Tuesday, June 10, 2025

My Little Chickadee (1940)

Flower Belle Lee (Mae West) is kicked out of town because she was seen cavorting with a masked bandit. On a train she pairs up with a con man (W.C. Fields) who scams his way into being named sheriff of the next town over.

West and Fields were huge stars in the 1930’s and this stands as their only collaboration. They did not get along. Credited as co-writers, she wrote her lines, he wrote his, and they didn’t speak when not filming. West, whose particular charms were greatly hampered by the enforcement of the motion picture production code, was on a decline. She would appear in only one more film before a brief revival in the 1970’s. Fields, on the other hand, was at the top of his game. However, drink was catching up with him and starred in only two more pictures before dying of a stomach hemorrhage. He was 66.

B movie veteran Dick Foran plays one of Flower Belle’s many love interests. Seventeen years her junior, he’s the good guy we expect her to land with. Also in the mix is Margaret Hamilton, the wicked witch herself. Here she plays the town busybody. The meek Donald Meek also has a small roll.

While Fields’ humor survives intact, the Hays code simply couldn’t tolerate West’s brand of innuendo. The end result is, pardon the expression, a rather flat performance. My Little Chickadee is interesting because of the leads, and not an unpleasant watch, but lacking in humor and fairly forgettable. AMRU 2.5.

Tuesday, May 27, 2025

Svengali (1931)

A foreign music teacher (John Barrymore) in Paris uses hypnotic powers to control the beautiful young Trilby (Marian Marsh) and make her a star.

Dirty and devious, the Rasputinesque Svengali comes from the 1894 novel Trilby. This was at least the third film adaptation. Originally a jewish stereotype, there is no hint of that in Barrymore’s performance. He is said to be from “someplace like Poland” and speaks German, French, and Italian phrases.

The teenaged Marsh was quite charming as ingenue Trilby. Her "nude" scene caused quite the stir, but she was wearing a body stocking.  She didn’t manage to have much of a career and was all but retired before the age of 30. She appeared in The Black Room (1935) but I have no recollection of her performance. There’s a deep-dive in there someplace.

Barrymore is yet another great what-if’s of Hollywood. Had he been born ten years later and not taken to drink he could have been the king of Hollywood. His performance here was masterful. Comic, sometimes menacing, and surprisingly sympathetic. I ponder what could have been. He also appeared in Rasputin and the Empress (1932), but it was brother Lionel who got the title role.

Svengali is a surprisingly good film powered by great performances. It could, however, have benefited from a musical score. The only music was diegetic. AMRU 3.5.

Thursday, May 8, 2025

Blackmail (1929)

Pretty blonde Alice ditches her boring Scotland Yard boyfriend for a dapper artist. That doesn’t exactly go as planned and she finds herself being blackmailed. Cop boyfriend investigates.

For a film called Blackmail, the blackmail element is rather minimal and introduced very late in the story. Most of the movie is of the events leading up to it. But it's adapted from a play of the same name, so I suppose there’s nothing for it.

This is Britain's first talkie, sort of. It started as a silent feature but certain scenes were reshot with audio for theaters wired for such. Pretty Anny Ondra, the first Hitchcock Blonde, had a thick Czech accent so she was dubbed, Lina Lamont style. I sadly recorded the silent version.

The Hitchcock style really starts to show through here, more so than even The Lodger. And the plot is quite good: A man investigates the murder of a man that his girlfriend (perhaps fiancee) is suspected of killing.

Blackmail is pretty good but Hitchcock would do his best work fully in the sound era. I would have liked to have seen the “talkie” version, but I don’t expect it would have been much better. AMRU 3.5.

Thursday, May 1, 2025

Ladies of Leisure (1930)

Awkward rich man (Ralph Graves) escapes a party and happens upon a “party girl” (Barbara Stanwyck) who is escaping a boat party she was “working”. He decides to hire her as a model. Will love bloom?

The movie jumps through hoops to establish that Stanwyck’s Kay isn’t a prostitute, despite all evidence. The source play was named “Ladies of the Evening” after all. And Kay’s third act “I know what kind of woman I am” declaration doesn’t read very much like an acknowledgement of class status. Still, nobody is under any illusions. This is unsurprisingly the catalyst of the “crisis climax” beat in the Rom-Com formula.

