"The Mercenary" (1968)

"The Mercenary" (1968), directed by Sergio Corbucci, 3.5 stars

“Better a live clown than a dead hero” – Sergei Kowalski

In this lesser known 1960s Italian Western, a Polish mercenary and a peasant turned bandit strike up an on-again, off-again relationship during the Mexican Revolution.  Sergei Kowalski (Franco Nero) narrates in flashback how he joined forces with Paco Roman (Tony Musante) and his gang of ambivalent, bank-robbing revolutionaries and, for a fee, teaches them how to up their game, ultimately significantly raising both the bar as well as the bounty on Paco’s head.  In the meantime, a malevolently lethal saloon owner nicknamed Curly (Jack Palance) intercedes when he thinks that there’s money to be made by intervening in a deal Sergei has made with a local mine owner.  Things go wrong for all concerned, pitting Curly in turns against Sergei and Paco as an homage to if not a complete rip-off of “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.”  However, in this film, none of the lead actors or the characters they portray is nearly as strong as their counterparts in the Eastwood, Van Cleef, and Wallach classic.  As a result, the story of a peon bandito initially mistaken for and then actually evolving into a revolutionary leader doesn’t grab the audience the way it might were it better cast and better crafted with richly-drawn characters.

Fortunately, acting alone isn’t often the make-it-or-break-it component in an Italian Western.  There’s also action and angles, of which there is much on display here.  Director Sergio Corbucci, in deference to or in strict imitation of Sergio Leone, uses cinematography that is self-consciously larger than life.  It’s rife with zooms, and it has more than its fair share of elaborate yet fluid camera movements, canted angles, quick cuts, and extreme close-ups.  All of these characteristics are signatories of the genre.

 Also contributing to the film’s extremely operatic quality is the playful score by the iconic Ennio Morricone and Bruno Nicolai (who also worked with Leone on "For a Few Dollars More" and "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly"), which interconnects and also punctuates the various violent interludes:  the hangings, firing squads, machine-gun massacres and more personal, yet equally casual murders.  Sometimes the music soars; just as often it sneers.  It also whistles, whipcracks, and wails; and at one point, during a climactic shootout, it bursts into a fully-orchestrated bolero.  The combination of sights and sounds are a feast for the eyes and ears, and though they outsize and outshine the plot and performances (or, perhaps, because they do), I enjoyed the film quite a bit.

“Lord Jim,” (1966)

“Lord Jim,” (1966), directed by Richard Brooks, 3.5 stars

“I've been a so-called coward and a so-called hero and there's not the thickness of a sheet of paper between them” – Tuan (“Lord”) Jim

Young Jim, long before the title “Lord” is bestowed upon him, is an extremely green British sailor with plenty of energy and an ardent sense of adventure.  Unfortunately, on his very first voyage, he and his fellow crew members abandon ship and the ship’s passengers during a fierce and fearsome storm.  When their life boat arrives in port, the ship they left behind is there, having been rescued soon after their hasty and cowardly departure.  Although the captain and other deserters manage to slip away, Jim faces up to his overarching sense of shame by fessing up publicly to his crime, for which he is removed from service by a naval court of inquiry.  From that point forward he must lay low, finding work at odd jobs as best he can.  Much later, as Jim helms a small craft containing a cargo of dynamite, native members of the crew light the boat on fire in an attempt to sabotage the mission by detonating the explosives.  Rather than flee danger yet again by jumping overboard, Jim risks his life and extinguishes the fire, thereby gaining the good graces of Stein (Paul Lukas), a businessman for whom the dynamite was destined.

What happens next is an up-river journey not altogether dissimilar to “Heart of Darkness,” another work by “Lord Jim” author, Joseph Conrad.  Stein sends Jim and the dynamite upstream into the jungle on behalf of villagers who are attempting to rebel against a devious and mercilessly sadist known as The General (Eli Wallach). The General oversees a tin mining operation and has commandeered members of the local community to work in the mine.  Jim is captured and then tortured by The General, but the rebels manage to free him by draping him in a shroud and ushering him out of the fortress.  Before the night is over, Jim has devised a plan which ultimately allows the rebels to capture the fortress and free the imprisoned workers. For his planning and leadership, the natives designate him as Tuan” or “Lord.”

But Jim can never fully emotionally extricate himself from his past.  He lives in fear of being exposed to the locals who look up to him, and he worries that he will once again succumb to his fears during a critical moment when he must display disciplined leadership.  Pride and principles exact a cost, and dearly-won payments are made by others, not only our harried hero.  Peter O’Toole’s incredible intensity works to the film’s advantage.  Both arch-villains, first the General and later Gentleman Brown (James Mason), are quick to identify Jim’s weakness—an exaggerated tendency toward heroics —and each is able to advance his own agenda by relying on Jim to behave in a predictable manner.  There are some well-argued philosophical dialogues scattered throughout, and I wish I could have rewound the film and listened to them all again.

The 70mm print was vivid and pristine, bringing out all of the fine detail in the grand architecture and lush landscape of Cambodia’s Angkor Wat temple complex.  It’s no surprise that the film was nominated by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) for best art direction and cinematography.

“Khartoum” (1966)

“Khartoum” (1966), directed by Basil Dearden, 3.5 stars

“I don't trust any man who consults God before he consults me” – General Charles Gordon

Charlton Heston plays yet another larger-than life, charismatic commander in this 70mm extravaganza that follows the events leading up to the 1885 siege of Khartoum by Muhammad Ahmad (Laurence Olivier).  Ahmad has proclaimed himself Mahdi, redeemer of Islam, and his loyal supporters have already defeated a British-led army much bigger and better equipped than they.  Most everything I know about the history of the British Empire I’ve learned from epic films such as this, so I'm hardly to be trusted as a reliable source to assess its accuracy. Heston plays General Charles George Gordon, the man sent by British Prime Minister Gladstone (Ralph Richardson) to single-handedly evacuate Europeans from the endangered Sudanese city of Khartoum, all the while keeping a low-profile so the British are not associated with yet another embarrassment in the region should he fail.  The popularity of the Gladstone-led government is at an all-time low, and the fact that it appeared reticent to come to Gordon’s aid actually resulted in a rebuke from Queen Victoria, an incident I gleaned from Wikipedia, not the film.

