Citizen Rules...Cinemaesque Chat-n-Review

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I already hate Wonder and I haven't even seen it. Been curious about Iron Sky for awhile.
Iron Sky is one for your new Cinematic Gutter review thread. The film is unabashedly brazen and I laughed at it's audacity, the flick has guts! Just don't expect too much.


A shame about Annihilation. I know you caught some flak in the RTLMYS thread for your take on it. I don't love the movie and I don't think it's as smart as it thinks it is, but it's definitely more intelligent and imaginative than the overwhelming majority of Hollywood blockbusters you criticize it for being. And I personally thought the acting was uniformly strong, especially from Portman.
I think the concept of Annihilation is deep, but the execution by the film maker is sloppy. I can think of four scenes that border on plagiarism, there clearly ripped from other classic sci fi films...and I bet there are more à la- borrowed scenes that I didn't recognize.

Sometimes an 'ode to a classic scene' is appropriate for a film, say like The Martian where it's clearly acknowledging a past sci fi classic...But when a film is aimed at a higher level like Annihilation was, then it's just plain lazy film making to copy scene/shot ideas from other well known sci-fi films, and to do it ad nauseum is just infuriating. That was one of my big qualms.

The other qualm is the dialogue part of the script was lazy. I don't feel we got to explore the shimmer enough, and for fans of horror elements there wasn't enough creepy beasties to eat the hapless scientist. So in both ways the build up of the mysterious shimmer was a let down for me.

And of course, if dna is recombined by being refracted, which causes animal-plant cross over mutations, then something like 99.9% of all mutations are lethal. Unless the alien entity in the shimmer was consciously directing the recombined dna, then none of these things we seen would have came to be. I haven't read the book so don't know if it explains that more fully. But from the film it seems the dna is randomly being combined, so I couldn't believe the end results of that, as shown on the screen.

I think Jennifer Jason Leigh who I use to like, was downright robotic. I've noticed that good actors when cast in sci fi movies sometimes play their roles like they have no emotions. She was outright bad in this. Natalie Portman was decent, but she's done much better...She was so much better in V for Vendatta. Tessa Thompson was my favorite as her fear and interpretation of the shimmer seemed natural, and that made me feel she was in real peril. It's too bad they didn't carry out her character's story arch of fearing mutating. She was the only person I believed as genuine.




The Glass Wall (1953)

Director: Maxwell Shane
Writers: Ivan Tors & Maxwell Shane (screenplay)
Cast: Vittorio Gassman, Gloria Grahame, Ann Robinson
Genre: Drama Noir


An immigrant who was in a Nazi concentration camp, sneaks aboard a ship to America. His dream is to be free of oppression. However when he arrives at Ellis Island they won't let him into the country because he is a stow away and can't confirm that he's a political refugee. The one man who can help help is an American soldier who he saved during the war. The problem is the would be immigrant only knows the first name of the American solider, Tom...and knows he plays in a band. So Peter (Vittorio Gassman) jumps ship and tries to find Tom, not knowing that if the ship he was on sets sails he will then become a fugitive and never be allowed entry into the U.S. It's a race against the clock for Peter to find Tom, along the way he meets a down and out woman who's willing to help him (Gloria Grahame). CR

It's a too bad that The Glass Wall is so hard to find! It's an excellent film that has many strong points and yet is virtually unknown. One of it's strengths is the illegal secret filming that was done on the streets of New York. Not only is this like a time machine back to the hustle and bustle of Time Square in the early 1950s. It's also quite effective of making what would later be called a docu-drama film.



Gloria Grahame gives one of her better performances as a woman who's so broke she has to steal half eaten doughnuts off plates in a diner. I liked the rapport she had with Italian actor Vittorio Gassman in his first American film. The lengths they will go through just to get a dime to ride the subway has to be seen. Gloria actually goes up to a couple of kids who are street performing for dimes, and steal one!

Besides the haunting chase and rush against the clock, is the scenes inside the UN building which due to it's many glass windows is called The Glass Wall.

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Wow! A Gloria Grahame movie that I may not have seen! Thanks for the recommendation. As you say, it may be hard to find, but we'll definitely look for it! I don't suppose it's on YouTube. Cheers.

