Movies I Watched in December, Part 1

Late as usual, here's part one of last month's recap...

For some reason, December 2017 was sort of a disaster movie month, with this movie showing up early on and "The Poseidon Adventure" turning up on New Year's Eve (check part three of this little series).  I don't think I'd ever seen "The Towering Inferno" in its entirety, being more familiar with the spoofs from the pages of Mad and Cracked (as is the case with lots of movies from the 1970s). It's long, it's slow and it takes forever to get going, but I have to admit I remained highly entertained , partly thanks to the ridiculously star-studded cast (Newman! McQueen! Holden! Dunaway! Astaire! Vaughn! Wagner! And, er, O.J.!) but mostly thanks to the '70s production design and set decoration. It's all so damned BIG and LOUD, from the rooms themselves (I want to live in Paul Newman's office) to the "classy" wallpaper and carpeting. The special effects in this pre-CGI epic are still fairly impressive, with plenty of stuntmen engulfed in flames and the model for the building (a fictional 138-story San Francisco tower) topping 70 feet. It was a BIG movie in every way, of the sort you don't see anymore, and it paid off -- this corny, goofy, insanely over-the-top salute to excess was the top box office hit of 1974. It looked like big budget, big cast disaster movies would rule Hollywood forever ... and then, in 1975, a little movie about a shark arrived in theaters, and we all know what happened next...

Picked this one up from the ever-worthwhile Vinegar Syndrome Black Friday sale, and I was not disappointed. The one-sentence synopsis over at IMDB says "A woman who lives in deer-hunting country in rural Wisconsin is possessed by the spirit of a Japanese samurai warrior," and while that's technically accurate on all points, it really doesn't begin to capture the magic of this movie. For one thing, it's a CHRISTMAS movie, with the "woman" being the girlfriend of  a guy spending the holidays at home with his artistic/psychic (insane?) mom. Adding to the strangeness is the vibe the movie has, a sort of slow-moving, semi-conscious hypnotic feel that keeps you guessing as to what's real, what's a dream and what the filmmakers haven't quite figured out. It's the type of movie that could be terrible, a cheap, quickie cash-in horror flick designed to separate videotape customers (it's from 1983) from their dollars, but in the hands of one-time-only director Fabrice A. Zaphiratos, it manages to go to a deeper, weirder, more fascinating (but not necessarily better) place that held me spellbound as I wrapped the family's presents (like I said, it is a Christmas movie). As I grow older and watch more and more (and more) movies, I find myself seeking out and enjoying those off-the-beaten-path films that do (or at least try) something different. It's one reason I've become such a fan of Ed Wood, and not in a joking, sniggering way. "Blood Beat," like "Dangerous Men," "Miami Connection" and various Rudy Ray Moore movies, is, if not one  the best films I've seen recently, at least one of the most interesting. Your mileage though, to put it mildly, may vary. Strike that. It WILL vary.

In what has to be one of the best "extras" ever included on a Blu-ray, Criterion included this 1931 newspaper comedy on its recent "His Girl Friday" release, and what's more, it's a beautifully (and extensively) restored version of the film, rescuing its legacy from decades of unwatchable public domain tapes and discs. I'd seen "His Girl Friday" many times (we even reviewed it on the old Out of Theaters podcast), but I'd never watched the original version of the tale, mostly because even the prints TCM aired were in such sad shape that I never felt like making the effort of struggling through the visuals. That's not the case here, thankfully, and once I was done basking in the crisp black-and-white image, I was quickly sucked into the fast-paced, deliriously cynical story. It's the same basic plot as "His Girl Friday," of course, without the twist of reporter Hildy Johnson being (a) a woman and (b) the ex-wife of editor Walter Burns. Here Hildy is played by Pat O'Brien at his fast-talking best, and the story is much more focused on him (Adolphe Menjou, who plays Burns, is no Cary Grant, and he gets much less screen time). The cast is packed with pre-Code favorites, including Frank McHugh, Mae Clarke and Edward Everett Horton, and the whole thing crackles with dark humor and infectious energy. With the romance angle of "His Girl Friday" absent, the newspaper humor takes center stage, and it's a nice companion to the other great early '30s press movies, like "Five Star Final," "Blessed Event" and "Picture Snatcher." It's not as polished (or, frankly, quite as good) as "His Girl Friday," but it's got a scrappy, nasty spirit that makes it well worth watching -- especially since it hasn't looked this good in almost 90 years.

And speaking of pre-Code, he's a quick-and-dirty little drama starring the great Edward G. Robinson the year after "Little Caesar" made him a star. In this one he plays John Allen, an honest, hard-working construction worker loyal to his pal and suspicious of the cheap floozies he seems to encounter. He's not too savvy, though, and before long he's fallen for Shirley (Vivienne Osbourne) in a dime-a-dance hall and seems oblivious to the fact that she's actually a prostitute. (Those pre-Code movies ventured into territory Hollywood would avoid for decades.) Things get worse when she gets Allen (a) drunk and (b) married, then continues to work her old "job" with her sleazy "manager." It all ends in death, both accidental and deliberate, and Robinson delivers an amazing speech during his sentencing hearing that, on the one hand, betrays the theatrical roots of the story (it was originally a play) but on the other lets director Mervyn LeRoy showcase some bold lighting and staging that lifts the scene to a whole other level. Allen is convicted, of course (the entire film takes place in the "Two Seconds" before the jolt from the electric chair kills him), and the movie ends as one of the bleakest, most bitter looks at life that the pre-Code era produced (which, if you've seen many of these films, you know is really saying something.) Robinson is great, of course, delivering a performance that is still shattering decades later, and Osbourne is nearly as good, raising Shirley from a mere femme fatale to an almost inhuman force tearing his life apart. (Trivia note: If you've ever seen the Mystery Science 3000 episode devoted to the movie "I Accuse My Parents," you've seen Vivienne Osbourne -- she plays the perpetually soused mom character.) And if you've seen "Two Seconds," you know the poster calling it a "LOVE DRAMA" is nothing short of hilarious. If anything, it's a HATE DRAMA ... and a great one at that.

Up next: That Star Wars movie everyone seems to be so het up about.