Jigsaw / Fletcher Markle (1949). A low-budget film noir with potential. With better production values and maybe a work-over by an experienced script doctor, it might have been a classic. As is, it’s a watchable 72-minutes – even with the bad print on YouTube.
Assistant D.A. Howard Malloy (Franchot Tone) is worried about the rise of potentially violent hate groups that he believes are set-up by organized crime to get money from members. As he investigates, he runs into a rouges galley of shady characters, including a nightclub singer, Barbara Whitfield (Jean Wallace), who is also quiet a looker. He romances her (even though he has a fiancé) to get inside information. The character Tone plays comes close to his Stuart Bailey in the excellent “I Love Trouble” from the previous year. The finale is the best scene in the film, a late-night shoot out in a closed and darkened art museum.
Jean Wallace was married to first husband Franchot Tone at the time of the filming. Wallace also the female star in the noir classic “The Big Combo” (1950) opposite third husband Cornel Wilde. But don’t get me wrong. She didn’t have a big career but had the talent to justify her presence in film noir.
King of the Rocket Men / Fred C. Brannon (1949). For the generations who grew up during the Saturday Kid’s Matinee era and/or Saturday morning early television, the Rocket Man loomed large. The suit with the metal helmet with the atomic jet pack that enabled a man to fly was featured in four iterations with different hero names and actors. First came three 12-chapter cliffhanger serials with “King Of The Rocket Men” as the initial release. The other two, dated 1952, were: “Radar Men From The Moon” and “Zombies From The Stratosphere.” Famously, in “Zombies,” Lenord Nimoy played a bit part as an alien invader named Narab. Finally, a one-season kid’s series, “Commando Cody: Sky Marshal of the Universe” in 1953. Fred C. Brannon directed every frame of these productions.
In this first, Jeff King (Tristram Coffin) is a scientist who does battle with the mysterious Doctor Vulcan who has criminally gotten riches in this sights. At the end of each chapter, the hero seems to have been killed so you have to see the next chapter (these were played every Saturday) to find out how he survived the car crash, explosion, fire, avalanche, etc. Jeff is helped by sidekick Burt Winslow (House Peters Jr.) and journalist Glenda Thomas (Mae Clarke). Clarke’s main claim to fame is being on the receiving end of half a grapefruit shoved in her face by James Cagney in “Public Enemy.”
These serials are cheap and cheesy, but Dog help me, I luv’em.
Run Silent, Run Deep / Robert Wise (1958). Except for one brief early scene with Mary LaRoche, this is an all-male cast in one of the best of the WWII submarine movies. When the captain of the USS Nerka moves on, his exec, Jim Bledsoe (Burt Lancaster), expects a promotion to Captain, but is disappointed, as is the rest of the crew who respect Bledsoe, when an older man, P.J. "Rich" Richardson (Clark Gable) gets the call. Richardson is a man on a mission to find and sink the Japanese destroyer Akikaze which has sunk several U.S. subs in Japan’s Bungo Straits (a real place), including Richardson’s last ship. His obsession causes him to disobey orders to not venture into the Straits. But the real thrills come from the conflict between the two great actors and charismatic movie stars, Gable and Lancaster. When they butt heads, it is terrific drama. The underwater suspense is some of the best on screen. The interior of the Nerka is either a very detailed and authentic looking mock-up or was actually filmed inside a submarine. The actors were trained by real crewmen in the operation of the panels and controls giving a palpable realism to the action. On the crew of the Nerka are Jack Warden, Joe Maross, and Don Rickles in his film debut.
Slap Shot / George Roy Hill (1977). This is a sports comedy that reconnects Paul Newman with director George Roy Hill. Newman acted in Hill’s Best Director and Best Picture Oscar winner “The Sting” (1973).
Reggie Dunlop (Newman) is an aging pro hockey player/coach for an always losing minor league team, the Charlestown Chiefs, located somewhere in the U.S. northeast (major location shooting was in Johnstown, Pennsylvania). He fears the team will fold as the town’s major employer, a steel mill, is set to close putting most of the population out of work. To make the team attractive to buyers from other cities, he brings onto the team three child-like brothers who, when on the ice, turn into an unstoppable violent force turning any game into a free-for-all that create casualties. Not only do the fights and the blood please their fans, but they start winning. You know there are going to be complications.
You may remember that I am a big fan of creative cursing (e.g. “Deadpool”) so “Slap Shot” is right in my wheelhouse. Many funny moments in and off the ice.
Also in the cast are Michael Ontkean as the best player but who disagrees with Reggie’s tactic. Lindsay Crouse is Ontkean’s unhappy spouse, Jennifer Warren is Reggie’s ex-wife, and Strother Martin is the head office manager. Recommended
Damsel / Juan Carlos Fresnadillo (2024). The first thing we hear is a woman’s voiceover saying, “There are many stories of chivalry where the heroic knight saves the damsel in distress. This is not one of them.” The first thing we see is a King leading a group of Knights in pursuit of a dragon. Inside a cave, the dragon disposes of the Knights in short order. The King drops to his knees.
Jump forward several centuries. In a foreign land during a brutal winter, the population faces mass starvation until the ruler, Lord Bayford (Ray Winstone), receives a proposal that his daughter Elodie (Millie Bobbie Brown) marry the son of the Queen of the island kingdom of Aurea, prosperous and in a warm climate. Seeing the deliverance of her own people, Elodie agrees. They are welcomed with pomp in Aurea and treated to luxury, but something seems a bit off although only Elodie’s stepmother Lady Bayford (Angela Bassett, not nearly on screen enough) notices it and becomes uneasy.
This next part is not a spoiler as every review mentions it and even the single sentence summary at the database gives it away – Elodie is destined to be a sacrifice to the dragon. The Kingdom of Aurea has a requirement to sacrifice three princess to the dragon periodically or face destruction. Elodie is #3 for this cycle. Trapped underground, she has the impossible task of evading the dragon, which, is seems, no one has ever down before. Millie Bobbie Brown takes her character from naiveté to hardened survivor, looking to save herself, her younger sister (a delightful Brooke Carter), and see that the treacherous Aureans get what’s coming to them. Also with Robin Wright as the evil Queen, Nick Robinson as the proposed groom, and Shohreh Aghdashloo as the voice of the dragon. Recommended.
Great Performances at the Met “Carmen” Season 18, Episode 5 (June 14 2024).
Encore performance by the Metropolitan Opera on PBS of Bizet’s perennial favorite. This was first streamed live to theaters on January 27, 2024.
Midsomer Murders“Painted in Blood” Season 6, Episode 3 (January 17, 2003)
The Chelsea Detective“The Gentle Giant” Season 1, Episode 3 (February 21, 2022)
“A Chelsea Education Season 1, Episode 4 (February 28, 2022)
……………………………………Season 1 Completed
The Brokenwood Mysteries“Blood Pink” Season 2, Episode 4 (October 18, 2015)
……………………………………….Season 2 Completed
Peter Gunn“Edie Finds a Corpse” Season 1, Episode 22 (February 23, 1959)
“The Dirty Word” Season 1, Episode 23 (March 2, 1959)