Category Archives: Movie Reviews

The Story of Louis Pasteur
Directed by William Dieterle
Written by Sheridan Gibney and Pierre Collings
1936/USA
First National Productions
First viewing

[box] Dr. Louis Pasteur: [to his assistants] Remember our aim: Find the microbe – kill the microbe.[/box]

I enjoyed this inspiring biopic and Paul Muni’s perfomance as the French scientist.

Irascible French chemist Louis Pasteur fights for years to have his theory that microbes cause disease accepted by the French medical establishment.  His theory helps him to discover a vaccine for anthrax and a cure for rabies.

Despite the dry sounding subject matter, my eyes were wet by the end.  It is amazing how helpless medicine was against disease and how vulnerable people were to infection by dirty hands and instruments before Pasteur’s breakthrough (which, admittedly was paralleled by Lister’s work on antiseptic surgery in Britain).  Muni absolutely disappears into his character.  Recommended.

Muni won an Academy Award for Best Actor, while Collings and Gibney won for Best Screenplay and Best Story. The film was nominated for Best Picture.

Trailer

Reefer Madness (AKA “Tell Your Children”, “The Burning Question”, “Dope Addict”, “Doped Youth” and “Love Madness”)
Directed by Louis J. Gasnier
Written by Arthur Hoerl from an original story by Lawrence Meade
1936/USA
George A. Hirliman Productions
First viewing

[box] Bureau Official: Here is an example: A fifteen-year-old lad apprehended in the act of staging a holdup – fifteen years old and a marijuana addict. Here is a most tragic case.

Dr. Carroll: Yes. I remember. Just a young boy… under the influence of drugs… who killed his entire family with an axe.[/box]

The second in my series of roadshow attractions from 1936 and another exploitation film that masquerades under the guise of raising public awareness on the perils of the evil weed.

In this one, Mary, Bill, and Jimmy are happy well-adjusted teenagers until Jimmy accepts Jack’s invitation to a party.  One by one they are picked off by innocently accepting cigarettes offered by their friends … cigarettes that immediately start them laughing maniacally.  After the victims become hopeless addicts, the inevitable slide to attempted rape, hit-and-run driving, murder, frame-up, and suicide begins.

This one is not quite so salacious as Marihuana but was surely scandalous for its time. The acting is priceless.  This film gained cult status in the 70’s when NORML showed it as a midnight movie to raise funds for its marijuana legalization efforts.

Original Trailer

Marihuana (AKA “Marihuana, the Devil’s Weed”; “Marihuana, the Weed with Roots in Hell!”)
Directed by Dwain Esper
Written by Hildegarde Stadie
1936/USA
Roadshow Attractions
First viewing

[box] Teenaged boy: [pouring a drink] This is gonna be a slippery drink for sliding girls.[/box]

Unhampered by the Hayes Code, the filmmakers disguise a lot of naughty goings on (nude bathing!) in a supposedly anti-drug tract.

This tells the tragic story of Burma, as she falls, courtesy of a funny-looking cigarette, from sulky teenager to heartless heroin pusher.  Meanwhile, we get wild dancing at a beer joint, disrobing at a weenie roast, and gangland violence.  Twenty-something 30’s “teenagers” look and act strangely similar to twenty-something 50’s “teenagers”.

Except for Burma’s hilarious performance in the finale, this was not as funny as I had hoped.  Then again, I was not stoned at the time.  I have high hopes for Reefer Madness, which I will review later today.

Trailer

Close Encounters of the Third Kind
Directed by Stephen Spielberg
Written by Stephen Spielberg
1977/USA
Columbia Pictures Corporation/EMI Films/Julia Phillips and Michael Phillips Productions
Repeat viewing
#618 of 1001 Films You Must See Before You Die
IMDb users say 7.7/10; I say 9.5/10

[box] Barry Guiler: You can come and play now.[/box]

What better way to get back into the swing of my “must-see” movie viewing than with this practically perfect science fiction/fantasy?  This would have received full points from me if the aliens had been left a mystery at the end.

I have always preferred this film to Star Wars, which came out the same year.  The plot of Star Wars could have, and had, taken place in the Old West, medieval Japan, or a fairy-tale kingdom – anywhere, indeed, where good guys fought bad guys.  Close Encounters only works as a collision of every day reality with the Unknown.  The audience can identify with the befuddled everymen and share their sense of wonder.

I love the delight of tiny Barry Guiler when an unseen delegation from a UFO marches through his house like a whirlwind.  And I can only sympathize with Roy Neary (Richard Dreyfuss) and his entire family as a force no one can understand takes over his will and life.

That is why I would have preferred to have let my imagination create aliens wonderful enough to create this kind of awe.  I don’t think any kind of physical representation could have done the trick.  As it is, the aliens look all too much like E.T.   I was amused, however, at a shot that clearly shows the resemblance between big-eyed toddler Cary Guffey as Barry and the faces of the smaller aliens.

But this is nitpicking.  Until the end, I was totally engrossed in the story, which has held up admirably all these years later.

Original Trailer

Satan Met a Lady
Directed by William Dieterle
Written by Brown Holmes based on a novel by Dashiell Hammett
1936/USA
Warner Bros.
First viewing

[box] Valerie Purvis: Do you mind very much, Mr. Shane, taking off your hat in the presence of a lady with a gun?[/box]

This is an adaptation of The Maltese Falcon with all the character names changed and the quarry changed to a medieval ram’s horn stuffed with jewels.  It’s all played for laughs.  I will identify the cast by their Maltese Falcon names:  Warren William as Sam Spade; Bette Davis as Ruth Wonderly/Bridget O’Shaughnessy; Arthur Treacher as Joel Cairo; Allison Skipworth as Kasper Gutman; Maynard Holmes as Wilbur; and Porter Hall as Miles Archer.

I thought this was pretty bad.  Warren William seems to be laughing at his own little joke the entire time.  The whole thing is really very silly.  This is the kind of thing Bette Davis was probably fighting to stay out of at Warners.

Trailer