skjam

Mark of the Vampire (1935) dir. Tod Browning (also released as "Vampires of Prague")

Czechoslovakia, 1934, near the city of Prague. It is growing dark, but in the inn run by a local fellow (Michael Visaroff), two English travelers want to be on their way. The innkeeper warns that vampires roam these parts at night, Count Mora (Bela Lugosi) and his daughter Luna (Caroll Borland). The travelers scoff, but then the local medico, Dr. Doskil (Donald Meek), returns to his room at the inn, clearly frightened out of his wits, and bearing bat thorn, a plant said to ward off the undead.

The next morning, the servants at the castle of Sir Karell Borotyn (Holmes Herbert) are saddened to learn of the death of their master from his friend Baron Otto (Jean Hersholt). Sir Karell's corpse has neck wounds and has been drained of blood, which leads Dr. Doskil to declare that the death was due to vampire. Inspector Neumann (Lionel Atwill) is a skeptic, and not convinced that vampires are anything other than superstition. Despite Dr. Doskil's resentment at being lumped in with "ignorant peasants", his findings are discarded by the coroner's jury, which brings in a verdict of "Death by Unknown Causes."

Sir Karell's daughter Irena Borotyn (Elizabeth Allen) must postpone her marriage to Fedor Vicente (Henry Wadsworth) and moves in with Baron Otto, who has been appointed her guardian.

A year later, the mandatory mourning is over, and Irena and Fedor reunite at the village, though the castle itself has been abandoned. Soon, there is to be a wedding. But then Fedor blacks out near the castle and wakes up with neck wounds and severe anemia. Irena is attacked as well. Count Mora and Luna have supposedly been sighted in the area. Irena says she was compelled into the open by what she thought was the voice of her father. Inspector Neumann is forced to call in an expert, Professor Zelin (Lionel Barrymore). The professor assures everyone that vampires are very real, and precautions must be taken or Irena will surely be taken.

If you have never seen this movie before and haven't had it spoiled for you, go see it now. Seriously.



SPOILERS beyond this point. You have been warned!

This movie is a remake of the lost horror classic, "London After Midnight" which was also directed by Tod Browning and starred Lon Chaney Sr. Thus it has much the same twist ending. There are, in fact, no vampires. Instead, it's an elaborate hoax to catch Sir Karell's murderer who'd disguised his own deed as a vampire attack.

So now you can rewatch it as a comedy. The "Professor" is just making stuff up when he spouts vampire lore. The doctor is a gullible fool. Bela Lugosi with his deceptively high billing is basically playing himself, an actor dressed as Dracula, but fully committed to the "bit" so staying in character even when no one could possibly be watching. Some of the characters are in on the trick and acting their hearts out, while others are not in on it, and which is which isn't always clear.

I'm told that the movie was edited down from about 80 minutes to 60 for a tighter film, but this does create some lore gaps. There's an "extra" vampire that does nothing but appear in certain scenes just standing or sitting around. Presumably he had action in cut scenes.

The sets are great, and the acting works better once it's clear that you're watching a comedy. The heavy edits do make the film a bit choppy, but it's still a fun watch with a fine cast. Recommended to fans of spooky comedies.

Ghostbusters 2 (1989) dir. Ivan Reitman

It has been five years since the Ghostbusters saved New York City, and by extension the world, from the threat of Gozer the Gozerian. Due to the massive destruction caused by their struggle, the team was sued by multiple government agencies for the damage. At the same time, a drastic drop in paranormal activity allowed rumors spread by a certain hostile government agent that the Ghostbusters had actually used hallucinogens and special effects to create fake ghosts to defraud the public. Their small company was forced into bankruptcy and they were put under a restraining order preventing them from working as paranormal investigators.

Ray (Dan Ackroyd) runs a small bookshop and appears at children's parties with Winston (Ernie Hudson) (who apparently has no other income) in their old Ghostbuster outfits. But even the children have moved on, preferring He-Man as a cultural reference. Peter (Bill Murray) hosts a cable access show on the paranormal, but due to his reputation can't get the good guests. Egon (Harold Ramis) has done all right for himself, landing a research position at Columbia University studying whether human emotions have an effect on the environment.

