cinema history class: the brute man (1946)

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 5 (Bobbo): 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.

cinema history class: devil doll (1964)

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.
 

cinema history class: the trial (1962)

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.

cinema history class: the poseidon adventure (1972)

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.

cinema history class: dracula (1931)

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 2 (Dave): Dracula (1931)
Directed by Tod Browning

My Level of Prior Knowledge
I was aware of this movie's existence, and of much of the plot points. But had never seen it.

Plot:
A mysterious Transylvanian nobleman, Count Dracula, travels to England, where he begins to prey on the blood of young women and is pursued by Professor Van Helsing, who suspects his true identity. As Dracula’s influence spreads, Van Helsing races to stop the vampire before he claims more victims.

Reaction and Other Folderol:
This, the first Dracula talkie, set the model -- both for portrayals of the titular vampire and for Bela Lugosi characters. Lugosi's vampire is a well-dressed, well-groomed, polite man of manners. The consummate gentleman, if you'll forgive the whole neck-biting thing. And that has been the dominant portrayal of Dracula since then. As for Bela Lugosi, the Dracula role defined and typecast him. I'm thinking, for example, of his role in 1932's White Zombie. His character, Legendre, was very clearly influenced by Dracula. 

Related to that, one of the most interesting things about seeing this was comparing it to Nosferatu -- the 1922 silent film that was based on the same material. The vampire in the 1922 film couldn't have been presented more differently. He was gangly, and gaunt -- appearing barely human. He had sunken eyes, pointed ears and rat-like teeth. His arms and hands were evocative of spiders. It was a huge leap to the suave gentleman of Dracula. Some of the aspects of the early part of the story bear strong similarities to Nosferatu, though the resemblance is much weaker in the latter half of the film.

Produced at a time when the industry was still trying to figure out how to do talkies, the movie seemed like it was part of a transitional creature. For example, there was a lot of use of printed narration for exposition. And the staging made it feel like a play -- much of it taken directly from the stage version (which had also starred Lugosi). That, Keith explained, was a big reason for the movie seeming to slow during the second half.

 But this was a visually interesting film -- especially when judged for its time -- with an interesting story and a compelling protagonist. I gave it high marks for all of that.