2021 - THE DIG, yet another archelogy based on a true story film

Another based on a true story film although in this case it's barely based on a true story.  After sitting through The Lost King I ended up watching yet another dig up the countryside story looking for old stuff.   In this case a ship buried in the dirt from the middle ages.  

Set during World War II, The Dig in many ways has a lot in common with The Lost King.  It has another talented but untrained archeologist working against significant odds.   Once again the archeology group network of "good old boys" from Cambridge University conspires to ace him out of the credit he deserves.  Interestingly enough The Cambridge Archeology department is about as bad as the Leicester Archeology department the main villains in The Lost King when it comes to taking credit for other people's work.

This film introduces us to a young archeology couple Stuart and Peggy Piggot.  Based on some real people they are also involved in the dig. They are having marital problems according to the screenplay. The woman falls in love with an RAF pilot so we have to sit through this love affair plot.  The film implies that their marriage fell apart during the excavation, in reality they were married for 20 years.

 

 

Ralph Finnes plays Basil Brown the untrained archeology digger who is sort of a savant digger as kind of like a Limey Pa Kettle badly in need of a bath.  Carey Mulligan is the rich land owner Edith Pretty who hires Brown.  She may be kind of a upper class snob but she has a sense of fair play in that British tradition and she works to make sure Brown gets credit for his discovery.  Well anyway...

 

 Written by Moira Buffini, time wasted 112 minutes. 

1959 - HORRORS OF THE BLACK MUSEUM - a real piece of crap for a horror film

Horrors of the Black Museum is a horror film that is really a horror of a film to watch.  This is the first in a series of three the other two films being Circus of Horrors and Peeping Tom.  The plot has a crime reporter and the police investigating some gruesome murders being committed on what else, beautiful women.  The crime reporter just happens to have a secret room in his house which is a celebration of various types of murders using bizarre devices to kill people.  Well you can guess where this is going.  There is also a Jekyll/Hyde character and a couple of young lovers but in this film I can assure you they won't last long as a couple.

 

Let's get to the main lead in this film.  Michael Gough plays the crime reporter.  Gough had a long career in horror films.  He shows up in crap like Dr. Terror's House of Horrors, The Skull, Trog and the British remake of The Phantom of the Opera.  Towards the end of his career Tim Burton cast his as Alfred Pennyworth in  Batman.  Burton must have had a fondness for Gough he used him in four more films.

To single out a couple of supporting players in this film.  Sbirley Anne Field was one of those model turned actor individuals.  She was easy on the eyes but not really known for her thespian abilities.  Geoffrey Kean was a working actor who usually turned up in supporting roles playing a Scotland Yard Inspector or a military officer.  He ended up taking over the role of "M" in the James Bond films after Bernard Lee passed away.  He was always a reliable presence playing that "stiff upper lip" character the Brits were so fond of sticking in their films.

Horrors of the Black Museum is essentially a series of killings with some sex tease stuff throw in. The killings don't really have any reason to them and are just killings for the sake of titillating the viewer.  The film was commercially successful.  For the most these films usually make money.  Nobody ever went broke underestimating the taste of the movie going public.

The film was photographed in some really lurid color and had of all things a hypnotism prologue which ran 13 minutes.  The prologue was eventually edited out of the released version of the film as the producers claimed it was actually hypnotizing people in the theater. 

Horrors of the Black Museum was written by Herman Cohen and Aben Kandel, the running time is 81 minutes but if you find a copy with the hypnosis prologue add an additional 13 minutes to the film.

2020 - LOVE AND MONSTERS, has both

After an asteroid blows up in Earth's atmosphere suddenly the world gets lots of mutated creatures running around.  This is a problem for the human race to deal since the creatures like to eat people.  Jump ahead in time and the remaining humans are fighting for their lives in order to avoid being some monster's appetizer.  Our hero is a young man named Joel Dawson who decides to head out into the scary world to improbably find his girlfriend he lost contact with years ago.  He encounters what remains of the human race and lots and lots of icky creatures in his search for her.

