My 2025 Watchlist Frenzy!

The Ghost Breakers is probably my favorite Bob Hope Movie.

Okay, let's start at the beginning. The Ghost Breakers is a 1940 Bob Hope movie (these vehicles for the likes of Bob Hope, Martin & Lewis, Abbott and Costello etc. break the usual trend of referring to a film as the director's movie) that's based on a 1909 play - "The Ghost Breaker" - which had originally been made twice before, in 1914 and 1922 (both of those films now being considered lost.) While Hope himself isn't his funniest in this, there are other reasons for it's elevation to "classic" status amongst the films he starred in. In it, Mary Carter (Paulette Goddard) inherits an old plantation and mansion in Cuba that's said to be haunted - a Mr. Parada (Paul Lukas) insists it's haunted, but other interested parties hint at the fact that there's something otherwise sinister about the place. Bob Hope plays radio broadcaster Larry Lawrence (his full name : Lawrence Lawrence Lawrence) who accidentally becomes embroiled in Mary's quest to find out more about the mansion when he hides in her hotel room after mistakenly thinking he's killed a man. It all sets up a real bravura last act set-piece which takes place in the mansion, and involves ghosts, zombies and gun-toting thugs. Hope might feel a little aggrieved that the quality of all this often outshines his comedic performance! The make-up and effects are excellent, and the film trots along in such a cracking manner I was impressed by it's ability to match ordinary horror films of this period.

Overall, there were many other factors which caught my attention - not least of which was the fact that I recognized this from a later remake : 1953 Martin & Lewis romp Scared Stiff. I saw all of the Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis films as a kid (they played on television every single weekend here in Australia), and despite the fact that I haven't seen a single one of them during my adult life, I still remember most of them. At first, during a bit where Bob Hope is locked in Paulette Goddard's trunk, I first thought that the Martin & Lewis film must have stolen parts of The Ghost Breakers outright, and I felt a little outraged. It was only later that I realised the entire stories matched somewhat, and that it must have been a remake. (Bob Hope and Bing Crosby cameo in Scared Stiff, just as Martin and Lewis had in their own comic outing Road to Bali previously.) Apart from that, I noticed Anthony Quinn's name in the credits - I'd recently seen him in the 1936 western The Plainsman, where he briefly appeared as an Indian. Here he has two roles, twins Ramon and Francisco Mederos - playing Cubans this time. He was versatile - Greek, Cuban, Indian you name it. The young Quinn gets a decent amount of screen time, and I love it every time I see him in one of his earlier movies. I'm saving the most praise though, for an actor who is more difficult to talk about but supremely talented and probably the best factor related to this film...

Willie Best. Most often he played the stereotypical, undeniably racist and unfortunate part of the cowardly, lazy, simple-minded and servile black man. In The Ghost Breakers, his character still has many of those characteristics - but he also manages to out-Bob Hope Bob Hope. It's one of the rare instances where another actor gets many of the typical Bob Hope lines, and Willie Best proves himself capable of delivering them brilliantly. Given the opportunity, and a more accepting audience, Willie Best could have been a comedian of equal stature. He has talent, and oh boy he displays that talent in The Ghost Breakers - thankfully he gets the opportunity, with his character recieving a considerable amount of screen time and comic dialogue. It is unfortunate that occasionally something cringe-worthy and oh-so-typical of it's time ruins the mood a little, but all the same - Best gave me plenty of laughs, and I mostly saw him as gaining the comedic advantage usually open to characters Bob Hope plays - being openly sardonic regarding his own fear, and mining that for all the comedy you can possibly find in the situation. He delivers some of the film's best lines. Bob Hope once called Willie Best "one of the finest actors I've ever worked with" - and he no doubt meant it. So, all-up, The Ghost Breakers is probably the most well-rounded Bob Hope film I've seen so far, because it offers so much more than simply it's star attraction spouting one-liners. Good stuff. Up there with My Favourite Brunette.

Glad to catch this one - Imprint #17. This won something called the "Best Performances of the Month" award from Photoplay for Bob Hope and Paulette Goddard.




