Category Archives: 1956

Around the World in Eighty Days
Directed by Michael Anderson
Written by James Poe, John Farrow, and S.J. Perelman from the novel by Jules Verne
1956/USA
Michael Todd Company
Repeat viewing/Netflix rental

Princess Aouda: Mr. Fogg, why must you be so… so British?

Beautiful location shots, a cast of thousands and three hours add up to a whole lot of nothing.

The film begins with an oddly long (in keeping with everything else in the film) scholarly discussion about transportation past, present and future.  Then we move to Jules Verne’s story about Phineas Fogg (David Niven) and his bet that he can travel around the world in just 80 days.  He embarks with his faithful manservant Passpartout (Cantinflas) and they have various adventures all around the world as Fogg attempts to stay one step in front of the clock.

The continuing story involves a British detective (Robert Newton) who continuously attempts and fails to get Fogg arrested for a bank robbery and an Indian princess (Shirley MacLaine) whom Fogg rescues from certain death.  With too many famous actors to mention in cameo roles.

For me, the most fun was trying to identify all the cameo actors.  My heart thrilled to see my beloved Buster Keaton but there were many many more, including an almost unrecognizable Trevor Howard.  The film did not make me care whether Fogg won his bet or not.  This film is noteable, for better or worse, for launching many similar all-star blockbuster period comedies in the 50’s and 60’s.

Around the World in Eighty Days won Academy Awards in the categories of Best Picture; Best Writing, Best Screenplay – Adapted; Best Cinematography, Color; Best Film Editing; and Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture.  It was nominated in the categories of Best Director; Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Color; and Best Costume Design, Color.

Trailer

Anastasia
Directed by Anatole Litvak
Written by Arthur Laurents from a play by Marcelle Maurette and Guy Bolton
1956/USA
Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation
First viewing/Amazon Instant

Anastasia: The poor have only one advantage; they know when they are loved for themselves.

I liked this for the acting and was intrigued by the story.

The setting is Paris, 1928.  Nicholas II, the last czar of Russia, left a fortune in a bank in London that would go to any of his immediate survivors.  There have been several unsuccessful claimants to the inheritance already.  General Sergei Pavlovich Bounine (Yul Brynner), an ex-retainer to the Imperial Court, has organized a committee of fellow exiles to finance a search for the czar’s daughter Anastasia who is rumored to have survived the execution of the Czar’s family.  He and his co-conspirators are now on a tight 8-day deadline to come up with an heiress.  Sergei has been on the trail of one Anna Koureff (Ingrid Bergman), a young Russian woman who has been heard in several mental asylums to refer to herself as Anastasia.  Sergei actually believes Anastasia is dead and has been on the search for a credible, trainable substitute.

Anna herself is not certain who she is but has powerful memories that lead her to believe that she may be Anastasia.  She is a hit with the expatriate Russian community.  She makes a conquest of the princess’s cousin Paul.  She looks less likely to convince Anastasia’s extremely skeptical grandmother the Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna (Helen Hayes).  With Akim Tamiroff as one of Sergei’s partner’s in crime and Martita Hunt as a lady-in-waiting to the Dowager Empress.

I enjoyed this.  Parts reminded me a lot of Pygmalion and My Fair Lady without the humor.  Bergman was good, though I don’t know that I would have singled this performance out for an Oscar, and Yul Brynner proves himself to be more that a one-trick pony.  The film is lavishly produced.

Ingrid Bergman won the Academy Award for Best Actress.  Alfred Newman was nominated for Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture.

Trailer

A Town Like Alice
Directed by Jack Lee
Written by W.P. Lipscomb and Richard Mason from the novel by Nevil Shute
1956/UK
The Rank Organization/Vic Film Productions
Repeat viewing/Amazon Instant

“It was so beautiful’, he said. ‘The Three Pagodas Pass must be one of the loveliest places in the world. You’ve got this broad valley with the river running down it, and the jungle forest, and the mountains….we used to sit by the river and watch the sun setting behind the mountains, sometimes, and say what a marvelous place it would be to come to for a holiday. However terrible a prison camp may be, it makes a difference if it’s beautiful.” ― Nevil Shute, A Town Like Alice

I love a good POW story and this is an especially moving one.

The title town is Alice Springs, Australia but most of the story takes place in Malaysia during WWII.  As the film begins, Jean Paget (Virginia McKenna) is talking to the lawyer handling her inheritance in London.  She tells him she has decided what she will do with her money.  She will return to Malaysia and build a well for the village that took her and her friends in when they were POWs.  Jean does this and starts thinking about her experience.