~Doc



Wow! A Gloria Grahame movie that I may not have seen! Thanks for the recommendation. As you say, it may be hard to find, but we'll definitely look for it! I don't suppose it's on YouTube. Cheers.

~Doc
I scoured the internet looking for that movie. Couldn't find it anywhere. And yet it gets high praise in list of must see Gloria Grahame films. If it's on Youtube I missed it. Finally I found it at Netflix DVD and it came on a double movie (2 movies on 1 DVD). It's worth watching if you can find it.




Bachelor Mother (1939)

Director: Garson Kanin
Writers: Norman Krasna (screen play), Felix Jackson (story)
Cast: Ginger Rogers, David Niven, Charles Coburn
Genre: Comedy, Romance

"An unemployed woman discovers an abandoned baby on the steps of an orphanage, and accepts an offer to take responsibility for the child in return for a job."

I just love this movie, it's one of my favorite 1930s comedies. I find it such an easy watch as the story starts off interesting, and right from the start I was interested into what would happen to Polly (Ginger Rogers). I find the twist and turns that befall Polly to arise from believable reasons, as opposed to just crazy stuff happening for the sake of comedy. The script was nominated for an Oscar and I could see why, it's cleverly written.

At first Polly refuses to care for the baby and denies it's hers ...so why would she later agree to care for it?

Well the film explains: David Merlin (David Niven) is so appalled by what he believes to be Polly's night of care free dancing while shirking her motherly responsibilities, that he threatens to black list her so that she'll never work again, unless she starts caring for the baby...And remember he's rich and powerful, and that's reason enough for a comedy film to have Polly take care of the baby. Plus look at Ginger's face when she's with the baby, she lights up! Obviously she bonds to the child and decides to give it a home. Love to me is a very believable motivation!



I think the funniest part to me was when David went to the complaints department to return the broken duck. I loved the way Ginger was hidden behind the counter and was feeding him lines...and he actually repeated them, word for word. I liked that for some reason.

You know comedy never gets the respect that dramas do, but I've heard it said that good comic acting is harder than drama acting. And Ginger is one of the best. Not only could she do drama and comedy, but she dances too! In the 1930s there are three comedians I adore: Carole Lombard, Jean Arthur and Ginger Rogers. And Bachelor Mother is one of my favorite of Ginger's movies.

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The Scarlet Empress (1934)

Director: Josef von Sternberg
Writers: Catherine II (based on her diary), Manuel Komroff &
Eleanor McGeary (screenplay)
Cast: Marlene Dietrich, John Lodge, Sam Jaffe
Genre: Drama, History, Romance


"A German noblewoman enters into a loveless marriage with the dim-witted, unstable heir to the Russian throne, then plots to oust him from power."

I really liked this and for one reason, the sets are amazing! Those sculptures, wow! If I could give an Academy Award to the designer of those statues...I would. That was one of the coolest looking sets I've seen. It's so amazing how the sculptures impact an emotional statement about Russia and gives the film this heavy dark feeling. I mean look at the emotions that pour out of them! They're contorted, they're forlorn and forsaken, their in misery...as is the Russian peasant in this movie. And if that wasn't enough darkness there's a torture montage at the beginning of the film....that let's us know we're not in Kansas anymore.



Kudos to the director for world building which makes the film. I felt like the Tsars castle was this dark, heavy, dreadful place with huge rooms and heavy wooden beam construction. I loved the use of staircases, which made the film three dimensional, in a two dimensional medium. This is world building! I'm glad that most of the scenes took place in the castle, as it felt like a real place that could be explored (at one's own peril) vs a Hollywood set. So impressive.

I said at the start of this HoF that I had never seen The Scarlet Empress, but I realized when watching it that I had seen it. I remember the way the Russian castle felt, like I had been there in a dream. I didn't remember any details at all. But my wife remembered the horses charging up the staircase. A very cool scene if I say so.

