#34: THE NIGHT OF THE HUNTER (1955)

THRILL SCALE 1-10

8.5

HAVE I SEEN IT BEFORE?

Yes, once, and I didn't remember liking it as much as I did this time

BEST SEQUENCE

The scene of Willa's untimely demise, followed by the shot of where she ends up, which is an absolutely haunting image

BEST LINE

"Leeeeaning, leeeeaning

Safe and secure from all alarms

Leeeeaning, leeeeaning

Leaning on the everlasting arms"

ROTTEN TOMATOES SCORE

93%

ROTTEN TOMATOES CRITICS CONSENSUS

"Featuring Robert Mitchum's formidable performance as a child-hunting preacher, The Night of the Hunter is a disturbing look at good and evil."

IMDB SYNOPSIS

"A self-proclaimed preacher marries a gullible widow whose young children are reluctant to tell him where their real dad hid the $10,000 he'd stolen in a robbery."

DIRECTOR

Charles Laughton

MAIN CAST

Robert Mitchum, Shelley Winters, Lillian Gish, Billy Chapin, Sally Jane Bruce, James Gleason, Evelyn Varden, Don Beddoe, Peter Graves

THOUGHTS

• Without really expecting it, and based on the strength of just two movie roles, Robert Mitchum has become one of my favourite portrayers of villains. He was chilling in Cape Fear and he's equally chilling in The Night of the Hunter. In fact, it was hard to choose a favourite line because nearly every line delivered by Mitchum is memorable. The "H-A-T-E and L-O-V-E" sermon is especially noteworthy, and it's been referenced in Do The Right Thing and The Simpsons, to name just a couple
• Ultimately I had to go with Mitchum's repeated singing of his favourite hymn, however. It's a pretty impressive feat to make a bland hymn so spine-chilling, especially when Mitchum actually has a fairly pleasant singing voice, but every time we hear it we know evil approaches and we know he won't stop until he gets what he's searching for. The whole movie has a very effective sense of dread and impending doom
• I'm fascinated by the way this movie makes religion seem so ominous and threatening, used as the justification for preacher Harry Powell's crimes. I also wonder how much of Powell's belief system is bullshit and how much he truly believes. Is he simply a murderous conman, using God to get close to his victims and protect himself from suspicion? Or does he truly believe what he says? The fact that we do witness Powell speaking directly to God, even when no one else is around, might lead us to believe that it isn't an act and he's really this delusional
• With that said, it's also only fair to mention that eventually we meet Rachel Cooper, a woman who uses religion for good, and who protects those who need helping, a very important juxtaposition to Harry Powell
• I've complained about child actors before, and The Night of the Hunter isn't going to make me change my tune. These kids aren't the worst I've ever seen, but they're not great - some very exaggerated reaction shots and just general obnoxiousness. I also wonder if I'm being unfair to the child actors, though, because surely a lot of that also has to do with how they were directed
• Speaking of the director, I've briefly mentioned Charles Laughton before - he had a supporting role in Spartacus. Coincidentally, I've also mentioned his wife, Elsa Lanchester, who played the Bride of Frankenstein. The Night of the Hunter was the only movie that Laughton ever directed, which is a shame. While it wasn't received very well when it was first released, it's now considered an absolute classic
• Finally, I wish to let you know that this movie includes a character named Icey Spoon, which is a dumb name. That is all

Up next: Harrison Ford's back! And we'll be talking about him a few times more after this. From 1993, it's The Fugitive

#35: JURASSIC PARK (1993)

THRILL SCALE 1-10

10

HAVE I SEEN IT BEFORE?

Yes, many times now, although I don't remember when the first time was. I do know that I remember it being released because I was too scared to see it at the time (I was 6). If I had to guess, the first time I saw it was probably in high school

BEST SEQUENCE

There are many good options, but the T. rex jeep attack is an absolutely perfect scene of action and tension. One of the greatest ever

BEST LINE

I was tempted to pick Jeff Goldblum's incredibly strange and delightfully weird laugh/growl, but instead I'll go with a line that I've quoted many times:

"Clever girl"

"Hold on to your butts" is also pretty evergreen

ROTTEN TOMATOES SCORE

91%

ROTTEN TOMATOES CRITICS CONSENSUS

"Jurassic Park is a spectacle of special effects and life-like animatronics, with some of Spielberg's best sequences of sustained awe and sheer terror since Jaws."

