Regularly updated blog charting the most important films of the last 104 years.
Tuesday, February 27, 2007
95. Modern Times (1936)
Directed By Charlie Chaplin
Synopsis
The tramp goes crazy working in an assembly line. He meets a little orphan girl and together they fight to stay employed, nourished, and with a roof over their heads.
Review
This is the best of Chaplin films on the list without a shadow of a doubt. From the beggining to the end the film is simply brilliant. This is the first Chaplin film that I actually laughed out loud through it.
It was a strange but fortunate decision that Chaplin made when he decided to make this a silent film. We are really not at a time when silent films were done anymore, but the Tramp was definitely a being who lived in silence. The film is not totally silent of course, there are about a dozen lines in all of it, mostly sounds from the radio or people speaking of camera, and the Tram breaks his silent, although he says nothing.
In a great scene near the end the Tramp actually sings, a completely gibberish song. You finally get the Tramp to speak and he doesn't say anything that makes sense. This was the only way it made sense to break the vow of silence, by not making sense. The silent format also gives the film the charm that it needs in order to make the character of the Tramp to work on an emotional level, both as a pathetic figure and a comedic one.
There are parts of the film which were clearly lifted from Rene Clair's A Nous La Liberte, but the films are different enough for it to be more than a tribute or a big nod from Chaplin to Clair. Clair actually recognised this and accepted that immitation was the sincerest form of flattery, and they remained friends. The similarities are mainly the ending and the scenes at the factory's assembly line. A good film, get it at Amazon UK or US.
Final Grade
8/10
Trivia
From Wikipedia:
The music score was composed by Chaplin himself. The romance theme was later given words and became better known as the song "Smile" and covered by such artists as Judy Garland, Liberace, Nat King Cole, and Michael Jackson.
The film has been deemed "culturally significant" by the Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry. Its depiction of Chaplin working frantically to keep up with an assembly line has inspired later comedy routines including Disney's Der Fuehrer's Face and an episode of I Love Lucy titled "Lucy in the Candy Factory."
94. A Day In The Country (Une Partie De Campagne) (1936)
Directed By Jean Renoir
Synopsis
A family goes to the countryside to have a picnic. While the men go do some fishing the women take a couple of rowboats and go have some fun with two men from the countryside... unfortunately for one of the women that would be "the one who gets away".
Review
This film had a curse for me. I spent about 1 hour and 30 minutes trying to fix the video so it would play tapes. Fortunately I had two tapes with this film on them, because it took so long to get here after I ordered it from the States that I asked for a replacement seeing as I thought it had been lost in the mail. Eventually I got two tapes. My video decided to destroy the first one, maybe as God's way of putting right the fact that I got a tape for free. The second tape eventually worked after I managed to pry the destroyed tape from the VCR.
This is not all, however. When I was finally able to fast forward through Renoir's La Chienne, previously reviewed here, in order to get to Une Partie De Campagne I noticed that the Kino VHS version of the film has probably never been restored. Not even the sound has been cleaned up. So I can't understand the muffled French... I should be fine with subtitles... bollocks! The first part of the film is so light that often there are white subtitles in completely white backgrounds making it impossible to read! Moral of the story: Get the BFI DVD version! I only had this one anyway because it came as an extra on La Chienne tape...
That saga out of the way it is a wonderful film. It is quite short, little more than half an hour, but that is quite enough to be able to be an effective and engaging film. It's a film about that summer love that lasted one afternoon but has haunted your dreams for the rest of your life, the one you think of when your marriage is going through a rough patch, the one you never knew well enough to see the rot. And it's sad. After the beautiful beggining in happiness sunshine and the countryside you get a cut to a few years later, when the girl has married who she was "supposed" to marry, and the two afternoon lovers meet. And there is a bittersweetness about the whole thing that is perfectly captured here. What is also perfectly captured in this film is the courting between the daughter and her country lover, the tentative moving of hands in different parts of her body, the man's soft insistence until he finally manages to topple her walls. Watch it, buy it from Amazon UK or US.
