Cardinal Richelieu (1935)

 George Arliss was a British actor of stage and screen most remembered for his portal of historic political figures. His best known performance is a British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli in the 1929 film 'Disraeli', for which he won as best actor at the 3rd annual Academy Awards.

'Cardinal Richelieu' is pretty darn close to a clone of that earlier film. In both movies Arliss plays clever historical figures who must best their enemies, while also finding time to help a pair of young lovers. Cardinal Richelieu was the chief political advisor to King Louie the 13th of France in the 17th Century, here played by Edward Arnold. Richelieu's political enemies try to turn the king against him, only to be out smarted, thus saving France from Spanish invasion. Cesar Romero and Maureen O'Sullivan play the young couple. A stilted, overly theatrical film in a style that has very much dated. 

Arliss's formality in performance is leavened by a mischievous streak that can make him fun to watch. So he's good, O'Sullivan's pretty, Romero and Arnold are fine, the movie as a whole though is pretty forgettable. **

Scream (2022)

 2022's 'Scream' aka 'Scream 5' is another 'Scream' movie, you get what you expect. Perfectly serviceable, better then the previous 2 'Scream' movies, both as movies and arguably as a larger arc resolution. Featuring both returning regulars and a fresh young cast, the latter working better then most of the franchises previous new additions over the years. It is also interesting to note the cultural passage of time over the last quarter century, going from a straight white cast in 1996, to an ethnically and sexually diverse one today. **1/2  

Son of Paleface (1952)

 'Son of Paleface is the sequel to the monstrously successful 1948 Bob Hope/ Jane Russel comedy/western 'Paleface'. Hope plays the son of his character from the first film, just out of Harvard he travels to California to collect his inheritance, only the chest his dad left him proves empty and there are angry creditors, bandits and Indians out to get him. Hope is aided by the sexy Jane Russell, playing a saloon singer who is secretly a redeemable bandit, and Roy Rogers who is a singing cowboy and secret government agent. 

The film was directed and co-written by Frank Tashlin, who had earlier in his career written and directed for Warner Brothers animation department, which makes sense as this is basically a live action Looney Toon. Hope drinks some strong liquor and has a delayed reaction including smoke coming out of his ears and his head spinning around. He travels in an early automatable across the desert with a couple of vultures perched on the back of the car, when they cross through a 'mirage' of snow they come out the other side as penguins. 

This was really a treat, quite different from and better then the original film. The cartoony comic sensibilities here really work for Hope, and I also apricated that the plot was not just a retread of the original film.***

Black Hawk Down (2001)

Ridley Scott's ensemble action opus about a real U.S. military mission in North Africa gone wrong, is everything Michael Bay's '13 Hours' was not. 'Black Hawk Down' has characters you can care about, well executed action and events you can follow. It has a richness to it's cinematography, a fine script, some sense of weightiness. There is a reason this is regarded as the one of the best military rescue films of recent decades. It is also however extremely straight forward so I find I have little to say about it. The film does run long, and at times I had some attention issues, but the culminative effect is strong. ***1/2 

13 Hours: The Secret Solders of Benghazi (2016)

 The story of the famed and much politized assault on two U.S. diplomatic/intelligence facilities in Benghazi, Libya back in 2012. The film deals little with the build up and underlying causes of the attack, nor the protracted fall out, political and otherwise afterword. Instead it focuses on the efforts of a small group of solders to protect the compounds, and later get themselves and others to safety. 

