Hollywood & Fairfax

Journey to the Center of the Earth (1959)
directed by Henry Levin
rating: 2 out of 5 cravats
seen on the screen at The Egyptian Theater

So listless that James Mason's misogynistic flirtations ring out like rocks dropped into rivers a long way down. I can accept that the special effects were awe-inspiring in 1959, but then as now it's good to remember that special effects don't get you far enough.

Flesh and the Devil (1926)
directed by Clarence Brown
rating: 4 out of 5 cravats
seen on the screen at The Silent Movie Theatre



Garbo didn't smile until Ninotchka because her smile is a shy, self-conscious charm that the on-screen persona didn't need. John Gilbert missed out on a career in talkies but there's always a price for your pleasures and how could he have thought that Greta would be an exception? His day at the altar alone must have born all the finality and morbid hilarity of Felicitas' plunge into the river - entertaining like all of life's juxtapositions and probably reminiscent of this first film of theirs and its helter-skelter moods.

Undercurrent (1946)
directed by Vincente Minnelli
rating: 2 out of 5 cravats
seen on the screen at LACMA

Robert Mitchum is not like the shark in Jaws. Less is not more. Especially when the attendant physical dramatics (swinging lantern-light, inky black storms) follow suit. Minnelli was such a society hound, to such crippling ends - its why what should have been Mitchum's film begins with a lapdog named Rummy.