365 Films in 365 Days

#44 Peter Pan

February 11, 2021
Peter Pan (1953) *** 1/2
Disney +
Free
Disney animation

“Oh dear, dear, dear, Captain Hook. Shooting a man in the middle of his cadenza? That ain’t good form, you know.”

Did not realize I was having an inadvertent Tom Conway festival with Peter Pan right after The Falcon’s Brother, as he is the Narrator of Peter Pan! I clocked his name in the opening credits, and immediately paused it so that I could look him up, so I don’t know if I would have recognized his voice. There is a chance, as it definitely sounds the same as in The Falcon’s Brother, but these movies seem worlds apart, so I might not have.

My history with Peter Pan is stronger than with a lot of other Disney films, if only because my first two crushes that I remember were on Peter Pan and Speed Racer, and I did mention Shere Khan yesterday, but that was vocal only, Peter Pan and Speed Racer were cute boys, even if animated.

I have been watching Bobby Driscoll as a little kid so much lately, it’s funny to hear him as Peter, after his voice broke, and there is Katherine Beaumont as Wendy, after hearing her play Alice last week (and she has that same Alice line in this: “Wait, PLEASE!”), but I had utterly forgotten about Hans Conreid!

Hans had been a friend of my mother’s, as they had worked in radio together, so I often saw him when I was a child. Mom said at first he scared her to death, because he was so sarcastic, but then they grew to be good pals. He was definitely one of my favourites of my parents’ friends, as he was the kind of adult who never talked down to children. I love him as Hook and Mr. Darling.

This is a classic for a reason, it is utterly splendid all the way through, until you get to the Indian part, which brings everything to a screeching halt. I mean, it’s not that terrible, and you can kind of move past it, until you get to the song, “What Makes the Red Man Red,” and then, yeesh. It’s a lot.

I mean, you look at it this way: this is a story about the imagination of children at play, and they imagine pirates and mermaids and Indians, and these are British children, so the Indians are exactly as far away and imaginary as the mermaids are, except that they are really real people who can look at this and say, “Really? This is not only how we are portrayed here, but everywhere?” Mermaids and 19th century pirates aren’t going to have opinions on how they are portrayed. Actual real Native Americans have a reason to side-eye the hell out of this.

But I still love the rest of the film. And Hans is great, and I miss him.

#43 The Falcon’s Brother

February 10, 2021
The Falcon’s Brother (1942) ** 1/2
TCM
Free
Wildcard

*phone rings*
“You take it, Jerry, but my brother’s not here. No information to anybody.”
“I understand. Mr. Lawrence receives many telephone calls from young ladies, we give them the pidgin English treatment!”

I have been a fan of George Sanders since basically my infancy, and have had a crush on him for that long. This is because he played Shere Khan in The Jungle Book, and I had the record album of the movie that i listened to incessantly. In the 1970s they made story records, you see, which included large sections of dialogue along with the songs. Which means that there are some movies where there are bits that I can recite along with, and other bits that are a complete mystery to me!

Anyway, my point is that there are precisely two lines and four words spoken by George Sanders on that album, “How interesting,” and “How delightful,” and I wore. That. Part. Out. By moving the needle back over, and over again. All this to say, George Sanders: sooper sexxy voice.

I can’t remember the first time I actually saw him himself in a movie, but he did not disappoint. He made many of movies where he played The Saint and The Falcon, and I would record them on the VCR when cable came to Brooklyn at last, and I have no memory at all of which ones I watched and which ones I didn’t, so I’m just going to assume that all of them I am seeing for the first time, as they pop up on TCM, because the plots are largely forgettable.

George Sanders actually only did a few Falcon films, the his real-life brother, Tom Conway, took over the role and did like ten more, because Tom Conway wasn’t too good for any paying job, being more of a regular working actor than his brother, who went on to win an Oscar for All About Eve.

The Falcon is one of those fictional amateur private detectives who chase women and have a friendly rivalry with a policeman who always wants to nab him for doing the murder, even though he literally never does the murder and the policeman might want to notice this fact.

In this film, the Falcon’s brother shows up, there are some murders and some Nazis, because it’s 1942, and the Falcon gets killed off and his brother takes his place, and then there are ten more films.

