RadishFlix 2021: Highlights of KW06

It’s probably time for a pause from Netflix. 1) German tax-funded TV are providing me more thoughtful British series and 20th-century American movies on demand than the big N is; and 2) N dropped a metric buttload of “Swedish movies of the past 100 years” without including a single film by Ingmar Bergman. Srsly? I’m from the backend of nowhere with provincial bad taste and a fifth-grade education (hi Mrs E!), and I still know you can’t have a serious Swedish film retrospective without Ingmar Bergman.

Ingeborg Holm (1913)

Netflix, Swedish and English title cards
I struggled with this one. Were the writers/director of this film simply telling a story that would resonate with their audience? Or is this a propaganda film, aiming to sway opinions about the Swedish welfare system? (The IMDB is unhelpful here, using the political anachronism “single mother” to describe the title character, when in 1913 she would have been accurately called a “widow with children”.)

Either way, I classify this film as a time capsule–homes, clothing, hairstyles, foods, and attitudes of 1913 Sweden have been preserved on film. And I always enjoy a good time capsule.

The most interesting character is her son; he’s a child of around six or seven when the story begins, and apparently his “foster family” sent him off to work at sea fairly young. He comes back a young man and experienced sea hand “fifteen years later” to look for his mother. I would have rather have seen that story.

Viva Las Vegas (1964)

Cable, original
I thought it was bad until I saw The Trouble with Girls. How is Rusty a student when she’s always working? Why are the college students dancing in the gymnasium at 9 a.m. but it’s not a dance class? How do all the characters know how to fly helicopters? How does a song about Texas convince sixty grown men to leave a casino? How does an employee talent show (who is serving the customers when everyone is on stage?) offer prizes worth several months’ wages?

Time capsule. But instead of showcasing reality of the time and place, it presents that era’s ideal.

It’s very colorful and glittery, with lots of nice backgrounds. Spandex was not yet commonly incorporated into fabric at the time this film was made, some of the showgirl costumes were interestingly baggy.

The Trouble with Girls (1969)

Cable, original
Noooooooooo, nobody in 1927 Iowa wore miniskirts outside in the daylight. The costumes were 100% late 60s, in cut, colors, patterns, fabric, etc. I was insulted. (Elvis’ white suit stayed crisp and clean in an Iowa July? Who can suspend their disbelief so far?)

I had set the DVR up to record Jailhouse Rock while I slept. I really really wanted to see Jailhouse Rock. Really. That recording failed and somehow I got this crap instead. It took an hour to discern a plot (I was distracted by the terrible costumes). The love interest is unsympathisch–Archie Bunker would call her a ballbreaker and I wouldn’t be bothered. There’s a “joke” about raping a passed-out drunk woman that may have been OK in 1969, but let all air out of the scene in 2021. I don’t even understand how the title relates to the script.

I did enjoy Elvis singing with the “Bible Singers”, and Vincent Price’s lecture on morality. Also some nice pyrotechnics. But the movie is bad. So bad.

Here’s the dark side of the IMDB. You learn the cute little lead kid killed herself with an incredible cocktail of party drugs when she was 18 and lost out on roles that made Jodie Foster and Brooke Shields household names.

Maybe, someday, if I’m ever allowed to visit the library, they can hook me up with Jailhouse Rock.

A Million Ways to Die in the West (2014)

Netflix, original
“There is something about connecting over mutual hatred that is just so much deeper than mutual love.”

I know most of the actors are terrible people in Real Life, but I liked The Orville, so I gave this a go. It was mostly funny (Silverman turned the “whore with a heart of gold” into a “whore who mocks Christians” and did not delight), MacFarlane hit most of the cliches of the Western genre, and the scenery was breathtaking.

Also I learned something about myself: I don’t watch movies where the dog dies, and now I need to add “or where the dog’s owner dies.” Yikes.

Westworld (1973)

Cable, original
Yul Brynner is a freakin’ genius. Michael Crichton is a freakin’ genius. I understand the computer graphic effects were also very good for their time, but Yul Brynner. He *was* a robot gunslinger.

This movie scared Mr Radish when he was a child, but if you see the five different Jurassic Park movies first, it’s more “cool, how did they do that?”

Notable screen appearances: I said “Hey, that looks like Dick Van Patten!” and it was Dick Van Patten, but I totally missed that the whorehouse madame was Lt. Troi’s mother. Hehehehe.

Best movie of the week.