I’m not a big fan of Heston’s screen acting, and his being cast as a British general seems a bit perplexing.  He doesn’t try very hard to affect an authentic accent, nor does he look at all like Charles Gordon, who was apparently only five foot five whereas Heston dominates every shot he’s in (see photo).  Nevertheless, as the film progressed, I admit to mostly forgetting about any of that and simply enjoyed the action, which I would liken to a more exotic, arid, and literate version of Davy Crockett’s terminal adventure, a sort of El Alamo.

Whether politics did or didn’t figure largely in the outcome or whether Gordon and the Mahdi ever really did swap philosophical views doesn’t really matter.  The film is less a history lesson than a window into extraordinary men acting in and reacting to extraordinary situations.  And speaking of acting, Olivier and Richardson are marvelous, and Heston is actually pretty good, too.  The supporting cast is large, and the more prominent players among them also provide solid performances, particularly Johnny Seka as Khalil, Gordon's loyal aide-de-camp.  The dialog is crisp, there’s plenty of action, and the savage North African scenery, especially when seen in 70mm, is truly spectacular.

“Hercules in the Haunted Kingdom” (1961)

“Hercules in the Haunted Kingdom” (1961), directed by Mario Bava, 2.5 stars

"Have you the courage to venture beyond the gates of Hades?" –  Medea (the Sibyl)

After hearing Sam Raimi on the commentary for the DVD for “Ju-on (The Grudge)” praise Mario Bava as a major influence, I decided I ought to check out some of that director’s films on Netflix.  I’ve tried to stay away from the low-budget Italian horror genre because the films look so cheesy and the plots are always pretty mindless.  But as I’ve grown older, I've tried to put away my younger if not completely childish thoughts and now give films I once considered unworthy a second chance.

I thought I’d watch Bava's films in date order, and though “Hercules in the Haunted Kingdom” was the earliest of his films that I could find. it’s probably not the one an avid fan would recommend starting with.  It’s badly acted, poorly written, and very cheaply done.  It follows Hercules (Reg Park) as he descends into Hades with his handsome, oversexed, friend Theseus (George Ardisson) and comic sidekick Telemachus (Franco Giacobini) to seek the stone of forgetfulness which will, according to the Sibyl, restore the mental state of his lover, Daianara (Leonora Ruffo).  She, it seems, is under a spell cast by the evil Lico (Christopher Lee), who Hercules erroneously believes is his ally and winds up fighting during the film’s climax.  But well before then, Hercules discovers that to enter Hades, he must first retrieve the golden apple of the Hesperides, which he does by hurling a huge boulder at it, loosening the apple from the top of an enormous vine from whence it drops a vast distance to the earth unharmed.  He also manages to span a massive, seething mud pool by tying a vine to another boulder, hurling it across the abyss where it lodges on the far side, and then swing across the vine arm across arm as a fierce wind kicks up around him.  Hercules hurls many more massive objects with equal effect before restoring Daianara's memory, getting rid of Lico, and otherwise bringing about a happy ending.

The highlight of the film for me was the sequence just after which skeletal corpses oh so slowly emerge from their tombs and then go after Hercules, suddenly taking wing and launching themselves through the air in his direction.  Their movements are nicely done, and they’re especially effective because the creatures launch themselves somewhat subjectively; that is, they take aim at the camera, presumably representing Hercules’ perspective.  Since I was more interested in Bava for his reputation as a director of horror films rather than mythic hero sagas, and this sequence, I imagine, is a precursor of things to come in his later films.

Bava is not the first director of Italian horror films that I’ve encountered, and I’ve actually run into him before, though I didn’t know it at the time.  About a year ago, I watched several films by Dario Argento, including “Suspiria” (1977), and just this past week, “Inferno” (1980).  He  worked with Argento on both of these films, and the latter was Bava's last effort (though for some reason he received no screen credit for it).  He died that same year.  No doubt, Argento was very much influenced by the elder filmmaker.

One last thing specific to the Netflix offering of “Hercules in the Haunted Kingdom." The print is awful.  It's scratched, the sound is poor, it's clearly a badly made dupe, and there are even some digital artifacts.  Also, the film was shot in widescreen (2.35:1) but the Netflix version looks to have been cropped from television print (1.33:1).  This is noticeable throughout, but most obvious during the closing credit sequence during which the names and titles do not fit on the screen.  This didn't add one whit to my appreciation of the film.  Netflix can (and should) do better than this.

Next up, Bava’s “Black Sabbath” (1963).

Beasts of the Southern Wild (2012)

Beasts of the Southern Wild (2012), directed by Benh Zeitlin, 4.5 stars

“When you're small you’ve got to fix what you can” – Hushpuppy

Fox Searchlight has a real winner in “Beasts of the Southern Wild.”  The film features a stirring performance by six-year old Quvenzhané Wallis, who plays Hushpuppy, a young girl living with her sickly but stern and stubborn father (Dwight Henry) in the unforgiving marshland somewhere in bayou country on the outskirts of New Orleans.  The story of the impact and aftermath of a fierce tropical storm on a small community dubbed the “Bathtub,” is told from her point of view.  It is also a story of coping with overwhelming loss.  The area has been ravaged.  Nearly all of the homes are either completely submerged or damaged beyond repair.  Those few who have opted not to leave prior to the deluge begin defiantly rebuilding their lives, but then the government intercedes, condemning homes and forcibly evacuating the remaining residents.  Hushpuppy’s world is in upheaval.  Her teacher has warned her and her classmates of the perils of global warming, and the young girl envisions ancient aurochs (forerunners of modern cattle, but depicted in the film as fierce, oversized boars) stampeding into the modern world after being released from a cryogenic state by melting polar icecaps.

Nature plays a palpable part in the film. One can almost smell the stench of rotting animal carcasses, feel the heavy pull of mud under foot, taste the juices flowing from freshly-fished steamed crabs and crawdads. The community depends almost entirely for its livelihood on the whim of natural forces, so it follows that the a close relationship to the environment permeates the entirety of their lives.  Hushpuppy, a precocious, highly-intuitive philosopher, sums it up best. “The whole universe depends on everything fitting together just right.  If one piece busts, even the smallest piece, the entire universe will get busted.”  Her community takes every opportunity to celebrate because it will never acquiesce to the overwhelming force of nature and its cycle of life and death.  As Hushpuppy proudly asserts early on in the film, “the Bathtub has more holidays than the whole rest of the world.”

