2 weeks Ago
Love old or unusual movies? Here's a review:"The Fall of the House of Usher" (1928): More POE-tober includes this intense version of Edgar Allan Poe's famous gothic tale that seems to channel the author's mood in an uncanny way. First, of all, there's the bonkers production design of the doomed mansion (a living room the size of a soccer pitch, dead leaves blowing through every room scary floor-to-ceiling urtains, indoor gargoyles). Then there's the lead performance by Jean Debucourt as Roderick Usher, who manages to pull off looking creepy, handsome and insane all at once.
This 63-minute slice of intense moodiness was made closer to Poe's time than ours, and you won't soon forget the spell it casts over you. Now streaming on YouTube "Two Evil Eyes" (1990): Horrormeisters George A. Romero and Dario Argento team up for this Poe double feature.
Romero's segment is based on "The Facts in the Cast of Mr. Valdemar" and features Adrienne Barbeau as a scheming, aging trophy wife of a dying man. Bad things happen when she conspires with her hunky doctor boyfriend to get early access to hubby's millions.
Argento then riff s on "The Black Cat" in a lurid, giallo-style horror story about a crime photographer (Harvey Keitel) who is driven to madness by a very persistent feline of a certain color. Enjoy all of the hairstyles — they're a horror show all their own! Now streaming on Shudder "Dodes'ka-den" (1970): Here's Akira Kurosawa's first film without Toshiro Mifune in 18 years, and his first color film. He enters the world of color with a bang with this ensemble story about a group of poor people living on the fringes of a Tokyo garbage dump.
The community includes a pair of drunks who casually swap wives, a father who has a pack of children who all have different fathers, a bitter cuckold, a beggar and his son who live in an old Citroen 2CV, and an addled young man who believes he is a trolley conductor. Though well-regarded now (and I really recommend it!), the film was such a bomb when it came out that Kurosawa attempted suicide. Now streaming on The Criterion Channel "Hornet's Nest" (1970): Here's a weird, problematic but interesting war story starring Rock Hudson in his early '70s Village People mode (you'll know what I mean when you see the mustache).
After a disastrous attempt to infiltrate a Nazi position near an Italian dam, Rock enlists the help of an orphaned group of boys. The sensibility is weirdly early '70s even though the story takes place in 1944. There's too much violence and misogyny, and some of the editing is questionable in Act 3 (is it daytime or night time? Make up your mind already), but the locations are great and Rock brings the movie star swagger (as does Mark Colleano, the leader of the Italian kids).
Now streaming on Amazon Prime Trivia Question #1074: Which of this week's performers had a father who was a movie star until his untimely death in an automobile accident? Answer to Trivia Question #1072: Don Johnson starred in the dystopian science fiction film "A Boy and His Dog" in 1975. Ray Ivey is a writer and movie fan in Hollywood, California. He would love to hear from you at rayivey@ ca.
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