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5: A Hazard of Hearts (1987)

For my birthday, a friend gifted me a collection of 60 movies that span from the 1930s to the 1990s. So here we go!

Based on the romance novel by Barbara Cartland, A Hazard of Hearts stars a very young Helena Bonham Carter as unfortunate Serena Staverly who is won in a gambling game by the mysterious and broody Lord Justin Vulcan. (I still cannot get over that our hero’s name is Vulcan! It’s such a romance novel name.)

Here’s the plot: Serena’s dad played by Christopher Plummer for the first 10 minutes of the movie has a gambling problem. At his usual game at his cousin the pastor’s house, Lord Staverly’s honor is impugned by the the evil Lord Wrotham. Staverly feels FORCED to put his house and daughter’s hand in the pot just so he can prove that Wrotham isn’t awesome. He loses then commits suicide. All the other gentlemen bystanders can’t help but feel something is wrong about gambling a young girl in a poker game, but no one does anything about it until the mysterious Lord Vulcan wins the pot from Wrotham.

Instead of just dissolving the terms, Vulcan goes to claim his house and check out this girl. (Don’t worry! We later find out the mysterious Vulcan is an honorable man just not obviously due to mysterious circumstances.)

“Gee, I bet she has a wooden leg,” his friends tease. But then they find out Serena is YOUNG and BEAUTIFUl and therefore to be PITIED. What else can they think when the girl comes to meet them in her nightie?

Like all period heroines, Serena doesn’t tell Vulcan to get the f@#$ out of her house. She recognizes that she must uphold her dishonorable father’s honor and submits to Justin’s command. The house is sold and she is off to live with his mummy at Mandrake Hall.

From there, viewers learn how Vulcan can up his brooding intensity to Level 30, how his mummy is the fashionable version of evil incarnate, how highwaymen can be timely, how Helena Bonham Carter never gets flushed even when swooning, and how men are only attractive when they’re manhandling the ladies, unless said man is the villain in which case it’s always unattractive.

Tangent: I recently skimmed through Michael Kimmel’s Guyland in which he discusses how the Guy Code encourages unmanly behaviors like gambling away young girls in a dice game at your cousin the priest’s house. There are three main cultures in the Guy Code: of entitlement, protection and silence, and all three were on full display in that gambling scene. Even Vulcan showers in it when he zips over to Serena’s house to claim her. 

What would the movie industry do for plots without the Guy Code?

An Affair to Remember

Last night, I came home just wanting to watch the Cary Grant  and Deborah Kerr movie An Affair to Remember. For those of you who don’t like movies made before the 1980s, you may know this film from its rather important role in Sleepless in Seattle. 

I can’t remember the last time I saw this movie, but this time I really paid attention to the difference between plot points as told then vs. as told now. What do I mean? Behind the headlines that lothario Nicky Ferranti captures and the pretty dresses and fur that Terry McKay wears, this film is essentially about two “kept” people. He admits to never working a day in his life. He lives off of the wealthy women who want to be made love to by him. She admits to coming from an alcoholic family and working in clubs until a wealthy man puts her in a penthouse to groom her as a wife.

That guy, Ken, is a genuinely sweet albeit wealthy businessman who just wants to make Terri happy. If this were a modern movie, I bet we’d see a lot more darkness not only in the relationship between Terri and Ken but between Nicky and his heiress fiancee Lois. Then, when both Terri and Nicky decide to ditch their sugarparents for true love, the race to the Empire State building wouldn’t just be about meeting each other. I bet it’d really be treated like a heart-pounding escape from hell and up to “the closest thing to heaven.”

4: The Red House (1947)

For my birthday, a friend gifted me with a collection of 60 movies that span from the 1930s to the 1990s. So here we go!

When I first started watching this film, I thought, How nice! Edward Robinson and Judith Anderson get to play sweet people for a change! Robinson is best known for unsavory roles like Dathan in The Ten Commandments or dark roles like Barton Keyes in Double Indemnity. Judith Anderson, perhaps, is best known as that crazy maid in the movie that put Hitchcock on the Hollywood map, Rebecca. Here, they both seemed to be playing mild-mannered farm folk who are playing Matthew and Marilla to a doe-eyed orphan named Meg.

Was I wrong.

