Reviews

Nd the idea that a newspaper architect critic could stir the public to mob action is too ridiculous to take seriously. And no jury would acquit Roark on such flimsy grounds. And the argument that "form must follow function is phoney. Having abandoneded orniment 'to avoid monotony modern architects twist buildings out of shape,making them non functionel .Tall atriums not only waste space,but make the building more difficult and expensive to heat and aircondition properly. People tend to rebel against forced conformity and by chosing their own furnishings defy the moernist idea,Whatever merits Frank Loyyd Wright had he was a rotten structural engineer,Perhaps his most famous structure "Falling Water"is suffering structural failure becaue Wright refused to use the amount of reinforcing rods recommended by the builder. Sincethis would not have affected the design or appearence,Wrights stubbornness about this can only be attributrd to childish petulence!

Many reviewers have given this bad reviews,apparently because it is anti communist,If it were anti Nazi they would probably heap praise on it. True there is much stock footage to keep costs down,but this is true of many war movies. The Soviet strategic bomber of the time was a copy of the B29.so this is not inaccurate.ontrary to what has been said the US strategic bomber then was not the B29 but the 10 engine B36,which is shown and mentioned. This is still an effectevive novie today,when the horror of nuclear wat is still a frightening possibility. Since this was inexpensively made move we should not be hyper critical. Suspension of disbelief is still necessary.

Hilarious madcap comedy that rivals anything that the Marx Brothers ever did. Some reviews criticise it for its absurdity,but so were the Marx movies,considered comedy classics. The pace is frantic and the laughs never stop,with no dull parts. After4 all it is a comedy intended primarily to make you laugh, and forget your problems for awhile which this does in spades. Benny got much milage with jikes about how supposedly terrible this movie was,But people should not take him seriously,after all he was a comic. The timing of its release may have been responsible for its relatively poor showing at the box office,but that is no fault of the people who made it. I don't see how the director cast and writers could have made a better screwball comedy.a true classic of Hollywood's Golden Era. Don't miss it.

Pretty funny silent comedy starring the incredible Chaplin impersonator Billy West. West works in as sleezy bar and grill, waiting on tables. While walking in the park he sees a beautiful society girl sitting on a bench talking to a "Count Bon Ami" whom she seems to be indifferent to. Billy and the Count get into an argument and fight a "duel" with canes.

The Count hands Billy his card apparently for further "satisfaction" later.

The girl invites Billy to a society party at her home, now as earlier we see Billy's rival Babe Hardy. There is a funny scene where eggs that Nilly has been carrying in his pocket hatch and baby chicks fall down the inside of his trouser leg. Billy has to get back to work and leaves the party.

The guests decide to go "slumming" and naturally pick the dive where Billy works. At this point everything dissolves into unresolved chaos.

One nice point about the copy on YouTube is that it has the original title card and intertitles,and is in generally good condition.

As some people have noted,this is based on the silly "sequels" to the original Boris Karloff version of 1932. Supposedly in this movie a real archaeologist as technical advisor. If true the director ignored him. The 1932 version was quite faithful to ancient Egyptian religion and legend. The names of the Priest and Princess were real Egyptian names Imhotep and .Anck-es-en-Amon. The names Karis and Anaka were invented for the later universal "sequels" There was no god named Karnack, that was the Arab name for the place on the Nile where there are large temples a major tourist attraction.

This movie is totally lacking in the subtilty and sensibility of the original. The outdoor and tomb sets are incredibly fake and cheap looking,obviously shot on a sound stage the color photography only makes obvious what black and white would have softened. Real Egyptian tombs of nobility were crammed full of Funerary equipment and treasures, This tomb is virtually empty, They could have afforded a few more props to make it look a little less fake! In the original the mummy is brought back to life by pure accident. There was no weird cult of priests involved, and modern Egyptians being Muslims could care less about unearthing dead Pagans or be offended by it. The 1932 version is infinitely superior, this 1959 version is a total waste of time!

It would be hard hard to make a comedy more funny than this. The premise is great,and the cast is absolutely perfect. Fredewric March shows a great flair for comedy,and the always great Robert Benchley for a change has a part meaty enough to show his natural comic brilliance. Veronica Lake is perfect as the glamorous witch,Cecile Kellaway couldn't be bettered as her witch father who keeps forgetting his magic spells. One of the funniest parts is in the beginning where seeking vengeance they are confused by the unfamiliar landscape caused by the passage of time,finding no cornfields to blight, they see a fitting target in the "Pilgrim Hotel",named for their persecutors. Setting it on fire gives the descendent of the of the witch burner Jonathan Woolsey the opportunity to meet his families victim and curse. From this it is fun and laughs galore, as one absurd situation follows another.

