Black Narcissus (1947)

Five nuns, led by the unfortunately named Sister Clodagh (Deborah Kerr), start a convent high in the Himalayas. The brisk air and clear water cause the sisters to remember.

Filmed on back lots and studio sets, the painted backdrops are nevertheless breathtaking. Few viewers will be tricked into thinking they are anything other than what they are, but they still have impact. It’s a shame it came before the invention of CinemaScope. A wider aspect would have made it all the more impressive.

The old palace they are given to use was once a “House of Women”, which is exactly what that sounds like. The nuns are assisted by the enigmatic Mr. Dean (David Farrar). His gruff manner and manly good looks stir things in Clodagh, and the troubled Sister Ruth. He looked foolish appearing shirtless on an undersized donkey, but I suppose this was period accurate.

So, our story is about the nuns trying to overcome many obstacles (personal and otherwise) to run a successful convent, while everyone else is certain of their failure. There are many side characters, many of which were played by plausibly ethnic appropriate actors. The Young General (son of the Old General who granted the palace to the nuns) was played by Indian actor Sabu, famous for his roles in The Jungle Book and The Thief of Bagdad.

A very young Jean Simmons (in ‘Himalayan face’?) plays a wayward girl whose eyes catch with the Young General’s. Also, English actress May Hallatt plays a delightfully batty caretaker. Remember, this is the 1940’s, and western society and the church weren’t given glowing depictions.

Black Narcissus (named for the Young General's fancy cologne) is a slow and engaging watch. Style-wise it isn’t altogether different from Michael Powell’s The Red Shoes. Amazing visuals paired with a certain level of fantastic realism. And like The Red Shoes, it is an impressive and immersive watch, but certainly not for everyone. But for me, AMRU 4.

“I have invited some ladies to stay here at the House of Women.” 

“Ladies! Oh, that will be like old times!”

“It will not be in the least like old times. They are not that kind of lady at all.”

“Then they won’t be any fun.”

The Gay Falcon (1941)

George Sanders is Gay Laurence (aka The Falcon), a bored stock broker and amateur sleuth who becomes involved in a jewel theft, and tries to keep his fiancee from getting the wrong idea.

The Falcon series was criticized as a cheap rip-off of The Saint. I haven’t seen any of the Saint films, but from what I gather it’s an unfair comparison. The Falcon is a series of mystery films featuring an erudite womanizer who solves crimes, starring George Sanders in the title role of four of them, includes an embarrassing asian stereotype character in a servant role, with one film named The Falcon Takes Over, while The Saint is a series of mystery films featuring an erudite womanizer who solves crimes, starring George Sanders in the title role of five of them, includes an embarrassing black stereotype character in a servant role, with one film named The Saint Takes Over. There’s no comparison at all.

Many character actors are here, notably Wendy Barrie, who appeared in three Saint films and another Falcon. Willie Fung played the asian stereotype servant Jerry. He died tragically young at 49. Comic actor Allen Jenkins is The Falcon’s assistant in this and two other films. He appears in a surprising number of films, including King Kong, and most recently as a bumbling detective in SH! The Octopus.

Twelve year olds today may giggle at the character name, particularly when he says ‘Call me Gay’ to a lady in a vaguely foppish manner, but there is no queer coding here. Cary Grant may have gone “gay all of a sudden” three years earlier in Bringing up Baby, but that meaning hadn’t yet entered the popular vernacular.

Saunders grew tired with the role and perhaps thought himself too good for such films. I would agree. His purring sarcasm was a delight with the proper script and he would go on to appear in some great films. He handed it over to his real life brother, Tom Conway, a fine actor perhaps more suited to B movie roles. Conway appeared in three of the Lewton horrors and finished out the string of sixteen Falcon films.

There is no end to light mystery series made during the 30’s and 40’s. Torchy Blane, Boston Blackie, Philo Vance, Sherlock Holmes, even the Thin Man, and many more. The Gay Falcon is, by all accounts, no worse than the rest, and I briefly toyed with the idea of shooting through the series, to which my son retorted “Well, you know what you should do”. Yea. We will leave this series where it is. AMRU 3.

King Solomon’s Mines (1950)

The beautiful Beth Curtis (Deborah Kerr) hires famed African guide Allan Qua(r)termain (Stewart Granger) to lead her into the unexplored region interior in pursuit of her missing husband. Hubby had been searching for the legendary lost diamond mine of King Solomon. Allan initially refuses but soon realizes that he likes money.

King Solomon’s Mines is the second of three adaptations of the H. Ryder Haggard novel. I covered the first version in early 2021, and I’ve touched on Haggard with that and the two versions of ‘She’. Suffice to say that Haggard’s ‘Lost World’ novels are very much the product of the 19th century. They have a very patronizing view of native peoples and frequently feature a great civilization led by (of course) white people. Real Commander McBragg stuff.

While the 1937 version effectively side-stepped much of the problematic content (star Paul Robeson humbly disagrees), this version aged much better. Every African character is played by an African, hired on location. Our hero speaks to them in their actual language and their deaths are handled with real gravity. This is also the first time the Watusi tribe was filmed. There is no score save for the tribal dancing, which is fascinating to watch.

Story-wise, this differs from the earlier edition in a couple ways. Rather than looking for the father who disappears in the first act, pretty Beth is searching for her husband, gone for a year or so, making the love element rather problematic. Also, Granger embodies the commanding adventurer that Indiana Jones was partially modeled from. And Richard Carlson plays Beth’s concerned brother, a significant tonal shift from Roland Young. Other than that, the story pretty much hits the same beats.