IMDB SYNOPSIS

"An industrialist invites some experts to visit his theme park of cloned dinosaurs. After a power failure, the creatures run loose, putting everyone's lives, including his grandchildren's, in danger."

DIRECTOR

Steven Spielberg

MAIN CAST

Sam Neill, Laura Dern, Richard Attenborough, Joseph Mazzello, Ariana Richards, Jeff Goldblum, Wayne Knight, Bob Peck, Samuel L. Jackson, Martin Ferrero, B.D. Wong

THOUGHTS

• You know, sometimes I come to a big movie like Jurassic Park and I get a little anxious about getting all my thoughts down and saying what needs to be said about such an important film. But then I think, well, really, what does need to be said? It's Jurassic Park. We've all seen it. We all know it kicks ass. So, if it seems like I don't have as much to say as you may have thought, just know that it's because I trust that we're all on the same page here
• It hasn't been that long since we last talked about a Spielberg movie, and it won't be much longer before we do it again - Close Encounters of the Third Kind is four movies away. If I had to guess, without putting too much thought into it, I'd say Jurassic Park is probably my third-favourite Spielberg ever. Without giving too much away, my favourite and second-favourite will be coming up on this list eventually. Having said that, I wouldn't be at all surprised if Jurassic Park is the favourite for a lot of people out there. In a lot of ways it's a perfect blockbuster. It's thrilling but not too scary, it's funny and exciting. It shows us something new with revolutionary special effects that still hold up today. Especially for a lot of people around my age, I'm sure it was also a seminal movie-viewing experience that made an early impact
• Back to the special effects, man are they great. This movie revolutionized CGI, and it's used well, but I especially appreciate the effects that were done practically when they could be. In fact, with a few exceptions, I often couldn't tell what was practical vs. what was CGI, and in a way this helped immerse me in the movie even more. It helped me believe all of the effects, even the ones that I might usually deride as obviously computer generated
• The first half of the movie kind of luxuriates in the special effects and the novelty of showing us the dinosaurs, in a way that kind of surprised me how long it took to get to the really exciting stuff. It's not a flaw in the movie, but Spielberg really takes his time showing us a gentler, more majestic version of Jurassic Park, before the power goes out and one big pile of shit hits the fan. It makes for a very effective shift in tone because it introduces the park and the dinosaurs, and it lets us get connected to the characters before their lives become endangered
• Wonderful score by John Williams, I do think a lot of the movie's power comes from his music
• And the cast is all fantastic. I also sometimes forget that Samuel L. Jackson is in this in a relatively small role, but remember, this was still a year before his breakout role in Pulp Fiction
• As we all know, Jurassic Park started the Jurassic Park/Jurassic World franchise, most of which I've seen. None of the other movies have quite the same impact, novelty or pure movie magic as the original, though, so I didn't feel the urge to review any of the sequels alongside this one
• As I mentioned in my E.T. review, Jurassic Park claimed the title of highest-grossing movie of all time from E.T., and it would hold the record for five years until the release of another movie that's coming up before too long, Titanic (#25 on the list)
• Despite the box office success, Jurassic Park didn't make a huge impact at the Oscars that year. It won the three awards it was nominated for, but they were below-the-line awards for Sound Effects Editing, Sound, and Visual Effects. Don't feel bad for Spielberg, though, because he had a pretty remarkable year. Believe it or not, Jurassic Park, this monumental box office success and brilliant achievement in special effects, was not the only movie Spielberg released in 1993. Six months later Spielberg released Schindler's List, which would go on to win Best Picture, Best Director, and a slew of other awards

Up next: The Night of the Hunter from 1955

BONUS REVIEW: FRIDAY THE 13TH PART VI: JASON LIVES (1986)

THRILL SCALE 1-10

6

HAVE I SEEN IT BEFORE?

Yes, once, in September of 2019

BEST SEQUENCE

I'm gonna go with the RV sequence. The RV bathroom kill is great, and the shot of Jason standing on top of the overturned RV is epic

BEST LINE

"So, what were you gonna be when you grew up?"

