The Howling. Joe Dante. 1981. ⚁

[fifteen minutes pass]

I’m not quite sure why I bought this move? Because I’ve been watching a lot of werewolf movies lately? It might just be associative thinking.

But this is definitely not a movie I saw as a teenager… and I can see why. It’s a very 70s movie — not a slick 80s American horror movie at all. There was a phase change at some point, where they learned to powder the actors’ faces so they didn’t look shiny any more, and they told the actors “pretend you’re not in a Robert Altman movie”, and then suddenly! the 80s had arrived.

But this is a solidly 70s movie, with shiny faces and all.

And it’s a low-budget little movie and all.

[forty-five minutes pass]

OK, I was kinda onboard with watching a low budget horror movie… but this is incredibly tedious. I think I now remember why I bought it — I watched a DVD extra where one of the special effects guys said that this was the best werewolf movie. And, yes, the werewolves (and prosthetics) are pretty nice (for a movie of this budget), but the rest of the movie is…

I mean, there’s sort of a plot, and sort of a drama in here, but it’s just really hard to care.

Perhaps the nudity is why this movie has got a 6.6 on imdb. It’s a kinda repulsive movie?

[ten minutes pass]

That’s a really good werewolf! Really good!

[the end]

The featured review on imdb makes a case for this movie being all subversive and referential and stuff:

I think they’re reading too much into it. It’s a plotless werewolf movie that has a bunch of references to other (were)wolves in it, but that doesn’t really make it clever or interesting: It just makes it a plotless werewolf movie with a lot of references to ther (were)wolves. That’s easy and simple to do, and they did it. Obviously their focus was on making the werewolf transformations fun to watch, and they are.

OK, it’s a bit meta. But it’s not a good movie.

The Umbrellas of Cherbourg. Jacques Demy. 1964. ⚄

It seems like at least half of the good movies have this bit in the pre-credits:

Oh! They still exist:

Janus Films is an American film distribution company. The distributor is credited with introducing numerous films, now considered masterpieces of world cinema, to American audiences

So it’s an American distributor of European art movies. No wonder that logo pops up in so many DVDs…

[five minutes pass]

OH MY GOD. This musical is durchkomponiert? I mean, it’s not a normal movie and then sometimes they break into songs, but it’s songs all the way through?

Golly. I can’t remember the last time I saw that… If ever…

[the end]

I loved watching this.

Just some er notes: There are very few actual songs in this movie. It’s mostly people singing in the upper registry of their voices in a kind of… tune-ful but aimless way. Imagine: If you were going to sing “I’m going to buy some bread”? That’s what they’re singing: Those exact same automatic notes that everybody would sing if challenged to sing something without having a tune.

But it’s fine! I don’t understand why they didn’t write more melodies, though.

The colours, set design and cinematography is exceptional. I mean, are. But I’m subtracting one ⚀ because there’s no actual music here: It’s just automatic tune lines. The background jazz is kinda nice, but… why didn’t they write any tunes for these people to sing? WHYYYYY

She Done Him Wrong. Lowell Sherman. 1933. ⚄

[fifteen minutes pass]

I’m no Mae West expert… I mean, I know she was a sex pot actress, and I’ve probably seen her in (many?) movie before, but I … just can’t remember? So I was shocked to hear her talk in this: She basically sounds like a 30s Snooki!

I love it!

It’s just amazing. She’s sneering all the time, talking in 30s gangsta talk: “See here, whatcha talkin aboot!” It’s riveting.

[ten minutes pass]

Cary Grant! Oh yeah, this is his first really big movie: Mae West allegedly saw him on the lot and liked the look of his gams. Or something!

He’s so… inexperienced. He doesn’t position himself to his advantage in front of the camera, so there’s a lot of odd angles. And he hasn’t quite landed on a dialect yet, so some of the vowels sounds like he’s an inbred lerd. It’s hilarious.

I love this. I have no idea what the plot is, but I love this. It’s not a “good movie”; but it’s so weird that… that…

It’s that weird.

[the end]

I’m still loving it! West is hamming every scene up to the max, and the rest of the actors are trying to keep up with her. It’s delightful.

I still don’t quite know what the plot was? Did this have a plot? Who needs a plot! It’s great.

(And kinda shocking. The scene with the killing is … “eeeh?” I guess it’s funny because she talked with an eastern European accent?)

Now I want to watch all movies Mae West was in to see if they’re this good. It’s impossible not to be charmed by her in this movie.

Well that’s a word jumble:

Louise Beavers was the only African American actress to be brought aboard the film by West personally. She wanted a black woman to appear opposite her; when she did stage and screen work, West made it a point to act with black American actors and actresses, helping to break racial discrimination in entertainment.

But I think they’re trying to say that West was fabulous.