Captain Blood (1935) * * *

Set in England in 1685, open rebellion has greeted the ascension of the unpopular King James II to the throne. Irish Dr. Peter Blood is summoned in the night to attend to the wounds of a rebel fighter who had participated in the Monmouth Rebellion. A war veteran and former seaman in the Dutch navy, Dr. Blood has "had adventure enough in six years to last me six lives" and prefers practicing medicine to fighting. Swept up by the authorities, Blood is imprisoned for three months before being found guilty of treason. He asserts his innocence, maintaining that his duty was to the man’s wounds, not his politics. "Your sacred duty, rogue, is to your king!" growls the judge, who condemns him to hang. Blood and his fellow prisoners are spared when the King realizes he can turn a profit selling them as slaves. They are sentenced to deportation and slavery in the Caribbean.

Prosecutor: Peter Blood... guilty or not guilty?
Dr. Blood: It's entirely innocent, I am!
Clerk of the court: Take the stand and face his Lordship.
(Peter Blood does so)
Clerk of the court: Are you guilty or not guilty? You must use the right words.
Dr. Blood: Words is it? Oh. Not guilty. And speaking of words, I'd like to say a few about the injustice of keeping an innocent man locked up for three months in such filth and heat and ill-feeding... that my chief regret is I didn't try to pull down the filthy fellow that sits on the throne!

Shipped to Port Royal, Jamaica for sale, Dr. Blood turns his sharp tongue on brutal plantation owner and military commander Colonel Bishop (Lionel Atwill). At an auction Blood refuses to open his mouth and allow Bishop to examine his teeth like a horse, so the colonel bypasses him, thereby condemning Blood to the island's worst possible place of employment, the sulfur mines. But his regal niece Arabella (Olivia de Havilland) likes what she sees and bids for him herself. She purchases him, attracted by his rebellious nature. He amuses himself with insults to Arabella, and plans an escape to seek vengeance.

Blood toils with his friends under the lash on Bishop's plantation until Arabella arranges a more comfortable assignment for him attending to Governor Steed (George Hassell). He is taken off work detail and put to use doctoring the gouty foot of Port Royal’s governor. Blood tells Arabella, "This is interesting. I've had men tell me they had reasons for admiring me. And some few, it came, had reasons for loving me. But for a man to store up reasons for resenting me... How refreshing!" When Blood tries to kiss her, he is soundly slapped and returns his attentions to his escape plans.

(Arabella sees Blood leaving the Governor's house after treating him for gout)
Arabella: Oh, forgive me for not recognizing you, Dr. Blood. You're so changed... and for the better. You don't sound very grateful, Dr. Blood.
Dr. Blood: Do you suppose I'd be grateful for an easy life, when my friends are treated like animals? Faith, it's they deserve your favors, not I. They're all honest rebels. I was snoring in my bed while they were trying to free England from an unclean tyrant.
Arabella: I believe you're talking treason.
Dr. Blood: I hope I'm not obscure. It seems that you're continually doing me favors. Faith, I don't know why.
Arabella: Neither do I. Yes I do. It's because you're so very grateful and always thank me so prettily.
Dr. Blood: Sure now, you don't blame me for resenting you and your favors.
Arabella: This is interesting. I've had men tell me they had reasons for admiring me... and some few have even laid claims to reasons for loving me. But for a man to store up reasons for resenting me... how refreshing! You must tell me a few of them.
Dr. Blood: First, is reason enough: you bought me. I've had no lack of experiences in my time; but to be bought and sold was a new one. I was in no mood to thank my purchaser.
Arabella: That I can understand. Go on.
Dr. Blood: I've resented you because your name's Bishop. My thoughts have lumped you with your uncle. How was I to know, be dad, that a devil could have... that a devil could have an angel for a niece.
Arabella: From a resentful man that is a pretty fair compliment.
Dr. Blood: Miss Bishop, it's difficult for an Irishman to apologize; but I hope you can forgive me for having thought badly of you.
Arabella: I will if you tell me how you think of me now.
Dr. Blood: How I think of you now? I think of you... I think of you as the woman who owns me--her slave. But I think the man is lucky who can count you his friend.
Arabella: I think you know you can.
(she extends her hand for him to shake, he kisses her, she is startled, pulls away and slaps him)
Dr. Blood: Your slave is grateful for all marks of favor.
Arabella: When you forget your slavery and go so far...
Dr. Blood: Now there you're mistaken. However far this slave may go, he won't forget. That's a characteristic that the Irish have in common with the elephants.

Unexpectedly, a Spanish galleon attacks the town. During the raid, Dr. Blood and his fellow slaves escape, manage to board and overtake the Spanish ship, guarded only by a few drunken pirates. As the rest of the Spanish crew attempts to come to their aid, Blood and his men attack--"Give 'em a taste of their own iron!"--thereby rescuing Port Royal from the remaining Spaniards. Colonel Bishop comes aboard to congratulate them and suggests the king might reduce their sentences on account of their heroism. Rather than hang him for his haughty insolence, Blood and his men toss him overboard. "Colonel Bishop has a kind heart... but what kind I'd hate to say," Henry Hagthorpe (Guy Kibbee) declares. Blood is torn between his freedom, and his love for Arabella, but chooses to sail to his freedom and begin a life of piracy. When the old governor is unable to contain the pirate menace, Colonel Bishop is promoted to his post.

Dr. Blood: (dictating) If a man conceal any treasure captured or fail to place it in the general fund, he shall be marooned. Set ashore on a deserted isle, and there left with a bottle of water, a loaf of bread and a pistol with one load. If a man shall be drunk on duty he shall recieve the same fate. And if a man shall molest a woman captive against her will... he, too, shall receive the same punishment. These Articles entered into this 20th day of June, in the year 1687. (having finished dictating, he addresses the crew) Now, men, you've heard the Agreement. It's the world against us and us against the world!
Rev. Uriah Ogle: "His hand will be against every man, and every man's hand against him." Genesis, 16th chapter, 12th verse.
Dr. Blood: Those of you in favor of these Articles raise your right hands and say, "Aye!"
(the whole crew does so)

Forging the men into a crew, Peter becomes Captain Blood, a menace on the high seas. After pillaging treasure, he settles on the island of Tortuga, "Where easy money consorted with easy virtue." He accepts an ill-advised partnership with a hard-fighting, hard-gaming French rascal, Captain Levasseur (Basil Rathbone). When Arabella and a royal emissary, Lord Willoughby (Henry Stephenson), are captured for ransom by Levasseur, Blood purchases them himself with a handful of pearls, relishing the opportunity to turn the tables on his former owner. "I don't wish to be bought by you," Arabella protests. "As a lady once said to a slave, You are hardly in a position to have anything to say about it," Blood retorts. Levasseur is as displeased with the transaction as Arabell and the men go from partners to enemies. Blood's feelings are betrayed, he challenges Levasseur, and in the ensuing duel the Frenchman is killed.

Arabella and Lord Willoughby are taken to Port Royal. As they approach the port, they see two French warships attacking the colony. Bishop and his men are nowhere to be found because Bishop has deserted his post in his single-minded hunt for Blood. Willoughby pleads with Blood to save the colony, but the captain and his crew refuse to fight for the King of England. However, when Willoughby reveals that James II has been deposed in the Glorious Revolution and that he was sent by the new king, William of Orange, to offer pardons, emancipation, and a commission with the Royal Navy to Blood and his men, they joyfully change their minds at this good news.

Dr. Blood: Men, I've just heard a startling piece of news--King James is kicked out of England and good King William reigns in his stead. (the crew cheer) For me this changes the shape of the world. For you who were slaves with me, it means that we're no longer slaves, that we once more have a home and a country. For you who are English it means a chance to fight for your native land... for I now propose to sail into Port Royal and take it from the French! Those of you who are not English will have to be content with fighting for Captain Blood, and the loot you'll find on the French ships. Are you willing to fight, men? (the crew all cheer "Aye")

Blood and his crew approach the harbor disguised under French colors and save the colony in a pitched battle. As a reward, Blood is appointed the new governor of the colony and has the pleasure to deal with his hostile predecessor, now in serious trouble for dereliction of duty, and finally wins the hand of Arabella.

Filmed in three months during the late summer of 1935, CAPTAIN BLOOD is the quintessential swashbuckler. Warner Brothers took a chance on 25 year-old Tasmanian-born bit player Flynn and 18 year-old Olivia de Havilland, a contract performer who had yet to be cast as a leading lady. Flynn shot to overnight international movie stardom with a speed almost unprecedented in Hollywood history. CAPTAIN BLOOD was an enormous success with critics and audiences, ranking among the top 25 money-makers of the year. The trailers for the film describe him as "Handsome! Dashing!". Errol Flynn plays an educated urbane man, a righteous thinking man, and we witness how injustice and imprisonment drive him to piracy. The movie also brought de Havilland important exposure, and though she did not become an overnight superstar like Flynn, the "Charming... Talented" de Havilland proved herself a worthy female counterpart to Flynn's heroic bravura. Olivia de Havilland is positively radiant and the chemistry with Flynn leaps off the screen. It's a fantastic pirate movie, with action, adventure, character development, and great character actors as well. It was the first of 8 films co-starring de Havilland and Flynn, and in 1938 the two would be re-united with Basil Rathbone in THE ADVENTURES OF ROBIN HOOD.

However, Flynn and de Havilland did not make the film a success on their own. Their contentious romantic scenes are noteworthy and the chemistry between them is clear from the start, yet CAPTAIN BLOOD's real claim to fame is as an adventure film. It is without question the greatest pirate movie ever made. Making use of both miniatures and footage from the 1924 silent swashbuckler THE SEA HAWK, the effects created by photographers Ernest Haller, Hal Mohr and Fred Jackman, in combination with the brisk pacing of director Michael Curtiz, screenwriter Casey Robinson's literate dialogue, and composer Erich Wolfgang Korngold's Oscar-nominated score, results in an exciting, intelligent film that received an Academy Award nomination as Best Picture of the year, though it lost to MGM's MUTINY ON THE BOUNTY (1935).

