Welcome back to my monthly update on life in my personal cinematic universe. March was a pretty busy month that included a week where I was sick and a week where I went on an out-of-town work conference, so a lot of those more frequent updates I was promising in February have yet to materialize. With each day I grow more and more impressed with people who are somehow able to consistently churn out quality film-related content while working a completely unrelated full-time job, as it is certainly no easy task.
From a film watching perspective, my personal highlight of March was going to a screening of Hairspray with a special guest - and I promise I have a post drafted about that experience that will be out soon. Between work, family, and personal health, I've had a tough time keeping up with new releases and will have to play some catch up in the coming months. Thankfully, I managed to catch up with several interesting older titles at home so I had plenty to choose from when compiling this month's recommendations. Looking ahead to April and May, there's a couple Illinois-based film festivals that I'm hoping to attend in some capacity, so stay tuned for future updates regarding those.
There were plenty of titles to choose from and I just as easily could have selected classics like A Face in the Crowd or Who Framed Roger Rabbit? or underrated gems like Buddies, Down with Love, and Full Moon in New York. Since March was Women's History Month, I considered sometime during the month focusing on films directed by women, but was really too far into the month to fulfill that commitment, so maybe that will be a focus for a future installment. The five I ended up going with (again, not necessarily "favorites" of the month, but interesting films I liked and wanted to write about) however do have some commonalities running through them. All 5 focus on women trying to figure out their lives and identity to some degree, and I'd argue at least 4 of the 5 involve women adopting some sort of disguise or alter ego, whether that be for pulling off a con, scheming for power, or living a double life. So even though this list doesn't have a ton of women behind the camera, each one does focus on talented actresses in front of the camera giving some truly incredible performances.
Crimes of Passion (1984)
directed by Ken Russell
I didn't love Crimes of Passion immediately during or after watching it, but it's been growing on me at a rapid rate since I checked it out, and I can't stop thinking about it. Part of that may be due to the extremely catchy (and a little goofy) Rick Wakefield song "It's a Lovely Life" that serves as the theme running throughout the film. But the acting performances (including two screen legends at what might be the top of their game) and the impossible balancing act that Ken Russell pulls off in telling this story really make this stand out as a one-of-a-kind late night cult film worth exploring.
Ken Russell - the director behind films like The Devils, Altered States, Tommy, and The Lair of the White Worm to name a few - makes truly insane and wild films that are really unlike anything else out there. If you've never seen a Russell film, thinking of some combination of the crude humor and over-the-top insanity of John Waters with the overt Catholicism critique of Lucio Fulci will put you in the ballpark - but there's no better way to understand what Russell brings to the table than just diving into one of his works. And I'm not sure if Crimes of Passion is the best place to start for everyone, as a lot of the content here and the way everything is treated may be a little much for folks (myself included). But if you end up on this film's wavelength, it becomes a special work with some moments that truly must be seen to be believed.
The film centers around Kathleen Turner who by day works in the fashion industry as a woman named Joanna Crane and by night is a sex worker known as China Blue. It's mostly focused on the relationships she develops with two men. One is Bobby Gray (John Laughlin), an electronics expert going through some marital struggles, who gets hired as a private detective by the fashion executive who thinks Joanna is selling secrets to a rival. The other is a reverend (or so he calls himself) played by Anthony Perkins who appears to be deeply sexually repressed.
Laughlin isn't nearly as showy as the other two, but is pretty good at what the part calls him to do. However, there's no question that the film belongs to Turner and Perkins. Turner gets asked to do a lot here and she's 100% game for it, and I think it's her effort that really makes a lot of the bizarre sex work scenes work as well as they do. She's really funny (with lots of I-can't-believe-I-just-heard-that one-liners) and plays the double life role really well. Perkins is fascinating as an actor since despite a large body of work, he's almost exclusively known commonly for one role - Norman Bates from Psycho. Crimes of Passion came out right in the midst of Perkins' Bates resurgence with the two Psycho sequels, and his character here is definitely Bates-coded, right down to a pretty direct Psycho homage in the final act. But I'd say this preacher he plays is even scarier than Norman Bates - Perkins is downright unhinged in this and it's so uncomfortable and incredible.
