Monthly Archives: September 2015

Phone Call from a Stranger
Directed by Jean Negulesco
Written by Nunnally Johnson, story by I.A.R. Wylie
1952/USA
Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation
First viewing/Netflix rental

[box] Stranger, if you passing meet me and desire to speak to me, why should you not speak to me? And why should I not speak to you? — Walt Whitman [/box]

When you have a movie where Bette Davis does not appear until 10 minutes from the end you know you have something different.  It turns out that this film was something special as well.

I knew exactly zero about this film going in and I think it worked well that way.  I will give only a very sketchy plot synopsis.  As the film begins, Lawyer David Trask (Gary Merrill) is seen talking on a pay phone to his wife.  He had written her a letter saying he was leaving her and followed up with the call to let her know he wasn’t planning to do anything rash. She begs him to reconsider but he says he just cannot live with the knowledge he has of her.

Trask gets a ticket on a “local” flight to Los Angeles.  The weather is terrible and the passengers are stuck in the airport for a while.  It is the first flight of actress Binky Gay (Shelley Winters) and she latches on to Trask to calm her nerves.  While the two are talking the airport coffee shop, they meet two other passengers – physician Dr. Robert Fortness (Michael Rennie) and obnoxious traveling salesman Eddie Hoke (Keenan Wynne).  Early on Hoke shows the others a photograph of his wife in a bathing suit.  This is a picture of a young(er) Bette Davis.

The passengers board the flight but it continues to be plagued by weather. In the course of the long flight, both Binky and Robert confide the most private secrets of their lives to Trask.  I will stop the plot synopsis here.  With Beatrice Straight in her screen debut and Hugh Beaumont.

Well, this was a very pleasant surprise.  It’s very well written and acted and had me from the get-go.  Some people might think it was manipulative or corny but I did not.  It even made me tear up.  If there is anything that appeals to you about the plot or actors, I would say to go for it.

I couldn’t find any appropriate clip to post but the entire movie is currently available on YouTube.

Vendetta of a Samurai (Araki Mataemon: Kettô kagiya no tsuji)
Directed by Kazuo Mori
Written by Akira Kurosawa
1952/Japan
Daiei Studios/Toho Company
First viewing/Hulu

[box] If you know the enemy and know yourself you need not fear the results of a hundred battles. — Sun Tsu[/box]

Despite the muddled filmmaking in the first half, this one builds to a devastating climax.

I can give only the merest outline of the complicated story and am not sure I’m getting even that right.  It does not help that the IMDb page does not show most of the character names.  Anyway, expert swordsman Mataemon (Toshiro MIfune) is the retainer of a young noble who is seeking vengeance against the killer of a family member.  The movie begins with an epic swordfight in which Mataemon, almost single handed, wipes out dozens of the bad guys.  The fighting seems unbelievably phony and soon we learn that the film is showing the legend but will now proceed to show what really happened.

Mataemon is the best friend of Jinza (Takashi Shimura) who is a retainer of the enemy of Mataemon’s boss.  They have a somber meeting in which they recognize that they will soon be bound by duty to try to kill each other.  Each takes his fate philosophically.

We then move on to a long sequence in which Mataemon and his men are waiting in a humble inn for their rivals to pass through town.  This begins a confusing sequence of flashbacks intercut with Mataemon’s attendants shivering with fear in the inn.  The movie ends with a sword fight in which no one covers himself with glory.  This sword fight made the rest of the film worth seeing for me.

The screenplay was written by Akira Kurosawa and I think he would have made a much better film out of it.  The story tries to explore the difference between legend and reality but gets lost in the overlapping flashbacks.  The visuals aren’t very striking either.  But the fine actors – many of the supporting players as well as the leads would reappear in The Seven Samurai – pack some powerful emotion into the final confrontation.  I was really moved by it, particularly Mifune’s face off against Shimura.

Le Plaisir
Directed by Max Ophüls
Written by Jacques Natanson and Max Ophüls from stories by Guy de Maupassant
1952/France
Compagnie Commerciale Française de Cinematographique/Stera Films
First viewing/Netflix rental

[box] “It is the lives we encounter that make life worth living.”
― Guy de Maupassant[/box]

This movie was a total pleasure.

The story is an omnibus of three different stories by de Maupassant.  The first is more-or-less a snapshot of the frivolity of a Parisian dance hall.  A masked man comes every night to dance with the young ladies.  On this particular night he faints during the dance, when his mask is removed he is revealed to be an old man.  A doctor takes him back to his shabby flat where he has a conversation with the man’s wife.

