Flash Gordon (1936, Frederick Stephani), Chapter 8: Tournament of Death
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Sep 9, 2017
Tournament of Death is an unexpectedly strong chapter. There’s a lot going on. There’s the cliffhanger resolution, there’s Buster Crabbe facing off with Charles Middleton for the first time since Chapter One, there’s Frank Shannon saving the day, there’s Jack Lipson having character development, read more
Flash Gordon (1936, Frederick Stephani), Chapter 7: Shattering Doom
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Sep 8, 2017
It’s another heavy chapter. Despite a valiant escape effort, Buster Crabbe ends up back in chains. He and his fellow, shirtless men in shorts shovel radium into king hawkman Jack Lipson’s furnance. Lipson’s still testing Jean Rogers’s affections. She’s got a couple rat read more
Devil in a Blue Dress (1995, Carl Franklin)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Sep 8, 2017
Devil in a Blue Dress is almost so much better. Director Franklin gets easily distracted and follows tangents, both in the script and the directing. The latter makes sense–he’s always too enthuastic about the (excellent) production design, recreating late 1940s Black Los Angeles. With Tak Fujimoto’ read more
How to Steal the World (1968, Sutton Roley)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Sep 8, 2017
It takes a long seventy-five minutes to get there, but How to Steal the World does have some good moments in its finale. World is a theatrical release of a “Man from U.N.C.L.E.” television two-parter. It leads to an often boring ninety minutes, which improves in the second half just for momentum’s read more
Flash Gordon (1936, Frederick Stephani), Chapter 6: Flaming Torture
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Sep 7, 2017
Flaming Torture is about flaming torture. Buster Crabbe and his allies get captured when they’re trying to rescue Jean Rogers. While Rogers has an arc with Priscilla Lawson–Rogers has to seduce moron king of the hawkmen Jack Lipson (in an atrociously annoying performance)–all Crabbe gets to do read more
Flash Gordon (1936, Frederick Stephani), Chapter 5: The Destroying Ray
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Sep 6, 2017
Despite a lackluster resolution to the cliffhanger–there’s a questionably timed emergency response–and some dawdling, The Destroying Ray eventually comes through. Director Stephani, along with the editors, works up a pace throughout and stops at just the right moment for maximum effect. Most of read more
Flash Gordon (1936, Frederick Stephani), Chapter 4: Battling the Sea Beast
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Sep 5, 2017
Battling the Sea Beast opens with Buster Crabbe fighting an octopus. Mostly it’s Crabbe–quite enthusiastically–feigning a struggle against one or two legs of the octopus, which shows no life once they’re battling. Before it was stock footage; with the fight, it’s a passive prop Crabbe has read more
The Hidden (1987, Jack Sholder)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Sep 4, 2017
The Hidden opens with a shock. Then there’s another shock, then another, then another. The first act of the film races through them. Chris Mulkey is on a killing spree, the cops are in pursuit–including Michael Nouri’s soulful supercop–only it turns out Mulkey can’t be killed. Enter oddball read more
Flash Gordon (1936, Frederick Stephani), Chapter 3: Captured by Shark Men
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Sep 4, 2017
There’s some good action in Captured by Shark Men, with Buster Crabbe rescuing Jean Rogers from Charles Middleton and then an undersea sequence with a giant octopus. The cliffhanger resolution is relatively decent, with Crabbe up against a giant lizard monster. Most of the chapter is either action read more
Flash Gordon (1936, Frederick Stephani), Chapter 2: The Tunnel of Terror
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Sep 3, 2017
The Tunnel of Terror opens with Buster Crabbe and Priscilla Lawson quickly escaping from the previous chapter’s cliffhanger. The unfortunate lizard monsters (real lizards standing in for giant monsters) make a brief return, but soon Crabbe and Lawson are just on the run from the guards. Pretty soon read more
TerrorVision (1986, Ted Nicolaou)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Sep 2, 2017
TerrorVision is a masterpiece of pragmatism. Writer-director Nicolaou works the low budget to the film’s advantage–whether it’s the fifties sitcom nuclear family only with Mom and Dad swinging or how the monster from outer space is cute, even though it’s a disgusting space mutant, with the cuteness read more
Flash Gordon (1936, Frederick Stephani), Chapter 1: The Planet of Peril
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Sep 2, 2017
In just around twenty minutes, The Planet of Peril, the first chapter of Flash Gordon, boldly defines itself. It establishes the ground situation–Earth is about to be destroyed by a collision with another planet and the world’s in panic. It establishes the leads–Buster Crabbe’s a blond, smart read more
The French Connection (1971, William Friedkin)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Sep 1, 2017
The French Connection has a linear progression. No flashbacks, no flashforwards; it’s never implied two events are happening simultaneously. One thing happens after another. Only there’s nothing connecting those things, other than the actors, other than the cops’ investigation. Be read more
The Seventh Sin (1957, Ronald Neame)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Sep 1, 2017
The Seventh Sin has three problems. The first is the third act; it’s too rushed. Given the constraints of the film production–a shot-in-Hollywood production about a cholera outbreak in a rural Chinese town–there’s not so much to be done about it. The film has a limited cast, especially once read more
Quartet Sum Up | Maugham adaptations
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Aug 29, 2017
When I was in undergrad, I discovered the existence of Secret Agent. I was on a thirties Hitchcock kick and a Maugham kick. The idea of a Hitchcock Maugham adaptation? Should be something. At the time–sixteen years ago–Secret Agent was a major disappointment. I’ve still got an interest in Maugham read more
Muriel’s Wedding (1994, P.J. Hogan)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Aug 25, 2017
There are a lot of things going on in Muriel’s Wedding, so many writer-director Hogan’s script gets to the point he’s constantly raveling and unraveling foreground and background threads. The threads are all wrapped around the film’s center–lead Toni Collette’s complicated read more
Encore (1951, Pat Jackson, Anthony Pelissier, and Harold French)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Aug 25, 2017
With the exception of some overly confident rear screen projection and a problematic middle story, Encore is an almost entirely successful anthology of three W. Somerset Maugham stories. Each story has a different director and screenwriter; otherwise the crew is the same. Maugham introduces each st read more
Batman (1943, Lambert Hillyer)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Aug 20, 2017
For the majority of Batman’s fifteen chapters, the serial has a set formula when it comes to the action. Batman (Lewis Wilson) and Robin (Douglas Croft) get into fist fights with the same five or six thugs. Croft gets beat up early while Wilson takes on at least two of the villain, then two o read more
Batman (1943, Lambert Hillyer), Chapter 15: The Doom of the Rising Sun
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Aug 19, 2017
Titling the final chapter, The Doom of the Rising Sun, might give away whether or not J. Carrol Naish succeeds with his awful plan–which Batman never quite defines and sort of forgets about anyway. The screenwriters try to drum up some excitement as Lewis Wilson and Douglas Croft finally face off read more
Bluebeard (2017, Lee Soo-youn)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Aug 19, 2017
Bluebeard runs just under two hours. The last forty-five minutes of it basically undo–or seem to undo–everything in the first seventy-five minutes. Writer and director Lee doesn’t want to answer the questions the film’s mysteries raise, but reveal entirely new mysteries with entirely new answers. read more