1951’s The Harlem Globetrotters film is one of those pieces that happen to have a collision of two pop-culture icons before they really hit.  This film, obviously, features the Globetrotters, who had existed since the mid 1920’s, but were a little over a decade from their height of popularity.  It also features the beautiful triple-threat performer Dorothy Dandridge, three years before she emerged in the popular culture with her star making role as the title character in Carmen Jones.  It brings to mind an episode of the one season Burt Reynolds’ starring cop show- Dan August I saw not long ago from 1971, which featured both Harrison Ford and Billie Dee Williams as guest stars.  Before either one had become famous and a decade before appearing together in The Empire Strikes Back.

     Michael Curtiz is one of my favorite directors and considered one of the best directors of the golden age of Hollywood. This is the guy who directed two of my favorite films of all time-- The Adventures of Robin Hood and Casablanca, pretty much universally considered one of the best films of all time. Watching Passage to Marseille I got the feeling that Warner Brothers was looking to recreate the magic of Casablanca by putting together much of the cast and crew of that film for this one. In addition to Curtiz, Owen Marks as Editor, Music by Max Steiner, Art Direction by Carl Jules Weyl, along with Humphrey Bogart, Claude Rains, Sydney Greenstreet, and Peter Lorre in the cast, all worked on Casablanca. Curtiz did make two films between Casablanca and Passage to Marseille both pretty much propaganda films, one of which presented Russian Communism in a good light. Keep in mind this was the height of World War II and the Russians were our allies. Aaaaanyway. Passage to Marseille tells the story of five escaped prisoners from a penal colony in French Guina who go on to become part of the “Free French Air Squadron”.

     It’s not often I come across a movie with a Christmas connection that I had not even heard of. Especially one released in the 1940’s, but I came across Christmas Eve by chance on a streaming service and decided to check it out. The cast boasts George Raft, Randolph Scott, and Joan Blondell, how did I miss this?? The answer is that it’s not very good so it didn’t get the TV play that other more “classic’ films did.

