Midnight Intruder (1938)

While some comedic lines tickled my fancy, I only enjoyed the first half of this comedy crime thriller focusing on two petty criminals who accidentally land in a con and decide to go with it as far as they can. In the first half, the characters and the unfolding of the con held my attention easily. The second half jumped around too much, skipping large chunks of time, making assumptions about how well the audience could follow the plot, and desperately trying to tie up every little plot twist introduced in the first half. The actors were fine, especially the lead Louis Hayward, who was handsome in a boyish scoundrel sort of way.

Some fun lines: 

Doc: Are you sure she was a lady, Willetts?

W: Can one ever be? [sniffs!]

W leaves.

D: He probably only saw her from the back.

"Baby, your worries are over!" [Famous last words. This assurance was absolutely untrue.]

Q: "How does it feel to make an honest living?"

A: "Awful! Don't ever try it."

"It's cheap sensational scandal mongering." [Describing a newspaper story ... Ah, nothing ever changes.]

One aspect about this movie I really appreciated was that the writers knew how to use the subjunctive. How refreshing. I'm such a word nerd.

Louis Hayward

The Brain That Wouldn't Die (1959; 1962 release)

Open with black screen. A woman's voice moans, "Let me die. Let me die." This cult classic that's a horror/sci fi/exploitation mashup delivers an unnerving jolt to start. I wouldn't recommend sitting down to spend your time with this flick unless you're a sci fi-horror fan like me. This Frankenstein-inspired tale of scientific experimentation gone awry is missing the ability to laugh at itself, which made Teenagers from Space (see earlier blog post) much more entertaining as a sci fi tale. I must admit that the head in the shallow pan gag never gets old.

A few dialogue lines that grabbed me:

Head: "Results more terrible than your arm of relative beauty" [it makes sense in context ... sort of?]

Head: "I'll show you how powerless I am!" (The head vows revenge against the two mad scientists who torment her by keeping her alive.)

Igor: "While you feed yourself with hate, it prefers food." (The "Igor" character rebukes the head in the pan. "It" is "the thing on the inside" aka the monster in the closet.)

Igor: "I hope he prolongs yr existence into a lifetime of agony." [Igor aka Kurt and the head in the pan do NOT get along.]

Surgeon: "Is it wrong to want to keep you alive?" [Short answer: yes!]

Spoiler: Shock and awe when the mad scientist reaches into the burning car wreck to retrieve his dead fiancee's head, wrapped in his wool blazer. Then he staggers for miles with the wool-wrapped head clutched to his breast.

Nothing Sacred (1937)

This Technicolor(TM) movie really lives up to its name, even going so far as to show a man slugging a woman in the jaw. She does the same to him some minutes later ... But still! Except for that scene near the end, I mostly enjoyed this screwball comedy about fraudsters and how "Life is short" (so grab it by the balls!). The headliner Carole Lombard also starred in one of my favorite movies of all time: My Man Godfrey (1936) with William Powell. In this pre-war flick, she gets to go toe to toe, literally, with Fredric March. I wasn't planning to write much about these movies in these blog posts, mainly keeping a record of the ones I watch during this year, but I have to share a few priceless lines of dialogue:

"And besides there's the ethics!"

"Tootsies of all nations" on the dinner theater marquee (casual racism abounds!)

"Keep on sucking that egg and your conscience will go away!" [raw egg hangover cure]

"We gave 'em a chance to pretend that their phoney hearts were dripping with the milk of human kindness." [City dwellers are not painted with a kind brush in many 1930s films.]

Because of the racism and violence against women I can't recommend this one. Watch My Man Godfrey (1936) instead!

Addendum: Most of the movie is set in New York City where, according to the screenwriter, "the Slickers and Know-It-Alls peddle gold bricks to each other."

Romance on the Run (1938)

Learned after watching that I saw the cut version of this B movie. The 16 minutes missing must have been the romance part because all I saw was lots of running and then at the very end they agree to get hitched on her lunch break. That moment was a surprise since, in the movie that I saw, he spends almost every moment trying to ditch her. Accidentally added another jewel heist/train movie to my year's worth of old films. The "antics ensue" caused a few giggles, so I didn't mind this one, but I don't really recommend it either.

