Flickers in Time

Rush to Judgement
Directed by Emile de Antonio
Written by Mark Lane
1967/US
Judgement Films
First viewing/You Tube

[box] “History is much more the product of chaos than of conspiracy” ― Zbigniew Brzezinski[/box]

Interesting documentary that raises more questions about the Kennedy Assassination than it answers.

Author Mark Lane interviews many eyewitnesses to the assassination.  Some are certain at least two of the shots were so close together that they could not have been made by the same gun.  Others say they observed shot coming from a different direction than the Texas Book Depository.  Many of these witnesses later died under suspicious circumstances according to Lane.  No theories about who the other shooter/s might have been or who was behind any conspiracy or cover-up.

All of de Antonio’s documentaries have political agendas.  The difference with this one is that it has a narrator – Lane – who does not exactly let the audience draw its own conclusions.  The conspiracy theory is so convoluted that I generally give up early on in trying to understand it.  If there are any Kennedy assassination enthusiasts among my readers, I can highly recommend Oswald by Norman Mailer.  It’s based on personal access to Marina Oswald as well as de-classified KGB records detailing surveillance on Lee Harvey during his years in the USSR.

No clip or trailer – so here’s Mark Lane speaking about Jim Garrison’s investigation in 1967

The Dirty Dozen
Directed by Robert Aldrich
Written by Nunnally Johnson and Lukas Heller from a novel by E.M. Nathanson
1967/USA
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer/MKH/Seven Arts Productions
Repeat viewing/Netflix rental

[box] Major John Reisman: I never went in for embroidery, just results.[/box]

Remains a fun action adventure after all these years, largely due to a collection of the best character actors of the 50s and 60s.

Maverick US Army Major John Reisman (Lee Marvin) seems to General Worden (Ernest Borgnine) to be the best man to lead a suicide mission to slay as many of the German High Command as possible.  He will be given a unit composed of twelve convicts sentenced to long prison sentences or death for violent crimes.  The survivors will be given a reprieve if they perform the mission as ordered.  Colonel Breed (Robert Ryan) will be a thorn in his side during the entire training period.

We follow the dozen’s arduous training which converts a few of them to soldiers, war games, and finally the mission itself, complete with MANY explosions.  With John Cassavetes, Telly Savalas, Jim Brown, Charles Bronson, Clint Walker, Donald Sutherland, Trini Lopez, etc. among the dozen.

This is simply a very entertaining war movie.  It’s not that easy to get these things right. It’s about perfect for what it is.

The Dirty Dozen won the Academy Award for Best Effects, Sound Effects.  It was nominated in the categories of Best Supporting Actor (Cassavetes), Best Sound, and Best Film Editing.

Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner
Directed by Stanley Kramer
Written by William Rose
1967/USA
Columbia Pictures
First viewing/Netflix rental

[box] Tillie: All hell done broke loose now![/box]

I don’t like most, if not all, movies produced or directed by Stanley Kramer.  This one, as usual, rang false to me – starting with its Oscar-winning screenplay.

Young Joey Drayton (Katharine Haughton) meets a John Prentice in Hawaii and spends a very romantic ten days with him culminating in a marriage proposal, which she accepts. The man happens to be black. He is also just so happens to be a genius tropical disease researcher that looks exactly like Sidney Portier.  She takes him to meet her wealthy parents, Matt (Spencer Tracy) and Christina (Katharine Hepburn).  Matt is a famous liberal newspaper owner and Christina is a free-spirited art gallery proprietor.  Joey is sure her parents will warmly welcome John into the family.  John is not so sure and tells Matt privately that he will not marry Joey if her parents object.  He is departing for Geneva the next day.

In the meantime, John calls his parents (Roy Glenn and Beah Richards) to break the news. They decide to take a quick flight from LA to San Francisco to meet the intended.  Good thing because Joey decides to join John in flying out the next day.  They are flabbergasted that she is white.  Both sets of parents are worried about the future of an interracial couple.  But with this plot and avuncular wise man Monsignor Ryan (Cecil Kellaway) on hand, the outcome is never in doubt.

The acting is mostly great with the exception of the terribly over-earnest Houghton.  And what cinema fan could miss Hepburn and Tracy together for the last time?  But the actors are forced to speak in trite speeches.  I agree with all the sentiments expressed but they were irritating the hell out of me by the end.  You do get to see some San Francisco scenery, which is always a plus.  I would say this movie was dated from the day it was released.  Others apparently like it for some reason.

Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner won Academy Awards for Best Actress (Hepburn) and Best Screenplay, Written Directly for the Screen.  It was nominated in the categories of Best Picture; Best Director; Best Actor (Tracy, posthumously); Best Supporting Actor (Kellaway); Best Supporting Actress (Richards); Best Art Direction-Set Decoration; Best Film Editing; and Best Music, Scoring of Music, Adaptation or Treatment.

Creature of Destruction
Directed by Larry Buchanan
Written by Tony Huston
USA/1966
Azalea Picures
First viewing/YouTub

[box] Opening title card: There is no monster in the world so treacherous as man. Montaigne.[/box]

If only the monster had more screen time this could qualify as a fun bad movie.  Unfortunately, he only shows up briefly and usually after dark.

