slaytonf Reviews

Bachelor Mother (1939)

Plot Improbable

[9/10 · 20 December 2012]

Of all the improbable plots in all the movies in all the world, this is the most improbablest. But the clever dialogue, and the seamless performances of Miss Rogers and Mr. Niven make for an entertaining cotton candy of a movie; sweet, and no nutritional value. But it never gets too treacly. Enjoy.

It seems to post this review, I need to be more discursive, IMDb not allowing terse, incisive observations. So I will add a comment that this appears to be the earliest instance of merchandising in a movie. I will not name the item, or the corporation that makes it. In fact, it serves as an unfortunate and annoying distraction.

Grand Prix (1966)

Grand Prix: Still the best racing movie

[21 September 2011]

The most exciting racing sequences ever filmed, separated by interludes of a conventional potboiler chronicling peoples loves, hates, scheming, fidelity's, infidelities, transgressions, and redemptions, set in the milieu of the international formula racing circuit. One would think a lot of time and tedium could be saved by excising these sequences and just watching the races. Doing so, however, does not return the same thrill that watching the entire movie does. Whether this is because the racing shows up better by contrast, or because of the relief experienced from escaping the story's exposition, or that there exists some intangible alchemy between the two parts of the movie is difficult to say. In any case, one needs must watch the whole thing. It's not an entire wasteland. James Garner and Eva Marie Saint are entertaining to watch, regardless of what they are forced to say. And there is a great score by Maurice Jarre, naturellement. The voice chosen to dub Tishiro Mifune is inexcusable. One defect of the movie visually is that it is marred by the split-screen virus that infected films of this period.

Marianne (I) (1929)

Marion Davies Diversion

[7/10 · 29 January 2011]

Pretty cute filmy with Marion Davies as a French mademoisette on a farm who has adventures with, and becomes the adored mascot of some dough-boys at the end of World War I. As for the plot, well, who cares about the plot, except that it provides for some vaudeville performing, and joking, and singing, and lovemaking patter between her and a soldier. High points include Davies' mangling of the English language, her impersonation of a French officer to get her American sweetie out of the guardhouse, and the musical number during the celebration on the eve of the Americans' departure. In spite of the general lightness and playfulness of tone, the picture also manages to fit in some pathos and nobility and self-sacrifice when Marianne and the American part company in favor of her fiancé, returned blind after four years' absence in the war. Sometimes it's dated, sometimes it's silly, and sometimes it doesn't work so well; but it is all the time Marion Davies, and her presence in any film makes it worth watching, no matter how bad it is; one of the few actresses it's possible to say that about.