August Films

Hope you are all enjoying your popcorn and that you are wearing your mask. Now tell us what your August films are.

Woman At War
4/5 stars
Set in Iceland, a woman works to bring down the aluminum industry due to pollution concerns. However, things change when her foreign adoption request is met. I enjoyed this film and loved the beautiful shots of the landscape.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7279188/?ref_=rt_li_tt

The Others 2001
3.5/5 stars
Set during WWII, Nicole Kidman is the mother of 2 children with photosensitivity issues (they have to be in the dark) and a husband in the war. When she hires new help, she senses that the house is haunted and becomes unhinged. This has a great twist ending which I never saw coming.

>3 JulieLill: I own this one and I watched it twice before I figured out that they were all...or most of them were dead. DUH!!

My remote was malfunctioning the latter part of July but now able to access TCM again:

The Shop Around the Corner (1940) Director, Ernst Lubitsch. Screenplay Samson Raphaelson based on a stage play. Featuring: Margaret Sullavan (Klara Novak), James Stewart (Alfred Kralik), Frank Morgan (Mr. Matushek), Felix Bressart (Pirovitch). Love matching before social media in Hollywood Hungary -- at Christmas time, no less. Neither knows what the other looks like, even though they work shoulder to shoulder in Matushek's luggage store. Comedy with a sentimental side -- as good as it gets.

Ball of Fire. (1941). Director Howard Hawks. Screenplay Billy Wilder & Charles Brackett, very loosely based on Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Barbara Stanwyck as Sugarpuss O'Shea, Gary Cooper as Professor Potts. The pro with the eyebrows is Oskar Homolka. Dan Duryea is a machine gun toting gangster. Stanwyck has a musical number with the Gene Krupa orchestra -- she can sing and dance in addition to her ability to transform herself in every kind ofdrama or comedy. As part of his contract, Wilder, at that point an aspiring director, had a stipulation that he could sit in to observe Hawks. He claimed all he learned was "Cut" and "Action." Kind of long for a screwball comedy, but Stanwyck and Cooper are gold, and the supporting cast is gold standard as well. Cooper and his colleagues are part of a funded project to write an encyclopedia, and they are on the edge of being de-funded having reached the letter S. Cooper hurriedly works on his article on Slang and Sugarpuss, a nightclub entertainer and mistress of the head of a mob, is Cooper's resource for new terms and Cooper's place serves as her hideout to avoid testifying against her boyfriend.

Recently on HBO:

Jojo Rabbit. (2019) Director Taika Waititi. Screenplay Christine Leunens. Comedy loosely based on the diary of Anne Frank but with a happy ending? Nazi Germany for the young adult cohort and millennials, now that most everyone who remembers the period is dead and can't be offended. Lacks the touch of Wes Anderson in The Grand Budapest Hotel, to say the least. Very uncomfortable to watch, but not in a good way. Maybe HBO's The Plot Against America would be a better choice, but I've just started it.

Strange But True
Very interesting supernatural film about a girl who discovers she is pregnant 5 years after her boyfriend died! It is based on the book of the same title by John Searles. I am intrigued to read the book!

On TCM this evening:

The Virgin Spring. (1960) Dir. Ingmar Bergman. Screenplay: Ulla Isaksson. Photography (black and white): Sven Nykvist. Cast: Max von Sydow (Töre, the patriarch), Birgitta Walberg (Märeta; wife), Gunnel Lindblom (Ingeri), Birgitta Pettersson (Karin), Axel Düberg (leader of the herdsmen), Tor Isedel (the mute herdsman), Ove Porath (the boy herdsman). Tight film at less than 90 min. First time I've seen it. Although it was remade in the 70's as a slasher film, Last House on the Left, the grindhouse film focuses on the revenge element (of course), while the Bergman, set in the Swedish Middle Ages, combines the revenge with the religiosity of the period, which makes it far more complex. Bergman associates the violence and revenge with the pagan gods (opens with the pregnant foster child Ingeri praying to Odin), with Christianity unable to hold the pagan violence in check when push comes to rape and murder of the blonde virgin Karin. Christianity is certainly responsible for its share of violence and hatred historically, but in this context it is the only resistance to the anger and revenge of these rural descendants of the raging berserker Vikings. Ritualized atonement (building a church, lighting candles in the darkness) is a way of visibly keeping the demons at bay. Excellent photography; notable absence of overdone musical underlining. Karin is a most interesting character, spoiled, lazy, and a little manipulative, but also a kind person whose first reaction when meeting people is trusting and generous. Also liked Walberg as the doting mother, a little jealous of her daughter's hold over her husband, but strong enough to repress her emotions when she realizes the men her family has offered hospitality are the killers of her daughter.

The Guardian (2006)
5/5

A high school swim champion with a troubled past enrolls in the U.S. Coast Guard's "A" School, where legendary rescue swimmer Ben Randall teaches him some hard lessons about loss, love, and self-sacrifice.

The U.S. Coast Guard is sometimes taken for granted by the population and the other branches of our armed forces...that is until they or someone they know or love, needs them. The other branches are combat trained to face an armed enemy, and I am certainly not taking anything away from them...but the men and women of the Coast Guard...especially the ones of the elite branch known as "Rescue Swimmers" are trained to face a relentless enemy that borders nearly every land mass on Earth...the seven seas. This film was designed to tell their story and pay a great tribute to these unsung, sometimes forgotten and under appreciated, men and women of the United States Coast Guard. Well done.

On Chesil Beach (2017)
5/5
A movie version of Ian McEwans novel, very well done, sticks close to the book, except for the ending.
Interesting to note leading lady Saoirse Ronan also starred in another of Ian McEwans movies "Atonement"just recently viewed, another 5/5.
With "Chelsil Beach" I give points for liking the movie better than the book, this is very rare from me!!

>9 aussieh: I liked the book and also thought it stuck close to the book! I enjoy Ian's books!

Sleeping With The Enemy (1991) based on the book by Nancy Price
5/5

A young woman fakes her own death in an attempt to escape her nightmarish marriage, but discovers it is impossible to elude her controlling husband.

