Well I have finally gotten over my Death Wish!

That’s right I finally watched the very last movie in the death wish series.  But the movie in the series with Charles Bronson wasn’t too bad.  There was a lot of flagrant violence or killing as far as these types of movies go, the plot was okay but the villain was pretty much unbelievable.  I never quite put my finger on who the actor was a play the villain but I don’t think he did a very good job.

Charles Bronson did a pretty good job acting in this movie but after four other movies you would think you’d have the role pretty much down.  There was nothing terribly original about the plot, again someone he loves his hurt and killed and he goes on a killing rampage as a vigilante.  But mostly I’m just glad that I will have to watch another one of these death wish movies!  I would rather have a hole in my head or watch an infomercial and commercial real estate or reruns of Pat Robertson hour or something else that is just short of poking my eyeballs out with a toothpick.

Here is another movie from the Forbidden Hollywood Series.  This one features Barbara Stanwyck as a woman that wants to take on a career as a Nurse.  Its set in the late twenties probably and has a number of unique look backs on lifestyles of the time and even Hollywood’s perception of medicine.  It also has Clark Gable in a sinister child killer role (might have been his first movie, I’m not sure).

It is easy to understand why this one would have drawn the wrath of censors in future years as it seems like the girls in this movie almost never lose an opportunity to change clothes endlessly climbing out of their street clothes and into their nursing uniforms and then back again.  There is no nudity in the movie, but the constant changing does distract from the plot quite a bit and the plot is pretty strong (a lot stronger than T & A B movies these days).

There are several scenes that I found very interesting. 

• The birthing / nursery scene
• the surgery scene
• and one of the scenes featuring a changing of clothes that shows something that must be a bra but looks like a bicycle tube. 

I do recommend the movie.  It was pretty decent and gave some interesting insight into the life style of women in particular at the time period.  There was a great deal of realism about many aspects of the movie, yet some seemed a little hokey.  Like the milk bath to save the child from starvation.  I’m sure today we have equally hokey things like some acne treatment options or supplements or religions even, but that definitely stands out.  It wouldn’t have surprised me if they had sliced a potato, rubbed it on a wart and hidden it under a rock as a treatment for warts!

One of them that today would have a much different connotation was the scene where the two nurses sleep in the same bed, presumably to stay warm together.  These days that could not be filmed in a platonic way.  It would either be a lesbian love scene or something very emotional expressing some motherly love about something bad that had happened.

Last week I recorded some movies on AMC from the Forbidden Hollywood Series.  These are movies that were filmed in the early thirties before government censors took charge of Hollywood.

These movies are in many ways much more modern and hold their age well as the actors and scripts are very adult.  However, many people claim that the golden age of Hollywood that took place immediately after the censors came into power helped to stimulate Hollywood to be even more artistic and subtle creating some of the most memorable movies ever.  To me that argument seems a lot like making lemonade out of lemons.  I’m sure Gone with the Wind or Casablanca could have been even better if the director, writer, and actors did not have to get every segment authorized and approved by a political figure.  Can you imagine Brokeback Mountain being made today if it had to go through a Republican Sub committee on decency preparing a movie fit for Branson hotels?

That’s right it would have been a lot more raunchy!

Anyway, Three on a match was a pretty good movie.  It featured Bette Davis and Humphrey Bogart in supporting roles.  The concept of the movie focuses on a mother that essentially allows her child to be taken from her so that she can party all the time (think Britney Spears in 1928 before the stock market crash).

Her reformed child hood friend steps in to care for the child, ultimately marry the future ex-husband and they unwittingly swap roles in life.  Later the mother turns to a life of crime that ends in the abduction of her own son for ransom money from the rich father.  The ending is dark and redeeming, but not something that the censors would have allowed.

This week I watched a movie that was pretty close to crazy in a nice artistic and influential way.  The movie was Death Race 2000 and it had David Caradine and a Young Sylvester Stallone in a movie that was very clearly a trial run for his future Rocky (I) persona.

In general, this movie is set in the futuristic year of 2000 (the movie was made in 1975 but feels like it was made in 1965).  David Carradine is both the hero and the villain and dresses in a costume that looks a lot like Dearth Vader’s costume that was not filmed until a couple years after Death Race.

The race features crazy looking cars that race across the United States killing people (any people) they can hit for points including government officials, old people, kids, even their competition and pit crews.

If the movie sounds strange, you kind of have to see it to get it.  Don’t worry there is a remake that is wrapping as I type this and a new and improved version will be out anytime.

