Category Archives: 1952

Flavor of Green Tea Over Rice (Ochazuke no aji)
Directed by Yasujirô Ozu
Written by Kôgo Oda and Yasujirô Oxu
1952/Japan
Shôchiku Eiga
First viewing/Hulu

Taeko Satake: Think well before you pick your groom, it’s important

How can you not love a film that features such establishments as the Calorie House restaurant and the Bittersweet Lessons in Life pachinko parlor?

Mokichi and Taeko Sakate are a childless couple who have been married long enough for the bloom to be off the rose.  She lies to him to go on weekend vacations with her girlfriends and he spends most of his time in the office.  She scolds him and he grunts. She calls him Mr. Oblivious.

Taeko’s niece is of marriageable age and the relatives set up a meeting with a prospective groom for her at a kabuki performance.  She goes but quickly flees.  She ends up spending the entire evening with Mokichi at his old army buddy’s pachinko parlor.  At the end of the evening when her mother and aunt have been searching for her everywhere, she is found in Taeko’s own house with Mokichi.  Taeko orders Mokichi to talk to her about her irresponsibility and he begins to.  But finally he says he understands her reluctance to marry because, after all, it might turn out like his marriage to Taeko.

Taeko responds by giving Mokichi the silent treatment for several days.  He tries to tell her how he feels about her criticism of his eating habits, cigarette brand etc. but she refuses to listen.  Finally, she leaves a note saying she has gone away for a few days.  Then Mokichi’s  employer sends him on an overseas business trip.  This is a big, big deal in 1952 Japan and all his friends and relatives are on the airport tarmac to see him off except his wife. She returns to an empty house.  This incident provokes the crisis that leads to the film’s happy ending.

If there is anything that drives me wild, it is the silent treatment. I spent most of the film being furious at the wife’s behavior.  But she learns her lesson so all was well.  It never ceases to amaze me how Ozu is able to begin with the slowest and most plotless of stories only to have the viewer totally emotionally invested by the end.  This film doesn’t rank with his greatest but is nonetheless recommended.

Clip

Casque d’Or
Directed by Jacques Becker
Written by Jacques Becker and Jacques Companeéz
1951/France
Robert et Raymond Hakim
Repeat viewing/Netflix rental

[box] “Jealousy is a disease, love is a healthy condition. The immature mind often mistakes one for the other, or assumes that the greater the love, the greater the jealousy – in fact, they are almost incompatible; one emotion hardly leaves room for the other.” ― Robert A. Heinlein, Stranger in a Strange Land[/box]

The story is dark but the images are filled with light reminiscent of a Renoir painting.  This is a very beautiful film.

It is Belle Epoque France.  The members of Leca’s gang and their molls have gathered at an open-air dance hall near the river.  Raymond, a member of the gang, brings his old cell-mate Manda (Serge Reggiani) with him to the festivities. Manda is trying to reform and is working as a carpenter.  Things threaten to get out of hand when Manda asks Marie (Simone Signoret), the “woman” of one of the gang members, to dance.  Their attraction is immediate.

Later on all these people end up in another dance hall.  When Manda again asks Marie to dance, her boyfriend challenges him to a fight.  They step outside for a brawl but,  unbeknownst to Manda, his rival is armed with a knife.  Manda manages to wrestle the knife away from him and kills him in the process.  The cops have been tipped off and arrive shortly.  The gang flees.

Leca has evidently been waiting for this opportunity to make Marie his own.  But she runs to Manda who is hiding out in an inn by the river.  They spend an idyllic day and night of love.  Then Leca, who has secretly informed to the police to get at Marie, shows up and tells Manda his friend Raymond has been arrested for the murder.  A lot more happens none of it good.

If you love Renoir’s “Luncheon of the Boating Party”, you will love this film.  The whole thing is bathed in the glow that pervades that painting and Becker’s meticulous attention to detail makes the place and time very real.  The young Signoret is irresistible.  Highly recommended.

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“The Luncheon of the Boating Party”, 1880-81

Viva Zapata!
Directed by Elia Kazan
Written by John Steinbeck
1952/USA
Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation
Repeat viewing/Netflix rental

[box] Hernandez – Peasant who challenges ‘president’ Zapata: I don’t speak for myself now, but if anything happens to you, what would become of the people? What would they have left?

Emiliano Zapata: Themselves.[/box]

For me, the most memorable thing about this solid biopic is the Oscar-winning performance of Anthony Quinn.

