Buck Privates (1941)

Universal Pictures
Directed by Arthur Lubin
My rating: 2.5 stars out of 4
IMDb
(DVD, Universal)

Abbott and Costello mistakenly sign up for the Army in this service comedy. Although they get top billing, they are still a sideshow, the main plot is carried by Lee Bowman. He is a wealthy playboy who tries to use his money to get out of the Army, but instead is forced to remain by his father. He woos pretty Jane Frazee and earns the respect of his peers during war maneuvers. The Andrews Sisters get plenty of screen time, livening things up with upbeat "boogie woogie" numbers and some crazy swing dancers.

Dealing: or the Berkeley-to-Boston Forty-Brick Lost-Bag Blues (1972)

Warner Bros.
Directed by Paul Williams
My rating: 2 stars out of 4
IMDb
(DVD, Warner Archive Collection)

Robert Lyons is Peter/Lucifer, an unlikeable low life who would rather sit around reading children's books than go to his law lectures at Harvard. He makes cross country trips for drug dealer John Lithgow, with more hair than he will ever have in subsequent roles. Lyons meets hippie bimbo chick Barbara Hershey in California, who despite top billing is wasted as a minor, undeveloped character. Barbara gets arrested in Boston. Lyons decides to blackmail the police to get her released. It all leads to a bloody shootout between strangers who we have not seen the entire film, set to inappropriate blues tunes by the Grateful Dead.

The Baby Maker (1970)

National General Pictures
Directed by James Bridges
My rating: 3 stars out of 4
IMDb
(DVD, Warner Archive Collection)

Hippie girl Barbara Hershey agrees to be the surrogate mother for a middle class, childless suburban couple. Her musician boyfriend reluctantly agrees, so off she goes to spend a night in a cabin with the man, wife in tow. She must abide to all kinds of restrictions while pregnant, primarily no sex with her real boyfriend. As the pregnancy progresses, she becomes good friends with the couple while outgrowing the immature hippie lifestyle. The film takes its time and examines every angle of the complex relationships. It also offers a glimpse of LA circa 1970, including a psychedelic projection party!

Bye Bye Braverman (1968)

Warner Bros.
Directed by Sidney Lumet
My rating: 2 stars out of 4
IMDb
(DVD, Warner Archive Collection)

"Jewish" intellectual comedy of the kind Woody Allen would milk for all its worth in the 70s. It takes place on one day in New York City. Four men attend the funeral of a friend. First they receive the news at home, where home life is mostly bickering with their spouses or family. Next comes the trip to the funeral in a Volkswagen bug. They got lost, have an accident and finally get drunk. The final part of the plot is the funeral service itself, featuring a long, meandering sermon, but it turns out to be the wrong funeral. They finally catch up to their friend at the cemetery. George Segal has frequent daydreams about his own death along the way. Besides the morbid subject matter, it's never funny and has too many out of date cultural references.

Brewster McCloud (1970)

MGM
Directed by Robert Altman
My rating: 2.5 stars out of 4
IMDb
(DVD, Warner Archive Collection)

The story, as best as I can tell, is an allegorical coming-of-age fable about Brewster McCloud, a teenage boy living in the fallout shelter of the Houston Astrodome. He is obsessed with flying, probably representing his desire to break free from his mother, played by the angelic Sally Kellerman. She follows him around town, murdering people who threaten him. However, she does nothing to stop the girls in his life. Shelley Duvall is a tour guide who steals his virginity. At that point, his mother/guardian angel departs him. Brewster tries to impress the girl by flying around the Astrodome on some wings he made based on plans by the Wright brothers, leading to tragedy. There are spoofs of car chases and macho detectives. Rene Auberjonois is an eccentric professor of ornithology who provides running commentary on the similarities of characters in the film to birds. At first he is amusing, then annoying but ultimately pointless. One of Hollywood's most idiosyncratic directors most idiosyncratic film.

They Came to Rob Las Vegas (1968)

Warner Bros.
Directed by Antonio Isasi
My rating: 3 stars out of 4
IMDb
(DVD, Warner Archive Collection)

Underrated and virtually forgotten heist caper shot on location in Las Vegas and the surrounding desert. Gary Lockwood assembles the gang to pull off the job, with the help of inside information from Elke Sommer. Their target is an armored vehicle, which they take in the middle of the desert. They have an ingenious hiding place dug directly under the sand, where they slowly burn their way into the impenetrable truck. They are pursued by Lee J. Cobb, the owner of the armored car, and Jack Palance, an insurance detective. The job slowly unravels as the gang loses its patience to get the loot and turn on each other. Cobb and Palance are also closing in on them. It leads to a memorable climax in the desert with an almost surreal feel.