After watching the film, I learned that The Red House is described as a psychological thriller, and it definitely was. My fellow viewers and I were at the edge of our seats, screaming at the television: What is the RED HOUSE?! The movie keeps its secrets close. Robinson and Anderson just keep telling Meg and her boy Nath: Don’t go into the woods! Beware of the screams! It is CURSED! Gee, I wonder what the teenagers do?

I had no idea what I was getting into when I started this movie. If this were a modern film, then I could easily start to assume that there was a stabby murderer in the woods or a witch or a dimensional wormhole. But this film was made in the 1940s in which special effects were limited and censors were trying quite hard to protect the children. So a LOT of the tension depends on the actor performances, which they carry through. 

In the end, you do figure out the mystery before its revealed, but it’s nice when Robinson confirms your suspicions. I don’t know if I ever would’ve picked up this movie, but I’m glad I saw it!

3: They Made Me a Criminal (1939)

For my birthday, a friend gifted me with a collection of 60 movies that span from the 1930s to the 1990s. So here we go!

Continuing with murder stories, They Made Me a Criminal has another innocent albeit not as shiny protagonist make a run for it. John Garfield plays a dissolute boxer who drinks, plays around with the ladies and gambles. During one particularly drunken night, his manager kills a reporter and frames his boxer, instead. Things happen and the cops think Garfield’s character is dead. EXCEPT HE ISN’T! Garfield travels the United States, trying not to get into fights, like the famous boxer he is, and ends up at a fig farm in Arizona where he learns about life, love and doing the right thing.

Whew! Mostly, I wondered when Claude Rains would pop up in the film. He plays a detective who’s specialty is recognizing how people stand. He’s there long enough in the beginning for Garfield’s character to be mindful of it on the run. Then Rains disappears until the end when Garfield’s character really needs to do the right thing. On the fame-meter, Rains ranks higher than Garfield in my mind. I only know our leading actor from the Best Picture A Gentlemen’s Agreement. But we all know Claude Rains from a little movie called Casablanca. So let’s end on that note, shall we?

(Actually, I’ll give They Made Me a Criminal props for including a rather harrowing scene. Our protagonist takes his young fig farm charges swimming in a watertower. They get stuck treading water for several hours with no way out. It’s a very freaky real-life situation, and the movie capitalized on the tension marvelously.)

2: The 39 Steps (1935)

For my birthday, a friend gifted me with a collection of 60 movies that span from the 1930s to the 1990s. So here we go!

I don’t know when it happened, but it did: The 39 Steps became and is my favorite Alfred Hitchcock film. It’s one of the handful he made in England before he came over to collect his Hollywood fame, too. 

The 39 Steps is full of everything that makes a Hitchcock movie great: murder, intrigue, romance, humor, etc. When watching it, you can just see the director’s great touches, regarding how to set up a scene. For example, innocent Richard Hannay, played by Robert Donat, is on the run for a murder he didn’t commit. He runs off to Scotland in which he finds himself in the house of an academic. While the guests at the academic’s party talk about Hannay, Hitchcock focuses solely on the nonverbal tension between Hannay and the professor. In the shot, the guests are really nothing but light-hearted voices, laughing about a murderer. But that murderer and the man who knows he is accused of that murder are sitting on the edge of their seats, waiting for the axe to fall.

Another great thing about Hitchcock movies is that they’re actually love stories. Instead of the romance getting smooshed into the action and suspense, the action and suspense build it. The same happens here between Donat and his costar Madeleine Carroll, who plays Pamela, a young woman who gets accidentally caught in the conspiracy. We end the movie with the mystery solved and the romance in full bloom. Hitchcock gives us a shot of just Hannay and Pamela’s hands reaching out to hold each other while the chaos over the titular 39 steps goes off in the background.

1: Lady of Burlesque (1943)

For my birthday, a friend gifted me with a collection of 60 movies that span from the 1930s to the 1990s. So here we go!

Barbara Stanwyck is perhaps best known for her classic noir role in Double Indemnity, which generally makes the cut in Best Movies of All Time lists. In the movie, she plays the villainous vamp. She entices insurance man Walter Neff into a scheme to help her commit life insurance fraud via MURDER!

