Night of the Hunter~ A Dark Fairytale
1) I caught the Night of the Hunter on TCM last night and I was pretty impressed. It was Charles Laughton's first and only directing debut. Apparently the film did pretty poorly when it was released back in 1955 but now it's considered a great film. Laughton died without ever knowing this so he never made another movie. The film isn't perfect but it does make me sad because I think he had the talent to be a great film maker....oh well at least we have all his acting to appreciate.
Anyways Night of the Hunter was on TCM as part of their Friday Night thriller specials for October. I see it described as film noir but I am not really sure if I agree with that. It actually reminds me more of an adult fairytale. Although unlike Pan's Labyrinth for instance you might not think fairytale right away. There are no monsters or out of the world creatures. No the main villain (played quite brilliantly by Robert Mitchum) is some false crazy Preacher who will do anything to find a hidden $10,000, even kill a couple of children. So nothing in the film might automatically scream fairytale to you but it seems to be structured like a fairytale with two children who know a secret, with some evil character out to get them, no adult will believe them so they are totally on their own, and then they go on this haunting yet beautiful boat journey. Oh and there is also a memorable performance by Lillian Gish (known for her silent films) who plays one hell of an awesome lady. The only thing that didn't work for me is the ending does feel a bit rushed, but that's a minor point.
If I watched this as kid I would have been scared shitless. It's still pretty creepy. So if you are looking for an interesting film to watch this Halloween. This is definitely recommended.
2) I also caught "Where the Wild Things Are" I liked the film but I can't say it reached love for me. I don't exactly know why. I actually think I liked the earlier parts before Max reached the wild things better since it seemed very real (I certainly remember feeling alone as a kid). I did like some of the moments between Max and the Wild Things (and the camera work, character designs, & sets were wonderful) but I felt the drama between the Wild Things felt a bit forced to me. Oh well I guess I don't regret seeing the film. My friend really liked it, she was crying at the end of the film. Oh and there was one cute little boy who made the same sound that Max did at the theater (so the complaint that kid's wouldn't like this movie doesn't seem to be true).
3) I loved this week's Sarah Jane's two parter (it was definitely an improvement over last week, which wasn't bad just not really anything special). I loved that this episode had much needed development for Rani. It's funny Rani's thoughts about not measuring about to Maria actually were the same as my own, so her issues really made sense to me and this episode helped me connect with her more.
I also really liked that we got a non-evil alien. Eve was a great character and I am glad she got her own humans to travel with. It was actually a very cute ending. Also nice twist on who the boy visiting Rani really was.
And oh god I loved Clyde and Sarah Jane in this episode. Not to mention K9 ♥
The only thing that didn't work for me was Rani's second more positive future felt a bit too cheesy.