Daily Archives: April 20, 2016

Patterns
Directed by Fielder Cook
Written by Rod Sterling
1956/USA
Jed Harris/Michael Myerberg
First viewing/Amazon Prime

[box] Walter Ramsey: I’ll see you in the morning, Fred. Remember, you didn’t steal that promotion. You won it![/box]

This excellent, powerful look inside a big corporation shows Rod Serling could do more than write twist endings.

Fred Staples (Van Heflin) has been hired as the newest executive at a New York conglomerate.  Fred’s ambitious wife Nancy (Beatrice Straight) is thrilled with the move. When CEO Mr. Ramsey (Everett Sloane) first spotted him, he was working as plant manager of an Ohio company the corporation acquired.    The corporation rolls out the red carpet for Fred, providing him with a beautifully decorated office and a fully equipped house.  Fred is told that he will be working closely with Vice-President Bill Briggs (Ed Begley).  Soon he finds that he is getting Bill’s long-time secretary, who is not too thrilled to be leaving her boss.

The affable Fred quickly makes friends with Bill.  He is torn between his ethics and his ambition when he learns that he is being groomed as Bill’s replacement.  Fred’s angst becomes worse when Ramsey mercilessly rides Bill in an effort to make him so miserable he will quit.

I had never heard of this film before I did my research on 1956.  It was based on a teleplay by Serling and should be much better known.  The acting is fantastic.  I don’t think I have ever seen Begley in a sympathetic part and he is just wonderful.  There’s a lot to think about here.  Serling makes Ramsey despicable but at the same time you see the logic behind his every move and Fred’s decisions are believable every step of the way.    Highly recommended.

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Pursuit of the Graf Spee (“Battle of the River Plate”)
Directed by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger
Written by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger
1956/UK
The Archers
First viewing/Netflix

Captain Langsdorff ‘Admiral Graff Spee’: [to Captain Dove] Every commander is alone, Captain.

This, the last of Powell and Pressburger’s true collaborations, is a colorful account of the British effort to hunt down and destroy a German pocket battleship that was sinking merchant shipping in the South Atlantic during the first months of WWII.

The speed and firepower of the Graf Spee made its commander, Captain Lansdorff (Peter Finch), believe the ship was invincible and gave her free reign over merchant shipping in the South Atlantic.  The film begins with the sinking of a British naval vessel off the coast of Portuguese Africa.  Landsdorff takes its captain (Bernard Lee) prisoner aboard ship and releases the crew on land.  Many other British prisoners are transferred to the Graff Spee later.  The ship is due to return for repairs and leave to Germany but Lansdorff decides on one final mission to disrupt shipping out of Buenos Aires.

He is intercepted by Commodore Henry Harwood (Anthony Quayle) and his squadron of three cruisers.  Against the odds, the British manage to cripple the vessel, which takes refuge in the harbor of Montevideo, Uruguay.  The rest of the movie follows the media attention to the Graf Spee’s plight and the British naval and diplomatic strategy to put an end to her threat.

This film does not begin to measure up to the Archer’s masterpieces but is a solid naval drama.  Most of the footage was taken using real British cruisers with an American ship standing in for the Graf Spee.  The movie held a particular interest for me as I lived in Montevideo for a couple of years and this story was often told there.

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