Action! Adventure!

For the Fourth of July long weekend, we went with an action-adventure theme. Up first: Mysterious Island, starring nobody I recognized, except Herbert Lom as Captain Nemo. It wasn't directed by anyone in particular, either. BUT! Special effects by Ray Harryhausen.

The story involves some Civil War soliders ballooning in a hurricane. They are blown across America to the Pacific Ocean and a mysterious island, full of giant creatures. Harryhausen stop-motion animated creatures! Animated with that lovely mixture of jerkiness and realism that is Harryhausen's signature. Never have latex models had so much character.

Next, we re-watched The Wizard of Oz , mainly for the tornado scene. All the wild mid-west weather this year put the idea in Ms. Spenser's head. I must say, the tornado is quite good. So is the rest of the movie, with one little exception - Judy Garland. She is too creepy for me, too raw, too real. Like with Sinatra and Crosby, I like a lot of her movies, but I don't much like her. But for this film, it's worth it. I think this movie was always on TV for some holiday. Was it Thanksgiving? Not Fourth of July, anyway.

Then, we went with a double bill: Appointment in Honduras/Escape to Burma. So far, we've only seen Honduras. Glenn Ford, along with a band of cut-throat convicts, commandeer a ship and land in Honduras, taking Ann Sheridan and her husband Zachary Scott as hostages. Ford is a magnificent bastard, and Scott is a weasely rich man. After a few days in the steamy jungle, do you think Ann Sheridan might stray? Jack Elam plays head cut-throat.

Burma stars Barbara Stanwycke, so I hope we'll get to see that.

Finally, Forbidden Planet. This time we watched it for the "electronic tonalites" - the first all electronic soundtrack performed by Louis and Bebe Barron. But this time around, I noticed the cool modern architecture in Dr. Morbius' space pad. I want to live there.

I just found out from IMDB that Forbidden Planet was shot on the same soundstage as The Wizard of Oz.It all ties together, you see.

Update: We watched the flipside of Appointment in Honduras: Escape to Burma. Again, we have a seems-to-be bad man attracting a good woman in the steamy jungle, but this time, there are elephants. The elephants belong to Barbara Stanwycke, and she lets them know who is boss, like only she can. The sexual tension is a lot more real, and all the characters are more sympathetic, even the tiger. Just a better movie.