The Wind - 1928 - USA

The Wind - 1928 - 6/10

 
Southern belle Letty arrives from Virginia into Texas prairie.
The homestead ain’t much and outside breezes are more like gales.
Winds blow and blow and blow.  (Being a Silent, one cannot experience how noisy this is.)
Worse for her, love struck menfolk start vying for her hand in marriage.
Prime Melodrama borders on hysterical and ham, seems more like theatre from the previous era.

The Guns Of Navarone - 1961 - UK

The Guns Of Navarone - 1961 - 7/10

 
2000 British troops are stranded on a Mediterranean isle.
Rescue is thwarted by two massive German guns, capable of blasting any vessel.
The installation is impervious to aerial bombardment.
Solution?  Crack experts on a suicide mission.
Rolling boil WWII film, packed with obstacles and tension.
Lacks the action of Dirty Dozen and Where Eagles Dare but seems more realistic.
Plausible?  I look the other way.

Celebration At Big Sur - 1971 - USA

Celebration At Big Sur - 1971 - 6/10

 
Filmed during the era of mass festival gatherings, this might have been one of the coffin nails.
Although the festival occurred a month after Woodstock, this waited a bit.
The groups are more Folk oriented.  Joan Baez, Joni Mitchell, CSNY, John Sebastian, Mimi Fariña.
All in all, low key throughout, lacking overall energy.
If curious, by all means watch this 80” film, but don’t expect too much.

The Blue Max - 1966 - UK

The Blue Max - 1966 - 6/10

 
During the Great War, pilots are decimated, and replacements are recruited from the trenches.
No longer aristocrats, but common rabble … such as Bruno.
The aerial conflicts seem near conclusion, yet Bruno wants to win a “kill” medal.
Meaning, shoot down 20 enemy planes.
None of that élan or chivalry for him, he is an unrepentant boor, at odds with his titled fellow officers.
Longish movie dwells too much on the class warfare.
Dogfights are exciting, George Peppard and Ursula Andress have torrid chemistry.
Cynical tone, and political manipulations might put many off.

Haunted House For Sale - 2024 - Taiwan

Haunted House For Sale - 2024 - 6/10
AKA - Xing fu fang wu shi jian bu // 幸福房屋事件簿

 
Fast-track, career relator, Lu An-Chi, and her rookie assistant, Yu Ta-chih, are assigned “stigmatized” properties.
Homes or buildings where a suicide or murder has left a lingering spirit.
Ta-chih is socially clumsy and slow, but he comes from a family of shamans.
He can see the dead, who are forever making requests.
Taiwan series filled with stand-alone episodes, funny, sad, dangerous.
Early episodes suffer awkward comic relief, which subsides midway as the overall arc darkens.
I appreciated the old-school special effects.  Color filters, visual distortions.
Also learned stigmatized property is a real thing in Asia.

Paid To Kill - 1954 - UK

Paid To Kill - 1954 - 5/10
AKA - Five Days

 
Hotshot boss, Nevill, has driven the company into expansion and increased profits.
By taking risks, huge gambles, and unscrupulous methods.
And now, the whole empire is poised to collapse.
With it, his good name, the wealth, his marriage.  His wife will be impoverished.
Except – if he hires someone to murder him, she will collect insurance money!
Stale, tired plot matched by Dane Clark’s listless performance.
Most of the cast looks bored, photography is flat.
How could anyone make London appear so very dull?

Silk - 2006 - Taiwan

Silk - 2006 - 6/10
AKA - Gui Si // 詭絲

 
The investigator had been to New Zealand, Zimbabwe, London.
In Taipei, however, he strikes paydirt.  Or rather, the ghost strikes him – dead.
Now, the small team tries to understand why the spirit lingers.
Why does it now dissipate?  Why does it remain strong?  And malevolent?
The team’s research is actually anti-gravity, which leads into death and immortality.
Silk is the thread that connects this life with the afterlife, or the underlife.
Ingenious story, seldom dull, spilling ideas all over.
English subs = https://subsource.net/subtitle/silk-2006/english/10075064

Thelma - 2024 - USA

Thelma - 2024 - 7/10

 
Thelma, 93, gets phoned scammed out of $10K.
Family wonders if it’s time she was, you know, placed in a retirement home.
Meantime, Thelma wants her money back!
Crime / comedy is tagged as action, but I’m telling you, ain’t much action with scooters and walkers.
Laugh out loud funny, or terrifying, depending on your outlook toward old age.  Not 60, but 90.
Over-coddled family is emblematic of unspoken messages, perhaps.
Great cast, if a little gimpy, including Richard Roundtree (final role) who shows a flair for droll comedy.
Young audience, cannot relate?  Fear not, given enough time you turn into your grandparents.

