IOU: Charlie Chan at the Opera (1936)

Person I Owe: Frank. Frank is a good friend of mine, a co-worker and an enthusiast of many many things including Charlie Chan films. I let him borrow my Charlie Chan boxed set and in exchange he let me borrow Charlie Chan at the Opera (1936) and a couple other films too. Now that was a long time ago, so I need to get this back to him. Because we work together, I have at least 5 opportunities each week to exchange DVDs with Frank. It's very nice and we exchange books as well. It's great sharing with friends, especially friends with such great taste in movies and books!

Review: Charlie Chan at the Opera (1936 or 1937) is the most famous of all the Charlie Chan films. Why? Because it stars Warner Oland, whom many Charlie Chan enthusiasts deem the best of the six or so actors who played Charlie Chan. Co-starring in the film is Boris Karloff, the biggest name ever to appear in a Charlie Chan film. This one hour drama is fun to watch as Karloff creeps everyone out and Oland/Chan outwits everyone with his proverbs and serious detective skills. I want to point out that William Demarest, a very good character actor who appeared in many films during the 1930s including a few with Humphrey Bogart, plays a dimwitted cop. My favorite line of the film is uttered by his character: (to Chan) "You are like chop suey! Mysterious but still a swell dish."

Karloff plays opera star Gravelle (::snickers::) who escapes from an insane asylum. He seeks revenge against the other opera stars, including his previous lover Madame Lili Rochelle, with whom he had a child Kitty Gravelle. First Charlie Chan is put on the case to help the police find Gravelle but then when murders start happening at the opera house, Chan is determined to find the killer.

This is a great film to introduce to someone who is new to the Charlie Chan movies. Some folks are sensitive to the stereotyping in the film. I tell them that even though Charlie Chan can be a bit of a caricature his character is always smarter than everyone else. Now if he could only be a bit nicer to his son! Thank you Frank for letting me borrow this film!

IOU: No, My Darling Daughter (1961)

Person I Owe: Casey of Noir Girl. Casey reviewed this film a couple of years ago (see the review here) and recommended the film to me. She burned me a copy and sent it to me in the mail. I've always meant to watch it but Netflix and other things always got in the way. Once you own a movie, it's easy to take advantage of the fact that it's always there.

Review: No, My Darling Daughter (1961) is a British Comedy directed by Ralph Thomas and starring Juliet Mills, Michael Redgrave, James Westmoreland and Michael Craig. Tansy (Mills) is the daughter of a wealthy and overbearing father Sir Carr (Redgrave). He's got a lot of plans for his daughter but free-spirited Tansy has other things in mind. Thomas (Michael Clay), General Barclay's grandson and Sir Carr's grandson, works for Carr's company but also has other plans. Thomas and Tansy seem like two free spirits destined for each other until an American youngster, Cornelius (James Westmoreland), starts to woo Tansy with his adventurousness and naivete about British life. Carr's got plans, Tansy's got plans, Thomas has plans, General Barclay's got plans, Cornelius makes plans eventually but as we all know even the best made plans don't always turn out how we expect.

This is a very light-hearted British comedy. As Casey says in her review, it'll keep you guessing until the very end. And yes Tansy is such a strange name. I kept wanting to call her something else. If you enjoy British films from the 1960s, and I know a lot of you do, this one will be sure to entertain you. It's also void of all of the more taboo elements of other films from this era. It's fresh and wholesome and just fun to watch. I'm not much for early British cinema and while this is not a new favorite, I enjoyed it nonetheless and would recommend it to other folks who like fun films like these.

IOU: Hot Enough for June (1964)

Person I Owe: Kate Gabrielle of Scathingly Brilliant and Discovering Dirk Bogarde. It's no secret that Kate Gabrielle is a huge Dirk Bogarde fan. She really wants to get as many people on the Dirk Bogarde bandwagon because she believes in him that much. She sent me a burnt copy of Hot Enough for June (1964) a long time ago in hopes that I would watch it even if I were to throw it away later. I watched it and I am keeping it. Thanks Kate!

