Black Widow (Not That One... Not Even the 80's Film)

Black Widow (1954)

Runtime: 95 minutes

Directed by: Nunnally Johnson

Starring: Van Heflin, Ginger Rogers, Gene Tierney, George Raft, Peggy Ann Garner

From: 20th Century Fox 

Where’s Scarlett Johansson?

Due to my schedule the rest of the month, there may be other days other than yesterday where nothing is reviewed by me-thus, while I had the time/inclination to, I wanted to watch at least one more film noir during Noirvember… despite the usage of 2.55:1 Cinemascope and color film, me and others still consider this film noir.

In New York City, Van Heflin is a famed Broadway producer who attends a fancy soiree-hosted by Ginger Rogers-filled w/ people he doesn’t know. On the balcony (w/ an awesome backdrop) he meets a 20-year-old struggling writer. Despite being married to Gene Tierney, others think that the relationship between the two is more than just “she uses his apartment during the day to write.” Things become more complicated once a death occurs, including the revelation of various secrets.

The cast had some other familiar faces, such as George Raft and Otto Kruger. As the struggling writer, Peggy Ann Garner (a former child star who at least in this film, strongly resembled 80's-era Diane Franklin) was memorable in her part. The cast was an asset in presenting this entertaining yarn. There are further points to its credit: the sets look quality, as does the backdrops of the NYC skyline that are seen via looking out at balconies or out the floor to ceiling windows.

Furthermore, for an aspect ratio that was brand-new to the world of cinema, Black Widow was framed rather well. It also allowed for multiple characters to appear in a scene at the same time-that device was also used well. This is why Black Widow-while not top-tier by any means-might be worthwhile for the noir fans.

General Thoughts on The Three Stooges

Besides posting the completed list here of all 190 shorts, here is what I ultimately wrote in the description accompanying the list: 

Now that I’ve seen all 190 of their shorts at Columbia within the same calendar year, I’ll offer some thoughts in the description. Of course, their slapstick humor isn’t for all tastes; if you view two of their four public domain shorts (Curly’s Disorder in the Court & Shemp’s Brideless Groom) and don’t like either, then the Stooges just aren’t for your tastes.

There were many talented performers who worked on these short movies, whether in front or behind the camera. Moe, Larry, and Shemp worked in vaudeville for years; Shemp left the act due to the alleged abuse from their leader, Ted Healy. Moe and Shemp’s brother Curly replaced him and was a natural talent without any formal training. They then broke away from Ted and stayed at Columbia for almost a quarter-century.

The Curly era has the highest batting average for sure-everyone was younger, there’s almost 100 shorts and many that are at least very good. Sadly, Columbia didn’t give Curly enough time to recover once he started having health issues. That impacted Curly for at least the last two years of shorts released during his time as the third man. The Shemp era was hampered by Columbia pinching pennies and the proliferation of remakes with typically too much stock footage… even so, there are a few classics and plenty of worthwhile entries involving him. The whole Fake Shemp thing-what an insult to the Stooges, especially the late Shemp.

Joe Besser wasn’t the first choice as a replacement to close out the era before the entire shorts department shut down at the studio. Arguably, Joe not being the best fit wasn’t as bad as the studio becoming even cheaper and creating goofier stories, along with Moe and Larry having to deal with becoming old men.

As a kid, I naturally dug the Stooges being themselves and others up. As an adult, I also appreciate the large variety of different settings they were in, how they were often in blue-collar jobs and always portrayed the dopey versions of the common man, happy to skewer such targets as the rich and those positions of authority. No wonder they were popular in the past. They also had many hilarious routines and bits-plenty were brought back but modified so they did not feel hackneyed. There were peaks and valleys during this long odyssey-many I was happy to visit or revisit. C3 Entertainment (who owned the intellectual property) have a presence on social media & YouTube; the Stooges still have some popularity and at least in America, all 190 shorts are easy to track down.

After Columbia, of course they added Curly Joe because Joe left to care for his ailing wife. She survived and both lived until the late 1980’s. They did live-action segments for The New Three Stooges cartoon show and some live-action movies they starred in (both I also saw as a little kid) along with live appearances everywhere. Old age/strokes suffered by Moe and Larry derailed the act in 1970 after almost 50 years. I’ll talk about that more sometime in the future but that likely won’t be anytime soon.