The film stars James Badge Dale and John Krasinski, the latter early in his career rebrand from affable everyman to action hero, the future star of Primes 'Jack Ryan' series is playing a different government funded action man named Jack. This movie is unfortunately directed by Michael Bay, who makes this a largely ponderous action slog with uninteresting characters it was hard to care about. What Clint Eastwood of Kathryn Bigelow could have done this material would have been worth watching, this film however is not. *1/2 

Birdemic: Shock and Terror (2010)

 Filmed piecemeal over a series of years, 'Birdemic: Shock and Terror' has earned its reputation as both one of the worst movies ever made, and kind of a must watch oddity. It's a so bad it's good film, but it's still really bad. Made for next to no money, the direction and story structure is bizarre, as are the stilted performances, and bogglingly low end special effects.  All the brain child of Vietnamese born creator James Nguyen, who takes the film seriously and viewed it as an ode to both the Hitchcock romantic thrillers he loves, and the Al Gore environmental movie 'An Inconvenient Truth'. Watched this one for the podcast on the recommendation of a teenaged niece and nephew, *

Pinky (1949)

 Elia Kazan made 'A Gentleman's Agreement', one of the first Hollywood films to directly tackle the issue of anti-sematism. An Oscar winner, a landmark film really, despite its flaws, most notably never mentioning the Holocaust. Kazan was aiming to break similar ground two years later with 'Pinky', a film about a lite skinned black woman who can pass for white. Pinky is played by the red headed actress Jean Crain, thankfully the film is in black and white. I could never get past that casting, it bothered me, seemed insulting. If a more plausible actress had been cast this would have worked better, there is some real good stuff in it, like Ethel Waters and Ethel Barrymore (both Oscar nominated, as was Crain). There is also something to be admired in what Kazan was daring to say at the time, but this film has not aged well. **1/2

Murder in Harlem (1935)

 'Murder in Harlem' is black film pioneer Oscar Micheaux's remake of his 1921 silent film 'The Gunsaulus Mystery'. The story is inspired by the case of Leo Frank, a Jewish man executed for the murder of a young factory girl in Georgia in 1912. Here the innocent accused of a murdering a young, white, female factory employee is a black man, or negro in the parlance of the time. That man's sister and lawyer set out to find who the real killer is, knowing that is the only way to save his life

The sister and lawyer had a previous almost romantic past, which circumstances kept from really getting off the ground. We see those events early in the film, and they provide a back ground for what follows. Clarence Brooks wants to make sure the innocent Lorenzo McClane is spared, but he also wants to win the love of the comely Dorothy Van Engle. 

One of Lorenzo's co-workers at the factory (he was a night watchman, this other man a janitor) Alec Lovejoy, has come into some money recently and is living large. Dorothy sets out to seduce him and finds out that he was paid this money to keep quite, his white boss Andrew S. Bishop is the real killer. Only in the end it turns out he wasn't. 

Bishop had attempted to put the moves on his young female subordinate, was rejected, there was a struggle and she was left unconscious. Upon returning with the janitor to the place he left her, with the intention of moving her, they find she has died. Bishop thinks it was his fault, so he frames McClane. However it was actually the girls jealous boyfriend who finished her off. Luckily Dorothy and Clarence figure this out, I was impressed with the twist because it didn't really seem to be needed, but was a nice something extra. 

This is very much a film of its time, while simultaneously being very at odds with what one expects from a film of this time. The structure is really more novelistic them filmic, which gives the movie in addition to the racial aspects something else to make it stand out. The acting is all over the place, from the relatively subtle to the supper hammy. There is a prolonged jazz club sequence that seems to mainly be in the film to incorporates some music. Though the film for the most part doesn't feel set in Harlem, the factory seems more rural and there is a newspaper clip shown which puts a story point in Illinois. I suspect Harlem may have been added to the title after filming wrapped. A surprisingly solid outing of a film given all that must have been working against it. ***

Robocop (1987)

 'Robocop' was made by Paul Verhoeven, who had been an arty, envelope pushing Dutch director before coming to America, seemingly to make dreck, but he retained a subversive spirt. I only saw 'Starship Troopers' I think last year, I was impressed with its sarcasm and satire, that is plenty present here as well. 

As the title suggests 'Robocop' is about a robot cop, well really a cyborg cop. Peter Weller is killed by bad guys and a corporate behemoth brings him back to life, kinda. He's lost his sense of identity but his former partner (of the better part of a day) manages to bring it back out in him. The action story is standarish, but the spirt in which it is rendered is kind of special. 

