Monthly Archives: March 2016

Floating Clouds (Ukigumo)
Directed by Mikio Naruse
Written by Yôko Mizuki from a novel by Fumiko Hayashi
1955/Japan
Toho Company
First viewing/Hulu

No adultery is bloodless. — Natalia Ginzburg

This is an interesting if frustrating film with some excellent acting.

The film is set in the immediate aftermath of the Japanese defeat in WWII and thereafter. As the film begins, Yukiko Koda (Hideko Takamine) is returning, penniless, to war-torn Tokyo from Indochina where she had been working in happier times.  Her first stop is at the home of Kengo Tomioka (Masayuki Mori).  She is greeted by his mother and wife.  He goes with her outside and we flash back to the beginning of their love affair when she arrived, as a young girl, to Vietnam.  The bloom is definitely now off the rose as far as Tomioka is concerned, though he offers to help her financially.  She refuses and goes to shack up at the empty house of a “friend”.

Yukiko survives by taking up with an American GI.  Soon enough, though, Tomioka is back in the picture.  He takes her to a mountain inn where he asks her to commit double suicide with him.  She declines and he starts flirting with the young wife of the owner and feels less like dying himself.  Back in Tokyo, the only way Yukiko can get by is by starting a relationship with the “friend”, who is now rich.  But Yukiko can’t seem to keep away from her unfaithful lover.

This is a very well made film.  I especially liked Masayuki Mori as the rat fink lover.  He is different in every movie I have seen him in.  It was kind of frustrating to watch though.  You knew from the first frame that the guy was a louse — before they even started their affair he was kind of insulting to her.  If people could only learn to accept it when the one they love doesn’t love them, the world would be a better place.  It might not have as many melodramas however.

Compilation of clips from various Naruse films set to nice music

Death of a Cyclist
Directed by Juan Antonio Bardem
Written by Juan Antonio Bardem and Luis Fernando de Igoa
1955/Spain/Italy
Guión Producciones Cinematográficas/Suevio Films-Cesáreo Gonzáles/Triumfal Cine
First viewing/Netflix rental

[box] I am responsible only to God and history.  — Francisco Franco[/box]

This story of the destruction of couple by their selfishness and guilt is meant to be an allegory to Spain’s Franco regime.  I don’t know if I got many of the references but it sure is beautiful to look at.

A couple are driving down a lonely country road when their car accidentally hits an elderly bicyclist.  The man, Juan (Alberto Cosas), stops and determines that the rider is still breathing.  His companion, Maria José (Lucia Bosé), gets behind the wheel, beckons her companion to join her, and speeds off.

We learn that they were high school sweethearts and are now lovers.  Maria José is married to Miguel, a wealthy member of the elite.  Miguel is also Juan’s brother-in-law and used his influence to get Juan his position as an adjunct professor of mathematics at the university.

Both of the lovers are totally distracted by their guilt and fear of discovery.  Juan is so distraught that he makes a major error at school.  Matters get even worse when Rafa, a jealous and obnoxious critic, reveals that he saw the couple driving together on the road and threatens to tell Miguel.  Rafa refuses to reveal anything else he may know and report.

The couple themselves make matters worse and worse.  By the end of the story, each partner sees a different way out of their dilemma.

This is one of those film with a lot of long silences that would probably bear rewatching to fully understand.  If the viewer sticks with it, s/he will be rewarded with a very powerful, albeit a bit too pat, ending.  I can’t say I loved the film but I wouldn’t mind trying it again.  Both the cinematography and the actors are very beautiful.

Clip

It’s Always Fair Weather
Directed by Stanley Donen and Gene Kelly
Written by Betty Comden and Adolph Green
1955/USA
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
First viewing/Netflix rental

[box] Ted Riley: Look lady, if you’ll excuse, you don’t have to hang around with me all evening. I wish I didn’t have to hang around with myself.[/box]

I could not get too excited about this musical.  On the other hand, it may be the only place where you can watch Gene Kelly dance on roller skates!

Three GI buddies – Ted (Kelly), Doug (Dan Dailey), and Angie (Michael Kidd) – are celebrating their discharge from wartime service at a New York vow.  At just this time Ted opens a Dear John letter announcing his fiancee’s wedding.  The three vow to have a reunion on the same date at this bar.  They seal the deal by wagering on it with the bartender.

The day arrives and the three actually keep the date and, after some misteps, meet up.  They are all now very different people.  Ted is a shady fight promoter and playbody; Dan is an advertising executive in a troubled marriage; and Angie has followed his passion for fine dining to a hamburger joint business.  Ted and Dan in particular are unhappy with their lives.