      With the success of the Marvel Cinematic Universe over the past couple of decades, most people may have forgotten about another big studio’s success with a shared Universe 80 years ago. By the early 1940’s Universal Studios had made hit films of Frankenstein, Dracula, The Mummy, The Invisible Man, and in 1941 The Wolf Man. All had spawned successful sequels and while The Wolf Man was a success, by 1942 World War II was waging and the studio was having some serious money issues. Bad enough issues that the idea of selling the studio was a real option. So, a logical move would be to get some kind of product out there that can’t miss. One idea for a possible follow up to The Wolf Man was to match him up with an another of their Monsters. So was born Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man, released in 1943 it was a hit and went a long way toward getting the studio back in shape. It worked so well that House of Frankenstein, featured not only The Wolf Man and Frankenstein’s Monster, but Dracula too. They even threw in Boris Karloff as a mad scientist with a hunchbacked assistant. The Mummy was in an early draft, but the budget just wouldn’t allow it. The film was well received financially, so they lowered the budget a bit more and got House of Dracula into theaters in 1945. House of Dracula brought the three classic monsters back along with a new scientist who had a lovely female hunchbacked nurse. Together they play like a trilogy of sequels to The Wolf Man, while incorporating some of the story threads of the other monster’s sequels...when it was convenient. They do play fast and loose with continuity, but some effort was made.     Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man plays as a direct sequel to The Wolf Man and the previous Frankenstein sequel- The Ghost of Frankenstein… sort of. Lon Chaney Jr. returned as Lawrence Talbot and the original Dracula himself, and Ygor in Ghost of Frankenstein, Bela Lugosi as the Monster. Even stranger (pun intended...you’ll see) it was Chaney who played the Monster in “Ghost”. Talbot is resurrected a the beginning of the film and sets out to find Doctor Frankenstein’s notes on life and death to find a way to end his own life and bring an end to his nocturnal murder sprees during the full moon. Maria Ouspenskaya’s Gypsy woman Maleva returns to help get Talbot where his wants to go. Once there he ends up under the care of a doctor who, of course thinks Larry’s crazy, but soon gets mixed up in finding Frankenstein’s book and helping him. When they arrive in what’s left of Castle Frankenstein they find the Monster, still alive but very, very weak. The Doctor decides he can bring the Monster up to full strength and help Talbot, but a torch wielding mob and a bomb on a dam puts an end to their story.     This entry tries the best of the three to take into account the events of the previous films. In the original cut of the movie Lugosi’s Monster spoke. He was also blind. A side effect of the events in Ghost of Frankenstein. The problem was, when preview audiences heard Bela Lugosi’s voice coming from the monster, they laughed...and not in a complimentary way. So, the Monster’s dialogue was cut and any mention of his blindness, which Lugosi was playing. Again, the country was at war with Germany, so Castle Frankenstein was no longer located in Germany, but the fictitious country of Vasaria. Each film needs a beautiful love interest for at least one character in the film, so the daughter of Frankenstein was back from the sequels, but this time played by Hungarian beauty Ilona Massey. She adds one more strange accent to the cast. Most speak with American accents, but some seem to be English while others German. It’s a hodgepodge but you just get over it. Even though this one only features the Monster and the Wolf Man, it is my personal favorite of the three.     Universal upped the ante with House of Frankenstein. While not really cutting the budget, most of the budget went to paying Boris Karloff to return, but not as the monster this time, but the mad scientist. Bela Lugosi was unavailable, so the great character actor John Carradine stepped into the role of Count Dracula. Probably for the best because he worked a lot cheaper than Lugosi would have. Glenn Strange takes over the part of the Monster and only received $500 for his work. This film begins with Karloff’s mad scientist, Dr. Niemann, and his hunchbacked assistant Daniel breaking out of prison. They come across a traveling show of exotic and horrific artifacts, like the bones of Count Dracula, kill the owner and Niemann takes on his persona, as they travel to the town where Niemann was tried for murder. So, he can take his revenge on those who testified against him. Along the way they pick up a beautiful gypsy girl Daniel is sweet for. Neimann accidentally revives Dracula but he ends up kind of doing his own thing. Niemann and Daniel then find, and free the Monster and the Wolf Man frozen in the ice under the rubble of Frankenstein’s castle. With this group of creatures Niemann figures he’ll use them to take his revenge of the town. Of course, things don’t really work out that well. Dracula is forced into the sunlight, the gypsy girl falls for Talbot and not Daniel, then with her last breath she ends up killing Talbot with a silver bullet. The Monster tosses Daniel out a window, scoops up Neiman, and walks them both right into quicksand while being chased by torch a torch wielding mob, so pretty much everybody dies.     House of Dracula does bring the trilogy to an end but is also an entertaining mess. Screenwriter Edward T. Lowe was kind of “over” Hollywood, and especially writing these monster flicks. So, he threw this one together without a lot of care about continuity. You recall, everybody died at the end of the last film. This film starts with Count Dracula arriving at the castle-home of Dr. Edlemann, a kindly physician and scientist. Asking him to find a cure for his Vampirism. Then Larry Talbot shows up at the door basically looking for the same thing. Only for his Lycanthropy, or death. Whichever. No explanations as to why they are alive, they just show up. Dr. Edlemann has two nurses the lovely Miliza, who Drac has eyes for, and, his assistant, a quite pretty girl with a hunchback named Nina. Larry tries to kill himself by jumping over a cliff into the ocean, the Dr. goes down into a cave looking for him, and they both discover the body of the Monster (along with Dr. Niemann’s skeleton) who has washed in from the quicksand. Being a scientist in a Universal movie Edlemann has to bring the Monster to his lab and try to revive him. Nina talks him out of it, but Dracula turns the Doctor into a vampire, so the Doc exposes him to sunlight. Now rid of that character he turns his attention to healing Talbot and succeeds! Unfortunately, now the Doc is a killer and, now a madman/vampire, he sets out to revive the Monster. Nina tries to stop him, he attacks her, the law and a torch wielding mob show up, and Talbot shoots the Doctor. The Monster gets loose, equipment gets destroyed and a fire is started. Everyone escapes the flames except for the Monster.     Lon Chaney Jr., John Carradine, and Glenn Strange returned for this final chapter in the trilogy of sequels and the final film in the classic Universal Horror cinematic universe. With the story of the Wolf Man told, Universal ended Lon Chaney’s contract after this film. Though he, Strange, and Bela Lugosi would return one last time for the comedy “one-off” Abbot and Costello Meet Frankenstein. Universal would make a few more “monster” movies, including The Creature from the Black Lagoon in the ‘50’s, but the original classic characters wouldn’t return until the English studio Hammer Pictures began using them in the late ‘50’s through the 60’s. In the 1999 a new action/adventure version of The Mummy, which owed more to Indiana Jones than Boris Karloff, lead by Brendan Fraser was a hit, but couldn’t quite make it as a franchise. In recent years Universal hasn’t had that much luck relaunching the monsters. They’ve tried a couple of times to bring Dracula back over the past decade of two, The Mummy, and The Wolf Man. The studio had some success when they teamed up with Horror production company Blumhouse in 2020 with The Invisible Man and are currently working together on a new version of The Wolf Man. Who knows? They haven’t yet, but they still may stumble onto that secret sauce or perfect amount of electricity again and find that those Universal Monsters may have a little more life left in them.

