TIME AFTER TIME (1979)

After arranging a meeting of the minds for Sherlock Holmes & Sigmund Freud in THE SEVEN PERCENT SOLUTION/’76, Nicholas Meyer’s next project had Jack the Ripper evade the police by fleeing to the future in H. G. Wells’ Time Machine. Then, in this intense and clever thriller, sending H. G. himself to present day San Francisco to catch him. Malcolm McDowell’s droll Wells, David Warner’s unnerving ‘Ripper’ and Mary Steenburgen’s up-to-date modern love interest bring plenty of charm, suspense & romance. But whereas Meyer only wrote SOLUTION, here he co-scripted and made a sub-par directing debut. A stronger D.P. might have helped (Paul Lohmann’s over-lit interiors & general lack of style is default Movie-of-the-Week); or better third act plotting to carry us past the weak points. Faults and all, it's still good fun. Steenburgen is a particular treat, with a delivery reminiscent of Jean Arthur; plus a swell throwback of a score from Miklós Rózsa (check out that love theme in the woods). Meyer’s next was the much-loved STAR TREK II/’82, but his directing skills never did get catch up to his writing, and gigs remained frustratingly elusive with a mere six features on his C.V. up till now.

DOUBLE-BILL: George Pal’s toylike THE TIME MACHINE/’60 makes for a nifty compare-and-contrast, but a more enlightened pairing, with many of this film’s problems corrected, would be John Carpenter’s STARMAN/’84.

CONTEST: When a flat tire adds suspense to a chase, Steenburgen does something unnecessary to gain help. Name it to win a MAKSQUIBS Write-Up on a DVD of your choice.

THE PRINCE AND THE PAUPER (1990)

Ever since Mickey Mouse was tamed from mischievous rodent to corporate symbol/family man, Walt Disney & Co. have never quit trying to reintroduce him as leading player rather than interlocutor. (Walt did it best himself on THE SORCERER’S APPRENTICE in FANTASIA/’40.) For this attempt, Mickey gets a double-role as Mark Twain’s famous lookalike Tudor-boys from different parts of town. And while the traditional hand-drawn animation is sprightly & colorful, the characterizations, gags, songs and storytelling are anodyne as all get out, depressingly so. Even Mickey’s voice is gentled down from Walt’s original falsetto squeak. Fortunately, the current release in a Classics Shorts Series features a rude, scrappy Mickey (b&w/1933/vocals by Walt) fighting Dippy Dawg (a sort of pre-Goofy) for Minnie’s hand in a Knightly operetta called YE OLDEN DAYS. It’s not great Mickey, but next to PRINCE, it looks darn lively. Three other shorts round out the program (each about 7 minutes to PRINCE’s 25), but only the remarkably creepy PIED PIPER operetta (also from ‘33, but in color) really grabs you. Even as Germanic Fairy Tales go this is one from the darkside. With it’s No Way Out ending intact. Show it to three-yr-olds to keep ‘em up all night.

WATCH THIS, NOT THAT: Errol Flynn had an unintentional test run for ROBIN HOOD in Warners 1937 version of THE PRINCE AND THE PAUPER, made with real twins rather than photographic trickery. And what a score from Erich Wolfgang Korngold!

BIG EYES (2014)

Tim Burton’s effort to get back to moviemaking basics (with a tenth the budget of recent efforts) may be laudable, even necessary, but ultimately founders on a storyline too fragile to support a feature-length film. Maybe a different POV or an earlier starting point (less newspaper columnist/more DOLL’S HOUSE backstory) could have added texture to this fact-inspired tale of the commercial juggernaut Margaret & Walter Keane made off their critically despised paintings & reproductions of sad-eyed waifs. (Burton’s personal collection of sad-eyed waifs includes most of his leading ladies: Winona Rider; Christina Ricci; Eva Green; Helena Bonham Carter.) The twist in the tale, that Walter took all the credit while Margaret did all the art, can hardly be considered much of a surprise; in Hollywood, it’s standard operating procedure!* And the all too obvious solution, painting a picture to settle the issue, proves . . . er . . . an all too obvious solution. Yet, the film has its visual pleasures, though not in the action scenes where Burton, unable to call upon an army of well-paid studio technicians, remains all thumbs, as always. But look at the San Francisco clubs; tasty as a late ‘50s Paramount VistaVision production. We might be enjoying Daniel Fapp’s smoky interiors for Danny Kaye’s THE FIVE PENNIES/’59. And speaking of pleasures, no surprise to find Amy Adams just about flawless as Margaret Keane.