Although filmed in areas in and within a few hours drive from New Orleans, the movie feels more like the product of a foreign-born director than of a 30-year old from Queens.  In his first feature-length film, Benh Zeitlin has brilliantly captured a world that is alien, out-of-balance (hence, perhaps, the entirely hand-held camerawork), and yet immediately accessible to an audience.  He offers us a glimpse into the heart and soul of humanity everywhere through the eyes of young girl whose observations on survival play out in the most appalling of primitive conditions.  The film has already won several Cannes Film Festival awards as well as the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance.  I believe that the film is also destined for similar honors at the next Academy Award celebration.

“West Side Story” (1961)

“West Side Story” (1961) – directed by Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins (5 stars)

“Life is all right in America if you’re all white in America” 

Evelyn (my wife) and I had already sat through one film at the theater on the day we saw “West Side Story.” We happened to meet up with the projectionist on our way out of the earlier film, and he happened to be discussing with another audience member just how stellar the 70mm print of this film was going to look on the big screen.  So, I asked Evelyn if she was willing to stay to watch the opening sequence, which features an incredibly energetic dance sequence filmed on location in Manhattan.  She begrudgingly agreed, and it was just as good if not better than I remembered it.  When it ended, I got up to leave and was summarily ordered to sit down.  We sat through the entire film, intermission and all.  Such is the power of cinema at its best.  Say what you will about the dated aspects of the dialogue and the weak acting of the two leads, the film is still an absolute pleasure to watch.  Seeing it in 70mm with a large, engaged audience enriched the experience far beyond what would have been possible on my home TV, no matter how large a group I might be able to assemble or how large my screen.  

The musical recounts the familiar story of star-crossed lovers, whose relationship is doomed from the moment they meet.  Like Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet,” upon which this story is closely based, Maria (Natalie Wood), an immigrant Puerto Rican, and Tony (Richard Beymer), a native born white of Polish ancestry, begin their brief affair just as their clannish kinsmen are preparing to rumble.  Tony’s best friend is Riff (Russ Tamblyn), the leader of a white gang dubbed the Jets.  Maria’s brother is Bernardo (George Chakiris), the leader of the Puerto Rican gang the Sharks.  Could the deck be stacked any higher against them?  Young, innocent and oblivious, ultimately, they very quickly fall victim to the culture of honor that surrounds them.  Territoriality, racism, misogyny, misunderstandings, and sheer bad luck conspire to dash any chances they may have had for happiness.

 

“West Side Story” was nominated for 11 and won 10 Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Director (Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins), Supporting Actors (Rita Morena and George Chakiris), Art Direction, Cinematography, and Editing.  However, two key contributors did not win and were not even nominated.  These were composer Leonard Bernstein and lyricist Steven Sondheim, without whose contributions this film could never have been made. (Ironically, the four men who arranged the score shared the Award for Music.)  Bernstein’s hallmark fusion of syncopated jazz and Latin rhythms mirrored the out-of-balance lives lived by the protagonists and their peers.  Sondheim lyrics are brilliant and incredibly on the mark, whether applied in a romantic (“Somewhere”), sarcastic (“America”), or socially satirical (“Gee, Officer Krupke”) setting.  And then there’s the film’s spectacular opening dance number.  Following a series of aerial shots of Manhattan, the choreography escalates from cat and mouse games between small units of the Jets and Sharks into increasingly larger and more violent encounters.  The creative energy required to put together this lengthy sequence must have been enormous.  There is so much going on that it’s not possible to take in all of the action playing out on the large, wide screen.

With the exception of “Saving Private Ryan,” I can think of no other film that sustains from its opening shot so long a high level of energy.  What does it matter if the two leads are dubbed and John Astin (“Addams Family”) is miscast as the chaperon at the dance or if Simon Oakland (Lt. Schrank) recites his line as blandly as if he’s explaining why Norman Bates killed his mother in “Psycho” (which he did)?  The story, the songs, and the dancing just don’t get any better than this.  No wonder it’s rated number 51 on AFI’s top 100 list of American films and number 2 (just below “Singing in the Rain”) on their top 100 list of musicals.  And no wonder, too, that Evelyn (and I) decided to watch it once again, this time in all its 70mm glory.

Ju-on: The Grudge (2002)

Ju-on: The Grudge (2002), directed by Takashi Shimizu, 4.5 stars

"A Curse born of a strong grudge held by someone who died.  The place of his death gathers his grudge.  Anyone who comes into contact with this curse shall lose his life and a new curse is born."  – Japanese proverb

If “Ju-on: The Grudge” is any indication, haunted houses in Japan don’t play by the same rules as those invented in Hollywood.  It doesn’t matter if you’ve been bad or good; you’re as good as dead when you enter the one in this film.

This is the only film in the “Ju-on” oeuvre that I’ve seen so far, and on first viewing (I’ve since watched it again), I found it eerily unsettling.  I also found it a bit confusing, but not as a result of any deficiency in the film.  I simply couldn’t consistently differentiate all of the characters.  There are many of them, and some not only look similar (at least to me), they also have similar sounding names.  On second viewing, this was not a problem, and I’m sure it would not be a problem of any sort for a Japanese audience. 

The film is organized into 10-15 minute titled segments that move backward and forward in time, a narrative form that makes the film much more interesting and demands more attention from the viewer.  I’m still not 100% clear if any of these chapters actually represents the present, but for my own purposes, I will ascribe that timeframe to the first full segment titled “Rika.” The scene begins after the credits and a violent opening sequence consisting of quick and jarring cuts to blades, blood, and other carnage, none of which can be fully contextualized until one has seen the film in its entirety.  If “Rika” takes place in the present, then we travel both into the past as well as several years into the future, but I’ll say more about that a bit later.

Rika, a young and inexperienced social worker, is sent to pay a visit to an elderly woman.  A colleague was dispatched the day before and has not been heard from.  Rika enters the house and finds it littered with food and miscellaneous debris which is strewn all about.  She hears scratching coming from a translucent screen door and opens it to find the old woman clawing at it, the first in a series of progressively spookier scares.  After cleaning up as best she can, she hears a noise and follows the sound to an upstairs bedroom where she finds a closet that has been carelessly taped shut.  A cat howls from behind the closet door, so she removes the tape, peers inside, and spots the cat and a little boy, bruised from head to toe, holding on to it.  I don’t think I’m giving too much away by saying that the boy and cat are bad news, but they’ve got nothing on the other dangerous denizens of the house.  Not that it makes much difference.  All of them are equally capable of dispensing a momentary chill of terror prior to dispatching their victim.

