Classic Movie Cryptoquiz: Film Noir

A cryptoquiz is a group of related words or phrases made illegible with simple letter substitution. The twelve cryptic movie titles listed below all belong to the genre of classic film noir, but you don't need to hire a private detective to figure them out.

As always, I'll post the answers in the comment section below. Have fun!

XEQ   HDRAU

PFO   IRTPOZO   YRTHKQ

GKEJTO   MQGOIQMPU

ZEQZOP   JKETOCRDG

KEP   KY   PFO   LRZP

TREDR

IMTGDOG   LMODHO

IEDGOD   IU   ZSOOP

PFO   JMX   FORP

PFO   PFMDG   IRQ

PKEHF   KY   OCMT

PFO   RZLFRTP   WEQXTO

Genre Index for BEYOND CASABLANCA II

A friend of mine requested an index of the films in BEYOND CASABLANCA II organized by genre. The book has three index sections already, with listings by year, director, and notable cast, but I think that a genre index can also be a handy tool, especially if you're in the mood for a particular kind of film. That said, genre indexing can be tricky, since many movies straddle multiple categories. In order to create the simplest index possible, I'm here listing each of the 101 films in BEYOND CASABLANCA II once, under the genre grouping that seems the most indicative of its content. I have also tried to keep subgenres to a minimum. I hope that people will find it useful!

ACTION/ADVENTURE

Gunga Din (1939)
Jason and the Argonauts (1963)
Lawrence of Arabia (1962)
The Three Musketeers (1948)

COMEDY

The Apartment (1960)
The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer (1947)
The Canterville Ghost (1944)
Charade (1963)
Cheaper by the Dozen (1950)
Desk Set (1957)
The Doll (1919)
Father of the Bride (1950)
The Girl from Missouri (1934)
The Great Race (1965)
Holiday (1938)
I Married a Witch (1942)
Jewel Robbery (1932)
Love Finds Andy Hardy (1938)
Midnight (1939)
Modern Times (1936)
Monkey Business (1952)
Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936)
On Approval (1944)
The Palm Beach Story (1942)
Pat and Mike (1952)
Roman Holiday (1953)
Ruggles of Red Gap (1935)
Safety Last! (1923)
The Seven Year Itch (1955)
Steamboat Bill, Jr. (1928)
The Trouble with Angels (1966)
The Women (1939)
You Can't Take It with You (1938)

DRAMA

Angels with Dirty Faces (1938)
Blood and Sand (1941)
Brief Encounter (1945)
Captains Courageous (1937)
The Divorcee (1930)
The Enchanted Cottage (1945)
Fury (1936)
Grand Hotel (1932)
The Greatest Show on Earth (1952)
Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967)
How Green Was My Valley (1941)
Jane Eyre (1943)
The Letter (1940)
Little Caesar (1931)
National Velvet (1944)
Of Human Bondage (1934)
Torch Song (1953)

FILM NOIR

High Sierra (1941)
Niagara (1953)
On Dangerous Ground (1952)
The Strange Love of Martha Ivers (1946)
The Stranger (1946)
Tension (1949)
They Drive by Night (1940)
Touch of Evil (1958)

HORROR

The Bad Seed (1956)
The Birds (1963)
The Bride of Frankenstein (1935)
The Cat and the Canary (1927)
Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954)
The Curse of Frankenstein (1957)
Eyes without a Face (1960)
The Haunting (1963)
House on Haunted Hill (1959)
Hush... Hush, Sweet Charlotte (1964)
The Innocents (1961)
Island of Lost Souls (1932)
Mad Love (1935)
Night of the Demon (1957)
The Phantom of the Opera (1925)
The Thing from Another World (1951)

MUSICAL

The Band Wagon (1953)
42nd Street (1933)
The Jazz Singer (1927)
The Music Man (1962)
Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1954)
Swing Time (1936)
White Christmas (1954)
Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942)

THRILLER (MYSTERY)

Cape Fear (1962)
Dial M for Murder (1954)
Don't Bother to Knock (1952)
Dragonwyck (1946)
Lifeboat (1944)
The Lodger (1944)
Night Nurse (1931)
Peeping Tom (1960)
Vertigo (1958)
Wait Until Dark (1967)
Witness for the Prosecution (1957)

WAR

Mister Roberts (1955)
Stalag 17 (1953)

WESTERN

Fort Apache (1948)
The Gunfighter (1950)
The Man from Laramie (1955)
McLintock! (1963)
My Darling Clementine (1946)
Westward the Women (1951)

Here's a link to BEYOND CASABLANCA II on Amazon, as well!

