Vultural

It’s A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World - 1963 - 6/10

Like the title, this one is too long, excessively over the top, and over-indulgent.
A dying criminal tells a motley group of fellow commuters where he had hidden a huge stash of loot.
Start your engines, ready, go, and they’re off!
Share the money? Please. This is every man (and woman) for themselves, and then some.
OK, at 31/2 hours, this goes on and on and on.
As a comedy, hit and miss, ranging from farce to gags to puns.
That said, there are a gallery of stars (film, TV, Broadway) throughout.
Starring, supporting, quick cameos.
Film fanatics, you owe it to yourself to view at least once. Stock up on popcorn, though.

Ulysses - 1954 - 6/10
AKA - Ulisse

Kirk Douglas makes an impressive Argonaut in this fantasy adventure.
The Trojan War is minimized for his ten year detour-packed return.
Highlights include Cyclops Polyphemus, and especially Circe, the sorceress.
Douglas and Silvana Mangano (dual roles) exhibit sensuous chemistry; one wishes they had shared other projects.
Too much time is given over to Penelope’s efforts to repulse her army of suitors.
Entertainment in fits and starts. Action great, exposition dull.

Tish - 2023 - 7/10

Excellent biography of the working class, Newcastle photographer, Tish Murtha.
Presented by daughter Elle, who has really done her homework.
Time and again, in interviews, she pulls out photos and items that charge the conversation.
From college courses and mentors, to art school, to acclaim.
Nor does this gloss over her obstinacy, her refusal to “make nice” and take mundane commissions.
Her anti-establishment stance empowers her work, and led to later challenges.
Fantastic photos throughout. Slideshow = https://tishmurtha.co.uk/
English subtitles = https://subsource.net/subtitle/tish-2023/english/10078128

Targets - 1968 - 7/10

Horror film icon, Byron Orlok, is tired of it all. He is old-hat, old-fashioned, and wants to retire.
The everyday world is a more horrifying place than any of his creature features.
Even though the young scriptwriter has the perfect role for him, which will reinvigorate his career.
Meanwhile, a disturbed young husband tells his wife he suffers strange thoughts.
She does not listen. Actually, she cannot listen; she is shallow and empty.
Guns and ammunition stockpiled, and his fuse burns shorter.
While loosely based on Charles Whitman, this thriller eerily foretells weekly events in the USA.
For Boris Karloff, a superb role late in his career.

Vampire Lovers - 1970 - 6/10

The new neighbor arrives at the General’s ball only to be summoned away for an emergency.
Nonetheless, could the General take care of her ward, Marcilla? Of course!
And Marcilla, endears herself to the General’s niece, Laura, who soon weakens and dies.
Jump ahead.
After a coach crash, the hurrying ladyship agrees to entrust her niece, Carmilla, to another family.
And daughter Emma begins to waste away.
Stylish Hammer outing, Gothic settings, period costumes, rampant with lesbian overtones.
Le Fanu’s novella has been filmed numerous times, including a recent version in 2019.

The Inner Circle - 1946 - 5/10

Private investigator Johnny Strange advertises for a secretary.
In a heartbeat, Ginny Smith arrives and takes charge of the office, the caseload, and our thick-headed detective.
He’s soon up to his neck in the murder of a despised expose reporter.
The story bounces more than a pinball. Strange is framed, bailed out, beaten, rescued, ever three steps behind.
Marked as Noir, this is not. As a comedy, hardly.
B-Mystery, with a good supporting cast, while the “stars” stumble along.
Possibly the studio (Republic) was trying to emulate Boston Blackie.
English subtitles = https://subsource.net/subtitle/the-inner-circle-1946/english/10078127

Hilde Warren und der Tod - 1917 - 5/10

Actress Hilde has trouble relating to her role, which involves a suicidal character.
“I’m young, beautiful, with a world awaiting!”
Death appears, and foretells, soon enough she will beg for his embrace.

Hilde has a steadfast admirer, who offers marriage.
Yet, there are so many handsome men. With one in particular.
Honey-tongued, also a robber, liar, murderer.
Film explores the joys and griefs of living. And the planted seed.
Early script by Fritz Lang is a morality tale.

The Knowing - 2023 - 6/10

Following a miscarriage, Lea isolates herself in the cabin.
Where she is plagued by a noisy, growling entity.
Opaque, psychological short mixes guilt, fear and regret.
Never really frightening, although many couples, trying for children, will relate with her despair and choices.
English subtitles = https://subsource.net/subtitle/the-knowing-2023/english/10078126

The Mystery Of Room 327 - 2012 - 6/10
AKA - Chambre 327

Eve of his wedding, the young groom is found murdered in room 327 with a hooker.
Security cameras show the bride outside, and her handgun is found nearby.
Mom runs the hotel, erases the footage, hides the gun, lies to the police or evades answering.
French mystery is low on characterization (in fact, I disliked most of them).
That said, the writers have packed this with enough plotting and narrative for three films!
Rivals are trying to acquire the hotel, witnesses keep perishing, families argue.
Tight mystery that keeps one guessing until it plays a loose hand late in the proceedings.

