Review: "Testament" Still Testifies (Happy B'day, Lukas Haas)

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 54 (of 2005) by Leroy Douresseaux

Testament (1983)
Running time: 89 minutes (1 hour, 29 minutes)
MPAA – PG
DIRECTOR:  Lynne Littman
WRITER:  John Sacret Young (based upon the short story, “The Last Testament” by Carol Amen)
PRODUCERS:  John Bernstein and Lynne Littman
CINEMATOGRAPHER:  Steven Poster
EDITOR:  Suzanne Pettit
COMPOSER:  James Horner
Academy Award nominee

Starring:  Jane Alexander, William Devane, Rossie Harris, Roxana Zal, Lukas Haas, Philip Anglim, Lilia Skala, Leon Ames, Lurene Tuttle, Rebecca De Mornay, Kevin Costner, Mako, Mico Olmos, and Gerry Murillo

DRAMA

The subject of this movie review is Testament, a 1983 post-apocalyptic drama.  The film is based on the short story, “The Last Testament,” which first appeared in print in 1981 and was written by Carol Amen.  Testament the film focuses on a woman and her small suburban American family as they struggle to survive after a nuclear attack.

Talk about a time capsule movie, I hadn’t seen the anti-nuclear war/proliferation or anti-nukes film, Testament, in 21 years, and found it quite by accident on Internet rental service, Netflix.  Back in the early 80’s, Testament really fit in with a time when so many people thought the U.S. and the USSR were going to destroy the world in an inevitable nuclear world war, each side seemingly primed for mutually assured destruction.  Still, the film’s drama remains potent because its story of a community devastated by a man-made horror is timeless.

Testament is the story of Carol Wetherly (Jane Alexander), who becomes the family matriarch and leader when nuclear bombs are detonated across the country, and her husband, Tom (William Devane), doesn’t make it home to their suburb of Hamlin from his job in San Francisco.  As neighbors and members of her family begin to die from the fallout, Carol takes in orphans and tries to keep what’s left of her family together.  When it seems that everyone’s fate is sealed by radiation poison and it seems that they’re cut off from the rest of the world (or what still exists of civilization), she tries to teach her children adult matters that they will never live to learn.

Testament was originally a made-for-TV movie that impressed executives at Paramount Pictures enough to get it released theatrically.  The fact that it played in theatres made Jane Alexander eligible for post-season film awards, and she earned 1984 Oscar and Golden Globe nominations for best actress.  She dominates this film, and the tragic post-war existence of the survivors is etched in her performance.

There are some moments in this film that will stay with me forever, such as Carol washing her youngest child, Scottie (Lukas Haas), who has profuse bleeding in his stool – totally heart wrenching.  Even at an hour and a half running time, the film seems a bit long, as if it makes its point halfway through the film and everything else is just morbid piling on.  Still, the film gets across two points – humans will struggle to survive, even under the most adverse conditions.  Secondly, we humans will hurt ourselves more than anything else on the planet could.  Although I think that leaders who make the decision to go to war don’t give a damn about such movies, Testament is good enough for those of us who do.

7 of 10
B+

Friday, April 8, 2005

Updated:  Wednesday, April 16, 2014

NOTES:
1984 Academy Awards, USA:  1 nomination: “Best Actress in a Leading Role” (Jane Alexander)

1984 Golden Globes, USA:  1 nomination: “Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama” (Jane Alexander)

The text is copyright © 2014 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this site for syndication rights and fees.

Review: The "Candyman" Can... Still Scare

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 132 (of 2005) by Leroy Douresseaux

Candyman (1992)
Running time:  98 minutes (1 hour, 38 minutes)
MPAA – R
DIRECTOR:  Bernard Rose
WRITER:  Bernard Rose (based upon the story “The Forbidden” by Clive Barker)
PRODUCERS:  Steve Golin, Sigurjon Sighvatsson, and Alan Poul
CINEMATOGRAPHER:  Anthony B. Richmond, B.S.C.
EDITOR:  Dan Rae
COMPOSER:  Philip Glass

HORROR/THRILLER with elements of fantasy and mystery

Starring:  Virginia Madsen, Tony Todd, Xander Berkeley, Kasi Lemmons, Vanessa Williams, and DeJuan Guy

The subject of this movie review is Candyman, a 1992 horror film from director Bernard Rose.  The film is an adaptation of “The Forbidden,” a short story by Clive Barker that first appeared in Barker’s short story collection, Books of Blood Volume 5 (published in the United States as In the Flesh).  Candyman tells the story of a grad student who is skeptical of stories about a local boogeyman until the boogeyman attacks her.

Stand in front of a mirror and say his name five times, and Candyman (Tony Todd) will appear behind you.  When someone calls his name, Candyman usually arrives to gut his caller from groin to gullet, but it’s all a children’s ghost story – an urban legend to scare the simpleminded.  That’s what Helen Lyle (Virginia Madsen), a Chicago-based graduate student, believes when she comes across the tale of Candyman while doing research for her thesis on modern folklore.

However, when she hears that Candyman haunts Chicago’s notorious Cabrini Green projects, Helen thinks that she has a new angle for the thesis upon which she is working with her partner, Bernadette “Bernie” Walsh (Kasi Lemmons).  Still, Helen can’t really accept that Candyman exists.  Her actions and investigations also lead to an arrest that seems to put the Candyman tales to rest… until the legend himself appears and ignites a series of gruesome and bloody murders for which Helen gets the blame.

Thirteen years before earning the Oscar nomination that would revive her career (for 2004’s Sideways), Virginia Madsen was a scream queen – the heroine in a now-cult favorite horror movie entitled Candyman.  Based upon legendary horror/fantasy writer, Clive Barker’s, tale “The Forbidden,” Candyman took the unusual narrative approach that the final result of the film had to be that the heroine, in this case Helen Lyle, die in order to save the day.  Not only is Helen fighting a monster, but she’s also fighting a story that wants her dead.  Madsen was perfect as the doe-eyed beauty who swoons from one scene to the next, her plump, semi-Rubenesque body awaiting the fearsome savagery of Candyman’s hook.

Writer/director Bernard Rose (who would go on to direct Immortal Beloved, with Gary Oldman) moved the action from the housing projects of Liverpool, the original setting of Barker’s tale, to Chicago’s then-40-year old, decaying housing projects, Cabrini Green.  Rose’s choice was an excellent one, as he was able to make Cabrini an even more darkly mysterious setting for chills and thrills as good as any haunted house.  Rose makes the first half of the film a quietly, chilling suspense thriller, but he transforms the second half of the film into a dreamy and trippy dark horror/fantasy that only stumbles a little as it waltzes to the end.

The film also features a small role by Kasi Lemmons, who would make a name for herself in Hollywood as both a script doctor and as a director with the acclaimed, independent film hit, Eve’s Bayou.  Tony Todd became something of a horror movie/sci-fi cult actor (kinda like Bruce Campbell) appearing in episodes of “Stargate:  SG-1,” “Star Trek: The Next Generation” and “Star Trek:  Deep Space Nine” and also in the Final Destination horror film franchise.  Here, Ms. Madsen, Ms. Lemmons, Todd, and Rose put together a small, mesmerizing horror treat that bears many repeat viewings.

7 of 10
B+

Monday, August 22, 2005

Updated:  Sunday, October 13, 2013

The text is copyright © 2013 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this site for syndication rights and fees.

Review: Being Strange Not is Enough for "Bubba Ho-tep"

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 122 (of 2004) by Leroy Douresseaux

Bubba Ho-tep (2002)
Running time:  92 minutes (1 hour, 32 minutes)
MPAA – R for language, some sexual content and brief violent images
DIRECTOR:  Don Coscarelli
WRITER:  Don Coscarelli (based upon a short story by Joe R. Lansdale)
PRODUCERS:  Don Coscarelli and Jason R. Savage
CINEMATOGRAPHER:  Adam Janeiro
EDITOR:  Scott J. Gill and Donald Milne
COMPOSER:  Brian Tyler

HORROR with elements of comedy and drama

Starring:  Bruce Campbell, Ossie Davis, Ella Joyce, Heidi Marnhout, Reggie Bannister, Daniel Roebuck, Daniel Schweiger, and Bob Ivy

The subject of this movie review is Bubba Ho-tep, a 2002 American comic horror film from writer-director Don Coscarelli.  The film is based on the novella of the same title by author Joe R. Lansdale.  Bubba Ho-tep appeared in many film festivals, beginning in 2002, and received a limited theatrical release in 2003.

In Bubba Ho-tep the movie, Elvis Presley (Bruce Campbell) is alive and lives in the Mud Creek Shady Rest Convalescence Home.  He has a broken hip and a pus-filled boil on his penis.  How did the King of Rock n’ Roll end up in such a state and living in an old folks home?  It’s a long story.  Besides, President John F. Kennedy (Ossie Davis) is an old black man who also lives at the rest home.  Conspiracy theorists rejoice.

There is, however, no time for reminiscing about their fame, their circumstances, and how they cheated death.  These two legendary figures of American history and culture join forces when they discover that an ancient Egyptian mummy in cowboy boots and hat, to whom Elvis jokingly refers as Bubba Ho-tep, has invaded their rest home and is sucking the souls out of the residents.  So Elvis and JFK spring to action before any of the other residents lose their souls.

