Foreign Correspondent (1940)

My love affair with director Alfred Hitchcock began in grade school. I saw his name on some books in my school library. They were anthology books with titles like 'Alfred Hitchcock's Stories of Suspense.' The books were probably offshoots of Hitchcock's successful television shows. Inside were stories of mystery and suspense by the best authors in the suspense genre (Robert Bloch and Daphne du Maurier to name a couple) and there was usually an introduction by Hitchcock (or an editor pretending to be Hitchcock). Hitchcock's famous image would be on the book. Who was this Hitchcock guy, I wondered? Even his name was creepy. Hitch...cock. So then, I grabbed one of the school's Encyclopedia Britannica's and looked him up and discovered he was a film director. The encyclopedia listed some of his film credits and they had strange, macabre titles. VERTIGO, PSYCHO, SPELLBOUND, NOTORIOUS, and FRENZY to name a few. Thus, began my infatuation with Alfred Hitchcock and his amazing films.

If you watch an Alfred Hitchcock film in 2010, they may seem a bit dated, but during his long and illustrious career, Hitchcock pushed the limits in story, sound, editing, special effects, and set design. One of his first films in the United States after early film success in England was the the spy thriller FOREIGN CORRESPONDENT (1940).  Written by Charles Bennett and Joan Harrison, Hitchcock seems to swing for the fences in FOREIGN CORRESPONDENT, his first of two World War II thrillers he would make (1942's SABOTEUR being the other). It has all the Hitchcock motifs and themes that he started to show in his early career and would explore and use over and over during his American period. Set during the brink of England's involvement in World War II, the story opens with American newspaper publisher Powers (Harry Davenport) sending inexperienced but ambitious reporter Johnny Jones (Joel McCrae) to London as a foreign correspondent to dig up news on the impending war in Europe. Powers gives Jones a new pseudonym (Huntly Haverstock) and a lead regarding a Dutch politician named Van Meer (Albert Basserman) who is one of two signers on a treaty with Belgium that could prevent war.

As film fate happens, reporter Jones catches a cab with Van Meer in London on his way to a speaking engagement and almost lands his scoop but Van Meer isn't biting. Jones tries again when he follows Van Meer to Amsterdam but instead witnesses Van Meer's apparent assassination. Jones jumps into a car driven by an English reporter Scott ffolliot (George Sanders) and his friend Carol Fisher (Lorraine Day) and chases the assassins to a windmill hideout outside of Amsterdam. The killers escape but Jones and his new friends stay on the hunt, uncovering a nest of murderous spies, led by the leader of a peace organization (Herbert Marshall), bent on bringing war to England.

In FOREIGN CORRESPONDENT Hitchcock gets to unleash all his favorite themes: the innocent hero who stumbles into a nefarious situation; the suave villain; a bad guy falling from a very high place; and the MacGuffin, a plot device to move the story but that really has no payoff. In CORRESPONDENT, the MacGuffin is the clause in the treaty that has never been written down, just memorized by Van Meer. CORRESPONDENT also has amazing set pieces: the windmill hideout; the assassination sequence in a rainy, crowded Amsterdam square; and a terrifying plane crash in the North Atlantic. CORRESPONDENT is Hitchcock's practice run that he will fulfill beautifully with a somewhat similar NORTH BY NORTHWEST (1959).

Actors Joel McCrae and Lorraine Day are decent as the leads but they aren't the big Hollywood stars that Hitchcock wanted (Gary Cooper turned down the reporter role). FOREIGN CORRESPONDENT is Hitchcock's initiation to the Hollywood studio system (he made REBECCA the same year but with actors that producer David O. Selznick had hand picked).  McCrae is better suited in comedies like Preston Sturges THE PALM BEACH STORY (1942) but he grows on you in FOREIGN CORRESPONDENT as the naïve American reporter. As Hitchcock became a bigger director in America, he would work with the likes of Cary Grant, James Stewart, Grace Kelly, Montgomery Clift, Eva Marie  Saint, Henry Fonda, and Ingrid Bergman.

