The Story of G. I. Joe - 1945

This is based on Ernie Pyle's 1943 book, so the war was still in full swing at this point. And it's not about the "real American hero." (insert 80's cartoon theme song) It's about real American heroes who fought in WWII.

We're following a company of men, but mostly the Pulitzer Prize winning journalist, Ernie Pyle. The men go through so much, and not everyone makes it out alive. In fact, very few of the men I came to know made it though the film intact. Fortunately, the dog made it. I guess that's something.

I wouldn't say there is a lot of combat in this one. It's more getting to know the men in the down moments and how they cope with the conditions around them. They try to focus on what they need to do to get home. I was personally invested in Sergeant Warnicki's story. That man was obsessed with getting that Victrola to work. He just wanted to hear his son's voice. I was upset at what happened to him, and the lack of resolution to his story bugged me. I'm pretty sure he wasn't a real person, but I still was way too invested in that man and his aching back.

At the end, I saw a minute and a half clip of the real Ernie Pyle interviewing an actual soldier. It was interesting and not far from what I'd just watched in the movie. His easy way with the men endeared him to them, and they were always happy to see him. This was a pretty good movie and another one that used actual soldiers in the film. Good Movie!

Dial M for Murder - 1954

This was another movie I needed to rewatch so I could get my thoughts down for future reference. I remembered a lot of this one. It's an Alfred Hitchcock and has Grace Kelly in it. I have to admit to being somewhat jealous to how good she looked when she came out of prison.

Tony has given up playing tennis, so he has too much time on his hands. His wife, Margot, was having an affair with an American crime-writer, and now he's planning the perfect murder. I mean, he doesn't want to be left without her money. That would be tragic for him. He's very confident in his plan. He's even got an accomplice lined up!

The thing about perfect murders is they don't really happen. Tony thinks he has it all figured out, but Margot is stronger than he thinks, and she survives. The accomplice dies, but now a lot of details need to be explained. Tony flexes his brain, maybe a little too much. I want to mention the inspector since he was amazing. The crime-writer is involved with the investigation, and he becomes important later.

I remember liking this one before, and I liked it again. Once the movie started, it all came flooding back. For some reason, the title didn't immediately connect to the story for me. The acting in this one was pretty good. I liked the Hitchcock cameo, and the whole movie was just worth my time. Good Movie!

The Phantom Carriage - 1921

I had never heard of this film until I saw it in a list of important movies. Apparently, this movie uses early special effects. The movie is also based on a book, Thy Soul Shall Bear Witness! by Selma Lagerlöf. I found it interesting she was commissioned to write this to raise awareness for tuberculosis, and we're left with this tale. She was originally asked to write an essay, but she preferred to write in a narrative style. Most of the time, that keeps people's attention better anyway.

Ok, so we're talking about 1921. This is a silent movie, but it's also in Swedish (the title cards). But, since it's silent, we get to rely on music to set the mood. Well...it seems there are two "accepted" soundtracks. One is supposedly more time-period appropriate. But, I didn't get that one. So, I listened to the strange music for a while and eventually just took off my headphones and watched.

A woman is dying. She asks for a man named David Holm. He refuses to come, but his friends don't agree with that decision. They smack him on the head and run off. Death's carriage then pulls up and tells him since he's the last man to die this year, he's in charge of driving the cart for the next year.

What follows is a Christmas Carol scenario. It's not exactly a past, present, future thing, but it gives me that feeling when I watch it. I really didn't feel pity for David. He may have reformed at the end, but it wasn't quite like Ebenezer, where he had sparks of humanity here and there. This man was just WRONG.

What I want to mention is the special effects (major shout out to Julius Jaenzon and Eugén Hellman). For 1921, I feel like they were better than some of the hilarious green screens I've seen in a couple Hallmark movies. The carriage was really cool, and I like how they had it go over water and even made sure it would go up and down with the landscape. And the characters that were ghosts and walked through walls, etc. were pretty cool. Overall, I liked this movie, but since I had so many issues with the music, I don't think I'd go out of my way to watch it again. I am glad I watched it, though.

