CHRISTMAS SHORT TAKES

CHRISTMAS LAND (2015)

Nikki DeLoach is a high-powered PR person planning to marry her high-powered attorney boyfriend (Jason Shane-Scott) and move into an expensive condo in Manhattan. Just before Christmas, she finds out that she has inherited Christmas Land, a Christmas tree farm and tourist attraction. She takes a quick trip to the snowy property intending to sell it, but handsome lawyer Luke Macfarlane has mistakenly led villagers to think that she might be interested in reviving Christmas Land herself. Jason finds a potential buyer, but he wants to chop the land up, gutting the village. Torn between her high-powered fiancé and the handsome small town lawyer, what's a high-powered city gal to do? I found this worth watching for the hot and handsome Macfarlane and the chemistry that he works up with DeLoach. The location shooting at Pioneer Village in Utah is a plus—I've read that the snow was fake but there are several night scenes in which you can see the actors' breath, indicating actual cold conditions. But the rest is kind of a mess, especially the deus ex machina ending. Maureen McCormick from The Brady Bunch has what amounts to a cameo as Nikki's grandmother, but she’s creepily intense in her few minutes on screen. Shane-Scott is OK as the Hallmark standard issue bad boyfriend. I emptied my brain and wallowed in Luke Macfarlane. [Hallmark]

THE SANTA CLASS (2024)

Kimbely Susted has inherited (sound familiar yet?) a struggling Santa Claus training school that is in constant competition with another nearby Santa school. She needs help with her latest class and, coincidentally, Benjamin Ayres (pictured), who works for the competition, is fired because of budget problems and asks her for a job. Reluctantly (because of his cockiness) she hires him. Just before the class convenes, the two of them run into a man dressed as Santa, lost in the woods and suffering from amnesia. They see his sleigh and reindeer take off into the sky and realize he's the real Santa Claus, so they enroll him in their class, hoping something will jog his memory before Christmas Eve. Among the other students are a woman, a puppeteer who only communicates through his puppet, and the Hallmark Christmas actor Paul Campbell (playing himself). Oddly, I don't usually take to the Hallmark movies that involve real Santas; for me, folkloric magic and modern romance don't mix well. But this is cute, and as with Christmas Land, the two leads are reasons to watch. As I noted in a review of one of his earlier movies, Ayres occasionally has an intense, almost sinister look in his eyes which makes him a bit spicier than the typical Hallmark vanilla leading man. Campbell is delightful, making fun of himself and his career, at one point winning a trivia question about Christmas movies ("I’ve made 35 of these!"). Trevor Lerner is a nicely low-key St. Nick, and Graeme McComb is a standout as a shy and nerdy student who eventually blossoms. A fun continuation of Hallmark’s recent movement towards meta-movie material. [Hallmark]

BABES IN TOYLAND (1934/1961)

The 1934 version of Victor Herbert’s popular 1903 operetta begins with Mother Goose singing "Toyland" and introducing the various nursery rhyme characters that will populate the film, including Little Bo Peep, Tom Tom the Piper's Son, The Three Little Pigs, The Old Lady Who Lived in a Shoe, and others. The sinister Silas Barnaby threatens the Old Lady with eviction for herself and her many children because she's behind on mortgage payments. Two boarders in the shoe, Stannee Dum (Stan Laurel) and Ollie Dee (Oliver Hardy) assume they can get the money from their boss at the toy factory, but they made a rather big mistake in completing an order for Santa Claus; instead of making 600 1-foot-high wooden soldiers, they made 100 6-foot-high soldiers. One of the soldiers goes out of control and destroys the toy shop leading to Dum and Dee getting fired. Barnaby then says that if the lovely young Bo Peep (who keeps losing her sheep) agrees to marry him, he will tear up the mortgage. But she's in love with Tom. Dum and Dee try to help and finally, after Bo Peep agrees to marry Barnaby, Dum dresses up as her in a heavy bridal veil and takes her place at the ceremony. The furious Barnaby exiles Tom to Bogeyland, home of apelike ogres, and at the climax, the Bogeymen invade the town, to be driven back by Dum and Dee and the lifesize wooden soldiers. Bo Peep and Tom can marry and the Old Lady can stay in the shoe.

This is basically a vehicle for Laurel and Hardy whose characters don't appear in the operetta but are based loosely on Gonzorgo and Roderigo, two of Barnaby's henchmen. They are amusing as they carry on like they would in any Laurel and Hardy film—at one point, Hardy uses a version of the "another fine mess" line they were famous for. Charlotte Henry (Alice in the Alice in Wonderland film from 1933) as Bo Peep and opera singer Felix Knight as Tom are fine, though this was Knight's only major film role. The sets are great, with Toyland looking a bit like Munchkinland would look a few years later in The Wizard of Oz. The operetta songs have mostly been stripped away or relegated to background score. Though Santa makes an appearance, Christmas isn't really part of the story, but this (later retitled March of the Wooden Soldiers) became a popular film to be shown by local TV stations around the holidays, partly due to its Toyland setting and partly because, as in the case of It's a Wonderful Life, the film entered the public domain for a time and could aired for free. I watched the colorized version on Freevee and, though I usually pass those up, the colorizing was well done and added to the fantasy element.

