Doctor Who: Marco Polo

The Roof of the World/The Singing Sands/Five Hundred Eyes/The Wall of Lies/Rider from Shang-Tu/Mighty Kublai Khan/Assassin at Peking

And now for a little history lesson courtesy of Doctor Who. We meet Marco Polo, at the time employed and/or held captive with a constant promise of release and the possibility of return to his home dangled before him like a carrot before a donkey. We also get acquainted with the mighty Kublai Khan.

My memory of this serial (and, indeed, a few serials to follow) is sketchy, but it involves tricking a Chinese emperor and fighting off would-be assassins as well as assisting Mr. Polo in his quest to finally be freed.

What I do remember about this serial (and, indeed a few serials to follow) is that at this point I don't actually care for the show. Yet. I have seen a couple of the new episodes and know that some of the old stuff must be good or at the least watchable. Season 1 is not quite there yet. The First Doctor does not seem at all impressively smart and says "hm" a lot.

But I'll be damned if I don't find the point when everything starts to make sense and I will understand why this show is such a cult phenomenon.

3/10

The Lady from Shanghai

Oh, Michael O'Hara, you should've never taken that job. Your first instincts are usually right. But, damn, that woman blinded you, didn't she?

When seaman Michael agrees to join a rather bizarre boat trip, his fate is pretty much sealed. He starts working for a Mr. Bannister, a lawyer walking in a weird way with the help of two canes. This the day after he meets and saves (or did he?) Mrs. Bannister. The married couple couldn't be more different in the looks department, she gorgeous, he scrawny. Later Mr. Bannister's business partner, one George Grisby, joins the trip.

Everyone of the three have their own agenda, every one of those agenda's includes killing someone and also involves poor Michael O'Hara. George hires him to kill Bannister. Mrs. Bannister apparently wanted George to kill her husband, but in the end it is George that turns up dead with O'Hara framed for the murder. Or, rather, he sort of framed himself by writing out a confession to the murder he agreed to pretend to have committed. Yes, it is all a bit convoluted.

Lucky (or maybe not) for O'Hara, Bannister agrees to defend him in court. The procedures take a turn for the ridiculous when Bannister himself is called to the witness stand and - after being cross-examined by the prosecutor - cross-examines himself, much to the amusement of judge and jury.

In the end, O'Hara runs before a verdict can be announced. Mrs. Bannister runs after him and they end up in a fun house. Before long, Mr. Bannister joins them there and the final showdown, when the truth of what actually happened comes out, takes place in a hall of mirrors.

Twists! Turns! Orson Welles! Rita Hayworth!

7/10

1984

Only recently did I become aware that there was a film version of George Orwell's brilliant novel 1984 before the widely known one from, well, 1984.

This came out in 1956. Other than it being in black and white, it is the same film. Now, my memory of the John Hurt/Richard Burton version is a bit sketchy by now (must watch that again soon) but I don't think that it contained anything that the older version does not provide.

That it also to say that this is rather brilliant, as well. The only significant difference I could notice has not so much to do with the merit of the tale but with the look. The setting may be as bleak as one would expect. What is much, much prettier than should be in my opinion is Julia (here credited as Julia of the Outer Party). This is the classic Hollywood beauty of old, with always perfect blond hair in 1950's style and perfectly made up. Of course, this was made before it became fashionable for any actress worth her salt to play 'ugly'.

But in the end, 2 + 2 = 5. Because Big Brother says so.

8/10

Doctor Who: The Edge of Destruction

The Edge of Destruction/The Brink of Disaster

This feels like a filler. In the first part of the two-part serial next to nothing happens. The group comes to after the explosion that shook them at the end of The Daleks. They barely remember who they are at first and they turn on each other - or, it is the Doctor and Susan v. Barbara and Ian.

