THE ASSASSIN (1952—aka VENETIAN BIRD)

Edward Mercer (Richard Todd, pictured), who works for an American relief society, arrives in Venice on an assignment: track down Renzo Uccello, an Italian resistance fighter who saved the life of an Allied soldier in WWII, and give him a reward from the soldier's family. He has placed an ad in a newspaper asking for information on Uccello, and he gets one reply from a man named Carlo. They meet at a church but two thugs arrive and attack Carlo. Mercer takes him to his hotel room but eventually Carlo ducks out through the window, seemingly no longer willing to share what he knows. Mercer finds out that Carlo has a job at at an art gallery in a old mansion run by Count Boria (Walter Rilla) but is stonewalled there, though he does make contact with Adriana (Eva Bartok), Uccello's former girlfriend, who says that Uccello died at the end of the war. Circumstances lead Mercer to believe that Uccello planted his identity papers on a dead body in order to disappear, and he keeps looking for Uccello, to the dismay of almost everyone around him, including the local police chief (George Coulouris). Almost the only person on his side is Rosa, an old acquaintance from the war days. Meanwhile, the big news in town is a visit from a controversial political figure named Nerva, and when Mercer overhears a conversation between Boria and another man implying that they are conspiring to assassinate Nerva, Mercer suspects this may have some tie to Uccello, and he's right. 

This is a decent thriller which could be made leaner and better paced with the excision of a couple of characters. Todd is excellent as the man in over his head who is always just a beat or two behind the bad guys, and it's not always easy to tell who's a good guy and who's a bad guy. It's also not clear why Mercer stays on in Venice after he hears that Uccello is dead, except there wouldn't be much of a movie if he did leave. Rilla, Bartok and Coulouris are all very good, as are John Gregson as a cop and Margot Grahame as Rosa. But it's the Venice location shooting that is the real star of the movie. I don't like to use the old saying that the location is like a character, but here it's close to being true. The gallery in particular is nicely atmospheric. I suspect that most of the interiors were shot on sets in England, but they are integrated nicely with the Venice footage. The American title (The Assassin) is bland but it fits the story; the original British title, Venetian Bird, is more colorful and refers to a restored painting that provides a clue for Mercer, but it's really no more descriptive of the narrative. Many viewers compare this to the famous Carol Reed thriller The Third Man, and some even prefer this, as I do—I always get bogged down in the draggy plot and the irritating soundtrack of the Reed film. The tension slackens a bit in the last third, but a climactic rooftop chase ends things well. On DVD in the British Noir boxed set, which means that it's not really noir, though the general feeling is close to genuine noir. [DVD]

ALI BABA AND THE SEVEN SARACENS (1964)

(aka Sinbad Against the Seven Saracens, a translation of its original Italian title.) Several Arabian tribes are about to unite under the King of the Throne of Gold. He will be chosen, as per the laws of the Magi, through a tournament of eight warriors, one from each tribe, to take place on the day of a predicted solar eclipse. The men gather and Omar (Gordon Mitchell, pictured), ruthless and merciless, aims to win. Meanwhile, Ali Baba (Dan Harrison) is leading his tribe, the Marrishi, in a revolt against Omar. After they arrive by sea, two of his captured men are tortured and one of them reveals the whereabouts of the invading party. Ali Baba escapes an attack and is taken to a cave in the desert by the buxom harem girl Fatima. She is the niece of court member Haswan, and Omar has a thing for her, much to the annoyance of his official mistress Farida. In two seconds flat, Fatima and Ali Baba fall in love for no particular reason. The two are captured and thrown into a prison for slaves, but Ali Baba, as the tournament representative of his tribe, is set to join the other warriors. Haswan, who appears to be loyal to Omar, actually helps the rebel slaves in their escape plans. More directly helpful are Meneth and his pal, the dwarf Jukki, who proves invaluable in sneaking through tiny secret corridors. Also helpful is the harem eunuch who communicates in tics and grunts. On the day of the eclipse, the tournament goes on and, as one might predict, it comes down to Omar and Ali Baba in a final face-off on chariots, as the slaves wait outside the city's stone gate, hoping that Jukki can access the secret mechanism that opens it and will allow the rebels to help Ali Baba.

