1970s List Discussion and Suggestions (Lists Project Vol. 3)

[knives]

There's something wrong about that Shout description, but I can't put my finger on it. I also really, super, verily recommend Newman's next film which would be a great double feature with The Insect Woman.

[YnEoS]

Golden Harvest Comedies

DVD Availability

Note: You can get all these Hui Brothers films + Secutity Unlimited on this Hui Brothers Box Set. I've linked the HK DVDs from buyoyo which is what I use, but many people prefer DDDhouse. Many of the OOP DVDs can still be bought from the amazon marketplace and other 3rd party sellers.

Backalley Princess (1973, Lo Wei) - Out of Print HK DVD
Chinatown Capers (1974, Lo Wei) - HK DVD
Games Gamblers Play (1974, Michael Hui) - HK Bluray
All in the Family (1975, Zhu Mu) - Out Of Print HK DVD
The Last Message (1975, Michael Hui) - HK Bluray
The Private Eyes (1976, Michael Hui) - HK Bluray
Money Crazy aka Pilferer’s Progress (1977, John Woo) - Out of Print HK DVD
Making It (1978, Richard Chen) - HK DVD
Hello, Late Homecomers (1978 John Woo, Louis Lau Tin Chi & Louis Sit Chi Hung) - HK DVD
The Contract (1978, Michael Hui) - HK Bluray
Follow The Star (1978, John Woo) - HK VCD or French DVD (French Subtitles Only)
Itchy Fingers (1979, Leong Po Chih) - HK DVD


In the 1970s Golden Harvest’s comedies dominated the HK Box Office. While they never made as many films as the Shaw Brothers and their overall profits were less, most of their comedy films were hits and returned much more money than their budget. Golden Harvest didn’t really have their own studio style, preferring instead of hire highly creative directors and giving them lots of control over their films and a large percentage of profits instead of high salaries. However Golden Harvests comedies were so successful and influential that soon many films were copying their style and they would set the tone for hundreds of HK comedies in the 1980s like those made by Cinema City. Over the course of the 70s Golden Harvest would transition from their northern directors from the mainland (Lo Wei and Huang Feng) to younger directors born and raised in Hong Kong (Michael Hui, Sammo Hung, and John Woo) who made Cantonese language films for local audiences and it all started with their comedies.

The first of these Cantonese directors was Michael Hui, who after Bruce Lee’s death became the highest box office draw of the decade. Like Bruce Lee, his films consistently broke box office records and could still make the top 10 when re-released years later. He was also one of the few HK stars to become popular in the elusive Japanese market where he was known as Mr. Boo. Michael Hui was a famous TV star from the Hui Brothers Show, which he did with his brother Sam. He worked briefly for the Shaw Brothers under director Li Han Hsiang, before rejoining his brother Sam at Golden Harvest where he was allowed to direct his own films. While Michael Hui’s tendency to poke fun at society as well as his use of Cantonese verbal humor had their precedents at Shaw Brothers, but his real impact was his rapid fire delivery of jokes. The unrelenting energy of his films soon became the norm for comedies and spread into other genres like kung fu films.

The other major figure in Golden Harvest’s comedies was John Woo, their only contract director. A decade before he became internationally famous for his Heroic Bloodshed films, Woo’s reputation was largely based on his skills as a comedy director. John Woo had worked as an Assistant Director for Chang Cheh and others before moving to Golden Harvest. He was then put as Assistant Director on Michael Hui’s Games Gamblers Play (1974) and The Private Eyes (1976), where he impressed Michael Hui with strong visual sense and learned how to direct comedies in turn. Michael Hui has said that John Woo contributed a lot of ideas to these early films, and perhaps his visual sensibilities were what helped these films translate so well to Japanese audiences. John Woo however didn’t fit in well at Golden Harvest because most of the stars also directed their own films and he left the studio in the early 80s to work at Cinema City. However during his brief time directing at Golden Harvest he turned out some really excellent work and gave a lot of incredibly talented supporting actors chances to showcase their talents in starring roles. Though not as record-breakingly popular as Michael Hui’s films, John Woo’s comedies still performed well in the box office, and hold up quite well.


