Witching Hour (1934)

People actually took this film seriously?

Amazing.

This wild tale has a young man in love with the daughter of  a rich gambler. When the gambler hypnotizes his future son in law he unconsciously puts the suggestion in his head that he should kill a certain rival. When its realized what has happened-the young man has no memory of the killing-the hunt is on to find an attorney who will defend him and make a jury believe what has happened.

Based on a play that played for 212 performances several decades before it was turned into a film Witching Hour is the sort of film they don't make any more for good reason- it would be laughed off the screen. At the same time when seen as a film from long ago it's entertaining.

I doubt that you'll buy any of this, from the gambler's ESP to the ghostly appearance of our hero's grandmother to how the case is won, it's all faniciful speculation and contrivance- and yet you'll keep watching. Why? because it's so wonderfully out there you'll have to see how it all is going to come together.

Wacky doesn't begin to describe it.

Its a great deal of fun and should you run across it give it a look.

The Red Riding series (2009)

This three part film series based on four books was so successful that they were considering going back and filming the fourth book despite much of it being folded into the third film. The film follows the decade long investigation or lack thereof into a series of child murders and disappearances. The trouble is that the various investigations keep pointing in directions that some people don’t want them to go and highlighting the rampant police corruption which the cops are desperate to hide at all costs.

While it's impossible to simple explainthe polt in a paragraph I'm going to throw out a quick statement about the plot of each part:

1974- is about a reporter who gets information on a number of missing young girls. As he digs deeeper all roads seem to point toward a local developer. Cocky and overly sure of himself he begins to push things into areas he shouldn't...

1980- A squeaky clean detective is sent into the lions den in order to look into the continuing series of murders. The trouble is he's walked into a bed of corruption and egos and no one is to be trusted.

1983-repercussion of events carry on as sins of the fathers are revisited and fall out from past acts play out. Will it be possible for anyone to find any sort of redemption and closure?


To put it another was this grand crime drama that covers 10 years of corruption and miss deeds by the police that allowed a child killer to run rampant because not to do so would show their darkside.

I ran across the films when they turned up a few years back at the New York Film Festival. I had no idea what they were and completely ignored them. I then read the reviews when the series played and regretted not seeing them. I then caught the first two films when the premiered on IFC in Theaters and screamed at the end of the second on since I would have to wait a whole month to see the last part.

TV or films in general rarely get as gripping as this.

The three films are not strictly speaking direct sequels to each other. Each film moves the central plot along but each film follows various side stories along mostly dealing with corruption in the North of England. While not wholly true the films are in fact based on actual events, particularly Yorkshire Ripper and the investigation.

I can’t say enough good about these films. Watching them in sequence is like curling up with a great novel and getting lost for almost six hours. The cast, which includes Sean Bean, Andrew Garfield, Mark Addy and Rebecca Hall come and go throughout the films. Everyone disappears into their roles to the point that you forget they are stars of any sort.

Similar in some ways the film Dreileben which played the NYFF the following year with its three not quite sequel structure, Red Riding scores over that earlier film in that while the films are not technically sequels they do remain consistent with in themselves and what you learn about characters and events carry over in each film making the whole better than the parts. Dreileben essentially throws the central story to the wind in each part and in fact the best bits are the parts that are unique to each other.

As far as crime dramas go Red Riding is top of the heap and a must see for anyone who likes true crime or modern noir.

Penance (2012) FIlm Comment Selects

Kiyoshi Kurosawa returns to filmmaking after four years with the kick in the ass five part TV drama Penance. The film was run in one block as part of this years Film Comment Selects.

The plot of the film follows the aftermath, some fifteen years after the fact, of the abduction and murder of a ten year old girl. Four of her friends saw the man responsible but the trauma of the event left them unable to say what he looked like. While still children the mother of the slain girl made them promise to either find the killer or perform some form of penance for not preventing the tragedy.

Fifteen years on the girls, now women are haunted in someway by the events and as the mother of the slain girl drifts back into their lives, they are forced to make choices about the men in their lives. The first four parts of the series are four separate but related stories of each of the girls. The final part follows the still grieving mother and dangerous path that she is forced to walk.