Of course the winners are not in the race to win a trophy or engraved plaques, they get to meet the President of the United States in a post apocalyptic America where things are almost as crazy as they really are today in 2007.

This week I stumbled on a great movie that I had heard of a few times but never had seen myself.  The movie is called The Boys from Brazil and stars Laurence Olivier and Gregory Peck and believe it or not a great performance from a young Steven Gutenberg (the actor not the bible press maker).

The plot line on this movie was very good and probably technologically out there when the movie was made, but these days in a post Jurassic Park world the technology doesn’t seem like science fiction at all.  The basic concept with the movie (lots of spoilers to follow) is that a Dr. Mengle from Auschwitz I believe has escaped after the end of World War II using the hoarded gold of his victims from a concentration camp to live in Paraguay. 

In Paraguay he embarks on a cloning project to clone Adolph Hitler to create a Fourth Reich.  Gregory Peck plays Mengle and Laurence Olivier plays a Jewish Nazi hunter, whose career is about washed up.  Olivier is tipped off to the plot by a MacGiver channeling Gutenberg.  He then slowly chases leads across the globe to figure out the plot and stop Mengle in the scene that follows in Amish country Pennsylvania.

One of the very interesting aspects about the plot, dark as it is, is the scope of the plan.  Mengle is very well funded and supported by a full regiment of Nazi’s that are in on the plot all surviving the war.  The scope of the program includes the attempt to clone 100 Hitler babies so that the odds of one growing up just like the original might succeed. By the time Olivier gets close to things, there are only 94 babies surviving.  Just as Mengle looks like he will be able to pull off his plan, his Nazi team decides to stop backing him like they were only involved as angel investors and not trying to conquer the world with the genes of a lunatic.

This evening I watched a movie called Marathon Man starring Dustin Hoffman.  Using the word ’starring’ in that sentence downplays the merit of the other actors in the movie that included Laurence Olivier, Roy Scheider (Jaws) and William Devane.

The movie is set in New York City in the early 1970’s and features Hoffman an aspiring historian and a guy training for a marathon.  His brother to his surprise turns out not to be a business man but a spy of sorts.  Hoffman’s character ends up getting pulled into a round of espionage that was started during World War II when Laurence Olivier’s character was a Nazi that sold Jewish prisoners their freedom and escape basically to the highest bidder in diamonds.  He then fakes his own death and ends up somewhere in South America.

Olivier’s only brother dies 30 years later in New York City in a car crash and Olivier must come out of hiding to retrieve his stashed horde. 

The movie is very dark and includes a significant amount of drama.  One of the things about the movie that might be the most compelling next to the great acting, and suspense, is the settings in New York City that are featured from the innards of the Opera hall to several New York construction areas.  Its a side of New York City that looks almost foreign today when you consider images of New York that appear in movies or television even.  In this regard Marathon Man is both a masterpiece, but also a time capsule of actors, acting styles and a New York setting that no longer exists.

I came across the movie on AMC and highly recommend it.  Olivier is hardly recognizable from his earlier roles, and that is partly his acting and partly age and partly his attempts to remain in disguise as a Nazi in hiding.  So if you get a chance check out Marathon Man on cable.  Maybe its even available through Amazon, but definitely check it out.

Now, I need to go try and figure out how put together a tv mount for my father-in-laws TV . . .

This weekend I watched a movie called Hard Contract with James Coburn.  It was an interesting 60’s era movie where James Coburn plays an assassin.  He gets a ‘hard contract’ to kill 3 people within 1 month.  The people are located in Europe and he has to travel there to find them.

The movie down plays the actual killing and focuses instead on the assassins love life.  To keep his edge, he regularly sleeps with prostitutes.  When he travels to Europe a rich heiress over hears him inquiring about the services of local ladies.  She thinks he’s attractive and approaches him indicating that she is a prostitute. 

That sparks off a love affair.  He starts to lose his edge and ultimately when he gets to the 3rd person on the list.  He starts to like the person, a reformed and retired assassin himself, and ultimately Coburn decides to run off in a Gypsy wedding with his love and drop his contract.

As hokey as that sounds, the movie was pretty good.  There were some things that were a little unbelievable, but getting deep with a character’s thoughts as opposed to focusing on the killing technique of an assassin (like in more modern movies) was a refreshing change and might just point to the life insurance policy that Hollywood needs to consider itself to keep things fresh.