15 minutes into the film...I wanted to kill him. I do have to say that the first 20 minutes builds the story for the entire rest of the film...and does it beautifully. You really feel for Laura...and Martin is a really an evil guy who is portrayed very scarily. What Laura did took a great deal of courage but you knew about half way through how it was going to end.

TCM did an all-day Charlie Chaplin marathon. Some of the titles were familiar, others not so much. I missed it, but my cable channel will have them on-demand for a short time. I plan to watch as many of these as time permits. Last night was The Idle Class (1921). Produced, written, & directed by Chaplin, who also composed the music. A short film, 33 min. Save for the music, a silent film with intertitles. The jokes, as a result, are all visual. The best of them frame an action, which an edit shows something else is going on. Chaplin plays two roles: as his familiar tramp, and as an absent-minded, apparently alcoholic rich guy. The rich guy looks like the tramp, except in evening dress -- until, getting ready for a costume ball, he gets trapped in a suit of armor where the visor locks over his face. Rich guy's wife played by Edna Purviance, and I believe Mack Swain plays her father. First section takes place on a scruffy golf course, where there is a constant mix up about whose golf balls are whose. High point is when one of them rolls into the mouth of a fellow in one of the course roughs and the tramp (on vacation apparently, and a scratch golfer) pops it out, and then ... The second part takes place at a costume ball, where the tramp is mistaken for the husband. Then the real husband stumbles in, trapped in his suit of armor, with fist fights coming in unfortunate contact with the armor. It does appear that mistaken identity (golf balls, husbands) is the theme of the comedy. Just because it's a mine of cinematic nuggets, doesn't mean it isn't funny. It is funny.

Above The Law - (1988)
3/5

Nico learned martial arts in Japan, and was in Vietnam for the CIA, and now is a cop in the vice squad of Chicago. A junkie tells him about a big drug deal; However it turns out that the deal was about C4 explosives and that one of the parties was the CIA. Nico gets ordered to keep out of it, but can't imagine why the CIA would sell C4, so he investigates further. While risking his and his young family's life, he discovers that the CIA tries to cover it's connections to drug dealers in Middle America and wouldn't even stop from murder.

I have always liked Seven Seagal. He always portrays characters that are quite, fair, and extremely deadly when the situation calls for it. I have since learned that this was his debut movie. You can tell that this movie was low budget, yet it sported a story with plenty of action but a few too many bad guys.

Last night, continuing to explore the Charlie Chaplin film archive made available (temporarily) on TCM:

The Kid (1921). Produced, written, and directed by Chaplin, who also composed the music. B&W, silent, w/intertitles. This is one of Chaplin's first feature films (50 min. as opposed to his 2 reeler shorts, usually under 30 min.) and is one much-beloved by viewers. However, though the comedy bits are fine, much of the story has too much period sentimentality reminiscent of D.W. Griffith's weepers.

An unmarried mother (played by Edna Purviance -- interestingly, the character's former lover is an artist) leaves her baby in the backseat of a car, and 2 men drive off with it (I'm not sure, but I think they may have been car thieves). They eventually discover the child and dump it in a back alley. The Tramp (Chaplin) discovers it and does his level best to get rid of it, unsuccessfully. Then he finds a note hidden in the baby's blanket, asking that the finder care for the "orphan." The note becomes a key motif, determining the action at different parts of the film. The tramp is persuaded by the note and decides to take care of the baby.

Five years pass and the baby has grown up to be The Kid (Jackie Coogan), an excellent and quite lovable actor, even though he does some naughty things to help his foster father's glazier business. One bit of humor is the gargantuan meals they cook and eat together. The child is bullied and gets into a street fight with a much larger bully; The Kid's getting the upper hand when the bully's big bully brother turns up, but big brother goes to work on The Tramp. A woman tries to break up the fight and eventually realizes The Kid is ill. A doctor is called in, and he discovers the note, which has somehow survived the intervening years. The child recovers, and his natural mother meets her son, unknowingly, and their chemistry gives her the inspiration to search for her baby. Meanwhile, the doctor calls in the authorities, who kidnap the child to take to an orphanage. The tramp races off in pursuit in a wild chase scene, and eventually The Kid and The Tramp are united. But now they can no longer stay in their old home and eventually end up in a doss house The Tramp can barely afford. While they are sleeping, the manager discovers in the paper that there is a reward being advertised for The Kid. It seems mother Edna has come into money and is following up on her decision to find her son. The manager kidnaps The Kid while The Tramp is asleep.

The Tramp awakens and discovers his son is gone. He returns, dejected, to his old home, but he's locked out; he can only sit on the stoop. The next scene finds him in heaven, the neighborhood full of angels with feathery wings who fly about. It has comedy here, but I thought perhaps it was a dark European culmination, like Hans Christian Anderson, with the impoverished soul dying of malnutrition and despair at the door of his old home, but it turns out to be just a dream sequence. The mother is united with her son, with the still surviving note providing documentary proof. The Tramp is taken to the wealthy woman's mansion (in my mother's house there are many mansions, so to speak) where he is re-united with The Kid and welcomed.

More of yesterday's Chaplin from TCM:

The Tramp has a relationship similar to the one he has with The Kid, but this time with a mutt in A Dog’s Life (1918). Produced, written, edited, and directed by Charlie Chaplin, who also wrote the music when it was re-released. B&W, 33 min. on 3 reels, silent with intertitles. This one lacked credits, so kudos to IMDB for researching and crediting all or most of the responsible parties. Chaplin’s half- brother Syd plays the owner of a lunch wagon, where he figures in the bit where The Tramp steals most of the lunch wagon food for himself and the dog, and a second bit where The Tramp ducks for cover in the lunch wagon while under pursuit by criminals, who riddle the wagon with submachine gun fire. The dog makes a relatively late appearance, but plays a role similar to the note in The Kid, i.e., in initiating a lot of the action. A lot of the film takes place in a saloon that doesn’t allow dogs, so The Tramp has to smuggle the cur inside hidden in his pants, though the animal’s wagging tail peeks out of his trousers’ backside. The dog unearths a fat wallet stolen from a drunk rich man by two thugs, who bury the stash in a vacant lot where The Tramp is living rough. Most of the frenetic action has to do with the thugs stealing back their wallet and The Tramp stealing it back, leading to a terrific scene where Chaplin hides behind a curtain and knocks out one of the thugs, props him up, and substitutes his own hands to persuade the other thief to give him the half the money, which then allows Charlie to steal back the rest. The Tramp needs the dough because he has met his true love (Edna Purviance again) at the saloon and needs it to marry her – their big scene has them dancing, with Purviance holding the dog on its leash on the crowded dance floor. One other notable scene has The Tramp trying to get a ticket at an employment office to work at a coveted brewery job, but constantly getting sidestepped by other unemployed fellows. Perhaps the shortened length keeps the sentimentality in check (I mean, a cute dog, right?), so it’s mostly brisk laughs.