'Robocop' saves the day from an evil business guy, but he remains at the end of things still their property, forced to conform to some pre written directives imbedded in his code. The only reason that Robo was even able to kill the bad guy is that the bad guy's boss fired him as soon as he was taken hostage, since he was then no longer an employee he was fair game. 

The  satiric news cast bits sprinkled throughout the picture, some of them delivered by real life anchorwoman Liza Gibbons, are the best parts of this movie, and of course are reminiscent of the propaganda broadcasts in 'Starship Troopers'. *** 

Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (2001)

 'Lara Croft: Tomb Raider' is based on the popular 1990's video game, Angelina Jolie plays its busty protagonist. At the time this movie came out female lead action vehicles were rarer then they are now, this was a big hit, but it's an awful movie. It's not just bad, but more then that it's extremely bad. There are a couple of nice set pieces, I am thinking particularly of the gymnastics themed one in the mansion early on. Lara Croft by the way is 'Lady Croft', she's got an English estate, and is apparently a respected archeologist at age 25. Jolie does a terrible English accent.

There is no substance here, nobody is very interesting, the plot makes little sense and I found the movie mostly boring. Scanning reviews on Rotten Tomatoes the most common word in them that isn't a reference to Ms. Jolie's body is "silly". This movie is silly, but more then that it is stupid.

Again this film made a lot of money, a box office of $274.7 million. It also cost a lot of money, $115 million, heck of a lot, especially in 2001. The end effect is a motion picture that feels like an extremely bloated Roger Corman production, though much of the charm of those is that they have such small budgets, and can feel like they are taking risks. All 'Lara Croft' can really claim as a risk at the time was it's female action lead, but given how tight they made sure to make her clothing the studio knew it wasn't taking much of a risk. *

 

Within Our Gates (1920)

 'Within Our Gates' is the oldest known surviving film directed by an African American. Oscar Micheaux (1884-1951), wrote, produced and directed films with black casts for black audiences from the silent era into the Truman administration. Getting financing for these films alone must have been a colossal undertaking. 'Within Our Gates' is probably the directors best known film, despite it's having been believed lost until a nearly complete (missing one scene) copy was discovered in Spain during the 1970's. The film has been restored by the Library of Congress and is free online for all to enjoy. 

I really did enjoy this film, while certainly a product of its time I was impressed by how daring the thing is. It's central plot is a redemption story of sorts staring Evelyn Preer, an actress and jazz singer much celebrated in black community at the time. After an ill-fated love triangle in the north Evelyn's character Sylvia returns to her family in the south, before heading up north again to Boston where she convinces a wealthy white woman to provided the funds needed to keep a struggling rural school alive.  

Shocking content for it's time the film depicts an attempted rape and multiple lynching's, while the story tackles institutional racism, and presents a pretty jaundiced view of organized religion. The film ends with a monologue about how black people should love their country despite it's many faults, because of all they have scarified for it and brought to the table. The boldness and importance of the film, which Micheaux envisioned as a response to the racist epic 'Birth of a Nation', elevates the film beyond it production restraints and some melodramatic story weaknesses. ***1/2 

For the Love of the Game (1999)

'For the Love of the Game' is another movie I watched for the podcast, I came into this thing basically blind. A Kevin Costner baseball movie, an aging professional pitcher slowly realizes that he is pitching a perfect game, as he works out (through flashbacks) a complicated history with the longtime girlfriend he is in the process of losing, played by Kelly Preston. Schmaltzy, sometimes near unbearably so, but darn it on the whole the things works. I didn't want to like it but was reluctantly won over, a case where coming into the film knowing so little about it definitely worked in its favor. I give this ** now, but gave it **1/2 just after viewing it. 

