Bad Kurosawa Oh what a curse to be a genius! Here we have a nearly perfect film, perfect in all the ordinarily engineered respects. It is rather haunting, and if you choose to watch it you will find it memorable. But Kurosawa is not merely a maker of well engineered films, together with perhaps a… Continue reading Ikiru (1952)
Tag: 1950s
Films made in the 1950s
Trents Last Case (1952)
Hidden This should be a superb movie in the mystery tradition. It has a truly complex plot that has several reveals, and a suitably Holmes-like detective. The problem is that we see the detective working things out like a Poirot would. But we learn absolutely nothing until the end. So I cannot recommend it on… Continue reading Trents Last Case (1952)
Indestructible Man (1956)
Jack Webb at 287,000 Volts This is an absolutely horrid little film, not worth watching. It is a cheap blend of “Frankenstein” and the popular TeeVee show “Dragnet”, with a little “Third Man” thrown in. Dragnet started as a radio show and this project would have been better as a radio show. In fact, I… Continue reading Indestructible Man (1956)
I Married a Monster from Outer Space (1958)
Watching Them Watching Us I suppose there are many ways of watching movies as there are of eating, a lot. But most folks seem to do it quickly, without savour. So from time to time it is worth watching an old movie with little merit just to see if you can escape the furrow plowed… Continue reading I Married a Monster from Outer Space (1958)
The Inn of the Sixth Happiness (1958)
Three Forces My gosh: how could this fail to please. It employs all three of the major forces in pandering film: cute children, a beautiful woman ennobled by adversity and finally: unlikely ‘interracial’ love (‘.. he pressed his earthy oriental skin…’). The scriptwriter’s task is to take these three forces and merge them into a… Continue reading The Inn of the Sixth Happiness (1958)