Thank you very much to whomever inspired me to watch The Ghost Breakers

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We take a step (about a year's worth) back in time from The Ghost Breakers to another Bob Hope vehicle which pretty much inspired the need to team him up with Paulette Goddard in a comedy/horror romp again. The Cat and the Canary was another established property - it originally being a 1922 play before being adapted into it's first cinematic incarnation in 1927 - and it's interesting to note that devotees would already have been familiar with the story. That story is what's commonly referred to as an "Old Dark House" narrative, and for that I feel especially glad that I watched and reviewed The Old Dark House (1932) last year. I learn, and learn, but the cinematic landscape is vast and varied. Anyway, "Old Dark House" movies would usually involve a group of eclectic characters basically trapped for the night in a huge, cobweb-infested mansion where horrible surprises and long-held secrets lurk around every corner. In The Cat and the Canary it's a mansion out in the Louisiana bayous - access by canoe, and the boatmen refuse to transport passengers at night. Even if you want to leave, you must wait until morning. Seven characters have gathered for the reading of a will, which bestows a fortune on Joyce Norman (Paulette Goddard) - but she must survive the night lest that fortune end up in the hands of one of the others. Before everyone has settled down for the night, the lawyer who had read the will (played by George Zucco) has been murdered.

So, where does Bob Hope fit into all of this? He plays Wally Campbell, although comes pretty close to just playing himself again - radio star that he was at the time, although certainly not as cowardly as his characters were considering how fond he was of visiting war zones. Campbell comes to the fore because of the affinity he feels for Joyce, and since Joyce is under constant threat Wally finds himself in the thick of things. You know, my mother hated Bob Hope, but the Bob Hope she hated was a different one to that of his early film persona and the roles he'd play. Basically, I was told at an early age that Bob Hope was a bad comedian that told tired old jokes in repetitive ways. I only ever saw him on stage. It's something of a revelation to go back to when Hope himself was on the cutting edge, and breaking through in movies to the point where he was becoming a major star. The ad-libs might seem a little rare in The Cat and the Canary, but his timing is incredible and energy right where it should be. He has the versatility to be romantic and action-oriented when needed. I thought he was funnier in The Cat and the Canary, but the movie as a whole wasn't as good as The Ghost Breakers. It's still very enjoyable though, and at 72 minutes it moves at a breakneck pace.

Something I must applaud is The Cat and the Canary's climax, which is carefully filmed and edited to enhance suspense and excitement - you know who's where, and how far away they are from each other. It's not easy to place characters for the audience, and keep them up to date so that a chase or hunt is thrilling, and it's hard to estimate how long you can hold an audience in suspense before it's time for upping the tempo and bringing a scene to it's climax. The kind of "same page" thinking needed by director and editor is key (and it's interesting to note that The Cat and the Canary's editor, Archie Marshek, also edited The Most Dangerous Game, which also has action and suspense above and beyond the average.) Both of the Bob Hope/Paulette Goddard team-ups I've watched have been good movies in their own right, before comedy and joke-telling is even taken into account. So many films that serve as vehicles for this or that comedian or comedy team only serve up a very basic template as a framework for moments of comedy to happen on, but The Cat and the Canary is another carefully crafted movie that provides more fun than a mere handful of laughs. The best comedies usually do.

Glad to catch this one - Imprint #16. The same as in The Ghost Breakers, this won "Best Performances of the Month" award from Photoplay for Bob Hope and Paulette Goddard.




Thank you very much to whomever inspired me to watch The Cat and the Canary

In The Paleface Bob Hope gets to run riot in what's a pretty mainstream stock-standard western that's geared towards his brand of humour - every other character is played dead straight, and the comedian is matched charisma-wise by a particularly strong leading lady - Jane Russell. Her deadpan Calamity Jane proves the perfect foil to Hope's cowardly yet hopelessly earnest dentist, Painless Pete. Calamity has been aided in an escape from jail and promised a pardon if she can help track down a group of traders providing marauding Native Americans with rifles and dynamite - to do this she's to pose as a regular wife of a couple hitching a wagon west. When she finds her "husband" dead, she proposes to Pete - who happens to be fleeing town with trouble of his own. The two head west, and with Calamity's surreptitious help, Pete becomes a wild west hero - completely blind as to what's going on, or most of his own ineptitude. There's nothing really groundbreaking plot-wise, the narrative simply serving as a conveyor belt of opportunities for Hope to play the fool and deliver his brand of quick-witted, rapid-fire humour. He'd well and truly found his niche and honed his 'cowardly yet desperate to impress a lady'-type character to a fine point by this stage in his career.

This movie was huge back in the day - Paramount's biggest success of the year, and the third-highest grossing movie of 1948, a decade that had cemented Hope's status as a massive mid-20th Century star. It's very light and breezy entertainment - not the funniest film I've ever watched, but it does provide a few laughs and is helped along by Hope's sheer energy and enthusiasm. It seems like the kind of film that was greenlit simply on the premise of combining Bob Hope's schtick with a popular genre. Unlike with either The Cat and the Canary or The Ghost Breakers, this wouldn't stand up as a very good movie without Hope's antics or brand of comedy, so it truly stands out as a vehicle for the talented comedian which exists solely for him to let loose with gags and an occasional improvisation I assume. Hope also proves himself an all-round entertainer by performing the song "Buttons and Bows", which would go on to win an Oscar for Best Original Song at the 1949 Academy Awards. It's a catchy ditty that'll stick with you long after the movie is over.

