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#81
Good Movies / Re: Recent Viewings, Part 2
Last post by M.10rda - March 06, 2026, 01:50:16 PMDR. SOCRATES (1935):
This is another silly mid-30s film elevated by two fine actors slumming. In spite of the title it isn't some gothic sci-fi/horror thing.
Lee Cardwell (Paul Muni) is a former surgeon with Doctor Strange's exact origin story minus the sorcery - a bad accident has rendered Cardwell's hands too shaky to perform surgery, so he's semi-retired to a big house in a podunk town, where he sees patients mostly free of charge even though most of the local yokels mock him openly and think he's up to some nefarious shenanigans just because he's a nerd. (One adult bully names Cardwell "Doctor Socrates" when they see him reading - wait for it - Plato....... yeah, I dunno either.) It's perplexing that these idiots spend so much time perseverating over Cardwell when there's an actual crime spree running openly amok in their region, headed by a big dumb gangster named Red Bastian. One day Cardwell goes to the bank just as Bastian is about to rob it, and simultaneously a hard-working itinerant laborer played by Ann Dvorak wanders through town looking cute and gets mixed up in the whole silly imbroglio.....
For much of the previous century, Paul Muni was remembered as the finest actor of the 1930s. Charles Laughton was probably his closest competition, but Muni was better-looking and so got to play more leading man roles. A real Daniel Day-Lewis of his era, Muni loved makeup and accents, tended towards portrayals of famous guys, and played characters of many nationalities/ethnicities - including, unfortunately, a Mexican and a Chinese dude. Muni was still a big enough deal historically in the early 80s that Pacino would've certainly thought of Muni's performance as SCARFACE in 1932 when considering the remake. DR. SOCRATES would definitely have been seen as "minor Muni". Lee Cardwell isn't a historical or literary figure and the screenplay is subpar, to be generous. Muni wears glasses and a weird little moustache (maybe his own, maybe fake) but that's it for transformation. (He kind of looks like Josh Hartnett's geeky little brother.)
But Muni's still a solid actor even with little to work with, and it's possible he took this job just to do another picture opposite Dvorak, who spectacularly played his sister in SCARFACE. Dvorak wasn't a glamor girl, just [sic] a smart, foxy Nice Girl/Girl Next Door....... like SECRETARY-era Maggie Gyllenhaal but maybe tarter. If I was Muni I wouldn't have signed on to this one unless they wrote in an actual make-out scene w/ Dvorak... well, as long as she was willing, of course.
Typhoid saves the town from the crimewave.
It's a silly film. 3/5
This is another silly mid-30s film elevated by two fine actors slumming. In spite of the title it isn't some gothic sci-fi/horror thing.
Lee Cardwell (Paul Muni) is a former surgeon with Doctor Strange's exact origin story minus the sorcery - a bad accident has rendered Cardwell's hands too shaky to perform surgery, so he's semi-retired to a big house in a podunk town, where he sees patients mostly free of charge even though most of the local yokels mock him openly and think he's up to some nefarious shenanigans just because he's a nerd. (One adult bully names Cardwell "Doctor Socrates" when they see him reading - wait for it - Plato....... yeah, I dunno either.) It's perplexing that these idiots spend so much time perseverating over Cardwell when there's an actual crime spree running openly amok in their region, headed by a big dumb gangster named Red Bastian. One day Cardwell goes to the bank just as Bastian is about to rob it, and simultaneously a hard-working itinerant laborer played by Ann Dvorak wanders through town looking cute and gets mixed up in the whole silly imbroglio.....For much of the previous century, Paul Muni was remembered as the finest actor of the 1930s. Charles Laughton was probably his closest competition, but Muni was better-looking and so got to play more leading man roles. A real Daniel Day-Lewis of his era, Muni loved makeup and accents, tended towards portrayals of famous guys, and played characters of many nationalities/ethnicities - including, unfortunately, a Mexican and a Chinese dude. Muni was still a big enough deal historically in the early 80s that Pacino would've certainly thought of Muni's performance as SCARFACE in 1932 when considering the remake. DR. SOCRATES would definitely have been seen as "minor Muni". Lee Cardwell isn't a historical or literary figure and the screenplay is subpar, to be generous. Muni wears glasses and a weird little moustache (maybe his own, maybe fake) but that's it for transformation. (He kind of looks like Josh Hartnett's geeky little brother.)
