Category Archives: 1959

The Human Condition I: No Greater Love (Ningen no jôken)
Directed by Masaki Kobayashi
Written by Zenzo Matsuyama and Masaki Kobayashi from a novel by Jumpei Gomikawa
1959/Japan
Ninjin Club/Shochiku Eiga
Repeat viewing/Netflix rental[box] Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. King James Bible, John 15:13[/box]

Director Kobayashi proves that the hell of war is not confined to combat.

This is the first part of a nine-hour three-part film dealing with the wartime career of Kaji (Tatsuya Nakadai), a pacifist and humanist.  Kaji has written a paper on how to increase production in Manchuria.  He has been dreading the draft, both because of his principles and his love for Michiko.  Instead, he is given an assignment to the labor department of a Manchurian mine that comes with a draft exemption.  He and Michiko marry and depart for the dreary, isolated mine site.

The mine is run by the Japanese using what is essentially Chinese forced labor.  Kaji’s thesis is that productivity can be increased and absenteeism decreased by treating the workers better.  His boss allows him to try this experiment and Kaji earns the intense hatred of the Japanese mine foremen.

Kaji’s life takes a turn for the worse when the military delivers 600 POWs and he is put in charge of them.  These arrive in half-dead in freight cars.  The military’s number one demand is that not one be allowed to escape.  Otherwise, the men are entirely expendable.

He continues his quest to treat the prisoners as human beings.  The prisoners take advantage of this by continually escaping through the connivance of some greedy Japanese and a trusted Chinese assistant.  Kaji will be lucky to escape the situation with his life.

The Human Condition I is a beautifully shot and entirely grim movie.  The inherent contradiction in attempting to be humane while participating fully  in a system of forced labor is acknowledged and explored.  It’s a fine film but not one that I will revisit anytime soon.  Part II will be coming up when I have the strength for three more hours of suffering.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IpkKFLC2zvA

Trailer

The Mouse That Roared
Directed by Jack Arnold
Written by Roger MacDougall and Stanley Mann from a novel by Leonard Wibberly
1959/UK
Columbia Pictures Corporation/Highroad Productions
First viewing/Netflix rental

[box] Tulley Bascombe: Well, Your Grace, we’re home. Actually, there’s been a slight change of plan. I know it will come as a surprise, a pleasant one, I hope, but we sort of won.[/box]

Monty Python came from a rich tradition, including this Cold War satire which also features Peter Sellers in a treble role.

The Duchy of Grand Fenwick is the smallest and only English-speaking country in Europe. Practically its sole source of income is exports of Fenwick Pinot to the U.S.  A U.S. winery comes up with a competing Enwick Pinot and the duchy is on the verge of bankruptcy.  Its Prime Minister (Sellers) comes up with the idea of declaring war on the U.S., losing, and benefiting from reconstruction aid.  This is enthusiastically supported by the Grand Duchess (Sellers) and the Loyal Opposition (Leo McKern).

Head Field Marshall and Forester Tully Bascombe (Sellers) puts together a landing force of about 20 men, all garbed in the traditional medieval Fenwickian armor and equipped with long bows.  As fate would have it, New York City is virtually shut down for an air raid drill when the army arrives.  One thing leads to another and Bascombe and company end up capturing the latest in nuclear weapons, the Q bomb, from its inventor and his comely daughter (Jean Seberg).

The Mouse That Roared is not quite as funny as the plot makes it sound but there are definitely laughs to be had here.  Sellers is very good in this lead up to his similar turn in Dr. Strangelove.

Trailer

The Five Pennies
Directed by Melville Shavelson
Written by Jack Rose and Melville Shavelson; story by Robert Smith
1959/USA
Dena Productions
First viewing/Amazon Instant

A lotta cats copy the Mona Lisa, but people still line up to see the original. – Louis Armstrong

This is a solid little biopic.  The fabulous jazz takes it up a notch.

It is the Roaring Twenties. Loring ‘Red’ Nichols (Danny Kaye) is spotted playing the cornet out in his hometown of Ogden, Utah and hired to play in band in New York.  He promptly meets and falls in love with fun-loving singer Willa ‘Bobbie’ Stutzman (Barbara Bel Geddes) and they marry.  She sticks by him in his numerous run-ins with bandleaders who do not appreciate his penchant for Dixieland jazz or clowning.  Finally, he starts his own band and goes on to success on the road.  His bands include many of the players who will become stars in the big band era.