Love and Monsters had the unfortunate luck to come out during the COVID crisis although even without a COVID crisis I doubt this film would have done all that well.  It was not commercially successful.  However this film does move along at a decent pace.  It sets up it's monster world building thing and has enough action to keep the science fiction/action nerd entertained.  The cast is decent with a lot of actors who I don't really recall seeing in other films.  The helps make the film a little more interesting since you don't know who is going to get eaten.

One of the producers on this film is Shawn Levy who is a practiced hand at cranking out decent and successful commercial entertainments like Night at the Museum, Free Guy, The Adam Project and Deadpool & Wolverine.

Love and Monsters ends up being an okay and ultimately forgettable time killer of a film.  Nothing particularly wrong with that.

The film was written by Brian Duffield and Matthew Robinson, the running time is 109 minutes.

2022 - THE LOST KING, the cutthroat world of archaeology

Another one of these based on a true story films.  Normally I am highly skeptical of these kinds of films but in this instance there actually appears to be some truth behind this story.

The story focuses on writer/reporter Philippa Langley who becomes interested in King Richard the III.  Shakespeare wrote an entire play about Richard the evil hunchback who attains power through manipulation and assassination.  The play even has Richard ordering the deaths of his nephews as they are an obstacle to his ascension to the throne.  The writer Philippa Langley played very well by Sally Hawkins decides to investigate Richard's life and begins to suspect that instead of his body being thrown in the river after his death he is actually buried in a parking lot in Leicester, England.

Here's where the story gets interesting.  Langley manages to get help from the archeology department of  the University of Leicester and also the cooperation of the Leicester City Council to dig up the parking lot where the presumed body lies.  Amazingly the body is located but Langley's work on the project is essentially ignored to play down her involvement on the project by the University and the City Council.

Well to put it mildly this film caused a real uproar in the archeology world with lots of finger pointing and counter accusations from everyone involved in the Richard The III project.  Understandably no one wanted to be accused of freezing out a major player and a woman no less who helped to recover the body of the King of England.  You can spend a lot of time reading about this mess on the internet.  Who would have thought is was a dog eat dog situation in the world of archeology nerds. 

The film is well directed as usual by Stephen Frears.  Although I could have done without the fantasy elements which has Langley interacting with the ghost of Richard The III.  Steve Coogan the comedian and writer of the film along with Jeff Pope plays Philippa Langley's ex-husband.  This film has a lot in common with Coogan's Philomena the story of another woman who was seriously mistreated by the Catholic Church.

The running time is 108 minutes. 

2025 - THE RUNNING MAN, the remake

The director Edgar Wright had a big desire to remake the old Arnold Schwarzenegger version calling it a dream project.  Apparently Wright had not cared for Arnold's film of the Stephen King story and wanted to stay closer to the original. Careful what you wish for when it comes to dream projects.  The final result of this film is a jumbled mess that ends up in a series of individual action scenes which don't tie together. 

 

Wright went about creating a story about a totalitarian government now in charge of the United States tusing the media to manipulate the public to stay in power.  Apparently Wright didn't read  “1984” in school like everyone else was forced to do.  Glen Powell plays a contestant in The Running Man game show.  He's desperate to make money for his family and his sick child needs a doctor of course.  Nothing like dragging that old trope out.  The film follows Powell around from one situation to another as he is pursued by some government agents all the while being stalked by video cameras that transmit his situation over network TV for the entertainment of the public.  

This film is just a big miss for Edgar Wright.  Normally he is a director with an entertaining visual style who really knows how to move a story along.  Wright's other skill is adding humor to his films which he is usually very good at.  However the pace of this film is off and a lot of the film's attempts at humor are just not that funny.

Edgar Wright besides being a director is a serious film nerd as he has demonstrated on one podcast after another.  He started out strong in his career with his very funny television show Spaced.  He moved into film with Shawn of the Dead,  Hot Fuzz and his tribute to Walter Hill's The Driver with his version called Baby Driver.  Wright had his misses with Scott Pilgrim vs. the World and Last Night in Soho but at least they were interesting films.  However The Running Man is a complete failure from conception to execution. 

Frankly this film also has some very disappointing casting decisions in it.  I hate to say it but Glenn Powell as the lead can't even begin to generate the charisma of Arnold Schwarzenegger. Arnold's film also had Richard Deacon as the evil game show host who is really fun to watch.  Josh Brolin is the head of the game show in this version but he can't compete with Richard Deacon’s funny performance.