About Dry Grasses - 2023 - 7/10
AKA - Kuru Otlar Üstüne

Samet is a popular grade school teacher. Pupils like him. Villagers admire and respect him.
He is, however, a brooding nest of unhappiness and resentment.

Samet loathes the isolated, backward countryside; he longs to return to Istanbul.
Following a complaint, he begins to quietly vent his malice.
Against select children, also friends.
This is a “measured” character study, carried by lengthy conversations.
This is packed with ideas, albeit the chords will likely strike Turkish viewers.
References are made to ongoing and previous battles. Kurds, PKK.
Marked by some as a comedy – no. This is rewarding, but requires patience and allotting 3 hours time.

Heretic - 2024 - 7/10

Two young missionaries from LDS visit the home of Mr. Reed.
Whom, soon enough, they refer to as Mister Well-Read.
Indeed, he is extremely well educated about the Latter Day Saints, as well as Catholicism and Judaism.
And older religions, very old. Iterations, he suggests, leading the conversation deeper.
Provocative thriller, not necessarily Horror, but filled with the allure and repulsion of uncomfortable questions.
Hugh Grant is exceptional, shading his character with charm, erudition, menace and madness.
Viewers, like Sisters Barnes and Paxton, grow increasingly ensnared in the sinister.

If Footmen Tire You, What Will Horses Do? - 1971 - 4/10

Should America abandon God, so too shall God abandon America.
Alcohol, dancing, drug use, sex, ways of the flesh, even cartoons!
Bibles unread, teachings forsaken for lascivious behavior, lewd attire.
Until, without warning, Communists have overcome the nation.
Vast swathes of the populace are machine-gunned down, children indoctrinated, females raped.
Dire warnings! Potentially camp film flawed by constant proselytizing by Rev. Estus Pirkle.
That, and ignoring the reality of gun-happy America where millions of citizen own firearms.

Connell, Brendan - Upuaut

This reads like a found journal. A diary of sorts by one Guildo, a masseur. Superbly trained, gifted even, well paid, and revered by high-born clients. Or merely the rich.
There is no chronological structure, being more of a ramble, although entries often call back to earlier jottings.
Much of this is a jagged, non-linear, inner journey. As with most of us, Guildo has no inkling of any progression until the awareness that he is no longer who he was.
NOT EXACTLY A SPOILER – BUT – this transition accelerates with Chapter XLII when our narrator ventures into a tavern and impulsively orders what another patron is imbibing - Erbaluce, which acts as a catalyst on his perceptions of those around him. Indeed, and of himself, as well.
This is a challenging read, as you have to piece together the narrative from scattered entries and fragments. Highly rewarding.
γνῶθι σεαυτόν

I Love Trouble - 1948 - 6/10

Early on, the mark wises up to the tail job by PI Bailey.
Her husband had hired the sleuth after she received threatening blackmail notes.
“Impossible! My young wife is such an innocent lamb.”
Bailey starts digging into the sweet girl’s past, and discovers a murky history.
Middling Noir never fully commits to darkness and fatalism.
Bailey is a tougher Boston Blackie, but he ain’t hard boiled.
Supporting cast will be amazing for Noir fans.
Columbia loaded this with numerous young females from their stable.

Black Butterflies - 2022 - 6/10
AKA - Les Papillons Noirs

Trendy author “Mody” suffers writer’s block.
That is the only reason he accepts a commission to ghost write some aging nobody’s life story
Except, as the plot unfolds, the old man is an uncaught serial killer.
He and his female partner had slashed a trail of blood and sex across Europe.
Hearing the history, the callousness and violence begin to seep into the writer.
Troubling mini-series loaded with graphic violence and sexual configurations.
γνῶθι σεαυτόν

The Wind - 1928 - 6/10

Southern belle Letty arrives from Virginia into Texas prairie.
The homestead ain’t much and outside breezes are more like gales.
Winds blow and blow and blow. (Being a Silent, one cannot experience how noisy this is.)
Worse for her, love struck menfolk start vying for her hand in marriage.
Prime Melodrama borders on hysterical and ham, seems more like theatre from the previous era.

The Guns Of Navarone - 1961 - 7/10

2000 British troops are stranded on a Mediterranean isle.
Rescue is thwarted by two massive German guns, capable of blasting any vessel.
The installation is impervious to aerial bombardment.
Solution? Crack experts on a suicide mission.
Rolling boil WWII film, packed with obstacles and tension.
Lacks the action of Dirty Dozen and Where Eagles Dare but seems more realistic.
Plausible? I look the other way.

Celebration At Big Sur - 1971 - 6/10

Filmed during the era of mass festival gatherings, this might have been one of the coffin nails.
Although the festival occurred a month after Woodstock, this waited a bit.
The groups are more Folk oriented. Joan Baez, Joni Mitchell, CSNY, John Sebastian, Mimi Fariña.
All in all, low key throughout, lacking overall energy.
If curious, by all means watch this 80” film, but don’t expect too much.

