FilmFanatic.org

Synopsis:
An accountant (Edmond O’Brien) slowly dying from “luminous poisoning” tries to determine who his killers are, and why they’ve murdered him.

Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors:

• Amateur Sleuths
• Edmond O’Brien Films
• Flashback Film
• Living Nightmare
• Murder Mystery
• Neville Brand Films

Response to Peary’s Review:
As Peary notes, this “first-rate melodrama” by DP-turned-director Rudolph Mate features an “unusual, intriguing premise”, one which allows its protagonist — Edmond O’Brien in his most iconic role as Frank Bigelow — to become “one of the first movie heroes to have no fear of being killed”.

While “the story gets a bit confusing” (and thus tends to drag during its second third), the film as a whole remains compelling, and, amazingly enough, never feels “too morbid to sit through” despite knowing that Bigelow is done for from the beginning. Indeed, the flashback-heavy script features a surprising amount of levity, particularly during the early San Francisco hotel sequences, as Bigelow ogles every reasonably attractive female in the joint (and Dimitri Tiomkin’s energetic score adds silly sound-effect punctuations).

Meanwhile, the supporting cast’s B-level performances nearly all border playfully on camp: watch Pamela Britton (as Bigelow’s clingy secretary girlfriend) run an emotional gamut from flirtatious to pissy to maudlin to rapturously romantic:

or toothy Neville Brand in his screen debut as a psycho thug with shifty eyes.

Some have complained that cinematographer Ernest Laszlo fails to establish noir-ish contrasts in lighting, but this ultimately adds to the film’s effectiveness: Bigelow’s nightmarish situation — taking place in real-life San Francisco and Los Angeles locales:

— is very much embedded within day-to-day reality; the scary point here is that anyone (you, me) is at risk for murder simply by being alive. And it should be noted that while Bigelow may be essentially an “innocent nice guy”, he does act like a bit of an immature lout, given that he can’t wait to get away from his fiancee, and considers sleeping with an attractive woman he’s just met at a bar:

To this end, it could be argued (along the lines of 1950s morality) that he “deserves” his fate. Indeed, the story is framed as an unwitting character arc, with Bigelow forced to recognize — too late — the folly of his ways.

Redeeming Qualities and Moments:

• Edmond O’Brien as Bigelow
  
• An effectively nightmarish script
  
• Excellent use of San Francisco and Los Angeles locales
  
• Neville Brand (in his screen debut) as a psychotic hood
  

Must See?
Yes, as a classic of pulp noir.

Categories

• Genuine Classic

Links:

• IMDb entry
• TV Guide Review
• TCM Article
• Time Out Capsule Review

Synopsis:
“Dirty” Harry Callahan (Clint Eastwood) hunts down a team of rookie cops who are murdering notorious criminals.

Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors:

• Clint Eastwood Films
• Police
• Vigilantes

Response to Peary’s Review:
Peary notes that this second installment in the “Dirty Harry” franchise “lacks the gritty feel and stylistic impositions of the original” but has some “tough, cleverly directed” action scenes and an “exciting”, morally ambiguous script (co-written by Michael Cimino). Since the identity of the killers is made clear from the beginning, there’s no “murder mystery” to be solved; instead, the film’s interest lies primarily in watching how a notorious vigilante cop like Dirty Harry reacts when confronted with a group of sharpshooting fascist rookies (led by blonde David Soul) who take his own cynical attitude to a deadly extreme.

(Harry himself states at one point, “I hate the goddamn system, but until someone comes along with changes that make sense, I’ll stick with it.”) The film’s title (magnums are ultra-powerful cartridges) hints at an emphasis on firearms and ballistics throughout, and the scene in which Eastwood battles Soul for top prize in a shooting contest is particularly exciting. However, I could do without the inane “subplot” involving Harry’s sexually available Asian neighbor (Adele Yoshioka), whose two-dimensional presence merely serves to tap into Orientalist fantasies.

Redeeming Qualities and Moments:

• An intriguing premise
  
• Effective use of San Francisco locales (including the infamously twisty Lombard Street)
  
  

Must See?
No, though it’s certainly worth a look, and must-see for “Dirty Harry” completists.

