FilmFanatic.org

Synopsis:
When a kind governor in medieval Japan is sent into exile because of his compassion for the local peasants, his wife (Kinuyo Tanaka), son (Masahiko Kato), and daughter (Keiko Enami) set out to find him, but are kidnapped and sold into slavery and prostitution. Years later, his adult son (Yoshiaki Hanayagi) is determined to reunite his family.

Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors:

• Escape
• Japanese Films
• Kenzi Mizoguchi Films
• Slavery

Response to Peary’s Review:
This “exquisitely photographed”, “sweeping epic” by Kenji Mizoguchi is a true masterpiece of mid-century Japanese cinema. As Peary notes, the film “brilliantly evokes brutal inhumanity” during the 11th century, “yet also is a beautiful character piece centering on mother and children.” Unfortunately, as with Rene Clement’s Forbidden Games (1952), Sansho may ultimately be too devastating to withstand repeated viewings — but it should definitely be seen once by all film fanatics.

Redeeming Qualities:

• Lovely cinematography
  
  
• The final, haunting reunion scene between mother and son
  

Must See?
Yes. This film is a classic of world cinema.

Categories

• Foreign Gem
• Important Director

(Listed in 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die)

Links:

• IMDB entry
• Talking Pictures review

Synopsis:
Businessman Bill Compton (Dennis Patrick) kills his daughter’s drug-dealing boyfriend in a fit of rage, and befriends a working-class bigot (Peter Boyle) who admires what he’s done.

Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors:

• Class Relations
• Counterculture
• Generation Gap
• Peter Boyle Films
• Susan Sarandon Films
• Vigilantes

Response to Peary’s Review:
Peary’s not a big fan of this scathing cross-generational commentary, arguing that the film supports the “contention of [the] era’s conservatives that all hippie girls were nymphomaniacs, that all long-haired young people took drugs and were untrustworthy, [and] that all members of the counterculture were vermin.” What he neglects to mention, however, is that all the characters in this over-the-top film are contemptible or pathetic in one way or another. As in Shoot (1976) and The Exterminator (1980), Peter Boyle’s Joe — a “loudmouth working-class stiff who has contempt for blacks, liberals, and hippies” — is portrayed as a gun-savvy veteran who’s itching to wreak damage on the “Others” in his community, just like he did back in Vietnam. After his chance encounter with Bill in a bar, Joe becomes a “Mephistopheles”-like figure, nurturing Bill’s “baser instincts” and encouraging their unlikely cross-class friendship. This eventually leads to the film’s tragic and violent denouement, which Peary refers to as “preposterous” and “hard-to-watch”, but which I see as a logical outcome of the tension that has been building since the very beginning of the film.

Redeeming Qualities:

• Peter Boyle as Joe
  
• Susan Sarandon in her first screen role (she already radiates a special kind of charm and beauty)
  
• A powerful, if occasionally cliched, look at clashes between class, age, and culture in the 1960s

Must See?
No, but it’s recommended.

Links:

• IMDb entry

Synopsis:
Carmilla (Ingrid Pitt), a 200-year-old lesbian vampire, pursues the beautiful young Emma (Madeline Smith) while being hunted by vampire-killer Baron von Hartog (Douglas Wilmer).

Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors:

• Horror
• Lesbianism
• Peter Cushing Films
• Roy Ward Baker Films
• Vampires

Response to Peary’s Review:
As Peary suggests, the popularity of this gothic Hammer horror film — a relatively faithful adaptation of Sheridan Le Fanu’s novella — probably has more to do with the “surprising amount of female nudity” and overt lesbian interest than anything else.

Ingrid Pitt gives an alluring, “unabashedly physical performance” as Carmilla, with her “low-cut, transparent gowns” and insatiable lust for nubile female breasts. Carmilla’s emotional outburst upon “seeing a funeral procession and realizing all will die but her”:

… elevates her character a notch above all other vampiresses I’ve seen on film; her role may be campy, but Pitt imbues it with every possible ounce of human feeling.