So, for me, this marks only the halfway point of a series of Bob Hope movies I have on my watchlist that I'm wading through. What got me started was his 1947 feature My Favourite Brunette - which for me sees Bob Hope at his absolute best, though as far as "Best Bob Hope Film" is concerned I'd pick either The Cat and the Canary or The Ghost Breakers because they're such good films overall. Both Bob Hope and Jane Russell would come back a few years after The Paleface in a sequel, such was this film's popularity. Son of Paleface came out in 1952, with Hope playing the son of Painless Pete and Russell a completely separate character to the one she played in this one. The song "Buttons and Bows" even makes another appearance. Yeah, it's very commercial and mainstream - even predictable in the way Hollywood often operates, but this film's success and colourful brightness along with Bob Hope's natural charisma and sense of humour make it an enjoyable enough watch. There are enough funny moments to give it a tick of approval. It's fast pace and short running time combined with an obvious earnestness you feel from everyone onscreen makes it a fun watch.

Glad to catch this one - it's in Steven Jay Schneider's 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die, won that Oscar for Best Original Song and was nominated for two Writers Guild of America Awards - along with being one of the biggest box office hits of 1948/9.




Thank you very much to whomever inspired me to watch The Paleface

You're right about The Paleface being formulaic and all but my mom loved it so I'll always have a soft spot for it. I haven't watched The Seven Little Foys in years.

I liked The Paleface well enough, but it did give me the one and done feel.

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I've read that Bob Hope only ever appeared in two serious dramas, The Seven Little Foys and 1957 film Beau James - and it's an interesting distinction to draw, because as vaudeville entertainer Eddie Foy, Hope drops as many one-liners and wry comic observations as he ever does in Seven Little Foys. From my perspective, it's this film's saving grace - whether formed via improvisation or the group of gag writers Hope employed, the jokes are very funny and liven up what would otherwise have been a somewhat fictionalized, downbeat musical biopic which rushes to the finishing line in a way that leaves the viewer with many nagging questions. When the film proper begins Foy is painted as a stage performer on the way up who happens to be the world's most dedicated bachelor. What isn't mentioned is the fact that the real Eddie Foy had been married twice by the time we meet him in the late 1800s (so not all that bachelor-minded) - something too unpalatable for the 1950s audience this was aimed at I suspect. The dour, mean-tempered Foy meets Italian ballerina Madeleine (Milly Vitale), and although Hope and Vitale struggle a little chemistry-wise, the character helps sweeten the gruffest, most bad-tempered character I've ever seen Bob Hope play. Of course (and as is played for much comedy), the Foys start having children at a regular rate. In the film it's not mentioned that apart from the seven children who appear in the movie, there were another four that didn't survive infancy.

Although it will come as no surprise that Foy will be redeemed (to some extent) before the film ends, he's painted as a self-absorbed, career-minded absent father for the majority of this movie. He's kind to his wife and children, but spends most of his time out performing. Of course, we know from the start that he'll eventually form a stage act that includes his seven kids. If you're curious, reading about the real Foy and his act won't provide many spoilers for the movie because of the incredible liberties taken with what really happened and when. As it is, movie-wise, the story is riven with conflict and tragedy - and though it'd be nice to see the act bring this family together, it more or less devolves into a bitter and complex custody battle with Foy and his sister-in-law Clara (Angela Clarke), since the kids don't really enjoy being forced to spend their lives on the road, rehearsing and performing. They miss out on Christmas and they're worked hard. Sure, the act looks cute up on stage, but as is often the case with child performers, these kids don't really have a choice - so my enthusiasm for the movie was dampened quite a lot once I got onto the home stretch. A shame because I was enjoying it a whole lot up to that point thanks to the uncanny ability of Bob Hope to make even the most miserable of characters charismatic and funny. He delivers some lines in this that I rank among the best he's ever delivered - and perhaps that's because they're even more deadpan and against the grain than they normally are.