The Doctor is being his usual pompous self, only now with his had bandaged up because he cracked it open. The doors of the Tardis appear to open by them selves, which is of course impossible (!) and everyone accuses everyone else of tampering with the ship. Not sure how the two teachers would even attempt to do such a thing, considering that they are fairly new to this and don't really know how anything works, but whatever.

And...they magically change costumes. Or they do it off-screen within the matter of minutes.

In the second part, the Doctor wants the teacher off the ship. Little sentimental Susan, of course, goes all sappy and implores him to rethink. Then he suddenly realizes that they are in grave danger and he forgets all about throwing them out. Ian does a lot of fainting.

Eventually, the realize what is wrong with the ship. The Tardis has been trying to warn them of a problem all along (apparently, it is not sophisticated enough to communicate properly). The only problem is some switch and they fix it just before time is running out ("We have 10 minutes to survive!" - "10 minutes? As little as that?" - "Maybe less."). Aaaaaaah!!! So close!

In the end, the Doctor suddenly realizes the worth of the school teachers. Well, one, at least.

The set-up for the next serial is a huge footprint in the snow.

3/10

Doctor Who: The Daleks

The Dead Planet/The Survivors/The Escape/The Ambush/The Expedition/The Ordeal/The Rescue

The Daleks are awesome. They are cute and surprisingly cuddly for evil robots. They attack you with plungers (how great is that?!) and you can fool them by simply hiding inside one and pretend to be one of them.

Serial 2 of Doctor Who establishes the big nemesis of the Doctor(s) for years - decades, even! - to come. And a good thing, too.

The unlikely travel companions have to stick together to overcome a dire situation and save themselves from the evil Daleks. I still don't care for any of them but it's good to see them pull together and set their collective minds to work. Not that their togetherness seems to last very long (they forget they ever knew each other in the very next serial).

Not only do they have to fight off the Daleks, but also radiation (gasp!), thankfully they have been given vials of anti-radiation drugs just outside the Tardis by the Thals (not important). Phew!

This has cliffhangers! Firstly, the Dalek arm reaching out for Barbara (the female school teacher), and in the end AN EXPLOSION!

7/10

Suddenly, Last Summer

They don't make films like this anymore.

Katharine Hepburn plays Mrs Venable, a devoted mother who lost her beloved son Sebastian and has her niece committed for telling an unpleasant story about what happened to Sebastian (the name repeated so often, it is almost like a mantra). She goes as far as trying to get young Cathy lobotomized by one Dr Cukrowicz. Early one, she has an awesome monologue about sea turtles, of all things.

The doctor is played by the wonderful Montgomery Clift, who is the good to oppose Hepburn's bad. He wants to first see for himself, whether Cathy is really as crazy as he is made to believe and an operation is justified.

Cathy is played impeccably by the wonderful, beautiful Elizabeth Taylor. She owns every scene she is in. Quite a feat when you are in scenes with Hepburn and Clift.

All the minor characters have something to gain from Cathy's planned lobotomy. Mrs. Venable has her deluded view of her son untainted by the truth, Cathy's mother and brother stand to inherit $ 100,000,-- and the owner of the asylum Cukrowicz works at a new building sponsored by Mrs Venable.

This is really wonderful to watch, all the way to when Cathy finally tells the truth and everyone is there to witness it.

Quite wonderful.

8/10

The Bad Seed

The Bad Seed surely must have been one of the first films to not make the monster of the story look like one, but rather be a blond and blue-eyed perfect little girl.

When a little boy, who had recently one a medal at school - much to the chagrin of little Rhoda Penmark, drowns during a school picnic, suspicion soon falls on the girl because not only was she the last one to be seen with the boy and the medal he wore so proudly went missing. Soon, Rhoda's mother finds the medal in her little girl's possession and remembers an elderly neighbor falling to her death some while back and leaving a snow globe that Rhoda liked so much to the girl.