Another interesting part was Keye Luke as the Falcon’s Chinese houseboy, who speaks perfect English except for when he’s trying to get rid of people for the Falcon, and then he puts on the most ridiculous pidgin English you have ever heard. It’s very funny, and what makes it funny is Keye Luke visibly being totally in control of the situation. Also, he was a stone fox, so I am going to seek out more of his film performances of the ’30s and ’40s. Keye Luke: not just Master Po!

(Seven paragraphs, only one about the movie in question, and it’s only one sentence! A probable record!)

#42 Mystery House

February 9, 2021
Mystery House (1938) ** 1/2
TCM
Free
Wildcard

“That’s all right, you can talk in front of Miss Keate. Nurses hear a lot of things they shouldn’t.”

This was the first time in a while I was stuck for something to watch and unable to choose, just randomly watching five or ten minutes of various films on the TCM app before noping out.

First I tried Murder She Said, then The Thief of Baghdad, then The Phantom of Crestwood, before finally lighting on the completely random Mystery House. It’s another murder mystery from the ’30s that’s about an hour long, which is quickly becoming one of my favourite kinds of movies, particularly for watching at midnight as a last resort.

A man says to his dinner guests, all employees, “One of you has been embezzling! I have proof and will take it to the police, but first, Goodnight!” Never do things in that order, particularly in a hunting lodge chock full of guns. He is shot and killed and everyone goes CLEARLY SUICIDE LETS ALL MOVE ON! Except for his daughter, who won’t let it go.

Also in the house is the dead man’s wheelchair-bound and VERY crabby sister, who has a beautiful nurse played by Ann Sheridan. The daughter asks the nurse, “Say, by the way, do you happen to know of a good private detective?” And she does! I found out afterwards that this was a series of books and movies about this nurse and detective pair, which makes this weirdness make sense. I mean, you don’t say, “Why is this old lady butting in on this murder case?” when you are watching a Miss Marple, but that’s because you know at the beginning that it is a Miss Marple, it was not at all clear that the nurse was the main character at all, that Nurse Keate and Detective O’Leary were a running series.

The daughter invites everyone who was there for the “suicide” back to the lodge, and they all come, because if they didn’t it would be like an admission of guilt. But nobody wants to and nobody likes each other, and everyone had a motive, as the old boy was a difficult sort. Also, there is a guy and his wife and his mistress and that’s a whole thing there.

Everyone picks up a gun to go out hunting, and right before leaving the house, the wronged wife says, “I KNOW MANY THINGS ABOUT HOW THAT MAN DIED I WILL TELL YOU LATER NOW OFF INTO THE WOODS WITH GUNS AND PEOPLE WHO DON’T LIKE ME,” and then whoops! Apparently she commits suicide too, because this murderer is an idiot with only one idea.

This is a pleasant little B movie, and it is available on Warner Archive in a six movie set called Horror Mystery Double Features, which includes another Nurse Keate/Detective O’Leary film, The Patient in Room 13 and I’m totally buying it.

#41 Song of the South

February 8, 2021
Song of the South (1946) ** 1/2
DVD
Disney other

“You can’t run away from trouble. There ain’t no place that far.”

I had been putting off watching this movie because I knew that it would be little difficult, but it ended up being more difficult than I thought it was going to be, partially because a lot of it is really good.

Now, this does not discount how problematic some of it is, but it’s less problematic than you might think in a lot of ways. First of all, the performance of James Baskett as Uncle Remus is terrific, absolutely undeniably terrific. This was his only major movie role, as he was mostly a stage and radio actor. He has a few small roles in a few small films, but nothing like this. Apparently, he auditioned for the voice of a butterfly, and Walt Disney liked him so much he cast him in the lead (and the voice of Br’er Fox and the butterfly, too!), and they became very close friends. He even won a special Academy award for playing Uncle Remus, and therefore was the first Black man to win an Academy Award.

He should’ve been a big star after this, but unfortunately, he had a heart attack after the film opened, and then died a couple of years later of complications due to diabetes. He never got the chance to appear in more movies after this, therefore the fact that this film is very difficult to see means that his performance, and even he himself, is mostly forgotten.

Also in the film was the great Hattie McDaniels, playing another mammy, but she is also wonderful to watch and has a solo number. Yes, it’s a great shame that she was relegated to these types of roles, but she was a terrific performer and deserves to be seen.