Bronco Billy (1980)

 Shot in the greater Boise area for two month's in the fall of 1979, 'Bronco Billy' stars and is directed by Clint Eastwood, he plays the boss and chief attraction of a struggling wild west show, while his then girlfriend Sondra Locke plays the spoiled heiress (yes it's that cliché) who he slowly wins over. Not a great movie, but a serviceable romp through cinematic territory that John Wayne and Maureen O'Hara had tromped before. It's the physical territory however that made this film a real fun watch for me, seeing places I know well as they appeared shortly before my birth. The Meridian Speedway, The Ranch Club on Chinden Blvd, Orville Jackson's in Eagle, all capping with a final shot of the Boise skyline from the vicinity of old Fort Boise and the VA hospital. **1/2

Belfast (2021)

 'Belfast' is inspired by writer/director Kenneth Branagh's childhood in that titular city during the "The Troubles" of the late 1960's and early 1970's. Waves of Catholic/Protestant violence that had been going on periodically for ages and didn't really stop until the late 1990's. The Branagh's were protestants, but tolerant people living in a mixed faith working class neighborhood.

Shot in black and white and told largely through the perspective of a nine year old Kenneth, played endearingly by Jude Hill, whose the lynchpin that makes the movie work. With a background of civil unrest, and family financial distress, young Kenneth, who goes by the nickname "Buddy" is just trying to grow up normally, playing with friends in the street, doing math homework, having his first crush on a girl (who turns out be Catholic) and watching a lot of movies. 

This was a little something extra I quite liked in the film, we see Buddy watching movies on TV, he seems fond of westerns, or in the theater, where color movies are shown in color, again despite the reset of the thing (other then a short prolog, and latter play sequence) being in black and white. Given the course Buddy's life would take the emphasis on film and escape are apropos. 

Solid supporting work, notably by Ciaran Hinds and Caitriona Balfe, but the whole cast is good. There is just a wonderful sense of the period and the juxtaposition between provincial concerns and matters of life and death is expertly handled and plays well. A wonderfully personal little love letter to the directors childhood home, for all it's problems. ****

God's Step Children (1938)

 Oscar Micheaux (1884-1951) was a pioneer in black cinema, making films with black casts for black audiences from the silent era into the Truman administration. Financing alone couldn't have been easy so admiration where admiration is due, but 'God's Step Children' is bad. Real bad. 

There are things here that if a white person said them... well seem kinda racist. One of the worst acted films I have ever seen, this melodrama features a love triangle where two of the corners were raised together as foster siblings. * 

Jacqueline Lewis who played the young Naomi went on to serve 14 years in the Massachusetts House of Representatives as a Republican. 

The Big Sleep (1978)

1978's 'The Big Sleep' is a remake of the of the old Bogart classic, updating the action from 1940's Los Angeles to 1970's London and casting a 60 year old Robert Mitchum in the lead (the Marlow character is 33 in Raymond Chandlers original 1939 novel). The story here is truer to the book then the 40's version, restoring the pornography blackmail part, but this film lacks its predecessors style, though it is easier to follow. Supporting cast is heavy on recognizable names and faces. **

The Hunt (2020)

 More then a decade ago, while coming out of a coma following brain surgery necessitated by a sever car accident, I made wild claims of being married to two different actresses. This has all become a bit of a recurring joke amongst my family and inner circle, so when I first heard of the movie 'The Hunt' I knew I had to see it. You see this is the film in which my second wife Hillary Swank is responsible for the death of my first wife Emma Roberts. 

The movie is better known for having it's release delayed following a mass shooting in Texas. 'The Hunt' is a variation on 'The Most Dangerous Game', it's about humans hunting humans for sport, only here it is given a decidedly political angle. Though all the details are not reveled until towards the end of the film, Hillary Swank is one of a group of 'liberal, elite, professionals' whose careers were destroyed or damaged by a joke group texting chain about hunting and killing conservatives for fun. Since these charges are taken seriously by some online, this small group decides they might as well do it for real. 

A dozen conservatives are abducted from across the country, rendered unconscious, and transported to the Balkans to be hunted. Locals officials are paid off and consultants hired to aid in the operation. The victims are selected based on inflammatory things they said online about 'Manorgate', which is the popular shorthand for the liberal's hunting conservative's scandal /conspiracy theory. 

