Dungeons, Dragons, and Intoxicants

Somewhere in the space between fantasy and a cosy evening hanging out with your friends is Dungeons & Dragons. And so, too, is 2023's Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, a good movie, much to my surprise. Now I'd be surprised if this thing doesn't become a smash hit.

Remember how good Marvel movies used to be? Remember that smile you had on your face after you saw Thor: Ragnarok? That's where this new Dungeons & Dragons movie will send you. But actually the closest comparison I can think of is The Princess Bride or possibly Your Highness (though Honor Among Thieves is much better than the latter).

It's a medieaval fantasy setting with loose fidelity to any kind of lore or canon, despite being based on the Forgotten Realms campaign setting. The characters all feel very modern, indeed like a group of friends who meet regularly at a bar. Yet it's not so loose that you feel like nothing matters. As in The Princess Bride, the heart comes entirely from a real sense of the characters' concerns for and interests in each other. Which makes it a perfect adaptation of the D&D gaming experience.

This was what it was like playing D&D in high school. We kids were no medievalists, we didn't know how to talk like Chaucer. We were American teenagers improvising shit, often telling jokes along the way, but still with an earnest desire to advance the story and achieve our characters' goals. Although D&D started as groups of friends wanting to live in the world of Tolkien, the appeal of the series has had less and less to do with the Tolkien interest in world-building and more about providing an alternate context for the players to act out drama. So, while popular fantasy of the past twenty-five years or so, things like Lord of the Rings, Game of Thrones, and Harry Potter have depended upon creating a credible world with a sense of culture, history, and civilisations, Honor Among Thieves presents us with a hodgepodge. You won't be able to infer a character's ancestry from their skin colour, accent, or clothing. The cities and towns are free-wheeling blends of European, Middle Eastern, and Asian aesthetics applied with no rhyme or reason. I was able to have some fun when things like Baldur's Gate, Neverwinter, and the Underdark were name-checked but they bore little particular resemblance to the Forgotten Realms books I read or video games I played.

What I love is that the cast actually played Dungeons & Dragons in character before filming began. Which was absolutely the right thing to do and it comes through in the rapport they have on screen. More movies should do that. Chris Pine, Michelle Rodriguez, Justice Smith, and Sophia Lillis are a tight crew with truly entertaining chemistry, particularly Pine and Rodriguez. And Rodriguez is captivating in the fight scenes which are excellently choreographed. I only wish her costume were better.

Hugh Grant squeezes some delicious nuance from his typical pompous villain dialogue, making his character just complex enough to be interesting, and Daisy Head as his evil magic-user compatriot is gorgeous.

If you're looking for a good time, this movie's got it.

Twitter Sonnet #1683

We know the drink is acid 'cause its green.
She never shops for shells on Dragon Beach.
On fateful days her figure's clearly seen.
No drake but orcs to claim the lass would reach.
For us, the horses stumble off the track.
She slipped a desert wind beneath his coat.
And so a winter chill went up his back.
But nothing's changed the single sailor boat.
A destined hand forsook the kingly sword.
Portentous trees had choked the lonely way.
But sightless sisters sought the pond to ford.
Adrift amid a sea of green were they.
Chaotic stripes conform to easy nights.
A cam'ra deftly tracks the friendly fights.

A Recipe for Bad

The Bad Batch released two episodes for its finale on Wednesday, the first a bit better written than the second, though both fell short of their aims.

Once again, the influence of Andor is apparent. The Batch infiltrates an Imperial base to get intel on the Empire's secret cloning project. Unfortunately for them, young Saw Gerrera is there and ruins everything. The morally grey character who was part of one of the best scenes on Andor is here just an obstacle, spouting dialogue about how the ends justify the means. But the ends, it turns out, are that Gerrera doesn't assassinate his targets and the Batch don't get their intel--and Tech gets killed, too.