But it isn’t the blood and gore that makes this film so effective.  It is the steady stream of small horrors that nibble at the psyche before consuming their victims whole.  Objects of terror are as likely to appear in a bright, busy restaurant as they are in the recesses of a dark attic.  They are especially likely to lurk in one’s peripheral vision.  A turn of the head and they’re gone—at least for now.  Characters are never really sure if there was or still is something there, and often neither are we.  


Director Takashi Shimizu is a master of transference.  The audience is nearly as unnerved as Rika and others by the subtle assaults on our consciousness: a floating wisp of hair, a puff of black smoke, a distorted image on a TV screen, a small figure rushing by out of the corner of one’s eye, a figure reflected briefly in a glass door, or a mirror that momentarily reveals a ghostly shadow.   These images linger long, and like the demonic curse they represent, are not confined to the threshold of a hateful, haunted house.

Riffraff (1936)

Riffraff (1936), directed by J. Walter Ruben, 3 stars

"What's past is gone out and over and done with" – Nick Lewis

The above quote nicely sums up the recurring motif of this film, that is, that pretty much all sins are forgivable--provided one makes an earnest attempt to atone for them.  And sins aplenty occur during this emotionally-wrought tale of tuna workers exploited by their oily factory boss, Nick Lewis (Joseph Calleia).  One surmises that he must have changed his name since he speaks in a contrived form of pidgin English, no doubt intended by the screenwriters to inject humorous malaprops aplenty into the dialogue.  Nick is smitten by Hattie (Jean Harlow), and who wouldn't be?  She’s drop-dead gorgeous and alternatively sweet and sassy in inimitable Harlow style.  Hattie, on the other hand, is in love with “Dutch” Muller (Spencer Tracy), an egomaniacal tuna fisherman who works in Nick's factory.  However, Nick is so self-absorbed that he ignores her overtures. Instead, he occupies his time making reckless decisions that wind up wreaking increasing havoc not only on Hattie and his closest friends, but on the entire community dependent on the fishery for its livelihood.

But no matter how poorly perspicacious Dutch's decisions turn out to be, the movie makes a point of differentiating them from the ever-present 30s red menace that seeks to use Nicks’ exploitative business practices as an excuse for a socialist solution.  Communists are portrayed as either bat-wielding thugs or as arrogant highbrows who use the biggest words available when fewer syllables would carry the day.

The attraction that Dutch and Hattie display off and on for one another transcends the political environment that surrounds them in a way that could only work in a Hollywood film.  Initially, Dutch wants nothing to do with his fellow fishermen, who are on the verge of calling a strike that will most certainly lead to their being replaced by scabs.  He'd rather spend his time in a local tavern in the company of two lovely ladies.  But it takes only the slightest stroking of his ego by Hattie and others to nudge him into action: the delivery of a speech that leads to a huge brawl outside the cannery.  Despite the fact that Dutch and Hattie were at each other’s throats only moments before, she chooses to help him escape from the police by creating a distraction, wrapping a can of tuna in paper, flinging it into the melee, and crying “bomb.”  When she later congratulates him for averting the strike, he reacts violently, pushing her to the ground.  Hattie gets her revenge in short order by hurling a fish at him while reporters are filming an interview.  It hits him in the face, causing him to loses his balance and fall overboard into the water—all this while the cameras are rolling.  This row doesn't prevent them from marrying, becoming pregnant, having irreconcilable differences, and then divorcing, all in short order.  The attraction between the two lies in their studio star power, not in themselves and certainly not in their stars.

“Riffraff” was the second film Harlow made with Spencer Tracy in 1936, the other being the better known and better film, “Libeled Lady.”  Although sparks fly in this film, the sparkle just isn’t the same between the two as it is with Harlow and her other leading men.  I'm thinking especially of Clark Gable.  But other cast members do liven things up quite a bit.  Una Merkel as Lil, Hattie's sister, and Mickey Rooney as Jimmy, Lil's son provide plenty of fast-talking wisecracks as well as real help when it's needed.  Anita Loos, Frances Marion, and H.W. Hamemann were responsible for the snappy screenplay, which is filled with zingers, though the highlight for me are the conversations in broken English between Nick and Markis (George Givot), his lawyer, which I found simply hilarious.  This is neither Harlow’s or Tracy’s best effort by far, but it is an interesting if not a totally successful pairing of two of MGM’s big box-office sensations.

Mimic 3 Sentinel (2003)

Mimic 3 Sentinel (2003), directed by J.T. Petty, 1 star

"Haven’t you guys seen this movie?" – Marvin Montrose

If the demonstrative pronoun in the above quote referred to “Mimic 3 Sentinel,” then my guess is that few people would answer yes to the question posed.  And that’s a mercy.  In the film, however, Marvin Montrose (Karl Geary), a sickly bubble boy confined largely to his room, is referencing Alfred Hitchcock’s “Rear Window” even though he does not name the film.  The question is posed to his hopelessly drug-addicted younger sister Rosy (Alexis Dziena) and her friend Carmen (Rebecca Mader), a pretty young lady from across the alley.  Since his question is never answered, one can infer that neither of these characters know what he’s talking about, but my having seen both films, I wonder what director/screenwriter J.T. Petty is talking about.  Yes, both films do feature a man with a camera who is confined for medical reasons to his room, but “Rear Window” is a masterful piece of filmmaking and “Mimic 3 Sentinel” is a miserable piece of something entirely different.

In his pre-digital world, Marvin unabashedly takes picture after picture from his bedroom window, most of which are terrible.  It must have cost his family a fortune to develop all the photographs that he's plastered on the walls of his room.  He shoots with the lights on so everyone in the neighboring apartments can see what he’s doing, but nobody seems to notice or care.  His timing is also invariably way off.  When there is nothing going on, his eye is glued to the viewfinder.  When creatures come in for the kill, he’s nowhere to be found.

