Classic Horror Video Review 1: Cat People and Curse of the Cat People

It's October and that means Classic horror. This video is the first in a series of reviews that will explore the Horror genre from its beginnings, Enjoy!

Cat People (1982)

Directed by Paul Schrader

The Curse of Cat People (1944)

Directed by Robert Wise and Gunther von Fritsch

Film Class Films: "Silence is Good" The General (1925) and Metropolis (1927)

In part 2 of my series on films I watch in film class, we will take a look at movies made with the best the silent era had to offer. While this may often be forgotten, films had actually reached a high level of artistic achievement by the end of the silent era. These two films represent that pinnacle of soundless achievement that showed the world the value of silence.





















The General (1925)
While Charlie Chaplin may be more famous, there is no doubt in my mind that Buster Keaton at least rivaled him in terms of comedic ability. Sadly overlooked at the time of its release the General is now considered Keaton's greatest cinematic achievement. This is a film that will make you forget you are watching a silent film.

For many, the experience of watching a silent film is seen as tiresome. The lack of sounds and dialogue coupled with mood setting music make for a sometimes soporific experience. The General is one of the exceptions to that rule. It is a film that was made for what the director Alfred Hitchcock called "pure cinema" the idea of something that you can only experience in a movie theater. The General is one of those films which requires a visual experience and, in many ways, a soundless one.

The general is the story of a man who loved two things: his girl, and his train. It is set at the beginning of the civil war and follows Keaton's character's attempt to join the southern confederate army. After his attempt fails because he is too valuable as a mechanic Keaton is suddenly and unexpectedly involved in the war when his train is stolen and so is his girl. An incredibly entertaining chase ensue.

This comedy is best in sound because of its beautiful simplicity. This film could not possibly be as wonderfully simple as it is if dialogue had to be added. What makes the film great is the way that it is a simple and wonderfully entertain chase. Keaton's timing is perfect leading to moments of suspense followed by moments of incredible laughter.

The General was the first silent film I watched which really had me hooked and loving every minute of it. you will to if you give it a try, it's one for the ages 5/5!





















Metropolis (1927)
Metropolis is considered by film historians and audiences alike to be German Director Fritz Lang's masterpiece. The Science Fiction story of class warfare and technological advancements in a dystopian future is truly mesmerizing from start to finish.

Many will be daunted by the films runtime of 2 hrs. which for most is too long to watch a silent film. My advice: don't be you won't even notice the runtime. Like the General Metropolis is a film that makes you forget it's silent. It's images will be etched in your brain forever. Metropolis' great strength are its images. with special effects leagues ahead of there time and a cast of thousands, this film truly is epic. Lang does what is required of a great sci-fi director, and that is he creates a world. One that is intriguing and believable.

The story is high art, focusing on themes that are so broad and yet so important that many movies won't even touch them. Lang handles these themes adeptly and creates a story that is pretty masterful from start to finish. The acting may be overly expressive in many areas but overall this is a film that cannot be missed by anybody that is interested in film. 4.5/5

Film Class Films: "In the Beginning" the Great Train Rbbery (1903) and Charlie Chaplin's the Kid (1921)

This new series of posts is devoted to the films which I view as part of my History of American Film class in college. These posts will contain reviews of the films as well as analysis of their place in film history as a whole. Films will be added in the order that I see them in class.

The Great Train Robbery (1903)
This film is really impossible to write a review about so this is more of an analysis about the place this film holds in the history of the medium. The great Train Robbery was the first film to have a cohesive plot with a beginning a middle and an end. Clocking in at 13 minutes this film is definitely shorter than a feature and it is worth watching for the historical aspects of it. It is also worth watching because, considering that it is 110 years old, it is a quite sophisticated film. Porter made a huge leap in directing in this film and every movies owes something to this film because it was the first to pave the way!


The Kid (1921)
The Kid comes almost twenty years after the Great Train Robbery and it is considered one of comedian Charlie Chaplin's greatest works. The film tells the story of a boy who is estranged from his single mother and ends up in the care of Chaplin's character the Tramp. While many Chaplin films offer great gags the Kid is notable for its use of real drama. This is not a pure comedy but is instead a dramedy with many effective scenes. It is admittedly hard to get into silent movies and this film is no exception but if you just force yourself to watch it you might find that the lack of sound fades away and the film comes alive. It doesn't quite come alive enough for me to want to see it again but it is definitely a pivotal work in the career of a great comedian. 4/5

