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Reviews
The Cure (1917)
review of "The Cure"
"The Cure" has Chaplin arriving tipsy to a health clinic to supposedly dry out, but he shows up with a trunk full of booze. This film has some memorable scenes but the premise of it is very funny. There are plenty of run-ins with Eric Campbell's character with the foot cast. Campbell is also Chaplin's rival for the girl as well, although, poor girl, has to(?) choose between an ogre and a recovering alcoholic who is failing miserably at the recovering part.
Outside of the hotel is some sort of little fountain or well that has a stone terrace around it and stone benches. Mostly women it seems sit around the 'ol water cure hole and drink. At some point in the movie, a dude that Charlie had been rough with earlier comes back. The man goes into Chaplin's hotel room and throws every last bottle of booze (that is the ones that the crazy long-bearded old bellhop didn't drink) directly into the water hole below. So much for health clinic security! Before long, the entire hotel is trashed.
There's a good sequence when Chaplin goes into the spa for a massage with a large guy who looks like he's practicing wrestling moves on people. "The Cure" seems to lack a number of good sequences but makes up for it a bit with the overall funny factor. It still doesn't appear to be his best of the Mutual period (this was the 10th film for Mutual, 45th time directing and 67th overall)
The Ace of Hearts (1921)
Chaney makes the movie!
"Ace of Hearts" (1921, Wallace Worsely) "Ace of Hearts" is a love triumphs over evil morality tale that happens to involve a vengeful secret society. One of the best faces for silent film ever, Lon Chaney, stars as Mr. Farallone, the dark, hulky, brooding assassin-like figure turned somewhat softie by love's charms, even if he's not going to be the ultimate victor in that battle. The film is overly dramatic throughout and yet beyond the already overwrought face of Lon Chaney, he possesses the most reserved acting and for a character who feels the event's story more so than any other character. In fact, "Ace of Hearts" may only be worth taking in for the chance to see Chaney. However, actors may definitely be mis- and/or underused in films and this film's prolific and veteran silent director Wallace Worsely should be given his dues. After all, one could expect a certain sense of added dramatization with the absence of diagetic sound.
There are a couple of great external shots that are fantastic involving Chaney in a downpour and people walking on a really windy sidewalk at night. I get the poignant connection of the story of the secret society to the Red Scare of WWI, but the story still seems weak. Chaney carries the film.
The New Life (2006)
A Very Good Short Film
"The New Life" (2006, Australia, Daniel Giambruno) A life built on guilt. This is the theme that can be gathered over repeated viewings of Daniel Giambruno's 2006 "The New Life." The story cries out to be elaborated and stretched into a longer film. And more film would be nice as the cinematography, the directing and the acting are all great to go. However, ten minutes abbreviates and crams this story down to size where we are left with the brutalizing speed with which this film turns an ideal life of one man upside down. Somewhere along the line, a man made a Faustian deal, only to be called home by the Mephistopholes of the film. I'll make my nod to Mr. Skin now. The film opens with a young boy throwing a ball for his dog along the evening shoreline. His beautiful blonde mom comes out of the beach house to remind him of dinner soon and goes back in where she brings her husband a glass of wine. From there on in, the crumbling begins. Two very contrasting images to open and close this picture.
There is a very steady rhythm to this film and a solid beginning, middle and end as far as storytelling goes. The visual effects of the demon come to gather up the man in the latter half of the film are interesting. It comes off somewhere between being animated and real. I definitely think this film and its makers are deserving of more time to grow a film around this story. The evidence is in the craft and this film is not only worth watching but watching again.
The Bank (1915)
The Bank
"The Bank" (1915, Chaplin) "The Bank" was one of Charlie's 1915 Essanay films. While these group of films are more watchable than their 1914 counterparts, this one seems a bit below average. The gag with the janitorial double combo-locked vault and the tough-luck ending that has Charlie waking up from a dream, in which he is stroking the lead lady's hair, only to be stroking the head of a mop he had used as a quasi pillow, are both classic Chaplin moments. They are both ironically the beginning and the end. The middle is filled in with fighting with the rival co-worker janitor and busting up a bank robbery to win the girl. The mop is probably the greatest physical prop of this movie and Charlie uses it to expert comedic effect whether while it is the intention of his character or not. The mop seems to be Charlie's alter-ego doing things he wishes he could do but wouldn't with his own two hands. Interesting stuff but there's better.
The Knockout (1914)
Arbuckle & Charlie in "The Knockout"
"The Knockout" (1914, Avery) "The Knockout" is more of a Fatty Arbuckle film than a Charlie Chaplin film as Charlie appears as an interfering boxing referee in a segment of the film. With a fair amount of action and a hilarious fight scene to start it off, and introduce us to Arbuckle's character Pug, this is a better than average 1914 film but still a bit tedious after the boxing match. Apparently, firing guns into the air and at people was cause for hilarity. Pug even runs around struggling to work double fisted with pistols and boxing gloves still on. One dis-jointed from reality marker in the shooting sequence is that everybody reacts to getting hit like someone just hit them with a paintball or a rubber bullet. The film's highlights inevitably involve Arbuckle's great physical comedy aided and abetted by his physique as well as Charlie who is great as the referee who keeps stumbling into the fighters during the first round and joins the match in the second round much to the delight of the audience (both on screen and off!). Drop-kicks, rock throwing, shooting, boxing
c'mon, what's missing? Not a bad effort and much better than some of the other Keystone 1914 films.
