RARE EXPORTS: A CHRISTMAS TALE (2010)
Written and Directed by Jalmari Helander

Christmas eve, Finland. A big corporation is digging deep into an isolated mountain to unearth the original Santa Claus. When young Pietari (Onni Tommilla) researches the original Santa, he discovers he was a demon who killed children. But neither his father (Jorma Tommila), his best friend (Ilmari Jarvenpaa), or anyone else will listen to him. This Finnish film combines equal amounts of snowy chills, creepiness, heartfelt human interest and comedy. Where else can you see hundreds of menacing elderly naked men marching through a snowy landscape? Seriously, its a fun film and I want to reveal as little as possible; figuring out its title is part of the fun. (Viewed with a friend on the big screen at Kendall Square Cinema, Cambridge, MA, while our wives saw THE KING’S SPEECH on the screen next door.)

WEIRD WOMAN (1944)
Written by Brenda Weisberg Directed by Reginald LeBorg

When college professor Norman Reed (Lon Chaney) returns from the South Seas with his young bride, many on campus come to believe that Paula (Anne Gwynn) is using her powers of witchcraft to advance her husband’s career. Strong performances from a large female cast - Anne Gwynn, Evelyn Ankers, Lois Collier, Elizabeth Risdon and especially Elizabeth Russell as the vengeful widow of spineless Ralph Morgan - lend a distinctively feminist atmosphere to this tale of alleged witchcraft and belief in its power, not surprisingly scripted by a woman (who also wrote several of Universal’s Dead End Kids films, three of Columbia’s Rusty series and the best of Universal’s Sherlock Holmes, THE SCARLET CLAW). Although it deviates quite a bit from the Fritz Leiber novel its based on, it stands on its own merits as a well made, taut little programmer. (Viewed on Universal’s “Inner Sanctum Mysteries” DVD set, which sports a nice looking transfer.)

— Robert Deveau, The Doomed Farmer