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Reviews
Operation Amsterdam (1959)
Pedestrian war flick running on love, heroism - and beautiful Bartok
OPERATION AMSTERDAM's synopsis and the iniitial voiceover narration seem to suggest a gripping film based on a real WW II operation, but very soon you realize that it is just some news item transferred to the screen with larger than life but rather wooden characters - apart from Anna, played by the gorgoeous Eva Bartok.
Director Michael McCarthy sadly died at just 42, shortly after completing OPERATION AMSTERDAM, but even earlier films - thankfully shorter - like THE TRAITOR (1957) and MYSTERY JUNCTION (1951) stew in a mire of mediocrity, so I doubt he would have reached any quality podium had he lived to 84. What is more, in this film he co-wrote the similarly stall-sputter-jump screenplay.
Pedestrian cinematography and editing by Reginald Wyer and Arthur Stevens, respectively.
OK but unremarkable acting. Finch is described by the narrator as the key man in the operation, a Dutch citizen who knows diamonds inside out and whose father is a diamond cutter, and holds a personal fortune in diamonds that the UK so badly needs to bore and drill as part of the war materiel production effort. He keeps showing unusual interest in the suitcases that Britton carries and never lets anyone touch for a second. Other than his loving relationship with his father - well portrayed by Malcolm Keen - Finch has the unenviable role of trying to seem to matter. In the end, what is best remembered from his performance as Jan Smit is that he gets the girl.
Tony Britton plays the British major leading the operation and he certainly pulls rank several times, otherwise he just goes around with those suitcases and disappears for a long stretch. At the end we learn that the cases contained explosives to blow up the main Shell oil deposit in Amsterdam - the aim being to deprive the Germans of its use, just as with the diamonds.
Saving the best for last. Beautiful Bartok may speak English with a raw accent, and wear trenchcoat most of the time, which does not reveal her fabulous figure, but she steals the show without trying. 6/10.
Dead Man's Shoes (2004)
Best revenge: stay alive! Good acting propels odd vengeance flick
Other than he was born in 1972, when British cinema had already laid to rest the "kitchen sink" period, I do not know anything about Director Shane Meadows. That said, there is something "kitchen sink"-like about DEAD MAN'S SHOES, with its shots of impoverished quarters, and the low lives that make up the gang that brutalizes Anthony, the retarded brother of main character Richard (Paddy Considine), who happens to be no less than a former army commando.
Top baddie Sonny (Gary Stretch) leads the gang of drug adddicts and petty criminals that Richard marks for revenge. Sonny and his band of less than merry men know that Anthony has a brother able to seek retaliation but perhaps they are too confident, careless, stoned and flippant to care.
More surprisingly, in my view, Richard decides to visit them personally and confirm that he is the one propelling the proverbial fan spreading the compost. Which, given that they are six to one, should give them the edge, but they are not the sharpest lot by any estimation. On a more positive note, one of that gang appears to have more of a conscience than the rest, and Richard seems out to spare him.
The movie opens with a series of 8mm, 16mm, and VHS memories of Richard and Anthony together as children, and flashbacks keep interfering with the narrative flow until you learn what actually happened to Anthony. I think that strategy ends up muddling the plot without adding any crucial meaningfulness.
Alas, I have only two eyes and probably a narrow mind, but my abiding belief is that staying alive is anyone's crowning achievement - and certainly so if you are determined to wreak retribution... which makes DEAD MAN'S SHOES finale rather odd, and left me rather frustrated. 6/10.
L'emmerdeur (1973)
French comedy at its finest on a low budget
From what I have read and heard, the French tend to regard the 1970s as a down period for French cinema, after the universally praised Nouvelle Vague of the late 1950s and through the 1960s.
I have only seen a few Gallic films from that time and generally I have to agree with that appraisal - though L'EMMERDEUR, LA CAGE AUX FOLLES, both directed by Edouard Molinaro, stand as exceptions and would rate well above average in any decade.
Molinaro deserves plaudits for keeping L'EMMERDEUR short and tight, mixing near-claustrophobic indoor sequences with open air speed chases, all buoyed by a superlative Francis Veber script and, principally, by peerless acting by Lino Ventura and Jacques Brel, as two completely different characters - the former methodical, precise, immoral as a hired assassin -, the latter as a loser of a shirt salesman trying to commit suicide because his cheating wife has abandoned him.
Although Brel is better known for singing music that he composed - NE ME QUITTE PAS, LE MORIBOND, MARIEKE, MADELEINE, LES PRÉNOMS DE PARIS are songs that always bring unfettered pleasure to my ears - he actually plays very convincingly and even sympathetically the part of the loser getting on the nerves of the pro trying to kill a star witness for the state.