The Picasso Summer (1969)

Warner Bros.
Directed by Robert Sallin and Serge Bourguignon
My rating: 2.5 stars out of 4
IMDb
(DVD, Warner Archive Collection)

Albert Finney is a bored architect in San Francisco. Along with his wife Yvette Mimieux, they decide to go to France to meet his inspiration Pablo Picasso. They find his villa but cannot gain entrance. Yvette becomes bored while Finney goes to Spain to try to contact a friend of Picasso. In Spain, he learns to bullfight. There is a long sequence featuring a real bullfight that is practically unwatchable. The bull is killed in a barbaric, bloody ritual. After this escapade, Finney returns to France and his wife, never meeting Picasso. The plot, such as it is, features three animated sequences: the first is about war and peace, the second sex and the third bullfighting. They are nicely done in a psychedelic-Picasso style by Wes Herschensohn, his only movie credit during a career mostly spent doing layouts for Saturday morning cartoons. They should have substituted the bullfighting animation for the actual bullfight, as was done with the sex scene, saving us the sight of the bull lying dead in a pool of blood.

The Miracle of the Bells (1948)

RKO Radio Pictures
Directed by Irving Pichel
My rating: 3 stars out of 4
IMDb
(VHS, Republic)

The story of an actress from a small Pennsylvania coal mining town getting her big break in Hollywood is told in flashback by her press agent Fred MacMurray. She gets the role of a lifetime as Joan of Arc and is actually quite good. However, when she dies from TB the producer shelves the film. MacMurray returns the body to her small home town. He cooks up a PR scheme to get the film released. It doesn't work, but a real miracle does, well, almost a real miracle. Despite the far-fetched premise, I actually found this quite engrossing. Alida Valli plays the wide-eyed actress part quite well, MacMurray is a natural as a scheming press agent and Lee J. Cobb is well cast as a producer. Only Frank Sinatra as a priest was a little hard to swallow.

Father Is a Bachelor (1950)

Columbia Pictures
Directed by Norman Foster and Abby Berlin
My rating: 3 stars out of 4
IMDb
(DVD, Sony Screen Classics by Request)

William Holden stumbles upon a shack with five abandoned children one day while fishing. He feeds and clothes them, despite having no job or source of income. Before long he is chopping wood for money and sending them off to school. He gets in a tussle with the rich man in town and is charged with assault. Pretty Coleen Gray is the young but rich girl who falls in love with him. It's pure Hollywood hokum, but with a heart, and has a strange way of pulling you in to the story. The little girl of the brood is perhaps too cute, but the rest aren't really that annoying. Holden relishes the nice guy role and sings catchy songs.

Cell 2455, Death Row (1955)

Columbia Pictures
Directed by Fred F. Sears
My rating: 2 stars out of 4
IMDb
(DVD, Sony Screen Classics by Request)

Story told in flashback of prisoner on death row and how he ended up there. It's a standard JD picture of fast cars and loose women. Petty car theft leads to guns, which leads to armed robberies and eventually murder. Some interesting inside looks at the real San Quentin and Folsom prisons.

A Bullet for Joey (1955)

United Artists
Directed by Lewis Allen
My rating: 2 stars out of 4
IMDb
(DVD, MGM/Fox)

Edward G. Robinson is an easy-going but smart Canadian detective assigned to a series of murders. The trail leads to ex-gangster George Raft and his hoodlums, who have been hired to kidnap a physicist. Moll Audrey Totter seduces the man with the intention of helping Raft, but ends up falling in love with him. Raft gets nervous and bails, but first must confront the persistent Robinson. The two towering figures of gangster dramas are well past their primes here: Robinson rather subdued and Raft noticeably overweight. The plot is not well developed and the direction lacks style. It's not a complete waste of time, but disappointing nonetheless given the talented cast.

Dusty and Sweets McGee (1971)

Warner Bros.
Directed by Floyd Mutrux
My rating: 2.5 stars out of 4
IMDb
(DVD, Warner Archive Collection)

Unremarkable look at heroin addicts in LA in the late 60s and early 70s. These pathetic characters accept their addiction like it was just another appetite to be satisfied. We watch them ruin their lives as they prepare their next fix, shoot up and then lay around and stare into space. Much more enjoyable is the soundtrack, not acid rock that one would expect but a mix of oldies from the 50s taken from radio broadcasts.

One Night in the Tropics (1940)

Universal
Directed by A. Edward Sutherland
My rating: 2 stars out of 4
IMDb
(DVD, Universal)

This is a hodgepodge of styles that lacks of focus. It's part musical, part vaudeville comedy and part romantic tropical escapism. The best part is undoubtedly the vaudeville-inspired clever routines of Abbott and Costello, in their first feature film appearance. Everyone is familiar with "Who's on first", but here you get to see similar routines such as the "dollar a day" payout that goes from $365 to $1 with impeccable logic. Otherwise, Allan Jones croons while wooing pretty Nancy Kelly and Peggy Moran in San Marcos. Robert Cummings is actually the lead, but yelling at the top of your lungs is not always funny.

