It’s always a treat to see a previously unscreened horror film from the 1930s-1950s.TCM recently showed the rare “Black Moon” (1934), from Columbia Studios, a tale of voodoo and human sacrifice. The fact that it starred 1930s scream queen Fay Wray was another plus. I was really looking forward to this.
Sadly, “Black Moon” proved a disappointment in the horror movie sense, but I was still glad to have seen it. Like so many 1930s movies, it packs an amazing amount of incident in its short 68-minute running time. I may have been disappointed, but I wasn’t bored.
“Black Moon” starts out very promisingly. There’s a close-up of a woman looking unsettled as drums are heard steadily beating in the background. The camera pulls back and we see that the woman herself is beating on the drums, looking as if she’s in a trance while sitting in a very lavish apartment.
The woman turns out to be Juanita Perez (Dorothy Burgess) who grew up on an unnamed island in the Caribbean and is returning for a visit with her husband Stephen (Jack Holt) and young daughter Nancy (Cora Sue Collins). Stephen’s secretary Gail (Fay Wray) is in love with her boss and declines the opportunity to accompany the family on a working vacation, but agrees at Stephen’s urging.
Once on the island, the lure of voodoo overcomes Juanita and the nightly ceremonies cause her to revert to her days as a young woman on the island, where she was a voodoo priestess. She becomes so immersed in her voodoo lifestyle that in a trance she attempts to sacrifice her own daughter.
I really liked Holt’s interplay with his child. This is a very devoted, affectionate father, but not on a high saccharine level. The script shortchanges the Juanita character a bit. She’s a bit off throughout the whole movie, so when the voodoo overtakes her, it’s not too surprising. More contrast to her character would have been welcome.
The horror element is very slight. There’s no attempt to make the voodoo a supernatural entity, apart from some voodoo dolls on display. But there’s an undeniable mood to the story, courtesy cinematographer Joseph August. There’s real menace to the voodoo ceremonies on display here, with the writing bodies silhouetted against torches and fires. August provided the gorgeous black and white cinematography for “The Devil and Daniel Webster” (1941) and “Portrait of Jennie” (1948), which are two of the most striking-looking black and white features from Hollywood’s Golden Age.
Director Roy William Neill remains one of the great unsung stylists of the 1930s and 1940s. In addition to all but one of the Universal Sherlock Holmes movies starring Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce, he also directed one of Boris Karloff’s best vehicles, “The Black Room” (1935), a fairy-tale horror film that looks much more expensive than it likely was. (Despite Frank Capra and the Oscar sweep for “It Happened One Night” (1934), Columbia was considered somewhat of a Poverty Row studio at the time).
But Fay Wray is lovelier than ever, which is always a plus. Like I said, while it’s never entirely satisfying, it was a real treat to see this one.
The wonderful folks at TCM have been showing quite a lot of these Columbia B’s of late and I’m having a blast watching them. Some of these haven’t been on TV for decades. I still have quite a few to watch on the piles of tapes to get through. There’s another Fay Wray starrer called “Ann Carver’s Profession” (1933), Thelma Todd in “Air Hostess” (1932), Ann Sothern and Neil Hamilton in “Blind Date” (1934) and a Budd Boetticher-directed mystery called “The Missing Corpse” (1944), which is supposed to be quite good. Long live TCM, the greatest television channel of all time.
“Time After Time” (1979): An earlier 100 favorite movie entry was “The Time Machine” (1960) based on H.G. Wells’ famous story. This fantasy/love story/thriller posits that Wells really did build a time machine and used it to track Jack the Ripper from Victorian England to modern-day San Francisco. This is a winner all the way, with enormously appealing performances by Malcolm McDowell as Wells and Mary Steenburgen as Amy, the liberated modern day woman he falls in love with. The always underrated David Warner makes a menacing Jack the Ripper. Many hybrid movies don’t work, but this one does. I can remember seeing this at a film club screening and the scene where Wells tells Amy he would like her to go back in time with him. This very sophisticated crowd started applauding and yelling at the screen, “Go back, go back.” Miklos Rozsa provides one of the greatest scores of his long and illustrious career, with an end credits treatment of the love theme that is glorious beyond words. It literally gave me goose bumps the first time I heard it, and it’s still one of my all-time favorite pieces of music.