Two Films: Alfred Hitchcock and Joan Fontaine

Rebecca (1940)
Some might argue that Hitchcock's First American film Rebecca belongs more to its producer David Selznick than to Hitchcock. I would disagree, Rebecca has Hitchcock's master touch in every scene. Whether it be the framing of the shots, the timing of the cuts, or the close ups this is a Hitchcock film through and through. The reason for the misconception is that Hitchcock and Selznick did not get along while making this film because they were both very strong artistic personalities. Selznick did not allow Hitchcock to have any control over the final editing process thus people find this film to be more of a Selznick picture than a Hitchcock picture. However, prior to the film ever going into editing Hitchcock shot the film so that it could only be edited his way, thus the credit for this fantastic tale of mystery and suspense belongs with him. Rebecca is the story of a young woman who marries a mysterious and haunted aristocrat. She is not used to the aristocratic life and also feels very overshadowed by her husband's dead first wife Rebecca. This film has elements of the gothic tale and of the murder mystery. Hitchcock manages to create just the right amount of suspense and misdirection and although the actors give great performances there is no question this is a director's film. The close ups and the evocative camerawork really help the audience enter the world of the film. Fontaine gives a fantastic performance as the woman really represents the audience and is therefore unnamed. The supporting cast is absolutely fantastic, full of great character actors like George sanders and Nigel Bruce This film plays like a modern gothic mystery thriller done with the elegant touch of the master of suspense. What more could you want! 5/5!

Suspicion (1941)
Suspicion was Hitchcock's next film and in many ways it is similar to his first American film Rebecca. Both star Joan Fontaine, both feature husband's to the main character who are mysterious, and both had Hitchcock not getting what he wanted because of the studio system. Suspicion is the tale of a bookish young woman who falls in love with a mysterious, handsome man played by Cary Grant. Unfortunately grant is not all he seems and soon she becomes suspicious that he may be capable of murder. This movie is all about building slow and calculated suspense and as always Hitchcock excels. This film has Hitchcock experimenting even more with the better technology he found when he moved from Britain to America. It would take until Shadow for a Doubt in 1942 for Hitchcock to really figure it out but you can see many glimpses here of what was to come. Fontaine won the best supporting actress Oscar for her role and she really does deserve it. Cary Grant really displays some dramatic talent here and a dark side. Grant would become one of Hitchcock's favorite leading men. The supporting cast includes Nigel bruce who is most famous for playing Watson along side basil Rathbone's Sherlock Holmes in those films. Here he gives a great performance as a bumbling Englishmen. Unfortunately, while to first half of the film is truly fantastic, the ending of the film leaves much to be desired. Part of this was due to the production code and talking about why the ending isn't good would give away the film but It really just wraps up to quickly. So while I liked suspicion a lot and felt it had many great performances it is not among the Hitchcock's greatest achievements. 3.5/5

Two Films: Inglorious Bastards

Inglorious Bastards (1978)
I would never have seen the original Inglorious Bastards if it were not for my happening to be in one of those nearly extinct video stores. I had no knowledge up to the point when I saw the DVD on the shelf that this film even existed. I didn't know what to expect and was glad to be pleasantly surprised to find that this film is actually a gem. It was an Italian made film that got limited release in America and very little attention. The best way to describe it would be to say that it is sort of a spaghetti western version of the Dirty Dozen. It's about a convoy of allied criminals whose transportation to prison is interrupted and attacked forcing the prisoners to fight their way through Nazi occupied territory. It belongs to the genre of the World War 2 adventure and for that genre it is very action filled and quite a lot of fun. It really is worth checking out and fun for anyone who likes films like this. 4/5



Inglourious Basterds (2009)
Inglorious Basterds is in no way shape or form a remake the 1978 original. This is a Tarantino film through and through and a great one at that! In fact Inglourious Basterds makes its case as being at least in the top 3 of Tarantino's films and in my opinion it is better than Django Unchained. to try and summarize the plot is completely futile and the film should just be experienced for itself. What I will say is that this film is only partially related to WW2  Adventure films like the Dirty Dozen. It definitely has parts that belong to that genre but it is much more than that. This film is very violent and foul mouthed but not nearly as much as other Tarantino films. It is really the acting and the characters that make this movie work to perfection. Tarantino's dialogue is only allowed to live up to its full potential if delivered by the right actors and these are the right actors. Christoph Waltz definitely deserved his academy award for his performance as a Nazi colonel. Brad Pitt does a fine job in his role and so does the rest of the ensemble cast. As stated above this has all of the great ingrediants of a Tarantino film: fantastic dialogue, film references including cameos by actors from the original film, and a great soundtrack. Inglourious Basterds really is a fantastic film with some of the best scenes and acting Tarantino has ever had. A real standout is the opening sequence which while 20 minutes long never feels sluggish and slowly builds to an inevitable conclusion. My conclusion about this film is that it is great 5/5!

2 Films: 1950's Noir

Film Noir (literally translated “dark film”) was a genre that flourished in the post WWII era of filmmaking. Its genesis came from the hard boiled pulp fiction of the 1930’s by the likes of Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler. By the 1950’s, especially the mid 50’s noir was nearing the end of its reign as the most prominent genre in film but before it left there were still a couple of classics in store.