Our nefarious elites made one big mistake here, they messed up and abducted someone with the same name as one of their intended targets. Betty Gilpin plays Mississippi native Crystal Creasey, and she is a sharp and resourceful army veteran, an excellent shot, and she will make them pay. Gilpin (and to a lesser extent Swank) make the movie, it's a fun performance in a bad film.

Distributed by Universal but made by Blumhouse Productions, a company that specializes in making a great quantity of horror movies, generally of dubious quality. Despite looking cheap this one still clearly had more recourses thrown at it then the average Blumhouse film, including three well known female stars. Of course Emma Roberts is only in the first 5 or so minutes of the thing, she is credited under the character name of "Yoga Pants" and utters the line "That almost hit me" just before being hit by a bullet and killed. 

The movies a bit of mess and feels like it needed to run through a few more drafts before putting screenplay to film. The transgressive quality of the film, the political subtext, is hardly subtext and played clumsy and heavy handedly. This is just a shoot'em up with some light pretense. The best thing to come out of the film is the idea of Gilpin as action hero, that needs to be given another more polished go. Also if I'm ever in a coma again Gilpin would be welcome as wife number three. *1/2 

The King's Daughter (2022)

 Wrapping production in the spring of 2014 the release of 'The King's Daughter' was delayed almost eight years due to distribution rights issues. The films then 22 year old star Kaya Scodelario is now 29 and has two kids. Kaya plays the titular King's daughter, the illegitimate offspring of France's 'Sun King' Louis XIV, played here by Pierce Brosnan sporting ridiculous long hair. 

Ridiculous is a key word here, the plot concerns Louise's efforts to sacrifice a mermaid during a solar eclipse in order to achieve immortality. The king's daughters Marie-Josèphe, a musical prodigy raised in a convenient and only recently relocated to Versallies (where the movie was partially shot), is the only one who may be able to persuade him to save the poor creatures life. 

The secret princess and the mermaid have a special connection you see, the latter can call out to the former with a music only the pure in heart can hear. Based on the 1997 novel 'The Moon and the Sun' by Vonda McIntyre (who died in 2019), this is an original fairytale with a real historical setting. 

This movie is not at all afraid of going for the obvious, you know everything you need to know about everyone from the moment you first meet them. It's all so telegraphed, cliched and poorly written. Within moments of arriving at the palace having meet all of two people, the princess is already complaining about how she doesn't fit in here. She falls into a fountain so distracted is she by the beauty of the woman whose statute sits at its center, this woman of course turns out to have been her mother. When at her lowest point in the story she begins to light candles in a church and a hooky ballad starts to play, I laughed out loud. (It's just fun that William Hurt was cast as the priest.)

The film plays like a live action adaptation not of an animated Disney classic, but of a low rent direct to video imitation. Even with decidedly subpar effects this movie still cost $40 million to make, and so far has brought in just $1.7 million. Horribly reviewed with just 21% on Rotten Tomatoes, the film scores a 5.1 on IMDb's audience rating. I went in knowing this would be bad and thoroughly enjoyed it as such, for me it was a fun theater experience, even if I was the only one laughing. *1/2 

Landline (2017)

 In 'Landline' two sisters (Abby Quinn & Jenny Slate) come to suspect their father (John Turturro) of cheating on their mother (Edie Falco). This is one of those 'everybody is a mess' movies. Set in mid 1990's New York City, I patted myself on the back for all the period references I got. The movie ran just a little long but on the whole worked better then I had suspected it would. A solid ensemble piece, with Jenny Slate particularly good at making endearing a character who might have otherwise come off as insufferable. ***

Life with Father (1947)

 Based on a play based on the memoire of cartoonist/ author Clarence Day's privileged childhood in 1880's New York City. 'Life with Father' was once beloved but plays kind of awkwardly now, it took about half the picture before I could sink with it's tone. In Mormon terms it is in effect the portrait of a part member family, William Powell has some mildly unorthodox ideas religious ideas of which his more straight laced wife Irene Dunn does not approve. 'Father' is not the most likable character but William Powell's performance grew on me over the course of the film, as for the appeal of Irene Dunn I still remain at something of a lose, I should probably get around to seeing more of her work. Also featuring a 15 year old Elizabeth Taylor and young Martin Milner later of 'Adam-12' fame. I enjoyed some of the dry humor and patted myself on the back for all the period references I got. **1/2

