The First Vampire of Cinema

On March 4^th 1922, F.W. Murnau released Nosferatu, and now it is one hundred years old. So, I decided to re-watch it.

I originally saw it in the 90's, and had a somewhat favorable opinion of it. I thought it was okay, and with that in mind I sat down and gave it a good watch. What do I think of it now? It is still okay.

Fair warning, this movie is now over 100 years old so damn the spoilers. I can actually link the entire movie below, so if you want to you can watch is first and read this later.

First off, it is a silent movie. All the dialogue is text cards and all the sound is a soundtrack. In this case it is a bombastic and upbeat German classical music soundtrack. Secondly, all the body language is very over done. This is just how it was, take it or leave it. Thirdly, it is essentially a rip off of Bram Stoker's Dracula.

Murnau changed some things around as he did not have permission from Stoker's estate to make Dracula into a movie. Thus it takes place in Germany and Transylvania, not England and Transylvania. The main character is Hutter not Harker. Mina is called Ellen and instead of Professor van Helsing, there are Professors Bulwer and Sievers. Neither of the learned men do anything worthwhile in any case. The biggest change in character is that Renfield is missing and instead we get Knock who is Hutter's boss, but he is the one who goes mad and is locked up in an asylum ranting about the Master. Also, Knock is one of the most sinister looking dudes I have ever seen.

Finally we have the vampire. Elegant and sophisticated Dracula is changed to the creepy, rodent like Count Orlok. Orlok is tall and painfully thin. His ears are long and pointed, his nose long and crooked and his fangs are not incisors, they are located in the middle of his mouth. Imagine long rat teeth but needle sharp instead of square. He is one creepy dude.

Overall, the plot is the same as Dracula. Hutter goes to the Count's castle for a real estate deal and ultimately has to escape. By the way, Orlok, unlike Dracula has no sexy wives floating about, there is no one but the vampire himself. In the mean time, Orlok sails away and arrives in Hutter's home town Wisbourg, where he bought a house. There the final confrontation takes place (sort of), instead of a chase back to Transylvania. The end.

Overall, Nosferatu is a good movie, but it is unbalanced by some scenes that should have been longer and some scenes that make little sense to move the plot forward. We follow Hutter as he enjoys the sunlight at Castle Orlok and writes a letter to his wife, Ellen. Long scenes follow Ellen as she pines for her husband and suffers mentally through some kind of psychic connection with him. This does little to move the plot along. There are also scenes that I assume are meant to show the vampire's supernatural powers so they are shot in high speed, but sadly it just looks silly now. Finally the score is incredibly uneven. There are scenes, especially in the beginning when everything is happy and positive where the almost pompous music makes sense, but when Orlok has butchered an entire ships crew and the so called “Death Ship” floats into town, the same music sounds ridiculous.

Finally Orlok himself is a study in contrast. At times he is actually comedic, and at times he is one of, if not the creepiest vampire in film history. It's just that you don't know which Orlok you are getting from scene to scene. Overall he is cadaverous, stiff like he is suffering from rigor mortis and completely animalistic. There is nothing charming or seductive about him. He is a walking corpse hunting for blood. Your blood.

So do I recommend this movie? Every serious horror fan owes it to themselves to see this movie. Casual horror fans might want to skip it, but I urge you to try. I'll link it below.

 

 

That's that and all that. Join me again next time, and until then, have a great and safe week! 

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dCT1YUtNOA8&ab_channel=BestClassics

 

Dunkirk

I was in the mood for something different so I mentally went through the list of movies I intend to watch and decided to see:

Dunkirk (2017).

This is in many ways a weird war movie. Do not go into this expecting dramatic battle scenes and plucky and courageous Allies fighting Nazis like so many other war movies. This is not Saving Private Ryan. Christopher Nolan went an entirely different route with Dunkirk.

First a little bit of background. So when WWII broke out, the British sent a bunch of soldiers to France to fight the Germans, but they together with the French and Belgians dropped the ball. They got surrounded and pushed back into the French town of Dunkirk. The German general in charge, von Rundstedt, issued an order to halt the attack. Instead of loosing lots of troops assaulting the desperate Allies, they opted to let the Luftwaffe (air force) bomb them to pieces instead.

British High Command realized that in order to have a fighting chance later on, they needed to get their boys off the beach and back to Britain. The biggest problem was that the harbor wasn't very big and could only accommodate one larger ship at a time. In response, the call went out to every boat owner in SE Britain to sail across the channel with whatever they had in order to bring back as many men as they could. All while the German Air Force did their best to stop this from happening.

So back to the movie. Dunkirk is all about the evacuation. It is told from the perspective of land, sea and air. Each part has its main characters, but it's as much about the evacuation effort as it is about the people. In a sense the people come second to the event itself. The movie is also somewhat non-sequential which is a bit confusing, at least at first.

