RadishFlix 2021: Highlights of KW15 and KW16

Three more movies about making movies; I hadn’t planned a theme week, but the cable schedule set me up.

Sorry for the delays; I have been laid out by a persistent unproductive cough. Had myself probed up the nose twice, so it’s not The Virus, but it still sucks. We’re still locked down, so there’s nowhere to go even if I could breathe normally…

Niagara (1953)

Arte, Deutsch
Stunning filmography–colors, scenery, light and shadow. *chef kiss* Good pacing; thriling without gore. Recommended.

Oh, Marilyn Monroe is in this one, that might interest some people. I did not care for her character.

Rossini, oder die mörderische Frage, wer mit wem schlief (1997)

Netflix, original Deutsch
Mr Radish pitched this as “about the Schickimickis in Munich”; the restaurant Rossini is where the rich and locally famous go to be seen and take advantage of the restauranteur. But it’s also about making a movie–two directors try to bully a hermit novelist into selling the screenplay rights to his bestseller, and a young actress comes around to sleep her way into the production. Lots of big German television and film stars (I have never seen a bad performance from Joachim Król), lots of glitter and sex and drugs, but ultimately depressing; nobody has a happy ending.

Bud Abbott and Lou Costello in Hollywood (1945)

Cable, original English
Dumb, yes, but a deeply enjoyable dumb. Costello trying to hide in a pile of stunt dummies and failing horribly is one of the funniest things I’ve seen recently *that was intended to be funny*.

Notable screen appearance: Lucille Ball as an ingenue.

The Man with One Red Shoe (1985)

Cable, original English
With Tom Hanks, James Belushi, Dabney Coleman, and Carrie Fisher, it should have been funnier than it was. Alas.

“Hey, I know that guy”: Squiggy.

Singin’ in the Rain (1952)

Cable, original English
I didn’t even realize what it was when I recorded it: the German title is “Du sollst mein Glücksstern sein” (“You Are My Lucky Star”) and of course it makes more sense to name the film after a decades-old song performed once toward the end of the film, instead of the new song performed in the beginning and then three more times! Of course!

Anyway, it’s about making a movie, and it was very funny. Donald O’Connor is amazing. The modern-dance sequence at the end went on too long for me, but the physical comedy was great.

File this under “classics I should have been shown as a child instead of the same three bad 1970s Disney live-action films over and over.”

Sara Learns Manners (1937)

Netflix, Swedish with English subtitles
Some funny scenes and nice costuming. Reminded me of something else I’ve seen before, but I can’t remember what. The titular character is a moron, though, as is her love interest. Maybe next week I can find a Swedish movie about making movies.

Heute stirbt hier (K)ainer (2021)

ARD Mediathek, original Deustch
German tax-funded TV at it’s….yeah. A terminally ill man with a questionable past goes out to the country to kill himself; the village he chooses is inhabited by violent stereotypes and a “Kurdish-Yoruba” immigrant who enjoys being beaten by his neo-Nazi friends. (How did THAT get on TV?) Everyone was unlikeable except the hunter who sits in his stands all day watching all the neighbors. Senseless and graphic carnage all over the place. SPOILER ALERT: After half the village lies shredded and bleeding to death on a farm, he dies peacefully of natural causes. Of course.

“Where do I know this guy?” Oh, he’s played Goebbels in two German movies I have seen and Hitler in a Tarantino movie I have not. Aha.

Broken Arrow (1950)

Arte, Deutsch
I never think of Jimmy Stewart as a bad-ass for some reason, but he is here; the plot and characters (particularly the love interest and her fate) are very Karl May. Not exactly an American retelling of Winnetou, but very close. Very colorful costumes; I have chosen not to research Apache native dress because I want to keep enjoying Arte’s weekly Westerns. I need more scenery.