Dracula A.D. 1972 (1972)

It is 1872 and Dracula (Christopher Lee) is finally vanquished. Unfortunately, a cultist collected his ashes and moved the stake that dispatched him to a churchyard. Fast forward one hundred years and Dracula must face the greatest horror: insufferable young people!

The movie jarringly transitions from a rural setting to mod London. The cultist’s heir (the appropriately named Johnny Alucard) involves his friends in a ceremony to bring Dracula back to seek revenge.

This film spends the bulk of its time with the crowd of hipsters rather than Lee and Cushing. At first glance we hate Alucard (Christopher Neame), what with his top hat, felt jacket, and ruffles. We eventually learn that he is a recent addition to the group of friends. Jessica (Stephanie Beacham) is the good girl of the group and target of Dracula, being granddaughter of Peter Cushing’s Professor Van Helsing and a direct descendant of the original Van Helsing.

Jessica was initially intended to be the Professor’s daughter (34 year age difference) but Peter visibly aged after his wife passed the prior year. He looked much older than his 59 years. A picture of his wife is seen on the Professor’s desk. Why Jessica was living with her grandfather was never addressed.

Lee called the script “appalling”, perhaps because of his reduced role. The group of friends aren’t terribly likable. It’s unclear if they were supposed to resonate with the hip mod crowd or serve as commentary about them. Also, the stake that killed Dracula earlier in the film was left in a rural churchyard. A hundred years later it is still there, undisturbed, and now inside the London urban area. There are details which shouldn’t be analyzed very much. And the scene where the professor makes the connection between Alucard and Dracula is silly. Here he claims to be an expert of the occult but apparently never watched Son of Dracula.

Dracula A.D. 1972 isn’t much of a film. Perhaps not appalling, but also not interesting. Hammer wanted another Dracula film and everyone just went through the motions. AMRU 2.5.

The Shootist (1976)

An aging gunfighter (or “shootist”, if you will) receives a bad prognosis and heads to Carson City to die. As people discover his identity, and his situation, a peaceful end was no longer in the cards.

A 69 year old John Wayne plays 50 year old JB Brooks, and 51 year old Lauren Bacall is his 40ish landlord. This wouldn’t be a problem except both leads already looked older than their stated ages. Even 68 year old James Stewart looked 80 plus. Ron Howard was about 21 playing a teenager. This isn’t a big knock but it was a distraction.

A bigger knock are the uneven performances. Harry Morgan just couldn’t deliver his lines with any conviction. That may say more about the lines than him, but they didn’t really work. Stewart, coaxed out of retirement, looked off of his game. And Ron Howard is apparently a terrible actor.

That all said, it’s a pretty interesting story. Also interesting is the story that Wayne, dying of cancer, chose this film to be his last to go out on. Unfortunately that story is also fiction. I understand that the Duke wasn’t diagnosed for another three years. However when pitching the film on Johnny, he did allude to a cancer diagnosis. Either way, it’s not why he wanted to do the film and he never intended it to be his last.

The Shootist was an interesting watch. Wayne’s performance was rather naturalistic and a refreshing change from his regular stock character style. A worthwhile watch, despite its flaws. AMRU 3.5.

Jewel Robbery (1932)

While a Viennese Baron is buying a diamond ring for his young wife (Kay Francis), the jeweler is robbed by a dashing jewel robber (William Powell). She is smitten and gets herself entangled in the affair.

Not a whole lot to this 68 minute romp but it is surprisingly charming and witty. It’s also loaded with pre-code banter. Powell (his character goes unnamed) offers cigarettes to his victims and we learn that they are something other than tobacco. Baroness Teri’s friend finds it scandalous that she is receiving a gift of jewelry from her own husband. The risque banter is almost non-stop.

Kay Francis was a pretty big star in the early thirties. When her box office began to teeter in the late 1930’s, she was relegated to lesser pictures or lesser roles. Her minor speech impediment didn’t help. She continued to work until the mid 1940’s then retired for good.

Jewel Robbery is a very by the numbers film. The rich woman falling for the suave jewel thief is almost a trope. I was half expecting that the story would go a step deeper and reveal a bigger twist, but it is what it is. The pre-code banter and Powell’s smooth performance, however, makes it memorable. AMRU 3.5.

