Home of the Brave, Homebodies, and a few more movies

Home for the Holidays (1972)
Streaming free at Internet Archive

A sick old man summons his four adult but estranged daughters, to ask them to kill their stepmother, because, he says, she's trying to kill him. That's asking a lot, but a family pulls together, right?

This was made for TV by Aaron Spelling and Leonard Goldberg, but it's no Charlie's Angels or Fantasy Island. It's written by Joseph Stefano (Psycho), so it has a few effective moments. Not enough to recommend it, though.

Sally Field stars, and screams a lot. Jessica Walter and Walter Brennan are featured. 

Verdict: MAYBE. 

♦ ♦ ♦     

The Home-Made Car (1963)
Streaming free at YouTube

#339  [archive]
SEPT. 30, 2024

This 27-minute short was made by British Petroleum, one of the world's most evil corporations, but of course, most movies are made by evil corporations.

It has very little BP-branding — a few glimpses of a gas station, but no sales pitch — and it's funny, and gets funnier as it goes.

There's no dialogue, in this story of a mild-mannered Englishman who refurbishes an old car, amidst slight frustrations from a neighbor's girl who's a joker, a junk man who's always eyeing the spare parts, a big dog that does nothing but be big and a dog, and an ornery rich fart who drives a snazzy car with a pretty lady in the passenger seat. 

There's nothing more to it than that, but The Home-Made Car is helped by Ron Grainer's minimal but (let's say) splingly music. Grainer also wrote the theme to Doctor Who, but he's not why this was on my watchlist.

I came because Ron Chudley, playing the lead, later became a novelist, and wrote Scammed, about an accountant victimized by identity theft and out for vengeance, which I read and enjoyed some years ago.

Strange indeed that some low-key silent promotional flick from an oil conglomerate is funnier than the last Three Stooges and Laurel & Hardy films I've seen.

Verdict: YES. 

♦ ♦ ♦     

Home of the Brave (1949)
Streaming free at Internet Archive

Whoa — didn't see that coming! Tough military men are planning a top-secret mission to an un-named Pacific island at the height of World War II, and as the commanding officer pulls together his crew, the last man for the operation will be crucial. Jaws drop when the mystery man reports for the assignment, while being black.

The character's name is Pete Moss, a silly choice in a serious movie, but nobody jokes about it because they're too busy being startled that he's not white.

The story unfolds as a series of flashbacks, in which a military psychiatrist tries to figure out what went awry, and why the black guy returned uninjured but unable to walk.

Home of the Brave was produced by Stanley Kramer, so it's a heavy-handed message movie, and it has 10% of a Tarantino's worth of n-words, but they're intended to have impact, and they do.

It's ten years too early for Sidney Poitier, so Pete Moss is played by James Edwards, a familiar character actor from The Sandpipers, The Manchurian Candidate, The Fugitive, etc. He's quite good.

The movie is 1940s woke, ahead of its time but sadly not as dated as something so old should be. It's still pertinent and well worth seeing.

Verdict: YES.

♦ ♦ ♦      

A Home of Your Own (1964)
Streaming free at Internet Archive

An all-star team of British comedians made this long sketch or short movie about building a new housing development — a litany of bureaucracy and worker incompetence, with comedic music (slide whistles, etc) instead of dialogue.

It's in the spirit of Benny Hill, but with less cleavage and fewer laughs. 43 minutes is a long, long time to wait for one slight chuckle at the end.

Verdict: NO.

♦ ♦ ♦     

Home Room (2002)
Streaming free at YouTube

There's been a mass shooting at a high school, with a whole bunch of dead kids. The killer-kid is dead, and also killed his parents, so the cops have nobody to arrest except, possibly, the killer's girlfriend Alicia (Busy Philipps), if she knew what he was planning but didn't tell anyone.

Writer-director Paul F Ryan wants to say something profound, perhaps, but he doesn't know what. The movie needs a better director and especially a better writer. It's an hour and a half of clichéd settings where clichéd characters speak fluent cliché, ending with a cliché borrowed from another movie.

The school's principal inexplicably threatens to withhold Alicia's diploma unless she visits an injured girl at the hospital, Deanna (Erika Christensen). Deanna is beautiful and popular, but somehow has no visitors except Alicia, who comes daily, but only under principal duress.

The movie's cop-work and cop-talk is bewilderingly stupid. For example, weeks after the shootings, the lead detective (Victor Garber) shows up at the school and asks to search a locker — but it wouldn't be weeks later, it would be on the afternoon of the shooting, and he wouldn't be asking, he'd have a warrant.

And then, twenty minutes later in the movie, his partner says they've logged the first piece of evidence. Huh?

Two of the actors, Ken Jenkins as Gerber's boss, and Raphael Sbarge as Gerber's partner, have completely mastered delivering lines unlike humans speak. Kudos, though, to Philipps and Christensen, who give it the old high school try.

Verdict: NO.

♦ ♦ ♦      

Homebodies (1973)
Streaming on Shudder, for subscribers only

A few blocks of old apartments are about to be torn down, to make way for a shiny new development.

Most of the condemned buildings' residents are packing and moving out, but half a dozen of the oldest old-timers refuse to leave.

The city sends a cold-hearted social worker to ensure that everyone vacates the premises, and for the first third of this movie I was pretty sure I had it pegged — this is going to be a sad social drama, about these old folks victimized by capitalism, and victimized again by the people sent to 'help' them...

But everything changes when one of the old folks slams a knitting needle through the social worker's gut and out the other side. Homebodies becomes a horror movie, and it's a delicious horror indeed. After the shuffleboard scene, when they get to the paddleboat chase, you'll know you're watching a masterpiece of schlock.

And other than call from a phone booth in the middle of the movie, this could be set in 2024.

Verdict: YES.

♦ ♦ ♦       

Homeless Ashes (2019)
Streaming free at Tubi

Frankie's father beats his mother and abuses the boy, accompanied by ominous music and moralized scripting, tragedy, injustice, and more tragedy. The boy runs away, falls into a life of petty crime, grows up and he's homeless, living a life of tragedy, injustice, and have I mentioned the tragedy, accompanied by more ominous music.

Where the film's going is never in doubt, so breathe deep the gathering gloom of life on the streets.

Like its title, Homeless Ashes is too poetic, in script, camerawork, acting, and especially the oppressive musical score. It's like a "a very special episode" of Hallmark Hall of Fame, or a Billy Graham movie without the altar call at the end.

At least the film is British, with some nice scenery around the docks and a carnival.

Verdict: NO.

    9/29/2024   

• • • Coming attractions • • •     

Homicidal (1961)
Homicide (1991)
Hondo (1953)
Honeydripper (2007)
    ... 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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