I’d really like to say something nice about the film, but I just can't think of anything.  The cast does include Amanda Plummer (“Pulp Fiction”) as Marvin’s mom and Lance Henriksen (“Aliens”) as “the garbage man” (don’t ask), but neither actor is given any motivation or material to work with.  When they die (oh, sorry; I guess that was a spoiler), it’s good riddance to bad rubbish.

There’s nothing going on in the way of filmmaking either.  The plot is plodding; the score is uninspired (what’s with the unseen, diegetic viola?); and all of the characters—not just Marvin—seem completely enervated and sleep-deprived.  Perhaps, the actors who portrayed them really were.  The film was shot in Romania (most of the crew have diacritical marks in their names and there’s also a nod to Bucharest in the end titles), and except, perhaps, for the effects shots, it couldn’t have taken very long to shoot the whole thing.  Maybe the crew rushed through it as quickly as possible to put it all behind them.  Sheer speculation on my part, I admit.

So why did I watch it through to the end?  For the same reasons I always do.  I obsess over completion: After watching “Mimic,” I stumbled upon the two sequels, and that as they say is that.  In my estimation, this is the worst of the bunch by far.  If you like films about angry overgrown bugs, there are many others to choose from, any one of which has got to have more going for it than this.

“Mimic 2” (1997)

“Mimic 2” (1997), Jean de Segonvac, 1.5 stars

“What the hell are we looking for?” – soldier

With all of the headaches the original “Mimic” created for its director and, presumably, its producers as well, you wouldn’t expect anyone to pony up any more money on a sequel but, nevertheless, that’s just what happened.  Screenwriter Joel Soisson (“Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure”) takes Remy (Alix Koromzay), the most minor of the major characters in the original film, gives her a backstory as a science teacher, and concocts a horrific scenario that provides her with her own heroic journey.  In the first film, Remy assists Dr. Susan Tyler of the CDC in an ill-defined capacity while her boss descends deeper and deeper into the innermost rings of hell.  Here, the hellishness plays itself out in a deteriorating public school somewhere in the South Bronx.  People are losing face (literally) and one of these poor unfortunates is a dunderhead Remy recently dated and now wants nothing to do with.  She sure knows how to pick 'em.  Her wall is plastered with Polaroids of herself in the aftermath of countless dates gone wrong.

But we don’t really care.  Remy’s not a particularly attractive or sympathetic character herself, and the sad truth is neither is anyone else who winds up in harm’s way.  Certainly not Detective Klaski (Bruno Campos), who noses around trying to get to the root of the ghastly homicides.  He’s pretty much clueless, and hopelessly crass to boot.  Nor do we worry whether or not the young’uns, Nicky (Will Estes) and Sal (Gaven E. Lucas), will survive their after-hours ordeal in the bowels of the school.  The former is too hormonally out of balance, and the latter, although he's a cute kid, doesn’t really say or do anything worthy of surviving through to the end credits.  In fact, he does some pretty stupid things along the way.

Although the plot is anything but, the film itself looks very smart.  Like its predecessor, much of the action takes place in darkness illuminated by a stray light here and there, which may or may not flicker annoyingly for additional effect.  The production also oozes more than its fair share of luminescent slime, and bugs of all sizes crash through ceilings and walls right on their frenetic musical cues.  Director Jean de Segonzac (“Homicide: Life on the Street”) distorts the camera and places it at all sorts of odd angles, but this is an example of excessive form attempting to compensate for inadequate content.  Though I like the original film quite a bit, I’m afraid I can’t recommend its offspring.  Gone are all of Guillermo del Toro's signature themes:  faith, dispair, heroism. The bugs are back, but no one is any smarter or renewed spiritually as a result of surviving an encounter with them.  And from everything I’ve read, which admittedly isn't much, I can’t imagine that the next genetic mutation in the series (“Mimic 3 Sentinel”) will be much better: a conclusion I will at some point in the near future no doubtedly wind up drawing for myself.

The Unholy Three (1930)

The Unholy Three (1930), directed by Jack Conway, 3.5 stars

“That’s all there is to life – just a little laugh, a little tear.” – Professor Echo

Lon Chaney was late getting into sound pictures.  He made only one, a remake of his 1925 hit, “The Unholy Three,” and it was to be his last film. Just over a month after its release, he died from bronchial, throat, or lung cancer, depending on which of the many online biographies you read.  One of the reasons he may have chosen this to be his first foray into sound was because it not only featured the actor in disguise, it also gave him the opportunity to show off his ability to create several distinct voices, giving rise to the film’s ad campaign, which touted with typical Hollywood hyperbole, “The Man of a Thousand Faces is now the Man of a Thousand Voices!”

The plot of the film is nearly identical to its silent forbear, though economically pared down from 86 to 72 minutes.  I’ve seen many argue that the original, directed frequent Chaney collaborator Tod Browning is the superior of the two films, and at first glance, the remake creates very little that is new or different if you subtract the vocal track.  However, it is exactly because of the now precious on-screen presence of Chaney’s commanding voice(s) that this film is worthy of note, and because it is, it’s equally interesting to take a look at some of the changes that were made and to speculate as to why they were.

First, there are two new very brief comedic bits that take place at the start of the film during Professor Echo’s (Chaney) ventriloquist act.  His dummy offers to sing a song a song titled “She Was a Butterfly’s Daughter,” which opens with the title line followed by “But he was a son of a bee.”  Echo immediately covers the dummy’s mouth and admonishes him to behave.  A few moments later, he projects a female voice into the audience which causes a sailor to put the moves on a young lady standing beside him.  Many Hollywood films of the early 1930s pushed conservatives Americans to the limit, resulting in a significant clamping down by censors in the summer of 1934.

The next difference is in the introductions of the various characters.  The gorilla, who plays a key role late in the film, is brought in much earlier, and the antipathy between the animal and Hercules (Ivan Linow), makes much more sense after we see the strong man antagonize the ape with a slingshot.  Echo’s warning to Hercules goes unheeded:  “You’re gonna do that once too often and he’ll tear you to pieces.”  An even smaller difference, but a curious one, occurs during the first interaction between Echo and Rosie O'Grady (Lila Lee).  In the silent version, Echo offers her a steak dinner for being such a good pickpocket.  In this film, he offers her steak with mushrooms, and it’s the mushrooms (not the steak, as in the original) that impel her to reveal the rest of her stash to him.  I wonder if this is a depression-era update denoting, perhaps, one particular frill that is no longer available (or affordable) to the working class.  Getting back to character intros, there’s one change worth noting.  Like Hercules, Tweedledee, the midget (Harry Earles) is clearly a much darker character in the sound film.  The last of the unholy three to be introduced, when the barker (Richard Carle) alerts him that it’s nearly time for him to do his act and they’ve got a good crowd of nice people, Tweedledee goes into a bitter rant, which ends with “I’d like to poison them all.”  This better sets up the following scene in which he responds to a young boy’s taunts by kicking him in the face.

