Gloria Grahame

I love this photo of Gloria Grahame, looking bored.  From Man on a Tightrope.

I'm thinking about revisiting Grahame in two of her best films, The Big Heat and In a Lonely Place, soon.

-Matt

Matt’s Week in Dork! (12/29/13-1/4/14)

    Not a lot going on this week outside of trying and failing to sleep.  Weird week, though.  I somehow didn’t watch a movie between Monday night and Friday night.  Weird.  I did spend a bunch of time on the Dorkies, and I’ve been doing some reading and prep-work for my upcoming game.

Samurai I: Musashi Miyamoto:  A gorgeously shot movie about a couple of young men who want to become heroes, samurai.  Each takes a different path after their first battle.  The film deals a great deal with life in 1600 Japan, from politics to the daily doings of simple people.  The place of women, the role of men, what is important in life, religion, and death.  I’m certainly interested in what will happen in the rest of this trilogy.

The Man Who Never Was:  This World War II thriller has some of the feel of a 40s police procedural, but with a British, stiff upper lip sort of mindset.  The actors all do a fine job, with Gloria Graham getting chance to deliver a couple emotional scenes.  It’s good.  It’s perfectly watchable.  And if you’re in the mood for a WWII movie that isn’t about the combat side of things, this is a nice choice.

Hollow:  Gah.  Found footage.  It can be done right.  This ain’t how.  There’s a potentially cool Wicker Man type pagan tale hinted at that might have made for a cool movie.  This ain’t it.  Typical of modern horror films, especially found footage films, the characters are all bloody awful and I couldn’t help but anticipate their inevitable end.  And man does it go on.  There’s probably about 30 minutes of worthy material in a 90 minute movie.  Bah.

John Carter:  Though I do still find this film somewhat frustrating, what with its almost complete squandering of an awesome book series, I do still enjoy the movie.  It’s nowhere near as balls-out crazy as it needs to be, not as over the top, wild, adventurous or fun.  And yeah, Taylor Kitsch is kinda awful in his drab portrayal of the titular hero.  But it does have a lot of cool stuff, some good design work, and some good sequences.  In some ways, they did manage to put some good images of Burroughs’s Barsoom on screen, even if they didn’t get any of its heart.  I realize there is never going to be a movie that does it right.  Not really.  There’s never going to be a movie where the entire cast is naked, but for pieces of armor and jewelry for the entirety.  But I would still like to see a movie get more to the essence.  Whatever the case, I hope that some kid(s) out there saw this movie and were wowed by it, leading them to read the original novels and more.  That’s the best thing this movie could do; inspire a younger generation to read the classics.

Zodiac:  The late 60s and 70s are beautifully reconstructed in this crime solving epic.  Police officers, reporters, and the public must come to terms with a new kind of crime (at least, new to them), while dealing with old guard methodology, red tape, and politics.  The actors are great and the production design is impeccable.  And while I find the story engrossing while it’s on screen, I don’t find myself carrying anything away from the movie.  Nothing stays with me.  I do feel like this would be an interesting companion to Bullitt and Dirty Harry, though.

2014

Beyond the Black Rainbow:  This movie has quickly become one of my favorite go-to films.  There’s this mysterious magic that captures something from my youth.  The director has said that it was partially inspired by late night movies and VHS covers spotted in rental shops from his childhood.  I believe it.  It captures all the mystery and weirdness of the best late 70s/early 80s movies, and the potential of all those descriptions for films that didn’t live up.  Intensely strange, beautifully shot, with pulsing and jarring music, it’s the perfect film when you’re in the mood for classic Cronenberg but want something a little different.  It also touches on a bunch of things I find fascinating, including the post-Hippie attempts to mix science and new age magical thinking into new forms of society and perception…and the failure thereof.  You have the failed seeker and the enlightened one, and their deadly conflict.  Even though the end seems a bit out of tune with the rest of the film, I’ve found that on repeat viewing, it works for me more.  Great stuff.