Also deserving of major plaudits is Nino Castelnuovo in the minor part of the bellhop who keeps getting tips as he battles the various problems with the hotel's shutters, flooding bathtubs, and other issues. He tries to warn Ventura to keep away from the helpless Brel, but his advice goes unheeded with comic results.
Jean-Pierre Darras, as the psychiatrist who treats Brel's wife and absconds with her, also deserves praise. The scene where he injects the wrong man with sedative is one of the funniest I remember in any movie I have ever watched.
I first saw this film 50 years ago, about a year after it had come out in France, loved it, and I have been looking for a copy ever since the VHS era, but failed to land one. Recently, a friend lent me the DVD and I wondered whether I would enjoy it as much as I had done at the age of 17.
I did. It is an intelligent film anchored by Ventura in his career-best comic performance (he is also in superior comedy form in LES TONTONS FLINGUEURS, and to a lesser degree in L'AVENTURE C'EST L'AVENTURE).
Straight forward, effective cinematography by Raoul Coutard.
As a footnote, the great movie director Billy Wilder was so impressed by L'EMMERDEUR that he reprised it as BUDDY, BUDDY starring Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau, both Oscar winners... but by comparison it is a plodding, contrived effort.
High Treason (1951)
Early Cold War flick - well acted, shot, directed
Roy Boulting deserves remembering as one of the best British directors of the 1950s and 1960s. With films like THE MAGIC BOX, SEVEN DAYS TO NOON, THE FAMILY WAY and other outstanding credits.
HIGH TREASON is certainly a good early Cold War flick, at a time when across the Atlantic US Senator McCarthy was launching his famous House UnAmerican Activities Committee (HUAC) which basically suspected everyone of communist leanings, and those suspicions were only heightened in Great Britain, as part of a continent - Europe - where World War Two had begun and had remained its prime theater, with Russia embarking on expansionism after the conflict, and spies like Kim Philby and others defecting to the USSR.
HIGH TREASON examines the way British police investigate a bombing incident resulting in human and instructural losses, and link it to a spy ring headed by a British traitor. It is certainly well done, even if I have some reservations about the authenticity of the final shootout.
Convincing acting, cinematography and realistic dialogue all help, even if HIGH TREASON rates nowhere near masterpiece. 7/10.
Invitation to a Gunfighter (1964)
Strong start, subdued ending, surplus Segal, Janice rules!
Director Richard Wilson does not ring any bells with me, I think INVITATION TO A GUNFIGHTER is the sole film of his I remember watching... and, despite the strong, gripping start, it fizzles from midway on and ends on a rather subdued and unnecessarily crowded note.
Yul Brynner plays gunhand Jules aka Jewel according to the local pronunciation, a mulatto from New Orleans, hired by the town's main elder, Brewster, who made the most of the end of the Secession War to grab land, including George Segal's parents' farm, and proceedd to sell it for personal profit, thereby expanding his wealth and cementing his power.
George Segal, playing confederate soldier Matt Weaver, returns from the war to find his mother buried in a grave on his land taken by the one-armed husband of his former love, the lovely Janice Rule. That is pretty much it for Segal, who appears intermittently and rather meaninglessly until the more presential end.
Yul/Jules/Jewel dispenses justice in a hard but fair manner, getting Brewster to talk to a donkey twice about his sins (I wonder whether Director and script writer Wilson had seen AU HASARD, BALTHASAR and was at influenced by it). I heard no braying, but you don't get a better moral lesson than that. By the end, though, the second donkey confession sounds as surplus as Segal's part.
Thank God for beautiful Janice, She rules as the most balanced, sympathetic, and truly level-headed character of all. 6/10.
Bullet for a Badman (1964)
Solid cinematography, acting in Murphy vehicle
I do not know much about R G Springsteen, but I like his directorial work in BULLET FOR A BAD MAN, buoyed by excellent cinematography, breath-taking landcapes, and a cast in super form - notably leads Audie Murphy and Darren McGavin, the latter the former hubby of stunningly beautiful Beverley Owen, who now lives with Murphy. To add fuel to the fire, McGavin is the father of Owen's son, who is developing a relationship so close with Murphy as to call him "father;" and Mc Gavin robs the town's bank and everyone is looking for the dough and the reward that comes with it.
The plot cannot avoid some predictability but it is solid enough that you do not have to suspend your disbelief too much, and some of the dialogue warrants praise for its sharpness and dry humor.
No masterpiece, but you won't waste your time if you can catch it. 7/10.