Links:

• IMDb entry
• NY Times Original Review

Synopsis:
A city boy (Don Scardino) visiting his girlfriend (Patricia Pearcy) and her family (Jean Sullivan and Fran Higgins) in a backwoods Georgian town discovers that an electrical storm has triggered an onslaught of killer earthworms.

Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors:

• Deep South
• Horror
• Killer Animals

Response to Peary’s Review:
Peary is far too generous in his assessment of this unintentionally campy low-budget horror flick, which he claims is “effective” and full of “fun characters” and “clever directorial touches”. In truth, despite writer-director Jeff Lieberman’s best efforts, Squirm — “as in Sqworm” — is poorly acted (everyone’s pacing is peculiarly off), sadly lacking in any genuine horror thrills (how scary can worms really be? gross, yes, but not scary), and resolutely unfunny (the scene in which Scardino discovers a worm in his egg cream is not, as Peary posits, witty). While a handful of other critics agree with Peary that Squirm is an inspired little film — Time Out‘s reviewer, for instance, argues that it’s “far better and more interesting than the obvious schlock appeal its plot would suggest” — I was relieved to discover I’m not alone in considering it to be an undeniably bad movie, worthy of spoofing (search YouTube and you’ll find the MST3K version available to watch in 10 minute segments). Throughout his Guide for the Film Fanatic, Peary seems to be trying to champion underdog, low-budget films like this one — particularly in the horror genre — but you’re better off skipping Squirm altogether.

Redeeming Qualities and Moments:

• A few mildly gross shots of wriggling worms en masse
  

Must See?
No, unless you’re in the mood for a laughably bad “horror” flick — and in that case, I recommend the MST3K version instead.

Links:

• IMDb entry
• Bad Movies.org Review
• Time Out Capsule Review

Synopsis:
In a desperate attempt to prevent an ancient family prophecy from coming true, a despotic baron (Boris Karloff) kills and impersonates his noble twin brother.

Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors:

• Boris Karloff Films
• Historical Drama
• Mistaken or Hidden Identities
• Royalty and Nobility
• Twins

Review:
This unassuming period thriller about fratricide, ancient familial prophecies, and lust for power remains an enjoyable treat for film fanatics, thanks primarily to the central performance by inimitable horror icon Boris Karloff. Karloff embodies the dual roles of both “good brother” (Anton) and “bad brother” (Gregor) with relish and nuance, immediately convincing us that they’re two different men — but his most impressive work comes once he’s playing Gregor-as-Anton, maintaining a simmering aura of calculated greed and sociopathic arrogance underneath a facade of noble charm. The screenplay is surprisingly tight and suspenseful — especially given that Anton is killed off fairly early — and the denouement offers a nifty resolution to the ancient prophecy. Atmospheric cinematography, creative direction, and appropriately baroque set designs add to the ambience of this compelling B-level flick.

Redeeming Qualities and Moments:

• Boris Karloff as Gregor, Anton, and Gregor-as-Anton
  
  
• Atmospheric cinematography, direction, and sets

Must See?
Yes, simply to see Karloff in one of his best performances.

Categories

• Noteworthy Performance(s)

Links:

• IMDb entry
• Classic-Horror.com Review
• SciFilm Review
• TCM Article

Synopsis:
A precocious Greek gypsy boy (Angelo Evans) and his brother try to retrieve a family ring stolen by a conniving Russian gypsy (Steve Tsigonoff).

Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors:

• Coming-of-Age
• Gypsies
• New York City
• Robert Duvall Films

Review:
Fourteen years before producing and directing The Apostle (1997), Robert Duvall helmed this neo-realist indie film about a little-known American subculture: gypsies in New York City. Its strength lies primarily in the central casting of real-life gypsy kid Angelo Evans (essentially playing himself, as does much of the cast), whose precocious energy drives the narrative: we both believe in and care about him from the first moment he’s on-screen. An early scene in which the illiterate Angelo struggles to maintain his pride in a public school classroom is quietly devastating, and immediately helps us to understand why he prefers to live in the “real world” — among adults — instead. Duvall is less successful in crafting a compelling overall narrative (the ring-heist plot is flimsy at best), but this ultimately doesn’t matter, given that we’re most interested in watching Angelo navigate the streets of New York, and gaining a sense of how this group of societal outcasts manages to maintain key elements of its ancient culture while surviving in a modern city. We may not approve of the gypsy lifestyle portrayed here, but it’s certainly memorable, and fascinating to observe for a short while.