The last story is about an artist and his muse (Simone Simon).  After they have lived together for awhile, the artist tires of her and she takes drastic action.

The middle story is the longest and best.  First we are introduced to a French brothel that is run on sound business principals by its bourgeoise madam.  To the dismay of the local male citizenry, the house is dark and locked one evening.  The madam has taken her girls to the countryside to celebrate the first communion of her brother’s daughter.  Brother Joseph (Jean Gabin) picks the ladies up in his cart.  They bring a bit of glamor to the village and the country is like a tonic to them. Everyone enjoys themselves thoroughly, especially Joseph who flirts continuously with Rosa (Danielle Darrieux).They come back refreshed and bring a special gaiety to their work.

Ophuls’ moving camera is really the star of this film, as it is in most of his work.  This time, however, he captures a Renoir-like lyricism in the middle section.  It is totally charming and even moving.  It was nice to see Gabin again, this time in his middle age.  Usually I am so busy swooning that I don’t say enough about his acting.  He is perfect here as a stolid, jovial country carpenter.  Recommended.

Le Plaisir was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ft0IJpuCtMI

Clip from the first story

Park Row
Directed by Samuel Fuller
Written by Samuel Fuller
1952/USA
Samuel Fuller Productions
First viewing/Amazon Prime

[box] Phineas Mitchell: The press is good or evil according to the character of those who direct it.[/box]

Samuel Fuller’s tribute to honest journalism is well worth seeing.

It is the late 19th century. Hard-hitting reporter Phineas Mitchell (Gene Evans) has just been fired from his job on The Star, the city’s leading daily.  The co-workers who tried to stick up for him were fired as well.  The day is saved when a printer friend offers to help him launch his own paper.  Mithcell calls his paper the Globe and prints it on anything he can get his hands on cheaply, including butcher paper.

Mitchell is unafraid to take on the powers that be.  When he finds out that France’s gift of the Statue of Liberty has not been erected because it requires an expensive pedestal, he starts a popular fund-raising campaign promising each donation, however small, will be mentioned in The Globe.  Another revolutionary gamble is hiring Ottmar Mergenthaler on staff to work on his invention of the linotype machine.

Charity Hackett (Mary Welch), the young, ruthless publisher of The Star, finds that she cannot halt the growth of her rival through fair means and decides to resort to force.  For a while, it looks like this might just be too much for the Globe.

Fuller was a New York reporter before going into films and this movie makes it clear that printer’s ink continued to run through his veins.  His characteristic passion is in full force and the cast of unknowns seems fully committed to the task set for them.

I’ve been trying to account for Fuller’s impact on me.  His writing is unsophisticated, almost naive.  I think it’s the sincerity, coupled with the quirky filmmaking, that makes his films work.  It is their lack of subtlety, perhaps, that gives his stories their strange power.

Trailer

The Importance of Being Earnest
Directed by Anthony Asquith
Written by Oscar Wilde
1952/UK
British Film-Makers in association with Javelin Films (both uncredited)
Repeat viewing/Netflix rental

Lady Bracknell: To lose one parent, Mr. Worthing, may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose both looks like carelessness.

I find this to be supremely re-watchable.

Jack Worthing (Michael Redgrave) and Algernon Moncrieff (Michael Denison) have a lot in common, despite their non-stop bickering.  They both have created elaborate excuses to leave their obligations behind on a moment’s notice.  Jack has invented an imaginary younger brother named Errnest, whose constant scrapes call him back to town from his country house.  In town, he uses the name Ernest and in this guise has won the heart of Gwendolyn Fairfax (Joan Greenwood).  Algernon, Gwendolyn’s cousin who lives in town, has a chronically ill friend named “Bunbury” who lives in the country and requires his constant attention.

Jack works up the courage to propose to Gwendolyn and is readily accepted.  The catch is she loves him largely because of his pseudonym, Ernest.  Jack’s second problem is that Gwendolyn’s harridan of a mother (Edith Evans) is a stickler for “family” and he has none to produce.

Matters only get more complicated when Algernon shows up at Jack’s country house posing as Jack’s younger brother Ernest.  He and Jack’s ward Cecily fall immediately in love.  Of course, Cecily loved him before she met him, largely because of his enticing name, Ernest.  With Margaret Rutherford as Cecily’s governess, Miss Prism, and Miles Matheson as the country rector, Canon Chasuble.

