The Picture of Dorian Gray (1945)

Director: Albert Lewin

Writers: Oscar Wilde, Albert Lewin

Composer: Herbert Stothart

Starring: George Sanders, Hurd Hatfield, Donna Reed, Angela Lansbury, Peter Lawford, Lowell Gilmore, Richard Fraser, Douglas Walton, Morton Lowry, Miles Mander, Lydia Bilbrook, Cedric Hardwicke

More info: IMDb

Tagline: His life was a muddy morass into which he dragged all who knew him! Such was Dorian Gray, the man who wanted eternal youth, and bartered his soul to get it!

Plot: A corrupt young man somehow keeps his youthful beauty, but a special painting gradually reveals his inner ugliness to all.

My rating:  7.5/10

Will I watch it again? Probably.

With solid performances, set/costume design, pacing, story, etc., this picture delivers.  Sanders has the best lines and does them justice.  He's so good at playing cads that you'd think he was one offscreen, too.  I'd like to think he wasn't, but he sells it so well.  Hatfield does a fine job, too.  At least I think he did.  I say that because he plays the role with such a lack of feeling and presents Gray as a man who had little emotion who tips the scale and grows even colder and callous with age.  I liked his performance but I'm curious to see how others have done it.  I wonder if this has ever been made as a straight up horror movie.  Dorian Gray is technically a serial killer after all.  This was his second feature and first in a starring role.  He does play it rather cold, so much that Sanders (as Lord Wotton) brings exuberant life to every scene he's in.  The paintings are magnificent, especially the ugly one as the years take their toll.  It's great seeing Angela Lansbury in an early role (her third feature) and she's quite good.  It's a good looking and intriguing film.  The large sets of the mansion are bigger than life and provide a beautiful and lush backdrop.  They almost swallow the players.  My favorite scene is the murder of a certain someone.  It reminded me of PSYCHO (1960) when the hanging light is bumped in the scuffle and it plays out the next few moments swaying back and forth, giving shade to the murderer.  In this case we have the added satisfaction of also seeing the silhouette of the victim appear and disappear.  It was brilliantly shot.  I'm a horror fan so if I were to change anything it would be to amp up the suspense and shock.  That wouldn't drastically alter the film but it would emphasize that take on the story.   

 

Pig (2010)

Director: Adam Mason

Writers: Andrew Howard, Adam Mason

Composers: Phil Bloomberg, Tim Polecat

Starring: Andrew Howard, Guy Burnet, Lorry O'Toole, Molly Black, Juliet Quintin-Archard

More info: IMDb

Tagline:  He does all the things you dare not even think!

Plot: A deranged psychotic spends his summer day deciding how to deal with the three captives he has chained up on his land. With only his own troubled mind and his dim-witted companion available to guide him and the fate of his victims, the disturbed man makes violent choice after violent choice.

My rating: 5/10

Will I watch it again?  No.

Even horror fans might not dig this one but it does have some things going for it even if it didn't work for me.  It's shot in a way that looks like it's one long take but if you're paying attention to it then you'll probably catch some of the hidden edits.  That alone is impressive.  The psycho (I don't think he's ever given a name) has one partner in crime (a very pregnant mentally ill woman he calls, "Retard") who is annoying as fuck.  In addition to her mental speech (she talks as if she's deaf, which she isn't, using only the middle/back of her tongue to speak) she's almost constantly squeezing a dog squeaky toy.  It's an assault on the ears.  They have three victims that we see tortured and killed.  There's blood and some gore but it's not as gruesome as you'd think considering the filming technique and the brutality of the psycho.  The almost constant music helps the pacing and watchability.  It is repetitive but it serves the film better than you'd think.  There is no nudity except for the psycho.  He gives you full frontal and backal.  I literally knew nothing about this film and I watched it cold when a friend asked, "what's this about?".  93 minutes later we made it to the end.  The final few minutes, while putting an interesting spin on who the psycho is, hardly makes up for the sometimes dull and annoying rest of the film.  It starts off good and interesting and ends that way but what's in between has a lot of filler and a neat filming technique.  If this sounds intriguing, you should seek it out and give it a whirl for better or worse.  Even though this isn't much of a recommend, hardcore horror fans should take a chance.  At least it's different. 

