Stray Dog (1949)
“Bad luck can either make a man or destroy him.”
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Review: Redeeming Qualities and Moments:
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Black Christmas/Silent Night, Evil Night/Stranger in the House (1974)
“Could that really be just one person?”
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— is now widely acknowledged as the forerunner of such iconic slasher films as John Carpenter’s Halloween (1978). Indeed, though it may seem filled with cliches of the genre (i.e., the killer calling from within the house, point-of-view camera work from the killer’s perspective):
.. it was seminal in bringing such tropes to the screen. Certain subplots and performances fall completely flat — I could do without Marian Waldman’s irritating portrayal as the girls’ imbibing house mother, for instance:
— but there are more than enough thrills and surprises here to scare the pants off most viewers (including me). As Peary notes, the “twist ending is a bit frustrating”, but Clark does a nice job keeping us on our toes as to the identity of the “insane murderer”. Be forewarned that the killer’s phone calls (remastered after filming to add even more obscenity) really are disturbing. Note: In the years since Peary’s book was published, this film has become a true cult classic for horror fans, even meriting a fan website at one point. Redeeming Qualities and Moments:
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Spellbound (1945)
“I couldn’t feel this way towards a man who was bad.”
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Review: Redeeming Qualities and Moments:
Must See? (Listed in 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die) Links: |
Man With a Movie Camera, The (1929)
“This experimental work aims at creating a truly international absolute language of cinema based on its total separation from the language of theater and literature.”
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Review: Without any meta-narrative or voiceover, Vertov shows us strategically “representative” snippets of urban Soviet life, from morning to night, inside and out. We see couples getting married and divorced, factory employees hard at work, teeming crowds on streets, trains coming and going, athletes showing off their prowess — even an actual birth in graphic detail (though it comes and goes too quickly for us to feel anything other than basic recognition). Naturally, all these events didn’t actually take place in just one day, or even in one city — in truth, it took Vertov and his team over four years to gather the extensive footage across Moscow, Kiev, and Odessa. Meanwhile, Vertov frequently cuts away either to the editing room (where the footage is being manipulated), or to a movie theater, where viewers are watching the scenes unfold — thus reminding us continuously about the highly constructed nature of his narrative. It all makes for an invaluable, multifaceted snapshot of an era and a society, while simultaneously providing an audaciously radical commentary on the very nature of cinematic representation. Redeeming Qualities and Moments:
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(Listed in 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die) Links: |
Roman Holiday (1953)
“She’s fair game, Joe. It’s always open season on princesses.”
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Review: Such quibbles must ultimately be left aside, however, given that Hepburn is so luminous and appealing it’s difficult to turn our eyes away from her. (No wonder a generation of young woman wanted to BE her!) From the moment we first see her Princess Ann waiting to greet an endless line of well-wishers, trying to get more comfortable by discretely slipping a foot out of its high-heeled slipper, she can’t help winning our hearts — therefore, we’re genuinely thrilled for her as she explores the streets of Rome, experiencing such simple pleasures as getting a short haircut, eating an ice cream cone on the Spanish Steps, and being “offered” a bouquet of flowers by a vendor. While Hepburn’s the undeniable star here, Peck is nicely cast as the journalist who can’t help falling for his “subject”, and Eddie Albert is excellent as his photographer buddy. Meanwhile, the streets and sites of Rome are a spectacle unto themselves, making this film a bit of a “Roman holiday” for viewers as well. Note: As pointed out by DVD Savant, the story is surprisingly free of any kind of an overt social “message”, given that it was scripted by blacklisted Dalton Trumbo (whose ghostwriter, Ian McClellan Hunter, won an Oscar on his behalf). Redeeming Qualities and Moments:
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(Listed in 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die) Links: |
F for Fake (1973)
“Don’t be spooked by the experts.”
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Welles uses the fortuitous revelation of Irving’s fraudulent book about Howard Hughes (nicely told, btw, in the 2006 film The Hoax, starring Richard Gere as Irving) as an excuse to blast the notion of artistic “truth” completely out of the water. It’s no surprise Welles was fascinated by this material: a notorious trickster himself, he staged the most infamous hoax in American history back in 1938 by broadcasting H.G. Wells’ “War of the Worlds” over the radio as though a Martian invasion was really occurring (an event he alludes to in the film). Welles bookends his movie with a cinematic lust paean to his lover and final companion in life, Oja Kodar — first by showing clips from what may or may not be an authentic “Candid Camera”-like attempt to document men’s ogling reactions to Kodar as she sashays down the street in a form-fitting dress:
… and later by telling a just-so story about an encounter between Kodar’s grandfather (presumably an infamous Hungarian art forger in his own right) and a teed off Pablo Picasso. By the end of Welles’ trickily edited film, he has successfully convinced us that there may very well be no such thing as “truth” when it comes to storytelling — and that we should be duly forewarned. Knowing ex post facto that the footage Welles used of de Hory and Irving wasn’t his own (he “borrowed” it from the French filmmaker Francois Reichenbach) simply adds one more delicious dimension to this mind-bending cinematic essay. Redeeming Qualities and Moments:
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(Listed in 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die) Links: |
Devil Doll, The (1936)
“We’ll make the whole world SMALL!”
