I Just Watched...

[Belle]

A wonderful documentary about the greatest composer for the film medium, Eric Wolfgang Korngold (1897-1957).



Korngold formed an important part of the European emigre film community in the USA from the late 1930s. The thing which comes across in all these stories is the generosity of the American nation in taking in these extraordinary, talented people fleeing from political terror. The vast majority of the Jewish diaspora wasn't so fortunate, it has to be said, and they were turned away from every country and left languishing on ships.

[TikiSoo]

Last night we drove the 40 minutes to Rome NY's movie palace to see Curse/Night of the Demon '57

It's one of my favorite horror movies but I deliberately hadn't watched it in a decade...and had completely forgotten every scene, so it was like seeing it for the first time!

Dana Andrews plays a Dr visiting UK to give a talk about the psychology of cult/religion followers and becomes entangled with those "cursed". Of course being a scientist, doesn't believe any of it but meets up with adorable Peggy Cummins who's convinced her Uncle was a victim of the curse.

Well of course the curse passed onto Andrews who at first scoffs it off, then is convinced when he actually sees the Demon. The pace and build up of suspense is just perfect and the spectacular ending is actually the ONLY image burned to my memory.
I often call it the "smoky monster floating on the railroad tracks" before I knew the name of this movie:


It's a taut 96 minutes and shows all the usual finesse of director Jacques Tournier. It was a first time viewing for the two who went to see this with me & both loved it! There was hearty spontaneous applause before THE END came up on the screen which tells me the entire audience enjoyed it too.


(I whispered, "Oh the curse is the house only gets 3G not 5G" although that scribble more resembles my initials S.G.)

I do want to mention there was a controversy among the producer/director to actually show the Demon, obviously a rubber suited actor. I didn't like close ups of his face so much, made him look too much like a wolf, but his long shots RULED. Deftly superimposed over darkness, the slowed down motion, the billowing smoke gave it an otherworldly feel.
I'm convinced Terry Gilliam's Red Knight in The Fisher King was inspired by this movie Demon:

[Detective Jim McLeod]

Angel (1983) Tubi=6/10

A high school girl (Donna Wilkes) works as a Hollywood hooker when abandoned by her parents.

If you want 1980s exploitation, this is one of the better examples. It is shot almost like a TV movie but contains some nudity and foul language so it could never be shown uncut on regular TV. Wilkes is cute in the title role but not much of an actress. Angel's hooker friends are being murdered by a psycho (John Diehl, soon to become Det. Zito on Miami Vice). What makes the movie work is the incredible cast. Cliff Gorman is a cop who tries to protect Angel. Dick Shawn plays a transvestite, Susan Tyrell a lesbian landlady and Rory Calhoun as former B movie cowboy who hangs out on Hollywood boulevard still in his western costume and six shooters.

[Detective Jim McLeod]

Last night we drove the 40 minutes to Rome NY's movie palace to see Curse/Night of the Demon '57

It's one of my favorite horror movies but I deliberately hadn't watched it in a decade...and had completely forgotten every scene, so it was like seeing it for the first time!

One of the best horror films of the 1950s. The British brought back the classic Gothic type films since America was more into giant bugs at this time.
Niall MacGinnis is creepy as the cult leader, the character was inspired by real life occultist Aleister Crowley.

[Swithin]

Last night we drove the 40 minutes to Rome NY's movie palace to see Curse/Night of the Demon '57

I do want to mention there was a controversy among the producer/director to actually show the Demon, obviously a rubber suited actor. I didn't like close ups of his face so much, made him look too much like a wolf, but his long shots RULED. Deftly superimposed over darkness, the slowed down motion, the billowing smoke gave it an otherworldly feel.
I'm convinced Terry Gilliam's Red Knight in The Fisher King was inspired by this movie Demon:

One of the great films, and one of the best demons. There's always the old argument as to whether a demon should be shown. I always want to see it. I love the scene at the end, when the parchment is passed.

One of my other favorite scenes in Night of the Demon features one of my favorite British actresses: Athene Seyler, who plays the villain's mother. I love the seance scene, with the song "Cherry Ripe." My only problem with that scene is that Dana Andrews is too much the sceptic. In almost every movie seance scene, there's a whiny sceptic, but Andrews is ridiculous. In general, Andrews is a bit too OTT with his skepticism.

Btw, Athene Seyler plays one of the leads in Make Mine Mink (1960), one of the best British comedies.

