Monthly Archives: September 2015

The Greatest Show on Earth
Directed by Cecil B. De Mille
Written by Written by Fredric M. Frank, Barré Lyndon, and Theodore St. John; story by Frank, St. John, and Frank Cavett
1952/USA
Paramount Pictures
First viewing/Netflix rental

[box] Midway barker: That’s all, ladies and gentlemen, that’s all. Come again to the greatest show on earth. Bring the children. Bring the old folks. You can shake the sawdust off your feet, but you can’t shake it outta your heart. Come again, folks. The Greatest Show on Earth. Come again.[/box]

I will cut this movie some slack for the circus acts and Jimmy Stewart.  Otherwise, I thought it was pretty dreadful.

Cecil B. Demille breaks in throughout in a voice-over narration with words of wisdom about the place of the circus in the hearts of young and old alike and the hard work of the performers.

Brad Bredon (Charleton Heston) manages the circus in question.  He is all-business.  Holly (Betty Hutton), the trapeze artist that loves him, says he has sawdust in his veins.  Lately, the circus hasn’t been doing so well, and the owners have been talking about doing a shorter season.  Brad saves the day by hiring French trapeze idol Sebastian (Cornel Wilde).  The owners agree that the company can keep touring as long as it is making money.

The problem with Brad’s scheme is that Sebastian will work only in the center ring thus edging Holly out of the coveted spot.  She vows that the audience will be looking only at her in the side ring during Sebastian’s act and proceeds to compete with him doing increasingly dangerous stunts.  Sebastian doesn’t seem to mind the competition much since he wants Holly as the latest of his many conquests.  Holly does not heed the warnings of Angel (Gloria Grahame), who previously had a fling with Sebastian herself.  To make the love triangle a pentangle, Angel is in love with Brad too and is loved by her insanely jealous elephant trainer boss, Klaus.

Beloved by all is Bubbles the clown (Jimmy Stewart).  He has a habit of staying in make-up at all times and it becomes increasingly clear that he is carrying a guilty secret.  To add to the drama, an organized crime boss (Lawrence Tierney) and his henchmen are running illegal gambling operations and con games in the side show.  They are out for revenge when Brad shuts them down.  With a host of real circus performers, including Emmett Kelly.

Betty Hutton should never have been allowed to do anything but comedy.  She overacts horribly and makes this blockbuster even worse than it had to be.  Then we get Cornell
Wilde with a cringe-worthy French accent.  The story and dialogue are just a mess of cliches.  And this won the Oscar in competition with High Noon and The Quiet Man?

The Greatest Show on Earth won Oscars for Best Picture and Best Writing, Motion Picture Story.  It was nominated in the categories of Best Director, Best Costume Design, Color, and Best Film Editing.

Trailer

Red Planet Mars
Directed by Harry Horner
Written by John R. Balderston and Anthony Veiller from a play by Balderston and John Hoare
1952/USA
Melaby Pictures Corp.
First viewing/YouTube

[box] Russian Commissar: That will silence their hymns. What do these superstitious peasants think? They cannot compete against our guns![/box]

I generally don’t review B-movies on my blog but will make an exception for this bizarrely fascinating tale.

American astronomers have observed recent drastic changes on the planet Mars including the rapid melting of a polar ice-cap to fill the numerous canals that cover the planet.  This encourages hot shot radio expert Chris Cronyn (Peter Graves) to intensify his efforts to make contact with the Martians.  After seeing the astronomer’s findings, Chris’s wife Linda (Andrea King), who had formerly been his enthusiastic assistant, is dead set against this.  She now believes that contact will only increase the possibility of the nuclear holocaust that has preoccupied her since the end of the war.

However, Peter prevails and soon starts picking up signals.  These remain meaningless however until the Cronyn’s son Stewart suggests opening communications by transmitting the first few decimal places of pi and waiting for a response with the remaining figures. This works splendidly and soon the government sends out a cryptography expert to de-code the messages.

