This month there are political and horror films, with the possibility of a political horror film to be made from this year's Presidential election. For politics the two best films are Otto Preminger's Advise and Consent, 1962, on the 19th and John Ford's The Last Hurrah,1958, on the 26th. Preminger's film is a masterful use of widescreen black-and-white while Ford's film is an intelligent examination of the passing of power in a big city. Both films use older character actors and stars to summon up not only the changing elements of Washington but also of Hollywood.
For horror the best films are those of producer Val Lewton and British director Terence Fisher, the best of the Hammer Film directors. My favorite Lewton is The Seventh Victim, showing on the 22, directed by Mark Robson in 1943, about civilized devil-worshippers in Greenwich Village. For an analytical and historical view of Lewton I recommend Joel Siegel's Val Lewtom: The Reality of Terror (Viking, 1973). My favorite Fisher this month is The Devil's Bride, 1968, showing on Halloween. Fisher did a great deal to breathe new life, so to speak, into Dracula and Frankenstein. David Pirie's A New Heritage of Horror: The English Gothic Cinema (L.B. Tauris, 2008) has an excellent chapter devoted to Fisher.
Other films this month I like include:
Buster Keaton's The Cameraman (1928), beautiful and funny, on Oct 4
On the 5th are two corrosive views of America: John Huston's Wise Blood, 1979, from the Flannery O'Connor novel, and Phil Karlson's expose/film noir The Phenix City Story,1955.
On the 6th is Fritz Lang's Fury (1936) and Alfred Hitchcock's topical Foreign Correspondent, 1940, with production design by William Cameron Menzies.
On the 8th is Tod Browning's bizarre Unknown, one of several bizarre films by this director in October.
On the 9th is George Cukor's The Marrying Kind, 1952, a film unusual in its subject of marriage in the working class.
10th: Nicholas Ray's rich and complex Bitter Victory, 1957, followed on the 11th by Roberto Rossellini's The Flowers of St. Francis, 1956.
The 13th has Anthony Mann's terrific film noir Raw Deal, 1948 and Citizen Kane, 1941, which never totally reveals its mysteries no matter how many times one sees it.
On the 14th is Roman Polanski's The Fearless Vampire Killers,1966, both scary and funny.
On the 16th is Chaplin's The Great Dictator, 1940, moving and funny, and two interesting variations on Frankenstein by Terence Fisher: The Curse of Frankenstein, 1957, and The Revenge of Frankenstein, 1958
On the 17th is Howard Hawks's Only Angels Have Wings, 1939, probably the best civilian aviation film, and Raoul Walsh's The Strawberry Blonde, 1941, a lovely valentine about Walsh's youth.
On the 19th is Edgar Ulmer's Detour, an intensive film noir made on a shoestring and on the 21st is Georges Franju's mysterious and beautiful Eyes Without a Face, 1960.
On the 23rd are two stylish and elegant comedies: Preston Sturges's The Lady Eve, 1941, and Vincente Minnelli's Father of the Bride, 1950.
The 25th has Gordon Douglas's marvelously pulpy I Was a Communist for the FBI, 1951, and on the 27th is Ernst Lubitsch's brilliant version of Noel Coward's Design for Living, 1933,as rewritten by Ben Hecht
And the 29th has Howard Hawks's clever science fiction film The Thing from Another World, 1951
No comments:
Post a Comment