1920 The Golem: How He Came Into The World (aka Der Golem, wie er in die Welt kam) (97th)

What else happened this year? The League Of Nations was formed. Luckily we have a less toothless global organisation that we all have faith in, today.

What is the plot - in one sentence? A Jewish Mystic uses some Middle Eastern Magic to bring a clay figure to life.

I don't have time, just spoil it for me? He uses it for chores, it saves the king, it seems to want death, and then the amulet which is keeping it alive is taken by a small girl the Golem was playing with.

What is the meaning of the title? The Stone figure is the Golem, so it’s named after him.It's titled as 'how he came into the world' and that's what we're shown. Thanks 1920s for keeping things so literal!

So here's a fancy knight and the daughter of the Jewish mystic guy. They are the weirdest looking couple you've ever seen in your life.

Anything that's not aged well? Does a woman get slapped around? There’s a bunch of weird dynamics between the daughter (more on her later), and the father (who looks a lot like Nick Offerman) – it seems he wants to use the golem to protect her innocence, but she’s busy getting it on with a fancy knight with a large feather in his cap. She’s dragged by the hair in a later scene, too.

More of note is that the ‘Jews’ here are shown as obsessed with incantations and magic, wearing dumb robes and living in ghettos. Is that true of the indeterminate age that the movie is set?

Any thoughts? The golem is invited to the King’s court with his owner, the owner shows a magic movie on the wall of the King’s court, which goes awry. The place starts to collapse, and the Golem holds up a support beam to save the room. After this he's celebrated as the hero? What about the magician? He’s celebrated despite causing the room to nearly explode.

I knew about the Golem and his main beats – he’s clay, but can come to life with a magic incantation (the incantation here is given by a very metal Demon head and ritual here - it was awesome) but didn't really know any more than that. 

I assumed it was a destructive creature, a sort-of proto Godzilla, but in this, he starts as a servant, gains sentience (and because of some horoscope nonsense goes ‘out of control’) before being taken out of action while playing with a child. It’s hints of Frankenstein’s monster there, in that he’s misunderstood. It was a bit of a surprise, especially as he’s tries to play with the girl, a la the Monster.

Would you recommend this? I would. It took a lot of effort to actually find and then watch this, but I enjoyed it. The music really was cool too, a relentless tune that changed tempo depending on the scene was used throughout, and I have found myself humming it from time to time. 

Final thoughts? The love interest part of the story was utterly pointless, there was also a devious servant that wanted to get with the daughter. The daughter herself may be the ugliest leading actress of any of these movies, which is saying something considering the fashions that have happened at other times, but the movie was short enough and interesting enough to overcome that.

Was this a German movie about Jewish isolation and persecution from the year 1920? It was. Were the outfits of the dancers in the King’s throne room so tight that you could see all of their penises in worrying detail? Yes too.

 Speaking of hot cocks, here's the rest of the feature here: I'm very nearly done!

2005: Matador, The (96th)

What else happened this year? Hurricane Katrina hit. That was a thing.

What is the plot - in one sentence? We follow a drug addicted assassin as he recruits a new, straight-laced friend, to help him overcome performance failure and get back to killing

I don't have time, just spoil it for me? He is helped by his new friend and assassinates what turns out to be his boss, so that he doesn’t have to take any more jobs. Hooray!

What is the meaning of the title? There’s a bit of bull-fighting that they go to (in Mexico), and Piers suggests that he appreciates the matador’s skillset. The bull fighting is all CGI, they tell us at the end, yeah, the CGI hasn’t aged well. 

 

Greg and Piers enjoy a tense laugh in the men's room.

Anything that's not aged well? Does a woman get slapped around? No, amazingly, we do get to see Piers Brosnan saunter around in cowboy boots and underpants, and he’s aged very well for an alcoholic with nerve problems.

Any thoughts?This is largely a black comedy, and it was pretty funny. I’ll keep it at that.