The first answers from Mars reveal that the Martians live 300 years and have solved all their power and food problems.  For some reason, this information causes the global economy to collapse.  Now we find out that the Russians have hired Franz Calder, the Nazi inventor of the same transmitter used by Cronyn on the same project.  From his hideout in the Andes, the evil Calder is unable to contact Mars itself but can track the American’s communications with the planet.  The Russians are gleefully waiting to take over in the chaos following the financial meltdown.

Cronyn, formerly a press darling, is now demonized.  Washington asks him to shut his transmitter down.  Then something amazing happens.  When the Martians are asked how they have avoided nuclear disaster, they respond by saying they follow the teachings of their supreme being about good and evil.  The Martians’ messages grow increasingly Bible based.  I will not reveal the bizarre last act of this drama, which I think should be seen.

Wow, this has everything except actual Martians – drunken Nazis, brutal Russians, Cold War paranoia and God.  The script by Dracula writer Balderston and Vellier, who was a writer on The Killers, is pretty tight and effective considering the subject matter.  What this movie lacks in special effects it makes up for in a vivid portrayal of 1952 anxieties.  I went in looking for a good bad movie but really think it is more of a pretty good movie that has somehow not gotten the following it deserves.  Mind you its all very, very overblown – but in a good way.  Currently available on YouTube.

Clip – opening

The Little World of Don Camillo (Don Camillo)
Directed by Julien Duvivier
Written by Julien Duvivier and René Barjavel from a novel by Giovanni Guareschi
1952/Italy/France
Produzione Film Giuseppe Amato/Rizzoli Editore/Francinex
First viewing/Netflix rental

Crocefisso: Where did you get that cigar, Camillo?
Don Camillo: Peppone had two. I think I took it without asking him. You know he believes in equal distribution of wealth.

It took me a bit to warm up to this, my first exposure to famed French comedian Fernandel, but once I did I found it very charming.

This is the episodic story of the gentle war between Don Camillo (Fernandel), an Italian priest, and his long-time frenemy Peppone, the newly elected Communist mayor of the village he ministers to.  Don Camillo is assisted and/or chided by the voice of the crucifix in his church throughout.

At his inauguration, Peppone promises his followers two things – to build a community center and to create jobs.  Don Camilo manages to wangle a new church-sponsored playground out of the deal.  There is also a running Romeo-and-Juliet romance between Peponne’s son and the daughter of one of the local landowners.

The crisis comes when Peponne calls a strike of farm laborers after the local landowners refuse to pay a tax levied to raise funds for a couple of additional construction projects needed to create jobs.  The moral seems to be that Italians continue to act like Italians no matter what their ideological difference.

I was initially disappointed because I expected this to be laugh out loud funny.  One I got over that misimpression, I thoroughly enjoyed the film.  There are many genuinely amusing situations and such an enchanting warmth to the thing despite all the bickering.  I imagine it was even funnier at the time it was made.  Recommended.

Clip

Full House
Directed by Henry Hathaway, Howard Hawks, Henry King, Henry Koster, and Jean Negulesco
Written by Lamar Trotti et al based on the stories of O. Henry
1952/USA
Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation
First viewing/Netflix rental

[box] Sam ‘Slick’ Brown: An oil well is a hole in the ground surrounded by suckers.[/box]

Taking a cue from the Somerset Maugham omnibus films being made in Britain, Fox came out with this star-studded collection of O. Henry short stories, each shot by a different director.  I enjoyed it very much.

O. Henry is justly famous for the twist endings in his short stories so I will stick to the barest of synopses.  The first story is “The Cop and the Anthem” in which a tramp (Charles Laughton) has the devil of a time getting himself arrested so that he can have a warm cell for the winter.  In “The Clarion Call” a policeman (Dale Robertson) wants to arrest his former buddy (Richard Widmark) for murder but can’t because he still owes his friend $1,000.

In “The Last Leaf” a jilted woman (Anne Baxter) catches pneumonia and tells her sister (Jean Peters) she will die when the last leaf falls off an ivy vine growing across from her window.  “The Ransom of Red Chief” tells the story of two conmen (Fred Allen and Oscar Levant) who decide to kidnap a child in rural Alabama and get much more than they bargained for.  Finally, “The Gift of the Magi” tells the famous story of a young married couple (Farley Granger and Jeanne Crain) and how they solve their Christmas gift-giving problems.  Also with David Wayne and Marilyn Monroe.