However, the supporting cast more than makes up for the lack of star quality. Herbert Marshall as Stephen Fisher, leader of the Fisher Peace organization (and ironically the bad guy trying to incite war with England) is the blueprint of Hitchcock villainy. Sophisticated, polite, and a good father yet not against hiring killer Rowley (Edmund Gwenn who would later play Santa Claus in MIRACLE ON 34TH STREET) to kill his daughter Carol's reporter boyfriend Johnny Jones. George Sanders overwhelms Joel McCrae as ffolliot, a fellow reporter helping to find the real Van Meer and stop the spy plot. At one point in the film, Sanders actually becomes the lead as he infiltrates a hotel where the bad guys are interrogating Van Meer (in a chillingly brutal scene for 1940) while McCrae disappears from the screen for about 20 minutes. For whatever reason, Sanders never reached Cary Grant or James Stewart stardom but he's fun to watch in this. Lastly, for comic relief, Robert Benchley (author Peter Benchley's father) as Stebbins, an American reporter working with Jones, provides laughs between the suspenseful scenes.

For me, FOREIGN CORRESPONDENT is a showcase for Hitchcock to American studios to show what he would be capable of. It's an ambitious film with special effects and visual tricks that still amaze me with their verve and ingenuity even today. I also like the pace of the film. Screenwriters Bennett and Harrison jam an awful lot of plot and action into two hours so the coincidences keep the film speeding along. Jones bumping into Van Meer immediately upon arriving in London; the villain Fisher's daughter Carol being in the chase car that picks up Jones after the assassination, and all of the major characters on the same plane to New York and subsequent plane crash may be coincidence but Hitchcock and his team do such a great job of telling this thriller that we the audience are happy to go along for the ride.

Dead Poets Society (1989)

In the early 80's, Walt Disney's film department was hurting. Their animated cartoons weren't doing very well, their comedies were beginning to seem outdated, they needed a kick start. Touchstone Pictures, a branch of Disney Studios, was formed, a place where Disney could make more mainstream films with adult themes and even R-rated comedies. It saved Disney. Touchstone films like SPLASH (1984), TIN MEN (1987), and DOWN AND OUT IN BEVERLY HILLS (1986) were both critically acclaimed and financially successful.

DEAD POETS SOCIETY (1989) was another Touchstone hit that I don't think I was overly impressed with when I first saw it. I found it too sentimental. I wasn't a huge Robin Williams fan. Maybe I wasn't far enough removed from school to be able to reflect on the pressure and angst students feel from their parents and peers that DEAD POETS is about. But a second viewing has me finding plenty to like about the film.

First of all, it has one of the coolest movie titles. DEAD POETS SOCIETY. Imagine Walt Whitman, Lord Byron, Robert Frost, and Percy Shelley hanging out together, playing chess, sharing a good cigar, swapping stories about past girlfriends. A good title hooks you right away.

Another plus is that Australian Peter Weir is the director of DEAD POETS SOCIETY. Having already made a film about the mysterious disappearance of school girls in PICNIC AT HANGING ROCK (1975), Weir is very much at ease with the universe of teachers and students. Many of Weir's favorite themes pop up in DEAD POETS as well. Instead of young men going off to war in GALLIPOLI (1981), it's younger men going off to private school. Weir also likes having his characters be outsiders in the environments they must inhabit such as police detective Harrison Ford undercover in the Amish community in WITNESS (1985) or reporter Mel Gibson covering political unrest in Jukarta in THE YEAR OF LIVING DANGEROUSLY (1981). With DEAD POETS SOCIETY, it's Robin Williams as the new, unorthodox poetry teacher in the rigid college prep school institution.

The film opens with another school year beginning at Wilton Academy, sometime in the 1950's, somewhere in the East (Delaware to be precise). We're introduced to the boys we'll be following throughout the year, each with their own doubts and dreams. Neil Perry (Robert Sean Leonard) dreams of acting while his father (Kurtwood Smith) bullies him to be a doctor. Todd Anderson (Ethan Hawke) can't live up to his older brother's scholastic reputation. Knox Overstreet (Josh Charles) yearns for the unrequited love of an older high school girl. These young men and their classmates are all plodding toward careers as physicians, lawyers, and engineers.

