Having just watched Red Skelton in the serious drama, The Clown, my first reaction is simply, “wow”. Although it stars Red Skelton, and deals with a clown/comedian as the central character, The Clown is not a comedy. It is a very serious drama, which left me with a new respect for Red Skelton’s acting ability.
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Dracula vs Frankenstein, starring J. Carrol Naish, Lon Chaney Jr. in their final film – a truly terrible film that’s only good for mocking
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The Gold Rush is one of Charlie Chaplin’s greatest films. Like all of his films starring the Little Tramp, it is a silent, and demonstrates very well why the silent move is an art form in its’ own right. Modern clowns would do well to learn from a master of the art of pantomime by watching this film — it’s Chaplin at his finest. Chaplin and his crew do an excellent job of telling the story without dialog, and it moves from funny to poignant to sad to touching and back to funny again.
It details the Little Tramp, who has made his way to Alaska for the Gold Rush, trying to make his fortune. Along the way, he partners with a mad-from-hunger gold digger looking for his lost claim (played by Mack Swain, one of Chaplin’s regulars), falls in love with a young lady from a saloon (played by Georgia Hale), gets on the wrong side of a very dangerous outlaw, and finds his way to happily ever after by the end of the film.
Although it is a thoughtful and surprisingly non exploitative movie, the title Robinson Crusoe on Mars might conjure up unholy echoes of cross-pollinated genre movies such as Jesse James Meets Frankenstein’s Daughter or Santa Claus Conquers the Martians. Well, don’t worry. This 1964 space epic is in fact an adaptation of the classic Daniel Defoe novel, and it plays fair by logic and science.
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The Circus is one of the Little Tramp’s most poignant roles, as well as one of Charlie Chaplin’s funniest silent movies — for which he won a special Oscar. It begins with the Tramp attending a small circus that comes to town. He haphazardly bumps into a pickpocket, who hides his ill-gotten goods in the Tramp’s pocket. This soon leads to a marvelous chase, with the police chasing both the pickpocket and the Tramp. At one point the pickpocket and the Tramp are running in parallel …. And the Tramp politely tips his hat to the thief. After a chase through the hall of mirrors (which has to be seen). The Tramp accidentally runs into the circus’ center ring, where he is unintentionally hilarious. The circus owner/ringmaster auditions the Tramp as a new clown. Only to find out that he can’t be funny on purpose — only unintentionally.
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The Spell is an NBC made-for-television movie, clearly, a rip-off of Carrie. However, it was actually slightly more than that. The Spell begins with a young teenager named Rita (Susan Myers, Revenge of the Nerds) who is being picked on by her fellow high school students for being “fat” — i.e. not being anorexic like them. As they’re tormenting her, the Phy Ed teacher stands by and watches, doing absolutely nothing. This prompted one of my children to comment, “The teacher’s evil! She’s just standing there!” Actually, she’s more right than she knows, but more on that later.
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In short, The Beast Within is a 1980’s horror film that’s a mixture between The Curse of the Werewolf and any number of Southern Gothic movies. It begins with a newlywed couple (Ronny Cox and Bibi Besch) on their honeymoon. They have car trouble in the middle of nowhere, in the American South. Filmed in Raymond, Missouri, for those who care about such things. While the husband goes to find help, the woman is assaulted and raped by an insect-like monster. She conceives a child from the rape and gives birth to seemingly-normal Michael (Paul Clemens). He appears to be a nice, average, handsome young man. Until he turns 17 …
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In City Lights, Charlie Chaplin plays the part of Charlie the little tramp, a homeless vagabond, who encounters a flower girl, only to discover that she’s blind. After Charlie rescues an inebriated rich man from committing suicide, the eccentric millionaire decides that Charlie is his best friend, and takes him out partying, gives him a car, etc. — only to totally forgot about him when he’s sober.
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Although I’m aware of the actor Ray Milland (Starflight One, X: the Man with the X-Ray Eyes), I’m young enough to say that I’d never seen a truly great performance by him. That was before I watched The Lost Weekend.
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