"Plane" Mini-Review

 

by John Zenoni

For a great action/thriller film, check out Gerard Butler’s latest film, ‘Plane.’ This one definitely keeps you entertained from the get-go. Butler plays pilot Brodie Torrance, whose plane is struck by lightning and he saves the plane and passengers by making a risky landing on a war-torn island. Little do they realize there are violent rebels on the island, who come and take most of the passengers hostage, while Torrance and Louise Gaspare (great performance by Mike Colter), an accused murderer who was being transported by the FBI, roam the island looking for help. This is a great showpiece for Butler and he does a good job of keeping you glued to the screen -- awaiting his next move.

"All Quiet on the Western Front" Mini-Review

 

by John Zenoni

I am absolutely destroyed by the ending of the latest war movie entry by Netflix, ‘All Quiet on the Western Front.’ I know the book is a classic and one that I read when I was much, much younger, but I honestly could not remember much of it going into this latest adaptation of the classic. Well in my opinion, this film version (earlier versions have been released) is a classic as well. The irony at the beginning of the film showing the young German friends excited at enlisting to fight in WWI and hoping to get to the front lines does not go missed by us, the viewers, as we know it's not going to go well. The horror starts early on and does not let up as we watch 17-year-old Paul Baumér and his friends realize this is nothing as they expected, with several crying and wishing to go home. The acting, cinematography, sound and military scenes are absolutely brilliant and unforgettable. This is a definite hard one to watch and, again, that ending is one I will not forget for a long, long time. 

"Something Wild" Review

 

by Daniel White

Right from the get-go, director Jonathan Demme telegraphs in Something Wild (1986) that we'll be hitting the road. As the opening credits roll, so does his camera, circling and gliding over the waterways surrounding New York City. It's an invigorating start to this exciting, well-paced comedy-drama.

Jeff Daniels surprises as Charlie Drakes, an investment banker whose quiet act of rebellion (skipping out on paying for his lunch) attracts the attention of our unconventional heroine, Lulu (Melanie Griffith). Sensing she may have met a kindred spirit, she picks Charlie up, sending him on the ride of his life.

Though Griffith has been handed the showier role, and is quite good, this is really Daniel's film and he's terrific. From reluctant accomplice to an avenging swain, he never hits a false note. I came away from the flick feeling the same way about Jeff Daniels as I did about the seemingly strait-laced Charles Drakes: I never knew he had it in him. Ray Liotta shows up about halfway through as Griffith's psychotic, estranged husband, Ray. A sociopath obsessed with Audrey (Lulu's real name), Liotta is unnerving, injecting a level of menace into the movie.

To his credit, Demme's ability to shift gears is commendable. From a sweet, quirky road-movie romance to a violent thriller, he deftly guides the film. Demme is a meticulous overseer when choosing his supporting players, and musical soundtrack as well. Both have been carefully crafted, filled with oddball picks that work. Nothing's been left to chance, yet everything feels fresh. Scenarist E. Max Frye has handed Demme an extremely well-written screenplay that clicks. A story that is driven strictly by character, Something Wild has something akin to the finely-constructed Hollywood movies of old.

Everyone involved is doing their best and it pays off - the movie is an entertaining jaunt that rarely disappoints. Ultimately, it's the story of Sleeping Beauty, only here, it's the prince who is awakened. With music from, among others, The Talking Heads, and cinematography by Tak Fujimoto, Something Wild is currently streaming on Tubi.

"The Killing Kind" Review

 

by Daniel White

Ann Sothern has a scene at the end of The Killing Kind (1973) that demonstrates her extraordinary gifts as a film actor. Playing an overbearing, meddlesome and possibly incestuous mother, she is forced to make a heartbreaking decision concerning her homicidal son (the excellent John Savage). An unlikable character, she ends up eliciting our sympathy. I can only imagine the self-indulgent histrionics some of her contemporaries might have engaged in playing this role. Ann goes for simplicity, which results in truth and is brilliant.

Director Curtis Harrington's film may not be brilliant, but it's very good. It certainly doesn't deserve to be forgotten (I had never heard of it until yesterday). Part of the old hag horror craze that swept Hollywood after Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?, it's a well-made flick. With a solid script, superb acting and decent direction, it's better than most of the movies spewed out in that particular subgenre. In fact, I'm doing the film a disservice by labeling it as such. It's much more than that. The Killing Kind is a psychological drama about the damaging effects an emotionally voracious mother can have on her sensitive child.

The movie opens with an upsetting gang rape in which a distraught Terry (Savage) is forced to participate. Released from prison after a two-year stretch for the crime, Terry returns to his mother's boarding house. It's not initially clear what the relationship is between Terry and Thelma (Sothern). He calls her by her first name and there is a familiarity between the two that borders on the sexual.

It is soon revealed that they are mother and son. It also becomes clear that though Terry may have been innocent of the crime that sent him to prison, he is not a well-balanced young man. Permanently damaged by his smothering mother, Terry soon starts acting out. Woe to any woman who has, or will, piss him off. It's not called The Killing Kind for nothing! Terry's murder spree ends the lives of several women, but except for a few abrupt, angry outbursts, he can't confront the source of his rage, his mother.

