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TARZAN
AND HIS MATE (dir: Cedric Gibbons, Not
Rated) - Bart says, "There's all sorts of Tarzan out there,
ranging from silent versions to Bo Derek to Disney, and all points
in between. But this Tarzan is the one to beat. And no one ever
will. It's super sexy, with a memorable nude bathing scene
(tastefully immoral, Pre-Code style) and lots of exciting animal
action. This is the second film with Johnny Weissmuller as
everybody's favorite Tarzan, and deals mainly with how Jane (Maureen
O'Sullivan) has gotten along after living a year in the jungle with
her ape-man. Eventually, of course, some stupid white colonialist
types enter the picture to ruin all the fun and disrespect
elephants. At least Tarzan gets to ride a rhinoceros." |
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THE
GAY DIVORCEE (dir: Mark Sandrich, Not Rated) - Bart says, "Like
most fans of the genre, most of my favorite musicals are from the
50s - the height of the lavish, MGM-style production. But there are
also countless 50s musicals that are total bores and impossible to
sit through. If I have to watch a run-of-the-mill musical, make it
one from the 30s. They're down and dirty and almost totally
insubstantial (other than the Depression-era escapist subtext of
most), but the tendency to turn dancing bodies into abstract designs
(a la Busby Berkeley) and the superiority of 30s pop music to 50s
pop music sells me every time. And central to the 30s musical are
Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, whose exhilarating dancing and
sophisticated repartee make their films together the most
consistently entertaining in the genre. If I prefer THE GAY DIVORCEE
to TOP HAT (their most popular), it's because I saw it first, and
it's the first where the pair have top-billing, so it sets the
formula that the rest follow to one degree or another. Most
importantly, in it Astaire gets to sing the definitive version of
Cole Porter's Night and Day, the greatest song ever written." |
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L'ATALANTE (dir:
Jean Vigo, Not Rated)
- Bart says, "Have you heard of Jean Vigo? He's probably the
most famous filmmaker to make only one full-length feature film.
Dead at 29, he was revered by the French New Wave auteurs as much
for the romantic tragedy of a brilliant career cut short as for his
poetic films which combined an almost documentary-like realism with
touches of the surreal. L'ATALANTE involves the marriage of a cargo
ship captain to a simple country girl and the difficulties that
arise from her living with an all-male crew and experiencing the
pleasures of city-life for the first time." |
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