(Note: A number of films are missing from this list due difficulty of obtaining DVDs, but none the less I was at least able to cover the careers most of the major players and get some general context about the minors).

Back Alley Princess (1973, Lo Wei) – Polly Shang Kwan and Sam Hui play two poor swindlers who survive day to day through their elaborate cons. While the story-telling is not as technically proficient as later films, Polly Shang Kwan is absolutely hilarious and manages to hold the film together. We’re also treated to quite a number of action scenes with Angela Mao. Though overall the film is a mess, it’s packed with star power and genre-mixing set pieces. By far my favorite pre-Hui comedy.

Chinatown Capers (1974, Lo Wei) – Polly Shang Kwan and Sam Hui are back and in America to fight off evil dope addicts. The film has less to say about the ruthlessness of HK society, and more to say about the Chinese fascination with black culture. Plus Sam Hui gets to sing songs in this one. Not as good as their previous effort, but still lots of fun if you’re a Polly Shang Kwan addict like me.

Games Gamblers Play (1974, Michael Hui) – Golden Harvest’s first Cantonese comedy, and the first movie Michael Hui and Sam Hui team up in. The pacing is much quicker than most previous HK comedies, and John Woo strong contributions to cinematography really aid the storytelling and gags.

All in the Family (1975, Zhu Mu) – Several short stories that give a pretty bleak look at HK society with very spiteful humor and few sympathetic characters. The main story is basically an hour long joke about an old woman pretending to have a large inheritance so her children treat her well before she dies and bankrupt themselves in the process. Then for the last 30 minutes or so it turns into erotic film and we get to see Jackie Chan in a few soft-core sex scenes.

The Last Message (1975, Michael Hui) - The weakest Hui Brothers film of the decade. As many have pointed out before being set in an insane asylum eliminates a lot of the basis of Hui Brothers comedy where humor stems from everyday situations. Their usual biting satire is still present but not quite as in focus as in their other films. Not terrible, but not as great as their later work.

The Private Eyes (1976, Michael Hui) – Everything really comes together in this film. John Woo is back as Assistant Director and most of the verbal Cantonese humor is gone in favor of a more visual style of comedy that doubtless helped with this films international success. It also showcases some of Sammo Hung’s excellent comedic fight choreography, and the 3rd brother, Ricky Hui, plays a more major part. Michael Hui has criticized his earlier films for their lack of a coherent narrative. But, I think by casting himself as a stingy boss for Sam and Ricky to play against, he adds a lot of structure through their changing character dynamics.

Money Crazy aka Pilferer’s Progress (1977, John Woo) – John Woo’s first attempt at comedy pairs Richard Ng and Ricky Hui. John Woo shows he can dish out visual comedy even more rapid fire than Michael Hui, though unfortunately he doesn’t fully utilize the talents of Richard Ng and Ricky Hui here and most of the gags lack the same resonance and Michael Hui’s character driven comedy. Still quite a bit of fun with several outstanding set pieces.

Making It (1978, Richard Chen) – Clearly the target audience for this movies is for fans of the HK pop band, The Wynners. There’s some solid gag work in the film, but it’s not as rapid fire as in a Hui or Woo comedy and the plot pauses a lot for the numerous musical numbers. Not too bad though.

Hello, Late Homecomers (1978 John Woo, Louis Lau Tin Chi & Louis Sit Chi Hung) – After the wildly popular adult comedy show of the same name was pulled from the air, Shaw Brothers and Golden Harvest each rushed into production low budget films aimed at making a quick buck off the show’s success. There are 3 stories where the show’s host, Lois Lo, tries to live out his sexual fantasies and then it all backfires on him in some way. Although women are pretty much just objects for sexual conquest here, Lois Lo’s self deprecating humor is actually pretty endearing at times, and I enjoyed this a lot more than I expected.