Film fanatics know director Don Coscarelli for his film Phantasm and its sequels, and Coscarelli’s ready-made cult film, Bubba Ho-tep, is a unique addition to his weirdo filmography.  Bubba Ho-tep is a low wattage fright flick with nice flourishes of comedy (but not the camp kind) and drama.  Lacking super special effects, the film relies on some detailed and heartfelt performances by B-movie actor Bruce Campbell and veteran Ossie Davis, a fine actor who has spent most of his career under-utilized because of he is black.  Campbell is especially good because he deftly skirts a line between being campy and seriously dramatic in his portrayal of Elvis.  It’s as if he wants us to take him seriously as an actor and as if he were mocking the entire thing at the same time.

The film however is too soft; the production values are just enough to put it on the level of real low-budget television show.  In terms of SFX pyrotechnics, Bubba Ho-tep is not even on the level of “The X-Files.”  Still, the film is pleasantly entertaining, and the characters and concept would indeed make a nice episodic TV show.

5 of 10
B-

The text is copyright © 2013 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this site for syndication rights and fees.

Review: "Gun Crazy" is Crazy Cool (Remembering Dalton Trumbo)

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 151 (of 2006) by Leroy Douresseaux

Gun Crazy (1950) – B&W
Deadly is the Female (1949) – original title
Running time: 86 minutes (1 hour, 26 minutes)
DIRECTOR:  Joseph H. Lewis
WRITERS:  MacKinlay Kantor, Millard Kaufman, and Dalton Trumbo (based upon the short story by MacKinlay Kantor)
PRODUCERS:  Frank King and Maurice King
CINEMATOGRAPHER:  Russell Harlan (director of photography)
EDITOR:  Harry Gerstad
COMPOSER:  Victor Young

FILM-NOIR/CRIME/DRAMA

Starring:  Peggy Cummings, John Dall, Barry Kroeger, Morris Carnovsky, Anabel Shaw, Harry Lewis, Nedrick Young, and Rusty Tamblyn with (cast that received no screen credit) David Bair, Paul Frison, and Trevor Bardette

The subject of this movie review is Gun Crazy, a 1950 film noir crime drama directed by Joseph H. Lewis.  The film was originally released under the title, Deadly is the Female, apparently sometime in 1949.  Gun Crazy is based on a short story written by MacKinlay Kantor, one of the film’s screenwriters.  Although Millard Kaufman is also credited as a screenwriter on Gun Crazy, he is not.  Kaufman was a “front writer,” meaning he allowed another screenwriter to use his name in order to work on the project.  The writer who used Kaufman’s name was Dalton Trumbo.

Trumbo was one of the “Hollywood 10.”  They were cited for contempt of Congress for refusing to give testimony to the House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC) concerning Communist activity in Hollywood in the 1930s and early 1940s.  Trumbo and others were blacklisted from working on Hollywood film productions, or, if they did work on a production, their names were omitted from the film.  Trumbo is credited as the writer who reworked MacKinlay Kantor’s Gun Crazy story into a tale of a doomed love affair, but he could not receive a screen credit for his work on the film.

Gun Crazy the movie introduces Bart Tare (Rusty Tamblyn).  As a boy, Tare was obsessed with guns, although he was loathed to kill anything.  His obsession lands him in a reform school, but he retains the support of his family and especially of his friends, Dave Allister (Paul Frison) and Clyde Boston (Trevor Bardette).  After leaving the reform school and doing a stint in the army, adult Bart (John Dall) returns home to find that the adult Dave Allister (Nedrick Young) is now the editor of their hometown paper and that Clyde is now Sheriff Clyde Boston (Harry Lewis).

The trio attends a traveling carnival where Bart meets the love of his life, Annie Laurie Starr (Peggy Cummings), a carnie trick pistol shooter, who, like Bart, is gun-obsessed.  The two run off and get married, but Laurie is a dangerous girl who wants the high life.  The legitimate jobs that poor Bart can get won’t pay enough to buy her all the things she wants.  He’s too in love to be without her, so it’s easy for her to talk him into a life of crime.  They commit a string of daring robberies across the country that eventually cause them to kill.  Hunted and desperate, Laurie and Bart head back home to Bart’s sister, Ruby (Anabel Shaw), and her family, but Sheriff Clyde and Dave are waiting for them.

Experts and students of the film genre known as Film-Noir consider Gun Crazy to be classic noir.  The film, released initially under the title, Deadly is the Female, is based upon novelist MacKinlay Kantor’s short story that was originally published in The Saturday Evening Post.  Gun Crazy was mostly forgotten until it fell into favor in France with film critics, especially the group of critics who would themselves one day become filmmakers and also become tied to a movement called French New Wave – the most famous of the lot being François Truffaut and Jean-Luc Godard.  Godard’s 1960 film, Breathless, apparently references Gun Crazy.

Although many critics and reviewers have praised director Joseph H. Lewis for the film’s documentary feel, used especially during the robbery sequences, Lewis’ film is actually very stylized and expressionistic from a visual point of view.  Everything that is important for the audience to know about Laurie and Bart:  their roles, identities, thoughts, and feelings, as well as the roles of the people around them, Lewis tells through visual cues.  From the titled camera shots early in the film that suggest the mental state of young Bart to the sexualized first encounter of Bart and Laurie – all are stylish.  In fact, Lewis really pushes the idea of sex and the duo’s obsession with guns being interrelated.

The film has some good performances, a few exceptional – especially British actress Peggy Cummings as Laurie and, in two small roles, Barry Kroeger as Laurie’s carnival boss, Packett, and Morris Carnovsky as Judge Willoughby.  The script is a good blueprint for Lewis, but is soft on the dichotomy between Bart’s two worlds – Peggy and crime and Dave and Clyde.  Ultimately this film does fit the auteur theory that Truffaut, Godard, and their contemporaries pushed – the idea that the director is the film’s author.  Joseph H. Lewis takes the best that his cast and crew give him and turn Gun Crazy into a film of notorious love, sexual tension, lust, and the kind of violence that can come from two lovers’ obsessions.  This is definitely a precursor to Bonnie and Clyde.

7 of 10
B+

Saturday, July 15, 2006

NOTES:
1998 National Film Preservation Board, USA:  National Film Registry

Updated: Tuesday, September 10, 2013

The text is copyright © 2013 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this site for syndication rights and fees.

Review: "3:10 to Yuma" an American Classic

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 45 (of 2007) by Leroy Douresseaux

3:10 to Yuma (1957)
Running time:  92 minutes (1 hour, 32 minutes)
DIRECTOR:  Delmer Daves
WRITERS:  Halsted Welles (based upon the short story by Elmore Leonard)
PRODUCER:  David Heilweil
CINEMATOGRAPHER:  Charles Lawton, Jr. (D.o.P.)
EDITOR:  Al Clark
COMPOSER:  George Duning
BAFTA Award nominee

WESTERN/THRILLER

Starring:  Glenn Ford, Van Heflin, Felicia Farr, Leora Dana, Henry Jones, Richard Jaeckel, and Robert Emhardt

The subject of this movie review is 3:10 to Yuma, a 1957 Western film and thriller from director Delmer Daves.  The film is based on the short story, “Three-Ten to Yuma,” written by Elmore Leonard and first published in the March 1953 issue of Dime Western Magazine.  3:10 to Yuma stars Glenn Ford and Van Helfin in a story of a rancher who escorts a notorious outlaw to the train that will take him to prison.

A crippling drought has hit Dan Evans (Van Heflin), a poor rancher, hard.  Fate steps in when Evans and his two young sons run into outlaw Ben Wade (Glenn Ford) and his gang robbing a stage coach of a fortune in gold.  When Wade is later caught, the town marshal of Brisbee offers a bounty to any men willing to escort Wade to the small dusty town of Contention.  There, they’ll board a train and take Wade to the prison town of Yuma.

Desperately in need of money for his cattle, Evans accepts the $200 bounty, in spite of his wife, Alice’s (Leora Dana) protests.  Evans joins the town drunk, Alex Potter (Henry Jones), and, Mr. Butterfield (Robert Emhardt), the owner of the gold, in escorting Wade.  Soon, the trio is held up in a small hotel in Contention with Wade.  They’re waiting for the 3:10 to Yuma while Wade’s gang closes in on the town, fiercely determined to free their leader.

Sometimes a film is so full of stereotypes in terms of characters, setting, and plot that the film is indeed a stereotype.  There are, however, rare occasions when such a film hits all the notes with perfect pitch, and what could have been nothing more than typical (entertaining, but typical) becomes an exceptional movie.  That’s what 3:10 to Yuma is – an outstanding horse opera.  Not only is it a great western, 3:10 to Yuma is also a thriller and a crime drama.

While managing to be a western, this is also a broader story about a man doing something because he should, not that he necessarily wants to put his neck on the line.  This could also easily be a tale set in the city, especially the way director of photography Charles Lawton, Jr. and director Delmer Davis stage 3:10 to Yuma in an interplay of liquid shadows and brilliant light as if this movie were Film-Noir.

As for the elements that are familiar to western movies:  there’s a really, good and humble man, and a cool, overly confident villain (who is also apparently an accomplished lover).  The citizens of two little towns want the bad guy to get his just punishment for his crimes, but most of the men are too afraid to stand up with the hero, whose only stouthearted partners are the portly owner of the stolen gold and the town drunk.  There’s even a lonesome setting – the barren Southwestern dry lands.  The hero also has a worried wife, and two sons who really want their dad to take on the bad guy, and the bad guy’s partners are a gang of nasty bad guys.

