A Bucket of Blood Directed by Roger Corman Written by Charles B. Griffith 1959/USA Alta Vista Productions
First viewing/Netflix rental
[box] Maxwell H. Brock: Life is an obscure hobo, bumming a ride on the omnibus of art.[/box]
Roger Corman’s send-up of the beat generation has laughs and little blood.
Walter Paisley (Dick Miller) is the squarest bus boy Leonard de Santis could have hired for his coffee house. The place is otherwise filled with artists, poets and folk singers, all of a fairly pretentious hyper-cool stripe. Other frequent visitors are undercover agents looking for drug deals. Walter is in love with an artist named Molly but is too shy to declare himself. His life seems to be one humiliation after another.
One day, Walter accidentally kills his landlady’s cat which had somehow wedged himself behind the dry wall. Walter was experimenting with (bad) sculpture at the time and uses the clay to cover his mistake. The resulting object is taken for a sculpture, which he dubs “Dead Cat” and all praise it or its detail and realism. Walter enjoys the only celebrity he has ever known and is desperate to keep it …
This is the first of Corman’s black comedies and as usual the schlockmeister’s films were superior when he directed himself. I didn’t laugh out loud exactly but it was amusing all the way through. He got the poetry, folk singing and pretension exactly right.
Speaking of folk singing, I can’t let another day go by without congratulating Bob Dylan on his Nobel Prize!
Hiroshima mon amour Directed by Alain Resnais Written by Marguerite Duras 1959/France/Japan Argos Films/Como Films/Daiei Studios/Pathe Entertainment
First viewing/Netflix rental
#358 of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die
[box] Elle: Like you, I have fought with all my might not to forget. Like you, I have forgotten.[/box]
Alain Resnais’ debut feature is an exquisite meditation on loss and memory.
The setting is 1958 Hiroshima. The characters are known only as Elle (She) (Emanuelle Rivas) and Lui (He) (Eiji Okada). She is in town to act in an international peace film. She has a husband and children in Paris. He has a wife on vacation. They meet and enjoy a night of unexpected bliss. He thinks he loves her and wants her to stay.
The intensity of their love and desire awakens long suppressed memories of her first love. During the war, the eighteen-year-old had a passionate romance with a German soldier in her hometown of Nevers. As the war ended, he was killed and she was publicly shamed for consorting with the enemy. The affair and the setting provide a catalyst for her to come to terms with her pain.
This movie is a visual and auditory feast. The images and score have perhaps more impact than the words.
Yet it is also a thought-provoking. Resnais was asked to make a film about Hiroshima but the tragedy was too big to grasp in mere celluloid. Instead we focus on a personal tragedy. Coupled with the setting, the story gets us closer to the grief and loss brought about by the bomb and more globally. Rivas is fantastic, both as the modern woman and as the young girl in the many flashbacks. Recommended.
The Hideous Sun Demon Directed by Robert Clarke and Tom Boutross Written by E.S. Seeley Jr. and Doane R. Hoag from an original idea by Robert Clarke and Phil Hiner 1959/USA Clarke-King Enterprises
Repeat viewing/YouTube
[box] Trudy Osborne: [playing the piano, and singing] Strange Pursuit, The pursuit of love, Is a strange compelling desire. Though you’re near, You’re not mine to hold, And I want the joy your lips inspire. / My heart is bare, You know I care, Will you take my love, or throw it away? Please let me know, Just “yes” or “no.” Why the great suspense in this game you play?
Strange Pursuit, The pursuit of love, Has me breathless with a burning fire. On and on, Goes the maddening chase. Never ending is love’s strange desire. / Oo-ooh oo-ooh, Strange Pursuit.[/box]
This spends too much on “singing” and fistfights and not enough on the monster.
Dr. Gil McCenna has a drinking problem despite being warned that “bourbon and Science don’t mix.” One day when he is hung over, he drops a new radioactive isotope at the lab where he works. When Gil is taken to the hospital roof top to sun himself, it starts a process of “reverse evolution” turning him into a lizard man. When Gil remains indoors and at night, he turns back into his normal studly self. However, Gil cannot lay off the sauce or resist the temptations of the buxom “singer/piano player” (and I use these terms advisedly) at the local bar, so he continues to menace society.
This was produced, directed, and starred in by monster-movie actor Robert Clarke on a tiny budget. It is kind of a cross between a film noir (with plenty of two-fisted action) and science-fiction. It is pretty bad but not bad enough to bring a smile to my face. Still, there are some unforgettable moments, mostly involving Clarke and the blonde, that made it worth watching. They must have the most schizoid relationship in movie history. Oh, and there’s that ultra-cool rubber mask.
The movie was re-dubbed and rereleased in 1983 as What’s Up, Hideous Sun Demon. That sounds like it has potential!
