Is It Really The Last One?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

THE LAST EXORCISM-2010-A phony preacher (Patrick Fabian) goes to a rural Louisana farmhouse to perform one last exorcism on a young girl. He brings along a camera crew so once again we have a horror tale from the “found footage” genre which is fast being beaten to death by filmmakers. After the preacher does the ritual, things go from bad to worse with the girl (Ashley Bell) going crazy and terrorizing the crew while her redneck father insists another exorcism should be performed. She even slashes her dim wit brother across the face. The group has plenty of chances to escape but always finds some distraction to stay. When the girl is found to be pregnant incest is suspected.

 

Like most of this kind of story the herky-jerky camera work begins to wear on the viewer and the confused hectic plot goes on too long but I liked the unexpected ending. After this director Daniel Stamm worked on TV series called THE INTRUDERS. An unnecessary sequel followed.

 

Thanks for reading! 

Old Creaky House

THE CAT AND THE CANARY-1939- Old house mystery turned into a vehicle for Bob Hope. 10 years after the death of millionaire Cyrus Norman, his remaining relatives gather for the reading of his will in his spooky Louisiana bayou mansion, watched over by the equally spooky caretaker Miss Lu (Gale Sondergaard). The heir most likely to gain the inheritance is Joyce Norman (Paulette Goddard) but if she is proven insane before a certain period of time the money goes to the second heir. Only the family lawyer (George Zucco, a busy actor in 1939) knows who that will be but when he's killed weird things happen to Joyce to make her seem unstable. Hope is a wisecracking actor and relative who helps Joyce find out what's really happening in a story that features secret panels, strange sounds, a clutching hand and a search for a rare necklace. John Beal, Douglas Montgomery, Elizabeth Patterson and Nydia Westman are the other relatives. Charles Lane appears as a reporter.

 

This is actually a remake of a 1927 silent film directed by Paul Leni and there are at least 4 other versions including one made in 1979 directed by Radley Metzger.

 

Former actor Eliot Nugent (he'd direct Hope again in MY FAVORITE BLONDE) also worked with Danny Kaye and Harold Lloyd and made a version of THE GREAT GATSBY starring Alan Ladd in 1949. His career was hampered by alcohol and mental condition and he retired in the early '50's. Hope and Goddard would team up again a year later in GHOST BREAKERS.

 

Thanks for reading!

Hitch Tac Toe

 

 

 

HITCHCOCK-2012-The genesis of the movie PYSCHO and it's controversial road from book to screen is basically the plot of this film bio of the great director (Anthony Hopkins never out of his suit and tie). Despite the success of his previous film (the classic NORTH BY NORTHWEST) no studio would touch the new project. It also practically says that wife Alma (Helen Mirren) salvaged the whole picture after Hitchcock had filmed it. The director comes across as a bit of a loony, insulting everyone and imaging his wife is having an affair but Hopkins portrayal is admirable and mostly the film is a positive look at his career to that point. However the film really insults Anthony Perkins (played by James D'Arcy) and his contribution. Instead of showing him and his portrayal as the focal point of PYSCHO, his character is brushed off as being nothing but a homo mama's boy who understood nothing that was going on. But of course Janet Leigh's role was played by film darling Scarlett Johansson so the director Sacha Gervasi was probably so enamored of her he focused everything on her character (not that that Janet Leigh's role wasn't crucial to the original story; it was). I wonder if the future Sir Alfred really did talk to Ed Gein (Michael Wincott)?

Despite it's faults I like HITCHCOCK better than most Hollywood bios I've seen recently. It could be because although Hopkins and Mirren are fine Academy Award winner actors they are also both hacks who would do anything for money and there for having them both in the same film made me wary, yet it wasn't as bad I thought it could have been.
 
It also features Danny Huston as screenwriter Whitfield Cook, Ralph Macchio as Joseph Stefano and Jessica Biel as Vera Miles. It's based on a book by Stephen Rebello with a screenplay by John McLaughlin (THE BLACK SWAN). Director Gervasi's claim to fame before this was his screenplay for the Tom Hanks flop THE TERMINAL.

Thanks for reading!

Not A Disney Film!

 

 

 

IT'S A SMALL WORLD-1950-Harry (Paul Dale) is a little person (called the now politically incorrect “midget” in this) who doesn't have a very nice childhood. His father (Will Geer) likes him but takes him out of school and keeps him out of sight in their house. His selfish sister (Shirley Mills, the star of CHILD BRIDE) wants him sent away. He does leave home to join a circus but the owner (Thomas Henry) is a jerk and Harry runs away from him. In the city he meets Sam (Todd Karns; George Bailey's brother in IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE)), a shoeshine guy who gives Harry a job. Everything is ok until he meets a floozy named Buttons (Lorraine Miller) who gets a black eye from her boyfriend Charlie (Steve Brodie). She seems to like Harry and they hang out but she two times him and lies to him and gets him involved with the giant sized Rose (Nina Koshetz)) who turns him into a pickpocket.

 

Unfortunately Harry gets sweet on Buttons but she only has eyes for Charlie and laughs at him. When he wants to quit fatso Rose threatens him. He turns them all in and (reluctantly) joins the Cole Brothers circus winter headquarters in Florida where he meets the cheery Dolly (Ann Sholter in her only film role), a woman his size who he sings a song to! They get married and live happily ever after....

