Movie Reviews for Writers – Read First Chapter.com

Movie Review – Ladies in Retirement

This will be a movie review from an author’s or writer’s perspective. The name of the movie is Ladies in Retirement and it was filmed in 1941, produced by Columbia Pictures, and directed by Charles Vidor. The writers for this film or script were Garrett Fort and Reginald Denham.

I saw it on YouTube at the below link, but if it's no longer on YouTube, you can find it on JustWatch which has all the movies.

ida-lupino-publicity-03bbd3The movie starred Ida Lupino, who played the starring role as Ellen Creed. She was an English actress born in 1918 but made most of her movies in the United States. As a point of interest, she came from two generations of theater people, but she did start her own production company in the midst of the Hollywood Studio system. That was pretty daring in those years for a woman if you ask me.

The movie also starred Louis Hayward, who was married to Ida Lupino during the filming of this movie. He played Ellen Creed's long lost nephew by marriage. He played a charming, thieving, gigaglo type and he aced the part.

LIR-Slide4

Another character actress who outdid herself was Isobel Elsom, who played Leonora Fiske, an old retired showgirl who was "kept" by several men of her day. I’m not an expert on acting, but in my opinion, she stole the movie. She is a great study for writers of a rich character who moves the plot along and was great comic relief as well. Between her facial expressions, the way she moved, the singing, the scoffing, the hand-waving, and lording over her handmaidens, she was a riot.

SHORT MOVIE PLOT SUMMARY - NO SPOILERS

As the story opens, we learn that Ellen Creeds' family falls on hard times and she winds up being a handmaiden of sorts to this ex-chorus girl Leonora Fiske who now owns their family home. Ellen has been reduced to a common servant. (Regina on screen)

Ellen gets a letter threatening to throw her two sisters out of their living arrangement if she cannot get them settled. At the same time, Mrs. Fiche gives Ellen an assignment to go to London to pass a note to a Lord that she knows.

Ellen manipulates a little bit and gets Mrs. Fiche to agree that her sisters can come for a few days visit. But Ellen secretly knows she will be bringing her sisters back to live there.

While she is gone, her long lost nephew shows up needing money. All of this family dysfunction falls onto Ellen's shoulders and the noir part of the movie is about what happens when the stress gets to be too much. Slide 6



So what can an author learn from watching ladies in retirement? Let’s look at the atmosphere.

Atmosphere: There are great shots that give a very gothic atmosphere, including the horse and cart ride, as well as the layout of the mansion house Leonora and Ellen live in. New authors can slide into the ‘white room syndrome’ from forgetting about giving the characters a stage and a background. This is a great movie to steal a few stills from and write up the descriptions. This exercise will build a roster of backdrops and stages in your imagination.

Scenery/Set Descriptions: You can tell that each shot in this movie was set up and framed by the director because each scene filled up the entire shot. Unlike many modern movies that go from one closeup to the next, this movie shows the actors acting across a room, interacting with each other, each one hitting their marks and interacting with props. It can help any new writer learn about giving the characters movement within the scene at the same time they are delivering their lines and moving the action forward.

Costuming/Historical Anchoring:  The next area for writers to focus on is costuming and how the film was anchored in time. This particular film was anchored ‘in the olden days’ but there was not one specific time period mentioned. The long dresses, bun hairstyles, Fiona’s shawl, and the nephew’s clothing and manners were enough to anchor this film in a generic ‘olden times’. It’s important for a new author to recognize that this anchoring takes place in every scene. There are props and backdrops in every scene that are keeping this a period piece. This is important to learn for writing in general.

Acting/Character Development:   The acting was very good and I go into it in a bit more detail in the video below, but the actress who stole the show was Isobel Elsom playing Lonora Fiche.   From head to toe, she acted this part and she was so enjoyable.

One writer's lesson from this movie would be how the character of Leonora was made up of her costuming, her movements, her dialogue, the hairstyle, the singing, the bossing of the servants, flirting with the young nephew, the glasses – she used everything from head to toe for this character development.  Now, this character may have been this great in the script, but I never saw the actual script.  I just know that the actress did an amazing job at creating a fully fleshed out character for this film noir.  And when you focus on her actual dialogue, it wasn't enough to create the character that she developed.

The one area that I think was lacking in the movie was the characterizations of the two sisters.  The script referred to them as unsettled, but it was unclear as to whether they were just high management or had mental issues.

I know Elsa Lanchester, who played one of the sisters, is a great actress, and she could have made the character so much better, so I'm sure it wasn't an acting issue.  It could have been a directorial flaw, or maybe they were limited by the time of the entire movie and decided to clip the sisters’ characters.

But as a novel writer, I saw great potential for two more great characters in the sisters. We are not limited for time the way a scriptwriter is, so the two sisters could have been fully developed and they would have enriched the story even more.




Script, Language & Dialogue:  The final focus is the script, the language and dialogue. The script was very good.  It was original, concise, tight, and it had a twist at the end. It seemed like an interesting drama at first but then suddenly went noir towards the end, which was unexpected.

I enjoyed the entire movie and I would watch watch this one again.  I’m sure I would pick up other things on a second viewing.

RECOMMENDATIONS: If I was asked to recommend a movie to learn about tightening a writer’s scenes, and how to add movement and interest to each scene, it would be this one.  The atmosphere in this movie was also a good one, especially if you write gothic, noir or historical fiction.