Review: Dirk Bogarde plays Nicholas Whistler, an unemployed writer who has just been placed in a job at a glass manufacturing company. But this company is not really what it seems to be. In fact, it's really a spy agency. They hired Nicholas solely on the fact that he speaks some Czech and they need a decoy to pick up a secret message in Czechoslovakia. Nicholas, reluctant to take the job but happy for the pay, gets sent on a business trip to Czechoslovakia (hey this is 1964 remember!). He has to use the code phrase "Hot Enough for June" and await a certain reply in order to find the person who was to pick up the message. Nicholas meets Vlasta Simoneva (Sylva Koscina) who pretends to be his driver but happens to be a Czech spy. Nicholas gets into deep, deep trouble when he falls in love with Vlasta and tries to escape the country with that important message.

At first the film started out a bit slow. I thought, oh geez, is this going to be a boring British film about a writer making ends meet. But when the spy element of the story started, which was pretty early in the film, and they introduced the lovable Robert Morley, I knew this was the film for me. Hot Enough for June (aka Agent 8-3/4) is a wonderful British spy caper that keeps audiences at the edge of their seats.

"It is nice to know that we are not all going to be murdered in our beds." - Colonel Cunliffe

They make a gorgeous couple don't they?

1960s films are full of shots like these. Gratuitously sexual. I laughed out loud when I saw this!

IOU

I owe you. No really, I do. Chances are you have either lent me a movie, given me a movie or suggested a movie to me and I've neglected your advice and help. So, you know what? Now is the time to make up for that. Next week is IOU week. Each day I'll review a film I owe someone a viewing of. That's seven IOUs. It won't make up for everything but at least it's a start.

Summer of Classic Films in Boston - June 2011

Boston, Massachusetts is a haven for classic film lovers. We have so many wonderful repertory theatres that showcase classic films on the big screens. Summer is usually when it gets hopping, with lots of films to chose from. So even if you are not a local, the Summer is a great time to come visit Boston! I decided to highlight some of the classic film goings-on in the Boston area month by month this summer. Let's start with June which is already jam-packed with wonderful offerings.

Update: Laura of Laura's Miscellaneous Musings posted some LA classic film screening highlights on her blog. Here is the list.

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Paramount Theater - Boston


The Paramount Theater, a gorgeous Art Deco theater in the heart of Boston's theatre district, opened in 1932 but closed in 1976. My graduate alma mater, Emerson College, renovated the building (while I was attending) and the theater had a grand reopening in 2010. They are showcasing a Noir Nights festival with screenings of rare Noirs (some unavailable on DVD) in their Bright Family Screening Room. It's not the theater proper but it is a good excuse to get out to the city to watch some rare Noirs!

Tickets are $10, $7.50 for Members and Seniors and $5 for Students. You can also get a festival pass for $30 which gets you in for 4 of the films. There is a membership package for Arts at Emerson which is $60 and gets you 8 free tickets to lots of shows, plus discounted tickets, discounted parking, etc. Sweet deals all around.

The Dark Mirror (1946)
June 9th (Thursday) - 6pm
June 12th (Sunday) - 7:15 pm

Cry of the City (1948)
June 9th (Thursday) - 7:45 pm

So Evil My Love (1948)
June 10th (Friday) - 7:00 pm

Alias Nick Beal (1949)
June 10th (Friday) - 9:00 pm

Tight Spot (1955)
June 11th (Saturday) - 7:00 pm

Beyond a Reasonable Doubt (1956)
June 11th (Saturday) - 9:00 pm
June 12th (Sunday) - 5:30 pm

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Brattle Theater - Cambridge

Tickets are $9.75, Matinees before 5 pm are $7.75. Students $7.75 with ID. Seniors $6.75. Children under 12 $6.75. You can also purchase one of many different membership packages.