Clark Gable and Heddy Lamar do an excellent job burlesquing one of the two worst despotisms of modern times. The basic plot is ridiculous and far fetched but after all this is a Comedy! It is a pity that Lamar was not given a chance to do more screwball comedy as she handles it very well indeed,and of course Gable had already shown his gift for comedy in earlier films. The tank chase at the end is very impressive and amazingly realistic,reminding one of silent comedy..Some revewers seem upset that it makes Stalinist Russia look EVIL,which it certainly was. Apparently some people think that only Nazi Germany should be depicted thus. They like to forget that the worst aspects of Nazi Germany were deliberately patterned on Stalinist Russia They also like to "forget" that Hitler and Stalin were ALLIES at this time,having jointly invaded Poland and divided it up between them. The fact that Stalin's PARTNER IN CRIME chose to double cross him and invade Russia,Hardly makes Stalin a "goog guy"!.Stalin brought this disaster on Russia by his own totalitarian greed, and it was the ordinary people of Russia who suffered. Hitler was defeated at the cost of bringing eastern Europe under a despotism as cruel and ruthless as Nazi Germany.

It is pretty obvious that they were thinking of "Casablanca" by using the name of another north African city as a title for this screwball farce of a spy melodrama involving Nazis. Certainly the plot is ridiculous and totally unbelievable as far as realism is concerned. But so is "Bringing up Baby" that is the definition of screwball. The gags are funny and a delight to watch and listen to,and the cast is first rate in every way. The musical numbers are very good and in general this is entertaining,as movies are supposed to be.

THIS IS A SUPERB VERSION OF DICKENS' IMMORTAL CLASSIC. IT IS NOT PERFECT But it is sti;ll a fine movie.Many have mentioned that it seems rushed and shortened. It certainly does not have all of the incidents in the original story.And seems more like a good B picture than an A. I think that this is because they originally planned to use Barrymore in the role of Scrooge,and things were fouled up by his accident,Reginold Owen, who was recommended by Barrymore was a fine actor and was great in the role,but was NOT a "big name" as was usually considered necessary for success.Often Studios insisten on Stars even though they were not really suited to the roles,An example was "Private Lives" which had "Names" but was a failure because they were not suited to their roles.Iyt was rushed I think because the studio kept delaying hoping that Barrymore might recover, and time grew short to get it ready for Christmas.They cut it short as far as scenes to save money incase it failed without Barrymore.Hedging tgheir bets.Arrangements had already been made to release it so they had to go ahead,It is unfortunate that so much of the story was pruned as it certainly would have been better.The cast is great.Some faults are hard to explain.Cnanging the original line of Christmas Past to Shrooge from "Bear but a touch of my hand here and you shall be upheld in more than this" to the far inferior line "Bear but a touch of my hand and you shall be safe" is hard to understand or justify.But all in all it is a classic movie familiar to all those who grew up in the 50's.The 1951 British version is more complete and should be on everyones' must see list,both convey the true spirit of Christmas!

It is pointless to demonstrate all the inconsistencies in this movie because most of the time you can't follow the plot,if there actually IS ONE. OH for the old days when you usually knew what was going on.And you could appreciate good acting and a good story,those days are apparently long gone,nothing matters but technology and who can create the most spectacular destruction.Absolutely nothing else whatsoever in this movie.Might as well do without even a semblence of a cast!

A superb episode of the twilight zone remembered by almost everyone who saw it. the idea of a plane blundering into a predicament no one could possibly forsee much less guard against. the crew are heroic professionals who do their best to deal with an unsoluable problem.The horrible final joke that fate plays on them occurs when they think that they have escaped their dillemaonly to find that their solution to the problem is no solution at all.They have come back they think to the New York of 1961 only to find that it is the almost but not quite New York of 1939.In other words they have to hit it it exactly right,precisely right.Close doesn't count except in horseshoes.The Captain knows that they can't drop into 1939.it will cause to many problem,possibly disasterous. And the fuel of 1939 was aviation gasolene not usable in a jet.Jet fuel is kerosene with additives.Landing in 1939 is simply not feasible,they have no alternative but to keep trying to get back to theit own time however hopeless that is!

