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.

Blazingly hot western noir

HEAT LIGHTNING (1934)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

In the first scene of "Heat Lightning," there is a slow pan shot across the desert that settles in on a lonely gas station/cafe. Right away we are in the throes of the atmospheric western noir trappings of "Heat Lightning," a true original and a precursor to films with central women characters in a remote setting like "Gas, Food Lodging" and "Bagdad Cafe."

"Heat Lightning" stars Aline MacMahon as Olga, a tough, possibly bitter woman who runs a service station where she is the lone fixer upper on servicing cars, and that includes fixing the engine! (Women did all kinds of jobs in this early period of Hollywood movies). Her younger sister, the ingenue Myra (Ann Dvorak, who may be best known as Scarface's sister in the original 1932 classic, "Scarface"), runs the cafe, handing out sandwiches and cold Coca-Cola bottles to weary travelers who want to get away from the intense heat. This is a lonely existence in the middle of the desert and, though Olga seems satisfied, Myra wants to escape, to get away. She wants to go to a dance but Olga disapproves, probably hoping she is not left alone to run the place (and she knows what the world of untrustworthy men is like beyond the desert). A quarrel ensues between them where Olga behaves more like a doting mother than a sister, and there is even a suggestion, possibly unmerited but you never know, of Olga having lesbian tendencies, or at least acting tomboyish to deflect any men from her direction (she wears a bandana, looking as unglamorous as possible).

For example, one day, an old flame of Olga's arrives at the cafe named George (Preston Foster), a thief and con man on the run from his latest heist with his partner (Lyle Talbot). George makes nice with Olga, trying to woo her back when in fact he is up to his old tricks. Olga resists yet she smiles, and even wears makeup and a dress to welcome back the former man in her life! There might be an intended or unintended subtext in there. Meanwhile, Myra persists and disobeys Olga by going to the dance while a boisterous Mexican family and two rich dames and their chauffeur from Reno find lodging, and there is the matter of some precious jewelry.

Based on a play by Leon Abrams and George Abbott, "Heat Lightning" has enough tension, atmosphere and hypnotic shots to merit a lasting impression, all in a little more than 64 minutes. Particularly effective are Aline MacMahon and Ann Dvorak, two sisters with opposite personalities and purpose, trying to live some semblance of a life in the middle of the desert. What is more remarkable is that this is possibly the first noir western we have ever had, especially one with such a remote setting. "The Petrified Forest" may have a similar setting but that was released 2 years later. Here, we have what starts as a character study that mixes in some noir characters, hence Olga's former bad boy lover, and other noirish aspects like sex, intrigue, jealousy betrayal with some comic relief thrown in.

"Heat Lightning" was later remade as "Highway West" in 1941, unseen by me. "Heat Lightning" deserves a wider audience and some context in its subversive combination of genres and its pre-code subject matter (and, again, with having two female protagonists). It has been shown on TCM but if you happen to catch it again, then you'll swear that 65 minutes have never induced such sweaty tension as this original.

Harry Steele and the Sunburst of the Incan Temple of Doom

THE SECRET OF THE INCAS (1954)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

 Movies like "Secret of the Incas" were a dime a dozen back in the 1950's. The idea that grave robbers or archaeologists were looking to unearth priceless golden treasures in forbidden countries and doubly forbidden tombs was a major commodity for Hollywood. 1954's "Secret of the Incas" is probably one of the better entries in this genre (not excluding "Valley of the Kings" which would make a great double feature) and with Charlton Heston at its center, it will rivet your attention and knock your socks off.

Heston is Harry Steele, a Cuzco, Peru tour guide who is out for a few bucks by taking tourists' money (he studies plane manifests so he can get tourists to ride with him and show them the local museum). Harry is also obsessed with the Incan Empire, specifically a lost Incan treasure known as the Sunburst (Not the Starburst which the cover art indicates). It is a golden disc that would restore life to the village of Machu Picchu. Naturally, Steele is more interested in fortune and glory and wants to steal the Sunburst, despite some greedy partners wanting it for themselves. Morgan (Thomas Mitchell) is one of those scheming partners - a tub of lard who seeks personal fortune rather than playing pool in seedy bars for the rest of his life. There is a catch - in order to get to Machu Pichuu, Harry needs a cargo plane and gets his chance when he escorts an illegal named Elena (Nicole Maurey) who is seeking safe passage to the United States.

