The House of Seven Corpses (1974)

THE HOUSE OF SEVEN CORPSES  (1974)  ¢ ¢
    D: Paul Harrison
    John Ireland, Faith Domergue, John Carradine,
    Carole Wells, Jerry Strickler, Charles Macaulay
A low-budget horror movie about a film crew shooting a low-budget horror movie. Carradine plays the caretaker of the old mansion where the movie's being shot. He doesn't have much to do, but his cadaverous presence is about the only thing the picture has going for it. You couldn't make a movie called "The House of Seven Corpses" without John Carradine.

Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead (1990)

ROSENCRANTZ & GUILDENSTERN ARE DEAD  
    D: Tom Stoppard                                     (1990)  ¢ ¢ ¢ ¢
    Gary Oldman, Tim Roth, Richard Dreyfuss,
    Iain Glen, Joanna Roth, Donald Sumpter,
    Joanna Miles, Ian Richardson, John Burgess
Tom Stoppard's lively adaptation of his own hit play, about two minor characters from "Hamlet" who, by destiny or accident, find themselves center stage. A clever idea, filled with plays on words, plays on the laws of physics, and plays within plays within plays within plays. Roth and Oldman play the two leads as a kind of Elizabethan Laurel and Hardy (or maybe two Laurels), torturing logic relentlessly as they try to figure out why they are where they are, never catching on to the dramatic trap that both determines their existence and dooms them. Dreyfuss hams it up grandly as the leader of the players, while Stoppard stakes a legitimate claim to the most inventive, brain-tickling riff on Shakespeare yet. Why couldn't "Hamlet" be this much fun?

Much Ado About Nothing (2012)

MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING  (2012)  ¢ ¢ ¢ 1/2
    D: Joss Whedon
    Amy Acker, Alexis Denisof, Nathan Fillion,
    Clark Gregg, Reed Diamond, Fran Kranz,
    Jillian Morghese, Sean Maher, Spencer Treat Clark
Shakespeare fast and loose, a comedy about love and misunderstanding shot in 12 days at the home of director Joss Whedon, with Whedon's de facto stock company making up much of the cast. It's in black and white, for no good reason I can think of, except that it looks kind of cool. The performances are variable - even condensed Shakespeare can be a mouthful - but the actors are game, and the sheer silliness of the material gives them more room to play than they'd get with something like "Hamlet" or "Macbeth". Clark Gregg as the patriarch Leonato and Amy Acker and Alexis Denisof as the bickering Beatrice and Benedick are standouts. Jillian Morghese as Hero sounds a little flat and rushes her lines when she's got a lot to say, which sometimes makes her hard to understand. She's cute, though, with a smile to die for. You can see why the moonstruck Claudio (Fran Kranz) would fall for her. It's maybe not the most polished Shakespeare adaptation you'll ever see, but that's not the worst thing in the world, either. It's a fun play, and Whedon and the gang are having fun doing it. If you pay attention, it'll make you laugh. That's why Shakespeare wrote the thing in the first place. That's what the ado is all about.

A Midsummer Night's Dream (1935)

A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM  (1935)  ¢ ¢ ¢ ¢ 1/2
    D: Max Reinhardt, William Dieterle
    James Cagney, Mickey Rooney, Dick Powell,
    Olivia de Havilland, Joe E. Brown, Victor Jory,
    Ian Hunter, Anita Louise, Ross Alexander,
    Grant Mitchell, Hugh Herbert, Jean Muir
Hopelessly mixed-up lovers spend a night in an enchanted woods in a shimmering, magical screen version of one of Shakespeare's craziest plays. Jimmy Cagney plays Bottom. Mickey Rooney's a giddy, maniacal Puck. The only movie ever to win an Oscar (for cinematography) on a write-in vote, and you can see why. Visually, there's nothing else quite like it. If it doesn't make you believe in fairies, it'll at least make you want to.

Mickey Rooney

(1920-2014)

Prisoners (2013)

PRISONERS  (2013)  ¢ ¢ ¢ 1/2
    D: Denis Villeneuve
    Hugh Jackman, Jake Gyllenhaal, Terrence Howard,
    Maria Bello, Viola Davis, Paul Dano, Melissa Leo
This story takes place in one of those American towns where from a distance the houses all look the same. Closer up you can tell that's not the case, but it still looks like a dreary place to live. It looks like the kind of place where the sun never shines, where if it's not already raining or snowing, it's only a matter of time before it does. It's Thanksgiving Day when two girls who live in this town go missing. Their parents are understandably distraught, but one of the dads (Hugh Jackman) is more than that. He's a full-on survivalist who will stop at nothing to get his daughter back, or to inflict righteous hell on the emotionally challenged creep who he thinks took her. What follows is intense, disturbing, and as the story plays out, increasingly perverse. It doesn't entirely add up. Some key characters make some real bad choices, and not always real convincing ones. But in the process it raises some interesting questions. How far would you go, what laws would you break, what moral principles would you be willing to piss on, to protect what you value most? "Prisoners" doesn't provide any clear-cut answers, but it doesn't cut you much slack, either. It's something to think about.

Command Decision (1948)

COMMAND DECISION  (1948)  ¢ ¢ ¢
    D: Sam Wood
    Clark Gable, Walter Pidgeon, Van Johnson,
    Brian Donlevy, Charles Bickford, John Hodiak,
    Edward Arnold, Marshall Thompson, Richard Quine,
    Cameron Mitchell, John McIntire, Ray Collins
Clark Gable, who flew bombing missions over Europe during World War Two, plays an Army Air Force general whose men endure staggering casualties in daring daylight raids on industrial targets in Germany. Walter Pidgeon plays Gable's commander, a diplomat whose more cautious approach gets on Gable's nerves. Many cigars are smoked in a movie that's mostly talk. Good thing we won the war before we ran out of cigars.