Daily Archives: June 26, 2015

Winchester ’73
Directed by Anthony Mann
Written by Robert L. Richards and Borden Chase
1950/USA
Universal International
Repeat viewing/Netflix rental
#238 of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die

[box] High-Spade Frankie Wilson: Not men. Hunting for food, that’s alright. Hunting a man to kill him? You’re beginning to like it.

Lin McAdam: That’s where you’re wrong. I don’t like it. Some things a man has to do, so he does ’em.[/box]

This beautifully crafted Western gave us the new darker, angrier James Stewart.  Miles away from Elwood P. Dowd in Harvey, made the same year.

Lin McAdam (Stewart) is traveling with sidekick High Spade (Millard Mitchell) on a mission to find and kill Dutch Henry Brown in revenge for killing his father.  En route, they stop in Dodge City on the day when a priceless Winchester ’73 rifle is to be awarded as the prize for winning a sharpshooting contest.  Lin and Dutch end up vying for the gun.  Lin wins handily but Dutch ambushes him in his hotel room and takes it away from him.

Dutch and his gang hightail it out of town.  The gun appears to be cursed and passes from one hand to another in a series of violent reversals.  Dutch must sell it to a crooked Indian trader, he loses it to the chief of a warring Indian tribe (Rock Hudson in his screen debut), it is taken away during a battle with the Indians and awarded to a coward, and he is killed for it by Waco Johnny Dean (Dan Duryea), who is on his way to join up with Dutch.  Lin participates in many of these fights and continues his relentless pursuit after Dutch.  With Shelley Winters as a dance hall girl/love interest, Will Geer as Wyatt Earp, J.C. Flippen as a cavalry sergeant and Tony Curtis in a tiny part as a soldier.

Jimmy Stewart loses every trace of his aw-shucks demeanor in this film and becomes one hard hombre.  He is compelling all the way through.  The film is beautifully staged and shot.  If you like your Westerns violent, this should not be missed.

Trailer

Last Holiday
Directed by Henry Cass
Written by J.B. Priestley
1950/UK
Associated British Picture Corporation/Watergate Films
First viewing/Netflix rental

[box] George Bird: How do you keep smiling with a stiff upper lip?[/box]

I fell for this sleeper in a big way.  Such a fine performance by Alec Guinness.

Ikiru-style, the film begins with George Bird (Guinness) in a doctor’s waiting room presumably to get the results of a routine physical.  In the doctor’s office, the physician is looking over his patient’s X-rays.  It is bad news.  George is suffering from a rare disease that is invariably terminal.  The doctor matter-of-factly informs him he has six weeks to live after which he will slip into a coma and die painlessly.  After determining that George has no family or close friends, he suggests that George quit his job, cash in his savings and his insurance policy and enjoy the remainder of his life.

George quits his job as a farm equipment salesman.  George’s boss who had previously refused his request for a raise now is willing to pay almost any amount to keep him.  But George heads to a travel agency where he books a one-way ticket to the poshest seaside resort he can find.

Fortuitously a tailor soon offers him an incredible deal on some bespoke Saville Row clothes that fit him perfectly and a couple of suitcases that are covered with travel stickers.  George himself has never been anywhere.  George is feeling adventurous and picks up the lot for 65 pounds.  The tailor advises George that he will be a new man in these clothes, especially if he treats himself to a new haircut and shaves off his moustache.

The resort treats George like royalty on arrival.  All the other guests are intrigued by this mysterious stranger.  Everything he does turns to gold.  Newly liberated from his inhibitions, he speaks his mind to a few influential people and is rewarded with new job offers.  He wins big every time he gambles.  A lady married to a broke wastrel finds him irresistible.

But George is basically miserable.  It takes him most of the story to confide his secret to anyone.  Then a couple of things happen that make a real difference.

I loved Guinness in this, a departure from his comedy performances of the period.  His character is subdued and retiring but there is clearly so much going on inside him that you just have to feel for him. I was surprised by the unexpected ending, which made the whole story so much more thought-provoking.  Recommended.

Trailer