Shoulder Arms (1918). Produced, written, and directed by Chaplin. Chaplin also wrote the music for the reissue. B&W, 36 min., silent, intertitles. The pic was a gamble, since the Great War wasn’t yet over; apparently the troops really enjoyed it and the pic boosted their morale. Opens with Chaplin – not The Tramp this time -- as a recruit in the U.S. Army, going through drills. Reminded me of myself in high school days when I was required to do this stuff in ROTC. Then he’s off to the front, and we get a series of vignettes of life in the trenches. The best one has him and his fellow soldiers trying to sleep in water that has flooded their dugout past their beds. Apparently, despite his clumsiness in the opening sequence, he has become a Sgt. York on the front, even capturing 13 German soldiers (including their diminutive commander). Because of his bravery and skill he is sent behind German lines for some unexplained reason, disguised as a tree. The tree gets in a couple of licks on the enemy, and saves one of his own comrades who has been captured and prepared for the firing squad. But he is eventually found out and (as the tree) escapes to a half destroyed house, which, in a cinematic allusion, has literally lost its fourth wall. Here he is found by a Frenchwoman (Edna Purviance). He is able to hide out for a while but is eventually captured but manages to escape. The Frenchwoman is not so lucky, and she is taken to German headquarters, where, when they are alone, one of the officers makes unwanted advances, only to be thwarted when Chaplin pops into the fireplace from the chimney. The officer is disabled and dragged into a closet. But at just the wrong moment, the Kaiser himself arrives to inspect the troops and talk strategy with his general. But at the right moment, the American stumbles out of the closet in German Army mufti conveniently provided by the amorous officer. The “officer” apologizes for his ill-fitting uniform (a silent film doesn’t have to explain how he knows German), and takes his prisoner the Frenchwoman and leaves the bigwigs to their strategizing. Now to deal with the Kaiser’s driver and guard …

Caught this on TCM; watched it over Monday and Tuesday:

Casque d’Or aka Golden Marie. (1952) B&W, sound, 96 min. Director, Jacques Becker. Screenplay, Jacques Becker et al., based on a true story. Editing, Marguerite Renoir. Cinematography, Robert Lefebvre. Cast includes Simone Signoret (Marie aka Casque d’Or), Serge Reggiani (Georges Manda), Claude Dauphin (Felix Leca), Raymond Bussieres, (Raymond), William Sabatier (Roland Dupuis), Claude Castaing (Fredo), Paul Barge (Inspector Giuliani). First time viewing. Becker, who died in 1960, was idolized by the French New Wave directors. I became aware of him through My Journey Through French Cinema, the TCM documentary on post-war French films (posted in the July thread), & this is considered to be his best film. Historical drama that takes place in the French Belle Epoque (1871-to the early 20th century).

Opens with singing couples rowing up the Seine (I assume), to the rural suburbs. At first glance, appears to be a cinematic version of one of those Impressionist French “day in the country” pictures, or one of the Guy de Maupassant stories that take place during this period. But it turns out these merry urbanites are not hard-up artists or middle-class professionals, but “apaches,” a criminal gang from the Paris demimonde. The scene’s first close-up is the only quarreling couple. The quarrel is over who gets to row the boat. The couple is Roland Dupuis and his moll Marie, her blonde pompadour the source of her nickname (Helmet of Gold). We realize quickly that Marie is strong willed and Roland is made insecure by her strength.

The gang ends up on the outdoor area of an inn, with tables, liquor, dancing, and a small band. One of the gang, Raymond “the carpenter,” recognizes an old friend, “Jo,” who now goes by Georges Manda. Seven years ago they were both in prison, but after release Raymond has forsaken carpentry for crime, while Georges is now making an honest living as a full time carpenter. Marie refuses to dance with Roland – it’s clear their relationship is on the rocks -- but she is immediately attracted to Georges and agrees to a dance. While the gang is generally welcoming, Roland is seething and takes it out of Marie after the dance. But then he tries to take it out on Georges. Georges is of rather slight build; with his handlebar mustache he looks like a bank clerk, but he is no pushover and knocks Roland flat.

In the next scene, the gang is back in Paris where we are introduced to their leader, Felix Leca, who distributes shares of their ill-gotten gains and hears about the incident with Manda. He sees this as a chance to steal Marie from Roland. He takes her aside and suggests in so many words that he can get rid of Roland if she would give him a chance.

The next big scene takes place at a demimonde bar where the gang, including Leca, hangs out. A party of upper middle class ladies and gentlemen enters the tavern to survey the criminals at play as if they were visiting a zoo. A self-referential moment – isn’t this why people are watching the movie? I think Becker is trying to get around this conundrum by trying to show that criminals are human and can be noble as well. OK, but Becker, to me, ends up glamorizing and romanticizing a rather sordid situation – note the famous close-ups of Marie/Signoret -- somewhat like West Side Story, which it seems to anticipate. That said, Becker never suggests Marie is responsible for all the carnage -- she comes across as someone who knows her own mind and her own erotic power. Manda turns up at the bar and goes out behind with Roland to settle things. A murder takes place through Leca’s orchestration and he continues to manipulate the police (he’s an informer) and his own gang in order to take out his rival((s) and get Marie. It does not end well.

I’m not sure I share the New Wave’s enthusiasm, but it’s definitely worth a look. It has been compared to Max Ophuls’ Letter from an Unknown Woman (1948), but that one is still (at least in memory) my favorite romantic film of the period. Just discovered Letter is available on DVD. I’ve never been able to catch it on TCM, so I’m hoping to obtain a copy.