Sleep, My Love - 1948

This is a psychological thriller. It's based on a novel by Leo Rosten, who also helped write the screenplay for the film. A man wants to drive his wife, Alison, insane so he can have her money. He has a woman on the side, and she's getting impatient.

He has an accomplice who is posing as a doctor and pops up in the house from time to time. Everyone keeps telling her she's hallucinating, but she has one ally: Bruce. He meets her through Alison's friend and instantly takes a liking to her. He smells something fishy with the way her husband is treating her.

The collateral damage are Bruce's friends who just got married. They were headed to their honeymoon when Bruce gets the impulse to turn around and head back to the city. I mean, he gets there in time to save Alison, but then the poor newlywed is roped into helping solve the mystery. I hope Bruce sent them on a nice trip when everything was over!

This was a neat movie. I'm not sure if I'd seen it before (it was in my folder of movies to rewatch), but I feel like I would've remembered it. I also want to mention that one of my favorite old-time actors, Raymond Burr, shows up in this one. I was a bit bummed he didn't appear at the end. Other than that, I wasn't annoyed at Alison. She was standing her ground for the most part. Even when everyone was trying to tell her she was hallucinating, she would deny it. She even avoided drinking her chocolate one night. But her husband got pretty clever on that one. Overall, I liked both the main characters, and the plot was tense enough I was entertained the whole time. Good Movie!

Impact - 1949

I watched this one a few times. It's been a bit since I've seen it, but I wanted to put down what happens so I can log that I've watched it.

Walter Williams is a rich man who thinks he has it all. Little does he know his wife is conspiring to kill him. Fortunately, the accomplice botches the job and ends up killing himself. Everyone thinks Walter is dead, but now he knows his wife wants him dead. So he heads into the country and starts his life anew.

After a while, he learns his wife is being charged with his murder. The small town where he lives finds out who he is, and the woman he's staying with convinces him it's the right thing to do to come forward. Well, that ends up backfiring when the police charge him with the murder of the wife's lover.

I don't know why I like this movie. It isn't really that great, and the way they solve the mystery is a bit too convenient. For all that, I will still give it a Good Movie! review. I don't mind using it as one of the movies I can put on when I am doing other things.

Obsession - 1949

This is a British film that was released as The Hidden Room in the U.S. It is based on a book called A Man About a Dog. The author, Alec Coppel, also wrote the screenplay for the film.

In this movie, a doctor is tired of his wife having affairs. He's decided he's had enough. He tells her he's headed out of town and waits inside the house for her to come home with her new boyfriend. At first, they try to lie about what they've been out doing, but when the gun comes out, eventually the truth does as well.

The wife ends up goes upstairs after being humiliated, leaving her boyfriend and husband alone in the room. Held at gunpoint, the man doesn't have much choice but to be led out of the house and toward his fate.

The doctor feels he's smarter than everyone. He's going to hold on to the man until he knows it's safe to dispose of the boyfriend. In the meantime, he's filling up a tub with a special compound that will disintegrate the body. The boyfriend's going to have to outsmart the doctor, and he might have some help. It'll come in the form of a Scotland Yard superintendent and a dog.

This movie makes me angry. The doctor psychologically torments both the wife and the boyfriend, but I feel like the boyfriend is getting more of it than the wife. I'm not excusing his behavior in having an affair with a married woman, but it was a bit harsh to go so hard after the man. I love the dog, and the last scene of the movie made me smile. Good boy, Monty! Good Movie!

Double Indemnity - 1944

This film is based on the 1943 novel by James M. Cain.

One day, Walter visits a client. He's an insurance agent, and the man's car insurance has lapsed. When he arrives at the home, the man's sexy wife, Phyllis, raises his interest. He makes a few clever remarks, and they start to see each other.

Phyllis wants out of her marriage. She believes her husband won't give her a divorce, and so Walter sees an opportunity to test a theory. Over the years, he's witnessed many people try to scam the company out of money, but he thinks he can learn from their mistakes and commit the perfect murder. 

After a while, things start to go wrong, and the new relationship is tested. Walter's boss, Barton, smells murder, even though the company head thinks it's suicide. Walter then gets information from the murdered man's daughter that makes him wonder if he's been a pawn.

