What I’ve Caught Up With, July 2025 Part 2
Film: Alias Nick Beal (1949)
Hollywood has long had a fascination with Satan in one way or another. In old Hollywood films, the Prince of Darkness was generally portrayed as a charming, but ultimately evil man. The Ray Milland of this era is our Satan, who arrives to tempt District Attorney Joseph Foster (Thomas Mitchell), a many who is scrupulously honest in virtually every way. Under the titular alias, Old Scratch slowly worms his way into Foster’s life, advancing his political career, but at a terrible cost. The question is if Foster can save his soul with the help of his wife (Geraldine Wall) and pastor friend (George Macready). It’s an obvious morality play, but the strength of the cast makes it worthwhile. The idea of making “a” deal with the devil always leading to more and worse deals is rarely done this interestingly.
Film: Blues in the Night (1941)
Plenty of films noir feature an ingenue singer, but there aren’t that many that come to mind for me that are about a full band. Enter Blues in the Night, a film with the whitest-ever blues/jazz combo in film history. Pianist Jigger Pine (Richard Whorf) and a group of musicians comprising a bass (Peter Whitney), drummer (Billy Halop), clarinetist (Elia Kazan), trumpeter (Jack Carson), and the trumpter’s singer wife (Priscilla Lane) go on the road, eventually playing for gangster Del Davis (Lloyd Nolan). A femme fatale who used to date Del (Betty Field), a pregnancy, and gambling problems get in the way of the music. The music is good, but these are the whitest jazz musicians I’ve ever seen, and I say this as someone two degrees of separation from the Bill Evans Trio.
Film: Carry-On (2024)
Typically, if something is a couple of years old or newer, I do a full review. Bluntly, Carry-On isn’t worth the time or effort. TSA agent Ethan (Taron Egerton) wants to move up, so volunteers to work a machine on Christmas Eve only to get caught up in a plot to smuggle a nerve agent onto a plane. The mastermind of the plan (Jason Bateman) threatens Ethan’s pregnant girlfriend (Sofia Carson) to get him to do what he wants, but Ethan—who had aspirations of being a cop—naturally fights back. Notable for one of the best driving/car crash sequences I’ve ever seen and a badass performance by Danielle Deadwyler, this is predictable and one-dimensional. Honestly, do the guys who feel me up at the airport deserve to be action heroes?
Film: The Emperor’s New Groove (2000)
For some reason The Emperor’s New Groove is one of the most frequently memed movies in the internet age. The truth is it’s a dandy little film, and I think you can make a strong case that Emperor Kuzco (voiced by David Spade) actually is a Disney princess. On the eve of his 18th birthday, Kuzco decides to wipe out a village so he can build himself a summer palace. Along the way, he fires his advisor Yzma (Eartha Kitt) and her associate Kronk (Patrick Warburton). She tries to kill him in revenge, but instead only turns Kuzco into a llama. Through a series of misadventures, the man whose house Kuzco was going to destroy (John Goodman) is now Kuzco’s only hope for getting back to his palace and restoring his humanity. It’s fun, off the rails, and worth a watch. Had Best Animated Feature been instituted a year earlier, it would have rightfully been in the running.
Film: King of Hearts (1966)
I don’t really know what to make of King of Hearts. It feels in many ways like an homage to Catch-22, although it takes place during World War I. The Germans, who are occupying a town in France, have decided to blow up the town. A nearby Scottish regiment, wanting to defuse the bombs, sends in Charles Plumpick (Alan Bates), who is not a demolition expert, but someone who cares for message-carrying pigeons, is sent in. What he finds is a town that is occupied only by the residents of the local insane asylum. Hilarity ensues, as this very clear a farce. In many ways, it feels like someone taking Paths of Glory, but aiming for comedy. The depiction of the asylum residents is potentially damaging—they all share a common vision of insanity. They are “wacky” and not troubled or ill in any meaningful way. I get it for comedy purposes, but it does feel dismissive. Still, bonus points for the very young Geneviève Bujold as the sort-of love interest.
Film: The Three Musketeers (1973)
I have never read the original book so I have only other filmed versions of this story to go on. This might be the most star-studded for the time version of the tale, including (among others) Oliver Reed, Richard Chamberlain, Raquel Welch, Michael York, Christopher Lee, Charleton Heston, and Faye Dunaway. There are a lot of sword fights, all of which center around a diamond necklace given by the Queen of Austria (Geraldine Chaplin) to her former lover, the Duke of Buckingham (Simon Ward). Hilarity, battle, and illicit sex abound, much of which is caused, involving, or protected by the titular Musketeers (Reed, Chamberlain, and Frank Finlay) and Musketeer wannabee D’Artagnan (York). It aims for comedy, and while actually funny in places, the whole joy of the Musketeers is that they’re supposed to be essentially indestructible and this makes them much more bumbling. In that respect, it’s kind of a bummer.