Films are a product of the time they are from. They are crafted to speak to audiences of the day, and King Solomon's Mines is no different. I am not concerned when the source material is out of date with the times nor to filmmakers liberties with such material. Even Gone With the Wind saw  reenvisioning. I also try to be tolerant of films that age rather poorly, but I'm not always so successful. As for today's film, despite knowing the story, I found it rather enjoyable. AMRU 4.

Tension (1949)

Nice guy Quimby (Richard Basehart) plots to murder the lunkhead who stole his wife (Audrey Totter), and meets nice girl Mary (Cyd Charisse) along the way. When the lunkhead turns up dead, things become complicated.

Audrey Totter was delightfully nasty as the unfaithful wife. She drips with venom. Totter built a career as a femme fatale, her look being perfect for the woman of danger. When those roles dried up she transitioned to television. I had only seen Cyd Charisse in Singin’ in the Rain, and thought of her just as a dancer. She did no dancing here, and was quite charming in her good girl role. William Conrad (TV's Cannon) has a sizable role.

The tension in the title refers to the amount of tension the investigating officer needs to apply to suspects before they break, like with a rubber band. It’s a corny but forgivable analogy. As we know what happens pretty early on, this isn’t much of a mystery. The real star here is the delicious dialog which makes every scene pop. We care about the protagonists, hate the antagonists, and the story sizzles when it needs to.

Were I to criticize, it would be how the protagonist must act stupid so that the story can progress. The entire film would have been wrapped up in the second act had they just answered the police’s question. Also, the ending wasn’t quite as smart as it could have been.

That aside, Tension was an absolute delight to watch. Tight dialog, great characterizations, and excellent acting. The whole thing simply popped. AMRU 4.

Crossfire (1947)

A man is found murdered in his hotel room. He was seen the night before with a few servicemen in a bar. Police investigate, and focus on one soldier whose whereabouts are unknown.

The film stars three Roberts: Young, Ryan, and Mitchum. Young is the police chief investigating the crime, and Ryan and Mitchum are servicemen trying to ‘help’. Gloria Grahame had a small but important role as the dance hall girl who may be able to account for the married suspect’s whereabouts. Grahame’s private life was pretty bonkers.

Jacqueline White, who played the wife who just wanted her husband cleared and didn't care where he hid the salami, was charming in her limited role. She only appeared in twenty features and retired at 30 to domestic bliss. She turns 100 this month. A highlight was a character known only as ‘The Man’. He appears at Ginny’s (Grahame) apartment to find our poor suspect. We never figure out his story because he keeps changing it. It’s actually quite amusing. I want to know more about that character. I also want that coffee maker.

The story isn’t very complicated but the movie can be confusing because I had difficulty keeping the characters straight. Also, the IMDb trivia section called it “one of the most visually impressive film noirs ever made”. Please watch The Third Man (1949). I wouldn’t complain about Crossfire's cinematography. It was just middle of the road.

Crossfire (which features no crossfire, figurative or otherwise) was nominated for five Academy Awards, including best picture, but won nothing. It isn't much of a mystery. I was certain of the killer midway through the first act. And it got a little preachy, as some post war films do. But it scores on atmosphere and some delightfully quirky scenes. I was looking for a solid noir and this hit the spot. AMRU 3.5.

Stalag 17 (1953)

Prisoners in a German POW camp suspect there is a snitch in the barracks.

I grew up watching reruns of Hogan’s Heroes, which I understood was adapted of Stalag 17. I believed this while watching. There are many parallels, for instance barracks life, the word Stalag, and William Holden’s Sgt. Sefton is not a terrible analog for Bob Crane’s Col. Hogan. They both also share a Sgt. Schultz. Obviously the show has a more comedic, family friendly tone and while you can draw a line between show and film characters, they don’t line up perfectly.

In reality, while I believe the show was greatly inspired by the film, it was not an authorized adaptation. In fact the authors of the play the film was based on sued the TV show and initially won. The judge, however, reversed the decision. They can do this.

The film is somewhat episodic. The exploits of Sefton as well as Shapiro and “Animal” provide comedic interest. But the through line of the story is the Nazi spy they are trying to find, and there the stakes are high. Sefton becomes a prime suspect.

Peter Graves has a significant role, as does Richard Erdman, who is best remembered as that guy who reviews snack foods on youtube. There are a great many notable character actors throughout.

While I had never seen this film, I was well aware of it even as a boy. Unfortunately it was spoiled for me in an unexpected way. Mad Magazine would do satirical renditions of famous movies, and Stalag 17 was one of them. I read this issue in maybe 1980 and remembered the reveal to this very day. Still, it is a greatly enjoyable film. AMRU 4.

"I see nothing!"

The Magnetic Monster (1953)

Items in a store become magnetized and behave strangely. So, the shop owner does what any reasonable person would. He calls the department of power and light to speak with the chief engineer. When the engineer hears that appliances were magnetized, he wastes no time and contacts the Office of Scientific Investigation. A-Man Jeffrey Stewart (Richard Carlson) is on the case. Magnetism, it would seem, is the same as nuclear radiation.

Never before have I watched a film with more technobabble narration and exposition. Characters literally stop walking up stairs to spout this stuff. The intent was to make a film with a scientifically viable premise. Atomic energy was a serious and significant concern in post-war America, and this is a story about an experiment gone wrong. And rather than anthropomorphize the experiment as a giant insect or whatever, they anthropomorphize the element itself. It “feeds” and “murders”, and must be “killed”.