Hell Baby:  Sometimes extremely funny while at others, flat; Hell Baby is the newest effort from those nut-jobs behind Reno 911...and it shows.  Overall, worth watching if you enjoy some ignorant, gross out humor.  And one scene had me laughing so hard I was in tears (cable installation van).  Most of the stuff with the two priests and with the two cops gave me the giggles, and Rob Corddry was very good throughout.  A surprising amount of Riki Lindhome nudity.  Was 2013, for all its many faults, the year that full frontal nudity came back?  I’ve been noticing the welcome if gradual return of nudity over the last few years, after a painful 20 year absence (yes, there were some exceptions).  But much like male nudity, full frontal remains largely in the domain of Cinemax (or Starz, the new Cinemax).  What changed?  Is this a trend?  It’s a welcome change from the puritanical 90s, whatever the case.  I’m sure as heck not against violence in film, but I’ve always been a bit bothered by people’s willingness to accept the most horrendous acts portrayed in the most graphic of fashion, while turning nearly blue with rage and offence if a nipple gets flashed.  So stupid.

The Prodigal:  The story of the Prodigal Son gets a typical 50s Hollywood take.  In watching these, I can’t help but find most of the lead characters to be raging a-holes, which actually fits with my re-reading of the Bible.  Unwilling to give even an inch in the name of politeness our hero spits in the face of everyone who doesn’t agree with him, defies law and custom, and generally makes a spectacle of his pointless defiance.  Still, there’s some lavish spectacle.

    I started watching some episodes of Voyagers!, the old 80s show.  It’s good kid’s entertainment.  Enough for me to keep watching, I guess.  It’s basically Quantum Leap meets The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles, shot on all the usual locations (the whole world looks like Southern California).

    That’s about all I’ve got this week.  Here’s hoping the new year is better than the old.  Time to start making things happen.

-Matt

Matt’s Week in Dork! (10/6/13-10/12/13)

    Not a whole heck of a lot going on.  I did read Godzilla: The Half-Century War.  Otherwise, just having my spirit crushed.

Jesse James:  Tyrone Power and Henry Fonda are fine in this perfectly OK film version of the classic American outlaw tale.  Pushed too far by railroad men, two brothers fight back…then keep fighting until they become full fledged bandits.  A nice supporting cast helps, but at the end of the day, it’s only an OK movie.  Not bad, but not amazing.

The Return of Frank James:  Henry Fonda reprises his role as Frank James in this sequel to the previous year’s Jesse James.  It too is fine, but nothing special.  If anything, this revenge movie is far too nice, too much of what TV would become.  And the Clem character?  Holy crap does he suck.  Gene Tierney made her big screen debut as a plucky girl-reporter.  Sadly, she’s not very good.  She’s cute enough, and it’s not like she’s terrible or anything.  Just not memorable.  Sort of like rest of the film.  Director Fritz Lang seems to have brought none of his visual flare along with him.

Dinosaur Valley Girls:  You may not expect it, but this movie is garbage.  Sadly, it’s not all that fun either.  I like dinosaurs.  I like dames.  Dinosaurs and dames have made a great combination many times before.  But cavegirls and fake boobs don’t work.  Also, writing is always a plus.  Good writing even more so.

My Young Auntie:  I’m generally not a fan of Hong Kong comedy (or any non-English language comedy).  I find there tends to be too much cultural specific stuff for me to engage in the humor.  And humor is such a monumentally subjective thing, that is very, very difficult to translate.  So, imagine my shock when I found myself enjoying the heck out of this story of a pretty young woman battling expectations and greedy relatives.  The fighting is top notch Shaw Bros. stuff, too.  I’d recommend watching it with the dubbing, as that adds to the amusement.

Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home:  The first Star Trek film I saw on the big screen is still one of my favorites.  It’s goofy fun, with lots of great lines.  And it’s probably the best film where it comes to giving all the characters moments to shine, especially McCoy and Scotty.  Considering this is one of the most successful films in the series, it’s frustrating that no other movie has imitated it, instead opting for rehashing Wrath of Khan’s formula.  Where are the dilemmas that need solving?  Where is the fun?  No, it’s darkness, war, and the villain that needs to be punched into submission.  Cut it out, Star Trek producers/writers.  It’s time to recapture some of the lighthearted and hopeful spirit of Star Trek IV.

Doctor Who: The Curse of Fenric:  One of the best Sylvester McCoy stories, this one has some good bits, and some interesting ideas.  But it’s still only OK.  As I near the end of McCoy’s run, and of the original Doctor Who series in general, I can absolutely see what it was canceled.  From the last season of Colin Baker on, the writing seems to have gone down the toilet.  Occasional bright spots serve to highlight the overall drop in quality.  And unfortunately, a lot of the worst aspects of this era seem to have been held over into the new series, especially the Stephen Moffat era.

