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Synopsis:
At the end of Prohibition, a bootlegger (Edward G. Robinson) goes legit but struggles to sell his awful-tasting beer. As his business tanks, he goes more and more into debt, and soon owes nearly half a million dollars. Meanwhile, his daughter (Jane Bryan) becomes engaged to a state trooper (Willard Parker), and he must deal with four dead bodies that show up in his summer house after a local heist.

Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors:

• Black Comedy
• Bootlegging
• Edward G. Robinson Films
• Gangsters
• Play Adaptation
• Social Climbers

Review:
Edward G. Robinson has great fun spoofing his infamous gangster persona in this light-hearted Warner Brothers satire, based on a play by Damon Runyon and Harold Lindsay. In an extended plot device that defies all logic, Robinson’s tee-totaling crime boss Remy Marco is so feared by his minions — and apparently by the world at large — that not a soul is willing to tell him how truly awful his bootleg beer is.

As a result, his post-Prohibition sales rapidly plummet over a period of several years, at which point Robinson — who has been eagerly embracing the opportunity to “go legit” and climb the social ladder — finds himself broke, but apparently not too broke to host a gala affair at his second house in the country, where all sorts of trouble ensues.

It’s silly, innocuous fun, with plenty of Damon Runyon’s distinctive dialogue thrown in to move things along at a zany clip. Ruth Donnelly is drolly amusing as Robinson’s wife, who struggles to affect an air of distinction befitting her new station, while Robinson is simply delightful. This one’s worth a look.

Redeeming Qualities and Moments:

• Edward G. Robinson as Remy Marco
  
• Ruth Donnelly as Mrs. Marco
  
• Consistently clever dialogue

Must See?
Yes, for Robinson’s humorous performance

Categories

• Noteworthy Performance(s)

Links:

• IMDb entry
• NY Times Original Review
• DVD Savant Review (scroll down to fourth review)
• TCM Article
• Time Out Capsule Review

Synopsis:
A country-western songwriter (Willie Nelson) tries to get out of a corrupt contract with his agent (Richard C. Sarafian) by having an aspiring singer (Lesley Ann Warren) put her name on his songs.

Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors:

• Alan Rudolph Films
• Composers
• Kris Kristofferson Films
• Musicians
• Revenge
• Rip Torn Films
• Willie Nelson Films

Review:
After directing Choose Me (1984), Alan Rudolph was called in at the last minute to helm this amiable, rambling tale about politics and survival in the country music industry, and his influence shows. More concerned with character than narrative, Songwriter introduces us to a host of quirky individuals — Willie Nelson’s “Doc” (essentially a variation on himself), Kris Kristofferson’s Blackie Buck, Rip Torn’s Dino McLeish, and Lesley Ann Warren’s Gilda — and then explores their interactions with one another as Doc attempts to get around the constraints of his binding contract with buffoonish bad-guy Rodeo Rocky (Richard Sarafian). Meanwhile, Doc rekindles a romance with his first wife (Melinda Dillon) and two young daughters, while Warren struggles to calm her stage fright by tippling hard liquor on the sly. Songwriter is the kind of movie that slowly grows on you, thanks in large part to Nelson’s sympathetic performance as Doc (he’s a genuinely nice guy) and Warren’s bold depiction of Gilda as a lost and nervous soul. (Strangely, Kristofferson’s character isn’t written very strongly, and he fails to make much of an impact.) The film is least effective when it’s explicitly aiming for broad laughs — whenever Sarafian and his henchmen are on-screen, for instance — but these moments are mercifully few.

Redeeming Qualities and Moments:

• Lesley Ann Warren as Gilda
  
• Willie Nelson as Doc Jenkins
  

Must See?
No, but it’s worth a look, particularly for fans of country-western music.

Links:

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

Synopsis:
A psychiatrist (George Brent) falls in love with a woman (Hedy Lamarr) whose husband (Paul Lukas) is possessively jealous of her.

Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors:

• Gaslighting
• George Brent Films
• Hedy Lamarr Films
• Jacques Tourneur Films
• Jealousy
• Paul Lukas Films

Review:
Released the same year as George Cukor’s Gaslight (1944), this Victorian-era melodrama by Jacques Tourneur (his first A-level picture for RKO studios) is similarly concerned with the deadly ramifications of marital distrust and psychological manipulation. Its opening sequence, taking place on a train, is reminiscent of Hitchcock’s The Lady Vanishes (1938), as George Brent encounters and befriends a mysterious older woman (Olive Blakeney) who offers him her “special brand of tea”. Blakeney is superb in her all-too-brief supporting appearance, but her character is killed off in order to set in motion the chain of events that will eventually lead to Brent’s infatuation with Blakeney’s lovely sister-in-law, the equally mysterious Allida Bedereaux (Hedy Lamarr, giving a haunting performance). Unfortunately, despite plenty of atmosphere, the rest of the story remains disappointingly conventional: the mystery of who exactly is insane — Lamarr or her husband — is resolved fairly early on, so that the bulk of the narrative is simply concerned with Brent’s obsessive quest to rescue Lamarr from her controlling husband. Fans of Tourneur will want to check this film out, and it’s certainly worth viewing once — but it’s not a must-see title.

