My comments on Peary’s reviews in Guide for the Film Fanatic (Simon & Schuster, 1986).
“There’s no reason to become alarmed, and we hope you’ll enjoy the rest of your flight. By the way, is there anyone on board who knows how to fly a plane?”
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Response to Peary’s Review: Redeeming Qualities and Moments:
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“I’m going to make a perfect life for you– I’m going to give you all the things I never had, my beautiful little darling!”
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Response to Peary’s Review: I’ll admit that my initial response to Mommie Dearest was the same as Peary’s. I watched it immediately after reading Crawford’s book, and was upset by how egregiously the filmmakers had mangled Christina’s story of her abusive childhood. Watching it again years later, however, I can appreciate Mommie Dearest for what it unintentionally turned out to be: a film so clumsily made — and so far removed from its source material — that it’s actually entertaining. Indeed, it is precisely the film’s “staggeringly bad scenes and campy dialogue” which have contributed to its cult over the years, allowing those who “laugh at its overall ineptitude” (click here for a long list of goofs) to have a grand old time. Plus, despite its obvious flaws, the film contains many moments of genuine insight into Crawford’s character. When Dunaway holds her infant daughter in her arms for the first time, and is reminded by her boyfriend (Steve Forrest) that Christina is both a “very lucky” and a “very expensive” baby, we are reminded that Crawford ultimately bought her children rather than adopted them. When Dunaway reacts with thinly-veiled jealousy as reporters seem more interested in filming her daughter than her during Christina’s birthday party, we really “get” how difficult it was for Crawford to share the limelight, even with her own kids. And when Dunaway expresses her heartfelt gratitude to the crowd of fans standing outside her house after she won an Oscar for her performance in Mildred Pierce (1945), we learn why her following was so enormous — and so loyal — for so many years. Most impressive of all, however, is the powerhouse performance by Faye Dunaway, who, though “she overacts at times,” makes “a gallant effort playing Crawford not as a villain, but as a ‘warrior’.” Indeed, it’s absolutely fascinating to gain an inside glimpse at this rags-to-riches actress, someone who took her status as a beloved Hollywood star so seriously that she was willing to work as hard as it took to maintain it. Though Peary argues that “Dunaway’s Crawford comes across as no less sympathetic” than her daughter, I disagree: when watching Crawford obsessively scrubbing her own floor, jogging to stay in shape, and getting up at the crack of dawn to arrive at the studio on time, we understand that this was a driven woman who, quite simply, didn’t have a clue about how to be an effective mother. Redeeming Qualities and Moments:
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“Are you ready for me?”
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Response to Peary’s Review: With that said, however, Risky Business ultimately comes across as too much of an adolescent-male wish-fulfillment fantasy to hold universal appeal. The women in the film — seen from Joel’s point of view — are all either sex objects (like Lana and her friends) or nagging maternal figures (such as Joel’s overprotective mom, or the nurse who refuses to write him an excuse at school). Lana herself symbolizes every guy’s worst fear: a woman so sexually irresistible that she can lure a “good son” (Joel’s last name is “Goodson”) to his doom — though ultimately, of course, our young “hero” will prevail. Even her much ballyhooed entrance — filmed as an ethereal, mist-filled sequence, with Tangerine Dream’s soundtrack pulsing in the background — clearly posits Lana as an other-worldly siren with supernatural powers. This smart, sexy, interesting character (she has a back story) is ultimately not given her due; I’d love to see Risky Business shown from her perspective. Redeeming Qualities and Moments:
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“It certainly is smooth. Yes, a man can faint from such smoothness.”
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and that the “love scenes with Susan Bay are embarrassingly sappy”.
At nearly two hours, the movie goes on for far too long, and, as Peary notes, has “too many scenes at Sea World”.
With that said, it has a number of fans, and is certainly worth checking out if you’re enamored with Lewis’s wacky impersonations — there are plenty here.
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“The black cat is deathless — deathless as evil!”
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At only 65 minutes long, the story moves quickly, yet is often incoherent — most likely as a result of Universal Studios cutting the film drastically. Nonetheless, the film is so oddly conceived and visually compelling that it’s hard not to watch even when you’re not quite sure what’s going on.