Frankenstein The True Story:  This 3 hour, made for TV adaptation of the classic novel is pretty good.  It’s not as ‘faithful’ to the source material as I’d been led to believe, but it’s still probably the best adaptation of the book.  I have yet to see a film that treats the monster right, but this one seems to have done a better job of capturing the irresponsibility of Victor.  The thing about the original Shelley novel that I always liked is it didn’t actually condemn the science, so much as the lack of responsibility on the part of the scientist.  Adam was not evil, but was driven to do evil by circumstances created and exacerbated by his creator, Victor Frankenstein.  He is an immensely powerful child, given no direction or love by his parent.  This movie does not really get into that aspect of things as much as I’d have liked.  Still, it’s pretty good, and it’s worth seeking out.

    I tried a new wine that I ended up really enjoying.  Dearly Beloved: I Thee Red.  It’s mellow and went with the seared chicken and spicy rice I had for dinner.  I’m not much of a wine guy, so I’m trying out some various types to see if I can develop some kind of appreciation of it.

Human Desire:  Director Fritz Lang, stars Glenn Ford and Gloria Grahame reunite a year after making the amazing film The Big Heat to craft another twisted Noir tale of love and betrayal.  Unfortunately, lightening did not strike twice, and this film is nowhere near as tense, brutal, or compelling as The Big Heat.  It’s not bad, but it’s not especially good, either.  Ford is fine, though he seems a bit out of place as a blue-collar rail worker.  Grahame is fine, too, if a bit shrill.

    So, I’ve had access to cable TV for a few months; the first time since moving to Virginia six years ago.  And generally speaking, it sucks total ass.  But TCM is a pretty cool channel, and on Saturday it gave me a chance to see a couple science fiction films I’d never seen, It Came from Outer Space and The World, The Flesh and the Devil.  TCM, the AFI Silver and to a lesser degree the Alamo Drafthouse have all combined create a kind of ambient noise of classic cinema that has me feeling pretty good about movies, even as I suffer through a dreadful year of film.  Plus, I’ve been catching a bunch of other older films through various other means recently.  It’s been quite nice.

It Came from Outer Space:  In tune with a lot of 50s sci-fi films, this has plenty of heavy-handed moralizing.  The acting is fine and the film looks good.  But the story is meh.  The creature is kind of cool, and I like the way seeing it seems to drive people temporarily mad, like something out of Lovecraft.  The ending is pretty cool; and somewhat unusual for its time.

The World, The Flesh and the Devil:  Harry Belafonte is working underground when something really bad happens.  Finally climbing up into the sun again, he finds himself alone in a desolate New York City.  The first half hour or so is carried completely by Belafonte, and there are moments that remind me of the early part of The Omega Man, making me wonder if this served as something of an inspiration (beyond the novel I Am Legend, obviously).  This certainly covers some similar ground, though without any supernatural/plague element.  When he meets a woman, things become more complicated, and suddenly the racial tensions ramp up.  This becomes even more intense when another man, a white man, arrives on the scene.  How much of their pre-nuke baggage will they hold on to, how much can they cast off?  Once the conflict becomes a three-way, it becomes quite odd, building to a rather strange ending that can’t be accused of being typical.  Good use of early morning New York to create a lifeless world.

Thunder Birds:  On the home front, some young men need to learn the ins and outs of flying.  And of course, along the way, catch the eye of a lovely young lady.  Gene Tierney is that lady, and by Odin’s beard, she’s gorgeous.  From her extremely sexy reveal through her search for love.  Goodness.  The movie is an interesting look into the Wartime attitudes about various things, including people from other countries, romance, and stockings.  By no means a great classic, it’s still quite entertaining.

    That’s about it.  I’ve spent a lot of time staring at the wall this week.  It’s been a rough go.

Get it done!

-Matt

Matt’s Week in Dork! (9/15/13-9/21/13)

I'm no flat tire. How 'bout a Gin Rickey?

    Trying to fit some reading and some writing in, but mostly just working and recovering from working.  Got a little cycling in.  Otherwise, mostly just stared at my walls.