Count Five and Die (1957)
The importance of the capsule in WWII
If I understood correctly from the film's dialogue, when one inserted a cyanide pill in one's mouth to escape torture and spilling the beans, one just counted to five and croaked. Alas, reality is different, it takes longer than that and, according to experts, an excrutiatingly painful death.
Of course, during WWII spies would carry those capsules as a matter of course and in this case Annemarie Duringer, the beautiful German agent who has infiltrated a joint English-American decoy unit dedicated to providing false info to the Germans about the D-Day invasion, becomes suspicious when she notices that the agents are not being issued with the capsules.
Very good acting from Nigel Patrick, always an extremely reliable thespian. Jeffrey Hunter plays the part of a US Army captain who does not trust Patrick, and makes some decisions that ultimately prove very costly, but he is not an actor of Patrick's ability. Rolf Lefebvre, as the chief spy in the German group, also delivers a top grade performance, as does Duringer.
Frankly, this film is entertaining and honest enough that I do not care whether it accurately reflects history. I also find it odd that some regard it as dated. Why? WWII ended in 1945, how could it not become dated if, since then, we have had the Cold War, the independence of many countries, the emergence of widespread terrorism, and many other developments. The clock never stops ticking and change has been the only constant in these modern times.
COUNT FIVE AND DIE rates no masterpiece but despite suffering from a low budget, it is a sight better and more faithful to history than the bulk of current movies. 7/10.
The Black Widow (1951)
Logical and short, not so sweet tale of deceitful spouse
This 1951 support feature wraps up in just 53 minutes, which I find laudable. The downside is that its shortness cannot have attracted better actors and the film suffers for the mediocrity of the ensemble.
Christine (played by Christine Norden, about whom I know zero) is the name of the wife cheating on her husband with his best chum (with spouses and chums like that, wise to see everyone as the enemy!)
The problem is that deceived hubby Robert Ayres (who I daftly confused with Lew Ayres, of ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT fame) is not able to convey credible emotions. Seeing that he was dumb enough to leave his car to assist a thief lying on the road who promptly punched him and stole his vehicle, before equally dumbly flooring the accelerator and crashing to his death, the result was... you guessed it, the cuckolded hubby became amnesic. How complicated is that! Very! Because the best chum has more of a conscience than the femme fatale of a wife, and he is not that keen to ice his pal and potentially face the noose, he comes across as half-hearted which detracts from the killer instinct the situation demanded.
Those flaws aside, the script benefits from sharp dialogue, and cinematography compares favorably with most B pics. To conclude, a gripping programmer that is definitely no waste of time. 7/10.
The Fall Guy (2024)
Plenty of CGI action, cosmetic acting, peripheral plot
With a count of 858 reviews already in, I doubt anyone will bother to read this one but - what the heck? - I will give it a go.
All I know and liked about Director David Leitch is that he directed DEADPOOL 2 (2018), which was not as good as the original DEADPOOL of 2016, but certainly had its moments and some acidic sense of humor. Certainly a darned sight better than JOHN WICK, in which Keanu Reeves just keeps shooting people dead at close range to stay alive. Whether such a mammoth murderer deserved to stay alive did not matter.
In light of those two specimens of Leitch's work, I approached THE FALL GUY with uncertainty. All I knew for sure was that stunningly beautiful Emily Blunt had undergone facial surgery, and by all accounts now looks different. Her part is crucial for head over heels in love with her lead stuntman Colt Sheavers (Ryan Gosling in a role reminiscent of the one he played in NICE GUYS, 2016, where he also kept falling albeit for more logical and comic reasons) but not so crucial to the peripheral plot, where producer Gail (Hannah WADDINGHAM) steals the show thanks to her evil and deceitful
ways... ultimately, though, Jean-Claude the mixed mutt deserves the academy award for most faithful thespian, one who responds to commands in French only.
Otherwise, nothing memorable about all this CGI shot in Sydney, Australia, with the Opera House in the background and plenty of back-breaking stunts, and computer-made faces replacing other faces to go down as fall guys for the mounting count of deceased.
Word to the wise: Ryan Gosling shoult watch it. He risks getting stereotyped into this kind of mechanical, daft role - which would be a pity. The paying public cannot afford to lose a self-deprecating actor of his stature. 7/10.
You Have to Run Fast (1961)
Cheap B pic with fitting title: run fast... from it!
Director Edward L Cahn walked the line of mediocrity and YOU HAVE TO RUN FAST only provides incidental confirmation of that assertion: shoddy direction, childish script, amateurish acting by the leads Craig Hill and Elaine Edwards (who was she? I do not recall seeing her name on any film before!), paralytic retired US Army colonel Willis Bouchey who proves his lethal sniping from the comfort of his lounge's window sill after just turning over his handgun to the outlaws a minute earlier, rather rotund-bellied and inadvertently comic top villain Grant Richards as "Big Jim" Craven who has been searching for goody two shoes doctor Craig Hill all over the USA and gets to find him at Buckhorn Motel in tiny backwater town Summit City that does not even have a full-time medical doctor...
