Frankenstein (2025)

 

FRANKENSTEIN  (2025)  ¢ ¢ ¢ 1/2

    D: Guillermo del Toro

    Oscar Isaac, Jacob Elordi, Christoph Waltz, 

    Mia Goth, Felix Kammerer, Charles Dance,

    David Bradley, Lars Mikkelsen, Christian Convery

Financed by his brother's prospective father-in-law, Victor Frankenstein goes to work in a vast steampunk laboratory, hoping to create life from death. To his infinite horror, he succeeds. Oscar Isaac goes for the throat playing Victor. If he'd scaled it back even a little, his performance might be more effective. But "Frankenstein" always belongs to the Monster, and Jacob Elordi's deformed giant is both horrifying and pathetic: a self-loathing abomination who didn't ask to exist (and doesn't want to), but finds himself cursed with immortality. Del Toro takes on more of the book than the James Whale/Boris Karloff version did , and the production is more elaborate. (Keep an eye out for the color red.) But I wouldn't necessarily take one version over the other. It's good to have both. 

The Green Man (1956)

 

THE GREEN MAN  (1956)  ¢ ¢ ¢ 1/2

    D: Robert Day

    Alistair Sim, George Cole, Terry-Thomas,

    Jill Adams, Raymond Huntley, Colin Gordon, 

    Avril Angers, Eileen Moore, Dora Bryan

Alistair Sim plays an assassin who cooks up a plot to be carried out at a seaside inn. Among those involved are a cabinet minister (the intended target), his secretary, his mistress, a BBC newscaster and his wife, a trio of classical musicians and a vacuum cleaner salesman. The studio's not Ealing, but it could be. Sim's pained expressions as his carefully laid plans go haywire are hilarious. 

Glass Onion (2022)

 

GLASS ONION  (2022)  ¢ ¢ 1/2

    D: Rian Johnson

    Daniel Craig, Edward Norton, Kate Hudson,

    Dave Bautista, Janelle Monae, Kathryn Hahn, 

    Leslie Odom Jr.  Jessica Henwick, Madelyn Cline

An obnoxious billionaire invites a handful of suspicious characters to his private Greek island, where a murder will be committed and it's up to the guests to figure out whodunit. Fortunately (or not), one of those on the scene is Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig), who solves the crime before it even takes place, but that turns out to be just the beginning. A sequel to "Knives Out" that owes a lot to "The Last of Sheila" and a formula that's maybe wearing a little thin. It's a couple of reels too long, besides, but it's a passable murder mystery with  high-end production values, and Blanc's gumbo-and-cornpone accent is out in full force. 

Four Frightened People (1934)

 

FOUR FRIGHTENED PEOPLE  (1934)  ¢ ¢ ¢

    D: Cecil B. DeMille

    Claudette Colbert, Herbert Marshall, William Gargan,

    Mary Boland, Leo Carillo, Nella Walker, Ethel Griffies

This is where DeMille makes a Tarzan movie, but without Tarzan. It's about four passengers who escape a plague ship by stealing a lifeboat and find themselves lost in the jungle after they wash up on land. Claudette Colbert gets top billing as a mousy schoolteacher who becomes more assertive as she loses her glasses and civilized wardrobe. The credibility quotient is not high, but it's offset by the movie's casual attitude to its own silliness. Colbert would appear in DeMille's "Cleopatra" and Frank Capra's "It Happened One Night" the same year. 

Maigret (1988)

 

MAIGRET  (1988)  ¢ ¢ 1/2

    D: Paul Lynch

    Richard Harris, Patrick O'Neal, Victoria Tennant,

    Ian Ogilvy, Barbara Shelley, Dominique Barnes

Paris Police Inspector Maigret (Richard Harris) takes on an investigation in which all the suspects appear to be connected to a family of greedy industrialists. Harris is the whole show in this, with a shuffling gait, a slouch hat, a pair of wire-framed specs and an unmistakable Irish accent. He might not be quite what Georges Simenon had in mind, but he's never not fun to watch. Made for TV.

Joe (2013)

 

JOE  (2013)  ¢ ¢ ¢ 1/2

    D: David Gordon Green

    Nicolas Cage, Tye Sheridan, Gary Poulter,

    Ronnie Gene Blevins, Adrienne Mishler,

    Sue Rock, Heather Kafka, AJ Wilson McPhaul

Nicolas Cage plays the title role, a middle-aged guy living in a backwater hellhole where he makes a living running a crew of day laborers, killing trees for a company that wants them dead so they can be cut down. He's estranged from his family, he drinks and smokes too much, he's a regular at the local whorehouse, and he's subject to bouts of uncontrollable rage. Despite all that, he's a basically decent guy. He's not looking for trouble, but trouble always finds him. What you've got here is a Southern Gothic twist on "Nobody's Fool", with Cage as a more damaged and volatile version of Paul Newman's Donald Sullivan. Tye  Sheridan plays a kid who goes to work on Joe's crew, and there's a scary performance by Gary Poulter as the boy's abusive, alcoholic father. Poulter was literally cast off the street, and there's a real sense that he's not so much acting his role as living it. He died two months after shooting ended. Director David Gordon Green and cinematographer Tim Orr conjure up a dimly lit world you'll be glad you're not living in, a place you'd just drive on through, no matter how bad you needed a coke or a pack of smokes, and Cage gives one of his most compelling performances.

Laurel and Hardy's Laughing 20's

 

LAUREL AND HARDY'S LAUGHING 20's  

    D: Robert Youngson                    (1965)  ¢ ¢ 1/2

A collection of clips from the Hal Roach studio, featuring Laurel and Hardy and numerous (more obscure) silent comedy stars. Robert Youngson made a series of these compilation films, which helped keep silent movies in the public eye at a time when the public's memory of them was fading. Highlight: Extended footage of the pie fight in "The Battle of the Century" (1927).