Spellbound

Spellbound ~ This one is a failing for me in many areas of my film watching and commentary career.  First and foremost, I've never seen Spellbound.  I know, for shame, a Hitchcock flick I've never seen, especially with the reputation this one has, and that legendary dream sequence designed by the great Salvador Dali.  To make matters worse, I've also never seen Mel Brooks' High Anxiety, mostly because I wanted to see Spellbound first. 

Wait, did you catch that vibe? If you know your Hitch, you definitely did. The above is the original opening I wrote for this review two years back, when I thought Spellbound was Vertigo - yeah, I know, I'm an idiot. I was confused, thought this movie was Vertigo not Spellbound, and therefore multiplied my disappointment. I know now, Vertigo is brilliant, Spellbound not so much. Back to my original review…

Hopefully, seeing Spellbound in a big beautiful old fashioned movie palace like the Walt Disney Theatre on the TCM Classic Cruise will make up for the long wait in viewing this one.  Seriously, it's the only way to see any film, classic or not.  And as I settled in to watch on an early Wednesday morning on board, the theater was packed, and a live introduction by the late Robert Osborne didn't hurt either. 

The story revolves around psychoanalysis, which at the time was new, but now is a bit old hat, if now completely outdated. That's where my suspension of disbelief fails. I just didn't buy the premise, and while the story doesn't hold together, and the performances are less than stellar, I did respect the direction and cinematography. Hitch has mad skills even in his least work.

All that said, obviously I didn't really dig the flick.  I realize it's a product of its time, but the sexism and clinical aspects of psychotherapy really angered and simultaneously bored me.  Besides that, I also didn't think this was Ingrid Bergman at her best, and this very young Gregory Peck didn't seem to have his chops yet.  Bill Goodwin (best known from Burns and Allen) as the hotel detective was one of the few bright spots for me.  Things livened up when he was on screen. 

And then there was that dream sequence.  I would have dug more of that but producer David Zanuck cut it from twenty-two minutes to two with narrative.  Knowing that before seeing it, and also knowing the full cut wasn't included, was a bit of a letdown within a film that was already a bit of a letdown.

Perhaps someday I sit down and try to watch this one again, give it a second chance. I just couldn't really get into it, and if I couldn't get into it in the best of all circumstances to see such a film, I don't hold out for much hope. I guess I just didn't like it. Your mileage may vary.

Bridge of Spies

Bridge of Spies ~ The Bride and I got to see this one on one of our Disney Cruises a year or so back, a sneak preview the night we saw it, but I've been busy, haven't had time to post it, and quite frankly after a while forgot I had written it. Bridge of Spies is the story, based on true events, of the spy exchange of Rudolf Abel and Francis Gary Powers in 1960, as told from the point of view of James B. Donovan, the attorney who brokered the deal. At the height of the Cold War and during the building of the Berlin Wall, this was no easy trick.

There are good solid performances here, and there should definitely have been more Oscar wins for this one than just Supporting Actor for Mark Rylance's Abel. He was stunning, and Tom Hanks has matured some and gives us his best whimsical and serious at once.

I was surprised to see the Coen brothers as screenwriters, while most of the writing and dialogue is brilliant, there's a fair amount that is equally weak and sloppy. And that 'inspired by true events' tag, that always gets me. I am always suspect of that phrase. If you know your history, this may be boring and monotonous like Titanic or Apollo 13, because let's face it, you already know how it ends. There's no suspense, nevertheless Bridge of Spies a good movie.

An amusing side note, I could not sit through the first showing, so finished watching the flick at an early morning viewing. There were a handful of patrons, along with a grandfather and several grade school age boys. He was overheard saying to them before the film started that there might be some bad words in it and they shouldn't tell their parents.

Bridge of Spies had some bad language, mostly B words, and every time one popped up the boys would all chime "oooo" and count them. Soon everyone in the audience was counting and oooo-ing as well. It was a hoot. I wonder if they told their parents…

Thunderball

Thunderball ~ This is probably the second James Bond movie I ever saw, after Goldfinger, from back in the day when ABC would show Bond like every couple weeks on their movie of the week.  I remember thinking the ads the week preceding of Bond in a jet pack were pretty cool.  And Thunderball was the first Bond book I actually read (despite the librarian's disapproving frown), realizing that Ian Fleming's James Bond and his cinematic cousin were decisively two different people. 