But their relatively normal school lives are forever changed by new poetry teacher, John Keating (Robin Williams), a former student himself of Wilton. Keating's unusual teaching methods and his mantra "Carpe Diem" or "Seize the Day" inspire the young students to release themselves from the constraints of conformity. When Neil discovers Keating's yearbook photo and the name Dead Poets Society, he brings it to his classmates attention and they question Keating about it. He explains what the club was and the boys form their own Dead Poets Society, finding a cave in the nearby woods to smoke, read poetry, play the saxophone, even bring girls. As the boys begin to flourish in their new found freedom, a terrible tragedy occurs that reverberates through Wilton Academy and finds Mr. Keating the scapegoat.

My favorite sequence in DEAD POETS SOCIETY is opening night for Neil in the school's production of A Midsummer's Night Dream. He's clearly having the time of his life as Puck and then his father Mr. Perry shows up to destroy his dream and pull him out of school, a decision that will have dire consequences. Director Weir captures the exhilaration and anguish perfectly. This sequence haunts me even today.

DEAD POETS was Williams first serious role and he stays restrained for most of the film, occasionally reverting into comedic Williams but director Weir keeps him in character for the most part. There is nice camaraderie between the boys and Williams and Williams does a fine job of letting the young actors shine. Williams has definitely grown as an actor since DEAD POETS but this film got his dramatic side off to a decent start.

I use to get actors Robert Sean Leonard and Ethan Hawke mixed up as they looked quite similar to me so it's ironic that they are paired together in the film. Both are excellent as is Josh Charles. Leonard has a face almost to beautiful to be a student. He's leader to his classmates yet subservient to his father and plays both wonderfully. Hawke is equally good as the introverted and awkward young man who's parents give him the same birthday present two years in a row. And Charles gets the one romantic part and carries it off with youthful aplomb. All three actors, now in their early 40's, have continued to shine in films and TV - Leonard is a regular on the TV show HOUSE; Hawke in films like TRAINING DAY (2001) and SNOW FALLING ON CEDARS (1999), and Charles currently in the TV drama THE GOOD WIFE. It's refreshing to see that not all young actors overdose or end up on reality TV shows.

Watching DEAD POETS SOCIETY 21 years later got me reflecting on my formative years. I didn't go to a college prep school, just a nice public education but there is much to be said about a good teacher like John Keating and the role teachers play in our lives. I was reminded of past teachers I had like my 10th grade history teacher Mr. Swofford who taught me that classical art and music can be cool. Or Mrs. Floberg who let my creative side flourish on essays and journals that I had to write. Or Mr. Copley who introduced me to Supply-Side economics. Or Mr. Schuman who gave me a Super 8 film camera. Teachers can make a difference.

The Pirate (1948)

When movie lovers think of MGM musicals of the 40's and 50's, two of the biggest names of the genre are Judy Garland and Gene Kelly. While watching SINGING IN THE RAIN one time on DVD, one of the special features was a documentary on producer Arthur Freed who produced many of MGM's greatest musicals. One of the clips they showed was his film called THE PIRATE (1948). Since I'm a fan of both pirate films and musicals, the combination of both whetted my curiosity.

Garland and Kelly had made a previous film together in 1942 called ME AND MY GAL so THE PIRATE was their second pairing together. Although Garland gets top billing in the film, it is really Gene Kelly who is the rising star in this film while Garland's luster begins to fade due to her personal issues. Besides two fantastic stars, the film is directed by Vincent Minnelli (Judy Garland's husband at the time) who had directed her in MEET ME IN ST. LOUIS (1944) and the film's songs are by the legendary Cole Porter.


THE PIRATE, based on a play by S.H. Behrman and adapted by screenwriters Albert Hackett and Frances Goodrich is set on an unnamed Caribbean island (the beautiful MGM back lot) where a young sheltered woman Manuela (Judy Garland) reads and day dreams about the legendary pirate Macoco. In reality, her Aunt Inez (Gladys Cooper) has arranged a marriage for Manuela with the town's rotund mayor, Don Pedro Vargas (Walter Slezak). During a trip to Port Sebastian to see the ocean , Manuela and Aunt Inez come across a musical troupe led by the talented and charming troubadour Serafin (Gene Kelly). As he gives a performance in the town square, Serafin hypnotizes Manuela into singing a song for the crowd and convinces her that he is Macoco, the Black Pirate.

