Point Blank (1967), John Boorman.

I'm just going to treat this post like I'm on tumblr, because whether having a conversation in a room dressed monochromatically or showing LA in all its gaudy, late-60s beauty, Point Blank is all about being gorgeous.

With a mise-en-scene oddly (and wrongly) reminiscent of a musical with the scene's chorus of grizzled seamen gathering 'round, Acker prances around the docks braless to attract her future husband Lee Marvin.  As one does.

Lee Marvin and his now depressed wife, who has taken up with the guy who stole his loot. 

Power office in green.  Desks look so much handsomer minus computers.

Dinner date at the burger joint.  

Lee Marvin and Angie Dickinson.  

Diner scene:  cut to bored teenage date.  She fascinates Lee Marvin, who ignores Angie to stare at this little moment of ennui.

 Carroll O'Connor, who injects fire into the last few scenes of Point Blank.  Sunglasses were so cool in the 60s and 70s.  Does he look 45 here?  He's 45 here.  

The Devil Doll (1936), Tod Browning.

Devil Doll robbing the banker's wife

What Mrs Doubtfire was missing: revenge killings with tiny, tiny shivs!  Lionel Barrymore plays an escaped prisoner who attempts to clear his name by harassing the men who had him imprisoned.  He does this by taking over a scientist's lab and notes on how to shrink people to 1/6th their size, then using his mind to control the otherwise insensible creatures.  Oh, and he's dressed like an old French woman!  Pretty kooky, but Tod Browning has the ability to string you along through the ridiculous.  I don't know what is creepier-- shrunken, immobile French prostitutes or Barrymore's wig sizzling in the fire!

Dressed to Kill (1980), Brian De Palma.

Oh, dear!  The festival of films Michael Caine did to make a mortgage payment continues.  Dressed to Kill is quite the steaming pile.  Where to start!  Well, the first scene features Angie Dickinson's body double in the shower, and then she goes on a ten minute quest for a missing glove in an art gallery.  They told Dennis Franz:  you're a crass caricature of an Italian-American cop -- run with it!  Rodney Dangerfield's son fron Back to School is channeling Harry Caul and the chubby faced female cop from Robocop is supposedly a sexy young hooker.  All I can conclude is:  I just wanna feel Michael Caine's monohair!   

Mark of the Vampire (1935), Tod Browning.

Check us out, likeable leads in jaw-droppingly gorgeous tweeds!

Clever and beautifully crafted, directed by Tod Browning with cinematography by James Wong Howe.  I think I have a crush on the little lady vampire!  Let's just enjoy some screenshots here.

Wonderful staging of a conversation between our heroine and her legal guardian:  dialogue necessary to move the plot along in the background, with butterball maid inspecting delicious vittles in the foreground.

We don't even see vampires until fifteen minutes in.  Their stately, slow walking is creepy enough to set us on edge - brilliant!  

Mad Love (1935), Karl Freund.

No, he is not chewing his way out of some kind of orthodontic contraption.  As you can tell from the snapshot above, Peter Lorre's American film debut thrust him into a lifelong situation where he was typed as a psychopathic creep!  Lorre's character, a gifted surgeon, is besotted with a stage actress whose most famous role seems to be rather torture-pornish.  When she confesses she finds him  disgusting (as does the audience, most likely), Lorre cracks up and one Dr Wong has to take over all his surgery responsibilities.  Is Lorre an early Quincy?  Why does a bald man need a cap when performing surgery?  I kid, I kid-- quite a beautifully filmed little chiller by Freund, who is better known for The Mummy (which I found dreadfully boring - this one is a little better).