I have to say that Nolan did an amazing job. Dunkirk is one of the most beautiful movies I have ever seen, even though the subject matter is incredibly grim. The cinematography is first class all the way and his use of CGI vs. practical effects is masterful. It all blends seamlessly together and really drops you down in the middle of the conflict.

The soundtrack merits a special mention. There is essentially no music only sound. Sound designed to heighten your anxiety and help you feel the panic the desperate soldiers feel. Pounding ticking and unpleasant screeches are common here and it really works. Amazing work by Hans Zimmer.

But as always, you can have the best techniques in the world, but without good actors you fall apart. Luckily the actors knocked it out of the park. Entire scenes go past with no dialogue, only wordless acting that never the less speak volumes. The cast list is huge and everyone did a great job. Dunkirk is painted thick with fear, exhaustion, desperation, anger, shame and even some rare humor. All mixed up to make a masterpiece about the will to survive.

A couple of interesting details: You don't see a single German until the very end, and even then, they are more shadows in the dark than soldiers. Also there is a scene where a Spitfire without fuel manages to shoot down a Stuka dive-bomber. This is recorded fact and worked as the Stuka was a sitting duck when diving. It looked silly, but sometimes the truth is kind of silly.

So do I recommend this movie? If you haven't already figured it out from all the gushing, then yes! Unless you hate war movies, or just can't stand the subject matter in general, do please watch Dunkirk. It completely blew me away and sucked me in completely. I absolutely need to watch it again some day.

That's that and all that. Join me again next time and until then, have a great and safe week!

Revolver & Almost Human

Soon after having watched my first poliziotteschi movie I found a list from tasteofcinema.com called The 10 Best Poliziottesci Films. This week I watched the two final movies on the list and I want to talk about them today.

Here's the list if you're curious: http://www.tasteofcinema.com/2020/the-10-best-poliziotteschi-films/

We begin with Revolver (1973).

Oliver Reed stars as Vito Cipriani, the vice warden of a prison. Someone kidnaps his wife and instead of a ransom, they demand that he springs the freelance criminal Milo Ruiz (Fabio Testi). Soon thereafter they realize that Milo doesn't know who it is that wants him free, and the unlikely duo gets pulled into something much bigger and more dangerous than they were expecting.

All in all Revolver was a really enjoyable movie. Reed is intense as always and Testi knew his stuff, so the acting is on point. The locations are gorgeous, the shots are nice, basically it's all good. Except for one thing. The story drags on quite a bit at times towards the end. There are a couple of scenes that are superfluous, and a tighter script could have elevated Revolver from a good and tense movie to the next tier.

In essence, Revolver is a bit of a buddy cop movie with elements of the odd couple. The officer of the law who has to cooperate with a criminal wasn't new in 1973 let alone now, but it works well enough.

Filming was problematic due to Reed's alcoholism. At about two or three in the afternoon he was drunk and became abusive and aggressive which lead to the fact that the director had to tell the crew that filming would stretch three days longer than it did. Otherwise they would have kicked the crap out of Oliver for his behavior.

 

 

Our second movie is Almost Human (1974).

Almost human is essentially a reverse poliziotteschi. Tomas Milian expertly portrays Giulio Sacchi, a low life, eternal screw-up thug. Tired of being kicked around he snaps and together with two accomplishes kidnaps the daughter of a wealthy businessman. Along the way he commits several brutal murders, fueled by a combination of his own lack of self esteem, drugs, alcohol and a hatred for those above him socially.

The inspector chasing him, Commissario Walter Grandi is played by Henry Silva who appears twice on the list, both times as a heartless killer. I was keen to see him portray a cop, but I ended up somewhat disappointed. I mentioned that Almost Human is a reverse poliziotteschi and it is true. Most of the movie is about Giulio with the police being present here and there. So Silva was a bit wasted, unfortunately. He is good, but totally overshadowed by Milian, who went on to have an excellent career in film and TV.

The movie is well made, I have no complaints. The score by Ennio Morricone is good if a little weird. Definitely a product of the 70's. The story isn't really all that interesting, it is Milian's performance that is the stand out. Sacchi is completely reprehensible and vile yet somehow fascinating. He is actually surprisingly intelligent and if he could get over himself, he could have gone far either as a career criminal or in an honest field. As it is, he is his own worst enemy and you can't outrun yourself.

 

So, do I recommend these movies? Yes. Both are solidly in the middle of the poliziotteschi genre. Not as great as Caliber 9 or Goodbye & Amen but not as mediocre as The Big Racket. Fans of the genre or thrillers should have a good time here.

That's that and all that. Join me again next time, and until then, have a great and safe week!

The Canal

Just to mess with your heads, I watched a movie from 2014.

