Film review: The Plague of the Zombies (1966)

My last Xmas present arrived yesterday and it was a box set of Hammer Horror films, so we watched this one, and I must say it pleasantly surprised me.  We were a little disappointed with the Mummy (see last year) but this one was a tightly structured, well-written little number, with excellent performances from stalwart British character actors.  I only recognized Michael Ripper

(who is apparently in more Hammer films even than uncle Pete) although I should have recognized Jacqueline "Servalan in Blake's Seven" Pearce, although in my defense, she was very young.

The true star was an actor called André Morell, who anchored the film with a very serious and charismatic performance as the sort of Doctor Watson (whom he played in the excellent Hammer version of The Hound of the Baskervilles, to Uncle Pete's Holmes) slash Van Helsing of the piece. 

He is Sir James Forbes, a professor of Medicine at London University who is called down to a tiny Cornish village by his ex-pupil, now local doctor, to investigate a sudden spate of inexplicable deaths that have been preceded by symptoms of listlessness and torpor (something that his young wife (see above), a friend to Sir James' intrepid daughter (who is the one who chivvied him along to go and investigate, and comes along) Sylvia, is obviously suffering from when they arrive.  As we quickly discover, the cause of the deaths is the young squire, played by James Mason soundalike (and, I think, Tom Waits look-similar) John Carson,

who returned from Haiti after his father's death, bringing with him a taste for Voodoo and a plan to re-populate the closed down tin mine with zombie workers, whose main advantage is that they will not be picky about health and safety standards.  Carson is a very Dracula-like figure, whose MO is charming his victims, asking for a drink and then breaking the glass "by accident" and slicing them and collecting their blood for use with voodoo dolls later.  A fairly ludicrous plot that is carried off with great verve by the cast (the only week link perhaps being the young doctor) and some genuinely shocking moments, including the beheading by spade of the young wife (very shortly after the second shot above) and a dream sequence of zombies rising from their graves that has been copied a million times since.  Perhaps most shocking is a non-horror scene of the Squire's thuggish young red-jacketed droogs, whom Sylvia has misdirected on their foxhunt, and whom she and Sir James have witnessed overturn a carriage in a funeral parade, dumping out the corpse, who pick up Sylvia and carry her to the manor and are clearly about to assault her when the Squire intervenes. 

Although the "zombies" of this piece are voodoo zombies, and not the flesh-eating Romero zombies that were launched a mere couple of years later in Night of the Living Dead, they are effectively ghastly, particularly this fellow:

They take their revenge on their zombie master, however, just in time to save Sylvia from being the victim of a blood sacrifice,

after their dolls catch fire in a blaze started by Sir James, leading to the collapse of the tin mine and a rather abrupt ending.  All in all, an excellent start to the box set!

Film review: Holy Matrimony (1943)

I don't know how, but I stumbled across this on YouTube (perhaps some algorithm picked up that I just bought The Bishop's Wife on DVD and it has Monty Woolley in it) and we watched it.  It's another "Winter's afternoon on BBC 2 (probably 4 or 5 now, I lost track how many there are these days)" viewing - well made, with some nicely witty dialogue (particularly between Wolley's character of the painter Priam Farll and his valet at the beginning), and some mildly humorous shenanigans.  I didn't know who Gracie Fields was, and somehow had it in my head that she was the Gracie married to George Burns (of whom he said "for thirty years my act consisted of one joke, and then she died") but instead she's the Lancashire-born vaudevillian most famous for the song "Sally" (of which, apparently, she was none too fond, in part because some of the lines were written by her first husband's live-in mistress).  She's a pleasant enough screen presence, but Monty Woolley so dominates the film that she doesn't really register much.  The basic plot, which spans the years 1905 to about 1908, is that Woolley's painter so loathes publicity that he has been living (with his reluctant valet, Henry Leek (played by the superbly droll Eric Blore)) in seclusion in various "suburbs of civilization" across Africa, South America, et. al. until the King decides to Knight this giant of the British arts and he is called back to London.  However, Leek gets pneumonia on the way, and dies just after their arrival.  However, the distraught Farll has two surprises coming.  First, the doctor mistakes him for the valet and the dead man for Farll (probably because he ensconced the sick valet in his own bed), a confusion that the publicity-shy Farll, who had been dreading the knighting, does not correct, and second, Leek had joined a "matrimonial society" on the way home, and Gracie Fields's Alice contacts him wanting to meet up.  They do meet up, but only accidentally, after a regret-filled Farll has been thrown out of his own burial service in Westminster Abbey.  Alice also thinks that Farll is Leek because Leek sent her a picture that both men in it captioned "me and my gentleman" without making it clear which was whom.  The confirmed bachelor swiftly falls for Alice and for wedded bliss in her house in Putney (he no longer has his own house because he's dead), and things go swimmingly (apart from a brief interlude with the original Mrs. Leek and her three large sons - apparently Henry was an aspiring bigamist) until a temperance movement deprives Alice of money from her stocks in breweries and the money starts to run short.  At this point Farll tries to come clean and convince her that they can make money from his painting, but she thinks he's crazy.  He takes a painting to a local art dealer who reveals himself a philistine (as is Alice - apparently Farll's painting is an acquired taste - he appears to be an impressionist) by valuing it at £15 (when in fact it's worth thousands).  Farll gives up in disgust, but Alice, to whom £15 is nothing to be sneezed at, starts to funnel Farll's accumulating pictures to the dealer.  Unknown to her, the dealer is selling them for £20 to Farll's original dealer, who has recognized them as Farlls and has been getting the requisite thousands for them.  However, he gets into hot water when one rich patron is informed by her butler that an omnibus featured in her most recent prized acquisition is brand new, and certainly didn't exist when Farll "died" in 1905.  She threatens the dealer with a lawsuit, which leads him to try to get Farll to come clean, something he has no intention of doing, especially when he discovers how the dealer has been profiting hugely from his work.  Is Priam and Alice's Putney Paradise to be destroyed?  Feel free to check out the excellent print on YouTube one wet afternoon and you can find out.  It's like a nice cuppa and a digestive of a film, comforting and a bit forgettable.