The Baron of Arizona (1950)

Lippert Pictures
Directed by Samuel Fuller
My rating: 2.5 stars out of 4
IMDb
(DVD, Criterion Eclipse Series)

Longish account of an elaborate forgery scheme to take the new state of Arizona from the US government. Vincent Price plays the part to perfection, you hate every part of his greedy, foul scheme, which includes corrupting a young girl. He almost gets away with it, before a lynch mob catches up with him. His speech to the mob with a noose around his neck, done in a high-pitched voice as if he really were choking, is a highlight. Otherwise, the plot is little too convoluted, so much so that narration is occasionally required to keep track, and there is an unnecessary framing device.

Superman (1948)

Columbia Pictures
Directed by Spencer Gordon Bennet and Thomas Carr
My rating: 2 stars out of 4
IMDb
(DVD, Warner Bros)

Kirk Alyn stars in this serial, the first Superman on film. Despite being made by Columbia, it's got the usual low budget limitations relegated to serials. Flying scenes are done by animation, actually not a bad effect. The real problem though is the lack of a menacing villain: Carol Froman's Spider Lady won't frighten anyone, least of all Superman. Otherwise, you've got ray guns which threaten to destroy Metropolis, cliffhangers to end every episode, Lois and Jimmy getting saved at the last minute by Superman and of course Clark Kent. The pay off chapter is pretty lame, but I did get a laugh out of the final scene with Clark Kent.

Haldane of the Secret Service (1923)

Houdini Picture Corporation
Directed by Harry Houdini
My rating: 2.5 stars out of 4
IMDb
(DVD, Kino)

Houdini is a government man rooting out a gang of international counterfeiters. The trail leads him to London and Paris, where there is some interesting location shooting. A girl is involved, although she claims to have been framed by the criminals. Houdini may or may not be romantically interested in her, it's hard to tell from his stoic acting abilities. This is mostly all talk with only one or two minor action scenes, the best with Houdini strapped to one of those giant rotating paddle wheels on a waterfall which collapses, but his escape looked more like a camera trick.

The Wild, Wild Planet (1965)

MGM
Directed by Antonio Margheriti
My rating: 1.5 stars out of 4
IMDb
(DVD, Warner Archive Collection)

Kitschy blend of sci fi and horror made at the same time as the similar War of the Planets. This time our Italian space heroes of the future are fighting a deranged scientist who is kidnapping people on Earth then bringing them to his planet where they are miniaturized and harvested for their organs. The kidnapping is done by a sexy woman and a bald man with sunglasses and four arms. They get interrupted in one attempt, leaving their victim a midget, only partially shrunken. The ending features a lake of blood breaking loose and destroying the alien outpost. The dialogue is priceless and the costumes hopelessly dated.

Charlie Chan in The Chinese Cat (1944)

Monogram Pictures
Directed by Phil Rosen
My rating: 2 stars out of 4
IMDb
(DVD, MGM)

Charlie Chan agrees to take on a cold case while on break from his regular duties. The trail leads to statues with hidden diamonds and a group of criminals who hang out in a fun house. It's talky but occasionally atmospheric. Number Three Son Tommy is still dull and Mantan Moreland is still around as a stereotyped black cabbie for comic relief.

Outlaw Blues (1977)

Warner Bros
Directed by Richard T. Heffron
My rating: 2.5 stars out of 4
IMDb
(DVD, Warner Archive Collection)

Peter Fonda plays an ex-con who aspires to be a country music star in Texas. One of his songs is stolen by a real country star in prison. When it becomes a hit, he confronts the singer and accidentally shoots him. On the run with girlfriend and backup singer Susan Saint James, they release their version which shoots to number one with the help of their outlaw promotional gimmicks. It's full of the typical chases seen in these kind of films: trucks running into fruit stands, motorcycles speeding through a wedding and the final one by speedboat. Huge crowd pleasers at the time, it all seems rather dated and predictable now.

Kansas City Confidential (1952)

United Artists
Directed by Phil Karlson
My rating: 2.5 stars out of 4
IMDb
(DVD, Fox/MGM)

Slightly overrated story of a group of criminals who take the novel approach of hiding their identities from each other by wearing masks. They pull off a bank robbery with careful planning and in the process frame innocent delivery truck driver John Payne. They flee to Mexico for the split, but Payne is hot on their tracks to get revenge and the share he thinks he deserves. The hidden identity angle allows him access to the others, and the identity of "Mr. Big" is not revealed until the end, but it's pretty obvious. A romantic subplot feels forced, as does the happy ending.