In 1961, Walt Disney used this material for his company's first live-action musical. The through line is essentially the same, with Mary Contrary (Annette Funicello) standing in for Bo Peep, Mary being the heroine of the original operetta. Though the Laurel and Hardy characters are gone, the original henchmen, Gonzorgo and Roderigo, are played by Henry Calvin and Gene Sheldon as Laurel and Hardy stand-ins and they do a nice job. Funicello, fresh from her stint on the Mickey Mouse Club, is OK as Mary though she ultimately has little to do besides fret, be threatened, and stand around at the climax doing nothing while poor Tom has to battle Barnaby. Tommy Sands as Tom is wooden and charisma-free, and has a goofy front hair clump that is distracting. Ed Wynn's Toymaker has a much larger role than in the 1934 version; the setting here is identified as Mother Goose Village but the last half moves to Toyland. Tommy Kirk (pictured with Wynn) is quite good as Wynn's well-meaning but goofy assistant Grumio who comes up with a toy making machine that malfunctions, and a shrinking machine that helps save the day. Ray Bolger as Barnaby would seem to be good casting, but he never quite comes off as evil or as comic as the character seems intended to be. Rated on visuals alone, the movie is spectacular, quite colorful with wonderful sets and fun choreography, but at 105 minutes, it drags something fierce, with a couple of the songs (especially "A Castle in Spain") going on way too long. This is one of the first movies I ever saw in a theater (a drive-in, actually) but I remembered very little about it except Ray Bolger who I knew from Oz. Actually, two of my favorite moments from the movie involved Bolger telling his henchmen, "Let us pussyfoot" as they exaggeratedly lifted their arms and legs and walked away. This was an expensive production and apparently lost money, and I imagine kids today would be bored out of their minds, but nostalgic boomers might like one more visit to Toyland. [Disney+]

SAVING CHRISTMAS SPIRIT (2022)

Lucy Stewart, a professor of archeology at a university in Vermont, is in danger of being let go because of budget cuts. Even though it's almost Christmas, her department head Percy encourages her to go to the Scottish Highlands on a task to authenticate some old journals that were recently found. She settles in at a cozy bed & breakfast owned by the mildly eccentric but friendly Edina who insists that the ghost of her late husband Killan pulls pranks and watches over them all, the 'all' consisting of her American teenage nephew Finn, living in Scotland to get away from his divorced parents, and her handsome son Duncan who runs his dad's whisky distillery, famous for Christmas Spirit, its holiday brand. But the distillery is undergoing hard times and may not be able to get the newest batch out by Christmas. A corporation wants to buy the company but Duncan is heartily opposed to that. Lucy authenticates the journals and discovers in them evidence of a lost shrine to the winter goddess Cailleach, so hoping to make a grand discovery and save her job, she heads out to look for it, with Duncan as her guide. Despite their differences (American academic professor vs. stubborn Scottish rustic distiller), they bond quickly but any possible romance hits some snags. She puts her trust in practical science and he wants her to trust her instincts, or maybe the fairy folk and ghosts and magical reindeer that might surround them. In a side plot, Finn has fallen for local girl Caitrin who wants the school to start a girl's rugby team, so he tries to help her. Both couples suffer from communication problems, with the indecisive men unable to tell their women what they feel. Lucy can't find the shrine and gets laid off, but finds a museum job in Chicago, and Duncan is forced to sell his distillery. Finn quits the rugby team on the eve of their big charity match, but his plan backfires when Caitrin resents his meddling. You don't suppose that ghosts and magical reindeer will save the day, do you?

Some online critics note that this Christmas romance is refreshingly different from Hallmark holiday movies, but aside from its being filmed in Scotland, it exactly fits the Hallmark template: a dumb title, main characters with culture clashes, ridiculous Christmas time deadlines—why would a distiller be putting out a new batch of holiday booze on Christmas Eve??—an interfering relative trying to get the leads together, and Christmas decor splashed all over the place. The slight twists in the story, almost all having to do with being set in Scotland, do make things interesting for a while, but by the time the ending rolls around, we have some truly ludicrous plot points doing heavy lifting to eke out a happy ending for all. Ashley Newbrough, a Christmas movie veteran, sleepwalks through her role, not really bringing her rote character to life. Jake Satow, as Finn, is colorless and doesn’t seem comfortable in his part. Better is Joanne Randle as Edina, being charming in a role that might have been played too broadly. Tibu Fortes steals his few scenes as Percy, the gay best friend, who gets the best line: during a Zoom call, as Lucy is adamantly denying that she has fallen for Duncan, Percy notes astutely, "Your lips may say no, but your hair flips say yes." Best of all is James Robinson (pictured) as Duncan: very handsome in an earthy way, great accent, hunky build, and a penetrating gaze. As with FINDING FATHER CHRISTMAS, I stuck with this largely because the male lead made up for other shortcomings. And the physical production is lovely, although a few of the Highland landscape shots have a slight CGI shine to them. [Acorn TV]

CONFESSIONS OF A CHRISTMAS LETTER (2024)

The town of Holly Falls has a competition every year for the best Christmas letter written by a resident. The winner is almost always Sue, a nasty woman used to getting her way. She also lays down silly rules about neighborhood decorations (absolutely no lawn ornaments!). This year, Settie Rose is determined to win the prize so she hires a novelist named Juan Sanchez (whose novel her book club is reading) to write her family letter for her. Juan, who lives in Puerto Rico, is suffering through writer's block so his abuelo and his uncle encourage him to head off to Connecticut and take the job. By coincidence, he shares an Uber from the airport with Settie's daughter Lily who is coming home for the holidays after a brief stay in Italy. Lily is a bit of a lost soul, cheery but without aim or purpose. When neighbors see the two arrive, Settie passes Juan off as Lily's Italian fiancé. Juan is game enough to go along with the charade. Lily's gay brother Jack got married during the year, but isn't crazy about being part of the letter. Also in the family are Settie's mom and dad, and Settie's long-suffering husband Paddy. Juan soon discovers as he interviews family members for research that Settie's big problem is that she wants her imperfect family to be seen as perfect in the Christmas letter, so maybe if he can get her to own up to that flaw, she can produce her own winning letter.

