Category Archives: Movie Reviews

Quai des Orfevres
Directed by Henri-Georges Clouzot
Written by Henri-Georges Clouzot and Jean Ferry from the novel “Legitime Defense” by Stanislas-André Steeman
1947/France
Majestic Films
Repeat viewing/Netflix rental

[box] Hooker: Life’s no fun, that’s for sure.[/box]

This may just be the least misanthropic of all Clouzot’s thrillers. As usual, though, it is an engrossing look at the underbelly of French life through the cynical eyes of a master.

Jenny Lamour (Suzy Delair) is a music hall singer with a figure and attitude that could really take her places.  Her husband is also her accompanist.  Maurice (Bernard Blier) is a diffident non-descript little man, who is extremely possessive of his wife.  Maurice and Jenny live in the same building as Dora (Simone Renent), a beautiful blonde still photographer who is not above shooting a little soft porn on the side.  Dora is a friend to both of the spouses.  We learn that, despite Jenny’s willingness to use her charms to get what she wants, she and Maurice enjoy quite a torrid marital relationship and Jenny is rather jealous of Dora as well.

The story really begins when a randy old producer expresses interest in signing Jenny for the movies.  He insists on private tete-a-tetes to seal the deal.  The first is to take place over lunch, but Maurice bursts in and threatens to kill the man if he ever catches him with his wife.  Jenny later tries to evade Maurice by claiming she is going away to visit her sick grandmother. Maurice sees through the ruse and sets up an elaborate alibi to cover his murder scheme.  But when Maurice arrives at the man’s apartment, he is already dead.

The murder case is assigned to the rumpled, wily Inspector Antoine (Louis Jouvert), who would like nothing better than to spend the Christmas holiday with his young son.  The rest of the story follows the progress of the investigation as the three friends get in deeper and deeper by trying to protect each other.

This film had me from the get go with its clever opening in which Clouzot economically introduces his characters and their world through the development of a song from creation to performance (see clip).  I just love the way the director use of detail to tell his stories and the brilliant cutting and composition of his films.  Something wonderful must have happened to Clouzot, or maybe he was just basking in relief from having his post-war ban removed.  Any way, every single character is basically sympathetic and human here.  I rather missed the malevolence. Recommended.

Clip

Brute Force
Directed by Jules Dassin
Written by Richard Brooks; story by Robert Patterson
1947/USA
Mark Hellinger Productions/Universal International Pictures
Repeat viewing/Netflix rental

[box] Spencer: You know, I was just thinking. An insurance company could go flat broke in this prison.[/box]

Hume Cronyn plays against type as a sadistic guard in this violent prison picture. Burt Lancaster tears up the screen right along with him.

Westgate Prison is badly overcrowded and administered by a dipsomaniac warden who asks little more than to keep his job.  The liberal-minded prison doctor is equally ineffectual.  So the real boss is Capt. Munsey (Cronyn) who sees the prisoners somewhat like how a boy who likes to torture flies sees his victims.  He loves to play them off each other, get under their skin, and dole out brutal punishments.

Joe Collins (Lancaster) has just been released from solitary.  He is a tough customer and the men look up to him.  Joe and several of the other prisoners have ladies waiting for them (or maybe not) that they long to be with.  We learn their stories in flashback.

One day, Joe learns that there may be an escape route through a drainage tunnel that unlucky prisoners are sent to work on.  He makes an escape plan and assembles a small team. But Muncey is one step ahead of him….  With Charles Bickford, Sam Levene, Howard Duff, and Sir Lancelot as prisoners and Yvonne De Carlo, Ella Raines and Anne Blythe as prisoners’ wives and sweethearts.

This is worth seeing for Cronyn’s performance.  Lancaster plays rage and torment as nobody could.  The prison breakout is memorable in its sheer power and violence.  The  film gets a bit preachy at the very end but not so as to undercut what went before.