 

The Sword of Doom

The Sword of Doom (Dai-Bosatsu Toge) (1966)

Runtime: 120 minutes

Directed by: Kihachi Okamoto

Starring: Tatsuya Nakadai (RIP), Michiyo Aratama, Yuzo Kayama, Yoko Naito, Toshiro Mifune

From: Toho

RIP Tatsuya Nakadai. That name wasn’t as familiar to Western audiences (or even film fans) as Toshiro Mifune despite starring in multiple Kurosawa classics-including High and Low, Ran, Kagemusha, and Yojimbo-along with leading the all-timer Harakiri. I briefly gave him some props in a review but despite not appearing in movies outside of Japan like Mifune, experts say he was his equal, if not superior in talent. He deserves more credit from me; thus, one of his more famous movies today that hadn’t been viewed before was reviewed. In addition, it features Mifune in a supporting role-a small one, but naturally it’s always great seeing him.

Nakadai portrayed Ryunosuke, a samurai in the 1860’s (the end of the Tokugawa Shogunate, meaning the end of the samurai era) who is a master with his blade but it was uncommon to follow a samurai in a movie who was obviously amoral and even worse, killed indiscriminately. The opening featured him slicing an old man praying at a Buddhist shrine for no logical reason. The viewer follows him for several years as he engages in increasingly evil acts. Eventually, he is haunted by his actions.

The movie slowly unfurls its plot over the two-hour runtime. The collection of interesting characters and the number of subplots kept me captivated. One sin is that the conclusion left more than one of those unresolved… but evidently there were to be sequels, only those were canceled after some objected to how violent the film was, especially its conclusion. I can't punish the movie too hard for that. The setting (occasionally a snowy landscape), the score, and the direction from Kihachi Okamoto was top-notch.

However, it was Nakadai as the lead which anchored the film. The cold, emotionless demeanor, the steely glare that implied he lacked a soul, his great performance as such an amoral character… the classics he did w/ Kurosawa should be tackled first if you want to discover for yourself why he’s regarded as one of the best Japanese actors of all time. However, if you’re thirsting for more after that-especially if the samurai genre is groovy to you-The Sword of Doom is a wise choice. I’m happy that some films of his were seen by me before he passed away days ago at the age of 92.

Sappy Bull Fighters

I'll say more about the Stooges tomorrow night but for now... the last short they ever did at Columbia. That long reign ended w/ a whimper instead of a bang: 

(Short # 190, and the final short, in Nyuk Nyuk Nyuk: The Columbia Shorts of The Three Stooges)

After nearly an entire year, this long product of viewing all 190 shorts The Three Stooges did at Columbia for a quarter-century is finally complete. I’ve known for years that The Joe Besser era was a downgrade from what came before and that Sappy Bull Fighters (the last one released, although not the last one they filmed) was bad… it’s not the worst they ever did but I’ll give overarching thoughts after I explain why Bull Fighters was lousy.

It was a remake of a Curly effort (What’s the Matador?) where the boys are stuck in Mexico as performers due to an unscrupulous promoter… they meet a pretty entertainer but due to them being victims of soicomestances, they run afoul of that entertainer’s possessive husband. Greta Thyssen was a pretty. young Danish blonde so that will be appealing to some-the Stooges did worse than this and at least a few chuckles were had.

However, as explained before this was made when Columbia was closing their shorts department, the last major studio to do so. The Besser era increasingly felt cheap & slapdash. Most of the second half is the trio at a bullfighting ring, doing a routine where Joe is dressed as a matador and the other two are in a bull costume… only for the jealous husband to bring out a real bull for Joe. I don’t love the Curly version of this short and this was a downgrade. The most flagrant example of this was when Joe “rode the bull”… besides them using stock footage where they didn’t even bother to edit out Curly’s “whoo whoos,” the effect they used to show Joe on the bull looked REALLY phony, and I’m sure its phoniness wasn’t supposed to be a gag.