“Raiders of the Lost Ark” (1981): Probably my favorite Steven Spielberg film, and one of the most enjoyable times I ever had in a movie theater. Nazis make the perfect villains. They have no redeeming qualities, there’s nothing good to be said for them. There are no gray areas with Nazis, just stick a swastika on some bozo’s arm and we have every right to cheer and applaud when Indiana Jones forces their jeep to go shooting over a cliff or we watch their faces melt courtesy of a Higher Power. Hopefully, it brought people’s attention to the great Republic serials of the 1940s, serials they might likely have never seen. While I’ve never seen it, I think Raiders’ main inspiration comes from the well-regarded “Secret Service in Darkest Africa” (dynamite title, by the way), featuring Nazis looting archaeological treasures from the Dark Continent.
“Pee Wee’s Big Adventure” (1985): The first time I saw this I had no idea who Pee Wee Herman was. I had never seen the TV show, did not know anything of the character, and was unaware of director Tim Burton. I did remember that USA Today had given it four stars, which intrigued me a bit. Still, it was one cold and rainy Sunday afternoon that I decided to check it out at the Glenwood Theater. To say it was a revelation is an understatement. I was as flabbergasted as I’ve ever been in a movie. From Danny Elfman’s wonderful music, to the inspired production design, reams of quotable dialogue and a wonderful supporting cast, every second is pure joy. There’s more consistent big laughs in this than most comedies from the last 20 years combined.
“The Untouchables” (!987): I guess being from the Chicago area, there’s a special resonance to this highly romanticized look at the gangland wars and Eliot Ness’ (Kevin Costner) busting of Al Capone (Robert DeNiro). The first three fourths are exemplary, but unfortunately it falls apart towards the end. Why have Ness throw Frank Nitti off a roof to his death, when its common knowledge he ran the Capone criminal empire while Al was in jail? And the final courtroom shouting match between Ness and Capone is ludicrous and irritating in the extreme. But before then, we get a great performance by Sean Connery, dynamite Chicago locations and a pace that never lets up. Despite the histrionics at the end, all is forgiven with that final shot, a marvelous pullback of the LaSalle Street Canyon accompanied by Ennio Morricone’s swelling score.
“Field of Dreams” (1989): For anyone who loves baseball, is there a more perfect movie? No, I don’t think so. Beautifully written and directed by Philip Alden Robinson, do you think there’s any chance this would be made today? Sadly, I think not. If it were, I shudder to think of the CGI special effects that would be used to denote the return of the baseball players.
“Office Space” (1998): I’m proud to say I actually saw this in the theaters. Alright, it was a second-run theater, but I still saw it in the theaters. I immediately liked it and found myself thinking about it much more than most highly regarded movies at the time. There was something about it that stuck with me. I was very pleased to see it find its audience on cable and video. The genius of Mike Judge’s script is the instant audience identification. Everyone knows or works with someone just like the characters in the movie.
“Ghost World” (2001): A journey of self-discovery between two people; recent high school graduate Enid (Thora Birch) and nerdy jazz vinyl record collector Seymour (the great Steven Buscemi). Enid and her friend Rebecca (Scarlett Johansson) pull a mean prank on Seymour, but Seymour and Enid begin a tentative romantic friendship, both learning something about the complexities of life in the process. I don’t know if I should admit this or not, but I found myself strongly identifying Seymour, as both of us have an abiding interest in an outré subject (in my case film scores). One of my favorite lines of dialogue ever is when someone tells Seymour maybe he can meet a woman who shares his interests. He says, “I don’t want to meet a woman who shares my interests. I hate my interests.” That’s a classic line. There’s a riotous sequence where Seymour brings Enid to a party of jazz aficionados and they look at her as if it’s an alien invasion. It reminded me of a gathering of film score nerds. A wonderful movie full of dead-on performances and insights. I also love Seymour’s look of utter disdain when a waitress complains about Laurel and Hardy being nothing more than a fat guy beating up on a little guy. I think I used that same expression when a former co-worker said the exact same thing. Great, great movie.
