THE BATWOMAN / LA MUJER MURCIELAGO (1968)

Unlike the unreleased $100 million BATGIRL, recently buried by NetFlix*, this slapdash Mexican production (not part of the DC Comics empire!) likely cost less than a million 1968 pesos, yet it’s been in continuous release since it first came out.  Directed by the prolifically untalented René Cardona, 126 credits including an infamous SANTA CLAUS/’59 that boasts a remarkable 2.7 IMDb user score (out of a possible 10), this BATWOMAN rates a ‘stellar’ 4.7.  Much like her male namesake, this crime fighter keeps her identity secret, is rich & bored, and on call by police & her North-of-the-Border F.B.I.  guy.  Unlike Batman, she wrestles professionally (Mexicana style) and apparently gets by sans butler, boy wonder or jet-powered auto.  She does keep a makeup compact case that transforms into a pistol and wears a far more revealing suit: the Bat Bikini.  Yikes!  The story involves a facially scarred, mad-scientist (natch) murdering athletic wrestlers to collect a gland extract he’s using on Barbie-sized Fishmen he hopes to grow into full-sized fish-monsters he’ll use to take over the oceans.  All this silliness has long supported a cult (half celebratory/half derisive), but recently, mostly because of lead Maura Monti, gaining something of a feminist respect (ignore the tag ending – ‘Eek!, a mouse’), and now a serious film restoration.  The enthusiasm something of a stretch.  If only Cardona had a clue on where to put the camera, when to move it, and how to stage action . . . or inaction.

DOUBLE-BILL:  Hard to believe, but sophisticated director Philip Kaufman got his start (along with Jon Voight) on something along these lines and about this budget in FEARLESS FRANK/’67.

ATTENTION MUST BE PAID:  *$100 mill a guestimate since NetFlix ain’t talking.

STAMBUL GARDEN (aka BLURRED LINES) / RÄUBERHÄNDE (2021)

From German director Ilker Çatak, opposites attract coming-of-age film about two late teen boys blunting their passage thru tricky life phases with lots of booze, drugs & last-call parties.  One a middle-class German blond (Emil von Schönfels) breaking up with his girl; the other, ethnic-mix dark (Mekyas Mulugeta), breaking away from his unstable, easily addicted single-mom.  With school finally over, they’ve made a pact to travel to Turkey where a missing father might be found, but with little thought as to how they are going to go about this.  No matter, they’re bound to go, joined at the hip (if these skinny mates had hips!), but in crisis after the blonde kid winds up screwing the other’s mom.  Substitution for his pal?  (He’ll later have a threesome wet dream about it while earlier in the film, his BFF casually interrupts a session with the girlfriend.)  Going anyway, their Turkish adventure quickly pulls them apart (one feels as if he, at last, fits right in/the other always just outside the circle), the boys easy physicality turned bickering bromance.  Ilker Çatak doesn’t quite hit the personal growth and revelations he’s shooting for, but sure nails the commonplace reality of how traveling together can overstrain any relationship.  The film lands as something of a down payment for better things to come, but there’s plenty to keep you involved.

WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE (1945)

Goofy little Home Front ‘War-Effort’ musical must have been planned as a major release before 20th/FOX saw the war finishing up and downsized to a 1'17" running time.  Why else plump for TechniColor, top tech & producer William Perlberg?  (Rodgers & Hammerstein’s STATE FAIR his other musical that year.)  Why borrow Warners’ Joan Leslie; Paramount’s Fred MacMurray; and pay the price for B’way’s Kurt Weill & Ira Gershwin just off the hugely successful LADY IN THE DARK (on stage ‘43/on film ‘44), with FIREBRAND OF FLORENCE currently running.*  Overnight, why care if MacMurray can’t get past 4-F status & into uniform?  Or that his scrap metal drive turns up a genie who gets him in the Army (George Washington’s!); on a naval ship (Christopher Columbus’s!); or into the Marines (with the WACS!).  Morrie Ryskind, of many a Marx Bros. film, goes for non-sequitur laughs & earns the occasional chuckle, and the cast (other than Gene Sheldon’s overplayed genie) are perfectly pleasant; but it’s wan stuff.  Or is except for one miraculous reel where Weill/Gershwin create a sort of mini-Gilbert & Sullivan operetta on the Nina, the Pinta, the Santa Maria, in one of the most melodic, rib-tickling, lunatic sung-thru sequences ever put on film.  If only this scene weren’t such a lonely island of wisenheimer musical sophistication among also-ran material.  So, in spite of reasonably solid production values and charming picture-book special effects, you’ll see why utilitarian director Gregory Ratoff was assigned to get it done . . . and get the hell out.

