Road House 1990 - MGM/UA Directed By Rowdy Herrington
SYNOPSIS
Bar Bouncer/philosopher Dalton (Patrick Swayze) is hired to supervise the security at a particularly rough road house. He fires several members of the staff who also work for Brad Wesley (Ben Gazzara,) who essentially runs the town. Wesley wages war against Dalton.
MY THOUGHTS
Guilty pleasures are things you like that you know are terrible. Road House is the perfect fit for that expression. It's silly, cheesier than the cheese aisle at the grocery store, and the dialogue is beyond cringe-worthy. The result is a film a lot funnier than it set out to be.
Still, It's an ultimate guy's movie. The fights are fun, numerous, and action-packed... plus there's ample female nudity to keep you interested.
Swayze and Sam Elliot's characters are too cool to be believable, but are far less corny than the minor supporting roles. Ben Gazzara (as the villain) is far better in most everything else he's been in, like 'Killing Of A Chinese Bookie,' but he plays the role a little over the top so he's more silly than completely ridiculous.
If you're in the mood for a serious film about serious topics, look elsewhere. But if you're in the mood for something fun, silly, and action-packed; grab a beer at the Road House.
Fallen Angel 1945 - 20th Century Fox Directed by Otto Preminger
SYNOPSIS
A drifting con man (Dana Andrews) drifts into a small town between L.A. and San Fransisco. He falls for a waitress named Stella(Linda Darnell.) She plays hard to get and he comes up with a plan to get enough money to woo her. It involves marrying a church organist (Alice Faye) with a big inheritance. Stella doesn't want anything to do with him after he is married... and soon after, she turns up dead, but who killed her?
MY THOUGHTS
A middle of the road Film Noir, neither great nor terrible.
The acting is solid, but there really isn't a standout performance. Dana Andrews, in the lead, gives a very minimalist performance of his ambiguous character. It's hard to like him or hate him and he comes across as quite 'blah.'
Director Otto Preminger delivers but the film is missing something that his major films have in abundance like 'Laura,' 'Anatomy of a Murder' and 'The Man With The Golden Arm.'
The film has excellent cinematography. The shadowy world of noir is in full effect here.
The script is somewhat weakened by it's predictability. It's filled with scenes that are reminiscent of other films.
It's a solid film noir, but lacks the magic that would make it truly great.
College 1927 - United Artists/ Joseph M. Schenck Productions Directed By James W. Horne
SYNOPSIS
It's high school graduation and nerdy Ronald (Buster Keaton) still hasn't won the heart of the most popular girl in school (Anne Cornwall) because she's interested in athletes. He enrolls at the same college and begins a series of disastrous attempts to master baseball and all the track and field events. The college dean pities him forces the rowing team to accept him... as their leader!
MY THOUGHTS
In my opinion Buster Keaton was the best of the comedic actors of the silent era. This isn't one of his best features, but still funny even for a modern audience.
Keaton's stunt work is excellent as always (including the clip above.) but his (literally) backbreaking work in his film 'The General' is far better. The very end, where he shows he isn't so bad an athlete when his girl must be saved, is an excellent stunt sequence.
His films Sherlock Jr., The Cameraman, and Steamboat Bill are funnier, but the entire sequence where he tries out for baseball and track and field are consistently hilarious. When he runs out to play third base in full catcher's gear is a delight, and then gets even funnier, when batting gets hit in the butt by a ball, and later causes a triple play on the basepaths.
The 'Great Stone Face' provides a great dramatic performance as well. It's amazing how much sympathy a character can get from the audience without even showing any emotion.
The supporting music does not draw too much attention towards itself. That is a good thing with silent films, as DVD distributors tend to tack on music that has no relevance to the action on screen and as a result it's very distracting.
Though not his best film, College remains an essential film for fans of the best of the silent comedians.
