Recent Viewings, Part 2

[M.10rda]

Charles Laughton wasn't quite famous during Chaney's lifetime and was still in the UK but if he'd made it to Hollywood in the 20s they could've toured Vaudeville, doing Laurel & Hardy schtick in matching Quasimodo makeup.

[Rev. Powell]

A BLIND BARGAIN (2025): A heroin-addicted Vietnam vet tricks his mother into joining a medical trial run by a mad doctor (Crispin Glover) who wants her rare blood type for his youth program. A "remake" of a lost silent film by Lon Chaney, now set in 1970, the plotting is ragged (with the ending particularly rushed), but this low-budget effort skates by on originality and style. 3/5. (The original movie was lost in the same fire that destroyed "London After Midnight.")

[M.10rda]

DOUBLE DYNAMITE (1951):
Bank employee Frank Sinatra is too poor to marry Jane Russell until he accidentally befriends a bizarrely generous bookie and comes into a small fortune in cash. Unfortunately Jane thinks he's embezzled the money (and can't be disabused of this notion) and Frank doesn't want the IRS to find out about the cash, so enter Groucho Marx as wacky waiter "Emil J. Keck" to ostensibly sort it all out or really to compound an already idiotic Idiot Plot into something that increasingly defies any reasonable logic. It's automatically weird btw to see Frank third-billed after Jane and Groucho and then much weirder still to witness a long 20-minute expository sequence where Frank (famously the inspiration for "Johnny Fontane" in THE GODFATHER) is the unwitting beneficiary of a bunch of mobsters. But everything about DOUBLE DYNAMITE is unintentionally weird.

If you check out the (salacious) poster for the film, you'd think it was a ribald buddycom about Jane and Groucho, but there's nothing ribald about the (flat and old-fashioned) hijinks, and Groucho and Frank are the Buddies, not Groucho and Jane. (Also Jane - who is famously not flat - never wears the OUTLAW-style low-plunging top that she's wearing on the poster and in fact plays a buttoned-up neurotic spinster.) The credits announce the film as featuring songs written by Sammy Cahn and Jule Styne (unsurprisingly, given Sinatra's presence) but there are only two such songs so the film isn't really a musical. The mob bookies disappear from the movie entirely after the first third, thus never resurfacing to take Frank's money back. There's a loathsome sex pest character at the bank who constantly harasses Jane and seems like he'll logically be the guy responsible for different money that actually is missing/has apparently been embezzled from the bank, but that subplot is explained in the most tangential way possible and the jerk never gets any comeuppance. Also if this is a comedy instead of a romance or musical or crime drama, well, there aren't many laughs. Frank is affable but doesn't get any great gags and Jane is mostly just pleasant (though briefly shines in a scene where she drinks herself into a self-pitying stupor).

DOUBLE DYNAMITE is generally regarded as Not A Good Movie, and that's fair. But, let's not forget - there's always Groucho. There aren't a lot of Groucho movies where he's alone/without the other Bros, and after a couple more soggy solos like this one, he'd mostly retire from films altogether to focus on TV. He didn't write the screenplay and even most of his dialogue isn't that funny, but if you're a Groucho fan it's always a pleasure just to see him rolling his eyes and wiggling his eyebrows and leaning into doorways and such. Also there are supporting characters called "Pulsifer", "Mackissack", and "Bagganucci", which are funny names that Groucho can pronounce over and over again to provide some smiles. Also Groucho gets to sing a duet with Frank where they frolic down the street with their fat stacks of cash, so that's something you won't see anywhere else.   

3/5 Also at some point Groucho does mention "Keckistan" but if he talked about the "Keckistocracy" I must've dosed off and missed it.

[lester1/2jr]

Golgatha (1935) - Yet another movie about Christ's crucifixion and resurrection (sorry for the spoiler). This one is pretty darn straightforward, if not as colorful as "The Sign of the Cross" or something. It includes Jesus standing before Herod from the Gospel of Luke (which most movies don't have), and also shows him before the Sanhedrin and Pilate, so a lot of standing going on. The main way it distinguishes itself is how it goes into detail about, say, the circumstances around the resurrection with the guards and Joseph of Arimathea and so forth. The writer really knows the New Testament and has something they want to say about the whole thing.

It certainly succeeds on an academic level, but there were some powerful cinematic moments as well. That said, you could also see it as just another retelling of a familiar story. Also, when Judas betrays Jesus they do a gratuitous profile of his huge nose, which other film makers have done. They were ALL Jewish, buddy. I appreciated the lack of modernity and the sobriety of the presentation. Ultimately though, it's probably not of much interest to anyone who's not a huge bible geek, like myself.

4.5 /5 It would have needed to really bring something new and crazy or have more intense performances to get a 5, but it's pretty top tier.