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Dragonwyck (1946, Directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz) English 6

Starring Gene Tierney, Vincent Price, Glenn Langan, Walter Huston, Anne Revere, Jessica Tandy, Spring Byington

Dragonwyck (1946) with Gene Tierney – Classic Film Freak

(6-Good Film)

Atmospheric. Eerie. Grandiose.

Miranda Wells: Nicholas – you do believe in God?

Nicholas Van Ryn: I believe in myself, and I am answerable to myself! I will not live according to printed mottoes like the directions on a medicine bottle!

Miranda Wells (Tierney) has lived a cloistered life courtesy of her strict, religious parents in early 19th century Connecticut. When the opportunity comes for her to live with a wealthy relative, landowner Nicholas Van Ryn (Price), she leaps at it and quickly finds herself drawn to the imposing figure, despite his being married. I imagine Daphne Du Maurier’s Rebecca is the standard for all romantic gothic novels and their adaptations, though I haven’t read any of the books and have only seen a handful of the movies. There’s an affected, very mannered air about the dialogue and acting in these films. As a result, Vincent Price is perfect for his gaudy role here. He once remarked about many of his films, “(they) don’t date because they were dated to begin with.” I think that’s accurate, in general, and accurate about Dragonwyck in particular. Dragonwyck is a handsome, elaborately staged affair. The costumes, the house, and all of the trinkets inside it are expertly crafted. That’s the main pleasure of watching most period films and, on that score, Dragonwyck delivers while its story happens to be predictably maudlin and ultimately not up to as much as its busy, intriguing premise suggests. And I’m putting it as a side note but it’s very much front and center in the film: Gene Tierney is staggeringly, timelessly beautiful.

-Walter Tyrone Howard-

(966)

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D.O.A (1949, Directed by Rudolph Maté) English 7

Starring Edmond O’Brien, Pamela Britton, Luther Adler, William Ching, Laurette Luez, Neville Brand, Lynn Baggett

D.O.A. (1949) Full Length Movie on the MHM Podcast Network

(7-Very Good Film)

Intriguing. Convoluted. Melodramatic.

Homicide Captain: Who was murdered?
Frank Bigelow: I was.

I’m glad to find, reading other reviews of noir classic D.O.A, that I’m not the only one that had a hard time following the plot. Several characters flow in and out, there are red herrings, and key players are mentioned but never seen. I couldn’t keep up, but that didn’t keep me from enjoying the film. All you really need to know is that an average man, Frank Bigelow (O’Brien), goes on a business trip to San Francisco, spends the first night out on the town, wakes up the next morning feeling funny, and, upon visiting a doctor, is told that he’s been poisoned and has a couple days left to live. Film experts refer to these kinds of plot devices as ticking bombs. They give movies an important time element and are invaluable to good suspense. D.O.A has one of the best time bombs of any movie I’ve seen. Bigelow has to solve his own murder and get revenge before he keels over. You might think that too much of the dialogue is heavily melodramatic, but I like melodrama in noir. It serves as a nice counterbalance to the otherwise dark tales and this one follows through. No cop-out in the end.

-Walter Tyrone Howard-

(942)

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Don’t Torture a Duckling (1972, Directed by Lucio Fulci) Italian 6

Starring Barbara Bouchet, Tomas Milian, Florinda Bolkan, Marc Borel, Irene Papas, Georges Wilson

Don't Torture a Duckling Review | Blu-ray Review | The Digital Fix

(6-Good Film)

Creepy. Lurid. Grisly.

 Tagline: A classic tale of the perverse from director Lucio Fulci.

The majority of the Italian giallo films that I’ve seen have the same fascinations; a string of grisly murders, an unlikely hero trying to get to the bottom of it, for starters. Don’t Torture a Duckling is a little more thoughtful than most. A small superstitious town in Southern Italy deals with the unsolved murders of several school-aged boys. The local police and a clever news reporter investigate. Unlike other giallo films that I’ve seen, rather than following one protagonist, Don’t Torture a Duckling follows several characters at different times. It’s the town that’s the focus; how they handle these tragedies, how everyone has blood on their hands. Fulci gives the film a genuine psychological element that makes it stand out among its peers. It’s interesting work and, like most murder-mysteries, very entertaining. It does, however, become a little hokey in parts, a little melodramatic.

-Walter Tyrone Howard-

(938)

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The Animal (2001, Directed by Luke Greenfield) English 4

Starring Rob Schneider, Guy Torry, Colleen Haskell, John C. McGinley, Ed Asner, Louis Lombardi, Michael Caton, Norm MacDonald, Adam Sandler

Ten Years Ago: The Animal – 10 Years Ago: Films in Retrospective

(4-Bad Film)

Idiotic. Bemusing. Brief.