Last year's TCM Classic Cruise showed a trio of early Bond films - this one, From Russia with Love, and one of my all-time favorites, Goldfinger - but rearranging schedules to see other events, dinner reservations, etc., made it impossible to see all three, even when they repeated them.  They just need to make the Cruise longer if (let's hope they do) they continue it.  I made it to Thunderball though, because priorities, you know.

This one, taking place partially in the Bahamas, seemed appropriate for a cruise traveling the Caribbean.  It is known as the film that sparked the legal dispute that fractured the franchise for decades, but it's also the biggest money maker, adjusting for inflation, and one of the best of the series. The humor is brief and sharp, this is mostly an action flick, but a fun action flick that is also deadly serious. I like it. This is Bond.

Thunderball, directed by Terrence Young, who also did Goldfinger, has James Bond uncovering a plot to steal atomic bombs and ransom them back to NATO.  The culprit?  Of course, it's SPECTRE.  Like I said, classic Bond, classic espionage.  Our villain this time out is Largo as played by Adolfo Celi (later dubbed), with Bond girl Domino played by Luciana Paluzzi. 

Sean Connery is, as always, on mark. Although I had to laugh, he runs through most of this film in bathing trunks the way the late Roger Moore sleepwalked through his last three or four in a tux.  M (Bernard Lee), Q (Desmond Llewelyn), and Moneypenny (Lois Maxwell) are perfect maintaining their roles, and we get one of my favorite and most fun Felix Leiters in Rip Van Nutter.  I also loved the sense of a Team Bond in this installment, that he has support, just like a CW superhero.

The problem, as with many Bond films, is the dated sexism.  Sometimes you can get past it by seeing it as a product of its times, and sometimes, as is often the case with Thunderball, it just makes one cringe.  It's just really bad in this one.

In this viewing, especially after seeing how underwater filming was done on 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea on this cruise a decade before, I really marveled at the underwater combat scenes in Thunderball.  It's shameful that the same scenes years later are done so badly in the pseudo-remake Never Say Never Again.  You'd think the technology would have improved.  I was also stunned that there was almost no dialogue during the final fight at the end of the film, odd, but well done. 

I have to say I enjoyed this one more as an adult than as a kid, and infinitely more on the big screen.  One of the best, just like the theme by the great Tom Jones.  Recommended.

Why Worry?

Why Worry? ~ The other Harold Lloyd film (other than The Kid Brother) I got to see while on the 2016 TCM Classic Cruise was Why Worry?, the 1923 follow-up to the classic, and perhaps his best known, Safety Last!.  For this, Lloyd wanted to do something different, so no climbing on buildings or crazy stunts. 

Still as his 'glasses character,' Harold Lloyd plays a hypochondriac who needs to get away to some peace and quiet, and visits the fictional South American country of Paradiso. He's accompanied by his nurse, played by Lloyd's third leading lady, Jobyna Ralston.  Paradiso however is on the brink of revolution and may not be very peaceful or quiet for long.

As the battle goes on around him, at first unknowingly and then as he tries to quell the revolution, we see various fun gags.  The best revolves around John Aasen (one of the tallest actors ever) and his toothache, which Lloyd cures, earning his loyalty.  Aasen, who was so much taller than Lloyd, and twice as tall as Jobyna, steals the movie. 

This is a fun silent romp, with new score by Robert Israel, which like The Kid Brother, shows a very different side of Harold Lloyd.  Recommended.

To Have and Have Not

To Have and Have Not ~ Okay, confession time, I've never seen this film until very recently, but I've owned it forever. When I first got a VCR (yeah, we're talking that long ago) I taped several movies from PBS that were perfectly uncut classics, this was one of them. I got a chance to watch most of them, but somehow never got around to To Have or Have Not. Later I even bought a proper VHS copy of the film, and never got around to that either, but on the most recent TCM Classic Cruise, I finally caught it on the TCM Stateroom Channel, a favorite chosen by guest programmer Raquel Welch of all people. But yeah, finally.

Set in World War II, post-fall of France St. Martinique, while we were ironically docked in St. Maarten, this classic brings Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall together in a tale of treachery and intrigue. Bogart does his usual American caught in the wrong place at the wrong time, and Bacall does her immortal line, You know how to whistle, don't you? Just put your lips together and blow." but there's so much else to this than that. This is where the couple's real spark and charisma sizzles, where the chemistry really heats up more than other vehicles with the two. They are gold together, on screen as much as in real life.