We’re meant to think that Greg Kinnear hired Piers to kill a business rival, but it turns out at the end that he talked him down, and uses that information to get his friend to help him.

Would you recommend this? There’s a weird thing where I wasn’t expecting anything from this movie, so I was surprised by it being fun and funny. If I recommend it to you, you’d expect it to be better than it is, so it would be overhyped, despite it being the same movie. This is one of those movies.

This was fine, I’d watch it again.

Final thoughts? This is a movie with a very obvious example of ‘dead child’ syndrome, Greg Kinnear and his wife are mourning the loss of their child, but it adds nothing whatsoever to the story.

I wonder if assassins really get the yips. I don’t really have much to say about this.Oh, Adam Scott was in this, as the business partner. That's it.

https://pascalsblogspot.blogspot.com/2021/04/century-of-cinema.html

2007: You, The Living (Aka Du levande) (95th!)

What else happened this year? On a personal level, I spent the year working, getting ripped and gorgeous, an enjoying my salad days with a variety of women who are now mothers. The rest of the world was of no interest then, and that remains so.

What is the plot - in one sentence? We follow a series of vignettes of life (and dreams) from a bunch of ill-looking people in an unnamed Scandinavian city.

I don't have time, just spoil it for me? It starts with a guy dreaming about bombers flying in to destroy the city, we see people, hear from others, and then it ends with bombers flying in to destroy the city – the main link seems to be a brass band who turn up at various points.

What is the meaning of the title? According to wikipedia The title comes from a stanza in Goethe's Roman Elegies, which also appears as a title card in the beginning of the film: "Therefore rejoice, you, the living, in your lovely warm bed, until Lethe's cold wave wets your fleeing foot. - it's a reminder of the inevitability of death.

Everyone is this kind of sickly pale colour. It made me miss Scotland.

Anything that's not aged well? Does a woman get slapped around? There’s no direct violence, but there’s a bit of dog cruelty possible, and a guy is racist to a barber, who in turns shaves his head in revenge – with his shaved head, he looks exactly like Louis C.K. - which is something you’d want more in 2007 than in, 2022 (I can’t believe it’s 2022).

Any thoughts? I think the point of this movie is to show how stupid various rituals we do are: there’s a funeral, a wedding, a weird thing where rich people dance on a table, but mainly it’s a chronicling of unhappy people living unhappy lives. Rich and poor, Nazi (yep) or not, they all have only a single place to drink, so they’re always there.

Other than members of a brass band being present in most scenes, there’s nothing to link it together but misery, so it’s a bit like a game of the Sims where everyone is depressed. The colour pallete and make-up are so that everyone looks like shit, so that might be something – is this hell?

One thing I will say, there is too much depiction and discussion of dreams in this movie.

Would you recommend this? For one thing, there were too many descriptions of dreams, and visualisations of said dreams. It’s unclear which were real and which weren’t. It kind of reminded me of 22 short films about Springfield episode, but not funny. It wasn’t terrible or anything, just interesting.

Final thoughts? Despite how recent this year was comparatively, it took me a long time to find a movie from here. When I found this, I had started, and it got removed from the online playlist, so it took me forever to find and watch again, and that frustration definitely influenced my viewing experience.

There’s one bit, however, where a young woman and a guitarist are in an apartment, which becomes a train (from a dream sequence) and the scene is excellent – their apartment travels through the country and comes to a stop at a train station where they're welcomed by friends. It’s very well done.

 Speaking of well done, you can read the rest of these, unproof-read musings if you click here!

1930: The Blue Angel (aka Der blaue Engel) (94th)

What else happened this year? A lot of stuff that would have raminfications later, it seems. However, on the 18th of April, the BBC reported that there was 'no news' for the day and played some music instead.

What is the plot - in one sentence? A stuffy professor falls in love with a… burlesque singer.

I don't have time, just spoil it for me? His life goes on a spiral, and he tries to kill her when she cheats on him with a strong man. Disheveled and heartbroken, he ends up breaking into his old university and ‘dying’ on his desk.

