by Dean | Apr 29, 2019 | General
I certainly wasn’t bored by the 1936 film Rembrandt, by Alexander Korda, but I have to consider it kitsch. This is because Charles Laughton, as the great Dutch painter, draws every jot of attention to himself while the other actors are forced to be virtually nondescript. (A near-exception is Gertrude Lawrence.) And because there is too much just-so production design with bric-a-brac and windmills. It is, in fact, an unfortunate stylization. Stylization usually is at least somewhat unfortunate.
by Dean | Apr 25, 2019 | General
In William Wellman‘s Night Nurse (1931), the world of nursing can be an alarming and even dangerous one because of human nature.
Barbara Stanwyck stars as Lora Hart, a nurse hired to care for an alcoholic’s two ostensibly sick children. In truth, a lawless brute called Nick (Clark Gable) is slowly starving the children because their deaths will mean financial gain for him. It is the early Thirties, and the big city is producing small-time Al Capones and Johnny Torrios. A bootlegger (Ben Lyon) who is sexually attracted to Lora represents moral ambiguity. He is an inhumane man, but he helps Lora against Nick. All of this, and the fact that Lora seems to be taking up with the bootlegger, requires that she be a strong woman, in the way that her somewhat cynical friend (Joan Blondell) is strong. And she is.
Based on a novel by Grace Perkins, Night Nurse is blunt and engrossing, more consequential than Wellman’s The Public Enemy. Even David Thomson, who has been unfair to Wellman, has praised it.
by Dean | Apr 24, 2019 | General
What is The Confessions of X (2016), a novel by Suzanne M. Wolfe, about? Its narrative is about the concubine, unnamed, of St. Augustine before he became a Christian. Thematically it is about the unbreakable tie between former lovers who have lived without any other lover (or spouse). It is about unexpected conversion and sudden change (a minor example: a saved woman, Perpetua, becomes like a sister to “X” after initially snapping at her for her concubinage). It is about love.
The book is almost always finely, astutely written, even if the characterization lacks admirable depth. Also, I found certain parts of it a bit of a slog, and yet Wolfe’s details are very often memorable. If The Confessions of X is a Christian novel—it was published by Thomas Nelson, and Wolfe possesses a Christian sensibility—it’s probably the best Christian novel of 2016. It’s not the kind of book that comes out frequently.
by Dean | Apr 22, 2019 | General
I liked the acting of Stella Stevens in the 1968 film, How to Save a Marriage (And Ruin Your Life), but not in the highly commercial 1966 spy adventure, The Silencers. (Dean Martin’ s acting doesn’t pass muster either.) But she is there, and there is actually much to comment on. Stevens has a sophisticated face which can look very vulnerable, and her voice when raised grabs your attention. She has a dandy figure, priceless hair and beautiful breasts. Moreover, she and the other actors look good in Moss Mabrey’s striking costumes. Also co-starring in the movie is Daliah Levi, histrionically dull but certifiably comely.
The Silencers presents Dino as a plebeian American James Bond. It was made at a time when every element of an entertainment film, not just the action scenes, was meant to entertain. Robust but also crass, the pic’s problem is not (covered) female hooters; it’s sexual hedonism.
by Dean | Apr 20, 2019 | General
Over a hundred years old now, the silent Tarzan of the Apes (1918) is entrancing. It opens as it should: with frightening shots of such African creatures as lions, snakes and crocodiles. Tarzan is not intimidated, which is good. Enemies keep popping up, and this includes Arab slave traders. Gee, I thought only white Americans used to enslave people.
Tarzan offers consistent black-and-white naturalism and is sometimes quite unpleasant, as when Tarzan the boy (Gordon Griffith) discovers the skeletons of his dead parents in a hut. Only an hour-long copy of the film is available. Long ago it was heavily cut by the censors, for part of the naturalism consists of Tarzan as a naked boy, and exposure of his penis had to be severely limited.
by Dean | Apr 17, 2019 | General
Stand-In (1937) is one of the funnier comic flicks of the Thirties. How many of its one-liners were invented by Clarence Budington Kelland, who wrote the novel, and how many came from the movie’s two screenwriter-adapters I don’t know.
