Oct 10, 2024

On YouTube: Mae West Impressions and 'Toons and Saucy Pre-Code Moments Part Six

 

This collection of Mae West impressions in movies, television, and cartoons is only a small sample of the many times this influential funny lady has inspired impersonators and animators. The funny thing about most West impressions is that they have more in common with each other than the actual Mae West, despite typically being good enough that there’s no question who it is. (I think Craig Russell, here in Outrageous! [1977] and Too Outrageous [1987] gets the closest to capturing the true essence of Ms. West.)

   

There are a lot of familiar patterns and themes in classic pre-Code Hollywood movies (the time period roughly between 1930-34), as can be seen in this collection of clips. Censors found it too racy, but these classic films were also honest, humorous, and adult.

Sep 10, 2024

On YouTube: Jean Harlow Being a Bombshell and Robots and Portraits in Classic Movies

 

Jean Harlow was the first blonde bombshell and she made a huge impact in her short life. No dumb blonde, she was funny, sexy, charismatic, and was even developing her dramatic chops (her final scene with Myrna Loy in Wife vs. Secretary showed where she could have gone as a dramatic lead). Her death of uremic poisoning at age 26 was a significant loss. However, her short career was incredibly productive; we are fortunate to have many Harlow performances to watch and love.

   

Robots and mechanical beings, have been a part of the movies from the beginning. They’re an especially interesting aspect of the movies because while they can have many common similarities, like a slow gait, the ability to kill with eye lasers, stilted speech, and a habit of crashing through doors and windows, the way they have been portrayed on screen is also wildly creative and varied. I haven’t strictly gone with the definition of robot in this collection, because I think it’s interesting how mechanical people/automatons are similar in so many ways to the machine-run robots that followed (I also snuck one cyborg in there).

   

Despite lacking motion, portraits can be a powerful part of a movie, driving the plot, inspiring emotion in characters, and creating mood and drama simply by existing. This collection of clips shows how portraits can create romance, comedy, horror, and mystery.

Jul 29, 2024

On YouTube: A Tribute to Shelley Duvall and More Goofy Monsters

 

I was saddened by the passing of Shelley Duvall, because she has long been one of my favorite actresses. She was a gentle soul, who was wildly talented both as an actress and a producer. While this video contains many of the best moments of the late, great Duvall, it isn’t meant to be a “best-of” tribute, but rather a collection of clips that captures the unique essence of this versatile and unusually appealing actress who elevated every moment she appeared on the screen.

   

The sci-fi and horror genres are packed with creative and often unintentionally hilarious creatures. Though in their time there were plenty of young movie fans who feared them, there were some which inspired laughter from the beginning. This video shares the diversity in these creature designs and the hilarious similarities in creature behavior and how people reacted to them.

Jul 24, 2024

On DVD/Blu-ray: A Stunning Noir Classic from Argentina, Never Open That Door/No Abras Nunca Esa Puerta (1952)

 


As a movie fan, one of the greatest revelations I’ve enjoyed in the past few years has been the excellent collection of classic Argentinean film noir released on DVD/Blu-ray by Flicker Alley. The Cornell Woolrich adaptation Never Open That Door/No Abras Nunca Esa Puerta (1952) now joins The Beast Must Die (1952), Bitter Stems (1956), and El Vampiro Negro (1953) in a group of films which demonstrates that Argentinean noir was just as good, if not better than Hollywood at exploring the darkness in the human soul. 

Director Carlos Hugo Christensen had originally intended to adapt three stories by crime writer Cornell Woolrich (Phantom Lady, Rear Window, and many more). However, that would have brought the film to over two hours, which was unheard of in Argentina, so two of the stories appear in this film and the third was expanded and released as If I Should Die Before I Wake (Si muero antes de despertar)(1952). This film is included as a special feature in the Flicker Alley set. 

The first half of the film is based on the story Somebody's on the Phone. Set in a world of elegant luxury, it features a brother and sister who live together, but who are a mystery to each other. When the sister finds herself in trouble with a blackmailer, her brother goes to extremes to find justice for her. The chilly, impeccable surroundings of their home make the reason for his sister’s distress more mysterious, because there is little around them to reveal who they are and what drives them. You are left to wonder about the trouble; is it excessive debt, embarrassing photographs, or something more sinister? This serves a purpose similar to Alfred Hitchcock’s MacGuffin, because the real story is the lengths this brother will go to for his sister. 

An adaptation of The Hummingbird Comes Home closes the film. In it an elderly blind woman discovers that her long-absent son has come home with his accomplices after committing a string of crimes. She realizes by the tune he whistles that he is the dangerous criminal described in a radio news report. While she loves her son, she knows she must not let him cause more harm. In a story confined mostly to her home, she is clever and resourceful as she devises a plan to stop him, while hopeful that he will choose a better path going forward. Cinematographer Pablo Tabernero does remarkable work in both sections of the film, but here he is especially effective in using light and shadow to reveal the mix of vulnerability and strength this elderly woman possesses. 

If I Should Die Before I Wake fits well into the trio, but is also extremely tense and effective as a stand-alone production. A boy is sworn to secrecy by a fellow classmate to not tell of the mysterious man who gives her gifts. When the man murders her, he is desperate to tell the truth, but feels bound to his secret, which his mother, not knowing the details of the matter tells him he must continue to keep. When the man sets his sights on another classmate, he realizes the danger of the adults in his life teaching him that the world must be approached as black and white, when it can be extremely dangerous to ignore that it is often in shades of gray. 

