A British comedy fantasy directed by Lothar Mendes.
Celestial sky-god type beings meet overlooking Earth. One of them wants to give all the Earthlings infinite power, but the others persuade him to start with just one. This one man gains the power to make miracles happen. He asks his friends and co-workers about it and demonstrates what he can do for each of them. Unsatisfied with their answers, he moves on to the next and the next for advice until he tires of other people telling him what to do.
Amazing! This was like a very long Twilight Zone episode. They used primitive compositing techniques on the video which amount to what the average teen can do with after effects now. There was more planning, setup, staging and creative editing involved than actual video manipulation. The question that this film brings up is "what would you do with this power?". It also states that the answer is a difficult one. What would make the world truly good? I might be tempted to go warping around, killing all the reptilians, Illuminati, politicians and bankers. I might then let the world fall into chaos and anarchy. With all of the real evil gone, us humans might find a better way of life. Maybe folks like strife, war, hatred and sorrow. My parents do. Then someones every here and there would start rebuilding the old system. All that work for nothing. The answer to the world's problems is not easy to find. This film made me think about those ideas. For that, I rate it best. A best rating comes from technical proficiency, good plot and characters or making me think. That's what this did.
A British biographical drama directed and produced by Alexander Korda, starring Charles Laughton.
The turbulent later life of the artist, Rembrandt is shown. He goes through a few wives and has constant financial troubles.
This was boring. Although historically accurate, the plot had too many filler scenes and there was really only one character. He was a static character. It was actually shot quite well. Everything was clearly visible and it featured some decent editing. The audio had some dead air hiss and crackle, but the dialogue was clear and the soundtrack was appropriate. Overall, it's just plain old. I rate this poor. It could have earned a better rating with a plot that was written better.
An American western musical directed by John P. McCarthy, starring Tex Ritter.
A Texas ranger, who is supposedly an outlaw on the run, gets hired by an outlaw boss to expose the gang's crimes and win the heart of the crime boss's daughter.
I don't follow plots well when people are pretending to be someone they're not or when lies are involved. The characters were pretty clearly presented, but stereotypical of the old western genre. The video was blurry/grainy but fairly visible. The audio was about as one would expect from this type of film from this time. Again, I was disappointed that here was this famous guitar-slinging, singing cowboy, yet he was miming his guitar playing. This became painfully obvious during a scene in the garden when he was playing for the boss's daughter. His hands did not move, yet the audio had guitar playing. An interesting note is that this was Tex Ritter's first film. Overall, standard and as expected. I rate it o.k.
An American western directed by Joseph Kane, starring Gene Autry, Smiley Burnette and Kay Hughes.
A Texas ranger shows up with his team to help the military protect a supply train. He finds that he is in direct competition with a military leader who is unwilling to accept help and a group of indians who are counting on one of the military men to leave the supplies unguarded.
I noticed the silent film style speeded up fight scenes and the comic relief characters most when I watched this. The plot was clearly communicated and characters identifiable. They fit into standard western roles, but that seemed to work out just fine. The black and white video was a little bit blurry/grainy and the audio was primitive, but I saw and heard everything that was going on. The pacing was very quick all the way through and barely slowed down at all. The humorous elements contained an indian chasing a ranger to scalp him and a weathered old trail hand who used snuff to cause others to sneeze. I'm rating this o.k. because I've seen much better and much worse.
An American western musical directed by B. Reeves Eason, starring Gene Autry.
A singing cowboy arrives in a town near a dam that is being built. There are problems surrounding the dam, with workers wanting to quit because they are not being payed and some men wanting to blow up the dam with dynamite in order to claim the land for themselves.
When I watched this, the main thing that I noticed was how old it is. Everything is done in a very '30s fashion. The plot was a little hard to follow and many of the characters were unclear as far as identification and keeping track of them. I liked the hokey old music, but some people would not find it suiting to their tastes. My favorite songs were the ones performed in the saloon with a trio of musicians switching instruments frequently. The pacing was pretty quick and only got faster in the action scenes at the end. The audio was decent, but very midrange-biased. The video had some improper exposures and some artifacts. Due to antiquity and some aspects being unclear, I will rate this tolerable.
An American drama directed by Walter Shumway.
A brother and sister are separated when their parents get a divorce. The parents and children are reunited later in life.
This was like watching nothing. The editing mistakes, video artifacts and muffled audio full of crackles and pops were just peachy. Simple plots are alright, but this went to the point of nearly lacking a plot. There was some character development, but that was overshadowed by the film's flaws. The high point was the sister's friend being hotter than fire (picture). I rate this bad. Not worth watching.