As if all that wasn't bad enough, there is also a lot of philosophizing about evil and the shapes it takes and are people born bad? and stuff You see the Penmarks socialize with smart people and Rhoda's grandfather himself wrote real crime stories. Also, Rhoda's mother has always had that creeping suspicion that she may not be her father's daughter and remembers some dreams she had as a child. Turns out, she is really the daughter of a legendary female murderess, making Rhoda a direct descended of evil.

Eventually, the mother decides to bring down the final judgment on her child and herself (but fails). Something I would imagine also rather rare in 1950's films. Ultimately, justice does come for the little killer.

It's dark and smart and the kid is perfectly creepy.

The downer of it all is the insufferable 'Aunt' Monica, who is around way to much and who's relation to anyone in the story is a mystery. She is extremely annoying and loud and overbearing.

The highlight is the constantly drunk Mrs. Daigle, the mother of the little boy that drowned. This is by far my favorite performance of the entire film.

A rather unusual choice, but very charming, is the way the cast members are brought in front of the camera at the end. Their names are read out as each one appears in the doorway and gets a moment of their own. And the very last frame is this:

7/10

Cat People

A classic B horror movie from the studio that gave us Citizen Kane. Yep, they did make horror movies, too. And some pretty good ones, I might add. Like this film. Also, I Walked with a Zombie.

Sure, the gore is practically non-existent, which is a bit unusual for a film that features wild animals attacking humans (in moderation, of course), but the film is very shadow-y and dark and very much of the time it was made in....with the suave gentleman with hat and/or cane, the pretty ladies with the well-kept hair and the friendly and pretty black girl serving lunch.

The story is of a Serbian immigrant, who meets a decent, handsome fellow, who for some reason wants to marry her, despite her vague hints of her being strange and different and possibly a cat woman (with Serbian folk tales and all). He laughs such silly things off and marries her anyway, only to be denied the marital bed because sex will surely turn the girl into a beast. Eventually, the blue balled man will turn to another woman (also all very appropriate and perfectly clinical), which makes the wife jealous and finally really makes her turn into a psychopath/beast.

Alas, the beast only shows up way, way into the movie. It is beautiful, but mostly hidden in the shadows. And it/she only kills once (if you don't count her sort of suicide by zoo animal).

Very pretty and noir.

7/10

I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang

How's that for a blunt movie title, huh?

The film tells the story of one James Allen, the fugitive in the title. But long before that, Allen returns home from war with dreams of becoming an engineer, work he has trained in in the military. But his mother wants him to take a secure desk job that was lined up for him and enlists the back-up of the parish priest to help talk him into the boring life. But it is no good, he simply must follow his - rather modest - dream.

Then he ends up at the wrong place at the wrong time and gets mistaken for an accomplice in a robbery. For this he is sentenced to 10 years of hard labor. Allen escapes not once, but twice, from this ordeal. After the first time he manages to work his way up in society before being turned in by his mean wife, who blackmailed him into marrying her in the first place by dangling his past over him.

The second escape is much more spectacular, involving guns, an accomplice who dies and dynamite. Following this he descends into paranoia and spends his days running from law enforcement.

Even though the film was made in the days before subtlety become a common acting trade (the faces they all pull!) and everyone involved is easily recognized as either good or bad, it is quite an entertaining watch. It does have occasional spells of dragging on, but is diverting, nonetheless.

6/10

Nebraska

Alexander Payne is channeling David Lynch's The Straight Story here.

Whereas old Mr. Straight from Iowa was off on his a lawnmower to visit his brother Wisconsin, who had recently had a stroke and whom he had not spoken to for years, old Mr. Grant tries to get from Billings, MT, to Lincoln, NE, and - also lacking a licence - sets off on foot to collect a promised prize of $ 1,000,000,--.

Of course, nobody besides him is fooled by the mailing promising the money and his family tries to talk him out of it, but his son David realizes that his father simply must do this, if not for the money than out of principle and drives him. Along the way, they run into a few difficulties like head wounds and lost teeth and end up having to shackle up in Mr. Grant's hometown. There, talk of him being a millionaire is making the rounds and everyone is lining up to get a piece of the action. And no persuading from David's side that his dad has not actually won anything can stop it. It is only when the cousins mug the pair and steal the coveted letter that the truth finally hits home with the small town folks, but not with David's dad.