Between a poor print, bad dubbing, and sloppy writing, I cannot guarantee the accuracy of my summary. I may have taken some liberties, but I think it’s pretty close to what really happens. In the original Italian print, the lead’s name is Sindbad, but it might as well be Joe or Bob for all the character has to do with actual Arabian Nights tales. The well-muscled Gordon Mitchell, who usually plays peplum heroes, chews the scenery as the chief villain. Dan Harrison (real name Bruno Piergentili) is handsome but otherwise not terribly well equipped to be a muscleman hero. If the two had switched roles, they might have been more effective, though I don't know that Harrison had it in him to deliciously overact. Sword and sandal fanboys love Bella Cortez as Fatima; she co-starred with Mitchell when he was a hero in THE GIANT OF METROPOLIS and she’s certainly physically right for the part. Carla Calo as Farida has little to do except be featured in a pajama "catfight" with Fatima that turns into a free-for-all. I should mention the odd character of Sharif (Tony Dimitri), Omar's chief henchman. Always wearing a red velvety robe, he is seen frequently but has little to do except purse his lips and clasp his hands in a somewhat fey manner. I kept expecting him to be gay (in the opening, he seems to enjoy watching the torture of two sweaty bare-chested men) or involved in secret plotting, but no such luck. A crucial midnight scene plays out in bright daylight, with no attempt made at even minimal day-for-night. I started watching this on a bad DVD print, then found a YouTube version which claims to have been "AI restored." They appear to be the same print, choppy and badly panned-and-scanned, though the restored version is a little clearer (and also a little shiny, an AI artifact I assume). Also, the second and third reels seem reversed. The visiting six Saracens arrive at Omar's palace and introduce themselves, then ten minutes later, we get a scene of Omar going over the rules of the tournament as though the six fighters hadn't been chosen yet. The battle scenes are fine. I might watch this again if a truly restored widescreen print ever turns up. [DVD/YouTube]

THE YOUNG STRANGER (1957)

Hal (James MacArthur) is a student at a Beverly Hills high school. His family has money but poor Hal is stuck driving a junky jalopy that has to be pushed to get started. Hal's mother Helen (Kim Stanley) is loving but his dad Tom (James Daly), a film producer, is distant, never having time for Hal, and when he does, he's usually berating the boy for something. One night, Hal and his buddy Jerry go to the movies. Hal insists on putting his feet up on the seat in front of him even though the patron sitting next to that seat complains. Eventually, Hal is forcibly ejected from the auditorium and Mr. Grubbs, the theater manager, first tells him to leave, then tries to get him to go into his office. When Hal instead starts to leave, Grubbs grabs him and pushes him toward the office. Hal responds with a sock to Grubb's jaw. Hal and Jerry are taken to the police station and Tom takes him home. When Hal tries to explain that Grubbs started the fight and that he was just defending himself, Tom won't listen. Helen tries to talk to Tom about their son's behavior, but Tom is more interested in making a martini. When Jerry's father finds out what happened, he forbids his son from hanging out with Hal. It's not terribly surprising that, even though Grubbs decides not to press charges, Hal is adamant about getting Grubbs to admit that he started the altercation—at one point, he admits what he wants is a father who believes him. When Hal goes back to the theater, things don’t go well for Hal.

In the era of JD (juvenile delinquent) movies, this is a remarkably gentle film. Hal is certainly no delinquent, though he does have the stereotypical problem of being misunderstood. There’s a scene in the police department with Hal and an actual JD talking that reminded me of the "Gee, Officer Krupke" number from West Side Story. Hal's first encounter with Grubbs (Whit Bissell, frequent enactor of authority figures both good and bad) is presented with just enough ambiguity to make Grubbs' claim of assault valid. MacArthur, in his first starring role, is good; he's confident and fresh-faced. His complaints to his parents get a bit repetitious, but that's the fault of the writing. Daly is very good as the father who today would be considered a bad parent, but in the 50s would have come off more as just clueless. Stanley is wasted as the mom shunted to the background most of the time. James Gregory (better known as the gruff Inspector Luger on TV's Barney Miller) is fine as the cop who eventually winds up on the boy's side. Jeff Silver has the small but important role of the friend who wants to stand up for Hal but is hindered by his own parental pressure. Their reconciliation scene involves a shirtless Jerry wrestling with Hal in a bunch of raked leaves. At least one IMDb reviewer sees gay content here, but to me it comes off more as homosocial rather than homoerotic (even if thinking about wrestling with James MacArthur does make me smile). This feels like a TV movie, and indeed it was based on a TV drama from 1955 that featured MacArthur, Bissell and Silver. Worth seeing as a period novelty with a somewhat improbable happy ending. Pictured are Silver and MacArthur. [TCM]

THE SCARLET CLAW (1944)

