Random Thoughts

Now this is noir! Burt Lancaster is in jail (where it rains all the time) planning an escape!

I’m reading Miracle of the Rose by Jean Genet these days, which is told from an er slightly different perspective than this movie. But there are certain parallels: Both are told from the perspective of the prisoners, and neither shy away from the prisoners’ brutality. The scene here where they kill the snitch in the machine shop is as fetishised as anything in Genet.

But with a slightly er different perspective.

It’s brutal. Wasn’t there a backlash against “lurid violence” in movies in the early 50s? This is quite lurid.

The psychopathic Captain is really convincing… although they could have skipped all the signifiers of him being gay, I guess.

The flashback scenes to outside life is the weakest part of the movie.

Brute Force. Jules Dassin. 1947.

Popular movies in July 1947 according to IMDB:

Poster	Votes	Rating	Movie
	6742	7.7	Brute Force
	5675	7.4	Crossfire
	6309	7.3	The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer
	295	7.1	Vesna
	793	7.1	The Perils of Pauline
	1388	7.1	They Won’t Believe Me
	308	7.0	So Well Remembered
	379	6.9	Deep Valley
	309	6.8	Something in the Wind
	1094	6.7	The Hucksters

This blog post is part of the Decade series.

This is pure entertainment, and I love that. Gene Tierney is perfect as the plucky widow, and Rex Harrison camps it up as the ghost of a ship captain.

It’s such a perfect fluffy thing. It meanders pleasantly without straining the brain.

But then! In the third act! Drama!

This kind of thing works much better without real conflict, but filmmakers feel obligate to inflict that on us anyway. Otherwise it wouldn’t, like, be a proper movie.

Fie, I say! Fie!

If this had just gone on being a pleasant dream (with, perhaps, Mrs. Muir hooking up with a hot, cool guy), then it’d have been perfect.

Still! It’s pretty lovely.

The Ghost and Mrs. Muir. Joseph L. Mankiewicz. 1947.

Popular movies in June 1947 according to IMDB:

Poster	Votes	Rating	Movie
	32184	7.9	Miracle on 34th Street
	12249	7.9	The Ghost and Mrs. Muir
	290	7.3	Dear Ruth
	544	7.2	Ivy
	378	7.0	The Upturned Glass
	1388	6.8	Desperate
	647	6.8	The Unfaithful
	359	6.6	Cheyenne
	1349	6.6	The Woman on the Beach
	280	6.2	Living in a Big Way

This blog post is part of the Decade series.

Oh My Emacs! Another Joan Crawford movie? Is this like the 30th in this blog series? Who bought these movies anyway?

This is super noir. They even found rainy days to shoot in Los Angeles.

As usual, you can’t fault Crawford’s er expressive performance. The other actors also plays it large, and it’s pretty great. It’s got the classic noir structure of everything being told in a flashback, and the story being told is on fleek. I really didn’t see a lot of the plot twists coming. And the way the movie deals with mental health problems is refreshing. I mean, they play it BIG, but it’s fresh.

This is a riveting movie.

The bluray transfer is beautiful. Some restorers go for maximum details so they keep the dark portions grey, but here everything drops off to #000. And so much grain.

Possessed. Curtis Bernhardt. 1947.

Popular movies in May 1947 according to IMDB:

Poster	Votes	Rating	Movie
	16324	8.0	Black Narcissus
	341	7.2	Le silence est d’or
	3242	7.2	Possessed
	546	7.1	The Web
	284	7.0	Repeat Performance
	463	6.9	Dear Murderer
	1038	6.7	The Long Night
	644	6.5	Dishonored Lady
	272	6.4	High Barbaree
	692	6.4	Dick Tracy’s Dilemma

This blog post is part of the Decade series.

Oh, this is Chaplin’s “serious” movie? Didn’t that flop spectacularly?

Chaplin was subjected to unusually hostile treatment by the press while promoting the opening of the film, and some boycotts took place during its short run. In New Jersey, the film was picketed by members of the Catholic War Veterans, who carried placards calling for Chaplin to be deported. In Denver, similar protests against the film by the American Legion managed to prevent it being shown.

Indeed. But that may have had more to do with Chaplin’s politics (left wing) than the movie itself.

This is what they call a “black comedy”, which means that a whole bunch of women get killed, because that’s always funny. Besides, they’re all silly women (SILLY WOMEN) so it’s no big loss, right?

Chaplin plays the sympathetic serial killer, and the other actors don’t quite know whether they’re in a hilarious slapstick movie or a bizarre thriller. It’s downright disturbing at times. Martha Raye is perfect, though. Loud-mouthed and irrepressible. And this movie ended her film career? She did a ton of movies until this one, and then no movies until 1962. (But a lot of TV.)

There are amusing scenes here, although I don’t really… like the movie.

Monsieur Verdoux. Charles Chaplin. 1947.

Popular movies in April 1947 according to IMDB:

Poster	Votes	Rating	Movie
	12108	8.0	Monsieur Verdoux
	2103	7.6	It Happened on Fifth Avenue
	1645	7.5	Buck Privates Come Home
	3317	7.3	Born to Kill
	1716	6.9	Tarzan and the Huntress
	261	6.8	New Orleans
	462	6.8	The Private Affairs of Bel Ami
	218	6.8	Hard Boiled Mahoney
	657	6.7	The Macomber Affair
	242	6.7	Calcutta

This blog post is part of the Decade series.