Redeeming Qualities:

• Ingrid Pitt’s sexy portrayal as Carmilla
  
• A highly literate adaptation of Sheridan La Fanu’s novella

Must See?
Yes, simply as a prime example of lesbian vampirism on film. (See also Daughters of Darkness, 1971).

Categories

• Representative Film

Links:

• IMDb entry
• Moria Review
• British Horror Films Review

Synopsis:
Doc Savage (Ron Ely) and his associates, the Fabulous Five, travel to the South American country of Hidalgo to investigate the death of Doc’s father.

• Comics and Comic Strips
• George Pal Films
• Murder Mystery
• Satires and Spoofs
• Superheroes

Response to Peary’s Review:
This adventure film — George Pal’s last production, bringing “Kenneth Robson’s pulp hero to the screen for what was supposed to be the beginning of a series” — is clearly meant to be a spoof, but falls flat on all counts. While I’m occasionally in the mood for enjoying a truly “bad movie”, this one can’t seem to make up its mind if it wants to be camp or straight-action drama. Plus, as Peary points out, “square-jawed” Ron Ely has zero charisma:

… there are “few interesting story twists”, and it “has the static studio-look of a cheap, kiddle adventure TV show.” Other than a few diehard Doc Savage fans, most IMDb contributors seem to agree with Peary that this cult film is a “dull disappointment”.

Redeeming Qualities:

• A bizarre image of a villain sleeping in an oversized crib and sucking his thumb
  

Must See?
No, unless you happen to be a Doc Savage fan.

Links:

• IMDb entry

Synopsis:
Shirley “Cha Cha” Muldowney (Bonnie Bedelia) battles discrimination and personal heartache as she becomes the top female drag-racer of all time.

Genres:

• Beau Bridges Films
• Biopics
• Bonnie Bedelia Films
• Car Racing
• Dick Miller Films
• Feminism and Women’s Issues
• Sports

Response to Peary’s Review:
As Peary notes, Bonnie Bedelia turns in an “Oscar-worthy performance as drag-race champion Shirley ‘Cha Cha’ Muldowney,” the first woman to break the gender barrier in drag-race competitions. Director Jonathan Kaplan wisely avoids trying to hit all the “key points” in Bonnie’s life; instead, he takes the time to develop a three-dimensional character with real-life goals and heartaches. Shirley is portrayed as a strong, independent, driven woman who “finds disappointment in her relationships with men” yet continues to strive “for triumphs in her profession.”

Redeeming Qualities:

• Bonnie Bedelia’s excellent, natural performance as Shirley
  
• Beau Bridges as Connie Kalitta, Bonnie’s “unfaithful lover”
  

Must See?
No, but it’s recommended.

Links:

• IMDb entry

Synopsis:
A gang of drug-addicted serial killers pursue a beautiful actress and her household.

• Serial Killers

Response to Peary’s Review:
This “wretched picture” — a muddled, incomprehensible pastiche of several awful movies — may possibly earn my vote as the worst movie ever made. As I noted in my review of Heaven’s Gate (1980), it’s a rare instance when I can’t get all the way through one of the titles listed in Peary’s book, but this was another exception. The final “snuff” scene is ridiculous (and obviously staged):

… but nonetheless sparked an urban legend which made scads of unsuspecting people want to go see this mess of a film.

Redeeming Qualities:

• None. At all. Believe me.

Must See?
No; avoid this one at all costs.

Links:

• IMDb entry

Synopsis:
Country singer Maury Dann (Rip Torn) experiences a downward spiral as he and his band take a road trip across America.

• Character Studies
• Has-Beens
• Musicians
• Rip Torn Films
• Road Trip

Response to Peary’s Review:
This “excruciatingly unpleasant” film — starring Rip Torn as an aging, has-been musician who “makes life miserable” for most of the people he’s around, much like “Robert Montgomery’s washed-up producer in The Saxon Charm (1948)” — is nonetheless oddly compelling and full of “offbeat well-played scenes.” Torn has never been better, playing someone so spectacularly self-absorbed and out of touch that he arrives “either four months early or eight months too late” for his child’s birthday. The supporting cast is excellent as well — particularly Elayne Heilveil as Maury’s dim-witted groupie.