DOUBLE-BILL/LINK:  *Alas, the film LADY IN THE DARK, while commercially successful, is a travesty of the stage show.  (But check out the hilarious over-sized furniture in a psychiatrist’s office.  Yikes!)  Instead, here’s that Christopher Columbus number.  (HINT: Tap the settings wheel to up the resolution.)  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CDlBqCW3Z18   And Google away to find superb audio excepts of the magnificent, if doomed FIREBRAND OF FLORENCE, especially the opening number ‘Come to Florence (Civic Song).’

RETURN TO DUST / YIN RU CHEN YAN (2022)

If the pacing is deliberate in Ruijun Li’s look at a newly married couple following traditional rural ways in modern China*, so too is the lifestyle on display.  It makes for a tough, lovely film about ‘Fourth Brother,’ low on the pecking order of his extended family, finally being given an ‘arranged’ marriage after decades of farm work for a more favored brother.  His match an unwanted runt-of-the-litter afterthought, physically challenged with a weak left side, bladder issues, and unable to have children.  Deposited in a rundown house with forgotten farmland to work, the two make a considerable go of every difficulty.  HER: unnervingly withdrawn, but demonstrating willingness and work ethic.  HIM: with unending stamina and surefooted ability to tackle any issue farm or home throws at them; remarkably patient helping his wife overcome obstacles to the extent possible.  Their accomplishments large and small both challenging and fascinating as laid out by Li and his cast in ultra-realistic full-shot coverage and the naturalism of non-pro Renlin Wu as the husband and pro Hai-Qing as the wife.  Hope, success and tragedy over the course of a year prove irresistibly compelling with Li not ashamed to flavor his work with occasional technical flourishes (check out the roof raising camera angles) and appropriate emotional sweetening via subtle music underscoring.  The film a gem.

SCREWY THOUGHT OF THE DAY:  *If comments can be believed, the film was pulled from distribution in spite of a succssful opening when authorities decided to suppress it for showing a backward side of rural, still underdeveloped wheat/corn dependent North-Central China.

DOUBLE-BILL/LINK:  An ‘out there’ suggestion: Compare & contrast ultra-naturalism against haute old-school Hollywood filmmaking of faux China and the standard YellowFace casting of mid-‘30s Golden-Age studio practice seen in THE GOOD EARTH/’36.  https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2008/05/good-earth-1937.html

TOVARICH (1937)

Paramount Pictures’ continental sophistication comes to Warner Brothers, along with Claudette Colbert, lenser Charles Lang & dress designer Travis Banton*, for Jacques Deval’s international hit play about ‘White’ Russian nobility taking house positions in Paris rather than touch the ℱ40 million given to them by the late Tsar to support the counter-revolution.  Working off Robert Sherwood’s just closed B’way adaptation, scripter Casey Robinson notes how close the family situation is to MY MAN GODFREY, and has Colbert & husband Charles Boyer get the house & family in order with expertise in fencing, dancing, singing and poker, even managing to get the parents back to a single bed (implied if not actually shown).  But when the new servants have to serve a formal dinner to current Russian diplomat Basil Rathbone, the Revolutionary who tortured them before they escaped, now out to collect that ℱ40 mill, the facade crumbles on both sides of their charade.  The first in a long run of Warners pics for Anatole Litvak, reunited with Boyer after MAYERLING/’36, the tone now feels a bit forced in the first half (it was only Litvak’s second Hollywood pic), but gathers strength as comedy gets downplayed once Rathbone comes into the story for a more serious, if still lightly sentimental, tone.  They even manage to finesse the proletariat/aristo divide in a satisfying manner.  Lovely work by everyone.  Though how echt Hollywood to have Americans & Brits playing Parisians and two actual French natives as the Russians.

SCREWY THOUGHT OF THE DAY:  Not so many Hollywood films, other than The THIN MAN series, let long married couples display this much sexual interest in each other.