This Hallmark Christmas movie has a bad title and a ridiculous premise—the letter writing competition is such a dumb idea, I almost tuned out after ten minutes—but I ended up liking it. One interesting thing is that the romance story becomes a side plot with Settie's growth as the main focus of the film. Angela Kinsey, the brittle Angela on The Office, is Settie and though I didn’t like her much at first (Settie is single-minded and oblivious), I eventually did. Lillian Ducet-Roche is wonderful as Lily; maybe because she's not the primary character, she had a bit more breathing space to create a more realistic Hallmark heroine. Alec Santos is fine as Juan; it also took me a while to like him as the actor seemed uncomfortable in the somewhat ill-defined role, but like Kinsey he grew on me. I didn't immediately recognize Paddy, the husband, as Fred Ewanuick, whom I loved as the doofus Hank in the Canadian sitcom Corner Gas. He's good here, but he sort of vanishes in the last half-hour. Jake Foy is handsome as Jack, the gay son, but has little to do besides representing diversity (as does Jeff Avenue, who despite having virtually no lines, does double diversity duty as Jack's Filipino husband). Brian Baumgartner, also from The Office, has a totally needless cameo as a mailman. I liked that the grandfather (Jorge Montesi) and uncle (Javier Lacroix) speak a fair amount of Spanish (with subtitles), and the uncle gets one of the funniest moments early on when he worries that Juan is heading off to a Misery situation, as in the Stephen King movie. Recurring scenes of the family dressed in Christmas onesies as dictated by Mom are amusing. After a rocky start, this ends up being a Hallmark film I could recommend (though a better title might be Christmas with the Roses, a line that Juan actually says in the film). Pictured are Ducet-Roche, Kinsey and Santos. [Hallmark]

SUGARPLUMMED (2024) / THE CHRISTMAS QUEST (2024)

Hallmark tries a couple of new directions this year for their Christmas movies. One works, one doesn't. SUGARPLUMMED is a meta-movie which begins with an ad for the Harmony Home Network featuring a series of holiday movies starring a magical woman named Sugarplum who helps everyone have wonderful Christmases. Emily, a lawyer, desperately wants her family to have a perfect Christmas and makes a wish that she could live in a Sugarplum movie. Voila, Sugarplum herself appears, complete with a thick book of Christmas movie rules (snow makes everything better, as does a beautifully decorated house, etc.), and sets out to help Emily make her wish come true. Sugarplum does work some Christmas magic, including making it snow inside Emily's son’s high school and getting the perfect gift at the last minute, but we catch on early that Emily's perfect holiday is not really what her family wants. For example, her daughter wants to talk to her about applying to a small arts college instead of a local university, but Mom is deaf to her arguments. When Sugarplum's efforts start going wrong (the school presses charges of vandalism for the snowfall), she must find more realistic ways to help Emily and her family. This is a cute and fun movie. Janel Parrish has a perky and slightly otherworldly bearing as Sugarplum, Maggie Lawson is fine as the beleaguered Emily whom we know will eventually come to her senses about her family's needs, and discover that perfection is not necessarily a desired goal. Avan Stewart and Kyra Leroux are quite good as the kids. Brendon Zub is OK as the husband but he doesn't have a lot to do. There are fun cameos from handsome Hallmark leading men Victor Webster and Carlo Marks. The self-referential satire is welcome, as is the fact that a romance is not at the center of the story. Pictured are Parrish, Lawson and Zub.

THE CHRISTMAS QUEST has two of the best Hallmark actors as leads: Kristoffer Polaha and Lacey Chabert. It's shot largely on location in Iceland. It starts out in an unusual manner, setting up an Indiana Jones-type adventure story involving an archeologist (Chabert) approached by a mysterious wealthy man to find the legendary treasure of the Yule Lads, Icelandic prankster figures from folklore. Her late mother had spent years on the same search so she agrees to help, and ropes in her ex-husband (Polaha) who is an expert on ancient Norse languages. Unfortunately after a promising opening, things go downhill as the search turns into a treasure hunt complete with ridiculous clues, cartoon villains who turn out to be good guys and vice versa, and a ludicrous climax which leaves almost everything unexplained. Polaha and Chabert are in good form, but their talents are used in the service of a story that promises to be something different but ends up being disappointingly familiar. If they had stuck to the idea of an adventurous quest, it might have worked, but it doesn't. Derek Riddel is good as the wealthy man, and the very nice looking Joel Saemundsson has a couple of fun scenes as an old friend of Chabert's who helps out. I give this one points for trying something different but subtract points for backing out of that promise. [Hallmark]

FINDING FATHER CHRISTMAS (2016)

Miranda, a high-powered real estate agent in Seattle, is contacted by a man who is cleaning out an old theater for renovation. He has found a suitcase with her mother's name on it and assumes she might want it. Miranda's single mother Eve was an actor who died of a heart attack on stage during a performance of A Christmas Carol while the young Miranda was in the theater. She goes to claim the suitcase and discovers an old photo of a little boy sitting on Santa's lap that was taken in the small Vermont town of Carlton Heath. Thinking this might be a clue to her father's identity, she heads off to Vermont to investigate. She arrives at a bed and breakfast and reluctantly admits to the owner, Katherine, what her mission is. Katherine thinks she might be able to contact the former owners of the photography studio where the picture was taken, and in the meantime, Miranda has a meet-cute moment with Katherine's hunky son Ian, who does odd jobs around the place as well as keeps the inn's books (and, belying his rustic appearance, also has a law degree). Ian's father Andrew is also an actor and is rehearsing his role as Scrooge in a Christmas Carol production at the local James Whitcomb Theater, named after a late legendary local actor whose son Edward still lives in town. With Ian's help, Miranda tries to get to the bottom of her domestic mystery but gets nowhere until she sees the Santa photo on display at Edward Whitcomb's home. Will old family skeletons get disturbed and ruin everyone's holiday?

