Big Update on My Hard to Find Films

After my November month-end status where I updated my list of hard to find movies to remove the half dozen that had been located, I was contacted by a very generous Santa Claus who wishes to remain anonymous.  This person literally helped me locate every single one of the films I had remaining that I had been unable to find – all 13 of them – as well as passed along the English subtitles for Amor de Perdicao that were on a website I was unable to access.  I can’t thank this person enough for what they did, but I will pay forward their generosity to others, and maybe, just maybe, you can help me help this person.

There is one film that this person has been unable to locate.  It is The Art of Vision by Stan Brakhage.  This four hour, ten minute long 1965 “film” is the same footage from the various pieces of Brakhage’s Dog Star Man, but joined in different combinations and sequences.  It is on the They Shoot Pictures Don’t They list.  Since it was impossible for me to find, and since it was the same footage I had already seen in Dog Star Man just presented differently, I checked it off as being done.  Technically, though, I did not see it and this Good Samaritan who helped me is not comfortable cutting the same corner I did for this entry.  If you know of any place to either see or obtain a copy of The Art of Vision I would be able to pay this person back at least in part for all their generosity to me, and by extension to all of you.

What’s Happening the Next Three Weeks

No movie review today.  I’m taking a short break for Christmas.  I will then have a set of three special posts the week after.  I will talk about the movies I had been looking for (all of which I now have), then I will do my December status, then I will do a 2013 in review post.  Last year I combined the December and Year End posts in one and it was too unwieldy.

The first week of 2014 I will finish my current set of posts on Gloria Grahame films I would recommend.  After that I may have some news.  We’ll see.

I’ll leave you with this clip from the most recent Saturday Night Live.  The audio isn’t very good because this is a user-uploaded clip, not an official video from SNL.  They uploaded pretty much ever other skit from that show, but not the only one that was worth watching.

And if you would like to see a little bit of Christmas humor, then you can click here and here.  And if you would like to see my Top Five Non-Traditional Christmas Movies then you can click here.

Movie – The Bad and the Beautiful (1952)

It didn’t take me much time into watching The Bad and the Beautiful to figure out why this film got greenlit.  It’s a tale of a once successful movie producer who was a towering presence both in the industry and in the lives of the four people who open this film.  Hollywood loves stories about itself and they’ve been making them ever since there was a Hollywood.  And I’m sure contemporary audiences had fun trying to figure out which real Hollywood figures were being fictionalized in the movie.  This film holds the record for winning the most Oscars – five – without being nominated for Best Picture.  Among those is Gloria Grahame’s win for Best Supporting Actress.

Movie – The Greatest Show on Earth (1952)

If you ask people to list the ten least deserving Best Picture winners chances are pretty good that The Greatest Show on Earth will be among them.  Sometimes a film suffers in comparison to another nominee from the same year (i.e. Ordinary People vs. Raging Bull in 1981), or sometimes the film just isn’t Best Picture caliber (i.e. A Beautiful Mind in 2002).  In the case of The Greatest Show on Earth, both of these apply.  Two of the other films nominated that year were High Noon (1952) and The Quiet Man (1952).  Not even receiving a Best Picture nomination was Singin’ in the Rain (1952).  And the overall tone of The Greatest Show on Earth doesn’t scream “Best Picture!”  The mistake that some people make, though, is equating “shouldn’t have won” with “bad movie.”  In the other examples I gave both Ordinary People and A Beautiful Mind are films worth seeing; they just weren’t “Best Pictures”.  The Greatest Show on Earth is the same.  It’s “big with a capital B” entertainment from the undisputed king of big entertainment in the early days of Hollywood: Cecil B. DeMille.

Movie – In a Lonely Place (1950)

Of all the films on the 1,001 Movies You Must See Before You Die list In a Lonely Place was one of the most pleasant surprises.  Even though it starred Humphrey Bogart during his biggest days of fame I literally had never even heard of it before.  I sat down to watch the film knowing nothing about it and not expecting much, and when it was through I felt that this was the second best performance of Bogart’s career. (The Treasure of the Sierra Madre being the best.)  It also cemented in my mind the leading lady status of Gloria Grahame, who co-stars with Bogie.  Each of them reaches beyond their expected screen personas – he usually played the gruff but good man and she usually played the sexy temptress.  And in an era of filmmaking where only one of two endings was possible for a movie like this I was very pleasantly surprised to see this film take a third path.

Movie – Crossfire (1947)

Crossfire was a nominee for Best Picture in 1948 and had four other nominations, including Director, Screenplay, and Best Supporting Actor and Actress.  Nowadays, though, if it gets remembered at all it is for being “that other anti-Semitism movie”.  You see, Gentlemen’s Agreement (1947) won the Best Picture that year and its central premise was WASP Gregory Peck pretending to be Jewish and finding out the subtle and not so subtle ways that people held that Jewishness against him.  Crossfire doesn’t focus on the character receiving the abuse; it actually uses that character as the driving force for a whodunit because it opens with him having been murdered.  This film is worth seeking out, though, because of some good performances in it.

Movie – It’s a Wonderful Life (1946)

The story of how It’s a Wonderful Life went from box office failure to Christmas classic is well known.  When I was younger, though, I didn’t know why it seemed to show up almost every day on one TV station or another during the month of December.  It wasn’t until years later that I learned about things like the public domain and film rights.  Since the studio had not renewed the rights on this film anyone with a TV transmitter could show it as often as they liked and not have to pay anything.  It was this constant presence in front of a large number of people that finally made it popular.  I actually never saw it until I was an adult, despite how prevalent it was.  When I did I was amused by the fact that it’s not really a Christmas movie at all; it’s just that the climax happens on Christmas Eve.  It was still a heartwarming film from the king of heartwarming films – Frank Capra.

Gloria Grahame Movies

“It wasn’t the way I looked at a man; it was the thought behind it.” – Gloria Grahame

If you do not watch many older films your first reaction is probably “Who’s Gloria Grahame?”  Well, she was sort of the Angelina Jolie of her day – the Angelina Jolie before she became a U.N. Goodwill Ambassador and started a mini-U.N. of her own.  For about ten years Jolie had this sexy, bad girl, don’t know what she’s going to do next, tongues always wagging about her, image.  That was Gloria Grahame from the mid 1940s to the mid 1950s.

