APRIL 2025 ROUND-UP
TOTAL FILMS SEEN IN APRIL: 2
(see the film posters at the bottom of the post, arranged in watching order)
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Beat the Devil with Humphrey Bogart and Jennifer Jones This April post comes rather late but I was expecting or hoping to watch at least a couple of films in May and June as well and wanted to do a combined post of the first 6 months of 2025, but alas ....
So this is not a half-year post, but only a round-up post for April with a pitiful number of two watched films. Blame it on K-dramas!
Let's get on with it then.
NOTE: Read notes with caution as they might contain spoilers; with ratings going from ½ to ★★★★★ and watched date.
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Hadn't seen a classic film in months but I was reading on my film blog and felt like watching a black-and-white film again. My pick became the comedy BEAT THE DEVIL (Rizzoli-Haggiag/ Romulus Films/ Santana Pictures Corporation, 1953), currently on Netflix in a very good print. It's an enjoyable watch, with a good script written by Truman Capote and John Huston, and great cinematography by Oswald Morris. The cast consists of Humphrey Bogart (right), Jennifer Jones (left), Gina Lollobrigida (center), Robert Morley, Peter Lorre and Edward Underdown, and they give solid performances. The story shouldn't be taken too seriously, it's in fact a farce, with plenty of humour in the dialogue. The characters are not grounded in reality, and the swapping-spouses bit and the romance between Bogart and Jones didn't really make sense. Jennifer Jones, insecure as an actress, didn't understand her character at all (see this letter on my sister's wonderful film blog), but I have to hand it to her, she gives a convincing performance as the neurotic Mrs. Chelm (being neurotic herself). For what it's worth, I didn't understand her character either. Bogart and Jones have decent chemistry, by the way, and don't seem like a weird couple. Gina Lollobrigida looks young and pretty. Directed by John Huston. ★★★ / 02.04.2025
DADDY LONG LEGS (20th Century-Fox, 1955) is one of the 1950s musicals with Fred Astaire I hadn't seen yet. I was working (still from home since 2020) when a major power outage left most of Spain (my home country) and Portugal without electricity. I have a lot of USB sticks with classic films downloaded and luckily my sister had her chromebook fully charged. I had watched more than half of the film when suddenly the chromebook decided to shut down with 0% battery left, so I had to wait till midnight to finish the film when the power finally came back on. I enjoyed this overly long (126 minutes) musical to some extent but the story of a French orphan (Leslie Caron, screenshot by me, right) who gets the opportunity to study in the States with the help of sugar daddy/ benefactor/ unnamed guardian (Fred Astaire, left) isn't very appealing. It gives some uncomfortable vibes when the relationship becomes romantic, giving the fact that there's a huge age difference between the leads. What's different here in comparison with, for example, Funny Face where we see Astaire romancing a young Audrey Hepburn, is that Astaire's character Jervis Pendleton is well aware of said age difference and even addresses it as an obstacle. Unfortunately, and as can be expected, the romance is not well developed, neither are the characters. Even though the musical numbers are not very memorable, they are by far the best thing of this film. There's a heavily criticised dance piece, the Nightmare Ballet number, a solo routine for Caron. It's a really long piece, where Caron can showcase her versatility as a dancer. (I like it when she does classical ballet, but her sultry dancing, Cyd Charisse style, doesn't quite cut it.) The biggest flaw of this long dance number is that Astaire isn't in it. Actually, the musical doesn't have enough of Astaire dancing. I like the school dance number Sluefoot best, also Something's Gotta Give sung by Astaire and his subsequent dance duet with Caron. I have to say that Caron didn't look very attractive to me (all the time), whereas I found Astaire looking charming and when smiling even handsome. It's strange how at ease Astaire seems to be in this film (I read that he liked this film because he could play his age freely), considering the fact that his wife, Phyllis Astaire, had died of lung cancer while he was filming this, causing him immense grief. In any case, glad I finally watched this! Support by Terry Moore, Thelma Ritter and Fred Clark, and directed by Jean Negulesco. ★★★ / 28.04.2025
Here is the breakdown in decades of the 2 watched films:
1900s - 0
1910s - 0
1920s - 0
1930s - 0
1940s - 0
1950s - 2
1960s - 0
I have a little classic film project planned for July/August. Hopefully I can make good on that promise and watch a considerable amount of films, so stay tuned for that!
