BUNNY LAKE IS MISSING

                                           

 From the 1957 novel “Bunny Lake is Missing” this is the 1965 film about an American mother who had just moved to England with her brother and is now in a panic to find her missing four year old daughter Bunny. Whom, she claims to have dropped off on the first day of school, except there’s no sign of her anywhere. The teachers have no record of her; the children hadn’t seen or heard of her, and when they called for the police they didn’t even have a picture of her to show them.

Now a peculiar thing happens when the police arrive at the mother’s home. They weren’t able to find anything that belonged to the missing child. No toys, no books, and no clothes it didn’t even look like a child was there.

 Bunny’s mother was in a panic because now the police began to wonder if there was even a real missing child, and if there was who took her? Could it have been Wilson the eccentric landlord, whom seemed to have a thing for Bunny’s mother and isn’t too crazy about cops. Or could it have been one of the head mistresses of the school Bunny was supposedly to be at? An elderly retired woman living in a room above the school, who liked the children to come up and see her so she could ask them about their dreams and document them. Maybe it was the school’s cook, who said that she would watch the girl ten minutes before school started. But, then leave because of some criticism on her cooking. What about the brother? He seems to have an unusually close relationship with his sister, and he was the one willing to pay for an abortion to be done for his unmarried pregnant sister.  Or maybe Bunny really doesn’t exist? Bunny could have been imagined by the so called mother, who once (when she was child) had an imaginary friend named Bunny. So many possibilities but only one answer, what do you think happened?

VILLAGE OF THE DAMNED

Village of the Damned, based on the novel (Midwich Cuckoos) written by John Wyndam. It takes place in a British village of Midwich, where a strange blackout occurs. It is strange, because in this blackout everyone (including the animals) in this village passed out and become unconscious. Also, anyone who walked into that area would go unconscious as well. After a view hours everyone in the village began to wake up. They were confused, not sure what was going on or what happened. Some even said  that when they woke up they felt cold, ice cold.

A few months after the blackout, a lot of the town’s women became pregnant. Some young, some middle age, but the strange thing was that some of the women were virgins as well.  They all give birth on the same day, and all the babies have strange features. Thin finger nails, white- blondish hair, and very unusual eyes.

To find out the mystery, watch the movie which is available in two versions: either the original (1960), or the John Carpenter’s version, created in 1995, and remember, “Beware the Children!”

STAND BY ME

Do you remember those summer days of just goofing off with your friends? Going to summer camps, water parks, movies, finding a dead body in the woods?  Wait? Well… Maybe not that, but for one group of friends it did happen. The movie is based on the novel (The Body) written by director Steven King. It’s about four small town boys going on a journey in search for the missing body of a farm boy who was hit by a local train. Now I will say this film does have some bad language, and some squeamish parts in it. But in all honesty this is a great film, and I think everyone should see it at least once. The movie was filmed in 1986 directed by Rob Reiner, starring Wil Wheaton, River Phoenix, Jerry O’Connel, Corey Feldman, and Kiefer Sutherland.

HALLOWEEN and NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET

                                                

It’s that time of year again, the time for ghost, curses, haunted houses, and best of all: scary movies. Now, what better movie to watch on Hallow’s eve than the terrifying classic, Halloween. Now, what do we really know about this movie?  Other than a psychopath  in a mask trying to kill you, with scary music playing in the background. The movie was released in 1978, introducing the now famous movie actress Jamie Lee Curtis. Now I have mentioned before that Jamie Lee Curtis is the daughter of famous movie actor Tony Curtis, but what I didn’t mention is that she is also the daughter of Janet Leigh. Janet Leigh is known for her unforgettable shower scene, from one of Alfred Hitchcock’s most popular movies Phsyco. So hoping that she inherited her mother’s scream, Jamie got the part. Another thing you might not know about the film is how they got the mask for the scary phsyco killer Michel Myers. The makers of Halloween had received different masks to choose from: a clown mask, a captain James T. Kirk mask, and a Richard Nixon mask. Now from looking back on what the mask looks like, which mask do you think they chose? If you said James T. Kirk, you’re right. The makers didn’t want Michael Myers to have any facial expressions on him, and they thought the Captain Kirk mask showed the least expressions on it so they chose it. They made the eye holes wider on the mask, added some hair plugs, and sprayed the mask white. Now, thanks to that, it is a face we will never forget.