The Blue Max - 1966 - 6/10

During the Great War, pilots are decimated, and replacements are recruited from the trenches.
No longer aristocrats, but common rabble … such as Bruno.
The aerial conflicts seem near conclusion, yet Bruno wants to win a “kill” medal.
Meaning, shoot down 20 enemy planes.
None of that élan or chivalry for him, he is an unrepentant boor, at odds with his titled fellow officers.
Longish movie dwells too much on the class warfare.
Dogfights are exciting, George Peppard and Ursula Andress have torrid chemistry.
Cynical tone, and political manipulations might put many off.

Haunted House For Sale - 2024 - 6/10
AKA - Xing fu fang wu shi jian bu // 幸福房屋事件簿

Fast-track, career relator, Lu An-Chi, and her rookie assistant, Yu Ta-chih, are assigned “stigmatized” properties.
Homes or buildings where a suicide or murder has left a lingering spirit.
Ta-chih is socially clumsy and slow, but he comes from a family of shamans.
He can see the dead, who are forever making requests.
Taiwan series filled with stand-alone episodes, funny, sad, dangerous.
Early episodes suffer awkward comic relief, which subsides midway as the overall arc darkens.
I appreciated the old-school special effects. Color filters, visual distortions.
Also learned stigmatized property is a real thing in Asia.

Paid To Kill - 1954 - 5/10
AKA - Five Days

Hotshot boss, Nevill, has driven the company into expansion and increased profits.
By taking risks, huge gambles, and unscrupulous methods.
And now, the whole empire is poised to collapse.
With it, his good name, the wealth, his marriage. His wife will be impoverished.
Except – if he hires someone to murder him, she will collect insurance money!
Stale, tired plot matched by Dane Clark’s listless performance.
Most of the cast looks bored, photography is flat.
How could anyone make London appear so very dull?

Various (Editor: Beech, Mark) - Infernal Mysteries

Egaeus resurrects the Gothic. Radcliffe, Maturin, Lewis … set in the 18th century, period attire, yet human instincts remain as base as they are today. Writers need to exercise care emulating the bygone. Some could easily slip into stilted pastiche, rather than inspired homage. Unusually for me, this collection took time, and a few stories, before it grew on me.

A friar is entrusted by his Eminence to transport “The Cardinal’s Ring”. A journey, land and spiritual, ensues. The ring is merely on loan, yet the recipient is a powerful, dangerous aristocrat.

“Casa Magni” is a recasting of the Shelley’s, Mary and Percy. Love and infatuation, jealousy and calculation. As well as the patience to live with the mercurial, to inherit the legacy.

I’m not always in the proper mood to appreciate Rhys Hughes’ wry works, but here he excels with “Thirteen Castles South”. For travelers who have tired of the Grand Tour, there is a castle only whispered of in an obscure pamphlet. Only the foolhardy would seek it out.

“The Rescue” is just that, hard after a terrible accident. A hero, a maid, a brute. Not to spoil, the ending was a cliff, which irked me.

“The Grotto At Crennocken” is a marvelous fabrication, then equipping of, the Earl’s outlying building. An abomination, a celebration of filth and decadence, long before term was appropriated by preening hipsters. The Earl has bought or plundered a loathsome assemblage, not least of which is his companion, Haqi, devotee of Kali. Steeped in atmosphere, this proves a lengthy, gratifying descent.

Silk - 2006 - 6/10
AKA - Gui Si // 詭絲

The investigator had been to New Zealand, Zimbabwe, London.
In Taipei, however, he strikes paydirt. Or rather, the ghost strikes him – dead.
Now, the small team tries to understand why the spirit lingers.
Why does it now dissipate? Why does it remain strong? And malevolent?
The team’s research is actually anti-gravity, which leads into death and immortality.
Silk is the thread that connects this life with the afterlife, or the underlife.
Ingenious story, seldom dull, spilling ideas all over.
English subs = https://subsource.net/subtitle/silk-2006/english/10075064

Thelma - 2024 - 7/10

Thelma, 93, gets phoned scammed out of $10K.
Family wonders if it’s time she was, you know, placed in a retirement home.
Meantime, Thelma wants her money back!
Crime / comedy is tagged as action, but I’m telling you, ain’t much action with scooters and walkers.
Laugh out loud funny, or terrifying, depending on your outlook toward old age. Not 60, but 90.
Over-coddled family is emblematic of unspoken messages, perhaps.
Great cast, if a little gimpy, including Richard Roundtree (final role) who shows a flair for droll comedy.
Young audience, cannot relate? Fear not, given enough time you turn into your grandparents.

In Night And Ice - 1912 - 6/10
AKA - In Nacht und Eis

What? Ice, you say? Where?
Aarrr … that’s an iceberg!
Too late do ship officers spy the perilous field of icebergs.
The vessel? RMS Titanic.
Forty minute film recreates events in a documentary fashion.
Inter-titles describe upcoming proceedings, players overact.
The restoration, especially for something this old, is pristine.