holy shit there’s a train coming!

Favorite New-to-Me Films of March

(presented in the order in which I watched them)

As always, if any of these films catch your eye and you need content warnings, don’t hesitate to ask and I’ll do my best!

Mama Behave (1926)

[letterboxd | imdb]

Lolita has gotten bored of her fuddy-duddy, homebody husband, Charles. Via their faithful butler, Charles learns that Lolita wishes he were more like his outgoing twin brother, Jim. So, naturally, Charles schemes to impersonate his brother to prank Lolita and teach her a lesson. Things go as well as you might expect.

All around, Mama Behave might not rank among the best Charley Chase shorts, but Mildred Harris as the dissatisfied wife Lolita made the movie for me. As the short progresses, she becomes increasingly rambunctious and unruly. I wouldn’t go so far as to say Harris is the low-key star of the short, but Chase (and director Leo McCarey) gave her some solid gags to work with. I also appreciated the meta joke of Charles’ twin brother being called Jim! (Chase’s earlier shorts feature him playing a character called Jimmy Jump.) Mama Behave is simply fun!

——— ——— ———

The Pony Express (1925)

[letterboxd | imdb]

In 1860s California, the shady senator Glen intends on seceding from the union and building his own empire out of the state. “Frisco Jack” Weston, a professional gambler and crack shot, runs afoul of the senator for his outspoken (and popular) pro-union, anti-slavery views. Weston eludes the senator’s thugs and ends up in Julesburg, Colorado. There, Jack gets inducted into the newly formed Pony Express, with the solemn duty of delivering mail across the western states. When Abraham Lincoln is elected president, Glen maneuvers to keep the news from reaching California as part of his secession plot. Jack suspects the plot and manages to get the news west anyhow and foils the senator’s scheme.

Broadly speaking, Western films are not my bag. I watched Pony Express along with a bunch of James Cruze’s other extant films when I was researching my recent Lost but Not Forgotten article on Beggar on Horseback. And, I should admit that March was not especially strong in terms of new-to-me films. Pony Express probably wouldn’t have made the cut if I had watched it in February! That said, the pleasant surprises outweighed unpleasant factors in watching this film for the first time. The primary positive was finding a U.S. Civil War film that’s firmly on the side of the Union. In Pony Express, there’s no both-sides-ing or lost-cause junk. (It bothers me that I’m measuring it with such a seemingly low bar, but the ameliorating way that many, many U.S. films treat the Confederacy has always been deeply disturbing to me!) Anyways, the secondary positive was Ricardo Cortez’s performance. I’ve seen a handful of Cortez’s films and never found him very appealing. But, in Pony Express, Cortez is great as Frisco Jack and believably charismatic. The film’s location shooting also serves as a point of charm. I do wish that Betty Compson had more to do in the film, but, superficially speaking, she is thoroughly adorable in her cowboy togs. As for the unpleasant factors, the film is not particularly enlightened when it comes to representing Native Americans. Based on what I had read about the film prior to watching it, I did expect it to be worse though. Honestly, it wasn’t nearly as bad as some other Westerns I’ve seen. If you’ve seen Cruze’s more famous Covered Wagon (‘23), I would rate Pony Express as on-par to slightly better. So, I won’t recommend this film without qualification, but if you wanted to branch out into silent Westerns, Pony Express is a pretty good one and its overt pro-Union stance sets it above some of its contemporaries.

——— ——— ———

Naked Acts (1996)

[letterboxd | imdb]

Cicely is a third-generation actress about to start production on her first film. Complications arise when Cicely finds out that she’s expected to do nude scenes. This challenge seems straight forward to others, as Cicely has recently lost a lot of weight and has been distancing herself from her mother’s work in exploitation films. But the challenge for Cicely runs much deeper, and causes her to tug at the ragged threads of the fabric of her relationship with her mother, her body, and her past.

Naked Acts is a fearless film. Through Jake-Ann Jones’ headstrong-but-nerve-wracked Cicely, we tackle issues of representation and self-image, coping with trauma and the physical manifestations of that trauma, and complicated inter-generational relationships and memory. It’s a whole lot to pack into 88 minutes and I’m supremely impressed with Bridgett M. Davis’ direction, especially seeing as it was her first feature. I highly recommend Naked Acts as an edifying, thought-provoking, and at-times cathartic cinematic experience, but with the caveat that it depicts heavy subject matter, including child abuse. So, make an educated choice on if/when you check this one out.

——— ——— ———

Gigantes y cabezudos (1926)

[letterboxd | imdb]

Based on the zarzuela of the same name by Miguel Echegaray and Fernández Caballero, Gigantes y cabezudos tells the winding tale of humble Aragonians Pilar and Jesus, whose romance hits stumbling block after stumbling block after Jesus is drafted to serve in the war in Cuba.

As with Pony Express, in a stronger month of new-to-me films, Gigantes probably wouldn’t have made this list. It was charming enough though! I was unfamiliar with the stage musical and question the logic of adapting a musical to silent film. It’s an interesting exercise in storytelling tho, and maybe I’ll check back in here after checking out the musical. The local culture and scenery, including filming the festival of the titular gigantes and cabezudos, was a major charm point. The characters are well-limned and performed. Gigantes isn’t a laugh-out-loud type comedy, but its full of quietly absurd characters and situations. I also loved Carmen Viance as Pilar and hope to look up more of her work in future since she is a new face to me.

