Wednesday, December 9, 2020

Dead End (1937)

Life on the East Side slum in Noo Yoick where the lives of the poor are overlooked by the rich. The film mostly centres around the adventures of a group of urchins, the Dead End Kids (who make their movie debut here). Around them a series of dramas. An unemployed architect, Dave (Joel McCrea) is torn between two girls. Drina (Sylvia Sidney) is in a labour dispute and is as hard-up as he is, Kay (Wendy Bray) is the mistress of a rich guy and she doesn't fancy being poor again.

Meanwhile gangster Babyface Martin (Humphrey Bogart) has returned to his old neighbourhood. He wants to find his mother and his old squeeze but isn't happy when he finds them...

The film is based on a Broadway show and often plays like one with fast moving action which swiftly moves from character to character on one big set. Life is rough and hard, but there is humour to be found in even the darkest of times. Great film, and great accents.

Tuesday, December 8, 2020

Go Ask Alice (1973)

A powerful anti-drug film, based on a supposedly real (though probably fictional) diary. Alice (Jamie Smith-Jackson) is a teenage girl who is having a difficult time at school being in the uncool crowd. But then the cool kids take her under their wing and she starts loading up on various drugs. She even starts dealing to kids. Things come to a head when she runs off with a friend and ends up whoring her way across America looking for her next score. She finally confides in a priest (Andy Griffith) and tries to turn clean.

However, now she is regarded as an enemy by the in-crowd who try to get her back on the drugs. She has a psychotic session where she self-harms. Can she come back from the brink and back to her parents (William Shatner and Julie Adams)?

A film of it's time, and that time does include a very good soundtrack. The acting is often a bit hesitant and awkward but it does give everything an authentic feel. 

Monday, December 7, 2020

The Day of the Triffids (1962)

A decent adaptation of the classic sci-fi novel by John Wyndham. The Earth is bathed in light from the heavens from a meteorite shower, everyone is watching the show except for poor sailor Bill (Howard Keel) who suffered an eye injury and is all bandaged up. However, the next day nearly everyone on Earth is completely blind and Bill wakes up to find the world in chaos (once he removed his bandages himself).

London is in chaos, including a train crashing into the buffers at the station. Here Bill finds another person who can see, schoolgirl Susan (Janina Faye). Together they cross to France to hopefully find help. They link up with the sighted Christine (Nicole Maurey) and continue onto Spain where the Royal Navy is looking to pick up survivors. If the situation wasn't serious enough there are also the triffids, bizarre plants from outer space that can move and have the taste for human flesh. They roam the countryside in huge packs looking for human survivors. However, they have a weakness for ice cream van music...

Meanwhile, on a lighthouse bickering couple Tom (Kieron Moore) and Karen (Janette Scott) are also besieged by the triffids. They finally stumble on a way to kill the plants (though it is that simple you wonder why no one else had thought of it already...)

A fast moving film full of sci-fi horror. The triffids look ridiculous though are scary. Some of the scenes of the film are harrowing, such as the train crash with the blind survivors desperately scrambling around. The plot doesn't make a huge amount of sense but it is an enjoyable sci-fi romp.

Friday, December 4, 2020

The Woman Eater (1958)

A strange film, a typical 1950s monster film though with a rather slow restrained manner despite the fact it includes a tree which feeds on women. 

Evil scientist Dr Moran (George Coulouris) discovers a tree in the Amazon which feeds on human flesh (of the female kind) and in return provides a serum which can bring the dead back to life (though presumably not half-eaten women).

He brings the tree back to England, along with native Tanga (Jimmy Vaughn) who regards the tree as his god, and feeds it a steady diet of women from the streets of Soho so he can obtain the serum. Sally (Vera Day) gets a job with Moran but soon wants to leave. However, Moran has fallen in love with her and decides to share his secrets with her...

A creepy film with a ridiculously looking tree (though thankfully we don't get to see it much). So many questions of course, why does the tree only want to eat beautiful women? Why did the tribe allow Moran to take their deity away? Naturally nothing really makes sense. Good campy fun.

Thursday, December 3, 2020

Women in Blue (1943)

A fascinating if somewhat dated short film showing the training of new recruits to the US Navy Women's Auxiliary Volunteer Emergency Service (WAVES). The narrator (Hugh James) explains that the recruits learn how to march and learn important information such as how the Navy is run (unfortunately the narrator was able to resist the temptation to quip "badly"). Then they can take over base duties from men who can be sent into combat (to their universal delight of course).