For all of Matador’s faults, at least it was more energetic and Curly was funnier/more full of pep in his role than Joe was. Perhaps I shouldn’t be so harsh-by the time of filming Sappy, Moe had just turned 60-Larry and Joe weren’t far behind him. If you want to view them all or at least are morbidly curious, those are reasons to check this out. Otherwise… I’ll mention two actors. Mexican-born bilingual actor George J. Lewis portrayed the husband-he was also in Malice in the Palace. My late mother would know him for playing a key role in the Disney Zorro show that was on when she was a kid. As for a female background extra, there are conflicting reports on the validity of the tale that it was a young MARY TYLER MOORE. There’s no way for me to definitely answer that-instead, that is just noted as a rumor.

As for final thoughts after the completion of this voyage-well, I said more in the caption that starting tomorrow will accompany the list I have of all 190 reviews on Letterboxd. To try and not write War & Peace here, I saw some of those shorts as a kid-my dad introduced me to them because he saw the trio on TV as a kid. In fact, he spent some time in a hospital as a teen due to a bad auto wreck-one source of comfort was watching them on the television each afternoon.

As stated more than a few times by me in the past, comedy is the most subjective of genres-some not understanding or enjoying their slapstick humor is not difficult to rationalize. As an adult, no only do I enjoy their routines and their satire of such figures as the wealthy when in the roles of exaggerated buffoons who are still regular folk… their puns and wordplay are more appreciated by me as an adult.

Moe, Larry, Shemp and Joe were all veterans of the vaudeville circuit-while I haven’t seen Besser outside of the Stooge world, I’ll presume he’s just as talented a performer as the rest of the Stooges. Curly managed to become the favorite Stooge of many-he was naturally talented and had no formal comedic training. For all the faults of Columbia-not allowing Curly enough time to recover from his health problems, the decline of money during the Shemp/Joe eras, necessitating too many remakes with stock footage-they still provided talented supporting casts and production to create a majority shorts that range from “fine” to “classic.” My opinions are typically in line with the typical Stooge fan-at least in the United States, all their shorts are easy to track down, whether you use YouTube or Amazon Prime. The Curly era does have the best batting average although Shemp had his share of entries that were at least very good and even Joe had more than one that was fine.

As stated before, I’ve thought of starting this journey for years now-it should have been done much sooner. Alas… it likely won’t be anytime soon but eventually I need to view all the movies in the late 50’s through the mid 60’s that Moe, Larry, and Curly Joe starred in—I saw those as a kid, along with The New Three Stooges cartoon show where they did live-action wraparound segments. Doing this at least brought back nice memories of my youth and has helped make 2025 not so bad despite all the IRL chaos.

 

Evolver

Evolver (1995)

Runtime: 91 minutes

Directed by: Mark Rosman 

Starring: Ethan Embry, Cassidy Rae, Cindy Pickett, John de Lancie, the voice of... William H. Macy!

From: Trimark

Another edition of “movies I hadn’t seen since my kid/teen years of the 90’s” is here and thankfully, Evolver (viewed on Tubi and NOT on YouTube; every rip on the latter is edited a bit for content) is as silly yet fun 90’s B-movie cheese as I recalled. The cast featured some familiar names: Ethan Embry (still during his Ethan Randall days), Cindy Pickett, John de Lancie, Paul Dooley… but the most famous name was one I had no clue provided a voice until a few days ago.

You see, speaking the dialogue of the titular Evolver robot (a wheeled robot that appeared to be like 2 1/2 feet-i.e. 92 centimeters tall) was… WILLIAM H. MACY. Of course, this was pre-fame for him; as Berry Gordon’s The Last Dragon was (unfortunately) never seen until a few years ago, this would have been my first experience with him. I never would have thought at the time that the dude voicing the robot would be a big name and highly-respected actor.

It has a wacky premise: Embry hacks a national laser tag contest so he can win a small robot that plays games of “laser tag” at home… it shoots out foam bullets, you see. Not only is it funny in 2025 to see an AI robot that (natch) turns evil and starts killing “for real” via 90’s tech, it first maps the house exactly like a Roomba does. You don’t want to scrutinize the logistics of the plot too hard-such as why a company would offer such a robot to a random family because of laser tag-and a horrible by 2025 standards scene is Embry and his horndog friend attempting to use Evolver to, ahem… film surreptitiously in the girls’ locker room of their high school for the other boys of the school! That’s regrettable.

