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Rio (1939)
Don't be put off!
A quick synopsis first. Paul Reynard (Rathbone) is a successful respected business man - but unknown to all he is actually a con man along with his devoted sidekick Dirk (McLaglen). He is married to the beautiful Irene (Gurie). When his dodgy dealings are exposed he is captured by the police and sent to a penal colony on an island 20 miles off the coast of Rio. His wife, Irene, pledges to wait for him and moves to Rio to be nearer him with Dirk who Paul tells to look after her. Paul tells Irene to forget about him and move on - but is using reverse psychology he thinks. For a while she waits and he suffers in the penal colony. As time passes she gradually falls out of love with him and in love with Bill (Cummings) who turns up in Rio. He is a failed engineer whose reputation was ruined when a big bridge project of his collapsed. Eventually Paul cannot stand the penal colony any more and escapes, murdering a friend who helped him in his desperation to get away and not be recaptured. He arrives in Rio finally to find Irene no longer loves him and her being protected against him by Bill. The film draws towards it's tragic conclusion with him planning to shoot them both now he has nothing left to live for having lost Irene.
Some of the other reviews on here imply this is all a bit lack lustre. It's not exactly a work of genius perhaps but it is a film worth seeing I believe. The reason I think it gets mixed reviews is because it was supposed to be an A movie but actually turned out more like a good B movie. So it is perhaps leading you to expect one thing while delivering another. In my opinion the reason it doesn't work as an A feature is due to the melodramatic off beat story and Sigrid Gurie who plays Irene. She is beautiful and gives an entirely reasonable performance with some good torch girl like songs - but to change this from a good B to a A movie would probably have needed the studio to have cast an actress with a bigger name into her role. It would also have needed rewrites to bash the story into something less off beat perhaps and a bit more tame for a 1939 pre-Noir audience.
However for those of us who like B movies and especially Film Noir this is a good proto-Noir. To change this into a Film Noir would have required less work - the lighting although already good and on the road to Noir could've been tilted a bit more that way. The agony of the characters in the tragic story twisted just a little more.
But as it is I think for fans of B movie dramas and thrillers and for film noir fans this is well worth a view. Basil Rathbone is excellent as the very slightly psychotic lucky con man whose luck runs out at last. Robert Cummings is criticised for his drunk scenes but in my opinion they are adequate for a B feature and his character of a washed up engineer due to his bridge collapsing fits well into this story again echoing a Noir scenario.
The director, John Brahm, fled Nazi Germany in 1934 and so may have been well acquainted with the German Expressionist movies film noir stylings came from. These may have informed some of the more Noirish set ups in this movie. Later he was responsible for many great movies and a lot of TV work as a director in the 1950s and 60s. During the Hollywood Film Noir years he directed "Hangover Square" (1945) and one of my personal favourites "The Locket" (1946) among others.
So as you can see if you are a lover of B movies and Film Noir in particular there are plenty of reasons to give this a view and not be put off by those who found it dull or lack lustre.
Daughter of the Jungle (1949)
Average Jungle Yarn
I expected something rotten. The trivia lists this as among the fifty worst movies of all time. Some reviewers called it a stinker here, too, but these people must live very sheltered lives. I have seen far worse.
The truth is that "Daughter of the Jungle" is an average jungle movie of the period with a few amusing moments. It finishes, leaving you pleasantly entertained. It appears to be a loose Tarzan rip-off - even down to the similar jungle cry. While this was unconvincing, it was immediately apparent where it came from.
Lois Hall was delightful as our female Tarzan and is having a great time with this. When someone enjoys themselves, it comes across on screen and helps. One problem with her character is that the writers seemingly could not decide whether to make her a strong Tarzan type or a fragile, helpless female. Both sides are presented in different scenes and make her character a bit confused. She always looks fantastic, but given the genre, a slightly shorter jungle outfit might have helped a little more at the box office.
Anyway, without giving any more away, if you like this sort of silliness (and I, for one, do), you wouldn't be wasting your time on this one. Those who say it's one of the fifty worst films have clearly led sheltered lives. It is average but not the worst and remains entertaining overall.
I saw this movie on Blu-Ray as part of the "Tales of Adventure Collection Part Two". Print quality was excellent.
The Boy Friend (1971)
All About the Visuals
For me this was all about the visuals. The film itself was slightly messy and slightly dull. The Hollywood Musicals this was a pastiche of typically had run lengths of 70 to 90 mins with the majority being shorter rather than longer. This was for a reason - the plots were usually too thin to sustain longer run lengths and so effort was put into making them short, but beautiful to watch and snappy. When you extend this to 137m it doesn't work. Pointlessly exact recreations of specific moments in Busby Berkeley routines seemed a bit redundant too unless intended as thrills for fans of those films to check out. If you don't know the originals don't watch this - go and find them first. All this meant that originality was slightly lacking delightful though they were to see in colour. Overall not a flop. Watch when pleasantly inebriated and it might work better. Twiggy was effective. Vladek Sheybal was underused.