I know you should never begin a sentence with “and” or “but”. But I do it sometimes anyway.
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Berlin Express 1948
It started years ago. Just a bit of fun really. The Lady Vanishes (1938). The Spy In Black (1939). You had everything under control.
But it didn't stop there, did it? Night Train to Munich (1940). Contraband (1940). Dark Journey (1937). God help us: Pimpernel Smith (1941). Until one day you're not in control anymore. It's just one long blur of Rex Harrison, Valerie Hobson, Conrad Veidt, Margaret Lockwood, Paul Lukas, Hay Petrie...
Ok, calm down. Breathe. How about a…
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Dark Journey 1937
I enjoyed this one every bit as much as Contraband (1940). So many crazy little touches to savor here. The 20-year-out-of-date fashions. The temporal loop-dee-loops that keep you in a perpetual state of Déjà Vu. The schizophrenic title music. The way Conrad Veidt purses his lips like a constipated ventriloquist in almost every scene.
Some reviewers have rightly pointed out that the script is a bit muddled and confusing. Sure, ok. But on the other hand: just look at this…
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The Old Dark House 1932
As it turns out, when you're stuck in a dark house with a low-grade fever, these trippy movies just kind of pick themselves.
At some point I must have been hallucinating, because it seemed like comically young versions of Melyvn Douglas, Raymond Massey, and Charles Laughton were simultaneously wrestling against Boris Karloff (and losing).
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Piccadilly 1929
Anna May Wong is so delightfully self-posessed and fearless. She looks like you could pluck her out of any frame here and drop her down in modern London, and she'd fit right in without skipping a beat.
The scoring on Criterion had a "very special episode of Hill Street Blues" vibe that I found a little distracting. We dealt with it by making up silly songs about how badly Jameson Thomas wanted to be Ronald Colman.
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