Treasure of Sierra Madre (1948)
June 18th (Saturday) - 12:30 pm
June 19th (Sunday) - 12:30 pm

DOUBLE FEATURE! Two movies for the price of one.
The Maltese Falcon (1941)
June 19th (Sunday) 3:00 pm

The Asphalt Jungle (1950)
June 19th (Sunday) - 5:00 pm


Restored Print!
The African Queen (1951)
June 24 (Friday) - 5 pm, 7:15 pm
June 25th (Saturday) - 12:30 pm, 2:45 pm, 5 pm, 7:15 pm
June 26th (Sunday) - 12:30 pm, 2:45 pm, 5 pm, 7:15 pm
June 27th (Monday) through June 30th (Thursday) - 5 pm, 7:15 pm each day

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Harvard Film Archive - Cambridge

Tickets are $9, $7 for Students and Senior Citizens. Some screenings are $12 or even free (check the website)! Cash only folks. Don't bring the credit card. And you can buy in advance so show up early.

(this is only a sampling)

Luis Buñuel Series

Viridiana (1961)
June 18th (Saturday) - 7pm

Land Without Bread (Las Hurdes: Tierra SIn Pan) (1933)
June 19th (Saturday) - 7pm

Belle de Jour (1967)
June 25th (Saturday) - 7pm

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Coolidge Corner Theater - Brookline

Fiddler on the Roof (1971)
June 20th (Monday) - 7 pm

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 Somerville Theater - Somerville

The Somerville Theater is hosting a Classic Film Series from June through August. Here are the June selections!

Captains Courageous (1937)
June 19th (Sunday) 11 am
June 20th (Monday) 5pm and 8pm

Double Indemnity (1944)
June 26th (Sunday) 11 am
June 27th (Monday) 5pm and 8pm

I'm engaged!

Carlos, whom I've written about many times before, and I got engaged on Sunday. He proposed by our favorite beach and I said yes. Carlos is a wonderful man and one of the joys we share is our mutual love for movies. I can't imagine spending the rest of my life with a better man!

We're No Angels (1955)

Finishing a blogathon 5 months later is okay... right?!

We're No Angels (1955) is a Christmas story like no other. It's the turn of the 20th Century and three Devil's Island convicts find themselves on a tropical island colonized by France. They need money to catch a ship back to Europe but find themselves without any resources. So what are three convicts to do? Steal and kill of course! Joseph (Humphrey Bogart), Albert (Aldo Ray) and Jules (Peter Ustinov) target the Ducotel family who run a local shop. But the mother Ducotel (Joan Bennett), father Ducotel (Leo G. Carroll) and the lovesick daughter Isabelle (Gloria Talbott) are sweet, kind and charming. What are three ruthless convicts to do when they are being treated nicely on this Christmas Eve? They still need to make it home! Will they be able to kill this nice family?

This is one of the few Humphrey Bogart films in color. The only other one I can think of is The African Queen. And boy is there a lot of color. So make sure that if you are a Bogie fan that this film is in your repertoire. While Bogie is charming as the swindler of the convict pact (he's the brains behind the operation) and Peter Ustinov is also charming as the goofy and lovable safecracker, it's Aldo Ray that caught my attention. Why? Because he doesn't look like he belongs in a film from 1955. He looks like he's straight out of the 21st Century. He's got that All-American look that is All-American now but not back then. Big broad shoulders, big arms, lots of height, buzz cut hair and tattoos. That's NOW. He stuck out like a sore thumb to me. Robert Mitchum and Kirk Douglas were buff in a barrel-chested kind of way. Aldo Ray had some real bulk to his muscles. Wow!

Moving on... This is a very enjoyable film. It's black humor with a wholesome feel and a bit of sex thrown in. We're No Angels can be a bit slow paced. I won't hide the fact that I fell asleep twice while watching the film (it could be a lullaby!). It's not explicitly Christmas. In fact, the tropical setting and the focus on the Convict-Family plot makes you forget the holiday theme a few times in the film. However, I think that non-Christmas films that take place at Christmas are great for Holiday viewing.

Three Angels came to earth that night and all around the stars were bright.