Every eleven hours the element reacts, grows larger and stronger, and more people die. Were it to continue growing it would spin the earth off its access. It’s the size of a raisin, but, you know, eventually … Much of the story follows the horror conventions of the day. They figure things out, test hypotheses, make a plan of action, then heroically carry it out. The difference is that despite the actor’s behavior, there is no conventional movie monster. Just a dangerous radioactive sample.

The low budget Magnetic Monster earns points for trying something different. It has a unique feel compared to the usual fare, and the lady in the shop jumping out of the way of a magnetized lawnmower is unintentionally hilarious. But in the end, it is a fairly unremarkable movie. AMRU 3.

“In nuclear research, there is no place for lone wolves.”

Dementia 13 (1963)

Irish mansion, morbid ceremony, family secrets, ax murderer, big reveal, roll credits.

While working with Roger Corman on The Young Racers, a very young Francis Ford Coppola somehow convinced him to finance his own film. He used existing sets and locations, enlisted film school friends, wrote a script, finagled additional funding, and filmed during down times. The title was inspired by Hitchcock’s Psycho, but there was already a 1955 film named Dementia, so he added the number 13. You know, because 13 is unlucky.

Coppola borrowed a few actors from The Young Racers but the only recognizable face is William Campbell. He had a long film and TV career, but to me he will always be General Trelane, retired. The film’s two pretty blonds each have a sexy sexy scene (by 1963 standards) calling back to Coppola’s earlier work on nudie cuties.

A close look at this film may reveal clues of a director that would be one of the all time greatest for an eight year stretch, but without the insight of hindsight I doubt even an educated viewer could pick that out. It is at times clumsy, some of the acting is quite poor, and the story is really a mess. It feels as if a few interesting elements were awkwardly tied together into a narrative. It’s worth noting that his previous directing experience was creating additional scenes to somehow save The Terror. Coppola learned a great many things during the process, but the importance of budget and time may have been the best lesson.

Dementia 13 is a watchable and mostly interesting film, if only because of the director. But it is by no means a good or important film. There are flaws the viewer must overlook, but at least it’s brief. AMRU 2.5.

“Especially an American girl. You can tell she's been raised on promises.”

 

The Masque of the Red Death (1964)

Prince Prospero (Vincent Price) is a terrible man. He visits a small village for reasons I forget and is given an earful by two residents. He sentences them to fight to the death, but two things happen: he takes a fancy to the pretty Francesca and discovers that the village is infected by The Red Death, which is apparently some kind of plague. He orders the village burned and takes the pretty lady and two men back to his castle. There he contemplates ways to kill his prisoners, tries to woo the pretty girl (because, you know, consent), and plans a masquerade ball.

This is another of Roger Corman’s eight Poe films, of which I’ve now seen three. The teenaged Jane Asher was quite charming as the prince's captive. Prospero’s lady in waiting (Hazel Court) is jealous of this new love interest and starts operating on her own agenda. After her initial ingenue period, Court appeared in a fair number of low budget horror flicks. After Masque she moved to television and had a lengthy career there. In a side story a tiny dancer catches the eye of Hop Toad the dwarf. Turns out that actress was only eight years old at the time.

The Masque of the Red Death has an air of artificiality about it. The dialog is stilted and mannered. The sets are brightly colored, brightly lit, and very set-looking. People are locked in rooms that we don’t doubt for a moment the actors couldn’t punch their way through. There is much to pick apart if one were inclined. But this is the disbelief we are supposed to suspend. So, it is what it is. It holds your interest even if the story sometimes makes no sense. I should read the Poe story. AMRU 3.

The Face of Another (1966)

A man loses his face in an industrial accident, and his outlook and relationships are profoundly affected. His psychologist offers to create a lifelike mask, in effect a new identity.

The Face of Another is a horror film with an art house heart. It is an exploration of the self, who you are, how you are perceived, and how you believe you are. The sets of the Doctor’s laboratory are abstract, stripped down to the basic elements, and the dialog is laden with symbolism. The open question is will the mask allow Mr. Okuyama to become himself again and re-enter society or will he become what the mask wants him to be. Trippy stuff.

Emboldened by the mask, he tells his wife he is going on a business trip, and rents an apartment as his new identity. His behavior becomes more troubling.

The story essentially revolves around three characters: Mr. Okuyama, his estranged wife, and his doctor. There are, however, curious characters in the periphery. The Doctor’s nurse, a girl known only as “Yo-Yo Girl”, and the enigmatic “Girl with Scar”. They add texture to the narrative without distracting from it, and their purpose in the story is open for debate.

The Face of Another leaves me with questions. Questions I won’t explore here lest I spoil or influence interpretation. I doubt I will watch it again, but I think it will stick with me for a while. AMRU 3.5.

Blood and Black Lace (1964)

A model at a haute couture fashion house is murdered by a man with a creepily hidden face. When her diary is discovered, the models who take it become the next target of the hidden killer.

Mario Bava's Blood and Black Lace is an early example of the Italian Giallo genre of slasher thrillers, perhaps the first. They tend to focus more on atmosphere and imagery rather than story or character. And they seldom delve into the supernatural and thus fall partially outside of my definition of Horror.

There are plenty of suspects and a bit of a reveal at the end, but this isn’t a who-done-it. It’s a film for people who likes to see great cinematography, excellent sets, and pretty women brutally murdered. And it’s the sexualization of murder I cannot get on board with. Just not my thing. We don’t get to like the victims, don’t get to hate them. We just see them die. It's purely visual.