The intended meaning of Never Open That Door is a warning to not cross from good to evil, with the implication being that it is never worth the risk. I thought novelist Halley Sutton revealed an even more compelling theme in her interview for a Cornell Woolrich documentary included in the special features: all three of these stories are about familial devotion. Whether it is a brother protecting his sister, a mother her son, or a son following his mother’s instructions to the letter, the tension comes from characters placing family above all else. While that devotion and sense of wanting to protect or avenge loved ones is common in film noir, it isn’t often mentioned as a common element of noir, and I thought it was an interesting point. 

Along with If I Should Die Before I Wake, special features include a booklet with photos from the film, an introduction by Eddie Muller, audio commentary by author and film historian Guido Segal, a new documentary about source novelist Cornell Woolrich, and a newly recorded conversation with film archivist and historian Fernando Martin Peña. 

More Argentinean noir from Flicker Alley: 


El Vampiro Negro (1953)



Many thanks to Flicker Alley for providing a copy of the film for review.

Jun 28, 2024

Book Review--Dorothy Arzner: Interviews


 

I originally requested a copy of Dorothy Arzner: Interviews with the intention of interviewing its editor, film professor and author Martin F. Norden for the Watching Classic Movies podcast. To my dismay, when I received the book I realized he had passed in 2023. While I will not have the pleasure of speaking with Mr. Norden, I’m happy to say that this well-curated collection of interviews is a fine closing act to a busy and productive career.


I’ve long admired the thoughtful eye of Dorothy Arzner as a filmmaker and found her intriguing as the only major female director at the studios in her era. In fact, she was one of very few women who directed at all from the rise of the talkies through the studio age. This collection presents a cool-headed, intelligent, and empathetic professional who found her way in a brutal industry. She rose in the ranks with the help of great privilege bolstered by her profound talent in several aspects of filmmaking that studio heads recognized as being excellent for their bottom line.


The bulk of the book consists of mid-career interviews, which seem to for the most part to capture the truth about Arzner, as they contain many similarities, but enough variation to suggest that she wasn’t retelling the same fabrication through the years. She spoke freely of her efficient, but emotionally resonant approach to her work.


Arzner is less revealing when it comes to her personal life and her views on being a female director. While any person is justified in desiring some privacy, the former is especially understandable, as her decades-long relationship with screenwriter Marion Morgan would have been up for unpleasant scrutiny at the time. As for the latter, Arzner was more forthcoming about the challenges of being a female director when she was retired, as can be seen in the post-career interviews that make up a smaller portion of the book, but even in these conversations, there is a feeling she’s still withholding, whether out of the desire to focus on her work or simply not wanting to deal with the issue.


The appendix contains Arzner’s unfinished memoirs, which she wrote in 1955, but abandoned in the midst of her descriptions of the early twenties. While much like in her interviews, she often seems reluctant to discuss her most personal views and details, she paints a fascinating picture of the times in which she lived.


Overall, it is easy to see why gender could never have kept Arzner from the director’s chair. After the great assist of having industry connections, she was simply too much of a force as a talent to be ignored, and brilliant at understanding how to navigate a man’s world. It’s clear that she was well-liked on the set, partly because of a collaborative spirit in which she felt that cast and crew at all levels should feel free to offer ideas. For the most part though, it seems to have been her calm demeanor, combined with the kind of artistic and technical ability that come from a steady rise to the top through several jobs in the field from typist and scenario writer to editor.


On more than one occasion Arzner makes it clear that she felt the mellow manner on the set was necessary as a woman, and that she could not get away with the megaphone toting antics of her male peers. However, her way of working mirrors many modern female directors, such as Ava du Vernay, and that method has proven to be popular with cast and crew members alike as the industry gradually evolves.


Dorothy Arzner: Interviews is of great importance for what it documents, despite the occasional reticence of its subject. It reveals an underrated film artist and innovator worthy of praise in those ways alone and only more remarkable because of her unique position as a female director.

 

Many thanks to University Press of Mississippi for providing a copy of the book for review.

 

Rest in Peace Martin F. Norden

Jun 24, 2024

On YouTube: The "Sissy" Stereotype in Classic Hollywood and Grand Dame Guignol, AKA "Hagsploitation"

 

In a time when homosexuality was illegal, 1930s Classic Hollywood films commonly had so-called “sissy” characters. Clearly coded as gay, their effeminate demeanor was presented for laughs and ridicule. While these characters were meant to be mocked, they triumphed in their own way. They were bold in expressing their identity, were typically engaged in careers they were passionate about, and lived how they pleased, without caring what anyone thought of them.

  

Known as Hagsploitation, Psycho-Biddy, and the more elegant Grande Dame Guignol, there was a subgenre of movies primarily in the 60s and 70s in which middle-aged to elderly screen queens extended their careers in horror. While many found these roles demeaning to the actresses, these genre films would often effectively explore the anxiety, fear, frustration, and powerlessness a lot of these actresses, and women their age, felt in a society that either scorned or forgot them as they aged. They were also a great vehicle from them to cut loose with bold, unhinged, and often delightfully campy performances.

May 7, 2024

Movies for Classic Film Fans at the 50th Seattle International Film Festival

 


The 50th Seattle International Film Festival is celebrating the half-century mark with a typically adventurous roster of films, including a selection of intriguing archival offerings. In addition to screening in theaters from May 9-19, select films can be viewed via streaming from May 20-27. Unfortunately the latter option does not include the archival movies, but the option is nevertheless welcome as a way to increase access to this fascinating and diverse festival.


My top picks for classic film fans can be viewed here: