sami-9 Reviews

We Who Are About to Die (1936)

Worth Watching!

[7/10 · 24 April 2024]

This is a film with a slow start, only in the first few minutes when we see John Beal, as nice guy, done wrong. It picks up after he is kidnapped by a trio of criminals who kill a bank clerk and a small child, causing him to be railroaded onto Death Row. His girlfriend joins with the D. A. to try and get him freed. Once in prison the film is very gritty with great attention to detail. Most big studios highlighted their stars with great stories. This film, with minor stars at the time, shows us what prison and Death Row were like, making all the inmates into standout characters. The acting is very good, but it is the entire ensemble of John Beal, Preston Foster, Ann Dvorak, Paul Hurst, J. Carrol Nash, Frank Jenks as well as the prison staff, the politicians, the district attorney that make this film interesting, intense, and exciting. It was a great surprise to come across this film. A testament to the early great RKO films and their studio as well as the unjustly convicted inmate who wrote this script based on his life.

Sunday Bloody Sunday (1971)

Mundane

[1/10 · 29 December 2023]

One of the most boring movies, ever. Three people who show little emotion except misery and also stupidity to be involved with other lackluster individuals. This film also gives a glimpse into the unraveliing of London after the 1960s and the breakdown of society with antisocial kids skating in the streets, and out-of-control children who make life miserable for their parents and all adults. When a careless little girl causes the death of the family dog, no one even seems to care. Never referred to again. There are no aftereffects from these callous vacuous people. They own a monkey but why, what do these people do? Only the doctor is somewhat defined. It's too bad this film wasted the talents of its cast but it goes nowhere. Schlesinger has always done unusual movies but this one happens to be rather dull and static. It's too bad because these characters could have been made more interesting than they are. This is a 'cold' film and it's mystifying why it is given more acclaim than it deserves.

Laughter in Hell (1933)

Gritty 1930s film

[7/10 · 21 September 2019]

"Laughter in Hell" was very interesting and unusual.....Film belonged to Pat O'Brien in what I thought was a marvelous low-key performance, employing an Irish brogue when needed, but restrained even from talk, most of the time. It opens when he's called from his rock quarry job only to be told his mother is dead. Two brothers torment him and he swears to get even one day. Next we see him in town, grown up as Pat O'Brien, whose father buys him a beautiful gold railroad watch because he's going to be a railroad engineer. He meets a floozie whom he marries, and when she's not cheating on him with one of the evil brothers, she's waving to him as his train goes by.

He suspects she's unfaithful when the other brother (Douglas Dumbrille) taunts him. As he drives the locomotive, the sound and fury of the machine and his jealousy intensify in a rapid montage of taunting angry images. He comes home to find the man in his house with his wife. The man pretends to be arriving with some brandy and they drink. O'Brien is all self-contained rage, and when the man tries to flee, O'Brien chases him around the house and strangles him behind the kitchen table. There are a series of ultra fast zooms in and out, of O'Brien, the wife and paramour as they react in terror during this horrific event. O'Brien arrives at his father's house in shock and tells him haltingly, that's he's killed the man .......and his wife as well. The father says if his son is sentenced to death, he'll stab him in the back in the courtroom. In his jail cell, after being sentenced to a chain gang, O'Brien says, "I wasn't born to stretch a rope."

What follows are harrowing scenes of him being delivered, along with young Tom Brown, to a chain gang. They're put into caged trucks where they are chained to their bunks, and have to carry the heavy ball and chain everywhere. Later on the guards lynch four black prisoners who are accompanied by a chorus of men chanting, yelling and singing gospel up until the time they're each yanked from the back of a wagon to the length of a rope. As the violence continues the prisoners express their anger and disgust in a series of close-up Dutch angles.

After being whipped by Dumbrille, who hates him even more for killing his brother, O'Brien is emboldened by a fellow prisoner to escape. The fellow inmate escapes but is tracked by bloodhounds and shot by the guards. The big escape takes place at night, while they are digging graves for the yellow fever victims, the crosses on the hills illuminated by their lanterns. During a melee where they overcome the guards, O'Brien escapes, but most are shot on the spot, helplessly weighed down by their ball and chains.

Gloria Stuart has a few scenes, all with O'Brien. This is a very subdued role for the glamor girl. When they meet she's tending a wood fire in a cabin looking frail and drained. We find out that the farmer who owns the farm, his wife and Gloria's mother, are all dead in the back room from yellow fever. She doesn't know that O'Brien escaped from a chain gang where he was whipped by Dumbrille, but tends to his back wounds.

They burn the yellow fever house as they leave in a wagon with the dog (Thank God!) and travel the dusty roads where they are accosted by a posse of four led by mustachioed Bob Burns (nee Robin Burn) who has two lines and gallops off. He is not listed in the cast of this film and it's not listed in any of his credits. A farmer and his wife take the hungry dirty couple in. Though he says he's a farmer, O'Brien doesn't know how to unhitch the mules so the farmer suspects something's amiss.

The local sheriff arrives and tells the farmer that there was an escape from the chain gang and all were caught or killed except a big dark guy who's still on the loose. The farmer looks downs and sees the broken shackle under O'Brien's ripped pant leg as he tucks his foot under the chair. The farmer diverts the sheriff and sends the couple off to bed upstairs.

The next morning after O'Brien admits he was a locomotive engineer, the farmer tells him that he'd better learn how to unhitch mules if he wants to be a farmer. The couple drives away to start a new life. After a while they stop on the road......O'Brien looks at Stuart and proclaims his love for her.

It's a very downbeat film and didn't do well at box office since it opened at Christmastime. In 1938 Universal wanted to reissue the film for re-release but was turned down, not because of the graphic and extended lynching scene, but because the film had the word "Hell" in its title. It was one of three films about chain gangs that were being made around the same time, "I Am a Fugitive From a Chain Gang (1932)," "Hell's Highway (1932)" were the other two.

The author of this story, Jim Tully had a difficult life and many of his experiences were reflected in his novels. Before becoming a famous Hollywood writer, he had been a boxer and a hobo among other things. He has recently been rediscovered and there is a book out about his life on the road and in Hollywood where he was befriended by Lon Chaney, Wallace Beery and Boris Karloff in the early 1930s. His criticism of John Gilbert once caused the actor to attack Tully at the Brown Derby, where Tully knocked him out. Later they became friends and Tully had a part in Gilbert's 1930 film, "Way for a Sailor."

The Stranger (1946)

Bothersome event in an otherwise good story.....

[9/10 · 27 April 2019]

Have always enjoyed this film because there are really few films to deal with this subject, of how Nazis and other dangerous criminals are able to slip back into society without people suspecting. Edward G. Robinson is the true gem of the film.....with subtle intelligent acting and character. A favorite line from the film is memorable -- He's 'an obscenity upon the Earth.' Have quoted it and remembered it for many years. The only problem with the story is the killing of the dog, Red. It's a terribly sad thing that Kindler/Rankin first kicks the dog and then poisons him. When he confesses this to Red's owner, Loretta Young, his wife-to-be....her reaction is sadness and not loathing. If a fiancé did that to my animal they would be out the door and reported to the authorities. There is no way one could ever trust, let alone love anyone who could do that....it is so brutal and twisted. This has always been a bother as this heinous act is soon forgotten by Mary/Young. This is an unreal situation and maybe it should have been revealed later so as confirm the evil of Kindler. As it is, after admitting he killed her beloved dog, he should have been anathema to her in every way.

Fifty Shades of Grey (2015)

Sad commentary on Film today

[1/10 · 3 July 2018]

Luckily did not ever pay to see this 'film' but it is on cable TV often much to my shock. If ever there was a low-brow soft porno film, this is it. The acting is atrocious and wooden. Nothing really happens except the woman is abused and pilloried throughout by a nauseating man who is supposed to be sexy, but is the antithesis of it. This picture brought filmmaking to a new low. It is so sad to see films like this boring piece of rubbish when we think of the golden age of Hollywood with its wit, humor, drama, inciteful writing, direction, editing, music scoring, everything that came together to make great films. The fact they are making a third version of this sick story is unbelievable. I hope no one goes to see it. What's next, soft-core snuff? Shame on the 'actors' who portrayed these perverted characters....their careers might never recover. Minus '1' is the rating it deserves.

La La Land (2016)

Tepid, Overrated Oeuvre

[1/10 · 1 February 2017]

**Big SPOILER ALERT** Was looking forward to this film, but had to watch in agony from its beginning as a Pepsi commercial to its ending as a Coca Cola commercial. Shocking that this pallid film is being feted for something it is not. Emma Stone, someone who is hard to watch in long extreme closeups throughout the film and Ryan Gosling exhibit no charisma or charm. Their dancing tries to be cute and romantic but is clumsy. The music is dirge-like and not uplifting. The producers should have used more professional musical performers, ones who can inspire when they sing and/or dance. Gosling talks about jazz throughout the film, but we hardly hear any good jazz, especially not the jazz greats he talks about. So how are we to know what is the great jazz that inspired him? His friend says "Jazz is the future." But in reality it's the present, being created as it's played. All of a sudden, Stone, the aspiring actress who shows no acting talent whatsoever, decides to become a playwright without showing any ability or work, except for having an apartment covered with photos of classic movie stars. The banal dialogue, superficial characters and overly long scenes are embarrassments. Stone comes into her old coffee shop and asks for two iced coffees. Immediately a guy standing there puts down a tray with two iced coffees in front of her. Glaring continuity problem there. Throughout the film in almost every scene there is nary a person who is over thirty. The casting people never cared to hire people who reflected the real world, fantasy or not. If the music had been tuneful and clever, the film would be somewhat better. As it is it is dull. he characters exist in a vacuum with no backstory. Only interesting aspect to this film is some of the recognizable Hollywood locations, but locations do not a film make. If anyone still watches the self-aggrandizing Academy Awards, it will be cringe-worthy if this film wins any awards except for production manager or art director. It's a sad state of affairs that this film is considered in high esteem. That accolade belongs to "Singin' in the Rain," "The Band Wagon," "Gigi," "Oklahoma,""South Pacific," "Top Hat,""Wizard of Oz," and films by Astaire, Kelly, Powell, Miller, Charisse, Garland, Crosby, Sinatra, Grable, Keel, and all the great stars who truly were musical comedy class acts. Their talents made even B films a joy to watch.

Gone Girl (2014)

Sad Commentary on Film Today

[1/10 · 23 October 2014]

Thought this would be a good thriller, but ultimately it was draining and depressing. Would think any man who sees this film would never want to have sex again......it portrayed woman/women as being monstrous and men as passive, sex-crazed zombies. The story had so many loose ends and unbelievable scenes, such as where she returns home covered in blood.....then she's at the hospital - there had to be an exam, then giving an interview to detectives, then comes home still covered in blood....how much time elapsed during these scenes, and who would allow her to drive around, carry on, covered in blood for all that time? With great emphasis on crass words for women, violent sex scenes, and a score that sounded like a synthesizer importing screeches from an airport runway, this was one depressing film. The only place it was believable was in its depiction of the media and how they revel in tragedy and perversion. If this becomes our prime form of entertainment we are in big trouble. Need to watch a pre-1960 film or musical now.

Captain Phillips (2013)

Most Tedious movie in recent times......big spoiler

[1/10 · 6 January 2014]

This was the most boring, pathetic film ever. Two hours or so of SteadiCam wobbliness and Tom Hanks as the most ineffective cowardly Captain ever seen in film. All he did was stare and look pathetic...acting was non-existent. Someone on this site said he was sleepwalking - that pretty much sums it up. After 40 minutes of pirates running around the cargo ship, and the crew hiding in fear, we were ready to watch American Pickers. Thanking our lucky stars we didn't shell out big bucks to see this yawner which should have been a one hour TV drama......Obviously this was made to satisfy some studio deal, because it was just a nothing film. Too bad Hollywood spews out this stuff today instead of making films that uplift and/or entertain. What could have been suspenseful with good dialogue and interesting characters, was instead ho-hum. Unlike Hanks' great film "That Thing You Do" which was about one hit wonders, this film is a one note blunder.

George Carlin: Playin' with Your Head (1986 TV Special)

Casting Lyle Talbot

[25 October 2008]

I was working with Rocco Urbisci on several projects including Richard Pryor's "JoJo Dancer," when we did the Carlin Special. One day we were discussing casting people for the Carlin show and the producers said they needed someone to play "Pops, the Doorman." Who would be right for it? A few days before I was in the local supermarket and saw Lyle Talbot who was then quite old, but he looked great. I talked with him and was very impressed with meeting someone from the early days of film. When we needed someone to play "Pops," I suggested Mr. Talbot. The shocked response from everyone in the room was, "Is he still alive?" I said yes, and that I had met and talked with him. They called him and he got the role. A few years later I met him again, in the drug store, and told him that it was because I saw him in Gelson's that he was called to play Pops. He said he was moving up to San Francisco to be with his family. I never saw him after that, but I'm happy to know that I got him one of his last jobs in show business! MS

The Holiday (2006)

Two woman find love by exchanging houses

[3/10 · 23 November 2006]

Of the three Meyers films, "What Women Want," "Something's Gotta Give," and "The Holiday," 'Holiday' is the least creative and fulfilling as a movie. If you like Cameron Diaz, it's great, but for people who don't find her particularly attractive or a good actress, it's tedious. She was cute, but not an interesting character and it was hard to have empathy for a rich, spoiled movie industry person who is so unhappy and silly. Jude Law was wasted in this film. He looks great but his character is shallow and there is too much talk throughout about how 'complicated' they and their lives are. Kate Winslet is wonderful in this film but is cast aside for Diaz and Law. Jack Black, although not a leading man, is given his first chance to be one and is quite acceptable. Ms. Meyers runs out of ideas when she steals a scene from her earlier and superior film, "Something's Gotta Give," where Diaz does a less funny crying scene while trying to write, which Diane Keaton did so expertly. While I could sit through that film with its compelling characters again, I could not watch this one a second time. Choice of songs, as ever, adds to the drama, and the ending is taken straight from the great film, "Holiday Inn." I surmise this was the reason for its title, "The Holiday."

Deep in My Heart (1954)

The Life and Great Music of Viennese-American composer Sigmund Romberg

[29 March 2003]

With a running time of 2 hours and 12 minutes, this film is a bit long, but well worth it. Where else can you see all this talent except in a beautiful M-G-M film from the 1950s? The music, acting as well as the clothes and sets are wonderful. Jose Ferrer, though not a favorite of mine, is a really great actor and he gives a tour de force when he performs his entire show, playing all the parts, in front of the woman he loves and her disapproving mother. It's quite funny and unlike how we usually think of Ferrer. He also smiles more in this film than any other and he possesses some charm. Aside from Ferrer, the music is the star and there is plenty of it, all displayed and performed by the top stars at Metro. We get to see and compare Gene Kelly and his brother Fred who have a cute number. There is also the only pairing of Jose Ferrer and his wife, the spectacular Rosie Clooney to whom he was twice married, for a total of five marriages in all. Tony Martin, Cyd Charisse, Howard Keel, Jane Powell, Ann Miller and Vic Damone all add their talents and are exceptionally appealing. The story is devoid of all the falsifications of other biographies such as Gershwin's and Porter's.

There is also great sentiment as when Romberg performs his Carnegie Hall concert and dedicates it to his wife. Helen Traubel sings quite a lot of songs in this film, but her voice is excellent, despite the rather simple role of restaurant owner-friend-singer.

Also nice, is seeing some actors who are still with us in character roles such as Robert Easton, Russ Tamblyn, and I do believe I detected a very young Robert Wagner as the "football player" in the Artists and Models stage scene, as an extra.

In all, this is an excellent film of the period, with very cute humor, and helps educate fully about Romberg's music.

The Good Girl (2002)

Bad girl's apathy and low moral compass wrecks havoc to those she encounters

[1/10 · 20 March 2003]

***MILD SPOILERS*** Told it was the best film of last summer, I couldn't believe what I saw when I rented it last night. A poorly written, boring story of a bored convenience store worker who has an affair which results in her lover's death. While I thought Aniston had some funny lines, this film was not meant to be funny. It was sad and depressing. None of the people in the film were admirable in any way. Who are we supposed to root for? I was very surprised this film was even made and wondered why Aniston picked this drippy movie as her first film. The character actually tries to murder her lover, causes his death, tries to have him committed. She sleeps with her husband's creepy best friend. Tricks her husband into believing their baby is his. Ennui aside, why watch a film like this? Thank Goodness I only paid .49 cents to rent this film.