THE BLOB / WALKER / STAGE DOOR / IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT

Recap of WIFF 2010 is being written, but I don't want to fall behind, so a quick recap of my film watching since the cinematic adventure at the beginning of the month up in Dairyland.

An important complication to my viewing habits is due to the Playstation Network being down since Wednesday. Apparently Netflix instant is still supposed to work, but not on my TV. And, no I will not watch movies on my computer if I don't have to.

THE BLOB (1958)

Criterion #91

Via Fearnet on Comcast-on-Demand, I got to see a horror classic and feel important by seeing a Criterion Collection film as well! Very low budget, and a pretty short film, with plenty of padding to build up to the few shots of the monster doing its thing. You almost need this as an absolute basic form of training to appreciate all the episodes of MST3k. Growing up with that show, The Blob seems like the purest essence of cheap monster movies.

WALKER (1987)

Criterion #423

An underground "punk" director makes a controversial politicized movie about a white mid-19th century central American dictator, and with the subtlety of a sledgehammer ties the story to the covert American war against the democratically-elected government in Nicaragua. This film definitely comes from a unique place... there's a gory goofball feeling in one second and heavy duty moralizing in the next.

STAGE DOOR (1937)

Oscar Nominee - Best Picture, Best Supporting Actress

I make a little note of all the Oscar award winning movies available for free on Comcast On Demand. This was one I decided to see pretty impulsively when the Netflix Instant wasn't working on the PS3. I was pretty mesmerized by how such and old, old, film could have a lot of resonance. The performances were stellar at a time where perfect delivery and timing were absolutely essential above all else in making a film work. All the overlapping dialogue and barbs between the characters must have been rehearsed to a tilt. And Katherine Hepburn is so otherwordly in this, as she is in everything I've seen. How such an independent, actively non-feminine persona could exist in those archaic sexist times is so interesting.

IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT (1967)

Oscar Winner - Best Picture, Best Actor, a LOT more

Pretty solid and high quality, with the air of the kind of straightforward picture that is likely to win the Best Picture award any given year. Not to dismiss the fact that this movie must have hit viewers pretty sharply at the height of the Civil Rights era. Sidney Poiter is almost a little too stoic in his performance, but he breaks his stature at just the right moments to make the film tense up. Rod Steiger, as the Sheriff, also let's very little of us inside. There's just a few scenes where we get a little less distance between these two character's worlds. If the goal was just to represent the briefest glimpse the North and South could have of mutual understanding, than the film served that purposely near perfectly. I felt like the film could have really built some more constructive characterizations and relationships however.