Fred Kelsey and Lon Chaney

Perhaps, the biggest difference is in the endings of the two films.  In the original, Echo confesses and is forgiven for his crimes.  He releases Rosie from her promise to remain with him and returns with his manikin to the carnival.  In the remake, Echo in the guise of Grandma O’Grady is unmasked in the witness stand by the District Attorney (John Miljean) and receives a one-to-five year prison sentence.  Once again, he frees Rosie to find happiness in the arms of another man, but this time, with the lovers united and the train pulling out of the station on its way to the penitentiary, Echo calls out his final words from the observation car: “I’ll send you a postal card.”  As the screen fades to black, Chaney waves one last time to the screen.  Exit way too soon one of the greatest, multi-talented entertainers ever to grace the movie screen.

"Dinner at Eight" (1933)

"Dinner at Eight" (1933), directed by George Cukor, 4 stars

“Nothing can be done. That's the unfortunate thing about death. It's so terribly final. Even the young can't do anything about it.” – Carlotta Vance

This depression era gem, which sits at number 85 on the American Film Institute’s (AFI’s) top comedies (100 Years, 100 Laughs), explores both the idyllic and the carnal qualities of young love, the jaded, depressed, and corrupt side of the more mature set, and betrayals of various sorts that plague young and old alike.  Although characterized by AFI and others as a comedy—and it certainly does have its fair share of farcical wits about it—the fact that infidelity, bullying, financial ruin, heart disease, and suicide are all critical plot points, I consider the film more of a drama.  For some characters things do end well, but for others, not so much.

The studio certainly didn’t advertise it as a comedy—at least not in its posters or previews.  MGM’s publicity department concentrated instead on the film’s stellar cast.  “The riches of the entire dramatic world gathered for one stupendous screen entertainment.”  So says the original trailer for the film, further professing that it even dwarfs MGM’s own “Grand Hotel," released the year before with many of the same actors.

The invitation to dinner certainly does extend to several of the biggest names in the entertainment industry in the early 1930s.  Most prominent are John Barrymore as Larry Renault, an actor once known for his “great profile” and now unable to get even small, supporting parts, Lee Tracy in the thankless role of Max Kane, Renault’s supportive, fast talking agent, Wallace Beery as Dan Packard, a rough-hewn and unscrupulous financier, Jean Harlow as Kitty, Packard’s young, fast, and free-spirited platinum-blonde wife, Lionel Barrymore as Oliver Jordan, a sickly shipping tycoon with his business on the rocks, and Billie Burke as Millicent, Jordan’s next-to-neurotic wife whose dinner plans set most of the plot in motion.  Oh, yes, there’s also Marie Dressler as Carlotta Vance, grande dame of the New York stage, who is wise, wizened, and not nearly as well-off as her fading finery would have everyone believe.

A quick plot summary: An eponymous 8pm dinner is being given by the Jordan’s for the esteemed Lord and Lady Ferncliffe.  Things go badly right away.  Carlotta, Oliver Jordan’s former lover and erstwhile Broadway star, drops by to borrow money just as the Jordan’s shipping line is discovered to be in severe financial straits.  Dan Packard, the person Jordan looks to for succor, sees this instead as an opportunity to suck up the stock at a rock bottom price.  The Jordan’s daughter has recently become enamored of an aging alcoholic stage actor, and horror of horrors, there is an uneven number of dinner guests now that Carlotta is on the scene.

The major actors in the film are so spot on in their roles that one gets the distinct impression that the original play (or at least, the modified screenplay) was written specifically with them in mind, Larry Renault, the John Barrymore character, most particularly.  I’ve watched and enjoyed the film at least twice before, but I liked it more than ever this time.  Perhaps, this was because I saw it for the first time in a theater, on a large screen, and surrounded by an audience.  But I suspect that my increased pleasure derived even more from the attention I paid to the difference of opinions expressed by the free-spirited youthful dinner guests and their boxed-in elders. As I’m not getting any younger, I was able to appreciate both perspectives much better now than in the past.

“Moonrise Kingdom” (2012)

“Moonrise Kingdom” (2012), Wes Anderson, 3.5 stars

“What kind of bird are you?” – Sam

Wes Anderson’s quirky “Moonrise Kingdom” rolls back the clock to the 1960s and recounts the tale of a pair of lonely and troubled pre-teens who run off together to escape the anguish of their anything but normal lives.  Sam (Jared Gilman) is a member a khaki scout troop bivouacked for the summer on the island of New Penzance.  Suzy (Kara Hayward) is the eldest child in a massively dysfunctional family that lives on the island.  Her parents, Walt and Laura Bishop (played by Bill Murray and Frances McDormand), two lawyers teetering on the edge of divorce, communicate through a megaphone, and her mother is having an affair with Captain Sharp (Bruce Willis), the island’s only police officer.  Sam’s skills as a scout facilitate the pair’s escape despite the fact that Suzy is dressed as if she’s on her way to Sunday school and has brought along many of the comforts of home, including a suitcase, a cat, and a record player.  Captain Sharp enlists the aid of Scoutmaster Ward (Edward Norton) and his troop of eager khaki scouts, but the couple remains one step ahead, in one scene by unleashing some unexpectedly gruesome violence on their pursuers.