Taken as a whole this film is truly a kick in the ass. Its a riveting film that sustains it's almost five hour running time (and trust me no one got up to leave during the marathon screening). Its a story that plays out and builds on each part adding details and shadings as we go. It's the sort of thing that you'll want to see a second or third time when you're done with the first viewing because you're going to pick up things in later parts that affect the earlier ones.

While the film's story holds our attention  the film has two minor problems, first the first girl's story seems to go on forever. It's not bad, but the story of how the girl who lives alone and tries to keep the world away only to find herself falling into a marriage plays like it'sown unconnected movie. In all honesty you could, with minor tweeking have it play as it's own feature film. It's a great piece, but it kind of doesn't add anything to the main thrust relating to the murder 15 years earlier.

The other problem with the film is the plotting in the final part is a bit too neat. I don't want to say too much, since I've decided not to do a full on discussion of the film*, but things tie up too cleanly. What exactly I mean by that I'll leave for you to discover.

Minor flaws aside this is an incredible achievement in filmmaking and story telling.It's a film that anyone who likes shows like The Killing will want to track down. One can hope this gets some sort of US release since this demands to be seen.


*-After seeing the film I was torn between doing a review that was reasonably spoiler free or doing a full on discussion with all the plot twists and details laid out. I opted against the latter for two reasons, first almost none of you will have seen the film series so doing a full on discussion will reveal way too much before you get a chance to see it, thus clouding things when you do.  Secondly there is so much to the film that in order to really to the film justice I'd have to see it again and then tag team with Mondocurry, who was at the screening with me, because there is too much for just one person to discuss.

A purely personal aside- when I say that they ran the film in one super block I mean it. they ran the film straight through with no breaks in four hours and fourty minutes. No intermission, no opening and closing titles (which was promised) 

Sorry Film Society, but four hours and fourty minutes in the seats in the Film Center is too long to ever do again. While I completely understand why you ran it that way, the film has a killer momentum that just carries you  along and its best if you keep going,  the thought of sitting for that length of time in a seat that isn't in the Walter Reade is an unpleasant one.  I loved the film, but the experience made me sell my tickets for the two films that followed since I was too damn sore.

The Arsenal Stadium Mystery (1939)

With my usual precise timeliness, here's a review of a sports movie set in London.





1939: the greatest year in cinema history! It brought us The Wizard of Oz! Gone with the Wind! Dark Victory! Mr. Smith Goes to Washington! Stagecoach! The Four Feathers! Captain Spanky's Show Boat! And, of course, The Arsenal Stadium Mystery! Well, even if this British picture, an Ealing Studios B-movie, isn't strong enough to stand along those titans of the silver screen, it's an entertaining, witty and quick-paced mystery in an unusual setting: Highbury, the stadium of Arsenal Football Club, where a visiting team player is murdered in the middle of a football match, right on the field.





Refreshingly free of contemporary football hooligans and footballers' wives, The Arsenal Stadium Mystery is a sharp and competent, if not entirely exceptional, murder mystery in the British Scotland Yard vein. An impossible murder occurs in front of 35,000 football fans—call Inspector Slade of the Yard! Detective Inspector Anthony Slade (Leslie Banks) is an unconventional policeman but a familiar type of sleuth: the eccentric British investigator, doggedly pursuing the murderer persistence, observation, brilliance and a cunning use of hats (he never wears the same one twice).





It's cleverly filmed: fast edits and quick talking make the 84 minute running time fly by, and distinctive if simple camera techniques put us right in the mystery. A clock fast-forwards through the the movie's opening football match to show speedy passing of time; the crime is reconstructed using the same tokens on a model field used to block out game play; the main characters are introduced in an opening vignette that combines a movie newsreel spotlight with the players watching themselves on screen.

Highlights: There's a pair of sassy dames entangled in the mystery and Inspector Slade has a humorous, off-hand interrogation manner. Scenes of football matches at the beginning and ending of the movie are made the more authentic with guest appearances by the genuine Arsenal FC coach and players.