I would also recommend this movie just for sheer enjoyment.  The plot was good enough to hold your interest the entire way.  This movie was served p on my YouTube feed as a film noir but the first three quarters of the movie played like an interesting drama.  It turned into a film noir as the plot moved along.

MY MOVIE REVIEW THAT COVERS A LITTLE MORE IS BELOW:



Movie Review – Death Cruise

I took a break from the crazy vampire, gothic and monster movies of the 1960s and watched this made for TV mystery movie entitled Death Cruise which aired in 1974.  It was a murder mystery that takes place on a cruise, so like many Agatha Christie stories, it's a "locked door" murder mystery and they are always fun.

I watched this movie for free on YouTube, but in the event it is taken down, here is a link to find the movie on JustWatch.

QUICK PLOT SUMMARY: This is a murder mystery that takes place on a cruise ship. Three couples realize that they all won a free trip on this cruise. Each couple has an issue or two that arises and one by one, the people start showing up dead.

There is a new doctor on board who has to figure out the connection between them all and why they were all brought together.

STORYLINE/PLOTLINE:  The plot was a good one.  It had a final twist and kept me guessing all the way.  Unlike many made-for-tv-movies, it wasn't just a thrown together script with no substance.  It was a well-planned out storyline that could have passed for an Agatha Christie movie.  It was well executed and the final twist was a surprise.

ACTING:  The story moved along and all the actors played good parts.  No one was trying to steal the show or hamming it up.  They all said their lines and the dialogue and chronology of the story was the meat and potatoes.  So no one turned in an academy award winning performance, but they were all convincing and believable.

The acting was good enough where the actors used their entire bodies in acting.  This is a good way to learn how to get your characters to move within your book scenes.

ATMOSPHERE/SCENERY:  This took place on a cruise ship so the atmosphere was enjoyable.  Being a made for tv movie, it was more about the relationships, but there were enough cruising scenes to enjoy the vacation aspect of the story.

COSTUMING:  Some of the outfits and gowns were beautiful.  Even thought this movie was shot and aired in 1974, the clothing and sets were not that dated.  If anything was stuck in the 197os, it was the music.  All these movies and shows all had the same type of music.  It screams 1970s, but the fashions were not that dated.  This made the movie more enjoyable.



MOVING THE STORY ALONG:

When focused on what an author can learn, this was a great story example were the plot is the star of the show.  You learned a little bit about each of the three couples, as well as the ship's doctor, but all the information that seemed like passing information was crucial to the ultimate plotline and the twists.

HOW TO DROP CLUES AND HIDE CLUES:

This is a good movie to watch to learn how to drop information and clues and yet not lose sight of there needing to be some romance and intrigue as well.  This would be a good movie to watch and then reverse engineer it to see how the clues were dropped.  It also shows you how some information is given to the viewer and some is deliberately hidden, but you don't realize it's being hidden at the time you first watch it.  So this is a good movie to watch to learn about dropping some clues and hiding others for final revelation.

REVERSE ENGINEERING:

Because there are a few twists and surprises in this plotline, this would be a good movie to watch and then reverse engineer it.  It will teach you the mind of an author, how to think about how you want to end a book on a twist and how you will need to plan and plot around that final twist.  I have another blog post about reverse engineering a plotline that you can read about here.

AUTHOR TERMINOLOGY:

parts of a cruise ship

Above is a list of words an author would need to know to write about a cruise ship.  If you click on the puzzle, you will be taken to google drive where you can download the word find with the list of words.



Movie Review – Mystery in the Wax Museum

This movie was billed on YouTube as Mystery in the Wax Museum, but when I tried to get the technical information after viewing it, the proper name is Terror in the Wax Museum.

I saw this on YouTube on a Channel named Robo-Cat Productions.  In case you use this link -- which is a free viewing of the movie -- it has a short clip from another movie about a wax museum with Peter Cushing in it.  I believe this short clip is from an anthology movie so if you want to get to this movie, you will need to fast forward a bit.

If this movie is taken down for copyright infringement, then you can find the movie on JustWash.com.

ANOTHER BRITISH HORROR MOVIE (MADE IN AMERICA)

This movie was produced in America in 1973 by Bing Crosby, Andrew J. Fenady and Charles A. Pratt.  It came around the time the Hammer Production Gothic videos were making a splash, so this one is very similar to any of the other Hammar productions.

The story was written by Andrew J Fenady and the Screenplay was by Jameson Brewer.  It was directed by Georg Fenady.

QUICK PLOT SUMMARY:

There is a wax museum owned by Claude Dupree who poured his entire life into creating the museum.  All of the figures were notorious murderers, including Jack the Ripper, Marie Antoinette, Lucretia Borgia and others you will recognize.  Mr. Dupress has an associate named Harry Flexner who is the sculptor of the figures.  Over the years, Mr. Dupree has adopted a local freak named Karkov.  I won't tell you much about Karkov other than he's a typical pathetic Dickins-type figure that helps to give the movie it's gothic ambience.

Mr. Dupree meets with a New York businessman who wants to buy his figures to set it up in New York.  Suddenly Mr. Dupree is killed and there are now a few suspects.  There's his partner Harry Flexner who didn't want to sell.  There's also Mr. Dupree's niece who shows up with her legal guardian claiming immediate ownership of the business.  And there is  Amos Burns who still wants to purchase the exhibit.



