Daily Archives: November 11, 2015

Wife (Tsuma)
Directed by Mikio Naruse
Written by Toshirô Ide from a novel by Fumiko Hayashi
1953/Japan
Toho Company
First viewing/Hulu

[box] By all means, marry. If you get a good wife, you’ll become happy; if you get a bad one, you’ll become a philosopher. – Socrates [/box]

It is a unique movie about infidelity that has me rooting 100% for the husband.

Toichi and Mieko Takamine have been married for ten years and have no children.  Any spark they ever had with each other is long gone.  Mieko, the wife, has given up entirely. She puts together disgusting meals, has no table manners, and is stingy in every way. The couple don’t talk to each other much.  Then Sagara, a widow at work, asks Toichi to join her for a visit to an art exhibition.  Before long they are seeing each other frequently. Finally, they admit their love to each other just before Sagara has to move to Osaka.

After awhile, Toichi has to go to Osaka on business and looks Sagara up.  They spend a whole weekend together.  Then Sagara comes up to Tokyo.  The Takamine’s border had previously seen Toichi and Sagara together and now tips off Mieko.  The rest of the movie follows Mieko’s desperate attempts to break up the relationship.

I thought this was only OK, though it gets much better in the last half hour.  It was surprised by the non-Hollywood ending.  I was rooting for something even more surprising,however.

Mogambo
Directed by John Ford
Written by John Lee Mahin from a play by Wilson Collison
1953/USA
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
First viewing/Netflix rental

[box] Eloise Kelly: Look, Buster, don’t you get overstimulated with me![/box]

I wasn’t expecting much and wasn’t crazy about the love-triangle plot.  Nevertheless, I really enjoyed this movie.

Victor Marswell (Clark Gable) is a Great White Hunter who makes a living guiding safaris and capturing animals for zoos around the world.  One day, Eloise Kelly (Ava Gardner) shows up to join a maharaja friend on a safari.  The two immediately start trading barbs. The maharaja has already left for India and the boat that would take Eloise back to civilization will require lengthy repairs.  Victor then decides Kelly is alright and they begin an affair.

Later, a young couple, the Nordleys, show up to be guided on a safari to gorilla country. He is an anthropologist and his wife Linda (Grace Kelly) is a very upper-crust beauty, the polar opposite of the earthy Kelly.  So Victor starts an affair with her under her husband’s nose.  She and Kelly start feuding.  All is solved by the end courtesy of the Hayes Code.

I’ve never thought much of Ava Gardner as an actress but she is excellent in this movie.  I think she should have had a chance to do more cynical parts like this and maybe some comedy.  I don’t know why I didn’t realize that this was directed by John Ford.  He couldn’t do much with the script but he makes Africa look really beautiful.  It’s all soapy stuff but somehow I was very entertained throughout.

This is a re-make of Red Dust (1932) with Gable in the same part, Jean Harlow, and Mary Astor.  I still have not had a chance to see that one.

Ava Gardner was nominated for the Best Actress Oscar and Grace Kelly got a nod for Best Supporting Actress.

Trailer