The story is saved from being completely sordid and sensational by the two accomplished actors at the forefront. Along those lines, there is an alarming dream sequence in which an adult Savage is wearing nothing but a diaper. Lying in a crib, he's fawned over by a group of grotesque older women. Observing this macabre, startling scene, it occurred to me that most male directors would be loathe to have their leading man displayed in such a fetishized, obscene manner.

With a a disturbing cameo by Ruth Roman and featuring Luana Anders, Cindy Williams and cinematography by Mario Tosi, The Killing Kind is currently streaming on Tubi.

"Crazy Mama" Review

 

by Daniel White

After spending the past week watching nothing but British flicks, which was a noble endeavor, and one I won't repeat any time soon (Kidding, I had a helluva time!), I returned to my Stars and Stripes film roots. Nobody represents good ol' Yankee Doodle nuts and bolts movie expertise better than Roger Corman, King of the B's.

Throw in a pair of Midwest gals, born and bred in the heartland of this great country, put 'em in that genuine American of film genres, the road movie, and you've got Crazy Mama. Directed by a wet-behind-the-ears Jonathan Demme (it was only his second feature), and starring Cloris Leachman (Des Moines, Iowa) and Ann Sothern (Valley City, North Dakota), Crazy Mama is a 1975, rambunctious lil' spitfire. It may not be a respectable Oscar nominated "classic" like One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest or Barry Lyndon (films released the same year), but it sure is a nifty ball of fire!

Cloris and Ann play Sheba and Melba Stokes, a mother and daughter duo from Arkansas, operating a beauty parlor in Long Beach, California. Evicted from their place of business by no less than Mr. Magoo, Jim Backus, the two decide to go on a crime-spree and return to their home state. Along for the ride is Melba's pregnant daughter, Cheryl (Linda Purl), and her boyfriend, surfer dude, Shawn (Donny Most). A stop in Las Vegas adds a daddy for Melba (Stuart Whitman), another beau for Cheryl (Bryan Englund), and a dotty old dame named Bertha (Merie Earle). Now you've got the making's of some madcap movie mayhem!

A low budget zinger, Crazy Mama is nothing but a series of car crashes, stick-ups and screwy mishaps, but I knew that going in. What this little chippy really has in its corner are the amazingly gifted Cloris Leachman and Ann Sothern. These two broads are a pair of show business queens, talented movie magicians and television titans. Their commitment to this exercise in frivolity is more than admirable, it's inspiring. They give it their all and then some, and that's what makes them legends. Two classy, consummate professionals who show up, suit up and shoot for the moon - and get there. A pair of luminous lady space travelers, the likes of which will rarely be seen again.

Produced by Roger's wife, Julie Corman, and chock full of vintage American cars and vintage American music, Crazy Mama is currently streaming on Tubi. There are times when I am truly proud to be an American; watching Crazy Mama was one of them!

"The Lair of the White Worm" Review

 

by Daniel White

A young (and fun) Hugh Grant appears in Ken Russell's The Lair of the White Worm (1988). Too bad the rest of this subpar flick couldn't coax more mirth from me. Or genuine chills. For a film touted as specializing in comedy/horror, it delivers little of either. Ken Russell's reputation for being a campy, over-the-top showman of outrageous spectacles produced tingly palpitations within me as the opening credits rolled. But my fevered expectation soon curdled, leaving me let down and looking for the exit.

Set in the East Midlands of England, it's a tepid tale about a serpent-worshipping occultist (Amanda Donohue) and her devious endeavors to supply her worm god with human sacrifices. Donohue tries hard but can't overcome the soft screenplay and spotty plot. She spews venom on a crucifix, seduces then kills a pimply boy scout-type, and does a sexy snake dance, but it's all rather pallid. She even straps on an impressive, intimidating dildo, with the intent of impaling poor Catherine Oxenberg (who gives the one truly dreadful performance). This is the stuff of cosmic campiness. Why then does it feel tired and trite? Instead of being shocking and scandalous, it's just plain silly. Even the special- effects are patchy and second rate.

Loosely based on the Bram Stoker novel, distributed by Vestron Pictures (it was all downhill after Dirty Dancing), and featuring Peter Capaldi and the appealing Sammi Davis, The Lair of the White Worm is currently streaming on Tubi.

"Gaslight" Review

 

by Daniel White

"The rubies..."

The British Gaslight (1940) is an excellent melodrama, as good as George Cukor's MGM remake four years later. Truth be told, I enjoyed it even more. An economic 89 minutes, it runs 25 minutes less than the Hollywood version. Gone is the padded backstory about the murdered aunt and her niece's musical exploits. The first film concentrates acutely on the wicked husband's methodical scheme to destroy his wife's mental health. A product of Tinseltown's fervid imagination, the handsome Joseph Cotten character is nowhere to be found. Good riddance. The last thing our psychologically-scarred leading lady needs is another man after that horror show of a marriage. She'd be better off taking up with the sluttish maid, Nancy!

Directed by Thorold Dickinson, those familiar with Ingrid Bergman and Charles Boyer's version will recognize the story. Newlywed's Paul and Bella Mallen move into a house where the grisly murder of an elderly woman was committed twenty years before. The diabolical Anton Walbrook wastes no time in driving the cringing, weeping Diana Wynard bananas. Misplaced watches, missing brooches, pictures being plucked from the walls and hidden behind furniture. And, of course, the infamous gaslights, inexplicably dimming and flickering. In search of the rubies he failed to find when he strangled the previous resident, Anton will do anything to get his hands on them now, including sending poor Diana off the deep end.