WHAT AN AUTHOR CAN LEARN:

This is a great film to learn about character development and a bit about comic relief.  Let's focus on character development first.  In the scene below, the owner of the museum is talking about how wonderful his figures are and how much Karkov is attached to them.  The businessman is hurried and has no emotional attachment to the figures and sees it only as a business proposition.  There are several scenes where you can learn about how one character plays off another and how they are both coming from a different place.

This scene shows the different personalities as well as motivations.  The businessman is waving his business proposals and trying to hurry Mr. Dupree along.  In the previous scene, Mr. Dupree demonstrates how he has to melt down a figure due to imperfections and he's already trying Burns' last nerve.  Then upstairs, Dupree goes into more of a bragathon about his business.  Both personalities play off of one another and the businessman is also there to give comic relief, which he does very well.

The other character who I love is Julia, the guardian.  She is played by Elsa Lanchester.  I've never seen her in a movie where she wasn't hysterical.  Her role is not a comedy, but her manner and cadence contributes to the continual comic relief that is masterful throughout the movie.  The funny moments are peppered all through the movie but the movie itself never collapses into a spoof.  It maintains a serious tone all the way to the end.  I applaud the actors who played these roles as they were the ones who kept it serious at the same time as delivering a funny line or two.



MOVIE VS. BOOK SCRIPTING:

File-folder-manuscript-publishedThis movie is a good study in the difference between scriptwriting and novel writing.  For example:  The singer in the movie doesn't really move the mystery along at all.  She is there for sheer entertainment which every movie needs.  She plays off of the businessman and there is a tiny subplot about how Karkov the creature fancies her and protects her in one scene.  But her entire appearance in the movie could be handled with two lines of background information in a novel.

The longer I watch movies from a scripting and writing perspective, the more I realize that movies need more "action" in terms of things happening on the screen.  So it's important to note the difference between which characters are there for sex appeal or character development or putting on a show of some kind.  In this movie it was a pub song.  But other movies it may be a martial artist going into a performance.  Or a fight scene that is choreographed with smashing bar stools and breaking glass.

THREE OR MORE SUSPECTS:

This movie had three suspects -- I won't spoil it and tell you who they are.  There was a police investigation as well as hinting at a slow-brewing romance between the young handsome police detective and the niece.  This was a good movie to also learn about keeping the script/novel tight.  Each scene moved the story along and there were no long acting showcases that they now do in more modern movies.  All the actors delivered their lines without any melodrama which made the movie more enjoyable.

GOTHIC ATMOSPHERE

This movie also has great gothic atmosphere.  You'll see the carriage and horse in at least one scene which is crucial for all gothic movies.  The bar and street scenes are also classic Foggy London.

The best shot of the movie is where Karkov interacts with the beautiful singer through the grates in the sewer.  Nothing says gothic like a freak from the sewer pining over a beautiful singer.

What I love about these '60s and '70s gothic movies is the stagecraft.  Many of the scenes are shot outside, but you can tell they arrived early and got the lighting right, as well as bringing along all the props needed for the background and foreground to anchor the movie in the proper historical time.  The direct also framed each scene and the actors moved in the scene like Broadway actors where they are acting with their whole bodies.  In modern movies, it's now a series of closeup shots one another another making sure to change the scene every 20 seconds.

SPOOKY HOUSE:

For those of you who love spook house movies, the museum has bedrooms upstairs and it becomes the proverbial scary house after hours.  The niece goes tiptoeing around the house holding a candle and there's a jump scare of two for those of you who like those.

LOW BUDGET WITH HIGH END RESULTS:

You can tell by looking at the movie that it was made on a low budget.  However, the costuming and stagecraft didn't lack anything.  The wax tableaus were great as was the scene in the basement where one of the wax figures had to be melted down.

The actor who played Karkov was amazing.  His character was a mute but he acted with grunts and used his whole body for his portrayal of the wax museum creature.  He did an amazing job.

Besides a little facial makeup and a hump for his back, the rest of the character was created by acting talent.  It was impressive.

A special note about the singer too.  She sang with very little music behind her which is not easy to do.  I don't know much about her, other than her name is Shani Wallis, but my guess is that she is a seasoned stage performer.

NO REAL MORAL TALE:

There was no real moral tale in this one other than to showcase what great men the two owners of the museum were that they both took responsibility to look after Karkov who was not able to take care of himself.  But the presence of that even that little bit of virtue gave the movie a moral anchor, a positive belief in humanity.

Click here to do the crossword online

Click here to download the crossword with answers.



Movie Review – The Oblong Box

ANOTHER GOTHIC HORROR (FUN)

This is another English gothic horror movie from the 1960s.  I have added the word fun into the title because these movies are not particularly scary by today's standards but there is something so charming and fun about them that I cannot resist watching them over and over again.

This movie was uploaded by the Channel entitled New Castle After Dark where two guys present the movie and talk before, at an intermission, and after the movie is over.  They are just as charming as the movies.  They are movie buffs and share insider information about the movies as well as the actors who appear in their movie choices.

I love their format because it feels like you're not watching the movie alone.  They appear just long enough before, during and after to add to the watching experience -- at least for me they do.

If this movie is taken down by YouTube for any reason, here is a link to JustWatch where you can find it somewhere else.