Red Light (1949)

The reunion between trucking tycoon John (George Raft) and his army chaplain brother is cut short when father-brother is plugged as revenge against brother John. The secret to the killer’s identity is apparently inside a missing hotel bible. John puts his business on hold to locate the bible and exact revenge. Virginia Mayo is brought in to assist with the search.

The movie plays out with Raft’s John obsessively getting closer to the bible while the presumed antagonists slowly reveal their hand. Many of the conventions of film-noir are dispensed with. There is no love interest nor femme fatal. And the religious subtext feels out of place. More on that later.

All-around nice guy Gene Lockhart plays John’s faithful company guy. Gene's daughter June recently turned one hundred. Our prime suspects include Raymond Burr, playing to type, and Harry Morgan playing opposite. Lucy’s wacky neighbor Fred Mertz (William Frawley) has a small role.

Based on a short story titled “This Guy Gideon”, it was renamed Red Light because the producer liked it better. I’m not really sure how the new title fits into the narrative. Revenge is bad, so stop? The religious overtones are a bit much, so much so that TCM host Eddie Muller joked that it could be called Biblical-noir. And the Virginia Mayo character was inserted as if they wanted a love interest element, without actually having one. Also, the brotherly love angle bordered on becoming a creepy folger’s commercial.

Red Light is a bit of a disappointment. The tone was almost there but it falls short. If you watch noir and wish there were more bibles in it, maybe this is for you. For me, however, AMRU 2.5.

Alice in Wonderland (1951)

Alice (Kathryn Beaumont) grows bored with her studies when she sees the White Rabbit (Bill Thompson). Curious, she decides to follow him down the rabbit hole. Thus begins her Adventures in Wonderland.

Loosely based on both Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass, it features the most characters of any Disney cartoon. It also differs from many Disney animated films in that there is no romance element. Nor is there really a hero’s journey. It’s just a series of crazy adventures. I found this refreshing.

Truth be told, I never read any part of Lewis Carroll’s books, so I can’t speak to how faithful the movie is in tone nor content. I do understand the doorknob character was invented by Disney. I started reading about Carroll's life but it went down a dark path rather quickly.

Ed Wynn is quite memorable as the Mad Hatter. The character’s likeness was modeled on him. His line “Mustard? Don’t let’s be silly!” was ad libbed and Disney liked it so much he had the animators add it in. Later in his career, Wynn's son Keenan convinced him to move to dramatic acting.

Alice in Wonderland is a fun film. As someone who is less than enamored with Disney, I found this unconventional classic most enjoyable. AMRU 3.5.

This Gun for Hire (1942)

A hired killer (Alan Ladd) is double-crossed and sets out for revenge. Pretty Ellen (Veronica Lake) is caught in the middle. World War II propaganda is shoehorned in.

Here is the second of seven films that paired Ladd and Lake. Ladd was a talented actor with leading man good looks, but at only 5’6” there were few leading ladies he could play opposite. Lake, at 5’2” or shorter, fit the profile. Here they are not a romantic pair, Lake’s Ellen was with Detective Crane (Robert Preston).

A box office success, This Gun for Hire made Ladd a star, affording him the opportunity to take hero roles. Friends but not romantic in real life, Ladd and Lake had much in common. Both struggled with substance abuse and died at fifty.

Life has been (and will continue to be) busy, so it has been about a month since I saw this film. I did enjoy it but I had to do some reading to refresh my memory. Perhaps that in itself isn’t a great sign, but I did like it.. Anyhow, AMRU 3.5.

Murder She Said (1961)

Jane Marple (Margaret Rutherford) witnesses a murder from her train window but the police find no evidence. So she poses as a domestic in a fancy manor house and does some investigating.

Joan Hickson plays a cook in a very small role, and would later go on to play Miss Marple for the BBC. I recently watched all of those episodes which includes a version of this story.

In the original story (4:50 from Paddington) and the Hickson BBC version the witness on the train, the investigating domestic, and Miss Marple are three different people. Combining them into one character is classic Hollywood and a reasonable cinematic decision, I think. The love interest part had to be removed for obvious reasons.

Murder She Said is the first of four Rutherford Marple films, and a box office success. Despite the lack of mystery, I rather enjoyed it. It’s a fairly complex story and the filmmakers did a good job of condensing it into a 90 minute runtime without watering it down. Rutherford's force of nature is a very different Marple than Hickson's accidental helper, and I’ll likely see more of them. AMRU 3.