Bonkers, fast paced and fun - perhaps the best of Bela Lugosi's "Monogram Nine". It benefits from a story which, if unrealistic, at least has energy and oomph - someone is killing brides on their wedding day and a feisty female reporter goes to investigate. Turns out the culprit is Bela Lugosi, who like all the best crazy cinema villains, has a strong motive: he uses the bride's blood to keep his wife young.
Basically it's a vampire movie without actually being a vampire movie. Luana Waters is fun as the feisty reporter on the case, Lugosi is entertaining, Elisabeth Russell is fine as his wife and there's lots of delight along the way, such as a dwarf in Lugosi's family and some crazy dialogue.
Waters should have offered herself up as a bride at the end but at least Lugosi kidnaps her and puts her on the slab. Unlike many Monogram films the momentum actually sustains. I don't want to over praise this - it's still cheap and shoddy - but it is definitely among Lugosi's best at Monogram.
Saturday, April 16, 2016
Movie review - "Holiday Camp" (1947) ***1/2
A surprise packet - an early film from Ken Annakin who had a background in documentaries and made the leap to features with ease. It's a real ensemble piece, a look at various people going on holiday at a camp for a week: Flora Robson mourns for a lost love; a young couple wonder what to do with an out of wedlock pregnancy; a loving but squabbling working class couple, the Huggets (Kathleen Harrison, Jack Warner), see their son get ensnared by gamblers and their hot daughter (Hazel Court) romanced by recently-jilted Jimmy Lydon; a smooth RAF conman type (Dennis Price) turns out to be a serial killer.
It works very well, this combination of comedy, drama and romance, a forerunner of modern day soapies. Things are helped by a very good cast - there are veterans like Robson, Warner and Harrison, plus new matinee idols like Price, and brand new hot things like Court and a young Diana Dors. There's also cameos by Pat Roc as herself - and a few other people I didn't recognise who I'm prepared to believe were famous.
Historically its fascinating to see how lower class Brits holidayed back in the day - these massive camps, where they packed them in, had constant organised activities, where you were in each other's pockets, nightly sing alongs of 'Knees Up Mother Brown' and doing the hokey pokey. No wonder the country took to socialism so well. Annakin films this brilliantly incorporating what I assume is footage at a real life camp with the actual actors though.
It all feels authentic. And the melodrama doesn't stuff around - there's a serial killer who kills someone, a couple have premarital sex, a woman contemplates suicide, Hazel Court is a widowed mum. No wonder it was a hit - I'm surprised the Americans didn't remake and Americanise it.
It works very well, this combination of comedy, drama and romance, a forerunner of modern day soapies. Things are helped by a very good cast - there are veterans like Robson, Warner and Harrison, plus new matinee idols like Price, and brand new hot things like Court and a young Diana Dors. There's also cameos by Pat Roc as herself - and a few other people I didn't recognise who I'm prepared to believe were famous.
Historically its fascinating to see how lower class Brits holidayed back in the day - these massive camps, where they packed them in, had constant organised activities, where you were in each other's pockets, nightly sing alongs of 'Knees Up Mother Brown' and doing the hokey pokey. No wonder the country took to socialism so well. Annakin films this brilliantly incorporating what I assume is footage at a real life camp with the actual actors though.
It all feels authentic. And the melodrama doesn't stuff around - there's a serial killer who kills someone, a couple have premarital sex, a woman contemplates suicide, Hazel Court is a widowed mum. No wonder it was a hit - I'm surprised the Americans didn't remake and Americanise it.
Movie review - "Daddy's Home" (2016) **1/2
Smooth, well constructed comedy with Will Ferrell as a step-dad intimidated by the real deal, Mark Wahlberg. Linda Cardinelli plays the thankless Marissa Tomei-style role. The jokes and story are solid rather than inspired, but it has a good heart, and nice message (about being a dad). I enjoyed the dance off finale.
Tuesday, April 12, 2016
Movie review - "A Place of One's Own" (1945) **
Gainsborough were best known for their melodramas during the war but Maurice Ostrer and Ted Black actually liked a well rounded program so they also turned out musicals, dramas and ghost stories like this one. It features their two biggest stars, James Mason and Margaret Lockwood, but gives them a chance to do something different, especially Mason who puts on whiskers and acts as a doddery old dude.
You wonder why they cast him - presumably to keep the grumpy actor happy after The Man in Grey. It's distracting to see him - you never believe he's an old man, he's a young man in make up acting "old", and thus distances the viewer from the action.
Lockwood's part is more standard - she plays a pretty young thing, the type of role she used specialise in before becoming famous as a bad girl and having Phyllis Calvert take over those parts. She's sweet and likeable and Dennis Prices is okay as her love interest.
The main problem with the film is it's not very scary. Lockwood becomes possessed by the ghost of a dead woman but nothing much more happens - no lives are at stake, no one gets that much of a shock. There's not even suspenseful sequences. It lacks atmosphere. It's so benign and tranquil you wonder why they made it. The production values and camerawork are good.
You wonder why they cast him - presumably to keep the grumpy actor happy after The Man in Grey. It's distracting to see him - you never believe he's an old man, he's a young man in make up acting "old", and thus distances the viewer from the action.