THE MOVIE STATS:

The movie was produced and directed in 1959 by British director Gordono Hessler.  This movie stars Vincent Price and Christopher Lee.  It is the first movie that stared both actors.

The movie was loosely based on the short story written by Edgar Allan Poe entitled "The Oblong Box".  I say loosely because I don't believe voodoo is mentioned in the original Poe story.

Although Vincent Price is often accused of overacting, I think he fits perfect into the Gothic Horror Fun genre!  I don't see his acting as anything but great in these films.

Christopher Lee plays a co-star role in this film but as usual he is, deadly serious, but great too!   Below is a snapshot from the film from Wikipedia Commons.

QUICK SUMMARY OF THE MOVIE:

I don't want to spoil the story for anyone so I'll just give a very quick summary of what the movie is about.  Sir Edward was disfigured in Africa and is now hidden away in an attic room by his guilt-ridden brother Sir Julian.

Sir Edward is tired of being couped up and comes up with a plan that he forces the family lawyer into carrying out with him.  If everything went as planned, it would have given Sir Edward his freedom but of course, Julian throws a wrench into the plans and everything goes haywire.

The plot, although a bit crazy as all plots in British gothic horror from the 1960s is, is a good one.  It's plausible and easy to follow.   This is a great pick for autumn, even Halloween season.  It's a great movie for enjoyment but a good one for writers to learn from as I'll go into below.

 



oblong-box-atmosphereTHE ATMOSPHERE:  The movie is anchored in the late 1800s and brief  atmospheric scenes support his.  This is a good way for authors to learn about anchoring the story in England, in the historical time period and giving it the 'gothic vibe' which I'll be referring to throughout this review.

THE SCENERY:  The scenery was beautiful but it played a supportive role in this movie.  It was just beautiful enough to give the movie a great look and add to the beauty of the movie in general.  Any snapshot still could be a writer's exercise is describing an 1800's historical scene.

oblong-stage-craft

SETS/STAGECRAFT:  I love the sets used in this film.  I also include the lighting in this category.  Although it was a gothic movie, it takes place 'with the proper stage lighting'.  This means that you can see everything and every scene is well-lit for drama and atmosphere.  It adds to the beauty and enjoyment of the film.  Is there anything worse than a modern horror film where you're squinting to see scenes shot in the dark with only one Bic lighter?

This is a great place for writers to look and learn from the ways the background scenes and objects support the scene, transmit additional information, and just anchor the scene into the time period.

COSTUMING:  The costuming for everyone is great.  All of the actors and actresses in this time frame were beautiful, thin and they all looked amazing in their costumes.

graveyard-atmospheric

GOTHIC ELEMENTS:  It wouldn't be a British gothic movie if it didn't have the prerequisite mansion, candelabra, harlots showing their ankles, wild pub scene, cabriolet, mist in the woods, silhouetted horse chase or a sinister 1800s grave-robbing scientist!   It's all here and it's all delicious.  This one even has a grave-digging scene which I always love!

STORYLINE/PLOTLINE:  This is a great movie for beginner writers to learn from as there is a crazy horror plotline that does require the viewers to suspend their modern belief system to watch.  For beginner writers, sometimes it's hard to imagine that you can rely on people setting aside their logic and reason to watch, but they do.

This is also a great plotline to learn about 'the plot twist'.  The original plan that Sir Edward had, although it was crazy, it could have worked.  But the twist is what happens as the result of his brother Julian wanting to do the right thing.

There are also a couple of additional turns in the plotline towards the end that have a lot to teach about keeping the tension and surprises coming.  This would even be a good plotline for an author to reverse engineer to see how it all needs to be foreshadowed from the beginning.

FACIAL EXPRESSIONS AND EMOTIONS:

Any movie with Vince  Price is a good one to learn about facial expressions for an author.  He is often teased about over-acting, but I don't agree.  When you watch him from now almost 65 years later, his acting is perfect for this 1960s gothic horror.  His face is very expressive and can teach new authors a lot about the raising of eyebrows, eye movement, and more.

Author Writing Exercise Idea:  Make a gif of an actor responding to an action and then describe it.  Use a thesaurus and see how many new ways to describe the facial movement you can find.   Here is a gif from this movie as an example.  See if you can write this scene.

Death-scene-gif

And finally, this is a great script and storyline to learn about 'clipping dialogue tightly'.  This storyline is a long one, and with the twists and turns, a lot is covered in each scene.  Almost every word spoken -- with the exception of the romance scenes with the ladies -- are conveying important story information.  It can teach a lot about how to keep scene lean and move the plot along.



CROSSWORD PUZZLE:

Try your hand at a crossword based on The Oblong Box

Movie-Crossword-The-Oblong-pin

Click here to do the crossword online.

Click here to download the crossword, clues and answers.



Movie Review – The Flesh and the Fiends – 1960 film

The live link to the YouTube Video, if it's still available, is at the end of the review.

Here is another 1960s British Horror Film entitled The Flesh and the Fiends.  The story and script were written by John Gilling, who also directed the movie.  It stars Peter Cushing, Donald Pleasence and George Rose.  There are probably other British stars that I don't recognize but these were the three main ones.

I have the link to the movie on YouTube posted at the end of this review where you can watch it for free like I did.  However, in case it is no longer on YouTube, here is a link to it on JustWatch.com.  You may need to put the title into the search box.  This website keeps track of where you can see the video.

