RadishFlix 2021: Highlights of KW10

The library reopened to patrons this week; as promised I came home with the Japanese Godzilla box set. Ich bin gespannt!

Ulzana (1974)

RBB, original Deutsch
In a sequel to East German Western Die Söhne Der Grossen Bärin, Gojko Mitic still does his own stunts. I found this one more blatantly ideological than the first–the villains are greedy American merchants profiting of the suffering of Das Volk, while the benevolent government official (here General Crook) wants to help the village but a corrupt underling undermines his efforts.

But, after having a good chuckle at the premise, I enjoyed the movie. Ulzana’s new wife is a badass, in a Sigourney Weaver sort of way; the jokes were funny; action scenes exciting but not beyond belief; the ending was sad but satisfying (is there a movie term for this?).

Anyway, General Crook. Part of the setup is re-surveying the border between “the State of Arizona” and Mexico after “the end of the war”, and so based on this the action takes place either when the real Crook was a private serving in California or after he was dead. The American flag at the fort yields no clues–it has 50 stars.

I love Easterns.

It Happened at the World’s Fair (1963)

Cable, original
The German title was Ob Blonde, Ob Braun–which I read as “Blonde or Brunette”–so I was expecting terrible, but a totally different terrible than I would have expected had I recorded “At The World’s Fair”. The first half hour or so was terrible, in the bad way. But the cat was asleep on the DVR remote, so I saw the whole thing. It got a tiny bit better; Elvis’ friend Sue-Lin and her dog were adorable, but her uncle sending her off with a grown man he met an hour ago set my teeth on edge.

At the end I have to call this a time capsule and I appreciate the look-in; but I would rather watch a documentary about the Seattle World’s Fair with contemporary news footage.

Aside, are there any 1960s movies where a young single woman who owns a car owns a car that is not a convertible roadster?

Erotikon (1920)

Netflix, Swedish and English title cards
Finally a Swedish silent movie presented with music! But the title cards were the best part–they were hand-drawn with motifs that echoed the conversation, which was boring. The characters were terrible; a middle-aged man hitting on his young niece–his scientific research shows that insects aren’t monogamous!–might be sexy in Sweden but I found it the opposite of scintillating. I ended up spending most of the movie trying to determine if his wife (who was cheating on him with an aristocrat but ends up with a different guy, who went after her knowing she was married…) had shaved her armpits (inconclusive, due to lighting).

The movie is clearly meant to be provocative, but I think it was trying to provoke something different than it actually did.

I did enjoy the opera scene–not the scene as much as the presentation of the opera. There was an interesting glimpse into fashion fur when the wife is being a bitch at the furrier (she actually wrote that in her day planner: “annoy the furrier”). But it was so bad, I almost rethought the #RadishFlix project.

Terje Vigen (1917)

Netflix, Swedish and English title cards
And then the next Swedish silent movie was very good.

This is a dramatization of a poem written by Henrik Ibsen (please imagine I know something about Henrik Ibsen…) and very touching, good acting, with nice camera work. Will recommend for fans of silent film.

(Somehow I was completely ignorant of Britain blockading Norway on behalf of Sweden in the early 19th century. And now I have spent more time researching the Dano-Swedish War of 1808–09 than I did watching the movie.)