Lupino Lane's hair-raising escapades

FOOL'S LUCK (1926)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

"Fool's Luck" plays like a Buster Keaton short, without Keaton. That is okay because Lupino Lane (Ida Lupino's uncle), the late comedian and acrobat, performs ably, doing some spectacular stunts that are timed with such precision, you'd swear they were filmed accidentally.

Lane is the Dude, who lives in an expansive apartment. He also has his own nervous valet (George Davis) and a maid, and lives the high life thanks to his uncle (the Dude even has a rising bed that tilts in such a way that he doesn't have to literally get up). The Dude is a lazy, rich bum who is suddenly cut off from his finances and is evicted the same day, thanks to a telegram. The problem is that his fiancee and her father are going to have dinner at his apartment!

A simple plot is delivered with some hair-raisingly funny gags. The funniest and most hair-raising involves a dangling piano that is hanging from the roof of a building that will have you on the edge of your seat. To give you an idea of how nailbiting it is, Lane walks on top of the dangling piano! If this is camera trickery, I couldn't spot it.

As a comic short, "Fool's Luck" is a breeze to watch and a welcome respite from even some of the early comic talkies. Lane is a riot to see in his body language, whether he is sitting on a truck with no one at the wheel or hiding underwater in his luxurious bathtub while smoking and trying to play solitaire. And George Davis has his nervous tic of lightly touching his fingertips that will leave you quite amused.

As directed by Fatty Arbuckle (using the alias William Goodrich), I wouldn't call it as good as anything by Harold Lloyd, Chaplin or Buster Keaton (and we have seen these visual gag stunts before but, hey, they are always impressive), but it is great fun to watch.

Stealing scenes with devilish bitchiness

A STOLEN LIFE (1946)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

Bette Davis has always been the reigning queen bitch of the cinema, judging from roles in "All About Eve" (her definitive, bitchiest role), "Mr. Skeffington," and "Jezebel," among others. "A Stolen Life," a soapy, highly melodramatic drama, places Davis in dual roles for the first time in her career, playing both a flirtatious bitch and an innocent, lovey-dovey woman. The results are remarkable to say the least.

Kate Bosworth (Bette Davis) is the artistically inclined woman who misses her boat to New England. She is set to see her sister and her uncle. Kate persuades a lighthouse engineer, Bill (Glenn Ford), to take her home in his boat since his Martha Vineyard's lighthouse is on the way. Kate is instantly smitten with Bill, and decides to see him again at his precious, foggy lighthouse. They fall in love momentarily. That is until Pat (also played by Davis) decides to be smitten with Bill and whisk him away from Kate. A lunch date with Kate turns into a lunch date with Pat thanks to Pat's intervention. Later there is a dance followed by a wedding, leaving Kate fuming with nary the partner in her life. Kate is unable and unwilling to express her feelings to Pat. What is a virginal artist to do? Well, she gets caught up in her work and has a gallery showing where a Jackson Pollock-type named Karnock (Dane Clark) tells her that the work is mediocre and impersonal. He shows her his work and she is suddenly challenged, knowing her repression has taken a toll on her. Kate lets Karnock teach her the personal side of expressing oneself. Meanwhile, Pat and Bill are about to have a divorce with Bill leaving for Chile, which allows Kate wants to spend time with Pat. A tragedy ensues where a doppelganger motif takes shape.

"A Stolen Life" could have been highly sentimental glop but director Curtis Bernhardt and cinematographers Ernest Haller and Sol Polito inject a layer of noirish atmosphere with stark shadows and foggy landscapes that recall the look of the Universal horror films. In fact, the scenes where we see Karnock's sullied, dank apartment could be a scene straight out of "Dracula's Daughter." This works because the story involves doubles and mirror reflections of self-identity and often such stories involve self-doubt. Self-doubt or hazy notions of oneself come through in the scenes of fog, particularly the lighthouse sequences and scenes showing the exterior of Kate's house. The mirror reflections and the fact that Kate and Pat are twin sisters, not to mention there are two different men of repressed and animalistic sexuality, brings an unsettling sense of disturbance to the proceedings. It is hard to pin down but director Bernhardt has practically made a repressed horror movie without the horror, leaving only the elements of duality and doppelganger-isms and the atmosphere to prevail.

Bette Davis is the star of the show, showcasing her talents and fusing them to create three distinctive characters. The innocence of Kate, the bitchiness and flirtatious of Pat, and Kate feigning Pat in order to win Bill. It may be hokey and highly theatrical but it is never less than compelling. "A Stolen Life" is a true movie-buff's delight.