Like Jolie, Grahame was known for her sex appeal onscreen, especially the way that she looked at men (hence the quote above.)  Despite some people wanting to disregard her because of her sexiness she got more challenging roles, culminating in a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for The Bad and the Beautiful (1952).  Jolie had a very similar arc, winning her Best Supporting Actress Oscar for Girl, Interrupted (1999).

And after Jolie, in her joy at winning the Oscar, kissed her brother quickly on the lips and then in her acceptance speech said she loved her brother, the gossip mill started with all kinds of stories about “incestuous love affairs.”  Jolie was able to put those behind her. Unfortunately, Grahame was not able to put her scandal behind her.

Her second marriage was to director Nicholas Ray – a man 12 years older than her.  That ended in divorce, then after a third marriage also ended in divorce, Grahame married Anthony Ray – Nicholas Ray’s son and her former stepson.  He was 14 years younger than her.  This started rumors that her marriage to Nicholas Ray had ended because he had caught her in bed with his then 14 year old son Anthony.  Grahame also had children with each of these husbands.  Those must have been some fun family reunions.

(In case you’re wondering, Grahame’s son with Nicholas Ray would have been both a half-brother to Grahame’s two sons with Anthony Ray, and simultaneously an uncle to them, too.  That son by Nicholas Ray would also have been both a half-brother to Anthony Ray and simultaneously his stepson.  Got all that?)

Despite any rumors about her offscreen life, her career onscreen had an impressive ten year arc, from a brief, but memorable, appearance in 1946’s It’s a Wonderful Life that got her noticed, through the big budget 1955 musical Oklahoma.  Her personal awards included an Oscar nomination for Crossfire (1947) and her win for The Bad and the Beautiful.  In my opinion she probably deserved nominations for her work in both In a Lonely Place (1950) and The Big Heat (1953).

Finally, I did a very popular post on celebrity look-alikes back in 2011.  It’s had more than four times the number of hits of any other post I have done.  If you’ve never seen it, you can find it here.  Anyway, while I was watching the 2006 film The Fall there were times that I would have sworn that actress Justine Waddell was a clone of Gloria Grahame.  Here are pictures of the two of them.

Gloria Grahame

Justine Waddell in The Fall

As I review the films I will come back and add the links for them here.

It's a Wonderful Life (1946)
Crossfire (1947)
In a Lonely Place (1950)
The Greatest Show on Earth (1952)
The Bad and the Beautiful (1952)
The Big Heat (1953)
Human Desire (1954)
Oklahoma! (1955)

On to the reviews…

Movie – Spy Kids (2001)

After making a string of popular, but violent films writer/director Robert Rodriguez decided he wanted to make a movie that his children would be able to watch.  The result was the intelligent, entertaining family film Spy Kids.  And I’m using the term ”family” in the best sense, not just as “only for kids”.  Adults, especially ones with kids of their own, can certainly identify with the parent characters in the movie.  The film is intelligent, too.  It doesn’t talk down to the adults or the kids; there’s no scatological humor to be found.  The result was that Rodriguez’s fans just killed this film on IMDB.  “Where’s the blood and guts?  Where’s the naked chicks?  Where’s the guns?  How dare my favorite director make a, a, a family film?!!!”  (The last sentence should be read in the high pitched tones of a child not getting their own way.)  Luckily there’s a far larger audience out there than just fans of Robert Rodriguez.  The movie was both a winner with critics (93% Fresh at Rotten Tomatoes) and with the general public, who made it a box office hit.

Movie – Iron Sky (2012)

Iron Sky is a very tongue in cheek kind of movie.  So much so, in fact, that a sizable number of people took it way too seriously and got offended by it.  When you’ve got a partially fan funded Finnish film, starring Germans and Americans, shot in English, and filmed mostly in Australia, you know right there it’s going to be at least a little different from the norm.  And if that isn’t enough of a clue, then the basic premise should have screamed “we’re having fun here”.  It’s about Moon Nazis who attack Earth.  I was in the right mood when I saw this.  I had a grin on my face for much of the film.

November Movie Status – And Update on Hard to Locate Films

SUMMARY:

I saw 48 new movies in the month of November, plus 2 TV show seasons, plus a re-watch of a Web series season.  Last month I mentioned I had found myself working on several different movie lists and as a consequence had some films that I simply could not locate.  I asked for help in finding them and was the beneficiary of the generosity of multiple people.  After being pointed towards a free trial of Hulu Plus last month I also examined a few other lists I have in order to see both what was hard to locate and what was available via Hulu Plus.

Where I stand right now is that I am actively working on the following lists: Oscar Best Picture Nominees, the six 101 [Genre] Films YouMust See Before You Die lists, They Shoot Pictures Don’t They, Empire’s lists of the Top 100 World Films and Top 500 Films, Roger Ebert’s Great Movies, and three different lists of the Top 100 British films of all time, which yield a total of 178 different entries.  Many of these overlap, but I am showing films under only one list’s count in the details below.

If you have a good memory you know that I was working on the Sight and Sound Critics’ Top 250 Films list last month, but have not mentioned it yet.  That is because I am in a state of limbo.  I have now watched every film on it, except one – Tie Xi Qu: West of the Tracks – which is one of the films that I cannot locate anywhere.  So I have not completed the SSC list, but I have gone as far as I can with it.  I will have to consider this list dormant until such time that that film ever becomes available.

All of these different lists can be seen by clicking on the names of them.  They link to my Lists from Chip posts on them.

THE FILMS I CAN’T FIND:

Last month I listed 19 films that I was unable to locate.  With the help of people who responded to that post, plus some extreme internet searches on my part, I was able to locate and see 7 of those.  There are two others that someone has said they will get to me when they have a chance.  I did have to add two new films from other lists, though, so the net total of movies that I am hoping someone can help me find is now 14.

Here are the films that I simply cannot track down, but need to in order to complete various lists.  Note – the only pay services I have looked at so far are Netflix and Hulu Plus.  I suppose if enough show up on another pay service it might be worthwhile to join to see them.  I’m hoping to keep costs as low as possible, though.  If you have a good source for them, but do not want to tell the world by leaving a comment here, then please email me at golf04330@yahoo.com with your suggestions.

Here are the films I was able to see, along with where you can get them, too.