It's a foggy night in the rural Canadian village of La Morte Rouge. At an inn, the villagers discuss how sheep have recently been found dead, their throats ripped out, and a weird glow has been seen on the marshes. That night, the church bell begins tolling and doesn't stop. When the priest investigates, he finds the dead body of Lady Penrose, her throat cut and her hand clutching the bell rope. In Quebec, her husband is addressing a meeting of the Canadian Occult Society at which Sherlock Holmes (Basil Rathbone) and Dr. Watson (Nigel Bruce) are present. Penrose argues for the reality of occult explanations, whereas Holmes says they agree on the importance of facts but differ on interpretations and deductions. When Penrose receives news of his wife's death, he heads back to the village. Holmes then receives a letter from Lady Penrose sent the day before asking him to come to the village to investigate a threat to her life. Telling Watson that this is the first time they have been retained by a corpse, Holmes heads to the village where he finds Lord Penrose mourning his wife but refusing to cooperate with Holmes. But Holmes soon discovers that Lady Penrose used to be an actress named Lillian Gentry, and had been involved in a murder case in which an actor named Ramson killed another actor over attentions to Lillian. Holmes believes that Ramson escaped from prison and has insinuated himself in the village under another name and is the cause of the recent mayhem, using a multi-toothed garden weeder that leaves a claw-like mark on the throats of the victims. Now Holmes surmises that two other people who were involved in the judicial side of the case and now live in the village are marked for death.

After 1943's SHERLOCK HOLMES FACES DEATH brought Gothic atmosphere back to the Rathbone series, the next film, THE SPIDER WOMAN, reverted to a more traditional London setting. Here, in the sixth Universal film, we're closer to Gothic territory again, if not in "old dark houses," then in an insular gloomy community, with most of the action taking place at night. In fact, there is a Baskervilles feel to this film, what with a glow-in-the-dark presence on the marshes which look very much like moors, and talk of the supernatural. The plot of this one is a bit more complicated and moves a bit more slowly than most of the earlier films, though I was never bored. The Canadian setting means there is no Mrs. Hudson or Inspector Lestrade, but they're not missed. There are a number of local color characters, most of whom wind up not being important to the story and, surprisingly, Lord Penrose (Paul Cavanagh, pictured at left), who is set up in the beginning as a nemesis and possible villain, fades into the background. Supporting actors include Miles Mander (as a crippled retired judge), Gerald Hamer (as the village postman), Arthur Hohl and Ian Wolfe. Bruce continues to get his comic relief bits, and there is, as in most of the previous Universal films, a sentimental, patriotic final speech by Holmes, this time quoting Churchill about the glory of Canada. [DVD]

THE MYSTIC (1927)

In Hungary, we see a carnival act composed of Poppa Zazareck, his daughter Zara, and her lover Anton who are famous for a clairvoyance act with Zara as a mystic performing magical feats. A mysterious stranger who is following the trio turns out to be American Michael Nash who wants to take the group to New York City to pull their act on gullible rich folks. Nash arranges it so that Zara's arrival in Manhattan is front-page news and soon she and her confederates are working the salons of the upper class with seances featuring floating guitars and ectoplasmic apparitions and such. Three suspicious men show up at the seances hoping to expose their tricks but are thwarted. Nash soon falls in love with Zara, triggering jealousy in Anton, and as they're about to pull off their biggest swindle, getting money out of young socialite Doris Merrick, Nash suspects her guardian, Bradshaw, of embezzling money from her estate so they try to convince Bradshaw that the ghost of Doris' father has returned and knows what’s going on. Their plan is to get Bradshaw to give money back to Doris and then to get it out of Doris, but Nash has an attack of conscience and wants to reform, a decision which does not sit well with the carnival trio.

This is a Tod Browning silent film which has been difficult to find until recently when it was issued as part of a Criterion set which includes his most notorious film, Freaks. The two have in common glimpses of carnival life and elaborate plans to hoodwink folks. This is a fairly traditional melodrama which hinges on a con man who sees the light but maybe too late. That’s not meant as a criticism, but if you're coming to this expecting anything spooky (like Browning's Dracula) or truly mystical (as in the title of the film) or subversive (as in Freaks), you'll be disappointed. Aileen Pringle as Zara is fine but her relatively low-key performance is overshadowed by the others who are allowed a bit more expressiveness: Conway Tearle as Nash, Mitchell Lewis as Poppa, and Robert Ober as Anton. The costumes for Pringle (see picture above) are by famed art deco artist Erté, though he is uncredited and was apparently fired mid-shoot. The seance scenes do generate some solid creepiness, and the behind-the-scenes sequences are fun. The ending is surprisingly upbeat for most of the characters. There are sound effects, but it's strange to hear knocks on doors and paper being folded but not to hear voices. The new score on the Criterion disc by Dean Hurley is excellent, bucking the recent trend of weak modern musical tracks. [Blu-ray]

SHERLOCK HOLMES FACES DEATH (1943)

