RANDOM HARVEST (1942)

– A Review –

Greer Garson and Ronald Coleman

This movie is a sappy, black and white, romantic gaga-fest.  It is utterly unbelievable and ridiculous.

That’s what people might want you to think.  And it’s totally true.

But that shouldn’t preclude you from enjoying it.  This movie was made in the “golden age.”  It was a time of movie-making that gave people something akin to a delicious, full-blooded, five-course meal.  Maybe it’s not super subtle.  Maybe it’s not ironic or full of social commentary.  Maybe it has a sweet reveal at the end.

But that’s what I love about this film!  It is dynamically fantastic in the treatment of the plot.  Here it is, and I’ll try not to spoil anything:

Soldier in WWI is knocked unconscious from shelling in the trenches.  He wakes up in an asylum and can’t remember who he is.  He escapes the hospital and wanders about town during the armistice celebrations.  He gets rescued by a saloon dancer (HOT!) and she takes care of him.  They fall in love, get married and have a baby, all the while trying to find out who he was, but to no avail.  He goes into town to look for work and gets hit by a car.

Now he can’t remember the previous three years with his wife and child, but everything before that is suddenly clear.  Good thing, because he was originally rich as all get out.  So now his rich family wants him to find a nice girl and get into politics.  He doesn’t want to because deep down he knows he’s in love, but he doesn’t really know it, right?

Meanwhile…his wife goes looking for him, and finds him.  But she can’t bring herself to confront him, for fear of freaking him out!  Like the truth will cause his brain to melt and him to, I don’t know, hate her or something.  So she bides her time, and [Spoiler] becomes his secretary.  The reveal there is awesome.  I’m sure there were gasps in the theater.

I can’t tell you the rest, except that it’s completely awesome.

This movie is terrific.  The main actors are at their charmingest.  Honestly, they were super great.  The quality of movie making then was tight and bold.  The downside of the old-timey movie studio system was rigid sameness and little creative risk-taking.  However, the upside was movies like these.  They work, period.

I urge you to check it out.  If you do, I guarantee you won’t be disappointed.  I can declare thus because the people who are brave enough to venture forth are brave enough to like old, sappy movies.

Searching for answers.

Party all the time

We’ve got a friend, whom we’ll call “Will,” who occasionally exhorts us to engage in all manner of wacky, illegal, and downright dangerous escapades of frivolity and badassery.  When he does this, we get a chuckle in our bellies, a glimmer of joy in our eyes, and that wonderful sense of hope that it might come true.  This type of suggestive agenda-making is great for anticipation.  You know full-well in your mind that it won’t happen.  No way could it happen!  It would most-likely be very bad if it happened.  But still…what if?  Wouldn’t it be great?  For those of us who have never “raised” any “hell,” it’s enough just to have the prospect suggested.

However, it must be noted that unlike Will, many people lack the gift of suggestion.  They sense the excitement, and they want to be a part of it.  They’ll blurt out a seemingly similar and ridiculous challenge, only to have it met with looks out of the corners of eyes.  Not only does the suggestion fall flat, but it deflates the spirit of the room.  For example:  One of the following proposals is awesome, and the other is lame.  Super lame.  Can you tell them apart?

#1)  “Okay man, we’re going to play a drinking game.  Here are the rules:  Whenever I take a drink from the bottle of wine, you have to take one as well.  And whenever you take a drink from the bottle, I have to take a drink.  Ready?”

#2)  “Dude, we should totally drink this bottle of wine really fast.  We’ll get so drunk.”

Whether you end up drinking the wine or not is inconsequential.  The first offer makes you feel like “this is going to be the party of the year.”  The second offer makes you wish you had stayed home.

So if you’re looking to make this weekend one for the history books, aim high!  Because when we reach for the stars and fall short, we still come closer to achieving our dreams, or some kind of crap like that.  Just don’t do anything stupid.  Also, don’t hang out with frat boys, ever.

The only things you need for a party are two people and the RHCP playing “Love Rollercoaster.” -Will

Movies to Watch on Hallowe’en (or What You Should’ve Been Watching All Month) – Part I

#9. Mad Monster Party (1967)

Made by the folks who made Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer.  This plot is slow, the pacing is slow, the dialogue is slow, but it’s still worth it.  The animation is great.  The story is absurd, but hilarious; something Woody Allen might have dreamt up.  The score is fantastic, but I’m a sucker for the groovy sixties scoring in the vein of Les Baxter and Vic Mizzy.