What is the meaning of the title? The Blue Angel is the inn where the ‘burlesque’ performances happen. This appears to mean that a half dozen very stocky women drink beer while Marlene Dietrich sings songs in revealing yet unalluring clothes.

Here are a couple of the 'sexy dancers' in the Blue Angel. The professor is on the left, his clean clothes and confident manner mean that he is yet to be married.

Anything that's not aged well? Does a woman get slapped around? No real violence, it’s more of a morality play. Something which was cool was that we see a bear at one stage being led onto screen, I definitely wasn’t expecting that.

Any thoughts? This is quite a racy one, but mainly in suggestive ways. A lot of romance and love is merely implied, but I can imagine it causing some scandal back in the day.

They’re in a noisy nightclub for large parts of the movie, but whenever the flimsy looking door is closed, all of the sound from outside ceases. I wish I had that technology in my place.

The professor and the singer fall in love for no reason whatsoever, he’s far older than her, and it seems like she’s marrying him for his money, but he loses his job because o fthe scandal… which implies he’s taking up with a prostitute or something like that, especially as he sells her saucy photos on the side.

Anyway, they fall in love for no reason, and the deal is sealed when she sings ‘Falling in love again’ – where she boasts about having men ruined by her love, that just spurs him on. I’d heard this song in English, but it’s much nicer in German.

Would you recommend this? Kinda – it takes far too long to get going, and the end is a bit rushed. We spend time showing they are falling out of love, but most of it is implied through the passing of time. It’s funny that they go fro married, to her kissing a strongman as soon as she meets him, in the space of about 15 minutes.

Final thoughts? This is a bit of an interesting one, Marlene Dietrich is a very pretty woman, put into some very unfashionable outfits. The professor’s plight is the real story here, but he seemingly falls for a woman and loves her, it seems a bit harsh to punish him like this, and his students seem like real assholes.

A few zingers here and there, too, so it’s not all terrible, and defnitely interesting.Speaking of interesting, the others in this feature are all to be found here!

1936: Dodsworth (93rd)

What else happened this year? A contentious Olympics in a fascist state. Plus ca change, huh?

What is the plot - in one sentence? We follow a guy and his (new-ish) wife as they travel Europe after he sells the shares in his company.

I don't have time, just spoil it for me? She ends up ‘dancing’ with men from various cities, having affairs with others, and constantly belittling him. He decides to go back with her to America, then changes his mind and goes back to a nice, much prettier by today’s standards anyway, woman who lives in Italy and inspires him.

What is the meaning of the title? It’s the name of the main character, why don’t you. From some research, it seems this is based on a book.

Spoilers, but this is from the last scene in the movie. He returns to her, and she wasn't expecting it, so she waves to him. She waves in a way that no human being has ever waved before.

Anything that's not aged well? Does a woman get slapped around? Incredibly no, despite the main woman’s rogueish behaviour. Something which hasn’t aged is at the end, in a fit of inspiration Dodsworth gets a plan to work out a delivery system, which he describes as working, especially if they get help from the USSR, who seem nice fellas.I think he's due for a business failure there.

Any thoughts? I mentioned in the piece from 2000, that I hadn’t ever seen the main actor before, and it turns out that Dodsworth here, a Houston, is his grandfather. The director John is between them, generation wise.

Speaking of links between movies on this feature, David Nivven appears here a creeper looking to hit on Dodsworth’s wife. Pretty much the same thing he was doing in the 1963 movie. A brief look online suggests that David Nivven doing this here means that he’d been acting as a womaniser since before Claudia Cardinale was born. 

No wonder that scene creeped me out so much. In this movie, she also has a German guy, an Austrian guy, and an old Russian as her lovers, which Dodsworth tolerates for whatever reasons. She’s also a bit of a drag, and it’s a pretty thankless role for the actress, but we're all glad to see her left on the boat at the end.

