Isle of the Dead (1945) dir. Mark Robson

General Nikolas Pherides (Boris Karloff) is leading Greek forces in the first Balkan War of 1912. His troops have just won a hard-fought battle. But perhaps less of them would have died if one of his officers hadn't arrived too late. The officer tries to make excuses, but is stripped of his rank and General Pherides silently offers him a choice between a firing squad and honorable suicide. American reporter Oliver Davis (Marc Cramer) is shocked by this apparent cruelty.

We learn of the general's rigid adherence to what he sees as his duty to protect Greece, its laws, and his troops. He's not called "the Bulldog" for nothing. Outside, corpses litter the ground, and already exhausted soldiers are slaving to take them away. Army doctor Drossos (Ernst Deutsch) explains that disease is endemic on the battlefield, and the dead must be buried or destroyed immediately to prevent its spread. Sure, using horses would lighten the load, but unlike human beings they would not understand the need to keep working past exhaustion.

General Pherides also understands personal loss. His wife passed away many years ago, and as it happens is buried on a small island nearby, an Isle of the Dead. He has decided to pay his respects at her tomb tonight while he has the chance. Mr. Davis volunteers to come with him to see a more peaceful area of Greece.

When they reach the island (modeled on a famous painting) which is symbolically guarded by a statue of Cerberus, the three headed dog of Hades, they are shocked to discover that the tomb of the general's wife has been despoiled and her coffin opened and empty. In face, all the coffins are empty. What sacrilege is this? A haunting song draws them to a house nearby, the only living habitation on the island.

This turns out to be the dwelling place of Albrecht (Jason Robards Sr.), a Swiss archaeologist. He explains that he unwittingly set the destruction in motion some years before when he arrived in the area and began offering money for antiquities. The impoverished villagers were quick to realize that the only untapped source of antiquities in the area was the Isle of the Dead, and looted it to get money to eat and survive. Once Albrecht realized what had happened, he settled on the island in the hopes of preserving what was left.

As it happens, the house is full of people tonight. In addition to Albrecht and his elderly housekeeper Madame Kyra (Helene Thimig), there's British consul St. Aubyn (Alan Napier), his sickly wife Mrs. Mary St. Aubyn (Katherine Emery), Mrs. St. Aubyn's companion/servant Thea (Ellen Drew) and Cockney tinsmith Andrew Robbins (Skelton Knaggs). The British people (though Thea is also Greek) were forced to detour here due to the battle on the mainland. Mr. Robbins is behaving oddly, put down to drunkenness, and is shown to bed. Since it is very late, General Pherides and Mr. Davis are talked into sleeping at the villa until dawn.

Except that it turns out that Mr. Robbins was not drunk, but dying, and the general suspects he knows why. Dr. Drossos is summoned, and confirms that the cause of death was septicemic plague, and everyone present, including himself, must stay on the island until the plague is confirmed to have run its course.

One by one, the group begins to die. But is it actually plague, or is it something far darker? Madame Kyra fears that a vorvolaka (a malign spirit of Greek folklore) is on the Isle of the Dead and is using the plague as a cover for its sinister actions. The others scoff at first, but as the casualties mount, General Pherides begins to think there's some truth to this.

This film is one of three that producer Val Lewton was contractually obligated to make starring Boris Karloff. While initially displeased, Mr. Lewton found Karloff easy to work with and the partnership did well. The cold and somewhat cruel general is a far cry from Mr. Karloff's "type" of somewhat sympathetic doctors and scientists driven to evil. The curly-haired wig takes some getting used to, but the actor's inherent dignity manages to pull it off. An important bit of characterization happens early on when Thea admits she hates the general because he'd killed several of her neighbors for refusing to pay unfair taxes. "Anyone who refuses to follow the law of Greece is not a Greek."

Despite his coldness, we can see his reasoning and his strong discipline, so his descent into paranoia and madness is more striking.

Madame Kyra is the main villain here, allowing her superstition and dislike of Thea to fix accusations in her head, and poisoning the atmosphere. She's responsible for unnecessary tragedy.

The other standout character is Mrs. St. Aubyn. Her chronic illness sometimes leaves her in a cataleptic state, so she has a horror of being buried alive. Unfortunately, Dr. Drossos, the one person around who can tell the difference between catalepsy and death, dies before her.

Mr. Davis and Thea are more shallow characters, set up to be the romantic subplot.

There's some musing on deeper themes. Science vs. faith, law vs. compassion, meditations on mortality.

Content note: Murder, suicide and other deaths, no gore, though we see a lot of corpses. Someone is buried alive. Older teens on up should be fine.

This is not considered one of Lewton's top films, but is still pretty good, and is well above some of the crap Karloff got stuck with. It'd be a good choice if you want to see a horror movie that's more suspenseful than scary. Recommended to Boris Karloff fans.

