For various reasons (no, COVID wasn’t one of them), I haven’t been in theaters recently. So here are five films that I watched at home. As usual, the movies go from best to worst. But there’s nothing that’s really bad.
And here are the movies:
- The Odd Couple
- That Darn Cat
- The Unknown
- Beverly Hills Cop
- Safe in Hell
A- The Odd Couple (1968)
The first thing you should know about The Odd Couple is that it’s screamingly funny. Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau knew how to deliver brilliant comic dialogue. The second thing you should know is that screenwriter Neil Simon understood what he was writing about. (Simon based the film on his own Broadway hit play.) The film, and the play, is about how people can, and cannot, live together…and that’s not always about sex. Unfortunately, it seems obvious that the film is based on a play.
B+ That Darn Cat (1965 – the original one)
Here’s a hilarious film for 10-year-olds, with enough good gags to keep the adults laughing, too. What’s more, the scenes involving crime and possible violence are quite scary. But not that scary. This is a Disney movie, after all. There are reasons for the FBI to follow a cat (yes, a feline) to find the criminals. Almost everyone is an idiot – except the cat, of course. The movie is full of comic talent, including Roddy McDowall, Elsa Lanchester, William Demarest, and Ed Wynn. Unfortunately, Hayley Mills and Dean Jones play the heroes. I have not seen the 1997 remake.
B+ The Unknown (1927)
Lon Chaney plays a circus performer who has no arms (or maybe he does). He shoots a rifle and throws knives with his feet (he also smokes cigarettes with his toes). Joan Crawford plays the target of his love. She tells everyone that she hates arms and hands, but soon she falls for a strongman with thick, muscled arms. Chaney did considerable work to make himself look like a man without arms. Not surprisingly, the film is directed by Tod Browning.
B Beverly Hills Cop (1984)
An Eddie Murphy movie that’s only occasionally funny. A Detroit cop (Murphy) gets mad when a friend is murdered, so he goes to Beverly Hills to get the bad guy who killed him. Murphy is rarely funny. Judge Reinhold is also occasionally amusing. And as a serious crime flick, it’s like any other crime flick. When the big gun fight comes, the bad guys always miss with machine guns, while the good guys always hit the target.
C+ Safe in Hell (1931)
A very weird early sound film from the usually skillful William Wellman. Dorothy Mackaill needs to get out of the country after accidentally killing a man. She arrives on a small island where you don’t need a visa. But committing a crime on the island itself can be frightening. What makes the film worth watching are the visuals and the strange people living in the hotel. In a way, the whole island is a prison.
Bayflicks 