There’s also murder in Lady of Burlesque, which is based on The G-String Murders by famous burlesque actress Gypsy Rose Lee. The burlesque dancers of the old opry are dying because someone happens to be tying their own g-strings about their pretty necks. Stanwyck is a brunette headliner named Dixie Daisy, and she’s got the moxie to figure out how to save the dance hall and her friends.

It’s a pretty chipper movie despite the murders, which is generally how a lot of these early films roll. What I enjoyed most about it was the slice-of-life scenery and acting. The dancers get excited when they learn they’re about to get a sink in their dressing room. The backstage of the hall is cramped and chaotic, like a normal improv, comedy show. Also of note in my mind is that there are quite a few Asians in the movie. Granted, they’re only there for 10 minutes, but none of them are presented stereotypically. Also, some of them have lines!  (They run the chop suey house next to the dance hall.)

Otherwise, there’s really nothing else of note in the film. Stanwyck sings and makes jokes. There’s a love story, and our heroine has to make a rousing speech toward the end about how she’s doesn’t think staying in burlesque for the rest of her life is a bad idea. Go burlesque!

It’s also always interesting to see how older movies try to talk about or show racy content without alerting the censors. Like below:

Day 29 – A movie from your childhood

Day 28 – Favorite movie from your favorite director

My friend Vmiaeit has also been doing this meme, and his choice for this category is also my choice.

Hable con ella was the first Almodovar film that I saw and it remains my favorite. I remember leaving the theater. My head was full of thoughts, and when I had finally deconstructed them, I was left breathless over the beautiful script and film.

At its most shallow, Hable con ella can be and does have its disturbing parts. But as my friend says, “Almodovar is a wonderful director. He shows us communities of society’s outcasts, reveals them to be beautiful and relatable, while not flinching from their ugliness. He shows people in desperate situations and takes them to their surprising, yet natural conclusions. He shows us characters that are both and neither just women or men, parents or children, husbands or wives. Almodovar is truly a director who revels in complexity, but rarely pulls away from showing us true humanity.”

I would also add that Almodovar portrays gender in an equally dimensional light. He frequently endows male characters with feminine characteristics. But they still retain their masculinity. The same with female characters, and Hable con ella is a prime example of this. The two woman, Alicia and Lidia, are strong and active. One is a dancer and the other is a bullfighter. The two men are the caretakers and more passive figures in these relationships. In one of my favorite scenes, which you can see in Vmiaeit’s entry, we learn how Marco cries whenever he is witness to something beautiful. He cries, but he’s still very masculine while doing it.

I had the great pleasure of attending a lecture by Almodovar this month. In it, he said that he always knows what music, dance and art he wants to put into a movie before he starts. I find it fascinating that those element shape the stories rather than vice versa. Because of it, I think that’s why Almodovar more than any other director is also the most successful at making art part of everyday conversation. It’s true in his other movies. When you think of All About My Mother, you must think of A Streetcar Named Desire. When you think of Volver, you can’t help but think of Don Quixote and flamenco.

In Hable con ella, Almodovar puts in ballet, silent Spanish films, pomo dance, cultural Mexican songs, bullfighting and contemporary dance all in one film. The end result is amazing. Do yourself a favor and see it.

Fun Fact: After watching the clip of Caetano Veloso singing in Vmiaeit’s entry, I did a double take. Did you see the cameo by oft-cast-Almodovar actresses Cecilia Roth and Marisa Paredes?

Funner Fact: At the lecture, I learned how Almodovar retains his creative independence. He’s really in a lucky position as an artist. He gets to write, make, direct and distribute how he wants. Of course, all of this has come with hard work, but he’s stuck to his guns and kept good people around him, like his brother who is his producer.

Day 26 – A movie that you love but everyone else hates

I currently have Abre los ojos to watch on my Netflix cue. The reason I have it is because I saw Vanilla Sky many years ago, and I liked it. I know it doesn’t enjoy a positive reputation, so I’m curious to see how the original might hold up. However, I don’t remember much about why I liked Vanilla Sky. I remember that I thought the story was interesting and full of tension. The acting was good. The visuals were nice, and the music was catchy. So why didn’t people like it? I don’t know. Oh well! On to the original!

12-5-2011 Update: Abre los ojos was pretty much Vanilla Sky. I was pretty neutral over it.