Dana (Sigourney Weaver) broke up with Peter over his refusal to commit to the relationship, then married a fellow musician. But when that man got a lucrative job offer in Britain, he divorced Dana and moved, so that she is raising their baby Oscar (William and Henry Deutschendorf) alone. To have more time with her child, she took a temporary jub doing painting restoration at an art museum. Her boss, Dr. Janosz Poha (Peter MacNicol) has been hitting on her when not obsessing over his latest acquisition, a painting of alleged dictator and black magician Vigo the Carpathian (body by Wilhelm von Homburg, voice by Max von Sydow).

Once again, it's Dana who first notices that something eerie is going on when Oscar's baby carriage rolls off by itself and strolls right into the middle of the street. She contacts Egon to check into the matter, and specifically asks that Peter not be told. Peter of course finds out and invites himself along on the investigation to try and rekindle his relationship with Dana. He's still a sleaze so that part doesn't go so well, but he does start to bond with Oscar.

The former Ghostbusters (sans Winston at this point) investigate the street, and accidentally cause a blackout in the process of finding an abandoned tunnel with psychoactive slime running through it. This gets them arrested, but ghosts showing up in the courtroom gets the judge convinced to lift the restraining order.

This and a sudden rise in ghost activity needing busting allows our heroes to be back in action and again the toast of the town. Meanwhile, Janosz has become dominated by the spirit of Vigo, which is using the portrait as a channel to the living world. Vigo needs a human infant to possess at the stroke of midnight New Year's Eve to begin his comeback to rule the world. Janosz has just the baby in mind so that he can compel Dana to be his wife.

Things are about to become very bad indeed, for the slime is supercharged with negative emotions from 1980s New York City, and Vigo draws strength from that.

While the first Ghostbusters movie had been very successful, some of the people who'd be needed to make a sequel had a falling out, and schedule conflicts arose, so it took five years before this movie was made.

Good: Some great jokes, excellent special effects, guest appearance by the Statue of Liberty.

Less good: This movie's plot structure is eerily similar to the first one's, with many repeated story beats. The characters and situations are reset to very near the beginning of the first movie, so in a way this one ends with very little progress. (A notable exception is Dr. Venkman, who no longer hits on any woman that crosses his path. He's solely interested in getting back with Dana, even if he can't quite understand what he did to lose her in the first place. While he has to start at zero in that relationship again, at least we're not seeing him being a horndog to other women.)

Also, poor Winston is underused again.

It's notable that the success of the cartoon spinoff The Real Ghostbusters fed back into this movie. Mascot character Slimer (Ivan Reitman) appears even if he isn't properly explained, and in an effort to be more kid-friendly, the characters have cut way back on smoking and the sex talk.

Content note: baby in peril, Dana is seen in a bra and later in a towel, a bit of rough language, slapstick violence. Janosz is under the delusion that if he forces himself on Dana, she will grow to love him.

My DVD came with two episodes of the cartoon, "Citizen Ghost", which explains why the Ghostbusters let Slimer hang around; and "Brothers in Slime" which references the psychoactive slime from this movie (calling Vigo out by name) even though the events of the second movie could not have happened in nearly the same way in the cartoon.

Overall, it's an okay movie with its major flaw being that it's a little bit too much of a retread. Maybe we didn't need sequels and remakes, but here we are. Consider getting it in a set with the original. And of course, recommended to fans of Eighties comedies.

Doctor X (1932) dir. Michael Curtiz

The Moon Killer has struck again! Each month during the full moon, a victim is found strangled and killed with a wound to the back of the skull, and then large chunks of their flesh removed, presumably to be eaten. After six victims, the police have finally managed to determine that the skull wounds are created by someone with surgical skills, and a particular kind of scalpel. As it happens, this particular scalpel is an imported model only used at the Institute for Surgical Research, conveniently located near all the murders. The police approach Dr. Jerry Xavier (Lionel Atwill), the head of the Institute.

