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johnshea21
Reviews
In This House of Brede (1975)
A bit of a Benedictine muddle
Any film that boasts Diana Rigg, Pamela Brown (my god, those eyes!), Gwen Watford, and Denis Quilley can't be all bad, but "In This House of Brede" seems to make a great effort to be just that.
I recall watching it on PBS here in New York when it first came out and enjoying it. Later, I read the book. I just reread the book and found the film on line so I could compare the two while the book was fresh in my mind. Yes, it's hard to distill a book into a 90-minute film and yes, you probably have to leave out bits and pieces to do it but these people made a real hash of the job. They muddled the plot in a big way, inventing relationships that didn't exist and leaving out crucial characters and background. For instance, the scene between Joanna and David makes no sense whatever because the writers eliminated all of the background that would have explained it.
The relationship between Dame Philippa and Dame Agnes is threaded throughout the entire book and makes sense of Agnes's coldness toward Philippa. In the film, I suppose Joanna's behavior to Philippa may explain it but since this never existed in the book we really don't know. Sir Richard barely existed in the book while another friend from Philippa's office is a larger and more welcome presence there but was completely eliminated from the film.
I suppose I am just disappointed by the way the writers treated the book. It is so rich in character and rich in the Catholic and Benedictine philosophy and none of that comes out in the film. It's like they pulled bits and pieces from the book at random and few of them relate to each other.
Still, by all means watch the film if you can find it (I found it on YouTube), those actors would be worth watching in a flea circus, but please, do yourself a favor and read Rumer Godden's book, it is marvelous.
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Saintly Sinners (1962)
A Genial Comedy
This is really less a movie than an extended television episode and none the worse for that. As someone who grew up on early 1960s TV shows, I found myself wondering at times where the laugh track was. Don Beddoe plays a priest in a parish in the wrong end of town where the parishioners are mainly grifters and petty toughs who take advantage of his generosity, or so his monsignor (Addison Richards) and housekeeper (Ellen Corby) think. Their only sin seems to be playing the horses. There is the usual former troublesome teen who has made good, gotten a good job and married and now finds himself in need of the good priest's aid. This precipitates a confused situation involving a stolen car, a robbery, mistaken identity, and some tough guys with hearts of gold. If you have an hour or so to spare you could do worse than this genial little film. And keep IMDb open to check the different familiar character actors you'll see. Also, no matter what IMDb and the actual credits say, it's "Pythias," not "Phineas"; take a listen near the end. And a minor point perhaps but the writers' knowledge of Catholic church practice is a bit off since a pastor answers to his bishop, not to a monsignor.
Experiment Perilous (1944)
A Thoroughly Enjoyable Film
I wasn't sure how I'd react to this film. The title is a bit awkward and very often period films are enough off-the-mark in the set department to make me dissatisfied. But, I have to say that I thoroughly enjoyed "Experiment Perilous." I won't deny that there are some plot holes: Why does Nick Bederaux have a strong German accent while his sister sounds totally American despite their having been raised together? For that matter, why does his wife, a Vermont country girl, have a Mittel European accent? But I chalked this up to suspension of disbelief and after a bit I forgot about it.
George Brent is his usual excellent, understated self and Hedy Lamarr, whose films I've not been very familiar with, was also very good. Ditto, Albert Dekker and Paul Lukas. In a film that could easily tempt anyone to overact, I found all the performances credible. Other reviewers have compared the film to "Gaslight," but I find "Experiment Perilous" more subtle, less overwrought.
And the period sets? More believable than usual in this kind of film. I've been looking at a lot of turn-of-the-century New York City photos over the past year or two and it looked to me like the art director tried to get at least the exteriors right. For example, near the beginning of the film, when Bailey first visits the Bederaux home with Claghorn, you catch a glimpse of the Madison Square Garden tower in the distance down Madison Ave., a satisfying detail.
My recommendation: catch this one if you can.
The United States Army Band (1943)
An entertaining but poignant short
The United States Army Band is a short, entertaining film from Warner's that, for me at least, turns unexpectedly poignant in the last moments. I should note that while IMDb lists this as 1943, the copyright date on the title screen is 1942; it's obviously a flag-waving short put through production after Pearl Harbor and the U.S. declaration of war. As it starts, we see the army band marching in front of the Jefferson Memorial in Washington, D.C., as the soundtrack plays "You're in the Army Now" and "Over There." As the band segues into "The Caissons Go Rolling Along," we are treated to scenes from army maneuvers: first the infantry as long convoys of trucks roll across the landscape along with howitzers, jeeps, and tanks. Then come scenes of paratroopers training and the sky is filled with scores of men and parachutes. After that, to the strains of "The Campbells are Coming," the U.S. Army Cavalry is seen galloping up and down hills. From there, the film cuts to the band in dress whites in the amphitheater at Arlington National Cemetery, playing a program of popular music: "Aura Lee," "Pack up Your Troubles," "It's a Long Way to Tipperary," and "Over There," among other tunes. It ends, as I said, on a poignant note with news footage of troops marching from the Battery in New York City, up Broadway, under the arch at Washington Square and up Fifth Ave., to pier 52 on the Hudson River where they embark on troop ships for Europe. There we see the soldiers' farewells to wives, girlfriends, mothers, and children. At that point it hit me that many of those men would never return alive, which we know but they probably never suspected. A sobering thought.