The Red Badge of Courage (1951) – I finally found it.

http://ryushare.com/caoj4co92iav/The_Red_Badge_of_Courage_1951_DVDRip.rar

Out 1, noli me tangere (1971) – thanks to james1511 of The Cameraman’ Revenge

1: http://www.sendspace.com/file/cjvgjw
2: http://www.sendspace.com/file/eiex4j
3: http://www.sendspace.com/file/6umvjt
4: http://www.sendspace.com/file/g9qr1i
5: http://www.sendspace.com/file/x9hlrx
6: http://www.sendspace.com/file/t2615m
7: http://www.sendspace.com/file/3vcmr6
8: http://www.sendspace.com/file/2oxx4v

Out 1, Spectre (1974) – After further research on my part it turns out that this is not a follow-on to the 1971 TV minieries.  It is actually an attempt to release the 13 hour original as a four and a half hour theatrical movie.  Considering that I saw the entire thing, combined with the lack of availability of the theatrical cut, I am going to consider this entry as being completed, too.  Yes, there were a few comments I found that said the theatrical cut used different takes in some scenes, but honestly, after 13 hours of watching people do acting exercises like rolling around in a pile muttering gibberish, I don’t think a different take of it will be any more enlightening.

Kings of the Road aka Im Lauf der Zeit (1976) – I finally found it.

http://www.4shared.com/video/yelKAreo/imlaufderzeit_wimwenders1976dv.html

Flowers of Shanghai aka Hai shang hua (1998) – A post for it appeared about a week after I did last month’s status.  By the way, if you are looking for foreign films, especially Asian ones, and most especially South Korean ones, then this site may be a godsend for you.

http://moviesoftheworld.com/flowers-of-shanghai-1998/

Alice in the Cities aka Alice in den Stadten (1974) – thanks to thevoid99 of Surrender to the Void and Steve Honeywell of 1001plus.  The first pointed out that it was going to be shown on TCM, an American cable channel dedicated to classic films.  I actually learned from this that the TCM website has a bug in it when you are looking to see if a film is in the upcoming schedule.  Instead of checking TCM’s site directly, choose the “TCMdb” option, then in the resulting list click on the film’s name, then on this page it will show you if it is coming up.  The second pointed me to Hulu Plus for another film and I discovered this one was also there.  If you have never signed up for this service you get a one week free trial.  I discovered how to make it a two week free trial by going as far as putting in my contact information, but not my credit card, then canceling out.  They then sent me an email offering to double the time of the free trial.  I accepted it.

Carnival in Flanders aka La kermesse heroique (1935) – thanks to Steve Honeywell of 1001plus.  He pointed out that this was available via Hulu Plus.  If you have never signed up for this service you get a one week free trial.  I discovered how to make it a two week free trial by going as far as putting in my contact information, but not my credit card, then canceling out.  They then sent me an email offering to double the time of the free trial.  I accepted it.

The ones I am searching for:

101 Genre Films:

City Streets (1931) – a gangster film with Gary Cooper, directed by Rouben Mamoulian

The 1,000 Eyes of Dr. Mabuse (1960) – a gangster film directed by Fritz Lang.  I have had someone say they will make this available when they get a chance.

Sight & Sound Critics Top 250: (This is the only film I have left to complete the list.)

Tie Xi Qu: West of the Tracks (2003) – a nine hour documentary on the falling industry in a region of China from director Bing Wang.

They Shoot Pictures Don’t They:

Empire (1964) – Andy Warhol’s experiment to see if he could do anything and still get film critics to fawn over him.  It worked.  This is an 8 hour static shot of the Empire State Building from dusk to 3:00 AM.  I suppose I could just stare at a picture of the Empire State Building for 8 hours and call it good.  J

Anatahan aka Ana-ta-han (1953) – a Japanese film from Josef von Sternberg

Minamata aka Minamata: The Victims and Their World aka Minamata: Kanja-san to sono sekai (1971) – a Japanese documentary on industrial chemical poisoning.  I swear that this exists only on the TSPDT list and on IMDB and nowhere else on the internet.  Even IMDB has little information on it.

Liebelei (1933) – an early Max Ophuls film

Doomed Love aka Ill-Fated Love aka Amor de perdicao (1979) – a six episode Portuguese TV mini-series from Manoel de Oliveira retelling Romeo and Juliet.  Believe it or not, I tracked down the video.  Unfortunately it has Portuguese audio and hardcoded Italian subtitles only.  I’ve searched and English subtitles do not exist, but I found one comment that said that someone had done a rough translation of the Italian ones embedded in the video and had posted them at karagarga.net.  Unfortunately, that site appears to require that you be invited by someone else to even view the forums.  I don’t need an invite, but if you have access to it, could you please save the English subtitles to someplace where they are available?  Or you could email them to me since the files should be small.  Thanks to an anonymous responder last month I now know that there is also a theatrical version that runs about 30 minutes less than this.  I would take either version and be very happy.

Dust in the Wind aka Lian lian feng chen (1987) – a period film from director Hsiao-hsien Hou. 

Under the Bridges aka Unter den Brucken (1946) – a film from Helmut Kautner

Variety aka Variete aka Jealousy (1925) – a film from E.A. Dupont

The Italian Straw Hat aka The Horse Ate the Hat aka Un chapeau de paille d’Italie (1928) – a film from Rene Clair.  I have had someone say they will make this available when they get a chance.

Now, the two new ones:

Roger Ebert’s Great Films:

A Woman’s Tale (1991) – a film from Paul Cox

Top British Films:

Gallivant (1997) – a sort-of documentary/travelogue where director Andrew Kotting drives around England with his 90 year old grandmother and 9 year old daughter.

Any help you can provide in tracking these down will be most appreciated.

THE FILMS I SAW IN NOVEMBER:

Here are the 48 new movies and TV show seasons I saw in November.  Highlighted movies are ones to which I would give at least three stars out of five.  I will single out the four and five star films, as well as the worst films, in the paragraphs below the lists.

