Category Archives: Movie Reviews

Reviews of movies I have seen.

The Man in the White Suit (1951)

The Man in the White Suit
Directed by Alexander Mackendrick
Written by Roger MacDougall, John Dighton, and Alexander Mackendrick from MacDougall’s play
1951/UK
Ealing Studios
Repeat viewing/Amazon Instant

 

[box] Sir John Kierlaw: Now. Some fool has invented an indestructible cloth. Where is he? How much does he want?[/box]

This biting satire might be my favorite of the Ealing comedies.

Sidney Stratton (Alec Guinness) is an Oxford graduate in chemistry and a bit of an eccentric genius.  He works in a textile mill laboratory where he spends most of his time working on his own experiments and racking up expenses.  After he is fired, he goes to another mill as a laborer and sneaks into the lab during off hours.  By chance he meets  Daphne (Joan Greenwood), the mill owner’s daughter, and explains his experiments to her.  The canny lass sees their value immediately and talks her father into giving Sidney free reign in the lab.

After several missteps, Sidney is able to announce his invention of a textile that will never wear out or get dirty.  The mill owner calls a press conference to announce this triumph. Before it can take place, ancient and ruthless industry titan Sir John Kierlaw (Ernest Thesinger) finds out and realizes that the fabric absolutely must be suppressed.  Labor is up in arms over the potential loss of jobs.  Since Sidney cannot be bought off, he is locked up.  After he escapes, the chase is on.

Once you know that Alec Guinness, Joan Greenwood and Ernest Thesinger are all appearing together, it is almost a given that I will love a film.  And this one is so clever!  The rapaciousness of industry is absolutely delicious.  I also love the woman labor leader who has a soft spot for Sidney.  Recommended.

The Man in the White Suit was nominated for an Academy Award in the category of Best Writing, Screenplay.

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

Trailer

 

 

1951

In 1951:

Legendary film critic and theorist Andre Bazin established the French film journal “Cahiers du Cinéma”. Its ideas and writing gave rise to the French New Wave (Nouvelle Vague) and brought respectability to the idea of film as a legitimate field of study.

The Motion Pictures Production Code specifically prohibited films dealing with abortion or narcotics.  Marking the decline of the old Hollywood studio system, this was the first year in which the Best Picture Oscar was given to the film’s producers rather than to the studio that released the film.  Motion picture mogul-executive Louis B. Mayer was forced to resign in 1951 after 27 years as the head of MGM Studios that he had founded. Mayer’s resignation followed continued disagreements with his eventual successor Dore Schary over cost-cutting and the issue of creating socially-relevant pictures.

Ethel and Julius Rosenberg

In U.S. news, the Twenty-second Amendment Constitution was ratified, limiting Presidents to two terms.

Ethel and Julius Rosenberg were convicted of conspiracy to commit espionage for passing atom bomb secrets to the Soviet Union. On April 5 they are sentenced to receive the death penalty.  The couple was executed in 1953.

U.S. President Harry S. Truman relieved General Douglas MacArthur of his Far Eastern commands for insubordination.   MacArthur made his last official appearance in a farewell address to the U.S. Congress. During his speech, he famously said: “I now close my military career and just fade away, an old soldier who tried to do his duty as God gave him the light to see that duty.”

Remington Rand delivered the first UNIVAC I computer to the United States Census Bureau. The first thermonuclear weapon was tested on Enewetok Atoll in the Marshall Islands. Direct dial coast-to-coast telephone service began. The world’s first (experimental) nuclear power plant opened. The United States became malaria-free,

The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger was published.   Jackie Brenston and His Delta Cats recorded “Rocket 88”, currently observed by most as the first rock and roll song ever made.  The Town by Conrad Richter won the Pulitzer Prize for Literature.  No drama prize was awarded.  “Too Young” by Nat King Cole was number 1 on the Billboard Charts.

Korean War Veterans Memorial, Washington DC

The Treaty of Paris (1951) was adopted, establishing the European Coal and Steel Community.  This was the first step toward the establishment of the European Union.

In early 1951, the territory around Seoul and central Korea changed hands several times as the UN and Communist forces advanced and retreated.  By July 1951, the conflict had reached a stalemate, with the two sides fighting limited engagements, but with neither side in a position to force the other’s surrender. Both the United States and China had, at this point, achieved the short-term goal of maintaining the demarcation line at the 38th parallel, while the North and South Koreans had failed in the larger goal of uniting the country under their preferred political systems. Representatives of all the parties began to discuss peace.  For the next two years, small-scale skirmishes continued to break out, while the various representatives argued over the peace terms.

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The list of films I will select from is here.  I have already reviewed the following 1951 films on this site.  ; ; ; ; ; and .

 

Montage of stills from the Academy Award winners

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e0mhgyTgxtw

Bonus – “Rocket 88” – that’s Ike Turner’s backup band.

 

Rocketship X-M (1950)

Rocketship X-M
Directed by Kurt Neumann
Written by Kurt Neumann and Orville H. Hampton
1950/USA
Lippert Pictures
First viewing/Netflix rental

[box] Floyd: I’ve been wondering, how did a girl like you get mixed up in a thing like this in the first place?

Dr. Lisa Van Horn: I suppose you think that women should only cook and sew and bear children.

Floyd: Isn’t that enough?[/box]

The story makes absolutely no sense.  That’s one of the selling points of this fun but very bad movie.

The U.S. government is about to launch a top-secret manned mission to the moon in preparation for its ultimate goal of establishing an atomic space station there to “ensure world peace.” So of course reporters from all the major newspapers are invited to witness this historic event – and told they can reveal none of the details to their readers.

After some scientific mumbo jumbo explaining how the technology works, five astronauts board the rocket.  They are ex-fighter pilot Col. Floyd Graham (Lloyd Bridges); ex-gunner Bill Corrigan (Noah Beery Jr.); navigator Harry Chamberlin (Hugh O’Brien), physicist Dr. Karl Eckstrom and his beautiful assistant physicist Dr. Lisa Van Horn.  The physicists are apparently along mainly so they can make frantic calculations with pencil and paper any time the going gets tough.

Somehow the rocket ship has a mind of its own.  The astronauts are knocked out and when they wake find themselves hurtling toward Mars.  Luckily, they took along twice the amount of fuel needed for a moon journey.  Because the atmospheric conditions on the red planet are so favorable, the astronauts are able to explore in the same street clothes they have worn since lift off.  I won’t spoil the ending but it is abrupt!

There is nothing I like more that to sit around with someone similarly inclined (in this case my brother) and laugh at ludicrously bad movies.  This one contained all the bad special effects and nonsensical plot points necessary for such an endeavor.  And extra bonus was all the 50’s era misogyny directed at the female scientist.  Probably even the detour to Mars resulted from a slip of her pencil …  She comes to value “being a woman” and Lloyd Bridges’ advances when it is almost too late.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4oCMTgSbL8s

Trailer

Three Little Words (1950)

Three Little Words
Directed by Richard Thorpe
Written by George Wells
1950/USA
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
First viewing/Netflix rental

[box]Bert Kalmar: I could tell you what I think of you in just three little words. You’re a dope![/box]

This is a pleasant musical biopic with some nice dancing from Fred Astaire and Vera Ellen.

It is 1920 and Bert Kalmer (Fred Astaire) and Jesse Brown (Vera Ellen) have a popular song and dance act in vaudeville.  He is crazy about magic and also writes the music for their act.  He wants her to marry him but she thinks he is too driven to settle down.  He asks her to tell him when she is ready to say yes.  Bert breaks his kneecap and will be laid up for several months.  She now accepts his proposal.  Now he refuses because he fears he will be unable to support her.  Hurt, she leaves the act.

Harry Ruby (Red Skelton) is a failed song writer who is currently plugging a tune set to some lyrics about “Araby”.  A promoter is not buying and orders the errand boy to assist with Bert’s new magic act.  This involves shuffling numerous rabbits, doves, and one vicious goose and Harry is a disaster, turning Burt’s class act into an uproarious comedy routine.

Sometime later and Bert is trying his hand as a songwriter.  He is better at lyrics than composing.  When a music promoter introduces him to Harry, Bert can’t place him.  Harry tries out a tune and this becomes “My Sunny Tennessee” with Harry’s lyrics.  By the time Bert recognizes Harry, the song is a hit and all is forgiven.  The pair go on to one success after another.  Harry brings Jessie and Burt back together and they go on to marry.  The three are fast friends.

Jessie and Bert break up a couple of Harry’s ill-advised romances by sending the baseball fanatic off to spring training.  Then Harry returns the favor by wrecking the financing on a bad play Bert has written.  When Burt finds out he is furious and the partnership seems to be over.  Can Jesse and Harry’s new wife patch things up?  Of course they can. With Keenan Wynn as Bert’s manager and Arlene Dahl as Harry’s wife.

