arel_1 Reviews

Dumbo (1941)

Jim Crow?

[6 February 2016]

Sorry, but I don't see anything racist here--I just see crows, who are of course black, parodying humans, who come in all colors, and they are no more representative of real people than Lucy and Desi were representative of all redheads married to Cuban bandleaders or Laurel and Hardy or the Three Stooges were representative of all white men. They are funny and happen to be black, not black and therefore funny. There's a difference. (Just for the record, that's how I judge all ethnic humor: is it humor that happens to be ethnic, or is it an insult veiled in humor? I can chuckle at Chico Marx's pseudo-Italian because there's no insult intended in most of his movies--he exaggerated and put a funny spin on what he'd seen growing up. Those "scaredy-cat black sidekick" characters, however, leave me cold because it's implied that they're scared BECAUSE they're black, which is just not true to life.)

The Fall of the House of Usher (1950)

Not THAT bad, considering...

[6/10 · 27 October 2012]

I caught up with this on TCM as part of their October 2012 schedule. It's really not that bad, given that it was made on a budget of about two shillings thruppence and someone decided to tack on that ghastly footage in the gentlemen's club to pad the length. Granted, it's not quite the story Poe wrote, but taken as an old-dark-house thriller that just happens to be about the House of Usher... Anyway, I've seen worse photography in higher budget films, the amateur actors in the story proper were reasonably competent (especially young Gwen Watford, who went on from this film debut to better things in film, on stage, and on the Beeb), and the climax closeups were quite convincing--as well they should be, since many of the closeups came from WWII newsreel footage carefully edited.

Evil Brain from Outer Space (1966 TV Movie)

sushi Superman

[5 September 2011]

This is one you have to watch with the time frame in mind. It started out as a Japanese TV series back in the days when George Reeves was playing Superman, and is of comparable quality. I also find it reminiscent of early Doctor Who in some ways, notably the council of extraterrestrials at the beginning.

I find it strange that Ken Utsui doesn't like to talk about having starred in this. He certainly has nothing to be ashamed of, not in his acting or his athletics! He was a fine-looking young man in the 1950s, and did a good job of playing a superhero (including keeping in shape for the role, which I seem to recall a certain Mr. Shatner having had problems with a decade later!)

Flash Gordon (1954–1955)

Funky blast from the past

[4/10 · 6 February 2010]

"Star Wars" it ain't, to be sure. But for early 50s SFTV it's not that bad, either. Granted, the plots are often dire--but I can recall some episodes of George Reeves' "Superman" series that were real groaners too, and that show had a better budget. Granted, some of the acting wouldn't have made the grade in an elementary school play--but often the inept actors have the saving grace of being unintentionally funny (like the androids in "Return of the Androids", which I first saw excerpted on the "Zacherley's Horrible Horrors" video). Granted, some of the specFX and 'scientific' props are little short of laughable even if you set your mental time machine to the era and 'forget' you ever heard of things like CGI--but so were the ones on many made-in-America SFTV shows of that time. (Remember "Captain Video" checking on his Video Rangers via clips from old low-budget Westerns?) Yet despite all the cheesiness, the old "Flash Gordon" series does have a certain charm to it.

Alice in Wonderland (1951)

Not exactly Carroll...

[8/10 · 1 February 2010]

...but I have yet to see a movie version that did truly give the book(s) their just due. The present generation of youngsters will probably notice that the Cheshire Cat sounds like Disney's Winnie the Pooh (thank you, Sterling Holloway!) but are unlikely to recognize any of the other celebrity voices. The Disney version is entertaining, and hopefully has given kids enough curiosity to look up the books.

The "Masterpiece Edition" DVD has some excellent bonus material, including demo recordings of several deleted songs, Disney's very first "Alice" cartoon (in which a very young, but still recognizable, Walt is seen!), and the 1950 Christmas special complete with sponsor plugs (and with the originally-aired black-and-white animated segments replaced by the color versions).

By the way, Carroll's "unanswered riddle" does have an answer, though you have to go back to the Victorian era for it: Why is a raven like a writing desk? Because both had inky quills, of course.

Donovan's Reef (1963)

Merry Christmas to me!