Much of the action within the film borders on the absurd, but the cast plays it completely straight, which makes the staging and reciting of their lines very funny.  The camera seems to be constantly on the move, dollying left, right, up and down and not at all self-conscious about the sweeping movements that give grandeur to rather ordinary scenes.  Scenes within the massive Bishop house are the most elaborately staged with characters entering and exiting the frame as the camera dollies with or in opposition to their movements.  Even static shots call attention to themselves: many are photographed from high or low angles (seldom straight on); many are filled with odd color combinations; and many catch characters behaving in ways you just don’t expect, for instance, Walt shuffling about with an axe on his shoulder and a bottle of wine explaining to his sons that he’s about to chop down a tree. (Actually, you might expect him to do that if you’ve seen the trailer.)   It’s a quirkily constructed piece of work in which quirky characters find comfort in each other’s quirky company, and it feels as if everyone involved, the camera included, had a good time making the film.  I had a good time watching it, and so did the audience I saw it with.

“Underworld” (1927)

“Underworld” (1927), directed by Joseph von Sternberg, 4 stars

“There was something I had to find out – and that hour was worth more to me than my whole life” – Bull Weed 

Anyone familiar with the cycle of gangster films from the early 1930s will see in this movie much of the familiar iconography of that genre: the fast cars, the self-absorbed, wise-cracking dames, the jesterish sidekick, the gangster with a gimmick (this one bends coins in his bare hands), the macho posturing, the fateful signage (“The City is Yours”), the jaunty nightclub (Dreamland Cafe), the car chase, and, of course, the fatal climactic shootout.  George Bancroft is free-wheeling “Bull” Weed, crime boss, Evelyn Brent is “Feathers,” his sultry moll, and Clive Brook, who gets top billing, is “Rolls Royce,” a drunken, down-and-out ex-lawyer who Bull decides to take under his wing during the aftermath of a robbery.  Except for his aide-de-camp, “Slippy” Lewis (comedian Larry Semon), Bull seems to operate pretty much alone.  This is in distinct contrast to his counterpart in the world of crime, “Buck” Mulligan (Fred Kohler), who is full of bullying bravado when cavorting with his carousing companions.

Unlike many gangster films of the thirties, there is very little interplay between the police and the criminal element.  There is no over-the-top cop, detective, or newspaper reporter fixating on getting his man, as there is in “Little Caesar” (1931), “Scarface” (1932), and, most prominently, in MGM’s reactionary answer to the crime film, “The Beast of the City” (1932).  There is Buck, who though constantly surrounded by compatriots, always feels overshadowed by the larger than life persona exuded by Bull and, thus, overcompensates in ways that invariably backfire.  In a sequence that may have inspired the opening scene of “Rio Bravo,” Buck tosses a $10 bill into a spittoon both to impress Feathers and to demean Rolls Royce, who is is now sweeping floors at the café.  Unlike his kindred spirit in the Howard Hawks oater (Dude, played by Dean Martin), Rolls Royce does not take the bait by (literally) lowering himself to pick up the money.  His response infuriates Buck—especially because his gang finds it amusing.  After demanding that Rolls Royce pick up the bill, in a cleverly constructed subjective shot from the point of view of Rolls Royce, Buck throws a vicious punch to the stomach to which the camera reacts by suddenly panning upward as if being struck by the blow.

All of the deadly sins except, perhaps, gluttony feature prominently at one point or another in the film, and they escalate the violence which ultimately culminates in the killing of Buck Mulligan by Bull Weed.  Despite the laxity of the production code in the late 1920s and early 1930s, Hollywood’s rules of the game nearly always mandated that murderers meet their just reward before the house lights came back on.  Bull winds up on death row, and Paramount executives almost sentence the film to the same fate.  The studio wasn't particularly happy with the end product and gave it a very limited release.  Then, something unexpected happened:  the public took the film by storm. Screenwriter Ben Hecht was initially so angry at Director Von Sternberg's modifications to the script that he asked that his credit be removed.  It wasn’t, and Hecht won an Oscar for it at the first Academy Awards ceremony in 1929.  The popularity of crime films has not diminished since that time, and anyone who enjoys the genre should watch this film and see how all the fuss began. 

Mimic (1997)

Mimic (1997), directed by Guillermo del Toro (3.5 stars)

“We don’t even know what the impact is of what we did.” — Dr. Susan Tyler

"Mimic “was director del Toro's second film and his first foray into Hollywood.  According the commentary that accompanies the Blu-Ray release of the "director's cut," the lessons he learned during the making of "Mimic" would prove extremely valuable to him as a filmmaker--in hindsight if not at the time.  Constant clashes between del Toro and the producers resulted in significantly dumbing down the film by the time it was released, so the 2012 director's cut is his best effort to eke the most out of the footage that was shot.  And say what you will about the Hollywoodization of the plot, the visuals and themes that permeate the film are pure del Toro.  It is appropriately dark and stormy, and the subtle interplay of shadow and fluid camerawork does a good job keeping viewers on the edge of their seats for much of the film.

The plot is sure to be of interest to entomologists everywhere. For two years, Strickler’s Disease, a bug-borne virus that ravages the young, has infested New York City. Peter Mann (Jeremy Northram) of the CDC solicits the assistance of Professor Susan Tyler (Mira Sorvino), who comes up with a cockroach cocktail that contains the spread.  Unbeknownst to all concerned, however, the cure has severe side effects.  Termed the “Judas Breed,” Dr. Tyler’s molecular mix of manta, termite, and cockroach DNA disrupts the metabolism of all three insect species, causing the fortunate few that have survived to regenerate, mutate, and grow at a staggering rate. Three years later, members of the brood begin to emerge from abandoned subway tunnels beneath the city streets and, the first casualty—pure del Toro—is a priest.  The man falls to his death while fleeing a shadowy pursuer, and he is then dragged into a nearby sewer.  It requires several tugs from within to pull the priest through the narrow hole.  As his bones crack, the cross he wears around his neck gleams in the rain-reflected street lights.

Those familiar with del Toro’s work will not be surprised by the overarching presence of Christian iconography, of which this is only one early example.  Other of the director’s signature themes are also on display, including oversized, fierce and filthy insects, young people trying to make sense of a world gone mad, and painful cuts that are difficult to watch—and here I am referring to bloody slashes and gashes, not to the editing of the film.  Familiar thematic motifs also recur, particularly, that of redemption.  The major characters, especially the two scientists and Leonard (Charles Dutton), a policeman and fellow traveler on a descent into progressively deeper and darker circles of Hell, face seemingly insurmountable odds in their individual sacrificial quests to save the lives of others.

