Quick Takes, June 2022

Orson Welles dazzles in Black Magic

Gregory Ratoff's Black Magic, from 1949, is a junky lark, a Classic Illustrated comic version of  Dumas pere's work. The film is based on two of the eight or so novels he wrote centering around the figure of Marie Antoinette. Charles Bennett, a longtime Hitchcock collaborator, wrote the adapted screenplay. The central figure in the film is loosely based on Count Cagliostro, the pseudonym of the age's greatest magician and charlatan. Thomas Carlyle called him the "Quack of Quacks". In Dumas and the film, Cagliostro unlocks the secrets of hypnosis and mind control after an encounter with Franz Mesmer. Cagliostro uses his newfound powers to reach messianic levels of wealth and power, but succumbs to hubris. All in all, a role totally suited to Orson Welles, the wunderkind from Kenosha.

The film foregrounds Welles' eyes a ridiculous amount of the time. But if one can tolerate Orson's baby browns and slice or two of his Gypsy prosciutto, one will be treated to a more free-spirited portrait of a megalomaniac than Doctor Strange 2. Welles is particularly adroit in the magic sequences, some of which would fit right into F is for Fake. The eye-popping Italian costumes and sets make up for the occasionally awkward supporting cast and direction. Nancy Guild is adequate in a double role. Akim Tamiroff and Valentina Cortese are, as always, superb. Some may want to dig for traces of Welles' direction, but Black Magic is fun, as it is. 

Bo Burnham's Inside was a slight disappointment to me. A response to COVID, the film consists of Burnham singing little ditties inside his abode. The songs are hit and miss, but the main problem with the film is that it is not visually inventive or exciting. Burnham is one of the most talented comics of his generation, but it is hard to make a one character film about anxiety, anomie, and depression without succumbing to solipsism. 

Alex Cox's Straight to Hell is a stoopid Leone parody with traces of Peckinpah and Charles Portis. A must see only for Cox completists and midnight movie addicts. I must say the "Director's Cut" is a much better and more coherent film than the one I saw in 1987. For one thing, there are more musical numbers. The cast includes Joe Strummer, Elvis Costello, The Pogues, Grace Jones, Dennis Hopper, Courtney Love, Jim Jarmusch, and Edward Tudor-Pole. Zander Schloss, former bassist for the Circle Jerks, steals what movie there is as a decrepit hot dog vendor. The liquor bill on this shoot must have been enormous. Quentin Tarantino seems to have inspired by the performance of Sy Richardson as "Norwood" in this film to invent the persona of "Jules" for Samuel L. Jackson in Pulp Fiction.

I've touched on the Maryland Censor Board and Mary Avara before. However, I was ignorant of Joe Tropea's Sickies Making Films, a loving and wry history of local censors that focuses on the Free State's board. Recommended to native Marylanders and film buffs. 

Jon S. Baird's Filth, from 2013, is an intermittingly successful adaptation of the Irvine Welsh's novel. Baird and the talented cast capture Welsh's scabrous tone, but the protagonist's descent into madness is rendered feebly. Still. the cast is a stellar one: James McAvoy, Jim Broadbent, Imogen Poots, Jamie Bell, Kate Dickey, and Shirley Henderson. 

Clive Donner's She Fell Among Thieves, from 1978, is TV mystery movie that is more than adequate light entertainment. Tom Sharpe, who freely adapted the script from Dornford Yates' novel, displays the wit that marked him as the best English comic novelist since Evelyn Waugh. Eileen Atkins steals the show as villainess "Vanity Fair". The costumes and décor are a feast for the eyes. The fine cast includes Malcolm McDowell, Michael Jayston, and Karen Dotrice.