SLEEP, MY LOVE (1948)

Now in her mid-forties, Claudette Colbert was just off THE EGG AND I/’47 (that alarmingly successful city-folk-go-hayseed comedy that not only birthed Ma & Pa Kettle, but eventually GREEN ACRES), when she made this transparent ripoff of GASLIGHT/’44.  (GASLIGHT itself a remake.  https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2010/05/gaslight-1944.html)  ‘Presented’ by Mary Pickford, though husband Charles ’Buddy’ Rogers takes screen credit, it’s impeccably produced in all ways but the one that counts: the screenplay.  Again, there’s a ‘caring’ husband (Don Ameche in the Charles Boyer role) ‘gaslighting’ wife Colbert to drive her nuts & grab an inheritance (Ingrid Bergman’s spot), while Robert Cummings takes on the Joseph Cotten role of guardian angel.  Knowing the audience is going to be ahead of the action, this iteration reveals the villain by reel two, but has more than enough juice left from cast & crew to hold interest.  (Supporting players include Raymond Burr, George Coulouris, Key Luke, Rita Johnson, Ralph Morgan and a stellar Hazel Brooks.)   Plus director Douglas Sirk covering studio sets & exteriors like a curious crab.*  (Influenced by George Cukor’s use of vertical tracking in the 1944 GASLIGHT?)  A tricky shoot-out climax especially fine.  Shot with noir trimmings by Joe Valentine, a Hitchcock regular at the time.  All good. If only the script knew when to tighten the screws and when to loosen up.  Poor Claudette has to go ON or OFF crazy more often than 'La Sonnambula’ in Bellini’s opera.

DOUBLE-BILL/LINK:   *Sirk & Colbert had better luck with THUNDER ON THE HILL/’51.  And Colbert got closer to GASLIGHT in THE SECRET FURY/’50.       https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2017/12/thunder-on-hill-1951.html  https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2020/04/the-secret-fury-1950.html

BURNING / BEONING (2018)

With just seven features over three decades, Korean writer/director Lee Chang-dong  has a buzzy new film out (POSSIBLE LOVE/’26 - not seen here), his first since this award-winning creep-out from eight years ago.  At once straight-forward and nuanced, it moves like a daydream following the affairs of a lonely/longing young man (Yoo Ah-in), living by himself at his fast emptying rural family farm close enough to Tokyo for his warehouse job, while considering himself a budding writer.  (William Faulkner his favorite.)  On a work delivery, he bumps into an old acquaintance (Jeon Jong-seo), one-time neighbor who went to his grade school a few years behind him.   Then it’s chat, drinks, bed.  Yoo Ah-in only looks shy; Jeon Jong-seo a bit of a flake.  And while they’ve only just been reacquainted, and she’s off the next day for a dance/music course in Africa, perhaps he could watch her cat while she’s away?   But when she returns, she’s partnered with a smooth operator (Steven Yeun), a rich guy with an odd, indiscriminately seductive vibe.  The rest of the film, which involves disappearance and maybe murder, invokes metaphor, a term discussed by the literate threesome; one you’ll grasp long before anyone on screen does.  And that’s a problem as the film feels stretched out of all proportion.  Two and a half hours for something that might have fit in a half-hour anthology format.  Pretty thin gruel.  It would have worked better as one of those tri-part portmanteau films that seem to have gone out of fashion.*  It’s well done by all; and has a finish both obvious and satisfying.  Perhaps a period setting was needed to add social heft and the difficulty of breaking etiquette between classes, giving reason to reticence.  Perhaps Lee Chang-dong’s new film lives up to the buzz.

SCREWY THOUGHT OF THE DAY:  *With current financial  models governing theatrical releases, are the days of portmanteaux pix gone for good?  Back in the 1950s, Somerset Maugham alone had three (ten stories worth); while in Italy, Vittorio De Sica was likely champ.  Three or four of them on his own (plus another in English) and multiple contributions to ones with multiple directors.