While reviewers at the time of its release were dismissive, today The Black Cat is regarded as pulp director Edgar Ulmer’s masterpiece — and for all its fans (though I’ll admit I’m not one of them), it remains “morbid, tasteless, and lots of fun.” Redeeming Qualities and Moments:
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(Listed in 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die) Links: |
“I was always dreaming about very powerful people — dictators and things like that.”
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Response to Peary’s Review: Redeeming Qualities and Moments:
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“Debts must be paid.”
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— a variation on the many other murderous, neurotic characters he played over the years — could be seen as symbolizing “Germany’s collective guilt during the postwar era”. Just as Hitler brainwashed most Germans into believing they had the moral right to abuse their non-gentile neighbors (eventually culminating in their complicit acceptance of mass genocide), it is the Gestapo’s convenient cover-up of Rothe’s initial impulse-murder which leads him down the slippery slope of increasingly frequent homicidal urges: if one was so easy, why not commit more? Unfortunately, we never really learn why Rothe feels such impulses to kill; he doesn’t appear to be psychopathic (he’s too guilt-ridden for this), and any “issues” he may hold with women (who are inexplicably drawn to him, again and again) aren’t sufficiently explored. In addition, the film suffers from a rambling narrative which “takes some unnecessary turns” — at one point Rothe “stumbles on the collaborators of a Hitler-assassination plot”, which has nothing to do with the primary story, and simply confuses viewers. Despite these flaws, however, Der Verlorene — unreleased in the United States until 1985 — remains fascinating viewing. Redeeming Qualities and Moments:
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“I say we give the Blues Brothers one more chance.”
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— come across as cheap and unoriginal. As a musical, however, the movie benefits enormously from the talents of renowned blues artists James Brown, Aretha Franklin, Ray Charles, and others; their appearances mark the indisputable highlights of the film.
Cameos by Carrie Fisher, John Candy, and others are wasted in this inexplicable cult favorite. Note: The Blues Brothers was “renowned” as the most vehicularly destructive film made to date — but a little of this goes a long way. Redeeming Qualities and Moments:
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“I’ve lived in this city all my life, but somehow today I felt everything had changed — people were different.”
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Peary also laments the loss of political subtext so prevalent in Siegel’s film, but this doesn’t really matter: a world in which everyone you know suddenly becomes “somebody else” is a scary enough premise to exist on its own. Finally, Peary complains that Kaufman places too much emphasis on “special effects and snazzy visuals”, but I disagree; other than the subtle yet effectively creepy opening sequences of spidery alien wisps growing into tiny flowers:
… special effects don’t make an appearance in the film until almost halfway through — at which point they’re used judiciously and to good effect. With that said, Kaufman’s version does run a bit too long, and I could have done without the subplot involving Sutherland’s crush on the married Adams:
Nonetheless, this remains a surprisingly effective remake, and is well worth watching on its own merits. Note: Watch for several notable cameos: Don Siegel — director of the original …Body Snatchers — appears as a “replaced” taxi driver; Robert Duvall is shown in the very beginning as a creepy priest on a swing:
… and the original movie’s star, Kevin McCarthy, reappears as a man running wildly through the streets. Redeeming Qualities and Moments:
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“Blanche, you aren’t ever going to sell this house — and you aren’t ever going to leave it, either!”
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Response to Peary’s Review: There are countless memorable moments in Baby Jane: Jane taunting Blanche by serving her a dead canary — and later a dead rat — for dinner; Jane coyly asking a young man behind the counter at the newspaper office if he recognizes her; Jane taking delight in building sandcastles on the beach; all of Jane’s interactions with Buono (whose use of subtle facial twitches is truly hilarious). Perhaps most interesting, however, is the fact that while director Robert Aldrich appears to be ridiculing his stars — they’re looking their absolute worst here — he also manages to generate genuine sympathy for their plights. Crawford and Davis may have been the unfortunate inspiration for, as Peary puts it, “a whole slew of fright films in which humor came from looking at grotesquely made-up faces of [once beautiful] old women”; but in this film, they’re the real deal: broken, tragic women whose jealousy and vanity have forced them both onto an inescapably disastrous trajectory. Note: In his review, Peary points out the many similarities between What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? and Billy Wilder’s Sunset Boulevard; take note especially of the final scene on the beach. Redeeming Qualities and Moments:
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(Listed in 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die) Links: |