Although a more visually and narratively consistent film in its reedited form, “Mimic” still suffers from a “too many cooks in the kitchen” syndrome fostered, it seems, by too much attentive care and feeding by studio executives.  Nevertheless, it’s a cut or two above other semi-apocalyptic thrillers, and it preserves in celluloid (like insects in amber) the evolutionary imprint of a young filmmaker on the rise.

"Double Indemnity" (1944)

"Double Indemnity" (1944), directed by Billy Wilder, 5 stars

“They’ve committed a murder.  It’s not like taking a trolley-ride together where they can get off at different stops.  They’re stuck with each other, and they’ve got to ride all the way to the end of the line, and it’s a one-way trip, and the last stop is the cemetery” – Barton Keyes, Claims Manager

"Double Indemnity" is one of the best examples of 1940s film noir and stands at 29 in the American Film Institute's 10th anniversary listing of the top 100 American films of all time.  Fred MacMurray plays Walter Neff, a top-of-his-game insurance salesman and Barbara Stanwyck plays Phyllis Dietrichson, the slinky wife of a client whose auto policy has come due.  It's lust at first sight, and the two fairly quickly concoct a scheme for killing the husband and cleaning up on his accident insurance policy.  If he dies on a train, an actuarial improbability, the policy pays double (hence the title), so that's the plan.  The story is loosely based on a real murder committed by Ruth Snyder and Henry Judd Gray in 1927.

MacMurray, best remembered for his later forays into Disney comedies (e.g., "The Shaggy Dog" and "The Absent-Minded Professor") and for the iconic and extremely long-running sitcom, "My Three Sons," was equally adept over a decade earlier adopting the necessary hard-boiled persona he exudes in this film.  As the murder plot unravels, so does he, but to outward appearances, he remains cool, calm, and collected.

The plot unfolds as a series of first-person narratives spoken into a Dictaphone in the office of Neff's colleague, Barton Keyes (Edward G. Robinson in, perhaps, his very best role).  Neff appears to have been shot in the shoulder, and each time an episode ends and cross-fades back to him, the spot of blood on his coat grows larger.  The narration is filled with tough-guy colloquialisms and sparks fly in the banter between Neff and Phyllis.  And well they should.  The screenplay was written by Raymond Chandler based on a 1936 novel by James M. Cain.  This duo along with Dashiell Hammett were the masters of the genre in literary form and are variously responsible for other cinematic and literary pulp classics such as "The Maltese Falcon," "Out of the Past," "The Postman Only Rings Twice," "Murder My Sweet," and "The Big Sleep."  And then there's relative newcomer to directing, Billy Wilder, whose "Sunset Boulevard" a few years later takes first-person narrative to a whole new level, putting words into the mouth not of a man who is dying, but one who is dead before the film begins.  "Double Indemnity" is an early example of what the French would later dub "film noir."  Its fatalism prefigures the post-World War II cycle that would become pervasive until the McCarthy witch hunters weighed in and laid waste much of the pool of talent responsible for identifying and illuminating the darker corners of American life.

"The Unholy Three" (1925)

"The Unholy Three" (1925), directed by Tod Browning, 3 stars

“The Unholy Three” was the third of ten silent films Lon Chaney made with director Tod Browning (known also for sound films such as “Dracula” and “Freaks”).  The film also stars Victor McLaglen as the sideshow strongman, Hercules, and Harry Earles as Tweedledee, a politically incorrect little person billed as “Twenty inches! Twenty years! Twenty pounds! The Twentieth Century Curiosity!”  With Chaney as Echo, the ventriloquist, the men partner to become the pseudonymous unholy three, opting into an ostensibly easy life of crime.  In short order, however, we learn that this is no group of criminal masterminds. But I’m getting a little ahead of their story.

The film begins at a pretty sleazy indoor carnival where performers, including the three principals, a tattooed lady, a sword swallower, and Siamese twins, are flaunting their unique qualities.  Among the onlookers is Mae Busch as the not so sweet Rosie O’Grady.  She busily picks various onlookers' pockets, much to the delight of Echo, who watches her while performing his act.  He’s clearly smitten, but as this is a Lon Chaney film, there’s no chance of their relationship ending well.  In fact, things go in a southerly direction rather quickly.  Tweedledee kicks a young boy in the face for making fun of his height, and the unholy ones together with Rosie escape just as the cops come to call.

After their abrupt departure from the carnival, they pool their resources and open a store that sells birds.  The shop owner is Grandma O'Grady, who is really Echo in drag.  Tweedledee also gets into the act by dressing himself in swaddling clothes and impersonating a toddler (see photo below).  Grandma hires Hector (Matt Moore) as the store's sales clerk, and Rosie immediately takes a shine to him, much to Echo's distress.  But before things deteriorate, Grandma hobbles around the store selling talking parrots to rich patrons by projecting her voice, thus creating the illusion that the birds are speaking to the customers.  Their words appear on the screen in animated cartoon bubbles, a nice touch.  Because the homes where the parrots wind up are regularly robbed soon after they arrive, the cops come once again to call.

In a scene reminiscent of Hitchcock, a detective interviews the unholy three.  Tweedledee has stashed stolen jewelry in a toy elephant which the detective inadvertently kicks.  He then picks up the toy, begins playing with it, and in the process, hears something rattle from within.  The camera cuts between the detective's examination of the object and the fearful faces of the unholy trio, each increasingly worried that the man will stumble upon the hidden treasure.

He doesn't, so the group decides to implicate Hector in the robbery and then flee the scene of the crime, accompanied by a fifth companion: a giant chimpanzee.  As Hector goes on trial for theft, the fugitives hole up in a mountain hideaway, getting increasingly jittery, greedy, and treacherous in their isolation.  In a final fit of pique, Tweedledee lets loose the chimp and, sorry to say, things go very badly.

At almost 86 minutes, “The Unholy Three” seems a bit overlong.  The attraction that Rosie develops for Hector doesn’t really ring true—at least not in movie terms.  Matt Moore plays Hector as a four-eyed wimp, and Mae Busch’s Rosie is way too sassy and street-wise to find much use for a guy like that.  But somebody other than Chaney needs to get the girl, and Hector, assuming he's found not guilty, is the only guy around.

The film, which cost just over $100k to make, grossed over seven times that amount.  Its financial success, combined with the prospect of adding not only multiple faces but multiple voices to his repertoire, induced Chaney to remake "The Unholy Three" five years later as his first and only sound film.