[4] This second retelling of The Maltese Falcon (before John Huston proved the the third time was the charm) is a bizarre pseudo-comedy with an ingratiating performance by Warren William in the role Humphrey Bogart would later immortalize. Warren got under my skin — I hated him. Bette Davis was all right, but the real standout performance was Arthur Treacher as the tall Englishman, Travers. …
[5] A mysterious woman enters detective Sam Spade’s office with information about a valuable statue called the Maltese Falcon. Spade is soon swept up into a mystery involving multiple pursuers of the statue in this famous story from Dashielle Hammett. This film directed by Roy Del Ruth is the first of three film iterations of the story. The third version — directed by John Huston …
[5] Jean Harlow plays such a nasty little character in Red-Headed Woman, sleeping her way to the top of the workforce while ending marriages left and right. She’s so cold and calculating, I almost wish the movie would have been like most others of its kind and punished the slut for her wicked ways. But this time, the slut gets away with it all. I …
[7] Peter Lorre gives a star-making performance as a child murderer running from both the law and the criminal underground in this stylish early ‘talkie’ from Fritz Lang (Metropolis). As much as I love both Lang and Lorre, M is a mixed bag for me. It starts off brilliantly, with the children singing and the villain’s shadowy introduction. But as the movie becomes more about …
[8] It’s the Great Depression and young boys (and a few girls) are running away from home to lessen the burden on their poor families. This movie follows two boys, played by Frankie Darro and Edwin Phillips, who hop aboard train after train trying to find food and work. Along the way, they befriend a girl played by Dorothy Coonan Wellman. The three become part …
[6] Poachers are looking to rob a legendary elephant graveyard of its ivory in the first Johnny Weissmuller Tarzan sequel. I think the sequel is just as entertaining as the original. The sexual innuendo is more pronounced (we even get a nude swimming scene), and it definitely delivers plenty matinee action, culminating in a nice finale where we have Tarzan and Jane fighting their way …
[4] I want to like a Marx Brothers movie. Really, I do. But this is the third for me (after their earlier efforts, The Cocoanuts and Animal Crackers) and so far, no dice. In this, their first film written specifically for the silver screen (and not based on a play or vaudeville act), the brothers stow away on a transatlantic cruise where they constantly outrun …
[5] This early Best Picture Oscar winner is a three-hour mix of song, dance, and narrative, much like Broadway Melody before it. I was expecting a real stinker, especially when the opening credits revealed “Fashion Parades by Adrian”. But apart from being overly long and anachronistic, it wasn’t so bad. The narrative is fashioned loosely around the life of Broadway’s legendary Florenz Ziegfeld Jr (the …
[7] Peter Lorre stars as a doctor so obsessed with an actress (Frances Drake), that after a train wreck destroys her husband’s hands, Lorre offers to perform a transplant. Problem is, the new hands once belonged to a murderer, and old habits die hard… even for disembodied hands. Mad Love benefits from Lorre’s creepy performance and many exotic settings, including recreations of a famous Guignol …
[6] Paul Muni plays a thinly-veiled version of Al Capone in Howard Hawks’ Scarface, a grim, violent gangster flick that was pretty controversial for its time. The lack of bloodshed keeps it tame by today’s standards, but myriad onscreen deaths and an immoral leading character delayed the release of Scarface until two years after it was filmed. Muni is reliably good (he’s an Oscar-winner for …
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