Daily Archives: June 14, 2016

3:10 to Yuma
Directed by Delmer Davies
Written by Halsted Welles from a story by Elmore Leonard
1957/USA
Columbia Picture Corporation
Repeat viewing/Netflix rental

[box] Ben Wade: What are you squeezin’ that watch for? Squeezin’ that watch ain’t gonna stop time.[/box]

I love this.  It may be Glenn Ford’s best performance.  It is certainly my favorite of his.

Courtly, slick outlaw Ben Wade (Ford) holds up a stage coach.  The driver gets too brave and is killed.  The robbery is witnessed by Dan Evans and his sons.  Wade scatters their cattle and steals their horses.  Dan puts up no resistance, humiliating his sons.  Wade and some of the men ride into the nearest town where Wade reports the robbery.  While the sheriff is off investigating, he seduces the bar maid at the local saloon.  While Wade is basking in his conquest, Dan tricks him into conversation and the sheriff is able to apprehend him.

Dan is in town because he is need of a loan to keep his drought-plagued ranch running. When he is denied the loan, he accepts the stage coach owner’s offer to escort the captive to the title train.  The plan is to fool Wade’s men into believing they are going to another location.

Dan and Wade arrive at the station hotel in good order.  They have a few hours to wait for the train.  Wade uses them to needle and cajole his captor and test his courage.

This movie has a High Noon-type theme (the ticking clock, the brave man deserted) without that film’s gravitas.  Ford’s performance as Wade is deliciously wicked and steals the film out from under the also-excellent Heflin. I was looking forward to this viewing and was not disappointed in the least.  My husband loves it as well.  Warmly recommended.

Clip

Kanal
Directed by Andrzej Wajda
Written by Jerzy Stefan Stawinski
1957/Poland
Zespol Filmowy “Kadr”
First viewing/Netflix rental

[box] Halinka: It’s easier to die when you’re in love.[/box]

Wajda gives us love, beauty, and horror in a Warsaw sewer.

It is September 1944 and we are witnessing the last days of the Warsaw uprising.  The resistance is down to the last few companies of its fighters.  The company commanded by Lt. Zadra is now reduced to the size of a platoon.  We are introduced to a number of men and women and watch their various reactions as they wait for the action they know will be their last.  Rather than being summoned to battle where they are holed up, however, they are ordered to proceed downtown where the populace is being summarily executed in the streets.  The only safe route is underground.

Unlike the Vienna sewers of The Third Man, the Warsaw sewers are a foul-smelling cesspool of excrement.  It is dark and the men struggle for most of the film to find an exit.  Meanwhile, the Nazis are introducing poison gasses and hanging booby traps.  The stories of the various characters continue to be followed.  One of the main stories concerns a wounded man who is being assisted by a woman who has consorted with the Germans for favors but who loves him.

This film has one of the truly great endings ever.  It is exquisitely shot and lit and the character portraits are telling.  The film celebrates the heroism of Poles without ever feeling propagandistic.  Highly recommended.

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

Clip – no subtitles

20 Million Miles to Earth
Directed by Nathan Juran
Written by Robert Creighton Williams, Christopher Knopf, and Charlotte Knight
1957/USA
Morningside Productions
First viewing/Netflix rental

[box] Contino: Fascinating. Horrible, but fascinating.[/box]

Ray Harryhausen does it again.

Some Sicilian fishermen witness a huge rocket splash down off the shores of their village. They investigate and find dead and injured men inside.  They are able to rescue two before the rocket sinks.  Precocious little Pepe finds a capsule with a strange object inside and takes it to sell to the local zoologist for money to buy a cowboy hat.  In the meantime, the zoologist’s medical student daughter is treating Col. Robert Calder (William Hopper), who was injured in the crash.  They have the antagonist relationship that we all know will blossom into romance.

The object turns out to be an egg, which hatches into a baby beast known as a Ymir.  The creature grows quickly and exponentially to giant size.  We then learn that the spaceship was returning from a mission to Venus.  They brought the creature back to discover how it survived in an atmosphere toxic to humans.  Now the Americans are desperate to recover the Ymir alive.  That is much easier said than done.

This is not strong on plot but is packed with awesome, intricate stop-motion animation courtesy of Harryhousen.  A second unit filmed many of the settings in Italy and it is fun to watch the monster lay waste to the Temple of Saturn and Coliseum in Rome.

The Blu-Ray I rented contains a worthwhile commentary by Harryhousen and a couple of visual effects artists and both the B&W and colorized versions of the film.  I stuck with the B&W but Harryhousen seemed to be very fond of the color, which he said he would have used if he had the budget.

Trailer