MOVIES

Family Movie Night has not seen any huge successes of late, with all the selections being flawed to some strange degree, but a few have provided some satisfaction.


The Cobweb (1955) is an incoherent Mental Clinic soap opera in which the staff seem more neurotic and hysterical than the patients.  Richard Widmark, Charles Boyer and Gloria Grahame were miscast, and the best performance was Lillian Gish as a stiff and angry little administrator.  The script was a muddle and characters' motivations were not clearly defined.  I would not have sat through it on my own, but Donna found it more tolerable.  I would give it 4/10.

Tomorrow's Children (1934) is a roadshow exploitation/educational film on the topic of eugenics and compulsory sterilization.  Not by nature a very good movie, it still has some good entertainment value in characterization and story line, and it becomes a nailbiter before it is over.  Lanky redhead Sterling Holloway provides some peculiar comedy relief. 6/10


The Blonde Captive (1931) Is an anthropological exploitation film made and narrated by Lowell Thomas using footage from his expedition through the South Pacific and around the northern coast of Australia.  It is fascinating to see this footage of the indigenous Australians apparently untouched by technological societies.  The real anthropological interest here is more in the viewpoint of the filmmakers, as the ostensible purpose of the expedition is the search for evidence of the survival of traits of  Neanderthal Man in the modern age, and Neanderthal Man is rung in at every opportunity until they find a fat happy Australian who shows enough visual similarity to a sculpture in the museum that they can claim their thesis is proven.  This film was also a good opportunity for the average guy to see lots of women with no shirts on and call it education, and the narration's blatant racism and sexism were perfectly acceptable humor at the time.  6/10

Once a Sinner (1950) is a British melodramatic thriller centering on class conflict.  The plot element of marrying above/below one's station is more a 1930s thing in US films but it's still obviously an important issue in 1950 Britain.  Fairly entertaining and overall a pretty good movie, but not great.   6/10