Note: The film’s title is taken from the following provocative quote by Hippocrates (voiced by one of the characters): “Life is short, art is long, decision difficult, and experiment perilous.”

Redeeming Qualities and Moments:

• Hedy Lamarr as Allida
  
• Olive Blakeney as Cissie
  
• Tony Gaudio’s cinematography
  

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

Links:

• IMDb entry
• TCM Article

Synopsis:
A renowned pastry chef (Jacqueline Bisset) invited to France by a portly food connoisseur (Robert Morley) fears for her life when the greatest chefs in Europe are mysteriously murdered, one by one; meanwhile, her insistent ex-husband (George Segal) pursues her aggressively, and is determined to keep her safe from harm.

Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors:

• Black Comedy
• George Segal Films
• Jacqueline Bisset Films
• Murder Mystery
• Robert Morley Films
• Serial Killers

Review:
Canadian-born Ted Kotcheff directed this innocuously enjoyable culinary mystery (based on Nan and Ivan Lyons’ novel Someone is Killing the Great Chefs of Europe), which possesses plenty of mouthwatering sequences in which breathtaking dishes are meticulously prepared (my favorite is watching Bisset carefully sculpt her impressive Bombe Richelieu). There’s a generous serving of dark gore as well, given that each chef is killed according to his specialty (i.e., a lobster chef is drowned, and a chef renowned for his duck pate is ground up). While we’re fairly certain we know who the prime suspect is, and why, we’re nonetheless kept in suspense until the very end; meanwhile, the romantic subplot between Bisset and Segal gets somewhat tiresome, but at least helps propel the story forward. Robert Morley is delightful as a morbidly obese connoisseur whose love of fine food is putting his life at risk (he deservedly earned a Golden Globe nomination as best supporting actor for his performance here), and several noteworthy French actors (Philippe Noiret, Jean Rochefort) make welcome minor appearances.

Redeeming Qualities and Moments:

• Robert Morley as Max
  
• Several enjoyable sequences of culinary wizardry
  

Must See?
No, but it’s certainly recommended.

Links:

• IMDb entry
• Chicago Reader Capsule Review

Synopsis:
When a scientist (James Caan) is chosen over his more experienced military friend (Robert Duvall) to be the first man sent to the moon, rivalries ensue.

Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors:

• Astronauts
• Cold War
• James Caan Films
• Robert Altman Films
• Robert Duvall Films
• Space Exploration

Review:
After making two feature-length films in 1957 (The Delinquents and The James Dean Story), Robert Altman spent a number of years working in television before returning to the big screen with this adaptation of Hank Searls’ novel The Pilgrim Project. It’s very much a film of its time, given that it depicts the extreme anxiety felt by Americans during the Cold War, when NASA was doing its best to beat the Russians to the moon; in reality, America wouldn’t send its first man to the moon until July of the following year, so audiences in 1968 were surely intrigued by this dramatic simulation of what feasibly might have occurred. Modern devotees of space race movies and documentaries (such as Apollo 13 and the mini-series “From the Earth to the Moon”) will doubtless find fault with many of the technical details as presented here, but the rest of us will likely find Altman’s use of authentic props and settings refreshingly realistic.

There’s little to distinguish Countdown as an “Altman film”, though he does utilize some overlapping dialogue, and there’s a bit more emphasis on relationships than plot; the following year’s M*A*S*H (1970), however, would be his true breakthrough film. With that said, Countdown is a competently made, solidly acted drama: Duvall is in prime form as an embittered astronaut who is justifiably pissed off that his less-experienced friend has been given his spot (simply for political purposes), while Joanna Moore stands out in a thankless role as Caan’s worried wife. Women aren’t given much due in the screenplay (Barbara Baxley as Duvall’s wife is practically non-existent), but Moore manages to expertly convey the shift her character undergoes once she realizes that she really has no control over her husband’s decision to pursue the dangerous mission; she’s the epitome of pre-feminist wifely survival, and surprisingly intriguing to watch.

Redeeming Qualities and Moments:

• Robert Duvall as Chiz
  
• James Caan as Lee
  
• Joanna Moore as Mickey
  

Must See?
No, though Altman fans will surely be curious to check it out.

Links:

• IMDb entry
• NY Times Original Review
• Moria Review
• All Movie Guide Review
• TCM Article
• Time Out Capsule Review

Synopsis:
A mad scientist (John Carradine) transforms an ape (Ray Corrigan) into a beautiful but mute woman (Acquanetta) with a strange power over wild animals. She provides invaluable assistance to a circus performer (Milburn Stone) working with lions and tigers, but seeks jealous revenge when she realizes he’s already in love with his fiancee (Evelyn Ankers).

Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors:

• Carnivals and Circuses
• Edward Dmytryk Films
• Horror Films
• John Carradine Films
• Mad Doctors and Scientists
• Primates

Review:
The first of three “ape woman” sci-fi/horror flicks made for Universal Studios during the early ’40s, this innocuous potboiler features statuesque B-actress “Acquanetta” — a.k.a. “The Venezuelan Volcano” (despite being born in Cheyenne, Wyoming):

— co-starring with character actor Milburn Stone (cast because of his resemblance to real-life trainer Clyde Beatty) and the ever-reliable John Carradine as a villainous medical kook determined to commit glandular manipulation on his “patients”.

There’s little to the hour-long story, which is essentially concerned with relating the folly and danger — a la The Island of Lost Souls (1933) — of attempting to merge animal and human “forces”:

It evokes the general aura of Val Lewton’s RKO films, but without their psychological depth. Instead, it’s padded out by plenty of footage of Stone (actually Beatty) working with wild tigers and lions — footage which at times seems to go on for a bit too long. With that said, director Edward Dmytryk manages to add some atmosphere to the proceedings, and fans of the genre will certainly be curious to check it out once.

Redeeming Qualities and Moments:

• John Carradine as Dr. Walters
  

Must See?
No – but it’s worth a look by fans of Universal horror flicks.

Links:

• IMDb entry
• NY Times Original Review
• All Movie Guide Review (spoilers alert)
• Chicago Reader Capsule Review

Synopsis:
An opium-addicted choirmaster (Claude Rains) is jealous of his nephew’s (David Manners) betrothal to a beautiful young girl (Heather Angel). When a stranger (Douglass Montgomery) comes to town and falls in love with Rosa (Angel), further rivalries ensue, and Edwin Drood (Manners) suddenly disappears.

Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors:

• Charles Dickens Films
• Claude Rains Films
• Love Triangle
• Mysterious Disappearance

Review:
Charles Dickens never finished his final serialized novel, The Mystery of Edwin Drood, about a young man who goes missing and may or may not have been murdered. For this cinematic adaptation, Universal Studios came up with a feasible ending, one which ultimately turns …Drood into a spooky murder mystery. The first half of the film is fairly standard fare, as we’re introduced to the trio of “suitors” interested in sweet Rosa Bud: it’s clear that while she has some affection for her life-long fiancee (Manners), she’s genuinely smitten with the handsome new arrival in town (Montgomery):

… and finds the covetous stares of her fiance’s uncle (Rains, excellent as always) utterly creepy. It’s not until the second half of the film that the story’s more atmospheric horror elements come into play, as we question how and why Drood has disappeared, all while suspecting that Rains — given his shadowy dealings with a cemetery caretaker, and his addiction to opium — may play a critical part in the mystery.

While Mystery of Edwin Drood isn’t essential viewing for all film fanatics, it’s certainly recommended, particularly for Dickens fans — and Rains’ performance is, as always, well worth a look.

Note: Director Stuart Walker, who died of a heart attack in 1941, also helmed the Peary-listed titles The Eagle and the Hawk (1933) and Werewolf of London (1935).

Redeeming Qualities and Moments:

• Claude Rains as John Jasper
  
• Zeffie Tilbury as “The Opium Woman”
  
• Fine period detail
  
• George Robinson’s atmospheric cinematography
  

Must See?
No, but it’s recommended.

Links:

• IMDb entry
• NY Times Original Review (immediate spoiler alert)
• All Movie Guide Review

Synopsis:
A young drifter (John Travolta) falls for an older wealthy woman (Lily Tomlin), and an unconventional romance ensues.

Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors:

• Cross-Class Romance
• John Travolta Films
• Lily Tomlin Films
• May-December Romance

Review:
This notoriously panned turkey (dubbed a Camp Classic in the back of Peary’s book) co-stars a hunky young John Travolta — fresh from his success in both Saturday Night Fever (1977) and Grease (1978) — and Lily Tomlin, three years after her Oscar-nominated performance in Robert Altman’s Nashville (1975). Much of the film’s unintentional humor comes from the utterly improbable romantic pairing of these two lookalike actors — and not just because of their difference in age.

With no offense meant, Tomlin (whose partner, Jane Wagner, wrote and directed the movie) simply isn’t the most fetching of women, so it’s difficult to understand why a young hunk like Travolta would fall head over heels for her. Indeed, during the intriguing first half hour of the film, we’re convinced, much like Tomlin’s “Trisha”, that “Strip” (yes, that’s Travolta’s name here, and it’s good for a few laughs) must be a con-artist out to abuse her wealth; once it’s revealed that he’s genuinely in (puppy)-love with her, all disbelief must thereafter be suspended. With that said, Moment by Moment isn’t nearly as bad as its critics would have you believe: Tomlin is fine, if a tad one-note, as a depressed housewife whose husband has cheated on her, and Travolta is actually quite charming as a young drifter with no one to cling to but Trish. While the soaper storyline is utterly predictable (Tomlin is ashamed to be seen with Strip — who knew?!):

… you may be surprised to find yourself rooting for this unconventional couple by the end of the film.

Redeeming Qualities and Moments:

• John Travolta as Strip
  

Must See?
No — but it’s not nearly as bad as its reputation would lead you to believe.

Links:

• IMDb entry
• All Movie Guide Review