October's Best & Best?

 October’s Best & Best?

Hello and welcome to Cinema Wellman. I am your host David, and October is over, which means Halloween is over so you can stop hiding in the basement to avoid the candy beggars.

If you follow us on Instagram, you may have seen that there were nine Cinema Wellman Vault screenings in October, and, of course, all of them were horror. 

We did find the time to screen 46 new films in October, and we have a handful of them to talk about. 

Who knows, you may hear about something you like and check it out for yourself, which is one of the reasons we do this.

And we have yet another BOMB-FREE month!

Not sure what that’s all about, but I may have to tank a couple next month and purposely look for something to gripe about.

Until then, let’s see what caught our eye in October.

Starting with a short that made me think of my time at Sacred Heart School in Newburgh, NY.

Duck and Cover (1952)

NR/9 m/IMDb: 6.0/directed by Anthony Rizzo

    IMDb: “Instructional short aimed at school-aged children of the early 1950s that combines animation and live-action footage with voice-over narration to explain what to do to increase their chances of surviving the blast from an atomic bomb.”

This is your basic Cold War training drill short film narrated by cartoon character Bert the Turtle who gives young kids more than enough to fuel their nightmares for months to come!

Hey, kids! Take a look at what an atomic bomb can do! Look what it does to houses and entire neighborhoods!

That being said, you can survive one of these atomic blasts by following Bert the Turtle’s command of “Duck and Cover.”

As Dr. Harry Vanderspeigle would say, “This is some bullshit!”

I vaguely remember being shown this in elementary school (even though that would be the mid-60s), but it was never entered into the official Cinema Wellman archives quite possibly because it freaked me out.

During our drill at S.H.S., girls and boys paired off and faced the wall. The girls knelt down and the boys stood over them with their arms, head, shoulders, and torso forming a protective shield for their classmate.

Both you and your school crush could have been incinerated while you were attempting to shield her from an atomic blast.

Now she’ll never go to the dance with you.

I watched this on TCM, but it’s available on YouTube if you’re curious to see what Bert the Turtle has to say.

Next up is a workplace drama that had some sequences that were downright scary to me. 

Patterns (1956)

AP/83 m/IMDb: 7.7/directed by Fielder Cook

IMDb: “When Fred Staples is recruited onto the board of a high-powered New York corporation, he finds his ethics and ambition at odds.”

Admittedly I know absolutely nothing about business or boards of corporations, but when I was done watching this film, I didn’t recall what kind of corporation was being featured.

Turns out it was an industrial manufacturing and corporate engineering corporation, so no wonder it didn’t register for me. 

Lots of vague talk about “The Pearson file,” or “The Dabney account,” and such.

Lots of business going on over my head, but that didn’t matter to me and I liked it regardless of that issue.

One of the things I liked about Patterns is that it’s one of those rare films that doesn’t have a musical score.

Even though music is extremely important in many movies, when there’s no score at all, you’re kind of forced to pay closer attention to the characters and what they’re saying. 

Three of the characters in this film are played by Oscar winners Beatrice Straight (Network), Van Heflin (Johnny Eager), and Ed Begley (Sweet Bird of Youth).

Something rather unique about that trio of Oscar winners is that they all won their Oscar the ONLY time they were nominated.

The film also stars Everett Sloane who I knew best as Charles Foster Kane’s friend and confidant in Citizen Kane.

That character, Mr. Bernstein is cheerful, honest, supportive, and a trusted advisor.

Sloane’s Walter Ramsey in Patterns is an absolute monster as the head of Ramsey & Ramsey.

His public verbal abuse and emotional beatings he aims at Begley’s character in the hopes he’ll quit are extremely tense and uncomfortable. 

There are many strong performances in this tense drama written by Rod Serling of Twilight Zone fame. 

This had some Glengarry Glen Ross vibes for me. 

Next up is a film from the late 20s starring someone I admire more and more each time I see him on screen, and it’s directed by another favorite of mine.

West of Zanzibar (1928)

P/65 m/IMDb: 7.2/directed by Tod Browning

IMDb: “A magician seeks vengeance upon the man who paralyzed him and the illegitimate daughter he sired with the magician’s wife.”

Lon Chaney is a golden god!

I have seen and enjoyed many of his movies including The Penalty, He Who Gets Slapped, The Unholy Three, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, and The Blackbird.

We can now add West of Zanzibar to that list.

In The Penalty, Chaney played an amputee and wore braces on his legs to make him appear to be legless. 

He could only wear these braces for a few minutes at a time because they were incredibly painful.

In West of Zanzibar, he plays a man with legs, but he has no use of them.