The plot to the movie was okay, but the murder idea was so weird. The guy with crutches is supposed to fall off the back of a train. That was supposed to be his accident. Added to that, Walter was on board to murder a man hours after meeting this woman. Maybe she was hypnotizing him or something. Because for someone who is supposed to be the criminal mastermind, that's just stupid. Maybe he was in it to try and get away with murder. Also, he called Phyllis "Baby" a thousand times. It's like that game where if you took a shot every time he said it, you'd probably be dead halfway through the movie.

My favorite character was Barton. He was kind and smart. He would probably have figured out the murder sooner if he would've been able to consider his good friend as a suspect. It was just inconceivable to him. He wasn't in the movie enough for me. I didn't hate the movie, but I probably won't watch it again.

Shock - 1946

The second movie for my Vincent Price marathon was Shock. I clearly remember enjoying this one the first time I watched it.

Price plays Dr. Cross, a psychiatrist. He murders his wife in a fit of rage, and then covers it up. Unfortunately for him, a random woman is staying in the room next to his apartment and witnesses the murder. It puts her in a state of shock.

When her husband shows up, Janet is just sitting on a sofa. The man has just gotten back from being a POW. He's been gone for two years, and his wife thought he was dead for so long, he can't understand what's happened to her. Since Dr. Cross is a psychiatrist, he ends up in charge of the woman that can threaten his freedom.

What follows is disgusting. Dr. Cross and his nurse "treat" Janet so she's basically in a constant state of sedation. On top of that, they try to convince her she's insane. I guess there were some members of the psychiatric field who weren't fond of the movie when it came out. Since this came out in 1946, they were worried people would be afraid to seek help. Understandable.

I still liked this movie on rewatch. I also still hated the doctor and nurse's characters. I mean, Vincent Price did try to do the right thing a few times, but then he became spineless. The nurse helped with that, but he's still ultimately responsible for his own actions. Anyway, I enjoyed this movie, and I still felt the tension waiting to see if Janet would be saved. Good Movie!

The House on Haunted Hill - 1959

This was part of a back-to-back Vincent Price movie night. I'd watched both movies before, but I wanted to rewatch them to make a review.

The premise of this movie is a rich man invites 5 "strangers" to a haunted house. If they can stay the entire night, they'll walk away with $10,000. Nice deal, right? Well, not for everyone. One particular young woman seems to be the focus of the "activity." And that means she screams. A lot.

Anyway, there's a pretty good twist in there. You're made to think one thing is happening, and then something else happens. In a way, it's pretty cool, but there was way too much screaming. I'm not sure if the actress playing Nora screamed in her audition, but she could scream. I just got tired of hearing it.

I do kind of like this movie,, but I also don't. Parts of it are interesting, and others are just odd. It's one that I don't mind watching, but I'm not sure that I would go out of my way to watch it.

The Big Bluff - 1955

Valerie has a heart condition. She goes to California to try and rest, but gets romanced by Rick. Little does she know that he has an ulterior motive. He's actually in love with a dancer, Fritzy, and plans to get Valerie's money and live the high life.

Standing in his way is Valerie's friend and companion, Marsha. She isn't sure about Rick and with good reason. Also, Valerie isn't dying of her illness fast enough for Rick. He comes up with his genius plan to kill her, but it backfires on him when he shoots a corpse.

I suppose the movie was okay, but the people in it were insufferable. Valerie was insane to marry a man she barely knew. Rick was a jerk for playing with Valerie's emotions to try and get her money. Fritzy was just irritating for putting up with these men - both her husband and Rick. Marsha and Peter (the doctor) were the most tolerable, but even Marsha would grate on my nerves once in a while with her overbearing whining. She'd do something brave like follow Rick, but then she'd immediately get spotted.

I like the twist at the end, but it's a weird sort of happy ending. All the annoying people are gone, so that was a positive. And as a side note, the poster for the movie is just weird.

Cause for Alarm! - 1951

In this film, Ellen goes through the most terrifying day of her life. Her husband is ill, and her nerves are already frayed. He's paranoid and believes Ellen and his friend are conspiring to murder him. He writes a letter to the District Attorney basically framing them by twisting ordinary circumstances.