Final Grade
8/10
Trivia
From Wikipedia:
The film is based on a short story by Guy de Maupassant, who was a friend of Renoir's father Auguste Renoir. Future star directors Jacques Becker and Luchino Visconti worked as Renoir's assistant directors.
Partie de campagne was shot in July, soon after France had elected the Popular Front government, and employers had negotiated the Matignon agreement, providing wage increases, 40-hour weeks, trade union rights, paid holidays and improved social services. The film was not released until 1946, ten years after it was shot. Renoir never finished the filming due to weather problems, but the producer, Pierre Brauenberger, turned the material into a release after World War II.
This YouTube excerpt is much, much better quality than what I saw:
Ginger falls in love with Fred, but mistakes him for the husband of a friend of hers... hilarity ensues.
Review
There is no more famous dancing couple than Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire. This is fair enough, they are both extremely accomplished dancers, particularly Astaire, they are good singers and not bad actors at all. They have everything that a dancing couple needs. This film works, mainly because of their abilities as dancers and actors and because they are supported by a great cast as well as having a fun plot to go with it.
The plot is one of those comedies which rely on mistaken identities and mistakes in general... the kind of comedies you spend saying, don't go there, or "tell her who you are". You cringe, because you want the characters to get together, and it is pretty well done and fortunately all comes together at the end. Except the italian designer gets a bum deal :(
Then the film has its faults, the sets look cardboardy. Venice looks like the Vegas version of Venice and not at all like the city, unless the city is composed of one little set with one bridge going over a pool where people are bathing, with a MDF stage in the middle. No? I thought not. Well, it's quite enough to establish the fact that it is Venice, as there are gondolas on the pool at times. And then, near the end, at the MDF stage in Venice there is an attempt to do a Bubsby Berkeley style number... and it falls on its ass. Anyone who has seen 42nd Street, Footlight Parade or Gold Diggers of 1933 will titter at the poor effort. Still it is a tiny bit of the film and it shouldn't suffer for that.
In the end, despite having the Team America World Police version of Venice and a poor attempt at a great musical act, it is a wonderful film, because of Fred and Ginger and because the music is great! Particularly Cheek To Cheek and Top Hat,White Tie and Tails, so watch it! Buy it at Amazon UK or US.
Final Grade
8/10
Trivia
From Wikipedia:
The title song is sung by Fred Astaire's character Jerry Travers onstage, as part of his musical revue being performed in London, along with chorus dancers dressed in the epynomous attire. He sings the song, performs a tap dance routine, and then proceeds to "shoot" the chorus dancers, using his cane as a "machine gun" and imitating gunfire noises with his tap shoes. This sequence was parodied in a scene in Mel Brooks' Young Frankenstein.
Songs:
"No Strings" "Top Hat, White Tie and Tails" "Isn't It A Lovely Day?" "The Piccolino" "Cheek to Cheek"
Love dead, hate living! Film good, fire bad! Ok I can't write a whole review like this... There aren't many sequels that do justice or even surpass the original, I can only think of three, Empire Strikes Back, Godfather II and Bride of Frankenstein. This is a truly weird and wonderful film.
There seems to be a confusion in the 30's between weird and scary... the film isn't scary by our standards but it sure is weird even today. Dr. Pretorius, the campiest villain in film, is one of my favourite characters of all Universal films. When Pretorius shows off his homunculi in little flasks you really have to tip your hat to the special effects people, it is perfectly done.
At the end of the film you get the bride herself, who although only has something like 1 minute of screen time makes an impression which makes her a movie icon still today. Her mummified arms, weird hairdo and scars along with chicken like head movements and her shrieks and hisses just make her really, really strange while at the same time being quite beautiful. James Whale was a brilliant, brilliant man, and this is a great film... Get it at Amazon UK or US.
Final Grade
9/10
Trivia
From Wikipedia:
The film was originally to be titled The Return of Frankenstein.
