Present Joys

In my ongoing effort to remember all the movies I watch, here is a list of the things I’ve seen since my last list:

• The Mystery Man, a b-movie from 1935 starring Robert Armstrong as a newspaperman who ends up broke and in an unfamiliar city. Probably the most absurd film I’ve ever seen. The plot was totally incoherent, but it was short and funny.
• Dead End, a 1937 film starring a very young Humphrey Bogart as an unsympathetic gangster who returns to his hometown. Spoiler: everyone hates their lives! It was adapted from a stage play, which means this film was boring as well as depressing!
• The Fallen Idol, a 1948 British film about a murder mystery. Annoying child actor notwithstanding, this was a really great movie. Thrilling and cinematographically attractive.
• The President’s Mystery, a disappointing 1936 movie about a man (Henry Wilcoxon) who fakes his own death. Wilcoxon was great as the lead, but the movie itself is facepalm-inducing New Deal propaganda.
• Hidden Fear, a typical 1957 noir with a twist: it’s set in Denmark. This turns out to not really be a twist, since it’s just like any other mid-50s noir. I just can’t get into cheaply-made noir films from the 50s.
• Les Diaboliques, a classic horror film 1955, in French. Fantastic in every way. Watch it with the lights off.
• Dark City, a thriller from 1950 starring a very young Charlton Heston (who is really a terrible actor) as a stony con man opposite Lizabeth Scott, his sycophantic female companion. Contains gambling and gratuitous cabaret songs! As far as b-movies go, though, this is the best one in the list. Lots of laughs.
• Faust, F.W. Murnau’s classic 1926 silent film. Aesthetically beautiful but very long! Emil Jannings, the actor who played Mephisto, was spectacular.
• Pandora’s Box, a 1929 silent film starring Louise Brooks, who plays an annoying floozy (shocker, huh?!). There are lots of interesting garments to look at, at least.
• Dinner at Eight, a 1933 pre-code drama about upper-middle-class life during the Depression. Lots of great actors: Lionel and John Barrymore, Edmund Lowe, Billie Burke, Marie Dressler! also, the always-awful Jean Harlow. This was an excellent, excellent film, like a black comedy with less comedy and lots more black. Edmund Lowe is an unrepentant womanizer; Billie Burke is too preoccupied with entertaining guests to notice her husband is dying of heart disease; the always-glamorous John Barrymore commits suicide on-screen. Exactly what a pre-code film should be like.

acutestyle:

5.28.12 Laundry: Fold and Stack

White twill, white OCBD, blue gingham, blue gingham, blue bengal stripe OCBD, blue OCBD, blue twill, red gingham, red gingham, red bengal stripe, pink OCBD, fun shirt, yellow gingham, yellow broadcloth

Mmmmmm, shirts.

In honor of Colleen and her birthday, here is Ted Leo.