“True Grit” (1969). I said this in a previous blog and it bears repeating. Whenever there are articles about past Oscar winners who didn’t deserve to win, John Wayne’s Best Actor win for this film invariably comes up. People say he was just playing himself, they proclaim or it’s the worst Oscar ever handed out. To which I say: Bull. And. Crap. Wayne’s performance as the eyepatch-wearing Rooster Cogburn is a winner all the way. We watch his character evolve from a crude, mean U.S. Marshall to a caring (though still unsentimental) father figure to young Mattie Ross (Kim Darby), who is tracking her father’s killer. It’s not contrived either, but we witness the character’s evolution over the course of the movie. Besides, who should have gotten the Best Actor Oscar that year, those two mopes from “Midnight Cowboy”? No, the Academy made the right decision that year.
“Big Jake” (1971). One of the meanest outlaw gangs in movie history, headed by John Fain (the great Richard Boone), kidnap a young boy from a wealthy ranch and hold him for $1 million ransom. They think his grandfather Jake McCandles (John Wayne) is dead. He isn’t. The Duke takes his estranged sons (Patrick Wayne and Christopher Mitchum) into Mexico to hunt down the Fain Gang and bring his grandson home alive. Probably my all-time favorite John Wayne movie. Not his best, mind you. I even know that. But it was the first John Wayne movie I ever saw, back as an impressionable nine-year-old one summer evening at the Dolton Theater. It’s been almost 40 years, but I can still remember the cheers and applause from a packed house when the movie ended with the freeze frame of Wayne and his family and that triumphant Elmer Bernstein music cue kicked in. I can understand when younger people say watching something like “Star Wars” (1977) or “Raiders of the Lost Ark” (1981) changed their lives, because it happened to me watching “Big Jake.” I’ve been a Wayne fan ever since that night, and it instilled a love for the western genre that has never abated over the years.
“Tales from the Crypt” (1972): I’ve always been a big fan of the horror anthologies that England’s Amicus Studios produced in the 1960s and 1970s, and this is probably the best. It’s actually a very moral film…if you do bad things to people, then bad things will come back to you a hundredfold. Each of the five stories here are good, but my favorites are the third, starring kindly Peter Cushing against a very nasty neighbor, and the final episode where residents at an institute for the blind extract a most ingenious vengeance on the callous and miserly new manager. The first segment, set on Christmas Eve featuring an escaped lunatic in a Santa Claus costume, makes for ideal holiday viewing. Ho Ho Ho.
“That’s Entertainment” (1974): Not really a documentary, but a magnificent overview of M-G-M musicals. In those pre-video and pre-cable days, those clips of musicals rarely revived or shown on TV were absolutely mouth-watering. The early 1970s was a huge feast for nostalgia buffs, and this was the cherry on the sundae. If you’re feeling down, put this on, settle back, watch, and marvel. The blues will be lifted within minutes.
“Breakheart Pass” (1975): I love westerns, mysteries and stories set on trains. This happily combines all three. Charles Bronson is arrested for murder and placed on a train traveling west through the snow-covered wilderness to bring much needed medical supplies to a fort. Someone on the train doesn’t want the train to reach its destination, what with murders and acts of sabotage occurring on a regular basis. Bronson takes it upon himself to investigate. (Hint: he’s really not a murderer). There’s gorgeous scenery on display here, with that beautiful steam engine hauling that train through vast mountain gorges and across bridges. There’s a great fight scene on top of the moving train between Bronson and ex-boxer Archie Moore. This was the last assignment for legendary stuntman/coordinator Yakima Canutt and he went out with a bang with the expert staging of the action scenes here. A terrific cast too, full of such pros as Ben Johnson, Richard Crenna, Jill Ireland, Charles Durning, Ed Lauter, David Huddleston and Bill McKinney. This is a perfectly satisfying evening’s entertainment, and the type of fare that contemporary Hollywood has no idea how to make anymore.
