Movies in 2026 157

 

The 39 Steps (Alfred Hitchcock, 1935)

Clearly, it was an eclectic film day in the cabin yesterday. Janet was out of town, and I had knocked off some work in the morning, so I gave myself away to a long movie marathon. I wanted to get the taste out of my mouth of Frankenheimer's dreadful 52 Pick-Up, so I finished the evening with a re-watch of Alfred Hitchcock's classic 1935 film The 39 Steps. I think that The 39 Steps is my favorite Hitchcock film, which is not to say that it's my choice for best Hitchcock film, but it's definitely the one that I will happily take every chance to watch. Robert Donat (as Richard Hannay) and Madeline Carroll (as Pamela, initiating the long Hitchcockian tradition of the icy blonde) give wonderful performances, including a fair bit of slapstick. Highly recommended.

Movies in 2026 156

 

52 Pick-Up (John Frankenheimer, 1986)

The Criterion Channel features an extraordinary amount of films that I love (obviously), but sometimes I can't imagine why they featured a certain movie. Sometimes, it's just part of an odd collection, and thus I find it sort of charming - at other times I'm mystified. Last night I watched John Frankenheimer's 52 Pick-Up, which definitely fell into the category of: What were you thinking, Criterion? Beyond nice performances from John Glover and Clarence Williams III as villains, this was just a dog. I'm assuming the category must have been: Wow, John Frankenheimer Was Truly Dreadful In The Second Half Of His Career. It's hard to believe that this was the same guy who directed Birdman of Alcatraz, The Manchurian Candidate, and Seven Days in May. Avoid at all costs.

Movies in 2026 155

 

The Thing From Another World (Christian Nyby, 1951)

And this is about as far removed from Blue Is the Warmest Color as you can imagine (and such is the cinematic life of the cabin): Christian Nyby's 1951 classic film The Thing From Another World.  I don't know how many times I've watched this film, but it never grows old. It's part of the current Criterion Channel featured collection on 1980s remakes, where they tie the original to the 80s version - as I mentioned previously, the later remakes are all pretty dreadful, with the notable exception of John Carpenter's reworking of this film (which I will doubtless watch again before it disappears). Over the years, people given Nyby little credit for directing this film, and instead proposing that was really Howard Hawks (who produced it) who did the directorial heavy lifting. On some level I think I believed that, mainly because I've just heard people say it so often (including Michael Weldon in his Psychotronic Guide to Film), but Nyby always kicked back against that notion - and, rightly so, found it insulting. Nyby had worked with Howard Hawks for years, serving as an editor on some of Hawks's classic films, and he proposed that of course his film would have felt like a Hawks's film because of the influence of his mentor. It's a good argument, and I think people haven't given Nyby enough credit for this effort. Anyway, highly recommended.

Movies in 2026 154

 

Blue Is the Warmest Color (Abdellatif Kechiche, 2013)

I actually own a copy of Abdellatif Kechiche's 2013 film Blue Is the Warmest Color, which means that I don't have to wait for the Criterion Channel to feature it in a collection. Of course, I own it because the Criterion Collection snared me with one of their great sales, which is why I'm going to have to find a way to get a ton of DVDs overseas (Janet is doing a much better job culling out books than I'm doing culling out DVDs). The film was controversial - not to the French, because, thank God, they're French - but to an American audience, and it swept the French film awards.  Adele Exarchopoulos (as Adele) and Lea Seydoux (as Emma) play two women locked in an intense love affair, and their performances are extraordinary. I think people got caught up in the lesbian love affair aspect of the story, and somehow overlooked the love affair side of the story. Anyone who has been in a passionate/intense/painful love affair will recognize the emotions, no matter the form that your partner took - and if you haven't experienced an affair as passionate/intense/painful as the one experienced by Adele and Emma then I pity you. Highly recommended.

Evil Twins

 When you see this formation - that is Cici and Mollie - sitting right next to each other on my lap in the morning that only means one thing: Janet had to go out of town for a couple days. Without their mother to follow around, I suddenly get lots of attention. Mollie usually follows me around, as she is the ultimate lap whore, but Cici is either hiding in the walls or keeping Janet company. With Janet missing, I'm suddenly a popular choice.

Happily, Janet will be back today, which means that the cats' long national nightmare will be at an end.

Movies in 2026 153

 

After the Curfew (Usmar Ismail, 1954)

Last night I watched Usmar Ismail's wonderful 1954 Indonesian film After the Curfew. There's a great collection associated with Martin Scorsese and his attempt to preserve classics of world cinema, which has led me to several great films. A.N. Alcaff plays Iskandar, a former freedom fighter against the Dutch who tries to return to a normal life after independence. He has a lovely fiancée, Norma (played by Netty Herawaty), but he's drawn instead to his ex-colleague Puja (Bambang Hermanto) and a prostitute, Laila (Dhalia).The entire film takes place in the space of one day, as he unsuccessfully tries to re-engage into a society that only seems to be interested in him as potential criminal muscle. Highly recommended.

Movies in 2026 152

 

The Black Cat (Edgar Ulmer, 1934) 

And here's another viewing after a space of way too many years: Edgar Ulmer's 1934 The Black Cat. This is a result of Janet and I going down an Edgar Ulmer rabbit hole the other night, although I'd hate to think how many times I watched this movie on Saturday night horror movie slots (I'm sure the Cool Ghoul played some role in my first viewing). The was the first of eight films that co-starred Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi, both fresh off of their star-making roles in Frankenstein and Dracula. Karloff (as Hjalmar Poelzig) and Lugosi (as Dr. Vitus Werdegast) as old enemies, who had both been in love with the same woman, who finally meet up to settle the score. There's a connecting story about a young married couple (David Manners and Jacqueline Wells as Mr. and Mrs. Allison, but nobody showed up at the theater to watch them). It's pre-Code, so it's a bit over the top and included scenes and themes that would have been unheard of a couple of years later. Required. "Supernatural, perhaps, Baloney, perhaps not."