Riddick:  “It matches your nipples.”  This movie is not horrible, and that’s about all I wanted from it.  I really enjoyed Pitch Black, and while I kinda enjoy Chronicles of Riddick, it never quite worked for me, seeing how it seems to take place in a totally different style of science fiction universe.  This third film feels more like Pitch Black in style, though it holds over some elements of the more fanciful Chronicles.  It starts as a Robinson Crusoe story, with Riddick left for dead on a hostile world, learning to live and thrive in the environment.  This is the best part of the movie, and I was a little sad to see him push the button that would summon more characters and shift the tone.  From that point on, it began to smell more and more of Pitch Black rehash, though it still wasn’t bad.  The dialog is frequently awkward (though nothing tops ‘you keep what you kill’ and a dozen other idiocies from Chronicles’ Necromongers).  As a science fiction movie?  This is pretty crappy.  As a fun, silly adventure film in space, this is exactly what I was looking for.  Again, if movies like this, After Earth, Oblivion, etc. were just more common, I’d be a bit harsher on them.  But as it is, big-idea, out there science fiction is still all too rare.

Beyond the Rocks:  I’m always happy to hear about movies thought lost that are rediscovered and recovered.  But, while the fact of its recovery is good, the movie itself is so-so.  A fairly bland romantic film with little to make it stand out.  Apparently, putting two big names in one feature (here, Valentino and Gloria Swanson) was unusual.  Sadly, neither seems to be especially energetic or interesting.  I’m assuming Valentino is better elsewhere, because as far as silent actors go, he did not impress in this film, and I know ladies went nuts for him once upon a time.

The Delicious Little Devil:  Not much to this short film.  It’s mildly amusing.  But it’s also pretty darned forgettable.

The Bad and the Beautiful:  Kirk Douglas’s eyes should be registered as deadly weapons.  The man can hate-stare so intently it makes women pregnant and men into women (who subsequently discover they are pregnant).  The rest of the cast is quite good.  I especially like Walter Pidgeon and Barry Sullivan (who was also awesome in the recently viewed Tension).  But it’s Douglas’s movie, and he’s a mad genius who takes no guff.  Hollywood is skewered from the inside by this expose sort of movie.  But it makes all the dirty backstage dealings seem sort of charming and exciting, anyway.  Gloria Grahame shows up briefly (somehow earning an Oscar for the part, which isn't much more than a glorified cameo) as a conniving, luxury hungry wife, and she’s quite good.

    Friday night, we all gathered at Robert’s place for a Barbeque and graphic novel club meeting.  We discussed Astonishing X-Men volumes revolving around the marriage of Northstar and his idiot boyfriend Kyle.  I was unable to read the whole assigned work for various reasons.  But as far as I made it, it was bloody awful.  I have come to hate the X-Men (and the Avengers right along side).  Just dreadful writing and awful characters.  Enough of this status quo maintaining mandated garbage.

Looks like Kyle read this garbage.

Valley of the Dragons:  I had never heard of this particular adaptation of a Jules Verne story, and I guess I can understand why.  It’s not especially interesting.  Still, I do love lost world stories.  And a lost world that is also on the Moon?  Cool.  Two big problems present themselves, however.  I don’t like when real animals are used as ‘dinosaurs.’  Partly, because they look terrible.  But mostly because I don’t like that so often it is clear that the animal was being mistreated to get the shot right.  No, I don’t think lizards have a great deal of mental capacity, nor are the self aware.  But needlessly causing pain to an animal, even to reptiles or insects seems barbaric and lacing in a degree of class.  The second problem is Rodan.  Yes, Rodan.  The giant kaiju from Japan seems to be flying around this moonscape.  I guess they had access to the footage and thought nobody would notice?  But I noticed.  Getting past that, the story of two rivals forced to work together on a hostile world is pretty good, and their adventures with the local population are nice.  The Neanderthals and whatever the heck the albino things were (Morlocks?) are especially disgusting.  Worth a watch if you’re into this sort of film, but not one to expend a great deal of effort tracking down.

    Saturday found me feeling pretty crappy, my weeks of not sleeping and stress finally catching up with me.  Some kind of cold or something.  Oh, boy.  I started going through my various con acquisitions and other sundry things that have been piling up of late.  In doing so, I read through three comics I got from local artist/writer Andy K.  Mind Games is a pretty gross little horror short.  The Secret Origin of John Elway is nuts.  And Neon Super Gladiator has a cool feel.  His stuff reminds me of something that might have been on Liquid Television back in the 90s.  Weird and uncomfortable.  I also read Jennifer Hachigian’s Pocket Editor Two, which she gave me because she liked my shirt (“Arthur Turing Fought Nazis With Science”).  It plays on that old video game thing with “All your base are belong to us” but manages to correct the grammar.  I flipped through super-nice guy Alex Fine’s Il Brutto, which re-imagines various movie characters as played by Charles Bronson.  And lastly, I looked through Sam Wolk’s Alpha Beasts and Alpha Bots, two collections of 26 drawings, each based on a letter (T is for Twiki, J is for Jersey Devil, etc.).  Quite cool.  I still have more stuff to get to, and some prints to frame.