Moby Dick (1956)

Warner Bros.
Directed by John Huston
My rating: 2.5 stars out of 4
IMDb
(DVD, MGM)

The original Melville seeps through into the dialogue, but it's still a gross Hollywood exaggeration. Whaling is a barbaric spectacle romanticized through the ages and perpetuated by this film. The bloody killings on display are mostly miniatures, but there is some footage of real blood spliced into the action and that is a shame. Some of those miniatures are quite obvious and take the viewer out of the film, as well as a baffling scene with "St. Elmo's fire" which has parts of the ship glowing green, tamed by the hand of Ahab. Still, the gradual descent into madness as Ahab pursues the whale and his destiny almost redeems any shortcomings.

Big House, U.S.A. (1955)

United Artists
Directed by Howard W. Koch
My rating: 2 stars out of 4
IMDb
(DVD, MGM Limited Edition Collection)

Charles Bronson, Broderick Crawford, Lon Chaney, William Talman and Ralph Meeker as the "Ice Man", a sadistic kidnapper and murderer, compose the dream cast of character actors in this violent film. Meeker grabs an asthmatic kid who gets lost near the Royal Gorge in Colorado. The kid falls and gets hurt, but instead of helping him he just tosses him over a cliff. He is eventually sent to prison for extortion, but the body is never found. Nonetheless, his cell mates despise him for being a "kid killer". They force him to join their jailbreak from an Alcatraz-like island prison. On the outside, they all kill each other in double crosses to get the ransom money that Meeker has hidden in the mountains. Droll narration from a pursuing FBI agent really hurts the tension, and it can't quite escape its B-movie origins.

The Barefoot Contessa (1954)

United Artists
Directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz
My rating: 2.5 stars out of 4
IMDb
(DVD, MGM)

Ava Gardner is a dancer in a rural Spanish cafe. One day she is "discovered" by a group of Hollywood talent scouts, including a rich producer, his press agent and Bogey as a director. She reluctantly agrees to a screen test and eventually becomes a movie star. These early scenes are magical; for example, I love the way director Mankiewicz never shows Gardner dancing, only the reactions of the audience. However, as the film goes along it gets more and more preposterous. Gardner is swept off her feet by a rich Italian and they quickly marry. On her wedding night he reveals he cannot consummate the marriage due to an old war wound. Weeks later he catches her cheating and shoots her dead. There is also an awkward framing device: the entire film is a series of flashbacks and there is at least one instance of a flashback within a flashback. Narration is overused to advance the plot. Despite these shortcomings, it is sumptuously filmed in Technicolor on European locations ranging from Cannes to Rome, and Ava is of course always a pleasure to watch.

Carny (1980)

United Artists
Directed by Robert Kaylor
My rating: 2.5 stars out of 4
IMDb
(DVD, Warner Archive Collection)

Gary Busey and Robbie Robertson work a booth in a traveling fair. Busey is Bozo, who sits in a cage with a microphone insulting people, who get so irritated they buy baseballs to try to dunk him in water. Some of the rednecks on the midway get a little too worked up by his antics and one of the sideshow freaks is killed. In a plot turn stolen from 1932's Freaks, they get their revenge. Meanwhile, Jodie Foster is a runaway who joins the fair, gets involved in a love triangle with Busey and Robertson, but eventually finds her own way. Overflowing with authentic carnival atmosphere, but the plot lacks cohesiveness and there is a forced happy ending.

Return to Treasure Island (1954)

United Artists
Directed by E. A. Dupont
My rating: BOMB
IMDb
(DVD, MGM Limited Edition Collection)

Amateur production with laughable acting from all involved. Tab Hunter is a former archaeologist living as a hermit on the famed Treasure Island 200 years after Captain Flint hid his loot. Dawn Addams is a descendent of Jim Hawkins, kidnapped by a group of treasure hunters. They stumble around the island following clues to the treasure hidden in a cave. Dawn is too sexy for this to be kiddie matinee fare, yet the plot is so simple that it could only be aimed at children, as such I have no idea what audience would enjoy this dreck, other than an MST3K treatment.

Tomorrow Is Another Day (1951)

Warner Bros.
Directed by Felix Feist
My rating: 2.5 stars out of 4
IMDb
(DVD, Warner Archive Collection)

A convicted killer is released into society after serving his 18 years. He's immediately hounded by the local press and forced to go to NYC to seek privacy. One night he picks up a dance hall girl. He uses his release money to buy her expensive gifts. She shoots a man in self defense in her apartment, but he gets knocked out in the fight and she pins the murder on him. They go on the lam and start a new life picking lettuce in California. Someone recognizes them and turns them in to the police. It has elements of film noir, especially the femme fatale angle, but really is more of a matter-of-fact story of a man trying to adjust to life on the outside and the woman who falls in love with him.