I think the major problem with this version of The Running Man is that it's just not as much fun as Arnold's goofy version was.  As film critic Andrew Sarris liked to say there is a "strained seriousness " throughout this film.   The Running Man  is also ungodly long running over two hours.

The writers were Edgar Wright and Michael Bacall.  The running time is 133 minutes. 

1991 - ENCHANTED APRIL, is really boring

On the never ending search to find films I can share with my wife I found this tiresome bore of a film.  The film's own advertising proclaimed "that if you love A Room With A View you will love Enchanted April."  Well I've seen A Room With A View and I can assure you this film is no A Room With A View.

The story such that it is concerns four women who rent a villa in Italy for a month.  They're all repressed in their lives or under the thumbs of their husbands.  A vacation in Italy for a month is just the thing to turn their lives around.  A month in the Italian countryside is going to solve all their problems never mind the other eleven months of the year.

The story has the usual bunch of British characters that show up in these period pieces.  Everyone acts and talks like they are the most emotionally and unhappily repressed people on the planet.  There's lots of introspection and soul searching as they wander around the villa and they wander around the villa a lot.

The film was photographed in Portofino, Italy so the viewer gets many shots of sunlight glistening off of the lake, spiderwebs artfully photographed and lots and lots of photography of one woman sitting in a garden sunning herself.  Not actually an action packed film. 

Clearly the film was trying to pull off a romantic mood but for a film like this to succeed you really have to know your stuff to put this mood stuff over.  You just can't make a film with four women walking around a villa for an hour and a half and not have something happening.  You need interesting characters, interesting situations and interesting dialog which you won't find in this film.  Enchanted April could barely past the mustard as some dull PBS Masterpiece Theater presentation.

The film was written by Peter Barnes, the running time is an interminable 95 minutes.   

1955 - STRANGER ON HORSEBACK, enjoyable B Western

Joel McCrea is a circuit judge who rides into a small town which is completely owned and controlled by a rich banker.  McCrea investigates the death of a man who was shot by the rich rancher's son.  The judge takes the rancher's son into custody and a standoff occurs as the rancher and his hired men try to break the son out of jail.  The screenplay of this film has a lot in common with the better known Howard Hawks film Rio Bravo which was produced four years later.  

The actor Joel McCrea had been working in film since the 1930s.  He played a variety of roles in comedies, dramas and of course westerns.  McCrea had worked with Alfred Hitchcock, William Wyler, King Vidor and George Stevens.  He was an excellent leading man in two of Preston Sturges's best films, The Palm Beach Story and Sullivan's Travels.  As McCrea got older he gravitated exclusively to the western genre.  McCrea was proud of his image as a western hero and worked hard to uphold it.  He appeared in probably Sam Peckinpah's best film Ride The High Country which was an excellent summation to his western hero career.

Stranger On Horseback is a fairly standard small scale western.  It's got good guys and bad guys and a shootout at the end. McCrea has a fairly interesting love interest in this film a Mexican performer Miroslava Stern.  She was born in Czechoslovakia but her family emigrated to Mexico when she was 15 years old.  She apparently had a rather troubled life and committed suicide when she was 29 years old. 

Stranger On Horseback was directed by Jacques Tourneur a good director who had been associated with Val Lewton's classic RKO horror series.  Tourneur has a couple of classic films to his name Out of the Past and Night of the Demon.   Tourneur worked with McCrea in some other films and directed him in what McCrea called his favorite film, Stars In My Crown a very good film by the way.  

The film was written by Herb Meadow and Don Martin, the running time is 66 minutes. 

1998 - SAVING PRIVATE RYAN, as usual 'War Is Hell'

You can't fault the technical aspects of this film.  Steven Spielberg is at the height of his film making skill.  His cinematographer Janusz Kamiński brilliantly photographed this film draining the color and  making it look at times like a black and white World War II film.  The decision to shoot the film with a hand held camera added a stunning immediacy to the fighting.  Spielberg's long time editor Michael Kahn cut the film together for maximum impact.  Considering this was a large scale and expense film with complicated battle scenes Spielberg was such an experienced director he brought the film in under schedule, an impressive achievement.