In the end, they make it to the address given to learn that - as expected - Mr. Grant did not actually have one of the winning numbers. He gets a hat for his troubles.

Much like The Straight Story, this is a quiet and slow paced journey that has a man reconnect with his family. Also, it portrays the difficult relationship between the lifelong hard drinking father and his two sons, that may be better off with the old man in constant care. But along the way, they all realize how solid their family bond actually is when faced with the adversaries of people trying to get their hands on the imaginary loot. Together, they even try to steal a compressor before realizing that they stole from the wrong person.

The black and white gives this a slightly bleak but also very calm feel and the acting from all involved is really wonderful. Who knew Bruce Dern as the quietly stubborn father is wonderful and got a well-deserved Oscar nomination for this. June Squibb (as his wife and also Oscar nominated), who I don't remember having seen before, is fantastic. Bob Odenkirk has a small role as David's brother and does that well, of course. And who knew Will Forte had a serious role in him? Also in a supporting role here is Stacy Keach (I didn't even know whether he was still alive, to be honest) as one of the old friends lining up for money after having people first applaud old Grant by announcing the money won and later has everyone laughing at the old man by reading out the mailing that - obvious to everyone but Mr. Grant - is nothing more than a marketing scheme.

This is really wonderful and I hope someone involved wins something tonight.

8/10

Which brings us to the current ranking of the Best Picture nominees I have seen so far (which should not be misunderstood as a tip for tonight - I do believe that 12 Years a Slave will win, although I am still rooting for Gravity and hoping that American Hustle does not pull off a surprise):

Gravity
Captain Philips
Nebraska
12 Years a Slave
The Wolf of Wall Street
American Hustle

Das Gasthaus an der Themse (The Inn on the River)

From 1959-1972 German company Rialto Film produced a whopping 38 films based on Edgar Wallace stories. When I was a kid, many of them would show during early afternoons on Sundays. I remember watching quite a few of them and as a consequence not being able to sort the stories apart in my head. I did vaguely remember a story with a killer using a harpoon to off his victims. Turns out, this is the one.

The personnel in many of the films - as well as this one - were similar, often including Joachim Fuchsberger as the good guy and on occasion the great Klaus Kinski as the bad one (or seemingly bad, on occasion). Comic relief (not that the film needed it) came from the wonderful Eddi Arent.

Of course, the stories are repetitive and the acting is not top of the line but the films offer are always quite enjoyable. Das Gasthaus an der Theme is actually one of the better in the series.

And the murderer turns out to be the one you least expect.

Ah, childhood memories!

7/10

Die beispiellose Verteidigung der Festung Deutschkreuz (The Unprecedented Defence of the Fortress Deutschkreuz)

So, I am not the world's biggest Werner Herzog fan, but he made some awesome films with my favorite actor, Klaus Kinski (not my favorite person, mind you, but my favorite actor). This is not one of them.

This piece with the unnecessarily long title (if you read it slowly enough, it will take you longer than watching it) was filmed in Deutschkreuz, which is in my home country. It is under 15 min long and takes place in a castle, that was once the site of a battle between the Russians and the Germans during WWII.

A group of four young men visit the place and find uniforms and equipment. They dress up and play at defending the place. The only people around, however, are some farmers. The four get ready for the attack that - to their deep disappointment - does not come.

In the end, they storm out of the castle in full gear.

Yeah, it's weird.

5/10

La jetée

In post-apocalyptic Paris, the survivors of WW III live underground. There, they experiment with time travel, hoping that in the past or future they find means to assist them in the bleak present they live in.

The scientists have a hard time finding suitable subjects to send through time. They find a prisoner, who seems perfect for the experiment, as he has what they consider an 'obsessive' memory. Most consistently he holds onto a moment from his childhood, in which he saw a woman on a peer and he has a vague memory of a man dying.