Oscar Nominees (5): David Copperfield (1935), The Informer (1935), Les Miserables (1935), One Hour With You (1932), Crossfire (1947)

101 Genre (12): The Innocents (1961), Grey Gardens (1975), Lacombe, Lucien (1974), High Tension (2003), Sonatine (1993), The Dinner Game (1998), The Red Badge of Courage (1951), Phantasm (1979), Reefer Madness (1936), Foxy Brown (1974), The Musketeers of Pig Alley (1912), When Worlds Collide (1951)

SSC (6): Kings of the Road (1976), A Canterbury Tale (1944), Melancholia (2011), Flowers of Shanghai (1998), Colossal Youth (2006), Out 1: noli me tangere (1971)

TSPDT (12): Alice in the Cities (1974), Carnival in Flanders (1935), Princess Yang Kwei-fei (1955), The Tenant (1976), Spies (1928), Sauve Qui Peut (la vie) (1980), Purple Noon (1960), Il Grido (1957), Il Posto (1961), Out 1: Spectre (1974), In a Year with 13 Moons (1978), Alexander Nevsky (1938)

Ebert (2): The Fall of the House of Usher (1928), Souls for Sale (1923)

Other Movies (11): Thor: The Dark World (2013), Micmacs (2009), Terribly Happy (2008), The Croods (2013), White House Down (2013), The Way Way Back (2013), The To Do List (2013), The Internship (2013), Red 2 (2013), R.I.P.D. (2013), People Will Talk (1951)

Re-watches (0):

TV Series (2):  How I Met Your Mother Season 8, Eureka Season 5, Web series The Guild Season 6 (re-watch)

I had no five star movies in November.  Here are the four star films I saw:

Les Miserables (1935) is superior to the recent musical version in two main ways.  First, Charles Laughton is fantastic as Inspector Javert.  He brings some humanity to what often becomes a two dimensional role.  Second, the ridiculous innkeepers that were so out of place in the musical barely appear in this version.

One Hour with You (1932) is a lot of pre-Code naughty fun from director Ernst Lubitsch and stars Maurice Chevalier and Jeanette MacDonald.  The two play a happily married couple who are tempted by others.  I loved the very suggestive song Three Times a Day that was sung by Chevalier and Genevieve Tobin, whose character is trying to seduce him away from his wife.

Souls for Sale (1923) might be the earliest parody of Hollywood that I have seen.  A newly married woman thinks twice about her husband and leaves him.  (Good instincts since he’s going to kill her for her money.)  She ends up in the desert and comes upon a sheik on a camel.  It turns out he’s just an actor, who is also a great seducer of women. (The resemblance to Rudolph Valentino is completely intended.)  She ends up becoming a film star.  There are numerous cameos from big names, like Charlie Chaplin, actually making films of their own.

Micmacs (2009) is another piece of strange, happy weirdness from director Jean-Pierre Jeunet.  A man whose father was killed by a land mine, and who has himself been the victim of a drive by shooting, seeks revenge against the two arms merchants who made the weapons.  He gets helps from a bunch of people living on the fringes of society.  By the way, the title does not refer to the Indian tribe from Maine and Atlantic Canada.  Apparently “micmac” is a slang term for a prankster in French.

I recently reviewed Thor: The Dark World (2013).  It is a big step up from the first film and a worthy successor to The Avengers (2012).  You can read that review here.

I had two one star films in November.  Reefer Madness (1936) is a “cult classic” that I finally got around to seeing.  I’m guessing that the people who are entertained by it are probably smoking reefer while they are watching it.  It’s not a “so bad it’s good” kind of film; it’s just plain bad.  Colossal Youth (2006) is an extremely slow and boring movie where all the characters talk AT each other in an artificial manner instead of talking TO each other.  Pretty much everyone in the film is a non-actor, too.  Want to watch a 15 minute long, unbroken shot of a woman complaining about the birth of her child, all while the other person in the scene looks very bored, then screws up his line towards the end, calling the character by the wrong name?  Then this is the movie for you.

Movie – Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1931)

When most people think of “monster movies” they have images of fun but dumb movies, standard characters, perhaps cheesy special effects, bad accents, etc.  Academy Award level acting probably is not something most people expect when they sit down to watch one.  (Yes, the 2003 film Monster earned Charlize Theron a Best Actress Oscar, but the title refers to her character’s actions, not a physical monster.)  Well, in the perhaps unique case of the 1931 film Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, based on the Robert Louis Stevenson 1886 novel The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, lead actor Fredric March won the Best Actor Oscar for his performance in both title roles.  Off the top of my head I can’t think of any other Frankenstein, Dracula, Wolfman, Invisible Man, Jekyll/Hyde, Zombie, Godzilla, etc. film that had someone win an Oscar for their acting in it.

Movie – Spider-Man 2 (2004)

When Spider-Man came out in 2002 it was wildly successful.  I thought it was very entertaining and watched it more than once.  The questions began almost immediately – would the inevitable sequel be able to keep up, or would it disappoint?  As it turns out, the sequel didn’t just match the first one; it surpassed it.  It had all the right elements in it, some great acting in key scenes, and a very satisfying ending.  In fact, until The Avengers was released in 2012 I considered Spider-Man 2 to be the best superhero movie that had been made.

Note: this review will contain spoilers for Spider-Man (2002).

Movie – The Invisible Man (1933)

James Whale is probably best known for directing Frankenstein (1931) and The Bride of Frankenstein (1935), but he also brought to the screen another of the classic horror characters – The Invisible Man.  Unlike the two Frankenstein movies, this 1933 adaptation was much more faithful to H.G. Wells’ 1897 short novel.  The movie not only pioneered some special effects techniques, but it also launched the film career of Claude Rains who “appeared” as the title character.  The film was a sensation and has spawned over a dozen versions of the concept since it was released, including comedic, horrific, and even erotic ones.

Movie – Burke and Hare (2010)

Burke and Hare is a dark comedy from director John Landis (Animal House, An American Werewolf in London).  It was his first feature film in more than ten years.  The film uses the real life case of William Burke and William Hare and how they “procured” cadavers for Dr. Robert Knox, a professor at Edinburgh Medical School in Scotland in 1828.  There had been a 1970s movie on the subject, but I had never seen it.  I had also never heard of this case, so the film was entirely new to me.  While it did play some with motivations, my understanding is the principal facts are generally accurate in this.  I like twisted humor, so this movie was right up my alley.  The subject and tone of Burke and Hare also fits in well with its other Ealing Studios counterparts such as Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949) and The Ladykillers (1955).