“The Man Who Would Be King” (1975): One of the greatest adventure films ever made, and features what are arguably my favorite performances of two of my favorite actors, Sean Connery and Michael Caine. Based on a short story by Rudyard Kipling (who is played in this movie by Christopher Plummer), two cashiered British soldiers in 19th century India decide to travel into the wilderness and find a country where they can set themselves up as kings. One can see the film as a look at greed and man’s driving ambitions, but director John Huston doesn’t allow the message to swamp this marvelously entertaining movie. The Moroccan locations are stunning.
“Race with the Devil” (1975). Another childhood favorite, and one that holds up really well. Two vacationing couples (Warren Oates and Loretta Swit, and Peter Fonda and Lara Parker) drive across Texas in an RV on their way to a skiing vacation in Colorado. One evening they pull over to a clearing to rest for the night and find themselves witnessing a Satanic ceremony, including the ritual murder of a young woman. The rest of the movie is a chase across Texas, with the Satanists seemingly around every corner. The car stunts in this are sensational, and there’s a twist ending they likely would not do today. I saw this on a Saturday afternoon at the Dolton Theater, and I think every kid in my class was there that afternoon. The TV commercials had us drooling to see this title…no way where we going to miss this. It did not disappoint. Leonard Rosenman, of all people, did the score.
“The Spy Who Loved Me” (1977). Roger Moore’s best outing as 007, and one of the best Bond films ever. It doesn’t take itself too seriously, but still offers some of the best action scenes in the series’ history. For years I thought the large specially fitted tanker that scoops up American, British and Russian nuclear submarines (thus leading to WW III) was a real tanker that the producers purchased, retrofitted with a new special hull, and then blew it up at the end. I was floored when I read it was a miniature. I would have sworn it was the real thing, strong evidence that CGI is not the be all and end all of special effects. This came out the same summer as “Star Wars” and I couldn’t understand the furor over that when the best Bond movie in years was also playing. High school hormones also likely led me to play favorites here. “The Spy Who Loved Me” gave us Barbara Bach and Caroline Munro. “Star Wars” gave us…Carrie Fisher and her cinnamon roll hair style? No contest.
“The Sundowners” (1960). I’ve blogged about this movie before. I love every frame of this movie and I wish more people were aware of it. Set in the 1920s, it deals with a family of Australian nomadic sheepherders, played by Robert Mitchum, Deborah Kerr and Michael Anderson, Jr. There’s really no plot, just their adventures on their travels. I was very surprised to read Mitchum did not think much of this role. It’s been said artists are often not the best judge of their works, and that’s true here. It’s one of his very best performances.
“The Time Machine” (1960). I watched this recently, and it really holds up. This was another one shown on Family Classics every year that was as eagerly anticipated as Christmas Day. Classic science fiction based on the H.G. Wells story with Rod Taylor is the ideal brave scientific inventor, and Yvette Mimieux is the lovely Weena. Marvelous production design and special effects showing us what life might be like in the year 802,701.
“Mysterious Island” (1961). One of my favorite Ray Harryhausen movies, this is an exciting tale based on Jules Verne’s novel, about a group of men who escape from a Confederate prison via a hot air balloon and find themselves on the title locale, in an uncharted area of the Pacific Ocean. Gigantic creatures abound, courtesy the special effects wizardry of Mr. Harryhausen, all backed by one of Bernard Herrmann’s most evocative scores. Giant monsters, a pirate attack, an exploding volcano, a beautiful girl in a short animal skin dress – everything you could possibly want in a movie. Plus the great Herbert Lom as Captain Nemo. A wonderful movie.