Musgrave Manor, in rural Northumberland, is being used as a center for recovering shell-shocked soldiers, and Sherlock Holmes' sidekick Dr. Watson is temporarily serving as a supervisor. The situation at the manor: the Musgrave brothers, Geoffrey and Phillip, disapprove of their sister Sally getting serious about dating the American Captain Vickery. At a local pub called The Rat and the Raven (which has a real raven as a mascot), we hear talk of mysterious doings on the moors where ghosts can be heard wailing, and at the manor where the clock occasionally strikes 13, presaging a death. One night at the manor, Dr. Sexton is attacked with a knife near the greenhouse. He survives, but Watson goes to London to consult with Holmes who agrees to visit the manor. By the time they arrive, however, Geoffrey is found dead outside, his body buried in a pile of leaves. With Phillip now the next in line as heir, Sally must be initiated into the Musgrave Ritual, the recital of a mysterious and seemingly nonsensical poem. On the stormy night of her recital, lightning strikes through the window, hitting a suit of armor and scaring the bejesus out of everyone. Brunton, the butler, is a drunkard who knows more than he is telling about the family history. Three of the recuperating soldiers are built up to be suspects, (one of them frequently breaks into a rictus smile for no reason), but they seem more eccentric than dangerous. When Phillip is found dead in the trunk of a car that Sally was driving (the raven from the pub finding the body), Holmes gets serious, examines the text of the mysterious ritual, and realizes the odd lines about a bishop and a king refer to chess, and Holmes instigates a human chess game played on the black and white tiled floor of the main room in the manor, discovering a clue to a buried treasure in the basement. Not everyone will live to see the treasure unearthed and explained.

This, the fourth (after IN WASHINGTON) in the Universal series of Holmes movies, marks a major change in content and atmosphere. It's still set during World War II, but there are no spies, no documents involving national security, and the shell-shocked soldiers are the only real reminders of the war. Instead, this is at heart a Gothic old dark house mystery, complete with shadowy rooms, secret passages, rumors of ghosts, and red herring suspects. I'm not sure if it's the best of the Rathbone films, but it's certainly fun. This is the first Holmes film I saw, back in the mid-60s; I vividly remember the human chess board scene (pictured above), a standout moment in the series. Years later, I remembered the scene but not what movie it came from, and when I saw this film in my forties, I yelped out loud in excitement at my discovery of the scene. There is no need to comment on Basil Rathbone or Nigel Bruce—they are encased comfortably in their roles as they would be for the rest of the series.

The supporting cast is adequate if not exceptional. Hillary Brooke (Sally), a frequent B-lead, is fine. Dennis Hoey is brought back from SECRET WEAPON to play Lestrade, largely as comic relief. Halliwell Hobbes is good as Brunton who, though often drunk and pissed off, becomes surprisingly important to the mystery. Milburn Stone is the American soldier, Gavin Muir is Phillip, and Vernon Downing (pictured with Rathbone) is a standout among the patients as the involuntary smiler. Sets, cinematography and atmosphere are all first-rate. The closing bits of dialogue, as in the earlier films, are used, if not for patriotism, for uplift, as Holmes muses, "The old days of grab and greed are on their way out" (pretty to think so!). Best line: as Watson has to identify himself to a policeman, he says, "I’m Dr. Watson" in an overly proud way, and the cop replies, "Well, I'm Mrs. Miniver!" It's notable that, though Watson and Lestrade do some of their usual bumbling, they are both actually helpful at the climax. [DVD]

SHERLOCK HOLMES IN WASHINGTON (1943)

Sir Henry Marchmont, a British diplomat, takes a transatlantic flight from London to New York on some kind of official business. He is watched closely by William Easter and two other men, anxious to get their hands on a document he is carrying. But by the time they wind up on a train from New York to Washington, Easter has figured out that Sir Henry was just a decoy and the document is in the possession of a John Grayson (whose name is actually Alfred Pettibone, not that it matters much). In the train's lounge car, Grayson, knowing he's being watched, chats with a handful of folks, finally passing a "V for victory" matchbook into the purse of socialite Nancy Partridge. Grayson vanishes when the train stops, and soon Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson are sent to the States to investigate. They are supposed to stay at the British embassy, but Holmes is sent a reservation at the Hotel Metropole from an unknown source. When he arrives at the hotel, a trunk is delivered to his room which contains the dead body of Grayson. As Holmes has been known to say in other circumstances, the game is afoot. Easter and his men, assuming they are looking for a legal paper-size document, manage to search the homes of most of the lounge car passengers that Grayson had contact with, but we discover that Grayson had shrunk the pages onto microfilm and hidden them in the matchbook. By process of elimination, both Holmes and Easter wind up at Nancy Partridge's engagement party and soon the innocent little matchbook winds up in the hands of the villainous bigwig behind Easter, Richard Stanley, an antiques dealer, though he doesn’t know its importance at first. Nancy is kidnapped, Holmes plays a cat-and-mouse game with Stanley, and the police get involved before everything is sorted out and the document is saved.