#8. Nosferatu (1922 & 1979)

The silent film is a classic.  It is iconic, but many people still haven’t seen it because they aren’t fans of silent film.  It is worth it, though.  The creepy, eerie, evilness of the main character is still effective.  The story is almost an exact faithful adaptation of Bram Stoker’s Dracula, with only the names changed.  They did this because they couldn’t afford the rights, and even still after a small showing the film was destroyed for copyright infringement.  It is lawlessness that allows it to still exist, which seems fitting.  The 1979 version, by Werner Herzog, is an updated version, equally creepy and disturbing, but for many different reasons.  The character and makeup of both “Draculas” are an interesting take, and I’m glad they did them.

#7. Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (2005)

When I heard about this movie, after having loved the shorts, I thought, “Really?  Is that they best they could do?  A FEATURE movie and they are wasting it on a simple, Halloween-y story about a rabbit?”  What I should have thought was, “Amazing.”  This is wacky British humor at it’s best.  And who doesn’t like a clay-mation movie?  No one who matters, that’s who.  If you like movies made by people who love schlocky movies but are really good at making them, then this is for you.

#6. Young Frankenstein (1974)

Mel Brooks’ delicious send up and loving homage of the 1930’s Universal Horror movies, notably Frankenstein.  Some say it is Brooks’ best film.  While I disagree, it is terrific Hallowe’en comedy.  The style is slow and methodical, and the jokes are sometimes subtle, sometimes in your face, but they are all perfect.  It makes me think of a time when you know you were watching a movie, and marveled at its construction, while still being thoroughly entertained.  It’s like we are all in on the joke and fun of telling a funny story.  “Puttin’ on the Riiiiiiiitz!”

#5. The Haunting (1963)

I won’t say this is a prototypical haunted house story, but it is probably the best.  It is based on a scary Shirley Jackson book, and made into a scary movie by Robert Wise, so it has a great pedigree.  The fright is developed by sound effects and silence and constant camera movement.  It seems as if the camera is a an ethereal spirit at points, floating back and forth down hallways and into rooms.  It is so effective because of pressure.  It builds up in the story and then lets it escape at the right time.  When I encountered that, I screamed and jumped over the back of a couch.  Whilst watching with other guys.  They didn’t make fun of me, because it was freaking scary.

Movies to Watch on Hallowe’en (or What You Should’ve Been Watching All Month) – Part II

#4. The Ghost and Mr. Chicken (1966)

Everything about this movie is pitch-perfect.  It’s got the perfect textbook characters, a kinda horrific gothic plot, a wonderfully be-cobwebbed empty mansion complete with blood-stained organ, and a painting that gushes blood.  Put in Don Knotts, a mix of small-town simplicities and complexities, and you have a great Hallowe’en entertainment.  Plus, the groovy score by the recently departed Vic Mizzy is terrific.

#3. Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992)

A friend of mine likes to claim that the opening six minutes of this movie are the only good part, but also that they are the best six minutes of cinema in the history of the world.  I agree with the latter, but not with the former.  The way this movie looks, it should come across as campy, but it doesn’t, mostly thanks to the score (and crazy awesomeness).  All the elements balance each other perfectly and make up for the one bad part of the film, Keanu Reeves.  But maybe they cast him so we’d root for Dracula, because who could root against Gary Oldman?

2. Hocus Pocus (1993–Hollywood’s greatest year)

Whenever a person asks me, “Do you have any Hallowe’en plans this year?” I lie when I don’t answer, “…live out the plot of Hocus Pocus.”  Honestly, every year I wake up disappointed, because I realize that as the sun rose, I was sleeping and not battling witches in a graveyard.  This movie is the perfect blend of humor, youth, adventure, Romantic darkness, and Bette Midler, all coated in Disney Magic.  Plus, [SPOILER ALERT] the cat TALKS.

1. Sleepy Hollow (1999)

In college days, when our Scholarhip Hall government would bring in local children to trick-or-treat in our hallways, I would decorate my little room to the teeth.  My favorite decoration of all:  Sleepy Hollow on the TV with the sound off. (Sound off, of course, for the sake of my Hallowe’en playlist…the score to this movie could really suffice.)  Roger Ebert says it best:  “This is the best-looking horror film since Coppola’s ‘Bram Stoker’s Dracula.'”

