The Perils of Pauline

Alright, this one should be interesting. It's our first film from the Comedy Kings 50 Movie Pack. I'm not a huge fan of old school comedy, however, I've definitely liked stranger things. This film is from 1947 and is in color, which is pretty uncommon for that time period. It was also apparently nominated for an Oscar. Hopefully it's as good as Go For Broke, if so, this might actually be fun. Alright I'm going to watch and post the review earlier today than I have been. So expect to see it before 5 p.m. PST.

IMDb: The Perils of Pauline

Review

Just finished watching Perils of Pauline, and I'm pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed it. This film is about a woman named Pearl White, getting her start in theatre, she eventually becomes a world-renowned serial actress. This movie covers her rise to fame, her serial period, and some of her later exploits. This movie was extremely good, and really well acted. However, it was not really a comedy. It had some light chuckles at times, but in my opinion it's more of a drama, or even a musical. 

Pros

Great Behind The Camera Work: I can't narrow this down any further, the film has good writing, good cinematography, good flow, great set design and much more. The direction was really well done too.

An example of great sets and great cinematography

Acting: All of the main characters felt real. They were well portrayed and I constantly found myself wondering what would happen next. The romantic relationship between Pearl and Farrington is well done and really believable. 

Glimpse of The Past: This movie does a terrific job of portraying what working in film circa 1915 was like. It shows how hectic and frantic it was. It's not often you see films that show you both the beauty of the Hollywood Golden Age, but also shows you what it can do to peoples head and hearts.

Cons

The War To End All Wars: Though this is far from a war film, it feels lacking in this department. World War 1 is announced and then less than a minute later ends. It seems like this would provide a more drastic change to Hollywood, than a 30 second period of minor change.

Final Score

8/10

I know I say this a lot, but I really struggled with this one. It was really good, well written, and well acted. However, It's hard for me to say it was a great movie. However, I will probably revisit this movie at a later date. It's a great period piece, to say the least.

Purchase "The Perils of Pauline"

Amazon

Oldies

Comedy Kings 50 Movie Pack


Watch It Free

Go For Broke

Just rolled the movie of the day, it's on the Combat Classics 50 Movie Pack. Didn't read much about this film, only thing that caught my eye is that it was nominated for a Best Screenplay Oscar. So that's interesting. Pretty excited to dive into it.

Here's the IMDb page: Go For Broke, On that page they also have the full movie for instant watch.

Review: Go For Broke is about the 442nd Army Division and their combat exploits throughout Western Europe. The 442nd was an all Japanese-American regiment which, for obvious reasons, caused them to be less than trusted. They, however, against adversity and rampant racism proved to be invaluable in the Italian and French Front.

After having finished Go For Broke, I can see why it was nominated for that Oscar. The writing was well done and at times, rather comical. The movie had some definite comedy elements which, though present, never overpower the films main genre, action. The action is well done and the cinematography is used perfectly to show off the action.


Pros:

Comedy: Comedy helps to break up the monotony of pretty much all war movies, especially older ones.

Racism: You might be saying, "How is racism a Pro?" Really the reason it's on here is the lack of racism. When you think of a Japanese Army regiment with Caucasian officers in 1943, you'd expect to find some racism, to say the least. However, the few times the film actually does show this racist element, it's kept contained and never used extensively.


Cons:

Character Development: The only development truly present in the movie is the main character's differing opinion towards his platoon. In the beginning of the film he wanted nothing to do with a Japanese-American platoon. However, near the end of the film he wouldn't want to be with any other platoon. And that's the extent of character development. Yes I know war movies probably shouldn't have much character development, however, this film had so little, I noticed it continuously throughout the film.

Pigs: I highly doubt any army would let a soldier keep a pet. Let alone a pig. Tommy, the soldier who "owns" the pig, at some points talks about how precious little food he has. Yet he keeps a fat piece of pork around. Oh well, he eventually hands it over to a poor French family anyway. So I guess it served some purpose.

FINAL SCORE:

7/10

I'm far from a modern military buff or a war movie buff. However, I found the characters in this film to be likeable and the writing was well done. Like I said prior, had there been more character development this would be a higher score.


Purchase "Go For Broke":

Amazon

Oldies

Combat Classics 50 Movie Pack
Or watch it free here (in much lesser quality):

Go For Broke