Beyond The Valley of the Dolls (1970)

 The principle reason for my recent viewing of 'Valley of the Dolls' was a desire to see 'Beyond the Valley of the Dolls' with appropriate context. 'Beyond' is not really a sequel to the original 'Valley', it's more a variation on a theme, famous as Roger Ebert's only screenwriting credit (Ironically he gave 1967's 'Valley' a bad review). Ebert took time off from reviewing for the Chicago Tribune to write this script for a personal friend, producer/director Russ Meyer, then famous as 'The King of the Nudies'. 

The late 60's early 70's was a tremendously transitional time for the film business, and a desperate 20th Century Fox took a risk. They had the rights to the title 'Beyond The Valley of the Dolls', having produced the original film version of the Jaqueline Susan novel a few years prior. That film had been a huge hit for them, and they figured name recognition plus some unorthodoxy could be a money maker, and it was, making $9 million off a roughly $2 million budget. 

Ebert and Meyer decided to take the basic conceit of the first film, three attractive young women run though the ringer of celebrity, some making it out okay, others not. In this film they are a lady rock group, and the music written for the piece is legit good. The story is all over the place, a hodge podge of conventions, clichés, tropes, and a lot of sex, homo and hetro. It's a wild film, truly bizarre and original. Despite its outlandishness I read one critic comment that the film was simply too smart to be bad, and is a prime example of what I like to call 'high trash'. Most certainly not for everybody, it's quite the cinematic artifact and I'm glade I finally got around to seeing it. **1/2

Emma (2020)

 Anya Taylor-Joy is quite pretty, as are the sets, locations and costumes, but I like neither the central character nor the story so I found this a bit of a slog. Ironically I'm fine with 'Pride & Prejudice', I just don't care for that busy body 'Emma'. *1/2 

Free Guy (2021)

 In 'Free Guy' Ryan Reynolds plays a non player character (NPC) on an online 'shoot'em up' game who achieves self awareness and changes the world, or at least the online world. It is exactly what you'd expect it to be. A well executed mediocrity. Likable dreck. Pleasant Pablum. **1/2

Ramrod (1947)

Despite having tremendous screen chemistry together in 'Sullivan's Travels' Veronica Lake and Joel McCrea couldn't stand each other and would only work together one more time, six years later in 'Ramrod'.  A western directed by Lake's then husband Andre De Toth, the two leads still have spark though don't get even mildly romantic until very late in the picture. 

Lake has inherited a ranch from an ex lover and McCrea is determined to help her keep it against the wishes of local cattle baron and would be Lake lover Preston Foster. It's a fairly standard genera story distinguished chiefly by Lake's vehemence in pursuit of her goals.

Lloyd Bridges and Don DeFore have supporting roles as does Arleen Whelan as the unhappily married woman for whom McCrea pines and for whom Lake serves as his second choice. Whelan was a Salt Lake native, the city in which this film would hold its premier. The movie was shot in Utah, chiefly Grafton and Zion National Park. **1/2

Stronghold (1951)

 Filmed south of the boarder and on the downward slope of her career, in 'Stronghold' Veronica Lake plays a widow returning to her native Mexico (yeah right) from a civil war ravaged America. She is immediately kidnaped on the order of a revolutionary Zachary Scott, with whom she gradually, but also rather suddenly, falls in love. An awkward production the movie really is, generally speaking, awful. The first twenty minutes of the movie is very exposition heavy and employs a narrator to provide historical context and backstory, that device is then dropped for the rest of the feature. The film ranges from dull to painful save for a gloriously clichéd and silly ending stolen from 'The Adventures of Robin Hood'. *

I Wanted Wings (1941)

