Style2

What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962) Directed by Robert Aldrich

Posted by: Frank Veenstra Posted date: 5:17 AM / comment : 0 , , , , , ,



Watching old thrillers back from the days when it wasn't really being a popular and established genre yet is always interesting. It's interesting to see how certain genre elements slowly got developed and improved upon throughout the years and genre clichés weren't considered to be clichés yet. It certainly also makes this movie more original to watch than just an average, modern, genre attempt.

And this movie does indeed handle all of its genre ingredients extremely well. There is suspense, there is mystery and there are also plenty of surprises and twists to enjoy in its story. I did like the twist at the end as well, though I can certainly imaging as well how certain people will say it's too much and a bit too far fetched. But that's classic film-making for you. Everything back then still was slightly more exaggerated and also even somewhat over-the-top perhaps.

That particularly goes for this movie, that got done more in an '40's type of style, with its acting, visual style and storytelling. I however really liked that approach for this movie, since the story is about two sisters who formerly had a flourishing Hollywood career, in the early days of cinema. It was kind of need for this movie to have a more old fashioned style and atmosphere to it and if you would had told me this movie got made in 1942, instead of 1962, I would had probably believed you.

The relationship between the two sisters is what makes this movie. They despise each other, yet they are also dependent of each other, for various reasons and are therefore also forced to live together. Jealousy is a big theme in this movie as well as aging and what could happen to a person when he or she suddenly disappears out of the spotlight, after having lived actively under it for so many years. It's therefore also nice that the two main characters are being played by and Joan Crawford, who 20 years prior to this movie were at their peak and extremely popular and well known actors, pretty much like the two main characters in this movie were as well.

You could say this is a movie about the crumbling of an human being, in which one of the characters is slowly descending into madness and gets in deeper and deeper trouble because of it. It's also what makes the character and the overall movie unpredictable and gives it a true sense of tension, pretty much throughout the entire film.

The 'evil' sister gets played by Bette Davis, who is being more like the evil stepmother from Cinderella. She is a true villain in her actions and behavior but what makes its scary is that she at all times still remains a human being. There is nothing unrealistic about it so to speak, which makes her performance all the more powerful and hard to forget.

A great suspenseful movie, with a great straightforward story and character dynamics in it!

9/10

Watch trailer

Mildred Pierce (1945) Directed by Michael Curtiz

Posted by: Frank Veenstra Posted date: 4:42 AM / comment : 0 , , , , , , , , , , ,





(Review originally written at 22 May 2009)

This is not one of Michael Curtiz his best known movies but it certainly ranks among his best. This 5 time Oscar-nominee and winner of one is a great powerful movie, that is driven by its story and fine characters and actors that are portraying them.

This movie definitely has a great story, that is made so great due to its overall realism. The movie could had easily turned into a melodramatic one but the movie mostly stays humble and small with its emotions and situations. Due to this the movie mostly has a realistic feel and look over it. It features ordinary people, who through the cause of the movie turn into completely different people, due to some tough and unfortunate circumstances. It's a solidly written and constructed movie, that develops nicely throughout the movie and is being told in the right way and pace. The makes the story and the movie in general work out as an effective and powerful one.

The story gets driven by its characters, that are all greatly written and perfectly cast within the movie. Eve Arden and Jack Carson are two examples of some great supporting actors within the movie, while Joan Crawford also plays a great role as the movie its main lead, which also won her an Oscar. Also former Hollywood cute faced beauty Ann Blyth got perfectly cast as the most horrible- and femme fatale type character of the movie.

The movie is a thriller with some film-noir tendencies. It's story, which for most part gets centered around a murder, which gets shown in the beginning of the movie, is typically noir like, with all of the well known ingredients in it. Yet I would call the movie more Michael Curtiz like than film-noir like really. The movie Curtiz his signature written all over, with its compositions, use of shadows and performances from the actors.

A really great and effective movie that deserves to be seen and known by more! It's among Curtiz his best movies in my opinion!

9/10

Watch trailer

The Unknown (1927) Directed by Tod Browning

Posted by: Frank Veenstra Posted date: 5:01 AM / comment : 0 , , , , , , , , ,





(Review originally written at 26 September 2007)

This is a beautifully crafted movie with a great and original story that on the one hand is really sweet but at the same time also quite horrifying and disgusting.

You can say that this movie was a predecessor- and more light version for Tod Browning's later movie classic "Freak", which just like this movie was also set at the circus and features deformed people and other outcasts in the main roles. It sort of features the same concept and underlying themes.

It's an interesting and above all very original love story that mainly focuses on a fugitive murderer (Lon Chaney), who has taken refugee in the circus as an 'armless' knife thrower, who falls in love with another young circus girl (Joan Crawford) but has strong competition from the circus strongman Malabar (Norman Kerry). It's interesting that it tells the story from the viewpoint of the 'evil' character of the movie. It's of course however way more than just an evil character. You learn to sympathize for him and sort of understands his motives and feelings, which of course is also due to Lon Chaney's performance. It makes this a real powerful and effective movie, with also a great ending.

Without spoiling anything, the movie features a great plot twist pretty early on in the movie, which forms the rest of the movie and introduces the more sinister and dark aspects of the movie. It's story is well structured and build-up, even though it's the sort of story film-makers now won't get away with because of the simplicity and romanticized aspects of the movie.

Lon Chaney once more absolutely shines in his role. This perhaps is one of his biggest roles out of his career, since he basically is present in every sequence of the movie. The perfectly captures the emotions of the character as well as its evil. I also really liked Norman Kerry in this movie. He has the looks of Errol Flynn and the more athletic body of Douglas Fairbanks. It was also nice to see Joan Crawford in a still very early role for her.

All in all, another great and fairly unknown movie from Tod Browning, featuring Lon Chaney in another great movie role.

9/10

Grand Hotel (1932) Directed by Edmund Goulding

Posted by: Frank Veenstra Posted date: 9:04 AM / comment : 0 , , , , , , ,





(Review originally written at 2 May 2006)

According to Dr. Otternschlag; People come, people go. Nothing ever happens. The good old doctor couldn't be more wrong. Lots of things are happening in Grand Hotel when several different persons with different motivations check into the hotel.

The movie follows several different characters in the movie who all in a way get connected to each other. All of the characters are in the hotel for different reasons. It makes the characters very powerful and interesting to follow. The movie might not be as old fashioned as it might seem at first sight. The movie might be made in 1932 but the story and its characters sure don't feel old fashioned and the movie doesn't fall into some typical genre clichés. The movie is unique in many ways, which makes this movie a very enjoyable one to watch, even for those who normally don't watch early cinematic pictures.

The movie has a wonderful cast. John Barrymore is good and convincing as the thief with a good heart, Baron Felix von Geigern. Greta Garbo shines as always and so does Joan Crawford, whose performance is perhaps a bit underrated. Lionel Barrymore goes over-the-top at times but at least I could stand him this time. I normally can't stand him in movies but I must admit that he entertained and perhaps somewhat surprised me this time.

Yes, so its really the cast and diversity of characters that makes this movie a greatly interesting one to follow. At moments there is nothing much happening on screen but due to its characters the movie still remains interesting throughout its entire running time. You just never know what's going to happen next in the Grand Hotel.

It's interesting to note that the movie won an Acedemy Award for best movie but it wasn't even nominated in any other different category.

A surprising and entertaining movie that is great thanks to its characters and storytelling, which makes this movie a very good- and interesting one to watch.

8/10

Watch trailer
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)
Copyright © 2014 Boba_Fett1138's movie reviews
⬆
Top