Too Many Winners (1947) dir. William Beaudine

Private eye Michael Shayne (Hugh Beaumont) and his secretary Phyllis Hamilton (Trudy Marshall) have been invited for a duck hunting vacation with one of her relatives. Phyllis is looking forward to this, so is irritated when Gil Madden (Ben Welden) enters, looking like a client. She quickly informs him the office is closed, only for Mr. Madden to say that he'd planned to offer $2000 for Mike not to take a case. Oops! Then Michael gets a call from Mayme Martin (Claire Carlton), a vampish blackmailer offering a hot tip. Naturally, he's off to investigate, promising he'll be right back.

The meeting is inconclusive, as Mayme wants cash up front, and the hints she's giving are for a case Shayne isn't involved with. A thousand dollars is a lot of money for information that might be useless. Outside the apartment building, Mike is abducted by two thugs who want to know what he learned from Mayme, and don't believe him when he truthfully admits he didn't learn anything. They beat him up and toss the detective into the City Dump.

When Shayne finally makes it back to the office a few hours later, the rightfully steamed Phyllis has left on her own, leaving a message about a persistent caller. This turns out to be the owner of the Santa Rosita racetrack, who needs a private eye, and asks him to meet with track manager John Hardeman (Grandon Rhodes) in the Santa Rosita Hotel. Now that he's on the case, Mike asks reporter pal Tim Rourke (Charles Mitchell) to visit Mayme and pay her for the information.

Tim arrives just in time to meet police detective Peter Rafferty (Ralph Dunn) who's investigating Mayme's murder. Tim's presence and peanut shells in an ashtray leads Rafferty to suspect his old enemy Michael Shayne is mixed up in this somehow.

At Santa Rosita, Mike meets with Hardeman and finds out what the case is about. The racetrack has had too many winning tickets recently, consistently more than the number they actually sold. Therefore, someone must be counterfeiting betting slips wholesale--but how? The local police resent Shayne being called in, but they haven't been able to figure the case out, and the track's been losing enough money to not be profitable.

Can Michael Shayne crack the case and win back Phyllis, and how many people will need to die to do this?

This is the last of the Hugh Beaumont Shayne movies (though not the last I will review), and the cast switches up a bit again. The dialogue is still snappy, and the comedy bits hit often. Special callout to George Meader as put-upon hotel clerk Clarence.

This version of Phyllis has a quicker temper than her predecessors, and Mike treats her pretty badly. Because the movie is meant as light-hearted, no one seems very broken up about the multiple corpses, with one exception who's given a sympathetic family so Shayne tries not to make things worse for them.

This is a middle of the road low-budget series film, and perhaps it's best that the studio pulled the plug at this point before the movies really declined. It's short, so I'd recommend it as a double feature with a more gritty mystery. Recommended for lighter mystery fans.

Choices (1981) dir. Silvio Narizzano

John Carluccio (Paul Carafotes) has a pretty good life. Yes, he's got severe hearing loss due to a childhood accident, but with the help of a hearing aid, he's able to function in hearing society just fine. He's first violin in his high school orchestra (been playing since age 3 due to his grandfather (George Barrows) urging it on him, Gramps also being the orchestra director. John's the star running back on the football team, which actually has a chance of making it into the playoffs this year. And on nights when he doesn't have too much school stuff going on, he plays fiddle in a rockabilly band at the local bar.

Trouble comes when the old school doctor retires and is replaced by Dr. Bowers (Dennis Patrick). While reviewing the school's medical records, Dr. Bowers notices John's hearing loss and decides that he should no longer be allowed to play football. This decision understandably enrages John, as well as his father Gary (Victor French) whose own athletic dreams were crushed by injury, and Coach Rizzo (Val Avery) who's finally got a team with a shot at the championship. Gramps thinks this is okay because it will allow John to devote more time to music. And while most of the football team is supportive of John, Lance (Don Stark), the back-up running back who's been benched most of the season due to John being just so much better, would just as soon have his rival out of the way.

Now, Dr. Bowers means well, and his point isn't that John physically can't play football (which makes the attempts to show Dr. Bowers that he can kind of redundant) but that further injury could make John lose his remaining hearing, and John has never bothered to learn lip reading or sign language, so he's woefully unprepared for total deafness. But Dr. Bowers is bad at explaining himself, especially to teenagers, and comes across as arbitrary and cruel.

When the matter is brought up to the school board, they let the doctor's decision stand so that they can review the evidence and make a decision at their next meeting in two weeks.

While he also loves music, John's identity as a high school student is tied to his stardom as a football player. Banned from the sport, he begins to spiral. He starts hanging out with his hoodlum friend Chris (Stephen Nicols) way more, begins smoking and drinking, and having fights with his family and other friends.

Oh, and sweetheart Corri (Demi Moore) is also there.

This TV movie is allegedly based on a true story, and veers into Afterschool Special territory. It's mostly remembered now for being Demi Moore's first official movie role, and the promotional art features her heavily, though she's got a small supporting role. She does okay in it.

