Closing the Book

An over the top, campy kitsch cult classic that plays like a wildly fun rock opera, Flash Gordon (1980), directed by Mike Hodges, and based on the Alex Raymond comic strip first published in 1934, is perhaps most intriguing for attracting the rock band Queen to compose and perform the theme song and score with the help of orchestral scorer Howard Blake (though much of his work was cut in favour of Brian May). Produced by the famed Dino De Laurentiis, this would be his third and final creation of a former comic strip, with the first two being Barbarella and Danger: Diabolik, both released in 1968

A rare Pre-Code film that still echoes through the lineage of movies to this day, influencing the gangster genre is the Howard Hughes produced, Howard Hawks directed, Ben Hecht written Scarface (1932) – with its elements playing an integral part in setting up the archetypal template for generations to come (just think of the works of Martin Scorsese, Brian De Palma and Francis Ford Coppola four, five, and six decades later). Ripped from the headlines at the time, this fast paced and snappy gem doesn’t feel like it’s made in 1932, the limitations of the early ‘talkie’ era hardly noticeable. The camera gracefully moves around, be it reenacting the movement of a Tommy gun or introducing us to the players in a room.

I’ve said it here on Filmizon before, and I’ll say it here once again... 1969 is arguably the best year for westerns. On top of rather avant-garde boundary pushers like Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, 100 Rifles, Paint Your Wagon, and others, there were also a slew of more traditional style features from the genre, including the movie reviewed here today, The Undefeated (1969) – which has often been a bit overshadowed by another John Wayne starring western that was released the same year, True Grit. Directed by Andrew V. McLaglen, the story is set in a rather interesting period – just as the American Civil War has come to an end. Swapping between two intersecting stories, Union Col. John Henry Thomas (Wayne – Arizona; The Quiet Man) has stepped away from his military role, taking his few remaining men west to gather some wild horses to sell before heading home

In 1928, after falling under some financial pressure, Buster Keaton moved away from his own independent productions and merged things with MGM... a most profitable decision, yet a choice that he later called the, “ worst mistake of his career”. Going from the creative genius behind his own projects to a cog in the studio system with limited creative control over his projects, it went well enough on their first feature, The Cameraman (reviewed here on Filmizon), but with their next effort, Spite Marriage (1929), sadly that freedom was mostly gone. Directed by Edward Sedgwick, with a star like Keaton there is still some magic here, though that feeling of spontaneity, charm, and warmth feels confined within the structured, more efficient MGM production.

A very important film from 1935 that is probably not as well known today as it should be, the swashbuckling action adventure Captain Blood, directed by Michael Curtiz (The Sea Wolf, The Breaking Point), featured numerous important happenings that would leave rippling effects on the industry for many years to come. Though Curtiz had immigrated to the United States years before, having some success in the silent era with Noah’s Ark (1928) and with the early sound pictures Doctor X (1932) and Mystery of the Wax Museum (1933), it was this bigger budget extravaganza that would help him become a top tier film maker, someone who would go on to make an inordinate number of future classics, including The Adventures of Robin Hood, Angels with Dirty Faces. Yankee Doodle Dandy, Mildred Pierce, and perhaps most importantly, Casablanca... among others.

A fun little fact to start... the colourful monikers utilized by Quentin Tarantino as criminal code names in his breakout feature Reservoir Dogs (1992) was done in homage to the film reviewed here today, Joseph Sargent’s crime thriller The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (1974) – which used a similar method to keep the criminals unknown to others. Set in the cement underground that is the New York City subway system, all cold, rugged, and dirty, it seems like any other day. . . that is, until these code named gun wielding assailants, led by accented mastermind Mr. Blue