THE DEAD ZONE (1983)

With Dino De Laurentiis exec-producing, Canadian director David Croenenberg was finally able to move up from schlocky mind-blowing shockers to classy, B+ budgeted horror via this Stephen King adaptation.*  Christopher Walken, forty but looking much younger, brings his peculiar, wary anxiety to a well-liked High School teacher who wakes from a five-year coma with inexplicable psychic abilities allowing him to visualize past & future events in subjective POV.  Reluctant to use his new power, he’s convinced to try and solve an unsolved serial murder case and finds his ‘gift’ a two-edged sword.  Running away from instant notoriety, Walken starts a new life as a beloved tutor in a new town, only to be confronted by his past when former fiancée Brooke Adams (now married with kid) comes thru town; and by his present and putative future thru Martin Sheen’s Kennedyesque Senate candidate (and future Fascist President?).  Like a lot of Stephen King, the second half has trouble answering what gets raised in the first half, so Croenenberg holds tight to a blueprint slavishly lifted out of THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE and hopes for the best.  (That tight budget working hard against the big set pieces which come off as tinny.)  But he does provide a real humdinger of a jolt in a final ‘future ‘visualization’ from Walken that audiences of the time must have shrieked at in outraged pleasure.

ATTENTION MUST BE PAID:  *Note the all-star character actor list in parts large & small: Tom Skerritt, Anthony Zerbe, Colleen Dewhurst, Herbert Lom..

CONTEST:  Either King or Croenenberg was really paying close attention to THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE/’62 as a certain liquid beverage figures into both plots in unlikely ways.  Name the beverage and how it shows up in each film to win a MAKSQUIBS Write-Up of your choice.

DOUBLE-BILL/LINK:  Naturally. THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE.  https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2017/07/the-manchurian-candidate-1962.html

THE GIRL SAID NO (1930)

William Haines’ brief run as a top M-G-M star peaked with five films in 1930.  Yet only two years on the studio dropped him; presumably for his unapologetic gay lifestyle.  And while he limped thru a couple of 1934 indies, Haines largely pivoted (very successfully) to antiques & interior decorating.*  (Joan Crawford & Nancy Reagan swore by him.)  A tough sell these days, he usually played the scapegrace kid, a scamp whose devil-may-care selfishness got everyone else in trouble.  Then, with about a reel & a half left in the pic (at college or on a first job; in the service on land or sea; at Pop’s failing family business), he’d have some sort of short, sharp, shock, see the error of his ways, ‘man up’ and save the day.  Forgiven, a twinkle in his eye would hint at fresh bad behavior ‘round the corner.  The End.  This one’s the same . . . and different.  (And with Sam Wood directing, not too sleepy for an M-G-M Early Talkie.)  Back from college after manhandling a new girl and her new car (his behavior more appalling than laugh inducing), Haines skips his folks’ anniversary dinner to hit the town with college pals.  Scripter Charles MacArthur making a cunning move by showing he’s really no worse than his pals.*  An entire generation of self-centered hedonists!  Then, MacArthur places the required life-altering crisis not at the end, but in the middle.  (Dad dies and the whole family leaves manse for tenement.)  Haines, still the supreme Jerk of No Trades, continues to force his affections on an engaged Leila Hyams (it’s 1930 so she encourages the mauling) only to luck out when he nails a seemingly impossible office assignment.  This not only leads to a happy ending, it also sets up a one-reel comic duet between Haines and the always astonishing Marie Dressler, fresh off her ANNA CHRISTIE/’30 comeback, as a rich old bat Haines needs to ‘land’ for the bank.  When Haines gets top billing, the story is always The Rake’s Progress.

DOUBLE-BILL: *The best iteration of the usual Haines character arc is in George W. Hill’s TELL IT TO THE MARINES/’26 with Eleanor Boardman coming between Haines and co-star Lon Chaney.  Alas, Haines’ best film, MEMORY LANE/’26 (John Stahl; Conrad Nagel, Boardman) only exists in a superb, but out of order print that (reel-by-reel) has its scenes grouped not by story continuity but by tinting color!

SCREWY THOUGHT OF THE DAY: *So, what did happen with Haines?  Was his carefree character too irresponsible as the Depression took hold?  (The economic crisis had yet to fully hit Hollywood in 1930.)  Was it simply that what seemed like larky fun in a 20-something became unacceptably cruel in a 30-something slightly thickened by age?  Or did synch-sound & dialogue add unattractive realism to his constant ribbing, quips & caustic hijinks?  Suddenly the playful jabs really hurt.

