Tag Movie

Modern Times – 1936

Anthony Panariello Leave a comment

Silent Film – 1936
Charlie Chaplin

Another visit to Chaplin’s tramp character. This time he’s working in a factory where everything is regimented and watched over (very big brother like) by the boss via television screens. Chaplin’s character is starting to show stress from the repetitive nature of the work and then goes off the rails in a madcap dash around the factory -eventually getting stuck in the gears in a pretty famous scene

He’s committed to a hospital and when he gets out accidentally gets involved in an anti govt protest and ends up in jail. At some point in prison he ingests a bag of cocaine and goes full Tony Montana (only without the guns) and in his rush around the station he stops a breakout attempt without even realizing what he’s doing.  The cops are so thankful they give him a cushy cell with lots of amenities which the tramp seems to really enjoy. However – his time in prison is soon to be over and he unsuccessfully tries to convince the police that he belongs back in prison since he gets three meals a day and a comfortable place to sleep.

One released he struggles to find a job – eventually finding work using a letter of recommendation from the police captain at a shipyard where he’s given a simple job of hammering some piles in – however he didn’t understand the instructions (in true tramp style) and ends up launching a ship that… wasn’t quite ready to be launched. Dejected from his inability to find work he’s walking down the street when he sees a young girl stealing bread and when the cops ask him what happened he said he stole the bread trying to get back to his cushy prison cell.  Witnesses tell the police that he didn’t really do it and he’s freed back onto the streets.

Really determined to go back to jail – he goes to a restaurant and eats a ton of food and then doesn’t pay – tracking down a cop to come arrest him for it.  He’s locked up in a paddy wagon – and lo and behold, the girl from earlier is in the wagon with him! He tries his charm on her and she seems to vibe with him.. When suddenly the paddy wagon crashes and they escape in the chaos.

He tries to go straight for the girl and takes a job as a night watchman at a department store  – he has a great time roller skating around and sharing what the store has to offer with her but then three goons break in and try to rob the place – the tramp realizes they’re fellow factory workers who are just hungry and desperate. He decides not to call the police and falls asleep in a very unfortunate location where he is discovered the next day and promptly fired.

The girl gets a job dancing in a nightclub and convinces the owner that the Tramp is a singer and waiter but he’s terrible at the waiting part and his last chance is the singing performance. He’s really nervous but the girl helps him write the words on his cuffs so he won’t forget them – but he loses the cuffs during the dancing part! What’s he to do? That’s right.. He channels his inner Eminem and goes full five mile on them: Chaplin Modern Times ‘non-sense song’

Things are seeming up for these two lovebirds, but then the police track the girl down from her previous escape and her and the Tramp are forced to flee once again.  The stop at the site of the road and the girl desparis at they have nothing left but the tramp reassures her and they set off down the road into whatever awaits them.

4/5 – Great move and one of Chaplin’s finest performances

I think this is the first time you hear Chaplin’s voice in one of this films and he uses it to sing a nonsense song that somehow conveys an idea without using an actual language (he made it all up). The slapstick comedy was tight and funny and the camera work and direction was engaging.  Some of the ‘special effects’ were really well done practical effects that he sold with his conviction and body control.  Reading into it somewhat it was a commentary on industrialization and the political climate of the time and has eerie echoes into the current day with AI threatening to displace a lot of people’s jobs. It was one of the last silent films of the era and Chaplin’s last performance as the tramp and I’m glad he got to set off into whatever future awaited him with someone by his side.

Scarface – 1932

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Mobster Movie  / Black and white

You have to love a film that starts with the moral message that the film is trying to convey instead of using the movie to tell the story and let the audience infer their intent. No, these guys straight up called out the government and the police for letting the mob run wild with little to no law enforcement.  I guess knowing it’s a morality tale helps defray some of the excessive (yet bloodless) violence in the movie.

Basically the movie starts with a mob boss getting whacked by a mysterious whistling hit man causing a power vacuum that coincidentally is filled by mob boss Lovo and his lieutenant Tony. Lovo is a calculating and careful boss who wants to expand in south Chicago only – due to the north being controlled by a pretty powerful mob boss O’hara. Tony, however, is a lunatic who embraces all the lovely Italian immigrant stereotypes and refuses to listen to his boss and starts causing trouble in the north side. Eventually he starts taking over the territory and has O’hara gunned down in his flower shop.. But they didn’t finish the job so they had to storm a hospital to execute him in cold blood (how’s that for a morality tale)

The new boss of the north side tries to gun down Tony while he’s having dinner with Poppy (the boss’ girl!) using newly imported tommy guns but he manages to escape (grabbing a machine gun in the process) and then uses the machine gun to go on a full scale murder rampage (seriously – it’s a murder montage.. Murtage?) in retribution killing most of O’hara’s crew except Gaffney (Boris Karloff in a starring role!)