The boys run into beautiful Jackie Leighton (Cyd Charisse), the no-nonsense program director of a “This Is Your Life” type TV show that sells soap.  Ted starts trying to pick up Jackie. After initially rebuffing his advances, she decides to play along after she decides the trio would make great surprise guests for the show.

The music didn’t grab me and is probably what failed to make the film work very well for me.  There’s nothing exactly wrong with it though.  I was very tired when I watched it.

It’s Always Fair Weather was nominated for Academy Awards in the categories of Best Writing, Story and Screenplay and Best Music, Scoring of a Musical Picture.

Clip

The Criminal Life of Archibaldo de la Cruz (Ensayo de un crimen)
Directed by Luis Buñuel
Written by Luis Buñuel and Eduardo Ugarte from a novel by Rudolfo Usigli
1955/Mexico
Alianza Cinematográfia Española
First viewing/YouTube

[box] Give me two hours a day of activity, and I’ll take the other twenty-two in dreams. — Luis Buñuel[/box]

Here is another great satiric take on the theme of frustrated desire by Buñuel.  It appealed immediately to my perverse sense of humor.

As the film begins, Archibaldo de la Cruz is in a police station confessing to the murder of a nun.  The sister had been running in a panic and ended up at the bottom of an empty elevator shaft.  We segue into flashback and to the root of Archibaldo’s problem.

Archie is a bad, bad boy who was pampered by his mother and terrorized his governess. He is given a music box when he objects to his mother leaving for the theater.  His governess tells him the story of how a king used the magic box to slay his enemies.  This appeals to Archie’s criminal mind and he starts daydreaming.  That is when his governess takes a stray bullet from rebels in the streets.

The music box goes missing for a number of years after the home is sacked by the rebel forces.  In adulthood, Archie reunites with it.  Thus begins Archie’s life of crime, wherein he can see his victims die but not take pleasure in the kill.

I just loved this.  There are some great surrealist touches and some delicious pitch black comedy.  Part of the point seems to come from the Catholic teaching that being tempted is tantamount to committing the sinful act.  It sure has messed with a lot of people’s minds over the years.  Recommended to Buñuel fans.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SUS-kanRkqE

Clip

Picnic
Directed by Joshua Logan
Written by Daniel Taradash from the play by William Inge
1955/USA
Columbia Pictures Corporation
Repeat viewing/Netflix rental

[box] Helen Potts: At a picnic everybody disappears. Don’t you remember, Flo?[/box]

This movie just screams 50’s steaming repressed sexuality.  And I mean that in the best possible way.

Drifter Hal Carter (William Holden) hits a small town on the morning of it’s Labor Day picnic and gets every woman he meets into an uproar.  There is Milly Owens (Susan Strasberg), a bookworm and tomboy, seething with resentment at her older sister Madge (Kim Novak) “the pretty one”.  And Madge herself, praised only for her looks, and being thrown at the richest guy in town (Cliff Roberts).  The Owen’s roomer Rosemary Sidney (Rosalind Russell), a spinster school teacher whose bravado conceals a host of insecurities, can’t take her eyes off him either.  He makes the girls’ mother (Betty Fields) very, very nervous and even old Mrs. Potts next door does not hide her soft spot for the man.

Truth to tell, Hal has plenty of problems of his own.  He grew up in squalor and got to college on a football scholarship then flunked out and has struggled ever since.  He can’t seem to keep out of trouble.  He has come to town to see if his former college roommate, Madge’s boyfriend, will give him a job.

Hal’s sexual magnetism interferes with everybody’s plans at the picnic.  While Madge and Hal are drawn ever closer, Rosemary’s frustration reaches the breaking point.  With Arthur O’Connell as Rosemary’s boyfriend.

The scent of Freudian psychology wafts strongly over the entire plot and dates the picture. However, the performances are so strong that I didn’t mind.  Holden seems about ten years too old for his part but, when he takes his shirt off so many times, I really can’t complain.  For me, the most memorable player is Rosalind Russell.  Her desperation is almost painful.  I read that she asked not to be pushed for a Best Supporting Actress nomination, because she had always been a star.  I love the score.  Recommended.

Picnic won Academy Awards in the categories of Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Color and Best Film Editing.  It was nominated in the categories of Best Picture; Best Director; Best Actor in a Supporting Role (O’Connell); and Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture.

Trailer

The dance – sexier than 99% of the post-Code sex scenes IMHO

The Long Gray Line
Directed by John Ford
Written by Edward Hope based on “Bringing Up the Brass” by Marty Maher
1955/USA
Columbia Pictures Corporation/Rota Productions
Repeat viewing/Netflix rental

Old Martin: Do you have the Irish, woman of the house?
Mary O’Donnell: I have.