If you are a collector, you can purchase the Blu-ray on video on Amazon.

QUICK SUMMARY:

My main purpose is to discuss the movie in terms of how we, as writers and storytellers,  can learn from these early movies.  I'll give just a quick summary of the movie, just enough to reference the topics I'll touch on in this review.

The story takes place in the late 19th century in London.  A scientist is obsessed with learning more about medicine and resorts to paying grave-diggers to bring him bodies so he can dissect them to learn more.   He believes this a noble cause.  The bodies originally delivered are dug up from the graveyard and sold as being "only three days old".  They are covered in dirt and decomposition is already taking place.  Dr. Knox pays four or five ginnies (slang for a 5 pound note) for them and is happy to have them.

One night, two town thugs find out that the doctor is willing to pay up to 6 ginnies for a dead body and they bring in a body they find that just died.  Because the body is fresh and just recently dead, the doctor pays them 8 ginnies.

One of the criminal thugs owns a boarding home with his nagging wife and the two criminals begin 'helping a few deaths along' in one way or another and then sell it to Dr. Knox.  The doctor remains in denial about it, even though his assistants try to tell him something is not right about so many fresh dead bodies turning up.  Dr. Knox is blinded by his ambitions.

The movie is a moral tale (with no lecturing) about both the temptation of money and how it can bring men to the point of evil and a second moral tale of how allowing an obsession, albeit nobly intended, can progress to its own evil.

As a viewer and lover of gothic movies, I loved this movie.  It had it all:  From the gothic old London scenery to the interaction of the lower classes with the upper, it was really enjoyable.



HOW THE HISTORICAL TIME AND PLACE ARE ESTABLISHED:

keresene-lampAs soon as the movie starts, an information panel with the date is posted giving the viewer an exact time frame.  It also gives you the name of Dr. Knox and tells you he's a scientist.  The viewer is immediately anchored in the late 1800s when the story starts.  Aside from this, the scene further anchors you in the 19th century by the fashion, the kerosene lights, the cobblestones, the scientific props and the dialogue.

It is soon established that there is no means for doctors or scientists to get cadavers in this world of early scientific discovery.  The scientists, at least Dr. Knox, resorts to paying gravediggers to dig up fresh bodies that he can experiment on.  That lays the groundwork for the story that is about to unfold.

What makes Dr. Knox appear so noble is that he is also a professor of a room full of budding doctors.  It's hard to hold the grave robbing against him in the beginning of the movie.  He is helping so many people and passing this knowledge down to create other doctors to help people.

A MORAL TALE:

cowardly-lion-moral-tailWhat I love about the old movies in particular is that most of them were moral tales of one type of another.  The scriptwriter and director had a point in presenting the story and it was almost always a moral point.  Today, there are thousands of these 'a slice of a meaningless life with one glorified sin' movies that I abhor mainly because they are empty and pointless.  So the fact that this story had a dual moral tale made it all the more enjoyable.

ALL RICH CHARACTERS:

The characters are very "Charles Dickens like" almost to the point of being comical.  An author can learn a lot about creating characters, especially ones who fit into a Charles Dickens type of story.  The bad guy and bad girl characters were a little over the top -- but not too much.  Just enough to make them colorful, enjoyable and watchable.

It's so helpful to also see how the set director arranged the backdrop of the scenes to add in historical elements, all of which enrich the story.  For example, the cobblestones, the street gas lights, occasional hand-held torches, the mob with torches, even the archaic scientific lab.  These all kept the story anchored in the time frame.

high-class-fashion

This is also a great move to watch to see how the scriptwriter and director portrayed the lower classes against the upper classes.  For example, the thugs wore mismatched, wrinkled, and dirty clothes along with their top hats.  The rich guys were all clean, crisp and tidy, including their white gloves and perfectly tied ascots.  Even their posture allowed them to look slightly down their noses at everyone, including each other.  The lower class men wore pants that were too long and baggy and suit jackets that were ill-fitting.  I don't want to even tell you what their shoes looked like!  These are all very subtle differences when you analyze them one at a time, but they all helped present the striking difference between how the upper and lower classes lived.

NUDITY IN THE 1960s:

This movie was shot in 1960s and, unlike most movies from this early on, there were two scenes where the female breasts were exposed.  It wasn't excessive and it wasn't what I would refer to as gratuitous.  The women were bar whores, so the naked breasts told that story in less than ten seconds.  It was also a pleasure to see real female breasts instead of the silicone half-cantaloupes we see today in movies.

The scenes of the lower class took place in a brawling tavern or pub of some kind.  So the crowd scenes were mainly a back drop for spotlighted action that book place in that environment, so it has a lot to teach a writer about that particular setup.  How to describe a bawdy scene occurring in the background while casting a spotlight on a main character or two having important or at least relevant dialogue.



ALL THE GOTHIC TROPES:

If you're a fan of gothic movies, as I am, you will enjoy this one.  The atmosphere that takes place in the shadows of the London nights in the alleyways, under the roman arch, the distressed cement and brick walls with the hanging gas lights is delicious.

They have a few graveyard scenes which is a classic gothic trope too.  The subject matter of the story is macabre enough to hold your interest and just give you a tiny horror shiver without overdoing it.

