No Time to Be Young (1957, USA)
The young people today, they’re psychopaths, frauds, whiners, sluts, and criminals. Civilization is doomed. Watched it all.
The Spirit of St. Louis (1957, USA, Wilder)
The life of Charles A. Lindbergh, or at least the part of it that didn’t involve being a Nazi. If anyone can make a biopic that doesn’t suck it’s Billy Wilder, but probably not even he could make one that is actually worth watching. Biopics are the spawn of Satan’s own commitee meetings. Just don’t. Watched: 12 minutes.
Quatermass 2 (1957, UK)
It’s becoming clear where Dr Who got its combination of sci-fi and horror from. Quatermass should be designated an honorary 0th Doctor. Watched it all.
The Depraved (1957, USA)
Boy meets girl. Girl has asshole husband. Boy murders husband. (Boy probably goes to prison?) The asshole husband in this movie is unusually sadistic, but in a believable way. He’s the sort of petty, tyrannical lord of the household you’re prepared to believe may really exist. It makes the old story feel not so old any more, and if it wasn’t for everything else about this movie, it could have been good. Watched: 34 minutes.
The 27th Day (1957, USA)
Ooh, look! It’s the earliest movie I’ve seen where ordinary people are kidnapped by aliens! Unfortunately, they’re the kind of passive-aggressive aliens who put their victims through tests to make some tiresome point about cosmic peace. “You want to destroy your world? Sure, have these super-weapons, go ahead. See if we care.” Watched: 14 minutes.
No biopics, eh ?
I hope you’ve ticked off ‘Lawrence of Arabia’ for the next decade’s screening,.
There are one or two good biopics.. But a _lot_ of horrible ones. I’ll get to Lawrence of Arabia at some point, but I’ve seen it a couple of times already. What’s fun is discovering movies I haven’t heard about, and wouldn’t have discovering by trusting some kind of canon.
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