Lockwood's part is more standard - she plays a pretty young thing, the type of role she used specialise in before becoming famous as a bad girl and having Phyllis Calvert take over those parts. She's sweet and likeable and Dennis Prices is okay as her love interest.
The main problem with the film is it's not very scary. Lockwood becomes possessed by the ghost of a dead woman but nothing much more happens - no lives are at stake, no one gets that much of a shock. There's not even suspenseful sequences. It lacks atmosphere. It's so benign and tranquil you wonder why they made it. The production values and camerawork are good.
Monday, April 11, 2016
Movie review - "Black Dragons" (1942) ** (re-viewing)
So many of these Monogram horror movies I'm watching get off to a flying start then become bogged down, lacking complications and/or progression. There's a lot of fun still to be had in this WW2 potboiler, with Bela Lugosi having a great old time as a German who goes around knocking off industrialists. It turns out he's a plastic surgeon who turned Japanese agents into industrialists but we don't find that out until the very end.
Maybe this film would have worked more told in a linear fashion - we could have enjoyed the bonkers plot more being part of it. There was more fun to be had with Japanese masquerading as American agents. It's very silly and doesn't make sense if you think hard (or, rather, all) about it.
But there are pleasures. Lugosi, of course, hypnotising people and running riot - and as a bonus his character has a look a like. Clayton Moore is obnoxious but at least virile as the hero - who seems to have a lot of help but they keep being killed. Joan Barclay is a pretty heroine. And most of all there's the full blown wackiness of the concept.
Maybe this film would have worked more told in a linear fashion - we could have enjoyed the bonkers plot more being part of it. There was more fun to be had with Japanese masquerading as American agents. It's very silly and doesn't make sense if you think hard (or, rather, all) about it.
But there are pleasures. Lugosi, of course, hypnotising people and running riot - and as a bonus his character has a look a like. Clayton Moore is obnoxious but at least virile as the hero - who seems to have a lot of help but they keep being killed. Joan Barclay is a pretty heroine. And most of all there's the full blown wackiness of the concept.
Sunday, April 10, 2016
Movie review - "I'll Be Your Sweetheart" (1945) ***1/2
Gainsborough must have looked at the grosses being racked up by 20th Century Fox with their period musicals starring Betty Grable/Alice Faye and decided to have a crack at it themselves. The result is surprisingly fun - I'd never heard about this movie but it has a lot of energy and pep, plus an actual point.
Michael Rennie, at the beginning of his career, is in the John Payne/George Montgomery role as an aspiring song plugger who wants to bring sheet music to the people. He falls for singer Margaret Lockwood, in the Betty Grable/Alice Faye part. Peter Graves pops up as a rival for him in business and love.
The kicker is that the real plot of this is about copyright. Turn of the century apparently music piracy was rife, making it hard for industry people to make a living - something with incredible resonance today. The climax of the film involves a copyright bill getting passed through the act of Parliament - including Rennie leading a mob to smash up the printing presses of music pirates.
Someone called Vic Oliver is billed about the title, just below Lockwood, but his role is small. It's really Rennie's film with Lockwood having a key role. I think more could have been done with Grave's part.
It's not in colour but there is plenty of songs and production value - good costumes. There's a lot of brawling - Rennie punching out Graves and leading a mob to smash up the pirates printing press. This is where the influence of Hollywood was most felt for me. But it was a lot of fun and incredibly fascinating. The cast all get into it - Rennie and Lockwood are a pleasing lead couple and the support players are strong. British film musicals get a bad wrap but I liked this.
Michael Rennie, at the beginning of his career, is in the John Payne/George Montgomery role as an aspiring song plugger who wants to bring sheet music to the people. He falls for singer Margaret Lockwood, in the Betty Grable/Alice Faye part. Peter Graves pops up as a rival for him in business and love.
The kicker is that the real plot of this is about copyright. Turn of the century apparently music piracy was rife, making it hard for industry people to make a living - something with incredible resonance today. The climax of the film involves a copyright bill getting passed through the act of Parliament - including Rennie leading a mob to smash up the printing presses of music pirates.
Someone called Vic Oliver is billed about the title, just below Lockwood, but his role is small. It's really Rennie's film with Lockwood having a key role. I think more could have been done with Grave's part.
It's not in colour but there is plenty of songs and production value - good costumes. There's a lot of brawling - Rennie punching out Graves and leading a mob to smash up the pirates printing press. This is where the influence of Hollywood was most felt for me. But it was a lot of fun and incredibly fascinating. The cast all get into it - Rennie and Lockwood are a pleasing lead couple and the support players are strong. British film musicals get a bad wrap but I liked this.
Movie review - "Spooks Run Wild" (1941) ** (re-viewing)
Boys of the City seems to have been well received enough for Monogram and Sam Katzman to rehash it - once again the kids are off to summer camp, once again they are waylaid by scary people, with a red herring and a genuine maniac. I actually enjoyed this more than the first film - the plot was simpler and there was Bela Lugosi and his midget sidekick providing fun as seeming villains who turn about to be magicians.
The film actually would've been better if Lugosi had been the villain as he has real threat. It's silly and dumb but I have affection for this film.
The film actually would've been better if Lugosi had been the villain as he has real threat. It's silly and dumb but I have affection for this film.
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