STRAY DOG (1949)

Inspired by a true event, Jules Dassin's THE NAKED CITY and the writings of Georges Simenon (and maybe even De Sica's BICYCLE THIEVES), STRAY DOG is the story of a rookie homicide detective (Toshiro Mifune) who's gun is pickpocketed one hot summer day on a crowded bus.  He almost immediately realizes what happen and chases the criminal, but the man gets away.  Mifune becomes obsessed with getting his gun back and then riddled with guilt when the gun is used in random crimes.  Mifune's boss teams him up with veteran detective Takashi Shimura to locate the gun and stop the rabid dog that is using it in a one-man crime spree.

STRAY DOG is an interesting film.  It's pretty cool seeing Kurosawa's take on the police procedural film noir genre (my favorite is still T-MEN), but STRAY DOG is simply too long (the black market montage and the interview scenes towards the end should have been trimmed down) and the script is clumsy at times.  Most notably...the borrowed gun moment was totally unneeded.  That said, it's still a good film that's definitely worth a viewing.  Good acting, fair script, nice cinematography, runtime that's probably around 20 minutes too long, a young Isao Kimura.  Also, this is the first of nine writing collaborations between Akira Kurosawa and Ryuzo Kikushima.  Eleven, if you count TORA! TORA! TORA! and RUNAWAY TRAIN.

FRENCH QUARTER (1978)

A poor country girl heads to New Orleans.  Lost and penniless in the big city, she takes up a job as a stripper, but then when she drinks some tea given to her by a voodoo woman she falls asleep and wakes up/dreams that she's actually a prostitute living in 19th century New Orleans.

In the right hands that lame story idea could be turned into something entertaining, but unfortunately, instead of simply making it a light sex comedy the filmmakers for some reason decided to make FRENCH QUARTER a mostly serious film about a dim-witted chick involved with sex slave trafficking.  The next poor decision they made was filming the entire "back in time" section (the majority of the movie) with what looks to be Vaseline smeared on the edges of the camera lens.  I'm assuming this is to give it some kind of dreamy feel and that would've been okay for a few seconds but 75 minutes is just ridiculous.

The acting was alright (I have absolutely no idea how Virginia Mayo got involved with this mess), but like I said...this should have been a comedy instead of a serious film.  I'm sure there are people out there who like this movie, but I found the whole thing to be very slow and ultimately pointless.  Skip it. 

There was some lackluster nudity if anybody cares.

A HOLE IN THE HEAD (1959)

In what universe was this film even set?!  Full-time loser Frank Sinatra runs a hotel in Miami Beach that somehow doesn't make any money.  He hasn't paid his rent in over 5 months or even paid his employees in 5 weeks(!!!), but instead of trying to get some cash together he's out partying like it's 1999.  A closet full of "$200 suits", dancing at clubs, driving around drunk in his shiny Cadillac convertible with a sloshed beatnik bimbo in his lap.  Oh yeah, he also has an 11-year-old son that seems to pretty much raise himself.  The film opens with Frank finishing up a long night of partying, he comes in at 4 a.m. to find his kid holding an eviction notice.  So what does he do?  Nothing.  Just goes crying to his older brother, Edward G. Robinson, about needing some money.  After a short eternity of pointless talking, Robinson finally agrees to give him some dough if Frank will agree to marry sexy and sweet Eleanor Parker and run a department store that Robinson owns!!!  The story just goes on and on like this until the inevitable happy ending.  It's terrible.

Fantastic cast (except for that annoying little kid), talented director, costume design by Edith Head, nice photography...I was really hoping to like this movie, but holy fook that story was horrendous!!!  It seemed like every single decision that Sinatra made was bad.  How did so many talented people sign up for this hokum?

Negatives aside, I did enjoy watching Edward G. Robinson and Thelma Ritter.  The Miami locations were cool too.  I was also interested in Carolyn Jones' beatnik character with her blue nail polish, bongos and free spirit.  Kinda unique for a mainstream movie from 1959.