Category Archives: Movie Reviews

Gojira (Godzilla)
Directed by Ishirô Honda
Written by Takeo Murata and Ishirô Honda; story by Shigera Kayama
1954/Japan
Toho Film (Eiga) Co. Ltd.
Repeat viewing/my DVD collection

[box] [last lines] Kyohei Yamane-hakase: I can’t believe that Godzilla was the only surviving member of its species… But if we continue conducting nuclear tests, it’s possible that another Godzilla might appear somewhere in the world again.[/box]

I needed something special to counteract countless hours of carnage in Paris and this fit the bill exactly.  It also probably served a similar purpose with regard to H bomb anxieties in post-war Japan.

Gojira evolved from a marine creature to a land creature 2 million years ago then lay dormant in a deep sea cave. H-bomb testing has awakened the monster. The first clue is the mysterious sinking of several fishing boats.  Paleantologist Professor Yamane (the great Takashi Shimura!) finally encounters the creature on an island whose traditions include an underwater monster that devours all the fish, then the people.  He wants to study the monster to see how it survived the H-bomb.

Soon Gojira is heading toward Tokyo and it becomes absolutely clear he must be destroyed.  As Yamane predicts, all Japan’s weaponry cannot slay a monster that withstood an H bomb.  Yamane’s daughter’s fiance, a scientist, has invented an “Oxygen Destroyer” that has potential to slay the beast but he is reluctant to use it for fear it will be exploited as a weapon of mass destruction.  How can he ensure the device will never be used for evil?

This film is as much an expression of the Japanese nuclear experience and fears as anything else. In facts, parts of the film are almost poetic in their sad looks at destruction and loss.  This aspect lifts the original above the American adaptation with Raymond Burr released two years later.

Of course, the monster action is what made this a hit and it is fun despite the somewhat clunky special effects. It helps that most of Godzilla’s rampages are at night and so obscure a lot of the “man in a rubber suit” effect. The print looks beautiful and the  score is fantastic!  If you have any interest in the genre, this is a must-see.

Trailer – Criterion print of actual movie is not nearly so dark

The Blue Gardenia
Directed by Fritz Lang
Written by Charles Hoffmann; story by Vera Caspery
1953/USA
Blue Gardenia Productions
First viewing/Netflix rental

Sally Ellis: I didn’t like Prebble when he was alive. But now that he’s been murdered,that always makes a man so romantic.

This certainly doesn’t measure up to Lang’s other noir for 1953, The Big Heat.  It’s not bad though.

Norah (Anne Baxter) works as a telephone operator and lives with a couple of her co-workers.  She is engaged to a fellow who is away fighting in Korea and plans to celebrate her birthday at home alone.  Then she gets a Dear Jane letter and falls to pieces.  Almost immediately the phone rings and it is Harry Prebble (Raymond Burr) trying to ask out one of her roommates.  Norah, who is now in no mood to be alone, stands in for the roommate who is out on a date.  Prebble doesn’t mind the switch and sets about getting Norah very drunk on cocktails at the Chinese restaurant he takes her too.  Then he takes her home to his bachelor pad.  She is so drunk she can barely stay conscious.

The next morning she wakes up back home with a terrible hangover.  That’s when she reads about Harry’s murder.  Every clue points directly to her.  She can’t remember a thing. She is so sure she will be apprehended that she decides to entrust her fate to a newspaper man (Richard Conte), who is out for an exclusive on the case.  With Ann Southern as one of the roommates.

This doesn’t have brilliant pacing and is fairly predictable.  It’s entirely watchable, though. Burr is great as always.  Evidently he was one of the nicest guys in Hollywood but during this period he was just brilliant at playing a creep (as here) or a very scary heavy.

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Gate of Hell (Jigokumon)
Directed by Teinosuke Kinugasa
Written by Teinosuke Kinugasa and Masaichi Nagata from a play by Kan Kukichi
1953/Japan
Daiei Studios
First viewing/Hulu

[box] “I have little left in myself — I must have you. The world may laugh — may call me absurd, selfish — but it does not signify. My very soul demands you: it will be satisfied, or it will take deadly vengeance on its frame.” ― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre[/box]

Gate of Hell presents a dark tale of obsession in glowing colors and a sumptuous setting.

It is 1160.  Lord Kiyomori travels to help put down a rebellion elsewhere and the Emperor’s residence in Kyoto is besieged by two other lords.  There is a great battle and a general decides it is necessary to hide thefather and sister of the Emperor.  He asks for a volunteer to serve as a decoy for the sister.  Lady Kesa (Machiko Kyô) steps up. She sets off in a palanquin guarded by General Moritô and his men.  They are promptly attacked by rebels.  Moritô vanquishes the attackers.  Lady Kesa then resides in Morito’s castle until it is safe to return home.

Lord Kiyomori rewards Moritô’s loyalty by offering to give him anything he wants.  After extracting a promise that the Lord really means what he says, Moritô asks to marry Lady Kesa.  But unbeknownst to him, she is already married to Wataru, chief of the castle guard.  Morito is undeterred and the Lord says he will allow the marriage if Lady Kesa consents.  But Kesa seems to be very happily married indeed.

Moritô, who started out as the hero of the piece, simply will not take no for an answer.  He takes ever more drastic steps to win his lady, resulting in tragedy for all concerned.

This film grabs the viewer with its stunning sets, costumes, and use of color from the first frame. The story got off to a slow start for me but by mid-way through I was thoroughly involved and so mad at Moritô that I was yelling at the screen.  The ending is really moving.  Recommended.

Gate of Hell won a well-deserved Academy Award for Best Costume Design, Color.  It received an Honorary Oscar for Best Foreign Film.

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Sincerity (AKA A Sincere Heart) (Magokoro)
Directed by Masaki Kobayashi
Written by Keisuke Kinoshita
1953/Japan
Shôchiku Eiga
First viewing/Hulu

This was director Kobayashi’s first feature film.  He would go on to do infinitely better work.

Hiroshi is studying hard for his university entrance exams with the help of a tutor who is engaged to his sister.  He would rather be playing rugby.  His father promises him anything he wants if he manages to get into the elite school he has in mind for him.  Initially, Hiroshi thinks he would like to travel.

Then a young woman and her invalid sister move into the flat across the way from Hiroshi’s window.  The room has only one small window which does not have a veiw of the sky.  Hiroshi begins a sort of silent communication with the sick girl and eventually shows her the moon and sun using a hand mirror.  He becomes seriously infatuated.

After a while, the girls’ evil uncle appears and the sick girl flees into the snow where she collapses.  Hiroshi and his coach find her and take her to a doctor.  Now Hiroshi becomes obsessed with doing well on his exams so he can get his father to pay for a sanitiorium for the girl.

This seems more like a Kinoshita movie than like any of Kobayashi’s later work (Harakiri, The Human Condition, Kwaidan).  Buckets of tears are shed and the girl who played the doomed consumptive has played the same part more than once for Kinoshita and even for Kurosawa.  Yet, it’s not a badly made movie and you can see some glints of Kobayashi’s future prowess in the scenes where Hiroshi and his sister playfully chase each other through the house.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Wx9Y8JoaKo

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