Re: Track the Films You Watch (2006)
12/16/06: DR. JACK (Fred Newmeyer and, uncredited, Sam Taylor, 1922) **1/2
Harold Lloyd’s third feature-length film can be divided into three loosely-related sections: a) episodes in the life of a country doctor (presenting several typical gags while taking swipes at then-fashionable exclusive sanitariums and the nascent psycho-therapy at the same time); b) the poker game sequence (which has no real purpose in the film but is also its comic highlight!), and c) the ‘escaped lunatic’ routine (I don’t know if there were actually any ‘old dark house’-type films around this time – other than D.W. Griffith’s solitary venture into the subgenre ONE EXCITING NIGHT [1922] – but this was already making fun of them!). While enjoyable and undeniably inventive on occasion, DR. JACK displays a definite drop in quality from its immediate predecessor, GRANDMA’S BOY (1922); Lloyd’s next film, then, SAFETY LAST! (1923), not only would see him back on form but actually heralded his greatest period.
12/16/06: HIGH AND DIZZY (Hal Roach, 1920) ***
Fast-paced fun which, as often with Harold Lloyd, features distinct – and proven – backdrops for his gags: first, the doctor’s office (where the star, as a novice M.D., is forced to impersonate his own clients as a ruse to attract genuine ones!); then, the city streets after a drinking binge with his pal (capped by a pre-SAFETY LAST! [1923] scene in which they fall foul of a policeman); next, the hotel lobby where the reception desk and an elevator become the ‘targets’ of Lloyd’s drunken havoc; and, finally, the trademark ‘thrill’ sequence in which both the tipsy Lloyd and sleep-walking heroine Mildred Davis are seen walking perilously on the ledge of a tall building!
12/16/06: NOW OR NEVER (Fred Newmeyer and Hal Roach, 1921) ***
Being a three-reeler, this Harold Lloyd vehicle commands more attention than his typical short – though it’s not quite as rounded as his feature-length films either!
Train-set for a good part of the duration, it provides plenty of gags characteristic to such a situation: being a stowaway with a small girl in tow, Lloyd has to devise several ways in which to avoid detection; there’s a lengthy scene in the berths (at one point, Lloyd causes the train to make an emergency stop in the middle of the country-side simply because his spoilt ward wants a glass of milk!); and the star even contrives to find himself on top of the train as it’s speeding towards a tunnel.
As with many of his other shorts I’ve watched, a good enough comedy but these, somehow, aren’t as highly regarded as the equivalent work of a Keaton or even Laurel & Hardy!
12/16/06: GRANDMA'S BOY (Fred Newmeyer, 1922) ***
Harold Lloyd’s first great feature pits him in his ideal homespun setting with a simple and archetypal plot in which the mild-mannered Boy gradually learns to overcome his cowardice – with the help of his loving grandmother – to become the toast of the town; in this respect, it predates the star’s more celebrated THE FRESHMAN (1925) in being, above all, character-driven (with a dash of sentimentality). That said, perhaps the film’s most hilarious scene is a typical one in which both Lloyd and his rival for the affections of leading lady Mildred Davis unwittingly mistake moth-balls from Lloyd’s ancient costume (which had belonged to his grandfather) for sweets.
It’s climaxed, however, by three lengthy and impressive set-pieces: the Civil War feat of the hero’s grandfather (also played by Lloyd and remarkably anticipating Keaton’s THE GENERAL [1927]); the chase leading up to the capture of the town bully by the newly-brave Lloyd (brought about by the presence of a Zuni doll – more than 50 years before such an artifact would achieve immortality via the classic made-for-TV compendium TRILOGY OF TERROR [1975]!); and our hero’s settling of accounts with his mean-spirited rival, which features some rather physical tussling for this kind of film. As ever with Lloyd, apart from providing the requisite attention to gag structure and the creation of atmosphere, the film results in being quite technically proficient.
12/17/06: DR. JEKYLL LIKES THEM HOT (Steno, 1979) **
From the little there is available to read about this film, I can’t believe how vehemently it’s condemned (obviously by people unfamiliar with star Paolo Villaggio’s unique brand of comedy); he’s been one of Italy’s biggest comedians since the mid-1970s, particularly his seminal 9-film series revolving around hapless everyman Ugo Fantozzi made between 1975 and 1999. By the way, I saw the actor (who occasionally dabbled in writing and directing) in 2004 at the Excelsior Hotel in Venice – while I was attending the Film Festival there – as he mingled with the other guests on the terrace, still in his pyjamas!