The music is good, both the classical music played by the school orchestra, and the original songs played by the band or just on the soundtrack. There's some effective sound design to show John's hearing loss.

John's downward spiral is perhaps a bit too steep and fast for plausibility, and tends towards the melodramatic, but is excusable to fit it within ninety minutes run time and a bit over two weeks in story time.

The acting ranges from wooden to average; the most interesting job is done by Pat Buttram as "Pops" the folksy bar owner.

Content notes: Some fistfights. Relatively mild ableism. Underage drinking and smoking. Chris' character leans a little too much into stereotypes of "the criminal class." Teenagers should be able to handle it just fine.

It's an okay TV drama of its time and place. Recommended primarily to families with teenagers who can use it to spark discussions. Demi Moore fans will be disappointed, so only for completionists.

Final Encounter (2000) dir. David Douglas. aka For the Cause

It is several centuries into the future. Two human colonies have been established on an Earth-like planet to get away from the constant wars on the mother world. Alas, Brecca and Obsidian eventually turned hostile to each other for reasons now lost to history, and the war between them has been going on for 99 years. Brecca is in rough shape. Its citizens are undernourished, and the attrition among soldiers is high. The recruitment age has been repeatedly dropped, so many of the soldiers are barely in their teens. While they still have advanced computer technology, the understanding of it is limited to specialized female operatives called "witches." Morale is at an all-time low, and the Brecca army spends most of its time fighting its own deserters and separatists. It's estimated that unless the Obsidian forces are somehow neutralized, Brecca will lose the war in a matter of months.

General Murran (Dean Cain) has a plan. There's an ancient superweapon codenamed "Warhammer" that supposedly would disable Obsidian's technology if detonated in their capital city, allowing Brecca to sue for peace from a position of strength. Twenty years ago, his father had attempted to invade Obsidian in strength, only to get almost all the troops with him killed, and the previous general either died or was captured. The components of Warhammer, which had been separated for security, fell into the hands of different factions. So, the components will need to be reassembled, and someone will have to sneak into Obsidian to deliver the device.

But this time, it will need to be an elite strike team led by General Murran himself. To join him, he selects Sutherland (Justin Whalin), the most loyal and effective soldier Brecca has left; Stoner (Trae Thomas), a more cynical heavy weapons expert; Abel (Jodi Bianca Wise), Brecca's top combat witch; and Layton (Michelle Krusiec), the next best available witch. Their first action is to rescue Evans (Thomas Ian Griffith), the only man who knows how to safely get through the Wall, a lost technology barrier that prevents ground assaults on Obsidian.

As the mission continues, the team suffers losses one by one. But is this just the normal casualties of war, or something more sinister?

This low-budget science fiction action film was released straight to video. Money was saved by shooting in Bulgaria, using affordable actors and using an in-house computer effects team.

Good: The producers of the film had a background in computer graphics, so the CGI effects are pretty good for the time, and there's an in-universe reason they look unnatural. The setup of the war is interesting, and Bulgaria stands in well for the alien planet.

Less Good: The dialogue is hokey, and the acting ranges from adequate to wooden. The ending is cheesy, and a subplot involving Abel's precocious little sister just kind of fizzles out offscreen.

Funny: Cain and Whalin had previously starred together as Clark Kent and Jimmy Olsen respectively in Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman which added a certain weirdness to their interactions in this movie.

Content note: Lots of lethal violence. A bone is broken in an unnatural way. A child is lured by an adult in a really creepy way (she's fine.)

This is one of those movies that isn't good, but not bad in a fun way. I found it on one of those multi-film sets at the discount store, and that's about the quality. Mildly recommended if you are interested in one of the actors.

Spy Smasher (1942) dir. William Witney

Alan Armstrong (Kane Richmond) was an American journalist working in France when Germany invaded. Unable to stay neutral, Alan faked his own death so he could operate as freelance operative Spy Smasher. As our story opens, Spy Smasher is captured by the Gestapo, tortured and sentenced to death by firing squad. The execution is faked by Free French undercover operator Captain Pierre Durand (Frano Corsaro) so that Spy Smasher can get back to the United States with information on the Nazi plan to flood the U.S. with counterfeit money.

In America, Alan makes contact with his twin brother Jack (Kane Richmond), who is the special deputy to Admiral Corby (Sam Flint) who is the newly appointed head of Foreign Intelligence. Jack's also the sweetheart of the admiral's daughter and secretary Eve Corby (Marguerite Chapman). The twins decide to keep the return of Alan secret so that he can continue operating freely as Spy Smasher. Now it's time to defeat the many schemes of the top Gestapo agent in the U.S., the Mask (Hans Schumm)!