My problem with Blood and Black Lace, and Giallo in general, is that I feel like I am trying to watch a different film than the one on screen. I want there to be more story, better developed characters, smarter in general, and therefore disappointed. This is entirely a Me problem. With all that said, it wasn’t a hard film to watch. Enough action and detail to keep you interested, and it does look stunning. AMRU 3.

Pitfall (1948)

Middle-aged insurance man Forbes (Dick Powell) is tired of his predictable life. He crosses paths with Mona, a pretty young woman who’s embezzling boyfriend lavished her with gifts, and starts an ill conceived relationship. Unfortunately the company PI (Raymond Burr) already called dibs.

The put-upon wife is played by Jane Wyatt, better known as the mom in Father Knows Best. I’ve never seen an episode. Raymond Burr is compellingly despicable as Mona’s unwanted admirer. He was said to be a nice guy in real life. Go figure.

Lizabeth Scott plays the pretty Mona. She seemed something of a Veronica Lake type. The former understudy of Tallulah Bankhead, it is said she was the model for Eve from All About. Ambitious and difficult, she was often derided for her talent, but her understated performance worked fine here. Producer boyfriends and better roles dried up once north of 30, so she rounded out her career on television.

Independently produced, Pitfall has a snappy script and pretty good performances. It skirted some Hays code conventions that studio productions might not have been able to. Nothing too scandalous, though. This is pretty much still a by-the-books 40’s noir.

Honestly, this won’t be a film that sticks with me. It is a good but not great film, but I had to get the bad taste of that last one out of my mouth. It has some good dialog and a few interesting moments, and is worth a watch. AMRU 3.5.

Tommy: “Dad was a boxer in college!”
Doctor: “I think he was wise to go into insurance.”

Alphaville (1965)

A reporter arrives in Alphaville from the “Outer Countries”, looking for Professor Von Braun and asking a lot of questions. Slowly he learns the true nature of Alphaville and Alpha 60, even if little of it makes much sense to the viewer.

Ostensibly this is Film-Noir, but it reads like a parody of the genre. Our protagonist behaves like a jerk, slapping people, acting misogynistic, and getting into random violence and gun play. I know, but I mean inappropriately so. I sense the director (Jean-Luc Godard) is making a statement about the hard-boiled detective trope and American cinema in general, and it is not a favorable one. Every adherence to the genre felt like an exaggeration to point out its absurdity.

But calling it science fiction is a taller order. It is said to be set in a dystopian future where computers control everyone’s thoughts, but there was no attempt to camouflage present era Paris. 1960’s locations, cars, and other technology are plainly used. Again, I feel the intent of the director. While real sci-fi explores modern society using a fanciful story and out-of-this-world setting, here the director presents his story with nothing more than sci-fi lip service. It’s a dystopian future, and it is today. The Alpha 60 computer is the only technology presented, and it seemed out of place in the world presented.

The unpleasant voice of Alpha 60 was recorded by a man with his voice box removed due to cancer. But this is not by far the most unpleasant aspect. The nonsensical dialog gave it a pretentious air and the herky-jerky editing made it hard to follow the action, principally the fight scenes. And occasionally scenes go reverse negative, because that’s artsy.

I understand that seamful editing was a French New Wave thing, to call attention to the existence of the film. An Intention of Disbelief, if you will. And perhaps the noir genre was more than a little dated by 1965, and deserved criticism. But Alphaville is confoundingly respected in both genres, and I don’t believe it respects them.

The story is tedious and absurd, the edits abrupt and disjointed, the dialog utterly nonsensical, and the character behavior is ridiculous. This was all a conscious decision by the director, but that doesn’t make it an easier watch. If you think French cinema is pompous and pretentious, I present to you exhibit Alpha. AMRU 2.

“Yes, I am afraid of death. But for a humble secret agent, it's an everyday thing, like whiskey. And I've been drinking all my life.”

The Monster that Challenged the World (1957)

A minor earthquake shakes California’s Salton Sea and adjacent Navy base. Shortly thereafter some sailors go strangely missing. I wonder if some prehistoric mollusks were released by the earthquake and affected by radiation. It’s a reasonable hypothesis.

The Salton Sea is a pretty interesting place. An inland saltwater sea was created by accident, became a tourist attraction, then dried up. At the time of this film it was a tourist hot spot and apparently had a naval base.

Anyhow, the navy investigates, discovers the creatures (note, many of them), and fights them with their latest weapons: sticks. And fire extinguishers. Whatever’s handy. The story is essentially an aquatic version of Them! (1954), in that a population of somewhat larger than man-sized creatures, created by radiation, must be destroyed by the military authority, before they escape to (ahem) challenge the world. And if you swap 1950’s radiation with general scientific hubris, some of the Jurassic Park films fit this mold pretty well.

Leading the fight is Commander Twillinger, played by Tim Holt. Old friends will remember him from The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948). He was in a bunch of films, mostly westerns, before walking away from Hollywood. He returned after five years for this film then two more spread out over the next fourteen, before retiring for good. Two years after that, bone cancer would take his life. He was 54. So it goes.

The Monster that Challenged the World is unoriginal, low budget, silly nonsense. But despite that, it works. The monsters looked pretty good, and many background characters were fully flushed out. Specifically, some quirky scientists and especially map guy Lewis Clark Dobbs. The script gave them something to do and the actors did it. Not saying I am eager for a rewatch, but it deserves every bit of AMRU 3. But, dude, the ax was right there!

Easy Virtue (1927)

Larita Filton, embroiled in a scandalous divorce, flees to the south of France to avoid the press. There she meets and falls for the young John Whittaker. When back in England and polite society, her new in-laws are suspicious of her past.