As it happens, the school is in recess, so that narrows the list of suspects to Dr. X and four other faculty members who have remained to pursue their own projects. Dr. Duke (Harry Beresford), Dr. Haines (John Wray), Dr. Rowitz (Arthur Edmund Carewe) and Dr. Wells (Preston Fowler). The four others have reasons why they are a little dodgy. One wrote a book on cannibalism, one was in a ship wreck and when the three man liferaft was found, only two men were still aboard, one is obsessed with the concept of "lunacy", and one is into "French Art" (a then polite euphemism for pornography.) Even Doctor X himself might be a suspect if his theory is correct.

In order to protect the Institute's reputation and attempt to solve the case using some new experiments he wants to try out, Dr. Xavier persuades the police to give him 48 hours before they crack down on the suspects. Unfortunately for him, wisecracking reporter Lee Taylor (Lee Tracy) has been concealed in the building all along. Lee reports what he's found out, resulting in newspaper headlines that will make it impossible to do the experiments at the publicly accessible Institute. Instead, Dr. X invites his fellow surgeons to his creepy mansion on Long Island.

Practical joke-loving and a little cowardly, Lee thinks his job is done, but his editor insists the reporter go out to Long Island, infiltrate, and come back with a complete story. Once there, Lee splits his time between snooping and wooing Dr. Xavier's pretty daughter Joanne Xavier (Fay Wray). But there's still a killer on the loose, and not everyone in the house will survive.

This early color horror film was Warner Brothers' response to the success of Universal's early horror classics. It was adapted from a Grand Guignol-style stage play, which was deemed a little too much strong meat for a movie audience. Thus it was rescripted to be more of a horror-comedy, with the somewhat silly reporter being the protagonist. There's also comic relief servants, skittish housemaid Mamie (Leila Bennett) and creepy butler Otto (George Rosener).

But there are spooky moments throughout, and at the climax the movie goes full horror as we finally get a good look at the Moon Killer (awesome makeup by Max Factor that works well with the film's limited color palette) and the real reason he's been killing people. And that nightmarish moment when Dr. X realizes he's made himself helpless to stop the Moon Killer from murdering Joanne.

Lionel Atwill and the other suspects are excellent, Lee Tracy is typecast but is very good at being typecast, and Fay Wray does the best she can with her limited part.

Content note: This is a pre-Code film, so they could get away with a scene in a bawdyhouse, a reference to "a woman of the streets", "French Art" and what was then a racy swimsuit for Fay Wray in one scene. There's murder, of course--no blood but a bit of body horror. References to cannibalism. Some prejudice towards the physically handicapped. Dubious depiction of and attitudes towards insanity. Younger children should have adult guidance on hand.

This movie hasn't aged as well as Mystery at the Wax Museum from later that same year, but has its charms for comedy-horror fans. Turn the lights down low and have plenty of popcorn on hand!

Ghostbusters (1984) dir. Ivan Reitman

The parapsychology department at Columbia University in New York City is small, consisting of three men. They are Dr. Peter Venkman (Bill Murray), Dr. Raymond Stantz (Dan Ackroyd) and Dr. Egon Spengler (Harold Ramis). While the other two are serious and dedicated paranormal researchers, Dr. Venkman as head of the department is treating it more as a scam, running rigged psychic experiments to amuse himself and hit on female students. Thus, even after an incident at the New York Public Library finally provides solid proof of the existence of ghosts, the department is shut down and the three expelled from the university.

Egon has come up with technology that will actually capture and hold ghosts, so the three men decide to enter the private sector as "Ghostbusters." A third mortgage produces enough capital for a rundown fire station, a converted hearse, unlicensed nuclear accelerators, and a television ad campaign. But of course, most people don't believe in ghosts, so the customers aren't rolling in. Cynical office manager Janine Melnitz (Annie Potts) doesn't have a lot to do.

However, one person in New York is about ready to believe in ghosts. Dana Barrett (Sigourney Weaver), a classical musician, found a portal to another dimension in her refrigerator. She contacts the Ghostbusters, but Peter does not find anything wrong in Dana's apartment, and just uses the occasion to hit on her. He reluctantly agrees to research the matter further. Meanwhile, Dana's neighbor, nebbish accountant Louis Tully (Rick Moranis), also has a hopeless crush on her.

