Having first caught ALI BABA AND THE FORTY THIEVES (1944) on Thanksgiving years ago, I rewatched it Thanksgiving morning before TYG and I went out to dinner. Jon Hall stars as the rightful ruler of Baghdad who turns the Forty Thieves into a Robin Hood-style group warring on the Mongol conquerors — but will the return of childhood sweetheart Maria Montez weaken Ali’s resolve?
This is, of course, an Arabian Nights fantasy made by Hollywood for an American audience, and with a mostly white cast in brownface (Montez is Dominican and Turhan Bey as her faithful slave is half-Turkish). Even so, I’m a sucker for Arabian Nights stuff and I enjoyed the film despite the problematic side. And despite Montez’ stiff acting. We get better performances from Andy Devine as a blowhard Thief and Frank Puglia as Montez’ traitorous father. The climax isn’t up to the best swashbucklers but it worked well enough. “I’m the sword hanging over your head.”
One of TYG and my recent date movies was A GIRL WALKS HOME ALONE AT NIGHT (2014) when it showed at the Chelsea art theater. This Iranian production has a female vampire show up in a decrepit industrial city where she disrupts the lives of addicts, hookers, gang bosses, petty thugs and the homeless. Well worth seeing and cool visually (I kept noticing how many long, silent shots it has). “I could take out your eyes and give them to the dogs to eat.”
When Netflix shut down its DVD service (siiiigh) it told us to keep any remaining DVDs. One of them was 1975’s NIGHT MOVES, which I liked much more than when I first caught it (I believe I put it in my queue because a friend of mine admires it).
Gene Hackman is a PI with a troubled history and a straying wife. Hunting for teen runaway leads him to the Florida Keys, Jennifer Warren (“Around here I’m considered a goodlooking woman.”) and a mystery way more complicated than he expected. Indeed the plot approaches Big Sleep levels of can’t-figure-it-out but the mystery isn’t the point. What is? I’m not sure but the movie’s good watching anyway. “People ask you to do boring, trivial things — and you do them.”
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