June is the beginning of “sit outside in the evenings watching movies with headphones” season, which peaks in August.
Inside Daisy Clover (1965)
Cable (Warner Film), original English
The German title and the cable listing made me think was going to be a cute musical. I don’t like cute musicals, but Natalie Wood and Christopher Plummer piqued my interest. It is actually the story of a 15-year-old girl (Wood was 27) in the 1930s, hired by a Hollywood mogul (Plummer) because he likes her voice and sad background story. She resents him making her over into “America’s orphaned Valentine” and hiding her mother in a sanitarium, and starts a creepy relationship (the word “jailbait” was used) with a much older actor, hyped as every woman’s dream but secretly into “beautiful boys”.
You can see the whole plot of the movie told in stills by Movies Illustrated Magazine, scanned in by the invaluable Poseidon. You can also see the explosion at the end (I do love an explosion).
Because this is not my first glimpse of how abusive the industry is, as the movie went on, I found myself wondering how much of Wood’s performance was autobiographical. From Vanity Fair, who has more lawyers on retainer than I do: “Pimped at 15 to Frank Sinatra…Exploited into a sexual liaison as a teenager with 42-year-old director Nicholas Ray to prove that she could play a “bad” girl….” Yeah.
Costumes were OK; more 60s than 30s but I expected that. I didn’t recognize Roddy McDowell without his ape mask (lol) but I absolutely recognized Caesar’s voice.
Anyway. Remind me to rewatch Brainstorm sometime.
Gone with the Wind (1939)
Cable (Warner Film), original English
In 1999, I watched this film three times in one week and wrote a grad school term paper analyzing the accuracy of the costumes (generally OK allowing for the “period films use contemporary bustlines” rule, but some glaring problems with the male leads’ facial hair). This experience created the hyper-critical monster I am today. But I still rewatch every 3-5 years or so, when it pops up.
This time around, I found myself wondering if anyone had re-booted the story from the POV of Mammy, or maybe wrote her “biography.” Start with her learning to be a children’s maid with the infant Miss Ellen, then growing into Ellen’s lady’s maid, the move to Georgia after Ellen married–leaving behind a man who loved her, un-romanticize her situation. Ellen’s miscarriages and baby girls. Retell GWTW, get her real opinions on everything. Find her another man to love, Rhett gives them a cottage as a wedding present then eventually hires someone to care for her in her old age. Maybe write the whole thing as a series of stories told to the caregiver. This would be a fabulous story, she was an amazing woman as presented, and would be even more so in her own words.
I’d write it myself, but I can’t afford to get shitstormed by racists.
La otra (The Other One) (1946)
arte Mediathek, original Spanish with German subtitles
Mexican noir was a new experience for me, and this film was highly enjoyable. Delores del Rio plays a double role as a wealthy young widow Magdalena and her struggling twin Maria, who realizes she can step right into her sister’s shoes, hiding behind the widow’s veil, and solve all her money problems. The murder of Magdalena is meticulously planned, right down to stripping the body to assume her clothes (oh, so creepy, no Hays Code in Mexico), and staged to look like Maria committed suicide. But the deception is hard to maintain; the dog knows Maria’s an imposter, estate documents need to be signed, Magdalena was having an affair with an abusive gangster who won’t give up…and when a valuable painting on loan to the dead husband goes missing, the detective called in was Maria’s old boyfriend. Spoiler: and he has to arrest her because Magdalena murdered her husband. That’s what noir is for!
The cinematography and light/shadow play were outstanding, good tension throughout, super twist and del Rio can emote. Time well spent.
Note: IMDB says this script was remade in English in 1964 with Bette Davis.
Spy Hard (1996)
Disney+, original English
Saw this one on the balcony, and I’m sure I annoyed half the neighborhood laughing out loud. What a rare pleasure, a comedy that actually induces laughter!
A Leslie Nielsen parody of James Bond movies, with additional lampooning of Speed, Home Alone, and a few other early-90s now-classics. Lots of cameos from beloved pop culture figures–Mr T, Ray Charles, Fabio, Joyce Brothers, Hulk Hogan, Benson, the president’s cocaine-trafficking brother. It was goofy, the effects were cheesy, the plot was predictable, but the jokes were funny.
I can’t believe I had never seen this one before; the title sequence is by Weird Al and I’d seen all the Naked Gun and Hot Shots, etc, over and over with Al-loving friends. I must have really changed peer groups after college, huh.
9 to 5 (1980)
Disney+, original English
The German title is Warum eigentlich… bringen wir den Chef nicht um?, “Why exactly do we not murder our boss?” but I was able to recognize the poster. Someone remind me to flesh out that German movie title post.
Anyway, it’s a time capsule now. I laughed when I was supposed to, but I don’t think anyone under 30 is going to understand the references.
Szíriusz (Sirius) (1942)
arte Mediathek, original Hungarian with English subtitles
Had such a good time with the Mexican noir collection I decided to check out the European Classics collection. This was a fun blend of sci-fi (time travel) and costume romance; a bit predictable in our century, but probably fresh at the time it was made. Super costumes, some nice music and dancing. This was a good pick.
Please read about the Hungarian politics of the time in which it was filmed at this link.
Katalin Karády is recognized as Righteous Among the Nations by Yad Vashem for saving a group of Jewish children from being murdered in Budapest in 1944.
The Saint (1997)
Paramount+, original English
Still working on All The Val Kilmer Films. Missed this one in theaters, but it was OK; a decent action pic that works if you don’t think about it too hard. Lots of stunts.
Always fun when I’m watching a British movie is picking out the actors I only know from Midsommer Murders. The girl on the airplane was a murderer in A Killing At Badgers Drift.
A King in New York (1957)
arte Mediathek, original English
Next up in the arte Chaplin festival is a pic he made after his US visa was revoked due to his Communist leanings, and he’s not really shy about painting the US as a terrible place, where a newly-arrived foreigner with no resources can became rich again nearly overnight by working in advertising. Just awful, that. His son Michael delivers several stoned-freshman Marxist monologues, as a boy whose parents are being sent to prison for sedition.
Some fun physical comedy in this one, but it was mostly a slog.
Wayne’s World (1992)
Paramount+, original English
Something easy to re-watch, as FUZZ was feverish and barfing. I thought I had already written about how much this one got quoted my senior year of high school–over and over and over–but I was lazy, and I will be lazy again. Maybe on the next rewatch.
The music is still great, the jokes are still funny, and I was motivated to dig up this old picture of FUZZ and me, after we moved to Milwaukee to take a job and enjoy a bunch of hijinks:
