The session: "Give Me My Rondo!" Four weeks of films starring the unique Rondo Hatton
As always, there may be spoilers here. And the trailer may be NSFW and/or NSFL.
Week 2: House of Horrors (1946) Directed by Jean Yarbrough
My Level of Prior Knowledge Never heard of it.
Plot: A misunderstood artist saves a disfigured man from drowning and befriends him. He then proceeds to manipulate the man into murdering art critics.
Reaction and Other Folderol: Again, it's fun to watch Rondo Hatton as a brutish figure. He says very little, and he says it in a monotone, but it works. The Creeper, as portrayed by Hatton is a compelling antagonist -- one who you can simultaneously hate and sympathize with. The plot is compelling -- almost noirish, though the dialogue lacks the speedy crispness of a film noir. It's efficient; there's no time wasted.
What bothers me most about House of Horrors, though I really shouldn't hold it against the movie, is something Keith told us a week earlier when he showed us The Brute Man. Apparently The Brute Man, though it was made later, was (in part) an attempt at creating an origin story for The Creeper. It doesn't really make sense, given the settings. I'm probably obsessing too much over continuity.
The session: "Give Me My Rondo!" Four weeks of films starring the unique Rondo Hatton
As always, there may be spoilers here. And the trailer may be NSFW and/or NSFL.
Week 1: The Brute Man (1946) Directed by Jean Yarbrough
My Level of Prior Knowledge Never heard of it.
Plot: A disfigured athlete seeks retribution against those he blames for his condition. In his quest for revenge, he is aided by a blind woman who sees him for who he truly is.
Reaction and Other Folderol: As a bit of background, it's important to know (and I didn't know until Keith explained it in his introduction, Rondo Hatton's life began normally enough. But after he was exposed to mustard gas during World War I, he developed acromegaly. As an aside, I didn't know that you could develop the condition as a result of chemical exposure, but I guess it kind of makes sense.
The thing I find most interesting about The Brute Man is the physical appearance of its star, Rondo Hatton. Because of his acromegaly (and, I think, creative lighting), he had a monstrous appearance that other actors would have achieved with makeup and prosthetics. He was not a well-trained actor, often barking very simple lines in a monotone. That fact was actually mentioned in a documentary that Keith showed us after the movie. The thing is, the way he gruffly barked his lines worked perfectly for his character. What's also interesting is the fact that Hatton's character developed acromegaly as a result of chemical exposure. I don't know if it was done on purpose, but the resemblance to Hatton's own life is obvious.
The movie itself is quite good, even if it's not particularly ambitious. It's an interesting and entertaining B movie. And it succeeds very well on that level. I probably would have been able to appreciate it better if I had seen some of the other movies Hatton had been in. Keith explained that this was, in a way, meant as an origin story movie for Hatton's "Creeper" character. Had I been familiar with some of the other movies, I might have been able to appreciate it more.
The session: "Bring Your Own Movie Month" As in past years, we each take turns bring a movie and presenting it.
As always, there may be spoilers here. And the trailer may be NSFW and/or NSFL.
Week 5 (Bobbo): Devil Doll (1964) Directed by Lindsay Shonteff
My Level of Prior Knowledge Never heard of it.
Plot: A sinister ventriloquist uses his eerily lifelike dummy and hypnotic powers to manipulate a wealthy heiress. Meanwhile, a reporter uncovers the ventriloquist's dark secret.
Reaction and Other Folderol: The Doll immediately reminded me of an episode of Twilight Zone that involved a ventriloquists' dummy come to life. That set my expectation for the direction this film would take. Of course, my expectations were wrong -- in fact, they wdere a complete inversion. Which is fine, since the story itself held up pretty well.
This had a very small-time feel, though it did a very good job of building tension and making the viewer guess. In fact, if you you ignore the nudity, it would have done well has a long Twilight Zone episode.
The session: "Bring Your Own Movie Month" As in past years, we each take turns bring a movie and presenting it.
As always, there may be spoilers here. And the trailer may be NSFW and/or NSFL.
Week 4 (Ethan): The Trial (1962) Directed by Ronald Neame
My Level of Prior Knowledge I'd seen this once before, a year or two ago. So I was reasonably familiar with it.
Plot: A mild-mannered bank clerk is arrested on charges that are never revealed to him (or to the audience), and finds himself trapped in a nightmarish and insane legal system.
Reaction and Other Folderol:. The Trial is full of stunningly nightmarish imagery. At times it's intensely claustrophobic, while at other times it's expansive. It's dark and it's light. The dialogue is verbose and concise. The whole thing is an exercise in contradictions, and itkeeps the viewer on his heals, confused and discombobulated. I'd say that the protagonist, Josef K, is living a Kafka-esque nightmare, except that the movie is based on a Kafka novel. I'd say it's Orwellian, except that that seems trite given the Kafka connection. But it is dizzying, confusing and surreal.
The one problem with this film is director, Orson Welles himself. There are times that it drags, as Welle's couldn't seem to remove extraneous footage. I'm told that that was a thing with him -- that he was too enamored of his own dialogue that his films were too long. And this one could have been 15 minutes or a half hour shorter. Still, however, a really good intense film.
The session: "Bring Your Own Movie Month" As in past years, we each take turns bring a movie and presenting it.
As always, there may be spoilers here. And the trailer may be NSFW and/or NSFL.
Week 3 (Me): The Poseidon Adventure (1972) Directed by Ronald Neame
My Level of Prior Knowledge I was already very familiar with this movie -- as I should be, given that I chose it for Bring Your Own Movie Month
Plot: After their cruise ship capsizes, a small group of passengers struggle stay ahead of the rising water and survive long enough to
Reaction and Other Folderol:. I generally have a difficult time choosing a movie for Bring Your Own Movie Month (BYOMM). I have a mental list of possible movies, though it's always changing. And I annoy Keith with texts and emails asking "what about XXX." This year, Poseidon was on my short list of several dozen possibilities. And, truth be told, it would not have been my final choice if not for the fact that its star, Gene Hackman, died in February. He was one of the greats of his generation, but he didn't do a lot of horror or sci-fi movies. But he did do Poseidon.
The first half of the 1970s was kind of a golden age for disaster films, and those were the horror movies that I was into as a kid. I nagged my mom to take me to see Earthquake, which gave me nightmares. I nagged her to take me to see Jaws, which gave me nightmares. Same with Tidal Wave. I still haven't seen The Towering Inferno, but that's another matter. Anyway, I didn't see The Poseidon Adventure when it came out -- I was just a little too young. But over the years I saw it in bits and pieces on TV, and I liked what I saw. I don't remember when I first saw it in its entirety, but it is a longtime favorite.
One of the cool things about BYOMM is that I sometimes come away with new insights about old favorites. That comes about in part because I get to hear everyone else's thoughts about the movie, but also because I am looking at the movie with a more critical eye. One thing I noticed this time is the way Poseidon seems to be draw some inspiration from the Bible. Gene Hackman's character, a rebellious pastor, is a Moses-like figure. He leads his little entourage away from the water, through the ship and toward their rescue. But, like Moses, he never gets to enter the promised land -- dying before they cross over. And it almost seems that his death is the price of his rebellious nature. I also realized for the first time how great this film is as a character study. Something else I had never thought about until Ethan mentioned it is the fact that the rising sea water is a stand-in for a menacing animal that might be the antagonist in a forest-set movie wherein people are trying to find their way to safety.
Now I just have to figure out what to bring for BYOMM next year.
