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Reviews
The Sixth Sense (1999)
Too loose - directionless
Bruce Willis does a hell of a job as usual, and the kid is UNREAL! All the performances are just unbelievable. But why all the fringes on the plot? It was as though there was a given timeslot and non-central characters had to be overdeveloped and tributary story elements padded out so it would all jell down [the business with the antique jewelry, the guy working with - and on - Mrs. Crowe (Malcolm: "keep going, Cheesedick!").] All superfluous, bigtime, to paraphrase an equally excess character, young Tom, of the TV ad. You can just visualize the writer agonizing: "Well, I've got a block here on working through the central theme, so I'll dish up some side work here to throw in for good measure..."
Vendetta (1950)
Faith Domergue was the hottest of the Howard Hughes "discoveries"
She was a big chest breather, and had a sultry expression.
She had her best shot, I thought, in WHERE DANGER LIVES, with Mitchum.
George Dolenz had a good part in this; possibly his only. He was a solid character/contract player, and deserved better.
The classical musical themes and outsized, over-weighted backgrounds were effective, I thought. Really approaching the cerebral, almost, as far as on a scale of the Howard Hughes things.
Calamity Jane (1953)
Yyyyeeccccchhhhhhh !!
Realism was long since dead as the hulking monstrosity Calamity Jane had already been portrayed onscreen by three of the most beautiful women who ever lived (Jean Arthur, Jane Russell, Frances Farmer) and subsequently by yet a fourth: Yvonne deCarlo.
None of these characterizations is remotely associated with the besotted, disease-ridden camp follower who masqueraded as an infantry troop and Indian scout in order to ply her vocation in the field. As for this one by the saccharine, puddin'y Doris Day, best I definitely keep opinions to myself on that one! UGH!!
Bill Hickock had a new socialite bride in the East who bankrolled the particular foray into the wild west entertainment media which was his wont - one of many - during which he signed on as part of the troupe the bizarre entity known as Calamity Jane - presented as a curiosity, at best. That she parlayed this posture into that of eventual burial alongside Hickock's grave is one of the mysteries of the old west - and even the new!
Perhaps it's reflective of sick, unreal 50's Hollywood with its Parsons/Hopper/Winchell/blacklist/witchhunt mindset that drivel such as this got ground out.
Not for me to say. I'm having the good taste to stay butted out....
Invasion, U.S.A. (1952)
It's tragic when genius shifts into reverse
You get a heightened awareness of the sick phenomenon that was 50's Hollywood, left in shambles by the McCarthyism so readily embraced by such a wide segment of the industry. Director Alfred E. Green, whose stamp distinguished SOUTH OF PAGO PAGO and so many other proud accomplishments over so many years, reduced to this !!
South of Pago Pago (1940)
A flawless, exquisite Polynesian tapestry; should be a model for the genre
Edward Small took director Alfred E. Green's cast and crew - an uncommonly attractive and brilliant assemblage - to the south seas to do the majority of this curiously undersung piece on location. Far less stylized/dated than Goldwyn's THE HURRICANE, it is admittedly riddled with cliches and formula, but packaged in such visual and technical excellence it scarcely matters.
There are scenes that will stop the heart. Chiseled adonis Jon Hall and porcelain idol Frances Farmer outlined in profile(s) against the steaming background volcano take the romantic closeup to a level that defies comparison.
Edward Small's films typically were strings of frames any one of which was an individual work of art in itself. What can one say but that with this one he outdid even himself, as did workhorse composer Edward Ward on song and score, some years prior to his work on Universal's stunning PHANTOM OF THE OPERA?