[9/10 · 27 December 2009]

I got myself a copy of this on DVD for Christmas. It's one of my favorite John Wayne movies, right up there with "The Quiet Man" and "The High and the Mighty". Jimmy Buffett would feel right at home hanging out with these characters! The anti-racist and anti-prejudging themes are nicely slipped in without being hammered at; there are scenes, such as the Christmas program, which manage to be at once touching and hilarious; there's all that drop-dead-gorgeous tropical scenery to look at (a definite plus when you're enduring a Wisconsin winter or the equivalent!); and of course there's that ongoing brawl... "Donovan's Reef" may not be a classic as some film buffs define the term, but it's a very likable movie and a whole lot of fun!

Boo! (1932)

Comedy in time

[4/10 · 15 July 2008]

The main reason this seems so unfunny to many younger viewers is that a lot of the humor was topical, and topical humor becomes unfunny as soon as the topic is no longer "current events"--how funny will "Dubya" jokes seem by around 2084, when they'll be about as old as the jokes in "Boo!"? I'm twenty-some years younger than "Boo!", and the only reason I got most of the topical jokes is that I'm a big fan of 1930s movies thanks to having grown up when TV stations showed movies late at night instead of infomercials (yes, kids, they really used to do that!) You miss a lot of the humor in older movies if you can't time-travel between the ears.

Unknown World (1951)

ZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz...................................

[2/10 · 14 June 2008]

The only reason I'm keeping "Unknown World" is because it's on a DVD with 4 other movies. The acting is from Dullsville; the special effects are terminally tacky even by 1951 standards; and if I want to be preached at, I'll turn on one of those late-night pray-TV shows, thankyouverymuch.

On the other hand, the Carlsbad Caverns scenery is nice even in black and white, and the cutaway drawing of the Cyclotram reminds me of some of the illustrations in the handful of early-1950s science fiction magazines I've managed to acquire. So maybe this hunk of cinematic cheese does have a few redeeming qualities after all...

But darn few...

13 Ghosts (1960)

re: the ghost viewer in the story context

[9/10 · 23 October 2007]

There is a reason why the ghost viewer is destroyed at the end (besides the obvious one of sequel-blocking). Cyrus, Hilda, and Medea are all uneasy with the whole idea of ghosts, and so would have no use for it; and Buck doesn't really seem to need it--note that he's sensitive to certain of the ghosts even without the viewer! Also, certain of the ghosts, such as Shadrack the Great and Dr. Plato Zorba, seem to be equally sensitive to Buck's presence: Shadrack, for instance, beckons to him to come closer as he tries to retrieve his head from the ghost lion, and... This is difficult to see, between the makeup and the fact that he's fading out, but if you watch VERY closely at the denouement, you can see that not only is Plato turning his head toward Buck as he fades out, but there is the beginning of a smile on his face (understandably--after all, Buck's his grandnephew, and he's just saved Buck from the bad guy!)

Skeleton Frolic (1937)

hmmmmmmm...

[8/10 · 20 September 2007]

Interesting cartoon, included on the DVD of "The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra". I especially like the way the color was used in the background art--very artistic for Columbia, whose cartoon department generally had a very low budget (and the results looked like it!)

I do wonder, however, how a certain... um, finger gesture... ever got past the censors. Granted, the gesture in question was seen a lot less frequently in 1937 than it is today. You'd think someone besides the animators would have noticed, though--especially since it's seen three times in the scene in question! And based on the context, I suspect that its inclusion was intentional, something the animators slipped in just to see if the censors WOULD notice!

Mr. Blabbermouth! (1942)

timeless advice, in a way

[7/10 · 24 November 2006]

Wartime or peacetime, the basic idea of this film still applies: "for safety's sake, please engage brain before putting mouth in gear"; and don't assume that the guy you're listening to has followed that rule!

As Ray Bolger observed in "The Wizard of Oz" back in 1939, "Some people without brains do an awful lot of talking!" And while such people usually only damage themselves by looking ridiculous in front of people who actually do know something about the subject under discussion, sometimes they do manage to do major damage to others, whether by innocently ruining a reputation over something they've misinterpreted or by "only trying to help!" (case in point on that last: the Mr. Blabbermouth who invited himself along on a camping trip some friends and I had planned--he nearly laced our trail stew with "perfectly harmless wild mushrooms" which my friend D correctly identified as death angel mushrooms and intercepted in the nick of time!)