A mad hypnotist (Les Tremayne) discovers that his beautiful assistant was a sea monster in a previous life.  He figures out how to revert the assistant to monster form.  He starts making predictions of the future predicting time and place of a bunch of murders.  Both an open-minded military psychologist and the cops have identified the hypnotist has being behind the murders.  There’s other stuff that happens, including  of teenagers dancing to a rock band.  Admittedly, I was not paying close attention but little of the plot really made sense to me.

I took a break from the high-brow viewing at the top of my 1967 list to watch Larry Buchanan’s Creature of Destruction. Buchanan is in my pantheon of so-bad-its-good movie directors so I had to.  This is another cheapie feature made to pad out AIP’s television package.

Imagined conversation –

Costume and makeup designer: How am I supposed to create a creature with only $10? 
Buchanan:  Well I have this old wet suit. 
Designer:  Will it fit the actor? 
Buchanan: We will make it work. 
Designer:  What about the face? 
Buchanan: Well I still have the ping pong ball eyes left over from Curse of the Swamp Creature! (1966).  LOL. 

In Cold Blood
Directed by Richard Brooks
Written by Richard Brooks from the book by Truman Capote
1967/USA
Columbia Pictures/Pax Enterprises
Repeat viewing/Amazon Instant

[box] Perry: I despise people who can’t control themselves.[/box]

Splendid cinematography and excellent acting make this tale of murder and madness a must-see.

This is the true story of Dick Hickcock (Scott Wilson) and Perry Smith (Robert Blake) , ex-cons who murdered a family of four in Kansas during a home invasion.  Dick is your classic psychopath type.  Perry is more complex.  Profoundly damaged by childhood, he frequently escapes into fantasy.  Though never stated, it may be that Dick is the only friend he ever had.  Not that Dick is actually capable of caring about anyone.

Dick and Perry were in prison together.  Perry was paroled first.  When Dick gets out he tells Perry about a “sure thing” a cellmate told him about.  The two believed the Clutter family in rural Kansas had a safe containing no less than $10,000.  We watch them prepare for their crime.  We learn about the quiet life of the Clutters.  Dad is a life insurance salesman.  Dick repeatedly says they will leave no witnesses.

Once the crime is committed the two find there are witnesses – each other – and now they are joined at the hip.  Their robbery yielded about $40 and now they are completely broke, on the run, and irritating each other like crazy.  We see their adventures while also following the police investigation led by Alvin Dewey (John Forsythe).  This is not going to end well.  With Will Geer as a prosecutor.

All the scenes except in the jail were filmed on their actual locations lending authenticity to a film that also features breaks in continuity, dream sequences and other innovative story-telling techniques.  I like that we don’t see the actual crime until late in the movie.  The acting is very good.  I think Blake deserved an Oscar nomination for a difficult part.  We are meant to sympathize with Perry and Blake makes us do it while also convincing us that he would be capable of almost anything.  Highly recommended.  Highly recommend Capote’s book as well.  He makes the true crime as spellbinding as any fiction.

According to IMDb, this may have been the last black-and-white movie released by a major American studio until Young Frankenstein (1974).

In Cold Blood was nominated for Academy Awards in the categories of Best Director; Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium; Best Cinematography (Conrad Hall) and Best Music, Original Score (Quincy Jones).

Samurai Rebellion (Jo-uchi: Hairyo tsuma shimatsu)
Directed by Misaki Kobayashi
Written by Shinobu Hashimoto from a novel by Yasukiho Takiguchi
1967/Japan
Mifune Production Company Ltd/Toho Company
Repeat viewing/Netflix rental

Isaburo Sasahara: Each must live his own life.

Kobayashi’s film about the clash between love and duty features one of Toshiro Mifune’s greatest performances.

Isaburo Sasaharo (Mifune) is an aging vassal of a Lord that demands complete and total obedience.  He lives with his nightmare of a wife Suga and grown son Yogoro.  Yogoro is in the market for a bride.  In the meantime, beautiful young Ishi has been forced, very much against her will, to be come a concubine of the middle-aged Lord and bear him an additional heir as insurance against the demise of his eldest son.  When the Lord takes on yet another mistress while Ishi is recovering from childbirth, she lashes out at both Lord and mistress.  Because she is the mother of his child, the Lord does not immediately kill Ishi but orders Yogoro to marry her.

The whole Sasaharo family is against the idea of Yogoro accepting “used goods” from the Lord.  Eventually Yogoro submits.  The couple falls deeply in love.  Shortly after the birth of their daughter Tomi, Ishi is ordered back to the castle as mother of the heir because the eldest son has died.  Isaburo and Yorgoro find themselves at odds with both their extended family, all of whom will be punished for any defiance, and the samurai code.  With Tatsuya Nakadai as an old friend of Isaburo’s.

Kobayashi revisits the themes of Harakiri (1962) in this excellent follow-up.  Mifune is just magnificent, stern and loving in turn.  While the story is a tragedy, it is also a celebration of true honor and courage.  The entire thing is capped off with a battle between Mifune and about 20 attackers followed by a mesmerizing duel between Mifune and Nakadai.  So, even if you are just looking for sword-fighting action, this is a must see.  The masterful cinematography, framing, and powerful score are a bonus.  Highly recommended.