It all goes south when Ellen's husband dies while trying to murder her. Now she's desperate to get the letter back. Events are working against her, and a sudden visit from her husband's aunt make things more dire.

The movie was okay. I think it had more potential than it used. The story was good, but for some reason, Ellen bothered me. Her narrations and hysterics throughout the movie were disappointing. When her husband dies, she doesn't even think to call the doctor - any doctor. I get she's focused on the letter, but there's a corpse upstairs!

This one ends up in the middle of the road for me. I liked the premise of it, but I'm not sure I enjoyed the execution. I liked the doctor. He was level-headed and deserved better. And since Ellen fell in love with his friend, he was spared the hysterical housewife.

The Bridge on the River Kwai - 1957

This is supposed to be one of the greatest war movies. I watched part of it, and then regrettably realized I didn't have the entire movie. I immediately found a DVD so I could watch the last hour. I really needed to know what was going to happen.

Colonel Nicholson and his soldiers are in a Japanese prisoner camp and have been impressed into building a bridge. The Colonel refuses to let his officers do hard labor, so the Japanese Colonel torments him. When the British Colonel is finally released from his "hot box," he's changed somewhat. He looks at the project the men have been working on. They are subtly sabotaging the bridge, but the Colonel feels the British can make a better bridge. From then on, they are pushed to be efficient and take pride in their work. Building a bridge. For the enemy.

Shears is a member of the U.S. Navy who escaped the camp. He gets "persuaded" to return to destroy the bridge. The trek through the jungle is harsh, and it's a ragged, incomplete team that arrives at the river. The tension builds until the "madness" erupts.

I felt the tension on this one. I was so nervous at the end. It is something of a miracle they made that amazing bridge for this movie and then blew it up. I appreciated the acting, and it was just a really Good Movie!

Beggars in Ermine - 1934

Ok, so I found this in my folder of movies, and I couldn't remember what happened in it. That should have told me something. It's based on a play of the same name by Esther Lynd Day.

Flint Dawson is the owner and general manager of a steel mill. He's in the way of a merger so Jim conspires to have him involved in an accident. After that, he manipulates Flint's wife and takes control of the company to the point where when Flint gets out of the hospital, he's unemployed, broke and alone. Flint's wife has taken their daughter and fled to England.

Now Flint uses his business sense to start a union of beggars. He goes nationwide with it, and the beggars become rich enough to take care of themselves and each other. At that point, Flint is ready to exact his revenge on the man who ruined his life.

His daughter is now grown and in love with Jim's nephew. She's determined to discover more about her guardian, who has taken care of her since her mother died. When she overhears Flint's revenge plan, she abandons that plan and flees the scene.

The movie was pretty weird. After a while, I remembered it, but I still think it's strange. I don't understand how the whole stock market thing worked, so that went over my head. I think my favorite part was the short scene with the dog. Other than that, the characters weren't super deep, and I felt like a lot of the scenes went on for longer than they did. For a movie that lasted an hour and 15 minutes, it felt longer.

Please Murder Me - 1956

This movie stars Raymond Burr and Angela Lansbury. If you know anything about these two, you're essentially watching Perry Mason and Jessica Fletcher out of their element.

Craig is a defense attorney that has been bamboozled into defending his best friend's wife in a murder case. Craig is actually in love with her and believes that Joe finding out he's been betrayed has caused him to attack Myra, and she killed Joe in self-defense. Once she's free, it becomes clear she only used him to get Joe's money. Now Craig has a new mission. He only had three thing in life. His love for his friend, his work, and his love for Myra. She's destroyed them all, and now his sole mission is to push her to commit another murder and catch her in the act.

I like this movie, even though Ms. Murder She Wrote is a heartless villain. I've watched it a few times, and learned the valuable lesson "Don't cross Raymond Burr." Good Movie!

Eyes in the Night - 1942

*My review of the book The Last Express by Baynard Kendrick. 

I was interested in reading this after seeing a movie called Eyes in the Night. It's also based on the character that was the subject of this book. I really enjoyed that movie, and I wanted to see what it would be like to read one of the stories.

Duncan Maclain is a blind detective who uses a seeing eye dog and his best friend to solve mysteries. In this case, one of Duncan's friends is accused of murder, and the evidence to put away a criminal goes missing after a grenade is thrown into the backseat of a man's car.

