DVD Collectors Online

Rope, a review by Achim

Title: Rope
Year: 1948
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Rating: PG
Length: 81 Min.
Video: Full Frame 1.33:1
Audio: English: Dolby Digital Mono, Spanish: Dolby Digital Mono, French: Dolby Digital Mono
Subtitles: English

Stars:
Dick Hogan
His Friends
John Dall
Farley Granger
Their housekeeper

Plot:Extras:
Scene Access
Trailers
Featurettes
Gallery
Production Notes

I remember watching this many years ago but I didn't remember that is was this awesome. Great direction by the master (the reveal of the dinner table, the swinging kitchen door partly concealing the view, the reveal of the books Mr. Kentley wants to take home), good acting and sharp dialog make this a pleasure to watch. And that despite the fact that it all looks a bit fake, just like theater, due to the fact it plays out in real time and the few cuts that are there are made invisible by smart camera movement (Hitchcock wanted the film to be entirely without cuts but was restricted by the length of a camera magazine being approx. 10min).

Nice touch how they kept changing the painted background slightly each time it became visible to make it's static nature less obvious.



(From Alfred Hitchcock Marathon on July 2nd, 2009)

The Old Dark House, a review by Danae Cassandra

The Old Dark House
Year of Release: 1932
Directed By: James Whale
Starring: Boris Karloff, Melvyn Douglas, Charles Laughton, Lillian Bond, Ernest Thesiger, Eva Moore
Genre: Horror

Overview:
Weary travelers find shelter in a mysterious Welsh manor in this definitive "Old Dark House" thriller and cult movie favorite by horror pioneer James Whale (the director of Frankenstein, The Invisible Man and The Bride of Frankenstein, and subject of the recent film Gods and Monsters).

Greeted with an animal-like grunt by the mansion's hideously scarred butler (Boris Karloff), three disoriented voyagers (Melvyn Douglas, Raymond Massey and Lillian Bond) find themselves in the unwelcoming company of the psychotic Femm family, whose members include a religious fanatic obsessed with mortality and other matter of the sinful flesh (Eva Moore), her browbeaten brother (Ernest Thesiger), and a scripture-quoting homicidal pyromaniac (Brember Wills)... all watched over by their androgynous, 102-year-old father (Elspeth "John" Dudgeon). Relieving the story's overwhelming weirdness are Charles Laughton and a young Gloria Stuart (Titanic) as two confused visitors to the strange estate.

As witty and surprising as it is darkly unsettling, The Old Dark House is a ghoulishly delightful treat, a one-of-a-kind macabre comedy blanketed with rain-soaked, gothic eeriness orchestrated by one of the foremost directors of the American horror film.

My Thoughts:
I find, for whatever reason, that I'm not as fond of this film today as I was when I first watched it four years ago. I still like Charles Laughton and Boris Karloff's performances. I still think that the cast do a good job creating unique, eccentric characters - and that not only Karloff, but also Eva Moore. That level of religious zealotry is both extremely off-putting and genuinely frightening. Gloria Stuart's character, however, seems even more silly, stupid, and just plain annoying today. The cinematography still creates a really spooky, old, dark house, but the print is in need of a good restoration/HD remaster. That shouldn't matter, but I think it actually does. Still, the script is good and the cast is top notch, so I'd still recommend it to fans of old films and classic horror.

Watched For: Hoop-tober 3.0, Horror/Halloween Challenge 2016

Bechdel Test: Pass
Mako Mori Test: Fail

Overall: 3.5/5

Horror/Halloween Challenge Films: 4/52

(From Horror/Halloween 2016 Challenge on October 5th, 2016)

Tom's Glee Marathon, a review by Tom

Glee
Season 1.04 Preggers
Writer: Ryan Murphy (Created By), Brad Falchuk (Created By), Ian Brennan (Created By), Brad Falchuk (Writer)
Director: Brad Falchuk
Cast: Dianna Agron (Quinn Fabray), Chris Colfer (Kurt Hummel), Jessalyn Gilsig (Terri Schuester), Jane Lynch (Sue Sylvester), Jayma Mays (Emma Pillsbury), Kevin McHale (Arty Abrams), Lea Michele (Rachel Berry), Cory Monteith (Finn Hudson), Matthew Morrison (Will Schuester), Amber Riley (Mercedes Jones), Mark Salling (Noah "Puck" Puckerman), Jenna Ushkowitz (Tina Cohen-Chang), Stephen Tobolowsky (Sandy Ryerson), Patrick Gallagher (Ken Tanaka), Mike O'Malley (Burt Hummel), Iqbal Theba (Principal Figgins), Jennifer Aspen (Kendra Giardi), Kurt Fuller (Mr. McClung), Naya Rivera (Santana Lopez), Heather Morris (Brittany Pierce), Harry Shum, Jr. (Mike Chang), Dijon Talton (Matt Rutherford), Earlene Davis (Andrea Carmichael), Hisonni Johnson (Nick), Bill A. Jones (Rod Remington), Frank Pacheco (Jerky Player)

This episode was a turning point for me for this series. Before this I thought it was nice, but not really great. But this episode surprised me. Especially the ending. It has shown me for the first time that Glee can have great moments, which makes it worth to watch even if it often has stupid moments.

Heather Morris, who plays Brittany, was first hired because of this episode. Her only job originally was to instruct the actors to do the Single Ladies dance, as she herself was dancing it with Beyoncé on her tour. Though then she was also hired as an actor as there was still an opening for a cheerleader character.

This episode also introduces "Sue's Corner". A segment on the local news TV program hosted by the Glee club's rival, the cheerleader coach Sue Sylvester played by Jane Lynch. The segments are hilariously politically incorrect.

In this episode Kurt's father Burt is introduced. At first he appears to be the stereotypical redneck, who would never be able to accept a gay son. When at the end Kurt started to come out to his father, the first time I watched the episode I expected a huge backlash. But then the episode surprised. The reaction of Burt was a simple "I know".
And that he still loves him. He will turn out to be one of the best characters of the entire series. How he constantly supports his son against bullying and other discriminations, even though he himself is not 100% percent comfortable yet that his son his gay.

Another character which gets some depths is Puck. Introduced as the series bad boy, he shows his good side here when he tries to be supportive when he learns that Quinn is pregnant with his baby.

Tina-Watch:
Tina has a storyline here. Which will be dropped soon after. Mr. Shue tries to get her into a more vital role in the Glee club. He seems to drop this agenda after this episode and Tina is doomed to be a background character.

Finncompetent:
He really believes Quinn story, that he got Quinn pregnant even though they never had intercourse, only because there were in a hot tub together making out, where he then ejaculated.


Notable music:
This episode hardly contains music. It includes Single Ladies from Beyoncé, but it is not sung by the cast. Only danced to by Kurt, Tina and Brittany and later the football players. There is only a few seconds of a songs sung by cast members. One of them is Rachel is singing a Celine Dion song ("Taking Chances") for a musical audition. I liked it.

Rating:

(From Tom's Glee Marathon on August 16th, 2012)