Flickers in Time

The Old Dark House
Directed by James Whale
Written by Benn W. Levy from a novel by J.B. Priestley
1932/US
IMDb page
Universal Pictures
Repeat viewing/Criterion Channel

Rebecca Femm: No beds! They can’t have beds!
Horace Femm: As my sister hints, there are, I’m afraid, no beds.

James Whale was definitely on a winning streak.

A group of travelers is forced to take shelter in a terrible storm and finds themselves in the title abode among the strangest family imaginable. With a boffo cast including: Boris Karloff, Charles Laughton, Melvyn Douglas, Ernest Thesinger, Raymond Massey, Gloria Stewart, Lillian Bond, and Eva Moore.

I adore this movie! It is just the perfect amalgam of thrills and wit. The screenplay and all the performances are spot on. Have a potato! The Criterion Channel is featuring a Pre-Code Horror collection this month and there are some great selections to dip into.  This film is also available for free on YouTube.

Let There Be Light
Directed by John Huston
Written byline John Huston and Charles Kaufman
1980/US
IMDb page
Repeat viewing/YouTube

Narrator: However different the symptoms, these things they have in common: unceasing fear and apprehension, a sense of impending disaster, a feeling of hopelesness and utter isolation.

The documentary was made in 1946 but it was not released until 1980. It’s an interesting look at the what we would now call PTSD.

The film was made at an army hospital that treated soldiers who were suffering from “psychoneurosis” (PTSD) on their return to the U.S. The main treatment seemed to have been giving the men some kind of hypnotic drug and then hypnotizing them to reverse their psychosomatic symptoms. This works like a charm in the film.

Although the documentary does portray the army program in a positive light it evidently was not positive enough for the authorities and was shelved.

I’m glad it was released as I have a weakness for WWII documentaries. I also liked seeing what mental health care was like in the 1940s.

Experiment Perilous
Directed by Jacques Tourneur
Written by Warren Duff from a novel by Margaret Carpenter
1944/US
RKO Radio Studio
IMBd page
First viewing Criterion Channel

Nick Bederaux: Life is short and the art long. Decision difficult, experiment perilous. (Quoting Hippocrates)

I watched Jacques Tourneur’s Experiment Perilous” (1944), which is currently on the Criterion channel as part of its Noir by Gaslight collection.

Doctor Huntington Bailey (George Brent) is on a train when he is approached by an old lady. When she learns where he is going, she describes the many strange circumstances surrounding the Bederaux family. She raised both her brother Nick (Paul Lukas) and his future wife Allida (Hedy Lamarr). Later he learns that the woman died while visiting her brother.

Nick is the epitome of a control freak when it comes to his much younger wife. He tries to enlist George in the effort “cure” her of her supposed mental illness. But of course George falls in love with her first. The conflict between Nick and George builds to an explosive climax.

I understand that people love George Brent but I don’t get his appeal and think he is one of the blandest actors around. Hedy Lamarr looks gorgeous throughout but she is also not much of an actress in my view. So this heavily “Gaslight”-inspired film did little for me.

Moscow Does Not Believe in Tears

Directed by Alexsey Menshev
Written by Valentin Chernyk and Vladimir Menshev
1980/USSR
IMDb page
Repeat viewing/YouTube

Georgiy ‘Gosha’: How come you never did get married?
Katerina ‘Katya’ Tikhomirova: I was waiting for you.

This sweet coming-of-age romance movie won the Academy Award for Best Picture in a Foreign Language.

The story follows the lives of three female high-school graduates from graduation day until they turn 40. All three get factory jobs immediately thereafter.

Ludmilla (Irina Muravyova) is flamboyant and well-dressed. She has her eyes set on a rich or at least distinguished husband. She gets her opportunity when her friend Katya (Vera Alentova) gets the call to pet sit at the apartment for her well-off uncle. Ludmilla tags along and is soon inviting a bunch of eligible men for a dinner party with the two of them. Both begin relationships with men at the party. These are disappointing to say the least. Will they find happiness in the end?  With Aleksey Batalov (The Cranes are Flying).

This is a very enjoyable look at the image the USSR wanted to project in 1980. The story is sweet and satisfying. Oscar material? I don’t think so.

Street of Chance
Directed by James Cromwell
Written by Oliver H.P. Garrett, Lenore J. Coffee and Howard Estabrook
1930/US
IMDb page
First viewing/Criterion Channel

I do not hold that because the author did a bad job of writing the player need trump it with the same kind of acting. When I go into a picture I have only one character to look after. If the author didn’t do him justice, I try to add whatever the creator of the part overlooked. – William Powell

Kay Frances and William Powell team up again in an early talkie melodrama.

Powell plays a famous professional gambler. Francis is his long-suffering wife. She is fed up with Powell’s constant absences and has filed for separation.

Powell doesn’t want her to leave and vows to go straight and take her on a grand holiday. The reconciliation is interrupted be the arrival of Powell’s bother (Regis Toomey) who is looking to gamble his entire life savings in the big city on the chance of trebling his money. This leads to a series of misunderstandings while Powell tries to teach Toomey a lesson. With Jean Arthur in a small role as Toomey’s fiancée.

I thought this was OK, though hardly gripping.  It is available for free on YouTube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQpJFNP1frI

Fan-made trailer (can be seen via Watch on YouTube link)

Kagemusha
Directed by Akita Kurosawa
Written by Masato Ire and Akita Kurasawa
1980/US
IMDb page
Repeat viewing/Amazon Prime rental

Shingen Takeda: I am wicked, as you believe. I am a scoundrel. I banished my father and I killed my own son. I will do anything to rule this country. War is everywhere. Unless somebody unifies the nation and reigns over us, we will see more rivers of blood and more mountains of the dead.

This epic look at identity is notable for Kurosawa’s gorgeous use of landscape, settings, and costumes. Tatsuya Nakadai gives a magnificent performance in the dual role of a warlord and his hapless double.

It is 1574. Warlords are fighting among themselves for ultimate control of a united Japan. A trio of the strongest clans are at war. The life of each warlord is constantly in danger.

The brother of the warlord Shingen Takeda (Tatsuya Nakadai) has been acting as his double, taking the risk in public.

But now the clan elders have found an even more uncanny double in the form of a peasant thief who was about to be crucified (also Tatsuya Nakadai). He is extremely reluctant to take on the role but you didn’t argue with warlords in 16th century Japan and live. Finally the real warlord is wounded in battle and asks his clan not to reveal his death and to defend the castle for another 3 years.

The thief proves to be very convincing in his part. Will he be able to relinquish it when the three years are over?

Although there was a message I think I missed, I really enjoyed this movie. The acting was superb, the costumes were sumptuous, and Kurasawa’s staging of the various armies was magnificent. Recommended.

Kagemusha was nominated for Academy Awards in the categories of Best Foreign Language Picture and Best Art Direction – Set Decoration.