Still, all these familiar elements come together in harmony under the gaze of Charles Lawton, Jr.’s perfectly focused cinematography.  The cast work their engaging little drama, with its aspirations of being an epic, all while the strains of George Duning’s thrilling score dances overhead.  How director Delmer Daves transformed the ordinary flick into a memorable western, I’m not sure, but perhaps it is that he captured every moment at the right moment.  Maybe, it’s Glenn Ford’s superb performance as Ben Wade – especially during those intimate moments with Felicia Farr’s Emmy.  Perhaps, it is how Van Heflin and Leora Davis are so convincing as a couple with a long history and an even deeper love.  Or it could be every single thing in 3:10 to Yuma.

8 of 10
A

Tuesday, March 6, 2007

NOTES:
1958 BAFTA Awards:  1 nomination: “Best Film from any Source” (USA)

2012 National Film Preservation Board, USA:  National Film Registry

Updated:  Wednesday, August 21, 2013

Review: "3:10 to Yuma" Remake a Superb Modern Western

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 13 (of 2008) by Leroy Douresseaux

3:10 to Yuma (2007)
Running time:  122 minutes (2 hours, 2 minutes)
MPAA – R for violence and some language
DIRECTOR:  James Mangold
WRITERS:  Halsted Welles and Michael Brandt & Derek Haas (based on the short story by Elmore Leonard)
PRODUCERS:  Cathy Konrad
CINEMATOGRAPHER:  Phedon Papamichael (D.o.P.)
EDITOR:  Michael McCusker
COMPOSER:  Marco Beltrami
Academy Award nominee

WESTERN/ACTION/THRILLER

Starring:  Russell Crowe, Christian Bale, Logan Lerman, Dallas Roberts, Ben Foster, Peter Fonda, Vinessa Shaw, Alan Tudyk, Luce Rains, Gretchen Mol, and Ben Petry

Director James Mangold’s rousing, edgy Western, 3:10 to Yuma, is a remake of a 1957 film of the same name that starred Glenn Ford and Van Heflin.  Mangold (Walk the Line) isn’t robbing the grave of Hollywood classics; instead, he has fashioned the Western as a modern, suspense-thriller that is as close to an old-fashioned horse opera as a modern film can be.  Both the first film and Mangold’s remake are based on the short story, “Three-Ten to Yuma,” written by Elmore Leonard and first published in the March 1953 issue of Dime Western Magazine.

Rancher Dan Evans (Christian Bale) struggles to support his ranch and family during a long drought.  Desperate for money, Evans agrees to transport the captured outlaw, Ben Wade (Russell Crowe), from nearby Bisbee to Contention, the closest town with a rail station.  There, they’ll wait for the 3:10 train to Yuma, where Wade will be imprisoned while awaiting trial for his numerous crimes, mostly murder and robbery.  Holed up in a Contention hotel, Wade attempts psychological havoc on Evans, offering Evans much more money in exchange for his freedom than he would get for holding Wade captive.  Meanwhile, Wade’s henchmen, led by the vicious Charlie Prince (Ben Foster), storm into town offering money to any man who will shoot Wade’s captors.  Complicating matters, Dan’s son, William (Logan Lerman), has stubbornly joined his father on this deadly mission.

Mangold’s sturdy remake isn’t an exercise in pointless violence, although the film is indeed violent, and while it is more graphically violent than Westerns from the 30’s to the 60’s, this modern version of 3:10 to Yuma heals the wounded heart of the Western genre which has, with a few exceptions, been in steep decline on the big screen.  This is a grand character study, and acting its chief strength, relying on the considerable talents of Russell Crowe and Christian Bale.

The good guy/bad guy relationship between Crowe’s Ben Wade and Bale’s Dan Evans has to be played just right in order to work, or the relationship will seem like a tired old storytelling cliché.  The characters that Bale usually play seem like the everyman as quiet man.  Evans isn’t a hero or even a brave man, as we usually think of bravery, and his son William reminds him every chance he gets, by words, with a stare, or in his sullen expression.  Evans, however, is determined this one time – in dealing with Ben Wade – to be heroic.

On the other hand, Russell Crowe’s Ben Wade is the devil – pure and simple.  Supernaturally wily, he seems faster, stronger, smarter, and more vicious than any other human he encounters.  He has given in to his pure instincts and wants – like an animal, but much more dangerous because he is ultimately a human without the checks and balances of ethics and morals.

The viewer wouldn’t be overdoing it by seeing Evans as the Christ-like sacrifice and Wade his devilish tempter.  The good/bad dynamic, however, is a staple of the Western, and 3:10 to Yuma is rife with the genre standards.  That is how this extremely well-acted and superbly-directed film honors the American Western, and 3:10 to Yuma honors this venerable genre with gusto.

8 of 10
A

NOTES:
2008 Academy Awards:  2 nominations:  “Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures, Original Score (Marco Beltrami) and “Best Achievement in Sound” (Paul Massey, David Gaimmarco, and Jim Stuebe)

Sunday, March 09, 2008

Review: "The Black Cat" Offers First Pairing of Karloff and Lugosi (Remembering Bela Lugosi)

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 213 (of 2004) by Leroy Douresseaux

The Black Cat (1934)
Also known as: The Vanishing Body (1953)
Running time:  65 minutes (1 hour, 5 minutes)
DIRECTOR:  Edgar G. Ulmer
WRITERS:  Peter Ruric; from a screen story by Peter Ruric and Edgar G. Ulmer (based upon a story by Edgar Allen Poe)
CINEMATOGRAPHER:  John J. Mescall
EDITOR:  Ray Curtiss

HORROR/MYSTERY/CRIME

Starring:  Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi, David Manners, Jacqueline Wells, Lucille Lund, Egon Brecher, and Harry Cording

The subject of this movie review is The Black Cat, a 1934 film that blends the genres of crime, horror, and mystery.  The film was released by Universal Pictures and produced by Carl Laemmle, Jr.  The Black Cat was re-released in 1953 as The Vanishing Body.  This was the first of eight movies that paired actors, Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff.  This is apparently one of the first movies to have an almost continuous movie score, which was composed by Heinz Roemheld.

The Black Cat takes its name from the Edgar Allen Poe short story, “The Black Cat” (first published in 1843), but little else.  Television and screenwriter Tom Kilpatrick contributed to the writing of this movie’s screenplay, but did not receive a screen credit.  The Black Cat the movie follows an American couple, honeymooning in Hungary, who becomes trapped in the home of a Satan- worshiping priest.

Peter Alison (David Manners) and his wife Joan (Jacqueline Wells) are American honeymooners vacationing in Hungary when they encounter a peculiar psychiatrist, Dr. Vitus Werdegast (Bela Lugosi) on a passenger train.  Later, the couple shares a taxi with him.  After the taxi accident is involved in an accident, the trio is trapped in the home of a Satan-worshipping priest, Hjalmar Poelzig (Boris Karloff).  Poelzig, an accomplished architect, desires Joan for a satanic ritual.  Unbeknownst to Peter and Joan, Poelzig and Dr. Werdegast are old acquaintances with a bitter history together.

I love gorgeous black and white movies, especially the beautiful horror films Universal produced in the 1930’s and 40’s.  The Black Cat is a superb example; the photography is excellent and the film has an eerie, but handsome dream-like quality.  A hip hop artist once commented on how films from Hollywood’s golden era of studio films had such class because everyone dressed so well, even the characters who weren’t wealthy.  The cast of this film wear the finest suits, in particular Lugosi’s Werdegast and Manners’ Peter Alison.  Lugosi’s ultra sharp suits add some kind of peculiar quality to his character that I just can’t explain; he looks so good in them that I can call him a mack.  Lugosi’s lounge attire:  smoking jackets, bathrobes, and top quality pajamas defy reason; they fit him like a tuxedo and would seem quite appropriate as formal dinner wear.

The most prominent element of The Black Cat is the art deco flavored art direction.  It does seem out of place in rural Hungary, but the mansion’s interiors add a special quality to movie.  Watching the story unfold in this art deco museum reminded me of a black and white version of a David Lynch creation like “Twin Peaks”.  It’s surreal, real, and dreamy, an atmosphere that I couldn’t ignore.  This is wonderful work by art director Charles D. Hall and set designer, director Edgar G. Ulmer.

Yes, the acting is a bit forced at times, but this kind of movie is special.  No one makes this kind of film anymore.  A kooky story, two famed, cult horror movie stars doing their shtick, exquisite costume design and the sleek designs of an art deco set are things too good to be miss.  This is perfect for Halloween, or just whenever you’re in the mood to see a kind of movie lost in time to us – gone, but not forgotten because quite a few gems like this still exist.  The Black Cat is also the first of eight screen parings of Karloff and Lugosi.

