The Film Junkie

This movie is just not scary by our modern standards.  We see wayyyyy too much of the bad guy and the ending is horribly predictable.  However, sometimes the ride itself is fun enough.

The story follows an eccentric wax sculptor who apparently dies in a fire, but then re-emerges more talented than ever just when some corpses begin turning up and then getting lifted from the local morgue. 

Vincent Price is so camp as the sculptor that I wanted to stick a tent pole in him.  He is fun to watch and he rocks his odd but interesting role.

This was intended as a 3D movie and it is hilarious watching them try to scare you with the technology.  It reminded me of the SCTV sketch and ultimately made that sketch seem all the more spot on.

The best part of the film is certainly the final reveal, and there is no way I will ruin it by giving it away.  I watched it again in slow motion and it is truly an achievement in prosthetics.

Good for a laugh, by no means scary, but a good time and still better than the remake.

Grade: C+

Sometimes musicals take themselves too seriously and then there are musicals like this that have a wink and a nudge behind every ballad, ballet and bawdy joke.  Fred Astaire stars as a washed up Hollywood actor trying to regain his dignity by doing a Broadway show.  The show tries to become a musical version of Faust that crashes and burns but it taken over by Astaire and transformed to the relief of all. 

Astaire knows well enough that ‘Tony Hunter’ may as well be himself and he plays it with great modesty and is hilarious.  He is teamed with an up and coming ballet dancer (Cyd Charisse) who he knows is too tall for him to dance with, but is forced to make the best of it.  The staging throughout the film of Charisse upstage of Astaire, or slightly bending, or wearing flats is fairly obvious and works toward the joke of the famously short Astaire with the famously leggy Charisse. 

I have never been much of a fan of Charisse’s acting, she is an amazing dancer and is able to tell a story with her movement, but when it comes to acting she always falls flat.  It is a treat to see her teamed with such a classy gent as Astaire, when she was usually paired with the more masculinly sexual Gene Kelly, and I think I like her better with Astaire.  Their work in the Jazz Murder Mystery piece is as good and innovative as anything she did with Kelly.  Her acting is the one weak spot in the film, but her dancing almost makes up for it.

As sidekicks we have the old pros Nanette Fabray and Oscar Levant as the married songwriters who help make the monstrous production ‘The Band Wagon’.  Fabray is a favorite of mine from ‘Your Show Of Shows’ and it is a treat to see her let loose in a musical.  Her ‘Triplets’ number with Astaire and Jack Buchanan is probably the second best musical number in the show behind ‘That’s Entertainment’.  Levant is not given too much of a chance to show off his musical chops, but he has fun on the ride.

This is one of the last great old Hollywood musicals, and Vincente Minnelli’s visuals are spectacular once again.  Betty Comden’s songs highlight the sheer joy of this film and helped to create one classic in ‘That’s Entertainment’.  I don’t know how this isn’t a more famous flick, it is certainly one of the best musicals of the old system.

Grade: A-

Oh Brando the rebel, what a glorious bastard and what a performance of bizarre over and under acting in one fell swoop.

The story is about the Black Rebel Motorcyle Club who comes to a small town and has a rumble with the Beetles (led by hyperactive Lee Marvin) while fighting against the authority structure.  Brando falls for a waitress (Mary Murphy) and engages in one of the most violent make-out sessions in movie history.

The film seems to hinge on the idea that badasses are misunderstood and really doesn’t reach for more than that.  It is not terribly well written and other than Marvin and Brando, the acting is lame and uninteresting.

Who knew the potential that was laying underneath that scowl?

Grade: C+