Monthly Archives: August 2020

The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes
Directed by Billy Wilder
Written by Billy Wilder and I.A.L. Diamond based on characters created by Arthur Conan Doyle
1970/US
IMDb page
First viewing/Amazon Prime rental

Holmes: Criminals are as unpredictable as head colds. You never know when you’re going to catch one.

This movie doesn’t quite have that prime Wilder zing but it is entertaining.

The story is set in Victorian England and Scotland.  As the movie begins, we learn that it will concern cases solved by Sherlock Holmes (Robert Stephens) that have been sealed for 50 years and were never published by Dr. Watson (Colin Blakely).  We then segue into flashback for almost the whole film.  We learn of Holmes’s cocaine addiction.

The first story, which I wouldn’t call a mystery, concerns a Russian ballerina who wants Holmes to father her child.  The second involves the case of Gabrielle Valladon (Genevieve Page).  She is saved from drowning and taken to 221B Baker Street by a cabbie.  At first, she seems to be suffering from total amnesia.

But Holmes’s deductions begin to establish her identify and awaken her memories.  She is searching for her missing husband, a mining engineer.  The investigation takes Holmes, Gabrielle, and Watson to Scotland where Watson spots the Loch Ness monster.  With Christopher Lee as Mycroft Holmes.

This movie had been intended as a big-budget  road show production complete with intermission.  Financial problems at the studio scaled the project back to a standard release time and subjected the finished film to over an hour of cuts.  So it’s understandable that some of Wilder’s finesse might have ended up on the cutting room floor.  Then again a Victorian period piece doesn’t quite fit in with Wilder’s wise-guy urban style.  I must say the movie kept my interest throughout and presents a different more vulnerable Holmes than previous adaptations.

The Wizard of Gore
Directed by Herschell Gordon Lewis
Written by Allen Kahn
1970/US
IMDb page
First viewing/Criterion Channel
They Shoot Zombies, Don’t They?

Montag the Magnificent: How do you know that at this second you aren’t sleeping in your beds dreaming that you are here sitting in this theater?

Goriest by far of the films I have seen by the Godfather of Gore.

Montag the Magnificent (Ray Sager) is a magician/hypnotist who takes the “saw young woman in half” act to outrageous extremes.  He hypnotizes the audience to witnessing a magic trick ending with an intact victim.  We see that and him physically sawing, etc his victim then pulling the innards out and running his fingers through them.  The women are later found murdered in various locations

His act draws the attention of a local TV anchorwoman and her boyfriend who start some investigative journalism.

The movie ends with the boyfriend doing a kind of plot synopsis and concluding that none of it made any sense.  He certainly got that right.  I keep watching these things because previously in Lewis’s films the gore is over the top but so obviously fake (bright red paint subbing for blood) that one could handle it and even laugh at it.  This one made me turn away from the screen in disgust.  I think this ends my exploration of Mr. Lewis’s filmography.

Catch-22
Directed by Mike Nichols
Written by Buck Henry based on a novel by Joseph Heller
1970/USA
IMDb page
Repeat viewing/Amazon Prime

Yossarian: Ok, let me see if I’ve got this straight. In order to be grounded, I’ve got to be crazy. And I must be crazy to keep flying. But if I ask to be grounded, that means I’m not crazy anymore, and I have to keep flying.
Dr. ‘Doc’ Daneeka: You got it, that’s Catch-22.
Yossarian: Whoo… That’s some catch, that Catch-22.
Dr. ‘Doc’ Daneeka: It’s the best there is.

A good movie for when the whole world seems crazy.  Also features an unbeatable ensemble cast.

The setting is a U.S. Army Air Force base on an island in WWII Italy.  Capt. Yossarian (Alan Arkin) is a bombadier.  He flies nightly bombing missions to the mainland.  But his commander Col. Cathcart (Martin Balsam) keeps raising the number of missions that must be completed before crew rotate out.  The one thing Yossarian knows for certain is that people are trying to kill him.  His outrageous antics bring him no closer to his rescue.  He has many nightmares, frightening fantasies, and real life encounters  involving the death of airmen.

In the meantime, Lt. Milo Minderbinder (Jon Voight) has vast plans to build an empire through trading army supplies for gourmet foodstuffs etc.   He enlists Col. Cathcart in this enterprise and the gap between the men profiting from the violence and the men dying from it continues to grow.  This is a very superficial plot summary.  There are many zany characters in the story.  They are played by Richard Benjamin, Art Garfunkel, Jack Gilford, Anthony Perkins, Buck Henry, Bob Newhart, Paula Prentiss, Martin Sheen, Orson Welles, Bob Balaban, Norman Fell, and Charles Groden.

