Vultural

That Day We Sang - 2014 - 7/10

Pretty good recreation of what looks like a West End musical.
Filmmakers are shooting documentary of Manchester children, now 40 years later, who sang Purcell’s ‘Nymphs and Shepherds’ and later cut a best selling 78 of that.
Story bounces back and forth between 1929 and 1969, showing characters as children and as adults.
As adults, two main characters attempt to connect. We glimpse their lives, hear their stories.
Of course, being a musical, tunes sally forth at the drop of a hat.
Melodies are enjoyable, though not exactly hummable.
First rate acting - plus, all leads have good voices. Tale is thin, but - please - this is a musical.
Recommended for fans of.

Are You Listening? - 1932 - 6/10

Bleak Pre-Code title from MGM, starring Billy Haines and a confusing assortment of blondes.
Haines writes and directs (commercials, comedies, dramas) for a radio station.

He carries on with another writer, deals with his scold of a wife (actress Karen Morley rips this).
A cynical film, Are You Listening has a dark tone and captures the anxiety of the Depression.
The other narrative is of the three sisters trying to “make it" in the City.

Women chase husband material (wealthy or high earners), men grope as casual predators.
Being Pre-Code, expect negligees, easy access relationships, unscrupulous villains.
Numerous old stars and character actors in downbeat film.

Bell, Peter - Sacred And Profane

Seven strange stories, encounters, though not necessarily with ghosts or spirits.
Rather, the lingering presence, the blood saturated ground, the touch of the Divine.
A professor enjoying / enduring an outing to a priory chances upon a singular nun. Curious, he wanders off the proscribed route, and nears “The Ice House” where the atmosphere and mystery constrict.
“Haunted” is told by Pauline, recently divorced, made redundant, and – worse – forced to live with her mother again. Wandering, she spies the desolate house, where she and her childhood best friend suffered a falling out. After all those years, the house still exerts a palpable force.
Readers who enjoy drinking liquid fire will envy the side-tracked narrator in “A Wee Dram For The Road.” Flavors complex, yet subtle. The tumbler, not to quaff, but to savor, to lock into memory.
The quest, both spiritual and academic, takes Dr. Fox behind the Iron Curtain. In essence, he is tagging along behind his more gifted colleague, recognized and respected. “The Strange Death Of Sophie Van Der Wielen” mixes the passion of the explorer with the guilt of the survivor, or onlooker.
Bell is consistently dependable, packing a lot of emotional oomph inmost of his works. Sacred And Profane lines up with other books of his I have read.

Jacobi, Carl - Smoke Of The Snake

Intended as the fourth collection for Arkham House, this Fedogan & Bremer provides a satisfying cap to Jacobi’s works.
A contemporary of HPL, his stories span a longer sweep of time. Decades.
Indeed, one of the included titles, I remember reading in Whispers magazine.
There are tales of black magic, voodoo, or opium steeped madness.
One or two glide through the realm of SciFi, though none of “hard SciFi” and all are light-touched and amusing.
Readers who still have a taste for bygone pulp (Howard, Cave, Rohmer, Wandrei) will find this a late night treat.

Dead End - 2003 - 6/10

Driving to the in-laws for Christmas Eve for the umpteenth trip, Dad decides to take a short cut.
Onto what turns out to be the longest, loneliest, most deserted woodland road in California.
While he and his wife bicker, the kids snipe in the backseat.
“Turn around,” says his wife, “get back on the Interstate.”
Ha! What guy does that? Even as the route goes darker and more eerie.
I mean, sooner or later, things will get better, right?
And then the dying starts.
Christmas with relatives … police must love this time of year.

Inside The White Slave Traffic and Traffic In Souls

Two “docu-dramas” released during the frenzied phenomena of white slavery paranoia.

Inside The White Slave Traffic - 1913 - 5/10

Inside The White Slave Traffic is the briefer and more crude of the pair.
An exploitation quickie, this roused censors and authorities wherever it was screened.
Female is lured into prostitution - where she remains for the remainder of the movie.
Despite two lost reels, this shows tricks for luring girls, slang words, and the nationwide network of slavers.
Outdoor photography in this captures dirt streets, boardwalks, horse and wagons.