Poor Craig Hill can see the writing on the wall when even a local cop recognizes Craven but allows himself to be overpowered and shot through his chest before being placed against a tree. Amazingly, while drowning in his own blood, that superhuman cop manages to walk some distance to a makeshift operating table. Wonders never cease...
At least the title is spot on: you have to run fast... before you drown in all the senseless BS in this movie! An extremely generous 5/10 for the lovely 1950s cars on show.
Stalag 17 (1953)
Grandaddy of POW flicks with masterful direction, acting
Billy Wilder definitely deserves a place among the 10 best film directors ever, with opuses like SUNSET BOULEVARD, THE APARTMENT, SOME LIKE IT HOT in his resumé. STALAG 17 is not as famous, or as good, as any of those, but it comes darned close. In all frankness, the only flaw separating it from such sublime quality is the refrain-like presence of a duo who are supposed to function lilke comic relief. Sadly, in my view they fail in that mission in spite of conveying the film's most famous and best line: "Sprachen sie Deutsch, droppen sie dead". (Sorry about my poor spelling)
Otherwise, STALAG 17 deserves every commendation: superior direction by Wilder, script (by Wilder and others), in turns claustrophobic and open cinematography by the great Ernest Laszlo, and, above all, acting: golden boy William Holden deservedly picked up the best actor Oscar, Otto Preminger is caustically funny as commander Oberst von Scherbach, Sig Ruman very nearly steals the show as German Sergeant Schultz, and Peter Graves never performed better.
Sad to see some comments compare this to a film that came out a decade later, THE GREAT ESCAPE. STALAG 17 not only preceded it, its budget was shoestring by comparison. Even sadder to see comments that STALAG has not aged well. Back in 1953 the cinema industry did not have the artifacts that would appear over the course of time, including 70 mm cinerama, CGI, etc. It is as unfortunate to say that a film has not aged well as to say that a human being should not be in society because he/she has wrinkles brought on by the inexorable aging process.
Enjoy cinema for what it is, not for what it purportedly should be. STALAG 17 is a work of art that shows humans at close to their very worst... and best. Strongly recommended viewing. 9/10.
5 Card Stud (1968)
Vengeance is mine, sayeth the Lord - Mc&M&M in good form
I like Director Henry Hathaway. Whether it be Westerns like TRUE GRIT or 5 CARD STUD, adventures like NORTH TO ALASKA or THE TRAIL OF THE LONESOME PINE, his films stir with action and funny moments in the midst of serious situations. In 5 CARD, he makes the most of a strong dialogue script by Marguerite Roberts and yet another superb if atypical score by Maurice Jarre (in which Martin even gets to sing), effective cinematography by Daniel Fapp and James King and, above all, superior acting by the three M's: Mitchum revisiting his preacher of NIGHT OF THE HUNTER, Martin in his best form since RIO BRAVO, and McDowall as the smilingly sinister baby-faced murder orchestrator.
Beauties Katherine Justice and Inger Stevens make it sweet on the eye. 7/10.
Death of a Gunfighter (1969)
Waste of in form actors on illogical script
Someone by the name of Joseph Calvelli is credited with the screenplay of DEATH OF A GUNFIGHTER - I know him not from the proverbial bar of soap, and on the strength of the illogical, awful script, I hope not to see his name again.
Director Alan Smithee is in fact bipolar: he is the name used by Directors Don Siegel - whom I admire very much - and Robert Totten, whose film GUNSMOKE I watched so long ago that I do not have a firm opinion on its merits anymore.
With a bipolar Alan Smithee and a substandard script writer, things inevitavly go south with this production and Andrew Jackson's pedestrian cinematography does not function as Deus Ex Machina either. Sadly, those failures pull the rug from under the feet of the acting ensemble.
Richard Widmark posts his trademark quality performance as the trigger happy Marshall Patch (a fitting name, the unfortunate lawman is going through a bad patch despite his basic decency); capably assisted by main villain Carroll O'Connor (then famous for his comic TV show, ARCHIE BUNKER'S PLACE), suicidal Kent Smith, and David Opatoshu as leader of the city elders trying not just to oust but to actually kill Widmark.
I have always liked Don Siegel for his respet of cause and efffect in the plot, but here he must have allowed the other part of Alan Smithee to smite his ass, and the final scenes of a moribund Widmark marrying Lena Horne and staggering about the town with a shot in the leg and another in his left shoulder just reek of impossibility. 6/10 is actually generous, as I really like Widmark and Siegel.
