DailyView: Day 177, Movie 259

Continuing on the DailyView, today is a 1945 horror/drama film that was based on a novel written in 1890 by Oscar Wilde: The Picture of Dorian Gray.

I was originally introduced to the character of Dorian Gray through the comic book/movie The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, and I will say that the idea of the character and his aging portrait was one that certainly exceeded the time of Oscar Wilde. Where he came up with such a novel and intriguing concept is fascinating.

Dorian Gray (Hurd Hatfield) had a portrait painted of him by a well-known artist, Basil Hallward (Lowell Gilmore). Dorian was young and wealthy. However, when he gazed upon the picture painted, he waxed poetically. He wished that he could always remain as young as he was now and that it was the painting that would become old and wrinkled. That wish would come true, complicating Dorian Gray’s life and sending him down the road of sin.

The film included a performance from a young Angela Lansbury as a beautiful singer, Sybil Vane, who was in love with Dorian and killed herself after Dorian sent her a letter breaking off their engagement.

The biggest issue with the movie was that the passage of time was muddled. It was difficult to know how long the time frame was and, since that is an important part of the film, that caused some uncertainty.

Still, the story is well told and the performances are good. Dorian Gray is an excellent villain as our protagonist. He is more than just an evil man, as some perceived him as during the film. He was lost in his life, the pain and isolation that he was facing and the dark word of mouth that he was dealing with in the community.

There is no debating that Dorian Gray did some callous, downright wicked things in his lifetime, but there is more beneath the surface of the character than just that and this is why this story has survived since the 1890s. The film does a good job of laying out this conflict within the main character.

The film is also beautifully shot in black and white and only veering into color once, which was a most disturbing moment of the film.

This is definitely a classic movie that I am glad I had a chance to watch.

DailyView: Day 176, Movie 258

Another packed day requires that I dip into the HBO Max collection of Charlie Chaplin for another shorter classic film from the silent master. The picking on HBO Max for Chaplin’s films have become sparse since I have used several during the DailyView. One of the remaining films was The Pilgrim.

Chaplin is an escape convict who has stolen the clothes of a minister to replace his prison attire. At the train station, in an attempt to avoid the police as well as a couple that wants him to marry them, Chaplin randomly boards a train to Devil’s Gulch, Texas. Once there, he is mistaken for a church’s new parson and is immediately whisked away to a service.

There is a tremendous sequence of visual storytelling as Chaplin gives a sermon on David and Goliath that ends in a most unexpected manner. This was one of the most stand out sections of The Pilgrim.

Chaplin encounters an old cell mate of his who threatens to blow his cover. The man steals the church money, and Chaplin intends on retrieving it.

The film featured a song called “I’m Bound for Texas” which Chaplin had written and was sung by Matt Monro.

This would be the final film that Edna Purviance would co-star with Chaplin. She had been a regular in his oeuvre for many years prior to this.

The Pilgrim is another classic silent film from a master of the genre. Chaplin’s slapstick abilities are beyond reproach and his comedy is right on par. The Pilgrim is one of his great works despite being less known than some of his other films.

DailyView: Day 175, Movie 257

The DailyView continued this morning with another of the Basil Rathbone Sherlock Holmes films that are available on YouTube. This film was the 1943 The Spider Woman.

Basil Rathbone returned as Sherlock Holmes and Nigel Bruce resumed his role as Dr. Watson. The great detective became involved in the case of “the pyjama suicides.” A group of men from London began killing themselves at night for no apparent reason. Holmes was not fooled into believing these were suicides. He knew that they were actually murders and he started to investigate the case.

Holmes, who had faked his own death in order to go undercover as the next victim, believed that the murderer was a woman, a female Moriarty. He meets Adrea Spedding (Gale Sondergaard) who uses deadly spiders as her murder weapon.

The mystery was entertaining and the story moved quickly. It incorporated several parts of some classic stories of Holmes author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, including The Sign of Four as well as several short stories.

