My comments on Peary’s reviews in Guide for the Film Fanatic (Simon & Schuster, 1986).
“Go to your father, Boy — and later on, he’ll teach you all the things you’ll ever need to know in the jungle.”
|
Synopsis: |
|
Genres:
Response to Peary’s Review:
Hunter and Inescort are appropriately smarmy as the dubious relatives clearly on the take for money, not the privilege of parenting Boy.
Redeeming Qualities and Moments:
Must See? Links: |
“Out here, Tarzan’s a king. How do I know what he’d be back there?”
|
Synopsis: |
|
Genres:
Response to Peary’s Review: Redeeming Qualities and Moments:
Must See? Links: |
“I never dreamed that there was anyone on this earth like you — anyone.”
|
Synopsis: |
|
Genres:
Response to Peary’s Review: Redeeming Qualities and Moments:
Must See? Links: |
“If the whole fraternity system is guilty, then isn’t this an indictment of our educational institutions in general?”
|
Synopsis: |
|
Genres:
Response to Peary’s Review: Note: Watch for Donald Sutherland in a small role as a hip, grass-smoking professor, and Kevin Bacon in his debut role as new pledge “Chip Diller”. Redeeming Qualities and Moments:
Must See? Categories Links: |
“You’re in a house of desperate women here — and a long, long way from home.”
|
Synopsis: |
|
Genres:
Response to Peary’s Review: Peary adds that “Demme did away with the disproportionate use of white and black characters which typically has only one black in a lead role, and the objectionable emphasis on female breasts”, instead often “deglamoriz[ing] the women, showing them on the toilet and looking ill, or with food in their mouths, or even dressed up like baggy-pants male comics, mustache and all.” He writes that the “film has great pacing and [an] exciting escape finale”, as well as a “well chosen” cast — including Barbara “Steele, in a part Demme wrote with her in mind” performing “the strongest role of her strange career”; “beautiful and talented sexploitation vet Roberta Collins do[ing] some comedy; Gavin, whose eyes grow tougher as the film progresses, and adorable Rainbeaux Smith handl[ing] non-dialogue moments especially well; and [Juanita] Brown and Ella Reid exhibit[ing] command and confidence.” Peary elaborates upon all these ideas in his first Cult Movies book, where he notes:
With all that said, Peary adds he “doesn’t want to give the impression that the style or content of Caged Heat is not singular to Demme”, given that overall it’s “like few other films.” I agree with Peary’s overall positive assessment. Caged Heat — while most certainly a women-in-prison exploitation film — is surprisingly intelligent, well-acted, creatively shot, and exciting. It’s held up well, and remains worth a look as a justified cult favorite. Redeeming Qualities and Moments:
Must See? Categories Links: |
“Look at me — I’m going to pieces! I can’t even work anymore.”
|
Synopsis: |
|
Genres:
Response to Peary’s Review:
This cult flick about family madness and sexually confused killers is most certainly not for all tastes, but will be of interest to fans of Bartel’s work. Redeeming Qualities and Moments:
Must See? Links: |
“You go out there and the music starts, and you begin to feel it, and your body just starts to move.”
|
Synopsis: |
|
Genres:
Response to Peary’s Review: Redeeming Qualities and Moments:
Must See? Links: |
“You’re a preppy millionaire, and I’m a social zero.”
|
Synopsis: |
|
Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors:
Response to Peary’s Review: Peary’s review is spot-on, leaving little to add. These characters are good-looking but shallow and unappealing. O’Neal’s rocky relationship with his father (Milland, trying his best with limited material) feels petulant rather than righteous, and O’Neal’s bond with her salt-of-the-earth father (Oscar-nominated John Marley) isn’t explored in any depth. MacGraw’s all-in-fun name-calling (“preppy”) and both characters’ profanity-laced “verbal volleyball” (“Listen, you conceited Radcliffe bitch…”; “Look, it’s not an official goddamned threshold.”) was considered shocking at the time, but now is simply tiresome to listen to. MacGraw’s unnamed illness (referred to as leukemia in the source-novel) leaves her looking infamously hearty, hale, and lovely till the very end. The film’s famous line — “Love means never having to say you’re sorry” — is both incorrect and inane. In his review, Peary neglects to mention Francis Lai’s uber-famous title song, which is lovely but overused to such an extent that it begins to feel manipulative. Redeeming Qualities and Moments:
Must See? Links: |
“You’re a clever little man, little master of the universe — but mortals are weak and frail.”
|
Synopsis: |
|
Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors:
Response to Peary’s Review: Peary doesn’t spend much time in his GFTFF discussing the film’s production design or history, but he goes into much greater detail in Cult Movies 3, where he expresses admiration that this film (helmed by no less than six directors) was completed at all, given Britain’s emergent involvement in WWII. But he also complains more about its weak points, writing, “I assume the critics who were so generous to the film judged it mostly on its appeal to kids. You can forgive its flaws, but it’s impossible to deny their existence.” I don’t really feel the same way. Sure, the special effects are at times clunky compared to modern-day CGI, but this is to be expected — and the overall magical feel surpasses any visual glitches. Regarding the film’s narrative structure — Peary argues it “opens clumsily” and “barely recovers from this awkward beginning” — I think it serves the nature of this material well: One Thousand and One Nights was infamously told as a series of interwoven tales that wouldn’t necessarily proceed in linear fashion. Ultimately, though, it’s the special effects sequences from this movie which linger in one’s memory: Ingram rising as a swirl of gray smoke from his bottle (what a clever initial trick Sabu plays on him!); Malleson attempting to embrace a many-armed “Silver Maid” statue; Sabu fearlessly doing battle with a giant spider; Sabu flying to the rescue on a magic carpet… This is a tale for the ages, and most certainly must-see viewing at least once for all film fanatics. Redeeming Qualities and Moments:
Must See? Categories Links: |
“Whatever I photograph, I always lose.”
|
Synopsis: |
|
Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors:
Response to Peary’s Review: Hold it right there: I most definitely do NOT enjoy seeing such things on screen, and while I know many do, it’s sloppy to lump together all movie lovers (indeed, all humans) in this fashion. Peary adds that “if the voyeur is guilty of violating one’s privacy, then Powell sees the filmmaker as being guilty of aggressive acts not unlike rape (where you steal a moment in time, and a person’s emotions, that the person can never have back).” I’m ultimately more in agreement with Vincent Canby’s 1979 review of the re-released film (restored by Martin Scorsese), in which he states:
Indeed, filming someone is not rape, and watching filmed images does not equate taking away anything from the person on screen, especially not in a violent fashion. Back to Peary’s review (excerpted from his lengthier essay in Cult Movies), he points out that “the villain of the picture is not Boehm but Boehm’s dead scientist father (played by Powell in a flashback) who used his young son as a guinea pig, terrifying him and filming him to study the effects of fear on the boy’s nervous system.” (Ick; the fact that this is openly put forth in a film from this era is remarkable.) Peary reasons that Boehm “figures that since his scientist-filmmaker father in effect ‘murdered’ him, his guinea pig, then he, also a filmmaker-scientist, has a right to kill human beings when continuing Dad’s experiments.” This psychoanalytical explanation makes as much sense as any other; what’s indisputable, however, is how badly damaged Boehm is — which leads one to wonder why all the women around him (other than blind Audley) aren’t better at picking up on the rather obvious creepiness he projects from every pore. He lacks even Norman Bates’ attempts at charm and wit, and one can’t help feeling like the women he’s imperiling (specifically Massey) are out of their minds for hanging out with him. Redeeming Qualities and Moments:
Must See? Categories
Links: |