Billy Two Hats (1974)
Well directed, shot, acted revisionist Western
By 1974, when BILLY TWO HATS came out, Ted Kotcheff had already directed major films like LIFE AT THE TOP (UK 1965) and WAKE IN FRIGHT (Australia, 1971), among other highly enjoyable and brain-stirring films.
BILLY is a deceptively simple film, portraying the relationship between Arch, an American with a heavy Scottish brogue, well portrayed by Gregory Peck, and half-breed Desi Arnaz Jr, playing the role of Billy Two Hats.
Without ever rubbing your face in it, this film - unusually for 1974 - scalpels issues such as a sheriff (Jack Warden, who I do not recall seeing in any other Western) who believes he acts fairly with everyone while voicing considerable racism in his views of half-breeds and Indians; David Huddleston, who lives with a squaw in the boondocks, had a daughter with her but handed the child to the Indian reservation, and he lives in hopes that some railroad will create a station there (ironically, he refers to it as sweetwater, the name of the property that causes all the problems in ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST, Leone's 1968 spaghetti Western); Greg and Desi have a good, respectful, almost father-son relation in contrast with all the less than social behavior by others around them, including a foursome of Apache Indians out for scalps and trophies.
The buffalo gun shot fired by David Huddleston that hits Peck's horse at the start deserves to be remembered for its excellent cinematographic and sound execution, but the whole film is extremely well filmed. The acting - by all, down to the small parts - warrants plaudits, as does the taut script.
Definitely worth watching 8/10.
Max et les ferrailleurs (1971)
Excellent direction & script from Sautet, acting by Piccoli, Schneider
Claude Sautet emerged at the tail end of the Nouvelle Vague and was undoubtedly one of the most gifted directors to have surfaced in the late 1960s, having first cut his teeth as script writer, cameraman, assistant director. Such complete knowledge of the entire cinema spectrum only assisted Sautet in cranking out wonderful flicks like MAX, UN COEUR EN HIVER. LES CHOSES DE LA VIE, QUELQUES JOURS AVEC MOI, among others.
In MAX, he is assisted by very effective cinematography by René Matelin, and Sautet himself had an important hand in the script, which is logical and credible, with always impeccably dressed detective Max paying protitute Schneider out of his own pocket to win his way to a potential thief's heart. NB - the reason I dock a star is that initially the aim of Max's operation was to catch in the commission of crime a certain Carmona, but the latter is never seen and after a while seems to have been forgotten.
Through the exceedingly sexy Schneider, we see Max sell the plan of a possible bank robbery to Schneider who in turn passes it on to non-customer, regular lover Bernard Fresson, a poor devil who earns his living from brute strength work and leaps at the opportunity of scoring easy dough. Georges Wilson is superb as Max's boss, aware of the consequences and injustice of forcing a criminal situation but willing to help one of his best detectives after the latter had bungled a previous operation.
The whole film turns around the relationship between Piccoli and Schneider, a prostitute who is happy to earn money without having to move her hips but who begins to get frustrated by Max's distant behavior, even if they kiss and you sense true love between them.
Ultimately, this well done film is about loyalty and betrayal, about overstepping the boundaries of legal and police work, and sticking to those cornerstones of justice, and it certainly had me thinking about those variants for several days.
Highly recommended. 9/10.
La maison des bories (1970)
Un rêve de femme loyale dans un triangle d'amour - or how love triumphs over meanness, deceit, envy
All I know about Director Jacques Doniol-Volcroze is that François Truffaut and Jean-Luc Goddar regarded him as a fellow member of the Nouvelle Vague that rolled over French cinema over the late 1950s, through the 1960s. Ironically, LA MAISON DES BORIES bears none of the usual traits of a Nouvelle Vague flick with its classically composed bucolic cinematography, exceedingly beautiful musical score (the second movement of Mozart's Piano Concerto 21 is put to more inspired use here than in ELVIRAN MADIGAN), restrained acting, and a deceptively simple screenplay that hides immense spiritual complexity.
The serenely beautiful Marie Dubois plays the loyal wife and mother who has fallen in love with a handsome young visitor but know better than to cheat while her husband is away on a job interview. Maurice Garrel plays her rather boring, disciplinarian, conservative university professor of a husband, who rules over the house with a tight grip, but ultimately proves able to change.
Then wunderkind Mathieu Carrière, handsome and fit, fans change into the household as he gets on with his job of translating Garrel's geology work to German, plays with the kids, falls in love with Dubois and ensnares her emotionally. However, the evil mendacity of manservant Ludovic in the house of dry stone huts (i.e. Bories, a construction style typical of southeastern France) enlightens her as to the straight and narrow path for a clean and balanced approach that saves the family unit and gives it a future, as Garrel returns with good news: a job in Paris that will prevent having to place the kids in boarding schools away from home.
I found the film stunningly beautiful and its moral etiquette delightful. Heartily recommended viewing. 9/10.
The Moon Is Blue (1953)
Great male actors, lovable McNamara but... too much fluff
Director Otto Preminger needs no introduction with films like LAURA (1944), BUNNY LAKE IS MISSING (1965), ADVISE & CONSENT (1962) and others under his belt. As it turns out, William Holden had already served as his male lead in STALAG 17 the previous year, and deservedly won the best actor Academy Award.
In light of that, it surprised me to watch Holden in a comparatively tame role, as a young man with a girlfriend who feels almost cosmically pulled into the orbit of the openly frank, nothing to hide, deliciously elegant Maggie McNamara. That part I well understood.
I had far more difficulty swallowing the rather older David Niven, father of Dawn Adams - who plays the minimal part of Holden's first girlfriend, Cynthia - actually asking the very young Mc Namara to marry him. I also had to suspend my disbelief to uncomfortable lengths to accept McNamara sitting on Niven's lap and kissing him after accepting a $600 cash gift - I realize she is supposed to be adorably screwball but even today that sounds like devious behavior and back in 1953 it must have startled many.
THE MOON IS BLUE is almost wholly shot indoors, no sight of the moon, hardly any outside views at all, and the characters rather left me with the impression that I was watching a substandard play. That said, Niven steals the show with his underhand class and fake wide-eyed innocence, Holden's dry but yet nuanced delivery is perfect, McNamara's waif-like figure and beautiful eyes are to die for, and Tom Tully stands out as her daddy with a shiner punch.
Ultimately, though, there is not much to remember about this flick, possibly because the cinematography is pedestrian and the screenplay not screwball enough. 6/10.
Christmas in July (1940)
Vile joke turns into happy ending
By 1940, when CHRISTMAS IN JULY came out, Preston Sturges already had some treasures to his name, including assisting with the screenplay of IF I WERE KING, and directing THE GREAT MCGINTY. Needless to say, greater successes awaited him.
CHRISTMAS IN JULY has the great advantage of running a brief 67 minutes and having the beautifulk leading couple - Dick Powell and Ellen Drew - in great comic form. That said, the prank that a trio of work colleagues play on the daydreaming James MacDonald rates out and out vile, and nearly caused me to stop watching.
Glad I persisted, though. Despite living now in a telecommunications age that would not permit forged telegrams to be accepted as evidence of prize-winning, CHRISTMAS carries a positive energy to its happy ending, and it warrants watching. 7/10.
The Favourite (2018)
Endlessly pointless, petty, psychotic, un-comic female pederasty - but attacks on Brit monarchy do sell!
Since coming out in 2018, THE FAVOURITE has clearly lost favor with viewers and if you take the time to go through these 1,340 reviews on IMDB you will find that the bad ones are pretty much all stacked up at the end, where they are harder to find. Why, I have no inknling but it certainly seems that way.
Queen Anne, the main figure in this purported plot, is not anyone I have any interest in learning anything about, even for the purpose of historic correctness, because she left no worthy legacy in any terms that could have helped England, let alone mankind. Instead, we get a fisheye voyeuristic seat on her sexual and other vagaries while supposedly leading her kingdom -- though Lady Marlborough (Weisz) is the real power behind the throne, and the queen's firm favourite and sexual consort.
That is, until the character played by Emma Stone bursts upon the mud; Stone has fallen out of grace because of her family's misfortunes and she is a distant cousin to Lady Marlborough. She rapidly surmises that the queen is the only way out of menial service, and she jostles to become the queen's favourite, and in the process engages in personal war with her cousin, with ravaging consequences for both.
Overlong, very pretentious, pointless from a historic and didactic standpoint, this film is something of a psychotic foray, and its greatest attempts at shocking are the use of profanities and expletives. It is also a sexist film, with males depicted as relentlessly stupid, vain, irrelevant, powerless and laughable.
Lanthimos' deliberately disordered and perverse direction repeats lugubrious scenes in the palace's corridors; repetitive and idiotic dialogue; and, worst of all, the annoying and anachronistic soundtrack, including what appears to be the jarring beat of a pendulum. Out of respect for my wife and mother in law I did not not walk out but I sure as hell felt like it after the first 15 minutes.