I'm not going to debate who delivered a better performance as our troubled heroine. Both Wynard and Bergman are appropriately overwrought, giving sensitive, thoughtful portrayals. But I am going to throw down the gauntlet and declare Anton Walbrook the winner in the creepy husband category. He adds a theatrical, campy element to the part that outshines the Frenchman's gallant effort. Cathleen Cordell is more than acceptable as Nancy, filmdom's easiest parlor maid. She may not be as pouty-perfect as Angela Lansbury, but she'll do. As stated before, the removal of a potential future love interest for Bella/Paula is especially refreshing. Instead of suave Mr. Cotten, we get dumpy Frank Pettengill. A portly livery stable owner, and retired detective, he saves the embattled Bella. Rest assured though, he will not be riding off into the sunset with her on one of his charges. That, my friends, she will have to accomplish all on her own. Nice.

Based on the Patrick Hamilton play, Gas Light, and produced by British National Films, the film contains some moody cinematography by frequent Hitchcock collaborator, Bernard Knowles. Gaslight is available on YouTube.

"The Red Shoes" Review

 

by Daniel White

It's possible The Red Shoes (1948) could have been made with another performer in the lead role other than Moira Shearer, but I doubt it could have been made as well. She is phenomenal. Directed by those two pros, Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, it's a beautiful looking film, with magnificent cinematography (Jack Cardiff), art direction, set designs (Hein Heckroth, Arthur Lawson), and music (Brian Easdale). But none of that would have mattered if the actress playing Victoria Page had been unsuitable. Thankfully, Shearer is more than suitable, she is superb.

(Very) loosely based on the Hans Christian Andersen tale, the film's main theme is an old-yet-enduring one: the conflict between dedication to one's art or pursuing personal happiness. At the movie's outset, there is no question about where Victoria's passion lies. She is a dancer and everything else is secondary. Discovered by the demanding impresario Boris Lermontov (Anton Walbrook), she very quickly blossoms into a prima ballerina. Unfairly, her time at the top is brief. After a sensational season with Lermontov's company, including a smashing debut in The Red Shoes (a vehicle created just for her), she chucks it all to marry the troup's musical conductor and sometime composer (Marius Goring).

Victoria does a sudden about-face, going from being a brilliant artist to the wife of one. But Victoria's abrupt decision to forsake her heart's desire doesn't detract from the magic of this film! How welcome it must have been after the drab and dreary war years to the British public. It was also a huge critical and financial success in the U.S., where it deservedly garnered five Academy Awards nominations, winning two (Best Musical Score, Best Art Direction).

After recently belittling the talents of several Hollywood goddesses and getting belittled right back by their rabid fans, I am relieved to report the absolute perfection that is Moira Shearer in The Red Shoes. She is the main (but certainly not the only) reason to see this amazing movie. The film also features a supporting cast of dancers who could act, including choreographers Robert Helpmann and Leonid Massine. Their ability to do both adds immeasurably to its charm.

Produced by Powell and Pressburger's company, The Archers, and in glorious Technicolor, The Red Shoes is available on YouTube (in a restored, pristine copy). It would be positively criminal of me not to highlight how scintillating our red-headed star looks in outfits designed by Jaques Fath of Paris and Mattli of London.

"These are the Damned" Review

 

by Daniel White

I have always been a trifle dismissive of British cinema. I liken it to Irish cuisine: does such a thing really exist, and if so, how good can it be? Of course, I'm kidding (well, not about Irish cooking!), I know the English are responsible for some terrific film work. They may have been overshadowed by Hollywood during its Golden Age but since the decline of the studio system, the Brits have equaled and often surpassed the stuff Tinseltown dishes out.

Researching Robert Altman's Images (which was a joint U. S./U. K. Production), I discovered one of the reasons Altman created the movie was to "make a film similar to Joseph Losey." It seems Mr. Altman held Mr. Losey in high regard. The English produced These are the Damned (released as The Damned in the U.K.) is Losey's unusual mixture of sci-fi, gang violence and hinted at incest issues. It's a must-see film for anyone interested in oddball, hard-to-classify cinema. A Hammer Films fright flick, shot in 1961, it didn't make it into British movie theaters until 1963 (1965 in the U. S., where an edited version showed up). I'm not sure if that was because of its content or its difficulty in being categorized.

It opens with one of the catchiest tunes ever heard in film, "Black Leather Rock." As the song plays, strumpet Shirley Ann Field saunters through the center of an English seaside town. Picking up American tourist, Macdonald Carey (possibly the dullest leading man in movie history), she lures him to a side street. There he is beaten and robbed by her brother, King (Oliver Reed), and his crew of leather-jacketed thugs (King prefers wearing a Herringbone sports coat).

A tale about disaffected youth? Nope. A story about an overprotective brother who secretly yearns to get into his sister's knickers. Well, maybe in part. But what These are the Damned really concerns itself with is a group of radioactive children being held captive by a British research team. Say what?!?!

