Mediocre Drama
This afternoon I went out and saw 42nd Street (1933). Boy, what an old film! I keep forgetting how different storytelling approaches were in movies back then, so much rawer and simpler than they are today. I think things basically changed in the 1960s, since films from the 30s, 40s and 50s always seem very similar to me in how they tell their stories. By contrast, Alfred Hitchcock's films always strike me as being ahead of their time, with more depth, complexity and tightness (well, for what they are, anyway).
42nd St. is about the effort to put together a show of "Pretty Lady" in the Depression, and it focuses exclusively on the director and a few of the cast members, and their personal lives and how they affect the rehearsals. It struck me as a film that must have been trying things in its day, since it's part musical, and part meta-drama examining how stage shows come together. The script is on the iffy side, since the sources of dramatic tension don't really deliver any payoff at the end.
The film features Ginger Rogers (in a small role) and a number of actors I've never heard of, all of whom strike me as basically being stock actors in the studio's employ: Acceptable, but never remarkable. Most of the effort seems to have gone into the sets, costumes, and musical performances (which are quite impressive). It's a light, rather feel-good film, and as such a pretty decent way to kill a couple of hours. Not ringing praise, I know.
Briefly, it involves a scientist who retrieves (steals) a globe that the alien Soul Hunters used to store the souls of an entire race just before their death. He brings it to the station, where the souls use him to try to exact revenge on the Soul Hunters, while the Hunters try to force B5 to return the globe to them.
And boy, has it got a ridiculous set of subplots: A "holobrothel" where clients can have virtual sex (and featuring a holographic image of Tracy Scoggins' Captain Lochley), a lawsuit by the brothel against the station when security tries to shut them down, a bizarre gift from Lt. Corwin to Lochley (basically a bit of one-off silliness), and another instance of aliens with transcendent powers threatening the station. (I could buy this in "Thirdspace", which I thought was a stylish and serious and tense movie - although I know many people disliked it - but twice in two movies? I don't think so.)
Thematically, the story didn't really explore the whole issue of souls and the concept of keeping them after the body's death in any more depth than the B5 episode "Soul Hunter" did, and although I thought Martin Sheen did an okay job as the Soul Hunter here, I thought the couple of guys in that original episode were even creepier. And the resolution to the whole story hinged on our heroes making yet another end run around the problem to solve it by finesse (the sort of thing that got real old in the first season).
I did enjoy the intriguing planetscapes in the opening sequence and in the flashbacks to the world the Hunters "saved", but when the special effects are the best part of a story, you know it's a dog. Give this one a miss, if you were thinking otherwise.
Well, in any event, back to work tomorrow. I'm feeling considerably better, but I must get to bed on time tonight and not start the week tired.
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