Ranked by IMDb as Hitchcock’s fourth worst film, it is a tedious and sometimes visually confusing mess. It does not help that my copy is a poor transfer. The film was thin with very poor contrast, and the score was damaged along with it. While a fully restored edition would have been more pleasant to watch, It would not have saved the film.

This is not to say there weren’t a few creative elements. A long shot of a tennis court starts through a tennis racket then progresses to the first volley. Another scene wordlessly communicates important information by watching the reaction of a telephone operator who is listening in on the phone call. Hitchcock is experimenting in a way we see much more of later in his career.

Based on a Noel Coward play, there is a 2008 version that didn’t fare much better. Prior to this the only Coward adapted film I have seen is 1933’s Cavalcade, which was dull as dishwater. I don’t know much about Coward and theater in general, but it appears he struck the zeitgeist of his time but his works became very dated very quickly. But I’ll leave that to someone’s Theater Philistine blog to explore.

As mentioned, Easy Virtue is ranked pretty low on Hitchcock’s CV, with the bottom three coming up if I continue chronologically. We will see what happens there. But as for this one, I found the characters hard to engage with, some of the action confusing, and the story tedious. But if you must watch it, find a much better copy. AMRU 2.

The Tomb of Ligeia (1964)

A creepy old guy (Vincent Price) laments the death of his wife, The Lady Ligeia (Elizabeth Shepherd). He thinks she isn’t really dead because of something she said, but buries her anyhow. When he meets The Lady Rowena (Elizabeth Shepherd), he mistakes her for his dead wife and treats her terribly. Will love bloom? Anyhow, after the wedding, the dead wife starts to complicate things.

Roger Corman directed eight Edgar Allen Poe adaptations in the early 1960’s and this was the most expensive, elaborate, and the last. It was the only one not to be filmed entirely on a soundstage. The shoot went long because of the British crew’s tea obsession. This is my thirteenth Price film so far, which is fewer than I would have expected.

I’ve dinged Corman over his focus on budget and profit over quality, but a great many industry people credit him with giving them their start and an opportunity to learn the craft. I can’t discount that. But I can say I don’t care much for the films he produces. And boy does he produce. He has over 440 feature film producer credits, including four in pre-production. But he wasn’t credited as producer on this one. A Brit was so he could earn a British subsidy.

As for The Tomb of Ligeia, it is what it is. The sets are on par with Hammer, the period dialog is a bit overdone, and the story, well, it is what it is. It will hold your interest but not capture your imagination. AMRU 3. Being a little generous, for Vincent’s benefit.

The Naked City (1948)

A pretty young woman is found drowned in her bathtub, with signs of a struggle. This is a case for the homicide department of New York City’s 10th precinct.

Everyone’s favorite leprechaun Barry Fitzgerald is Lieutenant Muldoon. He, along with Detective Halloran and others, work the case. They follow leads, question suspects, and do research. You know, police work. It’s worth noting that actual police work was quite the novelty in 1940’s Hollywood.

I had turned on TCM half way through an unfamiliar noir. A good noir, I thought, would really scratch the itch, so I hunted through my DVR for a candidate. I found The Naked City. Although labeled film noir by IMDb, it really isn’t. No hard boiled attitude, no expressionistic lighting, no femme fatal. It’s a police procedural, and a pretty good one.

While not what I was looking for, The Naked City is a very interesting watch. We don’t know much more than the detectives, so it serves as a better than fair mystery. And it’s a realistic case. The earth isn’t in the balance, just a murder that needs to be solved. There were likely a few in the city that summer. Some elements are more flick than fact, much of the ending in particular, but it remains a solidly realistic depiction.

The Naked City spawned a TV series of the same name, and inspired many others in the years since. It won't rock your world, but the story is deceptively complex and will definitely hold your interest. AMRU 3.5.

"There are eight million stories in the naked city. This has been one of them."

Sh! The Octopus (1937)

Two dopey police detectives learn that the new police commissioner is targeting a criminal organization called The Octopus, which they confuse as being the real animal. A frightened woman has them travel to an island lighthouse during a storm for some cockamamie reason. A painter is staying at the lighthouse expecting it to be a quiet place to work. An assortment of other strange characters file in.

This film is complete nonsense. We are teased with some semblance of a story early on, but that goes out the window pretty quickly. Characters come and go without explanation, action happens without purpose, and the final reveal does little to satisfy. While it is not uncommon in some light comedies for the story to be nothing more than a framework to hang comedic bits off. Here, there is only a set piece and a basic premise for that purpose. And the comic bits aren’t funny.

The movie is memorable for one thing. A character transforms from normal looking into a witch-like appearance. This is achieved using special makeup and red and blue light filters. It was used in Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1931) and is quite effective. It would only work in black and white and I am surprised it wasn’t used more often.

Detective Kelly was played by Hugh Herbert and has a distinctive voice and mannerisms. I haven’t seen him in a film before but I am certain I’ve seen him characterchured in a Warner Brothers cartoon. He was teamed with Allen Jenkins for the first and only time.

SH! The Octopus really is a mess. Story elements are introduced, then never mentioned again. It appears characters are included simply because actors under contract needed work. They were asked to quickly create a character and run with it. Thing is, though, the movie seems to be based on a play. I'm sure a lot of foolishness was thrown during filming.

It's unclear how this movie got onto my radar, perhaps it was the visual effect, but it was quite skippable. That said, it was short and despite it all, held my interest. AMRU 2.5.

