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Reviews
Scrooge (1951)
A great film for any day of the year
There are many "Christmas movies" that have good scripts, good acting, good music, and good editing. The vast majority have fewer than two of these qualities, while very few have all. In fact, I would reduce "very few" to "one."
"Scrooge" -- or, alternatively, "A Christmas Carol" -- is, taken by itself, a terrifying ghost story. Taken in the context of Christmas, it checks all the boxes on what makes for good entertainment: it's scary but not so scary as to make it inappropriate for children. But unexpected noises and sights make for a truly unsettling experience.
Alastair Sim has the perfect diction for the dreadful character of Scrooge. His words come out almost as if his insides were made of rusting metal. There's one scene where Scrooge is walking down a London street, and a beggar who sees him jumps out of his way. This is the aura of a cynical miser with no friends. And you almost want to recoil in the same manner when you see the sneer that is so common to the character.
If this were the only version of the Dickens tale to be put to film, this would surely suffice.
The Night Agent (2023)
Never quite takes off
The first episode seemed to have promise, what with explosions and mystery and all that good stuff that makes for suspense. Even so, I had a nagging suspicion that something else was amiss, and I'm not talking about part of the narrative. This suspicion was confirmed in the second episode, when the FBI man and the President's Chief of Staff are talking with one another in a room in the White House. It feels as if they were practicing for a year-end middle school drama club presentation.
Whatever promise this story had at first, collapses in every subsequent episode because of the atrocious acting, amateurish cinematography, and low-budget writing. In reassessing that first episode, I realized that my desire to like this show affected my judgement of it. I was looking for a good mystery show, a good suspense series. Well, let's look at the credibility of the ground floor of this story.
Peter, the young FBI guy, is hired by Diane, the President's chief of staff, to sit in a windowless room in the White House basement to answer a phone and look over documents. He never asks why there is only one phone, what it's for, and we're never shown why it needs to be segregated from the rest of the White House. The chief of staff seems to have a whole lot of time on her hands -- yet anyone who knows the workings of the White House would know that this portrayal is exceedingly unlikely. The chief of staff is arguably the busiest person on the face of the Earth. In this, though, given how much time is given to her being on the scene of a crime or conversing with any number of minor folks in the White House, you'd think the chief of staff was as important as the UPS guy in the scheme of things.
Everyone except Peter runs around with a perpetual worried look, characterized by perpetually raised eyebrows. It does get wearing after a short while. Peter, for his part, doesn't scowl much, but does seem to spend a lot of time looking like a lost puppy.
Maybe the book is better. I think I'll take a look. The good thing about reading is that the acting and cinematography take place in my head.
M3GAN (2022)
Silly.
From what I could tell, about ten people work in the company that produces M3gan. One woman is the creator. A whole week or two of testing go by before the company decides on a public demonstration.
This is not the only problem with this silly film. The characters are so poorly developed that you can't make a prediction about the direction of the movie: you're just pulled along by the increasing violence, like a kite being blown in a strong wind. There are few enough characters, so developing some principal characters should not really pose much of a problem.
If you're thinking of watching this movie, perhaps you would get more entertainment from chewing gum.
Tin Star (2017)
Unrelenting in its bleakness
I began watching this because I thought (not sure why) that there were some elements of dark comedy in it. Instead, it is about as bleak and dismal as a mausoleum. In a way, I wish I could un-see this series.
Santa Fe Trail (1940)
Painfully hackneyed
A "highly fictionalized" account of the John Brown raids, indeed! It gave Holly wood a chance to show men who became famous Confederate generals in all their honor and glory, fighting a terrorist -- who's portrayed as sympathetically as today's ISIS leader. This film trivializes what was a very complex and morally ambiguous year in American history. It is thus a disservice to the study of history.
I Love You Again (1940)
Uneven but very funny
If William Powell and Myrna Loy starred in a picture about two people eating a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, it would be worth watching. The two of them had "it" -- they had charm, in buckets. This film is, perhaps, not the best vehicle for their debonair romance. Indeed, there are parts that would have benefited from a good pair of scissors (and here I'm thinking about the Boy Scout episode.) The scene on the dance floor, with Powell, Loy, and the suitor, is laugh out loud funny -- and well worth the price of...admission?
The Fountainhead (1949)
Pretty good, but Cooper's great
I see this as a movie with Gary Cooper first, as a film second, and not at all as a philosophical treatise with which I must either agree or disagree before I can decide whether I enjoyed it.
As stories go, it's pretty good. A guy wants to do his own thing -- but unfortunately, that is what modern architects do, and the results are dismaying, to say the least. Still, the film is deftly plotted, continuity is excellent, and the story moves right along to a smashing conclusion. Worth seeing.
Der Herr vom andern Stern (1948)
A lovely and funny film
Der Herr vom anderen Stern -- I found it on Archive.org and, knowing nothing about it, watched it one recent afternoon. What a perfectly charming movie it is! At the outset, the man (who is from a distant planet) appears in a dystopian city street. Two police officers see him appear and follow him. In due course, he piques the interest of the government, the criminal world, the military, and God knows who else. If for nothing else, watch this film for the incredibly funny "dance" that a ballroom full of high party functionaries are seen doing. ("Oh, it's the latest thing! It's the most popular song today!" says a bartender. The man looks on bemusedly.)
I'm not sure if this film is available in English, but is certainly should be. It's far ahead of its time, and a lot more fun than the dour "The Day the World Stood Still." Heinrich isn't Klaatu: Heinrich has a sense of the absurd. That is what makes this such a good film. What's surprising is that it dates from the year before either East or West Germany declared themselves self-governing, so this was made, so to speak, in no country at all.