Saving Private Ryan was clearly inspired by the real life tragedy of the five Sullivan brothers.  They were sailors serving on the same ship which was torpedoed by the Japanese killing all five of them.  This incident so traumatized the country the United States Navy changed their policy of letting family members serve together.

I haven't viewed this film since it was originally released and while the battle scenes were still as intense as I remember I had some reservations about the actual story.  In many ways this is just a hyped up 1940's World War II film with a lot more graphic violence.  One of the messages of Saving Private Ryan is the emotionally draining effect that war has on soldiers.  The problem I always have with these anti-war films it that they tend to exploit the very thing they are trying to condemn the fighting.  Saving Private Ryan definitely has a "this is a cool combat scene" vibe. I would probably call it violence porn.  The audience is being manipulated to enjoy how impressive the fighting scenes are at the expense of the anti-war message.

As far as the cast goes it's the usual group of soldier boy character exaggerations.  Tom Hanks is the Captain in charge of the mission to find Private Ryan.  He's a resourceful leader of men but underneath a sensitive soul who in a previous life was a teacher.  Tom Sizemore is the battle hardened sergeant who has a philosophical side to him.  Jeremy Davis is the private who has never been in battle before.  Barry Pepper is a Bible quoting sniper.  A young Matt Damon is Private Ryan the soldier Hanks has been looking for to bring home.  However he won't leave his platoon because he has bonded with them in this "profession of arms."  One of the oddest casting choices is Ted "Sam the Bartender" Danson as an army captain.  I half expected to see Cliff and Norm from Cheers to pop up at any moment.

Saving Private Ryan is almost three hours long and towards the end it kind of drags as we wait for the final big battle scene which in many ways is like one of those big musical production numbers.  In this case it's Hank's platoon vs some German tanks and what seems like a whole regiment of German soldiers.  Fighting these Germans against overwhelming odds is about as big a fantasy as anything found in any other war film.  If you are looking for a good film about the effect of war on the foot soldier I would probably go with A Walk in the Sun or The Big Red One.

The film was written by Robert Rodat, with uncredited contributions from Frank Darabont and Scott Frank.  The running time is 170 minutes.  

1932 - BLESSED EVENT, a very funny pre-code film

Where has this hilarious comedy been hiding and why isn't it better known?  A gossip columnist in New York City has carved out a  successful career running stories that don't exactly endear him to the people he is reporting on.  He has an informant in a maternity ward  giving him the scoop on women giving  birth some of who are unwed mothers.  He has a hit man finking out the criminal activities of his boss. Finally he's in a media war with a crooner (played by Dick Powell) of a radio program which he has taken a major dislike too.  

The columnist is played by the actor Lee Tracy.  Tracy was in the original Broadway production of The Front Page.  He played Hildy Johnson the fast talking and barely ethical reporter for a sleazy newspaper called "The Examiner."  The play was a big hit and Tracy was a big part of it's success.  When The Front Page made it's way to Hollywood Tracy wasn't considered for the part because he was too much of an unknown.  The role of Hildy Johnson instead went to Pat O'Brien.  

However Tracy essentially got to repeat his Hildy Johnson character in several other newspaper comedies.  He's something to see in action, rattling off dialog at breakneck speed.  He talks his way in and out of one crazy situation after another.  He's completely mesmerizing in every scene he's in and that's the whole film. 

Lee Tracy was a hard living actor with a big fondness for the bottle.  His film career was moving along until he was hired to play what else a reporter in MGM's big production Viva Villa.  Whatever happened on location is still somewhat of a mystery.  Supposedly Tracy was drunk and urinated on a passing Mexican military parade or he gave them the finger.  In any case he was fired off of the film which did serious harm to his career

 Blessed Event is a very funny film pre-code film and it's well worth a look.  Lee Tracy never won an Academy Award but he had an equally great honor, a star on Hollywood Boulvard.

Blessed Event was written by Howard J. Green, the running time is 80 minutes.      

2025 - EPIC: ELVIS PRESLEY IN CONCERT, see the title.