The thinly disguised homosexual overtones may be a trademark of James Whale (particuarly the relationship between Frankenstein and Pretorius; as explained by film historian Scott MacQueen on the Bride of Frankenstein DVD commentary track) but also note the other potentially blasphemous imagery in the film, such as the monster's virtual crucifixion at the hands of the villagers.
Ernest Thesiger's sly remark, "Do you like gin? It is my only weakness!" is a nod to a similar quotation in The Old Dark House, also intoned by Thesiger.
Pretorius mentions that he grew his miniature people "from seed", a reference to the alchemical belief that it was possible to generate homunculi - tiny humanoid creatures - by placing a mixture of flesh and sperm in a dung hill.
Walter Brennan appears in a brief but very recognizable bit part.
Universal's makeup ace Jack Pierce paid special attention to the monster's appearance in this film. As well as altering his 1931 design to display the after-effects of the mill fire, he adorned Karloff with a singed hairstyle that actually grows during the course of the film. The unavoidable flaw, however, was that the newly prosperous Karloff's face had filled out since the first film and had lost its eerily cadaverous look.
Dwight Frye portrays Karl - despite having played hunchbacked dwarf Fritz, who was killed in the original film. The make-up was entirely different, however, since Karl wore short hair and bizarre eyebrows. This role continued a long series of appearances through Universal's Frankenstein saga in which he essayed different roles, culminating in Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man (1943). Likewise, Marilyn Harris (also murdered in the original, in which she played little Maria) reappears here.
Colin Clive, who plays Doctor Frankenstein, broke his leg in a riding accident during filming, and hence remains seated in most of his scenes [1]
The basis of the film is rooted in the original novel. A subplot from the latter half of the book involves the monster promising to leave Frankenstein, and the human race, alone if Frankenstein will create him a mate. Frankenstein creates the female monster, but never brings it to life, deciding instead to destroy it.
Bride of Frankenstein is also the title of a single by New Zealand band Toy Love.
The song "Dust to Dust" by The Misfits from the Famous Monsters album is about the film.
The film has one of my favourite quotes from any film ever:
The Monster: I love dead... hate living. Dr. Pretorius: You are wise in your generation.
One of the best sequences of special effects until now:
A man is wrongfully suspected of the the murder of a spy lady. He escapes while trying to figure out the mystery of what are the "39 Steps".
Review
This is not the first Hitchcock film in the list, but it is definitely the one where Freddy comes into his own. 39 Steps is classic Hitchcock, and by that I mean it is great. The pacing is relentless the dialogues are brilliant and the plot is so convoluted that it will give you a headache.
A thing I love about Hitchcock are his little touches, from the train whistle that is superimposed on the woman screaming when she finds a body, or the quick cut to the scotsman who lost his hymn book after Donat gets shot, to the totally out of plot business men on the train talking about ladies undergarments, there is a level of texture to his films that is unbeaten at the time.
The plot is of course brilliant, there is suspense in spades, but what shines here are the characters who are thrown into the plot and are like fish out of water. There are little characters sketches which are brilliant here, like the woman living with a very evangelical and abusive husband in the Scottish moors. Hitchcock manages to make a big, sweeping spy story without forgetting the little characters and the little details which give the far-fetched story all its verisimilitude. Really reccomended. Get it at Amazon UK or US.
Final Grade
10/10
Trivia
From Wikipedia:
There have been three major film versions of the book; Hitchcock's original has been the most acclaimed, and remains so today: In 1999 it came 4th in a BFI poll of British films, while in 2004 Total Film named it the 21st greatest British movie of all time.
Put some modern Rock music (Tool in this case) and voila you have an exciting trailer for The 39 Steps:
A couple of lovers want to make it big in the New York Opera, but a more famous Tenor is dashing their dreams. Chico, Harpo and Groucho attempt to make them replace Lasspari in the New York Opera production of Il Trovatore.