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Make Way For Tomorrow (1937)
Director: Leo McCarey
Writers: Viña Delmar (screenplay), Josephine Lawrence (novel)
Cast: Victor Moore, Beulah Bondi, Fay Bainter
Genre: Comedy, Drama, Romance


"An elderly couple are forced to separate when they lose their house and none of their five children will take both parents in."

You know a movie is good when Orson Welles comments on it, he said of the film: "it would make a stone cry". Make Way For Tomorrow has a hard hitting and bittersweet script of unusual candor. The somber subject matter is unusual for films of that time. I'm not surprised to learn that Depression era audiences didn't care for the down beat message.

I thought it was exceptionally well written. It was nice to see actors who I'm familiar with get to play the leads for once. I hardly recognized Beulah Bondi in her old age make up...She was actually 47 at the time of the movie. Victor Moore, I didn't recognize him either at first, but I sure knew it was him by his distinct voice and mannerisms. Nice to see Fay Bainter and of course Thomas Mitchell.



Make Way For Tomorrow, is a great film with and unusual subject mater...it's very bittersweet touching while being very hard to watch.

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Pepe Le Moko (1937)

Director: Julien Duvivier
Writers: Henri La Barthe (novel}, Henri La Barthe (scenario)
Cast: Jean Gabin, Gabriel Gabrio, Saturnin Fabre
Genre: Crime, Drama, Romance
Language: French

"A wanted gangster is both king and prisoner of the Casbah. He is protected from arrest by his friends, but is torn by his desire for freedom outside. A visiting Parisian beauty may just tempt his fate."

I love the world of the Casbah, that the film builds...it's the real star of the movie. The film builds the Casbah world on multi layers, literally! From the dark corridors, to the crowded streets, to the overhanging terraces, it's a three dimensional set! That's why I went with a 4 pic montage. as the sets are so varied and so rich that I just couldn't settle on one lead photo.

I read that some of this was actually filmed in Casbah, Algeria (the wide shots)...which is very impressive for 1937. And even the sets they built do the film wonders in creating an interwoven catacombs, where the master criminal Pepe Lo Moko hides out. I can only think of a few 1930s films that have such 'world building' sets and this is one of the most impressive I've seen.

Beyond the location and sets, I did like the film but I didn't really connect to Pepe as the short run time didn't give a big chance for characterization. Which is OK, as this film isn't trying to do that. Instead it's a classic French detective-sleuthing story where a likeable roguish master criminal is outsmarting the detectives at every turn. The story reminded me of the master French detective Poirot.

I feel the movie is even better than I think. I did have a hard time keeping up with all the dialogue at times, especially the opening scene in the French police station. At times I lost track of who was saying what as there was overlapping and fast dialogue. I get the feeling if I spoke French the film would have had even more meaning for me. As it was, I wasn't into the story all that much, but I did really appreciate the amazing sets!





Gunga Din (1939)

Director: George Stevens
Writers: Joel Sayre & Fred Guiol (screen play), Rudyard Kipling (original poem)
Cast: Cary Grant, Joan Fontaine, Victor McLaglen, Sam Jaffe
Genre: Adventure, Comedy, War


"In 19th century India, three British soldiers and a native Indian waterbearer must stop a secret mass revival of the murderous cult before it can rampage across the land."

I liked it, it was a fun watch...And it certainly had high production values. The on location shooting did wonders for the look of the movie. I loved those bleak, sun scorched rocks...and that hidden temple, very cool! I read that this was a very expensive film to make and I can believe it.

Some say this film is racist? For this to be racist it would've had to intentionally demean or make the Indians looks foolish, it didn't do that. In fact it did the opposite. It took an Indian, Gunga Din to save the three British soldiers and the entire British army from doom.

And the Indians are NOT the bad guys, it's the members of the Thuggee cult who are the baddies. The Thuggee's were a real cult, that once was said to have killed 30,000 people a year in ritualistic murders. The cult leader was shown to be highly intelligent, self controlled and he outsmarted the bubbling, greedy British soldiers who were looking to steal gold.

I was impressed with the scene where the cult leader tells Cary Grant that his army is just as large, just as well trained and just as well equipment as the British. Does that sound like the movie is trying to belittle the native people?