Australian filmmaker Baz Luhrmann got his hands on a bunch of films of Elvis performing in concert.  Most of the footage seems to have been shot during one of his last efforts, his appearances in Las Vegas.  It's always impressive when they find this old color footage and digitally restore the picture and sound.  The footage of Elvis performing from this period is quite remarkable. 

In this film Elvis is about 8 years from the beginning of the end when his health issues and his drug intake catches up with him.  The footage in this film shows that Elvis was still an engaging performer.  He interacts with his band during rehearsals and the fans in the audience still respond to his stage presence.  All well and good.

However I have to say he does not look to be in all that great of shape.  Elvis is starting to be a bloated mess.  He seems to favor wearing gaudy form fitting jump suits and it doesn't make him look exactly like  a "Skinny Minny."  He's constantly wearing sun glasses and his haircut and sideburns gave him a weird pageboy look.  Some critics at the time called Elvis's appearances in Vegas as "the ultimate lounge act."  This was not a compliment.

If you want to see Elvis Presley in his sort of performing prime during the twilight of his career you can give this film a look.  This footage is almost his last hurrah before he goes over the precipice and comes crashing down.

The running time is 96 minutes. 

1922 - THE FROZEN NORTH, Buster Keaton's spoof of Western films

Western films have been around since almost the beginning of narrative cinema.  John Ford and Raoul Walsh started their careers directing silent westerns.  The silent movie days fostered some big stars, Tom Mix, George O'Brien and William S. Hart actors who have faded in time except to the rabid silent film scholars I guess.

The background on this film is very interesting.  Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle a silent comedian had been accused of the rape and death of an actress at a Hollywood party.  Although Arbuckle had been acquitted for her death not one but three times he was convicted in the press which finished off his career.  One of the chief accusers of Arbuckle was actor William S. Hart who had never meet Arbuckle or was even familiar with the Arbuckle trials.  This angered Buster Keaton, he owed his start in film to Arbuckle.  Keaton decided to go after Hart.  What better way than to ridicule him in a movie. Thus we have the genesis for The Frozen North.

This is another amusing short film from Keaton who is at the peak of his talents.  Even in the early days of silent film western films had already settled into a series of cliches.  Keaton took these cliches and used them for some amusing gags.  Keaton plays a western character who frequently shoots first and asks questions later if at all.  The Frozen North is up to Keaton's usual high standards with his famous deadpan humor.

What is kind of fascinating about this film is Keaton's spoof of William S. Hart.  I've seen a couple of Hart's films (Hell's Hinges was actually quite a good one) and can say that Keaton's mockery of Hart is right on the mark.  Keaton wears a shrunken version of Hart's famous cowboy hat.  Keaton even has a cut out of Hart from a poster that figures into a very funny bit in a saloon.  Apparently William S. Haft was not amused.  Of course these insider jokes don't really mean much anymore but overall The Frozen North has some very funny stuff in it.  The Frozen North is available on YouTube.

The film was written by Buster Keaton and Edward Cline, the running time is 18 minutes. 

1964 - THE GHOST OF SIERRA DE COBRE, interesting ghost story

This is a ghost story that was originally a pilot for a Twilight Zone type series about the supernatural.  The creator/writer/director was a man called Joseph Stefano who mostly worked in television and when given the chance made some very interesting offbeat films.  On the television side of the entertainment business he was the creator of the original Outer Limits TV series and wrote a very strange pilot for an anthology series The Unknown called The Forms of Things Unknown.  If you can find a copy of it it's worth a look.  Stefano also wrote for series like Star Trek the Next Generation and Marcus Welby M.D. 

On the feature film side Stefano's outstanding film credit was for Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho.  He wrote the screenplay for Gary Cooper's final film the psycho killer on the loose The Naked Edge, (spoiler Cooper is not the razor slicing madman).  Stefano also has a writing credit on the weird Eye of the Cat a kitty-cat horror film.

The Ghost of Sierra De Cobre TV pilot was not picked up by any television network so Stefano being a clever fellow took the pilot rewrote some of it and turned it into an actual film.  The film looks very good for what was originally a television show.  The photography was by Conrad Hall one of the absolute best cinematographers who could work in black and white and color with great skill.  The cast was interesting to say the least. Martin Landau is the psychic investigator, Diane Baker is a woman apparently haunted by the ghost and "Mrs Danvers" herself Judith Anderson is a woman who knows the secret of the ghost.

