World Gone Mad (1933)

Director: Christy Cabanne

In this mediocre showing from the beginnings of Hollywood, we find bad writing, bad cinematography, and a lot of lawyers. Essentially there is a murdered DA and the new DA and a reporter are trying to get to the bottom of it. There is some love interest that is all muddled up. Its boring as hell.

Old boring law:

1. A bootlegger who is in good with the District Attorney is asked to “fight the DA to the finish.” The loyalties of bootleggers being what they are, he aquiesces. To make the hit he sets the DA up with a promise of evidence in a big case. After his death the DA is made out to be a drinking womanizer.

2. At one point a brief case is called a “lawyers bag.”

3. The new DA is looking to capture the men who murdered the old DA because “people look to the law to protect them.” He claims that he would shoot the criminals himself “if the law allowed,” but instead he will send them away for as long as the law allows. A very noble chap.

4. We find out that the penalty for kidnapping is life in prison.

5. The murder is an attempt to cover up corporate looting. This sort of stock fraud was pertinent as this was made in the wake of the great depression. Thus we get a bit of the criminal end of corporate law.

6. A hit on the new DA fails. He is in denial that he is a target and is told that DA’s “don’t just have accidents.”

7. A bit of legal theory: “Smith and Wesson make all men equal, and equality is the basis of all democracy.”

8. The bad guys are planning to leave the country on a yatch: pre harsh immigration law days.

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Body Double (1984)

Director: Brian De Palma

Struggling actor Jake Scully is loaned a flat by a total stranger who keeps appearing in his life. He sees a strip show in the house across the way and becomes obsessed with the woman. He then finds that a porn star does the same dance, and gets into a film with her. Then he witnesses the murder of the woman that he peeped on in the first place by another peeping tom. Its all very convoluded and slightly stupid, and I’m still upset that I wasted my time.

Double law:

1. It was billed on TV (Film 4 in England) as a movie they tried to ban. I don’t know where or by whom.

2. The whole idea is that the man is set up to see the murder and give evidence that draws attention away from the real murderer. Of course, if you were the killer this would be a ridiculous amount of preparation that might not pay off, but whatever.

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Ed Wood (1994)

Director: Tim Burton

This is a charming little film about Hollywod’s favorite cross dressing B movie director, Ed Wood. Wood, portrayed by Johnny Depp was a film director with a dream: too make movies. That’s exactly what he did too. The movies he made though were so atrocious that they’ve gone down in history as classics (we here at visual evidence certainly appreciate such film). Burton’s biographical film, shot in black and white, captures the manicness of the sets that Wood ran. It’s a definite A movie for B movie fans.

Cross dressin’ law:

1. At one point the crew must stop filming and hit the road because the police are spotted and they don’t have a permit.

2. Bela Lugosi’s unemployment gets cancelled by the government.

3. Bela also includes in his will that he be buried in his Dracula cape.

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Bachelor Party (1984)

Director: Neal Israel

What a classic. Rick Gassko (Tom Hanks), a catholic school bus driver, is ready to marry his upper crust girlfriend, thus his friends throw him a raging bachelor party. Her father disagrees with the whole marriage and is set to destroy the couple’s happy existence by throwing in the stereotypical blonde 1980’s exboyfriend to woo her back. Luckily, though, this movie goes easy on the love and heavy on the party, and we even get to see a donkey overdose.

It also goes light on the law.

1. The police shut the party down due to a noise complaint. This sends everyone on a wild chase through the city.

2. The movie ends with a wedding ceremony in which a “lawful wife” is declared by the officiant, who has “powers vested” in him by the state.

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