My mother used to have a collection of O. Henry stories so I knew how all these would come out.  They were still very pleasant viewing.  I think this was the first time I’ve seen Oscar Levant play someone other than himself.  He seemed exactly the same but, as always, entertaining.

Clip

Ivanhoe
Directed by Richard Thorpe
Written by Noel Langley and Marguerite Roberts; adapted by Aeneas MacKenzie from the novel by Sir Walter Scott
1952/USA
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
First viewing/Netflix rental

Ivanhoe: I Wilfred of Ivanhoe, do challenge the judgment of this tribunal. In the name of the accused, I demand that her guilt or innocence be determined in the eyes of God by wager of battle.

This has all the makings of a blockbuster – big stars, pageantry, and mortal knightly combat with a love triangle thrown in for good measure.  If you like that kind of thing, this may be for you.

Sir Wilfred of Ivanhoe (Robert Taylor) is a Saxon knight who followed King Richard on his Crusade to Jerusalem.  King Richard is being held hostage in Austria and Ivanhoe returns home to England to raise the ransom.  His first stop is his father’s house.  His father Cedric (Finlay Currie), though a loyal Saxon, has disowned him for disobedience in following Richard and shows no signs of softening.  Ivanhoe and Cedric’s ward Lady Rowena (Joan Fontaine) have pledged eternal love.  When he departs on his continued fund-raising quest, Ivanhoe takes his father’s jester-slave Wamba (Emelyn Williams) with him.

Ivanhoe rescues the Jewish moneylender Isaac from the Normans and asks him for the money.  He promises that when Richard regains his throne he will help Isaac’s people. Issac has no money to spare at the moment.  His daughter Rebecca (Elizabeth Taylor) spots the gallant night and is moved to give him her mother’s jewels so that he can buy armor and a warhorse for use in a tournament against the Norman foe.

Ivanhoe is wounded in the tournament and both Rowena and Rebecca run to his side.  Rebecca admits she loves Ivanhoe but Rowena reluctantly allows the girl, who learned the healing arts from her mother who was burned at the stake as a witch, to nurse him back to health.

To cut to the chase, eventually all these people are captured by Normans.  Norman knight DeBois-Guilbert (George Sanders) falls madly in love with Rebecca who spurns him. There is a battle during which Ivanhoe escapes.  However, he returns to rescue Rebecca, who is being tried for witchcraft, by volunteering to fight for her innocence in another tournament.

My faithful readers will already know that grand spectacles generally fail to excite me much.  This is a fine example of the genre, I suppose.  The acting is all very sincere and the pageantry is suitably splendid. I’ve never read Ivanhoe so was surprised to find out that this story is basically the chivalric half of the same basic events that surround the story of Robin Hood.  The Errol Flynn movie has much more humor and is incomparably better.

Ivanhoe was nominated for Academy Awards in the categories of Best Picture, Best Cinematography, Color and Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture.

Trailer

Limelight
Directed by Charles Chaplin
Written by Charles Chaplin
1952/USA
Celebrated Productions
First viewing/Hulu Plus

[box] Calvero: There’s something about working the streets I like. It’s the tramp in me I suppose. [/box]

I want to like the talkie Charles Chaplin more than I do but I just can’t.  This one gets some points for the physical comedy, his little songs, and Buster Keaton.

Calvero (Chaplin) was a famous clown but now is a washed up drunk.  One night, he smells gas coming from a flat in his building and breaks the door down to rescue Thereza (Claire Bloom) from her attempted suicide.  Thereza is a former ballerina who despairs of ever being able to dance again following her bout with rheumatic fever.  Calvero makes her several inspirational speeches about the beauty of life and eventually convinces her she can walk.  He gets a gig at a theater but can’t seem to make audiences laugh.  He blames this on his going on without alcohol.

Thereza gets a job as a prima ballerina and gets Calvero hired as a clown in the ballet she is starring in.  She announces that she loves him and asks him to marry her.  However, he knows she is really in love with a young composer whom she befriended when she was working as a clerk in a music store.  Calvero isn’t such a hit in the ballet and eventually takes to working as a street performer.  Much pathos follows and the film concludes with his act at a benefit performance that is arranged for him.  With Nigel Bruce as an impresario.