There are surprises, more action and violet sequences than is usual in these types of films, and it works well in the context of the day and today. Walter Brennan provides wonderful comic relief, but Hoagy Carmichael stands out to me as the best of the supporting characters, providing a terrific musical soundtrack as it happens - one of the better bits right after a shoot out in the club. Classic songs and talent, love it.

I also loved finding where Barbra Streisand calling Ryan O'Neal 'Steve' in one of my favorite movies, What's Up, Doc?, comes from. Equally fun is Bogie's equally unwanted nickname for Bacall, 'Slim.' Great stuff. This movie is a classic for a reason, and now, after far too many years, it's one of my favorites too. One of the best, see it now, don't wait like me.

Creature from the Black Lagoon in 3-D

Creature from the Black Lagoon ~ One of the most awesome things about doing the TCM Classic Cruise is the surprises that pop up when you get on board and finally see the schedule (often the movies being shown are kept secret until the last moment). One such surprise was the showing of Creature from the Black Lagoon, not just on the big screen, but in the original 3-D as it was originally shown.

The last of the Universal monsters, the Gill Man only appeared in three films, two of them in 3-D. This original was directed by Jack Arnold, an old pro at the time with 1950s 3-D after his It Came from Outer Space (not to mention 2-D scifi horror classics like Tarantula and The Incredible Shrinking Man), and he brought the legend of the South American lizard man to life to round out the Universal monsters with one of its most memorable members.

After finding fossils of a possible missing link, an expedition up the Amazon searches for the legendary Gill Man, and unfortunately he finds them. In the Black Lagoon, the Gill Man traps the team, picking them off one by one. It's good fun, with real scares, and the 3-D is rather impressive too. Not too much of the typical campy 'comin'-at-ya' stuff, but more like what's done today, adding depth etc. It's not perfect, but it's a lot better than I could have imagined.

There are flaws, but unintentionally funny ones so they're forgivable. Every time the Creature is on screen, except for one scene, his blaring sinister theme plays. It got to be so much fun that we wandered the ship afterward, putting out our hands like claws and going dum-dum-daaah. Also after a while the pissing contest between Richard Denning and Richard Carlson over Julia Adams becomes absolutely ridiculous. And let's not get into what goes on over the bandaged body of one poor victim.

The journey of the Rita down to the Black Lagoon to hunt the Gill Man, and his subsequent hunt for them is classic horror, and so much more fun in 3-D and on the big screen. See it like that if you get the chance, and if not, still see it, it rocks. Recommended.

Jerry Lewis Presents The Nutty Professor

The Nutty Professor ~ One of the highlights of this year's TCM Classic Cruise was special guest Jerry Lewis. He was only on board for the last few days of the cruise, having coming aboard in St. Maarten, and was only available for a few events. One of those was introducing his movie, which he wrote and directed, 1963's The Nutty Professor.

Before the film, which seeing it on the big screen alone was pleasure enough, Jerry, moderated by Illeana Douglas, answered questions from the audience - a near-full house at the palatial Walt Disney Theatre. For more than a half-hour, the star fielded questions and accolades about his career spanning eight decades. I have to be honest, Jerry did not look good, and was having a lot of trouble hearing. After the first few minutes however, Jerry seemed to get his groove on and sound like his old self. That said, I worry about the guy.

The first thing that struck me about The Nutty Professor was how gorgeous and vibrant the color was, then I realized I had never seen the movie in color. My era of watching silly Jerry Lewis flicks was apparently back in the days when my family only had black and white TV. How lucky to see it now, now only on the big screen, but also in color.


In a twist on the Jekyll and Hyde concept, Jerry plays Professor Julius Kelp, a super-nerd at a college where he's looking for ways to impress a female student he likes, played by the beautiful Stella Stevens. After a dalliance with exercise and fitness to build his muscles, Kelp turns to something he knows better than anything else - chemistry. Finally he comes up with a formula that may help, or it may turn him into a monster.

After a proper comedy rendition of the classic Jekyll/Hyde transformation, a monster does emerge - Buddy Love, a slick womanizing lounge lizard in the mold of the worst of the Rat Pack, who immediately puts the make on Stella. At the Purple Pit, the local hangout for the college kids, he makes a hit as the swingingest cat around, but always taking a powder before the formula wears off and he reverts to Kelp.

There are a lot of gags in between story points that are childish, but still hysterically funny, just to show that Lewis does know funny for the ages. The movie is a lot of fun, and holds up today as much as it did when I was a kid, only slowing down at the end when Jerry gives the speech about being yourself in a puddle of awkward silence. Everyone in the cast is fantastic, and look for a very young but obvious Arte Johnson among the students. Recommended, a hoot.