The movie ends with Dodsworth ditching his wife for a pretty and elegant woman on an Italian island, which seems a bit Porco Rosso to me. 

Would you recommend this? Yeah, sure, it was nice, I don’t know if they really travelled to all these places, but they implied they did, and in this shitbox lockdown, I’m happy with that. This is a better romantic tale than some of the others I’ve seen on this feature, that’s for sure, and the two right characters are together at the end.

Final thoughts? At various points, the (presumably) new Mrs Dodsworth gets angry because people assume she’s 35. She really gets the hump, but if she’s not a new wife, she’s got an adult daughter at home in the states. I dont see the fuss.

Just before he meets his Italian friend / lover again, he's in Italy in a holiday office looking for things to do. He's bored, and frustrated because of his wife, and he's a complete cunt to everyone in the office. When she recognises him she offers him a tour in her car, when she really should have set him on fire or something.

I’ll also say that 1936 seems to be the year that waistlines were at their very highest.

That's 1936 done, if you'd like to see some of your favourite years, why not click here?

1962: The Trial (92nd)

What else happened this year? Cuban Missile Crisis. Me thinks.

What is the plot - in one sentence? A man is arrested and becomes lodged in the labyrinthine legal system, and struggles to defend himself and find what his suspected crime was.

I don't have time, just spoil it for me? He works hard to rally aid, and defend himself, but he’s eventually blown up in a gravel pit by a couple of idiotic policemen.

What is the meaning of the title? The entire movie hinges around the opaque, Kafka-esque legal system he’s thrown into. and the trial that happens. You’ll notice I said Kafka-esque because it’s based on one of his works.

Here's Norman Bates talking to his uncle, in a gigantic office room that was pretty impressive. I guess.

Anything that's not aged well? Does a woman get slapped around? No, amazingly. It’s directed by Orson Welles though, so he gets to paw at some women it looks like he would consider a snack.

Any thoughts? Anthony Perkins, of Psycho fame, is the innocent at the heart of the story. I hadn’t ever seen him in anything but Psycho before. He does ok. Orson Welles pops up as a bloated, pussyhound judge, which must have interfered with his time as a bloated, pussyhound director of the movie.

Would you recommend this? The book it’s based on is a brief read. This is not a brief movie. Scenes which are too long don’t help, and add to the sense of bloat. While some scenes are genuinely impressive in their scale – the court room FULL of people, or a seemingly endless office that he works in, but the whole thing is a bit too bloated which makes it drag, when it would have been better to make it tight, tense and claustrophobic.

Final thoughts? The book is better, but it’s still a reminder that so much of the society we believe in is just a whim and that in most countries this can still easily happen. Anyway, that’s enough there.

Want to read others? Some are longer, few are shorter. All can be found right here mf.

1931: smart Money (91st)

What else happened this year? To my mind this is all Great Depression stuff, and also in fact, that seems true.

What is the plot - in one sentence? We follow a barber (Edward G. Robinson) who is good at gambling, as he rides his luck to becoming a crime boss.

I don't have time, just spoil it for me? He’s got a fondness for women, and one of them betrays him, leading to his arrest, coupled with the accidental murder of his best mate (James Cagney) means, well, he’ll be cutting hair in prison if he’s lucky. He bets reporters that he'll be out of prison before too long, before boarding a...prison train, they don't exist anymore, right?

What is the meaning of the title? It’s called ‘Smart Money,’ and he does seem to have a preternatural amount of luck, especially in games of chance – something which I don’t think it’s possible to have in real life or benefit from.

Edward G. Robinson and James Cagney sharing a breakfast in dressing gowns and shooing away a servant so that they can bicker like an old married couple.

Anything that's not aged well? Does a woman get slapped around? A woman does get slapped when she’s found to be betraying the gang (she’s on a very obscure case of blackmail. This is after they stopped her from drowning, so come on.

In an… enlightened manner for the time, James Cagney is slapped twice by a couple of women too. 