Review
The Marx Brothers frankly do very little for me in this film. This was their first part with MGM after leaving Paramount. This provoked a change in the attitude of the characters due to production demands. Basically The Marx Brothers lost everything that I found appealing in them. There is very little surrealism, with the only notable scene being the butterfly that leaves one of the aviator's beards. There is very little anarchy and it was replaced by crap.
The film loses itself in musical interludes which are usually boring, when the two lovers sing to each other when the boat is departing I just wanted to slash my wrists. Chico's piano scene was the only one which was actually exciting and quite funny.
There is this myth that humor is universal... it is universal only at a very basic point, when you don't expect much from humor, when you don't want wit but just off-colour jokes and circus clown crap. And I have to admit they worked for me when I was a kid, and I think that I might have loved the Marx Brothers had I watched them as a child. I think most reviewers who adore these films have seen them as children and are blinded by nostalgia at how basic the humor in them is. This is a fine thing, it happens to me with many things, I love all Peter Seller's Pink Panther films because I saw them as a child religiously, but I am pretty sure that if I was watching them today for the first time they wouldn't do to much for me.
So, it is my loss that I was brough up in a country where no one knows or cares for the Marx Brothers. But they don't do anything for me today. And frankly the film was quite dull. I laughed outloud in The Thin Man, It Happened One Night, Love Me Tonight and in all the Buster Keaton's and even Oliver and Hardy... The Marx Brothers make me crack a smile from time to time, and made me laugh a couple of times in Duck Soup... this was just a bit shit. The studio's demand for less anarchic characters ruined all the appeal that The Marx Brothers had for me. Buy it at Amazon UK or US.
Final Grade
4/10
Trivia
From Wikipedia:
At the suggestion of producer Irving Thalberg, the film marked a change of direction in the brothers' career. In their Paramount films, the brothers' characters were much more anarchistic: they attacked (comically) anybody who was so unfortunate to cross their paths, whether they deserved it or not. (Usually, they did deserve it.) Thalberg, however, felt that this made the brothers unsympathetic, particularly to female filmgoers. So in the MGM films, the brothers were recast as more helpful characters, saving their comic attacks for the villains.
Though some Marx Brothers fans were appalled at these changes, Thalberg was vindicated when the film became a solid hit.
Come on, you know it... Bad Captain leads men to mutiny and asylum in Tahiti, they are then forced to escape to the Pitcairn islands.
Review
This film got the Oscar for best movie of 1935 and surely if it isn't the best film it is right up there. I am actually not a person who usually enjoys sea-faring stories. I hated Master and Commander for example, found it dull to the point of desperation. But this is a different story.
The reason why I loved this film although I am not usually a fan of sea movies is because, like I tell my friends who hate Sci-Fi, when any story is centred on interesting characters, with interesting relationships, set against an exciting story the background is pretty much irrelevant.
This film does that, there are three main characters here and all are played superbly by Clark Gable, Charles Laughton and Franchot Tone, who were all nominated for best actor. Three actors on the best actor nominations is a one time event, that never was repeated and they deserved it. The film grips you from the beggining and for the more than 2 hours that it lasts it never lets go. And it is excellently filmed from the beggining to the end. Pretty much a perfect film. Get it at Amazon UK or US. Final Grade
10/10
Trivia
From Wikipedia:
The movie does contain a few historical inaccuracies. Captain Bligh was never on board HMS Pandora, nor was he present at the trial of the mutineers who stayed on Tahiti. At the time he was halfway around the world on a second voyage for breadfruit plants. Fletcher Christian's father had died many years before Christian's travels on board the Bounty - the movie shows the elder Christian at the trial. It should be noted though, that the movie was always presented as an adaptation of the Nordhoff and Hall trilogy, which already differed from the actual story of the mutiny.
Bligh is depicted as a brutal, sadistic disciplinarian. Particular episodes include a keel hauling and flogging a dead man. Neither of these happened. Keel hauling was used rarely if at all and had been abandoned long before Bligh's time. Indeed the meticulous record of the Bounty's log reveals that the flogging rate was lower than the average for that time.