My Darling Clementine 1946 - 20th Century Fox Directed by John Ford
SYNOPSIS Wyatt Earp (Henry Fonda) and his brothers are herding cattle when they pull into the lawless town of Tombstone for a shave. Upon their return to the herd, it is gone and their youngest brother is dead. Earp and his brothers take jobs as lawmen in the town and must deal with the Clanton Gang (led by Walter Brennan) and gunfighter Doc Holiday (Victor Mature) and await a showdown at the O.K. Corral.
MY THOUGHTS
John Ford was the greatest director of Westerns, and My Darling Clementine ranks among his best. He began with his first western in 1917 (The Tornado) and was later responsible for Stagecoach, Rio Grande, She Wore A Yellow Ribbon, The Searchers, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance and dozens more. He also helmed several World War II films as well as the Grapes Of Wrath and How Green Was My Valley, amassing nearly 150 films, most being westerns, and is widely considered the king of the genre.
Henry Fonda is the second most-associated lead actor of Ford's (John Wayne being #1.) He is strong and forceful, while retaining that charm that he always had. A fine supporting cast including Ward Bond and Tim Holt (as the other Earp Brothers, Walter Brennan, and Victor Mature all shine in their roles. The characters played by Linda Darnell and Cathy Downs (as the Clementine from the title) bring little to the film and are fairly flat 2-D characters, but they do great with what they have to work with.
The cinematography is beautiful. If this was shot in color it would rank right up there with The Searchers, but despite the black + white, it still looks great.
The film is apparently not very historically accurate, but who cares. The quality of the whole production far outweighs any need to remain true to life. If you desire to head to the old west, this is a great ticket to get there.
Boys Of The City 1940 - Monogram Directed By Joseph H. Lewis
SYNOPSIS
An excruciatingly hot day leads the East Side Kids to open a fire hydrant. Soon after assualting a street vendor and a cop, Muggs (Leo Gorcey,) Danny (Bobby Jordan) and the crew are sent to a judge's home in upstate New York to rehabilitate themselves. But that home is run by a very creepy woman (Minerval Urecal) ane the place may be haunted!
MY THOUGHTS
Despite the obvious shortcomings of the East Side Kids films, they remain entertaining nearly 70 years later.
This is the second film in the series and the first to deal with a haunted house scenario. (Their third film "That Gang of Mine" is reviewed here) This film suffers from the same problem as the subsequent one. A so-so script, the barest minimum of shooting time (about 6 days) and a budget that appears to be less than 25 bucks. But despite those hardships, the filmmakers are able to pull it off.
This is due mostly to the Kids performances. Leo Gorcey and Bobby Jordan continue what they started as Dead End Kids and build upon it. They are sly-er and funnier in their first appearance in the series, than in their previous adventures with the Dead End Kids. Sammy Morrison also makes his first appearance and has a few good one-liners but not nearly as funny as later ones in the series. Minerval Ureucal's role is reminiscent of Judith Anderson's in Hitchcock's 'Rebecca' (released the same year) and is just as creepy, though with a more comical bent.
It's great to see the East Side Kids escape the backlots of Monogram/MGM/Warner Bros./Columbia where they usually shot and go on location in the country. It adds a freshness that the series would miss later on.
In one of the funnier scenes the Kids smoke cigars for the first time. Even though the film is black and white, you can basically see them all turning green and ready to vomit from the experience, and many do run for the door.
One of the better lines: while trying to solve the mystery, Muggs asks Danny "What does the Thin Man got that I ain't got?" "Myrna Loy," Danny answers.
"Don't jump to confusions" is the first of dozens of malapropisms uttered in the series and would later be a staple of the Bowery Boys, though Jordan speaks this one instead of Gorcey, who would be king of them later.
The hi-jinks in the 'haunted house' help to make the film one of the East Side Kids' most entertaining films in the whole 22-film series.
