Category Archives: Movie Reviews

Reviews of movies I have seen.

Ministry of Fear (1944)

Posted on July 12, 2014 | Leave a comment

Ministry of Fear
Directed by Fritz Lang
Written by Seton I. Miller from a novel by Graham Greene
1944/USA
Paramount Pictures
First viewing/Netflix rental

 

 

[box] Willi Hilfe: We thought you’d been killed.

Stephen Neale: Not quite.[/box]

The look and feel of the piece scream Fritz Lang but under a screenwriter who was also the producer, the director wasn’t quite able to work his magic on the story.

As the film opens, Stephen Neale (Ray Milland) waits anxiously to be released from an insane asylum where he has been sentenced for his involvement in the mercy killing/suicide of his terminally ill wife.  Anxious rejoin the land of the living, Stephen is attracted by a charity fete put on by “The Mothers of Free Nations” before he can board the train to London.  There a fortune teller mysteriously gives him the winning weight of a cake that is being raffled off.

Neale boards the train and is robbed of his prize by a “blind man” who is in turn blown up by a Nazi rocket.  When he reaches London, Stephen, who fears any further interaction with the police, heads straight to the headquarters of “The Mothers”.   The Austrian refugee siblings (Carl Esmond and Marjorie Reynolds) who run the charity offer to help him to track down the spy ring responsible for the deadly pastry. Murder and mayhem follow.  With Dan Duryea in a small role as a sinister tailor.

Ministry of Fear is simply dripping with Lang’s signature style and noir flourishes that make it a visual joy.  Unfortunately, the script is not in the same league.  The story is confusing, the pace slows to a crawl at points, and much of the acting is dragged down by indecision as to what accent should be used in this very studio-bound “London”.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3JsdMhwxaBw

Trailer – cinematography by Henry Sharp

 

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Posted in Movie Reviews, Noir Month

House of Strangers (1949)

Posted on July 12, 2014 | 1 comment

House of Strangershouse of strangers poster
Directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz
Written by Philip Yordan from a novel by Jerome Weldman
1949/USA
Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation
First viewing/Netflix rental

 

[box] Max Monetti: Always looking for a new way to get hurt from a new man. Get smart, there hasn’t been a new man since Adam.[/box]

This unsung but hard-hitting drama features one of Edward G. Robinson’s very finest performances, and that’s really saying something.

Italian immigrant Gino Manetti (Robinson) started in America as a barber and rose to be a wealthy banker by lending to immigrants on the Upper East Side of New York without collateral but at usurious rates.  He is the undisputed patriarch to his wife and four sons. Three of his sons work at the bank and he treats them like servants, insulting them freely in the process.  Eldest son Joe (Luther Adler) works as a teller and tries to caution his father about the need to keep books, but Gino only tells him to “go back to his cage”. Gino’s  fourth son Max (Richard Conte) is a criminal lawyer and Gino treats him with some respect.

house of strangers 1Max is engaged to marry the beautiful and very traditionally Italian Maria (Debra Paget). When the fiery Irene Bennett (Susan Hayward) hires him to do some legal work, the attorney-client relationship quickly turns into a stormy love affair.  Max is distracted from his romantic woes when the bank examiners find numerous criminal problems lurking in what passes for the books.  Rankling from years of abuse, the other brothers refuse to lift a finger for their father and Max ends up taking the rap as a result of his overzealous defense of Gino in court.  At the urging of Gino, Max spends his seven-year prison sentence plotting revenge.  With Efram Zimbalist, Jr. as Tony Manetti.
house of strangers 3

House of Strangers is marred a bit by the extraneous Conte-Hayward love affair which distracts from the compelling family drama at the core of the film.   Otherwise it is practically perfect.  Robinson grew up with Italians and spoke the language fluently.  He is the quintessence of stubborn manhood as he terrorizes the dinner table with his loud opera records and orders.  He makes his character so downright human though that it is hard to hate him quite as much as the film means us to do.  Conte makes a dynamic and cynical foil and Adler, better known as a stage actor, really shines.  According to the commentary, Mankiewicz contributed a lot to the screenplay and the crackling dialogue seems to bear that out.  Recommended.