This 1942 Republic serial was loosely based on the Fawcett Comics character Spy Smasher. The most notable change from the comic book was giving Alan a twin brother. In the comics, Spy Smasher worked directly with Admiral Corby and was Eve's sweetie. Also interestingly, the Mask's mask is off most of the time, except when directly giving orders to his minions. It's not to conceal his identity as was often the case for main villains in serials.

This serial was written and shot before December 7, 1941, when the U.S. has very obviously chosen sides in World War II, but was still officially at peace. Thus it's a plot point in one of the chapters that the American government can't just attack agents of the German government. But by the time it came out in theaters, America was very much at war with Nazi Germany, which gave the serial a boost in popularity.

It also helped that Spy Smasher is one of Republic's best serials, with tight writing, excellent stunt work and special effects, and strong cliffhangers. One of those cliffhangers late in the run is considered especially notable for reasons that will be obvious when you come to it.

That said, there are repetitive bits, so this can wear on you if you are watching the three plus hours all in one sitting. Eve is the only notable female character, and she is locked out of the loop on what's going on with the twins, so doesn't get to do much for most of the story. On the other hand, the serial only resorts to having her kidnapped once, and she's shown as smart enough to leave a clue using her typing skills.

Another interesting bit is the Mask's main field agent, Drake (Tristram Coffin). He's a reporter for Oceanic Television News, a fledgling TV service. His gimmick is leaving the camera on when he leaves Admiral Corby's office so that he and the Mask can listen in on secret meetings. Of course, at the time American civilian television was restricted to a few thousand sets in the hands of the wealthy or eccentric, so the news service itself probably wasn't very successful.

After the war, Spy Smasher got renamed Crime Smasher and fought ordinary criminals, but this didn't last long. After DC bought Fawcett's character assets, they sat on them for over a decade, and by the time they started integrating them into their comics, Spy Smasher was a long-forgotten item used only for brief cameos. He did, however, get a cool appearance in the Justice League Unlimited episode "Patriot Act" and there was a legacy character running around in the comics a decade or so ago.

Oh, and the music's also nifty. The title theme is Beethoven's Fifth Symphony, to evoke the "V for Victory" meme of the time, and Spy Smasher's leitmotif references that, but it's not overused in the main body of the chapters.

If you're pressed for time or patience, you may want to try the edited down 1960s version Spy Smasher Returns (not a sequel despite the title). This is a rip-roaring good time with plenty of Nazi (and a few Vichy early on) punching.

White Comanche (1967) dir. Gilbert Kay

Johnny and Notah Moon (both William Shatner) are twin brothers, identical save for slightly different eye colors. Their father was white, and their mother of the Comanche nation. Early on, they were raised in both traditions, but their father died early, and when their mother died around the time that they were ten, the twins were forced to move to an Oklahoma reservation by U.S. soldiers. Their mixed heritage meant that they were not fully accepted by the Comanche, and the whites of the area...were not welcoming.

Johnny chose to aggressively assimilate to white culture, while Notah found solace in peyote consumption, using it even outside formal ceremonies. By the time they were adults, Johnny was able to move out into the wider world as a ranch hand, while Notah started having (or claimed to have) visions of himself being the next great leader of the Comanche people, overcoming the white oppressors and making them a great nation again. A charismatic fanatic, Notah was able to convince a small band of followers to join him in banditry. His excessive violence and cunning soon made him notorious as "the White Comanche."

As the movie opens, Johnny Moon is attacked by a lynch mob who have mistaken him for the White Comanche. This is apparently not the first time it's happened. But after he escapes, he decides that this is enough and tracks down his brother's current encampment. When Notah returns from another raid (more on that in a bit), Johnny challenges him to a showdown to take place in four days in the town of Rio Hondo. (The idea, apparently, is to have a bunch of white folks witness the fight so he can prove that he and the White Comanche are different people.)

Rio Hondo, meanwhile, has its own problems. Sheriff Logan (Joseph Cotten) is trying to prevent a lethal showdown between the competing gangs of General Garcia (Mariano Vidal Molina), a rancher, and Grimes (Luis Prendes), a saloon owner. On the way into town, Johnny saves one of Grimes' men from being lynched (he's not motivated by general goodness, but his own empathy towards lynching victims), which makes the two gangs think he's on Grimes' side.

But then the stagecoach arrives, with the driver dropping dead from his wounds on arrival, and the sole remaining passenger, Kelly (Rosanna Yanni) the saloon girl, who's been raped. This turns out to be the work of the White Comanche, and Kelly initially fingers Johnny as her attacker. (She is the first, and for quite a long time the only, person Johnny bothers to tell about the twin thing.)

Tensions are rising in Rio Hondo, and there may be corpses on the streets even before Notah's raiding party arrives!

This Spanish Western was offered to William Shatner during his summer break from filming Star Trek. He accepted, perhaps thinking that if it worked out and his current television series didn't, he could pivot to being a Western star. He was joined by veteran Joseph Cotten, who had cash flow problems and was accepting almost anything he could get.