Room 43 (1958)

Original title: Passport to Shame

Director: Alvin Rakoff

Writer: Patrick Alexander

Composer: Ken Jones

Starring: Diana Dors, Herbert Lom, Eddie Constantine, Odile Versois, Brenda de Banzie, Robert Brown, Elwyn Brook-Jones

More info: IMDb

Tagline: For those who think they've seen everything!

Plot: A cabdriver falls for French girl mixed up with a prostitution ring and he helps to liberate her.

My rating: 8/10

Will I watch it again?  YES!!!

Where do I start?  The performances are very good.  Herbert Lom plays a great gangster who knows how to get shit done and Eddie Constantine is charismatic yet rough around the edges.  I really dig this guy.  His pal, Mike (played by Robert Brown who many years later would play important roles in several Bond pictures and someone I'm ashamed I didn't recognize) is great and he's got a few scenes to shine.  And then there's Diana Dors.  Hubba fuckin' hubba!  She looks so familiar but I've only seen a couple of her pictures, none of which I remember her from.  She did a fine job, too.  Yowza!

I really dug the score, too, but it didn't take long before I realized why...it sounds very similar to Elmer Bernstein's main theme from THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN ARM (1955).  Listen to the theme from the opening credits above and then listen to this...

Pretty darn close.  The story is a lot of fun but it was the direction and cinematography that grabbed me by the short and curlies.  This picture is loaded with great shots and camera angles.  It's beautiful at times.  There were many moments that literally made me smile.  Hell, even a buddy of mine was impressed (without me saying a word to point stuff out) and he doesn't normally notice things like that.  Considering the subject and whatnot, this film is much better than you would expect it to be.  I cannot find a weak spot in the film.  It's that good.  I'm thoroughly impressed and I'm almost bummed out that I hadn't seen or even heard of this before.  Seek it out.  You won't be disappointed.  There was one quick moment when the camera shows a small gathering at a wedding ceremony and there's this one face that was there for a flash but looked very familiar.  I thought how neat would it be if that were Michael Caine.  Then I read the IMDb page and it sure as hell was.  Supposedly Jackie Collins is an extra somewhere, too.  I'd sure love to have a widescreen print of this on DVD.

Danland (2012)

Director: Alexandra Berger

Composer: Michael Montes

Starring: Dan Lear (AKA Porno Dan)

More info: IMDb

Tagline: Looking for love...in a kinky place.

Plot: Amateur porn producer Dan Leal, aka 'Porno Dan', searches for commitment and intimacy in spite of his industry and himself.

My rating: 5.5/10

Will I watch it again?  Nope.

If this were a movie, the actor would do himself a service to find something that would connect the audience to him.  It's hard to enjoy something if you don't care about the characters.  I didn't like this guy.  He comes across as a 14 year old man child.  Sure, he's got some peoples' idea of a dream gig, starring in and directing porn, hangin' around hot broads all the live long day but he also comes across as someone who says he wants depth but behaves and lives in a shallow world that he created for himself.  You could say his juvenile personality is well suited for the porn industry but I would say that it's not if you're looking for professionalism.  If you see the video of his wedding then you'll get an idea of the extent of his lifestyle.  It suits him but then he says he's looking for love.  It doesn't look like he'll ever have his cake and eat it, too...that is unless that icing is spread out all thick and creamy all over the inside of her perfectly tan thighs and it's time to clear the runway for oncoming payload from a B-52 bomber.   Nevermind.

The Unforgiven (1960)

Director: John Huston

Writers: Ben Maddow, Alan Le May

Composer: Dimitri Tiomkin

Starring: Burt Lancaster, Audrey Hepburn, Audie Murphy, John Saxon, Charles Bickford, Lillian Gish, Albert Salmi, Joseph Wiseman, June Walker, Kipp Hamilton, Arnold Merritt, Doug McClure, Carlos Rivas

More info: IMDb

Tagline: A Breed Apart..Unashamed..Unforgettable!

Plot: The neighbors of a frontier family turn on them when it is suspected that their adopted daughter was stolen from the local Kiowa tribe.

My rating: 7.5/10

Will I watch it again?  Maybe.