Trailer

In movie news, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the practice of block booking violated federal anti-trust laws. The Actors Studio, a rehearsal group for professional actors, was established in New York City by Elia Kazan, Robert Lewis, and Cheryl Crawford. It soon became the epicenter for advancing “the Method” – a technique of acting that was inspired by Konstantin Stanislavski’s teachings.   The Motion Picture Code forbade derogatory references to a character’s race.  Ernst Lubitsch died.

The HUAC (House Un-American Activities Committee) opened its hearings for an investigation of alleged communist influence in the Hollywood movie industry. Its first wave of witnesses included the ‘unfriendly’ “Hollywood 19” (13 of 19 were writers). On November 24, the U.S. House of Representatives voted 346–17 to approve citations of Contempt of Congress against the “Hollywood Ten” after the screenwriters and directors refused to co-operate with the committee. They were blacklisted by the Hollywood movie studios on the following day.  Ronald Reagan was elected President of the Screen Actors Guild (SAG). Dedicated to stamping out Communism, he pledged to notify the FBI of names of actors who were “communist sympathizers” in the film industry. On November 17, 1947, the Screen Actors Guild voted to force its officers to take a “non-communist” pledge.

1947 saw continued shortages in housing and consumer goods in the U.S. The National Security Act created the United States Air Force, National Security Council and the Central Intelligence Agency.  The Truman Doctrine and the Marshall Plan, both seeking to stop the spread of Communism by granting aid for reconstruction and relief in Europe, were announced. The Voice of America began to transmit radio broadcasts into Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union.

Jackie Robinson, the first African American in Major League Baseball since the 1880s, began playing with the Brooklyn Dodgers. The microwave oven, transistor, mobile phone, and Polaroid camera were demonstrated.  All the King’s Men by Robert Penn Warren won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction.  The number one popular song of the year was “Near You” by Francis Craig.

In world news, the Communists took power in Poland and Hungary. The International Monetary Fund and General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade began to operate. The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank was published. Thor Heyerdahl’s balsa wood raft, the Kon-Tiki, proved that pre-historic peoples could hypothetically have traveled to the Central Pacific islands from South America.

The Muslim majority region formed by the Partition of India gained independence from the British Empire and adopted the name Pakistan. The greater Indian subcontinent with a mixed population that was formed by the Partition of India gained independence from the British Empire and retained the name India. In December, 400,000 people were slaughtered during mass migration of Hindus and Muslims into India and Pakistan.

On November 29, The United Nations General Assembly voted to partition Palestine between Arab and Jewish regions, resulting in the creation of the State of Israel.

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The list of films I will select from can be found here and here.   I have previously reviewed the following films from 1947 on this site:  Out of the Past; Nightmare Alley; The Lady from Shanghai; Crossfire; They Won’t Believe Me; T-Men; and Nora Prentiss.

I’ve seen 35 of the films released in 1947.  Based on my current ratings, my ten favorites are, in no particular order: Out of the Past; The Bishop’s Wife; Body and Soul; The Bachelor and the Bobby Soxer (???!); Black Narcisscus; Odd Man Out; Miracle on 34th Street; Quai des Orfevres; Pursued; and Nightmare Alley.  I expect that will change somewhat as I re-watch some and catch up on some others.

Montage of stills from Oscar Winners

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lrN0CEt48-4

In 1947, the Academy began to recognize  a Foreign Language film annually, at first with an Honorary Award and, starting in 1956, in competition.  Since I no longer have my Oscar nominee montage to give you, I hope you enjoy this collection of short clips showing the history of the award.

The Diary of a Chambermaid
Directed by Jean Renoir
Written by Burgess Meredith, adapted from the novel by Octave Mirbeau and a play by André Heuzé et al
1946/USA
Benedict Bogeaus Productions
First viewing/Amazon Instant

[box] Georges Lanlaire: I never found the urge to live or die on a big scale.[/box]

Jean Renoir returns to skewering the French ruling classes a la The Rules of the Game. This is OK but lacks the sparkle of the earlier masterpiece.  Perhaps if it had been made in French?

Chambermaid Celestine (a blonde Paulette Godard) is heading off to her twelfth position in two years.  Having been deceived by numerous men and abused by her employers, she decides to look out for number one, making her highest priority hooking a rich husband.  Her first act of independence is to threaten to walk out before she starts when Joseph the valet (Francis Lederer) refuses to take on a plain scullery maid.