Rathbone continued to show that he was a wonderful Sherlock Holmes as he carried himself in a perfect manner for the gentleman detective. Nigel Bruce made an excellent Dr. Watson once again, playing the version of the character as more of a bumbling sidekick who still could be effective in his own way. Watson’s expertise in anatomy provided a key detail during the adventure.

Adrea Spedding provided Holmes with a strong antagonist who was very nearly on his level. She was an unlikely adversary for Holmes, but one who showed intelligence nearly on par with Shelock.

This was the 7th of 14 features with Rathbone and Bruce and it was one of the better ones that I have seen so far.

DailyView: Day 174, Movie 256

What the hell did I just watch?

Sleepaway Camp is a teen slasher film set at a summer camp. Shy teen Angela (Felissa Rose) and her protective cousin Ricky (Jonathan Tiersten) are sent to summer camp by their (let’s say) quirky parent. When a killer starts targeting the teenagers at Camp Arawak…well, actually not much happened. The Campers kept playing their games and acting like a bunch of spoiled bullies.

This was a bad choice for me today. I had a bad day at school so the last thing that I wanted was to see a bunch of ill-behaved, downright rotten children acting badly. They were all bullies and mean spirited teenagers, and that was the last thing I wanted to see right now.

However, the acting was really bad. The story was poorly conceived, simply leading toward a twist, shock ending that was as insulting as anything else.

The killer took time to get the first victim too. While we waited, we got to see a bunch of camp activities. We saw some volleyball. We saw some skinny dipping. We saw a bunch of flirting with some of these horrible kids.

It did not help that the movie threw a pedophile chef in at the beginning of the film as he had Angela cornered and was going to rape her. That was one of the most uncomfortable scenes that I have seen in any movie.

This was a horrendous movie that I did not enjoy even a little bit. I have to find some good movies for the DailyView as lately we’ve had too many garbage ones.

DailyView: Day 173, Movie 255

Earlier this year in the DailyView, I watched the 2006 remake of this movie that starred Nicolas Cage. It was one of the worst films that I have seen during the DailyView. Although it does share some story parts in common, the original 1973 version is considerably different in tone and execution.

Sergeant Neil Howie (Edward Woodward), a puritan police officer, received an anonymous letter begging for help in finding a missing 12-year old girl on the island of Summerisle off the coast of Scotland. When he arrived on the island, Sgt. Howie encountered a group of people preparing for their May Day celebration. Sgt. Howie was obstructed, lied to and misled about the whereabouts or the fate of the girl Rowan,

Howie discovered the grave of Rowan, he had to receive the permission of Lord Summerisle (Christopher Lee) to exhume the casket. Sgt. Howie’s Christian beliefs were at odds with much of what he saw happening on the island, and he felt that it was vitally important to find Rowan before it was too late.

This The Wicker Man is much more about Christianity vs. Paganism than the Nic Cage version.

The 1973 movie made these people on the island feel much more cult-like than the more recent film. The songs that they sang were about as creepy as you are ever going to hear.

While the endings were pretty similar, this version’s ending was a hundred times better, with the fright factor being much higher and making the entire thing serious whereas the Cage version was ridiculous from the start. Watching the island people sway back and forth singing as the Wicker Man burned would have been a frightful surprise if I had not seen the other version already. Even with the knowledge of what was going to happen, The Wicker Man 1973 was so much more effective in creating a mood of fear and uneasiness.

The final shot of the 1973 film is an amazing shot of the sunset and it is simply a beautifully constructed image.

It really is amazing that one of the best British horror movies ever made was remade into one of the worst movies ever made.

DailyView: Day 172, Movie 254

Disney has been trying to make their amusement park rides into feature film franchises for years. Their most successful attempt at this was The Pirates of the Caribbean franchise. They have had a box office success with their 2021 Jungle Cruise movie with The Rock and Emily Blunt. They had less success with Mission to Mars and Tomorrowland.

