Duck Soup (1933)
Cable, Deutsch
Groucho’s still talking too fast for me to translate in my head, but many of the quips I did understand seemed familiar: Groucho is the father of all dad jokes.
Note to self: watch more of this sort of thing.
Tecumseh (1972)
Cable, original Deutsch
Another classic East German western (Eastern) from DEFA, starring the always-enjoyable Gojko Mitic. This one is about Tecumseh and William Henry Harrison, featuring the Battle of Tippecanoe. I looked forward to seeing this one, since a day trip to the battleground memorial museum and interpretive trail at Prophetstown was a highlight of my 2012 (I wish I had made more day trips).
But this is DEFA, confident that no one who will see this film has ever seen Indiana:
“Maybe…maybe my German is worse than I think it is?”
“Oh.”
Geography aside, I also enjoyed the sparkly 1970s flowing dresses of the blonde love interest, and the tinkly 1970s soundtrack. This movie was a good time. Mitic in “native” garb was at his best, but somehow became less impressive when his character signed on with the British army to fight those greedy bastard Amis and he was forced into a red coat.
The Public Enemy (1931)
Cable, original English
Cagney playing a gangster in his own time. I did not like it as well as Angels With Dirty Faces, but it was fun. And some pre-code Harlow, for those of you who like that sort of thing (I am more interested in the costumes, of course).
Yeah, I said it.
Countdown (1967)
Cable, original English
NASA, upon learning the Soviets are sending men to land on the moon, rushes to launch a civilian (James Caan) to live there for eight months using existing technology from the Gemini program. Mr Radish remarked upon the rarity of a science-fiction movie that doesn’t rely on special effects–all the equipment shown was really in use or production at the time, and the scenes that take place on the moon are clearly being filmed through a filter on Earth. With no special effects, the director is forced to rely on writing and acting, and both deliver.
Fun fact: the scene of Caan being transported and loaded into a capsule is actually real footage of Gordon Cooper in one of his real Gemini missions. Bonus: Ted Baxter’s first job in television journalism.
The Right Stuff (1983)
Cable, original English
Fun to compare the speculative film about the space race from 1967 to a retrospective film about the space race from 1983…I think this one has some special effects mixed in with the actual and re-created historical footage. All-star cast (“Hey, that’s Cassandra Spender!”), beautifully filmed, highly acclaimed, etc. The only three-hour-plus film I’ve seen this year that didn’t need to be shorter.
Also fun, some of the German rocket guys and test pilots sing “Lili Marleen” at a party, which I definitely did not notice the first time I saw this film at the beginning of this century.
Going in Style (1979)
Cable, original English
George Burns and Art Carney, along with Lee Strasberg, star as NYC retirees who decide to rob a (beautiful) bank, not because they need the money, but because there’s not much left in their lives and it might be fun to see if they can get away with it. Spoiler:
Only Burns gets caught.
It’s a comedy, and the robbery (conducted in Groucho disguises) is funny, and the trip to Vegas was funny, but overall the film was bittersweet. Worth watching once.
Vom Suchen und Finden der Liebe (2005)
Netflix, original Deutsch
Another German “comedy” centered around suicide. Dieses Land ist ein Irrenhaus. Moritz Bleibtreu (Lola), sporting some seriously terrible fake Rick Sanchez hair, plays a music producer who turns his girlfriend into a star, then falls apart after she leaves him (not undeservedly; there was a public incident). He goes to a friend’s island house in Greece, home to a portal to the underworld, and kills himself.
Here there are some funny bits; he’s met by a hermaphrodite mixture of Hermes and Aphrodite who takes him on a journey of forgetfulness. Meanwhile back on Earth, Girlfriend has changed her mind, discovered she’s too late, and thrown herself down the portal. It almost works.
Nice music/costumes/scenery and some of the best German actors of its time, but a downer.
The Birds (1963)
arte, Deutsch
“Hey, that’s Cassandra Spender!”
I was worried the “forty years of cites, references, parodies, and praise” would diminish the experience, but that was fine–my bigger problem was having to pause to look up some of the words. It’s not every day I need to talk about molting…
The bird attacks were less scary than the uncertainty of the ending; my cat, who will spring up out of the deepest sleep to prowl in front of a Birder King video, snoozed through the attack on the children. Nonetheless, I understand how this is a classic.
The Silver Horde (1930)
PizzaFlix, original English
Actually following up on my idea to seek out more early Joel McCrea. The “Silver Horde” is the annual salmon run in Ketchikan, and this 75-minute movie devotes a full ten minutes to footage of the nets, boats, and processing facilities, including the canning. Unthinkable in this century, but also fed my interest in historical food.
Blades of Glory (2007)
Netflix, original English
Really great casting here, and funnier than expected. I am also starting a new “Filming Locations I Have Visited in Meatspace” list: Hello Montreal!
April 2019
Jim Knopf und Lukas der Lokomotivführer (2018) & Jim Knopf und die Wilde 13 (2020)
Amazon Prime, original Deutsch
Jim Knopf (Button) is a 1960 German children’s book, famously staged for television by the Augsburger Puppenkiste marionette theater, and presented here in modern CGI. Jim was found by pirates as a baby and sold to a dragon, but a mix-up in the mail sends him instead to a small island nation with five inhabitants, one of which is a locomotive engine named Emma. When Jim is a bit older, König Alfons der Viertel-vor-Zwölfte (King Alfons the Quarter Before Twelveth) decides the island is too small for six inhabitants, and orders Emma be disassembled. (NO DISASSEMBLE!) To prevent this, Jim and his best friend Lukas, Emma’s engineer, decide to leave the island and go adventuring (as one does). The first port is the country of Mandala, where they learn the young Princess LiSi has been kidnapped and sold to a dragon who lives past the end of the known world.
Rescuing a princess from a dragon is, of course, the best possible adventure for a boy born before XBox.
In the second installment, Jim, Emma, Lukas, and LiSi go out in search of the pirates, hoping to learn where Jim came from originally. This one is a bit darker.
It’s a pretty exciting story, the adult actors are established comedians, and the CGI does not insist upon itself. Enjoyed it.
Notorious (2009)
arte, Deutsch
A biopic about the short life and violent death of one Christopher Wallace, better known as the Notorious B.I.G. (Offensive Language Warning on that link). To be honest, “let’s see how EU gov’t TV translates Brooklyn rap into German*” motivated this selection, but the opening scenes grabbed me and pulled me into his world. Under the crude language, the film shows a woman who loves her son, even after he fell into criminality, and his struggle to become a man after growing up fatherless. It was also an interesting glimpse into 20th-century music history–it’s not my music, but millions of people my age grew up with it, were influenced by it, lived their lives to its beat.
*The N and MF words were left as-is; eh, why not, they’re only about two more German gov’t TV shows “for the youth” away from being added to the Duden.
Montreal, April 2019