The Dark Corner

The Dark Corner ~ I remember seeing this when I was a little kid, and of course then the whole novelty of seeing it was to simply see a movie with Lucille Ball. I grew up on Lucy as most of America did. I fondly remember afternoon reruns of "I Love Lucy," morning reruns of "The Lucy Show," and "Here's Lucy" running in prime time on CBS concurrently. She was a television fixture, so seeing this black and white detective flick on UHF was a treat of a different flavor.

Years later when I saw that this was running on board the Disney Fantasy in the Buena Vista Theatre as part of the 2016 TCM Classic Cruise, I had to check it out. The film was introduced by Eddie Muller, the czar of noir, and Lucie Arnaz, the daughter of Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz - and really if I had to tell you that last part, shame on you, and I know how old you are. Either way, I bet you never knew Lucy made a film noir.

Made in 1946, this taut thriller gave the impression that it was time to poke a bit of fun at the genre. The Dark Corner has a few film noir clichés that it turns on its head and laughs at. Add Lucy to the mix, even though she's the polar opposite of her comedienne character, and there's a lot of fun here. Sadly, she didn't have a lot of fun on set. She was on loan to Fox from MGM as punishment for trying to get out of her contract, and director Henry Hathaway hated her and thought she had no talent, and felt he was being punished by being saddled with her. So this was not a good experience for Lucy, but after hearing what Hathaway thought of her, she was determined to give her finest performance. Not only does she, hell, Lucy steals the movie.

Add in the possible fire between her and male lead Mark Stevens, the only man of whom Desi Arnaz was ever jealous, if that puts this potential onscreen romance in perspective, that makes this flick quite a footnote in Lucy's career. This story of a shady private investigator set up for murder, and his resourceful secretary who helps him out is classic noir, set apart by Stevens' wisecracks and Lucy's fast talking chutzpah, but rooted with Clifton Webb's evil baddie. Check this one out, it's well worth it, and you'll see Lucy through cool new eyes. Recommended.

Strait-Jacket

Strait-Jacket ~ Like Santa Claus, this is one of those films that a fellow manager at my old video store used to run all the time, sometimes as punishment, sometimes for his own amusement. Just as Mommy Dearest was a video store favorite, and we knew all the lines (and some callbacks) just as well as some of us knew The Rocky Horror Picture Show, we also knew the real Joan Crawford films as well, and when I say 'real,' I mean real bad. And bad ranges from the unwatchable Trog to the height of mad horror What Ever Happened to Baby Jane, which is nearly as fun as the aforementioned Rocky.

Here in 1964's Strait-Jacket, directed by William Castle, Joan is just home from the asylum after serving twenty years time for taking an axe to her cheating husband. Now living with her daughter, played by Diane Baker, who introduced the film on the TCM Classic Cruise, when bodies start to pile up, guess who gets the blame? Crawford demanded that Baker play her daughter after the time they had together on The Best of Everything in 1959.

William Castle tackles this tight Robert Bloch story with apt terror and camp, with Joan Crawford dressing up like Mildred Pierce and trying to be a half-her-age seductress. It's fun and scary, with a wonderful plot that fits perfectly and shocks first time viewers. One can see Crawford's control freak hands on many parts of this film. In particular, I loved the big Pepsi advertisement on the table in one scene, a company she owned at the time.

Diane Baker is marvelous, a young George Kennedy is good too, and an even younger Lee Majors as Crawford's cheating husband disavows that he was ever in this movie, which just makes it even more priceless. I loved this, no longer a punishment, but a joy. As always, it is so fun to see these films, even these camp classics, up on the big screen, especially in a palatial theater like on board the Disney Fantasy.

Pete's Dragon 2016

Pete's Dragon ~ We were lucky enough to be on board the Disney Fantasy when this remake of the 1977 Disney classic premiered so we got to see it in the Walt Disney Theater. No matter what the film is, there's really nothing like seeing one in one of those grand old-fashioned theaters of yesteryear.

Whereas the original was a musical lark made for the younger kids, this version is a bit more serious. This non-musical family drama has a boy raised in the woods coming to civilization after several years, and the green-furred dragon who was his guardian and companion while he was away. There is also an ecological subtext here as well but Disney doesn't press it too hard.

Bryce Dallas Howard, and Karl Urban as the not-so-bad guy, are good, and Robert Redford is fun as the old storyteller patriarch. Elliot the dragon is wonderfully rendered, with the scenery and the visuals the real stars here. That said, I'm not sure I would liked this one as much had I seen it on the small screen. It's a theater movie.