I understand absolutely the problems some people have with this movie, and there are parts that are pretty cringey and stereotypical, but unlike in Dumbo or in a lot of other voice work at the time, all of the cartoon animals were played by black actors, there is no vocal blackface.

It’s not a great movie by any stretch of the imagination, however, suppressing a film due to how problematic it is racially without also celebrating the performances by the black actors involved is a shame. I think it’s possible for this film to be appreciated in context without it being hooray for racism.

#40 Sleeping Beauty

February 7, 2021
Sleeping Beauty (1959) ****
Secret Movie Club Drive-In
$49 (double feature with Cinderella)
Disney animation

“Now, Father, you’re living in the past, this is the 14th century!”

Unlike most of these other Disney animated features where I keep saying, “I know I’ve seen this 1 million times… but possibly… not since the 1970s?” I know exactly when I last saw Sleeping Beauty, because that was around the time I started keeping track of when I saw Disney animated features! I have a list on my phone that is even up-to-date and stuff, go me.

I saw Sleeping Beauty last at the 70mm movie series at the Academy, on 7/16/12. It was extremely lovely in 70mm, but seeing it on the drive-in movie screen was entirely comparable.

This film is really special as far as animation goes, such clean sweeping lines, such interesting angles, and the voice work is impeccable. There are a lot of familiar voices from other Disney films of the era, like Eleanor Audley, who also played the Wicked Stepmother in Cinderella in the first half of this double feature, and Verna Felton, the voice of Flora and the Fairy Godmother, not to mention the Queen of Hearts in Alice in Wonderland. Barbara Luddy plays Merryweather, as well as Lady in Lady and the Tramp, and Kanga in Winnie-the-Pooh, and Bill Thompson played King Hubert (Prince Phillip’s father), Smee in Peter Pan, and the White Rabbit in Alice in Wonderland.

I think this is one of the reasons that the Disney animated films of the ’50s and ’60s are so comforting, not just because we grew up with them, but because of the wonderful company of voice actors that would appear over and over again, it made them all feel like home.

#39 Cinderella

February 7, 2021
Cinderella (1950) ****
Secret Movie Club Drive-In
$49 (double feature)
Disney animation

So, it was a Secret Movie Club Disney double feature at the drive-in, starting with Cinderella, a movie I have seen one million times. Or have I?

This keeps happening, I’m like, obviously I’ve seen Cinderella so many times, but then I’m watching it and I’m like, I don’t remember ANY of this! Of course, I have seen it, but I may not have seen anything but clips in various Disney specials for some decades.

However, it holds up! The mice are adorable, there is much tension with Lucifer the cat, and the wicked stepmother, and whether Cinderella will get to try on that slipper, etc. Less pecking out of eyes and cutting off of toes than in the Grimm version, and you have the mental picture of one year’s time everyone wondering why the palace is overrun by mice wearing little outfits, but it is generally as charming as you remembered it to be.

#38 The Trouble With Girls

February 6, 2021
The Trouble With Girls (1969) **
TCM/Google Play
Free/$2.99
Wildcard

A second day of no Disney, but with an even better excuse than the other day, and that this movie contains my father, Bill Zuckert, and it’s expiring off the TCM app tomorrow! Also, I have never seen it! So obviously, there’s nothing else to do but to watch The Trouble with Girls, a.k.a. The Chautauqua, which was its original title.

This is a movie that takes place in 1927, populated almost exclusively by people dressing, talking, and acting like people from the 1960s. Was there a time machine that sent them back with their bubble hairdos and sideburns?

The cast includes the world’s youngest Dabney Coleman, and both Anissa Jones and, briefly, Susan Oleson, so all of the curly-ponytailed child actresses of the era were represented.

Here’s the thing, though. It is unwatchable. It’s so unwatchable that I rented it for $2.99 instead of continuing to watch it for free on TCM, because you can’t fast forward scan on the TCM app and after watching 25 minutes, I just wanted to scan forward to catch my dad’s scenes and Vincent Price and John Carradine and the musical numbers and maybe a little of the plot. So I’m cheating a little bit today, but I think I ended up watching more than half of it, so it counts. And it was worth paying $2.99 to not have to watch every moment of this thing.

I know that Elvis movies aren’t all that great, but this one is such a corny drag. Daddy is also in Kid Galahad, I wonder if that one is better?