- Small talk between one endangered kid to another

ROTTEN TOMATOES SCORE

56%

- Second-highest score after the very first one, by the way

ROTTEN TOMATOES CRITICS CONSENSUS

"Friday the 13th: Part VI - Jason Lives indeed brings back ol' Vorhees, along with a sense of serviceable braindead fun."

IMDB SYNOPSIS

"Tommy Jarvis exhumes Jason Voorhees to cremate his corpse, but inadvertently brings him back to life instead. The newly revived killer seeks revenge, and Tommy may be the only one who can stop him."

DIRECTOR

Tom McLoughlin

MAIN CAST

Thom Mathews, Jennifer Cooke, David Kagen, C. J. Graham

THOUGHTS

• I didn't remember much about this movie, so in looking it up before rewatching it, I was surprised to see that it's ranked pretty highly among fans and critics alike. Some even call it a precursor to the Scream franchise, and it definitely has a fun level of self-awareness, with some very meta jokes that generally land
• That said, and possibly related, it also didn't entirely feel like a part of the same franchise that I've been rewatching. I was surprised to see that this was rated R, because it feels more PG-13. There are some good kills, but it still feels a little tame. I generally liked the change in tone, but when a movie breaks the fourth wall like this one does it also undercuts the scares because it makes it more obvious that this is all fake and not really happening (and incidentally, I'll be reviewing Scream eventually, and it's one of the best examples of a self-aware horror movie that's also still pretty scary)
• Also unique about this movie, and kind of jarring, this is the only one so far to have children campers present at the camp. They're not really in danger at any point, but still
• Best kill: I do like the RV bathroom kill I mentioned above, but I think I have to go with the sheriff getting folded right in half by Jason
• Again, I watched this with friends, and these are their one-sentence reviews:
• Analisa: "Uh-oh"
• Ashley (my wife): "Needs more boobs"
• And speaking of Ashley and Analisa, the group of us decided that it's very fun to have a regular viewing of the Friday the 13th movies every time a Friday the 13th rolls around, but it would be nice to incorporate some other long-running slasher franchises as well. So, with that said, I'm happy to announce two new traditions: every Friday the 12th will be Nightmare on Elm Street day, and every Friday the 14th will be Halloween day. I'll probably write up reviews for them as well, and maybe eventually we'll get to other long-running horror franchises, like Scream and Saw
• But, back to the man of the day, Jason Voorhees. Happy to see you again, fella, welcome back from the grave, and looking forward to catching up with you in November

#36: BULLITT (1968)

THRILL SCALE 1-10

7.5

HAVE I SEEN IT BEFORE?

Never

BEST SEQUENCE

The famous car chase is really tremendous. More about that later

BEST LINE

None worth mentioning

ROTTEN TOMATOES SCORE

98%

ROTTEN TOMATOES CRITICS CONSENSUS

"Steve McQueen is cool as ice in this thrilling police procedural that also happens to contain arguably the greatest movie car chase ever."

IMDB SYNOPSIS

"A nonconformist San Francisco cop is determined to find the underworld kingpin who killed the witness under his protection."

DIRECTOR

Peter Yates

MAIN CAST

Steve McQueen, Robert Vaughn, Jacqueline Bisset, Don Gordon, Robert Duvall

THOUGHTS

• Believe it or not, before I started doing these reviews I didn't realize how much I personally appreciate a great car stunt or driving action sequence, especially as someone who doesn't really drive and doesn't care or know anything about cars. A good car stunt, though, has me on the edge of my seat. Bullitt is famous for a roughly 10-minute-long car chase scene, and not only is it exciting and thrilling in its own right, it was also extremely influential as one of the first modern car chases in cinema
• Bullitt is set in San Francisco and the car chase makes incredible use of that city's hilly streets, in a way that really reminded me of the amazing final car chase in One Battle After Another
• It's also very cool that Steve McQueen, an accomplished race car driver in real life, did a lot of his own driving for this sequence
• Outside of the car chase, though, the rest of the movie didn't make much of an impact on me. I was excited to see Steve McQueen in this. He was my favourite part of The Magnificent Seven and he's excellent in The Great Escape, another movie we'll be talking about eventually, but as Frank Bullitt I actually found him to be pretty bland (despite the great character name). Zero personality. Maybe this was on purpose, to emphasize that he's a guy who's always cool-headed in the face of danger, but ultimately it made his character very forgettable
• There's an interesting twist late in the movie, and the climax has some good action, but that's about all I have to say about this one! If it wasn't obvious, the car chase goes a long way towards me giving this as high a score as 7.5/10, so if you're intrigued, I say go ahead and just watch the car chase. Here it is:
• And lastly, if you do watch that video, you'll see Robert Duvall right at the beginning playing a cab driver, fairly early in his career. As of this writing, he passed away just a few weeks ago. Rest in peace, Mr. Duvall, and we'll be seeing you again eventually in a little movie called The Godfather

