The Island of Dr. Moreau (1996)

 Based on the novel by H.G. Wells, first published in 1896.

A scientist on an island conducts genetic experiments with beasts and human beings. A shipwrecked man is taken to the island and, after witnessing the experiments' horrible products, tries to escape.

Sci-fi. The highlights are the excellent make-up effects. The film has a fast and somewhat abrupt narrative and a slightly self-mocking tone. Its shortcomings might be the result of a tribulated production history, which was the subject matter of a documentary.

Rating: 38

Jet Pilot (1957)

 A female Soviet spy posing as a refugee lands in the U.S. and seduces an American. After they get married his superiors warn him of her real agenda. They then assign him with an intelligence mission in Russian territory, using his relationship with her as cover.

Sexual-espionage farce with lots of aerial sequences. While not exactly good, it is not boring either. The script has two points worth analyzing. (1) In one enigmatic delivery, Shannon seems to imply that one must be careful regarding the concept of Freedom so as to avoid "cooking the calf in the milk of its own mother". Now, this is enigmatic even in the original biblical context from where it was borrowed. In the metaphorical usage of the film, the best I can come up with as an interpretation is that Freedom ("Mother's Milk") should not be granted to those who will use it for destroying Freedom ("cooking the calf"). (2) 'Olga' the Soviet agent asserts at one point: "With us, the state is everything. The individual has no right to even think of himself." At a later point, she remarks: "In other words, you believe the individual must sacrifice his personal feelings and work with somebody else for the benefit of the whole enterprise? (...) The idea's purely capitalistic. No wonder every loyal Russian instinctively rejects it." Those two separate utterances describe roughly the same worldview in slightly different words, first attributing it to the Soviets, and then to the Americans. Was the writer being ironic or just moronic?

Rating: 42

Los culpables (1962)

 (mild spoilers) A businessman facing jail fakes his own death with the help of his wife's lover, who as a physician is summoned to sign the death certificate. Subsequently the two lovers could get married, and the businessman would flee to another country, to where his death insurance money should be sent. But some surprises lie ahead for the physician.

Entertaining crime drama with noirish touches. The plot is not exactly striving for plausibility, but I haven't noticed any major inconsistencies.

Rating: 50

Oliver Twist (2005)

(review written in August or September, 2014, and not published then due to an oversight of mine)

Based on the novel by Charles Dickens, first published in book form in 1838.

In 19th-century England, an orphan escapes from a workhouse and heads for London. There he joins a gang of children who commit thefts in the streets.

A very good film, expecially the first and last sections (I never cared much for middle sections). My main objection, if I thought an objection had to be made, would be to the plot itself, which strains credibility at more than one occasion. A person with a nickname zombiefan89 at the IMDB user review section has, in an unpretentious, down-to-earth review, taken the words right out of my mouth concerning this point. I will transcribe it here in extenso because I do not know a way to link directly to it:

[begin quote]
I was confused,

Author: zombiefan89 from United States
28 February 2013
*** This review may contain spoilers ***

There's a lot of hate going around saying it's not as good as the book, but really, movies never are! Having never read the book, I have no idea how the story was supposed to go, but I had seen Oliver and Company. I was very confused by this movie. From the start, it was very difficult to tell Olivier apart from the other boys when he was in the orphanage. Well, until he recited the famous line of asking for seconds, which it was Gruel, it probably only cost them $2 to feed the entire orphanage! So many questions came up over the course on the movie. Why he didn't just stay with that nice old woman he met on his way to London. It was obvious she wouldn't have minded him staying. Of course if he had not gone to London, it would have been a very dull movie. For that matter, why were those thieves so hell-bent on keeping Oliver? I much preferred the motivation in Oliver and Company, where they were innocently trying to rescue him. Moreover, why use Oliver to break into that rich man's house? Another more experienced boy would have been much better suited for the job. It's a very confusing movie.
[end quote]
But I do not really think these weaknesses detract from the movie as a work of art (it possibly detracts from the novel, though).

Rating: 69

The Bachelor Party (1957)

Charlie, Kenny, Walter, Eddie and Arnold work at the same office. Arnold is getting married and the four of them get together after work for a celebration of that upcoming event. Each of them has his own problems: Charlie is overworked and has just learned that his wife is pregnant of his first child; Kenny is quietly resigned to his married life, though he misses the freedom of his youth; Eddie is a bachelor and a womanizer; Walter is older and has a serious health problem; Arnold is inexperienced with women and is not fully sure of his decision to get married.

