FilmFanatic.org

Synopsis:
A hot new director (Donald Sutherland) struggles to find material for his second film.

Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors:

• Donald Sutherland Films
• Ellen Burstyn Films
• Hollywood
• Mid-Life Crisis
• Movie Directors
• Paul Mazursky Films

Review:
Paul Mazursky’s second movie — like his later Willie and Phil (1980) — is a shameless homage to the European filmmakers and stars he so idolizes. After the enormous success of his debut film (Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice), Mazursky chose to make a movie — a la Fellini’s 8 1/2 — about the creative process itself, and how a director’s quest for “true”, “meaningful” art is mediated by countless other influences (including pushy Hollywood moguls, monetary concerns, family, and all-around self-doubt). While it contains a few moments of hilarity and truth, however, Alex suffers from an enormous, insurmountable problem: these are not people one wants to spend time watching. Alex himself is annoyingly self-absorbed, and, with the exception of his wife and daughters, he’s surrounded by shallow, self-serving types. I was glad to see this autobiographical vanity project come to an end.

Redeeming Qualities and Moments:

• A hilarious scene in which a Hollywood producer (Mazursky) propositions Alex with various inane movie ideas
  
• Ellen Burstyn as Alex’s supportive yet frustrated wife
  

Must See?
No. Peary lists this in the back of his book as a Cult Movie, but I don’t think it’s essential viewing for film fanatics.

Links:

• IMDb entry
• Roger Ebert’s Review
• NY Times Original Review
• Time Out Capsule Review

Synopsis:
A female miner (Lisa Eichhorn) deals with chauvinism and lay-offs while falling tentatively in love with her co-worker (Tom Bower).

• Feminism and Women’s Issues
• Mining Towns
• Romance
• Unemployment
• Workplace Drama

Review:
Writer/director John Hanson’s independent film about life in a northern mining town is nothing if not sincere, and tackles its serious subjects — blue collar work security, male chauvinism, and spousal abuse — with sensitivity. It’s refreshing to see an entire world so authentically portrayed; these people (including the leads) look like they belong in their setting. Unfortunately, the film’s documentary-like pacing doesn’t always jive with its dramatic arc, and certain crucial tensions are resolved far too neatly; however, there are enough scenes that work — including those depicting the sweetly unfolding romance between Bower and Eichhorn — to recommend this film for a single viewing.

Note: Wildrose bears many similarities to independent filmmaker Victor Nunez’s Ruby in Paradise (1993): both deal with blue-collar females struggling to maintain financial autonomy while making healthy choices about work and love.

Redeeming Qualities and Moments:

• Craggy-faced Tom Bower as June’s co-worker and lover
• Many authentic scenes of blue-collar American life

Must See?
No, but it’s worth checking out once.

Links:

• IMDb entry
• NY Times Original Review

Synopsis:
In the 1970s, two friends (Michael Ontkean and Ray Sharkey) fall in love with the same woman (Margot Kidder) while exploring alternate lifestyles.

Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors:

• Friendship
• Love Triangle
• Margot Kidder Films
• Paul Mazursky Films
• Romantic Comedy

Review:
Paul Mazursky’s disappointing homage to Jules et Jim (1962) falls flat on every count. We never care for these three characters, nor do we particularly understand why they become friends and then lovers. As Pauline Kael writes, “Jeannette doesn’t live up to what Willie and Phil say about her, and they don’t live up to what the narrator… says about them.” Indeed, Mazursky’s annoying voiceover merely distances us further from these two-dimensional folks. Finally, the trio’s experiments with acid, free love, living off the land, and spirituality may have been a fun trip down memory road when the film was released in 1980, but have been portrayed countless times since then, and offer nothing new to our understanding of the ’70s.

Redeeming Qualities and Moments:

• A sometimes clever overview of 1970s “lifestyle” choices and spiritual searches (but done much better in many other films)
  

Must See?
No. This homage to Jules et Jim is a major disappointment.

Links:

• IMDb entry
• NY Times Original Review
• Time Out Capsule Review
• Roger Ebert’s Review

Synopsis:
A wounded cop-killer (Richard Conte) escapes from a prison hospital in order to protect his innocent girlfriend (Debra Paget) from an unscrupulous lawyer (Berry Kroeger) — but Lieutenant Candella (Victor Mature) is on his trail.

Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors:

• Cat-and-Mouse
• Debra Paget Films
• Fugitives
• New York City
• Richard Conte Films
• Robert Siodmak Films
• Victor Mature Films

Review:
Cry of the City starts out like a classic flashback film: a wounded criminal is badgered by the police and a shady lawyer to admit his guilt in a heist he claims he wasn’t part of, and we duly expect to hear him tell his version of the story. Instead, our expectations are foiled, as Cry of the City takes us places we never expected to go, and unusual characters — a hefty female masseuse, an unlicensed European doctor, a teenager who speaks Italian to foil the police — are introduced one after the other. The action never stops, and characters’ motivations are complex enough to make us care about the outcome. This film’s rather generic title belies a tightly-made noir thriller, one which epitomizes director Robert Siodmak’s best work.

Redeeming Qualities and Moments:

• Richard Conte as the determined fugitive
  
• Fine performances by supporting cast members — especially Hope Emerson
  
• A gritty, smart screenplay
  

Must See?
No, but it’s a terrific thriller, and well worth watching at least once.

Links:

• IMDb entry
• NY Times Original Review
• Time Out Capsule Review

Synopsis:
A teenage pusher (Scott Marlowe) straight out of reform school gets his friends hooked on marijuana, with disastrous results.

Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors:

• Drug Dealers
• Juvenile Delinquents
• Teenagers

Review:
This laughable juvenile delinquent flick — Reefer Madness for the ’50s crowd — perpetuates the myth that marijuana (“M”) is instantly addictive, and will immediately reduce its users to a life of crime. Like the similarly themed High School Confidential (released the same year), The Cool and the Crazy centers on a “new kid” in high school who turns out to be a negative influence on his classmates — but at least … Confidential had the guts to make its drug of choice heroin (a truly scary and addictive substance). The one redeeming feature of Cool and Crazy is the lead performance by Scott Marlowe (who would later star in 1961’s A Cold Wind in August). His movie career didn’t really go anywhere, but this role showcased his potential for becoming a latter-day Jimmy Dean.

Redeeming Qualities and Moments:

• Scott Marlowe’s edgy performance as the young pusher
  

Must See?
No. While inexplicably listed in the back of Peary’s book as a Sleeper, a Camp Classic, and a Personal Recommendation, it’s not must-see viewing.

Links:

• IMDb entry
• TV Guide Capsule Review

Synopsis:
A photographer (Nancy Snyder) investigates the mysterious death of her plant-loving sister (Nancy Boykin).

Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors:

• Amateur Sleuths
• Killer Plants
• Lawrence Tierney Films
• Murder Mystery
• Photographers
• Supernatural Powers

Review:
In 1968, Clyde Baxter published an article called “Evidence of a Primary Perception in Plant Life”, claiming that when he hooked a plant up to a polygraph machine, the plant reacted to thoughts and threats. It’s an intriguing idea — after all, plants are alive, so isn’t it possible that we’re underestimating their potential for sentience? — but Baxter’s “experiment” has since been roundly debunked. Back in the day, however, the “secret life of plants” was apparently ripe with dramatic possibility — and, combined with the equally new-agey concepts of Kirlian photography, auras, and psychic transmission, formed the basis of this minor cult flick by independent writer/director Jonathan Sarno.

The Kirlian Witness (also known as The Plants Are Watching) was marketed as a horror film upon its release — indeed, my local video store inexplicably continues to file it in the horror section under “When Plants Attack” (!?) — but, as pointed out by Shane Burridge in his review, it’s actually more of a crime thriller than a horror flick, with amateur sleuth Nancy Snyder attempting to find out the identity of the killer while placing her own life in danger. As such, it’s a reasonably well-done, albeit unevenly paced, independent feature — and though there are only two primary suspects, Sarno manages to pull a nifty plot twist at the end. Nonetheless, all the nonsense about psychic plants and auras ruined my overall enjoyment of the film, and ultimately elicited more groans than chills.

Redeeming Qualities and Moments:

• An unusual premise for a murder mystery
  

Must See?
No. Though it developed a small cult during the time of its release, I don’t think this curio remains must-see viewing today.

Links:

• IMDb entry
• NY Times Original Review

Synopsis:
An African-American (Harry Belafonte) and a white man (Mel Ferrer) vie for the affections of a young woman (Ingrid Stevens) in post-apocalyptic New York.

Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors:

• Harry Belafonte Films
• Love Triangle
• Mel Ferrer Films
• Nuclear Holocaust
• Post-Apocalypse
• Race Relations and Racism
• Science Fiction
• Survival

Review:
This unusual post-apocalyptic flick — unfairly maligned by many critics — is both engaging and provocative. While it starts out as a fairly standard tale about “the last man on earth”, about halfway through it veers off course to explore a much more intimate concern: what would happen to societal norms and prejudices if all the rules suddenly changed? Would we hold on to our prior conceptions about race, class, gender, and sexuality, or allow ourselves to move beyond these narrow constraints? Made during an era when anti-miscegenation laws were still in effect in many southern states, this film boldly explores these very issues, and while the story’s outcome may be too pat, the scenes leading up to it hold true tension and pathos.

Several reviewers have argued that Mel Ferrer’s appearance disrupts the flow of the movie, but I disagree.

His character is an essential narrative catalyst — the one-dimensional “devil” of the movie’s title — and his presence is meant simply to provoke a final confrontation between the film’s primary protagonists (Belafonte and Stevens). It is their mental processes — conflicted, nuanced, and very real — which hold our interest.

While Stevens does a fine job, however, Belafonte truly steals the show: he is alone on-screen for the first 35 minutes of the movie, and more than able to hold our full attention. He amazes us with his ingenuity, moves us to empathetic tears, and demonstrates a remarkably upbeat, can-do attitude towards his situation (note his interactions with the two mannequins he brings to his apartment).

His hesitance in expressing his love for Stevens carries all the weight of a lifetime filled with prejudice — yet his decision in the final climactic moments of the movie shows that he still has hope for a better future.

Redeeming Qualities and Moments:

• Harry Belafonte as one of the last men left alive on Earth
  
• Belafonte listening to a tape of the final newscast ever made
  
• Desperately lonely Belafonte playing with his own shadow
  
• Dramatic imagery of empty New York streets
  
• A provocative exploration of race relations in a post-apocalyptic world
  

Must See?
Yes. This early post-apocalyptic film is both brave and unique.

Categories

• Historically Relevant
• Noteworthy Performance(s)

Links:

• IMDb entry
• NY Times Original Review
• DVD Savant Review

Synopsis:
A sexy gold digger (Beverly Michaels) marries a naive widower (Hugo Haas) for his pension money.

Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors:

• Cuckolds
• Deafness
• Femmes Fatales
• Gold Diggers
• Hugo Haas Films
• Love Triangle

Review:
In his first independently produced American film, Czechoslovakian director Hugo Haas took a fairly standard tale of greed and cuckoldry and turned it into a tawdry, low-budget B-classic. He’s aided in no small part by sexy Beverly Michaels’ performance: while she’s no great actress, her droll sneers and deadpan delivery are perfect here; she never overplays her scenes, instead allowing an air of false insouciance to envelope her every move. Only during a critical moment towards the end of the film — when she must give up control and rely on someone else to carry out her wishes — does she reveal that her nerves may be made of less than steel; watching her fumble to light a cigarette, one realizes just how calm she’s been until then. Haas’s screenplay is overly predictable (particularly the love triangle aspect), and his cuckolded character is too naive to be believed; but the film is redeemed by plenty of zingy dialogue, some creative plot twists (including Haas’s sudden deafness), and Michaels’ sultry allure. Definitely a worthy B-flick.

Redeeming Qualities and Moments:

• Beverly Michaels as the conniving femme fatale
  
• Michaels mugging to her friend as she randomly picks up the clueless Haas at a diner
  
• Good use of psychosomatic deafness as a plot device
  
• Effectively gritty locales
  

Must See?
Yes. This enjoyably pulpy flick epitomizes Hugo Haas’s B-level sensibility.

Categories

• Important Director

Links:

• IMDb entry
• NY Times Original Review

Synopsis:
Animal-loving Zani (Gene Raymond) convinces 18-year-old Eve (Loretta Young) to run away from her orphanage and live with him at the zoo. Meanwhile, he’s wanted by the police for stealing a wealthy patron’s fox stole, and a young boy (Wally Albright) visiting the zoo escapes from his governess. When a search team sets out to look for the three missing folks, chaos ensues as animals are accidentally let loose from their cages.

Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors:

• Escape
• Fugitives
• Loretta Young Films
• Romance

Review:
This odd curio by director Rowland V. Lee is simultaneously a romantic fairy tale, a rousing adventure story, and a metaphorical reflection on the nature of freedom and individuality. Comparisons between human animals and other animals are frequent and explicit: like the caged creatures at the zoo, Eve (played with lovely simplicity by doe-eyed Loretta Young) is confined by the strict mandates of her orphanage; Zani (who falls in love/lust with Eve based on appearance alone) openly compares her timidity to that of a deer; Zani nimbly leaps over fences like a chimpanzee; when Eve and Zani rest together in the grasses at night, the camera cuts to shots of various animals doing so as well; and when the couple attempts their final escape, so do the animals.

Beyond this, however, it’s difficult to know exactly what message is being put forth by Lee, as the metaphors gradually fall apart. While it’s clearly not a good thing for the wild animals to be let loose out of their cages — unconfined, they will tear each other apart — we’re nonetheless meant to root for Eve and Zani’s escape. Perhaps the message is simply one of accepting all parts of our human nature, both “animal” and rational, while acknowledging the inevitable differences between species. Whatever its cryptic morality, Zoo in Budapest remains oddly compelling viewing, and will likely stay in your mind long after you’ve finished watching it.

Note: Unfortunately, given that the American Humane Association has only been monitoring animals on movie sets since 1940, there’s no guarantee that these majestic animals were protected during the making of the film — a fact which greatly impeded my enjoyment of the otherwise impressive final scenes.

Redeeming Qualities and Moments:

• Luminous Loretta Young, whose presence literally lights up the screen
  
• The sweet romance between Young and Raymond
  
• Stunning cinematography by Lee Garmes
  
• Gorgeous shots of various exotic birds and mammals around the zoo
  
• Some truly astonishing action sequences near the end of the film
  

Must See?
Yes. This unusual film has developed a small cult following over the years, and should be seen by all film fanatics. Listed as both a Sleeper and a Personal Recommendation in the back of Peary’s book.

Categories

• Cult Movie

Links:

• IMDb entry
• NY Times Original Review
• Time Out Capsule Review

Synopsis:
A museum employee (Eleanor Parker) suffering from recurring headaches is hypnotized by a psychologist (Richard Boone), who discovers that she has three distinct personalities: meek Elizabeth, tawdry Lizzie, and contented Beth.

Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors:

• Eleanor Parker Films
• Hugo Haas Films
• Joan Blondell Films
• Joanne Woodward Films
• Multiple Personalities
• Psychological Horror
• Thrillers

Review:
Released the same year as The Three Faces of Eve (starring Oscar-winner Joanne Woodward), Hugo Haas’s Lizzie tells nearly the same story on a B-level budget, yet remains a surprisingly effective — and all-too-little seen — psychological thriller. Reviews at the time of its release, however, were tepid at best. Bosley Crowther of The New York Times, for instance, called Lizzie “a foolish and generally tedious film”; then again, he also referred to …Eve as “simply a melodramatic exercise — an exhibition of psychiatric hocus-pocus– [which, like Lizzie] leaves one feeling gypped and gulled at the end.”

These days, especially after the airing of Sybil (1976) on television, Multiple Personality Disorder (MPD) is much more widely known by the general public, and no longer quite so mysterious. Indeed, its name has changed — it’s currently referred to as Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) — and there is ongoing controversy over the veracity of its diagnosis. Nonetheless, MPD/DID remains ripe material for cinematic exploitation, given that there’s something undeniably fascinating — indeed, horrifying — about witnessing someone who is literally possessed by a “foreign” entity. While Lizzie isn’t a perfect film — things are wrapped up far too neatly in the end — it remains a compelling and scary little drama, well-worth watching at least once.

Note: Shirley Jackson — author of “The Lottery” and The Haunting of Hill House — wrote the novel upon which Lizzie is based, originally entitled The Bird’s Nest.

Redeeming Qualities and Moments:

• Eleanor Parker’s impressive performance as the psychologically fragmented young woman
  
• Joan Blondell and Hugo Haas’s neighborly banter, which adds some much-needed levity to the proceedings
  
• Nifty low-budget use of double-exposure to show both flashbacks and Elizabeth’s shattered state of mind
  

Must See?
Yes. This precursor to The Three Faces of Eve proves that a B-level budget doesn’t prevent a film from being an effective, well-acted thriller.

Categories

• Noteworthy Performance(s)

Links:

• IMDb entry
• NY Times Original Review