Manuela returns to her village to wed Don Pedro. Serafin and his traveling show follow. Serafin continues to impersonate the notorious pirate, causing grief for her fiance Don Pedro who suspects Serafin is not who he says he is. Thus begins a series of comic scenes and musical interludes as Serafin/Macoco woos Manuela while insulting Don Pedro. Soon, the Viceroy (George Zucco) comes to town with his army and captures Macoco/Serafin with the intention to hang him. But with the help of his talented group of performers and acrobats, Serafin escapes the noose and wins the heart of Manuela.

Kelly is wonderful as the roguish Serafin. His comic timing is impeccable and his dancing prowess is showcased in two bravura dance numbers. The first is a fantasy dream sequence in which Manuela imagines Serafin as Rococo, fighting off soldiers and hoarding a chest of jewels. Director Minnelli shoots the scene against a blood red sunset backdrop and with lots of fire pyrotechnics. Kelly's choreography showcases his athleticism. It's also the only true pirate moment in the film.

The second dance number near the end of THE PIRATE is more comic and Kelly shares the stage with the Nicholas Brothers (members of his troupe) in a dance performance worthy of Cirque du Soleil.

Judy Garland is the star of THE PIRATE but that star quality is beginning to fade. According to Robert Osborne on TCM's (Turner Classic Movies) introduction to the film, Garland's physical and mental health took a toll on the production. What was to be two months of filming stretched to six months. Garland's performance suffers as she's a bit uneven from scene to scene. Her close-ups sometimes seem disjointed as if shot later and you get the feeling Minnelli is covering for her absence in other scenes.

But despite her personal problems, Garland has great chemistry with Kelly in THE PIRATE. The scene where Manuela discovers Serafin is not the flamboyant buccaneer and nearly destroys a room to get at him is well-staged and hilarious. She still has one of the greatest voices in film (only Barbara Streisand and Julie Andrews come close) and demonstrates it on "You Can Do No Wrong." Kelly is no slouch in the singing department as he sings and dances himself away from the gallows with "Be A Clown."

Director Minnelli also gets a lot of credit for THE PIRATE'S success with his visual style, great use of color, and superb staging of both musical numbers and comedic scenes. The film has many humorous moments and comic jabs about actors as well as some nice twists and surprises that I didn't expect.

Gene Kelly would continue his string of successful musicals with AN AMERICAN IN PARIS (1951) and SINGING IN THE RAIN (1952) while Judy Garland would make EASTER PARADE (also 1948) and A STAR IS BORN (1954) before moving into television. THE PIRATE is a great opportunity to see these two musical talents at a crossroads in their careers. Gene Kelly on the way up and Judy Garland's star starting to fade.

Dr. No (1962)

My first encounter with James Bond was in the early 70's when ABC would advertise their upcoming Sunday Movie during the week and I would glimpse a 15 second teaser for FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE or DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER. The images were always the same. An explosion, a brief fight, a beautiful Bond girl, and some clever retort by James Bond to the villain of the film. I was hooked.


Author Ian Fleming's character James Bond first appeared on American television in 1954 in CASINO ROYALE but to little fanfare. But Bond was always meant for the big screen. And yet, if DR. NO had not been a success, it may have faded from our memory as quickly as it's brief appearance on television.

Thankfully, DR. NO was an enormous hit (President John F. Kennedy was no less a fan of the books) and so began our relationship with James Bond, his secretary Miss Moneypenney, his boss M, the gadget man Q, the evil crime organization SPECTRE, and the countless Bond villains and girls we've come to love from 1962 to 2008.

DR. NO is a pretty straightforward spy adventure. On the island of Jamaica, a British secret service employee Strangways and his secretary are murdered and their files stolen. Strangways had been working with the CIA trying to locate the source of some interference that had wrecked havoc with a U.S. missile launch. England sends it's best secret agent James Bond (Sean Connery) to investigate.

No sooner has Bond landed on the island then he's being pursued by henchmen and lethal femme fatales. With the assistance of CIA agent Felix Leiter (played by Jack Lord who would eventually play Detective Steve McGarrett on television's HAWAII FIVE-O) and Quarrel (John Kitzmiller), a local fishermen and operative for Leiter, Bond discovers that all clues point to the small island of Crab Key and a mysterious Chinese man known as Dr. No who owns the island.

Bond and Quarrel sneak over to the island where they encounter a beautiful local shell collector Honey Ryder (Ursula Andress). Soon, Dr. No's men capture Bond and Ryder and take them to Dr. No's lair where he reveals his next diabolical plan is to disrupt a U.S moon launch. It's up to Bond to stop the good doctor's plan, blow up his fortress, and kiss the girl which Bond accomplishes in a quickly moving finale.

