But I also watch movies on airplanes (rarely a good idea) and get DVDs from the library (a great deal). This weekend I got a great batch. Here's the two we watched:
Clue: The first movie based on a board game (there was another?). With a brilliant cast: Christopher Lloyd, Tim Curry, Madeline Kahn, Michael McKean, Martin Mull, Lee Ving (as Mr. Boddy) ... How far did you get before you just put it in your queue? It is set on a stormy night in a great spooky house. The script is full of slapstick and labored jokes, and features 3 endings. We picked one at random, and it was the best part - all the strange happenings of the night all wrapped up with a (relatively) coherent explanation. The movie is full of "old dark house" movie allusions - the mansion is the Hill House, for example, ala Shirley Jackson. Recommended.
The House on Telegraph Hill: Speaking of houses on hills, this movie features a beaut. It's a sort of Rebecca/Gaslight, with amazing early 50s San Francisco locations. Polish Concentration camp survivor Valentina Cortese steals the identity of a deceased friend to get to America, to live as the mother to the son her friend sent to live with her rich aunt. She arrives to find the aunt dead, and the son in care of lawyer Richard Baseheart. To cement her claim, she marries Baseheart.
Or maybe he marries her to cement his claim to the boy, and Aunt Sophie's fortune. He seems a little creepy. And there the boy has a governess who seems to resent the new mother. And the house is a very spooky old ... matte painting. OK, that part is pretty fake, but the rest is all beautiful San Francisco locations. The back yard overlooks the piers on Embarcadero. They visit the Flood Building (probably). There are all kinds of San Francisco street scenes.
If you don't mind a little noir with your women's picture or vice versa, and you love San Francisco, this is for you.
In conclusion:
- Richard Baseheart! Richard Baseheart!
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