Movie – The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920)

Years ago I was in a store and came across The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari on a bargain DVD.  It cost me next to nothing so I bought it even though I had not seen the movie and knew nothing about it other than it was old and I recognized the title.  Predictably, the DVD transfer wasn’t in very good shape, but I was still able to watch it. And what I saw was quite a surprise to me.  I was not expecting much and instead I got what may very well be the oldest film there is with a surprise twist/reveal in it.  I did not see it coming at all.  Don’t worry. I will not be spoiling it in this review.

Movie – The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975)

My first experience with The Rocky Horror Picture Show was not a positive one.  When I was in college VHS tapes of movies were exploding in popularity, but the people who owned the rights to this film refused to release it in order to keep people going to the theaters that were showing the midnight movies.  Somehow my college got the film and showed it on campus one evening.  I went in knowing NOTHING about either the film or the audience participation.  When it started and people were yelling “lips!” I thought it was a little funny.  I soon caught on that the people who did know the movie had all these rituals.  Unfortunately, I knew none of them in order to play along, so I just sat there kind of irritated because I couldn’t hear any of the dialogue or the songs.

Movie and Book – Frankenstein (1931)

Both the 1931 Frankenstein film and the book on which it was based – Mary Shelley’s 1818 novel Frankenstein: or, The Modern Prometheus – were massively influential in their respective media and in pop culture.  The amazing thing is that the two bear little resemblance to each other.  In the film the monster is a creature of low intelligence whose physical appearance is markedly different from humans.  In the novel the creature becomes an intelligent, albeit hideously ugly, man whose main physical difference is his great size.  It’s interesting to note that the common mistake of referring to the creature himself as “Frankenstein” pre-dates 1931 and had already started from the popularity of the novel.  It was the film (and the follow-up 1935’s The Bride of Frankenstein) that cemented that misconception in people’s minds.  Both the novel and the film are worth checking out.

On this Veterans Day/Remembrance Day/Armistice Day

I originally posted this video back near the U.S. Memorial Day because it honors the sacrifices made by the families of military veterans.  It shows the families being surprised by the return of their parent, spouse, or child that is serving in the military.  It is also a good tribute to the veterans themselves and it feels like a far more fitting post for today from me than a movie review.

As I wrote back when I originally posted it: “I don’t care what you may think of the military; this is about human beings.  I try not to judge people I haven’t met, but if you are completely unmoved by this video then you must be dead inside.”

Movie – Thor: The Dark World (2013)

Thor: The Dark World does not really fit into the spirit of this Evil Doctors and Mad Scientists category that I am currently doing, but it was so entertaining that I wanted to write about it now instead of weeks from now.  And it does literally have a “mad scientist” in it: Dr. Erik Selvig (Stellan Skarsgard) is much the worse for wear after the events of The Avengers (2012).  Having had Loki in his head for so long has left him a little bonkers.  He’s raving about “convergences” and such.  But is he mad, really?

This film is a worthy successor to The Avengers.  It is definitely better than the first Thor film and I would rank it just below The Avengers and equal to Iron Man (2008) in regards to the best Avengers-related films.  Joss Whedon’s hand is definitely on display. No, he didn’t write or direct this film, but Marvel has placed him in charge of all of their Phase 2 films, which are the post-Avengers ones.  I detected some definite “Whedonisms” in this film and it is the better for them.

Movie – The Skin I Live In (2011)

The Skin I Live In is a very interesting film from Pedro Almodovar.  It’s sure to surprise many, upset some, and maybe even traumatize a few.  It was nominated for the Best Foreign Language Film Golden Globe and won the BAFTA for Best Film Not in the English Language, beating, among others, A Separation (2011).  It was nominated for 16 Goyas (the “Spanish Oscar”), winning four of them.  It’s a film that may challenge you with the moral and ethical questions it raises, but it is definitely worth your time.

Movies with Evil Doctors and Mad Scientists

“She’s the Dr. Doom to my Mr. Fantastic, the Dr. Octopus to my Spider-Man, the Dr. Sivana to my Captain Marvel.  [pause as realization hits]  You know, it’s amazing how many supervillains have advanced degrees.  You’d think the Masters programs would do a better job of filtering them out.” – Dr. Sheldon Leonard, The Big Bang Theory

I’m doing this category only after a little bit of hesitation, and partially because I just really like the quote above.  I hesitated because as someone with an interest in science and knowledge it often bothers me in films when a similar character almost inevitably ends up being evil, or at least led astray and harmed by his/her thirst for knowledge.  The evil scientist is as much a stock character as the bad guy with a foreign accent.  Unlike the latter archetype, nobody is out there protesting when smart people turn out to be evil.  It’s apparently okay to dump on them because, well, they’re smart.  Beat them up in school, see them suffer in movies; it’s all connected. 

One of the reasons I like the film Contact (1997) so much is that it is the rare film that treats science and scientists with respect.  It’s also a rare film that treats faith with respect.  To have both together in one movie is nothing short of remarkable.  You can read my review of it here.

Films have used these kinds of evil characters almost from the first days of the invention of the movie camera and they have continued right up to the films that are still being released today.  That doesn’t mean that all movies that use it are bad, though; far from it.  I will be reviewing some of the classics of the genre.  And the fact that the mad scientist is such a cliché makes it ripe for parody and reinvention.  I will review a couple of those kinds of films, too.  In all, I will be posting ten new reviews.

I won’t be including any James Bond movies since almost all of them would qualify and this category would end up being one on Bond instead.  I also won’t be including Bond parodies like Dr. Goldfoot and the Bikini Machine (1965) – starring Vincent Price and Frankie Avalon, no less!  I do like the title, though.

You will not find any torture porn horror movies such as The Human Centipede here.  I haven’t seen it, but I know what happens and you couldn’t pay me to watch that.

Finally, you may be expecting me to include the film Dr. Strangelove (1964), but Peter Sellers’ mugging for the camera as the title character is actually my least favorite part of that movie.  I will be including a film which references that character, though.

As I review the films I will come back and add the links for them here.

The Skin I Live In (2011)
Thor: The Dark World (2013)
Frankenstein (1931)
The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975)
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920)
Burke and Hare (2010)
The Invisible Man (1933)
Spider-Man 2 (2004)
Dr.Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1931)
Iron Sky (2012)
Spy Kids (2001)

The City of Lost Children (1995) – posted January 11, 2011

X-Men: First Class (2011) – posted June 11, 2011

Captain America: The First Avenger (2011) – posted July 26, 2011

Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow (2004) – posted August 21, 2011

Iron Man 3 (2013) – posted May 3, 2013

Young Frankenstein (1974) – posted September 5, 2013

On to the reviews…

October Movie Status – And Can You Help Me Locate Some Films?