P.S. See Mike Newell’s Into the West (1992) for a comparable — albeit more strategically crafted — film about modern-day Irish gypsies (known as “Travellers”) in Dublin.

Redeeming Qualities and Moments:

• Angelo Evans as himself
  
• A fascinating ethnographic look at New York’s gypsy community
  

Must See?
No, but it’s worth a look.

Links:

• IMDb entry
• Roger Ebert’s Review
• Time Out Capsule Review

Synopsis:
When the friend (Joan Blondell) of an heiress (Carole Landis) is accidentally murdered, her ghost enlists the help of Cosmo Topper (Roland Young) in identifying the killer.

Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors:

• Amateur Sleuths
• Carole Landis Films
• Comedy
• Fantasy
• Ghosts
• Joan Blondell Films
• Murder Mystery
• Roland Young Films
• Roy Del Ruth Films

Review:
Roy Del Ruth directed this final installment in the inexplicably popular Topper trilogy, which banks on much of what made the first two so successful: plenty of ghostly special effects and tedious slapstick humor. While it’s no masterpiece, the presence of Joan Blondell as the ghost de jeur (replacing Constance Bennett’s “Mrs. Kirby”) adds a much-needed touch of sass and vigor to the proceedings, and the Old Dark House “whodunit” plot at least provides viewers with a welcome narrative hook (I’ll admit the ending caught me by surprise). Best of all: Billie Burke as Cosmo’s airhead wife is given mercifully few scenes!

Redeeming Qualities and Moments:

• Joan Blondell as Gail
  

Must See?
No. As noted previously, the Topper sequels are certainly not must-see viewing — though Blondell makes this one more bearable than its predecessors.

Links:

• IMDb entry
• NY Times Original Review
• TCM Article

Synopsis:
When Mrs. Topper (Billie Burke) catches her husband (Roland Young) with the ghost of Marion Kerby (Constance Bennett), she flees to France to obtain a quick divorce; meanwhile, her conniving friend (Verree Teasdale) arranges for a faux baron (Alexander D’Arcy) to woo and marry Burke for her money, and Marion does what she can to help Topper (Young) win his wife back.

Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors:

• Comedy
• Con-Artists
• Constance Bennett Films
• Divorce
• Fantasy
• Ghosts
• Marital Problems
• Roland Young Films

Review:
This sequel (the first of two) to the enormously successful comedic fantasy Topper (1937) is tiresome on every level. The storyline is weak and utterly predictable; the characters are — without exception — annoying cliches; and none of the cast members (either principals or extras) react to the proceedings in a remotely realistic fashion. Roy Seawright’s Oscar-nominated ghostly “photographic effects” (which made the original Topper such a delight for audiences at the time) quickly become boring: one can only watch so many items drifting through the air on invisible wires before the “joke” becomes stale:

And while Young’s slapsticky pratfalls were amusing in the first film, they’re overused for laughs here. As usual, Burke’s bubble-headed socialite (“Too bad the people in America aren’t French”) is insufferable:

and reliable character actors Franklin Pangborn (with a bad French accent):

and Alan Mowbray are simply wasted. Topper Takes a Trip is, unfortunately, “comedy” at its low-brow worst, and certainly not must-see viewing.

Redeeming Qualities and Moments:
Nothing.

Must See?
Definitely not. While I can excuse Peary for listing the original Topper in his book as must-see viewing, his inclusion of both its sequels truly baffles me.

Links:

• IMDb entry
• SciFilm Review
• Foster on Film Review
• TCM Article

Synopsis:
A football player (Jeff Bridges) recently fired from his team is hired by a gambler (James Woods) to hunt down his missing girlfriend (Rachel Ward) in Mexico; but things get sticky when Bridges falls for Ward himself.

Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors:

• Corruption
• Femmes Fatales
• Gambling
• Has-Beens
• James Woods Films
• Jane Greer Films
• Jeff Bridges Films
• Love Triangle
• Richard Widmark Films
• Search

Review:
Few elements work in this well-meaning but fatally flawed update of Jacques Tourneur’s classic Out of the Past (1948). While both Bridges and Ward are naturally appealing leads:

… they’re saddled with such an awkward, muddled script (the synopsis above barely touches on the complexity of the dense plot, which involves insider gambling and high-level corruption) that it’s difficult to care about either their ill-fated romance or their respective predicaments. Ward’s family problems — she’s the spoiled, petulant daughter of a wealthy land developer — are never fully explored, and she fails to project the necessary edginess or complexity of a truly compelling femme fatale. Meanwhile, James Woods is either badly miscast or badly directed in a pivotal role as Ward’s covetous lover:

While no one would ever accuse Woods of an inability to project “slime”, he nonetheless fails to embody the “Mr. Big” presence required of his character here. Worst of all, however, is director Taylor Hackford’s decision to have his actors spout neo-noir dialogue (“I love you, Jessie. Why did that have to be a bad thing?”) as though it’s realistic banter; attempts to infuse this type of hardboiled rhetoric into modern cinematic settings (c.f. Rian Johnson’s Brick, 2005) are tricky at best, and the effort fails completely here — it’s almost laughable, but (sadly) not quite. Not even the presence of cinematic icon Richard Widmark (badly underused):

… or Out of the Past‘s original star, Jane Greer:

… can revive this disappointing thriller, which should be much better than it is.

Redeeming Qualities and Moments:
Not much.

Must See?
No; this one can easily be skipped.

Links:

• IMDb entry
• NY Times Original Review
• Roger Ebert’s Review
• Qwipster’s Movie Review

Synopsis:
A sultry, psychotic white woman (Shirley Knight) seduces a young black man (Al Freeman, Jr.) on a New York subway.

Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors:

• Cat-and-Mouse
• Femmes Fatales
• Play Adaptation
• Race Relations
• Shirley Knight Films
• Trains and Subways

Review:
Based on Amiri Baraka’s incendiary, Obie-award-winning 1964 play, Dutchman qualifies as one of the most unusual — and certainly one of the shortest non-silent-film — listings in Peary’s GFTFF. At just 55 minutes, it’s barely a feature-length film, and seems more like an experimental venture than a fully fledged narrative. Indeed, the film’s “simple” premise — a white woman seduces, then humiliates, a gullible black man — is widely regarded as allegorical: Lula (Knight) represents both a seductive Eve (she chomps continuously on apples) and a provocative, wasteful white America (she throws away said unfinished apples with abandon), while Clay (Freeman) embodies an assimilated Black America perpetually taunted by the elusive promise of mainstream acceptance.

Director Anthony Harvey and cinematographer Gerry Turpin do a reasonably impressive job cinematizing what is by its very nature a claustrophobic, geographically-limited playlet, and John Barry’s pulsating score is appropriately jarring — but the truth is that Dutchman (even at such a short running time) remains a bit of a chore to sit through, due primarily to Knight’s insufferable central performance. While subtle characterizations are perhaps too much to ask for in such a heavily weighted allegory, Knight’s performance is (as noted in Nathan Rabin’s DVD review for The Onion) “embarrassingly theatrical, a tour-de-force of histrionics that only underlines the pretentious, feverishly overwritten nature of Jones’ script.” Freeman — infinitely subtle in comparison — fares somewhat better, but can’t help being overshadowed by Knight’s hideous gargoyle of a femme fatale.

Redeeming Qualities and Moments:

• Al Freeman, Jr. as Clay
  
• Gerry Turpin’s cinematography
  
• John Barry’s percussive score

Must See?
No; this one will primarily be of interest to theater buffs rather than film fanatics. Listed as a Personal Recommendation in the back of Peary’s book.

Links:

• IMDb entry
• NY Times Original Review
• Roger Ebert’s Review
• Onion A.V. Club Review
• Time Out Capsule Review (spoilers alert)