Decoy (1946)

Dir: Jack Bernhard
Warner DVD

If you were to watch the short fluff piece that accompanies the movie, you would probably think you were in for a real treat. A forgotten cult classic if you will (how something can be forgotten and a classic, the world may never know). What you would actually get is one of the silliest, clunkiest film noir I have ever seen and as an added bonus, tons of fake diabolical laughter. The absolutely ridiculous story follows a gold-digging sociopath, played by the overly animated Jean Gillie, whose boyfriend is about to die by gas chamber and only he knows where four hundred thousand bucks they stole is hidden. She then gets the clever idea that she can find a drug that will counteract the poison gas and a doctor that she can seduce into reviving the guy. Guess what, both of those preposterous things happen! She also enlists another gangster type to help finance this scheme so they can grab the 400k for themselves. So, in the best scene in the film, the dope doc revives the dead crook a la Dr. Frankenstein, and the guy rises his fists to the sky screaming, "I LIVE!!!". Now if only the film had gone full sci-fi at this point and he would've become a zombie or C.H.U.D. then we would be talking about a certifiable classic, but no such luck. The convoluted story has our guy and gal crook talk this guy into getting plastic surgery and writing a map for where the money is in case he dies. After he agrees and writes down directions, they shoot him immediately, hysterical. The rest of the movie is filled with typical double-crosses as everyone tries to get the dough. Made by one the poverty row studios, this was probably picked up by Warners as a supporting feature, it's interesting that it is included on the same disc as Crime Wave since the screen writer of Decoy was one the stars of that movie, Ned Young (a victim of the Communist Blacklisting as well) and one hopes the only reason they were paired together since they have nothing stylistically or thematically in common.

2/10

Crime Wave (1954)

Dir: Andre De Toth
Warner DVD

An excellent noir film that starts with three escaped cons (Ned Young, Ted de Corsia, and a very young Charles Bronson) that are knocking over gas stations and diners, just stealing small bits of money so that they don't call too much attention to themselves. The first robbery we see them on turns out to be the last as a motorcycle cop pulls up while they are emptying the register. One of them shoots and kills him and gets shot in the process. They split up, giving the injured man some money to pay an underworld doctor, and hope to meet up later. The film now weaves in between the story of the escaped cons, an ex-con Steve Lacey (Gene Nelson, who went on to be a prolific TV director) that has been on the straight and narrow for years, and the dogged pursuer Det. Lt. Sims (Sterling Hayden) whose willing to do just about anything to catch these cop killers. The introduction of Sims shows just how intelligent a filmmaker De Toth is. He waits for an appropriate moment in the film to reveal who was the biggest star at the time, and when he is introduced, we see him milling about in the background of the crime scene. He doesn't come bursting onto the scene calling attention to himself, but when it comes down to business he dominates every scene he's in, because he's Sterling Hayden! The desperate men all meet up at the unsuspecting Lacey's home and pull him into a bank robbery where he is supposed to help them escape the country. Cinematography is top notch, the writing is tight with just the right amount of character beats to get a sense of who these people are in an economical running time, and the performances are solid all around.
The disc is part of a double feature with Decoy which was written by the actor Ned Young who played the con who gets shot in this film. There is audio commentary by Eddie Muller and James Ellroy. It's available in the Film Noir Box Set Vol. 4 or sold as a single disc double feature on Amazon.

8/10

Hollywood Boulevard (1976)

Dir: Allan Arkush & Joe Dante
New Concorde DVD OOP

An interesting double feature with the aforementioned Myra Breckenridge and a comparative masterpiece as well. While the other disaster is a "satire" of classic Hollywood, this is an ultimately unsatisfying spoof on the low budget pictures being produced by Roger Corman in the seventies. Several props, clips and actors (Dick Miller, Paul Bartel, Mary Woronov)from other productions show up to help string together a story about a fresh off the bus actress (Candice Rialson) that wants to make it in pictures. She first gets conned into robbing a bank, which leads to work as a stunt woman, and ultimately a b-movie actress. This culminates into a murder mystery where actresses are being killed with no apparent motive. It's certainly more coherent and fun than Myra Breckenridge, but some of the best gags are sabotaged by the directors needs to drag them out to pad running time or in the worst example, they repeat gags as is the case with an extended rape sequence that happens twice and is not as funny nor as insightful as they hoped it would be.
The DVD is out of print and is certainly worth picking up for fans. It has commentary by the directors and a live performance by Captain Cody and His Lost Space Airmen.

