Fascinating mixture of various Gothic and other horror tropes, such as mad scientists, disfigurement and resurrection, heated up with expert chiaroscuro lighting and expressionistic sets, and stirred with Mexican passion. It is set in an asylum, so madness and mad characters abound — most notably, a savage gypsy woman, one of the many symbols of the pagan ripping into the fabric the Catholic/rational world of the film. It offers an abundant and somewhat lunatic convergence of sub-plots, many of which are manipulated by a ghost, and a heady brew of horror themes bleeding over each other. Enjoyably familiar and strange, there is never a dull moment.
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On Her Majesty's Secret Service 1969
Not only a one-off for George Lazenby as Bond, but the only Bond film directed by Peter Hunt, who pioneered the mid-action cut as part of the editing style of the Connery films. Lazenby lacks the sardonic, sadistic cool of Connery, but he has his own cheeky, boyish charm, and he is terrific in the action sequences. There is no doubt he would have grown into the role, but he was part of the younger 1960s generation (he is almost…
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Foreign Correspondent 1940
With David O Selznick off his back, Hitchcock revels in the Hollywood playground and produces his first blockbuster. It's also, arguably, his most typical adventure thriller until North by Northwest (which is, in some ways, a rehash of this film). It lacks the psychological complexities of Hitchcock's best films (such as his previous masterwork Rebecca), and even though WWII is on the doorstep, it is less pressing a propaganda piece than The Lady Vanishes, for example, apart from the earnest…
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Man's Favorite Sport? 1964
Paula Prentiss's Abigail is so consumed by Rock Hudson's Roger Willoughby — a fraud but also a sweet, gentle soul — she goes a little nuts. She can't leave him alone, which causes Roger no amount of grief, but it also leads him to become the best version of himself. In other words, she makes an honest man out of him. This is Howard Hawks's most extreme statement concerning the battle of the sexes. At one point, Easy (Maria Perschy),…