But Muni's still a solid actor even with little to work with, and it's possible he took this job just to do another picture opposite Dvorak, who spectacularly played his sister in SCARFACE. Dvorak wasn't a glamor girl, just [sic] a smart, foxy Nice Girl/Girl Next Door....... like SECRETARY-era Maggie Gyllenhaal but maybe tarter. If I was Muni I wouldn't have signed on to this one unless they wrote in an actual make-out scene w/ Dvorak... well, as long as she was willing, of course.
Typhoid saves the town from the crimewave.
It's a silly film. 3/5 #82
Off Topic Discussion / Re: Random Statements About So...
Last post by LilCerberus - March 06, 2026, 01:31:15 PMSoo, Nathan Fillion is hinting at a Firefly reunion, while some suspect it's just a gimmick for an upcoming AwesomeCon.....
#83
Bad Movies / Re: How many of these Dracula'...
Last post by Dr. Whom - March 06, 2026, 01:16:33 PMI think I3 is John Forbes-Robertson in the Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires
#84
Off Topic Discussion / Re: And I quote...
Last post by LilCerberus - March 06, 2026, 11:59:19 AMRep. Nancy Mace @RepNancy Mace
X.com
The loudest voices screaming "Release the Epstein Files" just voted to BURY the sexual harassment files of Members of Congress.
Get it now?
X.com
The loudest voices screaming "Release the Epstein Files" just voted to BURY the sexual harassment files of Members of Congress.
Get it now?
#85
Games / Re: Movie Title Chains
Last post by Rev. Powell - March 06, 2026, 11:31:25 AMOnce Upon a Time in America (1984)
#86
Good Movies / Re: Recent Viewings, Part 2
Last post by Rev. Powell - March 06, 2026, 10:53:16 AMEROTIC GHOST STORY 2 (1991): The demon from the first movie is now lovesturck and terrorizes a village that offers him a virgin every month for protection. Reasonable male fantasy material with a script that sometimes seems made up as it goes along and some wild elements: eyeball licking, a fireball monk, and (I never thought I'd say this) maybe too many sex scenes (although the women are uniformly exquisite). 3.5/5.
All of the Hong Kong movies I've been reviewing lately are from the box set "Supernatural Shockers" and straddle the line between good and bad movies: they're exploitation films with high production values.
All of the Hong Kong movies I've been reviewing lately are from the box set "Supernatural Shockers" and straddle the line between good and bad movies: they're exploitation films with high production values.
#87
Entertainment / Re: What have you been listeni...
Last post by Rev. Powell - March 06, 2026, 10:11:56 AM
New Bill Frisell and Pat Metheny in the same week!
#88
Bad Movies / Re: Generate Movie Poster with...
Last post by Rev. Powell - March 06, 2026, 10:10:25 AM
#89
Games / Re: Answer the question with a...
Last post by Rev. Powell - March 06, 2026, 10:08:17 AM
What part of town do you live in?
#90
Bad Movies / Re: RECENT VIEWINGS (Bad Movie...
Last post by M.10rda - March 06, 2026, 10:04:20 AMANYBODY'S WOMAN aka THE BETTER WIFE? (1930):
This was part one of a recent Ruth Chatterton double feature. It's so early in the Sound era that it often looks and sounds like an ancient transmission from another dimension or something. Some of the dialogue is a little hard to decipher at times but most is coherent and dated and sometimes clever and mostly ideologically outre.