Based on a novel, this Hallmark Christmas movie is a tad more serious than most of them—in addition to Eve's fatal heart attack which takes place in a flashback, one character has a non-fatal heart attack and another verbally attacks Miranda, assuming she has come deliberately to ruin reputations. Even the wonderful comic actor Wendie Malick doesn't get much of a chance to be funny, though she's very good in her role as James Whitcomb's widow. Erin Krakow is fine as Miranda; she doesn't get to stray much from the Christmas heroine template, though it is nice that her big city job is not really much of a plotpoint. I kept watching largely because of the handsome and non-threateningly masculine Niall Matter as Ian; his small-town charm is a predictable element but the differences between the two aren't presented as obstacles to be overcome. In fact, by my count, they kiss four times during the movie, which must be a Hallmark record. In another twist, it's Ian who gets teary (and Matter pulls this scene off quite well). Jim Thorburn, a familiar Hallmark supporting face, is good though underused as the Whitcomb son. Another Hallmark regular, Nelson Wong, has a small role as a doctor. I like that we're told that Eve named Miranda after the character in The Tempest, which is actually a clue to the resolution of the mystery. There are two sequels that I might track down. [Hallmark]

TRIVIA AT ST. NICK'S (2024)

Celeste, an astronomy professor at a snowy Vermont college, is upset that the provost doesn't seem to be taking her requests for money for an new telescope seriously, but she's looking forward to, and takes very seriously, the annual Christmas trivia contest, a multi-day event at a bar called St. Nick's. Her team, the Quizmas Elves, also has her friend Ashley, an admissions officer; Ashley's husband Freddie, the college landscaper; Celeste's widowed mother Sherry, a local music teacher; Gary, a older history professor who is sweet on Sherry; and Richard, a British math professor who was a 2-day winner on Jeopardy and with whom Celeste is getting romantically interested. Celeste's TA, Ruby, a goth-acting Gen Z buzzkill, is on a competing team, We Came to Sleigh. At the school cafeteria, Celeste has the opposite of a meet-cute (a meet-ugly according to the Urban Dictionary) with hunky new football assistant coach Max when he goes zipping ahead of others in a buffet line and she calls him on his behavior. But when Richard announces that he's going to Asia for the holidays, the Elves must find a replacement for him and who happens to present himself but Max. Celeste isn't happy, but his knowledge of holiday-related sports trivia (?) is too good to pass up, plus the other team members all find him charming. Her friend Ashley tells her to lighten up; "Be Mr. Bailey, not Mr. Potter," she says in a cute Wonderful Life reference. Max joins the team and, unwittingly, begins subverting Celeste's leadership tactics, climaxing in Max's insistence that the group engage in a wall-climbing exercise for the sake of bonding. Despite Celeste's annoyance, the exercise is fun and works well, and slowly, Max and Celeste begin to get along. The group goes on a scavenger hunt, helps decorate the international students dorm, and winds up with a perfect score in round three of the trivia event. Romantic sparks fly, especially when Celeste and Max have a nighttime rendezvous at a telescope. But an out-of-town trip to a maple syrup farm, which brings them even closer, results in them missing round four and the team falls behind, with Ruby's team in the lead. Celeste blames Max even though it wasn't really his fault. Can the Quizmas Elves eke out a victory in the final round? And can Celeste unclench her ass long enough to realize that Max is practically perfect in every way?

I have mixed feelings about this Hallmark movie. I watched it because my favorite Christmas movie actor, Brant Daugherty (pictured), stars as Max. He is as handsome and adorable as ever with his patented snarky but sweet whimsy intact. Unfortunately, his co-star, Tammin Sursok, isn't as effective. She might pass muster as a grad student, but acting like a professor is beyond her (and, to be fair, beyond the writers). They work up some chemistry—the two were apparently co-stars on the TV show Pretty Little Liars, and who couldn't achieve some rapport with Brant?—but honestly I had a hard time rooting for the two of them to wind up together. As is often the case lately, the supporting cast helps immensely. Kathleen Elizabeth Monteleone is great fun as Ashley, Ari Brand is sweet as Freddie (I missed at first that he was married to Ashley and thought he was going to be the gay best friend, but when Ashley announces she's pregnant, I realized that Freddie was the father), and Willie C. Carpenter and Elizabeth Keifer as Gary and Sherry are fine. Becka Zornosa makes the most of her small role as Ruby, the closest thing the movie has to a villain; her best moment is when she belittles Celeste's desire for the trivia prize which she calls a tchochke-thing. Later someone says that Ruby has "resting Scrooge face." In a meta-moment, it's fun that Hallmark Christmas Movies comes up as a category in the final trivia round. This one isn't painful to get through, but its promise is a bit stunted. And the presence of Brant trumps any other weaknesses. [Hallmark]

FEMALE ON THE BEACH (1955)

In a well-appointed beach house one night, an older couple (Cecil Kellaway and Natalie Schafer) are listening to a vicious argument between a very drunk middle-aged woman (Judith Evelyn) and a handsome gigolo (Jeff Chandler). Chandler, having had enough of being yelled at, tries to leave. Evelyn starts after him but runs into the balcony railing and falls to her death. The very next day, with police below on the beach, rich widow Joan Crawford shows up, met by real estate agent Jan Sterling. Crawford owns the house and thought Sterling has been renting it to an old woman named Crandall who had been told to move out, though Crawford soon finds out that Sterling has been lying to her. Crawford meets police detective Charles Drake, trying to determine is Evelyn's death was suicide, a drunken accident, or murder. Crawford is planning on selling the house but decides to stay a while. Next morning, Chandler uses a key to burst in and start making breakfast. At first Crawford is indignant, but slowly Chandler charms her into accepting his presence, though she makes him leave his key. We learn that Kellaway and Schafer, with Chandler's help, were running a scheme to get money out of Evelyn by cheating at cards with her, and possibly planning on Chandler marrying Evelyn for her money. Now they want to pull the same stuff with Crawford, though as Chandler finds himself liking Crawford, he is reluctant to participate. Meanwhile, Crawford and Chandler argue, make up, fight, make up, and eventually have sex. She decides to stay in the house until Drake's continuing investigation puts doubts in her head about Chandler's motives. Then another secret comes to light: Sterling, the real estate agent, had once been involved with Chandler, and may still be carrying a torch for him.