Rianna: I just want to thank everyone who sent me food and letters of support, especially the mentally handicapped child who sent me this sweet book of poems.

Marvin Mange: She read my poems.

Rob Schneider gets plugged into the Adam Sandler formula for comedy: a kind goofball protagonist learns how to stand up against the jerks in his life. As dumb and as poor as some of the Adam Sandler films are, I’m basically a fan. He also has plenty of movies that I consider good comedies (not to mention his impressive dramatic turns). I get the feeling that he turned this role down before it fell to Schneider who is convincing enough as the kind, put-upon hero but never delivers any laughs with this broad comedy’s ludicrous premise. He plays Marvin Mange, a police-hopeful, who gets badly hurt in a car accident and is put back together by a mad scientist who endows him with animal parts. The animal parts make him a natural as a police officer but eventually begin to run rampant, just as he’s getting close with a beautiful animal lover, Rianna (Haskell). There’s some promise with this material. I think perhaps with Jim Carrey, although it’s probably too close to Ace Ventura for him to ever be interested. As it is, The Animal is a brief ordeal, at times watchable, amusing, bizarre, unfunny, but always completely moronic.

-Walter Tyrone Howard-

(937)

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The Long Goodbye (1973, Directed by Robert Altman) English 9

Starring Elliot Gould, Nina van Pallandt, Sterling Hayden, Jim Bouton, Henry Gibson, David Arkin, Arnold Schwarzenegger

The Long Goodbye | Metrograph

(9-Great Film)

Cool. Distinct. Languorous.

Det. Green: Your name Marlowe?

Philip Marlowe: No, my name is Sidney, uh, Jenkins.

Det. Green: Come on inside, Marlowe, we want to talk to you.

The famous Philip Marlowe, private eye, star of Raymond Chandler’s classic mystery novels and several films, gets possibly his best adaptation in Robert Altman’s The Long Goodbye. From the moment he wakes up in the opening scene, to the surprise of the finale, Marlowe (Gould), is out of his element. He still basically looks and sounds the way we’re accustomed to; Gould is sly, witty, infinitely cool, always wearing a suit and tie. It’s his surroundings that have changed (his neighbors don’t wear any clothes at all). Very loosely working with Raymond Chandler’s novel of the same name, Marlowe gets involved with an alcoholic, self-destructive novelist, Roger Wade (Hayden), and Wade’s beautiful, unhappy wife, Eileen (van Pallandt), shortly after helping an old friend, Terry Lennox (charged with killing his wife) escape to Mexico. Other films that came before this one tried to transplant Marlowe to a more modern setting. The film simply titled Marlowe, for example, moved him to the ’60s, but The Long Goodbye doesn’t just “update” the material. It displaces the hero. He’s still essentially the romantic hero that he’s always been. Chandler described him as a “shop-soiled Sir Galahad,” in The High Window, but his loyalty and sense of honor seem out of touch here. In any case, this is a great film with an odd sense of humor and a unique style.

-Walter Tyrone Howard-

(930)

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Who Framed Roger Rabbit? (1988, Directed by Robert Zemeckis) English 9

Starring Bob Hoskins, Christopher Lloyd, Joanna Cassidy, Stubby Kaye, Alan Tilvern Voices of Charles Fleischer, Kathleen Turner

10 Things You Didn't Know About Who Framed Roger Rabbit – Laser Time

(9-Great Film)

Inventive. Seamless. Entertaining.

Lt. Santino: Just like a toon to drop a safe on a guy’s head.

Nobody loves private detective fiction more than me but if you told me the idea for Who Framed Roger Rabbit before it was made, I would have called you crazy. Merging the private eye thriller with golden age style animation into a Disney family film is crazy but Who Framed Roger Rabbit proves to be terrific entertainment and a technical marvel. The cartoons and live-action stars interact seamlessly throughout this comically dark mystery as slumping gumshoe, Eddie Valiant (Hoskins), reluctantly agrees to help cartoon star, Roger Rabbit. Roger’s been framed for the murder of his boss, Marvin Acme (Kaye), with Roger being the most obvious suspect since Marvin was spending so much time with his wife, Jessica Rabbit (voiced by Turner), but the case goes much deeper than infidelity as Eddie finds out the more he investigates. Super clever entertainment with a host of double-entendres and sly references.

-Walter Tyrone Howard-

(921)

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Once Upon a Crime (1992, Directed by Eugene Levy) English 5

Starring John Candy, Cybill Shepherd, Sean Young, Richard Lewis, Jim Belushi, Giancarlo Giannini, George Hamilton, James Belushi, Joss Ackland, Ornella Muti

BD合成】【百度网盘】【赌城奇案/弄巧成拙.Once.Upon.a.Crime....1992 ...

