PRIMITIVE SCREWHEADS

The Climax 1944

The Climax 1944 Very loosely based on the 1909 play of the same name by Edward Locke, adapted by Curt Siodmak, screenplay by Curt Siodmak and Lynn Starling, directed by George Waggner.

This is the 3rd movie on the Universal Horror Collection Volume 4. It's a 4 Blu-ray set with a commentary for each film. This one is by Kim Newman and Stephen Jones. It's fairly interesting and more entertaining and informative than the previous two commentaries in the set.

Boris plays a doctor who's in love with an opera singer. That's Boris with Susanna Foster, she plays the singer. She's got good reason to look like that. Being with Boris is not anything healthy and she doesn't even know he killed his previous fiance, who now resides in a coffin is a secret room in his big house.

 

Turhan Bey is also in love with Susanna. Boris uses hypnotism on Susanna so she'll only sing for him. Lucky for her Turhan comes to the rescue. It's a bit more melodrama than horror and it's a rather slow film. It's not overly exciting and there is a lot of opera. It's in color, it was Karloff's first color film, the Blu-ray looks very nice. I liked it better this watching, I'd last seen it in 2008 at a Friday Night Movie night.

Lady Of Burlesque 1943

Lady Of Burlesque 1943 Based on the novel The G-String Murders by Gypsy Rose Lee, screenplay by James Gunn, directed by William A Wellman. I read the book in the 80s and have dug it out to re-read soon. I had originally believed it was ghost written by Craig Rice but the current thought is Gypsy herself wrote a good portion of the novel with her editor and Craig's help. I wonder if I'll like it as much as I did in the 80s. In recent years revisiting old favorites hasn't been as successful as I might hope.

In the movie Barbara Stanwyck plays a singer and strip tease artist called Dixie Daisy. During a raid by the police someone tries strangling Dixie but she manages to escape. A few days later her friend Lolita isn't so lucky.

Dixie turns detective in this murder mystery set in her world of burlesque theater. There's a fair bit of the on stage show and plenty of backstage business with the cast and crew. There's a punch up, some singing and a bit of romance too. I liked the characters and the story. I've seen it several times since the 80s and still enjoy it. You can check it out on YouTube. I bought a DVD ages ago.

Calendar Girl 1947

Calendar Girl 1947 Story by Lee Loeb, screenplay by Mary Loos, Richard Sale and Lee Loeb, directed by Allan Dwan. It was re-issued in the US under the title Star Dust And Sweet Music.

It's a romantic musical comedy set in Greenwich Village in 1900. Two friends move there, one to paint and the other to compose music. The composer falls for a lady but she's more interested in the painter. The guys both get a shot at fame and fortune with some help from the locals in the artists boarding house they move into. There are a lot of musical numbers but the singing style is of little interest to me so I fast forwarded through some of the numbers. There's some fun jokes and situations, there are some that are less so. The cast is good and the direction better. It's not a big production, Republic Pictures wasn't that big a studio, a splash of cash could have beefed up the production and would have made it stand out a bit more. You can check it out in the link in the title. You might like it well enough. I wouldn't need to see it again, not sorry I saw it.

Alice In Wonderland 1949

The 1949 film of Alice In Wonderland combines live action and puppets. Two versions, one English and one French, were filmed at the same time.The film was mostly produced by French film makers. The studio scenes were filmed in France and the Oxford scenes filmed on location. The director is Dallas Bower, the screenplay for the French version is by Maurice Auberge and Maurice Griffe, the screenplay for the English is by Henry Meyers, Albert E Lewin and Edward Eliscu. The Wikipedia says the film wasn't released in the UK until 1985 due to the unflattering portrayal of Queen Victoria. It wasn't released in the US until 1951 and Disney tried to stop the release because they were releasing their own Alice In Wonderland that same year. Disney didn't get their 18 month delay and the film was released but didn't do so well.

Carol Marsh plays Alice, it was her second movie, her first was Brighton Rock.

Sadly, that's an image screencap from the DVD I have. It's a 3 disc set called The Classic Age Of Fantasy that was $5.95 at Hamilton Books. There are a dozen films totaling 953 minutes. I had some of the films in other cheap multi film packs but not all of them. The Borrowers, The Pied Piper of Hamelin, Ali Baba and the Seven Saracens, The Magic Sword, Alice in Wonderland, Jack and the Beanstalk, Gulliver's Travels, Gulliver's Travels Beyond the Moon, The Jungle Book, Tarzan's Revenge, Liane, Jungle Goddess, and The Savage Girl.

The movie is available at Amazon Prime and the quality is just the same. I read that the original negatives were damaged. Too bad, I like the sets and props, it would be nice to see them better.

A lot of Alice's shots were done without the puppets. Carol is the only human while in Wonderland.

I liked the production, poor video aside, and was glad to have picked this up. There's a DVD of the movie on Amazon, it's 10 smackaroonies, I'm betting that it's the same copy, it's a shady looking DVD. I'll be happy with this. Really, how often will I watch it again, once maybe, who knows.

You can see a copy of either the French or English version on YouTube. Links above.

Iceland 1942

I ordered Iceland from the library for no other reason than some of my ancestors came from there. It's a 1942 musical comedy with Sonja Henie, John Payne, Jack Oakie and Sammy Kaye and his orchestra. John and Jack are US Marines posted to Iceland during the war. It's got a script by Robert Ellis and Helen Logan with H Bruce Humberstone directing. 

John flirts with Sonja and accidentally makes the family think he wants to marry her. He spends most of the movie trying to get out of the arrangement. There's other complications with the unwed younger sister and Sonja's previous beau, played by Sterling Holloway. There's musical numbers, some on ice. I didn't find it more than average and I fast forwarded through most of the music bits. I can't waste time on that sort of thing. Not something I would need to buy for my collection. Others may like it more.