Tokyo Story - Yasujiro Ozu (1953)

with commentary by David Dresser

Christmas in July - Preston Sturges (1940)

Can't sleep at night? It isn't the coffee... It's the bunk!

The Taking of Pelham One Two Three - Joseph Sargent (1974)

Twisting the heist film by leaving the audience in the dark, jumping into the heist and skipping the layout. A cadre of actors playing novices (Japanese tourists, trainee conductor) help ease along exposition of the gears & levers of the plot.

The panoply of craggy faces in the underground sporting a veritable field guide of faked NYC accents...

The Greatest Gift - Harold Daniels (1939)

An MGM Miniature

Let's Talk Turkey - A Pete Smith Speciality (1939)

Skin Deep - Charles Burns (1992)

Something Always Happens - Michael Powell (1934)

An early 'quota-quickie' directed by Michael Powell for Warner Bros at Teddington Studios in 1934.

Powell's hand seems most evident in the first third of the film as his documentary-style camera word follows the experiences of hard-luck London. Razor-sharp cinematography scans the lined faces of street vendors and homeless as we follow the parallel wanderings of Billy, 10 year-old orphan, and Peter, a salesman gone broke at cards. The British sunlight realism soon turns to Hollywood gaslight fantasy as Peter builds a (never seen... imaginary?) business empire around swimming pools, ice cream and petrol stations. A comedic twist puts him onto the wrong villain, but alls right in the end and all good comedies end with a marriage and a cute orphan in a bellhop's outfit.

Something Always Happens - Michael Powell (1934)

An early 'quota-quickie' directed by Michael Powell for Warner Bros at Teddington Studios in 1934.

The first 1/3rd of the movie looks like a documentary following the experiences of hard-luck London. Razor-sharp cinematography scans the lined faces of street vendors and homeless as we follow


Razor-sharp documentary-style B&W photography outlines the faces of down and out London in the introductory scenes as we follow the parallel

Misery Loves Comedy - Ivan Brunetti (2007)

For my taste this gazed a little too deeply into Brunetti's peculiar navel...

Speed Gibson - Davis Shot by the Octopus Gang (1-21-39)

Boston Massacre vs Virginia Dominion - Rollerderby

Shriners' Auditorium, Wilmington, MA

Fibber McGee and Molly - Aunt Sarah's Picture (5-2-44)

Fibber McGee and Molly - Alice Darling's New Boyfriend (5-9-44)

Alfred Hitchcock' The 39 Steps - Adapted by Patrick Barlow (2007)

At the Huntington Theatre

Alfred Hitchcock' The 39 Steps - Adapted by Patrick Barlow (2007)

At the Huntington Theatre

A Streetcard Named Desire - Tennesee Williams (1947)

At the New Repertory Theater in Watertown

Figaro - Based on the work of Beaumarchais and Mozart (2007)

At the American Repertory Theater in Cambridge

Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors - Sergei Parajanov (1964)

Screened at the Brattle Theater

The Jack Benny Show - Renting Eddie Cantor's House (5-2-1943)

Who knew Grape Nuts Flakes don't require any ration stamps?

Pat Novak For Hire - Rubin Callaway (3-13-49)

Late period detective serial starring Jack Webb. Solidly in the Mike Hammer/Raymond Chandler tradition. Overloaded with crazy staccato metaphors. "She was a nice little mouse that made you want to go home and test all the old traps."

Knight of the Trail - William S. Hart (1915)

Stagecoach holdup man goes straight to win his girl, but must return to his old tarnished profession to regain honor. Motif of wings appear on nice intertitle artwork. Minimal intercutting of Hart on horse, stage coach and train at end. Essentially just one shot of each rather than the protracted Griffith-style suspense builder. Money bag symbolically plucked like a heart from the chest of the con man at the end.

Once - John Carney (2007)

Screened at the Arlington Capitol

Origami Now! Exhibit - Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, MA

Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors - Sergei Parajanov (1964)

This story of a Romeo lost without his Juliet told through the screen of the forest begins with a Ukranian man dying under a falling tree in the forest. Shown fesrom the perspective of the tree! And then goes on to visually match jumping horses with flowing blood. Later a mustached man tells tales while caressing a basket-ball-sized cheese curd and the camera makes length inventories of forest lichen and bark. The audio track mirrors the swirling camera work and cacophony of colored costumes with mish-mash of diegetic and non-diegetic sounds: bells, whistles, crackling fires, horses hooves. But the most surpising sound is a mute who communicates using only the number 1. Cinematography switches from color to B&W in the last part of the film to indicate the depths of despair.

