Category Archives: Movie Reviews

The Proud Rebel
Directed by Michael Curtiz
Written by Joseph Petracca and Lillie Hayward from a story by James Edward Grant
1958/USA
Formosa Productions
First viewing/Amazon Prime

[box] Jeb Burleigh: I’d like a little respect. I told you before I don’t like people I’m talkin’ to to walk away from me. Look at me! You look at me when I talk to you.

John Chandler: I’m lookin’, but I don’t see anything.[/box]

This is a solid, if predictable, family Western with some good performances and some mean hombres.

John Chandler (Alan Ladd) is a man of few words.  His son David (David Ladd) lost his speech when their Georgia plantation was destroyed and his mother killed during the Civil War.  John is now traveling through the North with David and their beloved sheepdog, Lance, desperately seeking a cure for his son’s muteness.  They are very short on cash.

Almost as soon they arrive in town, the Burleigh brothers attempt to steal Lance and then pick a fight.  John decks Jeb Burleigh and is arrested for assault.  The court is stacked against him and he is sentenced to $30 or 30 days.  This is money he does not have nor can he leave David alone while he serves time.  Fortunately, spinster Linnett Moore (Olivia de Havilland), who has had her own trouble with the Burleighs, pays the fine and he agrees to work off the loan on her farm.

The Burleighs are sheep ranchers and Linnett’s farm denies them open pasture that they covet.  Father Harry Burleigh (Dean Jagger) is smoother than his sons but they all would do anything to drive her from her farm.  With John by her side, Linnett is more stubborn than ever.  The two develop a warm friendship that could turn into something more.

John learns that there is a doctor at the Mayo Clinic who thinks he has a 50-50 chance of curing David.  It will cost $300.  John could earn the money by selling the amazing Lance but that would break David’s heart.

I love sheepdogs and I would have watched this movie just to see that dog work those sheep.  Fortunately, the movie is solid all around and de Havilland is particularly impressive.   Of course, you don’t have to be a genius to anticipate virtually every one of the plot points.

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The Young Lions
Directed by Edward Dmytryk
Written by Edward Anhalt from a novel by Irwin Shaw
1958/USA
Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation
First viewing/YouTube rental

[box] Michael Whiteacre: Look, I’ve read all the books. I know that in 10 years we’ll be bosom friends with the Germans and the Japanese. Then I’ll be pretty annoyed that I was killed.[/box]

As usual, Marlon Brando is the standout in parallel stories that examine the personal lives of German and American soldiers during WWII.

Brando plays Christian Diestl, a charming German ladies man who works seasonally as a ski instructor in the Austrian Alps.  We are at a party welcoming in the New Year 1939 and Diestl’s current amour is American tourist Margaret Freemantle (Barbara Rush).  She is succumbing to his advances when she sees the New Year’s baby is wearing a swastika. Things get more sinister from there.  Christian himself is not political in the least but he thinks Hitler might be a good thing for Germany.  Margaret is horrified and makes a speedy exit.

The next thing we know it is 1940.  Diestl is now an officer serving in Occupied Paris.  He finds his duty, which is mainly rounding up resisters, distasteful.  His introduction to a French woman eases the pain.  He tries to get transferred to combat duty but is refused. A visit to his commandant’s sexy wife in Berlin does the trick, however.  The war becomes more and more disillusioning and painful for him.

On parallel tracks, we are introduced to Noah Ackerman (Montgomery Clift), a humble Jew from New York, and Michael Whiteacre (Dean Martin), a hard-drinking nightclub singer.  We see their respective romances with Hope Plowman (Hope Lange) and Margaret Freemantle, the American who spurned Christian earlier in the film.  Both men are drafted. Noah suffers mightily from the anti-Semitism of his captain, sergeant, and fellow GIs but fights back nobly.  Michael manages to get himself transferred to the special service.  But all three of our protagonists end up on the road to Berlin toward the end of the war.

This movie is two hours and 47 minutes long but kept my interest throughout.  That says something right there.  The story was somewhat cliched but was very well done and Brando, as always, was fascinating to watch.  I thought he did well with his accent and disappeared into his part.

The Young Lions was nominated for Academy Awards in the categories of Best Cinematography, Black-and-White; Best Sound; and Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture.

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

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The Crawling Eye (AKA The Trollenberg Terror)
Directed by Quentin Lawrence
Written by Jimmy Sangster; story by Peter Key
1958/UK
Tempean Films
First viewing/Netflix rental

[box] Philip Truscott: Cute little things, aren’t they?

