Village of the Damned (1960)

At only 77 minutes, this film would be pretty easy to rewatch right away with commentary, as I did once with another. Naturally, it gets coupled on DVD with its spiritual successor (not a sequel proper) Children of the Damned. But I decided that neither of those follow-ups was likely to be as entertaining -- and my time would be better spent writing this review.

In the beginning, everyone within the village of Midwich, England, falls unconscious for about four hours. Afterward, every Midwich woman of childbearing age is...well, they couldn't use an adjective for it on screen at the time. The offspring look human, albeit with subtly unusual and samey traits, but their mental and physical developments are rapid. Their emotional development, not so much. And they exhibit the telepathy for an essential hive mind -- not as much as Professor X, but enough to make them very hard to oppose.

Ivanhoe (1952)

In the interest of narrowing my many choices, I usually avoid movies with IMDb overall ratings less than 7, barring unusual circumstances like a vacation. Adaptations from classic literature are an exception. This version seemed like the best way to get the gist of the story in less than 2 hours, tho I read up on key divergences. Besides, it did well at the box office and garnered some Academy Award nominations.

In 1194, Wilfred of Ivanhoe (Robert Taylor) has discovered that the missing King Richard (aptly named Norman Wooland) is being held for ransom. Rather than taking the prison by storm, Ivanhoe runs around seeking money from people who prefer him to regent Prince John (Guy Rolfe). During this endeavor, he re-encounters his crush, Rowena (Joan Fontaine), and two John-aligned nemeses from the Crusades, Bois-Guilbert (George Sanders) and de Bracy (Robert Douglas). In surprisingly large roles, both financially and plotwise, are a pair of Jews: patriarch Isaac (Felix Aylmer) and his daughter, Rebecca (Elizabeth Taylor, no relation to Robert), the latter earning the jealous eye of Rowena and the lustful eye of Bois-Guilbert.

The Lodger (1944)

The earliest movie by this title, from 1927, was the only Hitchcock silent I've seen. That had been a modernized (for the time) take on a Marie Adelaide Belloc Lowndes novel based on Jack the Ripper. The 1944 film must be more faithful to the source material, as it takes place in the Whitechapel district of London in the late 19th century.

The presumably titular lodger (Laird Cregar) goes by Mr. Slade. While the infamous murder spree is in full swing, he manages to find on short notice an available flat owned by the Bontings (Cedric Hardwicke and Sara Allgood). Another lodger, incidentally, is Kitty Langley (Merle Oberon), an up-and-coming musical actress. In the course of investigation, John Warwick (George Sanders) of Scotland Yard meets and develops mutual feelings for Kitty, hoping especially to protect her from the Ripper.

Journey to Italy (1954)

For once, I went to an event with both a Meetup group and my dad. Why he declined to register as my plus-one or participate in the group discussion afterward, I may never know. The important thing for my review is that I had access to multiple relevant opinions, from people I know both well and not so well. And we all had pretty much the same reaction: "What?"

I'd seen a little of Roberto Rossellini's directorial work before. IMDb reports that I'd given an 8 out of 10 to Rome, Open City, but I can't remember a single moment from it. The Flowers of St. Francis has some appeal to the pious, but I'd be very selective in recommending it. I'd sooner rewatch either than JtI, making this an even bigger source of disagreement with the BFI list than in my last review. This time I can hardly fathom their thought processes.