War or no war, Mr. Blabbermouth lives and can be hazardous to your health!

Yellow Submarine (1968)

a good time was had by all

[9/10 · 20 June 2006]

We watch this movie often, and catch something new in the little details just about every time (how many of you caught the Ernie Kovacs reference?) When I say "we", I'm referring to not only this ol' hippie, but to various friends/family ranging from a 1 1/2 year old grandniece to a semi-Goth teenager to people who claim to dislike "old movies" (i.e., anything that's been in release over 6 months). I don't have to hold a metaphorical gun on any of the foregoing to sit them down to watch "Yellow Submarine"--indeed, they've been known to come in in the middle of it and plunk down to watch! Hmmmm... maybe all you need IS love!

Charlie Chan at the Opera (1936)

slight disagreement re music

[7/10 · 13 February 2005]

According to my sources, there seems to be a slight disagreement on the singing in this movie. Denis Gifford's Karloff bio says that Karloff did his own singing (and he could have; he was a fair baritone and sang in the Dulwich College chorus). Oscar Levant's autobiography claims that Karloff was dubbed. Oscar Levant, however, seems to have been writing from an unreliable memory, as he gets other details wrong including the movie synopsis. There are three singing voices heard in the movie: soprano, tenor, and baritone. The tenor was never seen, but was heard onstage while Chan and Number One Son were backstage. Both actresses playing sopranos were synching to the same recording. Karloff may also have been synching to a recording, but it could well have been his own, both for the reason given above and because Levant's opera was written for the movie--no previous recordings existed at the time, and why would the studio have spent extra money on a second singer for a B-budget film when they already had someone on the film who could handle the baritone singing? (Even the Faust costume worn by both baritones onstage was secondhand--it was first worn by Lawrence Tibbett in "Metropolitan", filmed earlier in 1936!)

Johnny the Giant Killer (1950)

serialized version!

[16 November 2004]

I saw this film as "Johnny Little and the Giant" on the local "Colonel Caboose" weekday-afternoon cartoon show in the early 1960's. Some enterprising TV-film rental company had edited it into a serial of sorts, so it was aired in brief segments five days a week. It struck me as being a little on the strange side back then--which was all to the good in my book, as I was also a big Rod Serling fan at an early age!

Incidentally, a brief clip from this film appears in "Doorways to Horror", one of the earliest VCR games. I recognized it at once, even though it had been at least 20 years since the last time I'd seen any part of the movie!

A Night to Remember (1958)

still the best!

[25 July 2004]

I've seen several film versions of the Titanic tragedy (I'm something of a buff--I'm distantly related to Mr. & Mrs. Edwin Kimball, who were 1st class passengers!) "A Night to Remember" is still the best, no contest. The effects are 1958 state-of-the-art, the script was meticulously researched, and the people are actually written and played as 1912 people (James Cameron's cast were a bit too much 1990's to be convincing). Even those characters who are slightly fictionalized (the "lady" who represents--without mentioning--Lady Cosmo Duff-Gordon, and "my dear son" and his family, for examples) behave as their real life counterparts would have in 1912, giving the film a documentary feel without failing to give the viewer people to identify with and care about. This is classic film-making at its finest!

The Green-Eyed Blonde (1957)

guilty pleasure

[21 July 2004]

I used to catch this film fairly regularly back in the days when local TV stations ran the Late Show, the Late-Late Show, the Omigosh Are YOU Still Up? Show etc. instead of infomercials (**sigh...**) "Gone With the Wind" it's not, but I found it surprisingly memorable anyway and would like to find it on VHS or DVD someday. a lot of the movies I saw in those days--well, I don't remember having seen them until I see them again on AMC or Turner, or on the bargain-basement video rack at Wal-Mart. for some reason, "The Green-Eyed Blonde" stuck (I can even remember the downbeat theme music!) I've never seen it in any company's video catalog, though... (***SIGH...***)