This is impressively directed and acted by Spencer Tracy.The trouble is that the plot is farfetched.Usually when people are angry enough to take the law into their own hands it is because someone familiar to them is the victim.But the kidnap victim is not from this town.Yet people get so angry that they burn and blow up one of their own public buildings to get someone against whom their is not only no real evidence but has not been accused of doing anything to one of their own.This is pure insanity

Extravagantly praised as the "Best Western of all time,this isn't a western at all.What it really is is a story of contemporary big city slum dwellers terrorized by a street gang,with a western setting and costumes.People out west had to depend on themselves for protection,the idea of slavishly expecting the Government to "mother " them is a modern concept.In the days of the old west people HAD to be self reliant,they had no choice.It has been pointed out that John Wayne criticised this picture for showing Westerners as cowardly and not willing to stand up in times of danger.Well Gary Cooper had the same opinion of this movie,which he could never take seriously!Near the end of his life he narrated a documentary called "The Real West" in which he emphasized the self reliance of the people of the West,of which he himself was one. THAT was his own final verdict on "High Noon"

This is a stellar study of a man's breaking under pressure in a POW camp as seen through the consequences after he returns home.Maj. Harry Cargill is being investigated for a court marshall for treason in the Korean war.The trouble with easy and abundant special effects is that directors think that plots and dialogue can be dispensed with in favor of piling one special effect on another.Movie viewer have become so used to this that they think that a movie that appea;ls to the MIND that asks them to THINK is dull,as one of the reviewers has said.Looking at this really makes you miss the time when movies were something more than long CARTOONS.This is a superb example of the movie that appeals to your intelligence,rather than just exploding in your face!

An excellent if shorter than it should have been version of Dickens' beloved story of the meanest miser in London.Reginald Owen is superb as Scrooge,and the rest of the cast is excellent,Especially Barry Mackail as Fred who is exactly as Dickens portrayed the character overflowing with good spirits.Lionel Barrymore who portrayed Scrooge annually on radio was to have played the lead but suffered crippling injury.Owen is excellent in the role but the movie was planned with Barrymore in mind and probably the loss of his box office appeal was the reason that the movie was cut so much to save cost.They hedged their bets with a less costly production,There are some strange changes,in the scene where the ghost of Christmas past takes Scrooge to the window, and Scrooge fears falling instead of Dickens wonderful and famous line"Bear but a touch of my hand here and you shall be UPHELD IN MORE THAN THIS" she merely says" and you shall be safe" One thing stated as a GOOF is that the title says "London over a century ago" when in 1938 the story was less than a century old, but the story makes it clear that even the nost recent parts of the story were in the past,and that Scrooge was gone.Some have questioned Scrooges quick reformation in the movie,but in the story when Scrooge sees himself as a boy in the school he regrets having chased a boy caroler awayfrom his window,and when he talks about Fezziwig's kindness and looks regretful, he tells the spirit that he wished to have a word with his clerk.So in the book he repents very early.There are some odd things caused by the shortening When Scrooge wakes up on Christmas morning he grabs the bed curtains in relief,though the scene where the curtains were sold is not in the movie. But still a great version of this story dear to anyone who grew up in the 50's

Walt Disney would have loved to film this book if Todd hadn't beaten him to it.Disney's version of "20,000 leagues under the sea differed from the book and had its slapstick elements but not as gross as this.Actually the Todd version WAS a sort of parody of the original,changing Fogg from a man of mystery into an outright eccentric.Passpartout was more of a buffoon than in the original.Some changes were due to the production code,in the original Foog bribed the Crew to mutiny.when the captain refused to sail for England,which is why they burned the woodwork,otherwise he just would have the captain load enough coal at NY,But the 56 version maintained the original spirit of adventure which this does NOT!