Just kidding, I watched it because I came across a scene and looked it up. Because it seemed interesting, I watched:

The Canal (2014)

The Canal is an Irish/UK production and is written and directed by Ivan Kavanagh. It stars Rupert Evans as David, a film archivist. His wife Alice is played by Hannah Hoekstra and their babysitter is played by Kelly Byrne, amongst others.

According to the official cover blurb we know that David and Alice movie into an old house. Five years later their son, Billy is in kindergarten and David gets an old film reel from 1902(?). It shows that a man who lived in their house murdered his wife for infidelity and later on also killed his children and their nanny. David soon suspects that Alice is having an affair and horror starts to happen. Oh yeah, it is a low budget horror movie.

Mind you this is all from the cover of the movie so technically it's not a spoiler. I'll try not to spoil anything else, so I'll keep this short and vague.

David sees a ghost and is convinced it is behind all the bad things that happen. He struggles with trying to prove the existence of the ghost while also keeping his sanity intact. How successful he is remains to be decided by the viewer. You see, The Canal is one of those “Could be supernatural – Could be mundane” movies. Ultimately either could be true, but there is a scene or two that put me on the side of the supernatural. Your experience and opinion may be different.

All in all, The Canal is a mixed bag for me. Countless other movies have played with the tropes that makes up the story and often done so better. Not that The Canal is bad, far from it, but it isn't all that original either for the most part. Even the title is a mixed issue. The canal itself is important, but the movie could also be titled The House and it would be equally correct.

Speaking as a long term horror aficionado, half the scares weren't scary. You can see them coming a mile off. Of the remaining half, most other scares are solid and a few were quite good. The actors are all good though. I have no complaints there, not even with Billy's actor, Calum Heath. The story wouldn't work without him and he isn't even annoying as so many kids are in horror.

The cinematography is nice and solid. Not groundbreaking in my opinion, but still good enough. In a way that is the main verdict of The Canal – Good enough.

The biggest problem really, is that everything happens so fast you have very little time to get to know the characters before you need to either feel sympathy or disdain. You don't get that time, but then again that also means that the movie doesn't drag on. Some call it a slow burn but I have to disagree, it's not slow it is paced.

So do I recommend this movie? Usually I say yes if you are a fan of the genre or something like that. This time I have to say yes, if you don't watch a lot of horror. I found it pleasant but bland, but a non-horror aficionado might find it quite scary. So if you want a spooky evening, give it a shot. Just make sure your parents are out of the room by the time you get to the end or it can get a bit embarrassing. Enough said.

That's that and all that. Join me again next time and until then, have a great and safe week!

The Big Sleep

I took my second step into film noir a couple of days ago. I watched another Humphrey Bogart movie, this time:

The Big Sleep (1946).

Directed by Howard Hawks and also starring Lauren Bacall, John Ridgely and Martha Vickers amongst others, The Big Sleep is an archetype for the noir genre, just as much if not more than The Maltese Falcon. Both were instrumental in cementing certain tropes since both were based on novels by some of the biggest names in the detective fiction of the time.

In The Big Sleep, Bogart plays private eye, Philip Marlowe (as opposed to Sam Spade in the Falcon). He is hired by a retired general Sternwood to handle a blackmail case. In the process he meets the generals two daughters, the beautiful but impossible Carmen and her dangerous older sister Vivian (Bacall). The case leads in several directions at once, with murders, beatings, shoot outs and romance. As usual, I won't spoil anything further, but this is not a dull movie by any means.

The actors are great, especially Bogart and Bacall. Bogart was drinking heavily at the time and the studio had to cap his intake to one beer at lunch. Still, he produces quality acting throughout. Marlowe is cheeky, cocky and calm as a cucumber. At least most of the time.

Bacall is elegant and seductive throughout. Even when in mortal peril she keeps it together, but not without subtle hints that Vivian really is scared.

The plot is good, but a bit too complicated. There were times when I lost track a bit, since the cast is pretty big and names are tossed about at a rapid-fire pace. Everything is explained in the end, but I did have to read a synopsis to make sure I understood it correctly. There are layers within layers and the storytelling could have been a little bit smoother. It is by no means a deal breaker, just an observation.

 

Fun fact: When Marlowe meets both daughters, both comment on his lack of height, like this;

Carmen Sternwood: You're not very tall, are you?

Philip Marlowe: Well, I, uh, I tried to be.

And

Vivian: So you're a private detective? I didn't know they existed, except in books, or else they were greasy little men snooping around hotel corridors. My, you're a mess, aren't you?

Philip Marlowe: I'm not very tall either. Next time I'll come on stilts, wear a white tie and carry a tennis racket.

Vivian: I doubt if even that would help.

This was because Bogart wore platform shoes to make him noticeably taller than the ladies and they couldn't help poke a little fun at it.