Up next: Hold on to your butts, everybody, because we're going to Jurassic Park

#37: CASABLANCA (1942)

THRILL SCALE 1-10

3.5

HAVE I SEEN IT BEFORE?

Yes, a couple of times at least

BEST SEQUENCE

A heart-stirring rendition of the French national anthem, "La Marseillaise"

BEST LINE

"Well always have Paris"

ROTTEN TOMATOES SCORE

99%

ROTTEN TOMATOES CRITICS CONSENSUS

"An undisputed masterpiece and perhaps Hollywood's quintessential statement on love and romance, Casablanca has only improved with age, boasting career-defining performances from Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman."

IMDB SYNOPSIS

"A cynical expatriate American cafe owner struggles to decide whether or not to help his former lover and her fugitive husband escape the Nazis in French Morocco."

DIRECTOR

Michael Curtiz

MAIN CAST

Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, Paul Henreid, Claude Rains, Conrad Veidt, Sydney Greenstreet, Peter Lorre

THOUGHTS

• As I've done before, I want to emphasize that I'm giving Casablanca a 3.5/10 based on thrills alone. It's really a terrific movie, tremendously entertaining and touching, and as a movie it's much better than 3.5/10. That's actually still pretty impressive as a thrill score, though, considering the movie is more focused on the romance, for the most part, and that's probably how most people remember it. A lot of tension is wrung out of the simple question of who will end up with whom in the end, and if you can think of a more exciting movie sequence that's based on duelling national anthems, I'd love to hear about it
• The performances are all wonderful, but especially Claude Rains as Captain Louis Renault, who's not quite a villain, but he's definitely not a hero. He does some terrible things in this movie, including collaborating with the Nazis and extorting women who are trying to escape to safety (and the movie is fairly artful in making it very obvious that this is what he's doing, while not making it explicit). Rains plays Louis with such a wry way about him that you still kind of like him in spite of it all, and it's a small touch, but I love the way he refers to Rick as Ricky throughout the movie
• My runner-up favourite moment is when Rick shows us he's a different kind of man than Louis, and purposefully allows a young couple to win enough money at roulette so that Louis can't extort them any further
• We're discussing the American Film Institute's 100 Thrills list, but it won't be surprising to hear that the AFI has many other lists, and it shouldn't be surprising to hear that Casablanca is high on many of them. As of the most recent update it's #3 on their list of the greatest movies ever, and it's #1 on their ranking of love stories in film. What I want to emphasize, however, is that Casablanca appears a whopping six times on their list of greatest movie quotes
• This is certainly one of the most quotable movies I've ever seen. The script is sharp and funny when appropriate, and emotionally stirring when it needs to be. It feels like every other scene has a line that we're still quoting today, and even the lines that haven't entered the lexicon are still snappy and clever. Another one of my favourite lines comes when Captain Renault orders an expensive bottle of champagne, and when his companion protests, Renault says, "Oh, please, monsieur. It is a little game we play. They put it on the bill, I tear up the bill. It is very convenient"
• Finally, here are the six lines that were singled out by the AFI as some of the most memorable movie quotes of all time:
• "Here's looking at you, kid"
• "Louis, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship"
• "Round up the usual suspects" (which, yes, inspired the name of the movie The Usual Suspects)
• "We'll always have Paris," my favourite line, because it conveys so much emotion and so much heartbreak and so much hope in just four words
• "Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world, she walks into mine"
• And before we go on, I want you to take a moment and think about the last famous line that is missing from this list. If you thought of "Play it again, Sam," well, you're wrong
• Because the line is actually, "Play it, Sam. Play 'As Time Goes By'." There are other variations on this line, but the words "Play it again" are never uttered in this movie. This is probably a fairly well known trivia fact at this point, but hey, if it's news to you, you learned something today!

