Flickers in Time

Detective Bureau 2-3: Go to Hell Bastards! (Kutabare akutô-domo – Tantei jimusho 23)
Directed by Seijun Suzuki
Written by Iwao Yamakazi from a book by Haruhiko Oyabu
1963/Japan
Nikkatsu
First viewing/Amazon Instant

“Why make a movie about something one understands completely? I make movies about things I do not understand, but wish to.” – Seijun Suzuki

Director Seijun Suzuki’s gonzo style of filmmaking is really beginning to grow on me.

In this one, private detective Hideo Tajima (Jo Shishido) volunteers to infiltrate a gang of black marketeers.  He must be constantly on his guard as the gang boss suspects a spy.  Tajima will need all his wits and gun power to bring the gang to justice.

How could I pass up a movie with a title like this one? Shishido, who had plastic surgery to give himself chipmunk cheeks (!), is weird and super-cool at the same time.  He also proves himself to be a fair singer and dancer in one scene where he joins an ex-girlfriend’s nightclub act to avoid detection.  The whole thing is accompanied by an infectious jazz score.  The violence felt less real to me than in previous outings and I really enjoyed the film.

Clip

Diary of a Madman
Directed by Reginald Le Borg
Written by Robert E. Kent from a story by Guy de Mauspassant
1963/USA
Robert E. Kent Productions
First viewing/YouTube

[box] Title Card: “… the vulture has eaten the pigeon; the wolf has eaten the lamb; the lion has devoured the sharp-tongued buffalo; man has killed the lion with an arrow, with spear, with gun-powder; but the *”Horla”* will make of man what man has made of the horse and of the ox; His chattel, His slave, and His food, but the mere power of His will. Woe to us!”… Guy de Maupassant[/box]

This film with its invisible Horla definitely does not live up to the hype on the poster.

Magistrate Simon Cordier (Vincent Price) is well-known for his compassion and fairness.  Unfortunately, he rejects the pleas of a prisoner, who happens to be possessed by a murderous Horla, to escape the guillotine.  The Horla leaves the prisoner’s corpse for the magistrate’s body.  The magistrate is left to be his unwilling but helpless instrument of death.

Price is always good but this horror films suffers from a distinct lack of scares.  If you were to look at it as a psychological study, which I did not, it would probably fare better.

Love with the Proper Stranger
Directed by Robert Mulligan
Written by Arnold Schulman
1963/USA
Pakula/Mulligan; Boardwalk Productions; Rona
First viewing/Amazon Instant

[box] Rocky Papasano: [about family] That’s what makes it rough – when they love you.[/box]

Could super-cool Steve McQueen be tender?  Why, yes he could!

Angie (Natalie Wood) is a salesclerk at Macy’s.  She is from a very traditional Italian family but is a bit rebellious.  A couple of months back, she had a brief fling with musician Rocky (McQueen) after a dance as an “experiment”.  The experiment left her pregnant and she now approaches Rocky asking him to find her a doctor to abort the child.  He does but neither can go through with it.

After a bit of persuasion from Angie’s brother, Rocky says he will marry Angie.  She isn’t interested in spending the rest of her life with an unwilling partner.  The outcome is inevitable.

I really liked this one.  It’s an off-beat romance for the era and the writing and acting are strong.  Wood is feisty and fiery in her role and I have never seen McQueen quite like this.  Recommended if the plot appeals.

Love with the Proper Stranger was nominated for Academy Awards in the categories of Best Actress; Best Writing, Story and Screenplay – Written Directly for the Screen; Best Art Direction – Set Decoration, Black-and-White; and Best Costume Design – Black-and-White.

Heavens Above!
Directed by John and Ray Boulting
Written by Frank Harvey and John Boulting
1963/UK
British Lion Film Corporation/Romulus Films/Charter Film Productions
First viewing/Amazon Instant

[box] The Reverend John Smallwood: This town is full of people who *call* themselves Christians. But from what I’ve seen of it, I wouldn’t mind taking a bet there aren’t enough *real* Christians about to feed one decent lion.[/box]

This send-up of religion and modernity is black enough to satisfy fans of Luis Buñuel.

The setting is a one industry country town in England.  It’s source of prosperity is an over-the-counter medicine called Tranquilax – a three-in-one nostrum that acts as a sedative, pep pill and laxative.  The living of the Church of England vicarage has become vacant. The Bishop recommends a man named Smallwood.  Unfortunately, while he is away on vacation his staff appoints the wrong man.  At the time, this Smallwood (Peter Sellers) is chaplain of a prison where he is famous for being too chummy with the prisoners.

When he arrives, Smallwood scandalizes the upper crust by choosing a black assistant, taking in a family of welfare fraudsters, and by his pointed attacks on the general morals of his new parish.  Things change when he manages to convert the head of the Tranquilax family and she starts giving away her wealth to the “needy”.  Eventually, though, all Smallwood’s good intentions backfire.

Peter Sellers is excellent in an almost straight dramatic role.  Although the film is a black comedy, it succeeds on Sellers’ slightly daft sincerity.  This was a little too mean-spirited to captivate me but it is quite well-made.