I enjoyed this one.  The script is good and we get a number of standards the team wrote including: “Who’s Sorry Now”; “Nevertheless”; “I Wanna Be Loved By You” and the title tune.  It’s not too silly and even a bit sweet.  Everything I’m looking for in a musical really.

Debbie Reynolds’ screen debut was in this film.  André Previn was nominated for an Oscar for Best Music, Scoring of a Musical Picture.

Clip – she’s lip synching to the voice of Helen Kane, the original Betty Boop

 

Young Man with a Horn (1950)

Young Man with a Horn
Directed by Michael Curtiz
Written by Carl Foreman and Edmund H. North based on a novel by Dorothy Baker
1950/USA
Warner Bros.
First viewing/Netflix rental

[box] Amy: You can call me Amy.

Rick Martin: I bet I could.[/box]

I think I was expecting something along the lines of Champion with a trumpet taking the place of boxing.  I got something completely different and I loved it.

The story is bookended with voice over narration by Ricks’s pianist friend Willie ‘Smoke’ Willoughby (Hoagy Carmichael).

Rick Martin is a lonely little orphan boy who is being raised, more or less as a chore, by his older sister.  His life changes when he happens on a Salvation Army church service where drunks are singing hymns.  He sticks around and starts fooling around on the piano and teaches himself to play.  He eventually is asked to get out of there but decides he will be a musician.  A piano is completely out of reach so he works to save enough money to buy a used trumpet.  While he is setting pins at a bowling alley, he hears jazz music pouring out of the adjoining bar.  Trumpeter Art Hazzard (Juano Hernandez) takes the boy under his wing, buys him the trumpet, and teaches him to play.  It turns out he is a prodigy.

Rick grows up to be Kirk Douglas.  He gets a job playing in a dance band. There he meets singer Jo Jordan (Doris Day).  Jo takes a shine to Rick but realizes that Rick is basically married to his horn.  Playing note for note arrangements to dance by is really not his thing.  He argues with the bandleader and gets fired.  He eventually goes to play with Art’s band, is discovered by another bandleader, and becomes a featured soloist.

Jo introduces Rick to her friend Amy (Lauren Bacall), who is studying to be a psychiatrist.  Although Amy warns Rick from the get go that she is bad news and doesn’t respect herself, they quickly fall in love and marry.  But Amy can’t settle down to anything.  She makes Rick miserable.  Rick spurns his friend Art.  Guilt over this and the breakdown of his marriage quickly sends Rick to the gutter.  Fortunately, he discovers he has made some real friends in spite of himself.

The acting in this film is outstanding.  Douglas is good playing a basically sensitive lonely guy rather than his usual heel.  Bacall said she was too young to know she was supposed to be playing a lesbian.  I’m much older than she was and didn’t get it either.  Regardless, it’s one of her meatier roles.  Day plays a real pro singer to perfection.  Juano Hernandez is excellent, as always.

In the last analysis though, it is Day’s singing and Harry James’s dubbing of the trumpet solos that made the movie for me.  It’s one glorious standard after another.  Pure joy.

Trailer

Variety Lights (1950)

Variety Lights (Luci del varietá)
Directed by Federico Fellini and Alberto Lattauda
Written by Federico Fellini, Alberto Lattaudo, and Tullio Pinelli
1950/Italy
Capitolium
Repeat viewing/Netflix rental

 

[box] Checco Dal Monte: [to Lily] I’m an artist. So are you. You’ve got spunk, spunk! You’ll see. You and I together, always! I will be the performer. I don’t need anyone. I will form the company. I promise you.[/box]

OK, the Fellini years have started!  I’m a fan.  This one is the “1/2” in 8 1/2 as he co-directed with Lattauda but all his signature touches are here.  Comedy predominates.

Checco del Monte is the empresario of a third-rate variety show that plays small towns in Italy.  Even the small towns don’t think much of the acts and as the movie begins creditors are about to foreclose on the sets leaving the performers without wages.

The company travels together by train.  A beautiful young girl approaches Checco with a portfolio of photos and a story of winning beauty pagents and dance-offs.  She is Liliana and is completely star-struck.  Checco tries to woo her but she is having none of that.