The Contract (1978, Michael Hui) – Michael Hui pokes fun at his TV industry origins, and the satire here is much darker than any of his previous films. The budget also seems to be bigger than their previous films and there are lots of crazy gadget style comedy here that predicts the wildly popular Aces Go Places series of the early 80s.

Follow The Star (1978, John Woo) – Roy Chiao stars as an alcoholic car mechanic/genius inventor who is forced to protect a fatherless teen pop star, played by Lau Wan Loh, from a group of comic-book style villains. The pace here is breakneck as Woo throws us right into the action while seamlessly developing the characters along the way. Roy Chiao and Lau Wan Loh perform wonderfully both in their father-daughter type relationship as well as their action scenes. Easily one of the most overall delightful films I’ve seen from the decade with an incredible action finale set in a church.

Itchy Fingers (1979, Leong Po Chih) – Richard Ng and Roy Chiao star in this heist comedy directed by HK New Wave forerunner, Leong Po Chih. Both Leong Po Chih, and Richard Ng, had previously worked in British Television and that might have something to do with the resulting film’s quality. The visual comedy is just as good as anything Hui or Woo did, but also much more subdued and organic to the narrative and characters. Although it doesn’t have the quite same manic energy as most HK comedies of the time, the film’s big end heist set piece seamlessly blends HK style lowbrow comedy and absurdity with genuine palpable tension. Probably overall Golden Harvest’s best made comedy of the decade.

[knives]

Is there any english friendly release for de Oliveira's Doomed Love?

[swo17]

Not yet that I'm aware. It's one that I'm "desperately seeking."

[knives]

Dang it.

[bamwc2]

Not yet that I'm aware. It's one that I'm "desperately seeking."

Indeed. It's on my "must see" list as well. I currently living in a college town (not the same university that I teach at) with five faculty members of a Portuguese department. It's a long shot during the school year, but if anyone can get their hands on the original script, perhaps I can offer one of them a nominal remuneration in exchange for doing a translation and then put together some fan subs when I have the time. Does anyone know where I could find a copy of the script?

[swo17]

There's a project going on in the fansub community that has gotten as far as Google-translated English subs, but they still need a lot of work and it appears that the project has been stalled for a few years now. Trouble is that it's quite a long film, and apparently very talky.

[Timec]

Someone else has actually taken up the fansub project, and the subs for the first episode are apparently almost complete (as of a week or so ago.)

With six 45-minute episodes to translate, though, it'll almost certainly be a while before the whole thing is done.

[bamwc2]

Thanks. I knew that it was long and talky, but I can't think of any worse option than an online translator (I've seen some pretty hilarious attempts at automatic translation on Youtube that are clearly nowhere close to what's actually being said). Swo, would you happen to know a contact for the project? I can only assume that they'd have the original Portuguese.

Actually, if there's a lot of demands for other titles like this, then I could always try the same. I had been looking for someone to help me with the French for A Dirty Story (which currently has computer generated subs [-X). If there's anything else that anyone's interested in, then I can take PMs on the matter. I don't want to tax my friendships by overburdening colleagues during the school year though...

[bamwc2]

Someone else has actually taken up the fansub project, and the subs for the first episode are apparently almost complete (as of a week or so ago.)

With six 45-minute episodes to translate, though, it'll almost certainly be a while before the whole thing is done.

Ah. Well, I'll back off then, but my other offer does stand.

[Shrew]

Alright, more comments on Altman. Overdiscussed? Maybe. Overwatched? Never.