After several days of experimenting, the prisoner manages to move freely in the past, where he finds the woman from his memory again and establishes a relationship with her. Motivated by the successful travel to the past, the scientists send him to the future next. There he obtains a power unit, that he brings back with him and that enables the scientist in the present to re-generate their society.

As he is now redundant, the prisoner is to be executed. The people he met in the future offer to save him by bringing him forward to their time permanently. He instead asks to be sent back to the past he previously visited. There he finds the woman again in exactly the same context of his childhood memory. He realizes that he himself is the dying man he saw as a child, his executor was sent after him into the past.

Sounds familiar?

In 1995, Terry Gilliam retold the story in the brilliant Twelve Monkeys.

This, the original 1962 version, is brilliant in its own way. Made up almost entirely of still images (once the woman is seen blinking a few times) and told via voice-over (except for the whispered German of the scientists).

8/10

Some Folks Call It a Sling Blade

Victim

This is the first English language film to use the word "homosexual"...42 years after its very first use in film (in the German 1919 film Anders als die Anderen).

Dirk Bogard plays barrister Melville Farr, who gets caught up in systematic blackmails of gays when homosexuality was still illegal in the UK. One young man, Barrett, is threatened with a photo of himself and Farr being exposed. To protect the much more prominent public figure Farr, he steals money from his employer when he runs out.

The police coming to the construction site where he works kicks the story off. He runs, unable to find much assistance from his friends, most of whom are gay and living a lie themselves and some of whom are also victims of the blackmailer. In the end, the police catch up with him and he hangs himself in his cell.

Farr, feeling guilty for not having taken Barrett's desperate phone calls, starts digging into the issue and trying to find people willing to speak up about the blackmails, but most refuse. Farr is married and his wife knew about a relationship he had with a man before their marriage but she is somewhat stumped that he still feels the same way. She does, however, stand by him throughout.

Ultimately, it has to be Farr himself that stands up against the blackmailers, even if it will cost him his career.

7/10
  

And Then There Were None

I have a thing for old b/w versions of the stories of Agatha Christie, Alfred Hitchcock, Edgar Wallace and the likes. Hence, a 1945 version of Agatha Christie's Ten Little Indians works for me.

This is a version of said story that one could easily imagine as an on stage production. The setting is very limited (a house indoors and out, a small boat) and it is played out like a stage production. That is not necessarily a bad thing.

The material relies heavily on acting and not on surroundings. It has an air of sophistication about it that would nowadays be replaced by grisly details and lots of movie blood (one guy is said to be cut in half!).

Weirdly enough, this genre does not work for me in book form, though. Never made it through a single Christie book.

6/10

L'année dernière à Marienbad (Last Year at Marienbad)

Here is a film that has divided cineasts since it came out.

Some hate it. It has been included in Harry Medved's 1978 book The Fifty Worst Films of all Time (and How They Got that Way), but that book also lists the likes of The Omen, Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia or Valley of the Dolls (so it needs to be taken with a grain of salt).

Some love it. Those who do (this includes me), do so passionately, it seems. Roger Ebert gave it a coveted four star review. And while I'm linking to other pages and many an article has been written about Marienbad, here is another one. You're welcome.

The story is quickly told. At a luxurious hotel in Marienbad, a man approaches a woman and tells her that they have met and fell in love the previous year at the hotel and he wants her to run away with him now. The woman, however, does not seem to recall the meeting of the year before. What complicates matters is that she is there with her husband. In the end, we don't know if the first meeting ever happened.

That is really all of the story. There are several theories of what it all means. The most common one is that the narrative is based on the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice, in which the man has to convince the woman to come with him (out of the underwold) and to do so on her own account.

What we are shown is a series of breathtaking images. In wide shots the shadows do not match. The people are decked out in Chanel clothing. The pose like mannequins for a long while before they start moving. Heard words do not match moving lips.

