Double Indemnity

This movie was one of the most interesting that we have watched so far this semester. There were many different things that made this movie different from others that we have seen. The first difference that I observed was the fact that this movie was narrated. None of the other films were done this way, so this film was unique. Walter came in at the beginning of the movie as an unknown character and started telling his story. During breaks in the movie, it goes to shots of Walter talking into the recorder to tell his side of the story. It was interesting to see how the movie and narrative transitioned into one another.
To go along with the narrative point, the movie was an entire flashback. Walter the main character came into the office and went into Keys' office and started a recording. In this recording, Walter admits to the murders of Mr. Didrikson and Phyllis. He also tells his side of the entire story, so nobody else, mainly Nino. This was the first time that I had seen an entire movie as being a flashback. I had seen short scenes in a movie that were flashbacks, but not the entire or majority of the film.
Another thing that I noticed was the equipment that Walter used when recording. From the looks of it it was a wax cylinder. This is interesting because it shows how old the film was, because wax was used before records were made and recorded on. I might be wrong about this, but they looked like wax cylinders.
When Walter got to the scene where he and Phyllis killed Mr. Didrikson, is where the film got interesting. This film followed the code because it did not show Walter killing Mr. Didrikson, it went to Phyllis' face and you could only hear Walter killing the man. I found it very odd that Phyllis was smiling or smirking when Mr. Didrikson was being killed, it showed how heartless she was. This was also the point where I knew that Walter was in over his head and that he was probably going to be gotten rid of too. Whoever played Phyllis did a really good job, because I really never got the sense that she was a good person or not up to something.
As the film went on, I noticed how Phyllis wardrobe changed. In the beginning of the film she wore a white gown, but as her plans started to develop to kill Mr. Didrikson her wardrobe gained more black and lost the white. I think that this was done to represent her as being evil or that she was not pure. What got me was at the end when she was wearing her white gown again, I thought that that was strange. The only explanation that I could come up with was that she was trying to recreate her first encounter with Walter.
Overall, I thought that this film was pretty good. I liked the fact that it was different from the other films that we have watched so far.

Sullivan's Travels

This movie was probably my favorite that we have watched all semester. This could also be due to the fact that I love comedies and enjoy laughing. There were lots of things that I saw going on in the movie. Sullivan's Travels had many different parts to it, it had a movie within a movie at the beginning of the film, and then the movie flipped from serious to comedy.
One of the first things that I noticed in the film was the short film at the beginning of the movie. At first I thought it was the real movie, but as quick as it started it was over. But during that short period of time, there was a fight between the two men on the train. One of the men pulls a gun and is shown shooting the man and then the man who was shot has blood coming out of his mouth. Both of these things were against the production code. I don't have the date of this film, but I'm assuming that it was made towards the end of the period where films had to be subjected to the code.
After moving on from the short film, I started noticing weird or odd things in the films. The first of which was when Sully was meeting with his friends/bosses. While they are talking Sully puts on or removes his jacket and you can see that he has his tie tucked into his pants. I was trying to figure out whether it was in style at the time or if it was done to get laughs. I got the feeling that it was more for laughs than anything, because none of the other men wore their ties like that. Later in the movie I noticed how Sully walked with the girl. They never walked side by side or hand in hand, Sully always had his hand firmly grasping the girls arm. It never looked like they were companions, it looked more like she was in trouble and he was walking her to meet someone to be punished. It just looked awkward to me.
Other than these weird moments, I noticed the switching between serious and humor. It was like the movie or producers could not make up its mind on what it was supposed to be. The movie became serious when there were scenes about Sully being a tramp or when he was in jail. The film would switch to comedy whenever he was on the move during his trip to get into trouble, like when he was staying with the creepy lady or during the pool scene.
Overall, I really enjoyed the movie. I was laughing quite often and I hope that we have more comedies in the future.

Rayona

This story just sickens me. I hate hearing about child molesters in the news and reading about it is just as bad, I know that it is not real but the author is able to capture/depict what took place and it is horribly accurate from what I have gathered from the news and whatnot. I have a hard time understanding how Father Tom was able to get so close to these children without the families becoming suspicious. It is obvious that his position in the church helps, but if he comes out of nowhere and molests Rayona, it just seems that he has probably done it before. If he has done this before, I would think that there would be signs of touching or words said that might give him away, but I guess not. It just seems that kids now are way more willing to come forward and report what happened to them. As the story keeps going, it seems as if Rayona just cannot get away from Father Tom, he shows up everywhere, but this is probably because he is paranoid of her telling people about what he did to her. Rayona from what I have read seems like she just wants to get away and have Father Tom disappear more than she wants to tell on him, but I've been wrong before. Overall, this reading was not very enjoyable due to the topic and I hope that it gets better as the book goes along.