“The Music Man” (1962). One of the best Broadway translations ever, and thankfully recording for posterity Robert Preston’s dynamic performance as Professor Harold Hill. Some of the direction is more than a bit stagebound, but all is forgiven when surrounded by such energy and good spirits.
“Ride the High Country” (1962). A wonderful western that gave us a one-time teaming of western greats Randolph Scott and Joel McCrea. They both saw the handwriting on the wall. This was Scott’s last film and McCrea only gave us token appearances in a few more films. A beautiful elegy courtesy director Sam Peckinpah. The final image of McCrea slowly sinking out of frame is one for the books.
"To Kill A Mockingbird” (1962). A wonderful book made into an equally wonderful movie. Rarely have events seen through the eyes of a child been captured so well. Gregory Peck well deserved his Oscar as Atticus Finch. Composer Elmer Bernstein deserved a Best Score Oscar that year for his beautiful score, but he lost to Maurice Jarre for his music for “Lawrence of Arabia.” Well, OK, I can’t get upset about that. The other competition that year in this category:. Franz Waxman for “Taras Bulba”, Bronislau Kaper for “Mutiny on the Bounty” and Jerry Goldsmith for “Freud.” Compare that list to what we get today and weep.
“Jason and the Argonauts” (1963): Another dynamic Ray Harryhausen/Bernard Herrmann collaboration, this is one of the best and most colorful fantasy films of all time. I like the treatment of the Greek gods and goddesses in this, looking of humans as amusing playthings and realizing that soon mankind will not need them anymore. This contains some of Harryhausen’s best work, including the 200-foot statue Talos which comes to life, winged harpies, and the amazing duel at the end between Jason and two companies and an army of skeletons. Wilkie Cooper’s gorgeous cinematography is the type often ignored at Oscar time, because it’s not for a “prestigious” film. It shouldn’t have been.
“Goldfinger” (1964): One night I came home real late from work and turned this on. I think it was on TBS. It was past 10:30 p.m., I had been at work since 8:00 that morning, I hadn’t eaten dinner and I was exhausted. I had seen “Goldfinger” multiple times, owned it on VHS and DVD, and guess what? I still got caught up in it, and stayed and watched it, complete with commercials, to the very end. Why oh why can’t we have Bond title songs like this anymore? Remember that God-awful song from “Quantum of Solace”? It was like having lye poured into one’s ear drum.
“Planet of the Apes” (1968): The first film in one of the best science fiction series ever. Charlton Heston delivers one of his all-time best performances as the cynical astronaut Taylor who finds himself abandoned…well, you know the rest. Great production design and music help define the setting. Equally good performances under convincing ape make-up by Roddy McDowall, Kim Hunter and Maurice Evans. The third and fourth films are exceptional as well, with the second and fifth films being less satisfactory, but the entire series remains splendid, thought provoking entertainment
“The Ten Commandments” (1956). I love Cecil B. DeMille epics and this is DeMille at his best. Sure it’s as corny and kitschy as all get out, but it sure is fun to watch and even at four hours, it’s never, ever boring. I actually prefer the early scenes and its evocative images of Ancient Egypt at its most lavish. Charlton Heston takes Moses, pretty much an unplayable role, and infuses it with his special brand of charisma. (But why does Moses have to be so dour in the second half, I always wondered.) The film also contains one of my favorite dialogue exchanges ever, after Baka, Master Builder (Vincent Price) is scolded by Prince Moses for allowing an old woman (who turns out to be Moses’ birth mother) to almost be buried in a tomb. Baka tells Moses he can’t stop the work to save the life of one slave woman. Moses asks him: “Are you a master butcher or a master builder?” Oddly, the special effects used in the parting of the Red Sea are more convincing in DeMille’s 1923 silent version than here.