Traffic In Souls - 1913 - 6/10

Traffic In Souls is a better film, storywise and budget wise. At 88 minutes, this is also an early feature.
There are multiple storylines: the rich family, the two sisters, and two sets of girls who arrive in New York.
Methods and roles within the slave ring are displayed, also some eavesdropping technology.
Acting in both films is melodramatic. (Pickford would largely change that.)
DVD of Traffic In Souls has an insightful commentary by historian Shelley Stamp.
Most of her comments pertain to social mores of 1913, film reaction, and white slave hysteria.

While I prefer Silent films from the 20’s, the earlier films have their own creaky charm.
The look and attitudes hark back to the Edwardian or Gilded Age.
Moralizing inter-titles, declarative gestures, formal manners, swept away in the Roaring 20’s.

Family Hunting - 2014 - 7/10
AKA - Kazokugari // 家族狩り

Someone is slaughtering dysfunctional families.
Mass murder masquerading as suicide.
Overlooked series featuring a lot of guilty looking souls, and families with overwrought teens.
Deceptive camera work here, casting one character after another as spooky or creepy.
Plot well constructed, as well, layering clues, trails, doubts and fear.
Belief remains a slippery oil slick throughout as you hope, “maybe this person is a good one” … “uh oh, maybe not.”
Absorbing, brief series. Emotional outbursts and family drama may alienate disconnected types.

Seeds - 1968 - 5/10

Gleefully perverse Christmas family reunion film.
Grindhouse mistletoe.
Acting on her own, Carol invites banned family members to Ma’s manor.
The alcoholic, foul mouthed, vindictive mother is the very definition of harridan.
Adult children arrive, a lascivious lot and screwed up to a soul.
Incest is their primary outlet and savory vice.
(For voyeurs, producers added close-up naked gropings with stunt torsos.)
Smutty, sleazy, exploitation, holiday stocking, stuffed with used, sticky condoms.

My Little Princess - 2011 - 6/10

Well done, if exceedingly disturbing mother / daughter story.
Isabel Huppert plays dysfunctional mom with artistic pretensions. Self delusions far outweigh actual talent.
She takes up photography and starts taking shots of her 10 year old daughter.
Clothes start getting removed, heavy lipstick applied, and poses become sexually provocative.

Ma believes success has arrived as last and pushes boundaries even further.
The young girl, starting to grasp the concept of exploitation, tries to resist.
Unsettling and inappropriate in countless ways, also metaphor for parents as agents or pimps.
Huppert throws herself into this and is utterly convincing, though she is clearly too old for the role.
Newcomer Anamaria Vartolomei acquits herself well.

The Daughter - 2015 - 7/10

Family pater prepares to marry half his age, trophy wife, as he closes the mill which his family has run for generations.
Invited is his damaged, alcoholic son who reconnects with old school friends.
His mother had committed suicide, and the new wedding rankles him.
He uncovers skeletons and must weigh what damage revealing the truth may cause against stoking his pity party.
The small town, likewise breaking apart with the mill closure, seems a metaphor for the family crisis.
Or vice versa.
Acting uniformly fine. Paul Schneider memorable as self-righteous son.

Silent Night - 2021 - 6/10

Straight off, this is being marketed as horror. It is not. An apocalypse film, it is closer to Drama / SciFi.
Friends and family gather for the Christmas feast.
Apparently, the final feast.
Expect bad behavior, old injuries revisited, and the airing of dirty laundry
Humor is pithy and biting, although there is not enough.
Dramatic elements are a muddling non-event.
On The Beach (1959) may be the grandfather of these films, but this is weak water.
Another recent holiday apocalypse = Anna And The Apocalypse (2017).

Cover Up - 1949 - 6/10

More mystery than Noir.
During Christmas revels, an insurance investigator hits the small town where the most hated man has killed himself.
“Where’s the gun he shot himself with?” – No idea.
‘What caliber of bullets were found?” – Bullets, what bullets?
“Were there powder buns on his hands or clothes?” – No, sir.
Smiling faces stonewall him the whole time.
Meanwhile, a fetching young miss catches his eye. So, add a dash of romance.
OTR buffs will recognize the template for Johnny Dollar.