SUMMARY:

I saw 85 new movies in the month of October, plus re-watches of 5 TV show seasons.  After completing the original 1,001 Movies list last summer I mentioned I might work on some “low hanging fruit” – lists where I had only a few entries to go to complete them.  After a couple months of hardly watching any movies, the month of September got me re-energized with watching all the new additions to the 1,001 Movies list.  In October I took aim at the Time Magazine All-Time Top 100 Films, as well as the Sight & Sound Directors (SSD) Top 100 Films.  I completed both of them. 

In the course of doing this I found a good source for a number of the foreign films I had not yet seen.  This carried over to the Sight & Sound Critics (SSC) Top 250 Films list, every one of which is also in the They Shoot Pictures Don’t They (TSPDT) list, so even though I had more than 300 left to go on that one, things snowballed from there.  Since some of these also crossed over with the 101 Genre films lists put out by the same folks who do the 1,001 Movies list, I also knocked off some of those.

Readers of prior monthly statuses may be wondering about my ongoing quest to see all of the Oscar Best Picture nominees.  While I only saw a couple in October, I did check off Trader Horn (1931), which was the last one for which I had not been able to track down a source.  It aired on TCM during the month.  While there is still one film presumed to be lost, and one or two others that only exist as single copies in the UCLA film vaults, I should be able to watch all of the others I have remaining.

All of these different lists can be seen by clicking on the names of them.  They link to my Lists from Chip posts on them.

THE FILMS I CAN’T FIND:

Now, I mentioned in the post title that you may be able to help me.  Just like the 1,001 Movies list, critics like to name films that are difficult, if not impossible, to find.  It’s especially difficult to find the TV miniseries that they can’t seem to help placing on top MOVIES lists.  The apparent rule of thumb is that if it is long, then critics put it on the list, whether it is a 9 hour Chinese documentary on industry or a 1979 Portuguese six hour TV remake of Romeo and Juliet. 

Here are the films that I simply cannot track down, but need to in order to complete these various lists.  Note – the only pay service I have looked at so far is Netflix since I am already a member.  I suppose if enough show up on another pay service it might be worthwhile to join to see them.  I’m hoping to keep costs as low as possible, though.  If you have a good source for them, but do not want to tell the world by leaving a comment here, then please email me at golf04330@yahoo.com with your suggestions.

101 Genre Films:

City Streets (1931) – a gangster film with Gary Cooper, directed by Rouben Mamoulian

The Red Badge of Courage (1951) – a war film directed by John Huston

The 1,000 Eyes of Dr. Mabuse (1960) – a gangster film directed by Fritz Lang

Sight & Sound Critics Top 250: (I only have 7 films left, but 4 of them are trouble.)

Out 1, noli me tangere (1971) – a 12 hour “film” on the 1968 uprisings in Europe from director Jacques Rivette.  (See also the TSPDT list for another Rivette film).  I’ve actually found a downloadable version, but it is 30 freaking gigabytes.  I just want to see it, not burn DVDs of it.  I’m hoping someone might know of a reasonably sized version.

Kings of the Road aka Im Lauf der Zeit (1976) – an early Wim Wenders film.  (See also the TSPDT list for another Wenders film.)

Tie Xi Qu: West of the Tracks (2003) – a nine hour documentary on the falling industry in a region of China from director Bing Wang.

Flowers of Shanghai aka Hai shang hua (1998) – a period film from director Hsiao-hsien Hou.  (See also the TSPDT list below for another film from him.)

They Shoot Pictures Don’t They:

Alice in the Cities aka Alice in den Stadten (1974) – an early Wim Wenders film.  (See also the SSC list above for another film from him.)

Empire (1964) – Andy Warhol’s experiment to see if he could do anything and still get film critics to fawn over him.  It worked.  This is an 8 hour shot of the Empire State Building from dusk to 3:00 AM.

Anatahan aka Ana-ta-han (1953) – a Japanese film from Josef von Sternberg

Minamata aka Minamata: The Victims and Their World aka Minamata: Kanja-san to sono sekai (1971) – a Japanese documentary on industrial chemical poisoning.  I swear that this exists only on the TSPDT list and on IMDB and nowhere else on the internet.  Even IMDB has little information on it.

Liebelei (1933) – an early Max Ophuls film

Carnival in Flanders aka La kermesse heroique (1935) – a film from director Jacques Feyder

Doomed Love aka Ill-Fated Love aka Amor de perdicao (1979) – a six episode Portuguese TV mini-series from Manoel de Oliveira retelling Romeo and Juliet.  Believe it or not, I tracked down the video.  Unfortunately it has Portuguese audio and hardcoded Italian subtitles only.  I’ve searched and English subtitles do not exist, but I found one comment that said that someone had done a rough translation of the Italian ones embedded in the video and had posted them at karagarga.net.  Unfortunately, that site appears to require that you be invited by someone else to even view the forums.  I don’t need an invite, but if you have access to it, could you please save the English subtitles to someplace where they are available?  Or you could email them to me since the files should be small.

Dust in the Wind aka Lian lian feng chen (1987) – another period film from director Hsiao-hsien Hou.  (See also the SSC list above for another film from him.)

Out 1: Spectre (1974) – Jacques Rivette’s shorter companion to Out 1: noli me tangere (1971) (see the SSC list above for the other.)  This follow-up is “only” 4 hours long.  Unlike the other one, I have not found any source for this.

Under the Bridges aka Unter den Brucken (1946) – a film from Helmut Kautner

Variety aka Variete aka Jealousy (1925) – a film from E.A. Dupont

The Italian Straw Hat aka The Horse Ate the Hat aka Un chapeau de paille d’Italie (1928) – a film from Rene Clair

Any help you can provide in tracking these down will be most appreciated.

THE FILMS I SAW IN OCTOBER:

Here are the 85 new movies and TV show seasons I saw in October.  Highlighted movies are ones to which I would give at least three stars out of five.  I will single out the four and five star films, as well as the worst films, in the paragraphs below the lists.