This melodramatic thriller (not really noir, despite the publicity) is no buried gem but it is quite watchable and, in its last twenty minutes, compelling. Yes, there are problems. Crawford is maybe a smidge too old for Chandler (they were 12 years apart), but her character is written as a middle-aged woman who falls under the sway of a younger hunk, and the previous relationship between Chandler and Evelyn, who was roughly the same age as Crawford but looked older, helps us buy Crawford's obsession. I don't always like Crawford’s 1950s exaggerated melodramas, but this one works pretty well. At times, things threaten to tilt toward the camp excesses of TORCH SONG or QUEEN BEE but I think the director, Joseph Pevney, manages to keep that from happening by getting Crawford to show some restraint. She still gets off some good lines: to Chandler, "You were made for your profession!"; to Kellaway and Schafer: "I'd like to ask you to stay for a drink, but I'm afraid you might accept!" Even Chandler gets off a good one to Crawford: "A woman's no good to a man unless she's a little afraid of him." The rest of the cast is very good. Chandler's not my idea of a hunky gigolo, but he is, from some angles, striking looking, and his performance is nicely slippery, hiding the character's motivations until the end. Kellaway and Schafer are delightful as people who seem silly and harmless until we find out that maybe they're not. I'm not terribly familiar with Jan Sterling (who according to IMDb was notable for her "sexy pout"), but she acquits herself nicely, moving from a barely-there background character to playing a major part in the climax. I always like Charles Drake, though he tends to fade into the background, which he does again here, which is more a function of the script—at times, it feels like he was supposed to be a possible romantic rival to Chandler, but that's never brought to fruition. Chandler's character’s name is Drummond which everyone shortens to Drummy, which winds up sounding a little silly—Drummy is a nickname for a doofus or a runt, not a hunk. On balance, I quite liked this. [Criterion Channel]

HOUSE OF EVIL (1968/1972)

A rural community, 1900. In a field, two men find the dead body of a woman, her eyes plucked out just like another body found by a lake a few days earlier. When the police find a letter written in Urdish, the language of the Urds, a nomadic people, they think the killings are part of a personal vendetta and their focus is on a group of Urds who work as servants at nearby Morhenge Mansion. At the mansion, the elderly Matthias Morteval (Boris Karloff, at right) and his doctor, Emerick Horvath, believe the murders are just like ones that occurred in Vienna and Budapest when his family lived in those places. Matthias’s brother Hugo was plagued by a belief that everyone around him was spying on him, and he engaged in a series of murders in which he plucked out the evil eyes of others. Hugo is dead but Matthias thinks that the "evil weed" has sprung up again in another family member, so he invites all his living relatives to the house for a will reading, apparently hoping, with help from Emerick, to figure out who the killer might be. Most of them (Ivor, rich widow Cordelia, and banker Morgenstern) are considered to be greedy no-goods by Matthias, but the fourth is his young and lovely cousin Lucy, who is likable enough but whose mother died insane. She brings her handsome boyfriend Charles, a police inspector, who, as an outsider, is not allowed to spend the night in the mansion. The big dark house is creepy enough but Matthias insists on playing a spooky organ concerto which is currently unfinished. Emerick shows everyone the collection of famous automaton toys that were made by the Mortevals for rulers and aristocrats. It was rumored that the toys could be remotely controlled and could commit murder for their rich owners. One dances with Cordelia but spins out of control and can't stop dancing. Cordelia manages to get free but now the toys have a sinister aura to them. Fodor, a servant, takes Charles to stay the night in the village and on the way home, Fodor is killed, his eyes taken out. The servants suspect Charles. In the middle of the night, a grandfather clock stops ticking and next morning, Matthias is found dead. Emerick takes over hosting duties and as they all wait for the reading of the will that night, the creepy life-size toys begin killing the relatives off. Organ music and bloody prints on the keys point to the possibility that Matthias may not actually be dead. The climax is fairly rousing, complete with more killer toys, loud organ music, fire and destruction.

I quote from my review of THE SNAKE PEOPLE: this is "one of a notorious bunch of low-budget Mexican horror films that Boris Karloff filmed during the last year of his life. The films were made by a Mexican company and filmed in Mexico, but because Karloff was ailing, he apparently shot his scenes in California. But though Karloff may not have been in prime physical shape, he's still the best thing in the movie." This one has a good plotline and a nicely creepy atmosphere, but the incredibly murky prints available make it difficult to see what the hell's going on during the last half-hour of the movie, when lots of things are going on. There are odd narrative lapses here and there. At one point, a character is killed upstairs, but his blood doesn't start dripping through the floor into a downstairs room until hours later. The Urds plotline is a complete red herring, and it was unclear to me where Charles was for a good chunk of running time in the middle: in a jail? A house? Morhenge Mansion? The toys are a good distraction from some of the wordier sequences though how they're controlled is never revealed. Karloff gives it his all and is fine. The other actors are mostly competent, and Andres Garcia is good looking and charismatic as Charles, though he winds up with not a lot to do until the conclusion. The filmmakers try to build tension with an overheated score which is irritating and not effective. Having said all that, it's certainly watchable and I suspect could be considered more than that if it's ever restored to clarity. Filmed in 1968 but not released until 1972. [YouTube]

HOTEL DU NORD (1938)

At twilight, a couple stroll sadly down a street in Paris along a river. At the Hotel du Nord, where a raucous dinner is going on in the restaurant area, they stop to get a room for the night. The kind-hearted Madam Lecouvreur rents a room to the gloomy pair, Pierre and Renée, and we discover that, penniless with no prospects, they have entered into a murder-suicide pact. Pierre shoots her, then panics and can't finish himself off. Edmond, a pimp in the next room, comes in and tells Pierre to leave through the window, and Edmond steals the pistol that's left behind. The party is disrupted when the police arrive, but Renée's wound was not fatal and as she recovers in a hospital, Pierre turns himself in to the police, even though she tells the police that she shot herself. When she recovers, Renée is given room and board by Lecouvreur in exchange for assisting the chambermaid. Meanwhile, we follow other characters living at the hotel. Edmond and his prostitute girlfriend Raymonde have a history of petty crime. Two shady men come looking for Edmond, though Raymonde tries to put them off. Edmond soon hits it off with Renée and he talks her into going to Cairo with him. We also meet Prosper, a lock keeper on the river who is being cheated on by his wife; Adrien, a flamboyantly gay candy maker; Jeanne, the chambermaid who is having her own side fling with Edmond; and Monolo, a boy orphaned by the Spanish Civil War who is doted on by Lecouvreur. The major stories come together during an evening street celebration of Bastille Day.