Unfortunately, the script is hokey, and the shoestring budget shows. There is zero attempt made to make Johnny/Notah look mixed-race, but the script has everyone be able to tell at a glance. The dubbing for the Italian and Spanish actors is...dubious.

Cotten is better in his role than the movie deserves, and Shatner's...unique approach to the material is certainly something to watch. There's also a bit of his interesting combat style, and lots of him being shirtless.

There's a fairly interesting subplot about Notah's band becoming disaffected with his leadership because he's violating their customs in favor of his personal agenda. Only his wife White Fawn (Perla Cristal) remains faithful, but this does not end well for her.

Content note: Lots of gun, knife and fist violence, often lethal. This includes the deaths of a child and pregnant woman. The few wounds shown are neat red circles in the forehead. Rape, cutting away just before the actual deed. Racism. Drug abuse. None of the Native American characters are played by Native Americans.

While this is by no means a good movie, it's an interesting and watchable one. I think it would do well for "Bad Movie Night" with your friends. The print on my copy, from The Great American Western collection, was exceptionally poor, so you may want to seek out a cleaner one.

A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night (2014) dir. Ana Lily Amirpour

Bad City may be an oil town, but black gold hasn't brought prosperity to the majority of its inhabitants. Arash (Arash Marandi) is a hard-working young man who works as a handyman for a wealthy family, but himself lives in the slums and supports his heroin addict father Hossein (Marshall Manesh). Hossein is deeply in debt to local drug dealer/loan shark/pimp Saeed (Dominic Rains). Saeed takes Arash's beloved vintage car as partial payment on Hossein's debts, not interested in Arash's complaint that the car belongs to him, not his father.

At his job, Arash is called up to the room of daughter Shaydah (Rome Shandaloo), who flirts with him while he's doing repairs. He's trying to ignore this as he knows it's not going anywhere. When she leaves, Arash succumbs to the temptation to steal some small jewelry in hopes of trading it to Saeed for his car.

So far, shaping up to be a noir crime drama. But then Saeed runs into a girl walking home alone at night (Sheila Vand) and the genre of the movie abruptly changes.

This 2014 Iranian horror movie is shot in stylish black and white, which helps cloak the fact that although the director is Iranian-American, most major roles are played by Iranian actors, and everyone is speaking Farsi, it was actually filmed in California. Unsurprisingly, there are themes and actions in the movie that would not fly with the Iranian government.

This is one of those movies where "good" and "evil" don't really enter into it. The Girl kills people to survive, but generally preys on people that are pretty awful. Arash doesn't kill anyone himself, but is perfectly willing to profit off a corpse he finds. There doesn't seem to be any law enforcement as such, and there's a gulch with an alarming number of bodies that people have just dumped there. "Bad City' indeed. Prostitute Atti (Mozhan Navabi) sees her job as just her job and is saving to...go somewhere else, maybe? And the Street Urchin (Milad Eghbali) is mostly drifting around with not much to do. Especially after The Girl confiscates his skateboard.

This last makes for some interesting imagery. The Girl's chador resembles the classic "Dracula cloak" (which is also seen when Arash dons one.) A vampire on a skateboard seems like something you would not have seen outside a 1980s kid's cartoon. But shot in this movie it's just eerie.

The deleted scenes are also interesting. I was fascinated by the much larger role for minor character Rockabilly (Reza Sixo Safai) who in these clips addresses the camera directly if obscurely. (But I can see why they were taken out, it would have made the movie drag a lot more.)

Content note: Murder, mutilation and gore. Assault. Prostitution. Drug abuse, including a person forcibly being given drugs by needle. Partial nudity. Deleted scenes include gay-bashing. Older teens should be okay, but sensitive viewers may want to give it a pass.

This is a striking movie that's an interesting mix of foreign and familiar. Recommended to horror fans who can handle subtitles.

The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920) dir. Robert Wiene

The frame story begins with Franciz (Friedrich Feher) having just been told by another man (Hans Lanser-Ludloff) about the supernatural events that drove him from his home. Franciz replies that the events he and his fiancée Jane Olsen (Lil Dagover) experienced were even more chilling. We then flash back to the announcement of a fair in the city where Franciz and Jane then lived. Their friend Alan (Hans Heinrich von Twardowski) sees an ad for the fair and asks Franciz to come with him. Despite their both being in love with Jane, the two are still good friends.

Meanwhile, a mountebank calling himself Doctor Caligari (Werner Krauss) tries to get a license to perform at the fair. The Town Clerk does allow this, but not before he's very rude to the applicant. By what I am sure is a total coincidence, the Town Clerk is murdered that very night.

Alan and Franciz go to the fair and visit Dr. Caligari's concession. The act turns out to be the supposed doctor displaying a "somnambulist" he calls Cesare (Conrad Veidt) who he awakens from deep sleep. Caligari claims that Cesare has supernatural knowledge of the future. When Alan foolishly enquires how long he will live, Cesare tells Alan he will be dead by dawn.