Lanthimos also shamelessly borrows ideas from TOM JONES (UK 1963), which showed England's royal court as a place of carnal and other excesses - but at least TOM JONES posted superb acting and a crisp pace, running on zany comedy interspersed with shocking reality; and it did not need offensive language to make its point.
Ultimately, the caged rabbits are the queen's real favourites and they reflect the film's level of intelligence (rabbits reportedly have little memory). The vague, totally meaningless ending only emphasizes the mental vacuum of the entire exercise.
Best avoided waste of time. Pity I cannot award it a big fat ZERO out of 10.
The Apartment (1960)
Wilder's finest after SUNSET BOULEVARD, SOME LIKE HOT
Billy Wilder is one of my absolute favorite directors, surpassed only by William Wyler and Alfred Hitchcock. And, as it turns out, THE APARTMENT is one of his best films: in my view, only the unique SUNSET BOULEVARD and the brilliantly comic SOME LIKE IT HOT rate higher.
Jack Lemmon had recently completed SOME LIKE IT HOT, which had rocketed it him to planetary fame, and Wilder saw him as the right specimen as an overworked, underpaid, pliable clerk who loans his flat for extramarital sex to his boss, a smarmy Fred MacMurray in one of his best roles.
The girl sleeping with the boss is none other than Lemmon's crush, the elegant Shirley MacLaine who keeps him at arm's length, clearly in love with MacMurray. That triangle is tough to accept even in this 21st Century, back in 1960 it must have rated close to improper if not downright scandalous. However, that must be seen as one of Wilder's principal premises: how an individual is used by someone more powerful (consider Swanson's power over Holden and von Stroheim in SUNSET BOULEVARD, or Kirk Douglas' over the village in ACE IN THE HOLE).
It is an indictment of modern society but, as Wilder said once, "things are not as you idealize them." Sharp dialogue, wonderful cinematography and - best of all, in my view - the sublime score by Adolph Deutsch warrant full marks for this masterpiece. 10/10.
Scrooge (1970)
Ebenezer screws you... then becomes a Dickensian saint!
The famous but - in my view - unlikely tale of moral and monetary redemption by that great British writer, Charles Dickens, comes to life with some fine acting and cinematography! The original A Christmas Carol, was written in the mid 19th Century as the industrial revolution swamped England and 5% of the population accrued immense wealth, while the other 95% slogged and suffered to stay alive.
The Dickensian seal of poverty and squalid surroundings is present at the start but Director Ronald Neame rapidly introduces singing children far better dressed than I would have imagined when I first read A Christmas Carol, and so the greedy, avaricious figure of Ebenezer Scrooge emerges in grand eerie malevolence, refusing family time to Bob Crachit, his clerk, and denying extending a loan by two weeks while counting and hiding rows and rows of pennies in his vaults.
Charles Dickens lived a short 58 years but put out about as many famous books as he did children - you have to wonder where he, slight figure of a man, found such supermannish energy!
I know the value of money, saw my grandfather squander a fortune at gambling, so I am uneasy about people giving away money. Forgive me for not believing it possible for a stingy old man to undergo the spiritual and monetary redepemption Scrooge does, but then the economy could not really move and thrive if the 5% of rich society did not allow pennies to trickle down to the impoverished 95%, and the Dickens of such bleak tales as Hard Times, Oliver Twist, David Copperfield, Bleak House, Nicholas Nickleby and others, always produces a kind of social miracle whereby the protagonists end up better off financially, as if pointing the light at the end of the economic tunnel to his readership.
Scrooge's stinginess obviously harms society, his clerk Crachit's child even perishes out of hunger and lack of medical care - and that is when guilt demons in the shape of ghostly Alec Guinness and Edith Evans start to sting his conscience and, amid a great deal of rather mediocre music and singing, he is saved from his personal hell by becoming generous. Albert Finney provides an appropriately unkempt, withdrawn portrayal of the scrimp & save social fiend who finally redeems himself by realizing the negative impact he has on the community, and buying presents for all kids in the village, in addition to other generous deeds after a life of hoarding away money.
Well... Merry Christmas all! 7/10.
Gumshoe (1971)
Finney stands out as comic PI in Frears-directed British noir
I have always admired the quality and versatility of British-born Director Stephen Frears' work, ever since watching DANGEROUS LIAISONS. Subsequently, I saw FILOMENA, THE QUEEN, and THE SNAPPER, and all helped cement my high opinion of his style, attention to dialogue and acting, and fluid cinematography.
GUMSHOE is an early Frears opus and, although very different from any of the above mentioned films, it already reflects his concern with extracting quality acting: Finney is verily superb as Ginley, the standup comedian chancing it as Private Investigator, and he is ably assisted by Billie Whitelaw - to whom Ginley refers "sister in law", as she is his former wife now married to his brother, taciturnly played by Frank Finlay, and with the nefarious but strikingly beautiful Janice Rule lurking in the background.