When the troupe gets to their next town.  Liliana bails them out by paying a cart to haul their stuff.  She is still hanging around when the theater owner complains that Checco has not furnished all the dancers he promised.  Liliana figures she has a part in the show when she is counted among the dancers Checco did furnish.  All the cast members look down on her as a talentless amateur.  But when Liliana is accidentally caught on stage in her underwear the crowd goes wild and the show is held over for multiple performances while she morphs into its star.

Now Checco thinks Liliana will be his ticket to greater things.  He dumps his mistress of many years Melina Amour (Giulietta Masina) and takes Liliana to Rome to introduce her to his “contacts”.  These are pretty much non-existent and Checco spends a lot of his time discouraging the many men who vie for her attentions.  The girl has her eyes on the prize at all times, however, and soon has outgrown any need of help from her hapless “manager”.

This is a pleasant comedy.  The best parts, though,  are all the crazy supporting characters and their different acts.  Fellini already has a gift for picking out bizarre and totally perfect faces to fill his scenes.  I had a lot of fun watching this.

Clip

Clip – opening minutes – no subtitles but none really needed

The Furies (1950)

The Furies
Directed by Anthony Mann
Written by Charles Schnee from a novel by Nevin Busch
1950/USA
Hall Wallis Productions
First viewing/Netflix rental

[box] Vance Jeffords: I don’t think I like being in love. It puts a bit in my mouth.[/box]

Barbara Stanwyck in a role that might have been written for her and Walter Huston’s swan song make this a movie well worth seeing.

T.C. Jeffords (Huston) is the larger-than-life owner of The Furies ranch.  He lives life to the max scattering a flurry of IOUs known affectionately as “TCs” in his wake.  Daughter Vance (Stanwyck) is an independent-minded daddy’s girl who wins her father’s heart mainly by sticking up for herself.  Jefford’s son was more of a mama’s boy and Vance runs the ranch in her father’s absence.

T.C. is in constant need of bank loans.  One of the conditions for his latest mortgage is that a number of Mexican-American squatters be evicted from his land.  T.C. is willing but Vance insists that childhood friend Juan Herrera (Gilbert Roland) and his family be allowed to stay.  The Herreras regard the land as their own ancestral property.  T.C. gives his promise.  He also promises Vance $50,000 on the condition that she marry someone he approves of.

Into this situation rides Rip Darrow (Wendell Corey).  T.C. took prime acreage included in the ranch when he killed Darrow’s father.  Vance is taken with the strong, silent gambler and invites him to court her.  Finally he agrees to call on her at the Furies.  When he does, he willingly accepts T.C.’s offer of the $50,000 in exchange for not marrying Vance.

T.C. travels to San Francisco and brings Flo Burnett back with him.  Flo immediately begins to subtly take over.  She convinces T.C. to evict the Herreras, hire a ranch manager, and send Vance off on a grand tour of Europe.  The infuriated Vance strikes back and she and T.C. become mortal enemies.  Much drama ensues.  With Albert Dekker as a banker and Thomas Gomez and Wallace Ford as T.C. loyalists.

This handsomely shot film is reminiscent of Greek tragedy in its outsized emotions.  Both Huston and Stanwyck are superb as are the supporting players.  It’s more melodrama than Western but I enjoyed it for what it was.

This was Walter Huston’s final film. I’m sad to see him leave this journey.  Vincent Milner was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Cinematography, Black-and-White.

Trailer

Cinderella (1950)

Cinderella
Directed by Clyde Geronimi, Wilfred Jackson et al
Written by Bill Peet et al from the original classic by Charles Perrault
1950/USA
Walt Disney Studios
Repeat viewing/Netflix rental

[box] Cinderelly, Cinderelly/ Night and day it’s Cinderelly/ Make the fire, fix the breakfast/Wash the dishes, do the mopping/ And the sweeping and the dusting/ They always keep her hopping / She goes around in circles/Till she’s very, very dizzy/ Still they holler/ Keep a-busy Cinderelly![/box]

What little girls’ dreams are made of.

I don’t really have to summarize the fairy tale do I?  In this version, Cinderella is befriended by all the mice and birds in her garrett.  She and her friends also have to deal with a malevolent (and very funny) cat named Lucifer.

Back before the days of home video, Disney rereleased its classic cartoons every five years or so.  It was a much anticipated event.  I was at exactly the right age for this movie to be part of my childhood.  I think I might even have had the soundtrack record.  So it can’t really be reviewed, just enjoyed in a nostalgic glow.