These Amazing Shadows at the Coolidge Corner Theatre

Some weeks ago, I received an email from director Kurt Norton about These Amazing Shadows. I've been in kind of a classic movie slump and I was really hoping that this documentary (read/watch more about it here and read my review here) would help bring me out of it. And boy it did!

Carlos and I headed over to Coolidge Corner in Brookline, MA for the showing. Between the both of us we have the majority of film history covered (early part for me, later part for him). I knew that we would both enjoy the documentary in our own ways.

The documentary was shown at the historic Coolidge Corner Theatre on Tuesday May 10th.

The documentary was introduced by director Paul Mariano (who is a Boston native, woot!)

Before I had attend the event, I mentioned that I was going here and on Twitter. I got this message from none other than the Self-Styled Siren herself.

Really?! We all know that the Siren is a pretty big flippin' deal but I hadn't realized she was in the documentary. So when the Wizard of Oz portion came on, I quickly grabbed my iPhone and took a picture of the screen.

Yay! I hope she doesn't kill me for this.

After the film, there was a panel discussion moderated by film critic Jay Carr and featuring Robin Blaetz, film professor, George Willeman, the film preservationist from the Library of Congress who happened to be wearing a Roy Rogers tie and Paul Mariano, one of the two directors. It was great to hear a bit more about the documentary and to get some different perspectives on the making of it and what was featured, etc. After the discussion was over, I was very brave and went up and introduced myself to Paul Mariano who was very kind to greet me. He knew me by name which blew me away? Little ole me?

At the showing, we got these cool I Heart Movies buttons. Very neat. I wore mine with pride.

Thank you so much to Kurt Norton and Paul Mariano for inviting me to the screening. It was very nice of them. And a special thank to Kurt Norton who helped me a lot. I wish I could have met him to thank him in person.

These Amazing Shadows: The Movies That Made America (2011) a review

These Amazing Shadows is a documentary that delivers many messages. Films are important. They need to be preserved for current and future generations before it's too late. The language of film is a human language. Films are a filter through which we view history and culture. Film is love.

Directed by Kurt Norton and Paul Mariano, this documentary examines the importance of films by focusing on the National Film Registry, part of the Library of Congress. Since 1989, the National Film Registry choses 25 films of historical, cultural and aesthetic importance to be recognized and preserved. This form of preservation keeps the film in the state in which it was meant to be seen.

It all started back in the early 1980s when Ted Turner purchased the MGM library along with many other films and film collections and started colorizing classics such as The Maltese Falcon, Casablanca and It's a Wonderful Life. There was outrage because these films, originally in black & white, were being tampered with. They were being altered and shown in a way that was completely different from it's original intended composition. Film directors such as Sidney Pollack and Woody Allen as well as film actors such as Jimmy Stewart were outraged. Turner's response? They are my films, I can do what I want with them.

For much of the early history of the film industry, movies were treated as commodities. Products to be created, packaged, sold and then discarded. Movie studios saw films not as art but as a way to make money. Because of this many early films have been lost. The documentary revealed that 80% of early silent film movies are lost and 50% of films pre 1950 are also lost. Why? Because these films, again treated like products, were not treated well, not kept in good conditions and often times discarded or burned either on purpose or by accident. Turner saw them as a product in another way: a pre-existing stock of content we could still squeeze some money out of.

Let's not vilify Turner though. He is the Turner of Turner Classic Movies remember! And because of Turner's colorizations and the backlash that ensued, it was brought to the American government that films should be treated as art that should be maintained for historical and cultural reasons. From this, The National Registry was born.

These Amazing Shadows: The Movies That Made America interviews a wide variety of film critics, historians, preservationists, writers, actors, directors, cultural historians, etc. to delve into the importance of films and why something like The National Film Registry is so important. How did Kurt Noonan and Paul Mariano, the directors of the documentary, chose the films that were to be showcased? Because after all there are hundreds of films already in the registry and it's impossible to show clips of all of them in the documentary! They let the interviewees sway their decision. For example, the film Baby Face (1933), one of my favorite pre-code movies, was very important to George Willeman, the Nitrate Film Vault Manager at the Library of Congress Packard Campus. He found two reels of the film. One significantly longer than the other. After closely examining both he noticed that one was heavily edited, with certain scenes cut, replaced and sometimes dubbed for new dialogue. The original film, of course, was much more sexual and philosophical and overall taboo. What would happen if we only had the censored version of Baby Face? We would have never experienced the film as it was meant to be seen. And this is why the methodical work of film preservationists is so important! And why Baby Face was featured in the documentary.