Tech was part of the focus of "Crossing", one of the two best episodes of the season (along with "Faster"), yet I still didn't feel a strong enough connexion with him for his death to have an impact. A lot of the problem may have stemmed from the awkward flirting scene between Tech and Phee.

She asks if he was just going to leave without saying goodbye and he says, yes, like he saw absolutely no reason why he should say goodbye to her. A couple episodes earlier, one of the other clones, I forget which, remarked on how Tech had "competition" when it seemed Phee had her eyes on the mayor of Pabu. That was the only time I can remember romance being hinted at between the two. "Crossing" made an attempt to explore how Tech doesn't express his emotions so I think we're meant to take his non-responsive reaction to Phee as a sign of that weak capacity for expression but it came off more like he simply had no particular interest in her. It made the scene unintentionally funny and slightly creepy. It kind of reminded me of Lara Flynn Boyle's character in Wayne's World except Wanda Sykes is still giving a slow, stilted performance.

I liked some of the business with the Batch infiltrating the base and writer Matt Michnovetz knows how to construct sequences like that. He gives some dialogue to Tarkin about "uniting" the galaxy under the Empire, a gesture towards some of the political, philosophical drama on Andor and in Anakin's story in the prequels. But it's only a moment before the Imperials go back to being cartoon villains. Tarkin orders an air strike on the Batch trapped on the rail car despite protests that Imperial troops might be caught "in the crossfire". For one thing, it's not crossfire when the firing is coming from only one direction, and for another, the Imperial troops are clearly a good distance from the Batch, so the line, obviously designed to show Tarkin being ruthless, just didn't make any sense.

Echo is back with the group because "Rex is on a separate mission." Why Echo didn't go with Rex is never explained.

Also not explained is why the Batch go to Cid to recuperate even though a couple episodes earlier we'd learned the Batch had turned against Cid, making her their enemy for no apparent reason. Possibly they couldn't trust medical care from any other source in range of Tarkin's base but it would've helped if there'd been one line in which the characters referenced this fact, maybe even a shot of Hunter and Echo discussing it. "Can we trust Cid?" "We have no other choice!" Then, when Cid betrays them, it wouldn't have seemed quite as stupid.

Ultimately, this two episode finale, though filled with moments clearly intended to have a deep emotional impact, was too sloppily conceived and written to succeed in its goals.

The Bad Batch is available on Disney+.

A Long Day for Mandalorians and Pirates

Last night's Mandalorian was a mixed bag for me. There were some ideas I really liked but I think the teleplay by Jon Favreau would've been improved by more consideration given to the logistics of some of what we see. I also wish Carl Weathers had directed this episode, too, because director Peter Ramsey's action scenes are a bit lethargic and unsuspenseful. The stakes presented in the teleplay have to do all the work for the story's suspense. In a couple places, it works. Not so much in others.

The fabulous green-bearded pirate, Captain Gorian Shard (Nonso Anozie), returns to lay siege to Navarro. Greef Karga (Carl Weathers) is forced to call New Republic pilot Carson Teva (Paul Sun-Hyung Lee) for aid.

Next to Teva at some remote New Republic outpost is none other than Zeb (Steve Blum), one of the main characters from Star Wars: Rebels, a show I'm not a fan of, though Zeb was my second favourite character (after Hera). It was kind of cool seeing him, too, because his design comes from one of the early concept illustrations for Chewbacca.

This launches the episode into the "tangled bureaucracy" subplot that makes me think Favreau read the scripts for Andor and decided this is what he really wanted to be doing. He doesn't quite have the knack for conjuring the subtle mixture of personal investment and career conceptualisation that make the functionaries on Andor so fascinating.

Carrying on a tradition from season one of Mandalorian, Favreau has cast another comedian. This time Tim Meadows plays a New Republic officer called Tuttle, presumably a reference to Terry Gilliam's Brazil. A bit ironic since the black helmeted troopers in Brazil were conceived by Gilliam as a criticism of the endless supply of disposable stormtroopers in the Star Wars movies, a trope The Mandalorian has been happy to indulge in.