Classic Films in Focus: FROM HELL IT CAME (1957)

Most viewers can recognize the appeal of a celebrated masterpiece like Citizen Kane (1941), but it takes a special kind of film fan to appreciate an unqualified turkey like From Hell It Came (1957), an Atomic Age explosion of bad acting, execrable dialogue, and one of the dumbest movie monsters you could ever hope to see. Like Plan 9 from Outer Space (1959) and Attack of the Giant Leeches (1959), From Hell It Came represents the sublime rock bottom of cinema, a movie so bad it's absolutely delightful to watch, provided you bring your own peanut gallery and something squishy to throw at the screen.

The story opens with the execution of Kimo (Gregg Palmer), a South Sea Island prince whose demise is engineered by a tribal witch doctor and his accomplices. Bent on revenge, Kimo returns from the dead as the tree monster, Tabanga, who lumbers after his enemies in order to dispatch them. Caught in the middle of the local turmoil are several American scientists who are on the island to investigate potential radiation from government testing. At first, they see Tabanga as a prize scientific discovery, but they soon learn that the ambulatory plant is stronger and more deadly than they imagined.

The tropical setting is used mostly as a justification for racist platitudes about the "simple" natives and their customs, although their belief in a vengeful walking tree turns out to be perfectly reasonable. The plot presents the natives as a collection of the usual stereotypes, with the evil witch doctor, the island temptress, the native ingenue, and the noble prince all making appearances. Of course, very few of the natives are played by people with even the remotest claim to Polynesian descent, and most of them look - and sound - absolutely ridiculous in their island garb.

Sexism also gets plenty of play, with the attractive scientist, Terry (Tina Carver), constantly badgered by her boyfriend, Bill (Tod Andrews), to give up her career in favor of marriage and a "normal" life. The eager career girl is the one who first urges the team to uproot Tabanga in order to study him, but her feminine weakness for high heels - even on a jungle island - makes her an easy target for the shuffling tree monster. It's unclear how Tabanga's attack suddenly convinces Terry to accept Bill's proposal (is it post-traumatic shock?), but the ending suggests that wedding bells and baby carriages aren't far off for the American couple. We can only imagine the sadly domesticated Terry back in the States, pushing a pram through the park and eying every rustling elm with a nervous expression.

Be sure to savor Linda Watkins' really atrocious English accent as the lusty widow, Mrs. Kilgore; she makes Dick Van Dyke's Bert in Mary Poppins (1964) sound like a shining pearl of linguistic authenticity. Director Dan Milner also made the equally awful 1955 picture, The Phantom from 10,000 Leagues. If really bad, laugh until it hurts, B movies are your idea of a good time, try other classic turkeys like Night of the Blood Beast (1958), The Killer Shrews (1959), and Night of the Lepus (1972), or turn to modern parodies of the genre like Teenage Catgirls in Heat (1994) and The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra (2001).

From Hell It Came is currently available on Warner Archive Instant.

BEYOND CASABLANCA II is now on Kindle

My second collection of classic movie reviews is now available on Kindle, and to celebrate its arrival it will be free all this weekend. I hope that anyone who enjoys the blog will download a copy!

BEYOND CASABLANCA II: 101 CLASSIC MOVIES WORTH WATCHING offers a whole new collection of classic film reviews to expand your movie watchlist even farther beyond the original book's selections. This time I've moved into the 1960s to include great films like The Music Man (1962), Wait Until Dark (1967), and Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967). You'll find silent films like The Cat and the Canary (1927), The Doll (1919), and The Phantom of the Opera (1925). As always, the book covers every genre and decade, and the movies selected represent more than 75 directors and hundreds of notable performers.

Unlike the Leonard Maltin guide, which offers only capsule reviews, I provide an essay-length discussion of each movie included, although I try to keep spoilers and plot summary to a minimum so that you can fully enjoy watching the pictures for yourself. Every review ends with suggestions for what to watch next, and the three index sections group movies by year, director, and notable cast members so that you can find more of what you like best.

Right now the new book is only available on Kindle, but the original continues to be in both paperback and Kindle editions. I'll let everyone know if a paperback edition of BEYOND CASABLANCA II becomes an option in the future.

Here's the link to BEYOND CASABLANCA II on Kindle!