The Ghostbusters' first publicly successful case is at a hotel, battling the rotund ghost we will come to know as Slimer (Ivan Reitman). This leads to other jobs, and soon the Ghostbusters have more business than they can handle, needing to hire a fourth man, Winston Zeddmore (Ernie Hudson). But this also attracts the attention of stupidly arrogant EPA agent Walter Peck (William Atherton) who is simultaneously convinced the Ghostbusters are pulling some kind of hoax and that they're violating environmental regulations. (He is technically correct on the second part.)

Egon realizes the surge of paranormal energy in New York City is not "natural"--there's way too much of it, and it's building up to something. That, it turns out, ties back to Dana and Louis, who are being targeted by the ancient Sumerian spirit Zuul to be turned into the Gatekeeper and Keymaster, who will open a portal and summon Gozer the Destructor (Slavitza Jovan) to bring about the next Age of Darkness.

Walter Peck abuses his authority to shut down the containment unit the Ghostbusters have been using to store the ghosts they've busted, unleashing a flood of supernatural horrors on the city, and making conditions ripe for the coming of Gozer. With the few people who could stop the menace in jail, who will save New York?

This supernatural comedy film took the old "ghostbusters" idea used in previous Hollywood movies and updated it for the then current day, with modern technology applied to the problem of catching ghosts. It had a solid cast of veteran comedy performers (and hot actress Sigourney Weaver) and didn't stint on the cool special effects. And of course, a very catchy theme song by Ray Parker, Jr. It's no surprise it did very well at the box office.

To repeat myself, the special effects were some of the best parts of the movie, and have generally aged well. This did mean that the budget was well above that of a normal comedy film.

The dialogue is heavy on the improvisation, and most of the humor hits, with many quotable lines.

Dr. Venkman's sleazy attitude towards women has aged less well. We are perhaps meant to see him as a more desirable suitor for Dana than the short and poorly socialized Louis, but it's not a fair comparison. Also, while Walter Peck is definitely in the wrong, Peter's snotty behavior did not help, and he doesn't follow up by contacting the EPA to have a more sensible conversation about that storage facility. Egon and Janine's budding romance in the background is much more likable.

Content note: Ray has a dream about being sexually assaulted. Lots of slapstick violence, none fatal to humans or animals. A bit of rough language. Casual smoking. Some jump scares. Guidance recommended for younger viewers.

This is a fun movie that stands up to repeated viewings. (I'm more nostalgic for The Real Ghostbusters, the animated series spun off from it.) Recommended to fans of Eighties comedy and special effects buffs.

The Case of the Lucky Legs (1935) dir. Archie Mayo

Frank Patton (Craig Reynolds) has a pretty neat scam going. He poses as the representative of a major hosiery company who's come to a small city to hold a "Lucky Legs" beauty contest. Patton gets local businessmen to front all the expenses for the contest to be compensated later by his company, while the money actually goes into his own pockets. The contest is held, one "lucky" lady wins, but is told that her thousand-dollar prize will be awarded the next morning as Frank didn't carry the cash to the contest for fear of a stickup. Then he blows town in the middle of the night and the townsfolk are out several thousand dollars.

He's done this in several widely separated cities, and in this pre-mass communication society, the word hasn't gotten around. But this last contest may have been one too many. Margie Florence Clune (Patricia Ellis) could really have used that prize money as a nest egg to marry her sweetheart Dr. Bob Doray (Lyle Talbot), so she feels exceptionally betrayed. Also, former "winner" Thelma Bell (Peggy Shannon) got wind of the new contest and followed Patton to town. And then there's bitter runner-up Eva Lamont (Anita Kerry) who suspects the contest was rigged by department store owner Colonel Bradbury (Porter Hall) who employs Margie and also has the hots for her.

Margie follows a clue to Los Angeles and disappears into the big city. After a couple of weeks, Col. Bradbury becomes worried and travels there to find her (and Patton). He decides to engage lawyer/detective Perry Mason (Warren William). Their first meeting isn't promising--Perry tied one on last night and passed out on the floor of his office and is still hungover. His secretary Della Street (Genevieve Tobin) has to keep getting him back on track during the interview. But being the fast-talking slick big city lawyer he is, Perry manages to buffalo Bradbury into giving him a retainer to take the case.

