You know how it goes in a cinematic life. You find filmmakers that you can trust to engage you. It's not so much that you feel comfortable with them, or that they entertain you.
From the thirties, the filmmaker that delivers for me is Tod Browning. Where Tim Burton portrays a damaged world, he does so in order to laugh at it. Browning's world is populated entirely by freaks, even the cops. Its all an honorable circus.
This is one of his best, because it is less obvious and because it has some really good actors.
The story is completely incomprehensible. A framed bank president seeks revenge. He is thrown into control of a situation which begins the movie: there's a system for shrinking people and animals but they lack minds, so can be controlled by concentrating. This works for humans and animals and inexplicably the controller (usually Lionel Barrymore, the wronged banker), gets feedback somehow so he can direct the little people even when he can't see what's happening.
Things are complicated by a slew of women: the newly dead scientist's wife who has the shrinking secret and who thinks everyone should be shrunk to save food, you see. There's the banker's mother and daughter. The latter provides some melodrama. And our banker disguises himself as a woman dollmaker.
These women grind the soft spots in our minds.
There are tons of plot holes. But we don't mind a bit because the deal here is the creation of a world of darkness and weird physics.
Ted's Evaluation -- 3 of 3: Worth watching.
From the thirties, the filmmaker that delivers for me is Tod Browning. Where Tim Burton portrays a damaged world, he does so in order to laugh at it. Browning's world is populated entirely by freaks, even the cops. Its all an honorable circus.
This is one of his best, because it is less obvious and because it has some really good actors.
The story is completely incomprehensible. A framed bank president seeks revenge. He is thrown into control of a situation which begins the movie: there's a system for shrinking people and animals but they lack minds, so can be controlled by concentrating. This works for humans and animals and inexplicably the controller (usually Lionel Barrymore, the wronged banker), gets feedback somehow so he can direct the little people even when he can't see what's happening.
Things are complicated by a slew of women: the newly dead scientist's wife who has the shrinking secret and who thinks everyone should be shrunk to save food, you see. There's the banker's mother and daughter. The latter provides some melodrama. And our banker disguises himself as a woman dollmaker.
These women grind the soft spots in our minds.
There are tons of plot holes. But we don't mind a bit because the deal here is the creation of a world of darkness and weird physics.
Ted's Evaluation -- 3 of 3: Worth watching.