The flick may feel a bit disjointed at times but it's never dull and contains an above average, intelligent screenplay by Evan Jones (based on the novel The Children of Light, by H. L. Lawrence).

American-born director Losey keeps things moving and even when he stops to deliver his anti-nuke message, it goes down fairly painlessly.

I'm just so pleased to stumble across a screwy, hard-to-pigeonhole peculiarity like These are the Damned that I'm willing to embrace it, warts and all - even if it is a product of those staid, dull, unimaginative denizens of the British Isles. With the sexy, edgy, over 40 Viveca Lindfors holding her own with youngster Field, These are the Damned is available on YouTube (unfortunately the high quality copy I watched today was taken down shortly after I viewed it).

"Boom!" Review

 

by Daniel White

"Help... Injection!"

Elizabeth Taylor's first line in Boom! (1968), those were my exact words when this cinematic turd came to its merciful conclusion. It's a horrible film that has achieved camp status in certain circles.

I admire Ms. Taylor the woman. All the work she did almost singlehandedly to raise money for AIDS research was more than admirable - it saved lives. As for her acting prowess - let's just say she makes Pamela Anderson look like Sarah Bernhardt. And yes, I know she nabbed two Oscars, but that tells you more about the foolishness of the Academy Awards than it does about La Liz's meager gifts as a thespian.

It may be an apocryphal tale but Richard Brooks, her director on Cat on a Hot Tin Roof once remarked you can only keep the camera fixed on Taylor's face for about 15 seconds. That's about as long as the glamour puss could sustain an emotion. True or not, I believe it. She is positively wretched in Boom!, a Joseph Losey film, co-starring her then-husband, Richard Burton (he's just as bad, just not GLARINGLY so).

Based on the play, The Milk Train Doesn't Stop Here Anymore, by Tennessee Williams (he wrote the screenplay and it stinks), Liz plays Flora Goforth, a squawking harridan who is visited by a mysterious poet (Burton) on her Mediterranean isle. Christened the "Angel of Death," Burton has arrived at the dying Taylor's sumptuous villa to escort her to the other side. Her demise can't come soon enough.

Taylor looks fabulous in outfits designed by the uncredited Karl Lagerfeld and her hilltop lair is absolutely stunning (Richard Macdonald is listed as production designer). But our two leads are miserably miscast. She's too young, he's too old and they're worse than bad - they're banal.

Despite the weakness of the screenplay, I'd love to see this role performed on the stage by a talented actress. Hermione Baddeley and Tallulah Bankhead both played Flora Goforth in doomed productions. Several years ago, the late, great Olympia Dukakis tackled the role. That would have been memorable, she could actually emote truthfully. Elizabeth Taylor possessed many gifts, unfortunately truth telling as a performer was not one of them. The catastrophic Boom! is available on YouTube.

"Images" Review

 

by Daniel White

Cinched together with a compelling and nuanced performance by Susannah York (she won the best actress award at Cannes), Robert Altman's Images (1972) is a question mark that remains a mystery.

York plays Cathryn, a London based children's author hard at work on her current project, "In Search of Unicorns" (that could serve as a subtitle for this conundrum). Disturbed by a crank caller who informs her that her husband (Rene Auberjonois) is having an affair, the two decide to retreat to their country home. There, things go from bad to batty for poor Cathryn. Plagued by visions of a dead lover (Marcel Bozzuffi) and harassed by a former flame (High Millais) who shows up with his teenaged daughter (Cathryn Harrison), she appears to descend into madness. Ghosts are shot, lovers stabbed, husbands driven to disgust and distraction. Or are they?

Altman strings us along by having characters sharing first names with the actors in the film. Further mingling of fact with fiction: Susannah York actually wrote a children's book, "In Search of Unicorns."

I have little tolerance for this sort of psychological silliness, but stayed with the flick right up to its baffling, bewildering conclusion. Thank Miss York for that. She makes it worthwhile.

She is aided by a spooky score, benefit of John Williams (with "sounds" by Stomu Yamash'ta) and the gorgeous Irish country side where most of the movie is set. Cinematographer Vilmos Zsigmond captures it beautifully. I am a great admirer of Robert Altman and I have to hand it to him. For a film that made absolutely no sense to me, I came away impressed. Utterly perplexed but grudgingly respectful.

Distributed by Columbia Pictures (U.S.), and Hemdale Film Distributors (U.K.), Images is currently streaming on Tubi.

"The Barefoot Contessa" Review

 

by Daniel White

As preposterous as a peacock piloting a hot air balloon, Joseph L. Mankeiwicz's The Barefoot Contessa (1954) is a tribute to the inanity as well as the glory of Hollywood during its Golden Age (though the film itself was shot in Rome). The weary-looking Humphrey Bogart gets top-billing (a clause in his contract demanded it) but Ava Gardner is our shoeless heroine.

A nightclub dancer from a barrio in Madrid (for an impoverished guttersnipe, her English is near perfect), she is discovered by Hollywood director Harry Dawes (Bogart) and his pals and turned into an international film star. Despite her new-found fame, Maria Vargas (Gardner) is restless and dispirited, drifting from one unsatisfying situation to the next. With about 45 minutes left of running time, our discontented diva finally finds happiness in the arms of a wealthy, handsome Italian count (Rossano Brazzi). Alas, it's not meant to be, for on their wedding night he reveals his cock was blown off during the war (ya think he would have shared this BEFORE the nuptials).