With the aid of marginally competent private eye "Spudsy" Drake (Allen Jenkins), Perry soon tracks down Patton. Who's freshly dead, a surgeon's scalpel in his back. Perry tricks the police into (re)discovering the body so he can avoid explaining how he got into the apartment (breaking and entering), but circumstantial evidence makes it look like Margie is the guilty party. Can Perry work a miracle to keep her out of prison?

This entry goes heavy on the comedy. A major subplot is that Perry's personal physician, Dr. Croker (Olin Howland) has done a physical and the lawyer is in terrible shape. As a result, the doctor has ordered Perry to have no excitement, no rich food, and especially no alcohol. Mr. Mason promptly spends most of the film's runtime cheating on his diet. He and Della are constantly insulting the police (and roast each other as well, though Della usually gets the better barbs.)

Other bits haven't aged well. We are introduced to Spudsy's wife (Mary Treen), a perpetually angry woman who throws things at her husband (and Perry, by mistake) and sometimes connects, though off-camera. There's also a stereotype joke about women being "catty."

Dr. Doray is a jealous, controlling boyfriend with a bad temper, and a desire not to have his girl parade her legs in front of other fellows.

Perry tampers with evidence, hides witnesses from the police and generally plays fast and loose with the law. It's all in a good cause, but wow is he close to getting disbarred. The police are not wittingly evil in this, but they are astoundingly stupid, try to avoid getting warrants, and need a sharp lawyer to hand feed them the real solution to the mystery.

Content note: murder, fisticuffs, domestic abuse. Closeups of women's bare or stockinged legs for fanservice; Perry is shirtless in one scene. Alcohol abuse, smoking. It's implied that Perry and Della have been doing some heavy petting.

This movie is very much "of its time." It's mostly funny and you can see the bones of the book's mystery in it, but some aspects have not aged well. Most recommended for fans of screwball comedies as Della's especially good in this one.

Beverly Hills Cop (1984) dir. Martin Brest

In Detroit, small-time grifter Axel Foley (Eddie Murphy) is making a deal to unload a truckload of dubiously sourced cigarettes. One of the people he's negotiating with makes an insultingly low offer, and the ensuing argument allows some uniformed police officers to sneak up on them. The driver of the criminal panics and recklessly attempts to escape in the truck. The chase causes millions in damages. When the police finally catch up, we learn that Axel is actually Detroit PD Detective Foley. He'd been trying to perform an unauthorized undercover sting using evidence he'd "borrowed without permission" from the impound. Axel's boss, Inspector Todd (Gilbert R. Hill) has had it up to here with Foley's flouting of the rules botching cases. Axel's fellow officers like him though, due to him being a funny guy.

That night, Axel is visited by his old friend Mikey Tandino {James Russo). They go way back, to when they were both juvenile delinquents. Axel was never caught, and Mikey refused to rat on him. Mikey got out of prison six months ago, and has been working with a mutual friend out in Beverly Hills, California. The two men do some catching up and bonding, but unfortunately Mikey has failed to turn over a new leaf. He's in possession of some German bearer bonds, obviously stolen. It's sad but not terribly surprising when, upon returning to Axel's apartment, the men are jumped and Mikey murdered. It's obviously a professional hit, not a random act of violence.

Inspector Todd refuses to let Axel work the case on the quite reasonable grouds that a) Axel isn't in the Homicide Division, and b) he's too personally involved. Plus, he might have a concussion, and hasn't exactly shown himself to be a team player lately. Axel decides to take some vacation time.

A few days later, Axel Foley arrives in Beverly Hills in his beat-up car, scams his way into an expensive hotel room, and checks in with his other old friend, Jenny Summers (Lisa Eilbacher). She'd gotten Mikey a job at the warehouse of her boss, art importer and gallery owner Victor Maitland (Steven Berkoff) who'd been kind enough to overlook Mikey's dubious past career.

Maitland turns out to be the sort of fellow who has several large men lingering menacingly in the vicinity at all times, and has a civilized veneer. The wealthy man blows his cover, however, by not even trying to deflect Axel's questions, but having him thrown out a window. Maitland spins this as Foley having thrown himself out the window, and because he's a respectable citizen, the local police go along with this.