Anyway, it’s no surprise that the film bears little resemblance to the plot of Stevenson’s original novella, and was, in fact, extremely topical in its satirical treatment of various social issues (industrialization leading to dehumanization and aggressive marketing competitiveness yielding nothing less than chemical warfare) close to the troubled Italian situation of the time – despite being set (and shot) in London! Still, the Italian title – which translates to DR. JEKYLL AND KIND LADY – misleadingly suggests that it will be taking a gender-bending spin on events in the vein of Hammer’s DR. JEKYLL AND SISTER HYDE (1971), with Villaggio metamorphosing into the luscious Edwige Fenech…but, actually, the ‘kind lady’ is none other than the curly-haired and effeminate do-gooder into which the evil Dr. Jekyll (dwarfish and given a hairy look for maximum effect) is eventually transformed! Actually, the Jekyll here is only the grandson of the famous doctor (a photograph of Fredric March is lovingly displayed on his mantel-piece); the latter still lives, unbeknownst to the current owner, chained to his bed in the basement of the mansion!
As is to be expected, the film has an anything-goes attitude (with proposed candidates to act as promoter for the doctor’s formula narrowed down to the Pope, the Queen and Sir Laurence Olivier!) and a surreal tone (a running gag lifted from the Fantozzi films but which never fails to crack me up – and would, therefore, probably go over the head of most foreign audiences – is the long list of derogatory titles which precede figures of authority); the finale, then, is pure wishful-thinking as everybody is eventually turned into the image of benevolence – but this produces an unfortunate side-effect in that the working class takes to picketing against their employers’ just treatment of them!! Clearly the most disappointing aspect about the film is its sad waste of Fenech: despite appearing as Dr. Jekyll’s voluptuous secretary (who falls for his alter-ego, but he’s too saintly to reciprocate her affections – while the repulsive Jekyll can only hope to lust after her!), she has little to do and, worse, there’s barely any nudity (especially since she, too, succumbs to the benign formula before long – turning into a blonde, with the equivalent curly hairdo, but saddled with a pronounced lisp)!
As one can see from this review, I quite enjoyed the film – thanks also to an Armando Trovajoli score that includes an infectious recurrent pop song – and generally found it more consistent than the episodic and usually patchy Fantozzi series; that, however, may be due to the fact that it’s helmed by an expert in the field, having directed the films of many an Italian comedian – foremost among them the great Toto`…and the modest ** rating is merely a reflection (or admission, on my part) of its inherent low-brow nature and middling i.e. not exactly good overall quality.
12/17/06: FEET FIRST (Clyde Bruckman, 1930) ***
This was Harold Lloyd’s second Talkie but the first one I watched, since WELCOME DANGER (1929) is currently unavailable. It’s a typical star vehicle and, in fact, the plot is quite similar to that of SAFETY LAST! (1923) – from the shoe-store background replacing the department store of the earlier film (hence the title) to Lloyd’s attempts at impressing his girlfriend by pretending to be a wealthy businessman and, of course, its lengthy climactic shenanigans of our hero dangling from the side of a building.
Still, it’s entertaining – and inventive – enough to stand on its own (even if, being so dependent on sight gags, the dialogue scenes feel awkward in comparison); the initial shoe-store segment involves Lloyd falling foul of the boss’ wife, while the middle section is set aboard a sailing ship (which Harold contrives to be on along with the boss, his wife – who says she never forgets a face – and his own girl, the boss’ secretary and whom Lloyd thinks is actually his daughter!)…but the genuinely hair-raising stuntwork (which, it must be said, sees no obvious repetition of the innumerable gags from the climax of SAFETY LAST!) is what really makes the film – also because it involves a lethargic black janitor (played by Willie Best, appropriately nicknamed “Sleep ‘n’ Eat”) who, I’m afraid, wouldn’t pass muster with today’s PC-brainwashed audiences (especially when dubbed “Charcoal” by Lloyd himself!) and who clearly results in being more of a hindrance than a help to Harold’s singularly hazardous predicament.
This was actually the star’s fifth and final ‘thrill’ picture, which also features regular character actor Arthur Houseman invariably – and somewhat irritatingly – playing a drunkard; as for Lloyd co-star Barbara Kent, she’s adequate, having already played his leading lady in WELCOME DANGER (I was also surprised to learn that she was the heroine of Hungarian director Paul Fejos’ most renowned Hollywood film, LONESOME [1928], a part-Talkie which I’ve only managed to catch in snippets on late-night Italian TV: I did record a recent broadcast of it, presumably shown in its entirety – as the film, curiously, still bears no opening credits or any underscoring of any kind!).
12/17/06: THE KID BROTHER (Ted Wilde, J. A. Howe and, uncredited, Lewis Milestone, 1927) ****
Arguably Harold Lloyd’s greatest film, made contemporaneously with Buster Keaton’s equivalent, THE GENERAL (1927); interestingly, while the former was a box-office hit, the latter’s reception was more lukewarm – its reputation having been cemented (indeed vindicated) with time; ultimately, while THE KID BROTHER may lack the scope of Keaton’s masterwork, it’s no less meticulously crafted or well filmed. Still, it’s not quite as renowned as other Lloyds – such as SAFETY LAST! (1923) or THE FRESHMAN (1925) – which actually makes its discovery as an unequivocal gem, not only in the pantheon of comedy but among the finest productions of the Silent era, all the more sweeter!
