The Phantom (serial) - 1943

I looked in my serial folder to see what was still waiting for me to watch. I didn't have a clue what I was getting into with this one, but I was ready to dive in!

Ok, so the Phantom is a pretty famous hero that I am not familiar with. Apparently he's had his own comic strip since 1936. Once I saw his comic form, he looked familiar, but the serial version didn't ring any bells.

The story in this one is a nefarious doctor is trying to control of the natives in the jungle so he can use them to build an airstrip at Zoloz for...someone. I never found out who, and he never really said. Another group of people want to find the city for the treasure, and then a third group is trying to be archaeological and do it for science.

This was an adventure for sure. I had a great time, mostly because of the dog. Devil (played by Ace the Wonder Dog) was the real hero a lot of the time. I counted over 20 instances where he either alerted people to danger or actively did something to help out. He also got the last word in the show, so I'm happy with that.

The sidekicks of the villain were disturbingly expendable in this one. So many of them died. A couple of times, their deaths were marked with the comment, "That's the end of ____." Other times they accidentally (or on purpose) shot each other. And they had no loyalty at all. Once they'd dealt with the Phantom, many of them were ready to abandon the villain and just take their chances in the jungle.

For the most part, the animals in this were respected (RIP lion), but I wish they would've cared more about Devil. I mean, he was there to help even when he wasn't supposed to be. One of Phantom's favorite things to say was, "Devil, you stay here." If Devil had obeyed, Phantom would've died. More than once. But when Devil gets beaten or the catacombs collapse on him, no one even bothers looking for him immediately.

Honestly, this one ranks up there with Captain Marvel (Shazam). I had a great time with it. The bad guys could've saved so much time if they'd actually checked on Phantom to make sure he was dead. After a while, you'd think they'd get the hint that he's hard to kill. But nope, they just assume he's dead and tell the boss, hoping for the best. Even though it's super silly, it was super entertaining, and easily earns a Good Watch! review.

Saving Private Ryan - 1998

This is a movie I've been meaning to watch for quite a while, but I knew it was a long one. I also knew I was going to have to pay attention. That meant I was going to need a good chunk of time where nothing was going on. I finally got that opportunity today.

The only thing I knew going into this movie was that it was about WWII, and it's widely considered one of the best ever. When it started, I was worried the whole thing was going to be gory. I know WWII was horrific, I know D-Day was horrific, but I didn't want to watch over 3 hours of horror. Thankfully, the gore slowed down to a more tolerable level.

Captain Miller is assigned to find a man named James Ryan. He's the last son alive in an Iowa family. To save James, Miller takes a group of soldiers and heads off to find Ryan. Along the way, the men start to question why they're putting their lives on the line for this random man. I mean, they all have mothers, too. Right?

The road is dangerous and leads to a bridge. James isn't willing to just abandon his post, and so Miller and the men are left with a choice. Do they leave the men at the bridge to their fate, or do they do their best to save Ryan?

I'm not going to go into the mission. I thought it was strange to send that many men to retrieve someone when the army doesn't know where he is. Regardless, this isn't meant to be a recreation of a real event, so I'm not going to treat it like one.

I thought this was a good movie, and I enjoyed the acting. This is one of those movies where you definitely don't want to get attached to any of the characters. Just trust me on that one. Overall, I didn't really feel the time, and that's fairly impressive for that long of a movie. For when it was made, I feel like it's better than half the movies that come out today, and it was interesting to see a lot of familiar actors in their younger years. Good Movie!

Fanny by Gaslight - 1944

This was another movie with Stewart Granger in it. Also, I saw some familiar faces with Phyllis Calvert and James Mason. The movie is based on a 1940 novel by Michael Sadleir.

Fanny grows up not knowing what her father does for a living. One day, she almost finds out, and so she's sent off to boarding school (there's some questionable ladies in the basement of his establishment). The day she comes home, a rowdy patron causes the death of her father, and the secret is out.

The man isn't held responsible, but Fanny's life is changed forever. She discovers that the man she believed to be her father wasn't, and she has to hide her identity. She meets a man and falls in love, but her past will not leave her alone. The evil man keeps popping up in her life as well and seems to be her curse.

The movie itself was pretty good, but then the end happened. It was so abrupt. Fanny does her epic speech to Harry's sister and then just sits next to Harry. Does he make it? You can just tell people they're going to live. I tried that a while ago, and it doesn't work. BUT...apparently in this universe it must. I'm somewhat curious what the end of the book looked like, and maybe someday I'll be able to find a copy to read. Overall, if I assume Harry's eyes opening was the beginning of his miraculous recovery, I'm comfortable giving this a Good Movie! review.

