Movies
Not quite as bad as I'd feared. And that was truly a bit of a surprise, as the film pretty much followed the exact outline I'd imagined. There's a lot (and I mean a lot) of talking here, which generally doesn't bode well for classic films, but somehow the drama was quite gripping. The performances aren't all that great and the plot is pretty simplistic, but even then the film does get pretty tense towards the end. I probably would've liked it better if I cared more about purely narrative films, as a whole I still think it was pretty basic and dull, but at least some scenes did get to me.Read all
A British noir. The classic British films tend to be a lot stuffier than their modern-day descendants, in part because they never seem to make use of their large selection of juicy accents and dialects at their disposal. The Blue Lamp is no exception, but at least the cinematography adds a little extra flair. The plot isn't too interesting, the performances are very wooden and unnatural and the pacing is rather slow. The only thing that made this a bit more bearable was the stark black-and-white cinematography, especially during the night scenes. It's not much, but at least it was something.Read all
An early horror anthology. I say horror, but the film is mostly a mystery, with lots and lots of dialogue, sometimes regarding supernatural phenomena. I can see how this setup could've been quite influential, but by modern standards, it's a pretty dull collection of supernatural stories. Dialogue-driven, like so many other films of its time. It's the opposite of what I look for in a film, so it's no surprise this didn't really do it for me. The performances weren't great either, and the stories were pretty underwhelming. The anthology-like setup did mean there was enough happening to keep me occupied at least.Read all