You Were Never Lovelier (1942)

(mild spoilers) A nightclub owner establishes that his younger daughters, who already have a suitor each, cannot get married before their elder sister -- who does not have a suitor and does not seem anxious to pick the first one who comes along -- does. He devises a trick to speed the process which consists in writing anonymous love letters and addressing them to the elder daughter. When a suitor comes along, she will be led to believe he was the one writing the letters, and thus presumably fall in love with him. A fortuitous incident has a dancer who had unsuccessfully sought employment at his nightclub deliver one of the letters, and thus be mistaken as the real author.

This musical comedy is partly a remake of an Argentinian movie (Los martes, orquídeas), and partly an adaptation of Shakespeare's play The Taming of the Shrew. It's visually in very good taste, and as a narrative works fairly well. Like its primary source, it's set in Argentina, which explains the slightly more socially conservative premise of the plot, as compared to films set in the U.S. or Europe.

Rating: 51

¡Bruja, más que bruja! (1977)

(spoilers) Juan goes to war and, when he returns, he finds his fiancée Mariana married to his uncle Justino. She fails to get pregnant, and Justino engages the help of Tía Larga, the village witch. Tía Larga deceives Justino by having Juan impregnate Mariana, but the adulterous woman fears that the child will resemble Juan, and, with Juan, go to the witch with a new commission: to murder Justino.

Comedy with musical interludes which are said to emulate the style of a zarzuela. It's uninpired as a comedy and also musically.

Rating: 34

Mambrú se fue a la guerra (1986)

 English-language title: Mambru Went to War

After the Spanish Civil War, a man who fought for the Republicans is afraid of retaliations by the winning party and hides in his house's basement. His wife is the only one who knows he is hiding; everyone else thinks he is dead. When Franco dies, she reveals the truth to the other family members living in the house. But the old man's adaptation to outside life will not be easy.

Social satire which tries to depict Spanish middle-class as hypocritical and money-obsessed, regardless of one's nominal stance as pro or against Franco. The plot and characters do not stray much from clichés, but the actors are good, and the film is watchable.

Rating: 40

Across the Pacific (1942)

 An undercover agent traveling on a freighter ship investigates a Japanese plot that could provoke the U.S. into entering World War II.

Espionage thriller with a mediocre plot yet mildly entertaining; it is historically curious for being based on a literary source which more or less "predicted" the attack on Pearl Harbor, a few months before it took place. Since the movie was made after the real-life attack, they changed the target of the fictitious attack attempt to Panama. For some reason, they chose a title which makes no sense at all: in the movie version they never get to the Pacific Ocean.

Rating: 44

The Exorcist III (1990)

 A series of grisly murders baffles the police. An aging detective police Lieutenant investigates. Supernatural forces seem to be at play here.

There is some artfulness in the mise-en-scène of a few sequences, and the imagery throughout is appropriately ghastly. The idea of merging supernatural horror with the theme of serial killing is almost a natural one, but I am not aware of it having previously or subsequently been done. There is a lot of yelling in this film, and that is not a good thing. Also, a lot of the film is just static talk between the policeman and the suspect in a psychiatric prison cell. Well, I guess adding the ups and subtracting the downs the sum total is: watchable.

Rating: 40

Duende y misterio del flamenco (1952)

 U.S. title: Flamenco

Documentary about the titular Spanish style of music and dance, also featuring some other Spanish dances. It gets a little boring after a certain amount of viewing time (which will probably vary from one person to another), but the singing and dancing are undeniably beautiful.

Beat the Devil (1953)

 Second viewing; previously viewed on January 4, 1989

A ship bound for Africa is docked at an Italian town while it waits for an engine part to be replaced. Among its passengers is an American adventurer who works for a group of crooks who plan to get rich exploring uranium. The American and his wife befriend an English couple who are taking possession of a coffee estate which they have inherited. The English guy's wife starts an affair with the American; she has a tendency to lie about her husband, which leads to a series of misunderstandings. A further series of mishaps happen later.

This is a much improved print compared to the one I watched previously (restored too). That being said, and having now a knowledge of the entertaining source novel, my admiration for this movie faded somewhat. The plot and the dialogue are interesting, but they do not feel as lively and authentic as in the novel; by the way, most, if not all, the critics, for some mysterious reason, state without the shadow of a doubt that all the best lines of dialogue, some of which are really splendid, come from the first credited screenwriter. To be fair, a funny exchange about the wrecked car, and in fact that whole sequence, were created for the movie. Ditto the unfunny allusions to Hitler and Mussolini. Nearly all of the other dialogue came from the source novel and were thus written by its author, Claud Cockburn. And for all we know Cockburn may have written the previously mentioned ones as well, since he also contributed with the script in a direct manner and did not receive credit for it. The casting for this film was brilliantly done, but in my opinion the two leading actresses would have been more convincing if they had switched roles.

Rating: 60 (down from 73)

You'll Never Get Rich (1941)

To allay his wife's suspicions, a theater owner has his choreographer pretend to be the romantic partner of a dancer whom he (the theater owner) is courting. This gets the choreographer into trouble (or so he thinks) and in order to get away he enlists in the army. Trouble soon follows him, but fortunately so does romance.

To be frank, I quite enjoyed the first 20 minutes or so of this musical comedy. When the action is moved to an army training camp it becomes another military propaganda movie, and its entertaining value oscillates. Also, the main character is a wimp; it is puzzling that the leading lady should prefer him to her fiancé, who seems to be a much more successful person without any noticeable personal flaws. The songs and musical numbers are not  among the best in the genre, either.

Rating: 40