CHARACTER ARCS:

The two main bad guys in the movie start out as general ne'er-do-wells that are always looking for a quick buck.  Both actors did an amazing job at creating a colorful character without much backstory.  These characters could have easily been paper-thin had it not been for the character actors who portrayed them.

Once they find out you can make eight ginnies for a dead body, suddenly, they descend into another level of criminality.  And realistically, they go from level to level into full evil.

There was nothing redeemable about either character, but the acting made them both interesting enough to want to know what would happen to them.  This is another great lesson for writers.  You want a bad guy who the reader hates, but not enough to close the book on him!

A FEW LESSONS IN CONFLICT:

When I started out writing, I heard so many times about conflict, conflict, conflict.  All stories had to have conflict.  I originally thought that to portray conflict, you would need to make characters at such odds that they would at least spar in some way.  But that's no so.  The conflict can be more subtle and less emotional.  This is a good movie to watch the conflict between the doctor and his assistants.  There are two separate conflicts and there are subtle differences between each one.

The first conflict is a battle of moral wits that takes place between Dr. Knox and one of his employees. This is a good scene to watch to learn about lower-level conflict.  As I learned along the way, a definitive difference of opinion on something can be enough to present conflict.  The conflict between Dr. Knox and his assistant is a level 5 out of 10.  It could even be described as a difference of opinion but Dr. Knox has the power of the employer behind him.

There is a secondary conflict that takes place later on in the story between Dr. Knox and the other doctors who confront him.  This is more of a level seven conflict; and it could be described as more like a 'rich guy hissy fit'.  There's no violence, but he tells them off but good.  This is seen in many movies and you can see it here done very well.  Peter Cushing does an amazing job with the tell off.  This is also a conflict with a little bit of a power struggle as well.



For the new writers, I'll list below some of the things that help anchor a story in the 19th century and also anchor the story among the rich or the poor.  This is a list I wish I had found early on in my writing career!

If you read this review before you watch the movie, you can see these items pop up throughout the film and see how they anchor the scene in the same historical time frame.

PROPS THAT SCREAM 19TH CENTURY SCIENCE:

1. Personal labs in the scientists house.
2. Hanging skeleton out of real bones
3. 19th century school room
4. Body called a stiff but corrected to a subject
5. Liquor poured from a glass carafe
6. Hand-held kerosine lanterns
7. Heavy, nagging wife with a shawl (always portrays the lower class)
8. References to 'the cupboard', peeling vegetables into a big bowl (lower class or servant class)
9. Water pitcher and big bowl in bedrooms
10. Men and women dancing at an arm's length in ballroom
11. Cobblestones, war-torn looking brick walls, roman brick arches, gas street lighting,
12. Town crier reading from a long scroll about "murder most foul" -- they are announcing there's been a stabbing murder. The people are all outraged and beginning to form a mob.
13. Mob rises up and storms into the streets
14. The noose around a bad buy's neck with a priest alongside for last rights
15. Hand-held kerosene lanterns
16. Village mob justice

OLD WORLD ENGLISH FASHIONS:

Hats - Top hats, fancy hats for upper class, sleeping cap like hats for the lower class
Long dresses, lots of layers - servants usually have an apron over their dresses
Muff to keep the hands warm while riding in the horse drawn carriages
Scarfs tied into bows for ascots
Globe gas lights among the rich
Suits with vests

PORTRAYING  THE POOR:

Clothing is mismatched, rumpled, dirty, and torn
Messy and/or overgrown hair.
Women with balding issues or long straggly hair
Old worn-out shoes
Stick as a cane

RICH PEOPLE:

Scenes are always shot in more light
Estate homes
Expensive oil paintings
Clocks
Men are dressed in crisp suits, well fitting with stiff 'ironed' collars
Ruffled shirts (historical pictures)
Formal settings even the men wear white gloves
Men smoking cigars and pipes
Ultra straight posture, almost looking down their noses

CONCLUSION:

This is a great movie to watch when you're in the mood for an old world Gothic flick.  It's also a great choice for new authors and writers to learn about historical settings, anchoring each scene in it's time, and how to portray a moral tale.  This is a good move to see how to present the rich against the poor.

Very often the movies I watch are posted by regular people and they are then taken down by YouTube.  So I will post the free YouTube video below.  If it's no longer there, you can find it at the links I posted at the beginning of this review.

To do the crossword online, click here
To download crossword with answers from Google Drive, click here.

 

 

 



Movie Review and Crossword – The Picture of Dorian Gray

THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY - PRODUCED BY DAN CURTIS - PRODUCER OF DARK SHADOWS:

I discovered this Movie Review channel on YouTube called New Castle After Dark.   I love these two guys.   They are a riot together.  The atmosphere is very unique and the way they talk is very entertaining.  It's very rare that you see smokers anymore, but these two are always smoking!

new-castle-after-darkThey present the movies on their channel and they begin with a short introduction and quick discussion about the movie and who plays what parts.

Then they return again in the middle of the movie, like an intermission and again participate in a short maybe four minute discussion -- and some more smoking.  They always add very interesting trivia about either the actors or the movie itself.  They are never boring.

For some reason, watching the movie on their channel with them popping in twice makes it seem like you're watching it with someone else.  I really think this makes it even more enjoyable.