The Lamp Still Burns - 1943

I wanted to watch another movie with Stewart Granger in it, and this was his next appearance. It's based on a 1942 novel called One Pair of Feet by Monica Dickens. It was meant to highlight the conditions nurses endured in hospitals.

We spend a great deal of time following Hilary around as she learns the ropes. She's left a fairly successful career as an architect to pursue nursing, and it isn't going to be easy to get her to quit. Long hours, petty rules and getting in trouble don't dissuade her in the least. Back then, it was be a nurse and that's it. It's wartime, but the conditions remain the same no matter what's going on.

Larry Rains owns a factory. After an accident, a brief meeting rekindles a spark that turns into love. Hilary now has a choice to make, because she can't have a life outside nursing. 

I suppose if the goal of the film was to show how depressing it was to be a nurse, it succeeded. The fact a woman couldn't have a life outside nursing is just ridiculous and explains why they were always shorthanded. The end is just awful with Hilary walking up the stairs and Larry just standing there at the bottom watching her leave him for nursing. What a choice, and what a disappointing movie.

A Farewell to Arms - 1932

Based on the Ernest Hemingway novel, this 1932 movie was on my list for a while. I didn't know much about it except that it dealt with a story during a war.

During WWI, an American, Frederic, is serving in the Italian army as an ambulance advisor. He meets a beautiful nurse, Catherine, and they fall in love. They try to keep in touch, but Frederic's friend doesn't want to see him "lose his head over a woman" and intercepts their letters. When Catherine finds out she's pregnant, she moved to Switzerland, so now Frederic has no idea where she is. When he finally tracks her down, she's on her deathbed, but hey! The war is over!

Ok, so this one wasn't what I expected. Yes, I didn't know what it was about when I pressed play, but what I watched confused me. I think one of the problems was there wasn't much time for the main characters to develop their relationship. They just meet and are instantly deeply in love. It was weird.

And the end. I don't care if it was true to the book or not. I had to watch Catherine die for like five minutes. It was overly dramatic and drawn out. I felt worse for Frederic at that moment. He worked so hard to get back to Milan and find Catherine. Frederic never got to find out what his friend did, so I'm not sure what he would've done in response.

Anyway, this one didn't appeal to me. I haven't read the book, so I don't know if it stayed true or not. The acting on Gary Cooper's side was good, and I feel like he did a great job. I know a lot of couples rushed things during war, but spending 20 minutes together doesn't seem to be enough time to "fall desperately in love." Maybe that's just me. The end was also disappointing.

The Man in Grey - 1943

I had watched this one in the past, but I wanted to give it a rewatch to see if I wanted to keep it on my PC. The movie is based on a book by Eleanor Smith. I have not read the book at the time of this review.

Hesther meets Clarissa when they are both at school. Their situations are very different since Clarissa is a rich student, and Hesther is a poor young woman at the school to be trained as a teacher. Hesther immediately takes a dislike to Clarissa, but Clarissa has such a sweet spirit that she won't give up on Hesther. And she never gives up. Throughout her life, Clarissa believes the best of Hesther, even when the woman is having an affair with her husband.

Clarissa isn't in love with her husband. He's a jerk and just wanted a "brood mare" (his words). Once she gives him the heir he needs, she's free to do what she wants within limits. Unfortunately, she falls in love with an unsuitable man. He knows what Hesther is up to, but no one can convince Clarissa of anything regarding Hesther. It doesn't end well. For pretty much anyone.

So, this one has me torn. There isn't a happy ending for the characters we follow for the entire movie. But, there are descendants of the characters that pop up at the beginning and the end. I guess they are supposed to give us the satisfaction of a happy ending. I'm not sure it's enough. Do they look exactly the same? Sure. But I watched over an hour and a half of Clarissa and Rokeby fighting for happiness, and nothing came of it. Clarissa was repaid for her kindness by being murdered, and we never find out Rokeby's reaction to the news. We don't even find out the consequences of Rohan's revenge on Hesther. He was a society man, so I suspect not much, but it was somewhat anticlimactic regardless.

I just don't know! The movie itself was an interesting, but I'm such a "happy ending" person that I'm not sure I enjoyed it as much as I could have. The chemistry between Clarissa and Rokeby was pretty good as well. Also, the lack of closure for some of the main characters bothered me. I know the movie probably feels like wrapping up Clarissa and Hesther's stories is enough, but I wanted more.

