Chandu the Magician

Chandu the Magician (2008 DVD)
Directed by Marcel Varnel and William Cameron Menzies
USA, 1932
In English with French and Spanish subtitles

Chandu the Magician, one of three discs in the Fox Horror Classics, Vol. 2 collection that came out about a month or so ago, is a super-cheesy thriller that's probably more like a serial adventure than a horror classic when it comes down to it. I had a decent enough time watching it due to the old school special effects, "exotic" set designs, and clever cinematography that it's become somewhat famous for (face it, any film having to do with astral projection and death rays can't be all bad--and that one imitation thrill-ride dolly shot in the Egyptian rock temple is a real winner), but unimaginably bland lead Edmund Lowe is almost entirely devoid of charisma in the title role of the ex-army captain turned Indian-trained yogi known as Chandu the Magician. While the hero's lack of acting chops and wispy moustache will surely make you want to root for the bad guys, Irene Ware (undeniably lovely as Chandu's love interest, the Princess Nadji) and Bela Lugosi (at his hammy best as Chandu's nemesis, the megalomanical Roxor) help this film salvage a Gambling with Countess Dusy Told rating of 2.5/5 stars--by any sane person's standards, a good 2.5 stars more of entertainment than that full-on dud The Prestige from 2006! (http://www.foxhome.com/)

Irene Ware

Der Letzte Mann

Der Letzte Mann (2006 DVD)

Dirigida por F.W. Murnau

Alemania, 1922

Silente

Se puede encontrar la reseña aquí.

Technicolor Dreams

Rancho Notorious
Directed by Fritz Lang
USA, 1952

This was the first of two back-to-back movies I saw last Monday night as part of the Harvard Film Archive's Technicolor Dreams series. While not without some snappy dialogue and the occasional artfully-crafted scene, Lang's garish-looking, extremely melodramatic western is basically a dud when it comes right down to it. Some of the material's datedness is to be expected, of course, but Arthur Kennedy is horribly miscast as the whiny, revenge-minded "tough guy" Vern and then there's this annoying cowboy song on the soundtrack called "The Legend of Chuck-a-Luck" that goes on and on about "hate, murder and revenge" with very little subtlety. Marlene Dietrich and Mel Ferrer are kind of amusing as troubled lovers Altar Keane and Frenchy Fairmont, but this is easily the least interesting/worst acted work I've seen in quite a while.

Madigan

Directed by Don Siegel

USA, 1968

After that Lang letdown, Siegel's Madigan was quite a lot of fun. One of the canonical late-60s/early-70s NYC cop movies in which all the police and criminals still seemed to know each other by name, this film is aided and abetted by an excellent ensemble cast, a high-energy pace with the requisite dialogue to match ("Can I fix you a drink?" Detective Madigan is asked. "Yeah, easy on the water."), and the urban decay of the Big Apple captured in all its technicolor glory. Adultery, police corruption, and race relations all intrude on the story without overwhelming it, but this is basically a hard-boiled buddy movie about a pair of semi-dirty detectives (played with panache by Richard Widmark and Harry Guardino) trying to keep the bad guys off the streets and their wives off their backs. Recommended.

• Viewed at the Harvard Film Archive (Cambridge, MA) on 7/7/08.

Encounters at the End of the World

Encounters at the End of the World

Directed by Werner Herzog

USA, 2007

Click here for review at Caravana de recuerdos.

Asphalt

Asphalt (2006 DVD)

Directed by Joe May

Germany, 1929

Silent with English intertitles

See review at Caravana de recuerdos.

La Voie lactée

La Voie lactée (2007 DVD)

Directed by Luis Buñuel

France, 1969

In French with English subtitles

Click here for a bilingual review at

Caravana de recuerdos.

Haz click aquí para una reseña bilingüe a

Caravana de recuerdos.

The Most Dangerous Game

The Most Dangerous Game (1999 DVD)
Directed by Ernest B. Schoedsack and Irving Pichel
USA, 1932
In English

I hadn't seen this movie since I was a kid, but I became super interested in seeing it again after it was mentioned a couple of times in David Fincher's riveting 2007 true crime epic Zodiac. Oft considered something of a dress rehearsal for King Kong both because of the people involved and its use of that cool Kong set, The Most Dangerous Game takes a genuinely creepy idea--man hunting man for sport--from Richard Connell's prize-winning short story, throws in some creaky anthropological observations about civilization and savages, and then milks the subject for all the entertainment value it's worth. Joel McCrea is OK in his starring role as American sportsman-turned-survivalist Bob Rainsford and Fay Wray is sufficiently swoon-worthy as the damsel in distress/jungle eye candy Eve Trowbridge, but it's Leslie Banks' crazy Count Zaroff who gets all the juicy lines and close-ups in this game of island bloodsport he memorably equates with a round of "outdoor chess." To my surprise, the film provides way more of an adrenaline rush than I'd ever remembered: a lean 63 minutes of thrills and adventure that'll make you pity anybody who's ever had to suffer through a Lucas or Spielberg movie at nearly twice that length. But I digress. (http://www.criterion.com/)

A rarely-seen still in which R-Lo comforts Fay Wray and hopes his wife doesn't find out about it!