Yes it has so called brown face. In fact according to IMDB, RKO studio wanted a native born Indian named Sabu, to play Gunga Din, but he was unavailable, so they had to go with Sam Jaffe.

BTW...ask yourself this, in 1939 how many Indian actors were there in Hollywood? About zero....So it's not surprising the studio used contract actors to play the other parts. I mean they're filming in California not Bombay.





Back to the film: The first hour or so seemed to meander and not do much. The stuff about the girlfriends and the party seemed to belong in another movie.

But once they get to the temple the story starts focusing more and it becomes an action film much like an Indian Jones movies.

Cary Grant is one of my favorite actors, but here I couldn't really warm up to his character and his Cockney accent was too obvious and took me right out of his character. Still overall a fun film, though uneven.

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The Bride of Frankenstein (1935)

Director: James Whale
Writers: Mary Shelley (novel, William Hurlbut (screenplay)
Genre: Drama, Horror, Sci-Fi


Damn, now I've got that song Weird Science stuck in my head You know I thought I'd seen this before, but geez I didn't remember a scene of it. Well except for the 'He's alive!' line by Colin Clive...and now I can't forget it!

I really thought I'd enjoy this one as I've seen the original and it's great and people are always saying this one is even better than the 1st one....Sorry I just don't see it.

The film felt like one of those matinee serials they use to make, like Flash Gordon. I guess you'd call it the pacing, as the scenes are choppy. They start and finish without any set up or without furthering: the story, the theme or the characters plight. It's like it was made for a kid audience and the scenes are just the bare bones minimum, without any nuances. There's a couple of exceptions: the blind hermits cabin scene and the last 20 minutes in the lab. BTW the lab set is extremely cool looking as was the lighting and cinematography for that scene.



I found the music score annoying and loud, and yeah I watch a lot of old movies and they often have heavy scores. And Una O'Conner? At first I thought she'd be a favorite character but the movie goes to her with these over done-long close ups of her ranting and shrieking, which does nothing to tell the tale, and is just filler material. I blame the director, not her, it's like James Whales just didn't care to do great work.

In the original I found the monster both freighting and sad. I felt bad for him and yet I could see why he was being persecuted. Those themes of being persecuted as an outsider worked in the original. There were no themes in Bride, at least none that struck me.

I liked Colin Clive in the last 20 minute but it was Dr. Pretorius (Ernest Thesiger) who stole the show. Now that dude could act! Too bad the fiance of Frankenstein was flat in her acting. And when she was taken to the cave, why wasn't that scene played out more? It would seem to be a pivotal moment when suspense and drama come to a head. In the cave scene we could have learned more about the mindset of the monster and seen the fiances fear and loathing of it, which would then make the ending more of an emotional punch.

I have to say this might be the most overrated film I've ever seen. BUT I'm super glad it was nominated as I wanted to see it and it's an important film in the lexicon of cinema.

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I scoured the internet looking for that movie. Couldn't find it anywhere. And yet it gets high praise in list of must see Gloria Grahame films. If it's on Youtube I missed it. Finally I found it at Netflix DVD and it came on a double movie (2 movies on 1 DVD). It's worth watching if you can find it.
Thanks, bro. I'll check through my various streaming sources to see if any of them have it. Otherwise maybe it would be available requested from the Library. I don't suppose Filmstruck would have it (haven't joined yet).




Child Bride (1938)
Director: Harry Revier
Writer: Harry Revier (story and screenplay)
Cast: Shirley Mills, Bob Bollinger, Warner Richmond
Genre: Drama

"A school teacher in a rural community campaigns to stop the practice of older men marrying young, underage girls."

Different, I'll say that...I did actually like the overall story premise of moon shiners, louts and dirt poor farmers, but the acting was mostly crummy. I read that many of the cast were non-actors, and it showed, though the girl who played Jenny was a pretty good actresses.

Interesting trivia, the little person (Don Barrett), is Angelo Rossitto who was 'Master' in the Master-Blaster of Mad Maxx Beyond Thunder Dome.

So let's cut to the chase: Child Bride is notorious for having an underage girl topless. Now that's been done many times before in movies, though in 1938 it was very illegal to show an adult woman topless.