Its weaknesses are some obvious rear-projection shots and painted backgrounds, de Havilland's painfully forced laughter early in the film, and Basil Rathbone's unconvincing French accent. Flynn and Rathbone's duel, filmed on the beach at Laguna, California, is a worthy predecessor to their more famous bout in THE ADVENTURES OF ROBIN HOOD (1938), and evidence of Rathbone's reputation as the best sword fighter in Hollywood.

The cast also includes: Ross Alexander (Jeremy Pitt), Robert Barrat (Wolverstone), Hobart Cavanaugh (Dr. Bronson), Donald Meek (Dr. Whacker), Jessie Ralph (Mrs. Barlow), Forrester Harvey (Honesty Nuttall), Frank McGlynn Sr. (Rev. Ogle), Holmes Herbert (Capt. Gardner), David Torrence (Andrew Baynes), J. Carrol Naish (Cahusac), Pedro de Cordoba (Don Diego), Harry Cording (Kent), Leonard Mudie (Baron Jeffreys), Ivan F. Simpson (Prosecutor), Stuart Casey (Capt. Hobart), David Cavendish (Lord Gildoy), Mary Forbes (Mrs. Steed), E.E. Clive (Clerk of the Court), Colin Kenny (Lord Chester Dyke), Maude Leslie (Mrs. Baynes), Gardner James (Slave), Vernon Steele (King James), and many others. Erich Wolfgang Korngold composed the original music. Casey Robinson wrote the screenplay based on Rafael Sabatini's 1922 novel "Captain Blood". Michael Curtiz directed.

CAPTAIN BLOOD is available in all formats of home video internationally, including a pastel colorized release. The black and white DVD includes the film, and also a 23 minute featurette about making of the film and how two stars were made overnight. Runtime is 119 minutes, the soundtrack is English Dolby Digital mono, and French Dolby Digital mono. Subtitles are in English, Spanish, and French. There are also a radio broadcast, newsreel footage, theatrical trailers, and three bonus shorts: JOHNNY GREEN AND HIS ORCHESTRA (1935), ALL-AMERICAN DRAWBACK (1935), and BILLBOARD FROLICS (1935).

Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962) * * *

The film starts in 1917 with a lengthy prologue to introduce 6 year-old Baby Jane Hudson (Julie Allred), a very successful vaudeville performer, and her older sister Blanche (Gina Gillespie), who remains in her shadow. Jane, "the diminutive dancing Duse", is extremely popular with the audiences and spoiled by her father Ray (Dave Willock) and mother Cora (Ann Barton). Blanche resents this, but out of consideration for their mother keeps her feelings buried.

In a second prologue set in 1935, Jane (Bette Davis) has faded into obscurity while Blanche (Joan Crawford) has become a beautiful famous movie star. However, Blanche is loyal and insists that for every picture she makes, Jane must star in one of her own. But Jane's "cuteness" is now grotesque, so her movies flop. One night after a party where Jane had been embarassingly drunk, one of the sisters walks forward to open the gate to the driveway of the Hudson mansion. We see the other sister put her foot on the gas and crash the car into the gate. When Blanche is found unconscious in the wrecked car, Jane is missing. When she is located uninjured, she is unable to explain what had happened.

The film fast forwards to the present day, and Blanche is paralyzed from the accident, with Jane apparently the one responsible. The two sisters have become recluses in their decaying mansion, where Jane cares for Blanche. Their isolation is broken only by the weekly visits of cleaning woman Elvira Stitt (Maidie Norman) and the occasional efforts of next door neighbor Mrs. Bates (Anna Lee) to meet Blanche--attempts which are always thwarted by Jane. She is now a deranged alcoholic, and vengefully bitter and jealous toward her wheelchair-bound sister secluded in an upstairs bedroom. Hatred increases when a local TV network airs a marathon tribute to Blanche Hudson movies, and Jane learns that Blanche is planning to sell the mansion, move in with Elvira, and put her in a convalescent home. Jane holds her prisoner and increases her sadistic verbal, emotional, and physical abuse. She even kills Blanche's pet parakeet and serves it to her sister on her dinner plate. Later she pulls the same gruesome prank with a dead rat for "din-din".

Jane: It's just that nosy Mrs. Bates going on about your picture last night.
Blanche: Oh, really, did she like it?
Jane: (imitating Blanche's voice) Oh, really, did she like it?... She liked it!

Elvira Stitt: (shocked at some obscenities Jane has scrawled) I can't remember the last time I saw words like that written down!

Blanche: You wouldn't be able to do these awful things to me if I wasn't in this chair.
Jane: But ya aah Blanche, ya aah in that chair!

Jane decides to stage a show-business comeback and hires shiftless pianist Edwin Flagg (Victor Buono) to accompany her. Although he immediately realizes she has no talent, he goes along with her plan for the money. Jane garishly dresses up as a little girl as she is being coached by Edwin Flagg for an improbable comeback. She croaks, "I've Written a Letter to Daddy":

"I've written a letter to Daddy
His address is Heaven above
I've written "Dear Daddy, we miss you
And wish you were with us to love"
Instead of a stamp I put kisses
The postman says that's best to do
I've written a letter to Daddy
Saying "I love you"
Now when I'm very good, and do as I am told
I'm Mama's little angel and Papa says I'm good as gold
Now when I'm very bad and answer back and sass
Then I'm Mama's little devil, and Papa says I've got the brass
Now I wish that you would tell me
Cos I'm much too young to know..."

Jane: You certainly can play, can't you?
Edwin Flagg: And you certainly can sing!

Jane becomes increasingly more vicious, thwarts Blanche's efforts to contact Mrs. Bates, who is unaware of Blanche's desperate predicament. When Blanche manages to climb down the stairs and telephone her doctor for help, Jane comes home, finds her on the phone, and violently beats her. She gags and ties up Blanche in her bedroom. Impersonating her sister on the phone, Jane manages to stop the doctor's planned visit to the house. Jane then fires Elvira without good reason. Uneasy about the situation at the house, Elvira returns while Jane is out and finds the bound and gagged Blanche. As she attempts to free Blanche, Jane arrives home and creeps up on Elvira from behind and kills her with a hammer. Late that night, Jane bundles up Elvira's body, loads it into the car, and drives off to dispose of it.

Edwin, somewhat drunk, is brought to the door by the police as a prowler suspect. They leave Edwin when Jane says he has an appointment with her. Edwin demands his promised advance. Upstairs, hearing voices, Blanche manages to untie herself and knock over a bedside table in a frantic effort to attract help. Hearing the sound of the crash, Edwin rushes up to investigate. At the sight of the haggard, helpless Blanche, he flees in horror from the house. Jane fears that Edwin will contact the police, so under the cover of darkness she drives Blanche to a nearby beach.

Jane: (running after Flagg as he flees the house) Edwin, you forgot your money!

As morning comes, dozens of people begin to arrive at the beach. A radio report and newspaper headlines reveal that the police have initiated a search for the once-famous sisters after the body of Elvira was discovered. While lying on the beach in the blazing sun, the slowly dying Blanche confesses the secret she has held for 25 years: It was she, Blanche, who had tried to run over Jane outside of their house. However Jane saw the oncoming car and moved out the way just in time. Blanche slammed into the entrance gates, snapping her spine. Jane was too drunk to realize what had happened, and has believed she was responsible for the accident ever since, something Blanche had never denied. Jane says, "You mean, all this time we could've been friends?"

Jane goes off to a snack stand to buy ice cream cones for the two of them. Two policeman at the food stand recognize Jane and run after her. Soon, when the policemen catch Jane, a crowd gathers around her. The now completely deranged Jane begins to entertain them with a song-and-dance routine as they watch, giving her the attention she so desperately craves. The policemen ask her the whereabouts of Blanche: "Won't you show us where she is, please?" "Won't you take us to her? Please, Ms. Hudson." The film ends with a long shot of the beach. The police spot the limp body of Blanche and run over to her, leaving Jane happily dancing within a circle of onlookers.

WHAT EVER HAPPENED TO BABY JANE? is an American drama film based on the 1962 novel of the same name by Henry Farrell. It's a macabre masterpiece of casting, directing, and performing. The idea of putting these two stars in the same picture was a stroke of genius on the part of director Robert Aldrich. He made a film that is both claustrophobic in its set pieces and one that uses the black and white photography to great advantage. Bette Davis' and Joan Crawford's careers had fallen on hard times, and the two detested each other. The film really succeeds, however, because of Bette Davis. She blows Joan Crawford out of the water in this movie, although to be fair Davis had the best role. Her garish appearance and screeching voice deliver chills, and her progressive decline into insanity is shocking and absolutely convincing. Davis was nominated for an Academy Award for her portrayal of Jane Hudson, and Crawford was infuriated for being overlooked. She contacted the Best Actress nominees who were unable to attend the ceremonies and offered to accept the award on their behalf should they win. When Anne Bancroft was declared the winner for THE MIRACLE WORKER (1962), Crawford triumphantly pushed her way past Davis saying "Step aside!", and swept onstage to pick up the Oscar. Davis later commented, "It would have meant a million more dollars to our film if I had won. Joan was thrilled I hadn't."

The film was a massive success. With a budget of $980,000 it grossed $9 million at the worldwide box office and $5 million in rentals. It's success led to other projects featuring psychotic women, directed and/or produced by Aldrich, including HUSH...HUSH, SWEET CHARLOTTE (1965) and WHAT EVER HAPPENED TO AUNT ALICE (1969). The original novel has a much darker and macabre tone than the film. Jane has dark brown hair dyed slightly red, whereas Blanche is described as "the blonde girl with the sooty eyes". The maid Elvira is named Edna in the novel, and half of the scenes are set in the late evening or night, whereas most of the scenes in the film are set in the daytime.