However, some historically accurate aspects exist in the film. Clark Gable had to shave off his famous moustache because the sailors in the Royal Navy in the eighteenth century had to be clean-shaven. Gable was reluctant to shave it off, though.
In the final scene of the film Gable gives a rousing speech to his fellow mutineers speaking of creating a perfect society of free men on Pitcairn away from Bligh and the Navy. The reality was very different. Free from the restraints of Naval discipline the mutineers proved incapable of self government. Pitcairn degenerated into a true hell on earth of drunkenness, rape and ultimately murder. Apart from John Adams all the mutineers perished, most of them by violence. Whether the film intended the irony will never be known.
And if you wonder what Fletcher Christian's descendants are up to today... go here
An Irish protestant doctor is wrongly convicted of being a traitor to James II of England. He is sent to Jamaica and breaks out to become the most feared pirate in the Caribbean, Captain Blood! There's a love interest in there somewhere as well.
Review
This film is the 1935 equivalent of a big-budget special effects blockbuster. The characters aren't very well rounded, some of the acting isn't the best in the world, but by golly it's fun!
Captain Blood has got everything you could expect from a swashbuckler, sword-fights, sea battles, a dashing hero and a damsel in distress. It is a bit formulaic, in fact it is very formulaic, but it works out in the end. Errol Flynn is a ham, but that's what you want from a swashbuckling hero.
There is much glitter, and quite impressive one at that, the sea battles are really well done, all action sequences are pretty amazing, but it is a shallow film. Another thing that annoyed me here is that you can really tell this was done for an American audience with little knowledge of European history, the big reveal that the French are attacking Port Royal because James II is no longer the king and William of Orange has taken over is a reveal to no one with a slight knowledge of history. And why is Captain Blood an Irish protestant collaborator? Has he forgotten Cromwell? Or is it just that Papists always have to be portrayed as evil while the goodly Protestants take the day? As someone brought up Catholic it annoys me. The Protestants had ripped Ireland apart, how can Blood be proud of being Irish and not English as he states repeatedly and still hate the Catholics? It is just skewed logic, but hey! Still a good bit of fun. Buy it from Amazon UK or US.
Final Grade
7/10
Trivia
From Wikipedia:
The film stars Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland with Lionel Atwill and Basil Rathbone. It was the first of eight films co-starring De Havilland and Flynn, and in 1938, the two would be re-united with Rathbone in The Adventures of Robin Hood. Rathbone hated Flynn, and in the swordfighting scene, he intentionally scarred Flynn's arm, for life.
The movie was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture and, despite not being nominated, Michael Curtiz received the second-greatest number of votes for Best Director, solely as a write-in candidate. Erich Wolfgang Korngold and Casey Robinson also failed to be nominated and also received substantially more votes for their work on this film than most of the official nominees.
A series of murders in New York leads retired detective Nick Charles to get on the case. With hillarious consequences.
Review
Well, this was a great film. As soon as I think I've seen the best film of 1934 I am proved wrong. This film has it all - suspense, laughs, drama and a little doggy to! The film gets its brilliance from a superbly chosen couple of actors, William Powell and Myrna Loy are perfect as the wise-cracking, always slightly drunk, sophisticate couple.
In some respect humour has dated since 1934, but not here, this is a film that will actually make you laugh out loud. Not just for the jokes themselves but for the brilliant deliverance. The main actors are inspired here, they are so absolutely natural that you soon get attached to them, you laugh with them and you want to grow up to be like them.
This is probably on the top 5 films I have seen on the list until now. Actually it might only be beaten in terms of laughs by Love Me Tonight and even so it is a tight race. It is definitely the best acted of the two films, but as it is not so overtly a comedy it doesn't try to pack so many laughs a minute.
