Category Archives: 1959

Shake Hands with the Devil
Directed by Michael Anderson
Written by Ivan Goff and Ben Roberts; adapted by Marian Spitzer from a novel by Rearden Conner
1959/Ireland/USA
Pennebaker Productions/Troy Films
First viewing/Amazon Instant

[box] “The Irish people will only be free, when they own everything from the plough to the stars” – James Connolly[/box]

James Cagney was born to play a ruthless Irish nationalist.

It is 1921, Dublin as the Irish Republican Army battles the Black and Tans.  Kerry O’Shea (Don Murray) is an Irish-American medical student who studies under surgeon Dr. Sean Lenihan (Cagney).  He resists urging to get involved in the IRA.  When a friend is shot by the Black and Tans, he discovers Lenihan is actually as interested in killing as in saving lives.  He is a ruthless Commandant in the IRA.

The violence continues and Kerry is eventually moved to become a fighter.  As time goes on, Lenihan’s tactics begin to disgust him.  Conflict deepens when Lenihan kidnaps the beautiful daughter of an English politician (Dana Wynter) and holds her hostage for the release of an aristocratic IRA sympathizer.  With Michael Redgrave as the IRA “General”, Glynnis Johns as a sympathizer bar maid, and Richard Harris as a thug.

Cagney is great but I thought the movie was just OK.  Despite the great cast, it never really caught fire for me.

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The Young Philadelphians
Directed by Vincent Sherman
Written by James Gunn from a novel by Richard Powell
1959/USA
Warner Bros.
First viewing/Amazon Instant

[box] Anthony Judson Lawrence: I just learned the rules of the game.[/box]

Peyton Place meets courtroom drama.  The standout is Robert Vaughn as a man brought low by the expectations of Main Line Philadelphia society.

Kate Judson is a working-class girl who is loved by honest Mike Flanagan, (Brian Keith) an Irish emigre who has started up his own construction company.  Kate is lifted above her station however by the desire of a local lion to have her son produce an heir.  Thus, Kate has a society wedding to William Lawrence III.  On the wedding night William discloses his terrible secret.  He “cannot love any one”.  Kate runs to Mike for comfort.  She returns to her mother’s home to learn that William has been killed in a car accident.

Kate’s night of consolation with Mike left her pregnant.  She remains determined that the baby will bear the Lawrence name despite the offer of a large cash payout.  The Lawrences accept defeat but cut Kate off without a dime.

Kate’s son Anthony Judson Lawrence grows up to be Paul Newman.  Tony is a smart, driven student who works summers for the Flanagan construction company.  His goal is to become a lawyer.  While working on the construction job, he meets Joan Dickinson (Barbara Rush), who is from the Main Line and whose father is a partner in a prestigious law firm.  The two fall in love.  Tony’s roommate Chet Gywnne (Robert Vaughn) advises him to marry Joan as quickly as possible to avoid having the romance and marriage squelched by the powers that be like his was.

Joan and Tony prepare to elope.  In the nick of time, Joan’s father appears with an offer Tony cannot refuse if he will only “wait until June.” Tony waits but Joan does not and goes on to marry a young millionaire.  Embittered and cynical, Tony becomes obsessed with getting ahead by any means necessary.  He is very successful in getting what he wants and becomes a famous tax attorney.

When his friend Chet is accused of murdering his Main Line guardian, loyalty compels Tony to defend him despite the formidable Main Line forces lined up against him.  With Alexis Smith as Ralph Bellamy’s young frustrated wife and Billie Burke as a wealthy client.

This picture didn’t capture me until the concluding trial sequence in which Newman had a chance to display his fire and charisma. Up to then, I found the story pretty trite.

The Young Philadelphians was nominated for Academy Awards in the categories of Best Supporting Actor (Vaughn); Best Cinematography, Black-and-White; and Best Costume Design, Black-and-White.

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Libel
Directed by Anthony Asquith
Written by Anatole de Grunwald and Karl Tunberg from a play by Edward Wooll
1959/UK/USA
De Grunwald Productions
First viewing/Amazon Instant

“Good name in man and woman, dear my lord,/ Is the immediate jewel of their souls:/ Who steals my purse steals trash; ’tis something, nothing;/ ’twas mine, ’tis his, and has been slave to thousands;/ But he that filches from me my good name/ Robs me of that which not enriches him, / And makes me poor indeed.” ― William Shakespeare, Othello

Add a title like Libel to names like Anthony Asquith, Olivia de Havilland and Dirk Bogarde and I am intrigued.  Unfortunately, the implausible plot of this amnesia-flick-meets- courtroom-drama undid much of that good will by its end.

Sir Mark Loddon (Bogarde) came back from the war a changed man.  His time as a POW and traumatic escape has left him without memory of key events and has turned his hair prematurely grey.  His patient loving wife Margaret (De Havilland) soothes his nerves following his numerous nightmares.

