Flash Gordon’s Trip to Mars (1938, Ford Beebe and Robert F. Hill), Chapter 12: Ming the Merciless
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Sep 22, 2018
It’s a good thing Ming (Charles Middleton) loves to carelessly gloat because if he didn’t, there’s no way Buster Crabbe could’ve got the upper hand this chapter. Ming the Merciless is, sort of, about Martian queen Beatrice Roberts finding out Middleton isn’t really her pal. But she doesn’t read more
Smiley Face (2007, Gregg Araki)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Sep 21, 2018
Smiley Face is something of an endurance test. How long can the film keep going before falling apart due to its own flimsiness. Thanks to star Anna Faris, it pretty much does make it to the finish. The third act–thanks to the bookending device (the film is told in flashback, narrated by Roscoe Lee read more
Electric Earthquake (1942, Dave Fleischer)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Sep 20, 2018
Outside the racist–though not exceptionally racist all things considered–characterization of the villain, a Native American engineer who’s going to level Manhattan because it was stolen from his people, Electric Earthquake is pretty much great. Well, it’s outstanding. For what it does, it’s read more
Flash Gordon’s Trip to Mars (1938, Ford Beebe and Robert F. Hill), Chapter 11: Human Bait
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Sep 19, 2018
And it’s back to the Martian imperial city or whatever it’d be called this chapter. After a surprising cliffhanger resolution–brainwashed Jean Rogers does indeed stab Buster Crabbe in the back–Crabbe and his male sidekicks (Frank Shannon, Donald Kerr, and Richard Alexander) go running around read more
The Magnetic Telescope (1942, Dave Fleischer)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Sep 18, 2018
The Magnetic Telescope is about a power-mad astronomer who builds an observatory with a giant magnet on top so he can attract meteors and comets to the Earth for further study. The device, in attracting meteors, is an obvious public safety issue but the astronomer doesn’t care. He’s willing to let read more
Flash Gordon’s Trip to Mars (1938, Ford Beebe and Robert F. Hill), Chapter 10: Incense of Forgetfulness
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Sep 17, 2018
Okay, Incense of Forgetfulness might be where Flash Gordon’s Trip to Mars starts getting into… well, travel trouble. After an exceptionally bad cliffhanger resolution (Buster Crabbe just manages to break free of his bonds, nothing else), there’s about ten minutes of circular narrative. Crabbe, read more
The Bulleteers (1942, Dave Fleischer)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Sep 16, 2018
Three genius mechanical engineers come up with a flying, rocket-powered bullet car, with a penetrating nose, and try to extort millions from Metropolis. When their extortion fails, they attack. After some trouble, Superman stops them. The Bulleteers is nothing if not concise. The cartoon starts int read more
Flash Gordon’s Trip to Mars (1938, Ford Beebe and Robert F. Hill), Chapter 9: Symbol of Death
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Sep 15, 2018
Nine chapters in, Flash Gordon’s Trip to Mars hasn’t had any majorly repetitive chapters. The overall story moves along, at least moderately, by the end of the chapter. But not so with Symbol of Death. The chapter opens with Buster Crabbe escaping Charles Middleton’s imprisonment and death ray; read more
The Big Sleep (1946, Howard Hawks)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Sep 14, 2018
A lot goes unspoken in The Big Sleep. It’s very much set in a wartime Los Angeles, but there’s never much said about wartime conditions or Los Angeles. When private detective Humphrey Bogart goes around the city, investigating, he’s only ever encountering women (beautiful women at that, because read more
The Mechanical Monsters (1941, Dave Fleischer)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Sep 13, 2018
The Mechanical Monsters has a lot of promise. Or at least it seems like it’s going to have a lot of promise. A mad scientist has built around thirty giant flying robots he sends out to rob Metropolis. The cartoon opens with one of them returning with its loot. No one can stop him. Back in the city, read more
Flash Gordon’s Trip to Mars (1938, Ford Beebe and Robert F. Hill), Chapter 8: The Black Sapphire of Kalu
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Sep 12, 2018
Poor Flash (Buster Crabbe) and Dale (Jean Rogers), every time it seems like they might actually get a chance to lock lips, something happens. This time it’s Frank Shannon calling attention to Donald Kerr being injured. Flash being Flash, Crabbe has to attend to Kerr, not passionately reunite with read more
Superman (1941, Dave Fleischer)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Sep 11, 2018
Superman (or The Mad Scientist) opens with Jackson Beck narrating the origin of Superman. It’s a couple minutes, sets up Krypton going boom and mild mannered reporter Clark Kent. Then it’s on to the action, which starts with a mad scientist sending a threatening letter to the Daily Planet. Perry read more
Flash Gordon’s Trip to Mars (1938, Ford Beebe and Robert F. Hill), Chapter 7: The Prisoner of Mongo
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Sep 10, 2018
The Prisoner of Mongo title suggests, well, whoever was titling the chapters wasn’t paying attention to the actual script–much like last chapter’s title, calling the Forest People the Tree-Men–but it does indeed turn out Buster Crabbe and company will end up prisoners of Mongo. At least, of read more
Die Hard with a Vengeance (1995, John McTiernan)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Sep 9, 2018
Until the tacked on finish, Die Hard with a Vengeance can do little wrong. It doesn’t aim particularly high, just high enough–it’s a symphony of action movie action (and violence) set in New York City; the city’s geography (at least movie familiar geography) plays less and less of a part as read more
Flash Gordon’s Trip to Mars (1938, Ford Beebe and Robert F. Hill), Chapter 6: Tree-Men of Mars
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Sep 8, 2018
Oh sure, the title is Tree-Men of Mars, but they’re actually called the “forest-people (of Mars)” or even the “fire-men (of Mars). They live in a forest (in the trees) and shoot fire at their enemies. Who, by the end of the chapter, are after Crabbe and company. Crabbe and Shannon have just read more
The Lodger (1944, John Brahm)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Sep 7, 2018
The Lodger begins four murders into the Jack the Ripper killings (the film actually goes over the historical number but also makes some rather liberal changes to the history). Just after a murder occurs, which seems a rather unfortunate event since the victim passes a number of police officers and read more
Flash Gordon’s Trip to Mars (1938, Ford Beebe and Robert F. Hill), Chapter 5: The Boomerang
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Sep 6, 2018
It’s unclear what the chapter title, The Boomerang, has to do with any of the content. Unless it’s something about Buster Crabbe and Frank Shannon continually returning to Beatrice Roberts’s palace from the Clay Men’s kingdom. Crabbe and Shannon start the chapter saving Jean Rogers and Donald read more
Gaslight (1944, George Cukor)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Sep 5, 2018
At the end of Gaslight, when all has seemingly been revealed, there’s only one question left. If Scotland Yard inspector Joseph Cotten isn’t an American in London, why doesn’t anyone notice his lack of accent. It’s a wise choice not to give Cotten an accent–presumably he couldn’t do one–but read more
Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation (2015, Christopher McQuarrie)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Sep 4, 2018
While Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation doesn’t deliver much in the way of plot twists, it instead delivers a lot of easy smiles and a handful of good laughs. The easy smiles aren’t just for the action sequences, which often focus on characters’ reactions to them–sometimes relief, sometimes read more
Flash Gordon’s Trip to Mars (1938, Ford Beebe and Robert F. Hill), Chapter 4: Ancient Enemies
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Sep 3, 2018
The cliffhanger resolution from last chapter should be this awesome sequence where Buster Crabbe–faced with a collapsing structure–swings down on a line, risking his life to save his prisoner (Beatrice Roberts), in a scene George Lucas would “borrow” for Star Wars. Unfortunately, the whole thing read more