The Beverly Hills officers, a strait-laced, by the book bunch, initially do not warm to the Detroit detective's freewheeling style and smart aleck behavior. Stiff-necked Lieutenant Bogomil (Ronny Cox), having gotten the lowdown on Axel from Inspector Todd, has Foley tailed by experienced officer Sergeant Taggart (John Ashton) and naive detective Billy Rosewood (Judge Reinhold) who is the "Beverly Hills cop" of the title.

Axel easily gives them the slip, and begins his investigation. But Maitland's a powerful man, and even Detective Foley may need a hand before the case is over!

Good: Eddie Murphy is a funny guy, ably assisted by other funny people, and much of the humor in the movie still hits in the present day. The comparison between tough, run-down Detroit and the shiny, wealthy Beverly Hills helps sell Axel as the underdog who will prove himself.

Less good: This movie plays up the reactionary "cowboy cop" fantasy. "The police are held back by unnecessary rules, and they could fight crime far more effectively if they were allowed to do whatever they want to get the job done." Notably, this doesn't seem to have worked too well on Foley's home turf of Detroit. He's had enough success to be promoted to Detective, but has had enough screwups to make him as much a liability as a benefit. It's in Beverly Hills, where Axel is a wild card, that he can really shine. His approach is repeatedly shown as correct, and Taggart and Rosewood find more success when they loosen up and follow his lead. It might have served the movie better to show that sometimes "by the book" works more effectively to get criminals behind bars. One can imagine, for example, the never seen Detective Rand, the man actually assigned to investigate Mikey's murder, slowly and methodically building an airtight case only to discover that Foley has just shot everyone involved.

Content note: some fatal violence, racism, quite a bit of foul language (especially from Axel), female toplessness. At one point, Detective Foley pretends to be a gay man and uses stereotypical voice and mannerisms that are cringy in the modern day.

Overall: This is the film that moved Eddie Murphy from a successful stand-up and sketch comedian to a full-fledged movie star. It's got a good balance of comedy and action. It's aged well, but the politics may not sit well with some viewers.

Better Off Dead (1985) dir. Savage Steve Holland

Al Meyer (David Ogden Stiers) is a lawyer in the small Northern California town of Greendale, a short drive away from the mountains. Life is rough for him. His wife Jenny (Kim Darby) is an improbably bad cook who refuses to stop trying and is generally a ditz. His younger son Badger (Scooter Stevens) is a voluntarily mute genius with zero interest in making life easy for anyone but himself. And his older son Lane (John Cusack) is a lazy sad sack who's dangerously infatuated with his girlfriend Beth Truss (Amanda Wyss). Plus, the windows in his garage door keep getting broken, most often by the bratty but persistent newsboy (Demian Slade). It would be no surprise if he snapped one day.

But enough about the character I most sympathize with. The actual protagonist is Lane, who has a stalker-level fixation on Beth and has built his current lifestyle entirely around their six-month relationship. Beth, as it turns out, is far less invested in the relationship, and throws Lane over for high school bully ski captain Roy Stalin (Aaron Dozier) as soon as the latter shows an interest. Lane's life is otherwise a series of humiliations, so it's no surprise that he turns suicidal. Even the help of his drug-obsessed friend Charles de Mar (Curtis Armstrong) who cannot actually get illegal substances in Greendale fails to bring Lane's spirits up.

Meanwhile next door, French exchange student Monique Junot (Diane Franklin) is dismayed to discover that her host, Mrs. Smith (Laura Waterbury) expects Monique to be a live-in girlfriend for her socially inept and unpleasant-looking son Ricky (Dan Schneider). Monique resorts to pretending she speaks no English whatsoever to get out of sticky situations as much as possible.

This 80s dark comedy film is apparently a fond memory of a certain subgroup of people who were teenagers at the time. I'd class it as "magic realism" as while it never expressly admits to being fantasy, highly improbable to impossible things keep happening and everyone just rolls with it.

Good: There's some nice skiing scenes, and unlike some other ski comedies, they don't overstay their welcome.

The super persistent newsboy trying to collect his two dollars is genuinely hilarious. A number of the other jokes land too, and if I had seen this in the 1980s I might have laughed at more of them.

Innovative use of 2-D and stop motion animation.