I saw this on original release.  Nichols really let loose on this one as did his cast. Sometimes it’s a bit over-the-top but all in all it’s enjoyable as both comedy and morality tale.  I’m glad I gave it another chance.

Valerie and Her Week of Wonders (Valerie a týden divu)
Directed by Jaromil Jires
Written by Jaromil Jires, Ester Krumbachova, and Jiri Musil from a novel by Viteslav Nezval
1970/Czechoslovakia
IMDb page
First viewing/Amazon Prime rental
They Shoot Zombies Don’t They – 1000 Greatest Horror Films

“Who in the world am I? Ah, that’s the great puzzle.”  — Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland

Once upon a time in the Czech countryside a thirteen-year-old girl named Valerie (the gorgeous Jaroslava Schallerova) is standing on the brink of womanhood.  In slumber, her pubescent dreams and nightmares work through her anxieties and hopes.

And so we get kind of a stew of scenes of sex and death; pain and pleasure; magic and religion; innocence and evil and on and on. These are all painted by some of the most beautiful camerawork you ever will see.

I probably would have gotten way more out of the story of this film if I were more familiar with Czechoslovak folklore.  But this movie does not so much tell a story as it creates a complete detailed fantasy world. There are images drawn from horror stories and macabre art throughout but don’t come in looking to be scared. It’s all much too beautiful for that. Recommended.

Beyond the Valley of the Dolls
Directed by Russ Meyer
Written by Roger Ebert; story by Ebert and Russ Meyer
1970/US
IMDb page
First viewing/Amazon Prime rental

Ronnie (Z-Man) Barzell: You will drink the black sperm of my vengeance.

I couldn’t resist seeing this Roger Ebert-Russ Meyer collaboration.  It met my low expectations.

The plot such as it is involves an all-female rock band that seeks fame and fortune in Los Angeles. The girls rapidly are drawn into the free-love fest pot parties hosted by the ambiguously gendered “Z-man.” This slight framework is hung on copious amounts of female nudity and a fair amount of mild soft-core porn. Edy Williams, then-wife of Russ Meyer, plays a nymphomaniac porn star. The house band is played by The Strawberry Alarm Clock.

Despite its title, this film has nothing whatsoever to do with the Jaqueline Susann novel or its film adaptation.  Its screenplay is arch but not particularly witty.  The movie left me feeling slightly icky.  Apparently Russ Meyer would have included even more sex and nudity had he known in advance that this film would receive an X-rating!  There’s plenty as it is.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_9qo8XWz4co

Bed and Board (Domicile conjugal)
Directed by Francois Truffaut
Written by Francois Truffaut, Claude de Givray, and Bernard Revon
1970/France
IMDb page
Repeat viewing/Criterion Channel

Christine Doinel: Do what you have to do, but let me be. I’m not proud and never have been, so I can tell you: I still love you. But I’d rather not see you anymore.

In the penultimate film of the “Antoine Doinel” cycle, our hero becomes a husband and father.  But will he ever grow up?

Antoine Doinel (Jean-Pierre Leaud) has married Christine, (Claude Jade) his girlfriend from Stolen Kisses (1968).  He works dyeing carnations crazy colors.  She gives violin lessons at home.  Domesticity suits them both and eventually they have a baby boy

Antoine can resist anything except temptation and it arrives in the form of the Japanese wife of a client who sets about seducing him.  This isn’t difficult.  The culture gap gets old fast.  Can Christine ever forgive him?

Antoine continues to be frustratingly cbarming.  He can’t even dye flowers properly!  Jean-Pierre Leaud knows just exactly how to make us fall in love with him.  Claude Jade is adorable and wise at the same time.  This is light as a feather and so fun to watch during Lockdown.

Covid-19 is real.  Soon most people will know someone who has been hurt by the disease.  My sister-in-law Terri, who is also one of my best friends, has been in the hospital with pneumonia for 9 days.  Her son Bo, my nephew, was hospitalized yesterday.  I hope and pray both will be fine with few or no lingering consequences.  Needless to say, if you knew my family, it has been a non-stop drama fest.  Yesterday Terri checked out of hospital against medical advice with no prescriptions, no supplemental oxygen, no aftercare instructions.

I’m just fine.  They are in Las Vegas.  I am in Southern California.  My husband and I have really never left Lockdown.

For comfort viewing yesterday, I rewatched Leo McCarey’s The Awful Truth (1937) for the umpteenth time.  I have reviewed the film previously here.The stars, dialogue, directing, and production continue to sparkle.  It remains supremely enjoyable. For some reason, I focused on Ralph Bellamy this time. He is pretty wonderful.