by Dean | Mar 14, 2014 | Movies
Night Must Fall (1937 film) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
In 1937, what I assume to be a suspenseful play by Emlyn Williams became a suspenseful motion picture. I mean Night Must Fall, superbly directed for the screen by Richard Thorpe and featuring crisp and clever acting from Robert Montgomery, Dame May Whitty and Rosalind Russell.
In it, an extroverted page boy (Montgomery) wins the heart of, and is hired to work for, a nasty old woman and pseudo-invalid (Dame Whitty) who is daily disappointed by the ministrations of her live-in niece (Russell). The page boy is sexually attracted to the niece and she to him, except that a news report of a missing girl in this English vicinity induces the niece to suspect that the page boy is in reality a Jack the Ripper. Of course this leaves her cold but also fascinates her. In fact both characters are eccentrics, one of them creepy and the other, the niece, repressed. The latter makes the claim, in effect, that the page boy has taken away her reason.
Night Must Fall is about a world of ordinary petty spite (the old woman’s) and ordinary vulnerabilities when it confronts a devilish phenomenon. It has to do with when there arises a perversion greater than your own—greater, that is, than the old woman’s, but also greater than the niece’s temporary perversion when she loses her “reason.” Moreover, it is about the mystery of human motives. It is a thriller about terror, made by Thorpe with an eye for cinematics.
by Dean | Mar 12, 2014 | Movies
The excellent Chilean film Gloria (2014), by Sebastian Lelio, concerns a woman in her (late?) 50s who desires a man, acquires one, and then suffers because of his curious behavior. Intercourse takes place right away, followed by pleasurable hanging-out, followed by the overcautiousness and divided attention of Rodolfo, the near-elderly “boyfriend.” For Gloria, the heroine, a mini-disintegration goes on, and her conduct is sometimes repellent. When a reasonably strong person is agonized is a concern here, and the simple uplift at the film’s end amounts to very little. But it is there.
The picture is like an extended artistic short story, with enticing cinematics (everything from the cinematography to the white peacock). The middle-aged nudity is ugly, though; Gloria does the full frontal. In truth, this is part of the evidence that actress Paula Garcia (Gloria) goes the whole nine yards for her stellar role, but I wish Lelio had not required her to go that far.
She does an extraordinary job of acting, however—now amiable, now solemnly bitter—and Sergio Hernandez is unbeatable as sheepish, unthinking Rodolfo.
(In Spanish with English subtitles)
by Dean | Mar 9, 2014 | Movies
American Madness (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Tom Dickson (Walter Huston) is a bank president who nobly considers depositors his friends and is unconcerned about profit. Though serious about banking, he is the most humane of businessmen—and the hero of Frank Capra’s Depression-inspired film, American Madness (1932).
The madness of the title is a foolish run on Dickson’s bank by depositors terrified by a big loss of money owing to an embezzler named Cluett (Gavin Gordon). Dilemmas befall the bank president: he begins to fear losing both the bank and, as it happens, his marriage.
Hollow optimism about human nature—Capra’s familiar trait—finally springs up in the film, and there is an inconsistent tone (which is why Madness is a semi-comedy). Yet Robert Riskin’s script is a pretty effective character study, not incisive but humanly appealing. Too, it’s beguilingly smart, filmed by a dedicated and likable craftsman who worked well with his actors.
by Dean | Mar 6, 2014 | General, Movies
Français : Logo de la minisérie THE KENNEDYS. Français : Logo de la minisérie THE KENNEDYS. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
To me, one of the best “movies,” if you will, of 2011 aired on TV and was eight hours long (eight episodes long). It was The Kennedys, a docudrama not entirely free of blandness but also workmanlike and discerning.
Greg Kinnear is good as JFK, Tom Wilkinson terrific as Joe Kennedy Sr. in all his corruption. As the elegant Jackie, Katie Holmes looks the part but histrionically lacks conviction. The show’s focus is always on the mark, with the Cuban missile crisis covered vividly and painstakingly. An air of sympathy and compassion never goes away even as hagiography never intrudes.
The Kennedys is available on DVD.
by Dean | Mar 4, 2014 | General, Movies
The Prisoner of Shark Island (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
The John Ford film, The Prisoner of Shark Island (1936), is about Dr. Samuel Mudd, who treated the broken leg of John Wilkes Booth shortly after Booth murdered Lincoln and was consequently arrested for conspiracy to assassinate (!) and sent to serve a life sentence in the Dry Tortugas.
When a decent man is victimized by the authorities—this is the message conveyed. As the terrible incidents roll, also conveyed are all kinds of values (and virtues): courage, persistence, belief in God, marital love and, despite the country’s injustice to Dr. Mudd, patriotism. Plus there is military pride, as demonstrated by Mudd’s crotchety father-in-law, an elderly Southern colonel (Claude Gillingwater). Today both he and Mudd would be seen as politically incorrect (yawn): the doctor, you see, is a decent, estimable SLAVER.
Prisoner is still riveting, and I agree with film critic Otis Ferguson about the strength and worth of the prison escape sequence. Nunnally Johnson’s script provides more depth than we generally get from Ford’s Westerns, even if the old American movies never enabled us to feel the ineradicable wound of life. Their unpleasantness was limited.
by Dean | Mar 2, 2014 | General
Thieves’ Highway (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Highways, delivery trucks, post-Ellis Island immigrants, fierce competition—all this makes Jules Dassin’s 1949 Hollywood piece, Thieves’ Highway, a distinctly American film. But that’s not all.
