Tag: movies

In today’s episode of “Grainy Old movies I Find On YouTube”

Based on a radio show that was popular at the time, this was supposed to
be the first in a series; word has it the property was sunk when HUAC
went after Dashiell Hammett, who had his name on the credits as the
show’s creator even though he didn’t write the scripts. So we just have
this one movie, made by future cult-movie-director William Castle, with a
cast that includes Rock Hudson, Julie London and Marvin Kaplan, all
very early in their careers, and circus clown Emmett Kelly in his first
movie role (I’m pretty sure one of the clown masks in The Killing, which also appears in the opening sequence to The Dark Knight,
is based on Kelly’s face and make-up); and of course J. Scott Smart,
the star of the radio show, as private-eye Brad “The Fat Man” Runyon.

 As always with a lot of these things I watch, I don’t know whether
it’s an objectively good film. It doesn’t seem to know if it’s a comedic
mystery or a film noir: it has too high a body count to be the former,
but it’s not quite gritty and subversive enough for the latter. I do
think it’s worth seeing. Some spoilers ahoy:

 I’d say the
performances are good – even woebegone assistant/comedy sidekick Bill
isn’t too annoying. Anyone who thinks Brad Runyon and Bill are a simple
Nero Wolfe/Archie knockoff isn’t paying attention – Runyon is more like
Archie’s personality in Wolfe’s body: picture a slightly shorter
version of John Candy, with a rakish moustache, some pretty good dance
moves, a tendency to address everyone (including at least two of the
male characters) as “sweetheart,” and no particular qualms about
blackmailing a suspect’s philandering chauffeur for information.  

Rock Hudson is pretty memorable considering his scenes are all
flashback.   Jayne Meadows is good enough for me to feel annoyed that
her character disappears from the narrative, and then that the script  
remembers her existence just long enough to get rid of her. As far as
Julie London’s character goes, my only quibble with the script is that I
can’t see a woman like that giving up hope and going home, not without
hard proof that her husband is dead, no matter how much she trusts
Runyon’s promise to keep her informed on the case. I do believe
that she trusts Runyon – London and Smart have very good non-romantic
chemistry, which is always an interesting thing to see between actors
who aren’t the same sex.  

Kelly plays a clown with a past; it’s
probably not that much of a spoiler, given the genre, to note that the
narrative plays on his face being more familiar to audiences when
thickly covered in white paint. Out of make-up, he has a bit of an
Elisha Cook, Jr. vibe, though he’s a medium-size rather than a small
man. His gestures and body language show his training, whether we can
see his face or not, but he belongs to the noir rather than the comedy
side of the movie.

My spouse (reading the French title for Bride of Frankenstein): La Fiancée de Frankenstein.

Me: Yeah, I guess she didn’t go through with the wedding. Come to think of it, I don’t think she agreed to the proposal either. So really it should be called The Unsuccessful Blind Date of Frankenstein.

OK you know how there’s a Spanish-language version of the 1931 Dracula that was filmed concurrently, on the same set, with a Spanish-speaking cast? So Fritz Lang and a French director did a French version of Testament of Dr. Mabuse — same sets, same shooting script, slightly different editing, mostly different cast. They have the same Hoffmeister (except he’s got a slightly closer shave in the French version and the same Dr. Mabuse). It’s just really weird to watch, though because everyone looks slightly….off-brand?

(Source: https://www.youtube.com/)

Genocide Denial Goes Viral: ‘The Promise’ and the IMDB

diversemovies:

Eighty years ago the Turkish government forced Hollywood to drop a movie project based on The Forty Days of Musa Dagh, then a best-selling novel on the Armenian Genocide by German-language author, Jew and outspoken Hitler opponent Franz Werfel. The Forty Days of Musa Dagh, originally written as a warning against Hitler through the prism of the Armenian Genocide, never saw the silver screen. Such a movie could have also raised awareness of the fate of the Jews in Nazi Germany at the time and later of the ongoing Holocaust. It could have shaped the “narrative” of the struggle against Hitler. Many have since been interested to finally turn the novel into a major production, but Turkish opposition and obstruction seemed insurmountable.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/hollywood-is-losing-battle-online-trolls-992582

It had taken years — and the passionate support of Armenian activist Kirk Kerkorian, who financed the film’s $100 million budget without expecting to ever make a profit — for The Promise, a historical romance set against the backdrop of the Armenian genocide and starring Christian Bale and Oscar Isaac, to reach the screen. Producers always knew it would be controversial: Descendants of the 1.5 million Armenians killed by the Ottoman Empire shortly after the onset of World War I have long pressed for the episode to be recognized as a genocide despite the Turkish government’s insistence the deaths were not a premeditated extermination.

The Promise, which opens April 21, finally would bring the untold saga to a mass audience. But at the Toronto Film Festival premiere in September, producer Mike Medavoy watched the late billionaire’s carefully laid plans upended by a digital swarm that appeared out of nowhere.

Before the critics in attendance even had the chance to exit Roy Thompson Hall, let alone write their reviews, The Promise’s IMDb page was flooded with tens of thousands of one-star ratings. “All I know is that we were in about a 900-seat house with a real ovation at the end, and then you see almost 100,000 people who claim the movie isn’t any good,” says Medavoy. Panicked calls were placed to IMDb, but there was nothing the site could do. “One thing that they can track is where the votes come from,” says Eric Esrailian, who also produced the film, and “the vast majority of people voting were not from Canada. So I know they weren’t in Toronto.”

The online campaign against The Promise appears to have originated on sites like Incisozluk, a Turkish version of 4chan, where there were calls for users to “downvote” the film’s ratings on IMDb and YouTube. A rough translation of one post: “Guys, Hollywood is filming a big movie about the so-called Armenian genocide and the trailer has already been watched 700k times. We need to do something urgently.” Soon afterward, the user gleefully noted The Promise’s average IMDb rating had reached a dismaying 1.8 stars. “They know that the IMDb rating will stay with the film forever,” says Esrailian. “It’s a kind of censorship, really.”

Genocide Denial Goes Viral: ‘The Promise’ and the IMDB