But yes, other than those moments, Evolver was fun to me as a teen and still fun now. While there’s little blood to speak of, the mayhem was enjoyable. Decent characters, some nice setpieces, a quality robot, VR effects in a few scenes that were modern for 30 years ago-trust me, I remember-and a final act full of incident meant that this was a good time. To echo the thoughts of others, this was like a kids movie--featuring at least half a dozen F-bombs & other cursing, murder, & an eye injury, along with that scene straight out of Porky’s in the girls’ locker room.

If you’re a youth seeing this for the first time today the charm might be lost on you. On the other hand, if you’re old like me and have those childhood memories of the time… a shame that Evolver (the robot made recordings on "optical discs") never made it past the DVD era.

 

Pepe le Moko

Pepe le Moko (1937)

Runtime: 94 minutes

Directed by: Julien Duvivier

Starring: Jean Gabin, Mirielle Balin, Gabriel Gabrio, Saturnin Fabre, Line Noro

From: Paris Film

Rock the Casbah.

It was time to see some French Poetic Realism; Turner Classic Movies played this early in the evening yesterday-as it was remade immediately the next year by Hollywood as the Charles Boyer/Hedy Lamarr movie Algiers and I’ve dug Jean Gabin in the few movies I’ve peeped him in so far…

The titular Pepe le Moko is a master thief who has hid out in the Casbah of Algiers, Algeria for the past two years; as the movie made clear, the area is a giant den of antiquity which is not only labyrinth in design, a melting pot of people from around the world reside. They are happy to keep him hidden from the police. He’s bored in hiding-regrettably for him, not only does newfound love w/ Gaby suddenly complicates matters, so does law enforcement’s increasing the pressure to capture him.

The film’s always captivating due to the plot, the seedy yet intoxicating setting that feels lived-in, the colorful characters, and the lead performances by Gabin & Mireille Balin, as Gaby. I wasn’t surprised that Gabin delivered a magnetic, passionate performance where his figurative captivity in Algiers has created an increase in weariness; Balin as Gaby impressed me-naturally the characters were polar opposites yet I was able to comprehend their star-crossed, ill-fated romance.

In a sign that “the more things change, the more things stay the same” for Hollywood, this French picture was remade only one year later by Hollywood (from Walter Wanger Productions) as Algiers, starring Charles Boyer and Hedy Lamarr. In the future, that will be viewed and reviewed for comparison’s sake.

Four More Joe Besser Shorts

I really slowed down the past few weeks wrapping up this long project of viewing all 190 Three Stooges shorts at Columbia. Now, either on Saturday or Sunday, I'll view and review the final one. Yes, there's just one more to go then I'm done. First, the truly atrocious Sweet and Hot: 

(Short # 186 in Nyuk Nyuk Nyuk: The Columbia Shorts of The Three Stooges)

This was neither sweet nor hot. This is rated by Stooge fans as one of the worst they ever did. A big issue: the short is one of a rare few where the boys don’t play their archetypal roles. That isn’t necessarily a demerit for me; however, it was here, especially when there’s hardly any laughs to be had.

Think of this as the 1950’s version of a backdoor pilot; Columbia wished for Muriel Landers (a fuller-figured lady performer) to become a success-it didn’t work, despite her past in teaming up w/ Ray Bolger. She and Joe Besser are siblings on a Kansas farm; she sings but has stage fright. Larry brings them to New York City, where Moe is a German psychiatrist who has a stereotypical accent. Even lower hanging fruit is the fat jokes made about Landers and Besser. Moe also plays their father in a flashback scene.

The biggest sin: Sweet and Hot does not feel like The Three Stooges at all. There’s a few slapstick moments but they are background players in their own film; instead we hear several musical numbers from Landers. The fact that this wasn’t funny is insult on top of injury. Unless you’re like me and wish to see all 190 shorts the Stooges did at Columbia or you’re morbidly curious, this is one you can be happy to avoid.

Flying Saucer Daffy:  

(Short # 187 in Nyuk Nyuk Nyuk: The Columbia Shorts of The Three Stooges)

Why would you combine a Cinderella story with a fake photo of a UFO that’s actually a… one paper plate on top of another? Beats me. Some Stooge fans seem to like this-I hardly laughed at all. As always with my reviews of the Stooges, my opinions sometimes are an outlier so YMMV.