SCREWY THOUGHT OF THE DAY: *As in TIM BURTON’S THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS/’93, directed by (wait for it) Henry Selick. Not that anyone’s hiding credit, but still . . .

OUR MOTHER'S HOUSE (1967)

With just seven features over three decades, British helmer Jack Clayton’s once considerable rep never had the chance to recover from the drubbing he took when his over-hyped try at THE GREAT GATSBY/’74 underwhelmed. (The real blame likely belonged to a Mia Farrow unworthy of all the bother. Or would that be Zelda?) Still, it’s easy to see what all the fuss on Clayton was about even in this flawed project, a odd-duck item about a gaggle of just-orphaned kids who hide Mom’s death, afraid of the world outside and of what might happen next. There’s a LORD OF THE FLIES/’63 (kiddie fascist microcosm) meets WHISTLE DOWN THE WIND/’61 (kiddie religious hysteria) vibe to this cloistered tale, but lacking the isolated locales of those stories, it’s tougher to buy into the set up. Fortunately, halfway in, Dirk Bogarde shows up, in a marvelously appalling turn (and an equally appalling bowl haircut) as the kids’ putative long-lost father. But is he there to help the little dears keep up appearances or to fleece them? The change in tone doesn’t exactly make you swallow the concept, but it sure shakes things up! Clayton gets a series of spectacular perfs from the kids, and with strikingly particularized behavior. Watch for Mark Lester & Pamela Franklin shortly before they made their marks in OLIVER!/’68 and PRIME OF JEAN BRODIE/’69. As well as Phoebe Nicholls as the tot who gets her hair cropped off as punishment, looking precisely as she would playing the devout sister in BRIDESHEAD REVISTED/’81 and over the decades in many BBC imports. Plus a surprise writing credit from Haya Harareet (the love interest from BEN-HUR/’59) who otherwise had retired to be director Clayton’s wife.

DOUBLE-BILL: As mentioned above, FLIES and WHISTLE, but for even better creepy kids from Jack Clayton, try THE INNOCENTS/’61, his unbeatable adaptation of Henry James’s TURN OF THE SCREW.

CAPTIVE WILD WOMAN (1943)

Director Edward Dmytryk was making this little Universal horror pic when his recent pic, HITLER’S CHILDREN, became the ‘sleeper’ hit that bumped him up to B+ features; and the best pics of his career. (Ironically, Dmytryk only made the A-list after serving time in prison as one of the Hollywood Ten.) CAPTIVE is hooey, of course, and seems to be missing a finale at a brisk 61 minutes, but it's not without a few tasty fright-filled moments & decent camp appeal. John Carradine makes for a rather sedate Mad Scientist, specializing in gland-swapping between species and various eugenics-based atrocities. (In hindsight, a timely subject in 1943!) So, why not purloin a few glands from his new & pretty patient and turn that intelligent gorilla he met at the circus into a bewitching woman? (Wha? Hard to get too worked up over a man in a gorilla suit anyway.) Meanwhile, back at the big top, animal hunter Milburn Stone is having trouble working inside the cage with his lions & tigers when Carradine’s lovely, if unnatural gorilla gal (South American bombshell Acquanetta) shows up just outside his cage and mesmerizes the beasts. Okay, it’s painfully dopey. But the wild animal act, culled from earlier footage with Clyde Beatty, is darn frightening stuff. Talk about non-PC animal rights. Yikes! Dmytryk does a reasonable job with what he’s got to work with; the cast pitches in (especially Carradine); and the editing & camera tricks work up a decent level of suspense. Or do until that where-did-it-go ending. But our barely awake Gorilla Gal, Acquanetta, brings little to the party. Universal took note and let her go the following year after a couple more pics.