The thing I loved the most about the movie was the dog. Of course, I was impressed with the way Duncan and his companions worked together, but watching the dog performing the work added so much. In the book, Duncan had two working dogs, Schnucke and Dreist. One did the normal seeing eye duties while the other one was more of a protective animal.

In this case, while the book was very clever and unique, it wasn't quite better than the movie. It's not the same story, but even though Eyes in the Night was made in 1942, I loved it. Special shout out to the working dog in that movie, Friday, who did some amazing things. I'm a dog person, so maybe that swayed me. The book didn't seem to rely on the dogs as much as the movie did, and I missed that. Maybe some of the other books with Maclain have more dog involvement, but this one didn't quite hit the mark for me. I may try another one in the future, because I'd like to give this character another chance.

Rasputin the Mad Monk - 1966

I like to watch Christopher Lee in movies. He's got this presence that just makes him fun to watch.

This is a fictionalized story of Grigori Rasputin, but some of the events are based on an account by one of the eventual assassins. Rasputin was a strange man who became close to the family of Tsar Nicholas II before the Russian Revolution. He was something of a mystic and starts the movie by saving an innkeeper's wife.

The monastery believes that his "powers" come from the devil, but the innkeeper wants to spare him since he believes that his wife is alive because of Rasputin. After that, the "healer" heads to St. Petersburg where he uses a woman to become close to the Tsarina. A certain set of people don't trust Rasputin. Eventually he goes too far, and his only "ally" turns on him.

This movie was something. I knew Rasputin was a crazy man, so that wasn't what threw me. He hypnotized a woman into pushing the boy off a ledge, but that's not the worst part. It looked like someone saw her do it, but they never said anything. She even gave a couple of strange looks at the woman, but they never addressed the event. My favorite had to be the end. Rasputin dies, but the end just shows his body on the ground. I suppose that's fine, but I really wanted to know how the man who owns the house is going to explain the three dead bodies. Christopher Lee did a good job looking and acting unhinged, but the overall experience was just a bit too odd for me.

The Mummy - 1932

This was the one we'd been waiting to watch - The Mummy! It stars Boris Karloff as Imhotep.

A man mocks a curse and opens a forbidden box at an Egyptian dig. It brings a mummy to life, and the man laughs himself crazy. Ten years later, a shriveled man appears on a dig and points some frustrated diggers in the direction of the grave of an Egyptian princess. After that, a young woman can't resist the pull of her past, and her future is in jeopardy.

I was disappointed. The mummy was only on screen at the beginning of the movie. After that he was a shrively man. The romance was ridiculous. "Hey! I just saw that woman trying to break into the museum after it was closed. I think I'm in love!" What!? 

Anyway, the past couple days were a roller coaster with these movies. Frankenstein was good, but I hated the way the creature was treated. I know, it's the story. That's why I'm saying the movie was good, but I didn't enjoy it. Of all the ones I've seen, I had the most fun with Murders in Rue Morgue. It was interesting, and the woman wasn't dumber than a box of rocks. Erik was amusing as well. Today, we watched The Invisible Man. Mom hadn't seen it, so we had some fun with that.

Island of Lost Souls - 1932

For Halloween, we had a double feature. Our first movie was Island of Lost Souls. I had some problems spotting Bela Lugosi in this one, but we eventually spotted him. This is based on H. G. Well's book, The Island of Dr. Moreau. I know a bit about the plot, but I'd never seen a version of it or read the book.

A "scientist" has his own island where he merges animals and people into strange creatures. Some of them can talk, and Moreau has them trained to say "the law." It's odd. A shipwrecked man gets tossed onto the ship bound for the island (probably the best part of the movie, honestly), and Moreau decides to introduce his female creation to the man.

It all goes south eventually. Who could've guessed that an island of experiments would figure out they outnumber the one guy saying he's in charge!? When they do, there are problems.

This movie was something else. It was strange, and I wasn't a fan. Panther Woman was weird. No one made good decisions, and I don't understand why normal people would think a localized fire would destroy an entire jungle island. Last line of the movie seemed particularly appropriate. "Don't look back." I certainly won't!