In the end much is made of the great scene which features Hope as Foy tapdancing with James Cagney (who is reprising his role from Yankee Doodle Dandy - George M. Cohan), but it's what happens to be going on elsewhere in the film during that which dampens the mood quite a bit, even then. Yes, this movie is ultimately quite unusually gloomy for a Bob Hope-starring musical biopic, and to top everything off Foy himself is given the "warts and all" treatment. Late in the piece we end up witnessing a "Seven Little Foys" act which portrays people from the Orient in the most awkwardly unfortunate manner - dating the movie quite severely. I was enjoying the film quite a bit up until about the tap-dancing scene with James Cagney - and after that I enjoyed it considerably less. I always find it hard to rate films with such disparities - do you average out your rating? Does a disappointing second half devalue the film as a whole? My take from it all is this - I reckon Bob Hope gave what must have been one of the best performances of his career in The Seven Little Foys, managing to deliver many cracking one-liners while also portraying a dark, somewhat unlikeable and unpleasant real-life character. I thought he was terrific, and it's perhaps worth watching this just for that reason alone. The movie overall? A little depressing, and in some ways misguided considering the exploitation of those kids, and the way that matter is brushed aside.

Glad to catch this one - this film received an Oscar nomination for Best Writing, Story and Screenplay. A stage musical version of The Seven Little Foys premiered in 2007




Thank you very much to whomever inspired me to watch The Seven Little Foys

I've never watched this on account of my childhood affection for the 1978 version which was just a Horror Movie, not a Horror Comedy, and my lack of understanding due to inexperience with Silent Films at the time, that the 1927 version was a Horror Comedy. So to me watching Bob Hope ham up a movie that I always found quite scary and that helped shape my sense of Horror as a child, has always been very unappealing.

I touch down once again during this Bob Hope marathon (five down, one to go) looking at the period immediately following The Paleface, except this time the film is in black & white, and this time the comedy is less gleefully anarchic and free-flowing. Once again I happened upon a movie of which I'd seen a previous version - this time it was Little Miss Marker, a kind of forgotten 1980 comedy featuring Walter Matthau and Julie Andrews. I have a copy of it somewhere, and the reason for that is I once did a deep-dive examination of the box office detritus of 1980 after a group of friends and I looked through the list and remarked on just how many movies there were we'd never heard of. Well, Little Miss Marker is one of those oft-remade properties based on a 1932 short story by Damon Runyon. There was a version in 1934 featuring Shirley Temple in the role of the little girl (more on that later), then there's Sorrowful Jones in 1949 featuring Bob Hope followed by 40 Pounds of Trouble with Tony Curtis. The basic story revolves around a gambler who leaves his little girl with bookies as a "marker" (a promise to pay a bet/debt), whereupon the gambler either dies, is killed or flees - leaving the little girl in the care of cheap crook Sorrowful Jones (in this case Bob Hope.) The two form a bond, but Jones must protect the little girl when high level crime bosses decide that she knows too much about illegal interference in horse races.

The film's poster tries to advance the notion that this film is funnier than The Paleface, but it can't quite have as much fun with the situation - although late in the piece the plot manages to have Hope lead a horse through a hospital, leaving a trail of doctors thinking he's crazy (especially when he loses said horse and desperately enquires as to where it went!) As in the version of the story I'd already seen, the cuteness factor of mixing a self-absorbed bookie with a gorgeous and precocious little girl is played up a great deal - and Bob Hope is the perfect actor with which to bring out a lot of the contrast between the adorable and the goofy. Highlights include a bedtime scene where Jones tries to teach the little girl (Martha Jane) how to pray, a birthday celebration for Martha's horse, Dreamy Joe and of course that "horse in a hospital" climax to the movie. Sharply contrasting this one, the original Little Miss Marker had Shirley Temple - a tough act to follow, and the girl they got this time around, Mary Jane Saunders, is cute but can't play up that cuteness to the level Shirley Temple could. Often there's a fine line between being cute and being annoying if a tiny little child actor struggles to deliver lines and still seem natural - but it's hard not to feel your heart melt a little every time Hope and the little girl interact.

I've come a long way without mentioning Lucille Ball - she plays Gladys, an ex-flame as far as Sorrowful Jones is concerned and a big help when it comes to advice and guidance on how to look after little girls (I guess because she's a woman? There's an interesting presumption that I won't press further.) I feel kind of different about Lucille Ball than I do most actresses - even though Gladys is a nightclub singer (dubbed by Annette Warren) Ball seems so much a mother figure that I can kind of understand why she was used in this film. Her comedic ability isn't used at all, but as mentioned before, the screenplay as a whole isn't as funny as most of those I've seen underpinning a Bob Hope-starring movie. Hope's quips are recognizable, but he doesn't play as much of a romance-oriented coward as he usually does - in fact, there are many times when Sorrowful Jones exhibits bravery. Overall there were a few laughs and of course much cuteness (a prerequisite for any adaptation of the Little Miss Marker story), but overall this didn't quite rise up to the level of Bob Hope's absolute best knee-slappers. As always though, it's interesting to see how often certain stories were recycled during this Hollywood era, as much as we complain today about how often properties are re-used.

