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lamorak13
Reviews
Beyond the Mask (2015)
Excellent family film
My old childhood friend and I watched this together, myself for the second time. This is a movie that is rare these days, full of important themes like redemption and love. This is an historical costume piece and easily one of the best ones. I thought the lead couple were great together and interestingly, they married several months later, a happy postscript to the movie. I have 4,000 movies in my collection and this is in the top rank. I found the acting very good. Just for the record, I am a PhD in History, a former military officer, an adjunct Associate Professor and a Christian. Bravo to all who made this movie!
La congiura dei dieci (1962)
A Pause that Refreshes
Here it is--a G-rated movie for the family that is dashing, up-beat, and which provides positive role models for both men and women. The entire set, costuming, storyline, romance, intrigue, plot twist and fencing were spot on. Granger turns in another fine performance as in the Prisoner of Zenda and Scaramouche. And what a fine swordsman he was, with only Cornel Wilde, Errol Flynn and Basil Rathbone being a convincing match. I am a European historian who spent several years there and who loves these kinds of productions. When the movie ended, with a final little plot twist, I just sat there in the easy chair smiling, or was it beaming! A jolly good show.
Steel Tempest (2000)
Excellent Independent Film about WW2
I knew nothing about this before viewing and purchased the DVD from an out of print DVD merchant in the USA. The movie takes place on the Western Front in December 1944. An SS unit called the Second Abteilung must take a bridge, move into a city (apparently French)capture supplies, and wait for the panzers to arrive. Although "Ardennes offensive" or "Battle of the Bulge" is never referred to, it is obvious from internal evidence that the film takes place two days before the famous bad weather cleared and the day after it did when Allied aircraft were unleashed full force (that caused the Germans to retreat) Having lived in Britain for six years and participated in a couple of historical recreation groups, I concluded early on that the actors were themselves from a British historical recreation group which I believe from the end titles is called the Second Battle Group. The acting is competent and the group has done amazing things with the resources they had. The flavor of the times is there and the movie focuses on small unit actions at platoon strength down to squad level. There is no encumbering love interest here. Just men and war. The crew has done a great job on details that will please war enthusiasts and it does convey a certain degree of realism in small unit actions. This is not "Where Eagles Dare," but a competent independent film that clocked in, I believe, at about 70 minutes. Filmed in Scotland and on military training grounds in Hampshire.
Estambul 65 (1965)
A fun and romantic snapshot in time
I have always been nostalgic about this Euro-Spy film. When very young, I picked up the soundtrack (which is still available if you look for it) and used to listen and dream about exotic locales, adventure, and of course about that special woman that would be a part of it all. I especially like(d) the Ray Anthony song "Love was Right Here all the Time" which plays at the end against a dark screen when the audience is supposed to leave the theater. Just minutes earlier the leading man, Horst Bucholz, had given his heart to the leading lady, then winked at the audience and confided verbally: "It happens to everyone sooner or later." Many in the audience must have smiled and left the matinée filled with no little amount of delight and renewed hope! Also available are lobby cards and a few B&W photos from the movie. If this movie was ever released on VHS in North America, I'm totally unaware of it. In Europe, yes, but apparently many years ago. I finally acquired a copy of this film, dubbed in English, and with Greek subtitles in DVD which had either been taken off Greek television, or a European VHS. My nostalgia was only increased by spending a week in Istanbul myself, as part of the People-to-People Program for "Student Ambassadors," five years after the movie came out. It is Istanbul as I remember it. Twenty-six years later I again journeyed across Turkey and can say that old, freer, almost magical feel that once was Istanbul was largely gone, and the same can be said for all the islands and seacoasts of the Eastern Mediterranean region. So, for me the movie is a fun and romantic snapshot in time.
Trader Horn (1931)
Perhaps the best of the jungle films
I took a chance on this with a purchase from one of the internet companies manufacturing DVDs from long out of print movie sources. This is a leisurely black and white film of two hours that peaked my interest on several occasions and kept me watching, avidly, for the entire course. The cast is great, with Carey playing a tough hunter-trader who nevertheless displays his tender moments as well. Renaldo, apparently a Romanian at birth, later became the Cisco Kid star of the television serial, plays a likable young man. The lovely Booth, who first appears as little more than a blonde animal, slowly begins to get in touch with her feminine side as the movie progresses. I liked these people along with the stoic and dependable gun-bearer. Filmed over seven months in just the right locations in Africa, the crew was plagued by the hostile elements: Booth became extremely ill as a consequence, and two extras actually died, one to a crocodile and the other to a charging rhinoceros. The movie therefore touched me personally and brought back old memories. In 1978 at the age of 23, the same age that Renaldo plays in the movie, I spent six months in Africa, first crossing the Sahara north to south, then from north Nigeria into Chad and into the Cameroon, Central African Empire, Zaire, and out through Uganda into Kenya. Judging from my experience, I believe that much of the film took place in the Cameroon, Central African Empire and northeastern Zaire (Congo). My troubles were not with marauding tribesmen, but with killer bees, various revolutions, sundry criminals, millions of army ants, bad water, and scorpions, etc. I personally attest that these are real Africans, real African villages, real animals, and this authenticity, including the native drums, brought me back to my youth and life living on the ground in a small tent through similar villages and terrain. Three exciting phases in the film hit me hard: all while in the native villages. When you are vastly outnumbered on somebody else's terrain and they are armed with spears and growing excited from the relentless throb of the drums, you might count your life in seconds. Ah, but it beats dying slowly behind a desk! You will flinch at several of the racist words in this film, but will also recognize the love and respect between Carey and his gun-bearer. Such emotions come easy between men who have each other's backs. Grab this film and sit back and enjoy without distraction!