Random Thoughts

At War With The Army. Hal Walker. 1950.

Hay! What happened to the 40s? I skipped it, because I’m amassing a collection of 40s film for a future nefarious blogging project.

So we’re not in 1950, but with a comedy/musical/war film. With Jerry Lewis!

Oh! This has the scene that Monty Python referred to with their Spam Song? “Beans beans beans beans, beautiful beans.”

I had no idea!

Anyway, this is a very low-budget film. Most of it takes place inside a couple of rather dreary offices, so it all depends on how funny you find Jerry Lewis’ adenoidal charms.

Dean Martin squeezes in a couple of mellifluous song numbers.

I was amused throughout, but I didn’t, you know, laugh.

It’s sweet.

I’m cocktailing my way through The Savoy Cocktail Book, and man, people in the olden times sure liked their cocktails strong: Most of the ones I’ve done so far are basically just booze. The lowest-alcohol ingredient is at like 20%.

Perhaps I should skip to the coolers/planters/punches chapters to get some vitamins in.

This blog post is part of the Century series.

The Flying Deuces. A. Edward Sutherland. 1939.

Hey! That’s a gap of several years since the previous film! I thought I had more 30s DVDs… And I sort of have, but they’re all part of various box sets, so I’m skipping them for this blog series, which is All Single DVDs All The Time.

This may be the first Laurel & Hardy feature film I’ve ever seen. I’ve just seen some shorts as a child… I think we had one on Super 8? I may be imagining things.

So this isn’t anything like I thought it would be. I thought it would just be Laurel and Hardy bumping their heads into things for an hour straight. But there’s like a kind of plot in between the antics and stuff.

I wouldn’t say that it’s a good film… It’s not Marx Brothers. But it’s pretty amusing.

This blog post is part of the Century series.

It Happened One Night. Frank Capra. 1934.

Uh-up. This one won the Oscars. But how bad can it be? It’s Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert, directed by Frank Capra, so it should be, like, good.

But it’s not. It all feels like a creeper rapey thing: Gable pursued Gilbert with a ferocity and inevitability that’s unnerving and offputting. If it had been Cary Grant, it might not have been as creepy, because he’s more charming and gay, but throughout this film we’re basically watching Colbert wondereing whether she’ll get raped or whether he’s a possible new boyfriend.

Or perhaps there’s no difference?

When she wants to go off to eat a hamburger, the psycho boyf says “I’ll break your neck!” Only the knowledge that we’re watching a romantic comedy and not a deranged psychopathic fantasy allows us to smile along with then antics.

It’s creepy as fuck.

On the other hand, perhaps I just don’t like Clark Gable.

This blog post is part of the Century series.

This Day and Age. Cecil B. DeMille. 1933.

I thought they said that teenagers were invented in the 50s! But here we are in the 30s and we’re rebelling without any cause whatsoever.

Is this really from the 30s? Is imdb lying to me?

Well, Wikipedia agrees with imdb, so let’s go with it…

Anyway, this is from my favourite period of American movies: Like 32 to like er 52? I need to refine that time period. I can basically watch anything from that time period and not be bored, not matter how wretched.

But this has everything I love: A kooky plot, roller-skating, witty repartee… and gangsters.

That said, this isn’t very good. I would never have guessed that this was a Cecil B. DeMille film (except for the scenes that features apparently thousands of students: More extras than reasonable). There are brilliant scenes, but it all gets bogged down.

This blog post is part of the Century series.

The Last Laugh. F.W. Murnau. 1924.

Wow. That Murnau is going to go places. This is just so incredibly stylish and exciting to watch.

Beautifully restored, too.

It’s fascinating how well Murnau is able to tell the entire story with nary an intertitle: Virtually everything is conveyed through the acting, setting and cinematography. This involves a lot of panto-like acting, but it’s wonderful.

As impressive as this is (so many scenes made me go “wow!”), it’s got some pacing problems. On a scene-by-scene basis, it’s genius, but as a whole it’s not perfect.

But on the other hand, I laughed, and I cried, and sometimes did both at the same time, so I have to give it top score, anyway. This film has the most satisfying ending of any film ever in the history of everything.

The documentary included on the DVD is also totes fasc.  The film was shot three times (for three markets), and the documentary compares the versions minutely to unveil the technical innovations Murnau and his team was unleashing on the world.  It’s like a master class in 20s cinematography.  And the attention to detail is so nerdy; so forensic: It’s wonderful.

This blog post is part of the Century series.