One of their most infamous flops was The Haunted Mansion, a 2003 film starring Eddie Murphy. I’ve always enjoyed Eddie Murphy, but the negative reviews and word of mouth of this movie chased me away. After the Muppet Haunted Mansion special last week, I thought that I would give the film a try. It was on Disney +, which makes it easy streaming.

While it is not a very good movie, I don’t think it was as bad as everybody has said. Perhaps it is one of those movies that if you approach it with low expectations, you enjoy it more.

There are moments that are good. The special effects are excellent. Eddie Murphy is pretty good with his hectic performance, although there are several times when his performance was too manic. Wallace Shawn, who played the butler Ezra, is always a delight.

While the story is simplistic and messy, I did think the third act conclusion was pretty decent.

Real estate agent Jim Evers (Eddie Murphy) is a workaholic and, without realizing it, puts his work ahead of his wife Sara (Marsha Thomason), daughter Megan (Aree Davis) and son Michael (Marc John Jefferies). When he tries to make up for his shortcomings by taking his family away for a weekend, Jim sidetracks the trip to check out a potential house he could sell. When his family arrived at the Haunted mansion, they are trapped inside by a terrible storm and discover that the sidetrip was all a set up from the ghosts that exist inside the mansion, attempting to break a long standing curse.

Terence Stamp played the butler Ramsley, one of the spirits that inhabited the mansion. He worked for his master Gracey (Nathaniel Parker), whose wife Elizabeth had died by her own hands years before, leaving him alone and miserable.

Part of the problem was that the film’s story was all over the place and was there simply to get as many special effects into play as they could possible get. Most of the characters were basic and some were one note. Madame Leota (Jennifer Tilly) was a gypsy spirit inside a crystal ball, but that character was one of my least favorite, most annoying parts of the film.

The themes of the movie were muddled and did not work well together. Some were just touched upon while others were pounded on like a sledge hammer. Inconsistencies raged through the entire movie and coincidences were everywhere.

This movie does not have a lot of funny moments, nor does it have a lot of scares. It’s more like a Goonies-type action movie with a bunch of special effects. There is not enough of either comedy or horror to stand out from the other, and it does not blend well . Had the movie embraced either the comedy or the horror more, I think this would have been more successful.

Still, I liked the ending and the rest of the movie was not the worst thing I have seen. It could have been much better, but looking at it with lower expectations helped me like it more.

DailyView: Day 171, Movie 253

Spoof movies are generally a hit and miss proposition. Unfortunately, the Mel Brooks comedy, Dracula: Dead and Loving It is more of a miss than it is a hit.

Leslie Nielsen, who had become one of the prime spoof movie stars with his work in Airplane and Police Squad, starred as the iconic vampire Count Dracula. The film itself does a parody of the original 1931 Dracula with Bela Legosi.

The film starred Peter MacNicol as Renfield, Steven Weber as Jonathan Harker, Amy Yasbeck as Mina Seward, Lysette Anthony as Lucy, Harvey Korman as Dr. Seward, and Mel Brooks himself as Professor Van Helsing.

The comedic cast was strong. I was particularly a fan of Harvey Korman and Peter MacNicol, who played their characters with a massive gusto, framing every laugh that they could wring out of the script. A scene between the pair where MacNicol kept eating insect is one of the film’s highlights.

There was also some great dancing scenes between Dracula and Mina. The choreography of those scenes were some top notch work and Leslie Nielsen’s stunt double was amazing.

However, most of the jokes fell flat or were so low grade humor that they were only funny to some. I understand that humor is truly subjective, so if you found most of the film funny, I am glad for you.

I prefer Leslie Nielsen in other spoof films, but I will say he made a decent Dracula. He played everything straight and that made the balance off.

Dracula: Dead and Loving It was not horrible, but it was not that funny either.