OVERALL REVIEW:  I LOVED IT RIGHT OFF THE BAT:

The New Castle guys in their commentary said the beginning of the movie was a little slow but it got better.  However, it had such a great spooky, gothic, old England feel to it, I loved it right off the bat.  It didn't seem too slow to me at all.  I absolutely love movies that are shot like Broadway plays and this is one of those.  The sets are beautiful although some of the scenes take place in the seedier and darker parts of town and those are not quite as beautiful.  Like most movies in the '60s and '70s, everyone in the movie was handsome or good looking -- not just the mediocre-looking sons or daughters of stars of yesteryear like we get today.  I miss seeing the best looking people from all over the country!

DIRECTORIAL STYLE:  THERE WAS A TOCUH OF SOAP OPERA ABOUT THE MOVIE:

Anyway, because of the play-like atmosphere, no laugh track or crazy 70's music in the background, there was a bit of a TV movie (which I believe it was when it debuted) or soap opera feel to this film but I tend to love this style anyway.

Fairly early on in the movie, I recognized the actor named John Karlen in one scene.  He played Willie on the old Dark Shadows soap opera  back in the 1970s.  I'm a recent but big fan.   Once I saw him and saw the style of the movie, I suspected that Dan Curtis was associated with it, and, sure enough, he was.  He was the producer.  During their intermission chat, the Dark Castle guys confirmed that the movie was a Dan Curtis production.  No wonder I loved it.  They even mentioned that Dan had reused some of the music from Dark Shadows which I recognized in the second half of the movie.

Although the actual Dark Shadows movies were crazy and terrible, I assumed  Dan Curtis was just cashing in on the Dark Shadows craze back then and they were just quickly thrown together.  I've seen a few of his other films which he took more time with and they were great, as this one was.



THE QUICKEST SYNOPSIS IN THE WORLD

Dorian-gray-dan-curtis-blockThe story for anyone that doesn't know it is that an artist paints a picture of Dorian Gray while he is in his youth.  He wonders out loud that wouldn't it be great if the picture could age and he could stay young, instead of the other way around.   Well, that's what happens.

However, the moral tale underlying this concept was done so well in this adaptation that I hope you will take the time to watch this movie.

PRODUCTION STYLE:  THE MOVIE WAS SHOT ON SETS EVEN WHEN THEY WERE ON LOCATION:

dorian-gray-bridge-sceneThese movies that are shot almost like plays are very helpful in setting a scene for a book.  Nothing is ethereal or being described with shooting camera angles or other MTV style movie effects.

The play-like atmosphere gives each scene a stable setting that is easy to take in and think about "describing" as an author.  This is a great exercise for new authors or ones that want to get better at describing castles or cobble stones or whatever.  I'm sure you get the point.

The beautiful sets always add so much to the enjoyment of the movie.  Beauty raises the spirits and lifts the heart.   There's nothing worse than watching a movie in a dirty city being shot live with a hand-held camera.  Nothing like that here.   This film was an upgrade from watching a play in the front row.

THE CHARACTER ARC:

The main character arc was with Dorian Gray.  The production did an excellent job at portraying Dorian's youth and innocence at the beginning of the movie.   You saw the one ch

THE MORAL TALE:

I have seen many other movie adaptations of The Picture of Dorian Gray, but this was my favorite because it didn't gloss over the moral tale behind the story.  It addressed it head on.  The other adaptations didn't really focus on the underlying morality of the story and without it, it was almost like a crazy fantasy movie.  This one was done so well because it was guided by the moral tale that was underneath the story.

I also like that the homosexual aspects of the movie were done with discretion.  They were unmistakable but not in your face like some of the more modern movies.  There's nothing worse than these virtuous lectures that are written into modern movies.

Because the moral tale is handled so well, there is a sense of true justice or true satisfaction at the end.



THE ACTING:

Here was John Karlen who played Willie in Dark Shadows

Because it was shot like a play, the actors had to be really good and they were.  Many modern movies shoot back and forth from one to two lines spoken by an actor in a close up to another close up with the actor responding with two lines.  There's no real acting so to speak.  The older movies and certainly this one showed the actors in action, speaking and moving along the sets interacting with props and each other.  It was great.

As an author, it is a great way to learn how to embed dialogue tags into little snippets of movement in a scene.  By doing this, it's a way to anchor the reader in the scene and to also create movement on the black and white page.

In a movie shot like a play, there are so many opportunities to see the actors interacting with props and each other, how they stand and face one another, how they turn to add a dramatic effect.  There's so much to absorb.

WHERE TO FIND THE MOVIE:

I'm not sure how this YouTube Channel gets to show movies on their channel, so if they take it down anytime soon, here is a link to find just about any movie in the world.  It's called Just Watch and it gives you a tiny synopsis and tells you where you can find the movie to watch for free, rent or buy.

Here is a direct link to it on Just Watch.

DISCUSSIONS ON MOVIES ANYONE?

