New Year, New Movie: Woman in Hiding (1950)

Tonight I am watching another title I picked up at Kino Lorber's March Madness sale. It has Ida Lupino and that is all the reason I need to watch it. 

The Gist

Deborah Chandler has gone on honeymoon by mistake. She learns from her husband's former girlfriend, who confronts them at his cabin getaway as they begin their honeymoon, that he may have killed her father. Deborah tries to leave him, but he won't allow it. When she tries to escape in the middle of the night, she finds out he has tampered with the brakes on the car, and she narrowly escapes going off a bridge and drowning. She allows everyone to believe she's dead so she can have time to get evidence to prove her husband is trying to kill her to gain control of the mill her father left to her. Selden is not convinced she's dead and offers a reward of $5,000, suggesting she's mentally ill and needs help. Drifter, Keith Ramsey offers to help her, but eventually turns her over to her husband. A tense and shadowy chase at the mill will decide who wins and who loses. 

Thoughts

This movie reminds me of one you might come across playing in the middle of the night back in the days of free, public TV, where you'd see rainbow bars afterward as the station went off the air. It's not a headline grabbing film, but it's suspenseful and captivating and worthy of an evening's entertainment. 

New Year, New Movie: A Fool There Was (1915)

March has marched on by me. It's been a rough month. Enough said. I'm ready to throw myself back into the movies. While I haven't been able to watch movies this month, it did not stop me from acquiring more of them. That's what happens when multiple sales provide the opportunity, and a desire to find a pleasurable escape creates a motive. Tonight's feature was the result of Kino's March Madness sale. It features Theda Bara, one of film's early sex symbols, and it's one of only a few of her films that have survived. 

"You men shield each other's shameful sins. But were it a woman at fault, how quick you'd be to expose and condemn her."

The Gist

The Vampire runs loose through the town, working her way through men, controlling them with alcohol, using them up, and leaving them high and dry. After a perceived slight by the wife of John Schuyler, she sets her sights on him, taking advantage of his wife and daughter's absence during his mission to England to work her wiles on him. When they return from their illicit rampage through Europe, she maintains her hold on him despite the efforts of his wife, Kate, to free him from her grip. 

Memorable Moments

The Fool

The Vampire. Crushing men's spirits like she crushes flowers.

Feeling slighted.

The family enjoys a sunset.

The Vampire's victim.

He wants to destroy her.

But he can't.

There's only one way to escape her.

The brazen hussy shows off her ankle.

Not so secret affair.

Being snubbed by society.

Letting their love hang out in Italy.

Life before traffic lanes. She can almost touch her papa.

The Vampire prevents a reconciliation.

Maintaining his dependency.

Partying with good time gals.

He is not happy that she is already working on her next victim.

Not something a kid should have to see.

Another one bites the dust.

Thoughts

Like many of Kino's silent film offerings, this one is in fairly good condition, it has beautiful tints and a wonderful piano score that fits well with the action on screen, which is essential to the enjoyment of a silent film. It's not completely clear why the Vampire's victims stick around to be abused by her. We have to assume it's her seductive powers, coupled with alcohol and/or drug dependency that allows her to suck the life out of her victims. It's an interesting film in that there is no happy ending. The Fool does not return to his family, and the Vampire does not receive any comeuppance. The ending is cruel and strange with her dropping flower petals onto his dead face and blowing them off. We assume she will move on to her next victim and his child will forever be scarred by seeing her wasted dad clinging to a vamp, knowing that he chose her over his own daughter. There are a lot of scenes here that aren't essential to the film, but it's still interesting to get a glimpse of the past and see fashions and home decor from the period. It's a wonder anyone survived unregulated traffic in the early 1900s. That was certainly a sight to see in this picture!

New Year, New Movie: I Wanna Hold Your Hand (1978)

The Criterion films have arrived! And it's not a moment too soon to lose myself in the sweet, soothing relief of I Wanna Hold Your Hand, that tells about a group of kids who are trying to get in to the Ed Sullivan theater to see the Beatles perform. This movie is pure fun, and that is just what was needed tonight after an extremely difficult week. I will watch this film again and again. I love the Beatles, and their music brings me perpetual joy. This film would pair well with The Rutles. 

New Year, New Movie: The Sin of Nora Moran (1933)

While Saturdays are my day for picking out a scary movie, it seemed appropriate to make Sundays a day for tales of immorality, which leads me to watch The Sin of Nora Moran tonight. 

"I'm not dying for something you did. I'm dying for all the good things you're going to do. And I'm dying rather than give up something that was precious to me--my life with you."

The Gist

Nora Moran has been sentenced to die for killing a man, but it turns out she is taking the blame to protect someone else. It comes down to the eleventh hour to find out if the real culprit will spare her the electric chair, but what eventually transpires is truly shocking.

Memorable Moments

Edith Crawford shows her brother, DA John Grant, 
love letters she has found from her husband's mistress.

Grant shows her the mistress.

Nora recalls the events that led up to her death sentence.

Scumbag Paulino slinks into Nora's train compartment at night.

Nora awakens to the horror of Paulino's brutality.

She finds love with Dick Crawford, who puts her up in a house.

Things go south.

The truth comes out about who killed Paulino.

It didn't matter that it was self defense.

Nora comes up with a solution.

"Eternal rest and perpetual light. Is that frightening?"

The movie poster that has nothing to do with the movie.

Thoughts

While this has all the hallmarks of a pre-code movie, including rape, infidelity and murder, with the unfaithful partners coming to no good end, the telling of it is unique. At the beginning, we are led to pre-judge Nora's character, but as the events of her life that led up to her fateful predicament are revealed, we learn that appearances can be deceiving.  It is rather harrowing as we see Nora being prepped for the electric chair, given a sedative, getting her head shaved, and having a coffin ordered from the mortuary. While she is resigned to her fate, the viewer holds on to the belief that she will escape the wrongful punishment. It's powerful and tragic.

New Year, New Movie: Slither (2006)

I seem to be on a roll with parasitic alien themed movies. Tonight's wormy adventure is Slither.

"The worms are in their brains!"

The Gist

Grant Grant becomes infected with an alien parasite and undergoes a hideous transformation. As he goes about infecting others, a torrent of parasitic slugs is unleashed on the townspeople, turning them into shambling zombies. 

Memorable Moments

If only Grant had seen The Blob, he'd know not to go poking
squishy things in a meteorite with a stick. 

Alien procreation.

Grant is not feeling well.

She's so hungry.

Coming apart at the seams.

Slug explosion.

Not something you want to find in the bathtub.

Bad infestation.

The infected.

"Girl, you're every woman in the world to me..."

Thoughts

This would make a fine double feature with Night of the Creeps. Both films are highly enjoyable homages to horror movies, and while dealing with similar subject matter, each takes a different approach. Of the two, this one was much more suspenseful, it grossed me out more, and left me feeling a little squirmy. All in all, it was another fun movie to watch.