When Alan is murdered that night, Franciz' logical first suspect is Cesare. But is that really the case?

This 1920 silent German film is one of the most famous movies ever made, and even if you haven't seen it, you've probably heard of it if you have an interest in film history, horror, or German Expressionism. The last is most obvious in the nightmarish set design.

Conrad Veidt is chilling as Cesare, the sleepwalking killer, scrambling over the rooftops on his deadly mission. And within context, Dr. Caligari makes a very sinister figure.

There's a couple of nice touches. An unrelated criminal attacks an old woman in hopes that his murder will be mistakenly credited to the mysterious previous ones. And Dr. Caligari has a "lifelike" dummy of Cesare that he puts in the cabinet while the somnambulist is away to create an alibi.

The title card says that this is a retelling of an 11th Century legend, though that legend itself is made up for the movie--and then there's the infamous twist ending that turns most of what we've learned on its head.

It does have to be remembered that this movie is still quite early in the history of films, and silent, so the acting can come off artificial and stiff, and the lighting is sometimes dubious. The set design actually helps by being so weird that the viewer might not feel the need to nitpick details so much.

Content note: Murder, naturally, though the actual deed is suggested by shadow, not directly shown. Some period depiction of mental illness that may come off badly to modern viewers. Older teens should be fine; younger viewers may not be ready for the conventions of silent film.

This is one of those movies that's more important than good, but it's good enough that it's worth seeing for any fan of horror or film history buff.

Gone With the Wind (1939) dir. Victor Fleming

Gerald O'Hara (Thomas Mitchell) is an Irish immigrant who got lucky in a card game many years ago, winning a substantial tract of farmland in Georgia. He married a woman of French extraction named Ellen (Barbara O'Neil) and by hard work and being a decent master to his slaves built Tara into a fine plantation, manor house and all. He has three daughters, Catherine Scarlett (Vivian Leigh), Suellen (Evelyn Keyes), and Carreen (Ann Rutherford). Scarlett, as most folk call her, is a willful but charming belle of sixteen in 1861. While proud of his Irish heritage, Mr. O'Hara has acclimated to the customs and beliefs of his Southern gentry neighbors.

Prominent slaves at Tara include housekeeper and caregiver Mammy (Hattie McDaniel), valet Pork (Oscar Polk), maid Prissy (Butterfly McQueen) and foreman Big Sam (Everett Brown). Jonas Wilkerson (Victor Jory) was, up to the moment we meet him, the white overseer of the slaves, but is a Yankee, and of low moral character, which gets him fired.

Scarlett is a shameless flirt, and enjoys the attention of all the local swains, but she has her heart set on Ashley Wilkes (Leslie Howard), a fine young Southern gentleman and the son of John Wilkes (Howard Hickman), owner of the neighboring Twelve Oaks plantation. Ashley has a sister named India (Alicia Rhett), but Scarlett mostly ignores her. Scarlett is looking forward to the big barbecue and ball at Twelve Oaks so she can finally make it clear to Ashley that she loves him (and pin him down that he loves her.) She's fed up with all the menfolk's talk of "war", even though that seems inevitable.

At the barbecue, Scarlett is less thrilled by the arrival of some of the guests. These include Ashley's cousins Melanie (Olivia de Havilland) and Charles Hamilton (Rand Brooks). You see, there's a Wilkes custom of marrying one's cousin. And Scarlett is aware that most of the family is expecting Ashley to marry Melanie, who Scarlett considers a mealy-mouthed goody two-shoes. And there's a special guest from Charleston, a Mr. Rhett Butler (Clark Gable). Rhett's a black sheep, no longer welcome in Charleston, who made his money gambling and operating shady businesses. But John Wilkes has business with him, so despite his poor reputation, he's been invited. Rhett's interested in Scarlett, but not vice versa.

Scarlett isn't able to get Ashley alone at the barbecue (he's busy affirming his engagement to Melanie, and it's clear to the audience that neither of them is entering this relationship unwillingly), so when the ladies are supposed to be taking an afternoon nap, she sneaks downstairs to find him.

Meanwhile, the menfolk have been discussing the prospects of the upcoming war. Most of the Southerners are all for it. They figure it will be a short, victorious war of independence as Yankees can't fight for spit and the South has all the good officers. Ashley demurs, he's against war in principle as immoral, though if called to serve he will do so. Rhett, on the other hand, who has actually been to the North, warns that the Yankees' superior numbers and industrial capacity will make them difficult foes, and the South is not assured of an easy victory. This dose of facts makes the outsider very unpopular, and he walks out. Ashley goes after him to be a good host.