“Peyton Place” (1957). Soap opera on a grand scale. Lots of subplots centered around a young, exceptionally bright girl Allison MacKenzie (Diane Varsi) struggling to come to terms with herself and her life at the start of World War II. There’s her uptight mother (Lana Turner) who has a few secrets she’s desperate to keep her daughter from learning; Allison’s best friend Selena (Hope Lange), the protector of her home from a sleazy stepdad (Arthur Kennedy); shy boy Norman Page (Russ Tamblyn) stifled by an overprotective mother; flirty Betty Anderson (Terry Moore) from the wrong side of the tracks, in love with Rodney Harrington (Barry Coe), from the richest family in town; and Dr. Swain (Lloyd Nolan), the decent town’s physician who knows where all the bodies are buried. Peyton Place represents every town, big or small. This holds up very well today and is a favorite among some friends of mine who normally wouldn’t be caught watching anything from earlier decades. The New England locales are gorgeous, as is the Franz Waxman score. Lana Turner leads a very strong cast, with special kudos to Arthur Kennedy and the great Lloyd Nolan.
“12 Angry Men” (1957). Twelve jurors argue the fate of a young man accused of murder, with seemingly all the evidence weighted against him. Based on Reginald Rose’s TV drama, this takes place in one setting, a cramped, hot, sweaty juror’s room, and each actor is given a moment to shine. Henry Fonda excels as the initial lone hold out. He’s not convinced of the boy’s guilt, as much as he wants to at least talk it through. Magnificent performances all around. Sidney Lumet is not one of my favorite directors, but he’s masterful here, making us forget we’re stuck in one room for the movie’s duration.
“Horror of Dracula” (1958). It’s Hammer Time! Probably my favorite vampire film and Hammer’s finest hour. Ideal casting of Christopher Lee as Dracula and Peter Cushing as his nemesis Van Helsing and taut direction by Terence Fisher means there’s nary a wasted frame. After two decades of relatively toothless vampire action, the shocking scenes here of gushing blood in the best British Technicolor fashion re-wrote the horror genre forever. Cushing and Lee co-starred in well over a dozen films together, usually as adversaries though they were very close in real life. Would young audiences today consider seeing a horror movie with middle-aged leads? Probably not. Their loss.
“North by Northwest” (1959). It’s on TCM seemingly every month, but that’s OK, because it’s one of the most entertaining movies ever made. Loaded with equal parts wit and excitement, it’s probably my favorite Hitchcock movie of the 1950s, arguably his peak decade. Business executive Cary Grant finds himself mistaken for a spy and gets caught in a whirlwind of international intrigue. It starts in New York City and ends with that memorable chase sequence at Mt. Rushmore, with stops in between in Chicago and a certain crossroads in the middle of an Indiana cornfield.
"Inherit the Wind” (1960). A stunning (albeit fictional) dramatization of the famous Scopes trial, with the idea of teaching evolution put on trial. I would love to say this movie is dated, but unfortunately it’s just as relevant today as when it was made. Powerhouse performances by Spencer Tracy and Fredric March in the faux Clarence Darrow and William Jennings Bryan roles, and when these two clash in the courtroom time seems to stand still.
“Psycho” (1960). The first time I saw this was in high school on a Saturday night on WGN. It was the night of the Turnabout dance (aka Sadie Hawkins) and being somewhat of an uber nerd, I stayed home that night. The following Monday morning I talked to a tableful of guys who also had not gone to Turnabout and it turns out they also watched “Psycho” that night. Talk about a communal viewing experience! (Much more common in those pre-cable days of only five or six television channels). Kinda reminds me of Valentine’s Day 1994. I had nothing to do that night so I went to the gloriously seedy Villa Park Theater to see “Death Wish V.” There were about a dozen people there, all guys, all by themselves.
“School for Scoundrels” (1960). An underrated and unknown British comedy gem. Mild mannered Ian Carmichael is tired of being walked on in life, with the final straw being a supremely obnoxious Terry-Thomas waltzing off with his girlfriend. He enlists in the title institution (run by Alastair Sim), to learn the art of one upmanship and turn the tables on Thomas. There’s a car that a couple of huckster salesmen sell Carmichael that is the damndest thing you’ve ever seen. I could never bring myself to see the Billy Bob Thornton remake.
