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Daily Archives: July 17, 2014

Compulsion (1959)

Posted on July 17, 2014 | Leave a comment

Compulsion
Directed by Richard Fleischer
Written by Richard Murphy based on the novel by Meyer Levin
1959/USA
Darryl F. Zanuck Productions
First viewing/Netflix rental

[box]Jonathan Wilk: In those years to come, you might find yourself asking if it wasn’t the hand of god dropped these glasses… And if he didn’t, who did?[/box]

This is a superb treatment of the Leopold and Loeb case, also adapted for Hitchcock’s Rope.

Arthur A. Straus (Bradford Dillman) and Judd Steiner (Dean Stockwell) are two highly intelligent and privileged law students. Artie also happens to be a psychopath and Judd gets his kicks from playing at a master-slave relationship with him. They decide to commit the “perfect murder” simply to see if they can get away with it. Their crime of choice is kidnapping a child, murdering the boy, and throwing his body into a ravine. They follow up by sending his parents a ransom note.

The boys are not as smart as they think they are and the body is found before they can collect on the ransom. Artie has more fun by insinuating himself with the police and sending them on wild goose chases after teachers, servants, etc., ruining several careers in the process. D.A. Harold Horn has strong suspicions about some glasses found at the scene though and eventually the killers are brought to justice. The remainder of the film is devoted to their trial at which liberal defense attorney Jonathan Wilk (Orson Welles) – a stand-in for Clarence Darrow who defended Leopold and Loeb – admits their guilt but makes an impassioned argument against the death penalty.

Orson Welles does not make his appearance until the last third of this film. The first part of the story is devoted to the awful but fascinating characters of the murderers, compellingly played by Dillman and Stockwell. Dillman’s is a fairly straightforward psychopath but Stockwell gets to show a more rounded portrayal as a twisted young man who just might have a conscience buried somewhere inside. Welles’s anti-death penalty monologue ending the film was the longest in film history and is very moving. Fleischer also makes this compelling to look at. Highly recommended.

Dean Stockwell, Orson Welles, and Bradford Dillman jointly won the Best Actor Award at the Cannes Film Festival. The film was nominated for the Palme d’Or.

The story has also been made into the movies Rope (1948), Swoon (1992) and Murder by Numbers (2002)

Trailer – cinematography by Willaim C. Mellor

The Magnificent Ambersons (1942)

Posted on July 17, 2014 | 8 comments

The Magnificent Ambersons
Directed by Orson Welles
Written by Orson Welles from the novel by Booth Tarkington
1942/USA
Mercury Productions
Repeat viewing/Netflix rental
#162 of 1001 Films You Must See Before You Die
IMDb users say 7.9/10; I say 9/10

[box] Narrator: Something had happened. A thing which, years ago, had been the eagerest hope of many, many good citizens of the town, and now it had come at last; George Amberson Minafer had got his comeuppance. He got it three times filled, and running over. But those who had so longed for it were not there to see it, and they never knew it. Those who were still living had forgotten all about it and all about him.[/box]

Even in its studio-edited state, The Magnificent Ambersons is a worthy follow-up to Citizen Kane.

At the turn of the last century, the wealthy Amberson family are the social lions of their home town. Pretty Isabel Amberson (Dolores Costello) is being courted by young inventor Eugene Morgan (Joseph Cotten) but she breaks it off when he embarrasses her with a drunken serenade. She marries the equally rich but boring Wilbur Minifer instead. The town gossips predict that their children will be spoiled rotten, reasoning that since Isabel does not love Wilbur, she will pour all her love into them. This proves to be all too true. George Minifer (Tim Holt), their only son, is a spoiled and obnoxious child who grows into a pompous young man with a strong sense of entitlement and no manners.

Eugene is widowed and comes with his daughter Lucy (Anne Baxter) to a dance hosted by the Minifers. George begins courting Lucy while strongly disapproving of her father and his “useless” horseless carriages. It is clear that Isabel and Eugene have never lost their affection for each other. When Wilbur dies, they take up where they left off. But George is a mama’s boy and is not about to let anyone come between himself and Isabel. His meddling is encouraged by his Aunt Fanny (Agnes Moorehead), who is sweet on Eugene herself. Eventually, the modern world exacts a comeuppance from all but its champions.

The film is really more about the way modern optimism, ambition, and speed sweeping away the the grace and propriety of a bygone era than it is about the love story at its core — sort of like a New England Gone with the Wind. All the elements from acting to art direction are exceptional. Some of the compositions are as breathtaking as anything in Citizen Kane. Unfortunately, we will never see Welles’s original vision. What we have will certainly do, however.

If I were asked to give my favorite words in the English language, “comeuppance” would certainly be near the top! And there was never a character who so richly deserved one as George Minifer.

The Magnificent Ambersons was nominated for Academy Awards in the categories of Best Picture, Best Actress in a Supporting Role (Moorehead), Best Black-and-White Cinematography (Stanley Cortez), and Best Art Direction-Interior Decoration, Black-and-White.