More Movies

Here are some movies I've watched recently.

The Trial of the Chicago Seven: When I was in college, I read the book The Tales of Hoffman based on transcripts of the actual trial. I loved the TV movie, Conspiracy: The Trial of the Chicago 8  (Bobby Seale was Number 8.) I also loved the latest film, The Trial of the Chicago 7. It was a circus of a trial, not because of the presence of Abbie Hoffman and Jerry Rubin. It was a farce from the beginning.

Repeat Performance: I hadn't seen this movie in years. I remembered the premise and the end (I'm cursed with remembering the ends of films but forgetting the middles.) The film begins with a woman shooting her husband off screen, and she wishes that she could live the year over. She gets her wish, but she is thwarted with every step she takes to avoid her husband's murder. 

The Witch: I've heard about this story and looked forward to watching it, but was disappointed. I thought it would be more about the fear of witchcraft than actual witchcraft. The acting was good, especially Anya Taylor-Joy as Thomasin. Thomasin's parents were portrayed by memorable actors from Game of Thrones. 

Racket Busters: In this 1938 Warner Brothers crime/social drama, Humphrey Bogart tries to corner the produce market, starting with the truckers. But George Brent, miscast as the leader of the truckers, foils him. The film includes some horrible police protection. Cops let one guy go back to his apartment alone where he is brutally beaten. Pop identifies the bad guys in a lineup right in front of them who threaten him. Soon someone pushes poor Pop in front of a subway train. 

San Quentin: Humphrey Bogart (in a 1937 Warner Brothers film) is arrested and sent to San Quentin. The new Captain of the Guard is Pat O'Brien who coincidentally saw his arrest after watching Humphrey's sister Ann Sheridan sing in a nightclub. In a key plot line, Humphrey learns that Pat is seeing his sister and that's why he's getting preferential treatment. He's convinced to break out to save his sister's honor. OK, the break out to save your sister's honor worked in Crime School, but the target was only a Dead End Kid. Here Humphrey is manipulated by Joseph Sawyer, his subordinate in The Petrified Forest and Barton MacLane as a guard who wants to discredit Pat O'Brien's prison reforms.