The cast also includes: Wesley Addy (Marty Mc Donald), Marjorie Bennett (Dehlia Flagg), Bert Freed (Ben Golden), William Aldrich (Lunch counter assistant at beach), Russ Conway Police Officer), Maxine Cooper (Bank teller), Robert Cornthwaite (Dr. Shelby), Michael Fox (Motorcycle cop at beach), Barbara Merrill (Liza Bates), Don Ross, James Seay (Police Officer), John Shay, Jon Shepodd, Peter Virgo, Bobs Watson (Clerk in Newspaper Classified Ad Department), Debbie Burton (Singing Voice), and Ernest Anderson (Ernie, Ice Cream Vendor at Beach). Frank De Vol composed the original music with Sidney Cutner and Ruby Raksin. Lukas Heller wrote the screenplay based on Henry Farrell's novel. Robert Aldrich produced and directed.

Warner Brothers has reissued WHAT EVER HAPPENED TO BABY JANE? in a special 2-disc DVD edition. The film has excellent picture and sound quality, and there are plenty of extras. A new documentary entitled "Bette and Joan: Blind Ambition" features interviews with various film scholars and biographers, including drag artist/playwright John "Lypsinka" Epperson, and actor/playwright Charles Busch. Epperson and Busch provide a lot of witty and interesting anecdotes concerning the film. The other features include the Turner documentary "All About Bette", hosted by Jodie Foster, and a segment from "The Andy Williams Show" featuring Davis singing "Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?". There are also "Star Profile: Joan Crawford", an interview for British TV filmed at the time Crawford was filming BERSERK (1967), and a short feature entitled "Behind the scenes of Baby Jane", made during the filming. The film was remade in 1991 as a TV movie starring real-life sisters Vanessa and Lynn Redgrave, with Lynn Redgrave in the malevolent title role and Vanessa as Blanche. In 2003, the character of Baby Jane Hudson was ranked #44 on the American Film Institute's list of the 50 Best Villains of American Cinema.

The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (1947) * * *

Walter Mitty (Danny Kaye) is a daydreaming proofreader for a magazine whose overprotective mother Eunice (Fay Bainter) arranged his marriage to the beautiful but childishly dimwitted Gertrude Griswold (Ann Rutherford). He is henpecked and harassed by everyone in his life, including his overbearing, idea-stealing boss Thurston Hall (Bruce Pierce), Gertrude's obnoxious would-be suitor Gordon Jones (Tubby Wadsworth), and her loud mother Emma Griswald (Florence Bates). As he looks over the covers of magazines, Walter retreats into his fantasy world, where he is heroic, self-assured, and the master of his fate. Glancing at the cover of a western periodical, Walter imagines himself the two-gun "Perth Amboy Kid". A war magazine prompts Walter to envision himself as a fearless RAF pilot, and he also becomes a riverboat gambler, a sea captain, surgeon, and so on.

Mrs. Mitty: The clock didn't strike. I definitely heard it not strike.
Gertrude Griswold: Walter, what's that awful smell?
Walter Mitty: It's that cologne you gave me for Christmas.
Gertrude Griswold: It's lovely, isn't it?

All the daydreams are very entertaining and a few are especially appealing. Mitty becomes RAF Whig Commander Mitty, the modest hero and scourge of the Luftwaffe in North Africa, while stoking the heating boiler. He is awoken from this daydream by his mother, who orders him to come to dinner. Believing he is still a British fighter pilot, he salutes, and places a red-hot poker under his arm--only to burn a hole in his suit jacket. As Dr. Walter Mitty the eminent surgeon, he operates with the aid of instruments that look like a can opener, a sock stretcher, a sprinkling can and over-sized knitting needles. His icy-nerved Mississippi gambler is delectable too, and for his "Anatole of Paris" skit he is a fey women's milliner whose inspiration for the ridiculous chapeaus he creates is his loathing of women. The Anatole character is based on "Antoine de Paris", a women's hair-salon professional of the era, known for creating preposterous hairstyles. Lyrics to the song "Anatole of Paris" were written by Kaye's wife, Sylvia Fine, and the film includes many of Kaye's trademark patter-songs. "Symphony for Unstrung Tongue" is another fine musical number with future director Robert Altman appearing as an extra.

Walter Mitty: (singing while daydreaming that he's Anatole of Paris) And why do I sew each new chapeau with a style they must look positively grim in? Strictly between us, entrez-nous, I hate women. (giggles)

Throughout all his imaginary adventures, a beautiful mystery woman weaves in and out of the proceedings. Then his dream girl shows up in the flesh as blonde Rosalind van Horn (Virginia Mayo). She hands him a little black book. According to her it contains the locations of the Dutch crown jewels hidden from the Nazis since World War II. Rosalind is working with her uncle Peter van Hoorn (Konstantin Shayne) to help find the jewels, and is being pursued by a gang of thieves headed by Dr. Hugo Hollingshead (Boris Karloff), a clever psychiatrist who manages to convince Walter that he's simply imagining things again, and that Rosalind never existed.

Dr. Hollingshead: Perhaps you are mistaking me for someone else.
Walter Mitty: Oh, no. No one looks as much like you do as you do.

Caught up in a real-life adventure that seems unbelievable to him, Walter attempts to hide his double life from his family and friends. Eventually, he acquires the courage to stand up to those who kick him around and vows to live his life in the "now" rather than in the recesses of his mind. He rescues Rosalind from the gang's clutches, puts his mother and Gertrude in their proper places, and fast-talks his way into a better position with the publishing firm.

THE SECRET LIFE OF WALTER MITTY is a Technicolor musical comedy loosely based on the 1939 short story of the same name by James Thurber, who wasn't too happy with the film adaptation of his story. He allegedly offered producer Samuel Goldwyn $10,000 to not make the film. But it proved to be a cash cow at the box office. It's a very funny movie starring a very talented actor in a big colorful show. Maybe it's just a little too big, for it is difficult to sustain a comedy for close to two hours without a letdown every so often. Much of the flavor of the Thurber character is lost because of the lack of contrast between Walter Mitty's dream world and actual experiences. After an appropriate humdrum start as a timid proofreader, he is suddenly thrust into a melodramatic adventure involving a beautiful woman, stolen art treasures and murder, which rivals the boldest of his fantasies. This turn of the plot detracts somewhat from the effectiveness of Mitty's illusions. The character of Walter Mitty made such an impact on popular culture at the time that the name came to stand for a daydreamer. In fact, "Mittyesque" can be found in the dictionary, defined as someone who is an absent-minded dreamer.

The cast also includes: Reginald Denny (Colonel), Henry Corden (Hendrick), Doris Lloyd (Mrs. Letitia Follinsbee), Fritz Feld (Anatole of Paris), Frank Reicher (Maasdam), Milton Parsons (Butler), The Goldwyn Girls, Eddie Acuff (Wells Fargo cowboy), Ernie Adams (Flower Truck Driver), Robert Altman (Man Drinking), Sam Ash (Art Editor), Mary Anne Baird (Model with Wolf Man), Audrey Betz (Dowager), Edward Biby (Director), Ted Billings (Huckster), and many others. David Raksin composed the original music. Ken Englund, Everett Freeman, and Philip Rapp wrote the screenplay based on James Thurber's story. Norman Z. McLeod directed.

The remake of the film, or more accurately a new film adaptation of the original short story, has a troubled history. At first, producer-directors Ron Howard and Steven Spielberg, with many screenwriters, and Kevin Anderson as Mitty, were going to re-do the film but it fell through. Then it was to be made at Paramount Pictures by producers Samuel Goldwyn, Jr., his brother John Goldwyn, and Richard Vane, with director Mark Waters and Owen Wilson cast as Mitty, with a screenplay by Richard LaGravenese. It was supposed to be released in 2007. Then it was taken over by 20th Century Fox, with Mike Myers in the title role, and scheduled to be released in 2009. Probably owing to the production of this film, the DVD release of the 1947 version was withdrawn from distribution and was briefly an expensive collector's item. DVD extras have no deleted scenes, but there's a scene in the trailer with Boris Karloff and Henry Corden in a pub that is not in the film. Virginia Mayo appears in the intro and outro of the featurette with brief comments about most of her co-stars: "Ann Rutherford was delightful...Fay Bainter was a consummate actress." The Italian film SOGNI MOSTRUOSAMENTE PROBITI (1982) is based on this movie, with Paolo Villaggio playing the role of Walter Mitty.

Alfred Hitchock Presents (1955 - 1962) * * *

ALFRED HITCHCOCK PRESENTS was an anthology TV series hosted by Alfred Hitchcock. It premiered on CBS October 2, 1955 and ran until June 1, 1962. The series featured dramas, thrillers, mysteries, comedy, terror, and the macabre, usually with twisted endings. Time magazine named it one of "The 100 Best TV Shows of all time". When it premiered, Hitchcock had been directing films for over three decades, and his show was an instant hit. Every Sunday at 9:30 p.m., the series began with the familiar theme of Charles Gounod's "Funeral March of a Marionette" as Hitchcock himself appears in silhouette from the right edge of the screen and then walks to center screen to eclipse the caricature. The drawing was the work of Hitchcock himself. He then almost always says "Good evening."

The weekly "play" opened and closed with the series' most popular feature: Hitchcock delivered sardonic introductions and epilogues to each week's episode, written by James Allardyce, and frequently taking polite pot-shots at CBS sponsors, or skirting around broadcast standards, which demanded that no crime could go unpunished. Hitchcock humorously explained how the show's killers and criminals were brought to justice--though always with a nod and a wink to the viewer. He told TV Guide that his reassurances were "a necessary gesture to morality." When the stories appear to end with evil triumphant, the situation is always resolved following the last commercial. Hitchcock returns to explain, in his deadpan way, what silly mistake or chance occurrence had finally done the villain in. He closed the show in much the same way as it opened but mainly to tie up loose ends rather than joke.