This is a decidedly stage-bound version of the Oscar Wilde farce.  It works extremely well due to the pitch perfect performances and the already artificial nature of the proceedings. The entire thing is quotable.  Highly recommended.

Clip – Lady Bracknell quizzes Jack on his lineage – very possibly the funniest scene in the play

Fan-Fan the Tulip (Fanfan la Tulipe)
Directed by Christian Jacque
Written by Rene Wheeler, Rene Fallet et al
1952/Italy/France
Amato Produzione/Filmsonor/Les Films Ariane/Rizzoli Editore
First viewing/Netflix rental

[box] There is a certain enthusiasm in liberty, that makes human nature rise above itself, in acts of bravery and heroism. — Alexander Hamilton [/box]

This is a really fun swashbuckling romp.  Its bawdy humor reminded me a bit of Tom Jones.

The film is graced with sardonic voice-over narration mostly poking fun at war.  As the story begins our hero Fanfan (Gerarde Phillipe)  is caught dallying with the farmer’s daughter in a hayloft.  Her father has a shotgun wedding in mind but Fanfan wants no part of that.  As he is being taken of for his nuptials ha meets up with a Adeline (Gina Lollabrigida), a busty  young woman who tells his fortune.  He will become a general  in the French army and marry the king’s daughter. This primes him to hand himself over to some army recruiters in town to get out of the wedding.  Of course, Adeline turns out to be the recruiting sergeant’s daughter and he gets a bonus for each man recruited.

On the way to the field of battle, Fanfan and company happen upon a coach that is being held up by bandits.  All the male attendants have fled and Fanfan gallantly defeats the robbers.  Inside the coach are Madame Pompadour and the King’s daughter.  The princess gives Fanfan a brooch in the shape of a tulip to reward his gallantry and thus his nickname. Fanfan is now determined to make the prediction come true.  Meanwhile, despite herself and their nonstop bickering, Adeline falls in love with Fanfan.

The rest of the movie follows Fanfan’s adventures in camp, fleeing pursuers through the King’s palace, and defeating both evil doers and death by hanging.  Adeline has some adventures of her own trying to escape the king’s wandering hands.    Everything builds up to a highly satisfactory climax.

This is just pure entertainment and I enjoyed it immensely.  All the players are very appealing and the production is handsome.  Recommended if you are in the mood for some farce and derring-do.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B0vPEtdNcYk

Trailer

Bend of the River
Directed by Anthony Mann
Written by Borden Chase from a novel by William Gulik
1952/USA
Universal International Pictures
Repeat viewing/Netflix rental

[box] Shorty: The law won’t let you get away with this.

Glyn McLyntock: What law?[/box]

Bend of the River is an OK Anthony Mann Western with James Stewart in bad ass mode.

Glyn McLyntock (Stewart) is riding shotgun for a wagon train which is taking settlers West to farmland in Oregon. When the train reaches Portland, he arranges and pays for food and supplies to be delivered to the farmers before winter sets in.  On a scouting foray, he happens upon a group of angry ranchers who are attempting to hang a man.  Glyn halts proceedings at gunpoint.  The man, Emerson Cole (Arthur Kennedy), recognizes Glyn as a former fellow Missouri border raider, a notorious gang engaged in a kind of guerrilla action prior to the American Civil War. He joins the wagon train heading east after he gets a look at Laura (Julie Adams) the pretty daughter of the leader of the settlers Jeremy Bale (Jay C. Flippen)

Laura is wounded in an Indian attack and she and Cole remain behind in Portland.  The wagon train goes on and reaches a fertile valley among the mountains of Oregon.  Time passes and the supplies do not arrive.  Glyn and Jeremy ride into Portland.  There they find that a gold strike has increased the price of their supplies ten-fold. The supplier is now unwilling to let them go.  Emerson and Laura are in love and both work for a gambling joint frequented by city slicker Trey Wilson (Rock Hudson).  Glyn strong arms some men into loading up the waiting ferry  and makes off with the goods.  Cole, Laura and Trey join up with Glyn and Jeremy.

The rest of the film deals with the good guys’ continuous fight with the supplier and traitors in their own camp who attempt to steal the goods back and divert them to the gold camps for a profit. With Harry Morgan as one of the bad guys and, believe it or not, a surprise appearance by Stepin Fetchit.