The Last House on Cemetery Lane (2015)
2/5

Screenwriter John Davies has grown tired of living in London and moves to an old manor house in a sleepy West Wales village to get out of the rat race. At first he enjoys himself, embracing the quieter pace of life and starting a relationship with his beautiful neighbour Cassie Konrad. But strange, unexplained occurrences begin to occur in the manor house. John discovers he is surrounded by a supernatural presence and begins to research the house's past, discovering secrets more terrible than he ever imagined. It is now up to John to right the injustices of the past and finally lay to rest the spirits which haunt the Last House on Cemetery Lane.

It should have appealed to "The Ghost Story Junkie" in me but it had several problems. To begin with it was a very low budget horror movie about a haunted house. The storyline had potential but the cinematography, camera and effects are very poor and the plot is confusing. Who is haunting the house and why? I thought the blind woman that lives upstairs and never leaves... never eats... and seemingly survives on air...was a big stretch in the midst of lots of small ones.

Continuing to catch up on Chaplin on TCM (from Wednesday):

The Pilgrim. (1923) Screenplay, direction, editing, Charlie Chaplin. B&W, silent, 39 min. Chaplin plays an escaped convict who hitches on a train that takes him out West to Texas. Though this is not a “tramp” film, the convict disguises himself as a minister, and the costume does echo the “penguin” look of The Tramp movies. Frequent supporting actor Mack Swain plays the Texas deacon who mistakes the convict for the real minister (as do the rest of the townspeople, including the sheriff), who has been delayed. One of the best visual moments is the big, jowly Swain and Chaplin doing the coordinated penguin walk of the tramp side by side as they head off to the church for the “minister’s” first service. The service lets Chaplin do his signature pantomime, which perhaps reflects his opinion of religion and the law (still in prison mentality, he mistakes the choir for a jury).

The high point of the film for me is a visit from a couple with the world’s brattiest little boy. Although the couple dress and act like starchy Victorians, the kid is a menace who could have been raised by wolves or a laissez-faire Dr. Spock (the autism spectrum was not known at this time). The minister is as much a victim of the kid’s antics as the parents (he seems like the devil’s version of the The Kid), and it culminates with the use of the kid’s father’s hat becoming dessert. The boy is played by one Dinky Riesner, no Jackie Coogan he. Edna Purviance shows up again, playing a naïve young lady whose mortgage money is stolen by one of the escapee’s fellow convicts, who seems to have succeeded in early release. Charlie recovers the money and returns it to the victimized lady, just as the sheriff identifies him as an escaped con. Recognizing the convict’s good act, the sheriff leaves Chaplin at the Texas-Mexico border rather than marching him back to prison. The convict is caught in a dilemma – he can’t go back to Texas, but the violence of Mexico has no attractions, and he is forced to straddle the border using his penguin walk, perhaps a comment on one of the implications of The Tramp’s signature perambulations.

The Circus (1928). Producer, screenwriter, director, editor, Chaplin, who for later versions (the one I saw) wrote and sang the title tune. B&W. At 72 min., it’s considered to be feature length, and may be one of the last of Chaplin’s fully silent films. Not as well known as his later features – the restoration was issued when I was still in college, so I assume it had been languishing in obscurity. In some ways more entertaining than the later features. In this one Chaplin is again The Tramp. The Girl is played by Merna Kennedy rather than Edna Purviance.

The theme, if it has one, is that the talent for comedy is unconscious: The Tramp is funnier than the circus clowns only when he doesn’t try to be funny. He gets the biggest laughs when he unintentionally undermines all of the carefully planned tricks of the circus magician. But anyone who has seen Chaplin doing his stuff must be aware of the craft, so the "unconscious" comedy is itself a sleight of hand. The culmination occurs when The Tramp has to substitute for his romantic rival, a tightrope artist. At this point, The Tramp has lost his nerve because he has realized the source of the laughs are not a result of his skills. In this case, because he can no longer rely on instinct, he enlists one of the circus crew to connect him to a line invisible to the audience in order to do “amazing” stunts on the high wire. But when the line is detached, The Tramp’s struggles are a set piece for Chaplin’s acrobatics. On one level, it again seems to demonstrate that it’s not conscious manipulation, but an unconscious blend of luck and talent, that creates the entertainment. But on another level, Chaplin swaying on the high wire is clearly a matter of conscious, highly rehearsed practice creating the illusion of dumb luck. Comedy is indeed a high wire act.

At the same time, The Tramp’s moment of truth helps him to realize, in the romantic story line, that The Girl’s true love is the high wire artist, not he. It was all an illusion, and The Tramp wanders off into the sunset.

Odds and ends. How did they do the scene when Chaplin is trapped in the lion’s cage? And the ringmaster, who brutalizes and starves his daughter, deserves a lot worse than to get a son in law (the handsome trapeze artist) who will protect her from her father while both continue to work for the tyrant. Couldn't help wondering if the ringmaster is a reflection of Chaplin's own childhood memories.

Thursday: Chaplin odyssey on TCM was 2 features.

Chaplin becomes more explicitly didactic in two of his later feature films:

Modern Times (1936). Producer, screenwriter, director, editor, Chaplin. B&W, sound, 87 min. The music is also by Chaplin and I believe was part of the original production (much of Chaplin’s music up to this time was composed when the earlier films were re-released). I was struck by the beautiful tune “Smile,” one of the major themes of the score; I assumed it was a popular melody of the time that Chaplin simply incorporated into the movie. But I believe the TCM host said Chaplin himself was the author of the melody; much later, and independently of the film, words were added by someone else, and it became a hit.

The TCM host also pointed out that Chaplin clung to the old ways when sound was introduced; he thought sound was a gimmick that had no legs. The movie is, in any case, mostly dialog-free, and Chaplin uses it as the farewell performance for The Tramp. Although older viewers probably associate the factory with 1984 or auto assembly lines, millennials may be reminded of an Amazon warehouse, the icon of the capitalist surveillance state. The hostility toward replacing workers with machines continues to this day. And it goes back to the sci-fi silent Metropolis, especially the mad scientist who goes a step further than Frederick Taylor and creates a feeding machine that would eliminate the lunch hour, though glitches almost make the device have the workers for lunch. One of the most beautiful scenes occurs when The Tramp and the “gamin” (Paulette Goddard) hide out in a department store and The Tramp roller skates on the edge of an unfinished upper floor, exemplifying human grace in contrast to mechanical efficiency.