The other really fascinating element is the way that Russell manages to somehow balance the different tones in the film. Because amidst this insane psychosexual fever dream is a pretty authentic relationship drama centering around the Bobby Gray character, complete with some authentic relationship dialogue scenes between Bobby and his wife and Bobby and Joanna. It's a stark contrast to go from colorful, horny, and sometimes dangerous sex work scenes to something that feels straight out of Scenes from a Marriage, but Russell manages to pull off a balance that makes it work. That's not to say the relationship drama stuff isn't sometimes crass (ahem, the barbecue scene), but it's a welcome change of pace from the exhaustion you get from the rest of the film.
While this one won't be everyone's cup of tea, I found Crimes of Passion to be an often funny yet often uncomfortable late-night watch and another fascinating entry from the Ken Russell catalog.
Desire (1936)
directed by Frank Borzage
If you think a movie called Desire from 1936 sounds like a melodrama, you're not alone - that's what I thought at first, too. But make no mistake, this is 100% a comedy, and it's an incredibly entertaining one at that. Stars Marlene Dietrich and Gary Cooper reunite from Morocco and make a film that is quite honestly more my speed than their more famous effort, and is right up there with some of the most entertaining 1930s comedies.
Cooper plays an engineer at a motor works firm who is excited to be going on vacation to Spain. Like, really excited. You can tell this poor guy doesn't get a lot of time off. The company is even willing to loan him the company car (provided he puts a promotional element on it somehow), which he drives with glee. Dietrich, meanwhile, plays a jewel thief who scams her way into a precious pearl necklace in Paris by convincing a jeweler she's the wife of a prominent doctor, and then convincing that doctor she's married to the jeweler, leading to an exchange where by the time the two of them have realized what's happening, she's long gone with the pearls. Complications ensue, however, when she runs into car trouble and gets some help from Cooper, who has then unwittingly walked right into this jewelry con. Much of the plot then revolves around Dietrich hiding the pearls with Cooper (despite, it turns out, not needing to) and figuring out how on earth she and her partner in crime Carlos Margoli (John Halliday) are going to get them back.
Gary Cooper can be hit-or-miss with me simply because he sometimes seems like he's bored with his roles and is so understated that it seems like he's bringing nothing to his characters. That's far from the case here - he's fully leaning into the comedy and it's tremendously entertaining to watch. Dietrich, meanwhile, is really great in this con artist role as she's so charming and funny and does a lot to add some ambiguity to her character's morals, helping to make the final act work. The entire comic sequence centered around Dietrich trying to get the pearls back (which takes up a healthy portion of the runtime) is pitch-perfect stress comedy.
The film shifts gears from pure comedy into a more romantic angle by the final act, which admittedly isn't a great choice and undoes a lot of the momentum that had been built up in the first hour. That said, even despite this, Cooper and Dietrich are charming to watch together, and the final act is enjoyably silly enough that it got me back on board. If you're looking for a breezy early Hollywood comedy with some movie stars seemingly having a great time, you can do a lot worse than Frank Borzage's Desire.
It's My Turn (1980)
directed by Claudia Weill
Claudia Weill's 1978 film Girlfriends is a personal favorite of mine - an authentic slice-of-life drama centered around two women figuring out their lives in New York City that feels like the blueprint for so many modern indie films. I've been curious to check out her only other feature, 1980's It's My Turn, for some time, and while this comes off as much more of a studio picture than Girlfriends (also released by a major studio but much more auteur-driven due to the success of Annie Hall), it's pretty good and well worth checking out.