“His Kind of Woman” (1951). The first pairing of Robert Mitchum and Jane Russell, something about missing loot traced to a Mexican resort. I would be very, very careful who I would recommend this film to. In the traditional sense, it’s not very good; in fact, it’s a mess. It’s a big, sloppy, shaggy dog of a movie and at almost two hours long, could have used some judicious cutting. But it’s really, really funny. It also boasts my all-time favorite Vincent Price performance, as a hammy movie star who believes his own publicity. Howard Hughes was head of RKO at the time and cut, cut again and re-cut the film into the glorious shambles it is today. Meanwhile the entire cast and crew were on full pay doing nothing while Hughes tinkered with the film. I bet Mitchum didn’t mind this one little bit.
“The Thing From Another World” (1951). Air Force members stationed in the Arctic come across a flying saucer and bring back its inhabitant in a block of ice. Unfortunately the ice melts. It’s pretty scary stuff. Howard Hawks produced, but didn’t direct, but you’d never tell from the final product. It’s a Hawks film through and through, with a strong group of professional men who group together to solve a crisis. Add a husky-voiced strong female who can hold her own with the men and you have the Hawks formula. Lots of fast, overlapping dialogue looks ahead to the Robert Altman-style of delivery.
“The Crimson Pirate” (1952). A glorious spoof of pirate movies, and everything those dreadful “Pirates of the Caribbean” movies want to be but aren’t. Burt Lancaster makes the most physically impressive pirate of all time, and it’s just pure joy to watch from beginning to end.
“The Quiet Man” (1952). Everyone’s favorite love song to Ireland, with John Wayne and Maureen O’Hara at their most charming. There’s so many memorable moments here, but I’ve always been partial to the horse race set on the windswept Irish shore. Director John Ford delivers again. This is how we want Ireland to really be like, but we know it isn’t. But isn’t a function of art not only to show life how it is, but what it should be?
"Singin’ in the Rain” (1952). Probably in my top five favorites of all time. Another film I can’t add to what’s been already said. Because it deals with the movie’s transition from silent films to talkies, I always thought this would make a very intriguing double feature with “Sunset Blvd.”, two looks at silent-era Hollywood, one full of music and laughter and the other a bitter look at how Hollywood disposes of its one time gods and goddesses.
“The Band Wagon” (1953). Another great Fred Astaire musical. This is to Broadway what “Singin’ in the Rain” is to Hollywood. The indulgent “Faust as a musical” sequences are a riot, which led me to be the only one happily cackling away in the theater watching the dreadful “Saturday Night Fever” sequel called “Staying Alive” (1983), which features similar scenes only played oh so dreadfully straight.
“Prince Valiant” (1954). This is one I get a lot of grief for. I love this movie, it really is one of my favorites but showing it to friends always elicits the same reaction – one of the worst movies they’ve ever seen. Aargh! I guess they can’t get pass Robert Wagner’s do in this. But there’s so much to enjoy here: the always welcome James Mason; Sterling Hayden as a knight of the Round Table, sounding like a Texas cowpuncher just off a cattle drive; the beauty of Janet Leigh and Debra Paget; one of the best castle sieges ever put on film (pagan Vikings vs. Christian Vikings); a terrific broadsword duel at the end; and one of Franz Waxman’s greatest scores. It’s the ideal comic strip movie. Maybe people would like it if there our hero wore a different hair style, but then he wouldn’t be Prince Valiant, would he?
“The Night of the Hunter” (1955). One of the scariest movies ever made, Robert Mitchum is a murderous fundamentalist preacher with the words “love” and “hate” tattoed on his knuckles. He’s terrifying in this, having no scruples going after the kids of an ex-con he once shared a cell with to find out where his dad hid some money from a robbery. This is the only film directed by Charles Laughton, and it’s a shame he never directed another. Special kudos go to cinematographer Stanley Cortez for his indelible black and white imagery. Anyone who thinks watching a black and white movie would be boring is in for a revelation here.
