Monthly Archives: August 2018

Yoyo
Directed by Pierre Etaix
Written by Pierre Etaix and Jean-Claude Carriere
1965/France
C.A.P.A.C.
First viewing/FilmStruck

[box] Isolina: How do you come up with gags?

Yoyo: Oh, I don’t know. I watch, I observe.[/box]

Just an absolutely lovely comedy.

The story spans 40 years – from 1925-1965.  Approximately the first third of the film is silent with copious use of sound effects and music.  A millionaire (Pierre Etaix) lives alone in a fantastic palace with dozens of servants who cater to his every whim.  He just pines for the girl he loved and lost.

In 1929 the stock market crashes and talkies come in.  The millionaire loses everything but the chance appearance of a circus reunites him with his true love and their son Yoyo, a boy clown.  In the midst of poverty, he finds happiness as a performer in the circus.

Years pass and the son grows up to be a famous clown (also Etaix).  He weathers the war years and once France is liberated restores his father’s palace to its former glory.  His heart  never leaves the circus though.

Pierre Etaix films languished for many years due to deteriorated film elements.  Even after these were restored they could not be shown because of legal problems.  Now they are available and looking great.  I think Etaix is almost the equal of Tati.  This film is completely charming and often laugh out loud funny.  Highly recommended.

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

Clip – dialogue free

Cat Ballou
Directed by Elliot Silverstein
Walter Newman and Frank Pierson from a novel by Roy Chanslor
1965/USA
Columbia Pictures Corporation/Harold Hecht Productions
Repeat viewing/Netflix rental

[box] Cat: Some gang! An Indian ranch hand, a drunken gunfighter, a sex maniac, and an uncle![/box]

Not as funny as when I saw it as a kid but it still has its moments, most of them provided by Lee Marvin.

Cat Ballou (Jane Fonda) has just graduated from teacher college and is returning home to her father’s ranch.  On the train, she meets up with outlaw Clay Boone (Michael Cullen) and his uncle Jed (Dwayne Hickman).  It is love at first sight for Clay and Cat and the two men become her allies.  When she gets home, she finds that her father (John Marley) is being threatened and intimidated by evil land developers.  Eventually, he is gunned down by black-hatted gunslinger Strawn (Lee Marvin).

The friends decide that the best way to fight fire is with fire and hire a gunslinger of their own.  Unfortunately, Kid Sheleen (also Marvin), despite his reputation is a terrible drunk who can’t shoot straight without a nip or three.  Cat decides to get back at the land developers by robbing trains carrying their payroll.  Things proceed along until Cat has a noose around her neck which is where we started the movie.  With Stubby Kaye and Nat King Cole providing kind of a Greek chorus through verses of “The Ballad of Cat Ballou”.

Now a lot of this seems sort of silly but it is amusing and a pleasant way to spend an afternoon,

Lee Marvin won the Academy Award for Best Actor.  Cat Ballou was nominated in the categories of Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium; Best Film Editing; Best Music, Original Song (“The Ballad of Cat Ballou); Best Music, Scoring, Adaptation or Treatment.

Fists in the Pocket (I pugni in tasca)
Directed by Marco Bellaccio
Written by Marco Bellaccio
1965/Italy
Doria
First viewing/Netflix rental

[box] Alessandro: I’m a volcano of ideas.[/box]

Unpleasant movie about unpleasant people.  Or is it a horror film?

A seemingly in-bred family lives a dysfunctional existence in the Italian countryside.  Mom is blind, Allessandro has epilepsy (and we will soon learn psychopathy and a yen for his sister), Leone is both mentally retarded and epileptic, and Julia has an unhealthy obsession with brother Augusto, the only normal sibling.  Augusto wants to get married and move to the city.  However, the financial burden of caring for all these disabled relatives makes that seem like an impossible dream.  Alessandro has the more improbable dream of raising chinchillas.

Alessandro sees a solution to all their problems.  He backs out on a plan to kill the entire family in a car “accident” but later screws up his courage to murder them one by one.

I didn’t know what to expect and perhaps wasn’t ready for a film filled with such despicable people.  Later I read that this was intended to be a horror film.  Maybe, but it is lacking the suspense to make it shocking.  Not a winner with me.