She was working as a secretary when the evacuation order came.  She stopped to answer a phone and missed the bus to the train station. Instead, she goes to the home of her boss and helps his wife tend to their three children while they pack.  He is very delayed picking up the car from a mechanic.  They finally flee but the car breaks down.  They are picked up by a truck carrying many stragglers but are eventually captured by Japanese soldiers who have commandeered the ferry they were counting on to take them to safety.

The men are sent to a prison camp.  The women and children are told they are to go back to Kuala Lumpur, where they will catch a train to Singapore to be interned there.  KL is 50 miles away.  They will walk in the tropical heat.  They object but there is nothing to be done.

After walking many miles, they are told the train bridges have been blown up.  They must trek another 50 miles to catch a boat.  There is another snafu.  The women and children’s “captivity” devolves into a continuous forced march as one camp after another refuses to take responsibility for them.  They have very little food and no medicine.  They begin to die like flies.  Jean, who is sensible and speaks Malaysian, becomes their spokesperson.

Along the way, Jean strikes up a friendship with Joe (Peter Finch), an Australian POW mechanic who speaks rapturously of his cattle station near Alice Springs.  Despite considerable danger, he tries to help the women.

I loved this movie even more the second time I saw it.  It seems so real to me.  The women are very human.  Some of them complain non-stop.  Others simply cannot go on. Even the naturally strong Jean cracks at different points.  It is easy to get emotionally invested in their plight. The Japanese are not demonized either.  The screenplay and acting are excellent.  My fellow romantics will likely find themselves crying, as I did, at the sweet ending.

I liked this so much that I decided to re-read the book as well.  The film captures only the first part of the book.  Jean ends up in Alice Springs and has an eventful life there too.  Recommended.

The Mole People
Directed by Virgil W. Vogel
Written by Lásló Görög
1956/USA
Universal International Pictures
First viewing/Netflix rental

Dr. Roger Bentley: The light! Their eyes can’t tolerate the light!

This is fun although I could have done with more mole people and less Sumerian rituals.

We begin with a solemn little lesson on different historical interpretations of what goes on the center of the earth.  We move on to the main story where an archeological expedition led by scientist Dr. Roger Bentley (John Agar) discovers a Sumerian inscription.  When will these people learn not to disturb anything before reading the curse that protects it? Anyway, the curse describes the damnation of anyone who maliciously interferes with the site and describes a civilization living atop a snow-capped mountain and worshiping the goddess Ishtar.

The team goes to investigate in the mountain range nearby.  After summiting, one of their number is abruptly swallowed up in a huge, deep sinkhole.  The others follow to rescue him.  When they get to the bottom they discover an ancient Sumerian culture that has evolved beneath the surface after a natural disaster.  By means of a flashlight – these people are painfully sensitive to light – the three survivors manage to briefly convince their king that they are gods.  The high priest is on to their con, however.

The civilization is supported by a colony of mole people who cultivate the mushrooms they eat.  These are treated as slaves and constantly whipped and killed.  A subset of “marked” non-albino Sumerians is also slated for death.  Bentley falls in love with one of these.  The rest of the movie follows the teams constant peril as the high-priest attempts to steal their flashlight and expose their lie as well as the mole people’s revolt.

I could have watched the super-cool mole people non-stop.  They make up about 15 minutes of the picture.  The high priest is also pretty good.  The rest is Sumerian rituals featuring comely dancing girls.  This is not as interesting.  Still, the movie makes for 77 minutes of nice mindless entertainment.

Trailer

Death in the Garden (La mort en ce jardin)
Directed by Luis Buñuel
Written by Luis Alcoriza, Luis Buñuel, and Raymond Queneau from a novel by José-André LaCour
1956/France/Mexico
Dismage/Producciones Tepeyac

“If I can’t dance to it, it’s not my revolution.” ― Emma Goldman

The combination of Luis Buñuel, Simone Signoret, and Charles Vanel sounded irresistible.  I couldn’t get into this though.

The setting is an unnamed South American country bordering on Brazil.  Prospectors have been mining for diamonds near a village.  The provincial government’s men come in and announce that the land belongs to the government and the miners have one day to pull out.  This sparks a revolt that is brutally surpressed.

In the meantime, Shark (Georges Marchal), a handsome crook, comes to town looking for a room with a bed.  Someone points him to a room which he finds unoccupied so he settles in.  It turns out that this is the home of prostitute Djin (Signoret).  When he wakes up he finds her in his bed.  But relations don’t stay cordial for long as she turns him in to the police for a bank robbery in another town.

