"Call of the Wild" (1935)

If you needed any other proof why Clark Gable was nicknamed 'The King' in 1930's Hollywood, then look no further than his charismatic star turn in this tale of the the Yukon Gold Rush at the turn of the 20th Century. He's sexy as all hell as a down on his luck fortune hunter who's searching for an apocryphal gold mine up in the backcountry mountains. He's aided by three loves, Loretta Young as the wife of lost prospector who knows the way to the gold, Jack Oakie as his comic relief sidekick, and Buck, his loyal St. Bernard sled dog. The story gives only a passing glance to the plot of Jack London's popular novella which put the anthropomorphized Buck at the center of the action. This being Hollywood they weren't going to make the biggest male lead of the day play second fiddle to a dog. What you do get is a lot of fun romance, dog races, snarling wolves, and stunning wintry vistas shot in Washington state. Reginald Owen shows up as the hissable baddie trying to steal the gold (and Buck). And let's not discount the performance of the canine himself. It's no wonder that Gable ends up with the lovable pooch over Young!

"Key Largo" (1948)

Proof an all star cast can take okay material and transform it into something great. Liberally adapted from a play by Maxwell Anderson, John Huston directs this story of a WWII vet (Humphrey Bogart) visiting the widow (Lauren Bacall) of one of the men in his company who died under his command in the battle of San Pietro. She lives with her wheelchair ridden father-in-law (Lionel Barrymore), the proprietor of a seen-better-days resort hotel in the remote Florida Keys. Things take a noir turn when we find out the the other guests at the place are a snarling kingpin mobster (Edward G. Robinson), his band of thugs, and his desperate ex-lounge singer gun moll (Claire Trevor). A bad hurricane hits and there's much verbal sparring, as Robinson tries to strong arm Bogie into getting him to Cuba and away from the law. Things could've gotten stagey here but Huston keeps things moving and the cast is like a finely tuned machine, everyone doing what they do best, especially Trevor who won a much deserved Oscar for her emotionally bruised character. When she does a boozy off-key rendition of "Moanin' Low" she's an exposed raw nerve. Robinson is always good as the heavy and Bogie is...well, Bogie. Nobody did the reluctant hero better in the history of movies.

Haiku review: "Five Came Back" (2017)

Old Hollywood goes
to war; fascinating and
essential viewing.

"The Scarlett Empress" (1934)

The paper thin plot of this historic epic is beside the point. It's all about the sumptuous over-the-top visuals. And what visuals! Under the exacting eye of director Josef von Sternberg this eyecandy feast is unlike any other film from the golden era of the Hollywood studio system. Played almost like a silent film (there are numerous title cards detailing plot points), it's the story of Russia's Catherine the Great as played by von Sternberg's oft used muse, Marlene Dietrich. We see her from young womanhood as Germany's Princess Sophia, then as she's whisked away in an arranged marriage to be the wife of the Grand Duke of Russia, then as she ultimately becomes the famed Empress. Each scene, each frame, is chock-a-block full of detail, the beautiful and the profane. Given this was the Pre-Code era, there's a lot of sex and sexuality to go around, even the depraved. Scenes of Russian torture are hard to watch even today. Von Sternberg has a heyday with the layered, sometimes grotesque sets of the Russian palace, and he films Deitrich as if she was a goddess, and by gosh, with her unique beauty she was. Festooned in one Travis Banton creation after another she's the celluloid screen icon of your dreams. It's fascinating to see her transform from the innocent and wide-eyed  princess--not the usual way we see this actresss-- and bloom into the infamous manhandling czarina who uses her sex to conquer a country. This is one film that must be seen to be believed. Gorgeous indulgence.

Haiku review: "Kong: Skull Island" (2017)

Everyone's fave ape
performing better than his
real human co-stars.

"Gentlemen's Agreement" (1947)

A textbook case of noble Hollywood liberalism. The cause here was anti-Semitism. Gregory Peck is a successful magazine writer on his first big assignment for a new publication. His brainstorm (which takes a while to hit him) is to tell everyone he meets that he's Jewish, so that he can experience first-hand this nasty societal practice. Why the magazine couldn't get a real Jew to write a similar story is never really touched on, we're supposed to assume that Jews just weren't given those kinds of jobs? Nevertheless, experiece it he does, at work, at parties, at hotels, even his little boy (a very good Dean Stockwell) gets taunted in the schoolyard. You get walloped with the message--anti-Semitism, BAD!--over and over again. Concurrently, Peck falls in love with a beautiful socialite (a starchy Dorothy MacGuire) who claims to be open minded about Jews but it irks Peck that she too easily accepts the the social status quo, the unspoken rules about those people and their place in the world. It's all done with taste and decorum and that's probably why it feels so dated and preachy. But sometimes the reason to watch a film like this is for the time capsule aspect of understanding what times were like when the movie was made...to let us see how far we've come and how fare we've still to go (it's not like anti-Semitism has been banished for all time, hell, there's a white supremacist in the White House now!) The other reason is a fine generous performance by Celeste Holm who took home the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress. She's the fashion editor of the magazine who befriends Peck and almost, just almost, gets the guy. She's funny, self-effacing, witty, and smart. A nice depiction of a career woman which was a rarity in those days.

Haiku review: "Room 237" (2012)

Kubrick's "The Shining"
over-analyzed nine ways.
Tedious claptrap.