Psychological drama with a passable script, but whose development is somewhat predictable after one is introduced to the main characters; the ending is weak, as is acknowledged by the author himself: "the third-act resolution is hardly an inevitable outgrowth of the preceding two acts", he correctly diagnoses. The direction is not without flaws either. At the party, Charlie delivers the following witticism: "You get invited to a party like this or do you get committed?" But there is nothing visible in that party that suggests wild behaviour! The director seems to be sleeping at the wheel because his job was to convey visually what that sentence implied, or else suppress it. 

Rating: 43

Buck and the Preacher (1972)

 In the aftermath of the American Civil War, blacks who still live in slavelike condition try to escape it by going West. A wagon master leading a caravan of blacks is hunted by a posse. A dishonest preacher who tries to join the caravan decides to help the wagon master after the caravan is attacked.

Western with a well structured and entertaining script. Although far from an ambitious movie, it has earned some distinction for having a Black-centered story when that was still infrequent. Christopher Mulrooney, the poet and film connoisseur, interestingly observed that the plot has parallels with the biblical book of Exodus.

Rating: 50

Dona Xepa (1959)

(mild spoilers) The titular character is a vegetable stand owner at a big market. She supports her son Edson's research involving atomic energy. She also has a daughter named Rosália who has dreams of moving upwards socially and is ashamed of her mother's poor education and manners. Rosália spurns her soccer player neighbor's attentions, preferring to go out with another guy who purports to be from an upper social class. In fact, said guy belongs to a gang who wants to steal her brother's invention and market it for military purposes.

Dramatic comedy which combines attempts at social realism with elements wildly disconnected from Brazilian reality. Although fairly simple-minded, it's well directed and particularly noteworthy for the leading performance. Curiously, both the source play's author and the director were also physicians. 

Rating: 38

Supergirl (1984)

Second viewing; first viewing of the director's cut. Previously viewed between 1984 and 1986.

Freely based on the comics character and stories created by Otto Binder and designed by Al Plastino, and first published in 1959, which interacted with and/or referenced earlier characters and stories of the Superman universe created by Jerry Siegel and designed by Joe Shuster, first published in 1938.

A spherical object which is the only power source for an artificial environment in a distant planet is accidentally ejected into space, and lands on Earth. One of the inhabitants of that faraway planet, a female humanoid, goes after it. The object is found and seized by a witch. A battle between the two women ensues.

Comic fantasy with lots of special effects and elaborate sets. The silly plot has elements from Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, Snow White, and whatnot, and the filmmakers managed to combine visual appeal and verbal wit to a fair extent. Frankly, I found it a little tiresome, but not as bad as I had perceived it to be on my first viewing, which may have to do to a certain extent with the differences in the versions seen then and now.

Rating: 34 (up from 12)

The Big Wheel (1949)

 Second viewing; previously viewed on March 7, 1996.

(mild spoilers) The son of a famous race driver who died in an accident wants to become a race driver himself. After he is accused of having provoked the death of another driver, he finds employment in another State. He returns after several victories, and races again for his old employer.

Mildly entertaining sports drama. The script is appropriately agile, though I thought the complete reversal of the protagonist's reputation by the time he returns to California a bit implausible or insufficiently explained. The race sequences are well filmed.

Rating: 34 (up from 8)

The French Lieutenant's Woman (1981)

I had previously watched this film with a poor understanding of the dialogue around 1984, and read the source novel in 1991.

 The film tells two parallel stories: the first one is that of a doubly adulterous love affair between two players in a film which is being made; the second story is that which is told in the film in which they are working, a Victorian drama about a disgraced woman and a recently engaged man who falls in love with her.

The contemporary story is banal; the titular one is supposed to emulate Victorian literature, and is preposterous in a slightly entertaining way. One can suppose that the source novel's author deemed writing a parody beneath him, and so coated his tale with an intellectual veneer. Presumably, the cinematic adaptation added the contemporary story so as to imply that present-day love affairs are not that different from past ones. The film is well produced and well directed.

Rating: 48

The North Star (1943)

Second viewing; previously viewed on February 12, 1995.