But why did James Bond's second resurrection succeed? I give you 007 reasons why DR. NO became a bona fide hit and catapulted Ian Fleming's character James Bond into our cinematic consciousness for 21 more films.

001 - Sean Connery. Producers Albert "Cubby" Broccoli and Harry Saltzman got it right when they selected Sean Connery to play James Bond. If Connery doesn't command the screen, there is no sequel. Connery was a risk, a fairly unknown young actor at the time (you remember him in 1959's DARBY O'GILL AND THE LITTLE PEOPLE, right?) but his portrayal of Bond as one part suave and sexy and one part cold, brutal secret agent with a dash of humor wins us over. Whether he's ordering a martini shaken not stirred or shooting the traitorous Professor Dent (Anthony Dawson) in the back, Connery shows us that he was destined to be 007.

002 -- The Bond Girl. She may not have known it at the time but Ursula Andress as Honey Ryder had just as huge a weight on her lovely shoulders as Connery did as Bond. If we don't find Honey appealing, then much of the film's sex appeal is gone. Luckily, when Andress steps out of the surf in that white bikini, the Bond girl is born. I became an Ursula Andress fan at that moment. Unlike many Bond girls, Honey is not as sophisticated, a bit of a wild child, hunting for sea shells on the off-limits Crab Key, willing to thrust a knife into Bond to protect her day's work. But Bond's charm finally wins her over.

003 - The Villain. DR. NO does an excellent job of keeping the villain off camera until near the end of the film making him even more sinister. When Dr. No (Joseph Wiseman) is revealed, he doesn't disappoint. He will be the first of many Bond villains to be both urbane (like Bond) yet psychotic. Another nice touch is Dr. No's metallic hands, the unfortunate result of handling radioactive materials. Jaws and his metal teeth from THE SPY WHO LOVED ME or Oddjob and his lethal bowler hat from GOLDFINGER will follow in future films. We remember the Bond baddies. If Dr. No is not memorable, neither is the film.

004 - The Director. Terence Young sets the tone for all future Bond movies with DR. NO. Exotic locations, beautiful women, spy gadgets, and nicely staged action scenes will become the norm. Young introduces filmgoers to the Bond mythology in DR. NO as we learn double O means Bond is licensed to kill and Bond's first gun , a Baretta, gets replaced by a Walther PBK. This kind of movie trivia will make James Bond an international icon.

005 - The Location. Films were just beginning to go on location in the 50's and 60's. Jamaica plays a role in DR. NO and as the Bond series continues, the filmmakers utilize more and more exotic and distant locales around the world. Jamaica's waterfalls and pristine beaches and islands are as sexy and dangerous in Bond's world as Honey Ryder and Dr. No. If DR. NO takes place on the north side of London, would we be as interested? Location, location, location.

006 - Production Design. Ken Adam, the Production designer for DR. NO and 6 other James Bond films creates two memorable sets on Dr. No's island hideout that again, set the bar for future Bond films: a domed room with spider web like bars and an underground apartment with convex aquarium and priceless stolen art. Adam's brilliant work would be seen in 1964 in Stanley Kubrick's DR. STRANGELOVE. His masterful and bold designs further compliment the Bond villains and stick in our subconscious.

007 - The Music and Titles. Music can sometimes be the strongest component to a film's success and there's no doubt that John Barry's catchy Bond theme with the guitar reverb as Bond faces down an unseen assassin through a gun's barrel is one of a kind and a hook we the audience won't soon forget. Maurice Binder's title design for DR. NO, although not as psychedelic nor sexy as future Bond title sequences will become, introduces us to the montage of silhouettes and color. All that DR. NO is missing is a good theme song but that will be fully realized in the third installment of the Bond series in GOLDFINGER (1964).

If James Bond had never made it past his first film DR. NO, now that would be a scenario that only Dr. No could dream up. But thanks to director Terence Young and actors Sean Connery, Ursula Andress, and Joseph Wiseman, DR. NO sets the stage for a series that has become more famous than author Ian Fleming ever could have imagined. In future essays, I hope to explore the best and worst Bond girls and Bond villains.