The film is about Dr. Kate Gunzinger (Jill Clayburgh), a mathematics professor in Chicago who is currently in a relationship with Homer (Charles Grodin). Her father is getting married to a new woman in New York, and she's also up for a potential new position at a New York university, so she goes on a trip there for a few days. While interacting with her father's new wife's family, she meets her new stepbrother Ben, an ex-baseball player played by Michael Douglas, and the two develop a connection that ends up turning romantic (admittedly a little weird, but the two are not biologically related at all). Dr. Kate ends up seeing herself trying to figure out whether her next stage in life is back in Chicago with Homer and her current research position or exploring new possibilities in New York with Ben.
Clayburgh is a great lead here as expected and I think she does a good job conveying without words what's going through Kate's mind throughout the film. Making Kate a mathematics professor is a fascinating and really good choice, as it allows us to see immediately how her brain works regarding solving complex problems. It's something she's really good at and likes doing but it's not always easy to determine the logical solution, whether that be in mathematics or in life, and I felt like we could see Kate trying to figure out what to do at various stages of the film as if she were solving a complex math problem. There's also the aspect of her existing and thriving in a male-dominated field, which is shown in both the way some of her students treat her and also in how limited her opportunities may be (this New York position will not allow her to continue her research from Chicago).
Douglas, meanwhile, is in top early-career form and playing a type of character we've come to not typically expect from him - charming, caring, and sensitive. He's athletic and good-looking but values Kate and is aware of the complications to both of their lives with their pending attraction. The scenes with Clayburgh and Douglas together are really charming to watch and have the same type of easygoing, naturalistic attitude I'd expect from the director behind Girlfriends. While Grodin doesn't get a ton to do, he's in an interesting position as he's willing to have authentic conversations with Clayburgh, yet there's other moments that reminded me of his "walking red flag" of a character from The Heartbreak Kid.
You might be wondering why Claudia Weill never directed another feature film after this. I certainly was, and my initial assumption was that she never had a chance to direct again due to the commercial and critical failure of It's My Turn (this even received an inaugural Razzie nomination, as shocking as that may seem today). It turns out the bigger cause was an awful working relationship with the film's producer, who undermined and bullied her and re-edited the film himself, and from that point onward Weill never wanted to work on feature films again. It's truly sad and unfortunate that that happened, and I wish I could see Weill's original cut, but Weill still managed to carve out a successful career between television and plays after this.
While it's far from perfect, I think It's My Turn is significantly better than its reputation and is worth giving a shot - especially, I should mention, for baseball fans, who will get to enjoy a pretty fun scene on the diamond with some legends of the sport.
The Major and the Minor (1942)
directed by Billy Wilder
Billy Wilder's long, illustrious, legendary directorial career kicked off with this truly entertaining, sharp, and strange comedy starring Ginger Rogers. Rogers plays a woman named Susan Applegate who has been working a series of odd jobs in New York (most recently giving scalp massages). Tired of dealing with icky, sexist men, she decides she's leaving the Big Apple for good and has just enough money to book a ticket back to her hometown in Iowa. Or so she thought - it turns out they raised the fare since she last checked, and she doesn't have enough cash for her ticket. After giving it some thought, she develops an ingenious plan - disguise herself as a young girl so she can get on the train at the children's rate (half price). This works swimmingly until the conductors get a little too nosy and bust up her ruse.
Susan finds herself hiding out in the cabin of an army major (Ray Milland), where she keeps up the disguise for the time being, intent on telling him the truth in the morning. Unfortunately, bad weather results in the train being stalled, and a mix-up occurs when the major's fiancée shows up, forcing Susan to not just remain in disguise but remain with the major for a few days at the major's military school. I won't get too bogged down on the rest of the plot details, but it includes lots of fascinating character relationships between her and other characters and a series of unexpected plot developments that keep you on your toes.
The film itself is a great showcase for Ginger Rogers, who manages to make this ridiculous premise seem somewhat believable. There's always a little leeway for believability in comedies like these, but imagining other characters believing that Ginger Rogers is a 12-year-old girl is a big pill to swallow. Rogers, though, pulls it off about as well as she could, and it's a truly interesting disguise that makes a lot of the comedy and drama that occurs really feel unique. One of the interesting elements of the situation is that it's so frequent for teen characters to be played by actors far too old for the part, which adds a level of comedy to the situation outside of what is directly present in the film.
