While researching films that played, particularly in the art houses of San Diego, during the summer of 1984 for my work in progress, I came across a newspaper ad for Paul Verhoeven’s The 4th Man and became quite intrigued.

Searching all the online streamers yielded the result that no one had the film available, nor was it available for a Video on Demand rental or purchase. The fact that the movie seemed impossible to watch only enhanced my curiosity about it. Eventually I found a copy in the public domain section of the Internet Archive and after much toil and trouble got the subtitles working as the film is in Dutch. So, this past weekend my sweetie-wife and I watched The 4th Man.

Verenigde Nederlandsche Filmcompagnie

The story centers on Gerard Reve, a bisexual novelist and clearly on the path to severe alcoholism. After fantasizing about murdering his roommate and lover, Gerard takes a train to another city to give a lecture to a local literary society. Along the way he becomes fascinated by a strikingly handsome man he briefly sees in the carriage of a passing train and is also haunted by strange delusions or visions of a seemingly threatening woman.

After the lecture and experiencing seeming confirmation of his frightening visions, Gerard accepts an invitation from the society’s treasurer, Christine, to stay the night at her home and business. The pair become lovers, but Gerard continues to have disturbing dreams and visions, some of which present Christine as a murderous woman killing off her former lovers. When her current lover Herman returns from his business trip, Gerard is shocked to see it was the same handsome man that had fascinated him at the train station. Now with his sexual desire for both Christine and Herman burning strongly, Gerard’s visions or delusions also intensify and he must discover if they are truth and if he or Herman is destined to become the 4th man murdered by Christine.

Given the similarities in theme—a potentially murderous woman, bisexuality, and explicit sexual scenes—The 4th Manis often compared to another Verhoeven film, Basic Instinct, with the director himself calling The 4th Man a spiritual prequel.

The 4th Man is a stylish erotic thriller that is uninterested in providing the audience with any solid answers to the questions it raises. Gerard’s visions might be prophetic flashes of both future and past or they may be delusions of an alcohol-soaked brain. Christine may be a spider luring men into her parlor and their deaths or she may be a woman tragically unlucky who has suffered the loss of several lovers. It is for the viewer to determine which is the more likely scenario. While watching this film I turned to my sweetie-wife and commented that “David Lynch probably loved this movie.” My feelings were only intensified by the lush, lovely, and captivating cinematography of Jan de Bont. There is absolutely no doubt that The 4th Man is a masterpiece of photography, even with its limited budget.

I have no idea if the movie will make it to the pages of my work in progress—elements of it fit perfectly with my cast of characters—but whether or not it makes an appearance, it was worth the viewing.

The second in Ethan Coen and Tricia Cooke’s planned trilogy of ‘lesbian B-Movies’ Honey Don’t is the story of Honey O’Donahue (Margaret Qualley) a private detective in sun-blasted Bakersfield California.

Focus Features

When a prospective client dies in a single car traffic accident, Honey begins investigating which brings her into the orbit of police evidence officer MG Falcone (Aubrey Plaza) and the pair begin a heated and powerful relationship, bonding over the shared trauma of terrible fathers. The investigation brings to Honey’s attention a Christian church of questionable morality led by the charismatic and corrupt preacher Drew Devlin (Chris Evans.) Things become more complicated when Honey’s niece, Corinne, (Talia Ryder) fails to return home after her closing shift at a local fast-food joint.

At a breezy 89 minutes Honey Don’t is a fast and easy watch but perhaps the film is a bit too breezy. In the resolution of the mystery and when revelations come to light Honey connects dots that I have no recollection of ever being presented to the audience. Now, this is not a terrible thing in a black comedy neo-noir, this is not the Agatha Christie movies of revealing the killer in a murder mystery with clues withheld from the reader, but it would have been nice to have had the same set of dots that Honey possessed.

That weakness noted, and this film has not been gathering great reviews, I enjoyed Honey Don’t with much of it dark and grisly humor working quite well for me. This movie is fairly explicit in the sex scenes, both the heterosexual encounters and the lesbian ones, so be aware of that when you watch it. Given that this is directed and co-written by half of the Coen Brothers team it has the collection of odd and offbeat characters one can expect from Ethan Coen but much more sexually explicit than the team tended to produce together.

This is not a film for everyone, its various plot threads do not eventually all resolve into a single narrative but rather appear more like ‘slice of life’ where life is criminal, corrupt and darkly comic. I do not consider it a waste of my time to have seen Honey Don’t in a theater but for many this may work perfectly well as a home experience.

A Polish film from 1962, Siberian Lady Macbeth is an adaptation of the 1865 novel Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District, which has been adapted into an opera and films since 1962.