This is a perfectly serviceable Western.  The best part for me was the scenery of the Cascade Mountains.  So many Westerns focus on the Southwest that it is nice to be reminded that the Northwest was being settled at the same time.  Jimmy Stewart and Arthur Kennedy make worthy adversaries.

I could not believe my eyes when I saw Stepin Fetchin shuffling along behind the ferry boat owner.  Some things take a long, long time to change.

Trailer

Flavor of Green Tea Over Rice (Ochazuke no aji)
Directed by Yasujirô Ozu
Written by Kôgo Oda and Yasujirô Oxu
1952/Japan
Shôchiku Eiga
First viewing/Hulu

Taeko Satake: Think well before you pick your groom, it’s important

How can you not love a film that features such establishments as the Calorie House restaurant and the Bittersweet Lessons in Life pachinko parlor?

Mokichi and Taeko Sakate are a childless couple who have been married long enough for the bloom to be off the rose.  She lies to him to go on weekend vacations with her girlfriends and he spends most of his time in the office.  She scolds him and he grunts. She calls him Mr. Oblivious.

Taeko’s niece is of marriageable age and the relatives set up a meeting with a prospective groom for her at a kabuki performance.  She goes but quickly flees.  She ends up spending the entire evening with Mokichi at his old army buddy’s pachinko parlor.  At the end of the evening when her mother and aunt have been searching for her everywhere, she is found in Taeko’s own house with Mokichi.  Taeko orders Mokichi to talk to her about her irresponsibility and he begins to.  But finally he says he understands her reluctance to marry because, after all, it might turn out like his marriage to Taeko.

Taeko responds by giving Mokichi the silent treatment for several days.  He tries to tell her how he feels about her criticism of his eating habits, cigarette brand etc. but she refuses to listen.  Finally, she leaves a note saying she has gone away for a few days.  Then Mokichi’s  employer sends him on an overseas business trip.  This is a big, big deal in 1952 Japan and all his friends and relatives are on the airport tarmac to see him off except his wife. She returns to an empty house.  This incident provokes the crisis that leads to the film’s happy ending.

If there is anything that drives me wild, it is the silent treatment. I spent most of the film being furious at the wife’s behavior.  But she learns her lesson so all was well.  It never ceases to amaze me how Ozu is able to begin with the slowest and most plotless of stories only to have the viewer totally emotionally invested by the end.  This film doesn’t rank with his greatest but is nonetheless recommended.

Clip

Casque d’Or
Directed by Jacques Becker
Written by Jacques Becker and Jacques Companeéz
1951/France
Robert et Raymond Hakim
Repeat viewing/Netflix rental

[box] “Jealousy is a disease, love is a healthy condition. The immature mind often mistakes one for the other, or assumes that the greater the love, the greater the jealousy – in fact, they are almost incompatible; one emotion hardly leaves room for the other.” ― Robert A. Heinlein, Stranger in a Strange Land[/box]

The story is dark but the images are filled with light reminiscent of a Renoir painting.  This is a very beautiful film.

It is Belle Epoque France.  The members of Leca’s gang and their molls have gathered at an open-air dance hall near the river.  Raymond, a member of the gang, brings his old cell-mate Manda (Serge Reggiani) with him to the festivities. Manda is trying to reform and is working as a carpenter.  Things threaten to get out of hand when Manda asks Marie (Simone Signoret), the “woman” of one of the gang members, to dance.  Their attraction is immediate.

Later on all these people end up in another dance hall.  When Manda again asks Marie to dance, her boyfriend challenges him to a fight.  They step outside for a brawl but,  unbeknownst to Manda, his rival is armed with a knife.  Manda manages to wrestle the knife away from him and kills him in the process.  The cops have been tipped off and arrive shortly.  The gang flees.

Leca has evidently been waiting for this opportunity to make Marie his own.  But she runs to Manda who is hiding out in an inn by the river.  They spend an idyllic day and night of love.  Then Leca, who has secretly informed to the police to get at Marie, shows up and tells Manda his friend Raymond has been arrested for the murder.  A lot more happens none of it good.

If you love Renoir’s “Luncheon of the Boating Party”, you will love this film.  The whole thing is bathed in the glow that pervades that painting and Becker’s meticulous attention to detail makes the place and time very real.  The young Signoret is irresistible.  Highly recommended.

Clip

“The Luncheon of the Boating Party”, 1880-81