(5-Okay Film)

Mediocre. Uninspired. Squandered.

Augie Morosco: I did not marry for money. I married for lots of money!

I’m eager to see the original, the Italian comedy, Crimen, because the premise is good and yet the result, this remake, Once Upon a Crime, proves merely passable. It boasts a big ensemble cast of characters who find themselves suspects in a murder through separate coincidences while visiting gorgeous Monte Carlo. Candy plays a gambling addict, Richard Lewis and Sean Young play antagonistic strangers who band together to return a wealthy widow’s dog, and Jim Belushi and Cybill Shepherd play a bored married couple in search for some excitement. The plot is solid and it’s all pretty competently done but there are no big laughs to be had and nothing particularly memorable about the movie.

-Walter Tyrone Howard-

(912)

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Blue Velvet (1986, Directed by David Lynch) English 9

Starring Kyle McLachlan, Dennis Hopper, Isabella Rossellini, Laura Dern, Dean Stockwell, Hope Lange, Brad Dourif, George Dickerson

Image result for blue velvet

(9-Great Film)

Strange. Illusive. Unforgettable.

Frank Booth: In dreams, I walk with you. In dreams, I talk to you. In dreams, you’re mine, all the time. Forever. In dreams…

There have been hundreds of essays trying to get to the bottom of David Lynch’s Blue Velvet. Following Jeffrey Beaumont (McLachlan), a college kid returning to suburban Lumbertown after his father has a stroke, Blue Velvet quickly becomes the stuff of nightmares. Jeffrey finds a severed ear walking home from visiting his father and feels compelled to investigate. Like a dark Alice in Wonderland, Jeffrey goes down the rabbit hole and finds himself in an underworld populated by people like the seductive lounge singer, Dorothy (Rosselini), and pure evil in human form, Frank (Hopper). Of the theories I’ve read about Blue Velvet, and most hold water, I like the Oedipal idea wherein Frank represents the father (whom Jeffrey wants to kill) and Dorothy represents the mother (whom Jeffrey wants to sleep with). I also think voyeurism is a huge part of the film, as it is with any film noir or mystery (private detectives are called “peepers” right?). Jeffrey peaks in through the closet door and sees sex and violence. It’s attractive. Blue Velvet is a gorgeous film with a number of wtf moments. My personal favorite is the prostitute jumping up on the car and dancing while Jeffrey is beaten. A strange film for a strange world.

-Walter Tyrone Howard-

(904)

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Dressed to Kill (1980, Directed by Brian De Palma) English 6

Starring Michael Caine, Angie Dickinson, Nancy Allen, Keith Gordon, Dennis Franz, David Margulies

Image result for dressed to kill 1980

( 6-Good Film)

Lurid. Skilled. Ludicrous.

Director, Brian De Palma, is a technical wizard. He is a master stylist and can do amazing things with a camera. He’s also never made a boring movie. Many times, though, he can work with lesser material, or, in this case, a plot that is pretty inane (not to mention derivative of Hitchcock’s Psycho). Angie Dickinson is Kate Miller, a bored, sexually-frustrated housewife who frequently visits a psychiatrist, Doctor Robert Elliot (Caine), for some guidance. De Palma’s wife at the time, Nancy Allen, plays a prostitute, Liz Blake, who witnesses a violent murder. None of this matters as much as the schlocky atmosphere or the impressive sequences De Palma puts together. The parts are truly worth more than the whole. A lot of the content is pure male fantasy. Supermodels for nurses. Bored housewives. Etc. Like I said, it’s not boring.

-Walter Tyrone Howard-

(902)

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That Darn Cat (1997, Directed by Bob Spiers) English 5

Starring Christina Ricci, Doug E. Doug, Dean Jones, Peter Boyle, Michael McKean, George Dzundza, Bess Armstrong, Dyan Cannon. Mark Christopher Lawrence, John Ratzenberger, Estelle Parsons, Rebecca Schull, Tom Wilson, Brian Haley

Image result for that darn cat 1997

(5-Okay Film)

Charming. Intriguing. Underdeveloped.

With its charming host of characters, quaint setting, and nostalgic score, That Darn Cat had the potential to be much better. Christina Ricci plays Patti, an antisocial teenager stuck in a small town in New England where, in her view, nothing ever happens. When her cat, D.C, comes home one morning with a watch that may or may not have “HELP” written onto it, Patti connects it to a nearby kidnapping and goes into sleuth mode. Doug E. Doug plays an FBI agent looking to cut his teeth. I enjoyed much of That Darn Cat but the mystery really falls flat by the end. The solution is completely obvious and should have been taken more seriously. The last twenty minutes dissolves into an uninteresting car chase.

-Walter Tyrone Howard-

(888)