Movies

At That Time (1943) Outstanding German melodrama. Zarah Leander is a woman who was seen leaving a hotel room where a dead man was found minutes later. The investigation leads to numerous men who tell in flashback the story of her life of noble sacrifice; losing her marriage, career and romance for the sake of others - every time she does what she knows is right she pays a terrible price. Leander is every bit the equal of Joan Crawford or Susan Hayward, and this story might have been as good a vehicle for Bette Davis. Production values are a bit quirky - lavish sets one moment, rear-projection street scenes the next; sometimes flat, other times stylishly lit, but she comes through it all as an excellent dramatic actress. This is pure escapism with locales glamorous, seedily exotic, or grimly lit with the shadow of prison bars. A pleasure to watch. 9/10

Zarah Leander

Movies

Everything's On Ice (1939) Offbeat low-budget showcase for the talents of seven-year-old ice skater Irene Dare. Irritating comic actor Roscoe Karns is the greedy mooching spendthrift uncle whose grandiose schemes threaten to ruin everything, Edgar Kennedy is the level-headed father who must save the day. Dare is not a particularly appealing child or skilled actress; she is kept out of the story line entirely except as a background/gimmick and her skate-dancing numbers are rather bizarrely staged. I got it here, and if the embedded player works for you, go to 51 minutes and you will see all that is really worth seeing, the deranged polar bear vocal quartet and baby penguin number which is the weird pinnacle of the film. 4/10

Movies

Their Own Desire (1929) Norma Shearer in a Modern Melodrama: she vows never to take any man seriously after father Lewis Stone breaks up the family for The Other Woman. Young sheik Robert Taylor puts the rush on her and it's only after they fall for each other that she finds out whose son he happens to be. Complications ensue. Shearer is luscious and vivacious and definitely worth seeing, though some of her chirpy dialog is pretty forced; Taylor is pretty - pretty obnoxious. Kind of a clunky plot but it's just before the Crash, when the travails of polo playing socialites were still escapist fun and there's lots of nice stuff to look at, primarily Norma. Gowns by Adrian are light, tight and airy, just revealing enough and often backless (and bra-less). Nothing to write home about, but easy on the eyes and not challenging for the brain. 6/10

Shearer and Taylor dancing up a storm.

Movies

Phantom of Chinatown (1940) Formulaic mystery, but of a certain historic and cultural interest. A revamp of Karloff's creaky "Mr. Wong of Chinatown" series, showing a move away from the earlier Yellow Peril motifs and toward a more positive depiction of the Chinese - this was in keeping with the politics at the time, with strengthening ties to China balancing increased tension with Japan. This film gave Keye Luke his only starring role, as young Jimmy Wong, and provided a substantial and intelligent role for actress Lotus Long, with romantic insinuations in the end. The story is unremarkable, and the acting is a bit uneven, but having an ethnic main character played by an ethnic actor was a momentary positive step forward. Other characters are more ethnic but portrayed in a fairly positive light, and Wong's Chinese cook provides comedy relief without being excessively degrading or cartoonish. 5/10

Lotus Long and Keye Luke discuss the case.

Movies

The Slime People (1963) Monster-suit movie has some unique ideas - it skips the usual slow invasion lead-up and gives you the suit in the opening shot; scaly subterranean beast-men driven up from their abode by nuclear testing have used a solidifying fog to make a dome over L.A. to change the climate to suit their needs. Sadly, it becomes incredibly tedious in its relatively short run-time, with much of the walking and running around obscured by smoke machines and foggy overlays. The script is pretty eccentric, and there are only a couple of actors in the film, the rest being untalented amateurs - old-timer Les Tremayne goes over the top as a local eccentric but doesn't last very long. Much credit is due the creators of the three pretty darn good monster suits, but they and the location shots of a meat market are the best part of the movie. 3/10

Movies

Naked You Die (1968) Directed by Antonio Margheriti, a lite thriller pioneering many of the cliches of the giallo genre. Black-gloved strangler on the loose in exclusive girls' school in an odd Anglo-Italian world. Lime pit on premises. Michael Rennie makes a distinguished but undemanding appearance as the police inspector. Donna joined me for this one, and fell asleep during the extremely slow first quarter, but we had fun playing whodunnit with the blatantly obvious clues and seeing how it all came together in the end. It seemed like it was meant to be a teenage date movie, with little gruesomeness, few real thrills and no naughty bits. Kind of fun in a silly, stupid way, with lots of bright colors and moving shapes. 6/10

Movies

Prince of Space (1959) Inexpensive, primitive children's SF adventure from Japan. Bad guys from space, model spaceships wobbling on wires, goofy dubbing, silly and fun. 6/10

The Adventures of Pluto Nash (2002) Apparently they spent 100 million dollars on this Eddie Murphy SF adventure, and 20 million to promote it, and got back 7 million in the theatres and 24 from rentals. If I can still add right that makes an 89 million dollar loss. I wanted to see how that could happen and I did. What happened was it is actually lousy. It's like they pulled a crummy action movie script out of the trash and puked dollars on it. (The good news is it appears to have ended the screenwriter's career.) Bad guy wants to buy good guy's night club, good guy won't sell, bad guy's goons blow up night club and kill good guy's friend, good guy goes after bad guy. ON THE MOON. Those were some really expensive looking sets they were blowing up. See Moon Zero Two or Leonard Part 6 instead. 1/10