Everything That Dies, Some Day Comes Back

This film from 1953  has nice Technicolor photography of both Niagara Falls and of Marilyn Monroe, which may explain why it was a  box office hit. But it is so deficient in basics, such as well-drawn characters or a decent story, that I was surprised to read that contemporary reviews were mostly positive. Monroe is badly miscast as Rose, the scheming wife of Joseph Cotten’s moody and jealous husband, George, who may be suffering from PTSD due to seeing action in the Korean War. They are reliving their honeymoon at Niagara and it’s not going at all well.  Not that Rose cares because she has a lover, Ted, who is going to kill George.  How long she has known Ted and why he should be willing to commit murder is not explained.  In fact we barely see him, and he has no lines in the film, so the only reason I know that his name is Ted is from the cast list in Wikipedia. The other significant characters are a young couple who arrive at Niagara for a delayed honeymoon. ...

This obscure film from 1953 was a real discovery. It has an intriguing setup to kick things off: a pickpocket by the name of Skip purloins a young woman’s wallet which unbeknownst to both of them contains an important microfilm which the Soviets are keen to get their hands on. She, Candy, is delivering the microfilm on behalf of her ex-boyfriend Joey whose has told her that it merely contains a trade secret which he is selling to a rival company.  There is no indication that Joey is ideologically wedded to the Soviets, he’s simply betraying his country for money, and he’s definitely the villain of this tale.   The fourth major character, and a memorable one at that, is Moe, a woman of advanced years who makes money from selling information, usually to the police, so as to save up enough to avoid a pauper’s burial.   She’s played by Thelma Ritter who normally had comedic roles so it was good to see her tackle a meaty dramatic role.  She is excellent as alway...

This 1925 comedy by ‘Charles Chaplin’ (as he appears in the credits) is  set in the Klondike Gold Rush which was in Alaska (I didn’t know this) and the first laugh is seeing The Tramp in his usual street clothes strolling around against a backdrop of snowy mountains. The first act takes place mainly in an isolated cabin where Charlie and his companion Big Jim are trapped by a snowstorm and running out of food.  This gives us the famous sequence of Charlie cooking and serving up as food one of his boots, as well as the surreal touch of Big Jim visualising Charlie as a giant chicken. We then move to a makeshift town and in particular the dance hall, where Charlie meets and falls in love with Georgia.  To my surprise this feeling is not reciprocated.  Indeed Georgia and her friends think that the lovelorn Charlie is there to be strung along for their amusement,  This climaxes in a sad little scene on New Year’s Eve when Charlie has gone to a huge amount of trouble ...

We’re in Vermont in 1906 where three young women have recently been murdered, all of whom having some sort of physical disability or affliction.  We’re a long time before the term ‘serial killer’ was coined but fair dues to the local Constable who realises that young Helen, who is mute, is in serious danger.   She is a live-in companion to an elderly and bedridden lady, Mrs Warren, who lives in a large creepy mansion. That night there’s a thunderstorm raging outside so the stage is well set for a scary thriller. The Constable warns Helen’s employer Professor Warren (the stepson of old Mrs Warren) that she should be especially vigilant. The Professor duly passes on the warning, but he makes little effort to ensure that she is not left on her own. Hmmm, does this mean that the Professor, who is a bit of a cold fish, is the killer? He’s certainly a suspect, as his his younger stepbrother Steven, although maybe Steven is too busy making advances to the secretary Blanche to be doin...

In 1944 director Otto Preminger and actor Dana Andrews combined to great effect with the film 'Laura', so I guess it's no surprise that the following year they got together again for another crime film. In 'Laura', Andrews played a police detective who falls in love with a woman whom he's never met and whom he presumes has been murdered, only to discover that she is alive, whereas in this film he plays a drifter, Eric, who falls in love with a woman who's very much alive, only for her to be murdered. The woman in question is a diner waitress, Stella, played by Linda Darnell who possessed the kind of sultry beauty that was big in the 1940s. Eric is so taken with her that he wants to marry her but for that he's going to need some big money.  No problem because even though he's only been in town a few days he's a bit of a charmer, and he already has his eye on June, who is rich.  She has led a sheltered life (she plays the church organ, reads books ...

In this delightful 1984 comedy Woody Allen plays the title character, a small-time theatrical agent, who is extremely loyal and dedicated to his clients, no matter how hopeless they are. Sadly that loyalty is rarely reciprocated on the rare occasions when one of his clients hits the big time, and the  plot concerns one such client, Lou Canova, a singer who once was big and who is now attempting a comeback. The other main character is Lou's mistress, Tina Vitale, played by Mia Farrow.  Lou wants her to be present at a big concert he has coming up, with Danny pretending to be her boyfriend. As a result of T ina having an ex-boyfriend who still loves her, and who happens to be a gangster, c omplications ensue in which the gangster wants Danny killed. It's a light and entertaining story in which Farrow shines, partly down to the simple fact that she is playing very much against type as the brassy, fast-talking Tina. Allen extracts the humour you would expect from his roster of unp...