The Hundred-Foot Journey - 2014 - 6/10

Young Indian chef sets up establishment across from haute cuisine in rural France.
Rivalry turns into alliance when starchy matriarch realizes his culinary gifts can get her restaurant a second Michelin star.
Story has the depth of a soufflé and is longish, with nary a Frenchman in sight.
Produced by Oprah Winfrey and Stephan Spielberg (both US). Directed by Lasse Hallström (Sweden) from an American novel. Helen Mirren (UK) plays the Gallic proprietress.
Popular with the arthouse crowd, be they foodies, gourmets or gluttons.

Love And Crime - 1969 - 6/10
AKA - Meiji · Taishô · Shôwa: Ryôki Onna Hanzai-Shi

Japanese anthology compilation, heavy on sex and violence.
Predatory females work their assets for gain or revenge, based on actual individuals.
Sada Abe would be the most famous, or infamous, for the marathon bout of coitus climaxing in strangulation and castration.
Oden was the last female beheaded in Japan, and Toyokaku was a woman who murdered her way to her own inn.
Fast paced little film with ample nudity, killings, and corpses.
Knowing that these were real people may increase appreciation.
Male viewers might wish to avert their gaze when scissors appear.

Haunted - 1995 - 6/10

Professor, author, spiritualist debunker, is asked to solve a slight haunting at the rural manor.
At the station he is met by the lovely sister of the home.
Home are her two brothers, and the frail, elderly, perhaps dotty, Nanny.
The stage is set, and unexplained occurrences start mounting.
Fairly predictable ghost story, based on a James Herbert novel.
Glossy looking, but terribly old-fashioned.

Born To Be Bad - 1934 - 5/10

Cynical Pre-Code film about 22 year old unwed mother and her 7 year old son.
Mom earns money as an escort (figure it out) while junior runs with gangs and drinks mugs of beer at the house.
When he runs under a delivery truck, they exaggerate the injury and try to hustle the company.
Ought to be more fun, but mother and son play unpleasant to perfection.
One of the films the Legion Of Decency likely pointed at when wanting to tighten the Production Code.
Very young Cary Grant as naive company president, Loretta Young (before she became Miss Wholesome) as call girl.
Short - bitter tasting - with preposterous finale.

Lidice - 2011 - 7/10

Suitable companion film to 2016‘s Anthropoid shows the Czech village of Lidice before - and after - the assassination of SS Obergruppenführer Reinhard Heydrich.
There is a mirror narrative of one of the villagers, in prison for murder.
Two murders, different punishments: incarceration versus liquidation.
The massacre of Lidice became infamous.
Staging and cinematography is excellent, and enough time is allotted to many characters so one gets a feel for them as individuals.

Anthropoid - 2016 - 7/10

Overlooked World War II thriller about Operation Anthropoid.
The plot to assassinate SS Obergruppenführer of Czechoslovakia, Reinhard Heydrich.
Told entirely from the Czech resistance point of view.
The “based on” elements are easy to identify and ignore (such as any love interests).
Measured pace spotlights planning, internal arguing, and constant fear of betrayal.
Unlike other films, this offers the buildup, the event, the aftermath.
Breathtaking cinematography, by the way.

Swastika - 2007 - 7/10

The premise: If we only demonize Hitler and associates, we fail to recognize they are also humans.
Thus we assume the next mass murderer will be easy to spot, being a monster.
This mixes rallies, parades, speeches with parties, cocktails, frolics.
Weird, watching Goering and Goebbels hand out Christmas gifts to children.

Footage from Leni Riefenstahl and Eva Braun’s home movies, with actual overheard comments.
Timeline runs from 1933-1938. World War II and atrocities compressed in final five minutes.
A lot of footage I have never seen, and I have watched a fair amount over the years.
Nonetheless, this is not recommended for casual viewers, looking for a primer on Nazism.
I was initially unimpressed, yet this has a cumulative power. Well done.

