Take 575: Watching the National Film Registry

  13 Lakes : Summary and initial thoughts 13 Lakes comes to us from filmmaker James Benning, whose other works include Ten Skies and The United States of America . This experimental film is exactly what it states: thirteen lakes, each shown with the skyline, each shown for ten minutes. The film is absent of actors or story, narration or overt purpose, instead focusing on long shots of each lake. It is silent except for ambient and animal noises. It is an exercise in patience, to say the least. The lakes featured in this film are all in the United States:  Wyoming's Jackson Lake Maine's Moosehead Lake California's Salton Sea Minnesota's Lake Superior Wisconsin's Lake Winnebago Florida's Lake Okeechobee Minnesota's Red Lake Louisiana's Lake Pontchartrain Utah's Great Salt Lake Alaska's Lake Iliamna Utah and Arizona's Lake Powell Oregon's Crater Lake New York's Oneida Lake The ambience is stunning, as are the lakes themselves. I admit th...

  All About Eve : Summary and initial thoughts What would you do if you realized someone was trying to replace you, not just at your job, but in your whole life? Would you fight it? Give into it? Seek revenge? These are the questions posed to aging Broadway actress Margo Channing (played by the iconic Bette Davis in one of her most recognizable film roles) when she realizes that the sweet young ingenue actress she has taken under her wing is actually a conniving, devious manipulator who will stop at nothing to take over Margo's life. The film opens at the reception for an award ceremony, at which rising theatre star Eve Harrington is being honored. Through the memories of other characters, we learn how we got here. At first, Eve (played completely on point by Anne Baxter) seems innocent enough, even cute, when she is introduced to Margot as her most ardent fan. She spins a harrowing story for the benefit of Margo, her boyfriend Bill, and their friends, playwright Lloyd Richards and...

  Alien : Summary and initial thoughts So let's just get this settled right up front: The cat lives, okay? I repeat: The cat makes it out alright. Take a deep breath—no cats are harmed in this story. We cool? Okay, let's move on. For a fairly visually disgusting movie (see, e.g., the chestburster scene, which we'll get to in a bit), I really enjoyed Alien . There's a lot to love in this sci-fi/horror classic, even if blood and guts aren't your thing (they're certainly not mine). Alien follows the seven crewmembers of the Nostromo , in addition to Jones the cat, who have been hired for a space mining company's operations (the cat is not expected to do any mining, he is there for moral support). The crew is in stasis (just go with it) when the Nostromo 's computer, Mother, receives what it thinks is a distress call from a nearby planet. The crew get out to explore, finding an abandoned ship and a desiccated alien corpse. One of the crew, Kane, traipses int...

  42nd Street : Summary and initial thoughts This is a fun one. Telling the story of a theatre production during the Great Depression, 42nd Street  at times feels like a cross between Applause  and All About Eve  (minus the melancholy and treachery, respectively). The story follows an ensemble production directed by demanding hitmaker Julian Marsh, whose hardcore dedication to his stressful career has wreaked havoc with this health. Ruined by the stock market crash, he is determined to make this show, Pretty Lady , a financial success upon which he can retire, even if he has to jeopardize his life in the process. Former vaudevillian Dorothy Brock is signed to play the lead and tasked with keeping the major backer of the show, a gullible and artless man named Abner Dillon, happy with her flirtations. This second demand becomes a problem when it is discovered that she is still liaising (and in love) with an old flame from her vaudeville days, Pat Denning. Enter fresh, ...

  Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein : Summary and initial thoughts This film gave me the strangest sense of dẻjà vu—but if I've actually seen it before, it didn't leave much of an impression. Abbott and Costello were never my favorite comedy duo (Laurel and Hardy are where it's at, trust), but they perform reasonably well as a pair of baggage clerks who become entangled with the most popular monsters in Universal's lineup: Dracula, the Wolfman, and Frankenstein's monster. Lou Costello plays Wilbur Grey, a silly baggage handler who has fallen into an inexplicable relationship with the lovely and exotic Dr. Sandra Mornay. Wilbur's friend and fellow bag-slinger Chick Young (played by Bud Abbott), can't understand Wilbur's good fortune at having attracted such a beautiful woman. We find, however, that Sandra is not attracted to Wilbur for his dubious qualities as a lover. She is interested in his brain. For the lovely Sandra is actually in cahoots with D...

  Airplane! : Summary and initial thoughts Airplane! isn't always to my taste, but damn is it funny. The story follows ex-fighter-pilot Ted Striker, who suffers from PTSD and is now afraid to fly. Still, when his girlfriend Elaine, a flight attendant, dumps him just before boarding a flight from LA to Chicago, he throws caution to the wind and goes after her. A little while into the flight, however, it is discovered by one of the passengers, a Dr. Rumack, that the food served for dinner on the plane has caused food poisoning in the crew and many of the passengers. While the airplane's built-in autopilot (a blowup doll named Otto) can get the plane safely to Chicago, he is unable to land it.  Elaine convinces Ted to face his fears and land the plane, which he manages to do. It's a relatively straightforward plot, and what makes this film stand out is the comedic interludes between the major events and the sheer hilarity of the dialogue. The film has an almost Mel-Brooks-ian...