Ludicrous, improbable and ineptly-acted by our leading lady, the flick is also lushly-made, gorgeous to the eye, and always worth watching (as is our star). With his multiple Oscar wins and highly regarded films (A Letter to Three Wives, All About Eve), Mankiewicz carries with him a lofty reputation. Personally, I think he's overrated. Perversely verbose, his neverending "clever" chit-chat can numb the viewer into a somnambulistic state. However, in The Barefoot Contessa, Mankiewicz has hired a couple of talented craftsmen (and women) to prettify everything and render it too beautiful for even his tiresome dialogue to ruin. Cinematographer Jack Cardiff, set designer Arrigo Equini and gowns by the Fontana sisters are utterly breathtaking.

Inexplicably, Edmond O'Brien won the movie's only Oscar for his supporting role as a sycophantic publicist. Unlike Ava, who can't act, O'Brien can, only here he does it badly. In researching this exquisite-looking Technicolor piece of over-preened fluff, I discovered it was released on September 29, 1954. The Barefoot Contessa gives us the ravishing Ava Gardner. Beauty fades, talent is forever. The Barefoot Contessa is currently streaming on Tubi.

"Separate Tables" Review

 

by Daniel White

Ooh, that wicked Gladys Cooper, she's up to her old tricks in Separate Tables (1958). First, in Now Voyager, she terrorized her mousy daughter, Bette Davis. Here, in this ensemble piece, she's bullying mousy daughter number two, played by Deborah Kerr. Directed by Delbert Mann, and based on two plays written by Terence Rattigan, it's a conventional flick that's fairly absorbing. Handled by a competent cast of pros, the content may seem tame by today's standards but the human emotions on display remain relatable.

Set in a seaside British resort town, the film recounts the emotional upheavals of a group of people living in a residential hotel. It takes place over a 24-hr period, which is the ideal amount of time to spend with these mildly-engaging folk. Any longer and you might find yourself stifling a yawn. David Niven has the most interesting tale to tell. He plays a bogus army officer who gets himself into a bit of a pickle when he's arrested for sexual impropriety in a movie theater (pinching female fannies).

Niven won the Oscar for best actor for his role and he's more than adequate, but nothing monumental. I suspect after over twenty years as a film actor you pick up just enough tricks to offer up a portrayal that your peers deem eligible for one of those coveted gold statues. Deborah Kerr provides some high-powered histrionics as a repressed woman browbeaten into hysteria by the formidable Miss Cooper (for top-notch camp value, Gladys delivers the goods better than anyone).

Rita Hayworth shows up as a pill-popping, aging American beauty queen, pining for ex husband, Burt Lancaster. As in Niven's case, lovely Rita gives a capable, if unexceptional performance.

The movie received a slew of Oscar nominations, winning for Niven, and a best supporting actress award for the excellent Wendy Hiller. She plays the no-nonsense manager of the establishment. A trained theater actor, Hiller is the real deal. She does not have to rely on gimmicks and quick cuts from the director to present a fully developed character.

Charles Lang's B&W cinematography is stellar and crooner Vic Damone sings the agreeable title song. All very good but nothing spectacular. Co-produced by Lancaster and distributed by United Artists, the film features Cathleen Nesbitt, Felix Aylmer, Rod Taylor and May Hallatt. Separate Tables is currently streaming on Tubi.

"Liliom" Review

 

by Daniel White

Director Frank Borzage, with the help of gifted set designer Harry Oliver, has created Liliom (1930), a remarkable looking film. I once posed the question, "How many truly great movies were made during the transition period from silent to sound?" With the technical difficulties so daunting, only a handful of enduring classics would emerge from 1929 - 1931. Liliom may not be a masterpiece, but Borzage and Co. have triumphed over the challenges faced by most filmmakers in that period and given us an exquisite flick that's a delight for the eyes. The film is an adaptation of the well-known play by Franz Molnar, from which the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical, Carousel, is based. It's a sentimental tale about the power of romantic love.

Charles Farrell stars as the title character, a vain, self-inflated roustabout with a penchant for pinching ladies' botttoms. Working as a barker at a carousel in an amusement park, he romances Julie (Rose Hobart), a trusting servant girl who falls head over heels in love with him. Despite the warnings of others, she adores Liliom, though he beats and fails to support her (he must be quite a lay!). It's a dated tale and Farrell and Hobart hardly generate enough friction to make it seem plausible even back then (where was Charlie's favorite gal pal, Janet Gaynor? She would have been perfect).

Burdened with stilted, intentionally stagey dialogue, the movie's saving grace is its stylized settings. Borzage and Oliver have turned artifice into an art form. The amusement park where Liliom works is a composition in surrealism, with twinkling lights and painted backdrops. The opening scene tips us off to the unrealistic splendor of the film. Julie is hard at work in the home where she is employed. Polishing glass objects, including vases and drinking cups, Borzage has surrounded her with hundreds, perhaps thousands, of the glittering vessels, turning a mundane moment into a sparkling panorama. Exaggerated, unbelievable and beautifully over done.