6 of 10
B

Updated:  Friday, August 16, 2013

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Review: "Octopussy" Not Quite an All Time High in Bond Franchise

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 55 (of 2013) by Leroy Douresseaux

Octopussy (1983)
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN:  U.K.
Running time:  131 minutes (2 hours, 11 minutes)
MPAA – PG
DIRECTOR:  John Glen
WRITERS:  George MacDonald Fraser and Richard Maibaum and Michael G. Wilson (based on short stories and the characters created by Ian Fleming)
PRODUCER:  Albert R. Broccoli
CINEMATOGRAPHER:  Alan Hume (D.o.P.)
EDITORS:  Peter Davies and Henry Richardson
COMPOSER:  John Barry
THEME SONG:  “All Time High” – Lyrics by Tim Rice, music by John Barry, and sung by Rita Coolidge

SPY/DRAMA

Starring:  Roger Moore, Maud Adams, Louis Jourdan, Kristina Wayborn, Kabir Bedi, Steven Berkoff, David Meyer, Anthony Meyer, Vijay Amritraj, Albert Moses, Desmond Llewelyn, Lois Maxwell, Geoffrey Keen, and Robert Brown

This year is the 30th anniversary of the release of Octopussy, the 1983 James Bond film and British spy drama (specifically June 6, 1983).  Octopussy is also the 13th film in the James Bond film series, and the sixth time that actor Roger Moore portrayed fictional M16 agent James Bond, codenamed 007.

Octopussy is based on two short stories written by James Bond’s creator, Ian Fleming, “Octopussy” and “The Property of a Lady.”  ‘Octopussy” appeared in the James Bond short story collection, Octopussy and the Living Daylights (1966).  “The Property of a Lady” was included in later editions of Octopussy and the Living Daylights.

In Octopussy the movie, 007 uncovers a terrorist plot tied to an international jewelry smuggling operation.  This is not a great Bond movie, but it is one I greatly enjoy, although I am not sure if I have watched it since it first appeared in movie theatres.

British agent 009 dies in West Berlin after being stabbed.  He is found wearing a clown costume and carrying a fake Fabergé egg.  James Bond, Agent 007 (Roger Moore) follows the trail of the fake egg to an auction of a real Fabergé egg.  There, Bond encounters Kamal Kahn (Louis Jourdan), an exiled Afghan prince.  Bond is attracted to one of Kahn’s associates, Magda (Kristina Wayborn), a beautiful young woman with a tattoo of a blue-ringed octopus on her back.

Magda leads Bond to the mysterious Octopussy (Maud Adams), a wealthy woman who leads an octopus cult, of which Magda is part.  Now, Bond must discover the connection between Octopussy, Kahn, and General Orlov (Steven Berkoff), a renegade Soviet general, and why that connection may mean a deadly attack on NATO forces in Europe.

The James Bond movies in which Roger Moore played 007 are not like other Bond movies, especially the latter half of Moore’s tenure.  Moore always seems like he’s having a good time, half-smiling and with a wink and a nod to the audience.  The audiences at the time of these films initial theatrical releases apparently enjoyed Moore as Bond, as the movies were successful.

Octopussy, however, is strange, and not just because of the salacious title.  First, the subject matter – the threat of an act of nuclear terrorism, and especially the threat of nuclear war between the United States and the Soviet Union – was quite serious at the time because of its real world implications.  The movie is fairly violent, with several killings, and Bond even shoots a young soldier (who looks as if he is little more than a kid in his early 20s), point blank, right in the middle of his forehead, killing him.

At the same time, Octopussy is often humorous and sometimes plays like a spy comedy.  There is over-the-top silliness (like the Tarzan yell), some tongue-in-cheek humor (the gorilla and clown costumes), some gallows humor (the killing of a man in a clown costume), and some satirical humor (in the form of General Orlov, who seems as if he belongs in the film, Dr. Strangelove).

Octopussy is also a good-looking movie, especially because of the exotic Indian locales, in which much of the film was shot.  The interiors of Kamal Kahn’s “Monsoon Palace” and Octopussy’s hideaway are like that of high-end, luxury hotels.  All the costumes, from Bond’s attire and the military uniforms to the slinky and revealing wear of Octopussy and her harem, are eye-catching.

Octopussy’s villains aren’t great Bond bad guys, although Louis Jourdan’s suave turn as Kamal Kahn is a nice odd note.  But odd is the way to describe Octopussy, and that may be why it has a special place in my movie lover’s heart.  As a recommendation, I’d say, “Hell, see it for the girls and for Octopussy herself (nicely played by Maud Adams).”

7 of 10
B+

Friday, August 09, 2013

Review: Roger Moore Still Cool in "For Your Eyes Only" (Remembering Sir Ian Fleming)

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 54 (of 2013) by Leroy Douresseaux

For Your Eyes Only (1981)
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN:  U.K.
Running time: 127 minutes (2 hours, 7 minutes)
MPAA – PG
DIRECTOR:  John Glen
WRITERS:  Richard Maibaum and Michael G. Wilson (based on short stories and the characters created by Ian Fleming)
PRODUCER:  Albert R. Broccoli
CINEMATOGRAPHER:  Alan Hume (D.o.P.)
EDITOR:  John Grover
COMPOSER:  Bill Conti
THEME SONG:  “For Your Eyes Only” – Lyrics by Michael Lesson, music by Bill Conti, and sung by Sheen Easton
Academy Award nominee

SPY/DRAMA

Starring:  Roger Moore, Carole Bouquet, Topol, Lynn-Holly Johnson, Julian Glover, Jill Bennett, Michael Gothard, John Wyman, Lois Maxwell, Desmond Llewelyn, Geoffrey Keen, and James Villiers

The first James Bond movie that I watched in a movie theater was For Your Eyes Only, the 1981 British spy drama.  For Your Eyes Only was also the 12th film in the James Bond film series.

For Your Eyes Only is based on two short stories written by James Bond’s creator, Ian Fleming.  The two stories, “For Your Eyes Only” and “Risico,” both appeared in the James Bond short story collection, For Your Eyes Only (1960).  For Your Eyes Only the movie follows James Bond-Agent 007 as he hunts for a lost British encryption device before it falls into enemy hands.

For Your Eyes Only centers on a special object that was aboard the British electronic surveillance ship, St. Georges.  This is the ATAC – Automatic Targeting Attack Communicator.  The ATAC can order submarines to launch ballistic missiles.  The St. Georges is sunk by a naval mine in the Ionian Sea.  If the ATAC falls in the wrong hands, such as Soviet Union and the KGB, they could render the British Royal Navy’s Polaris submarine fleet useless.

Now, MI6 agent, James Bond, codename “007” (Roger Moore), must retrieve the ATAC before the bad guys get it.  After the first British ally in the ATAC matter is killed, 007 tracks a Cuban hit man to Spain where the assassin meets another hired killer, Emile Leopold Locque (Michael Gothard).  Following Locque takes 007 into the shadowy Greek criminal underworld, where allies might be adversaries, but where adversaries can also be allies.  As 007 gets closer to finding the ATAC, he meets several beautiful women, including the vengeance-seeking Melina Havelock (Carole Bouquet) and the lusty young figure skater, Bibi Dahl (Lynn-Holly Johnson), who just can’t wait to get James Bond in bed.

As a youngster, I liked Roger Moore; he was my favorite James Bond, largely because he was the first Bond I ever saw.  I’ve changed my mind over the years, going from one favorite Bond actor to another.  [I’m currently crazy about Daniel Craig.]  Prior to recently watching For Your Eyes Only, I had not watched a Roger Moore Bond movie in well over a decade, partly because I thought that I wouldn’t like them.  Maybe, as a kid, I was more accepting of things for which people often criticized the Roger Moore-James Bond movies:  the over-the-top stories, campy qualities (to varying degrees), and the silly sci-fi/fantasy elements.

For Your Eyes Only surprised me, however.  I enjoyed it, and only found a little of it silly.  Its prudently-staged violence and edited-for-television sex and sexual innuendo are actually a bit charming.  The best of For Your Eyes Only are the action set pieces.  The stunt coordinators and crew should be commended for turning some comically-conceived action scenes into sequences that make this a better movie.

As for Roger Moore:  at that point in time, For Your Eyes Only was Moore’s fifth turn as Bond (out of seven).  He is just a bit too old for the role, but in the film, he looks up to the challenge.  Yeah, his charisma has a waxed-fruit quality, and his debonair air is a bit musty.  Still, Moore as Bond knows that he is too old for one of the women looking to bed a secret agent, and that counts for something.  Moore knows his limits, and at least, he seems determined to reach them, never giving less than the best of himself.  It seems, at least, that way to me.

Now, I know that I can watch and enjoy For Your Eyes Only again without waiting decades, and I’m ready for more Moore.

6 of 10
B

NOTES:
1982 Academy Awards, USA:  1 nomination: “Best Music, Original Song” (Bill Conti-music and Michael Leeson-lyrics for the song "For Your Eyes Only")

1982 Golden Globes, USA:  1 nomination: “Best Original Song - Motion Picture” (Bill Conti-music and Michael Leeson-lyrics for the song "For Your Eyes Only")

Wednesday, August 07, 2013

Review: "Solomon Kane" Raises a Little Cain

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 53 (of 2013) by Leroy Douresseaux

Solomon Kane (209)
Running time:  104 minutes (1 hour, 44 minutes)
MPAA – R for violence throughout
DIRECTOR:  Michael J. Bassett
WRITERS:  Michael J. Bassett (based upon the character created by Robert E. Howard)
PRODUCERS:  Paul Berrow and Samuel Hadida
CINEMATOGRAPHER:  Dan Laustsen (D.o.P.)
EDITOR:  Andrew MacRitchie
COMPOSER:  Klaus Badelt

FANTASY/ACTION

Starring:  James Purefoy, Max von Sydow, Pete Postlethwaite, Alice Krige, Rachel Hurd-Wood, Patrick Hurd-Wood, Philip Winchester, Anthony Wilks, Ben Steel, Rory McCann, Tomas Tobola, Mackenzie Crook, and Jason Flemyng

Solomon Kane is a 2009 dark fantasy and action film, starring James Purefoy in the title role.  The film was produced by a consortium of production companies from the countries of the Czech Republic, France, and the United Kingdom.  Solomon Kane first opened in France in December 2009, but did not open in theatres in the United States until September 2012.