Sir Mark and Lady Loddon live in one of those British stately homes that is open to the public for tours.  Mark’s fellow prisoner Jeffrey Buckingham happens to see a TV program on the house.  He becomes obsessed with exposing Sir Mark as an impostor and takes his case to a tabloid newspaper with little love for the aristocrat.

It turns out that Sir Mark also shared quarters at POW camp with an actor called Frank Welney (also Bogarde) who bore him an uncanny resemblance. Buckingham’s contention is that Sir Mark died during the escape, probably at Welney’s hands, and that Welney used the information gained during their confinement to marry Sir Mark’s fiancee and steal his title.

Sir Mark brings an action for libel and about half of the film is taken up with the trial. Things start looking might bad for our protagonist.  With Robert Morely as Sir Mark’s attorney and Wilfred Hyde-White as the lawyer for the newspaper.

I was looking forward to this one and felt let down.  All the acting is fine but the plot really is so contrived that my eyes started hurting from all the rolling they were doing.  I think it might have been a mistake to have Bogarde play both parts.  De Havilland is kind of wasted in a part that consists mostly in a lot of hand-wringing.  You can’t win them all.

Libel was Oscar-nominated for Best Sound.

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Farewell to Spring (Sekishunchô)
Directed by Keisuke Kinoshita
Written by Keisuke Kinoshita
1959/Japan
Shochiku Eiga
First viewing/FilmStruck

[box] “The truth is, everyone is going to hurt you. You just got to find the ones worth suffering for.” ― Bob Marley[/box]

Kinoshita has a flare for melodrama.  This is less melodramatic than just plain sad.

Five school friends reunite in their home town. All have changed.  One was crippled in an accident.  Two are involved in a love triangle.  Another has become a very shady character.    One of the boys has an uncle that is dying of lung disease and a broken heart.  Their memories of being “White Tigers” together cannot overcome reality.

I associate Kinoshita with buckets of tears from both sexes.  In this case, the protagonists are almost entirely dry-eyed.  Their dilemmas seem all too real.  There is a glimmer of hope at the end for at least some of the boys.  As a film, it’s just OK – a little slow for me.

The Human Condition II: The Road to Eternity (Ningen no joken)
Directed by Masaki Kobayashi
Written by Zenzo Matsuyama and Masaki Kobayashi from a novel by Junpei Gomikawa
1959/Japan
Shochiku Eiga
First viewing/Netflix rental

[box] Kaji: I refuse to die.[/box]

Kobayashi’s pacifist hero finds that the real enemy in WWII is the Japanese army.

This takes up where Part I left off, with Kaji (Tatsuya Nakadai) drafted into the army as a raw recruit.  Despite his pacifism, he attempts to make the best of a bad situation.  He is actually the best shot of all the recruits and a natural leader.  However, he is a suspected as a Red, due to his kind treatment of the Chinese prisoners in Part I.  The first half of the movie is devoted to the basic training of the men.  All missteps are disciplined by savage blows to the face and head.  In fact, any man senior to any other man seems to be able to strike his junior at will.  Kaji comes in for a lot of this treatment.

Finally, Kaji’s unit is called up to defend the Soviet invasion of Manchuria in the closing days of WWII.  They are hopelessly outnumbered and out-equipped.  Kaji attempts to hold on to return to his beloved Michiko.

In Part II of The Human Condition, Kobayashi continues to explore the brutality of war on an epic scale.  These films have portrayed the Japanese military in a worse light than any of the most propagandistic American war films I have seen.  The filmmaking continues to be masterful no matter how hard the subject matter is to take.  Part III was not released until 1961 and I will review it with that year’s films.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hpr_75YYX1o

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A Dog of Flanders
Directed by James B. Clark
Written by Ted Sherdeman from a story by Ouida
1959/USA
Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation
First viewing/Netflix rental

[box] “Happiness is a warm puppy.” ― Charles M. Schulz[/box]

This looks to have been made to capitalize on the success of Old Yeller and stars the same dog-actor.  It’s not quite as heart-warming as that film but comes close.

The story takes place in 1900 Belgium.  Nello Daas (David Ladd) is being raised by his grandfafther, Jehan.  They earn their meager bread by delivering milk.  One day Nello finds a sick, abused dog he names Patrasche (Spike).  The grandfather very reluctantly takes the animal in as this will mean sharing their scarce food with the animal.  It takes time for the boy to earn the trust of the dog but once he does they are fast friends.  The dog seems anxious to work pulling the milk cart.

Nello’s dream is to be a great painter – a dream which Jehan discourages, preferring to put the boy to work as an apprentice.  But the boy comes upon a painter in Antwerp (Theodore Bikel) who eventually recognizes his talent.  Much tragedy and love follow.

