The Green Man

I found the first half of this 1950s black comedy boring but once the murders happened then it got interesting. Alastair Sim plays a watchmaker who is an assasin. Then a couple discovers the bodies one of which is in a piano. Once they do they all on the case. It was an amusing black comedy. It's on Kanopy.

Raven's End

This was an ok Swedish movie from the 1960s. A writer gets his book published but the poverty of the the people around him gets to him and soon he quits his ambitions. His girlfriend gets pregnant and things get worst. The man does something very selfish in the end so it was hard for me to find him likable. Maybe that's why I think this is just ok while it's more than critically acclaimed.

The Gleiwitz Case

This DEFA movie shows the Nazis marching in on a German town near Poland. I think you have to be a history buff or something because I got lost. At least it was only 64 minutes.

Mickey One

This was ok. This was Arthur Penn's American attempt to do a movie that looked like the French New Wave movement. A stand-up comedian has debts to the mob. The comedian is homeless for a while but once he's secured a position once again he's paranoid someone has discovered his identity. It was a bit experimental. Warren Beatty was good in it.

Who saw him die?

The title gives away the ending. This late 1960s Swedish movie is about a teacher frustrated with the teaching process. He finds himself losing his cool. He's in a bad marriage. Things get worst. This movie frankly is more honest about what you're getting into if you become a teacher than movies like Mr. Holland's Opus. There's a reason why I never signed up for an education major.

Rotation

This was an anti Nazi movie made in Germany in the late 1940s. A man agrees to join the Nazi party reluctantly to provide for his family but in the meantime his wife hides information about her brother who got in trouble with them. Eventually their son betrays them and turns them in. Only the son realizes later what a jerk he was. I like how the father still loved him despite his betrayal. This was a rare treat I found on Kanopy, a service some libraries provide. I'll be watching more.

Girl with Hyacinths

This is something that new movies could learn from, a gay movie that is subtle. If this were made today there would be way too many clues along the way. I appreciate the quiet approach. A girl commits suicide so a couple takes it upon themselves to investigate why she killed herself. We meet her drunkard painter husband and the other losers in her life. Ingmar Bergman loved this Swedish movie and it has a nice presence about it.

Violent Saturday

This was an ok bank robbery movie where Victor Mature played one of the good guys. It all takes place in a small town on a Saturday. Frankly the most interesting thing about the movie was the stalker who got off way too easy.

Spooks Run Wild

The best thing about this movie is Bela Lugosi and it's clear he was just here for the paycheck in this Poverty Row studio movie. The East Side kids run into a haunted house where Lugosi lives. There's a monster killer roaming about as well. This so far is one of the worst I've seen from Poverty Row. There has to be a gem somewhere from them. I'm looking.

Dead Men Walk

My sister has had a recent fascination with Poverty Row studio despite the fact they rarely made good movies. In fact I haven't watched one good one. This one concerned twins one bad and one good. One served the devil and was killed by his brother. This movie was forgettable. I had to read imdb to refresh myself on what it was about.

Goin' South

I didn't care for this comedy about a spinster who saves a criminal from hanging by marrying him. The humor was forced but I have to admit the performances were excellent. This was Mary Steenburgen's first movie. I loved her in Time after Time. She almost steals the spotlight away from Jack Nicholson. Later plot lines in the movie include mining for gold. To be honest it was a mixed bag. It has a medicore imdb rating.

The Sun's Burial

I liked this 1960 Japanese movie more when I was a teenager. It's an early Oshima classic. I remember liking Cruel Story of Youth more but unfortunately no one has put that yet on youtube.This movie follows a youthful group of poor characters and their descent into crime. In their world prostitution and rape are typical things. It was an interesting watch but none of the characters are enjoyable. I doubt I'll watch it again for another fifteen years or xo.

The Face of Marble

A doctor reanimates the dead. While he does so his wife is cheating on him. It's Poverty Row Studio so you know it's not good. It stars John Carradine, the father of the Nashville star Keith. Although Poverty Row Studio movies aren't good they do have a certain charm to them.

The Sure Thing

I was disappointed by how few comments this movie got on youtube. I watched it all the time when I was a kid. Yes it's heavily inspired by It Happened one Night but it's fun. Daphne Zuniga plays a stuffed shirt while John Cusack portrays a slacker. They both go on a road journey together since both of them are going to the same destination. Initially they fight but eventually the two fall in love. Cusack originally goes on the trip because his friend Anthony Edwards guarantees he has a "sure thing" with Nicolette Sheridan but Cusack finds he might not want that. Why hasn't Cusack been awarded with an Oscar nomination or something? He's never been given his due.