Seeing this, to me, was utterly fascinating. And I am not usually a fan of French cinema of the 1960's and 1970's like so many others, unexplicaply, appear to be.

Love it or hate it, the film is unique and you have never seen anything like it.

10/10

The Incredible Shrinking Man

I believe I have mentioned my adoration for sci-fi films from the 1950's-1970's before. They are usually wonderous, wonderous movies. Many detail horrific events that befall a person or a group of persons (often involving aliens). Others show stories set in the future (with decidedly ridiculous lookin machines and contraptioins and also occasionally involving aliens).

The Incredible Shrinking Man belongs to the first group. It tells of the plight of one Scott Carey who - after being exposed to a strange weather anomaly (radiation! of course it's radiation!) - starts shrinking. At first, he is incredulous, only half believing that he is really getting smaller. But eventually the development cannot be ignored any longer. His clothers start sagging, his wedding ring slips off and his wife does no longer have to stand on tip-toes to kiss him.

A doctor is consulted who cannot really tell him much more but that he is in good health and initially dismisses his claim of shrinking, because people do not simply get smaller. Eventually, of course, the outside world does pick up on Scott's obvious change in statue and he becomes a curiosity and medical sensation. A glimmer of hope presents itself when his condition appears to stablize due to medicatiion and although he cannot grow again he at least sports a size now that he can be regarded as a dwarf and continue in a somewhat normal life.

But the medication wears off and he continues to become smaller at a a steady pace again. He also becomes more agitated and takes his anger and frustration out on his equally frustrated wife. He moves into a doll house and one day - while his wife is running errands - he is left alone with the family cat that promptly attacks him. Fleeing from the (to him) oversized creature he ends up in the basement. There, he not only has to navigate the difficult environment but also encounters his next nemesis - a spider. They have a number of battles that would be exhilarating to watch were it not for the quality of the special effects - or rather, lack thereof. When placed next to each other (in obviously overlapping frames) one becomes transparent and, consequently, less threatening.

Scott prevails over the beast and is by now small enough to walk through the wires on the basement window. Through his trials he has finally found a sort of peace, accepting his situation and walking out into the world with a new bravery and awareness of his own worth.

Despite its obvious flaws, quite entertaining.

8/10

Ekstase (Ecstasy)

One of the most controversial films ever made. It simply was not customary to show full frontal nudity in 1930's cinema. What's more, it depicted two lovers in the trows of, well, ecstasy. Shocking!

Various things about it have been falsely reported: that Hedy Lamarr was the first naked woman on a movie screen (she was not), that it was the first depiction (however vage) of a sexual encounter (it was not).

The story is that of Eva, who - disappointed by her marriage - up and leaves her much older husband to return to her father's house. While out riding one day she decides to take a swim in a lake. She puts her clothes on the horse's back and goes skinny dipping. The horse runs off and gets caught again by Adam, who returns it to the naked, hiding Eva. The two fall for each other and do the nasty.

When Eva's husband comes to take her back she refuses. He returns to the nearby town, offering a ride to a young man, who turns out to be Eva's lover. The husband realizes this when he sees Eva's necklace in the man's hand. A threesome like this can only end in tragedy, of course.

Hedy Lamarr went on to become known as the most beautiful woman in film. On top of that, she was also the co-inventor of the method of "frequency hopping", now widely used in cell phones.

6/10

A Night to Remember

One of many dramatizations of the sinking of the Titanic on her maiden voyage.

Here, the focus is not so much on a handful of people only (as it was in James Cameron's cheesy version) but on groups representing the different classes as well as showing the entire palette of reactions to the tragedy. While some panic, some are rather incredulous, almost joking about what they never believe that the unsinkable ship will really go down.

All this it does very gracefully without all the sensationalism that was to come in later versions (again, see James Cameron). Of course, it also gives the classical visual of the often told tale of the band that continued to play until the very end.

Really good.

8/10