HAPPY HALLOWEEN

HAPPY HALLOWEEN.

We've got a fresh crop of Halloween horrors this week at Great Old Movies: two Brian De Palma shockers; a modern horror film that eschews the supernatural for common sense; a "classic" starring the ever-delightful Chucky; and the colorized version of a very old favorite with Vincent Price.

And check out some more horror films over at my brother blog, B Movie Nightmare!

Have a great night! 

THOSE BLOODY ITALIANS

This week Great Old Movies takes a look at Italian horror films, specifically those bloody "giallo" movies or gialli (the plural).

"Giallo" simply means yellow in Italian. (You would think it would denote the color red for blood, but the term derives from Italian pulp-type fiction with yellow covers.) But giallo has come to mean a certain type of mystery film or thriller. It has a broader usage in Italy itself, but elsewhere it denotes a specific type of shocker. There is usually an unknown maniac (or at least someone who acts like a maniac but may be quite sane and cunning) on the loose killing several victims in often flamboyant and vicious ways. There is a gruesome emphasis on the deaths. And a convoluted plot that may lead decades back into the past to explain motives or bring the killer to light.

Gialli were influential in some ways on the American slasher films that followed, although these tended to have much more simplistic plot lines. One could also argue that Brian De Palma, who made very classy "slasher" films at the beginning of his career, was as much influenced by Italian gialli as he was by Hitchcock.

Probably the first great giallo director was Mario Bava, whose Blood and Black Lace was very influential on later films, including those by the second great giallo director, Dario Argento. (Argento should certainly have been represented in this week's films, but when I put in my DVD of The Bird with the Crystal Plumage it proved to be defective. However, type in his name in the search bar above and many of his films will come up.) Argento helmed such gems as Deep Red and Dario Argento's Trauma, both of which are masterpieces of the genre.

PASSION

PASSION (2012). Director/writer: Brian De Palma.

Christine Stanford (Rachel McAdams) is an advertising executive who takes credit for an idea developed by her assistant, Isabelle (Noomi Rapace). When Isabelle starts to assert herself -- and sleep with Christine's what-are-they-thinking? boyfriend, Dirk (Paul Anderson) --  Christine doesn't like it and humiliates her publicly. It all leads to bitchery of the extreme kind, as well as betrayal and murder. This is a remake of the mediocre Love Crime and is slightly better than the foreign original, though no world-beater. The film is more homoerotic than the original, but more likely because De Palma finds girl-on-girl action sexy than because of any desire to seriously explore lesbianism -- in fact, it's fairly exploitative and childish when it comes to the subject. The movie even goes so far as to present a lesbian as a blackmailing sexual predator! [In one stupid scene Christine calls an employee, Dani (Karoline Herfurth) a "dyke" and the latter lets her get away with it even though she just witnessed Christine kissing Isabelle on the lips!] Passion holds the attention and isn't badly acted, but it's nowhere in the league of De Palma's best movies, such as Carrie.

Verdict: Only for people who are easily titillated. **1/2.

CARRIE (2002)

Angela Bettis as Carrie White

CARRIE (2002 telefilm). Director: David Carson.

This unnecessary TV remake of Brian De Palma's excellent Carrie tells the same story of a tormented telekinetic teen who wreaks havoc after she's humiliated at the prom, but takes half an hour longer to do so. It could be argued that this is somewhat more faithful to the documentary-type approach of the novel, but the scenes with a cop (David Keith) interviewing different people about the prom disaster that are interspersed throughout the telefilm add nothing to the movie, and only pad the running time so this could air in a three hour time slot (with lots of commercials naturally). Angelis Bettis is quite good as Carrie White, looking a bit more neurotic and freakish than Sissy Spacek, but Patricia Clarkson is completely unimpressive as her mother. Perhaps trying not to imitate the flamboyant Piper Laurie in the original, Clarkson underplays too much and is simply dull; she's more natural than Laurie but much less interesting. Rena Sofer is fine as the gym teacher, and the other young people playing assorted high-schoolers are all okay. This includes some other sequences from the book, such as a meteor shower hitting Carrie's house, and a scene when bitchy Chris Hargensen's father threatens the school with a law suit. Otherwise, it pretty much follows Lawrence D. Cohen's screenplay for the original version, using much of the same dialogue, although, incredibly, only Bryan Fuller is credited. The ending was supposed to make room for a weekly television series about the exploits of Carrie White, but low ratings put paid to that lousy idea. The funniest line has someone remarking that mean girl Chris Hargensen has an IQ of 140 -- sure! The original film was actually moving at times, but this one is not.

Verdict: Some good things in this, including Bettis' performance, but far below the level of the De Palma classic. **1/2.

MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE

Ethan Hunt (Cruise) faces down "Max" (Redgrave)

MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE (1996). Director: Brian De Palma.

Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) is on a special "impossible" mission for the IMF [Impossible Missions Force] in Prague when everything goes south and his teammates are slaughtered all around him.  He is told by Kittridge (Henry Czerny, who plays Conrad Grayson on TV's Revenge) that the whole operation was merely a ruse to flush out a mole in the organization. Since Ethan appears to be the only one of the group who's still alive, he becomes the chief suspect and goes on the run. Trying to track down whoever murdered his comrades, he enters into a phony alliance with an arms dealer known only as "Max" (Vanessa Redgrave) and in the film's most suspenseful sequence must steal a list of important names from a nearly impregnable vault while hanging just inches from the ceiling; there is also a thrilling climax involving a helicopter and a high-speed train. While purists may quibble over the identity of the mastermind behind the dire plot, Mission: Impossible is an excellent update of and tribute to the very popular and long-running TV show, equally absurd at times but always fun. Cruise is well suited to this kind of material and does it well, while Jon Voight is fine as IMF head Jim Phelps. Jean Reno, Kristin Scott Thomas, Ving Rhames, and Emmanuelle Beart also have important roles. For some reason Emilio Estevez is uncredited as Jack, an early casualty of the IMF in Prague, although his performance is solid. Vanessa Redgrave is just splendid in her unusual turn as Max. The movie wisely uses Lalo Schifrin's theme music from the television program. Followed by three sequels.

Verdict: One of the classier television adaptations to hit theaters. ***1/2.

LEARNING TO LIVE OUT LOUD Piper Laurie

LEARNING TO LIVE OUT LOUD. Piper Laurie. Crown; 2011.

Autobiographies of second and third tier celebrities are often worthless because the author is too interested in settling scores or vomiting bitterness over being overlooked, ignored, or hidden behind a bushel, but luckily this is not the case with Laurie, who has several Oscar nominations to her credit and once again became a sought after actress after her initial Hollywood period [although she refers to herself as a "star," which may technically be correct, she never exactly had the career of say, a Joan Crawford]. Laurie had a difficult childhood, but became closer to her parents in later years. She writes of her sexual experiences with Ronald Reagan and Mel Gibson [one would think some women would now be embarrassed to admit they'd had sex with those two!], her affairs with director John Frankenheimer and others, and her marriage to a movie critic, Joe Morgenstern. She writes with admirable candor of her personal life, and doesn't neglect her film or television career, either. Laurie struggled against an indifferent studio system which apparently saw her as little other than superficial cheesecake and had to fight to gain respect as an actress. She had a comeback of sorts in Brian De Palma's film version of Carrie, which led not just to other macabre assignments but more "serious" work as well. Occasionally, Laurie seems to pull back from total truth; surely there was more behind the break up of her marriage to Morgenstern than what she writes. She appeared in The Thornbirds but either never met star Barbara Stanwyck or chooses not to write about her. Some fans may be disappointed that she makes absolutely no mention of working with Italian director Dario Argento on his grotesque but rather excellent Trauma [if anything, Laurie's character is even more horrible than the mother in Carrie.] Still this is a very well-written and surprisingly absorbing read from a Hollywood, theater, and TV insider who was around for the studio system and the Golden Age of Television and writes intelligently about all of it.

Verdict: A worthwhile read. ***1/2. 

THE BLACK DAHLIA

THE BLACK DAHLIA (2006). Directed by Brian De Palma.

“I think you'd rather f--k me than kill me,” says Hilary Swank to detective Josh Hartnett in this adaptation of James Ellroy's novel, which pretty much sums up the tone of this rather silly movie. Brian De Palma once made some very well-crafted and entertaining pictures, but despite some elaborate scenic design and the duplication of the forties era, this is not one of his more memorable projects. The picture begins with a long, unnecessary prologue showing us how the detective team of Harnett and Aaron Eckhardt were originally boxers and how they square off against each other in the ring. Before long the two are not only partners but best buddies, forming a loose menage a trois with Eckhardt's girlfriend Scarlet Johansson. [Miss Johansson is either a mediocre actress or to be charitable is simply struggling with an impossible part.] Hilary Swank is much more on the mark as the stereotypical sexy, amoral rich gal, Madelaine, who dallies with Hartnett when he investigates her family in connection with the murder of [the real life] Elizabeth Short. One gets the impression that neither De Palma or anyone else connected to the movie cares that much about Short, The Black Dahlia, or anything else. The script by Josh Friedman is terribly confused and disjointed and the movie takes forever to sustain some interest. There is a hilarious scene in an alleged lesbian nightclub that could only be in a Hollywood movie, with stages and stairs out of Busby Berkeley and k.d. lang making a guest-appearance on the landing as a vocalist surrounded by chorus cuties. The movie has its compelling moments and entertaining scenes but by and large it just doesn't convince. Hartnett and Eckhardt are fine, however, and the picture is nearly stolen by Swank's mother (Fioria Shaw), who gets drunk and bitchy at dinner, to say the least. De Palma doesn't seem to care anymore about camera movements and angles and stylishness, and Black Dahlia can certainly not be seen as a memorial to the dead fifteen-year-old child, Elizabeth Short. The filmmaker doesn't seem to get that she was a minor being exploited by adults, a cycle which, frankly, this movie seems to be continuing.

Verdict: Overbaked and clumsy. **.