I can’t help it.  When Chaplin talks he seems so unbearably pretentious and self-pitying to me that I can hardly stand it.  Here he gives himself the opportunity to make several speeches and to portray himself as the object of desire for a young girl – yuck.  When he is doing his delicate brand of silent physical comedy he is sublime, however, and there are several stage performances in the character of the clown which are quite good.  We also get a glimpse of Buster Keaton at the end, still showing mastery of his craft.

Limelight won the Oscar for Best Music, Original Score.  It was not in contention for an award until the 1973 Oscars since the film was not released in Los Angeles until 1972.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K_cNIx5CrhA

Trailer

Mother (Okaasan)
Directed by Mikio Naruse
Written by Yôko Mizuki
1952/Japan
Shintoho Film Distribution Committee
First viewing/Hulu

All that I am, or hope to be, I owe to my angel mother. — Abraham Lincoln

This is a moving tribute to mothers struggling to keep their families together amidst the hardships of postwar Japan.

The Fukuhara family consists of mother, father, a grown son who is confined to bed by “exhaustion”, a teenage daughter, a grade school age daughter, and the young son of the mother’s sister, a widow who is studying to be a hair dresser.  The story is narrated by the teenage daughter and mother is played by Kinuyo Tanaka, looking much changed from her great performance in The Life of Oharu this same year.

Hardship is never far from this family but there are plenty of lighter moments as well.  This is more or less a glimpse of daily life as the family tries to make a go of a laundry business.  Mother soldiers on as she loses first her son and then her husband.  Finally, after her husband’s death, she decides to allow his brother to adopt the youngest girl.  Nevertheless, the love between all these people is palpable.

I really liked this movie.  This is the closest I have seen Naruse get to the light touch one finds in Ozu’s films.  The children are pretty great and provide much of the humor.  The story is moving without ever once succumbing to melodrama.  Recommended.

Clip  (Spanish subtitles)

The White Sheik (Lo sceicco bianco)
Directed by Federico Fellini
Written by Michelangelo Antonioni, Federico Fellini, Tullio Pinelli, and Ennio Flaino
1952/Italy
OFI/P.D.C.
Repeat viewing/Netflix rental

[box] Marilena Alba Vellardi: Real life is the life of dreams.

Wanda Giardino Cavalli: I’m always dreaming. [/box]

Fellini’s first solo directorial effort is pure farce.

Newlyweds Wanda (Brunella Bova) and Ivan (Leopoldo Trieste) Cavalli have just arrived for their honeymoon in Rome from their village in the countryside.  The thoroughly middle-class Ivan has every minute of their stay in Rome planned out.  Most of it is to be spent with his uncle, who is an employee of the Vatican, and his family.  The highlight will be an audience with the Pope.

Wanda heads upstairs while Ivan is on the phone and gets a dreamy look in her eyes when she looks over the city.  Before we know it, she asks to take a hot bath then sneaks out of the hotel.  She is headed to the studio where her idol Fernando Rivoli (Alberto Sordi), better known as the “white sheik”, works.  She has written Rivoli several fan letters signed “Passionate Dolly” and he wrote back asking her to visit if she ever happened to be in Rome.

The company is leaving for a location shoot by the sea and Wanda tags along.  Amazingly enough, Rivoli remembers these letters well and is taken by the starstruck Wanda.  The ego maniac pulls out the all stops in his efforts to seduce the honeymooner.  Meanwhile, Ivan has the unenviable task of covering up Wanda’s defection from his family during their elaborate sightseeing schedule.  Everything that conceivably go wrong for any of our characters does and in outrageous fashion.  With Giulietta Masina in a small part as the prostitute Cabiria who attempts to cheer up Ivan during his night of woe.

I like this film a lot.  A little bit of Trieste’s mugging goes a long way but Sordo and Bova are hilarious.  Fellini has no message to deliver here.  The entire thing is played for laughs. This was the first pairing of Fellini and Nino Rota and the score, as always, is a high point.

TV trailer – montage of clips