Hello, and welcome to another edition of Five Cool Things, the bi-weekly article where I talk about all the fun, interesting, and cool things I’ve discovered since the last time. This week we’re talking about a classic horror novel, a couple of classic film noirs, one of my favorite Japanese horror films, and a delightful French comedy. Let’s get to it, shall we?
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
Though I’ve seen probably half a dozen cinematic adaptations of Frankenstein, I’d never actually read the book until now. I knew the book was quite a bit different from most of the movies, but I had no idea how vastly different it really was. The James Whale-directed Frankenstein (1931) and its sequel, Bride of Frankenstein (1935), bare so little resemblance to the novel that one could almost call it an original story.
Buy Frankenstein: Or the Modern PrometheusI had a hard time with the book at first. It begins as an epistolary novel, and I hate those. It begins with letters from Captain Robert Walton to his sister. He tells the story of meeting Victor Frankenstein while at sea in the Arctic Circle. Thankfully, it eventually switches from his letters to Frankenstein’s actual narrative. Eventually, we’ll actually hear a bit of the monster’s story from his own words. But first there is a lot of Frankenstein’s life story to get through.
After suffering some losses, he travels to university where he dabbles in alchemy and other sordid sciences, eventually learning how to create life. In the films, he basically digs up a few bodies, pieces them together, and runs some electricity through it to create life. The book is a bit more mysterious about it, and grosser. He digs up bodies, but also collects parts from charnel houses, putting together organs and parts piecemeal. The book doesn’t dwell on it, but it does mention that his laboratory is a horror.
His creation is grotesque, and Frankenstein immediately flees. The monster is then on his own. But he learns to speak eloquently, to read and write. And to hate humanity, especially Frankenstein. He demands Frankenstein create for him a mate; if he doesn’t, he will begin killing all those whom he loves.
It is a dark story written in extraordinarily flowery language. It is ridiculously baroque. It is doing a lot of literary stuff that probably turns graduate students on, but the story itself is wonderful. If you only know the films, then I highly recommend the book. I think I’m going to have to read Dracula next October.
Where the Sidewalk Ends
Six years after they hit the film noir jackpot with Laura, director Otto Preminger once again teamed up with Dana Andrews and Gene Tierney. Once again, Andrews plays a police detective, but here he’s a pretty nasty piece of work. He’s a brute prone to beating witnesses and suspects alike, so much so that his captain demotes him.
Buy Where the Sidewalk EndsOne night, while talking to a belligerent witness, he smacks the guy so hard he kills him. He then pretends he never talked to the guy and hides his body. But it’s found, and a kindly old man is arrested for the murder. That’s where Tierney comes in. She’s Morgan Taylor, the estranged wife of the dead man. The guy they arrested for his murder is her dad. The dead guy was a deadbeat and, dear old dad, more than once threatened him if he came around anymore.
Naturally, Andrew’s cop falls in love with Morgan, and he must decide whether to turn himself in or let the old man take the fall. It is a good, murky story. Andrews is terrific. He makes us root for him even though we know he’s a pretty awful character. Tierney is great as well, and Preminger gives us lots to chew on.
Cure
Japanese director Kiyoshi Kurosawa is a master at sustained dread. Cure is one of my favorites of his pictures. A strange series of murders has occurred in Tokyo. Seemingly normal people are violently attacking others, carving a “V” into their necks when they are dead. Meanwhile, a strange man keeps walking up to people, claiming he has no memory of anything. There seems to be a connection between this man and the killings. Kenichi Takabe (Koji Yakusho) is the police detective trying to solve the case.
Buy Cure (Criterion Collection)It is difficult to talk about this film without spoiling it. This is very much a mood film. It is weird and a little confusing, but Kurosawa sucks you into it. From the very beginning, there is a palpable sense of dread that something just isn’t right. It never goes away.
Sleep, My Love
Alison Courtland (Claudette Colbert) wakes up on a train not knowing where she’s going or how she got there. She meets a nice man on the train, Bruce Elcott (Robert Cummings), who invites her to dinner, but is willing to be friends when he finds out she’s married. Her husband is Richard Courtland (Don Ameche). He’s cheating on her and gaslighting her. He wants to drive her to suicide, you see, and thus inherit her money.
Buy Sleep, My LoveHe’ll slip things into her nightly hot cocoa and then lead her on a dream journey in which the only escape is jumping out of a window. He’ll hire a guy to stalk her and frighten her. He tells everyone she has episodes like the one on the train. Bruce, naturally, will not only help Alison out but fall in love.
Director Douglas Sirk balances the tension with the romance quite well. It isn’t exactly a thrill ride, but it keeps your attention, and the three leads are great.
The Falling Star
This French film from the writing/directing team of Fiona Gordon and Dominique Abel is an utter delight. Abel also stars as Boris, a bar owner with a secret past. One night, that past catches up with him in the form of a man with a gun. Boris is able to escape the man that evening. As luck would have it, Boris comes across a man called Dom who looks exactly like him (and of course, is played by Abel). With the help of his partner Kayoko (Kaori Ito), he is able to convince Dom to work at the bar and let everyone call him Boris. As luck would not have it, Dom’s ex-wife Fiona (Fiona Gordon) is a detective who gets suspicious when Dom doesn’t seem to ever be home.
Buy The Falling StarMadcap hilarity ensues. There are several scenes where Dom is drugged, knocked out, but Kayoko must get him dressed or cut his hair, and they do this choreography that is out of this world. She’ll stand him up for a second and then move away to grab something; as she does, he’ll start to fall, and she’ll sweep in to catch him, but then move back away for something else. It is truly something to see. At some point, everybody just starts dancing, choreographed perfectly to the music. For no reason at all. Fiona seems to come from an entirely different movie, but she is no less delightful.
It is a movie that surprised me over and over. I never knew what it was going to do next, but I was always thrilled wherever it landed.
The Liberation
Carrie Coon (whom I love) stars in this drama set in 1982. She plays a Holocaust survivor living a dull life who apparently gets sucked into some kind of cult that reinvigorates her life. The trailer makes it look pretty dark and disturbing, but I’m always down with whatever she wants to do.
