The Testament of Dr. Mabuse

A criminal mastermind and master of hypnosis continues to operate his terror based criminal enterprise through telekinesis from his insane asylum cell. Fritz Lang's The Testament of Dr Mabuse, a sequel to a work that launched his career a decade earlier and a character he would revisit years later, is highly influential (so much can be seen from it in subsequent noirs and mysteries) and upset the recently empowered National Socialists so much with its parallels they saw fit to ban it in Germany. The film is a bizarre criminal procedural, made with breakneck pace, frenzied editing, and fantastic special effects. Otto Wernicke is fun as Inspector Lohmann, who played the role prior in Lang's M.
*** 1/2 out of ****

Sons of the Desert

When their fraternity announces a beer-soaked convention in Chicago, Stan and Ollie know they must be in attendance which means spinning a tale about needing a medical sabbatical in Honolulu. The duo realize the jig is up when the front pages report of the Hawaii ocean liner overturning and they now must hide from their exceedingly angry and heavily armed wives and concoct an even greater whopper. Hal Roach produced Sons of the Desert is laugh out loud funny made with incessant pratfalls, muggings, misunderstandings, idiocy, and stretching of a gag as far as it will go.

*** ½ out of ****

King Kong

A boisterous adventurer enlists a film crew to travel to exotic Skull Island where they encounted the magnificent colossus Kong, who falls for their leading lady. After barely escaping the island with their lives, the producer returns to New York City with the enslaved brute into, only for him to escape and wreak havoc on the city and make his last stand on the Empire State Building. Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack's enduring classic provides thrills (and chuckles) to this day, the prime example of popcorn fun. With special effects both cheesy and obvious (though still incredibly intricate) King Kong perplexingly still manages to meet or in many cases surpass today's state of the art technology in terms of effectiveness and audience satisfaction.

**** out of ****

The Complete Works of Jean Vigo

Jean Vigo was a surrealist French director whose life was cut short by tuberculosis at 29, but whose limited body of work (consisting of only four films, one of which was feature length) not only provided a window of what could have been and served as a major influence for the future of world cinema, but stands quite sturdily, in their own offbeat and lightly poetic way. His debut film was A Propos de Nice, a fascinating documentary covering all walks of life in Nice and was probably inspired by the landmark Man with a Movie Camera. It was followed by Taris, a brilliant and innovative instructional film featuring the eponymous swim champion, which was succeeded by Zero for Conduct, a whimsical tale detailing a boarding school rebellion. L'Atalante, his final and most cited and cherished work, tells a breezy and aimless story about newlyweds travelling upriver with a gruff riverboat captain, and features amusing situations, likable performances, and some great cinematography.

Duck Soup

Rufus T. Firefly (Groucho Marx) is named supreme leader over the fictional land of Freedonia at the behest of heiress Mrs. Teasdale (Margaret Dumont) over whose honor he declares war on adjoining Sylvania. In the meantime, the head of this rival nation has hired two bumbling spies (Chico and Harpo Marx) to keep tabs on their enemy's new leader. The Marx Brothers' classic melange is not so much a movie as a nonstop assault of gags, one-liners, one-upsmanship, and putdowns. In short, hilarious irreverence. Directed by Leo McCrarey, best known for more say respectable fare (Going My Way, An Affair to Remember), it features memorable sequence after memorable sequence (the mirror gag seemingly stands out for most) with each brother in top form.

**** out of ****

The Invisible Man

Drawing the stares and muffled grumblings of the patrons of a country inn, a heavily bandaged scientist (Claude Rains, who remains true to the title, unseen until the very end) arrives to rent a room with several large piece of luggage in tow. Having recently concocted a serum that causes his body matter to turn translucent, he strives to find the antidote before a major side effect, the onset of murderous rage, takes its hold. Adapted from the H.G. Wells' novel, The Invisible Man is an incredibly well done scary movie made at Universal under Carl Laemmle, and crafted by horror movie master James Whale who infuses the picture with the same kind of creative special effects and wry sense of humor which predominate his Frankenstein pictures.

I'm No Angel

A dancing queen (Mae West) accepts the affections and offerings of numerous gentlemen callers, but when her boyfriend is sent up the river, she heads to the city and becomes a lion tamer in the Big Show. When the cousin (Cary Grant) of one of her "fans" seeks to extricate his relation from her acquaintance, she genuinely falls in love with this new companion. Following the massive success of "She Done Him Wrong", Mae West was given a large amount of control in this riotous film in which she both wrote and stars in. In a Hollywood that hadn't just yet been strangled by the Hays Code, "I'm No Angel" sizzles with West's inimitable innuendos and an endless barrage of sinuous punchlines. Cary Grant, reuniting with West following the success of their prior outing, shines in the sort of patsy role he went on to perfect so well throughout his career. In an film era where anything goes with intelligence and cleverness almost entirely out the door, the sexy witticisms of Mae West in "I'm No Angel" serve as a breath of fresh air.

Dinner at Eight

A fading NYC tycoon and his socially conscious wife throw a posh dinner party with the hope of reviving the family shipping business. As the guest list is assembled, we learn the various backgrounds of each individual guest, all intertangled and carrying their own motives and baggage. "Dinner at Eight" is a glowing production from directing great George Cukor from a screenplay by Francis Marion and Herman J. Mankiewicz drawn from the beloved stage play by George S. Kaufman and Edna Ferber. The film has a tendency to be stagy, but draws strength in characterization and from its excellent cast. In a cast that is uniformly excellent, the ones who stick out the greatest are Marie Dressler as an aging actress, Wallace Beery and Jean Harlow as a brutish titan of industry and his insolent wife, and brothers Lionel and John Barrymore as the host and a suicidal hack actor. "Dinner at Eight" is a excellent example of 1930s New York high society types, replete with a fine cast of characters.