Meadows' Tuttle makes a valid point about New Republic resources already being stretched too thin to offer aid to worlds that aren't even members (though it didn't look like Teva's squad had a lot to do, nor did it seem Teva had anything else on his docket). I think a more interesting portrayal of the clerk would have shown him to seem truly sympathetic to the plight of Navarro but unable to overcome other concerns on the topic. Katy O'Brian was sadly reduced to broad moustache twirling, too.

As for the siege itself, I found myself thinking of a class I recently taught about pirates (I teach English at a Japanese junior high school so I try to find interesting topics to discuss in English). I told the students about Henry Morgan's capture of Panama and I think Favreau would have benefited from reading about that or something like it himself. At the very least, he may have considered how long it took Teva to get all the way to Coruscant, a core world, and then all he way to the world where the Mandalorians are keeping their base, and then for the Mandalorians to get all the way to Navarro. Favreau's idea seems to be that the pirates are still looting and the whole surviving populace of the town are just hiding in a cave somewhere. It may have put some people in mind of the last season of Game of Thrones, a memory no show wants to trigger, I should think.

The focus felt very far from Din and Grogu this episode. I felt genuinely happy for Bo-Katan that everyone was rallying around her at the end and I loved the idea of the Mandalorians, their confidence boosted by recent gains, deciding to retake Mandalore. I think we all knew the season was leading up to that but it's nice to have it here. But I do hope they fill out their ranks more with Mandos who can take their helmets off.

The Mandalorian is available on Disney+.

Between Success and Sex

Nelly's husband is the perfect mate but she only wants to have sex with a drunken ex-con called Loulou in 1980's Loulou. Isabelle Huppert and Gerard Depardieu star as Nelly and Loulou, both giving unrestrained performances which are charming because they're both so cute. The cinematography is beautiful and well composed to pair nicely with free-wheeling direction and editing.

Nelly goes to a disco with Andre (Guy Marchand), her husband. He also owns the advertising agency at which she works. They see Loulou at the disco and he and Nelly become quickly enraptured with each other.

Theirs is a relationship of few words but of a lot of sex and giggling. She doesn't make much of an effort to hide the fact that she and Loulou start spending most of their time in a hotel room. Andre tries to be cool with it at first, to be modern.

For all this picture's nonchalance, it does intend to be a commentary on post-'60s sexual mores. Loulou and Nelly's hazy future plans when she gets pregnant by him make you wonder if a firmer marital institution would have been better for Nelly. Or is it okay for her to just get an abortion and for the two to keep happily boinking until their money runs out? And then what?

Loulou doesn't seem to spare a lot of thought for to-morrow. He does have a sense of honour, which he displays when beating up Andre after he sees him getting rough with Nelly. It's curious the film is named for his character since all the dramatic decisions revolve around Nelly. But what is to be done about a Loulou? Maybe some guys just exist to sexually please a few people before meeting a violent and/or embarrassing death somewhere, somehow. The movie makes it seem more romantic than that. Good cinematography and cute stars will do that.

Loulou is available on The Criterion Channel.

Blossoming '23

The early spring continues. Some of the cherry trees have already started turning green and it's not even April yet. I'm glad it wasn't this warm when I first came to Japan in March 2020. I'd have had to wear my big overcoat in this heat since I didn't have an apartment to stash it in yet.

Here are some pictures from the river near my local grocery store.

Lots of people were about. I saw troops of elementary school students all in their matching yellow caps. They always remind me of ducklings.

The water will make you cry, kids, thereby begetting more water. It's a vicious cycle.

I'm still not sure what this sign is warning kids of. Blue river dolphins? With hands? The snake in the picture looks like an innocent bystander. The Japanese is just, "あぶない！", "Danger!"