Classic Movie Cryptoquiz: Bette Davis

A cryptoquiz is a puzzle in which all of the letters of the alphabet have been switched. Can you solve all twelve of the scrambled movie titles in the list below? Each of the movies in this quiz stars Bette Davis.

Bette Davis Movies

GSUIMO  FVGSE

VY LTGSE  QVEOSAM

SWW  SQVTD  MKM

EVF  KVPSAMU

OSUI  KXZDVUP

DLM  FLSWMJ  VY  STATJD

BMRMQMW

DLM  HMDUXYXMO  YVUMJD

DLM VWO  GSXO

OMSO  UXEAMU

DLM  WMDDMU

GU.  JIMYYXEADVE

If you haven't solved a lot of cryptoquizzes before, you might find it helpful to print the puzzle out. I'll post the answers in the comments section below, but don't look until you are finished! I hope to make cryptoquizzes a regular feature of the blog if people enjoy them, so let me know if you want to see more classic movie puzzles and games in the future.

Classic Films in Focus: BLESSED EVENT (1932)

Although it's billed as a comedy, Roy Del Ruth's Pre-Code picture, Blessed Event (1932), actually gets into some pretty dark territory, thanks to an amoral protagonist who earns fame and fortune by airing other people's secrets in a sleazy tabloid column. Like Red-Headed Woman (1932) and Baby Face (1933), it's the kind of story that can only come from the Pre-Code era, replete with Prohibition drinking, sex scandals, and mobster violence. In this instance, the familiar theme of the social climber's willingness to use other people in order to get to the top is exemplified by Lee Tracy, who presents a masculine take on the street smart persona we often associate with Harlow and Stanwyck. Fans of the wisecracking star will appreciate his performance in Blessed Event, while those who favor the Busby Berkeley musicals of the period will enjoy seeing the big screen debut of Dick Powell as Tracy's chief target and social rival.

Tracy plays the ambitious Alvin Roberts, who gets his big break in the newspaper business by running short gossip pieces about the city's expectant mothers. He pens particularly juicy quips about the wealthy and the unwed, which earns the paper thousands of new readers and attracts death threats and lawsuits for Roberts. Alvin's girlfriend, Gladys (Mary Brian), has misgivings about the unethical nature of his work, but Alvin persists until a desperate pregnant woman (Isabel Jewell) embroils him in a dangerous situation with a mob boss (Edwin Maxwell) wants to murder Alvin to keep his name out of the affair.

The movie never pretends that Alvin's column isn't salacious, vicious, and under-handed, but it does offer us glimpses of Alvin's better nature. He supports and lives with his doting mother (Emma Dunn), whom he loves so much that he lets her listen to his nemesis, Bunny Harmon (Dick Powell), on the radio. He's smart, funny, and gifted with a cheerful disposition, even when confronted with gangsters who want to shut him up. One of Tracy's best scenes comes when tough guy Frankie Wells (Allen Jenkins) arrives to lean on Alvin but ends up being horrified into submission by Alvin's vivid recreation of a death row execution. The gossip columnist is presented to us as a 1930s version of the immortal trickster figure, a yellow press descendant of Coyote, Ananzi, and Brer Rabbit. He's not necessarily a good guy, but he's a lot of fun to watch.

Alvin steps over a line, though, when he prints the "blessed event" piece about Dorothy Lane, the pitiful little singer who begs him not to report her condition in the paper. Isabel Jewell gives a heartbreaking - although uncredited - performance as the pregnant girl. She's so pale and despairing that we expect any minute to hear that she has thrown herself out of a window after Alvin runs the tidbit in spite of her pleas. The story teeters on the edge of tragedy once she is introduced, and the ending can only ameliorate the damage that Alvin causes her. Once printed, his words can never be taken back, a fact that he doesn't appreciate until the very end of the film. Although most of the story makes light of scandalous pregnancies and quick marriages, this plot suggests the more serious plight of young women suffering Dorothy's fate; she loses her job, her home, her reputation, and even the support of her married lover in the wake of Alvin's disclosure.

Be sure to appreciate Ruth Donnelly as Alvin's assistant, Ned Sparks as a sour-faced colleague, and, of course, Dick Powell as the handsome radio crooner, Bunny Harmon. See more of Lee Tracy in Doctor X (1932), Dinner at Eight (1933), and Bombshell (1933). Roy Del Ruth also directed Blonde Crazy (1931), Born to Dance (1936), and Topper Returns (1941). Look for Mary Brian in The Front Page (1931), and don't miss Isabel Jewell in her best-known role as Emmy Slattery in Gone with the Wind (1939).