As a detective film it is also great. Finally there is a parlor scene with an actual purpose. In the end the detective gets everyone together for a dinner, not because he wants to reveal the murderer but because he wants to figure out hwo the murderer is. He has no idea, he just hopes one of the guests will reveal himself through the dialogue. It is amazingly well done and definitely a film you all should watch if you haven't. Get it at Amazon UK or US. Final Grade
10/10
Trivia
From Wikipedia:
Completed in 1934 and nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture, the film was directed by W.S. Van Dyke from a script by Albert Hackett and Frances Goodrich; the screenplay was based on the novel by Dashiell Hammett, supposedly based on his relationship with playwright Lillian Hellman. Also appearing in the film were Maureen O'Sullivan, Nat Pendleton, Minna Gombell, Cesar Romero, Porter Hall, Henry Wadsworth, William Henry, Harold Huber and Natalie Moorhead.
The "Thin Man" of the title was actually the lead suspect, but the name was thought by virtually everyone to refer to Nick Charles, and it was used in the titles of the sequels, although no one ever called him that.
Girl escapes her rich and controlling father. She takes a bus from Miami to New York and is helped along the way by a journalist trying to get a scoop. They eventually fall in love with each other, but not without complications before the end.
Review
It Happened One Night is a delightful film, with a plot that has been used time and again, - or at least elements of it - but it still manages to look fresh and be a pleasure to watch. It was the first film to get all 5 of the main Oscars, and with good reason.
Capra's direction is more than adequate although it never imposes itself on the film, it does make it look very natural and actually quite modern, making it a film which has dated pretty well, a hard thing particularly for comedies. Clark Gable's characters as the delightful cad is extremely well constructed and acted, in fact a great thing about the film are its characters, they are all interesting, and Colbert is the perfect female lead to balance Gable. The writing is also pretty great here, the dialogues don't sound scripted, it sounds natural with the use of swearing, witty puns etc.
All in all it is a great romantic comedy, one which has survived in pretty good shape up until today. I should also note that the DVD I got for this is great, the film has been restored to a very fine level of sharpness and contrast in the old B&W, helping it feel fresh. Get it at Amazon UK or US. Final Grade
9/10
Trivia
* The unpublished memoirs of animator Friz Freleng's mention that this was one of his favorite films, and it has been claimed that it helped inspire the cartoon character Bugs Bunny. Three things in the film may have coalesced to create Bugs Bunny: the personality of a minor character, Oscar Shapely, an imaginary character named "Bugs Dooley" mentioned once to frighten Shapely, and most of all, a scene in which Clark Gable eats carrots while talking quickly with his mouth full, as Bugs would do.
* An urban legend has it that Gable had a profound effect on men's fashion, thanks to a scene in this movie. As he is undressing for bed, he takes off his shirt to reveal that he is bare-chested. Sales of men's undershirts across the country allegedly suffered a noticeable decline for a period following this movie.
* One oddity is the title: the movie takes place over several nights and none is particularly key to the plot.
* Neither Gable nor Colbert were happy being loaned out (reportedly as punishment) to Columbia Pictures, then considered a cheap, third-rate operation. Colbert was not enthused with the idea of the film and demanded $50,000, double her normal salary. Gable came around and both he and Capra enjoyed making the movie. She however continued to show her displeasure on the set. The film had to be completed in four weeks because of Colbert's other commitments. When it was finished, she complained to her friends that it was one of the worst films she had ever made. After her acceptance speech at the Oscar ceremony, she went back on stage and thanked Frank Capra for making the film.
* Two Hindi movies, Chori Chori (starring Raj Kapoor and Nargis Dutt) and Dil Hai Ke Manta Nahin (starring Aamir Khan, Pooja Bhatt and directed by Mahesh Bhatt) are adaptations of It Happened One Night.
* The shooting title was Night Bus.
The scenes that led to the creation of Bugs Bunny and the hitchhiking scene:
In a sleepy idealised Southern town there is a laid back judge, plenty of stereotypical black and white people. All goes apeshit when there is a case that the nephew of the judge will have to defend. Due to conflict of interests the Judge has to step down but still saves the day in Boston Legal fashion.
