Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde Part 2 (1941)

★★★☆☆
Spencer Tracy
MGM
Black and White, 113 mins
Here's the Transformation!

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde 

Two Faces, Two Movies 

     The very first thing I noticed when I threw this movie in was the fact that it was produced by MGM, were as the other film from only 10 years past was produced by Paramount. 

     Spencer Tracy this time portrays Dr. Jekyll and does so convincingly I still prefer the Fredric March version. There's just something so honest about his portrayal. 

     What both these films have in common is the story they are almost scene for scene, from the scene were Dr. Jekyll saves Ivy to the marriage troubles which is odd because if I can remember correctly the book had no love interests at all,  that was added into the story for a stage adaptation in the 19th century. 

     Really what let this film down for me though was Mr. Hyde. He was just nowhere near as dark and twisted looking as his 1931 counterpart, I even read somewhere that they covered his face during the trailer in fear that people would laugh at it.   

        Overall these two films are both charming in they're own right I love the 1931 adaptation for Fredric March, but at the same time I preferred the Ivy Character when it was played by Ingrid Bergman. These films are both available on a Classic Double Feature Disk that runs for about 40 to 60 bucks. I was lucky and found the dvd I watched at the local library.  

Street Meat

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde Part 1 (1931)

★★★★☆
Fredric March
Paramount
Black and White, 98 mins
Here's the Transformation!

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde 

Two Faces, Two Movies

    We're going to do a double take, the 1931 Dr.Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and then the 1941 one of the same name.
    Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde was written by Robert Louis Stevenson and published in 1886, it's the tale about what would happen if you could split the good and the evil with a potion and let your dormant evil side take its own form.
    Fredric March is great in this film, he comes across natural as a nice guy with a little bit of mayhem inside ready to explode. The transformation sequences are top shop, I heard he wore different layers of makeup that would show only when certain lights were on, giving it that slow change that we see on the screen. I also really enjoyed the P.O.V shots and how they did showed him looking at himself in a mirror. This film is ambitious to say the least, not to mention this is actually the only version of this story where they pronounce Jekyll's name right (Jee-Kal)
    Mr. Hyde is really the star of this show, he's so off-putting  He also shows a great deal of acrobatics that caught me off guard (the scene were he swings down the staircase in particular). Over all this is a great film and it should not be missed. If you call yourself a fan of classic horror, this is a must own for your collection.

 Street Meat

Man of a Thousand Faces (1957)

★★★☆☆
James Cagney, Dorothy Malone, Jane Greer
Universal
Black and White, 122 mins
Here's the Trailer!

Man of a Thousand Faces 
     So I decided to go to the public library the other day and lo and behold I return with this. I knew I was going to love it. How could you hate anything about Lon Chaney? Phantom of the opera is one of my favorite stories and his 1925 silent version is my favorite interpretation of it.
      Cagney plays Chaney and tells the loosely based tale of his Lon Chaney's rise to fame. I'm not going to lie they're remake of Quasimodo and the Phantom's face were lacking, they looked just like masks (which is what they were).
      This being said the story is still wonderfully told. the characters are charming and it ends with you wanting to watch all of his films.
     Definitely check this out if you got some time. 
                   

                                                         Street Meat

Castle Freak (1995)

★★★☆☆
Jeffrey Combs, Barbara Crampton
Full Moon Enterprise
Color, 95 mins
Here's the Trailer!

Castle Freak
   Castle Freak is about a unconventional family inheriting a beautiful mansion only to find out its home to a bloodthirsty deformed being. Jeffrey Combs is the father who's been sober for 9 months after getting into a accident that kills his son. Which Barbara Crampton (the wife) hasn't let him forget. They have a daughter who was also in the car crash and was left blinded.
   Before seeing this film I had watched Re-Animator and From Beyond. I must say this is not like either of those films, this one is much darker and feels more realistic.
   The makeup effects in this film are just awesome. The Freak is just so well designed. There's one scene where he bites and rips off his thumb so he can escape from the shackles.
   This is a must watch for anyone looking for a good 90's horror film or are just a fan of Stuart Gordon's work
   

Clash of the Titans (1981)

★★★☆☆
1981, Warner Bros
Harry Hamlin, Burgess Meredith
Color, 118 mins
Here's the Trailer!

Clash of the Titans 

    Just got this dvd in the mail, so threw it in the ol' player. Away I flew, to a land with two headed dogs, Medusa and the Kraken. Ray Harryhausen's animation just reminds me of a simpler time, and this was no exception.
   This is by no means a story with twists and turns. You know who the good guy is. Perseus is Zeus's son and travels through perils to be with the beautiful Andromina.
    If you want a good warm hearted adventure with mythical creatures, enchanted weapons, and a damsel in distress this is a perfect fit.
 

Frankensteins Army First Impressions (2013)

   I know so little about this film, yet for some reason I am inclined to post about it. The second trailer for Frankensteins Army's shows the making of the "army". Taking place in WWII, Russian soldiers uncover a secret laboratory where they created soldiers using body parts from corpses using pages from Dr. Frankensteins Journal. 

  The trailers look extremely stylized reminding me of the Universal classics from the 1930's. Son of Frankenstein and Frankenstein must be destroyed are 2 of my favorite films, so just to see this name coming back to theatres is enough to make me see this. I will keep up to date and post more the more I find out.

Here's the Trailer! 

Django Unchained (2012)

★★★★☆
2012 Columbia Pictures
Jamie Foxx, Christopher Waltz, Leonardo DiCaprio
Color, 165 mins

Django Unchained  

      After a long wait I finally got around to seeing this movie and I can say this is probably my new favorite Tarantino film, it just screams quality. 
     Django is all about a slave who becomes free with the help of a bounty hunter and becomes a bounty hunter himself, then sets out to find his wife and free her from her shackles.  
      Right from the opening credits I was getting the excitement giggles, I felt like I was watching an old spagetti western.
    DiCaprio is amazing, every scene he was in I found him captivating. He steals the show for sure, not to say that Jamie Foxx isn't wonderful, I thought he was cool as tits, but the scene were DiCaprio cut himself was extremely powerful.
    I love the fact that this film has little to no CGI. It just goes to show that you don't need to sit at a computer, editing every scene to make the film better. ( I'm looking at you George Lucas)