The X Files: I Want to Believe (2008)

20th Century Fox
Directed by Chris Carter
My rating: 2 stars out of 4
IMDb
(DVD, Fox)

Scully persuades Mulder to help the FBI find a missing agent. A psychic pedophile priest leads them to body parts hidden under the ice of a snowy West Virginia lake. When the trail goes cold Scully wants him to leave the case so she can deal with her own problems involving a cute kid with a brain disease. He refuses and she contemplates leaving him. I didn't realize they were a couple until well into the movie. Well, Mulder eventually stumbles onto the truth, without the help of the priest, which involves an old horror plot device: experiments with head transplants. So essentially we've got a B-movie spruced up with modern settings and slick photography; fun, but it takes itself far, far too seriously.

Rage (1972)

Warner Bros.
Directed by George C. Scott
My rating: 1.5 stars out of 4
IMDb
(DVD, Warner Archive Collection)

Wyoming rancher George C. Scott and his son fall victim to government chemical testing one night while camping. The military is quick to cover it up, even convincing his doctor to keep the truth from him when his son dies a few days later. These events take up more than half the film with a good build up of tension. However, that tension is released in all the wrong ways. Scott escapes from the hospital and becomes a terrorist. His first victim is the house cat of one of the doctors who lied to him. Then he goes to the research laboratory that made the chemical and blows it up with dynamite, being sure to place some of it in the room with the lab animals. He eventually dies in the middle of a field at the military base, having convulsions in slow motion. Unpleasant to say the least.

Exodus (1960)

United Artists
Directed by Otto Preminger
My rating: 2 stars out of 4
IMDb
(DVD, MGM)

They somehow turned Leon Uris' novel about the formation of Israel into nearly 4 hours of complete boredom. Blue-eyed Paul Newman is unconvincing as the leader of Palestinian terrorists. Eva Marie Saint is a cold, one-dimensional nurse that falls in love with him. Sal Mineo has a few choice scenes as the young Jewish boy who hates the British so much that he turns terrorist as well. In fact that is my biggest problem with the movie, we are supposed to be rooting for the terrorists in their struggle against the British, but my feelings were for the other side. Of course it's hopeless, since the British are written as racist buffoons. Newman's final speech rings hollow after the passage of over 50 years, since the Arabs and Jews are nowhere closer to peace than the events portrayed. Instead, the main legacy is the violence to which many in the film so casually turn.

The Beggar's Opera (1953)

Warner Bros.
Directed by Peter Brook
My rating: 3 stars out of 4
IMDb
(DVD, Warner Archive Collection)

John Gay's 1728 "ballad opera" is adapted by Peter Brook for film. Laurence Olivier is the highwaymen and scoundrel whose weakness for women leads to his downfall. Much of the film takes place in Newgate prison: a dirty, filthy place littered with torture instruments. The poor inmates are entertained by the story told in the opera, written by its latest resident. It's a colorful, energetic performance, but some poorly matched back projection in the outdoor scenes does take one out of the picture at times.

Zeppelin (1971)

Warner Bros.
Directed by Etienne Perier
My rating: 2.5 stars out of 4
IMDb
(DVD, Warner Archive Collection)

The first of the 70s "blimp trilogy", which also included Black Sunday and The Hindenburg. This one is set during WWI, with Michael York a British spy sent to Germany to learn the secrets of the new airships. An experimental flight turns into a mission to destroy a stash of priceless English cultural artifacts hidden at a remote Scottish castle. York must try to stop them while keeping his cover. The plot is a bit convoluted and the special effects are not always convincing, but I can't say I wasn't entertained.

It Happened in Brooklyn (1947)

MGM
Directed by Richard Whorf
My rating: 2.5 stars out of 4
IMDb
(DVD, Warner Bros.)

Sinatra is still in his gangly, shy stage here, playing a soldier just out of the Army returning to his home town of Brooklyn. He moves in with the janitor from his old high school, Jimmy Durante, and falls in love with the music teacher, Kathryn Grayson. A friend from England arrives which results in some light tension via a love triangle. Corny sentiment aside, some excellent musical numbers are the real attraction, everything from pop tunes by Frank to opera arias by Kathryn.

The Man Who Loved Cat Dancing (1973)

MGM
Directed by Richard C. Sarafian
My rating: 2.5 stars out of 4
IMDb
(DVD, Warner Archive Collection)

Burt Reynolds robs a train with his gang of outlaws. Sarah Miles happens to be there and ends up kidnapped. They spend the rest of the film bickering over the girl and exploring Burt's past with the Indians. Bo Hopkins is a particularly nasty outlaw with only one thing on his mind. There is a good brawl between Burt and Jack Warden after he rapes her. Burt turns out to be a softie and Sarah falls in love with him, a mushy romance that drags the film down. "Cat Dancing" is a name not a dance, Burt's former Indian wife that he can't forget.

