1929 - BLACKMAIL, Hitchcock begins his transition to sound films.

Hitchcock's Blackmail exists in two versions, silent and sound.  The studio producing Blackmail had Hitchcock shoot some of the scenes with sound, so this film is generally considered the first British sound film

This is a story that Hitchcock adapted himself based on a play by Charles Bennett.  Hitchcock was always good at integrating the visual elements in his films with dialog and for a director coping with early sound film technique, he did surprisingly well although the film is creaky at times.

 

The story is about the girlfriend of a Scotland Yard detective who has to cover up the murder of a man who was attempting to rape her. The story focuses on her attempts to keep from being blackmailed by a man who witnessed the crime. Considering the age of the film and the constraints Hitchcock had to deal with the film is reasonably watchable.  When it came to making movies Alfred Hitchcock always knew where to place the camera in a scene and how to edit it for maximum impact even in an early film like this.

The running time is 85 minutes on the sound version that I watched.

1965 - BEACH BLANKET BINGO, ok here we go.

 The fifth film in the AIP beach party series.

Linda Evans way before her Dynasty days is pop singer "Sugar Kane," who Harvey Lembeck's motorcycle hood "Eric Von Zipper" has a big crush on.  He hires bad guy Timothy Carey playing a pool hustler character named "South Dakota Slim," to kidnap her.

Frankie and Annette are back playing surfing lovebirds "Frankie and Dee Dee."

Don Rickles and Paul Lynde are on hand basically to insult everyone.

Marta Kristen is "Lorelei" the mermaid.

Singer Donna Loren plays herself performing a not bad song "It Only Hurts When I Cry." She was actually a teenager compared to everyone else in the cast.

Finally Buster Keaton and Bobbi Shaw are in this film for some reason.

Written by Leo Townsend and the director William Asher.  The running time is 98 minutes.

1963 - MAGNET OF DOOM aka L'ane des ferchaux

Jean Paul Belmondo is a washed up boxer who manages to get himself hired as a secretary/bodyguard to a businessman.  Charles Vanel plays the businessman on the run from the police in France as they investigate his shady background.  Eventually Belmondo and Vanel end up in the United States with a suitcase full of money where they are followed by the FBI.

 The director is Jean-Pierre Melville an expert on these types of crime films.  Here he seems to come up a little flat in his film making for some reason.  The Belmondo and Vanel really have to work hard to maintain any interest in the story.  The film has some nice color photography of the United States in the early 60's courtesy of Henri Decaë.  Melville is fairly good at creating a believable situation of 2 Frenchman  who are a couple of fish out of water hiding from the authorities in the southern part of the United States, particularly New Orleans.

However I would say this is one Melville's lesser films and certainly not up there with his later films such as Le Samouraï and Le Cercle Rouge.  The weakness of the film is due to the weakness in the screenplay which can't seem to make their situation very compelling.

 

Written by Jean-Pierre Melville, the running time is 102 minutes.

1971 - THE MUSIC LOVERS, another life of a composer story courtesy of Ken Russell

I generally enjoy Ken Russell's over the top films on the lives of composers but this one may be a little too over the top even for me. Russell has been quoted as saying The Music Lovers was "about a homosexual who fell in love with a nymphomania," and that's probably not far from the truth in this version of the life of Tchaikovsky.

With over the top visuals, lots of nudity although no gay stuff, (which I'm certain no audience could have handled in 1971) and lots of Tchaikovsky's music, it's certainly a very unusual experience watching it. The film could have almost been shot as a silent film with the composer's music as the soundtrack.

As always in a Ken Russell film the actors are encouraged to go for it.  Richard Chamberlain plays Tchaikovsky as a very tortured artist.  Glenda Jackson is his crazed wife.  Jackson is really a fearless performer in this film exposing her self in just about every conceivable manner physically and emotionally.

Usually Ken Russell for all his craziness stays reasonably close to the facts in the lives of the composers however this time he plays a little loosey-goosey with the life of Tchaikovsky even for him. Still the film is a visual treat.  Nobody knows how to combine music and image like Russell did when he was in his prime.

 

The screenplay was by Melvyn Bragg who had worked with Ken Russell before so he must have known what he was getting into.  The running time is 124 minutes

1962 - THE FABULOUS BARON MUNCHAUSEN, an impressive fantasy film

You should just sit back and enjoy the amazing visual and special effects that filmmaker Karel Zeman poured into his version of the Baron Munchausen legend.

Zeman takes the famous incidents in the Baron's legend and gives them their own spin starting with the visit to the Sultan, riding the cannonball, and being swallowed up by a huge fish, all very amusing stuff.

 Zeman and his team created one impressive image after another.  As has been remarked his special effects are like woodcarvings coming to life and all created in camera.

