Daily Archives: January 31, 2016

East of Eden
Directed by Elia Kazan
Written by Paul Osborn from a novel by John Steinbeck
1955/USA
Warner Bros.
First viewing/Netflix rental

[box] Cal Trask: I’ve been jealous all my life. Jealous, I couldn’t even stand it. Tonight, I even tried to buy your love, but now I don’t want it anymore… I can’t use it anymore. I don’t want any kind of love anymore. It doesn’t pay off.[/box]

Elia Kazan shows how Cinemascope should be done, James Dean tries to become the next Marlon Brando, and the supporting actors shine.

The Steinbeck source novel is a loose retelling of the Cain and Abel story set at the time of WWI.  Adam Trask (Raymond Massey) is a God-fearing farmer in the Salinas Valley of California.  He has two sons Aaron and Cal (Dean).  Aaron is a lot like his father but Adam struggles to comprehend Cal’s behavior.  Cal is troubled, feels unloved and as the story opens thinks he has tracked down his supposedly dead mother Kate (Jo Van Fleet).  He tries to visit her at the brothel she runs in Monterey but is vigorously rebuffed.

Adam’s dream is to establish a market for California produce back East during the winter. He hopes to do this through refrigeration, which is in its infancy.  The dream makes him happy for awhile but the reality is that the technology is not ready and Adam loses his shirt.  Cal decides to win his father’s respect by earning back the lost money through speculating in bean futures on the hunch that the U.S. will get into the war in Europe.  He is more successful in his second attempt to reunite with Kate and she loans him the seed capital for the venture, seeing a kindred spirit and a business man in Cal.

Aaron is vehemently opposed to the war and Adam has found work at the draft board, where he agonizes over sending boys off to combat.  Aaron’s fiancee Abra (Julie Harris) is strangely drawn to Cal and helps him organize the disastrous birthday party at which Cal plans to present his father with the money.  With Burl Ives as the town sheriff and Albert Dekker as Cal’s business partner.

Kazan frames his shots to really take advantage of the wide-screen process and the whole thing looks beautiful in a rather faded old-timey way.  The acting is uniformly good.  My favorite was Raymond Massey.  Dean has enormous presence but he is no Brando.

Jo Van Fleet won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.  The film was Oscar-nominated in the following categories:  Best Actor (Dean); Best Director and Best Writing, Screenplay.

Trailer

Bride of the Monster
Directed by Edward D. Wood, Jr.
Written by Edward D. Wood, Jr. and Alex Gordon
1955/USA
Rolling M. Productions
Repeat viewing/YouTube

[box] Dr. Eric Vornoff: My dear professor Strowsky, twenty years ago, I was banned from my home land, parted from my wife and son, never to see them again. Why? Because I suggested to use the atom elements, for producing super beings, beings of unthinkable strength and size. I was classed as a madman, a charlatan, outlawed in a world of science which previously honored me as a genius. Now here in this forsaken jungle hell I have proven that I am alright. No, Professor Strowski, it is no laughing matter.[/box]

One advantage of watching a bunch of boring bad movies is that they make Ed Wood’s flicks look a lot better.

People are being found killed at an alarming rate on Marsh Lake swamp.  Rumors are spreading that the swamp is guarded by a monster.  Within the first five minutes of the story, we learn that the slain are dispatched by a gigantic (rubber) octopus kept by mad scientist Dr. Eric Vornoff (Bela Lugosi) who has set up shop at Manor House.  The muscle of the operation is Vornoff’s mute Tibetan slave Lobo (Tor Johnson).  The strangers that are not immediately dispatched by his pet are subjected to the doctor’s experiments aimed at creating an atomic superman.

Ace reporter Janet Lawton believes the monster rumors.  The police are interested only in facts and evidence.  Janet is engaged to Lt. Dick Craig.  She sets off to the swamp on her own without telling anyone.  In the meantime, the police are approached by suspicious foreign scientist Professor Strosky who tells them of his experience as a monster hunter. The chief assigns Dick to accompany Strosky to the swamp.  Good thing too as Dick arrives just in time find Janet in the clutches of Dr. Vornoff.

One thing we can say about Ed Wood is that he had a vision.  A demented vision, to be sure, but a vision.  This 60-minute film moves along fairly briskly and has the Woodian dialogue that I can’t resist.  One could ignore the phony rubber octopus but why do that when the death struggles of its victims are so darn amusing?  This is by far the best of the Ed Wood movies I have seen.  That does not make it “good”, of course.

Trailer

Bride of the Monster v. Ed Wood