The Tramp and The Gamine, constantly searching for work, eventually find themselves in a nightclub, entertaining The Idle Rich. The Tramp is forced to improvise a song and dance act (Chaplin again using the amateur act to demonstrate his highly professional artistry). But Goddard and Chaplin don’t stay – even providing entertainment has its issues – and they walk off into the sunset. Goddard is a change from the rather timid Victorian virgins of Chaplin’s earlier silent. She’s a feisty little thief, a grown-up Jackie Coogan. Interesting that Al Earnest Garcia, the brutal ringmaster and father in The Circus, is the capitalist manager in this one. You’ll want to watch this one again.

The Great Dictator (1940). B&W, sound, 125 min. Produced, written, and directed by Chaplin. This time around he didn’t do the editing. For music, unclear whether most of the score should be credited to Chaplin or Meredith Willson. The effect on me was similar to the recent JoJo Rabbit. I can’t get into a dramedy about pograms. Again demonstrates Chaplin’s aversion to dialog as a means of expression in films: Adenoid Hynkel’s political rants are gobbledy-gook with some German words tossed in seemingly at random. Chaplin has a double role as dictator Hynkel and a Jewish barber who saves the German/Tomanian pilot Schultz, who becomes an ally and a dissenting voice in the dictator’s army. Paulette Goddard is a Nice Jewish Girl who wields a slapstick frying pan, but she is then terrorized by the SS; very jarring. Jack Oakie kind of steals the show; he plays Napoloni/Mussolini. To me he largely takes over the scene whenever he is paired with the diminutive Hynkel. There are funny, mostly slapstick bits (Hynkel and Napoloni on barber chairs, the Tomanian staff trying to roll out the red carpet for the visiting Napoloni), but overall the film made me queasy. It ends on a lengthy peace and love speech delivered by Chaplin as the barber (who substitutes for Hynkel when the Great Dictator is mistaken for the Jewish barber). Made in 1940, Chaplin himself said he wouldn’t have made the film if he had known about the Holocaust.

The Village Barbershop 2007
John Ratzenberger who was the postman in the TV series Cheers stars in this lovely film about two lost souls who band together to keep the local barbershop/salon open. Funny and sweet, my husband and I really enjoyed it. (My husband actually sat through it - he usually nods off after the first few minutes of any movie!)

Watched Friday from the archive of the TCM Chaplin retrospective:

Monsieur Verdoux (1947). B&W, sound, 124 min. Producer, screenplay, director, music, Charles Chaplin. Editor, Willard Nicol. Cinematography, Rollie Totheroh. (FYI, Totheroh was the chief cinematographer in all of the Chaplin films I’ve seen so far). Although Orson Welles is given credit for the “idea” of using the true-crime story of the bigamist/murderer Henri Landru (for a fee of 5K), Welles may have been responsible for part of the script.

Obviously not a “tramp” movie; Chaplin is well-dressed and with a thin, dapper mustache, and, most noteworthy, he speaks! By this time, Chaplin has accepted defeat and is no longer in silent film/pantomime character. The location of the story is France, but the accents of the cast are a weird mixture: Chaplin has an English accent, others have the expected French accents, but some have obvious American accents. The most noteworthy American cast member is Martha Raye. As Annabella Bonheur, one of Verdoux’s wives, Raye is a force of nature. Like Jack Oakie in The Great Dictator, she overwhelms Chaplijn in her scenes with him, furnishing considerable comic relief as, through dumb luck, she manages to elude every attempt by Verdoux to bump her off.

Backstory is that M. Verdoux has an actual wife (in a wheelchair) and a small child. When he loses his job at a bank, he supports them by marrying multiple older women and killing them for the insurance or property. Although he has successfully killed off something like 14 women, the story focuses on the end of his career, where he loses his killer’s touch; his failures to murder his partners furnishes much of the comedy. Two great scenes with Raye occur when he takes her out to the middle of a lake and tries to drown her, and at a wedding with another woman he has spent considerable time wooing, when she turns up as a guest. As in Modern Times, the Great Depression looms large in the background. The most contemporary tone occurs after Verdoux is captured and sentenced to the guillotine. Unlike the 60’s tone of the peace and love speech at the end of The Great Dictator, here he could be a college student who got an A in critical theory, blaming capitalism for his murder spree, marching off to execution as if he were Frederick Darnay in A Tale of Two Cities.

Saturday, from TCM.

The Gold Rush (1925). B&W, silent, 95 min. Producer, screenplay, director, editor, Charlie Chaplin. He also wrote the music for the 1942 re-release, but the score may have been from the 1970 reissue, where the composer is William P. Perry. Cinematography, Rollie Totheroh.

Pre-dating the Depression, this film is much friendlier to capitalism, and The Tramp’s perils and efforts are rewarded by his elevation to multimillionaire after a successful gold strike. The fairy tale ending makes this the happiest of Chaplin’s feature films (at least through Monsieur Verdoux) since The Tramp “gets the girl” – Georgia Hale as “Georgia,” a bar girl with a heart of … -- and makes piles of money. Takes place in Alaska, where The Tramp pairs up with Big Jim McKay (Mack Swain, his early supporting actor). Big Jim makes an enormous gold strike, but, due to concussion, cannot remember where it was and can’t make his claim. Although at one point McKay tries to eat The Tramp, he is a generous and true friend to his accidental partner. Georgia is rather ambiguous – at first using The Tramp to fend off the boorish Hank Curtis (Henry Bregman) – then making The Tramp the victim of a cruel joke and hooking up with Curtis – then going back to The Tramp when she becomes aware of his love.

Noteworthy bits: Big Jim and the Tramp starving in an isolated cabin during a storm, forced to dine on one of the Tramp’s boots; The Tramp turning into an enormous chicken in his starving partner’s eyes; Big Jim and The Tramp in another cabin, teetering on the edge of a precipice. Smaller pleasures include The Tramp’s bootless right foot throughout the rest of the Alaska sojourn, The Tramp’s dancing dinner rolls at a make-believe party, and the reappearance of the dog on a leash in the middle of a dance from A Dog’s Life.