The Ghost and Mrs. Muir (1947)

I've always liked the scenario of a living person in love with a ghost. I think the idea could go in a million different directions and probably has. GHOST (1990) is probably the biggest hit of the human/ghost love story but THE GHOST AND MRS. MUIR (1947) is a worthy entry as well.
As I kid I faintly remember watching THE GHOST AND MRS. MUIR on television. Only it was the 1968 television show and except for the goofy laughter of one of the show's co-stars, actor Charles Nelson Reilly, that's all I recall.

With a screenplay by Philip Dunne based on the novel by R.A. Dick and directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz, this 1947 THE GHOST AND MRS. MUIR does not try to be a horror film and really has very little to frighten the audience with. Recently widowed Lucy Muir (Gene Tierney) shocks her in-laws by deciding to leave London with her young daughter Anna (played by a young Natalie Wood) and move to the English coast. With the help of a local real estate agent (Robert Coote) she picks a seaside cottage overlooking the ocean that was owned by Captain Daniel Gregg (Rex Harrison), a seafaring man who supposedly committed suicide. Only Gregg has not entirely vacated the house. In fact, Gregg haunts his former home which appeals very much to the plucky Mrs. Muir.

Director Mankiewicz does a nice job of setting up the ghostly Captain Gregg and Gregg's first appearance to Mrs. Muir is an astonishingly clever and simple supernatural entrance.  The chemistry between Gene Tierney and Rex Harrison is the film's strongest element. Tierney is best known for her role as Laura in Otto Preminger's film noir classic LAURA (1944) and several other film noir films in the 1940's but her portrayal of the strong willed Mrs. Muir perfectly counters Harrison's blustery but likable Captain Gregg. It's fun to watch Harrison try to scare Tierney and her daughter out of the house At first, he's frustrated with their presence but eventually Gregg comes to have feelings for Mrs. Muir.

When Mrs. Muir has to find a way to earn a living to afford the cottage, she and Gregg come up with the idea of writing his memoirs as a captain at sea. She takes the manuscript to a publisher and as the book becomes a success, we want to see the relationship between the two blossom. The film hits a snag for me when a fellow children's book author Miles Fairley (George Sanders) enters the picture as a would-be suitor. George Sanders is one of my favorite actors but he intrudes all over my wanting to see our couple bicker and banter their way toward love.

Eventually, Lucy and Captain Gregg reunite but by the time they do, the picture is over, leaving me wanting more of this intriguing odd couple. Maybe that's why they came up with the television show of the same name. So that Mrs. Muir and Captain Gregg actually did spend more time together.
Locations always play an interesting character in film and viewers will enjoy recognizing the Monterey Peninsula, Carmel, and the famous Seventeen mile drive in northern California fill in as the English seaside.

THE GHOST AND MRS. MUIR is a nice love story that could have been a great love story if the two protagonists could have spent a little more time together on screen.  The ending will satisfy some romantics but Captain Gregg and Mrs. Muir need to be united for much longer in this CrazyFilmGuy's opinion.

The Wolf Man (1941) and The Wolfman (2010)

My love of horror films began when I was a kid with the classics from Universal Pictures. When I wasn't playing football in the neighborhood streets or reading a Hardy Boys book, I was waiting for Saturday night to roll around when SINISTER CINEMA would come on at 11:30pm on KATU Channel 2. Often, I would sleep over at my aunt's house in northwest Portland and she would stay up and watch DRACULA (1931) or THE ISLE OF DEAD (1945) with me. She lived in an old house that creaked a lot and we spent half the night watching the movie with a blanket covering our eyes. What better way to enjoy a horror film!

The golden era of horror films from Universal Pictures was from 1931 thru 1945. It is these films that have forever etched in my memory the quintessential horror film motifs that even today I still adore: castles and foggy moors and graveyards and spooky abbeys and crypts and forests and laboratories like the kind Dr. Frankenstein created the monster in.

One of my favorite Universal horror films is the 1941 THE WOLF MAN directed by George Waggner which is a B movie at heart but one of the best B horror films ever made. I've probably seen it a dozen times but only with my most recent viewing have I come to the conclusion that Larry Talbot (Lon Chaney Jr) is one of the great tragic characters in cinema.