These Amazing Shadows is a masterpiece of a documentary. It's completely engrossing, thorough without being overwhelming and a delight for any film fan. It has an important message one that should be conveyed to anyone who truly cares about films.

I have to say, I was thoroughly impressed with These Amazing Shadows. It captured my attention and I didn't want it to end. These Amazing Shadows was the nice swift kick in the rear end that I needed to jump start my love of classic films again. It's been waning due to personal stresses as well as a busy season in book publishing. These Amazing Shadows reminded me why I love films, why they are important and why we, as classic film enthusiasts, should be champions for their preservation.

Stay tuned, tomorrow I will write about my experience watching this film on the big screen at the Coolidge Corner Theatre in Brookline, MA.

Meanwhile, make sure you check out some sneak peaks of These Amazing Shadows and take a look at their social media sites. They are everywhere!

These Amazing Shadows Website
These Amazing Shadows on Twitter @AmazingShadows
These Amazing Shadows on Facebook
These Amazing Shadows Blog
These Amazing Shadows YouTube Channel

These Amazing Shadows (2011) - a new documentary on the importance of films

These Amazing Shadows is a new documentary that is being screened across the US in May and June. The Coolidge Corner Theater in Brookline, MA will be showing it on Tuesday May 10th with one of the two directors introducing the film and a panel discussion with director Paul Mariano, film critic Jay Carr, George Willeman from the Library of Congress and film professor Robin Blaetz. The Coolidge Corner will have additional screenings of the documentary from May 20th to May 26th if you can't attend the special May 10th screening. Check out these listings to see if the documentary will be shown at a theatre near you.

I'm really excited to see this documentary. As a classic film enthusiast and all-around movie buff, I think films are incredibly important. They've become such an important part of our culture and their influence, even on our personal lives, is undeniable.

From the These Amazing Shadows website:

What do the films Casablanca, Blazing Saddles and West Side Story have in common? Besides being popular, they have also been deemed "culturally, historically or aesthetically significant" by the Library of Congress and listed on The National Film Registry. THESE AMAZING SHADOWS, an 88-minute documentary, tells the history and importance of the Registry, a roll call of American cinema treasures that reflects the diversity of film, and indeed the American experience itself. The current list of 550 films includes selections from every genre - documentaries, home movies, Hollywood classics, avant-garde, newsreels and silent films. These Amazing Shadows reveals how "American movies tell us so much about ourselves... not just what we did, but what we thought, what we felt, what we aspired to, and the lies we told ourselves." 

Watch the trailer here:

God Speed Jackie Cooper

Jackie Cooper (1922-2011)

I've always really enjoyed the Jackie Cooper short for MGM called The Christmas Party. It was a great way to showcase the MGM stars of 1931 but it also exemplified Jackie Cooper's lovely auw shucks demeanor and his appeal to both children as well as adults. How could you not be won over by those big cheeks? God Speed Jackie Cooper.

Out of the Past - Into the Now ~ Charlie Chaplin Honored by Google

Did you see Google today? They created an original video, an homage to Charlie Chaplin for his 122nd birthday. It's pretty awesome. The only point of this post is that I don't want this to be forgotten so I want to commemorate Google's homage by dedicating a post to it. Although so many of us classic film enthusiasts feel like evangelists for a lost art, old movies still have a significant influence on contemporary culture. And that's a very good thing indeed.

Abbott and Costello and Kinetic Typography?

For those of you who love classic films and typography (I'm thinking of Noir Girl in particular!) or love fun YouTube videos in general, enjoy!