Frank's Movie Log

For Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee’s first film for Hammer, a guest review from the good Baron himself: Continue reading...

Takes the ’80s slasher formula, adds a liberal dose of humor, and executes with a talented cast and a boatload of heart. Sure, subbing arid southern California for a Louisiana swamp drains the budget and constrains the shot selection, but the practical effects are top-notch, inventive, and gruesome.

Enjoyed it enough to buy the Blu-Ray for the bonus features (which don’t disappoint).

Powell plays Bill Foster, a slick defense lawyer so well-respected in the underworld that when his car’s stolen, the crooks return it after getting a look at the registration. Continue reading...

Howard Hawks’s first sound picture. Barthelmess plays a cynical World War I pilot at odds with commanding officer Hamilton. When orders send Hamilton to a different outfit, Barthelmess assumes Hamilton’s position and struggles under the burden of command.

Hawks bursts into the sound era with terrific (for the time) dialogue, dynamic aerial photography (love the POV bomb shots), and the burgeoning Hawksian theme of men enduring grim fates as a duty. Remade eight years later with Errol Flynn in Barthelmess’s role.

Perhaps the first of Ford’s early sound pictures that rated his full attention. After an accidental collision, an American submarine drifts toward the ocean floor. MacKenna plays a disgraced British officer serving under an assumed name on the sinking sub. When the sub’s commander succumbs to stress, MacKenna assumes command and reveals his true identity. The lighthearted opening belies the transition to taunt drama. Though the surviving prints are a mix of dialogue and title cards, Ford’s confident execution shines through. John Wayne appears as a radio operator on the surface.

A botched jewel robbery lands gangster Lowe in court. Up for re-election, the judge seizes the publicity opportunity and sentences Lowe to fight in World War I. In France, he plays baseball, sees some action, and returns a war hero. Back in New York, Lowe opens a nightclub, falls for socialite Owen, and crosses his former gang. The mix of comedy, wartime drama, and gangster film never gels, but Ford’s formal execution—love the final shootout—makes it passable. Look fast for Ward Bond as a drill sergeant.

A great voice-cast and some Dr. Seuss-inspired production design wasted in service of a reductive story about cultural appropriation that ends in a sing-along.

Better than I expected thanks to Keaton’s MVP performance and the script’s reducing the origin story to a single sentence.