Robinson also calls some of the black ‘servants’ things like ‘suntan,’ but It’s too late to do anything about that. 

Oh, and Boris Karloff is there, in a fedora, threatening horrible things to a pretty woman if she won't pay him back. He looks weird in contemporary clothing. 

Any thoughts? The cities in the movie are shown as ‘Iron Town’ and ‘The City’ for no real reason.

Like a lot of movies from this era, the main romance in the movie is between the two main male characters. Edward G. Robinson and James Cagney (their only shared movie) share the most love in this movie. Even if Edward G manages to have some ‘attractive for the time’ woman on his arm most of the time, we know where his heart really lies. The final fight, after this, where he kills his friend accidentally, has all the cinematic beats of a breakup.

Can you be skilled at unskilled games? He seems to be. For example, he flips a coin to win for money, and wins most of the time. I don’t think that can happen for an extended period of time. He also gets robbed by a rigged card game, then goes back again to show them who’s boss, and beat them on the level – but it's a game of chance, right?

Would you recommend this? Yeah, I liked it. I have a lot of time for pithy, zippy movies from the 1930s, and this one has passed the test of time pretty well, even if there’s not quite enough characterisation to really deliver – Edward G. and Jimmy Cagney only have a few scenes together, for example, and the ‘great rise’ as a gambler / casino owner happened VERY quickly.

Final thoughts? There have been a lot of links to other movies during this feature, which makes sense. However, it is very easy to see Robinson’s character here as the younger version of his successful gambler in ‘The Cincinatti Kid’,

Meanwhile, the little midget who has appeared in at least a few movies now, but most notably was killed at the end of The Unknown, appeared for a second to have his back rubbed by Edward G. I hope he got paid ok in his career. 

 

Speaking of paid, you can see the other movies in this feature, for FREE, when you click right here.

2000: IVANSXTC (90th!)

What else happened this year? All of that drama surrounding George W. Bush's election.

What is the plot - in one sentence? In a documentary style, we follow the life of a drug-addicted, womanising Hollywood agent, and the immediate aftermath of his death.

I don't have time, just spoil it for me? We see flashbacks of his life, and then his unpleasant and sad death, while his new charge Peter Weller moves in on his old girlfriend.

What is the meaning of the title? The bloke’s name is Ivan… so we follow his XTC… I guess? It couldn’t be a more 2000 title, could it? He’s named Ivan because it’s based off a Tolstoy novel. Very loosley, it must be said.

2000 fashion is weird. So is all fashion.

Anything that's not aged well? Does a woman get slapped around? I don’t think there’s any violence, but there are plenty of age-inappropriate relationships. This guy is addicted to drugs, alcohol, success at work, and women who look too young next to him.

At a party held by the even older Peter Weller, we get Victoria Silvestedt, who is a pretty good depiction of everything wrong with the year. She may have been pretty before getting re-done in plastic.

Peter Weller plays a character that Ivan becomes the agent of. He’s a mostly unpleasant guy to be around, but says some stuff about gay people that would be played as a villain’s role nowadays, I think it’s not meant that way in such a way back then.

Any thoughts? This is a fairly standard drugs and Hollywood excess movie. At the end though, he dies, in a very lengthy scene in a hospital, and Peter Weller imediately moves in on his girlfriend, who is too young for Ivan, who is 30 years younger than Weller. It's grim.

There’s a fair amount of non-seuxalised full frontal nudity, which is always a bit of a surprise too from a US movie, even if it's an independet one. Also interesting is the police breaking into his house to handcuff a guy having a seizure.

Would you recommend this? A critique of the Hollywood agent system made on a low budget with an obvious axe to grind, Peter Waller playing against type as a shitheap? Yeah give it a go.

Final thoughts? The movie starts with that piece from Tristran and Isolde, which is now an overused piece in movies and TV (here it is, it's the beginning of Melancholy, if you're interested.) It's overused now, but was that the case in 2000?