The main focus and characters, however, are the amateur team challenging Arsenal in a charity match, in the days when British football clubs consisting of one brawny white man after the other. There's a "pip-pip tut-tut" air to the whole affair—if stripped of the actual murder the plot might have made a serviceable P. G. Wodehouse comedy. But it's all done with such a light touch that it's immensely enjoyable, requiring no knowledge of British football to watch, and Banks's persnickety, persistent Inspector Slade is a great character that could have warranted a small series of mystery films. Alas, the sequel—The Denham Studio Mystery, an on-the-movie-set whodunit, was never made. Director Thorold Dickinson later made his industry name with classics like Gaslight and The Next of Kin, but The Arsenal Stadium Mystery is a fine, enjoyable earlier work with a dash of danger and a whole lotta hats.

The Ninth Gate (1999)

An extremely interesting film directed by Roman Polanski and starring Johnny Depp, this is an excellent example of roughly a half-dozen different genres. It covers the spectrum, as it could be considered a murder mystery, a thriller, a crime drama, an action flick, an adventure film, a horror movie, a romance...but definitely not a comedy. From the solemn tones of the opening credits, the somber mood is set in place, and an ominous feeling hangs over the film, and you, for the entire 2 hours and 13 minutes.

Based on the book The Club Dumas, the plot concerns Depp's character of rare book dealer Dean Corso tracking down copies of a book reputed to be able to conjure the devil. From the get-go, Depp's character is portrayed as a man with little to no morals, and much of the film concerns his transformation, however subtle, into something a little different. By no means is this a redemption film, however. Hardly any of the main characters would be considered likeable people if you were to meet them in real life. Corso is in the employ of Boris Balkan, played in a terrific understated sinister manner by Frank Langella. Half of Langella's performance in the film is in voice-over on the phone with the on-screen Depp, and that's when Langella actually delivers his creepiest moments.

There are several quitely played standout performances in this film, including Emmanuelle Seigner as the extremely mysterious Girl, who may be far more than she appears to be. The winner of the over-the-top award in this film would be Lena Olin for her performance as Liana Telfer, but it's what the character calls for, not a negative assessment of her acting. All of the characters weave themselves together quite nicely in a tight and efficient plot that fills every moment with something interesting and intriguing. The settings are also varied and beautiful, with locales ranging from New York to Paris to Madrid to Lisbon.

Remember all the hype that was given to The DaVinci Code a few years ago? All of the best ideas from that were done here seven years earlier, but just replace the pursuit of Christian objects with Satanic ones. It's a thrill ride thru Europe as Depp and Seigner continually encounter dangers of differing levels in pursuit of the 3 existing copies of The Nine Gates Of The Kingdom Of Shadows, and it slowly turns from a job into an obsession. The transformations, as well as most of the performances, are subtle, but compelling enough that it becomes very difficult to turn away. Depp's Corso finds himself being drawn into a world he's not quite sure he really wants to delve into, but after a while, he, and you, are willing to seek more.

Murder By Death (1976)

Written by playwright extraordinaire Neil Simon, and featuring a cast of Laugh-In and Muppet Show guest stars (and I mean that as a compliment!), Murder By Death is a terrifically funny movie that is capable of causing pain if you try to attach too much logic onto it. It's about the situations and scenarios, and the wonderful comedic character acting, so please try to forget the plot and it's bizarre outcome. Truman Capote hosts a weekend of dinner and a murder, and has invited the world's five greatest living detectives to his house to solve the as-yet-uncommitted crime. The brilliant ensemble cast, featuring Peter Sellers, Peter Falk, David Niven, James Coco, Elsa Lanchester, Eileen Brennan, Maggie Smith, Nancy Walker, and Alec Guinness as a blind butler, delivers some of the funniest lines in such a serious and deadpan manner that it makes things that much funnier.

