Heliophage

heliophage
Cinema Addict - 1920 Film Ratings
Member Since: 10 Nov 2013
Location: USA
TCI: not enough ratings
Films in Common: 0
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58 76% Parlor, Bedroom and Bath (1931) - Rated 13 Mar 2024
"Well, that certainly felt every bit the risque stage farce from 1918 that it is. Poor Buster seems as bewildered as we are to have happened upon him wandered into such a production in 1931, but it kind of works. Particularly once we hit the play's final act, in which, as is customary, the action properly heats up."
36 53% Tarzan Escapes (1936) - Rated 12 Mar 2024
"Weismuller's third outing in the loincloth feels rather dialed back. We spend a bulk of the time with the forgettable support doing not much in particular, and there's just not as much action or romance. And Tarzan's somehow gotten more monosyllabic and childishly sulky than he started. Maureen O'Sullivan is as usual the best thing the picture has going for it (especially noticeable in the presence of said dull support), but there's only so much weight she (or the inevitable elephant) can carry."
55 74% Port of New York (1949) - Rated 09 Mar 2024
"A solid bit of procedural business. It does feel a lot like the sort of thing that was big on the radio at the time (and soon enough to be big on TV) with all those straight-laced G-men and T-men and customs agents and so forth getting up to a lot of investigation and a quick bit of action. As the poster somewhat promises, Yul Brenner looms rather large as the one outsized character in this, his film debut. Though they did also manage to fit in a glimpse of Arthur Blake's impersonation act."
33 45% An Amorous History of the Silver Screen (1931) - Rated 08 Mar 2024
"We seem to be missing a Part 2 (and possibly a portion of Part 1) so we may never know for sure how things work out with that caddish husband... though to be honest, the biggest selling point of this production (for audiences then as now) wasn't the main plot, but the setting, as becomes clear when our lead eases back into things by dropping in for a full-out studio tour, with a look at the facilities, star and director cameos, and whatnot, and that accounts for about half the runtime we have."
37 55% Swordswoman of Huangjiang (1930) - Rated 07 Mar 2024
"Part (6 of 6) of an adventure serial on a popular novel running in the newspaper at the time. Know all those Wuxia program pictures where they spend most of the time either wandering around outside, or standing in town listening to exposition? Well, they (and their portly comic relief) have been around a long time. Still, some fun scenes to look at in here, with action and effects along the way (that bird suit; our heroine leaping from a rooftop holding a barbell, the final fight, etc.)"
14 6% Looney Lens: Anamorphic People (1927) - Rated 07 Mar 2024
"Looks like grandpa needs someone to reset the aspect ratio on the set again."
46 68% The Battle of Paris (1929) - Rated 04 Mar 2024
"Gertrude Lawrence was about 30 and at the height of her stage career with Noel Coward when this vehicle, her first film, joined the crowd of musicals in the first talkie wave. A mostly fluffy meet-cute with the War as a distraction that derails the romance for a bit; though nothing will stop her jazz-operetta gaiety (nor Ruggles's atrocious French accent). Even a couple new Porter numbers. This being the pre-Code days, her romantic rival proves a far nastier piece of work than one might suspect."
35 50% Xue Zhong Gu Chu (1929) - Rated 02 Mar 2024
"The premise may be notionally more serious than White Rose (thus giving Wu Suxin occasion to show off a different set of emotions; again, you can see why she was such a star); but things still get fairly outlandish once her ordeals are underway, and provide excuse enough to end on a big ol' fight scene, as most of her pictures reportedly did."
35 50% Woman Warrior White Rose (1929) - Rated 02 Mar 2024
"Women's sports academies were on the rise in 20s Shanghai, and here we get to see a bit of one of them on drill before their star pupil (our heroine) dons her new mustachioed alter-ego to fight bandits. Wu Su-Xin cuts a dashing figure in her getup as we go through a not-particularly-sensical succession of action bits (eventually involving a trick staircase and a bit of rope swinging) with her and her giddy sidekick. Maybe not great execution, but the star does have charm aplenty."
33 45% Christopher Strong (1933) - Rated 24 Feb 2024
"We're on the heels of A Bill of Divorcement, and notionally we've the setup for Hepburn to again be the modern presence wandered into the middle of a plummy bowl of wax fruit (why hello again, Billie Burke). The problem soon becomes apparent though: this script has all the wit, sophistication, and nuance of a gallon of lavender-scented laundry detergent."