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Peary also neglects to mention in his review how effective Barrymore is in the plum central role, as a righteously vengeful fugitive who spends most of his screen time in convincing cross-dress as “Madame Manderlip”; to that end, the make-up department on the film set deserves special mention as well.
Also memorable (if a tad one-note in her performance) is “crazed” Ottiano, with a wild streak of white running through her hair, reminiscent of Elsa Lanchester’s iconic “bride of Frankenstein”. Her presence here is refreshing simply as one of cinema’s few female “mad scientists” — and her obsession with making all living creatures tiny borders on ludicrously campy, allowing for a surprising twist of tension in the final act of the film.
While the narrative gets bogged down occasionally by a sappy, Stella Dallas-esque backstory involving Barrymore’s attempts to befriend his estranged adult daughter (Maureen O’Sullivan):
…there are enough surreal, chilling elements throughout this memorable film to make it a minor cult classic. Film fanatics should take note that several of the story’s central elements are evident in both Browning and von Stroheim’s earlier efforts: Browning’s The Unholy Three (1925) featured Lon Chaney in drag as a wily old woman, for instance, while von Stroheim’s The Great Gabbo (1929) dealt with a human-like ventriloquist’s doll. Redeeming Qualities and Moments:
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Svengali (1931)
“You are beautiful, my manufactured love.”
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Rashomon (1950)
“It’s human to lie. Most of the time we can’t even be honest with ourselves.”
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Response to Peary’s Review: I disagree with Peary on nearly all the above points. The film’s central premise — that truth is subjective enough that we all approach the telling of a tale with our unique biases and subconscious desires firmly in play — is universal, and so masterfully portrayed by Kurosawa that it serves as an enduring primer for how to relate such a story in cinematic terms. To that end, Peary does concede that “it shouldn’t be forgotten that Kurosawa broke the rules of cinema storytelling”; along with many other critics (see links below), he notes that “it is less important that any four people will tell four different versions of a story than that any filmmaker is capable of taking a story and visualizing it in an infinite number of equally persuasive, audience-manipulative ways”. With regards to the film’s “bookends”, they come across as simply a convenient and effective narrative device; and the inclusion of “Bolero” (actually, a variation thereof) in the soundtrack doesn’t strike me as particularly jarring. Finally, in terms of the film’s central performances, I’m actually less a fan of Mifune’s primal bandit (as noted in Time Out London’s review, he “veers on the hammy side of earthy”) than I am of both Kyo as the samurai’s wife (watch how her expressions and overall demeanor shift from vignette to vignette), and Mori as the samurai himself (though he’s not given much to do, he effectively projects an unnerving, steely reserve). Even more memorable than the actors, however, are Kurosawa’s stunning, haunting visuals — as usual, every frame of his story is composed with craft and care. Redeeming Qualities and Moments:
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(Listed in 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die) Links: |
Gilda (1946)
“You do hate me, don’t you, Johnny?”
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he complains that the film as a whole is “overlong, silly, and confusing”. Watching it again recently, however, I found myself surprisingly absorbed in its tale of a vitriolic “love-hate” relationship between a couple so clearly meant for one another (if only they could get over whatever it is that keeps them clawing at one another’s throats).
The aspects of the script focusing on Macready’s shady wartime dealings as the head of an international tungsten cartel (!) are a tad incomprehensible and meandering (Joseph Calleia’s detective lurks around the perimeter of the set without much to do), but are ultimately inconsequential, and fortunately don’t distract much at all from the central conflict: the tension-filled menage a trois between Macready, Ford, and Hayworth.
I disagree as well with Peary’s assessment of Macready as “good and sinister” but “not strong enough for such a pivotal role” — it’s exactly his creepy but understated presence that gives his relationship with Ford’s Johnny such an unusual edge:
(Why exactly did he “pick up” Johnny to begin with, off the streets of Bueno Aires?)
I agree with Peary, however, that Ford “gives an uninteresting performance as an unlikable heel-hero” — actually, his performance here is not so much “uninteresting” as it is unconvincing (though the fault is less with Ford than with the studio heads for miscasting him in the first place).
He simply doesn’t have the requisite allure or good looks to be credible as a man that a goddess — er, woman — like Gilda would get herself so hung up over. On that note, the script teasingly neglects to fill us in on the little detail of what exactly tore Gilda and Johnny apart to begin with. Quibbles aside, however, there’s enough to the film — including director Charles Vidor’s more-than-serviceable direction, Rudolph Mate’s noir-inflected cinematography:
… Rita’s inimitable presence, and lots of zingy dialogue — to make it a must-see classic at least once for all film fanatics. Redeeming Qualities and Moments:
Must See? Categories
(Listed in 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die) Links: |