My Blood Runs Cold (1965)

Warner Bros.
Directed by William Conrad
My rating: 2 stars out of 4
IMDb
(DVD, Warner Archive Collection)

Troy Donahue is a mysterious man who shows up at the mansion of playgirl Joey Heatherton claiming that they are both reincarnations of lovers dead over a hundred years. She is naive enough to believe him, wrecking her engagement to Nicolas Coster and infuriating her parents. They take off one night in his yacht to get married in Mexico. Before they can get there he has a nervous breakdown and the truth comes out. It wants to be a Gothic romance but is more like a lurid melodrama. No opportunity is wasted to show Heatherton in tight jeans, short nighties or revealing bathing suits.

The Mysterious Mr. Wong (1934)

Monogram Pictures
Directed by William Nigh
My rating: 1.5 stars out of 4
IMDb
(DVD, Roan Group)

Bela Lugosi plays an oriental man who is after the 12 coins of Confucius, which will give him some kind of supernatural power. He gets the first 11 in the first few minutes of the film by committing a string of murders, but spends the rest of it trying to get the 12th. An intrepid newspaperman is hot on his trail for the story, with frequent diversions to woo pretty Arline Judge.

The Man from Beyond (1922)

Houdini Picture Corporation
Directed by Burton L. King
My rating: 2.5 stars out of 4
IMDb
(DVD, Kino)

Lost explorers in Antarctica stumble upon a shipwreck. Frozen in the ice is Houdini. They thaw him out and discover he has been frozen for 100 years. These first scenes have a lyrical beauty to them. Houdini's frozen face is haunting. After this promising beginning, however, the action shifts to the city where things become much more contrived and confusing. Incredibly, the first girl he meets looks exactly like his long lost love from the prior century. He thinks it is the same girl and is sent to an insane asylum. He escapes, after all he is Houdini, and helps her find her kidnapped father. Somehow he ends up saving her from going over Niagara Falls in a boat. Reincarnation is credited as the reason for their reunion.

Hell Bound (1957)

United Artists
Directed by William J. Hole, Jr.
My rating: 2 stars out of 4
IMDb
(DVD, MGM Limited Edition Collection)

Lurid B-thriller has John Russell planning to steal a drug shipment off a cargo ship. He needs several accomplices to pull it off, but has trouble finding trustworthy people. One is a drug addict he forces to help him through blackmail and another is a bimbo girlfriend of the man who is financing the job. It's no surprise that things don't go exactly as planned.

Love Is a Ball (1963)

United Artists
Directed by David Swift
My rating: 1.5 stars out of 4
IMDb
(DVD, MGM Limited Edition Collection)

Matchmaker Charles Boyer has an elaborate plan to get a clumsy Grand Duke from Spain together with a spoiled American heiress. The only problem is that she falls in love with loner Glenn Ford instead. It all takes place among the rich and beautiful people of the Cote d'Azur. Ford is miscast as the older man falling for the younger platinum blonde, a far cry from his usual western role, though his ship is named the "Saddle Tramp".

Return to Warbow (1958)

Columbia Pictures
Directed by Ray Nazarro
My rating: 2 stars out of 4
IMDb
(DVD, Screen Classics by Request)

Philip Carey leads a gang of escaped convicts to a dusty town where his brother is supposedly keeping the loot from a stagecoach robbery years ago. In order to find the brother, they break into the farmhouse of his old girlfriend and hold her new family hostage. The brother lost the money years ago to drinking and gambling, but leads them to an old mine where he tells them the money is hidden. Routine all the way, with an annoyingly cute kid and family melodrama further watering it down.

Terror Island (1920)

Realart Pictures
Directed by James Cruze
My rating: 2 stars out of 4
IMDb
(DVD, Kino)

Houdini vehicle is low on plot and only so-so on action. There is an excessive use of letters and newspapers, text, to advance the plot. Houdini is an inventor who uses a submarine to search for sunken treasure in the south Pacific. The island is inhabited by the usual stereotypes. Even Houdini's famous escapes are a disappointment: an underwater rescue and another one using his feet to untie a knot.