Golddiggers

I can't lie, this movie had me lost for the majority of it. For the entire movie, I was trying to figure out how the play that the girls were doing related to the Great Depression and for the life of me I could not connect the two. I could see the similarities in that people were struggling money wise and that happy families or couples at the beginning of the play were split up due to the fact that the men where away at war. Other than that, I did not see a correlation.
One of the things that I found interesting about this film was the lack of color. The movies of this time were able to have color. I don't understand why this movie did not use color, it seems as if the color would have added so much. Even though the color was lacking, the sound was leaps better than the previous films, characters could be heard clearly and the songs did not crack and the singers voices were pretty good.
Something that caught my attention was when Brad came over to play his music for the producer and the girls and he started playing the piano. It was clear to me that he did not know how to play the piano and was just pretending to push keys. This seems odd because I do not think that producers had the technology to do sound overs or insert certain music into the ongoing scene. So my thoughts were, was there someone else playing the piano at the same time, or was that entire scene lip-synced? I thought that the lip-sync option would probably been too difficult to lip-sync the entire scene and song.
Other than that, I found the plot entertaining and really enjoyed the prank that Dolly's friends played on Brad's brother and the old man. The woman who was supposed to be the comedian and add humor to the film did that sort of, but it did not really work for me, I found her extremely annoying. Overall the movie was pretty good.

Babyface

This movie was steps above Scarface when it came to sound. There was music, singing, and background sound in many of the scenes of the movie. It really seems as if the producers had gotten the technology down and were able to use it to the fullest. Voices were pretty clear and the viewers could make out the sounds of cars, printing presses, and trains. All of these new sounds happening at once made this movie that much better and seem like real life.

One of the things that I found interesting was the use of irony, in that her name was Powers and all she really wanted was money and power. Then there was the scene early on in the film when she met with the old man. He told her to leave town and take advantage of men to get what she wanted. Lily's response was, "Where am I supposed to go? Paris?" and that is exactly where she ended up going. I'm pretty sure the writers knew what they were doing with these things, but if they did not than that is funny.

The next thing that I noticed was the use of panning upwards. This was done to show the greatness and success of the city. When Lily started to work for the bank, it was also used to show her rise in the company. There were windows with job titles on them, as Lily used her bosses she kept moving up in the company. After using about four to six men she reached the top and was working for the second in command. Lily was always on the move, she never stayed set in one place for long, she was always on the prowl for a man in higher position.

Men in this movie were portrayed as being dumb and easy to persuade into anything. This was done through Lily just having to bat her eyes at the men and she had them wrapped around her fingers. After she was through with the men she tossed them to the side and was cold as ice, especially when those men came back to see her because she was the only thing they had left. Each man got to see how she ruined her former "lovers" life, I just do not understand how man after man could make the same mistake. Someone should have put a stop to it. Overall the movie was pretty good.

Crazy Sisters

After reading this week I have really started to notice just how weird and bizarre the two sisters are. For one thing they found it amusing that when their father died he dried up and weighed about 50 pounds. They joked about how he probably looked like one of the saints who don't decay. I'm so glad that I don't have any relatives like this, because I would be freaked out by the two of them. Another thing that I noticed is that their father was a geologist and study the land around Tuscon and while he had the girls he pointed out things about the land, I feel that this will somehow come back and have something to do with the rock snake of Sterling's tribe. As the book goes on, we have learned more about Zeta and Lecha, it has become clear that Lecha and Seese are very similar. Both of these women have drug problems, have some sort of problem with their babies, and were dependent on men at a younger age. Even though the twin sisters are supposed to be alike, I find them to be very different. Zeta to me seems like the nice and responsible sister, while Lecha is the twin who is care free, irresponsible and somewhat evil. This can be seen through the story of when Lecha leaves right after her son is born and Zeta is left to take care of a baby that isn't even hers. This book is full of messed up characters, I wonder if we will ever be introduced to one.

Scarface

After learning about the 1930's movie code, I was on the lookout for things that should or should not be included in the movie. If I had to rate the movie on how well it followed the code, I would give it about a 50 percent. The movie producers did a great job in not showing the murders of the characters and keeping the murderer and the victim out of the same shot, as well as eliminate profanity. However the part that they did not follow was the showing of guns, trafficking of drugs, and glorification of the bad guy.

One of the other things that I noticed while watching the movie was that there was no music at all. This seemed odd due to the fact that all the other films we had watched were filled with music. The new sounds were great to hear and that might be the reason why there was no music, they might have not wanted to overpower the voices. The only thing that resembled music in this movie was the whistled that Tony did right before he killed someone.

The last thing that caught my eye was the amount of smoking that the characters in this movie did. I know that smoking was a lot more popular during this time, but I was wondering whether the cigarette and cigar companies had a role in this, because they used to use famous people to advertise their products. Every time a cigarette was lit, the match was thrown onto the ground, the cigarettes were also thrown onto the ground when finished. This made me wonder whether or not the ground was covered in cigarette butts and matches, and if it was I would feel bad for whoever had to sweep it up.

Overall I really enjoyed this movie. Characters that actually speak did wonders for the story, before sound there was hardly any dialogue shown in the film. This made it hard to get an idea of what was really happening in the movie. The sound completed the film.