1939 - THE STORY OF ALEXANDER GRAHAM BELL, the inventor of the telephone.

In yet another Daryl F Zanuck production that combines history with a very big dose of fiction, Don Ameche plays Alexander Graham Bell the inventor of the telephone.

And, guess what he invents in this film....you got it, the telephone.

98 minutes.

1985 - TO LIVE AND DIE IN LA - a tough crime thriller

Tough guy director William Friedkin tries for that old French Connection magic again with this sordid tale of a couple of Secret Service agents tracking down a dangerous counterfeiter.

Friedkin probably could do this type of film in his sleep.  He has another exciting car chase and lots of action to keep things moving along.  The cast at the time this film came out was mostly unknown actors which helped with the realism of the film.  This was similar to what Friedkin did in The French Connection, using Gene Hackman who at the time of that film was relatively unknown.

The film was photographed by Robby Müller who frequently worked with German director Wim Wenders and independent film maker Jim Jarmusch.  Müller gave the movie a real Los Angeles "look."  

People who enjoy cop movies should enjoy this one.

116 minutes, written by William Friedkin and Gerald Petievich.

1954 - SEAGULLS OVER SORRENTO or CREST OF THE WAVE

We're on a Scottish island at a British navel testing station.  It seems there is a powerful explosive that the navy is trying to stick into the warhead of a torpedo to blow stuff up.  The trouble seems to be that the explosive tends to blow the submarine up before the torpedo can be fired out of the sub.  After several failures the British Navy sends for USN Lt. Gene Kelly (playing a scientist) to figure out what's going wrong.

The drama arises from the British personnel resenting the involvement of the United States Navy in solving their little torpedo problem.  Perhaps things could have been worked out if Kelly had performed one of his song and dance numbers, from Singing in the Rain or An American in Paris.

Kelly seems a little out of place in this film surrounded by all of these Limeys, but he's actually not to bad.  It just goes to show you that if you spend a life in the musical comedy genre it tends to really typecast you in more dramatic roles.

Seagulls Over Sorrento is capably by Roy Bolting who combines character studies of the sailors with humor and drama.

92 minutes, screenplay by Frank Harvey and Roy Boultingh

1954 - TARGET EARTH, a rather zany low budget science fiction film

From low budget studio Allied Artists suppliers of cheap crime and science fiction films comes this rather interesting space invasion film with a pretty stiff alien robot monster.  In fact the monster looks like it is made out of cardboard for the most part.

Trapped behind enemy lines. Five people must survive in deserted Chicago as these goofy killer space robots wander the city.  At least one of them anyway.  I can't recall seeing more than one robot at a time.

As if killer robots from space isn't enough of a problem, one of the five individuals hiding out in Chicago,  is some sort of psycho criminal with a gun who trying to run the show.  

Target Earth's cheapness and B movie cast make the film fun to watch.  The film stars Richard Denning who kind of made a career out of this stuff.  Denning's last gig was playing the Governor of Hawaii on the Hawaii 5-0 TV series.

75 minutes, written by James H. Nicholson, Wyott Ordung and William Raynor.

1992 - DON QUIJOTE DE ORSON WELLES, pretty much a travesty

What a mess.  Welles "companion" Oja Kodar, the keeper of Welles unfinished film footage somehow decided schlock/porn Spanish filmmaker Jess Franco was the man to assemble this footage from
his Don Quixote project.  It appears that Welles was never able to get a handle on what type of film he wanted to make.  So Don Quixote along with other films of his remained unfinished.

Franco's assembly of this footage is to put it mildly, atrocious.  Shots don't match, the english dubbing on the soundtrack is horrible and scenes are inserted that were not even parts of Welles footage.  Instead the viewer is stuck with watching endless shots of parades marching down the streets of some Spanish town and a general incoherence that pervades the entire project.

What a viewer comes away with in the end is some very brief glimpses of what might have been.  The lead actor Francisco Reiguera looks like he would have been ideally cast as Don Quixote and as Sancho Panza who else but one of Orson Welles favorite actors Akim Tamiroff.

Still, this film is basically a complete waste of time even if it has footage shot by Orson Welles.

116 minutes.

1966 - PLAGUE OF THE ZOMBIES, not bad Hammer horror film.