(Daddy does have one of the only funny lines in the movie. After pissing and moaning for the whole film that his daughter, Lily-Jeanne, didn’t get the lead in the children’s pageant over Anissa Jones, when he sees Anissa perform, he cheerfully tells his wife, “This kid is MUCH better than Lily-Jeanne!” I laughed out loud.)

#37 Melody Time

February 5, 2021
Melody Time (1948) *** 1/2
Disney +
Free
Disney animation

I have been through a lot of these compilation films, both animation only and hybrid, I don’t know if I was just in the right mood for it or what, but this one is one of the best! I think it helps that more of the cartoons have actual stories than don’t, even when the song doesn’t necessarily have a story.

There were parts that I had definitely seen before, like Pecos Bill (without the live action frame with Roy Rogers and the Sons of the Pioneers, and Bobby Driscoll and Luanna Patten, the two kids in all of these early live-action and hybrid movies), and Johnny Appleseed, narrated by the great Dennis Day (he and my dad were kids together 100 years ago. Literally, Daddy was born in 1915), and Little Toot (pretty sure I had that book as well).

In the sections I hadn’t seen before, I particularly enjoyed Once Upon a Wintertime, a love story involving skating, rabbits, and near death over a waterfall.

Unlike some of the other compilations, this one is on Disney +, and I recommend it.

Week 5 wrap-up 1/29-2/4

This the first week where I didn’t have an, “IT’S MIDNIGHT AND I CAN’T FIND ANYTHING TO WATCH!!!” freak out, so either I’m getting into the swing of it, or the fact that I have narrowed my focus to Disney for February, and since they are the early films, they are all 75 to 90 minutes long, and not a real grind to sit through in the middle of the night. Probably both.

Of the movies this week, I had seen two and a half before, Bambi, Alice in Wonderland, and the Ichabod half of The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad, the other four and a half were new to me.

None of the films were dogs in any way, the two I liked the least, The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad and The Bee Gees: How Can You Mend a Broken Heart both were three stars, so hardly bad by any means, though I still will have to choose one for worst of the week.

The best of the week is much trickier, as three of them, That’s Entertainment! III, In & Of Itself, and Fantastic Planet all got four stars (Alice was three and a half, for completion’s sake), but I think I’m going to have to go with In & Of Itself as best of the week, just because it is so original and unique. I guess The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad is not so much worst of the week as least best.

#36 Fantastic Planet

February 4, 2021
Fantastic Planet (1973) ****
TCM
Free
Wildcard

Though this is Disney month, my only goal is to watch Disney films on half of the days, giving myself a little leeway in case anything interesting pops up, and today something interesting indeed did.

I had planned on either Peter Pan or Melody Time as being the next film watched, but I also do glance at the TCM app every day to see if there’s anything to put on my watchlist, and when I looked at it, there it was, Fantastic Planet, and why wait? As I said on Facebook, when the opportunity arises to watch Fantastic Planet, you grab it with both hands.

The funny thing is, I wasn’t entirely certain as to whether I’d seen it before. I knew I had seen some crazy ’70s animation when I was a kid at FilmEx, and of course the images of the film were very familiar to me, but I wasn’t quite sure. Now, having watched it, I can pretty safely say that I had never seen it before in full. Mostly because the plot was a complete mystery to me!

It takes place on an alien planet (Ygam) populated by massive blue aliens (Draags) who keep tiny humans (Oms) as pets, like pet mice and rats, and the wild Oms determination to get away from the Draags to the Wild Planet, which is the moon of Ygam. I never knew that the Fantastic Planet of the title is not Ygam, which is extremely fantastic, but the Wild Planet, as that is what the French title, La Planète Sauvage, means.

The plot is more interesting than it needs to be, as the images are just everything. It’s not only alien, it’s French, so it’s even more alien to Americans. That’s not a joke, actually.

The POV of the film is from the Oms, but it’s not difficult to see things from the Draags viewpoint, as they are more us than the Oms are. If your pet mouse seemed to want to attend Zoom school with you, then actually ran away, stealing your Chromebook, would you immediately think that the mice had the same intelligence as humans? Probably not! So it’s not that the Draags were being any crueller trying to stamp out the wild Oms than we think of ourselves as when we call in the exterminator to do something about this rodent problem.

It is a fascinating and compelling movie, well worth seeking out. Not for kids, though.