Alan Brooks: Yeah. I’m gonna throw a bomb at that one. You watch on the screen, see what happens.[/box]

Slow pace and a cardboard alien hamper what could be an intriguing premise in this British B feature.

As the movie begins, climbers are rappelling down the face of Trollenberg in the Swiss Alps.  Suddenly one of them falls.  The other two try to save him until one of them sees that his face has been ripped off.

Segue to a train car, where our hero Alan Brooks (Forrest Tucker) is on his way to that a same mountain.  In his compartment are two sister en route to Geneva.  One of them, Anne is irresistibly compelled to get off at Trollenberg.  We find the sisters perform in a mind reading act.  No signals are necessary as Anne actually is telepathic.  She keeps getting terrifying visions of death on the mountain and something seems to be pulling her there.

Alan goes to visit his friend Professor Crevett at his mountain observatory.  Both believe the strange phenomenon Alan observed in the Andes is repeating itself.  Something, which is protecting itself with a cloud and intense cold, is mighty annoyed.

Don’t come here looking for camp or laughs unless you watch the MST3K version.  Nothing about it grabbed me.

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

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Desire Under the Elms
Directed by Delbert Mann
Written by Irwin Shaw from the play by Eugene O’Neill
1958/USA
Don Hartman Productions
First viewing/Amazon Prime

[box] They wa’n’t strong enuf fur that! They reckoned God was easy. They laughed. They don’t laugh no more. Some died hereabouts. Some went West an’ died. They’re all under ground–fur follerin’ arter an easy God. God hain’t easy. (He shakes his head slowly.) An’ I growed hard.  — Eugene O’Neill, Desire Under the Elms[/box]

More domestic disfunction in 1958, this time in New England.

Ephraim Cabot (Burl Ives) is a 76-year-old tyrant with a prosperous farm.  He works his three grown sons mercilessly and treats them with contempt.  The youngest, Eben (Anthony Perkins), seems to be the softest but he is secretly filled with steely determination to make all that Ephraim owns his own.  The source of this wealth was his own mother’s dowry.

Ephraim may be hard but he is also lonely.  He sets off to find a wife.  While he is gone, Eben digs up Ephraim’s secret cache of gold and buys up his half-brothers’ share of the farm. They take the money and set off to prospect for gold in California.

Ephraim comes back with a young Italian wife, Anna (Sophia Loren).  She is just as determined to make the farm hers as Eben is.  After a stormy start, they end up in each other’s arms.  Tragedy ensues.

This is an O’Neill drama with the gravitas of Greek tragedy and OK in its way.  It hinges, however, on believing the grand passion between Perkins and Loren.  I didn’t buy it for a minute.  Perkins is a fine actor but he is just not cut out to be any kind of romantic lead. Ives was certainly having quite a year!

Desire Under the Elms was nominated for an Oscar for Best Cinematography, Black-and-White.

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We had a mostly cool and beautiful holiday in the Pacific Northwest.  I’m ready to be back and watching my beloved old movies but not quite ready for the heat.

Here’s what we saw when we stopped in Stevenson, Washington on the Columbia River Gorge.

… and a rose at Portland’s International Test Rose Garden.

On the Bowery
Directed by Lionel Rogosin
Written by Lionel Rogosin, Richard Bagley and Mark Sufrin (all uncredited)
1956/USA
Rogosin Films
First viewing/Amazon Instant

[box] “This is a good place,” he said. “There’s a lot of liquor,” I agreed.” ― Ernest Hemingway, The Sun Also Rises[/box]

This ground-breaking documentary of how drunks try to survive on skid row is marred by an obviously fictional story and amateur acting.  Nevertheless, Rogosin’s photography of the real thing is stunning and profound.

The story follows Ray as he arrives in the Bowery after a summer working on the railroad with his savings and s suitcase.  We follow the clean cut man as he slowly deteriorates into a bum who has hocked his clothes for his last drink and now must be fed a concoction of Sterno to stave off the DT’s.  Ray’s older friend Gorman, a fellow drunk and long-time Bowery resident, tries to help him.

The scenes of life in the Bowery are absolutely harrowing.  The faces of the drunks are heartbreaking.  Despite the horror, the photography is hauntingly beautiful.  The film was recently lovingly restored.  Recommended.

On the Bowery was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Documentary, Features.

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