Also according to the commentary, House of Strangers received very limited distribution due to complaints by both  Amadeo Giannini,  founder of the Bank of America, and Spyros Skouras, president of Twentieth Century Fox, who thought it was aimed at them.

Edward G. Robinson won the award for Best Actor at the Cannes Film Festival for his performance in House of Strangers.

Trailer – Milton R. Krasner, cinematographer

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Jersey Boys (2014)

Posted on July 11, 2014 | 1 comment

Jersey Boys
Directed by Clint Eastwood
Written by Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice
2014/USA
GK Films/RatPac Entertainment/RatPac-Dune Entertainment/Warner Bros.
First viewing/theatrical release

 

[box] Bob Gaudio: Tommy, no stolen goods, okay?

Tommy DeVito: Stolen goods? No! These fell off a truck.[/box]

 Jersey Boys had me dancing in my seat.

This is the story of the Four Seasons, the ’60’s group headlined by falsetto singer Frankie Valli.  They start out as a trio of friends from the mean streets of New Jersey, their life as petty criminals redeemed by the music and Valli’s recognized talent.  A close relationship with mobster Gyp DeCarlo (Christopher Walken) greases the skids a bit and band member Tommy DeVito (Vincent Piazza) remains a thief at heart.  Their fortunes are made when Joe Pesci from the neighborhood introduces them to straight-arrow songwriter Bob Gaudio and he joins the group.  We follow their careers through a string of number-one hit singles.  Things turn darker when DeVito, the nominal manager of the group, is found to be in deep with a mob loan shark and to have stolen a half million dollars from the group’s tax account as well.

This is a nice straightforward rendering of the Broadway show.  I’ve seen that a couple of times in Las Vegas and loved it, so when the movie version came out I just had to make a rare trek to the theater.  Even though I was not a special fan when the music of the Four Seasons was new, all these songs just spell junior high and high school to me.  I was happier when I walked out than I was when I went in.  I don’t ask more of a musical.

Trailer

 

 

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The Breaking Point (1950)

Posted on July 10, 2014 | Leave a comment

The Breaking Point
Directed by Michael Curtiz
Written by Ranald MacDougall from the novel To Have and Have Not by Ernest Hemingway
1950/USA
Warner Bros.
First viewing/Warner Archives DVD

 

[box] Harry Morgan: You know, my wife dyed her hair.

Leona Charles: Coincidentally I’ve been thinking of letting mine grow out. Speaking of coincidences, I live in Number Seven. My friends just kick the door open.[/box]

This remake of Hemingway’s “To Have and Have Not” is more faithful to the novel than the more famous original starring Bogart and Bacall.  It feels more like a Hemingway story and features an early performance by the fascinating Patricia Neal.

Fishing boat owner Harry Morgan (John Garfield) is having a very bad season and will have his boat taken for non-payment of his gasoline bill if he doesn’t come up with some money soon.  His loyal wife Lucy (Phyllis Thaxter) and daughter are supportive and important to him.  He hopes that a charter to fish for marlin off Mexico will save his boat.  Floozy Leona Charles (Neal) goes along with the much older fisherman for the ride.  But both Harry and Leona are left high and dry when the fisherman leaves by plane without paying Harry.

Desperate, Harry reluctantly agrees to go along with the sleezy Duncan’s (Wallace Ford) brokerage of a deal to smuggle Chinese immigrants to the U.S from Mexico.  Harry ends up on the short end of that transaction, too.  Meanwhile, the bored Leona has fun by trying to add Harry to her list of conquests.  Finally, Harry must resort to an even more risky endeavor to stay in the fishing business.

Nobody plays tough but doomed better than John Garfield.  He is just great in this very bleak movie.  I haven’t seen enough of Patricia Neal – really just Hud and The Day the Earth Stood Still – and she makes a mesmerizing temptress.  I liked the interplay between her character and the wife a lot.  Most of this takes place in broad daylight on the sea or near it but in feeling it could not be more noir.  Recommended.

Clip – John Garfield and Patricia Neal get better acquainted

 

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Posted in 1950, Movie Reviews

Deception (1946)

Posted on July 9, 2014 | Leave a comment

Deception
Directing by Irving Rapper
Written by John Collier, Joseph Than and Louis Verneuil
1946/US
Warner Bros.
First viewing/Netflix rental

[box] Alexander Hollenius: She tells me you’re some sort of a genius, if such a term can be applied to a mere performer.[/box]

For me, this Bette Davis vehicle actually belongs to Claude Rains and to Erich Wolfgang Korngold’s beautiful score.

