The Professor and the Madman (2019)

In this drama inspired by real events, the inmate of an insane asylum becomes one of the main contributors to the Oxford English Dictionary, then being carried out under the supervision of an outsider to the academic world.

Painfully bad writing makes this a real chore to sit through. The real life story of the titular 'madman' was a really shocking series of events, which, if filmed with a minimum degree of faithfulness, would probably be anything but boring. The film has destroyed that possibility through a paradoxical combination of an excess of decorum (which all but eliminated the sexual component from the surgeon's early life and later delusions) and a lack of it (by imagining a preposterous romantic angle in the relationship between him and his victim's widow). As for the side of the 'professor' (who by the way never was one), its plot development relies on infantile conspiratorial clichés about envious or greedy academics who try to destroy the linguist's work.

Rating: 25

O Rei do Movimento (1955)

A clumsy mailman who writes songs in his spare time and is six months late in his rent payment gets an odd job as a magician's assistant for one night. It so happens that said magician is the leader of a gang of jewelry robbers, who is nicknamed the Masked One by the newspapers. Also coincidentally, our mailman is delivering a letter at the exact time and place of a robbery by the Masked One. He is grabbed by the hoodlums and tied up. They leave him in a sort of warehouse, from which he escapes. After a series of chases and fights, the bad guys are unmasked (in one case, literally) and the mailman receives a large reward.

Mediocre comedy with some musical numbers. The main actor was trained as a circus acrobat. His character's girlfriend is played by a famous chorus girl at the time. This seems to be her only film. The film possesses a great deal of movement (perhaps this is what is meant by its title). Among the musical numbers, the most attractive one is Valsa de uma Cidade, which shows several beautiful landscapes of Rio de Janeiro.

Rating: 31

The Apple Dumpling Gang (1975)

A gambler accepts to receive a package for an acquaintance, and to his surprise said package is comprised of three orphaned kids. He cares for them as he struggles to pass the burden on to someone else; when the kids find a gold nugget, many candidates to foster parents appear, but there are also some who will prefer to get the nugget through a short cut.

Negligible Western comedy which may be indifferently watched by kids and their parents but is doubtful to leave a mark on either. I guess there is a market value to harmlessness, especially when the market veers towards harmfulness.

Rating: 34

Night Crossing (1982)

Second viewing; first viewed between 1983 and 1986.

Some people in East Germany in the late 1970s are very unhappy with life in that country. They plan to escape to West Germany in a balloon.

This is a simple story. There isn't much tension since we already know from the start how it will end, but that doesn't completely spoil the enjoyment of the film. It is reasonably entertaining, but fails to communicate to the viewer the initial anguish and eventual exhilaration felt by its characters.

Rating: 43 (up from 32)