Brewster McCloud
This is Altman at his most self-indulgent, but at least it’s the fun flipside to the horrorshow of Buffalo Bill and the Indians. There’s a lot of ideas and very little focus, the characters are more caricatures, and Altman’s progressive politics are let loose to the point of viciousness (down to grumbling over the National Anthem, again). What saves Brewster is its playful and outwardly cartoonish nature, but at times that conflicts with glimpses of honest empathy in an unsettling manner. While most of the people murdered in the film are cartoon ogres, there’s a sour note in the fate of John Schuck’s policeman. He has his faults, but I found Schuck’s goofy 11-year-old kid-getting-to-play-cop earnestness endearing, and sticks in my craw how the film whisks him away and well, craps on him.

It’s also easy to read some of Altman’s own creative trajectory into the film, as a hidden talent suddenly emerges from nowhere, struggles to maintain his own independence while co-opting/being co-opted by capitalist institutions, gets distracted by family and human frailty, and who takes advantage of his brief time in the spotlight to soar until being brought down by his own alienating tendencies. Watching this close to MASH and Images also made me realize that Altman was willing to use a lot more montage in both traditional and slightly experimental ways early on, before the long take became heavily preferred.

In the end, despite a smattering of great and fun scenes (particularly the end and the silly car chase), it’s a film that is very much less the sum of its parts, but still mostly fun.

The Long Goodbye
This is neck and neck for my favorite Altman with 3 Women, but they’re such different beasts that it’s hard to compare. To respond a bit to Domino’s comments in the Noir thread, what makes it great is the way it takes the framework of a genre born out of the moral rot of the 40s and 50s and applies it to the moral rot of the 70s. This isn’t an intertextual noir like Kiss Me, Deadly that Domino unfavorably compares it too, it’s more extratextual, commenting on the changes and degradation of LA over two decades. It’s using the genre to comment on society rather than commenting on the genre. But the ending is perhaps the ultimate encapsulation of the rotten world versus the decent man premise of hard-boiled fiction, wherein the world’s become so rotten that it leaves no other recourse for the hero.

Thieves Like Us
This film may be the least Altmany Altman? At least, Altman’s normal idiosyncracies seemed far toned down for this film, and it’s much more a quiet, moving showcase for the actors and period detail. The one give-away is the wonderful scene where the lovers sleep together and Romeo and Juliet keeps repeating itself. The greatest credit to the film is how natural it all feels, but to me it's another film that is perfectly great, but just hasn't quite stuck with me.

California Split
So this is fun, and the ending’s a great deflating balloon, but I’d be interested to hear why some people like this so much. There are good performances here, and its fun to watch, but most of the film outside the last 5 minutes (and Gould’s piccolo) left me empty. Maybe it’s just cause I’m risk-averse and don’t like gambling?

Nashville
So I compared this to North by Northwest in its release thread, and I stand by that. To me, both films play to their directors’ greatest strengths while minimizing their weaknesses, but at the same time they sand down some of the quirks and oddities that make the director’s other films more interesting. They’re ultimately more accessible but less personal. Here, Altman’s interplay with actors, ability to easily manage a large cast, use of multi-track, mixed empathy and cynicism, and uncanny ability to map out communities and space from multiple perspectives all pull together in wonderful unison. Ultimately, this is a film I love and can recommend to anyone, but it’s just not my favorite Altman.

Now I just need to watch Quintet and I'll post on the last 5. I've seen half of it, but then I fell asleep. In the face of imminent dread, I shall remain naively optimistic.

[zedz]

Now I just need to watch Quintet and I'll post on the last 5. I've seen half of it, but then I fell asleep. In the face of imminent dread, I shall remain naively optimistic.

Quintet's really great until you actually see it.

[swo17]

Cold Bishop's massive update to the Shaw Brothers thread

[bamwc2]

Viewing Log:

In the Name of the Pope King (Luigi Magni, 1977): Magni's slice of life dramedy walks a fine line between the too cute for its own good quirkiness that has ruined many a otherwise fine film and tackling serious issues. While the two approaches often overlap, it mostly stays on the right side of the divide by focusing on the battle between Garibaldi's forces and the unjust Papal courts that cruelly ruled over the Roman lands. The majority of the characters themselves are fairly cartoonish, and the film suffers when it shifts focus to their personal lives. Nino Manfredi does a splendid job as the kind hearted, but impish Cardinal Colombo, but the quality of scenes shifts from moment to moment. I have very mixed feelings about this one, but I'd say that there's ultimately enough here to give it a moderate recommendation.

