reluctant warrior remembered for the people he didn't kill, York and seven of his men took 132 German solders prisoner in one raid in 1918, whereas Kyle wanted to go to war and is remembered for the number of people he killed, 160 confirmed and 255 or more by other accounts.

The Chris Kyle of this movie wins you over and is very down to earth, and certainly the real Kyle's death at the hands of a disturbed fellow veteran who he was trying to help was tragic. The montage of footage of the real Kyle's funeral shown at the end of the film made my sister cry. Clint Eastwood is an excellent director and was in his element here, and again you can't underplay the importance of Bradley Cooper's performance to the success of this film. Fine movie making, but as history to be taken with a grain of salt. ***1/2

Iron Man 3 (2013)

This was a lot better then Iron Man 2. Iron Man 3 takes place around six months after the events of the original Avengers movie and deals with the aftermath of the alien attack on New York on the psyche of both Tony Stark in particular and the world in general. There is not a lot I can say about this film that would be spoiler free, though the movie is less memorable for its action set pieces then it is for its tone, which is both mildly irreverent and a tad reflective. At the very end of the film it makes a very pronounced point of ending this original 'Iron Man trilogy' by "resolving" major plot points, it does so in a bit of a rushed and convenient manner, and one that's downright repudiated by events in Avengers Age of Ultron. Still I liked this movie. ***

Sleeper (1973)

Comedy features Woody Allen as Miles Monroe, the part owner of a New York health food store who is cryoniclly frozen after an unexpected complication from an ulcer operation. Miles wakes up 200 year later in 2173 when he is thawed by members of a resistance group hopping to 1) gain greater insights into a past that has been obscured by their authoritarian government and 2) use Miles, whose biometric identity is not known to the state, to infiltrate the governments mysterious "Aries Project". So there is some lite political satire to the film, as well a jokes pegged on the 22nd century humans not understanding Miles 20th century references, but the film is best known for Allen's Buster Keaton like physical comedy bits, particularly an extended sequence were he pretends to be a butler robot. Diane Keaton is also in the film as Allen's love interest. I'd twice tried to watch this movie before but once the library DVD copy was bad and I couldn't get more then 10 or so minutes into it, and the other time I was still a kid and had to leave for church shortly after it started, and my parents probably didn't want me watching that movie anyway. Sleeper is not as funny as I had hoped, but is still pretty amusing. ***

Cameraman: The Life & Work of Jack Cardiff (2010)

Documentary on the career of cinematographer and director Jack Cardiff (1914-2009). Though Cardiff was nominated for an Academy Award as best director for the 1960 film Sons and Lovers, he is best known for his work as a cinematographer, particularly his early color work in Britain and the films he made with the writing and directing team of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger. Cardiff also memorably shots films ranging from The African Queen and War & Peace in the 1950's, to Conan the Destroyer and Rambo II in the 1980's. He was also an accomplished still photographer who took some great glamor shots of actresses he worked with like Marilyn Monroe and Audrey Hepburn. This documentary is a great overview of his work and includes talking head interviews with the likes of Kirk Douglas and Martin Scorsese. Cardiff is also a very likable guy and in fine form and remarkably spry when he was interviewed for this film while in his 90's. You don't get much about Cardiff's personal life however, in fact I didn't know for sure that he was married until I heard him briefly mention his wife in a deleted scene included as a DVD extra. Still if you have any familiarity with Cardiff's works I think you'll find the further insight on that in this documentary enjoyable, and even if your not familiar with Cardiff  odds are you're going to like him after seeing this film. ***