“Meet Me in St. Louis” (1944). One of the greatest family films ever made, and a touching meditation on the family unit. While it’s a musical, there are long stretches, such as the very memorable Halloween sequence, where’s there’s no musical numbers. Judy Garland was never more charming, Vincente Minnelli’s direction is spot-on, and the film gave us not one, not two but three standards: “The Boy Next Door”, “The Trolley Song” and “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas.” Sublime entertainment from beginning to end.
“Mildred Pierce” (1945). Years ago I loaned this to a group of young female co-workers who normally wouldn’t be caught dead watching a black and white movie, and all of them absolutely loved it with one telling me it was one of the best movies she ever saw. I was very pleased. A woman’s movie, back when a woman’s movie meant well-written melodrama, not some witless romantic comedy like we have today. I mean the previews for “All About Steve” with Sandra Bullock had me praying for death. No, here we have Joan Crawford in her Oscar-winning portrayal in the ultimate saga of a mother’s love and sacrifice. Unfortunately for Mildred it’s for her ungrateful and loathsome daughter Veda (Ann Blyth). Kate Winslet is set to remake this in a mini-series; that should be very interesting. The versatile Michael Curtiz directs with his usual panache. Wonderful support from Eve Arden and Jack Carson.
“Great Expectations” (1946). The great David Lean gives us arguably the best Dickens adaptation ever. The film boasts absolutely beautiful black and white cinematography courtesy of Guy Green. Again, the casting is spot on, and the opening graveyard scene between young Pip and Magwitch the escaped convict gives us one of the greatest boo jumps in movie history, up until the final scene in “Carrie” (1974). Unforgettable characterizations from Martita Hunt as Miss Havisham, Francis L. Sullivan as Mr. Jaggers, Findlay Currie as Magwitch, Bernard Miles and Freda Jackson as the Gargerys and Alec Guinness as Herbert Pocket. Jean Simmons is intoxicating as the young Estella before Valerie Hobson takes over the adult Estella role. John Mills as the adult Pip more than holds his own among such grand character actors. Say, Martita Hunt and Freda Jackson were both in Hammer’s great “The Brides of Dracula” (1960). “Great Expectations” and the Hammer title would make an interesting double feature.
“The Ghost and Mrs. Muir” (1947). One of the best love stories ever filmed, between deceased salty sea captain Rex Harrison and Gene Tierney, the recently widowed new owner of his seaside house. Beautifully written and directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz, the final scenes never fail to move me. Composer Bernard Herrmann gave us many memorable moments, but these beautifully scored scenes towards the end are my favorite. Tierney is especially lovely and George Sanders shows up at his caddiest. (I don’t know if that’s a real word or not, but it should be).
“Nightmare Alley” (1947). In one of the his best performances, Tyrone Power stars as a carnival worker determined to make it to the top by passing himself off as a master mind reader on the high society circuit. This was one of Power’s favorite roles; he was fiercely determined to show he could do more than play costume heroes. The carnival life is not romanticized at all. I wish the ending wasn’t a cop out, but this is still a gripping experience. Good work from Colleen Gray, Helen Walker, Joan Blondell, Mike Mazurki and a harrowing performance from Ian Keith as an alcoholic carny worker. Keith was one of the leading contenders for the Dracula role back in 1930 until they gave it to Lugosi. Watching “Nightmare Alley” you realize Keith would have been a very interesting choice to play Dracula. A classic case of “What If” in cinema history.
“Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein” (1948). Speaking of Bela Lugosi, it sure is good to see him here back as Dracula. Lon Chaney returns as The Wolf Man, and Glenn Strange shows up as the Frankenstein Monster. As expert a blend of comedy and horror that’s ever been brewed. A real crowd pleaser in the best sense.