Alfred Hitchcock: (he arrives for his introduction dressed in a safari outfit and pith helmet) Good evening, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to darkest Hollywood. Night brings a stillness to the jungle. It is so quiet, you can hear a name drop. The savage beasts have already begun gathering at the water holes to quench their thirst. Now one should be especially alert. The vicious table-hopper is on the prowl, and the spotted back-biter may lurk behind a potted palm. To take me through this most savage of lands, I have hired a native guide. (He snaps his fingers. An old man joins him, wearing a billboard sign that reads, "Maps of the Movie Stars' Homes--For Sale".)

At least two versions of the introductions and epilogues were shot for every episode. A version intended for the American audience would often spoof a recent popular commercial or poke fun at the sponsor, leading into the commercial. An alternative version for European audiences would instead include jokes at the expense of Americans in general. For later seasons, opening remarks were also filmed with Hitchcock speaking in French and German for the show's international presentations, reflecting his real-life fluency in both languages.

Many talented writers contributed teleplays, both original and adapted, that maintained a high standard of excellence. Hitchcock directed four of the first season's 39 episodes, including the premiere episode "Revenge" and the season highlight "Breakdown", with Joseph Cotten as a car-accident victim, paralyzed and motionless, who's nearly left for dead. It's a perfect example of visual and narrative economy, executed with a master's touch. The fourth episode, "Don't Come Back Alive", is also a popular favorite, with the kind of sinister twist that became a series trademark. Robert Stevenson directed the majority of the remaining episodes with similar skill, serving tightly plotted tales by such literary greats as Ray Bradbury, Robert Bloch, Cornell Woolrich, Dorothy L. Sayers, and John Collier.

Adding to the series' prestige was a weekly roster of new and seasoned stars, with appearances by: Cloris Leachman, Darren McGavin, Everett Sloane, Peter Lawford, Charles Bronson, Barry Fitzgerald, John Cassavetes, Joanne Woodward, Thelma Ritter, Ed Asner, Mary Astor, Roscoe Ates, Gene Barry, Ed Begley, Jack Cassidy, Dabney Coleman, Joseph Cotten, Bob Crane, Hume Cronyn, Robert Culp, Bette Davis, Francis De Sales, Angie Dickinson, Robert Duvall, Peter Falk, John Forsythe, Anne Francis, Cedric Hardwicke, Lou Jacobi, Carolyn Jones, Don Keefer, Brian Keith, Jack Klugman, Peter Lorre, Dayton Lummis, E. G. Marshall, Walter Matthau, Steve McQueen, Tyler McVey, Joyce Meadows, Vera Miles, Vic Morrow, Jeanette Nolan, James Philbrook, Judson Pratt, Vincent Price, Robert Redford, Burt Reynolds, William Shatner, Jessica Tandy, Dick Van Dyke, Dennis Weaver, Joanne Woodward and Fay Wray. Actors appearing in the most episodes include Patricia Hitchcock (Alfred Hitchcock's daughter), Dick York, Robert Horton, John Williams, Robert H. Harris, Claude Rains, Barbara Baxley, Ray Teal, Percy Helton, Mildred Dunnock and Alan Napier.

ALFRED HITCHCOCK PRESENTS was originally 30 minutes long, and aired weekly at 9:30 on CBS on Sunday nights from 1955 to 1960, and then at 8:30 on NBC on Tuesday nights from 1960 to 1962. The series expanded to 60 minutes in 1962 and was retitled THE ALFRED HITCHCOCK HOUR. It lasted for three seasons, September 1962 to June 1965, adding another 93 episodes to the 270 already produced for ALFRED HITCHCOCK PRESENTS. It was broadcast on CBS from 1962 to 1964, and on NBC from 1964 to 1965. The last new episode aired on June 26, 1965, but the series continued to be popular in syndication for decades.

Hitchcock himself only directed 17 of the episodes of ALFRED HITCHCOCK PRESENTS and only one of the hour-long episodes, "I Saw the Whole Thing" with John Forsythe. His show paved the way for THRILLER, THE TWILIGHT ZONE, and other series that maximized the anthology format's storytelling potential. In 1985, NBC aired a new TV movie based on the series, combining newly-filmed stories with colorized footage of Hitchcock from the original series for introductions. The movie was a huge ratings success, and sparked a brief revival of the anthology series genre that included a new version of THE TWILIGHT ZONE and others. THE NEW ALFRED HITCHCOCK PRESENTS series debuted in the fall of 1985, five years after Hitchcock's death, and retained the same format as the movie: newly filmed stories, a mixture of original works and updated remakes of original series episodes, with colorized introductions by Hitchcock. The new series lasted only two seasons before NBC cancelled it, but in 1987 it was produced for two more years by USA Cable Network, which is now co-owned with NBC under NBC Universal.

Universal Studios Home Entertainment has released the first three seasons of ALFRED HITCHCOCK PRESENTS on DVD. The first season was released on October 4, 2005, the second season on October 17, 2006, and the third on October 9, 2007. They are also available on Hulu, the iTunes Store, and on NBC's website. Packed onto three double-sided DVDs, these 39 episodes per season hold up quite well despite not being "restored". Some prints show the wear and tear of syndication, but they look and sound surprisingly good, although audio compression will cause many viewers to turn up the volume. Extras are very limited. There are written episode summaries, and the 15 minute bonus featurette, "Alfred Hitchcock Presents: A Look Back" is perfunctory at best. However, it's good to see new anecdotal interviews with producer/director/actor Norman Lloyd, assistant director Hilton Green, and Hitchcock's daughter Pat (a frequent performer on these episodes), who survived to see the popular series benefit from the archival convenience of DVD.

Metropolis (1927) * * *

Set in 2000, this futuristic tale shows society separated into two distinct segments: the planners or thinkers, who make plans but don't know how anything works, and the workers who achieve goals but don't have the vision. Completely separate, neither group is complete, but together they make a whole. The upper class thinkers live in the high towers of Metropolis and reap the benefits of modern technology. Lower class workers reside in the underground regions working to make the machinery operate. The main thrust of the film centers on a man from the upper class falling in love with a woman from the lower class and his revelation as to what the world is like outside of his towers.

Metropolis is a corporate city-state with extraordinary Art Deco skyscrapers where machines rule over Man and inequality is entrenched in society. The city is run by Johann "Joh" Fredersen (Alfred Abel), leader of a powerful elite living on the surface, who control and subjugate the subterranean masses. The sole purpose of these slaves is to tend enormous power stations and endless conveyor belts, providing a life of luxury for men such as Freder (Gustav Fröhlich). As the son of Joh he is free to frolic in the beautiful gardens. The sanctuary of these parks is invaded one day when young woman Maria (Brigitte Helm) brings a group of waifs into the open air. Blinking and gasping in awe at the magnificence, they are soon hurried away. Freder becomes infatuated with the beautiful worker and attempts to follow her into the darkness below.

Descending to the machine rooms in pursuit of her, he is shocked to see the workers' constant toil and exhaustion. Freder is fascinated by the robotic movements of the workers, but one of the workers collapses from exhaustion, leading to an industrial accident. An explosion at the enormous "M-Machine" shows him the callous treatment of the workers by the above-ground elite. Before the dead and wounded can be taken away, fresh men must be brought in to replace them. He visualizes the M-Machine as Moloch, who consumes a never-ending sacrifice of bodies and lives. This senseless waste of life appalls sensitive Freder and he rushes upstairs to confront his busy father. Unfortunately, not only is Joh engrossed in running the city, he has become too callous to worry about the death of a few workers. Freder should simply ignore the suffering of the teeming hordes, especially as they seem to be plotting against their masters.

Freder: It was their hands that built this city of ours, Father. But where do the hands belong in your scheme?
Joh Frederson: In their proper place, the depths.

Freder is greatly disappointed by this attitude, leaving him with no option but to join with the downtrodden workers on their backbreaking shifts. Venturing into the steam and smoke, he takes over on some demonic electricity routing device, forced to work for the first time in his life. He takes pity on a worker and trades places with him, then finds a map to an underground meeting room in the man's clothes. Here he finds Maria (Brigitte Helm), the woman he saw earlier above ground. Maria urges the gathered workers not to revolt, but to wait for the arrival of a "Mediator" who can bridge the gap between the thinkers and workers. Freder is persuaded to join the cause, and Maria begins to believe that he may be the Mediator.

Maria: There can be no understanding between the hand and the brain unless the heart acts as mediator.

Scrawled plans of a worker concern Joh deeply, leading him to consult with mad scientist C.A. Rotwang (Rudolf Klein-Rogge), an old colleague and romantic rival. Rotwang has built a Maschinenmensch, or Machine-Man--a robot on which he plans to bestow the appearance of Hel, a lover who left him for Fredersen and died giving birth to Freder. Joh sees that this is the way forward, a tireless replacement for the unsettled masses. If only he realized that his son is one of the despised and feared hordes. Fredersen shows Rotwang some more maps taken from the workers killed in the explosion. Rotwang leads him underground and the two eavesdrop on the workers' meeting. Seeing Maria, Fredersen persuades Rotwang to give the robot her face instead so that it can be used to sow discord among the men. Rotwang captures her and does as Fredersen asks, but with an ulterior motive: he will use the robot to deprive Fredersen of his son.

Maria: We shall build a tower that will reach to the stars! Having conceived Babel, yet unable to build it themselves, they had thousands to build it for them. But those who toiled knew nothing of the dreams of those who planned. And the minds that planned the Tower of Babel cared nothing for the workers who built it. The hymns of praise of the few became the curses of the many--Babel! Babel! Babel! Between the mind that plans and the hands that build there must be a Mediator, and this must be the heart.