ATTENTION MUST BE PAID:  *Seems very extravagant for those penny-pinching Warner Brothers to bring in Banton when Colbert spends most of the film in a maid’s uniform!  Maybe he just did the glam number she wears right at the end.  And cinematographer Lang apparently fought with Colbert about the usual problem, shooting from her ‘bad’ side.  Though they must have made up as he went on to six more films with her back at Paramount.

DOUBLE-BILL/LINK: Similar elements/reverse angle; perfected by Ernst Lubitsch in NINOTCHKA/’39.  https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2017/12/ninotchka-1939.html

WATER FOR ELEPHANTS (2011)

Proudly romantic/melodramatic, novelist Sara Gruen cleverly plants her sturdy depression-era love triangle in the self-contained world of a traveling one-ring circus.  It’s effective, but those who haven’t read the book may wonder if its old-fashioned storytelling virtues seem as generic and over-processed as they do on-screen; faults abetted by a production too smooth by half and leading players that yield stylistic points to stars of earlier eras.*  Robert Pattinson, in the midst of his TWILIGHT years, answers all emotions with a shy smile as an all but graduated veterinarian-on-the-run who hops a circus train and winds up ‘house vet’ and love interest to daredevil artiste Reese Witherspoon, uncomfortably wed to psycho-sadistic owner Christoph Waltz.  Reasonably well-caught period atmosphere* helps prop up a mess of underdeveloped supporting characters, but does less to make sense of the film’s big climax.  (Get back at the boss by destroying your own job; at the height of the Depression?)  Waltz does his creepy pendulum act (fawning or frightening as needed to get us to the next story beat) while Pattinson & Witherspoon have more chemistry with their new performing elephant than they do with each other.  Director Francis Lawrence, hoping to have his cake and eat it too, tries for tasteful and corny at the same time (like driving a car with the emergency break on).  But in spite of a lack of zest, enough hokum sneaks past the sobriety gatekeepers for the show to go on.

SCREWY THOUGHT OF THE DAY:  *Say, Kirk Douglas, Montgomery Clift & Susan Hayward in for Waltz, Pattinson & Witherspoon; the boys, at least when dressed up, even looking a bit like Kirk & Monty.

DOUBLE-BILL/LINK:  Depression-era circus atmosphere was never better caught than in the original DUMBO/’41.  (Tim Burton’s live-action redo best avoided.)  And for something overblown & three-ringy, there’s insanity to spare in C.B. DeMille’s THE GREATEST SHOW ON EARTH/’52, with Gloria Grahame & Lyle Bettger anticipating the Witherspoon/Waltz relationship.    https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2019/11/dumbo-2019.html    https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2018/01/the-greatest-show-on-earth-1952.html

ATTENTION MUST BE PAID:  You can see just the sort of period detail ELEPHANTS fumbles when its filmmakers go to the trouble of cutting in a close-up of a 78rpm record nearing its groove run-out limit only to continue playing for another two minutes.  Vinyl may have made a comeback, but apparently shellac remains a complete mystery to younger filmmakers.

LIGHTNING STRIKES TWICE (1951)

Long past his M-G-M Golden Boy days (top-grossing silent THE BIG PARADE 26 years back), King Vidor finally changed studios with a 3-pic set at Warners: THE FOUNTAINHEAD/’49, BEYOND THE FOREST/’49, LIGHTNING); losing prestige on each assignment.  All three OTT romantic mellers, all three slightly bonkers (loaded with ‘bad’ laughs), all three supremely entertaining in different ways.  (Post-Warners, Vidor’s RUBY GENTRY/’52 also in this vein.)  LIGHTNING, last @ Warner Bros., reduces him from A+ to B+ level, but still offers top tech and rising acting talent.  If only the story made more sense.  Richard Todd, in hiding after barely beating a murder rap, meets-cute (if darkly) with Ruth Roman’s actress on a health cure break when she takes a wrong turn on her way to Mercedes McCambridge’s unexpectedly closed Texas ‘Dude Ranch.’  Roman the only person in the State of Texas unaware of Todd’s dicey past; McCambridge the jury member who held off on conviction (empaneled in spite of knowing the accused and the victim, his wife!); Todd waiting for BFF Zachary Scott (in a nothing role) to get him an engineering job out of state.  And that’s only half of Margaret Echard’s unlikely coincidence-happy storyline.  You won’t believe a moment, but Vidor ploughs ahead, this born-and-bred Texan managing real atmosphere whenever they let him off the dead soundstage exteriors for some brief location work.  (It’s only upstate California, but Vidor lets his Main Street and local Drug Store setups strikingly show what might have been.)  Vidor never was able to get back to his more personal cinematic ways, ending his career with (of all things) international epics: WAR AND PEACE/’56; SOLOMON AND SHEBA/’59; both behemoths unexpectedly worthwhile.