An American drama directed by John Cromwell.
A boy in America is informed that he is the heir of a wealthy estate in England. He is brought there where he develops a relationship with his grandfather, but another heir appears.
This was quite uninteresting. The plot and characters were lame and the production value was poor. I shouldn't have to describe what audio and video from 1936 are like, as I have done so many times in the past. It wasn't painful and there were no mistakes, but I just did not like it. I rate it poor.
An American film directed by Victor Halperin, starring Bela Lugosi's eyes.
A team of westerners go to Cambodia to find out about zombie making.
What a load of horse shit! This was boring, stupid and pointless. The plot was not communicated clearly and the characters left much to be desired. The editing and general production value was extremely sloppy, with dead air, pops and hiss making up much of the audio content. I'm getting really tired of poorly made films from the '30s and '40s. I rate this shit. All copies should be destroyed.
An American romance directed and produced by Alfred Zeisler, starring Cary Grant and Mary Brian.
A rich man feels unwell and goes to see his doctor. The doctor determines that boredom and luxury are his problem and they make a bet that the rich man can't live a year as a regular working guy without using his money or friends. During the year, he meets a woman and they fall in love.
A unique premise, but just a regular movie. Everything about this film was average and mediocre. I don't have to list all of the film elements here. Fortunately for the movie, I don't frown on mediocrity quite so much anymore. I've seen so many really bad films that an o.k. one really is o.k. It was not painful to watch and I viewed the entire hour and a minute duration. I rate it o.k. and would recommend it if you just want to watch something.
An American crime film directed by Alfred Santell.
A man is executed in a murder case, even though he is innocent. Years later, the judge, real murderer and the son of the executed man meet in a poor section of a city.
The characters could be identified, but the plot was totally incoherent. The video was primitive and the audio was infected with a dead air hiss. I found the movie to be boring, mostly due to inferiority of plot and was tempted to turn it off. I rate it bad. Don't watch it.
An American western directed by Bernard B. Ray a.k.a. Franklin Shamray.
A gang of outlaws is in conflict with settlers in an area and one of the outlaws shoots a settler in a bar. The sheriff tries to deal with the situation before everyone kills each other.
Clocking in at 47 minutes and 44 seconds, it didn't take long to get through. What was there was a little convoluted and murky of plot, unidentifiable of characters and totally lacking in style. The acting and editing was horrible and it featured only diegetic music when non-diegetic would have been better (my opinion). It seems to me that they focused all their energy on quantity of plot and characters rather than quality of anything at all. I'm rating it poor.
A comedy by Charlie Chaplin.There's no short way to explain this. A factory worker goes crazy because of his job and is committed to an asylum. Upon release from the mental home, he is arrested over a misunderstanding involving communists and a red flag. In jail, he accidentally eats cocaine and stops a jailbreak. Released from jail, he pretends to have stolen a loaf of bread to save the vagabond girl who actually stole it. They both escape the situation free and the man performs a dine and dash to get arrested. He runs into the girl again in the paddy wagon, which crashes and they escape. The man gets a job at a department store, but is unable to defend it from burglars and is arrested. Out of jail again, the homeless girl takes him to her shack and in the morning he reads about available jobs in the newspaper. He takes a job as a mechanic's assistant and gets his boss stuck in a machine. The other workers go on strike and he is arrested again when he steps on a board that catapults a brick at a cop. Released from jail AGAIN, he finds that the girl dances at a restaurant and gets a job as a singing waiter there. The cops come to arrest the girl, but the pair get away.I agree with the opinion expressed about modern civilization not being quite so civilized after all. Charlie Chaplin reminds me of a man who used to live across the hall from me with his overalls and mustache. For a film with a minimum of words, this does what "modern" (pun intended) movies can't. They didn't need 30 shots for for a minute long action sequence in 1936, they just used 1 good one. Sadly, the art of film has been lost in these "modern times" (pun). I'm rating this awesome.
A science fiction directed by William Cameron Menzies, written by H. G. Wells.After a long war starting in 1940, society reverts to a medieval state until a group of pilots and social engineers changes how things are run. After that point, technological advancement becomes unstoppable.In the beginning of the film, just before the war starts, the children all get war toys for Christmas. In this scene, I couldn't help but think of the predictive programming featured in The Holy Mountain. I also found it entertaining that the feudal leader in the middle of the film was the same actor that played the anti-advancement speaker at the end. Also, the pilot from the middle of the film wears a ridiculous phallus outfit that is pictured here. Overall, it was mildly entertaining and filled a blank year on my blog. I'm rating it o.k.