0. It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown! (1966)

This one is off the charts, hence its numeration.  Also, it’s not really a “movie,” but rather a TV special in the tradition of “A Charlie Brown Christmas.”  (Don’t even get me started.)  This 25-min. tapestry of one-liners taken straight from the funny papers has even less plot than it’s Yuletide predecessor, but I don’t even care.  When I picture a child’s Halloween, I picture the shallow-but-endless backdrop of the Peanuts neighborhood.  And Vince Guaraldi, this time without ageless carols from which to draw, crafts a mellow theme that embodies all the harmless but devastating melancholy of childhood.  C’mon:  “I got a rock.”

#3 (Best Places for a Showdown)

Think: The Great Locomotive Chase, based on The Great Locomotive Chase of 1862; The Great Train Robbery, The Great Train Robbery, and The Great Train Robbery; The General, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban; …Back to the Future III (that one is a showdown with fate!)

Showdowns don’t get much more exciting than when they take place…

-ABOARD OLD TRAINS-

Ba-BOOM!

The Triple Creepitude

(Artist's Rendering)

Let’s keep going on this topic of creepiness–specifically in movies.  After the post about creepy time periods, we got to talking about exceptionally creepy examples.  Take Vertigo (I must be on a kick):  being that it was released in 1958, it is automatically wide open for creepiness.  Now, we’ve shown that any small amount of creepitude is automatically magnified if found in a movie from an unfamiliar time period.  BUT, throw in a ghost from an even less familiar time period, and you’ve got yourself…”The Double Creepitude.”

Not satisfied, the question was posed: “How could a movie accomplish three levels of creepiness?”  *Scoff*  Imposssible…but intriguing!  The first idea we proposed was this:  someone in a creepy time period could be haunted by a ghost from another creepy time period, who was, in turn, murdered by a ghost from yet another creepy…”wait, that’s stupid.”  Finally, it came to us.  There are two options:

1) A movie, set in a creepy time period, potraying another time period as creepy, in which real life creepiness accidentally works its way into the final product.  Think of the stagehand that can be seen hanging from a noose in the dark woods of The Wizard of Oz.  (Only it has to be a real stagehand, not a large bird.)

-OR-

2) A movie, set in a creepy time period, potraying another time period as creepy, in which events foreshadow tragic real-life happenings from a later time, of which neither the characters nor filmakers could possibly have been aware.  I have no good example for this one, but if someone could find it for me, I would be eternally grateful.  Many high fives would be in order.

I'll be practicing!

Owning the Experience

What do we like about music and movies?  Different things, perhaps.  But also some of the same.  Music is now very easy to listen to wherever you are, including the bathroom.  Audio quality (unless you are a hopeless audiophile) is actually pretty good for a minimal investment.  Recordings are cheap and easy to get–free even, if you don’t mind looking.  But concerts still sell out.  More musicians practice and perform than ever before.  Why?

It is because the experience of going to a concert can’t be replicated – not on DVD, not on CD, not on an iPod.  The act of going with a friend and being in a room with 100, 500, 10,000 other strangers who come together in a social experience to enjoy a commonly loved band is special, worth paying money for, worth making an evening or even a road trip out of it.

Some of the reasons movies aren’t pirated as much as music are because the files are protected by more filters, it’s not as commonly known how to rip them from DVD, and they are huge (in terms of storage space).  Good quality files require many gigabytes of storage, and while storage costs are low and continue to get lower, it’s still too much for the average person to keep investing in.  Songs are about one hundred times easier to download, and that might show in the statistics, but I’m not really interested in looking that up, and that isn’t what this argument is about.

Movies share something with concerts.  It is an exhibition of something that strangers come together to experience as a common interest and fantasy.  People experience something that cannot be copied or owned or held.  Like a rollercoaster:  you can own the physical apparatus, but you can’t own the rush, the feeling, the sensations of riding it.  A couple on a first date wouldn’t pop a romantic comedy into a computer, not even a giant 24″ iMac in all its glory.  (It might lead more quickly to makeouts, but people, this is an old-fashioned couple.)

I’m pretty biased, because I love seeing movies in theaters more than most people.  BUT, I do think that is why people still go see movies and concerts: for the experience.  That is where artists will continue to be relevant and make money.  Their art can be contained in many ways, but the ways in which the experience cannot be copied or owned is where they have their true power.