Free Movie Friday: Black and Tan (1929)
The film debut of musical legend Duke Ellington.
Free Movie Friday
Free Movie Friday: Seven Keys to Baldpate (1929)
Warner Archive released a set of three adaptations of Seven Keys to Baldpate, the earliest of which is now available to stream for free. All the versions of this story I’ve seen thus far have been quite entertaining. Enjoy!
Free Movie Friday: Brats (1930)
Laurel and Hardy as kids. That’s about all you need to know, isn’t it?
Free Movie Friday: À Propos de Nice (1930)
There were cinematic milestones made in the travelogue, or symphony of a city mold, but what legendary filmmaker Jean Vigo sough to create in his experiment À Propos de Nice was a bit different. It has a bit of subversion and class commentary that still lands to this day.
Free Movie Friday: The Sins of the Children (1930)
Watch if you’re up for some classic Pre-Code melodrama.
Free-Movie Friday: Hell-Bound Train (1930)
This was a film I first viewed on the Criterion Channel.
It’s a morality tale from the Jazz Age and a milestone in early Black cinema, which only remains extant thanks to preservation efforts of cobbling together partial prints to restore the whole. As such it has been included in the National Film Registry.
Free Movie Friday: Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari (The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari) (1920)
Take a little over an hour to enjoy one of the greatest films ever made. Nicolas Cage’s feelings on this film in The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent are completely justified.
Free Movie Friday: The Manster (1959)
This was a film I featured on my Film Discoveries of 2012 list. Here is what I wrote about it:
Spinning off from No Greater Glory George Breakston, after his days as an actor, went on to be quite a prolific and successful B-Movie director and producer. At random I chose one of his titles the seemingly schlocky Manster and was quite impressed by it. It’s low-rent, there are downright mistakes in it, but most of the handling and the narrative is highly effective for what it’s attempting.
Only now did it hit me that it’s a public domain film, so if you’re curious watch and enjoy!
Free Movie: Before The Flood
I meant to post this yesterday. Without too much adieu this is a movie that must be seen. Enjoy!
Free Movie Friday: Pulgarasi (1985)
A while ago I took a look at a film theory book by Kim Jong-Il I mentioned how on Open Culture they also linked to a copy of one of his films available on YouTube. I’ve recently watched it and, if curious, you can take a gander here. It’s a North Korean communist take on a Kaiju-type story.
Things to bear in mind:
- The video quality of this YouTube upload is not ideal.
- Turn on CC and there will be Spanish subtitles. Using the Auto-Translate function removes most of the issues.
- The narrative is better than expected
- Sound effects are at times nonsensically juxtaposed to the action, seemingly by accident.
- The pacing is miserable. It’s 95 minutes long but feels like it takes at least a half-hour longer.
- The first act is it’s best but it takes a precipitous dive from there. The introduction of Pulgasari serious downgrades the amount of gravitas it can hope to achieve and there is not much escapist fun either.
The Movie Rat 