The audio is also admirable. Borzage has eschewed a traditional score for the most part, contrasting the natural sounds of the street, including the amusement park, with the fanciful set designs. There is also an extended train trip to the netherworld that's extraordinary. It's an eye-popping extravaganza that displays the best in special-effects for that time. Packaged and enveloped in synthetic dizziness, its a tribute to German Expressionism. The fakery that pervades Liliom is its greatest asset.

It's a shame that S N Behrman and Sonya Levien, who adapted Molnar's play, failed to match the peerless visuals and inventive sounds. But Borzage, Oliver, musical director Richard Fall and cinematographer, Chester A. Lyons, have gloriously over-extended themselves. They make Liliom a must see for film-buffs interested in cinema from Hollywood's pre-code era.

Distributed by Fox, with Estelle Taylor, H B Warner and a young Anne Shirley (billed as Dawn O'Day), Liliom is available on YouTube.

"It" Review

 

by Daniel White

Though she made films for other studios, I always associate Clara Bow with Paramount Pictures. In order to celebrate the birthday of Adolph Zukor, the founder of that prestigious institution (January 7, 1873 - June 10, 1976), I decided to watch "The It Girl" in Paramount's 'It'.

Our Clara stars as Betty Lou, a vivacious, peppy shop girl at Waltham's department store, the world's largest (it says so at the beginning of the flick, so it must be true!). A curvy little creature sporting spit-curls and plenty of razzamatazz, Betty Lou spots the son of the store's owner (Antonio Moreno) and immediately sets her cap on landing him. That's pretty much it in 'It', but with La Bow brandishing her particular brand of movie magic, you really don't need much more. Spirited, infectious and fun, it's easy to see why Clara Bow was the biggest thing in movies just prior to the advent of sound. Unaffected and high-spirited, her seeming limitless energy spills right off the screen. You cinema elites may choose to worship at the altar of Louise Brooks but I'm a Bow man, through and through.

Unfortunately, Clara may have had the charisma and sparkle to be a star but she didn't have the stamina. Plagued by mental health issues possibly inherited from her mother, she would suffer a nervous breakdown in 1931. And though she transitioned successfully to talkies, she never embraced the new medium, retiring after making her last movie, Hoopla, in 1933. In a town where the tales of Women Of Many Woes are too familiar, Clara Bow's is one of the saddest. Fortunately, a respectable amount of her films, both silent and sound survive, so the incandescent light that is Clara Bow will be with us as long as they are.

Directed by Clarence Badger (with uncredited work by Josef von Sternberg) and a surprise cameo by the author of It, Madame Elinor Glyn (as she is billed in the credits), 'It' is available on YouTube.

"Paths of Glory" Review

 

by Daniel White

Watching George Macready give such a masterful performance in Stanley Kubrick's Paths of Glory (1957), I became curious. Who actually won the Oscar for best supporting actor in 1957? An award that the unnominated Macready easily could have received. This was only Kubrick's third feature film, and it's very, very good. Perhaps not quite on the level of his film noir masterpiece, The Killing, which was released the year previous, but still extremely well-made.

It stars Kirk Douglas as Colonel Dax, an embittered yet loyal French soldier. Appointed the near impossible task of storming an impregnable German position, he reluctantly accepts the assignment. When the doomed attack proves disastrous, blame is quickly shifted to the enlisted men who attempted the assault, away from the officers who conceived it. Accused of cowardice, three soldiers are chosen and court-martialed, with former lawyer Dax as their counsel. They are scapegoats, representing the three companies that failed in their mission. It's a foregone conclusion they will be found guilty, one more example of the lunacy, not to mention the horror, of war.

Filmed in stark, stunning B&W, the movie provides us with a graphic illustration that sometimes color is not the most desirable choice when executing a film. Cinematographer George Krause's work is exemplary. Again, why wasn't he even nominated for an Academy Award? Was this flick's strong anti-war message too controversial for Hollywood's elite? Visually magnificent, with intrepid camera-work by Kubrick, the movie stumbles near its conclusion. Condemned to execution, Timothy Carey and Ralph Meeker awkwardly attempt to portray their fear at dying but the faulty screenplay by Kubrick, Calder Willingham and Jim Thompson fails them. Only fellow trenchmate Joseph Turkel is spared any unconvincing emoting. He has been rendered unconscious during a scuffle and will meet his maker comatose. The final scene also feels contrived. While Dax watches unnoticed, a frightened German fraulein (the future Mrs. Stanley Kubrick) is howled and jeered at while struggling to sing to a barroom full of French soldiers. Suddenly transfixed by her plaintive warbling, they become silent and subdued. Are we brutal savages or noble beasts? Of course the answer is an uneasy mixture of both, but no need to state the obvious, well, so obviously.

Despite its few missteps, Paths of Glory is a potent piece of work, a peek at what the brilliant and imaginative Stanley Kubrick has in store for us. Co-starring Adolphe Menjou and Wayne Morris, both delivering strong work, and distributed by United Artists, Paths of Glory is currently streaming on Tubi.

Who were the actual winners that year for best supporting actor and best cinematography in a B&W film? Red Buttons captured the acting award, appearing in Sayonara, while, interestingly enough, 1957 was the only year between 1939 and 1967, there was no separate B&W category (The Bridge on the River Kwai's Jack Hildyard won the golden statue).