The movie features Solomon Kane, a pulp magazine-era fictional character created by Robert E. Howard (who also created Conan the Barbarian).  Solomon Kane first appeared in publication in the August 1928 issue of Weird Tales in the short story, “Red Shadows.”  In Howard’s original stories, Kane traveled through Europe and Africa, vanquishing evil.

Solomon Kane the movie acts as an origin story for the character, and opens in North Africa, in the year 1600.  English mercenary Solomon Kane (James Purefoy) leads the crew of his ship into battle against the occupiers of a fortress town.  It is there that Kane learns that his soul is bound for Hell.  He renounces violence and lives in seclusion before being forced out into the world at large again.

Kane meets William Crowthorn (Pete Postlethwaite) and his wife, Katherine (Alice Krige).  They are Puritans, and with their three children, are planning to immigrate to the New World.  After the Crowthorns’ daughter, Meredith (Rachel Hurd-Wood), is kidnapped by the followers of a sorcerer named Malachi (Jason Flemyng), Kane is once again forced to fight in order to save the girl and perhaps gain the redemption of his soul.

I think Solomon Kane’s writer-director Michael J. Bassett wanted this movie to be like the Lord of the Rings trilogy.  Instead, what Bassett created is like a straight-to-DVD, sword-and-sorcery movie, with only a few moments that suggest LoTR’s epic fantasy.  Solomon Kane isn’t bad, but it isn’t particularly good, mainly because it is inconsistent.

For instance, James Purefoy gives a mostly good performance as Solomon Kane.  However, the screenplay is clumsy and repetitive when it comes to developing Kane’s character.  Plus, I think Purefoy is miscast as Kane.  I would prefer someone taller, leaner, and certainly more dour and gaunt than the pretty Purefoy.

The main villains, Malachi and the Masked Rider (Malachi’s henchman), are superb adversaries, but the two, especially Malachi, are mostly relegated to the background.  Bassett is so determined to focus on Kane’s story that he misses how two great villains can create the kind of potent conflict that invigorates a drama.

Solomon Kane is a fantasy film that has the action, brutality, and violence of other films like it, but lacks the flair of other supernatural action films like Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters and Underworld.  The pacing is sometime dry and stiff, which makes the movie feel a bit too long, but if you like the supernatural action genre, Solomon Kane is worth watching – as a rental.

5 of 10
C+

Friday, August 09, 2013

Review: "Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters" Surprisingly Good

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 45 (of 2013) by Leroy Douresseaux

Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters (2013)
Running time: 88 minutes (1 hour, 28 minutes)
MPAA – R for strong fantasy horror violence and gore, brief sexuality/nudity and language
WRITER/DIRECTOR: Tommy Wirkola
PRODUCERS: Will Ferrell, Beau Flynn, Chris Henchy, and Adam McKay
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Michael Bonvillain (director of photography)
EDITOR: Jim Page
COMPOSER: Atli Örvarsson

FANTASY/HORROR/ACTION with elements of comedy

Starring: Jeremy Renner, Gemma Arterton, Famke Janssen, Pihla Viitala, Derek Mears, Robin Atkin Downes, Thomas Mann, Peter Stormare, Rainer Bock, Bjorn Sundquist, Thomas Scharff, Kathrin Kuhnel, Cedric Eich, and Alea Sophia Boudodimos

Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters is a 2013 action, horror, and dark fantasy film from director Tommy Wirkola. The American-German co-production was presented in 3D during its theatrical release. The film follows a brother and sister team of bounty hunters that tracks and kills witches all over the world.

Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters introduces a young brother and young sister who enter a gingerbread house and end up fighting horrid old witch for their lives. Many years after surviving that incident, Hansel (Jeremy Renner) and Gretel (Gemma Arterton) are famed bounty hunters who merciless eradicate witches for payment.

One day, they arrive in the town of Augsburgh just in time to stop Sheriff Berringer (Peter Stormare) from killing Mina (Pihla Viitala), a young woman accused of witchcraft. While the Sheriff disdains them, Mayor Engleman (Rainer Bock) welcomes Hansel and Gretel, because he hopes they will find and rescue several children that were abducted by witches and their troll ally, Edward (Derek Mears and Robin Atkin Downes). This will be the siblings’ biggest challenge yet. Muriel (Famke Janssen), a powerful witch, has plans for a special Sabbath known as the Blood Moon. Those plans have huge implications for Hansel and Gretel and will reveal the deepest secrets of the sibling’ past.

Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters has a strong current of black comedy running throughout the film. The filmmakers didn’t pretend that their movie should be for children, so the movie is violent and gleefully gory, in ways both shocking and funny. Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters mixes the weird Western sub-genre with the hard-charging action-horror film. It’s like Django Unchained meets Army of Darkness.

Jeremy Renner and Gemma Arterton are odd as Hansel and Gretel. They really don’t seem to have screen chemistry, which somehow makes them have a peculiar kind of screen bond. Renner is sullen and grim as Hansel, while Arterton often has her nose in the air, like an upper class bratty girl. Whenever they deviate from that, it ends up being a welcomed surprise and twist, giving the characters a little depth.

Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters is by no means a great film. For one thing, Muriel is under-utilized or under-developed as a villain. Still, like a Sam Raimi horror film (The Evil Dead franchise), Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters is a good time. How can I tell? When the movie ended, I wanted more. I even want a sequel.

6 of 10
B

Wednesday, June 26, 2013

Review: "They Live" is Full of Cult Cinema Charm (Happy B'day, Keith David)

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 105 (of 2003) by Leroy Douresseaux

John Carpenter’s They Live (1988)
Running time: 93 minutes (1 hour, 33 minutes)
MPAA – R
DIRECTOR: John Carpenter
WRITER: Frank Armitage (based upon a short story by Ray Nelson)
PRODUCER: Larry Franco
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Gary B. Kibbe (D.o.P.)
EDITORS: Gib Jaffe and Frank E. Jimenez
COMPOSERS: John Carpenter and Alan Howarth

SCI-FI/THRILLER

Starring: Roddy Piper, Keith David, Meg Foster, George “Buck” Flower, Peter Jason, Raymond St. Jacques, Jason Robards III, John Lawrence, Susan Barnes, Sy Richardson, and Wendy Brainard

The subject of this movie review is They Live, a 1988 science fiction film from writer-director John Carpenter. Carpenter wrote the film using the pen named “Frank Armitage.”

They Live is based on two works by science fiction author, Ray Nelson. The first is Nelson’s short story “Eight O’Clock in the Morning” (The Magazine of Science Fiction and Fantasy, November 1963) and the second is “Nada,” a comic book adaptation of the short story, produced by Nelson and artist Bill Wray (Alien Encounters #6 – April 1986). They Live follows a drifter who finds a pair of sunglasses that allows him to discover that aliens have taken over the Earth.

In 2003, the pop culture magazine Entertainment Weekly published a special issue devoted to what the staff considered the top 50 cult movies of all time, and John Carpenter’s They Live made the list. It’s easy to see why with a film on a low budget that only allowed for cheesy-looking monster makeup and low rent flying robots. Writing under the name “Frank Armitage,” Carpenter weaves a delirious B-movie thriller that mixes the kind of Golden Age pulp sci-fi aimed at juveniles and morons with hippy idealism, counter-culture rage, conspiracy theorists’ paranoia, and a healthy dose of the National Enquirer-inspired zeal.

Nada (Roddy Piper), a down-on-his-luck construction worker, wanders into a large metropolitan area (presumably Los Angeles) to find work. He discovers a pair of special sunglasses, that when worn, shows him that our colorful world is really a society overrun by ugly aliens. Those alien rulers bombard human minds through a radio signal with subliminal messages that encourages people to eat, sleep, obey, consume, reproduce, etc. Without the aid of the glasses, this world remains hidden. Nada convinces a fellow construction worker, Frank (Keith David), to join him, and together they seek human resistance fighters who are searching for the source of the mind-controlling signal.

Carpenter’s film was more than just a science fiction and horror movie; it was also Carpenter’s commentary on the greed and rampant consumerism of the late 1980’s that was coupled with a total lack of regard on many people’s part for the growing number of people slipping into unemployment and poverty. It’s easy to dismiss They Live, what with it’s delightfully campy elements: aliens as free enterprisers who keep the majority of humans as slaves while enriching humans who turn traitors, sunglasses that allow you to see the “real world” (a decidedly William Castle idea), and a professional wrestler as the lead, among other things. The film is so silly sometimes that it makes you squirm.

However, Carpenter was clearly having fun and working within the confines of his genre. When you listen to what his characters say, a lot of things make quite a bit of sense. Lots of things, like the ugly aliens, are metaphors, granted they make silly metaphors, but they are nevertheless metaphors. Maybe Carpenter sabotages his point by using this kind of story to grind his ax about America’s materialist culture, dog-eat-dog society, and the callousness of people toward the less fortunate, but still, only someone dead set against “seeing the light” would miss the point.