Fear and Desire (1953)

Four soldiers crash miles behind enemy lines and formulate a plan to get back to safety. They experience a lot of fear, but also desire.

Stanley Kubrick’s first feature film is a surreal affair. Mostly because of its very low budget, it has an abstract and stripped down feel. Two of the unnamed enemies were played by two of the main characters. This saved Kubrick from having to hire two more actors and also gave it a “they are us” feel. And as no nation or geolocation is ever mentioned, they might actually be us. Financed by Stanley’s uncle, the film was shot silent and dubbed by the actors in post.

Our four heroes are the pilot, Lieutenant Corby, Sergeant “Mac” who resents his fly-boy superior what with all that fancy book learning, and still wet behind his ears Private Sidney, who is not prepared for what lies ahead. Oh, and private Fletcher is there too. This also features the first film role for Virginia Leith, whom old friends will remember as Jan in the Pan.

The twenty four year old Kubrick produced, directed, filmed, edited, and even did sound design here, and his inexperienced hand is apparent. Some edits are very clumsy, likely caused by a lack of coverage. The dialog is clunky and philosophy heavy. And some character interactions implied more story that did not come. The film lost money, uncle refused to provide any more loans, and Stanley hated the finished product so much he tried to have every existing copy and negative destroyed. Apparently he failed.

Fear and Desire is a short, somewhat interesting film but is inescapably amateurish. Kubrick was said to have “absolutely loathed it” and called it a “bumbling amateur film exercise". It is not without some interesting elements, but were it not for the name attached to it, it would be entirely forgettable. AMRU 2.5.

Belle de Jour (1967)

A beautiful young wife (Catherine Deneuve) with a fear of intimacy has bizarre sexual fantasies. She can’t be intimate with her husband but decides to become a prostitute in the afternoons. Worlds eventually collide.

Not sure what I expected. Certainly not this. I mean, what a premise. The film is rife with fantasy sequences (perhaps a trademark of director Luis Buñuel, I don’t know), which adds layers of ambiguity.

So, what does it mean. Because of the fantasy sequences one could argue that some, most, or possibly all of the film is simply Séverine’s fevered dream. The ending in particular is debated, of which Buñuel himself said he didn’t know what it meant. I believe he was being a little disingenuous. He had been making films for almost forty years. He didn’t include a closing scene like that without a reason. And I have my opinions on this point.

But ignoring all that, this is a story of a very desirable woman, married to a good, handsome man who loves her. She can’t be the wife he deserves, the one she wants to be, and he is endlessly patient with her. But when she balks at her first prostitution job, the madam sees that she needs “a firm hand”. The frigid woman needs not patience and understanding, but “the rough stuff”.

Talk me down from this interpretation. Seriously. Because otherwise, Belle de Jour is a fairly charming and well made story. It is lauded for it’s Yves Saint-Laurent high fashion but for plebeians like me where fashion is meaningless, it just looks very 60’s. It’s an engaging film, but if I am right about the message, It is very problematic for me. AMRU 3.

Trog (1970)

Amateur spelunkers discover a brightly lit cave made out of painted styrofoam. While exploring, they come face to face with the most terrifying thing imaginable: a white dude in a rubber mask. After one is killed, they flee to tell the esteemed “Dr.” Brockton (Joan Crawford), who decides she needs it for a pet.

None-too-keen on a monster chillin’ in the area is real estate developer Sam Murdock (Michael Gough) whose initial plan is to loudly make disparaging remarks about the doctor and monster to anyone in his vicinity. His strategy slowly improves.

Towards the bottom of the sciency monster flick subgenre, here the good doctor wants to save the creature while ignorant and fearful townsfolk want it destroyed. Seeing how things pan out, maybe the townsfolk were right. And if they knew her research consisted entirely of watching the creature play with toys, I think they would have lynched her in the second act.

We go from a late career revival for Joan Crawford to her very last. She agreed to this film as a favor to friend Herman Cohen, whom she worked with in Berserk. I’ve seen a couple Cohen produced films, and while none were very memorable, they were better than this.

Here we have all the hallmarks of a low budget rush job. An uninventive story with poor to terrible sets and costumes, but the highlight is the supremely awful script. The dialog was clumsy and inconsistent, and the science abysmal. Brockton states in court that Trog (short for troglodyte, or cave-dweller) is the missing link, somehow woken from a state of suspended animation after millions of years, despite the lack of any evidence.

Oddly, the acting was not a weak point. Crawford, considering what she was given, didn’t phone it in. Same for Gough even though his character was entirely one note. Even Trog did a better than fair job emoting. And he was wearing a 2001 cast-off mask in serious disrepair and fuzzy cave-man slippers. Also, I will give the movie credit for one good jump scare. 

But this does not rise Trog above the genre. The story could have done something other than follow the cheap horror boilerplate, but it had no imagination. And including an animated dinosaur clip from another film doesn’t count. AMRU 2. What a way to end a career.

Johnny Guitar (1954)

Vienna (Joan Crawford) runs a saloon and expects to profit greatly when the railroad comes through. But the local ranchers are none too keen on homesteading Easterners crowding out their herd. And they are none too keen on Vienna, either. She hires old flame Johnny Guitar (Sterling Hayden) for protection.

Part of Vienna’s troubles stem from her association with The Dancin’ Kid, whose gang is suspected of pulling heists. The rest stems from her reputation with the rangers, particularly feisty Emma (Mercedes McCambridge) who will stop at nothing to see Vienna and the Kid dancin’ at the end of a rope.