Film review: The Mermaid (2016)

This is directed by Stephen Chow, the auteur responsible for the masterpieces Shaolin Soccer and Kung Fu Hustle, the latter of which was declared by Bill Murray to be "the supreme achievement of the modern age in terms of comedy".  Chow is certainly responsible for the best slapstick seen since Jackie Chan's apogee (and before that, Buster Keaton) and this film is no exception. Trust me, if you're in the mood for extreme silliness (and who isn't?) then you should check this out.  You will be far from alone, because apparently it was (and possibly still is) the most successful film in China's history.  The plot is pretty simple: billionaire Liu Xuan (who favors shiny suits that look like they're made of lizard skin, and chunky rings, so we can tell he's shallow) has acquired a bay that his equally rich competitors think is worthless because it's under an environmental order but has also had sonars installed to drive away the protected wildlife and thus can develop it.  Unbeknownst to him, the sonars have trapped a community of mermaids (no gender-neutral name is offered, even though there are examples of both sexes, a problem highlighted by Spongebob's Mermaid Man) in an old beached tanker.  They send a disguised one of their own to assassinate him, but after having failed in her first attempt (an inspired piece of slapstick, involving poison anemones) manages to fall in love with him.  And he with her, which enrages the rich beauty who is trying to become both business and romantic partner.  And that's about all you need.  It's all just setups for slapstick and Stephen Chow's patented "character who is bullshitting while in pain manages to maintain the bullshit through a series of agonizing pratfalls" humor (one example this time is a half-octopus mermaid man disguised as a chef who is called upon to cook his own tentacles - that one was a bit grisly).  Two other standouts are the opening scene, unrelated to the rest, where a hustling "museum" owner presents outrageous fakes as dinosaurs, mermaids, et. al., and a scene where Liu Xuan has escaped from being kidnapped by the mermaids and tries to convince the police of this.  He says that they were "half-man, half-fish" and the series of sketches they come up with is inspired.  If you want to get a good sampling, try this.  But I recommend the whole film - me and millions of Chinese people can't be wrong.

What I Did This Past Semester [by Jami]

For reasons that are too boring to get into in detail, about a year ago I decided to apply to law school.  (The main reason was that work has just become too unbearable--imagine working for Sarah Huckabee Sanders'  soulmate and you have some idea of what working at UM-Flint is now like.)  So, I took the LSAT test, a 6 hour, 7 segment multiple choice test last January.  It was flipping unbelievably cold outside and unbelievably cold in the test room.  It kept us awake, though.  I applied to two places, Michigan State University Law School and Wayne State University Law School and was accepted in both with full scholarships.  I am still amazed that I was given full financial support.  A free law degree!  So I picked Wayne State since they have the most flexible scheduling options.  And classes began in August: I had three at night and one class on T/Th mornings.  Each class met for 3 hours a week, and they were on: Contracts, Civil Procedure, Constitutional Law and Legal Writing/Research.  That last course is the more tiresome, but it is a requirement for everyone so there is no escaping--even Thomas has to take a version of the course.  Over all the classes are great: intensely demanding and interesting.  And I can't believe the access I have to our legal system now.  I always consoled myself with my job at UM-Flint by telling myself that I had access to search engines that gave me access to whatever I wanted--I had no idea how wrong I was!  Now I really have total access.  Even better, the Legal Writing and Research course is teaching me how to use those search engines most effectively.