Pride Of The Yankees 1942 - Samuel Goldwyn Productions Directed by Sam Wood
SYNOPSIS Lou Gehrig (Gary Cooper) heads off to Columbia University to become an engineer, but his talent and passion for baseball has him on a different path. Soon he is playing alongside boyhood idol Babe Ruth (himself) for the New York Yankees. He finds love with Eleanor (Teresa Wright) and becomes a legend, but a mysterious illness cuts his tremendous career short.
MY THOUGHTS
One of the greatest sports films live up to the hype.
The biographical story is typically reverential of it's subject matter like many bio-pics of the era, though this one is different. Gehrig was in fact a level-headed, well-mannered gentleman just as he is portrayed, whereas films like the 'Spirit Of St. Louis' and 'The Benny Goodman Story' are altered to make their subject matter more saintly than they really were in real life.
Gary Cooper is excellent as Gehrig. The role suited his quiet, cool, upstanding screen image to a 'T' and received an Oscar nomination. He, however, does look WAY too old to be playing Gehrig as a college student and as a rookie. He does make Gehrig seem real and you definitely feel emotional when he delivers that final speech at Yankee Stadium. Teresa Wright was also nominated for her role as his wife, and is great. Although his screen time is short, it was a great highlight to see Babe Ruth as himself. A few other real Yankees also are on hand as well.
It was great to see the late, great Yankee Stadium in action, along with Los Angeles' minor league ballpark, Wrigley Field, which filled in for some of the other American League parks (and later was home for TV's Home Run Derby and the debut season of the California Angels.)
The film is occasionally very cheesy. Some parts of the love story and the now cliche 'boy in the hospital' scene are so corny you're waiting with butter and the corn-on-the-cob tongs in hand while you watch.
Despite the flaws, the film is a great tribute to one of the greatest first baseman to ever play the game.
The Lost World 1925 - First National Directed by Harry O. Hoyt
SYNOPSIS
In order to win over the heart of his fiancee, newspaperman Ed Malone (Lloyd Hughes) must do something death-defying. He hears a lecture by the possibly crazy Professor Challenger (Wallace Beery) who claims that dinosaurs are alive and well on a remote plateau in the jungles of South America. Challenger assembles a team, including Malone, to go in search of the beasts and the missing explorer who discovered them. The expedition soon finds the beasts but are threatened by them and a volcano ready to erupt.
MY THOUGHTS
The father of all cinematic stories of giant beasts threatening man. King Kong, Godzilla, Jurassic Park and countless other films all owe a huge debt to this classic.
The film is based on the book by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, who appears at the beginning to introduce the film. It would be interesting to hear what he had to say, but the film is silent.
The story was clearly lifted (with few minor changes) for King Kong. The expedition in Kong featured one woman, a possible crazy man in charge, a square-jawed hero, just as The Lost World does. This film's end, complete with a dino running amok through the streets of London, mirrors Kong as well.
The special effects still hold up reasonably well. The dinos were done with stop-motion animation, like 'King Kong' and the countless classic special effects films by Ray Harryhausen like 'Jason And The Argonauts' and 'Mysterious Island.' Rarely do the effects look ridiculous, but they are clearly not 2009-era quality, but they do have some charm. The dinosaur models are very well done, they breathe and I think I even saw one blink. The film features a dinosaur-greatest hits collection. The Brontosaurus, Triceratops, Pterodactyl, Stegosaurus, and the Allosaurus (close cousin of the T-Rex) duke it out in the prehistoric paradise. The most ridiculous part was the man/monkey/beast creature that pursued the expedition. The monkey suit was somehow even faker looking than the 'gorillas' that would torment the Three Stooges, Abbott and Costello, or the Bowery Boys.
The film moves at a brisk pace and never creeps along like many silent films do to modern audiences. The acting is more realistic/ naturalistic than the average silent film as well. Wallace Beery, as Prof. Challenger, is his usual strong self in a role where he could have easily played it way over the top, but he keeps the character real. He won an Oscar 6 years later for the title role in "The Champ." Overall the film is an important to the history of film and still remains fun to watch nearly 85 years later.
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