The other story in the background is that of Castin (Vanel).  He is an elderly saloon keeper with a crippled daughter.  He has been mining on the side to get money to return to France.  He is innocently in love with Djin and asks her to marry him.  She thinks this is hilarious until she finds out about his money.  The final important character is priest Father Lizzardi (Michel Piccoli) who tries to keep everyone on the straight and narrow without much success.

All these people end up fleeing for their lives down the river to Brazil.  They become trapped in the jungle with no food.  The rest of the film follows their adventures.

This sounded good to me and still sounds like it should be good.  But I could not get involved in the story, nor did it amuse me in true Buñuelean fashion.  There’s nothing actually wrong with it though.

War and Peace
Directed by King Vidor
Written by Bridget Boland, Robert Westerby, etc. from the novel by Leo Tolstoy
1956/USA
Ponti-De Laurentis Cinematografica/Paramount Pictures
First viewing/Netflix rental

“It’s not given to people to judge what’s right or wrong. People have eternally been mistaken and will be mistaken, and in nothing more than in what they consider right and wrong.” ― Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace

This adaptation lacks the philosophy and character’s thoughts that make the novel great.  Nevertheless, I liked it a lot, not least for Henry Fonda’s excellent portrayal of Pierre.

The setting is Russia during the Napoleonic War.  We are introduced to a cast of thousands.  First, we focus on Count Rostov’s household.  This is made up of the Count, Countess, and their children Nicholas, Natasha (Audrey Hepburn) and Petya.  Nicholas is an officer about to go off to war.  Natasha is a teenager full of enthusiasm and happiness who is just blossoming into womanhood.  Then we meet Pierre Buzukhov (Fonda) and his friend Andre Bolkonsky (Mel Ferrer).

The plot is too long and complicated to summarize fully.  If you know the novel, the movie is relatively faithful to the major plot points.  We get the private lives of these people, including a romance between Natasha and Andre, counterpointed with scenes from the war, here mainly during the Battle of Borodino.  With Herbert Lom as Napoleon, Oskar Homolka as General Kutuzov, Vittorio Gassman as Anatol, and Anita Ekberg as Helene.

I was not in the mood to see a 3 1/2 hour Hollywood adaptation of one of my very favorite novels.  Imagine my surprise when the time went quickly and I found myself enjoying the film.  The acting is excellent throughout, Jack Cardiff’s color photography is stunning, and the battle scenes are effective.  I’ve read comments that Henry Fonda was miscast but I believed him 100%.  Hepburn is perfect for her part.  Recommended.

War and Peace was nominated for Academy Awards in the categories of Best Director; Best Cinematography, Color and Best Costume Design, Color.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WgC38YZzQ-c

Trailer

Hot Cars
Directed by Don MacDougall
Written by Don Martin and Richard H. Landau from a novel by H. Haile Chace
1956/USA
Schenck-Koch Productions/Bel-Air Productions
First viewing/Amazon Prime

Nick Dunn: She is like a hardtop convertible.

This is a late “B” film noir.  It might be worth a watch for the ending.

Nick Dunn (John Bromfield) is in the wrong business.  He is honest to a fault and sells used cars.  He also has a wife and sick child at home who rely on him.  As the movie starts, he is fired for failing to sell a lemon to a customer.  The customer calls on him the next day to offer him a job with his own used car franchise.  It’s a great deal and Nick eagerly goes to work only to find that the lots actually fence stolen cars.  Soon Nick is in a world of hurt, caught between the gang and a state inspector who is investigating a spate of auto thefts.

This is short, sweet, and kind of lurid.  It’s mid-range fair but has a boffo fist fight on a roller coaster to close it off.  I don’t know what it is with film noir and amusement parks.  The thrill ride climax is used often but it almost always works well.

Rodan
Directed by Ishirô Honda
Written by Takeshi Kimura, Takeo Murata, and Ken Kuronuma; English version by David Duncan
1956/Japan
Toho Film (Eiga) Company Ltd.
First viewing/Amazon Instant

Monsters are born too tall, too strong, too heavy, that is their tragedy. — Ishirô Honda

Color doesn’t do the special effects in this kaijû movie any favors.

Another H-bomb test awakens not one but two different species of prehistoric monster. Deep in a mine under a dormant volcano (?), miners are dying of horrific injuries.  A survivor finally identifies the culprit as a huge insect, later discovered to be a species extinct for million of years.  Then gigantic eggs begin to hatch.  The good news is that the hatchlings eat the insects.  The bad news is that they promptly take wing and fly like supersonic jets.  Mass destruction ensues.

This movie is in the Godzilla series but with an oddly comic looking giant lizard/chicken in the lead.  The tanks are clearly models and I think I saw jet trails coming out of the flying pterodactyl.  I watched the dubbed version which probably also detracted.

Trailer