                                      

Speaking of faces we will never forget, what comes to mind when I say… Freddy Krueger? A deformed figure trying to kill you in your dreams? The scariest version of the boogey man you’ll ever encounter? Or as your parents would have put it, just a little nightmare? Well, the creator of this film got the idea from real life reports on people that didn’t want to sleep.  One of the reports was about a teenage boy too scared to fall asleep, because he had these nightmares about a man trying to kill him. His doctors gave him sleeping pills to fall asleep, but one night he actually did die. They didn’t know the cause, but when someone looked under his bed they found all of the boy’s sleeping pills he was supposedly taking.  And just like in Michael Myers, there was still the matter of what this terrifying being of the night should look like. Well one night at a pizza parlor, one of the creators ordered a pepperoni pizza. When he got it he started rearranging the pepperonis, and got the idea for Freddy Krueger’s face.  Also this movie would be the start of one very popular movie actor career. The great Johnny Depp. It was actually one of the producer’s daughter that mentioned he should be in it. Although the producer was a bit skeptical he was no match for his daughter’s per swaying. So lock your doors, board your windows, and say your prayers. Oh, and Hallow’s eve if you dare…

THE TIME MACHINE

Have you ever thought about the future? Not just college intuition, but the future.  Flying cars, moving sidewalks, and robotic butlers. Well, one Victorian inventor thought a lot about it. He believed he was born in a horrible century. He hated the thought of man being so destructive and so corrupt with violence that he decided to find a different time zone to live in. A century with no wars; a place where he could live with civilized humans. So, on that note, he decided to build a time machine. But once he found what he thought was his paradise, it turns out that it’s worse than the time period he actually came from.

The Time Machine was based off of the H.G. Wells’ 1895 novel. For some who may not know: H.G. Wells is also the writer of the original War of the Worlds. The movie stars Rod Taylor, Yvette Mimieux, and Alan Young. If you had a time machine, where would you go?

BRINGING UP BABY

What do you get with a stuffed shirt paleontologist, an eccentric childish heiress, and a leopard? A whole lot of confusion and a mess of chaos. It all starts when the paleontologist is trying to get a million dollar investment for his museum’s latest exhibit. And in the process he meets an eccentric woman with an unusual sense of logic that always gets them into more trouble than they we’re already in. And if you don’t think that’s bad enough, later on in the movie the woman receives a leopard. Yes,  a leopard, a tamed leopard named “Baby”. Cary Grant stars as the paleontologist along with Katherine Hepburn as the heiress, who had a hard time doing comedy naturally. Carey Grant stepped in and helped Hepburn with it, and showed her how not to put too much effort into it. Bringing Up Baby was filmed in 1938 it is a screwball comedy and a hilarious one at that.

THE ARTIST

I was actually a little disappointed with this movie. I don’t know if it’s because I’ve seen so many other silent film movies that I’m used to how they’re filmed, or I just don’t like how they filmed this one. I don’t know if this movie was a tribute to silent films and they just added a bit of a twist to it, or if they were just trying to make a modern version of a silent film. Either way I wasn’t too impressed. I didn’t like how they made it more of a modern version of the 1920’s, the mannerisms and the dialogue were off, they picked too many clean cut modern faces to be in this film, and it all just didn’t fit. Nothing really flowed, they didn’t put much effort into their acting and they made it look a bit corny. In silent movie dramas, they had to put in a lot of emotion into the films. They did this because the movie had no sound effects and they really wanted you to know how they felt. In "The Artist," the only emotion the main character showed was depression, in other silent films if they were depressed they would add rage, confusion, and just basically die inside little by little. He didn’t show any variation or major skill in acting. I’ll admit there were a few good parts in the film, but the rest was just mediocre. Two very good silent films that I have seen are: The Red Lilly, and The Wind. If you have seen The Artist  and didn’t enjoy it, don’t worry, the original silent films are not like that.