Less good: A fair bit of the comedy is the gross-out variety I am uncomfortable with. The sexual/gender dynamics of the story are...dated. Lane is only sympathetic by virtue of being the underdog and slightly less awful a person than Ricky or Roy, without any positive character traits of his own.

Sad: The actor who plays the Korean immigrant who learned to speak English by imitating Howard Cosell worked really hard on his Cosell imitation, but then just got dubbed over by Rich Little. I mean, sure, Rich Little does an amazing Cosell, but still.

Content note: Attempted suicide, played for laughs. Roy bullies Lane, and it's clear that he's pushing Beth around too once they start dating. Ricky inflicts unwanted touching on Monique, and his mother is okay with this. A girl is forcibly stripped to her underwear in public, played for laughs. Underage smoking and drinking. Psuedo-drug use. Ethnic stereotyping.

Overall: It's not a bad movie, really, but sorely dated in spots and this detracts from the good bits. Recommended primarily to viewers who were teens in the Eighties, or just a little younger so they couldn't see this in movie theaters.

Twin Dragons (1992) dir. Ringo Lam

Boomer (Jackie Chan) was raised by a single mom who had a bit of a drinking problem but tried hard to give him a good upbringing in the low-income areas of Hong Kong. She never talked about his father. Now he's an auto mechanic and street brawler, with a sideline in street racing. His buddy Tyson (Teddy Robin Kwan, "Tarzan" in the Chinese) has developed a crush on lounge singer Barbara (Maggie Cheung) and asks Boomer along to help him woo her. This is because a mob boss also has his eye on the entertainer. If only Boomer could figure out why his fingers keep twitching.

What Boomer doesn't know that he's one of a pair of identical twins. He was abducted from the hospital as a human shield by a fleeing criminal, only to be lost by the criminal before he was rearrested. Boomer's brother, John Ma (Jackie Chan), has grown up to become a successful pianist and classical music conductor. John's in Hong Kong for the first time in 26 years to lead a concert. He's greeted by a friend of his wealthy parents, who wants to hook up his daughter Tammy (Nina Li Chi as "Tong Sum") with the Ma family for economic reasons. Tammy already has a boyfriend, the roughneck Rocky (Jamie Luk Kim-Ming) who is insanely jealous.

Boomer and Tyson manage to extract Barbara from the mob-controlled nightclub, but manage to make enemies of the underworld gang. John is pursued by the wrathful Rocky, who completely misconstrues the situation between John and Tammy. A series of near-misses happens, and the brothers are mistaken for each other, interacting with each other's supporting cast in utter confusion.

Eventually the brothers meet and discover the resemblance, but that doesn't solve any of their problems. Boomer must lead a concert, and John has to drive the getaway car for the mobsters' imprisoned boss. It all ends in a big brawl at the Mitsubishi testing facility.

Good: Jackie Chan shows off his gift for physical comedy and funny martial arts. The brothers discover that they can affect each other's movements, which allows for some hilarious moments, especially when a mobster figures out only one of them can actually fight, but that's not completely true. Most of the jokes land, and it's fun figuring out how the filmmakers did certain shots.

While the female characters have less to do, they do get in some comedy moments of their own. Also, the useless "damsel in distress" role gets taken by Tyson, who really strains his friendship with Boomer (and doesn't end up with the girl or the money--Barbara makes her lack of interest in him clear early on.)

Less good: Some of the lechery jokes fall flat, the twin mixup has some creepy moments, and why is Boomer friends with Tyson again?

Content note: Martial arts violence, car crashes, what is essentially rape by deception. (Parts of the movie were cut for American release so we don't see if this is ever admitted.)

Overall: A perfectly good Jackie Chan movie that hits on most cylinders. Best not to think too carefully about that sex scene though.

Scared to Death (1947) dir. Christy Cabanne

There's an unusually chatty corpse in the morgue tonight, and it wants to tell us all about how it got there. Laura Van Ee (Molly Lamont) made a poor choice in marrying Ward Van Ee (Roland Varno), son of eminent physician Dr. Joseph Van Ee (George Zucco). It was a drunken bet gone horribly wrong and the two younger people despise each other. Ward would be willing to grant her a divorce, but Laura's holding out for more money, and she's also pretty sure the two men are trying to drive her insane. (It's noted that she has a phobia of anything covering her face--Laura wouldn't have done well in 2020!)