Of course, Joe is Cinderella (the fairy tale is directly referenced); Moe, Larry, and their mother abuse poor Besser. The trio go on a camping trip, where that “flying saucer” is photographed. Moe and Larry take credit for the photo and they win a contest-of course the photo was later proved to be a fraud, but then Joe meets actual aliens, naturally a pair of attractive women…

There’s only three details I’ll note: 

Joe gets beat up via slapstick violence far more than typical. You know, I think I know why some Stooge fans like Flying Saucer Daffy…

Some stock footage is used-from Earth vs. The Flying Saucers.

While there’s only three more of these to review, Daffy was the last one filmed. After filming wrapped on December 20, 1957, Columbia’s two-reel division shut down and the boys were unceremoniously let go. After nearly a quarter-century, there was no ceremony or any sort of acknowledgement from the studio for all the time spent w/ them, all the money raised, how they started to find new fans via the advent of television.

Yes, it is easy to be bitter about Hollywood. At least I know the next one to be reviewed (which won’t be until sometime next week, most likely) is better-liked by me.

Oil's Well That Ends Well: 

(Short # 188 in Nyuk Nyuk Nyuk: The Columbia Shorts of The Three Stooges)

My apologies for not doing one of these in over a week. That’s how my schedule turned out-there is only two more after these then the Stooge run at Columbia will be completed. Incidentally, more than a few Stooge fans believe Oil’s is the best Joe Besser short, for whatever that’s worth. 

This is reminiscent of 1939’s Oily to Bed, Oily to Rise, although isn’t a remake. Instead of Curly’s wishes coming true as they help a farming family deal with unscrupulous A-holes after oil is found on their property, Joe’s wishes come true as they attempt to find uranium on their father’s old mining claim to pay for his surgery. They find oil instead, using a bit of stock footage from Rise.

This still isn’t as good as one of their classics; be that as it may, there’s still some funny lines, silly scenarios, and amusing slapstick to have some entertaining moments, without being too lame or irritating as the boys could be this late in the run. This is even as there are some moments that reminded me of old bits from years prior, although there are new moments also that tickled me pink.

I’ve never seen the next short, but the one after that isn’t good. I’ll be happy if they had one last good effort this late in the game.

 

Triple Crossed: 

(Short # 189 in Nyuk Nyuk Nyuk: The Columbia Shorts of The Three Stooges)

Well, at least this is set at Christmas, appropriate for the holiday season… sometime this weekend, I’ll review the next short, which is also the last short they did at Columbia, and I’ll conclude this long project, lasting nearly all of 2025. What I’ll write in that review-where I’ll at least briefly summarize my thoughts on viewing all 190 shorts-is uncertain, and is better if I spend a few days collecting my thoughts.. 

As for Triple Crossed, it is a remake of a 1952 Shemp short (He Cooked His Goose) using stock footage-to the point that one actress in more than one scene was only shot from behind because they couldn’t get the original actress to return-that I didn’t really enjoy in its original form, and I liked less here. I might as well copy and paste part of the review, making the appropriate changes: 

“Deviating from the norm, this did. Only on a few occasions did we see the trio play different characters. In this case, Larry portrayed the owner of a pet shop who is also a philanderer, going out with both Moe’s wife and (Joe’s) fiancé. His secretary Miss Lapdale… in fact sits on his lap. Larry in fact keeps his affairs as public as the now-former CEO of Astronomer!

I wanted to like this; however, this was more bizarre than funny. It’s set around Christmas and magically, because (Joe) hides in a chimney, suddenly he materializes a Santa costume and wears it. Moe eats birdseed and suddenly starts acting like a bird. Yeah, the idea of Larry attempting to frame the other two so he can continue his cheating ways is a decent one but the execution didn’t really work for me. I also couldn’t tell you why on a few occasions, the viewer hears a musical stinger whenever Larry has an evil thought in his head.

Sure, there are some chuckles along the way; overall, though, it is lamentable that their attempt to not repeat themselves resulted in something I could not rate any higher.”

With the new footage, Joe actually earned the most laughs. Moe… his new footage doesn’t even appear until the conclusion. Not that I necessarily blame them for not really caring as they were winding down the last few days before the shorts department at Columbia closed down, but the filmmakers left in an obvious yell from an unseen Shemp in the stock footage-they couldn’t be bothered to dub in a replacement yell from an unseen Joe.  