This is a charming, eccentric film in the genre known as poetic realism, stories of common working class people shot in a moody or dreamy style. Despite the scenes set on the street and near the river, the film was shot on an elaborate studio lot, giving the movie a slightly artificial feel (much like Casablanca) that actually enhances our experience of the narrative. The opening twilight shot is indeed poetic, as is the final shot along the same street which shows the last straggling Bastille Day celebrants still dancing. A bit like Grand Hotel, we get alternating glimpses into the lives of the hotel inhabitants, and moral judgments of good and bad behavior are not easy to make because most of the characters embody both impulses. Jean-Pierre Aumont is quite good as Pierre whom we sympathize with even though he runs out on his seemingly dead lover; he has the feel of a central character, but because he spends a good chunk of time in jail, we don't get to know him as well as we'd like. If there is a truly central character, it's probably Renée (Annabella) who gets entangled in a couple of plotlines. If anyone's gonna come to a bad end, you know it will be Edmond (Louis Jouvet) but we come to see his character in different lights at different times—he has ambitions to be a photographer and wants to change his name when he goes to Cairo to escape his past. Arletty is fine as Raymonde, who possibly gets as much screen time as Annabella. Though it has its melodramatic moments (there's a great shot of someone standing on a bridge at night in the fog, seriously contemplating suicide), the overall tone remains light, and the bouncing between stories stops any one from overstaying its welcome. Pictured are Aumont and Annabella. [TCM]

THE HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES (1939)

One night, on the Grimpen Mire, a dismal foggy moor in Dartmoor, Sir Charles Baskerville is running from the sound of a howling dog. He falls to the ground dead. At the post-mortem, Dr. Mortimer (Lionel Atwill) says it was a heart attack, though we see him hesitate in his pronouncement. When a news story appears that Charles' heir, Sir Henry (Richard Greene), is coming from Canada to take over the estate, esteemed detective Sherlock Holmes (Basil Rathbone) tells his friend Dr. Watson (Nigel Bruce) that the Baskerville men have a habit of dying young and violently. That evening, Mortimer shows up and asks Holmes for assistance; like Holmes, he too fears for Henry's safety. He relates the story of the Baskerville curse: many years ago, the decadent Hugo Baskerville abducted a young woman with the apparent intention of sexual assault (by himself and possibly with his drinking buddies). She escapes but dies from a fall on the moors, and Hugo is torn to pieces by a supernaturally strong hound. The curse apparently continues to the present day, and Mortimer tells Holmes that he found hound pawprints near the dead body of Sir Charles. Holmes isn't so sure that the threat to Henry is from a ghost dog, but he agrees to get involved. After Henry arrives, odd things happen: one of his boots is stolen from his hotel room, and Holmes witnesses someone try to shoot Henry on the streets. Holmes sends Watson off with Henry and Mortimer to Baskerville Manor while he attends to some business in London. At the mansion, Watson immediately becomes suspicious of Barryman, the butler, who is caught one night signaling someone on the moors with a candle from a window. He also meets the neighbors: young, working-class John Stapleton; his stepsister Beryl whom Henry takes an interest in; Mortimer's wife who has an interest in the occult; and Mr. Frankland, a cranky old man who is constantly threatening people with frivolous lawsuits. Watson sends Holmes letters keeping him up to date on developments until a sinister looking tramp arranges a secret meeting with Watson on the moors. No spoilers here; suffice to say that soon, Holmes shows up, secrets are uncovered, a hound (real, not a ghost) attacks Henry, and all is revealed.

I have mentioned the Rathbone/Bruce Sherlock Holmes movies here on the blog before, but I’ve only ever done a full review on one (SPIDER-WOMAN). This is the first of fourteen made between 1939 and 1946 and, though they are all fun to watch, this is probably the best of the batch. That's partly because it had an A-film budget (which most of the later ones did not have), partly because it's based on a particularly strong Conan Doyle story, and partly because the template was new. Holmes' uncanny ability to figure out obscure clues, his moody violin playing, Watson's doddering comic relief, the cramped quarters at 221B Baker Street. Even if the plot itself is a bit anemic (the menace to Henry rarely feels truly dangerous until the end), the atmosphere is perfectly Gothic, and the Grimpen Mire set, though obviously artificial, works perfectly. Rathbone will always be the best Sherlock Holmes to me, and Bruce will always be the best Watson, though I do understand those fans who don't like the comic aspect of his character which is not present in the original stories. By the end of the series, Rathbone may have been phoning it in a bit, but here he's still fresh and interesting. Greene (top-billed because Fox was pushing him as a heartthrob) is fine, and Atwill keeps us on our toes, as he was usually a heavy so we're not sure if Mortimer is to be trusted—Atwill would play Holmes' arch nemesis Moriarty in a later movie. Wendy Barrie (Beryl), John Carradine (Barryman), Eily Malyon (Mrs. Barryman) and Beryl Mercer (Mrs. Mortimer) give fine support. Morton Lowry as John Stapleton is a bit of a weak link, partly because his role is underwritten. [DVD]