Larry returns to his ancestral Talbot Castle from America where he's been estranged from his father Sir John Talbot (Claude Rains). Larry's returned because his brother has recently died. Talbot's luck rapidly goes from bad to worse. He falls for local gal Gwen Conliffe (Evelyn Ankers) but she's engaged to another man Frank Andrews (Patric Knowles). Talbot takes Gwen and her girlfriend Fay (Jenny Williams) to a local gypsy fortune teller (Maria Ouspenskaya) where another werewolf (Bela Lugosi) kills Fay and bites Talbot. Now, Talbot is cursed to be a werewolf. The woman he loves he now wants to devour and when he stalks Gwen on the misty moors, it's Talbot's own father, Sir John who unknowingly kills his last living son. It sounds like a Shakespeare play but the original screenplay was written by Curt Siodmak, the godfather of werewolf lore,  that future werewolf movies will borrow from again and again.

THE WOLF MAN is Lon Chaney Jr's pinnacle performance. The son of silent horror star Lon Chaney Sr (PHANTOM OF THE OPERA, THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME), Chaney Jr plays Talbot beautifully with the right mixture of pathos and horror. Chaney's size and physicality work well in the scenes where he's the werewolf. Chaney Jr would play a few other notable monsters in his lifetime including Frankenstein, the Son of Dracula, and the Mummy but the Wolf Man was his signature character.

Another reason THE WOLF MAN is a cut above most B horror films is the supporting cast. Claude Rains (THE INVISIBLE MAN), horror legend Bela Lugosi (DRACULA), B movie horror queen Evelyn Ankers (JUNGLE WOMAN), a young Ralph Bellamy (THE AWFUL TRUTH), and Patric Knowles (THE ADVENTURES OF ROBIN HOOD) all bring a freshness to their respective roles. Lastly, let's not forget the wonderful Maria Ouspenskaya as the gypsy Maleva. She loses her werewolf son Lugosi but gains another werewolf son in Chaney. And she voices the haunting werewolf mantra, "Even a man who is pure in heart and says his prayers at night, will become a wolf when the wolfbane blooms and the August moon is bright."

THE WOLF MAN's special effects were groundbreaking for 1941. Make-up artist Jack Pierce glued yak hair to Chaney's face, shot in time lapse to give the illusion of a man transforming into a wolf. It's that kind of originality that makes THE WOLF MAN so much fun.

Sixty nine years later, Universal has brought back THE WOLFMAN for a whole new audience. Director Joe Johnston seems to be well-versed with the Universal horror icons as the film is full of foggy moors, creepy crypts, and even Druid ruins. Johnston smartly hired famed werewolf make-up artist Rick Baker (AN AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON) to design the werewolf make-up. I liked the decision to go with a mostly erect werewolf like Chaney, Jr performed as opposed to a creature on all fours. The make-up is state of the art but still in the tradition of the classic and not so much CGI (computer generated images).

This time Benicio Del Toro plays Larry Talbot who returns to his ancestral home Blackmoor and Talbot Castle from America when his brother is mysteriously killed. Many critics feel Del Toro is miscast in this film but he reminds me of Lon Chaney, Jr. They are both tall men with expressive, jowly faces. Anthony Hopkins is the Sir John Talbot character, a tragic patriarch who guards the secrets of Talbot Castle both past and present. THE WOLFMAN adds some nice layers to the original characters. We learn Larry Talbot is a famous stage actor back in the states and Sir John was a big game hunter who traveled the world.

Emily Blunt rounds out the the cast as Gwen Conliffe, the fiancee of Talbot's dead brother and Hugo Weaving is a new character Inspector Abberline sent by Scotland Yard to investigate the town's rash of bloody deaths. Johnston even resurrects the career of Geraldine Chaplin who plays Maleva, the gypsy. I haven't seen Chaplin in a film in a long time and this casting reminds me of the return of Mia Farrow as the sinister nanny in the recent remake of THE OMEN (2006).

Director Johnston does a nice job of moving the action to interesting locales. He stages a nice werewolf attack on a gypsy camp and the Wolfman loose in London reminded me of the nighttime prowlings of another monster that terrorized London in DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE (1931).

