Session: Man/Corpse/Woman into Monster, Week 1
Movie: The Manster (1959)
Directed by George P. Breakston and Kenneth G. Crane
As always, there may be spoilers here. And the trailer may be NSFW and/or NSFL
Plot:
Larry is a mild mannered foreign correspondent until he becomes the unwitting test subject in a hideous medical experiment. Hilarity ensues.
Reaction:
After a few months of
My big realization watching this movie is that I'm really not into 1950's monster movies. This wasn't bad for the genre -- in fact it was quite good. Joe got it right when he called it "the perfect black and white [1950s] monster film."
But, while I was trying to enjoy this, there was a point when I realized that I just didn't. Once I had that epiphany, I was better able to just relax and have a good laugh at the cheesiness of the whole thing.
The big debate (meaning, where I disagreed with everyone else) was over whether Larry himself is likeable. Others commented that there was no character to like, but I actually thought Larry was a good guy. We hardly got to see that because the experiments start very near the beginning. But we see, early on, that Larry is loyal to his wife, and seems like an all around decent guy. It's only after the evil scientist injects him with who-knows-what and his personality starts to change that he starts blowing off his wife in favor of geisha girls.
Ratings:
I was kind of torn regarding how to rate this. Do I consider the level of my enjoyment? Or simply judge it within the pantheon of movies of its type. In the end I went with the former because it was my rating that I was giving it.
Me: 6*
Dave: 9.4-9.5
Ethan: 7.5
Joe: 9.8
Scott: 8.5
Sean: 2 out of 4
*Keith argues that I actually gave this a 7.5. Fuck him.
“Do I consider the level of my enjoyment? Or simply judge it within the pantheon of movies of its type.”
ReplyDeleteAs long as you’re asking, I’d say BOTH!
Since I’m not a reviewer for The New York Times (…or “The Monster Times”, for that matter), my belief – especially within the context of this class – is that we are being asked to rate on “Level of Enjoyment”!
Second, would be a consideration of where this movie falls “within its type”.
Average ‘em both out, and you’ve got your rating!
…Or, you could have a “stock, go-to” rating for any genre film that you enjoy, like I do! Using my method, with ALL genre films receiving at least a 9.0 (…and Romantic Comedies and most Musicals hovering around ZERO), you’ll always know if I’ve REALLY LIKED, or disliked, a genre film.
I like SO MANY genre films that, to break-down my “stock, go-to” rating for them of “9.8” by each film, would be insanity. Better you all know which ones TRULY grabbed me (like “Tenebrae”), and which one’s FAILED to do so (like “Silent Partners”). Those are the films (at least “in-genre”) that are most worth noting!