This movie has some spectacular scenes but too much about it makes no sense.Why should the captain be so obcessed about making a record trip in a ship headed for the scrap heap? And all the things in the boiler room that were defective, no matter how old the ship was or what was its intended fate, passenger ships were carefully inspected before each voyage, No inspector would have failed to make sure something as critical as a steam gage or safety valve was working. That kind of thing was constantly checked.Nor would an engineer in charge have to worry about begging a higher up for taking action immediately.He would have immediately cut off the fuel oil supply to all boilers to reduce pressure until he had checked everything out.Nobody in this thing uses the least common sense.And as far as the woman trapped, the sensible thing,AGAIN" would be to round up some strong male passengers to help.get a heavy beam or oron bar to use as a lever, with something to use as shims to prevent the wall from falling back down as pressure was released.FIRST clearing all the depris out of the room so you could see what you were doing,you could have leavered the wall clear in a fraction of the time,far more quickly than bothering with the cutting torch,which could never have cleared things in the few minutes shown.At the time people regarded the trashing of the fine old liner as desecration to make this thing,It is a great pity that no one thought of preserving it as a hotel like the Queen Mary.

I personally think that the cast is excellent including Bob CUMMINGS AND Priscilla LANE I think that they both are very believable.Perhaps the most interesting part of the movie is the Frank Capraesque scene in the carnival caravan where the freaks hold a town hall meeting in miniature to decide whether or not to turn Cummings over to the authorities. the idea is that in a democracy we don't automatically assume that the authorities are always right. we should study the matter and decide by majority vote what to do. Everyone is willing except the nasty midget, probably a parody of Hitler, including a mustache. Hitler having a midget character though not body. he is small in every other way. since this is a democracy run by the people Cummings is given the benefit of the doubt and allowed to pursue his Quest to prove his innocence

This is one of the episodes of this great series that I remember quite well. Granny narrates the story of how the Lowery gang stole the silver dollars as we see film of it happening, with the edges blurred as though we were looking back through the mists of time! Very well done.Quite a scene as Granny is horrified to find that someone has been rifling through her father's old cowhide trunk, which she never wanted to see opened again, noticing that some papers were missing. Ironically she had removed her father's old Colt single action already, since she needed a gun. And when Penny decides to fix the cracked grip, she finds a map leading to the treasure! By the way, the treasure involves 50,000 brand new silver dollars from the Denver mint stolen in 1895.The Denver mint didn't begin coining operations until 1906!

It is a pity that the studio didn't change the name of the detective, because while William Powell is good in these movies, Philo Vance he is not. Eugene Palette is superb as Heath, and most of the other actors are good. It is extremely strange that Philo Vance, one of the most popular characters in American detective fiction, has been so universally trashed by critics. The hostility of contemporary critics, who gave the books grudging admiration, seems to have been the result of personal dislike of the author, who has been described by one as"the most fascinating UNLIKABLE man I ever met". It seemed that nobody loved Vance but the American public! Vance really was not a snob in the ordinary sense. Members of society came in for contemptuous remarks more often than not, and he liked and respected simple, unpretentious people, such as Heath.Vance could be described as an "American Lord Peter Whimsey", and very likely was partly based on that character. The same critics who like Whimsey hate Vance! Strange that the studios so altered Vance's character, because they thought that the public would resent Vance's erudition and "elitism", the same public that loved those quirky characteristics in the books! Had the studios made the movies more faithful to the books, they likely would have been more successful;as it was they never really caught on. As it is, this movie is a very good atmospheric murder mystery, well worth watching. With different casting(Warren William was the best Vance) and making the character more faithful to the books, it would be a real classic.

As many others have said, this is a bizarre and frightening movie about dictatorship in America. It is amusing that Democrats said that Hammond represented Hoover, while Republicans insisted that he resembled Franklin Roosevelt. Actually he bore much more of a resemblance to Warren G. Harding, who was a typical old time back slapping,ward heeling politician only interested in gorging himself on graft once in office. Some people have commented that the Secret Service would not have let him drive the limousine.But things were much less tightly controlled in those days.Even though his predecessor had been assassinated, Theodore Roosevelt used to walk through the streets of Washington to church every Sunday, with only one Secret Service man walking twenty feet behind!

The main misapprehension which you see even in movie reviews of this, is that Hammond "reformed".It is pretty obvious that Hammond actually DIED in that auto crash. His body was "alive" in a vegetative state, but that is all. What happened is that some supernatural being merely used his body.A spirit? An angel? The Archangel Gabriel himself? Who knows. Whatever it was, it was not human. It was totally unemotional, acting with all of the cold logic and precision of a robot. And when its work was finished, it exited the now unneeded body, which finished dying. In its cold unemotionality it was in its way even creepier than Hitler.