I do think the songs are better than average.  “Bibbidi-Bobbi-Boo” was the hit but “A Dream Is a Wish Your Heart Makes” is also classic.  My favorite was the above quoted Cinderella song, sang by the animals in voices reminiscent of Alvin and the Chipmunks.

Cinderella was nominated for Academy Awards in the categories of: Best Music, Original Song (“Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo”); Best Music, Scoring of a Musical Picture; and Best Sound, Recording.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=87aVWdrYWuA

Clip

 

 

The Flowers of St. Francis (1950)

The Flowers of St. Francis (“Francesco, giullare di Dio”)
Directed by Roberto Rossellini
Written by Federico Fellini, Roberto Rossellini, Antonio Lisandrini, et al
1950/Italy
Cineriz/Rizzoli Film
First viewing/Hulu Plus

[box] For it is in giving that we receive. — Francis of Assisi [/box]

I still don’t know quite where I stand on this one.  It is beautiful to look at but decidedly odd.

The spirtual life and teachings of St. Francis are told by Rossellini through a series of short vignettes.  We begin with Francis and a group of his followers joyously travelling through the pouring rain in search of shelter.

They finally reach their destined location and build a rudimentary chapel and shelter. Although all is tiny and ramshackle they pronounce it beautiful.  The men glory in their natural surroundings, thank God for everything that comes to them, and follow Francis as their spiritual father.

Along with Francis, who retains his dignity at all times, we focus on a simple old man who joins the order and parrots whatever Francis does.  We also spend a lot of time with one of the monks who has to be restrained from giving away his clothing to any passing beggar. This man is asked to stay home and cook, which he does in company with the simpleton to various degrees of success.  When he is finally allowed to go out to preach, he stumbles upon a tyrant who has laid a village under siege and is almost hung for his pains. Finally, Francis sends all the brothers out in different directions to spread the gospel and the community is dissolved.

I don’t know what I was expecting but it wasn’t exactly this.  You can feel Fellini’s influence over much of it.  Francis radiates holiness but his disciples come off as really goofy.  They are pure in their simplicity, however.  The story is filmed in a stunningly elevating neorealistic style.  One thing that can be said for this is that it is not saccharine in its Christianity.  Worth seeing at least once.

All the roles were played by actual monks.  I love this piece of IMDb trivia:  “The filmmakers wanted to donate something to the monks who acted in the film since they refused payment. According to Rossellini’s daughter, he expected them to ask that the donation be something charitable – setting up a soup kitchen or the like. Instead, the monks surprised everyone by asking for fireworks. Rossellini saw to it that the town had an enormous, elaborate fireworks display that was the talk of the region for years.”

Clip

 

 

Stars in My Crown (1950)

Stars in My Crown
Directed by Jacques Tourneur
Written by Margaret Fitts from a novel written and adapted for the screen by Joe David Brown
1950/USA
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
First viewing/Amazon Instant

[box] I don’t believe in anti-heroes. Duke Wayne played a mean guy but never an anti-hero. — Joel McCrea[/box]

This is a nice family film about a preacher in a small Southern town.  Kind of against type for director Tourneur but solid.

The story is narrated by a grownup John Kenyon looking back on his childhood.  Josiah Grey (Joel McCrea) is the town’s beloved preacher.  His family consists of his wife Harriet (Ellen Drew) and her orphan nephew John (Dean Stockwell), whom they have adopted. John enjoys a fairly idyllic childhood consisting of school, church, and backwoods adventures with Uncle Famous Phil (Juano Hernandez), an elderly black man who seems to have entertained generations of white children.

As the story begins, a vein of ore has been found to extend under Uncle Phil’s property.  He is under serious pressure from Lon Backett (Ed Begley) to sell.  Uncle Phil refuses to give up his home.

The rest of the story consists of incidents from John’s childhood including a romance between the schoolteacher and the local atheist doctor, a typhoid epidemic and an attack of the local KKK on Uncle Phil’s house.  Josiah handles these situations with leadership and wisdom.  With Alan Hale and Lewis Stone as townfolk.

My love for Joel McCrea is well known and I was disposed to like this picture.  The story could be really corny  but is so heart-felt and well-done that I had a tear in my eye and was humming the hymn that gave the film its title by the end.  Nothing amazing but worth seeing if you like this kind of thing.

Trailer