I also watched a recently restored German silent version of the same story, DER HUND VON BASKERVILLE (1929). There are several differences. Almost the entire film takes place at Baskerville Hall and the surrounding moor. There is little mention of the original curse. The film has a much more "old dark house" atmosphere to it, with secret passages, dark and gloomy interiors, and prying eyes seen through statue faces. The actor playing the villain plays him as creepy from the beginning and a grinning madman by the end. American actor Carlyle Blackwell (above left) is fine as Holmes, a little lighter in tone than Rathbone. Watson (Geroge Seroff) is not exactly comic relief, but instead an almost snarky observer, and I like him quite a bit that way. The characters of Mortimer and Frankland are present but not really important to the plot. A character from the novel but not in the 1939 film, Laura Lyons, is present here and crucial to a late plot development. The moor set is not quite as impressive as in the American film, but the spooky house makes up for that. The title hound is effective and the climax is more action-filled than in the '39 film. Interesting for comparison. The film had been thought lost and the restoration story, told in an accompanying featurette, is interesting. The modern score is nicely moody. [Blu-ray]

THE PASSENGER (1975)

David Locke (Jack Nicholson, at right), an American reporter, is trying to get interviews with a group of rebels in a hot and dry African country in the throes of a civil war, in order to wrap up a documentary he's doing for British television. We see him make contact with people who take him into the desert, but then inevitably, they leave him behind or he loses them. Feeling frustrated, he heads back to his village hotel to commiserate with another Westerner, a British businessman named Robertson, who is staying in the room across from him. But Robertson is dead from a sudden heart attack. Knowing the man had no immediate family, and aware that the two had a passing resemblance, Locke impulsively decides to swap identities, putting Robertson's body in his own room, complete with identifying papers, and takes Robertson's papers and belongings, then reports Locke as dead to the hotel keeper. As Locke tries to fit himself into Robertson's life, we get flashbacks to Locke's recent past: his witnessing of the execution of a rebel by government forces, an ambiguous interview with the president of the African country, his discovery that his wife Rachel has probably been having an affair with a man named Steven, his discussions with Robertson. Then, in keeping a series of appointments in Robertson's calendar, he comes to realize that Robertson is an illegal arms dealer working with the African rebels. As he tries to figure out what to do, he meets up with an aimless young woman (Maria Schneider) whose name we never find out, who joins him on the road as he gets more involved in a dangerous situation: he takes money meant for Robertson, but cannot deliver the arms to the rebels. In the meantime, both Rachel and Locke's boss start looking for Robertson, hoping he can provide some information about what happened to Locke. The full implications of what he's done begin to dawn on Locke, but maybe too late to avoid paying a high price for his identity dabbling.

Among the words and phrases bandied about when critics talk about the films of Michelangelo Antonioni are alienation, identity, existentialism, ambiguity, ennui, and modern life. Most of those words apply to this film, the last of three English-language films the Italian director made for MGM. The first, BLOW-UP, was a big hit; the second, ZABRISKIE POINT, was not. This one was certainly a critical success, though it didn't break out into a pop culture milestone as BLOW-UP had. There is plenty of ambiguity here about plot points and characters, but the narrative is mostly easy to follow, and partakes of traditional tropes of the thriller, even if there are not a lot of old-fashioned thrills to be had. Nicholson, who is in nearly every scene in the movie, carries it quite well, as a guy who feels almost dead to himself and tries (only half-heartedly, I think) to come back to life as someone else. Schneider is much less impressive, partly due to how incompletely her character is developed; I wish I could make a case that she is an imaginary companion that Locke dreams up, but that doesn't really work. Some critics wonder if she is the "passenger" of the title, since she spends much of the movie riding in Locke's car, but I think that Locke is the passenger, riding in the life of Robertson, though clearly not in control. The flashback in which Locke and Robertson (Charles Mulvehill, who does look a bit like Nicholson) meet feels a lot like two men arranging a one-night stand. The search that Rachel (Jenny Runacre) undertakes for Robertson winds up feeling more dictated by plot needs than by character. The famous unbroken seven minute shot near the end is interesting to experience but I'm not sure it means much. As in all Antonioni films, the visuals are compelling, with the sets and backgrounds sometimes commanding more attention than the action occurring on screen. [TCM]

THE SLEEPING CITY (1950)

This film begins with the actor Richard Conte, as himself, assuring us that Bellevue Hospital in New York City, where this was shot on location, is a fine, upstanding institution. (Apparently the mayor asked for this introduction so as not to besmirch the name of Bellevue.) The narrative begins one night with an intern named Foster who, tired and jittery, takes a much needed smoke break. Alone overlooking the skyline, he is shot in the face and dies. The cops interview interns, with a special interest in Foster's roommate Steve Anderson (Alex Nicol) who says that Foster had been jumpy lately. Detective Martin thinks it was the random work of a psycho, but Inspector Gordon decides to put members of his Confidential Squad in the hospital, with one man, Fred Rowan (Richard Conte), going undercover as an intern—he has a medical school background and they're hoping he can pass with no problem. He gains the trust of Anderson, who himself seems a bit nervous, and Ann Sebastian (Coleen Gray), a nurse who was dating Foster and had been looking for him on the night of his death. He also meets Kathy Hall, who is dating Anderson, and old Pop Ware, a friendly elevator operator who seems beloved by all the interns, perhaps because he helps them place bets on horse races. Most of these characters have secrets that Rowan slowly discovers, coming to the conclusion that there is a drug peddling ring active among the interns. After another death occurs, staged to look like a suicide, Rowan follows a hunch to track down the head of the drug ring. If this isn't strictly speaking film noir, it has the right look, with very fine location shooting at the hospital and on the streets of New York. The acting is convincing without becoming melodramatic; Conte excels as the undercover man, Nicol does a nice job as a skittish enigmatic character, and Gray is fine as a potential suspect. John Alexander, who was so much fun as the cousin who thinks he's Teddy Roosevelt in ARSENIC AND OLD LACE, plays it straight as the chief cop. This film doesn't necessarily make Bellevue look bad, but it certainly makes the life of an intern look depressing, and the semi-documentary look of the movie gives it a gritty aura. The style of director George Sherman is fairly plain, though some of the exterior city shots are nice. My beef with labeling this a noir has to do with the absence of an antihero; Conte has ambiguous feelings about some of the people he has to deal with, but he is never tempted to cover up for anyone. Still, it does have a noir visual style and is recommended. Pictured are Nicol and Conte. [Criterion Channel]