Batman (serial) - 1943

This is another one I've watched in the past. Once I put it on, I remembered it immediately. It was released during WWII, and parts of it make me uncomfortable. The portrayal of the Japanese and the comments made are just...bad. I understand that, at the time, it was a popular mindset, but watching it now is painful.

The villain in this one wants to steal some radium to power his ray gun that can disintegrate anything. He also has zombies and a lair in a fun house. I remember the one thing my daughter loved about this one was the time the henchman locked up Robin in a room with a phone. And Batman seems just smarmy in this one. There are other serials out there that don't make me uncomfortable to watch. That, and the fact I can't remember most of what happened, put this one in the no thank you category.

Captain Midnight (serial) - 1942

I had watched this in the past, but I wanted to throw it on again to give it a review. I also want to link up The Green Archer to my movies/shows blog, which appears on my book blog. I read the book, and since I did that before I started this blog, the review for the serial ended up over there. Anyway, the actor that plays the villain in The Green Archer is the same as this one, and that's why it seemed like I'd already written about it.

In this adventure, Captain Albright/Midnight fights against the man of disguises, Ivan Shark. The goal is to protect the revolutionary Range Finder developed by Mr. Edwards. A lot of back and forth, explosions, kidnappings and fake deaths occur.

This one was pretty fun. It had the scrum-like fights I enjoy. I found it amusing that Joyce was semi-useful. She wasn't really a forward thinking person. She would just shove someone out of the way, and then go and fiddle with the locked door. Or she would stand around and scream. She had a great damsel-in-distress scream for sure, but she wasn't super useful. I mean, at least she tried. I'll give her credit for that.

Captain Midnight wasn't super concerned about having a secret identity. When people figured out who he was, he didn't seem to care. I'm not sure why he had a disguise to begin with, but it was pretty nifty looking. I liked how they did Ivan's "disguises." They'd just use the other actor and have Ivan's voice over top of it. Pretty funny.

I enjoyed watching this one again. Chuck was more useless than the woman in this one, and that's progress if you ask me. In a lot of these older shows, the women aren't usually very helpful. It's frustrating, but Joyce was tolerable. Good Show!

Superman (serial) - 1948

So this was my first watch of a Superman serial...and WOW. I'm not sure what even to say or where to start. But I'll give it a try!

The story starts on Krypton where Jor-El is trying to convince others their world is in danger. He's making a small space ship, but no one else believes there's any danger. When Jor-El is proved right by the planet blowing up, a cartoon takes the baby Superman to Earth.

So that was the first hint animation was going to play a part in this film. So, a cartoon tornado attempts to kill Clark's father, and then once he's grown, his parents have a conversation about who Clark is and where he's from. Then, the narrator randomly mentions his adoptive parents both died, and Clark heads to the city to use his powers for good.

After that, Spider Lady causes issues around town while Superman takes off his suit and cartoons himself into the air. So, anytime he flies he turns into a cartoon. It's weird and jarring. He smiles when bullets bounce off his chest. And I hated the way they would zoom into his face when he used his x-ray vision.

Overall, so many weird things happened. The scientist knew the kryptonite was the one thing that could hurt Superman, but he's like, "I'll do tests on it for two days, then throw it in the ocean." Seriously? And I'm going to ignore the usual "why doesn't anyone notice that Clark Kent and Superman are the same person?" question. My questions revolve around why no one called the police when they should have, and where Clark kept all these clothes. So, when the criminals show up for restricted materials, who does the man call? Perry White of the Daily Planet! Makes sense to me! Also, when cartoon Superman would land in places, sometimes there were clothes waiting for him and other times he just left clothes out in the wilderness, I suppose.

Overall, I missed the scrum-fights. Superman liked to pick up two guys at once and bang their heads together. It didn't feel like it had the high stakes of some of the others I've watched, which was also disappointing. I think part of that was due to the whole "Spider Lady" villain. She was weird and didn't use her web much. Wasted prop in my opinion. Anyway, I made it through to the end, but most of the people were irritating. Lois was a poo the entire time, Jimmy kept getting himself into dangerous situations and knocked out immediately, and Clark just leaped around and turned into a cartoon. Strange...

Mysterious Doctor Satan (serial) - 1940

I wanted to mark down that I tried to watch this. I didn't make it far, but I did make an attempt.

What I watched was a doctor that didn't seem super mysterious. He was very hands on, and he showed up at all the crime scenes. I'm used to seeing the mastermind being a literal mystery. His identity was a mystery, and he hid out in his lair for the most part. This guy was the opposite. He didn't even have a cool outfit. I mean he had a robot, but that thing was weird.