Amoral Natural Born Killer

BORN TO KILL (1947)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

For extreme depravity and soullessness in equal doses, you won't find a more amoral noir picture from out of the past than "Born to Kill," one of the meanest and cruelest in the genre. Not exactly a good film but certainly an energetic and frightening one, thanks to the evil charms of the notorious Lawrence Tierney.

Claire Trevor is Helen Trent, a glamour girl in Reno who is settling a divorce so she can marry a rich San Francisco boyfriend of hers. She rooms at the house of a certain Mrs. Craft (boisterously played by Esther Howard), who appears to be a madame or a former madame. Another roommate is Laury Palmer (Isabel Jewell), who boasts about her dynamite boyfriend she's eager to see at the casino. Helen also gambles and is awestruck by Sam Wilde (Lawrence Tierney), who spots Laury with her new beau. Sam is mad as hell as he tracks them down and kills them both. Helen spots the bodies and leaves with an air of detachment on a train to San Francisco, not knowing Sam was responsible. And wouldn't you know that Mr. Smooth Operator Sam is also on board the same train and trying to make some advances towards Helen. Once Sam is in San Francisco and looks up Helen, he decides to pursue her foster sister, Georgia (Audrey Long), a newspaper heiress. Eventually, Sam marries her but Helen knows what kind of man he is, or maybe she is deeply attracted to him.

On the surface, "Born to Kill" sounds more like a soap opera with some rather operatic twists. One involves Sam with a keen interest in running Georgia's newspaper. Huh? Why would a brute force like Sam have an interest in newspaper publishing? And then there is Helen who is so drawn to Sam that the idea of murder doesn't frighten her, it is an unsettlingly erotic idea to her.

There are hindrances in the screenplay, mainly the introduction of a curious detective that simply drags things a bit into conventionality. Also recapitulating some of the earlier characters like Mrs. Craft simply underwhelms the narrative and focus on Sam Wilde. A nice addition and worth a mention is reliable Elisha Cook, Jr. as Sam's partner who tries to protect Sam (they knew each other from their prison days). Cook has a great line that sums up the movie: "You can't just go 'round killing people whenever the notion strikes you, it ain't feasible."

Robert Wise (who helmed 1949's "The Set-Up," one of the best noir pics ever) directed this grim, relentlessly bleaker than thou noir picture but the screenplay gets too needlessly complicated with peripheral characters possibly implemented to reduce the rampant amorality. Still, for Tierney and Elisha Cook, Jr. alone, "Born to Kill" is occasionally a blazingly intense and powerful film.

Wild, crazy Lloyd at his best

MOVIE CRAZY (1932)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

"Movie Crazy" may not be the best Harold Lloyd film ever made, but it comes darn close. Despite being a monumental flop at the box-office (as well as two early talkies he made prior to this one), one wonders why because it is so flat out funny and charming. Those weaned on romantic comedies of the 2000 decade will find there was far more wit, imagination and playfulness in this genre almost a century earlier.

Lloyd is Harold Hall, an ambitious actor whose glasses may get in the way of real movie stardom, which he so desires. His family doesn't think much of his desires yet Hall pursues stardom by going west. He lands in Hollywood under false pretenses - let's just say it has to do with the wrong photograph being sent with his name on it. The photograph has a Rudolph Valentinoesque kind of actor, far removed from the goofy Hall. Hall's first audition goes awry to say the least, not to mention his brief stint as an extra where he overacts! Hall meets the blonde, sassy Mary Sears (Constance Cummings), an actress under contract to a studio. Little does Hall realize that a seeming Latina starlet whom he pines for on another movie set is the same Mary Sears. Of course, Mary has too much fun teasing Hall (whom she nicknames "Trouble") to tell him the truth, including telling him that he can't see any other women, such as the seductive Latina.

Don't expect any of the tomfoolery and death-defying stunts of Lloyd's earlier silent films in "Movie Crazy." The movie delights in simple sight gags and occasional slapstick (including the breaking of glass doors that will leave you howling with laughter), but it also delights in the charm of its leading star. It is no accident that Lloyd's "Glasses" character inspired the character of Clark Kent except Lloyd is the bumbling, clumsy Clark Kent with or without the glasses. And yet, despite his awkward stages such as prancing around puddles with only one shoe or wearing a "magic" coat (you have to see it to believe it), we root for Hall to make it big and make his sweet, rickety relationship with Mary Sears come true. We also hope he can steer her away from her amorous, drunk co-star, Vance (Robert Thomson).

"Movie Crazy" is a wild comic ride, a fun-filled, laugh-a-minute film with plenty of laughs for any fan of Lloyd and of movies as well. Added to that is the most memorable performance(s) in the film by the magnetic Constance Cummings. The twinkle in her eye and her flair for comic timing work so exceedingly well that she will make one swoon with awe and delight - a marvelous actress. No wonder Hall gets into so much trouble in the film - he is in love.