In Night And Ice - 1912 - Germany

In Night And Ice - 1912 - 6/10
AKA - In Nacht und Eis

 
What?  Ice, you say?  Where?
Aarrr … that’s an iceberg!
Too late do ship officers spy the perilous field of icebergs.
The vessel?  RMS Titanic.
Forty minute film recreates events in a documentary fashion.
Inter-titles describe upcoming proceedings, players overact.
The restoration, especially for something this old, is pristine.

Man’s Favorite Sport? - 1964 - USA

Man’s Favorite Sport? - 1964 - 5/10

 
Fishing guru Roger knows the best gear, best techniques, best spots and times.
Thing is, he is a fraud.  Has never fished, cannot swim, actually dislikes the life aquatic.
His unknowing boss orders him to compete in a tournament.
Forced “screwball” comedy mixes bland romance with farce situations.
Hudson and Prentiss are an appealing couple, but he is such a dunce to be unbelievable.
Curly Howard could carry off these stunts, Rock Hudson lives up to his first name.
As a boy, I found this film sidesplittingly funny.
Watched last night, an eager cast tries too hard, burdened with a stale script.

I Know Where I’m Going - 1945 - UK

I Know Where I’m Going - 1945 - 7/10

 

So declares 25-year-old Joan, traveling to marry a much older, wealthy industrialist.
(Wendy Hiller slightly miscast as she resembles 40 instead of 25.)
That is before she is stranded on Mull, however, as howling weather means a forbidding sea.
On Mull, time downshifts and Joan falls under the spell of the locals, the slower pace.
She encounters and is drawn to the laird, even hears of the curse of the castle.
An enchanting film, filled with memorable characters and a rollicking ceilidh.
And a roiling deathtrap – Corryvrecken.

A film that haunted me for years.  On our 20th anniversary, I booked passage on the QE2, later boarded the Flying Scotsman, then made a dash, a gamble, to the small boat that would take us into Corryvrecken.  As with so many of my risks, Fortune did not favor me.

El Norte - 1983 - USA

El Norte - 1983 - 7/10

 
Enrique and Rosa flee Guatemala after the murders of their parents.
The route, though Mexico, then into Los Angeles, has horrifying moments.
Once in the States, working, their luck seems to turn, Enrique’s especially.
Nothing is easy, however, as their dead mother reminds them in visions.
One can take these visions as magic, second-sight or daydreams.
The film does an exceptional job showing the empty plight of the refugee.
Both Enrique and Rosa are young, their journey brief.
Note: I worked in Los Angeles with numerous migrants, many had stories like these.
Even today, I live in the barrio with the older generation, now legit, who carry memories.

Babette’s Feast - 1987 - Denmark

Babette’s Feast - 1987 - 7/10

 
Broccoli film.  Meaning, it’s good for you.  You appreciate it, though don’t necessarily enjoy it.
A French refugee is given shelter by an abstemious, devout pair of sisters.
After a decade of repayment service, Babette decides to prepare an elaborate French meal.
For a table gathering who, save one, know nothing of cuisine.
Those who cannot tell the difference between robust peasant fare, and nuanced and subtle dishes.
Akin to giving three-year-olds expensive chocolate truffles, when a Tootsie Roll tastes the same to them.
Yes, this one raked in acclaim and awards.  A high-quality film that I disliked exceedingly.

High Street Shops We Loved And Lost - 2024 - UK

High Street Shops We Loved And Lost - 2024 - 6/10

 
For Stateside dwellers, think Main Street shops.
Aging souls wax ecstatic about shopping back in the day.
The ambiance, the vibe, frantic sales, sniffy counter clerks.
By and large, these are chains.
Time from the Swinging 60’s to the 90’s, grinding to the end of it all.
None are blind to the harsh reality that Internet prices and convenience killed the shops.
An unhappy sigh when another closure was announced, followed by “I have not shopped there in a long time.”