Monthly Archives: June 2015

The Great Madcap (El gran calavera)
Directed by Luis Buñuel
Written by Janet Alcoriza, Luis Alcoriza and Adolfo Torrado
1949/Mexico
Ultramar Films
First viewing/YouTube

[box] Thank God, I’m an atheist. — Luis Buñuel[/box]

Buñuel comes back after a long absence with an only slightly subversive satirical romance.  I thought it was pretty charming.

Since his wife died, millionaire Ramiro de la Mata (Francisco Soler) has become an amiable drunk who indulges every whim of his freeloading family and office staff.  The one unselfish member of his household is daughter Virginia, who is preparing to marry a fortune hunter he doesn’t much like.  Ramiro’s carousing leads to some sort of an attack that leaves him unconcious for a while and his brother decides to teach him a lesson.  He persuades the family to go along with a scheme to fool Ramiro that he has lost all his money in a fraudulent bankruptcy.

So the family moves in to a flat in the poor section of town and pretend to go to work doing laundry, carpentry, etc.  When Ramiro wakes up they easily convince him he is broke.  He decides to commit suicide by jumping off the roof but is rescued by handsome young Pablo.  Pablo falls in love with the beautiful Virginia at first sight.  Despite their poverty, Pablo and his mother take pity on their neighbors and bring them food.

Before long, Ramiro gets wise to the scheme.  He decides to carry on with the charade to teach his family a lesson.  He has reformed though and his business is more successful than ever.  Eventually, Virginia’s no-good fiancé gets wind of this and shows up pretending to help out the family.  Pablo is outraged when he finds out about the ruse.  Can things be made right?  Hint:  this is a comedy.

I liked this a lot.  Mostly it is a straight-forward narrative though there are a few Buñuel touches like the fiancé’s mustachioed mother and Pablo blaring out advertisements on a loudspeaker during Virginia’s wedding ceremony.  The dialogue is nicely written and all the performances are good.  It is probably my favorite Mexican movie of the period thus far.

Clip – wedding scene – no subtitles

Jour de fête (AKA “The Big Day”)
Directed by Jacques Tati
Written by Jacques Tati, Henri Marquet, and Rene Wheeler
1949/France
Cady Films/Panoramic Films
First viewing/Amazon Instant

[box] [at the 1959 Academy Awards] I find that the people who speak the worst English want to talk more than the others. — Jacques Tati[/box]

This was Tati’s first feature film and pre-dates the creation of Monsieur Hulot.  It’s talkier than later films and drags a little but has some great sight gags.

Postman François (Tati) makes his rounds by bicycle in a small French village and the surrounding countryside.  This particular day is a holiday and a little carnival has come to town.  We start off with a commentary by an old lady on the foibles of various villagers and scenes of people setting up the merry-go-round etc. before François appears.  François is a bit of a bumbler but tolerated by his fellow villagers.  He tries to help with set up to predictably dire results.

About two-thirds of the way through, François and some of his buddies go to see a newsreel about how mail is delivered in America.  This includes break-neck scenes of letters delivered via helicopter, etc.  François’ pals rib him mercilessly and finally the postman takes up the challenge and starts furiously delivering the mail in a most alarming way.

You don’t go to see Tati’s films for the plot or dialogue but for the sight gags.  There are some good ones, particularly when Tati starts demonstrating “modern” techniques of delivering letters by bicycle.  He’s a long way from his peak here but I enjoyed the film. The music is very nice as well.

Restoration trailer

The Walking Horse Winner
Directed by Anthony Pellisier
Written by Anthony Pellisier from a story by D.H. Lawrence
1949/UK
Two Cities Films
First viewing/Amazon Instant

Bassett: You won’t never see the end of it, ma’am, nor will I. As long as ever we’ll live, we’ll remember, and we’ll know just what it is was done.

This psychological fantasy is a nice allegory for the frantic need of children to “fix” their dysfunctional homes.