THE LAST MAN ON EARTH

The Last Man on Earth is a 1964 science fiction, staring famous horror film actor Vincent Price. This movie is based on the novel, I Am Legend, sound familiar? That is because I Am Legend is one of the remakes of this film. Now in remakes, there are differences from the original: some good, some bad. In both movies, the story is about a man that lives in an isolated environment and is starving for companionship, while trying to survive the dangers of the outside world. In The Last Man on Earth, Vincent Price is defending himself from what used to be humans, but are now, as he describes them, to be killer vampires. In I Am Legend, however, the protagonist is more of the character (Will Smith) fighting off zombies with cancer. In the original, it seems like Vincent Price is more used to how things are and maybe a little more tired and angry at the fact that he’s all alone, in I Am Legend Will Smith is trying to make things normal, he tries to go on with his life knowing he could be the last human out there, but you can see that he’s losing it little by little. I’ll admit the special effects are better in the new version but both story lines are very good. The background stories, the hatred of being alone, and the big question of wondering if everything will ever go back to the way it was before.

SOME LIKE IT HOT

  Some Like it Hot stars the very funny Jack Lemmon, the very famous Marilyn Monroe, and Jamie Lee Curtis’ father Tony Curtis. It was filmed in 1958 and was released in 1959, the movie is about two musicians who are in need of work and accidentally witness a murder. The murder was committed by mob leader Spats Colombo played by George Raft, who notices the two musicians. Terrified, the two decided to flee to Miami with another band, except that band is an all-girl band. Now in this movie the two must disguise themselves as women, but back then everything was very modest and appropriate. When they showed the prescreening for this film a lot of people left the screening; covering their children’s eyes and feeling appalled by what they saw in the film. After that the studio decided to get a whole new group of random people, and once they showed it to this group, they loved it. These days we wouldn’t find it that inappropriate, we would just find it as good clean fun, unlike today's movies with all the vulgar language and unnecessary nudity. So choose your movies, clean, fun or slutty trash, but sometimes it depends on the time.

DR. ZHIVAGO

Recently, I watched a movie called Dr. Zhivago, and as I watched it I noticed some similarities to some same stuff happening in our world today. In the movie, Dr. Zhivago is very creative; he loves to write poetry and he loves watching his window get covered in ice in the winter and watch all the little shapes it would make. He also enjoys seeing spring appear with all the flowers blooming. The government however does not approve.  They do not like how Dr. Zhivago talks about his religion in his poetry, they don’t like what he believes in.  Basically, they do not like how he’s not following in what they believe in. The government controls everything: everyone is equal (rich or poor), and even children are taken from their families at the government’s orders. Can anyone tell me about a government that is similar today?

CLINT EASTWOOD

Clinton Eastwood Jr., a hard core American actor, was born in San Francisco on May 13, 1930. He was noticed by an assistant who was working for Universal Studios and arranged for him to meet Arthur Lubin, director of the series Rawhide. Lubin was impressed with Clint’s appearance and 6-foot-4-inch (1.93m) frame, but Lubin was a bit skeptical about Clint’s acting skills. Clint was a little bit amateur in his audition and had no sense of direction either. But after taking a few acting classes, he signed for a $100 per week contract. Clint did get criticized about his stiff mannerisms, hissing his lines out and of course his now famous squint.

I like him not only as a director but also as a great actor. In all of his movies and along with many other actors, Clint gets different characters, except… it almost looks like he’s not trying to act. His real personality relates to his characters, which makes his acting look a little more real.  He always keeps to himself in his movies and is quiet in the background somewhere.  He never acts like the main character or the hero in his movies, even when he’s directing a movie that stars himself in it, like The Outlaw of Josey Whales.