Sunday on TCM.

City Lights (1931). Producer, writer, director, editor (with Willard Nicol), Chaplin. Chaplin is also credited with the music, although there have been a number of scores by different composers. Cinematography, Rollie Totheroh.

The Circus might have been Chaplin’s last silent before the beginning of the Hollywood sound age, but City Lights is his last fully silent (i.e., dialog-free) film after the sound film had taken over the studios. At the beginning of the film Chaplin turns the political speech into mechanical gibberish (anticipating The Great Dictator), and then uses one of the silent statues of the unveiled monument to thumb his nose at the babbling “speakers.” At one point, The Tramp swallows a whistle and is only able to communicate by whistling, thus isolating him from the social life of the party.

In a way the film is his summing up of the comedies of the silent age – so many scenes seem to feature classic bits from earlier slapstick two reelers that would have been clichés by the time of the Hollywood films of the 30’s: the drunk millionaire, The Tramp caught by his baggy pants (in this case by the blade of a sword held by a statue), The Tramp unconsciously avoiding a fall while repeatedly walking backward toward the edge of a gap (later a mainstay of cartoons), the anchor switched to The Tramp by a suicide trying to drown himself, the drunk pouring liquor down the front of Chaplin’s pants (the silent comedy’s roots in vaudeville, is my guess), the slapstick musical chairs at the New Year’s party, and so on.

What seems to be a bit novel is what appears to be a gay subtext. While the male friendship between Big Jim and The Tramp in The Gold Rush seems straightforward, the first meeting of the drunk millionaire (Harry Myers) with The Tramp takes place in a dark city walkway by the river. The impression is cemented by the appearance of a suspicious policeman who turns up when the pair are about to saunter off – why else do the cops check out the dark areas of the city? Then there are the mood swings of the millionaire, evoking the jealous tiffs of an old roué with his rent boy. And the boxing match where the corner man rubs The Tramp’s bare stomach, repulsing The Tramp, but then, transformed by the magic of cinema into the blind girl, with The Tramp kissing his/her hand. Or the phallic sword entering The Tramp’s baggy pants, followed by The Tramp sitting on the swordsman’s face.

All this, of course, counterpoints Chaplin’s theme of men trying to communicate (be seen, as it were) with seemingly unapproachable women, culminating in the famous shot of The Tramp finally allowed to gaze his fill at his erstwhile blind love when she can finally see, when he no longer has to feel like a spy, a Tramp looking in through a shop window (as he does with the nude statue early in the film). The girl, who has never seen him before, recognizes him by touch and by, presumably, his voice – ironic turning point for Chaplin’s last silent film! There's doubtless a bit of the Pygmalion story here too.

Interesting bit of trivia from the host of the TCM presentation: Virginia Cherrill (the actor playing the blind girl) never got along with Chaplin, who fired her when the project was well under way. When he tried to rehire her, she only returned after he agreed to double her salary. The bit late in the movie when The Tramp is fired for showing up late to a job might be Chaplin’s dig at his leading lady, who he fired, among other reasons, for showing up late. I certainly found their chemistry on screen to work very well indeed; I never fail to tear up at that final shot.

Stir of Echoes (1999) (based on the novel by Richard Matheson)
5/5

After being hypnotized by his sister-in-law, a man begins seeing haunting visions of a girl's ghost and a mystery begins to unfold around him.

The "Ghost story Junkie" found this to be very satisfying. It's one of the hundreds of movies that I own but hadn't watched in some time. It's more than watchable and full of lots of chills, but the ending could have been a little less perfectible. I have #2...so later.

Stir of Echoes 2 (The Homecoming) (2007)
4/5

Upon returning home from the line of duty, National Guard Captain Ted Cogan thought his life would go back to normal, until he started seeing visions of a group of innocent bystanders he inadvertently killed in Iraq. With his family on the brink of destruction, Ted turns to a psychic that aids him in understanding what needs to be done to put these restless souls at peace - even if it means giving up his own life.

it equals the level of the first one but in a different way. The story is obviously different, with some slight hints of the first one, with the son being a character, and the story is actually almost believable too. I didn't like the ending but overall it was worth the 4 stars.

>25 Carol420: I never realized they made a second one. I will have to track this one down!

>26 JulieLill: It was pretty good...I just didn't like the ending... but I did like Rob Lowe in this one.

Before I Fall (2017)
1/5

February 12 is just another day in Sam's charmed life, until it turns out to be her last. Stuck reliving her last day over and over, Sam untangles the mystery around her death and discovers everything she's losing.

If you like movies about spoiled, overly rude, better than everyone else, teenage girls...this film is just waiting for you. If you prefer a movie that has at least one character that you can like and relate somewhat to...skip this one. Go rent "Groundhog Day" or "The Butterfly Effect". Same extraordinary event but much better done. It took way too long and too many screaming matches with the least popular girl to get to the plot...oh wait...maybe there really wasn't one.

The Quarry (2020)
3/5

After murdering a traveling preacher, a fugitive drifter travels to a small town and poses as the man he killed. Though the congregation loves the drifter's sermons of forgiveness, the local police chief is suspicious of the man. Soon a gruesome discovery at a local quarry forces the killer to fight for his freedom.

I was just Okay. The biggest downfall is the story itself. The plot is so lacking in depth and creativity that it makes for an extremely long and dull 100 minutes of the viewers time. I kept hoping for some kind of twist or unexpected turn in the story that would add some life to the proceedings...but sadly, it never came.

Serenity (2019)
3/5

Baker Dill is a fishing boat captain leading tours off a tranquil, tropical enclave called Plymouth Island. His quiet life is shattered, however, when his ex-wife Karen tracks him down with a desperate plea for help. She begs Dill to save her - and their young son - from her new, violent husband by taking him out to sea on a fishing excursion, only to throw him to the sharks and leave him for dead. Karen's appearance thrusts Dill back into a life he'd tried to forget, and as he struggles between right and wrong, his world is plunged into a new reality that may not be all that it seems.