The underground sequences are quite good, those above ground not quite as effective. I also felt let down by the ending, but all told GUMSHOE is definitely worth watching.
Driftwood (1947)
Uneven but right-hearted tale about delightful button and her mutt
I wish I knew more about Director Alan Dwan: I enjoyed watching the only two films I can distinctly connect to him: TENNESSEE'S PARTNER, with an in form Ronald Reagan, and SLIGHTLY SCARLETT, with John Payne - neither exceptional, both well made.
The same characteristics of fine visual composition, adroit close-ups, and generally pleasant/effective cinematography are brought to DRIFTWOOD under the experienced hand of the great John Alton. My sole qualms lie with the rather uneven script - still, Dwan wisely elected to keep it short, which leaves the quick-minded viewer to fill the blanks (the not so quick will understandably give DRIFTWOOD a low assessment!)
Still, the best part of DRIFTWOOD is the acting: in rampant form with MIRACLE ON 34TH STREET and TOMORROW IS FOREVER fresh entries on her CV, Natalie Wood steals the show with her innocent child's in your face truth-telling approach, having learned many biblical quotes from her grandfather, who dies in her presence at the beginning. A miracle collie dog joins her from a crashed aircraft and she miraculously lands up in the local doctor's house... none other than the kind, handsome Dean Jagger, with beautiful Ruth Warrick at his side, and spinster Charlotte Greenwood ready to impart her surface bitterness, which really conceals a heart of gold. Last, but by no means least, the wonderful Walter Brennan, the only actor to have won three Best Supporting Oscars (but sadly these days the target of a smear campaign labeling him "the most evil man in Hollywood," among other cowardly efforts condemning his opposition to the civil rights movement, as if all should think the same).
DRIFTWOOD deserves praise for its kindhearted, positive approach. I have only just discovered it but hope to rewatch it, and not just once. 8/10.
Le silence de la mer (2004)
Well done reprise of Melville's famous 1949 debut
I regret to admit that I know very little about Director Pierre Boutron, having only seen one of his works before - LES ANNÉES SANDWICHES, which I so enjoyed that I eagerly pounced on the opportunity to watch this 2004 effort, a reprise of the debut of one of my all-time favorite French directors: Jean-Pierre Melville.
I am no fan of remakes, so I approached Boutron's film with some misgiving and uncertainty, promising myself that I would stop the moment I found that it clearly the inferior of the famous original.
I am happy to say that I did not. In fact, I found it an improvement on the Melville effort. It flows better and acting is definitely more polished. Julie Delarme, who was 26 at the time but plays a young woman in her late teens, carries a great deal of feeling, conveyed mainly through glances, silences, and repressed emotions. Galabru also deserves plaudits, although his is a much smaller and less demanding part. Thomas Jouannet, portraying Werner, the respectful, well-mannered, music- and art-loving German officer who occupies one of the rooms in the house owned by Galabru, emerges as a honest, civilized figure as France sinks deeper and deeper under the grip of German occupation. Unlike Vernon Howard in the 1949 original, he does not try to atone for his fatherland's faults, he does not wander through the streets of Paris admiring the architecture and what it expresses about the French "soul" that Germany purportedly sought to eradicate through occupation and brainwashing. Jouannet sensitively tunes in to the human beings whose house he occupies against his own will. Marie Bunel also delivers a fine performance as the woman who places geraniums on her window sill when she receives Resistance fighters.
Effective, simple, well done cinematography by Alain Levent. Great script by Anne Giaferi, keeping dialogue to short sentences. Through looks, tears, and silence, Boutron fills in the viewer on emotions and deeper states of mind.
Definitely worth more than one viewing. 9/10.
The Bounty Hunter (1954)
Scott shines in de Toth-directed Western
THE BOUNTY HUNTER was the final collaboration betwixt Randolph Scott and Director André de Toth, and it might well rate the best. Very steady, unrelenting Wewstern with Scott going after three men who repoortedly stole government money and have used none of it so as to keep untraced by the law.
With info from people on whom he places various types of squeeze, he comes to the conclusion that the three thieves (who took $100,000 and are also proficient at icing people) must have sought sanctuary in the town of Twin Forks, all the more so because one of them may have been shot in the leg, and sought the care of the town doctor.
This is where this Western turns into a clever whodunnit with a surprise denouement in respect of one of the threesome planning to flee with the dough. Well worth watching with Scott delivering a contained but highly effective performance. 8/10.