Red and Bobbie both dote on their daughter Dorothy.  When she is about six, Bobbie feels they should settle down and put her in school.  Red doesn’t want to give up his band and they compromise by putting the child in boarding school, where she is miserable.  Dorothy develops polio and Red blames himself.  He works at a WWII shipyard while the couple nurse her back to health.  Can Red be separated permanently from his horn?  With Tuesday Weld as the teen-aged Dorothy.

The best thing about any movie with Louis Armstrong in it is Armstrong and this is no exception.  Furthermore, it is jam-packed with music from Satchmo and Red Loring, who is heard while Kaye mimes the playing.  The story is sweet and a little corny but could not have been done better for its kind.  Kaye and Bel Geddes are both endearing.

The Five Pennies was nominated for Academy Awards in the categories of Best Cinematography, Color; Best Costume Design, Color; Best Music, Original Song (“The Five Pennies”); and Best Music, Scoring of a Musical Picture.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x1LGhi-s5qc

Clips – fabulous trumpet playing

The Four Skulls of Jonathan Drake
Directed by Edward L. Cahn
Written by Orville H. Hampton
1959/USA
Vogue Pictures
First viewing/YouTube

[box] Ignorance is the curse of God; knowledge is the wing wherewith we fly to heaven. William Shakespeare [/box]

I thought this was one of the creepier B horror films of its vintage.  There is just something about shrunken heads …

Jonathan Drake’s brother Kenneth dies on his sixtieth birthday, allegedly of natural causes.  Drake, who believes there is a curse on the family, insists on viewing the corpse.  Sure enough, the body has been decapitated.  Could it have something to do with the sinister archeologist (Henry Daniell) who has been hanging around or his mute Indian sidekick? Drake, his daughter, and a police inspector must find out before Jonathan becomes the next victim.

I found all the scenes with the heads super gruesome, although bloodless.  This is not a bad little flick for its genre

Clip – Two villains shrink a head

The Wreck of the Mary Deare
Directed by Michael Anderson
Written by Eric Ambler from a novel by Hammond Innes
1959/UK/USA
Blaustein-Baroda
First viewing/Netflix rental

[box] Gideon Patch: You listen! I didn’t ask you to come on board, and I’m in command here! Now, if you don’t like it, you can go over the side and swim![/box]

This has some good performances and special effects but in the end I was left wondering what Hitchcock would have made of the story.

John Sands (Charleton Heston) runs a small salvage ship with one other man.  In the midst of a violent storm, they come upon the apparently derelict Mary Deare, which is billowing smoke and from which all but one lifeboat has been launched.  Sands boards the vessel to see what riches they may be able to salvage from the ship.  He is met by the half-crazed captain Gerald Patch (Gary Cooper).

Despite the fact that the ship is obviously in serious trouble, Patch will not accept assistance and orders Sands off his vessel.  But the storm prevents Sands from safely departing and Patch must save his life.  He stays on board and eventually follows orders until the two manage to wreck the ship on a rocky shore.  Patch refuses to explain any of the suspicious circumstances until he can be heard from a court of inquiry.  Sands reluctantly agrees not to reveal the location of the ship until that time.

When the men are finally rescued from the remaining lifeboat, Sands learns that Patch has quite a history with wrecks.  Surviving crew members accuse him of panicking and unnecessarily ordering the crew to abandon ship.  Patch desperately seeks to clear his name in the ensuing inquiry.  With Richard Harris as a sadistic bad guy and Michael Redgrave as the attorney for the Ministry of Transportation.

This starts off strong with an intriguing mystery.  It loses steam when the men reach shore and a fairly routine courtroom drama begins.  Gary Cooper’s late-50’s haggard mien and intensity suits his character well and the mainly British supporting cast is quite good.  The writing and pacing could have used more oomph, though.

This novel was one of the first projects Hitchcock was supposed to tackle when he came to the U.S.  It was interesting to ponder what he could have done with it.  In the end he and screenwriter Ernest Lehman could not come up with a satisfactory treatment so the problem may have been in the source material.