Tony’s now a rising star. O’hara’s second in command is in hiding and all of sudden Lovo’s girl Poppy starts to respond to Tony’s flirting and invitations to come see his new place.  Bad news for Lovo (still technically the boss). One night in a dance club they’re both sitting a table with Poppy and she pulls out a cigarette.. And Tony and Lovo both offer her a light.. Who will she choose?! You guessed it – Tony. Lovo does NOT look pleased.

Coincidentally that night there’s an assassination attempt on Tony and he believes it was Lovo who hired guns from out of town to do it – he has someone call Lovo’s office while he’s there saying the hit went down and Lovo tried to play it off as wrong number. Well Tony knew then it was Fredo all alo.. I mean Lovo all along. He took care of business (as in he machine gunned Lovo too) and now was the big boss of Chicago.

This is a good spot to talk about Cesca, Tony’s sister. She’s a rebellious 18 year old girl who wants to get involved in the ‘scene’ and refuses to take no for an answer even though Tony is a controlling psychopath who refuses to see her as anything other than a child which only makes her more determined to prove she’s old enough to hang. We also introduce Tony’s right hand man Guino always seen flipping a coin and is fiercely loyal to Tony and operates as his fixer – taking care of problems.. Permanently.

Some of you can see where THIS is going.. Cesca keeps pursuing Guino and he’s just a man and eventually  unwisely gives into the very persistent Cesca. Where’s Tony during all this? Hiding in Florida waiting for the heat from his murder spree to die down.  Tony comes back and hears the Cesca is shacking up ‘with some man’ and goes into a rage and murders his best friend! Cesca is inconsolable and tells Tony they had just gotten married and were planning to surprise him.

A public execution of someone is all the police needed to issue a warrant for his arrest and Tony barricades himself in his mansion filled with machine guns (straight line to the Pacino Scarface ending scene!) and has an extended shootout with the police (with Cesca who at first was going to shoot him in a rage then obviously had a psychotic break and is willing to go all in on the mob life) he’s holding out pretty well until Cesca takes a bullet to the gut and dies. With the house filling up with tear gas, Tony realizes the game is up and tries to escape but then it shot down in a hail of bullets (again, just like Pacino) and dies in a literal gutter.

Morality tale complete – literally EVERYONE who did a crime in the movie ended up dead. People who were involved with the mob died.. Pretty much used a large hammer to beat the message into the audience.

4/5

I really enjoyed this movie – it was dripping in old school mob speak (that Chicago/mob accent that you hear a lot in mobster movies of the time) and even with the heavy handed morality it really was a classic example of a mobster movie (even if a few scenes were pulled from life like the St. Valentine’s day massacre)  and had some great over the top performances and you can really see how Pacino’s Scarface is the spiritual successor to this version of Scarface.

The Thief of Baghdad [1924]

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Silent movie

Swashbuckling / Adventure

Starring: Douglas Fairbanks

The entire length of this movie I was thinking to myself – oh, wait this is what Disney’s Aladdin as loosely based on (silly sidekick, princess who needs to be married off, a flying carpet and a dude who falls in love with a woman he’s met for 10 minutes)

Movie starts out with Fairbank’s character being an unrepentant thief (literally he goes into a mosque and tells everyone exactly this) who steals things in the marketplace via his athletic sneakiness and overall charm – ending with him stealing a magic rope that goes in the air by itself (we’ve seen that used frequently in media over the years) – he goes back to his 1 BR studio  condo located in a well behind the market and meets up with his partner – showing him the rope and plotting how they can use it .

The announcement comes out that the princess is to be married off and princely suitors should come to Agraba.. Oh wait.. Baghdad and then Alladd.. Oh wait.. ‘the thief’ thinks the Palace! Ah ha! With the rope we can rob that place blind! So they scout out a good location and then use the rope at night to sneak into the castle where the thief steals some jewels via a slapstick comedy involved sleepy fat eunuchs but during his escape he sees the princess and.. BLAM INSTANT DEEP LOVE FOR BOTH OF THEM.

Anyways.. Someone hears the noise and he has to hide under a rug but as he’s trying to leave one of the princess’ handmaidens sees him and chases him off and he goes back to his pal who asks where the treasure is and he says the corniest line in movie history at the time (while holding up the princesses slipper) this is the real treasure. Her slipper –  which I’m sure is delightful after sweating all day in the Agrabah.. Shit.. Baghdad sun.

