Once again I'm running a bit late, but here's last night blog :
This evening's film was called "Women in the Night"(1948), a suggestive title that represents more serious subject matter. Near the end of WW2, a group of Nazi officers are stationed in Shanghai in what is now Japanese held territory. Though Hitler is dead and Germany all but defeated, they still believe they can turn the tide with a Cosmic Death Ray that is being developed by one of their top scientists. To this end, they are offering to share the weapon with Japan, which has yet to surrender even though they've just suffered two atomic bombings at the hands of the United States. Japanese officials arrange to meet with the Nazis at the hotel that serves as their headquarters, in order to discuss the Death Ray.
As the meeting is being planned, the larger plot has already begun unfolding. The Nazis have brought several young women to the hotel, all of whom were previously arrested and destined for a Japanese concentration camp. The script doesn't go into why they are in China (they are all white Europeans and one American), but they are spared by the Nazi Colonel because he wants "companions" for himself and his fellow officers. The women suffer horrendous treatment at the hands of a female Nazi (their keeper), and their sexual slavery is hinted at but not shown outright because this was 1948. Still, it was strong stuff for it's time.
However, there is a major twist in the works, because we later find out that some of the captive women are spies, working for the Allies to uncover the secret of the Cosmic Death Ray (and as an aside, historical legend has it that Hitler may indeed have had his scientists working on all sorts of futuristic weapons at the end of the Third Reich). And of course, now we do have Death Rays and other apocalyptic toys...(yikes).
"Women" is a low budget film that takes place in one location, the hotel, and the most famous actors involved are Virginia Christine, who later became known as "Mrs. Olson" from the Folger's Coffee commercials, Jean Brooks from "The 7th Victim" (a classic of B-Horror), and Philip Ahn, who owned the Phil Ahn's Moongate restaurant next to the Americana Theater in Panorama City, and who was in a trillion movies himself. The German and Japanese officers are played as snarling caricatures, and in some cases the acting is stiff as a board, but hey - that's what you want in a picture like this, and I doubt they were much different in real life. The espionage plot involving the women is interesting and well written, and includes the subtheme of collaboration. One of the females is a Frenchwoman, whose country was overrun by the Germans. When she volunteers to be the consort of the Nazi Colonel, she is thereafter hated by the other women, but unlike them, she is not a professional spy. They don't understand her plight or what she's been through.
Overall, "Women in the Night" is quite good for what seems to be a Poverty Row flick. In it's script and acting it's way above average for such a production. It does go on a bit long at 92 minutes, and could stand a trim of ten to fifteen, but it will certainly hold your attention if you like the genre. Therefore I'm gonna give it Two Solid Thumbs Up, despite it's production values. There is a plea, written into the credit scroll at the beginning of the film, that sexual abuse of women during war should be prosecuted as a war crime, and the perpetrators given capital punishment. Then at the end of the film, there is a brief reiteration of the plea, which is really a demand. Many Nazis were sentenced to death during the Nuremberg Trials, but maybe crimes against women were not prosecuted, I don't know. In any case, this film stands up against it, in a powerful way. ////
Last night I watched a movie called "If I Were King"(1938), starring early actor Ronald Colman as a 15th century French poet and rebel named Francois Villon who, in a twist of fate, becomes the Chief Constable to King Louis XI. Before I begin my review, I have to ask : "What do we call the genre that includes films of the Middle Ages"? You know the kind I am talking about, movies with castles and knights, kings and queens, peasants and noblemen, swordfights and jousting......
Such movies could include everything from the original "Robin Hood" with Errol Flynn, to Robert Taylor in "Knights of the Round Table" (a prime example) and "Ivanhoe". I ask because there have been a lot of movies made with this criteria, but I've never heard of a name given to the style. I mean, you have "Westerns", "Noirs", "War Movies", "Screwball Comedies", but the closest thing to a genre name for Middle Ages movies has been "Sword and Sorcery", which is sorely lacking as a definitive title.