The Killing (1956)

The heist film is a sub genre of film that I find to be surprisingly popular. Practically every year there are at least a couple new heist films and there are actually a lot of good ones. If we’re talking straight heist films then I believe that Stanley Kubrick’s the Killing is the greatest of them all. What I mean by straight heist films is that many heist films focus less on the heist and more on either the preamble (the Asphalt Jungle another classic) or what happens afterwards (Reservoir Dogs another more modern classic). The Killing is just a wonderful tautly paced noir heist film with great acting and even better directing. Stanley Kubrick (Dr. Stangelove, 2001) made the Killing quite early in his career and this tale of a racetrack heist is really his break out film. He is inventive with his use of time and with the way the camera is always moving. This jumping around and inventive camerawork gives the film a crackling energy and suspense. There are many classic noir elements here like the use of shadow and the double cross and the heist here is done to perfection creating suspense and anticipation. Movies don’t get much better put together and entertaining as this. You won’t mind letting the Killing steal an hour and a half of your time 5/5!

Kiss Me Deadly (1955)

Kiss Me Deadly is a movie like no other. This film is a classic detective story and one of the three classic detective films (the Maltese falcon, and The Big Sleep being the other two) but it also turns the whole genre on its head. The film is about the detective Mike Hammer who was one of the top selling fictional characters of the day. Hammer was a no nonsense guy who believed in delivering what he saw as real justice and bedding as many women as James Bond. Hammer is the blueprint for all of the classic anti heroes we see today like Dirt Harry. The screenwriter did not like Mike Hammer or what he stood for and he crafted a screenplay in which Hammer is a sleazy and mean guy. In the film as Hammer goes on the case he is constantly being belittled and beaten down by the characters around him both verbally and physically. Unfortunately or fortunately the attacks never seem to stick. Although Ralph Meeker’s Hammer isn’t a hero he is still the one we root for and in the end the attacks almost seem to fall flat because there is no way that the audience hates Hammer like they should. Believe it or not this adds to the movie, this and the wonderful surprises Kiss Me Deadly has in store for the audience. I don’t want to even talk about the plot because that would ruin what an incredibly modern, interesting, and entertaining film this is. It’s a strange and new film while also being a really good classic detective adventure. It’s one of a kind and it only gets better with age. It’s just plain fantastic!  5/5!

2 Films: Early Christopher Nolan Reviews

This is going to be the start of a series in which I take two films in a specific category and review them. These categories can be themes and genres and will be very specific as in this first one which is on two early films of the director Christopher Nolan.

He is now know best for his Batman films but what made him a candidate to direct those? where did this director who has now inspired many filmmakers and become what many consider to be a master craftsman come from? These questions will be answered in my reviews of Christopher Nolan's first two features Following (1998) and Memento (2000)

Following (1998)
Following is considered by many to be one of the most successful no budget films of all time. It was made on 16mm film and was shot in many cases using natural lighting. The cast of the film were Friends and family of Christopher Nolan himself and the production was pretty much in his hands as he was both the writer and director. The film is about a writer who begins to randomly follow people to get ideas for his work. This hobby turns into and obsession and eventually gets him involved in more criminal activity. This film is a neo noir in every way. The story is reminiscent of the noir films of old but the film is entirely modern. by its no budget nature it is shot like a documentary and I think this works. In fact I think the no budget nature makes the film more interesting to watch and knowing that the director who made this film went on to make a film like the Dark Knight Rises is truly incredible. The movie has a lot of energy and clocking in at only 70 minutes it is very taut. This film will keep you on the edge of your seat also because of the way it plays with time. This keeps the audience even more engaged in the film so that they are working to understand the plot and therefor actively involved in the movie. There is something very strange in this movie and that is that one of the apartments broken into has a bat symbol, not just a bat symbol but a batman logo on the door. This is really weirdly coincidental to me but who knows it is a Christopher Nolan Film. Overall I found this movie to be riveting and well worth watching 4/5

Memento (2000)
The difference in budget between Following and Memento is truly staggering. In his second film we see Nolan getting to make a "real" movie with a "real" actor in the form of Guy Pearce. He gets a broader canvas and story to work with and he works with them well. This may be one of the most mind blowing film experiences I have ever had. this film will literally warp your mind and through the way it tells the story in fragments it will make you feel like you have Leonard's Condition. Leonard is the main character in the movie and he has short term memory loss and he is trying to find the men that killed his wife. That is all of the story you should know going in and you should be prepared to brace yourself for one heck of a ride. You have to work while watching this movie in order to put it together and I think that's part of the fun. It really is well done and so well executed by Nolan and you can see him coming into his own. This film really shows that he has talent as a director and I think it was awesome that he went on to direct Batman. Memento is truly a mind bending film for reasons I won't reveal and it is a must watch! 4.5/5

Note: Both Films are Available to Stream on Netflix!