CONTEST:  *MacArthur lifts his famous ending from THE FRONT PAGE (co-written with Ben Hecht) here.  It's the one signified by the line: ’The son of a bitch stole my watch.’   Explain its use here and name another MacArthur/Hecht film classic that reused the same idea.  (And no, it’s not Howard Hawks’ gender flip reworking of THE FRONT PAGE as HIS GIRL FRIDAY/’40.)

UNFROSTED (2024)

Catnip for Baby Boomers; younger viewers (and who isn’t?) may find themselves culturally at sea.  Still, this docu-farce on the race between Post and Kellogg’s to get a shelf-stable breakfast pastry into your local 1963 supermarket is relentless good fun.  Or is it just relentless?  Shot and performed like a living cartoon, Jerry Seinfeld co-writes, directs & stars as a top cereal exec leading the drive.  Wisely backing himself with an All-Star line-up of Stand-Up Comics in roles large & small, Seinfeld's consistently surprised line delivery remains for better or worse largely intact.  Odd that a comedian with some of the best comic timing since Jack Benny should rush fences and then have trouble shifting down a gear or two.  Elsewise, his directing debut comes off pretty well: hothouse lighting; goofy period technology & office decor horrors taken for granted; real actors as needed (Christian Slater, Hugh Grant, Jon Hamm all welcome).  Hope he gave his helpful editor (with at least eleven 'saves') a big bonus!  Though maybe no bonus for their researcher: Cabbage Patch Dolls; Missing persons on Milk Cartons?  In ‘63?  (Or is this a test?)  Laughs will undoubtedly vary by age (plenty had over here), yet it’s hard not to wonder if a pseudo-serious take might have paid bigger dividends.  Whenever Walter Cronkite shows up for a report, it’s like half the work is being done for you.

ATTENTION MUST BE PAID:  Attention to that Pop Tart coming out of your toaster!  Don’t know if it’s still true, but when the original four flavors first came out, the Brown Sugar filling got so notoriously hot from the toaster, it burned the roofs of the mouth of an entire generation of kids.

DOUBLE-BILL/LINK:  To see this kind of social satire done in a serious and seriously funny way: THE MAN IN THE WHITE SUIT/’51.  Or for ‘60s throwback period flavor & thoughtful content: PLEASANTVILLE/’98.  https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2021/09/the-man-in-white-suit-1951.html    https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2022/10/pleasantville-1998.html

GODZILLA MINUS ONE / GOJIRA -1.0 (2023)

Surely the best GODZILLA movie since GODZILLA, that is the first GODZILLA, or rather GOJIRA, the title of the original 1954 Japanese cut.  (Starting an 8th decade of constant activity, who could possibly have seen them all?)  The initial film, made not so long after the literal fallout from the bombs that ended the war, had a top-tier cast & compelling direction from Ishirô Honda, with atomic guilt on offense & defense, motivating the monster out of the depths.  This new film goes farther back, to near the end of the war as a Kamikaze Pilot gets cold feet, scraps his flight, then watches in horror from his inactive plane as the monster flattens the small island he 'parked' on.  Haunted by a different sort of guilt than what was seen in the original film, he survives to live a ‘borrowed’ (or is it bartered?) post-war life, grabbing a chance for peaceful redemption by starting a new, ad-hoc ‘found’ family out of war’s rubble, and later joining a civilian defense group when an even stronger Godzilla beast rises from the depths to finish his mission of total destruction.  Again, a fine cast and an inventive director* help this stand out, but it’s the writing, concept and changing ideas of a new Japan moving away from its fixation on honorable death to embrace honorable life, that ups the emotional involvement.  (A volunteer mine sweeper raises the issue directly, saying: ‘This country never changes . . . perhaps it can’t.’)  The special effects vary from superb to ‘whazzit’ (Godzilla, at best, always an oddly proportioned thing, especially when standing), but packing a wallop when he chows down on soldiers or picks up a battle ship and tosses it over his shoulder.  Yikes!  If there’s such a thing as a paradigm of a GODZILLA pic, this is it.

DOUBLE-BILL/LINK:  As mentioned, the original GOJIRA/’54.  For more Ishirô Honda horror, with color & a decent budget, try THE H-MAN/’58.  https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2021/11/the-h-man-bijo-to-ekitai-ningen-1958.html

ATTENTION MUST BE PAID:  *Director Takashi Yamazaki not afraid to lighten the mood from a generally serious tone, often with a sly film reference he refrains from pushing in your face.  Like ending the first act with a ‘Smile you son of a . . . ’ homage to JAWS/’75.