A not bad zombie film.  Considering the subject matter, Hammer studios did a very good job producing this film. Acting, direction and production design are at a very high standard.  The story is interesting and doesn't run to long.  

Since the plot involves turning turning dead people into zombies for the purpose of mining coal in Cornwall during the 1800's.  One perceptive critic whose name escapes me, made the point that it would have been easier to just hire people to dig up coal. 

Still the film is entertaining the film has that well photographed look that Hammer brought to their films.   But it's important to remember this is a film about zombies for god sake.

The running time is 90 minutes, the film was written by Peter Bryan.

1958 - TEACHER'S PET, a romantic comedy which isn't a romantic comedy

A very weird romantic comedy.  A veteran newspaper editor finds himself in a college class with a professor of journalism.  It's one of those mistaken identity plot devices so beloved by Hollywood screenwriters.  Naturally the two of them clash when it comes to their views on journalism.  At this point in the film, the repressed sexual chemistry between the two leads should pretty much dictate where this story is heading, but something strange happens.  The film turns into a lecture on the ethics and professionalism of the newspaper business.  Not a love scene in sight for the rest of the film.

The actors are Clark Gable and Doris Day.  The assumption for the viewer would be that this is going to be one of those icky May/December romantic things but no.  Instead we get endless discussions about integrity and ethics pretty boring stuff, especially with a run time of two hours.

For a veteran actor, Clark Gable mugs shamelessly throughout the picture.  Doris Day plays her typical character, the uptight career girl who needs a good man to straighten her out.  The two leads don't really seem to have any chemistry between them.

The film was directed by an old Hollywood pro George Seaton who clearly had more deep thoughts on his mind then just filming a romantic comedy.

120 minutes.

1958 - TEENAGE CAVE MAN - another Corman quicky

Not the worst film ever made as stated by its star Robert Vaughn but you can tell that Roger Corman  knocked this epic out in a few days.

Vaughn looking like one of the best groomed cavemen in the movies.  Sulks around for about an hour with a goofy bow and arrow that he invents.  He and his fellow cavemen are searching for food.  It seems that across the river is a lush land of fruit and vegetables but caveman law will not allow anyone to go there

Naturally Vaughn, not only being a caveman is also a rebel caveman as well.  So off he goes across the river where he encounters a monster.  The monster is a typical low budget Corman touch and provides the twist ending to this epic.

 

Cheaply made, the film has the major virtue of being barely over an hour in its running time.

65 minutes, written by one of Corman's regular writers, R. Wright Campbell .

1939 - STANLEY AND LIVINGSTONE, a true story made up of fiction

We're in Africa with Spencer Tracey as explorer Henry Stanley and his faithful companion Jeff played by a really out of place actor Walter Brennan who should be hanging around with John
Wayne instead of Tracy.  The two of them are searching for Dr David Livingstone who the world assumes has died somewhere in darkest Africa.

After a lot of adventures involving the native population chasing Stanley and his safari around.  Henry Stanley does indeed run into Livingstone in the middle of nowhere.  You would think this would be the end of the film, but no.  When Stanley returns to England it seems no one will believe him.  This plot development takes up the rest of the film.

Since this is one of Daryl F Zanuck's personal projects. The production values are at a very high standard.  Zanuck also assigned the direction to one of his best directors Henry King.  The film is very watchable.  Zanuck even sent a 2nd unit crew to Africa to catch lots of background footage for authenticity.  The problem with this film is that it is almost entirely false.

A couple of minutes on the Wikipedia page for Henry Stanley is quite a different story, Stanley was an exploiter of the African continent for the Belgium government, a racist and probably a murderer.  This was not the true story that would have played well the movie going audiences at this time.  The best thing to be said about this film is that the cast is interesting.

101 minutes.

1925 - THE BIG PARADE, a classic war film, maybe.

Considering the high reputation of this famous film, I was little surprised to see how much comedy relief there was in the first hour of this film.  I had always assumed that this was for the most part a very serious war drama.  

MGM's big star from this era, John Gilbert always seemed like a pretty boy actor for the most part.  However King Vidor or someone had him trim his mustache and he actually looks like a real person for a change.  He gives a decent performance as well.