At any rate, the film was based on a play and adapted by Preston Sturges, whose social justice themes are of prime importance to the plot. Villon is like a Robin Hood, breaking into King Louis' food storage barns to steal the contents, which he then distributes to the poor. Eventually he is rounded up by the royal guardsmen and taken to the castle to be sentenced. But instead of delivering him to the guillotine, Louis names him the new Chief Constable. This is brought on because Paris is being targeted for invasion by the Duke of Burgundy, and despite his overall scorn for Villon, Louis admires his skill as a strategist. Therefore he gives Villon one week to come up with a plan to defeat the Duke. If he can do so, he will remain Chief Constable; if he fails it's off with his head.
I have to cut in to mention the character of King Louis. He's played as a sniveling conniver, but not without heart. He's part curmudgeon and part merry trickster, but the main thing about him is that you'll never guess who's playing him. I must've missed the opening credits, but since you'll no doubt be looking for them I'm just gonna go ahead and tell you : it's Basil Rathbone in a simply wonderful performance, the polar opposite of what we've come to expect from him as the dignified Sherlock Holmes. I mentioned that the script was written by the great Preston Sturges, also a director whose screwball comedies we have seen and loved in the past. Though I wouldn't call this film a comedy, there is a light touch about the story and in some of the characters that is best displayed by Rathbone's King Louis XI. He's fantastic here, playing against the dashing Colman, and you see that he was a very versatile actor. There is a love interest for Colman (of whom we must look for more films), as well as all the pageantry and derring-do one would expect for a film from the "Middle Ages" genre, which I guess we will call it until you or I come up with a proper title.
So there you have it : one WW2 spy movie, low budget but well done and with unusual subject matter, and one Middle Ages Movie that's a Ton of Fun and should be considered with the best films of that genre. In that regard, Ronald Colman reminds one of an English Errol Flynn, whom he actually predates, careerwise.
That's all for today, except for one final word about censorship :
I am disappointed to see that the Dr. Suess estate has decided to pull from publication the classic children's story "And To Think That I Saw It On Mulberry Street". Just so you know, I could go on a major tirade about the truly nutty Cancel Culture of the current era, whose policepersons have recently caused toymaker Hasbro to delete the word "Mister" from "Mr. Potatohead". I mean, what kind of kook do you have to be to get offended by that?
It wasn't just Trump and the right wing psychos that we needed to worry about, because as you can see, there are just as many crazies on the Left. And if we don't call them out, too, and stand up to them, we are eventually gonna lose our freedom of speech, because they are insistent on homogenizing everything down to a bland, colorless mush, just to make sure no one's feelings are hurt.
And hey, what's so bad about that, right? But the fucking thing is, read Mulberry Street for yourself and tell me what's offensive. A chinese man, eating with sticks? Even if you argue that it's now looked at as a hurtful caricature (which is fair enough and I won't argue back even though I disagree), then what what about the rajah in the same book?........or the depiction of the police? Aren't they unfairly portrayed as well?
Or is "Mulberry Street" really just a wonderful children's book through which so many kids of all colors and races have learned to read? I was one of them, and if Dr. Suess was a racist then I'm a Monkey's Uncle. And that's really the punch line here : if there are "racist images" in Mulberry Street and the other five books, then that means that Theodore Geisel - Dr. Suess himself - was a racist. I mean, does it not? And if he was a racist who deliberately drew racist images in his books, then shouldn't we ban all of them? I mean, he's either a bad man or he's not. Well anyway, feel free to flame me if you wish, but in my opinion the Cancel Culture nutjobs are as dangerous as the Trumpians. Both groups are extremists whose causes need to be stamped out. And before you lump me in with racists - real racists, mind you, not Dr. Suess - you should know that I am a product of Prairie Street Elementary School, which I attended in the late 1960s. It was one of the first schools to integrate, etc etc, and we were taught cultural and ethnic acceptance from a young age, but in a gentle way, not as reactionary enforcement. And from kindergarten onwards, we just thought of ourselves as kids, regardless of race, creed or color.
Banning books is what the Nazis did, just so you know. I wasn't gonna write about these people, because I hate politics, but I find them very dangerous, and with Mr. Potatohead and Dr. Suess, they've gone too far.
But they will be shut down, just as Trump was, because like him, they are also insane. ////
End of tirade. Tons of love. Have a beautiful day. xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
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