The loony master of the house Monsieur Lanlaire (Reginald Owen) initially looks like an easy mark, but Celestine drops that idea when she discovers he has no property in his own name.  Then the even more insane next door neighbor Captain Moguer, who specializes in eating flowers and trying almost everything else, seems a likely project. Celestine is scared off when he absent-mindedly crushes a pet squirrel.

Then the Lanlaires receive a visit from their son Georges (Hurd Hatfield).  Madame Laniere (Judith Anderson) is determined to keep Georges at home and recruits Celestine to help her do so, dressing the maid in fancy clothes and changing her hairdo.  But the ailing, cynical Georges seems initially immune to the girl’s charms.  Celestine, on the other hand, seems genuinely to love the son and heir.  He doesn’t change his mind until Joseph has revealed his plan to marry Celestine and set himself up in business using his masters’ silver service as start-up capital.  Things get darker from there.

Part of the trouble with this film is probably that Renoir did not write the screenplay.  Perhaps he thought he was not up to it in his second language.  At any rate, this lacks the underlying plot structure needed to unify the mayhem and, although the ending is dark, it did not strike me as profound.

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

Clip

The Beast with Five Fingers
Directed by Robert Florey
Written by Curt Siodmak from a story by William Fryer Harvey
1946/USA
Warner Bros.
First viewing/Amazon Instant

[box] Conrad Ryler: I know, Julie, you’re afraid. He’s holding you with his pain and helplessness. He draws his energy from your life. He’ll never let you go.[/box]

This noir-tinged horror flick is a whole lot of creepy fun. The best part is watching Peter Lorre go mad.

The setting is Italy at the turn of the last century.  Francis Ingram (Victor Francen) is a half-mad pianist who continues to play despite the loss of one hand.  His favorite piece was composed especially for him by con-man Conrad (Robert Alda).  Ingram has become obsessed with his nurse, Julie, and retains a resident astrologer, Hilary Cummins (Lorre). One night, he gathers these people and his lawyer to attest that he is of sound mind and changes his will to leave everything to Julie.

Soon after, Ingram takes a terrible fall down the stairs and dies.  His greedy relatives come to the reading of the will and vow to contest it.  But all who oppose the will start dropping like flies.  Could the deceased’s severed hand be responsible?  All the fingerprints and the evidence of the music issuing forth from the piano suggest that it could be.  With J. Carroll Naish as the local comisario.

This movie takes some time to get going, but once it does it is filled with groovy special effects, flamboyant camera work, and a bravura performance by Peter Lorre.  If you like this kind of thing, go for it.

Trailer

Crisis (Kris)
Directed by Ingmar Bergman
Written by Ingmar Bergman from a play by Leck Fischer
1946/Sweden
Svensk Filmindustri
First viewing/Hulu Plus

[box] Any idiot can face a crisis – it’s day to day living that wears you out. — Anton Chekhov [/box]

Ingmar Bergman is still finding his way in his directorial debut.

Nelly has been raised by her nearly penniless “Mutti” Ingeborg in conservative small town Sweden.  She is now 18 years old and has not seen her real mother, Jenny, since she was a toddler.  Nelly is being wooed by veterinarian lodger Ulf but feels only friendship for the older man.  On her birthday, the worldly, rather vulgar Jenny arrives from the city to take Nelly to live with her.   Jenny has her flamboyant ne’er-do-well boy toy Jack in tow.

Nell has set her heart on making a splash at the local ball that evening.  Jack sweet talks her and gets her drunk and she succeeds beyond her wildest dreams, thoroughly scandalizing the townspeople in the process.  Lured by Jack and afraid to face the sea of judgmental faces, Nell agrees to go to work at her mother’s beauty parlor.

Ingeborg is left distraught and alone since Ulf moves out as soon as Nell does.  She is also seriously ill.  But more than that she worries that Nell is unhappy.  Her visit to the city offers a fairly horrifying look at the clientele of the beauty parlor and confirms Ingeborg’s suspicions.  Yet Nell does not want to go home.  Before she can, she needs to face a crisis set up by Jack.