Each of the evening classes meets from 6 pm until just after 9 pm.  So, by the time I get done with class, get back to my car (which is usually on the 6th floor of a very windy, cold, very large parking structure) it is already 9:30.  And, by the time I get home, it was around 10:45 pm--unless there was a traffic jam or car accident on the freeway (which happened frequently), then I was an hour or so after that.  (The reason for the roadway drama is that I have to take I-75 from Flint all the way to Detroit, and of course they are ripping up the 3 lane each way interstate to make a 5 lane each way interstate, and in the meanwhile, each direction is shoved into a single lane with no shoulders and so there are constant accidents and slowdowns.  Indeed, I was in a car accident in early October at exactly the point where the lane was narrowest.  My car was totaled and I am sure the 10 cars involved in the accident caused a slow down that lasted many hours.

My classes ended mid November and we had 3 weeks to study, and then three weeks for exams.  I was extremely nervous about the exams but, in retrospect, they weren't all that terrible.  I did study for 6-8 hours every day during that three week period and if I hadn't, I would have been in serious trouble.  But I only missed one class (a Monday night Civil Procedure class that was on the same day I was without a car because of another accident, but that's a different blog entry...) and so my notes were very complete.  And I did  pay attention during class, which helps a lot.  I don't know my grades yet and won't for another few weeks (the exams were multiple choice so I have no idea why it takes so long to grade them).  In the meanwhile, I was able to register for next semester's classes and my scholarship was applied to my tuition costs ($14,000 per semester that I do NOT have to pay...) so I will just work on the assumption that everything is fine.

I will have the same three night classes again, so Part 2 of Contracts, Legal Writing/Research and Civil Procedure and so I will have the same people in my classes again.  I really like my classmates; we have a good time together.  If I have the energy, I'll write more about them in future blogs.  My one daytime class will be Property, and will meet T/TH early afternoon, which will be a blessed relief from having to get up at 5:30 am to beat the morning freeway traffic to get to my 9:30 am class.  If I left the house at 6, I was able to get there around 8:30, which gave me time to get my notes organized and eat something.  The drive there is the worst part of the whole experience.

And now I am getting ready to start again on Monday:  I have all my books, I have my backpack packed and ready to go, and tomorrow morning I have having my car's brakes fixed in anticipation of winter weather--which we haven't had yet, but surely it has to hit sometime.

Sunny and snowy for 2020

Highland Recreation Area.

 Unfrozen lake water in January?  Maybe there's something to this "global warming" business.

Walk completed without any giant birds of prey this time.

Bulbasaur in the mist!

Xmas!

 Grain-free!

 A bewildering profusion

 No Xmas is complete without Will Ferrell wrapping paper

 What can THIS gift be?

 Frederick knew instantly

 Frederick's bounty

 Simon's (my) bounty (socks from Thomas, shoes from Granny)

 Grandma came for Xmas lunch

I am painfully full and sleepy, so a very satisfying Xmas on the whole.  Thank you everyone!  No snow though, as it continued unseasonably warm, in the 50s.  "Christmas in Michigan" was trending on Twitter as people noted that it was in the 20s and snowing on Thanksgiving and Spring-like today.  Craziness.

Film review: Sullivan's Travels (1941)

Another Preston Sturges, this one supposedly his masterpiece.  It's an odd mixture, very meta, because its main character is a director of films with titles like "Ants in Your Plants 1939" and "Hey Hey in the Hayloft!" who wants to direct a serious film about the plight of the poor in modern capitalist society called "Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?" (which is, of course, where the Coen Brothers got the title), and hatches the idea of going incognito as a hobo with only 10 cents in his pocket for purposes of research.  The meta part is that the actual film alternates between the slapstick of Hey Hey in the Hayloft, much-loved by the character played by Veronica Lake (who pays for Sullivan's ham and eggs in an "owl wagon" (apparently a mobile diner) because she thinks he can't afford it, even though she, as a broke failed actress on her way out of town can't really afford it either, but Sullivan himself now scorns, and the gritty social realism he intended to capture in Brother. 

It is also a romantic comedy (and McCrea and Lake make a very attractive couple with good chemistry) until the point at which, just as Sullivan is ready to give up the hobo lifestyle and is spending one last evening distributing $5 bills on skid row, and gets knocked out by a less-than-grateful tramp who had earlier stolen his shoes when they were sleeping next to each other in a doss house (this is important) and pushed into an empty train car.  That same tramp is cutting across some railtracks when he drops the pile of notes and is frantically trying to gather them up when a train squishes him.  He is then identified as Sullivan himself because the shoes had an emergency ID card sown into the soles in case Sullivan, out on his travels, desperately needed help and had to prove that he was really rich.  Meanwhile the groggy Sullivan gets arrested because he knocks out a railyard guard who pushes him down when he has a splitting concussion, and sentences to seven years in a cruel prison/workcamp.  The prisoners' only relief comes when they are taken to a local (African American) church where a Mickey Mouse (and Pluto) cartoon is shown.  Sullivan is amazed to find his fellow prisoners and himself reduced to hysterics by the cartoon antics and has an epiphany that actually the world's downtrodden don't actually need films like Oh Brother, Where Art Thou? they need comedies (you know, like Miracle of Morgan's Creek). 

But how does he get out of prison, when everyone thinks he's dead?  Watch it and see.