Film Friday | Weekly Roundup

Hey there friends and neighbors… It’s me, Pretty Clever Film Gal. Did you think I had run off to Mexico with a pool boy named Pablo? While that is a tempting proposition, I’ve been here in sunny Toronto, locked away in the blogging garret working on the new and improved Pretty Clever Films. Which is a lot of work, oh boy! Even aside from the design and what not, there’s a lot of frustratingly cryptic stuff about domains, and transfers, and transferring domains, and every step takes 2-200 days. Since when does the interwebs need days to do anything? But I digress… suffice it to say, big stuff is going down and in the meantime it’s a really bad call to update here because then I also have to update on the new site and blah blah blah. I promise – it will be worth the wait!

All that said – there is NO WAY I would not scour the interwebs so you, my dear reader, don’t have to. Hopefully by this time next week we’ll be rocking and rolling on the new Pretty Clever Films, but in the meantime I bring you the best the web had to offer this week and I’m going all out – now with 50% more links! Happy reading and happy viewing!

Metropolis, A Technical Marvel with Feet of Clay

Metropolis premiered in Berlin on January 10, 1927. As all good silent movie devotees know, the film was then tinkered with, re-edited, and god knows what before it received wider distribution. Hard to know now.

Mordaunt Hall, film reviewer for The New York Times, gave that revised version a less than glowing treatment, calling Metropolis a “technical marvel” with “feet of clay.” Read the original review here.  Maybe he was just bitter cause his mom named him Mordaunt?

Today on TCM: Rancho Notorious (1952)

Western wear, Fritz Lang direction, (campy?) Dietrich, and George Reeves, later to play TV’s Superman and die in an enduring and intriguing Hollywood scandal – really, what more could you ask for in movie? TCM is airing Fritz Lang’s 1952 Technicolor western Rancho Notorious today at 3:15 pm EST.Is it straight-up schlock or one of Lang’s finest (and that’s a high bar!)? Do some reading, tune, and let Pretty Clever Film Gal know your verdict!

Related Readings on Fritz Lang’s Rancho Notorious:

• Combustible Celluloid review of Rancho Notorious
• Original New York Times review of Rancho Notorious
• Not Coming to a Theater Near You Review of Rancho Notorious
• Melferrer.com’s review of Rancho Notorious

Related articles

• Rock Opera Version of Fritz Lang’s Metropolis Coming to a Theater Near You [Metropolis] (io9.com)

Rock Opera Metropolis Set to Hit 20 Cities

Hmm… I tend to get pretty persnickety about overtly modern soundtracks for silent movies. However, there’s no reason not to see Metropolis 1 billion times, so bring it! Girogio Moroder’s 1984 rock opera soundtrack isn’t my favorite Metropolis score, but it’s not the worst either and seeing a silent in a movie theater is always amazing.

According to the Hollywood Reporter, Kino Lorber has inked a deal to realease a dvd/Blu-ray titiled Giorgio Moroder Presents Metropolis this fall, and the realease will include a 20 city theatrical release. Among the cities which Moroder’s Metropolis will hit are Anchorage, San Francisco, San Diego, Miami Beach, Chicago, Albany, Charleston, Dallas, Houston, Olympia, Seattle, and Washington D.C.

While you wait to find out if your city ranks a screening, check out this fabulous all Metropolis, all the time site.

Film Friday | Weekly Roundup

It’s been a busy week at Pretty Clever Films Headquarters thanks to TCM’s Summer Under the Stars. First we’re treated with Lon Chaney day and then Humphrey Bogart day. At night, I hear TIVO softly crying to himself in the other room. Even though I have roughly a gagillion movies to watch, I still took the time to scour the interwebs for the best goings on so you don’t have to. There seems to be an explosion of silent movie writings this week and here are a few of the best. Have a read, pop a bottle of bubbly to celebrate silent movie love, and happy viewing!