Watching some old movies...

When I watch movies from the 40s and 50s, I really don't mind that they seem or look a little dated. The music, dialogue and clothing don't jar me much. But I just can't forgive the 60s and 70s so easily.

For years I had wanted to see the "Wickerman," a British horror movie from 1973. I used to watch a TV show called "That's Hollywood" when I was a kid. They would pull scenes from movies from different eras and Tom Bosley (Mr. C from "Happy Days") tied them together with narratation. They did one show on horror movies and there was a clip from the "Wickerman" and I wanted to see it. But I was 7 and there were no videotapes yet, so only decades later did I finally sit down to watch it. Unfortunately, a great plot is buried beneath 70s clothes and really bad 70s music. I couldn't get past it. Even the direction reeks of the early 70s.

Then last night, I watched "Bunny Lake is Missing." I had just finished reading the novel (which was a great read, by the way) and was looking forward to Otto Preminger's take on it. Once again, the signs of the times ruined the film. The novel's plot was brisk and eerie, but Otto just had to muddle it up with that bad Freudian psychodrama that gripped Hollywood for...oh, a decade or two. His ideas about mental illness are so dated that they end up making the movie fail completely when they could have stuck with the book and done just fine.

They might remake "The Wickerman" with Nicolas Cage. This could be great if they keep the plot and remove the groovy 70s, but I have a feeling that they'll amp up the influence of Japanese horror movies and the new "Wickerman" will look as dated as the old one in a few years.

My mother got such a kick out of how campy Wickerman is that when she came across a stick that looked vaguely dog-like, she named it "Wicker Dog" and placed it on our front porch to guard the house. Now, of course it has nothing to do with the movie, but it was still funny. I haven't seen Wicker Dog for a while-- I'm not sure if he ran away or was ceremonially torched.