Movie Night
Friday night’s movie fix courtesy of Netflix was a winner. Elizabeth Moss is put through the paces in The Invisible Man (2020). It’s the story of a woman who escapes an abusive genius husband and then learns he has committed suicide and she has inherited his estate. Soon she is spooked by strange occurrences. Is he still alive or is she mentally ill? I will not play the spoiler. There are several questionable instances, plot flaws, but overall it is, after a slow start, a fun ride. A sequence in a psych ward is outstanding. I was unfamiliar with anyone else in the cast, despite the substantial credits of the major principles. All acquitted themselves well, but the show was Moss’. The film was written and directed by Leigh Whannel, his third stint at the helm of a full length feature. He wrote the screenplays for the Saw and Insidious series, as well as many other projects. He also has 34 credits as an actor. I look forward to his future directorial efforts. The flick was a big success at the box office, returning $130 million-plus on a budget of $7 million. That should guarantee him a lot more work. 150,000+ users at IMDb have rated The Invisible Man, forging to a consensus of 7.1 on a scale of ten. On a scale of five, I’ll go with 3.75. There is violence and profanity, but neither element is over the top. The effects, of course, are first rate in this age of CGI.
Afterward, I tuned in to Ride Beyond Vengeance (1966), a western airing on Movies!, channel 5–2 on OTA’s in NYC. It stars Chuck Connors and a host of Hollywood stalwarts: Claude Akins, Bill Bixby, Paul Fix, Michael Rennie, Gloria Grahame, Joan Blondell, Gary Merrill and Jamie Farr (not in drag). It was directed by Bernard McEveety, who was at the helm of scores of prime time fare, including Combat! and Gunsmoke. It was adapted from a novel by Al Dewlen by Andrew J. Fenady, who created The Rebel TV series and produced Branded, which starred Connors. The female lead is played by the lovely Kathryn Hays, who Trekkies will remember as Gem, The Empath, season three, episode twelve. She has 46 titles listed under her name, including an amazing 1655 run on As the World Turns, for which she received an Emmy nomination. Born in 1933 as Kay Piper, she is still with us. Among her three marriages was one to Glenn Ford, which lasted only three years. He was 17 years older than her.
Yesterday I wondered if the resurgence of Corona was finally starting to affect the floating book shop. Today that thought was vanquished, as folks ponied up for titles on a wide range of topics: Jazz, Sushi, spirituality, dinosaurs, kids books, Su Do Ku and Greek mythology. Among the books that sold: Malice by Danielle Steel, Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert, Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson and Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal by Eric Schlosser. My thanks to the buyers, and to whoever downloaded Class of ’67 at Amazon.
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