THAT HAGEN GIRL

               

"That Hagan Girl" is a film about a teenage girl who lives in a small town, where the local residence has been gossiping about her behind her back since before she could talk.  When she was a baby, she was adopted by two ordinary towns folk and when she was brought to her new home one of the town’s folk noticed a resemblance between the baby and a local girl from a wealthy family, who had returned home that same evening.

The Hagan girl grows up not knowing about the event that took place the night she arrived, but then things begin to be revealed to her when a man that used to live in the same town, arrives and is claimed to be her father.

This film reminds me of another movie about a small town that also has a residence of gossipers. That film is called “Peyton Place,” in it evolves scandal, hidden secrets among the residence, and even murder.

“That Hagen Girl,” was filmed in 1947, it was based on the novel by Edith Kneipple Roberts. It was directed by Peter Godfrey, and stars American sweetheart Shirley Temple as Mary Hagen, along with future president Ronald Reagan who plays Tom Bates.

LON CHANEY SR. "THE MAN OF A THOUSAND FACES"

                               

Leonidas Frank Chaney a famous silent movie actor who was known as the “Man of a Thousand faces.” He is called this because of the extraordinary makeup he did on himself and his excellent portrayal of characters.  He is best known for his silent horror films; he played the original phantom in “Phantom of the Opera,” and was also the original hunchback from Victor Hugo’s novel The “Hunchback of Notre Dame.”

The first Lon Chaney film I watched was called the Unknown, It was filmed in 1927 and it’s about a man who was born with a double thumb on his left hand, played by Cheney, who poses as an armless knife thrower in a circus. He falls in love with his lovely assistant, who is played by Joan Crawford, who is attracted to the strong man, played by Norman Kerry, but is terrified of his arms. Later on in the film Joan Crawford’s character witnesses a murder, but she doesn’t see his faces she only notices the murder’s left hand and his double thumb. Frightened that he would be discovered and that he would never be loved by the girl if found out that he had arms, Chaney decides to cut his arms off. When Chaney returns he is told that Crawford and the strong man were going to be married. Not only it was heartbreaking to see how Chaney did all of this for nothing, but the emotion Chaney brought to that scene. Tears pouring down his face, it was like witnessing someone getting slapped in the face.

When movies began coming out with sound, they actually added sound to the already filmed “Phantom of the Opera,” but the only one who you didn’t hear say anything was the phantom. Chaney didn’t think it was right for the phantom to speak in it.  Another one of Chaney’s films that was remade with sound was The Unholy Three. It’s about a ventriloquist; a midget, a strong man, and a pickpocket who pretend to be owners of a pet store who later rob the houses of their wealthy customers. Lon Chaney’s character disguises himself as an old woman known as “Grandma O’Grady,” he wanted to do the voice of her himself so he chose the words carefully and spoke slowly.  In the original ending of the film when he was saying goodbye to his girlfriend who was leaving to be with another man, he was doing his act and using his dummy he said to her, “good bye ol’ pal.” He then lays the dummy on him and begins to cry, except with real tears. In the remake they’re at the train station saying good bye to Chaney’s character who was going to jail, but the ironic thing about this scene is that for a goodbye present, Chaney is given a box of cigarettes when in real life Chaney was battling with lung cancer. This was Chaney’s first talking film and the last film he was in. He died two months after the film was released.

Lon Chaney Sr. was born in Colorado Springs, Colorado on April 1, 1883 and died on August 26, 1930. And for some strange reason his crypt was left unnamed. Not only was Lon Chaney a terrifying actor but his son was too, Lon Chaney Jr. who played the original wolf man.

                                                    

THE HAUNTING

        

A film about a 90 year old mansion that is known to be evil, along with it its dark history.  In the movie the mansion (Hill House) belongs to an elderly woman who is asked by Dr. Markway, a scientist who is fascinated with ghost, superstition, and anything else that goes bump in the night, to observe the house with a group of handpicked assistants.

Even though Dr. Markway is permitted to do his experiment there is a problem. All of the assistants that he had chosen begin drop out of the experiment, all except for three. Theodora with an extraordinary gift of ESP, and then there’s Eleanor who lived in her sister’s living room in a small apartment. Who also use to be caretaker of their ailing mother. Then finally there’s Luke who is the heir of Hill house and was volunteered by his aunt to join them.

When the group arrives at Hill House strange things begin to happen inside the house. The feeling cold air in some of the rooms, strange faces seen in the walls, and very loud pounding noise coming from the halls. What I love about this movie is that they show no ghost… No projections, no men wearing bed sheets, which are more terrifying because it forces your imagination’s a worst fear take over.

