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I'm a native Texan and live in Dallas and I've actually been a member on IMDb since February, 2000. My working life was spent entirely in athletics. In my IMDb youth, I was known as Frankly_Scarlett.
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Mil Mascaras vs. the Aztec Mummy (2007)
Cheeeeeeeesy.....But Fabulous!
I grew up in the San Antonio, Texas, area and watched a lot of Mexican wrestlers in person and on TV as a kid and I got hooked on the masked wrestlers movies. Even now, as I look back, I realize that the films were made cheaply with bad dialog and writing, but they still fascinated me. And this one is the cream of the crop in this admittedly strange film genre.
Produced as an homage to the wrestler films with tongue firmly in cheek, Jeff Uhlmann brought together an envious assortment of masked wrestlers including living legend Mil Mascaras as the hero to battle the nefarious Aztec Mummy (played by none other than Uhlmann himself). These films are meant to entertain and not vie for Oscars, so check your logic and high hats at the door.
An Aztec Mummy (who has been the nemesis in older masked wrestler films) is revived from a long sleep to continue his plan to rule the world. Mil and his band of wrestlers plus a professor and police captain line up to stop the evil doer. Mil plays the part with a blend of soft-spoken confidence and air of command that comes from years of dispatching bad guys who always seem to outnumber him tenfold. Even though you know the outcome in these good vs. evil plots, the joy is watching Mil and his cohorts pummel the hordes of bad guys.
The twist in this outing is that Uhlmann has managed to lend some respectability to the film by adding several known actors in cameo roles. Solid character actor Richard Lynch plays the US President and one of my favorites, P.J. Soles (Halloween), and Hall of Fame wrestler Harley Race show up at ringside in a match. There are Mayan temples, dancing Indian girls in loincloths, caped henchmen, a boss tomb room inside the temple and lots of suspended disbelief in this "Greatest film of its kind ever produced", according to the film's poster.
This film will attract people like me who already know the genre, but this film should satisfy the whim of anyone looking for some action-packed fun. Cheesy, yes. But if you don't take it too seriously and accept it for what it is, you just might enjoy it.
Rebecca (1940)
The First Hitchcock Classic?
This Hitchcock film was the first he made in Hollywood and he thought it was a compromise because he did not have complete control. Don't let that fool you. This is a classic film by perhaps the best director in history and it offers a view of Gothic horror and/or mystery you won't soon forget.
"Rebecca" is nearly 70 years old and yet it still projects a surreal world that draws the viewer into its web. Laurence Olivier is convincing as the brooding Maxim de Winter--a man unable to forget his first wife, Rebecca, who died a mysterious death. That presents a big problem for Joan Fontaine as the second Mrs. de Winter. She is a young and fragile newlywed who finds herself in a dark and confusing situation. She cannot fathom Maxim's many mood changes and his cold demeanor and she feels everyone is comparing her to the first Mrs. de Winter.
This begs the question why did she marry him in the first place? Was she blinded by his scholarly manners or his offer of a comfortable life? Whatever he presented in courtship changed as soon as he returned to Manderley. He never seemed to grasp the fact that she felt out of place and was confused as to her role as lady of the manor.
Some argue that Fontaine was too weak in the role, but I could not find a false note in any of her scenes. She started out as a mousy girl in love who was dependent on a strange, distant husband for everything. But, she fought her way to the truth about the first Mrs. de Winter and became a strong woman at the end of the film.
Character actors, a Hitchcock staple, are a big plus in "Rebecca" as Dame Judith Anderson, Nigel Bruce, Gladys Cooper and George Sanders bolster the film. Anderson is amazing as Mrs. Danvers, the manor's housekeeper, whose presence seems to cast a cold and foreboding pall over everything. Her formal manner also has de Winter's new bride completely mesmerized and the give and take between the two actresses becomes a battle of sorts. Maxim seems unaware of the tension between the two and he seemingly has no fear of Mrs. Danvers even though she is so much a part of his tragic past.
Although unspoken throughout, Hitchcock resurrects the memory of Rebecca as a tool to haunt all aspects of this film. From beginning to end, there is the strange feeling that she is still alive somehow and has returned to Manderley to claim her rightful place.
In 1940, Hitchcock could well have used color for this film, but black and white proved to be an excellent choice. The dark shadows and fog just make the mansion that much more eerie and that includes the billowy curtains, which take on a life of their own when the wind blows.
This film was Hitchcock's first "modern" picture, seemingly eons away from his small British movies of the 1930s. It is a Hollywood studio film (in the best sense) and David Selznick's production skills are evident as the "look" of the movie is very good even by today's standards. Even if the director felt this was not his best effort, many critics think this is Hitchcock's first classic film in a long line of them.
Champagne (1928)
Sipping champagne
This is another mundane Hitchcock silent film, difficult to believe that he actually directed it. There is not a whole lot to this film except a lesson learned and, much like champagne itself, the characters are bubbly and provide a tickle or two. This might be as close as the fabled director would come to romantic comedy.
Wall street champagne magnet Gordon Harker, a Hitch silent veteran, wants to teach his spoiled rich daughter Betty Balfour the age-old lesson that money does not grow on trees. She's completely out of control spending daddy's money with her lover (Jean Bradin) when Daddy Warbucks lowers the boom by telling her the champagne business is kaput. Some of the usual Hitch camera tricks keeps the plot interesting as the story moves from an ocean liner to Paris and back to the liner. It is fascinating to watch the photography and camera placements because at least one (the view through the bottom of a glass) would be reused by Hitchcock later in his career.
Balfour is fine as the ditsy girl and she does show versatility going through a gamut of emotions. Harker, who would continue his career in talkies, is demonstrative to the nth degree and is this close to overacting. Ironically, this film shows a Wall Street millionaire looking at the stock market tables constantly in 1928, and the great stock market crash does happen for real the next year.
If for nothing else than the twisty ending, this film does bear watching. That is, if you are not expecting a suspenseful Hitchcockian thriller. There are a few laughs, but the earth does not move, and we are left with a glimpse of a slice of life from 80 years ago.