The term “New Wave” (La Nouvelle Vague) was coined. These inexpensive French films of the late 50s were typified by the use of the jump cut, the hand-held camera, natural lighting, non-linear storytelling, on-location shooting, and loose, improvised direction and editing. French “New Wave” releases in 1959 included Francois Truffaut’s Les Quatre Cents Coups, Jean-Luc Godard’s A Bout de Souffle, Marcel Camus’ Black Orpheus, Claude Chabrol’s Les Cousins and Alain Resnais’ Hiroshima Mon Amour.
The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences modified its bylaws to abandon its practice of denying eligibility for Oscar nominations or consideration to blacklisted artists.
Two giants of the Golden Age of Hollywood were lost when Errol Flynn died at age 50 and Preston Sturges died at age 60. Both succumbed to heart attacks.
A chartered plane transporting musicians Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and The Big Bopper with pilot Roger Peterson went down in foggy conditions near Clear Lake, Iowa, killing all four on board. Barry Gordy, Jr. founded Motown Records. “The Battle of New Orleans” by Johnny Horton spent nine weeks atop the Billboard charts.
Alaska and Hawaii were admitted as the 49th and 50th states of the USA. The Boeing 707 airliner went into service. The Barbie doll debuted. The Xerox 914, the first plain paper copier, was introduced to the public.
At Cape Canaveral, Florida, the first successful test firing of a Titan intercontinental ballistic missile was accomplished. Two monkeys, Able and Miss Baker were the first living beings to successfully return to Earth from space aboard the flight Jupiter AM-18. NASA introduced the first group of astronauts, known as the Mercury Seven. They were Alan Shepard, John Glenn, Walter Schirra, Donald Slayton, Virgil “Gus” Grissom, L. Gordon Cooper, and M. Scott Carpenter.
President Dwight D. Eisenhower was Time Magazine’s Man of the Year. The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters by Robert Lewis Taylor won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. J.B. by Archibald McLeish won for drama.
The United States recognized the new Cuban government of Fidel Castro. The Dalai Lama was forced to flee Tibet and was granted asylum in India. The first skull of Australopithecus was discovered by Louis Leakey and his wife Mary Leakey in the Olduvai Gorge of Tanzania.
Twelve countries, including the United States and the Soviet Union, signed a landmark treaty, which sets aside Antarctica as a scientific preserve and bans military activity on that continent. This is considered the first arms control agreement established during the Cold War. Philip Noel-Baker was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his lifelong work on arms control and disarmament.
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You can find the films I will choose from for 1959 here. I have previously reviewed the following 1959 releases on this site: ; ; and .
I am hoping to finish my viewing for 1959 by the end of the year. Then I plan to take a brief breather to catch up on some earlier films that I missed the first time around.
Montage of stills from the Oscar winners
Montage of still of Oscar nominees in major categories
I have now seen 91 films that were released in 1958. While the year had its definite pleasures in the mid-range, it was a bit weak at the top end. I have only two films left over at 9/10 for the also-ran list. They are The Ballad of Narayama and The Defiant Ones. The ranking doesn’t mean much except for the top two. This is the first year in which the majority of films on my list were in living color! A complete list of the films I watched can be found here.
The Chase (aka “Stakeout”; Harikomi) Directed by Yoshitaro Nomura Written by Shinobu Hashimoto; story by Seicho Matsumoto 1958/Japan Shochiku Ofuna
First viewing/Hulu
[box] What the detective story is about is not murder but the restoration of order. P. D. James [/box]
This Japanese film noir starts out very, very slowly but pays off in the end.
Two Tokyo detectives are on the trail of an accomplice to the robbery of a pawnshop and murder of its owner. They suspect the accomplice will attempt to contact Sadako, an old girlfriend in his home town on the southern island of Kyushu. They check into an inn across the street from where she lives and proceed to watch her.
Sadako is now married to a much older widower with three children. She appears to be the ideal subservient wife, spending all her time cleaning, mending, and shopping. Her husband gives her only 100 yen a day to buy food. The younger of the two detectives finds it hard to believe such a boring woman could ever have been involved with a criminal. They continue their stakeout for almost a week with no action whatsoever. Eventually the detective begins to pity Sadako.
This movie begins with a long train ride to Kyushu before the credits even begin to roll. So it started out with one strike against it. But gradually you get drawn into somewhat of a comedy in which the innkeepers are suspicious of their guests and the mystery about the woman. Things build until you care about all the characters and I thought the end was moving.
The Old Man and the Sea Directed by John Sturges Written by Peter Viertel from the novel by Ernest Hemingway 1958/USA Leland Hayward Productions/Warner Bros.
First viewing/Netflix rental
[box] “It is good that we do not have to try to kill the sun or the moon or the stars. It is enough to live on the sea and kill our true brothers.” ― Ernest Hemingway, The Old Man and the Sea[/box]
The best part was listening to Spencer Tracy’s voice-over of Hemingway’s glorious prose.
The story takes place in a Cuban fishing village and the sea nearby over a period of about four days. An Old Man has been unable to catch a fish for 84 days running. He taught a Boy to fish but the Boy’s parents no longer allow him to accompany the Old Man. Nonetheless, the Boy loves him and continues to care for him on land.
