On Boxing Day 2022, aka 26 December aka St Stephen's Day, I watched a quartet of movies that were dramatically diverse even by my standards of eclectic film viewing! So here are my thoughts about them.
THE CURSE OF THE WEREWOLF
The first in my quartet of Boxing Day movie watches was a British horror classic. Directed by Terence Fisher, based upon a Guy Endore novel entitled The Werewolf of Paris (not to be confused with a later werewolf movie bearing that title) but set in Madrid, Spain, produced by Hammer Film Productions, and released in 1961 by Universal-International, The Curse of the Werewolf provided a young Oliver Reed with his first lead role, as said lycanthrope, Leon Corledo.
I'd only ever seen this movie once before, as a youngster, when it was shown on TV here in the UK during the early 1970s, scaring me witless and [insert word rhyming with witless...]. So I always planned to watch it again sometime, and preferably in colour (this was apparently the very first full-colour werewolf-themed movie – and Hammer's only werewolf movie, surprisingly enough – but we had just a b/w TV when I originally saw it), and I recently located a DVD of it.
The story 0f how Ollie's reluctant shape-shifter Corledo strives desperately to suppress his bestial other self via the all-conquering power of true love but is doomed to damnation plays a little fast and loose with werewolf folklore, though it does showcase an interesting but nowadays largely-overlooked aspect, whereby anyone born on Christmas Day is deemed to be committing blasphemy by competing with the birth of Jesus Christ and is therefore cursed to be a werewolf. Frustratingly, viewers have to wait until almost the end of the movie before we finally see Ollie as his full furry lupine alter ego, but it was worth the wait, because for 1961 the make-up was impressive, even though we never actually see a direct on-screen transformation like we do in subsequent werewolf classics such as The Howling, The Company of Wolves, etc etc. Instead, it's the 'looks away as a human, looks back again as a wolf' variety. Very enjoyable, nonetheless, but not remotely frightening – how our perceptions change over time.
British viewers may spot cameos from the likes of Michael Ripper (who seemed to be in every Hammer movie!), Warren 'Alf Garnett' Mitchell, Peter Sallis (from Last of the Summer Wine and also Nick Park's Wallace and Gromit animated series), and Desmond Llewelyn (subsequently Q from the James Bond film franchise). Click here to view an official trailer for The Curse of the Werewolf on YouTube.
THE MITCHELLS VS THE MACHINES
Don't you just love truly trivial trivia? Here's an excellent example – the pattern on the socks of this movie's lead character Katie is the same as on the carpet at the Overlook Hotel in the classic 1980 horror movie The Shining. Anyway, back to this present one. Directed and co-written by Mike Rianda, and released by Netflix in 2021, The Mitchells Vs The Machines (but originally entitled Connected, btw) is a truly madcap, zany, yet thoroughly action-packed and entirely entertaining animated feature from Sony Pictures Animation and bought up by Netflix.
In it, America's most dysfunctional family, the Mitchells from Michigan, are taking teenage daughter Katie (voiced by Abbi Jacobson) to her California-based film school via a long cross-country road trip when they unexpectedly find themselves taking on a mass attack from rogue robots instead, which were originally created to serve as AI assistants but are now seeking world domination and total human subjugation.
Along the way, between all the battling, and apropos the impending robotic apocalypse, the Mitchells learn lessons in restraint, compromise, and family love & loyalty – themes not so much sprinkled surreptitiously through the plot as laid on thick and heavy with a very sizeable trowel! Nevertheless, The Mitchells Vs The Machines is a delight to watch, but with so much happening all the while, try not to blink or you'll miss at least three different subplots!
Nominated for an Academy Award as Best Animated Feature in 2022 (it lost to Disney's Encanto, but went on to scoop many other notable movie awards), this exceedingly animated animation movie includes a number of famous names voicing various of its characters, such as Danny McBride as father Rick Mitchell, Olivia Colman as the AI robots' egomaniacal leader PAL, singer John Legend as the Mitchells' neighbour Jim Posey, and its very own director Mike Rianda as the Mitchells' young son Aaron. Click here to view an official trailer for The Mitchells Vs The Machines on YouTube.