When it comes to the relationships between Susan and the other characters, it's interesting to see at what point characters figure out who she really is. Some know it right away. Others, we presume, never find out. Others likely figure it out at some time, but it's hard to say exactly when. This is especially true in the case of Ray Milland's major, and how you feel about the evolution of the relationship that develops between him and Susan will likely come down to when you think he knows she's not actually 12 years old. There's a sense of anxiety and stress to all the comedic elements as various plot points progress, whether it be the truly uncomfortable attempts of cadets at the academy to woo Susan, or the surprise return of an earlier character that feels like it's straight out of a Three Stooges short (with Vernon Dent specifically).
While it may not quite reach the highs of some of Wilder's all-time masterpieces, there's no doubt that The Major and the Minor has sharp writing, clever ideas, and a weird and somewhat edgy premise that I still think works today. It's an underseen gem in Wilder's filmography that I'm glad I finally checked out.
Switchblade Sisters (1975)
directed by Jack Hill
As a huge fan of Spider Baby, I've been meaning to watch some other Jack Hill films and I finally got around to catching up with his cult classic (and Quentin Tarantino favorite) Switchblade Sisters. The film deals with a girl gang known as the Dagger Debs, led by Lace (Robbie Lee), who seem to be a sister-type group to a male gang known as the Silver Daggers. The two gangs are always out causing trouble and have developed a rivalry with another gang led by Crabs. After an incident at a restaurant at the beginning of the film, a new girl named Maggie (Joanne Nail) ends up joining the gang and quickly earns the trust of the gang higher-ups. Maggie has a vision for what this group can become, however, and a power struggle soon develops between her and Lace, as well as both the Silver Daggers and Crabs' gang. Alliances are formed and betrayed and fighting within the gang threatens to destroy everything that they could become.
If this whole premise sounds Shakespearean, you're not alone. That was exactly what kept coming to my mind, and guess what - it turns out this was in fact written as a loose adaptation of Othello. Knowing this will certainly help to contextualize some of the key power play moments when it comes to understanding character motivations that are otherwise not explicitly stated.
I had gone into this hoping to see a bunch of badass strong women, so it was incredibly disappointing at first to see how subservient the Dagger Debs are to the Silver Daggers and their leader Dominic in particular, who is dating Lace but also has his eyes set on Maggie. There are some vile events that occur in the first half that initially had me questioning whether or not there was merit to this film. Fortunately, once we learn more about Maggie's quest for power and what her vision for this group holds, the film becomes everything I wanted it to be, as not only do the Dagger Debs separate from the Silver Daggers and rebrand as the Jezebels, but the film also gets political, bringing in an alliance with a black girl gang in an effort to fight Crabs' run for political power.
It's fascinating to contrast the two male gang leaders as different types of villains. Dominic is a scummy guy who strives to maintain power through violence and threats. Crabs, meanwhile, is much more interested in building political power, through striking shady deals with the mayor and running scam community service events that serve as a front for drug pushing. His focus, it seems, is on corrupting this city's institutions and maintaining power after ingratiating himself into that group.
The two lead actresses in here are great and I'm eager to see what other films they've done. Robbie Lee commands the screen as Lace in a powerful performance. I found myself really drawn to Joanne Nail's performance as Maggie, giving me the female empowerment angle I was so desperately hoping for. Maggie herself feels like the lead in an epic western or crime saga - the outsider who gains trust and power and then unites a group of different forces together against a common enemy - and all this is achieved in just 90 minutes. Switchblade Sisters definitely packs a punch, and by the end I was very glad I checked it out.
That wraps up my brief thoughts on five films that I'm glad I caught up with over the past month. And having written this, I'm now realizing that most of these also feature either taboo or unhealthy romantic relationships, so let's hope I find some characters getting treated better next month! Again, these aren't definitively my "five favorite films I saw in March" but rather five films I enjoyed that I felt like writing about on this blog. Please stay tuned for more future posts coming soon!
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