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March of the Wooden Soldiers, a review by addicted2dvd

March of the Wooden Soldiers (1934/United States) (United States) Director: Gus Meins, Charles Rogers Writing: Glen MacDonough (Original Material By), Frank Butler (Screenwriter), Nick Grinde (Screenwriter) Length: 77 min. Video: Full Frame 1.33:1 Audio: English: Dolby Digital: 2-Channel Stereo Subtitles:

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Stars:
Stan Laurel as Stannie Dum
Oliver Hardy as Ollie Dee
Charlotte Henry as Little Bo-Peep
Felix Knight as Tom-Tom Piper
Henry Brandon as Silas Barnaby

Plot:
Imagine an enchanted fantasy world of timeless characters and magical moments where nothing goes right for the clumsy toymakers, Stannie Dum and Ollie Dee. When notorious scoundrel Barnaby demands to marry the beautiful Little Bo Peep, guess who secretly emerges as the bride. Based on the original 'Babes In Toyland', this movie is a dazzling spectacle of 6-foot wooden soldiers, Mother Goose characters and the beloved team of Laurel & Hardy.

Extras:

• Scene Access
• Feature Trailers
• Bonus Trailers
• Closed Captioned
• Colorized Version, Cartoons, Short Films & Toy Commercials.

While I am sure this is considered a classic in it's own right... I found it to be uninteresting and over acted. Sure there was some entertaining scenes in it. But for the most part I found myself watching the clock and waiting for it to be over with.



(From Christmas 2017 on December 5th, 2017)

Rope, a review by Dragonfire

Rope

This DVD is one of my mother and step-father's, so I don't have it in Profiler.

This is the version they have.  I've taken the other information from Amazon.com



An experimental film masquerading as a standard Hollywood thriller. The plot of Rope is simple and based on a successful stage play: two young men (John Dall and Farley Granger) commit murder, more or less as an intellectual exercise. They hide the body in their large apartment, then throw a dinner party. Will the body be discovered? Director Alfred Hitchcock, fascinated by the possibilities of the long-take style, decided to shoot this story as though it were happening in one long, uninterrupted shot. Since the camera can only hold one 10-minute reel at a time, Hitchcock had to be creative when it came time to change reels, disguising the switches as the camera passed behind someone's back or moved behind a lamp. In later years Hitchcock wrote off the approach as misguided, and Rope may not be one of Hitchcock's top movies, but it's still a nail-biter. They don't call him the Master of Suspense for nothing. James Stewart, as a suspicious professor, marks his first starring role for Hitchcock, a collaboration that would lead to the masterpieces Rear Window and Vertigo. --Robert Horton

Product Description
No Description Available.
Genre: Feature Film-Drama
Rating: PG
Release Date: 20-JUN-2006
Media Type: DVD


My Thoughts

The first shot of the movie, showing the murder, makes this movie a bit different.  It is clear right from the start that Brandon and Phillip have murdered David, so there is no search for a murderer.  The motivation for the murder comes out fairly early.  Things progress during real time over the course of the movie.  The pacing works well overall, though it does slow down a few times.  Things do seem to drag slightly in a few spots, but that works for the movie overall.  The entire movie is set inside Brandon's apartment, mostly in the living room, though a few other rooms are used briefly as well.  The kitchen is just seen through the swinging door, which creates some wonderful shots.  The movie is filmed with one camera in basically one shot, though the camera would only hold ten minutes of film at a time.  The changes in the reels are somewhat easy to spot, but they are still done well.  As characters go from room to room, the camera follows along behind them.  Hitchcock already used a small location in Lifeboat, and he would return to using an apartment as the location for an entire movie in Rear Window.

The living room has a wall of windows, showing the city skyline as the backdrop for what is going on inside.  There is smoke coming from different chimneys and clouds slowly move across the sky, disguising the fact that the background is actually static.  The lighting slow changes as well as it becomes dark out and lights in the different buildings slowly come on.  The use of the background is done really well and adds to the atmosphere of what is going on.  I don't think I've seen another movie that did this what a static backdrop.

Even though there is no question about who killed Dave or even why he has vanished, there is still a good amount of suspense to what is going on.  Brandon going through with a dinner party right after the murder, and even serving the food from the trunk or whatever that piece of furniture was where they stuffed the body.  Once people start to arrive, there is a lot of tension and suspense around the wondering if anyone will discover the body that is practically right under their noses.  Phillip is not dealing well with what they have done, and he gets more and more jumpy and nervous as the evening progresses while Brandon stays more calm and controlled.  One guest is a former teacher who has expressed the view of murder being a privilege for some.  The other guests include members of David's family, his girlfriend, and her ex.  Having so many people that connected to David be there adds to the tension of what is going on. 

Of the two murderous friends, it is clear that Brandon is the one in charge and making the decisions.  He has no remorse and relishes the danger of having the dinner party while the body is still in the room.  Brandon enjoys manipulating people and then sitting back to watch what happens.  Philip starts showing regrets almost immediately and he is horrified by the planned dinner party, and Brandon deciding to change things around so the food is served from the trunk hiding the body.  There is a good dynamic between the two of them.  Mrs. Wilson is the maid who arrives to help set up for the party.  She is confused by Brandon's decision to change things around.  Janet is David's girlfriend and she has known Brandon long enough to know that he likes to manipulate people.  She isn't happy about Kenneth, her ex, being there too.  David's father and aunt are the other two party guests.  As things progress, they are getting more concerned and worried over David's absence.  Rupert is the professor who slowly starts to become suspicious.  The cast all does well with their parts, with Jimmy Stewart being wonderful.



I did get a review of this one posted on Epinions a few years ago after I first watched the movie.

Rope

(From Alfred Hitchcock Marathon on June 15th, 2010)

"Due South" marathon, a review by Tom

2.17 Red, White or Blue (1996-05-16)
Writer: Paul Haggis (Created By), Paul Gross (Story By), John Krizanc (Story By), Paul Gross (Screenwriter)
Director: George Bloomfield
Cast: Paul Gross (Constable Benton Fraser), David Marciano (Detective Ray Vecchio), Beau Starr (Lt. Harding Welsh), Tony Craig (Detective Jack Huey), Catherine Bruhier (Elaine), Camilla Scott (Inspector Margaret Thatcher), Kenneth Welsh (Randal Bolt), Raye Birk (Francis Bolt), Alex Carter (Agent Ford), Gary Reineke (Judge Brock), Ellen Dubin (States Attorney), Mark Melymick (Agent Deeter), Shawn Wright (Mountie Trainee), Norm Spencer (Agent Shorren), James Allodi (Asst. States Attorney), Maria Ricossa (Vivian Richards)

A good episode. I love the scene, where Ray and Fraser have a conversation with each other without being in the same room. It's a throwback to an earlier episode. This shows how well they know each other and can tell exactly what the other would be saying to them. I also find it nice that they have some small moments between Fraser and Thatcher showing us, that their "contact" on the train is not entirely forgotten.

Rating:

(From "Due South" marathon on September 1st, 2009)