1968 - ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST, the classic Western film

Haven't seen this one in a very long time.  My latest viewing of Once Upon a Time in the West reminds me that this is a great film and also a really long film.

Critics talk about how Sergio Leone is the master of wide screen composition and the close up, can't argue with that.  Leone also has a sense of humor, casting Henry Fonda as a real bad guy and loading the film up with cameos from American western actors like Jack Elam, Keenan Wynn, Lionel Standler and Woody Strode.  Strode said in an interview that Leone was the only director who gave him a lot of closeups in a film. 

Ennio Morricone wrote a fairly sparse score which consisted of about 3-4 themes which are repeated throughout the film it's very effective.  The principal leads with exception of Claudia Cardinale were American they were all very good, particularly Charles Bronson as a kind of crazed revenge seeking gunman.

Lots of good stuff in this film however the chief complaint would be the length of this film.  The film could probably have done with a few less expansive crane shots.

 166 minutes, written by Sergio Donati and Sergio Leone.

1946 - GREAT EXPECTATIONS, classic film is good for lazy students who didn't finish the book and have a test the next day

Usually considered one of the best adaptations of a Charles Dickens novel, David Lean and his team brought this film in under two hours a considerable accomplishment considering most of these Dicken's novels are very long.

Lean and his writers apparently went through the book and underlined what they considered were the major scenes in it and then took this material and turned it into a screenplay.  Apparently this was accomplished in a couple of weeks which must be some kind of a record

The film is sort of a greatest hits of Great Expectations and having read the book (admittedly a long time ago) it's hard to figure out what exactly was left out of the film.  If I had any criticism of the film at all it would be with the ending which is just a  little contrived.  Pip finally gets Estella to see the light by literally having her walk into the light.

Even early in his career David Lean was the total pro when it came to making films.  The cinematography, acting, editing, production and sound design are at a very high level for what is a decent but modestly budgeted film.  This is a very easy film to watch for a 40's classic.

The screenplay was by David Lean, Anthony Havelock-Allan and Ronald Neame the running time is 113 minutes.

2013 -THE HOBBIT: THE DESOLATION OF SMAUG, the 2nd in the 2nd trilogy or the 5 in the Lord of the Rings Saga

What an incredible piece of crap and this is getting good reviews mostly it seems because it was better than the first film in the new series.  This Hobbit film is essentially a rehash of The Fellowship of the Rings film which featured a bunch of guys being chased by some Orcs.  Nothing succeeds like success so Peter Jackson and his team just remade that film.  In The Hobbit:  The Desolation of Smaug,  the hobbit and the dwarfs are chased by what else, Orcs.

This film is also incredibly violent, I can guarantee that the viewer will get his or her fill of Orcs getting shot through the neck with arrows or beheaded with a sword.  Jackson must like this stuff because there is a lot of it throughout the film.  Since no blood comes leaking out of the dismembered body or head it's apparently OK to constantly show it.

Considering all the money Peter Jackson had at his disposal he seems to be a very unimaginative filmmaker.  The film constantly repeats the same shots of the hobbit and the dwarfs walking around while the camera swoops in from a great distance.  If there is a mountain in the background and someone is walking up it, you can be sure the camera will come flying in from some bird's eye view almost crashing into the mountain. 

By now it's well know that The Hobbit will be a three part film series which means more story padding and more beheading scenes.  But I could be wrong.  Next year the public will proably all walk into the theater like lemmings to watch The Hobbit 3:  Hobbits Are  A Girl's Best Friend.

161 minutes, written by Peter Jackson, Fran Walsh, Philippa Boyens and Guillermo del Toro.

1974 - MCQ, a very bad John Wayne film.

A very bad film made by John Sturges and John Wayne late in their careers.  Clearly the point of  McQ was to put the iconic actor in a contemporary cop film similar to Dirty Harry. But considering the talent, the film is a very poor rehash of that film.

A lot of the people involved in the film like John Sturges and composer Elmer Bernstein are working well below their skill level.  It's like hardening of the artistic arteries had set in with these old time professionals.  John Wayne in particular looks really out of it.  He seems barely engaged with the film and is incredibly stiff and slow moving throughout the film.  Wayne acts more like a senior citizen in need of a walker than a tough veteran cop. 

To add to the oldster status of the film, the rest of the cast features a bunch of old timers.  William Bryant, Eddie Albert, Diana Muldaur, Clu Gulager, David Huddleston, Al Lettiere, Julie Adams and Colleen Dewhurst.  It's like being at a celebrity senior citizens center.

 The plot is about drug dealing and dirty cops something that was on Quinn Martin TV shows every other week.  The action is unimpressive except for a final car chase along a Pacific Ocean beach.

The whole thing is just pretty depressing and bad.

111 minutes written by Lawrence Roman.

1963 - THE GIRL WHO KNEW TOO MUCH, early giallo film

The Girl Who Knew Too Much is a very early giallo film shot by Mario Bava who is one of the creators of this genre.  To refresh everyone's memory, giallo films feature lots of murders, blood, suspense and a little sex.  

As one of the first giallo films this one sticks to that formula.  Murders with people getting knives in their backs and a young blonde heroine who is constantly being stalked by a killer while everyone around her are dropping like flies sprayed with insect killer.