Every now and again I stop into two reddit subgroups where people talk about movies, especially when I find one that I really like:

HorrorLit Reddit Group

Book Discussions

ANY OTHER DARK SHADOWS FANS?

jonathan-frid-as-barnabusDark Shadows Reddit Group
Dark Shadows Everyday
Dark Shadows from the Beginning
Dark Shadows Fandom



CROSSWORD BASED ON DAN CURTIS' THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY:

Click here to do the puzzle online
Click here to download the puzzle with the answers



Movie Review – The Little Foxes

Movie Review for Writers:

This movie, The Little Foxes, was in black and white, and although some black and white films are poor quality, this movie, at least on Amazon Prime had particular clarity.  The house furnishings and fashions were wonderful and Bette Davis was at her most beautiful and her best acting movie-the=little-foxes

QUICK SYNOPSIS:

Regina Hubbard Giddens, a proverbial gold digger in the early 20th century, marries and uses her husband in her various schemes of greed.

She is separated from her husband, who is ill and away somewhere getting treatment.
She is horrible to her daughter as the daughter is nothing but an anchor in her wedding-for-fortune.

Her brother Oscar did the same thing, married a woman with family money,
and treats her worse than the family dog.

Another brother is unmarried and he seems to have money of his own and they want to get in on a cotton mill deal with another outside party, but Regina wants in and promises her husband will come through with his side of the money.

The plot thickens when her husband decides not to go in on the deal, and Regina and her brothers show their true ruthless scheming selves.

The plan backfires but Regina takes it even further . . . don't want to spoil the end.

ELEMENTS OF INTEREST TO WRITERS:

  • The movie opens showing the beautiful oak trees and Spanish moss as the Regina Hubbard Gibbons is a southern Aristocrat.  They present great scenery for a writer wanting to describe the southern area of the country.
  • The house and fashions are very much southern, aristocratic, and gorgeous.  Again, there are lots of "sets" that the writer can use as a backdrop for any scene in a southern or gothic story.
  • Watching Bette David act during the scene where she refuses to help her husband when he is trying to climb the stairs is diabolical and this too could be helpful in showing how mean and cruel the human heart can be.
  • The daughter of the main character, Regina, comes of age as a subplot and the innocent dating scenes are very sweet and give insight into the difference in mores in the early 20th century.
  • There was enough life going on in this film to also give anyone doing a historical fiction novel some ideas of the dating habits, and how the aristocrats interacted with their servants/slaves in those days.


spoiler alert

Don't read any further if you don't want to spoil the ending.

This movie ends with the husband figuring out how the brothers and his wife schemed and stole his money, but as a writer, I saw a distinct possibility for a "sequel" of this story as the second story could have picked up with verbiage he put in the will stating that the money he left to his wife had to be used as only a loan to his brothers, etc.

There was enough going on with the daughter and the brother and his wife to fill at least one full sequel book.

WRITERS TOOLS OF INTEREST:

This is the second movie I saw that took place in a beautiful Victorian house setting.  When describing these houses in writing, it would be helpful to know the various names for the parts of the houses.  Here is a Victorian house I found on the internet and the various names for each part of the house.

victorian-house-diagram



Movie Review – Enchantment

Movie Review for Writers:

Enchantment_FilmPoster
I'm beginning to watch movies from the perspective of learning more about writing; specifically about how to add information into the background of scenes and also about plotting.

I watched Enchantment, starring David Niven and Teresa Wright and a few others looked familiar.

QUICK SYNOPSIS:  The story opens focusing on an estate house that seems almost haunted, like the walls have lots of stories to tell.  The movies moves from present time, World War II London with a grand-niece Grizel Dane needs to stay with her grand-uncle, Rollo Dane, who is old, heartsick and not interested.

The story moves from modern day and goes back in time and tells the story of Nolo's family, his widowed father, his older sister Selina who was the only lady of the house, and a ward who the father brings home to live with them.  The ward's name is Lark and the story goes back and forth touching on childhood scenes, back into present time, back into when Rollo was just enlisted in the service, and you see he falls in love with Lark.  So does the other brother, Pelham, and another Italian guy from the neighborhood.

What is interesting is to watch how the house itself becomes the vehicle that is used to go from one time frame into another.  The script takes you into every scene so you can tell which time frame you are in and what is going on in the scene, so there is never any confusion.  I got a lot out of watching this, the blending in and out of the scenes.

The modern day story is about this grand niece, who has a simiar story where she falls in love but wants to be practical about things and thinks she shouldn't marry.  Uncle Rollo gets his strength back to warn her not to let love get away like he did.

ELEMENTS OF INTEREST TO WRITERS:

  • The movie moved from time frames (Pre WWII and into WWII) seamlessly by using the house and each of the rooms as the backdrops.
  • The actors grew up by using events of their lives to indicate childhood, friendship, the courting years, and falling in love
  • The movie was very good is showing various scenes of "meanness" in developing the wicked step-sister who winds up ruining everyone's lives.
  • The set is a beautiful Victorian home (at least I think it's Victorian) and if you wanted to describe a room from that era, this movie would give you some really great ideas for describing rooms and backdrops.


spoiler alert

Don't read any further if you don't want to spoil the ending.

The audience finds out that Rollo never married Lark, even though he loved her dearly, he was never able to love again, and his career that he chose did not comfort him or make up for this lost love.

The young niece decides to chase after her Italian soldier after telling him she doesn't think they should get married.

Even in the end, it films the final love scene against the bombs dropping all over London which uses scenes from World War II as the backdrop.  You can learn a lot about how they weave references to the war and being enlisted.

WRITERS TOOLS OF INTEREST:

THE ENCHANTMENT MOVIE WORD FIND:

To Print the WordFind, click here or above and download from Google Drive.