Cassandra - 2025 - Germany

Cassandra - 2025 - 6/10

Reeling from a family tragedy, the Prills move to a smaller community, new home.
Actually an old home, from the 1970’s, retro with then state-of-the-art technology.
Video monitors in every room, and a eager robot, Cassandra.

 
Who, we soon realize, is as lethally neurotic as it is cheerfully helpful.
The back history orbits in and out, although I grew up in this era.  The gobot is sheer fantasy.
Family dynamics are a mixed bag, both kids grated on me.
Lavinia Wilson as Cassandra is brilliant.
The ending struck me as writing room compromise.
Great scene when the kids play hide and go seek and one child crawls into the oven.
My wife, who had ignored this show, “Is this a German series?”
“Yes.”
“And an oven!  Didn’t someone realize the parallels with –”
“Hey, German humor.  Go with it!”

Armored Car Robbery - 1950 - USA

Armored Car Robbery - 1950 - 6/10

 
Per title, a heist, highly timed and strategized.
Small team of professionals, perfect, except for those gun happy cops.
Then the fatalistic Noir ascends into who is expendable.
William Talman dominates as the ruthless, cold-hearted mobster.
Charles McGraw just a potent as the hard as nails detective.
Excellent use of police specialists in full support of the men.
And Adele Jergens – holy moly!

Curse Of The Aztec Mummy - 1957 - Mexico

Curse Of The Aztec Mummy - 1957 - 5/10
AKA - La Maldición de la Momia Azteca

 
Sequel to the Aztec Mummy incorporates flashbacks, plucky boy, and Angel, masked hero.
Can you say luchador?  Well, there are no arena bouts, and in fact, El Ángel gets his ass kicked,
No matter, the Bat and his resourceful gang are going to get that Aztec loot!
And how about that mummy?  Of course it’s there.
Utterly predictable, with long patches of tedium.
Wait!  Another sequel?  Yes, producers filmed the trilogy back to back to back.

The Aztec Mummy - 1957 - Mexico

The Aztec Mummy - 1957 - 6/10
AKA - La Momia Azteca

 
Professor Almada explains to reporters, and the world (and underworld boss, The Bat).
About hypnotic regression, pushing subjects back to a previous life.  Reincarnation.
Scoffers pounce.  For proof, Almada regresses his fiancé Flor.
Turns out, she was an Aztec priestess, with knowledge of hidden treasure!
“Treasure?  Did someone say treasure?”  and master criminal Bat swings into action.
Routine adventure saga perks up considerably with all the Aztec story.
Costumes, drums, pyramids, doomed lovers.
Sequel follows.

Scarecrow - 2001 - Japan

Scarecrow - 2001 - 5/10
AKA - Kakashi  //  案山子

 
Kaoru, searching for her missing brother, enters a forsaken village.
By and large, everyone is taciturn, occupied with an upcoming scarecrow festival.
As for Kaoru, she has the common sense of a radish.
Her car stalls in the tunnel outside the village.  She is repeatedly warned and urged to get out.
She is annoyingly inquisitive, yet incapable of putting clues together.
The direction of this runs from ponderous to lame.  The female lead CANNOT act.
Advice, should you ever find yourself in a nest of menacing scarecrows: box of matches or firehose.

The City Of The Dead - 1960 - UK

The City Of The Dead - 1960 - 6/10

 
‘Why yes dear, there was a witch burned here.  Oh, our village was notorious.”
Student Nan journeys to a remote village for research on her paper on witchcraft.
And gets far more than she intended.
True, she is warned, and her own intuition ought to warn her.
Still, anyone who wears underclothes like hers is already fearless.
Moody horror steeped in fog, crypts, hooded figures, and glowering looks.
Third act akin to a rehash, but a queasy ride.

Killing Sherlock - 2023 - UK

Killing Sherlock - 2023 - 7/10
AKA - Lucy Worsley on Holmes vs Doyle

 
The success, the recognition, the fame, the money.
Yet, Arthur Conan Doyle was sick and tired of his famous creation.
Fascinating documentary explains why he sent Homes over the Reichenbach Falls.
And how Holmes proved far more resilient, and enduring, than Doyle anticipated.
For Sherlock buffs, great stuff.
Makes a highly effective argument for “The Case-Book” as well,

Dr. Caligari - 1989 - USA

Dr. Caligari - 1989 - 5/10

 
The interior of the asylum as observed by one of the inmates.
Prime obsessions seem to be open sores, roving tongues and below the belt stimulation.
Husband Van Houton institutionalizes his wife for disease of the libido.
Caligari proceeds to hyper sexualize afflictions rather than cure.
Complaints are dismissed with, “Staff is expendable, genius is not.”
Theatrical, to say the least, this plays like surreal stagecraft.
Drama majors on acid.

Qatil Haseenaon Ke Naam - 2021 - Pakistan

Qatil Haseenaon Ke Naam - 2021 - 6/10

 
Women and their relations with menfolk.
Domineering swine, gullible fools, doomed lovers, lying deceivers.
Yes, it’s a man’s world, this time in Pakistan.
While these are individual stories, an underlying arc links them.
Time and again, there are dark twists as the men underestimate angry or hungry females at their own risk.  
While this is modern (cars and cellphones) the Look is supernatural Gothic.
Ruins, shadows, bonfires, wastelands, layers of impressive visuals.

It - 1927 - USA

It - 1927 - 6/10

 
Clara Bow’s signature role (being a Clara fan, I am kind with the score).
The shopgirl minx has eyes for the distinguished boss.
He is a lamb and falls like a late December leaf until morality rumors surface.
Clara is an irresistible watch.  Sensuous, innocent, hopeful, expressions sweeping in a breath.
Leading man Moreno was 40 and looks it, difficult to accept him as a hunk.
Writer of the novel “It”, stuffy Elinor Glyn, plays herself (surely an inspiration for Margaret Dumont).
Watch this for Clara’s playful sexiness.  As a romance, a dud.