Random Thoughts

Another Val Lewton production! Hm… oh. His name seemed so familiar that I assumed that I had seen dozens of his films, but it’s really just The Ghost Ship. Is there another producer with a similar name?

Hm… ah, he headed the RKO horror division, overseeing a string of cheap B-movies that looked better than those things usually did.

This movie’s protagonist is a young girl it’s not as awful as it sounds. I mean, she (or any of the other children) wouldn’t win any awards for their acting prowess, but they’re pretty good. It’s a properly creepy movie, and keeping the point of view so solidly at the children really helps.

And there’s a wise black guy giving sage advice, which was probably an innovation at the time?

The movie has been beautifully restored for the blu-ray release.

Spoiler warning: There are no cat people in this movie. Is that the curse?

The Curse of the Cat People. Gunther von Fritsch. 1944.

Popular movies in March 1944 according to IMDB:

Poster	Votes	Rating	Movie
	4231	6.9	The Curse of the Cat People
	3514	6.9	Cover Girl
	344	6.8	Four Jills in a Jeep
	571	6.6	The Whistler
	548	6.5	Weird Woman
	217	6.5	Shine on Harvest Moon
	343	6.4	See Here, Private Hargrove
	503	6.2	The Heavenly Body
	353	6.1	The Falcon Out West

This blog post is part of the Decade series.

Claude Rains! Bogart! This is no B movie.

I found this to be a frustrating watch. It’s a sort of mid-war fantasy about war. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but it’s so… stiff? Perhaps it’s because everything looks like it’s filmed on a sound stage? Even the outdoors bits?

This is definitely not Casablanca II, although it tries hard. Ideologically, it paints a rather large number of French people as horrible people, while the framing of it is telling us that France is great. It’s kinda weird.

Great bluray transfer, though.

Passage to Marseille. Michael Curtiz. 1944.

Popular movies in February 1944 according to IMDB:

Poster	Votes	Rating	Movie
	1770	7.6	The Sullivans
	311	7.4	Le ciel est à vous
	7221	7.4	The Uninvited
	450	7.3	On Approval
	473	7.2	Million Dollar Kid
	1420	7.2	It Happened Tomorrow
	350	7.1	None Shall Escape
	1188	6.9	Charlie Chan in the Secret Service
	2933	6.9	Passage to Marseille
	688	6.8	The Purple Heart

This blog post is part of the Decade series.

That’s some design on those er leotards.

Indeed.

This is a cheap and short B movie, I guess?

It’s got a classic set-up: A Broadway hopeful moves into a hotel for Broadway hopefuls. Lots of good movies have been written around that concept… and while this is very likeable, and it’s got some good lines here and there, it doesn’t quite sparkle like these things are supposed to.

But it’s a very amiable way to spend an hour. I could watch stuff like this all night long.

And… it’s got the most insane hairdos! I think the same hairdresser has done all the actors, and it’s one wild hairdo after another, all around the same preposterous construction concept.

Career Girl. Wallace Fox. 1944.

Popular movies in January 1944 according to IMDB:

Poster	Votes	Rating	Movie
	5586	7.9	The Miracle of Morgan’s Creek
	21168	7.8	Lifeboat
	689	7.7	María Candelaria (Xochimilco)
	3108	7.4	The Spider Woman
	2860	7.3	Phantom Lady
	2122	7.2	The Lodger
	2566	6.5	The Fighting Seabees
	837	6.4	Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves
	317	4.1	Nabonga

This blog post is part of the Decade series.