I hadn’t seen the main guy before in anything, it’s the grandson of the guy from Dodsworth (which will be our movie for 1936), and Angelica Huston’s brother. It's pretty telling that a critique of Hollywood stars a third generation Hollywood family guy. He’s got a pretty severe case of Jack Nicholson eyebrows, too.

90 of these done now, what a guy I am. The others can be found right here.

Unpleasant death at the end, weird.

1972 Discreet Charm Of The Bourgiouse (89th)

What else happened this year? Another hectic one, The Munich Olympics, Watergate, and Bloody Sunday. Time to hit the weed, methinks.

What is the plot - in one sentence? In a surrealist world, we follow a group of 6 bourgeoisie people as they try to have a meal.

I don't have time, just spoil it for me? Despite their wealth and comfort, there’s always an issue (the army coming along to interrupt, a restaurant out of all food and drink, they get executed by terrorists, etc). The six of them are shown wandering around in the outdoors, and the men are possibly arrested for drug smuggling. That’s pretty much it.

What is the meaning of the title? The central characters seem to be bourgeois, and they’re not particularly charming, so I guess that works out.

The Three seated women are part of the main cast. This scene is exasperating. They're in a cafe, and there's no food or drink. It takes about 5 minutes to work that out. Then we have to listen to the soldier on the right talk about his dreams like he's a 13 year old girl.

Anything that's not aged well? Does a woman get slapped around? No slapping! Though a female guerilla is shot at in public, but that's probably a dream.

Any thoughts? There are at least a few times in the movie where the entirety of the movie grinds to a halt to let some fucker describe a dream that he's had. The soldier in the cafe being the most egregious example, but that Bishop Gardener, was also pretty annoying. The final party of the evening appears to be a dream too, which is annoying. I also think it’s a bit of a gyp to have a surrealistic movie which is so dream-heavy.

A few things are quite funny, they are dismissive of a man in gardener’s robes, but defer to him when it’s clear that’s he’s a bishop, and a rebel from a terrorist group is thrown to the guards only when she refuses the guy’s sexual advances. Not exactly belly laughs, but pretty clever I guess.

Would you recommend this? No, I only enjoyed it a little. It's a black comedy and a surrealist satire, but a lot of it seemed like allegories for things which aren't readily obvious, especially now.

A second viewing might make thigns clearer (though it’s clear that there’s no logic involved in a lot of it, deliberately) but the fact that I wouldn't rush to watch this again would suggest that it’s not entirely my fault. 

The Wikipedia page decribes the plot as "five gatherings of a group of bourgeois friends, and the four dreams of different characters." That is too many dreams, no matter how interesting they are. I’ll drop this here, too, pretentious load o shite.

Final thoughts? I didn’t quite work out what was going on with the 6 of them. Two are having an affair, and the two sisters (are they sisters?) are romantically attached to the old fella? It doesn’t matter, but it’s perfectly possible to watch this, sober, and not realise what the hell is happening within the main group. Imagine what it's like for the allegorical acts and social criticism.

If you want to see my balls*, click here

*Balls = other articles in this series.

1945: Enchanted Cottage, The (88th)

What else happened this year? Only a little thing called ‘nuking the shit out of Japan’

What is the plot - in one sentence? An ugly woman and a disfigured man fall in love and through the power of… magic… and love?… in the cottage they stay at, which makes them attractive to each other.

I don't have time, just spoil it for me? Seems it’s just a delusion, they’re still ugly. That’s it.

What is the meaning of the title? It takes place in a cottage, which is enchanted, that’s also it.

This is them in their 'ugly' stage. It looks pretty similar to their 'beautiful' times.

Anything that's not aged well? Does a woman get slapped around? No one gets slapped around! It’s a miracle. I was also impressed by the implied boning that was going on there – the cottage in question is a famous ‘honeymooners’ lodge.

Any thoughts? The story is framed by yet another ‘magical blind guy.’ This time it's a pianist who lives nearby and seems to know about the ‘enchantment of the cottage.’ This enchantment allows the couple to recognise the inner beauty of each other. Seriously, this magical blind person's such a trope in movies, I must have encountered it 7 times in this feature.