Addendum: I neglected to mention the incredibly offensive section set in rural America. The Encyclopedia of Arkansas puts it best: "there is no shortage of hillbilly images in American popular culture. Whether a barefoot, rifle-toting, moonshine-swigging, bearded man staring out from beneath a floppy felt hat or a toothless granny in homespun sitting at a spinning wheel and peering suspiciously at strangers from the front porch of a dilapidated mountain cabin, the hillbilly, in all his manifestations, is instantly recognizable." That. Sigh.

The Villiers Diamond (1938)

I found this 50-minute crime thriller most interesting for the glimpses of early 20th-century lifestyles. Pretty much everything I write here will be a spoiler. The "agony column" of the local city newspaper provides a way to contact people in need. The two main characters use this source to lure people to their stately home in order to fake a crime and have some scapegoats to blame. Most surprising to me: all the invitees show up! A complete stranger offers you a weekend in the suburbs and you happily go, even 2 single women. Such a different approach to charity from today's impersonal institutions and online kickstarters.

The film was full of crime story cliches and way too many characters for such a short run time. I enjoyed the development of who the most morally bankrupt character would be, not the character set up at the beginning as the primary reprobate, although he was reprehensible too. Overall, one thumb up, one thumb not up or down. Trivia: the niece was played by the orginal "scream queen" Evelyn Ankers, who a few years later starred in The Wolf Man.

Teenagers from Space (1959)

"I shall make the Earth my home, and I shall never, never leave it," says Derek (David Love), the teenager from space in this 1959 horror sci fi flick. In 86 minutes, writer director producer Tom Graeff manages to wedge in references to Godzilla, Fahrenheit 451, Asimov's I, Robot, and at least a dozen other 1950s science fiction stories. The early special effects of the alien ship landing "out by the old mine shaft" (of course) sparkled and delighted, but by the time they had to figure out the monster, I think their $20,000 budget was mostly eaten up (pun intended, which you'll get if you watch the movie). [Spoiler: they used the shadow of a lobster as the giant monster eating up the local inhabitants.] The final third of this B movie featured several touching scenes, even though almost all the main actors spoke with little emotion (a device the director overused, I believe). I enjoyed this tale of fleeting love between a robotlike alien boy and a sweet porcelain doll-like girl from the suburbs.

By Whose Hand? (1932) American

By Whose Hand? is a 65-minute 1932 American film with noirish elements that takes place in a train station and then mainly on the train. The director Benjamin Stoloff adored shooting all the elements of train travel so much, from the engine mechanism and baggage car set-up to sleeping car accoutrements and the dining car niceties right down to the silverware that the train is the primary character of the movie. This mystery starring Ben Lyon, Barbara Weeks, and Kenneth Thomson kept me captivated the entire time. Maybe one too many traverses of the length of the train while atop the train, but I can see how those sequences would have thrilled in a dark theatre. Definitely a bit too much worship of the freedom to travel, which was a little hard to take during lockdown. The lively dialogue and the committed actors earn a thumbs up from me for this B movie that screened in a double bill.

The 39 Steps (1935)

During the seventh week of lock-down, I decided to take up another hobby. As if I need more hobbies. And watching movies is nothing new for me, so to make this little project seem like something fresh and to keep my attention, I gave myself a goal of watching 100 really old films (most from the 1930s) and writing a brief review on my rarely touched blog.
First up: The 39 Steps (1935) starring Robert Donat, dir. Alfred Hitchcock.
This movie has been hailed as a masterpiece by some movie-makers, but to me it seems like a practice piece for North by Northwest, which Hitchcock directed 20 years later and contains many of the same elements.
The 39 Steps follows a Canadian, globetrotting "player" (I really don't know how else to describe the main character Hannay) as he's caught up in a spy drama. The plot romps through London streets and the Scottish countryside, with Hannay in danger of getting caught or murdered at every moment. It's definitely a star part for Donat, who acts past the really bad makeup they've slathered on him to convince by turns that he is an inveterate flirt, a man on the run fearing for his life, a loyal subject of the British Empire wanting to thwart espionage, and a tender friend in times of danger.
I enjoyed this thriller and recommend it to anyone wanting to be distracted by spy shenanigans for 85 minutes.