King Vidor was one of those American film directors who could impose a person style even in a cookie cutter studio like MGM.  The battle scenes are very impressive and have an interesting visual style to them.

After consideration The Big Parade is a very good film somewhat hampered by some of the usual Hollywood storytelling, a love story, funny soldier buddies, settings that look like studio backlot sets, etc.

141 minutes, written by Laurence Stallings and Harry Behn.

2006 - SEARCHING FOR ORSON, another Orson Welles documentary

Another trip down the never ending road of the film career Orson Welles.  This documentary looks at his later years when one project after another was left unfinished for various reasons.

This film focuses on the relationship of Orson Welles and his "companion" Oja Kodar.  The film has the usual talking head bunch of Hollywood personalities such as Spielberg, Bogdanovich, Merv Griffin etc.

There really isn't a whole lot here.  I think most filmmakers would acknowledge that Welles was a master of the cinema.  I don't think anyone needs Spielberg to tell them that.  A few hours watching DVD's of his completed films would more than get the point across.

As always these documentaries seem to find tantalizing scenes of unfinished Welles films.  Pieces of The Dreamers, Don Quoxite, The Deep, The Merchant of Venice and The Other Side of the Wind show up throughout this film.  These unfinished films look fascinating and it's unfortunate they were never completed.

80 minutes

2016 - BATMAN VS SUPERMAN: DAWN OF JUSTICE, the extended version

Did somebody actually read the script for this film prior to shooting it?  The story is a muddled mess combining Lex Luthor, Russian terrorists, and Batman deciding the Superman is evil or something like that.  Honestly they could have taken a couple of issues of some DC comic featuring Superman and Batman and made a better and more coherent film.  

I chose to watch the extended cut of this film which I had read was a lot better than the theatrical cut.  I am starting to wonder where I read that because at 3 hours this film is still a mess and even more unforgivably a boring mess.  For a film with a couple of super heroes it's amazing how little action there is until around the last hour of the film.  To compensate for this lack of excitement during the first two hours of the film.  Several dream sequences involving Batman were added which make no sense and only make a long film seem even longer. 

The film is a setup for a Justice League of America film with appearances by Wonder Woman and Aquaman.  Good luck with that film.

181 minutes, written by Chris Terrio and David S. Goyer.

1935 - CHARLIE CHAN IN EGYPT, enjoyable throwback to a different time

No one would mistake this film for a piece of cinematic art but it does have it's pleasures.  Chinese detective Charlie Chan is on the trail of some Egyptian artifacts stolen from a tomb that is being excavated.  He gets involved in a couple of murders and wraps the whole thing up in under 90 minutes.

Usually these Chan films had the participation of  his "#1 or #2" sons but Chan is on his own with help from the black actor Stepin Fetchit !  Seen today the Stepin Fetchit character is pretty intense as he promotes some of the worse stereotypes of black Americans.  However Charlie Chan does not treat him in a condescending manner which is apparently left to the white people in the cast to take up the patronizing slack on the one black character in the film.

The mystery is a convoluted mess to put it mildly.  However I have to give the writers credit for devising weird ways to kill some of the characters off.  Nobody gets the best of mild mannered Charlie Chan who is always two steps ahead of the local police in solving the crime.  

The film is poorly directed and has to rely on Warner Oland ( a Swedish American actor) to pull the picture through.  The film is also notable for an early appearance of 40's sex symbol Rita Hayworth.

73 minutes written by Robert Ellis and Helen Logan.

1928 - THE DOCKS OF NEW YORK - excellence in all areas

Probably as good as you are going to get in a film.  Director Josef Von Sternberg a filmmaker who struggled in the Hollywood systems always struggled with his artistic intentions and the commercial considerations of the studio.  The Docks of New York is a rare example of both of these objectives being fulfilled for a change.

The story such that it is, is about lowlifes along the waterfront in NYC.  The screenplay was written by Jules Furthman who had a long career in Hollywood.  Furthman is mostly remembered for working with Howard Hawks.

The director Josef Von Sternberg was probably as close to an artist as Hollywood would put up with.   Von Sternberg was considered a difficult individual to deal with and his abrasive personality and lack of commercial success affected his career.

This is one of Von Sternberg's best films, with great photography and lots of atmosphere.  Highly recommended

76 minutes.