Scarlett waylays Ashley before he can catch up to Rhett, and after a bit of small talk drags him into the library to confess her love. Ashley tells her that he's marrying Melanie, but instead of saying that he loves his cousin, cites his "duty." It's clear that Ashley is attracted to Scarlett, but is smart enough to realize they're not compatible, and is far more comfortable in the important ways with Melanie. Scarlett isn't catching the unspoken overtones, and only sees that Ashley isn't saying that he doesn't love her. After Ashley leaves, she has a fit of temper, only to discover that Rhett was in the room all along, lying on a couch with a high back turned towards her. He indicates that he's interested in Scarlett, but she's angry and embarrassed and just not interested right now.

Before anything else can happen, it's announced that the War of Northern Aggression has begun, and all the men start getting ready to enlist. Realizing there's no time to get Ashley to change his mind, Scarlett fastens on to Charles Hamilton, who is smitten by this fiery young woman and agrees to marry her pronto, thus making Scarlett and Melanie sisters-in-law.

And there's still over three hours left of this movie!

Gone With the Wind was based on a bestselling novel of the same title, written by Margaret Mitchell. It was wildly successful, becoming the highest-grossing movie (adjusted for inflation) ever. It won multiple Oscars, including Best Picture and a Best Supporting Actress for Hattie McDaniel, the first acting Oscar given to a Black person.

And honestly, this is a very well-made and impressive movie. Music (the classic "Tara Theme"), special effects, costuming, set design, stuntwork (including by legendary Yakima Canutt), directing and acting are all top-notch. A very impressive amount of the novel got into the movie, justifying the nearly four-hour runtime. Which is why most of the DVD versions are on two discs.

Scarlett is an interestingly flawed protagonist. She's charming, clever when she thinks ahead (her picture is next to "conniving" in the dictionary) and a shrewd business owner. But she spends most of the runtime hankering after a man who is never going to return her love and failing to realize that Melanie is her one true friend. She's just as responsible for the failure of her eventual marriage to Rhett as he is.

And Rhett? Well, he's definitely the clearest-headed man in the movie, but he's earned his bad reputation and cannot for the life of him stop saying cynical or sarcastic things to Scarlett that damage her ability to trust him. He too can be very charming when he tries, but his normal bluntness burns bridges and at the end, he's just not willing to stay in this toxic relationship.

Mammy is also a complex character. She's essentially a second mother to Scarlett, and far more involved in her day-to-day life than Ellen. As such, Mammy often gives orders and sound advice to Miss Scarlett far beyond what their respective social stations would normally allow. Not that Scarlett, a headstrong teen, pays attention. Her bond to the O'Hara family is so strong that she continues working for them even after the war ends and she's technically free. And winning her approval is something that Rhett seriously cares about. Ms. McDonald is said to have disliked playing such a stereotyped role, but "I'd rather play a maid for seven hundred dollars than be a maid for seven dollars." And there were such women in real life.

As I've mentioned before on this blog, in the first half of the Twentieth Century, there was a concerted effort by writers and filmmakers to romanticize the Old South and present a revisionist history where the Lost Cause was noble and slavery wasn't all that bad, really. Ms. Mitchell's novel actually was a bit of a reaction to that, showing that the Old South wasn't all "magnolias and moonlight" as Rhett calls it out, but the movie smooths out some of the edges. There's no blatant mistreatment of slaves on screen or referenced, and the O'Hara slaves who have dialogue are nothing but loyal to their masters with no talk of wanting freedom. The "political meetings" that Ashley and Frank Kennedy (Carroll Nye) (Scarlett's second husband) attend are not clarified as them belonging to the Klu Klux Klan nor do we see those meetings or the raid during which Ashley is wounded and Frank killed.

On the other hand, when Scarlett decides to save money by leasing convict labor (the one kind of slavery allowed under the Fourteenth Amendment) rather than hire free black people, it's presented as a moral failing that extends on from her upbringing as a slave owner's heir.

Content note: Murder in self-defense. Marital rape off-screen. It's implied that the "renegade" wanted to rape Scarlett (in the book it's spelled out.) Many deaths from war wounds, a child dies, two miscarriages, other deaths. A horse dies on screen, and another one offscreen. Wounds are shown. Rhett's very good friend Belle Watling (Ona Munson) is pretty obviously a prostitute and extramarital sex is implied, though of course, not actually mentioned on screen. Racism towards and enslavement of black people, use of outdated terms. Women are shown in period underwear, and at one point there is a woman implied to be naked behind some furniture. Older teens will probably be okay, but younger viewers should have a responsible adult handy for discussions of heavy topics.

This is one of the all time classic movies, and well worth watching at least once. The long running time means that it's a serious commitment, so be sure to block out a full day to watch it including breaks during the musical interludes. Recommended to classic movie fans.