Barbary Coast

Barbary Coast (1935)

Runtime: 91 minutes

Directed by: Howard Hawks

Starring: Miriam Hopkins, Edward G. Robinson, Joel McCrea, Walter Brennan, Frank Craven

From: United Artists

As I know some people will appreciate me viewing my first 30’s full-length feature film in a few months, this guided my decision to visit the Criterion Channel and I picked this out as it’s part of their current Howard Hawks collection. The plot and the cast intrigued.

Miriam Hopkins starred as Mary Rutledge, a dame who sailed to 1850’s San Francisco to meet her husband… who was murdered before she was arrived. She admits to being a gold-digger-Mary is a flawed character but that is a key plot point. She soon works at the Bella Donna, a seedy gambling joint in the titular Barbary Coast, the red-light district area of San Francisco at the time. That is run by Edward G. Robinson, dressed like a pirate! He wears frilly shirts and an earring in his left ear… of course, a love triangle forms with Joel McCrea’s character as she runs a rigged roulette wheel.

Whether in the day or foggy nights, there’s great ambiance brought to life in that wild city full of knaves & ruffians. The indoor sets were nice as well. The colorful characters amused me, especially Walter Brennan as OLD ATROCITY, a dude w/ an eyepatch who over-inflates his past exploits. A more minor character but an even funnier name is Donald Meek as SAWBUCK MCTAVISH.

More seriously, the highlights were Hopkins as a lady who was still sympathetic despite her flaws and despite his manner of appearance, Robinson was a real heel who bullies everyone around (even the mayor) to get his way as if he’s a 19th century version of Ken McElroy. Barbary Coast was a fun yarn which still had some decent melodrama in an uncommon setting. While not S-tier Hawks-to speak like the kids do now-the movie is still worthy of a shot if the premise sounds intriguing.

 

Predator: Badlands

Predator: Badlands (2025)

85% on Rotten Tomatoes (out of 222 reviews)

Runtime: 107 minutes

Directed by: Dan Trachtenberg

Starring: The main human you see is Elle Fanning, of course

From: 20^th Century Studios

My apologies for not posting this last night; life happened. I didn't see anything last night anyhow. This time tomorrow night, I'll be caught up on everything, promised. Now, onto the review:  

I don’t even want to read the fan fiction of Dek and Thia!

No, I don’t read fan fiction, period; rather, it’s the idea that I know some people will go wild over the two leads in this film as there are some out there who “get excited” about monsters. I don’t get it myself but perhaps I’m just too vanilla. In any case, the majority of the Predator films that have been made weren’t that good, in my eyes. I would be happy to just stick with the first two. I’m tired of property mining and the deluge of sequels that won’t seemingly ever stop-point noted, I still saw this film as the idea of finally getting to see the home world of the Yautja-a percentage have had this desire for decades-and the promise of new ideas piqued my interest.

After seeing Badlands, I could quibble, and not even in a pedantic fashion. My comment that there should have been at least a little less humor is valid, in my eyes. The story isn’t that complicated, although the idea of following a “runt” member of the alien species w/ something to prove who teams up with a human android is of course a “safe” choice for mainstream audience acceptance. That is much more preferable to me than Alien: Romulus-that not only was irritating due to the constant reminder of much better films from the past, the movie itself was just rotten.

In contrast, Badlands told an underdog story of sorts as Dek the Yautja has to prove himself; the method of achieving this task is to kill a giant creature no one has been able to stop. He soon meets Thia, a synthetic from… well, you can probably guess which direction they went in. The highlight of the film wasn’t the action, although that was typically enjoyable. Rather, it was the Death Planet where much of the movie is set. Creativity abounded with the variety of different creatures on display, in addition to the assortment of different ways the planet will attempt to kill anyone.

Another highlight was the rather unique score from Sarah Schachner and Benjamin Wallfisch; I was won over when hearing the movie’s theme and there’s a sound best described by me as “Gregorian monks chanting into a talkbox!” Of course, this is far different from the first two movies and even Prey. I can at least like all four despite and because of their variances. Also, I’ll give my props to Elle Fanning-I did not fully respect her game. No, I’m not referring to the hormone-induced reactions that some have done in reference to her the past few months!