 

As usual in a Zeman film the actors are essentially puppets in the hands of Zeman's fantasy storytelling.

 

Written by Karel Zeman, Josef Kainar, and Jiri Brdecka, the running time is 85 minutes.

1959 - THE HANGING TREE, a western late in the career of Gary Cooper

Produced by Gary Cooper's production company and directed by the very underrated  Delmar Daves, The Hanging Tree is one of those "adult" westerns that were popular in the late 1950's and early 60's.

 Veteran cowboy actor Gary Cooper is a frontier doctor with a mysterious past.  He sets up practice in a boom town where all the citizens appear to have gold fever.  The film is essentially a character study masquerading as a western.  The interactions between Cooper's doctor character, Cooper's servant and a Swiss immigrant played by European actress Marie Schell are the emotional center of the story.

The film also has an impressive supporting cast with Karl Malden as a crooked prospector and George C. Scott in his first appearance as a faith healer.  Ted McCord was the cinematographer, the film has excellent photography on magnificent locations in the state of Washington.

 

The film was written by Wendell Mayes and Halsted Welles, the running time is 107 minutes.

1962 - PANIC IN YEAR ZERO, interesting science fiction film

The actor Ray Milland occasionally directed some film and television shows.  This low budget science fiction story from American International Pictures is about a nuclear attack against the United States while a family is on vacation.  Milland is the head of the family and the film deals with their attempts to survive the attack.

 For the usual cheap AIP studios the film production is fairly decent, interesting and less pretentious than something like Stanley Kramer's On The Beach.  The film shows the breakdown of modern civilization and isn't afraid to show Milland and his son played by pretty boy Frankie Avalon, shoot people who get in their way.  The film does contain a degree of ruthlessness for an early 1060's film.

Panic In Year Zero has a decent cast Along with Milland is Jean Hagen as his wife.  Hagen was Lena Lamont in MGM's Singing In The Rain.  Joan Freeman is a woman being used as a sex slave by some creepy punks and of course Frankie Avalon before he starred in the infamous "Beach" film series for AIP. 

 The film was written by John Morton and Jay Simms and comes in at a brisk 93 minutes.

2018 - DETECTIVE DEE: THE FOUR HEAVENLY KINGS, the third in the Detective Dee series

This is the third film is Tsui Hark's revival of the Detective Dee character and probably the lesser of the three films.  This film still has all the wacky action scenes and over the top CGI that is expected from Hark when he gets involved in a fantasy film.  

This time Dee must guard something called the "Dragon Taming Mace" from the Empress of China who fears that Dee will use it to overthrow the Tang Dynasty. To be honest the film is so confusing I'm not even sure what "The Four Heavenly Kings" are.

As expected the incorruptible Dee must work to stop the Empress and expose a cult of magicians that wants to take over China, and so it goes.

 

This is entertaining foolishness on a big budget.  No one knows better than Tsui Hark how to use CGI and very wild and rapid editing to make his stories an entertaining blends of fantasy and action which as usual borders on the insane side of film making when he's involved.

Written by Chang Chia-lu and Tsui Hark.  The running time is 132 minutes, probably a little on the long side.

1941 - I WAKE UP SCREAMING, an early Fox film noir.

This early film noir from 20th Century Fox is a fairly modest production with good noir photography from Edward Cronjager.  One of Fox's contract director H. Bruce Humberstone did a decent job putting the film together, but the film seems more like an excuse to show off three of the studio's stars. 

Victor Mature who was considered a piece of studio beefcake is a sports agent trying to make a star out of Carole Landis another performer probably more known for him body then her acting.  Also along for the ride is Betty Grable who would be one of Fox's biggest stars during World War II.  The film has a gratuitous scene where Mature and Gable go for a midnight swim a fairly obvious bit to get these two into swimsuits.

The film is essentially about Landis being murdered and Mature becoming the patsy of creepy cop Laird Cregar who is trying to set him up for the crime. There's lots of sneaking around and police interrogations with that good old 40's cliche the bright light pointed at the person being interrogated in order to sweat a confession out of them.

 

The film is for the most part good mystery type entertainment and has that excellent production polish that a major studio could bring to a film like this.

 The film runs a quick 82 minutes and was written by Dwight Taylor and Steve Fisher.

1956 - ILYA MUROMETS, incredibly large scale Russian epic

 It's big, it's crazy, it's a large scale Russian epic and I do mean large scale. 

Everything about the film is larger than life, the widescreen photography, the cast of thousands, the overacting, the sets, you name it.

 

The film ends with a spectacular battle using an actual fire breathing dragon all of things. Very impressive and remember this is 1950's technology.

 

I've said it before but this a one of it's kind watching experience.

Running time 83 minutes. Written by Mikhail Kochnev.