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Mystery of the Wax Museum (1933) Directed by Michael Curtiz

Posted by: Frank Veenstra Posted date: 10:08 AM / comment : 0 , , , , , , , , , ,





(Review originally written at 22 August 2009)

Being a big Michael Curtiz fan, I still didn't think he could pull off a good horror movie. "Mystery of the Wax Museum" is however one fine maintaining early horror movie, shot in 2-strip Technicolor. A surprising turn from Michael Curtiz, as well as from the Warner Bros. studios, who of course weren't and still aren't exactly known for their horror movie productions.

It's a typical horror movie for its era, that perhaps best can be compared to an early Phantom of the Opera movie, in terms of its atmosphere and story-telling. It's not just being an horror movie but also and perhaps foremost a mystery movie, also hence the title "Mystery of the Wax Museum", that sounds more like a detective movie than a scary horror perhaps.

It's a slow and perhaps not always told well story but overall the movie holds your interest and the movie is simply a good one to watch, from start till finish.

The fact that this movie is shot in color also gives the movie an extra dimension. It's always special to see a movie made with '30's techniques and acting in color. It gives the movie a special atmosphere, from which it benefits. The look of the movie is great and as you can expect from a Curtiz movie it has some great cinematography. There are some trademark Michael Curtiz moments in this movie as well but as a whole it also is quite obvious that this is still an early Hollywood movie by him. Yet this movie was perhaps his big breakthrough and opened the doors for him to make many big, grand Hollwyood epics in the second halve of the '30's.

The movie stars Lionel Atwill and Fay Wray in the main leads. Two actors who were yet to become big stars. Fay Wray managed this of course in the same year with her role in "King Kong", which made her immortal. Lionel Atwill would continue later on to star in many big Universal Studio's horror productions, till his death in 1946.

For 1933 it's simply a fine, though slightly flawed, horror production.

7/10

Footlight Parade (1933) Directed by Lloyd Bacon

Posted by: Frank Veenstra Posted date: 12:20 PM / comment : 0 , , , , , , , , ,





(Review originally written at 21 May 2008)

James Cagney is best known for his tough characters- and gangster roles but he has also played quite a lot 'soft' characters in his career. This musical is one of them and it was the first but not the last musical movie Cagney would star in.

Cagney is even doing a bit of singing in this one and also quite an amount of dancing. And it needs to be said that he was not bad at it. He plays the role with a lot of confidence. He apparently had some dancing jobs in his early life before his acting career started to take off big time, so it actually isn't a weird thing that he also took on some musical acting roles in his career. He obviously also feels at ease in this totally different genre than most people are accustomed to seeing him in.

The movie is directed by Lloyd Bacon, who was perhaps among the best and most successful director within the genre. His earliest '30's musicals pretty much defined the musical genre and he also was responsible for genre movies such as "42nd Street". His musicals were always light and fun to watch and more comedy like than anything else really. '30's musicals never were really about its singing, this was something that more featured in '40's and later made musicals, mainly from the MGM studios.

As usual it has a light and simple story, set in the musical world, that of course is also predictable and progresses in a formulaic way. It nevertheless is a fun and simple story that also simply makes this an entertaining movies to watch. So do the characters and actors that are portraying them. Sort of weird though that that the total plot line of the movie gets sort of abandoned toward the end of the movie, when the movie only starts to consists out of musical number routines.

The musical moments toward the ending of the movie are also amusing and well done, even though I'm not a too big fan of the genre itself. Once again the musical numbers also feature a young Billy Barty. he often played little boys/babies/mice and whatever more early on in his career, including the movie musical "Gold Diggers of 1933", of one year earlier.

A recommendable early genre movie.

8/10

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Dodge City (1939) Directed by Michael Curtiz

Posted by: Frank Veenstra Posted date: 2:51 AM / comment : 0 , , , , , , , , ,





(Review originally written at 3 August 2007)

This is a real western, with all of the needed ingredients in it but added to that are several Michael Curtiz elements, that make the movie entertaining and even somewhat adventurous, though its obviously not your average normal Errol Flynn/Michael Curtiz swashbuckling type of movie.

Westerns from the 30's and '40's were still much different than the later spaghetti-westerns. They were made more entertaining and had a completely different style. Most '40's westerns are even known to have a film-noir kind of atmosphere and feeling all over it. And despite being also always formulaic they yet always felt like something new and original. This movie also feels totally fresh, even though it features all of the formulaic elements, such as a saloon-fight, cattle-driving, card-playing, a hero who becomes sheriff, scruffy looking villains and stuff like that. The movie itself is extremely black and white and moralistic, in which bad is extremely bad and good is extremely good. If this movie was being made in the '60's or '70's, people would had uses laughed it off probably.

For the first 50 minutes absolutely nothing notable happens in the movie. It's not that the movie is boring to watch or without pace but it just aren't the most interesting and compelling 50 minutes of cinema. However when the movie starts to take form and Errol Flynn gets his sheriff-badge, the movie becomes interesting and also totally likable to watch. The movie gets even more pace and the action starts to hit the screen. It's the last hour of the movie that makes you realize that this is a real Michael Curtiz movie you're watching! Some of his trademark directing elements start to appear, such as the fantastic use of shadows!

Errol Flynn looks surprisingly in his element in the western genre. The role is more demanding than his usual swashbuckling type of role and he already sort of shows in this movie that he also knew how to act more seriously. He certainly doesn't look silly with a cowboy hat on! But yet he's above all of course still an hero in this movie, who does everything right, everyone respects and admire and whose clothes never get dirty. What I always like about Olivia de Havilland in her early movies is that despite being always the dame in distress, she yet is a strong and independent character. The love story (yet again) between the two doesn't feel like its slowing done the movie or distracts from the main-plot. It's well done and makes sure that it's never featured too prominently into the movie but it also at the same time doesn't make a redundant impression.

The movie itself is good and big looking. They obviously had some money for making this movie. It's shot in color, which provides the movie with some nice looking images. It also definitely makes sure that this movie doesn't feel as much outdated as with many other '30's and '40's, black & white westerns, is the case. The movie has some nice action moments but you shouldn't watch this movie expecting big and spectacular action. It's more a movie that relies on its script and the actors playing in it. The musical score by Max Steiner is also quite good. It's a well made and constructed movie, that I feel, deserves some more recognition.

It's not Michael Curtiz' only directed western but it's definitely his best known and most appreciated one. He made a total of 10 westerns in his career, of which 2 more with Errol Flynn starring in it, 3 more with Olivia de Havilland and even 1 with John Wayne in it!

A good and quality movie, that's very well worth watching, even if you're not familiar with the work of Errol Flynn or Michael Curtiz or are not at home in the '30's/'40's western type of movie.

8/10
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