[scsu1975]

One of my other favorite scenes in Night of the Demon features one of my favorite British actresses: Athene Seyler, who plays the villain's mother. I love the seance scene, with the song "Cherry Ripe." My only problem with that scene is that Dana Andrews is too much the sceptic. In almost every movie seance scene, there's a whiny sceptic, but Andrews is ridiculous. In general, Andrews is a bit too OTT with his skepticism.

It's been awhile since I've seen the film, but my wife (who is a medium and has participated in some seances) said this was one of the more realistic seances she's seen on film. Most of the others she's seen are just ridiculous and not even close to what actually happens.

[Allhallowsday]

Last night we drove the 40 minutes to Rome NY's movie palace to see Curse/Night of the Demon '57

It's one of my favorite horror movies but I deliberately hadn't watched it in a decade...and had completely forgotten every scene, so it was like seeing it for the first time!
...

"Cherry ripe, cherry ripe...!"

[Allhallowsday]

ALICE DOESN'T LIVE HERE ANYMORE (1974)

Did not intend to, but watched on TCM last night. Another film that gets better each time I revisit it.

[Allhallowsday]

A wonderful documentary about the greatest composer for the film medium, Eric Wolfgang Korngold (1897-1957)...

Korngold formed an important part of the European emigre film community in the USA from the late 1930s. The thing which comes across in all these stories is the generosity of the American nation in taking in these extraordinary, talented people fleeing from political terror...

Thanks to studio heads like JACK WARNER and CARL LAEMMLE ...

[BagelOnAPlate]

ALICE DOESN'T LIVE HERE ANYMORE (1974)

Did not intend to, but watched on TCM last night. Another film that gets better each time I revisit it.

"She went to sh** and the hogs ate her!"

One of the many great lines from Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore.


I also love Jodie Foster's: "Weird."

[Allhallowsday]

..."She went to sh** and the hogs ate her!"

...

[CinemaInternational]

I've seen some more movies since I typed this out, but I felt the need to catchup on some slightly newer films, with mixed results (Just so I don't sound too down on the 1980s, I'll admit that some I looked at since this were actually quite good like Made in Heaven [1987], Four Friends [1981], Love Letters [1983], etc.)

Adventures in 1980s films (and one 70s film) that should have been better than they actually are..... (Or reasons why I should be extremely grateful I spent the last few weeks in a flurry of over 150 often delightful 30s and 40s and 50s titles)

Violets Are Blue (1986) seems at first glance to be a more conscientious version of the time-old tale of the love triangle, but too much focus on the adulterous duo trying to rekindle some of their old teenage sparks (Sissy Spacek and Kevin Kline) and not enough involving the wronged wife (Bonnie Bedelia, excellent in what little time she does have onscreen) pretty much unmoors any loftier intentions, even though there is some very telling dialogue. Even at a slender 85 minutes this feels padded, and there is something queasy about this tale being directed by Spacek's real-life husband.

The Doctor and the Devils (1985) was an attempt to bring back the old Hammer horror type of penny dreadfuls back to the masses, and bizarrely, it was produced by Mel Brooks. It is loosely based on a real-life notorious crime spree of the 1800s when a doctor needing cadavers for medical research, got involved with a pair of grave diggers....little dreaming that they were compulsive murderers. The film has a great, earthy, dark period authentic look to it and it is splendidly cast (Timothy Dalton, Jonathan Pryce, Twiggy, Julian Sands, Stephen Rea, Phyllis Logan, Sian Phillips, Patrick Stuart, Beryl Reid), but the film never coheres property, and the script, when not serving up shocks or its cautionary moral, is aloof and oblique.

Ghost Story (1981) might be the biggest disappointment though. It too is a horror tale, one that lured me in with a fantastic cast of veterans, Fred Astaire, John Houseman, Melvyn Douglas, Douglas Fairbanks Jr, and Patricia Neal. Unfortunately, the film always keeps getting in the way, leaving the veterans with scant onscreen attention. The tale concerns a group of men, haunted by a death they were all accidentally responsible for in the early 1930s, and what happens when the ghost of that victim (Alice Krige) returns for vengeance, resulting in a lot of men shocked to death and abrupt shock cuts that show a rotting corpse in place of Krige's face. Unfortunately, maybe because of studio interference, the majority of screentime goes to Craig Wasson as a pair of Astaire's identical twin sons, one ill-fated very early on, the other more successful in surviving; frankly put, although he isn't bad in the film, it feels like false advertising. (Wasson also has to have one of the tackiest death scenes in cinema history as the ill-fated brother who, terrified by Krige's skeletal look after a night of sex, plunges backwards stark naked from a high-rise window, as the film shows him against a badly processed back projection flailing his arms about, while his microscopic dick flutters every which way like a Planters peanut caught in a strong wind). So, Astaire and all the others I came to see are left with mere onscreen scraps, and are left with unformed characterizations. That feels like a grave betrayal for this classic film fan, especially in the light that it was the final film for Astaire, Douglas, and Fairbanks.