The house is excessively full tonight. Local security guard and former police officer Bill Raymond (Nat Pendleton) is romancing the disinterested maid Lilybeth (Gladys Blake) between bouts of yearning for a crime to happen. A Professor Leonide (Bela Lugosi), professional magician and former inmate of the house when it was an insane asylum, has arrived along with his deaf-mute little person companion Indigo (Angelo Rossito). He has history with Dr. Van Ee, history that might be bad for the doctor's reputation, and prevails on that man to be allowed to stay. A Mrs. Williams (Dorothy Christie) also drops by with hints about the doctor's past. Terry Lee (Douglas Fowley), reporter for the Times, and his slightly dim phone operator girlfriend Jane Cornell (Joyce Compton) also pop by once there's a report of mysterious goings-on. Plus, there's someone lurking about in a green mask who may or may not be any of those people.

Various spooky things happen, and Laura ends up--scared to death!

This comedy-thriller is best known for being Lugosi's one starring role in a color movie. He does his best with the material handed him, alternately jolly or menacing as the scene requires. But the script is thin stuff, hoping to distract with complications instead of weaving a complete web. Why is there a little person? To distract the audience, apparently. Entire subplots are just dropped between scenes.

And the comedy and thriller bits don't mesh well either, making this feel more like a movie that can't make up its mind what it wants to be, rather than a coherent blend of genres. The music is poorly planned as well. You can see good ideas peeping out from behind the curtains, but they are never allowed to take center stage.

Overall, a mediocre movie which is for Legosi fans and the "make wisecracks while watching movies" crowd.

Evil Dead 2 (1987) dir. Sam Raimi

Ashley "Ash" J. Williams (Bruce Campbell) has located an isolated cabin for he and his girlfriend Linda (Denise Bixler) to spend some quality time together. He's pretty sure the owners aren't present. And indeed, when the young couple arrives, they find the place empty, though it still has electricity and running water, and is nicely furnished and roomy. But there a tape recorder, revealing that the owner is a Professor Knowby, who has acquired a copy of the Necronomicon and proceeds to read aloud from it. This alerts the already-summoned evil in the woods that there are fresh souls in the cabin. By dawn, Linda has been killed and transformed into an evil Deadite, and Ash is much the worse for wear.

Ash attempts to escape the area, only to find that the bridge has been destroyed, and he barely makes it back to the cabin by nightfall. But the cabin itself is no safe refuge. The evil can control furniture, deliver grade-A hallucinations, and eventually turns Ash's own right hand against him. And that's before we get into the Deadites!

Meanwhile Annie Knowby (Sarah Berry), daughter of the professor, and Ed Getley (Richard Domeier), his assistant, head in from the airport with additional pages and materials regarding the Necronomicon. When the bridge is discovered to be out, they hire two locals, Jake (Dan Hicks) and Bobby Joe (Kassie Wesley DePaiva) to guide them up the back path. By the time the quartet arrives, Ash is so messed up it's understandable that they mistake him for the menace. The path vanishes, and the Deadites close in. Will anyone one survive, or will they all be dead by dawn?

Evidently, this movie was originally planned to be a direct sequel to The Evil Dead but rights issues prevented Mr. Raimi from using scenes from that movie as a prologue to establish how Ash got to the point the new characters find him at. So the first twenty minutes are an abbreviated version of the first film's story, cutting out expendable characters and subplots.

This works very well, as Bruce Campbell sells the swift journey from terrified citizen to traumatized survivor to slightly crazed badass.

The rest of the cast gets shallow characterization, and we have to use small cues like Jake's dog tags to help fill in the blanks.

This is a horror-comedy with many of the moments being silly to look at, even if they would be terrifying to live through. That is clearly more blood than any one human body has inside of it, for one example.

The movie's shot well, and has a very good sequel hook that leads directly into Evil Dead 3: Army of Darkness. Which I also recommend.

Content note: Lots of violence, often extremely gory. Some corpses are naked. This movie is rated "R" for a reason.

Overall, this is an awesome horror movie for the type of fan that enjoys a good bloodbath and jokes.