Review of Riptide

Riptide (1934)
8/10
Not so old fashioned as you think...
13 August 2010
One of the things I find interesting in these comments are how many people insist that this is a terribly old fashioned story that couldn't be made today. Really? Because while watching this all I could think was that if movies could be said to have a family tree, then I think the movie The Kids Are All Right, which has been praised to the skies for being such a "modern" story, shares plenty of DNA with Riptide. There is a theory that there are really only 36 plots, and every story is just different variations on those 36. I think the key when watching these movies is asking yourself, what is the basic bare bones plot of this story? Can this story be told now and is someone telling it? The answer is almost always yes. It's fun to realize the progression.

There were a couple of really great scenes in this. The bug costume scene in the beginning(that was a seriously skimpy spider costume!) and the scene where she gets drunk with Trent and jumps into the pool. I did wish the film would have followed up a bit more with her husband's secretary, who was clearly in love with her. They just showed him mooning over her the whole movie, but never went anywhere with that. It seemed a bit random. I think if you're not going to do anything significant with something like that, don't include it in the movie.
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