Twitter Sonnet #1682

A spiral plan confused the worker day.
Beneath the street, the shoppers loudly moan.
It seems the store had sold a lump of clay.
Excessive cream can smash the waffle cone.
Reclusive metal snakes could solve the debt.
To climb spaghetti, cheese required legs.
A special mound of dough could fly a jet.
But growing eyes could harbour secret eggs.
Proportioned hats involved the heads of state.
So clamour back, the bleachers chill the soul.
For Fighting Man adorned with helm his pate.
Yet some there are would say it's but a bowl.
The early pink was deemed an honest heart.
About the lovers, blushing heavens part.

One Good Quatermain Deserves a Half

I finished reading Allan Quatermain (1887) yesterday, H. Rider Haggard's sequel to his own King Solomon's Mines. I think Alan Moore had the right idea when he essentially painted this second book as partially fabricated by the "real" Quatermain of King Solomon's Mines. This second book is a sometimes engaging, occasionally thrilling, but ultimately light adventure compared to the complex wonder at work in the first book.

As I wrote in an earlier entry, when I was about a third of the way through the book, the best part is the beginning when Quatermain and his friends, Curtis and Good, are just setting off into the wilds of Africa. Their skirmishes with a group of deadly Masai hunters are genuinely enthralling. But the book loses momentum it never quite regains after the silly kidnapping plot--I thought of it again watching The Mandalorian last week in which the plot around an alien dinosaur absconding with a child was remarkably similar. At least in Allan Quatermain, it really was a kidnapping for ransom.

The bulk of the novel, the main plot, concerns a lost civilisation of white people somewhere in Africa called the Zu Vendi. This story is somewhat reminiscent of She, particularly since the Zu Vendi are ruled by Queens--two Queens, unlike She. But the Zu Vendi, aside from the fact that all the women normally wear clothing that exposes one breast, aren't nearly as interesting as the Amahaggar and the relationship between the two Queens with the Zu Vendi is not nearly as fascinating as the one between Ayesha and the Amahagger. She presents really thoughtful scenarios exploring methods of rulership, which is one reason the character of Ayesha comes off as so complex. The Zu Vendi are mainly civilised and the two Queens are neatly divided into a Good Queen and an Evil Queen.

Quatermain's friends, Curtis and Good, are also less interesting than they are in King Solomon's Mines. Though Good is occasionally entertaining due to his vanity in Allan Quatermain, though the fact that he's able to change into a full naval dress uniform after the group has gone through a perilous boat ride through lava heated caverns was a bit silly.

The only really interesting character is Umslopogaas, the Zulu warrior with the peculiar axe, who made any scene better whenever he was involved. Haggard knew what he had, I think, because he made Umslopogaas the hero of the book's satisfying climax.

The Damned Treasure

A woman's lifelong sense of financial inadequacy finds physical manifestation in a stolen bag of cash in 1949's Too Late for Tears. Directed by Byron Haskin just before he made the definitive film version of Treasure Island (a fact that becomes more intriguing the more I think about it), this film noir about an exceptionally ruthless femme fatale is captivating and intricately intelligent.

Lizbeth Scott stars as Jane Palmer. She and her husband, Alan (Arthur Kennedy), are driving home one night after deciding not to go to a party because Jane can't stand the thought of people looking down on her. Suddenly, a passing car tosses a bag into their back seat and another car starts to chase them. Jane urges Alan to flee.

The bag is stuffed with tens of thousands of dollars. Alan wants to turn it into the police but Jane argues the money is probably untraceable and, if they wait to spend it, and spend it carefully, they can just keep it. Doesn't sound so hard, at least not until Dan Duryea shows up while Alan's at work.

He's playing a tough named Danny and as nasty and threatening as he is, Lizbeth Scott starts to give you the impression that she's even worse, something he notes with admiration a few times. While he's just a thug looking for a fast track to easy living, Jane's a woman in a constant state of anxiety. This cash represents the first shot she's ever had to climb out of the pit she's lived in all her life. As she explains at one point, she grew up in a white collar family that had less money than their neighbours, so when it came to keeping up with the Joneses, her life was a constant series of losses. So when she does kill, she might truly regret it--she certainly seems conflicted. But the monster of warped self-perception won't let her stop.