Great fun. A visual and auditory treat.

Screened at the Brattle Theater

Bob and Harv's Comics - Harvey Pekar, Robert Crumb (1996)

Keno Bates, Liar - William S Hart (1915)

One of about 17 two-reelers made by and starring Hart in 1915. This unusual Western starts with the shooting and deals with the aftermath for the rest of its 20 minute length. Hart as 'Keno' Bates kills a thief and then takes it upon himself to support his homeless (and beautiful) sister, lying to her for her own peace of mind. When gun gets pulled a second time at the end, 'Keno' is on the wrong end of a woman's fury and stumbles affectingly across the landscape leaving a trail of blood. This film must have one of the homeliest femme fatales in the history of cinema...

Keno Bates, Liar - William S Hart (1915)

One of about 17 two-reelers made by and starring Hart in 1915. This unusual Western starts with the shooting and deals with the aftermath for the rest of its 20 minute length. Hart as 'Keno' Bates kills a thief and then takes it upon himself to support his homeless (and beautiful) sister, lying to her for her own peace of mind. When gun gets pulled a second time at the end, 'Keno' is on the wrong end of a woman's fury and stumbles affectingly across the landscape leaving a trail of blood. This film must have one of the homeliest femme fatales in the history of cinema...

The Texas Rangers - King Vidor (1936)

Jack Oakie grates, but Fred MacMurray and Lloyd Nolan keep you watching with their carefully judged mannerisms. Don't expect the Indians to get any sympathy. This was 1936, after all...

The Bear That Wasn't - Chuck Jones (1967)

A nice slice of Grinch-era Jones

Digger - Ursula Vernon (2005)

Private Snuffy Smith - Edward F. Cline (1942)

Bud Duncan's hillbilly vocal stylings brush up against Edgar Kennedy's slow burns. Weirdly serious at times. The backwoods dialect is priceless. Duncan carries around a six-foot musket he calls "Tombstone."

Duffy's Tavern - Spike McGuirk (3-16-49)

Duffy's Tavern - With Mickey Rooney (3-2-49)

Duffy's Tavern - With Mickey Rooney (3-2-49)

The Dot and the Line: A Romance in Lower Mathematics - Chuck Jones (1965)

Duffy's Tavern - Nussbaum Asks John Anthony for Advice (1-22-47)

Woody Herman and His Orchestra - Roy Mack (1938)

Warner Brothers/Vitaphone musical short with a little tap/jitterbug crossover. Woody Herman crosses to the other side of the tracks on a couple of the vocal numbers.

Sons of the Pioneers - Joseph Kane (1942)

How could I miss this when the guide description reads "Singing entomologist acts meek to help a juggling sheriff solve ranch raids"?

Roy and Gabby ride their way through the soft anachronism of a murky print with swirly gray day-for-night scenes. Nothing like a little ghost yodeling.

American Trail - Episode 1 (1953)

A dramatized version of American history. This episode covers the development of the Constitution.

Across the Pacific - John Huston (1942)

Overall a disappointment compared to The Maltese Falcon (made the previous year with much of the same cast and crew), perhaps due to Mary Astor's cleaning up her act instead of playing the femme fatale. Gotta love Sydney Greenstreet' baroque verbalizations and movements.

Weird balance of racist Asian characters (thick glasses and goofy accents) with respectful portrayals of some aspects of Asian culture (e.g., martial arts, Shinto).

Fluid camera work moves through the shipboard sequences and hotels.

The New American Splendor Anthology - Harvey Pekar (1991)

Schotten-Totten - Reiner Knizia (1998)

Yes, I'm also logging the board and card games. I just haven't played any in awhile.

This time D got the better of me in three hands (2-1).

American Splendor #1-#4 - Harvey Pekar (2006-07)

Character Studies - Carter DeHaven (1925)

An amusing silent short made for a party to celebrate the release of Chaplin's The Gold Rush at Mary Pickford's house in 1925. I won't give away the clever Méliès-style trick to this film, but it does have appearances by silent greats Keaton, Lloyd, Arbuckle, Valentino, Fairbanks and Coogan.

Interestingly, the intertitles all feature speech balloons laid out to mimic the framing of the live action on the screen.

The Jack Benny Show - Jack's Movie (6-20-1937)