A millionaire who is also a profound alcoholic sits around a hotel room bemoaning that his wife just left him for a much wealthier man. He and his buddy grow aware of two cute dames in the hotel room directly across from theirs and invite them over to party with them. One of them is depressed, demoralized-by-men Chatterton, and even though the millionaire is an even more depressed (and depressing) sloppy drunk, this is a pre-code "comedy", so in no time he and Chatterton are hitched. (He actually wakes up from the bender and doesn't even realize he's said 'I Do'...)
Hungarian Paul Lukas plays the millionaire's attorney (or something) who falls in love w/ Chatterton and is really nice to her. Lukas' performance is pretty decent/charming but his accent just makes me wish his character was played by Bela Lugosi, who was probably more dashing circa '30 than Lukas. Clive Brook plays the millionaire in the most broad way imaginable and in spite of his serious dependency on liquor I couldn't feel much sympathy or warmth for him. This makes the sincere yet rather counterintuitive denouement come off as entirely tone deaf... like PRETTY IN PINK/SOME KIND OF WONDERFUL ending tone deaf, but probably worse.
A'S W/TBW? was written by two women (though adapted from a novel by a man) and directed by a woman, but it still stinks a bit of early 30s misogyny and unenlightened attitudes about women. (Maybe the distaff authors just couldn't overcome the source material or the era they lived within.) Chatterton is sharp at comedy and formidable at drama, but the material is mostly too glib to be earnest and too bleak to be funny. (I did laugh once at an early Chatterton line.)
2.5/5 Other reviewers have acknowledged director Dorothy Arzner's uncertain tone here. Arzner was likely the primary inspiration for "Ruth Adler", the character played (very well) by Olivia Hamilton in her husband Damien Chazelle's 2022 film BABYLON. I wish I could find a better Dorothy Arzner movie than this one to watch.
This was part one of a recent Ruth Chatterton double feature. It's so early in the Sound era that it often looks and sounds like an ancient transmission from another dimension or something. Some of the dialogue is a little hard to decipher at times but most is coherent and dated and sometimes clever and mostly ideologically outre.
A millionaire who is also a profound alcoholic sits around a hotel room bemoaning that his wife just left him for a much wealthier man. He and his buddy grow aware of two cute dames in the hotel room directly across from theirs and invite them over to party with them. One of them is depressed, demoralized-by-men Chatterton, and even though the millionaire is an even more depressed (and depressing) sloppy drunk, this is a pre-code "comedy", so in no time he and Chatterton are hitched. (He actually wakes up from the bender and doesn't even realize he's said 'I Do'...)
Hungarian Paul Lukas plays the millionaire's attorney (or something) who falls in love w/ Chatterton and is really nice to her. Lukas' performance is pretty decent/charming but his accent just makes me wish his character was played by Bela Lugosi, who was probably more dashing circa '30 than Lukas. Clive Brook plays the millionaire in the most broad way imaginable and in spite of his serious dependency on liquor I couldn't feel much sympathy or warmth for him. This makes the sincere yet rather counterintuitive denouement come off as entirely tone deaf... like PRETTY IN PINK/SOME KIND OF WONDERFUL ending tone deaf, but probably worse.
A'S W/TBW? was written by two women (though adapted from a novel by a man) and directed by a woman, but it still stinks a bit of early 30s misogyny and unenlightened attitudes about women. (Maybe the distaff authors just couldn't overcome the source material or the era they lived within.) Chatterton is sharp at comedy and formidable at drama, but the material is mostly too glib to be earnest and too bleak to be funny. (I did laugh once at an early Chatterton line.)
2.5/5 Other reviewers have acknowledged director Dorothy Arzner's uncertain tone here. Arzner was likely the primary inspiration for "Ruth Adler", the character played (very well) by Olivia Hamilton in her husband Damien Chazelle's 2022 film BABYLON. I wish I could find a better Dorothy Arzner movie than this one to watch.