The Rain People (1969)

Warner Bros.
Directed by Francis Ford Coppola
My rating: 3 stars out of 4
IMDb
(DVD, Warner Archive Collection)

Shirley Knight leaves her husband one morning after finding out she is pregnant. On the road to nowhere, she picks up hitchhiker James Caan. Slowly we learn that Caan is a former football player with a head injury that has made him a simpleton. She doesn't have the heart to ditch him, though she tries several times. They end up in Nebraska where she meets police officer Robert Duvall, who has got some issues of his own. Shirley's character is repulsively selfish and by the time she realizes what she really wants it is too late. James Caan is about the only likeable person here. It's a melodrama no matter how you look at it, though in the hands of Coppola it does become something more than the usual tear-jerker.

You're a Big Boy Now (1966)

Warner Bros.
Directed by Francis Ford Coppola
My rating: 3.5 stars out of 4
IMDb
(DVD, Warner Archive Collection)

Peter Kastner is a mama's boy desperately trying to cut the apron strings in mid 60's NYC. He strikes out into his own apartment and strolls 42nd Street late at night. He spies go-go dancer and aspiring actress Elizabeth Hartman and instantly falls in love. He writes her a naive letter and she invites him to her dressing room. She dominates and abuses him, and he is unable to perform in bed. Meanwhile, Karen Black is his innocent co-worker at the library who really loves him. This basic plot is formulaic and predictable, but Coppola transforms it with off-kilter situational comedy and excellent location shooting in New York. For example, the film ends with a dog leashed to a wooden leg chasing a man holding a Gutenberg Bible through downtown department stores. Similar in theme to the later and better known film The Graduate, although its obscurity is undeserved.

Fantômas V: The False Magistrate (1914)

Gaumont
Directed by Louis Feuillade
My rating: 2.5 stars out of 4
IMDb
(DVD, Kino)

The final Fantômas entry has a few missing scenes, but nothing that interrupts the flow of the story. Fantômas disguises himself as a judge which gives him power to release members of his own gang. Juve, not to be outdone, actually disguises himself as Fantômas and spends time in prison. It's all an elaborate scheme to capture Fantômas at last, but it's Fantômas who has the last laugh.

A Walk in the Sun (1945)

Twentieth Century-Fox
Directed by Lewis Milestone
My rating: 3 stars out of 4
IMDb
(DVD, VCI Entertainment)

Army platoon makes a beach landing in Italy during WWII. Their mission is to march six miles inland and blow up a bridge. Along the way they talk, talk, talk and encounter a few Germans. The fine ensemble cast, led by Dana Andrews, is allowed plenty of room to chew the scenery as they deal with the horrors of war, including their own possible death. Milestone was a pioneer in the war genre, and while this is good it is far from his best.

Shotgun (1955)

Allied Artists
Directed by Lesley Selander
My rating: 2 stars out of 4
IMDb
(DVD, VCI Entertainment)

Sterling Hayden is a former outlaw turned Deputy US Marshal when his friend and Sheriff is murdered on the streets of a dusty town by a gang of recently released convicts. Hayden goes after the men which leads him on a long journey through picaresque western scenery. Along the way he picks up a former saloon hall dancer, a plump Yvonne De Carlo with short hair, and a bounty hunter also after the men. The killers are running guns to the Apaches and it is the Indians who play a part in their capture. It's all strictly routine, with Hayden and De Carlo looking tired in their roles, but the locations are wonderful in color and widescreen.

The Big Circus (1959)

Allied Artists
Directed by Joseph M. Newman
My rating: 2.5 stars out of 4
IMDb
(DVD, Warner Archive Collection)

The seeds of the Irwin Allen disaster formula were planted right here: melodramatics against a backdrop of something bigger than life, here the circus, which is facing all kinds of difficulties. An unknown saboteur causes train wrecks, fires and lets a lion loose. Floods threaten to ruin the circus financially. However, Victor Mature is the owner-showman who always rises to the occasion. The circus itself is the real show, and maybe the lovely Kathryn Grant.

Countdown (1968)

Warner Bros.
Directed by Robert Altman
My rating: 3 stars out of 4
IMDb
(DVD, Warner Archive Collection)

The Russians unexpectedly launch a rocket to the moon, forcing the American program to do the same. They choose civilian James Caan for the lone astronaut, much to the chagrin of trained military astronaut Robert Duvall. They fight and argue about it, but eventually Duvall accepts it and is key to his training. The launch goes off without a hitch, but there are electrical problems in route to the moon that they must overcome. Caan lands safely but only has a couple of hours to find the moon shelter that was previously sent or he will die. It's all matter-of-fact and the technology on display is dated, but it still manages to tell a gripping story.

The Sergeant (1968)

Warner Bros.
Directed by John Flynn
My rating: 3 stars out of 4
IMDb
(DVD, Warner Archive Collection)

Rod Steiger gives a brilliant performance as the career Army man assigned to a lax fuel depot outfit in France in the years after WWII. He befriends tall, blue-eyed John Phillip Law, who humors his superior officer with nights out drinking. However, when he wants to spend time with his girlfriend he finds his pass revoked and starts working nights. When the Sergeant starts following him around on his dates he gets really worried. The truth comes out in a bar one drunken night. Law shuns the man from that point forward, and he spirals into desperate loneliness. I thought Steiger was better here than his Academy Award winning performance in the previous year's In the Heat of the Night.