 'I Wanted Wings' is a movie made to promote the Army Air Corp while the U.S. was still at peace. Some good plane stuff but for the most part the movie is very dull when Veronica Lake is not on screen. This is the film which made Lake a star, she doesn't appear until around half way through but has a great introductory shot singing in a night club. Her character however is a real bitch, fakes a pregnancy to net a husband and later kills a man before dying in a plan crash (she had stowed away while wanted for murder). A young William Holden plays Lake's much put upon main love interest, Ray Milland and Constance Moore are nominally the films 'real' leads. Directed by Mitchell Leisen ('Remember the Night', 'The Big Broadcast of 1938') and co-written by Richard Maibaum, who wrote or co-wrote 12 of the first 15 Bond movies. **

The Life Before her Eyes (2007)

 Watched this one as a blind pick for the podcast. 'The Life Before Her Eyes' is based on a well received book and is about a school shooting and it's aftermath. This is not something I knew going in so when it turned out to be a school shooting movie I was surprised, which is a strange kind of appropriate for a film tackling this subject matter. Evan Rachel Wood and Uma Thurman play the same character, Diana, 15 years apart. The Evan Rachel Wood stuff is legitimately good, the Uma Thurman parts less so. Pretentiously directed by Vadim Perelman who goes way too heavy on the symbolism and the interlocking motifs and devices. The film contains a twist that normally would piss me off, but by the time the movie gets around to it I didn't much care. Turns out this is also a Christian movie, but somewhat ambivalent about being one. **

The Tragedy of MacBeth (2021)

 Joel Coen adapts and directs Shakespeare's 'MacBeth' sans brother Ethen in the 67 year olds first solo film project. The story is condensed but the Shakespearian language is kept. Shot in a dreamy black and white with a stylized production design that deliberate invokes Laurence Olivier's Oscar winning 1948 film version of Hamlet. Standout lead performances by Denzel Washington and Joel's wife Frances McDormand, both in their sixties they are old for these roles, but the characters coming to power so late in life just adds to the tragedy. I was also particularly impressed with Alex Hassel as Ross, and Kathryn Hunter giving my favorite rendition of 'the weird sisters'. I don't think this story has ever come across so clear to me. ***1/2

Texas, Brooklyn & Heaven (1948))

'Texas, Brooklyn & Heaven' is another example of Diana Lynn making the best out of another B picture, though this is in fact better then I expected and based on a best selling novel, 1943's 'Eddie and the Archangel Mike' by Barry Benefield (1877-1971). Upon inheriting $6,000 from his grandfather (roughly $70,000 in today's money) Eddie Tayloe (Guy Madison) leaves his thankless job on the Fort Worth desk of the Dallas News, to move to New York and write his play. On the way north Eddie picks up Perry Dunkin (Lynn), she fixes his car for him, but becomes convinced that he is in fact a bank robber on the lamb. 

The two make it to New York and have misadventures together, including adopting an aging pick pocket (Florence Bates, maybe the best thing in the movie) as their mother, our leads having taken to representing themselves as brother and sister. Eventually the two acknowledge their feelings for each other and move back to Texas to start a ranch. 

Lead Guy Madison had no acting experience prior to being sighted  by David O. Selznick's 'head of talent' Henry Wilson in 1944. Madison was on leave from the navy at the time and Wilson signed him based purely on his looks. He is today best remembered, if remembered at all, for playing Wild Bill Hickok for seven seasons (1951-1958) on 'The Adventures of Wild Bill Hickok', and as the husband of actress Gail Russell. He was slightly better then I expected him to be.

Supporting players include Lionel Stander as a talkative bellhop, James Dunn as sympathetic bar keep Mike, and wicked witch Margaret Hamilton as one of Lynn's three spinster land ladies.

The film is directed by William Castle, who at this point in his career was directing a whole lot of B pictures for the studios, though he would go on to be an independent low budget horror master and gimmick king, before optioning the rights to a little book called 'Rosemary's Baby', the rest is history. 

Charming and low key. A mechanical horse parlor is a major plot point. The film is poorly edited with a rushed conclusion. Though boasts fun period location shots from Dallas and Brooklyn. **