This is John Ford at his most Irish, patriotic, and sentimental.  Nonetheless, I enjoyed it.

This is based on the true story of Marty Maher who spent 50 years as a non-commissioned officer at West Point training and coaching cadets in various sports.

Maher (Tyrone Power) is fresh off the boat when he is hired as a waiter at the Point. His main talent seems to be breaking dishes.  He finds it is cheaper to enlist than continue to pay for his breakages.  Soon after, he gets into a slugfest with one of the cadets and is spotted by the “Master of the Swords” Captain Kohler (Ward Bond) for his wicked right cross.  After a try out, he starts training the cadets in boxing.

Early on, Maher falls in love with Mary O’Donnell (Maureen O’Hara), a recent Irish emigre whom the Kohler’s have hired as a cook.  After a comic and one-sided romance, they are wed.  Maher wants to return to Ireland but Mary eventually gets her way by bringing his father (Donald Crisp) and brother over.

The story continues in a Good-Bye Mr. Chips-type vein through generations of new cadets, all of whom grow to love the avunclar Maher.  Good times and bad times abound all accompanied by regular doses of choral singing.  With Robert Francis, Harry Carey Jr., and Peter Graves as cadets and Betsy Palmer as one of their girls.

This is all pretty calculated but it did bring a tear to my eye.  Somehow Ford makes things work for me that really shouldn’t.  It’s always nice to see his stock company together again.  I thought Power was excellent and did well with his Irish accent.

Clip

Lady and the Tramp
Directed by Clyde Geronomini, Wilfred Jackson et al
Written by Ward Greene, Erdman Penner et al
1955/USA
Walt Disney Productions
Repeat viewing/Netflix rental

[box] Si, Am: We are Siamese if you please. We are Siamese if you don’t please.[/box]

What’s not to like?

Jim Dear surprises Darling with a special present at Christmas.  It’s a Golden Cocker Spaniel puppy that the couple name Lady for her dainty ways.  In between tending to her owners, Lady makes friends with the Scottish Terrier and Bloodhound  who are neighbors. She is very proud when she turns six months old and gets to wear a license on her collar.

Then the owners start acting funny and paying less attention to her.  The mutt Tramp, who has an eye for the ladies, shows up about this time to inform Lady that this signals the arrival of a newborn who will be nothing but trouble.

After the baby is born, the couple leave him and Lady with a relative while they take a short trip.  This relative is a cat lover who misinterprets Lady’s every move.  Lady flees and Tramp shows her the wonders of a carefree and collarless life.  With the voice of Peggy Lee, who co-wrote the music, as Darling, the cats Si and Am, and the dog Peg.

This is not up there with the earliest Disney features but is thoroughly enjoyable.  The Italian restaurant scene is iconic and those cats kill me.  Recommended.

Trailer

To Hell and Back (1955)
Directed by Jesse Hibbs
Written by Gil Doud from Audie Murphy’s autobiolgraphy
1955/USA
Universal International Pictures
First viewing/Netflix rental

[box] Kerrigan: [after a jumpy Murphy shoots at his own image in a mirror] Man, that’s the first time I ever seen a Texan beat himself to the draw.[/box]

Here is a rare biopic in which the subject is played by himself.

This is the story of Audie Murphy, the most decorated soldier in U.S. combat history.  He is raised by an abandoned single mother and quits school at age twelve to take a full time job with a nearby farmer and help care for his numerous younger siblings.  The farmer is an ex-marine who constantly bemoans leaving the service.  Pearl Harbor is attacked. Audie’s mother dies shortly thereafter and his brothers and sisters are placed in foster homes because Audie is still a minor.  He tries to enlist as a seventeen-year-old and is rejected by the Marine Corps, Navy and Air Force before being accepted by the Army.

Audie gets his wish and is assigned to combat duty.  His commanding officer does not think he will be fit for combat based on his medical history but Audie prevails and stays with his unit.  The unit is sent to North Africa, Sicily, Italy, and France in turn.  The remainder of the story is devoted to the young soldier’s rise through the ranks and the acts of heroism that earned him 27 U.S. medals, including the Congressional Medal of Honor, and several honors from France and Belgium by the time he was 19 years old.   With Marshall Thompson as Audie’s army buddy and Susan Kohner, in her debut, as an Italian who befriends him.

Aside from his devotion to duty, Audie Murphy was blessed with good looks and fair acting ability.  This is nothing earth shattering but is an enjoyable combat film.

Trailer