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Reviews
Unaccustomed As We Are (1929)
Primitive, And Not Very Funny
This one is obviously the boys' first talkie. The action doesn't make much sense, the tone keeps shifting, the dialogue is forced and unnatural, and the result, for me, is unsatisfying. One must cut everyone involved some slack; everything was so new. (That said, Berth Marks, from the same year, is much more polished, well-paced, and funny.) The marital angle in Unaccustomed As We Are is overplayed, and would take awhile for Laurel and Hardy to work out; their later films have the characters of the shrewish wife and the bumbling husband much more thoroughly thought through.
Count this as a transitional effort to much better (and funnier) things.
The Front Page (1931)
Classic Play, Good Film
His Girl Friday is faster and funnier, but this 1931 film is better than the ill-begotten Billy Wilder version from1974 with Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau. The cast here is excellent, especially Adolphe Menjou.
Movies were still in their infancy, or at least toddlerhood, in 1931, and there is much staginess here. Efforts to open things up either slow things down unnecessarily (shots of the sidewalk, etc.) or are distracting (fussy camera tricks, too-long panning shots). (They had things figured out by 1940; HGF kept the bulk of the action in the newsroom, and nobody would call it stagy.)
All in all, a very enjoyable film of a classic play.
I Shot Billy the Kid (1950)
Don't Bother
Cheap movies don't have to be bad, but this one is. Another budget Western starring Don "Red" Barry, who has zero charisma, can't act worth beans, and is twenty years too old for Billy. This one features a weak script, bad music, and lots of clippity-cloppity as we gallop here and there. Skip it.
Lord Edgware Dies (1934)
Forget Christie
If you forget that this is supposed to be the short, bald, mustachioed Hercule Poirot of the Agatha Christie books, this is actually a pretty good old British mystery. Some of the performances are a bit off - Trevor's French accent (no indication that Poirot is Belgian here) is overdone, Hastings is annoyingly stupid and clumsy, and the acting of the minor roles is amateurish - but Jane Carr is lively and lovely, and the Inspector is British stolidity at its best. The staging is awkward at times, but the direction moves things along nicely. Enjoyable on its own merits, but maybe not for diehard Christie fans.
The Scarlet Claw (1944)
Better Than Average
One of the better of the Rathbone Sherlocks, with an interesting plot, more complicated than usual. Well cast, and Bruce isn't as much of a ninny as he is in others of this series.
Playhouse 90: Judgment at Nuremberg (1959)
Lots to Like
Comparisons are odious, so let's make some. The 1961 movie is twice as long as this teleplay, so has room for Marlene Dietrich, Judy Garland's husband, and a bunch of informative detail, some of it interesting, some not. The trial itself is pretty similar. Spencer Tracy is not one of my favorite actors, and Claude Rains is, so I prefer Rains here. Neither Burt Lancaster's accent nor his age makeup is convincing, but he gives a terrific performance, as does the more believable Paul Lukas. Melvyn Douglas overacts a bit; Widmark is much more intense. Albert Szabo is moving as Peterson, but Montgomery Clift is unforgettable. And Maximilian Schell, competing against himself, is brilliant both times and deserved his Oscar. I enjoyed both versions.
Cat-Women of the Moon (1953)
Sonny Tufts. SONNY TUFTS???
I see repeated comments that this movie is so bad it's good. I have to disagree; it's so bad it's terrible. Even those of us who enjoy bad 50s sci-fi as a guilty pleasure can't find much to like about this one. I don't know what's worse, the script or the acting. A healthy suspension of disbelief is required when experiencing even the best examples of the genre, but the writing here is just stupid. The always reliable Victor Jory is the only one who does any acting. Douglas Fowley and William Phipps are solid, Marie Windsor is terrible, and Sonny Tufts is just inept. Someone else suggested that he was drunk, and I'm afraid it shows.
The Kennel Murder Case (1933)
Better and Better
If you watch the Philo Vance movies William Powell made prior to The Kennel Murder Case (Canary, Greene, Benson) and then this one, you can watch sound films becoming progressively smoother and more assured, and Powell refining and improving his character and performance. By the time they made this one, the acting, camera techniques, and storytelling had matured to the point that this film can be enjoyed for its own sake, without allowances being made for the era, and Powell approaching Nick Charles perfection.
Un déshabillage impossible (1901)
Very funny
For once, the extravagant gestures and frenetic pantomime that characterize most of Méliès' work is put to good use. All this poor guy (I assume played by the director himself) wants is to take his clothes off and go to bed. It's the first part that's the problem; coats, pants, and hats keep materializing on his person as fast as he can take them off. At one point the bed disappears and the pace gets really wild. Yes, it's a one-joke skit, but the joke is well-played, and very funny.
The Sign of Four: Sherlock Holmes' Greatest Case (1932)
Enjoyable
The Sign of Four is one of Conan Doyle's best Sherlock Holmes stories. There are three adaptations that I know of. All are flawed, all monkey with the plot somewhat, and all have something to recommend them.
This one adds a character and plot developments, and changes the ending, but is reasonably faithful to the book, especially for 1932. It takes awhile to get going, but once Holmes and Watson come on the scene things liven up. It's well-acted and has a clear narrative.
The main attraction is Wontner. A little too old, not as smooth as Rathbone, eccentric as Brett, or quirky as Richardson, he looks and acts Holmes to perfection.
Recommended.