The third in the Universal series of Sherlock Holmes movies set during WWII is a little less of a flag waver than the first two, but it's still more a spy story than a detective story, though Holmes does get to use physical clues to obtain information (for example, how he figures out that the spies are headquartered at an antiques shop). Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce continue to work together well as Holmes and Watson, though this film continues Watson's slide into dottiness that began in SECRET WEAPON. George Zucco, so good as Moriarty in ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES, is the chief villain and Marjorie Lord (later Danny Thomas's wife on his popular sitcom) is adequate as Nancy, A strong supporting cast includes Henry Daniell (who would play Moriarty later in The Woman in Green) as Easter, John Archer (who was married to Lord) as Nancy's fiancé, and Gavin Muir and Edmund MacDonald as cops, with MacDonald in particular (pictured with Rathbone) functioning as a kind of American Watson. There is a sequence at the engagement party in which we see the "V" matchbook get transferred about the room to different people, none knowing its importance, but it ends up right where it started, so it seems to have been just an elaborate visual gag. The train car scene is nicely played. This is the first of the Rathbone films not to be credited as based on a specific Doyle story. [DVD]

I’LL NEVER FORGET YOU (1951—aka THE HOUSE ON THE SQUARE)

Peter Standish (Tyrone Power) is an American scientist working in a British atomic research laboratory. A bit intense, he has to at times be reined in by his bosses, and his friend Roger (Michael Rennie) suggests he take some time off and stay at the Pettigrew mansion, an old house that Peter has inherited. Peter tells Roger that the house was once owned by his ancestor, also named Peter, in the 1700s, and that he was an American who came to England to marry his cousin Kate Pettigrew. He shows Roger a painting of the first Peter, then announces his intention to travel back in time to 1784 to meet Kate. After the skeptical Roger leaves, a lightning bolt hits Peter and when he comes to, he is indeed in 1784 (with the black & white film now in color) in Georgian clothes, as the first Peter Standish, just off the boat from America. Peter has done some research on his ancestors and manages to pass himself off as genuine, at least for a while until he starts slipping up by mentioning technology that doesn't exist yet; he sets up a secret lab to work on such inventions. Meanwhile, he finds himself falling in love with Kate's sister Helen (Ann Blyth). Because of more slip-ups as it becomes clear that he knows what lies in the future, people become afraid of him. Peter tells Helen the truth and when she looks into his eyes, she can see the future. Soon his behavior is so bizarre that he is committed to an asylum, but lightning strikes again and Peter wakes up in the present day and discovers that his ancestor had, in fact, been transported to the 1950s and is now presumably back in 1784. How will Peter's romantic entanglements work out? This is based on a popular play called Berkeley Square which was made into a movie with Leslie Howard. I'm not really a Tyrone Power fan and I found him inferior to Howard, coming off as a bit wooden. Ann Blyth is quite good as Helen. As in the earlier film, no explanation is given for the time travel event; as happens in the later Somewhere in Time, it seems to have been desperately willed into happening, and the possibility that the whole thing was a dream is dispensed with by the apparent travel through time of an ankh that Helen gives him (also as in the original movie). Directed by Roy Ward Baker who made a mark in the 70s as a horror director.  Interesting as a little-seen fantasy novelty but not required viewing. The earlier film is the preferred choice for viewing. Pictured are Power and Blyth. [DVD]

SHERLOCK HOLMES AND THE SECRET WEAPON (1942)

In a cafe in Switzerland, an old man with a bundle of books approaches two men and offers to sell them some rare books. But actually, the two man are German spies trying to get their hands on a new bombsight made by Prof. Tobel, who lives just across the street from the cafe, and the old bookseller is their contact, who has been assigned to approach Tobel while the other two men wait for his signal to come and grab the bombsight. But the old man is Sherlock Holmes in disguise and he uses Tobel's servants as decoys to spirit Tobel away and off to safety in London. Holmes has Tobel stay the night at his place (221B Baker Street, of course), and leaves his associate Dr. Watson to guard him, but Tobel sneaks out to see his girlfriend Charlotte. He gives her a coded message, written in the form of dancing stick figures, to give to Holmes if anything should happen to him. The next day, Tobel attends a test of the bombsight and, though he offers its use to the British government, he insists on keeping its secrets to himself, going so far as to hire four different technicians to make the parts of the device. Soon, Tobel has vanished and Scotland Yard is called in, with Inspector Lestrade assisting Sherlock Holmes. Charlotte gives Holmes the envelope with the coded message, but inside is just a note saying "We meet again" from his nemesis, the evil Prof. Moriarty. Following leads, Holmes again disguises himself and noses around the docks only to be caught by Moriarty and his thugs. Holmes is stuffed into the false bottom of a large trunk and is about to be dumped in the river when Watson and Lestrade come to the rescue. Moriarty decodes the dancing men message and finds three of the four bombsight parts, then tortures Tobel to find the fourth scientist. Meanwhile, Holmes has also pieced together the coded message, and he and Moriarty do meet again, this time in person, where Moriarty plans on killing Holmes by slowly and painfully draining his blood from his body. Can Watson and Lestrade save the day?

