We've been on a Brit kick of late, just by chance, not design, and we've also been watching a lot of Funny Ghost Movies, and last night we combined both, with a bonus precursory Exorcist motif, in "Things Happen at Night"(1948). Once again, as with "Three Live Ghosts" (reviewed in the previous blog), the Brrrittisshness is over the top, but at least it's not obnoxious this time. The one consistent problem is that, when a film like this made for English audiences, they don't have to care if us Yanks can understand their accents or slang terms, so the very fast jabbering in the first ten minutes of this movie makes for some rocky going. Even if you can't understand the characters, however, it's easy to see what's taking place. A family running a small dairy farm is beset by a very prankish poltergeist. Mum "Hilda Prescott" (Olga Lindo) doesn't want to live in their house anymore, after waking up to lumps of coal strewn all over the floor. Upstairs in the attic, the sound of chains dragging can be heard at night, combined with terrifying moans and groans. "Dad Prescott" (Alfred Drayton), who runs the dairy business, is sure it's a burglar or vandal. He doesn't have time for supernatural stuff, but Mom and "Mrs. Venning" the cook (Joan Young) have seen things happen: pictures turned around on their hooks, flowers wilting before their eyes, then blooming again.
"Audrey" (Gwyneth Vaughan), the Prescott's teenage daughter, is depressed. An emotional girl, she hates school and wants to quit. She spends a lot of time sleeping in her bed. Dad has an important meeting coming up with an advertising agent for a prominent milk company. He wants to make a good pitch for his cows (who we never see), but when the advertising rep shows up, spooky things start happening, big time. A bedroom catches fire. Dad calls his insurance man to report the damage and they send out an inspector the next day. The milk representative is still at the house, not having had a chance to hear Dad's pitch. The insurance inschpector can't find any cause for the fire, and doesn't believe Mum's explanation of a poltergeist.
By now, a psychic researcher has shown up - entirely on his own, unsolicited - and he's got an 8 x10 box camera, along with primitive electronic gear and a hand held "bug spray" fumigator, which he says helps to "calm" the ghosts. He mentions the word "exorcise", possibly for the first time in motion pictures. The word is then used for a moment of punning as the insurance man says "I already get plenty of exercise!" "No, not exercise, exorcise!" and so forth, hardy har.
At around this time, the psychic researcher, who is also a psychologist, exschplains that poltergeists sometimes need human bodies to act through, to facilitate their shenanigans. Now here comes the Exorcist part: the "emotional teenage girl" theory. Audrey the depressed daughter tells the researcher that she controls a spirit in the house. "All I have to do is think of him and he appears". Calling Regan McNeil and Captain Howdy! All of a sudden, wine bottles start levitating, lamps get smashed over heads, all in a light comic manner, but menacing. Toward the end all sorts of stuff is floating and spinning in the air, just like in The Haunted Mansion, and everyone is running around skeered. This is a goofy little movie, but I wonder if William Peter Blatty or William Friedkin saw it. Audrey the daughter has the power to control the whole house, which is why she wanted to stay home from school all along. But then she gets cured, just like Linda Blair, but in a very humorous way.
"Things Happen at Night" gets Two Big Thumbs Up. It takes a while to get going, and you have to deal with the accents and odd mannerisms (English people really are very different from Americans......duuude.) But once it starts clicking, it's very, very good. The picture is soft but watchable. ////
The night before we found a lesser-known entry in the Robin Hood canon, "Tales of Robin Hood"(1951), starring Robert Clarke. I thought it was an excellent version, though almost like a Cliff Notes Robin Hood at 58 minutes. All the most notable elements are there, starting with the killing of Robin's father by "Sir Alan de Beaulieu" (Keith Richards). Robin is then spirited away to Sherwood Forest by "Will Stutely" (Whit Bissel in his only non-science fiction role), where he comes of age. Then we see him reappear with the first of his Merry Men and they meet Little John by the stream. That meeting results in the famous Battle of the Staffs, which in the Errol Flynn version pitted Flynn (as Robin) versus The Skipper's Dad and was the stuff of cinematic legend. While Flynn and Alan Hale can't be topped, Robert Clarke (who looks a bit like Errol) does an excellent, dashing job, and Wade Crosby as Little John is appropriately hearty. When you jostle over a stream with staffs, it is imperative that you laugh properly - aHa! - then grin as you continue to jostle. When you are done, you put your hands on your hips, throw your head back and laugh some more - aHa! - then you proclaim brotherhood after your foe falls into the water. aHa! This is all part of being in a band of Merry Men, so be sure to take pains with the details.
The next man they meet is of course "Friar Tuck" (Ben Weldon), who is guarding the fair "Maid Marian" (Mary Hatcher). Tuck has a huge spread of food they dig into, for when you are in a Merry Band, you must feast with great gusto. Marian at first detests Robin, because she's heard he steals and is uncouth. But of course he's also super handsome, so get ready for some slap-handed romantic friction when Marian delivers Robin a whack with her open palm because she thinks he's getting a little too frank. Because in a Robin Hood movie, you denounce any female who dares question your dashing motives. Then whammo! She slaps him a good one, and his cheek remains sore for the next ten minutes, which adds up to days in movie time.
But by now, the business at hand is to get revenge against "Sir Gui (pronounced Gee) de Clairmont" (Paul Cavanaugh), who ordered the killing of Robin's dad at the beginning of the movie. Sir Gee is the leader of the Normans, who conquered England in the 12th century. Friar Tuck leads a ruse to get the men into Sir Gee's castle, where a disguised Robin Hood gets a seat at the dinner table. Sir Gee has kidnapped Maid Marian by this time, so in addition to killing Gee, Robin has to rescue her from the executioner's block. Of course, they're in love by now. Ahh, swordfights and chivalry, and lots of good cheer, you can't go wrong with a Robin Hood movie. I give "Tales of Robin Hood" Two Big Thumbs Up. The picture is razor sharp. Now we need to see the Disney version. ////
And that's all for tonight. My blogging music is James Gang "Rides Again". Late night is still "Tristan und Isolde." I hope you had a nice day, and I send you Tons of Love as always.
xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
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