——— ——— ———

Murdering the Devil / Vražda ing. Čerta (1970)

[letterboxd | imdb]

When “she” gets a call from engineer Čert, an old friend she remembers fondly from decades ago, it seems like a timely solution to her chronic loneliness. However, the man who turns up at her apartment doesn’t quite match up with the memory. To top it all off, Čert displays some disturbing eating habits, testing the limits of her tolerance.

Murdering the Devil was my favorite of the new-to-me movies I watched this month. But, let me start with a confession: sometimes I watch movies in pieces. I’ll watch half one night and the other the next. When I put on Devil, I intended to do just that, but it was so wonderfully strange that it kept me locked in right to the end. It’s stylish and bizarre, humorous and horrifying. I didn’t think this devil man could get any stranger but every scene brought a new terrible surprise. I won’t give anything away because I think if you want to check this out, you should have as little warning as I did. And you should check this one out! (Also, what range Jiřina Bohdalová had!)

——— ——— ———

from Dance, Girl, Dance (’40)

Top-Notch Re-Watches

Dance, Girl, Dance (1940)

[letterboxd | imdb]

Judy and Bubbles are members of a dance troupe struggling to land and keep their bookings. Respectively, one knows the value of art and the other the value of a dollar. The pair face challenges when they hit on a popular act as part of a burlesque review and when a depressed, newly-divorced millionaire with a drinking problem (and a still-in-love-with-his-ex-wife problem) enters their lives.

Dance, Girl, Dance is one of my favorite movies—and not only because I love Lucille Ball and her performance here as Bubbles, an endearing mix of caring and cynical, conniving and small-minded. The construction of the plot crescendos so perfectly that we end up feeling that same sense of relief/release that overwhelms Maureen O’Hara’s character when all the disparate threads come together at the finale. This is one film I especially like to recommend to people starting to get into classic Hollywood cinema. So, if that’s you, check it out! (Fair warning: there is a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it instance of blackface in the film. It’s one of the film’s few negatives. But, as I mentioned, it goes by so quickly that a lot of viewers do actually miss it. I would be remiss to not include a warning anyway though!)

——— ——— ———

Bound (1996)

[letterboxd | imdb]

Fresh out of the big house, Corky lands a legitimate job fixing up an old apartment building in Chicago. She’s drawn to her beautiful next-door neighbor, Violet. Unfortunately, Violet has an unhinged gangster boyfriend, Caesar. Violet cooks up an ingenious but dangerous opportunity to escape with Corky, but can Corky trust this person she just met with her life?

Be gay. Do crimes. And also Joey Pants is there. What’s not to love?

——— ——— ———

Greed (1924)

[letterboxd | imdb]

McTeague is making his way up in the world. Out of the mines, he’s become a dentist with an office of his own in San Francisco. McTeague’s best buddy Marcus introduces him to his cousin Trina, and McTeague becomes smitten. The two get engaged and Trina wins the lottery. The win seems like a blessing, but it destructively transforms all of their lives.

I rewatched this film as it was coming up often in other research I was doing and wanted to refresh my memory. It’s still astounding as ever. Even cut down so mercilessly, it’s amazing that director von Stroheim managed to get this made and released. So much of the darker, boundary-pushing, reality-stretching filmmaking in Hollywood that has come after Greed owes a great debt to it. After rewatching, I think I’d recommend watching the cut-down version first, rather than the restored longer version. While the restoration, featuring additional footage, summary intertitles, and stills, is great and important work, it tempers the impact of Greed’s whole vibe. Also, seek out a version with a good soundtrack. (Basically, don’t watch the version that is currently available on tubi.) Zasu Pitts also gives an outstanding performance in this film—maybe one of the best ever.

——— ——— ———

The Gold Rush (1925)

[letterboxd | imdb]

Unfortunate circumstance and unforgiving weather, places a hapless, would-be prospector in the company of two hulking figures. The first, Big Jim, is a prospector who has just staked his claim, but needs to make it back to town to make it official. The other, Black Larsen, is a violent criminal. Against the odds, the would-be prospector makes it to town and falls in love with a dance hall girl, who takes his affections a little too lightly.

Artful and sweet. I love Chaplin and Mack Swain’s dynamic in this. It put me in mind of Algie the Miner (1912), which I rewatched and gif-ed a few months ago. The city twink and the big bear who needs someone to look after him: a classic duo. Also, the giant chicken sequence gets me every time.

——— ——— ———

March Round-Up

In March I finally finished up my mega-post on the mostly-lost James Cruze experimental comedy, Beggar on Horseback (‘25). (And ended up talking a bunch about the limits of artistic experimentation in capitalistic, corporatized mass-media and how we judge artistic failure in a commercial artistic medium.)

(Mostly) Lost, but Not Forgotten:  Beggar on Horseback (’25)

——— ——— ———

As for themed GIF and still sets:

(links in titles are to all gif/still sets)

Fragment from Beggar on Horseback (‘25)

——— ——— ———

T.V. Transvestite (1982)

(which I talked about in last month’s round-up)

——— ——— ———

and on the Twilight Zone blog, I marked the anniversary of the Ida-Lupino-helmed classic:

5.25 “The Masks”

——— ——— ———

As for coming attractions, I’ve been working on another piece about Maya Deren that should be finished sometime in the next couple weeks (assuming life doesn’t throw me another curve ball). In the meantime, you could check out my cosplay and essay on Deren from a few years ago here! Also in the pipeline is the next installment of Best Films Before ‘24 about The Miracle Man (1919) and potentially a cosplay I was recently struck with inspiration for.