The guy in front of me when I was walking out of the theater said “That was the most boring movie I’ve ever seen.” I guess he’s never sat through Radu Jude’s Dracula. Or the 1969 version of Dr. Dolittle.
But I know why he was bored. The trailers make this look like a zombie movie. And it is, but not very much. It’s really more of a contemplative story about an estranged relationship that happens to have some bodies coming back to life. The zombies are slow and easily avoidable as long as you don’t do something silly like go off on adventure by yourself to try and work things out with your husband.
I’m sure no one would call this movie a fun watch, but it was incredibly rough as a middle school teacher to watch and recognize the bullying and shaming that happens in this movie. I seriously considered walking out, and I never walk out of movies.
I don’t mean that this is a poorly made film. It’s very well made, and the performances all feel real- but more than a little PTSD triggering for me.
Destry Rides Again
Jimmy Stewart at his Jimmy Stewartest. A very enjoyable ride. Also: I’d never seen this before, so I had no idea how much Madeline Kahn in Blazing Saddles was channeling Marlene Dietrich’s Frenchy. Mel Brooks got some very delayed laughter out of me.
I could have gone my whole life without seeing Fred Astaire in blackface.
Love & marriage in old movies is wild. “I met you three days ago. I love you! Let’s get married. Wait- you’re engaged to someone else? I guess I’ll marry this other guy. But now you’re not engaged anymore? Then I’ll marry you, and the guy I was engaged to will sing to celebrate our love!” Also: Rogers and Astaire never kiss. They often ALMOST kiss, but they never actually do it. Apparently this was a thing.
Betty Furness (1533 Vine Street, plus a television star at 6675 Hollywood Boulevard) plays Margaret, the woman who seems fine with her wedding being cancelled because her fiancee thought his pants needed cuffs. Furness move from acting into being a spokesperson for Westinghouse. That led to her becoming a consumer advocate, and then a reporter.
Sneaking in a last movie of 2025 to wrap up my “Fake posters for every movie I see in 2025” project. My letterboxd list says I’ve seen 254, but my fake poster count is 258 so I’m missing something somewhere.
What a great movie to end the year. It’s hilarious. Also: I never got why people were so enthralled by Marilyn Monroe. I get it.
Pat O’Brien (1531 Vine Street) plays a cop who manages to let a lot of people get shot. He was a very popular actor who appeared in over 100 films.
My LAST FAKE POSTER is… pretty good. Not a favorite, but an acceptable end to the project.
I guess I should do some sort of “wrap-up/what’s next” post tomorrow so that all my imaginary fans aren’t left guessing about my next project.
What a pleasure to get all the way to the end of the year and find a favorite movie. Dark and hilarious, with creative choices I’ve never seen before but instantly understood.
I wrote roughly one billion words about the last movie I saw. Part of that is because bad movies are easier to write about, but it’s also because I don’t want to spoil this movie.
Of course, that doesn’t mean I can’t make a silly fake poster based on a Charlton Heston zombie virus movie!
This is Cecil B. DeMille’s last silent movie, and it is weird and unintentionally hilarious. A student forms an underground atheist society at her school, which is apparently a crime.
I guess this was before people had free speech.
When the student body president brings a mob to disrupt a society meeting, a girl is killed. Then they go to prison (well, prison-like reform school), where they find love and she finds religion.
The Godless Society has an excellent graphic department. Check this out:
Lina Basquette (1529 Vine Street) is the Godless Girl, who was loosely based on a real person. Basquette had quite a life. She had been married to Sam Warner (co-founder of Warner Bros.), and the rest of the family was upset because the Warners were Jewish and Basquette was Roman Catholic. When Sam died, Lina was pressured by Harry Warner to give up custody of her daughter so the child would be raised Jewish. The custody battle effectively blacklisted Basquette for a time. In the late 1930s she was flown to Germany meet with a German film studio and several Nazis, including Hitler. She claimed she kicked Hitler in the crotch when he hit on her, and that Hitler didn’t stop pestering her until she told him her grandfather was Jewish.
And now, the fake poster. It’s hard to find fun movies with “God” or “Godless” in the title, so I went with “Girl.”
Don’t go in expecting The Seventh Seal and you’ll have a good time. But be warned: the second half gets darker and weirder than you might expect. That’s what happens when you’re dealing with a mostly true story.
I’ve never seen the source movie for today’s fake poster, but I’m planning to watch it right after I post this.
It’s kind of amazing to watch a movie and genuinely have no idea how it will end. This movie is nearly three hours long, and it felt like a tight 90 minute thriller. Bonus points to the people who made the trailer; it totally gets the feel of this film without spoiling it.
Also: this movie made me realize that I absolutely would fall for someone disguising themselves with a wig or a mustache.
There are surprisingly few decent resolution images available for this movie, so I picked a minimalist source poster and did some creative interpretation.
