Woman in the Moon (1929)

Crazy and disgraced college professor clings to his theory that there is gold in the mountains of the moon. One of his former students is in a position to actually go and find out. He’d bring his bestest buddy but it seems that our hero is the odd man out in a love triangle. Also, Evil Corp will stop at nothing to make sure the plan proceeds to their direction.

I started this film years ago but for reasons lost to time I did not finish it. I remember that it was pretty long but a quick check on IMDb says it was just over an hour and a half. Not too bad, so I started it. I became suspicious when I hit the hour twenty mark and had yet to see a spaceship. Apparently there are many edits of this film and TCM ran the director’s cut, reaching almost three hours. I had a three day intermission.

Silent film storytelling takes a while to get used to and I don’t know I would have been able to appreciate this film when I first attempted it. Fritz Lang is a master storyteller at the height of his abilities. But man, the pacing. He needs to communicate that the disgraced professor is poor and disgraced. The angry protagonist is angry. The evil antagonist is evil. The lovely love interest is … lovely, I guess. And he does. But once he hits his message, he needs to move on. But no, he just keeps hammering the point.

Many characters are introduced but there are five or six main people. The crazy old professor is pretty crazy and the primary comedic element. The antagonist has a very Hitler feel about him. Gerda Maurus plays the object of affection that motivates the sub-plot. She was weird looking. In real life, she was having an affair with director Fritz Lang. But before you feel too sorry for his screenwriter wife, know that when Fritz fled Germany after the Nazi’s took power, she stayed behind to make propaganda films.

Women in the Moon appears to be the first ever in the ‘saucer and spaceship’ subgenre. It was well researched and got a lot of things right. It got some wrong, but hey, a lot happened over the next four decades. It is important and well made. But man, it could use a little tightening. AMRU 3.5.

Marnie (1964)

A troubled woman (Tippi Hedren) robs her company, then jumps to a new job. Also, she is terrified of storms, the color red, and the embrace of a man. At her new job she catches the eye of the company president (Sean Connery). Can his machismo solve all of her problems?

Hey, look! It’s Alan Napier, Batman’s Alfred! He pops up in a number of films. Also here is a very young Mariette Hartley. I was unaware she was an actress. I thought she had a career simply as a guest on other people’s talk shows. She was quite pretty. A young Bruce Dern makes a small appearance.

I considered Marnie as part of Hitchcock’s continued slide after his masterpiece, but TCM introduced it as a film being reevaluated as a masterpiece itself. Maybe I dismissed Tippi’s acting talents too quickly after The Birds. So, clean slate. Is this a gem waiting to be rediscovered?

Nope. Hedren’s acting limitations stand out much more clearly in this very complex role. Especially next to Connery, who seems miscast. Showing all the smug confidence of his more famous role, it is hard to imagine him willing to risk it all for a profoundly damaged person. And, at best, the third most attractive woman in the film.

Hitchcock does well what Hitchcock does well, make no mistake. But at best Marnie is an uneven film with an uninteresting story. Full of pop psychology, poor acting, and a screeching score, it failed to charm me. And Connery’s Rutland “taking what’s his” scene does not age well. AMRU 2.5.

I Married a Monster from Outer Space (1958)

A woman marries a man who turns out to be a Monster from Outer Space. Spoiler alert.

What may have been intended as a by-the-numbers drive-in horror flick turned out to be something slightly better. Pretty Marge (pretty Gloria Talbott) is the focus of the story as she realizes she doesn’t know the man she married. This channels the fear of many newlyweds who truly don’t know their partner prior to tying the knot. But in this case it’s because, as previously mentioned, he’s a Monster from Outer Space.

Once her fears are confirmed she tries to get help, but few people are willing to take her seriously. Women, am I right? Always not being taken seriously by men. Here the plot dips slightly into Invasion of the Body Snatchers territory.

There are a few points that puzzled me. How well does the alien … sorry, the Monster from Outer Space understand human culture? How well does it understand it’s human target? Did the newlyweds … you know … do it? Their plan is pretty vague.

I Married a Monster from Outer Space is far from a good movie. The acting, cinematography, and creature effects are pretty good considering the budget and genre, but the story can be a little slow, nonsensical, and slightly lacking in horror. Also, equipment shadows are frequently noticeable. It is what it is, which isn’t altogether bad. Thanks for the recommendation, Jerome. AMRU 3.

Playtime (1967)

Monsieur Hulot (Jacques Tati) visits Paris and goes to a trade show, visits an old army buddy, and attends the grand opening of a fancy restaurant. There’s a tour bus from America there as well. Visual comedy ensues.

Playtime is commentary on modern life. According to director Tati, the star of the movie is the decor. Hugely elaborate set pieces were constructed for the film in an absurdist modern style. They will feel familiar to today’s office dweller. Lots of plate glass, door handles you are unsure if you should pull or push, poorly sized and uncomfortable chairs. A scene at a travel agency has posters of various destinations showing iconic images with the stupid modern office building blocking the view.

Except for the small amount of English dialog, the film is subtitled. Not that it needed to be. It is visual comedy in the style of silent films. It is the third of four Monsieur Hulot movies made by Tati and by far the most ambitious. And it was a commercial flop. The reasons vary. It wasn’t the Hulot-focused story audiences wanted, the anti-modernist theme was more prescient years earlier when the film was developed, it was only shown in theaters equipped with 70 mm projectors. The end result is Tati was in debt for many years and audiences slowly recognized it as a masterpiece.