Categorized as an early revisionist western and a camp classic, it is the story of two strong women, the manly Vienna with a past and the angry Emma, fearful of her own sexuality. They bark orders, take action, and manipulate the simple menfolk. And if you think me harsh for calling Vienna manly, consider this quote:

“Never seen a woman who was more of a man. She thinks like one, acts like one, and sometimes makes me feel like I'm not.”

Yea, that was spoken in a 50’s western. Revisionist, indeed. Vienna knows what she wants, how to get it, and is single minded in her approach. Same for Emma who may be frightened to see herself in Vienna. It is telling that they are the only two female characters in the film, including extras.

The story elements are nothing special. We hit many of the western tropes. The ranger/farmer conflict, the posse, the gunman character, constructed around a love triangle and instigated by where choo-choo go. And from a character motivation standpoint, it makes little sense.

What elevates the film are the performances. You cannot take your eyes off of Crawford, a dozen years older than lover Hayden (and twenty years older than the Dancin’ Kid). Her performance is both absurd and captivating. So too is the dialog. Regardless of the speaker, it seemed to revolve around Vienna and her wants, and it doesn’t matter that it too makes no sense. And this is not to take anything away from McCambridge, whose wonderfully unrestrained performance is delightfully outrageous. She burns with an all consuming fire.

The Kid and his gang (which includes Ernest Borgnine from back in his thug days) hide out in a secret cabin, hidden behind a waterfall. However, the view from the cabin window shows open land for miles around. How hidden could it be? And speaking of big names in small roles, John Carradine played Old Tom, even though he was two years younger than Crawford.

There is so much to say about the story that I haven’t yet got into the story behind the story. Emma’s McCambridge (the demon voice from The Exorcist) couldn’t stand Crawford, and the feeling was mutual. Hayden was disgusted with Crawford’s unprofessional behavior and she called him “The biggest pill in Hollywood”. Director Nicholas Ray would frequently stop his car and vomit on his way to the set. Oh, and apparently François Truffaut called the movie 'The Beauty and the Beast', with Hayden being the beauty.

There are members of society that will see themselves in Crawford's performance. She's a woman in a man's world, setting the rules for the macho men in her life. But still, she can't escape society's expectations of her gender. 1950's just as the nineteenth century, as Crawford wasn't the title character. The players hated making the film, the critics panned it, and the public loved it. I kinda did too. AMRU 4.

“A man can lie, steal... and even kill. But as long as he hangs on to his pride, he's still a man. All a woman has to do is slip - once - and she's a 'tramp!' Must be a great comfort to you to be a man.”

Love Happy (1949)

A theater troupe struggles to finance their show (named Love Happy), jewel thieves are trying to locate a million dollar necklace they stole, and the brothers clown around. There is a lot going on, little of which is of much consequence.

This last Marx Brothers film came together somewhat accidentally. Harpo planned it as a solo project, but couldn’t secure financing unless Chico and Groucho came along. Harpo playing the Harpo character and doing all of the Harpo bits without his brothers doesn’t really make sense anyhow. Many of Groucho’s scenes appear to be filmed at a different time, improvised and poorly shot. He serves as the story’s narrator but interacts somewhat during the third act.

Vera-Ellen is charming as the plucky and lovelorn dancer. Baroness Frankenstein herself Ilona Massey is the exotic and enigmatic leader of the thieves. Her performance is peculiar but I blame the source material. Raymond Burr is one of her thugs. Marilyn Monroe had a very short and entirely gratuitous scene. That, and conspicuous product placements, may have been part of the financing agreement.

Like the worst of the Brother’s films, it transitions from a mostly uninteresting story line, to unfunny comic bits, to tedious song and dance numbers, then back again. To be fair there were a couple amusing bits, one in particular involves a handheld mirror. Unfortunately Harpo chooses to repeat it, just in case the audience was napping.

The Marx Brothers were a moment in time. Their downtrodden but irreverently upbeat act played well during the Depression, but became increasingly anachronistic as we inched towards the affluent and optimistic 50’s. Besides, only baby Groucho was under sixty at this point. It was a good time to move on.

So, this is it. The last of the Marx Brothers films. Famously Groucho omitted in his autobiography, naming A Night in Casablanca as their last. But the Brothers did appear, separately, in one more film, but I think I’m done here.

The boys did thirteen films together, but I can only recommend their second through seventh. Love Happy might be the worst of the lot, Groucho apparently thought so, and unless you feel compelled to complete arbitrary lists, it is completely skipable. AMRU 2.

Anastasia (1956)

A former Russian general (Yul Brynner) leads a team searching for the Grand Duchess Anastasia of Russia, or at least someone they can pass off as her. The royal family was executed ten years earlier and if a survivor could be found, ten million pounds would be in play. And maybe something more.

The film is based on the story of Anna Anderson, one of many pseudonyms of a troubled woman who claimed to be the Grand Duchess in the early 1920’s. While some details from her story are depicted here, the movie is mostly fictitious. Interestingly, during production the filmmakers learned that Anna Anderson was still alive and rushed to get her consent. In the end, no one remotely close to the Romanovs even considered Anna's claim (see quote), the body of the real Anastasia was positively identified, and DNA analysis finally proved Anna was not related. But back to the film.

This was Ingrid Bergman’s big return to Hollywood, so to speak. I touched on this when I covered Indiscreet and will once again recommend the video. Furthermore, she never set foot in the US as the entire production was produced in Europe. She was forty one playing the 27 year old Anna, and while that wasn’t a problem, it was noticeable. Yul Brynner played the Yul Brynner part. He would also star in The King and I and The Ten Commandments the same year and his career was off with a bang.