THE ROUNDUP / BEOMJOIDOSI 2 (2022)

Deservedly popular Korean (comic) police actioner (two sequels already) with Ma Dong-seok (aka Don Lee) again playing detective Ma Seok-do, currently under a restraining order for excessive violence, but charging into his next case for a quick career-redeeming win.  Here he’s after some vicious ex-pat Korean criminals, now working scams in Vietnam where they prey on Korean tourists.  But even the worst of the worst can go too far and these guys now find themselves under attack by the gangster father of one of their kidnap victims.  For Detective Lee (and his superior who’s joined him on the hunt in Vietnam) it means he’s fending off opponents on three-fronts: Ultra-violent kidnapers; ultra-powerful mob guys; and the cops (Korean and Vietnamese) trying to reel him in.  Director Sang-yong ain’t going for subtlety, but sure gets his laughs, as much from character as from tonnage; with plenty of gross-out gore and martial arts choreography to pair with the film’s wonderful line-up of eccentric personalities.*  And Don Lee is the real deal in action comedy.  With fast moves and bulky frame, you really believe in this one-man wrecking crew, a combo platter of Jackies Chan and Gleason.  (Because of fairly realistic violence, this rates a 13 & Up Family Friendly Label.)

ATTENTION MUST BE PAID:  *Look out for the Gangster’s Wife #2.  A woman who knows what she wants and knows how to get it.  And note how much of the action (knife battles and vehicular mayhem), are done for real and not made ridiculous thru CGI overkill.

OORLOGSWINTER / WINTER IN WARTIME (2008)

Coming-of-age WWII story set in Nazi-occupied Holland ought to be a slam dunk for co-writer/director Martin Koolhoven, but unexpectedly hits the rim.  Hard to put a finger on just what goes wrong, but it plays like a melodrama with convenient story beats substituting for plot, trying for realism with a series of predetermined twists going wrong instead of right.  Debuting Martijn Lakemeier, is touchingly rebellious as the 15-yr-old son of a small town mayor, looking up to his resistance hero Dutch Uncle and down on a father he views as little better than a collaborator.  Assumptions that prove tragically misguided when they come directly into play after an RAF pilot bails and needs medical & reconnaissance help.  There’s a romantic complication between his nurse sister & the wounded flier, but that’s less of a problem than the boy’s short attention span.  Every time he takes his eye off the ball, some mini-disaster happens, usually to his bike.  (BTW, how many bikes does this boy have?  Even with wartime restrictions he seems to go thru about five.)  Much of the snowy atmosphere is nicely accomplished (pity about the occasional use of fake ‘foam’ snow), but then Koolhoven will build up a race to an execution that D.W. Griffith might find too much.  And why so much political naivety by the kid (and seemingly much of the town) about the deadly consequences of Nazi retribution when the film begins in January 1945, long after they must have figured things out and were waiting for the Allies certain advance.

ATTENTION MUST BE PAID:  Jamie Campbell Bower, quite good as a remarkably fast healing RAF pilot, looks like the missing link between Malcolm McDowell and  Jonathan Rhys Meyers in their salad days.

DOUBLE-BILL/LINK: Andrei Tarkovsky started his career with one of the great WWII coming-of-age films, IVAN’S CHILDHOOD/’62.  https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2016/09/ivanovo-detstvo-ivans-childhood-1962.html

SUMMER GHOST (2021)

There’s the Christian Trinity: Father, Son, Holy Spirit.  There’s the Louisiana Trinity: Onions, Celery, Green Pepper.  And there’s the Japanese anime Trinity: Suicidal Thoughts, Mortal Illness, Social Alienation.  All covered in this visually impressive anime, a debut short from the self-named Loundraw, made under his own independent shingle.  More a statement of intent than a full-fledged project, it makes a bewitching first course that could lead to . . . ?  Ah, there’s the rub, as a well known Danish Prince once put it.  Lead to what?  As it stands, three 20-somethings link up thru the internet, meet at a diner, then head out to find their mutual interest: rumored sightings of a teen ghost said to appear at an abandoned airstrip, drawn like moths to a flame by firework sparklers.  (Once ubiquitous, now largely banned Stateside, sparklers were nearly as good as those puck-like glowing black snakes that left a semi-permanent mark on the sidewalk for the entire summer.  A real summer ghost.)  Coming in at a tidy 40 minutes, the storyline never quite synchs into place, which of the boys is dying?  Why did the ghost girl suicide?  But Loundraw’s striking technical finish is enough to fill the short running time.  Perhaps Loundraw (he explains the odd name in an interview on the disc) really needs the narrative constraints a commercial studio would force on him.  But this is certainly worth the modest time commitment.  (NOTE:  We've put a Family Friendly label on this, but keep the anime Trinity in mind.) 

