Holy Flying Circus, Home Alone, and a few more movies

Hollywood Story (1951)
Streaming free at YouTube

There's a trope in crime, noir, and tough guy movies, where someone's getting too close to solving the mystery, so someone else tries to kill the someone. I first noticed this happening over and over again in episodes of TV's Mannix when I was ten years old, and it's still a cliché in TV, books, and movies.

Hollywood Story is that cliché, with the twist that the guy who's getting too close to solving the mystery isn't a cop or private eye; he's a movie producer who wants to make a crime, noir, or tough guy movie about the unsolved murder of an old-time silent moviemaker.

#338  [archive]
SEPT. 28, 2024

The concept isn't much, but the director is William Castle, and his sincere love for the movies comes through. There's doubtless some Castle in the main character, who wants to make the movie despite everyone telling him it'll never work.

Richard Conte stars, in another stingy-money B-movie where he's the only familiar name in the credits. That's his specialty, and his career. He's growing on me, though — always seems a little better than the material.

Most of Conte's movies that I've seen aren't very good, and this is one of them, so please don't mistake my review for a rave. Nobody's going to watch this and think it's something special. It's a standard mystery as familiar as a folk song, but Castle and Conte hit all the notes nicely.

Verdict: YES. 

♦ ♦ ♦      

The Hollywood Ten (1950)  
Streaming free at YouTube

We all know about the Hollywood blacklist, as history, but this was made very shortly after it happened. It's present tense.

In very brief clips, we're shown 10 moviemakers who refused to answer questions from the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC). They were Alvah Bessie (Objective Burma!), Herbert Biberman (Salt of the Earth), Lester Cole (The House of the Seven Gables), Edward Dmytryk (The Caine Mutiny), Ring Lardner Jr (Woman of the Year), John Howard Lawson (Sahara), Albert Maltz (The Naked City), Samuel Ornitz (It Could Happen to You), Adrian Scott (Crossfire), and Dalton Trumbo (Roman Holiday).

For their refusal, these men were imprisoned for terms of up to a year, and then, shortly after they'd been released, they made this 15-minute short feature. They calmly make the obvious observation that their imprisonment was morally wrong, and so was HUAC's existence. 'Calmly' is what's most impressive.

Of course, what happened should never happen again, but humans are barbarians, so of course, it will — and soon, if we let Republicans have their way with America.

Verdict: YES.

♦ ♦ ♦     

Hollywood Vietnam (2005)
Streaming free at Vimeo

The is a frustratingly shallow documentary about Vietnam war movies, as seen by veterans of Vietnam and other wars. It's a great concept, but the execution simply sucks.

You get a one-minute clip from a Vietnam movie, interspersed with a minute or so of a vet's perspective — always positive. Gosh, this movie really captured the feeling of being in 'Nam.

Then it's on to the next clip, and the next soundbite, and every two-minute segment ends before it has much to say, because we have lots of clips to plow through.

And all the clips and comments are bleeped when anyone says fuck or shit or God, etc.

Verdict: NO.

♦ ♦ ♦      

Holy Flying Circus (2011)
Free on DVD from your public library

This is a fictionalized telling of the controversies over Monty Python's 1979 film, The Life of Brian. Seems some Christians were offended, and the protests and complaints grew so intense that BBC staged an actual debate on actual TV, with a pompous journalist and a friggin' bishop on one side, and John Cleese and Michael Palin on the other.

The film is styled as if it's a Monty Python comedy, with actors playing the six Pythons, men in drag playing their wives and mothers, animated inserts in the style of Terry Gilliam's animated Python inserts, etc.

Impersonating Monty Python is a daring choice, and the results aren't embarrassing. The guy playing Palin is pretty good, and the guy playing Cleese is actually playing Basil from Fawlty Towers, but admits it. Stephen Fry plays God.

I had my doubts about all of this, and the movie was half done before it started winning me over. Sometimes Holy Flying Circus is funny, sometimes it's not, and sometimes it's hilarious, rather like an actual Monty Python movie.

"Why can't I say things to offend you? Why can't I say that I don't like your hair, or your wife looks like a man and makes fucking awful soup?"

Verdict: YES.

♦ ♦ ♦     

The Holy Girl (2004)
Free on DVD from your public library

Some fancy-pants doctor is attending a conference of fancy-pants doctors, and having an affair with a woman there, but he's also inappropriately attracted to the woman's underage daughter.

She's a student at Catholic school, takes the religion far too seriously, and her teacher wants the kids to find a God-related vocation — a purpose for their lives. Cripes, they're about 15; the purpose of life can wait.

Ah, but when the creepy doctor rubs his fancy pants against the girl's backside, she decides that his hard-on is a sign from God, and that the doctor will be her purpose.

Which cracked me up, but this sure isn't a comedy, and only weirdos like me would find it funny. There's a lot cringeworthy about the movie, but it's uncomfortable on purpose and thoughtful about it. There's just enough taboo to feel dangerous, though nothing much happens that's really shocking.

Verdict: YES.

♦ ♦ ♦      

Home Alone (1990)
Streaming free at Internet Archive

You might've heard of this movie? The McCallister family flies to France for a vacation, forgetting they've left 8-year-old Kevin behind.

Written by John Hughes, directed by Chris Columbus, starring Macaulay Culkin, Joe Pesci, Daniel Stern, Catherine O'Hara, and John Candy.

I saw Home Alone when it first came out, on a first date with some woman whose name I no longer remember. She was a bigger movie fan than me, very knowledgeable, and said she was a cinephile — the first time I'd heard that word.

She rolled her eyes when I suggested seeing Home Alone, didn't like it, and had good reasons for not liking it, which she explained at length over an after-movie cup of coffee. I didn't get even a kiss goodnight, and never saw her again, so tonight's re-watch is dedicated to my failing memory of that woman, and to her lack of good taste in movies.

Sure, nothing in the film is plausible, it's basically a live-action Looney Tunes, the McCallisters are ridiculously rich, and the storyline is riddled with Hollywood schmaltz, plus Christmas schmaltz. And it's fun.

Verdict: YES. 

Follow Me Quietly (1949)

    9/28/2024   

• • • Coming attractions • • •     

Home for the Holidays (1972)
Home of the Brave (1949)
Home Room (2002)
Homebodies (1973)
Homeless Ashes (2019)
    ... plus occasional schlock, shorts,
             and surprises out of alphabetical order

— — —

Now accepting movie recommendations,
especially starting with the letter 'I'.
Just add a comment, below.
— — —

Illustration by Jeff Meyer. Click any image to enlarge. Arguments & recommendations are welcome, but no talking once the lights dim, and only real butter on the popcorn, not that fake yellow stuff. 

 

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