Mutiny on the Bounty (1935) dir. Frank Lloyd

Midshipman Roger Byam (Franchot Tone) is excited for his first Royal Navy assignment, sailing aboard the Bounty under Captain William Bligh (Charles Laughton) to Tahiti to secure breadfruit trees and in Mr. Byam's case, compile a dictionary of the local language. Bligh is a brilliant navigator and mapmaker who sailed with Captain Cook, and knows Tahiti from that previous voyage. Byam is somewhat taken aback when he arrives on ship and witnesses British Navy discipline. A sailor had struck an officer and was sentenced to be flogged. That sailor has died during the punishment, but Bligh orders the corpse to continue to be flogged to carry out the entire sentence.

Captain Bligh feels it's necessary to maintain harsh discipline from the beginning of the voyage, especially as several of the crewmen have been "pressed" (grabbed off the street), including an ex-convict and a new father. Other officers are somewhat less harsh on the men, including first mate Fletcher Christian (Clark Gable) and drunken doctor Bacchus (Dudley Diggs).

On the long voyage out to Tahiti, Captain Bligh metes out disproportionate punishments for the slightest infraction, including telling him that he's mistaken, even if he is. He explodes when Mr. Christian refuses to sign a blatantly fraudulent supply log, and their relationship sours completely.

Finally the Bounty arrives at Tahiti, and is greeted by the friendly natives. We briefly see a better side of Captain Bligh as he meets with the local chief Hitihiti (Bill Bambridge) and they reminisce fondly about Captain Cook. While the crew gets no respite from hard work, they do get to walk around and see the island and interact with its people and get decent food for a change. Even Mr. Christian is allowed a short shore leave. Native girls Tehani (Movita) and Maimiti (Mamo Clark) are especially willing to keep the officers company.

After a few months gathering breadfruit trees, restocking supplies and repairing the ship, it's time to leave. Captain Bligh asserts his authority by having any personal goodies the crew brought aboard like bananas or piglets confiscated as "Crown Property." This extends to pearls Tehani gave Mr. Christian as a present for his mother. Mr. Christian pointedly repeats the words "Crown property", which Bligh bristles at. He may or may not be planning to pocket them, but he doesn't like being suspected.

About a week into the return voyage, Captain Bligh has cut the water rations to keep the breadfruit trees alive, and is generally back to his old harsh discipline self. When he orders a severely ill Dr. Bacchus on deck and the old man dies, this is the last straw for Mr. Christian, who starts a mutiny. Mr. Byam refuses to join the mutiny, and is trapped below decks when Captain Bligh and a number of other loyalists are offloaded into a small launch.

By a stunning feat of navigation and gumption, the men in the launch are able to cross 3000 miles of ocean to a safe harbor at the loss of only one man.

The mutineers and the few remaining loyalists sail the Bounty back to Tahiti, where they live relatively happily for a year. Mr. Christian has married Tehani and had a child! But a distant sail reminds them that eventually the British Navy will be coming back and the penalty for mutiny is death by hanging. So most of the mutineers and their native spouses and allies board the ship again and sail for parts unknown. Byam and the other loyalists, as well as a few mutineers who long to return to England regardless of the danger (the new father among them) stay.

Everyone is dismayed when the new ship arriving, the Pandora turns out to be commanded by the very much alive Captain Bligh, who's holding a massive grudge against his entire former crew, and is enraged when Byam and the others won't tell him where Mr. Christian sailed off to (as they honestly don't know.) The court martial back in England is a harrowing experience, but we're told by the narration that out of this experience came a new understanding of the relationship between officers and crew that improved things in the Royal Navy.

While Captain Bligh and Mr. Christian were real people, and the Bounty did indeed have a mutiny, this movie (and the remakes) is based on a trilogy of novels that greatly fictionalized the events. Many incidents in the story were made up to give Mr. Christian a more obvious motive for the mutiny, while other aspects directly contradict historical records. (For example, the movie has Bligh and Christian meeting for the first time aboard the ship--in real life, they were long-time friends.)

That said, this movie is very good. Outdoor location shooting was done in Tahiti, and most of the Tahitian extras are actual natives. Exhaustive work was put in to make the ship scenes look as authentic as possible. Mr. Laughton and Mr. Gable were chosen for their roles specifically because their personalities and lifestyles clashed, so it was easy for them to portray animosity towards each other. The supporting actors also do solid work.

There's some excellent camera work and exciting moments of sea action in between the tense character scenes.

Content note: Violence, some lethal, and other deaths. There's a gory shot of a hand being impaled. Torture (primarily flogging) and other abusive behavior. Extramarital sex is heavily implied. Bacchus drinks to excess. It'd get a PG-13 these days, I think.

My DVD copy came with a short feature "Pitcairn Island Today", about the place where the mutineers and their allies settled. When they were found twenty years later, all but one of the sailors had died, but their descendants still live there today. The feature is more marketing gimmick than documentary, but a fascinating glimpse into an isolated community.

This is a classic movie and well worth watching even if it does play fast and loose with historical details. Recommended to Clark Gable fans and those who love tales of the sea.