What’s Screening: October 20 – 26

~ Lincoln Spector

It’s late October, and you know what that means. There’s a lot of horror in the theaters. But that’s not all; Cerrito Classics is playing through the week. 

I made a mistake in this week’s newsletter. I failed to tell my readers that all movies  playing at the Stanford run in 35mm. Thanks to Gary Meyer to bringing my mistake.

Festivals & Series

Festival Recommendations (All seats $9.00!)

A Strangers on a Train (1951), Cerrito, 3:30pm, 6:00pm, & 8:30pm

One of Hitchcock’s scariest films, and therefore one of his best. A rich, spoiled psychopath (the worst kind) convinces himself that a moderately-famous athlete has agreed to exchange murders. The athlete soon finds himself hounded by suspicious cops who think he’s killed his philandering wife, and a psycho who thinks he’s owed a murder.

B+ The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957), Cerrito, Monday, 3:30pm & 7:00pm

Most people who have seen David Lean’s World War II adventure years ago will be surprised when they see it again. That’s because the brilliant story of an over-proud British POW (Alec Guinness) sticks in the mind. But to see the actual movie again is to be reminded that Guinness’ tale is just a subplot (the actor only received third billing). The bulk of Kwai is a very well made but conventional action movie with some uncomfortably Hollywoodish elements. Remember the Burmese porters who all just happen to all be beautiful young women who seem to love white men? In one way, Kwai is like sex: When it’s good, it’s fantastic, and when it’s bad, it’s at least entertaining.

B+ The Shining (1980), Cerrito, Wednesday, 3:30pm & 7:00pm

Stephen King’s novel The Shining is much better than the movie (that’s not always the truth). Stanley Kubrick, brilliant as he was, missed the main point of the story – that the protagonist loves his family, and is a good man struggling with his inner demons. Without that, it’s little more than a sequence of scares (all good scares, but just scares). Kubrick added some surprising and effective touches, but overall, he turned a brilliant novel into a simply very good horror flick. Read my longer article.

Theatrical revivals

A Nosferatu (1922), New Parkway, Sunday, 2:45pm

Live music! Forget about sexy vampires; the first film version of Dracula doesn’t have one. This unauthorized rip-off got the filmmakers in legal trouble. Max Schreck played Count “Orlok” as a reptilian predator in vaguely human form. This 1922 silent isn’t the scariest monster movie ever made, but it just might be the creepiest. Not to be confused with Werner Herzog’s 1979 remake. Read my Blu-ray review.

B+ Frankenstein (1931), Balboa, Sunday, 3:00pm

16mm: James Whales’ original Frankenstein is atmospheric and beautiful. Besides, no one played Dr. Frankenstein’s nameless creation like Boris Karloff, who interpreted the monster as an ugly child in a too-large body – an outcast torn between his need for love and his anger at the society that rejects him.

A The Bride of Frankenstein (1935), Balboa, Sunday, 5:00pm

35mm: You spend more time scared for the monster than of it in James Whales’ masterpiece. Boris Karloff plays the nameless creature as a child in a too-large body, the ultimate outcast torn between his need for love and his anger at the society that rejects him. With Colin Clive as the mad scientist, Ernest Thesiger as a delightfully over-the-top madder scientist, and Elsa Lanchester as both Mary Shelley and the monster’s mate (although, technically speaking, Valerie Hobson plays the real Bride of Frankenstein).

B+ The Lost Boys (1987), New Mission, Monday, 7:00pm, Movie Party

This clever and funny teenage vampire movie was shot in Santa Cruz, and is clearly set there (even though they give the town another name). So, you have the undead partying in the summer nights on the beach and the boardwalk, all dealing with teenage angst. But then, what do you do when peer pressure tells you to become an immortal bloodsucker? Hey, all the cool kids are doing it! A lot of fun in a horror movie that refuses to take itself seriously. It’s even occasionally scary.

B Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948), Stanford, 730pm

35mm: Universal Pictures combined their horror franchise with their top comedy team to create a high-concept mixture of thrills and laughs. Surprisingly, it turned out pretty good. The filmmakers knew when to be funny and when to be scary. But the title is misleading; Bud and Lou never meet Dr. Frankenstein. They do meet his monster, unfortunately played by Glenn Strange instead of the great Boris Karloff. But Bela Lugosi gets to play Dracula one more time and Lon Chaney Jr. does his tortured wolfman bit. On a double bill with The Mummy’s Hand.

B The Exorcist (1973)
֍ Balboa, Monday & Tuesday, 7:30pm
֍ New Mission, Tuesday, 6:30pm

35mm: This famous horror flick has a serious statement: convert to Catholicism. But for a Jewish agnostic like myself, the message doesn’t carry much of a bite. (When I first saw the movie, in a big, crowded theater, sitting next to two ex-Catholic friends, it packed a big wallop). The film is clearly trying to say that real evil is in modern medicine, while religion can save the day. But whatever it’s saying, it’s a well-made and entertaining movie.

C+ Dracula (1931), Stanford, 4:40pm & 7:30pm

35mm: The film that started Universal’s famed horror series, and the first to star Bela Lugosi in the role that made him famous, really doesn’t deserve its classic status. The picture suffers from stilted blocking and too much mediocre dialog–common faults in early talkies, especially those based on stage plays. But it has a few wonderful moments, most of which are wordless. On a double bill with Dracula’s Daughter, which I never saw.

Continuing engagements

Movies I can’t review

These are either films that I haven’t seen, or have seen long ago.

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Published by Lincoln Spector

Lincoln Spector writes about cinema, technology, and cinema technology. From 1986 through 2008, he wrote Gigglebytes, the first technology-oriented humor column. From 1977 through 2016, he wrote PC World's Answer Line column and blog.