Seeing the robot-Maria with Fredersen, Freder collapses in a sudden delirium and must be taken home. As he lies in bed and the real Maria remains imprisoned in Rotwang's house, the robot performs as an exotic dancer in the decadent Yoshiwara nightclub, sparking widespread fights among the young men in attendance. Freder snaps out of his fever and realizes that the entire city is in danger, while the robot goads the workers into a full-scale rebellion and Maria breaks loose. Still intent on allowing the workers to destroy themselves, Fredersen calls Grot (Heinrich George), the foreman of the "Heart Machine", which is the main power station of Metropolis. After Grot opens its gates on Fredersen's orders, the workers and their wives destroy the Heart Machine, causing the reservoirs to burst and flood the workers' city farther below. After Freder and Grot are unable to stop them, Freder and Maria race down to the city and rescue all the children who have been left behind there.

Man at Nightclub: For her, all seven deadly sins.

Realizing the damage they have done and believing their children to be dead, the mob turns against Maria and chases her through the surface city streets. In the confusion, the real Maria slips away to the cathedral, while the mob captures the robot and burns her at the stake. Freder is horrified by this, but he and the workers soon learn that the burned woman was actually the duplicate. Rotwang chases Maria to the roof of the cathedral, with Freder in pursuit and Fredersen watching from the ground as the two men struggle. Eventually Rotwang falls to his death and Freder and Maria return to the street. Freder then fulfills his role as Mediator, bringing Fredersen and Grot together at last.

Fritz Lang's METROPOLIS belongs to legend as much as to cinema. It is a milestone of science fiction and German expressionism. From its opening montage of meshing gears and pounding machinery it is a visual masterpiece, a riot of expressionistic imagery, with geometric patterns formed by buildings and workers showing how the two are meshed together in this future hell. Yet the story makes minimal sense, and the "theme" belongs in a fortune cookie. To experience the film's power, you have to see the movie. But for decades we couldn't with so many versions, all incomplete, often in public-domain prints like smudged and faded photocopies.

Most silent films no longer exist. For example, Theda Bara's CLEOPATRA (1917) is gone forever, with only a few fragments remaining of this famous classic. That's because the "talkies" destroyed the market for silent films, which almost nobody wants to see. Probably Charlie Chaplin is the most famous image from the silent film era, but METROPOLIS is a close second. We all have the unforgettable futuristic images indelibly imprinted in our minds.

METROPOLIS was produced in the Babelsberg Studios by Universum Film A.G. (UFA) and was the most expensive film of its time. Fritz Lang directed and co-ordinated the masterpiece, involving thousands of extras, astounding futuristic sets, and an enormous budget that nearly bankrupted the studio. Technically groundbreaking at the time, with its mixing of models and live-action, it is still impressive today. It's a world of arching expressways, fantastic skyscrapers and many airplanes. But because the architecture is designed on such a towering scale and this is a silent film, the acting is often melodramatic and extreme--the only way to project sufficient emotion. This doesn't mean that the performances are bad, only that the film is a mixture of vision, lewdness and unintended humor. It's an epic poem of urban dystopia and class warfare by a misanthropic director who had a taste for spectacular imagery that has not been aesthetically surpassed after decades of technical cinematic progress.

The cast also includes: Fritz Rasp (The Thin Man), Theodor Loos (Josaphat), Erwin Biswanger (11811), Fritz Alberti (Creative human), Grete Berger (Working woman), Olly Boeheim (Working woman), Max Dietze (Working man), Ellen Frey (Working woman), Beatrice Garga (Woman of Eternal Gardens), Heinrich Gotho (Master of Ceremonies), Dolly Grey (Working woman), Anny Hintze (Woman of Eternal Gardens), Georg John (Working man who causes explosion of M-Machine), Walter Kuehle (Working man), Margarete Lanner (Lady in car / Woman of Eternal Gardens), Rose Lichtenstein (Working woman), Hanns Leo Reich (Marinus), Arthur Reinhardt (Working man), Curt Siodmak (Working Man), Henrietta Siodmak (Working Woman), Olaf Storm (Jan), Erwin Vater (Working man), Rolf von Goth (Son in Eternal Gardens), Helen von Münchofen (Woman of Eternal Gardens), Helene Weigel (Working woman), and Hilde Woitscheff (Woman of Eternal Gardens). Gottfried Huppertz and Abel Korzeniowski composed the original music score. Giorgio Moroder composed the 1984 score. Peter Osborned composed the 1998 score. Wetfish composed the 1999 score. Bernd Schultheis composed the 2001 score. Thea von Harbou and Fritz Lang wrote the screenplay from von Harbou's novel. Fritz Lang directed.

There are multiple versions of METROPOLIS, all of which comprise various portions of the original 153 minute 1927 cut. On January 10, 1927, the 153 minute version of the film premiered in Berlin with moderate success. The film was cut and re-edited to change many key elements before screening. American and foreign theatre managers were generally unwilling to allow more than 90 minutes to a feature in their program, during a period when film attendance figures were high. METROPOLIS suffered as the original version was thought to be too long. Few people outside of Berlin saw Metropolis as Fritz Lang originally intended. In the United States, the movie was shown in a considerably shortened edited version that almost completely obscured the original plot, considered too controversial by the American distributors.

As a result of the edited versions, the original premiere cut eventually disappeared and a quarter of the original film was long believed to be lost forever. In 2001, a new 75th anniversary restoration was screened at the Berlin International Film Festival. This version, with a running time of 124 minutes, restored the original story line using stills and intertitles to bridge missing footage. It also added a soundtrack using the orchestral score originally composed by Gottfried Huppertz to go with the film. The restoration received the National Society of Film Critics Heritage Award for Restoration 2002. In June 2008, twenty to twenty-five minutes of lost footage was discovered in an archive of the Museum of Cinema in Buenos Aires, Argentina. It was believed this was a copy made of a print owned by a private collector, who brought the original cut to the country in 1928.

The American copyright lapsed in 1953, which eventually led to a proliferation of versions being released on video. Even though the versions of METROPOLIS currently available are cut down from the original release, there are several stand-out moments left intact. One of these involves Freder, when he starts hallucinating after the shocking explosion. Before his very eyes, the machine dissolves into a divine, malignant shrine, gobbling up human sacrifices and demanding more. The workers are initially seen to march in unison, but after their revolt they move like ants in a haphazard, chaotic fashion. Apart from providing memorable visuals, this achieves closure by the end when the masses are again moving in step, but this time with greater awareness.

Despite the film's reputation, some contemporary critics panned it. The New York Times called it a "technical marvel with feet of clay". The Times went on the next month to publish a lengthy review by H. G. Wells who accused it of "foolishness, cliché, platitude, and muddlement about mechanical progress and progress in general." He faulted Metropolis for its premise that automation created drudgery rather than relieving it, wondered who was buying the machines' output if not the workers, and found parts of the story derivative of Shelley's "Frankenstein", Karel Čapek's robot stories, and his own "The Sleeper Awakes".

In 1984, a new restoration and edit of the film was compiled by music producer Giorgio Moroder. The images are crisp, vibrant, and three-dimensional instead of murky and flattened. Moroder's version of the film introduced a new modern rock soundtrack for the film. Although it restored a number of previously missing scenes and plot details from the original release, his version of the film runs to only 80 minutes in length, although this is mainly due to the original intertitles being replaced with subtitles, and being run at 24 frames per second instead of the standard silent film speed of 16 frames per second. The Moroder version of METROPOLIS sparked a debate among film buffs and fans, with critics and supporters of the film falling into equal camps. There have even been petitions to get the Moroder cut alongside the uncut version for future releases on DVD and Bluray.

Things to Come (1936) * * *

THINGS TO COME tells the future history of the 20th century after 1936. It is set in the fictional English city of Everytown, based on London with a facsimile of St Paul's Cathedral in the background. Successful businessman John Cabal (Raymond Massey) cannot get into the festive spirit of Christmas Day 1940 because of news of a possible war. His guest Dr. Edward Harding (Maurice Braddell) shares his worries, but his optimistic friend Pippa Passworthy (Edward Chapman) believes it will not happen, or even if it does, it will do good by accelerating technological progress. An unexpected bombing raid on Everytown that night results in global war.

Dr. Harding: What is all this fuss in the papers to-night, Mr. Cabal?
John Cabal : Wars and rumors of wars again.
Dr. Harding: Crying wolf?
John Cabal : Some day the wolf will come. These fools are capable of anything.
Dr. Harding: What becomes of medical research in that case?
John Cabal : It will have to stop.
Dr. Harding: That will mess me up. It's pretty nearly all I care for. That and Majorie Home, of course.
John Cabal: Mess you up! Of course it will mess you up. Mess up your work. Mess up your marriage. Mess everything up. My God, if war gets loose again....

Some time later, Cabal is piloting a biplane fighter, and shoots down a small, one-man enemy bomber. He then lands and pulls the badly injured enemy (John Clements) from the wreckage. As they dwell on the madness of war, they hurry to put on their gas masks, as the poison gas the pilot dropped drifts in their direction. When a little girl runs towards them, the wounded man insists she take his mask, saying he is done for anyway. Cabal takes the girl to his airplane, pausing to leave the doomed man a gun. The man dwells on the irony that he may have gassed the child's family and yet he has saved her. He then commits suicide.

John Cabal: Is that better? My God--but you are smashed up, my boy. Why should we two be murdering each other? How did we come to this? Go, my friend! This is my gas, and it is a bad gas.
Enemy Airman: Funny if I'm choked by my own poison.
John Cabal: That's all right. Here--put it on her. (gas mask)
Enemy Airman: I've given it to others--why shouldn't I have a whiff myself?"
John Cabal: Come on, kiddy, this is no place for you. You make tracks that way. I'll show you. You may want this. (gives him his gun)
Enemy Airman: Good fellow--but I'll take my dose.