The 2016 version of Pete's Dragon is not just better than the original movie, it's a completely different movie, so really, there isn't a comparison. It's fun, definitely check it out, good for the whole family.

Terminator Genisys

Terminator Genisys ~ There's a joke we have frequently when I run superhero role-playing games, because it's a storytelling device I use so often, and that's "Time travel makes my head hurt." The line is even spoken in this film. That's pretty much the phrase that best describes Terminator Genisys, because its continuity exists in a reality where things have been so messed up by repeated time travel that no one can keep the 'real' reality straight any longer.

We've got at least four movies and a short-lived TV series full of continuity that has been changed and reset more times than a videogame. Play. Reset. Play. Over and over again so that much of what you know is different every time you hit the reset button. Add to that the concept of alternate timelines, alternate pasts, and alternate futures, it just gets worse. For all those "Doctor Who" fans out there quoting David Tennant's 'timey-wimey' monologue, you get the picture.

Kyle Reese and Sarah Connor are still trying to destroy Skynet to prevent the machines from killing the human race, and a variety of Terminators are out to get them. That's all still true, it's the rules and variables that are different, and of course it's been updated. There are surprises, young Arnold, old Arnold, Lee Byung-hun as a T-1000, and... well, that would be telling. But then again, that's one of the big problems with this flick, all the big surprises were given away in the trailers.

Like earlier Terminator films, it's action propelled, thrills as heroes race against time, and stunts and special effects galore. Arnold Schwarzenegger is perfect, former Doctor Who Matt Smith (billed as Matthew Smith) rocked, and JK Simmons is fun in his much-too-small role. All are good except for the real lynchpin of the flick - Emilia Clarke, the Kalissi from "Game of Thrones," as Sarah Connor, is worse than bad, she's completely unbelievable. HBO has her right, the less dialogue, the better the performance.

I really could have done without the 'lesson' that technology is bad for us, and that being plugged in and online is a bad thing. Perhaps that is another reason this flick did not do as well as it could have - the anti-internet message of the Genisys application. Bad idea, folks, don't alienate the young demographic, don't bite the hand that feeds...

Here's the bottom line. I saw this flick for free on the TV loop in my stateroom of a recent cruise. It was enjoyable for free to watch as I pleased or not. If I'd had to pay for it, I think I might have been mad. See at your own risk.

The Raven

The Raven ~ Vincent Price was my gateway drug to Edgar Allan Poe. I remember in tenth grade, Mr. Tomasello apparently didn't like teaching English all that much and we had movie days pretty often. Perhaps it had to do with him being in charge of the A/V department or perhaps he just needed naps, but we had movie days a lot. Trust me, no one minded, and sometimes we really dug what was shown. Case in point, Price and Poe.

Vincent Price did these terrific, dramatic, and scary readings of Poe stories. The movies were just him, a dark background, and the mad words of Poe. The most dynamic was "The Tell-Tale Heart" and I'm pretty sure there was also "The Cask of Amontillado," and a third lost to the ages, perhaps it was even "The Raven." No matter my memory, I loved it, that I do remember.

That said, I've never been much of a fan of the Hammer horrors, at least not the remakes of Universal monsters, but the Poe stuff is so much fun. Seeing The Raven with Roger Corman on the TCM Classic Cruise would be the first time I'd seen it since a long lost Saturday afternoon horror feature decades before. I couldn't wait.

Robert Osborne interviewed Roger for a few minutes before the showing of the film. They talked of the difficulties of dealing with Peter Lorre who winged it as an actor and constantly ad-libbed and Boris Karloff who was always on script. As far as the rest of the cast, it included an extraordinarily young Jack Nicholson and Vincent Price, who, to paraphrase Corman, could do anything. The director got everyone to a happy medium.

The decision, after a few serious horror adaptations of Poe to do a comedy horror like The Raven. Corman felt he'd played all the horror out of Poe, and went in another direction. Based on the middle tale of Tales of Terror, also comedic, he felt it would work. They also talked about The Terror, which was created and filmed in just a matter of days because Corman still had time with the sets of The Raven. Oh, that Corman ingenuity!

The Raven begins and ends with that amazing Vincent Price recital of "The Raven" but the story has bits from the poem, mixed in with a tale rival sorcerers, culminating in a magic duel that, while long, puts similar magician's duels - like in Disney's The Sword in the Stone - to shame. The mad limited special effects are marvelous. Richard Matheson provided the script under Corman's direction. This was a lot of fun. Now I want to go back and watch all the other Corman/Poe flicks!