Another fun fact is that Marlowe comments several times that Vivian is shaking. She brushes it off every time with excuses like “I'm not used to being kidnapped”. In truth, Bogart and Bacall were having an affair and her nerves were worn thin not knowing whether he would leave his wife for her, making her shake in real life. In the end they did, and they stayed married until his death in 1957. Bacall carried on and passed in 2014.

Final fun fact. The Warner Bros. executives were so impressed with Bacall that even though this was only her fourth movie, they increased her salary from $350/week to $1000/week. How often does something like that happen?

So do I recommend this movie? Absolutely! It is a quintessential film noir as well as a great detective/mystery in general. As with The Maltese Falcon, you should absolutely watch it unless black and white really annoys you.

That's that and all that. Join me again next time and until then, have a great and safe week!

An unusual black bird

 I decided to venture into a movie genre I'm not terribly familiar with, the film noir genre.

I haven't seen very many film noir, so as I tend to do, I consulted a couple of top list. However I found myself a bit annoyed by them and quickly realized that I subconsciously wanted the list to place The Maltese Falcon at the top. So I ditched the lists and just sat down to enjoy this classic.

The Maltese Falcon (1941) is not the first film version of the novel by Dashiell Hammet, but it is the best known. It was the directorial debut by the now legendary John Huston and stars Humphrey Bogart, Mary Astor, Peter Lorre and others.

The first five minutes were a bit of a shock to me. I genuinely wondered what I was getting myself into, but this lasted only until my brain adjusted. The Maltese Falcon is not the oldest movie I have seen, I believe Nosferatu (1922) holds that distinction, but the way films were made back in the 40's is rather different that how they were made later on. Everything is a stage, there are no natural scenes, and it shows. It feels more stiff and formal, more like a play than a movie, but once I acclimatized to it I started to enjoy myself.

The Maltese Falcon is in pretty much every way the archetype of the noir genre. The private detective (Bogart), the damsel in distress with skeletons in her closet (Astor), the shady dealer (Lorre), the tough cops, desperate gunman etc, it is all here, and it is done well.

It is hard to know when a movie is too old to spoil. At what point are you released from the responsibility to keep silent? I don't know, but I'm not going to spoil the plot, I'll only say that there is an incredibly valuable statue, the falcon, and that everyone wants it. Trouble and tribulations follow. This is very much a case of the journey being more important than the destination, not that the destination isn't important. The acting is superb once you get a hang of the style. Like on a stage, there is a tendency towards over acting, but it's just the style of the time. The movie does a lot of close-ups on the faces which places a demand on the actors to perform with expressions and they deliver, but the real gold comes from the cinematography.

The camera work is truly excellent. Huston created an incredible tension is scene after scene with very little to work with. Between the acting and Huston's technique, you get some truly suspenseful scenes, that any modern movie would be hard pressed to equal let alone surpass.

The dialogue is amazing. Rapid fire wit in scene after scene that puts many comedies to shame and this is far from a comedy to begin with.

Praise aside, The Falcon has some problems. All I could find in the way of continuity is a continuity clerk, not a whole department to keep track of things. Example: when Bogart punches out Lorre, Lorre's tie changes between from when the punch starts and he passes out. Small things like that are littered around. What really stood out to me was the opening scrawl. It explains that "In 1539, the Knight Templars of Malta, paid tribute to Charles V of Spain, by sending him a Golden Falcon..." The leaders of the Knights Templar were arrested in 1307 and the order was disbanded in 1312... It is possible they were thinking of another order of knights or that they simply didn't give a damn. Either way, it is pretty silly.

So, do I recommend this movie? Yes, absolutely. Unless you are allergic to old black and white movies, you really should watch The Maltese Falcon if you haven't done so already. I had blast and I'm looking forward to getting to know the film noir genre better.

That's that and all that. Join me again next time, and until then, have a great and safe week!

Viva La Dirt League

I have something different for you today. Browsing on Reddit, I tripped over a link to the Youtube channel Viva La Dirt League. They are a bunch of gamers from New Zealand that make comedy sketches about games and gamers. 

Games and the people who play them tend to fall into certain patterns. Idiosyncrasies, if you will. A kind of logic that can be incredibly specific. Viva La Dirt League are very good at bringing these things forward in such a manner that you can't help but laugh at them. If you have ever played a game like an MMO or fantasy games in general you will undoubtedly recognize what is going on.

It isn't just fantasy either. The have sketches about PUBG, Tarkov, Red Dead and more. I myself have mostly been watching the series Epic NPC Man, with sketches ranging from 1-5 minutes. I'll embed a few below.

Here is the link to their channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/VivaLaDirtLeague/videos

And here is the NPC man list: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lbJ51AJuR7E&list=PLSMETuURtTXCzW7Q_ZIy4QzEnyUG8totf&ab_channel=VivaLaDirtLeague

And that is really it. I urge you to give it a chance, I myself can't get enough. Join me again next time and until then, have a great and safe week!