LYLE, LYLE, CROCODILE
Boxing Day movie #3 was the recent fantasy musical movie Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile. Directed by Will Speck and Josh Gordon, and released in 2022 by Sony Pictures, this delightful feel-good film is all about the adventures and misadventures of a singing (and dancing!) crocodile named Kyle, who after being abandoned by his original owner, struggling stage magician Hector P. Valenti (Javier Bardem), befriends a lonely, chronically anxious boy Josh Primm and his NYC family. Although he amazes and delights the Primms with his unique musical talent (just as he did with Valenti), Lyle is unable to show it off in public and become a star because tragically he suffers from crippling stage-fright.
Only in the privacy of the Primms' home can he shine, but even there his days of duetting with his adoptive human family seem numbered, thanks to the mean machinations of their obnoxious, obtrusive neighbor, the aptly-named Alistair Grumps, who firmly believes that Lyle's place is in a zoo, and intends to ensure that this is precisely where he is going to be placed, asap! But can the ever-loyal Primms prevail and a reappearing, prevaricating Valenti finally come good against the devious plans of grim Grumps?
All of the above, and so much more, is revealed as this magical movie's fantastical but often poignant plot unfurls, punctuated throughout by a foot-tapping recital of catchy songs, some old, some new, but all sung with winning panache by the very sweet, loveable Lyle – whose singing voice is supplied by none other than Canadian pop superstar Shawn Mendes. As for Lyle himself (who never actually speaks, he only sings) – he is an absolute marvel of CGI, both in bipedal and in quadrupedal mode. If Superman makes you believe a man can fly, then Lyle will convince you a crocodile can sing (and dance, don't forget)!
Based upon a couple of 1960s children's books by Bernard Waber (original illustrations from them are subtly incorporated as framed pictures on the stairway wall of the Primms' home in this movie), Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile is a thoroughly charming, heart-warming film, and was without doubt one of my Christmas 2022 movie-watch highlights. Click here to view an official trailer for Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile on YouTube, and click here to view the scene featuring Shawn Mendes (as Lyle) singing this movie's major new song, 'Top of the World'.
WILD IN THE STREETS
Conversely, "a thoroughly charming, heart-warming film" is certainly not a description that can be readily applied to my fourth and final Boxing Day movie choice, mesmerising though it was. Directed by Barry Shear, and released in 1968 by American International Pictures, Wild In The Streets is a fantasy/rebel cult movie inspired by a Robert Thom short story entitled 'The Day It All Happened, Baby!'.
It stars Christopher Jones (after folk singer Phil Ochs turned down the part) as disaffected but Svengali-like 22-year-old multi-millionaire US pop/rock singer Max Frost, who rallies his millions of fans nationwide into supporting him in his bid to coerce American politicians into reducing the voting age to 14. Eventually he succeeds, and after his minions lace the water supplies of Washington DC to sabotage the actions of older politicians, he is then voted into power as President.
Ruthlessly capitalizing upon this epochal event in American history, Frost swiftly instigates the establishment of concentration-camp-like detention centres all over the US where every American citizen aged 35 or over is transported and confined there for the rest of their lives, drugged to the hilt on LSD. All very deranged and dystopian, a counterculture confection that may not be to everyone's taste, but it makes compelling viewing nonetheless, with Shelley Winters in particular giving an eerie but potent tour de force performance as Frost's unhinged mother. Also worthy of note is a young Richard Pryor playing Stanley X, the drummer in Frost's band, The Troopers.
Shot in just 15 days, Wild In The Streets is a strange and unsettling but well-sustained movie, never losing pace or palling in interest throughout its 97-min running time. Click here to view an official trailer for Wild In The Streets on YouTube, and here for the official video of the song 'The Shape of Things to Come' as performed by Max Frost and the Troopers in the movie, but by session singers in reality and also released as a single that reached #22 in the US singles charts.
To view a complete chronological listing of all of my Shuker In MovieLand blog's other film reviews and articles (each one instantly accessible via a direct clickable link), please click HERE, and please click HERE to view a complete fully-clickable alphabetical listing of them.
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