Strange New World (1975)

Warner Bros.
Directed by Robert Butler
My rating: 2 stars out of 4
IMDb
(DVD, Warner Archive Collection)

Three survivors from the past wake up 180 years later to find civilization on Earth has been destroyed by comets. They drive around in a souped-up mini-van looking for their old headquarters where supposedly their colleagues are still in the deep freeze. This provides the framework for a proposed TV series, of which this pilot is two episodes strung together. In the first, they find an advanced human outpost where death and old age have been conquered, but not Alzheimer's. They need the blood of the newcomers to save their society. In the second episode, the humans have devolved into caveman-like forest hunters and a similar group that lives at an old zoo. They fight each other for vague reasons, taking one of the crew as a hostage. For Gene Roddenberry completists only.

Till the Clouds Roll By (1946)

MGM
Directed by Richard Whorf
My rating: 2.5 stars out of 4
IMDb
(DVD, Warner Bros.)

Biopic of composer Jerome Kern is interspersed with gargantuan production numbers of his most famous songs. Robert Walker is endearing in the title role, a memory-filled stroll down Broadway laced with Americana. The production numbers, however, are bombastic: sheer Technicolor overkill overloaded with cameos. Shave those out of the film and you would have a more coherent 90 minutes, versus the over 2-hour endurance test as it stands.

Charlie Chan in the Secret Service (1944)

Monogram Pictures
Directed by Phil Rosen
My rating: 2 stars out of 4
IMDb
(DVD, MGM)

Chan's move to Monogram may have resulted in lower production values, most of the film takes place in one house, but the spirit of Chan was not diminished. Toler still doles out the aphorisms and has a nose for following clues. It even has a bit of a mad scientist feel, complete with a laboratory and old fashioned electronics. I never thought I'd miss Number Two son Jimmy, but the introduction of not one but two Chan siblings is not good news. They are both bland and make Jimmy look like a genius detective. More unnecessary comedy relief is provided by Mantan Moreland, playing the stereotyped, bug-eyed cabbie Birmingham Brown.

Fantômas IV: Fantômas vs. Fantômas (1914)

Gaumont
Directed by Louis Feuillade
My rating: 2.5 stars out of 4
IMDb
(DVD, Kino)

This entry is a bit more episodic than usual. Inspector Juve himself is suspected of being Fantômas and arrested. Meanwhile a police messenger is murdered at a boardinghouse. American detective Tom Bob is sent to help solve the crime. Suspicion falls on Juve, until he cleverly clears himself with his old pal Fandor. In another chapter, Lady Beltham returns and is forced by Fantômas to offer a reward for his own arrest. A ball is held and Fantômas, in disguise, meets himself! It's really Fandor, and with Juve waiting outside they finally arrest him... or do they? It's all lots of fun with the usual surreal touches, such as a bleeding wall.

Wise Blood (1979)

New Line Cinema
Directed by John Huston
My rating: 2 stars out of 4
IMDb
(DVD, Criterion Collection)

Brad Dourif gets out of the Army and returns to his rural home in Georgia. He finds his house and most of the town abandoned. He goes to the nearest city and follows around a blind street preacher and his daughter. He becomes a street preacher himself, calling it the Church of Truth Without Christ. He speaks on street corners, shacks up in a boarding house with the girl and drives around in a beat up car. He has confrontations with other street preachers whom he doesn't like very much, even running over and killing one of them. He tries to run away from it all but his car is wrecked by the police. He returns home, blinds himself, wraps his torso in barb wire and lives with an old lady. It all takes place in some kind of alternate reality where nobody acts normal and a lot of words are misspelled.

I Shot Jesse James (1949)

Lippert Pictures
Directed by Samuel Fuller
My rating: 2.5 stars out of 4
IMDb
(DVD, Criterion Eclipse Series)

Atypical western finds the gunslinger Bob Ford who kills his best friend Jesse James in order to get amnesty for past crimes and be free to marry his girl. However, since he shot Jess in the back, instead of a hero he is branded a coward. He flees to Colorado in the hopes of striking it rich in a silver boom town. His past follows him there. John Ireland is perfectly cast as Ford, his shy, quiet demeanor exuding an aura of mistrust. Barbara Britton is the girlfriend, an actress in cheap plays who unwittingly becomes his femme fatale. In fact, this is probably not a true western, more of western-noir hybrid, more concerned with psychology than action.