This is the fictionalized story of the Mexican revolutionary Emiliano Zapata who helped to oust dictator Porfirio Diaz in the early Twentieth Century.  The story begins with a confrontation between Zapata (Marlon Brando) and Diaz over some land that has been appropriated by rich sugar growers.  When Diaz gives the peasants the brush off, Zapata explodes and he and his followers are pursued by the powers that be for the rest of the film.  Zapata and the peasants take to arms.  His elder brother Eufemio (Quinn) becomes his right-hand man.  Eufemio is the muscle of the operation and takes a positive glee in fighting and killing while Emiliano is the idealist.

Along with the trials and tribulations of the revolutionary movement, including multiple betrayals by trusted allies, the story covers Zapata’s attempts to become respectable in order to win the hand  of the middle-class Josefa (Jean Peters).  After he returns to revolution following their marriage, Josefa is left to worry about his almost inevitable demise.

I followed Quinn’s performances in supporting roles throughout the 40’s.  This movie is where he comes into his own as a kind of embodiment of the life force.  Although his Eufemio is a brute in many ways his magnetism and gusto is undeniable.  One of my problems with this film is that, by contrast, Brando seems pallid.  He is not convincing as a Mexican and, while he acts his socks off, the fire is just missing for me.  Recommended for Quinn’s performance and to those interested in the subject.

Anthony Quinn won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.  Viva Zapata! was nominated in the categories of:  Best Actor; Best Writing, Story and Screenplay; Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White; and Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture.

Trailer

Five Fingers
Directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz
Written by Michael Wilson from the novel “Operation Cicero” by L.X. Moyzisch
USA/1952
Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation
First viewing/Amazon Instant

[box] Ulysses Diello: There’s nothing as real as money.[/box]

Somehow I had never heard of this excellent spy movie before I started this exercise.  It was really worth waiting for,

I came in knowing almost nothing about it and think that only added to the fun.  The film is based on a true story and takes place in Ankara, Turkey in 1944.  Turkey is neutral and both Germany and Britain maintain Embassies there and their diplomats socialize at the same parties.  The impoverished Countess Anna Staviska (Danielle Darrieux), the French widow of a Polish count, has cordial relationships with both the French and German Ambassadors.  As the movie begins, she reveals she is so hard up that she will work as a spy for the Germans in exchange for their financial support.  The German ambassador declines her offer.

One day Ulysses Diello (James Mason) approaches a German Embassy official offering to sell Most Secret and Top Secret British documents for 20,000 pounds.  He declines to reveal his identity.  After much internal discussion, the Germans decide they will bite.  The documents prove to be apparently genuine and, if so, extremely valuable and Diello is paid.  The Germans are quite suspicious but continue accepting installments of the material at 15,000 pounds per delivery.  Meanwhile, they send a counter-espionage expert in the guise of a Swiss business man to Ankara to try to determine Diello’s identity and reliability.

It is not revealing to much to say that Diello is the trusted valet to the British Ambassador. He has a giant chip on his shoulder and dreams of being a gentleman.  He also dreams of becoming the lover of Countess Staviska, whose husband he formerly served as a valet. She begins letting him use her villa for his “business meetings”.  I think I will stop right there.  This movie is full of delicious twists and irony.  With Michael Rennie as the British counter-espionage expert.

I don’t think James Mason ever gave a bad performance.  This is no exception.  I like Darrieux better every time I see her.  She handles English very well.  It is the writing, however, that was the star for me.  The Diello character is a very cynical type and gets off some great one-liners.  The story is intricate and absorbing. The film features a menacing Bernard Herrmann score.  Recommended and currently available on YouTube.

Five Fingers was nominated for Academy Awards in the categories of Best Director and Best Writing, Screenplay.

Clip

The Life of Oharu (Saikaku Ichidai Ona)
Directed by Kenji Mizoguchi
Written by Kenji Mizoguchi and Yoshikata Yoda from a novel by Saikaku Ihara
1952/Japan
Koi Productions/Shintoho Film Distribution Committee
Repeat viewing/Netflix rental

[box] Katsunosuke: Lady Oharu, a human being – no, woman – can only be happy if she marries for love. Rank and money don’t mean happiness.[/box]

This story of a woman in medieval Japan is a beautiful film.  It also made me really angry.

It is 17th century Japan.The 50-year-old Oharu (Kinuyo Tanaka), a streetwalker, sits in a temple.  The faces of the Buddha statues remind her of the men in her life and we segue in flashback.

Oharu (Kinuyo Tanaka) begins life as a pretty teenager whose parents are attached to the the court.  A lowly retainer (Toshiro Mifune) is in love with her.  She resists his advances at first but then succumbs and the two are caught together.  Since it is taboo for the higher classes to associate with the lower classes, Oshiro and her entire immediate family are exiled from Kyoto.  The lover is beheaded.  Needless to say, Oharu’s parents are not happy with her.  But their opinion changes when a court retainer selects her as the ideal candidate to be the Daimyo’s concubine and bear him an heir, something his wife has been unable to do.