     I guess you’d call me a semi-apologetic Eddie Cantor fan. I think he was funny and most of the songs he was best known for are also pretty great too. In nearly every film he appeared in there is at least one scene that today would be considered at least problematic or at most downright racist. Roman Scandals, which I do enjoy, leans a bit closer to the latter. You really have to take into account when this movie was made in order to get over one particular sequence. It’s both the best and worst sequence of the film.

     I first saw The Blue Angel in a film class in college.  I can’t recall for sure if it was the English language or German version I saw back then.  What I do recall is how surprised I was at how much I liked it at the time.  I recently purchased the Kino Lorber blu-ray release, which contains both versions, and took a look at the German language version.  I really enjoyed it again.  I’m glad I added it to my collection.

     Every once in a while I watch a film that I’m embarrassed to say I had never seen before. Films that I’ve known about for years and kept saying; “I’ll get to it”. The Night of the Hunter is one of those films. I’ve finally taken a look at it and, I have to admit, it’s a pretty amazing film. Made in 1955, based on...well, let’s say- inspired by the novel by Charles Grubb, starring Robert Mitchum, and directed by Charles Laughton (yes, that Charles Laughton-- Captain Bligh, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Captain Kidd) it is a thrilling watch with incredible visuals.

     “The Terrible Northmen...Sailing on Dragon Ships Like Serpents on the Sea! Shouting a Battle-Cry to Their Awesome God of War, Odin! Mightiest Of Men... Mightiest Of Spectacles... Mightiest Of Motion Pictures!” Those were the taglines used in the ads for the 1958 film- The Vikings, starring Kirk Douglas, Tony Curtis, Ernest Borgnine, and Janet Leigh. A beautiful Technicolor film shot, mostly, on location in Norway. It’s the story of a child born from the rape of an English Queen by a Viking raider, who is raised as a Viking slave. Years later another Viking raid brings a young woman, who was to be married to the current King, to Norway where the Viking’s leader’s son has his eye on the beautiful Englishwoman but it is she and the slave who form a bond. The Slave and the English woman escape to England with the warrior Viking Prince hot on their trail. It all comes to a head in the sacking of the same kingdom where the, now ex, Slave is the true ruler.

    Even though The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog is one of Alfred Hitchcock’s first films as director, this was my first viewing. Having now seen it, it’s pretty obvious that he (really) had just returned from a trip to Berlin, having made a couple of films there. His exposer to German Expressionism is reflected all over this movie. I don’t mean it as a knock, but if I didn’t know anything about Hitchcock, I’d have guessed that The Lodger was made by Murnau or Fritz Lang.

     As a kid in the 1970’s any time a Godzilla movie was on TV I, and my friends, would stop what we were doing, drop to the floor, and watch it. I have no particular recollection of seeing Godzilla Raids Again but may have seen the American release of it- Gigantis the Fire Monster at some point. I can say that this was definitely my first time seeing the original Japanese cut of the film. This was the first follow up to the original Gojira in 1954 and it’s a pretty good film on it’s own.

     Race films were movies made from 1915 through the early 1950’s for an African American audience and starring, for the most part, all African American casts. Most theaters, with some exceptions in northern cities, were for “colored only”, “whites only” or would offer special “race” showings, either as matinees or late night screenings reserved for a black audience. Many films were produced during this time but fewer than one hundred survive today. These films covered all genres- melodrama, comedy, westerns, and musicals, you name it. They were produced by both African American run companies and white owned companies.

     I had not seen this 1953 John Huston directed, Humphrey Bogart starring film, though I did know of it, until now. Like many of Huston’s movies of the late ‘40’s into the ‘50’s, Beat the Devil was shot “on location” in Italy, with some work in Pinewood Studios in the U.K. This film boasts quite a cast too- Bogart, Jennifer Jones, Gina Lollobrigida, Robert Morley, and Peter Lorre. Looking at the theatrical poster you can tell that the promotions people didn’t know how to publicize this movie. It’s actually a comedy, though a fairly unconventional one for 1953, but the poster shows Bogart punching someone and our two leading ladies in bodice bursting poses. Very “sex and violence”, which it’s really not.