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Old 01-23-2019, 04:39 PM
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Sculpt Sculpt is offline
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Join Date: Mar 2013
Location: USA, IL
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Originally Posted by FryeDwight View Post
LOVE FROM A STRANGER (1937). Pretty good Agatha Christie story (and it has a future Miss Marple -Joan Hickson-in one of her first roles) that has good performances by Ann Harding , whose engagement to snooty Ronnie is broken due to her winning a lottery and meeting smooth talking Basil Rathbone and of course, things are not quite what they appear to be.
Some slow spots, but really not bad overall and quite exciting towards the end as BR goes into total Looney Tunes phase. Directed by Rowland V Lee who later directed Basil in two more expensive productions-SON OF FRANKENSTEIN and TOWER OF LONDON-a couple of years down the road. ***
"Would you like to see the kitchen?" LOL Looks like a fun film. Would guess a totally different movie altogether if you switch year numbers Love from a Stranger (1973). Did you ever see Tower of London? I don't think I had even heard of it.


Isle of the Dead (1945)
7/10

Classic dark drama starring Boris Karloff as a General Pherides, who takes a one day respite from the Balkan Wars of 1912 to take American reporter Oliver Davis (Marc Cramer) to see a nearby island were the General's wife is buried. There's a spectre of plague, and they, with a small group already there, are forced to stay until the threat passes. The visitors then must deal with an accusation that a sickly woman's young greek companion Thea (Ellen Drew) is a vorvolaka, a malevolent force in human form.

The film has rich effective black and white cinematography and starts out intriguing enough, as Karloff is a cold and dutiful general who struggles with conflicting beliefs, civil duties and compassion. As the 1hr 11min film moves into the second half, the characters and scenes lose sharpness and purpose, making for a slow pace and seemingly meandering plot; but the poetic end comes quick enough.
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Last edited by Sculpt; 01-25-2019 at 07:32 AM.
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