Up next: A new one for me, it's Steve McQueen in Bullitt from 1968

BONUS REVIEW: FRIDAY THE 13TH: A NEW BEGINNING (1985)

THRILL SCALE 1-10

5

HAVE I SEEN IT BEFORE?

Yes, once, in July of 2018

BEST SEQUENCE

Sick dance moves, Violet!

BEST LINE

"You big dildo. Eat your fucking slop."

ROTTEN TOMATOES SCORE

15%

ROTTEN TOMATOES CRITICS CONSENSUS

None available for this one

IMDB SYNOPSIS

"Still haunted by his past, Tommy Jarvis, who, as a child, killed Jason Voorhees, is sent to a secluded halfway house in the countryside, where the killing of a young man triggers a brutal series of murders in the area."

DIRECTOR

Danny Steinmann

MAIN CAST

John Shepherd, Melanie Kinnaman, Shavar Ross, Richard Young

THOUGHTS

• This is not considered to be a top-tier Friday the 13th movie, but I have to admit, I had fun with it. There were some good kills and it was over the top in an entertaining way. However, we're at the point in this franchise where some good kills do not a thrilling movie make
• The vast majority of the characters in this movie will slip from my memory without a trace before the weekend is over. If I remember anyone at all it will just be because they were so cartoonishly exaggerated
• Several instances of characters singing some great made-up songs, though, which is kind of an oddly funny through line
• Best kill: Head crushed against a tree with a belt
• Runner-up: Road flare in mouth
• As is my wont, I watched this movie with friends, and here are some one-sentence reviews:
• Ashley P: "Not my Jason"
• Ashley H: "Underwhelmingly scary and overwhelmingly adventurous"
• Analisa: "Crap my ass!"
• And it's my duty to inform you that that is a direct quote from the movie itself, so that kind of tells you what we're working with here
• Won't be long until the next one! Our next Friday the 13th is exactly 28 days from today

#38: NOTORIOUS (1946)

THRILL SCALE 1-10

5.5

HAVE I SEEN IT BEFORE?

Never (although I have seen Mission: Impossible 2, which is apparently somewhat of a remake of Notorious)

BEST SEQUENCE

The moment when Alicia realizes how much danger she's in

BEST LINE

"Alex, will you come in, please? I wish to talk to you"

- Last line of the movie

ROTTEN TOMATOES SCORE

96%

ROTTEN TOMATOES CRITICS CONSENSUS

"Sublime direction from Hitchcock, and terrific central performances from Ingrid Bergman and Cary Grant make this a bona-fide classic worthy of a re-visit."

IMDB SYNOPSIS

"The daughter of a convicted German spy is asked by American agents to gather information on a ring of German scientists in South America. How far will she have to go to ingratiate herself with them?"

DIRECTOR

Alfred Hitchcock

MAIN CAST

Ingrid Bergman, Cary Grant, Claude Rains, Leopoldine Konstantin

THOUGHTS

• The filmmaking is great and the actors are excellent and yet, for whatever reason, this didn't fully grab me. I think this is likely another example of a movie whose groundbreaking qualities are less obviously groundbreaking when watching it today
• Hitchcock includes some very impressive shots, but they're impressive in kind of an unshowy way, to the point that I didn't immediately realize how impressive they were. This shot is a good example of that:
  
• I also didn't even realize that Ingrid Bergman's character, Alicia, was meant to have a distinctly "notorious" reputation as a woman who drinks and socializes with men. Watching her in this movie, I just saw her...drinking and socializing with men. It didn't really occur to me how differently she may have been viewed back in 1946
• I quite liked Claude Rains as the villain, especially the way that some might see him as pitiable despite being a Nazi. Claude Rains is tied with Harrison Ford for the most movies on this list at four apiece, but we haven't seen Rains since the very beginning: movie #100, The Adventures of Robin Hood (in which he was also very good)
• And that's about all I have to say about Notorious! Considered one of Hitchcock's best, but it's a movie that I gained a greater appreciation for while reading about it after watching it

Up next: We won't have to wait long to see Claude Rains again! Or Ingrid Bergman, for that matter. It's a movie that I think of as more romantic than thrilling, but we'll see how Casablanca stacks up