The cast is all superb--Scott, Kennedy, and Duryea. Don DeFore shows up as a mysterious and off-puttingly affable character. His past and his role in this affair are intriguingly murky and I enjoyed watching one clue after another shift the impression his character made on other characters.

Lizbeth Scott looks so old in the movie, I thought she was at least fifty, but it turns out she was only 28 at the time. I guess she had the same issue as Susan Sarandon, one of those people who's looked 80 since she was 20. Her apparent age adds some edge to her desperation. Maybe the sense of the clock running down would make her extra frantic to raise her economic status.

Too Late for Tears is available on Amazon Prime.

That Space Again

Well, the first four episodes of the new season of Star Trek: Picard were good, anyway. Episodes five and six have sadly started to indulge in some of the things that brought down Discovery.

In episode five, Jack Crusher starts to have visions of a "Red Lady" and getting psychotic breaks, an unwelcome echo of the Red Angel plot from Discovery season two. Maybe the writer of episode 6, Christopher Monfette, realised this because he nipped it right in the bud at the beginning of the episode by having Jack Crusher take the extraordinary step of telling the other characters that he's having hallucinations.

Unfortunately, the rest of the episode wallows in maudlin fan service. Now on the run, our heroes hide out at a starship museum where we get glimpses of the Defiant and the Voyager before Geordi La Forge shows up, now a commodore. He has a pretty predictable little arc about how he's unwilling to let his daughters risk their lives for their ideals and of course he comes around by the end of the episode. One of the daughters mentions a hanger in the museum off hand that I bet good money will end up housing the Enterprise-D, refitted by Geordi in his spare time. Except the budget for sets seems to be pretty slim this season and they apparently still can't afford to turn on all the lights.

Michelle Forbes returned for one episode, in episode five, to finally resolve the issues left dangling when she left to join the Maquis in TNG. It was nice the writers thought to do that but it was completely the wrong context. It was like Ro was plugged into the space of a totally different character, in this case somehow a high ranking intelligence officer. Picard somehow was totally unaware of Ro returning to Starfleet and getting a whole new career. So they have a confrontation and the two actors are good but I was annoyed by so much of the dialogue, particularly revolving around the awkwardly named "Bajoran earring." I wonder if Christian crucifixes are called "human crosses" in the future. In any case, Ro needed to come back for more than one episode if they were really going address the issues leftover for her character from TNG and give her a new role in the galaxy.

The show could still pull out of this. Amanda Plummer is still entertaining as the villain. But I fear the first four episodes derived their vitality entirely by imitating Star Trek II.

Star Trek: Picard is available on Paramount+.

Twitter Sonnet #1681

To change, proceed to find an open box.
The watchful babies guard the tower wall.
With special steel, you forge your armour socks.
With special shoes, we'll think you're very tall.
You doddle home but questions hound your toes.
Like where's the dough and where's the oven gone?
A cake you'd bake yourself with frosted bows.
And someone's apron floats ashore at dawn.
The iron evened out the row of feet.
A glassy sea was safe for dancing disks.
Above the cannon ball the angels beat.
A pulpy drink is not without its risks.
Returning ships'll carry packing nuts.
Addiction turns the head to lazy ruts.

The Weekly Batch

Wednesday's Bad Batch wasn't so bad, it had some good points. It was written by Jennifer Corbett and Matt Michnovetz and directed by Saul Ruiz.

The action sequences were highlights. The story begins with Rex and his crew rescuing some imprisoned clones. It's a decent, exciting scene, though I find it a bit silly that the clones have their blasters on a stun setting all the time. The one time we see that setting in the movies, it's used against Leia, who's not wearing any armour, which might explain why we never see it again. It really feels like Disney tampering that it's used all the time now.

