Pandora's Box (1929)

PANDORA'S BOX  (1929)  ¢ ¢ ¢ ¢

    D: G.W. Pabst

    Louise Brooks, Fritz Kortner, Franz Lederer,

    Carl Goetz, Alice Roberts, Gustav Diesel

In a movie based on a couple of plays by Franz Wedekind, Louise Brooks plays Lulu, a seductive free spirit whose life follows a downward spiral through a series of relationships with mostly older men, the last of them Jack the Ripper. A classic silent melodrama, and a stunning showcase for one of the screen's most enigmatic stars. In retrospect, it's not hard to see parallels between the impish, hedonistic Lulu and Brooks herself. Like Lulu, Brooks loved to party and was good at burning her bridges. She played only a handful of leads before her career stalled out, just as the silent era came to a close. Shot in Germany when she was 22, this is the picture that made her a legend, and you can see why. With her pageboy bob, no-frills acting style and good-time-girl persona, she brought something to the screen that remains altogether unique, and Pabst more than anybody knew how to capture it with a camera. There was nobody else like her. Ever.

Desert Island Classics

The Movie Buzzard would watch these films again any time.

"Intolerance" (1916/D.W.Griffith)

Humanity through the ages. Griffith's masterpiece.

"Duck Soup" (1933/Leo McCarey)

The Marx Brothers go to war.

"The Bride of Frankenstein" (1935/James Whale)

Gods and monsters.

"The Crimson Pirate" (1952/Robert Siodmak)

Lancaster channels the ghost of Fairbanks.

"Charade" (1963/Stanley Donen)

Cary Grant. Audrey Hepburn. Paris. A mystery. Romance.

"Dr. Strangelove" (1964/Stanley Kubrick)

"Mein Führer! I can walk!"

"The Wild Bunch" (1969/Sam Peckinpah)

Peckinpah's ode to death and laughter.

"High Plains Drifter" (1973/Clint Eastwood)

Clint paints the town red.

"The Usual Suspects" (1995/Bryan Singer)

Who's Keyser Soze?

"Good Night, and Good Luck" (2005/George Clooney)

Murrow, McCarthy and '50s TV.

Cache (2005)

CACHE  (2005)  ¢ ¢ ¢

    D: Michael Haneke

    Daniel Auteuil, Juliette Binoche, Annie Girardot

Guilt and paranoia in a French mystery about an upper middle-class couple who find they're under surveillance when anonymous videotapes start showing up at their door. The question: Who's watching them, and why? There's no big cathartic payoff here, but the underlying sense of unease stays consistent throughout. From the opening shot, you're acutely aware of the act of watching, and never quite sure if what you're watching is real (in the context of the movie), or something recorded on videotape. In fact, somebody could be watching and recording you right now. Think about it.

Glen or Glenda (1953)

GLEN OR GLENDA  (1953)  ¢ ¢

    D: Edward D. Wood Jr.

    Bela Lugosi, Daniel Davis, Dolores Fuller,

    Lyle Talbot, Timothy Farrell, Conrad Brooks

Ed Wood's painfully sincere (and fabulously silly) docudrama about a troubled transvestite who pines for his fiancee's angora sweater. Nobody made bad movies like Ed made bad movies, and "Glen or Glenda" rivals "Plan 9 From Outer Space" in the annals of bad movie legend. Bela Lugosi rattles on about "snips and snails and puppy dog's tails," and Ed himself, as "Daniel Davis", plays the title role. Wood really cleaned out the closet for this one. It's got to be seen to be believed.

Dolores Fuller

(1923-2011)

Nanny McPhee (2005)

NANNY MCPHEE  (2005)  ¢ ¢ ¢ 1/2

    D: Kirk Jones

    Emma Thompson, Colin Firth, Kelly Macdonald,

    Imelda Staunton, Angela Lansbury, Derek Jacobi

The unruly offspring of an impoverished undertaker come under the stern care and watchful eye of a horrid-looking governess named Nanny McPhee. W.C. Fields' longstanding antipathy for children would be entirely justified by the behavior of these hooligans, but of course there are lessons to be learned, and Nanny McPhee is just the one to teach them. Emma Thompson wrote the screenplay, and has a wonderful time slithering around in the title role.

Backlash (1956)

BACKLASH  (1956)  ¢ ¢ 1/2

    D: John Sturges

    Richard Widmark, Donna Reed, William Campbell,

    John McIntire, Harry Morgan, Edward C. Platt

Reed and Widmark track down a killer and a fortune in gold in the aftermath of an Indian attack. Things get a lot more complicated before they reach the end of the trail. A good cast and director, but not a high watermark for either Widmark or Sturges. Look for the late William Campbell as Johnny Cool, a gunslinging dandy who's just begging to be shot. Widmark obliges.

William Campbell

(1923-2011)

Splice (2009)

SPLICE  (2009)  ¢ ¢ ¢

    D: Vincenzo Natali

    Adrien Brody, Sarah Polley,

    Delphine Chanéac, Simona Maicanescu

Brody and Polley play scientists whose genetic research results in a mutant life form, a strange, temperamental girl-creature called "Dren". Brody, sensing danger, wants to cancel the experiment, and Dren with it. But Polley grows attached and protective, so Dren gets a reprieve. When Brody discovers the reason for Polley's care and concern, he's drawn closer to Dren himself. And Dren keeps evolving. It's like "Frankenstein" for the 21st century, with DNA patches replacing recycled body parts, a crazy bit of sci-fi with a new implausibility turning up about every other minute. Which doesn't mean the questions it raises - a lot of them as old as "Frankenstein" - aren't worth thinking about. Delphine Chanéac makes the grown-up Dren both vulnerable and frightening. The scene where she and Brody dance in the barn unmistakably echoes Kelly McGillis and Harrison Ford in "Witness". And the costume designer who came up with Brody's T-shirts and lab coats must've had a real good time.

Attack of the 50 Foot Woman (1958)

ATTACK OF THE 50 FOOT WOMAN  (1958)  ¢ 1/2

    D: Nathan Juran

    Allison Hayes, William Hudson,

    Yvette Vickers, Roy Gordon

Famously cheesy monster movie about a woman who gets radiated by a satellite and grows to be 50 feet tall. The producers apparently couldn't afford an entire 50-foot woman, so for most of the picture you just see part of one - a clumsy-looking giant hand. The poster art for this one looks way better than the actual film. Remade in 1993 with Daryl Hannah in the title role.

Yvette Vickers

(1928-2011)

Public Enemies (2009)

PUBLIC ENEMIES  (2009)  ¢ ¢ ¢

    D: Michael Mann

    Johnny Depp, Marion Cotillard, Christian Bale,

    Billy Crudup, Stephen Lang, Giovanni Ribisi,

    David Wenham, Lily Taylor, Leelee Sobieski

Johnny Depp as John Dillinger. Rat-a-tat-tat.