 In 1941, the Germans invade the Soviet Union. In a small village in Ukraine the inhabitants are preparing to resist the invaders; part of them head for the hills where they form a guerrilla group; the rest stay in the village. A group of villagers must deliver the guerrilla a load of ammunition. Meanwhile, the Nazis are taking the children and forcing them to give blood to their wounded.

Propaganda piece which takes a few liberties with the facts. It's a lot less unlikeable than I found it previously, though. The cinematography is excellent, and the film has stunning imagery aplenty, especially in the first part, which is practically a musical showing the idyllic village life before the invasion. The remainder is more action-oriented, showing the villagers' heroics. The ironic aspect of the movie as viewed today is that now the Russians are the invaders in Ukraine.

Rating: 35 (up from 8)

Zero Hour! (1957)

 A man with a traumatic experience as a fighter pilot ten years earlier has to fly a commercial plane after the pilot and co-pilot (as well as many of the passengers) fall ill with food poisoning.

Although this is not the first of its kind (that dubious honor should go to 1954's The High and the Mighty) this film probably can claim a fair share of the glory (or blame) for spawning a whole genre of films which require one to set the brain on automatic pilot in order to fully enjoy them. It is fairly well done, though neither the ending nor the development provide much in the way of surprises. The belated parody (Airplane!) is more famous today than its original. 

Rating: 45

Adorável Trapalhão (1967)

The chauffeur to a widower with three kids wants to set up his boss with the kids' teacher. The teacher also dabs in singing, and the widower owns a record company.

Today this film is watched mostly for its comic star's antics. The director was competent at his job and was known for making above average popular films. This one is filled with musical numbers, most of which consisting of Brazilian rock-and-roll songs aimed at adolescents who would probably scoff at the dreary plotline which mixed children-oriented stuff and adult sexual intrigue.

Rating: 34

The Unsinkable Molly Brown (1964)

 A poor country girl moves to the city, where she expects to find a rich husband. She marries a miner who is indeed rich, but almost as uneducated as she is. She wants to become a respected society lady whereas he is more at ease among folks like him. Loosely based on real persons.

I seem to differ from many people in that I found this mostly a failure. The story is interesting as an x-ray of the American ethos, but I found the musical parts occasionally annoying and the main character excessively romanticized towards the end of the movie. The production values are good, and the film, apart from those annoying parts, is mildly agreeable.

Rating: 40

Se vende un tranvía (1959)

 A gang of confidence artists pick a rich rural type as target. The scam is explained by the title ("Tramway car for sale").

Agreeable short. The demand for complex staging in many sequences is met beautifully. Surprisingly, the director only directed one film besides this one (he worked mostly as production manager).

(I don't rate shorts.)

Teacher's Pet (1958)

 A newspaper editor has a low opinion of journalism schools, because, lacking a formal education, he thinks experience is the only way to learn the trade. Under a false identity, he enrolls at a journalism class taught by a beautiful professor.

This film starts out as a serious discussion of the comparative merits of experience and education. I suppose this line of drama would prove commercially unviable, so after the first act the film shifts to a sex comedy with a disguised identity element. It keeps inserting new elements throughout its length, until it "remembers" how it started and tries to tie the loose ends, so to speak. It's all very unsatisfatory, but also moderately entertaining through its set-pieces.

Rating: 46

The Hangman (1959)

 A deputy marshal specializes in bringing fugitive outlaws to justice. In this occasion, he has to arrest a man accused of armed robbery before the only witness against him is executed. The problem is that he has never seen the accused one and only has a basic description of his features. He locates a woman who knew him and offers her money to identify him in a town where he is reportedly living.

(spoiler herein) This Western has what seems to me a fatal plot hole right in the middle of it: it is not clear why the man who is being executed would falsely testify against someone who helped him unwittingly. Anyway, aside from that, the script has a cerebral playfulness whereby the protagonist must find ways to ascertain that the man he suspects is the one he is after. The moral of this overly contrived story is ultimately trivial.

Rating: 43

Stavisky... (1974)

 The last months in the life of a notorious financial crook in 1930s France. He has politicians and police officers under his thumb, and lives a life of luxury. He is planning a major operation with forged bonds. His story will intersect with that of Trotsky's exile in France.

This is a historical movie with lavish production values. The connection with The Great Gatsby (whose third filmic version came out the same year) was pointed out by Christopher Mulrooney in a review he later rewrote dropping that comparison among other changes. Stavisky... makes interesting facts into not so interesting cinema.

Rating: 45