I also liked Crosshair's escape attempt. There was real tension as he manages to grab a blaster and stumble out into the corridors, drugged up.

Meanwhile, back on Pabu. the rest of the Batch are still cooling their heels. It was nice seeing Omega reunite with Echo but mostly the scene felt like setup for next week's finale.

The Bad Batch is available on Disney+.

Everything is Safe in Star Wars!

Another week, another poorly written episode of The Mandalorian. But this time, director Carl Weathers actually made a mediocre script by Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni into something at times genuinely exciting.

The recap reminds us of the kid whose head's been newly imprisoned by the the Mandalorian helmet for no reason. Really, doesn't anyone ever ask, "Why?" This week, the kid's nabbed by a cool alien pterodactyl.

Bo Katan managed to follow it to its nest. She does nothing else, returning to base so everyone can convene, draw up plans, and mount a coordinated effort to rescue the kid, and for some reason no-one seems to think the kid's been killed already. They decide not to use their jetpacks at first for fear of making too much noise and upsetting the monster. "It would kill the child," the Armourer explains as though the kid's being held for ransom.

They make camp upon reaching the nest at nightfall, apparently deciding the nightvision capabilities on their helmets grant them no advantage against the apparently diurnal monster.

And they needn't have rushed because the monster coughs up the kid for his own babies and the kid's just fine.

I know, I know. Beskar armour. But no broken limbs? No saliva? For whatever reason, the monster decided not to feed its babies right away, so the kid was just sleeping in its gullet all night? Was he even in any danger from the babies? Is anyone really in any danger from anything?

The episode ends with the three monster babies being adopted by the tribe. A sure sign this section of the story was written by Dave Filoni whose depictions of animals in Rebels and Tales of the Jedi make me think he was the kind of kid who'd have climbed into the tiger enclosure at the zoo expecting to be able to pet the animals after a perfunctory round of harmless rough and tumble.

Weathers deserves a lot of credit for making the sky battle truly exciting.

Meanwhile, Grogu has a flashback of his rescue and flight from the Jedi Temple with the assistance of none other than Ahmed Best.

Best isn't bad as a badass Jedi and Weathers makes him look good. Certainly better than he looks on the show where Best originated the role of Jedi Master Kelleran Beq two years ago:

The Mandalorian is available on Disney+ and Star Wars: Jedi Temple Challenge is available on YouTube.

Looking for Clues in Clueless

Somehow I ended up watching 1995's Clueless last night. I don't think I'd seen it all the way through since it came out though I must have seen bits and pieces whenever my sister watched it. It's certainly a relic of a bygone era, isn't it? Could you make a movie about a dumb rich blonde girl to-day? I mean, one who's supposed to be sympathetic? Maybe there are examples among movies and TV series I haven't seen.

I find myself watching it through two lenses--a nostalgic lens, for '90s America and my youth, and an English teacher in Japan lens. Japanese teachers have asked me more than once, "What's school like in the US?" Usually I recommend The Breakfast Club or Pretty in Pink. I suppose Clueless and Mean Girls should be on the list, too. Clueless might be perfect to show kids in Japan because Cher (Alicia Silverstone) is so positive, and positivity is a message that's vigorously pressed on students.

Wikipedia quotes writer/director Amy Heckerling as saying,

"The most successful character in anything I'd ever done was Jeff Spicoli in Fast Times. People think that's because he was stoned and a surfer. But that's not it. It's because he's positive. So I thought, 'I'm going to write a character who's positive and happy.' And that was Cher."

Plus, Cher's a virgin, which is valued much more highly in Japan than in the US. Cher and her friends are all wealthy but no-one in the movie mentions it, there are no class issues present, which would also make it ideal. Two of the American movies that have clearly gone through committees to be officially endorsed at schools I've worked at, Wonder and Back to the Future, both show characters living comfortably and economic disparity is never mentioned (so maybe I shouldn't be recommending Pretty In Pink). The only real problem with Clueless is that it features two characters who smoke pot. Drugs are talked about casually and sometimes approvingly in the movie. Oh, well.