The Old Man is undeterred by his bad luck and sets out exactly as usual. His luck changes when he hooks a huge marlin. So begins an epic battle with nature.
The novel should have been unfilmable. The key to this movie’s success was the retention of the Old Man’s voice through Tracy’s voice-over. The story is a brilliant meditation on man’s relationship to the natural world and I enjoyed the film and Tracy’s performance.
Dmitri Tiomkin won a well-deserved Academy Award for Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture. The Old Man and the Sea was nominated in the categories of Best Actor (Tracy) and Best Cinematography, Color.
Cairo Station (Bab el Hadid) Directed by Youssef Chahine Written by Mohamed Abu Youssef and Abdel Hai Adib 1958/Egypt
First viewing/YouTube
#349 of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die
[box] “My fault, my failure, is not in the passions I have, but in my lack of control of them.” ― Jack Kerouac[/box]
I didn’t know what to expect but it was not a psycho killer plopped down into the middle of a comedy.
Qinawi is a poor cripple. A kiosk owner took pity on him and hired him to hawk newspapers. Qinawi’s infirmity has given an him a foot fetish and an obsession with beautiful girls. Lately his obsession has fixated on Hanuma, a saucy girl who illegally peddles soft drinks. She is engaged to a union organizer.
Hanuma rebuffs all of Qinawi’s many advances and marriage proposals. Finally, he becomes unglued and hatches a plan to prevent anyone else from having her.
The first thing that struck me about this movie was its very odd tone. It reminded me a lot of a Bollywood film with no singing and much more undress on the part of its ladies. I was getting ready for an adventure/comedy but after a lot of lighthearted teasing and shenanigans, things get very, very dark. I was not surprised to learn that this was banned in its native Egypt for twelve years. I can’t say I was crazy about the film but I won’t forget it any time soon.
The Defiant Ones Directed by Stanley Kramer Written by Nedrick Young and Harold Jacob Smith 1958/USA Curtleigh Productions/Stanley Kramer Productions
Repeat viewing/My DVD collection
#345 of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die
[box] Law officier: How come they chained a white man to a black?
Sheriff Max Muller: The warden’s got a sense of humor.[/box]
Chained prisoners serve as a metaphor for race relations in the United States. Fortunately, it’s a well-made, well-acted metaphor.
Prisoners are being transferred back to jail from their work on a chain gang. The police van runs off the road, allowing Johnny ‘Joker’ Jackson (Tony Curtis) and Noah Cullen (Sidney Portier) to escape. Problem is they are burdened by both their chains and racial animosity and distrust. They will have to find a way to work together to reach freedom. Meanwhile, the local sheriff (Theodore Bickel) has problems controlling his team, many of whom would just as soon set the Dobermans on the convicts when and if they are found.
The story follows the adventures of the escapees as they slog through rough terrain. Will their budding friendship and a little outside help save them? With Cara Williams as a lonely single mother.
This could be obvious and just terrible in the wrong hands. Fortunately, the writing is strong and the direction is taut. Mostly, though, the film is carried by the outstanding performances of its leads. Portier and Curtis make their characters much more than symbols of their races. We are made to root for them while having a nagging suspicion that the Hayes Code will have its way in the end.
The Defiant Ones won the Academy Awards for Best Writing, Story and Screenplay – Written Directly for the Screen and Best Cinematography, Black-and-White. It was nominated in the categories of Best Picture; Best Actor (Portier); Best Actor (Curtis); Best Supporting Actor (Bickel); Best Supporting Actress (Williams); Best Director; and Best Film Editing.
Alma Duval (Shirley Booth) is engaged in a futile struggle to keep her family intact. She is caught in a web of delusion about both her family’s rural past and their present situation in New Orleans. Her husband Jack (Anthony Quinn) feels trapped by Alma’s forced domesticity and spends as much time away from home as possible, lately with his 19-year-old girl friend. He’s frustrated with his sons as well. He feuds with the eldest who wants money to get in business on his own and dismisses the younger, gentler, boy. He seems to be closest to daughter Virginia (Shirley MacLaine) but wants to run her love life.
Things have gone from bad to worse and Alma’s friend (Eileen Heckart) thinks she needs a total personality overhaul to keep her man. But Alma can’t be taught to drink, smoke, or toughen up at her age and the time is coming for her to face reality.
The acting just has to be good with this cast. Booth had her character honed to a fine edge by this time and it is almost painful to watch her cheerful desperation. Despite that, the story never really clicked with me. It seemed derivative and dated.
I’ve been a classic movie fan for many years. My original mission was to see as many movies as I could get my hands on for every year from 1929 to 1970. I have completed that mission.
I then carried on with my chronological journey and and stopped midway through 1978. You can find my reviews of 1934-1978 films and “Top 10” lists for the 1929-1936 and 1944-77 films I saw here. For the past several months I have circled back to view the pre-Code films that were never reviewed here.
I’m a retired Foreign Service Officer living in Indio, California. When I’m not watching movies, I’m probably traveling, watching birds, knitting, or reading.
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