Redeeming Qualities:

• Rip Torn as Maury Dann
  
• Maury’s joyfully wacky mom (Cara Dunn) throwing her laundry over the clothesline
  
• Heilveil discussing frying pans with Maury’s driver
  

Must See?
No, but it’s recommended.

Links:

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

Synopsis:
A teenage schoolgirl (Patti D’Arbanville) spends the summer with a couple whose marriage is on the rocks, and develops a crush on the wife (Mona Kristensen). Meanwhile, she pursues a local teenage boy (Bernard Giraudeau), and tries to find a “suitable male lover” for Kristensen.

Synopsis:
Abbott and Costello try to rescue their friend’s showboat from the hands of some unscrupulous cardsharks.

Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors:

• Abbott and Costello Films
• At Sea
• Comedy

Response to Peary’s Review:
As Peary notes, while Abbott and Costello’s first period piece “isn’t slickly made” it contains “several of their most famous routines” and remains an “excellent A&C sampler.” The storyline is innocuous but relatively enjoyable, and — most importantly — never interferes with the ongoing litany of gags. Unlike Peary, I didn’t find the scene in which Costello is “hanging over the side of the boat in order to spy on bad guys through their porthole” and ends up causing the “heavily lathered Joe Sawyer” to look into the porthole, “think it’s a mirror,” and “begin to shave off the lather” particularly funny.

However, I was tickled pink by countless other hilarious moments, including Abbott and Costello performing their beloved “Who’s On First?” skit:

… Costello fearfully confronting a plateful of fried “cats”:

… Costello frosting a ramshackle cake:

… and Costello shakily singing “My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean” in time to Abbott’s stage directions:

Redeeming Qualities:

• Many amusing skits
  

Must See?
Yes. While some reviewers disagree, I believe this film is a distillation of Abbott and Costello at their best.

Categories

• Genuine Classic

Links:

• IMDb entry
• At-a-Glance Movie Review

Synopsis:
The bodies of Dracula (Bela Lugosi) and Frankenstein’s monster (Glenn Strange) come to life after being delivered to a wax museum, and freight handlers Abbott and Costello are caught up in the commotion that ensues. Werewolf Lon Chaney arrives on the scene to try to prevent Dracula from implanting Costello’s brain into the monster, but is hampered by his troublesome lycanthropy.

Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors:

• Abbott and Costello Films
• Bela Lugosi Films
• Comedy
• Frankenstein
• Horror
• Lon Chaney, Jr. Films
• Vampires
• Werewolves

Response to Peary’s Review:
As Peary writes, while “smug critics often refer to this title to indicate just how low both Universal’s top comedy team and its famous monsters had sunk by 1948”, they’re “wrong on both counts” — indeed, this comedic horror flick is widely considered by most Abbott and Costello fans to be their “finest picture”, given that “their interplay is particularly sharp, [and] their routines are strikingly funny.” Peary points out that it’s “one of the few films to deftly combine horror and comedy,” and notes that horror fans will “appreciate the nifty special effects and make-up” and “find the monsters appropriately frightening.” Refreshingly, the diverse cast of monsters — playing it “straight”, as though they’re in a horror film rather than a comedy — are “treated with respect and affection.”

Redeeming Qualities:

• Atmospheric sets and cinematography
  
  

Must See?
Yes. While it’s not my favorite Abbott and Costello flick (see my reviews of The Naughty Nineties and Buck Privates instead), it’s widely considered to be one of their best movies, and is certainly a highly creative “fusion” venture.

Categories

• Genuine Classic

Links:

• IMDb entry
• Combustible Celluloid Review
• TV Guide Review
• TCM Article
• Spinning Image Review