By Brett Blake It’s become a bit trendy in recent years for movie buffs to take stock of the year in film, not just in terms of new releases, but also older movies that one might have discovered over the course of that year. I tried my hand at this last year, and have decided to do it again. I watched nearly 250 movies in 2019. Some were new releases, others were films I revisited, and many were films from prior years that I saw for the first time. That third group is the subject of this list, which is comprised of the ten best/favorite/most interesting older movies that I saw for the first time this past year. Criteria for appearance: a movie with a United States release date of any time prior to 2019 that received a first-time viewing from me during the year. With that preamble out of the way, let’s jump in. In no particular order... THE MAN WHO HAUNTED HIMSELF (1970) A fascinating and strange tale. The hook here is a fantastic one, playing on classic fears of the doppelgänger. Roger Moore is absolutely fantastic in the title role, and if people only know him from his James Bond work, they really owe it to themselves to check out this rather deep cut from his filmography, because the versatility he shows off here is impressive. His portrait of a slightly stuffy man dealing with domestic ennui and gradually succumbing to increasing paranoia is extremely effective and even genuinely moving at times. What the film gets across incredibly well is the feeling of the uncanny intruding on normalcy, the idea that something truly inexplicable and bizarre may be happening to your life, and you’re - basically - powerless to stop it or even decipher it. It culminates in a finale that is subtly horrifying and, as the title would suggest, haunting. THE SILENT PARTNER (1978) In the conversation around crime thrillers of the 1970s, THE SILENT PARTNER has seemingly been forgotten, but this is a fantastic yarn with engaging performances and a compelling plot. The premise is a great one, full of unexpected developments and unusual turns: Elliott Gould is a bank teller who comes to discover that Christopher Plummer is going to rob the bank, so Gould figures out a way to make it look like Plummer steals more money than he really does so that Gould can keep it for himself. The script makes quirky and unexpected choices throughout, and it’s also imbued with a dynamic tone that blends together darkness, playfulness, tension, and even just a bit of sexiness (as well as a splash of kinky, sadistic violence) to create a fusion that feels quite unlike anything else of the era. And Plummer, no stranger to villain roles, has never been so convincingly frightening. HIS KIND OF WOMAN (1951) A treat! If you were to just read a brief synopsis, you would probably come away thinking this is a very conventional noir, but the actual film itself is anything but conventional. True, its plot is not particularly remarkable, but its rather deft tonal blend makes it totally unique in the noir canon. On paper, mixing legitimate dramatic stakes with some (at times) goofy humor should probably not have succeeded in this era, but somehow those elements compliment each other. The cast is terrific -- Robert Mitchum and Jane Russell are almost archetypal lead characters, and they’re surrounded by a fantastic roster of supporting players, such as Raymond Burr, Tim Holt, Jim Backus, and (especially) Vincent Price. More than anything else, this is a showcase for a side of Price we didn’t get enough of, especially later in his career; it is so refreshing to see him in a non-horror setting and getting to play up his skill for humor. This movie simply should not work, but it does. HANDS OF THE RIPPER (1971) A horror movie from Hammer Films with a delightfully strange premise -- Jack the Ripper’s spirit possesses the body of his teenage daughter! Just based on the subject matter, this is one of Hammer’s more overtly shocking and provocative films, and it embraces a fairly full-on depiction of psychosexual trauma and bloodletting; Peter Sasdy’s direction is, at times, intentionally overheated, which gives the killings a nightmarish feel. The cast lacks some of Hammer’s more familiar faces, but Angharad Rees does some affecting work in the story’s pivotal role, and her character’s dilemma of wanting to have a normal life while being driven to violence by the literal sins of her father is pretty effective; the movie delights in the murders she commits, but it also has unexpected empathy for her. NIGHTMARE ALLEY (1947) A fascinating and truly idiosyncratic noirish drama. The directions in which the story unspools are completely surprising, and spiral out into a complicated web of unhealthy relationships and unscrupulous scheming. Tyrone Power delivers a marvelous performance, one that is incredibly well-calibrated and multi-layered; this is a character who is so blatantly an opportunistic and morally questionable charlatan, and Power doesn’t flinch in conveying that, yet he also introduces