This is the second of the 1940's based Holmes films, and like the first (VOICE OF TERROR), it has a wartime propaganda element—a patriotic quote from Richard II ends the film in a rousing fashion—but that doesn't detract from the adventure. Rathbone as Holmes is fine, as is Nigel Bruce as Watson, though this movie seems to mark the beginning of making Watson a bumbler, beginning with his falling asleep while guarding Tobel, allowing him to leave the apartment. Lionel Atwill is a bit of a letdown as Moriarty, seeming a little low energy compared to George Zucco in Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. Dennis Hoey makes his first of several appearances as Lestrade, and Mary Gordon is back as Mrs. Hudson. It is fast-paced with lots of action, and the blood draining scene is worthy of being included in a horror movie. A notch above Voice of Terror in plotting, a notch below in terms of style and mood. Pictured are Rathbone and Atwill. [DVD]

BELLE STARR'S DAUGHTER (1948)

New Mexico, the 1880s. A truce has been called between Cherokee Flats, a town ruled by bandit queen Belle Starr, and Antioch, a town that Starr and her men frequently plunder. No one from Cherokee Flats is supposed to be in Antioch's city limits while carrying a gun, but the marshal finds Bittercreek Bob and his sidekick Yuma in town and armed, and the two shoot him dead, an incident which threatens to stir up tensions again. Bob is sweet on Belle's daughter Rose and has been teaching her to use guns, but when Belle finds out what happened in Antioch, she confronts the two men, leading to Bob shooting her and Rose's uncle, setting fire to their cabin, and trying to lay the blame on Tom Jackson, Antioch's new marshal. Rafe, Belle's sidekick, suspects Bob, but Rose is led by Bob to think it was Tom, so she heads into Antioch, angling for revenge. She's hired as a saloon worker and, though Tom gets interested in her, she is soon outed as Belle's daughter. Their relationship is stilted at first but starts to thaw a bit until Bittercreek Bob comes to town, afraid that Rafe, who has accompanied Rose to Antioch, will voice his suspicions about Belle's death. There's a rousing barfight in which Rafe is shot dead, and Bob takes Rose, now sure that Tom killed her mother, into his gang and she joins in on some robberies. Tom goes after them, and during a chase, Yuma is badly wounded. Rose wants to bring him on the run with them, but Bob, knowing his chances of recovery are nil, wants to leave him to die. When Yuma admits to Rose that it was Bob who killed her mother, she redirects her need for revenge. You can look up information about the real Belle Starr and the real Rose (who was not Belle's daughter), but this movie is much less about those women than about the conflict between Tom (George Montgomery) and Bob (Rod Cameron). Both actors are fine here, with Cameron perhaps getting the edge just because his character is a little more layered and developed; we learn very little about Tom and he becomes basically a good guy stick figure. Also, Bittercreek Bob is based on a real outlaw, Bittercreek George. Ruth Roman (Rose, pictured with Montgomery) had been in several movies, but this was her first lead. She is third billed behind Montgomery and Cameron, and frankly, her character is only third in importance. She's out of the action at times, though she plays a large part in the climax. Wallace Ford is Rafe and William Phipps is Yuma. This is probably a B-film but it's a notch above average for the era. [TCM]

SHERLOCK HOLMES AND THE VOICE OF TERROR (1942)

In WWII London, the Voice of Terror makes radio broadcasts from Germany, trying to damage the morale of the British people by predicting specific acts of terror by the Nazis (an oil refinery set on fire, a deadly train derailment, the destruction of an airplane factory). The Intelligence Inner Council is stymied and Sir Evan Barham calls on Sherlock Holmes and his sidekick Dr. Watson, an old friend of Barham's, for help. Some members of the Council resent hiring a mere private investigator whom they regard as being "unorthodox and theatrical," but Holmes is reluctantly allowed to work for them. Back home, when Watson tells their landlady Mrs. Hudson that they are working on the greatest case of their career, she replies, "Mercy, it always is!" Gavin, an underworld spy working on the case for Holmes, falls into his doorway, a knife stuck in his back, mutters the word "Christopher," and dies. Holmes and Watson head down to Limehouse, a disreputable part of town, find Gavin's widow Kitty and enlist her in a drive to get the tramps and crooks of Limehouse to help him. She gives a stirring patriotic speech and to a man, they all fall in behind Holmes. Meanwhile, Holmes discovers that the Voice of Terror's broadcasts are pre-recorded; even though the broadcasts have been traced to Germany, Holmes theorizes that they are being recorded in England and smuggled back to Germany. Barham is shot at near his home but escapes with just a hand wound. The Limehouse denizens discover that Christopher is a reference to a specific set of waterside docks. When Holmes and Watson head down there, they are followed by Anthony Lloyd, a council member who is opposed to their mission. Holmes, Watson and Lloyd are captured by a group of Nazi spies, but they are rescued by some Limehouse men. Holmes allows Meade, the Nazi leader, to escape, then Holmes sends Kitty on double agent duty, finding Meade and cozying up to him. When the Voice of Terror warns that the Germans will soon pull off a sneak attack on the northern coast, the council suggests that all coastal defenses be moved there, but Holmes figures out that the attack is really going to happen in the south. And Holmes has figured out that one member of the council is a traitor. The exciting climax occurs in a bombed-out church on the coast.

After ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES, the second A-list Sherlock Holmes movies with Basil Rathbone (Holmes) and Nigel Bruce (Watson), Fox gave up the franchise and Universal took it over, assigning it to their B-movie production unit and moving the plots into the current day so they wouldn't have to spend money on period sets and costumes—the film opens with a card noting the switch so fans aren't confused, calling Holmes "ageless." Given the wartime context, Holmes was a logical choice for use as war propaganda, which this film certainly is, though that does not diminish audience enjoyment. Rathbone and Bruce have gotten at home in their roles (Bruce's doddering comic relief, which started in BASKERVILLE and which irritated Holmes fans in later movies, is mostly absent here, possibly in the name of patriotism). There's even a joke at Holmes' expense when Watson warns Holmes to leave his deerstalker hat behind when they head out for Limehouse. There is no Lestrade or Moriarty here; instead, for chief support, we have Reginald Denny (Barham) and Henry Daniell (Lloyd) as council members and Thomas Gomez (Meade) as the villain; this was his first role in a long career as a character actor. Evelyn Ankers does a nice job as Kitty, and Mary Gordon continues in her role as Holmes' landlady Mrs. Hudson, a role she would continue in through most of the series. Some critics mark this film as the beginning of the decline of the Holmes films (though they would remain popular enough to warrant production of eleven more films over the next four years), and though you may notice a downturn in terms of budget and style, the film is still fun and fast-paced. Pictured are Denny and Rathbone. [DVD]

THE ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES (1939)

Criminal mastermind Prof. Moriarty has just been found not guilty on a murder charge when Sherlock Holmes (Basil Rathbone) comes racing into the courtroom with new evidence, but he is too late. Holmes and Moriarty have a tense conversation before parting, leading Moriarty to declare to one of his associates that he plans to pull off the biggest crime of all time right under Holmes' nose and that Holmes' own restless mind will be his undoing. Moriarty sets up two situations for Holmes to deal with, with one case distracting from the other. First, he sends an anonymous note to the police claiming that the priceless jewel the Star of Delhi, being sent to be put with the Crown Jewels in the Tower of London, will be stolen. Next, he sends a crude drawing of a dead man with an albatross hanging around his neck to Lloyd Brandon, and his sister Ann goes to Holmes because the same drawing was sent to her father years ago just before his death. Holmes takes on Ann's case, setting aside his duty to help protect the Star of Delhi. Ann's fiancé Gerald, a lawyer, thinks the note is a prank, but Holmes' associate Dr. Watson (Nigel Bruce) sees Moriarty leave Gerald's office so Holmes is sure the danger is real. In fact, Lloyd is murdered and Gerald is found with the body and arrested. Then Ann herself gets an albatross note, putting her life in danger. While this case is consuming Holmes' attention, Moriarty makes devious plans to steal not just Star of Delhi but the Crown Jewels themselves.

The first Holmes movie with Rathbone, THE HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES, was successful enough that Fox rushed this sequel out just six months later. Credited as based on a popular 1899 Broadway adaptation by William Gillette, there is apparently little connection plotwise except for the three main characters. Though an A-film like its predecessor, with a good cast and sets, it bogs down in the middle and the action-filled climax feels a bit rushed. Rathbone and Bruce are comfortable in their roles, as is George Zucco as Moriarty, one of the best villains in the film series. Despite his fall to his death at the end of the film, Moriarty returns in a couple of later films, though never again played by Zucco (though he does appear as a different character later in the series). Ida Lupino (Ann) broke out of a string of B-movies to make the big time here and is fine. Alan Marshall plays Gerald, a somewhat ill-conceived character who doesn't really have much to do. Terry Kilburn, Tiny Tim in the 1938 CHRISTMAS CAROL, is the young lad who does the cleaning at Holmes' boarding house, and also runs the occasional errand for Holmes. This was the last Holmes film for Fox; in 1942, Universal picked up the series, setting them in the present day, giving them B-film budgets, and cutting them down in running length to be shown as second features. Nevertheless, most of them are worth watching, some actually more enjoyable than ADVENTURES, and I'll be reviewing them each soon. Pictured are Rathbone and Lupino. [DVD]

