It's been weeks since I posted what I was watching; since then I've seen:
Gambit (1966), an eccentric heist movie from different clashing perspectives starring Micheal Caine opposite Shirley MacLaine. It's got a touch of
Rashomon (1950), with the way it re-tells the story after the halfway mark from another characters point of view. Very fun!
Experiment Perilous (1944), a romantic thriller that is, just, incredibly boring. Starring George Brent and Hedy Lamarr, it's basically another movie chasing the success of
Rebecca (1940), and all the other beautiful gothic daughters of Jane Eyre. Hedy has a gorgeous dress in one scene, but I can barely remember the rest. Very unfun!
The Umbrellas of Cherbourg/Les Parapluies de Cherbourg (1964), an experimental musical where the melody is overshadowed by how jaw-droppingly gorgeous it is. There might not be another movie that uses vibrant colors quite like this, not that I've seen anyways. It's pretty well-known, so I'm late to the party here, but it's easy to see what a big influence this was on movies like
La La Land (2016).
Five Came Back (1939), a drama starring Lucille Ball and Joseph Calleia. A plane crashes in a remote South American jungle, with just twelve survivors. The best bit of suspense is actually right there in the title, the marquee told you going in that most of these people won't make it! It's a big cast of characters, with several big egos clashing. It would probably be unfair to spoil any of it; I went in blind, and I'd happily recommend the same experience to anyone else!
The Bat (1959), a horror mystery starring Agnes Moorehead and Vincent Price. It's the third or so remake of a movie from the 20's, about a masked killer who opens throats with a clawed glove while he commits high profile robberies. (Random aside, that original had a silly masquerade getup for the killer that helped inspire the look of Batman. In the comics, Bruce Wayne's father attended one of his parties dressed like the character from that movie, and nowadays the villain Doctor Hurt wears it and claims he *is* Thomas Wayne. Comics are weird!) Anyhow, this is a bizarrely paced movie, that bends over backwards to try and fool the audience about who the killer is. The visual of the black glove with big claws reaching through a window or around the door is pretty fun, but the movie feels like it's a rough draft. It's weird to explain, but I didn't enjoy it enough to go back and wrap my head around it!
There's a few others, and - relevant to this site - even a video game movie! You'll uh, hear more about that shortly though.