Louisiana Story (1948, Flaherty) - Visit to oil rig

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Louisiana Story (1948, USA, Flaherty)

I love those jawdropping moments in this marathon when I realize that I’m watching something unlike anything I’ve seen that came before it.  This is one of those moments, an almost dialogueless movie about a boy who lives in the swamp.  Watched it all.  Louisiana Story apparently has a reputation just slightly better than Triumph of the Will, because it was financed by Standard Oil and shows oil exploration as being not entirely evil and actually kind of exciting.  Which makes you wonder what kind of alternative energy source some people think we should have been using for the last 60 years.

Ladies of the Chorus (1948, USA, Karlson)

Another nice thing about a chronological movie marathon is that it becomes more apparent what the new stars have, that the old stars didn’t.  I’m not sure how to describe what it is Marilyn Monroe has here, especially when the movie itself is so bad, but it’s certainly something.  Watched: 18 minutes.

Operation Swallow / Kampen om tungtvannet (1948, Norway, Dréville)

In this alternate history SF, a team of Norwegian saboteurs, who live on moss and reindeer blood, prevent the invention of a terrifying Nazi superweapon.  Wait .. this really happened?!  Huh.  Watched it all.  Apart from the sabotage scenes this is mostly a crappy movie, from the tell-not-show school of filmmaking, but see it as a reenactment, featuring many of the actual saboteurs.

The Kissing Bandit (1948, USA, Benedek)

Frank Sinatra returns to Spanish California to become an innkeeper, or maybe even a bandit, why not?  Watched: 11 minutes.