Being Sick...

Being sick affords one the unique opportunity of watching more films in a day than he would normally be able to see in a week. With my lovely respiratory flu came the chance to view a few treasures from Turner Classic Movies:

The Sea Hawk (1924) - One of the best silent films I've seen. After being framed for murder by his brother and sold into slavery to Spaniards, a British society man renounces the cruelty he sees in Christianity and becomes a Muslim bent on revenge. Though the film is light on moralizing, the story arc does suggest that the anger toward Christianity because of the hypocrisy of the slave-driving Spanish is not easily cured in by the solace of another religion. The main character's adoption of Islam finds him in equally duplicitous hands and engaging in his own shameful deeds. There is no religious reconciliation in the end, but romantically things work out just fine. Lead actor Milton Sills should really be remembered more readily.

The Irish in Us (1935) - All of the Irish stereotypes get mashed into one film: James Cagney, Pat O'Brien and Mike McHugh are brothers doted on by their loving ma. Include boozing, boxing, occupations in the police and fire departments, loud arguments and family brawling and you've got a movie that embodies everything America in 1935 knew about the Irish... thanks in no small part to movies like this. Still, the character performances and a young Olivia de Havilland make this film hard to dislike.

Terror on a Train (1953) - Glenn Ford is the best, especially when his nag of a wife leaves him, convincing him that diffusing a train full of rigged explosives is the best thing to do with his washed up life. Makes Jack Bauer look unnecessary and Harrison Ford look tired.

The File on Thelma Jordon (1950) - I actually watched this pre-illness, but it was this week. Barbara Stanwyck proves herself the greatest femme fatale ever to grace the screen. Pasty Wendell Corey gets tangled in her web, leaving the working family man an emasculated shell. Double Indemnity certainly comes to mind, but veteran noir director Siodmak errs by letting both of his characters off too easily; something Billy Wilder never had the heart to do.