There are many wonderfully silly lines over the course of the film, the length of which will depend upon which version you can acquire. There are scenes that I have vivid memories of that are not on my copy, which is from a laser disc release, but I beleive is the same as the current DVD version. Scenes that were broadcast on TV to fill time (it's only roughly 95 minutes) are not included on this version. This is a film that screams for a Special Edition DVD uniting all of the missing scenes. And a Making Of documentary, considering the magnitude of the cast (and the fact that often nearly ALL of them were in the same room at the same time), would be amazing. Having said that, the version that is out there is still delightfully charming and funny. Many of the verbal jokes are of the vaudeville variety, and many of the visual gags are spins on conventional horror and mystery movie cliches.

But the real gems in this film are the performances. Falk plays a fantastic Sam Diamond (all the detectives were spoofs of famous murder-mystery-solving characters), Sellers plays a hilarious (and, to Capote's character, infuriating) Sydney Wang, Coco is a food-obsessed Milo Perrier, Lanchester is adorable as Jessica Marbles, and Niven is a slightly pompous Dick Charleston. Guinness plays Jamesir Bensonmum, and yes, all of the puns possible with that name are brought into play, much in the spirit of the entire film. It takes the air out of the murder mystery genre, while at the same time appreciating it. It could be aruged that the Austin Powers franchise borrowed heavily from this film in the sense that it treated the spy movie genre in much the same way (however, at least Murder By Death was smart enough to stop at just ONE film...).

Due to it being shot in the mid-1970's the lighting and the transfer are a little weak, but other than that, Murder By Death is a terrific film, filled with a warm sense of fun and a bizarre appreciation for a time when murder mysteries were a simpler thing...and funnier too.

Manhattan Murder Mystery (1993)

Overlooked because of what was going on off-screen with Woody Allen at the time, Manhattan Murder Mystery is a brilliant little film about relationships and murder. Diane Keaton, in her first Allen film in 6 years (Radio Days), and her first on-screen with him in 14 (Manhattan), plays a bored housewife in a stagnant marriage who's looking for something to spice up her life. And it takes the death of a newly-met neighbor to add that spice. Allen plays her neurotic nebbish of a husband (surprise...) to great comedic effect.

The beauty of this film is its efficiency. Nothing that is brought up in terms of plot or dialogue is without meaning. Every bit of information that is handed to you is used to further the plot or the relationships between the characters. And the way the motivations and actions of each character intertwine really helps to make this tight little film very enjoyable. It also doesn't hurt that it's damn funny in many spots. Watch for Allen's return to physical shtick during the tape recorder scene, and the scene with him and Keaton in a dark elevator contains some brilliantly funny self-help dialogue.

Some great performances of real people are turned in by Alan Alda and Anjelica Huston as well, each playing potential love interests for the Keaton & Allen couple whose marriage may be on the rocks. Shot very loosely, all of the characters are having real conversations as they discuss whether or not a murder has taken place involving Keaton & Allen's neighbor. Talking over each other at times, the characters subtly dispense plot-forwarding information so it doesn't hit you over the head as being exposition. In fact, the one time it is blatant, Allen's character points that out to Keaton, telling her "I get it, his name is Paul!"

Another great performance is turned in by the soundtrack. Lots of great jazz tunes are scattered throughout, but not the New Orleans Ragtime jazz of his "earlier, funnier" films. The film opens with Bobby Short delivering a live cabaret performance of Cole Porter's "I Happen To Like New York" over helicopter shots of Manhattan, and Bob Crosby And His Orchestra's "Big Noise From Winnetka" is also used to great effect in a chase scene. And while not as prominent as in some of his other films, Allen's love of Manhattan is on display again, with many beautiful shots of the city used for effect, as well as just because they make for nice pictures. Many of the borough's parks, big (Central Park) and small (Gramercy Park), feature nicely in conversation scenes. Also, in a nod to an inspiration, a clip from "Double Indemnity" plays during the film, again being used to further the plot.

A brilliant and brilliantly funny film, Manhattan Murder Mystery, clocking in at 107 minutes, is well worth seeking out for an enjoyable, occasionally frantic, run thru what may or may not be a murder occurring in New York's biggest borough. You'll have to watch, and laugh, to find out for sure.