MARS ATTACKS (1996)

Tim Burton functions best when the budget is tight and content pushes him past his comfort zone.  (In other words, not one of his ALICE films.)  So why is MARS ATTACKS so much fun?  The exception that proves the rule?  It could lose a reel or two, but you’ll be giggling too hard to mind.  Based not on a book (comic or otherwise), but on a series of TOPPS Chewing Gum Trading Cards*, story and tone largely inspired by ‘50s Sci-Fi (think THIS ISLAND EARTH/’55; WAR OF THE WORLDS/’53*).  With a huge, unnecessary All-Star cast showing who can get their laughs within the agogic Burton rhythm (Jack Nicholson, Michael J. Fox, Martin Short, Rod Steiger, Tom Jones, Lukas Haas, Jim Brown, Pam Grier, and especially Sylvia Sidney can; everyone else can’t).  But the film’s propulsion doesn’t come from smart dialogue, dumb gags or narrative inertia, but from its elegant high-concept design and lo-fi execution.  Particularly out in space when enemy space craft ominously orbit Earth.  Twenty years after STAR WARS, these may be retro toy models, but grandly purposed and displayed like the imaginatively painted box the scale model kits came in.  Commercial artwork that both ignited and ultimately limited the Burton æsthetic.

READ ALL ABOUT IT/LINK:  *The idea man behind the TOPPS card series, Len Brown, isn’t properly credited on screen, but did recently get this excellent NYTimes obit.  https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/25/arts/len-brown-dead.html?searchResultPosition=1

DOUBLE-BILL/SPOILERS/LINK:  *Just as WAR OF THE WORLDS had the aliens defeated not by weapons of mass destruction, but by ‘the little things,’ viruses and such, so here, where they are felled by a double dose of sub-operatic kitsch: Rudolf Friml operetta sung by Grand Old Opry’s Slim Whitman.    https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2013/10/this-island-earth-1955.html  https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2008/06/war-of-worlds-1953.html

THE REPLACEMENTS (2000)

In a film full of mostly bad surprises, the first is that it took 13 years for Hollywood to turn the 1987 NFL players’ strike, and the brief series of games using semi-pros & amateur ‘replacements’ into a film.  Such a 'can't-miss'  idea.  The second is that, while the template follows 1974's THE LONGEST YARD, at core this is a PRO-scab celebration.  (And you assumed Hollywood was purely closed-shop/Pro-Union in thought & deed.)  Third is: Who knew A.I. was writing major motion pictures in 2000?  (Even scarier, it’s not bad.  Grade it a ‘Gentleman’s B.’*)  Faceless journeyman director Howard Deutch should have been just the guy for this, but his on-field completion rate is low, and the cast either works the gags too hard (see Jon Favreau) or carbon copies past triumphs without background seasoning.  (Jack Warden & Gene Hackman knowing a lost cause when they see one.)  As a once-promising quarterback, Keanu Reeves went to the trouble of putting on enough pounds to unchisel his facial structure, but is ultimately defeated by a zero chemistry girlfriend.  And yet this ain’t a ‘can’t miss’ idea for nothing; the damn thing more or less gets by on field goals or punts it's way out of trouble.*

ATTENTION MUST BE PAID:  *Grade inflation has upped the old Gentleman’s C to B.  (Actual scripter Vince McKewin, last of his three feature credits.)  ALSO: Attention wandering?  Decide if sportscaster Pat Summerall or John Madden is the worse actor.

SCREWY THOUGHT OF THE DAY/LINK:  *Not always the case with ‘can’t miss’ football pics.  Eight years on, George Clooney fell on his ass with a look at the early days of pro-football, LEATHERHEADS.  https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2009/07/leatherheads-2008.html

THE GANGSTER, THE COP, THE DEVIL / AKINJEON (2019)