Glad to catch this one - The 12th-highest earner of 1949, this was the first of four times that Lucille Ball teamed up with Bob Hope in a feature.




Thank you very much to whomever inspired me to watch Sorrowful Jones

The last Bob Hope film among the selection I've slogged through was a pretty good one - I liked it a lot more than Sorrowful Jones, which offset Hope's usual comic style with a fair dose of schmaltz and less of the wild antics you'd usually associate with his comedies. I was surprised, because The Lemon Drop Kid was much like Sorrowful Jones in that it was based on a Damon Runyon property and directed by Sidney Lanfield. I was expecting something very similar. In this Hope plays Sidney Milburn, known as the "Lemon Drop Kid" because of his habit of attracting horses by feeding them lemon drops, then claiming to trackside punters that he has an affinity with the horse in question. Anything to convince them he knows which horse will win the next race. He covers every selection and hopes that the winning better will reward him for the hot tip. On the day we meet him he has some bad luck in that he costs a big-time gangster $10,000 when he convinces his partner to bet big and loses - so he's given up until Christmas Eve to come up with the money or else he'll be getting buried with a box of his precious lemon drops. He concocts a scheme which involves opening an old ladies home in a casino and gains licenses for Charity Santas throughout New York to earn him the dough. It's all very silly, which is exactly what a Bob Hope movie should be if it's aiming to be a fun-filled comedy.

This one has every element that makes Bob Hope films what they are. For one, he gets to croon a few songs with costar Marilyn Maxwell - and imagine my surprise when I found out that the much-loved Christmas classic "Silver Bells" actually comes from this movie, and was heard for the first time here. He also gets to dress up as an old lady, and he puts his all into pretending to be one - still quip-ready of course. He once again becomes the character he's best known for - the absolute coward who is all the same desperate to impress, and the performer is in absolute top form doing what he does with energy and comedic grace. Funny moments come thick and fast in this film, and include some first-rate physical comedy involving mannequins and statues that approach Chaplin-levels of perfect timing and gifted sensibility. From what I've read, it seems that Damon Runyon's story was only very loosely followed and that unlike Sorrowful Jones and The Seven Little Foys, this was a movie where story didn't take precedence over simply giving Bob Hope an opportunity to be the focal point of proceedings. Normally that might be a source of criticism from me, but in the case of these films I think the attraction is Hope's natural comedic ability first and foremost.

If there are any faults in The Lemon Drop Kid, they happen to be confined to the more technical areas of the movie. The dubbing isn't so good (at times completely mismatching what we're seeing), and the production team really became fond of reversing/speeding up the film to try and manufacture laughs via bizarre old-time special effects or else reduce what would be a 12-second shot to around 3 seconds, and it just looks very amateurish and sloppy. It made me appreciate even more what Bob Hope could do without needing to resort to cinematic tricks or effects (even though, given the wrong screenplay, even Hope could go down in flames - I was much less impressed with They Got Me Covered.) There weren't too many other recognizable faces in this movie to me personally, but as soon as I saw Tor Johnson (of all people) and realized he makes it into multiple scenes I was very happy. Ed Wood's Tor Johnson! This was a few years before the likes of Bride of the Monster and Plan 9 From Outer Space - and I never knew he'd had much of a film career before that. Cool. Well - it's back to normal for me now after watching what amounted to so much Bob Hope (I have the "Road to" movies to go, but they're not watchlist films.) I can understand the enduring affection people had for him after seeing more of his films, and why he was such a star in the 1940s and 1950s.

Glad to catch this one - the song "Silver Bells" ended up winning an ASCAP Film and Television Music Award, but I have no idea why it wasn't nominated for an Oscar as well.




Thank you very much to whomever inspired me to watch The Lemon Drop Kid

You're in for a real treat with The Shop on Main Street. That's a personal favorite of mine.

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suggest some K Best movies

Sometimes it's more effective for us to feel sympathy for an individual than a nebulous group being herded to their doom - in The Shop on Main Street it's old, grandmotherly Rozália Lautmannová (Ida Kamińska) - a Jewish button and ribbon store owner in a small Slovakian town in 1942. That sympathy swells into an emotional crescendo, despite (or perhaps because of) the fact that she's hard of hearing and in her elderly mental state has no real idea of what's happening in the world around her. She's not melodramatically feted as poor old Rozália - in fact, much of the time the film strikes a tone of light comedy - but instead we see her as the new 'Aryan Administrator' of her store, Antonín "Tóno" Brtko (Jozef Kroner), a carpenter who knows nothing of buttons or running a store, sees her. The fact that he's the new administrator of Rozália's store is thanks to his black-uniformed brother-in-law, the pompous commander Markuš Kolkotský (František Zvarík), who throws Tóno these scraps secure in the knowledge that the shop brings in no real income (in fact, Rozália lives off donations other Jewish citizens provide for her.) To deal with all this, Tóno gets to know these Jewish community members, and becomes protective of poor old Rozália, not knowing that the round-up of all the town's Jewish people will soon begin in earnest. It's an emotionally searing story that deals with the Holocaust-related themes of complicity and the way induced fear and greed turns many notionally "good" people into willing participants of genocide.