Henry Corden has an un-credited role as a truck driver. By my count Thomas Henry was in 10 features in 1950.

While not a great movie IT'S A SMALL WORLD was an unusual feature for the time. It tries hard to show Harry's plight in a sympathetic way but sometimes seems a little too obvious. Lead actor Paul Dale was one of the Lollipop Guild in THE WIZARD OF OZ and at the time of this writing he was still alive (another member of the Guild Jerry Maren is also alive). He's good in the role and does a fairly amazing job of playing his Harry character from child to adult despite being 23 at the time!

William Castle (who appears as a cop) directed it but without the flair he'd use in his later “gimmick horror films” (The first of them MACABRE would come 8 year later).

Thanks for reading!

Another Anthology

 

 

BARRIO TALES-2012-In this anthology two morons go to a place in Mexico called Barrio to meet a drug dealer named Pedro. There they meet an old man who they insult. He tells them some stories.

The first tale is called “Maria”. A spoiled rich asshole and his equally asshole friends smoke dope, shoot pool and insult the live-in Mexican maid. The only one who gives her any slack of course is the one of Mexican descent who speaks Spanish. Later the dorks have a sex, booze and drug party. They throw the maid in the pool and she dies (hits her head?). They cover it up but but grandfather in Mexico gets bloody revenge.

In “Uncle Tio's Taco Bar”, some slackers discover the secret ingredient in the title taco stand. Parts of
his predictable story aren't bad especially when Tio (who acts like Fuad Ramses at times) goes on a rampage.

In “El Monstruo”, white trash kidnap some poor illegal immigrants and torture them. Fortunately one escapes and brings his brother and some amigos to the rescue (they are as screwed up as the white guys).

Back in the framing sequence the old man's crazy friend kills the two guys. He's not really a drug dealer. He lures Americans to be killed and eaten by poor Mexicans.

Contrary to this movies' theme not all white Americans are slacker racists who do drugs (well at least around here; I don't know how it is in LA where this was filmed).

 Director Jarret Tarnol will probably not go away.

Thanks for reading!

Raven Mad?

 

 

THE LOVES OF EDGAR ALLAN POE-1942-Eddie Poe (John Sheppard; later known as Sheppard Strudwick) is taken in by The Allens after his mother dies. Mrs. Allen (Mary Howard) is a nice caring woman who loves him but Mr. Allan (Frank Conroy) is a jerk who thinks Edgar is wasting his time writing poems. At school he gambles, gets into debt and drinks a lot. He gets some encouragement from Thomas Jefferson (Gilbert Emery) but Mr. Allen hits the roof when he sees all of Eddie's debts. He also loses his love Elmira (Virginia Gilmore) to another man (but later it is reveal to be a deception devised by his old man). He joins the cavalry and later West Point (and gets thrown out) and goes to live with his aunt (Jane Darwell) in Baltimore where he meets his cousin Virginia (top billed Linda Darnell). He becomes a writer and wins a short story contest. He and Virginia get married and he lands a job as a magazine editor in Richmond but complications arrive when he meets Elmira at a party. He goes on a bender and gets fired for being drunk. The trio go to Philadelphia where he becomes a success and meets Charles Dickens. He works toward  getting a copyright law for writers, gets into an argument with his boss (Morris Ankrum), gets drunk and goes to NYC. Virginia gets sick. He tries hard to sell his new poem “The Raven” to the public and even gives a great reading of it to some printers but fails to sell it. Virginia dies and he goes back to Baltimore to die in poverty. A narrator explains that although it was not recognized in his own life time now “The gods laugh and Poe laughs with them”. Harry Morgan plays his friend Ebenezer.

This is a straight forward fairly accurate portrait of the now legendary poet/writer which provides a lot of sympathy for the main character. Director Harry Lachman had an interesting career although he quit making movies in 1942 the year LOVES was released (he also made DR. RENAULT'S SECRET the same year which also featured Sheppard). He made many in the Charlie Chan series and OUR RELATIONS with Laurel & Hardy. It was written and produced by Bryan Foy (THE UNDYING MONSTER, PT 109).

 

 

 

Thanks for reading!

They Came?

THINGS TO COME-1936-Interesting prophetic English adaptation of the novel by HG Welles (who also wrote the screenplay). In Everytown (much like London) the residents prepare for a war at Christmas time in 1940. When war does break out it lasts 30 years, culminating in a disease called “The Wandering Sickness”. When the war finally ends a group called “Wings Over The World”, lead by an engineer named Cabal (Raymond Massey) tries to restore civilization but faces many obstacles. Ralph Richardson is great as “The Chief” a petty dictator who has taken over the war torn Everytown (in 1967). Later everyone lives underground and all diseases (including the common cold) have been cured. Cabal's grandson wants to send people to the moon but Theotocopulos (Cedric Hardwick) (who's role was originally played by Ernest Thesiger) leads a revolt. It's long on rhetoric but the acting and SFX (especially in the later parts of the film) make this worth watching.

Produced by Alexander Korda (THE THIEF OF BAGDAD) THINGS TO COME boasts a screenplay by Welles who was subject of many stories involving his “control” over the project. Some say he even started out as the director!

Director William Cameron Menzies was better known as an art director and set designer (GONE WITH THE WIND, FOR WHOM THE BELL TOLLS) but later made THE MAZE and INVADERS FROM MARS.

Thanks for reading!