I had high hopes for Copperhead. He had a hood, and that was it. He left his little animal statues when he fought crime. He just didn't have enough charm in the end to save it for me.

Anyway, the only good thing was a couple of scrum-like fight scenes. It didn't keep my interest at all, and I moved on to try another one.

Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb - 1964

I love watching Peter Sellers. For me, he's the best and only Inspector Clouseau. I saw he was in this and wanted to watch it.

This is a satire of the Cold War. A crazy Air Force general gives the command for his squadron to attack Russia with nuclear warheads. He's worried about his vital fluids or something. It's very odd. By the time the rest of the government knows what's going on, the base has isolated itself, shut off all radios and will not respond to any attempts to talk. A British soldier is inside the base, but his discovery of the plot doesn't go quite as planned.

What follows is something else. The Russian ambassador is brought into the war room, and they get in touch with the Kremlin. At that point, they discover the Russians have a doomsday device. If any of the nuclear bombs are detonated, the doomsday device will trigger, and the world will experience 93 years of fallout. Will someone be able to stop the end of the world?

It's a toss up whether I get satires, but I actually found this pretty funny. I found out later I missed one of the characters Sellers played, but I want to watch it again sometime soon. I feel like I missed some stuff. It was a fun watch and easily earned a Good Movie! review.

Penny Serenade - 1941

I'm not 100% sure why this was in my list of movies to watch. Cary Grant is in it, and that's the best guess I've got. I had no idea what this was about when I pressed play.

Julia is getting ready to leave her husband. She opens up a book of records and begins to play them. Then she reminisces about her life with Roger. It was a good life with bumps along the way. Everything starts to go south when they try to start a family. An earthquake in Japan causes her to lose her baby, and the injuries she sustains makes it impossible for her to have more children.

Enter their friend, Applejack (neat name by the way). He comes to help Roger with his struggling newspaper, and he pushes them to adopt a child. Julia has been thinking about it for a long time, but Roger seems to be the one who needs convincing. Once he sees the baby, she steals his heart.

When tragedy happens, their marriage goes south. I feel like the movie did as well. It might have something to do with the unclear amount of time that passes between Trina dying and Julia packing up. Was it a few weeks? The letter to the orphanage lady says less than three weeks ago. Then, at the end, Julia says, "I've needed you an awful lot these last few days." It's an emotional moment, and they end up talking about what they've gone through. Julia starts to head down the stairs, still planning to leave, but then the orphanage lady calls up and offers them a little boy. Okay! Let's fix up the spare room! It was just a weird ending. You can't just replace a child and repair a marriage like that.

I didn't hate the movie. The acting in it was pretty good. When Cary Grant was in front of the judge pleading to keep Trina even though he didn't have an income, I thought it was a great scene. That's why it was so strange at the end when they just went from tearfully talking about Trina to planning on bringing home a little boy. The pacing struck me as a little slow at times as well. This one just wasn't for me.

A Christmas Dream - 1945 & Beyond Tomorrow (Beyond Christmas) - 1940

My family has a long list of movies that we watch during the Christmas season. Unfortunately, my girls are at college until next weekend, so my mom and I were left scrounging around for something to watch for movie night (Saturday nights). Tubi is an interesting place to search for movies. I looked around for a while and found these two. After the movie ended, Tubi suggested The Bishop's Wife, a film we'd both seen before and is much better than what we'd just sat through. For some reason, it didn't show up when I was scrolling...sigh.

Ok, I'm going to start with the nightmare fuel that is A Christmas Dream. This 8-minute story has a little girl get some new toys at Christmas. She throws her rag doll (which is terrifying to look at by the way) across the room and goes to sleep with her new toys. Ghost Santa appears and gives the girl a dream. The doll comes to life and causes chaos around the room. The girl is unbothered by the whole thing and even cheers the doll on! At one point, it turns a desk fan around, and it looks like gale force winds in the bedroom. Anyway, the doll has proven its worth, and Santa can leave the girl alone to sleep the rest of the night. I found it interesting they never show her waking up. She might still hate that doll. I would...

Let's move on to Beyond Christmas. That's what it was called on Tubi, and that's what drew us in. Then it talked about three ghosts of industrialists. Ok, I'm in! They're supposed to play cupid to a cowboy and a teacher. I wondered how they were going to get into the west. Spoiler...they don't.