As befits a film originally made for television this is a modest but effective ghost story.  No question the photography really contributes to the eerie mood of the film and the on location filming on the beaches of Malibu make for a striking location.  The Ghost of Sierra De Cobre is available for rent on YouTube.  Worth a look for horror fans.

The film runs 80 minutes. 

1959 - MAIGRET AND THE SAINT-FIACRE CASE aka Maigret Goes Home

Jean Gabin returns in his 2nd appearance as police inspector Julies Maigret.  Gabin's first shot as Maigret was in the film Maigret Sets a Trap which frankly wasn't much of a mystery but was watchable due to Gabin's excellent performance.  In Maigret and the Saint-Fiarce case Maigret actually has a decent mystery story line this time.

In this film Maigret returns to his hometown to help an old friend of his a countess who is living in a dilapidated chateau.  She has received a mysterious letter saying she will soon be dead.  Well as they say in the movies "we was too late."  The countess ends up dead during a church service and Maigret has to figure out if this is a murder or natural causes. Nothing like an unending Catholic Mass in Latin to kill off a member of the congregation.

The director was a man named Jean Delannoy, to say this guy was prolific is an understatement.  Delannoy started working in the French film business in 1928 and his last film was in 2003. Delannoy was apparently the working definition of a professional filmmaker.  He may not have cranked out a lot of masterpieces but he was usually a proficient craftsman.  Delannoy lived to be 100 years old.

Maigret and the Saint-Fiarce case is a good looking and well made film.  It has an excellent supporting cast who are in the service of Jean Gabin.  What can you say about Jean Gabin?  In a 50 year career in film he went from romantic lead to impressive character actor.  He worked with major directors like Jean Renoir, Julien Duvivier and Marcel Carne.  In many ways Gabin was French cinema.

The film was written by, Jean Delannoy, Rodolphe-Maurice Arlaud  and Michel Audiard, the running time is 101 minutes. 

1954 - GORILLA AT LARGE, entertaining murder mystery with a great gimmick

Yes examine the title.  The film features a guy in a monkey suit but that's not all.  There are actually two people in monkey suits.  The film also has an amazing cast of actors who I thought I would never see in a movie called Gorilla at Large.

Anne Bancroft a two time Tony award, one time Academy award, three time BAFTA award and two time Emmy award winning actress is in full femme-fatale mode.  She's a circus acrobatic working at a seaside carnival.  She runs around in tiny sparkling costumes and vamps any male she can.  She's married to Raymond Burr the owner of the carnival who at this point in his career was usually cast as bad guys.  Bancroft's trapeze act has her performing above a wild gorilla to titillate the audience.  Admittedly this film is very early in her career and I would like to say Gorilla at Large is a companion piece to The Miracle Worker but that would probably be pushing it a bit.

The gorilla is played by George Barrows who specialized in wearing gorilla suits.  Barrows was the gorilla in Robot Monster, Tarzan and His Mate, The Adventures of Captain Africa, Hillbillys in a Haunted House and that unforgettable episode of The Man From U.N.C.L.E., My Friend the Gorilla. 

Well there's a murder at the carnival so let's call in detective Lee J. Cobb to solve it.  Cobb had worked with Arthur Miller, Elia Kazan, George Cukor and Sidney Lumet.  Cobb has to unravel the murder while constantly chewing on a big gross cigar and firing off the "one-liner" gorilla jokes.  He acts like he is doing stand-up at some comedy club. Also a call out to Lee Marvin as a really stupid cop who is clearly the comedy relief in this film. 

Well it all comes down to the gorilla escaping and terrorizing the crowd on the carnival midway, while carrying Bancroft around.  It's in the great tradition of the ending of King Kong and it you are going to steal from a classic gorilla movie you might as well steal from one of the best.

 Needless to say this film was shot in 3-D so we get lots of shots of things flying at you which of course means nothing on a TV screen.  Gorilla at Large is an extremely entertaining show in the great lore of the B-movie.

The film was written by Leonard Praskins and and Barney Slater, the running time is a brisk 83 minutes.