The Premature Burial.

Review #2434: The Premature Burial.

Cast:  

Ray Milland (Guy Carrell), Heather Angel (Kate Carrell, Guy's Sister), Hazel Court (Emily Gault, Guy's Wife), Alan Napier (Dr. Gideon Gault), Richard Ney (Miles Archer), John Dierkes (Sweeney), Dick Miller ("Mole"), Clive Halliday (Judson), and Brendan Dillon (Clergyman)

Produced and Directed by Roger Corman (#368 - The Little Shop of Horrors, #684 - It Conquered the World, #852 - The Terror, #931 - Not of This Earth, #1007 - Attack of the Crab Monsters, #1039 - Five Guns West, #1042 - War of the Satellites, #1136 - Gas-s-s-s, #1147 - X: The Man with the X-ray Eyes, #1186 - A Bucket of Blood, #1423 - The Wild Angels, #1425 - The St. Valentine's Day Massacre, #1674 - Machine-Gun Kelly, #1684 - Creature from the Haunted Sea, #1918 - House of Usher, #2030 - The Trip, #2113 - The Undead, #2211 - The Intruder, #2275 - The Wasp Woman, #2295 - The Pit and the Pendulum)

Review: 

Apparently, when Roger Corman was making films for American International Pictures, there came a time to settle differences of his fee with a coin toss. He and Samuel Z. Arkoff would flip a coin...and Arkoff won a handful of times that made Corman interested to venture for himself. He went to Pathe Lab to try and finance a film, since they did their own print work and financed a few AIP movies. He got Charles Beaumont and Ray Russell to do the script but had to go with Ray Milland for the lead due to Vincent Price being in an exclusive AIP contract. And then...AIP arrived on the first day of production to say that they were now partners on this film, as they leveraged the position of not having any more lab work to become partners on what became this film. While the movie made some money with audiences, Corman reflected later that the response meant that the formula "had to be varied." The next "Poe Cycle" movie was Tales of Terror (1962), released four months later that was an anthology feature with Price and other noted names. The movie is inspired by the short story of the same name, as written by Edgar Allan Poe in 1844 that had an unnamed narrator with fears of being buried alive with "catalepsy" that tries to cope with the phobia...although that story ends with one ending their obsession with death.

It isn't a forgettable movie, but it definitely is one that shows strain. It may interest you to know that Milland was an Academy Award winning actor, having previously won it for The Lost Weekend (1945). The Welsh actor had a lengthy career, and he was more than happy to be a character actor in his later years with the occasional lead or two, as one might recognize him from AIP's 1963 classic (at least that's how I remember it) X: The Man with the X-ray Eyes (1963); Milland acted until shortly before his death in 1986 at the age of 79. Unfortunately, The Premature Burial is not among his highlights, mainly because the movie does not give him to really do. It isn't merely a case of the movie needing the services of Price (four years younger than Milland, although each was already in their fifties by 1962), it just seems like a movie that is trying to coast on what you already saw from the last two Poe AIP movies and flailing. You want to see a worthy tragedy, you want to see something that could inspire anxiety and curiosity, but Milland can only do so much for a movie that doesn't really have a mystery or tragedy to it. You could almost pick a random actor from Milland's heyday to do this and possibly still have the same effect. It does not help that Court and Ney have absolutely nothing to contribute for what is meant to be a curiosity: a woman who wants to associate with a guy who believes he is doomed and a doctor in the middle of looking at his mental state. But they don't really stick in your mind for anything other than "okay". The sense of doom just seems like the previous two Poe movies but with diminishing returns besides the cemetary maybe being a different angle to look at this time. The dream sequence might be the most noted sequence in the whole film (which only runs at 81 minutes anyway) because it seems lurid and eerie in ways that actually makes one wonder where the rest of the energy went. The movie just isn't as fun as it really could be, managing to be a bit too cozy to really make anyone get chills for something that could've been a fun mystery or a look at a strange person. As it stands, it isn't a bad movie, but it just isn't accomplished enough to really recommend when there are better things elsewhere.

Overall, I give it 6 out of 10 stars.

Mrs. Miniver.

Review #1360: Mrs. Miniver.

Cast: 
Greer Garson (Kay Miniver), Walter Pidgeon (Clem Miniver), Teresa Wright (Carol Beldon), Dame May Whitty (Lady Beldon), Reginald Owen (Foley), Henry Travers (Mr. Ballard), Richard Ney (Vin Miniver), Henry Wilcoxon (The Vicar), Christopher Severn (Toby Miniver), Brenda Forbes (Gladys), and Clare Sandars (Judy Miniver) Directed by William Wyler (#509 - Roman Holiday and #1022 - Jezebel)

Review: 
War-time films could come in many genres, and 1942 is a prominent one to spotlight. After all, this film dominated the Academy Awards for its year, winning for Best Picture, Director, Actress, Supporting Actress, Screenplay, and Cinematography. The film is based on a series of newspapers columns for The Times by Jan Struther, which had started in 1937 (with a collection of those columns being published into a book in 1939) on an ordinary sort of woman with ordinary sort of life, with most of the essays being done before World War II was declared, and four writers were credited for adapting it to the screen: Arthur Wimperis, George Froeschel, James Hilton, and Claudine West. At the hand is a director with a prime like no other in William Wyler, who came from working at Universal Studios as a stage cleaner and mover to director of Western quickies in two years. In the next decade, he would hone his craft in a variety of genres from drama to comedy that would lead to plenty of notice with films such as Dodsworth (1936) and Wuthering Heights (1939). A noted perfectionist, he would generally insist on multiple re-takes, which proved to be worth it for several actors, directing 36 actors to Academy Award nominations and 14 to wins, both records. He directed films in six decades until his last with The Liberation of L.B. Jones (1970). Garson and Pidgeon make for a well-rounded bunch of leads (with this being the 2nd of eight collaborations, including a sequel with The Miniver Story eight years later), both having risen from stage to screen (the former in the 30s, the latter in the late 20s) to carry a movie that certainly rouses plenty of spirit and inspiration to make for a solid romance war drama, one wrapped in sentiment under propaganda that makes its mark most of the time.

It certainly rose plenty of spirits, with Winston Churchill once stating that it had done more for the war effort than a flotilla of destroyers, and Franklin D. Roosevelt had ordered the final speech (involving how this is a "war of the people", not just soldiers) broadcast over radio. That speech was written by Wilcoxin (the one who says the striking words) and Wyler the night before filming it. Regardless of its war elements, there is a tender touch to the film that manages to resonate in drama after nearly eight decades that can't be lost to time. It works with a 133 minute pace in holding its family aspects and the looming war together with patience and skill. Garson commands the screen with grace, a courage in the manner of the stiff upper-lip that resonates for her time on screen. Pidgeon does just as much in conveying charm with capable chemistry in the ways you would expect with Garson alongside other scenes when dealing with the war efforts. Wright makes her presence clear any time she is on screen, a vivid and ideal one in a weary-but-able world. A noted actress of the screen (along with her charity work during the first World War) before making her screen debut at 72 in 1935, Whitty strikes attention with no trouble at all, marked with discipline in her nerves in her moments on screen. The other members of the cast do just fine in rounding out the elements necessary to make for capable drama in perseverance. It is the kind of stuff that can drive emotions out for passion, for sacrifice and support that one can still identify with in some way in our trying times today, whether one resides in Europe or elsewhere. For the most part, the film knows where to go in making capable entertainment, and it rightfully endures as a fair gem for both its director and Metro Goldwyn Mayer.

Overall, I give it 9 out of 10 stars.