Orwell, George - Down And Out In Paris And London

The first section of Richard Marsh’s The Beetle detailed the unfortunate adventures of Robert Holt.
Once a respectable clerk, reduced to tramping, then house entering.
Reading this recalled Orwell’s book, which I last read twenty years earlier.
I pulled it from the shelves and began rereading. This is a lightning read.
The Paris section may prove more relevant to many. Those who ever worked in a kitchen or restaurant. Those who suffered abysmal lodgings. Those forced to choose between food or rent.
The London section will interest social historians, with the futility of ordering the unemployed to march a perpetual circuit from one meal ticket to the next.
By turns entertaining and harrowing. And don’t you believe this could never happen again.
Even now, humanity is ever on the move.
As the middle class shrinks and grows imperiled, street vagabonds become more normal.

Pride - 2014 - 7/10

Feel good movie of LGSM (Gays Lesbians Support the Miners), circa 1984, when Thatcher tories struggled to break the coal miner union.
The government had seized the assets of the Mining Union and were literally starving miners into compliance.
Unlikely support came from gays and lesbians who raised money through bucket drives, later benefit concerts.
An awkward pairing, especially for blue collar males, and film goes into that.
Community is reluctant, unsure, uneasy. Homophobia contagion, or fear thereof.
Still, LGSM were the only group that gave generous and consistent support.
Film features a slew of top actors, including Bill Nighy and Imelda Staunton, as well as a fabulous 80’s soundtrack.
Dominic West has show stopping moment when he teaches non-dancing miners that one of the quickest ways to catch the feminine eye is to kill on the dancefloor.

Waffle - 2020 - 5/10

Mislabeled “horror” short is more a dramedy. The comedy grates.
Gig employee Kerry hires out hourly as Best Friend for a rich girl’s slumber party.
Party of two, and the lonely richling Katie has the temperament of a Chihuahua.
Plot offers one or two possibilities, but goes nowhere. Inferior audio miking.

The Founder - 2016 - 7/10

Aging, over-the-hill salesman investigates one of his few “good” clients.
Pair of brothers doing gangbuster business with their hamburger stand.
Salesman offers to help them launch franchises and expand nationwide.
Against their instincts, the McDonald brothers agree.
Story of how Roy Kroc built an empire and took it away from the founders.

Mixed feelings watching this, much as I have mixed feelings about the McDonald’s chain.
Kroc is a predatory, unscrupulous wolf, but I think the brothers never could have rivaled his achievements.
Loved McDonald’s when they arrived in my town when I was 10. Outgrew them by 18, but still visit when options are limited. City to city, country to country, fare is predictable. And those fries …

Rakka - 2017 - 7/10

Terrific short, something between a pitch and a pilot.
Alien bipeds enslave humanity, torture and experiment, and start major terra-forming.
Resistance is small, and tiny victories result in harsh reprisals.
At barely 20 minutes, this alien invasion genre packs in a lot of images, action, storylines and proto-characters.
One element I did not care for smacked of tinfoil, that is a quibble.
Sigourney Weaver leads a solid cast, directed by Neil Blomkamp for new studio.
If there is interest ($$), they will craft more, and I would watch.
For what it is, Rakka is outstanding, though it is quite brief.

Gunman In The Streets - 1950 - 6/10
AKA - La Traqué (French language version)

Interesting pursuit Noir set in post WWII France.
Dane Clark plays an ex-GI who remained behind the war and set up a nice little black market operation.
When the film opens, he’s being transferred from jail to jury when he is sprung via armed attack.
From then on this is a cat n mouse police chase.
Clark’s colleagues are interrogated, hideouts smashed, ex-girlfriend followed.
As this was shot in France, the look and feel differs from American Noir.
The streets, the shops, the clothes, the faces, most notably a young Simone Signoret.
Aside from the location, the plot offers nothing fresh.
Clark slips catlike through police nets and his character is cold and unsympathetic.
Director Frank Tuttle was an early casualty of the HUAC blacklist which might have explained the European location.