Kid Auto Races at Venice (1914)
It's 1914 !!!
"Kids Auto Races At Venice" (1914, Lehrman) This film marks the second film Charlie acted in and the first time we would see the famous 'tramp' character. It's six minutes of Charlie at a racing cart/box/derby race thing walking onto the racing track and in front of the cameraman. He is constantly shoved or knocked out of the picture. It's neat that the film gives us the 'camera' eye as well as a couple of other points of view. So we get to see Charlie intentionally blocking the camera and getting manhandled for it repeatedly. Charlie is like a fly that won't shoo. But, alas, six minutes of one routine is a bit much. And yet, this film is as much a part of our film history as any other 'important' picture. It's 1914 dudes!!
A Night in the Show (1915)
Early Standout
"A Night In The Show" (1915, Chaplin) "A Night In The Show" is Charlie at his best in this early stage in his careeer. Early being his 48th overall film and 32nd directing, all within 1914 and 1915, and one of 49 in that time period. From the very beginning, the film just flows from one comedic segment into another. The beginning is rather lackluster which may only bolster the opinion of a rising laugh overall. Charlie starts trouble and adds on to future troubles all at once. All the sketches are played out with perfect timing. In the middle of the ruckus that Charlie causes as he moves around the theater is another tramp in the first seat of the aisle in the balcony. He spills beer onto the people below, throws cream puffs at a dude and a little person act, and in the grand finale, uses a fire hose to put out a fire which is part of the act on stage.
This is one of the few of these early films that could withstand repeated watching of it.
Scarlet Street (1945)
"Scarlet Street" is vintage Lang
"Scarlet Street" (1945, Fritz Lang) Edward G. Robinson and Joan Bennett reteam with Fritz Lang in 1945's Scarlet Street to create a noir-ish Greenwich Village complete with chirascuro, the love wounded anti-hero, a would-be hooker, and a slick playboy part-time pimp. The latter description goes to the great character actor Dan Duryea (also in Lang's previous film with the aforementioned duo in The Woman in the Window). There are many scenes that shine for their intimate detail in setting, text, and shot. The lighting is so awesome you can feel the intensity of the scene. Lang didn't leave much undetailed! The story revolves around the three characters of Criss Cross, Lazy Legs, and Johnny. Guess who's who. I always get a kick that Lang chooses the bad boy of so many movies past (notably Little Ceasar) to be a man who in one scene is shot in a woman's ruffled apron with a kitchen knife (from cutting liver) pointed at his terrific nag of wife who rushes into the kitchen to confront him, again. Dan Duryea can play the ultimate scumbag with such ease, you'd think he really was one in real life.
Fritz Lang made 24 American films in 21 years and Scarlet Street was his 12th. It would also be Joan Bennett's fourth of five turns under Lang. Scarlet Street is a great example of a well-crafted studio made film noir. Lang claimed that this film contained the first murder of an innocent person!
Echo (2007)
Well done
"Echo" (2007, France, Yann Gozlan) "Echo" is a beautifully photographed film that takes us through the opening montage of a wave of mirrored buildings into a brief view of one young pregnant woman having a breakdown alone. The lead actress, Lubna Azabel, is elegant, innocently mysterious and an ultimate character of empathy. "Echo" is a very well done short film that is almost perfect in not being overly complicated. The audience can believe in the character and glimpse her mentality through such fine moments as duct taping any hole/vent in the wall and scratching holes in sheet rock thin walls to get a view at the room next door. The film is photographed so well that any minor flaws are smoothed over upon first viewing. It is vaguely reminiscent of Polanski's "Repulsion." It's well worth the viewing!
The Face on the Barroom Floor (1914)
weak Chaplin
Face On The Barroom Floor (1914, USA, Chaplin) The title apparently is derived from a poem of the same name by Hugh Antoine d'Arcy that Chaplin was satirizing. Chaplin is a painter who loses out on a woman to the subject of one of his portraits: a middle aged, fat, slightly balding man. Chaplin gets ripped at a bar and draws a smiley face on the floor of the bar (which was meant to be hers) and ends up getting belligerent and physically kicking people out of the bar. Meanwhile, "2 Months Elapsed," and Chaplin's sitting on a park bench when the big man and woman stroll by him with a baby carriage and four small children in tow, Chaplin is relieved and struts off.
Although much of the humor in Chaplin films is repetitive in way or another, he manages to put a fresh spin on it but in 'Face on the Barrom Floor,' he seems to have fallen flat on his. The funniest moment for this reviewer was the look of exaggerated relief he gives after the man, woman and five children go by him in the park. Otherwise, it's a series of a little tripping here, a little paint brush in the mouth there and a whole lot of falling down while drunk out of his mind. And he keeps drinking! Chaplin is obviously a funny guy but this is hardly worth his effort or ours.
Fucking Hollywood (2004)
1 really good laugh
The title and refrain of the movie may be a bit crass, and the short film feels amateur and campy, but some really good laughs that make the short worth watching. Pace is everything in storytelling and the movie starts off with a pretty brunette masturbating on her couch pining for her boyfriend Bob. Next we see a pizza dude purchase weed from an effeminate wanna-be filmmaker who wants Bob to be his star in "Tinky Winky." Aah, but next we get a 'Shanghai Surprise" where the short makes its best comedic outburst. It is an extremely campy film but well paced and acted out as well as could be expected with an extra star for the crazy wanna-be doctor.