Kino Video

Katarina is an unhappy wife living on a large estate with many serfs, ruled by an overbearing “master” Boris, to whose son she is married. Childless and joyless, with her husband away dealing with some far-flung emergency, Katarina begins an affair with a recently hired serf, Sergei. Katarina and Sergei conspire and murder Boris when he returns so Sergei may become the “master” of the estate. Their idyllic future is threatened by the arrival of distant relatives with a claim on the estate. Burdened by guilt and with suspicion against the couple growing, their relationship frays, leading to the story’s inevitable tragic conclusion.

Siberian Lady Macbeth is not an adaptation of the classic play but rather takes its title from the central conceit of a woman manipulating the men around her into murder. The story is presented more as a film noir, with characters driven by their base desires and greed into inescapable situations. While this film was produced in Poland, it in many ways adheres to America’s Production Code, both in the depiction of onscreen sexuality and violence and the compelled moralistic ending.

The copy streaming on Kanopy is not restored and displays many scratches and blemishes due to its age but is still quite watchable.

Overall, I am glad to have seen this film, but I can’t say that it ranks very highly among my favorite noirs nor my favored adaptations of Macbeth. There are several shots, particularly of the windswept and foggy estate that serves as the story’s central location, that were reminiscent of 1957’s Throne of Blood, my favorite non-Macbeth adaptation of the tragedy.

A local cinephile club, Film Geeks San Diego, among other events they hold presents a year-long film festival hosted by the local micro-theater Digital Gym. Last year’s festival celebrated the 70th anniversary of the king of the monsters Godzilla and after a tie vote this year’s has two themes, neo-noir and Foreign Horror. The festival kicked off with the British neo-noir Get Carter.

MGM-EMI

Adapted from the novel Jack’s Return Home, the film follows Jack Carter (Michael Caine) returning to his hated hometown of Newcastle in the north of England to investigate the mysterious death of his brother. Jack, a mob enforcer, stirs up trouble with both the local criminal underworld and his employers to discover the truth about his brother’s automobile ‘accident.’

Both Director Mike Hodges and cinematographer Wolfgang Suschitzky history of working with documentaries provide them with the skills to present Get Carter in a realistic and dirty manner. This is not a movie the idealizes its gangster characters or their lives but rather shows that their world is red in tooth and claw where life is nasty, brutish, and short. Jack is no hero. His motivations are purely familial and the pain, suffering, and death that follow in his wake have little weight on his conscience. The story and the mood remain deeply cynical right to the film’s dark and uncompromising final shots.

I have seen Get Carter before, at home on DVD but even in a tiny theater the film exudes power on this large screen that is often absent when viewed casually in the living room.

There have been two other cinematic adaptation of this novel a remake with the same title in 2000 starring Sylvester Stallone which jettisons much of the cynicism that make the British film so powerful and a blaxploitation adaptation The Hitman in 1972. (I must hunt that one down.)

Next month the festival continues with the 1955 French film Diabolique.

Warner Brothers

Jim Grayam (Jeffrey Hunter, a year prior to his turn in Star Trek’s 1st failed pilot) discovers Lorrie Benson (Anne Francis) passed out in her car stopped dangerously on a railroad crossing. Jim moves the car second ahead of a speeding train and returns Lorrie to her home and her possessive and domineering husband millionaire Cort Benson (Dana Andrews). Eschewing any monetary reward Jim is pulled back into Lorrie’s orbit when she insists on his attendance at a party while her husband is away. Jim and Lorrie begin a torrid affair. (Tastefully off screen as the production while weakened still ruled in 1965.) Benson learning of the affair, deploys his wealth and contacts to destroy Jim’s life and the couple begin to plot their escape with the murder of her husband.

Directed by William Conrad who is best known as an actor, Brainstorm is a tight and fairly entertaining late film noir. There is enough flair in the presentation that make one regret that Conrad’s turned more to performance and less towards direction. Somewhat hampered by the jazz score, as many lesser budgeted films of this period were, the movie still is bolstered by fine performances and reveals that organically develop from the noir plotting.

Anne Francis is quite convincing as Lorrie the trapped spouse of an emotionally abusive man. Her character is not the conniving plotted femme fetal of film noir but rather a sympathetic and terrified woman desperate for escape, but ultimately too broken to stand on her own.

Jeffrey Hunter threw himself into the part of Jim Grayam. Skilled at portraying deeply internal characters here Hunter not only employs those talents but in the film’s third act get to let loose and devour the scenery with deliberately overly expansive performance.

Dana Andrews turns in a perfectly acceptable performance, but his character is one there to drive the plot and as such is the least developed of the core three.

Sam Leavitt’s cinematography is not particularly atmospheric nor is it overly pedestrian but rather balances neatly between the two.

Brainstorm is part of the Criterion Channel’s Hollywood Crack-up collection, a compilation of films dealing with madness and mental manipulation. Before this set appeared on the channel I had never heard of Brainstorm (1965) but I do not regret the one and three-quarters hours I spent Sunday evening watching this piece of cinema.

Brainstorm is currently streaming on The Criterioon Channel.