Movie Reviews
Champagne
If you watch very many of these early Hitchcock silent films, you might be struck, as I have been, by how very ordinary most of them they are. Yes, film scholars have studied them for years and can point out this or that scene that fits right in with the Hitchcock style, and they’re right, you can spot these things. But what I ask myself is, how many hundreds of other films by other ... Read more »
Easy Virtue
There’s very little of the Hitchcock we know in this movie, it’s another of those that would be entirely forgotten if it hadn’t been made by him. A married woman is having her portrait painted. Her jealous, abusive husband arrives as the artist is trying to seduce her. Though she had nothing to do with it, he brings suit for divorce on the grounds of adultery. And it is tried in open ... Read more »
The Farmer’s Wife
When a farmer’s wife dies, she tells her husband on her deathbed that he should marry again. He agrees, and sets out to pay court to all the eligible ladies in the area, using a list he compiles with his maid, who is secretly in love with him. It’s hard to see why, as he reveals himself to be something of a pompous ass when with each of these half a dozen young ladies. But it’s a comedy, ... Read more »
Downhill (When Boys Leave Home)
What a load of crap this movie is. I can’t imagine why it was made. Aside from a few camera experiments that show the Hitchcock touch, there is really nothing of interest here, except maybe a lesson in how not to write film. Roddy (Ivor Novello) is from a rich family and is the star rugby player at Oxford, playing for the “Old Boys,” whoever they are. His best pal and roomie is Tim, who is ... Read more »
The Ring
Is it written somewhere that a director has to make a film about boxing? So many of them have. Back in 1927 the so-called “sweet science” was a different sort of thing than it is now. It seems that everyone was interested in it, from the lower classes with brawls held in toilets, through the middle class, right up to the hoity-toity seated at ringside. Today boxing still exists, and at the ... Read more »
The Lodger: A story of the London Fog
First, a word about prints. We got a 4-disc set with 20 of the earlier Hitchcock films on them. I wondered what the quality would be like, as these were certainly public domain prints, but they turned out to be perfectly watchable … except for this one. After five minutes I knew I couldn’t go any longer. So I hunted up a copy at the library, and struck gold. This one was mastered from the ... Read more »
The Devil-Doll
I was surprised how good this was. Even though it was directed by Tod Browning, I expected a routine horror show. It is a lot more than that.
Lionel Barrymore and a mad scientist friend escape from Devil’s Island after he has been imprisoned for 17 years for a financial fraud he didn’t commit. He was framed by three other bankers. He’s had a long time to think about his revenge. ... Read more »
Pitch Perfect
I was lured into this one by an Internet meme about what they’re calling “The Cup Song,” which I understand is actually a cover of “Cups (You’re Gonna Miss Me)” by a group called Lulu and the Lampshades, which in turn is a new version of “When I’m Gone” from the Carter Family all the way back in 1931. Whew! Quite a history. I just took a look at Lulu and they seem to be a nicely quirky ... Read more »
The Sin of Harold Diddlebock
The Sin of Harold Diddlebock (1947) This film had quite a checkered (chequered?) history. It was begun in 1945, the result of a deal between Preston Sturges and Howard Hughes, when he was beginning to get really crazy. Sturges persuaded Harold Lloyd to come out of retirement. And it wasn’t ready to show until 1947. It got mixed reviews, and Hughes pulled it after only a few showings and ... Read more »
The Big Heat
Fritz Lang can be seen as the bridge between German Expressionism, which he helped found, and film noir, which he was instrumental in developing. His masterpiece, M, is considered by many to be the prototypical film noir, and I don’t disagree.
This movie was pretty hard-core for the time it was made. Glenn Ford is a tough cop investigating the suicide of ... Read more »