The film starts out looking like a satire on small town life, with some witty looks at provincial manners. It ends up as a psychological study complete with Bergman’s trademark closeups and some symbolism. Right off the bat, he obviously had a way of bringing the best out of his actors. I actually liked both halves of the movie but it could have worked better as a coherent whole. I guess he had to start somewhere.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O8ptUt-VdAw

Clip

Decoy
Directed by Jack Bernhard
Written by Nedrick Young from a story by Stanley Rubin
1946/USA
Bernhard/Brandt Productions
First viewing/Film Noir Classics Vol. 4 DVD

[box] Sergeant Joe Portugal: People who use pretty faces like you use yours don’t live very long anyway.[/box]

This poverty-row film noir was thought to be lost for years and now enjoys a kind of cult status.  The movie is all over the place, but it is easy to see why fans longed to see it for all that time.

The story is told in flashback to policeman Joe Portugal (Sheldon Leonard) by dying femme fatale Margo (Jean Gillie).  Margo’s boyfriend Frankie Olin (Robert Armstrong) had been on death row for several years having killed a security guard during a bank robbery. Margo’s one aim in life is to get her hands on the $400,000 Frankie hid away before being arrested.  Frankie is obsessed with Margo and is unwilling to part with the money’s location until he is released from prison and they can spend it together.  The fickle Margo has already convinced her gangster lover to finance Frankie’s appeals with promises that he will share in the proceeds.

When all the appeals fail, Margo learns of a drug that is an antidote for cyanide poisoning, such as that used in California’s gas chamber.  She sets about seducing altruistic free clinic doctor Lloyd Craig, who officiates at executions to bolster his meager income.  The doctor, despite his Hippocratic Oath, is putty in her hands.

Craig just happens to be well equipped with the necessary stuff to revive the dead.  The spoilers will stop here but I can let you know that we get a lab scene vaguely reminiscent  of the one in Frankenstein (I’m ALIVE … I’m ALIVE!!!) and multiple violent murders and double crosses.

One can overlook quite a lot of bad acting when a story is as fun as this one.  The dead spots and poor pacing – not so much.

Five-minute documentary on the film

Deadline at Dawn
Directed by Howard Clurman
Written by Clifford Odets based on a novel by Cornell Woolrich
1946/USA
RKO Radio Pictures
First viewing/Film Noir Classic Collection Vol. 5 DVD

[box] June Goth: This is New York, where hello means goodbye.[/box]

This entertaining film noir seems to rely on wildly improbable coincidences.  Only some of these are explained by the twist ending.

The camera focuses on a fly crawling on the face of a sleeping woman.  We are instantly plunged into the seedy side of life in nighttime New York City.  The drunken woman is a “bad girl” who evidently owes her gentleman caller $1400.  When she looks for it, it is nowhere to be found.  But she says she knows where to find it.  It must have been taken by a sailor she invited there earlier.

We start to follow the naive young sailor, Alex Winkley (Bill Williams), who comes to from his alcoholic blackout with $1400 in his pocket.  He knows he will be the first place the woman and her gangster brother (Joseph Calleia) will look for the dough.  He runs into a world-weary dance hall girl named June (“rhymes with moon”) (Susan Hayward) who reluctantly agrees to help the boy return the money.  But the two only find the woman’s strangled body.

The sailor is due to be back to his ship by dawn and the pair begin a desperate effort to find the real culprit.  Some amazingly slim clues lead them to a soda fountain.  Outside the place, they get their lucky break when they are picked up by a kindly cabbie (Paul Lukas) who earlier picked up a mystery blonde they are looking for.  He can tell by one look at the sailor’s face that the boy is incapable of murder and agrees to help them.

The best thing about this picture is Susan Hayward, who is dynamite with the hard-boiled Odets dialogue while somehow being softer than she usually is.  The story is too unlikely and complicated to be completely engaging but the movie is enjoyable in its pulpy way nonetheless.

Clip – cinematography by Nicholas Musuraca