I have to admit, even though the tone this film initially adopts isn't dark in and of itself, it's strange to follow a story set in a de facto Nazi state without an Oscar Schindler or other redoubtable hero ready to provide at least a moral core and central resisting figure to the narrative. Tóno is, I guess, what you could classify as your average everyday guy. He knows the fascist goons that strut up and down the town streets are ridiculous and no good, and that the huge waste of time, material and space being devoted to a "fascist monument" in the center of town is downright idiotic. Still - he's rather happy when he finds out that he's being given a store that's being appropriated from it's Jewish owner and doesn't for one second question the moral validity of simply being given another person's property and livelihood. What he is, is ignorant of the larger forces at work here, and where all this will inevitably lead. Directors Ján Kadár and Elmar Klos (mostly Ján Kadár on this film) slowly tease out his essential decency as he starts to help Rozália more and more and listens to the various Jewish shop owners who fill in him on the dark foreboding storm that's about to break soon. Tóno is basically a coward, so his convictions will only take him so far - and of course once again I'm watching a movie about this awful period of World history that has me wondering what I would have done, and how I would have behaved. It's tough viewing in some respects, with what at first seems like such an easy, breezy movie-watching experience darkening as we're claustrophobically inside Rozália's store with Tóno peeking out the windows at the round-up and deportation outside.

I had a couple of great film-watching experiences last year when I came across František Vláčil's Marketa Lazarová (1967) and Jiri Menzel's Closely Watched Trains (1966) - so it seems that the height of Soviet oppression in Czechoslovakia brought the best out of the nation's filmmakers - with some towering classics coming from that part of the world in the 1960s. This was just as excellent as those two, and it was an unforgettable experience seeing it for the first time. In fact, as I walked around pondering what I'd just seen, I figured that it would have to rank up in my Top 10 of Holocaust-based movies. It's hard to find movies that have the ability to open new avenues of understanding and emotional connection - especially regarding this difficult topic - so I hope plenty of people have managed to see this movie over the years. Also - without saying anything at all about it - what a final scene. This movie finishes with a perfectly presented coda that feels almost like a dream-like strike at the audiences emotional core. Wonderful stuff - with everything that makes movies like this so satisfying, for example the precise and vigorous cinematography and film editing working in service of a razor sharp screenplay and potent performances. Simply a powerful, powerful movie that would probably be a timely watch in this day and age in many places around the world. We need films like this - all of us. I hope it lives on for generations.

Glad to catch this one - Criterion #130. Academy Award winner for Best Foreign Film in 1965. In 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die. A trifecta.




Thank you very much to whomever inspired me to watch The Shop on Main Street

The twists, turns and unexpected story developments never, ever seem to cease in this super-sized cloak-and-dagger war-time spy thriller from Paul Verhoeven - his impressive first feature back in Holland after 20 years churning out his special brand of sex and violent science fiction in America. This really wasn't what I was expecting, and that's on me considering who made this. Black Book is gritty, dirty and horrific - but also carefully develops it's main character's evolution from an ordinary Dutch Jewish singer hiding out in a farmhouse, trying to ride out the Nazi's occupation of the Netherlands, to resistance spy embedded in SD headquarters in The Hague, using sex as a weapon to ingratiate herself into the life of SS-Hauptsturmführer Ludwig Müntze (Sebastian Koch). This multi-talented heroine is Rachel Stein, alias Ellis de Vries (Carice van Houten) - fortune playing a role in her journey when a damaged American bomber releasing it's bombs to lighten the aircraft just happens to hit the farmhouse she'd been hiding in. After watching her entire family get brutally slain by the SS and robbed of all their valuables, she ends up rescued and recruited by the Dutch resistance. When three young resistance members are captured by the Germans, Ellis (who has struck up an unlikely friendship with Müntze) is asked as to how far she'd go to try and save them. Would she be willing to sleep with the enemy?