This film was released in 1963 it is inspired by the novel, The Haunting of Hill House, written by Shirley Jackson. In 1999 it was remade but it was clearly not as good as the original. This film was directed by Robert Wise and it stars Richard Johnson, Julie Harris, Claire Bloom, and Russ Tamblyn. If you choose to watch this film I’d suggest that you don’t watch this alone.
         

WAR OF THE WORLDS

                        

This is about a war that is far worse than any war mankind could have ever created. A war between mankind and beings from another world. This was based on the 1898 science fiction novel written by H.G. Wells who earlier wrote The Time Machine. The movie was released in 1953 and is about a scientist that was on a fishing trip and gets called to investigate a meteor that had crashed near the town of Linda Rosa. When he gets there, he observes it and wonders why that it was so oddly lighter for its size, and why it didn’t make a bigger crater when it landed. He then tells some of the local town's people that it was radioactive and later that night some strange things begin to happen. None of the phones or lights were working anywhere in that area and at a local square dance everyone’s watches stop all at the same time and become magnetic. Even the local sheriff's compass is affected and pointed only towards the area where the meteor crashed.

The scientist and the sheriff head towards the crash site where they discovered that the meteor is no meteor at all, but a Martian space ship that tries destroy them with its deadly heat- ray that sticks up from the roof of the ship. The sound effects for the heat ray were pretty creative for a 1953 film.The sound of the heat ray was made by recording electric guitars and playing the recording backwords to create the deadly sound of the gun. The movie later won Oscars for their excellent special effects.

  

                

This film was remade in 2005 starring Mission Impossible Tom Cruise. This version’s story line was changed from H.G. Wells  original novel. In this one, it is about an inattentive divorced father, who was supposed to have his kids for only the weekend, but now he has to protect them from an alien invasion. This film also stars Dakota Fanning as Rachel and at the end of the movie they show her grandparents, who are Gene Berry and Ann Robison, the main characters from the original film of War of the Worlds. The director of the 1953 War of the Worlds was Byron Haskin and the director for the 2005 version was Steven Spielberg.

LOLITA

                                                  

Have you ever been in a relationship and the person you were seeing was a few years younger than you were? Some would be a little concerned while others wouldn’t think much of it, but what would happen if say you were a middle aged man and you fall in love with a girl that was more than twenty years younger than you were?

Well in this movie middle aged man, Professor Humbert Humbert (yes that is the character’s name) played by James Mason, becomes obsessed with young fourteen year old Lolita played by Sue Lyon. He meets the young girl during his vacation at her house that had an extra room for rent. There he also meets Lolita’s mother who is a love sick widow played by Shelly Winters who tries awfully hard to capture the attention of the professor.  After realizing he wants to always be with Lolita and yet avoid any suspicion he must marry the girl’s mother to be close to her.

Later in the movie Lolita’s mother finds out that the professor has had feelings for her daughter. Out raged she decides to leave him except in that process she is hit and killed by a moving car. This makes things a bit complicated for the professor because he must now be the father of the girl he’s in love with and also has to hide her from a mysterious stalker who is also very attracted to Lolita as well. This movie was released in 1962 and is based on the novel “Lolita” written by Vladimir Nabokov

                                                          

REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE

                                                   

This film is about an emotionally confused and very prideful, rebellious, middle class teenager (Jim) who has just moved into a new town with his family. He doesn’t get along with his parents; and his mother, who is very demanding to his father, is always getting criticized by her mother-in-law. In turn, his father gets pushed around by his wife and doesn’t stand up for himself.

In the movie, Jim meets two other teenagers with their own troubles at home. He meets and befriends a lonely boy named John, but calls himself Plato. Plato had lost his father and his mother was never at home but often sent him money. Jim also meets a pretty girl named Judy, who feels as though her father loves her younger brother more and that every time she tries to be more loving to her father, he disapproves.

In one part of the film, Jim is challenged by Judy’s boyfriend Buzz and his gang to a “Chicken Run” where they take stolen cars and try to race to the edge of a cliff. First one to jump out of the car loses but when they do the race Buzz gets trapped in his car and plummets to his death. Jim wants to tell the police what had happened but his parents won’t let him and he also has Buzz’s old vengeful gang after him too. This was film was released in 1955 starring James Dean as Jim and Natalie Wood as Judy.
                   

REBECCA

                                          

A young naive woman meets and falls in love with a wealthy widower, suffering over the thoughts of his dead wife Rebecca. They marry and move into his castle-like mansion where she doesn’t seem to be approved of by the servants. Who were, and still are, just as loyal to the first wife as though she were still alive. The woman feels as though she is not good enough for her husband. She believes he wishes that Rebecca was still alive and that he were married to her instead. This was released in 1940 and it starred Joan Fontaine and Sir Laurence Oliver, also directed by the terrifying Alfred Hitchcock.