Scent of a Woman (Dino Risi, 1974): Having previously seen the American remake (my goodness, it must have been twenty years ago now!), I was expecting to see something like that here. The two movies, however, are light years apart, sharing only the skeletal outline of a story where a young man must watch over a cantankerous blind veteran with an appetite for the ladies. The films part ways early on when Vittorio Gassman's character proves far earthier than Pacino's counterpart with his frequent cruising for prostitutes. To its credit, this version is far more frank in its depiction of sexuality than the strangely chaste remake where (if my memory is correct) the the closest that the randy main character ever comes to making love to a woman is an impromptu tango. Like In the Name of the Pope King, the film walks a tight rope between broad provincial humor and the film's more dramatic elements. While it handles the task more successfully than Magni's film, it too occasionally gets bogged down in lengthy an unnecessary comedic coloring of the characters. Another mild recommendation, I guess.

Some Call It Loving (James B. Harris, 1973): Now this was a rather surreal experience. Future softcore impresario Zalman King stars as a rich man with no discernible source of income or ability to speak his lines outside of a mumble, that one day happens upon a carnival sideshow containing a young woman who has been artificially kept asleep for the past eight years. While a sensible person might have called the police, King's character purchases her and allows her to wake up in his mansion (populated naturally by all sorts of weirdos). After Sleeping Beauty (played by Tisa Farrow) awakens, we're treated to a windy and bizarre love story between the two where nothing is ever quite as it seems. Richard Pryor shows up for an extended cameo, that while showing off his abilities, serves no greater function for the narrative other than allowing King's character to bounce insults off of him. Watching it, you can easily see germinating the soft focus aesthetic that would mark King's post 80's career in erotica. I'm again on the fence with this one, but I suppose that I'd give it another pass.

Three Wishes for Cinderella (Václav Vorlícek, 1973): Vorlícek Cinderella story is such a delightful treat! While it is a fairytale whose general outline is familiar enough to us all, this Czechoslovakian adaptation adds enough local color and flair to the story to make the visit positively mesmerizing. Libuse Safránková stars in the title role as a young woman who lives under the constant torture of her wicked stepmother and stepsisters. When not serving them, she spends her free time making anonymous visits to the prince of her dreams, and getting magical visits from her woodland friends. Her dreams finally come true thanks to the titular wishes made by a magical hazelnut branch. The film's joy is infectious and the scenes with Cinderella and the prince together before the ball are enormous fun. Unlike the other three, this is an easy recommendation.

[swo17]

Safránková is so pretty in Cinderella. Like, makes-you-gasp-like-a-child-meeting-Cinderella-at-Disneyland-for-the-first-time pretty. The film is apparently out on Blu-ray in a few countries. Does anyone know if any of these releases have English subtitles/the correct aspect ratio?

[Mr Sausage]

On Domino's prompting, I've been rewatching Tales From the Crypt episodes and, naturally enough, they put me in mind of anthology horror films. So, in the spirit of October, I'd like to recommend everyone watch what is I think my favourite anthology horror film, Tales that Witness Madness. It successfully straddles that line between cheeky humour and nastiness that is the trademark of EC comics fare. The opening episode is especially ghoulish, and the third story has a charming absurdity to it. The frame story is excellent at building anticipation, even if it doesn't quite find an appropriate ending.

As far as I know this has never had a DVD release, but it's easily found via back channels. Good Halloween viewing.

[knives]

It actually has recently been released to Bluray thanks to our good friends at Olive.

[Mr Sausage]

It actually has recently been released to Bluray thanks to our good friends at Olive.

