Animal Crackers / Victor Heerman (1930). It is amazing that even in today’s modern sensibilities about comedy that a 94-year-old movie could still be so damn funny. There are still some parts that today’s younger viewers may find tedious, e.g. any musical number not performed by the Marx Brothers, but this film, based on a Broadway play starring the brothers, is a record of the chaotic and improvisational style that they brought to their stage work in the 1920s. The plot has something to do with a valuable painting with two copies that no one can tell apart, but we never really find out who had them all (Harpo pulls two of the copies out of his long coat), but who really cares. Groucho sings his signature song, “Hooray for Captain Spaulding,” Chico does a comic routine on the piano as Groucho runs a commentary - “If you get anywhere near a tune, play it” which was used as a riff in a MST3K episode, impressing my own two offspring. Harpo does one of his patented numbers on the harp as well as having a sleeve full of purloined silverware that pours out in a constant stream. Also with the peerless Margaret Dumont who Groucho alternately woos and insults. Always a delight.
A Night At The Opera / Sam Wood (1935). The story behind this great comedy is well-known: how Paramount cut the Marx Brothers loose and how they were signed by MGM’s Head of Production Irving Thalberg. Thalberg decided to dial back the Marx hijinks – but still providing plenty - and have them helping a young romantic couple. It worked like a charm – at least in the this, the first of five films (depending on how you count) that slavishly follow this formula with ever diminishing returns.
Otis B. Driftwood (Groucho) is being paid by rich widow Mrs. Claypool (Margaret Dumont) to get her into high society. He, of course, is pocketing the money, but the New York Opera provides an opportunity. Meanwhile, Chico and Harpo want to get their talented protégé (Allen Jones) a role at the NY Opera. They collide in scene after scene of comedy gold: the contract negotiation, the stateroom, Grouch’s baiting of the dumb cop, and the grand finale where the Bros run riot on the Opera’s opening night. Not to be missed.
Charlie Chan At The Wax Museum / Lynn Shores (1940) 26th of 47 overall in the series. 7th of 22 for Sidney Tolar as Charlie Chan. Cinematography by Virgil Miller who also shot “Charlie Chan At Treasure Island,” often suggested as the Best of the Chans.
Charlie and number-two son, Jimmy (Victor Sen Yung) are at the title Wax Museum for a radio broadcast but find themselves trapped there by two rival gangsters. One, McBirney (Marc Lawrence), wants revenge on Chan, but the other, whose identity is unknown, wants to kill McBirney. A very decent entry in the classic series.
Richard II / Rupert Goold (2012). In 2012 the BBC launched a two season mini-series of Shakespeare’s eight history plays that start at the beginning of the War Of The Roses and leads through to the end. The series is called “The Hollow Crown.” The plays are presented in historical order, rather than order of their writing. Thus, it begins with the play “Richard II,” titled for its main character, the weak king, the easily influenced kin, the dreamy king, the poetic king with the knack for words that pour out his self-pity and struggle with identity after being stripped of his kingship. It is ultimately the seizing of the throne by Henry Bolingbrook (Henry IV) (Roy Kinner), rather than the Kingship passing to Richard’s nearest kin that eventually triggers the civil war.
Ben Whishaw (“Q” in the Daniel Craig Bonds) is perfect as Richard. He seems almost eager to be deposed and to suffer. David Suchet (“Poirot”) plays the Duke of York who acts as Regent while Richard is in Ireland, but who goes over to the side of his nephew, Henry. Patrick Stewart (Star Trek: TNG) takes the smaller role of Henry’s father, John of Gaunt, but delivers a killer “This royal throne of kings, this scepter’d isle…” speech. We also see Clémence Poésy as Richard’s Queen and David Bradley (Harry Potter, Broadchurch, Doctor Who) as a gardener who keeps the grounds weeded and trimmed as Richard should have done with his government. An effective music score by Adam Cork seals the deal. “The Hollow Crown” is highly recommended.
Shazam! / David F. Sandberg (2019). The Captain Marvel/Shazam character has a complicated history. First created in comic book form by Fawcett Publications and on screen by a 1940 serial, it was later acquired by DC Comics. Because of conflicts with a similarly named Marvel superhero, since the 1970s the DC character has been branded as Shazam. The Fawcett Captain Marvel was who I followed as a very young lad long ago so I have hopes for a nostalgic trip with this movie, only to be disappointed.
