Monthly Archives: January 2021

Don’t Look Now
Directed by Nicolas Roeg
Written by Allan Scott and Chris Bryant from a story by Daphne Du Maurier
1973/US
IMDb page
Repeat viewing/Amazon Prime rental
One of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die
One of 1000 Great Horror Movies on theyshootzombies.com

Laura Baxter: This one who’s blind. She’s the one that can see.

Roeg uses his cinematographer’s eye to stun us with variations on the color red and the gritty side of Venice, Italy.  All this beauty accompanies the well-acted, horrifying and tragic story of a couple trying to come to terms with the drowning death of their daughter.

John (Donald Sutherland) and Laura (Julie Christie) Baxter are a happily married couple living in England.  John is a renowned church restorer.  They have two children, Christine and Johnny.  One day, Christine drowns in a pond on their property.  John had a premonition and was running to his daughter before his son called out to him.

After an unspecified period of time, John and Laura put their son in boarding school and move to Venice, Italy where John is friendly with the local bishop and working hard on restoring a church dear to him.  John is deeply immersed in his work so has that outlet but Laura is sad all the time.

One day, they are eating in a restaurant where two ladies are staring at them.  One of the them has something in her eye and Laura offers to help.  It is then that she discovers the two are sisters and the blind one is a psychic.  The blind one tells Laura she saw her little girl sitting beside her and the girl was laughing and happy.  This makes Laura like a new woman.

John believes the psychic is a fraud and discourages Laura from seeing the sisters.  But Laura sneaks off anyway.  The psychic tells Laura John is in great danger and should leave Venice immediately.  John thinks this is hogwash.  Then he starts having some very disturbing visions.  I’ll stop here.  The film has an unforgettable ending.

Everything about this movie is so well done.  Roeg creates some fabulous montage sequences, including a notorious one in which we watch the Baxters make love intercut with their dressing for dinner.  The Venice of this movie is not the tourist Venice but a city that is decaying with age, creating a really creepy mysterious atmosphere.  The acting is perfect and the score is beautiful.  Be prepared to endure some real tragedy along with your scares.  Highly recommended.

High Plains Drifter
Directed by Clint Eastwood
Written by Ernest Tidyman
1973/US
IMDb page
First viewing/Amazon Prime rental
One of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die

Sarah Belding: I knew you were cruel, but I didn’t know how far you could go.
The Stranger: Well, you still don’t.

This movie lost me after the violent rape at the beginning.  It proceeds to get more violent, bloody and cruel.

Clint Eastwood known only as “The Stranger” rides into the little Western town of Lago. He first kills the three gunmen who have been protecting the town. Then pretty  young Callie Travers (Marianna Hill) deliberately runs into him.  She complains he tore her dress.  Then she gives him some lip so he takes her to a barn and violently rapes her. Later she voluntarily sleeps with her rapist, though with ill intent.

The Stranger has nightmares about the town’s former Marshall who was horrifically whipped to death in Lago by multiple men (we see this in excruciating detail) because he threatened to reveal the town’s secret.

After the killing of their gunmen, the town’s leaders decide that The Stranger is the man to take care of three outlaws who have been released from prison and have threatened to burn down the town.  The Stranger is initially reluctant but an offer of anything/anything he wants convinces him to take on the job.  What he wants especially is to destroy the town along with the outlaws.  He forces the people to do many incomprehensible things.  The movie builds to an elaborate violent climax in which the the Stranger’s plan comes together.

I really didn’t want to watch this after the rape.  But I persevered and saw the entire thing, which was also too violent and cruel for me.  Obviously this is on The List and seems to have many fans on IMDb.  So I am in the minority here.  Actually, there is nothing really wrong with the movie and those with thicker skin than mine might love it.

The Wicker Man
Directed by Robin Hardy
Written by Anthony Shaffer from a novel by David Pinner
1973/UK
IMDb page
First viewing/Amazon Prime rental
One of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die

Lord Summerisle [quoting Walt Whitman): I think I could turn and live with animals. They are so placid and self-contained. They do not lie awake in the dark and weep for their sins. They do not make me sick discussing their duty to God. Not one of them kneels to another or to his own kind that lived thousands of years ago. Not one of them is respectable or unhappy, all over the earth.

What an unusual and fantastic movie!

Police Sergeant Howie (Edward Woodward) visits Summerisle in search of a missing girl. The residents are very reluctant to provide information absent the authorization of Lord Summerisle (Christopher Lee).  In any event, all deny ever knowing such a girl.

Howie, a devout Christian, is appalled to find that the islanders have adopted a pagan religion, which features a fertility cult and celebrates the gods of nature.  Many of the songs they sing strike Howie as obscene.  He will gradually find out more about the religion and more about the fate of the missing girl.

Howie’s investigations will get him deeper and deeper into a place he does not want to be. It would be wrong to reveal any additional details of the plot.  With Diane Cliento and Britt Ekland as islanders.

I knew next to nothing about this movie and  just loved it  Goes straight on the Favorite New-to-Me Movie list.  I cannot think of a single thing that could be improved.  It is powerful, creepy, and scary without being overly gory.  Highly Recommended.

The Long Goodbye
Directed by Robert Altman
Written by Leigh Brackett from a novel by Raymond Chandler
1973/US
IMDb page
Repeat viewing/Amazon Prime rental
One of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die

Marty Augustine: It’s a minor crime, to kill your wife. The major crime is that he stole my money. Your friend stole my money, and the penalty for that is capital punishment.

Altman’s reimagination of Philip Marlowe for sunny 70’s California works better than might be expected.

Elliott Gould plays Philip Marlowe as a straight-arrow smart-ass.  He is stuck in the 40’s , wears a suit at all times and maintains a strictly platonic relationship with the dope-smoking topless blondes dancing on the opposing balcony.  As the movie opens, Marlowe’s greatest challenge is to find the correct brand of cat food for his finicky cat in the middle of the night.

But later that night, Marlowe’s friend Terry Lennox drops in.  He says the police are unjustly pursuing him for the murder of his wife.  He asks Marlowe to take him to Mexico.  Marlowe is convinced Terry is innocent and complies.

Upon his return, he finds a group of thugs (including an uncredited Arnold Schwarzenegger) in his house.  They are sure Terry murdered his wife but they are more concerned about the $350,000 Terry owes them.

Marlowe returns to Mexico.  The police tell him Terry has committed suicide.  Marlowe does not believe this either and looks up Terry’s friends Roger (Sterling Hayden) and Eileen (Nina van Pallandt) Wade.  Roger is drying out at a sanitorium run by Dr. Verringer (Henry Gibson).  Marlowe frees Roger, who is a real character.  The plot has numerous twists and turns and I will stop here.

This is neo-noir played out mostly in the bright sunshine of the Pacific Coast.  Altman uses the contrast between the old-timey Marlowe and the thoroughly corrupt rest of the cast to great effect.  It’s more light-hearted than most noirs and Gould is snappy with the one-liners.  John Williams created an evocative score using variations on the first two lines of the theme song.  Recommended.