So it has! And last year at that (probably the last time I checked its availability was when the horror List project started). I will be ordering my copy soon along with the recently released The Vampire Lovers, make a Halloween double-bill of it.

[domino harvey]

If you or anyone is stocking up on 70s Horror Films for the season, I strongly recommend the Brotherhood of Satan, which Mill Creek just put out in a super-affordable Blu-ray release. It was an orphan for me in the Horror List and I regret not making more noise about it before voting ended, but I legit think it would appeal to a lot of board members here thanks to its striking and unusual mise en scene and wild narrative

Recent viewings

Fascination (Jean Rollin 1979) My first Rollin film and I loved it! Rollin shows a great adeptness at adding in the necessary softcore elements without turning the film into anything other than a beautifully paced and flowing exercise in sustained dreaminess inching towards horror. I can't wait to see more from this filmmaker-- so, yeah, what should be moved up in the watch pile next? I picked up quite a few of the Redemption titles in some sale this summer (they all blend together after a while, don't they?) and I'm certain at least a few were Rollin's, so the odds are good I'll already have some on hand

the Lady Vanishes (Anthony Page 1979) Remaking a Hitchcock film is in general not a good idea and if this one succeeds at all it's because the source material is so immensely watchable no matter who's at the helm. But removed from Hitchcock's hand and the necessary time period it was shot (even if it is period-placed) makes it an adaptation less pressing still, and one that offers little more than the passing fancies of sights such as Angela Lansbury dribbling a ball under the opening credits and Cybill Shepherd being adorned in the sheerest pre-war fabric imaginable for the length of the film. I know I'm President of the Stick Up For Cybill Shepherd Club but she's nearing the end of her leading lady days here and partnered with a director seemingly unable to get anything out of her other than childlike derision, she gets lost in the shuffle alongside Elliott Gould's typical and increasingly wearisome sardonic asshole. A textbook example of a film that has no convincing reason to exist

[knives]

Fascination (Jean Rollin 1979) My first Rollin film and I loved it! Rollin shows a great adeptness at adding in the necessary softcore elements without turning the film into anything other than a beautifully paced and flowing exercise in sustained dreaminess inching towards horror. I can't wait to see more from this filmmaker-- so, yeah, what should be moved up in the watch pile next? I picked up quite a few of the Redemption titles in some sale this summer (they all blend together after a while, don't they?) and I'm certain at least a few were Rollin's, so the odds are good I'll already have some on hand

My personal favorite is The Iron Rose which is the most threadbare of films turned quietly disturbing and just bizarre. It's basically just two people looking for a good place to have sex in a cemetery who go mad as time goes by. The Grapes of Death is also pretty good being one of his few straight up scary films. It's sort of like a proto-Dead Alive in terms of how it plays with gore. The Shiver of the Vampire is also pretty amazing just in terms of how crazy it is visually like a pool of dyes. Really most of his films from the period are great.

[swo17]

Yeah, Brotherhood of Satan is worth a watch, and despite it being Mill Creek, I remember the PQ being decent.

[Mr Sausage]

If you or anyone is stocking up on 70s Horror Films for the season, I strongly recommend the Brotherhood of Satan, which Mill Creek just put out in a super-affordable Blu-ray release. It was an orphan for me in the Horror List and I regret not making more noise about it before voting ended, but I legit think it would appeal to a lot of board members here thanks to its striking and unusual mise en scene and wild narrative

A horror movie starring both LQ Jones and Strother Martin? I'm there.

These last few posts also remind me that I should probably watch at least one Jean Rollin, I guess.

