The Fatal Hour (1940)

 

THE FATAL HOUR  (1940)  ¢ ¢ 1/2

    D: William Nigh

    Boris Karloff, Marjorie Reynolds, Grant Withers,

    Frank Puglia, Charles Trowbridge, Jason Robards 

Mr. Wong (Boris Karloff) takes on the case of a murdered police detective and a smuggling ring. An undistinguished Monogram whodunit, notable mostly for Karloff's understated presence and the supporting work of Frank Puglia as a gangster with a string of convenient alibis and Marjorie Reynolds as a feisty newspaper reporter. Karloff's in the background much of the time, which almost makes Mr. Wong a secondary character in his own movie. The Jason Robards listed in the credits is not the actor who played Ben Bradlee in "All the President's Men", but his father. 

Hidden Figures (2016)

 

HIDDEN FIGURES  (2016)  ¢ ¢ ¢ 1/2

    D: Theodore Melfi

    Taraji P. Henson, Octavia Spencer, Janelle Monae,

    Kevin Costner, Kirsten Dunst, Jim Parsons

Most of us probably don't think much about the civil-rights movement and the space race being integral to each other, but they did share a timeline through the '50s and '60s, a period when, as the saying goes, shit happened. This movie tells the story of three black women, mathematicians working for NASA around the time of the first manned space flights. It's a movie that gets the period right, from the NASA techs in their uniform white shirts and narrow ties to the rabbit ears on the television sets to Kevin Costner's government-issue eyeglasses. More significant is the way it captures the inherent racism of the time, when overt segregation was still pervasive (though not necessarily legal) and even NASA had separate restroom facilities for its colored workers. All three women run into that wall. For Dorothy (Octavia Spencer), it's being passed over for a job she's already doing. For Mary (Janelle Monae), it's a night class she needs to take at a high school that still bars blacks. For Katherine (Taraji P.Henson), it's not being able to put her own name on the papers she's initiating, researching and writing. It helps that they're all brilliant, but if they weren't also to varying degrees persistent and assertive, they'd never get anywhere in a system designed to limit and contain them. That they were successful is a tribute to their heroism and tenacity in the face of prohibitive odds. A mind, to recycle another old saying, is a terrible thing to waste. 

The Boy Friend (1971)

 

THE BOY FRIEND  (1971)  ¢ ¢ ¢

    D: Ken Russell

    Twiggy, Christopher Gable, Moyra Fraser, 

    Max Adrian, Vladek Sheybal, Georgina Hale, 

    Murray Melvin, Glenda Jackson, Tommy Tune

Ken Russell's razzle-dazzle tribute to the Hollywood musicals of the 1930s, a giddy, backstage/onstage artifice starring Twiggy as the understudy who goes on when the star actress (Glenda Jackson) breaks a leg. It's gaudy, superficial and transparently theatrical, way too much of everything, really, but it wouldn't be a Ken Russell movie otherwise. The Busby Berkeley-style production numbers are the highlight. When you're knocking off a Busby Berkeley routine, too much is barely enough. 

Score: A Film Music Documentary (2016)

 

SCORE: A FILM MUSIC DOCUMENTARY 

    D: Matt Schrader                     (2016)  ¢ ¢ ¢ 1/2

A documentary in which some of the world's most accomplished composers of movie music talk about their work, while film clips illuminate what they're talking about. Hans Zimmer, Marco Beltrami, Danny Elfman, Alexandre Desplat and Mark Mothersbaugh are among those checking in, and respects are paid to the old masters: Max Steiner, Alfred Newman, Bernard Herrmann, Jerry Goldsmith and John Barry. A couple of things you take away from this: The best movie music is great music, and the people who create it are passionate about what they do. If you're up for a double feature, see if you can find "Visions of Light", a 1993 documentary that took a similar approach to the art of cinematography. 

Blithe Spirit (1945)

BLITHE SPIRIT  (1945)  ¢ ¢ ¢

    D: David Lean

    Rex Harrison, Constance Cummings, Kay Hammond,

    Margaret Rutherford, Hugh Wakefield, Joyce Carey

A crackpot medium conjures up the spirit of a man's dead wife, much to the displeasure of his current (still living) one. Noel Coward's spectral comedy has a bitchy edge, but the dialogue really flies by, and it could take American ears a while to catch up. Rutherford's a hoot as the medium.

Among Wolves (2016)

 

AMONG WOLVES  (2016)  ¢ ¢ 1/2

    D: Shawn Convey

A leisurely, low-key documentary about a Bosnian motorcycle gang called the Wolves, whose members have taken on the care of a herd of wild horses. They also give blood and help out at schools and hospitals. The club's older members are veterans of the Balkan War, and the town they live in is dying. There are no jobs there, and really no future. The men and the horses are effectively metaphors for each other. The pace is slow, the shots are drawn out, the film almost meditative, with a dreamlike musical score. Unusual for a movie about a motorcycle gang. 

Quote File / Take 18

 

Some lines from the movies of Sean Connery:

"My name is Bond, James Bond. May I offer you a 

  drink?"

  Connery in "Never Say Never Again"

"I've got lunatics laughing at me from the woods."

  Connery in "A Bridge Too Far"

"Welcome to Chicago. This town stinks like a 

  whorehouse at low tide."

  Connery in "The Untouchables"

"I've never kissed a member of the clergy before. 

  Would it be a sin?"

  Connery to Audrey Hepburn in "Robin and Marian"

"It's been a bad year. Next one will probably be 

  worse."

  Connery in "The Wind and the Lion"

"But what is so alarming about laughter?"

  Connery in "The Name of the Rose"

(1930-2020)