MAKSQUIBS CINEMATHEQUE: CHARLIE CHAN IN EGYPT (1935)

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Like just about everyone with an interest in the movies, I'm watching more films on DVD and going out to movie houses a lot less. Convenience trumps the better experience.
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DVDs: the latest opiate of the people meets the internet, where everyone's a critic.
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Thursday, May 15, 2008

CHARLIE CHAN IN EGYPT (1935)

The naturally spooky elements of ancient Egyptian archeology (Mummies, Death Curses, Hidden Treasure) don’t really do much for this Charlie Chan murder mystery. Warner Oland’s Chan would get a lot more out of the following film’s addition of Keye Luke’s Number One Son, a fine swap-out for this film’s Stepin Fetchit who’s at least a bit sharper than usual, he even gets a date. Fun to see Rita Hayworth, still billed as Rita Casino, in an early, barely recognizable appearance.

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A last thought before we go.

Well, enough from me. But before we sign off, here's a great quote from Emile Zola's L'OEUVRE (THE MASTERPIECE), which is about painting rather than the yet to be invented medium of film, but which points a fine critical eye toward the whole idea of art criticism. It's a good, if chilly, thought to keep in mind, especially when you surf the net.

"Has it ever struck you that posterity may not be the fair, impartial judge we like to think it is?

"Suppose the artist's paradise turned out to be as nonexistent as the Catholics, and future generations prove just as misguided as the present one and persisted in liking pretty pretty dabbling better than honest to goodness painting. There are some accepted masterpieces for which I myself wouldn't give a twopenny damn.

"Classical training has given us a wrong view of everything and forces us to acclaim as geniuses a lot of fellows who are no more than well-balanced, facile painters, while what we might really prefer is the work of more emancipated but less even artists known only to an initiated few. Immortality at present depends entirely on the average, middle-class mind and is reserved only for the names that have been most forcibly impressed upon us while we were still unable to defend ourselves...

"Perhaps that's the sort of thing that's best left unsaid. It's certainly the sort of thing that gives me the shudders!"- Emile Zola

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Thursday, May 15, 2008

CHARLIE CHAN IN EGYPT (1935)

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A last thought before we go.

DROP ME A LINE