The Honorary Consul (1983; also known as Beyond the Limit) was second-tier Graham Greene on the printed page, a saga involving a doctor, a boozy British consul, and the woman, the latter's wife, who they both lust for that later turned into a claustrophobic, but fascinating tale of morality. The film suffers from a major piece of miscasting: Richard Gere is simply not a good fit for a Graham Greene world, even with extremely explicit sex scenes. Michael Caine fares much better as the consul, but what was already a delicate proposition to turn into a film ends up sinking under the extra weight.

Trouble in Mind (1985) attempted to blend futuristic ideas with a 40s noir ambiance. As it is an Alan Rudolph film, its also very determinative in its desire to be as out of the mainstream as possible. The film is visually stunning and aurally interesting, but the story is exceedingly hazy and the characters are poorly sketched, although Divine, in a small role, manages to make a great impact in the Sydney Greenstreet role. It's just too clinical in the long run.

Orphans (1987) has an extremely raw feeling and strong performances from Albert Finney and Matthew Modine, but it is ultimately just a little too odd and claustrophobic to really work. It is the saga of a pair of con artist brothers whose lives are turned upside down when one of them brings Finney, his latest target, back to the slovenly family house.

Valentino (1977) was another over-the-top Ken Russell production, focused on the sexual relationships of the famous silent screen star. Rudolf Nureyev doesn't really look like the man he is playing, but he has an exotic quality about him that works, and frankly, even in raunchy, overheated parts, it was nice to see Leslie Caron, Michelle Phillips, and Carol Kane again, but the film unfortunately tells us very little about anybody, and it gets to the point of screaming hysteria (the characters scream and the music swells) on a relatively frequent basis.

Irreconcilable Differences (1984) was supposed to be a satire on the egotistical elements of Hollywood with Ryan O'Neal and Shelley Long as an estranged couple thrown for a loop when their daughter Drew Barrymore sues for emancipation at the age of 10. It falls flat because outside of the girl, there are no sympathetic characters here, and even most of the barbs fall flat. At other points, it is just plain mawkish, although the ending works... That said, Barrymore does deliver sterling work, as does an amusing Sharon Stone as O'Neal's mistress.


Fortunately, I did see one that did hit the spot: Truffaut's homage to Hitchcock, The Bride Wore Black (1968) with Jeanne Moreau on a deadly quest of revenge after her husband was killed on their wedding day. She gives a wonderful performance, and the film itself is taut, absorbing, and filled with some adroit dark humor. Just a very fine noir.

[Belle]

A wonderful documentary about the greatest composer for the film medium, Eric Wolfgang Korngold (1897-1957)...

Korngold formed an important part of the European emigre film community in the USA from the late 1930s. The thing which comes across in all these stories is the generosity of the American nation in taking in these extraordinary, talented people fleeing from political terror...

Thanks to studio heads like JACK WARNER and CARL LAEMMLE ...

Oh, absolutely!! They had money and, as it turns out, good TASTE. Not all of them, to be sure, but enough to foster success in gifted artists - particularly in the MGM Freed Unit.

[Detective Jim McLeod]

The House On Telegraph Hill (1951) Fox Movie Channel -7/10

A Polish survivor of a Nazi concentration camp (Valentina Cortese) assumes the identity of her dead friend and comes to America.

This was a Robert Wise directed film that I saw for the first time. It turned out to be a hidden gem, it starts very intriguing and moves swiftly through it's 93 minutes. It has elements of suspense, melodrama and mystery. Cortese's dead friend had left behind an orphaned baby boy, the rest of the family was also dead. Richard Basehart (the only cast member I was familiar with) plays the appointed guardian of the boy. He falls in love with Cortese and marries her, not knowing her true identity. Wise was already a master of the "noir" style after classics like Born To Kill and The Set Up.
I would recommend this to other fans of Wise and this type of story, I think you will be surprised how good this overlooked film is.

[Detective Jim McLeod]

Orphans (1987) has an extremely raw feeling and strong performances from Albert Finney and Matthew Modine, but it is ultimately just a little too odd and claustrophobic to really work. It is the saga of a pair of con artist brothers whose lives are turned upside down when one of them brings Finney, his latest target, back to the slovenly family house.

I saw this one when first released. It was based on a play and probably worked better on stage. But I remember liking it to due to Finney, who is excellent.