28 November 2008

Review: A bucket of blood



I finally got around to watching one of the public domain horror movies.

Pick for this week was A Bucket of Blood (1959).

Directed by Roger Corman and written by Charles B. Griffith, this is quite a macabre tale.

A busboy, Walter, wants to be like the arty types. Kinda like the snobby nut jobs who frequent the cafe he works in. And man, those are pretentious pompous idiots.

These snotty types make an excellent social comment about cliques and the in-crowd. It is strange that a movie made in 1959 can be applicable to modern social interactions as well.

Walter has the artistic talent of a used up sponge.

But he tries. Really hard. He is one sad lonely soul who tries too hard to conform.

So there he is looking for ideas and perhaps a bit of skill and whoop, he ends up with a sculpture of a cat. That he made one is a bit of a hooray moment if not for the fact that the landlady's cat is missing.

By the way, his 'work' is a hit and the arty snobs want more.

You can see where this is headed.

A refreshing movie; perhaps an old cliche were story is concerned but on the plus side it has normal looking actors, with less glitter glazed focus on looks. The delivery of the tale itself is fun since there is more focus on mannerisms and developing personality.

My personal favorite was the fidgety cafe owner. He may have been a heartless bastard but he was one twitchy bastard. On that note, notice how none of the male characters seem to have a need to prove masculinity by swearing or aping stereotypically mannish gestures.

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