DOUBLE-BILL/LINK:  Roman now largely remembered for her other 1951 film: Hitchcock’s SHADOW OF A DOUBT.  While the underrated Todd, himself a plausible choice for the Robert Walker role in DOUBT, was just off his Hitchcock pic, STAGE FRIGHT/’50.  https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2019/07/stage-fright-1950.html  OR:  Check out all the Vidor pics mentioned above by using the Search Box.  (Upper left corner/Main Site Only; iPhone users scroll down to the main site link.)  Note Vidor’s WAR & PEACE is discussed in our posting on the 1966 Russian version.

SORRY TO BOTHER YOU (2018)

Debuting writer/director Boots Riley* overreaches for Swiftian satire (don’t worry, no babies eaten, more GLENGARRY GLEN ROSS/’92 meets THE OFFICE [Stateside version], but with a hipster's vibe & heavy minority casting) as a debt-ridden LaKeith Stanfield (very winning) signs up for a commission-only position as a telemarketer.  But Hellish office conditions lead to labor organization & work stoppage just as his natural abilities are being recognized with a promotion.  What’s an upstanding/union sympathizing employee to do?  Especially when his dream job means luring desperate worker-bees to the WorryFree lifestyle, a camouflaged Slave Market, and none too subtle metamorphoses from human to horseflesh.  Yikes!  Is it TO SERVE MAN from THE TWILIGHT ZONE or Pinocchio tricked into a stay on Pleasure Island (Hee-Haw!!) . . . make that Dr. Moreau’s ISLAND OF LOST SOULS?  (See various iterations here: https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/search?q=ISLAND+OF+LOST+SOULS)  But in spite of a great cast and clever structural dodges to manage on a tight budget, the concept shrinks rather than expands with every metaphysical addition.  And much of the silliness that ought to pay off doesn’t.  The idea of ‘talking white’ as a path to success might work if played straight, but here it’s nothing but a silly voice.  Richard Pryor shows just what’s missing with his immortal ‘white dude’s’ voice saying ‘Fuckin’ A.’

SCREWY THOUGHT OF THE DAY:  *Considering its modest budget, SORRY must have at least earned out, but Riley’s had no bites for another feature in spite of strong reviews (frankly stronger than deserved) and comparisons to GET OUT’s writer/director Jordan Peele.

KILL THE MESSENGER (2014)

In something of a mid-'90s sequel to the even more Byzantine Iran-Contra scandal of the mid-‘80s, MESSENGER follows investigating reporter Gary Webb, working for a mid-sized SoCal paper, to Nicaragua after he’s baited with ‘leaked’ classified reports on a drugs-for-arms scheme that reverberates back to C.I.A. handlers and the crack-cocaine crisis in major American cities.  Is the C.I.A. acting as inner-city ‘drug pushers’ to fund anti-government rebels in a foreign country?   But Webb’s dangerous assignment, successfully accomplished and notably published to the chagrin of larger papers, turns out to be the easy part.  It’s also merely Act One of what morphs into a CIA cover-up/smear campaign to destroy the story and Webb with help from types likely (other government agencies) and unlikely (major-league press guys who should have known better after Iran-Contra).  The story, no doubt more complex and grey-filled than the film wants it to be, still Front Page worthy.  Yet the film never fully taps its potential.  Partly a problem of construction, running Iran-Contra photo-montage under the opening credits seriously confuses the issue right from the start; but mostly it comes down to overly fussy work by lead Jeremy Renner (twenty-six small bits of business when three strong ones would do); director Michael Cuesta (similarly over working material when not putting the camera in the wrong spot); and the way their presentational tics catch on to the rest of the cast & crew.  Only Lucas Hedges (Renner’s emotionally bruised teenage son) and a very fine Ray Liotta (alas only for a single scene as a confirming source) manage to avoid contamination.  Kill the messenger, indeed.

DOUBLE-BILL:  The Washington Post takes it on the chin here.  See them fight for the good guys in the ‘mother’ of all investigative journalist pics, ALL THE PRESIDENT’S MEN/’76.