[bamwc2]

Fascination (Jean Rollin 1979) My first Rollin film and I loved it! Rollin shows a great adeptness at adding in the necessary softcore elements without turning the film into anything other than a beautifully paced and flowing exercise in sustained dreaminess inching towards horror. I can't wait to see more from this filmmaker-- so, yeah, what should be moved up in the watch pile next? I picked up quite a few of the Redemption titles in some sale this summer (they all blend together after a while, don't they?) and I'm certain at least a few were Rollin's, so the odds are good I'll already have some on hand

My personal favorite is The Iron Rose which is the most threadbare of films turned quietly disturbing and just bizarre. It's basically just two people looking for a good place to have sex in a cemetery who go mad as time goes by. The Grapes of Death is also pretty good being one of his few straight up scary films. It's sort of like a proto-Dead Alive in terms of how it plays with gore. The Shiver of the Vampire is also pretty amazing just in terms of how crazy it is visually like a pool of dyes. Really most of his films from the period are great.

Earlier in the thread I reviewed The Iron Rose and concluded that it was my favorite of his films as well. I haven't seen Fascination yet, but I can say that even when his films aren't very good (i.e. his lesbian vampire series), there's still always something interesting going on. Out of his entire oeuvre that I'm familiar with, I think that I could also recommend Curse of the Living Dead and maybe The Living Dead Girl, but that's about it.

[Satori]

Lips of Blood is also quite good- it is ostensibly a vampire movie, but really a meditation on memory, nostalgia, and the power of the image (a picture of a castle triggers a childhood memory that becomes an obsessive search for the protagonist). The finale is also wonderfully utopian. I also second the recommendations for Iron Rose, which is might be his best film as it is pretty much unencumbered by plot and able to focus solely on its dream-like imagery, and Shiver of the Vampires, a great psychedelically-tinged riff on the classic plot in which a married couple visits a castle inhabited by a seductive vampire.

I think Rollin is truly one of the great unsung horror film poets. His eye for images and locations is amazing and there is this wonderfully melancholic beauty that permeates all his films. I only became aware of his work recently (when Redemption released the first batch of blus) but watching his work in quick succession reminded me of the first time I saw the Lewton films and I realized how much beauty and sadness could be expressed in the horror genre.

[matrixschmatrix]

What's Up, Doc?

Holy shit, if this is one of Bogdanovich's lesser efforts from the decade- as dom implied in the walkthrough- than his masterpieces are going to kill me. I went into this expected to kind of like it, maybe, considering that I don't usually care for Ryan O'Neal or Barbra Streisand, and was consistently laughing my ass off- particularly admiring the blocking in a scene like the one where they all meet under the table, or where Streisand is reciting definitions while disappearing down an escalator. She and O'Neal are killer in this, too, for all that he's pretty much doing Cary Grant in Bringing Up Baby- she's not quite doing Katherine Hepburn, since there's an amalgam of Bugs Bunny and Groucho and Harpo Marx mixed in there too, all while remaining actually likable and fun to be around (which Hepburn never convinced me of in Baby.) It's stone cold stocked with ringers in the supporting cast, too, so that it feels like you could generate business with pretty much any combination of the people on screen.

It's hard to write up a comedy, to me, but I think this is a rare example that actually updated the screwball formula without feeling like a museum piece, nor self-consciously feeling revisionist. It also manages to pull off screwball that doesn't feel needlessly cruel all the time. I'm not sure I can say 'this is what Bogdanovich does' about any particular moment, as the only stuff of his I've seen is Targets (which was marvelous, but nothing like this) and The Thing Called Love, which was better than I expected without necessarily being 'good'- but it's not hard to see the classicism at work throughout, and I feel like it fits with my image of him that the movie often seems to expect the audience to see a setup for a joke coming, and play with it at great length before pulling the trigger on it.

If there's a weak aspect, I think it's the courtroom sequence immediately following the giant car chase- it seemed to overstate the 'this plot is complex' joke a bit too much, and killed the momentum that the giant manic sequence before it had created. It's not much of a quibble, and the movie definitely recovered by the end- the last joke is a bit cheap, but absolutely gorgeous- so overall, I think this is probably both a new favorite from the decade and a director I want to follow up on. I've already got The Last Picture Show, and will probably pick up the extremely cheap DVD of Paper Moon from Amazon, but I'm not sure where to go next- At Long Last Love?