Well “the Public Enemy” was pre-code, so that was done purely for dramatic purposes.
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Really! I could have sworn my profs used it as an example of dodging the code.
Won’t be the first discrepancy I’ve found in a course. Or just me remembering it wrong.
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I’m not really certain how that would be dodging the code. Since he’s a criminal who gets punished it seems to adhere pretty closely. The code didn’t insist on all malefactors being arrrested and doing time/being executed. They just had to not get off scott free. Being killed by a rival gang would be good enough.
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Because the code was supposed to tone things down… and instead it was inspiration for a shock moment.
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As I understand it:
After code revision of mid-1934, the rival gang who killed Tom Powers would have to have been brought to justice too. But instead the movie ends with Tom’s body lying in the hallway, with “I’m Forever Blowing Bubbles” playing on the phonograph, implying that the cycle of violence is unending. Unless I’m misremembering it.
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I found a copy of April and the Extraordinary World at the library and watched it this evening.
A fun steampunk SF romp. Being out of the loop on things I only noticed it when it got to the 2nd run theater but it went away too soon for me. This would have been worth seeing on a big screen instead of my laptop.
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I feel in this movie that the supporting cast is better than the main cast.
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I need to see that again. I saw it in a theater with the Mrs when it had a restored print release.
I thought Dick Powell did a good job at capturing the sarcastic side of Philip Marlowe.
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I liked him in the role, and I’m really impressed by the 180 from his old crooner days.
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I was most impressed by Mike Mazurki. This is possibly the only time I’ve seen him play a character, and he owns the movie.
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I just watched the 1923 “Scaramouche,” directed by Rex Ingram. Ingram was regarded within the industry at the time as the best director. He was seen as dragging the art of cinema forward by actually looking at what he was doing and thinking about what would be the best way to do it. That sounds basic, but it’s surprising how infrequently it is done with movies then or now.
And there is no doubt the movie looks very good. But Scaramouche is weak when it comes to storytelling. The movie was made in a rather old-fashioned style, where the story is largely described in words with moving pictures used to illustrate what you’ve just read. It doesn’t have the flowing visual narrative Cecil B DeMille had mastered by that time.
One interesting stylistic touch used throughout the movie is tight close-ups. Whenever there is a character thinking over a situation, Ingram cuts to a tight, lingering close-up on the actor’s face. It looks like the face is there in front of you and you could reach out and touch it. I don’t know how this is achieved, but it’s quite effective and a bit startling.
The story was written by Rafael Sabatini, a historian who was the master of writing picturesque historical fiction which has been the basis of a variety of movies. It’s funny to realize that Scaramouche was a newly published book at the time.
This movie takes place during the French Revolution. The scenes of the rampaging Parisian mob in the last act bears a striking resemblance to the mob scenes at the end of “Metropolis,” filmed four years later.
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He was seen as dragging the art of cinema forward by actually looking at what he was doing and thinking about what would be the best way to do it. That sounds basic, but it’s surprising how infrequently it is done with movies then or now.
This is every endeavor. What’s shitty is that this natural, highly beneficial mode of continuous improvement is laughed at by business dumbshits.
We get it. Bizniss doesn’t handle improvement very well. Maybe that’s a problem with bizniss and not a problem with creativity and change.
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But did he do the fandango?
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Very possibly.
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THUNDERBOLT AND LIGHTNING
THUNDERBOLT AND LIGHTNING
THUNDERBOLT AND LIGHTNING
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Thinking of reading this but I need someone to decide for me.
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Please explain what is going on here.
Thunderbolt and Lightning dancing the fandango? 
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Please do. One of the best dystopian fiction reads of the 20th century.
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