There’s a woman that everyone can’t stop talking about how ugly she is. A small kid even wretches when describing her to the blind man. While she’s not great, it’s a bit much, she's not hideous or anything. She’s hired to work in the cottage, because the boss says she won’t be seduced by the horny guests at teh house, because: too ugly. What is notable is that she doesn’t look very different when she becomes 'attractive,' she looks just a little cleaner. 

He’s disfigured in the war, which means that he has one eye slightly more open, and a line on the side of his face. His former fiancee, a hot young thing in a fur coat, is visibly replused by his new appearance, and so he calls off the wedding and goes to mope in the honeymoon cottage, alone.

Anyway, these two meet, enjoy each others company, find that they look much better, and then learn that it’s not true, and marry each other anyway. Jeez.

Would you recommend this? Not really. A piece of puff magic romance stuff doesn’t help anyone. Perhaps I wouldn’t feel this way if it had turned out to be a horror movie, as I for some reason was expecting. As a romantic movie, it’s still a bit grim, they spend ages talking about how they found each other because no one else wanted them.

Final thoughts? These ‘honeymoon cottages’ are pretty gross. Lots of people bustin’ up hymens on the same bed, then scratching their names on windowpanes – gross.

That's enough. We're almost done here, you can see the rest... right here... 

1961: Curse Of The Werewolf, The (87th)

What else happened this year? 1961… Let’s see..Cuban Missile Crisis? Bay of Pigs? Yes!

What is the plot - in one sentence? It’s a Victorian-era Spanish village, and a family has to deal with looking after a were-wolf as a son.

I don't have time, just spoil it for me? The son reaches adulthood, kills a few people, learns that he can resist becoming a werewolf when he’s with his true love, but is arrested, breaks out of jail, and is killed by his father, reluctantly. There you go.

What is the meaning of the title? It’s a curse, all right, and he’s a were-wolf, all right.

 Amazingly, this guy ISN'T a werewolf!

He's just one of the miserable villagers that get too much time onscreen.

Anything that's not aged well? Does a woman get slapped around? Does a woman get slapped around? The were-wolf boy’s mother gets pregnant after she’s raped by a beggar she’s been tending to, she’s then slapped around by a lecherous Lord she works for. One of those two impregnates here with the wolf-boy. 

There’s a lot of grey-face going on – the father figure, his servant, and the priest are all shown over a long period of time, and wear grey face make up and hair to signify that, and I have a feeling that ‘grey-face’ will be frowned upon in the future.

Any thoughts? Oliver Reed is the Were-wolf in adulthood – he apparently got through adolescence by being with his family. It seems in this movie that ‘were-wolf’ism can be cured with love, so if he is with his family, or with his sweetheart, he’s able to resist it. I can see why that isn’t a usual part of the Werewolf mythos.

Oliver Reed, the Were-wolf of the tale, isn’t in the movie until the hour mark in a 1.5 hour movie. In his last half hour, he’s still got to fall in love with a toothy baroness, kill his annoying mate (he works in a wine-making house, or something). Also kill a prostitute, be arrested, escape and then have a lengthy chase around town before he’s killed. A lot happens in that last half hour, especially in comparison to the first hour, which is glacial, except for first 20 minutes or so, which focus on the rape and abuse of that poor woman in the castle.

Would you recommend this? No, this was terrible, if you happen across it, watch the very end because he looks quite cool as a wolfman.

Final thoughts? We don’t get to see Wolf Oliver Reed until the very end of the movie (the bits of him killing are all hinted at without showing him, or shot in POV. Young and thin though, he’s very cute, and I think that is actually him and not a stunt double climbing buildings to escape capture (which I don’t think wolves do, anyway).

I kind of like how Blasé the church is here. They’re accepting that he’s a werewolf and the solution to it is to put him into a monastery.

