The Signal Watch: 9/3/23

Thursday, September 7, 2023

Noir Watch: The Secret Fury (1950)

Watched: 09/05/2023

Format: TCM

Viewing: First

Director: Mel Ferrer

What a weird, weird movie.

And not *good* weird.

The movie features the great Claudette Colbert and Signal Watch fave Robert Ryan, but the story itself is a mess, leaning almost to camp.

Part crime drama, all melodrama, The Secret Fury (1950) follows a society woman (Colbert) moments from saying I do to her beau (Ryan) when someone DOES say "I object", claiming Colbert is already married. To her knowledge, Colbert has never been married, but when multiple witnesses claim she was married - and not that long ago - she now believes she may have gone mad, losing time.

The very premise, however, makes no sense and is based on the notion that people really get married after knowing each other for about 8 hours, which was quite the Hollywood trope for the first 70 years or so. And it also assumes Colbert wouldn't see whomever murdered someone right before her eyes. And that Ryan's character would make a completely unbuyable decision to leave Colbert alone with a strange man claiming to be her husband.

Vamp Watch: Daughter of Dracula (1972)

Watched: 09/04/2023

Format: BluRay

Viewing: First

Director: Jess Franco

If the 1970's brought us anything in cinema, it was sexy vampires. I mean, there's no shortage before. Ask me about Brides of Dracula. But by the time we got to the 1970's, we had moved into a weird twilight zone of art film/ exploitation film/ horror film where nudity was rampant and sex was not just implied in knowing cut-aways.

As far as I know, of the Jess Franco movies, I'd only ever seen Vampyros Lesbos. And, somewhat (in)famously, Franco was one of the foremost purveyors of cheap, wandering "horror" films that bordered on a Cinemax late-night entry and what cable would play on weekends in the 1980's while also absolutely existing as in-no-way-scary horror films.

The movie is one of five directed by Franco in 1972 alone. Whatever the market was, it was quantity over quality, and I suspect few scenes were actually scripted or anyone really did much to prep for the movies after getting a set of fangs, a Dracula cape and a location. The movie uses a lot of 1970's film language, from racking focus into a scene (usually onto some natural object) and lots of lingering shots of people walking and not saying much.

PodCast 251: "Drop Dead Fred" (1991) - a SimonUK and Ryan Episode

Watched: 08/28/2023

Format: Amazon

Viewing: 3rd?

Decade: 1990's

Director: Ate de Jong

For more ways to listen

Ryan and his imaginary British friend delve into their respective inner children and try to figure out who is responsible for all the mess. We take a look at an early 90's cable staple!

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