2020-05-19 08:46
Once again worked too much yesterday with too many things to do coming from too many directions (not to mention all the pure garbage like dealing with spam, a neverending source of frustration).
The Criterion Channel has a few early Douglas Sirk movies up, from before he more famous melodramas like Magnificent Obsession or Written on the Wind. We watched Shockproof last night, with a script by Samuel Fuller, who I have heard of, but I guess only know as the writer/director on Pickup on South Street (which I do like). It's described as a thriller, though it is much more a melodramatic love story with a really buried crime element. None of the leads are very good, and the plot is at times nonsensical or just underexplained. Some really nice framing and lighting/shadows in the earlier parts. The ending was the most cursory, tacked on, happy ending I can ever remember seeing. Clearly Sirk's movies improved a lot in the subsequent years.