SCREWY THOUGHT OF THE DAY: A rare romantic lead for likable Milburn Stone (‘Doc’ Adams in GUNSMOKE). He must have been the only Universal contract player who physically ‘matched-up’ with the recycled action footage of lion-tamer Clyde Beatty.

PIETA (2012)

Korean director Ki-duk Kim shows an easy command in this twisted Mother-Love saga, seasoning his revenge-thriller with family secrets & sick comic touches. Superbly structured, the story follows a cavalier loan-shark collector who specializes in crippling tardy clients (often with their own tool-and-die equipment) then sitting back to collect accident insurance as payoff. Complications arise when he’s confronted by a mad woman who claims she’s the mother who abandoned him 30 years ago. Seeking forgiveness, nothing seems to faze her, at one point adding a kick to help her son break a guy’s tibia at work, at another, lending a hand to help get him off. Yikes! Could she really be his mother? Or is this some test or trick from his rarely seen boss? Kim probably takes more time than he should teasing this out, but solves his puzzle in satisfying fashion with wonderfully clean technique and vivid perfs all ‘round. Jung-Jin Lee, who plays the blankly vicious, oddly sentimental enforcer brings sleepy bedroom eyes, incipient jowls and just a hint of a snarl on the upper lip. He’d make a perfect Korean Elvis. (Count that as a SCREWY THOUGHT OF THE DAY.)

DOUBLE-BILL: More (even better) Korean Mother-Love in Joon-ho Bong’s MOTHER/’09.

THE MOLE PEOPLE (1956)

Saturday matinee horror fare for the kiddies, cheaply made, but not despicable. Eager archaeologist John Agar and bored colleague Hugh Beaumont (pre-LEAVE IT TO BEAVER) uncover a gaping hole on a mountaintop that leads them to a mysterious underground civilization . . . with monsters, but no way out! Fun, and with cool allegorical feints at racial & gender equality since the place is run by an all-male albino nobility who lord it over pigmented lady acolytes and worker colony reptilian slaves in a state of constant violent revolt. Creepy looking things, clawing thru earthen walls on guerrilla attacks, yet more misunderstood then evil. The film’s ultra-tight budget makes for some poorly integrated matte paintings & model shots, just as it leaves a few cataclysmic events (like the merely suggested earthquaking finale) as ‘noises-off’ effects. But if newbie megger Laszlo Gorog can’t quite rouse his cast or freshen up his few ‘standing’ sets, he’s not unaware of the possibilities for nifty dissolve transitions in editing near-blackout cave wanderings. All told, a relatively spirited goof that’s both fun . . . and fun to make fun of.

DOUBLE-BILL: Better financed, with bigger names, purpose-built sets & color, THE LOST WORLD/’60 and THE TIME MACHINE/’60 work much the same territory.

CONTEST: There’s another film from three or four years later that also might well be called THE MOLE PEOPLE, but in WideScreen and color. It’s got a terrific trailer with lots of guys running over a blasted landscape and jumping into rabbit holes for safety. Whatever is it? Come up with the title to win a MAKSQUIBS movie Write-Up of your choice.

ATTENTION MUST BE PAID: . . . by you! Another ‘50s Universal film shot in Open Matte-Full Frame (1.37:1), but meant for cropping by the projectionist (via aperture plate or black screen framing scrims) down to about 1.85:1. The DVD gives you the full frame image, but ‘push-in’ one notch for DIY theatrical enlarging (sometimes called FULL). Just don’t use a 16 x 9 setting (sometimes called FILL) as the anamorphic stretch will fatten up the image.

