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jonathankamiel
Reviews
A Star Is Born (1937)
More Corn Than The Green Giant
It took me a long time to get round to seeing this classic and perhaps my expectations were a little unrealistic but I struggled through this film. May Robson plays the role of grandma admirably enough, but the beginning was unbelievably corny and the dialogue throughout the film is not particularly sophisticated apart from a retort or two from Fredric March. Without March, I don't think I could have made it through to the end of the film. And I'm prepared to accept that Janet Gaynor is a great actress but she's so underwhelming as Vicki Lester. Judy Garland might not have been a stunner but as soon as she opened her voice to sing, all was forgiven. And I think Gaynor's casting makes the whole film's premise extremely difficult to believe. I remember reading more than once that this film is still one of the most accurate portrayals of Hollywood at the time and it definitely touches on the cruelty of the star system which sees one actor catapulted into the stratosphere while another falls from great heights into the gutter. However, I think there's a more cynical side to this movie's message. And that was to keep feeding the audience with the mantra that anyone can make it in movies, however "average" your looks or talent.
The Wolf Man (1941)
Leader of the Pack .... not!
How excited I was to unwrap the DVD and experience another Universal classic as I had done when I was 10 years old watching a Saturday night horror double bill on TV. And what an unbelievable disappointment. How could the studio heads so woefully miscast Lon Chaney Jr as Larry Talbot. There's more lead in in his acting than in Frankenstein's monster's boots! I know that suspending belief is part and parcel of watching a movie of this kind but it's easier to swallow a man changing into a wolf than to accept that the magnificent elegant Claude Rains is father to the big oafish Larry. And no level of characterisation or storyline can justify that fact. Ralph Bellamy is also wasted. In my opinion, the film rides on 2 performances. Maria Ouspenskaya as Maleva and Bela Lugosi as Bela ... Lugosi. In the briefest of cameos, Lugosi steals the film from everyone with the exception of Maria. As I write this comment, I am reminded of the scene where Maleva the gypsy woman confronts Sir John Talbot. This electrifying scene makes me realise how much greater a piece of cinema this might have been had the casting and dialogue throughout the film been more consistent. A much flawed classic.
Hobson's Choice (1954)
Magnificent choice!
This is an absolute treasure from start to finish. It is a film which could have so easily become synonymous with Christmas. And surprisingly, I only saw this film for the first time about six months ago. The reason I mention Christmas is that this should have become essential viewing for every household. It has a grittiness and realism from the opening shot, yet the atmosphere of a fairytale. It contains harsh scenes of severe deprivation, of how people lived not so long ago, yet there is hope and true happiness expressed by and in the characters of this film that transcends its setting and time period.
The story is a very simple one about a widower who runs a shoe shop with his three daughters. However, he spends more time down the pub than in his shop. It could have been a very sour tale of an alcoholic misogynist who feels as though he was wronged by every woman who played any part in his life. And Charles Laughton goes some way in portraying just that persona. However, the brilliance of Laughton's performance is that as much as we dislike Henry Horatio Hobson, we are also forced to admit that we empathise with him. It is a mixture of Haughton's brilliant comic performance and the humanity portrayed of a man who seems to have been unable to come to terms with the loss of his beloved wife and is unable to express his loss. Even when he is humiliated and deservedly so, we feel a twinge of guilt, perhaps because we know that it is all too easy to judge Hobson and find him guilty.
And although Brenda De Banzie plays Maggie Hobson with the energy and gusto the character deserves, the other jewel in the crown in this film is John Mills who plays Will Mossop, the lowly boot maker who inhabits the cellar underneath the shop. I won't give anything away for those who haven't seen it yet but Mill's beautiful performance, full of understatement in some instances and pure wide eyed wonder at the hurricane of a woman that is Maggie Hobson, as she sweeps him up as well everyone and everything in her path, is a joy to watch.
The List of Adrian Messenger (1963)
Bizarre Fun
This film is really one of a kind and handled with such aplomb by Huston, taking elements of film noir and mixing it with off-beat comedy. Describing the film as unorthodox might be right but scary is way off the mark. It's not the sort of film that makes you feel uneasy. It's just strange. It's a straight laced murder mystery with some bizarre disguises and cameos. I think the most unsettling feature is the remarkable resemblance between most of Kirk Douglas' disguises and the Jigsaw Killer in the Saw movies. Maybe that was one source of inspiration for Saw's makers? And to top this all, you've got some of the greatest screen legends, the beautiful Dana Wynter and a superb Jerry Goldsmith soundtrack. What more could you ask for?
Frozen River (2008)
Keep this one in deep freeze!
One of those "indie" films that receives a multitude of accolades and great reviews from the taste-makers but fails to deliver. The 4 votes I gave were solely for Melissa Leo's performance which prevented me from pressing the "open" button on the remote. I don't even have much to say about the story but it felt like I was experiencing events in real time. I have to write another few lines in order to get my comments submitted. I just want to warn all those people who are in the DVD shop or online and see DVD covers with lots of great reviews and prizes from obscure and not such obscure Film Festivals that these are not always great indicators of a good movie. I just watched "Crank 2". It wasn't nominated for the Sundance Film Festival but it was the best hour and a half of entertainment I could have wished for.
Man Hunt (1941)
Don't Go Hunting For This One!
I don't even know why I gave this 5 out of 10. Perhaps out of respect for Fritz Lang. I was terribly disappointed with this film. It might have been a quality "Fugitive" type of movie with the baddies chasing Walter Pidgeon if it had continued in that vein. But as soon as Joan Bennett enters with the worst cockney accent I've ever heard (yes, worse than Dick Van Dyke's), the whole film just collapses and not even a decent performance from George Sanders can save this film. I watched the documentary on the DVD in which more than one commentator said how "brave" it was for 20th Century Fox to release a film which was in essence, anti-Nazi propaganda, in 1941. But Hitchcock's "Foreign Correspondent" came out a year earlier, was a far better film, with a much less sophisticated but no less powerful a message.
The Heiress (1949)
Serious miscasting
This film has serious pedigree. William Wyler directs. A winner of 4 Oscars. The wonderful Olivia De Havilland and Ralph Richardson. And the great Montgomery Clift ... but not in this part. Only a year before, Clift was brilliant besides John Wayne in Howard Hawks' Red River. But he comes across as too nice a guy to play Morris Townsend. The part demands someone much more suave, predatory and charming. George Brent just came to mind but Victor Mature might have been good as well. And I didn't find Miriam Hopkins convincing either. Again,I loved her in Trouble In Paradise and Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde but somehow the dynamics between her character and the other main characters wasn't quite there. Perhaps alongside heavyweights such as De Havilland and Richardson, Clift and Hopkins just don't cut the mustard, as they say.
Trouble in Paradise (1932)
Absolute classic
I don't remember how I came to know about this movie but it was probably the name Lubitsch that drew me to the shelf in the DVD library. After seeing it once, I was hooked. The dialogue sparkles, the performances are wonderful and the dynamics between each character are beautifully handled, probably as much to do with the actors thoroughly enjoying their experience as to do with the "Lubitsch touch" and Samuel Raphaelson script.
And apart from sophistication and humour, the film has an unbelievable sexual tension without the aid of one actor removing his/her clothes or jumping into bed with another.
I hope that more film channels and mainstream TV stations play a positive role in ensuring that "treasures" such as "Trouble In Paradise" continue to thrill and entertain people as I have been.