Clip – the reverend arrives

Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow (Ieri oggi domani)
Directed by Vittorio de Sica
Written by Eduardo De Felippo, Cesare Zavattini, et al
1963/Italy/France
Compagnia Cinematografica Champion/Les Films Concordia
First viewing/Netflix rental

[box] I am lucky. I had a very beautiful mother. – Sophia Loren[/box]

Three comic tales starring Sophia Loren and Marcello Mastroianni are like a breath of fresh air!

The first story, “Adelina” has Loren as a illicit cigarette vender who is threatened with jail when she cannot pay a fine.  She and husband Mastroianni learn that she can stay out of the pokey as long as she is pregnant or nursing a baby.  This works for several years until hubby tires and is ready for a break.

“Anna” is the shortest of the three.  Here Loren is a fabulously wealthy married lady out to seduce Mastroianni while on a drive in her Rolls. Her scheme is interrupted by an accident.

As “Mara”, Loren is a high-class call-girl and Mastroianni her odd-ball but endearing sex-starved client.  She also catches the eye of a young seminarian and must take drastic action when he is tempted to renounce his vocation.

I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of this movie.  Mastroianni and Loren have fantastic chemistry and shine in all their very different roles.  She was perhaps at the height of her beauty here.  Warmly recommended.

Murder at the Gallop
Directed by George Pollock
Written by James P. Cavanagh based on a novel by Agatha Christie
1963/UK
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer British Studios
First viewing/Amazon Instant

[box] Miss Jane Marple: Don’t look so frightened, my dear. I’ve done my quota of murders for today.[/box]

Margaret Rutherford shines as Miss Marple in this fun murder mystery.

Miss Marple discovers that a stingy old recluse has been frightened to death by the sudden appearance of a black cat.  At the reading of the will, she finds that his relations all qualify nicely as prime suspects.  This leads her to spend a weekend at The Gallop, a riding establishment/inn run by nephew Hector Enderby (Robert Morley).  She ferrets out the killer amidst even more murder.  With Flora Robson as a paid companion

Rutherford maintains a ridiculous dignity as she does everything from dancing the twist to riding to hounds.  Morley is a whole lot of fun as well.  Good for a rainy, or dry, afternoon.

The V.I.P.s (1963)
Directed by Anthony Asquith
Written by Terence Rattigan
1963/UK
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer/De Grunwald Productions
First viewing/Netflix rental

[box] Frances Andros: I love you for what you are. Not what you think you are.[/box]

This was the lame melodrama I expected it to be.  I came for Margaret Rutherford, though, and she did not disappoint.

The setting is Heathrow Airport on a foggy morning.  It concerns people offered the hospitality of the airport’s VIP longue.  All are heading to New York and each has a private reason to absolutely require that the plane leaves on time.  Naturally, the plane cannot depart due to weather and they are forced to overnight at the airport hotel.

The principal story is a love triangle.  International beauty Frances Andros (Elizabeth Taylor) is leaving her tycoon husband Paul (Richard Burton) for playboy Marc Chamselle (Louis Jourdan).  Paul is not about to take this lying down.  We also have tractor maker Les Mangrum (Rod Taylor) who will lose his business in a take over if he cannot make good on a $150,000 check.  He is accompanied by the private secretary who is secretly in love with him (Maggie Smith).  With Margaret Rutherford as the dotty Duchess of Brighton, Orson Welles as a tax-dodging movie producer, and Elsa Martinelli as a starlet.

I have studiously avoided the movies from Liz Taylor’s black-eyeliner period that capitalize on her notorious love affair with Richard Burton.  This one met my expectations.  The screenplay is unbelievably soapy and I anticipated each of the plot developments by several minutes.  Rutherford is good fun though as is Orson Welles.

Margaret Rutherford won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.

“X” (AKA X: The Man with the Xray Eyes)
Directed by Roger Corman
Written by Robert Dillon and Ray Russell
1963/USA
Alta Vista Productions
First viewing/Netflix rental

[box] Dr. James Xavier: I’m blind to all but a tenth of the universe.

Dr. Sam Brant: My dear friend, only the gods see everything.

Dr. James Xavier: My dear doctor, I’m closing in on the gods.[/box]

I got much more than the cheesy fun I was expecting.

Dr. James Xavier (Ray Milland) is doing some sort of expensive research that his grant donors are questioning.  It turns out he is developing an eye drop that will increase man’s range of vision from 10% of the spectrum to perhaps all of it.  Naturally, he is his own guinea pig.  When the committee finds out what Xavier is up to, it pulls his funding.  Xavier goes back to the practice of medicine where his Xray vision gets him into trouble with less gifted colleagues.  He must flee.

Xavier ends up doing mind-reading at a carnival.  His promoter (Don Rickles) discovers that his mind-reading is real and tries to blackmail him to become a faith healer.  As the story progresses things get worse and worse for Xavier.  By the end, all he longs for is darkness.

This was one of Corman’s best films and Milland’s best performances to date.  It’s sort of a Frankenstein story where the mad scientist becomes his own pathetic creature. Recommended to fans of this sort of thing.

The DVD contains two excellent commentaries – one by Roger Corman and the other by a film historian.