Here's an amusing side story: Actress Helen Haye played Ansatasia's grandmother in a BBC television adaptation and the producer instructed casting to hire her. They assumed a typo and instead hired the better known and less age appropriate Helen Hayes.

Hints are dropped throughout that Begman’s Anna truly is the Grand Duchess, but also of the problems with her claim. Or his claim, as she is a mostly unwilling (or at least resisting) participant in the General’s plan. And the ending provides some ambiguity on this matter. But for the most part, Anastasia provides the pomp and pageantry one would expect from a 1950’s 'A' picture from a major studio. Lavish sets, costumes, and an excellent supporting cast (including Mrs. Howell eight years before casting off). It holds your interest but I don’t expect it to stick in my memory. AMRU 3.

"I claim categorically that she is not Anastasia Nicolaievna, but just an adventuress, a sick hysteric and a frightful playactress. I simply cannot understand how anyone can be in doubt of this. If you had seen her, I am convinced that you would recoil in horror at the thought that this frightful creature could be a daughter of our Tsar."

Bob le flambeur (1956)

Bob is a gambler with a checkered past and a heart of gold. After a run of bad luck, an opportunity too good to pass up convinces him to try one last caper. Things don’t go as planned.

Influenced by John Huston’s The Asphalt Jungle, it bears structural similarity to Stanley Kubrick’s The Killing as well. In fact, Kubrick stopped making crime films because, he thought, the best one had now been made.

Young model Isabelle Corey was cast in her first role. While quite beautiful, at sixteen she wasn’t much of an actress. And she would never become one as her career ended after five years. This was a pretty provocative role for a middle teen, but this is France we are talking about. Roger Duchesne had a more interesting story. After a fair number of forgettable films, his career was cut short when he was jailed for collaborating with the Nazis. This was a return after thirteen years, but would do only one more film. He was pitch perfect as the older, somewhat wiser gambler.

Bob le flanbeur is on the short list of a large number of famous filmmakers and critics favorite films. While enjoyable, I found it short of the two caper films mentioned above. But subtitled films with complex stories can be hard to fully take in. The text draws your attention away from the cinematography and performances, and the nuances that go along. I give it a 3.5 but I will rewatch it. There are things I missed.

Death Curse of Tartu (1966)

An archaeology professor, his wife, and four students visit a forbidden native burial mound in the Florida everglades. There, the ghost of the witch doctor Tartu transforms into animals to kill them.

Let’s get this out of the way. This is a very amateur production. I cannot stress that enough. For context, it comes in just ahead of the almost unwatchable Manos: The Hands of Fate. But while I will not knock it for what it could not do, I will for what it should have been. And it should have been vaguely interesting. Want to build tension? Have the characters walk slowly through the tall grass. Excitement? Have them walk quickly through the tall grass. While the acting and dialog were poor, the film suffers because frequently the characters say nothing at all. There are plenty of spaces for robots to crack wise about the nonsensical story, which was sorely missing. This is a dull movie, a fault I cannot abide.

So, let’s get on with goofing on the film, shall we? The four students (conveniently, two couples) decide to “roast some marshmallows” away from professor square and his wife. Instantly, the two women are in bikinis and making out with their fully clothed partners. Then the women do that one dance that all young people in the 1960’s know, until Tartu, in the form of a shark, eats some of them. The remaining woman screams and is instantly back into her normal attire.

There are many examples of low budgets and poor storytelling, like when the characters hide behind Tartu’s plainly visible sarcophagus before finally seeing it. Also, night scenes are normally shot “day for night”, where they film in daylight then tint to add a nighttime illusion. This effect is frequently unconvincing in low budget films, but here they forgot the tinting step. You wouldn’t know it was night had the actors not said so. It’s telling when you learn that filming was completed within a single week and the script was written in an afternoon, and your reaction is, what took them so long?

Writer/director William Grefe would go on to make some pretty average films and even did work on Live and Let Die. Death Curse of Tartu was never going to be a good film, but there were lost opportunities to make it interesting, or at least make sense. And it should have been twenty minutes shorter. AMRU 2.

Valley of the Dolls (1967)

Anne (Barbara Parkins) moves from a small town to New York City to chase her dream of doing office work. There she falls for a lady’s man, and makes friends with singer Neely (Patty Duke) and pretty no-talent Jennifer (Sharon Tate). Their lives go in unexpected directions and their paths occasionally cross. The one thing that ties them together is their love of dolls. Pills, that is. Dolls are pills. Dolophine, specifically.

Perkins’ pretty Anne is the moral center of the film. Not swayed by fame, she steers (mostly) clear of the pitfalls that trap her friends. Twenty year old Patty Duke took the controversial role of the pill-popping prima donna hoping it would help the public see her as an adult. She did mostly TV in the years following so it's unclear how well that worked.

I’ve known something of Sharon Tate’s story since forever but I wouldn’t have been able to pick her out of a lineup. She was quite striking. She appeared in fifteen episodes of The Beverly Hillbillies, so I must have seen her at some point. Judy Garland was initially cast as an older, ruthless star but the substance abuse story element played itself out in real life. Judy would beat Sharon to the grave by 49 days. And so it goes.

The story of who was cast, what happened, and how much of a jerk director Mark Robson was may be a more salacious story than the Jacqueline Susann story itself. Many big names were offered roles only to turn them down, horrified by the script. You could go down a serious rabbit hole with behind the scenes stuff. On screen, however, the film is mildly interesting, soap-opera adjacent, and very 1960’s. AMRU 3.

"Boobies, boobies, boobies. Nothin' but boobies!"