SO DARK THE NIGHT

SO DARK THE NIGHT- Is an obscure little film I saw recently. It was directed by Joseph H. Lewis, famous for "Gun Crazy" with a title like that you know it's a riot. "So dark the night" is really different, the story is based in France where famous detective Henri Cassin played by Steven Geray
takes a vacation in a small village.
The moment he arrived in a chauffeured fancy car, a young peasant girl Nanette Michaud falls in love with Henri with dollar signs in her eyes. However she's already engaged to a thug named Leon Achard, who loves her so much that he's willing to kill her than to have her end up with some other man.
Henri was reluctant to the Nanette's advances at first but by day # 2 he finds himself totally in love with her despite of their age difference and the fact that she was promised to marry Leon since childhood.
So as you can see when Nanette's dead body was discovered by the town hunchback, everyone was in an uproar, all the evidence points to Leon. But when Leon was also found dead by the hunchback, detective Henri Cassin is baffled by this mysterious case. He is torn to solve to murder of the woman he once loved and trying to calm down a frightened village.
The movie take on a darker and stranger tone as the mystery becomes more and more bizarre, where l you find the characters take on a whole different personality. It keeps you guessing and begging for more scenes featuring the hunchback too!
Whenever a story takes place in a small European village, I expect Frankenstein or the wolfman to show up any minute.
It is quite a gem and you find yourself laughing and curious at the same time.

THE HAPPENING- 2008

THE HAPPENING- When I heard the title of this film the first thing that came to my mind was the song by the Supremes from the 60's, so throughout the seriously mysterious trailer, in the back of my head I keep hearing this upbeat 60's Motown tune with the same title. It's understandable because there was another film "The Happening" from the 1967 that featured this upbeat tune.
Silly and upbeat is really how you feel during this movie. It's suppose to be M. Night Shyamalan's first R rated film, the man who brought us "The sixth sense" and "The sign", not only it's his first R rated film, it might be his first comedy. The comedy, however may or may not be intentional.
Marky Mark Wahlberg plays a high school science teacher, this alone is to laugh. Marky Mark still talks with his New Jersey accent and his rapper lisp, teaching kids science encouraging them to use their minds, yeah right, the guy used to drop his pants to close his hip hop tunes.
The movie starts out with mystery in the air as we travel through New York city and one by one random New Yorkers are committing suicide. Some shoot themselves, some stab themselves with knitting needles and a crew of construction workers leap to their deaths from a high rise construction. Each making a loud thud as the hit the ground, to the point it make the audience laugh.
This is one of the films that's perfect as a midnight show where the audience yell back at the screen. The movie is full of thes moments. Zooey Deschanel plays Marky Mark's wife, she's total air head this movie with this dumb blank look in her eyes, for a moment there I thought she was an older Tracy Gold from "Growing Pains". Her performance is really awful, she is tormented with guilt by the an obsessed coworker whom she shared an evening of tirimsu together.
John Leguizamo plays another school teacher, his wife is missing during this crisis so John is trying to deal with comforting his little daughter and the absence of his wife. Sorry but John Leguizamo could never be a sympathetic character, so when you see him committing suicide it's hard for you to feel bad.
Marky Mark is the only likable character in the movie, and you feel sorry for him as he tries to solve this weird mystery of mass suicide and trying to run away from the invisible threat that is causing this chaos. You also have to admire him dealing with these issues with a straight face.
Yes this is definitely a renter, bring a lot of friends and booze with you to yell at the screen. The watch the original "The Happening" film featuring Anthony Quinn, Faye Dunaway and Milton Berl with a lot of 60's style laughs and a catchy theme song.

RADIO SHOW SUSPENSE: "THREE LETHAL WORDS"

RADIO SHOW SUSPENSE: "THREE LETHAL WORDS"-
Actress Joan Crawford has a collection of films that could fill a blog such as this one, but this time I like to share with you her performance in one of radio's finest dramatic program SUSPENSE. This episode titled "Three lethal words" Stars Joan Crawford in one of her typical roles, an aging actress married to a much younger man, and she would do anything just anything to keep her man.
This pretty much sums up most of the latter part of Ms Crawford's movie career as well. Just listening to her performance you totally picture those bushy eyebrows and the giant eyes coming at you with those frightening red lips accompanied by the football player shoulder pads. She is not one to mess with, just like the male lead in this radio play, he has made the mistake of messing with our Ms. Joan.
Joan plays Sally Winters, a former actress coming back to society after spending time in the mental hospital. What tragic event that lead her to the asylum? She as married to a man almost 20 years younger than her, a famous actress and her young husband. That was a career suicide for this rising young male star, he just couldn't be casted a young love interest in any movie when the audience know what he has to go home to every night. That made him the laughing stock of every movie studio, with comments like: 'Hey have you seen "Sunset Blvd"? Seen it? He's living it!"


What man with any self respect can live like that? Not this man, so he leaves his aging wife for a younger woman. Well that was the biggest mistake of his life.....
You'll find out what happens has Sally takes her revenge, she keeps repeating words like "I'll destroy him! I'll destroy him!'
The climax of the story is when Sally visits her man after months in rehab and she says softly to him; "Darling, come closer, I want you to take a good look at me....because I want that to be THE LAST THING YOU WILL EVER SEE!'
"AAARGHHHH!!!" the man yells.
To me the Three Lethal Words are; HILARIOUSLY FUNNY & DELICIOUS!

*The photo shown here is from another funny movie "Berserk!' The title says it all.