Oscar Nominees (2): San Francisco (1936), Trader Horn (1931),

101 Genre (4): Army of Shadows (1969), Chelsea Girls (1966), The Testament of Dr. Mabuse (1933), Ivan’s Childhood (1962)

Time (12): Band of Outsiders (1964), Nayakan (1987), Ulysses’ Gaze (1995), Mon oncle d’Amerique (1980), Leolo (1992), The Crime of Monsieur Lange (1936), Mouchette (1967), Pyaasa (1957), The Last Command (1928), TV – Berlin Alexanderplatz (1980), Baby Face (1933), TV – The Singing Detective (1986)

SSD (3): Opening Night (1977), Husbands (1970), I Am Cuba (1964)

SSC (23): Tropical Malady (2004), Death in Venice (1971), The Turin Horse (2011), The Devil, Probably (1977), Werckmeister Harmonies (2000), A Moment of Innocence (1996), Day of Wrath (1943), I Was Born, But… (1932), Blissfully Yours (2002), Touki Bouki (1973), The Death of Mr. Lazarescu (2005), By the Bluest of Seas (1936), Histoire(s) du Cinema (1998), Sicily! (1999), Floating Clouds (1955), Stromboli (1950), The River (1951), The Life of Oharu (1952), Love Streams (1984), Where is the Friend’s Home? (1987), Imitation of Life (1959), The Passenger (1975), Germany Year Zero (1948)

TSPDT (33): Tale of Tales (1979) (short), Rose Hobart (1936) (short), Le sang des betes (1949) (short), Un chant d’amour (1950) (short), The Seasons (1975) (short), Not Reconciled (1965), Numero Deux (1975), The Green Ray (1986), El (1953), India: Matri Bhumi (1959), Charulata (1964), The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser (1974), Man of Aran (1934), French Cancan (1954), The Wind (1928), Teorema (1968), My Friend Ivan Lapshin (1986), Passion (1982), Accattone (1961), El Sur (1983), Que Viva Mexico (1979), Late Autumn (1960), Placido (1961), Vive L’Amour (1994), The 47 Ronin (1941), Wild River (1960), Antonio das Mortes (1969), Chikamatsu Monogatari (1954), Days and Nights in the Forest (1970), The Executioner (1963), From the Clouds to the Resistance (1979), La Region Centrale (1971), The Tiger of Eschnapur (1959)

Other Movies (8): The Revisionaries (2012), Everything or Nothing: The Untold Story of 007 (2012), The Whale (2011), Clark Gable: Tall, Dark and Handsome (1996), This is the End (2013), Your Sister’s Sister (2011), Jack Reacher (2012), Much Ado About Nothing (2013)

Re-watches (0):

TV Series (5):  All re-watches: The Big Bang Theory Seasons 2-6

I had no five star movies in October.  Here are the four star films I saw:

The Last Command (1928) is a very clever “meta” film from more than 80 years ago.  It is loosely based on the true story of a Russian general who after the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution ended up in Hollywood as a film extra.  This movie stars Emil Jannings and he justifiably won the first Best Actor Oscar ever handed out.  I was expecting nothing and got a very moving film.

Placido (1961) is my best surprise so far from the TSPDT list.  It’s a screwball comedy from Spain.  It may have the fastest dialogue I have ever encountered in a foreign film.  I had never heard of director Luis Garcia Berlanga, but he also did another dark comedy in the list that I liked – The Executioner (1963).

Your Sister’s Sister (2011) is a far better than average comedy/drama about complicated relationships and it works despite the somewhat out there concept.  Mark Duplass (Safety Not Guaranteed) scores again, and this film also features the best performance I’ve seen from Emily Blunt.

Jack Reacher (2012) features one of my favorite characters that Tom Cruise has ever played.  I don’t know if there will ever be another movie, but it’s made me interested to check out the book series that the character comes from.

I just reviewed Much Ado About Nothing (2013).  You can read it here.

I had several one star films in October, but I will only mention one of them.  La Region Centrale (1971) is from Michael Snow – the man who brought us Wavelength, a 45 minute zoom at a wall, which is the 206th best movie ever made according to a critics' consensus.  Now comes this film.  Forget about a puny 45 minutes of wasting our time. This features THREE HOURS of nothing but a camera rotating in place and sometimes spinning. And it's the 425th best movie ever made, according to a critics' consensus. And they wonder why people think they are out of touch.

Movie – Much Ado About Nothing (2013)

As I promised in my last post, here is my review of Joss Whedon’s film Much Ado About Nothing.  (And if you like movies at all but haven’t seen my last post you should really check it out.)  I’ve done reviews of most everything Whedon has had a hand in, so if you want to reference those you can find my parent post for them here.

Back in late 2011 or early 2012 there was a surprise announcement that Joss Whedon had adapted and already completed filming Shakespeare’s play Much Ado About Nothing – all while in the midst of post-production on the biggest film in Hollywood: The Avengers (2012). Reactions ran the gamut from “are you serious?” to “that’s Joss Whedon”.  The film was held back for a while, making its debut at some festivals, and was finally released to the public in the summer of 2013.  Despite his success with The Avengers, movie theaters wanted nothing to do with a Shakespeare adaptation that had no big name stars in it.  It played the arthouse circuit then was released to DVD/BD where I finally got a chance to see it.  I enjoyed myself.  I had also seen the 1993 Branagh version way back in the day and comparisons between the two are impossible to ignore.  I will include some of those thoughts in this review.

Video – A Very Impressive Performance of Famous Movie Themes and Re-creations of Images from the Films by the Ohio State Marching Band

I was going to be posting my review of the Joss Whedon film Much Ado About Nothing today, but I ran across this video and it’s just too good not to share with folks who like movies.  I will review Whedon’s film in my next post.

In this video the Ohio State marching band performs the themes of, and re-creates images from, both old and new Superman, The Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, Jurassic Park, and The Pirates of the Caribbean – and all in less than nine minutes.

For those folks unfamiliar with American college football here are a few things you should know to understand why this performance is happening:

1. Like soccer (football to you) there is a halftime break for the athletes.
2. For college football that halftime usually includes performances by the marching bands from the two colleges that are competing.
3. Marching bands are orchestras composed of horns, woodwinds, drums, cymbals – basically all the instruments you do not sit down to play – and they are conducted by someone standing on the sideline on a platform so that he/she can see and be seen.
4. These halftime shows for the larger colleges are basically major competitions between the marching bands for bragging rights.
5. Ohio State’s main rival is Michigan and you see the two colleges’ banners during the Pirates of the Caribbean re-creation.

