Rope (1948)

One of Hitchcock's masterpieces, and arguably his best, this opens on John Dall and Farley Granger as they're finishing the murder of a friend.

Why'd they do it? Only to see what it might feel like. Then they cram his body into a trunk, and serve snacks atop it for the evening's party guests.

One of the guests is their college professor, James Stewart, whose lofty joking comments in class, about people who perhaps deserve to be murdered, is what inspired the young men's act of violence.

The whole movie takes place at the party, with Dall and Granger alternately cracking wise and sweating with nerves, and with Stewart asking questions and beginning to suspect something's up, but never being sure what.

Rope is a deliciously dark drama with a brilliant script and lots of memorable characters, especially Dall and Granger. Once in a while I'll catch one of them in some other flick, but Rope always flashes across my mind — they're divine as the despicable duo, supposedly based on the infamous Leopold and Loeb.

Hitch wanted to film this with no cuts or edits, like a play, but film stock was limited to ten-minute reels, so it's a series of ten-minute plays adding up to a very suspenseful movie. With no cuts, it takes place in real time, and there's never a break in the tension. It keeps building, and building...

Dazzling music, too, and Stewart is terrific. He never played a stupid character, but he was never smarter on screen than he is here.

I've lost track of how many times I've seen Rope. It's infinitely rewatchable.

Verdict: BIG YES.

♦ ♦ ♦

Baraka (1992)

From Ron Fricke, cinematographer of Koyaanisqatsi, this is Koyaanisqatsi redux, but without so much sqatsi — meaning, it's not quite so in-your-face with its message.

It's a wordless documentary look at life on Earth — beautiful, loud, and with hypnotic visuals. With no plot, story, or narration, though, it's un-reviewable without getting all pretentious or quoting the director talking about what he intended, and I'm not gonna do that.

It's a stunning, excellent show, that's all. The music and sound are as big as the movie's imagery.

On three occasions a repetitive noise off the soundtrack became mildly annoying to me, so I fast-forwarded a minute or two. Other than that, it's a hell of a flick, kinda cosmic, and I have no complaints.

Verdict: YES.

♦ ♦ ♦

The Beguiled (1971)

Don Siegel made many terrific movies. Clint Eastwood made some, too. They're dynamite together, and this one is haunting.

Eastwood is a Union soldier in the Civil War, but he's wounded behind enemy lines. Instead of being captured by Confederate soldiers, he's found by a student at an all-girls school, who brings him there, to be nursed back to health by a bevy of young women and the all-women staff.

This allows Eastwood ample space to wield his masculine wiles, and that's fun, but if you're expecting a womanizing comedy look elsewhere. Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned, it is said, and here we have a school full of women scorned.

Verdict: YES.

♦ ♦ ♦

Bernie (2012)

Bernie (Jack Black) is a master mortician, a bubbly 'people person' beloved by everyone around Carthage, Texas, where he's the assistant manager at the funeral home. Gosh, he's just so friendly and happy and outgoing I know I'd hate him in person, but in a movie he's delightful.

Is he really Mr Nice Guy, though, or is he up to something with the bitchy widow, Shirley MacLaine? Matthew McConaughey plays the straight-laced District Attorney who's investigating.

The movie announces up front that it's a true story, but lots of movies make that claim so I managed to forget it until the very end, when we're briefly introduced to the real characters. That's when it suddenly dawned on me, some of the many people who'd been talking to the camera about Bernie, documentary style, were actors, but some were actual townsfolk talking about the actual Bernie.

Written and directed by Richard Linklater, this is great from beginning to end. And despite Bernie singing several church hymns, he might be my favorite movie extrovert ever.

Verdict: YES.

♦ ♦ ♦

Performance (1970)

Mick Jagger stars in a movie called Performance, so I'd always assumed this was a concert film. Nope, it's a crime drama, which first-time co-directors Donald Cammell and Nicolas Roeg worked hard to make unwatchable.

While other things are going on, the first few minutes has weird boopity-bippity sound effects coming and going for no reason I could ascertain, cross-cut with flashes of nudity and people boinking. When something plot-like starts happening, it's about an instantly unlikable tough guy (James Fox), and we get to watch him conduct a monstrous murder in excruciating and ghastly detail.

By that point I enthusiastically hated this movie, and if it later bloomed into cosmic revelations of the true meaning and beauty of life, it still wouldn't be enough to make up for the first fifteen minutes. That's when I'd had enough and turned it off.

Roeg went on to make several marvelous movies. Cammell made Demon Seed, which has been on my watchlist, but Performance is so irredeemably gawdawful I'm reconsidering that.

Verdict: BIG NO.

♦ ♦ ♦

Puce Moment (1949)

This is a six-minute short by Kenneth Anger, showing a woman choosing what to wear, and then dancing while two songs are performed, and then taking her dogs for a walk.

The songs are simply amazing, and it's hard to believe they're from 1949. My parents were in college then, and I've heard their music and this ain't that. It sounds like very good trippy rock from the 1970s, although the audio is a bit muffled.

Further research reveals that the film was originally scored with classical music, and Anger switched this soundtrack into it for a 1966 re-release.

There's zero information online about the songwriter — Jonathan Halper — which makes me speculate that Halper might be Anger and Anger Halper. It hardly matters, though. With any music Puce Moment would be six minutes of remarkable film.

Also, it doesn't hurt that the woman dancing is gorgeous.

Verdict: YES.

♦ ♦ ♦

Phantom of the Paradise (1974)

Paul Williams plays a svengali named Swan, who's re-opening a shuddered theater called The Paradise with a rock-n-roll show. He's stolen the words and music from misunderstood maestro William Finley, who's now wearing a mask and haunting the theater.

Yeah, this is Brian De Palma's clumsy rock'n'roll take on Phantom of the Opera.

People have told me this is a great movie, so I tried, really tried to find something here.

As always with De Palma, there are some clever visuals.

Jessica Harper is the female lead, and she's adequate and sings nicely.

But every character is either evil, stupid, or very naive, and one of them is a walking gay stereotype.

Finley as the Phantom is more annoying than frightening, never sympathetic, and speaks with an electronically altered voice that's grating.

It's a rock opera, so what about the music? It's hard to judge, because De Palma mangles so much of it — to indicate chaos backstage, what might be a decent song is presented split-screen with angry dialogue overtalking the music. Another song is performed with intentionally distorted audio while Williams fiddles with dials. The songs the director allows us to hear are adequate, but with the exception of Harper's songs, they're poorly performed.

It's just a mess.

Verdict: NO.

♦ ♦ ♦

Coming attractions:
• Brave New World (1980)
• The Cocoanuts (1929)
• Goliath Awaits (1981)
• Hell on Frisco Bay (1956)
• Raffles (1939)
• The Rain People (1969)
• Straight Time (1977)
1/22/2023

There are so many good movies out there — old movies, odd or artsy, foreign or forgotten movies, or do-it-yourself movies made just for the joy of making them — that if you only watch whatever's on Netflix or playing at the twentyplex, you're missing out.

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Top illustration by Jeff Meyer. No talking once the lights dim. Real butter, not that fake crap, on the popcorn. I try to make these reviews spoiler-free, but sometimes screw up, sorry. Piracy is not a victimless crime. Click any image to enlarge. [Comments & conversations invited.](mailto:[email protected]?subject=Comments for Mostly Words)