I absolutely like the film’s hard, low-budget edge and the menace and gritty determination of Roddy Piper and Keith David’s characters. It’s one of my favorite Carpenter films, and it’s held up for me over repeated viewings. I also have to give credit to any film that makes a shantytown one of its major settings.

7 of 10
B+

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Review: "Paycheck" More Than Minimum Wage Film

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 108 (of 2004) by Leroy Douresseaux

Paycheck (2003)
Running time: 119 minutes (1 hour, 59 minutes)
MPAA – PG-13 for intense action violence and brief language
DIRECTOR: John Woo
WRITER: Dean Georgaris (based upon a short story by Philip K. Dick)
PRODUCERS: Terence Chang, John Davis, Michael Hackett, and John Woo
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Jeffrey L. Kimball (D.o.P.)
EDITORS: Christopher Rouse and Kevin Stitt
COMPOSERS: John Powell

SCI-FI/ACTION/THRILLER

Starring: Ben Affleck, Aaron Eckhart, Uma Thurman, Paul Giamatti, Colm Feore, Joe Morton, Michael C. Hall, and Peter Friedman

The subject of this movie review is Paycheck, a 2003 science fiction movie from director John Woo and starring Ben Affleck. The film is based on the short story, “Paycheck,” written by author Philip K. Dick and first published in the June 1953 issue of Imagination, a 1950s American science fiction and fantasy magazine. Paycheck the movie focuses on an engineer who takes what seems like an easy million-dollar payday, but ends up on the run and trying to piece together the reason why.

Michael Jennings (Ben Affleck), a brilliant reverse engineer (takes other people’s technology and works backwards to figure out what makes the tech work), takes a job from a powerful friend named Rethrick (Aaron Eckhart). The final part of each of Michael’s assignments involves his employer wiping Michael’s mind clean of the memories of his time working on a project; that’s how his employers keep what they’ve done secret.

However, Michael discovers something decidedly nasty while working on Rethrick’s project, so he mails himself a package full of goodies to help him remember his mission before Rethrick has Michael’s memory wiped. The problem is that once he wakes up from his mind wipe, he can’t remember why he needs this packet full of odds and ends, but he does learn that Rethrick wants him dead.

The writings of science fiction author Philip K. Dick, especially his short fiction, has been adapted into quite a few well-regarded films including Blade Runner, Total Recall, and Minority Report. Director John Woo’s Paycheck is the most recent adaptation, and while the film doesn’t make movie history or break new ground in cinema as the aforementioned have, Paycheck is an entertaining action thriller that doesn’t wear its sci-fi on its sleeves.

This is an old-fashioned action movie that relies on complicated and dangerous stunt work for the action sequences. It does not rely on CGI and the other computer enhancements that have become so favored since The Matrix. The film is true to what Woo does best, pure macho action built around car chases, explosions, gunfights, and fisticuffs. While Paycheck may not be as good as Woo classics like his Hong Kong work or Face/Off, the film is in that spirit.

The casting, however, isn’t great; I could think of actors who would have better fit these roles, and some of these actors weren’t given much with which to work. Still, everyone is game, and they seemed like they were into the film. They play their parts well enough to make this quite entertaining, so while Paycheck isn’t landmark science fiction, it is a fun movie to watch. It has more than enough suspense and mystery to keep the viewer intrigued. And while the chase scenes won’t keep you on the edge of the your seat all the time, they’ll get you close enough most of the time.

7 of 10
B+

NOTES:
2004 Razzie Awards: 1 win “Worst Actor” (Ben Affleck – also for Daredevil-2003 and Gigli-2003)

2010 Razzie Awards: 1 nomination: “Worst Actor of the Decade” (Ben Affleck – also for Daredevil-2003, Gigli-2003, Jersey Girl-2004, Pearl Harbor-2001, and Surviving Christmas-2004; nominated for 9 “achievements” and “winner” of 2 Razzies)

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Walt Disney's "Cinderella" Never Loses its Magic

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 100 (of 2006) by Leroy Douresseaux


Cinderella (1950)
Running time: 72 minutes (1 hour, 12 minutes)
DIRECTORS: Clyde Geronimi, Wilfred Jackson, and Hamilton Luske
WRITERS: William Peed, Ted Sears, Homer Brightman, Kenneth Anderson, Erdman Penner, Winston Hibler, Harry Reeves, and Joe Rinaldi (based upon the story, “Cendrillon” by Charles Perrault)
PRODUCER: Walt Disney
EDITOR: Donald Halliday
COMPOSERS: Paul J. Smith and Oliver Wallace
Academy Award nominee

ANIMATION/FANTASY/COMEDY/FAMILY with elements of romance

Starring: (voices) Ilene Woods, Eleanor Audley, Helene Stanley (live action model), Rhoda Williams, Lucille Bliss, James MacDonald, Luis Van Rooten, June Foray, Clint McCauley, Lucille Williams, Don Barclay, William Phipps, and Betty Lou Gerson (narrator)

The subject of this movie review is Cinderella, a 1950 animated fantasy film from Walt Disney Productions. Based on the fairy tale “Cendrillon” by Charles Perrault, it is the twelfth film in the Walt Disney Animated Classics series.

After her father dies, Cinderella (Ilene Woods), a gentle-hearted girl, faces the jealousy and spite of her wicked stepmother, Lady Tremaine (Eleanor Audley), and her two harpy stepsisters, Drizella (Rhoda Williams) and Anastasia (Lucille Bliss). Cinderella’s friends include a half-dozen mice that do constant battle with Lady Tremaine’s malevolent cat, Lucifer (June Foray). Salvation comes when The King (Luis Van Rooten) declares a palace ball to celebrate the homecoming of his son, The Prince (William Phipps), and he decrees that every eligible maid (unmarried young woman) in the kingdom attend. However, Cinderella’s stepmother doesn’t want her to attend, but a small army of friendly mice and birds and Cinderella’s benevolent Fairy Godmother (Verna Felton) makes sure she can. This magical tale includes many tunes to which the viewer can hum along including “A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes,” “So This is Love,” and inimitable “Bibbidy, Bobbidy-Boo.”

Cinderella was Walt Disney Feature Animation’s 12th feature film. It was, at the time, the first full-length animated feature for Disney since 1942’s Bambi, because box office and wartime cutbacks had reduced the studio’s feature film output to package films like Make Mine Music and Fun and Fancy Free, which were made of two or more short films with bridging sequences. Also, according to animator Marc Davis, 90 percent of Cinderella was done in live action before it was animated.

Cinderella comes perhaps at the end of Disney’s “Golden Age” and the beginning of period in which its films received less critical praise. Cinderella retains some of the illustrative and technical aspects that marked Disney’s pre-WWII films (like Bambi and Fantasia) as the pinnacle of hand-drawn animated features. Cinderella’s background paintings, art direction, and sets befit a film with themes of royalty and class distinctions. Most of the animation is geared towards funny animal slapstick comedy. The scenes with the mice, birds, Lucifer the cat, and Bruno (James MacDonald) the dog, etc. reflect the sensibilities of the sketch and gag comedy prevalent in Looney Tunes cartoon shorts featuring Bugs Bunny and Yosemite Sam. The scenes with The King and The Grand Duke (Luis Van Rooten) depend of comic timing between this comical duo, and that reflects the influence of Tex Avery’s cartoons.

The story of course is based on the fairy tale, Cinderella, primarily the version of the story told by Charles Perrault, the 17th century French author who laid the foundations for the literary genre that would be known as “fairy tales.” Disney’s version is a funny, warm-hearted romance that appeals across age categories. The voice acting plays as much a part as the animation in making Cinderella such an outstanding film. The actors make this a palatable and convincing drama when the comic half of the cast isn’t in control. The filmmakers simply do a magnificent job in bringing a film that appeals so much to the heart and to the funny bone and that dazzles with its production values.

There are so many memorable sequences. The birds and mice working in unison to make Cinderella’s dress are magical. The transformation of the animals and pumpkin into an enchanted carriage for Cinderella is a sparkling dream, and Cinderella’s dance with The Prince (who is never referred to in the film as “Prince Charming”) is certainly one of the most lyrically romantic moments in cinema history. The beauty of the animation and story combined with stellar Tin Pan Alley songs make Cinderella a true Walt Disney classic and a classic of American filmmaking.

10 of 10

NOTES:
1951 Academy Awards: 3 nominations: “Best Music, Original Song” (“Bibbidy, Bobbidy-Boo” by Mack David, Al Hoffman, and Jerry Livingston); “Best Music, Scoring of a Musical Picture” (Oliver Wallace and Paul J. Smith); and “Best Sound, Recording” (C.O. Slyfield)

Original "Total Recall" Still a Total Beast

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 64 (of 2012) by Leroy Douresseaux


Total Recall (1990)
Running time: 113 minutes (1 hour, 53 minutes)
MPAA – R
DIRECTOR: Paul Verhoeven
WRITERS: Ronald Shusett, Dan O'Bannon, and Gary Goldman; from a screen story by Ronald Shusett, Dan O'Bannon and Jon Povill (inspired by the short story “We Can Remember It for You Wholesale” by Philip K. Dick)
PRODUCERS: Buzz Feitshans and Ronald Shusett
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Jost Vacano
EDITORS: Carlos Puente and Frank J. Urioste
COMPOSER: Jerry Goldsmith
Academy Award winner

SCI-FI/FANTASY/ACTION

Starring: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Rachel Ticotin, Sharon Stone, Ronny Cox, Michael Ironside, Marshall Bell, Mel Johnson, Jr., and Michael Champion

The subject of this movie review is Total Recall, a 1990 science fiction action film from director Paul Verhoeven and starring Arnold Schwarzenegger. The film is loosely based upon Philip K. Dick’s “We Can Remember It for You Wholesale,” which was first published in 1966. The film follows a man who accidentally has memories dredged up of a life he apparently had on Mars, which only gets him marked for death.