Trailer

Too Many Crooks
Directed by Mario Zampi
Michael Pertwee; story by Christiane Rochefort and Jean Nery
1959/UK
Rank Organization/Mario Zampi Productions
First viewing/YouTube

Sid: [Billy Gordon has refused to ransom his wife] What are we supposed to do now? Keep her as a pet?

The leading lights of classic British comedy make a for a genuinely funny comedy of errors.

Fingers (George Cole) is the hopelessly incompetent mastermind of a gang of crooks that barely tolerate him.  He comes up with a scheme to rob millionaire and notorious tax evader Billy Gordon (Terry-Thomas).  When this fails miserably, his next idea is to kidnap Billy’s beloved daughter, who is about to marry a tax inspector.

As usual everything goes wrong and they end up with Billy’s wife (Brenda de Banzie).  The womanizing cheat doesn’t want her back.  The gang is up a tree until the wife decides to get delicious revenge.

Though the source is not credited, this is basically a take-off on O’Henry’s classic short story “The Ransom of Red Chief”.  One of my favorite comedies of all time is Ruthless People (1986,) which is drawn from the same source.The dry wit, double entendres, and Monty Pythonesque physical humor in this film made it thoroughly enjoyable.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WfmOgvOq1s8

Trailer

Pillow Talk
Directed by Michael Gordon
Written by Stanley Shapiro and Maurice Richlin; story by Russell Rouse and Clarence Green
1959/USA
Universal International Pictures/Arwin Productions
First viewing?/Netflix rental

[box] Alma: If there’s anything worse than a woman living alone, it’s a woman saying she likes it.[/box]

This Technicolor 50’s “sex comedy” was rescued for me by the chemistry and performances of its leads.

Jan Morris (Doris Day) is a smart, independent interior decorator to the New York elite. She shares a party line with Brad Allen (Rock Hudson), a womanizing song writer.  Brad gets on her last nerve by talking on the phone constantly with his various conquests.  Eventually, she confronts him but he continues behaving badly.

Jan’s wealthy client Jonathan Forbes (Tony Randall) wants to marry her.  He also happens to be the backer of the Broadway show Brad is composing.  Jonathan’s description of his prickly neighbor intrigues Brad so he poses as a mild-mannered Texas rancher to date her up.  Misunderstandings and witty repartee ensue.  With Thelma Ritter as Jan’s hard-drinking housekeeper and Marcel Dalio as Jan’s boss.

This was cute, pleasant and entertaining.  One can immediately see why Day and Hudson went on to make two other films in the same vein.  The supporting performances are strong and the dialogue, while silly, is sharp.  This film just screams late 50’s Technicolor comedy.  If you like those, you should not miss this.

The DVD I rented contained a fun and affectionate commentary by film historians.

Pillow Talk won the Academy Award for Best Writing, Story and Screenplay – Written Directly for the Screen.  It was nominated in the categories of Best Actress (Day); Best Supporting Actress (Ritter); Best Art Direction – Set Decoration, Color; and Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture.

Trailer

Two Men in Manhattan (Deux hommes dans Manhattan)
Directed by Jean-Pierre Melville
Written by Jean-Pierre Melville
1959/France
Belfort Films/Alter Films
First viewing/Netflix rental

[box] “If you’re purely after facts, please buy yourself the phone directory of Manhattan. It has four million times correct facts. But it doesn’t illuminate.” ― Werner Herzog[/box]

This is sub-par film noir but, as a time capsule of late-night late-50’s Manhattan, it’s a winner.

The French delegate to the UN has gone missing.  The editor of the French news service AFP assigns crack reporter Moreau (Melville) to track him down.  Moreau looks up photographer Delmas, a paparazzi who knows the dirt on everyone.  Delmas has pictures of three different women who have been the diplomat’s mistresses.

The two search through the night for the women.  They eventually lead them to their man. When they find him, they are faced with an ethical dilemma. The two men face this in very different ways.

This is one of those foreign films containing lots of English.  It appears to be both spoken and written by non-native speakers and is a distraction.  The plot slowly meanders all over the place until the final act, when the ethical question provides some interest.  The ending doesn’t help, though.

However, this was recently restored and Melville makes a loving and beautiful travelogue of New York at night.  It is accompanied by a really good jazz score.

Restoration trailer