Enjoy.

Video – Two Videos of the Castle Cast at the Paley Center

Note: This is part of my ongoing reviews of the Castle television show’s seasons, the books written by “Richard Castle”, and some events related to the show.  For the parent post with links to all of these, please click here.

The first video is a twelve minute clip from the longer March 9, 2012 session.  It concerns the instant classic film noir episode The Blue Butterfly from Season 4.  They have the cast talk about it then recreate some of the lines in the accents they used in the show.

The second video is the entire one hour session that was just held September 30, 2013.  Please note that the first episode of Season 6, and by extension the cliffhanger from the end of Season 5, are discussed in this video, so if you have not seen them then this will contain spoilers.  This was captured from a web stream so the video is pretty choppy in places.  The audio is fine through the entire thing, though.

Book – Storm Front

Note: This is part of my ongoing reviews of the Castle television show’s seasons, the books written by “Richard Castle”, and some events related to the show.  For the parent post with links to all of these, please click here.

This is the sixth novel to be published under the author’s name of Richard Castle – the fictional character on the TV show Castle.  When the show opened Richard Castle was the popular author of a series of thrillers that all had the main character of Derrick Storm.  He was just publishing his final Storm book, though.  He had killed off the character since he was bored with him.  He soon got an inspiration for a new character of Nikki Heat, an NYPD detective based on the Detective Beckett character he was working with on the TV show.  During the course of the show we have seen the Castle character write five Nikki Heat novels. 

This fall a new Derrick Storm book was also published.  It is not a graphic novel “adaptation” like the ones done for the first three non-existent Derrick Storm novels.  This is a new story that picks up four years after Richard Castle killed off the character.  The first thing he’s got to do is explain how Storm is still alive.  It turns out that the CIA faked his death because things were just too hot for Storm and he needed to lie low for a long time.  He’s now been tapped to once again help the CIA because there has been a reappearance of Storm’s old adversary Gregor Volkov.

Book – Richard Castle’s A Calm Before Storm

Note: This is part of my ongoing reviews of the Castle television show’s seasons, the books written by “Richard Castle”, and some events related to the show.  For the parent post with links to all of these, please click here. 

To date there have been six novels published under the author’s name of Richard Castle – the fictional character on the TV show Castle.  When the show opened Richard Castle was the popular author of a series of thrillers that all had the main character of Derrick Storm.  During the course of the show we have seen the Castle character write the five Nikki Heat novels, which are based on the Detective Beckett character, and a new Derrick Storm novel.  What about all those old Derrick Storm novels that are supposed to already exist?  The people involved with the show decided to do “adaptations” of these books in the graphic novel format.

Book – Deadly Heat

Note: This is part of my ongoing reviews of the Castle television show’s seasons, the books written by “Richard Castle”, and some events related to the show.  For the parent post with links to all of these, please click here.

Deadly Heat is the fifth book by “Richard Castle”, the fictional writer on the TV show Castle.  The actual author of these books is speculated to be one of the real authors who have appeared on the show (i.e. Michael Connelly, James Patterson) or one of the show’s creators (i.e. Andrew Marlowe).  Like the first four books, this one has events or plot points similar to things that have happened on the Castle TV show in the prior season.  This book addresses the revelations and open plotlines from the fourth book.

TV – Castle Season 5

Note: This is part of my ongoing reviews of the Castle television show’s seasons, the books written by “Richard Castle”, and some events related to the show.  For the parent post with links to all of these, please click here.  In the coming days I will post reviews of the three newest books.

Note 2: There are spoilers for Season 4 in this post, especially the final episode of that season since it directly relates to the events of Season 5.

This season picks up the morning after Season 4 ended.  Beckett had finally admitted her desire for Castle and had shown up at his apartment.  As the season opens Castle wakes up alone in bed.  Was it all a dream?  Nope.  Beckett comes in with a couple cups of coffee.  Castle quizzes her.  Does she regret it?  Was it a one time thing caused by the trauma of almost dying and then quitting the police force?  Nope and nope. 

Movie – Mary Poppins (1964)

Mary Poppins is the well known live action Disney film that stars Julie Andrews.  It was not only the biggest box office hit of the year when it was released, but it was nominated for an astounding 13 Academy Awards, including Best Picture.  Only the films All About Eve (1950) and Titanic (1997) ever received more – both with 14.  Mary Poppins won five Oscars, including Best Actress for Julie Andrews in her big screen debut.  She was only the second woman to achieve this (after Shirley Booth for 1952’s Come Back, Little Sheba.)  So what made this film so popular with both audiences and filmmakers?  For the former it was simple: this is a heartwarming family film that presents a happy message for kids.  For the latter it can be summed up in two words: Julie Andrews.

Movie – The Draughtsman’s Contract (1982)

If you have never heard of this film before today, I can completely understand.  I never heard of it myself before it was added to the most recent edition of the 1,001 Movies You Must See Before You Die.  It is from writer/director Peter Greenaway (The Pillow Book, Drowning by Numbers) and might be the most normal of the four films of his that I have seen.  Of course, “normal” is a relative term.  For instance, this film has a naked man who is some sort of moving statue that most people cannot see.  He might represent the Green Man from Anglo mythology.  And if you have a penis aversion (would that be “phallophobia”?) then you should know that you see everything.  This is just a small touch of Greenaway’s typical strangeness, though.  The main part of the film involves a slow realization that what we think is going on may be completely wrong.  And it all involves a murder.

Movie – The Exterminating Angel (1962)

Writer/director Luis Bunuel’s film The Exterminating Angel (not to be confused with the 2006 film The Exterminating Angels which actually has angels in it) has a title that really doesn’t have much to do with the movie.  That has not stopped people from generating wild theories on what it really means.  The simple answer is that Bunuel had a colleague who was going to write a play with that name and Bunuel liked the title because he felt people would see “The Exterminating Angel” on a sign and buy a ticket.  It was all about commercial success, not artistic pretensions.  That’s not to say that this film doesn’t contain any number of patented Bunuel surreal moments, like a bear and some sheep being kept inside the house in which the film takes place.  I liked this film, but it will not be for everybody.  I will explain.