So anyway – the thief is besotted but he isn’t a prince – so he watches the real princes walk in – and there are three of them.. The prince of Persia (not who you think) who is a comically obese sleepy prince, the prince of the indies who is an arrogant jerk and the prince of the Mongols who is dripping with stereotypes.  The princess thinks none of them have drip like Alladd.. Dammit.. The thief and  despairs before her man rides on  a stolen horse wearing stolen clothes pretending to be a prince. He was actually there to kidnap his  true love who he met one day ago (Queen Elsa disapproves) but through the Mongol spy in the palace he is revealed to be a common thief!

So the Caliph DQs him and the princess is distraught – so she comes up with a plan to delay them saying give them seven moons to find a gift worthy of her and she will choose – so they go off on an adventure to find these rare treasures. The thief meets up with the priest who he mocked in the beginning asking for help and he showed him a dangerous path to find a great treasure that will surely win this contest but warning him it is a perilous journey.

Prince of Persia takes a nap while his retainers find a magic carpet thanks to a crafty beggar who knew a secret (I see you Walt) and the prince of the Indies finds a lost idol with magic crystal eyes (imagery that is repeated through the years in fantasy elements – and I think it was on the cover of the original D&D players guide) and the Mongol leader finds a hidden magic apple that will heal any injury even dead (which tests on a random fisher man just minding his business)

While this is going on the thief is going through his peril – caves full of flames, giant furry bat attacks, underwater temptations, giant fish/squid monsters,  proto-ents,  flying horses and general peril – and he eventually finds a magic box that will create whatever the user wants (thanks to the advice of a hermit who lived in the caves)  he triumphantly returns to the hermit and.. Promptly rides off on a summoned horse.. Man didn’t even summon up some chicken wings or a lady friend for this lonely hermit. Bruh – not cool.

Anyways, the Mongol’s great idea to win the princess’ favor is to.. Poison her? Presumable to use the apple to heal her.. But its apparent the poison is fact acting and he can’t get there in time (thanks to the crystal ball) so they hitch a ride on the magic carpet and zoom off to save the princess who realizes they all came back with awesome treasures but her true love is still missing..

The Mongol decides he’s tired of her shit and just sneaks in a bunch of warriors to storm the castle, take over the city and imprison the Caliph and the princes. He’s got it made in the shade.. He’s going to marry the princess and rule all of Baghdad.. But wait.. THAT’S THE THIEFS MUSIC!!

He rides in and starts throwing magic dust like a deranged tinker bell summoning up an army 10,000 strong.. The Mongols flee and the prince is about to have his bro execute him when the slave/spy says why not grab the magic carpet and steal the princess? So that’s what he does but the Thief arrives under the cover of his invisibility cloak and rescues her at the last minute!

Gold Rush [1925]

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Charlie Chaplin

Silent Movie / Comedy

In a reprisal of Chaplin’s ‘tramp’ persona he heads off to the Alaskan territory with just his cane (and woefully underdressed) looking to capitalize on the gold rush.  He runs into a storm and takes shelter in what seems to be an abandoned cabin – but its currently being used by an escaped criminal who isn’t too happy with the new company. He chases Chaplin off in a comical wind/storm scene but then a prospector (Big Jim) who found gold seeks shelter from the storm in the cabin and overpowers the criminal. There’s an uneasy standoff where the three men begin to starve and they draw straws to see who goes out into the storm to get food. The criminal is sent off and promptly finds bounty hunters looking for him who have a nice sled full of supplies. He shoots them and steals their supplies and promptly vanishes from the movie (I’m not really sure why he even was in the plot except maybe as an antagonist for the staged cabin scenes)

Cut back to the cabin and there’s the famous scene of Chaplin boiling his shoe to have something to eat (imagery featured frequently in images of hobos) and then Big Jim being delirious due to hunger and imagining Chaplin as a giant delicious chicken they have a quick chase and then big Jim comes to his senses and leaves to find his gold only to be assaulted by that criminal guy and left unconscious in the snow!

Cut to a different movie altogether for a while for a weird romance subplot where Chaplin meets a dancer who flirts with him to anger another guy and then agrees to go to dinner with Chaplin on NYE. On NYE Chaplin sets up his cabin all nice and then does the famous dancing roll bit (Oceana roll) then falls asleep waiting for her to arrive. She never does (quite a sad bit where he looks in the window and see her dancing with that handsome fella. He wanders off and then Georgia and her friends go to cause trouble for ‘the tramp’ but then see all the effort he want to for the party and she clearly feels guilty at her behavior. Later Chaplin goes into the party to confront them when big Jim rolls in (having lost his memory after the assault) and grabs Chaplin and says ‘we need to find the cabin! Then we can find my gold and I’ll share it with you!’ — so they head back to the cabin and get some rest before they head out but then a crazy storm blows in and blows the entire cabin to a cliff edge!