The way James Bond does it - or at least the way it's presented in James Bond films - doesn't feel as particularly ugly as it really is, but in Black Book the use of sex for the purposes of espionage feels particularly revolting. There's one stage in this film when Ellis happens upon the man who killed her entire family (leading to her running to a bathroom to vomit copiously - and yes, this is a Paul Verhoeven film, you see it all.) Her discomfort around him is palpable, and nearly undoes her. But the sickening reality of this spy's situation is laid bare when poor Ellis comes across this man, SS-Obersturmführer Günther Franken (Waldemar Kobus), naked in a different bathroom (and yes, this is a Paul Verhoeven film, you see it all) where he grabs her and molests her. You just try and pretend you're having fun when the man who slaughtered your whole family turns up naked and gets up close and personal with you. Sex, death and horror run rampant as the Nazis start to realize the end is near for them. It's 1945 and the Russians are storming Berlin - but many of the characters in Black Book, both German and Dutch, have narrative arcs that will probably end up surprising even the most seasoned of viewers. Hats off to Gerard Soeteman and Paul Verhoeven for crafting a story that's thrilling and compelling enough to justify all of the movie's darker elements - in the best tradition of the art of espionage fiction.

There's a lot I've left unsaid - this is a movie that's best to experience without knowing exactly where everything is eventually headed. Carice van Houten is utterly fantastic and it's her powerhouse performance that keeps you glued to the screen. It was a lot of fun also to see many German stalwarts - Koch, of course, and the ever-present Christian Berkel (from Downfall, Valkyrie and Inglourious Basterds). Kobus looks a lot like Thomas Thieme, who played Bormann in Downfall - so I got those two mixed up while watching the movie. Although not a true story in and of itself, there are many incidents in the film that are based on real events which occurred in the Netherlands towards the end of the war. One factor I was impressed with was how antisemitism was approached with a view as to how universal it's spread is - it's not only the Germans who harbor this attitude, and Ellis has trouble from all quarters when it comes to her ethnicity. It's an added factor at play, and provides the kind of complexity that makes the best of thrillers so full of uncertain alliances, conflict and societal commentary. Most of all though, it's simply a very thrilling, captivating and absorbing cloak and dagger movie which pulls out all the stops - in the end proving a huge and successful Dutch film. A new phase for Verhoeven, who seems liberated by his return home.

Glad to catch this one - nominated for a Best Foreign Film BAFTA, shortlisted for a Best Foreign film Oscar and winner of three Golden Calf awards (Dutch Oscars) - Best Actress (Carice van Houten), Best Director and Best Film.




Thank you very much to whomever inspired me to watch Black Book

The early 30s were a tough time for some, and that's exemplified in the movie Heroes For Sale, which works it's way through a whole truckload of societal issues and ideologies by telling the tale of Thomas Holmes (Richard Barthelmess), an average Joe with fluctuating fortunes who nonetheless has a heart of gold. The film picks up while Tom is in the trenches during the First World War and is wounded badly - captured by the Germans but treated well and looked after. Of course, his horrific injuries cause him pain and he's given morphine, leading to a terrible addiction which will plague him once he's back in the United States. He endures shame and heartache, fails at being a bank employee and ends up working at a laundromat and meeting the girl of his dreams, Ruth (Loretta Young), and having a son. He also becomes involved with left-wing radical Max Brinker (Robert Barrat), who invents a new machine that ironically forces scores of workers into unemployment. Tom has his victories and his crushing defeats in an America where police violently repress protestors and wealthy business owners think of nothing but their bottom line. He sees his former landlady Mary Dennis (Aline MacMahon) feed the poor and puts in his own money, turning her establishment into a haven for the needy - all the while living a life of optimism and hope at a time when he's surrounded by suffering.

For a movie that runs 71 minutes, Heroes For Sale covers a lot. Tom's fate on the front line sees his friend, Roger Winston (Gordon Westcott) awarded with The Distinguished Service Cross - a medal that should have been Tom's, and one that brings with it societal benefits, fairly or unfairly. When Tom gets home, his forward-thinking business practices are given room to develop. Tom's addiction is given a very balanced, sympathetic and understanding treatment - kudos to this film for taking on the subject without flinching. Also quite balanced (to my pleasant surprise) was the outlook on both fervent capitalists and communists and the way they prefer to spout theory and make money with little regard to the plight of real flesh and blood people. I loved the fact that this film felt the need to criticize both extremes. The character of Max Brinker became perhaps a little too bizarre for my tastes - starting out a fervent radical Marxist he strikes it rich when he invents his machine and becomes the most terrible kind of greedy capitalist you could ever imagine, going so far as to parade around in a top hat and fancy coat as if the filmmakers were actually trying to turn him into a grotesque caricature. He's the hopeful source of comedy in Heroes For Sale, but a lot of the funny stuff strikes a discordant note.