Many, many bad things are done by the people in this film. The chief theme is the struggle to make a living in the midst of corruption. It’s a shame, in point of fact, that the harsh fruit merchant acted by Lee J. Cobb is a caricature—he’s extremely corrupt—but there you have it. Though the movie’s sophistication starts slipping in its last twenty or twenty-five minutes, Thieves’ Highway—screenwritten by A.I. Bezzerides (whose novel Thieves’ Market is the source for this picture)—is not only exciting but also gritty and as concerned as it can be about verisimilitude. A corker.
by admin | Feb 28, 2014 | Conspiracy, Culure
Beavis and Butt-head fighting. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Do you like Beavis and Butthead? Be honest..Do you really think those dudes are funny? -Well I DO!
I guess they have not been around for quite some time have they? Spreading havoc all over the place…Ruining the neighborhood…Bagging on good and bad music… Just being general menaces to society.
-Update: They made a come back…I havent’ seen any of the new episodes tho :{
You ever eaten where they work? – Burger World? Its a world wide chain… Maybe not?
No matter… Be careful where ya eat…Them dudes may be working there after all.
So lets get on to the ultimate question here..
Who is smarter? Beavis or Butthead? – My cousin asked me this question years ago when we were sitting around watching the show! It’s one of those brain teasers… Something to really ponder…. Sure there are other philosophical things to consider in the universe. – We all love a good challenge don’t we?
Hmmmmm… Let me thing about this a minute… Did i actually know anybody similar to these dudes back in Jr High? You know, people lighting farts and such. – Hmmmmm YES! I SURE DID!
Let me see….Of those guys and their crew… (of which I was a part) Which one of them was more intelligent? Which one had the higher IQ? Which one had the best ideas? ~Memories~
Who cares right? Me!
The ANSWER? According to my cuz…
Beavis is actually the smart one…. Butthead is just older
Hey… It’s all clear to me now!
by Dean | Feb 26, 2014 | General
Cover of Libeled Lady
Financial disaster is always looming, for someone—in this way the screwball rom-comLibeled Lady (1936), directed by Jack Conway, is highly relevant to early 20th century America and other Western nations. The disaster in question will hit a city newspaper threatened by a staggering lawsuit unless a jobless fixer (William Powell)—he needs the money—can smoothly deceive Myrna Loy into dropping the suit. Ah, but the hurdles arise because of a conflict between two traditional institutions. Jean Harlow demands a marriage, right now, from the paper’s managing editor, Spencer Tracy, panicky over the business. Powell, predictably, falls for Loy and refuses to see any real danger to the business. There does come to be a danger to himself, though.
Like Noel Coward’s Hay Fever, Libeled Lady is (in my opinion) not all that funny, but it hardly matters since, again like Hay Fever, its plot and characters are supremely interesting. This describes MANY of the Thirties screwballs. The movie is based on a story and adapted by three writers—how could
that many heads ruin it?—and its actors have no trouble with comedy or farce (albeit it’s a non-farcical role for Loy). But hold it: Loy plays a party girl!? . . . Go ahead and suspend disbelief. The only thing that will worry you slightly is the possibility of Hollywood remaking this notable confection.
by DaveStuff | Feb 24, 2014 | General, Music, Technology
The (trivial) setup in Reaper (Photo credit: Roo Reynolds)
Back in the music lab again…Recording my latest and greatest masterpiece… It is yet ‘untitled’ Maybe I’ll just keep that name for the record. Uh……..?
I must begin by saying that getting this 6 year old macbook is improving my lab tremendously. I have sought out to do some DAW recording now that it’s the computer age…But the PC hassles just seemed to be too much… I had recorded other songs.. Like one that my friend Neal wrote.
It was recorded on a PC using Reaper DAW software. It came out pretty good.
At any rate… I was having to many troubles at the time… And no energy to fight the computer issues…
I actually have video of some songs on my Youtube Chanel. . Including the one above… If your interested. I may blog about each one of them one of these days… – Whatever
All I know for sure is that those tracks can never be finished because I had the files stored on an external hard drive that was stolen by a past acquaintance. Hey… I luv them dudes and dudettes from my past… I just can’t chill that way anymore…
Why?
There’s to much life left in me… Ya know what I’m sayen?
So.. I have a 2008 Macbook… A Shure SM58…. An LP worth of electronica that I worked up with Acid years ago…And a fresh copy of licensed Reaper installed. And I’m laying down tracks… Cause Macbook and Reaper is where it’s at.
Hey…What else is there to do? I got something to say after all!
Do YOU?
Send me some files of you saying silly stuff… I put it on top of these techno tracks… Ya know? Blah blah blah…..
by Dean | Feb 23, 2014 | General, Movies
A true sense of tragedy intermittently comes through in August: Osage County (2013), the John Wells film of Tracy Letts’ play, as the troubled Oklahoma characters blow it big-time. Successfully Letts adapted it, confidently Wells directed it.
The complaint has been made that the movie contains too much Meryl Streep (as the ranting, pill-addicted Violet Weston). I’d say that considering the thoughtful, unself-conscious magnificence of Streep’s performance, she has exactly the right amount of screen time. Julia Roberts is stunningly impeccable as a candid and discontent wife and mother, while Margo Martindale is very good at making Violet’s sister complex.
Chris Cooper delights with common-man qualities, but the British actor Benedict Cumberbatch, for all his effort, is not meant for the role he was given. Julianne Nicholson and Juliette Lewis are engaging enough that we miss them after they drop out of the film. (I do, anyway.)
Wells’s movie was made a lot closer to where I live, which is OK’s Tulsa County, than other movies are. It’s a funny-bleak work not without faults, but whose acting means a lot and is not to be underrated.