Anyway. I enjoyed Clueless. The moment at the climax when Alicia Silverstone and Paul Rudd are staring at each other is so sweet and really made me want to watch more romantic films. Why do those two work? All of the moments meant to prove that Cher isn't so dumb are very circumstantial and ultimately meaningless, like when she knows the Hamlet quote better than the supposedly smart girl. There's no real indication that Cher is as interested as Josh is in exploring concepts. She just likes being nice. She can be manipulative but only to please her father and her friends. The fact that her manipulations are transparent and sometimes clumsy adds to her charm. She and Josh adore each other, each kind of pities the other, which would be a red flag if Josh bothered consulting Nietzsche on the subject.

If you zoom in on that book, you can see the name "Friedrich Nietzsche" is taped onto the back. Heckerling really wanted you to know who Josh was reading. Nietzsche considered pity a demeaning and ultimately harmful thing, for both the one who pities and the one who is pitied.

Josh pities Cher because she's dumb and Cher pities Josh because he's unfashionable. Is that good enough? I can't help thinking about . . .

You see that? You can't kill Woody Allen, he's in our heads forever . . .

Clueless is available on Paramount.

Twitter Sonnet #1680

With icing lost behind the crash we ate.
With frozen food we made a home at large.
And wandered out across the tundra late.
We saw the gathered flakes of blizzard charge.
Confusion clouds the rink before the freeze.
Above the falling skate a beauty cries.
A frosted glass contains a thousand seas.
Preserved in glacier ice, her lonesome sighs.
Combining cherry red with fuchsia wins.
But phantom dates revolve the living room.
To make the grade, she seeks the aid of sins.
Effective colours break the party tomb.
Mistakes allowed the lace to top dessert.
And now the tea and coffee might invert.

She Likes Trees, Big Trees

Several unscrupulous men vie for the affections of a free-spirited young woman in 1932's Wild Girl. I was expecting a diverting, salacious pre-code film but was pleasantly surprised to discover it's one of the best Western melodramas ever made by the great director Raoul Walsh.

The film was the third adaptation of the 1889 story Salomy Jane and, as you might imagine, it also plays off of the biblical story of Salome. Accordingly, the coveted damsel does remove her seven veils at one point and does demand the death of a certain man. Though in this case, she doesn't mark out any John the Baptist but a slimy politician with a history of sexual assault. He's maintained his good reputation with bribery and murder but that won't stop a mysterious stranger (Charles Farell) from exacting revenge for what the politician did to his sister.

22 year old Joan Bennett plays Salomy as a barefoot girl in a gingham blouse, her daily life consisting of giddy romps through the sequoias with the neighbourhood children. It was a stroke of genius to shoot the picture among the redwoods for absolutely no reason. Why not? They make every shot fantastic.

There are four men after Salomy. The politician (Morgan Wallace), a cowardly businessman (Irving Pichel), a card sharp (Ralph Bellamy), and the stranger himself, whom Salomy affectionately calls, "Man."

The politician and the businessman are both slimeballs, though the businessman's cowardice shows itself a little more slowly. He's the one Salomy asks to kill the politician after he's watched her bathing and manhandled her. It introduces the difficult question--is the businessman a coward for not killing the politician, or is it really better that he doesn't? It's a troublesome question and I'm delighted the movie leaves it in the audience's mind.

The stranger is a likable lug but I found myself partial to Ralph Belamy's top hatted card sharp. He's portrayed as having a sense of honour on top of his unrequited yearnings and, even better, he exhibits self-control. There's a lad I'd approve of my daughter bringing home. Though I'd ask him to stop cheating at cards.

The twists and turns in the melodramatic plot are always satisfying and credible enough. Eugene Pallette is very good in a supporting role.

Wild Girl is available on The Criterion Channel until the end of the month.