Christine Radcliffe (Davis) is a classical pianist.  She accidentally stumbles upon her lost love Karel Novak (Paul Henreid), a cellist, playing at a college concert.  They became separated during the war, she returning to the U.S. and he suffering some unstated horrors in Europe. They have an emotional reunion and decide to marry at once.

Novak senses there is something amiss with Christine’s lavish apartment and possessions but Christine cannot bring herself to admit that she was the protegee and mistress of famous composer Alexander Hollenius (Rains) during the war.  Hollenius does not react well to Christine’s marriage announcement.  He keeps needling her in a semi-threatening manner to tell Novak the truth.  Then suddenly he decides to hire Novak as the soloist for the premier of his cello concerto.  But Hollenius keeps the nervous and sensitive cellist so off balance that he can scarcely play.  To Christine, this all seems to be heading to a dramatic revelation by her temperamental and imperious ex-lover.

This is basically a  “woman’s picture”  that shades into noir in the last ten minutes.  I found Davis’s and Henreid’s characters almost insufferably neurotic.  I had a hard time feeling any sympathy for Christine’s crazy making deception.  That said, Claude Rains has a big part and is fascinating throughout.  There’s a lot of humor in his characterization that makes the stock “genius” character very human.  The other strong point is the wonderful score.  Korngold wrote a cello concerto for the movie that is now played in concert halls.

The DVD had a very nice commentary.  The film historian kept asking the audience to watch how the Martha Graham-trained Davis moved.  She really is wonderful whether she strides into a room or runs up a flight of stairs.  I’m taking note of that for the future.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hmBvAR7ArRU

Trailer – cinematography by Ernest Haller

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Crossfire (1947)

Posted on July 9, 2014 | Leave a comment

Crossfire
Directed by Edward Dmytryk
Written by John Paxton adapted from a novel by Richard Brooks
1947/USA
RKO Radio Pictures
Repeat viewing/Amazon Instant Video

 

[box] Ginny: [to Mitchell’s wife] Okay, where were you when he needed you? Maybe you were someplace having beautiful thoughts. Well, I wasn’t. I was in a stinkin’ gin mill, where all he had to do to see me was walk in, sit down at the table and buy me a drink.[/box]

Excellent performances by three Roberts and a Gloria highlight this pre-Gentleman’s Agreement treatment of Antisemitism.

A group of Army buddies meet a Jewish man and his girlfriend in a bar.  The man strikes up a conversation with Mitchell, a lonely troubled sort, and invites him to his apartment and then to dinner.  The other soldiers follow and force their way into the apartment for some free liquor.  An argument erupts started by the belligerent and very bigoted Montgomery (Robert Ryan).

The next we see the apartment is filled with military police headed up by Capt. Finlay (Robert Young).  Montgomery soon shows up saying he is looking for Mitchell who left the gathering feeling sick and failed to return.  The search is on for the missing Mitchell.  Finlay turns to Keeley (Robert Mitchum), Mitchell’s closest friend, for help.

When Mitchell is finally located, he says he was so drunk he can remember hardly anything about the evening, in particular the time anything happened.  He does remember that he picked up a bar girl called Ginnie (Gloria Grahame) and waited for her for some time in her apartment.

The rest of the film is taken up with establishing Mitchell’s alibi and laying a trap for the killer.

The movie’s message about the dangers of bigotry and hatred was perhaps not best served by putting a long speech on the subject into the mouth of Robert Young but that is only a few minutes of this otherwise nuanced film.  I think that the film has at least as much to do with the disorientation and fears of men being discharged after their wartime service, and that is done without any speechifying.  Famously, the source material was about the murder of a gay man.  I wish they could have made that story in 1947. The exploration of the villain’s motivation could have been more searching.

I generally find Robert Young terribly bland.  His portrayal of the cynical and laconic detective really suited him.  Robert Ryan is perfect at both acting innocent and being explosively violent.  Robert Mitchum doesn’t have enough to do.  Grahame is always good. Recommended.