AUF DER ANDEREN SEITE / THE EDGE OF HEAVEN (2007)

German/Turkish director Fatih Akin shows his talents and faults in this well-received film, eventually stumbling over his own roundabout storyline which has the ‘rhymed’ cadences of a 19th Century serial novel. (Hugo might have blanched at the convenient coincidences.) Baki Davrak, in the pic’s best perf, brings a welcoming presence to his German university professor from Turkey (natch) who winds up back in Istanbul running a little German-language bookshop after his overbearing father (a Turkish Anthony Quinn sort) goes to jail on a manslaughter charge when he accidentally kills his Turkish hooker/girlfriend during a quarrel. Davrak hopes to find, and help, the dead woman’s missing daughter, unaware that she’s now a political radical on the run who’s just gone to Germany, unknowingly crisscrossing his move, hoping to find the mother she doesn’t know is dead! Not to worry, she meets-cute with a female student on campus, and starts a love affair before getting deported . . . back to Istanbul where she’s promptly jailed on a political charge. Not to worry, her new gal pal follows and rents a spare room from the bookshop guy who is (as you no doubt recall) searching, searching, searching, and totally unaware that his new tenant is in Istanbul to meet with the missing person he’s been looking for! Not to worry, the passionate, if vaguely idiotic girlfriend visits her jailed lover, sneaks a message out, and follows its hand-drawn map to a hidden gun that was ‘parked’ on a rooftop before the political radical had left Turkey to go to Germany to find the mother who was no longer alive then return to Istanbul only to land in jail. Whew! And now, her idiotically trusting lover walks thru a bad neighborhood with a gun in her loosely held handbag. Not to worry, the great German actress Hanna Schygulla as the girl’s mom shows up in Istanbul to forgive whoever is still around. Akin plays this farfetched farrago with a straight, not to say humorless, face, unafraid to show the radicals as so self-centered, you may start to root for Turkey’s near-police state cops. But with pitch-perfect casting, canny pacing and remarkably apt location shooting*, he gets away with a lot of it. (Or does on the award-circuit.) Akin’s obviously going to make something great before long, but this isn’t it.

DOUBLE-BILL: *Akin finds a lot of style and dramatic emphasis drawing out the natural colors found in his real life locations, not unlike Aki Kaurismäki in an early film like ARIEL/’88.

PITTSBURGH (1942)

Randolph Scott & John Wayne are a couple of coal-mining pals who go from rambunctious to ambitious after taking a gander at glamorous Marlene Dietrich in this low-rent rehash of M-G-M’s BOOM TOWN/’40. Scott takes the Spencer Tracy role as the nice guy who follows the lead of ‘alpha-male’ Wayne in the Clark Gable spot. That leaves Dietrich, for the first time in her career, shadowing another glamour girl, Claudette Colbert. It’s standard B+ fare for Universal, rather poorly megged by Lewis Seiler, with Dietrich knowing she’d be better off with dependable Scott, but unable to get Wayne out of her system. Halfway thru, things get a bit more interesting when they drop BOOM TOWN for an earlier Tracy pic, THE POWER AND THE GLORY/’33 where Tracy loses his soul in single-minded pursuit of business success. Now, both guys are in Tracy parts!* Scott as M-G-M’s softened Tracy and Wayne fumbling a bit as the hard-nosed, abrasive Tracy from his FOX days. Doubly odd since Wayne’s catch-phrase to Scott is ‘I love ya, Cash. So help me, I love ya.’ It might have worked with a different director or if WWII didn’t necessitate a patriotic redemption for Wayne’s intriguing heel, along with a load of didactic lecturing on all the uses of coal tar (!), palaver clumsily shoe-horned in by folksy narrator Frank Craven. Disappointing.

DOUBLE-BILL: *Neither BOOM TOWN nor the over-rated POWER AND THE GLORY (scripted by Preston Sturges) live up to their reps. Instead, try Wayne & Dietrich together in SEVEN SINNERS/’40

SCREWY THOUGHT OF THE DAY: *Of course, there are many Two-Pals-Fighting-Over-A-Gal pics and plenty about guys who lose their souls going for the big brass ring in business. But the writers here really do seem to have set their eyes on BOOM TOWN (a big recent hit) and GLORY (with a narrated flashback structure letting us believe that a main character is no longer with us).