LILITH (1964)

Vincent (Warren Beatty) is a vaguely troubled Korean War vet who seems to have trouble fitting back into society. He has returned to his small hometown in Maryland where his grandmother still lives, and where his mother committed suicide some years ago. At odds, he applies for a job as an occupational therapist at Poplar Lodge, a local mental institution where the head administrator, Dr. Brice (Kim Hunter), is impressed enough with Vincent to train and hire him. The grounds are very open and most of the patients are fairly calm; Brice tells Vincent that Poplar Lodge is largely a place for wealthy families to send problem relatives, and that many of them are people who are just too "fine," too sensitive, for real life. Vincent soon becomes caught up in the lives of two young inmates: lovely Lilith (Jean Seberg), who spends most of her time by choice in isolation, and gentle Stephen (Peter Fonda) who develops a liking for Lilith, as does Vincent. Lilith comes out of her shell a bit, and Vincent gets permission to take her and Stephen for outings. Though she flirts a bit with Stephen, it's Vincent whom Lilith sleeps with, though Vincent is upset to notice that Lilith is on the verge of inappropriate behavior with a young boy on one of their outings. Though I don't think the word "nymphomaniac" is ever used, that is clearly how we're supposed to think of her, despite her innocent and placid demeanor. If you look at Poplar Lodge as Edenic, you can take Vincent's affair with Lilith as the act that destroys their paradise, and indeed sad or tragic endings overtake the central trio of characters.

In an era when psychological issues were more open to being examined in Hollywood films, this feels almost like a step backwards. The black & white cinematography makes some of the scenes look vague and misty, as are the issues presented, few of which are discussed openly. In addition to suicide and impulsive sexual behavior, incest, homosexuality, and adultery are brought up or hinted at. The director, Robert Rossen, was a Hollywood pro whose previous picture The Hustler was nominated for several Oscars, but this has the look and feel of an indie movie, for better or worse. Perhaps because of the potentially edgy subject matter, the acting is mostly low-key. That works for Jean Seberg as the title character, kept mostly indistinct, and even for Peter Fonda, perhaps the most sympathetic character here. But Beatty has the same passive presence, leaving us with three lead characters who seem barely formed. More interesting are members of the supporting cast. Kim Stanley's Dr. Brice doesn’t always act logically, but she does get to build a presence, as does James Patterson as another doctor. Jessica Walter (as Beatty's old flame) and Gene Hackman (as her husband) are standouts even though they only get one short scene, and Anne Meacham is fine in a similarly limited role as an older, higher class patient. The pace is a bit sluggish, and the climax a bit incoherent, with an unsurprising final shot. I started this film a few weeks ago and gave up 20 minutes in, but I was egged on by a film buff friend to finish it. I did and I'm not sorry, but I don't think that I'd egg anyone on to watch it. Pictured are Fonda and Seberg. [Criterion Channel]

CALLAWAY WENT THATAWAY (1951)

The advertising firm of Frye (Fred MacMurray) and Patterson (Dorothy McGuire) has hit TV gold by recycling the old Western films of former singing cowboy star Smoky Callaway (Howard Keel), sponsored by a company that makes Corkies cereal, with the films aimed at kids. The Lorrisons, the couple who own the cereal company, ask Frye and Patterson to find Callaway so he can star in a new cowboy show. Having heard that Callaway became a drunk and quit acting, they hire his former agent Georgie (Jesse White) to track him down. Meanwhile, a real cowboy from Colorado named Stretch Barnes (also Howard Keel) writes to complain that, because he bears a striking resemblance to Callaway, he has suddenly become a local celebrity. By offering him a lot of money (which he could use to invest in his own ranch), Frye and Patterson convince him to come to Hollywood and pretend to be Callaway to make a TV show. There follows some amusing 'fish out of water' scenes as Callaway meets stars like Elizabeth Taylor and Clark Gable, not quite knowing who they are, and has to be taught by Frye how to enter a bar like a cowboy by casually "moseyin' and lookin’ around." But eventually, the agent finds the real Callaway having hit the skids in a Mexico City dive bar. Georgie tries to get him dried out and functioning again, but Barnes has already been sent out on a publicity tour. The competing cowboys cause trouble, but can a solution be found before the thing is exposed as a hoax?

This is mild 1950s satire, cute and clever but not very deep or biting. Actually, it has the feel of a TV show and if you take it at that level, it’s enjoyable enough. Keel does a great job with the two distinct personalities: as Barnes, he's naive, innocent, cute, and healthy; as Callaway, he's crude and always drunk, with dark circles under his eyes. The two have a fun fist fight near the end. MacMurray is in mildly comic leading man form but seems awfully lightweight even for that mode. McGuire is plain and bland. It feels like the screenwriters never really settled on whether or not the two should be romantically involved and there are hints they might have been, but [Mild Spoiler!] Patterson ends up with Barnes at the end and Frye's OK with that. There's interesting casting in two of the smaller roles: Natalie Schafer (Lovey on Gilligan's Island) plays one-half of the sponsor couple, and Stan Freberg, better known as a satirist, comedian, writer, and voice talent for cartoons, is Marvin, the nerdy assistant to Frye and Patterson. His role is small but he stands out for his odd look. There is a disclaimer at the end noting that no disrespect was meant to real cowboy actors or their positive effect on America's youth. The whole thing is fairly bland and surface, but worth seeing for Keel in his dual roles. Pictured are MacMurray, McGuire and Keel. [TCM]