They wake up and a funny bit ensues where they walk back and forth and the cabin teeters on the edge but they think it might be a hangover but then when Chaplin opens the door he sees he’s dangling off a cliff and then they spend a few minutes figuring out how to escape but fate has smiled on them – the storm blew them right to big Jim’s mine! They’re rich!

Cut to them dressed fancily in furs and smoking cigars walking on a ship to sail back to America as millionaires – we see Chaplin’s girl also sailing out as it seems things didn’t work out with handsome man (she never really seemed that into him to begin with). Some various hijinks ensue where she shows she’s a somewhat good and remorseful person (offering to pay for his ticket when the crew thinks he’s a stowaway) and Chaplin goes in for the kiss and roll credits.

4/5 stars – The movie is iconic for a reason – so many tropes were born from this movie as well as call backs in many modern movies (the bread roll dance in Benny and Joon, countless eating your boots scenes.. Etc.) and for a silent movie it conveyed both comedy and pathos very effectively you forget it’s a silent movie and are drawn into the narrative completely.

(side note: apparently there’s a 1941 version re-cut by Chaplin that includes his own score and narrated interstitial panels. .might watch that if I have the time)

The General [1926]

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Type: Silent Movie, Comedy

Starring: Buster Keaton

The origin of slapstick comedy in movies? This movie is 100 years old but the laughs are pretty timeless.  Keaton plays a train engineer who loves his train and Annabelle, a woman in his town. The movie is set at the outbreak of the civil war and when a general muster is called for the town Keaton tries to enlist (to impress his lady mostly) and he is deemed to important as a train engineer to fight on the front lines.

He tries several times to enlist but is rebuffed before he leaves rejected (the famous shot of Keaton sitting glumly on the train wheels as the train starts to move).  The union general sends some troops undercover to steal a train at the end of the line and then take it along the line destroying infrastructure on the way. They decide to steal Keaton’s train – and by happenstance his woman is on the train looking for something from her trunk.  He proceeds to chase the train using a variety of methods before commandeering a confederate train to chase them. He finally catches up with them and is hiding under a table when he hears plans for a union surprise raid and he sees that Anabelle is there! She’s been captured by the union and is held hostage.

He rescues her and they escape into the night.. When day breaks they see they are near a union train depot and lo and behold his train ‘The General’ is there! They sneak aboard and steal the train heading back to confederate lines being chased all the way. 

After setting a fire on a critical bridge they alert the confederate army who mount a counterattack on the union and drive them off and the Keaton gets the girl and a promotion to lieutenant

3/5

I really enjoyed the comedy elements of this movie – and Keaton did all of his own stunts, some of which were really straight dangerous! The plot existed to serve the comedy but was passable but the treatment of the actress was pretty poor (She was the inept comic relief who was dumb as a box of rocks) — yeah yeah I get it was the 1920s but it was still jarring to see.

Metropolis [1927]

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Name: Metropolis

Type: Silent Movie / dystopian sci-fi

Interesting take on a dystopian society where the elites live above in the sky in a city that is powered by the ‘workers’ that toil in the city below.  The son of the rich people’s leader sees a woman trying to organize the workers for better lives and falls instantly in love (as you do). His dad has a best bud ‘ Rotwang ‘(the prototypical evil mad scientist) who has made a robot that can assume human form. The dad asks Rotty to make the robot in the form of the woman trying to organize the workers to incite a rebellion he can then quash them entirely. Little does dad know that Rotwang secretly has beef with him because his one love Hela chose him over Rotwang so he wants revenge! He knows the woman is in love with his rival’s son and plots to destroy them both with his robot girl!

So he make the robot girl into the whore of Babylon.. Who dances (quite lasciviously for the 1920’s) and drives all the rich boys crazy (some 7 deadly sins allegories sprinkled in here) and then incites the workers to open rebellion. The revolting workers break ‘the heart’ machine which for some reason causes unchecked flooding? Anyways the real Maria arrives to rescue the kids from the flood while their parents are on a riot rampage (hey, did we forget to hire a babysitter?).

The workers are angry all their kids are done for, so they blame Maria and burn her at the stake.. But NOT it’s not Maria! It’s the robot lady! But where’s Maria? Oh she’s being clumsily chased by a cartoonishly evil Rotwang who really needs to work on his cardio. Then there’s a roof fight and some hero falling and getting back up  tropes (wait, if it is the original movie to do it, is it a trope?) they fight on the rooftop and Rotwang falls to his doom.

Boy get girl – father learns lessons and.. Cut to the fin title card.

3/5 – The special effects for it being 1927 were pretty amazing and innovative and the acting was very local theater production but I understand that’s just how things were done at that time since theater was the prevalent entertainment medium while movies were the new hotness. Overall as one of the first science fiction dystopia movies (one of my favorite genres) I appreciate how it sets a standard that you see repeated in a lot of movies even almost 100 years later.