Voodoo Man

My twin sister has gotten into Poverty Row Studio movies. They're not good, not even so bad they're good, but they are intriguing low budget movies. In this Bela Lugosi kidnaps girls all with the intention of helping his zombie wife. It was only an hour. I have no complaints.

King of the Zombies

This was a generic movie from Poverty Row Studios about an island with zombies, voodoo, and hypnotism. The real reason to watch this is for Mantan Moreland's performance. At first I cringed at the racial stereotype Mantan had to portray but he does a really good job. He's pretty funny. He should be more of a name.

The Monster Maker

My sister wants to get into Poverty Row Studio movies, a low budget horror company of the 1940s. A mad scientist injects the father of a woman he loves with a disease acromegaly that he is reknown for curing. For a while she comes to him pleading for help until the truth comes out. This movie had the potential to be so much more but it felt the need to wrap up things nicely and have a happy movie. This could have been a cool dark movie.

Claudia and David

This was an old movie I found on youtube. It looked interesting but I found it boring. It's a sequel but I found it easy to follow without watching the original. This finds a married couple going through problems with their three year old child, jealousy, and other trials. Nothing really grabbed my attention although I've always liked Dorothy McGuire.

Hugo and Josephine

This was an ok Swedish film from the 1960s about the friendship between a girl, a boy, and a gardener. The girl Josephine is a loner and welcomes the friendship of a new boy Hugo in town. Hugo's gardener starts taking care of him after his father lands in jail. By the end of the movie the three have formed a bond. The movie is ultimately about childhood although I just thought it brushed on the concepts of bullying.

Apartment for Peggy

This was an ok 40's drama about a suicidal old man whose life is turned around when he rents his apartment out to nineteen-year-old Peggy and her husband William Holden. Peggy has a baby on the way and Holden is an aspiring teacher. But things don't pan out as they seem and Holden thinks about becoming a car salesman since they make better money. Some things happened in the movie that I didn't expect. It didn't change my life but Jeanne Crain was a fine charming actress. It's worth a watch.

The Blonde Witch

In this 50's movie an engineer falls for the outcast witch of the town, a beauty played by Marina Vlady. Previously in the movie he had been flirting with another female, and the girl doesn't take kindly to being dumped to the side. The end of the movie ends tragically as the villagers' distaste for the witch takes an unexpected turn. I really liked Marina Vlady. I need to watch more of her movies. I watched it free on this cool website https://rarefilmm.com/. You can tell the guy who made it is a real film buff.

Maria Candelaria

Man Dolores Del Rio was good in this. She plays a saint who can't run away from her mother's prostitute past. Some people who seem good in this film later turn out to be villains. The movie begins with an artist about to paint her picture. I don't want to give everything away but things don't end pretty. This really is a Mexican classic. I wish people would provide more subtitles on youtube. I think maybe people don't think that there is an interest in old Mexican cinema but they're wrong.

Anne of Windy Poplars

This was a movie sequel to Anne of Green Gables starring Anne Shirley. Leonard Maltin was harsh and called it uninspired. I thought it was just ok. It's about Anne Shirley becoming a teacher and her squabbles with the Pringles in the town. I wish that Gilbert was focused more. The real reason I watched this was because of the actress Anne Shirley. She quit stardom all too soon.

The Vanishing

I watched this when I was a kid and it remained with me. I just ended up watching it again. After a man's wife disappears from a gas station, the guy goes on an obsessive desperate search for answers. The killer teases with him. Eventually the two meet. He demands to know what happened to his wife. At times I couldn't believe the stupidity of the guy. He had to know that he was asking for his doom but obsession gets the better of him. There was an American remake that changed the spooky ending which really missed the point of this movie. I was surprised that it's just on youtube and not available for rent. This is one of the scariest films I've ever seen.

A Hole in the Wall

This was a short precode. It was one of Claudette Colbert's first movies and the first that starred Edward G. Robinson as a gangster. It was just ok. It's about a girl falsely accused of theft who becomes a psychic. Edward G. Robinson is a gangster who gets involved with her but his association with her leads to his downfall.

Whistle down the Wind

Hayley Mills stars as a child who believes the criminal hiding out in her barn is Jesus. Soon the other children believe it too. Meanwhile the adults in the movie are looking for the criminal who is kind of baffled at the attention the children are giving him. This was a pretty good movie. Hayley Mills was simply one of the best child actors ever. This was later made as an Andrew Lloyd Webber musical.

The Phantom of the Opera

This was an ok film version of The Phantom of the Opera. The problem is that it has too much opera. This is probably because the cast has Nelson Eddy and Susanna Foster, who was one of the many actresses of her time trying to compete with Deanna Durbin. (She does a pretty good job as Christine.) The real winner in the movie is Claude Rains as the phantom though. He was such a great actor. It wasn't amazing but it was acceptable.