Will Smith's 13 Best Movies

Updated 12/11/22

From being accepted at MIT to Grammy-winning teen rap star to network television star to Hollywood A-lister, Will Smith's very life seems like a movie. The Philadelphia native's film career has spanned 30 years and 37 movies (he's produced 21). It's safe to say that Smith has far exceeded any of his rap fans' wildest imaginations as well as his fellow rapper-turned actors' accomplishments in Tinsel town. With that in mind, we here at MTV Is Dead decided that it was high time that we spotlighted the best of the Fresh Prince's cinematic resume.





13. Jersey Girl

Will Smith plays....Will Smith in this comedy about a single dad juggling his home life, a new relationship and his career. 









12. King Richard

Richard Williams' (portrayed by Smith) boundless tenacity drove him to lead his daughters, Venus and Serena, to the pinnacle of  Womens' Tennis. Williams persevered through poverty, rejection and hostile gang members in order to create a future for his children.









11. The Pursuit of Happyness

Based on a true story, The Pursuit of Happyness explores single father Christopher Gardner's (portrayed by Smith) pursuit of the American Dream in order to provide a better life for his son. After his attempts to sell Osteo National portable bone-density scanners (into which he sunk all of the family's savings) fail, Chris can't come up with the money to pay off his parking fine, which culminates in the Parking Authority placing a boot on his car. Fed up, his wife Linda leaves him and their son Christopher and moves to New York. Then, unable to make rent, father and son are evicted. Betting on himself and his long-term plan, Chris accepts a position as an unpaid intern with financial firm Dean Witter. During the six-month program, Chris and his son must sleep in homeless shelters and struggle to get by. But Chris never gives up -- which would mean giving up on his son's future.









10. Bad Boys

Will Smith's first starring role in a feature -- 1995's Bad Boys -- was a smash hit, bringing in seven times its budget at the box office. The partnership between Smith's Detective Mike Lowery and Martin Lawrence's Detective Marcus Burnett was unheard of; buddy-cop movies featuring an African-American police officer and a white counterpart (the Beverly Hills Cop and Lethal Weapon series, Running Scared and Die Hard) were revolutionary at the time. But two Black cops at the center of a high-profile action movie was one-of-a-kind.









9. Ali

Ali explores a decade in the life of legendary heavyweight boxing champion and political activist Muhammad Ali. The movie begins in 1964, the year that Ali, then known as Cassius Clay Jr., defeated Sonny Liston to become only the second-youngest (at 22 years old) fighter to win the heavyweight title. Liston refused to continue the bout before the seventh round. Prior to the fight, Clay verbally harassed Liston, describing him as a "big, ugly bear". Jeering opponents would be a signature of Clay's. After befriending civil rights activist Malcolm X, Clay joins the Nation of Islam and is renamed Muhammad Ali (he was initially renamed Cassius X) by the group's leader, Elijah Muhammad. However, when a rift develops between X and the Nation leadership, Ali sides with the NOI and abandons his friend. The two never reconcile prior to X's 1965 assassination.

The following year, Ali is drafted to serve in the Vietnam War but refuses based on his religious and political beliefs. He famously declares, "I ain't got no quarrel with them Viet Cong...They never called me nigger." However, his refusal results in his being stripped of his heavyweight title (which he'd successfully defended in a rematch with Liston), losing his boxing license and his passport. He's also criminally charged, convicted of refusing to serve and faces five years in prison as well as a $10,000 fine.

Ali's conviction is finally overturned in 1971 and he goes on to challenge undefeated Philadelphia-native Joe Frazier in a title bout billed as the Fight of the Century. Ali's loss, by decision, is the first of his career. However, Frazier is subsequently defeated by George Foreman who later agrees put his title on the line against Ali in Kinshasa, Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo). The 1974 fight, billed as the Rumble in the Jungle, is promoted by Don King and is preceded by a concert headlined by music legend James Brown. During the bout, attended by 60,000 fans and watched by one billion on television, Ali employs his famous rope-a-dope strategy and beats the previously undefeated Foreman with an eighth round knockout. Ali's victory over Foreman, who was seven years his junior, making him the the first boxer to win the heavyweight belt twice.

8. Independence Day

In Independence Day, the human race is united by perhaps the only thing that can unite it: aliens bent on the destruction of mankind. A marine pilot, an MIT-trained satellite tech, a Vietnam-era fighter pilot with a few screws loose and the U.S. president all band together to kick the E.T.s off the planet.









7. Bright

Bright is only second to The Battle of the Five Armies as a damn good movie involving a magic wand and has Harry Potter beat by a mile. You know how Game of Thrones takes place in a medieval world populated by humans, giants, dragons, zombies and witches? Bright is like a modern-day version of Thrones -- except all of the Black people aren't slaves. Keep your eyes peeled for the centaur and dragon too. Netflix spent $100 million putting this flick together and you can tell by looking. It was money well-spent.









6. Bad Boys II

Miami PD narcotics detective Marcus Burnett has put in for a transfer away from his trigger-happy partner, Mike Lowrey. But in the meantime, their last assignment pits them against violent Russian gangsters and a murderous Cuban drug ring. When Marcus' sister, Sydney, is kidnapped, the estranged partners' rescue op leads all the way to Guantanamo Bay.