Oharu has a healthy son, from whom she is immediately separated.  Then the Daimyou falls for her and his advisors decide he is “sapping his strength” in the bedroom so Ohayu is sent back to her parents only a tiny bit richer.  In the meantime her father has taken out a large loan in hopes that the match would make him rich.  He decides her to sell her to a high class brothel as a courtesan.

Poor Oharu can’t catch a break.  She  is eventually dismissed from the brothel for insubordination.  She has some happiness as a fan-maker’s wife but he is soon killed by robbers.  She ends up traveling with a thief until the thief is caught.  Finally, some prostitutes see her begging in the street and take pity on her.

This is a very sad movie but it made me more angry than anything else.  The suffering that these women went through while they were basically chattel is mind-blowing.  Although depressing, it is very beautiful to look at and Tanaka is one of the really great actresses in cinema history and does wonderfully with her role.  I just read that Mizoguchi’s sister was sold as a geisha.  I had not known that before.  It explains the themes of a lot of his films, which tend to focus on the plight of women.

In the absence of clips from the film, here is a clip about Tanaka’s visit to Hollywood showing meetings with many stars of the period

Scaramouche
Directed by George Sidney
Written by Written by Ronald Millar and George Froeschel from the novel by Rafael Sabatini
1952/USA
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
First viewing/Netflix rental

[box] Andre Moreau: Happy is the rascal, traveling life’s byways, to whom the gods say, here is an easy switch. You may have lost Diana on the highway, but look, there is Aphrodite in a ditch.[/box]

It’s been a long time since I’ve seen a good swashbuckler and this qualifies.

It is France in the late 18th Century.  Andre Moreau (Stewart Granger) was raised in the de Valmorin family.  His parentage has been kept from him.  Philippe de Valmorin, who was a brother to him, has been engaging in subversive activities in support of revolution.  Now the authorities are after Philippe and the valiant Andre, although not politically inclined, agrees to help him escape.  To get money for their travels, Andre forces his solicitor to reveal the identity of his father.  He says he was Count de Gavrillac.  But before long, Phillipe is killed by the arrogant Marquis de Maynes (Mel Ferrer) in a one-sided fencing match.  Before he escapes, Andre vows to avenge his friend.

Before he was called in to assist his friend, Andre had been in the process of snatching his amie Lenore (Eleanor Parker) from her intended on the day of her wedding.  He was about to marry her himself when duty called.  Lenore promptly ran away and rejoined the comedia del arte company in which she had been an actress.  Andre is not disconsolate for long as he encounters a vision of loveliness whose carriage has broken down on the road.  He falls in love with Aline (Janet Leigh) at first sight.  She likes him too but he puts the brakes on when he discovers her last name is de Gavrillac as well, thus making her his half sister.

The rest of the story follows Andre’s many adventures en route to his climactic encounter with the Marquis de Maynes.  Andre reunites with Lenore and adopts the disguise of the masked comic character Scaramouche in the comedia del arte show.  While he is acting by night Andre studies sword fighting by day and becomes a formidable fencer.  With Nina Foche as Marie Antoinette.

I really enjoyed this.  The dialogue sparkles and the story is full of humor.  Eleanor Parker is so witty and sexy as Lenore one can’t understand how Andre could have eyes for anyone else.  There is a fantastic seven-minute swordfight at the end.  This has some of the most beautiful and lifelike color I have seen in a movie of the period.  I can’t see why it didn’t get several technical nominations at the Oscars.  Recommended if you are in the mood for a good adventure.

Trailer

Bwana Devil became the first 3-D sound film to be released. Paramount’s wrap-around, big-screen Cinerama format debuted . The technique required three cameras, three projectors, interlocking, semi-curved screens, and four-track stereo sound.  This Is Cinerama  was the first Cinerama film shown to the public. Cinerama was the first real widescreen feature film format.  The gimmicks were aimed at attracting TV watchers back to the movie theaters.  The Screen Actors Guild (SAG) negotiated the first contracts that granted performers-actors residuals paid by studios for feature films sold to television.

Charlie Chaplin released his last American film, Limelight. During post-production, he traveled to Europe for premieres of the film in London and Paris. His INS application for re-entry into the U.S. was revoked by Attorney General James McGranery, who called Chaplin an “unsavory character”. Although Chaplin promised to return and answer charges, he broke ties with the U.S. after his wife Oona returned to Los Angeles in early 1953 to get his assets out of the US. Chaplin resided in Switzerland until his death in late 1977.