I can best describe this as a beautiful mess. It would have been so much better if the movie had stuck to the description on the cover. Go into it with incredibly low expectations and try to lose yourself in the strange spell the film weaves, and you will find yourself entertained to the very end...but you won't for the life of you, understand how or why.

The Silent Storm (2014)
2/5

An enigmatic outsider living on a remote Scottish island finds herself caught between her minister husband and the delinquent who is sent to live with them.

I don't know what kept the wife from killing this "holier than thou" husband of hers...throwing his body in the sea and then getting it on with the cute young "delinquent"...oh wait...that's almost what she did do.

The Turning (2020) - Loosely based on The Turn of The Screw - Henry James
3/5

A young governess is hired by a man who has become responsible for his young nephew and niece after their parents' deaths. A modern take on Henry James' novella The Turn of the Screw.

It was a creepy old house that was occupied by two strange children and a less than likable housekeeper. It was a good story as far as it went but it left a lot of questions and happenings unexplained. Too bad since it had the potential of a 5 star movie.

My cable service had one of its free weeks for the Starz premium channel, which allowed me to catch up on relatively new movies.

Bad Boys for Life ( 2020). Directors Adil (El Arbi) & Bilal (Farrah). Screenplay by committee, though it could have been written by Family Guy’s dog Brian. People who really loved the first two films thought it was a terrible sequel. To me it didn’t seem that much different from the others, though the second had the best car chase. No Gabrielle Union in this one, & Captain Howard gets offed. Detectives Mike Lowrey (Will Smith) & Marcus Burnett (Martin Lawrence) return, and are hooked up with a special ops cop team with the acronym AMMO, led by Lieutenant Rita (Paola Nunez), and including Vanesa Hudgens as Kelly. Worth noting because Hudgens gets top billing over Nunez, a Mexican telenovela actor, even though Rita gets as much screen time and action as the two leads. There’s a Darth Vader type plot involving the revenge of the widow of a Mexican cartel boss. She’s also a witch, who keeps her son (psychologically) under her spell, and sics him on a killing spree of all the people she deems responsible for her husband’s death – including Det. Lowrey. Mike and Marcus are getting to be a little long in the tooth – Mike is no longer bullet-proof! He dyes his goatee! – and the ops team does quite a bit of the heavy lifting in this one. One suspects that Mike resents being told what to do by Rita, but the conventions of cop movies allow him to ignore protocol (to the dismay of Captain Howard – Joe Pantoliano as the series ham) and do all sorts of Above the Law cop things as is traditional in this genre. Rather jarring to see the Mexican assassin recruited to the cops because he’s “family.” Two hours of guns and car chases, if you’re in the mood.

Jumanji: The Next Level. Director and screenwriter Jake Kasdan. 2 hr. For personal reasons I’m fond of the original Jumanji, one of the last things I did with a late relative. So nice to see Bebe Neuwirth from the original in a cameo at the end! This is the third in the series, and it’s basically a sequel to the second, with the same set of “characters” from the videogame: the core 4 (Dwayne Johnson, Jack Black, Kevin Hart, & Karen Gillum) plus latecomer Colin Hanks. The best new face in the series is Awkwafina, the Norah from Queens girl (there’s also a horse with a neat trick). Most of the comedy has to do with identity. As in the previous film, the characters are avatars of players in the real world, but this time the players go to different avatars. The film assumes you remember the players from the earlier film, but I didn’t, and the jokes and awkwardness (wrong sex, wrong physical type) were hard to follow. To make things worse, the film introduces a new twist – a magic pool that switches players to different avatars. Again, if you don’t remember the backstories of the original players, it’s even harder to follow. Probably younger folk with more nimble memories will have an easier time. Otherwise, I enjoyed it for the CGI action/slapstick and was pleased that Gillum got more space to strut her acrobatic/martial arts stuff. Congrats to her stunt woman I suppose. Plus I always enjoy Awkwafina. Loved Norah from Queens. Rather miss the cornucopia of animals from the first one, but the actors and stunt people undoubtedly ate up most of the production budget.

More from the Starz binge.

Zombieland: Double Tap (2019). 1 hr. 39 min. Director, Ruben Fleischer. Screenplay by Rhet Reese, Paul Wernick, & some other guys. Sequel brings back the original quartet of Woody Harrelson, Jesse Eisenberg, Emma Stone, and Abigail Breslin, and introduces Rosario Dawson, Zoey Deutch, and Avan Jogia. I recall the basic premise of the original; don’t remember whether I watched it all the way through. Seems closer to Men in Black in tone rather than The Walking Dead or the original George Romero films (zombies do not fascinate me). I assume they introduce Deutch (as Madison) and Jogie (as Berkeley) to deflect some of Eisenberg’s grating personality, but Madison and Berkeley are even more annoying. Some suspense because some of the zombies have evolved to a higher and more efficient level that does not always respond to the double tap. And in the interim it appears none of the original characters have evolved or grown wiser. Harrelson (Tallahassee) gets in touch with his Native American heritage in a way activists might read as cultural appropriation, though most of the snarky humor of the zombies vs. hippies plot affects MAGA-type icons that Hollywood scriptwriters use to divide America under the instructions, presumably, of their Deep State puppet masters. I liked the Men in Black movies (which predicted QAnon), even the bad ones, so this one went down easy.