Filmed entirely in long shots, one sometimes is not sure where to focus their eyes. Second and third viewings will likely reveal details missed the first time. But there is essentially no narrative story. Just a series of visual gags that happen over the course of the day. I do not know how it differs from the other Hulot films and I am curious to find out. But truth be told I did not love Playtime as much as I had hoped. It's reputation preceded I sought it out specifically. It was amusing and visually interesting, but I didn't LOVE-love it. AMRU 3.5.

The Ladykillers (1955)

Pretending to be musicians, a gang of thieves rent a room from a little old lady (Katie Johnson) and plan their heist. Things don’t go as planned.

Quite unintentionally, this is the third black comedy I’ve hit recently. Leader Obi Wan (Alec Guinness) hatches a complicated plan and puts all of the pieces in place, including their charming landlady. The producers balked at casting the 76 year old Johnson and hired a younger actress, who died prior to filming. And so it goes.

A young and somewhat hard to recognize Peter Sellers appears in what he called his first ‘real’ film. He idolized Alec Guinness, who was insecure about his role. Originally intended for Alastair Sim, Guinness did a better than fair impersonation of him. Herbert Lom played another thug and would go on to co-star with Sellers in the Pink Panther series.

I suppose this falls into the ‘caper gone wrong’ subgenre and the plan was quite ingenious. I had watched the remake and it stands as the only Coen Brothers movie that disappointed me. As for the original, it was amusing, clever, and interesting to the finish. AMRU 4.

7 Faces of Dr. Lao (1964)

Stereotype rich bad man (Arthur O’Connell) tries to buy out a small town in the old(ish) west (got to do with where the choo-choo go), stereotype underdog (John Ericson) tries to stop him while wooing stereotype hot spinster (Barbara Eden) for the obligatory romance angle, when they are visited by a strange man (Tony Randall) in stereotype Chinese makeup.

Dr. Lao runs a circus and despite having bigger concerns, the entire town attends. There they learn the lessons of community, the folly of greed, and the necessity of catching a man. Tony Randall plays all seven characters (Chinese stereotype, tiny abominable snowman, Merlin, Greek fortune teller, Pan, snake, and sexy sexy Medusa). The role was intended for Peter Sellers for obvious reasons. Randall’s Dr. Lao falls in and out of accent, making one doubt that he is who he appears.

Produced and directed by sci-fi legend George Pal (War of the Worlds, The Time Machine), 7 Faces wasn’t a financial success. A sequel was announced but never produced. Pal would go on to produce only two more films and never direct again.

There are quite a few interesting character actors here, but I want to mention Lee Patrick. She had a small role in Vertigo but she is memorable as Sam Spade’s secretary in The Maltese Falcon. Here she is memorable as a vain busibody. Also here is Noah Beery Jr, son of Noah Beery and nephew of Wallace Beery. Combined they have appeared in 429 films of which I’ve seen six. He will always be Jim Rockford’s dad to me.

Randall’s characterization  does not age well, but it is hard to know what to make of it. Is he mocking the townsfolk with his over the top accent? Does that even matter? Maybe it’s no Mr. Yunioshi but in no way could you describe his depiction as ‘respectful’.

7 Faces of Dr. Lao isn’t original in many ways except for the fantastical Dr. Lao character and events. It's a pleasant, silly fantasy that is fun to watch, so long you can forgive the obvious. AMRU 3.

The Trouble with Harry (1955)

A retired sea captain (Edmund Gwenn) is out hunting when he discovers the dead body of a stranger he presumes to have accidentally shot. Not wanting trouble, he tries to hide the body. Unfortunately this corner of the forest gets many visitors today, some of which also feel responsibility.

It is said to be Hitchcock’s second comedy, but several of his early films are labeled as such. Either way, this is the first Hitchcock comedy I’ve seen. It was an experiment to see how audiences would react to a film without big stars. Lukewarm was the answer but that may have had more to do with the unexpected tone from The Master of Suspense. More of a dark comedy, there are few real laughs.

The film gives Shirley MacLaine an “introducing” credit which is strange as six year old Jerry Mathers didn’t. He, of course, had already done a fair bit of film and television by that time. The main protagonist was starving artist Sam (John Forsythe) who to me is Charlie of Angels fame. Known mostly for television, he also did a fair number of films.

Nobody feels sorry for dead Harry. And as the story progresses, we learn that we shouldn’t shed too many tears for him. This is key to the comedy. His inconvenient body is dragged around with little regard. Along the way we have not one but two obligatory Hollywood romances, with Santa Gwenn making time with the “well preserved” spinster Gravely. It was downright uncomfortable when the two male leads mention how no man had ever “crossed her threshold”. Well preserved, indeed.

Filmed in VistaVision, The Trouble with Harry looks fantastic. The exteriors were filmed in Vermont but most of the action was filmed on a Hollywood sound stage. They imported boxes of fall leaves. This is a surprising, pleasant diversion. A film I would not have even heard of had it not been for one YouTuber. AMRU 3.5.

“Yes, very well preserved. And preserves have to be opened, some day.”