Daily Archives: May 31, 2015

Sands of Iwo Jima
Directed by Allan Dwan
Written by Harry Brown and James Edward Grant, story by Brown
1949/USA
Republic Pictures
First viewing/Netflix rental

[box] Sergeant Stryker: SADDLE UP.[/box]

This contains all the WWII war movie cliches rolled into one.  John Wayne fans won’t want to miss it though.

Sgt. John M. Stryker (Wayne) has a tough job on his hands.  His duty is to train a group of raw recruits and then lead them into battle.  His no-nonsense approach to this task has given him a reputation as a hard taskmaster.

Two of the men in his squad pose particular problems.  PFC Mike Thomas (Forrest Tucker) has a grudge against Stryker who had him reduced in rank previously.  PFC Peter Conway (John Agar) is the son of a commander, now dead, whom Stryker greatly admired. Conway, an intellectual,  believes he was major disappointment to his father and that Stryker will automatically share his father’s opinion.  He has a gigantic chip on his shoulder.

Stryker is struggling with his own demons.  His divorce from his wife and separation from his beloved son leads him to get rip-roaring drunk whenever the occasion presents itself. But really he’s a good guy, whose sometimes harsh methods are designed merely to keep his men alive when they are tested in battle.

The Marines are see combat first on Tarawa and finally at Iwo Jima.  With Martin Milner and Richard Jaeckel as members of the platoon.

This film is filled with the same bantering and valor in battle as we have seen in countless other pictures from the period.  There are few surprises.  Wayne is very good though and probably that will be enough for his fans.  By now I consider myself one, while still having no use for his politics.

Sands of Iwo Jima was nominated for Academy Awards in the categories of Best Actor (Wayne); Best Writing, Motion Picture Story; Best Sound, Recording, and Best Film Editing.

Trailer

Champion
Directed by Mark Robson
Written by Carl Foreman from a story by Ring Lardner
1949/USA
Screen Plays/Stanley Kramer Productions
First viewing/Amazon Instant

[box] Tommy Haley: You know what a “Golem” is? I think I knew all the time I was building one.[/box]

This was Kirk Douglas’s break-out performance.  He is scary good as a ruthless boxer.

The story is a familiar one.  Midge Kelly (Douglas) is hitching rides on freight cars with his crippled brother Connie (Arthur Kennedy) en route to a diner they have bought an interest in.  After jumping from the train after a fistfight, they get a ride from a boxer and his girlfriend and wind up at the local boxing ring.  The pugnacious Midge continues to react violently to any perceived insult.  When one of his boxers drops out, the ring manager offers him $35 dollars to fight.  The amateur is thoroughly trounced and Midge winds up paying $20 of his promised purse in various “fees”.  But trainer Haley (Paul Stewart) sees some latent talent and tells him to look him up if he is ever in Los Angeles.

When Midge and Connie arrive at the diner, it turns out they have again been cheated by the buddy who sold it to them.  They are put to work doing menial chores.  Midge starts a thing with the real owner’s daughter Emma (Ruth Roman).  When they are caught together the father forces him to marry her.  Midge does so and promptly leaves town.

At loose ends, Midge makes his way to LA and looks up Haley.  He is burning with ambition and rage at all the slights he has suffered.  He trains hard to turn pro and wins a number of fights.  He is unable to get a shot at the title though.  In order to fight the champion, he is required to throw the fight.  He agrees to this, then changes his mind in the ring.  He and Haley are both pummeled by outraged gamblers.  But Midge has finally made a name for himself and becomes a media darling.

The rest of the movie follows the fighter’s career as he betrays every single person who loves or supports him.  With Marilyn Maxwell and Lola Albright as women Midge screws over on his way to the top.

Under no circumstances do what I did.  The version currently streaming on Amazon Plus has been colorized.  The lights and shadows of the Oscar-nominated low key cinematography were rendered into an obnoxious muddy mess in the version I watched.

I can recommend the film itself though.  It’s a story we have seen before.  However, whereas usually the hero is corrupted, here Midge is more or less a rotter from the first frame.  The movie belongs to Douglas and he is absolutely a force of nature.  As much as one despises the character he is playing it is impossible to to take your eyes off him.

Champion won the Oscar for Best Film Editing.  It was nominated in the categories of Best Actor; Best Supporting Actor (Kennedy); Best Writing, Screenplay; Best Cinematography, Black-and-White; and Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture. (Dimitri Tiomkin).

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