Total Recall opens on Earth in the year 2084. Douglas Quaid (Arnold Schwarzenegger) is a construction worker who yearns for more in his life. He is also troubled by dreams of Mars; in fact, he is obsessed with going to Mars. His wife, Lori (Sharon Stone), wants a different vacation, so Quaid decides to get a vacation to Mars in a unique way. He goes to a company called “Rekall,” which promises to implant memories of a virtual vacation. These false memories will seem just like real memories to Quaid.

However, something goes terribly wrong during the procedure to implant the memories in Quaid’s brain. Suddenly, his visit to Rekall is apparently the reason gun-toting men, led by the ruthless Richter (Michael Ironside), want to kill him. Quaid discovers that he has to get to Mars – for real this time – as soon as he can, because all the answers to his shattered memories are there… he hopes.

I believe that the Dutch-born filmmaker, Paul Verhoeven, does not get enough credit as a terrific director. This is because the amount of violence in his film is seen as excessive by some critics. Indeed, Verhoeven’s science fiction films, Robocop (1987) and Starship Troopers (1997), both contain copious amounts of violence, some of it so intense and gory that it made me cringe when I first watched these films.

However, there is also a strong undercurrent of humor in Verhoeven’s science fiction films. Some of it is black humor, but some of it mocks militarized institutions, such as corporations (Robocop), governments (Starship Troopers), and governments that are really corporations, as in Total Recall. Verhoeven and his screenwriters find absurdity in how such institutions are singularly focused on their goals and treat their employees, as well as others who get in their way, as expendable. This film is practically a metaphor for our modern resource wars and for people like the Neocons (best exemplified by former U.S. Vice-President Dick Cheney and mustachioed toad-humper, John Bolton).

Total Recall also received a Special Achievement Academy Award for its visual effects, which is usually a competitive award, but not in 1991. The special effects for the other films in the visual effects category simply did not match up to the effects in Total Recall. Thus, the committee that oversees this award for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) simply gave the award to Total Recall and named the other films as runners-up rather than as nominees. Honestly, Total Recall’s effects still look very good, and even the dated elements, such as the animatronics that are supposed to replicate heads and bodies of many of the characters, look good.

People probably remember Total Recall as an “Arnold Schwarzenegger movie,” and, in a way, it is. His film persona dominates the narrative and the action, and even 22 years later, his performance here reveals why, for a period, he was the biggest action movie star in the world and probably the world’s biggest movie star for most of that time.

Total Recall, however, is more than just Schwarzenegger. There are a number of good supporting performances, especially Michael Champion as Richter’s acerbic right-hand man, Helm. Also, Rachel Ticotin as Melina is one of the few actresses to play a partner to one of Schwarzenegger’s characters and not disappear in the shadow that Arnold’s personality and presence cast.

When I first saw Total Recall 22 years ago, I was lukewarm about it. I seem to remember that Meryl Streep was publicly critical of it. I think that I am more open-minded about movies now, and I have also learned not to view every film in a strictly literal manner. Perhaps, that is why I now think Total Recall is a science fiction movie classic, even if I didn’t think that two decades ago.

8 of 10
A

NOTES:
1991 Academy Awards: 1 win: “Special Achievement Award: (Eric Brevig, Rob Bottin Tim McGovern, Alex Funke for visual effects) [The other films in this category were listed as runners-up instead of as nominees: Back to the Future Part III, Dick Tracy, and Ghost.]; 2 nominations: Best Effects, Sound Effects Editing” (Stephen Hunter Flick) and “Best Sound” (Nelson Stoll, Michael J. Kohut, Carlos Delarios, and Aaron Rochin)

1991 BAFTA Awards: 1 nomination: “Best Special Visual Effects” (To the whole special visual effects production team)

Thursday, August 02, 2012

Review: "A Sound of Thunder" isn't Too Bad

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 95 (of 2006) by Leroy Douresseaux


A Sound of Thunder (2005)
Running time: 102 minutes (1 hour, 42 minutes)
MPAA – PG-13 for sci-fi violence, partial nudity, and language
CINEMATOGRAPHER/DIRECTOR: Peter Hyams
WRITERS: Thomas Dean Donnelly & Joshua Oppenheimer and Gregory Poirier; screen story by Thomas Dean Donnelly and Joshua Oppenheimer (based upon the short story by Ray Bradbury)
PRODUCERS: Moshe Diamant and Karen Baldwin
EDITORS: Sylvia Landra
COMPOSER: Nick Glennie-Smith

SCI-FI/FANTASY/ACTION/THRILLER with elements of horror

Starring: Edward Burns, Catherine McCormack, Ben Kingsley, Jemima Rooper, David Oyelowo, William Armstrong, and Corey Johnson

The subject of this movie review is A Sound of Thunder, a 2005 science fiction and time travel movie from director Peter Hyams. The film is based upon a Ray Bradbury short story of the same title that was first published in 1952 (in Collier’s magazine). The film follows the efforts of a scientist who tries to save his world after a group of “time tourists” accidentally change the present by interfering with the past.

In the year 2055, a company based in downtown, Chicago, Time Safari, Inc., is an elite time travel agency. The corporation’s owner, Charles Hatton (Ben Kingsley), has cornered the lucrative time-travel market with something called a “prehistoric hunting package.” For a very high price, rich adventurers can travel back to the Prehistoric age and hunt a real life dinosaur. The trip has only three essential rules: (1) Don’t change anything in the past; (2) Don’t leave anything behind; and most of all (3) Don’t bring anything back – because the slightest alteration of anything that existed in the past could alter the existing course of evolution in unimaginable ways. But someone breaks the rules…

Before long, a series of time waves is rippling across the world. The change is slow at first – just the climate and weather. Within 24 hours, the major changes begin. Plant life grows to monstrous proportions, busting through concrete and pavement, overturning cars, engulfing entire building inside and out, and covering the city. Soon voracious insects are running amok in the city, and then come the hostile new creatures – primates in reptilian form that can move with blazing speed and that feed on humans.

The two people who have an idea of what is happening are Dr. Travis Ryer (Edward Burns), a scientist who leads the Time Safari expeditions so that he can further his genetic research, and Dr. Sonia Rand (Catherine McCormack), the brilliant physicist who developed much of the technology that Time Safari, Inc. uses to make its expeditions into the past possible. Now, Ryer needs Rand’s help if he is going to figure out exactly what went wrong on one of his expeditions that is causing the time waves. With the world collapsing into pandemonium around them, as deadly plants and monstrous new animal life forms attack humans, Ryer and Rand have to figure out a way to go back into the past and correct the error that will save themselves and the human race from extinction.

Once A Sound of Thunder missed its release date of March 2005, it was clear to fans that the distributor, Warner Bros. Pictures, probably thought the film was a bust. Without much advertising and little fanfare, the film finally appeared in early September of 2005, and failed at the box office (grossing less than $2 million domestically). The film was beset by production delays (the great floods of Prague in 2002 damaged the set), causing the film to miss its original release date of 2003. The original director, Renny Harlin, left in 2004 to helm another film (Mindhunters), and the production company went bankrupt, and there was no money to finish the film.

Still, what finally emerges is a rather entertaining, above average, B-movie; in fact, this is a glorified B-movie, a big budget version of the sci-fi monster movies that show up on the Sci-Fi Channel on Saturday nights. Some of the special effects are poor, especially some of the street scenes, which look phony and cheap; the viewer can practically see the “seems” between where the actors and real environment end and the CGI begins. The dinosaur that is the object of Time Safari’s hunts is so poorly animated, especially when compared to the kind of CGI dinos we get in mega productions like Jurassic Park. Part of that is because when the production company went bankrupt, the filmmakers hadn’t begun such post-production work computer animation. When money was finally received to finish A Sound of Thunder, the effects had to be cheaply done.

The script also takes great liberties with its source material, a classic Ray Bradbury science fiction short story, in order to become a full-length film. In the original story, the death of an insect changed an election’s outcome. Here, so much padding had to be added to turn a short story into a feature length film.

Otherwise, I liked the execution of the film’s plot, and its visual choices in terms of set design and art direction. The film’s monsters are also enjoyable even though they look more fake and plastic than the old-time movie monsters that were handmade. And A Sound of Thunder really is a monster movie, except it is set in the milieu of science fiction rather than of horror. In many ways, A Sound of Thunder is the kind of action oriented, sci-fi/horror thriller that director Peter Hyams delivers every blue moon – The Relic being a good example of one of his enjoyable B-movie, sci-fi/horror, action flicks. In Hyams’ films, the genre, be it sci-fi or horror, is just a setting for an action movie starring a solid, macho, can-do male hero. As simple entertainment, they work if you don’t think too much about the flaws and holes.

This flick likes the audience rather than take them for stupid, and it wants to give you a good time. The ending is too abrupt, unsatisfying, and doesn’t really resolve the story. However, A Sound of Thunder is fun, meant to be enjoyable even when the mistakes are right in front of your eyes.

