Monthly Archives: September 2017

If a Man Answers
Directed by Henry Levin
Written by Richard Morris from a novel by Winifred Wolfe
1962/USA
Ross Hunter Productions/Universal International Pictures
First viewing/Netflix rentals

[box] Germaine Stacy: Husbands often leave home. Pets never do. There must be a reason.[/box]

This mildly risque sitcom shows how a new bride learns to manipulate her man.

Chantal Stacey (Sandra Dee) was born of a wealthy Bostonian father and French mother. As the film begins she is ripe for marriage.  She selects an unlikely candidate in confirmed bachelor Eugene Wright (Bobby Darrin).  It doesn’t take long before all his defenses are gone and they wed.

The newlyweds go through the normal growing pains.  Chantal’s mother advises Chantal on how to keep her man’s interest.  This includes a dog training manual and the jealousy maneuver.  With John Lund of Bulldog Drummond fame as Chantal’s father, Cesar Romero as a mystery man, and Stephanie Powers as Chantal’s rival.

With the addition of a laugh track this could have played on 60’s TV, minus a couple of slightly naughty bits.  The chemistry between Dee and Darrin carries the piece.

Montage of clips with Darrin’s rendition of the title tune

The Cabinet of Caligari
Directed by Roger Kay
Written by Robert Bloch
1962/USA
Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation/Associated Producers/Robert L. Lippert Productions
First viewing/YouTube

Caligari: How old were you when you first let a man make love to you? Next, who was he? Next, how did you feel at the time? Next, how did you feel afterwards? What did you feel? What did you think? Were you pleased, frightened, ecstatic, disgusted? What did he say? What words did you speak? That’s what I want to know. Now. Tell me. Now. Now. All of it, now. Tell me. YES!

While it does not measure up to its illustrious predecessor or even its own poster, this confusing little thriller did hold my interest.

The YouTube version available to me cut off the credits and probably a few of the first minutes of the film.  At any rate, Jane Lindstrom (Glenys Johns) has been plunked down into the middle of some kind of hotel or other lodging place and now is unable to leave.  She is tormented by encounters with Caligari (Dan O’Herlihy).

Jane tries to enlist the help of her fellow guests, without success.  I won’t spoil the ending.

I wasn’t expecting much from the title but it turns out the leads were A-list actors and its a competently made film.  The director even tries to get a little Expressionistic in places but without the effect of the films famous predecessor.

Sanjuro (Tsubaki Sanjuro)
Directed by Akira Kurasawa
Written by Ryuzo Kikushima, Hido Oguni, and Akira Kurasawa from a novel by Shugoro Yamamoto
1962/Japan
Toho Company/Akira Kurasawa Production Company
Repeat viewing/Netflix rental

[box] Sanjûrô Tsubaki: Stupid friends are dangerous.[/box]

The crafty ronin Sanjuro returns – this time to teach life lessons to some clueless samurai.

The nameless ronin of (1961) (Toshiro Mifune) hides out in another town and overhears some young samurai discussing corruption.  He straightens them out on who is responsible.  Before they can take further action, the good Chamberlain and his family has been kidnapped by the evil Superintendent.  The group retrieves the Chamberlain’s wife and daughter (?).  The elderly wife impresses Sanjuro with her counsel that a good sword remains in its sheath.

Unfortunately, the young samurais’ impulsive behavior interferes with Sanjuro’s plan to conduct a campaign of wits to return the Chamberlain  to power.  Bloodletting ensues.

I give Yojimbo only a slight edge over this one.  Mifune is once again completely delightful.  The film also contains another great performance by Testuya Nakadai as a kindred spirit on the other side.  Underneath all the fun are some masterful compositions and camerawork and a wonderful Masaru Sato score.  Highly recommended.

The Criterion Blu-Ray looks beautiful and contains a good commentary by a film scholar.

No Man Is an Island
Directed by Richard Goldstone and John Monks Jr.
Written by Richard Goldstone and John Monks Jr.
1962/USA
Gold Coast Productions
First viewing/Netflix

[box] Where is Guam and why would North Korea attack it? — Fox News[/box]

If the story weren’t true, one could hardly believe it.

George R. Tweed (Jeffrey Hunter) and some comrades are serving in the Navy on Guam when it is attacked and swiftly occupied by the Japanese, simultaneous with the attack on Pearl Harbor.  A very small contingent escapes into the countryside where the residents, previously referred to as “fishheads”, shelter them at considerable danger to themselves.  All but Tweed succumb in short order.

He is sent deeper inland to a Catholic compound that has been spared.  Tweed begins a small campaign of subversion.  Before long, he is chased out of there as well and takes shelter in a cave on a remote mountain top.  He forms a close relationship with the local family that is providing for him, most especially the daughter.

This movie is enjoyable without being outstanding in any way.  It could be good family fare as there is no graphic violence.

Clip

Long Day’s Journey Into Night
Directed by Sidney Lumet
Written by Eugene O’Neill
1962/USA
First Company
Repeat viewing/YouTube

[box] “The fog was where I wanted to be. Halfway down the path you can’t see this house. You’d never know it was here. Or any of the other places down the avenue. I couldn’t see but a few feet ahead. I didn’t meet a soul. Everything looked and sounded unreal. Nothing was what it is. That’s what I wanted—to be alone with myself in another world where truth is untrue and life can hide from itself. Out beyond the harbor, where the road runs along the beach, I even lost the feeling of being on land. The fog and the sea seemed part of each other. It was like walking on the bottom of the sea. As if I had drowned long ago. As if I was the ghost belonging to the fog, and the fog was the ghost of the sea. It felt damned peaceful to be nothing more than a ghost within a ghost.” ― Eugene O’Neill, Long Day’s Journey Into Night[/box]

This faithful adaptation of the play is  filled with great acting and poetry.

Everyone in the Tyrone family is struggling with an addiction except youngest son Edmund (Dean Stockwell).  Ironically, he is the one who is dying.  It is a dysfunctional family where every one lies to each other and, more significantly, to themselves.  All the men have drinking problems to one degree or another but focus their attention on mother Mary (Katharine Hepburn) who is unsuccessfully struggling to overcome a morphine addiction acquired after giving birth to Edmund.  She is lost in the past.

Father James (Ralph Richardson) is a would-be Shakespearean actor who wound up appearing in the same melodrama over and over.  Both son Jamie (Jason Robards Jr.) and Edmund resent him mightily for being a tightwad.  James spends as little time as possible in the company of his wife.

Jamie acts when he can but spends much of his time boozing and whoring.  At the moment though he is doing odd jobs for his father.  He is quite the cynic.  The story takes place from morning to deep in the night of the day in which Edmund is to receive his diagnosis.

The film is a verbatim performance of the play which Lumet opened up somewhat to work cinematically.  It takes place over the course of a single day.  All the performances are wonderful, with Hepburn managing to trump the others including my beloved Ralph Richardson.  She is both radiant and tragic at once.  It’s a depressing story with no resolution but still well worth seeing.  Highly recommended.

Hepburn was Oscar-nominated as Best Actress.