What bugged me was knowing the real actress, who was a 12 year old girl at the time, appears to have been completely nude in front of a bunch of men (the film crew)...That's creepy to me and so sad. I have to wonder why this was shown in the film at all? If there had been no nudity it might have gotten a much broader release and made more money.

As it was made, it was a 'blue film' and might have been shown at 'smokers' which were all male gatherings where the guys smoked, drank and watched racy movies. But why in the hell would they want to see a naked 12 year old!

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Thanks, bro. I'll check through my various streaming sources to see if any of them have it. Otherwise maybe it would be available requested from the Library. I don't suppose Filmstruck would have it (haven't joined yet).
People love Filmstruck, I wish I had it. I wish I had TCM channel too. So maybe there you can find it. If you find it please give me a PM and let me know. I'd like to see it again someday.




Child Bride (1938)
Director: Harry Revier
Writer: Harry Revier (story and screenplay)
Cast: Shirley Mills, Bob Bollinger, Warner Richmond
Genre: Drama

I saw this a few years ago... You brought up pre-code films and that made me go on the hunt... LOL



What did you think of it?
It was an interesting film... the only way they got away without coding it... is because they used it for educational purpose to stop the underage marriage in the states that allowed it.



It was an interesting film... the only way they got away without coding it... is because they used it for educational purpose to stop the underage marriage in the states that allowed it.
Kind of like the film Reefer Madness did that.




Bad For Each Other (1953)

Director: Irving Rapper
Writers: Irving Wallace & Horace McCoy (screenplay), Horace McCoy (unpublished novel)
Stars: Charlton Heston, Lizabeth Scott, Dianne Foster
Genre: Drama


A Korean War medical doctor (Charlton Heston) returns home to a small coal mining town in Pennsylvania. There he learns that his brother is being blamed for a mining accident that cost the lives of several men. While there he falls for a rich and bitchy beauty (Lizabeth Scott) who's own father warns the young doctor that she's nothing but trouble. But the doctor wants to marry her so badly that he gives up his morals and partners with an incompetent & money grubbing doctor who's clients are the ultra rich. CR

Bad For Each Other, is a long forgotten film that's perhaps best to remain in the dusty bin of has-been movies. It's been called a film noir, and is available on a DVD collection of noir called Bad Girls of Film Noir. This particular film is not noir but a poor attempt at a medical drama soap, the type of film that was popular in the 1950s. It does explore the very questionable medical practice of "ghost surgeons" which is were a well known and expensive doctor would charge exuberant prices for surgeon, BUT, have another doctor perform it.
The ghost surgeon practice was condemned in 1951by the American College of Surgeons.





The film is based on a unpublished novel and as presented has gaping holes in between the scenes, with little narrative explanation of how an idealistic moral doctor becomes a lacky so easily. We're suppose to believe that the town's ultra rich girl Lizabeth Scott is so enchanting that Charlton Heston dumps his morals in the trash can. The thing is Lizabeth Scott is a one note character in this film. I swear she had the same emotion and vocal tone for every one of her scenes.

When the coal mine suffers another explosion, and men are trapped the doctor has to decide to save them or appease Miss Scott. Not a hard ending to guess the outcome.


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I saw this a few years ago... You brought up pre-code films and that made me go on the hunt... LOL
I found it pretty much the same way (and used it to build reputation/notoriety by nominating it for the first 1930s HoF). After @Citizen Rules mentioned pre-code on some message I went Googling for the most infamous films of the 1930s and Child Bride was among them



You can't make a rainbow without a little rain.

Bachelor Mother (1939)

Director: Garson Kanin
Writers: Norman Krasna (screen play), Felix Jackson (story)
Cast: Ginger Rogers, David Niven, Charles Coburn
Genre: Comedy, Romance

"An unemployed woman discovers an abandoned baby on the steps of an orphanage, and accepts an offer to take responsibility for the child in return for a job."

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I thought Bachelor Mother was much better than the 1956 remake Bundle of Joy. Surprisingly, David Niven and Ginger Rogers had better chemistry together than Eddie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds did, even though Fisher and Reynolds were married in real life.