    When I got home Friday night, I had a package waiting for me.  I keep forgetting that I’m a patron of the arts.  My old high school chum Serena Andrews is a musician and artist, and has a project she’s working on that involves a tour and a book.  I got some perks for my donation to the project, including a CD of music by Serena, which I listened to on Saturday afternoon.  Buried somewhere in the attic of my mother’s house is a cassette of Serena's music she put out back in the mid 90s.  I always liked her stuff, and still do.  It has a Tori Amos/Regina Spektor kind of thing going, with a bit of Kate Bush and Laurie Anderson.  All good in my book.

    And late Saturday night I picked up and finished the very short, but fun book Bright Young Things by Alison Maloney.  It’s a hand book for Roaring 20s living, with phrases, cocktails, party plans, and fashion, mixed with historic notes and cultural gossip of the time.  The book doesn’t go into a great deal of depth, but I think it would be a handy guide to have while reading fiction of the time (like The Great Gatsby), or history texts (like Flapper), or for those inclined, playing period roleplaying games (like Call of Cthulhu).  If you're looking for a sweet biscuit for barney-making, and you need to know if the bank's closed, this book ain't banana oil.  It's the elephant's instep, see.

-Matt

Matt’s Ten Favorite Film Noir (at this moment)

    A friend requested a list of good Film Noir to watch, so I put this together.  Like most genre there is no 100% sure rule for what does or does not count as Noir.  So I’m listing my ten favorite films that I think of when I think of Noir.  These are all must sees.  While I don’t think the order is arbitrary, the exact placement largely depends on how fresh in my mind each film is.  I think these should serve as a solid jumping-off point for any new Noir viewer.

10.  Double Indemnity (1944) Two horribly unlikable people fall into a sick kind of love that can only lead to one place.  Grim and weirdly kinky, it’s a must.

9.  Detour (1945) Don’t pick up a hitch-hiker.  Just don’t do it.  Things go from bad to much, much worse for a poor schmuck too dumb to get out of his own way when he gets mixed up with one seriously crazy dame.

8.  Tension (1949) A meek pharmacist with a horrid wife gets the rage and plans a murder.  Things don’t quite go as planned.  The twists and turns in this film are a bit hard to swallow, but the cast is so good, it manages to be a lot of fun to watch.

7.  Touch of Evil (1958) Orson Welles directs and plays the disgusting ogre good ‘ol boy cop at the heart of the movie’s darkest depths.  Charlton Heston is the honorable Mexican cop who has to brave bigotry and corruption.  Janet Leigh is his pretty young wife who goes on a whirlwind journey into terror.  Beautiful and disgusting.  And Welles saves the harshest and ugliest stuff for himself, looking like a bloated toad, ranting with vile hate.  It’s great.

6.  Pickup on South Street (1953) Perpetually shifty Richard Widmark is delightfully sleazy in this gritty tale of life on the streets and those danged dirty Reds.

5.  Out of the Past (1947)  Robert Mitchum plays a guy who just wants to be left alone.  But his dark and dirty past won’t stay behind him.  A very cool film with a really good cast.

4.  The Big Heat (1953) Filled with all the nasty this genre has to offer.  Glenn Ford is a bastard.  Lee Marvin is a beast.  And Gloria Grahame proves that Hell hath no fury like a woman scalded.

3.  The Hitch-Hiker (1953) This down and dirty, low budget flick is full of uncomfortable tensions and sinister behavior.  Director Ida Lupino may have been better known for her work in front of the camera, but it’s clear she had plenty of talent behind it as well.

2.  Kiss Me Deadly (1955) From Ralph Meeker’s casual evil (and he’s the protagonist) and the crackling dialog to the absolutely terrifying conclusion, this is one of the more brutal and nasty films of its time.  I’m often surprised people don’t talk about it more.

1.  The Maltese Falcon (1941)  While this is not even close to my favorite Humphrey Bogart film (that‘s In a Lonely Place), nor my favorite Noir (possibly Kiss Me Deadly), it does seem to be the film all others in the genre are judged by/compared to.  And with good reason.  The cast is awesome and it plays out in a lot of cool and crazy ways.  And when you think Bogart, you’re probably thinking about this or Casablanca.  It's an absolute must see and worthy of its classic status.

-Matt