Burt Lancaster is one of the manliest actors to grace the screen.  He probably didn't even have to try much but just stand there and look like he could take on the rest of the cast single handed.  I watched this not too long ago and it frightens me how little of it I remember.  That doesn't reflect on the film, I just think I'm losin' it. The cast is great.  It's neat seeing folks like Saxon and McClure in some early roles before they became famous.  It's a well made picture all around except for one area and that's Tiomkin's score.  It feels outdated even for a 1960 film.  For a few years the Western was growing up but I guess for some the scores would take a few more years before they caught up.   Boy, this picture could've used a good Goldsmith or even an Alex North score.  The story plays along OK for a while and then the shit starts hitting the fan.  Then the movie gets darker and darker still.  A LOT of people died for stubbornness.  Everyone has blood on their hands and it's the kind of fuckedupness that makes this better than you'd think.  Was Ben (Lancaster) right in doing what he did?  I guess but the alternative would be to give up Rachel to the Indians.  Man, this is messed up and pretty darn heavy.  The MGM DVD has a great anamporphic widescreen print with only a trailer (non-anamorphic widescreen) for an extra.

Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room (2005)

Director: Alex Gibney

Writers: Alex Gibney, Bethany McLean, Peter Elkind

Composer: Matthew Hauser

Starring: Assholes and the good guys who went after these assholes.

More info: IMDb

Tagline: It's just business.

Plot: A documentary about the Enron corporation, its faulty and corrupt business practices, and how they led to its fall.

My rating: 7.5/10

Will I watch it again?  Yes.

Man, if you want to watch a documentary that will piss you off (because of the assholes its about), this is a good one.  I remember when this whole scandal went down but I didn't follow it to where I could go into any sort of details past the surface.  This near two hour documentary gives you those details from the people involved.  You'll seethe at the bad guys and your heart will go out to the innocent employees who lost a hell of a lot more than their jobs.  It's revolting what these executives did.  The filmmakers do a top notch job at presenting the facts, from the beginnings of the execs' crimes to the end when they bailed, taking hundreds of millions of dollars with them and leaving the company bankrupt and the subsequent investigation and trials.  I'm a financial/numbers doofus and I found this easy to follow and understand and not dry in the least.  It's an engaging film so don't let the subject deter you.  It's on Netflix.

Contamination (1980)

Director: Luigi Cozzi

Writers: Luigi Cozzi, Erich Tomek

Composer: Goblin (Agostino Marangolo, Antonio Marangolo, Fabio Pignatelli)

Starring: Ian McCulloch, Louise Marleau, Marino Mase, Siegfried Rauch, Gisela Hahn, Carlo De Mejo, Carlo Monni

More info: IMDb

Tagline: They Invade Your Body ... Control Your Mind ... Blow You Apart!

Plot: A former astronaut helps a government agent and a police detective track the source of mysterious alien pod spores, filled with lethal flesh-dissolving acid, to a South American coffee plantation controlled by alien pod clones.

My rating: 6/10

Will I watch it again?  No.

This so-so Italian sci-fi/horror isn't as bad as you'd think but it's not even a minor classic.  There are a few things going for it that might make it worth your while.  The eggs look cool and it's always cool seeing people exploding.  You can't go too wrong with that, plus the sound they make is neat and kind of spooky.  It's rather a slow go for the first hour.  It begins stateside and it's all about the discovery of these strange eggs, what they do and where they came from.  This leads our heroes to South America.  YES!  That's a nice change of scenery except it takes another twenty or so minutes before we see any jungle and as you might can tell, I loves me some movie jungle action.  Sadly, there's next to no jungle action.  The plot isn't so bad and it gets better once we know who's behind all this mess and what they're plans are.  Oh, and you find this stuff out from the cliched villain explaining his mad plans to his captives.  That part shouldn't bother you because this isn't high art that falls back on silly, over-used cliches.  Goblin's score isn't nearly as good as their stuff for the horror pictures from around this time.  It teeters from not bad to cues that sound like they're from another, unrelated movie.  The art direction is good for what this is.  There are some nice shots and neatly lit scenes.  The big egg-laying alien at the end is kind of silly but then a lot of the goofiness is masked with shadows, rays of light and smoke.  If you're familiar with Italian genre films in this era, and you tend to like them, then you'll probably like this one, too.  The Blue Underground DVD has a great looking anamorphic widescreen print and extras in an interview with Cozzi (18 minutes), a making of featurette (23 minutes), the English theatrical trailer (anamorphic widescreen), conceptual drawings and the graphic novel.  Blue Underground did a fantastic job on this release.