I'd seen Richard Barthelmess before in A Modern Hero and The Spoilers, in which he'd played villains - and I must say although he'd have played the role of a leading man plenty of times he strikes me as not the natural kind of dashing figure you'd normal expect. I think in Heroes For Sale that's kind of the point - the taller, more stately and worldly Roger proves a coward but ends up winning the medals and living the easy life. For people like Tom, life is never going to be easy - but that's partly because he has a conscience, cares for others and is as brave as he is. There are many times when he could have taken the easy option, but stands for high ideals and it's via contrasts with his character that the other more slimy and villainous figures in Heroes For Sale stand out. For that and many other reasons I really liked this 1933 film. I don't think the performances in it are particularly good, but it gets a message across (several messages, really) that resonated with me, and I'm impressed because the film industry usually caters to more facile tastes. Perhaps the gravity of the times weighed on some of the writers and producers at Warner Bros - but for whatever reason, we ended up with a heartening (despite much of it's grimness) piece of cinema.

Glad to catch this one - there was a version that ran 5 minutes longer that is now considered lost.




Thank you very much to whomever inspired me to watch Heroes For Sale

This was an intensive look at the life and artwork of underground comic artist Robert Crumb, including his family history and views on modern American society. Classic documentary - one of the best I've ever seen really. Rarely do you get such a sense of who a person is, their family, their story and the world in which they exist - but Terry Zwigoff not only succeeds in pulling that off here, he manages to broadly examine Robert Crumb's artwork, and that of his siblings. As the film went on, I became more and more involved with these people on an emotional level, and yet I can't say that Crumb made me fond of Robert Dennis Crumb himself as a person. There's an aloofness to him that borders on the antisocial, and his fondness for women seems to come from a purely transactional place when it comes to sex. It's his talent as far as artistic expression is concerned that makes him an incredible person, and the fact that he's not a complete jerk - he's thoughtful, intelligent and not abrasive - makes him easy to accept as a figure of interest despite his less attractive attributes. His family members (at least, his two brothers and parents) have that tragic Grey Gardens feel to them - Charles Crumb sequestered in his room at his mother's house, on antidepressants and occasionally suicidal, and Maxon Crumb, street beggar, sits on a bed of nails while ingesting cloth to clean his intestines. It's eventually revealed why everything is as it is.

We see plenty of Crumb's work during the movie's duration - it ranges from what he drew as a kid with his brothers (the three would create their own comics) to his various published works and drawings. There's a no-holds-barred approach when it comes to his work, which at times can be shocking and seem particularly misogynistic and racist - but I'm not so sure about that, because I get the impression that he's just reflecting his observations of the world around him with a critical eye (and yes, that includes Robert Crumb himself, with his anxieties and psychological peculiarities.) He seems a brutally honest artist who is willing to allow the worst of himself and what he sees around him to flow out into what he draws, and I think that's what makes his art so revealing and why it manages to elicit the response it does. Just as revealing though, are the personal asides Terry Zwigoff manages to capture from his subjects in their personal spaces - with the camera sitting just as we would in the comfortable yet sad and secluded rooms his brothers confine themselves to. As kids the three seem to have been almost as one as their father meted out barbaric punishments and their peers rejected and bullied the unusual Crumbs - we hear them recount as much, and we see it in Robert's biographical drawings, but most of all we feel it.

It's quite striking when Zwigoff takes a walk with Robert down your typical American city street and we hear 90s music and see 90s fashion, because when we're in close proximity to this particular artist it can feel like we've taken a trip back in time - not only because of his particular fashion sense, but quiet, mannered way of speaking. It so happens that even during the counterculture era Crumb was somewhat conservative in manner and dress, and it's that kind of contrast between outward appearance and original artistic expression that makes the film such an interesting couple of hours. This person seems nothing like what we'd expect if we had to guess based on the underground comix movement he was a pioneer of, which makes the subject of this great documentary all the more engrossing. The results are so nakedly a revelation that I felt a deep-seated empathy regarding the Crumb family as a whole, and that's what made one of the final reveals such a shocking moment. Those interviewed are of such a variety that they offer a perfectly varied commentary on this man and his work, from critics to friends to ex-partners who have the aid of Crumb's drawings to help express what they have to say. Overall, my expectations concerning this were blown out of the water. It's simply a great documentary.

Glad to catch this one - Criterion #533 and in Steven Jay Schneider's 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die. Winner of Best Documentary at the Critics Choice Awards.




Thank you very much to whomever inspired me to watch Crumb

Yeah, that's a real disturbing one. Huge fan of it

Disturbing?

I mean, how is it not disturbing?