When Clint Eastwood was born, he was 11lbs, 6oz and (5.2.kg) he was known to be the biggest baby born in his town.  Now, he is known as an actor, director, producer, composer, and politician. Clint will always be known for one of his best characters, “the Man with No Name”, from Sergio Leone’s Dollars trilogy along with other famous spaghetti westerns like my favorite: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly. Eastwood has done over 50 films in his career as actor, director, producer, and composer. He acted in several televised series, mostly starring in Rawhide of course. He started his directing career in 1971, and in 1982 he debut as a producer for Firefox. Clint also contributed music to his movies by composing, writing, or even by performing. Eastwood has mainly starred in westerns, action, and dramas. He is a wonderful actor and director and we all cherish his squint!

MGM

Metro-Golden-Mayer is an American media company known for their distribution of movies and their televised programing. MGM was once the biggest and most phenomenal film studio out there. The studio was founded in 1924 by entertainment’s own entrepreneur Marcus Loew, who gained access to Metro Pictures and Goldwyn Pictures Corporation along with Louis B. Mayer pictures. Its headquarters is in Beverly Hills, California.

MGM’s official motto is ”Ars Gratia Artis,” and for those of you who don’t speak Latin, it means “Art for art sake.” This motto was chosen by the studio’s chief publicist Howard Dietz. The logo for MGM is the shot of a lion roaring, surrounded by a ring of film with the studio’s motto inscribed on it. This image was also created by Dietz who made it in 1916 for Goldwyn Pictures, then updated it in 1924 for MGM’s use. Dietz got the idea for the logo from his Alma Mater’s mascot, the Columbia University Lion. Originally the image was silent; the actual roar was added for the first time in August of 1928.

At the end of the silent film era to the late 1950’S, Metro-Golden –Mayer was the big time motion pictures studio in Hollywood. It slowly responded to the legal changes of the 1950’s and 1960’s in the economic and demographic nature of the motion picture industry of those times. Although at times the studio’s films did well at the box office they were still losing money throughout the 1960’s. MGM has worked with legendary icons such as Lucile Ball, Spencer Tracy, Gene Kelly.  MGM has done 4,100 memorable films that inspired many new comers to the filming business and have many classics that people will cherish worldwide.

HAROLD LLOYD

Harold Lloyd is a famous American silent movie actor. He was one of the most popular movie actors out there along with Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton. He made almost 200 movies, silent and also some films with audio, which he made later.  He started acting in one-reel films shortly after moving to California. Harold also started working for Thomas Edison’s motion pictures company, and eventually partnered up with fellow struggling actor and director, Hal Roach, who formed his own studio in 1913. The hard-working Lloyd was the most successful out of all of Roach’s comical actors between 1915 and 1919.

In real life, Harold didn’t want anyone to shake his right hand; If he knew you well or liked you he would let you shake his hand. The reason for this was because on his right hand he only had three fingers. In the shooting for one of his silent films, Harold was supposed to light a cigar with a fake bomb, except somehow that fake bomb turned out to be a real bomb! The real bomb exploded shortly after lighting and left Lloyd unconscious and when he finally woke up, he looked down and noticed that his thumb and index finger were blown off. For the rest of his career he had to wear skin-colored gloves and had two fake fingers.

Now, because he was an actor, Harold Lloyd wore lots of makeup. When he was off set he didn’t wear any and looked completely different from his character on the screen. And because of that, he could go to a local park unnoticed and sit at a nearby bench and would wait till someone sat next to him. Once he had company, he would start asking them questions, mostly about himself. He did this because he wanted to know who his fans were, they never figured out it was him and so he always got a kick out of that. In the 1994 comedy, Dumb and Dumber, there are two characters: Lloyd Christmas and Harry Dunne, these Characters were actually named after the great Harold Lloyd. Harold was born on April 20, 1893 and died on March 8, 1971 and we will remember him from his great acting, witty comments, and of course his amazing physical comedy.