There were a lot of problems with this one, starting with the ghosts. These city dudes were alive for the first half hour of the movie. They had a Christmas bet where they threw a wallet with $10 out the window and see if anyone is honest enough to bring it back. A poor cowboy and a teacher appear. The cowboy starts staring at the woman in a semi-creepy manner, but that's okay! Love! He sings, and I was laughing. "I dreeeeam of Genie with the light brown haaaaaair" doesn't give me Christmas vibes. After that, they all hang out together until one day the three men die in a plane crash.

The news agencies are interested in the men and suddenly the cowboy is the new singing star. He starts to push his sweetheart to the side while the ghosts are disappointed in the living room. Then the lightning starts up. We were wondering what was going on, and then one of the ghosts appears to get called to hell. 

The second ghost will get called by his son to heaven. Apparently, "every man gets his dream" or something like that. But then his wife is waiting there for him. What if that wasn't her dream? Whatever. Anyway, back to the  drama. The woman who lured the cowboy into fame invites him to take a trip. They start their drive, and the third ghost notices the woman's ex-husband is following them with a gun. God calls the ghost, but he says he can't abandon the cowboy. He feels responsible for the situation. God warns him he'll be doomed to wander the shadows of the earth for eternity because they're only called once. WOW. Anyway, cowboy gets shot and dies, God shows up and takes third ghost, first ghost also gets to go as well. Apparently, third ghost's mom annoyed God into bringing him to heaven. And then God lets the cowboy get a second chance, the ghosts walk up the stairs to heaven, and fade to black. I guess I learned God can be talked into anything!? Just kidding. This movie was awful and weird.

High and Low - 1963

This was the final film in a folder I had labeled 'Classic Thrillers.' Apparently, it's loosely based on the novel King's Ransom by Ed McBain. This is a Japanese film and almost the entire thing is in black and white. There's a brief moment of color that I thought was kinda neat.

A businessman deals with his driver's son being kidnapped. Well, at first he thinks it's his child, but it soon becomes clear it was his servant's son. Now, the kidnapper wants $30 million yen, which is a lot for the time. The man struggles with whether or not to pay the ransom, but eventually he does the right thing.

They do get the boy back, but the case is far from over. The police see what the sacrifice has done to the businessman, and they are determined to find the kidnapper. The problem is, if they do get him, they can only send him to prison for 15 years. They'd like more, but the main goal is to get the money back.

At first, I thought I was watching the wrong movie. Literally the first five minutes were a couple of men talking about shoes. Women's shoes. I wondered how this seemingly meaningless conversation would turn into a thriller, but it got there pretty pick. I liked the way they showed the police procedures to track the kidnapper. My one main issue was wondering why the kidnapper had an agenda against the businessman to begin with. It was sort of answered at the very end, but I guess trying to apply logic to the unhinged was setting myself up for failure.

Overall, this was a pretty good film. The people in the film looked super hot, and they must have been miserable. I really liked how the businessman didn't automatically agree to pay the ransom. He struggled with the idea for a while, and it felt more realistic that way. Good Movie!

Apocalypse Now - 1979

I've seen this movie on numerous lists as one of the best war movies. It's outside of my usual WWII era, but I was still interested to see what all the hype was about. What I found really interesting was when I went to get the picture for the review, this movie is loosely based on a 1899 short story called Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad. Interesting they decided to adapt the story for the Vietnam War. I'm interested in the original story for sure.

A former special forces colonel has gone insane somewhere in the Cambodian jungle. The army calls in a specialist who is asked to terminate the colonel. As the 'assassin' goes through the file, he's curious what he'll do when he meets the colonel. It gave me The Hunt for Red October vibes (yes, I know this came first). Don't believe the stories end the same though. They really don't.

I think what surprised me the most was how much of the movie didn't actually include the colonel. He didn't really show up until there was less than an hour left. Up until that point, the movie was focusing on the journey up the river.  And it was quite the journey.

The movie isn't uplifting by any stretch of the imagination. I understand why, of course. The things it chose to focus on were different and sometimes strange. Almost everyone seemed on the edge of insanity. The entire scene at the French plantation struck me as weird, and I could've skipped that and not felt like I'd missed much. 

Overall, I suppose the movie isn't for everyone. I read a bit about the controversies involved and was sad to learn about the dead bodies provided by a grave robber. Also, I wish I didn't know the water buffalo sacrifice used a real animal. I was suspicious when I saw its eyes, but I told myself it wasn't real. Oh well. I have to say, I didn't feel bored (except for the plantation scenes), but I have no desire to watch it again. I'm on the fence with this one.