What I do know is how smart and penetrating Leslie Howard is in the role of a film company head—and expert in mathematics—who unthinkingly dehumanizes the workers in his financially weakening business. In truth he’s a decent guy, though, and Joan Blondell is charmingly fine as the woman who knows it and who tries to win his love. She’s the stand-in actress for an untalented star, Cheri (Marla Shelton), while Cheri is the unknowing romantic stand-in (of sorts) for Blondell—with respect to Howard.
The story should be neater than it is, but it’s agreeable, just like the cast. Tay Garnett directed tastefully, never insisting on broad comic acting. This film is better than his Love is News (reviewed earlier) because here both slapstick and one-liners are funny, whereas in the latter film virtually only the slapstick is. I managed to see Stand-In on YouTube.
by Dean | Apr 12, 2019 | General
The 1938 Algiers contains themes—the criminal as captive (without being in prison), the destruction of human ties, ultimate loss. But it doesn’t have originality, for the film is an American remake of the French Pepe le Moko, which I’ve never seen. Pepe is a jewel thief hidden away in unfamiliar Algiers and, original or not, his story is indubitably interesting. So is the dialogue, of which there is a lot, but not at the expense of action.
This is Hedy Lamarr‘s first U.S. picture; she’s the woman Pepe falls for (not Sigrid Gurie). Her acting, however, is undistinguished, unlike that of Charles Boyer as the jewel thief. John Cromwell‘s direction can be curious and canny. . . Yep, it’s a remake, but Algiers, filmed in Algiers, is supremely worth seeing.
by Dean | Apr 10, 2019 | General
On Spike Jonze’s Her (2013):
Wherein Joaquin Phoenix falls in love with a computerized operating system with a female voice. . . The near-future technology in this seriocomic film can be fascinating, the best thing about it, but what is not fascinating at all is the way contemporary movies like this seem to be obsessed with sex. Sex is not the subject of Her, so why the obsession?
What makes it worse is that Jonze leaves the impression that he understands very little about relationships between men and women. The one between the Amy Adams character and her husband is pretty wispy, vacuous, as is the one between Phoenix and his soon-to-be ex-wife (Rooney Mara).
What could have been a ringer of a film is a somewhat distasteful and even mildly boring “art” product. Jonze has it in him to make a superior product, better art. Maybe next time.
by Dean | Apr 8, 2019 | General
I saw the Howard Hawks film, Ceiling Zero (1936)—or let me say I saw a particular print of it—on YouTube. It was the best I could do since the pic was never released on DVD.
Director Hawks did even better with airline workers in Zero than he did, years later, with cowboys in Red River. He organizes his scenes of active crews admirably, although this is in truth scriptwriter Frank Wead‘s show, for he adapted his own play.
Aviation technology of the Thirties is (to me) fascinating, and here we get that as well as a surprising amount of aircraft destruction. And death. There is no happy ending. Still, I was happy to be seeing the forgotten Ceiling Zero.
by Dean | Apr 5, 2019 | General
Mary Gordon is a notable American author, and a Catholic. From The Stories of Mary Gordon (2013), there is “Death in Naples,” a 19-page piece wherein an elderly widow, Lorna, visits Italy with her son and daughter-in-law.
The daughter-in-law is a difficult complainer who suddenly has to leave the Continental country without appreciating any of its splendors. The son goes with her, and Lorna is left alone. There is something catalyzed by this: Lorna sees the inadequacy and absurdity of life. Among the many details about her that Gordon provides is that “She was not a religious woman,” and to be sure Lorna does not understand how spirituality, or a spiritual life, is to be had. A certain uplift, however, occurs at the story’s conclusion.
A luminous story it is, and “The Deacon” is also very worthy. Here, a nun called Joan finds it impossible to Christianly love Gerard, an unsuitable deacon. He tried to become a priest but “couldn’t cut it at the sem,” although at St. Timothy’s School, where Joan is the principal, he fails to cut it as a teacher as well. The nun’s weakness regarding love is no worse than the weaknesses of other Christians at the school, and inevitably she must attempt to work her way around it. She settles for what she is capable of, spiritually. It’s the kind of subject Mary Gordon faces head-on.
