sgfarrell_9 Reviews

The Man on the Eiffel Tower (1949)

The French Cafe rocked!

[3 November 2009]

I enjoyed this movie. I am a keen reader of the Maigret stories, but it didn't dawn on me that Charles Laughton was Maigret until late in the movie. Perhaps the French pronunciation of the name threw me off.

The movie moved well, and I certainly enjoyed the shots of Paris right after the war. Maigret smoking his pipe and drinking his beer in the cafe gave me a good feeling. It's how I have always pictured Paris.

Tone, Meredith and Laughton were all worth watching.

I wish there were more movies made with Laughton playing the part of Maigret. However, Jean Garbin, the great French actor, later went on to make the role his own. He had time to refine his Maigret after many films. I saw the Garbin films over in Japan, but never here in the United states. States.

Dracula's Guest (2008)

No coffin! No blood! No acting!

[7/10 · 3 November 2009]

If my students would have presented this film to me in a film class, I would have given it a B minus. Then, again, I'd be a pushover as a professor. Some of the shooting was beautiful and some of the scenes were interesting.

However, considering the budget of this film, the flaws were really outstanding. It seemed like somebody had set-out to sabotage this production. Why did Dracula appear in the daylight twice with no explanation? He should have at least had on sunglasses or closed the shades.

Mortimer, Bram Stoker's friend, is hung by Dracula in the daylight. By that time the Count had already gone back to Romania! It's illogical even by the standards of vampire standards.

Bram and the Admiral (traveling separately) go from England to Romania in 3 days. Impossible in 1890. The scene with the coachman being attacked by the wolf was creepy.

Both Bram and the Admiral separately locate the secret cavern below the castle where Elizabeth was kept prisoner. I cringed when Elizabeth gave them both almost exactly the same speech. Elizabeth came across like a snotty and rich high school cheerleader with an attitude problem.

Dracula looked like a Slavic wrestler and Dracula's Castle looked like a bank after hours. I was looking for elevators. I did like the work of the actor who played Bram Stoker. His Irish accent stayed consistent throughout the movie. But it was never explained that Bram was a budding writer who would use his real encounters with Count Dracula for a novel in the future.

Still worth a look.

All Through the Night (1942)

Excellent late night

[23 October 2007]

This is one of those old black and white films that are best seen on the late, late movie on a rainy autumn night. The funnest part is spotting all of the well-known faces like that of Bogie, Peter Lorre, Frank MacHugh, Phil Silvers, Jackie Gleason and the ever cranky William Demarest.

This was a typical Hollywood propaganda movie of the time that stirred up patriotic feelings towards the Nazi. I enjoy Bogie as Gloves Donahue, but I think William Warren (the Lone Wolf) or Chester Morris (Boston Blackie) would had been more suited for the role of the likable gambler.

The Great Silence (1968)

Viet Nam Allegory

[11 June 2007]

I have always liked this movie, but as an American weaned on John Wayne-Jimmy Stewart-Audie Murphy movies I still find the ending too anti-climatic. I also feel that the lead actor who played Silence had virtually no personality. Clint Eastwood would have told his story with his eyes and expressions. Also a seasoned gunman would have never walked into such a conventional trap in the final showdown. I can understand the bad guy winning, but a least the good guy should go out with some imagination. Clint would have never been suckered punch by any bounty hunter in a barroom. Silence was too naive by half.

The sudden killing of the sheriff also went against the logic of the movie. Why make us sympathetic to this bumbler if he plays no role in the final shootout.

Watching this movie all these years later I see it as an allegory of the senselessness of Viet Nam and its' blurring of the good guys and bad guys. The bloody murder of the bandits at the end was sort of a retelling of the Mali Massacre, where American G.I'S slaughtered villagers who may have helped the Viet Cong. Loco, as evil as he was, worked within the law, thus he was a symbol of the American government.

The Fighting Sullivans (1944)

Identification

[28 May 2007]

I grew-up in a working-class town much like the one depicted in this movie, and I was the product of a large Irish-Catholic family. I realize this movie is probably rather corny, especially by today's standards, but I always feel a strong sense of identification with the Sullivans. I have five brothers, and several of them have the same names as the brothers in this movie.

This was one of those movies that my family watched on a yearly basis, and seeing it recently after many years brought back many memories. It is really a family picture rather than a war movie, but the ending does bring 'home' the huge price we all pay during a crisis.

Studs Lonigan (1960)

Studs as Dead End Kid

[19 February 2007]

I read the Studs Lonigan trilogy in the early Seventies and I was blown away by how James T. Farrell accurately described my own Irish-Catholic working-class background. I also saw the made-for-TV movie that was based on the novels when it came out in 1979. I didn't see the 1960 film until the late Eighties, and I had mixed feelings about it. I was surprised at how it had the feel of movies like REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE and the THE WILD ONE. I thought Christopher Knight was fine, if rather tormented as Studs, and Nicholson and Gorshin were fine as Weary Reilly and Kenny Kilarney. However, I wasn't wild about the happy ending of the movie. Studs Lonigan was suppose to die after living a pointless life. I also felt neither of the movie versions were able to effectively focus on the Dead End Kids or West Side Story aspect of Studs' south side of Chicago.

Mrs. Brown, You've Got a Lovely Daughter (1968)

Better than expected

[7/10 · 28 July 2006]

I was ten years old when the British Invasion reached the shores of North America in 1964, and I was fourteen when the Hippie Revolution took-off in 1967-68. I think this Herman's Hermit movie was a bridge between the two time periods. It reminded me of how the Monkees attempted to jump from the mod to the flower power era during the second season of their TV series.

I was crazy about the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Gerry & the Pacemakers and the Dave Clark Five, but I always looked down at Herman & his pals as an overly cutesy girl band. My sisters, Pat & Barb, loved them. However, I found myself rather enjoying this film for many reasons. One thing that stands out is that it is moodier than one would expect from Peter No one. I also enjoyed the scenes with the lads trying to earn money as construction workers. Most of all I liked seeing the Hermits (without Peter) getting down with some semi-hard tunes in a London night club). It seems to me that the Hermits toured my native Wisconsin in 1977 as an instrumental group.

After all of these years I have come to have more of an appreciation for Herman's Hermits and their calmer, happier brand of British Invasion music. This movie could very well be the swan song of a cooler time before we got caught up in Viet Nam, Norhern Ireland, campus demonstrations, drugs, race riots and the rest.

I wonder if any our British counterparts out there have any idea where I could get a copy of Gerry and the Pacemakers movie, FERRY ACROSS THE MERSEY? Thanks, mate