L'empire de la nuit (1962)

 English tite: The Empire of Night

It's not clear what the protagonist does exactly; one site claims he is just a "cabaret show organizer", but he has more of the demeanor of a performer, with a large feminine following and very fame-conscious; he is never shown singing or dancing, however, and does have a say on the show's contents. He is hired to do a show in France and upon arriving there gets involved with the widow of the man who hired him and a plot by the dead man's brothers to seize control of his assets.

Criminal comedy. I found it uninspired and tedious. The dialogue is quite elaborate, but I'm not sure that is a positive thing.

Rating: 32

Salome, Where She Danced (1945)

 An Austrian dancer must flee to America after having spied on the Prussians. She and her American journalist friend stop at a small Western town, where she gets involved with an outlaw. The three of them move to San Francisco, where she then is courted by a rich Russian.

Very unusual film. It is almost universally hated by reviewers, though reportedly it did well at the box office. It acquits itself rather well in its creative mélange of several genres. Though it does not aim for laughter, the comedy label fits nicely to it. While not exactly an exciting movie, it handles well its theme of post-war social and individual challenges.

Rating: 51

Donnez-moi ma chance (1957)

English titles: Give Me a Chance; Give Me My Chance 

A young woman from a small town dreams of becoming a movie star. She goes to Paris, and struggles for parts in movies while taking part in amateur theater. She falls into an amorous trap.

Social drama. I suppose it works both as warning-to-the-young and a guide for makers of public policies. It is dated regarding morality. As for the basic problem of the financial survival of young artists, I assume things are a lot easier today, with all sorts of scholarships, grants and whatnot. Perhaps the movie helped progress in that aspect. Overall it's not a very interesting movie, but it's well done enough that it may be watched without excessive effort.

Rating: 34

Film (1965)

 A man is walking home and seems to shy away from other people's eyes. At home, he tries to eliminate all possibilities of being seen.

Short. This looks like what a child who had just been given a camera as a birthday present would produce as his or her first film. Naturally, since it came from a renowned theater author, all sorts of philosophical meanings have been ascribed to it. Said author seemed to take himself to be a modern Jesus, concocting all sorts of enigmatic parables for the intellectually inclined. It's often the case that the reviews and discussions are much more interesting than the play (or, in this solitary instance, film) itself. This review by poet and film lover Christopher Mulrooney is an example of that.

Love from a Stranger (1937)

 Soon after a woman wins the lottery she makes the acquaintance of a mysterious and charming man.

Suspense story which follows a very predictable pattern, but which probably was not as worn out a concept at the time it was written. These stories have a sort of educational purpose, I suppose, and I assume that as they got more and more popular, women became a lot more warier of men. This one, though hardly a masterpiece, is fairly watchable, and the supporting characters work as comic relief.

Rating: 43

Flor de mayo (1959)

English-speaking version's title: Beyond All Limits

An American shrimp fisher docks at a Mexican seaside town in search of an old fishing partner, to propose some joint fishing venture. It so happens that said friend's wife and the American guy have some unfinished business themselves.

Drama with a run-of-the-mill plot, yet well directed and acted, and overall passably entertaining. According to IMDB, it was filmed twice, respectively in Spanish and English. I saw both versions, which have slightly different lengths but are both shorter than IMDB says they should be. 

Rating: 43

Land Without Music (1936)

 U.S. title: Forbidden Music

A country is immersed in debt due to the fact that its population spends its time playing music rather than working. The ruling monarch decrees a ban of all musical activities. A famous tenor who was born there but lives abroad is visiting the country. He teams up with an American journalist in a plot to hold a secret musical performance.

Musical comedy. The plot is silly and not supposed to make much sense. The comic star is funny. The musical bits are not particularly memorable, but the tenor star is an excellent singer. The film is visually agreeable and provides some lightweight forgettable entertainment. The copy I watched appears to be a shortened (1h03') version, if the IMDB reports the correct length.

Rating: 41

The Captive Heart (1946)

 The life at a German World War II prisoner camp. Some flashbacks to the day before they leave for the war are shown; also we get a glimpse at the lives of those they left behind in England. The main drama concerns a Czech fugitive who assumes the identity of a dead British soldier.

English cinema seems to fall into either of two categories: sentimental and morbid. This film belongs to the former one, as expected. There isn't much of a plot as the main goal is to show in an almost documentary style the varieties of prisoner experience. So, it is not particularly exciting, but it is exceedingly well done and may be watched with some pleasure. 

Rating: 51

Elle & moi (1952)

English title: She and Me

The vicissitudes of a couple, starting with courtship, followed by their honeymoon, then their search for a house and finally their domestic problems, including their relationship with servants, with the couple's best friend, with the husband's former lover, their arguments over money problems, etc.

Comedy with somewhat dated notions. It's impeccably staged and acted, and, though not exactly hilarious, will probably make one smile during some bits. Apparently not many have seen it aside from prolific IMDB commenter dbdumonteil, who wrote a mostly correct review where he astutely points out that neither of the two protagonists works for a living.

Rating: 48

Mirage (1965)

 Second viewing; previously viewed on August 1, 1999.

A man experiences strange mnemonic phenomena the onset of which is geographically and chronologically proximal to the death of another man who fell from a high story in an office building.

Psychological thriller. It is based on a crappy novel and it shows. Though they fixed some of the more outrageous inconsistencies and polished the dialogue considerably, one can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear, and therefore the result is passable at best. On the other hand, it has impeccable production values, which helps.

Rating: 34 (up from 27)

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