Clip

My Home Is Copacabana (Me hem ar Copacabana)
Directed by Arne Sucksdorff
Written by Arne Sucksdorff, Flavio Migliaccio, and Jaoo Bethencourt
1965/Sweden
Svensk Filmindustri
First viewing/FilmStruck

[box] We think sometimes that poverty is only being hungry, naked and homeless. The poverty of being unwanted, unloved and uncared for is the greatest poverty. We must start in our own homes to remedy this kind of poverty. Mother Teresa [/box]

The irrepressible joy of childhood still peeps out from a harsh existence as a homeless orphan on the streets of Rio.

As the film opens four orphan friends have set up housekeeping in a shack on a hill overlooking Copacabana beach in Rio.  They are of various races and in the 6-10 age range.  The youngest Rico is white and has escaped from an institution for orphans known as Caxambu, which he describes as Hell on Earth.  The kids have fun playing with kites. Later they go down to the beach where there is to be a kite competition.  The idea is that they will coat their strings with ground glass, cut down the other kites and sell them.  This works out well in the short term but does not ultimately improve their lot.

When the children return to the shack, they find it has been taken over by machete wielding bandits.  They have no hope of recovering their home or their meager property.   They retreat to the beach where they try everything from begging to pickpocketing to shoe shining to macumba rituals in hopes of keeping their bellies full.  It is a hard, hard life. When one of them falls ill, he has a tough decision to make.

The saddest thing about this film is that these scenes are still taking place all over the world.  That such poverty should exist in such a beautiful setting is truly heartbreaking.  Lovely film.

Tiny clip from credits

Planet of the Vampires (Terrore nello spazio)
Directed by Mario Bava
Written by Ib Melchior, Alberto Bevilacqua, Mario Bava et al
1965/Italy/Spain/United States
Italian International Film/Castilla Cooperativa Cinematografica/AIP
First viewing/Netflix rental

[box] Capt. Mark Markary: I’ll tell you this, if there ‘are’ any intelligent creatures on this planet… they’re our enemies.[/box]

Those looking for vampires need not apply …

Two spacecraft land on the mysterious planet Aura.  Soon the crews find themselves compelled to fight each other to the death.  But the dead do not stay dead long.  Their corpses become occupied by invisible aliens looking to hitch a ride out of their dying planet.  With an aging Barry Sullivan as the captain of one of the craft.

Mario Bava made a beautifully atmospheric movie on a shoestring.  The story and acting unfortunately betray its low budget origins.  My review is based on the English language version.

With Beauty and Sorrow (Utsukushia to kanashimi to)
Directed by Masahiro Shinoda
Written by Nobuo Yamada from a novel by Yasunari Kawabata
1965/Japan
Shochiku Eiga
First viewing/FilmStruck

Life being what it is, one dreams of revenge. Paul Gauguin

The title is a good four word review.

As the film begins, Toshio Oki travels to Kyoto ostensibly to hear the temple bells ring in the New Year.  His real motive is to catch up with Otoko Ueno, whom he impregnated when she was sixteen.  He wrote a bestseller about the incident.  She is now a famous painter.  Otoko sends her young beautiful protege Keiko Sakami to fetch him from the hotel.  The three dine together.  Otoko informs Toshio early on that Keiko is a bit mad.

We learn that the child Otoko bore died after only one week and Otoko suffers still from its loss.  Keiko is inspired to seek revenge on behalf of her mentor.  This involves seducing both Toshio and his son Taichiro and finding a way to wreck their lives.  Otoko is not really on board with this plan but Keiko is successful in seducing her as well.

This movie is absolutely gorgeous.  Some of the compositions are straight out of Ozu.  And yet the camera dances as Ozu’s never did.  The use of color is also outstanding. The story is very dark and sexual and is well acted.  Recommended to those attracted to this kind of thing.

Trailer – no subtitles

The Cincinnati Kid
Directed by Norman Jewison
Written by Ring Lardner Jr. and Terry Southern from a novel by Richard Jessup
1965/USA
Filmways Pictures/Solar Productions
First viewing/Netflix rental

[box] Slade: How the hell did you know I didn’t have the king or the ace?