Slick, ultra-professional crime thriller from South Korean writer/director Lee Won-tae (just optioned for Stateside remake*), a dandy slice of violent police procedural mayhem that lifts off when a brainy serial killer (your standard super-ego sociopath) chooses  the wrong guy as his latest victim since inside the pricey car he regularly targets, no thick-set CEO to stab at will, but a thick-set mob boss who fights back.  Injured, but alive after the killer takes off, it means the cops already on the case at last have an eyewitness to interview.  If only the survivor weren’t also a wanted criminal, a top player in the city’s gangster scene.  Played by vet villain Ma Dong-seok (shades of old-time movie star Wallace Beery, he reluctantly winds up playing ‘down-low’ partner to cock-of-the-walk police detective Kim Mu-yeol (shades of now-time movie star Brad Pitt.  Both men outstanding, each with his own reasons for finding the serial killer first.  They also have lots of backup and lots of rivals to fend off.  A neat set-up, and Lee Won-tae directs the hell out of it, much helped by Se-Seung Park nighttime lensing.  For once in one of these things, you can really follow the plot along with the elaborate fights.  Too bad Won-Tae is so addicted to over-editing, as the film's flow would benefit from a few one-take/two-shots to vary pace, especially when the leads are working out who’s gonna get what out of this unusual collaboration.

SCREWY THOUGHT OF THE DAY:  *A cleverly satisfying have-your-cake-and-eat-it-too ending begs for a follow-up.  No doubt visions of franchise helped set-up remake rights.  Did they try a sequel in Korea?

HER HIGHNESS AND THE BELLBOY (1945)

Beautiful as ever at 31 (with ravishing portrait shots from cinematographer Harry Stradling); the acting a bit more animated than usual; lucking out with fast-rising Robert Walker as co-star, stepping in for a just drafted Mickey Rooney; and getting a solid hit* out of the standard issue Euro-Royalty meets Stateside Commoner playbook; yet for Hedy Lamarr at M-G-M, the writing was already on the wall and her contract wasn’t renewed.  (She only made two more A-list pics: C.B. DeMille’s SAMSON AND DELILAH/’49 and Bob Hope’s MY FAVORITE SPY/’51 before her acting career began to fade away.)  It's directed by M-G-M company-man Richard Thorpe, but family-friendly producer Joe Pasternak pulls the strings behind this sentimental corn that sees NYC hotel bellboy Walker ditch bedridden girlfriend June Allyson once he mistakes visiting Princess Lamarr’s friendly manner at the hotel for love.  Pasternak being Pasternak, there’s a big musical sequencer so Allyson can get off the couch where she paints porcelain figurines (really!) to sing and dance in her dreams.  (Nothing physically wrong with the lass, she just needs a proposal from Walker’s distracted bellboy to receive a ‘love cure.’)  Loaded with ill-used M-G-M contract players (Agnes Moorehead as a chilly royal relative; Carl Esmond as designated fiancé, slow-witted ‘dese-dems-dose’ Rags Ragland for comic relief) . . . and the damn thing goes on for nearly two hours.

WATCH THIS, NOT THAT/LINK:  You’d think these impossible Royalty/Commoner romantic dramedies would have died off ages ago.  But no; still being made today. ROMAN HOLIDAY/’53 (Wyler; Peck, Hepburn) still the ideal.  Best from M-G-M: THE STUDENT PRINCE.  Worst from M-G-M: THE STUDENT PRINCE.  See LINKS for details.  (Hint: the bad one directed by this film’s Richard Thorp and produced by this film’s Joe Pasternak.  https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2020/03/the-student-prince-in-old-heidelberg.html   https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2016/01/the-student-prince-1954.html

ATTENTION MUST BE PAID:  *Keep in mind, just about anything made money in 1945, the last year of the war seeing Hollywood’s all-time highest attendance numbers.

THE ARENA (1956)

Before prolific tele-scripter Rod Serling discovered he could sidestep network censorship by sneaking (mildly) provocative ideas into his work under the guise of fantasy/Sci-Fi in THE TWILIGHT ZONE, he wrote for various prestige anthology shows.  So-called Golden Age TV like this hour-long drama for STUDIO ONE.  (Under Westinghouse sponsorship at the time, most editions retain the awkwardly ‘live’ original commercials; mini tele-plays for new appliances and actress Betty Furness.)  This one, a political drama about a senatorial feud played out on the Senate floor, a fair representation of the Serling model & method.   Just appointed Senator Wendell Corey holds a grudge against his state’s senior U.S. senator (director John Cromwell in a rare actor gig) who had denounced Corey’s corrupt senator father.  Corey’s newly hired advisor, Chester Morris, superb as a wise/wily D.C. operator, knows to play the long game, but on a drunk, blurts out an old damning secret.  Will Corey use the bomb or take the high road?  The same moral dilemma supplies the narrative motor in Gore Vidal’s THE BEST MAN/’64.  (https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2020/02/the-best-man-1964.html  It also shares ARENA director Franklin J. Schaffner.)  Main reason to watch is to check on one-time Hollywood A-lister Morris in a return to form with far better material than Hollywood offered after he’d slipped to programmers.  But the unfortunate main takeaway is seeing how commonplace Serling looks without genre camouflage and metaphoric trimmings.*  Censorship did him a favor.