TCM Classic Cruise 2015

Folks who know me know that The Bride and I love the Disney Cruise Line. We've talked about it countless times on The Make Mine Magic Podcast, and are now platinum cruisers, with all sorts of bonuses and privileges. We love it. So last year when TCM announced they were having their Classic Cruise on the Disney Cruise Line, I jumped at the chance to combine two of my big loves - three if you count The Bride.

Of course we signed up again this year as soon as possible, and even though scheduling difficulties had us on two Disney cruises in the space of two weeks this past month, we decided it was something that just had to be done. ;-) Oh, the agony... just kidding it was pure heaven.

As we learned the hard way last year, you just can't do everything, sacrifices must be made as many events are scheduled opposite each other, and you gotta sleep sometime. Things that were missed this year were an interview with TCM host Robert Osborne, one of Alex Trebek's trivia events, and sadly, seeing Rio Bravo with guest Angie Dickinson. And yes, I can hear Derrick Ferguson screaming at me through the internet about that last one...

However I did get to see an interview with Roger Corman, as well as see the man introduce both The Raven and X - The Man with the X-Ray Eyes. I also saw The Razor's Edge (1946) with Robert Osborne and Alex Trebek (one of their favorite films), and presentations on Vaudeville and Aloha Wanderwell Baker, and Roger Corman. I also got to see interviews with Lou Gossett Jr., Eva Marie Saint, Ruta Lee, Ben Mankiewicz, Illeana Douglas, and Angie Dickinson.

I also got to see some amazing classic films on the big screen for the first time including In a Lonely Place, Night of the Hunter, Cape Fear, Spellbound, and The Mark of Zorro from 1940. There was also the terrific music of the Hot Sardines, the special TCM Anything Goes party night with 1930s cosplay and fireworks, and Illeana Douglas' "The Living Room Show" live on stage. All that, and so many good times with friends old and new. We're all looking forward to next year.

Keep an eye out here at Welcome to Hell and in upcoming episodes of The Make Mine Magic Podcast for more from the cruise.

Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde (1920)

Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde ~ We saw this on last year's TCM Classic Cruise, which of course is the way to see any movie, in the company of passionate like-minded individuals, introduced by industry professionals, and in this case - of a classic silent film - accompanied by a live orchestra.

The Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra is no stranger to this kind of stuff as their name might imply. They've produced soundtracks, and performed live similarly, for The General (I even bought the DVD with their score while on board), The Mark of Zorro, and one of my favorites, as well as one of the first, movie serials - Les Vampires.

The Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra compiles and performs the film music, called 'photoplay music' in the lost vernacular, just as it was done back in the day. Silent films never had official soundtracks as we know today. Each theater had a house band that had a repertoire of various types of music appropriate to each scene. Mont Alto continues the tradition.

I can't tell you all what an amazing experience it was to arrive early for the showing in the Walt Disney Theatre to get a good seat and see and hear them performing. Wonderful to both see and hear them before they recessed below the stage so the film could be seen. The music played came from an assortment of composers like Gabriel Marie, Gaston Borch, and Wilson Smith.

The music was seamless. The Bride noted at times she had forgotten there was a live orchestra performing because the film and the score interacting in concert was so involving. Of course the music merely set the background for perhaps one of the most thrilling and frightening of the silent horrors - Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde from 1920.

New York passes well for Victorian London, but then again, it had to. Shot around John Barrymore's schedule to accommodate his title role as Richard III and you can see the character in both his Jekyll and Hyde, as well as a hearty dose of overacting. The work schedule must have been crazy, wearing pounds of armor on stage every night and then filming this flick during the day with so much strenuous physical acting.

His transformations are wonderful and his Hyde with the scarily long fingers and his simian Yeti-like head is terrifying. Notably, each transformation was designed to make Hyde appear more dominant and monstrous, but that first transformation was all Barrymore - no make up, just him. Bad girl Nita Naldi is hotness embodied, for me at least, and good girl Martha Mansfield is suitably porcelain and unspoiled, for the moment at least.

It's not just that this is the 1920 silent version of the story, or that it's John Barrymore giving one of his greatest performances, this one showing on the TCM Classic Cruise on board the Disney Magic was special for another reason - its score was being performed by a live orchestra. This was not just a classic film, this was a once in a lifetime experience.