SCREWY THOUGHT OF THE DAY:  Like characters in so much anime, the girl’s features ‘read’ as faintly Asian, while the boys not at all.  All alarmingly cute, of course, all with less nose than Harry Potter’s Lord Voldemort.

HIGH TREASON (1929)

Foolish but fascinating, this cautionary tale warns of the next World War only a decade after the last.  Technically, it looks back at Fritz Lang’s METROPOLIS/’27 for physical inspiration; morally it looks ahead toward H.G. Wells THINGS TO COME/’36 in ideas.*  If only it lived up to them.  Made for simultaneous release in silent & Talkie format*, there’s less difference than you’d expect between the two, largely because journeyman director Maurice Elvey has little aptitude for epic scale in presentation or politics.  Neat opening though, as a border incident between WEST & EAST alliances escalates to war mongering from Fifth Columnist agitators & munitions profiteers.  Only a World Peace Organization holds out against the rush to war, their messianic leader a prophet who can shoot to kill if necessary.  Normally seconded by fervid daughter Benita Hume, currently in thrall to military man Jameson Thomas (hopelessly miscast), who opposes everything she believes in .  Less stately than you fear, but weightless, missing the scale and dramatic use of mass movement Lang brings to his wildly influential film.  Elvey’s spectacular city of the future and airborne ships of war still a fun watch in spite of looking like Tinker Toys, prophesizing WWII’s Blitz attacks as well as TV news.  Best effect here is no effect at all, but a set, a long futuristic office space with serried rows of young female secretaries at their desks all with freshly ‘bobbed’ hair-dos.  There are also a few unintentionally funny title cards like: We’re prepared to fight to the Death for Universal Peace!  Of the miniatures, best is a neat cutaway of a high-speed ‘Chunnel’ train that’s been targeted for bombing.  But alas, none of the splendor & threat Lang got out of these future indicative things.

ATTENTION MUST BE PAID:  *Also in casting; look fast to spot that film’s lead, Raymond Massey, here making a brief film debut.  And note that for some reason the Silent film’s future is set to 1950 whereas the Talkie takes place in 1940 . . . not that you’d notice.

DOUBLE-BILL/LINK:  Of his nearly 200 directing credits, Maurice Elvey’s HINDLE WAKES/’27 is the best seen here.  (Only 197 left to see.)  https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2008/05/hindle-wakes-1927.html

CRIMSON PEAK (2015)

Who but Guillermo del Toro could look at Alfred Hitchcock’s NOTORIOUS/’45 and think, ‘If only this film had a scary ghost and a couple of undead souls.’  And he ain’t shy announcing his intentions!  ‘Borrowing’ key elements (in close-up, yet) so you can’t miss references: a secret key (engraved ENOLA instead of UNICA); slow poisoning at afternoon tea, heroine transported to a strange mansion in a strange country; adversary in-law; losing touch with the man who ought to be her savior (he returns just in time to carry her prone body to bed) . . . and so on.  This all comes after a long first act in the States (not Florida, New England) with ideas largely grabbed out of Henry James (think WASHINGTON SQUARE/THE HEIRESS meets THE TURN OF THE SCREW) as rich, naive American Mia Wasikowska (soon to be orphaned) is pursued by brash, sophisticated British con man Tom Hiddleston, accompanied by creepy ‘sister’ Jessica Chastain.  Once moved into the roofless family manse in the U.K., Hiddleston pursues his odd mining project using up his wife’s inheritance*; ‘sis’ plays a grand piano impervious to tuning problems in spite of open roof & snowy conditions; and del Toro plays mix-master with various Gothic literary tropes while allowing (encouraging?) his cast to overact while underacting!  (All but wonderful Burn Gorman, the immortal Guppy from BLEAK HOUSE/’05, alas in a bit part.)

WATCH THIS, NOT THAT/LINK:  Why not ‘ghostless’ NOTORIOUS?  OR: Two superb Henry James adaptations. https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2019/07/notorious-1946.html  https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2018/09/the-heiress-1949.html  https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2016/03/the-innocents-1961.html   

SCREWY THOUGHT OF THE DAY: Perhaps if del Toro weren’t such a good interview: smart, funny, film savvy, always ready to grab a bite; he’d get pressed a bit over his flops and would think twice about some of his more dubious projects.  Or maybe, like Tim Burton, success and ever larger budgets stifled rather than expanded artistic imagination.

ATTENTION MUST BE PAID:  *BTW, the mining project finally coming in no doubt suggesting the grand gated entry to the property which is straight out of GIANT/’56.