5 of 10
B-

Sunday, May 7, 2006

Review: Close, McTeer Do the Damn Thing in "Albert Nobbs"

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 39 (of 2012) by Leroy Douresseaux

Albert Nobbs (2011)
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: Ireland, U.K.
Running time: 113 minutes (1 hour, 53 minutes)
MPAA – R for some sexuality, brief nudity and language
DIRECTOR: Rodrigo García
WRITERS: Glenn Close, John Banville, and Gabriella Prekop; from a story by István Szabó (based upon the novella, “The Singular Life of Albert Nobbs” by George Moore)
PRODUCERS: Glenn Close, Bonnie Curtis, Julie Lynn, and Alan Moloney
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Michael McDonough (D.o.P.)
EDITOR: Steven Weisberg
COMPOSER: Brian Byrne
Academy Award nominee

DRAMA/HISTORICAL

Starring: Glenn Close, Janet McTeer, Mia Wasikowska, Aaron Johnson, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Pauline Collins, Brenda Fricker, Mark Williams, Phyllida Law, Bronagh Gallagher, and Brendan Gleeson

Albert Nobbs is a 2011 Irish period drama from director Rodrigo Garcia (Mother and Child). The film is based upon the 1918 short story “The Singular Life of Albert Nobbs” by the late Irish novelist, George Augustus Moore. The film stars Glenn Close as a woman who poses as a man in order to work at a motel in late 19th century Ireland,

Albert Nobbs (Glenn Close) was born a female in London. He has been posing as a man for 30 years in order to survive the harsh environment of the impoverished working class in the late 19th century. Albert works as a waiter in Morrison’s Hotel in Dublin, Ireland, and is known for his extreme dedication to his job. However, Albert begins to reconsider how he has lived when he meets Hubert Page (Janet McTeer), a strapping painter who is doing some work at the hotel.

With its lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender themes, Albert Nobbs is certainly one of the most intoxicating period dramas that I have ever seen. Even when I enjoy a period or costume drama, I often forget about them not long after watching them (like The King’s Speech), but I can’t stop thinking about Albert Nobbs. I think that this is because Albert Nobbs has a screenplay which is determined to keep the audience guessing about the actions and motivations of the characters, and this is true from the main characters down to the supporting characters with small speaking roles. The movie engages the viewer in a guessing game of why and how. Why does she do that? How does she do it? How does she get away with it?

Albert Nobbs is marked by excellent performances and two great performances: Glenn Close as Albert Nobbs and Janet McTeer as Hubert Page. Close creates a compelling character in Nobbs by making the character’s fear that he will be caught a character itself. It is almost as if there are two characters: one is a waiter, and the other is a man whose secret-keeping is his life. As for McTeer, I don’t know if I have the words to describe her performance, which is a work of high art. I’ll just call it mega-awesome and leave it at that.

Albert Nobbs is a bit slow, but only a bit. I find that sometimes director Rodrigo García allows things to get too aloof and stiff, but he extracts passion and conflict from the kind of characters that like to keep things hidden and to act detached. However, the performances by Close and McTeer burn brightly enough to draw our attention to this unique film that depicts the diversity of relationships between women.

8 of 10
A

NOTES:
2012 Academy Awards: 3 nominations: “Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role” (Glenn Close), “Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role” (Janet McTeer), and “Best Achievement in Makeup” (Martial Corneville, Lynn Johnson, and Matthew W. Mungle)

2012 Golden Globes, USA: 3 nominations: “Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama” (Glenn Close), “Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture” (Janet McTeer), and “Best Original Song - Motion Picture” (Brian Byrne-music and Glenn Close-lyrics for the song "Lay Your Head Down")

Saturday, May 19, 2012

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Review: "All About Eve" is an Eternal Film Classic (Happy B'day, Bette Davis)

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 41 (of 2003) by Leroy Douresseaux

All About Eve (1950) – Black & White
Running time: 138 minutes (2 hour, 18 minutes)
DIRECTOR: Joseph L. Mankiewicz
WRITER: Joseph L. Mankiewicz (based upon the short story, “The Wisdom of Eve” by Mary Orr)
PRODUCER: Daryl F. Zanuck
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Milton R. Krasner
EDITOR: Barbara McLean
Academy Award winner

DRAMA

Starring: Bette Davis, Anne Baxter, George Sanders, Celeste Holm, Gary Merrill, Hugh Marlowe, Gregory Ratoff, Barbara Bates, Marilyn Monroe, and Thelma Ritter

The subject of this movie review is the 1950 American drama, All About Eve. This Oscar-winning “Best Picture” was produced by Daryl F. Zanuck and was based upon Mary Orr’s 1946 short story, “The Wisdom of Eve.”

Considered the great “backstage” movie of all time, Joseph L. Mankiewicz’s All About Eve was recently released in one of those shiny DVD retrospective packages, deservedly so. Filled with an all star cast that is more than up to the challenge of turning on the thespian heat, the film is as mesmerizing, catty, and blunt as it probably was over half a century ago.

Eve Harrington (Anne Baxter), an aspiring actress, insinuates herself into a circle of theatre friends, the most famous of them being the established but aging stage actress Margo Channing (Bette Davis). Eve wants so badly to be an actress that she will manipulate, grovel, connive, lie, cheat, and do whatever it takes to make it as a star of the theatre, including hiding her real name and creating a fictitious past. Before long she is Margo’s unofficial assistant and soon fashions a close relationship with Margo’s best friend, Karen Richard (Celeste Holm), but she has her eyes of Karen’s husband Lloyd (Hugh Marlowe), a popular and critically respected playwright. Margo, in a sense, is Lloyd’s muse, and she has starred in most of Lloyd’s plays; however, Margo is fortyish and beyond the age of some of Lloyd’s youthful fictional female leads. Here is where Eve believes she can step in and capture the essence of a Lloyd character, and with the help of Addison DeWitt (George Sanders), a theatre critic (and the film’s dominant narrator), she makes it to the top of the theatrical world over the bodies of her friends.

All About Eve is a study of where ambition can get you, but it is also an examination of how cut throat a person feels she has to be to get to the top. Ms. Baxter languishes in the early part of her character as the tepid friend who just wants to serve Margo, but the actress bears her fangs and claws when Eve finally gets the proverbial foot in the door. It’s a radical and shocking transformation.

What can I add about the incomparable Bette Davis? Believe me, she shines like a nova, and she chews up her part. Margo is a force of nature and a supernatural force, throwing her weight around the story. The movie is ostensibly about Eve; she is the catalyst for the proceedings, but much of the film deals with Margo’s travails. Ms. Davis’s performance is the work of an actress dominating the screen in the chosen style of the time. Movie lovers, films buffs, and critics – none of them should ever miss this on the strength of Ms. Davis’s performance alone.

It’s a bonus to get star performances by Sanders (who won an Academy Award for his supporting role as DeWitt), drool and witty by turns and slightly menacing and all knowing most of the time. Hugh Marlowe hams it up as the playwright Lloyd Richards, but it’s the only way he can keep up with Ms. Davis.

As the film approaches the end, it really delves into the process of how stars of the stage are born, but it really lays bare the potential for ugliness in a dog eat dog world. By the end of the film, you can’t help but watch Eve’s ascendancy and realize that you have been watching what could be a story similar to Margo’s as a young, struggling actress. All About Eve is about Eve becoming Margo as the latter’s career winds to the end and the former becomes the new star of Broadway and theatre. And as another ingénue walks into the picture as the story closes, we realize that the stage is a vicious circle. Eve is about to experience what she did to Eve and her friends.

There’s only one Margo, and there’s usually only place for one at the top. In the world of performance, one has to climb over everyone else who is also trying to reach the pinnacle. After you’ve reached the top, you can sulk over the bitter feelings and ruthless process. You can wish things hadn’t been so nasty, but at least you get to sulk from the top of the heap.

9 of 10
A+

NOTES:
1951 Academy Awards: 6 wins: “Best Director” (Joseph L. Mankiewicz), “Best Picture” (20th Century Fox), “Best Actor in a Supporting Role” (George Sanders), “Best Costume Design, Black-and-White” (Edith Head and Charles Le Maire), “Best Sound, Recording” ((20th Century-Fox Sound Dept.), and “Best Writing, Screenplay” (Joseph L. Mankiewicz); 8 nominations: “Best Actress in a Leading Role” (Anne Baxter), “Best Actress in a Leading Role” (Bette Davis), “Best Actress in a Supporting Role” (Celeste Holm), “Best Actress in a Supporting Role” (Thelma Ritter), “Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White” (Lyle R. Wheeler, George W. Davis, Thomas Little, and Walter M. Scott), “Best Cinematography, Black-and-White” (Milton R. Krasner), “Best Film Editing” (Barbara McLean), “Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture” (Alfred Newman)

1951 BAFTA Awards: 1 win: “Best Film from any Source” (USA)

1951 Golden Globes: 1 win: “Best Screenplay” (Joseph L. Mankiewicz); 5 nominations: “Best Motion Picture – Drama,” “Best Motion Picture Actress – Drama” (Bette Davis), “Best Motion Picture Director” (Joseph L. Mankiewicz), “Best Supporting Actor” (George Sanders), and “Best Supporting Actress” (Thelma Ritter)

1990 National Film Preservation Board: National Film Registry

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