After appearing and testifying before the House Un-American Activities Committee, where he was accused of being involved with the Communist Party and refused to name names, actor John Garfield was blacklisted. He died on May 21.  It is speculated that the 39 year-old actor, already suffering from long-term heart problems brought on by a childhood illness, suffered his fatal heart attack due to the resultant stress.

Charlie Chaplin on the set of Limelight

In Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. v. Sawyer, The U.S. Supreme Court limited the power of the President to seize private business after President Harry S. Truman nationalized all steel mills in the United States just before a steel strike began.

Dr. C. Walton Lillehei and Dr. F. John Lewis performed the first open-heart surgery at the University of Minnesota. The surgery was made possible by the first use of a mechanical heart developed by General Motors.   The Pulitzer Prize for Literature was awarded to The Caine Mutiny by Herman Wouk.  Billboard ranked “Blue Tango”, an instrumental performed by Leroy Anderson, as the number one hit of 1952.

15 Feb 1952, London, England, UK — London crowds line the route of the procession carrying the coffin of King George VI. The king reigned from 1936 until his death in February 1952. | Location: Edgeware Road, London, England, UK. — Image by © Hulton-Deutsch Collection/CORBIS

The first British nuclear weapon was detonated in Australia making the United Kingdom the third nuclear weapons state  The Treaty of San Francisco went into effect formally ending the war between Japan and the Allies and simultaneously ending the occupation of the four main Japanese islands. Anne Frank’s The Diary of a Young Girl was published. The first successful sex reasignment surgery was performed in Copenhagen, letting George Jorgensen Jr. become Christine Jorgensen.

King George VI died at age 56 after a long illness. His daughter Princess Elizabeth, Duchess of Edinburgh (now Elizabeth II), was proclaimed queen shortly thereafter.  Her coronation did not take place until 1953, due to the traditional period of mourning for the late king.

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The list of the films I will select from is here.  I have previously reviewed the following 1952 films on this site:  Forbidden Games; The Narrow Margin; Kansas City Confidential; Scandal Sheet; Angel Face; and The Sniper.

1952 Oscar Winners – montage of stills

The Life of Oharu (Saikaku Ichidai Ona)
Directed by Kenji Mizoguchi
Written by Kenji Mizoguchi and Yoshikata Yoda from a novel by Saikaku Ihara
1952/Japan
Koi Productions/Shintoho Film Distribution Committee
Repeat viewing/Netflix rental

Katsunosuke: Lady Oharu, a human being – no, woman – can only be happy if she marries for love. Rank and money don’t mean happiness.

This story of a woman in medieval Japan made a beautiful film.  It also made me really angry.

It is 17th century Japan.The 50-year-old Oharu (Kinuyo Tanaka), a streetwalker, sits in a temple.  The faces of the Buddha statues remind her of the men in her life and we segue in flashback.

Oharu begins life as a pretty teenager whose parents are attached to the the court.  A lowly retainer (Toshiro Mifune) in love with her.  She resists his advances at first but then succumbs and the two are caught together.  Since it is taboo for the higher classes to associate with the lower classes, Oshiro and her entire immediate family are exiled from Kyoto.  The lover is beheaded.  Needless to say, Oharu’s parents are not happy with her.  But their opinion changes when a court retainer selects her as the ideal candidate to be the Daimyo’s concubine and bear him an heir, something his wife has been unable to do.

Oharu has a healthy son, from whom she is immediately separated.  Then the Daimyou falls for her and his advisors decide he is “sapping his strength” in the bedroom so Ohayu is sent back to her parents only a tiny bit richer.  In the meantime her father has taken out a large loan in hopes that the match would make him rich.  He decides her to sell her to a high class brothel as a courtesan.

Poor Oharu can’t catch a break.  She  is eventually dismissed from the brothel for insubordination.  She has some happiness as a fan-maker’s wife but he is soon killed by robbers.  She ends up traveling with a thief until the thief is caught.  Finally, some prostitutes see her begging in the street and take pity on her.

This is a very sad movie but it made me more angry than anything else.  The suffering that these women went through while they were basically chattel is mind-blowing.  Although depressing, it is very beautiful to look at and Tanaka is one of the really great actresses in cinema history and does wonderfully with her role.  I just read that Mizoguchi’s sister was sold as a geisha.  I had not known that before.  It explains the themes of a lot of his films, which tend to focus on the plight of women.

In the absence of clips from the film, here is a clip about Tanaka’s visit to Hollywood