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.

Beck: MUTATIONS (1998)

-A Review-

This album is not Odelay, and that is both bad and good.  Bad, because Odelay is so good that to simply not be it is bad.  Good, because it, also, is really freaking good.  It came out in a year that produced only a few albums of like caliber (Yield, Hello Nasty, You’ve Come a Long Way, Baby, LoZ, OoT), but it was overlooked nonetheless.  As usual, the commercial failing of this great album can be chalked up to record label idiocy, but it seems to go deeper than that:

Odelay (1996) was largely the responsibility of the Dust Brothers, so of course it was edgy, funky, crazy, awesome.  Nigel Godrich, while probably more of a genius than both of said Brothers combined, should never have been expected to follow them and produce the same excitement.  Who’s going to put on Paul’s Boutique while the party warms up, then slam down Kid A to really get the place jumpin?  Nobody, that’s who.  The same thing happened later in Beck’s career:  Guero hit the stores, and DJs told us, “Finally!  Beck made another Odelay!”  Then The Information gloriously incarnated itself into our presence, and the same DJs said, “Don’t bother, it’s just another weird Beck album.”  (DJs usually don’t know jack phooey, btw.)

So trust me:  It’s good.  Real good.  It can sound a bit silly at times (for a mellow Beck album, it certainly isn’t as mature as Sea Change) but try your best to appreciate what Messers Beck and Godrich accomplished: compared to Beck’s previous output, these songs sound like something even our parents would enjoy.  And at the same time, they still contain the art-studio craziness that we had come to love and expect.  (Track 01:  “Cold Brains.”)  And if you still can’t get into it, turn it up louder.  That usually works.

Highlights:

“Nobody’s Fault But My Own”
The album version is amazing, but not as amazing as this:

“Tropicalia”
Best use of that “hoo uh huh uh” instrument since “Me and Julio.”

“Sing it Again”
Beck meets Willie Nelson.  Easily on my top 5 list of guitar solos.  (Yes, really.)

“Static”
Ends the album on a serious note that still leaves you feeling okay.  Beck at his soothing’st.

“Diamond Bollocks” (Hidden Track)
Actually ends the album on the very opposite note.  Beck at his crazy’st.  Also, the reason I bought a drum set.  Also, it’s called “Diamond Bollocks.”  C’mon.

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.”