The war continues for decades, so long that the survivors have forgotten the reasons for it in the first place. Humanity falls into a new Dark Age. Everytown is in ruins and there is little technology left, other than the arms used to wage war. Nothing is being manufactured any more and society has broken down into primitive localized communities. In 1966, a great plague called the "wandering sickness" is spread by the unnamed enemy using its last few remaining aircraft. Most people are wiped out, but small numbers survive. Dr. Harding and his daughter Mary struggle to find a cure, but with little equipment the situation is hopeless. By 1970, a local warlord called the "Boss" or the "Chief" (Ralph Richardson) has eradicated the sickness by having those infected shot. He dreams of conquering the "hill people" by getting his mechanic Richard Gordon (Derrick De Marney) to make the few remaining biplanes flyable again.

Dr. Harding: Mary! Iodine, please.
Mary: There is no more, father. There is just one drop.
Dr. Harding: No more iodine?" My God! What is the good of trying to save a mad world from its punishment?
Mary: Oh father, if you could only sleep for a time.
Dr. Harding: How can I sleep? See how they wander out to die. And to think that I brought you into this world.
Mary: Even now I am glad to be alive, father.

On May Day 1970, a futuristic airplane lands outside Anytown. The pilot and sole occupant, John Cabal, emerges and proclaims that the last surviving band of "engineers and mechanics" have formed an organization known as "Wings Over the World". They are rebuilding a civilization, based in Basra, Iraq, that has renounced war and outlawed independent countries. The organization is slowly moving across the world re-civilizing groups of survivors. The Chief takes the pilot prisoner, ignoring the shrewd advice of his mistress Roxana (Margaretta Scott), and forces him to work for Gordon. Together, they manage to fix a biplane. When Gordon takes it up for a test flight, he flees and alerts Cabal's friends.

Roxana: I don't suppose any man has ever understood any woman since the beginning of things. You don't understand our imaginations.
John Cabal: If we don't end war, war will end us.

Wings Over the World attacks Everytown, filling the skies with airplanes and bombing the town with a sleeping gas. The Chief orders his biplanes to repel them, but they are shot down. When the people of Everytown awaken shortly thereafter, they find it occupied by the Airmen, and the Chief is dead, a victim of the gas.

Great reconstruction takes place over the next few decades and society is once again great and strong. A montage sequence shows the decades of technological progress and human achievement, beginning with Cabal explaining his plans for global consolidation by Wings Over the World. By 2036 the world's population is living in pristine, modern underground cities, of which the new Everytown is one. However, all is not well. The sculptor Theotocopulos (Cedric Hardwicke) incites the populace to demand a "rest" from the headlong rush of progress, symbolized by the impending first manned flight around the Moon. A popular uprising against progress, which some claim caused the wars of the past, gains support and becomes violent. The modern-day Luddites are opposed by Oswald Cabal (Raymond Massey), the head of the governing council and great grandson of John Cabal. Cabal's daughter Catherine (Pearl Argyle) and her boyfriend Horrie Passworthy (Pickles Livingston) insist on flying the spaceship, despite the misgivings of Horrie's father Raymond Passworthy (Edward Chapman). When maddened crowds rush to destroy the space gun that is to propel the spacecraft, Cabal launches the ship ahead of schedule.

Raymond Passworthy: Oh, God, is there ever to be any age of happiness? Is there never to be any rest?
Oswald Cabal: Rest enough for the individual man--too much, and too soon--and we call it death. But for Man, no rest and no ending. He must go on, conquest beyond conquest. First this little planet with its winds and ways, and then all the laws of mind and matter that restrain him. Then the planets about him and at last out across immensity to the stars. And when he has conquered all the deeps of space and all the mysteries of time, still he will be beginning.
Raymond Passworthy: But... we're such little creatures. Poor humanity's so fragile, so weak. Little... little animals.

Cabal then delivers a speech about progress and humanity's quest for knowledge, asking, "And if we’re no more than animals, we must snatch each little scrap of happiness, and live, and suffer, and pass, mattering no more than all the other animals do or have done. It is this, or that. All the universe or nothing. Which shall it be, Passworthy? Which shall it be?"

One of the most important science fiction films of all time, H.G. Wells' THINGS TO COME is a speculative meditation on the price of progress. This English science fiction epic starts prior to World War II and takes the viewer on a hundred year time trip to 2036 A.D. when a man and a woman are rocketed to the moon. It predicts television, jet planes and evil dictators. Featuring fabulous sets, a rich musical score and sweeping visual grandeur, THINGS TO COME is a truly spectacular film, an ambitious production from Korda's London Films that cemented its reputation for producing intelligent drama on an epic scale.

The movie features enormous sets, particularly in the sequences set in 2036, thousands of extras, and imaginative design and editing. Several of the performances are equally impressive, notably Raymond Massey as the messianic Cabal and Ralph Richardson as the thuggish "Boss", a role he modeled on Mussolini who banned the film outright in Italian cinemas. However, the human story sometimes is overshadowed by the design, with the ending lacking impact. The film's overwhelming seriousness is a problem, although understandable given the immediate fear of war. But it still has moments of real power, including a subtle and moving scene in which an airman offers his gas mask to a young girl whose town he has just attacked, as well as the dazzling montage of the re-building of Everytown.

H. G. Wells wrote the screenplay, a loose adaptation of his own 1933 novel "The Shape of Things to Come" and his 1931 non-fiction work "The Work, Wealth and Happiness of Mankind". THINGS TO COME offers a very different vision of the future to Fritz Lang's classic METROPOLIS (1926), to which it is usually compared. Wells was very critical of Lang's film, which offered a portrait of a world enslaved by science. By contrast, Wells saw science as a promise of mankind's salvation. The attack on capitalism that is central to the book is omitted in the movie. The film concentrates more on attacking the horrors of war, which in the book Wells made clear was a product of that system. Wells' screenplay was further streamlined and pruned by Korda and his script editor Lajos Biro to eliminate a diatribe against religion and a debate about the role of woman as love object or workmate. Otherwise the scenario was faithfully translated to the screen by Korda's production team. He imported Hollywood designer William Cameron Menzies to direct and commissioned Arthur Bliss to provide the music score. The art director was Alexander Korda's brother Vincent, who was inspired in creating the city of the future.

The cast also includes: Sophie Stewart (Mrs. Cabal), Ann Todd (Mary Gordon), Pearl Argyle (Catherine Cabal), Kenneth Villiers (Maurice Passworthy), Ivan Brandt (Morden Mitani), Anne McLaren (The Child), Patricia Hilliard (Janet Gordon), Charles Carson (Great Grandfather), Patrick Barr (World Transport Official), Noel Brophy (Irishman), John Clements (The Airman), Anthony Holles (Simon Burton), Allan Jeayes (Mr. Cabal), George Sanders (Celestial Body), Abraham Sofaer (The Jew), Terry-Thomas (Man of the Future), and Torin Thatcher (Celestial Body). Arthur Bliss composed the original music. H.G. Wells wrote the screenplay based on his novel "The Shape of Things to Come". William Cameron Menzies directed.

The rough-cut of the film was 130 minutes in length, while the version submitted for classification by the British Board of Film Censors was 117 minutes. By the time of the 21 February 1936 UK premiere and initial release, this had been reduced to 108 minutes, while the American print premiered on 18 April 1936 was further cut to 96 minutes. By late 1936, a 98 minute print was in circulation in the UK, and a 72 minute print was resubmitted for classification by the BBFC and was passed after further cuts for reissue in 1943. A 92 minute print was subsequently reissued in America in 1947 and the UK in 1948. A continuity script exists for a 104 minute version of the film, which contains all the material in the 96 minute and 92 minute versions, plus a number of other sequences. It is not known if this version was actually in circulation at any time.

Although the film lapsed into the public domain in the United States in 1964, copyright remained in force in the United Kingdom, the European Union, and elsewhere. In the UK its copyright does not expire until 2045. The film came back into copyright in 1996 in the USA under the Uruguay Round Agreements Act. In early 2007, Legend Films in the United States released a colorized version, supervised by Ray Harryhausen, of a cut copy of the 92 minute print on DVD. This would count as a newly copyrighted work in America, if it were not for the fact that the underlying film is not in the public domain.

The DVD supposedly "features a pristine new film-to-video transfer from original source materials", but viewers comments complain of the poor video quality. One wrote, "Having seen THINGS TO COME on VHS, I looked forward to buying it on DVD. When I received it, however, the reproduction was so poor as to render it essentially unviewable. In the initial scenes the images are so murky that I was often unable to make out the faces of the principal characters." Another viewer wrote of the Harryhausen version, "This DVD still looks to me like a bad 16mm print. I'm not a purist, but the film grain is coarse and obvious. The framing is not steady. The exposure varies, giving an irregular flickery effect. It's not exactly blurry, but it's not as crisp and sharp as any ordinary DVD of any ordinary 1950 black-and-white movie. Comparing it to the earlier DVD, I'm not sure what "restoration" was done except for colorization."

Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) * * *

Dr. Miles J. Bennell (Kevin McCarthy) is a local doctor in the fictional town of Santa Mira, California. Upon returning home from a trip, he finds the townspeople to be acting a bit unusual. He discovers that many of his patients are suffering from the paranoid delusion that their friends and relatives are impostors. One patient is a former sweetheart of his, recent divorcée Becky Driscoll (Dana Wynter), who tells him that her cousin Wilma Lentz (Virginia Christine) has this same strange fear about Uncle Ira Lentz (Tom Fadden). At first Dr. Bennell is unconcerned when the townsfolk accuse their loved ones of acting like emotionless imposters, but soon the evidence is overwhelming.

Stanley Driscoll: Is the baby asleep yet, Sally?
Nurse Withers: No, but she will be soon. And the'll be no more tears.
Stanley Driscoll: Shall I put this in her room?
(referring to the alien seed pod he is carrying)
Nurse Withers: Yes, in her playpen.