It is amazing to watch, and you’d swear you were watching someone who was paralyzed. 

This film also stars Lionel Barrymore as the man who paralyzes Chaney’s character, and Barrymore is terrific, as usual.

Great twist in this one, and I’m going to spoil it since I doubt you’re going to seek it out (although you should), and I’ll use the characters names; Chaney is Phroso (the magician) and Barrymore is Crane. 

*Crane paralyzes Phroso and runs away with Phroso’s wife.

*Over a year later Phroso finds his wife, who has a baby with her. She dies on the spot, and Phroso raises the baby under the assumption it’s Crane’s child.

*Phroso purposely raises the child,  Maizie, in the worst possible atmosphere, exposes her to terrible things, and does nothing but watch as she becomes an alcoholic.

*Phroso then summons Crane to confront him and show him what he’s done to the child Crane fathered out of wedlock with Phroso’s wife. 

*And that’s when Crane says, “She’s not my daughter, she’s your daughter.”

Tod Browning made some dark, dark movies back in the 20s and 30s.

That’s some Old Boy stuff right there. 

Next up…you’ve heard me talk many times about the movies my friend Crystal recommends to me, this next film was recommended to me by her sister!

Great taste in movies in that family!

Oddity (2024) - Ireland

R/98 m/IMDb: 6.7/directed by Damian McCarthy

IMDb: “A psychic medium attempts to uncover the truth behind her sister’s murder at the site of the crime.”

This is categorized as a “Folk Horror” movie, and the Irish certainly know what’s what when it comes to folk horror.

This is one of those movies that I don’t know where to start.

It’s so atmospherically creepy and unsettling that you really need to experience it to appreciate it fully.

The characters themselves are odd and not like people you’d know in real life; something is just off about everybody.

And then there’s the full-sized wooden man seen in the poster who is a major part of the story.

He sits upright at the table and every once in a while he looks different when you see him; his head is tilted a different way, etc., and THAT was creepy as hell.

And this wooden man also has a series of holes in the back of his head containing objects that are removed and those objects themselves along with the fact that they’re being removed from the back of this wooden guy’s head had me watching some of this through my fingers.

It is NOT really gory or bloody at all, it’s the suspense that gets you.

I’m not a fan of jump scares, but there is one in Oddity involving a digital camera that had me requiring assistance to remove me from the ceiling. 

This is the first film of director Damian McCarthy’s that I’ve seen, and I’ve already done some research and added more of his films to my never-ending list. 

McCarthy made Caveat in 2020, and Hokum (2026) is currently screening on Hulu. I may need to check that out today.

One film to go, and I liked it a lot because it was NOT what I thought it was going to be.

The Housemaid (2025)

R/131 m/IMDb: 6.7/directed by Paul Feig

IMDb: “Millie, a struggling young woman, becomes a live-in maid for a wealthy couple, Nina and Andrew. She enters a mansion of secrets, manipulation, and escalating psychological games that pull her into a dangerous relationship dynamic.”

Paul Feig has directed television episodes of Freaks and Geeks (which he created), Arrested Development, 30 Rock, Mad Men, Weeds, Parks and Rec, Nurse Jackie, and The Office.

He’s also directed some movies you may have seen including Bridesmaids, Ghostbusters (2016), and A Simple Favor.

That’s quite an eclectic list of credits and genres, all of which Feig commands well.

But after A Simple Favor, and The Housemaid, I really want him to do more suspense films because he certainly knows how to interweave stories and create intriguing characters. 

I’m not saying these are great movies, but they’re certainly extremely entertaining and packed with twists.

The Housemaid is based on a 2022 novel by Freida McFadden, who has said she loved the film, which is rare to hear from an author whose work has been put on the screen.

I liked The Housemaid because it kept reminding me that it wasn’t the movie I thought it was going to be.

While parts of it follow the stereotypical “Au Pair” thrillers that have existed forever, much more of The Housemaid goes decidedly off the rails as the story unravels.

I liked the end, but not the “end end,” which sets up a sequel that’s already being made, and you know how I feel about that. 

But if you’re looking for a good thriller, albeit a tad too long, check out The Housemaid.

And keep your eyes on Amanda Seyfried in this one. I think she’s the best part of the whole movie.

Well, that is a wrap from Cinema Wellman and our “Best & Best” of October.

No Worst this month, but we’ll try harder in November.

We hope you're back with us in a couple of days as we celebrate “Godzilla Day” on November 3rd by constructing and drinking a series of Godzilla themed cocktails we found in our official Godzilla cookbook.

You may not want to miss that.

Chet, please look into whether or not it’s okay to drink on a YouTube show, thank you. 

Until then, take care.