It starts well enough with 14-year-old street kid and sometimes foster child Billy Batson (Asher Angel) as he searches for his birth mother. After reluctantly moving into a foster group home, Billy is tagged by an ancient god (Djimon Hounsou) to be the champion who will save the world from a demon attack. Then, the movie tropes take over. Whenever Billy says the word “Shazam,” he is transformed into a superhero (saying it again sends him back to an ordinary human). This leads to scenes from every child’s-brain-in-a-grown-body movie (and there are many) that you have ever seen. The finale is the typical 40-minute CGI battle over a city that results in millions of dollars of property damage.
I will not be watching the sequel. Also with Jack Dylan Grazer as Billy’s best pal at the group home and Mark Strong as the main baddie Dr. Silvana (introduced in the comics in the 1940s).
Poor Things / Yorgos Lanthimos (2023). The one thing this film has that most recommends it is an absolutely brilliant performance by Emma Stone as the Frankenstein/Cinderella centerpiece, Bella Baxter. Critics have usually described her as “fearless” because she is frequently naked in various sexual positions. So much, in fact, that it approaches exploitation. Not that I am complaining.
The plot is already quite well-known: a pregnant woman commits suicide. A mad scientist (Willem Dafoe) retrieves her body and replaces her dead brain with the brain of her unborn child. Now, this baby in an adult body needs to learn, to grow, and, regardless of efforts to shelter her, to experience the world on her own. She gets the opportunity when a womanizing lawyer, Duncan Wedderburn (Mark Ruffalo), takes her on a whirlwind tour of the major cities in Europe where her sexual awakening occurs. The great but unknown actor Kathryn Hunter is a Paris madam who teaches Bella the ropes.
This mad romp through the maturing of Bella is followed by means of a carefully shaded performance by Stone. Everyone expected Lily Gladstone to win Best Actress this year (and she was very good in “Killers Of The Flower Moon”), but Emma richly deserved the award and legitimately won it.
LIVE THEATER
Los Empeños De Una Casa (Pawns of a House, House of Desire) by Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz. Southwest Shakespeare Company, Pavilion Theater, Taliesin West, Scottsdale, AZ. It was good to learn that Juana de la Cruz, born in Mexico in 1647, is considered one of the first, if not THE first, playwright in the Americas. She is considered to be writing in the same general era as Shakespeare, although The Bard had been dead for 31-years before her birth. In her plays, including this one, she includes an intelligent and educated woman who knows her own mind and what she wants. This play, a frantic farce, is about several people who are stumbling about, mostly in the dark, trying to find someone else or the way out of a large house, but hindered by the lady of the house and her conniving servant with agendas of their own. While the play was interesting and an education, the overall quality of the play just went to demonstrate how superior Shakespeare is to all of his 17th century rivals.
TELEVISION
Endeavour“Pylon” Season 6, Episode 1 (June 16, 2019)
“Apollo” Season 6, Episode 2 (June 23, 2019)
“Confection” Season 6, Episode 3 (June 30, 2019)
“Degüello” Season 6, Episode 4 (July 7, 2019)
………………………………..Season 6 Completed
“Oracle” Season 7, Episode 1 (August 9, 2020)
“Raga” Season 7, Episode 2 (August 16, 2020)
“Zenana” Season 7, Episode 3 (August 23, 2020)
………………………………..Season 7 Completed
During Season 6, Morse is sporting a mustache which didn’t suit him at all. Others must have felt the same because when Season 7 starts, it is gone.
Profilage (The Paris Murders)“Destins Croisés” (Crossed Destinies) Season 4, Episode 3 (March 1, 2013)
Secrets Of The Dead“The Lost Gardens Of Babylon” Season 13, Episode 4 (May 6, 2014)
NOVA“Making North America: Origins” Season 42, Episode 18 (April 17, 2024)
“Making North America: Life” Season 42, Episode 19 (April 24, 2024)
A Brief History Of The Future“Beyond the Now” Episode 1 (April 3, 2024)
6-part PBS documentary written hosted by futurist Ari Wallach