DOUBLE-BILL/LINK:  *Past THE TWILIGHT ZONE (try ‘To Serve Man’), Serling’s subcutaneous message technique (including his beloved O’Henry twist endings) is best seen in PLANET OF THE APES/’66 (again with director  Schaffner).  But his best without obfuscating genre elements is SEVEN DAYS IN MAY/’64 under John Frankenheimer, another Golden Age tv director.  https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2024/02/seven-days-in-may-1964.html

WORLD WAR III / JANG-E JAHANI SEVOM (2022)

For those who think Romania writer/director Cristian Mungiu (4 MONTHS, 3 WEEKS AND 2 DAYS/’07) isn’t tackling enough of his signature Modern Romanian Misérables tales*, here’s Iranian writer/director Houman Seyyedi to the rescue.  If that’s what you’re looking for, he’s damn good at it.  This award-winning downer, a convincingly tricked out nihilistic fable features Mohsen Tanabandeh as a homeless, middle-aged day laborer drifting from town to town after losing wife & child to an earthquake.  Finding temp construction work on a low-budget Holocaust film, he’s roped in (along with other day laborers) as a Concentration Camp extra in gas chamber scenes where he and his faceless building crew get treated a bit too realistically.  There’s a sense of irony run amuck as film production herders rush from shot to shot to keep on schedule.  But Seyyedi has much worse in mind than unsettling cos-play as Tanabandeh’s character inexorably sinks toward disaster: tapped to play Hitler; sleeping in the unheated gas chamber set, forced to double on early call kitchen duty, blackmailed by relatives of the local whore who secretly moves in with him on site.  Luckily, since he can’t read lines, he ‘acts’ by counting up to his next move; dialogue to be looped in later.  But any remaining laughs freeze in your throat as a series of missed communications lead to on-set tragedy and a revenge any Nazi resistence fighter would envy.  The film a bottomless black hole of Misérables’ revenge.  Fascinating, but very bleak.

DOUBL-BILL/LINK:  *Cristian Mungiu used different paths and more complicated character motivation to cover similar territory in GLORY/’16, where no-good-deed-goes-unpunished.  https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2025/01/glory-slava-2016.html

THE PAPER TIGERS (2018)

American-born Quoc Bao Tran, with a background in Martial Arts action-editing, made his writing/directing feature debut on this good-natured, if rueful Kung Fu comedy.  Modestly released to even more modest sampling, he’s put out nothing since.  A shame as half of the film has a lot of fun following three one-time Kung Fu prodigies who reunite after 15 years for the funeral of their beloved former master.  All three nearing some sort of mid-life crisis, all three sure they’re still unbeatable, if a bit rusty from age, disuse or injury.  A workout or two should bring it all back.  Yes?  Making fast enemies out of later students now claiming the late master’s legacy, they’re easily goaded into challenge matches only to find clean fights, won or lost, can turn enemies into comrades.  And if these formal grudge matches can’t fix all life problems, flexing the old disciplines still has lessons for them.  Heard this one before?*  But as long as Quoc Bao Tran holds to ‘buddy’ tropes & character comedy, the cast is able to make something out of this ‘curate’s egg’ of a film.  First-among-equals Alain Uy as a divorced dad trying too hard to cover all bases a particular pleasure.  But the script keeps slipping in moral uplift, kidding-on-the-square fortune cookie aphorisms and nods toward the power of positive thinking.  And we’re not even mentioning a final climax against a deadly legacy usurper/villain who’ll be defeated if one of our former prodigies can only ‘feel the force’ once more.

SCREWY THOUGHT OF THE DAY:  *Not seen here, but is this what COBRA KAI/’18 - ‘25 manages  better?