Assured by the town psychiatrist Dr. Dan Kaufman (Larry Gates) that the cases are nothing but "epidemic mass hysteria", Bennell soon learns, with the help of his friend Jack Belicec (King Donovan), that the townspeople are being replaced by simulations grown from plantlike pods, perfect duplicates who kill and dispose of their human victims. Huge seeds are "planted" in basements and garages that evolve into duplicates of people. Victims who fall asleep are "transformed". The tension grows as time passes and the characters need to sleep. His friends Jack and Theodora "Teddy" Belicec (Carolyn Jones) show him a partly formed body they have uncovered in their home, and he realizes that there may be some truth to the wild stories he has been hearing.

Dr. Kauffman: Sure you have. A real one! Whose body was it, and where is it now? A completely normal mystery. Whatever it is, it's well within the bounds of human experience, and I don't think you ought to make any more of it.
Dr. Bennell: Look, I wouldn't if I hadn't looked in Becky's cellar! How do you explain away the body I saw there?
Dr. Kauffman: I don't think you saw one there.
Dr. Bennell: You don't think I saw one here, either?
Dr. Kauffman: I know you did because three others saw it too.
Dr. Bennell: But I dreamed up the second one?
Dr. Kauffman: Doctors can have hallucinations too.

The Pod People transform themselves into the citizens of Santa Mira, and are indistinguishable from normal people, except for their utter lack of emotion. They work together to secretly spread more pods--which grew from "seeds drifting through space for years"--in order to replace the entire human race. Bennell and Driscoll hide in his office, then look outside onto the main square and see a congregation of Pod People walking in a trance like zombies.

Becky: I can't do it, I can't, can't, can't go on.
Dr. Bennell: Yes you can.
Becky: I don't want to live in a world without love or grief or beauty, I'd rather die.

Bennell and Driscoll drive, and then literally run for their lives through the California hills. If they can make it to the highway and then to the neighboring town, perhaps they and the world can be saved. The film climaxes with Driscoll falling asleep and turned into a Pod Person. With the Pod People close behind, a crazed Bennell runs onto the highway frantically screaming of the alien invasion which has overrun Santa Mira to the passing motorists. The actor breaks the 4th wall, looks into the camera and yells, "They're here already! You're next!"

The movie was originally intended to end with Dr. Bennell screaming hysterically as truckloads of pods pass him by. Allied Artists studio, wary of such a pessimistic conclusion, insisted on adding a prologue and epilogue to the movie that suggested a more optimistic outcome to the story which is told mainly in flashback. In this version the movie begins with Bennell in a hospital emergency room where he might be sent to an insane asylum. Held by the police as a raving lunatic, Dr. Bennell recounts to psychiatrist Dr. Hill (Whit Bissell) the events that have turned his life upside down. He returned to his small town the previous Thursday, having been called back from a medical conference by his nurse Sally Withers (Jean Willes) who was being flooded with patients. In the closing scene, pods are discovered at a highway accident, thus confirming his warning. The FBI is notified, though it is left ambiguous whether they intervene in time to save the Earth.

Ambulance Driver: We had to dig him out from under the most peculiar things I ever saw.
Dr. Hill: What things?
Ambulance Driver: Well, I don't know what they are. I never saw them before. They looked like great big seed pods.
Dr. Hill: Where was the truck coming from?
Ambulance Driver: Santa Mira.

INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS is a science fiction film based on the novel "The Body Snatchers" by Jack Finney, originally serialized in Colliers Magazine in 1954. The film has been interpretted as both an allegory for the loss of personal autonomy in the Soviet Union and as an indictment of McCarthyist paranoia about Communism during the early stages of the Cold War. In recent years, critics have hailed the film as a "genuine SF classic", one of the "most resonant", and "one of the simplest" of the genre. The BBC wrote, "The sense of post-war, anti-communist paranoia is acute, as is the temptation to view the film as a metaphor for the tyranny of the McCarthy era." However, lead actor Kevin McCarthy said in an interview included on the 1998 DVD release that he felt no political allegory was intended. The interviewer stated that he had spoken with the author of the original novel, Jack Finney, who also said he had intended no specific political allegory in the work.

In his autobiography, "I Thought We Were Making Movies, Not History", the film's producer Walter Mirisch wrote: "People began to read meanings into pictures that were never intended. INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS is an example of that. I remember reading a magazine article arguing that the picture was intended as an allegory about the communist infiltration of America. From personal knowledge, neither Walter Wanger nor Don Siegel, who directed it, nor Dan Mainwaring, who wrote the script nor the original author Jack Finney, nor myself saw it as anything other than a thriller, pure and simple."

The film was shot in 23 days between March 23, 1955 and April 18, 1955 in Sierra Madre. Then the prologue and epilogue were shot on September 16, 1955 at Allied Artists. Cast and crew worked a six-day week with only Sundays off. Production went over schedule by three days because of night-for-night shooting that Siegel wanted. The final budget was $382,190. When released in 1956, the movie made over one million dollars in its first month. In 1956 alone, the movie made over two and a half million dollars in the USA. When the British issue took place in late 1956, the film made over a half million dollars in ticket sales.

Considered one of the best science fiction films of the 1950s and '60s, this classic paranoid thriller remains a milestone movie in its genre. Everything about this film is fine. The direction is first rate, the script is sharp and intriguing, and the film has an ordinary look to it that is gradually subverted by increasing darkness and unexpected camera angles. And the cast is very good. Kevin McCarthy, Dana Wynter, King Donovan, and Carolyn Jones all give great performances in the leads, and the overall ensemble is every bit their equal. The movie has been made in 3 versions, but while the Donald Sutherland (1978) and the Meg Tilley (1993) versions are quite good in their own ways, the original remains the most powerful.

The cast also includes: Ralph Dumke (Police Chief Nick Grivett), Kenneth Patterson (Stanley Driscoll), Guy Way (Officer Sam Janzek), Eileen Stevens (Anne Grimaldi), Beatrice Maude (Grandma Driscoll), Jean Andren (Eleda Lentz), Bobby Clark (Jimmy Grimaldi), Everett Glass (Dr. Ed Pursey), Dabbs Greer (Mac Lomax), Pat O'Malley (Baggage man), Guy Rennie (Restaurant owner), Marie Selland (Martha Lomax), Sam Peckinpah (Charlie), Harry J. Vejar (Pod carrier in Miles' office), Richard Deacon (Dr. Harvey Bassett), Frank Hagney (Bit part), and Robert Osterloh (Ambulance driver). Carmen Dragon composed the original music. Daniel Mainwaring wrote the screenplay with help from Richard Collins based on Jack Finney's novel. Don Siegel directed.

The DVD offers the choice of widescreen and standard ratio. Apparently it was filmed in standard ratio but later converted to widescreen when that format became the norm. It works well in either version. Extras are slight, including a brief interview with McCarthy that is quite interesting. The transfer to DVD is quite good. In June 2008, the American Film Institute revealed its "Ten top Ten" after polling over 1,500 people from the creative community. INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS was acknowledged as the ninth best film in the science fiction genre. In 1993, it was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".

Duck Soup (1933) * * *

DUCK SOUP opens with the flag of Freedonia flying over a small village. The government of a "mythical kingdom", the Balkan state of Freedonia has gone bankrupt through mismanagement and is on the verge of revolution. Fortunately, the country's richest millionairess, the widowed dowager Mrs. Gloria Teasdale (Margaret Dumont) offers $20 million to bail out the government, but only if it is placed under new leadership.

Mrs. Teasdale: The government has been mismanaged. I will lend the money, but only on condition that His Excellency withdraw and place the government in new hands.

She agrees to donate 20 million dollars if Rufus T. Firefly is appointed its new president. Firefly is a cynical, sarcastic dictator who refuses to play politics by the book. For instance, he reduces workers' hours--by shortening their lunch breaks. Firefly's secretary Bob Roland (Zeppo Marx) arrives and assures Mrs. Teasdale, in song, that the absent statesman will appear "When the Clock on the Wall Strikes Ten". When the clock on the wall does strike ten, pretty dancing girls scatter rose petals and kneel in homage between an impressive lineup of helmeted, sword-bearing guards along the entrance way with swords uplifted. The assembled audience sings the national anthem "Hail, Hail Freedonia", but Firefly isn't anywhere in sight. After a long pause and a trumpeters' fanfare, the anthem is sung a second time and all the guests look toward the entrance, but Firefly still fails to enter.

In an upstairs bedroom, the ringing of an alarm clock is heard, and Firefly appears in bed with a nightshirt, nightcap, and cigar. He quickly removes his nightshirt to reveal a suit, and slides down a fireman's pole into the spacious ballroom hall. He takes his place in the line-up with his own honor guard at the end of the ceremonial line, joining them to wait for his own arrival and holding out his cigar with their swords. He asks one of the guards: "You expecting somebody?"

Mrs. Teasdale notices him and welcomes him, then attempts to impose some degree of dignity upon the proceedings, but he assaults her with insults by skipping from one non-sequitur association to another:

Mrs. Teasdale: Oh, your Excellency. We've been expecting you. As chairwoman of the reception committee, I extend the wishes of every man, woman, and child of Freedonia.
Firefly: Never mind that stuff. Take a card.
Mrs. Teasdale: Card? What will I do with the card?
Firefly: You can keep it. I've got fifty-one left. Now what were you saying?
Mrs. Teasdale: As chairwoman of the reception committee, I welcome you with open arms.
Firefly: Is that so? How late do you stay open?
Mrs. Teasdale: I've sponsored your appointment because I feel you are the most able statesman in all Freedonia.
Firefly: Well, that covers a lot of ground. Say! You cover a lot of ground yourself. You'd better beat it. I hear they're gonna tear you down and put up an office building where you're standing. You can leave in a taxi. If you can't get a taxi, you can leave in a huff. If that's too soon, you can leave in a minute and a huff. You know, you haven't stopped talking since I came here. You must have been vaccinated with a phonograph needle.