NEVER FEAR (1950)

We see Guy and Carol, a dance duo at the beginning of a promising career, in a nightclub doing a fencing number. The next day on the beach, Guy (Keefe Brasselle) proposes to Carol (Sally Forrest) who happily accepts. But at their next rehearsal, she gets dizzy and feverish and collapses, and is eventually diagnosed with polio. Unable to walk, she is taken to a rehabilitation center where her prognosis is unclear. She encourages Guy to find a new partner but instead he becomes a real estate agent and says he’ll wait for her. In the center, Carol is bitter and impatient with herself and others, and swats away the attentions of the handsome, wheelchair-bound Len (Hugh O’Brian). However, as she begins to make progress, she warms to him. Then Guy visits, still waiting for her, though now she swats him away by screaming, “I’m a cripple!” which brings contemptuous looks from the able-bodied partners of other patients. At her 21st birthday party, Guy breaks the news that he has found a new dance partner and is about to go on tour. Suddenly Len seems a lot more attractive, but is he still interested? This medical melodrama, a genre that was big in the 1950, gets points for mostly downplaying the drama and adopting a quasi-documentary style—much of it was filmed at the Kabat-Kaiser Institute in Santa Monica with real patients as extras, including a fascinating wheelchair square dance. But what isn’t downplayed is Carol’s self-pitying attitude, which I’m sure is realistic but which also bogs the middle of the film down. Sally Forrest got good notices for her performance, but she was unable to parlay that into a solid film career and left the screen in 1956 although she appeared in a few TV parts later. For what it’s worth, her movements make the character’s disability seem real. Brasselle, another marginal 50s name, is fine as is O’Brian. This is Ida Lupino's first credit as a director; she'd been acting in movies since the 1930s and continued to do so into the 1970s. Her touch here is impersonal with little manifested in the way of style or strong storytelling, though she went to make the tense little thriller THE HITCH-HIKER and forged a strong career as a television director. Pictured are Forrest and Brasselle. [TCM]

THE PREVIEW MURDER MYSTERY (1936)

At World Attractions movie studio, star Neil Du Beck is finishing filming a bullfight musical, Song of the Toreador, a remake of a silent film that starred Edwin Strange, a popular silent actor who died mysteriously before the arrival of sound. Neil's leading lady is Claire Woodward, who was married to Strange but is now married to the director, E. Gordon Smith. Neil is a little on edge as he's been getting notes warning him that he won't live to see the premiere of his movie. The studio's PR man, Johnny Morgan, is called in to investigate on the premise that the notes are part of a publicity stunt, but nothing turns up, except that the press gets wind of it and breaks the story on the night of the film's sneak preview. The film seems well received, but as the audience applauds, Neil is found dead in his seat from poison put in his bicarbonate. A few days later, Claire, shooting another film, is almost killed when she is shot at from a blank gun that was loaded with real bullets, and another threatening note is found. The police lock down the studio to investigate while allowing filming on various projects to continue. Meanwhile, Johnny and his secretary Peggy, a horoscope fan and potential girlfriend, snoop around on their own. They set up a trap that snaps a picture in the dark of someone who looks like the late Edwin Strange—has the actor returned from the grave, or is someone masquerading as him to cause havoc?

A few months ago, Turner Classic Movies paid tribute to B-movies of the classic era, and they showed this film from the Paramount library that I'd never heard of, but I'm glad I watched. The hook behind the plot is that we get to see life inside the studio gates, and though the premise of a multi-day lockdown is a bit far-fetched, it works. Reginald Denny (Johnny) was a very busy character actor at the bigger studios (Rebecca, the original Of Human Bondage, the 1936 Romeo and Juliet) but was just as busy in B-films; he played occasional leads but is best known to B-buffs as Algy, Bulldog Drummond's sidekick in a series of movies. Frances Drake (Peggy) had a relatively short career, retiring in the early 1940s, best known to me as the damsel in distress at the hands of Peter Lorre in Mad Love. They're supposed to be the leads here, but they wind up overshadowed by supporting actors such as Rod La Roque (Neil), Gail Patrick (Claire), Ian Keith (Smith), and George Barbier (a studio head). Part of this is due to the fact that Johnny and Peggy don't take center stage until almost a third of the way into the movie, and part of it is due to the writing—as characters, the leads just aren't terribly interesting. We see brief glimpses into a number of movies being shot, the most interesting being what looks like a Caligari-like horror movie with Henry Brandon (pictured) as a character called The Bat Man, a few years before the Batman superhero we all know was created. The actor Charlie Ruggles appears as himself very briefly. This is no neglected gem of mystery or suspense, but it works nicely as a fun novelty. [TCM]

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]