Caught (1949)

☆ ☆ ☆ ☆

Caught (1949) -- M. Ophuls

I was expecting a film noir (like Ophuls' later The Reckless Moment) but instead this definitely tilts into melodrama territory of the soapy Sirkian kind, laced with social commentary. Barbara Bel Geddes plays the poor girl who goes to charm school to find a way to marry rich and she does…to her detriment beause she marries Robert Ryan (playing a veiled version of Howard Hughes) who is seriously messed up.  Later in the film, she escapes into the arms of James Mason (or does she?).  Ophuls' gliding camera is here and he has a way of making the material sing. 

Diabolique (1955)

☆ ☆ ☆ ☆

Diabolique (1955) -- H. G. Clouzot

The wife (rich and with a heart condition) and the mistress (bitchy Simone Signoret) plot to kill the husband, a real jerk.  The first half of the film shows this in excruciating detail.  They succeed.  Then, the body goes missing.  Horror sets in.  A detective stumbles in (to lend some very brief comic relief in an otherwise bleak misanthropic film).  Perhaps someone else knows, perhaps there is something more sinister from beyond the grave (er…swimming pool)? Clouzot bought the rights to the story from Boileau and Narcejac before Hitchcock could get them (they later wrote Vertigo for him) and he tries to turn the screws tighter than the Master could (until Psycho perhaps).

House of Usher (1960)

☆ ☆ ☆ ☆

House of Usher (1960) -- R. Corman

Roger Corman uses the Cinemascope screen to great effect in this first entry in his series of Edgar Allen Poe films.  Vincent Price is haunting as the possibly deranged Roderick Usher (see him wince in pain!) and, although the rest of the acting is not up to his level, it is sufficent for the task at hand.  And that task is to create a suitably gothic and creepy atmosphere to set up a gruesome finale, whereby Winthrop's love, Madeline, comes back from the dead (or does she) to wreak her revenge.  Psychedelic dream sequence included with the price of admission.

Safety Last! (1923)

☆ ☆ ☆ ☆

Safety Last! (1923) -- F. C. Newmeyer & S. Taylor

This much-heralded silent film comedy starring Harold Lloyd is actually very funny and I laughed out loud a few times (not an easy feat to achieve).  Lloyd plays a young man who moves to the big smoke to make good and thereby wed his waiting fiancee.  As a department store salesman, he has all sorts of mishaps -- especially when his fiancee shows up unexpectedly and he tries to pretend he is the boss.  Of course, the scene where he scales the tall building and ends up hanging from the clock is the most famous (later imitated by Jackie Chan, among others).

Sholay (1975)

☆ ☆ ☆ ☆

Sholay (1975) -- R. Sippy

Hey, it's a rip-roaring good time, as two criminals help a former police officer in his (extremely personal) battle with a gang of bandits, led by a particularly evil guy.  This is Bollywood, so characters spontaneously break out in song and/or dance (or are forced to do so, in one scene).  The music adds a lot, especially to the more extreme psycho-drama elements (and they are very extreme).  But still the film is goofy and good-natured, like a Hong Kong film from the same era; the action sequences have that similar low-budget feel.  However, this is very much a western with horses, gun-play and some rocky terrain straight out of Budd Boetticher.  Unlike most westerns, it is 3 1/2 hours long (but suprisingly well-paced).  

California Split (1974)

☆ ☆ ☆ ☆

California Split (1974) -- R. Altman

Exceptionally seedy tale of two guys who let gambling overtake their lives.  That sounds depressing but the film is something of a comedy, especially because it stars Elliott Gould, in rare form as a free-spirited hustler, and George Segal, as a rather more straight-laced magazine editor down on his luck but open to possibilities. Altman uses 8-track sound (i.e. 8 microphones) to ratchet up the ambience -- lots of overheard and overlapping improvisation going on -- and there are a lot of "authentic" extras here, gambling their lives away.  As I mentioned, the people are seedy, the gambling rooms (apart from Reno) and the track are seedy.  There's fighting, part-time prostitution, beer and froot loops, and the dream and desperation of winning big.  However, is that's really what these guys want?  Not as great as McCabe and Mrs. Miller or The Long Goodbye -- with less of a plot and possibly more character development -- this is sticking with me the next day.