This was thirty two year old Frank Capra’s fourteenth film, but he had not yet hit his stride. It Happened One Night was four years and nine films off. Sound film was still very new and they hadn't quite gotten the hang of it. A silent version of this film was also produced. 

Ladies of Leisure is a pleasant enough watch. Capra was still Capra and Stanwyck was always Stanwyck, but had I not taken notes directly after watching, I might have forgotten about this film. Watch it to see a very early Stanwyck performance, but there is little else to recommend it. AMRU 3.

Sunday, April 27, 2025

Phantom Lady (1944)

Handsome engineer Scott (Alan Curtis) goes out on the town alone and meets a pretty woman (Fay Helm). She agrees to accompany him to a show but insists they don't exchange names. When he returns home he finds that his wife has been murdered. When nobody seems to remember his unnamed alibi, the cops finger him for the murder.

This is that rare noir whose protagonist is female, the plucky and decidedly non-fatal Carol (Ella Raines). She is sweet on her newly single boss and never questions his innocence. Old Friend Elisha Cook Jr makes an appearance as a cool-daddy-o jazz drummer. His drumming was so good that they would make sounds even when he wasn’t striking them. This makes our eleventh visit.

For about a year prior to starting this blog I watched a large number of old films, this being one of them. I was mostly unimpressed back in aught-8 but always intended on returning to it. Finally I have and I think I regarded it a little better. When Carol gets closer to our mystery lady she is referred to as Miss Terry. That's pretty amusing. 

Phantom Lady is a fairly well-regarded if somewhat forgettable noir. It also has a serious plot flaw that nagged at me for much of the film. I’ll say no more on that, but it’s not mentioned in the IMDb Goofs section. That said, I'm definitely glad I revisited this film. AMRU 3.

Sunday, April 13, 2025

Agatha (1979)

In 1926 mystery writer Agatha Christie disappeared causing a media sensation. When she was discovered after eleven days she claimed not to remember anything of what happened. As the opening crawl says, this is a speculative story about a very real mystery.

Agatha’s (Vanessa Redgrave) marriage to husband Archie (Timothy Dalton) is falling apart and, after ditching her car, checks into a spa using her husband’s girlfriend’s last name. Fictitious reporter Wally (Dustin Hoffman) is on the case.

What follows was certainly not what actually happened. My guess is Agatha, under serious emotional distress, experienced a well deserved nervous breakdown. She pushed her troubles out of her mind, consciously or otherwise. And what better place to do this than a spa. Well, maybe not the spa in the film. That place looked dreadful.

Redgrave’s frightened and vulnerable glances contrast with the impeccably dressed and supremely confident Hoffman. Wally was initially intended to be a tall, blonde Englishman but when Hoffman became involved, he changed to, well, Dustin Hoffman. His role in the film was also greatly expanded.

I’ve been on a sizable Agatha Christie kick lately and I figured I needed to watch this before my DVR deleted it on me. Agatha was reasonably watchable, but with the potential of a mystery about a mystery writer, and two of the top acting talents of the day, this should have been better. Both actors may have been miscast but did what they could with the material. AMRU 3.

Wednesday, April 9, 2025

What Else I Watched, 2025Q1

I'm still evaluating if I want to do these posts, but until I decide I should just get on with it.

Ocean’s Eleven (2001)
I had heard this version was superior to the classic original, but I was surprised how much better. It is an impressively smart, well acted, and engaging film. Perhaps the best heist film I've ever seen. AMRU 4.5.

The Hangover (2009)
Still pretty funny but the humor didn’t hold up to a second viewing as well as I hoped.

Blue Velvet (1986)
I had only seen two films by David Lynch, Eraserhead and the misguided Dune. Blue Velvet was, well, weird. Lynch is among the most original filmmakers of all time. I'll pick off his filmography over time.

Double Indemnity (1944)
I’m a sucker for Billy Wilder dialog, even when it's corny to capacity. I will never tire of his top five films.

Bob le Flambeur (1956)
Slower burn than how I remember, but still fascinating. And it's good to see a classic film that isn't handcuffed to the production code. Another great heist film.

Only five non-blog films this quarter? I almost included another until I realized it fits my date restriction, just barely. See a trend yet?