Couldn’t find a still of the dog in color!

Although I was not familiar with this tale, it appears it is a classic that has been filmed several times.  I am a sucker for dog movies and this is a good one.  David Ladd is only adequate but the supporting cast is excellent.  Needless to say, Spike is the greatest!

Some stills, etc. set to music from the film

Les Cousins
Directed by Claude Chabrol
Written by Claude Chabrol and Paul Gegauff
1959/France
Ajym Films/Societe Francaise du Cinema pour la Jeunesse
First viewing/Netflix rental

[box] La femme de ménage: Good Lord, look at this! Were you fighting?

Paul Thomas: This is Babylon, madam.[/box]

Two adjectives for this film are “disturbing” and “unrelenting”.  It might also be some kind of masterpiece.

Charles (Gerard Blain) is a serious law student from the provinces who lives to please his mother. Paul (Jean-Claude Brialy) is a law student and lives to please himself.  Paul is also rich and lives it up in a grand Paris apartment.  He invites Charles to live with him.  Charles finds that non-stop partying in the flat is not compatible with the non-stop studying he finds it necessary to do.

Another distraction soon appears in the shape of Florence, a city girl.  It is love at first sight  for Charles.  Florence will have to reform her wild ways to reciprocate but seems willing to try. Paul thinks the affair won’t work for either party and intervenes.  A love triangle and bad luck ensues.

As near as I can figure the message of this movie is “Life is unfair and there is nothing anybody can do about it”.  At least that’s what it had me believing by the end. Chabrol watches dry-eyed as the debauched city cousin destroys the happiness of his naive and earnest country kin.  This makes for a story and film I cannot love.

I admired it immensely however.  The psychology rings true.  Some of the shots are breathtaking.  The acting and score are fantastic.  This got under my skin and will remain in my memory longer than many more feel-good films have.  If you can get beyond a bleak story (with dashes of black humor) and some really unlikeable characters, I would go for it.

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The Atomic Submarine
Directed by Spencer Gordon Bennett
Written by Orville H. Hampton
1959/USA
Gorham Productions
Repeat viewing/Netflix rental

[box] Voice of Spaceman: At last Commander, we meet as your people say… face to face![/box]

An uninspired alien meets an uninspired script.  Meh.

It is 1968.  Ships and submarines have been disappearing above the Arctic Circle.  The USS Tiger Shark is sent to investigate, and if possible destroy the culprit, with two scientists on board.  The crew discovers that not all flying saucers come from outer space.

The film capitalized on the launch of the USS Nautilus, the first nuclear submarine.  The DVD commentary is much more interesting than the movie.

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Tiger Bay
Directed by J. Lee Thompson
Written by John Hawkesworth and Shelley Smith from a short story by Noel Calef
1959/UK
The Rank Organization/Independent Artists
First viewing/FilmStruck

[box] Mrs. Phillips: It’ll be all right, he says. A fat lot of good the police are. We’ve got one in the house and a murder’s done right under his nose and now here’s a child whose got hold of a gun and they don’t even know where she is![/box]

Hayley Mills’s film debut is a taut,  suspenseful thriller.

The setting is Cardiff, Wales.  Korchinsky (Horst Buchholz), a sailor, collects his paycheck and sets off to his girlfriend’s flat, planning to ask her to marry him.  Simultaneously, we are introduced to twelve-year-old Gillie (Mills), a London transplant.  The neighborhood kids won’t let her play with them because she doesn’t have a cap pistol.  The small cap “bomb” she owns doesn’t cut it.  She heads home to the flat she shares with the aunt whose prime goal seems to be to keep her out from underfoot.

Gillie guides Korchinsky to the building where both her family and the girlfriend now lives. They hit it off splendidly.  Soon after, Gillie overhears shouting in Polish in the girlfriend’s apartment and starts peeking through the keyhole.  Finally she sees Korchinsky kill his lover, who left him for another man.  She hides while he flees and sees him hide the murder weapon.  She picks it up with ideas of becoming a big wheel with the kids.

A police investigation begins.  This is the kind of neighborhood where distrust runs high and people are not inclined to cooperate, whether they have anything to hide or not.  Gillie outright lies, at first because she does not want to relinquish her prize.  Later, after Korchinsky finds her and tucks her firmly under his wing, their friendship becomes the prime motivator.  With John Mills as the inspector.

I really liked this one.  This film depends upon the difference between a child’s perspective and reality and works quite well.  The specter of an innocent youngster with a loaded gun alone guaranteed this would be a nail-biter for me.  The ramifications of Gillie’s lies as the film progresses add to the potential consequences and the suspense.  Hayley Mills inherited her father’s talent and made for a convincing tomboy heroine.  Recommended.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DPoK4SWff4I

Clip with Hayley Mills commentary

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uU8GTKQFBAA

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