THE COURT JESTER

The Court Jester was filmed in 1956, starring: Danny Kaye, Angela Lansbury, and Basil Rathbone.  This movie takes place in medieval times; Danny Kaye plays a nave that works for the notorious outlaw, “The Black Fox,” and goes on a mission disguised as the king’s jester while trying to dethrone the king.  This film shows off most of Danny Kaye’s many talents, for example: singing, dancing, and of course: making people laugh. One of the ways he did that was talking really fast. His quick speech made it seem like he was speaking a different language. He also did it in regular English too, of course.         

A fun fact about the movie is that while shooting the film, Danny Kaye and Basil Rathbone, aka the original Sherlock Holmes, would do a sword fight routine. Danny Kaye didn’t really know how to sword fight so they hired a fight choreographer to teach him the technique. They managed to do the fight scene so fast that Basil Rathbone couldn’t do it, so they let the choreographer do most of the scene while wearing a wig and costume.

This film is for all ages and is family friendly. The movie is crowded full of kings, knights, outlaws and a superstitious medieval witch. My favorite part about the movie is how Danny Kaye preformed for the king. With his fast talking, singing, and dancing it almost looked like he didn’t need to rehearse, he would just go out there and make the audience laugh.  If you enjoyed this movie, you would also appreciate Danny Kaye’s: Secret Life of Walter Mitty, a movie about a man whose addiction to daydreaming causes him to meet the girl of his dreams. Thank you for reading my summary and I hope you enjoy the movies I write about, please visit again for further analysis and suggestions for great classic movies.

Secret Life of Walter Mitty Trailer

THE BAD SEED

This horror movie is about what looks like a normal little girl, but is really not. No one knows, not even the ones closest to her, how she’ll trick and deceive and lie to everyone. She looks about nine years old and she’s very prim and proper. She prefers dresses over jeans, and in many ways she seems like a perfect, stereotypical, middle class, American girl. In reality, she’s a psychopath. She manipulates those closest to her and even kills to get whatever she wants.  I believe the movie is great because of the level of deception towards the audience, and the level of acting it requires. 

My first favorite scene is when they introduce Leroy, who is the maintenance man who lives in the basement. When I first watched the movie, it was unclear to me who was really the bad seed and Leroy seemed like the perfect suspect. His appearance is creepy from his mannerisms to his greasy, oily hair. Even his dirty smirk makes you not want to make eye contact with him. This scene is important because it makes you focus on Leroy instead of the real killer.

                Later in the movie, Rhoda kills Leroy. She had to kill him because he caught on to her trail of the murder she committed. He would taunt her and taunt her again about how the police would find out how she killed her victim and what she used to kill the victim with. Leroy lives in the basement of the boarding house where Rhoda lives. He sleeps on a bed of hay on the floor next to the furnace. What Rhoda did was she snuck a couple of matches in the apron of her dress and went down to the basement and lit Leroy’s bed of hay on fire, while he was still down there.  This scene is important because it shows how nothing will get into Rhoda’s way. I also like this part because it brings a new level of how dangerous this little girl can be.

 Rhoda doesn’t have a bad life, she is not neglected, her parents don’t beat her, and everyone loves her. Well… except for Leroy.  So here’s the question, why does Rhoda act like this? It’s actually because of her grandmother, who was one of the most wanted female killers in the country. She had two children: a girl, Rhoda’s mother, and a boy who was later killed by his mother. She finally ran off and left Rhoda’s mother behind and was later found and was adopted.  As for Rhoda’s grandmother, most say she finally died, but no one really knew because she always changed her name. This scene is also important because it shows why a sweet looking kid with a good life would act like this. I like this scene because it’s different from other psycho movies. Other movies would use drug abuse, medical conditions, or rage, but this is different because it’s genetics.

This is a great movie for those who are just getting interested with older movies. It’ll make you think there are other older movies like this. Also, it’s a movie you’ll remember and will make you want to see it again. There are other films like this, if you like this type of genre: The Devil and Daniel Webster is a movie about the devil purchasing human souls. So, return to my site for instructions on how to keep your soul out of the hands of the devil’s debt collectors. Thank you for reading my analyses on The Bad Seed and continue visiting my blog for further discussion on the filming and acting of some of my favorite classic movies.