She asks him to lead Freedonia to the same heights it achieved when her late husband Chester V. Teasdale was President: "The future of Freedonia rests on you. Promise me you will follow in the footsteps of my husband." Firefly looks straight into the camera, and in his first major line rudely insults his most ardent supporter: "How do you like that? I haven't been on the job five minutes and already she's making advances to me."

Then he engages the widowed Mrs. Teasdale in an insult-ridden conversation, but quickly covers up his insults and shamelessly flirts with her when he realizes she is a widow with money:

Firefly: Not that I care, but where is your husband?
Mrs. Teasdale: Why, he's dead.
Firefly: I'll bet he's just using that as an excuse.
Mrs. Teasdale: I was with him to the very end.
Firefly: Hmmph. No wonder he passed away.
Mrs. Teasdale: I held him in my arms and kissed him.
Firefly: Oh, I see. Then, it was murder. Will you marry me? Did he leave you any money? Answer the second question first.
Mrs. Teasdale: He left me his entire fortune.
Firefly: Is that so? Can't you see what I'm trying to tell you? I love you.
Mrs. Teasdale: Oh, your Excellency!
Firefly: You're not so bad yourself.

Firefly is next introduced to the sleek, impeccably tailored Trentino (Louis Calhern), Ambassador from Sylvania, and he immediately insults him a few times, calling him an "old skinflint":

Mrs. Teasdale: Oh, I want to present to you Ambassador Trentino of Sylvania. Having him with us today is indeed a great pleasure.
Trentino: Thank you, but I can't stay very long.
Firefly: That's even a greater pleasure. Now, how about lending this country $20,000,000 dollars, you old skinflint.
Trentino: $20,000,000 dollars is a lot of money. I'd have to take that up with my Minister of Finance.
Firefly: Well, in the meantime, could you let me have $12 dollars until payday?
Trentino: $12 dollars?
Firefly: Don't be scared. You'll get it back. I'll give you my personal note for 90 days. If it isn't paid by then, you can keep the note.
Trentino: Your Excellency? Haven't we seen each other somewhere before?
Firefly: I don't think so. I'm not sure I'm seeing you now. It must be something I ate.
Trentino (insulted): Look here Sir, are you trying to...?
Firefly: Don't look now, but there's one man too many in this room, and I think it's you.

Then the new Freedonian President meets a "very charming lady", the seductive "famous dancer" Vera Varcal (Raquel Torres), still wearing a slinky evening gown displaying her bosom. Overwhelmed by her appearance, he shows off a number of his own ridiculous dance steps, saying, "I danced before Napoleon. No, Napoleon danced before me. In fact, he danced two hundred years before me." When she seductively suggests dancing with him some time later, he tells her, "I could dance with you till the cows come home. On second thought, I'd rather dance with the cows when you came home."

Trentino woos Mrs. Teasdale, tries to foment a revolution, and attempts to dig up dirt on Firefly by sending in inept spies Chicolini (Chico Marx) and Pinky (Harpo Marx).

Trentino: I've given up the idea of a revolution. I have a better plan...I can gain control of Freedonia much easier by marrying Mrs. Teasdale.
Vera: Ha, ha, ha. Maybe that's not going to be so easy...From what I hear, you see, Mrs. Teasdale is rather sweet on this Rufus T. Firefly.
Trentino: Oh, well that's where you come in. I'm going to place him in your hands. And I don't have to tell you what to do or how to...

Chico and Harpo harass a lemonade vendor (Edgar Kennedy) egged on by his aggravation that they have stolen his pitch. After an earlier scene involving the knocking off, dropping, picking up and exchanging and burning of hats, Kennedy steals bags of Harpo's peanuts, and Harpo responds by burning Kennedy's new straw boater hat. Kennedy in return pushes over their peanut wagon. Harpo gets revenge for this by sloshing his legs in Kennedy's lemonade tank, driving off his customers.

After failing to collect worthwhile information about Firefly, Chicolini and Pinky infiltrate the government when Chicolini is appointed Secretary of War after Firefly sees him on the street selling peanuts. Meanwhile, Firefly's personal assistant Bob Roland questions Trentino's motives, and advises Firefly to "get rid of that man at once" by saying "something to make him mad, and he'll strike you, and we'll force him to leave the country." Firefly agrees to the plan, but after a series of personal insults exchanged between Firefly and Trentino, the plan backfires and Firefly slaps Trentino instead. As a result, the two countries reach the brink of war. Adding to the international friction is the fact that Firefly is also wooing Mrs. Teasdale, and likewise hoping to get his hands on her fortune inherited from her late husband.

In a "mirror scene", Pinky, dressed as Firefly, pretends to be Firefly's reflection in a missing mirror, matching his every move--including ones that begin out of sight--to near perfection until the end of the scene. Eventually, and to their misfortune, Chicolini, also disguised as Firefly, collides with both of them.

Trentino learns that Freedonia's war plans are in Mrs. Teasdale's possession and orders Chicolini and Pinky to steal them. Chicolini is caught by Firefly and put on trial, during which war is officially declared, and everyone is overcome by war frenzy, breaking into song and dance. The trial put aside, Chicolini and Pinky join Firefly and Bob Roland in anarchic battle, resulting in general mayhem.

During the final battle scenes, called the "funniest of all of cinema", Firefly can be seen wearing a different costume in almost every sequence until the end of the film, including American Civil War outfits (Union and Confederacy), a British palace guard uniform, a Boy Scout Scoutmaster's uniform, and even a coon-skin Davy Crockett cap. Meanwhile, the exterior view of the building they are occupying changes appearance from a bunker to an old fort, and so on. Firefly assures his generals that he has "a man out combing the countryside for volunteers." Sure enough, Pinky is wandering out on the front lines wearing a sandwich board sign reading, "Join the Army and see the Navy." Later, Chicolini volunteers Pinky to carry a message through enemy lines. Firefly tells him, "Remember, while you're out there risking life and limb through shot and shell, we'll be in here thinking what a sucker you are."

The end of the film finds Trentino caught in a makeshift stocks, with the Brothers pelting him with fruit. Trentino surrenders, but Groucho refuses to stop throwing until they run out of fruit. Mrs. Teasdale begins singing the Freedonia national anthem in her operatic voice and the Brothers begin hurling fruit at her instead. The climactic production number ridicules war by comparing nationalism to a minstrel show. One line is a variant on the old Negro spiritual "All God's Chillun Got Wings":

They got guns,
We got guns,
All God's chillun got guns!
I'm gonna walk all over the battlefield,
'Cause all God's chillun got guns!

DUCK SOUP is an absurd, nonsensical and hilarious film that still makes sense. A satire of dictatorships, war and politics, Groucho, Harpo, Chico, and Zeppo are at their outlandish best here. Running 68 minutes, the movie is fairly short, but chock-full of laughs and lampoons. Released in 1933, during the crisis period of the Depression, the movie was to provide comic relief for the weary American public. But it was a box-office disappointment, both a critical and commercial failure at the time of its release. Audiences were taken aback by such political disrespect, buffoonery and cynicism at a time of political and economic crisis, with Roosevelt's struggle against Depression in the US amidst the rising power of Hitler in Germany. Fortunately, the film was rediscovered by a generation of 1960s college students, and by revival film festivals and museum showings. As a result, the film has attained the status of a classic and masterpiece. This was the last of the Marx Brothers films to feature all four of the brothers, and their fifth film in a five-picture contract with Paramount Studios. Their next film, for Hollywood's prestigious MGM studio, was their landmark A NIGHT AT THE OPERA (1935), with a more developed and polished plot.

The "Freedonia National Anthem" is used frequently throughout the film, both as vocal and instrumental. It seems to consist entirely of "Hail, Hail, Freedonia, land of the brave and free", contrasting with the final line of The Star-Spangled Banner. The "Sylvania theme", which sounds vaguely like "Rule Britannia", is also used several times. "When The Clock On The Wall Strikes 10", the first musical number in the film, is part of the same scene as "Just Wait 'Til I Get Through With It", Groucho's song over the laws of his administration. "This Country's Going To War" is the final musical ensemble in the film, and is also the only musical number in the Marx Brothers' films to feature all four of the Brothers.

The cast also includes: Edmund Breese (Zander), Leonid Kinskey (Sylvanian Agitator), Charles Middleton (Prosecutor), Edgar Kennedy (Lemonade Vendor), Edward Arnold (Politician), Wade Boteler (Officer at Battle Headquarters), Sidney Bracey (Mrs. Teasdale's Butler), E.H. Calvert (Officer in battle sequence), Davison Clark (Minister of Finance #2), Louise Closser Hale (Reception Guest), Carrie Daumery (Reception Guest), Maude Turner Gordon (Reception Guest), Verna Hillie (Trentino's Secretary), Edward LeSaint (Secretary of Labor), George MacQuarrie (First Judge), Edwin Maxwell (Freedonia's Secretary of War), Eric Mayne (Third Judge), Dennis O'Keefe (Bridegroom at Firefly's Reception), Frederick Sullivan (Second Judge), and Dale Van Sickel (Palace Guard). John Leipold composed the original music. The screenplay was written by Bert Kalmar and Harry Ruby with additional dialogue by Arthur Sheekman and Nat Perrin. Leo McCarey directed.

What does "Duck Soup" mean? It was a familiar American phrase in the 1930s meaning something simple or easy, or a gullible sucker or pushover. The introductory scene, showing 4 ducks swimming and cooking in a kettle and quacking merrily over a fire, is the only scene in the film that has anything remotely to do with ducks or soup. Groucho provided the following recipe to explain the title: "Take two turkeys, one goose, four cabbages, but no duck, and mix them together. After one taste, you'll duck soup for the rest of your life." In 1990 the United States Library of Congress deemed DUCK SOUP "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" and selected it for preservation in the National Film Registry.