The Grahames have a problem.  The mother, Hester (Valerie Hobson), feels entitled to a certain standard of living and believes that the money should be made to fit the standard rather than the reverse.  Mr. Grahame has no hope of making enough money from his current job and is an unlucky gambler to boot.  Hester has a small trust fund but her uncle Oscar (Ronald Squire), the trustee, is getting tired of making loans from the principal which is, at any rate, running out.  Mr. and Mrs. Grahame spend most of their time arguing about money.  Their eldest son, Paul (John Howard Davies), seems to spend most of his time overhearing these fights and worrying.

Into this unhappy life comes Basset (John Miles) who served as Oscar’s batman during the war, and has been hired as a sort of driver/gardener. Basset soon befriends Paul who is fascinated with his stories of his life when he was a jockey.  When Paul gets a rocking horse for Christmas, Basset shows Paul how to ride it as if it were a real horse.

Things go from bad to worse and Paul begins to hear the house talking to him.  “We must have more money” it whispers.  He has a talk with his mother who is complaining about how his father is unlucky and decides to convince her that he is lucky and can take care of them. Bassett likes to play the ponies and Paul convinces him to lay down a small bet.  The first bet loses.  Then Paul finds that if he can ride his rocking horse to the “lucky place” he will know to a certainty which horse will win a race.  Paul and Bassett become partners and secretly lay up a large amount of money.  Later Oscar joins the enterprise.  Finally, Paul can secretly provide for his mother’s extravagances.

At the same time, Paul is driven to ride his horse more and more furiously to get where he needs to go, frightening his siblings and nanny and taking a toll on his health.

Everything from the acting to the cinematography is first rate.  It’s an unusual and troubling story which I enjoyed very much.  Recommended.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wbgsMDtSucs

Clip – spoiler

Lust for Gold
Directed by S. Sylvan Simon
Written by Ted Sherdeman and Richard English from the novel “Thunder Gods Gold” by Barry Storm
1949/USA
Columbia Pictures Corporation
First viewing/Netflix rental

Julia Thomas: Who is he?
Man in crowd: Jacob Walz. Must be a Dutchman.
Julia Thomas: Or a German.
Man in crowd: Yeah, that’s what I said – a Dutchman.

On the surface, this is a Western about the discovery of the Lost Dutchman gold mine.  Underneath, it is 100% film noir.

A long flashback is framed by the story of Barry Storm a descendent of the namesake of the Lost Dutchman Mine who runs across a corpse while searching in the mountains for the old mine.  Turns out that there have been a number of murders in the vicinity.

As Storm searches through a pile of old documents, we segue into the flashback.  Jacob Walz (Glenn Ford) rides into town and heads straight to the assay office with a pile of gold nuggets.  The townspeople are clambering to find out where the mine is.  The proprietress of the local bakery Julia Thomas (Ida Lupino) gets wind of this and plots how she will get a share of the loot.  She orders her husband Pete (Gig Young) to introduce her to Jacob.  Pete is forced to comply because Julia has the info that will tie him to an unsolved murder back in Milwaukee.

At any rate, Jacob goes on a drinking spree, but manages to keep his secret even while dead drunk.  Julia spots him passed out in the street and takes him home with her.  When he wakes up she appears like an angel with no interest in anything but her baking.  When she tries out her German on the lonely miner, it is love at first sight.

Soon Jacob begins courting Julia. who is having a harder and harder time keeping her marriage to Pete hidden.  She is finally forced to admit her marriage and agrees to get a divorce.  Soon she will caught between two violent, angry men.

Once the love triangle is resolved, we return to the modern-day mystery involving the location of the mine and the identity of the killer.  With Paul Ford as the modern day sheriff and a youngish Will Geer as his deputy.

This is a fairly solid noirish Western with a truly evil femme fatale.  Glenn Ford is handicapped by a bad German accent that comes and goes repeatedly and the story is a bit too convoluted.  It’s not a bad way to spend a couple of hours, though.

Clip