The plot was admittedly borrowed from the famous Silent melodrama TOL’ABLE DAVID (1921) – which I’ve never watched myself – but, like THE GENERAL, it seamlessly mingles dazzling comic invention with a serious (a sure indication of this is the fact that it dispenses entirely with Lloyd’s typically sarcastic title cards), compelling and exciting plotline; in this case, Harold (again, like Keaton’s rejected soldier) has to prove he’s the equal of his stalwart family by standing up to the villain – a sinister-looking medicine-show strongman – and recover a cache of stolen money, thus righting a wrong done his father (largely at the instigation of his eternal rival – the long-lasting family feud had also been utilized by Keaton for one of his most beautiful films, OUR HOSPITALITY [1923]).
It’s quite futile to mention individual gags from the film because it has a plethora of them, all being incredibly clever (apart from hilarious) and are milked for all they’re worth – generally so as to play up to the resourcefulness of our hero. As a matter of fact, the film rarely pauses for breath between one set-piece and the next – while the last half-hour (largely confined to an offshore boat) is thrillingly packed with intense action and suspense, as it speeds towards a happy resolution of all its various plot strands. Jobyna Ralston is once again Lloyd’s leading lady here; actually, this proved to be their last collaboration.
I’ve failed to mention before now the invaluable contribution which the scores by either Carl Davis or Robert Israel have contributed to these Silent films, but Davis’ sterling work here (composed for Kevin Brownlow’s Photoplay re-issue of 1990) is particularly effective. By the way, the film was started by Lewis Milestone but had to step down from the director’s chair due to a contractual dispute; it was taken over by Ted Wilde but even he was replaced (by J.A. Howe) at some later point after he was struck by an illness; this led to the film’s shooting schedule extending to a six-month period – but all these various calamities, thankfully, didn’t affect the ultimate quality of THE KID BROTHER one bit!
P.S. The film was partly shot on the spot where Forest Lawn cemetery (where many a Hollywood star is buried) was eventually built – and which happens to be located near the Universal studio offices that host the New York Film Academy classes I attended last year!
12/18/06: DON'T LOSE YOUR HEAD (Gerald Thomas, 1966) **1/2
I’ve only watched 8 of the long-running and hugely popular “Carry On” films; their overall quality is quite patchy, but the most consistently entertaining so far have been CARRY ON…UP THE KHYBER (1968) and CARRY ON HENRY (1971). This one was actually in the same vein as the latter i.e. a period romp and, in fact, I find their brand of bawdy humor works best in this environment – not only because it allows for a contrast between modern times and the era being lampooned (including, in this case, parlor entertainment that features a minstrel tune whose chorus is lifted from The Beatles’ “She Loves You”!) but also because it gives the low-budget films a semblance of grandeur not possible with their outings having contemporary settings.
I decided to check this film before others in the series (happily, my local DVD rental outlet carries a handful of them) because I’m currently going through a bit of a swashbuckling phase as part of my Christmas marathon. Anyway, it’s an extremely typical offering (despite dropping the “Carry On” from the title, though it did get renamed CARRY ON PIMPERNEL for the U.S.) that obviously deals with the French Revolution, which is being thwarted by a Scarlet Pimpernel-type figure who calls himself “The Black Fingernail” and leaves as his calling card a drawing with the “Up Yours!” gesture: the overall effect is hit-or-miss and the pace rather sluggish for what should essentially be a zippy adventure – but the host of practiced regulars from the series are in good form, thus ensuring the occasional hilarious moment or quip (usually for this gang, these would be double entendres and even include asides to the audience!).
12/18/06: CARRY ON LAUGHING: THE PRISONER OF SPENDA (TV) (Alan Tarrant, 1975) **1/2
The raunchy “Carry On” humor eventually found its way to the small-screen in the form of half-hour TV shows – which, perhaps, served their specialized comedy style better since no padding was necessary to stretch the generally thin plotlines to feature-length and would, therefore, not overstay its welcome. Even so, their decision to adapt the swashbuckling favorite “The Prisoner Of Zenda” as part of this series rather than for the big screen was a mistake, not only because the spectacle (of which there is very little given the limited, and mostly interior, sets) would be lost on TV but the convoluted narrative could never be satisfactorily fitted into a mere 25 minutes (which allows for only the bare outline of Anthony Hope’s classic adventure to be utilized) – but, then, one must remember that literature’s definitive tale of impersonation had already been parodied by Blake Edwards in THE GREAT RACE (1965)! Still, it’s a pleasant enough trifle that clearly benefits from the presence of some of the “Carry On” notables – namely Sid James, Barbara Windsor, Joan Sims and Peter Butterworth.