5. I Am Legend

Proving to be a vast improvement over the story's previous adaptation's star, Charlton Heston, Smith's Dr. Robert Neville has to cope with being one of the last humans alive while he feverishly works to develop a cure for the epidemic that transformed some of the other survivors into vicious nocturnal monsters.

After Dr. Alice Krippin's cancer cure morphs into a deadly virus, 5.4 billion people are wiped out; another 588 million mutate into savage, animalistic creatures. When not in his makeshift lab, Neville, a former lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army, spends his time scavenging supplies and cruising Manhattan -- while dodging the descendants of escaped zoo animals -- with his best friend, a German Shepherd named Sam. Neville, a trained virologist, possesses a natural immunity to the virus and painstakingly experiments with rats using his own blood until he makes a breakthrough.

After capturing one of the creatures in a trap, for use as a test subject, Neville finds himself ensnared in a similar device created by the mutants and discovers that not all of the mutants are as mindless as he believed.

Aside from scenes of Manhattan streets overrun with wild animals and utterly devoid of human life, I Am Legend is also notable for featuring a poster of the movie Batman v. Superman, which wouldn't hit theaters until nine years after Legend's release.

4. Hitch

Will Smith has only headlined one romantic comedy and he knocked it outta the park with this story about a romance-consultant who meets someone who causes him to consider leaving the game himself.

3. Emancipation

Smith portrays Peter, a slave who escapes to a Union army camp in Louisiana upon learning about the Emancipation Proclamation.

2. Focus

My expectations were very low when I watched Focus. But it's not what it seems. The trailer gave me the impression that the film was one of those serious thriller/heist/con movies with a twist at the end. But it's not. It's actually a comedy. And that's the twist. Except you don't have to wait until the end. You'd never know from the posters either, but Focus is funny almost from the start. It's not forced comedy and Will Smith and company aren't trying too hard to get laughs -- it just is funny. The key is that the people and situations in Focus would be humorless in most movies, but in this case you get to see them for what they are -- just people and just life. Cool people do dumb shit sometimes. World-class con-men can make fools of themselves and trophy girlfriends can be petty and caring -- at the same damn time.









1. Suicide Squad

Smith's Floyd Lawton, known as Deadshot in the tabloids, is a sociopathic hitman who's never been in love and doesn't feel a bit of guilt about killing people for money. But his 11-year-old daughter, Zoey, is deeply entrenched in his otherwise icy heart. And his love for her is what made it easy for the Batman to track him down and apprehend him. After he's recruited to a team of expendable supervillains, he gives the mission his all for one reason and one reason only: the promise of seeing his little girl again.

Originally Posted 11/3/19

"7th Heaven" Review

 

by Daniel White

I can't think of a better way to usher in the new year than to go back in time to the early days of film. And while we're at it, let's celebrate the birthday of one of the pioneers of the motion picture industry, William Fox, by watching one of his greatest successes, 7th Heaven (1927). Directed by the legendary Frank Borzage, it's a romantic melodrama that would be impossible to promote in today's knowing, skeptical, eyebrow-raised-in-irony world. A seven-year-old would scoff at the unfiltered sentimentality of 7th Heaven (that is, if you could even coax a seven-year-old to watch a silent, B&W movie!).

Janet Gaynor and Charles Farrell star as Diane and Chico, two lowly denizens of impoverished Paris. She lives with an alcoholic sister (the fearsome Gladys Brockwell ) who regularly beats her with a bull whip (I kid you not)! He works in the sewers, dreaming of being a street-sweeper. Chico rescues the despondent Diane from her brutal sister, Nana, and with no place to go, allows her to live with him. Expressing indifference, he stands firm in his determination not to fall in love. However, that quickly dissolves, and the virile sewer rat and the grateful gutter urchin begin an affair of epic proportions.

This is a film that not only salutes romantic love, it champions it as the only reason for man's existence. It is also a tale of religious faith. At the onset Chico is a militant atheist, but by movie's end, and one world war later, he is a devout believer in "Bon Dieu."

As corny as Kansas in August as the song says, 7th Heaven is also a beautifully crafted, lushly made film that director Borzage has handled with tenderness and artful camera work. The scene where the two climb the steps to Chico's attic abode is memorable. Up the winding stairs our darlings go, while Borzage's camera follows them, vertically ascending floor by floor. Indelible. This would be the first of 11 movies Gaynor and Farrell would appear in together, and it's easy to see why they were so popular. "America's Favorite Lovebirds" make for a sexy couple who complement each other parfait-perfect. He is big, strapping and a tad gangly, while she is petit, winsome and in need of protection.

Of course the truth is altogether different. Janet Gaynor was most likely a lesbian who seems to have had no trouble taken care of herself, and any off screen dalliances between the two, just fanciful manure manufactured by Fox studio.

I ladore silent movies and urge anyone who confesses to having an interest in cinema, and hasn't done so, to check one out. Why not start with 7th Heaven? It's a dazzler! Nominated for Best Picture, 7th Heaven won Academy Awards for best actress, best director, and best adapted screenplay (Benjamin Glazer). Distributed by Fox Film Corporation with a synchronized musical soundtrack, 7th Heaven is available on YouTube.