I haven’t watched any movies for yonks because of reasons, but I wanna get back in the saddle again, so here we go with another movie chosen by Hazel Flagg:

This DVD is very unrestored.

This is quite odd — I mean, not the plot. It’s about a young woman who’s won some money and is pretending to be rich, and also a European prince who’s pretending to be a bellboy. Hilarity ensues. You know, the normal stuff.

But the pacing… it’s like every gag arrives ten seconds too late? I mean, I’m enjoying this, but it’s just odd.

It’s funny, but I laughed out only once — at the final hat gag.

Frances Dee is a lot of fun, but Francis Lederer? Eh. I can just imagine the movie with, say, Cary Grant instead — it would have been a very different thing. It’s not that he’s bad, but there just isn’t any chemistry.

The Gay Deception. William Wyler. 1935. ⚃

Oh, directed by Clint!

This isn’t a movie I would have chosen in a million years, but if she says it’s good, I’ll give it a go.

It is a confusing movie. I mean, it’s not “serious”, but it’s not overtly a comedy, either. And Clint plays a guy that both seems extremely competent and who is also a complete moron.

He has the other characters be really vile — at length — and it’s not quite clear what Clint is going for. Does he want the audience to laugh at the guys running off their mouths? Laugh with them? It’s just odd.

OK, he’s the dumbo and she’s the smart cookie.

Yeah, this isn’t a well-liked movie. I mean, by the common people. I don’t think the movie quite works…

I mean, it’s basically a parody on this kind of movie, but it’s also very much this kind of movie at the same time.

The character development scenes are brutally boring.

(And Clint has the cinematographer do some really awkward scenes, like here.)

It’s just such an odd and awkward movie. Clint had directed several movies by this point — he should have been able to make a movie that made more sense than this.

The last ten minutes is just this bus driving very slowly while cops shoot at it. I guess it’s meant to be funny? But but but it’s not.

And then the cops just let him do whatever he wants because cops are good at heart, or something.

It doesn’t work as a comedy, and it doesn’t work as an action movie.

The Gauntlet. Clint Eastwood. 1977. ⚁

I’m not totally sure why I bought this movie… it might be because I quite liked Crossing Delancey (by the same director).

Because it can’t be because of this tweet from March, because I didn’t follow Hazel Flagg back then.

This Blu-ray has been over-restored, perhaps, by the Cohen Film Group. It kinda feels like everything is a bit too sharp? Sharper than it should be?

All the sound is flown in. That is, it doesn’t seem like Micklin Silver had any microphones while filming, so all the voices are dubbed in, and the other sounds a foley. Over-foleyed, really — you can just picture the guys in the sound dept crunching things and moving shoes around.

Man, immigration those days was lax.

Well, that explains the wig; I was wondering. Did they really have wigs that big in those days? (I mean, I know about the Orthodox thing…)

Oh… is that Carol Kane!?

Oh yeah! I guess it is!?

She’s great here. The other actors, though… very variable.

Wise words.

But… er… I’m not really feeling this movie? There’s too many hokey performances and while the plot seems pretty interesting, really, the execution just isn’t that riveting.

I mean, I love Carol Kane here, and it’s kinda interesting. But it’s just hard to keep paying attention, because it’s just … altogether successful.

Hester Street. Joan Micklin Silver. 1975. ⚂