Caltrops - Peter Molyneux's The Movies





	[quote name="Brody Wilder"]<b>WINNER: <i>The Lost Weekend</i></b> With America's involvement in World War II entering its fourth year, Hollywood was exhausted. Gone was the enthusiastic patriotism of '43 and the cat's-away creativity of '44, by this point they were just ready to be done with it (imagine how the British film industry felt). Still, let's turn this content crisis into an opportunity, by spotlighting some of the oddballs that wouldn't have got a look in last year. Foremost among these has to be Billy Wilder's boundary-pushing study of an alcoholic, <i>The Lost Weekend</i>. Ray Milland plays that rarest of unicorns, a writer character who doesn't feel like a self-insert. This is likely because Wilder had just finished collaborating with Raymond Chandler on the screenplay for <i>Double Indemnity</i>, and his frustration with that legendary pulp novelist's own drinking soaks though onto the screen. Milland buggers off a weekend vacation with his exasperated brother and proceeds to spend the next few days in the gutter, always searching for his next fix, always promising himself he's just about to buckle down and get some real work done. The grandfather of everything from <i>Fear and Loathing</i> to <i>Leaving Las Vegas</i>, it's brisk, eventful, and pairs nicely with rye. <b>House of Sand and Fog: <i>Mildred Pierce</i></b> A few years earlier or later and <i>Mildred Pierce</i> would've been a weepy melodrama. But made by these people, at this time and in this place, it came out as the hardest of noir. Starring Joan Crawford as a tough single mother, the femme fatale of this story is her own conniving teenage daughter, for whom she'd do anything (to her great detriment). Crawford was a stone-cold bitch in real life who treated acting as a zero-sum game. Her abusive neglect of adopted daughter Christina Crawford served as the basis for 1981's campy tell-all film <i>Mommie Dearest</i>, and her high-profile rivalry with fellow queen of the harpies Bette Davis was adapted into the Netflix series <i>Feud</i>. But boy, could that woman act. If <i>Mildred Pierce</i> was the predecessor to anything, it would have to be 2003's <i>Monster</i>. <b>To Save a Saturday Afternoon: <i>Along Came Jones</i></b> Gary Cooper made all sorts of movies - romcoms, thrillers, serious dramas - but he was at his best in westerns. The quintessential strong, silent type, Coop could convey a lot of emotion with very few words. In this minor action-comedy, about as far as you could get tonally from the pensive <i>High Noon</i> (though just as cheaply made), Coop plays singing cowboy Melody Jones. When his momogrammed saddle leads to a case of mistaken identity with notorious outlaw Monte Jarrad, you can easily guess everything that happens next. The sort of matinee fare that would've starred Brendan Frasier in the '90s. You could do a lot worse. <b>Seasonal Programming: <i>Christmas in Connecticut</i></b> Barbara Stanwyck returns to the holiday well with <i>Christmas in Connecticut</i>. Here she plays a single New York lifestyle writer who lends credence to her homemaking advice by pretending to be a married Connecticut farmwife. When her publisher, who knows nothing of the charade, arranges for a wonded war hero and his fiance to join her at home for Christmas dinner, <i>Frasier</i>-esque farce ensues. Babs scrounges up a farm, husband, and even a baby, only to have her hoax further complicated when she falls head over heels for the soon-to-be-wed war hero. Watch it with your nan. (This movie's 1992 made-for-TV remake was the only thing ever directed by Arnold Schwarzenegger. I wonder, was the <i>Jingle All the Way</i> star a longtime fan, or was he just looking for the sort of softball crowdpleaser that's almost impossible to fuck up? Someone should ask him on Twitter.) <b>Situation Normal, All Fouled Up: <i>A Walk in the Sun</i></b> Of course, war movies were still being made, but you could tell the nation's heart was no longer in it. Director Lewis Milestone - who won the Oscar in 1930 for his landmark anti-war picture <i>All Quiet on the Western Front</i> - leans into the disillusionment with this contemplative story of one veteran platoon's very bad day. With the LT and platoon sergeant dead, <i>Laura's</i> Dana Andrews is forced to step up and lead his men in the assault of an Italian farmhouse currently occupied by some highly-motivated Germans. Two hours of soldiers walking, waiting, griping, and dying. As someone who counts '89's <i>84 Charlie MoPic</i> among his favourite films, I feel like this was made just for me.[/quote]