Monday: The Swimmer (1968)
Ned visits his friends on a nice day at the end of the summer. He swims in their pool and catches up with them. Then he figures out a route where he can swim across different people's pools and get all the way to his house. Essentially swimming home. As he travels he becomes less and less welcome at each pool. We learn about him. That he has been gone awhile and really messed things up before he left. Although he grows tired he is determined to finish. I remember reading this short story in school. I thought it would be interesting to see it's film adaptation, especially when it stars Burt Lancaster. It was ok. Not any better than the short story was. Still an interesting concept to swim across peoples pools to get home.
Tuesday: San Francisco (1936)
Set in 1906 this movie is about a saloon owner named Blackie. He is known for being a shady but successful business man. One day a woman named Mary comes to audition for him. She has a great opera singing voice. That is not the style of his saloon but he hires her anyway. Soon she is also discovered by a wealthy man who has interests in the local opera house. Both men want her to be their performer. And both men fall in love with her. The love triangle creates challenges for them all. Then the big earthquake comes and San Francisco is destroyed. I thought this movie was alright. It was one of the early disaster films.
Wednesday: Elevator to the Gallows (1958)
This is a French film. Julien forms a plot to kill his boss with his boss's wife, Florence, who is also his mistress. After he kills the boss they will run away together. His plan is successful until he gets stuck in the elevator of the building he just killed his boss in. A young couple steal Julien's car that was waiting outside. They drive around for awhile. Florence spends the night searching for Julien. That night the couple end up at a hotel. The young man pretends to be Julien. The young couple meet a German couple in the room next to theirs. The young man is paranoid and the night ends in murder. It gets pinned on Julien. He finally escapes the elevator only to be arrested. Both Julien and Florence try to convince the police he didn't commit that murder. His other murder is discovered. This movie was ok. Decent for a French film. I was glad to find another European film with not too much philosophical ramblings. It was composed by Miles Davis.
Friday: The Glorias (2020)
This movie tells the story of real life journalist and activist Gloria Steinem. It jumps around different points in her life, all connected by Gloria at all ages riding a bus together. Gloria was poor growing up in the 40s. Her father was always going from one scheme to another. Eventually her mother leaves him and she takes Gloria to live in her old home. Her mom suffers from mental illness and eventually has to be institutionalized. After college Gloria travels to India on a fellowship. She follows Gandhi. When she returns to the states she tries to be a journalist. But no one takes a female journalist seriously at this time. Even if she is really good. She decides if she can't write about what she wants to she can talk about it. She becomes a feminist activist. After gaining some success from that she starts a feminist magazine. Gloria becomes a famous and prominent feminist icon. I thought this movie was alright. It had all these random scenes of her sitting on a bus talking to herself at different ages. There were also random fantasy scenes like her face in a tornado and running on a treadmill like road over a big city. The story jumps back and forth a lot. Also at one point she goes from being a young woman to a middle aged woman (Alicia Vikander to Julianne Moore) with no really point in between. And everyone else around her stays the same. They didn't try to age them at all. Clearly they would have aged too. Maybe it was to show that she had become her full self and then later the others will just catch up in age. I don't know. Whatever it was it didn't work. I can live with the jumping around. But the bus and fantasy scenes don't work at all. If they were cut out this would be a better movie.
Saturday: Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954)
A scientist discovers a strange fossil deep in the Amazon jungle. He brings it back to the institute he works at. He wants to figure out what it is. He needs a team to go back with him. David and Kay are a young couple working at the institute. They agree to go on the trip with their boss Mark. When they arrive back at the scientist's camp they find his men killed by some animal. They figure out that the rest of the fossils might have travelled downstream to a lagoon, called the Black Lagoon. Soon after arriving they discover a creature living there. It is dangerous and kills some of their men. It wants Kay. David only wants to study it and get out of there alive. Mark wants to kill it and bring it back to show everyone what they found. It does not end well. I thought this movie was good. I enjoyed it. I have now seen all the classic Universal monster movies. I felt bad for the Creature in this movie. He is really just a wild animal trying to protect his home and find a mate. If they hadn't come around or threatened him no one would have died.
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