Review
Not to be confused with Judas Priest, this is not a very well known film, but it is John Ford and there is something special to it. The ideology in the film is quite shocking today, Black people are either mentally impaired or Hattie McDaniel doing her traditional mammy role for which she would win an oscar in Gone With The Wind. However, and I was thinking about this while watching the film, white people with the exception of the Judge don't come out much better, the city is populated with drunkards, tobacco chewers and characters that remind you of Blazing Saddles' Gabby Johnson and to quote Mr. Johnson so you get an idea: "I wash born here, an I wash raished here, and dad gum it, I am gonna die here, an no sidewindin bushwackin, hornswaglin, cracker croaker is gonna rouin me bishen cutter. "
So, if you apply a bit of cultural relativism and can get over the constant glorification of the Confederacy you can get through the film. And it is worth it in the end. Frankly up until the last minutes there isn't much to be said about the direction, in fact there are some cuts which are so badly done that people are suddenly behind the actors, or the actors in a completely different position finishing a sentence. This is particularly evident when the Judge is talking to the Reverend on the porch. The good bit of direction comes in the big reveal at the end, when the Reverend is testifying in court. The superimposition of images here is great and there is a lot of emotional power to the scene.
Other than this the film is populated with memorable characters, mainly the Judge himself, who is just lovely. So in the end it is worth watching, get it from Amazon UK or US.
Final Grade
7/10
Trivia
From Wikipedia:
Ford's attitude to McCarthyism in Hollywood is expressed by a story told by Joseph L. Mankiewicz. A faction of the Director's Guild of America led by Cecil B. DeMille had tried to make it mandatory for every member to sign a loyalty oath. A whispering campaign was being conducted against Mankiewicz, then President of the Guild, alleging he had communist sympathies. At a crucial meeting of the Guild, DeMille's faction spoke for four hours until Ford spoke against DeMille and proposed a vote of confidence in Mankiewicz, which was passed. According to Mankiewicz, Ford's words were:
"My name's John Ford. I make Westerns. I don't think there's anyone in this room who knows more about what the American public wants than Cecil B. DeMille - and he certainly knows how to give it to them. But I don't like you, C.B., and I don't like what you've been saying here tonight."
Arch-rivals Karloff and Lugosi get involved in a mortal struggle with a pair of Brad and Janet-like tourists get caught in the middle of the satanism, necrophilia, revenge and all out wierdness.
Review
This is very much a case of a forgotten classic. It is up there side by side with Dracula and Frankenstein as one of the great Universal horror films, and in fact it might even be better than those more famous cousins.
This is definitely a weird and wonderful film. Uncommonly for the time it is full of taboos, necrophilia, some hinted-at incest, satanism and desecration of religious items and even skinning someone alive. All of this is filmed in the best German expressionist tradition, the shadows and angles are all text-book expressionism, which I was kind of missing by now.
The plot seems a bit otherworldly, a lot of the plot is not explicit but implicit, whether this was a technique to fool censors I don't know but it is very effective. This is clearly a case of a B-Movie going where A-movies didn't dare to go. Of course some of the acting is poor, mainly Lugosi who compensates for it with his shimmering screen presence.
One of the best horror film reviewed here until now and definitely something for all of you to watch. Get it from Amazon UK or US.
Final Grade
9/10
Trivia
It is said that the character of Hjalmar Poelzig was inspired by the life of occultist Aleister Crowley, and his name was lifted from architect Hans Poelzig who has worked on the sets for Paul Wegener's silent film The Golem.
The film was directed and screenplay written by Edgar G. Ulmer with a notable score by Heinz Eric Roemheld, which, as previously mentioned is based on classical music. The extreme art deco sets, women's corpses on display, and devil worship rites remain striking today.
CROWLEY FTW!
The whole film in 3.40 minutes with music by Rasputina:
or US
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