The film is photographed by the director Mario Bava in his full gothic look.  Nothing like a nice creepy film in black and white. 

86 minutes, written by Ennio De Concin, Sergio Corbucci, Eliana de Sabata, Mino Guerrini,  Franco Prosperi and Mario Bava.

1932 - THIRTEEN WOMEN, a fascinating film mixing hypnosis and horoscopes

Short and sweet.  This odd drama features American actor Myrna Loy during the odd part of her career where she was frequently cast as mysterious Asian women.  Loy plays a woman who was ostracized by her classmates at a girls boarding school.  Years later, Loy decides to have her revenge on 13 of her classmates through seduction, hypnosis and the power of suggestion which involves sending them horoscopes which predict their deaths.

Thirteen Women is barely and hour and zips along at a very fast pace.  The scheming Loy is fun to watch especially when she goes after goody two shoes Irene Dunne.  Unfortunately the dictates of a Hollywood studio film decree that all American actor Irene Dunne will come out on top.

59 minutes.

1981 - SPHINX - HItchcock wanna be thriller and travelogue

Actress and model Lesley-Anne Down was fairly hot in the mid 70's.  Today I doubt most people would have a hard time even recalling exactly who she was and what she appeared in.  Down was chiefly known for appearing in the British upper class/lower class drama Upstairs, Downstairs.  That show was the Downton Abbey of it's day and was very popular on PBS, sound familiar?

Down tried to use her popularity on that show to jump into a film career. She did a number of supporting roles in films before she got her big break in the film Sphinx.  Sphinx was directed by a fairly decent director, Franklin J, Schaffner who had directed Patton and was based on a novel by the then hot writer Robin Cook.  Sphinx is a thriller set in Egypt about the illegal buying and selling of ancient artifacts,  Lesley-Anne Down plays a noted Egyptologist who just happens to look like a hot model.  She pretty much throws any credibility this film has into the garbage.

On the positive side for this film, it is extremely well photographed and is if anything a nice record of all the traditional tourist hot spots of Egypt,  the Pyramids, The Valley of the Kings, Cairo, etc.  On the negative side the plot has a lot of holes and coincidences that it really stretches credibility to the point of maximum tensile strength.  

Lesley-Anne Down couldn't carry this film and it was back to TV movies and mini series for her after Sphinx flopped at the box office.  Another film with a miscast actor that suffered from the miscasting.

118 minutes, screenplay by John Byrum.

1939 - GONE WITH THE WIND, is half a good film.

I was less impressed with this viewing (which will be my last) of David Selznick's super production.  The story of the making of this film is very well documented and chiefly focuses on Selznick's detailed and obsessive perfectionism throughout the making of the film.

Selznick hired George Cukor to direct the film.  Cukor spent two years preparing the film and filmed for about 3 weeks at which point Selznick fired him.  Victor Fleming who was filming The Wizard of Oz at the time was pulled off of that film and reassigned to Gone With The Wind.  Fleming hated Selznick's guts but stayed through most of the film but finally dropped out supposedly from exhaustion.

Sam Wood wrapped up directing the film.  The production designer William Cameron Menzies appears to have directed pieces of the film in particular the burning of Atlanta sequences.  It's generally thought the Menzies was the person responsible for bringing any consistent look to the film considering all the cooks mixed up in this film.

The chief problem with Gone With The Wind is the script.  After going thorough practically every screenwriter in Hollywood, Selznick hired Ben Hecht to revise it while filming was actually going on.  Hecht only agreed to work on the film for a week and he apparently rewrote the first part which is the best part of the film.  The second half of the film was apparently written by Selznick and it's one disjointed soap opera like scene after another.  The Scarlet O'Hara love stuff where she carries the torch for Ashley Wilkes really makes watching the film a major effort. 

Gone With The Wind is saved by it's extremely impressive cast.  Clark Gable, Olivia de Havilland and Leslie Howard are excellent.  However, what really holds this very long film together is Vivian Leigh.  It would be hard to imagine how this film would have been without her in the lead.

238 minutes, screenplay credited to Sidney Howard.

1929 - WOMAN IN THE MOON or FRAU IM MOND

Another fascinating film from Fritz Lang and his wife the writer Thea von Harbou.  Woman in the Moon is about the first flight to the Moon for the purpose of locating gold.  The complicated plot kicks into gear almost immediately.  A group of businessmen who control the world's gold supply want to stop the flight.  There is an espionage plot, a love story and a fairly crazed idea of what the Moon is like which in this film turns out to have a breathable atmosphere. 

 Since this is a Fritz Lang film made at the UFA studios it is an extremely well done production.  The model and miniature work are very impressive.  The photography and editing are very good, it's hard to find anything that looks substandard in this film.

Woman in the Moon is not considered one of Lang's best silent films.  The chief issue seemed to be the extremely crazy turn the script takes once the spaceship "Friede" lands on the Moon.  There is a young boy who has snuck into the Friede prior to the launch in the great movie cliche tradition of the stowaway.  Further craziness comes with the search for gold on the Moon which involves using a divining rod of all things.

In spite of these last act plot situations the film does have a fascinating ending and while it's no Metropolis, it's not the big disappointment that it is usually labeled as.  Woman in the Moon is an excellent finish to Fritz Lang's silent film period.

156 minutes.