So what we have are exotic locales, seedy bars, the late Yma Sumac singing in different pitches to the Incan people, archaeologists digging through a sacred tomb, double-crossing swindlers, beautiful damsels, inflatable rafts (Calling Dr. Jones), and a tough, arrogant, highly chauvinistic hero who exchanges double entendres at will and makes a moral choice by the end of the film. If any of this sounds familiar, it should. The Indiana Jones series borrowed liberally from similar films of this period, not to mention countless serials (and I am sure Spielberg took a good long look at "That Man From Rio" starring the great Jean Paul Belmondo). Indiana Jones most noticeable antecedent may be "Secret of the Incas," considering the Sunburst is not unlike some of the artifacts from Indiana Jones. Harry Steele's style of dress and demeanor (the way he constantly tilts his hat or lowers it when sleeping) is more than a passing resemblance to the archaeologist hero of the 1980's (sans bullwhip and army pouch). Of course, Ronald Reagan wore similar gear in "Hong Kong" and Alan Ladd as well in the 1930's film "China."

If I have any major qualms, it is that the character Elena is rather flatly characterized as someone whose only concern is making it to the United States (though I like when she fakes sobbing to Harry and how she always asks who cut down the cherry tree). Also, Robert Young plays Dr. Moorehead, an archaeologist who proposes marriage to Elena within a few hours of meeting her. It is one of the quickest proposals I've ever seen in a movie, but Dr. Moorehead remains one-dimensional and almost perfunctory to the plot.

"Secret of the Incas" is not full of derring do or the escapist mentality of Indiana Jones, but it is an exquisitely made and entertaining adventure movie that will more than please thrill-seekers and lovers of pulp adventure tales. Heston delivers as a rough and tumble hero and, yes, a lot of what transpires in the film is hokey and silly but never dull. And when Yma Sumac triumphantly sings "Ataypura" to the Incan village, her voice resonates as an echo throughout the entire region and reminds us of how glorious movies used to be. I would think that anyone who visits Machu Picchu can't help but hum Yma Sumac's music.

Depression, Shmepression

THE THIN MAN (1934)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

"The Thin Man" is a film that most will admire but few will think it is based on any given reality, hence, the beauty of most Hollywood movies of the 30's and 40's. Among my favorites of these periods were "His Girl Friday" (which no one can top for rapid-fire dialogue) and "The Philadelphia Story," one of my favorite romantic comedies. I would definitely add "The Thin Man," a 1934 classic that couldn't be set in any other time period yet it resolutely has little bearing on what went on during that period (no hint of the Depression here, for starters). And that is okay because I never met anyone like the characters shown in any of these films, mostly larger-than-life characters living a life of luxury and ostentatious parties. But I digress - "The Thin Man" is an exquisite marvel of a movie, completely dependent on one witty exchange after another.

Based on Dashiell Hammett's last novel, William Powell plays a boozing retired detective named Nick who is vacationing comfortably with his rich wife, Nora (elegantly played by Myrna Loy), in their quite decorous Manhattan apartment. Of course, neither partner is remotely interested in sleuthing - all they want is to drink, be merry and party. Naturally, the party stops briefly when an inventor scientist (Edward Ellis) disappears without a trace on some secret business trip. The inventor's daughter (Maureen O'Sullivan) is concerned, as is the inventor's unbearable wife, his mistress, a few criminals, and so on. Is the inventor dead? And what about the missing cash bonds? Who took them, and why? Only Nick knows, but the order of the day is to first be merry, gay, and don't interrupt his drinking.

"The Thin Man" is a seamless blend of detective mystery and screwball comedy, something so few writers and directors could ever accomplish so deftly. I can't say that I know how this genre mixing works, but it works incredibly well. The movie begins with a never-ending party of drinking and witticisms. All we discover at this party, related to the kidnapping, is that some members of the police and the press are interested in knowing what Nick might think of the kidnapping. And there is a moment, very brief yet sudden, punctuated with violence that is so perfectly realized and so unexpected that it stands almost head and shoulders above any noir picture of the 40's or 50's.

"The Thin Man" works primarily because of the lovely chemistry between Nick and Nora. His debonair attitude and brief nonchalance when it comes to solving a crime and her facial expressions where she makes funny faces and essentially keeps him and his drinking in line is what makes this film sparkle and sizzle. Had someone else been cast besides Myrna Loy and William Powell, it wouldn't have worked. Powell doesn't exactly look like a detective or a boozing gentleman (or an alcoholic, for that matter), yet you still believe he can see the truth and you see his detective mind at work (even when he plays with an air rifle). Myrna Loy fits as a rich wife type, yet she doesn't act as polished or as bitchy as say Bette Davis. By the end of "The Thin Man," you get the impression that Nick and Nora's relationship survives because they privately act goofy and silly.

As directed with exceptional skill and a terrific use of space in mostly a lavish apartment by W.S. Van Dyke, "The Thin Man" was amazingly shot in two weeks with a low budget of $231,000, and it became a huge box-office hit. Five more films in the series emerged, yet the original is the one that will remain on everyone's mind as one of the finest films of the 1930's. It is pure escapism and a complete, first-rate entertainment with more humor and suspense than almost any film I can think of. An absolute classic, and Powell and Loy will leave you with a silly grin on your face.