However, one problem with this WOLFMAN is it probably should have been made sooner. Besides referencing the original film, THE WOLFMAN borrows much from recent films like BRAM STOKER'S DRACULA (1992), SLEEPY HOLLOW (1999), and even a nightmarish character in one of Larry Talbot's dreams reminded me of Gollum from THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE TWO TOWERS (2002). Maybe I shouldn't be surprised as composer Danny Elfman did the music for this film and SLEEPY HOLLOW and co-writer Andrew Kevin Walker also wrote SLEEPY HOLLOW.

The film has great thrills, a nice helping of gore, and atmospheric sets but it badly needs a sense of humor. Both Hopkins and Weaving have their moments to bring a chuckle to the audience but the laughs are few and far between. Hopkins had so much fun as the hammy Dr. Van Helsing in BRAM STOKER'S DRACULA but he's much more reserved in THE WOLFMAN. Another problem is the film at times bogs down with strange transitions from one scene to the next that leave the viewer confused at times.

But I have no problem with Universal bringing back THE WOLFMAN for a new generation of audiences. Today's films have more substantial budgets and technology at their disposal than the horror classics did and I hope it will make audiences look back to the past and check out the original THE WOLF MAN and many of the other great classic Universal horror films.

The Missouri Breaks (1976)

It's hard to believe that a film with two of the greatest American actors in the last five decades has been so overlooked. I never realized Marlon Brando and Jack Nicholson did a film together until I kept seeing it in the Western section at my local video store. Brando and Nicholson in a movie together? Are you kidding me? Cinema nirvana.

THE MISSOURI BREAKS is directed by the great, underrated Arthur Penn who directed BONNIE AND CLYDE (1967) as well as another excellent western LITTLE BIG MAN (1970). The screenplay is by novelist and screenwriter Thomas McGuane and MISSOURI BREAKS feels like a novel, moving at a leisurely, unhurried pace that's hard to imagine in today's action packed cinema.

Land baron David Braxton (John McLiam) has a horse thief hung. The gang of horse rustlers led by Tom Logan (Jack Nicholson) retaliates and hangs Braxton's best hand. Thus sets in motion Braxton hiring Robert E. Lee Clayton (Marlon Brando), an Irish "regulator" i.e. killer to get rid of the horse rustlers. Complicating matters is that Logan falls in love with Braxton's daughter Jane (played by newcomer Kathleen Lloyd).

Brando has the showier of the two roles (hard to believe with Nicholson) and he commands the screen with his flowing white mane, buckskin jacket, and Irish brogue. You can't take your eyes off the man. I can't help but wonder if Brando drove director Penn (and the studio) mad with some of his acting decisions in the film. He plays scenes wearing a woman's bonnet or a Chinese coolie hat. In one of his big scenes with Nicholson, Brando sits in a bubble bath. Brando paints an indelible character as Clayton, crazy as a fox yet cunning like a wolf for his prey.

Nicholson's Tom Logan is a different character than we're accustomed to seeing from him. Missing in this film are Nicholson's trademark Cheshire grin and crazy eyes. Instead, he's a loyal friend, dedicated to his gang and their profession. He just wants to be left to his rustling. But the encroaching world won't let him. He plays a game of cat and mouse with Brando's Clayton, pretending to be a landowner, trying to plant a crop, and courting the land baron's daughter as he waits for his gang to return from Canada with some horses. But Brando knows who he is and patiently awaits the rustlers to return.

The Montana west in MISSOURI BREAKS is not the pretty western towns and spectacular vistas of a John Ford or Howard Hawks film. It's muddy and dark and desolate and dangerous. Like a great many westerns in the late 60's and 70's, BREAKS is an eulogy to the Wild West. The time when a group of men could steal horses and make a living is over. Progress is taking over.

The supporting cast is excellent, especially Nicholson's gang. They're well known actors today but young and having the time of their lives in 1976. And they look like horse thieves: Randy Quaid (INDEPENDENCE DAY), Harry Dean Stanton (WILD AT HEART), and Frederic Forrest (APOCALYPSE NOW) make up the doomed gang.

As a teenager, I came upon Marlon Brando late in his career, when he was resigned to making million dollar cameos in films like SUPERMAN (1978) and APOCALYPSE NOW (1979). But check out his early films in the 50's and 60's, when he was considered the greatest American actor of his generation. It's hard to disagree.  Brando still shows he's got it in THE MISSOURI BREAKS. Yet, this film marks the celluloid passing of the torch to the next up and coming great American actor in Jack Nicholson.