Lord of the Flies (1963)

 After a war breaks out in England, all English children are evacuated to an unspecified place. A plane carrying a bunch of them crashes near a deserted island. Only the children survive. On the island, most of the children revert to savagery.

Though it, or rather the novel on which it is based, and which I haven't read, has inspired its share of intellectual elaborations or interpretations, I couldn't honestly see that it warrants anything deeper than the truism that boys will be boys. I watched a 1990 remake in 2001, and liked it better than I liked this 1963 version twenty years later. I don't know whether my relative judgments would hold if both films were watched closely in time. Anyway, the plot development is sketchy, and the concepts the film toys with are handled in a very arbitrary way. I couldn't understand why the majority of the boys didn't seem to care much about being rescued. Even unruly boys have a certain rationality to them. All in all, not a terribly serious movie. The cinematography is good, and the island landscapes are truly gorgeous.

Rating: 40

It's a Date (1940)

 A famous actress wants to play the lead in a new play, but she is too old for the part, and it gets offered to her daughter. Both women vie for the heart of a middle aged bachelor, but he prefers the older one.

Dramatic comedy. The plot has an interesting symmetrical structure illustrating the theme of age: the mother is too old for a certain part and the daughter is too young for a certain man. Of course this resolves itself in the happiest manner for everyone involved. The leading actress is also a lyrically trained soprano, and so she is made to sing an assortment of musical numbers which are not really essential (and occasionally not even connected) to the plot development. Overall, not an especially attractive film, but not an especially unpleasant one either.

Rating: 40

Song of the Thin Man (1947)

Inside a ship casino the band leader is murdered. The ship's owner is the prime suspect. A detective couple is among the people on board. Pretty much everyone linked to the deceased is a suspect too.

Mystery thriller with comedic undertones. The satire of bohemian slang is one of the highlights of the movie; from a modern perspective it shows that nothing looks as antiquated as what passed off as modern in an earlier age. The mystery plot is well devised and grabs the viewer's attention to the very end. While the film is nothing out of the ordinary, it's agreeable enough.

Rating: 51

Night and Day (1946)

 A rich guy drops out of law school to become a full-time composer. He becomes very successful, but due to his devotion to his work he neglects his wife.

Fake biopic ("based on the career of" is priceless) which is merely a vehicle for the songs of one composer. Amid the generally poor dramatics, the greatest flaw is that the protagonist lacks personality aside being a compulsive worker. The musical numbers, on the other hand, are competent, occasionally great.

Rating: 36

The Toast of New Orleans (1950)

 An opera singer is visiting a small fishing village. Her impresario sees singing potential in a young fisherman and offers to coach him. He accepts and falls in love with the singer.

I hate to be harsh with this movie because there's fine singing in it. But my criterion here is interesting script or imagery,  which this film lacks. So...

Rating: 34

Valley of the Kings (1954)

 A woman hires an archaeologist to search for the tomb of a pharaoh who allegedly was an early monotheist.

Adventure which apparently was derived from Freud's Moses and Monotheism, though they changed the biblical character to Joseph, yet placing him in a period which was actually closer to that which has been hypothesized for Moses. The plot is very conventional and the location shooting in Egypt provides some interesting sequences.

Rating: 35

The Formula (1980)

 A police lieutenant investigating a murder finds that it is linked with a race for the possession of a secret formula for the production of a synthetic fuel from coal.

This monotonous thriller has a few plot holes and is apparently based on a false premise: the technology for synthetic fuel already exists and is of public knowledge: Synthetic fuel - Wikipedia. The film has some interesting dialogue and competent actors, but is not otherwise engaging or convincing.

Rating: 34

The President's Analyst (1967)

 Second viewing; previously viewed on May 16, 1998.

A psychoanalyst is summoned by the Intelligence agencies of the U.S.A. to treat the President. After some time performing his duty, he decides he can no longer withstand the stress caused by his new job.

Political satire. One of those films which seem to be a compendium of its era's quirks. Its approach is naïve and superficial, and, in at least one specific segment (the one with the suburban family), also bigotted under the guise of anti-bigotry. While rather inconsequential overall, it's easy to watch and mildly curious. I had no recollection of having watched it previously, and only became aware of that fact when I checked my personal notes. Also surprising was my favorable opinion of it on that earlier occasion.

Rating: 45 (down from 65)

Norma (1981)

Exhibited under the TV programme Great Performances. The performance took place in May 4, 1981, at the O'Keefe Centre, in Toronto (today it is called the Meridian Hall).

Opera with music by Vincenzo Bellini and libretto by Felice Romani, based on the play Norma, ou l'infanticide by Alexandre Soumet. Both opera and play came to light in 1831.

The action is set in Gaul around 100-50 BC, when that region was under Roman occupation. A high priestess has an forbidden affair with a Roman proconsul. He then tires of her and starts an affair with a younger priestess.

Now, this is madness at its awsomest. I honestly don't know how much of this is based on real customs of the time and place, but I found the whole thing totally ridiculous. The soldiers want to rebel against the occupiers but must wait for the permission of a zany woman who not only has an affair with the enemy but has had two (!) children with him (where does she hide them, for Christ's sake?). But absurdity piles on absurdity here: now the younger priestess, who is also in love with the same guy (which society would survive with a religious class like this -- oh wait!), for some obscure reason renounces him in favor of her older rival. I will not proceed  with this; suffice it to say that there is a marvellous dreamlike quality to all this nonsense, and that the music is beautifully soothing.

I really can't assess the performances; for my taste they were all just perfect. The video quality is not very good, and the subtitles are absent for most of the duration. The filming of the thing seems to have some terrible framing flaws at times, but it could be a defect of the DVD transfer.

I will not give this a rating because it is not really a regular movie.