moments of (possible) genuine feeling that almost give the impression the character is deluding himself into believing he’s a much better person than he really is. Power can make us both loathe and feel sympathy for this guy (sometimes in the very same scene!), and the journey the story takes him on shows him to be one of the most complex lead characters I think I’ve ever seen in this era of this genre. EYE OF THE DEVIL (1967) From the very opening moments, which feature some striking and eerie montage editing, it’s clear that EYE OF THE DEVIL is more than just a textbook British chiller. There is visual storytelling in here that feels very ahead of its time, even almost avant-garde in places, without losing focus and becoming too experimental. It boasts a strong pair of leads in David Niven and Deborah Kerr, as well as some solid supporting turns from Donald Pleasence, David Hemmings, and Sharon Tate, who all demonstrate a strong ability to creep you out. The movie does an effective job of capturing this pervasive sense of the occult being at work, and very quickly we get the sense that something very, very wrong is (eventually) going to play out... which it does. This is small film, all things considered, and the pace slows considerably in the back half, but the story resolves with some excellent suspense. YOUNG MR. LINCOLN (1939) A film which elevates Abraham Lincoln as the paragon of folksy decency and virtue... and I'm completely fine with that, because if any historical figures deserve that sort of treatment, Lincoln is surely among them. That's not to say that Lincoln is presented simplistically or without depth, but it does effectively make the case for the greatness in the man's character and soul. Henry Fonda is excellent in the title role, and in many ways young Lincoln is a perfect vehicle for his particular acting talents. Surrounding him are colorful performers galore, part of the kind of quirky and memorable ensemble you could only have assembled during the height of the studio system. John Ford, always a strong directorial force behind the camera, embarks on a journey of American mythmaking here, and the result is potent, patriotic, and quite stirring if you're open to it. THE ONE I LOVE (2014) A peculiar and idiosyncratic character study wrapped in some vaguely-fantastical, TWILIGHT ZONEian packaging. I really don’t want to go into any detail about the particulars of this movie, other than to say it uses genre-y concepts to really drill down and examine the insecurities and resentments of a frayed relationship, while slowly growing into something genuinely creepy and unsettling. And it somehow manages to do this with a level of humor that keeps it from being unpleasant. Mark Duplass and Elisabeth Moss each get to show off a good amount of range, and the movie succeeds both because of the sharp quality of the writing and because of the great turns from its leads. This is a movie I walked into with no expectations, and found myself completely won over by it. STILL OF THE NIGHT (1982) Director Robert Benton’s follow-up to KRAMER VS. KRAMER finds him in completely different territory, that of the Hitchcock-style mystery-thriller. It’s a well-made yarn that doesn’t reinvent any wheels, but is quite enjoyable for fans of this stuff. There are a few great touches (like the eerie, macabre depiction of a dead man’s dream, as well as a superb riff on NORTH BY NORTHWEST’s auction sequence), and Roy Scheider’s good (he’s always good) as our protagonist who finds himself drawn into a murder mystery. We also have Meryl Streep, and though the role here doesn’t demand as much from her, she’s every bit as good as in THE DEER HUNTER or KRAMER VS. KRAMER; this is not a performance of hers that often gets discussed, but she’s terrific. The mystery ends up resolving in a way that is not fully satisfying, but the journey to get there still is. RAVENOUS (1999) A bizarre and compelling western-horror-comedy hybrid, one that is terrifically unnerving but also has an effective, dark sense of humor. The location shooting is often beautiful, yes, but it also has a level of grimness that adds a desolate feeling to the proceedings. It plays with some really interesting and uncomfortable ideas about the effects of cannibalism; it’s all heightened stuff, but the leads -- Guy Pearce and Robert Carlyle -- sell it very well. Pearce’s work is particularly key, because I think the movie would simply devolve into strangeness were it not for Pearce anchoring things in a relatable emotional and psychological place. The dialogue is uniformly terrific, as is the score, which marries folk music and experimental qualities with more traditional scoring approaches. It’s a film that apparently a lot of people didn’t know what to do with upon its initial release, but viewing it 20 years on, perhaps the sort of tonally adventurous storytelling it attempts would have been more appreciated if it was released today.
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