vamorrison's Reviews

Plan 9 from Outer Space (1957)

7/10

7 January 2014

Like several of you, I saw the 1994 movie about Ed Wood, and then decided to go back and take another look at Plan 9.

I have a theory. Stick with me on this. I think Ed Wood made exactly the movie he wanted to make.

It's true this movie is so bad, a group of seventh graders could write, direct, and act in a better one. Even a seventh grader would not have the police leave the station, zoom along a country road, and arrive at a crime scene in night-day-night sequences in THREE different cars. And even a seventh grader would realize that if an actor kicks over a cardboard tombstone in a fake cemetery, you shoot the scene again.

Wood must have known exactly what he was doing, and as he also edited the film into its final form, he could not have missed all the incredibly obvious continuity fluffs.

I originally rated it five out of ten, but raised my score to a seven because as a deliberately bad movie, it's very good.

Try watching it again with the thought that maybe it's a send up and Wood made the movie he was trying to make. Nobody could make a movie this bad unless he did it on purpose.

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What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962)

8/10

Great, but with plot holes

26 October 2013

Warning: Spoilers

I won't relate the entire story, as several reviewers have done that.

I will say that at best, this is a powerful psychological thriller with terrifying moments and unexpected twists.

The problem for me is the exaggerated helplessness of Blanche. She is depicted as unable to use her legs, but otherwise capable, and it's the stuff she does NOT do which makes you (or maybe just me) crazy.

Her bedroom window, for instance, overlooks the drive and neighbors' property so closely she could speak to anyone out there in a normal tone of voice. Alas, she never does, resorting to a dopey, wadded up message.

When she finally realizes her life depends upon getting downstairs to the working phone, she could have thrown the chair down first, worked her way down, as she did, get back in her chair, and go out the front door. None of this would be simple, but otherwise-capable wheelchair-bound people learn to get themselves around and recover back into their chairs if they fall out.

This would have given the character much more dimension and reality, and the viewer could believe she is both desperate and resourceful.

When she does get to the phone, instead of calling for help from a friend or the police, she calls the doctor's office, which makes practically no sense, and then rambles on, incoherently, without saying she is in danger and needs help. That is by far the worst part of the movie. The following scene, in which Jane finds her, is as powerful as any in a movie of that era.

These things could be fixed in the screenplay, and given them, the movie is marvelous. I absolutely bought the loony, bitter Baby Jane, played at, but not over, the top by Bette Davis. The wig and thick makeup and childish costumes work perfectly for the character.

Blanche is underwritten, but Joan Crawford plays her as she is. I agree Victor Buono and his mom are superbly crafted, fascinating characters.

Shooting this film in black and white, which was evidently Bette Davis' idea, is also perfect.

I also loved the ending, in which Jane has completely lost touch with reality.

This is a terrific movie if you can keep yourself from shouting at the screen when Blanche just keeps NOT doing anything to help herself.

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Moby Dick (1956)

7/10

On age-appropriate actors

23 June 2013

I enjoyed the heck out of this movie. It's an honest attempt to bring the great novel to the screen, and there is no reworking or Hollywoodizing of it. The story progresses and the characters are believable.

There is, however, a continuing flaw in many movies when an actor of the wrong age is cast for a particular part. This gives us things like a 22-year-old kid playing Superman and 70-year-old Robert Mitchum playing a World War Two Navy captain. (Captains are typically in their early 40s.) That happens here. Gregory Peck effectively conveys the obsessive madness of Ahab, but he is just plain WAY too young. Melville's Ahab is 58, which was considered old in the middle of the 19th century. Peck himself is said to have noted he was not right for the role and that it demanded more than he had in him at that age.

Here's a thought.

This happens in reverse in another superb seagoing film, "The Caine Mutiny" (1954). Humphrey Bogart, then over 50, plays a 30-something Navy LCDR. Again - Bogie nails the part, but he's just plain WAY too old.

What if we go back in time and have Bogart play Ahab and Peck play Queeg? Bogie would be marvelous as the mad, obsessive Ahab, and Peck could bring off the dark, disturbed, unbalanced Queeg just right.

Both are marvelous movies with terrific lead characters - but both stars are twenty years wrong in age.

Get the DVDs and view both and see what you think.

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Busses Roar (1942)

8/10

A terrific product of the times!

4 June 2013

(How could they get this all the way out without someone realizing they had misspelled "Buses"?)

I loved this movie. You need to remember that in 1942, panic and hysteria were the order of the day along the West Coast, and in fact a Japanese submarine surfaced and shelled the Ellwood Oil Field off Santa Barbara on the night of 23 February. The next night, there was a mysterious episode in which gunners fired antiaircraft guns into the skies over LA, thinking there were unseen Japanese aircraft attacking them.

Even tho there were none, this came to be called The Battle of Los Angeles. Given the times, this movie is perfect.

"Busses (sic) Roar" is richly laced with fascinating characters, and as the movie unfolds, you begin to wonder where they are all going to come together.

The film succeeds in loading the bus with believable, identifiable people, and when peril ensues, you fear for them.

I caught this on TCM on 03 June 2013, and if it comes on again, I'll make it a point to watch.

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