skjam

Easy Virtue (1926) dir. Alfred Hitchcock

John Whittaker (Robin Irvine) returns from a Riviera vacation with a surprise bride. Larita (Isabel Jeans) is certainly pretty, and seems pleasant enough. But John's mother (Violet Farebrother) can't shake the feeling that she's seen Larita before, and that the young woman is hiding something. Larita is somewhat evasive about her past, and one just doesn't put the question directly, but what dark secret does she possess? Who, actually, is Larita Whittaker?

Of course, the audience knows who Larita is from the beginning, as we first meet her at her divorce trial as Mrs. Larita Filton. Aubrey Filton (Franklin Dyall) was a jealous man with anger issues and a bit of a drinking problem. He didn't like the artist Larita had painting her portrait, Claude Robson (Eric Bransby Williams). It did not help that Claude was in fact madly in love with Larita and secretly had changed his will to make her sole heir. In the flashback scenes from Larita's point of view, she didn't do anything untoward with Claude, but that's her version of the story.

Aubrey finally breaks in on Claude holding Larita's hands and suggesting she leave her cruel brute of a husband. In the ensuing tussle, Claude shoots Aubrey, but only slightly wounds the other man, and Aubrey manages to brutally beat Claude with his cane before collapsing. Claude, believing he'd murdered Aubrey, shot himself. Sadly, the husband survived and sued for divorce on grounds of infidelity.

We never hear Mr. Filton's side of the story, but the jury buys it and awards him a divorce on terms unfavorable to Mrs. Filton. The press labels Larita a woman of "easy virtue." Thanks to a nice inheritance from Claude (no starving artist he) Larita's not destitute or even needing to work for a living, but the press publicity makes things miserable for her in England. Thus her trip to the Riviera under a slightly altered name.

While there, john accidentally hits Larita with a tennis ball, she forgives him, and they fall in love. Larita points out that they barely know each other, but John is so infatuated with her that he shuts down any questions about Larita's past. They are married, and soon are back at the Whittaker family home.

Now, admittedly John is a dope for not at least asking basic questions like "where are you from?" or "do you have any living relatives?" In another story, Mrs. Whittaker's suspicions would be quite correct, and they're still understandable. But here, they make Mrs. Whittaker treat Larita very unfairly and she poisons her son against his wife well before the truth comes out.

The character I feel most sorry for though is Sarah (Enid Stamp-Taylor), John's childhood friend and the one his mother and sister ship him with. She's still around constantly, and is the only person who is consistently decent to both Larita and John, even after the divorce thing comes out. (If you squint and turn your head sideways, you might be able to fanon her as bisexual.)

The story ends on a downer note, with Larita surrendering to the depredations of the press.

This movie was based on a Noel Coward play, but is silent, so most of the sparkling dialogue has to be imagined. This sort of story of manners isn't Alfred Hitchcock's forte, but he does have some innovative moments, such as presenting the courtroom through a nearsighted judge's monocle, and allowing the marriage proposal to be represented by the reactions of an eavesdropping telephone operator.

Content note: Aubrey abuses alcohol and grips his wife hard enough to bruise her. Suicide. Several characters smoke, and Larita is something of a chain smoker (more scandalous for a woman at the time.)

It's an okay movie but not one of Hitchcock's major works. It's also somewhat difficult to find good prints. Primarily recommended to Hitchcock completists or Noel Coward fans. (The play was also adapted into a movie in 2008 with a very different outcome.)

Seven Samurai (1954) dir. Akira Kurosawa

It is in the Warring Stages period of Japanese history, but between major battles, so many samurai and soldiers are at loose ends, and bandits roam the countryside. An isolated farm village learns that the local bandit gang that already took their rice harvest is coming back in a few weeks when the barley harvest is brought in. The magistrate of the territory is less than proactive, only coming out after a bandit raid to tut at the damage and enforce the tax collection. The farmers gather to discuss their options: give the bandits what they want and starve to death, defy the bandits and be slaughtered, or commit suicide now and not give the bandits satisfaction. Farmer Rikichi (Yoshio Tsuchiya) has suffered too many losses to consider bowing to the evil ones. Old Man Gisaku (Kokoden Todo), who lived through similar events before, remembers that the one village in his previous province that did not burn was the one that hired samurai mercenaries.

Because the village is poor, Rikichi and some fellow farmers go off to the big town to find hungry samurai who are willing to work for just getting fed. This goes poorly at first. But then the men run into Kambei Shimada (Takashi Shimura) who demonstrates his willingness to think outside the box by allowing his head to be shaved like a monk in order to save a child's life. Even he turns them down at first, but is stung by a low fellow's taunting of the farmers to step up.

Kambei quickly assembles a team of seven "samurai", the minimum he thinks he'll need to handle forty bandits. Gorobei Katayama (Yoshio Inaba) is an observant fellow who is hard to trick. Heihachi Hayashida (Minoru Chiaki) isn't the best warrior, as seen by the fact that he's been reduced to woodchopping for meals, but is upbeat and likable. Kyuzo (Seiji Miyaguchi) is a stoic master swordsman. Shichiroji (Daisuke Kato) is Kambei's old colleague who had been thought dead, but is more than willing to become his friend's second in command. Katsuhiro Okamoto (Isao Kimura) is an idealistic young man who has never known true combat but finds Kambei inspiring. And then there's "Kikuchiyo", a rough, ill-mannered man who tries to use a "borrowed" family ledger to prove he's the youngest child of a samurai family, but because he is illiterate, doesn't realize that he's pointing to a girl's name. The others don't accept him at first, but Kikuchiyo proves useful...eventually.