Lancey Howard: I recollect a young man putting the same question to Eddie the Dude. “Son,” Eddie told him, “all you paid was the looking price. Lessons are extra.”[/box]

You could think of this as a kind of second-rate version of The Hustler or as a pretty good Steve McQueen vehicle.  Your choice.

The Cincinnati Kid (McQueen) is an up-an-coming poker wizard in New Orleans, where he lives with girlfriend Christian (Tuesday Weld).  His best friend is Shooter (Karl Malden) who is married to wildcat Melba (Ann Margret).  Melba has her eye on the Kid while Christian is yearning for a wedding ring.

Fabled master poker player Lancey Howard (Edward G. Robinson) – AKA “The Man” – comes into town looking for action.  The Kid can’t wait to take him on.  The last part of the film is occupied with the game.  With Joan Blondell as a dealer, Rip Torn as a mean gambler, and Jack Weston and Cab Calloway as players.

This is quite OK for what it is.  The ladies really sizzle and the supporting cast shines.  McQueen is super-cool as ever but there’s really not much meat in his part.

Mirage
Directed by Edward Dmytryk
Written by Peter Stone from a novel by Howard Fast
1965/USA
Universal Pictures
First viewing/Netflix rental

[box] Ted Caselle: I tell you one thing, I’m beginning to wish I had a gun.

David Stillwell: You’re kidding?

Ted Caselle: Aw, filthy things, I can’t stand them. You have one and sure as shootin’ you end up using it.[/box]

Meh McGuffin does not spoil excitement of this tense thriller.

The film begins with the total electrical black out of a single skyscraper in New York.  In the darkness, the beloved head of the World Peace Organization meets his death by exiting a window on an upper floor down to the street below.  We promptly meet David Stilwell (Gregory Peck) a cost accountant.  In the darkness of the staircases, he first becomes acquainted with Shela (Diane Baker), who makes cryptic remarks.  She will gradually  become his love interest.

Slowly David realizes he can’t answer the most basic questions about his address, etc. and that he has no friends.  Thereafter, he meets a menacing thug (Jack Weston) and a “friend” (Kevin McCarthy, who urge him to take a vacation in the Bahamas.

David sets out to solve the mystery of his own existence.  A psychiatrist assures him that the symptoms are not of classic amnesia.  A private detective (Walter Matthau) is of even less help.  David’s adversaries become more menacing still as a thug (George Kennedy) begins following him with a gun.  I will not reveal more.

My husband remarked that this was one of the most powerful movies about nothing he had ever seen.  I thought that was pretty apt.  We are treated to a search for a McGuffin that is not even revealed until the last five minutes of the movie.  By that time, this is a huge anti-climax.  But the journey to that point is exciting, helped on by an outstanding cast. Recommended to those in the mood for a thriller.

Tiny clip

Hail Mafia (Je vous salue, mafia!)
Directed by Raoul Levy
Written by Raoul Levy from a novel by Pierre Lesou
1965/France/Italy
Filmstudio/ITTAC/PECF
First viewing/Amazon Instant

[box] “I can’t stand squealers, hit that guy! ~ Albert Anastasia[/box]

Interesting French take on American mafia business.

Rudy Hamberg (Eddie Constantine) is hiding out in the South of France.  He has been summoned to testify before a Congressional Organized Crime Commission and the bosses want him rubbed out before he can do so.  They assign the hit to Schaft (Henry Silva) and Phil (Jack Klugman).  In addition to duty, Phil says he wants to get to Rudy, a former friend, for impregnating his sister and arranging the abortion that left her mentally scarred for life.

Schaft and Phil bicker as they get closer and closer to their target.  Film ends with a nice twist.

I enjoyed this quite a lot.  Raoul Coutard did the cinematography and I imagine it would be even more impressive if cleaned up a bit.  The dialogue between the two hitmen reminded me of something Tarantino might do.  I wonder if this was an inspiration.  Fine cast doesn’t hurt nor does the fantastic jazz score.