Frank's Movie Log

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.

Right in my nihilistic, trap-movie-loving wheelhouse. So deft and surprising. More than once, I’d bemoan a plot point as weak writing, only to have it twist, circle back, and punch me in the gut. I bought everything Toni Collette’s all-in performance was selling. And I loved the ending.

John Wayne’s first starring role. He’s good but raw—on par with the poverty-row oaters he’d headline for the next nine years. Here he plays a trapper leading a wagon train up the Oregon Trail. The script includes the requisite character drama and romantic interest. Disregard them. The production itself proves the real star. Continue reading...

Quill’s man-child characterization wears thin. Drax remains funny as ever. Baby Groot steals the show.

Peter Cushing’s second film for Hammer. He plays a botanist who hitches a ride aboard Forrest Tucker’s Himalayan expedition to find and study the legendary Yeti. Of course, Tucker’s motives prove less than scientific. And of course, one-by-one the party members meet unfortunate ends. Continue reading...

William Powell’s third outing as amateur detective Philo Vance. After the disappointing Green Murder Case, the franchise returns to form with a closed-circle mystery pitting Powell against a notorious bootlegger. The early thunderstorm generates a terrific atmosphere and the eccentric supporting cast sprinkles in the right dose of light comedy.

I’d like to revisit a better print. All the uploads online appear sourced from the same low-res scan.

William Powell plays a womanizer believed killed in the first World War. When he’s discovered living under an assumed name, a former flame, played by top-billed Evelyn Brent, seizes the opportunity to blackmail her former rival, Powell’s ex-wife, now married to an upstanding doctor played by Clive Brook. Continue reading...

Hal Skelly plays Hap, a well-named vaudeville bicycle-clown eking out a meager living. He takes in another vaudeville performer named Gardoni (just Gardoni—like Bono or Madonna), played with an Italian accent by William Powell. Continue reading...