This hastily assembled team travels to the village, knowing that there's little time to create fortifications, give the peaceful villagers some basic combat training, and learn to mesh as a group.

This 1954 film is one of the all-time greats, immensely influential in plot structure, characterization, and cinematography. Even the oddly-aligned title sequence stands out. Its most immediate descendant is The Magnificent Seven, but plenty of other movies have taken their cues from Seven Samurai as well.

We've got a good spread of character types among the samurai and villagers, from cowards to fools to the weary wise. (The one area where we don't get much characterization is among the bandits, who don't have much in the way of conversation.)

The one hint of romance is between Katsuhiro and village girl Shino (Keiko Tsushima), whose father Manzo (Kamatari Fujiwara) was so paranoid about the possibility that he chopped off her hair and forced her to wear men's clothing in a futile attempt to hide her. It...doesn't turn out as you'd expect in an American film of the same vintage.

This is a long movie, about 3 and a half hours including an intermission. Much of this is long relatively quiet dramatic or comedic scenes; between that and the fact the movie is in black and white, some younger viewers may not be ready for it, at least not all in one sitting.

Content note: Lots of lethal violence, but very little blood. Offscreen rape. Offscreen consensual extramarital sex. Parental abuse and slut-shaming. Suicide is discussed but not shown. Some cultural differences between 16th Century Japan and 21st Century America may be distressing to the sensitive. Men wear skimpy loincloths. (There's also shots that focus on women's rear ends but they're fully covered by loose kimono so not as racy for modern viewers.)

Absolutely a must see for movie fans, especially if you are lucky enough to have it appear in an actual movie theater near you.

Current Mood: enthralled

The Road Warrior (1981) dir. George Miller (aka Mad Max 2)

The effects of nuclear war, climate change, civil unrest and overreliance on fossil fuels has resulted in the collapse of Australian civilization, making the cities unlivable. Max Rockatansky (Mel Gibson) had already begun wandering the wastelands before the final crisis after the former highway patrolman suffered personal tragedy. Like other scavengers, he travels from place to place in search of increasingly scarce gasoline. When he's ambushed by a flyer known as the Gyro Captain (Bruce Spence), Max manages to turn the tables. In an effort to avoid getting killed, the Gyro Captain tells Max of a nearby pumping station that still has fuel.

The pumping station is fortified, and home to a small community of survivors, led by Papagallo (Michael Preston). They're being threatened by bandits led by the masked Lord Humungus (Kjell Nilsson) and screaming warrior Wez (Vernon Wells) who starts having a personal grudge against the community when his very close friend Golden Youth (Jerry O'Sullivan) is accidentally slain by the Feral Child (Emil Minty) (who was, in fairness, aiming for Wez at the time.)

The community has somehow learned that a site about 2000 miles north is still sustainably livable. But to get there, they'll need something to haul the tanker trailer that can hold enough gasoline to get all their vehicles that far. Lord Humungus kills some of their scouts horrifically, then offers to let the community "just walk away" if they leave behind the fuel, but even if he isn't lying, where is there to go in walking distance? The community also doesn't trust Max, who looks almost exactly like the other scavengers, but he's in possession of the location of a Mack truck, and will trade it for enough fuel to top up his own vehicle's tanks.

Even with the aid of the Gyro Captain, can the community succeed in escaping the maurauders, or will Max abandon them to the dubious mercy of the Humungus?

After the low budget independent film Mad Max did well in theaters, this more expensive and expanded sequel was greenlit. It completely eclipsed the previous movie in reputation and sales, catching the public imagination with its visuals of a post-apocalyptic future. Both protagonist and villains set iconic styles imitated in movies, comics and animation ever since.

The opening narration is perhaps a little soggy with stock footage, but gives us all the backstory we need or get. Max carries the pain of his past with him, but what's important is surviving in the present. It's also a good idea to keep Max's dialogue to a minimum as it allows Mel Gibson to convey his character with body language and facial movements (we know, however, that Max is more chatty offscreen since he filled the narrator in on details the narrator wasn't present for.)

The movie ends on a mostly hopeful note. The community will survive and even thrive, with the Feral Kid reaching old age. But Max is unable to bring himself to join them, preferring the solitude of the wasteland. The Great Northern Tribe will never hear of him again, but we will.

Topical: Max, an ex-cop, is a self-centered jerk who has no interest in helping the community unless he gets paid, and only really comes through when the raiders give him no way of getting out of the situation other than helping the community. But all the other ex-cops we see are actively working for the raiders, so there you go. Early versions of the script would have revealed that Humungus was actually Max's old highway patrol partner, but that was scrapped along with everyone else's backstory.

Content note: Lots of violence, sometimes gory, many deaths and a hand gets mutilated. Very little gun violence as one of the skill sets lost in the collapse was making ammunition. Rape, nudity, one instance of consensual sex as a gag. The dog and at least one snake die. Peril to children.

Overall: This movie has style; a latecomer might think it a bit cliche but this is where all the cliches came from. Definitely one to watch if you have an interest in film history, or just really like post-apocalyptic action movies.