Tag: Peter Graves

Rapid Response: Airplane!

 

I watched “Airplane!” an embarrassing number of times as a teenager. I had seen it so many times that I convinced myself it was one of my favorite movies that I would never put on any “Best Of” list ever and that I would be sick of it were I to watch it again.

It’s been several years and I finally watched it again. I can say that it is notoriously stupid and goofy but oh so hilarious. If there was ever a movie you would feel sillier, more childish and immature for loving after watching it, it would be this one.

It is so completely goofy and random and gets a way with murder. There isn’t a moment of “Airplane!” that can be taken seriously. Sight gag after sight gag goes by unchallenged, the movie finds ways to be racist and sexist in more ways than one, it liberally parodies iconic films without any reason for doing so, it is crude, sexual, violent and offensive to an extreme, and its now famous dialogue is not so much clever as it is convenient set ups based on literal translations of common movie cliches and expressions.

In that way, the film shares less in common with the random, ridiculous comedies of its day like Monty Python or Mel Brooks films, but more in common with the movies that all use BIG RED TEXT in their titles today, “films” like “Scary Movie,” “Epic Movie,” “Superhero Movie” or “Meet the Spartans.” Continue reading “Rapid Response: Airplane!”

The Night of the Hunter (1955)

Charles Laughton’s one and only film “The Night of the Hunter” is an all time classic.

One of the greatest of all American directors only made one film in his career. Charles Laughton made “The Night of the Hunter” in 1955 after a long and reputable career as an actor, only to see his film fail financially and be critically misunderstood. Laughton died seven years later, but today his film is seen as a true cinematic achievement.

It’s story is not completely unique, but it is a fine example of a film that bends genres, that escapes confines of time and reality without distancing itself from something relatable and that endures in its quality and impact.

Robert Mitchum plays the film’s iconic villain, the “preacher” Harry Powell. Powell claims to be a man of God, walking around with the words “love” and “hate” tattooed on his fingers to illustrate the Lord’s way of governing mankind. When he meets Ben Harper (Peter Graves) in prison and learns that Ben hid $10,000 somewhere on his property, he believes it to be a message from God.

But the secret location of the money is hidden with Ben’s two children, John and Pearl. They’ve pledged an oath of loyalty to their now executed father to protect one another and never reveal the location of the money to anyone. When Powell tracks down the family and marries their widowed mother Willa (Shelley Winters), “The Night of the Hunter” becomes a suspenseful tale of faith and trust.

It’s a brilliantly conceived thriller with a minimal concept. One party is loved and trusted by everyone else, and the other is uncertain with no one who will listen or believe. This was hardly a new concept and far from the last of its kind. But “The Night of the Hunter” models Roger Ebert’s adage that a film is not what it is about but how it is about it. Continue reading “The Night of the Hunter (1955)”