Blessed Event is currently available for streaming on Warner Archive Instant.

A Sneak Peek at BEYOND CASABLANCA II

I am almost ready to announce the publication of BEYOND CASABLANCA II: 101 CLASSIC MOVIES WORTH WATCHING, and with any luck it will be ready for readers in the next few days. In the mean time, I wanted to share the Table of Contents so that you can get a peek at the 101 movies I'm reviewing in the new book. Here are all of the films included in the new collection!

Angels with Dirty Faces (1938)

The Apartment (1960)

The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer (1947)

The Bad Seed (1956)

The Band Wagon (1953)

The Birds (1963)

Blood and Sand (1941)

The Bride of Frankenstein (1935)

Brief Encounter (1945)

The Canterville Ghost (1944)

Cape Fear (1962)

Captains Courageous (1937)

The Cat and the Canary (1927)

Charade (1963)

Cheaper by the Dozen (1950)

Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954)

The Curse of Frankenstein (1957)

Desk Set (1957)

Dial M for Murder (1954)

The Divorcee (1930)

The Doll (1919)

Don’t Bother to Knock (1952)

Dragonwyck (1946)

The Enchanted Cottage (1945)

Eyes without a Face (1960)

Father of the Bride (1950)

Fort Apache (1948)

42^nd Street (1933)

Fury (1936)

The Girl from Missouri (1934)

Grand Hotel (1932)

The Greatest Show on Earth (1952)

The Great Race (1965)

Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner (1967)

The Gunfighter (1950)

Gunga Din (1939)

The Haunting (1963)

High Sierra (1941)

Holiday (1938)

House on Haunted Hill (1959)

How Green Was My Valley (1941)

Hush… Hush, Sweet Charlotte (1964)

I Married a Witch (1942)

The Innocents (1961)

Island of Lost Souls (1932)

Jane Eyre (1943)

Jason and the Argonauts (1963)

The Jazz Singer (1927)

Jewel Robbery (1932)

Lawrence of Arabia (1962)

The Letter (1940)

Lifeboat (1944)

Little Caesar (1931)

The Lodger (1944)

Love Finds Andy Hardy (1938)

Mad Love (1935)

The Man from Laramie (1955)

McLintock! (1963)

Midnight (1939)

Mister Roberts (1955)

Modern Times (1936)

Monkey Business (1952)

Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936)

The Music Man (1962)

My Darling Clementine (1946)

National Velvet (1944)

Niagara (1953)

Night Nurse (1931)

Night of the Demon (1957)

Of Human Bondage (1934)

On Approval (1944)

On Dangerous Ground (1952)

The Palm Beach Story (1942)

Pat and Mike (1952)

Peeping Tom (1960)

The Phantom of the Opera (1925)

Roman Holiday (1953)

Ruggles of Red Gap (1935)

Safety Last! (1923)

Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1954)

The Seven Year Itch (1955)

Stalag 17 (1953)

Steamboat Bill, Jr. (1928)

The Strange Love of Martha Ivers (1946)

The Stranger (1946)

Swing Time (1936)

Tension (1949)

They Drive by Night (1940)

The Thing from Another World (1951)

The Three Musketeers (1948)

Torch Song (1953)

Touch of Evil (1958)

The Trouble with Angels (1966)

Vertigo (1958)

Wait Until Dark (1967)

Westward the Women (1951)

White Christmas (1954)

Witness for the Prosecution (1957)

The Women (1939)

Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942)

You Can’t Take It with You (1938)

If you read the blog very often, you'll recognize some of these movies as ones that I have reviewed here, but lots of the reviews are exclusive to the new book. As you can see, I'm venturing a little farther forward in time with this collection by including movies from the 1960s. That trade-off means the focus is a little more explicitly American and British; one of these days I'll put together a world cinema collection, but for now my audience tends to be more mainstream. Like the original book, BEYOND CASABLANCA II offers movies from many different genres, decades, directors, and stars, and balancing all of those elements with the need to get most of the alphabet covered is no small task.

BEYOND CASABLANCA II is going to be available exclusively on Kindle for now; I want to see how it does before I commit to doing a print edition. The retail price will be $4.99, but I hope to run a free promo for it once it goes live.