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Homeland: The English Teacher (2020)
Very Old School
This episode brought to mind the old expression "Moscow Rules". I enjoyed seeing the meticulous trade craft, past and present, uncovered in this episode. I dread how it will all shake out.
The Gazebo (1959)
Hitchcock In The Mix
I watched The Gazebo (1959) last night. Supposedly it was one of Glenn Ford's favorite movies.
I was sort of flummoxed by the plot. It is a comedy with actual blackmail and an actual murder. No case of mistaken identity or the cast running in and out of hotel rooms.
What ties the film together is that Ford is a television writer/producer who has submitted a script to Alfred Hitchcock. Ford even receives a phone call from "Hitch" in which Ford asks "Hitch" for advice in hiding the body.
Anyway, the film develops somewhat in the manner of Hitchcock's The Trouble With Harry (1955) with regards to handling the dead body, and has a surprise Hitchcock ending that says "All's well that ends well." Nobody gets arrested or goes to prison, although the audience sees Glenn Ford shoot the gun and the blackmailer drop dead. Serious stuff for a comedy.
Debbie Reynolds plays a Broadway star/suburban Connecticut housewife who walks around in hot, close fitting slacks, and Carl Reiner plays a rather obtrusive family friend. Did the film inspire Carl Reiner to create Mary Tyler Moore's Laura character on The Dick Van Dyke Show? I think so.
In addition to some Runyonesque mobsters, the film also features a disabled, displaced pigeon and a delightful handyman character, played by John McGiver, who consistently mispronounces the "Gaezzbo".
The Razor's Edge (1984)
Like remaking King Kong starring Smokey The Bear
While not the worst movie ever made, The Razor's Edge (1984) is the most abominable remake of a classic film that I have ever seen. Did John Byrum think that there were parts left out of the 1946 film that we really needed to see in order to fully appreciate the philosophcal mesage? And others that were just irrelevant?
There is a totally useless WW I sequence near the beginning that probably only served to fulfill Murray's fantasy to play the Hemingway character in a Farewell To Arms. Tyrone Power's actual war experience came through much more realistically in 1946 just from the look in his eyes.
And then there is a useless bonding moment between Sophie and Larry, when they paint his apartment, Murray inserting his best reprise of his irreverant civilian cab driver in Stripes.In the 1946 film, Larry marries Sophie as a good deed, not because they were soul mates.
Worst of all, the essential narrator of the 1946 film, Somerset Maugham, is totally missing from the 1984 remake. Who ya gonna call, if you can't call the writer? He was the only one with insight into Larry's character. He supplied the closing line in the 1946 film that perfectly summed up Larry's character. That final summation is totally missing.
And if Larry experienced a moment of clarity in the Himalayan Mountains, I missed it. He has the same disinterested, vapid expression on his face before and after his enlightenment. Tyrone Power, on the other hand, was always smiling, projecting a strong inner life force. His enlightenment showed him a way to direct his positive energy.
I'll give this film three stars for the cinematography and for Theresa Russell's portrayal of Sophie MacDonald. That's being generous. Luckily for Bill Murray, his dramatc acting career doesn't end with this turgid pipe of crap.
After Office Hours (1935)
His Girl Friday meets The Philadelphia Story
After Office Hours (1935), starring Clark Gable and Constance Bennett, is a His Girl Friday meets The Philadelphia Story cocktail with Clark Gable playing the Walter Burns part of hard boiled newspaper editor and Constance Bennett playing Tracy Lord slumming as a cub reporter. It only runs for 74 minutes. You have the time to spend on this gem.
Constance Bennett circulates among the Ivy League educated, scull boat rowing, Swiss finishing school class. Clark Gable swirls in the eddies of the school of hard knocks. It's a match made in Hollywood Heaven.
The movie shines a light on the social realities of The Depression, similar to Gold Diggers of 1933 and My Man Godfrey. Constance Bennett arrives at work in a chauffeured limousine. Her mother laments her lack of servants. The upper crust dines at the River Terrace with a view of the Brooklyn Bridge, and travel to and fro in launches from their houses on the Hudson.
The dialog is crisp and snappy, and the film is filled with delightful details like a no nonsense maid bristling while being interviewed by the police over a murder case, a fighting Italian couple serving ham and eggs at 1:00 AM to an upper crust couple, a bachelor pad on the Hudson that would match the lifestyle of Pierce Brosnan's Thomas Crowne, and Clark Gable's goofy hats.
The plot is kind of thin and straight forward. The story is carried by the dialog, but there is a fantastic car chase and a couple of fist fights to liven things up. And Gable and Bennett have great chemistry. A good time was had by all.
Le violon rouge (1998)
Wonderful Historical Romance Adventure.
The Red Violin is an absolutely wonderful historical romance adventure, following a "perfect" violin through the Centuries and through the lives of the people who come under its influence. Samuel Jackson loses the language, but not the look of a man criminally obsessed and determined to obtain Red Violin for himself and his child. The story unfolds in an assortment of non English tongues, so the dialogue is subtitled throughout. There is a great sound track that adds emotional intensity even when the action is subdued. There is just enough science in it to capture the geek, and just enough punishment of pompous conceit to satisfy one's sense of poetic justice. I love this movie.
Noah (2014)
Could They Have At Least Tried To Get The Details Right?
Is it so hard to read and remember a treatment written in the Bible? Noah took his entire family aboard the Ark. That was his wife, three sons and their WIVES. Poor Ham wasn't left out of the mating loop, and Japheth was the oldest son, not the youngest. I don't mind adding some characters from the Apocryphal books, but the earth was NEVER barren before the flood. The weather was always good, and it never rained. All the water was held either in the Firmament or in the Great Pools Of The Deep. The movie gratuitously showed Noah drunk and naked near the end, not knowing what the meaning of "uncovered his father's nakedness means". Since Jennifer Connelly gave a convincing performance as a woman who would do ANYTHING for her children, I think the incest between Ham and his mother would have been convincing even in this bastardized plot. And it was the Ham's son Canaan, who was cast out, not Ham. Otherwise, they should have titled the movie, Noah, An Alternative Universe.