MAKSQUIBS CINEMATHEQUE: YOU CAN'T GET AWAY WITH MURDER (1939)

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RECOMMENDED - Meaning Strongly Recommended. A film that's good enough or historically important enough to demand viewing. WARNING: A few real stinkers are important enough to rate this label. And, on the other hand, lots of pretty good or pretty valuable films, don't quite measure up to our RECOMMENDED level. (See also UNIQUE, below.)

FAMILY FRIENDLY - CAREFUL!! Not necessarily a KIDDIE pic, but a film that school kids may get into if the subject interests. You'll find foreign & silent pics in here as the need to read the sub-titles & inter-titles to follow the narrative and get all the jokes does wonders for ADD types.

LINK - To quickly find any Write-Up that includes an InterNet Link of interest for that specific film.

UNIQUE - Films that may not fit into the usual critical categories of Good, Bad or Indifferent, (certainly not indifferent!), but are worth watching because there just ain't nothing like 'em. Sui generis pics. (Phooey generis if they don't work for you.)

READ ALL ABOUT IT - While there's a book or two (or ten dozen) closely related to just about any film you might think of, here's a specific book you might not have known about (or thought of) that opens a window on the chosen title.

SCREWY THOUGHT OF THE DAY - A place to vent those out-of-left-field thoughts.

POSTER - Hmm, I bet you can figure this one out.

(Hint: most of the posters will enlarge if you click on them.)

WATCH THIS, NOT THAT - sort of like those EAT THIS, NOT THAT diet books only with film instead of food as the topic. Sometimes, the substitute pick isn't the obvious 'better' choice, but one of those 'flawed-but-interesting' films that often get left behind.

ATTENTION MUST BE PAID - some easy to miss element worth noting.

SILENT FILM - hey, figure it out (LOL)

. . . and DOUBLE-BILL - a suggested second feature.

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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.
Of course, you lose audience interaction and the poor film now has to compete with all the comforts of home.
It's a bit like seeing Rembrandts & Titians in a book reproduction, or from posters with iffy color values, no texture or weight to the surface and the wrong dimensions . . . all while snacking on chips & soda. (Oops! You get that at your local cinema,too.)
The ease of instant movie gratification risks turning an art form (well, sometimes) into little more than low-grade eye-candy & mindfodder. So, maybe it's worthwhile to write a bit down on what we're all viewing, just to keep fully engaged.

DVDs: the latest opiate of the people meets the internet, where everyone's a critic.
God help us.

Now Over 5500 Reviews and (near) Daily Updates!

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Sunday, October 7, 2018

YOU CAN'T GET AWAY WITH MURDER (1939)

While still supporting A-listers like Cagney, Davis, Robinson & Flynn at Warners, Humphrey Bogart also got to play lead in B-pics. Or did till this sub-par prison drama gave most of the juicy bits and screen time to third-billed Billy Halop, a Dead End Kid being groomed for bigger things. (Note poster.) Bogie must have felt he was moving backwards with this moldy programmer where everyone but cinematographer Sol Polito is barely going thru the motions. Halop, smart-ass kid brother of Gale Page, hooks up with Bogart’s small time hood only to wind up in jail on a robbery charge. They ought to in for murder, but a gun ‘borrowed’ from Page’s fiancé has sent the sap up for the crime.* If Halop doesn’t fess up quick, it’s the electric chair for the innocent guy. Bogart’s a flat-out louse in this one, and Halop doesn’t exactly build rooting interest either, weighed down by character flaws and a voice & vocal inflections just like mid-‘50s Jerry Lewis. Jerry in looks & build, too.

DOUBLE-BILL: After CRIME SCHOOL/’38; KING OF THE UNDERWORLD/’39 and this, getting away from journeyman megger Lewis Seiler must have been a top priority for Bogart. But redemption would soon call thanks to director Raoul Walsh who co-starred him against George Raft in next year’s THEY DRIVE BY NIGHT and again in HIGH SIERRA/’41 when Raft turned it down.

SCREWY THOUGHT OF THE DAY: *Pretty flimsy evidence for a Capital Crime/Electric Chair verdict, no?

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ERNST LUBITSCH

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Now Over 5500 Reviews and (near) Daily Updates!

Sunday, October 7, 2018

YOU CAN'T GET AWAY WITH MURDER (1939)

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