“Alias Nick Beal” was a wonderful surprise when I was finally able to track it down. It is so quintessentially noir, though it does have that supernatural twist. Odd that it’s so under-known even amongst noir enthusiasts. What a cast, all giving terrific performances. Milland turns his affable gentleman persona five shades darker to great effect and noir Queen Audrey Totter is super as the conflicted henchwoman. 1949 was a particularly good year for her with “The Set-Up”, “Tension” and this. She really should have had a bigger career, perhaps her resemblance to Gloria Grahame, but with a harder edge, held her back. Her apartment and especially the artwork in it are ultra-modern for the time.
ReplyDeleteI’ll grant you that the band in “Blues in the Night” isn’t a true representation of what most jazz groups were comprised of at the time but since some of my favorite Warners performers (Jack Carson, Lloyd Nolan and my beloved Priscilla Lane) are in the cast I’m willing to roll with it. Still, it is a good story with great music, some wild surreal elements and a fun manic turn by Betty Field as an out of control hoyden.
“King of Hearts” is an odd picture with some weird rhythms. More of a succès d'estime than a masterpiece it does have a definite point of view and sticks to it throughout. Plus, the presence of the impossibly young Alan Bates and Genevieve Bujold helped me over the rough spots.
“The Three Musketeers” is a 70’s film lover’s star gazing delight. The more satirical tone didn’t bother me since it wasn’t played entirely for laughs. Faye Dunaway somewhat icy persona makes her dead perfect casting choice for Milady de Winter, and this might be the most relaxed I’ve ever seen Raquel on screen. The follow up “The Four Musketeers” was compiled from footage shot while this was being filmed without the performers knowledge. They all banded together and sued the producers for malfeasance and getting two films for the price of one. They won, causing the Screen Actors Guild to insert “the Salkind Clause” in all contracts going forward stipulating how many films were being made and guaranteeing compensation for each. That sequel tends to be more serious in tone.
In my opinion Taron Egerton is one of the better young actors out there so I might try “Carry-On” if I ever come across it but based on your take, I’ll adjust my expectations accordingly.
I’ve had a few glimpses of it when my nieces and nephews have been watching it, but I’m just not an animation guy so “The Emperor’s New Groove” will go unseen by me.
I like Ray Milland, so Alias Nick Beal was an easy watch for me. It's an odd little film, but less odd than I thought at first--there are a lot of films that have a/the devil as a major character from that era. Blues in the Night was fine, but I can't see needing to watch it a second time. It is a weird head fake at the start, though--I was convinced the Elia Kazan character was going to be who we followed, and past the first 10 minutes or so, he's strictly background.
DeleteI wanted to like King of Hearts more than I did. The depiction of a town full of wacky lunatics is a bit problematic, though.
I don't really have any desire to see the follow-up to The Three Musketeers. There are other versions of the story I like better.
Honestly, there's nothing wrong with Carry-On; there's just nothing that notable about it. If you have a need to turn your brain off and watch Egerton run around an airport, it's there for you.
I haven't seen a lot of these films. The Three Musketeers I've seen bits of while I was not really into The Emperor's New Groove that much as my niece and nephew didn't like it either.
ReplyDeleteWe'll disagree on The Emperor's New Groove. It does what it wants to do really well.
DeleteThe Emperor's New Groove is a cult Disney movie that only got real recognition years later for it's Looney Tunes style of comedy. I love it and it's absolutely the best of the immediate post-Renaissance age of Disney animation. It's just fun.
ReplyDeleteI have wanted to rewatch the rebooted Galactica for some years now, having watched as it premiered, and just can't because it's so dark. It features some amazing, classic moments (33, jumping into the atmosphere on new Caprica), but also seriously dropped the ball during its last season when it didn't know how to end. Almost as disappointing as the end of Lost.
The TOS animated show is fun, despite the limited music score and fairly terrible animation. For some reason, as a kid I only watched one or two episodes. I caught the rest a few years ago.
You should watch Andor. Amazing television.
Battlestar Galactica is a hard watch. I was using it as a workout show until it went off streaming and I had to finish with discs. As difficult as it was to watch one episode/day, sitting through a marathon of episodes was a lot harder. It's so bleak. And yeah, the last season was a slog.
DeleteThe animated Star Trek is mostly fun because they could do stories that would never work in live-action. Odd that they dumped Chekov for the alien with three arms, and sometimes ditched Uhura for the cat lady.
I'll get to Andor eventually. There's a limit to how many shows I can keep straight at once.