Crossfire was nominated for Academy Awards in the categories of Best Picture; Best Director; Best Supporting Actor (Ryan); Best Supporting Actress (Grahame) and Best Writing, Screenplay.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJDXyr2HFW0

Clip – Gloria Grahame – cinematography by J. Roy Hunt

Trailer

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Pitfall (1948)

Posted on July 8, 2014 | 1 comment

Pitfall
Directed by Andre de Toth
Written by Karl Kamb based on the novel The Pitfall by Jay Dratler
1948/USA
Regal Films
First viewing/Amazon Prime Instant Video

[box]John Forbes: How does it feel to be a decent, respectable married man?[/box]

When it’s 1948 and you step out on your wife with a lady who has caught Raymond Burr’s eye, you’ve got to know you are in serious trouble.  Dick Powell is terrific as the guy who slipped into the Pitfall.

John Forbes (Powell) is bored with his job as an insurance man and his wife Sue (Jane Wyatt) who keeps him on his daily routine.  He can’t even claim he misses the excitement of combat since he spent the war in Denver, Colorado.

His company used private eye J.B. (‘Mack’) MacDonald (Burr) to investigate whether any of the money embezzled from a policy holder can be recovered.  Mack comes in to report that some of the money was used to buy expensive gifts for the embezzler’s fiancee Mona Stevens (Lizabeth Scott), a very attractive blonde.  Mack is smitten and offers to go back and collect the property himself.  But Forbes says it’s a job for a company man.

Forbes visits Mona and coldly starts inventorying the gifts.  But Mona teases him for being so straight-laced, one thing leads to another, and the two end up taking a ride on the boat Mona’s man bought for her.  Forbes can’t get her out of his mind and before we know it they are sitting in a bar kissing.

Problem is Mack can’t get her out of his mind either and spends his most of his time tailing Forbes and Mona.  Mona discovers Forbes’s wife and son early on and calls off the relationship. But by now Mack is convinced that the only thing standing between him and Mona’s arms is Forbes. He hounds the pair of them right into catastrophe for all concerned.

Raymond Burr was a master at playing these borderline psychotic villains and is the highlight of the film.  But Dick Powell gives a touching and nuanced performance as a man whose Past lasted only twenty-four hours and will haunt him for the rest of his life.  Wyatt is also very good, especially toward the end of the film.  The print available to me was pretty fuzzy so I really can’t comment on the camera work.  I liked this a lot.

Trailer – even in 1948 they were giving away spoilers in the trailer!

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The Crimson Kimono (1959)

Posted on July 7, 2014 | Leave a comment

The Crimson Kimono
Directed by Samuel Fuller
Written by Samuel Fuller
1959/USA
Globe Enterprises
First viewing/Amazon Instant Video

 

[box] I hate violence. That has never prevented me from using it in my films. — Samuel Fuller[/box]

This is an entertaining police procedural with a bit of a message from the weird and wonderful Sam Fuller.

A stripper is gunned down in Little Tokyo.  Partners and Korean War buddies Charlie Bancroft (Glenn Corbett) and Joe Kojaku (James Shigeta) of the LAPD are on the case. The stripper was planning a new Japanese-themed act to feature stripping off from a kimono followed by a battle between a samurai and a karate master.  (I am not making this up!)

In connection with this, the stripper had a portrait painted of her in a red kimono.  The investigation takes our detectives to the beautiful young artist who painted it.  Naturally, both of them fall in love with her.  She loves Det. Kojaku.  Loyalty to his partner and doubts about her true feelings about the racial difference tear him apart.

The murder and several fistfights couldn’t look faker and some of the acting is not of the best.  I don’t know why but neither these things nor the incredible plot hampered my enjoyment of the film in the least.  Something about Fuller is just inherently fascinating to me.  This one has lots of great scenes among the Nisei of Little Tokyo plus the courage to address the racial divide and to praise the valor of the Japanese-Americans who fought on the U.S. side in World War II and later.  (The tagline is:  YES, this is a beautiful American girl in the arms of a Japanese boy!).

