All About Eve (1950)

Fabrications I admit, I find the story of the Mankiewcz brothers to be one of the most interesting in all filmdom. Part of the allure is their experimentation in narrative perspectives and the nature of fabrication. Here, the fabrication is extra sweetly dimensional. We have a movie about movies, actresses portraying actresses with resonances among… Continue reading All About Eve (1950)

Killers From Space (1954)

Fools You, You Fools You know, slogging through 50’s scifi through the same stuff in the seventies is a dreary business unless you invent your own film on top. Most of the viewers who do this, simply hoot at the silliness and bad production. But there are other, more rewarding challenges. Superficially, this has a… Continue reading Killers From Space (1954)

Sherlock Holmes (1954-1955)

Sluggo Yet another appropriation of the Holmes character. In this case, they had 23 minutes to fill with enough attractiveness to sell stuff. The form demands light banter, very simple plots and secondary characters, and lots of slugging. Slugging is required. Like other appropriations of the Holmes character, only the affect is used, and none… Continue reading Sherlock Holmes (1954-1955)

Kiss Me Deadly (1955)

Who Knows? There i s nothing more invigorating like true noir, and there are very, very few of those. This is one that ranks with “Touch of Evil“ and “The Long Goodbye.” Good noir is not a matter of tough talk and dark shadows. It is a matter of the writer apparently losing control to… Continue reading Kiss Me Deadly (1955)

The Abominable Snowman (1957)

High Praise Before Hammer became possessed by demons from the grave, they experimented with other supernatural horror. This is a particularly good one for the period, employing lots of location shots in the mountains. Those mountains provide two key elements of the story: isolation and Tibetan mystics. The setup is from “King Kong”; commercially-minded adventurer… Continue reading The Abominable Snowman (1957)

A Girl in Black (1956)

Do Greek Villagers Deserve Ice Cream? A small drama, lots of contrasts. Cruel jokes, innocent deaths. The story told by the filmmaker of the writer; the implied story told by the writer, and the stories confabulated by the villagers and imposed on their peers. These three struggle for control over what is real, at least… Continue reading A Girl in Black (1956)