The secret sauce to Keaton, for me, has always been the pathos. Every time - every time - my heart aches for him, not just for all the broken bones and near misses but because I don't think anyone ever played the poor sap who just doesn't measure up in this man's world like he could. It's gotten so I make sure to watch Keaton flicks especially when I'm feeling maudlin, the tears come early on and you know it's…
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Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde 1931
Who wouldn't like a potion that takes one's inhibitions away? Also, who wouldn't like a totally bitching lab like the one our Dr. Gee-Kll (and where did that pronunciation come from?) gets to experiment in. Imagine spending your day pouring smoking, fizzing mixtures back and forth into various cool-looking beakers and yelling Eureka!! every few minutes. Every kid's dream, no?
Anyways I found this to be a movie in three parts: the kind-of-dull beginning establishes Jekyll's character and credentials in…
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Even the Wind Is Afraid 1968
Any wind that's afraid of anything in this Mexican ghost story is a bit of a scaredy cat, is all I have to say.
Carlos Enrique Taboada' Hasta el viento tiene miedo is set in a girls' boarding school during a holiday period, except six girls have been made to stay in for being bad. Seems bitchy headmistress doesn't like free-spirited girls, not one bit no. Heck they're not even allowed to keep pictures, which is wacky!
It might not…
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Devil and the Deep 1932
Now why would Charles Laughton have any reason to be jealous of Cary Grant and Gary Cooper? Oh right, must be a brain disease, can't think of any other reason, lol.
The first half of this is a watery melodrama sinking straight to the seabed, before Commander Sturm's u-boat literally does go to the bottom and everything changes. It's like director Marion Gering opened the spigots and the last half-hour of this is great, thrilling action as the dozens of…
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Sunset Boulevard 1950
Possibly the most jarring thing about Sunset Boulevard from a modern perspective is that Gloria Swanson* was only 50 when it was filmed, as is her character Norma Desmond. And yet she is an ancient relic from a long-gone era. (William Holden was 31 at the time, so the age gap between them, while not outrageous, is notable).
I suppose it's a sign of progress that at the same age, Meryl Streep and Helen Mirren, to give those examples, were…
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Modern Times 1936
Is it normal to cry a little at the end of this?
This movie carries so much with it that's not necessarily on the screen, it's almost difficult to take on its own terms. It was Chaplin's final silent film (well, partly silent: the nonsense song near the end marked the first time Chaplin's voice was heard on screen), it co-starred his much younger new wife Paulette Goddard, it was made in the throes of the Depression and features some…