James Shigeta is quite good as the boy in question.  His manner reminds me of a Japanese Robert Mitchum.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pNaxQ9CWX1Q

Clip – cinematography by Sam Leavitt

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While the City Sleeps (1956)

Posted on July 6, 2014 | Leave a comment

While the City Sleeps
Directed by Fritz Lang
Written by Casey Robinson from a novel by Charles Einstein
1956/USA
Bert E. Friedlob Productions
First viewing/Warner Archive DVD

 

[box] Ed Mobely: But I didn’t do anything!

Lt. Burt Kaufman: You think if you’re drunk, it doesn’t count, huh?[/box]

Fritz Lang employs quite a cast to take a look at the dirty underbelly of the news media.

Spoiled slacker Walter Kline (Vincent Price) has inherited his father’s media empire.  He decides to create a new position to do all his work.  To spice things up, he announces he will give the job to whomever can catch the Lipstick Killer who has been preying on young women in the city.  Three top men – John Griffin (Thomas Mitchell), editor of the newspaper; Mark Loving (George Sanders), head of the wire service; and Harry Kritzer (James Craig) head of the photo service – are determined to stop at nothing to get the job.

Kritzer doesn’t think he has to work at it very hard though since he is having an affair with Kine’s wife (Rhonda Fleming).  Loving plots strategy with gossip columnist Mildred Donner (Ida Lupino).  The person with the actual inside scoop on the story is not interested in the job.  TV commentator Ed Mobly (Dana Andrews) used to work the crime beat and is close friends with Lt. Burt Kauffman (Howard Duff), who is in charge of the investigation.  He decides to use his influence to benefit Griffin.  He’s even willing to use his fiancee as bait to trap the killer.

This movie reminded me a bit of The Bad and the Beautiful (1952) set in a newsroom instead of a Hollywood studio.  There is the same soap opera flavor and ruthless ambition. Even the “hero” is highly flawed.  Aside from the seriously pessimistic view of humanity, I have hard time seeing this glossy film as film noir.  While the City Sleeps is far from the best thing I’ve seen from Lang but worth one watch.

Clip – cinematography by Ernest Lazlo

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Posted in Movie Reviews, Noir Month

Crime Wave (1954)

Posted on July 5, 2014 | Leave a comment

Crime Wave (AKA “The City Is Dark”)
Directed by André de Toth
Written by Crane Wilber, Bernard Gordon, and Richard Wormser based on the story “Criminal’s Mark” by John and Ward Hawkins
1954/USA
Warner Bros.
First viewing/Warner Film Noir Classic Collection Vol. 4

[box] Steve Lacey: Once you do a stretch, you’re never clean again! You’re never free! They’ve always got a string on you, and they tug, tug, tug! Before you know it, you’re back again![/box]

This is a good-looking police procedural featuring Sterling Hayden on the side of righteousness for a change and an early performance by Charles Buchinsky, soon to be known as Charles Bronson.

Ex-convict Steve Lacey (Gene Nelson) has gone straight and now lives a quiet life with his wife Ellen (Phyllis Kirk) and works as an airplane mechanic.  Their domestic bliss is shattered when a hood turns up wounded in a gas station robbery and looking for Steve’s assistance. He dies before Steve can help or get rid of him and the couple has no choice but to call Steve’s parole officer.  Lt. Det. Sims (Hayden) of homicide, called in because a police officer was killed in the robbery, had figured out that the robbery was done by a trio who had served time with Steve and was already on the way over.

Sims hauls Steve into jail and pumps him for information.  He gets none but releases him anyway. The couple’s luck turns from bad to worse when the remaining two thugs (Ted De Corsa and Bronson) move in on them and force Steve to participate in a bank robbery. With the very weird Timothy Carey chewing the scenery as a psycho thug.

What was it about Sterling Hayden?  He is as stiff and monotone as can be and yet is so oddly compelling as an actor.  He certainly dominates this film with his strong-arm tactics and the toothpick constantly protruding from his mouth.  Song-and-dance man Gene Nelson (Oklahoma) gives a nice performance as the trapped Steve.  De Toth reportedly was given the opportunity to have Bogart in the lead and a 35-day shooting schedule.  He agreed to make the movie in 15 days if he could have Hayden and made the movie in 13 days.  It worked out to be a superior “B” noir with some beautiful nighttime cinematography by Ford-favorite Bert Glennon.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H3BTKD5t6ZY

Trailer – cinematography by Bert Glennon

 

 

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Posted in Movie Reviews, Noir Month