A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood. (2019) 1 hr. 49 min. Director, Marielle Heller. Screenplay, Micah Fitzerman-Blue, Noah Harpster, based on an article by Tom Junod on Fred Rogers in Esquire Magazine. I put this on late at night thinking it might make me drowsy, but it pulled me in, the time went by, and it was well past midnight when it was over. Kind of like a psychological Christmas Carol. Tom Hanks is Fred Rogers, the impresario of Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood, an actual children’s TV show from back when (I don’t think I’ve ever seen it). Matthew Rhys (recently seen as Perry Mason on HBO) plays Walter Vogel, an Esquire writer assigned to write a brief profile for an issue on American heroes. Vogel is married with a newborn son. He has a lot of baggage associated with his estranged father, culminating in a punch-up at his sister’s wedding, when Dad (Chris Cooper) turns up after abandoning Vogel’s mother many years ago when she was dying. When Rhys goes to the Neighborhood set for the interview, Mr. Rogers turns it around and becomes something of a Christian psychotherapist for the embittered reporter. There’s resistance, of course, but as they get into each other’s lives, healing begins. Sounds like a homily, but I found it to be very effective. One sad irony brought about by time: the article that represents Vogel’s change of heart appears in a printed magazine; it’s an added tearjerker to watch the new issue rolling off the presses knowing that print and writers like Walter Vogel will soon be on the way out. Good supporting work by Hanks and Susan Kelechi Watson as Andrea, Walter’s wife, who seems to me to be as responsible for Vogel’s turnaround as Fred Rogers. One particular scene I liked has Mr Rogers, left alone by the crew, pounding dissonant notes at the bottom of a piano, the metaphor he uses with Vogel to express the anger he struggles with, and then returning to the happy middle of the keyboard to resume the tranquil tune.

And finally, from the Starz bingeathon:

Little Women (2019) 2 hr. 15 min. Director and screenplay, Greta Gerwig, from the novel by Louisa May Alcott. Unusual in that the linear narrative of the book is instead broken up by an episode later in the novel, when Jo (Saoirse Ronan) first offers her stories to a New York publisher. There are flashbacks, and flashbacks within flashbacks, and toward the end you realize that the opening scene is itself a flashback. An image in the film captures the structure, with Jo laying the sheets of the manuscript of her novel on the attic floor, just as Gerwig must have planned the sequence of events.

I was reading a review of Lovecraft Country that complained about characters who become mouthpieces for didactic historical insights, and there is one scene that stands out, when Amy (Florence Pugh) is in Paris and lectures Laurie (Timothêe Chalamet) on the role of women during that time. Jane Austen would have shaken her head at such obviousness. On the other hand, note that a similar observation by Aunt March (Meryl Streep) on the economics of marriage sounds appropriate coming from the characteristically plain-spoken sourpuss. Perhaps Gerwig’s excuse is that some of the old woman’s worldview has rubbed off on her niece, who has accompanied her to Europe.

More subtle is the equally worldly chat the publisher has with Jo about the ending of her novel (again rather obviously labeled Little Women) which he insists must end in marriage or it wouldn’t sell. Like any Austen novel, the film (and the novel) ends in marriage(s), as if the director is saying “If you think marriage equals happily ever after, you’re still a little woman.” Through the years many readers have wanted to rewrite the book so Jo marries Laurie instead of Prof. Baer (Louis Garrel) but in Gerwig’s rendering, the seemingly puzzling marriage to the foreigner is Jo the authior’s way of thumbing her nose at the readers who expect conventional romance endings. the movie ends with marriages, but the adapter (as well as Alcott) does not go into the subsequent details and disappointments; all the other pairings seem to be conventional enough. Beth (Eliza Scanlan) could represent that part of Alcott who dies a little to please the public (she never married in real life as the dreaded “spinster”).

But the “romance” elements seem to have a life and resistance of their own. As her older sister Meg (Amy Watson) says in defense of her “boring” married life (paraphrasing): “Not everyone is the same as you, Jo.” I’ve commented on Gerwig’s somewhat clumsy didacticism and (I’ll say it) sometimes confusing structure, but I very much liked the film overall, with many scenes making me tear up. The savage fights between Amy and Jo seem like real family dynamics, the tone inserted by Gerwig. Gerwig acknowledges Beth’s shyness and spiritual beauty, overlooked by so many modern readers who might find her “boring,” but who is beloved by Jo. The Amy of Gerwig’s creation is more complex than the rather shallow creature of the novel; in the film Gerwig rescues her from drowning in an ice bath. Or Jo does, and the rivalry is suspended. To me the success of the film is that Gerwig loves the characters for who they are, not because they do or do not fit into an appropriate role.

The Last Full Measure (2019) - (Based on a true story)

Thirty-four years after his death, Airman William H. Pitsenbarger, Jr. ("Pits") is awarded the nation's highest military honor, for his actions on the battlefield.

Great story and entertaining throughout the entire movie. It's so sad to see our vets get no recognition especially in a conflict as controversial as Vietnam...but hey... they didn't start the war ...they only died by the thousands fighting it for a fairly ungrateful government. It was showcased in this movie how humanity, respect, and compassion is still alive. It didn't bring out the violence of the war, but a emotional and touching story of a hero who never considered himself a hero. The ending is extremely moving and makes you see that there are American's that do still care. Makes you wonder how many more unintentional and unrecognized heroes there are out there.

Andrew Carnegie-Rags to Riches, Power to Peace
Fascinating bio film on Carnegie. He went from being poor to being one of the richest men. He also his known for his philanthropy and the building of his libraries. Very interesting bio pic!

Bambi: A Life in the Woods
Felix Salten
4/5 stars
This is the original tale of Bambi written by Felix Salten and the source material for Disney's film. Bambi grows up in the wild with his mother and other animal friends while trying to avoid the danger from other animals and hunters. I thought this was wonderfully written and enjoyed the illustrations and I felt it was a pretty realistic depiction of life in forest for the animals.

I had decided to read this book after reading The Queens of Animation by Nathalia Holt who talked about the book being an allegory of the treatment of Jews in Europe. According to Wikipedia - " ... it was subsequently banned in Nazi Germany in 1936 as "political allegory on the treatment of Jews in Europe."https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bambi,_...."

I liked both the movie, which was clearly geared to kids, but the book was good too.

The Watch - (2012)
3/5

Four men who form a neighborhood watch group as a way to get out of their day-to-day family routines find themselves defending the Earth from an alien invasion.

It was funny but it would have been funnier if they had toned down the language a bit. There are some very interesting creature designs here.

Angel Has Fallen (2019)
4.5/5

Mike Banning is framed for the attempted assassination of the President and must evade his own agency and the FBI as he tries to uncover the real threat.

I like both Morgan Freeman and Gerald Butler and they both did commendable performances. Of course it was a predictable story... with predictable twists and turns ... and an even relatively mild Nick Nolte. But the story itself is really wild and really "explosive"...in more ways than one. A lot of action and a lot of action and way too much shooting and bombing... but it was fun watching it get there.