Manic Depression

One of the major films to challenge the Hays Code before it finally failed in 1968 (to be replaced with our modern rating system) was also one of the first to usher in what is called New Hollywood (putting an end to the traditional Hollywood System), namely, the biographical crime drama Bonnie and Clyde (1967), directed by Arthur Penn. Based upon the real life bank robbers, Bonnie Parker (Faye Dunaway) is a bored amateur poet and waitress in her early twenties looking for any adventure to come her way during the crippling Great Depression... Clyde Barrow (Warren Beatty – McCabe & Mrs. Miller) just so happens to be a recently released convict that she spots and becomes infatuated with.

Nestled between two of Cecil B. DeMille’s massively successful historical epics (that he is so well known for), namely The Sign of the Cross (1932) and Cleopatra (1934), he directed two box office failures, This Day and Age (1933) and the movie reviewed here today, Four Frightened People (1934). Released just prior to the end of the Pre-Code era, DeMille’s early dramatic jungle adventure was reworked on the fly – which is partially why it is one of the iconic director’s middling efforts.

If you’re a huge fan of Bud Abbott and Lou Costello, then this one will be a bit of a weird watch for you... as it is the only film the latter star appears in without his iconic straight man (the pair had dissolved their partnership in 1957). Also away from their typical Universal Studios, this one comes from Columbia. A clear take on 1958's Attack of the 50 Foot Woman, the director Sidney Miller promptly brought forward the sci-fi comedy parody The 30 Foot Bride of Candy Rock (1959).

If you had to guess what would be the top grossing British made film in Great Britain in 1974, thoughts would immediately go to the most recent James Bond adventure, The Man with the Golden Gun, or perhaps Roger Moore’s other successful feature of that year – Gold; then your mind might circulate to some of the popular comedy franchises of the time like Carry On (74's being Carry On Dick), or On the Buses (though those were released in 1971, 72, and 73), but instead, it’s the lesser known outside the UK, Confessions of a Window Cleaner... which also spawned three sequels released the next three years – but more on those later.

If you’re looking for one of the most wildly intense nights of chaos set on film, then Airport (1970), co-written and directed by George Seaton (Miracle on 34th Street) is in the running for that honour. Often deemed a disaster movie with plenty of drama, moments of action, tinges of comedy (see above), as well as some obvious thrills, it’s a mixed bag of sorts, as it’s got an impressively massive cast, clever use of split screen to keep the narrative moving along (it might remind some of the popular 2000s tv show 24), and throw a wild number of ideas at the screen to create one frantic evening effect, yet its languid pacing holds some of these elements back from being a more memorable disaster thriller. In fact, star Burt Lancaster even called it “a piece of junk”.

Now celebrating its 50th anniversary, back in 1976, Brian De Palma and Paul Schrader, before becoming household names (that would happen later the very same year with De Palma’s Carrie and Schrader’s script for Taxi Driver), attended a screening of an original print of Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo (1958), and were immediately inspired to co-write a story (with the latter polishing off the screenplay) for a movie that would eventually be titled Obsession – not at all related to this year’s box office craze with the same title, or the review posted here last week called Obsession: A Taste for Fear (1987). Like much of De Palma’s work, this too finds its brainchild from Hitchcock’s oeuvre, as mentioned before, most notably Vertigo.