Oliver Reed himself has a similarly stoic acceptance of his situation. Which by the way isn’t really explained. His mother was shown to be a busty, mute servant girl who was raped by a dying man, and then raped by the Lord she served, but after learning that she’s pregnant, and taken into the house of his eventual adopted family, she dies. It's unpleasant, but there isn't an element in that story that would lead to being a werewolf. I guess this whole thing is an allegory for the perils of adoption.

There’s no further mention of the Lord at all either, he was killed by a servant, surely they’d be looking for him. It certainly wasn’t explained that he was a werewolf himself – was that entire 20 minutes at the beginning for no reason, just to show a pretty woman being pawed at by gross old men? Yes. Yes it was.

Another one down, what joy, the other 86 and any that come in the future are sure to be found here.

1951: The Prowler (86th)

What else happened this year? War in Korea and Vietnam (with the French, too), also some cold war stuff in Europe, what a shitty time.

What is the plot - in one sentence? We follow a policeman and a married woman who start an adulterous affair.

I don't have time, just spoil it for me? Oh boy, here goes… The policeman kills the husband during his police work, escaping censure by saying that he hadn't met the woman, his lover, before. The two get married, though it’s unclear how much time has passed since her husband’s death, but not longer than 3 months. She’s pregnant, but her first husband being infertile would show that they lied about knowing each other before her first husbands death. Fearing prosecution, they hide out in a ghost town and wait for the baby to be born, but there are some complications, so they call for a doctor, who the policeman wants to kill. The doctor flees, and fearing arrest, the policeman also flees, but is killed by his ever-suspicious partner from the first night. Yeah that’ll do it.

What is the meaning of the title? The initial call is because of a prowler in the neighbourhood – he’s not mentioned again, but it leads to the policeman prowling around after her.

This is them, after getting married. Still in separate beds. I looked up the woman to see if she was Maya Rudolph's grandmother, and found that Maya Rudolph's mum is actuall the woman who sang 'loving you,' apparently the song is to the baby Maya. Nice.

Anything that's not aged well? Does a woman get slapped around? There’s a lot of social stuff here which hasn’t aged well, but it’s surprising that she doesn’t get slapped. There’s a bit at the end where she gives the keys to him, and his body language is ready for delivering a slap, but he just runs out of the room. I wonder, would slapping a woman bedridden after a problem birth be too much, even for 1951?

There are some other things that age the movie, other than the fashion and the sexual politics. When they first meet, she recognises him as a basketball phenom from college. He’s a stocky looking, bug-eyed white guy who’s probably 5’10, yet famous enough to be recognised by his basketball skills. That wouldn’t happen now.

Any thoughts? They really make some bad decisions all the way through it. Were they going to just abandon the kid after it was born? Were they going to stay in the ghost town, raising a child? Kill the doctor? Yeah that’s not a good idea either. He, in particular, made some really dumb plans throughout.

They also easily could have got out of the police trial without lying. Instead of lying, when asked ‘Did you know each other before the death’ you could easily say, yeah, he came over for a prowler before (which would make the death even more justifiable, a repeat offence, so you'd need to be extra cautious) and while there we had a chat about our home towns in Indiana. Easy. I should really be committing these kind of crimes.

Would you recommend this? It certainly takes some turns, and it’s quite unpleasant for a movie of this era. It's also written by Dalton Trumbo, using a ghost alias because he'd been run out of the US for being a Commie. Usually it’s the woman who’s the seducer in a noir film, here it's a male homewrecker. so it’s at least interesting. I’ll give it points for originality, I suppose.

Final thoughts? The two lovers have a very weird courtship. He persters her for a while, then she just accepts. They never seem to be having a good time with each other, either.

Of some note, the ending, in the ghost town, where he’s chased and then falls down a hill made of stones, was very similar to that of the end of Man of the west, it may even have been the same hill in the same gravel pit.

There, 86 done now - this really is taking some time, if you'd like to see others, check out the list right here.