4/10

Myra Breckenridge (1970)

Dir: Michael Sarne
20th Century Fox DVD

An infamous fiasco based on the Gore Vidal novel of the same name. Raquel Welch stars as the post-op tranny mentioned in the title. She shows up at her Uncle's (John Huston!?!) acting school to... well, I'm not quite sure. In fact that's just one of the many problems you're confronted with sitting through this one. It appears to be a satire, but is never funny. Not once did I have to hold back a chuckle or concede to a genuine laugh. It's supposed to take shots at the film industry but just comes across as downright hateful. It constantly cuts to classic film clips, often featuring Laurel and Hardy or Shirley Temple, that are used to emphasize a double entendre. The material would appear to lend itself to an open minded stance on homosexuality but the film comes across as extremely homophobic and the two sides of the Breckenridge character are completely at odds. The supporting cast shows off a plethora of embarrassed aging celebs, like; Mae West, Jim Backus, John Carradine, and film critic Rex Reed appears as the pre-op version of Myra, Myron.
Extras on the disc include a 20 minute episode of "Back story" all about the contentious making of the film and some pretty honest testimonials about how hated it was. Welch gives audio commentary where she sighs heavily at the on-screen depression.

1/10

The Blood Beast Terror (1968)

Dir: Vernon Sewell
Netflix streaming

Supposedly Cushing said this was his least favorite film that he had ever made and right off the bat I have a hard time coming up with one to challenge that. Not to say this is terrible because any film Cushing is in is immediately made better. He plays it straight in the face of one of the cheapest and campiest monsters ever committed to film, it's just a person in tights, a rubber moth mask, and big fake wings. The story is about a police inspector (Cushing) that is investigating the deaths of several college age young men that all occur near the home of a local wildlife expert. It's filled with red herrings and feels like it drags quite a bit in the second half, but it's nowhere near the painful experience that Sewell's Burke & Hare is.
The Netflix on demand version looked fine and was most likely taken from the Image DVD. They did retain an anamorphic 1.66:1 aspect ratio for the streaming exhibition which was a nice touch.

4/10

Deep End (1971)

Dir: Jerzy Skolimowski
TCM Broadcast

This aired on TCM's Underground recently along with Skolimowski's The Shout. Unfortunately my DVR crashed and burned before I had a chance to watch that one. I lost around twenty recorded movies this weekend but i digress. To get to the point at hand, Deep End is about a teenage boy, Mike, that takes a job at a bath house/indoor swimming pool and becomes obsessed with a slightly older female co-worker, Susan. He's an awkward guy that spurns the advances of the lonely older women that frequent the bath house. He seems to hold virginity in high regard, an idea reinforced when Mike (John Moulder-Brown) believes that Susan (Jane Asher) is promiscuous and thinks he even sees her likeness on a poster at a brothel. This is when his stalking turns to belligerence. He slashes her tire, insults her, and generally becomes a real creep. Certain events lead them to be alone and when Mike finally realizes that Susan has no interest in him, he strikes the final blow. It's an interesting film if ultimately not memorable and none of the characters are likable in the slightest making it something I doubt I would revisit. Skolimowski is a restrained and patient director, I would just rather see it applied to different subject matter.

6/10

Halloween II (2009)

Dir: Rob Zombie
Sony DVD

Zombie tries to do something a little different with this sequel, than he did in the initial remake, by introducing stylish dream sequences. In fact the film turns into a parade of endless dream-like internal monologues that seem to be shared psychotic visions between the killer Myers and his sister and focus of his obsession, Laurie (Scout Taylor-Compton). These sequences show up far too often and look like a 1998 music video. When that's not going on, the film looks like every other slasher film these days. It's under lit, grimy, and brutal. Too bad there was no time during it's 2 hours (!) to insert some scenes where we learn anything about the characters to make us feel bad about the victims, but just like it's predecessor, it's focused on showing us what Myers is going through. It also introduces a fact not mentioned in part one, that Myers is obsessed with white horses. Your guess is as good as mine. As near as I can figure it's just a reason to visually quote (read: steal) shots from Twin Peaks. Another visual inspiration seems to be The Shining and with several verbal and visual references to classic horror films, we know Zombie has at least heard of a good movie, but what did he get out of them? The movie springs to life for a few moments when Malcolm McDowell's Dr. Loomis turns up on a talk show and Weird Al Yankovic steals the movie. This was the only moment during my viewing where I believe I gave the intended response by laughing unlike the rest of the time where I laughed due to embarrassment.

2/10